Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ How did Canada become the world's 'Safe Space' for antisemitism？

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Donald Trump is in the Middle East, but the Middle East has come to Toronto.

00:00:06.140 I'll show you a juxtaposition and ask you the question, which is more pro-Hamas, Canada 0.89

00:00:12.100 or the United Arab Emirates? But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News

00:00:17.600 Plus. That's the video version of the show. I'm going to play a very important three-minute video

00:00:24.200 today, and I really want you to see it. Obviously, you'll be able to hear some of the words spoken

00:00:30.340 in it, but it's mainly a visual thing, and I really want you to see it. Please go to rebelnewsplus.com,

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00:01:22.440 Tonight, which country has the most terrorism and the most support for terrorism? Saudi Arabia,

00:01:37.400 the United Arab Emirates, or Canada? It's May 16th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:42.500 You're fighting for freedom!

00:01:45.700 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:01:52.440 I saw a really racist incident a few months ago. It was stupid. It was designed to be

00:02:03.820 flagrant and personal. I knew both the racist and the victim of the racism, and it was so

00:02:09.440 gross. I was shocked. You probably saw it because we published a video about it several times,

00:02:15.280 and we took some steps to increase our security afterwards. I'm talking about this.

00:02:20.260 Nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, fuck you. I have a picture of your kid on here, 1.00

00:02:27.940 by the way. You want to see? You like that? You like that, Greya? It's a fucking little bitch. 1.00

00:02:41.420 Look at all your little kingdom security over there around you. I feel scared.

00:02:46.040 That monster is Jonathan Yaniv, a transgender extremist, now also a convicted criminal, by the 0.97

00:02:55.180 way. He became famous a few years ago for booking himself appointments with female estheticians who

00:03:01.760 wax private parts. He would book under the fake name Jessica or Jennifer or whatever he told them,

00:03:08.220 and then he would show up, and they would be astonished that it's a big bloke, and he would say,

00:03:13.020 wax my balls or I'll sue you before the Human Rights Tribunal, and he did. Again and again and again

00:03:19.500 he did. He abused so many women, almost all of them knew immigrant women who were often working from 0.88

00:03:25.700 home, often alone during the day. Imagine that. An absolute bully, an absolute thug. He's a criminal,

00:03:32.140 like I say. He's suing us right now, by the way, in the same B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. They know he's a

00:03:38.020 vexatious litigant. They know he's a criminal and a liar, but they're letting him abuse their system

00:03:42.860 to take another run at us because we expose him, and the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal is a joke in

00:03:48.020 itself. Anyways, but wouldn't you agree that his racist tirade against Drea was one of the grossest

00:03:54.120 things you've ever seen in Canada? I thought it was super gross. It's so obvious and so gross when you

00:03:59.900 hear it like that, I'm not saying it's a crime to be racist, but if he was committing other crimes at

00:04:07.060 the same time, he would have been charged, I think. And of course he has been. Police in the greater

00:04:12.860 Vancouver area are fed up with him. They finally did charge him, and he was convicted, and I think

00:04:18.640 everyone's just getting tired of his antics. But I'm here to tell you that that same level of bigotry

00:04:23.940 and racism and grossness has exploded across Canada. Obviously what I just showed you was

00:04:29.840 targeted against Drea, our reporter. I don't think Yaniv generally walks around like that, just spewing

00:04:35.780 his bigotry to anyone with an earshot. I think he just thought, what is the way I can terrify and

00:04:42.020 offend and insult Drea? The worst. That's what I think was in his mind. But let me show you what has

00:04:47.900 been happening in Canada, particularly in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, every single week since October

00:04:54.880 7th, 2023. That was the day Hamas launched its terrorist attack on Israel, killing more than a

00:05:00.540 thousand and kidnapping hundreds of hostages, including women and children and even babies.

00:05:06.500 I'm going to show you this because it happened just this week in downtown Toronto, right on University

00:05:12.060 Avenue, which is in the heart of the city, a modern, progressive, human rights-loving, liberal Toronto

00:05:17.660 right near the university. I mean, Toronto is so sensitive. It's a place where they're renaming

00:05:22.560 streets so as not to offend people. It's a place with safe spaces and trigger warnings. I'm going

00:05:28.160 to play a video for you now. It's about three minutes long. And keep in mind that the place

00:05:32.200 they're protesting, Cafe Landwehr, it's a restaurant they walk by and stop and harass. It's a Jewish 1.00

00:05:39.140 restaurant. That's how it started about a century ago, back in Berlin, actually. Of course, anyone can work

00:05:45.440 there. Anyone can eat there. You don't have to be Jewish to be there. I think most people there are

00:05:49.580 not Jewish. I'm just saying Cafe Landwehr started in 1919 in Berlin, so obviously all the Jews involved

00:05:55.620 would have been driven out or killed. Okay, let's watch. It's a three-minute clip taken by our friend

00:06:02.280 Karim Asad. Take a look.

