Badlands Media - Geopolitics with Ghost Ep. 106: Kagan's Checkmate, Haredi Crisis & Pakistan Deal - 5/12/26

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Ghost opens episode 106 with the Senate hearing where Lindsey Graham attacks Pakistan as mediator, then cuts to Trump defending Pakistan's field marshal and prime minister in real time. Two landmark op-eds frame the hour: Robert Kagan's Atlantic piece declaring the Iran confrontation a strategic defeat for US-led hegemony, and Prince Turki al-Faisal's Arab News essay crediting MBS with quietly pulling the rug out from under the war's advocates. Ghost walks through reports of secret UAE and Saudi strikes on Iran, calling them psyops aimed at fracturing Muslim world unity. Israel's Starlink de-anonymizing tool surfaces as confirmation of Ghost's theory about Russian intelligence helping Iran identify Mossad and CIA protest operators. At home in Israel, the Haredi factions move to dissolve the Knesset after Netanyahu fails to deliver the Yeshiva draft exemption, with the IDF chief warning the military will collapse without 12,000 new recruits immediately. Smotrich says publicly the war must end with expanded Israeli borders. The World Jewish Congress governing board meeting closes the episode with Ronald Lauder calling for more aggressive hate speech prosecution and the Axel Springer CEO declaring Europe must become more Jewish.

The Badlands, none of the Badlands, explain those Badlands. That's a hell of their name. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Geopolitic Ghost. I'm your host, Gordon McCormick, the Ghost of Base Patrick Henry. Today is May 12, 2006. And this is Badlands Media.

Welcome, everybody. Yeah, a lot going on. happening. Let's jump into some of the things that I've been tracking. I saw some interesting clips as I was getting ready for the show that I think might be worth starting off with and just playing. Here's one of them. Because you learn a lot about what's happening by studying your enemy or studying what you think is your enemy and what they're focused on and what they're doing and what they are saying. So here is

Lindsey Graham on Fox News. Fox News posting a clip of Lindsey Graham unloading quote unquote on Pakistan. Remember, Pakistan is Trump's ally. Are you aware of reports that Pakistan are allowing

their bases to be used to park Iranian aircraft General King? Sure. I've seen one report on that. Was it accurate? Sir, I think based on the variety of classification matters. Let me just say, do you agree if it is accurate,

that is sort of inconsistent with it being a peace mediator? Sure, I wouldn't want to comment on that based on the ongoing negotiations. Secretary. Secretary, Exeter. If the mediator is allowing reconnaissance aircraft Iran to be part in, Pakistani air bases, do you think that's consistent with being a fair mediator? Again, I wouldn't want to get in the middle of these negotiations. I want maximum. Well, I do.

I want to get in the middle of these negotiations. I don't trust Pakistan as far as I can throw them. If they actually do have Iranian aircraft parked in Pakistan bases to protect Iranian military assets, that tells me we should be looking maybe for somebody else to mediate. No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere. Yeah, so Lindsay Graham's upset. Lindsay Graham is very, very, very mad. He's shaking his tiny fists in anger.

But this really tells you, I mean, when you study the communications of the people who you understand or you think you understand their incentive structure, right? I mean, Lindsay Graham wants a wider war with Iran. He doesn't want peace. He wants a war with Iran, right? And so if he's upset because he thinks that we're not getting that war, if he's upset because he thinks that our quote unquote allies, as we're calling him, I consider them our allies.

He doesn't consider him our allies are helping the enemy, right, which in his mind is Iran, he's going to come out and do this. So here is from Arab news. Arab news is kind of, as far as I understand it, the closest thing you're going to get to like, Saudi state news, state media. Pakistan rejects media report claiming it shielded Iranian aircraft from U.S.

strikes. CBS News report claimed this week, Islamabad allowed Iranian military aircraft to park at its airfields. Pakistan said speculation appeared aimed at undermining ongoing regional peace efforts. Pakistan's foreign office spokesperson on Tuesday rejected a CBS report, claiming Islamabad had quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park at its airfields to potentially shield them from American airstrike saying the speculation appeared aimed at undermining ongoing regional peace efforts. I would agree with that. CBS News published an

exclusive news report on Monday citing two unnamed U.S. officials who said that days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran in April, Tehran sent multiple aircraft to Pakistan's new NERCON air base in Rawalpindi. Man, that's a heck of a name, isn't it? Rawalpindi. It said that among the military hardware sent by Tehran was an Iranian Air Force RC 130, a reconnaissance and intelligence gathering variant of the Lockheed C-130, Hercules, tactical transport aircraft.

Quote, Pakistan categorically rejects the CBS News report regarding the presence of Iranian aircraft at NERCON Air Base as misleading and sensationalized. The Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement, such speculative narratives appear aimed at undermining ongoing efforts at regional stability and peace. Let's open up this statement. This is from their foreign office on X, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pakistan, dated from today, published about an hour and 15. I'm sorry, 13 hours ago, because there, you know, whatever, eight or nine hours ahead of us.

Says Pakistan categorically rejects the CBS News report regarding the presence of Iranian aircraft at Nur Khan Air Base as misleading and sensationalized. Such speculative narratives appear aimed at undermining ongoing efforts for regional stability and peace. Following the ceasefire and during the initial round of the Islamabad talks, a number of aircraft from Iran and the United States arrived in Pakistan to facilitate the movement of diplomatic personnel security teams and administrative staff associated with the talks process. Some aircraft and support personnel remained temporarily in Pakistan in anticipation of subsequent rounds of engagement. Although formal negotiations have not yet resumed, senior level diplomatic exchanges have continued in this context.

Visits by the Iranian foreign minister to Islamabad were facilitated through the existing logistical and administrative arrangements. The Iranian aircraft currently parked in Pakistan arrived during the ceasefire period and bear no linkage whatsoever to any military contingency or preservation arrangement. Assertions suggesting otherwise are speculative, misleading, and entirely detached from the factual context. Pakistan has consistently acted as an impartial, constructive, and responsible facilitator in support of dialogue and de-escalation. In line with this role, Pakistan has extended routine, logistical, and administrative support where required, while maintaining full transparency and regular communication with all relevant parties. Pakistan remains committed to supporting all sincere efforts aimed at promoting dialogue, reducing tensions, and advancing regional and global peace, stability, and security. Yeah, so real quick, let's just pull this up

Stand by for processing because I'm just pulling this up from off the top of my head Trump where was what was that city in Egypt? Okay Because this is important this is an important context Oh, here you go here you go. Okay, well while I was searching for that we got this video that just came out from This is like everywhere this is posted like 12 minutes ago 12 minutes ago, nine minutes ago, nine minutes ago, nine minutes ago. Okay. So, Trump was just asked about this. So I got this from Al Jazeera. I got this from Fox News. I got this from everyone. So let's just watch this. So he was asked about the Pakistanis.

No, they're great. I think the president of the Pakistanis have been great. Okay, so I didn't, maybe I don't even need to show you the video. The video that I was going to show you, you. Let me see if I can still find it one second. Okay, so here's here's Trump. He's being, this is like during a gaggle, him going to get on, uh, on I assume Marine one. Um, he's being asked just generally about the negotiations. Let's see what he says. Oh, who's, I need to share the screen. There we go. All right. Let me see if I make a little bigger. All right, there we go. Well, we're going to see what happens. We're only making a good deal. We have. Their military is gone. It's wiped out. And we're only going to make a good deal.

And we'll see what happens. But I believe that one way or the other, it's going to be very good for the American people. And I think actually very good for the Iranian people. Are you reconsidering the Pakistanis as mediators? No, they're great. What? I think they're great. I think the Pakistanis have been great. The field marshal and the Prime Minister of Pakistan have been absolutely great. At what point are you done negotiating with Iran? Okay, yeah, so the question was, at what point are you done negotiating with Iran? And, yeah.

So here is from a week ago, this is from Shabazz Sharif, Pakistani prime minister. It says, I am grateful to President Trump for his courageous leadership and timely announcement regarding the pause and project freedom in the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump's gracious response to the request. made by Pakistan and other brotherly countries, particularly the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and my dear brother, crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia, his royal highness, prime prince Mohammed bin Salman will go a long way towards achieving or advancing regional peace, stability and reconciliation during this sensitive period. And so, yeah, so this is the guy, the video I was trying to pull up, was the guy who,

Trump, remember last September, we went to, oh, here it is. I have the video right here. I have an 18th second video of version and I have a five minute version. Let's try the 18 second version. Okay, so this is back in September, remember, or was it October? Maybe in October. When we went to Egypt, we went to Said, I see, or I'm sorry, we went to, what was that place called? That city in Egypt, they went to to sign the Gaza peace deal, remember? And then, all these clowns, the European leaders all just got up behind Trump. And Trump was like, I have no idea why all you all are standing up here, but fine, whatever. One of the people standing up there was the Pakistan Prime Minister, the guy who's statement I just read, Shabashirif. And Trump was like, well, I did actually want you to speak. So why don't you come up and say something?

