Rebel News Podcast - Five stories that explain Canada in 2026

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends, big show today, a number of things, including an interview with Daniel

00:00:04.160 Pipe, sort of the Middle East expert on what the heck is going on in Iran and what's next.

00:00:09.900 But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.

00:00:12.800 That's the video version of this podcast.

00:00:14.660 Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe.

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00:00:30.000 Tonight, five short stories about Canada in 2026.

00:00:48.320 If you were in Outburton, would you stick around?

00:00:50.880 It's March 6th, and this is The Ezra LeVance Show.

00:00:53.120 We're fighting for freedom! 0.51

00:00:56.320 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:01:00.000 Hey, we've got a great discussion a little bit later in the show with Dr. Daniel Pipes

00:01:13.200 of the Middle East Forum.

00:01:14.080 We're going to talk about Iran and what it means for the whole world, including for China,

00:01:17.680 which I think is a big part of it that's coming up.

00:01:20.000 But first, let me show you five little news stories that have popped up in my Twitter feed,

00:01:25.300 which is how I get most of my news.

00:01:26.940 A couple of these are a few weeks old, but some of them are very, very new.

00:01:30.840 I haven't talked about most of them before, so I just want to go through them fairly quickly.

00:01:34.780 This is a tweet from Ontario Proud, which is sort of a pro-conservative website or Twitter account.

00:01:41.280 It's very simple.

00:01:41.980 Well, breaking, Justice Davin Garg of the Ontario Court of Justice has ruled that the sex offender registry

00:01:50.980 for pedophiles, rapists, and other sex criminals is unconstitutional.

00:01:55.660 He's just, you know, one guy has said, no, we're not going to do that.

00:02:01.860 And even though I would say 90, maybe 95% of Canadians support that registry,

00:02:08.320 and obviously different parliaments and legislatures do,

00:02:12.440 this judge knows better and thinks there's a human right not to be on the offender registry,

00:02:18.680 even if you have committed those crimes.

00:02:20.480 And what are you going to do about it?

00:02:21.800 You know, there is something you can do about it.

00:02:24.540 It's Section 33 of the Constitution of the Charter of Rights.

00:02:28.440 It's a notwithstanding clause, but we know that Doug Ford won't do that.

00:02:32.100 That's just the new norm.

00:02:33.840 That's just how it is now.

00:02:34.960 Get used to it.

00:02:36.540 Hey, here's another court story.

00:02:37.960 This is from Josh DeHasse, who's a civil liberties lawyer.

00:02:40.840 He says,

00:02:41.280 The Supreme Court found 8 to 1 that Quebec's decision to exclude asylum seekers from taxpayers' subsidized daycare

00:02:50.960 discriminates against mothers.

00:02:56.080 Yeah, no.

00:02:57.480 Discriminates means to choose.

00:02:58.860 Like you could say, he has discriminating taste.

00:03:01.420 Discrimination, when we say it, it usually means something negative,

00:03:04.680 but it means to choose amongst things and to choose to give your social services to Canadians

00:03:11.180 as opposed to foreigners, including asylum seekers, the vast majority of whom are fake. 1.00

00:03:16.120 That's a choice made by the Quebec legislature that, again, what does that have?

00:03:20.280 80, 90% support in the province.

00:03:23.400 But no, the Supreme Court, an 8 to 1.

00:03:25.900 You can't just put it on the liberal judges.

00:03:28.280 There's some Tory judges, Harper-appointed judges who are going along with this.

00:03:32.080 I mean, why not?

00:03:33.580 You're a judge.

00:03:34.220 You're making, what, 400 grand a year?

00:03:36.900 You don't even have any kids anymore because you're in your 60s and 70s,

00:03:40.580 so you don't care about these things.

00:03:42.620 And yeah, if the little people have to pay more taxes to provide free daycare 0.53

00:03:48.380 for foreign nationals who sneaked across the border from New York,

00:03:52.260 what do you care?

00:03:53.140 You're a judge.

00:03:53.900 I mean, what are they going to do, fire you?

00:03:56.500 Here's a story from the Toronto Star.

00:03:59.140 It's just sort of incredible.

00:04:00.280 The headline and how they phrase it is pretty neat.

00:04:03.700 Canada launches new program.

00:04:06.500 That's not Canada.

00:04:07.720 It's the Liberals.

00:04:08.980 Canada launches new program to grant 33,000 foreign workers permanent residents,

00:04:15.700 immigration minister reveals.

00:04:17.580 They left out a word.

00:04:18.800 Those are temporary foreign workers.

00:04:20.960 So they've realized that they can reduce the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada

00:04:26.000 and thus say, hey, we're reducing the number of temporary foreign workers

00:04:29.880 by just making them permanent.

