Judging Freedom - Alastair Crooke: Biden Out of Touch with Reality

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Alastair Crooke: Biden Out of Touch with RealitySee 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 Monday, March 11th, 2024. Back in the saddle after my week in Rome and in the Vatican and a day with our dear friend Alistair Crook, who joins us now. Alistair, it was a pleasure to be with you and your family, and thank you very much for joining us today. You have another interesting piece out asking whether or not the President of the United States and his administration with respect to foreign affairs, particularly Israel, is out of touch with reality.

And you begin the piece by saying the Biden administration has had enough. Enough of what? Well, Netanyahu. They seem to project everything onto Netanyahu, all their frustrations, what happened at Michigan with the protest vote of uncommitted, all of these things are being, if of a soft coup against Netanyahu, they invited Gantz. But outside of all protocol, the government in Israel was not informed of the trip at all. He went to Washington and to London, and I think he was being lined up. It was very clear that the agenda that he was given was one that would normally be reserved for a prime minister or a prime minister in waiting.

And so it was expected that he was going to say the right things on his trip, and he didn't. He said something quite different. He said, you know, I quite agree with Netanyahu on Rafa. Yeah, we're going to go in. We have to go in. There's no question of that. And the sort of bewildered interlocutors, Harris and Sullivan, said, but what about 1.2 million Palestinians? And he said, that's not the issue. We're going in. And finally, he said very clearly, and this left them with,

I think, their mouths gaping open. He said, look, I wouldn't mind being prime minister. Fair enough. I quite like the job. Yes. But let me tell you that if you're trying to divide and rule in the Israeli government, don't waste your time. Because even if I became prime minister, my policies wouldn't be any different from those of Netanyahu. And you can imagine the shock and the sort of jaw drop because, you know, everyone thought, you know, we've only got to get rid of Netanyahu. And of course, then we can go back to the good old times

and we'll be talking about two states, two Palestinian states and ceasefires and hostage releases. And they're not. And, of course, Biden during the recent said, you know, I've warned Netanyahu, I've warned him, there are red lines. And Netanyahu over the weekend said, I'm sorry, for us, you have no red lines. It was him who departed from the United States saying, yeah, we're going into we're going into rougher, by the way. It may be your red line. It's not ours.

For us is to stop another 7th of October happening. And no, I don't see any prospect of a ceasefire. And no, when the time is right, we will be returning the residents to the north. And if there isn't a diplomatic solution in Lebanon, there will be a military one. So that. So it was pretty clear. Rupture. I want to get back to is there a red line or isn't there a red line in a minute? But how sloppy and unprofessional was it, even disastrous, to invite Benny Gantz, the former prime minister for a while, the former head of the IDF,

as if he was going to be a foil to Netanyahu without knowing what he was going to say. You and I knew. The people watching this show know what he was going to say, said it already. There may be a difference in temperament and personality, but there's not going to be any difference in the behavior of the Israeli military if General Gantz became the prime minister. How could the White House not have known that? I think it's simply they're stuck in a different era when there were the kibbutzim and the kibbutzniks and many of them like the European Union foreign policy chief you know went and worked in the kibbutz married a girl from the kibbutz or in the kibbutz I mean and they were of course different form uh different. These were mostly liberal European Jews, Ashkenazi.

I mean, very personable, very likable. And, of course, it was a nice era, but it's gone. And we're in a completely different era, and they do not seem to be able to cope with it. They just do not understand two-state solution is not going to be on the table. They don't understand that the sort of pressures that somehow Hamas will just drop everything and will agree to the ceasefire, they don't understand all of these things. They seem to be just going on talking about Saudi Arabia is going to pay for everything and it's going to integrate Israel into the new anti-Iranian structures that are going to emerge in due course. delusional and they go on with us at a point of great inflection because Ramadan started there was no ceasefire before Ramadan It's already begun already trouble is starting

