The Charlie Kirk Show


Israel v. Iran and America: The Best Outcomes...And the Worst


Summary

The war between Iran and Israel continues, should America get involved? We do a sober take on regime change, and we have a full conversation with Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, on this episode of The Charlie Kirk Show.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here, live from the Bitcoin.com studio.
00:00:04.000 The war between Iran and Israel continues.
00:00:07.000 Should America get involved?
00:00:08.000 We do a very sober take on regime change.
00:00:12.000 And email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:00:15.000 Your thoughts if America should get involved in this war offensively?
00:00:19.000 We have a full conversation.
00:00:20.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and become a member today, members.charliekirk.com.
00:00:26.000 That is members.charliekirk.com.
00:00:29.000 And as always, you can subscribe to our podcast.
00:00:31.000 That is the Charlie Kirk Show podcast page.
00:00:33.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:00:34.000 Here we go.
00:00:35.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:36.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:38.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:42.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:45.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:00:46.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:00:47.000 His spirit, his love of this country.
00:00:49.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:00:56.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:04.000 That's why we are here.
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00:01:32.000 Right now, Israel is getting bombarded.
00:01:36.000 Major, major, Missile volley coming from the interior of Iran as Israel just bombed.
00:01:43.000 Let's get this footage up here.
00:01:44.000 Israel just bombed the media and the news agency headquarters in Iran.
00:01:50.000 The state TV building is burning after Israel bombed it.
00:01:54.000 So let's kind of go through the update here.
00:01:56.000 There is major and significant back and forth between Israel and Iran.
00:02:01.000 Israel, they were the first to strike.
00:02:04.000 And Israel went after nuclear facilities and went after military targets.
00:02:09.000 They even impressively went after some of the generals and they took them out.
00:02:12.000 Iran responded with a major ballistic missile volley.
00:02:16.000 Now, Iran is going to run out of missiles at some point.
00:02:20.000 Iran does not have unlimited ballistic missiles.
00:02:23.000 They have about 3,000 of them.
00:02:24.000 They've probably already used about 700 of them.
00:02:27.000 And so they're going to continue to spend down their payload.
00:02:31.000 And right now, there's been another direct hit in Haifa that we're keeping our eyes on.
00:02:38.000 Now, will Iran come to the table?
00:02:41.000 We'll see.
00:02:42.000 Now, the best possible outcome for Israel would be that Israel gets to hit all their targets, they get in, they get out, they get to declare victory, so on and so forth.
00:02:52.000 So, great, fine, terrific.
00:02:53.000 No American involvement.
00:02:55.000 The worst involvement for America is a little bit harder to define.
00:03:01.000 At any point in time, American troops could get caught up in this.
00:03:04.000 The longer that this goes on, the greater the increase for American troops to be caught up in this conflict.
00:03:14.000 What happens if Iran hits one of our bases?
00:03:19.000 What if Iran kills 50 Americans?
00:03:23.000 How then does the U.S. respond?
00:03:26.000 Are we duty-bound to strike back?
00:03:28.000 Probably.
00:03:30.000 Are we duty-bound to send American troops?
00:03:32.000 Boy, I hope not.
00:03:33.000 But then who is to blame if we get then hit by Iran?
00:03:39.000 Yes, of course, obviously it's Iran, but is Israel trying to drag America into this war?
00:03:45.000 They're saying, no, we are not publicly.
00:03:47.000 Other reports internally say, yes, they are.
00:03:51.000 America is involved in some defensive capacity, which is totally justifiable.
00:03:56.000 There's probably over 700,000 Americans in Israel right now, and we've long done that alongside the Jordanians, so it's not America only that is doing that.
00:04:06.000 Some people are pushing for regime change.
00:04:09.000 I have a very important write-up that I want to share with you about regime change.
00:04:14.000 We do not have time for that right now in this segment.
00:04:19.000 But the important takeaway is this.
00:04:21.000 Be careful when you want to replace a dictator.
00:04:23.000 Take out the Mullah.
00:04:24.000 Take out the Ayatollah.