00:04:32.600 So they don't have to go home anymore.

00:04:34.620 They can stay here and compete against Canadians, especially young Canadians. 1.00

00:04:38.620 Many of these temporary foreign workers are not specialists brought in because Canadians can't do it.

00:04:43.600 They're just specialists in one thing only, undercutting Canadians, especially young Canadians, 0.99

00:04:49.440 looking for that first job.

00:04:51.100 And what are you going to do about it?

00:04:53.820 Here's another tweet.

00:04:56.020 Aboriginal law expert Tom Isaac on the recent Musqueam First Nation agreements, quote,

00:05:01.280 It is, from a process point of view, it's, and I'll say it again, absolutely unacceptable

00:05:05.720 that public democratic governments are entering into agreements acknowledging Aboriginal title

00:05:11.220 in any form when it's an exclusive right to land, according to the Supreme Court of Canada,

00:05:16.380 without consulting in some way with their constituency, which is the public.

00:05:20.040 Okay, there's a lot of words there, but basically, and we'll talk about this a little bit later,

00:05:24.020 the federal government had a secret negotiation and a secret deal with an Indian band in BC

00:05:31.240 that now gives them Aboriginal title, a kind of right to the land,

00:05:36.940 over vast swaths of the province.

00:05:40.040 And they did it in secret.

00:05:42.120 The public were not, there was no advocate for the public,

00:05:44.800 certainly not the British Columbia public.

00:05:46.980 And that's just how it is now.

00:05:48.920 What are you going to do about it?

00:05:49.820 I keep asking.

00:05:51.680 Here's another tweet.

00:05:52.840 This one's a little bit older.

00:05:54.280 We've talked about this one before.

00:05:57.140 $750,000.

00:05:58.460 That's the price for saying biological sex is real.

00:06:02.560 Former Chilliwack trustee Barry Neufeld just got financially crushed

00:06:05.640 for opposing gender ideology in schools.

00:06:08.680 Disagree with the narrative?

00:06:09.700 That'll cost you three quarters of a million dollars.

00:06:12.880 And that's from the BC Human Rights Tribunal, which is just an absolute madhouse.

00:06:17.320 I mean, a $750,000 penalty like that, that's enough to destroy a man.

00:06:21.580 I have never heard of a fine that large other than when it's to recoup some money that was stolen.

00:06:28.220 I have never in my life in Canada heard of a fine of $750,000.

00:06:34.060 I can't even think of a fine that large in the criminal code.

00:06:36.800 The only reason you would say that is if some fraudster scooped that money and it was taken back.

00:06:42.720 That's larger than a murderer would get.

00:06:45.640 We don't really find murderers now, do we?

00:06:49.060 Now, it's not that I selected these on purpose, but it just happens that every single one of these is not Albertan.

00:06:55.120 And that doesn't mean to say Alberta is immune from this stuff.

00:06:58.740 Alberta still has a Human Rights Commission, though it's a little less crazy than some of the others,

00:07:03.900 certainly less than British Columbia's.

00:07:05.400 Alberta has crazy courts, often where the judges are appointed by Ottawa, it's true.

00:07:12.800 But I think Alberta is tending to go in the other direction. 0.97

00:07:15.540 For example, they're strengthening freedom of speech for the professions.

00:07:20.320 So, that case of Barry Neufeld, he's not really a professional, but he's an elected official.

00:07:28.560 He had a political point of view about transgenderism.

00:07:31.620 They fine him $750,000 in Alberta now.

00:07:35.260 They're calling it Peterson's Law, named after Jordan Peterson.

00:07:38.080 You can have a spicy political opinion as a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, or an engineer,

00:07:43.380 and not be kicked out of your profession if it's just a political opinion that's got nothing to do with your work.

00:07:49.740 So, Alberta actually is moving in the opposite direction.

00:07:53.180 Alberta has treaties covering all its land.

00:07:56.300 So, I don't think that that Musqueam deal would be afoot in Alberta, but you never know.

00:08:03.420 But these issues that the whole country sees, they're on the minds of Albertans,

00:08:10.460 even though the stories I told you typically happen in Ontario or BC.

00:08:13.260 And if you're in Alberta, are you thinking of this as a reason to stay in Canada

00:08:20.680 or a reason to separate from the rest of Canada, to separate from the madness?

00:08:26.720 I've been visiting Alberta quite a lot.

00:08:28.620 I was there recently in various cities, Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat,

00:08:34.700 listening to people and their concerns.

00:08:36.260 And the paradox is the people in these meeting rooms are actually the most pro-Canadian people

00:08:41.920 in the country.

00:08:42.940 They're the ones who would fly a flag over their home.

