David M. Friedman argues President Biden's micromanagement and calls for ceasefires endanger hostages while aiding Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's survival. He asserts U.S. rhetoric calibrates terrorists to extract concessions, contrasting American polarization with Israel's unified combat bond. Friedman blames Iran for funding malign groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, criticizes restored funding to the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA as supporting terrorism, and dismisses Gaza port projects as ineffective against black market commandeering. Ultimately, he contends that anti-Zionist ideology weakens both Israel and America, suggesting current policies prolong conflict rather than resolve it. [Automatically generated summary]
They're not shooting at America, they're shooting at Israel.
It's Israel's problem, if you will.
But Israel is a great friend of ours, and we're going to help them, and we're going to support them.
So we'll give them whatever they need to defend themselves, and we're not going to micromanage their response.
So they should do whatever they think they need to do.
We trust them, they're a good friend.
We think their morals are in the right place, their values are in the right place.
Do what you gotta do to end this and protect your citizens as quickly and decisively as possible.
That was the message.
Now, if Biden had just given that message here and acted upon it, I think this war would probably be over by now and the hostages might very well be back.
Because that is the calibration, if you will.
No one is watching Biden more carefully.
Then Hamas, then Sinwar, because that's how he calibrates his ability.
He's not going to win militarily.
He knows he can't defeat Israel.
But what his question is, OK, I attacked Israel.
Can I survive?
Can I get out of this with my life?
Can I get out of this still being in power?
Can I keep a few battalions still in Gaza?
And the only way I can get there is if America stops Israel from finishing the job.
And so everything that he's doing is calibrating it based upon America's reaction.
And that's why whenever America uses words like You know, you got to have a ceasefire.
You're using indiscriminate force.
Your efforts are over the top.
Everything.
Every time Biden does that, he makes it less likely that the hostages will be released.
It makes it more expensive for Israel to make a deal.
Well, Dave, look, it's great to be with you, and great to be with you again.
I was here in October.
October through sometime in November.
So the first month of the war I was here, it was horrible.
Absolutely horrible.
I think the trauma, the, you know, the country was afraid.
I mean, this is not a country that really reveals fear, or frankly, feels that emotion.
I mean, it's a country with a tremendous amount of self-confidence and assurance.
People were scared.
Really scared, I think, in the first month.
vulnerable, in tremendous pain and trauma. I'd never seen it before and I've been
here so many times. Came back in January and I thought that it had changed a lot.
Okay and now I think it's, you know, if you walk around Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or
one of the major cities and you just, you know, came out of a coma, you
You wouldn't know anything really had happened.
But the trauma, you know, underneath is still there.
In other words, you know, and it's not just the military issue, because Israel's winning the war in Gaza overwhelmingly.
And I think they'll find a solution to the north one way or the other, but they certainly are strong enough to find a solution there.
But the pain of so many people who've been lost, who've been injured, I mean, this is a small country.
I was just talking to my driver earlier.
I said, is there anybody in this country, is there a single person in this country who doesn't have a close friend or a relative who hasn't either lost their life or been injured or been kidnapped or suffered in some way?
The answer is no, nobody.
So everybody in this country is feeling, in a very direct and profound way, the pain and trauma.
But it is a country of survivors with deep resilience.
And I think we're... I think I see the country coming out of it in the sense they do see a light at the end of the tunnel and they do see a good outcome.
But does that resilience, and even just walking around this morning, I got here very early, but I'm walking along the beach, and there's people out, and there's commerce.
Well, you know, there's this expression that, you know, translates from Hebrew, you know, we have no other country, you know, we have no place to go.
And I think that's the way people feel here.
You know, this is the last place on earth where Jews are safe and we have no choice but to continue to live our lives and build our country and make this place livable and attractive for our children, our grandchildren.
So there's a certain You know, people are just kind of resolute about that.
Yeah, it doesn't mean they're not in pain, but they've been through enough already.
I mean, this is a country who's had trauma after trauma after trauma.
Unfortunately, they've gotten pretty good at dealing with it.
Look, I think the diplomatic circles are complicated because to the extent that the world perceives daylight between Israel and America, to the extent that Israel's enemies in particular perceive that daylight, it makes it harder for Israel to negotiate an end to this battle, to get the hostages back.
And so, to a certain extent, they kind of have to put on a good public face with the current administration.
It's getting harder and harder to do that.
But part of the strategic assessment by Israel of its defense is to have a good relationship with the United States, at least publicly.
So Biden's doing everything he can to create daylight, and Israel's trying to shut that down, shut down that daylight wherever they can.
So, I mean, I think if you probably got, and I'm only guessing this, but if you got one of the, you know, Israeli officials, you know, got him aside in a private moment and asked him what they think, they would, they would lament that this is, you know, an unprecedented, you know, betrayal by America.
But you'll never hear him say that publicly because that's just not good for the country or good for its defense.
