Rebel News Podcast - April 20, 2024


EZRA LEVANT | Poll shows people who want Canada's immigration reduced the most are immigrants


Episode Stats

Length

40 minutes

Words per Minute

149.83267

Word Count

6,089

Sentence Count

471

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

53


Summary

A new poll by Leger, a reputable and large Canadian pollster based in Quebec, asked new immigrants their views on immigration levels, and you know what? You're not going to believe this. New immigrants do not like high immigration. In fact, this poll is broken down by race, which is rare, and I'll take you through the numbers. You will be shocked.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Incredible poll by Leger, very reputable and large Canadian pollster based in
00:00:05.840 Quebec. They asked new immigrants their views on immigration levels. And you know what? You're not
00:00:12.120 going to believe this. New immigrants do not like high immigration. They are more hostile to it
00:00:20.080 than white people. In fact, this poll is broken down by race, which is really rare. I'll take
00:00:27.320 you through the numbers. You will be shocked. That's ahead. But first, let me invite you to
00:00:33.380 become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. It helps you see
00:00:39.140 things because we have a lot of video clips. And for example, in today's episode, I'll show you some
00:00:43.760 charts from the poll. So I think it's very useful to you to get that kind of video content. But also
00:00:49.040 for our point of view, we need the eight bucks a month. I know it's not a ton of money for you,
00:00:54.180 but it really adds up for us. So please go to rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe. Okay,
00:01:00.160 here's today's podcast. Tonight, a poll on Canadian immigration shows that visible minority immigrants
00:01:21.980 are the ones who want immigration reduced the most. It's April 19th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:30.460 Shame on you, you censorious bug.
00:01:41.920 It seems like just a moment ago when even raising the subject of immigration was forbidden in polite
00:01:48.040 company, even though for years Canadians have said the numbers were too high. I've never seen the poll
00:01:54.440 say anything else, but no one was really allowed to say that out loud. I remember when the Conservative
00:02:00.760 Party of Canada decided it didn't want anything to do with Rebel News anymore. I know the precise moment
00:02:06.280 it happened. It was when I interviewed Andrew Scheer a few years back and asked him about immigration.
00:02:14.360 He avoided the question, so I asked him again. He avoided it again, so I asked him again, again.
00:02:21.640 I think I might have asked him five times. Here was the last time he ever made the mistake of talking
00:02:29.160 to Rebel News. This is when we broke apart. And Kelly Leach said, I'm going to be the Canadian values
00:02:34.580 candidate, especially when it comes to immigration. How would you position yourself on those issues?
00:02:39.560 Because I'm trying to differentiate for myself and for our viewers amongst the dozen candidates.
00:02:45.160 I think what you've described so far is good, and I'm glad to hear it. But to me, that's sort of the
00:02:50.040 base, you know, the starting point. Where are you on these other more divisive issues?
00:02:55.500 Well, I can tell you that I've always had a pro-life voting record.
00:03:03.880 My concentration on a lot of these things that have been thrown out is that, look, as the leader,
00:03:12.600 you have to find those issues that conservatives can unite around. There's no sense in a leader
00:03:18.960 promising things that he knows the Conservative caucus might not even go for, never mind the
00:03:24.240 parliament itself.
00:03:25.620 I take your point about focusing on uniting the party, but I would put it to you that conservatives
00:03:33.480 and all Canadians think immigration is too high. Only 8% of Canadians want more immigration.
00:03:40.840 In the United States, Donald Trump has shown his most popular issue was immigration and stopping
00:03:47.780 illegal immigration and revising, reviewing Muslim immigration with an eye towards security.
00:03:53.600 We've just had John McCallum announce in this week, Economic Times, he's going to jack up
00:04:00.520 immigration. Kelly Leach is staking out that ground. Do you have anything to say about
00:04:05.740 the Syrian migrants or about John McCallum's new numbers? Or, I mean, that's something that I
00:04:11.820 think conservatives, maybe it's just me, but I think a lot of conservatives want to hear something
00:04:15.980 on that.
00:04:17.080 I think you're right. And I think it's more than just conservatives. I think a lot of Canadians are
00:04:21.260 concerned about issues like security. And one thing we saw with the Syrian refugee issue
00:04:28.240 was that it became very apparent that it was a political goal on a political timeframe and
00:04:33.360 that it looked like the Liberals were sacrificing things like security and proper vetting to
00:04:39.820 reach that. And the feedback I got from my constituents and premiers around the country,
00:04:44.140 a lot of people saying, look, we have to get this right. Yes, Canada can play a role in providing
00:04:47.940 a compassionate space for people in danger, but we have to get the security component of that right.
