Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Gaza hospital tragedy： Separating fact from fiction with Joel Pollak

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. So much going on in the war between Israel and Hamas.

00:00:04.060 A feature interview with Joel Pollack, Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart.com.

00:00:08.080 We'll also have clips of what's going on, including the missile, the Islamic Jihad rocket that struck a Gaza hospital.

00:00:18.760 I'd like you to see that with your own eyes, so you need to get the video version.

00:00:23.020 Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe.

00:00:26.100 Eight bucks a month. You get my show every weeknight and Sheila's show weekly.

00:00:31.600 And that eight bucks might not sound like a lot to you, but it adds up for us.

00:00:34.540 It's how we pay the bills. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:37.480 Tonight, a rocket hits a hospital in Gaza, but who shot it?

00:00:56.980 And Joe Biden is set to arrive in Israel as the violence heats up.

00:01:01.800 It's October 17th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:07.480 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:19.760 There's a lot of news in foreign affairs, and it does affect us here at home.

00:01:24.540 A war overseas, we are no longer immune to those things,

00:01:27.940 especially since we have so many people in Canada cheering for a terrorist group.

00:01:33.380 That's not an abstraction. That is the reality of every big city in this country.

00:01:38.580 Of course, Canada does have a liberal democratic ally in the region, Israel,

00:01:43.340 but Justin Trudeau has never much been a fan of Israel, and he courts the pro-Hamas vote.

00:01:49.180 We're going to go through the news of the day and the news of tomorrow

00:01:52.140 with our first and only guest today, Joel Pollack, senior editor-at-large at Breitbart.com.

00:01:57.580 He recently joined me and about 40 rebel enthusiasts on a trip to Israel, a peace trip.

00:02:03.700 We called it a trip to celebrate the Abraham Accords. 0.84

00:02:06.860 We started in Israel for a week, then we went to the Muslim country of the United Arab Emirates,

00:02:11.600 and we celebrated the peace deal that Trump made, a peace deal that is unraveling, I fear,

00:02:17.160 although the United Arab Emirates seems to be standing with Israel.

00:02:20.800 And joining us now is Breitbart senior editor-at-large, Joel Pollack, who joins us from the L.A. area.

00:02:27.920 Joel, very momentous day-to-day, a tremendous controversy.

00:02:31.880 Just before we decided to film this interview, what was called by Hamas an Israeli attack on a hospital in Gaza

00:02:41.700 was widely reported around the world as that, as if Israel would deliberately attack or even accidentally attack a hospital killing hundreds.

00:02:52.040 Within moments, every mainstream media outlet picked that up, including Justin Trudeau,

00:02:57.080 who thought before even verification he would immediately opine on the subject.

00:03:01.200 Here's Trudeau making an instant appearance, not even waiting for confirmation. Take a look.

00:03:07.740 The news coming out of Gaza is horrific and absolutely unacceptable.

00:03:15.380 International humanitarian and international law needs to be respected in this and in all cases.

00:03:23.040 There are rules around wars, and it's not acceptable.

00:03:25.920 Is the hospital bomb?

00:03:27.040 Well, within an hour, the facts emerged that it was actually much more likely, given video evidence,

00:03:33.420 a rocket launched by a terrorist group, not Hamas, but the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

00:03:39.060 What an incredible turn of events.

00:03:41.400 On the eve of Joe Biden's visit to Israel, joining us now again is Joel Pollack.

00:03:46.400 Joel, what do you make of the whipsaw news and then countervailing facts about this explosion at a major hospital in Gaza?

00:03:56.740 Well, I'm going to quibble with your choice of the word unexpected or unanticipated or remarkable turn of events.

00:04:07.800 There's nothing remarkable about this.

00:04:10.180 This happens every time Israel is forced to defend itself against these terror organizations.

00:04:15.360 They wait until there's some large number of civilian casualties, and then they cry foul and they appeal to the world to intervene and to stop Israel from fighting anymore.

00:04:27.640 And this is part of the pattern we've seen going back decades.

00:04:32.180 But the fact is that these rockets fired by Palestinian terror groups often misfire.

00:04:37.920 In the 2021 war, or conflict, you could say, between Israel and Hamas, 20% of the rockets fired by Hamas landed inside the Gaza Strip, did not even hit their Israeli civilian targets, by the way.

00:04:52.260 I should say that all these rockets fired by Palestinian groups are aimed at Israeli civilians.

00:04:56.900 When Israel fires at Palestinian terror groups, they're targeting terrorists, not civilians.

00:05:02.020 But 20% of all the Hamas rockets two years ago fell inside the Gaza Strip.

00:05:06.480 And in 2022, when there was another exchange of fire, this time with another group also backed by Iran, but it's called Palestinian Islamic Jihad, 30% of all the Palestinian casualties were caused by misfires, rockets that were aimed at Israeli civilians but hit Palestinians instead.

