Judging Freedom - Aaron Maté: Netanyahu On The Ropes.

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

Aaron Maté: Netanyahu On The Ropes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024. Aaron Matei joins us. Aaron, it's always a pleasure, my dear friend. I have a lot to ask you about the attack on the Moscow concert hall, the latest in Gaza and the political problems that seem to be getting worse and worse for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Let's start with the attack in Moscow. Do you view this as a turning point in the military conflagration between Ukraine and Russia or between Russia and NATO, however you want to look at it? I don't because I think we've been on the same course for a long time now, which is Ukraine's

ultimate defeat. And this attack might be used by Russia as a pretext to maybe speed that up, if that were possible, which I'm not sure it is. But I think inevitably the fundamental issue with the Ukraine proxy war is that Ukraine was always going to run out of people and out of firepower compared to Russia's relative strength, because Russia's right there on its border and just is much bigger and has a much bigger capacity. That was always the issue. So these incidents like what happened in Moscow, no matter who was behind it, and I have my disagreements with some of my colleagues in the

adversarial media space. People are very convinced that this was carried out by Ukraine or even the CIA. I haven't seen the evidence for that yet. And regardless, to me, it doesn't really matter because ultimately, Ukraine was never going to win this war. That's what Antony Blinken, who's the current Secretary of State, pointed out when he was working for Obama, who had a different policy than the current White House of not arming Ukraine to the teeth because Obama recognized, and Blinken laid this out, that Russia will always have the military advantage. So to me, that's the fundamental core issue when it comes to this Ukraine war, that Ukraine's defeat is inevitable and it's only a matter of time. But you think that the reaction, the Russian reaction to what happened at the theater,

and so far it's only been verbal, they changed what they're calling this military conflagration from a special military operation to a war. You think it might accelerate things because it's more important how Moscow will use this than what Moscow's evidence is. Is that a fair summary of your point? Yeah. I mean, certainly, Russia will, when you're at war, you'll do, they wouldn't tolerate it. They wouldn't tolerate one before the war, before Russia invaded, after Russia invaded, when they sabotaged the Istanbul talks. It was very clear that Russia was going to just basically keep taking as much territory as it could until Ukraine surrendered. And that's the question for me now is like, how much more willussia take before ukraine finally waves the white flag and the issue there now of course is what happens in washington because mike johnson after stalling

for a long time the the leader of of the of the house on the republican side he's now indicating he will finally hold a vote on that 61 billion dollars that biden needs to prolong this war not that i think it'll make a big, but it might prolong it for a bit longer. So if that does go through, as Mike Johnson seems to be saying he will let happen, then that might buy Ukraine some more time. But ultimately, this is coming to an end. I want to ask you about Mike Johnson because he's one of these Christian nationalists

that believes like the Zionists, that God the Father decided thousands of years ago that modern-day Israel would occupy all the land from the river to the sea. And that must motivate him. I don't know what motivates him in Ukraine. He may lose his speakership over this Ukraine vote, depending about whether the Democrats want to back him or the Republicans want to sacrifice him. But that's just my views at Mike, which are not, my views of him are not very positive. You probably share some of them. Do you think there are CIA MI6 Ukraine fingerprints on what happened at the theater, or you think this is just Russia looking for an excuse when they say this? Two points here. On the point of view of Mike Johnson's faith, I don't know what personally drives him, but I will say that if

he does care about the church and Christians, he might want to look at how Ukraine is treating Christians. They've been trying to shut down one of Ukraine's largest churches because they feel it's too close to Russia. And they even jailed recently a priest who criticized the neo-Nazi Azov battalion on Facebook given a multi-year sentence.

So that's the state of Christians inside Ukraine. And I never understood why people who profess to take their faith seriously, on top of ignoring all the teachings of Jesus, who I don't think would be favoring supporting a proxy war that sacrifices Ukrainians or- From this traditionalist Catholic, yes, you have that right. Yeah. And in terms of the fingerprints in Moscow, look, I totally understand. As I said last week on your show, I totally understand why people suspect the CIA and MI6 and their Ukrainian counterparts.