00:04:52.860 But Kelly Leach isn't talking about security, he's talking about values. What's your view on
00:04:56.380 a values test?
00:04:57.500 So look, yeah, you mentioned a couple of issues, immigration and values. Let me talk about
00:05:01.280 immigration first. I think it's important that we arrive at a number based on some kind of logical
00:05:06.720 formula. What is the need that we're trying to address? Is it an aging population based on
00:05:12.840 logical rationale?
00:05:13.740 Okay, well, McCallum has said he's going to jack up the numbers probably by 100,000. Do you oppose
00:05:17.880 that?
00:05:18.120 Well, what's that based on?
00:05:19.720 I don't know.
00:05:20.140 Yeah, so if it's not based on something logical or coherent, then I think it's just a political
00:05:24.740 target aimed at trying to win over a segment of the electorate. I'm not going to do that.
00:05:31.340 Are you against that?
00:05:32.520 Well, I am against a policy that just throws a number out for shock value to try to gain attention.
00:05:40.580 I mean, I agree with you about integration and about how to get people involved in Canada's
00:05:47.660 community once they're here. But Kelly Leach has said before they get here, they should
00:05:53.100 be some sort of a value screening. Do you think we should ask any values laden questions of
00:06:00.740 people before they get here?
00:06:01.840 Well, I'm not sure what she's, you know.
00:06:03.500 Okay, forget about her. You just tell me your answer yourself. Do you think, you're saying
00:06:07.260 once people get here, integrate them, teach them? I don't think anyone disagrees. But
00:06:11.160 before they even get here, should we ask them about their values? Should we ask them about
00:06:15.780 Canadian values before we let them in?
00:06:17.220 Well, he's gone and Rebel News is still here. Anyways, immigration is one of those issues
00:06:21.980 that everybody talks about except the media. Journalist Mickey Kaus calls that kind of story
00:06:27.860 the under news. What real people talk about, the water cooler, the coffee pot, the photocopier. But
00:06:34.320 only if you follow, if you only follow the regime news, you'll miss it altogether. That's one of the
00:06:41.460 reasons why Donald Trump did so well in 2016. So many people thought the border wall was a good idea
00:06:46.460 and still do. Well, immigration is the ultimate under news issue in Canada. And frankly, it touches on
00:06:53.520 so many issues at once, all of which the regime media are squeamish about. Housing being the most
00:06:59.500 universal one, you simply cannot add 2.2 million people a year to Canada without driving up the
00:07:06.320 price of housing, especially given that Canada is only building a bit more than 200,000 houses a
00:07:11.940 year. You just can't do it. Housing prices, crime, social unrest, especially people who come here
00:07:19.780 from countries where anti-Semitism is endemic and who have become activated like little sleeper cells
00:07:27.400 of Nazis or something like this guy. That's a racism problem. That's an immigration problem. That's a
00:07:40.060 crime problem. We're simply not vetting immigrants for cultural fit. In fact, we're not really vetting
00:07:45.500 them at all. We admit 6,000 people per day, 365 days a year to immigrate to Canada. You don't even
00:07:53.380 have to have an interview or a face-to-face meeting anymore to become an immigrant. So yeah, those
00:07:58.560 Hamas hate marches are a function of immigration policy too. Our healthcare system is strained, of
00:08:04.700 course. Welfare, of course. Even something as simple as traffic. Like I say, everyone talks about these
00:08:11.440 things except the establishment. And if you even breathe a word about it, well, you're a racist,
00:08:16.820 sexist, homophobe, transphobe. Well, that's what I want to tell you about today. Look at this. A new
00:08:23.560 poll by Leger. As you know, they're the largest Canadian-owned pollster. The poll's about immigration
00:08:29.680 and it specifically asked people of different racial backgrounds their thoughts on immigration. Here's
00:08:37.300 what made up this survey. It's really interesting. 2,100 people were surveyed, focused on newcomers,
00:08:43.580 as they call them, people who came here as recently as yesterday and as long ago as 10 years. So anyone
00:08:49.280 who's arrived in the last 10 years, that's who they surveyed. And let me just quote from their survey.