We've had two or three days of severe trouble already in the West Bank in cities all up and down The West Bank. We're at a point of inflection Israel I don't think, is going straight into Rafah because the Israeli army doesn't seem to be really prepared for that at the moment. It's sort of unprepared. It needs to do more, and the troop levels are quite low in Rafah, well, in Gaza as a whole at the moment. So I don't know that they're going straight in to Rafah, but sooner or later they're going to go in. But at the moment we have this point of inflection in which things can go wrong very quickly, either in Rafah, West Bank, amongst the 48 Palestinians, that is Palestinians living within the Green Line or up north with the with Lebanon or even with Iraq

where the Iraqi resistance have now resumed their conflict they're firing missiles at Haifa they're not attacking American forces in Iraq and Syria but they are attacking refineries and infrastructure in Haifa with their missiles. So how bad, how serious is the breach? I'm going to use the word breach because I'm going to ask you if you'll accept that word, between Biden and Netanyahu, between the United States and Israel. Now, at one point, you referred to what I'm calling a breach as a rupture, means almost the same thing. At another point, you referred to it as a declaration of war. I assume you mean a diplomatic war. But tell us about this breach, because you

and I know, and everybody watching and listening to us now knows knows that all the IDF behavior in Gaza, as horrific as it is, could be stopped in 24 hours with a phone call from Joe Biden if he wanted it stopped. Yes. And he said explicitly on the Sunday TV talk shows, MSNBC, yesterday. And he said, listen, yes, there are red lines. There are red lines, of course, and rougher is a red line. However, be sure, I will never stop the supply of weapons to Israel. I will never do that. I will defend Israel to the end. So is it a red line? It seems very ambiguous and certain. No one knows really, I mean, what that means. What can he stop? All that we've got instead is another fatuous idea, which is to build a pier in the sea off Gaza, and that that is going to bring in aid. It'll take a while to build the pier, of course, and then who's going to actually unload and distribute the aid?

Well, Israel says it's going to be them. Who's going to check the aid and determine how much comes in? Well, Israel says, well, it won't be in Rafah now, but it will be done offshore, and that we will be in control in Cyprus, where the aid will arrive first before going to this platform. Hamas has said, I don't want any Palestinians helping in this project at all. Thank you very much. We want the aid to come in by truck,

by the UN, through RAFA. Here's the clip to which you referred, number six, Chris, on MSNBC yesterday. And I want everyone to listen carefully because here the president at one point says it is a red line and then later it is not a red line what is your red line with prime minister netanyahu do you have a of a red line for instance would invasion of rafa would you have urged him not to do would that be a red line it is a red line but i'm never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical. So there's no red line. I'm going to cut off all weapons so they don't have the Iron

Dome to protect them. They don't have. But there's red lines that if it crosses and they cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead. I wish he had finished that. I mean, I don't know what his thoughts were. We all mock his ability to entertain and articulate thoughts. He looked pretty good there. However, a red line usually means if you cross it, there are serious, dire consequences. I don't know that he's threatening any consequences at all. I'm not sure that he can. I don't think he he's threatening any consequences at all. I'm not sure that he can. I don't think he really can in this case because Netanyahu understands American politics better than most of us.

He's lived there, been there. He regards himself as adapted to American politics. And he knows that many of the past structures, many of the structures in Europe and in the United States, are wholly dependent on the existence, on the cause of Israel, of being supportive of Israel. And that without that, if there were no Israel, these power structures, which control much of the flow of money, control many of those in Congress, would simply evaporate and go away. They're not going to let that happen. Do he and Netanyahu speak? Not recently, not for some time now. He says he's going to have a talk with Netanyahu speak? Not recently, not for some time now. He says he's going to have a talk with Netanyahu.

