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Oct. 13, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
26:17
[SPECIAL] - SCOTT RITTER: - A Palestinian Victory!
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Monday, October 13th, 2025.
Scott Ritter will be with us in just a moment on the Palestinian victory.
Of course, you wouldn't know that if you listened to President Trump or Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier today.
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Scotty, welcome here, uh, my dear friend.
Uh initially, what is your take on the uh events we all uh observed uh in the Israeli capital earlier and elsewhere in Israel earlier today?
Well, I mean, a lot of uh self-congratulations going on, uh patting the back.
Uh Donald Trump um, you know, writing his own uh awards, I guess, you know, for the Nobel Peace Prize, he didn't win.
Um but I think what everybody's forgetting is that the basic terms of this deal are the same terms that Hamas has been laying out since October 7th.
And now these terms are being met, and uh this is a Hamas victory.
Um, the the media can spin it, Trump can spin it, Netanyahu can spin it any way they want.
But let's never forget that um Benjamin Netanyahu was a man who said there will never be a Palestinian state.
And he is the head of a government that said uh there won't be a Gaza.
Um, this is a president who talked about depopulating Gaza.
Um, and none of that's happening.
What's happening is um there was a prisoner swap, uh, something that Hamas demanded.
Um, Israeli withdrawal, something Hamas demanded, and uh a pathway towards a Palestinian state, something Hamas demanded.
Um, you know, Hamas has achieved a strategic victory.
Um, and that's a reality that uh maybe he'll come settling in down the road, uh, but not right now.
There's too many people patting themselves on the back.
How soon?
How soon before the IDF resumes its uh slaughter and starvation?
I mean, left our own devices um next week.
But the um the fact is we're dealing with a new reality here.
Uh you know, people talk about the 20-point peace plan that uh you know Trump put out there.
Uh, but there's 22 points.
And uh, you know, the 21st point is that Hamas will be part of the government.
That was one of the points that Israel said will never be.
Um, but Trump agreed to that.
Remember, he put out his 20-point plan, and then Hamas came back with their response, which is yeah, but we're gonna be part of that government.
And Trump went, I accept this.
So that's there.
Two, Hamas will not disarm.
There will be partial disarmament.
Uh, but Donald Trump on the airplane last night when asked, you know, why is Hamas have weapons going around and you know, cleaning up um, you know, killing uh pro-Israeli factions inside Gaza.
He said it's police work, and uh I support this.
That means he supports Hamas having weapons, which means he supports Hamas being the police, which means he supports Hamas being part of Gaza's future.
That's the 22nd point.
Uh Israel won't like this, but Donald Trump has embraced this.
Um I I think we might be looking at, might be looking at a new reality, one which doesn't give Israel the latitude that it's had previously to destroy something that Donald Trump has invested so much political capital in.
Here's uh President Trump on Air Force One flying to Israel, articulating just what you said without using the word government.
He used the word police, but of course, police are part of the government.
Chris number 10.
I'm sure you've seen reports of Hamas uh re-arming institute themselves as a Palestinian police force taking, you know, shooting Christian rivals.
What is the message?
Hamas are standing because they do want to stop the problems, and they've been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time.
Uh you have to understand they've lost probably 60,000 people.
That's a lot of retribution.
Uh they've lost 60,000 people, and the ones that are living right now were in many cases very young when this all started.
And we are having a watch that there's not going to be big crime or some of the problems that you have when you have areas like this that have been literally demolished.
You know, you have two million people, and probably it'll be less than that, but you have close to two million people going back to buildings that have been demolished.
And a lot of bad things can happen.
So we want it to be, we want it to be safe.
I I think it's gonna be fine.
Who knows for sure, Kenny?
But I think it's gonna be fun.
Imagine that Netanyahu and the right-wing fanatics around them, even though they're so few, but they have an iron grip on his government, consented to that.
Well, I don't think they have a choice, Judge.
Um we're dealing with a new uh fundamentally new political reality.
Israel doesn't have the iron grip on America that it once had.
In fact, that iron grip is rapidly oxidizing, rusting and breaking off.
And if Israel's not careful, um, they could find themselves sitting on the outside looking in as um, you know, American Christian evangelicals who once uh and currently still do form the core of you know the um Christian Zionist movement that backs Israel.
Um, if they dump Israel and they're heading in that direction, they're tired of this, they're tired of uh Israel first, they're tired of America second.