00:08:56.100 Results were weighted by age, gender, region, country birth, as well as years since arrival. So this is an
00:09:02.920 unusual poll, eh? Good for them for doing it. Page 10 shows a breakdown of who they spoke to. 41% were
00:09:11.480 what's called permanent residents, 16% temporary workers, 11% students, etc. So let's start with
00:09:18.840 the boring question. Who would you vote for? And let me be clear, these are for newcomers, as they call
00:09:25.280 the fairly recent immigrants. 24% lean conservative, 22% lean liberal. 38% say they don't know, which
00:09:34.220 makes sense. I mean, if you just arrived here as a student visa holder, you probably haven't thought
00:09:39.940 about politics yet. But right there, that's interesting, isn't it? New Canadians are ready
00:09:44.040 to vote for Pierre Polyev and the conservatives. The typical media smear of you're racist doesn't seem
00:09:49.120 to be working anymore, does it? Page five of the poll is sort of interesting. Political party by race
00:09:55.680 of newcomer. So black immigrants lean liberal, and they lean against conservatives pretty dramatically,
00:10:03.260 which is a surprise to me. South Asian, I think that means mainly India, which would include Sikhs,
00:10:10.680 but also Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka. They're strongly conservative. And look at those Chinese
00:10:16.980 numbers. Holy moly, three to one, choosing conservatives over liberals. That's honestly
00:10:25.020 sort of surprising to me. I thought that maybe Justin Trudeau sucking up to communist China would
00:10:30.760 be appealing. But I mean, I'm just telling you what the poll says, three to one there for the
00:10:35.160 conservatives. I think all that's sort of interesting. But I want to talk about immigration.
00:10:39.000 That's what is the most interesting here. So look at page seven of the poll, opinion of current
00:10:43.960 immigration plan. And again, if I'm understanding this poll correctly, all of these people are new
00:10:50.380 immigrants, people here in the last 10 years. They just break those newcomers down by race,
00:10:57.860 which is, again, unusual for a poll. Now, I want to read to you something that will erode your confidence
00:11:02.600 in this poll a little bit, but I want to disclose it to you. It made me raise an eyebrow. Here's the
00:11:07.000 actual question that was put. The government of Canada's current immigration plan
00:11:11.260 is to welcome 465,000 immigrants to Canada this year, 485,000 in 2024, and half a million in 2025.
00:11:20.700 So they started doing this poll late last year, by the way. But as you know, and as I said a few
00:11:25.420 minutes ago, that is not accurate. Those numbers are not accurate. Because in addition to those numbers,
00:11:31.680 there are a stunning 900,000 foreign students here on visas. And then there are about 600,000
00:11:40.960 temporary foreign workers here on visas too. So the real number, as calculated by Candace Malcolm at
00:11:46.660 True North, is 2.2 million per year. Four times the number that Leger asked in their polling portion.
00:11:54.520 So I would think that if people knew the truth, their reactions would be even more stark. But let me tell
00:12:00.040 you what newcomers said when presented with the question that Leger actually did ask them.
00:12:05.240 Let's look at the choices. Too many immigrants, the right number of immigrants, or too few immigrants?
00:12:11.760 Only 7% said too few. By the way, I'll take you out of suspense. Those who say the right number
00:12:19.320 is really, in my mind, a way of saying, I don't know. Because it's a safe answer in addition to the
00:12:26.140 17% who actually say, I don't know. I think many people would say about right if the number were higher
00:12:31.940 or lower. They just don't want to be controversial. But for those who have an opinion, only 7% say no,
00:12:38.800 we should have more. Whereas 42% say we have too many. But let's break it down by race. That's what's
00:12:45.160 interesting here. 41% of white immigrants say there's too many immigrants to Canada. 42% of BIPOC
00:12:52.360 say the same. That is a goofy acronym. I never use it. It stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of
00:12:59.740 Color, which is a weird category because it contains other categories within it. The group
00:13:06.440 that has the fewest people saying there's too many immigrants is Black immigrants, even though I just
00:13:11.360 mentioned BIPOC, so I don't quite get that. 17% of Black immigrants say we're taking too many. But
00:13:18.060 still, that outnumbers the number of Black immigrants who say we're taking too few, which is just 11%.
