Judging Freedom - Alastair Crooke : Trump's Bait and Switch; Netanyahu's Extortion.

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Alastair Crooke : Trump's Bait and Switch; Netanyahu's Extortion.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, December 8th, 2025, Alastair Crook. We'll be with us in just a moment on Trump's bait and switch and Netanyahu's extortion. But first this. History tells us every market eventually falls. Currencies collapse. And look at where we are now.

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I've set it on my show for years. Gold survives collapse. central bankers know this and billionaires know it that's why they're buying more is it too late to buy or is it just the right time call my friends at lear capital to find out ask questions get the free information there's no pressure and that's why i buy my gold and silver from lear and right now you can get up to twenty thousand dollars in bonus medals with a qualified purchase call 800 511 46 or go to Learjudgeonap.com today. Alastair, good day to you, my friend. Thank you for accommodating my schedule. Before we get to your understanding of the latest communications between President Putin

and President Trump's negotiators, let's start with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his bizarre 100-page request of President Herzog for a pardon. What kind of pressure is Netanyahu putting on the president of Israel to pardon him in these three criminal prosecutions? Well, he's making very explicit threats. He's saying, you know, if you don't do this and if you don't do it in a way that is

satisfactory, I'll burn the system, I'll burn it down. And he's suggesting that he can. Now, the system is very fragile at the moment. There are three main pillars to the old system, the old Israel, that perhaps we thought we knew. One of them was the Supreme Court. The other was the judiciary, and the third was the military. And all of those are now on the back foot under the pressure coming from Netanyahu. All of those are actually collapsing.

Even the Supreme Court is backing off in many ways. It's still there, but it's backing off. So he has quite some leverage over the system at the moment. In terms of the civil war, which I've often been talking about, I mean, basically the rights are winning this war against what they call the Israeli deep state, i.e., the Supreme Court, the judiciary, and the military. And he's just won over the military by Netanyahu by really saying, well, actually, there won't be an inquiry about my role

and what happened to the lead-up to the 7th of October. Actually, we're going to fire some mid-level generals because of their failure on it. So even the military is on the back foot. So he's pressing the president and says, listen, normally there's always been the understanding that if he was given a pardon, then Netanyahu would leave power, would go. And that has been part of the idea. And he says, no, I'm not going to do a plea bargain.

I'm not going to leave office. and I'm not going to leave even if I get a pardon because normally you would expect after the pardon that he would leave office that has been the calculus at least in Israel that he would go

and he's saying no I'm going to fight the election and I'm going to stay on and I'm going to pursue this and we're on the second stage I'm just about to start a new process in Gaza because really we've effectively

done phase one, and now we're moving to phase two. In fact, what has happened is really the Palestinians are being slowly moved into and corralled into what is about 40% of what used to be Gaza. And for goodness sake, Gaza's a small enough territory as it was then for the millions that lived there. So they've moved them in and they've hemmed them in with this invisible yellow line. And anyone that goes near to this invisible line gets shot, including children. But you can't see it. That's the problem. There's this yellow line which they say was put on a map in the discussion with Wyckov and Kushner, which is the line of withdrawal of Israeli for forces at the end of phase one. This is the first line, then there's another line, and then there's a

final line. Let me just stop you for a second. There's no actual line on the ground, but if you cross an imaginary unseen line, they'll kill you. Yes, exactly. You have it on nail down. Yes, exactly. And that's what's happening. Two children were killed the other day. They were going out to get some bread. And they, the Israelis claim that they were that they unintentionally killed crossed the yellow line so they were shot dead and this is going on there are despite this being a ceasefire and almost complete i believe there's just the remains of one body that is very difficult to locate but all the other bodies have been returned to israel and so really it should be ending but actually israel continues attack drones

assassinated a man, all his sons, his whole family. Just last night, they go in and attack it. And so there's a big, if you like, second phase of periodic, if you like, attacks, despite the ceasefire by Israel. They keep on attacking with drones, with killings. with some assassinations. But despite this, the Israelis themselves say that they see Hamas is strengthening,

Hamas is control. The Hamas recently killed the Abu Shabab, who was, if you like, gang leader in Gaza that was recruited by the Israelis to sort of police Palestinians. This is what they'd done years ago in Lebanon. It was called the SLA, South Lebanon, and it was a group of mostly Christians who were recruited by Israel to attack Hezbollah.

