Ezra Levant Show May 11 2018
Episode Stats
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Summary
The Vancouver Sun has become a mouthpiece for the eco-terrorists, and now they are breaking the law in a Vancouver court, but why is the media hiding their true identities? Ezra Levenrant explains.
Transcript
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Tonight, law-breaking pipeline protesters appear in a Vancouver court, but why is the media hiding
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their true identities? It's May 11th, and you're watching The Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my
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It's frustrating to watch the violent alt-left destroy the rule of law in Canada. It bothers
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me that it's an attack on the oil and gas industry most of the time, which is such an ethical
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industry, so economically important in this country. But it would bother me no matter what
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the alt-left was attacking, because really, it's attacking a pillar of our democracy. That
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is we don't break the laws if we don't get our way in an election. Now, this has been
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going on for years, and you can't even blame it all on Justin Trudeau and his extremist
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principal secretary, Gerald Butts. These images I'm showing now of an environmentalist riot
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on Burnaby Mountain in B.C. against the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, they
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were from a few years back when Stephen Harper was the prime minister, and he had a majority
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government, and Christy Clark was the premier of B.C. with a majority government there.
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So you can't blame that on Justin Trudeau or John Horgan, the NDP premier, can you? I
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mean, you can a bit. Their parties, their political allies are part of these illegal
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attacks. The CBC itself not only acts as the PR agency for these eco-terrorists, but
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they send in their last recognizable on-air personality, David Suzuki, to stand shoulder
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to shoulder with the criminals, as you can see here. I say criminals because they are breaking
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the law. The foreign-funded activists have a weird, gross shantytown in Burnaby. They call
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it Camp Cloud, which sounds peaceful and like it would smell fresh, like a cloud. In fact,
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it's squalid and heaped with garbage, just like the Occupy Wall Street slums were. And in fact,
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it's pretty much the same people behind it. And they're criminals. I'm sorry, they are.
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Again and again, they assault the police, in some cases injuring the police. But as you heard
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Lee Humphrey tell us the other day, politicized prosecutors are laying the lowest possible charges
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against these criminals, even when police are assaulted. But there are some charges. I
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was pleased to see that Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, was charged with contempt
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of court for violating a court order by protesting on Kinder Morgan property. And it's appropriate
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that she was charged. You can't be a lawmaker and a lawbreaker. I mean, that goes to my point
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before, the rule of law, you know, the rules of democracy, say that you're not going to always
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get your way in democracy. And you have to accept that. And you have to work within the system.
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You can't do it the way Elizabeth May wants to do. Be a part of democracy as an honorable member
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of parliament, as they're called, with all the privileges and powers that come with it. But then,
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if things don't go your way, if you don't get a vote, just plain old break the law like a criminal.
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No, you can't. You can't do that. Anyways, to the news of the day. I want to talk about
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this story in the Vancouver Sun. Earlier this week, Kinder Morgan protester argues the defense
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of necessity excused court defiance. Let me read a few lines for you. I'm actually going to read
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quite a bit. And I'm not going to omit a single word. And the reason is, I want to show you how
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the Vancouver Sun has become a stenographer for these lawbreakers. Just giving them a free platform
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without any pushback or rebuttal. So bear with me. I'm going to read for about a full minute here,
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okay? One of the protesters arrested at Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion
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Project argued Wednesday that it was necessary for him to act to prevent what he called a bigger
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crime from being committed. Tom Sandborn, who was taken into custody after allegedly violating a
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court-ordered injunction at the company's Burnaby worksite and faces a criminal contempt of court charge,
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said he wants to be able to use the defense of necessity at his upcoming trial. He told BC Supreme
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Court Justice Kenneth Affleck that the project amounted to what he called serious crimes against
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First Nations, treaty rights, the environment, and the safety of nearby residents. Quote,
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the crime that was being conducted by the Canadian state and by Kinder Morgan was a major crime,
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and we were justified in intervening to try to stop them, said Sandborn.
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You know, it goes on for quite a bit like that. That's junk law. That's junk politics. It's crazy
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talk. But the Vancouver Sun just sort of copies and pastes his speech right in the newspaper.