00:13:23.760 So there is no race of immigrant whatsoever where more people, more immigrants want more
00:13:30.440 immigration than want less. But look at South Asian people. So people from India, including Sikhs,
00:13:37.480 etc. 50% of people from India say that Canada is taking too many immigrants. And these are Indian
00:13:45.100 immigrants saying this. Oh my God, look at the next statistic. 64% of people from Southeast Asia
00:13:53.340 say there's too many immigrants. 64% of recent immigrants. So it's not, I'm not talking about
00:13:58.980 someone who came here 50 years ago or even second generation. I'm talking about someone who's just
00:14:04.420 off the plane or just off the boat. Someone who's been here less than 10 years. Someone who could have
00:14:08.820 arrived yesterday. 64% of Southeast Asian immigrants think that we can take too many immigrants. That's
00:14:16.600 places like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia. They are fed up with immigration,
00:14:21.980 even immigrants from there are fed up. In fact, only 4% of Southeast Asians want more immigration.
00:14:31.360 64% think we're letting in too many people. I find that incredible. And again, I'm comparing that to
00:14:38.580 white immigrants. Only 42% of white immigrants say the same thing. Do you see what I'm saying?
00:14:44.340 Visible minority immigrants are a harder line on immigration than white folks.
00:14:49.500 And you can see Chinese Canadians are almost as skeptical of immigration. 55% of them want the
00:14:56.720 doors closed. What do you think of this? You can challenge some of the methodology here. I do.
00:15:03.140 This poll took place over a number of months. A lot has changed in the immigration debate over the last
00:15:08.700 six months. I already showed you that the essential question to put to people undercounted immigration by a
00:15:15.880 huge number. And I'm just skeptical of the numbers for black Canadians. My own anecdotal experience with
00:15:22.660 Canadians from the Caribbean or Central Africa are different from the results here. I don't know how
00:15:27.700 BIPOC is different than black. I don't know. But listen, this is the poll. These are done by experts.
00:15:33.520 Maybe that's the difference between my anecdotes and their data. But put aside any quibbles or quarrels
00:15:38.680 for now, that's not even the point. The point is that on its own terms, for whatever it's worth,
00:15:45.020 this poll by Canada's largest pollster shows that far from immigration skepticism being a racist
00:15:52.860 point of view, immigration skepticism is actually the dominant point of view for Canadian immigrants
00:16:00.740 from minority races. Let me put it another way. Minority immigrants, immigrants of color,
00:16:06.760 are more anti-immigration than white immigrants. And compared to other polls of all Canadians,
00:16:13.300 particularly the polls taken by Angus Reid, all immigrants are more anti-immigration than old stock
00:16:19.740 Canadians are. Maybe it's time the conservatives embrace a message of immigration sanity. Or as I like to
00:16:29.280 call it, net zero immigration. Stay with us for more.
00:16:46.640 Well, the other day, it sounded for a moment like we were on the brink of World War III. Iran,
00:16:53.020 everyone said, was planning to launch a massive attack on Israel. It's almost as if they had
00:16:58.860 telegraphed the exact time and day of their attack. And when I say World War III, well, that's because
00:17:04.940 there were a lot of countries involved in the battle. Iran and its allies, the Yemeni Houthis,
00:17:12.240 Hezbollah, and on the Israeli side, the United States, and reportedly the United Kingdom, France,
00:17:18.520 Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. I think that is a kind of world war, but it ended as soon as it began,
00:17:24.840 over in hours. A shock and awe attack where allegedly 99% of the rockets were intercepted.
00:17:33.120 Well, Israel responded the other day in the same sort of manner, very noisy, but did it do any damage?
00:17:39.980 What is this all about? Is this play fighting? Is it, what is going on? Is this all orchestrated for
00:17:47.920 public consumption? What is the state of bellicosity between these two countries? And what is America's
00:17:55.200 role? That's what I find most confusing. Remember that Joe Biden, when he was vice president under
00:18:01.100 Barack Obama, was a leader in normalizing Iran and funding Iran, lifting of sanctions on that country,
00:18:09.860 including making it easier for them to develop their nuclear weapons. Joe Biden has done that again
00:18:16.440 as president releasing tens of billions of dollars to that country. You could say America was funding
00:18:23.800 both sides of that battle. Well, that's my amateur point of view from my perch here in Canada.
00:18:29.760 But what about someone who has spent his life studying the region? In fact, who runs a think
00:18:35.840 tank called the Middle East Forum, who himself has lived in the region for years and has traveled widely.
00:18:42.580 I'm talking about our friend Daniel Pipes, the president of the Middle East Forum. He joins us
00:18:48.120 now via Skype. Dr. Pipes, great to see you again. Thanks for coming back on the show.
00:18:53.060 Thanks for inviting me.