And so let's see if he gets up and says. And this is this 18 second clip is what I'm looking for. Prime Minister, Sharif of Pakistan. and also I have to say my favorite field marshal from Pakistan, who's not here, but the Prime Minister is here, and you're going to give his regards. Where are you? I was kind of worried that that wasn't going to be what I was looking for.

Here's him actually speaking. Has been achieved after un-peace has been achieved after untiring efforts. efforts led by President Trump, who is genuinely a man of peace, who has relentlessly and untiringly worked throughout these months day in and day out to make this world a place to live with peace and prosperity. I would say that Pakistan had nominated President Donald Trump for Nobel Peace Prize for his outstanding extraordinary contributions to first stop war between India and Pakistan and then achieve ceasefire along with a very wonderful team and today again I would like to nominate this great

president for Noel Peace Prize because I genuinely feel that he is the most genuine and most wonderful candidate for Peace Prize because he has brought not only peace in South Asia, saved millions of people, their lives. And today, here in Sharmul-Sheikh, achieving peace in Gaza, is saving millions of lives in the Middle East. Mr. President, I would like to salute you.

By the way, look at Maloney's face in the background. Like she's a little, she's like fixated on this guy because she recognizes, what I think I recognize is how emotional this guy is like talking about this. Like you can see Starmer is clearly uncomfortable, right? But Maloney is like completely fixated because this guy is like basically in tears talking about how Trump saved Pakistan from India. They were, you know, India, the deep state started some sort of conflict on the border, you know, in Kashmir on the border of Pakistan and India, which was about to unfold into something really bad. and then Trump stepped in and stopped it. By the way, Israeli weaponry found on site among the militants. I'm going to let me finish though.

For your exemplary leadership, visually leadership, and I think that you're the man this world needed most at this point in time. World would always remember you as a man who, that everything went out of the way to stop seven and today eight wars. All right. So there we go. And so that's the guy, by the way, that Lindsay Graham is viciously attacking during this Senate hearing. All right, let's go to, since we're talking about the Senate hearing, let's go to Dick Durbin.

American people, why with the fast investment we've made in national defense and military, how Iran after they've been attacked by us is still capable of stopping the traffic in the streets of our moves? Well, sure, it's a complex situation out there with a lot of different small boats that are out there and other capabilities. You know, some of this is on the commercial traffickers. Some of this is on, again, back to the main problem, and that's Iran holding the global economy hostage through the straits. I would encourage them to think wisely about their next moves

and to take the opportunity to open the straits. They have that choice to make. They certainly do. I guess the question in my mind is as we talk about trillion dollar plus budgets for our military, it appears that a very small budget is holding as hostage in the streets of our moves. Okay. So just having like tracked these these developments, Like if I go to, let's just go to the X account of the foreign ministry of Pakistan and just look at, because they will post, like Saudi Arabia, they will post like every single thing they're doing, right? So this is from two hours ago, a phone call between Wang Yi and the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Pakistan, Ishakdar. same guy as Shakdar speaking to

who is this this is the foreign minister of Austria then he has a meeting with Jean Arnault I think he's from that guy's from the UN

here is Faisal bin Farhan Saudi Arabian foreign minister here is here is the Iranian diplomat meeting with him, the EU, speaking to the EU, again speaking on the phone with Arakchi, the Iranian foreign minister. And I've only gone back, that's just going back over the past five days.

So these guys are like, been in constant contact, China, Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran. They've all been in constant contact with each other. If I, uh, Iraqchi just went to China, right? Trump is going to China, what, two days a day or two? He's going to China. I think the 14th is when he meets with Ji. So here's a weekly press bringing. This is from May 7th. Let's listen to this. This is from this.

Thank you very much. Ambassador Nbradi. This guy going to speak in English. Let's find out. I mean, pardon if this question is already asked, because I'm a bit late. So I have two questions on Iran conflict. The first question is that there are reports

that the two sides are closing in on a deal. Like I mean, how close the two sides could be, anything Pakistan would want to share as a mediator. And Iran is supposed to respond to a US proposal today, and that proposal should be coming through Pakistan. Any update on that? And the second question is that there are some expulsions

from Iran, not from Iran, particularly Shia Muslims. So any comment you would want to share, please. Thank you very much. I think I have answered the first part of your question about Iran. You know, in diplomacy, there is no standard metric system evolved, which would say that how close or how far we are towards in settlement.

I wish there was, I wish there was a standard meter, centimeter, yard, kilometers, milliliter, such kind of a matrix system, which would tell me that in diplomacy, how close and how far are we towards a settlement? What I can tell you, and this is what I have stated before, is that we remain positive, we remain optimistic, and we hope that it is. the settlement will be sooner rather than later. And as regard to your question on UAE,

I'm not aware of what are you referring to. What aspersions are you referring to? I'm, I cannot answer this question because of a very broad nature of what you said. I'm not sure what do you mean by aspersions. Okay. So I'm realizing that these clips of Trump that we're watching is him departing for China. So he's, I guess he's starting his he's starting his trip with China today. They're supposed to meet on the 14th. China's like what? 12 hours ahead of us, 14 hours ahead of us. So it's probably already the 13th there. So they'll meet, I guess, tomorrow. Here is some just some clips. These are just posted in the past 30 minutes. Here's some clips of Trump answering specific questions related to

this situation. So let's see. Let's go with this one. There's like it the whole the whole clip is 18 minutes but we don't want to watch the full clip so we'll just watch this one about G and then there's one more that I want to watch what is your message to president she as it relates to the Iran war well I think number one we're going to have a long talk about it I think he's been relatively good to be honest with you look at the blockade no problems they get a lot of their oil from that area we've had no problem and he's been a friend of mine. He's been somebody that we get along with.

And I think you're going to see that good things are going to happen. This is going to be a very exciting trip. A lot of good things are going to happen. What is your message to friends? Okay, and then there's one more in this video. This is asked again about G, I think, at a different moment, if I'm not mistaken. Let's listen in. I mean, it's my face.

I don't think we need any help with the rent, to be honest with him. defeated militarily and they'll either do the right thing or we'll finish the job. Okay. So we have that. Now, let's go back to the hearing because there's a clip of a clip of Hegsef getting a question regarding this. And it's right here. So I'm looking at the Fox News feed, which I never do, but based on what I just

about wanting to understand what the enemy's thinking, right? I just saw there's a question about the Federal Reserve. So here's Coons asking Heggseth about a strategic defeat in Iran or in the Middle East. My concern, Mr. Secretary, is that you've achieved a series of tactical successes but are on the verge of a strategic loss because we are now negotiating a demand. I just think it's so foolish. Here we are in a committee in the United States Senate, 74 days in, and you're talking about strategic loss.

We have the ability to defeat a 47-year threat of a pursuit of a nuclear weapon. We have more leverage than we've ever had. We've had incredible battlefield successes. And you're talking about a strategic loss, close and disingenuous questions. This is how you undercut efforts that could otherwise and are otherwise being very effective.

I am not your enemy, sir. I am not your adversary. I share your goal of preventing Iran from ever having a usable nuclear weapon. My concern, Mr. Secretary, is that you've achieved a series of tactical successes but are on the verge of a strategic loss because we are now negotiating a demand.

Just think it's so foolish. Here we are in a committee. Okay, so it's replaying. That's interesting. So that queues up the first article that I wanted to look at. Very nicely. Thank you, Coons. And that's this.

So this is from the Atlantic. The title is Checkmate in Iran. the Atlantic is like as globalist as it gets right i mean this is about this is like hearing this is the paper for the elites by the elites um this is by robert kagan um the the husband of victoria newlin it says checkmate in iran washington can't reverse or control the consequences of losing this war so this was published two days ago it says it's hard to think of a time when the united states suffered a total defeat in the conflict in a conflict they set back so decisive that the strategic loss could be neither repaired nor ignored. The calamitous losses

suffered at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, and throughout the Western Pacific in the first months of World War II were eventually reversed. The defeats in Vietnam and Afghanistan were costly but did not do lasting damage to America's overall position in the world because they were far from the main theaters of global competition. The initial failure, that's a nice way of saying, what the hell were we doing there in the first place? Because they were, I'm sorry, the initial failure in Iraq was mitigated by a shift in strategy that ultimately left Iraq relatively stable and unthreatening to its neighbors and kept the United States dominant in the region. Yeah, again, why the hell were we there in the first place?

Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character. It can neither be repaired nor ignored. There will be no return to the status quo ante, meaning the status quo before. No ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done. Strait of Hormuz will not be, quote, unquote, open as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world. The roles of China and Russia as Iran's allies are strengthened. The role of the United States substantially diminished, far from demonstrating American prowess as supporters of the war have repeatedly claimed,

the conflict has revealed in America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. That is going to set off a chain reaction around the world. world as friends and foes adjust to America's failures. President Trump likes to talk about who has quote unquote the cards. But whether he has any good ones left to play is not clear. The United States and Israel pounded Iran with devastating effectiveness for 37 days, killing much of the country's leadership and destroying the bulk of its military, yet couldn't collapse the regime or exact even the smallest concession from it. Now the Trump administration hopes that blockading Iran's ports will accomplish what massive force could not.

It's possible, of course, but a regime that could not be brought to its knees by five weeks of unrelenting military attack is unlikely to buckle in response to economic pressure alone. Nor does it fear the anger of its populace. As the Iran scholar, Suzanne Malaney, Suzanne Malaney noted recently, a regime that slaughtered its own citizens to silence to silence protest and January is fully prepared to impose economic hardships on them now. I don't think that's accurate, but okay. Some supporters, by the way, this might be a good time to just do a little side,

side note. I saw this earlier. Check this out. And I saw this published in the Jerusalem Post as well. I think the Jerusalem Post, I might even have the article pulled up here somewhere. Yeah, here it is. I have the article, so I'll pull the article up too, but this is a nice little screenshot. So this is, they're actually linking it to Haaretz. It says two Israeli firms have developed tech to locate and even ID users of Starlink. Elon Musk's satellite internet service, a Haaretz investigation found. This is done through processing of commercial and ad tech data sources. So here's the story from the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli Cypriot cyber company to unveil Starlink D. an anonymizing tool. So getting rid of anonymity. It's a weird way of saying it. The tool Star Gets is intended to function alongside another of the company's tool, a VPND anonymizing tool called VPNZ. I've been saying this for years, by the way, guys, that I've been saying this since I was at Badlands because I've spoken to people in law enforcement who told me this. If you think a VPN can, you, VPN does not hide you. VPNs can be useful. Like if you're trying to use to use services that are saying, oh, this is not available in the state or something like that. But if you think you're using a VPN and like law enforcement or the government or whatever doesn't know what you're doing, like doesn't know who you are, you're fooling yourself. They definitely can figure that out in like the context of a criminal investigation or whatever. So that's basically what they're saying here except they're applying it to Starlink. In Israeli Cypriot, Cyber company has developed a tool to deanimanomize Starlink users and is expected to reveal it at the upcoming ISS World Europe Conference Intelligence or Online Report on Monday. The tool Stargets is intended to function alongside another company's tools, the other VPN thing. The company Target Team claimed that StarGets does not intercept communication traffic or breach Starlink's encryption in order to identify systems users. As such, Target Team hopes to avoid legal and public disputes over its tools usage. Intelligence Online reported that target team employees engineers with a background in the military in elite Israeli cyber companies such as Cognite and UTX technologies.

But the details of the team are intentionally kept heavily under wraps with employees requested not to possess active LinkedIn profiles. Starlink is subsidiary of Elon Musk's SpaceX. Then the next part of the article says U.S. sends Starlink to Iran protesters. Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk's SpaceX, is a satellite internet company, a network that can be accessed through small, portable Starlink terminals. The United States smuggled thousands of Starlink terminals into Iran in January as the Iranian regime cut off internet service in the country as part of a brutal crackdown on Iran, um, on anti-regime protests, according to a report report published by the Wall Street Journal.

And that's the end of the article. Okay. That's the part that I wanted to bring back up. if Israel has figured this out, Russia has also figured this out. Okay. And remember, Russia helped, I mean, the theory, my theory is that Russia, when Elon Musk gave Starlink to the protesters, Russia helped the Iranian government figure out who the facilitators of the protests were and to hunt them down because those were the Mossad CIA operators. And those are the people who were probably arrested, executed, killed, whatever, right? And now you basically have Israel admitting that. Like, hey, look at this really cool technology we developed.

Yeah, I think Russia probably already had that. So this is just like confirming theories that we already know. All right. So let's go back. This is an important, I think this is an important article, the one by Kagan. Let's go back to this. I just want to do that little side quest because I think that kind of proves that that whole thing was an op that Trump was in on, that the Americans were in on, that the Russians were in on. we were helping the Iranian government thwart a Mossad CIA plot to overthrow their government.

All right. Some supporters of the war are therefore calling for the resumption of military strikes, but they cannot explain how another round of bombing will accomplish with 37 days of bombing did not. More military action will inevitably lead Iran to retaliate against neighboring the Gulf states. The war's advocates have no response to that either. Trump halted attacks on Iran, not because he was bored, but because Iran was striking the regime's vital oil and gas facilities. The turning point came on March 18th when Israel bombed Iran's south pars of gas field and Iran retaliated by attacking Qatar's Rosloffin Industrial City, the world's largest natural gas export plant, causing damage to production capacity that will take years to repair. Trump responded by declaring a moratorium on further strikes against Iran's energy facilities and then,

declaring a ceasefire despite Iran's not having made a single concession. The risk calculus that forced Trump to back down a month ago still holds. Even if Trump were to carry out his threat to destroy Iran's quote unquote civilization through more bombing, Iran would still be able to launch many missiles and drones before its regime went down, assuming it did go down. Just a few successful strikes could cripple the regime's oil and gas infrastructure for years, if not decades, throwing the world and the United States into a prolonged economic crisis. even if Trump wanted to bomb Iran as part of an exit strategy looking tough as a way of masking his retreat, he can't do that without risking this catastrophe.

If this isn't checkmate, it's close. In recent days, Trump has reportedly asked the U.S. intelligence community to assess the consequences of simply declaring victory and walking away. You can't blame him. Hoping for regime collapses not much of a strategy, especially when the regime has already survived repeated military and economic pummeling. It could fall tomorrow or six months from now or not at all. Trump doesn't have that much time to wait as oil climbs towards 150 or even $200 a barrel. Inflation rises and global food and other commodity shortages kick in. He needs a faster resolution.

But any resolution other than America's effective surrender holds enormous risk that Trump has not so far been willing to take. Those who glibly call on Trump to quote unquote finish the job rarely acknowledge the costs unless the U.S. is prepared to engage in a full-scale ground and naval war. to remove the current Iranian regime and then to occupy Iran until a new government can take hold, unless it is prepared to risk the loss of warships, uh, convoying tankers through a contested strait, unless it is prepared to accept the devastating long-term damage to the region's productive capacities, likely to result from Iranian retaliation.

Walking away now could seem like the least, uh, the least bad option. As a political matter, Trump may, uh, well feel he has a better chance of, of writing out the defeat, of writing out defeat, than of surviving a much larger, longer, and more expensive war that could still end in failure.

Defeat for the United States, therefore, is not only possible, but likely. Here is what defeat looks like. Iran remains in control. By the way, I generally agree with what Kagan just laid out. I mean, like, if we're going to accept the surface level optics of what's happening and believe that Trump is actually in a contest with the Iranian regime, and they're the real target of this whole thing. And while also acknowledging it's very possible that we are firing missiles into Iran,

and there is damage being taken by those sides, you know, what's being damaged and what the reason for damaging those facilities is, you know, well, we can speculate on that and maybe find out one day. But generally speaking, I think Kagan just laid out a pretty fair assessment of the conditions. Okay. So now he's going to lay out what defeat looks like. if you want to call it that. Or maybe this was always the intention.

Iran remains in control of the Strait of Hormuz. The common assumption that one way or another, the straight will reopen when the crisis ends is unfounded. Iran has no interest in returning to the status quo ante. People talk of a split between hardliners and moderates in Tehran, but even moderates must understand that Iran cannot afford to let the straight go, no matter how good a deal it thought it could get. For one thing, how reliable is any deal with Trump?

he all but boasted of replicating the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by approving the killing of Iran's leadership amid negotiations. The Iranians cannot be sure that Trump won't decide to attack again within a few months of striking a deal. They also know that the Israelis may attack again, as they never feel constrained from acting when they perceive their interest to be threatened. And Israel's interests will be threatened. As many Iran experts have noted, the regime in Tehran currently stands. to emerge from the crisis much stronger than it was before the war, having not only retained its potential nuclear capacity, but also gained control of an even more effective weapon, the ability to hold the global energy market hostage.