Um Donald Trump has invested a tremendous amount of political capital here, and these people are accepting this, buying into this.
And if Netanyahu goes around and sabotages this, uh you could see what was a rapid um you know uh eroding of uh American support for Israel just turned to an absolute collapse, and that would be a disaster for Israel.
So I think Netanyahu is dealing with a new political reality.
It doesn't guarantee that he isn't gonna do something stupid.
But Donald Trump, you know, we're coming up on midterms, and Donald Trump literally can't afford to be played as the fool uh by Israel in this case.
And if he buys into this peace treaty, they just you know, he, the United States, Turkey, Egypt, just signed it as the guarantors, the guarantors.
And then if Israel turns around and bombs after President said, no, we we allow them to be police, uh, or says, you know, we we see them playing a role in the government, and Israel says, no, that's not good enough, we're gonna bomb.
That means that Israel's against peace.
Israel's against Trump, Israel's against America.
Well, here's what Trump said.
This is uh October 10th, so it's uh uh it's last Friday, it's three days ago.
Um it's in the White House when asked uh about guarantees of Israel compliance.
Cut number one.
What guarantees Hamas disarms and that Israel doesn't resume bombing once the hostages are?
And that's what people wanted more than anything else.
They wanted these hostages back that have lived in hell, like nobody has ever even dreamt possible.
And uh after that we'll see.
But they've agreed to things, and uh I think uh it's gonna move along pretty well.
Didn't answer the question, did he?
No, he he he didn't.
Um but again, he's he's tied himself to some some policy options.
I mean, one of the very dangerous things about the Trump administration is the lack of formality, the lack of structure.
Um the fact that this president makes policy off the cuff, and that everybody plays catch up.
I mean, last night his statement about police.
I would have to imagine today that you know the U.S. Embassy and um in Israel is working overtime to try and say to explain to the Israelis who are certainly asking questions.
What does this mean?
Uh I'm sure Jared Kushner and uh Steve Whitkoff are sitting there going, we have no idea.
He just said it.
Uh and that's that's the problem.
Even Marco Rubio doesn't know what it is.
So, you know, the this president you know says these things.
He he boxes himself into a corner.
Um, but there are political consequences to making such a public statement, um, and then having Israel thumb their nose at you.
And uh, you know, we'll we'll see.
Uh I as I said, the the political dynamic in America today isn't one conducive to standing by and allowing Israel to um to do whatever they want at the expense of the reputation of the president of the United States.
You were uh mentioning a few minutes ago that Americans are sick and tired of Israel first, America second.
Uh the president joked about that uh in his address to the Knesset as he sought to praise the Mossad's wealthiest asset, cut number 12, 11.
Got 60 billion in the bank, 60 billion, and she loves and she I think she said no more.
And she loves Israel, but she loves it, and they would come in and her husband was a very aggressive man, but I loved him.
He was a very aggressive, very supportive of me.
And uh he'd call up, uh, can I come over and see you?
I say, Sheldon, I'm the president of the United States.
It doesn't work that way.
He'd come in with the but they uh were very responsible for so much, including getting me thinking about Golan Heights, which is probably one of the greatest things to ever happen.
Miriam, stand up, please.
She really is.
I mean, she loves this country.
She loves this country.
Her and her husband are so incredible.
We miss him so dearly.
But I actually asked her, I'm gonna get her in trouble with this, but I actually asked her once I said, So, Miriam, I know you love Israel.
What do you love more?
The United States or Israel?
She refused to answer.
That means, that might mean Israel, I must tell you.
In front of her, smiling, clapping, and laughing was the Mossad stenographer, who's also the director of the American Central Intelligence Agency.
What did you think of that?
This president continues to shock me with his absolute indifference to American patriotism and the ability to um discredit American patriotism the way he did, to imply the patriotism's for sale and has been for sale, and that when uh push comes to shove, people he calls loyal patriotic Americans uh would actually have loyalty to another country, and he wouldn't condemn that.
I couldn't imagine a situation where if he was presented with a situ you know, uh uh a scenario where a wealthy American uh said, I I I choose Romania over America, wealthier Romanian American, he would he would condemn this in the harshest terms America first, America first.
Israel is the exception.
And this means that this president, I don't think he loves America the way you and I love America.
I think he loves Donald Trump.
I think he loves the concept of being the American president without fully understanding what that means, the duties, obligations, responsibilities.
I don't think this man knows what the Constitution is.
