Judging Freedom - Alastair Crooke : Resistance Escalates; Netanyahu Degenerates

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Alastair Crooke : Resistance Escalates; Netanyahu DegeneratesSee 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, October 21st, 2024. Alistair Crook will be with us here in a moment on the resistance escalates and the Netanyahu madness. But first this. A divisive presidential election is upon us, and the winner is gold. Let me tell you what I mean. Since 2016, our national debt has grown a staggering 70% and gold has increased by 60%. Do you own gold? I do. I bought my gold in February, 2023,

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because he goes there at the weekend. It's true. But if he had been there, then it was, by the way, a direct hit on the house, on a particular window, in fact, and it went into the house. So it was what I call the equations, the attack on the leadership of Hamas, the attack on the leadership of Hezbollah, and here's Hezbollah saying, okay, you know, well, your leadership isn't totally immune from these things.

So they sent a little message, which is to say, you know, you're not any more immune than any of us. I mean, did they actually intend to cause his death or just to send that message that you're no more immune than any of us? I think it would be unlikely that it would have caused his death, but it could have struck him in the house or injured him in the house. It has a reasonably small warhead, that drone. But I mean, what is quite worrying for the Israelis is not so much just that it hit it. It is that effectively to have picked out the house and hit it with such accuracy. And the drone, you could see pictures of it flying past an Israeli helicopter on its way to Caesarea. But what means is that they would, that drone must have had the photographic image implanted in it so that it could correct itself and hit the target.

Not by GPS or not by some other system. It was actually by image recognition, most likely, that it hit that house. We saw that before in the attack on Aramco, on the Saudi oil refinery some years ago, when all six were hit precisely in exactly the same position, which again must have been done by photo recognition technology. And it's very advanced. And so that is what will worry the Israelis more than anything else. It was done on photo reconnaissance for recognition, more than just, you know, a lucky strike.

What is the significance politically and militarily to the assassination of Sinwar? It's become very significant, but not in the way it was intended by the Israelis. really. I mean, you know, when was the last time you saw an Arab leader in military gear on the ground with his AK-47 actually fighting the enemy on the streets amongst his men? I mean, I don't think we've ever really seen such a thing. And there he was in his, eventually a tank shell had wounded, killed. They'd first of all killed two of his members. There were three in the team. It was pure happenstance. It wasn't a clever intelligence operation. They didn't know he was there. They didn't know where he was. And they killed two of this team that they just happened to come across. And the third one left into the house, badly lost an arm,

badly wounded. And that's whom we saw sitting in that chair. And eventually he had nothing left. He threw a couple of grenades down the stairs to stop the Israelis coming in. And he then picked up a stick, which was all he had to throw at the drone that was targeting him. And eventually the Israelis got a tank to fire a shell that killed him. But he's become an icon. This is a man who's given his life for his people. It is like Hussein, Imam Hussein at Karbala. He thought he knew his end would be in this way. And he was out there with his men throughout, by the way, fighting the Israeli occupation forces.

So he's become very iconic. It's something, a cult, he'll become venerated around the region. So it hasn't pushed Hamas backwards at all. In fact, it's given them a new sort of symbol, a new symbol around which young people and much of the rest of the region, all of the region is really

sort of rallying to him. And that image has become iconic. Here's how the American government views his death. Somewhat one-sided, as you can imagine, and articulated in a typically absurd way. Chris, cut number two. Moss and other terrorist groups will try to present Sinwar as some kind of hero for the Palestinian cause. But I think it's important that everyone remember the actual facts, which is that Sinwar was a brutal terrorist that didn't just terrorize the Israeli people, but that ruled Gaza with an iron fist before October 7th, that brutalized Palestinians in Gaza, that tortured Palestinians in Gaza, and then unleashed a conflict that has been responsible for the death of more

than 40,000 Palestinians. So I would hope that anyone that's considering thinking of him in any favorable light at all will look on the actual consequences of his life and the decisions that he made that wreaked such havoc for the Palestinian people. Is this even worth responding to? Well, it's, you know, again, it's always context. It's like Ukraine. The context of Ukraine only starts with the special operation, the invasion of Russia, like this. It starts with the 7th of October. It ignores 50 years of history of how we got to this point.

