EZRA LEVANT ｜ Syria's new leader served Al-Qaeda, ISIS, before toppling Assad regime
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Summary
Who s better as the leader of Syria? The Stalinist Bashar Assad, or the terrorist who just took over? It s December 9th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show: Who s Better as the Leader of Syria: Stalinist Assad or the Terrorist Who Just Takes Over?
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. I just can't even believe what's happening in Syria. It's happening so
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quickly and so dramatically. I'm trying to wrap my head around it. I'll share with you my thoughts
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today and some images. Just astonishing. Let me invite you to get the video version of this
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Tonight, who's better as the leader of Syria? The Stalinist Bashar Assad or the terrorist who
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just took over? It's December 9th and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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Sometimes nothing happens for decades. Sometimes decades happen in a matter of weeks. I think
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that's where we are right now. Who would have thunk it? Bashar Assad crumbling before terrorist
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rebels in a matter of days taking over the country, driving Assad out. He's reportedly in Moscow seeking
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asylum, although there's no independent footage verifying that. There was an allegation that as he
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attempted to escape, his Russian airplane was shot down. That's quite a possibility. It was incredible how
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quickly the end came. Of course, Assad was strengthened in power for years by Russia, which deployed its air
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power in Syria unopposed by the rebels. The rebels did do brutal damage, but Russia was able to hold
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them off. Russia also using Syria as a port for the naval vessels. Well, they pulled out in a hurry,
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taking their military equipment with them. They weren't foolish enough like Joe Biden was to leave
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billions of dollars worth of equipment behind for the terrorists. And when I say terrorists, that's
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exactly what I mean. The new leader of Syria, if you can call a warlord a leader, is named al-Julani.
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That's not his real name. That's an Arabic way of saying the Golan Heights, Julani, Golani. That's the
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mountain range between Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. And it was the site of a major battle in 1973 between
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Syria and Israel. And Israel, the fact that this terrorist has named himself after those border
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mountains is somewhat disconcerting, suggesting he has bigger ambitions than just conquering and ruling
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Syria. I should tell you that he has a resume that would be the star of any al-Qaeda LinkedIn. In fact,
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he was a deputy in al-Qaeda. He was a deputy in ISIS. He worked for al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS,
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before Trump killed him. In fact, here's a picture published by the U.S. diplomatic corps a few years
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ago, offering $10 million for the capture of al-Julani. Now we're supposed to take him as a world
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leader. He is a terrorist who perhaps will turn Syria into even more of a terrorist state. It
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reminds me of this astonishing newspaper article that praised Osama bin Laden as a man who was taking
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his army and dedicating them to peace. This was after Osama bin Laden's war against the Soviets in
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Afghanistan. Little did they know that he would go on to become the mastermind of 9-11.
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I can understand why there was jubilation, though, that someone, anyone at all, had dethroned Bashar
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Assad and his family. Bashar Assad took over from his father, Hafez Assad, both of them brutal. In the
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case of his father, Hafez, there was the story of the city of Hama, not to be confused with Hamas,
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but a city called Hama, where rebels once gathered. Hafez Assad, the father, sealed off the city,
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and for days and days just fired artillery into the place, killing an estimated 40,000 of his own
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citizens. And of course, the United Nations had nothing to say about that. Bashar learned his
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cruelty at his father's hand, his father's side. Although Bashar had cultivated a Western image of
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sophistication and he wore Western clothing and he attended school in the UK, he became an
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ophthalmologist. His wife was in a vogue fashion spread. He was normalized. Here's a picture of John
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Kerry meeting with him. Here's a picture of Nancy Pelosi meeting with him. He was the delight of the
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Democrats, which is odd because they now accuse the Republican Tulsi Gabbard of being a Russian agent
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for having similar ideas that perhaps Assad could be turned towards the West. If I had to compare
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Assad to other leaders in the region, I would compare him to two other leaders that were deposed
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by Western-backed forces. Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who was deposed directly by the United States,
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and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, who was deposed by rebels. In both cases, in all three cases, that is,
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the men were butchers, absolutely brutal. We're seeing images now of some prisons, including
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underground prisons, where people were kept in atrocious conditions, some of them born in the
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prisons and never having let out of it, absolute atrocities, crimes against humanity, absolutely
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Saddam Hussein with his rape rooms, Gaddafi. But all three of those tyrants did have something to
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offer, I suppose, which is they were a gate barred against the sheer chaos and brutality that was to
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come. What happened with the deposing of Gaddafi was the growth of the Islamic State and the re-emergence
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of open-air slave markets and the mass migration from North Africa and the Middle East into Europe.
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Muammar Gaddafi was an awful man, but actually towards the end of his career, he attempted to make
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amends, paying more than a billion dollars to victims of his own terrorism, giving up his weapons
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of mass destruction program, and pledging to become part of the West. It was Hillary Clinton
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who had him killed and then joked about it. Remember this?
