Judging Freedom - Alastair Crooke: Might US Pull the Plug on Israel?

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Alastair Crooke: Might US Pull the Plug on Israel?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 Monday, August 19th, 2024. Alistair Crook joins us now on his regular on the east coast of the United States Monday morning time slot. Alistair, excuse me, always a pleasure. You have a fascinating piece out this weekend, which asks intriguingly, might the U.S. pull the plug on Israel? But as we work toward my asking you to address that provocative question, which is essentially the title of your piece, let me ask you for an update on the so-called ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel, bearing in mind, of course, that the Israelis murdered the chief negotiator on the other side of the table.

Yeah, this is a very important point because really, I mean, when we talk now about the ceasefire negotiations, in fact, we're talking about the mediators negotiating amongst themselves, not only the mediators negotiating with Israel, but Israel negotiating amongst itself as well, because amongst the Israeli negotiators are different strands, some supporting the prime minister and some supporting the security establishment with different views about the outcome and what is possible. So, I mean, none of this touched on really either the two main players,

which are Netanyahu and Sinwa. Hamas wasn't involved at all. It received a report from the Qataris afterwards. And it was a complex affair in which nothing really happened. There were four separate negotiating teams taking place, negotiating on Sunday, yesterday, in Egypt. And there was one on the Philadelphia Corridor. The Philadelphia Corridor, for those that do not recall the concept, this is a strip of land that separates the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

So what against one line of the of the if you like, one side of the road, the Philadelphia Road is Gaza. The other side of the road is Egypt. And this was invaded and taken over by Israel, which is not in accord with the agreement of the 27th of July that was the sort of so-called Biden agreement. It wasn't in that at all. Israel subsequently have occupied it. And in the talks this weekend, they said, well, they may leave a bit of it where it's unpopulated, but they're not going to leave it at all. This is a major problem in the talks, a major block. And then there is the second one where Israel is still insisting that it has to inspect any Palestinians moving between the main part of the Gaza Strip and the Northern Strip across what is known as the Netzerim Corridor,

which is really the sort of wadi area between the two parts of Gaza. How that's going to be done, who's going to do the inspection, is not clear. And then the third thing that came up in it was the Rafah crossing. This is the gate, the main gate that leads from Gaza into Egypt, or it used to, but now it's blocked off because Israel occupy, if you like, that buffer land between Gaza, and they also now operate the Gaza, the Rafah crossing. And they refuse to leave that. They're prepared to make a compromise in which the Palestinian Authority

will man the crossing under Israeli monetary. So all of these things make our effectively new elements. And Hamas has issued a statement and saying it just will not accept all these new elements. We accepted something broadly on the lines of, if you like, the Security Council resolution, the so-called Biden proposal. We accepted a proposal earlier. All we will do now is talk about its implementation. It means a complete withdrawal from Gaza and the removal of all its forces and the free movement of Palestinians within the Strip and ultimately humanitarian

aid coming in and reconstruction. That's our basic points. And Netanyahu said, no, absolutely. Lincoln arrived there. He's arrived here today, this morning, meeting the prime Minister and the President, and he said, you know, this is last chance. And no longer is it, oh, it's all looking rosy, it's all looking good, you know, there's a chance of it. It's now down to Blinken saying, this is positively the last chance to resolve this. Netanyahu says, absolutely, we will not move on the Netzerim corridor or the Philadelphia corridor. They are red lines for us now, and we are not going to budge on that. And then the mediators, the Gatharis, the Egyptians are all saying, without those two, there's no agreement, finish. Just as a historical or linguistic footnote, why do they call this Philadelphia?

It's a city of brotherly love. Something like that. I can't tell you the origins of why it was called the Philadelphia Corridor. All right. It's not true. Maybe you were present at the creation, so to speak. But these aren't real negotiations, are they? I mean, is Hamas even there after the murder of the fellow in Tehran?

Yes. Haniyeh, the man I used to deal with and talk to from Hamas, Hizb al-Haniyeh, who was the head of the political committee in their main negotiations. No, there was no one from Hamas at it. There was no negotiation, therefore. It was just the mediators talking amongst themselves. And all this talk about how it was making great progress

and it was moving forward and things are looking great is in the modern language just gaslighting, gaslighting the Israeli public and the Western public because not only was there no advance, it actually went backwards in this time. And Hamas were not even consulted, not gave their view. They gave their view earlier, and that was completely disregarded. So I think, you know, we're coming.