When the Iranians talk of reopening the strait, they still mean to keep the straight under their control. Iran will be able not only to demand tolls for passage, but to limit transfer to those nations with which it has good relations. If a nation behaves in a way that Iran's rulers don't like, they will be able to exact punishment merely by slowing or even threatening to slow the flow of that nation's cargo ships in and out of the strait. The power to close or control the flow of ships through the strait is greater and more immediate than the theoretical power of Iran's nuclear program. This leverage will allow the leaders in Tehran to force nations to lift sanctions and normalize relations or face penalties. Israel will find itself more isolated than ever as Iran grows richer, rearms, and preserves its options to go nuclear in the future.

It may even find itself unable to go after Iran's proxies. In a world where Iran wields influence over the energy supply of so many nations, Israel could face enormous international pressure not to provoke Tehran in Lebanon, Gaza, or anywhere else. The new status quo in the strait will also occasion a substantial shift and relative power and influence both regionally and globally. In the region, the United States will have proved itself a paper tiger forcing the Gulf and other Arab states to accommodate Iran. As the Iran scholars, Ruel Garek and Ray Takei recently wrote, quote, the Gulf Arab economies were built under the umbrella of American hegemony. Take that away and the freedom of navigation that goes with it and the Gulf states will in ineluctibly,

go begging to Tehran. They will not be the only ones. All nations that depend on energy from the Gulf will have to work out their own arrangements with Iran. What choice will they have? If the United States, with its mighty Navy, can't or won't open the strait, no coalition of forces with just a fraction

of the American's capability will be able to either. The Anglo-French initiative to police bestrate after a ceasefire is a bit of a joke. French President Emmanuel Macron has made it clear that this coalition will operate only under peaceful conditions in the strait. It will escort ships, but only if they don't need an escort. Yet with Iran in control, the strait is not going to be safe again for a long time. China presumably will have some influence over Tehran, but even China cannot force open the

strait by itself. One effect of this transformation may be an expanding great power naval race. In the past, most of the nation's, world's nations, including China, counted on the United States to both prevent and address such emergencies. Now the nations in Europe and Asia that depend on access to the Persian Gulf's resources are helpless against the loss of energy supplies that are vital to their economic and political stability. How long can they tolerate this before they start building their own fleets as a means of wielding influence in every nation for itself world where order and predictability have broken down? Okay, guys, so let's just evaluate what Kagan is opining about here, okay, and what he's freaking out about, okay? Because this

article, I don't think is written, this op-ed is not written for you and I. It's not written for the common man. It's not written for, you know, MAGA supporters or even like anti-Trumpers. It's not written for those people. It's written for the elites. He's communicating a message to the elites to help them understand realities that he has come to understand. And what he is, what he is saying is our hegemony is dying. The centralization of power that we have dedicated ourselves to since the end of World War II is falling apart. American hegemony is no longer a thing. And as he says right here, how long can the world, can these other countries tolerate what's happening right now before they start building their own fleets as a means of wielding influence and in every nation?

for itself world where order and predictability have broken down. When he says order and predictability, really what he means is just top-down tyranny, where the hegemony, which is, you know, the globalist, can just impose themselves on any country they want at any time for any reason and make, and, you know, they can make up rules and you better follow their rules, but they don't have to follow them, of course. And they can change the rules at any moment, by the way. That's tyranny. That's what they're freaking out about.

Let me see how much more we have. We only have like one more paragraph. Let's just read the rest of the article. The American defeat in the Gulf will have broader global ramifications as well. The whole world can see that just a few weeks of war with a second rank power have reduced American weapon stocks to perilously low levels with no quick remedy in sight. The questions thus this raises about America's readiness for another major conflict may or may not prompt Xi Jinping to launch an attack on Taiwan or Vladimir Putin to step up his aggression against Europe. But at the very least, America's allies in East Asia and Europe must wonder about American staying power in the event of future conflicts. The global adjustment to a post-American world is accelerating.

America's once dominant position in the Gulf is just the first of many casualties. I want to read those last two sentences again. The global adjustment to a post-American world is accelerating. America's once dominant position in the Gulf is just the first of many casualties. So if we look at this through the lens of a globalist, right, the lens of Robert Kagan, the lens of Victoria Newland, the lens of Klauzehawb, you know, fill in the blank. Lindsay Graham. When they say America, what they really mean is the globalist hegemony, which has a number of tentacles. It's an octopus with many tentacles, right?

One of the tentacles is the financial tentacle, right? Which is London. City of London, New York, right, the stock market. Another tentacle, of course, is the military. And when they say military, what they mean is NATO, primarily. I mean NATO, but primarily America. So they're talking about America. They're not talking about us, the common man.

They're talking about the American military industrial complex that they wield like a weapon against any troublesome nation that doesn't comply with the rules-based international order. Okay. So when he says the world is adjusting to a post-globalist world and that process is accelerating, I mean, that's us winning. That is the populist movement winning the war. Okay. So let's see. From there, I think the next place to go is going to be another op-ed. And I apologize, but these are just two really, really good. there's just a lot of signal here. There's a lot of signal. They're not really bullshitting you when they put this stuff out. And that would be, what did that go? This one.

So I mentioned this on, and I don't think we'll read the whole thing. This is, it's not that long. Maybe we'll read the whole thing. Yeah, we will. This is from Prince Turkey Al-Faisal. This was published three days ago from Arab News. This is another op-ed. And again, I'm going to explain to you who this guy is.

Turkey al-Faisal, Prince Turkey-Al-Faisal, is the son of King Faisal. King Faisal was the third king of Saudi Arabia. You'll recall. So you have MBS, this guy, this picture right here, that's the current crown prince. His grandfather is the one who founded Saudi Arabia in 1934 when he merged the two kingdoms, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the kingdom of Hajaz, the coast of the Red Sea, which for 700 years was controlled by the Hashemites. So he merged the Hashemite kingdom with the Saudi kingdom and created the King of Saudi,

the third state of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the modern kingdom. He dies in 1953 and then his son, there was a son. His name escapes me, but his firstborn son becomes the king. and he is king until 1963, so for about 10 years, or 1964, excuse me, 11 years. And he's not a good king.

He's kind of incompetent. He's not very good at it. He doesn't have the charisma of his father. He doesn't have the natural acumen of his father. And so his brothers all come to him and say, dude, you got to step down. Like, you're like you suck at this. You're no good. And he advocates. He says, okay,

I'm done. And so he advocates. And then they elevate the crown. Prince who was Faisal. Faisal was far more competent than his brother. At 13 years old, he was leading grown men into battle on horseback. He spent most of his life living in a tent, like living outdoors. He's like a true bed of win, right? He always said he was more comfortable sleeping in a tent than he was sleeping in a palace. You know, there's a lot of elements about him that I think resonate with like the American spirit, so to speak, right, of like rugged, rugged individualism.

He, that, that guy, Faisal met in secret with JFK in 1961. And JFK gave him a bunch of advice and said, here are 10 things that you should do. Here are a bunch of things that you should do to make Saudi Arabia great. But really what you need to do, the spirit of it all, is you need to take all that money that y'all am making off of oil and you need to invest it in your people, build up a real economy. invest in health care, like give them all free health care, invest in infrastructure, give them electricity, because nobody there has electricity except for the royal family, like the royals, right? Abolish slavery because they still had slavery.

All of these things, Faisal does. So JFK gets killed in November, 1963, and then the following spring is when, like a few months later, is when Faisal and his brother's good, go to the oldest brother and say you're done. And then he comes in, he abolishes slavery, and he does all. He starts doing all the things that JFK told him to do. And then he gets assassinated in 1975 because he's the one that in 1973, you know, throws oil exports to the United States in the West, a similar situation to what we're in right now. Like he creates this global energy crisis.

And he does this because the Yom Kippur war, because he said, as long as you're going to, you know, militarily back Israel while it tries to come conquer all of its neighbors, we're not going to give you oil. And Nixon actually agreed with that and stopped sending weapons to Israel purportedly. And then Israel threatened to use a nuke. And that's when Nixon said, okay, we got to start sending weapons again. So now Turkey, the son, he goes into intelligence. He becomes, he's part of Saudi intelligence for I think 22 years. He resigns from that a week before 9-11. My speculation, I obviously can't know this, but my speculation is he caught wind of what was about to happen, and he wanted nothing to do with it.

I speculate, but I think that's what happened. And then largely, he's kind of out of the picture. He's not real. I mean, he's around, but he's not like, you know, in the center running things. He reemerges periodically, but he really reemerges when MBS comes in the power in 2017. And he serves as an advisor to MBS. And he's kind of in the background all the time with MBS. And then October 7th happens, 2023.