And I think this is one of the things. There he is on your video in the chat, and he's about to pick up a stick and throw it at the drone as it approaches. Or perhaps this is an Israeli one. They probably cut that off in case it shows him in too favorable a light. But, you know, it's just... There's the stick.

He just threw it. Yeah. You can see he hasn't got a hand anymore. Anyway, and then he died. But as I say, you know, for most, the Arab world, not just the Palestinian world, here was a man out on the front with his AK-47 fighting with his men. And you haven't seen that for a very, very long time. South America, perhaps it's the last time. But this is very striking from

their point of view. And again, I just go back, you know, what was just said by the spokesman, this denigration of anyone that is regarded as being, you know, an opponent of Israel or opponent of the West, always they cut completely the context, cut the history, and they just started from the point which is most convenient to start. Oh, well, 7th of October, that's terrible. But why did we get to 7th of October? What is the history behind that? What is Sinhwa's history? Who came, who has, his house was destroyed before. He was, if you like, one of those that was a refugee

all his life, apart from 22 years spent in Israeli prison. 22 years. Is Netanyahu rational these days, in your view? I think he is, at the moment, very conflicted. He's had this period where he is creating this imagined reality of a stream of Israeli victories that took place with the Pager explosions, with killing of many of the Hezbollah leaders, and then he had, if you like, because it was purely happenstance, Sinwa being killed. And so he's on a high. For the first time, the polls show Likud in the lead again, first time since the 7th of October. The polls show that Netanyahu's party is in the lead and would win 25 seats in the Knesset elections.

So he is on a high, but he has to keep it going. And even as we speak, they've gone into the next stage, and we have more stages. It's going to be very much an escalatory period. Just as we're speaking, the 91st Division, their tanks are driving into South Lebanon. And so we will see now, this will put the Israelis in close proximity with the Hezbollah forces. Most of the people who've been fighting the Israelis so far are the local units. They're not Radwan. Sometimes the Radwan are still there. far are the local units, they're not RAD1. Sometimes the RAD1 are still there, these are the elite special forces of Hezbollah,

who are very experienced and well trained. But they now have gone into South Lebanon, so this will put them directly face to face with Hezbollah and time will show us whether this is going to be a success for Israel or not. And at the same time, of course, he's just tumbling Lebanon, Beirut particularly, but all across Lebanon with bombers every night. And Hezbollah is tumbling with rockets and missiles, Haifa and Israel, sometimes hundreds of rockets coming in to Lebanon, sending everyone into the shelters. But it's becoming really, I mean, this is a madness. Everything, you know, anything, all the rules of war, all the rules of civilization, all the rules of the United Nations,

out of the window, anything goes at the moment. We are in a war without limits. It's without rules, without laws. So, you know, at are at the moment, the last night, the Israelis were bombing about 26 buildings in Beirut and around and beyond Beirut that they claim to be Hezbollah's financial support system. It's complete nonsense. It's actually this organization is a not-for-profit organization that provides small loans to people with no interest. And it's not anything to do with Hezbollah's financial system.

But it's part of this process of trying to cower the Lebanese people and make them so distraught at what's happening with the daily bombings. I mean, 25% of Lebanon has been ordered by Israel to leave their houses and move here or move there, I mean support and and the aim is and hochstein has arrived in lebanon with an ultimatum from netanyahu an absurd ultimatum um and he um this is all intended to sort of really force lebanese into saying they will do something to take action against Hezbollah. And it's not going to happen. So, I mean, you know, there are two major problems he's about to face. One in South Lebanon, when the 91st Division Brigade is going to come up against the Hezbollah forces,

and also his idea that he's going to somehow get an agreement, which he calls the 1701 Agreement, because the things that they've demanded, and they are demands, he's put forward demands in Lebanon amongst other things That Israel in the future if there was an agreement would be allowed to enforce it as it shows That it could come in and bomb and attack Anything that they felt was threatening to it so that they would be able to come in, if you like, and enforce, you know, that there was no Hezbollah, no weapons, no threats south of the Litani or further. And then that the airspace would be free and open for Israeli aircraft to come in and bomb

or attack sites. I mean, you know, sovereignty? They're calling for a complete surrender by Lebanon to become just, if you like, a satrap of the Israeli hegemony. And I don't think that's going to work. But Hochstein is there at the moment trying to gauge how much people have been frightened by these daily bombings. Is Hochstein there as an agent of the United States or as an agent of Netanyahu? Netanyahu.