00:05:25.600 That is the pattern, because they're firing unguided rockets in the general direction of Israel.

00:05:31.340 But they're doing so in a very rushed way.

00:05:33.860 They hide these rockets underneath buildings and in tunnels, and then they bring them out quickly, they fire them, and then they run away again.

00:05:39.920 So this is a very crude way of attacking Israel.

00:05:43.120 Unfortunately, it's been very effective in terrorizing the Israeli population.

00:05:48.300 But it is how the Palestinians operate, and they don't care if they kill their own civilians, because the world has the same knee-jerk reaction that Justin Trudeau did, which is that it must be Israel's fault. 0.95

00:05:59.760 Now, there are many who are going to say that even if this is a Palestinian rocket, it's still Israel's fault, because how can you fire at Palestinian targets in highly densely populated civilian areas?

00:06:13.220 Well, first of all, it's a violation of international law for Palestinians to put rockets and to put combatants in densely populated civilian areas. 0.85

00:06:23.500 So that's not Israel's fault, and that doesn't stop Israel under international law from going after those legitimate military targets.

00:06:30.340 It just means that Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad or whoever, those are the responsible ones for the civilian casualties.

00:06:37.840 And then the broader question is really this. If you don't think Israel should be fighting back at all, then what would you suggest Israel do in response to 1,400 murdered Israelis, 4,100 wounded Israelis, 200 hostages taken to Gaza?

00:06:51.720 Are you then saying that there's no way Israel can fight back? 0.75

00:06:55.000 Israel is fighting back. It has the right, and as President Joe Biden helpfully pointed out, it has the duty, actually, to fight back, because there are also international legal obligations that require countries to stop genocide.

00:07:05.080 And it's clear that Hamas is determined on achieving the genocide of Israelis and the genocide of Jews.

00:07:12.960 You can see that from the brutal way that they killed their victims. They didn't just storm a military post, make their point, and go home.

00:07:19.300 They spread out far and wide, and they killed as many civilians, men, women, children, young, old, as they possibly could. 0.99

00:07:24.560 They raped women. They tortured their victims. They took people back to Gaza and are now holding them hostage. 0.99

00:07:29.380 I mean, this is the kind of violence we haven't seen since the Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide.

00:07:34.380 So Israel has a duty, actually, to go after Hamas. And Hamas started this war. They've placed Palestinians at risk in doing so.

00:07:41.960 They knew they would. This is the same pattern, war after war, conflict after conflict.

00:07:46.420 These terrorist organizations, whether Palestinian terrorists or the Lebanese terror group known as Hezbollah, same modus operandi.

00:07:53.100 They basically put their rockets in mosques, next to schools, underneath hospitals, and they hope that if Israel targets their fighters or their terrorists or their weapons and equipment, that they will also hit a number of the civilians that these terrorist groups claim to be representing.

00:08:10.680 I think it's pretty clear now that it was a rocket. Originally, there was some question, was it a Hamas rocket or a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket?

00:08:19.400 We've seen different video released from the Israeli side, but now also it appears that Al Jazeera was filming the rocket that was launched and that went awry.

00:08:30.560 And then I just saw more footage from a third angle taken from the ground.

00:08:35.420 So I think it's pretty much incontrovertible now, given that you have Israeli sources, Al Jazeera, and other on-the-ground sources.

00:08:43.900 But you had a very interesting tweet. I'm going to read it.

00:08:46.460 And this was before the facts came out.

00:08:49.660 And I don't think anyone could disagree with your stats.

00:09:18.000 Simply put, the reason why this is such news is because if it were true that Israel did this, it would be a failure by Israel militarily.

00:09:31.240 Israel does not target civilians, but it would be such a win for Hamas because it would lower Israel's morality closer to their deliberate attacking of civilians. 0.58

00:09:42.460 I just think anyone who thought this was deliberate, I don't think anyone really would.

00:09:49.840 I don't even think Hamas, I don't even think the most rabid anti-Semites in the world would think that Israel would do this deliberately.

00:09:57.880 They would probably think, oh, look how sloppy they are, or they shouldn't be doing this.

00:10:01.340 But I just wonder if we're going to get an apology and a retraction from Trudeau and all the others who immediately thought the worst or the second worst of things.

00:10:10.160 What do you think?

00:10:10.760 Well, the reason that I calculated my probabilities, and it wasn't a very sophisticated calculation, but it's just based on experience having covered these conflicts and watched these patterns for many years.

00:10:25.320 The reason is that Israel has zero interest in targeting a hospital.

00:10:29.100 We've never seen Israel deliberately target hospitals before.

00:10:31.760 They've certainly had many opportunities.

00:10:34.760 There's good reason for them to want to go after some hospitals if they were inclined to do so, because the Hamas leaders are known to live underneath one of the biggest hospitals in Gaza.