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Eventually, the story gets around to quoting the prosecutor for a few sentences of the other side,
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and then the story ends this way. The judge pointed out to Sandborn that none of the available
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legal avenues, including appealing the court injunction, had been taken before some people
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decided to disobey the court order. Unquote. Yeah, that's the thing. That's the point. If you
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think a court order is wrong, appeal it to a higher court or change the underlying law through the
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system, through legislation. Don't just say you're going to break the law. Okay, so that's the story,
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but there's a bit more to this story because who is that Sandborn? I mean, if you relied on the
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Vancouver Sun to, you know, tell you, you'd think he was just some guy, some random Vancouver guy.
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In today's Vancouver Sun, he's mentioned again, and he's described only as a professional writer.
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Really? Is that who Tom Sandborn is? No, that is not who Tom Sandborn is. Tom Sandborn is a
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professional, lifelong protester, and activist who works for foreign-funded anti-oil lobby groups.
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How do I know this? Well, I have access to this amazing research machine called Google,
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unlike the Vancouver Sun, apparently. So I typed in the words, Tom Sandborn. I know. I managed to
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think of doing that without even going to journalism school or getting a government grant. And nine out of
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the top ten hits on the very first page of Google results show that he is a professional anti-oil
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activist. I mean, is he a professional writer? Well, sure, he writes down his activism. It's true.
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But to call him a professional writer does not illuminate the truth. It actually obscures it.
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So I clicked on the very first link that came up on Google, the very first one, and it takes you to
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the website of the TIE, a Vancouver-based left-wing environmentalist website that is explicitly funded
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by the anti-oil lobby group called the TIEs Foundation. It's actually the very first time I
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heard the word TIEs Foundation is they were giving money to the TIE. Let me read the very first paragraph
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to you. So this is literally the first thing that comes up on Google, and this is the first thing that's
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on that first page. Tom Sanborn was born in Alaska and raised in the wilderness by wolves.
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Later, Jesuits at the University of San Francisco and radical feminists in Vancouver generously gave
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time and energy to the difficult task of educating and humanizing him. Tom has a formal education, too,
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a BA from UBC. He has been practicing the dark arts of journalism off and on ever since university,
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and now also has about five decades of social justice, peace, and environmental campaigning under his belt.
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Now, there's a bit of self-replicating humor there. He wasn't actually raised by wolves. No one he is.
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But that's not the only liberties taken. What follows on that web page is his professional
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writing, by which any normal reader would immediately say, holy cow, this guy is a full-time Marxist
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activist. The second hit on Google when you type in Tom Sanborn is The National Observer, another extremist
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outfit literally founded by Linda Solomon, the sister of Joel Solomon, the founder of the Ties
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Foundation. Just a reminder, the Ties Foundation is a $150 million a year San Francisco-based Marxist
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lobby group that funnels money to literally dozens of anti-oil science activists in Canada.
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Here's their IRS disclosure called Form 990. There is virtually no left-wing group in Canada they do not
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fund, but they have a special focus on extremist environmentalist groups. Now, I'm not going to go
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Sanborn's bio. But do you see my point? Here's a kook in a B.C. court saying he has the legal right
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to break the law because this legally approved, fully vetted and regulated pipeline company
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is committing a larger crime. And the Vancouver Sun just writes that down loyally. And they do not
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disclose that this Tom Sanborn is a journalist activist paid for by foreign anti-oil lobbyists.
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They hid that from you. And while we're on this same Vancouver Sun story, look at that main picture
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again. Look at that man. This was the story. Who's that man being arrested there? He's not named in the
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photo caption. They just say police arrest protesters, really. They don't say who he is. But if you follow
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anti-oil science politics, even casually in this country, you know who he is. That man's name is Clayton
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Thomas Muller. He's not from Burnaby. He's not even from British Columbia. He's from Manitoba,
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three provinces over. He's a professional protester. He is paid by various U.S.-funded lobby
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groups, too. He literally jetted to Vancouver to be part of that protest. He got arrested on purpose.
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But you wouldn't know that from the report, would you? You'd think it's just, you know, just British
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Columbians. Here is the seminal 2008 Tar Sands campaign document from the Rockefeller Brothers
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Fund in New York. I've shown this to you many times before. This is the first draft of the battle plan
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to attack oil sands and pipelines. And look at the front groups that agreed to take foreign money to
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attack the oil sands. I've shown this to you before. There's the WWF in the top right corner. Do you see
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that? That's Gerald Butts' old organization. He's working for Trudeau now, but he used to be the
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president. But you see that one sort of in the middle there? It says the Indigenous Environmental
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Network. That's Clayton Thomas Muller. He's with a lot of these groups, actually. He's basically a
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Hollywood actor hired to give an aboriginal look and feel to events. So it's not all just white
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liberals from the U.S. like Tom Sanborn. There has never been an opinion poll in British Columbia that
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I've ever seen that has shown that the popular support is against pipelines if the pipelines are
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done in compliance with environmental standards, which of course they are. The Kinder Morgan Trans
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Mountain Expansion Pipeline has been pumping away for nearly 70 years, by the way, without incident.