00:06:10.460 Karim Asad. Take a look.

00:06:23.480 Nousphet is out on scene.

00:06:27.160 Senator Johnson

00:06:29.720 We have no agree.

00:06:32.600 Senator Johnson

00:06:33.320 Senator Johnson

00:06:36.360 Donald Trump

00:06:38.880 Speaker Geschichte

00:06:43.500 Jim Douglas

00:06:45.680 President

00:06:50.000 Speaker 2

00:06:52.520 No, no, hold on, no, no, we've got to say this to make it official.

00:07:00.520 So you continue to do this.

00:07:05.520 You shall be arrested for mischief, for property and the enjoyment of property.

00:07:11.520 You know what you're doing.

00:07:14.520 There you go, you've been warned, there you go.

00:07:17.520 7750, I got it, don't worry.

00:07:21.520 Yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up.

00:07:44.520 I think I was on to something, right?

00:07:46.520 I had a good hunch.

00:07:48.520 Keep it off the sidewalk.

00:07:49.520 Onto the ropes, all of you in that floor.

00:07:51.520 He wasn't off the sidewalk.

00:07:53.520 I got to get my scooter.

00:07:55.520 Boycott Landwork! 0.99

00:07:58.520 Boycott Landwork! 0.99

00:08:02.520 Boycott Landwork! 0.99

00:08:05.520 Boycott Landwork! 0.99

00:08:08.520 Boycott Landwork! 0.99

00:08:12.520 Boycott Landwork! 0.99

00:08:14.520 So if you see that, the table left, the food un-eaten.

00:08:29.840 That first table, if you go back to the video, you will see they left.

00:08:35.540 Who pays the bill?

00:08:38.000 Anyone's guess.

00:08:38.720 They're money supporting genocide.

00:08:40.180 How do you know why it's important?

00:08:41.220 They're money supporting genocide, we know.

00:08:43.260 Just Google it.

00:08:44.520 We call it fight.

00:08:48.380 We call it fight.

00:08:51.960 We call it fight.

00:08:55.480 Anti-occupation now.

00:08:59.020 Anti-occupation now.

00:09:02.860 Anti-occupation now.

00:09:04.020 Anti-occupation now.

00:09:08.980 No one's trying to dox you, sir.

00:09:12.500 You're very strong.

00:09:13.220 No one sent a doctor.

00:09:17.360 What's to look at there?

00:09:18.620 A smoke bomb, a smoke generator.

00:09:21.560 Clearly a nuisance, clearly mischief.

00:09:23.100 That's against the law, by the way.

00:09:25.100 Mischief is defined as interfering with the enjoyment of property.

00:09:28.740 And the cops just look at it.

00:09:31.740 They didn't care.

00:09:33.180 They just look at the guy with the smoke bomb and didn't arrest him.

00:09:35.800 It clearly was causing mischief.

00:09:37.400 They stopped in front of the Jewish restaurant and smoked people out. 0.99

00:09:40.920 You can see that there were people there of every race, by the way.

00:09:44.620 One woman simply said, why aren't you doing anything?

00:09:46.820 Yeah, well, because they're pro-Hamas foreign agitators.

00:09:49.840 If truckers would have tried that stunt with the smoke bomb,

00:09:53.000 they would have been arrested and jailed and prosecuted immediately.

00:09:55.840 I recognize some of those protesters, by the way.

00:09:58.060 There's this one guy who I met when he was harassing Jews

00:10:01.940 outside a synagogue in North Toronto at the Pride of Israel synagogue.

00:10:06.580 Remember him?

00:10:07.280 I'm wondering what you're doing.

00:10:08.780 I'm wondering what you're doing.

00:10:09.700 I'm reporting on an anti-Semitic march.

00:10:12.920 Okay, so anti-Semitic, right?

00:10:14.060 You like to conflate Muslims with anti-Semitism.

00:10:15.900 No, just Hamas supporters like you. 0.85

00:10:17.940 Tell me how you feel.

00:10:18.460 Oh, like me, right?

00:10:19.260 Are you a Hamas supporter?

00:10:20.460 Well, tell me right now.

00:10:21.640 Do you renounce Hamas or not? 0.88

00:10:23.060 I never will renounce Hamas. 1.00

00:10:24.780 So there you go.

00:10:25.280 You're an anti-Semitic bigot.

00:10:26.480 All right, perfect then.

00:10:27.400 Are you a Canadian citizen?

00:10:28.880 Doesn't matter, baby.

00:10:29.540 I think you should be deported if you're not.

00:10:31.420 Try and deport me, s***. 0.99

00:10:32.240 Well, I don't have that power myself.

00:10:34.860 Go back to Daddy. 0.97

00:10:35.260 Go back to Daddy Warbucks, boy.

00:10:36.540 Yeah, he's a professional agitator.

00:10:38.360 These are all professional agitators.