00:08:45.120 They're the ones who would lament stripping Sir John A. MacDonald off the $10 bill

00:08:49.360 or changing the lyrics to the national anthem or saying that Canada are genociders.

00:08:55.000 Or they would object to tearing down statues.

00:08:57.780 The people who are most pro-independence in Alberta are the most patriotic.

00:09:02.560 How can that be?

00:09:04.740 Well, because they're seeing the rest of Canada, in the five examples I just gave you,

00:09:09.320 are tearing down anything Canadian about Canada.

00:09:13.580 They're denaturing the country.

00:09:16.660 And so if you're in Albertan considering independence, you know,

00:09:19.140 there's traditional historical reasons and there's the acute reasons of, you know,

00:09:23.500 Mark Carney and what he's doing to Alberta and blocking pipelines.

00:09:26.180 You may not like the new pivot towards being a Chinese colony or, as Carney calls it,

00:09:31.900 a new world order.

00:09:32.680 But you don't think looking at this madness every day is yet another reason for Albertans

00:09:38.300 to say, how do we get out of that mess?

00:09:42.760 And it could be that on October 19th, they vote to get out of that mess.

00:09:48.340 Stay with us.

00:09:49.460 Dr. Daniel Pipes is next.

00:09:50.940 You know, you read about battles, wars in the Bible, and sometimes they're just,

00:10:05.620 you know, they strain credulity.

00:10:07.500 That's where I suppose the faith part comes in.

00:10:10.420 Or maybe sometimes you think, well, this story was probably altered over the course of time

00:10:15.820 and mythologized a little bit because what is reported in the Bible surely meets the definition

00:10:22.560 of a miracle.

00:10:24.360 And I am thinking, of course, about the U.S. and American attack on Iran that I think it's

00:10:30.860 fair to say has gone miraculously.

00:10:34.220 There has been some loss of life.

00:10:36.260 And of course, even losing one person is a tragedy and certainly for the family.

00:10:40.980 But in terms of the history of warfare, I don't think I can recall a battle so lopsided other

00:10:47.900 than perhaps Israel's dogfight with the Soviet-made fighter jets over Lebanon's Bakah Valley some

00:10:55.680 40-odd years ago.

00:10:57.380 I guess what I'm saying is we live in miraculous times, even though it's 2026.

00:11:03.080 But where do we go now?

00:11:04.580 It's not done yet.

00:11:05.520 The war is not yet over.

00:11:07.180 Iran is still lobbying ballistic missiles and drones, not just at Israel, but at, oh, I 0.89

00:11:13.520 don't know, a dozen other Muslim nations, including the latest, Azerbaijan.

00:11:18.860 And what happens if the regime crumbles?

00:11:21.460 What will fill its space?

00:11:23.020 Will Iran break apart into different countries? 0.53

00:11:26.100 Will Kurdistan or Balochistan be independent countries?

00:11:30.060 Is this about Iran but also about China?

00:11:33.860 What will China and Russia do if Iran falls?

00:11:37.360 So many questions.

00:11:38.540 I've got my guesses.

00:11:40.340 But someone who has spent a lifetime studying this is our special guest today.

00:11:45.000 His name is Dr. Daniel Pipes.

00:11:46.200 He's the founder of the Middle East Forum.

00:11:48.280 And he joins us now.

00:11:49.460 Dr. Pipes, I'm so glad to have your time because I think we're living in an age of miracles.

00:11:54.940 Why don't you bring me down to earth a little bit and tell me what's really going on?

00:11:58.540 Well, miracles is one way of putting it.

00:12:03.420 I prefer to call it a special police operation.

00:12:07.280 In other words, when Israel and the United States take on enemies such as the Palestinians 1.00

00:12:13.020 or Hezbollah or Iran, it's more like a police operation than a war.

00:12:19.820 A war is what we see in Ukraine.

00:12:22.180 We don't know the outcome.

00:12:23.580 We don't know who will win.

00:12:24.660 In the case of Iran, we do know who will win. 1.00

00:12:28.480 And it's only a matter of what the implications are.

00:12:32.020 How many casualties?

00:12:33.400 Who is responsible for the girls' school? 0.96

00:12:36.340 What is the cost in terms of oil revenues?

00:12:39.640 What are the implications for the Persian Gulf Arab states?

00:12:45.940 And so forth.

00:12:46.880 So it's a very different thing from a war in my view.

00:12:49.320 It is an enhanced police operation.

00:12:52.700 Hmm.

00:12:55.280 That's an interesting terminology.

00:12:57.480 I think the number one difference is what you alluded to.

00:12:59.920 In Russia, you have the meat grinder of Russia versus Ukraine.

00:13:05.060 Some would say the death toll or the casualties is over a million.

00:13:08.120 I wouldn't be surprised.

00:13:10.180 Trench warfare, brutal.

