Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano - Matthew Hoh : Humanitarian Fallout - Aid Suspended, Gaza Under Fire

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Oct. 1, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano

24:06

Matthew Hoh : Humanitarian Fallout - Aid Suspended, Gaza Under Fire

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	Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for judging freedom.
	Today is Tuesday, October 2nd, 2025.
	Matt Ho will be here with us in just a minute on the fallout over the efforts to bring food, water, and medicine to the suffering, starving, dying Gazan people.
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	Matt, welcome here, uh, my dear friend.
	Before we get to the uh tragic uh events of the flotilla and the so-called American and Israeli humanitarian uh efforts uh in uh Gaza, a question or two uh about Ukraine.
	Uh, why do you think the president of the United States is so ostentatiously authorized American intel, civilian CIA, and military uh to uh guide the use of American weaponry in the hands of Ukrainian military to reach deep inside of Russia?
	And can you imagine if the reverse were the case coming from Mexico or Canada?
	Right.
	Thanks for having me back on, Judge.
	Um I mean, I hate to say it, but I really feel that in this case, it's because his feelings are hurt.
	He made what he feels is a good faith effort in his role as the greatest commander-in-chief for peace, or however he wants to describe it, uh, you know, whatever delusional thing he wants to say about himself.
	But I really do believe that he feels he has been insulted.
	Um, it doesn't help, and we discussed this, you know, his inauguration.
	The people around him have all been anti-Russia, they've all been hawks on this war.
	So as I think we, you know, as many people said, the danger here with Trump's outreach is that when he demands things from the Russians and tells them this is the way it's gonna be, he's gonna get upset when they say no.
	Uh, as everyone everyone would expect them to, because they have clear objectives they're trying to obtain, and they don't view his demands on them as being something worth uh their time or effort.
	Uh so you know, then he's gonna turn to his advisors, all again, these men uh and women who are anti-Russia, and they're gonna say, you know, Mr. President, that was a great try, but you know, we told you you can't talk to these people.
	The only things the Russians understand is force.
	And so he's gonna try to do the same thing that the Biden administration did, the same thing that the Trump administration did more or less during his first term, the thing that the bomb administration tried to, and it's not gonna work.
	We know that.
	Uh, we've seen this movie before.
	Uh, but I think ultimately it comes down to uh his feelings being hurt for lack of a better uh or more sophisticated way of explaining it.
	Wow.
	um, I realize that of the two of us, I'm the lawyer, but you're the Marine Corps captain.
	Is the United States at war with Russia?
	If our troops in Germany are guiding these missiles, if our CIA on the ground are guiding this missiles, that the missiles were made in the United States and the projectiles that they hurl were made in the United States.
	Well, like the German president said a few days ago, Friedrich Merz said uh Germany's not at war with Russia, but we're not at peace either.
	And that's certainly the case.
	Uh as you mentioned before, Judge, if any other nation was doing this to us, doing all the things you just described, by God, there would be a military response from the United States.
	Um, the reality is this is a proxy war.
	This is the way that the United States has learned to fight wars.
	Uh, it uh provides a number number of benefits uh to the Americans.
	I mean, we we I feel like we haven't heard this mantra in a little bit of time, but go back a year or two, and you have both Republicans and Democrats in the Congress saying, This is the best money we've ever spent.
	We're killing scores of Russians and not having to sacrifice any of our own people, right?
	So the that's Lindsay Graham's line.
	But that's also too.
	Richard Blumenthal uh said it.
	I mean, that this this is this is a number of them have said it across the board.
	I'm pretty sure Adam Schiff has said it, you know, maybe even Adam Smith has said it, the the you know, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, you know.
	So uh, you know, it is it it's a proxy war uh that is the way or the modus operandi for the way the US empire carries out its wars now because wars are too costly for the American people to accept.
	And so we have seen through successive administrations, really beginning in the Obama administration, this desire to hide the American role in the war, to outsource the American role in the war while still receiving the benefits.
	So, what better way than now?
	And we've seen this turnaround by JD Vance where he wants now to send Tomahawk missiles because uh, you know, when he was asked to explain his turnaround on that, uh, why you now willing to give Tomahawk missiles to the Ukrainians, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President uh Vance said, because the Europeans are going to pay for them.
	So it it it now it's it's it's even more uh more uh grotesque in the sense that this is really just about some type of transaction, about some type of profit, uh, without any type of strategy behind it, without any type of thinking behind it, um, and certainly no understanding of the other side.
	You know, I said to a friend of mine the other day, Judge, uh, you'll like this because Notre Dame's where you went to law school, I believe.