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And it has actually been filling up tanker ships in the Port of Vancouver for decades without a single
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navigational incident ever. This whole Trans Mountain thing is just a modernization and expansion of an
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existing pipeline. So BCers know in their bones it's normal, it's fine, it's safe, and there's so
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many regulators scrutinizing it. But if you only pay attention to the CBC or the Vancouver Sun,
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you'd think everyone is against oil and gas and pipelines. Your neighbors, your friends, and normal
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just folks like Tom Sanborn, who's at most disclosed as a professional writer. Oh, and that handsome
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young aboriginal man on the cover of the Vancouver story. No, no, no, no. Tom Sanborn is a professional
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activist. Clayton Thomas Muller is a professional activist who flew in just to make an appearance.
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It's bad enough that our country is overrun with foreign-funded extremists looking to shut down ethical
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oil to the benefit of OPEC conflict oil, our competition. But what about the mainstream media?
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The Vancouver Sun, for God's sakes, that's either too lazy or too complicit to tell their viewers
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Welcome back. Well, one of the things that every U.S. president for decades has promised,
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but none have delivered, was the decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv in Israel to Israel's
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proper capital, Jerusalem. Every president said they would when they were courting votes and
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donations from America's Jewish community, but all of them found some reason to invoke a waiver
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saying it was not in the national interest. Well, Donald Trump made the same promise as the rest of
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them, but lo and behold, he actually kept the promise. And you know what? The sky did not fall.
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There was not another intifada. There was not another war. In fact, nobody cared. It reminded me of
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when Donald Trump took America out of the global warming treaty. The sky did not fall. The man gets
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things done. And it is now imminent that the embassy will open in Jerusalem. And joining us now via Skype
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from his cell phone from the city of Efrat in Israel is our friend Joel Pollack, senior editor at large
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at Breitbart.com. It's great to see you, Joel. You're in Israel. Tell me what the vibe is there. I see from
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Breitbart.com that there are pro-Trump posters going up around Israel and that Netanyahu himself seems to be
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getting a bump in the polls because things are going so well with the American ally. What's the feeling on the street?
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Well, people here are very excited about the embassy move and the American president is extremely popular
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right now in Israel. It's helped Benjamin Netanyahu, as you mentioned, but Donald Trump is basically a
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hero, at least to Jewish Israelis. I've had several people stop me spontaneously when they realize I'm
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from the United States and thank me for President Trump. The common refrain you hear from Israelis is
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he does what he says he's going to do. And that is a refreshing contrast, not just to American
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presidents of the past, but also to politicians of all sorts. So there's a real respect for Donald
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Trump, a sense that he really loves the state of Israel and loves the Israeli people and the Jewish
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people. People here feel like they've never had a better friend in the White House. These are just
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different things that have been said to me by people on the street, taxi drivers, people I run into at
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conferences here. They're very impressed with Trump. They feel he has a lot of courage and they're
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deeply moved that he kept his promise and that on Monday, the United States will open its embassy in
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Jerusalem. That's very symbolic because it's an affirmation of the legitimacy and sovereignty of
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Israel. But I would imagine, because I go to Israel from time to time, in fact, we're taking a trip of
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rebels. 60 or so of us were coming next month. So we're going to be there again. But in the last 10
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years, there's been this cloud in the background of the Israeli psyche, if I may say so. And that is
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Iran, because Iran was developing the nukes and would talk about scorching Israel in a way that felt like
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an existential threat more than any conventional military threat. Israel has always been under a
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conventional military threat. But the Iranian threat felt a little bit like an echo of the Holocaust
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and some of the language mimicked the Holocaust. And it was matched with Iranian Holocaust denial.
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So I think my theory is Trump taking on that existential threat is actually far more important
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psychologically, emotionally, existentially to the Israelis than moving the embassy building.