00:13:12.000 Whereas it's the technology and the methodology.

00:13:16.060 But you can't occupy a country from the air and the sea.

00:13:19.840 And that's really the – you can flatten the Iranian regime.

00:13:24.140 But at the end of the day, someone else has to step up.

00:13:26.500 I mean, I look at what the U.S. is doing in Venezuela.

00:13:29.480 And they managed to convince the rest of the regime to go along with America.

00:13:33.440 But that's because they're not ideologically and religiously motivated.

00:13:37.320 They just want to survive and have some power.

00:13:40.380 In Iran, you can't find some mullah to take over because they're part of the ideological Islamic theocracy. 0.92

00:13:48.320 You need something to emerge from the rubble to take over, don't you?

00:13:54.440 Yes, indeed.

00:13:55.400 And I agree with you that it's very unlikely that a Venezuela-type solution can be pursued in Iran.

00:14:03.940 There are so many differences.

00:14:04.920 And now there does seem to be the beginnings of a land campaign in that the Kurds, who are based in Iraq and in western Iran, are beginning to take steps with American and Israeli encouragement and perhaps armaments to take on the regime.

00:14:25.880 Now, how well they can do against the regime is an open question.

00:14:29.480 That is a war.

00:14:30.300 That's not a police operation.

00:14:32.360 But it does bring a new level of fighting to the conflict.

00:14:38.400 But as many have pointed out, the Americans and Israelis have done brilliantly on the battlefield.

00:14:43.880 But nobody quite knows what the goal is.

00:14:46.520 Is it a Venezuela-type situation?

00:14:49.000 Is it a change of regime?

00:14:50.260 Is it to knock out the nuclear and ballistic capabilities for years to come?

00:14:56.040 What is the goal?

00:14:57.220 What are these two governments looking forward to accomplishing?

00:15:02.000 Well, in Trump's first address to the nation, he laid out the goals, I think.

00:15:07.960 Destroy the Navy.

00:15:08.920 He did. 0.99

00:15:09.340 Destroy the missiles. 1.00

00:15:10.800 Destroy the regime. 0.99

00:15:13.120 He scotched the Navy.

00:15:14.680 I mean, there was footage released by the Department of War the other day that showed the first torpedoed vessel since World War II.

00:15:23.360 The Americans torpedoed an Iranian vessel and they took on an aircraft carrier.

00:15:27.360 Like, it's just destroying all those assets.

00:15:31.700 I think you can measure blowing up ballistic missiles and measure blowing up the Navy.

00:15:36.660 Regime change is a little bit hard.

00:15:38.520 That could come in many forms.

00:15:39.940 Let me ask you a question.

00:15:40.720 What do you think of the Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi?

00:15:44.260 Many diaspora communities wave his flag.

00:15:47.960 I've seen here in Toronto a large number of Iranian Canadians express a desire that the son of the Shah take a role, at least on an interim basis.

00:16:01.740 Maybe that's the answer.

00:16:02.920 A symbolic placeholder while some other structures put in place.

00:16:07.320 What do you think?

00:16:08.120 I'm a big supporter of Reza Pahlavi.

00:16:11.200 I look back to 1979 and how quick and easy the transition was from the Shah's regime to Khomeini's regime.

00:16:21.040 Why?

00:16:21.880 Because Khomeini had such widespread support.

00:16:24.720 There was essentially no opposition in his way.

00:16:27.800 It would be wonderful if there could be something similar.

00:16:31.200 And the only candidate for that position is Reza Pahlavi.

00:16:35.480 I think he's competent.

00:16:37.040 I think he has got good politics.

00:16:39.100 I don't think he is trying to resurrect the Shah, you know, the king of kings position.

00:16:46.940 But he sees himself as a transitory figure.

00:16:52.300 I trust him.

00:16:53.580 I think he's the best option there is.

00:16:56.740 That's interesting because we were just talking about Venezuela.

00:17:00.200 There was a candidate for the Venezuelan elections who, according to international observers, actually won.

00:17:08.000 She later went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

00:17:11.540 And Trump did not choose her as the placeholder leader.

00:17:15.180 He said she doesn't have the clout.

00:17:17.100 She doesn't have the roots.

00:17:18.620 I think he's probably right on that.

00:17:21.920 Does the candidate you just mentioned, Reza Pahlavi, have...

00:17:27.840 Does he seem to be close to the U.S. administration?

00:17:29.840 Because, really, this is Trump's world.

00:17:31.980 We're just living in it.

00:17:33.800 Does the son of the Shah have the support of Marco Rubio and Donald Trump? 1.00

00:17:40.380 Because we saw just yesterday Trump saying, I'm going to choose the new leader.

00:17:45.480 He said it.

00:17:46.680 Yeah.