He's going to have a Jesus talk, and you'll have to tell me what a Jesus talk means in the United States. Well, in the United States, come to Jesus means a very, very candid conversation, even one that is painful. Of course, saying that to the Prime Minister of Israel is a bit of a double entendre with the use of the word Jesus. But that's at least what it means here. I'm sure that Netanyahu, from his years living in the U.S., understands the... I'm sure he does. Almost can't imagine Joe Biden having that kind of talk. I mean, I really think that others around him, and we know who they are, are pulling all the strings here. He's just the one who happens to be the president. I mean, Netanyahu would talk rings around him if they were going to have a

conversation. And I couldn't imagine that it would be recorded because the president would be humiliated. Exactly. That's 100 percent right. And, you know, what's he going to say? He'll say, I want a ceasefire. Well, I mean, a ceasefire. You know, this whole of the ceasefire has been so mismanaged by the White House. I mean, they put everything into the idea that the combination of Egypt and the UAE and Jordan will pressure Hamas into accepting a ceasefire come what may. And it hasn't worked. And then they don't notice as Netanyahu throws in the wrench

into the process. He says, by the way, we'd like to know, you know, if some of these hostages are alive or dead. Can you tell us which ones? And he knows because I was up by the Israelis to go to Hamas and Hezbollah and previous times and say, could I have proof of life, please? And they say, what are you thinking of? Do you have a mandate to negotiate the outcome? You know, proof of life costs because whether it's a dead body or a live body, they have different rates of exchange. So don't come here without a mandate and ask such things.

And don't think that we are simply going to give up on our key points, which they haven't managed at all, which is the withdrawal of Israel and Israeli troops from Gaza as permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops. And all the time they just float over this and say, no, but we must have a ceasefire. Come on, let's have a ceasefire and we'll do an arrangement and you can get some people back. You know, you can get a few of the adolescent Palestinians sitting in jail, but you must release all these. But it doesn't work like that.

And they should know that. But Netanyahu is running rings around them on that, running rings. And so, of course, Hamas have put down their non-negotiable points. And, of course, in the West, it's played up as if this is an escalation, a blocking move by Hamas. It's just what they've been asking all along, I can assure you. There's no change. Here's the hot mic come to Jesus moment.

Cut number two, Chris. Great speech. I was telling your secretary, I was in Jordan and Israel last weekend. You've got to keep pushing what you're doing on the humanitarian stuff and all this stuff. I told you. Maybe you won't get caught. Sir, just... I'm not going to get caught.

That was good. All right. For those of you who are listening to the show, as opposed to listening and seeing it, the president is on the floor of the House of Representatives after he has finished his State of the Union address. He's speaking with Senator Michael Bennett, Democrat of Colorado, and the Secretary of State Tony Blinken. And this is either intentional or he doesn't realize, it appears to me that he doesn't realize that he's still wired in the so-called hot mic moment, meaning he has a microphone, a body mic on him, a pack clipped to his belt with a wire going up to his lapel so that everything he says is being recorded. In this case,

it was not only recorded, it was broadcast. And it basically says, don't tell anybody, but I told BB we're going to have a come to Jesus moment, about which Alistair and I spoke a few minutes ago. And then one of his young aides comes by and says, Mr. President, you have a hot mic on. And Joe, the president sort of laughs at it. And then the mic goes off. I don't know. When they do these things, Alistair, I sometimes wonder if it's intentional and it's a way to get a message out there that looks like it's a mere verbal slippage or if it was a verbal slippage because he didn't realize he was still wired. You can't imagine the president of the United States walking around the Capitol building and everything he says is being broadcast and he doesn't know it.

It's an old, old ploy, this ploy. Oh, you know, there's a hot mic. Oh, dear, have I said something I shouldn't? Well, it's usually when they do that, they use it because this is a really exemplary way of sort of managing public relations and public perception. Oh, no, Biden's being tough on Netanyahu. It's okay to be tough over a hot mic moment. But what is he actually going to do on the ground? Nothing. There's nothing really available. They've locked themselves in.

They've sort of gone down a cul-de-sac of using stale policies that were stale 25 years ago. And we're at a point, a crux, where things might get a lot worse. What do they have in their armory to manage the situation? Well, you know, maybe we'll have a Jesus discussion with Netanyahu at some point. What's that going to change? Nothing. All right. Here's, you know, while all this is going on, the women and children are continually being slaughtered in Palestine. I don't even know what the number is up to now.