00:10:40.460 Many of them are foreign.

00:10:42.020 They're likely paid by Iran, which has hundreds of paid agents in Canada, according to reports

00:10:46.940 from Global News.

00:10:47.660 Then they just start screaming, boycott landworm.

00:10:53.000 Imagine if racists like Jonathan Yaniv met in front of a black-owned business, like a black 0.99

00:10:58.680 restaurant.

00:10:59.240 Like there's Ethiopian restaurants in Toronto, for example.

00:11:01.580 Obviously, black-owned businesses.

00:11:03.640 A lot of customers are black.

00:11:04.660 Imagine if they targeted a black-owned business, harassed the people there, set off smoke bombs, 0.99

00:11:14.040 harassed anyone on the patios, chanted against black people.

00:11:17.660 And to boycott them and use the N-word, like Jonathan Yaniv did.

00:11:20.960 It was shocking to hear him do it for one minute.

00:11:24.000 Imagine if it was done week after week after week after week after week after week after week.

00:11:29.020 You saw there were no arrests.

00:11:31.320 And I'm not talking about arrests for racism.

00:11:33.020 I'm talking for mischief, for setting off smoke bombs.

00:11:35.800 The truckers were arrested for blocking roads.

00:11:37.720 You can hear the police positively tell the protesters to block the road.

00:11:42.440 There are a few white Canadian leftists amongst them.

00:11:46.160 There always are.

00:11:46.980 I was in the U.K.

00:11:47.980 I saw some old communists at the Hamas protests.

00:11:50.860 In the U.S., it's a lot of trans activists.

00:11:53.580 Here in Toronto, it's communists and anti-Western extremists.

00:11:57.220 But it is mainly foreigners who can't believe that they're allowed to be professional racist 0.99

00:12:02.560 agitators, professional lawbreakers.

00:12:04.780 And the police won't do anything.

00:12:06.520 In fact, the police will act as concierges, as parade marshals for them.

00:12:10.740 It only takes about 90 seconds for these bigots to achieve their goal.

00:12:15.900 All the customers leave the patio of Café Landwehr.

00:12:19.200 Because Café Landwehr is Jewish, that's why they're targeting it. 1.00

00:12:22.340 Let me read to you from the website for Café Landwehr.

00:12:25.000 In 1919, on a picturesque street in the center of Berlin, Moshe Landwehr opens a small and

00:12:31.760 romantic coffee house, which quickly turns into one of the city's favorite hangout spots.

00:12:36.220 In 1933, with the rise to power of the Nazi regime, Moshe Landwehr, along with his family,

00:12:40.940 makes Aliyah and settles in Tel Aviv.

00:12:42.700 On Allenby Street, facing the sea, he opened the country's first coffee brewing house.

00:12:48.280 So yeah, these foreign extremists are purging the Jews from Toronto, just like Café Landwehr

00:12:55.020 was purged 106 years ago.

00:12:56.980 I never thought it would be possible.

00:12:58.920 There are 200,000 Jews in Toronto, a very important part of the community, from business

00:13:03.640 to law to charity to politics.

00:13:06.580 But in the past five years, Trudeau and now Mark Carney have brought in far more than 200,000

00:13:12.620 people from faraway lands who hate the Jews.

00:13:16.220 It's got nothing to do with Israel, though.

00:13:18.080 It's just the Jews. 1.00

00:13:19.000 They'll scream anti-Semitic things.

00:13:20.820 But unlike Jonathan Yaniv, they travel in packs of dozens or even hundreds, and the police

00:13:26.780 are just fine with it.

00:13:28.380 Do you see all the masks?

00:13:30.160 Antifa and Hamas, masked foreign thugs. 0.84

00:13:33.160 Few, if any, are even Palestinian.

00:13:35.180 The guy with the smoke bomb is actually a Pakistani Hamas loyalist named Shares Hidri.

00:13:41.940 He's the one who lit the flare.

00:13:44.120 He's from Pakistan.

00:13:45.340 Pakistan is thousands of kilometers away from Gaza.

00:13:48.420 I am certain this clown has never been to Gaza, but there's no connection other than they 1.00

00:13:52.860 just hate Jews, like Jonathan Yaniv hates black people.

00:13:58.400 I was shocked when that racist Yaniv lashed out at Drea. 0.99

00:14:01.420 It was really one of the worst little moments of racism I've seen in Canada.

00:14:04.420 It was his attempt to hurt her and terrify her.

00:14:07.820 I'm sure he is a racist.

00:14:09.280 I know he is.

00:14:10.000 But imagine a hundred Yanivs, 500 of them, funded by foreign governments like Iran, here

00:14:16.220 under false pretenses as foreign students or temporary foreign workers or refugees.

00:14:21.340 And they're turning the heart of our great cities into little versions of Gaza. 1.00

00:14:27.220 Obviously, no murders yet.

00:14:29.060 Knock on wood.