And now they did the same in Gaza except Hezbollah killed the leader of it, and now, as I understand, many of the members of this militia that the Israelis had constructed, have now defected to Hamas and have crossed over and joined Hamas. So, I mean, Hamas is, you know, more in control, but in less territory, 40% is really all that there is free,

and the Israelis are occupying the remainder. And there's no sign that phase two is going to go ahead at the moment because they're still in dispute who would be in this international security force. many of the Arabs have said, no, no, we won't do that because we won't do it at all until Hamas is disarmed. And some of the ones like Turkey, Israel doesn't want it as part of it. So it's still all up and the other. So we did the first phase of a ceasefire and then now it's all unsettled because, you know,

Trump negotiated it with through Whitkoff and others that the first phase was the only one there was detailed, second and third phase is, you know, who knows? It'll, we don't know who will compose this international security force. We don't know who will be put in charge of Gaza. We don't know the role of this sort of peace force, of which Trump will be the chair. So we're now in unseen territory, and the conflict between Israel and Gazans is escalating. You mean Tony Blair has not yet been sworn in as the Governor General of Gaza? As absurd as that sounds.

You know where he is? I don't. No, I don't know where he is. I'm moving on to Russia and Ukraine. Has anything material changed between the Russians and the Americans, between President Putin and the two real estate agents that Trump sent to negotiate with? with him from and after the 28-point plan? Well, they're being very careful and not the, you know, Mr. Putin has said various times,

you know, these negotiations are supposed to be secret, by the way, gentlemen, and we don't want to see them all over the newspapers. And so people are being quieter. But what it seems to be is that they've taken, and that these last, five and a half hour talks, what we did hear from the Russian side, which was that because there were all these points, the Russian side went through them, point by point, by point, saying,

you know, this we can talk about, no, this is our position, and then explaining at some length, what was the Russian, what is the Russian position on these other elements that they find problematic. So it seems that was the substance. Now, it seems we don't know for sure, but it looks as if really the basis of the talks hasn't much changed. It's still about a temporary ceasefire. It's still about whether some, there is some sort of cessation of hostilities into oblast or not. And I think what one can really say about this at the moment is from the Russian side, I don't think that there is going to be a resolution of this impasse by a temporary ceasefire. I know that's probably what Trump would like.

And I think also we will continue to see the disintegration of the Ukrainian army, but also its political structure in Kiev is disintegrating. And I don't think that's going to stop. It's going to continue. And I don't think Russia is going to stop taking territory. Here's President Trump last night at the Kennedy Center talking about President Zelensky. I don't know how he knows this, but he claims President Zelensky hasn't even read the 28-point proposal. So I'll let you listen, and you can tell us what you think.

Chris, cut number six. What's your next step in Russia and Ukraine talks after last week's negotiations? So we've been speaking to President Putin and we've been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including Zelensky, President Zelensky. And I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn't yet read the proposal. That was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn't. Russia's fine with it. Russia's, you know, Russia, I guess, would rather have the whole country when you think of it.

But Russia is, I believe, fine with it. But I'm not sure that Zelensky is fine with it. His people love it. But he hasn't read it. Good Lord. Does he know what he's talking about? No. I mean, it's not really worth saying much about it.

He's, you know, the Reitans love it, the Ukrainians love it, apparently. Everyone loves it. Zelensky is the only problem. Therefore, you know, we're on the brink of a deal. And I think it's still stuck on the fundamental dilemma, the umpast. I mean, I don't know it because we don't know exactly what happened. But I think Trump still would like to have, if you like, a short-term gain and saying, you know, I brought an end to the killing. I've stopped the war, and as temporary cease far, he wants something that is vague, that is short-term, that is not legalistic, and Russia wants something that is long-term treaty like a treaty that is fully legal and is written on paper, that it is very clear.