00:10:46.020 I believe it's called Al-Shifa Hospital.

00:10:48.040 If Israel wanted to wipe out the Hamas leadership, they could have done so long ago by targeting that hospital, but they haven't done it.

00:10:53.480 Israel doesn't target hospitals.

00:10:55.380 Hospitals are not legitimate targets, but that's why Hamas hides there, again, in violation of international law.

00:11:00.180 But the number one reason Israel doesn't target hospitals, or wouldn't in this case, is that they know that the international community would be outraged.

00:11:07.240 And that's the only thing that could stand in the way of Israel defeating Hamas. 0.50

00:11:11.360 Israel does not want anything to stand in the way of its war effort.

00:11:15.520 It has incredible motivation to get rid of Hamas, and there's incredible internal political pressure from the Israeli public that their government should get rid of this terrorist organization as soon as possible,

00:11:27.040 given the outrageous and atrocious terror attack that Israelis have endured.

00:11:31.640 So there's no reason for Israel to attack the hospital.

00:11:34.220 It would stop the Israeli war, potentially.

00:11:37.300 And that's why it's a 0% probability.

00:11:39.400 We've just seen these Palestinian rocket misfires so often.

00:11:43.860 And again, I'm not sure it's a misfire.

00:11:45.180 I mean, I put it at a lower probability that it was deliberately done by Palestinian groups,

00:11:49.180 but it's not beyond them to do it.

00:11:51.840 Remember, these are terrorists who are preventing their own civilians from leaving the war zone.

00:11:56.260 They're perfectly comfortable with their own Palestinian civilians dying. 1.00

00:12:00.660 And, you know, they invented suicide bombing, practically.

00:12:02.880 I'm aware it started elsewhere in Sri Lanka, but essentially they perfected suicide bombing. 1.00

00:12:08.860 And they made it their own.

00:12:10.180 They made it their trademark.

00:12:10.980 And the whole hallmark of suicide bombing is that you're willing to give up your life and the life of Arabs and Muslims around you, 0.87

00:12:18.220 as long as you can take out some lives of Jews and Israelis. 0.84

00:12:21.400 And by the way, just to that point, there were some 40 or so Arab Muslims in Israel who were killed by these terrorists on October 7th.

00:12:29.620 There were Israeli Arab citizens who were heroes, who saved many lives, driving wounded people away from the music festival that was being targeted by Hamas, for example, rescuing the wounded.

00:12:43.840 And some of them paid for that with their lives.

00:12:46.160 There are many stories in the Israeli media about Arabs who sacrificed themselves to save the Jewish Israelis.

00:12:53.000 Paradoxically, this entire conflict since the terror attack has brought Israeli Jews and Arabs closer together.

00:13:00.760 So I think the will to have peace eventually is there.

00:13:03.780 But Hamas and Iran need these confrontations. 1.00

00:13:06.800 And Justin Trudeau may think he's earning some kind of politically correct credibility with perhaps left-wing constituencies by coming out and condemning Israel.

00:13:17.240 But all he's doing is making peace more difficult to achieve.

00:13:19.420 You know, George Orwell said in the Second World War, and I'm paraphrasing only slightly, he said,

00:13:24.900 in the long run, you do more damage to people by calling them names and bringing up children to believe lies than you do by bombing them.

00:13:33.380 By bombing your enemy, you're striking against one generation. 0.82

00:13:36.720 But by poisoning people's minds with lies and teaching children to hate, you're poisoning generations into the future.

00:13:42.860 And that's what the Palestinian propagandists have done.

00:13:46.140 And that's what, unfortunately, Justin Trudeau is doing when he claims that Israel has bombed a hospital or he lends any credibility to that before there's been an investigation.

00:13:53.920 I think he's just trying to show that he has some empathy for Palestinian civilian lives.

00:13:57.600 That's not hard to do.

00:13:58.920 The Israeli government is showing empathy.

00:14:01.080 By the way, the most important and most effective thing one could do to save Palestinian civilians would be to get rid of Hamas.

00:14:07.800 Israel did not get rid of Hamas in previous conflict because of this kind of international pressure.

00:14:11.900 And they lost 1,000 plus civilians as a result.

00:14:16.640 They now understand that they have to save their own civilians and they have to save Palestinian civilians because Palestinian civilians are killed in this endless effort by Hamas to kill Israelis.

00:14:27.920 And the Israeli response to it, if you get rid of Hamas, then you get rid of these attacks.

00:14:32.420 So the most important and best thing in the long run, if you just play the strict crude numbers game, probably the most effective way to save civilians is just to get rid of the terrorist groups that are sponsoring these wars.

00:14:43.580 You know, I follow a lot of conflicts, especially the ones where Canada or the United States or other Western countries are involved.

00:14:50.160 So that would include, for example, Afghanistan.