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Well, the embassy is tremendously important, but you're right about the threat.
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Iran fired 20 missiles at the Golan Heights at Israeli positions there, and Israel knocked down four of
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them with the Iron Dome anti-missile system, and the rest did not reach Israeli-held territory in the
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Golan Heights. But you're absolutely right. It was a watershed this week, and it had nothing
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to do with the Jerusalem embassy or even the Iran deal, which President Trump pulled out of. It had
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to do with Israeli strikes on Iranian positions in Syria a few days ago. There's already been a kind
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of proxy war between Israel and Iran for many years, either with Iranian proxies in Hamas or Hezbollah
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attacking Israel. But now this is becoming a live conflict, direct between Israel and Iran.
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Iran fired at Israel for the first time this week. So although tactically that attack didn't really
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lead anywhere, in fact, it led Iran to lose many of its assets in Syria as Israel targeted Iranian
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positions from the air for about four hours. Strategically, it marks a new beginning, a new
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chapter in this conflict, one that could be more dangerous and one that was probably inevitable given
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Iran's regional ambitions, which the Iran deal only helped, sadly. So now we're going to see where
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it goes from here. Israel is definitely prepared and preparing for a next stage of conflict. But here
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you already have Iranian forces in Syria right up next to the Israeli border. And you, of course,
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still have Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, who are Iran's proxies for all intents and
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purposes. So it's still quite a tense situation in the region. There's still a long way to go before
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there's anything like peace. But certainly affirming Jerusalem as Israel's capital is a way of the
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world's superpower saying to everybody else, this is not going to end. This is not going away. And by
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the way, the Russians also have recognized Israeli sovereignty, at least over West Jerusalem. And Russia
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now refers to Israel by the term West Jerusalem, referring to the capital of Israel. When West
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Jerusalem speaks, West Jerusalem does this and so on. So there's a growing recognition that Jerusalem
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is Israel forever, at least the Western part, even if the Eastern part is still up for negotiation.
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And that's a very significant development. I think it makes Israel stronger, more secure. And
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Israelis definitely feel more secure as they face the growing threat of Iran, knowing that the world
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is slowly coming around to the idea that Jerusalem is Israel's permanent capital.
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I have one more question about the military situation. And then I want to ask you about
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Jews and Republicans and conservatives. But let me just ask, when you talked about Israel
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defeating those rockets shot in using the Iron Dome technology, and I know Israel has been raiding
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Iranian assets in Syria. It reminded me a little bit of when Israel first deployed the F-15 and F-16
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fighter jets in the Bakah Valley more than 30 years ago. And they shot down, I don't know,
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something like 80 MiG fighters and lost none. And it was such a staggering military victory. And it was
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the first time those American weapons had really been put to the test. It was a proxy war back then
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between Russia and America, fought between Israel and the Arab states over Syria and Lebanon.
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I wonder if that's what's going on here too, because we've recently had American military
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attacks on, for example, that chemical factory in Syria. But this kind of broader attack,
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maybe using the new F-35 jets, I'm sort of surprised that Israel's doing the heavy lifting here,
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but maybe it's not surprising. Is Israel, do you think this is a prelude to a larger attack? And I think
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of when Israel took out Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak, literally flying over into
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Baghdad, F-15s, F-16s. Like it's just, it's military dominance using American tools that helps the West,
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but Israel's doing the heavy lifting. Is there an analogy here? Is a bigger war coming? Tell me what
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There may be one coming. And certainly Israel partners with the United States in a lot of this,
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although I think it also reserves the right to act independently for its own security, and the United
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States respects that right, just as Israel respects the right of the United States to do what it wants
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for its own security. I think what is interesting is, just as in the former Soviet Union, where you had
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internal politics ultimately brought the USSR down, now you have a very volatile situation in Iran,
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with the economy in shambles, with people protesting and so forth. There's now a greater probability,
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I won't say likelihood, but I'll say a greater probability that the Iranian regime actually
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topples and ends all this military adventurism. The Iranian people generally are tired of it
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because their scarce resources are being spent on terrorism abroad and invading other countries and
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so forth. So I think there's a very real possibility that Iran breaks politically before a
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very significant military conflict develops. You have to hope that happens because war, of course,
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is the worst possible outcome. If the Iranian regime would topple, then the region would become
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Last question. You started by saying how pro-Trump Israel is, or at least Jewish Israelis, and I believe
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you. The embassy stopping the obsession with the Palestinians, helping to move Saudi Arabia and other
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Sunni states into a more pro-Israel orbit, and now canceling the Iran deal. But here in North America,
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and you know this as well as me because you're from L.A., here in Toronto, Jews are liberal.