00:14:29.800 But the terror is there and certainly the discomfort.

00:14:32.740 But more to the point, they're moving the Overton window.

00:14:34.980 They're teaching us something.

00:14:36.120 They're in control now.

00:14:37.540 Not just to the streets, but to in charge of the police, too.

00:14:41.100 Do you see that one cop?

00:14:43.860 Badge number 7724.

00:14:46.500 Officer Chang.

00:14:48.440 Here is that same cop when David Menzies simply tried to report on Hamas last year.

00:14:54.500 They can chant genocide in the streets and I can't cover that.

00:14:58.500 Obey your oath, officer.

00:15:01.600 Obey your oath.

00:15:02.520 I don't know.

00:15:03.460 I don't know.

00:15:03.480 Listen, if I'm under arrest, get your hands off.

00:15:07.040 Okay, then I'll take care of it.

00:15:08.160 Put your phone down.

00:15:09.620 Put your hand behind your back.

00:15:11.000 Put your hand behind your back.

00:15:12.800 You're under arrest for a repeat.

00:15:13.780 We're going to lock you to the wagon, Mr. Menzies. 0.90

00:15:17.660 Good point.

00:15:19.020 Efren, are you catching this?

00:15:20.320 Yeah.

00:15:20.500 Once again, you can have people from 10 genocides in the streets of our democracy.

00:15:27.700 You're under arrest for a seasonally premises, okay, Mr. Menzies?

00:15:32.020 It's a public place.

00:15:33.460 This is literally the public square.

00:15:36.380 Thank you.

00:15:36.960 This is literally the public square.

00:15:39.360 I tried to be as bad as possible.

00:15:42.080 Right?

00:15:43.140 I'm not in the trust class authority, okay?

00:15:44.960 You can have it.

00:15:45.880 They assaulted me and you did nothing.

00:15:47.620 Thank you.

00:15:48.280 They assaulted me and you did nothing.

00:15:50.620 That's Officer Chang.

00:15:52.700 But here's that same cop with the smoke bomb Jew-hating racist.

00:15:58.460 No, no, hold on.

00:16:10.260 No, no.

00:16:10.840 We've got to say this to make it up.

00:16:11.960 Now, continue to do this.

00:16:17.720 You shall be arrested for permission.

00:16:20.980 For property and enjoyment of property.

00:16:23.340 That's two-tier policing.

00:16:36.680 That's Canada under Mark Carney.

00:16:38.840 Makes sense.

00:16:40.080 If Anita Anand, the new foreign minister, was right there, she'd be completely fine with

00:16:45.200 every word the Hamas protesters said.

00:16:47.980 Israel is blocking food and aid to Gaza.

00:16:51.340 What do you think of that decision?

00:16:53.120 And is the Canadian government doing anything to stop that?

00:16:56.020 We cannot allow the continued use of food as a political tool.

00:17:04.420 The prime minister has been very clear about that.

00:17:08.320 Over 50,000 people have died as a result of the aggression caused against the Palestinian

00:17:19.000 and the Gazan people in Palestine.

00:17:23.280 And using food as a political tool is simply unacceptable.

00:17:28.960 And we need to continue to work towards a ceasefire.

00:17:33.180 We need to ensure that we have a two-state solution.

00:17:36.640 And Canada will continue to maintain that position.

00:17:40.560 Canada is in trouble, my friends.

00:17:43.380 Anyways, I started my show today by asking where Hamas is stronger. 0.65

00:17:47.220 In Canada, in Saudi Arabia, or in the United Arab Emirates?

00:17:51.660 Well, here's the UAE's foreign minister.

00:17:54.060 This goes all the way back to 2017.

00:17:56.200 There will come a day that we will see far more radical extremists and terrorists

00:18:03.280 coming out of Europe because of the lack of decision-making,

00:18:10.500 trying to be politically correct,

00:18:13.340 or assuming that they know the Middle East and they know Islam

00:18:18.860 and they know the others far better than we do.

00:18:21.420 And I'm sorry, but that's pure ignorance.

00:18:25.760 Yeah, he knew this was coming.

00:18:28.100 And just today, that same foreign minister spoke with Brett Beyer of Fox

00:18:31.540 and reportedly said that Hamas cannot have any role in the future of Gaza.

00:18:37.480 How did we in Canada become more of an Islamist hotbed, 1.00

00:18:41.400 more of a terrorist hotbed, than the Persian Gulf itself?

00:18:46.660 Stay with us for more.

00:18:47.740 Well, I no longer value the opinion of the Nobel Prize Committee.

00:19:00.220 Can you imagine giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama

00:19:03.180 before he even took office?

00:19:06.160 He was nominated and won,

00:19:08.680 whereas Donald Trump, in his first term as president,

00:19:11.180 actually managed to cut the Gordian knot

00:19:13.340 and through his Abraham Accords forged a meaningful peace

00:19:17.980 between Israel and several of its neighbors,

00:19:20.640 the first time that was done in a generation.