Well, you know, those reversals, some of them would have happened anyway, with or without a war.
The parts that are really difficult here are, you know, we had these skirmishes when I was in office, you know, nothing like October 7th, but there were three or four times when rockets would all of a sudden start firing out of Gaza at population centers.
And we just gave a very simple message, you know, so look, They're not shooting at America, they're shooting at Israel.
It's Israel's problem, if you will.
But Israel is a great friend of ours, and we're going to help them and we're going to support them.
So we'll give them whatever they need to defend themselves, and we're not going to micromanage their response.
So they should do whatever they think they need to do.
We trust them, they're a good friend.
We think their morals are in the right place, their values are in the right place.
Do what you gotta do to end this and protect your citizens as quickly and decisively as possible.
That was the message.
Now, if Biden had just given that message here and acted upon it, I think this war would probably be over by now and the hostages might very well be back.
Because that is the calibration, if you will.
No one is watching Biden more carefully.
Then Hamas, then Sinwar.
Because that's how he calibrates his ability.
He's not going to win militarily.
He knows he can't defeat Israel.
But what his question is, OK, I attacked Israel.
Can I survive?
Can I get out of this with my life?
Can I get out of this still being in power?
Can I keep a few battalions still in Gaza?
And the only way I can get there is if America stops Israel from finishing the job.
And so everything that he's doing is calibrating it based upon America's reaction.
And that's why whenever America uses words like You know, you got to have a ceasefire, you're using indiscriminate force, your efforts are over the top.
Everything, every time Biden does that, he makes it less likely that the hostages will be released.
It makes it more expensive for Israel to make a deal.
We talked about this a bit when I saw you in Florida, but are you shocked at all about the media reaction or have you just completely let the ship sail when it comes to the New York Times and some of these other organizations?
I think that is the real source here of the anti-Zionism, which is really just a repackaged form of anti-Semitism.
I think it's in academia.
I went to Columbia.
I know people there.
I know kids who go there.
Same is true of Harvard or MIT.
You know, you're seeing it everywhere.
But these are the future leaders of the country.
And these places, I mean, anti-Zionism is the mother's milk of elite universities.
I mean, you cannot get tenure at an American university if you're pro-Israel.
And these places are funded overwhelmingly by think tanks and by nations that just fundamentally hate Israel.
So unless you fix that, You know, I don't know.
I don't know what the answer is.
You know, I was kind of depressed about it, and I remember a couple weeks ago I got a call from Mike Pence, who's still a good friend of mine, and I was lamenting it, and he said to me, well, David, I'll just tell you one thing.
He says, you know New York.
You know LA.
Okay, what you don't really know as well as I do is everything in the middle.
Yeah, well look, I think even before the war, I think Israel was one of the few countries in the world Where the younger generation is more conservative than the older generation.
Right?
It's really kind of unheard of anywhere else.
Because the founders of Israel were, in large part, socialists.
I mean, they were very far left.
Secular socialists.
Did a great job building the country.
I mean, we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude, but the younger generation... Well, it can work in the most micro level with a, you know, ethnically similar group, perhaps, for a little while.
Yeah, listen, I think the challenges were so great in those early days that you probably did have to subordinate your individual needs to the collective.
I mean, you know, again, we owe them a great debt of gratitude for building this country, but the younger generation, right?
They're capitalists, right?
They believe in personal accountability.
They believe that everybody You know, should go out and get a job and work and, you know, there is some safety net.
There's a bigger safety net in Israel than in almost any other country.
People still, they still believe in the safety net, but they believe strongly in personal accountability.
And that's, I think, there already, and I think it's coming out of this war.
I think younger people are, I think, very much have their heads on straight here.
The distinction between, you know, people, you know, 30-ish in America versus, or 20-ish in America versus Israel is stark.
It's dramatic.
So I have, you know, a lot of confidence in the future of Israel, notwithstanding these challenges.
Yeah, well, let's talk about America for a moment because we're watching our southern border basically be open.
Seven million people, three plus years.
It does not seem that far-fetched that I don't think something quite as barbaric or horrific would happen in the States, but something, it feels that something's brewing.
You know, when I see that, you know, there's so many gotaways, so many people who are unvetted.
You know, people are coming from the South, but they're not from Mexico, right?
They're not from Guatemala.
They're not from Honduras.
They're from China or from Pakistan or from And even if they were, you still can't just walk in.
Still can't just walk in.
So, yeah, the number of people coming in, it's shocking.
It's complete malpractice from a perspective of security.
I understand the politics of it, why you might want to harvest Democratic voters, but short of that, it's complete malpractice from a security perspective.
And look, the one thing, Dave, that I think is important to recognize is that the people who hate Israel in America, They hate America as well.
I mean, you know, this anti-Israel, anti-Zionism movement, they're just a micron away from hating America and the American values that made America a great nation.