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A leftist Jew the other day was saying, what's Trump's angle here? They think it's a trick.
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They refuse to accept that Trump is pro-Israel. They hate him anyways. Like, what is wrong with
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Jews in general politically that they side with their enemies, that they would side with Hillary
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Clinton, Huma Abedin, Sid Blumenthal, that they would side with Barack Obama instead of a guy who's
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aesthetically, frankly, he's very Jewish, Donald Trump, in many ways.
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Well, it wasn't so long ago, two or three decades ago, that the Democratic Party in the states was
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very pro-Israel. And what's happened is that Jews continue to vote for the Democratic Party for other
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reasons. Some have liberal positions on abortion. Some are very attached to sort of nostalgia around the
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civil rights movement. Although the civil rights movement was largely fought against Democrats, but
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that's a topic for another day. So there's an attachment to the Democratic Party.
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Party that comes from a time when the Democratic Party was actually very pro-Israel.
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In the last 10 to 15 years, especially since the Second Intifada, the parties of the left in general
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around the world have become more anti-Israel. They used to be pro-Israel, now they're anti-Israel.
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And the voting behavior of American Jews hasn't yet caught up to that reality. In addition,
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Israel is no longer high on the priority list for liberal American Jews. It's very important for
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conservative American Jews and particularly religious American Jews. But for liberal American
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Jews, other issues like abortion and so forth are much higher priorities. Whether that's right or
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wrong, it's just the reality. And so American Jews, the majority of American Jews who vote Democratic
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are doing so for other reasons. There are some who vote Republican on Israel, but it's a small
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sliver. And increasingly, they just simply become Republicans because they're fed up with their party's
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indulgence of the anti-Israel left. Yeah. Joel, I could talk to you all day, but I know you've got
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to do a lot of other things. So you're on the ground. I appreciate you jamming us in and talking to us
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from your cell phone. It's actually been a remarkably clear interview, and it's just so pretty to see
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the town of Efrat behind you. I'm jealous that you're there at this exciting moment, but we'll be
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leading our own delegation to Israel in a couple of months. Thanks for being with us today, Joel.
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Thank you, and Shabbat Shalom to everyone in Canada.
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Thanks very much for that, and you too. Well, there's our friend Joel Pollack, who's on the ground
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in Israel. He, of course, is the senior editor-at-large at Breitbart.com. Stay with us.
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Well, Israel is at the crossroads of three continents, Europe, Africa, and Asia,
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and it's the place where so much news is happening, but never more so than these days,
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between the United States moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to Donald Trump deciding to
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remove the United States from the informal agreement agreed to by Barack Obama that gave hundreds of
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billions, more than $100 billion worth of sanctions relief to Iran, more than a billion dollars in cash
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delivered in pallets in exchange for a few trinkets of concessions from Iran on their nuclear program.
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Well, Trump has removed America from that, and a lot of things are in play. Joining us now is an
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expert on this very complicated region, our friend Jonathan Schanzer, who is the senior vice president
00:24:56.340
with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is in Israel today. Jonathan, thanks for joining us.
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I know it's seven hours later there, so it's nighttime over there. There's a lot going on right now. Israel
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is always in a state of war, but it's been in a hot war against Iranian troops in Syria. Do I have that right?
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You have it right. What the Iranians have been doing ever since the Iran deal was struck back in 2015,
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perhaps even earlier than that. They have been steadily building up an arsenal in Syria. They've been taking
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advantage of the fog of war, the chaos that has ensued inside Syria. And so what they've done is they've brought in
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Shiite militias. These are Shiite fighters from places like Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iraq and, of course, Iran.
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They've got Hezbollah on the ground over there as well. So they've been building up a ground force.
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Meanwhile, also building up a rocket force, building up their drone capabilities, moving everything
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closer and closer to Israel's borders. And what we've seen over the last year or so is that Israel
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has been taking these assets out one by one. And then more recently, it's been a full flare-up where
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the Israelis have gone on a full offensive. Isn't that interesting that Iran is using
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almost mercenaries from a variety of Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan?