The Saudis go totally silent for like five weeks. MBS summons the entire Muslim world to Riyadh. He tells everyone to sit down, shut up, don't do anything. And be at peace. He's like, let me handle the situation. Like we can't have anybody breaking ranks because Israel is trying to start a like World War three right now. We can't give them what they want. And then when he does break his silence, the crown prince, to address the world for the first time following October 7th, he doesn't do

it himself. He sends Turkey out to do it. And Turkey comes out in front of a podium and gives a speech about what Saudi Arabia wants and what Saudi Arabia is doing and what they're and what basically needs to happen next in order to resolve the situation. And he lays out very clearly that we need a two-state solution. We need Israel to recognize the state of Palestine. And we need Hamas, obviously, to stop operating in Gaza and to stop engaging in militancy against Israel. So anyway, Turkey has been, and Turkey, by the way, has also been going publicly on television the past couple of years and just speaking truth, just saying the thing out loud that needs to be said that then later becomes very apparent, right, to everybody else. So this guy is important.

And this guy, I think, knows what's going on. And I also think that if there are white hats in Saudi Arabia, and I think there are, I think he's one of them. So anyway, I hope that makes sense. Let's read this. He says, so the title is, this is how Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman succeeded. Since the U.S. Israeli war on Iran erupted on February 28, discordant voices in our region and the Western media have grown louder questioning Saudi Arabia. Arabia's position on a conflict, the kingdom had initially worked hard to prevent and then made intensive efforts to stop and resolve diplomatically. It did so without noise, theatrics, grandstanding,

or bluster, seeking instead to pull the region out of this bloody conflict. This has been the hallmark of the kingdom's leadership since the late King Abdulaziz, that's the grandfather, founded the state. The leadership has long embraced the principle that actions matter more than words. While the flies of social media buzzed and shouted, the kingdom was measured, patient and active. While the cheerleaders beat their drums, the kingdom managed affairs carefully and weighed its options. The evidence is before us. When Iran and others try to drag the kingdom into the furnace of destruction, our leadership chose to endure the pains caused by a neighbor in order to protect the lives and property of its citizens. Had the kingdom wanted, and it is

capable of doing so, to respond in kind to Iran by destroying Iranian facilities and interests, The outcome could have been the destruction of Saudi oil facilities and desalination plants along the Arabian Gulf Coast and even deep inside the kingdom. Had the Israeli plan to ignite war between us and Iran succeeded, remember that's what this whole thing was about. It was about getting the Arabs to fight the Persians. The region would have been plunged into ruin and destruction. Thousands of our sons and daughters would have been lost in a battle in which we had no stake. Israel would have succeeded in imposing its will on the region and remain the only actor in our surroundings. Through the wisdom and foresight of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the kingdom avoided the horrors of war and its devastating repercussions.

Indeed, together with Pakistan, it is now extinguishing the fire of fighting, helping prevent escalation and giving advocates of peace, hope that they can feel reassured about the lives of their loved ones and the safety of their interests. As for the advocates of war, they continue in their arrogance and cowing, perhaps unaware that the rug has been pulled from under their feet. I love that he said rug pull. He said rug pull. He got to love that. The Crown Prince did not allow Iran to divide the brotherly Gulf states. He supported it and stood in solidarity with all golf leaders and placed the kingdom's trade and financing routes through its roads, airports and ports at the service of them. and their peoples. He also affirmed to all that their security is the kingdom's security and that the kingdom will support every step they take to preserve their security and stability. The kingdom has always been, has always remained true to its pact with its brothers. This is how affairs are managed and this is how foresight works. With Allah's blessing, our caravan moves forward. Let the dogs bark at the top of their voices and let our enemies bite their fingers and rage. As the late Prince Bondiab, Bandir bin Abdul Mosin said,

and if the envious speak of you, we never paid heed to the noise of their envy. Yeah, and so this combined with a lot of other statements he made, it makes clear to me that this was all like calculus. This is all calculation because what the rhetoric that's out there and the statements and the propaganda, right, the messaging, the narratives are that the Saudis are like Israeli puppets, that they work for. for Israel, that they're working against the rest of the Middle East, that they betrayed everybody, etc. Right. And that's just not true. I think they're part of a bigger plan that is being being enacted right now. So and here's the signal that I think I'm right about that. We'll see. Let me pull this up. Okay. So here is Mike Huckabee. And this is being reported across like, Islamic media

I mean it's being reported everywhere but Islamic media is the first one to kind of come out and make a big deal out of this I was trying to see if there's a video attached to it because I know he just spoke at a at a some kind of a conference so this is from Al Jazeera Al Jazeera you know his Muslim brotherhood

so okay we got to be careful with taking their word for it but it's breaking U.S. ambassador Mike Huckabee says the Gulf states will have to make a choice Israel or Iran. Now when you hear that What I think is this is signal that like Mike Huckabee is telling you saying the quiet part out loud. He's saying that Israel is not going to make peace with Iran, that they're going to make war and that the Gulf states, the Arabs are going to have to decide, are you with us or are you against us, right? You got to pick a side.

When Iran clearly has a military that could level all the Arab states, like they have a military that could very easily impose a lot of damage on the life of these desert kingdoms. which rely on desalination plants, which require energy in order to keep their people hydrated and not dive thirst in one of the largest deserts in the world. The Arabian desert. So here is...

Let's go back. Here is... That's not what I was looking for. It was... So here's Huckabee at a conference. I assume this is from like yesterday. maybe maybe in today and so he's talking about yeah this is from yesterday um and here this from r t israel he's talking about israel sending weapons to the uae can i say a word of appreciation

deep appreciation and admiration for the united arab emeralds i think that the uae is an example they were the first abraham accord member but look at the benefits that they have had as a result Israel just sent them iron dome batteries and personnel to help operate them. How come? Because there's an extraordinary relationship between the UAE and Israel based on the Abraham Accords. The Emirates have an education system that is the gold standard of how to change a culture. On October the 7th, they were flying 17 flights a day between the Emirates and, Israel and the next day on the 8th, they were flying 17 flights. They continued to do that.

When every other airline, including all the U.S. airlines, stop flying into Israel and all the Europeans stopped flying into Israel, the one nation whose planes continued to fly regularly in and out of Israel were the Emirates. Yeah, so again, there is some weird relationship going on with the Emirates and the Israelis. And what remains to be. be seen, remains to be seen what that, what that looks like and what happens. As I said on Badlands Daily this morning, I think that whatever conflict actually exists between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, I think it's about helping the good twin flush out the bad twin and get rid of them. Because as Faisal has said in that, or not Faisal, Turkey, Al-Faisal said in that op-ed,

you know, the Saudis have remained loyal to the good, to the good people. in their neighborhood. I also just saw this. This is interesting. Here is a response to the op-ed that we just read. This person acknowledging the significance of like this guy's op-ed. Turkey-Ofeisel's op-ed. When the former head of Saudi intelligence documents a de-escalation channel that bypassed the United States entirely.

And Washington says nothing to silence is the answer. Yeah. And so basically they're just talking about what happened. with um with with pakistan right and they even mentioned here that he resigned as the head of Saudi intelligence just days before 9-11 um yeah so this is in it we're not going to read through this but this like there are people who are taking note of what uh of what that means um okay so now this is interesting this was just posted by barak ravide and i can't help but look at this since this is somebody that I've talked about so many times.

So he's reposting this person, Benny Ashkenazi, Ashkenazi, which is obviously an Israeli, some sort of Israeli influencer or reporter or whatever. So it says, Shimbet backs down, right-wing activist, Binzi Gopstein granted permanent entry permit to the Knesset. And this is from Israel Haim, which is the largest online Israeli newspaper. It's obviously written in Hebrew. Let's see if we can get it translated. It's the translation.

Oh, okay. It can't be translated. Let's see if we can translate it to Spanish. If you want to play that game, let's see if we can play it. I want to read this article. I was just going to go check. I was just going to take us to Barack Ravid's feed and see what he's talking about. But interesting.

It says that we can't translate. We aren't allowed to see this. So Binzi Gopstein, for those. I mean, for those you've been listening to my stuff for any period of time, you've heard me talk about him. This guy is the direct air, so to speak, the political air of Meyer Kahane. Meyer Kahane is a Jewish terrorist from the 1980s who plotted to overthrow or plot to blow up the Alaskan mosque and started a holy war between the West and the East. and this guy was indicted back in 2015 for calling on all of the basically calling on Israel to expel all Christians from Israel burn every church in Israel and he says that our real enemy our spiritual

historic enemy ancient enemy are Christians and we need to kill them all basically is what he was saying and he was arrested for incitement and he went to trial I think I think we had a trial back in 2020 and his defense minister his defense attorney was this guy it's mar bin gavir who is now the national security minister under netting yahoo um it's mar bin gavir and bezloos motrick are basically disciples of benzy gobstin and maier kahanne uh and and according to this article he has been granted entry into the kinesit i need to look this up real quick let me stand by for processing I want to see this. Someone else has to have written about this

and written about it on a website that we can actually translate. Okay, so I'm waiting for search function to find me something that I can go with. Let me see if Jerusalem Post has posted about it. Okay, so look, this is where I think the subversion comes in because I think this morning,

if I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure Brian brought up about secret attacks, right? The secret attacks by the UAE. Yeah, here it is. Okay. So this is from a few days ago. When was this posted?