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Unconfirmed reports about Gaddafi being captured.
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Yeah. We've had too many. We've had a bunch of those before. We've had, you know,
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Saddam Hussein was awful as well, but he kept a lid on things on Iraq. Now it is mayhem,
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a colony of Iran, and all sorts of Islamists. Bashar Assad held back things we don't quite yet
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know what they'll come. There is a Christian population in Syria. It's obviously been in
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decline as the Christian population throughout the Arab world is. Lebanon used to be majority
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Christian. Christians have been fleeing that country. Even places like Iraq used to have a
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significant Christian population. There is no safe place in the Middle East for Christians.
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They despise Jews, but they don't have much time for Christians either. There's a slow ethnic
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cleansing. You might find it hard to believe, but Egypt was once a fully Christian country. Now less
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than 10% of it is Christian, and the Coptic Christians are under constant pressure. Will this
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Al-Julani be an anti-Christian terrorist, as so many of his colleagues are? The astonishingly macabre,
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there are snuff videos of ISIS terrorists beheading Christians when they found them. We'll find out
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quite quickly what Al-Julani is like. What's been interesting from a political point of view is how
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quickly it all happened, and how quickly Iran's plans in the region have become undone. A year and a half
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ago, before the attack on Israel by Hamas, Iran seemed to be strong. But then with the Hamas attack
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on Israel, it unleashed an Israeli response that has decimated Gaza and Hamas. Israel then set its
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sights on Hezbollah in Lebanon. And with the fall of Bashar Assad, it seems like Iran's power in the region
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has been clipped, and Russia's too. I saw a video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing
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in the northern border with Syria exuberant. Here's a clip of how that looked.
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This is a historic day for the Middle East. The collapse of the Assad regime, the tyranny in Damascus,
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offers great opportunity, but also is fraught with significant dangers. This collapse
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is a direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah in Iran, Assad's main supporters.
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It set off a chain reaction of all those who want to free themselves from this tyranny
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and its oppression. But it also means we have to take action against possible threats. One of them
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is the collapse of the Separation of Forces Agreement from 1974 between Israel and Syria. This
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agreement held for 50 years. Last night, it collapsed. The Syrian army abandoned its positions.
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We gave the Israeli army the order to take over these positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds
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itself right next to the border of Israel. This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable
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arrangement is found. Equally, we send a hand of peace to all those beyond our border in Syria,
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to the Jews, to the Kurds, to the Christians, and to the Muslims who want to live in peace with Israel.
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We're going to follow events very carefully. If we can establish neighborly relations and a peaceful
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relations with the new forces emerging in Syria, that's our desire. But if we do not, we'll do whatever
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it takes to defend the state of Israel and the border of Israel. I suppose it's true that Iran has long
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been the greatest strategic threat to Israel in the region. And so having Iran knocked down to size a bit
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would be exhilarating for any Israeli leader. But I wonder if what is to come is even more dangerous.
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Israel has taken Mount Hermon inside Syria to stop any terrorists from setting up too close to the
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border. I don't know how long that will be able to continue for Israel to have a presence in a buffer
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zone in Syria. I don't know the outcome here. I put it to you that Netanyahu's exhilaration is premature
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and will not be long lasting. I'm worried about what's to come, but the Syrians who migrated en
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mass to the west, they seem to be cheering, whether it's in Europe or even in Canada.
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Syrian migrants, Syrian refugees are thrilled with the news. Again, I understand their hatred for Bashar
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Assad and his father. For more than 50 years that family terrorized them. And you can understand that
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they're delighted that he's fallen. But I fear that some of the cheers is for the Islamic extremist
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nature of those who have taken over. I see news that a number of European countries have announced
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they will no longer process asylum claims for people from Syria. The United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany,
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and Austria have all announced they will take no more migrants from Syria claiming to be refugees.
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And France is considering the same. My fear is that Justin Trudeau, perhaps the stupidest leader in the
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Western world, will do the opposite. He'll take even more Syrian migrants. Truth we'll find out soon
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enough. I can't help but notice the curious timing of this and so many other things between when Donald
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Trump won the election in early November, but before he takes office on January 20th.