00:19:22.840 And it was in a lasting way.

00:19:23.860 You might remember the Rebel News actually went on a journey.

00:19:27.000 We started in Israel and went to the United Arab Emirates.

00:19:30.660 We were skeptics, but we were convinced this is a real and lasting peace.

00:19:35.460 It was strained.

00:19:36.760 It was stressed during the Biden administration.

00:19:39.000 And clearly, the Hamas attack on Israel was designed even more to derail it. 0.59

00:19:44.900 But Trump is back.

00:19:46.580 And hopefully, the success of the Abraham Accords can be built upon. 0.99

00:19:51.380 Trump just visited the region, including the various countries,

00:19:54.860 Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

00:19:57.620 Joining us now to talk about this are our experts on the subject,

00:20:01.700 our friends at the Middle East Forum.

00:20:02.960 We're joined by Dr. Daniel Pipes and Ben Baird,

00:20:06.460 who we'll be introduced to in a minute.

00:20:08.900 Dr. Pipes, let's start with you.

00:20:09.960 First of all, thanks for taking the time with us today.

00:20:12.860 What do you make about visiting Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the UAE?

00:20:18.340 I sort of was of the view that Qatar was at odds

00:20:21.280 with the other two parts of that meeting.

00:20:25.720 What was the purpose of the meeting?

00:20:27.360 Was it a success?

00:20:29.740 What are the possibilities?

00:20:30.880 What's cooking is what I'm asking.

00:20:32.160 Well, as ever with Donald Trump, wherever he goes,

00:20:36.920 he makes news and he surprises us.

00:20:40.660 The goal was, in large part, to get deals done.

00:20:45.220 And the numbers being tossed around are absolutely gigantic.

00:20:48.340 I don't know how real they are,

00:20:49.700 but one hears figures like $4 trillion US dollars,

00:20:53.760 which is like twice the Canadian GDP.

00:20:57.240 Just astonishingly large numbers.

00:20:59.080 What are not talked about are national security interests.

00:21:02.840 What are not talked about are human rights.

00:21:04.560 What is talked about is these vast numbers.

00:21:07.920 Now, clearly, the rich, strongmen of the Middle East

00:21:12.020 understand that this is the sort of thing that attracts the American president.

00:21:16.860 And so they have focused on that and have apparently delivered.

00:21:21.120 So if you're looking for deals, this was the truth.

00:21:25.480 There's never been one like it.

00:21:27.800 Well, in terms of business deals, and Trump is certainly,

00:21:30.500 that's one of the ways he's trying to prove his success.

00:21:33.500 He's done that with Asian investors as well on semiconductors and things of that sort.

00:21:39.560 That's very important.

00:21:42.400 That is a meat and potato issue.

00:21:43.680 I would put it to you that more Americans care about trade and jobs and industry

00:21:48.140 than care about foreign policy, which can sometimes seem abstract.

00:21:52.880 But I think you and I care about foreign policy for a host of reasons.

00:21:58.000 Did this realign things?

00:22:00.320 I sense there's a little bit of tension between Donald Trump and Israel,

00:22:04.900 or at least Benjamin Netanyahu these days.

00:22:06.780 It's hard to read.

00:22:09.080 Putting aside the huge business deals, was there any movement on peace

00:22:14.280 or moving forward with the Abraham Accords, which was so hopeful 0.89

00:22:18.220 in the first term of the president?

00:22:22.600 Well, Mr. Trump made it clear that the Saudis will join the Abraham Accords

00:22:28.420 at their convenience, which I take as coded language for when the king,

00:22:33.200 King Salman, dies.

00:22:34.880 Rather, I think the emphasis was on support for Islamists.

00:22:42.960 First, in Syria, a group has come to power that has looked over the five months 0.98

00:22:50.800 since December has looked very bad, but yet now the United States is working

00:22:55.780 to help them consolidate power.

00:22:58.340 And secondly, Iran.

00:22:59.560 Iran, it looks like, now there are contradictory signals coming for the administration,

00:23:03.800 but it looks like something along the lines of the 2015 Iran deal are now being discussed

00:23:09.780 with the leaders in Tehran.

00:23:12.140 So if there is an overarching theme besides making deals, it is getting to be more at ease

00:23:19.400 with the Islamists in Syria and Iran and Qatar, all three.

00:23:23.220 I was astonished to see the president meet with the new leader of Syria, who short years ago,

00:23:28.980 I don't even know if it was years ago, was on a most wanted poster.

00:23:32.580 I think it was a $10 million bounty for him.

00:23:35.800 I suppose he wants Syria in his orbit as opposed to the Russian orbit, which it was before.

00:23:43.640 Let's talk about one of the countries that Trump visited, namely Qatar.

00:23:49.000 Ben Baird, you are the director of Middle East Forum Action.