About 30,000. 30,000 total deaths or women and children? Total. Right. Right. Meaning about 25,000 or 6,000 are women and children. Here's cut number three, Chris. Here is the president on MSNBC attempting to explain the hot mic moment. What's the what's the come to Jesus part? What's what's what's tough love do you are you going to give to the prime minister? What's happening is he has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas.

But he must he must he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. He's hurting, in my view, he's hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the world. It's contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it's a big mistake. So I want to see a ceasefire. And I'm starting with a major, major exchange of prisoners for a six-week period. We're going into Ramadan. It should be nothing happening, and we should build off of that ceasefire.

And look, I've spoken with the majority of the Arab leaders from Saudi Arabia to Egypt to Jordan. They're all prepared to fully recognize Israel and begin to rebuild the region. And that's the focus. What comes after Gaza? What's next? It's a tough decision, but there's a lot that can be done. All right. Before we beat this to death, I want to change topics for a bit.

Later today, this morning, American Time, I'll be speaking with our colleagues, Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern, and I'm going to ask them about Victoria Nuland. Did she jump or was she pushed? Hint, they don't agree. So I'm looking forward to that conversation. mastermind of Ukraine, the planner and plotter of the coup of 2014, the puppeteer of all the governments since then, the orchestrator of the war, which now appears to nearly everyone, including the Pope, as though Ukraine is about to collapse, she's gone. Did she jump or was she pushed? I believe, I have no evidence, but I believe she was invited to leave

because I think the clue in this is very plain. The person temporarily taking over her job was the person who masterminded the withdrawal, masterminded, in inverted commas, the withdrawal from Kabul in Afghanistan. But the permanent replacement, Kurt Campbell, is the architect of the pivot to Asia, to China. And so I think that tells you a lot that effectively that someone said, look, you know, I mean, let's reassess. We've gone down this road too far. It's not getting anywhere. Let's get back on track and let's get back to China.

And that I think people said look you know um victoria newland is just too hooked up in ukraine i think it's best if she leaves us now and makes some space and so we can actually start um the process of leaving and reorienting and we've had then the you know the, the CIA document in the New York Times and other indications that they see that Ukraine, the front is slowly collapsing and the steamroller could move quite quickly. You know, I don't know how no one noticed it because, you know, there was a great deal of emphasis on Avdeevka, on this fortress, a fortress town that had been built up by NATO for 10 years,

was the most defended place on the planet, and it fell in a few days. But behind Avdeevka, there's almost no defensive lines. And this explains also what Macron's trying to do too and others in their panic in Europe, because they can see that if these front lines, which are not front lines anymore, starts to sort of progressively collapse, behind that are only fields,

which, you know, you can dig into the mud, but you're very exposed in those until you come to the Dnieper River and to Kiev. Hence, Europeans in a panic are sort of saying, oh, well, let's send troops and we're going to sort of put a protective cordons, not to fight Russians, but to sort of protect Kiev and Odessa. And, of course, Russia won't dare touch them. And, of course, most of Europe is saying, you're nuts. What do you mean Russia won't touch them? They're going to sit there on the field in Ukraine

as the Russian steamroller is advancing westward and nothing's going to happen and it's all fine. Well, the only way that could happen would really be, I mean, put it frankly, is actually if Russia gave permission for these NATO troops to come into Ukraine. That's never going to happen. Never going to happen. So obviously it's a crazy plan. It's a lot of politics, European politics mixed in too. It sounds to me, Alistair, from your description, as though Europe is in a panic over the next phase of the war. The statement the Pope made I thought was rather telling. He referred to it as

the white flag of courage, an odd combination of words, and maybe the translation wasn't exactly what he intended because he was speaking in Italian and the white flag of courage is translated by the translator into English. But in addition to the Pope, did President Macron say anything not exactly helpful over the weekend about this same subject matter yet again? Yes, he's been, well, it was on Thursday that he called all the faction leaders to a meeting in Parliament, and he told them this. He gave them these comments.

No red lines, no limits. And don't forget, this is a nuclear power speaking, and he is the commander-in-chief. The defense minister in France says, no, nothing is changed. It's all as it was before. But yes, and he continues with this line. He's been off now. He's been talking to the Baltic states. He's been talking to Poland.