These are effectively Netanyahu's demands that he's positioned. But he comes representing the United States, but he's presenting Netanyahu's demands for a revision, amendments of 1701, the disarmament of Hezbollah, complete disarmament, the removal of Hezbollah, and that the Israelis can come in and bomb whatever they like after agreement has been made. So that's the demands from... So, I mean, you know, this is... You know, we're not talking about really anything diplomatic.

I mean, this is pure aggression, pure maximal aggression to drive a people into abysmal sort of surrender. But it's not going to work. But it's heating up in the south, around Beirut and elsewhere, and with Iran too, because that's going to come very shortly, I think. I think Netanyahu is a little nervous about doing this with Iran because at the end of the day, he's always been known to be, you know, strong on the rhetoric, weak on walking the walk and not doing things.

And he's probably a little bit anxious about the attack on Iran because Iran is demonstrating absolute confidence and poise in this period, waiting for the attack to come, fully prepared to respond to it afterwards. So we see it seems to have been delayed a little bit by this intelligence leak that has caused some consternation within Israel. How do you read the intelligence leak? Was this someone in the American intelligence community trying to disrupt, disturb, or delay the Israeli invasion?

Did the Iranians hack the CIA? I mean, how does something like this happen? Do we know? Well, I don't, they can't hack that sort of, I don't believe they can hack that sort of communication. I mean, not only is it the most highly classified, I mean, it was way over top secret, some of the references on the top. I mean, they were password only. They're top secret plus password controlled. And they are an insider in the U.S. intelligence community that released it. I imagine someone wanted to stop World War III from starting.

Wow. But it was, of course, interesting from the Iranian perspective. I mean, I'm not an expert on these things, I have to say to you, but looks from reading the briefs, that they were targeting, and that's what the experts have largely seen, it seems they were targeting, if you like, air defence system and long-range radars, primarily with airlifted cruise missiles or ballistic missiles, some ballistic missiles.

So that's interesting from my perspective because what does that tell you? That tells you that when you take out the air defences and radar, I mean, this is the first step. It is evident that it's a preparation for step two and step three or step four. So, I mean, in a sense, I imagine it was seen as a way of sort of clearing the path for America to join in at some point and to support Israel with a more powerful attack on either the nuclear system, the Iranian leadership, or even its energy resources.

I think these last two are difficult for Israel, which is why I think it may end up, because this is the Israeli favorite always, we've seen them, I mean, so many times. You know, decapitation, assassination, to decapitate some of the leadership. It's certainly being considered a decapitation strike on Iran. I don't know whether they'll finally decide to do that. But, of course, it will have huge ramifications. We've already seen, you know, images put up on Israeli television with sort of targets on the forehead of Ayatollah Sistani, who's the icon of the Iraqis in Iraq. I mean, a huge group, and yet across the whole Muslim world, and also on Khamenei, the supreme leader.

So we've had that little sort of markings out as being Israeli targets. Of course, you know, it's done and intended to escalate. It is all about escalate and about drawing Americans in to a final sort of conflict with Iran. And that's what Netanyahu is yearning for, to get to that point. Here's what the Washington Post just a little while ago quotes Prime Minister Netanyahu as having said in response to the intelligence leak, quote, we will listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest. Would the Israelis presume to engage in a major offensive attack on Iran without, I don't want to say permission, but without the consent and cooperation of the United States? Oh, yes. I think that that's quite clear that they would,

if they can do it. When I'm talking about if, it's not about permission from the US. It's about refueling and the aircraft and having the right sort of munitions to do the job, which will not be easy, whichever way it is. I mean, it's a thousand miles from Israel. But yes, he would do that because he's quite confident. I mean, particularly now, he's quite confident that even if he gets into difficulties in Iran, then it will make it even more the case that the United States and that whole body of supporters of Zionism in the United States will come in behind and say, you know,

well, now the United States must get involved and Iran is too dangerous. In a sense, he wins either way. He wins if he strikes and shows that it's possible to strike at Iran, and now the West must come in and fight the good fight against this evil empire. Or if it gets into trouble and it doesn't work out, there will be calls in parts of Europe, in parts of the United States, saying that's even more the reason now that we have to get involved and we have to come at the exercise.