00:23:52.860 You're also the author of a new study called America for Sale,

00:23:56.700 Qatar's $40 billion spending spree buys influence and control of elite institutions.

00:24:02.780 Tell me a little bit about Qatar.

00:24:04.280 I think everyone's heard the name.

00:24:07.340 Maybe they've heard of the airline or some of the sports teams they sponsored.

00:24:10.820 But in terms of the number of citizens, it's a small city, really.

00:24:16.600 I mean, Doha is the capital.

00:24:18.500 Most of the people there are foreign workers.

00:24:21.760 Give us just a little bit of briefing on Qatar, who they are and where they fit in,

00:24:26.180 because they have an outsized influence considering how small they are.

00:24:29.700 Am I right?

00:24:31.180 That's right.

00:24:31.860 You're talking about a country in Qatar that has a population of Qataris who are about equal

00:24:38.200 to the size of Wyoming.

00:24:39.460 So it's not a very large country at all, but they have outsized wealth, outsized influence,

00:24:45.680 not only throughout the region, but throughout the world.

00:24:49.640 And as our study showed, influence even here in the United States.

00:24:54.000 This is a gas rich country that is using its petrodollars and not always for the right reasons.

00:24:59.360 And that's what confused me about it, because I had thought that there was sort of a taking

00:25:05.520 of sides, that the Saudis and the UAE and Bahrain were worried about Iran and Qatar was sort

00:25:12.380 of on the side of the bad guys.

00:25:15.120 But I mean, I always thought that Qatar was the host of Hamas.

00:25:20.340 They were the financiers of terrorism.

00:25:22.720 They were the radical ones, even as the Saudis sort of trimmed their sails on radicalism and 0.96

00:25:27.600 become more Western-oriented.

00:25:30.940 Are the Qataris today what they were five years ago? 0.99

00:25:35.900 Are they the financiers of Hamas?

00:25:37.920 Will they continue down that path, or will they reform themselves?

00:25:41.460 There doesn't appear to be any evidence that there's any type of reform going on.

00:25:48.220 They like to occupy both camps by making outreach to the West, while at the same time supporting

00:25:55.820 Islamists and supporting Islamist ideologies through Al Jazeera, their media conglomerate.

00:26:03.580 And they do this, they went over the West through a charm offensive, which our study found $40 billion

00:26:10.600 across numerous American financial sectors.

00:26:14.300 We're talking about universities, K through 12, businesses, private equity firms, hedge funds,

00:26:21.060 real estate trophy properties.

00:26:23.480 Qatar is deeply invested in America, even in our critical infrastructure.

00:26:27.440 As we seek energy independence from the Middle East, we are outsourcing our domestic energy supplies

00:26:33.760 to Qatar, to a Persian Gulf state that does not have America's best interests in mind. 0.58

00:26:38.840 You know, I found it, one of the strangest things in the last week or two was the announcement

00:26:44.200 by President Trump that he was going to accept a gift of a jet, a Boeing 747 from Qatar.

00:26:55.600 I think it was Qatar.

00:26:56.960 It's just that I'm saying that.

00:26:58.180 I'm astounded.

00:26:58.840 Yes, yes, yes.

00:26:59.760 It's Qatar.

00:27:00.080 And all I can think of is a flying Trojan horse.

00:27:03.940 I mean, Trump claims the gift will be, it's legal and it's ethical.

00:27:10.820 That's not even what I'm interested in.

00:27:12.780 To accept such a key strategic asset from, at best, arrival, more likely an enemy.

00:27:20.680 The first thing I thought of was when the U.S. embassy in Moscow was being built and how the

00:27:29.660 Russian laborers put hundreds of listening devices in the construction of the new embassy

00:27:37.200 so that it was rendered non-usable.

00:27:40.360 Like, why would you allow such a key piece of critical security infrastructure?

00:27:45.380 I mean, that was just one thought.

00:27:46.500 But even if that's secure, why are you taking foreign aid from Qatar?

00:27:51.300 And I just, that felt very, well, let me put it this way.

00:27:55.380 It didn't feel very America first.

00:27:57.640 What do you think of that, Dr. Pipes?

00:27:59.940 I'm in complete agreement.

00:28:01.720 But as I mentioned earlier, the strongmen, the rich strongmen of the Middle East and the

00:28:06.040 Persian Gulf understand this and understand Trump's desire to have glamour, to have deals,

00:28:14.420 to have economic success, and they pander to it.

00:28:18.420 And this proposed Air Force One is the most striking example of it.

00:28:24.620 And what is also striking is that it is arousing a rare opposition among Republican politicians

00:28:33.140 who have taken a lot and who've gone contrary to their historic principles.

00:28:40.440 But on this one, they're saying, no, this is going too far.

00:28:43.840 It's not that important, but it is symbolic.

00:28:46.780 And perhaps it will suggest that there is a willingness among the Republican members of

00:28:54.780 Congress and senators to say no once in a while to the excesses of the administration.