The Polish defense minister says, no boots on the ground. But the Polish foreign minister says, well, we might think about doing this. We could do this. So he's really trying to put pressure on Germany as much as anything else to agree to this proposal. But what's behind it is, you know, I mean, they are in a great state of panic in Europe because suddenly it seems to them there were reports in the European press, I'm not sure they're true, I haven't seen them confirmed anywhere, but in the Daily Telegraph in Britain there were apparently reports saying that American officials were suggesting that they were going to withdraw from NATO. And so Europe is really wondering, you know, what is going to become of Europe, not just what's going to become of Ukraine.

But if Ukraine suddenly collapses, no money, no weapons, no troops, I mean, sort of mortgaged the future of Europe to being a sort of unproductive sector of the economy, total vassalage to the United States economy. I mean, and it's going to cause a big uproar and it will change the elections possibly in June. So, yes, they are in a panic, and so they've resorted to Macron sort of trying to stand behind the flag. I'm the saviour of Europe. We're standing to defend Europe against Russia, against Putin. He can't be allowed to win.

All of this nonsense. Europe doesn't have the ability to fight Russia, hence this sort of plan that we will put training and demining forces around Kiev and Odessa and stop the Russian steamroller from advancing. Russia. Actually, the Polish foreign minister gave it away because he called it an asymmetric psychological approach, i.e. this is Psywar again. It's trying to sort of put, you know, Russia on the back foot and saying, oh, well, you know, they might send NATO there. Perhaps we should be more cautious. It's a psi operation. And Russia will, I am absolutely certain of this, pay no attention. They have complete contempt for Macron and Schultz. A terrible state of affairs. Western Europe is not being led by people who realistically understand the problem, and the United States is not being led by people who realistically understand the problem.

I wasn't going to go there, but now I will. Here's a cut from the president's State of the Union speech on Thursday night in which he says, we will not walk away from Ukraine. But the guy over his shoulder, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, has the power to say yes or no. If he says yes, the vote comes to the floor of the House, Biden will win. If he says no, the floor doesn't come to the floor of the House. The $61 billion does not go there. But you take a look at the look on their face, on his face, on Johnson's face, as President Biden says we will not walk away. I say this to Congress. We have to stand up to Putin. Send me a bipartisan national security bill. History is literally watching. History is watching.

The United States walks away. It will put Ukraine at risk. Europe is at risk. The free world will be at risk, emboldening others to do what they wish to do us harm. My message to President Putin, who I've known for a long time, is simple. We will not walk away. Well, I mean, I suppose he could pull what Secretary Blinken pulled with the Israelis, fraudulently sign a document under oath swearing that the aid is an emergency for American national security, and it goes there anyway, bypasses Congress. It's profoundly unconstitutional, but the money goes. I don't think he'd get away with $60 billion,

but maybe a few hundred million like he did with the Israelis. Alistair, you know I love speaking with you, and everybody that watches does as well, but the situation seems to be getting worse every time we talk. The American government, the Biden administration administration is out of touch with reality, and as I hear you this morning, so is Western Europe. Yeah, and that speech spooked Europeans. It really did, because they could see that what's coming, the attempt to sort of conflate the Republican Party with Putin and things like this, spells real problems, spells polarization in

Europe, and spells a difficult relationship for Europe to have with the United States during this period and perhaps after. Alistair Crook, thank you, my dear friend. Thank you for your time, for your intellect, for your courage, and we'll talk to you again same time next week. All the best. Thank you. Thanks very much. Oh, it's great to be back doing this work that I love

and to be appreciated by so many of you, and thank you for the warm comments about welcoming me back. It was an interesting time in Rome. I'll talk about it in one of the segments later. But we do have this morning at 10 Eastern, Ray McGovern at 11 Eastern, Larry Johnson, who will disagree on whether Victoria Nuland jumped or was pushed. And at two o'clock this afternoon, Kyle Anzalone on Americans, young people, sick and tired of the slaughter in Gaza. We'll see you then. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.