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You made me think of something that I learned when I was on the ground in northern Iraq and
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Kurdistan last summer. I was surprised to, I was at the border of Kurdistan and sort of no man's land.
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And the Kurdish military, forgive me for this little tangent, but maybe you have some
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insight into it. I thought that on the other side of this no man's land was ISIS.
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But the Kurdish Peshmerga said, no, across that no man's land is a Shiite militia called
00:26:51.600
Hashtel Shabi. I had never heard of that word before. And they said it was filling the void
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left by ISIS. It was Iran backed and it was just as hostile. So I felt I was confused. This
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is the first I'd heard of it. But what they led me to believe was that Iran is filling the
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void. First the void left by Barack Obama and then the void left by ISIS. Iran is sort of
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consolidating the region. Is that what's happening?
00:27:19.960
That's exactly right. And Hashtel Shabi, the term that you just used, is effectively just
00:27:24.060
popular mobilization units. So each one of these units have different names. Some of them are Iraqi,
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some of them are Syrian, some of them are coming from other places around the Muslim world.
00:27:37.060
And Iran is deploying them. They have absolutely filled the void inside Iraq, where they have
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ousted ISIS. That's where you're seeing them fill in the gaps. And that same thing is happening
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inside Syria. And the goal has been to establish what we call the Shiite Crescent. This is an area
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stretching from Iran's border through Iraq into Syria, all the way into Lebanon to the Mediterranean.
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This is Iran's designs for regional hegemony. We can, I think, be unambiguous about this at this
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point. And so finally, you have the Israelis pushing back on this. But the real challenge,
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I think, was that the counter-ISIL coalition, they were very happy to defeat ISIS because,
00:28:20.000
after all, ISIS is just kind of a ragtag group, not professionally trained, not terribly formidable,
00:28:25.560
despite what you heard in the news. But nobody wanted to tangle with the post-ISIS reality,
00:28:31.260
which was that Iran and its proxies were taking over the region. That's a far nastier battle.
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And it's one that the Israelis are taking on single-handedly right now.
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Hmm. You know, it's interesting. They're taking it on militarily. But I see that
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Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, these are Muslim countries that are either quiet,
00:28:51.680
as most Sunni Muslim countries are, or actually morally and publicly supportive of Israel. And
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even the king of Saudi Arabia has been emitting positive vibrations, I guess, about Israel.
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You know, I saw some pundit the other day say, one thing Barack Obama did inadvertently was he made
00:29:14.760
Iran such a looming threat that he inadvertently caused Israel and the Sunni Arab states to make
00:29:21.720
common cause because they were so panicked. I don't think that was Barack Obama's goal. And it's
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certainly not a good way to achieve that goal. But it seems to me that everyone in the region is
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petrified of a nuclear Iran. And so they put aside, I suppose, smaller quarrels to focus on that
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existential threat. Is that accurate? Absolutely accurate. And I mean, I like to joke that Barack
00:29:44.540
Obama got his Nobel Prize about six years too soon, he should have got it, after he signed the Iran
00:29:50.340
nuclear deal. Not for the fact that the Iranians were prevented from going nuclear, but because he
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did draw the Arab states and Israel closer together. They're talking in ways that they never spoke before.
00:30:03.100
I can tell you that I was just in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago. I was in the United Arab Emirates
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in October, as well as Bahrain in October. And it's really remarkable. I mean, you hear the
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leadership there speaking about the region, and there is no doubt that Iran is their number one
00:30:20.080
concern. And increasingly, I think they're just not as concerned with this Palestinian issue. They'd like
00:30:27.020
it to go away. They feel solidarity with their Arab brethren, but they also understand that it's not in
00:30:32.840
their national interest to promote the Palestinian cause above these other core threats. And so that's
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the equation that we're looking at here. The Arab world is drawing closer to Israel, because after all,
00:30:44.920
the Israelis are the only army tangling with Iran. They're the ones who just pilfered a half a ton of
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documents out of a nuclear document warehouse in Tehran. They're the ones who are bombing Iranian targets
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in Syria and dominating while they do it. So I think this has really been an important message to
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convey to Iran from Israel's perspective, but also to the rest of the Arab world. They see leadership
00:31:11.260
Yeah. Well, let me ask you about Russia, because I know that Russia and Israel have an interesting
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relationship. There's about a million Russian emigres in Israel. And Benjamin Netanyahu has a
00:31:23.140
fairly constant and high-level communication with Russia, meeting with Vladimir Putin and talking
00:31:29.440
with him even very recently. How does Israel fight against Iran in Syria without fighting with Russia
00:31:39.440
in Syria? How is that delicate balance achieved?