00:28:59.200 The UAE, and that's the United Arab Emirates we visited there a few years ago, I was impressed.

00:29:05.140 What can I say?

00:29:05.960 I went in as skeptic, but to me, it was a real beacon of hope.

00:29:11.860 Their foreign minister told Brett Beyer that the future he sees for Gaza is one that has

00:29:17.280 no role for Hamas.

00:29:19.280 And I found that bracing because I live in a country whose foreign minister would never

00:29:23.960 say anything like that.

00:29:25.000 Our foreign minister just a couple of days ago denounced Israel as basically committing

00:29:29.960 a genocide.

00:29:31.940 I think this same UAE foreign minister has in the past said that the West has to control

00:29:38.160 its Islamist problem. 0.94

00:29:39.840 I didn't see any such, I didn't see any anti-Semitism.

00:29:42.800 I didn't see any Islamism when I visited the country, even though we were there for less

00:29:46.840 than a week.

00:29:47.580 You can get a feel for the place pretty quickly.

00:29:49.360 Is that the future of the Middle East? 1.00

00:29:54.520 That sort of progressive post-conflict, post-terrorist, post-Palestinian Middle East?

00:30:00.620 Or let me just ask you about Gaza.

00:30:03.600 Is that the center of everything?

00:30:05.900 Or is business in Dubai the center of everything now?

00:30:09.260 Well, the remarkable thing is that in Abu Dhabi in particular, but more broadly, the UAE and

00:30:16.380 Bahrain and now emerging Saudi Arabia, you have a model for the Middle East, a constructive

00:30:21.860 model, a model that's not quite there with human rights, it's not quite there with governance

00:30:26.400 and democracy, but is going in the right direction.

00:30:29.700 And unlike prior models like, say, Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser or Iraq under Saddam Hussein,

00:30:36.340 this is a constructive one.

00:30:38.080 So this is a piece of good news, and you picked it up.

00:30:41.680 It is something that is going in the right direction.

00:30:45.220 And there are reasonable hopes that there will be better governance, there will be more human

00:30:49.020 rights, there will be more values that we consider important applied in the Persian Gulf and more

00:30:58.540 broadly in the Middle East.

00:31:00.340 I've got one last question for you, Dr. Pipes.

00:31:02.120 And Ben, by the way, it's great to meet you.

00:31:03.400 And we'll look forward to seeing studies from you in the future.

00:31:06.400 Dr. Pipes, I saw that Benjamin Netanyahu floated the idea of no longer taking foreign aid from

00:31:13.540 the United States.

00:31:14.860 And I've always thought that taking foreign aid was a bad idea, because I think Israel can 1.00

00:31:19.640 afford its own military.

00:31:22.380 I think it's a talking point against Israel that it's on the dole, even though other countries

00:31:29.620 get much – I mean, if you look at the cost that the United States spends annually on its

00:31:33.960 military bases in, for example, Germany, 50,000 troops in 40 bases, it's an astonishing

00:31:39.420 cost that you wouldn't normally attribute to foreign aid.

00:31:42.820 But let's put all that aside.

00:31:44.400 It made Israel vulnerable to U.S. demands, because it was, where's the quid pro quo?

00:31:50.140 We're giving you billions of dollars.

00:31:51.760 You better do this, this, and that.

00:31:53.060 And I felt that that really hamstringed Israel's response to Hamas. 0.87

00:31:57.880 What's the situation there?

00:31:59.200 Because I see that Israel is ramping up its actions in Gaza again.

00:32:03.880 Netanyahu's floating the idea of getting off the U.S. dole.

00:32:07.040 What's cooking there?

00:32:08.860 Well, once again, Ezra, you and I are in agreement.

00:32:12.700 Actually, Netanyahu has been alluding to this for a long time.

00:32:16.080 Back in his first term as prime minister in the late 1990s, he talked about this.

00:32:22.720 However, the pressures to accept American money, to go for American military aid, have

00:32:28.160 always been stronger than this reluctance on his part.

00:32:31.940 Perhaps now it is a turning point.

00:32:33.720 Now that the United States, even under so friendly a president as Donald Trump, has proven

00:32:40.900 difficult to predict, difficult to work with.

00:32:44.340 It could be the Israelis finally to decide to make the break and to pay for their own 1.00

00:32:49.220 military.

00:32:49.760 They did make the break on economic aid.

00:32:51.920 That's long gone.

00:32:53.760 Maybe now they'll make the break when it comes to military aid as well.

00:32:56.840 And I think that's good for everyone, good for both sides, both Israel and the United

00:32:59.880 States and this economic dependency, be an independent country.

00:33:04.440 Yeah, very interesting times.

00:33:06.560 You know, one thing I learned, I'll just close with this thought.