Well, I think it was posted this morning, but it was posted this morning, but I definitely saw people talking about it like on Sunday. UAE secretly launched strikes on Iran during the war attacked oil refineries. And this is coming from Reuters and Times of Israel. the UAE carried out military strikes in Iran, making it the only other country to join the United States and Israel in their war against the Islamic Republic according to a Monday report. This was published in Reuters, I guess, yesterday.

What's funny is that now we have... Where did that go? Here's Jerusalem Post from just a few minutes ago. This was just posted. Saudi Arabia launched secret attacks on Iran during the Middle East War. The Saudi attacks not previously reported marked the first time the kingdom is known to have come directly carried out military action on Iranian soil and show it is becoming much bolder. Okay.

Saudi Arabia launched numerous unpublicized strikes on Iran and in retaliation for attacks carried out in the kingdom during the Middle East war, two Western officials briefed on the matter and two Iranian officials said. The Saudi King attacks not previously reported marked the first time that the kingdom is known to have directly carried out military action on Iranian. Ronnie and soil and showed that has become much bolder. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The attacks launched by Saudi Air Force were assessed to have been carried out in late March. The two Western officials said, one said only that they were tit for tat strikes in retaliation for when Saudi was hit. Roiders was unable to confirm what the specific targets were. Let me see.

Yeah, and they're citing this article as their source. Another Jerusalem Post article, Mike Huck, would be. the clip we just watched about him, about Israel sending the Iron Dome components to the UAE to protect them. Yeah, this is all fake news. I think this is all like, this is all gaslighting and siops in order to foment dissent and infighting within the Muslim world. Hold on. Let me see if I can find this. Okay, I think I may have found an article, but before we do.

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issue during the break. Computer just decided to like reset. It was like to restart on its own. But fortunately it did so very quickly. So I was able to jump back in the stream. So anyway, I did lose all my tabs though. So that that sucks. But that's okay. We can we can wing it. We're good at winging it. Um, shout out to skeptical in the chat skeptical took that article from benzy gops about benzy gopsine and ran it through some sort of a translator and then posted it to in to an image hosting site and then shared me the link that was quick thinking skeptical thank you for that all right so let's read through this this is uh this is really interesting i want to i want to know more about this let me see if i can zoom in um so glad that we have good good competent people on our chat who can figure this stuff out on the fly. Very resourceful. All right. So it says the shin bet folded, right-wing activist, Binsey-Gopstein received permission to enter the Knesset. The General Security Service approved last night granting Lahava organization La Jolla is the Meyer-Kahane political party. La Hava organization chairman Binsey-Gobstein, permanent entry to the Knesset after years in which he refrained from doing so, or it refrained from doing so. Gopstein, who serves as minister,

Ben Gavir's advisor was convicted in 2025 of inciting terrorism for things he said at a wedding in 2017. So I guess he went to court last year. But was acquitted of the offense of inciting racism. Shimbet spokespeople chose not to respond to today's inquiry on the subject. Let me see. So the general security service changed this position last night. Monday and granted permanent entry of permission to the Knesset building to the chairman of the La Hava organization, Vinzi Gopstein, today learned that Gopstein, who has frequently

appeared in the Knesset in recent years and regularly advises national security minister Itzmar bin Gavir has so far only held a temporary entry permit after the Shimbet refused to grant a permanent entry to the Mishkan. The process of obtaining a permanent entry permit to the Knesset requires a rigorous security check conducted by the shin bet, a procedure that applies to any person requesting this type of permit. Knesset sources familiar with the details confirmed in conversations with Hymn, that's the news outlet, that the security impediment that has now been lifted paved the way for granting permit approval.

Shinbet spokespeople did not respond to today's inquiry on the subject, and Gopstein also chose not to respond to the substance of the matter. This is just a translation thing, so excuse the awkward translation. Gopstein has been at the center of complex legal proceedings in recent years. In 2025, he was acquitted by the district court of the offense of incitement to racism, but in the same proceedings, he was convicted of the offense of incitement to terrorism. I'm not sure why they're acting like the incitement to racism is not worse. Like the incitement of terrorism is not as bad as the incite.

Thank God he didn't incite racism, but he definitely incited terrorism. His conviction was based on things he said of the wedding in Modin Elite in 2017. I'm pretty sure that I thought the incitement had to do with an interview he did with Slate Magazine in 2015, although maybe it was both things. He definitely did an interview with Slate Magazine in 2015 where he said all that stuff and it was published. I have the article. I have the screenshots. It's in the mind map. according to the indictment in which he was convicted

Gopstein went up to the wedding stage and saying the words quote, Baruch, the man entered the cave through the weapon and shot referring to Baruch Goldstein's act. Gopstein then cheered those present with chance of Muhammad is dead. Despite this conviction, the Shimbab's position now allows him free

and permanent entry into the Knesset building as an advisor and public activist. Yeah, okay, so they're referring to Baruch Goldstein, who was another Jewish terrorist, who famously went into the cave. What's it called? In Jerusalem. I don't think it's in Jerusalem, but it's in the West Bank, the cave of the cave of the patriarchs. He went into the cave of the patriarchs, which is, you know, it's like a building.

It looks like this. They call it the cave of the patriarchs. I think it's built around an actual cave, if I'm not mistaken. also known as the sanctuary of Abraham. So he went in there with automatic weapons and shot up a bunch of people. I think he killed like 16 people, something like that. And then was thrown in prison. Actually, I think he was killed, I'm not mistaken.

He may have been killed in that exchange. But anyway, Itamar bin Gavir famously keeps a portrait of this guy in his living room above his fireplace. He has a very high opinion of him. but he's literally a Jewish terrorist even more so than Maya Kahane who I as far as I know never went and shot up any public public spaces. Okay, so anyway, that is fascinating. Thank you. Shout out to skeptical for being quick on your feet with that. Okay, so as we talked about this morning on Badlands Daily, we didn't really get a chance to get too deep into it, but we have the Heretti factions back dissolving the Knesset, increasing the chance for early elections. And the reason they're doing this is because of what Zameer did. Let me pull that article up real quick.

Zamere, Zemir, Zemir, where are you at? here it is. Okay, so Zemir, who is the IDF, the IDF chief, the head of the IDF, warns the Knesset that military urgently needs more soldiers in multi-front war. So he made a statement about this like three or four weeks ago. We covered it on the show, right? Last month he made a statement about this publicly. But this time he went into the Knesset and he said,

and he basically laid out like a list of, I guess you could call him demands, basically a list of here's what we need from y'all, the Knesset, in order to prevent the military from collapsing. He said that they need to enable the enlistment of military age or ultra-orthodox men. The yeshiva understanding is that there's like 80,000 of these guys who would be immediately available for military service. And then also he said that would they need to extend the mandatory service from 30 to 36 months and amend some of the reservist laws. So, So I think what he's referring to, I'm an expert on this, but I think he's referring to is when you turn 18, you have to serve in the Knesset for, or the Knesset. Serving the IDF for, I guess it's two and a half years, 36 or 30 months.

And so he's saying, go ahead and just make it a full three years. So we get an extra six months out of these people. And then I don't know what the amendments are of the reservist law, but let's just read some of his quotes. So Lieutenant General E. E. Al-Mazir asserted, to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in a closed-door session on Sunday that the military needs more soldiers immediately amid ongoing multi-front fighting. Hebrew media reported, quote, I am not dealing with political or legislative processes. I am dealing with multi-front warfare and defeating the enemy. Zemir reportedly told lawmakers after appearing before the committee following pressure from its chairman, Boaz Bismuth. Quote, in order to continue to do that, the IDF needs more soldiers immediately, he said.