And, I mean, he knows that he doesn't really have air defense systems. And he knows that if the Iranians really put their mind to it, with successive waves of saturation of missiles, which will be highly accurate, will hit their target. If Iran wanted to, it could really knock out most of the Israeli Air Force and its military infrastructure, as well as other parts of the infrastructure. You know, if you had waves of three, two or three waves of 300 missiles coming, I mean, it would overwhelm. I mean, THAAD has each THAAD network, which has about six launchers. It has eight missiles, intercept missiles, attack missiles in the system. So that's about 24.

You have two THAADs, that's, you know, 48. It's not, you know, and then Iran fires 200 decoy missiles. They won't be able to cope with it. I think they will be overwhelmed. So I think he is a little anxious about this because, you know, the Irans may have promised that they are going to hit back very forcefully and very hard if they are attacked by Israel. Is there an advantage to waiting after the election? competing for office and with a sort of great bucket of campaign contributions that is being sort of wafted around Capitol Hill.

Everyone is getting up and declaring their support for Israel. On all sides, the Congress people who want contributions for their campaigns, which with some notable and commendable exceptions, many do. So, I mean, he's in a perfect position, really. I mean, look, he just demands and he will get. He demanded another third. What happened?

America only had seven of these. You only have seven total. And he got it. Wow. Immediately. Is there significance to the report on Israel's Channel 12 that 12 IDF were killed and more than 50 injured over the weekend. Are those numbers significant for the IDF? For the IDF, they're quite significant

because they happened in Lebanon. And I think, as I say, now they're going in in a greater way, hoping to, you know, still the objective is to return these displaced Israelis to their homes in northern Israel. But it's not happening. And the Israelis, I mean, even in the sort of liberal press, I mean, there are articles saying, you know, it's not going well in Lebanon.

It's not going well at all. It's neither going well in a diplomatic sense. They're not about to get an agreement in Lebanon that will, if you like, hobble Hezbollah, and nor is it going well in the day-to-day fighting. Huge losses that are taking place daily, and there are going to be more now, now that they've invaded it. I mean, and Netanyahu makes it clear what the objective is. It is to lay waste of the entire area of South Lebanon, south of the Litani, to turn it into a sort of post-apocalyptic desert, with all the buildings destroyed, everything gone, empty except for Israeli

forces there to make sure Hezbollah hasn't somehow returned in undercover and established itself in Lebanon. I mean, what an objective. No wonder, you know, this is, and America is endorsing it, I have to say. I mean, Biden is endorsing it. Does that objective include destroying UN troops that are in the air? Not killing them, but driving them out. This is the whole point. I mean, there was another incident i think yesterday or or even this morning where they uh fired on an observation tower uh and every day there's sort of

you know shootings not to kill but to say you know get out we don't want you here we want you out of this area so he's putting a lot of pressure on the uh on the un peacekeeping forces in south lebanon who you know don't enter into the fight i mean they they observe they report to the united nations but you know they're only allowed to far back if they are being fired on um but they are being fired on, and they are being harassed in an attempt. As I say, the aim is to leave the South Lebanon. And they say this explicitly. I'm not making it up or exaggerating.

