Rebel News Podcast - May 17, 2025


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


Episode Stats

Length

37 minutes

Words per Minute

151.98817

Word Count

5,657

Sentence Count

477

Misogynist Sentences

10

Hate Speech Sentences

37


Summary

Which country has the most terrorism and the most support for terrorism in the Middle East? Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates? It s May 16th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show, where Ezra talks about it.


Transcript

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
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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00:01:14.100 We appreciate your support.
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,
00:02:27.940 by the way. You want to see? You like that? You like that, Greya? It's a fucking little bitch.
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
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
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
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!
00:07:58.520 Boycott Landwork!
00:08:02.520 Boycott Landwork!
00:08:05.520 Boycott Landwork!
00:08:08.520 Boycott Landwork!
00:08:12.520 Boycott Landwork!
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.
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.
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?
00:10:23.060 I never will renounce Hamas.
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***.
00:10:32.240 Well, I don't have that power myself.
00:10:34.860 Go back to Daddy.
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
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,
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
00:19:44.900 But Trump is back.
00:19:46.580 And hopefully, the success of the Abraham Accords can be built upon.
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
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
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
00:25:27.600 become more Western-oriented.
00:25:30.940 Are the Qataris today what they were five years ago?
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
00:35:48.860 And fair enough.
00:35:49.820 It was the boomers who chose the liberals.
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.