The Glenn Beck Program - Ep 163 ｜ The UNTOLD Story of Israel's Peace in the Middle East ｜ PM Netanyahu ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast

00:00:00.000 The news broke at dawn as the sun rose over Jerusalem.

00:00:04.100 Flags and banners shook in the air as crowds chanted about the return of the king.

00:00:10.220 This isn't a scene from the Bible.

00:00:12.500 It's a snapshot from last Wednesday when today's guest once again rose to power.

00:00:19.240 Israel has existed for 74 years, and he has ruled 15 of them. 0.97

00:00:24.980 He served as prime minister through three U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton, Obama, Trump.

00:00:31.040 And now he will continue his lineage as Israel's longest-serving prime minister beginning in 1996 when he was 46 years old.

00:00:39.560 He was the youngest prime minister ever born in the state of Israel.

00:00:44.140 That's just one part of his incredible story, which he tells now in his autobiography, Bibi, My Story,

00:00:51.180 which the economists called a fascinating study of power.

00:00:56.300 That is accurate.

00:00:58.080 The stories that are in the book and that you will hopefully hear today will show you much, much more.

00:01:06.340 The man took breaks from his master program at MIT in order to conduct top-secret intelligence missions.

00:01:14.820 Somehow survived.

00:01:16.260 His story is nothing short of a political thriller.

00:01:19.060 It's a story of tragedy, faith, wisdom, and devotion.

00:01:24.440 Devotion, most of all, to his people and his home, Israel. 0.99

00:01:29.360 There are only about 9 million people in Israel.

00:01:32.860 It's a patch of land roughly the size of New Jersey.

00:01:37.240 Globally, there are only about 15 million Jews.

00:01:40.740 That 0.2% of the global population has changed the world.

00:01:46.320 It is hard to imagine a more embattled people.

00:01:52.080 Today's guest is devoted to protecting them.

00:01:55.400 His life's goal is to secure the life of the Jewish state and the future.

00:02:00.580 Please welcome one of my heroes and my friend Benjamin Netanyahu.

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00:03:14.340 Just text GLENN at 66866.

00:03:18.740 That's 66866.

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00:03:34.040 Prime Minister, how good to see you again.

00:03:36.920 Hello, Glenn.

00:03:37.660 Good to see you, Glenn.

00:03:39.420 After all these years.

00:03:40.860 Yeah, I know.

00:03:41.580 And here you are on America's Biggest Anti-Semites Podcast, as they usually call me.

00:03:50.500 Congratulations on becoming the Prime Minister.

00:03:54.480 And it is your career from start to finish, not just as Prime Minister.

00:04:00.720 Your whole life has been remarkably lived.

00:04:03.840 Well, it's a life of purpose.

00:04:08.300 My purpose was to help secure the security, prosperity, and permanence of the one and only Jewish state.

00:04:16.120 Yeah.

00:04:16.440 It's a hard-willed gift, a precious gift.

00:04:19.540 It's the realization of the dream of ages, the ingathering of the exiles. 1.00

00:04:23.840 But it's not guaranteed unless we guarantee it.

00:04:27.620 So I've devoted my life to doing just that.

00:04:31.400 Somebody asked you in 2011 how you hope to be remembered.

00:04:36.180 And you said that I helped secure the life of the Jewish state and its future.

00:04:40.360 You're going to be remembered for much more than that.

00:04:42.780 But can you really secure Israel without securing it as a Jewish state? 0.92

00:04:52.480 No, that's precisely the point.

00:04:54.480 You don't have to secure it as a Jewish state.

00:04:56.720 We didn't come—Israel is, in many ways, like the United States. 0.88

00:05:01.360 It's a country based on an idea, on an ideal.

00:05:04.880 It's the return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.

00:05:10.520 It's the dream of ages, as I call it, because after we were exiled and left our land thousands of years ago,

00:05:18.680 actually 1,500 years ago, if you want to be precise, when it ceased to be a majority in our land,

00:05:23.860 after the Arab conquest in the 7th century,

00:05:26.500 we sought to return to our land and reestablish our independent life there.

00:05:31.580 And so for centuries, Jews could be anywhere.

00:05:34.860 They could be in a ghetto in Poland or a ghetto in Yemen or anywhere in the far-flung corners of the earth.

00:05:41.020 And they prayed next year in Jerusalem, next year in Jerusalem.

00:05:45.280 And it took us almost two millennia to make our way back and reestablish our state, our united capital, Jerusalem,

00:05:54.480 and the rebirth of the Jewish people, the ingathering of the tribes and the wondrous country that we built.

00:06:03.260 But it is one that is continuously challenged by those who want to extinguish the flame and want to annihilate us.

00:06:11.100 So, you know, we've learned through our tortured history that if somebody says,

00:06:15.100 I'm going to annihilate you, you should believe them and take action.

00:06:18.880 Isn't that a pretty good rule of thumb? 0.96

00:06:21.280 I mean, I remember in 1989 pointing out Osama bin Laden to people and saying,

00:06:26.500 he's threatening to kill people in the streets of New York.

00:06:31.400 I think we should just take him seriously.

00:06:33.280 If we're wrong, then great.

00:06:34.660 But if we, if he is serious, won't we regret not taking him seriously?

00:06:40.440 Well, evidently, but for us, you know, it's not, it's not exactly an impossible thing to imagine,

00:06:51.060 given that they, Iran, for example, is trying to build atomic bombs with the means to deliver them to Israel. 0.56

00:06:57.960 And they say openly, we're going to destroy you. 0.67

00:07:00.000 By the way, they chant death to Israel and then simultaneously death to America, 1.00

00:07:05.160 because we're the little Satan and you, America, are the great Satan. 0.94

00:07:09.560 So I devote a good part of my book to my battle, my diplomatic and political battle,

00:07:16.720 and some description, not much, but whatever I can officially say about the other operations that we did to roll back Iran's nuclear program.

00:07:27.180 Right.

00:07:27.560 I described one such operation, which was made public by me because I thought it was important.

00:07:33.880 And I sent the Mossad agents to the heart of Tehran to break into the secret atomic archive that Tehran had. 0.80

00:07:44.780 And they brought back half a ton's worth of material.

00:07:47.920 They were given chase by Iran's secret police and thousands of Iranian policemen.

00:07:53.060 And if you saw the movie Argo, this is Argo on steroids, super steroids.

00:07:58.740 They made it out.

00:08:00.240 And this material enabled me to show the world that Iran was lying through its teeth when it said it wasn't seeking to develop nuclear weapons. 0.82

00:08:07.220 Of course it is.

00:08:08.020 And we have to do everything in our power to prevent it from getting them.

00:08:11.180 It seems as though there is a new evil.

00:08:16.440 You come from a family of Holocaust survivors and there is a new evil. 1.00

00:08:21.660 It's it's not new, but it seems to be rearing its head again.

00:08:25.940 And people are always surprised that, you know, or saying, how could you possibly say this about Iran?

00:08:32.720 Iran was named Iran translation Aryan as kind of a gift to Hitler.

00:08:40.020 Was it not?

00:08:42.040 Well, it had some common strands, but Iran has now been taken over by a gang, basically a thuggery. 0.98

00:08:52.800 You know, these Ayatollah thugs who repress their people. 1.00

00:08:58.000 And you can see, I think the nature of this regime has now been unmasked for the entire world to see with the incredibly brave men and incredibly brave women of Iran.

00:09:09.900 And who are taking to the streets to protest against the horrible suppression of rights.

00:09:16.160 So this is the regime that people were going to give a nuclear deal that would effectively give them pave their way with gold, with hundreds of billions of dollars of gold by lifting sanctions to establish this nuclear arsenal and to to propel their aggression far and wide.

00:09:33.540 That was a bad deal.

00:09:35.540 And I describe also in my book how I decided, because it was a threat to my country, to go to a joint session of Congress and challenge this deal, which was advanced by an American president.

00:09:45.800 I had no choice.

00:09:46.700 My country's survival would be alive.

00:09:48.560 You let me let me let me let me get into the presidential section.

00:09:52.720 And since you kind of brought us there, you have served with Bill Clinton in office.

00:09:59.640 Barack Obama was in office.

00:10:02.080 Donald Trump.

00:10:02.940 You've known Joe Biden for a long time.

00:10:05.260 You wrote when you first met with President Obama and you came was maybe not the first time you met him.

00:10:13.700 But when you came here, you said Obama said something out of character that shocked you deeply.

00:10:19.400 You write the prime minister of Israel was being treated as a minor thug in the neighborhood.

00:10:24.800 You don't say what he said.

00:10:27.720 But what did he say to you that made you feel mistreated and disrespected?

00:10:33.640 Yeah.

00:10:35.260 Well, save that for the sequel.

00:10:39.400 Did it was it was it something about because I remember you were kept you were kept waiting for him for a long time, which I thought was extraordinarily disrespectful.

00:10:50.760 I think you were referring to something into another meeting, but no, this was an exchange where, you know, Obama, by the way, I respected.

00:10:59.920 I thought he was actually a strong president.

00:11:02.220 He just had we and I had different convictions on two important matters.

00:11:07.860 One was the Palestinians and the second was Iran. 0.87

00:11:10.980 And I think there was a larger philosophical difference between us.

00:11:14.260 He believed that peace brings power.

00:11:17.360 And I thought that power brings peace.

00:11:19.700 And in our area, it not only brings peace, it maintains it, because if you're not powerful, you'll be devoured soon enough.

00:11:25.640 So Obama sought to make a deal with Iran that I thought would endanger Israel.

00:11:31.780 And therefore, I had no choice but to to go to the joint session of Congress.

00:11:37.320 At the time when he was president and speak out against the deal that I thought could jeopardize the existence of Israel.

00:11:45.580 I thought it was also in danger in the United States.

00:11:48.820 But nevertheless, it was it wasn't an easy decision.

00:11:52.520 I described how I took it.

00:11:54.220 I also had a terrible this was the most important speech of my life, Glenn.

00:11:59.000 And in the evening, as I'm about to prepare for the speech, I land in Washington and I go to the Willard Hotel.

00:12:06.260 And I'm going to, you know, shape, you know, write the speech or rather edit it, give it a final edit and practice it because you have to practice the speech.

00:12:16.180 You know, often I don't often extemporane, extemporized.

00:12:20.180 But this wasn't the case.

00:12:21.680 Well, I couldn't do it because my nose was stuffed.

00:12:29.360 My sinuses were stuffed.

00:12:31.260 And I was using this, these nose drops, this nose spray, and it just got worse. 0.99

00:12:37.420 And I said, forgive me, God damn it. 0.95

00:12:40.820 You know, the most important speech of my life. 0.98

00:12:43.300 And I can't.

00:12:44.240 I was choking in mid sentence, every sentence, every sentence.

00:12:48.920 So I said, that's it.

00:12:50.320 I'm gone.

00:12:51.120 Well, my wife, Sarah, said to me, you know, we'll just go to sleep and then you'll wake up in the morning and go away.

00:12:57.580 Well, it didn't go away and I didn't sleep awake.

00:13:00.760 I get up in the morning, I shave, I'm completely stuffed and I'm going, we're driving to the Capitol building where I'm going to give the speech.

00:13:09.000 And I'm just sniffing away, sniffing away.

00:13:11.380 And lo and behold, a miracle.

00:13:14.000 My sinus is cleared.

00:13:15.660 I go smiling into Speaker Boehner's office.

00:13:19.280 I give the speech.

00:13:20.500 It stayed clear for until the evening.

00:13:22.620 Then it got stuffed again.

00:13:23.920 So let's say that Providence was with me because it's very hard to give a speech if you can't breathe.

00:13:28.460 Yeah.

00:13:28.900 And it was a it was a very good speech.

00:13:33.320 Soon, we're going to get into some of his military service and what really motivated him.

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00:14:50.620 You said in your book, I felt like a boxer after a bruising fight.

00:14:56.120 But then thinking about your father and grandfather, it revised revived you.

00:15:01.000 What was that revelation or feeling that revived you?

00:15:04.700 Well, I thought of the distance that the great odyssey that our people made.

00:15:11.560 And because remember that a mere seventy five years ago, the Jewish people were slaughtered. 0.69

00:15:17.140 I mean, a third of our people, six million Jews were slaughtered, burnt at the stake in the oven, so to speak.

00:15:24.740 Not in the oven, so to speak.

00:15:26.680 In the ovens.

00:15:27.480 Of Auschwitz and the ovens of the death camps, the Nazi death camps.

00:15:31.500 And we were, you know, like a wind tossed leaf over the ages, having lost our the land of Israel and scattered among the nations, massacred repeatedly, exiled, pogromed and finally subjected to the Holocaust.

00:15:48.060 And so it wasn't clear that the Jewish people would survive.

00:15:51.260 Yet we had a few years later, this fledgling state of Israel, tiny state.

00:15:57.460 You can fit it into the width fits into the Washington Beltway.

00:16:01.400 And yet we had risen from the death, from the ashes, and we formed this incredibly potent and vibrant state.

00:16:10.200 And here I was now able to stand before the most important political forum in the world, which is the U.S. Congress, and speak to the American people, speak to the world.

00:16:20.760 And as the leader of a proud nation that seeks to defend itself by itself against those who once again wish to annihilate us.

00:16:31.660 And yet we are so much stronger, so vibrant, and so determined, and so resolute that I was thinking about both the Jewish people, but also my grandfather, who was a rabbi, who went to what is now the land of Israel, you know, 100 years ago.

00:16:50.760 And after he had been beaten as a Jew, and he vowed that this cannot happen, this cannot be the tragic fate of the descendants of the brave Maccabees.

00:17:03.800 And he vowed that he would take his family, his young family, to the land of Israel. 0.72

00:17:09.580 My father will work to establish the Jewish state and to agitate with American leaders such as General Eisenhower.

00:17:17.260 I mean, they argued that Israel should, they should recognize Israel because it would be the strongest ally of America in the Middle East and prevent Soviet domination.

00:17:27.280 This was unheard of.

00:17:28.800 Eisenhower asked him, you're only, my father was a young man at the time, it was in his 30s.

00:17:33.260 And when he met Eisenhower, he was the head of the army right after the war, the Second World War.

00:17:39.220 He said, well, you're only 600,000, you know, and your enemies outnumber you, you know, by such a huge multiple.

00:17:48.340 How would you defend yourself?

00:17:49.660 How could you become the most powerful army and state in the Middle East?

00:17:53.640 And my father said to him, General, you've just seen in World War I and in World War II, how we Jews fight for others.

00:18:02.640 Imagine how strong we'll be when we fight for ourselves.

00:18:06.300 And he was right, of course.

00:18:07.700 I thought about him.

00:18:08.560 And I thought of my brother who fell while leading perhaps the most spectacular rescue operation in modern times, rescuing 103 Jewish hostages who were taken there by German and Palestinian terrorists into the heart of Africa in Entebbe, Uganda.

00:18:27.720 I thought this was a vindication of the hopes of our people and, frankly, the hopes of my own family and the labor of my own family.

00:18:38.820 Because it's not that the attacks on the Jews disappeared with the rise of Israel.

00:18:45.060 It's that Israel could now defend itself against those who wish to exterminate it.

00:18:50.780 You were mentioning the birth of Israel.

00:18:55.560 And in my study of the birth of Israel, the State Department, the U.S. State Department, wanted nothing to do with it.

00:19:05.900 In fact, they threatened Truman.

00:19:08.940 I'm trying to remember Chaim, his last name, that.

00:19:13.500 Weitzman.

00:19:13.940 What was it?

00:19:14.400 Weitzman.

00:19:15.060 Yes.

00:19:15.600 Weitzman.

00:19:16.200 Yes.

00:19:16.420 And Truman was convinced it was the right thing to do.

00:19:24.240 And the the State Department threatened him.

00:19:27.900 We'll take you down if you do it.

00:19:29.320 And he just did it anyway.

00:19:31.300 State Department was wrong then.

00:19:32.960 I think they've been wrong ever since.

00:19:34.580 But the same thing, very similar, happened with Donald Trump, the State Department and you.

00:19:42.640 I mean, everyone said, no, you can't do it.

00:19:48.260 It'll be a global war.

00:19:49.580 And no, you didn't.

00:19:51.020 You know, you didn't.

00:19:52.720 I'm saying the State Department.

00:19:54.440 You're kind of playing the Weitzman role here as as.

00:20:00.840 Well, yeah, I'll tell you what happened.

00:20:04.160 The president.

00:20:05.820 First of all, it's it's it's it's an absurdity.

00:20:09.040 I mean, the president decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

00:20:17.080 Now, if I told you that Washington is not the capital of America, it's right to the British that London is not the capital of Britain.

00:20:27.420 They'd scoff at me.

00:20:28.420 And if I said the same thing to the French about Paris, they'd scoff at me. 0.61

00:20:33.340 And yet Jerusalem is a much older capital.

00:20:36.300 It was established as our capital by King David, for God's sake, three, three thousand years ago, three thousand years ago, three thousand twenty two years ago.

00:20:45.600 He decided that it's our capital and it's been our eternal capital ever since.

00:20:50.800 And yet, because of the air pressure over the years, over the decades, governments refuse to admit this inalienable historic fact.

00:21:02.220 It's also a modern fact.

00:21:03.680 That's where the our parliament is, our Knesset.

00:21:06.220 That's where the prime minister's office is, the government offices are, the Supreme Court and so on.

00:21:11.200 So President Trump decided to put an end to that.

00:21:14.240 But before he did that, he was warned by the experts, the so-called experts, that this would entail terrible violence.

00:21:20.840 And, you know, American embassies would be burned throughout the Middle East.

00:21:25.060 So I knew that, you know, the American defense bureaucracy was asked to talk to their counterparts here, you know, in Israel and to see whether there is such a danger.

00:21:40.560 Well, I was heading over to over to a trip to Africa and I asked my national security advisor when I learned that these calls would take place.

00:21:50.620 I said, I know you prepared this trip.

00:21:52.740 I described this in my book, by the way.

00:21:54.580 I said, I know you worked hard for this African tour.

00:21:57.620 Very important one.

00:21:58.680 But I asked you now to get off the plane, go to the prime minister's office in Jerusalem and talk to every one of the heads of our security services so that they tell their American counterparts exactly what they told me.

00:22:17.020 And what they told me was that there's no real danger inside.

00:22:23.300 Well, the president asked to talk to me directly, President Trump.

00:22:26.520 And he asked, well, what do you think?

00:22:29.120 And I said, look, I don't see it.

00:22:31.920 And my intel guys tell me the same thing.

00:22:34.020 But I'll tell you, if there is a danger, it'll be directed first against us.

00:22:38.000 And we're willing to, you know, take the brunt of any attack.

00:22:42.180 But frankly, I just don't see it because I was giving him an honest answer.

00:22:47.000 Anyway, he decided, luckily or gratefully, that he would declare Jerusalem as Israel's capital. 0.98

00:22:54.560 And of course, nothing of the kind that was described happened.

00:22:58.080 Right.

00:22:58.520 And then the embassy there.

00:23:00.280 And that was a very moving day because he punctured this this myth.

00:23:04.900 And frankly, you know, finally punctured this lie and just did the simple thing.

00:23:13.560 It was a great moment.

00:23:14.380 And I would have never.

00:23:16.820 I mean, Reagan promised he was going to do that.

00:23:19.220 Every Republican president has promised they were going to do that.

00:23:22.240 I really didn't see Trump as the guy to do it, nor to make peace in the Middle East so much more of a reality.

00:23:30.920 How did this guy come about this and what role did you play in putting these things to rest?

00:23:43.140 I mean, honestly, it is like every common sense American has said, let's just do these things.

00:23:52.940 And it doesn't seem to be that hard.

00:23:55.560 But the State Department and every president has made it so difficult.

00:23:59.460 Why Trump?

00:24:00.760 Well, I think that it's because of his irreverence.

00:24:04.700 It's because he was willing to break away from accepted norms, although it took a while to persuade him as well.

00:24:12.420 And I'll tell you why it was difficult, because over the years, there's been this myth developed that you can't make peace with the Arab world unless you make peace with the Palestinians.

00:24:22.400 The problem with that is that the Palestinians don't want peace.

00:24:26.320 They don't even want a piece of Israel. 0.95

00:24:27.960 They want all of Israel. 0.97

00:24:29.340 They don't want to make peace.

00:24:31.860 They don't want to stay next to Israel. 1.00

00:24:33.700 They want to stay instead of Israel. 0.99

00:24:35.020 So if you keep waiting for them, we waited for a quarter of a century from the last two peace treaties, the first two peace treaties we had, one with Egypt and one with Jordan.

00:24:44.920 And for a quarter of a century, people said you can't make peace with the other Arab states because you have to get finished with the Palestinians first.

00:24:53.200 And if we went down that route, we'd wait another half century, you know.

00:24:56.620 So I didn't.

00:24:57.560 I went directly to the Arab states, and the reason I could get to them well before the Abraham Accords or even the Trump presidency was because of, and I'll tell you how it unfolded, which, again, I described in detail in the book.

00:25:14.660 It unfolded because of the rise of two powers.

00:25:17.580 The first power that rose was Iran, which was threatening the Arab countries as much as it was threatening Israel, perhaps not with annihilation in their case, but just the conquest. 0.89

00:25:29.040 In our case, it's annihilation.

00:25:31.200 But that's, I would say, a good enough meeting of interest.

00:25:37.960 Okay.

00:25:38.180 So they needed somebody to stand up to Iran. 0.99

00:25:41.560 The second thing is, it also wanted to, this was also coincided with the rise of Israeli powers.

00:25:49.280 Israel became a powerful country because I had led a free market revolution in Israel, made it a jump.

00:25:58.120 Yeah, most people don't.

00:25:59.280 I don't think most people know that you are the guy that really kind of brought the free market to Israel.

00:26:05.140 You changed the economy.

00:26:07.780 You changed everything in Israel, really. 0.89

00:26:09.600 You changed the landscape.

00:26:11.580 I'm sitting in my office in Tel Aviv.

00:26:13.400 When I took over as the head of the Likud and his prime minister shortly after, there were two high-rise buildings in Tel Aviv.

00:26:20.500 Now there is a forest.

00:26:21.740 Yeah.

00:26:22.260 It's become, we just passed the GDP per capita, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Germany.

00:26:31.340 But that, you know, that was a free market revolution that required dozens and dozens of reforms.

00:26:38.580 But because Israel became more, Iran became more powerful, Israel became more powerful, more powerful economically, technologically, militarily, powerful with military and anti-terror intelligence, which we share first with the United States before any other country, but with many others.

00:26:56.580 So these Arab states said, you know, they began to look at Israel not as their enemy, but as their indispensable ally, both as a bulwark against Iran, but also as a fountainhead of technology that could serve, civilian technology that could serve their people.

00:27:18.180 So I went there, but when did the click happen?

00:27:22.220 It happened when I went to the U.S. Congress, to the Joint Session of Congress, to challenge President Obama's policy.

00:27:28.840 And mind you, President Obama also assisted us with military support, which I, it happened later, and I was very grateful to that.

00:27:37.580 But on this, I had no choice but to challenge it.

00:27:39.900 While I was giving that speech, there were calls from Arab leaders in the Gulf who said to my people, we cannot believe that your prime minister is doing what he's doing now, that he's actually standing up to the president.

00:27:55.520 And that led to secret meetings in 2015, subsequently to overflights over Saudi Arabia for Israelis.

00:28:07.440 Yeah, yeah.

00:28:09.020 Now hundreds of thousands have gone to Dubai and so on, and this happens daily.

00:28:13.340 You can't add enough flights to deal with the demand, and it's both ways.

00:28:18.160 But when President Trump came in, I said, I suggested to him that we have four peace treaties, I said, ready to, for the taking.

00:28:27.700 I suggested that he come with an aircraft carrier to the Red Sea in the Middle East, invite me and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and others.

00:28:41.260 And I said there are four peace treaties to be had.

00:28:44.800 He wasn't convinced initially.

00:28:46.340 It took me a few years to convince him.

00:28:48.600 But once I did, we completed these peace deals, which we were working on secretly.

00:28:54.200 And then we had four peace treaties in four months.

00:28:57.960 And the American contribution was essential.

00:29:01.800 The base, the foundation was made by, as I said, the rise of Israeli power and the secret diplomacy that preceded it for years.

00:29:09.540 But the American contribution was stellar and important to finish, seal the deal, if you will.

00:29:17.100 I will.

00:29:17.560 By the way, I will.

00:29:19.160 More will be coming.

00:29:20.920 I will tell you that this is, you know, as I'm reading this in BB, I'm thinking that's not the story that America got.

00:29:30.740 Well, it's the story.

00:29:36.860 I mean, I don't describe every clandestine meeting that I had.

00:29:41.280 Right.

00:29:41.340 But what I'm telling you is that I think it shows that when an American president and an Israeli prime minister see eye to eye.

00:29:51.760 It can happen.

00:29:52.560 Then the sky's the limit.

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00:30:47.140 I know you are friends with I mean, you you never speak ill of or try not to.

00:30:53.260 I've never heard you do it of Republicans or Democrats.

00:30:56.740 You know, you stay out of American politics, et cetera, et cetera.

00:30:59.980 But you've known Joe Biden for a long time.

00:31:02.100 And one of the first things he did was cancel the Iranian deal, which seems like total and complete madness.

00:31:13.600 What does he say about that?

00:31:16.260 You mean the abrogation of the deal?

00:31:17.820 Yes, yes.

00:31:18.920 Yes.

00:31:19.340 Look, I think there is a there's a disagreement with successive administrations beginning, obviously, with the Obama administration that worked hard to achieve this deal, believing that it would somehow.

00:31:32.840 You know, domesticate this wild animal, Iran, this wild tiger. 1.00

00:31:39.840 And I argued in my speech before Congress that the opposite would happen.

00:31:43.400 You just pad them with billions of dollars.

00:31:45.600 Right.

00:31:45.840 And they just propagated more terror, more aggression.

00:31:48.280 And of course, it turned out exactly that way.

00:31:50.540 And yet there is a school of thought that says, well, you know, if we do this deal and we we can get a delay of a few years or a commitment from Iran, which will violate anyway and give them money in the process, somehow they'll be lured into joining the family of nations.

00:32:06.720 And they weren't lured into joining the family of nations.

00:32:09.800 They just broke out of the cage and began to devour one nation after the other.

00:32:14.460 So it's hard for me to understand how people fall into that trap.

00:32:18.860 But I think there is a change now because of what has happened inside Iran.

00:32:23.780 I think that really put a break on the idea of making a deal.

00:32:29.360 Well, for the moment, I think it does.

00:32:30.960 And I certainly am going to pick that up with my meetings.

00:32:34.940 Right.

00:32:35.060 Well, I'm you know, we've never had I don't think we've ever been weaker around the world than we are right now.

00:32:41.980 Our relationship with Saudi Arabia went south, I think, for the same.

00:32:46.380 Well, there's several reasons, but one of them is because there is great interest at keeping Iran on a leash. 0.96

00:32:56.440 Not just Israel.

00:32:58.840 Yeah.

00:32:59.320 Well, I think I hope people come around to understand that Iran is the enemy, not only of Israel and the adjoining Arab states, but the principal enemy, a principal enemy of the United States. 0.96

00:33:11.600 For God's sake, they chant death to Israel, death to America. 0.50

00:33:14.520 Right. 0.99

00:33:15.140 We're the Satan. 0.99

00:33:16.240 You're the great Satan. 0.75

00:33:17.580 Do you want these Ayatollahs who are radically opposed to everything that our civilization stands for? 1.00

00:33:26.160 Do you want them to have nuclear tipped missiles that could reach any city of the United States?

00:33:32.340 No.

00:33:32.580 Well, why?

00:33:34.320 Because they have diplomats who fake it.

00:33:37.840 That's crazy.

00:33:38.840 I wouldn't do that.

00:33:40.320 And I think this is an abiding American interest as much as an Israeli interest.

00:33:44.460 Again, I think that this has been pushed aside for now and it should be pushed aside permanently.

00:33:50.280 The only way you can stop Iran from becoming nuclear is through crippling economic sanctions coupled with a credible military threat. 0.88

00:34:00.120 If you don't have that, no deal that you sign, which they'll violate promptly, will make any difference.

00:34:07.600 Can we talk about Ukraine while we're here talking about war?

00:34:12.040 There seems to be an appetite for war among some, and especially in Ukraine.

00:34:19.460 And while I think most Americans feel for the Ukrainian people and know that Russia, what they did was horrendous, came in, most likely committed some really bad war crimes.

00:34:33.200 And none of that should stand.

00:34:37.400 But this could become a very frightening war quickly.

00:34:42.760 What are your thoughts on this?

00:34:45.740 What should Americans know about it that we might not see in our press?

00:34:49.620 Well, I think everybody sees that something could unravel, and if it unravels, it could go to a place that could jeopardize the peace of the world in an unprecedented way, really.

00:35:03.680 Especially the slippery slope of tactical nuclear weapons and so on.

00:35:09.220 So when the war began, which I thought was a tragedy, I thought that the risk of such a development was small. 0.84

00:35:21.820 That is, that it would not necessarily, it would take on global consequences because of the constriction of the supply of wheat, the hunger that that would call protein shortages, because animals eat wheat, you know, in one form or another.

00:35:35.540 And all that has happened, the economic consequences.

00:35:39.500 But I didn't think it would, that this risk was realistic.

00:35:45.620 But, you know, as the war progresses with all its horrors, that horror is not completely out of the question.

00:35:55.660 And I think that one of the things that I will look at once I get into office, which will be in a few weeks.

00:36:01.480 So this is one of my last interviews.

00:36:03.800 I know.

00:36:04.600 You have a, you have a law in Israel that as prime minister, you can't write a book or sell a book, right?

00:36:13.700 Correct.

00:36:14.300 Yes.

00:36:14.740 Well, that was the advantage of the opposition.

00:36:17.580 Don't knock it.

00:36:18.200 I mean, I was given a free year to write my book.

00:36:20.960 That's right.

00:36:21.600 Very great political adversary.

00:36:23.440 It's given me this opportunity.

00:36:25.560 It also worked less, you know.

00:36:26.820 Yeah.

00:36:29.000 But I worked hard to write the book while toppling this government.

00:36:32.200 Yeah.

00:36:32.400 I wrote it in the most crazy places, like endless budget deliberations in the Knesset.

00:36:39.000 And I'm writing this book, missing some votes in the process because I'm trying to edit what I wrote.

00:36:44.000 But, you know, once I get in, I will look into this issue very closely, not only on Israel's specific policy, but whether there is anything that can be done or that I could do to bring an end to this horror. 0.81

00:37:05.280 Russia has not been a friend to Israel, to say the least.

00:37:12.960 How concerned are you with the relationship of Russia and Turkey and now Iran?

00:37:18.640 It's not a good alliance.

00:37:20.940 It's not good that they band together.

00:37:22.780 But Russia, you'd be surprised to hear, actually changed its relationship with us and in many ways for the better, because I remember still as a young soldier along the banks of the Suez Canal. 0.85

00:37:35.280 Our pilots, when we had, we were in a war of attrition with Egypt at the time before the historic peace that Prime Minister Begin made with President Sadat of Egypt.

00:37:47.080 So we were fighting it out.

00:37:48.360 And our pilots shot Russian pilots out of the sky. 0.62

00:37:51.900 Their anti-aircraft batteries in Egypt shot Israeli pilots out of the sky.

00:37:57.260 And we were actually confronting military to military.

00:38:01.620 Now our relationships have changed.

00:38:05.280 But with the breakout of the Syrian civil war, which is right next to our border, our northern border, Russia sent its military forces there to buttress the regime of Assad.

00:38:18.580 So did Iran. 0.97

00:38:20.160 Iran decided that they would use this opportunity to turn Syria into a second front like Lebanon, which is controlled by their proxy Hezbollah. 0.62

00:38:31.580 They wanted to create another Lebanon in Syria and to replace their 80,000 Shiite militia commanded by Iranian generals with lethal weapons right next to our door. 0.95

00:38:42.200 So I ordered the army to prevent that in every way.

00:38:47.400 And the way they prevented it was bombing Iranian military installations and Iranian forces and Iranian proxies.

00:38:55.800 And this required hundreds and hundreds of sorties, air sorties over the skies of Syria.

00:39:01.840 Well, the problem was that our pilots were flying literally within spitting distance.

00:39:07.600 I mean that, spitting distance of Russian pilots.

00:39:11.720 And so we could have a repeat of what had happened, you know, 50 years earlier along the Suez Canal.

00:39:17.800 And so I made it a point of securing an understanding between Israel and Russia, you know, that would enable us to continue these sorties because Iran, because in Syria, effectively, Russia and Iran were competitors. 0.83

00:39:36.620 They weren't necessarily collaborators.

00:39:37.900 So I got that freedom of action and maintained it, and it's still important for us.

00:39:43.640 So we have a complex relationship, a nuanced relationship with Russia.

00:39:48.000 Yet what I said before, this question of the possible unraveling of Ukraine into a global catastrophe is something that should occupy every leader and anybody who can contribute to preventing this or somehow ending this tragedy should do so.

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00:41:30.440 Do you think that, how important is the, most people don't know your background.

00:41:39.460 You were in the SAS, or not the SAS, what do you, what do you call your special forces?

00:41:44.860 Uh, well, it's, it's a unit called Sayeret Matkal.

00:41:49.640 It's basically a combination.

00:41:51.800 How could I describe it?

00:41:52.720 It's a, it's a combination of, uh, I suppose the SEALs, Delta Force, and the Brainshot.

00:41:59.900 Very small units.

00:42:00.720 Yeah.

00:42:01.080 And, but very, very elite.

00:42:03.240 One of the best in the world.

00:42:04.640 And you were a member of that.

00:42:07.060 And I don't think most people, you, you, you talk about it in the book.

00:42:10.620 You talk about your brother.

00:42:11.540 Can you take us, um, there's one point that you're, um, at the airport, you're about ready

00:42:18.360 to go onto a plane to rescue hostages.

00:42:21.040 Can you just take us through that part of the book where, so people can understand your

00:42:26.280 background militarily?

00:42:29.680 Well, I, I joined, um, the special forces unit, uh, which, uh, well, it's a very tough

00:42:37.620 unit.

00:42:37.900 I mean, um, um, I, I think they value brains over brawn, but they, they, they take a lot

00:42:45.880 of, they take a lot of effort on brawn.

00:42:48.780 So, you know, people get winnowed away because it's very tough, very, very tough, but, but

00:42:53.600 very smart, very smart.

00:42:55.240 Uh, and I joined this unit and, um, um, my brother had been, my older brother had been,

00:43:02.060 um, um, uh, uh, uh, a lieutenant in the paratroops in the six day war.

00:43:07.780 He was already actually a veteran.

00:43:09.180 He was all of 21 and he was, um, he went into the war.

00:43:13.540 I was still in high school then.

00:43:15.780 And, um, he was wounded in the last three hours of the war.

00:43:19.900 Um, and his elbow was shattered.

00:43:22.220 And when I visited him in the hospital, I was very, very glad because, uh, because I'd

00:43:27.800 always had a premonition that he would die in battle.

00:43:30.020 He was a very brave, inordinately brave, uh, just indescribably brave and, um, smart

00:43:38.240 commander.

00:43:39.260 And here he was, he was out of it.

00:43:41.500 His elbow was smashed.

00:43:42.720 He was, uh, uh, you know, a war invalid and he would never face the, uh, death again on

00:43:48.820 the battlefield.

00:43:49.760 So I was very happy.

00:43:51.180 And he went to Harvard to study, um, uh, and came back a year later, you know, even

00:43:56.660 though he made the Dean's list, he was an exceptionally able student.

00:44:00.020 And he decided I have to be in Israel because the war of terror, including these battles

00:44:04.820 along the Suez Canal, which I described, were taking place.

00:44:08.440 And he said, I have to be in Israel while my friends who were not, uh, were disabled veterans

00:44:14.540 were fighting in the reserves, the Israeli reserves.

00:44:17.140 I have to be in it.

00:44:17.980 Okay.

00:44:18.240 He was, in the meantime, I joined the special unit, um, and, uh, um, I am asked by the commander

00:44:28.040 of this unit who, uh, was to die in a, another rescue attempt to hostages in a Tel Aviv beach

00:44:35.680 years later.

00:44:36.920 But he asked me, uh, to go to officer school.

00:44:40.900 And I said, I'm not going to officer school.

00:44:43.440 He said, why not?

00:44:44.600 I said, well, because Yale university, uh, after I finished in American high school, Yale

00:44:50.240 university, uh, accepted me three years in advance, something they never did.

00:44:54.100 Nobody ever did all, all these schools, even though I had very good grades, to put it mildly,

00:44:59.920 but they wouldn't accept me.

00:45:01.640 They said, come back when you're free from the army.

00:45:03.960 And I said, well, I'm going three years into the army.

00:45:07.100 Please accept me.

00:45:07.780 No, Yale did.

00:45:09.200 So I said to the commander of the unit, I'm going to Yale university.

00:45:13.040 That's what, uh, uh, that's what, you know, this is whatever, 50 years ago, more.

00:45:19.260 And, uh, he said, look, I'm telling you this, you can go to a weekend pass, but if you don't

00:45:27.700 come back at the beginning of the week and tell me that you're going to officer school,

00:45:31.860 I'm going to throw you out of the unit.

00:45:34.000 Well, that was a fake death, you know?

00:45:37.100 Yeah.

00:45:37.520 And so I went over the weekend to Jerusalem and decided to consult with my older brother,

00:45:43.840 you know, my disabled veteran brother who was studying in the Hebrew university at the

00:45:49.260 time, mathematics and philosophy.

00:45:51.280 So I said to him, what should I do?

00:45:54.320 What do I do?

00:45:55.220 It's going to throw me out of the unit.

00:45:56.400 And he thought for a moment, he said, tell him I'll go in your place.

00:46:04.380 And I said, you, you're old, by the way, it was all of 23 at the time you're married.

00:46:10.620 And above all, you're a disabled veteran.

00:46:13.380 You're your elbow.

00:46:14.160 You can't use your elbow fully.

00:46:17.160 And he said, just tell him to pull my file, uh, from, uh, you know, from, uh, army archives.

00:46:23.980 Well, I go back, um, the beginning of Sunday, that's the beginning of our work day, going

00:46:29.540 to the commander's office.

00:46:30.960 And he says to me, so have you decided?

00:46:33.960 And I said, well, I'm not going, but my brother can come in my place.

00:46:39.080 Who's your brother?

00:46:40.360 I said, his name is Yoni, Jonathan.

00:46:42.620 Uh, pull his file.

00:46:44.240 Take a look.

00:46:44.720 He did, he saw that Yoni was the outstanding cadet in his office in school.

00:46:49.080 He had unbelievable recommendations from his commanders.

00:46:52.620 Uh, and he said, okay, bring him over.

00:46:54.780 Uh, and he brought him over.

00:46:56.580 And now the problem they had was how do they get this disabled veteran through the medical

00:47:01.640 examination and the induction?

00:47:03.300 Well, somehow they found this immigrant doctor from France, but didn't know Hebrew that well.

00:47:10.160 And he thought that word elbow and the word, uh, joint, uh, is very similar.

00:47:17.020 And he looked at Yoni's right knee for some reason.

00:47:20.260 So it was good.

00:47:21.480 No problem.

00:47:22.120 He said, okay, you're in.

00:47:23.280 And, uh, that's how he became, he took the team that I was good to command in the unit.

00:47:28.280 And, uh, and he became a commander there and he was senior to me now.

00:47:33.920 A few, uh, about half a year later, I did decide to go to, uh, uh, to officer school,

00:47:39.720 uh, and, uh, sent an apology to Yale university.

00:47:43.720 I ultimately went to MIT, but I don't want to, you know, I couldn't go to New Haven for years

00:47:48.840 because of that, but they were very kind to me and I really appreciate it.

00:47:54.260 But, uh, now we're both officers in the unit.

00:47:58.580 Yoni's a senior commander is responsible for several teams.

00:48:01.360 And I'm the senior team commander and, uh, a Belgian airline on route to Tel Aviv is hijacked.

00:48:09.980 The hijackers land in Tel Aviv airport and Ben Gurion airport.

00:48:14.740 And they're going to blow up the plane unless, uh, Israel releases 300 terrorists to be flown 0.62

00:48:21.440 to a country, an Arab country of their choice.

00:48:23.420 This, hang on this, this 1972, isn't that the same year of the Munich?

00:48:28.560 Uh, no, that happened a year later, year later, that happened a year later.

00:48:32.840 Okay.

00:48:33.040 Uh, so nobody ever stormed a hijack aircraft before.

00:48:36.940 And, uh, uh, as a senior team commander, I was allotted with a few, two soldiers of mine

00:48:42.500 to, uh, uh, uh, break through the wing. 0.78

00:48:45.820 We would be dressed along with, uh, altogether 16 unit soldiers dressed as mechanics.

00:48:51.420 The Moshe Dayan was the defense minister, uh, negotiated a fake negotiation with the terrorists.

00:48:57.620 We would prepare the, the plane for takeoff, uh, and come and fix the plane, fix, fake fix,

00:49:05.180 but fix the plane just as, and we had to practice on a, on a similar aircraft, uh, in a hangar

00:49:12.140 in the airport, we were given pistols.

00:49:14.380 We never used pistols.

00:49:15.320 We used Kalashnikov assault rifles or Uzi submachine guns, but we couldn't hide them in our boots.

00:49:20.240 And anyway, they would kill the passengers, uh, with their firepower.

00:49:23.540 So we stuck these pistols in our boots.

00:49:27.680 We're all ready to go on this baggage train of mechanics approaching the plane.

00:49:32.340 And just before we leave, my older brother Yoni, uh, comes to me and he said, well, I'm going too.

00:49:40.060 And I said, well, you can't go.

00:49:42.940 Uh, he said, why not?

00:49:44.600 He said, because I'm going there with my soldiers.

00:49:47.860 Uh, and they're not your soldiers.

00:49:50.080 They're my direct soldiers under my direct command.

00:49:52.420 And he said, uh, um, so we'll both go.

00:49:57.980 And I said, Yoni, think of, you know, think of mother and father.

00:50:03.540 I mean, what would happen if one of us, both of us got killed?

00:50:06.980 And he said, um, he said something I'll never forget.

00:50:11.660 He said, baby, my life is my own and my death is my own.

00:50:17.420 And faced with this iron determination, uh, we went in sharp disagreement to the unit commander.

00:50:24.720 He sided with me.

00:50:26.400 Yoni was left out because you, you wouldn't send two brothers into such close.

00:50:30.760 Right.

00:50:31.200 Anyway, I got wounded in this, uh, operation.

00:50:34.200 I describe it.

00:50:34.880 It's some of it is actually quite funny, but it wasn't funny when I was shot.

00:50:39.620 Right.

00:50:40.080 Fire.

00:50:40.620 And, and, and, and, you know, it felt like a sledgehammer hit me. 0.98

00:50:44.640 And I was taken off the plane, took all of two minutes to kill the two, uh, male terrorists and, uh, and, uh, uh, subdue the two women terrorists. 0.91

00:50:54.740 And the plane wasn't blown up. 0.91

00:50:56.280 We succeeded.

00:50:57.960 One woman passenger right where I broke into the plane was shot, uh, in the forehead and died by one of the terrorists.

00:51:06.100 And now I'm lying on the tarmac, uh, uh, medic gave me some, uh, morphine to ease the pain.

00:51:15.400 And I see Yoni running towards me with a terrible look of distress on his face.

00:51:19.900 You know, he's just worried, terrible anxiety.

00:51:22.600 And as he gets closer, he looks, he harbors above me and he sees this red splatter of blood on my shirt sleeve, the white overalls of the mechanics.

00:51:32.460 He sees this red splatter of blood, this broad grin spreads on his face.

00:51:36.800 And he said, CBB, I told you, you shouldn't go.

00:51:40.760 Your brother played a, uh, he's a driving force in your life.

00:51:51.880 Um, and you're, you're a much of your determination.

00:51:58.700 Can you talk a little bit about that?

00:52:02.360 Well, what happened was this was 1972, the Sabino airline rescue in Tel Aviv airport.

00:52:08.660 Uh, I left the army right afterwards and went to study it, uh, in, uh, in Boston, in Cambridge, Massachusetts at MIT.

00:52:17.040 And he only stayed on and became the commander of this special force unit.

00:52:21.660 And four years later in, uh, 1976, July 4th, 1976, the American bicentennial, he led his soldiers into Entebbe airport in the heart of, uh, Africa and Uganda.

00:52:34.140 And rescued, uh, uh, uh, another plane, uh, another hostages of a hijacked plane.

00:52:40.100 This time the terrorists thought, well, you know, we're safe.

00:52:43.060 We won't take you to Tel Aviv where, uh, Israel storm us.

00:52:46.760 We take it into, you know, thousands of miles away. 0.56

00:52:49.400 Israel can't do a damn thing about that. 0.89

00:52:51.940 Well, they were wrong. 0.54

00:52:52.660 So Yoni landed with his forces, uh, his force in the dark of night, uh, killed the terrorists, uh, killed the, uh, Ugandan, um, soldiers who were supporting them, who were helping them, destroyed the MiGs that could give chase to our aircraft going back to big fighter planes, uh, that could give chase to the, um, planes where the, um, where they were released hostages.

00:53:20.940 But, uh, unfortunately, in storming the terrorists, uh, he was shot and killed.

00:53:26.700 Um, and I thought at that point that, um, you know, my life ended.

00:53:31.160 I went into, I don't know if I describe it in the book, but I, I went into kind of shock because I lost a sense of taste, uh, for a week.

00:53:41.340 Uh, this is the week of mourning that we have in Jewish traditions.

00:53:44.800 And I, I didn't know if I could live.

00:53:47.000 I didn't know if, uh, how I could live or whether I could, I would live at all.

00:53:50.940 Um, and yet, um, uh, I describe in the book how I emerged from this, uh, inconsolable grief with my parents who were incredibly courageous, uh, and my younger brother.

00:54:06.560 And how we summoned our spiritual forces, our, uh, uh, uh, the inner core of our beings to, uh, to continue, not merely to live, but to continue Yoni's battle against terrorism, um, which, uh, I believe was not purely military.

00:54:25.520 I thought it was above all else, uh, civilizational.

00:54:29.140 That's how he saw it to the forces of light against the forces of darkness, the people, these wild animals, you know, prowling our airways, our waterways, our cities, blowing up children, blowing up anything in sight, erasing the basic distinction between combatants.

00:54:45.520 And non-combatants, which is, uh, at the heart of the laws of war, basically committing war crimes left and right.

00:54:52.240 Uh, and I thought that the way to fight that is to mobilize the free world to the battle, not merely against the terrorists, but against the forces that stand behind them, which are sovereign, uh, dictatorial and totalitarian states.

00:55:08.520 And so I was swept into that public policy battle.

00:55:13.160 And from there into politics, into diplomacy, I was asked to serve in Israel's embassy in Washington and then into politics itself.

00:55:22.020 And that, I suppose Yoni's sacrifice and heroism has always been before my mind, before my, uh, before my eyes and will continue to be so until my very last moment.

00:55:36.140 Well, I tell you, um, you have gone on to inspire a great deal of, of people, including me.

00:55:44.060 I have, uh, uh, I have lots of friends that have, uh, you know, dual citizenships in many countries and, uh, you know, things get tough.

00:55:54.500 And, uh, I've said, and I can't get one to Israel, but I, I've often said, if I was going to have a dual citizenship,

00:56:02.620 I would only be a citizen of United States and Israel because only, I think I I've tried, I think a few years ago.

00:56:14.400 Um, but, uh, why do you, why do you say that?

00:56:20.640 Uh, I say that because the people of Israel will stand, you know, you, you, you know, who you are,

00:56:29.820 you know, who you face, what you face, and you will stand.

00:56:34.040 And I, I don't want to, you know, in, in difficult times, I don't want to go out, uh, sitting on my hands.

00:56:42.800 I want to go with people who are standing and whether that's literally fighting or fighting with words.

00:56:48.960 I, I just have so admired you and the people of Israel, um, for the courage that you have always shown.

00:56:57.180 Um, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm a very big fan of yours, as you know.

00:57:01.080 Well, very kind to hear that.

00:57:02.420 And I'm, I'm genuinely moved by that.

00:57:05.240 I have to say that I was also deeply moved by the support of millions of, uh, people around the world.

00:57:13.160 Um, including, uh, Christian Zionists, evangelicals, uh, people, but also secular people who, uh, see,

00:57:22.580 as you do, uh, in Israel, a parable for all humanity, you know, this, uh, because if we

00:57:28.960 could overcome the, the horrible, uh, tragedies, catastrophes that we, that the Jewish people

00:57:37.120 have to afford from, you know, from virtual annihilation to salvation, afford that raging

00:57:43.780 river and create this vibrant, successful, modern, powerful state.

00:57:48.740 Uh, then maybe that says to all, all people everywhere that you can overcome the most dreadful

00:57:57.260 odds, however, threatening, however, seemingly overwhelming, if you have enough resolution

00:58:03.240 and enough courage and conviction.

00:58:05.880 Uh, you, uh, uh, and I have just, with that being said, you are a great friend to Christians

00:58:13.180 and hopefully someday the story will be allowed to be told, but I, you, you, uh, I know some

00:58:19.880 things that you have been directly involved with and, uh, with Christians who are in need

00:58:24.840 and in trouble around the world.

00:58:26.160 And, um, thank you for that.

00:58:29.420 Thank you.

00:58:30.040 Um, can I, can I take you back to America here for just a second in our last couple of

00:58:34.880 minutes, uh, people don't seem to know what an anti-Semite is and, uh, uh, uh, we are having

00:58:45.640 this discussion now here in America, uh, where it's just being thrown around everywhere.

00:58:53.500 And I think I know what, what an anti-Semite is.

00:58:59.080 We have, um, uh, we have Kyrie Irving, we have Kanye West that has just been, uh, uh, banned

00:59:08.300 from absolutely everything.

00:59:10.380 Can you describe what an anti-Semite really is and how you, how you define it?

00:59:18.920 Well, I think it's the opposition to Jews, period, regardless as a, as a collective body 0.79

00:59:25.940 and desire to do away with the Jewish people.

00:59:29.680 That's, you know, the culmination of that is obviously Hitler, but there are men, there 0.99

00:59:33.820 have been smaller Hitlers in history who they don't care about individual Jews.

00:59:39.120 They don't differentiate.

00:59:40.520 Uh, I always say, you know, for the capitalists, uh, the Jews were communists for the communists 1.00

00:59:45.540 in Soviet Russia, the Jews were capitalists. 0.93

00:59:48.300 So you have a problem.

00:59:49.660 You blame the Jews categorically, which is absurd.

00:59:52.420 Uh, you wouldn't do that with any group. 0.76

00:59:54.020 Uh, uh, anti-Semites are just anti-Jews, uh, but you can be anti-Chinese or you can be

01:00:00.780 anti-another group.

01:00:02.020 Right.

01:00:02.200 And you'd give it, this happens to be a definition of, uh, the complete negation of the Jewish

01:00:08.380 people per se.

01:00:09.440 That's it.

01:00:10.080 Or whatever they are.

01:00:11.180 But I would say that anti-Semitism today has taken on a pernicious new form because,

01:00:17.460 you know, it's not fashionable to say you're an anti-Semite.

01:00:20.260 So you say, well, I'm anti-Scientist.

01:00:22.540 You don't even say I'm anti-Israel.

01:00:24.160 You say I'm anti-Zionist.

01:00:25.220 Well, I'm not against the Jews.

01:00:26.860 I just don't think they should have a state of their own.

01:00:28.960 It's like, I'm not anti-American.

01:00:30.280 I just don't think they should be an American. 1.00

01:00:32.300 If you know anything about Israel, the point of Israel is so they can live. 1.00

01:00:39.580 So you can just live.

01:00:41.640 That's right.

01:00:42.440 Yeah.

01:00:42.760 Uh, and that's actually very, very telling.

01:00:45.020 You're, you're very, it's a very perceptive, uh, observation because, because the, the real

01:00:51.080 purpose of the Jewish state is first of all, to defend the lives of Jews who are subjected

01:00:56.340 to this, uh, unforgiving and undiscerning hate.

01:00:59.460 I mean, people were, the Jews were, you know, kicked around and blamed for, I don't know,

01:01:04.400 for any. 0.55

01:01:05.180 Everything. 1.00

01:01:06.140 Black cholera death, black death in the middle ages, uh, uh, inflation Jews, uh, war Jews 0.99

01:01:14.260 and so on. 0.98

01:01:14.920 And so we paid a horrendous price of massacres and displacements and exiles and pogroms and

01:01:21.240 murder and ultimately, uh, Holocaust. 0.81

01:01:24.280 Uh, and you know, if Israel wasn't strong, we'd have been destroyed, you know, many times 0.99

01:01:29.520 over.