00:31:45.140
It's a delicate balance. And, you know, a part of how this is accomplished is by the Israelis
00:31:51.020
making regular trips to Russia. You have to remember the defense minister of Israel is
00:31:56.500
actually of Russian extraction, Avigdor Lieberman, so he can speak to them literally in their own
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language. But you also just, for example, just had Bibi Netanyahu go to Russia two days ago.
00:32:08.000
And as I understand it, these discussions, this is not with the Israelis coming hat in hand and saying,
00:32:12.840
can we please do this or that in Syria? As I understand it, these discussions are usually with
00:32:19.180
the Israelis coming in, very professional, saying, these are our concerns. We're going to be taking
00:32:23.900
care of them in the coming days, and we expect you to stand down. Now, there is room for error.
00:32:30.400
We have seen, for example, reports of Russian mercenaries that have been hit by Israeli fire
00:32:37.020
as they've gone in and taken out Iranian assets. But my sense right now is that the Russians have very
00:32:42.860
little stomach for this. They have pulled, I think, a number of their troops or mercenaries
00:32:47.840
targets where Iran has had a dominant position. We just heard yesterday, for example, that Putin
00:32:57.300
has agreed to not sell these S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Syria. We may be at a place where he
00:33:05.440
is maybe satisfied with having defeated ISIS and doesn't want to get Russia drawn into a broader
00:33:13.740
Very interesting. Well, I very much appreciate you giving us the briefing from Israel. A lot of
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things are on the move in the region, and hopefully, hopefully, I'm not going to say it'll be peaceful,
00:33:26.080
but hopefully it'll be quiet, which is as close as I think it'll get there. Thanks for taking the
00:33:32.940
All right. There you have it. Jonathan Schenzer is the Senior Vice President of the Foundation for
00:33:38.180
Defense of Democracies. He joined us tonight from Israel via Skype. Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel.
00:33:55.640
Hey, welcome back. Your viewer mail. On my monologue yesterday about Dion Buse in court,
00:34:01.860
Liza writes, absolutely the right thing to do taking Buse back to court. These cretins have to
00:34:07.360
know they aren't going to get away with this sort of violence against the rebel. I am all in favor.
00:34:12.120
I am all in for legal pushback every time. Liza, I appreciate you saying that. The police did the
00:34:19.540
right thing. They arrested him. But for some reason, and they charged him with crimes, which he committed.
00:34:24.640
But for some reason, I won't get into the details, Sheila was not advised on this court date.
00:34:28.960
She had no chance to put any evidence forward, no chance to put a victim impact statement forward.
00:34:34.640
So he got off. Dion Buse got off with the lightest slap on the wrist possible. 30 hours of community
00:34:40.020
service and a conditional discharge. It'll be taken off his record soon. No, no, that's not good enough.
00:34:45.220
So we had to sue. Not for the money. I mean, I know enough about the law to know that the quantum
00:34:50.620
of damages you get for a punch in the face, it's going to be four figures max. So we got what we
00:34:58.820
were owed financially. But what we needed and what we did finally get in civil court for Sheila
00:35:03.660
was a categorical statement by the judge that what Dion Buse did to Sheila Gunn-Reed was, quote,
00:35:10.400
reprehensible. And it was illegal and it was worthy of punitive damages. And we also got an indication
00:35:18.960
that the first criminal court was not proper. It didn't have the full hearing. So it was very
00:35:23.880
valuable morally. And as the boss of the rebel, I felt it was important to stand by Sheila,
00:35:30.080
who was assaulted by the alt-left, and to stand up for her rights and freedom and to show her that
00:35:34.560
we have her back. She has our back, right? I mean, she does. She's there for us every time. I think
00:35:38.960
it's so important we're there for her. And obviously, we spent a lot more money on the lawsuit
00:35:44.540
than the thousand dollars in costs we got back. And by the way, we have to collect that from this
00:35:49.620
deadbeat. I don't know if Dion Buse has two pennies to rub together. But it was the moral victory
00:35:54.160
that was important. By the way, if you want to read the whole ruling, and it's a pretty quick read,
00:35:59.000
and it's in pretty plain English, you can find it at DionBuse.com, D-I-O-N-B-E-W-S.com. And yeah,
00:36:05.540
I'm going to have that website with his name pointing at this story until, well, forever. Maybe if he
00:36:12.620
comes forward and makes a genuine apology and statement of contrition to Sheila, we'll consider
00:36:18.360
taking the website down. But until then, his name will forever point to the facts about him.