There will be one more attempt to have a sort of end of, you know, process meeting. But that might be canceled. It could take place on Thursday, but generally the feeling amongst the, and this is the, you know, it's the Israeli officials in the Hebrew press that are the most vociferous in saying absolutely no progress at all. All this talk about, you know, it looks positive, it's going well, is entirely untrue. And so this is going to come as a shock to many people that were expecting something to arise out of this. We have a few more days if, miraculously, Netanyahu backs down. But Netanyahu won't back down on these issues because he does not want a solution and he doesn't want a solution in Gaza. And people wonder why,

why doesn't he want it? Because what is unfolding is, and I mentioned that in the paper I sent to you earlier, that what they are looking for is a new Nakba, the process of expelling all Arabs from the land between the river and the sea, and it to be solely occupied by Israelis and by Palestinians West Bank, and then the complete clearing of the first phase, the Israeli military will come back and the fighting will resume because Gaza needs to be cleared of the Palestinian population. And then it will move. It's already started in West Bank. There's been huge tensions and fightings in Palestinian villages over this weekend. And then it will be, this is what I call, you know, the unspoken project, which is the project that Netanyahu has long adhered to,

which they won't say in public, which is to get to the point at which they can have a new Nakba, remove the Palestinians from that area, and start a war, and start a war which will draw in the United States and expect the United States to fight against Iran and against Hezbollah on Israel's behalf, because it can't be done without the United States' support. And Israelis say this. This is also well known in Israel. There are some people in Israel, I mean, well known in Washington. There are people who know this very well and who support it. There are others who do not support it because they worry about the consequences of a wider war in the region and whether really the United States

can manage a war against Iran in these days and a war against Hezbollah in these states so the united states is ambivalent about this even though they understand that the true uh the true nature of the project is one of al-naqba that is if you like the forced removal of palestinians the clearance of all palestinians and arabs from the land and their removal across to Jordan and to Iraq. And that is where we are. And it's open in the Israeli, the Hebrew press, not so much in the liberal press, but in the Hebrew press. I mean, this is the topic, is the discussion, is the beginning of the unfolding of the project that has been around for 20 years, but is coming forward to implementation now. Here's Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier today, I don't know how anybody could take this

seriously, you'll see it in just a moment, actually complaining that Hamas didn't send a representative to the proxen Doha. And I guess he expects people to take him seriously. Cut number one, Chris. Israel is prepared for any threat, both defensively and offensively. We are determined to defend ourselves. And we are also determined to exact a heavy price from any enemy who dares to attack us from any arena. I want to emphasize that we are also determined to exact a heavy price from any enemy who dares to attack us, from any arena. I want to emphasize that we are conducting negotiations, and not that we just give and give. There are things can be flexible on, and there are things we cannot be flexible on, which we will insist on. We know how to distinguish the two very well.

We will stand by the same principles that are sustainable for Israel's security. These principles are in keeping with the May 27th framework, which has received American support. Once again, I would like to emphasize, up until now, Hamas has been completely obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure needs to be directed at Hamas and Sinwa, not the government of Israel. I don't even think the people at his cabinet could take that, people around the table could take that seriously. No, of course not. They know exactly what it's all about. He's trying to avoid the blame. He will, you know, he wants, he's just leading Blinken on to laying the blame,

because Blinken there and his meeting with the Prime Minister, he wants Bl he's just leading Blinken on to laying the blame because Blinken there and his meeting with the prime minister, he wants Blinken and the United States to say it's all Hamas's fault. I mean, they actually, the Hamas have been flexible, but Netanyahu has introduced new things all along. I mean, I didn't even go through the list, but one of them, which is going to be the most sensitive, is he said Israel wants a veto over a hundred of the prisoners, the Palestinian prisoners, to be released. He's going to decide which ones can be released and a hundred vetoes over those Palestinians. And what's more, he wants them not to return home, but them to be sent abroad. And I know how sensitive that is, because I did the negotiations with the Church of Nativity back in 2001,