00:18:54.700 I don't know what's going on over there. I thought that the armed direct battle between Iran and Israel
00:19:02.200 would be a sort of a final showdown. Those two countries have been staring at each other literally
00:19:08.060 for decades, not just because the Ayatollahs are exporting terrorism, but because Iran has a
00:19:14.140 nuclear program, which is so evidently aimed at Israel. What is the state of affairs there? I don't
00:19:20.720 know what's going on, and I don't want to yield to online conspiracy theories, but it looks strange to me.
00:19:26.700 No, I don't think there are conspiracies going on. I think the key factors are, one, that the Iranian
00:19:38.960 military is quite weak. Strikingly, amazingly even, the Iranians have not managed to buy modern military
00:19:50.080 aircraft since the revolution, and they're still using American-purchased planes from the 1960s and
00:19:59.180 70s. I don't know why the Russians, Chinese, and others haven't supplied them, but they haven't.
00:20:03.600 So the Iranians are weak from that point of view. They don't have much of a navy. They don't have
00:20:10.320 much of an air force. They can't really take on Israel. That's point one. Point two is that the U.S.
00:20:17.360 policy, as you suggested, is deeply conflicted. Look at the person of Joe Biden. He has a relationship
00:20:25.280 with Israel that goes back half a century. He proudly mentions that he met Golda Meir something
00:20:30.880 like 50 years ago, and he keeps saying that he has Israel's back and ironclad commitments and so forth.
00:20:39.120 At the same time, as you pointed out, President Obama and now Biden have a great interest
00:20:47.200 in luring the Iranians back into the so-called family of nations. They have a belief that if you
00:20:55.120 treat the Iranians nicely, if you offer the money, don't take a hostile stance that you can bring them
00:21:02.720 back. So I think these are the two key factors, and the complications derive from them.
00:21:10.560 Well, I think everyone knows that Iran, while I agree with you, its conventional army is not
00:21:20.720 strong. It is the master of asymmetrical warfare. It funds terrorist groups, Hamas in the Gaza Strip,
00:21:28.960 Hezbollah in Lebanon, and it seems to be quite successful in the drone industry. In fact, I think Iranian
00:21:38.480 drones are actively used in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. So Iran has avoided direct conflict
00:21:46.160 with Israel, preferring the economic and political benefits of asymmetrical warfare. That is some
00:21:52.880 plausible deniability. The rockets weren't launched from Iran themselves, they could say. And if there
00:22:00.080 was a battlefield loss, it wouldn't be on Iranian soil. That changed last week when Iran launched rockets
00:22:07.840 and missiles directly. What's the, why, what, what's next? Why didn't Israel attempt to take out Iran's
00:22:19.360 nuclear project? I'm just trying to understand, is it over? Are they, are they play fighting?
00:22:25.520 I don't understand how to, tell me more about it. I'm trying to figure it out.
00:22:31.440 I'm not sure if it's over or not, but for the moment it is over. Who knows? There might be another
00:22:36.080 act of retaliation ahead of us. But right now, the Israelis would, I believe, dearly love to attack the
00:22:44.800 Iranian nuclear infrastructure. And there are many, myself included, who wish they had.
00:22:50.160 But the pressure from the United States and other friendly countries on Israel was intense. Don't,
00:22:58.880 don't do anything too provocative. Do something more or less symbolic. Let's close this thing down.
00:23:06.720 And what's so striking is that the attack yesterday is not acknowledged by Israel and is not acknowledged
00:23:12.640 by Iran. So everybody wants to close it down, or at least the allies of Israel want to close it down.
00:23:20.000 And the Israelis are going along with it. I suspect Israelis have come to the conclusion that it is a
00:23:25.520 better deal to go along with their allies and to put pressure on them, to hold over them the threat
00:23:32.320 of attacking Iranian nuclear infrastructure, to get them to take more, to get the allies to take more
00:23:39.760 aggressive steps. And the allies have promised to take steps, which they have done already some of.
00:23:47.760 And the Israelis still can attack the nuclear infrastructure at will. But it'll be expensive
00:23:57.040 in terms of their diplomacy, in terms of their support, in terms of their getting arms from the
00:24:02.640 United States and other Western countries. So the Israelis have concluded, Benjamin Netanyahu has concluded that
00:24:10.160 this is the better course to follow now. He has internal pressure to do more. Many Israelis want more.
00:24:18.320 But he concluded that better to go along with President Biden and not cause any rupture in the
00:24:25.520 U.S.-Israel relationship.