We're talking about the world's most cynical, devious people. I totally get it. I just haven't seen the evidence for it yet. I wouldn't be surprised if possibly there's some connection to Ukrainian ultranationalists who are not necessarily in government inside Ukraine. They've carried out terror attacks before, both inside Russia and inside Ukraine. Recall, these are the people who burned alive dozens of people in Odessa in May 2014,

which was a major factor in triggering all the carnage that we've seen since then. Dozens of people who were protesting the Maidan coup that brought these ultra-nationalist neo-Nazis to power, they were burned alive. So I'm not doubting the capability of people inside Ukraine and their allies to carry out evil acts like the Concert Hall Massacre. I just haven't seen the evidence for it. And as I also said, the official story that we got from the US, which is that this was ISIS-K. That's plausible to me because ISIS is a sworn enemy of Russia, given that Russia especially handed ISIS a huge defeat in Syria, where the

U.S. was letting ISIS grow because they thought they could use ISIS as a tool of regime change against Bashar al-Assad, as John Kerry admitted. Russia came in and helped defeat them. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if this was ISIS acting on its own without the involvement of any other foreign intelligence agency. But I'll wait to see what the evidence is. I haven't seen it yet. Anything from Moscow

that would convince me otherwise. Right, right. Is the Ukrainian government still killing people that it says are Ukrainians in Ukraine, but it's that part of Ukraine that now Russia says is Russia, if you follow me. Is Ukraine still bombing eastern Ukraine? Absolutely.

There's regular bombings of the parts of eastern Ukraine in the Donbass under Russian control. And that's been the case for the last 10 years. These are not military targets. These are civilians. There have been plenty of civilian targets that have been hit inside eastern Ukraine, and not just during this period of the war

after Russia invaded, but over the last 10 years. And those are the, you know, 14,000 people died in eastern Donbass before Russia invaded. And not all of those people were Russophile Ukrainians. There was also some Ukrainian soldiers and Ukrainians on the other side of the contact line who were killed by the rebels. But the majority of the casualties were on the Donbass side, and this was the side that was under assault. And again, which Ukraine,

with the backing of the U.S., rather than implement the Minsk Accords, which would put a stop to that war and prevent the Russian invasion, Ukraine ignored them. And that's why since then we've had so many top officials, including Angela Merkel, admit that the Minsk Accords were just a ruse to give Ukraine more time to continue building up its army and carrying out the very assaults on the people of eastern Donbass that we're talking about right now. Russia, whatever you think of its invasion in February 2022, that's what it was acting to stop. This war began 10 years ago, and Russia finally invaded to put an end to it. Before we get to Gaza, the latest news in that part of the world is the IDF destroying an Iranian consulate adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. Even though it's Syria, this is legally Iran. Is this

an Israeli act of war against Iran? And why would Netanyahu be doing this at this point in time? It's absolutely an act of war by an out-of-control state that's already violated every international norm on the book, starting with the assault on Gaza when they went after not just one hospital, but multiple hospitals. Who would have thought that in this time we'd be seeing one of the world's most sophisticated, well-armed military forces just putting hospitals in its target sites and the world just standing by and watching? And the Biden administration, in fact, not only watching, but providing Israel with the weapons to do it. As we've just seen it once again with its assault on Al-Shifa Hospital,

leaving it in ruins and hundreds of people killed. And so with that green light from Joe Biden, being able to commit mass murder in Gaza, starve it, blockade, attack hospitals, attack mosques, attack schools, Israel's gone to the next step of attacking what was previously Sakhar Sank, which is a diplomatic facility. in the case of Iran's diplomatic facility in Damascus, the capital of Syria. Why are they doing it? I think it's pretty obvious they want to trigger a response that would draw the U.S. into the war. Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, they're all allies. Israel does not want to fight Hezbollah on its own because Hezbollah showed in 2006, the last time Israel tried to do that in a not want to fight Hezbollah on its own because Hezbollah showed in 2006,

the last time Israel tried to do that in a major way, that Hezbollah could inflict serious damage on Israel. So Israel, wanting to take out any deterrent to its hegemony, which is foremost right now, Hezbollah, would need U.S. help to do that. So hence, if you want to bring the U.S. in, why not bomb an Iranian embassy in Damascus and see what happens next? They're that crazy. Here's an analysis from an American on a French station with a British anchor. I don't know who the American is, but he's fairly astute. He's a journalist