	If this would be the way American policymakers uh uh go about trying to understand their opponents, their adversaries, it's roughly the same as if Notre Dame, right, to prepare for its game this weekend is not going to watch tape of the opposing team, but it's gonna watch the movie Rudy, right?
	I mean, so everything we do is based upon our own mythology.
	It's based upon hubris, isn't it based upon our own vainglory?
	Right.
	That that is a brilliant uh analogy.
	And you know, you talk about the Tomahawks.
	So Scott Horton, who was just on the show, was a journalist, a brilliant gifted journalist, but not a military guy, says, What happens if the following happens?
	Uh, you're uh a Russian lieutenant looking at the radar screen.
	Behind you is the colonel, your boss.
	Hey, Colonel, there are tomahawks coming toward Moscow.
	We don't know if they have nuclear weapons on them or not.
	What do we do, Colonel?
	And that's a point that people may not be familiar with.
	There is no way for an adversary for the people who are have these missiles launched at them to know whether those weapons have a conventional warhead on them or a nuclear warhead on them.
	There's no way to tell.
	There's no uh a sign on the side of the missile, there's no flashing light, there's no special radar that can detect the thing.
	No, that's simply it.
	The good thing is that the tomahawks are rather slow compared to especially some of the latest hypersonic missiles we're seeing coming out of Russia, China, and Iran.
	So, in a lot of ways, they are outclassed.
	I don't think the Russians are too terribly concerned with the Tomahawks because they are an older midway, and what we would Give them, I'm sure, would be the older variants because that's what we do.
	We do not provide any of our newer weapon systems uh to the Ukrainians because we're afraid that they're going to fall into the Russians' hands, and that will give away some of our secrets.
	For example, the M1 Abrams tanks that we provided uh to Ukraine, everyone remembers that a year and a half, two years ago, the the hysteria over getting them the Abrams tanks, and how if we just get them Abram tanks, like all the other wonder weapons, they're gonna win the war.
	Well, my understanding is that three quarters of those tanks have been destroyed by the Russians and the other quarter don't go near the front line anymore.
	But with those, but those tanks, what we did with those tanks was we we made the armor on those tanks to give them a tank that doesn't have the top secret armor that our tanks have.
	I mean, so everything we've been given the the Ukrainians.
	I mean, if you're a Ukrainian, you should really be upset about this because you've not received first let you know, uh uh the highest grade of weaponry or frontline weaponry as we consider it.
	The Atachums missiles, for example, another wonder weapon that was supposed to win the war for the US.
	We only started giving them the attackums missiles when we started receiving the replacement for the attackums missile, the prism.
	And just to complete the loop on all this, Judge, the attackums, I think cost uh about a half million dollars a piece.
	The prisms, which replaced them cost two million dollars apiece, right?
	So to give away to clear out your inventory of attackums to make room for prisms, who's benefiting that when those weapons cost one and a half, two times right what they were playing, what they're replacing, right?
	So I mean, the whole thing is just uh uh uh uh a grotesque cycle of profit and stupidity that reinforces itself.
	Well, what would your uh superiors have done in Afghanistan if the Russians were backing the Taliban?
	Well, that was the one of the great lies about the Afghan war.
	Uh, you know, the other day, Judge, uh, because I you know, I've got that film we talked about last week, uh Bodyguard of Lies that's out on Paramount Plus.
	Um, I feel good.
	I got that plug-in.
	I feel like I'm a professional.
	It's a great it's a great film.
	It's a terrific film, and everybody should watch it.
	Thank you.
	So, but uh, but you know, since the Afghan war, there's not one thing I can think of sincerely that wasn't dominated, controlled, manipulated by lies or falsehoods or some form of deceit.
	And one of the things that was done uh in the last several years of the war, in order to try and maintain American presence there, as well as make a couple to make the Afghan war uh uh uh congruent and fit with the Russia gate uh uh scam that was going on, uh, was to say that the Russian was Russians were paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers.
	Right.
	I mean, it's just a uh a complete falsehood, completely imaginary, completely uh fantastical.
	And the American media went along with it for months.
	And then, of course, when it was known to be uh the total lie, a fabrication, the American media never said a thing about it again.
	But you know, that type of of lying, you know, is what propels wars.
	And so we've seen that type of stunt uh or those allegations or similar ones being made now to try and induce the United States and NATO to become more aggressive, to actually enter into the Ukraine war.
	Uh, we've seen it with these alleged drone incursions into Poland, the supposed overflight of Estonian airspace, this this incredibly fantastical story about Ursula Vandalane's playing, her GPS being jammed, and she had a circle.