00:24:29.680 For me, a strange fact is that Hamas has been allowed to live in peace in the southwestern end of Gaza in
00:24:41.760 in the Rafa area. The leadership is unmolested there. Israel does not attack it. For months,
00:24:48.160 it's been a stalemate there. And you see America and other G7 countries basically saying to Israel,
00:24:56.480 do not finish the job, do not finish the job. Israel has taken over, or at least controls,
00:25:01.520 the bulk of the Gaza Strip. But the hardest part of it, where any surviving hostages might be,
00:25:10.960 where the leadership of Hamas is, remains with impunity. Do you think Israel will finish the job?
00:25:20.720 And if not, why are Israel's so-called allies telling it not to finish the job?
00:25:28.000 I do think the Israelis will resume their attack on Rafah. They are going slow again because of intense
00:25:38.960 diplomatic pressure. Israelis need to balance their own military imperatives with their diplomatic
00:25:49.600 imperatives. They're a small country, and small countries need to balance these sort of things.
00:25:56.880 Look at Ukraine. They have to worry. Ukraine is much bigger, but it's still a small country,
00:26:02.000 relatively speaking. And so they don't follow the kind of direct, consistent policies that a great
00:26:14.400 power can do. And we see that very much in Gaza. Prime Minister Netanyahu has over and over again
00:26:23.120 talked about total victory and absolute victory. And he's been very emphatic
00:26:27.840 about the need to destroy Hamas, have no remnants of Hamas. And yet, as you point out, Hamas exists
00:26:36.080 and is in no particular jeopardy at this point. Will the Israelis resume? I think so.
00:26:42.800 Will it be at a cost to their relations with the United States and other friendly allies of Israel?
00:26:47.520 Probably. But the Israelis have many times gone against the wishes of their allies. I think of the
00:26:55.920 destruction of the Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981. The Americans and everyone hated it, eventually came to
00:27:03.520 terms with it. In fact, we're grateful when the United States went to war with Saddam Hussein. Great
00:27:08.960 gratitude for there being nuclear bombs in Iraq. So it's not a conspiratorial game. It's not a play
00:27:18.800 acting game. It's a complex diplomatic game of how far can Israel go militarily when it's constrained
00:27:26.960 diplomatically. I don't know what's going to happen in November in the US presidential elections. I don't
00:27:34.320 know if Donald Trump will be in jail, God forbid, assassinated. And I say that again, I don't mean
00:27:40.240 to be extreme, but so far there are no taboos that have been unbroken in terms of stopping him.
00:27:47.120 I think there's a chance that Donald Trump could be president. Let me put it that way.
00:27:51.120 And there's also a good chance that Biden would be. Maybe Israel is just trying to bide time until
00:27:57.680 November, where I think Donald Trump presidency, if it were to come, would reset a lot of things in
00:28:03.600 the region. I think it would put Iran back in its box. And I think Gaza and Hamas would be dealt with
00:28:10.560 as swiftly as Trump dealt with ISIS. I don't know. I wonder if Israel can afford to wait seven months in
00:28:17.840 the hopes that America will have a different stance. Perhaps. But I'd like to point out that
00:28:27.680 Trump and Netanyahu had a good working relationship through their years together.
00:28:36.400 But in January 2021, Netanyahu recognized Joe Biden as president of the United States and sent him the
00:28:45.520 routine kind of congratulations that foreign heads of state do, as a government do. And Donald Trump took
00:28:53.200 this amiss. He is angry. And he remains angry. So what I'm getting at is if Benjamin Netanyahu remains
00:29:01.440 the prime minister of Israel, he can expect a lot of hostility from Donald Trump. Should there be a new
00:29:10.320 prime minister? I think it would be different. But Donald Trump retains his
00:29:18.320 grudges. And I think he has a grudge against Netanyahu. Now, Netanyahu had no choice. What's
00:29:23.120 he supposed to do? Say that Biden was not the president, but rankers, rankles with them, with
00:29:31.440 so I don't know that if Trump came to office and Netanyahu were in office, that would all be
00:29:35.840 beyond that smooth sailing in 2025. A few weeks ago, Senator Chuck Schumer, a senior Democrat who
00:29:46.480 also happens to be Jewish, gave an astonishing rant, basically demanding that Israel depose Netanyahu.
00:29:54.560 I don't think that's too strongly worded to say that. I mean, they basically said, Netanyahu,
00:30:00.480 you've got to go for the U.S.'s relationship to remain. I found it striking at least. If Netanyahu were
00:30:07.280 to go, who would succeed him? And would they want to, quote, finish the job against Hamas?
00:30:15.520 As Netanyahu has repeatedly said, who is in the wings? And would they finish this military project?