where, again, the Israelis, it was Sharon then, who insisted that some of those that were in the church had to be removed and taken away, would not be allowed back, not only to Gaza or West Bank, but they would not be allowed back to the area at all. And I had to take those ones in a military aircraft and take them and they were spread around the European Union. And this caused big upsets within the Palestinians. So these are not little minor things that he's just inserted. He knows that psychologically, you know, this is very, very difficult for the Palestinians. And also his

vetoing of some of the prisoners, because there's a pecking order that's understood amongst all Palestinians. You know, the longer term prisoners get the first release. It doesn't matter what the charges are. There's a sort of sense of seniority of those that have been in the resistance for longest, who've suffered most, get the first chance at freedom. After all, this is what, you know, Sinoir is about at the beginning, is to release these men. And then suddenly we get the notice that, you know,

he's going to veto a hundred names on that. So I don't, I think all of these things, it's just clear enough. Medniaguk does not want a deal. He wants to go to the next stage, which is a sort of a war with Hezbollah, a war that he hopes he can control, but that the United States primarily will control. And that there is a sort of expectation or hope that Iran will not actually attack and extract a revenge for the killing of Haniyeh during the process of his installing the new president. And, you know, there's no evidence whatsoever that Iran has decided to drop this threat at all, rather the reverse. All that I hear from Iran essentially is, even if they wanted to, they know they can't afford it, because what happened after the 13th of April, they sent a very clear message, we have the means to hit

Israel. And what happens within a very short time, Netanyahu comes back and assassinates Hanea. And so they know unless they deliver a strong message to Israel, then in a few months, in a short time, he will find another pretext to provoke Iran because the ultimate objective for him and for many, I mean, for the cabinet as a whole, is that the Houthis, the Hashad, and the PMO in Iraq, and even Hezbollah, because the Americans will bring Israel its great victory. And this is why, you know, in a sense, this is, you know, divinely expected. I mean, you know, this is about, and I mentioned to you about revelation and about, you know, the sort of sense that this is a war, a divine war that is about obedience. It's about faith. It's about revelation. And these things, you know, you don't, you know, you don't sort of do it by cost calculus and say, well, how many missiles does Iran have?

How many do we have? You say, this is the plan. This is the unfolding of the divine plan. to move towards this and towards the Armageddon war, which will bring about the new Messiah coming to the world. Is Netanyahu in danger of a military coup? Yes, there is some danger. The question is, has he done enough to preempt it? And that is the big question.

The military, the regular military, most of whom are the senior level, are mostly Ashkenazis, are European, if you like, Jews, rather than the Mizrahi Jews that come from the region and from North Africa, which form the government, largely have a strong showing in the government at the moment. But the army are opposed because they fear this coming war. They're much less, but they are still affected by this language, this biblical language, but they also have a very strong sort of sense of the military structures, and so they're opposed to it, and they have been bringing together military, and this was really the aim of bringing Gantz to Washington a

little while ago, was to sort of try and get, you know, prepare for the military, the Israeli military, to depose Montecudeta. But what Netanyahu has done with Ben-Gavir and Smotrich and the others has been, and from the beginning of this government has been to build his own army, separate from the regular forces, from the Ministry of Defense. So Ben-Gavir controls police forces, border forces, other military forces, all of which operate to him and not to the Ministry of Defense. And this is a powerful force, particularly, and it's mostly staffed with settlers who also support him and support, if you like, the rabbis who stand behind him. And this force is complemented by the fact that he's been handing out American weapons to you know hundreds of thousands of settlers in the West Bank and they have become a sort of informal