	I mean, on and on and on.
	And so we've seen all this going back to Russia blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, you know, as uh, you know, uh mechanisms, maneuvers, false flags, uh however you want to describe them, as an effort to try and push the Americans and NATO actively into the war because that's what the Ukrainians need to not win the war, but just to continue to survive it.
	Did you uh I'll say this one one other thing because I just saw these numbers earlier today, Judge.
	In September, Ukraine uh Russia launched 5,800 drones against uh Ukraine.
	Ukraine was able to launch 2700 drones or something like that.
	So you see this great mismatch in their industrial capacity.
	And that's just not, and that's that's just not Ukraine providing those drones, that's all of NATO providing their help.
	And so three and a half years into the war, just for this one example of the drones, which have become the dominant storyline in the war in many ways.
	The Russia is by a factor of more than two building and able to operate and use drones, then Ukraine three and a half years into the war.
	What does that tell you about Western uh capacity, Western industrial uh uh abilities, you know?
	And so I used to say uh years ago, uh, because that's how we can refer to the war now, right?
	Years ago, I used to say that the only way that Ukraine can win this war is if a NATO army, and I mean NATO army, I mean like uh two to three core of mechanized infantry and armor.
	Oh we lost you, Matt.
	All right, you were when you uh come back, you'll tell us what you meant by uh a NATO army on the ground.
	I guess your argument was that it would require uh a massive uh invasion uh on the ground.
	Here he is.
	All right, Matt, you're back with us.
	We asked if you were describing the size of the army, but to be honest with you, I want to move on to the humanitarian uh issue.
	I was gonna ask you about Heggseth and Trump, but uh their behavior before the generals was reprehensible.
	The behavior of the generals was reprehensible, that they all sat there silently, you know, and there's a lot of hoopla, there's a lot of nonsense, particularly in liberal blogs and podcasts and television shows about how the generals are going to save us, and that's complete nonsense.
	Those men and women have sat silently as Trump fired their peers for no reasons other than politics, race, or sex.
	They've sat silently as Trump has extraditionally massacred and murdered people, right?
	Uh, they've sat silently as the American military guardsmen, active duty Marines have taken part in the detention, the brutalization, the humiliation of American citizens, legal residents, immigrants all throughout the US.
	Those men and women have sat silently for that, and they sat silently through his speech when Trump gave them the opportunity to get up and leave, and not one of them did.
	And so people think their silence was some kind of F you to Trump.
	You just don't understand the military.
	Their silence was obedience, and their what would Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, Curtis Lemay have done taking the stars off their shoulders and left.
	I I you know, uh you grieve uh for this nation.
	I mean, we were discussing it before.
	This is the this is the government our founder, the founders warned us about secret police throughout this country who are detaining, beating, humiliating, arresting not just immigrants, and they shouldn't be doing that either.
	We have we have a country of laws, we have a constitution, but uh as well American citizens and legal residents.
	Um it's criminal what's occurring.
	Yeah, uh the uh Trump uh Whitkoff Kushner plan for the permanent degradation uh of the uh of the Palestinian subjugation of the Palestinian people under a neo-colonial governor general by Tony Blair.
	I mean, you you couldn't make this up, you couldn't you couldn't put together a worse cast of people if you tried.
	Maybe if you throw in George W. Bush, you know, I mean, like just to realize although our dear friend um Colonel McGregor says the only person worse than uh Blair on Iraq and Afghanistan was Dick Cheney.
	Blair was second only to him.
	Sure.
	You were there in those days.
	But anyway, I mean, where the hell is this going to go?
	Well, this is this is a uh uh I I haven't seen your other guests this week, Judge, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I'm probably in agreement with them, right?
	You know, in a sense that this is not much of a limb.
	Yeah, this is such a transparent parent farce, but it's an effective farce, right?
	And it the man it's it's meant to provide grist for the narrative.
	Uh we've already seen its effectiveness.
	The Italians who had supposedly the Italians who had sent uh naval ship to escort the global Samud flotilla, uh, that Israel just illegally hijacked and kidnapped uh last evening.
	Um, the Italians turned their warship around and left the flotilla because, in the words of the Italian prime minister, this type of thing is no longer needed because we have a peace deal, right?
	I mean, you you you see in the headline in the New York Times today about how Palestinians in Gaza demanding peace deal.
	Uh I I didn't even bother to read the article because I know it will be just just uh, you know, uh not journalistic.
	What happened on the high seas to this flotilla?
	Was an American captain, an American like you and I, and many people watching us now arrested by the IDF in international waters for trying to bring food to the starving.