00:30:22.960 Well, the easier question to answer is the second one. Would they resume and finish the job? Yes,
00:30:27.840 I think so. There's a very strong sentiment in Israel that Hamas needs to be obliterated. The
00:30:35.440 institution of Hamas can no longer have power in Gaza. Who that might be, I don't know. Presumably,
00:30:43.120 Netanyahu's successor would be from within the Likud party. He has managed to keep his potential
00:30:50.080 successors down. He does not have a right-hand man. He does not have a vice
00:30:57.680 prime minister. So there are aspirates near Barkat, for example, the former mayor of Jerusalem.
00:31:05.200 Danny Danone, former ambassador to the United Nations and others have shown their interest in taking his
00:31:14.560 place. But we don't really know because they haven't been allowed to run for any kind of leadership
00:31:23.840 position. So there are so many excellent candidates within Likud and even outside Likud. But it's very hard
00:31:31.840 to predict at this point who might be Netanyahu's successor. Easier to predict that that successor
00:31:36.640 will continue the job, yes. Let me ask you one last thing. I'm astonished by the approach of the U.S.
00:31:44.560 Navy in the region. There's a lot of aircraft carriers and missile ships in the region. And yet,
00:31:52.480 I would say every week, there's another attack on civilian shipping. Anything that is in any way
00:32:01.200 related to Israel, those ships, like it could be some cargo from Israel on a ship that is owned by
00:32:08.800 South Korea, registered in Liberia or whatever. But if there's any Israeli connection at all,
00:32:14.240 the ship is attacked. It's boarded by Yemen, even by Iran. And you have all these mighty
00:32:21.920 American ships there. But sailing through the Suez Canal still appears to be very dangerous
00:32:27.360 at the hands of this ragtag terrorist regime. I find that puzzling. And even when the American
00:32:34.800 ships themselves are attacked, America doesn't fight back. It's like shooing flies away as opposed to
00:32:41.760 killing them dead. What's going on there?
00:32:43.520 I just make one slight correction. The Houthis in Yemen are attacking basically everyone at this
00:32:53.120 point, whether or not there's an Israeli connection. It's indiscriminate, even Chinese. I think even
00:32:58.240 Russian. I'm not sure.
00:32:58.960 Hmm. How can that continue? It's just like a return to pirate days.
00:33:04.080 Yeah, it is equivalent of piracy. I thought at the beginning of this barrage of attacks from Yemen
00:33:13.760 that there would be an international consensus that this is hurting everybody. And there would
00:33:20.000 be a squelching of it. There'd be pressure on the Iranians to stop it. But no, it hasn't happened,
00:33:23.840 as you correctly point out. This has just continued. And it is outrageous. World shipping,
00:33:30.960 world economy is affected by it in substantial ways. And the Houthis just, without much danger
00:33:38.880 to themselves, continue to attack. The United States hasn't done much. Neither has anyone else.
00:33:45.040 It shows a kind of passivity that is, I think, very ominous that a ragtag, as you call them,
00:33:53.120 group can have this impact on the global economy. Terrible, terrible. We are defensive.
00:34:01.600 And again, with the Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel is purely defensive. The United
00:34:07.680 States came to help, as the Saudis and the Jordanians and the British, Israel knocked down
00:34:14.000 these drones and missiles. But don't do anything offensive, they say. You can't win if you're always
00:34:19.920 on the defensive. And yet that is the preferred American posture or preferred democratic postures.
00:34:25.280 Let's stick to the defensive. Let's not offend anybody.
00:34:28.640 You know, I think it's an echo of the domestic policy in the United States and Canada,
00:34:34.560 where you have Hamas hate marches on the streets, on campuses, some astonishing footage
00:34:40.960 out of Columbia University yesterday. In that case, there were some arrests. But when I see these
00:34:47.840 mighty US ships turning the other cheek, it reminds me of the hate marches in the streets of Toronto and
00:34:53.600 Montreal and other places where even in New York, quite often police just let obvious crimes go by
00:35:00.960 instead of, you know, cracking down on crimes. I'm not talking about political censorship.
00:35:06.000 I'm talking about actual crimes that are committed. I find it astonishing the strongest country in the world
00:35:13.680 doesn't have enough self-respect or motivation to take care of itself. And again, I'm not looking
00:35:19.360 for political censorship, but there are actual physical crimes. Blocking the key bridges, blocking the airports
00:35:27.360 in Chicago, in New York, in Seattle for hours. And then letting, I understand in San Francisco,
00:35:35.200 they blocked the bridge and all the blockers were let go without charge. I think it's an analogy,
00:35:41.360 a Navy that won't shoot down a Houthi and police forces and prosecutors that won't lay a finger
00:35:47.840 on Hamas activists in America. I find it very demoralizing.