on do the Israelis even consider embassies to be legitimate targets. Number seven, Chris. Israel has said, or at least unofficially said, privately said that they don't consider it a diplomatic compound because high level IRGC members, a group that is considered, you know, its members considered almost terrorists by Israel and the U.S. Because they were in this building, it effectively was a valid military target. But once again, you have to sort of splice those words because Israel has not officially claimed responsibility. As it is not officially claimed responsibility for any number of attacks, I'll note this comes a few days, this strike, after suspected Israeli

airstrikes in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, in which dozens of Syrian soldiers were killed. But under the law, under international law, under universally recognized international law, recognized by everybody but Israelrael and the united states i guess since the united states is funding this unless they are shooting at you from the building a consulate an embassy a hospital a church a mosque a temple are off grounds israel is making up its own rules as it goes along yeah and. And hence why, since it took off as the Biden administration has not paid tribute to international law, but to what they call the rules-based international order. Well, what does that really mean in real life? It means we make

the rules. And under those rules, the US and our clients, including Israel, can do whatever they want, including targeting consulates, which is again, supposed to be sacrosanct. A consulate is supposed to actually be the sovereign territory of the country that's inside of it. So actually, they're not even just targeting sovereign Syrian territory, which Israel does routinely, has done for years. Hundreds of airstrikes carried out by Israel inside Syria, which the world yawns at, including targeting at both of its airports in Aleppo and Damascus. Everyone yawns at that because terror against Syria has been so normalized by the US-led rules-based international order. But this is now Iranian sovereign territory that Israel's

targeting by going after its embassy. And they want a reaction. They'll get one as to what exactly Iran and its allies do, I don't know. They must know that Israel wants to draw them into a war that would bring in the U.S., so I suspect they will calibrate their response accordingly to avoid such a scenario. But this is the fire that we're playing with because the U.S. lets Israel violate every basic norm of international law. Here's Matt Ho just a few hours ago making the same argument you did, basically saying Israel makes up its own rules. There's no question under international law,

but that where that consulate stood is the sovereign territory of Iran. So Israel invaded the airspace of Syria, which as you point to do almost every day, in order to destroy the sovereign territory of Iran and assassinate two generals, kill five other people that couldn't care less about either, because as you'll hear from Matt, they make up their own rules as they go along. This delirium about a rules-based order, which is nothing more, Judge, as you know, than the same thing as a toddler making up rules to a game as they go along.

And that's what our government has been for decades now. Because that's what the Israelis do, and we're wedded at the hip, according to Joe Biden, to the Israelis. What's the latest in Gaza? Did the Israelis actually hunt down these world's caterers, the central caterer team, hunt them down? By all appearances, yes, because there were three vehicles in this convoy from this food organization, and all of them were targeted. The first one was hit, the second one was hit, and then the third one was hit. World Central Kitchen is what they're called. And the cynicism is beyond comprehension because who is World Central Kitchen? They're very closely tied with the Biden administration.

They worked inside Ukraine. They initially, after October 7th, Jose Andres, who's the head of World Central Kitchen, basically blamed Hamas for everything and sort of gave a sort of tacit approval of Israel's response. It talked about Israel's right to defend itself as it was committing mass murder inside Gaza. And they're there because the U.S. and Israel have been trying to supplant and basically destroy UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. So to basically undermine UNRWA after concocting that fake controversy about UNRWA being complicit on October 7th, Jose Andres and World Central Kitchen have really stepped up to try to fill the void left by UNRWA not being able to function because Israel restricted it.

Who pays him, Aaron? He must have a contract with the State Department. I would not be surprised by that at all. He works very closely with the State Department. So I'm sure that's a major part of it. But I have to verify that. But it got so cynical that, and this was reported by my colleagues at the Gray Zone, Wyatt Reed and Max Blumenthal, that Jose Andres' group, World Central Kitchen, started building a pier, a port, out of the rubble of destroyed homes in Gaza. They were using rubble to build