00:04:26.000 Be careful what comes next.
00:04:28.000 It could be even worse for Israel, actually.
00:04:30.000 I know that's hard to believe.
00:04:31.000 It could be even worse for America.
00:04:34.000 In fact, the only reason that the Mullahs are in charge of Iran is because of America.
00:04:41.000 We got involved and we got rid of Mossadegh.
00:04:47.000 And since we got rid of him, then we put the Shah back in, who was deeply unpopular, and then the Iranian revolution happened.
00:04:56.000 Did regime change work with Gaddafi?
00:04:59.000 Nope.
00:05:00.000 Started a bloody Libyan civil war.
00:05:02.000 Regime change in Syria?
00:05:03.000 Time still to tell.
00:05:05.000 John Bolton is chiming in.
00:05:08.000 John Bolton, who's been wrong about every major foreign policy decision of the last 20 years.
00:05:13.000 John Bolton has been wrong about everything.
00:05:18.000 Iran's ayatollahs are weaker than ever.
00:05:21.000 Maybe.
00:05:22.000 Maybe not.
00:05:23.000 But when the chief neocon John Bolton tells me that, I'm going to be awfully suspicious.
00:05:30.000 Is the goal of the Israeli government regime change?
00:05:33.000 They say it's all about nuclear targets.
00:05:36.000 But if it was only about nuclear targets, why are they hitting the media center in downtown Tehran?
00:05:43.000 These are questions we're going to ask.
00:05:45.000 Pesak Walicki is right now.
00:05:47.000 We should pray for all that are being impacted by these ballistic missiles.
00:05:52.000 Charlie Kirk here.
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00:06:55.000 We are joined now by a great man, Rabbi Pasak Willicki, columnist from the Jerusalem Post, host of the Shoulder Podcast, and he is live from Israel as they just endured another major ballistic volley, salvo from Iran.
00:07:17.000 How are you holding up?
00:07:18.000 What is going on on the ground in Israel?
00:07:21.000 Take our audience into the vibe and the energy on the ground.
00:07:25.000 Well, the vibe is interesting.
00:07:27.000 It's a bit unique in terms of what we dealt with.
00:07:29.000 For most of the war that we've undergone, all of the rocket fire and the ballistic missile fire at us has been, almost all of it has been shot down.
00:07:38.000 But over these last few days, there have been a number of direct hits and there are casualties in Israel's population centers.
00:07:44.000 So that is casting a bit of a pall on things.
00:07:47.000 However, and this has been in all different reports, you know, coming out of all different sectors, the Israeli people are wall to wall.
00:07:55.000 Behind this operation.
00:07:58.000 I've never seen a national consensus quite like this.
00:08:01.000 In fact, Yair Lapid, who is the uber-left, Bibi-hating, he's kind of like our equivalent of Nancy Pelosi for you.
00:08:08.000 He's kind of the head of the opposition, and he is the wokest, most anti-Bibi political figure.
00:08:13.000 Published an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post today.
00:08:17.000 Basically saying the entire Israeli people are united.
00:08:20.000 And that was a very powerful statement to make the point.
00:08:22.000 Here's the guy on the left end of the spectrum, the guy who leads the charge to try to take down Bibi, saying on this thing.
00:08:29.000 And he's been calling for ending the war and that whole anti-Bibi protest movement.
00:08:35.000 But he published that op-ed today to make the point.
00:08:38.000 And I hope your audience hears it loud and clear.
00:08:40.000 The Israeli people are wall-to-wall behind this.
00:08:42.000 The casualties in Tel Aviv, which is our...
00:08:48.000 There have been interviews all over the media of people whose houses have been destroyed saying this is worth it if it ends the Iranian threat once and for all.
00:08:57.000 So Rabbi, thank you for that.
00:09:00.000 And we're praying for the peace of Jerusalem and so many friends throughout Israel that I have and that we have.
00:09:05.000 So a couple of just logistical questions.
00:09:08.000 And if you can't comment on it, it's fine.
00:09:12.000 What exactly is the military operation that Israel is undertaking in the interior of Iran right now?