They don't want to go back to that period when they were told after the reunification of Germany. Oh, no, it's not an inch more. NATO won't move an inch more. We're not going to move further. And, of course, now when they're asked about it, the Americans tend to these officials say, well, you know, was that written down? Was that already agreed? Who agreed it? Was it someone who had a mandate to agree these things?

And of course, what we see with the present negotiation is that neither Whitkoff nor Kushner are members of the administration and certainly haven't been given a mandate by the Senate or any other body to negotiate on behalf of the United States. That's a different thing. The only person who has that role at the moment is Marco Rubio. And the word is, we don't know for sure, that he doesn't believe that Putin is ready to move on this. He believes that the further pressure is necessary on Putin, sanctions or other pressure on it. So some of these difficult points like the security guarantees, because the Europeans are desperate to be the people who will be the guarantors of security. and we'll then use that position to rebuild the Ukrainian forces, to rearm them, retrain them, and continue the war. Because as you can see from the cries coming out of Europe

after they read and heard the national security strategy that Trump signed and signed off on about Europeans, the Europeans are desperate to keep the war going, and I suspect they're meeting now to discuss it. And I'm sure Zelensky is getting the message. You must not retreat from Pekrovsk. You must not retreat on any position. You've got to hold, hold on to your positions,

even though they're untenable. They are surrounded. And the Russian forces are just, they are encircle and trapped. And they're saying, go on because Europe cannot imagine the war to end. They wanted to continue, whether it's in three years' time or now, this is, they believe they're only leverage in getting a solution that is one in which, as they see it, Ukraine emerges from it as a sovereign power with the right to join NATO, the European Union, and to rearm.

I mean, this is the impasse. Do they really think that that can be an outcome, or actually, before you answer that, isn't MI6 giving the Prime Minister of Great Britain and from him the others, a realistic view of things on the ground? I doubt he is giving it a realistic view. I remember a former head of MI6 coming back just before the Iraq war, Mr. Tielov. And he came waving a piece of paper to the Prime Minister and said, oh, the decisions, it's done. The decision to attack Iraq has been made by the president.

It's going ahead and they want the intelligence to be fixed around the policy. We're going to war. Let's make the intelligence support that. And that was in writing, and that's public now. So we know that they're probably not getting the answer. But I tried to set out in a paper that I just wrote how much Europe built itself around these pillars. It built itself around a really fawning relationship. with Mr. Biden.

This is not party political, I'm just saying the reality. They actually formed on Biden. We had the German foreign minister at the time after Biden's, you know, talk in Warsaw when he's, which was very manichaean, you know, dark and light, we are the forces of light, Russia is darkness, Trump, and. and the Republicans also these dark, dark forces, and we must take it. Now, she went and said, we want to be part of that. We want to be.

This was Birbock. And she said, we want to be part of it. We want to ally ourselves. We believe in not treaties as trade as the solution to problems, but military strengths. and we want to be part of your military structure in this war against Russia. And so so much was built. This was a European Union that had, you know, there was a complete lacunae, just it had no identity. You know, it was 27 states and they had no identity.

And a war with Russia that Biden seemed to be pursuing gave them the values. Right. allow them to sort of come together yes this is light and dark this is good and evil we're on the side of good and light and russia is evil and autocratic you've only got to look back at that speech and then after the speech i mean you see ursula von der Leyen saying almost exactly the same manichaean type of darkness and light radical feeling and this was the only thing that the europeans could use to try and give some sort of meaning and identity to the european union and they've stayed with it and they don't know how to get away from it because they are frightened of the consequences of so doing what are they

saying to each other this morning after the national security strategy came out to each other. They're saying, oh, my God, Trump is going to betray Ukraine. Trump going to betray. I mean, how is getting a solution with Russia betraying Ukraine? That's what they are saying. And therefore, that's what I imagine is going on even at this moment in London where Mertz and Macron and Stom are scheduled to meet this morning. And they will tell him, don't back down before Trump. You must continue. The war must go on. You mustn't, even if your troops are surrounded for crafts and in these other cities,

stay there. Keep fighting. You mustn't back down so that we can put pressure on Trump to change his position. So this is, I mean, really, you know, we're going back to the sort of end of the last war when Europe played this game, perhaps with more than a little willing Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor, bring America into the war against, then it was against Germany. Now they want something. They thought that perhaps the sinking of all those tankers in the Black Sea, they're looking for some sort of major instance, like the sinking of three. tankers. I don't know who they all sunk, but the attacks on the three tankers in the