They say explicitly the aim is to leave south of the Litani, a desert that will be patrolled by the IDF, the Israeli forces. Paul Jay Do you expect that Israel will commence a major offensive on Iran before Election Day in America, which is just two weeks from tomorrow. I do, yes. I think there's this sort of delirious optimism. I mean, it's bound. We hear sort of people being cautious outside of Israel. But in Israel, everyone is agog with the success of killing Sinoir

and decapitating Hezbollah. They imagine that, you know, by killing these two people, they've completely defeated Hezbollah and Hamas. There are people in Israel that are saying, wake up, come on, you haven't even begun to do that. What you've done is you've turned one into a hero, you've turned two into hero, icons for the rest of the world. But you haven't done this. I mean, but Israel does this time and

time again. After all, Hassan Nasrallah came into power after they had assassinated Abbas Moussaoui, who was the previous head of Hezbollah. And what did they get? They got someone more radical. They got Hassan Nasrallah, who drove them out of Lebanon, ultimately. They've killed Yahya Sinwa. Who are they going to get? I don't know, but it could well be his brother, Mohammed Sinwa, who's more extreme, if you like, or radical than his other brother.

So, you know, this is the history of assassinations. It seems such a great victory. But in Israel, if you listen to the Hebrew television or if you read the papers and things, I mean, you know, Israel is on a winning streak. The new Middle East is going to be about to be born and that, you know, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states will soon join in with Israel in destroying all Lebanon and Iraq and all those that oppose Israel. And it will soon be a sphere of Israeli Pax Israeli answer, if you like to say.

Meanwhile. That is a dream anyway. Meanwhile, there's a man in the Kremlin watching all of this. What will it take for Vladimir Putin to pick up the phone and make some decisions adverse to Israel? Well, first of all, we have to remember that actually tomorrow is the beginning of BRICS. And so he is going to be constrained with the management of BRICS. And so he is going to be constrained with the management of BRICS. BRICS is going to be hugely important. You notice it's not even mentioned these days in the West.

They are completely ignoring it. You don't even see it, that the whole BRICS summit is taking place in the next few days with a statement that is coming at the end of it. But it is going to change, you know, we are at the end of one era, if you like, we're coming to the end of one sort of long era and we're waiting for the next, if you like, period to be born. It's struggling to be born. It hasn't been yet born. But this old, if you like, this old era is dying and decaying.

And the new era is struggling, will be born. And we'll probably see the first light of day in Kazan in the next week. We'll see. Do you think once BRICS is over, or simultaneously, depending upon when the Israelis strike, the Russians will do something more obvious and apparent in defense of Iran? I think it's not, you know, I think they've given Iran a lot of defense equipment and help. But you know, Iran can stand on its own feet. I mean, and it has missiles. What we're going to see is for the first time in this era, a final sort of clash between,

if you like, air firepower, war of carpet bombing, and missile war. And the Iranians are prepared. You know, they even have an airport buried in a mountain, a full airport with aircraft, fighter aircraft and things, which can take off. The whole runway is deep inside the mountain, and it just comes out. So, you know, when you hear everyone, you know, the West saying, oh, well, we know exactly what Iran has and where it has it, it's not true.

It's buried. There are missile cities. I mean, they move their missiles around on these big, long trucks, you know, hundreds of meters down inside mountains, great roads, double roads, and they have an airport underground. I mean, you know, it is not a simple task. You know, it's not you just hit a few launchers out in the open. It's not going to be like that at all.

So we're going to see this major clash. I mean, for the first time, we're going to see, you know, air power versus missile warfare taking place. And anyone who is confident enough to say, well, we know exactly how this is going to turn out, I think should be disbelieved because this is going to be the first time. But I'm quite confident, on the other hand, that it's not going to be just an easy exercise. And I think this, what will happen in the next few weeks will be the beginning of a long war between Iran and Israel and the West. Because Iran is fighting not just Israel, but the United States, just as it feels. Alistair Crook, thank you very much. We really ran the gamut today and appreciate deeply all of your insights, as well

as all the information that you passed to me over the weekend. Look forward to seeing you next week, as usual. Thank you, my dear friend. Thank you. Thank you. Coming up later today, as usual, at 10 o'clock in the morning, Ray McGovern. At 11 o'clock, Larry Johnson. And at 1.30, Scott Ritter. Much to discuss about the significance from the American intelligence community of the leakage of these top secret, super secret, password only documents, which included the Israeli attack plans on Iran. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.