00:14:52.680 It would include the war in Iraq.

00:14:54.000 It would include the brief war to depose Muammar Gaddafi that I think was a disaster for the whole world, by the way.

00:15:00.780 And I do not recall in those wars or even going back to the 80s, because I'm a little bit older than you, Joel, whether it was the Falkland Islands War or the brief Panama War or when Ronald Reagan struck Gaddafi in the Gulf of Sidra.

00:15:19.360 Like, I have been interested in conflict, I suppose, for 40 years.

00:15:25.460 Other than Israel, I am completely at a loss for an example where the media focused with great interest and obsession and moral resolve on collateral casualties by civilians.

00:15:40.900 I'm not saying that it was heartless, but when, you know, Operation Desert Storm began or when any of the wars I've just mentioned, there were enormous numbers of civilian casualties.

00:15:52.740 And that's just how wars are.

00:15:54.620 And I'm certainly not at all saying that America or the UK or Canada deliberately did any of those things.

00:16:01.780 But tens of 50,000 civilians at least died in Afghanistan.

00:16:07.040 The count for Iraq is estimated over a million.

00:16:09.900 Half a million, half a million in Korea.

00:16:12.860 And I just, I mean, you can go back to the Second World War, the firebombings of Dresden and Tokyo, the nuclear detonations in Hiroshima and Nekizaki.

00:16:21.680 I can't think of any war where the media was so gotcha.

00:16:25.920 Uh-huh, you killed a civilian.

00:16:27.920 You have lost all your moral cause in this war.

00:16:31.300 I just can't think of any other case.

00:16:33.200 Even recently in Yemen or other wars in Africa, it's only Israel that is held to this perfect, as if war in 2023 is perfectly harmless to civilians other than the 1,400 Israelis who were killed. 0.86

00:16:50.500 Can you think of another war where even America is held to these standards?

00:16:55.100 I can't.

00:16:56.840 Well, the flip side of that is that there's no other case in which one side can kill civilians from the other side and it will be excused.

00:17:05.960 I mean, deliberately kill.

00:17:07.060 So you have over 1,400 Israelis murdered and America's leading intellectuals have signed a letter in the New York Review of Books describing it as Palestinians breaking out from Gaza.

00:17:21.660 That's how they describe this terror attack.

00:17:24.180 The deliberate murder of over 1,000 Israeli civilians and soldiers is described as perfectly okay within the context of resistance. 0.63

00:17:36.480 They're called resistance fighters.

00:17:37.820 They're called freedom fighters.

00:17:39.960 People march in the streets and on college campuses shouting, free Palestine.

00:17:43.440 And they don't pay any real price for that, except lately at Harvard, there are some donors pulling out and there are some efforts to name and shame those who signed letters supporting Kalmas and blaming the murder and rape on Israel when Israel, of course, was the victim.

00:17:58.000 There is an anti-Semitism here, and it's just this idea that Jews are okay as victims but are not allowed to defend themselves.

00:18:04.700 And so the Jewish right of self-defense is actually conditional, and that's why Israel has to be perfect. 1.00

00:18:10.020 We're okay if you defend yourself as long as that doesn't involve killing anybody.

00:18:13.300 Well, according to the laws of war, it's a war crime to put your military assets, in this case Hamas's rockets and weapons and so forth, in a heavily populated civilian area.

00:18:25.420 It's a war crime to do that. 0.64

00:18:26.920 When you know that targeting, I'm not talking about a sort of military office like the Pentagon.

00:18:31.840 I mean, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. is in an urban area, and, you know, presumably in a war it would be a target.

00:18:37.600 But in that kind of a war, you know, probably any American city would be a target.

00:18:42.300 And certainly in the Second World War, as you mentioned, there were cities that were targets.

00:18:46.200 Germany bombed London, and not just military targets in London, it bombed London, people of London. 0.59

00:18:51.760 My grandmother grew up during the Blitz in London.

00:18:54.340 And, you know, so in that kind of war, you know, when there's a legitimate military target,

00:18:59.160 the rules are a little bit more sort of broad in terms of what they do allow in war.

00:19:07.220 You can't target something deliberately just to harm civilians.

00:19:10.480 But if there's a legitimate military target, maybe, you know, in that kind of nuclear exchange, let's say, between the U.S. and China,

00:19:16.680 they would say, well, the Pentagon is a legitimate military target.

00:19:19.420 But you can't put weapons and terrorists or combatants in places where you know that you're placing civilians at risk,

00:19:28.620 and you're using those civilians as shields.

00:19:30.240 And that's how Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, that's how they operate.

00:19:33.400 They're all committing war crimes, and they're violating the laws of war. 0.82

00:19:36.200 Israel is not. 0.96

00:19:36.920 Israel doesn't target hospitals.

00:19:39.080 And by the way, you know, there are other tactics that they use, terrorists use like this as well.