	Absolutely.
	There are many Americans uh who were arrested, uh who were uh kidnapped, really.
	I mean, uh, that that's what happens.
	If this was Somali pirates that did it, we'd be using that language, and it's no difference than what the Somali pirates have done.
	Uh so the uh in many Americans, there was a bolt full of American veterans, uh, chief among them Greg Stoker, who was an army ranger with combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
	Uh, you know, uh, they have all been put into Israeli uh custody now, kidnapped, taken in illegally into Israeli custody.
	Um, and you know, the the the uh affront here again, it it it it expand through the media reporting on this.
	Where if you read again, I'll go back to the New York Times because I did read their story today about uh about this.
	You have to read, get to like the bottom quarter of a long article.
	So you've got to get to like paragraph 15 or so, right?
	Before you hear mention that Israel is blockading the Gaza Strip, that this is a uh, you know, I mean, they don't use the terms illegal or against international law or anything.
	You certainly have to uh uh read between the lines to understand that Israel is forcibly starving people to death.
	The way the American media describes it is a humanitarian crisis, as if it's wildfires or an earthquake or or a uh tornado or something like that.
	You know, so uh the the fact that you can have this effort, which is you know, there are a few things you can point to and say uh and point to the righteousness of as you can this effort.
	I'll also include so the Yemenis in their defense of the Palestinians by fighting Israel.
	Uh but you know, this effort by hundreds of humanitarians in in what more than 50 ships, 52 ships, I think, to try and blade break a siege to break a blockade, uh, knowing full well what the Israelis can do and have done.
	In 2010, the Israelis murdered 11 humanitarian activists who are trying to do the same exact thing, bring relief into Gaza, try and break this illegal siege.
	One of those who were killed was that was killed by Israeli commandos in international waters was an American citizen.
	And guess what Barack Obama did about that, right?
	Nothing.
	Yeah, nothing.
	Um, so and I think that's the State Department done anything about this uh decorated veteran and the other Americans that have been kidnapped by the Israelis.
	No, they they won't do anything about it.
	They won't do anything about it.
	At best, they will send uh a low-ranking counselor officer uh to the Israeli prison to make sure that they've got the names correct of who the Israelis have.
	And that's about that's about all we can expect.
	How do they get out of jail?
	Uh in the past, they are either immediately taken to the airport and put on a flight and sent home, or they're run through a quick kangaroo court process held, you know, that lasts a couple days and then deported.
	Uh, they are um almost always banned from life from entering uh Israel or Palestine.
	Um, you know, many of these people like Kuwait Araf, who is one of the leaders of this effort.
	This is Hueda's, I don't know, eighth or ninth attempt at trying to break the siege.
	She's long been banned from trying to go there, so it's not really an effective deterrent.
	But now, from our stand this time, Judge, according to Itmar Ben Gavir, who is the National Security Minister for Israel, uh, that these people will be treated as essentially adjacent to terrorists, that they're gonna be handled more severely.
	But they they're unarmed and they were no more near, they were nowhere near Israel and they were in international waters.
	Exactly.
	Exactly.
	Carrying, carrying food, medical supplies.
	Many of them are healthcare workers, others development specialists, people who have been doing humanitarian work, life-saving work for their entire life.
	Uh, many journalists were on board this as well.
	Uh, we'll see what the Europeans do because we have uh and I hope they pull pull through with this tomorrow.
	There are calls for a general strike throughout Europe in support of the flotilla.
	And hopefully we'll see that.
	We saw that a week and a half ago or so in Italy, where they had successful wave of strikes.
	And hopefully we'll see that.
	We're not going to see that here.
	I'm not going to even try and I shouldn't even say anything about that.
	But in Europe, we may see that.
	And that can then put pressure on these incredibly unpopular and weak and pathetic governments throughout Europe.
	And that's what we need to see.
	Because you're not going to break away the Americans.
	The Americans will be the last to break away from Israel.
	But if you can start to really break away the Europeans, well, then you may start to put some pressure within Israel, I believe, on some of the uh not as far right parties.
	Because, you know, as Max Blumenthal will tell you, every party essentially that matters at all in Israel is a is a right wing party.
	Uh but you know, you may start to see some effort.
	But even with that, I'm I'm I'm skeptical because of that relationship between the U.S. and Israel and how uh how supportive how how how meaningful uh that support is.
	I've almost forgot in the time that you were engaged in producing your documentary.
	What a wealth of knowledge and personal courage you have.
	I hope you'll come back and visit with us again next week.
	Absolutely, Judge.
	Thank you.
	Real pleasure.
	All the best to you, my friend.

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