00:17:47.100 He also dismissed Reza Pahlavi in similar wording as he dismissed Ms. Machado a couple months ago.

00:17:54.120 So, it doesn't look favorable for Reza Pahlavi.

00:17:57.500 But Trump is mercurial and he might change his mind.

00:18:00.360 I don't know.

00:18:01.220 I can't predict.

00:18:03.080 There's another feature that did not exist in Venezuela, which is that Iran, and I think this is crucial.

00:18:09.880 Iran is a small empire. 0.53

00:18:13.220 Iran is an empire. 0.96

00:18:14.680 Russia is an empire. 0.89

00:18:15.760 China is an empire. 0.90

00:18:16.780 Ethiopia is an empire.

00:18:18.340 These are land empires.

00:18:19.700 And we in the West tend not to be aware of them.

00:18:22.800 We're aware of the British and French and Portuguese and Spanish and so forth empires, overseas empires.

00:18:29.480 And those were dismantled 50, 60, 70 years ago.

00:18:33.900 The land empires, which are less visible, still exist.

00:18:38.040 And in Iran, the Persians, people who speak Persian as a native language and adhere to Persian culture, form about 50% of the population.

00:18:47.120 Which is to say that the Azarees, the Kurds, the Baluch, and the many other peoples constitute another half of the population.

00:18:55.260 There is an extreme tension between the Persian nationalists.

00:19:00.740 You can even call them Persian chauvinists who want to sustain this empire and the non-Persians who want out. 0.99

00:19:07.140 And that could well be a major, major issue in the years to come if there's not a smooth transition to someone like Reza Patlegi.

00:19:18.960 Very interesting.

00:19:20.480 I saw an essay online by Melissa Chen who said, yes, this is about Israel and Iran and the region, but it's also about China.

00:19:27.900 And I've seen other commentators say there's sort of two simultaneous strategies of what Israel wants, along with the local Arab states, wants to remove the threat of Iran, especially the ballistic missiles and the nukes.

00:19:43.160 But America, in addition to that, wants to remove China's influence from the region and Russia's too, but China more acutely.

00:19:51.820 The source of oil, a way to keep America on the back foot.

00:19:56.160 Do you have any thoughts on China and this conflict?

00:20:01.060 I mean, China and Russia both basically said we're not getting involved.

00:20:04.800 How much have they lost here?

00:20:07.120 And speak to China, if you would, the Chinese aspect of this battle.

00:20:12.000 If I could just speak to Russia for a second first, there is news breaking that the Russians have supplied Iran with intelligence about American assets,

00:20:23.460 be they military or commercial otherwise, and that the Iranians have relied heavily in recent days on this intelligence from Russia.

00:20:34.140 So that has got lots of implications, particularly since Trump has been quite chummy with Putin.

00:20:41.600 This could change that dramatically.

00:20:43.560 China, in contrast, has not been involved so far as we know, has not provided intelligence, has not sped up arms deliveries, has not provided money.

00:20:55.800 They are proving, the Chinese are proving to be, the Communist Chinese are proving to be a fair weather friend. 0.92

00:21:01.460 This probably has implications, both in the case of Russia and China, for other anti-Western regimes like North Korea and, of course, Cuba.

00:21:13.260 You know, I think one of the most demoralizing moments in Joe Biden's presidency were the images of the hasty retreat of the U.S. military from Afghanistan.

00:21:23.980 The images of people clambering on jets as they went down the runway, leaving behind billions of dollars worth of equipment.

00:21:30.900 It really felt Jimmy Carter-esque in terms of a big dopey government that couldn't even handle itself.

00:21:38.060 I think it showed weakness.

00:21:40.820 And I have a sense that this war is being prosecuted in a manner to undo that reputation and to terrify America's enemies.

00:21:52.180 I think it actually started, amazingly, with the insertion and the snatching of Nicolas Maduro without a single casualty in two hours.

00:22:00.860 Just come in, snatch the guy, use new and strange weapons.

00:22:04.240 I hear ones being called the discombobulator, a sound-based weapon that caused enormous pain.

00:22:10.940 And, like, just the shock of that.

00:22:13.740 And I think some of the moves of the Americans, sinking ships in the manner they have, just the technological awesomeness. 0.77

00:22:24.060 I think that's designed to win, but I think it's also designed to put fear in the hearts of every tyrant that maybe they could be snatched from their bed in the dead of night by special ops.

00:22:37.900 I think it's a lot more than just Iran that's about to be crushed here.

00:22:41.620 I think Donald Trump is trying to teach the world who America is these days.

00:22:45.760 What do you think of that?

00:22:46.280 Maybe that's an obvious point, but I think, I'm not going to call it a cruelty of war, but a total approach to war feels new.