00:19:44.000 They've put explosives inside ambulances to smuggle them through checkpoints and things like that.

00:19:47.820 But they're very willing to break the laws of war if it results in more dead Israelis and more dead Jews. 0.70

00:19:56.240 I want to shift gears a bit.

00:19:57.100 I know you're very pressed for time.

00:19:58.120 You've got a lot to write for Breitbart.com.

00:20:00.100 But tomorrow, Joe Biden is scheduled to arrive in Israel.

00:20:03.980 Today, the German Chancellor Scholz was there.

00:20:06.980 And there were these images of a rocket attack when he was at the airport and his entourage scrambling.

00:20:14.220 Take a look at this.

00:20:17.820 Wait a look.

00:20:18.840 Wait a look.

00:20:19.920 First thing, Mikey.

00:20:21.920 Pacific Dulку.

00:20:22.900 dling.

00:20:23.580 First thing, I don't want it.

00:20:25.060 Thank you!!

00:20:55.060 Well, it appears that Biden is intent on arriving in the Middle East.

00:21:02.980 It's really interesting to see if Hamas lobs missiles when he is, when his plane is coming in.

00:21:08.260 That would be quite something.

00:21:09.540 You do have the aircraft carrier groups.

00:21:12.340 One of them, I think, is closer than the other.

00:21:15.740 I have this terrible premonition that Biden is basically showing up to tell Israel to stop fighting.

00:21:23.000 And I have this, and I've said this, I admit this sounds conspiratorial, but you don't use F-35s for taking out things.

00:21:33.500 I mean, like America's not going to use its jet aircraft to go after anything in Gaza.

00:21:37.860 There's a chance I suppose it could attack Hezbollah in Lebanon. 0.90

00:21:41.720 I think maybe it's there in some sort of show of just telling everyone to cool down.

00:21:46.280 But my dark theory, and this is pure speculation, but it's part of me that's worried.

00:21:52.100 Biden and his predecessor, Obama, were absolutely in the tank for Iran.

00:21:59.120 They lifted sanctions on Iran.

00:22:02.140 They gave billions of dollars to Iran.

00:22:03.720 They winked at Iran's atrocities. 0.69

00:22:06.080 And I actually think and fear that those aircraft carriers are not there just to deter Turkey or Iran or things like that.

00:22:14.500 Because there's no air force in the region that could compete with Israel's air force, I don't think.

00:22:20.760 I think the American aircraft carriers are there to say to Israel, don't you dare try taking out Hamas's leaders in Qatar.

00:22:28.060 Don't you dare try taking out Iran's leaders into Iran or the nukes.

00:22:32.500 I think it's actually there to tell Israel, now shut up and sit down and do what we say. 0.96

00:22:40.180 That's my fear.

00:22:41.200 And I know that sounds absurd to say, but that's Biden.

00:22:43.260 Well, we don't know because we've never seen the U.S. involved at this level.

00:22:46.940 But the sources I'm talking to say that the United States is taking this conflict very seriously because there are American interests at stake.

00:22:53.020 And they're there to support Israel, but they're also there to confront Iran. 0.93

00:22:56.880 And this isn't just about Israel for the United States.

00:23:00.140 Israel is not Ukraine.

00:23:01.380 And Israel is not getting this kind of support just because the United States likes Israel.

00:23:06.060 There's a much bigger, there are many bigger interests and goals at stake here.

00:23:11.300 And so I don't think they're there to deter Israel at all.

00:23:14.160 Although I do wonder whether some of the humanitarian conditions that Biden has insisted on, apparently, might hamper the fight against Hamas in Gaza.

00:23:21.340 We'll see.

00:23:21.860 But I do take the president at his word.

00:23:24.140 And I'm glad that he has finally adopted President Donald Trump's policy of supporting Israel strongly rather than the policy Biden came into office with, which was to support the Palestinians, to give them funding.

00:23:34.160 How has he supported Israel so far?

00:23:37.120 I saw Antony Blinken visit the Qatari emir.

00:23:40.100 And instead of saying, hand over the Hamas leaders, he said, I appreciate you facilitating a negotiation with Hamas.

00:23:46.960 That's literally a tweet from Antony Blinken.

00:23:49.400 And he goes to Qatar to say, thank you.

00:23:52.200 I appreciate you.

00:23:53.480 Doesn't sound very supportive of Israel.

00:23:55.160 Doesn't sound very Trumpy to me.

00:23:56.780 How has Biden shown any support for Israel?

00:23:59.560 Well, the aircraft carriers, I think, as a deterrent against Hezbollah in Lebanon, deterrent against Iran as well.

00:24:05.120 Large plane loads full of munitions and weapons, promises of additional aircraft and other weaponry that Israel can use. 0.74

00:24:12.820 He's also gone out rhetorically and alienated his own left-wing base by saying that Israel has not only the right but the duty to respond to Hamas.