their own pier to basically help the Biden administration undermine UNRWA. But Israel is so diabolical and so cynical that its overarching goal, beyond just trying to undermine UNRWA, the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees that basically helps keep Palestinians alive, that even that goal took second place to the goal of starving Gaza. That's why I believe they targeted these international aid workers, including one from the US, others from Australia, Canada, Poland, and other countries. That's why I believe these aid workers were targeted, because Israel is actually privileging its goal above everything else of starving the people of Gaza. And therefore, you can't have anybody delivering them food, even the meager amounts that World Central Kitchen was

giving them. Wasn't one of those seven World Central Kitchen people that was killed by the IDF an American? Yes, that's correct. That was newly confirmed. The initial death toll did not include an American, but then they hours later updated it. And what's been World Central Kitchen's response? Well, they've understandably shut down their operations inside Gaza, therefore depriving how many people, countless people of a meal that they might have otherwise gotten, which is Israel's goal all along. That's why I believe Israel killed these people. They wanted to use these aid workers as a symbol of what happens if you try to actually feed the people of Gaza. We're going to kill you. We're going to make an example out of you. And so therefore, they've gotten what they wanted. World Central Kitchen has suspended its operations. Do you think the invasion of Rafah will take place as soon as Ramadan is over? I can't put a timeline on it, but I absolutely believe the invasion of Rafah will take place. Israel said that it would. Biden has already admitted that his so-called red line of Israel not invading Rafah is a joke. He said that there won't be any consequences for Israel if it invades

Rafah. Now they're even, after that performance last week where Israel canceled a planned meeting with the U.S. in Washington about its Rafah plans, they've rescheduled that meeting. They're holding it this week to discuss what happens. The U.S. will pretend as if Israel's given them a credible plan to protect civilians, as they've done all along. And I do believe that they will let this invasion proceed because Israel's goals are not only to destroy Hamas,

which they obviously have not been able to do so far because there's still Hamas fighters resisting the Israeli forces, but also to basically make Gaza uninhabitable. They do not want to see people in Gaza anymore that are Palestinian, the indigenous people of that land. They want to make Gaza unlivable. They hate Gaza because Gaza has always been the center of Palestinian resistance for decades now. Here's Prime Minister Netanyahu. It's got to be an unguarded moment

because the people behind him are actually laughing at the horrible things that we are discussing, suggesting that the people in Rafah should go north, the place from which they fled, the place that is utterly devastated and demolished, that they should go north and that the IDF will help them get north so they're not there. Can't make this up, Aaron.

So that they're not there when the attack on Rafah takes place. Number four, Chris. Victory is within reach. It's a few weeks away. Now we are told. This is it. Last point. Now we are told.

You can't do this. If you go into Rafah, you're going to have a humanitarian catastrophe. You're going to have, I don't know, 30,000 dead. 30,000. Civilian dead. Okay. That's not true. All of the Gaza Strip north of Rafah,

people down, they can move back up. They don't have to go into north of Wadi Gaza, but there's still 65% of the Gaza Strip left open. And people just move. They move with their tents. They have no place to go. Yes, they have a place to go. Second, you know, we provide them food.

The problem was not the entry of trucks. The problem was the stealing of trucks, both by looting by Hamas and looting by others and so on. How he can make a joke out of this is Miami, but the man has no soul, no sense of morality. Your comments. I have a friend in northern Gaza who was with a family of 11 people. There's no food for them. Every day is a new disaster.

They've been lucky to somehow have some power in their home because of a solar panel that they were able to put together. And they have it lucky. Now Netanyahu's talking and joking about people who he's displaced into Rafah, now going back to the north where Israel's what, been bombing aid convoys. That's where the flower massacre was. Actually, there've been multiple flower massacres. And I do believe the U.S. will pretend as if this person, this diabolical leader has actually put forward a credible plan to protect civilians and

therefore he will have the green light to go in and displace and kill these people in Rafah once more. You and your colleagues at the Gray zone referred to either Netanyahu or the current political situation in Israel as a boondoggle. What did you mean? I didn't make that statement, so I couldn't tell you. But what I think that means is that Netanyahu

is, even before October 7th, he was under intense pressure. There are people inside his government who hate him, all the more so now because now he's blamed for October 7th. That was a massive security lapse and a clear factor in it was Netanyahu's obsession with cementing Israeli colonization of the occupied West Bank. So he diverted troops from guarding the Gaza concentration camp to going over to the West Bank to deepen Israel's control of those occupied territories. And there were protests against him over his efforts to basically undermine Israel's judiciary. So for him, he has every incentive to prolong this war for as long as he can, because the longer the war goes on, then the longer his political existence is preserved. And he avoids not only having to resign, but also having to go to prison. Should we take note of the demonstrations in the streets?