I don't think he is familiar with the Constitution.
I don't think he's familiar with any of the norms and values that are tied to, you know, the being the commander-in-chief.
I don't think he understands what it means to be in the military.
I don't think he understands anything except wealth.
And that's it.
His entire universe revolves around wealth.
And that he's spent his whole life buying access and pretending that he earned that access.
No, I I have a lot of problems with this president.
Well, here he is minimizing a bribe because it's only worth 139,000, and it was only champagne and cigars.
But this is one war criminal asking a second war criminal in public to pardon a third war criminal, number 12.
Hey, I have an idea.
Mr. President, why don't you give him a pardon?
Come on.
By the way, there was not in the speech as you probably know.
But I happen to like this gentleman right over here, and it just seems to make so much sense.
You know, whether we like it or not, this has been one of the greatest wartime presidents.
This is what been one of the greatest wartime presidents.
And cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about.
Well, he's calling Netanyahu the greatest wartime president.
Of course, he's prime minister, not president, but he's engaged in genocide and slaughter uh of innocence on the greatest scale since World War II.
Yeah, and uh cigars and champagne.
Who the hell cares?
That just shows you this man's attitude towards the law, um, which again is frightening because he is the commander-in-chief of our military, he's the chief executive of our republic, a constitutional republic, uh, and he's absolutely unqualified for this position.
He's the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government.
And he's willing to trample over everything to I mean, I mean, again, I'm not a big fan of high crime.
I'm not a big fan of uh antifa demonstrations uh and things of that nature.
Um, but I do know that the answer isn't the military occupation of American cities, and that's the way we've gone.
This is America has gone dark under this man because he doesn't understand what the rule of law is, due process is separation of state.
I mean, everybody's talking about the courts, the courts.
They are a third uh separate but equal branch of the government.
And if you're being dismissive of the courts, it means you have no clue how this republic's supposed to work.
We're not a dictatorship, but he wants to act as if we are a dictatorship.
And that was a disgusting performance to appeal like that to public to the head of a state, asking him to pardon a prime minister, he acknowledges has committed crimes.
Um, ridiculous.
And he's not the greatest wartime prime minister.
Um, he's the worst.
He's the man who's brought more shame uh to Israel than any other prime minister.
This is a man who has presided over genocide, mass murder.
Um, no, Netanyahu not only deserves to be in prison for corruption, whether it's cigar champagnes, but also for genocide, mass murder.
And one of the sad things is if this peace plan goes through, um, it's going to result in the termination of the uh case at the um international court of justice and most likely the termination of the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others as uh as there will be no accountability to this man.
He's gonna literally buy his way out of the crimes that he's committed.
I wonder if Trump um understands the gravity of Netanyahu's guilt uh in these bribery uh prosecutions.
Why else would he be asking for a pardon?
Why would he do it so publicly and and clownishly?
I think he knows darn well that Netanyahu is guilty, but I mean, it takes one to know one.
Um I think Donald Trump's probably one of the most corrupt men we've ever had occupy the White House ever.
If he's that dismissive over champagnes and scars, what else is the dismissive of?
Um I just I I'm not happy with this at all, Judge.
The the Guardian um reports that on the flight over uh from Washington to Israel, Trump got on the phone with uh President Al-Sisi of Egypt and Prime Minister Netanyahu and talked uh President Al-Sisi uh into agreeing with Trump's invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to attend uh the summit uh in Cairo.
When President Erdogan of Turkey learned of this, he said, I'm gonna turn my plane around and not land if Netanyahu's going to be there, and Netanyahu was promptly disinvited.
Why did the Turkish president say I'm not showing up if Netanyahu's there because Erdogan has a uh I mean, first of all, he's posturing himself to be a re regional leader, and the last thing he can afford to be seen is um you know somebody who is literally cuckled himself to uh Benjamin Netanyahu in the president of the United States.
Uh Erdogan has committed to a path of um singling out Israel as the problem, not just in Gaza, but in Lebanon and in Syria.
Um his political future hinges on him taking a hard stand.
And if he suddenly allowed the president of the United States to, you know, with a phone call, make everything good and have Erdogan there as just window dressing, uh, that undermines everything Erdogan has been uh working for.
You know, I'm not normally one who sings the praises of uh Erdogan, but on this case, thank thank goodness for him, thank goodness that he he stood up and he did the right thing.