00:24:21.420 We've never really seen a Democratic administration in recent memory come out the way Trump did.

00:24:26.760 And that's what Biden is doing.

00:24:28.040 He's come out in his rhetoric sounding like Trump, saying that basically I'm going to let Israel do what it needs to do to fight.

00:24:34.920 And, you know, in terms of Qatar, I mean, I have very urgent questions that I've been asking about why we allow Hamas to be sheltered in Qatar. 0.68

00:24:44.380 Biden, by the way, declared Qatar an important non-NATO ally of the United States, if you can believe that.

00:24:49.620 They're sheltering terrorists.

00:24:51.040 But he doesn't need an aircraft carrier to protect those terrorists if that's what he wanted to do.

00:24:55.780 We've got U.S. military bases, a stone's throw away from the five-star luxury accommodation that these terrorists are getting.

00:25:02.620 So I think Biden is, I think, excuse me, Blinken was really trying to reach out only because there are Americans among the hostages.

00:25:09.700 And he wants to see if there's any avenue for trying to get them out, if Qatar can use its influence with Hamas.

00:25:15.020 It used to fund Hamas.

00:25:15.920 I don't think it does anymore, but at least not publicly.

00:25:20.400 But anyway, you know, I'll just leave you with this thought.

00:25:23.740 This war is going to take a long time.

00:25:25.760 It's not going to be over quickly.

00:25:27.100 Netanyahu said that from the very beginning.

00:25:28.860 And when the ground invasion starts, and it will start, I think you'll start to see some of the same arguments we're seeing today.

00:25:34.040 But I think that it's not going to matter.

00:25:36.220 The Israeli people want this fight, not because they like war, but because they know that the choice is being murdered in their homes or risking their lives by fighting Hamas.

00:25:46.380 And they've decided to risk their lives.

00:25:48.000 Massive response to Israeli call-ups for reserves.

00:25:50.320 Something like 120 percent more reservists showed up than they requested.

00:25:54.680 So massive response.

00:25:56.300 All right.

00:25:56.540 There you have it.

00:25:56.960 Joel Pollack, senior editor-at-large at Breitbart.com, who was on our Abraham Accords peace mission very recently.

00:26:04.540 It felt utopian that we were in this post-history, you know, the end of history.

00:26:10.100 And finally, the Jews and the Muslims and Arabs were making peace with each other.

00:26:14.040 But at last, that was not to be.

00:26:15.680 That's Joel joining us today.

00:26:17.680 Well, we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

00:26:19.420 I am more skeptical of Joe Biden than our friend Joel is.

00:26:23.940 I'm also more worried about a ground invasion of Gaza.

00:26:28.000 It reminds me in every way of Stalingrad, but in every nook and cranny, a booby trap or a sniper.

00:26:38.480 And I just think it's a trap in a way.

00:26:42.220 But what can you do?

00:26:43.200 And even if you destroyed the 20,000 or 30,000 active Hamas terrorists, surely there's many more who will take their place. 0.81

00:26:50.540 You can destroy the leadership.

00:26:51.820 You can destroy everyone who's ever had a gun or fired a rocket, I suppose.

00:26:55.260 But as Joel mentioned, they've been teaching hatred there for so long.

00:27:00.300 They teach it starting in kindergarten. 0.99

00:27:03.220 And so there is an entire generation of Gazans who have grown up with the diabolical belief that they can, should, and must attack Jews and slaughter them. 0.99

00:27:15.380 Let me show you a clip from what they teach. 0.99

00:27:17.820 I showed this to you before.

00:27:18.980 Take a look.

00:27:19.520 We are training wars that we told them. 0.77

00:27:22.040 We need women, we need to fight them. 1.00

00:27:26.360 We are good people.

00:27:28.100 People who love Palestine, they fight them. 1.00

00:27:31.840 They fight them with lightning to defeat them for Palestine. 0.88

00:27:34.500 I want to defend them in the war.

00:27:37.500 I want to defend them.

00:27:40.500 We know that the Jews are for us, 0.69

00:27:43.500 and that the country is for us. 0.84

00:27:46.500 Because of their hatred and their hatred, 0.96

00:27:50.500 they say that the Jews are in the Middle East, 0.69

00:27:53.500 or that the Jews are in the Middle East.

00:27:56.500 I'm reading the Jews. 0.99

00:27:58.500 I know that the Jews are in the Middle East.

00:28:03.500 They write what they do to the other side.

00:28:08.500 Their legacy is to keep people in order to make decisions.

00:28:13.500 When they know how to defend the Jews, 1.00

00:28:16.500 they say that the Jews are not bad enough. 1.00

00:28:18.500 They say to us that the Jews are under it. 0.99

00:28:21.500 They say they are on knots, 0.78

00:28:23.500 and that they are not bad enough.