Are these CIA inspired or is this spontaneous? Is there now an anti-war whether you call it left right whatever an anti-war contingent of significant numbers amongst the israeli population the people that we saw marching over the uh i think it was on easter yeah significant i'm afraid not um there are people who are can see through nanya whose crocodile tears over the hostages that are still in Gaza, as he does everything he can in real life to make sure that they stay either in captivity or that they die. In fact, Israeli strikes have been responsible for killing some of the Israeli captives inside Gaza. And there is frustration about that. But in terms of genuine anti-war sentiment, people upset that their government is committing mass murder. No, that's a tiny amount of people inside Israel because the

entire Israeli spectrum is just coalesced around occupation and dispossession of Palestinians. And inside the US, I believe Joe Biden and his allies made a decision to basically make Netanyahu the boogeyman, the fall guy, to blame him for all of Israel's problems and signal that they wanted somebody else. But that, again, is not an act of principle because they support Netanyahu's policies. They just want a different face on the same crimes. They want someone who will pretend, for example, that he will one day allow a Palestinian state, whereas Netanyahu is more honest in expressing the actual Israeli position across the spectrum, which is that they'll never give Palestinians their minimal rights.

So the protest against Netanyahu over the hostages and about his judicial reforms and his corruption, those are sizable inside Israel. But in terms of to what extent that reflects genuine anti-war sentiment, it doesn't. I mean, does everybody know that if Benny Gantz replaces him, he might be even more aggressive since he once was when he was the head of the IDF? Certainly, I think people in Washington know that and they'd be fine with that. They just want somebody who can help them pay lip service to the so-called two-state solution, which is just the talking point that American politicians tried out to pretend that they care about Palestinian rights. Oh, here, just to raise your blood pressure a little bit, because I love you so much. Here's Tony Blinken in Paris just a few hours ago on the two-state solution.

We also agree that we have to find a path to a durable, lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis alike. And we both agree that ultimately that has to include the establishment of a Palestinian state with necessary security guarantees for Israel. Why is he always hand-wringing and tentative and fearful? He must know at some level of his conscience that he's a complete fraud. Everything he says is a lie. Everything is done to prolong Israel's mass murder campaign and to pretend to do his real job, which is to be a diplomat,

when in real life he's a warmonger. That's why after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he didn't speak to any Russians for months and months and months because his job was not to do diplomacy and try to resolve conflict. It was to prolong conflict. It was to use Ukraine to weaken Russia. He's doing the same thing here. He's just pretending.

He talks about a pathway to a Palestinian state as if it's some mystery, as if it's some complicated road. Really, it's very simple. The pathway to a Palestinian state as if it's some mystery, as if it's some complicated road. And really, it's very simple. The pathway to a Palestinian state has been known for decades now. And Palestinians have already accepted it. Their leadership has. Even Hamas at one point, it was a Palestinian state in 22% of historic Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza. The PLO accepted it. Hamas tacitly accepted it. And had Israel been willing to negotiate, you know, Hamas might have actually been willing to go even further, but they weren't. Rather than, you know, explore the only opportunity that there was for a Palestinian state, which is basically a Palestinian state, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel and the U.S. have blocked all negotiations.

They imposed the siege on Gaza and they continued the colonization of the West Bank, building up these massive West Bank settlement blocks that make a Palestinian state impossible. That's the actual policy. That's Tony Blinken's policy. And therefore, all he can do is pretend that some mythical Palestinian state, some path to a Palestinian state is off there in the distance. Brilliant, brilliant analysis of Blinken and his duplicity, as well as everything else you said. Thank you, Aaron. A pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you, Judge. Good to see you. Eastern. 7.45 in the morning, Professor Sachs. At 11 in the morning, Colonel McGregor. At 2 in the afternoon, Conor Freeman from antiwar.com. And at 3 in the afternoon, our old standby, Phil Giraldi. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. I'm out.