00:09:19.000 Where are the targets?
00:09:20.000 How are they doing it?
00:09:21.000 Are they using UAVs?
00:09:22.000 Are they using drones?
00:09:23.000 Have they been able to continue to take out the Iranian air defense system?
00:09:29.000 Are they using traditional F-15 or F-35?
00:09:32.000 I don't know if they have F-35s.
00:09:34.000 Technology, please give us some insight into the military strategy that Israel is embarking upon.
00:09:42.000 There are no F-35s in the fight.
00:09:44.000 Just get that one out of the way.
00:09:47.000 So the military strategy starting from the beginning of this was, first of all, there was Mossad operatives on the ground who assembled drones on the ground that were used for a lot of the initial strikes.
00:09:59.000 Those operations, as I understand it, are continuing.
00:10:02.000 In fact, I understand that there was actually a Mossad headquarters in Tehran, if you could believe it.
00:10:07.000 And so, so not all of these They are doing that as well.
00:10:20.000 I don't know all the details, but I know that as ballistic missiles are fired at Israel, each one of those ballistic missiles that's fired then reveals a location from which ballistic missiles are fired.
00:10:33.000 So the Bank of Israel.
00:10:47.000 And I should add, and this is important for your audience, there's a lot of kind of reductionist black and white thinking about this.
00:10:53.000 This isn't only about taking out the nuclear sites.
00:10:56.000 Israel has been terrorized and Israelis have been murdered by the Iranian regime for decades and decades.
00:11:01.000 And this is about taking out Iran's ballistic missile capability, taking out their military capability, because this is a regime that is, by its own daily statements in parliament and at the beginning of every school day in every classroom, devoted to the genocide of the Jewish people and the destruction of Israel.
00:11:18.000 So this is really about destroying Iran's capability to harm Israel.
00:11:23.000 I don't know all the details of all the different places that they're striking.
00:11:29.000 What I do know is that from my sources in the Israeli government and the Israeli military, we are way ahead of schedule, meaning the operation has moved along much more quickly with much greater success than was even anticipated.
00:11:41.000 If someone had told you before this, and there was a lot of fear-mongering going on before this of all the terrible things that would happen, and of course it's not over yet, but if someone had told you before this started that within a day, You would have been told that you were crazy and that the Israelis don't have that capability.
00:12:08.000 But it turns out we do.
00:12:09.000 And there's a lot of other capabilities that Israel has that the naysayers are still saying that Israel does not have.
00:12:15.000 So as far as I can tell, as far as I understand it, the operation is moving along more quickly than even expected, but there are still many more targets.
00:12:23.000 I'm hearing that it's expected to be weeks-long operation, but how long it's going to go is really going to be determined.
00:12:30.000 At what point is the threat neutralized?
00:12:33.000 You know, if your kid is sick and you're by their bedside and someone says, how long are you going to hang out by this bedside?
00:12:38.000 You don't say, well, I have a timeline on it.
00:12:40.000 You say, until they're better.
00:12:42.000 And our children are under attack every day.
00:12:44.000 Our families are under attack every day.
00:12:46.000 We've been under attack for a long, long time.
00:12:48.000 We haven't had the opportunity to do this because we had hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah rockets aimed at us.
00:12:54.000 We had a Hamas army that was a significant army, and we had Iran basically controlling Syria.
00:13:01.000 There were a lot of other threats that made it impossible to take down the primary threat, which stands behind all of those other threats.
00:13:08.000 But back in October, Israel took out The majority of Iran's air defenses, which were Russian-built air defenses that Israel took out, Iran recently started rebuilding them, and that's what really led to the urgency.
00:13:20.000 Again, another piece of misinformation is this whole debate about how close Iran was to the bomb.
00:13:25.000 And that's not the relevant point.
00:13:28.000 The relevant point is how, you know, if someone is vowing to kill me and is They've also taken action throughout the years, trying to kill me and hiring people to kill me and coming after me to kill me.
00:13:46.000 My decision about when to take them out is not only based on how imminent is the danger.
00:13:51.000 It's based on when do I have the opportunity to do it.