00:36:23.960
Tammy writes, lawyers are expensive. Principals are priceless. Tammy, that's a very nice way of
00:36:30.020
saying it. The lawyer we used, a young guy, I think he billed us fairly. And I know you're thinking
00:36:36.580
$36,000 for a two-day trial. How could that possibly be? Well, it was all the work in advance,
00:36:42.240
filing the statement of claim, pre-trial hearings, the trial itself, and just, you know, reviewing,
00:36:48.360
getting the witness there, et cetera. So yeah, it is expensive. There is no two ways about it.
00:36:54.640
I did not attend court myself. I didn't want my presence to be seen in some way as political
00:37:00.680
interference. But we sent our VP editorial to show solidarity with Sheila. And I heard other lawyers
00:37:06.180
were sitting in to watch it, young student lawyers, because they said lawsuits like this proceed so rarely
00:37:10.880
because it's true. Who would spend $36,000 on a punch in the face? Economically, it doesn't make
00:37:19.060
sense. So most people don't do it. We did it, as you said, for the principle of it. So actually,
00:37:24.060
other young lawyers were coming to watch a civil trial on assault and battery because it happened
00:37:28.680
so rarely. We did it on a point of principle. And I would do it again. I would spend $36,000 again
00:37:35.560
to get justice for Sheila, and I'm sure you would too. And if you want to help us, you can ship in
00:37:40.160
at deonbus.com. That's just something we have to do. On my interview with Derek Fildebrand, Bruce writes,
00:37:46.280
Jason Kenney is behaving like the old PCs who people voted out. I was afraid this would happen,
00:37:51.180
and now it has. I voted against the merger for that reason, and now I know I was right. Let's hope
00:37:55.700
enough pressure gets put on Jason to resign or change his top-down ways. Well, let me be clear. I
00:38:01.080
certainly do not want him to resign. And as I said to Derek, I think twice or at least once,
00:38:07.700
I said, it is absolutely critically important that Jason Kenney become the next premier of
00:38:12.300
Alberta, just like Doug Ford, must become the next premier of Ontario. The people they're running
00:38:17.480
against, Kathleen Wynne and Rachel Notley, are absolute disasters, some of the worst premiers ever
00:38:21.460
for their provinces. But that doesn't mean we have to excuse Doug Ford or Jason Kenney when they veer
00:38:27.040
off course. I think I also put on the record yesterday that I disagree with Derek Fildebrand's
00:38:31.500
idea of a new party. I think that kind of splittism goes nowhere. I don't think that's a good idea. I
00:38:35.700
think if Derek wanted to be the leader of the party, he should have run for the leader. In fact,
00:38:38.580
I think I encouraged him to do so. But yeah, we are going to be the good faith critics of Doug Ford
00:38:44.960
and Jason Kenney. And by good faith critics, I mean we won't engage in unfair, malicious,
00:38:49.140
gotcha-style journalism. We'll leave that to the CBC and, you know, other mainstream media party
00:38:54.940
journalists. We will be critics and we'll be fair critics from the right, which is, I think,
00:38:59.740
what our viewers want us to do. Well, that's our shows for the week. It's been a busy and hectic
00:39:04.540
week, hasn't it? I don't know if you're tuning in, by the way. You're probably working. But at 12
00:39:10.420
noon Eastern time, 10 a.m. Alberta time, 9 a.m. B.C. time, I do a one-hour live chit-chat on YouTube
00:39:16.880
where you can ask me any questions in real time. It's not, this is a pre-recorded segment here,
00:39:20.540
but I'm live and you can just type questions to me at 12 noon Eastern. So feel free to join in
00:39:25.800
every weekday is what I do with that. So that's something to watch if you're interested. Until
00:39:31.020
Monday. I guess keep watching our YouTube vids. We put them up all weekend. I'll be back with the
00:39:35.840
show on Monday night. Till then, good night. Have a great weekend and keep fighting for freedom.