Black Sea, or something, an incident over the Baltic, something that they can then try and use to show how outrageous it was. It's Pearl Harbor again. It's 9-11. America must join the war, must continue to get engaged. And they know they have some support in America, in people like Kellogg and even perhaps Rubio, who believe, no, no, this. You can never get a settlement with Russia. You just have to put pressure on them and weaken. Do the American, I don't know if the word negotiators is right, because as you say, they represent the president, not the government, Whitkoff and Kushner.

Does the American side honestly think it can shake or move? President Putin from his fundamental, regular, consistent, unchanging demands? Well, what they're trying to do, but this is very much, you'll be familiar with it from New York. They're trying to use, you know, spread the loot around the money. And so a lot of this is this sort of focused on, you know, that some of the of the money for reconstruction for Ukraine, maybe some of that will be jointly. Some of the projects will be joined between Russia and America. Europeans might be allowed some small part of it. It's, you know, the New York real estate idea, you know, get hold of the stakeholders

and try and give each of them a slice of the cake. And then a deal will be done. But it's not going to be like this because what Russia wants is not a deal, not a deal constructed by Whitkoff and Kushner, which later they'll say, oh, was there a deal? You know, was there something written down? No, we wrote nothing down. No, they want, Putin needs to have this nailed down on paper legally. And it's not just about the territories of Ukraine, it's about the security architecture.

It's about NATO in this post-war era moving closer and closer to surrounding Russia. And that's what he wants to have absolutely settled in a long-term, clear, legalized understanding with the United States. Not a couple of people coming in and saying, well, you know, we can do this. and we'll take some of the money from Europe and we'll use 50% for us and 50% can be, you know, to your businessman and so on. I don't think it's really, I think that, I don't think it'll work. Putin is, after all, a lawyer. He's always been very careful. You've seen it yourself. I mean, being a legal person. I mean, he's always absolutely precise on having things. legally correct, whether it's, you know, domestic Russian matters or whether it's foreign matters.

And he made a mistake, and he knows he made a mistake with the German Chancellor, with Minsk agreements, which she later admitted freely. They never intended to implement. We did Minsk's host to give the Ukrainian army more time to regroup and prepare for the next round. She said that very clear. Merkel said, you know, it was a cheat, a deceit. We went in there trying to give the Ukrainians more time. And Putin, to his credit, says, I was deceived and I won't happen again. So I think he does mean to have this. And he made the point when he went on to Kazakhstan and he gave this interview and he said, look, who was in this meeting and who wasn't in the meeting? Well, two people.

One was Lavrov and one was Rubio. Why wasn't Rubio there? He is mandated by the United States to be the person that can pursue these matters. And where is Lavrov? Well, we're not at the stage yet where I think Lavrov needs to be engaged because he is the proper channel to have a serious, professional, properly staffed negotiation. And he is not coming because we haven't reached that stage. We haven't got anything solid yet to move to that stage. Only when that happens,

then it will be, has to be, between Rubio and Lavrov, not people who have, you know, friends or son-in-laws of the president. You have to have someone who is able to take this forward in a highly professional way. And so he made that point very clearly. In fact, that was his message to the fact that Rubio was not in the team, that it was two people without mandate. He said, no, look, Lavrov is ready.

We can have a proper talk. We can have professionals from both sides, teams, deal with all the points in your speaking notes. turn them into something substantial. But that is done that way. It's not just done by having nice chats in that hotel, in the middle of Moscow.

Astor Kruk, thank you, my dear friend. Terrific analysis on both Netanyahu and the latest in Moscow. All the best to you. We'll look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you so much, Judge. All the best to you, too. Thank you.

Coming up later today, at 10 o'clock this morning, Ray McGovern, at 1130 this morning, Larry Johnson. At 1 o'clock this afternoon, a new guest, John Kiriakou, a longtime friend of mine. John is the only CIA agent who went to jail over torture for reporting it. He'll tell us what he saw and what happened to him. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.