00:13:54.000 And with Iran's air defenses degraded last October, Israel realized that the time is now to finally, once and for all, deal with this Iranian threat.
00:14:04.000 So, there's a big push.
00:14:06.000 I got lots of text messages this weekend saying there's a big push for U.S. involvement, specifically for bunker buster bombs.
00:14:13.000 Do you think that's necessary or needed?
00:14:16.000 We certainly here in America are very skeptical and cautious towards that.
00:14:20.000 Yeah, there's a lot of—I see this talk a lot also, Charlie, on social media and elsewhere about Israel calling for U.S. involvement, Israel wanting U.S. involvement.
00:14:29.000 All I can say is both from an interview given by Israel's foreign minister on CNN yesterday, but also from today, the National Security Council head, Sachi Hanegbi, who's really been—if you ever see a picture of the Security Council, the Security Cabinet in an Israel meeting, he's always the guy sitting to the right of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
00:14:47.000 He said today in mass media, and it was quoted on X, that the war was planned by Israel.
00:14:57.000 We do not need the U.S. for the goals that are defined by the war.
00:15:01.000 We can handle it ourselves, including Fordow.
00:15:04.000 As far as I can tell, and I'm very well-sourced, Charlie, the Israeli establishment, the Israeli government, the Israeli leadership is not asking for U.S. involvement.
00:15:15.000 I know there's a lot of misinformation about this, but they are not asking for U.S. involvement.
00:15:19.000 If that's the case, then all foreign aid can be cut to Israel?
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00:16:41.000 Rabbi Pasak Walicki is with us.
00:16:43.000 Rabbi, I want to give you a chance to respond to that because there is some confusion from our audience.
00:16:48.000 What does U.S. involvement mean?
00:16:50.000 And then can we have agreement that we should not have bunker buster B-52 type material supplied to Israel?
00:16:59.000 Listen, the Israelis, I'm going to say it again, the Israelis have not asked the United States for their assistance.
00:17:05.000 Publicly, statements have been made by the top echelons of the Israeli government saying that They're not requesting U.S. assistance.
00:17:13.000 They've informed the U.S. of what they're doing.
00:17:15.000 What the Americans decide to do, what they decide is in American interest, they will decide to do.
00:17:21.000 Israel's not going to refuse an offer of assistance if it comes from the Americans, and then if American citizens are upset about that, that's between Americans and their government.
00:17:30.000 Israel's not requesting this assistance.
00:17:33.000 But the question you left us with before the break, if we could talk about that.
00:17:38.000 Can we go there and talk about the U.S. aid?
00:17:41.000 Because, you know, you asked the question about, you know, cutting off aid to Israel.
00:17:45.000 Look, I am one of a number of voices, and I get flack from this here in Israel, from people who disagree, of course, but I'm with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who said just about a month ago, And I've been calling for that.
00:18:04.000 There's a number of Knesset members who have started calling for that.
00:18:07.000 And I'm in favor of ending the aid to Israel.
00:18:11.000 And to me, the political cost of the aid is not worth it, but also it ties Israel's hands.
00:18:18.000 we are right now nearing the end of a 10-year memorandum of understanding that was signed at the tail end of the Obama administration in September 2016, a military aid package to Israel.
00:18:29.000 And that package, when you say like ending the aid, that package included a requirement that Israel shut down certain critical parts of its own weapons industry so that they could not make them themselves and would only be able to acquire them by buying them from the It's kind of a bait and switch.
00:18:54.000 Wait a second.
00:18:55.000 We have to shut down our military industry making certain weapons.
00:18:58.000 That's a good point.
00:18:58.000 You're just going to.
00:18:59.000 So we can't cold Turkey cut off the aid because Israel needs to have an opportunity to rebuild that part of its weapons industry that Obama.
00:19:09.000 So I am in favor of getting rid of the aid.
00:19:13.000 Let me also add in, Charlie, we have to put the aid into proper perspective.
00:19:17.000 And it's something that's really missing from the whole conversation.