According to the reports, Zemir urged lawmakers to advance legislation in three parts to help ensure the IDF has sufficient power. The first he suggested was to lengthen the mandatory military service for men to 36 months after it was shortened to 30 months in August 2024. Quote, shortening regular service will cause an unreasonable burden on the reserves. There are urgent security needs, Zemir said. In January 2027, the first cohort enlisted under this. shorter service will be relieved, further exacerbating manpower issues unless the existing law is changed. He then suggested the law and military reserves be amended to allow the army to enlist reservists for longer periods according to operational needs. The third part focused on legislation

regulating the increase in the number of conscriptions to the IDF, emphasizing ultra-Orthodox recruitment. During the committee meetings, Amir refused to answer a question from MK member of the Knesset, Zavivvvv, Zawcout from the Religious Zionism Party on his position regarding the Herdi conscription law promoted by the coalition. The proposal currently being considered to the Indy Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee states that its goal is to, quote, regulate the status of full-time yeshiva students while recognizing the importance of Taurus study, but in practice it would continue to grant military exemptions to full-time yeshiva students, while ostensibly increasing conscription among those no longer studying.

It also removes various provisions from a previous draft intended to ensure that those registered for Yeshiva study are actually studying and cancels all sanctions on draft evaders when they turn 26. Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men age between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, mostly combat, troops due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the multi-front war of recent years. This also isn't the first time Zemir has warned the government about the IDF's manpower shortage. In March, he reportedly warned the security cabinet that the IDF is going to collapse in on itself if more soldiers aren't recruited. Quote, right now, the IDF needs a conscription law, a reserve duty law, and a law to extend mandatory service.

He is quoted as saying, before long, the IDF will not be prepared for its routine missions and the reserve system will not last. On Wednesday, it was reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had recently requested that ultra-Orthodox lawmakers agree to put off coalition legislation, exempting Yeshiva students from military service until after the 2026 election. According to the Behidre, Behadre, I don't know, Herodim news site, that's I guess an ultra-Orthodox news site. Netanyahu told senior ultra-Orthodox lawmakers in a private meeting that is coalition does not have a majority to push the controversial bill through. He also argued that the timing wasn't right for bringing the bill back into the agenda, giving the multi-front security

tensions. And so what he's referring to, the bill is referring to, is basically these ultra-orthodox legislatures or legislators, these lawmakers, are worried about their kids being drafted into the IDF. And so they preemptively wanted to create their own draft law that would codify the exemption, which has never been codified. It's just been something that's been practiced in Israel for whatever, 80 years, what, what, 78 years, however long Israel has been around. But what Netanyahu is telling him is he's like, we don't have the votes in the Kness to pass this thing. And my advice is let's just hold off on doing this until after the election in October. So with all of that, we have this. Heretti factions back dissolving the Knesset increased chance for early elections.

The Deagle Hattora spiritual chief says it has lost trust in the prime minister of her failure to pass army exemption bill. The move would need support of the Shas to succeed. Opposition hopes to begin process on Wednesday. The seven strong ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism, UTJ party said Tuesday it would seek to dissolve the Kness it triggering early elections because of the coalition's failure to pass a law enshrining the decades-old exemption of Haredi yeshiva students from military service. Multiple opposition MKs promptly submitted bills for the dissolution of parliament with the Yesh Atid party seeking to begin the process on Wednesday. Nonetheless, it was not immediately clear when or whether such a vote would be held, whether it would pass. And if so, when elections might be held in any case, general elections must be held no later in October.

October 27, 26. Legislation to dissolve parliament would require four plenum votes, a preliminary vote, and three further readings supported by a simple majority of 61 Kinesit members and the 120 member Knesset. If the process were expedited, the elections could be called as early as August. The Haredi parties are believed to be to favor September 15th, while Netanyahu reportedly wants the election as close as possible to October 27th. Buzz over the potential for early elections came after Rabbi. Dove Lando, the senior spiritual leader of UTJ's four MK Deagle Hatorra faction called on Tuesday for quickly dissolving the Knesset in bringing forward this year's election over the coalition's failure to pass the legislation following a meeting with the factions leaders at his benign Brak home.

Quote, we no longer have any trust in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Landau said in a statement, from this point forward, we will do only what is best for Hereti Judaism and the Asheva world. We must act to dissolve the Knesset as soon as possible. the concept of a right-wing block, including the Herodim, no longer exist as far as we are concerned. After Landau's announcement, UTJ's second faction, the three-member Agudat-Yisrael, indicated that it would support the resolution of the Knesset, should it come to a vote. Quote, we've been waiting a long time to disperse in Agudat-Israel source told the times of Israel. UTJ, a core member when Net and Yahweh assembled his coalition after the 2022-O-O-W. elections formerly pulled out of the government and coalition last year in the protracted

dispute over the legislation to pass however a vote to dissolve the kinesit it would need to be backed not only by other opposition parties by all all other opposition parties but also by the fellow ultra-orthodox party shoss which has 11 kinescent members and which did not immediately make its position clear um the decision by the utj factions was was made after net and yah who told her Kennedy Knesset members last week that the coalition currently does not have the votes to pass the draft exemption legislation and reportedly asked them to agree to shelve the bill until after the elections. Since the beginning of the government's tenure in December 2020, Netanyahu had repeatedly assured his Haredi partners that the legislation would be passed. Channel 13 quoted Lando as having also called let Netanyahu a liar during Tuesday's meeting with DeGal or Degal, Hattora, representatives, quote, we've had to suck it up time after time for the block with Netanyahu,

but they don't understand. No more words from Netanyahu, only actions, even if Netanyahu comes to me now and tells me one plus one equals two, I won't believe him anymore. He is a con man. The con and con, the second time I'm saying con is the KAN public broadcaster, quoted an unnamed source in the Herdi parties as saying Netanyahu's been duping us for two years. You can't keep trusting someone who fools you time after time. The draft exemption bill is unpopular among the Premier's own voters, especially given the demands of the IDF's

standing army and its reservists since the eruption of a multi-front conflict after Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, massacring 1,200 people. The IDF's chief of Sath, Eyalzimir, has repeatedly warned that the IDF will collapse,

et cetera, et cetera. We know all that. Okay, and then let me just read this one last part. the Haredi parties are widely reported to favor advancing elections to September 15th, two days after Rosh Hashanah, assessing that the presence of students at Yeshivas at the start of the school year, as well as potential voters attending Sele-Cotot rituals will allow them to effectively canvas for votes and maximize their support. All right, so they basically want to hold elections when they know they can get the most voters into voting booths and elect as many ultra-Orthodox people to the Knesset as possible.

So we'll get an even more religiously radical Israeli government. Perfect. Yeah, it goes on to talk about how the Shas party, their position is unclear. A spokesman for Shoss did not respond to an inquiry sent by the Times of Israel on Tuesday morning. An unconfirmed Channel 12 report on Tuesday evening said Shots would support dissolving the Knesset. Still a spokesman for Lando insisted that, quote, contrary to various reports, there is to complete an absolute consensus and cooperation between Degal, Hatora, and Shas regarding the course of action concerning the status of Yashiba students. In a separate statement, DeGal, Degiel, whatever, Hatora, chairman Moshe Gafni, cited Lando's statement as a binding instruction that would guide the faction's actions going forward.

Yeah, so it says that now following Lando's decision, opposition party Yishatid said it had petitioned the Knesset Speaker Amir O'Hana. to convene a special Conneset Presidium meeting later Tuesday to fast track a bill to dissolve the Connestate on Wednesday. So this guy, Moshe Gaffney, who they mentioned right here, back in 20, it was either 2022 or 2023, he submitted a bill. It didn't pass in the connesset, but to outlaw evangelizing the New Testament, preaching the Word of Christ in public in Israel. Currently, it is currently prostalitizing, right? Isn't that the right word? Currently, it is illegal to preach to children. Anyone under the age of 18, you can go to prison for that. But they want to make it illegal to preach the word of Christ to anybody, including adults and Israel. So again, these are very, very radical zealots, religious zealots who are seeking more power. And the reason they want, more powers to make sure their kids don't have to go fight in the IDF, even though they are the ones who want greater Israel. Okay.

So we got about 10 minutes left before I need to get my kids. So let's do this. Let's go to the substack and look at this video. So Netanyahu went on 60 minutes on Sunday night. We talked about that on, we talked about that on Badlands Daily. I mean, to me personally, there wasn't really like that much, like I listened to the whole thing.

There wasn't really that much like new breaking, like groundbreaking stuff that he said. Cancon mentioned that he said that he wants to, he wants to fast track getting Israel off of financial aid and military aid from the U.S. that is something that has been discussed pretty widely like in Israeli media and like Israeli circles for a while so that wouldn't like a surprise to me but you know it'd be great if we could stop sending the military aid the reason they want to do that though is because they want to continue to do what they want without influence negative influence from the U.S.

government but let me play there's there are two other videos that I want to play And that's this one. So first I was play the other video from Netanyahu. That's this. I came to United... So he's talking about meeting with the candidates. I always meet the presidential candidates before the election. Yeah, I'm sure you do, because you're the master.