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It's almost like the Pentagon, the CIA, the deep state, the diplomats, and other forces in the world
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realize they have a very short period of time to do things to set the world up in a way that either
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Donald Trump can't undo or they give him the least favorable hand possible. I think it may have been
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plausible that Trump could have come to some sort of understanding with Bashar Assad. It wouldn't
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surprise me if in the course of time we learned that he was deposed to prevent Trump from having
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that power. That may sound like a conspiracy theory, but the question is why are so many things happening
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there and in Georgia and in Romania? Color revolutions everywhere before Trump takes office. I can't
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believe it's all a coincidence. That said, I am optimistic. I think that Iran, which is a power that hopes to
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have the atomic bomb and wield it like a terrorist would, I think they are in retreat. And I think
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even though Trump will have his plate full of problems, he will take off, he will pick up where
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he left off with the Abraham Accords peace deal still intact despite four years of Joe Biden. I actually
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am hopeful for peace in the world, not just in the Middle East, but between Russia, Ukraine, and around
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Taiwan. I think Donald Trump's strength and, frankly, his mean tweets are enough to hold back half of the
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evil in the world. And I think his plan to reinvigorate the American economy and the American military
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are enough for the other half. Hopefully some of that will slosh over us up here in Canada. I think
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that, frankly, it's more dangerous in Canada for Jews, for Canadians who value our liberal freedoms
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than it is in many other parts of the world. There haven't been any pro-Hamas rallies in the streets
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of Saudi Arabia or Dubai out there. Stay with us. An interview with our friend Lindsay Shepard is next.
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Welcome back. You know, whenever I go into a bookstore, which is not that often these days,
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I feel like I'm under assault. I feel like the books are designed to antagonize me. I love books. I was a
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reader at a very early age. I love historical books. I love poetry. And I know that sounds a little bit
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funny to say, but I do. I love Kipling. I like books that tell it like it is. But these days,
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I walk into a bookstore and I feel like all I'm getting is a political agenda. If it's not trans this,
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it's woke that, it's your inner racist this. And even ancient books that I love, like I've complained to
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you before about how I go to see a Shakespeare play, a play that I may know and love. And they've
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altered the words. They've literally changed Shakespeare's play to update it. And of course,
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they don't say that when they sell you the ticket. It's just, it's an astonishing act of historical
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vandalism. And if you think it's bad for books for grownups, well, oh my heavens,
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the books targeting kids are nothing but recruitment tools. So it is a pleasure. It is a rare
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respite to see a book, to learn of a book that at least is calling it neutrally as opposed to
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being anti-Canadian propaganda. And I am so delighted to talk to our guest today who has produced a
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children's book called A Day with Sir John A. And you probably know the author before I even
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introduce her. Her name is Lindsay Shepard. She's been a reporter for True North until very recently.
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And years ago, she took a principled stand against cancel culture at Wilfrid Laurier University. A pleasure
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to have the author join us now via Skype. Great to see you again, Lindsay.
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Thanks for having me. Well, it's our pleasure. I tell you, even if I didn't like the subject,
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it would behoove me to give you a platform to talk about your book, because I think
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in the culture wars, our side is not well represented in the arts, in film, in TV,
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in documentaries, and certainly not in kids books. Tell me why you made a book called A Day with Sir John A.
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Yeah, so I spend a lot of time at libraries and at bookstores because I have two young children of my
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own who are five and almost three. And you'll see often that the featured displays for children's
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books, it's always something to do with gender, race. It's always very bleeding heart. It's always
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very ideological and politicized. And like you said, I just wanted to make something neutral,
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something that you might read in the late 90s or the early 2000s. And so we chose to do a book
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called A Day with Sir John A. And it's about Sir John A. MacDonald. And it's a picture book. So it's a
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blend of fiction and nonfiction. And as far as I know, this is actually the only storybook
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about Sir John A. MacDonald on the market. So imagine you have, you know, Father of Confederation,
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first Prime Minister of Canada, and there aren't really a lot of books for children. In fact, no storybooks,
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like I said, about him. Whereas if you think about the states, children are very aware of who their
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heroes are. They're aware of, you know, Roosevelt, Washington, Lincoln. But it's just not the same
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over here. And so we wanted to address that gap. Yeah, when you think about it, there's so much of
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this genre in the US. But I mean, Sir John A., he was stripped off the $10 bill by Trudeau.
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No. And I think that was a signal of where things were going. I think it's designed to,
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if you cut off the roots to your past, you're unmoored for the future. And I think that's the
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point of destroying our national heroes, to demoralize us, to tell us that we believe in
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nothing. And absolutely, they're targeting kids now. I was looking at some of the pages
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of the book while you were talking there. And you don't avoid those slurs against McDonald. You
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sort of deal with them up front. In the storybook, children are saying, well, I heard he was locking
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kids up in residential schools. I heard he was evil. So you're not even starting from a clean slate. You're
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starting from the default in 2024, which is hostility to Sir John A. McDonnell, aren't you?
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It's almost like you're undoing some lies or preparing young kids to hear lies about Sir John A.
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Exactly. Yeah. So the concept is that there's a young boy who's an elementary school student.