00:22:55.760 I have no doubt that you're right, that this is in part a reaction to the Biden years.

00:23:01.260 And, indeed, the fact that Trump was president once before and had four years to meditate on what he didn't do and what he could do probably is also a factor.

00:23:16.480 I mean, he's a very different president than he was the first time around.

00:23:21.780 And he got angry and he got ambitious in a way he had not been the first time.

00:23:26.960 And we're seeing the results.

00:23:28.160 So partly it's Trump's own evolution and partly it's a reaction to the Biden years and the ignominy of fleeing Afghanistan, as we did.

00:23:37.420 By the way, it was not Jimmy Carter, but it was Gerald Ford when the United States fled Vietnam.

00:23:44.700 Oh, sorry.

00:23:45.560 You know what?

00:23:46.620 If I said Vietnam, I probably meant to say the fall of Iran the first time around. 0.92

00:23:51.420 I was mixing up my debacles.

00:23:53.180 I'm sorry I got it wrong.

00:23:56.080 Okay.

00:23:57.020 Okay.

00:23:58.120 You know, there were so many moments where America was so mighty but looked so weak because I think it was lead.

00:24:04.940 I think it was a lack of will.

00:24:06.540 And I saw a Chinese observer saying the only limit on American power is its willpower.

00:24:12.120 And I think there's some truth to it.

00:24:13.500 Speaking of which, I just want to ask you about one particular thing.

00:24:16.700 I saw Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, use a phrase that was quite deliberate because I've seen it repeated several times in official publications since.

00:24:26.460 He said that U.S. and Israel are the two most effective, most powerful air forces in the world.

00:24:35.920 So not the U.K., not Russia or China, but America number one and Israel number two. 0.75

00:24:43.480 And I thought about that and I thought, you know, that's probably true.

00:24:46.960 I would never have thought it until Hegseth said it.

00:24:50.600 I always would have assumed the mighty RAF, they've got a couple of aircraft carriers, they have modern jets, but maybe it's that willpower thing.

00:25:00.260 I mean, Keir Starmer has just been a puddle.

00:25:02.900 The Brits have not really been active.

00:25:05.100 The Royal Navy is AWOL.

00:25:07.620 What do you make of Pete Hegseth saying Israel is the second most powerful air force in the world?

00:25:12.400 It's certainly plausible.

00:25:15.480 I don't think the RAF, the British Air Force, is in contention.

00:25:19.400 We don't really know about the Chinese.

00:25:21.380 Chinese have not deployed forces in action since 1979.

00:25:26.840 So we really don't know about them.

00:25:28.500 Russia clearly is not it. 0.79

00:25:30.540 As the witticism goes, it used to be thought that Russia was the second most powerful military in the world.

00:25:36.400 Now it's the second most powerful military in Ukraine.

00:25:38.680 But beyond that, I think what is remarkable, this is the first time since World War II that the United States is working with another military on a roughly equal basis.

00:25:54.780 The fact that the United States has 330 million population in Israel, 10 million, doesn't seem to be important.

00:26:02.200 But in all other prior engagements, the RAF, the French, the Canadians, you name it, were junior partners.

00:26:12.240 You know, the Danish would send 54 soldiers to Afghanistan sort of thing.

00:26:16.160 This time, the Israeli participation is not symbolic.

00:26:20.000 It's not political.

00:26:21.360 It is very substantial.

00:26:23.040 The problem lies in the fact that the Israeli government, the American government, presumably have different goals.

00:26:27.820 And at any point, Donald Trump could declare victory and just leave the field, in which case the Israelis would be left holding the bag. 0.94

00:26:35.680 And it could be a very inflammable situation still.

00:26:40.520 So I think the Israelis are wary of Donald Trump and his leaving the field at will at any moment.

00:26:48.240 What do you make of Keir Starmer in the UK and other countries, like the Prime Minister of Spain, announcing that he would not allow the Americans to use Air Force bases there to launch attacks?

00:27:05.440 Actually, that was Keir Starmer's point of view for a while, too.

00:27:07.900 It sort of undoes the point of having an Air Force base forward, you know, on the other side of the world of suddenly when you need it, you can't use it.

00:27:16.160 That seems to defy the purpose of it.

00:27:17.980 But it certainly doesn't feel like something an ally would do.

00:27:21.640 I'm completely convinced that that is solely a domestic politics decision by Starmer and the Spanish government, that they have a domestic population of Muslim activists who, at the very least, would be politically opposed to this.

00:27:42.420 And they're very politically active in the UK and perhaps even would engage in violence or at least mass protest, but possible terrorist attack.

00:27:52.060 I think the only reason why these NATO allies have not helped America is because they're afraid of their domestic Muslim migrants.

00:27:59.560 Am I being too harsh?