00:35:50.720 Well, Ezra, you have captured the temper of the times on the frame in Western countries.
00:35:57.760 Well, I'm sorry that that's the case. I hope it'll change. It's great to see you again,
00:36:01.600 and I'll continue to follow your work at the Middle East Forum. We've been talking
00:36:04.560 with Dr. Daniel Pipes, and you can follow his work at meforum.org. Did I get that right?
00:36:11.680 You did. Excellent. Well, nice to see you again, and thanks very much for your wisdom.
00:36:20.720 Hey, welcome back to your letters to me. Ryan Michelle says,
00:36:32.080 Justin only stands with Laurentian elites. We're talking about being a fancy pants.
00:36:37.680 I think it's possible to grow up in wealth and have a common touch. I think it's possible to live
00:36:43.520 your life where you mix with people of all backgrounds. I happen to think that Robert F.
00:36:48.640 Kennedy Jr. does that. In his own way, as I mentioned, I think Donald Trump did that.
00:36:54.000 But Trudeau has not. And imagine him or Mr. Rolex, Jagmeet Singh,
00:36:59.920 saying that Pierre Polyev is the fancy pants. Pierre Polyev was an orphan. He was raised,
00:37:04.720 he was adopted, raised by two Saskatchewan teachers. I mean, he's the least fancy of all the party leaders.
00:37:10.720 Crushing all deceivers. I'm guessing that's not the name that mama gave you.
00:37:17.360 Says, say no to halal mortgages and halal mortgages in Canada now. That's really weird.
00:37:24.560 There was a reference in the budget to halal mortgages. Of course, halal is the Arabic or Muslim
00:37:31.120 word for, I guess it's their version of kosher. Like halal food would mean no pork,
00:37:38.400 food killed in the Islamic way. So what's a halal mortgage? Well, paying interest is usury. It's
00:37:46.720 against the rules of Sharia law. So how do you give someone a mortgage if they can't pay interest? Well,
00:37:53.040 you have fees and you have rent to own and you have, there's ways around it that exist right now.
00:37:59.360 There are thousands of Canadian Muslims who have unconventional mortgages that get around this
00:38:07.040 technical issue. And frankly, I don't have a problem with that. I mean, I don't care what
00:38:11.680 kind of deal you make with your lender or your bank. What I'm worried about is the government
00:38:17.040 mandating a religious approach to banking to people who don't want to do it. That would be
00:38:24.800 something I'm worried about. The trouble is we have no idea what it means and the government has
00:38:29.520 not yet told us. So I'm on alert. I'm not on high alert yet. I just don't think the government should
00:38:36.480 say, hey, do this religious approach to business. No, people can do that if they want.
00:38:42.000 It shouldn't be forced by the government. TMG says, I think you'd make a great prime minister,
00:38:48.240 Mr. Levant. It's very nice of you to say. I don't speak French for one thing.
00:38:55.120 I don't think I have the patience for it. I think I'm doing something morally important
00:39:01.280 here at Rebel News. In fact, I think what we do in some way assists conservative politicians. We help
00:39:09.280 shape the battlefield of ideas. Let me give you the example of perhaps one of the greatest
00:39:16.640 conservative leaders in the last 50 years. I'm referring to Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan could
00:39:23.040 only do what he did. And Margaret Thatcher, his counterpart in the UK, could only do what she did
00:39:29.600 because of the support of conservative leaning media that shaped the battleground of ideas that
00:39:35.840 gave him and gave Margaret Thatcher support. In fact, especially in the UK, it was critical that
00:39:42.320 she had the support of the London Telegraph and some of the tabloids. She couldn't have done it
00:39:47.440 without that. When I look around Canada today, I think that the media is a huge problem. And even if we
00:39:54.960 had a principled, passionate conservative leader without a friendly or fair, let me put it that way,
00:40:02.400 media environment, they're doomed. So I see that as my role. I don't know if you know this, but 30 years
00:40:07.600 ago, I briefly, or 25 years ago, I briefly ran for political office, but I stepped aside in Calgary
00:40:14.080 Southwest for Stephen Harper. So that's my little footnote in history. Anyways, that's our report for
00:40:19.280 today. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home,
00:40:24.000 good night, and keep fighting for freedom.