00:28:25.500 If I want to die, what you want them?

00:28:27.500 Remember those changes.

00:28:29.500 If I do a job with them,

00:28:30.500 they play a job.

00:28:32.500 I don't know how this problem is solved.

00:29:02.480 And Joel says that this is about staring down Hezbollah and Iran itself. 0.97

00:29:07.560 I would believe it if it were Trump, but I also know that Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, and the rest of the Biden and Obama administration before them have been on Iran's side.

00:29:19.300 I am not as sanguine as Joel is, but hopefully I'm just being a little bit paranoid about things.

00:29:27.000 I'm also worried about the home front in both Canada and the United States.

00:29:31.240 I see that in Germany and France, pro-Hamas ralliers and rioters have been arrested in those countries, but not in the UK, despite the statement by Suella Braverman, the cabinet minister.

00:29:43.960 And I don't see any move to do so in Canada or the United States as well.

00:29:47.960 So I think that the violence of Hamas is being normalized and we're seeing new limits now. 0.90

00:29:54.940 The woke left, the student left, and the Islamist left are testing boundaries. 0.92

00:30:00.280 What can they get away with now?

00:30:02.120 For example, when we showed you Lincoln Jay, our reporter who was in Ottawa, asked Omar al-Gabra, the former Trudeau cabinet minister, still an MP, if he would renounce the violence of Hamas, and he refused to do so.

00:30:16.880 Here's the clip from yesterday. Take a look.

00:30:18.960 My name's Lincoln Jay. I work with Rebel News.

00:30:22.120 Just one quick question.

00:30:24.460 Do you condemn the recent terrorist attacks committed by Hamas?

00:30:28.960 Do you condemn the terrorist attacks committed by Hamas?

00:30:42.160 Why do you think so many people here in Canada are trying to justify these terrorist attacks?

00:30:51.080 You have no comments.

00:30:56.700 You have no comments.

00:30:58.960 Here's a clip from another reporter today putting the same questions to him.

00:31:12.960 You ready to condemn Hamas terror attacks yet?

00:31:16.060 We have all of them.

00:31:17.540 All of them.

00:31:20.100 Like you, Omar.

00:31:21.380 You willing to condemn that?

00:31:24.100 Still not?

00:31:24.700 Still not willing to condemn terrorists, the cops.

00:31:34.700 But why should he denounce Hamas?

00:31:37.180 He got away with not denouncing Hamas. 0.85

00:31:39.500 In fact, today, he was very quick to tweet condemnation of Israel when it was alleged that Israel bombed the hospital.

00:31:46.640 Not so quick.

00:31:47.540 In fact, as of now, he has not retracted his glee.

00:31:51.540 I think that every Islamist and leftist in Canada and the United States are learning.

00:31:57.940 They're learning what they can get away with in the public square, in their institutions, even in parliament and even in the Liberal Party.

00:32:05.080 I'm very worried about things.

00:32:06.580 I think that it may be true that we're in a long battle, and I certainly think the worst is yet to come.

00:32:13.900 We're covering this because it affects the Middle East.

00:32:16.940 We're covering it because it feels like we've never been closer to World War III.

00:32:20.400 Russia, China, Iran, Israel, America, all focused on that same piece of land.

00:32:27.360 China, a bit from afar, but they've weighed in rhetorically, politically.

00:32:31.820 Of course, there are reports yet to be confirmed that China was involved in some communications hacking that allowed the Hamas terrorists to enter Israel in the first place.

00:32:42.380 That's yet to be confirmed, but it rings true to me.

00:32:45.060 Two aircraft carriers is a lot of firepower.

00:32:50.760 We'll try to take advantage while America is focused on Ukraine and Israel to make a move on Taiwan.

00:32:57.000 I don't know.

00:32:58.320 Joe Biden projects weakness.

00:33:00.340 I don't think people take it seriously when he says anything because he's just reading a script prepared for him.

00:33:06.400 I saw an unconfirmed report that in a briefing about Israel, Joe Biden actually confused Ukraine and Israel.

00:33:12.680 I don't know if that report was accurate, but again, it rings true. 1.00

00:33:16.000 He confuses things a lot.

00:33:17.620 He confuses names, dates, places.

00:33:19.520 He tells stories that weren't true.

00:33:21.220 And he calls it a day, sometimes before noon.

00:33:24.980 I am worried about what's going to happen, not just in Israel, but the domino effects around the world.

00:33:30.700 And I'm worried what's happening here.

00:33:32.040 Putting aside the abstraction of foreign affairs, although they can certainly have an impact at home, God forbid if we're drawn into World War III, there are people in our country, in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and other places.

00:33:49.660 We have shown you with our own cameras, in all of those cities, there are people who fly the flag of terrorism with impunity and chant the chants of terrorism.