I came to the United States in 2016, 2016, right before the elections. because I made it a habit to meet with the candidates for both parties, either in America or here. So I go to 2016, it's right before the elections, and I meet with Hillary Clinton, and then I meet with Donald Trump in New York. The first thing he says to me in Trump Tower is we can't let Iran have nuclear weapons.

I'm going to walk out of that terrible Iran deal. Jump forward eight years later, There's another election. I meet President Biden and Kamala Harris in Washington, and then I go and meet Donald Trump in Mar-A-Lago. And the first thing he says to me, even before I sit down, he says, you know, Bibi, we cannot let Iran have nuclear weapons.

I'm not going to let it happen. So he's infused with this mission. Yeah, so my take on that is that, like, that was the thing that really stuck out to me when I was listening to it live. like the second that this guy walked into the meeting with Trump, but prior to both the 2016 and the 2024 election, before he even sat down, Trump was like,

we can't let Iran have a weapon. I think that's how Trump got the Israel lobby support in both those elections. I noticed that he didn't say that happened during the 2020 election, and that was the one that, of course, Trump was ousted from. ousted meaning that it was stolen from him by the Biden administration, and Netanyahu was the one who consummated the coup by calling Biden. But I want to play this clip from Israeli media of Bezal Smotrick, the finance minister,

talking about how the only outcome to this war that is acceptable is one that allows Israel to expand its borders. So it's in Hebrew, so I'm going to have to read the... Yeah, so I'm going to have to read the subtitles. I'm going to silence it so it's easier to hear me. So he says, no, I don't know, and I still have sharp arguments with him, right? I still think that this war must end with a change in the borders of the state of Israel, both in the West Bank and in Lebanon and in Syria, of course, in Judea and Samaria. By the way, the security lesson that was given on October 11th is that, I think he means October 7th is maybe a translation thing,

is that we cannot allow such restrictions to be a meter from the border. Ben Netanyahu Doesn't think like you This is a picture Bin Netanyahu means son of Netanyahu And he's referring to Bibi This is a picture

The fact that he is not doing it right now And I with seven seats I'm trying to hide as much as I can In this war I have a very large influence On the war relatively speaking I am the prime But if I am prime minister

If it were up to me we would have given up a long ago. If we're up to me, we would have given up long ago. I think what he means is if it was up to me, the people who have posted this who were translating it are saying, if it were up to me, we would have redrawn the map a long time ago. Yes, I think he is good.

I think he's referring to Netanyahu. I think that the ability to burn the price of loss and mistake against our enemies in terms of consciousness doesn't matter to us. How many of us kill them? with cables or how many bombs we shoot at them they don't care what they care about is that we will take their territory if they say that whoever messes with us loses and if then it will be much smaller how much more should we do the immigration out the translation here is such a nightmare I think what he's saying is the the standard we have to set is if you mess with Israel we're going to take your land so when people mess with us when Hamas messes with us we got to take their land. When Hezbollah messes with us, we got to take their land. And the more we keep doing that, then people will stop messing with us

because they'll know the consequences are we're going to take your land. It says, and if Lebanon will be smaller, let me see. And if Lebanon will be smaller, but this is what you allow us to do. So yeah, what he's saying is basically we need to take their land. And, I mean, he's pushing forward. So the point is that these guys are pushing forward full bore. They're going full bore forward. Now, this is interesting.

This guy, Tyler Oliva, we're going to land it here. This is like a, here's his account, 400,000 followers. He's like the guy who goes out and makes videos. I'm pretty sure he's investigative videos. He's done a bunch of, I guess he's been on Tucker, but he's investigated a bunch of different situations around the world. One of the thing, he was the one who went and filmed that like weird, like 45,000 person city or town in New York that was basically like operating under Jewish law, right? The ultra-Orthodox town.

He's the one who went and filmed all that and like went around. I was asking people questions. I played that video on this, on this show. So he went to Israel because he wanted to go interview people in Israel. And he just posted 46 minutes ago. He said, I got banned from Israel. and deported back to America for anti-Semitic content. Then he posts the picture of what, like, he claims is his deportation paper.

Let me see what this is. It says, by virtue of the authority of the Minister of Interior, pursuant to the entry into Israel law, that was delegated to me pursuant to Section 16A of the law. Following checks conducted pursuant to Section 9 to the law, it was decided that the person whose details are specified below is not permitted to Interimated. into Israel. The above-mentioned individual will be removed from Israel pursuant to Section 10A of the law as soon as possible, and until that time will be held in the location designated for this purpose. Should the above-mentioned individual request to visit Israel in the future, but he-she will be required to submit a request in advance, which will be examining in accordance with the circumstances at the time. This decision may be appealed in accordance with section whatever of the entry into Israel law within 30 days and without delay. Wow.

Okay. So, I mean, this may be true. It may not be true, but this guy's claiming it. I will play this. This is something that I saw. Ronald Lawder from Estee Lauder, the makeup company. Let's see. No, not that. Okay, here it is. fighting this avalus. And he's obviously, this is the world Jewish Congress. This guy's the president of the world Jewish Congress. He's addressing them, the governing board. Of anti-Semitism. I have one question. Has it helped?

Has all this money stopped? We've slowed down the hatred against us? The answer is no. All the efforts from TV commercials to full page ads and newspapers, all the attempts. to tell the world the facts have accomplished very little. That's because anti-Semites already have access to all the facts, and they're not interested in the facts or truth.

They have their own psychotic narrative that blames Jews for everything under the sun. The Gaza war, the Jews started it. The high cost of gas, the Jews. COVID developed in the Jewish laboratory. Global warming is the Jews. You are wasting your breath to reason with them. You cannot educate an anti-Semite. Case in point, since the Gaza War ended,

the demonstrations haven't gone away. They've only grown more violent. Only now they move from anti-Israel and pro-Hamas marches to targeting Jews, going to synagogues, kosher restaurants, we're just walking down the street. Yeah, so it's pretty clear based on like the rhetoric that we're hearing from Lauder, because Lauder has, this is not the first time he's spoken like this in public. He's advocated for hate speech laws.

He's advocated for more aggressive policing, the more aggressive retribution and consequences for people that he claims are anti-Semites. But really what he's saying are people who criticize the politics of Israel. or the politics of the world Jewish Congress, whatever they may be. Now, you know, this would be kind of a relevant clip if these people didn't have undue influence over our government and over our society, but they do. They obviously fund the campaigns of members of both parties,

the Republicans and the Democrats. And so my expectation is that we're probably, my speculation is that we'll probably see a more, aggressive push for hate speech laws, we'll see a more aggressive push for the codification of laws that legalize the persecution, prosecution of people who they call anti-Semites, but really are just people who criticize them, criticize Israel, criticize the policies that these people are promoting. Because it's not just Jews, of course, Um, here is from Europe.

Let's see. Where did that one go? We have a European leader. Um, I think he's talking to the world Jewish Congress as well. Um, where, where did that one go? Let me see if I can find it. Hmm. That's probably going to have to bail on that, but, hold on.

Yeah, here it is. All right, listen to this. All right, this is a six minute clip, so I can be able to play the whole thing. But what do you say? He says, I'm a goy and I'm a Zionist. So, Matthias Dupner, CEO of Axel Springer,

a suspected CIA front, declares himself a Zionist to the World Jewish Congress, then calls for censorship of social media and the expulsion of anti-Semites from wherever legally possible. He insists all European countries open their borders to Jewish immigration in the name of diversity. Europe must become more Jewish.

Dapner says, he insists Europe following the footsteps of the U.S. must force the sale of TikTok due to the anti-Semitism on the platform. and then warns against wokeness being a Trojan horse for anti-Semitism and Islamicism. Quote, Greta Thumburg, hardly cares about the carbon footprint anymore, but it's increasingly passionate about stoking anti-Semitic prejudice. Dothner lays out the full Zionist agenda in the speech,

which I've edited down to six minutes and received a standing ovation from the World Jewish Congress Governing Board. We all shall be Zionist, he declares, to roaring applause. So, yeah, this is no different from what they did, years ago with like racism where it's like if you're going to be racist we're going to throw you in jail it's the same exact thing it's the same same thing just a different uh different different um flavor all right we got to close it down there let me hit any rants we might have we might be good there um and let me see if we have any boost all right guys so i'm going to be traveling um this weekend so we won't have a show on friday Friday, no book of Trump on Monday. We'll be back next Tuesday with Geopolitic of Ghost. Share the show. Hit the thumbs up. Appreciate y'all being here. And we will see you next week. You have a great week. Thank you so much for joining us. And don't forget to hit the thumbs up on this video.

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