So, you know, Israel's almost the tip of the spear, you know, fighting this fight.
But, you know, ideologically, you know, the same people who are Running around Harvard and Yale and MIT, you know, yelling, you know, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Notwithstanding, they don't know the river or the sea.
Notwithstanding their ignorance.
But their basic view is that... The sea's right there.
Is that also directly connected to the fact that it seems to be one of our parties, you can figure out which one for yourself, has really gone off the deep end as it relates to Israel.
So Israel and America are best when there's some kind of sane middle and we've just kind of watched our middle disappear at this point.
Yeah, I think that's far more the case in America.
I mean, look, Israel is suffering.
I don't think Israel has lost its way.
You know, I mean, you know, you remember back before the war, there were huge, huge debates over the future of Israel and its judiciary.
OK, I mean, but those were those were actually, you know, pretty kind of high level, highbrow debates that reasonable people could differ on.
Like, you know, I had a view on that, you know, but I couldn't look at anybody other than, you know, at the very far extremes.
I thought people, you know, were able to articulate good arguments on both sides and it was a healthy debate, although it wasn't always a healthy, you know, manifestation of the debate.
They loved the country, they loved the country, they wanted to, their vision of the country they thought was the right vision, and they made those arguments as forcefully as they could.
The viewpoint on the left for America is not a viewpoint that will serve America.
I mean, and I'm not sure they do love the country either.
I think there's this desire to bring America kind of down to the lowest common denominator.
I'm pretty sure they don't at this point when they want to burn it down.
It was interesting because when I was in Tel Aviv, In May, during the protest, there was a left-wing protest that went by, and they were singing Hatikvah, so they were singing the National Anthem.
There's no left-wing protest in America where they would sing our National Anthem, and that's a fundamental difference.
You know, there was one really big protest in Jerusalem that I was there for, and they were coming in by train, and they were leaving by train, and there were two different protests.
One was right, one was left, and one's going up the escalator, one's going down the escalator, and they're two different sides, right?
And all they were doing was shaking hands and saying, going like this to each other, There is, at the baseline, a love of the country and a love of the people, and a lot of it is born of the fact that these people have to sit in the same tank.
You know, they have to sit in the same platoon.
You know, they have to sit there in the freezing cold in a ditch defending their country.
And when you do that, you develop a bond that is far more transcendent than, you know, how you happen, which party you happen to vote for.
You know, we have, what, 5% of Americans serve in the military.
You know, Memorial Day is a day to go to the mall to go shopping.
I mean, we've lost that Those kind of elements of cohesion in America that I think are very important.
Listen, the idea of public service in America is not a value.
I mean, all these people that run around and protest and scream on these left-wing ideologies, they don't care a whit about our soldiers.
You know, these people who sacrificed their lives, and I'm not sure that the highest echelons in the military really care that much about our soldiers anymore.
They're looking also, they've become far too politicized.
So, yeah, we have a long way to go and we have a party, you know, that I strongly believe is bringing our country to depths of the likes of which we haven't seen in our lifetime.
I think you're going to put Americans at risk, which I don't think Israel ever wants to put
Americans at risk for Israel's own defense.
But here's the problem.
The problem is not that there's no food in Gaza.
There's plenty of food in Gaza.
There are 20 bakeries in Gaza that work 24-7.
You should see how much food there is.
The problem is the last mile, if you will.
It's getting the food to the people.
And what's standing in the way is Hamas.
They commandeer all the trucks.
So you can bring this massive ship to the port, okay?
But when it gets to the port, you've got to put it on a truck.
Just like you've got to put it in a truck at the southern border.
So once it goes onto a truck, okay, and it's just getting driven, the Hamas guys come with their machine guns, they commandeer it, and then what they do is they sell it on the black market to everybody else because they need money.
Right?
So the people in Gaza who are starving, it's not because there's no food, it's because they can't afford to buy the food from Hamas, which has taken it over.
So how the port fixes any of this, I have no idea.
Yeah, so do you have any idea what a recon... well, not reconstruction, I don't think that's even the right word, but for whoever is going to live there after this, who the hell is going to be in charge?
And since this, if there's ever been an event that caused me to not be skeptical about the UN, but to be convinced now that it's just an absolute waste of money.
You know, there's 195 countries in the UN.
We should belong and pay one 195th of the expenses.
We have to, you know, either we, we're always the only one vetoing the Security Council resolutions.
The General Assembly votes against America routinely, and they support terrorists around the world.
So what is the value of the UN?
This guy who runs it, Guterres, is, from day one, he basically said that the, you know, the attack against Israel, you know, didn't happen in a vacuum.
What does that mean?
Raping?
Burning?
Killing?
Kidnapping?
Didn't happen in a vacuum?
Who cares what the context is?
There is no context.
If you have to find a context for that, there's something wrong with you.