00:33:59.300 Can you believe?

00:34:00.400 Take a look.

00:34:00.940 I'm not sure if I showed you this before.

00:34:02.940 Here's someone who brought a Taliban flag.

00:34:06.800 I think we showed you that before.

00:34:07.960 And here's someone who brought an Islamic jihad flag to a rally in Mississauga.

00:34:12.360 Who just happens to have those flags kicking around their closet?

00:34:16.060 Here's a Taliban flag.

00:34:17.140 Yes, you are not in Afghanistan.

00:34:19.260 You are not in Afghanistan.

00:34:21.300 You should understand this.

00:34:23.100 Brother, you're here for the support.

00:34:25.160 Support.

00:34:26.080 Support.

00:34:26.560 Support the Palestinian flag.

00:34:28.480 What you're doing is our group of Palestinians.

00:34:30.760 We're not supported.

00:34:31.780 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:34:33.400 I don't know what you're doing.

00:34:34.660 Yes.

00:34:35.080 You do not represent us.

00:34:36.840 Yeah, you put the Palestinian flag.

00:34:38.740 You do not represent us.

00:34:39.480 Yeah.

00:34:39.740 Take it off.

00:34:40.820 Yeah.

00:34:41.200 Take it off.

00:34:41.660 Yeah.

00:34:43.200 Take it off.

00:34:44.440 You are not walking.

00:34:45.780 You are not walking.

00:34:46.620 Take it off.

00:34:51.420 Any comment for everybody on Twitter what's going on?

00:34:54.200 No.

00:34:55.340 People are just emotional.

00:34:57.340 That's all I can say.

00:34:58.180 You know what I mean?

00:34:59.380 Yeah.

00:35:00.260 I don't know what to say about it.

00:35:05.540 Those were Hamas activists telling the Taliban activists to go away.

00:35:09.160 And here's the Islamic jihad flag.

00:35:10.940 Who just has that?

00:35:13.280 And who's proud to waive that and knowing they'll do so with impunity?

00:35:17.300 Take a look.

00:35:17.920 So you may say, why are you talking about a foreign conflict?

00:35:35.020 Is this just Ezra because you're Jewish and you have a historical and religious affection for Israel?

00:35:39.680 Well, I do have a connection to Israel, as I suppose Italian Canadians care about Italy or Irish Canadians care about Ireland.

00:35:46.260 But there are people in our streets by the tens of thousands who are marching for terrorist groups, chanting terrorist chants, and using terrorist violent symbols, even while that's a crime under the criminal code.

00:35:59.000 And we have people even in cabinet who abide this.

00:36:02.740 So I think it's very much a Canadian issue.

00:36:05.500 And I know that we're already having threats and vandalism and threats of assault and minor assaults already in the service of these pro-Hamas ideologies.

00:36:16.260 And we see what can come with the terrorism in Brussels, where Islamic terrorists went on a spree shooting people, wasn't arrested for hours.

00:36:25.640 Unfortunately, I can see that happening in Canada.

00:36:27.800 If you have a million and a half unassimilated migrants to Canada who come from Muslim regimes where they glorify terrorism and demonize Jews, if you have one in a thousand people who take that seriously, and then one in a thousand of them who act on it, well, we've reached that point. 0.77

00:36:46.120 And we have no attempts to denormalize that violence.

00:36:49.220 I still have yet to see an imam or Muslim leader in Canada broadly denounce terrorism.

00:36:54.840 I haven't seen it.

00:36:55.720 We haven't seen it from the so-called anti-hate group.

00:36:59.700 I note today that the Canadian Race Relations Foundation has been utterly silent.

00:37:04.780 That was actually set up by Brian Mulroney and the Japanese-Canadian community in reflection, historical reflection on the internment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War.

00:37:15.760 Trudeau appointed an Islamist activist as their boss.

00:37:19.220 They haven't said a word about this hate.

00:37:21.520 Same thing with the so-called anti-hate network.

00:37:24.160 They haven't said a word about it.

00:37:26.160 Of course not, because they support Hamas and Antifa. 0.53

00:37:30.300 I'm worried about what's happening here in Canada.

00:37:32.660 What happens overseas is of interest to me.

00:37:35.140 Intellectually, it's of interest to me because I fear for World War III and I fear for the violence.

00:37:40.260 But it's also of interest to me because Canada is no longer a fireproof home far away from flammable materials, as Senator Dan Duran said almost 100 years ago.

00:37:50.620 We are going to cover other things, and we do cover other things.

00:37:54.640 I myself have, of course, been focused on this issue.

00:37:57.300 But as you know, we have many reporters across this country covering different subjects every day.

00:38:04.040 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:38:11.720 We'll see you next time.

Rebel News Podcast - October 17, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Gaza hospital tragedy： Separating fact from fiction with Joel Pollak

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript