TRIGGERnometry - The Real Reason Iran Wants to Destroy Israel - Elica Le Bon

00:00:00.800 After October 7th happened, I'm like, okay, well, these are proxies of the regime.

00:00:05.220 These are the same terrorists that have killed my family and my people.

00:00:08.840 Obviously, I'm not going to stand with this.

00:00:11.480 What people in the West seek to do is that they try to rationalize fundamentalism.

00:00:16.400 They think that there's like a cause and effect to fundamentalism.

00:00:20.180 They don't understand that fundamentalism is just insanity.

00:00:23.160 So this is a religious fundamentalist ideology that believes that in order to achieve the prophecy, it has to get rid of Israel.

00:00:33.300 And these guys are trying to develop nuclear weapons.

00:00:36.260 That's pretty scary.

00:00:38.980 Elika, I've been following you.

00:00:40.360 Well, not literally, been following you online for a while.

00:00:43.060 Oh, you haven't been actually following me?

00:00:44.800 No, no, I haven't been stalking you.

00:00:45.800 You haven't been stalking me?

00:00:46.160 No, I haven't.

00:00:47.560 That's good to know.

00:00:48.680 Only because I'm in London, you're in LA.

00:00:50.860 That's what every stalker would say.

00:00:52.060 But we've been talking for a while.

00:00:53.980 Your commentary is very interesting, actually.

00:00:56.020 We wanted to have you on, first of all, to tell us your story, because that's very interesting.

00:01:00.220 And then to talk about the Middle East, Iran, and so on.

00:01:02.940 So who are you and what's been your and your family's journey?

00:01:07.140 My family, like a lot of Iranians here in the diaspora, left around or after the revolution, or should I say the coup that happened in 1979 in Iran.

00:01:18.220 I think most people are somewhat familiar with the story.

00:01:22.060 I don't know that they are, actually.

00:01:23.160 Oh, okay.

00:01:23.880 Okay.

00:01:24.320 So you had, it was under the Shah's regime.

00:01:27.920 The Shah was the king of Iran at that time.

00:01:30.200 And then there was, well, actually, this is very, very relevant to the conversation, because there was a revolution, an uprising, I guess, that overthrew the Shah.

00:01:39.700 But what people don't understand is that a lot of the same factions and the same elements that were involved in that movement are the same elements that are involved in what's going on now in the Middle East.

00:01:50.420 So, and we can get into this, I don't want to get distracted, so we'll put a pause and come back to it.

00:01:55.880 But it was the movement of the, it was that jihadist-Marxist alliance, the Islamist-leftist alliance, where these ideologies of communism were being taught in the universities in Iran.

00:02:13.160 And they kind of had this, I guess, what the alliance is based on is this idea that the jihadists are this kind of reactionary force that will come in and dismantle, you know, Western imperialism and capitalism, you know, so that the leftists align with them in that capacity.

00:02:30.920 So, basically, the same thing happened there.

00:02:33.820 The Islamists come in, and, of course, the communists, the Tudai Party, are the first people they kill. 0.95

00:02:39.220 So, that's how the Islamic revolution came to Iran in 1979.

00:02:45.800 My dad at the time was in London.

00:02:48.620 He was getting his PhD at Oxford.

00:02:51.100 So, under the Shah's regime, the Shah's regime was sending out students, like the top university students, to be educated abroad, because it was like part of this kind of progressive movement, right?

00:03:01.640 He was getting international studies and things like that to come back to Iran.

00:03:06.900 So, then the revolution happened in 1979, and he, I guess, he had to drop out of Oxford, because they cut off his bursary, because that was a change of government.

00:03:19.100 My mom and my mom's entire family were still in Iran at that time.

00:03:23.920 So, they kind of experienced firsthand everything that happened after the revolution.

00:03:28.400 My mom told me, you know, they would, like, throw acid in women's faces if they weren't wearing the hijab. 1.00

00:03:35.620 So, pretty much immediately after the Islamic Republic came to Iran, after Khomeini came into power, they started enforcing, you know, mandatory hijab, mandatory dress codes, and things like that.

00:03:47.700 So, there was a lot of, there were a lot of dissidents, there was a lot of uprising against this new regime that people were like, oh, actually, we made a mistake, we don't want this.

00:03:59.980 And so, then there was, like, a huge crushing of dissent.

00:04:03.540 So, a lot of people were executed, a lot of my family members.

00:04:06.560 My mom was in Evin Prison, briefly.

00:04:11.460 My aunt was in Evin Prison as well.

00:04:14.300 So, Evin Prison is the notorious prison in Iran, where, basically, it's, like, the prison of no return, basically.

00:04:21.800 And in the early 1980s, in the kind of nascent years of the regime, where it was, like, at its most brutal,

00:04:29.480 they would have a row of hanged bodies lining the walkway at the entrance of the prison.

00:04:35.340 So, people would understand, kind of, what they were going into.

00:04:40.300 So, my aunt was in prison, my mom's sister, and she was pregnant with my cousin.

00:04:46.440 So, and her husband was also in prison.

00:04:51.640 They ended up executing him.

00:04:54.420 They let her go to give birth. 1.00

00:04:57.820 My cousin, now she has epilepsy because they, you know, fed her so much poison when she was in prison.

00:05:03.740 And then, eventually, you know, my mom got really sick after that time.

00:05:08.360 She got a medical visa to go to the UK.

00:05:12.280 That's where she met my dad, who applied for asylum, became a British citizen, got married, brought her family over.

00:05:20.720 We all lived together in a very dysfunctional household.

00:05:24.240 I was born.

00:05:25.280 Right.

00:05:25.500 You know, it sounds so weird that people don't understand this, but you see pictures from Iran before the revolution.

00:05:33.140 And it's literally, like, if people are listening to this in America or in the UK, it's like you have your fairly progressive society.

00:05:41.140 And then just there's a revolution.

00:05:43.120 And suddenly, you as a woman now have to wear a hijab or even a burqa or whatever.

00:05:47.280 And you get beaten or killed if you don't.

00:05:49.080 And that's really what happened.

00:05:50.860 It was like overnight, you went back a few centuries, basically.

00:05:54.180 And I think, you know, what a lot of people say was that it was, in fact, becoming so progressive that it was almost like a backlash or jihad-lash, you know, to the amount of progress that the Shah was implementing.

00:06:07.380 Like, he had all of these reforms, like the white reform, where he was kind of rapidly progressing to the extent that he was putting women in high positions in government.

00:06:17.300 You know, it was, like, really developing.

00:06:19.540 And so that, you know, that was an affront to the kind of burgeoning Islamist movement that was in Iran and the Middle East at the time, where they were just like, oh, this is Western imperialism.

00:06:29.880 Because, you know, every semblance of progress or modernity or equality is Western imperialism to these people, right?

00:06:38.260 So it was like, we need to get rid of this Western imperialism.

00:06:42.140 We need to get rid of the cinemas and the bars and the equality for women and the right to exist and the right to, you know, wear what you want and be in government. 0.97

00:06:50.080 And we just need to replace it with this oppressive regime to oppose Western imperialism.

00:06:55.940 Why didn't the Shah crack down on this?

00:06:58.440 Or did he try?

00:06:59.560 And then it didn't work?

00:07:00.480 No, no, no.

00:07:01.380 His attitude was very much like, if the people don't want me, I'll go.

00:07:05.300 Yeah.

00:07:06.720 Wow.

00:07:07.200 So it was actually very liberal.

00:07:09.580 Yeah, he didn't fight to stay.

00:07:11.360 He didn't fight.

00:07:11.880 But also, you have to remember that he was very sick.

00:07:14.420 He was very sick at the time.

00:07:15.460 He had cancer.

00:07:17.000 And it's actually a very interesting story, the Shah's illness.

00:07:21.260 They've made multiple documentaries about it.

00:07:23.800 So he's basically hopping from country to country because he's being kicked out of every country.

00:07:28.460 After he left Iran.

00:07:30.500 And that was because Khomeini from Iran was calling upon the Ummah. 0.93

00:07:34.800 I don't know if you know what the Ummah is.

00:07:36.200 No, explain.

00:07:36.960 It's like this concept of one collective Muslim body.

00:07:41.040 So, you know, we as Muslims are all kind of moving together at the same time.

00:07:44.880 So when the Shah's in Egypt or Morocco, wherever he is, the Ummah needs to rise up and have him removed. 0.99

00:07:51.140 So because it was causing so much problems wherever the Shah would go, like the Ummah was rising up in Egypt and where he was being housed and he would have to go. 0.91

00:07:59.500 So then he was going to America, to Morocco, Egypt, all different places.

00:08:02.620 Anyway, so what ends up happening is that he needs to do this surgery on his spleen.

00:08:07.900 And he has the best doctor in America do this surgery, the best spleen surgeon in America.

00:08:14.500 Now, at this time, let's rewind and talk about the fact that Jimmy Carter, who was the president of the USA at that time, betrayed the Shah, who was a close ally to Carter.

00:08:26.580 And he betrayed the Shah by kind of conspiring with Khomeini to bring this revolution to Iran and to overthrow the Shah.

00:08:38.080 And this was revealed in declassified documents that were produced in 2016 that revealed this correspondence between Khomeini and the White House,

00:08:47.660 where Carter agreed to basically suppress the Iranian army and to help disseminate this propaganda against the Shah that ultimately fomented this revolution.

00:08:57.340 So just keeping that in mind, because, and I don't know how much of a conspiracy theorist we want to be about this, I think it's just open to consider.

00:09:05.200 The Americans really didn't want the Shah to survive and ultimately potentially come back to Iran.

00:09:11.740 So he undergoes this spleen surgery by apparently the best spleen surgeon in the USA at the time.

00:09:18.720 But the surgeon doesn't drain his spleen.

00:09:21.500 And then when you do all of these documentaries, when you see all these documentaries, you have these surgeons from everywhere, from Mexico, here, there, and the other.

00:09:29.520 They're like, there's no such thing as not draining the spleen after a surgery.

00:09:34.260 You would get an infection and die.

00:09:35.640 Everybody knows this.

00:09:37.160 That's exactly what happened to him.

00:09:38.640 He got an infection and he died.

00:09:40.040 So we fast forward to 2024.

00:09:44.300 What is life like in Iran now for the average person and for women in particular?

00:09:49.600 I mean, for women in particular, it's obviously extremely oppressive. 1.00

00:09:54.640 It's extremely repressive.

00:09:55.840 You have this forced dress code, this forced hijab. 1.00

00:10:00.540 But, you know, the situation with the hijab, it's really just the tip of the iceberg. 0.98

00:10:05.460 You know, the degree of oppression and repression in Iran is so severe that that's really just like the veneer on top of all of it.

00:10:14.000 You know, you have a lack of political autonomy.

00:10:16.880 The economy is in ruin because of all the sanctions that have been placed on the regime because it's constant violations over the decades. 0.98

00:10:27.280 You have no ability to oppose the regime because they kill you, torture you, rape you.

00:10:34.440 And you can't even vote meaningfully because every candidate is handpicked by the supreme leader.

00:10:43.700 And so I always just refer to the state of Iran now after the Islamic regime came into power.

00:10:51.560 It's just that it just went black, you know, like everything shut down and there's just no life there.

00:10:56.300 There's just like no life.

00:10:58.100 But bearing that in mind, there are there have been very brave people, brave women who have stood up.

00:11:05.740 So that gives me hope because it makes me think that actually there are people pushing back.

00:11:11.580 Like this student, that story is incredible.

00:11:15.020 Tell it to our students, to our listeners and viewers who might have missed it.

00:11:18.940 So last week there was a woman whose name is Ahu Dariyayi.

00:11:25.180 And she was essentially accosted by the morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly.

00:11:31.220 She was a PhD student at a university in Iran.

00:11:35.400 Elika, sorry, you've just used morality police.

00:11:37.900 People might not be aware of that.

00:11:39.240 Who are the morality police?

00:11:40.300 OK, so the morality police in Persia and Gashda Ershad, they are the police that are specifically employed for ensuring that women comply with the dress code. 0.63

00:11:54.100 There was a period of time that the media was reporting that the morality police had disbanded, which was not true.

00:12:00.380 They had moved to kind of surveillance instead of patrol.

00:12:04.900 But I guess they're back on patrol again.

00:12:07.160 So in response to being accosted by the morality police, she decides to take off not just her hijab, but all of her clothes.

00:12:16.380 She decides to undress and just roam around in the streets in her underwear, basically, which is, you know, a lot of people would say is like a suicidal mission.

00:12:26.620 But she did this in defiance of the regime. 1.00

00:12:30.980 And what would happen to a woman like that who chose to protest, not only to protest, but protest in the most explicit manner? 0.97

00:12:40.080 So what they're basically already saying is that she's been forcibly institutionalized.

00:12:46.400 And the amnesty actually reported today that they are aware of the tactics that the regime has used when they forcibly institutionalized women for defiance of the hijab laws,

00:12:59.300 which can include like electric shocks, forced drugs, intravenous drugs, just stuff that you would think of when you think of like the early 1900s of, you know,

00:13:14.180 what they used to do to women for hysteria, which involved a lot of the same things like electroconvulsive therapy, ice baths, lobotomies, even in the extreme cases.

00:13:27.180 And so there's a lot of concern right now about, you know, what the regime is doing in response to that.

00:13:33.560 Alec, let's talk a little bit about what the regime wants, because this is something that people in the West just I don't think people in the West are capable of understanding the mindset of passionately, deeply religious people, which is who runs Iran.

00:13:49.560 Yeah.

00:13:50.060 So what do they want?

00:13:52.240 Well, what is their objective?

00:13:53.560 Why are they doing many of the things they're doing?

00:13:56.180 You know, I think I think you bring up a good point, because what I often find about what people in the West seek to do is that they try to rationalize fundamentalism.

00:14:05.280 So they come up with these stories like, well, you know, I guess if, you know, America did this, then obviously they would do that.

00:14:12.080 They think that there's like a cause and effect to fundamentalism.

00:14:15.900 They don't understand that fundamentalism is just insanity.

00:14:19.160 Like there's no there's no why.

00:14:20.780 There's no reason.

00:14:21.660 It just it is what it is.

00:14:22.800 And there's no rationalizing it.

00:14:24.320 So they're always they're kind of imputing their own rationality onto fundamentalism, which just fundamentally doesn't work.

00:14:32.000 I get why they do it, by the way, especially as we're sitting here in L.A.

00:14:35.880 You look outside.

00:14:36.920 It's the sun is shining.

00:14:38.960 You know, all you need to do is make money and live.

00:14:41.220 Why?

00:14:41.500 Why would anyone go and blow themselves?

00:14:43.880 Well, they must be really annoyed.

00:14:45.300 They must be really upset.

00:14:46.480 They must have a good.

00:14:47.300 You know, I would only blow myself up if blah, blah, blah.

00:14:50.280 Right.

00:14:50.660 Yeah.

00:14:50.880 And I think it's a it's a failure of imagination.

00:14:54.020 It's also just a failure to understand like true evil.

00:14:59.320 Like people don't think that it's possible to just be evil.

00:15:03.000 They don't think like they're like, but I wonder why Hitler does that. 0.99

00:15:06.280 I'm sure he was just abused and I'm sure I just like that he was just evil.

00:15:10.320 You know, like just give up looking for the why, because sometimes people are just bad

00:15:15.040 people who do bad things.

00:15:17.420 So come back to what they want, because one of the things that might be strange to people

00:15:21.820 who are familiar with the Middle East is Iran is very far away from Israel.

00:15:27.000 Right.

00:15:28.760 So their their objective and their desire to wipe Israel off the map, which is one of the 1.00

00:15:34.100 objectives, seems to a lot of people kind of difficult to understand.

00:15:36.980 Can you talk a little bit?

00:15:37.640 Yeah, we can talk about that.

00:15:38.640 So basically, Iran, there's two types of Islam.

00:15:42.240 There's Shia Islam and Sunni Islam.

00:15:44.900 The regime in Iran subscribes to 12 Shia Islam.

00:15:48.560 So the reason it's called 12 Shia Islam is because they believe that the descendants of

00:15:53.200 the original Prophet Muhammad is not the correct lineage of the prophets.

00:15:57.860 It's of his son-in-law and cousin.

00:16:00.920 So the 12th Imam, which was Prophet Mahdi.

00:16:07.880 So there's this theory called Mahdiism.

00:16:10.420 This Prophet Mahdi was said to have gone into oculation.

00:16:13.560 So he went into hiding around 937 CE.

00:16:19.780 So he's gone into hiding.

00:16:21.100 He's gone into oculation.

00:16:22.240 And the theory is that the final prophet emerges once there is, once justice and equality has

00:16:29.980 been achieved in the world.

00:16:31.300 And the thing that achieves this justice is that the last drop of blood of Israel falls. 0.86

00:16:39.840 So the end of Israel brings back the final prophet. 0.98

00:16:43.240 Oh, I've never heard this.

00:16:44.920 That's fascinating.

00:16:45.760 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:16:46.020 So it's a religious thing.

00:16:47.240 It's a prophecy thing.

00:16:48.200 Yeah, yeah. 0.93

00:16:48.540 So they need to destroy Israel. 0.98

00:16:51.340 They need to destroy Israel, correct. 0.99

00:16:53.580 So that's why...

00:16:54.360 For the prophecy to be fulfilled.

00:16:55.720 Exactly.

00:16:56.540 So that's why, that's now how you get into the proxies of the regime, right?

00:17:00.940 So you have the regime almost immediately after the regime comes into power within the next...

00:17:05.860 So it comes into power in 1979.

00:17:07.960 Within the next two years, between that 1981, they create Hezbollah. 0.81

00:17:12.500 So Hezbollah is essentially a second IRGC, which was created for the purpose of destroying 0.90

00:17:18.060 Israel from the closest possible border.

00:17:20.540 Because as you said, Iran's not close enough to Israel to be able to accomplish that.

00:17:24.660 So they were like, okay, let's take Lebanon. 0.57

00:17:28.180 Let's put an army of the IRGC in Lebanon, which is the border of Israel.

00:17:31.100 What is the IRGC?

00:17:32.760 The Islamic Revolutionary Guardian Corps.

00:17:35.200 Okay.

00:17:36.020 So this is...

00:17:37.400 Okay, so the system in Iran is like this.

00:17:41.540 You have a regular government, which is for all intents and purposes, just symbolic

00:17:47.540 because it's under the...

00:17:50.340 So you have the supreme leader.

00:17:51.660 The system is called velayatifagi.

00:17:53.960 You have the supreme leader and underneath the supreme leader, you have the IRGC, which

00:17:59.940 protects the supreme leader.

00:18:02.020 And then you have the regular government, which is parliament, judiciary and executive,

00:18:08.360 president.

00:18:09.560 But all of these are under the rule of the supreme leader.

00:18:12.940 So the IRGC essentially protects this system of velayatifagi, the supreme leader system.

00:18:22.800 So the second IRGC is created in Lebanon, which is Hezbollah.

00:18:30.480 So after the revolution is successful, Assad comes to Iran to congratulate Khomeini and says,

00:18:37.380 what do you need?

00:18:38.000 And Khomeini says, we need a passage to Lebanon to create this second army to destroy Israel.

00:18:43.040 So they go through Syria and they come down in northern Lebanon at the same time. 0.61

00:18:51.580 This is like around the same time that, remember, Israel's now in southern Lebanon.

00:18:56.740 And this is why the Western world often says that Hezbollah was created in response to Israel's

00:19:02.420 occupation.

00:19:03.320 Well, that's completely false.

00:19:04.500 First of all, Israel was occupying the south of Lebanon at the time to remove the PLO that 0.72

00:19:10.440 were fighting, that were throwing rockets into Israel.

00:19:14.220 And in fact, the Lebanese in the south were actually allying with Israel to help take out 0.84

00:19:20.800 the PLO, the SLA.

00:19:23.640 Hezbollah's coming down in the north and it's basically killing everybody who's not submitting 0.99

00:19:29.140 to their rule. 0.86

00:19:30.160 Even Shiites, even Shiite Muslims, Sunnis, Christians, basically everyone, they start 0.59

00:19:37.260 engaging in a series of terrorist attacks, bombing the American embassy in Beirut, kidnapping 0.99

00:19:44.500 Americans, killing them. 1.00

00:19:47.020 Then it goes into like the kind of Iran contra affair, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. 0.99

00:19:52.200 Anyway, the whole point is that this regime creates its proxies in order to start satisfying

00:19:58.320 its goal, which is the destruction of Israel. 0.90

00:20:00.720 And that's how it ends up also funding and providing training and assistance to Hamas and 0.74

00:20:06.360 the Houthis, basically one in furtherance of the same goal.

00:20:09.560 So I'm guessing that they don't really particularly care, the Iranian regime, which is funding all 1.00

00:20:17.080 these proxies, about civilian casualties.

00:20:20.860 It's not just that they don't care.

00:20:22.980 It's that they need civilian casualties.

00:20:25.840 It's part of the propaganda machine.

00:20:28.480 So you can't turn Israel into a pariah state, right, which is the goal, that everyone thinks

00:20:34.860 this is the most evil state in the world, unless Israel is, its hand is forced into striking 0.99

00:20:42.120 areas where they've put, you know, munitions in schools and in hospitals and places like

00:20:48.100 that, right?

00:20:49.140 So it's actually part of their strategy to maximize civilian casualties.

00:20:53.680 And in fact, this was something that they read in Sinwar's, a leaked report of something

00:20:59.520 that Sinwar had even admitted himself, that they need as many civilian casualties as possible.

00:21:04.760 Because when they have civilian casualties, then the rest of the world is like, Israel's evil. 0.99

00:21:10.160 We need a ceasefire.

00:21:11.840 We need to end all of these things.

00:21:13.560 And then Hamas lives to see another day. 0.92

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00:21:43.320 The thing that I find really interesting about all of this is that Biden gave Iran a lot of money.

00:21:55.380 Now, I don't understand why that is.

00:21:59.240 Could you explain the amount of money that you gave?

00:22:01.780 Yeah.

00:22:02.660 And there must have been a rationale behind it.

00:22:04.560 So what was the rationale?

00:22:05.400 So in August of 2023, about two months before the October 7th, Biden ends up giving six to seven billion dollars to the regime

00:22:17.860 as part of a hostage, a prisoner exchange deal where you get a couple of Iranians from American prison

00:22:25.180 and a couple of Americans from Iranian prisons.

00:22:28.220 Now, we've done these prisoner exchanges in the past without any transfer of money.

00:22:34.800 So under the prior government, under Trump, they exchanged, they got back two American prisoners,

00:22:41.640 Xi Wei Wang and Michael White, with no exchange of money.

00:22:44.940 So this was very curious.

00:22:46.220 We were like, why are you giving them seven billion dollars?

00:22:48.420 Mind you, they also didn't get, they also didn't retrieve one American national, Jamshid Sharmad,

00:22:54.680 who I don't know if you heard about this, they executed him last week.

00:22:59.220 This is a man that the regime had kidnapped.

00:23:03.620 He was a dissident to the regime, like the rest of us.

00:23:06.220 They tried to assassinate him in California in 2009.

00:23:09.800 And when they failed, they kidnapped him from Dubai, took him to Iran.

00:23:14.980 Biden's administration didn't try to get him back.

00:23:17.180 And then they ended up executing him last week after Israel struck the regime's military bases.

00:23:23.020 So, first of all, we're like, why are you giving them money?

00:23:27.120 Second of all, why aren't you bringing them all back?

00:23:29.900 So then what we end up finding out is that you have this lead negotiator in Qatar come out and basically say,

00:23:36.120 you know, these are like laying the ground for getting back into the second JCPOA,

00:23:41.160 which is to get back into another nuclear deal with the regime,

00:23:43.600 which was what Obama did, if you recall, gave $150 billion to the regime to get into the JCPOA, the nuclear deal.

00:23:54.000 And so what does that mean to get into the nuclear deal?

00:23:57.160 Because there will be people who go, look, you've got two choices with these regimes.

00:24:01.520 You either isolate them and then they go into the arms of Russia, China, whatever else, 0.95

00:24:05.820 or you try and work with them and hopefully bring them into the fold.

00:24:10.020 And then that way you can have soft power over your smiling.

00:24:13.180 Yeah, because you think it's clearly bollocks.

00:24:15.240 It's 45 years of a failed strategy of appeasement.

00:24:18.740 And they tried the same thing with the Nazi regime.

00:24:21.080 And they appeased for so long that they ended up having to kill 50 million people to take them out.

00:24:25.720 You're just delaying the inevitable.

00:24:27.560 So that's exactly what Obama thought.

00:24:29.140 He was like, oh, maybe if we just give them $150 billion,

00:24:32.280 they'll stop committing terrorism and suddenly start liking us.

00:24:35.840 And it's like, what part of terrorist regime do you not understand?

00:24:39.200 They want you gone. 0.99

00:24:40.320 They want you dead. 0.98

00:24:41.380 And they're trying to strategize every way they can to pull one over on you. 0.96

00:24:45.780 So that's exactly what happened.

00:24:47.360 They got into this nuclear deal, which didn't do anything, mind you,

00:24:51.160 because the provisions of the nuclear deal expired after 10 years anyway.

00:24:55.280 So they could then enrich to their heart's content.

00:24:57.940 And they had $150 billion.

00:25:00.780 And at that time, there was actually a revolution, another revolution in Iran,

00:25:04.580 the Green Movement.

00:25:05.920 And the regime was on its last legs.

00:25:08.620 And they ended up empowering the regime once again.

00:25:11.980 And Obama comes out a few years later and he's like, oh, you know what?

00:25:14.780 I made a huge mistake.

00:25:16.140 I should have stood with the people of Iran to help them take out the regime.

00:25:20.260 But that was what they believed at the time.

00:25:22.980 They thought diplomacy would...

00:25:24.500 Yeah, they thought diplomacy would sort this out.

00:25:27.740 And you said something which made me think that, do you think the war with Iran is inevitable

00:25:34.180 between Israel and Iran at this moment?

00:25:37.640 Between Israel and Iran? 0.94

00:25:39.880 It was kind of already happening.

00:25:41.220 Yeah, there kind of is a war already.

00:25:43.560 Yeah.

00:25:43.760 But I mean...

00:25:45.460 More?

00:25:45.860 Yeah.

00:25:46.440 More.

00:25:47.280 I think more's coming.

00:25:48.260 Yeah.

00:25:48.600 And do you think it's inevitable, really?

00:25:50.060 Yeah, I do think it's inevitable because you have...

00:25:54.060 It's at the point now where everyone is hitting back from the last hit.

00:26:00.080 And I mean, it's going to require one party saying, you know, I'm completely just abdicating

00:26:05.940 this.

00:26:06.420 I'm not going to continue with this.

00:26:07.720 And I don't see why either one of them would do that.

00:26:10.000 So, yeah.

00:26:11.500 And the regime has already come out and said that it's going to strike back on Israel after

00:26:16.060 the previous attacks.

00:26:17.280 But what's so interesting about this is when I hear people who are talking about this,

00:26:23.140 particularly people on the left, and look, they've got their concerns about Israel's

00:26:26.900 conduct during this war, but they never talk about Iran.

00:26:31.500 They never talk about these Islamic fundamentalists who are funding this.

00:26:36.900 And let's be honest about it.

00:26:38.740 Tragic as it may be, the Palestine situation, the Lebanon situation, they're essentially proxy 1.00

00:26:45.200 wars for this coming conflict, which is going to be really serious.

00:26:51.980 And you think this could actually spark something even more serious as a result.

00:26:56.920 So I guess my question is, why are they not talking about that instead of talking about

00:27:02.420 what's going on in Palestine?

00:27:04.120 Well, the thing is, you know, it's all linked.

00:27:05.840 And so when people think that this is like a gotcha, where they say to me, like, oh, but

00:27:09.380 what about the casualties in Gaza and Lebanon?

00:27:11.980 I'm like, that's exactly what I'm saying.

00:27:14.020 You don't see what's at the root of this.

00:27:16.240 You like, we're not disagreeing that these casualties are a problem.

00:27:19.000 We're disagreeing about what's the cause of these casualties, because you're obviously

00:27:22.620 only capable of one layer of thought.

00:27:24.680 If the only thing that you can see is that this one is striking this one, and that must

00:27:28.360 be the problem.

00:27:29.240 You can't see what's going on behind this.

00:27:31.840 You can't see like the amount of munitions that have been lined in these civilian homes.

00:27:36.540 You can't see the terror tunnels underground.

00:27:38.940 You can't see the fact that October 7th happened.

00:27:41.000 They kidnapped these people.

00:27:42.260 They've taken them to Gaza. 0.66

00:27:44.780 They've refused to return the hostages.

00:27:46.900 They've refused to disband.

00:27:48.980 And they're strategically locating themselves.

00:27:51.680 They're positioning themselves in and among civilians.

00:27:54.220 They're putting their munitions around civilian areas where the camps are so that when Israel 0.97

00:27:59.440 does strike, you have these secondary explosions.

00:28:01.540 Like, nobody wants to talk about any of that stuff, right?

00:28:03.920 Nobody wants to talk about jihad being at the root of all of this, much less, I mean, they

00:28:09.060 don't even consider Hezbollah and Hamas being at the root of that, much less going back a

00:28:15.220 third layer of thought to go back to the Islamic regime in Iran.

00:28:18.240 They can just see that that first layer and that's it.

00:28:21.340 But the thing is, all of this is by design.

00:28:24.120 And it's so important to understand that the regime hasn't maintained power for 45 years 1.00

00:28:30.000 with stupidity, right? 1.00

00:28:31.740 This is like, they've played the long game for a long time and they've come up with all 1.00

00:28:35.600 of these strategies.

00:28:36.660 Like, they've come up with these strategies where they're like, okay, if we play on public

00:28:42.280 emotion by publishing these, like, gruesome pictures of, you know, like, casualties and

00:28:47.620 things like that, people are going to have, like, an amygdala hijacked response where they're

00:28:52.160 going to shut down their prefrontal cortex.

00:28:54.060 They're not going to be able to see, wait a minute, this comes from Hamas, which comes from 0.95

00:28:58.860 the regime, like, they're not going to be able to do that processing anymore because

00:29:02.400 their emotions are triggered.

00:29:04.660 And they're like, I just, I'm horrified with this and I'm going to blame the thing that's

00:29:08.600 in front of me.

00:29:09.860 So there's a very deliberate plan that's making sure that people are always looking over here

00:29:16.780 so they never look over here and understand that the root of all of these casualties, all

00:29:22.040 of these, you know, horrifying things that we're seeing, it's coming from this constant

00:29:27.060 involvement.

00:29:28.400 It's coming from this constant push from the regime.

00:29:31.080 And I guess the question is, Elika, so we're sitting here in LA, you have a...

00:29:38.240 Stop showing off me.

00:29:39.160 Yeah.

00:29:40.020 It's an Airbnb.

00:29:40.700 He had to say that.

00:29:41.600 Yeah.

00:29:41.940 Yeah, yeah.

00:29:42.340 Just in case anyone thought he was still in London.

00:29:44.300 Yeah, exactly.

00:29:45.500 No one would be able to afford that fire in London, let alone any of this.

00:29:49.000 Yeah, that would be against the law in London.

00:29:51.380 Yeah, exactly.

00:29:52.000 It's against net zero.

00:29:52.980 Yeah.

00:29:53.520 You can't burn energy.

00:29:55.220 That's, that's disgusting. 0.97

00:29:56.700 It's transphobia. 0.98

00:29:57.960 That was a little break, comedic break there.

00:30:03.500 Comedic break.

00:30:04.020 Let's talk about nuclear war.

00:30:05.680 Yeah, the nuclear war.

00:30:07.120 This is less fun.

00:30:08.460 So why get involved is the question.

00:30:11.980 Me?

00:30:12.580 Yeah, you, because why?

00:30:14.400 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:30:14.880 So I think that there's something to the fact that I know very well, very, very well, what

00:30:22.820 it means to lose your country to a lie, okay, which is, which is essentially how, how we

00:30:28.920 lost in one, to a lie.

00:30:30.380 And that same lie is coming here now.

00:30:32.480 And I'm like, I'm not gonna see that twice.

00:30:36.140 What's the lie?

00:30:36.660 You have to read my book to find out.

00:30:41.380 Gladly.

00:30:42.600 But you've got to, you've got to tease people a little bit.

00:30:45.100 No, but it's the, it's the whole thing.

00:30:46.420 The whole thing is the lie, right?

00:30:47.920 Like, I mean, it's just like, I'll be sitting here for hours to describe it.

00:30:50.900 All right.

00:30:51.220 Tell them what your book is called.

00:30:52.820 Oh, I can't say, I can't say that.

00:30:54.480 Oh, your book is not out?

00:30:55.540 No, it's not out yet.

00:30:56.760 No.

00:30:56.980 Well, you can't.

00:30:57.560 I know.

00:30:58.320 But I didn't mean, I wasn't trying to plug.

00:31:00.220 I was just trying to say like, it, it requires like a.

00:31:02.540 She said, you'll have to read my book.

00:31:04.220 But she wasn't trying to plug at all, man.

00:31:05.760 I haven't, I haven't, the book's not here.

00:31:08.760 What's the lie?

00:31:09.760 What's the what?

00:31:10.480 What's the lie?

00:31:11.800 You lost your country to a lie.

00:31:13.420 What's the lie?

00:31:14.220 The lie is essentially the entire thing that the jihadists have basically, you know, engaged

00:31:20.240 in in order to convince people that they, you know.

00:31:23.480 Which is what?

00:31:24.680 Everything that they're doing.

00:31:25.700 Everything that we're talking about right now.

00:31:27.320 That's all the lie.

00:31:28.520 But it's like, there's a whole thing to it, you know.

00:31:32.440 What's the thing?

00:31:33.840 What we're talking about.

00:31:35.760 Okay.

00:31:36.140 So like, just for example, what we just said, right?

00:31:38.480 When we were talking about like the emotion and blah, blah, blah.

00:31:40.500 Like that's an example of one of the things.

00:31:42.160 Well, all that is in terms of the Western response.

00:31:44.760 I, the way I think about it is kind of like the kindergarten teacher mentality.

00:31:48.540 She walks out into the, into the playground.

00:31:51.760 She sees two kids fighting.

00:31:53.260 One's on top.

00:31:54.480 That's the bad guy.

00:31:55.400 That, and it never goes beyond that.

00:31:58.120 Yeah.

00:31:58.460 I think, I think with that example though, there's a degree of, um, innocence.

00:32:04.740 So, um, I don't even want to use the word innocence, but there's a degree of just like, you know, making a snap judgment and then being nothing else behind that.

00:32:12.700 I think that there's more to it where it's like orchestrated in a way that you want this kid to look like the bad guy.

00:32:21.420 And there's extensive planning and positioning and strategizing so that when the teacher comes out, they're like, oh, you're the bad guy.

00:32:28.440 Oh yeah.

00:32:28.760 But, but that's what bullies do. 1.00

00:32:29.900 Bullies are very good at making themselves look like the victim. 1.00

00:32:33.360 It's called Darbo. 0.98

00:32:34.300 I think, yes, exactly.

00:32:36.760 Um, the question I wanted to ask you, and it's something that we've had many, many people want to talk about this, but I've never asked this directly as this.

00:32:43.920 What is jihad?

00:32:46.260 So this is a matter of contention, I guess.

00:32:49.120 Um, the term jihad quite literally means, I mean, it's an Arabic word.

00:32:53.740 It means like struggle.

00:32:55.400 And so a lot of people just, you know, say, oh, jihad just means like a struggle against oppression.

00:33:01.280 And, you know, regardless of what the kind of etymology of the word is or the root, um, what it has come to mean, if for most people's understanding,

00:33:14.580 is it's a, uh, vying for power of Islamists, um, over a region, essentially, in order to create a state under Sharia law.

00:33:24.300 So they want a caliphate?

00:33:26.900 So, um, it depends whether you're talking about, um, Sunni extremists or Shia.

00:33:31.760 Sunnis want a caliphate. 1.00

00:33:33.000 Exactly.

00:33:33.300 What does Shia want? 1.00

00:33:34.140 Emwamate.

00:33:35.580 Emwamate, which is like what, uh, is in the, in Iran, in the Islamic Republic.

00:33:40.000 Right.

00:33:40.600 Yeah.

00:33:41.740 So jihad is the struggle to achieve a single state under Muslim control in the Middle East? 0.88

00:33:49.960 Or does it go beyond that?

00:33:51.700 I mean, if they're going to return to the prior caliphate, if that's the model that they're going to use, then I'm guessing the Middle East and North Africa. 0.69

00:34:00.560 Um, I don't know what their aspirations are beyond that.

00:34:04.060 Um, and why do, um, the Iranian jihadis hate America?

00:34:12.920 Why do they chant death to America?

00:34:15.560 Um, you know, they're...

00:34:16.700 Is it American foreign policy?

00:34:18.840 No, no, no, no, no, no.

00:34:20.260 I mean, you could say that, you could say that, but I think in general, you have to remember that they really hate American values, right?

00:34:32.020 They hate American values because they're almost diametrically opposed to the values that they have, which are really, really very, like, I don't even want to say conservative because it's more than conservative, right?

00:34:42.300 It's, it's repressive.

00:34:44.400 It's very, um, it's extremism.

00:34:47.500 And so this idea of liberalism in any form, and I know this word liberalism has come to be contentious when we talk about it in America, but to them, you know, it literally just means, like, dressing how you want or whatever.

00:35:02.500 Um, the values that America has, it's just really irksome to them.

00:35:09.980 Um, also the fact that you have to remember that America and, you know, the Western world in general is constantly responding to this regime, this regime's acts of brutality and violence.

00:35:21.280 And, and when you're that, when you're that bully, right, there's something about when you have that mindset where you, like, no matter what you do, when someone responds to you, you think they're the bad guy, right?

00:35:32.680 Like, if you try to, like, go after someone and they defend themselves and hurt you, you're like, oh my gosh, I've been attacked.

00:35:39.540 It's actually just the way they think.

00:35:41.460 And they're not even capable of accountability or self-reflection.

00:35:44.900 So, like, when they create Hezbollah, for example, and Hezbollah, like, commits all of these suicide bombings and kills, like, CIA agents and stuff, and then America does something like put sanctions on the regime, something like that, right?

00:35:57.300 They're like, oh my gosh, I've been targeted by the big, bad American wolf. 1.00

00:36:00.800 It's like, but you, you know you did something, right?

00:36:02.800 You know you did something first that was really bad, and then you got a reaction, right?

00:36:06.820 You get that?

00:36:07.920 It's like, but they, they don't get that.

00:36:09.620 They don't see it that way.

00:36:10.640 They're like, oh, I'm being oppressed by Western imperialism.

00:36:12.860 I mean, in fairness to them, with sanctions, like, my mother's Venezuelan, when sanctions were brought in Venezuela, it's never going to be the ruling class that suffer. 0.53

00:36:21.100 It's always going to be the innocent civilians who've got no choice in the matter of the fact they're ruled by these nutbags. 1.00

00:36:26.380 Well, you know, that would, that would be true if it wasn't for the case, if it wasn't for the fact that the regime is extorting the people anyway by taking, you know, their money and everything they have.

00:36:38.260 So, like, the supreme leaders, like, his net worth is like, I don't know, like, 100 billion or 200, like, just ridiculous amounts of money that he's extorting from the Iranian people.

00:36:48.140 So, that would be a good argument if it was like a but-for argument, but-for sanctions, Iran would be flourishing, wouldn't be, realistically.

00:36:56.580 No, no, it wouldn't be, and it never is.

00:36:58.760 The thing that I find really interesting about your story when you speak about it is you talk about the cyber attacks from Iran.

00:37:05.180 Now, this is something that I've never really heard of.

00:37:08.080 So, explain to us what that is like.

00:37:11.960 So, the regime, so, first of all, let's remember that the regime has a long history of assassinating dissidents through, from the 80s through to the 90s in France, in Germany.

00:37:27.020 And I guess what happened after a period of time, the international community was like, okay, we're going to do arrest warrants international, all of this stuff.

00:37:34.960 They were like, this isn't ideal.

00:37:37.000 So, what they do now is they have more like a phased attack against dissidents, and the first phase of the attack starts with character assassination.

00:37:44.660 So, they start by saying, like, you know, this person is a Mossad agent, a regime spy, a this, that, or the other terrorist, which is what they said about Jamshid Sharmad, who they just executed last week.

00:37:57.360 And then they move into the phase of attempted kidnap or assassination, and the whole point is that once they cause you this harm, they've already laid that foundation of character assassination, so essentially no one will care, right?

00:38:11.080 And so, this is exactly what happened.

00:38:12.460 So, after they executed him and they told the world, you know, you see the New York Times and all of this media posts like, oh, this man was assassinated on terrorism charges.

00:38:23.060 And it's like, where are you getting this information from?

00:38:28.480 Like, did you actually review the fact that he was convicted alongside Biden and Trump and every American official of terrorism and sentenced to death?

00:38:38.940 Well, has Biden done that then?

00:38:40.560 Did you investigate that?

00:38:42.160 And so, then it's like, then you're like, oh, well, I mean, I guess it doesn't matter if he was a terrorist, right?

00:38:48.160 And that's how they whitewash their crimes and get people to look the other way, because they're like, oh, well, I guess it's not really that bad if this person was a Mossad agent or a CIA or a regime spy or a terrorist.

00:39:02.760 I guess it's not that bad.

00:39:05.120 And it's interesting because they don't also, they assassinate character in a different way as well.

00:39:11.960 Like, some of the things they've accused you of, didn't one of them accuse you of being Simon Le Bon's daughter?

00:39:17.240 So, that one was funny.

00:39:20.240 That one was funny because first they said that, first they said that I was hiding the fact that I was Simon Le Bon's daughter because he was a raging Zionist.

00:39:28.960 And I didn't want everyone to know that I was the daughter of a Zionist.

00:39:31.680 Well, the lead singer of Duran Duran, is he a raging Zionist? 1.00

00:39:35.680 I don't know.

00:39:36.160 Is he?

00:39:36.680 I've never heard his opinions on Israel.

00:39:38.500 I'm going to be honest with you.

00:39:41.280 I have no idea.

00:39:42.180 He's probably the only person in the world, in the music world, he hasn't given his opinion on Israel.

00:39:47.660 Yeah.

00:39:48.620 I have no idea.

00:39:49.380 He probably is a Zionist.

00:39:50.420 Yeah.

00:39:50.800 So, yeah, probably.

00:39:51.920 Yeah.

00:39:52.820 Don't sue us.

00:39:53.660 It's just a joke, mate.

00:39:54.340 No, we don't know.

00:39:55.380 We don't know.

00:39:55.820 We love Hungry, like the Wolves.

00:39:56.740 Disclaimer, we actually have no idea what Simon Le Bon's views are.

00:39:59.580 But you're not his daughter.

00:40:00.600 I'm really sorry, Simon Le Bon.

00:40:01.780 I'm really sorry, Simon Le Bon.

00:40:01.960 You don't know.

00:40:02.500 Yeah, no.

00:40:02.940 Real, like, huge apologies to Simon Le Bon, who's gotten the salty end of this campaign against me.

00:40:12.340 He doesn't have a daughter that's, you know, me.

00:40:15.760 And then afterwards, they switched it to saying that.

00:40:18.740 So they, like, had created this whole reputation that I was, like, secretly Simon Le Bon's daughter.

00:40:23.340 And then when that became, like, accepted, then they were like, she's not even Simon Le Bon's daughter.

00:40:29.100 She just lies about it for fame. 1.00

00:40:32.940 I was like, that's good.

00:40:36.680 That's pretty good.

00:40:37.880 Yeah. 0.97

00:40:39.460 But it just shows, like, how ridiculous it is.

00:40:42.380 And it also shows the currency of the internet where you only have to say something.

00:40:46.760 And if it gets retweeted enough times, people are like, I can't believe what Simon Le Bon's daughter said now.

00:40:51.620 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:40:52.140 We were actually just talking about this where I had, like, put up this post about Jamshid Sharmad where I was like, there was no evidence of this claim that he was a terrorist.

00:41:00.420 And then someone, like, the journalist of Press TV, which is the regime's media, comments in my thing, like, no evidence laughing face.

00:41:09.420 And then they attach the article.

00:41:10.940 And the article is, again, just repeating the accusations without evidence. 0.88

00:41:14.920 And I'm like, number one, they will say the most ridiculous thing in the world.

00:41:20.520 They won't substantiate their claims. 0.56

00:41:21.960 There's never any evidence, which is, like, already something.

00:41:25.360 But then the other thing is, like, people still go for it.

00:41:28.760 It's like, it would be fine if everybody understood that this was ridiculous, but people still go for it.

00:41:34.580 And that's why they do it.

00:41:35.620 Because they're like, what's the point of trying harder when this is, you know, successful?

00:41:40.480 And it's interesting when you compare it to, for instance, the case of Salman Rushdie.

00:41:44.840 And because the Ayatollah, I think, was it 81, 82, issued the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and then never rescinded it.

00:41:54.120 Yeah.

00:41:54.520 And everyone kind of forgot about it and went, well, I think, you know, everything's fine now.

00:41:59.260 And then Salman Rushdie was nearly killed.

00:42:02.220 Yeah.

00:42:03.180 So it just shows that, you know, there's real power to these threats and to these accusations.

00:42:08.320 There's real, real, I mean, this is extremely, extremely dangerous work.

00:42:14.800 It's almost like there's, like, a double edge to it where it's, like, the more you speak about it, the more you become known, the more, you know, of a target you become.

00:42:25.080 But then also at the same time, the more you become known, the more it's for them a little bit of a problem if they try to go after you because they also don't want, you know, the international community realizing that they're terrorists.

00:42:39.020 You mentioned before we started that talking about this has caused a lot of your British friends to react to it.

00:42:46.680 What's going on there?

00:42:48.160 So, I mean, you guys are from London, so you know that, you know, being pro-Palestine is kind of part of the culture and you really can't stray from that or you're just evil and horrible. 0.99

00:43:01.420 So after October 7th, for me, there was, you know, an obvious overlap because I've been talking about Iran for the past year since the revolution in Iran following the killing of Massa Jina Amini.

00:43:13.640 And so after October 7th happened, I'm like, okay, well, you know, these are proxies of the regime.

00:43:21.620 These are the same terrorists that have killed my family and my people.

00:43:25.600 Obviously, I'm not going to stand with this.

00:43:28.820 But my friends took a very different, a very different approach.

00:43:34.720 They were very supportive of October 7th.

00:43:39.280 I mean, just obviously, right, like on October 7th, they posted like Palestine flags and just stuff that was, you know, obvious.

00:43:48.300 And so the thing is, for me, it's like there's, there's, that's obviously like very dark for me because you're supporting the terrorists that, you know, are an extension of the same terrorists that have killed my family.

00:44:00.800 For you, there's no meaning behind it, right?

00:44:02.860 And so as it just developed that, you know, they would post stuff in defense of Hamas, they would repost like Gabor Marte quotes that would be like, oh, Hamas hasn't even done 1% of what is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:44:15.740 And I'm like, this is, this doesn't even mean anything to you.

00:44:20.920 You don't even know what you're talking about.

00:44:23.100 This is like, they weren't even willing to hear me, despite me having like an obvious connection to this conflict, you know.

00:44:32.520 It was just a decision that there's something wrong with you.

00:44:36.900 You must be a raging Zionist if you don't support Hamas. 0.91

00:44:40.560 And we just don't want to know you anymore.

00:44:42.600 And Elika, one of the things that we've touched briefly on, but actually now that I'm putting together several of the things that you're saying.

00:44:51.980 So this is a religious fundamentalist ideology that believes that in order to achieve the prophecy, it has to get rid of Israel.

00:45:02.140 And these guys are trying to develop nuclear weapons.

00:45:05.500 That's pretty scary.

00:45:08.020 Yeah.

00:45:08.540 Now, the obvious question, therefore, is how close are they to having nuclear weapons?

00:45:14.240 Do we know?

00:45:15.020 That I don't know.

00:45:16.540 I know they've been a nuclear threshold state for a few years.

00:45:20.420 I don't think that's something that they've come out and revealed.

00:45:23.420 It's kind of like the same thing with Israel. 0.57

00:45:25.240 They don't say.

00:45:26.020 Well, we know about Israel.

00:45:27.860 Yeah, we know.

00:45:28.580 Israel's, I love it.

00:45:30.400 Israel's position on nuclear weapons is hilarious. 0.88

00:45:32.460 It's like, we don't have them, but if the state of Israel is a threat, we're definitely going to use them. 1.00

00:45:36.720 We have them.

00:45:37.080 Yeah, yeah.

00:45:37.540 If it's a threat, then we have them.

00:45:39.520 Yeah, we will have them.

00:45:40.500 But if it's not a threat, we don't have them.

00:45:41.720 We don't have them.

00:45:42.220 But Israel has nuclear weapons.

00:45:43.960 Yeah.

00:45:44.620 But we don't know how close Iran is.

00:45:45.940 Yeah, I don't know. 0.92

00:45:46.920 Because I'm guessing that from Israel's perspective, if what you're saying is accurate and if it's understood to be like that in Israel, I just don't see why they haven't bombed the shit out of Iran's nuclear facilities already. 0.84

00:45:59.300 Yeah. 0.90

00:45:59.760 Because that's what I would do, objectively.

00:46:01.380 If there was a guy across the street whose prophecy would only be fulfilled when I'm dead, I'd go and take care of it.

00:46:10.620 You know what I mean?

00:46:11.120 Yeah, but then you know what would happen to you? 0.98

00:46:12.720 You'd be on trial and get convicted of murder because this poor innocent man who just wanted to be your friend and has never done anything wrong because they're just so good and kind and you're just so evil that you decided that you wanted to end his life because you're mean and jealous and miserable. 0.95

00:46:29.020 Sounds like me. 0.91

00:46:29.800 But I see your point.

00:46:32.920 Preemptive action is very difficult to justify and at least because sometimes it is unjustified.

00:46:38.080 Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction.

00:46:39.980 I think that's part of the skepticism in the West about this stuff.

00:46:43.420 But I think another thing that I was going to say to answer your question is that Israel is very much restrained by the international community, especially America.

00:46:52.500 And because America has this strategy of failed strategy of appeasement for the past 45 years, it's very much just like anti any type of escalation.

00:47:02.560 And so even if Israel wanted to do its escalation a little bit further, it would be punished by America.

00:47:08.240 And if it's punished by America, that's a problem.

00:47:10.500 So it has to really operate within the confines of what America decides is appropriate.

00:47:15.420 And that's why another reason why this election is going to be very.

00:47:19.200 Well, by the time this goes out, the elections happen.

00:47:23.740 So either we're all dead or we're, I don't know.

00:47:28.020 Or Kamala Harris is in charge.

00:47:32.520 Yeah.

00:47:34.420 You're laughing just like her.

00:47:35.700 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:47:42.600 It was a joke.

00:47:43.240 I'm sorry.

00:47:43.700 I don't like it.

00:47:44.120 I apologize.

00:47:44.520 It's okay.

00:47:45.120 I apologize.

00:47:45.940 It's okay.

00:47:46.440 That was rude of me.

00:47:47.060 No, it's okay.

00:47:47.700 It was rude of me to talk about the president of the United States in that way.

00:47:52.520 Is that what you think?

00:47:54.340 It doesn't really matter what I think.

00:47:55.620 No, it doesn't matter.

00:47:56.000 By this time, it's happened.

00:47:56.820 So we'll find out.

00:47:57.780 um so but i don't understand why more people aren't aware of this stuff right because if if

00:48:07.100 it is a religiously motivated agenda and you've got this nation that's one component of it i

00:48:12.120 wouldn't say it's like entirely that you know they just they're just they're feuding their

00:48:16.560 rivals but yeah and they want control of the region too right that's why they're feuding with

00:48:20.500 the sunni states yeah well i think also like another huge part of it is that the jewish state

00:48:25.540 disrupts the islamic hegemony in the region right so you can't have any type of caliphate or united 0.83

00:48:32.820 islamic rule where the jewish state exists there even if it wasn't a prophecy you know like there's 0.93

00:48:39.000 many reasons why the jewish state is is a huge problem to kind of usurping power in the region 1.00

00:48:44.680 but it's also as well like you talk about islamic hegemony they don't like each other anyway because

00:48:51.020 the moment they get rid of israel the sunnis are going to look at the shias and they're going to 1.00

00:48:54.600 be like well you're the problem and then they're going to have a fight amongst themselves because

00:48:58.900 they're mental well this is the thing like a lot of people diagnosis from dr foster there 0.97

00:49:04.060 one billion muslims in the world are mental oh i'm saying the extremists who want to 1.00

00:49:09.100 oh the extremists yeah yeah please don't get anyway well the funny thing is like the funny thing is i was 0.99

00:49:14.680 just reading about something the other day that when um the u.s began its negotiations for the nuclear

00:49:19.920 deal with the regime they actually concealed this from israel and the persian gulf states because

00:49:26.700 they were like basically israel and all the arab states really hate the regime and they don't want 0.99

00:49:31.120 to like they don't want it to become empowered and i was just thinking it's really funny how people

00:49:35.860 don't know that everyone actually hates the regime like these these people in the west that are like oh

00:49:42.020 access of resistance like you don't know that all of these countries in the middle east like

00:49:46.620 really despise like saudi uae bahrain kuwait like all of these countries hate this regime because

00:49:53.340 it's like psychotic extremists like no one like no it's just weird people people don't get that

00:49:59.760 so yeah they they do not want to merge with the regime definitely not no they don't want to merge

00:50:08.600 the regime and let's say the regime was like i said got its wish to wipe israel off the map yeah 0.81

00:50:14.700 there wouldn't then be this peace in the middle east yeah because it would be sunny versus sheer and

00:50:19.280 then that would be a whole new thing and then they would all be at war with one another

00:50:22.720 if you can convince them you know i think i should yeah elegan what would happen if the west

00:50:32.480 stopped supporting israel if the west stops supporting israel um

00:50:39.180 i i so i mean i guess this this question is a little bit dynamic because i i wonder if israel

00:50:47.080 can sustain itself i'm actually not sure the answer to that question um so i don't know if

00:50:51.960 you mean militarily or emotionally or philosophically well i guess i mean militarily and this comes back

00:50:58.280 to our conversation about nuclear weapons because i guess if the west stopped supporting israel

00:51:03.520 israel would be weakened by this right necessarily which would mean that its enemies would be emboldened 0.70

00:51:10.140 which would mean that they would be more likely to attack which would mean that israel would

00:51:13.860 find it more difficult at the very least to defend itself which would mean that if it turned bad for

00:51:21.540 israel eventually israel might be in a position where its survival is its state yeah at which point

00:51:26.160 israel might feel that it has to use nuclear weapons which it would would do very reluctantly of course

00:51:32.120 um so that's that's i guess those that's kind of like the two pathways right so if israel to would

00:51:40.140 were to use um nuclear weapons obviously it would be catastrophic in the region um that that might be

00:51:46.180 the situation if it feels like it has nothing else that it can do the alternative where israel

00:51:51.120 actually loses hypothetically um then what would happen is that we will the goal right is that um

00:51:58.480 hamas would create a second islamic republic across um historic palestine so across israel and the

00:52:04.940 palestinian territories which would be like a second iran basically would turn into a second islamic

00:52:09.940 republic and that would be deeply problematic and then you have two um islamic republic stationed here 0.90

00:52:16.180 and here and then they would go um the next mission would be uh lebanon to turn lebanon into islamic

00:52:22.540 republic and now everyone is you know asking for assistance to the people on the ground who are

00:52:28.620 trying to rise up and defeat their terrorist regimes just as they've been doing in iran

00:52:32.660 right and then where does that end you know and what would happen to the christians the jews the

00:52:40.660 atheists the women if that were to happen so um we can just rely on history for that so um under the 0.88

00:52:48.520 caliphate they were um basically relegated to dimmitude dimmi status which is basically that

00:52:56.000 you if you're a person of the book christian jew otherwise um you can exist on this land but you have 0.88

00:53:03.020 to trade um basically will give you protection as in the right to live on this land in exchange for

00:53:08.860 subordination to islam so basically as long as you're subordinate to islam will let you be here 0.99

00:53:14.080 um they would just be relegated to dimmies again after i imagine quite a lot of being slaughtered

00:53:20.180 first because it seemed to me like when the when isis took over parts of the of the arab uh area 0.64

00:53:27.020 they didn't just make people subordinate they also tortured raped murdered on a mass scale right yeah

00:53:33.740 well i mean at the end of the day most people don't won't accept that and that's why there's so much

00:53:38.320 murder and and slaughtering and raping all of this stuff is because people are just like no i don't want 0.84

00:53:42.860 to do that and they're like okay well then we'll kill you so that's the that's the result if you 0.99

00:53:47.500 don't want to submit to that but if you i mean if anyone whether you're in iran whether you're jewish 0.99

00:53:52.280 whether you're christian whatever you are if you just agree to shut up and stop existing and don't 0.69

00:53:56.900 you dare uh resist this regime and the rule then they probably would just let you be sworn what does

00:54:05.020 that mean submit to islam so there's various tenets that apply to dimmitude i mean i guess it 0.54

00:54:12.480 changes over time because we have to look back then it would be like for example you can't own

00:54:17.280 property you can't ride horses i mean we don't have horses now i don't know what you know i don't

00:54:22.100 know what the modern day equivalent would be you can't be in positions of power you can't be in

00:54:26.000 government you can't you know you can't have any meaningful power in society you can't be a

00:54:31.620 meaningful participant in in society and you have to pay the jizzier you have to pay the jizzier

00:54:36.300 which is the tax um how much is that did you see i don't know it's 25 percent oh okay i didn't

00:54:42.200 trust the duty and then you would like in in iran they would they were beheaded if they didn't pay

00:54:47.600 the tax so it's not it's not you know it's bad yeah huh what would you like to see the west do

00:54:57.100 in all of this because i know that there there's the shah's descendants are ready to kind of go

00:55:03.700 back and start leading their people yeah but then again a lot of people will look at the middle east

00:55:09.380 and go do we really need to overthrow another regime here type of thing do you know what i mean

00:55:13.400 yeah so i think the thing is like this idea of like no regime change because of the bad regime

00:55:19.800 changes that we've seen has created like i i like to describe this period as like a war hangover

00:55:26.220 people have like a war hangover where they're like never again with war and it's like okay but

00:55:31.380 like your failure to take action in a lot of these places has literally resulted in the worst case

00:55:37.740 scenario and not only that but america had a hand a huge hand in putting like taliban in afghanistan

00:55:44.740 the islamic republic in iran it's like you can't just do that and then walk away and be like oh war

00:55:50.720 hangover you know i think so i think this puts us in a difficult position a precarious position

00:55:56.780 because first of all people are like okay war's really bad okay agree war's really bad what's the

00:56:01.240 alternative like and this this is the thing that frustrates me more than anything is that people

00:56:06.220 because of their desire to literally just like feign moral superiority they're like oh i'm so against

00:56:12.700 war it's like oh are you like who like who who loves death and like of course everybody doesn't

00:56:20.700 want that but my question is like what do you propose in the alternative i would have so much more

00:56:26.420 uh respect for people that were like look we don't need to do war we can do this system of

00:56:32.060 de-radicalization we can do this system of like economic sanctions we can do this system where

00:56:37.320 blah blah like they don't have an answer so i'm just like what okay you don't want to do war that's

00:56:42.820 great but what will you do because you know you have to do something and the problem is most people

00:56:47.720 believe that you just don't do anything and while this threat continues to rise and increase as it has

00:56:54.020 i think one of the most tragic um the most tragic things of of our time is that well just times in

00:57:02.740 general is that people can never see what's happening as it's happening they can only see it

00:57:07.820 in hindsight and i guarantee you during nazi germany the rest of the world that were not in

00:57:13.900 germany were probably just looking at it like they're looking at the middle east now like oh i

00:57:18.140 guess i guess it's quite bad but i mean we're not gonna go to war are we i mean i'm sure it'll fix

00:57:22.200 itself and it was just that continuously ignoring it and it getting more and more and more and more and

00:57:27.500 more you know this strategy of appeasement where they're like well maybe if we give

00:57:31.920 a few more parts to to um to the nazis a few more parts of europe maybe they'll just be satisfied

00:57:38.340 with more leban swarm or living room and then based on that appeasement strategy hitler's going and

00:57:44.060 like invading all these other um countries because he can do it right and so i feel like this is kind

00:57:50.060 of like the plague of the the human experience is that we never see how bad it is as it's happening

00:57:56.260 only in hindsight so i don't actually have the answers of what um what to do at this point i know

00:58:03.580 that there's that saying that's like if i wanted to get here i wouldn't start here which is very much

00:58:08.480 how i feel about this where it is that i would like us to be which is that there's no islamic republic

00:58:13.600 the proxies are gone and there's freedom and stability in the middle east i have no idea how to

00:58:18.480 get there from here because where we are now is 45 years deep of appeasing and giving money to this

00:58:26.760 regime and i don't know what to do at this point well thanks for coming on the show uh before we head

00:58:34.200 on over to substack where we ask you our audiences questions the last question we always ask is what's

00:58:39.100 the one thing we're not talking about that we should be um i think we're not spending enough time

00:58:45.520 talking about iran to be honest well we just did i know so you've got your money's worth

00:58:51.220 now head on over to substack where we ask elika your questions

00:58:54.980 what is the most significant issue that the west gets wrong about radical islam jeremy f says how can

00:59:02.620 we convince people in the u.s that their own lives are truly blessed by comparison to others

00:59:07.400 you

00:59:14.860 you

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TRIGGERnometry - December 08, 2024

The Real Reason Iran Wants to Destroy Israel - Elica Le Bon

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