00:28:01.380 I'd agree with you in the case of Great Britain, less so in the case of Spain.

00:28:05.360 I think the Spanish prime minister has taken off, is a far leftist, and is hostile to Trump in a fundamental way and sees opposing Trump as a politically advantageous step.

00:28:17.420 I don't think it's so much the domestic Muslim population as the domestic leftist population that he's appealing to in Spain.

00:28:26.380 But I agree with you.

00:28:27.800 Well, I hear what you're saying.

00:28:28.820 And they have done, like just the other day, they announced that we're going to normalize and naturalize half a million migrants.

00:28:35.520 Most of them are Muslim.

00:28:36.900 That's astonishing to hear from the country that at great cost liberated itself from the Muslim Moorish invaders after centuries of domination. 1.00

00:28:45.720 It's sort of, I wonder what Ferdinand and Isabella would say if they were around.

00:28:51.400 Let me ask you about when Trump goes, because he will not be president in three years' time.

00:29:02.500 And it's tough to predict, but you may not have a Republican.

00:29:06.920 If you have a Republican, it might be J.D. Vance.

00:29:10.220 Can you look beyond Trump and give us some sort of a prognostication?

00:29:14.740 And it's my observation that anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic views are on the rise on the woke left.

00:29:24.800 But I also see it on what some people are calling the woke right.

00:29:29.020 Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens being examples of that.

00:29:33.600 Those are insurgents right now.

00:29:35.320 They don't control the levers of government.

00:29:37.080 But what do you see three, four, five, ten years from now?

00:29:40.580 Two points in response.

00:29:41.620 First is the parallel civil wars on left and right in the United States.

00:29:46.400 On the left, it's between the liberals and the partisans, the woke faction.

00:29:52.300 On the right, it's between the traditional conservatives and the MAGA crowd.

00:30:01.000 And these are major, major disputations that are only growing with time.

00:30:05.380 I don't know who's going to win them, but they are going to be very powerful debates.

00:30:13.160 The second point would be that I think the American public will have a choice between Donald Trump-style politician,

00:30:24.380 whether on Republican or Democratic ticket, who is going to continue with being outrageous and doing whatever he wants and the like,

00:30:34.800 or whether American voters will rather go to the opposite than someone who is quiet, polite, restrained.

00:30:45.280 We saw this, for example, with Clinton.

00:30:47.760 Bill Clinton was all over the place and all sorts of corruption issues and so forth, sex issues.

00:30:53.880 And so the Americans voted for George W. Bush, who was the opposite.

00:30:57.660 No scandals whatsoever.

00:31:00.140 They wanted something different.

00:31:02.120 Will the Americans want a continuation or a rebuttal?

00:31:05.920 Or will they want to get away from this pattern entirely?

00:31:10.180 I don't know, but I think it's an important issue in the next election or two.

00:31:16.220 Last question.

00:31:18.820 One of the issues that I see debated in the U.S. by the woke right is American aid to Israel.

00:31:25.740 And it's less than 1% of Israel's GDP.

00:31:29.660 And Israel is doing economically well.

00:31:32.800 The growth in the country this year alone is startling.

00:31:35.880 Do you think Israel could go it alone if that aid were removed and if America was less involved with Israel?

00:31:48.080 Like, even if America wasn't involved in this war, I think Israel could possibly have achieved many of the goals.

00:31:55.840 Not all of them.

00:31:56.520 America doesn't have all the weapons like the B-2s and their special bunker buster bombs. 0.99

00:32:01.880 But I think it's plausible to say that Israel could have neutralized Iran on its own without America's help and without America's hindrance. 0.90

00:32:12.160 Is there a future where Israel is sort of an independent country with Arab allies, by the way?

00:32:18.420 And it's a regional power that's not so tightly tied to America if America is tiring of its international connections?

00:32:26.800 It's worth pointing out that Israel has its own second war underway at this time, which is against Hezbollah.

00:32:35.800 The United States military has no role there whatsoever.

00:32:38.720 I've been arguing for three cases more that Israel should resale from American aid.

00:32:45.700 You said it's 1%, even half a percent of GDP.

00:32:50.980 Yes, of course, you can do it without it.

00:32:53.900 And the political cost is high.

00:32:57.300 And there are economic costs as well.

00:33:00.040 You know, anybody gets free money, it distorts the economy, it distorts political decision making, and so forth.

00:33:06.140 Yeah, absolutely.

00:33:06.780 And indeed, one of Benjamin Netanyahu's early campaign was to achieve just that.

00:33:16.820 He doesn't talk about it just anymore, but I think in print, he used an agreement.

00:33:22.200 And it's a matter of finishing off.

00:33:25.040 There was a dear agreement under Obama that is about to conclude that Israel doesn't get much better off with it.