00:19:20.000 If you look at a map of where the United States has military bases around the world, and this is available online, you'll see that there are American military bases in numerous Middle Eastern countries around Israel.
00:19:32.000 Jordan has American bases in it.
00:19:34.000 Saudi Arabia has American bases.
00:19:35.000 There's other countries in the area that have American bases in them.
00:19:39.000 What does it cost to operate those bases?
00:19:42.000 You know, there's no U.S. base in Israel.
00:19:46.000 And so the U.S. military aid, I'm not saying that's what its purpose is necessarily, but no one refers to the U.S. bases in Jordan as U.S. aid to Jordan.
00:19:58.000 They're just called defense spending.
00:19:59.000 But America doesn't need to have bases in Israel because Israel is a reliable ally.
00:20:04.000 So when we take a look at the expenditures abroad, the aid to Israel is not that significant.
00:20:12.000 That said, I agree, we should draw it back.
00:20:15.000 At this point, it equals less than 1% of our GDP.
00:20:27.000 It's about 2% of our total budget.
00:20:30.000 90% of Israel's military is paid for by Israel.
00:20:34.000 So the time has come.
00:20:35.000 Israel is independent enough.
00:20:36.000 Israel is strong enough.
00:20:37.000 And Prime Minister Netanyahu has said this, that we need to move towards drawing down the aid completely.
00:20:41.000 A final point I'll make, Charlie, is that the amount of money that the United States has poured into Ukraine, and I'm opposed to all of that.
00:20:49.000 I'm with you.
00:20:50.000 But the amount of money that the U.S. has poured into Ukraine since the start of that war is greater than the total amount of money that Israel has received in aid from the United States since the state of Israel was born in 1948.
00:21:03.000 That's right.
00:21:04.000 That is true.
00:21:05.000 Rabbi, in closing here, just what would you say is a victory in the next couple of weeks?
00:21:13.000 Like, in your own words, define what victory would look like in this war.
00:21:16.000 That's a great question.
00:21:18.000 Let's first define the war.
00:21:21.000 This is not a new war.
00:21:22.000 People talk about Israel starting a war against Iran.
00:21:25.000 Hezbollah is Iran.
00:21:27.000 The Houthis are a proxy of Iran.
00:21:28.000 Hamas was funded by Iran.
00:21:30.000 The only reason that Israel didn't do what it's doing now, on October 8th, when Hezbollah started firing ballistic missiles at our northern communities, was because we had other enemies facing us that we had to deal with.
00:21:42.000 So this is the same war that was started on October 7th.
00:21:45.000 Let's make no mistake about it.
00:21:46.000 This is just...
00:21:50.000 What victory looks like is that there is no longer a threat from Iran.
00:21:55.000 That there is no longer a threat of ballistic missiles.
00:21:58.000 There is no longer a nuclear program.
00:22:00.000 And how the Iranian people, whether the existing government moderates, whether there is a regime change from within, that is up to the Iranian people.
00:22:10.000 The Israelis are not going to impose anything, and we're not going to put troops on the ground there to do it.
00:22:13.000 Rabbi Pasek Woleki, thank you so much.
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00:23:25.000 Take out the mullahs!
00:23:26.000 Knock them out!
00:23:28.000 You got John Bolton who's getting a little excited.
00:23:31.000 Let me translate for you right now.
00:23:33.000 He writes in the Wall Street Journal.
00:23:35.000 And you guys know I'm pro-Israel.
00:23:36.000 I don't think I need to prove that any further.
00:23:38.000 I have the scars to prove that I'm pro-Israel from all the campus events.
00:23:43.000 Iran's Ayatollahs are weaker than ever.
00:23:45.000 Let me tell you what John Bolton is really saying here.
00:23:48.000 He's basically saying that we should go for the throat and we need to execute regime change.
00:23:53.000 That is what John Bolton is saying in neocon speak, in so many words.
00:23:58.000 But did you know that we only have a problem in Iran at the scale and the magnitude that we currently have because we involved ourselves in regime change?
00:24:08.000 America has a long history of regime change with Iran.
00:24:13.000 Historically, Iran was then called Persia way back in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.