00:33:08.340 I was talking to our friend Joel Pollack at Breitbart.com about Donald Trump and his, I

00:33:14.220 thought, inexplicable preference for the Liberal Party in Canada's election.

00:33:19.640 I think Trump really did throw the election to the Liberals.

00:33:22.700 And I didn't understand that.

00:33:23.960 Why would he eschew the conservative here who is much more similar to Trump, as conservative,

00:33:28.800 has the same views on a host of issues?

00:33:31.720 And Joel said, Trump is America first.

00:33:35.660 He's not Canada first or Israel first.

00:33:38.300 And Joel's explanation was he thought Trump preferred, for whatever reason, to deal with

00:33:45.340 a liberal.

00:33:46.520 And I think that maybe that's a mistake that the people who care about Israel make also,

00:33:51.880 is that Trump, sure, Trump supports Israel.

00:33:54.420 Of course he does.

00:33:55.300 But at the end of the day, if he's making deals in the Middle East, it'll be Trump's

00:33:59.020 deals.

00:33:59.380 It'll be America first. 1.00

00:34:00.480 And that may not always be a solution that Israel prefers, just like I think what Trump

00:34:07.020 helped put Canada into is not ideal for us.

00:34:10.560 And I say this as Canada's noisiest Trump supporter.

00:34:13.860 I don't know if you have any thoughts on that.

00:34:15.280 But I think, I mean, Netanyahu has a friend in the White House much more than Kamala Harris

00:34:20.040 or Joe Biden.

00:34:21.340 But Trump is his own man, and he has his own course.

00:34:25.000 And it's not the same as Israel's course.

00:34:27.400 That's absolutely true.

00:34:28.480 And you probably should add Australia, because the elections in Australia, which followed

00:34:34.300 those in Canada, were almost an exact repetition.

00:34:38.000 So Canada was not an outlier.

00:34:39.860 It was consistent with Trump's disdain, as it were, for conservatives in fellow democracies.

00:34:46.660 Very, very not expected and upsetting.

00:34:51.220 Yeah, well, I think it set Canada back, but hopefully we'll persevere.

00:34:55.080 Listen, it's great to catch up with you guys.

00:34:56.320 Thanks very much for both of you for joining us today.

00:34:58.320 And we'll keep following along at the Middle East Forum, meforum.org.

00:35:04.500 Thanks, you guys.

00:35:05.020 Have a great weekend.

00:35:06.580 Thank you.

00:35:07.280 All right.

00:35:07.780 There you have it.

00:35:08.280 Stay with us.

00:35:08.960 Your Letters to Me next.

00:35:22.740 Hey, welcome back.

00:35:23.780 Your Letters to Me.

00:35:24.560 Modero says, Gregor Robertson, that's the new housing minister, is totally clueless.

00:35:29.600 That is the kind of government that we face.

00:35:31.640 Yeah.

00:35:31.840 I mean, it's so obvious what's going on.

00:35:34.100 A lot of people, their only savings are in their house.

00:35:37.980 And that's great for the boomers, I guess. 0.91

00:35:41.440 But if you are under 30 and trying to get a house, good luck to you.

00:35:45.340 You'll never do it.

00:35:46.060 And the liberals have chosen the boomers. 0.97

00:35:48.860 And fair enough.

00:35:49.820 It was the boomers who chose the liberals. 0.99

00:35:52.540 Phillips Debb said, the only investor Carney is interested in is Brookfield.

00:35:56.880 Funny they're gobbling up pipelines in Canada and the US.

00:36:00.440 I'm not sure if Brookfield is buying pipelines in Canada.

00:36:03.320 I don't know if anyone is these days.

00:36:05.980 They're building them around the world, though.

00:36:07.520 That's for sure.

00:36:09.200 Mads Roy says, I'm from Manitoba, and I'd like to join with Alberta, Saskatchewan, and BC

00:36:13.000 and show the rest of the world what the West can do when set free.

00:36:16.960 Yeah.

00:36:17.360 I mean, the word separatism, I don't know why in my mind I think of like breaking off from

00:36:22.700 an iceberg and sort of floating away out to sea by yourself.

00:36:26.240 But obviously nothing's going to move.

00:36:28.000 The borders of Alberta won't move.

00:36:31.020 The houses, the parks, the schools, the people will still be there.

00:36:35.100 All that's different is that layer of politicians from Ottawa will be replaced with politicians

00:36:42.640 from Alberta.

00:36:44.140 A distant and partisan legislature will be replaced by a local one.

00:36:48.960 The bonds of friendship will still unite Alberta with the rest of the country.

00:36:55.340 It's that fools like Stephen Gilbeau won't have Alberta to kick around anymore.

00:37:01.340 Well, that's our show for today.

00:37:02.980 We'll have a special show on Victoria Day as well.

00:37:06.520 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:37:10.920 good night.

00:37:11.300 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:37:13.180 And keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - May 17, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ How did Canada become the world's 'Safe Space' for antisemitism？

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