How much longer do you think this plan, which as you have said, was offered to and accepted by Hamas a year or two ago, uh before the Israelis slaughtered, however many they uh slaughtered, we only know 60,000 dead, but they're finding bodies uh in the rubble as they start to clean things up today.
How much longer do you think this plan will last?
It depends on what Trump's willing to do to hold Benjamin Netanyahu's feet to the fire, and it also depends on um you know domestic political realities that we may not be cognizant of how much the um erosion of American support for Israel uh factors into uh domestic Israeli uh politics.
So, you know, we um if if the situation truly has changed, if we're looking at uh a new world, um a new world reality, uh Netanyahu may have no choice but to let this plan go through.
Um if Trump has seriously embraced the concept of continued Hamas participation in government and Hamas as a police force, thereby justifying the retention of a certain level of armament, um, and Trump is willing to put his reputation on the line to back that up.
There's not much Netanyahu can do, but if Trump is soft on those two, and as he has won to do, uh reimagines uh facts and reimagines history and suddenly says, no, there's only 20 points, and those are the original 20.
And if Hamas doesn't abide by these, then Israel's you know cleared hot, then we'll go right back to Israel bombing again.
But I think this time the the thing is the world will come down hard on Israel.
Well, Trump allowed uh Netanyahu to cross Bargudi's name off the uh list of uh Palestinian hostages to be released.
He was listed as the first person there.
Yeah, I don't know if that issue is over yet.
I mean, I um meaning Hamas may continue to bring that up.
Um Trump does have a.
I mean, look at the praise he gave to you know Miriam Adelson.
Um he's clearly um besotten by her and her money and the influence that that money brings.
Um, this isn't a man who has shown a proclivity to you know standing up to Benjamin Netanyahou in Israel.
Um, but there is a new reality.
And again, there are domestic realities in Israel and there's domestic realities here in the United States.
We have a midterm election coming up.
And you saw how Erdogan turned around because he didn't want to be seen as being use the word, but it's true, cuckled by Israel.
Um, Donald Trump has to be careful because you have an election coming up.
And if Maga recognized this man not as the powerful alpha dog that he claims to be, but simply a cuckle.
Um, he's not, you know, the Republicans are MAGA's not going to do well in this midterm.
And that's the end of his uh that's the end of his second term in office, the end of his legacy.
So I think Trump has to be very careful here.
You know, we can make fun of him all we want, but he is politically astute enough to have been elected president twice.
So I think he understands that there are certain political realities that even his ego can't uh make go away.
Here's a uh photo of uh the gathering in Cairo right now.
You see President El CC President Trump, uh President Erdogan.
If you look carefully, you'll see Lula of Brazil, Macron of uh France.
What are they trying to accomplish there, Scotty?
Well, the I think the legacy that Trump wants to you know breathe life back into is the Abrams Accords, uh, which was his first term big foreign policy achievement that was supposed to bring about stability in the Middle East by creating a platform of normalization of uh relations between Israel and the Gulf, Arab States, Israel and the Islamic world.
And I think he's trying to recapture that.
Um so you you see him bringing in not just regional leaders, but world leaders, um, who are going to be talking about investment opportunities, business opportunities, um, you know, things of that nature.
So I think this is ultimately what he's trying to do.
And remember, it was Benjamin Netanyahu.
And people don't remember this, but before October 7th, 2023, and September 12th, Joe Biden came from a um summit in the G20 summit in India and announced the uh that he had you know signed off on what's called the India Middle East European Economic Corridor.
And for most Americans, we went, what?
Uh what's that?
And we had to research it.
Netanyahu came out the same day and gave a speech, called this the greatest moment in modern Israeli history.
The greatest moment in modern Israeli history for something most people are scratching at saying, why?
Why?
Because it represented the basically create making the Abrams Accord reality.
This was the framework around which the promise of the Abrams Accord would be hung.
Um this would give Israel the ability to become this economic heartbeat of the Middle East and therefore turned the region away from violence into co-prosperity.
It would give Israel the ability, and this was very important, to stand on its own two feet economically.
Netanyahu wants that.
Uh the Arabs want that.
Trump wants that.
The world wants that.
But they can't do that until Gaza is resolved.
So that's what I think is going on here.
Wow.
Scotty, thanks very much.
Thanks for your time uh today.
Uh we're both feel like we're on treadmills today, but I appreciate it uh dearly and look forward to seeing you soon.
Thanks.
All the best.
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