00:24:19.000 It was ruled by a Shah, an absolute monarch.
00:24:23.000 During World War II, the British and the Soviets invaded Iran because they were worried that it would ally with Hitler.
00:24:30.000 They deposed the ruling Shah, throwing the country into turmoil.
00:24:35.000 The Shah's son took power, but then he was overthrown too.
00:24:39.000 Iran came under the rule of a prime minister who had a lot of popular support.
00:24:43.000 But to be honest, he was kind of a communist.
00:24:44.000 He wanted to nationalize the oil.
00:24:46.000 His name was Mosagdet.
00:24:48.000 He was not a great guy.
00:24:50.000 He basically tried to make himself a dictator.
00:24:53.000 He tilted towards the Soviet Union, and he was hostile to American economic interests.
00:24:58.000 So our leaders got in their heads that they should overthrow him.
00:25:01.000 So they said, this guy is bad.
00:25:03.000 How could anything get worse than Mosagdet?
00:25:07.000 He was largely secular.
00:25:09.000 He was not Islamic.
00:25:12.000 So we, in our American mind, said this guy is terrible.
00:25:16.000 He's a communist.
00:25:17.000 Take him out.
00:25:19.000 What could be worse than Mossadegh?
00:25:21.000 So we did.
00:25:22.000 And by the way, our government lied about it for years.
00:25:26.000 The CIA and MI6 assisted the Iranian military in overthrowing Mossadegh.
00:25:31.000 They lied about it and finally declassified files showed that No, we were involved and we got rid of the democratically elected, somewhat communistic, Mossadig, interfering with the self-determination of the Iranian people.
00:25:45.000 Because we said, what could be worse than this guy?
00:25:47.000 Well, we reinstalled the Shah.
00:25:50.000 And look, the Shah was an autocrat.
00:25:51.000 He was also super sick and very weak.
00:25:54.000 He was not able to really run the country.
00:25:56.000 But hey, he was anti-communist and pro-America.
00:25:59.000 But he was not popular in his country.
00:26:01.000 And since he was America's guy, that made America much more unpopular in Iran.
00:26:06.000 And then in the 1970s, Iran had another revolution because of us.
00:26:12.000 And this is when Islam surfaced.
00:26:16.000 A group of radical Islamic students launched demonstrations against the regime, and eventually they overthrew the Shah.
00:26:22.000 They recalled an exiled Islamic cleric, the infamous Ayatollah Khomeini, back from exile, and they made him the theocratic ruler.
00:26:30.000 Because America had involved itself so aggressively in Iranian affairs before these people really hated America.
00:26:36.000 And so, thanks to our intervention in that country in the 50s, we made them an enemy for decades to come.
00:26:43.000 This radical regime took dozens of Americans as hostages in our embassy.
00:26:47.000 They sponsored terrorism around the world and they called us the great Satan.
00:26:51.000 The moral here is that we should not invade Iran and we should not...
00:26:58.000 Sometimes you get something way worse.
00:27:00.000 Like Iraq, you get ISIS.
00:27:02.000 Libya, you get civil war.
00:27:04.000 This has unforeseen and often disastrous consequences.
00:27:08.000 And that's why we should avoid reckless regime change wars when we can.
00:27:13.000 Very often, you get even worse than what you used to get.
00:27:17.000 And right now, if you have regime change in Iran, what do you think you'll get next?
00:27:22.000 You have a regime change in Iran?
00:27:24.000 You'll get a civil war, almost certainly.
00:27:26.000 Oh, who cares if they have a civil war?
00:27:28.000 Oh, okay.
00:27:31.000 Where are all those people going to go?
00:27:32.000 To Europe.
00:27:34.000 They're going to flee.
00:27:35.000 You'll create a refugee crisis.
00:27:36.000 If the Iranian people want to have self-determination and they want to have a new form of government, so be it.
00:27:41.000 We as the West should not be involved.
00:27:44.000 We should not call shots because Iran is only a problem today.
00:27:49.000 Because we got involved thinking we knew better.
00:27:51.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:27:52.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.