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His name is Emerson. He's going on a field trip to a fictionalized museum called the Museum of Canada's
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First Prime Minister. And he starts hearing how all of his classmates and the tour guide at this museum,
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they all seem to only have negative things to say about Sir John A. McDonnell. And he kind of starts
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off from the point of, hey, I thought this is the guy who got the railroad bill that went all across
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the country. You guys think this is so bad. And then throughout the book, he goes on a journey.
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And like you mentioned, we kind of address significant historical moments without demonizing.
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Because if there's one thing we want people to take away from the book, children, parents,
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grandparents alike, anyone who reads it, is we can't demonize our great figures of the past. And we can't
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look at them through the lens of just the present day and think, oh, you know, we're so enlightened now.
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Look at how bad they were back then. Well, the fact is, we live in Canada now. And that's thanks to Sir John A.
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Yeah. And everything we are is as a result of what he and others did before us. And so you can't reject,
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it would be like rejecting your parents or your grandparents because they had a certain fashion
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sense or a certain slang. I mean, and there's a hubris to thinking that we are the ultimate in moral evolution,
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that we've got it absolutely right. I dare say some of the diabolical things being done in our culture
00:23:09.280
will in a generation or less be regarded as abominable. I won't get into those things now,
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but we could probably come up with a list of them. Now, in addition to writing the book, of course,
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it's lovely, illustrated by Tatjana Gubic. Who's she and how did you connect with her?
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Yeah. So she's our illustrator. She's actually not Canadian. So considering, you know, the very
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detailed work she had to do with kind of reconstructing Canada in the 1880s, we're really happy with what she
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was able to do. Um, because there, there was a lot of research that had to go into it. So, um,
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yeah, we're, we're happy about how the illustrations turned out at the end of the day. We wanted it,
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we want the book to appeal to children. And so, um, you know, the, the illustrations are vivid
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and they'll be appealing, but hopefully, um, you know, parents and grandparents and
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aunts and uncles will also want to buy this book for the children in their lives because it's like,
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okay, finally, there's a book that will tell an element of Canadian history that won't be
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over politicized and just an over correction and, and apologetic because that's such a big part of it
00:24:25.120
for me was I, I just hated to see all this apologizing and guilt and shame because when kids
00:24:32.080
go through the K to 12 system, that's all it's going to be right when they do their social studies
00:24:36.960
and humanities courses, it's just going to be, um, those years of apologizing and feeling guilt over
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the past. Well, here's a book, A Stay with Sir John A., that we're targeting for, that we wrote for ages
00:24:51.120
three to seven. So we want to get in there early and say, you know, this is a father of confederation.
00:24:57.680
These are all the great things he did. He was a man of spirit. Um, he had a progressive worldview.
00:25:03.200
And so we're addressing that actually before a lot of kids will, will learn about McDonald in the school
00:25:10.800
system, in the curriculum. Um, and when they do learn about McDonald or a lot of people, the takeaway
00:25:18.480
has been and will be, oh, this is the guy of residential schools and head tax, Chinese head tax, and that's all
00:25:25.040
they'll retain. So we're hoping that people will retain so much more. Well, I'm excited about it.
00:25:30.720
And, um, you say the market is children ages three to seven. There's a building in the city I'm in,
00:25:37.280
it's called Queens Park. It's the provincial parliament of Ontario. And there used to be a
00:25:43.760
statue of Sir John A. Macdonald right out front. But for years now, that statue has been entombed in a
00:25:50.880
kind of coffin or sarcophagus. They don't have the courage to take it down yet, but they have the
00:25:58.000
cowardice to build a wooden entomb, a tomb around it because they don't dare look Sir John A. in the
00:26:06.160
eye, but they don't dare take him down. And that's in a conservative government like Ontario's. What a
00:26:12.080
crazy day we live in. Lindsay, it's great to see you. The book is called A Day with Sir John A. Where
00:26:17.040
can people get it? I take it Amazon is the best bet. Amazon is the best bet. Yes. Well, it would be
00:26:23.920
wonderful if bookstores actually stocked it, but I think I'm savvy enough to know that would never
00:26:29.520
happen in Canada. Lindsay Shepherd, great to catch up with you. Congratulations on the book.
00:26:33.440
Thanks so much, Ezra. All right. There you have it. Stay with us. More ahead.
00:26:50.080
Well, what do you think? Do you think that the downfall of Bashar Assad will make that region
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better? It certainly is like the ice breaking up after a thaw. It's been more than 50 years since
00:27:01.920
the Assad family has run that country in a Stalinist way. But I think we've learned that
00:27:06.960
the Middle East can always get worse. And I fear that is what is to come. If you look at the biography
00:27:14.000
of Al Jelani, he's one of the worst people in the world. But I suppose for the moment, it feels good
00:27:20.480
to depose a Stalinist. What do you think? Let me know. That's our show for today. Until next time,
00:27:26.720
on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night,