01:01:30.020 Yeah.

01:01:30.120 And so I think one of the things that Israel, uh, that the Jewish people rediscovered in

01:01:36.840 Israel was the ability to defend themselves.

01:01:40.580 And effectively what I described with the book is my own quest and my own vision of how

01:01:47.140 to give Israel the power, that power that turned it into, even though we're, you should 0.97

01:01:52.260 know, I mean, people are amazed by this.

01:01:53.920 We're one 10th of 1% of the world's population, but the university of Pennsylvania does an

01:01:59.420 annual survey of 70, 17,000 opinion leaders in 20 countries.

01:02:04.300 And Israel is consistently ranked as the world's eighth most powerful country.

01:02:09.720 Now ahead of us, our country is where the billion people, hundreds of millions of people,

01:02:14.500 obviously, and behind us the same thing.

01:02:16.860 And yet, uh, how do we achieve that?

01:02:19.440 Well, uh, I'd give you the simple answer.

01:02:22.460 And then the more complex, the simple answer is that we had to transform it, uh, into a

01:02:28.540 powerful military country, but to do that, you have to transform it into a powerful economic

01:02:33.760 country because F 35s and drones and tanks and Intel cost a lot of money.

01:02:41.340 Well, where are you going to get the money?

01:02:42.660 We were a socialist state, semi-socialist state.

01:02:45.520 And I led a free market revolution, which I described in the book to make Israel, um, you 0.55

01:02:51.760 know, one of the wealthiest countries in the world today, uh, for capital.

01:02:54.900 We've just crossed, um, you know, across, as I think I said, uh, uh, Japan, Britain, France

01:03:01.880 and Germany, uh, just recently, uh, because that's what capitalism and technology do when 0.66

01:03:08.080 we wed them together.

01:03:08.960 So here's, here's, here's the crazy part though.

01:03:13.160 You, you bring capitalism in, you bring, uh, finance in and you become successful and

01:03:19.780 suddenly you're successful because you're Jews. 0.98

01:03:24.420 It's just never ending circle that you can't seem to get out of.

01:03:28.380 Well, the capitalism that I brought in, I very much learned during my high school years in

01:03:33.140 America, as I studied and the later in my years at MIT, as I could see the, the, uh,

01:03:38.940 tremendous, uh, fluorescence, the tremendous rise of high tech in America's free market

01:03:45.160 system.

01:03:45.580 So I actually imported, as I was accused by my socialist friends, I was importing, uh, American

01:03:52.120 methods into Israel.

01:03:53.320 Uh, and, uh, and we did that, but having had now the economic base, we made the military

01:04:01.000 much stronger and military intelligence, cyber much stronger.

01:04:04.680 And that gave us diplomatic power, economic and military power gave us tremendous diplomatic

01:04:10.000 power, which ultimately gave us this ability to reach out to our Arab neighbors, uh, and

01:04:15.480 forge these, uh, historic breakthroughs for peace.

01:04:18.480 But if you ask me, what is the explanation for this tiny country, one 10th of 1% in the

01:04:25.620 world rising to be a power among the nations, I would say that there has to be another component

01:04:31.260 in that.

01:04:32.240 And you touched on it, uh, and I'll, I'll say it directly and not obliquely.

01:04:37.320 It's, it's the element of faith.

01:04:40.100 You have to, you have to believe because if you don't have a binding credo, uh, you know,

01:04:46.480 the strongest countries collapsed, the Soviet union collapsed when it stopped believing in

01:04:50.700 communism.

01:04:51.620 Uh, and, uh, and I think that in the case of America and Israel, we were both founded on

01:04:58.580 an ideal.

01:04:59.880 We, our ideal was to return to the promised land.

01:05:03.760 Your ideal was to create the new promised land of liberty.

01:05:06.800 Yeah.

01:05:07.200 Uh, and as long as the ideals hold, you have the most important, um, element.

01:05:14.420 We are, I don't know, I don't know the last time you've been here, but we are on the ropes

01:05:20.980 on that.

01:05:21.560 It, it is, we are being beaten down.

01:05:25.120 It's a challenge for all.

01:05:26.500 It's a challenge for all of us.

01:05:28.120 I think, I think America has been a gift to the world because I saw the 20th century in

01:05:33.600 the first half, what happened to the world when America wasn't leading the world and

01:05:38.040 we had, and the world went through a terrible paroxysm, a terrible tragedy, two tragedies,

01:05:44.600 uh, but including the destruction of a third of my people.

01:05:49.780 Uh, but in the second half of the 20th century, America did become the leading power, the superpower

01:05:55.700 of the world.

01:05:56.380 And, and I think this was a boon, not only for Israel, but a boon for free societies

01:06:01.420 everywhere and for the hope of freedom.

01:06:03.760 So I, I fervently hope that America will retain this leadership position.

01:06:09.320 And believe me, there are many people around the world who, who hope that I, I wouldn't

01:06:14.280 sell short America.

01:06:15.140 I know you have your internal conflicts.

01:06:17.620 Yeah.

01:06:17.900 Uh, all democracies do, uh, there's often polarization, but I think the question is, do you, uh,

01:06:24.980 coalesce not everything?

01:06:27.780 You always have fringe groups, radical groups.

01:06:30.200 We have them in Israel too.

01:06:31.760 Uh, but do you coalesce as a society after the dust of battle, political battle settles?

01:06:39.100 Do you coalesce around the, uh, the basic values that guide, uh, your society?

01:06:46.660 Uh, and I fervently hope that you do.

01:06:49.060 Yeah, so do I, sir.

01:06:51.420 It is always a good, uh, good time to talk to you.

01:06:55.040 I'm thrilled that you're back as prime minister.

01:06:57.540 You really, truly give me hope when we, when you were gone and Trump was not there.

01:07:02.740 I thought, where is Churchill?

01:07:04.820 Because I've, I've looked at you as today's Churchill.

01:07:07.960 Oftentimes, thank you for your leadership and thanks for your time.

01:07:12.300 You're very kind.

01:07:13.460 I have to say a lot of people are smiling in Israel and around the world and they're smiling

01:07:17.820 while I am the horse that has to push the plow.

01:07:23.940 So keep piling it.

01:07:25.540 I'll keep pushing.

01:07:27.260 Thank you.

01:07:27.860 I appreciate it very much.

01:07:28.760 Thank you.

01:07:34.580 Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend

01:07:40.180 so it can be discovered by other people.

01:07:41.800 I'll see you again next time.

01:07:57.840 I'll see you next time.

01:07:58.300 Thank you.

01:07:58.860 Give me the little team.

01:07:59.480 Bye-bye.

01:07:59.540 Bye-bye.

01:07:59.940 Bye-bye.

01:08:01.080 Bye-bye.

01:08:01.340 Bye-bye.

01:08:01.900 Bye-bye.

01:08:03.320 Bye-bye.

01:08:04.300 Bye-bye.

01:08:05.020 Bye-bye.

01:08:05.840 Bye-bye.

01:08:06.300 Bye-bye.

01:08:07.940 Bye-bye.

01:08:08.200 Bye-bye.

01:08:09.840 Bye-bye.

01:08:10.520 Bye.

01:08:10.900 Bye-bye.

01:08:11.120 Bye-bye.

The Glenn Beck Program - November 12, 2022

Ep 163 ｜ The UNTOLD Story of Israel's Peace in the Middle East ｜ PM Netanyahu ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast

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