Vigilante army so you take the forces that come under and give ear and you take the forces of If you like this vigilante army of the West Bank. And they call themselves, this is the state of Judea coming down to challenge the state of Israel. State of Israel being, if you like, the Europeanized part of Israel, the more secular side of it. So the state of Judah will come down. That's what happened a couple of weeks ago when they stormed into two military bases. IDF, I mean, that's the former regular Israeli army bases in Israel, they stormed them in order to try and to force the release of a number of their colleagues who had been accused of abusing, badly abusing, torturing Palestinian prisoners and were being subject to investigation by the

army. And they stopped that process. And they stormed in, fully armed, in Israeli uniform, into an IDF base, met their counterparts, if you like, in the regular army, and took hold of the and nothing was pressed. No one was arrested for breaching the security of a military base or anything. The vigilantes have returned back to the hills of Judea. And so that is the big issue. If the United States gave a green light to people like Gantz, I'm not sure Gantz would agree to do this anyway, but if they gave the green light to the military to mount a coup, and the military do have great support in Israel. They're seen as being of us and being the sort of, they're held in sort of real esteem,

unwarranted esteem, because, you know, they have been, it's been the Israeli army that has been doing the killing in Gaza. It's not West Bankers, it's the Israeli army, but they're still almost sacrosanct in Israeli sort of mythology, the army. How dangerous is this man to Israeli domestic stability? Cut number six. We are at the Temple Mount on Tisha B'Av. Today we commemorate the destruction of the temple, but we must also honestly acknowledge that there is significant progress here regarding the governance and sovereignty. The sight of Jews praying, as I said, our policy is to permit prayer. But I'll say something else.

We must win this war. We must win. Not go to summits in Doha or in Cairo. But defeat them. Bring them to their knees. That's the message. We can defeat Hamas, bring it to its knees. He is the essence of the Netanyahu government, because without him and his colleague, Mr. Rasmutrich, there's no majority in the Knesset. And yet you're telling us that he leads a small army

and is a threat to the military in Israel. Not only does he lead a small army of police and military forces, and command several thousand vigilante militia. But he has the full support of more than 100 radical rabbis who would endorse what he just said absolutely and urge on Ben-Gavir and his followers to take control over the Temple Mount, Haram al-Sharif in the Arabic form, and to build the third temple on the site of Al-Aqsa. They've already had sort of preparations.

They've been rehearsing the first stages to doing this. And this is incendiary, absolutely incendiary for the whole of the Islamic world, not just Palestinians. This represents the civilization of Islam in its most, if you like, undifferentiated. It's not Sunni, Shi'i, Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist, Wahhabist. It is Islam. And it is the most revered. It is the third. I mean, there's Mecca, of course.

But Mecca has lost its sort of sanctity. And this really has a greater sanctity for most Muslims than any other. Everything that you've just said, some of it rather startling to us in the West, that Netanyahu is in danger of a coup, that everybody around him knows that he's never going to negotiate for a ceasefire,

that Ben Gavir has enough firepower behind him materially to disrupt the government. Does Tony Blinken understand this? I think so, yeah. I think Washington understands it quite well. because, you know, this has been around. I wrote about, you know, the Straussians, the neocons have been involved in this, you know, from they sat on this project with Netanyahu, really from 1996, Clean Break document it was called. And all of these people sat around and plotted exactly this over the stages. Ariel Sharon plotted this. It was well known to that stage, not talked about publicly. This is the double truth. If you like, there's the public explanation, the public narrative, and then there is the esoteric understanding of politics.

And this is what Leo Strauss gave to many of his followers, including those that have held really key appointments in American policy making. And they understand this idea of that there are two narratives, that there's a truth that you keep concealed, that you don't make public and you don't say widely. And then there is a truth that is for the public sphere, that is the narrative for the wider world. And the hidden truth is the truth that is being unfolded at the moment, that of the attempt, the attempt that we see whether it works, of moving towards a Nakba, a final, if you like, establishment of Israel on the land of Israel.

Alistair Crook, always a pleasure, my dear friend, no matter what we talk about. Thank you very much for your terrific analysis. It's rather startling to me to learn that Prime Minister Netanyahu may be in danger of a military coup, and the United States might have something to do with it, but we'll see where all this goes. Add to that complexity,

the American political situation here and Joe Biden being a lame duck. All the best. We look forward to seeing you next week, Alistair. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Of course. Coming up later today,

our regular Monday at 10 o'clock, Ray McGovern at 10 o'clock, Eastern U.S. And at 11 o'clock, Larry Johnson. Larry Johnson has some very interesting observations on the so-called Ukrainian invasion of Kursk. We'll see you then. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.