00:33:34.180 Dr. Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum, great to catch up with you.

00:33:38.240 Thanks for your insight, and hopefully we'll talk again.

00:33:41.260 Thank you for the invitation, Esma.

00:33:42.960 Right on.

00:33:43.420 There he is, Daniel Pipes.

00:33:44.720 Stay with us.

00:33:45.360 Your letters to me next.

00:33:55.060 Hey, welcome back.

00:33:55.980 Your letters to me on my weird experience with that security guard at the Calgary airport

00:34:00.460 and the panic by the bureaucracy who read it.

00:34:04.520 Zamrider said, how many Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, are working security at the airports?

00:34:11.760 Hopefully an explosive doesn't get on a plane now that Carney is joining the war.

00:34:15.540 Yeah, I don't think Carney is joining the war.

00:34:17.900 I don't think he could because I think our armed forces are so denuded.

00:34:21.140 Yeah, you know, I think the main thing about that guy wearing a Palestine pin is not just him.

00:34:27.820 It's that every single other person there was cool with it.

00:34:31.420 His bosses, his colleagues.

00:34:33.400 How many else?

00:34:34.320 I mean, it's just totally normal, I guess, to work in the airplane and airport security business

00:34:40.260 and you're a Palestine activist.

00:34:42.100 How could that possibly end well?

00:34:43.780 Next letter from Kasud Braselassi, Canada, a country with 700 plus IRGC terrorists,

00:34:51.820 are dancing around in major Canadian cities.

00:34:54.160 And when politicians telling you Canadian values are Islamic values, 0.98

00:34:57.280 we know we are cooked unless Canadians take drastic measures to put this madness to rest. 0.91

00:35:01.740 Well, that's the thing is we've lost our ability to be shocked.

00:35:05.160 We're just numb to what's normal these days.

00:35:07.720 It is completely insane that there are mass gatherings in Canada memorializing the life

00:35:13.940 of the terrorist Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

00:35:17.220 That's just normal.

00:35:19.080 I think if you were right after 9-11, people would have a proper reaction to it.

00:35:24.320 But after 25 years, we've been numbed.

00:35:26.320 We've been conditioned, don't you think?

00:35:28.860 Next letter, Dwayne French says,

00:35:31.580 You know, it's interesting.

00:35:47.160 Look at the UK because the Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage is winning by-elections

00:35:52.000 are coming in a strong second that they had never had a chance in before.

00:35:56.360 In the most recent by-election, believe it or not,

00:35:59.540 the Conservative Party of Britain, which is ancient, got less than 2%.

00:36:03.860 And it was Reform UK that came in second.

00:36:07.040 The Greens came in first, terrifying.

00:36:10.840 So the UK is very far gone, but they are finally getting around to a political antidote to it.

00:36:15.620 I wonder if Pierre Polyev will come around to a proper antidote to mass immigration.

00:36:20.540 I don't think he's quite found the courage yet, but I hope he will.

00:36:24.220 And as I've been saying since the last election,

00:36:26.740 the media are going to find a controversy and they're going to find a reason to hate you and to attack you.

00:36:32.840 You have a choice.

00:36:34.160 Let them choose the outrage or you choose the controversy.

00:36:38.820 In the last election, it was,

00:36:40.300 You're not being anti-Trump enough.

00:36:42.060 You're not being anti-American enough. 0.90

00:36:44.760 Well, yeah.

00:36:46.220 And that managed to convince a million people in Ontario and Quebec to switch back from Conservative to Liberals.

00:36:52.080 I think if Pierre Polyev were to say, you know what, we're going to freeze immigration, we're going to freeze asylum claims,

00:36:59.740 we're going to deport those who no longer have the right to be here, 1.00

00:37:03.360 we're going to cut international students down by 90%, give Canadians access to those schools, 1.00

00:37:08.320 we're going to cut temporary foreign workers down almost to zero,

00:37:11.760 only if there's a really clear case that you need a seasonal worker just for a short period,

00:37:18.000 say, to pick a crop while there's a short window of time, something like that.

00:37:24.160 I think the media would be so apoplectic, but every time they squawked about it, you'd go up in the polls.

00:37:29.720 That's my theory for how the Conservatives can win.

00:37:32.100 Take the one issue that the Liberals can't copy.

00:37:34.780 That's the show for today.

00:37:37.480 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:37:41.560 good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:37:43.900 Let's see.

00:37:45.600 Let's take the same time.

00:37:46.800 We'll see you next time.

00:37:47.600 .

00:37:50.320 .

00:37:52.600 .

00:38:06.560 .

00:38:12.660 .

00:38:13.140 .

Rebel News Podcast - March 07, 2026

Five stories that explain Canada in 2026

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