Judging Freedom - Anya Parampil: No Moral Equivalency -- Israel and Iran.

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Anya Parampil: No Moral Equivalency -- Israel and Iran.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. Pardon me. Today is Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Anya Parampil joins us now. Anya, it's a pleasure. Thank you very much for coming back onto the show. Much appreciated. I want to talk to you about a lot of things, but I want to start with the events in Israel and by extension in Iran over the weekend, and I want to explore your thoughts on the arguments that some have made about the moral equivalency between the Israeli attack on and destruction of and murdering the people inside of the consulate in Damascus, and the very limited measured military targeted response of the Iranians. But before I ask you that question, I'm going to play a clip from a person I know you admire speaking in a way that he typically does on the floor of the House of Commons. Speaker, I knew your father well for a very long time. He was a fine man, and I am sincerely sorry for your loss. There was not one single word in the Prime Minister's statement of condemnation of the Israeli destruction of the Iranian consulate in Damascus,

which is the proximate reason for the event everyone is here in concert condemning. He was not even asked to do so by the front bench opposite. Kay Burley is the only person so far to demand that of a government minister. We have no treaty with Israel, at least not one that Parliament has been shown. And the Iranians are not likely to listen to him when Britain ran Iran, wedi llwthio ei gwerth a'i gwrthwynebu i'w gyfranogwyr ddemocraidd a chymdeithasol unigol yn fy mhrofiad fy hun. Mr Speaker. Mae unrhyw beth yna wedi digwydd ychydig wythnosau yn ôl yn unigol nad oes may have happened a few weeks ago, it is absolutely no justification for launching more than 300

drones and missiles from one sovereign state towards Israel. It's as simple as that. And in the honourable gentleman's question, not once did he condemn that action or indeed the actions of Hamas in the region. There is no equivalence between these things whatsoever, and to suggest otherwise is simply wrong. You have to smile from ear to ear whenever you hear him. And I got to tell you, I didn't recognize him at first with that hat on that he always wears. But I'll let you take it from there. We also have David Cameron, which will raise your blood pressure, making a similar argument to the prime minister. But go ahead, please, Anya. George, because he can talk about anything and everything, and he does it so eloquently,

but he can't just talk. He really knows the world. He's gone around the world. He's met people. He's seen the reality in places like Palestine and the Middle East himself. And he knows people in those governments. He gets how the world works. And what I notice about that clip is that he's actually speaking like a representative of the British people. He's befuddled as to why the government in London have not denounced what was a clear violation of international law, the strike on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus, and pretty much asking why it is that the representatives of the British people are not standing up for this so-called rules-based international order that they love to speak of,

just as our representatives, so-called representatives in Washington do. It's completely revealed their hypocrisy. And the way Prime Minister Sunak responds with such flippancy and kind of like as if he's an annoyed child really shows, I believe, how stressed the establishment in London and Washington are right now in being exposed by Israel's behavior. They have to constantly get out there and defend the actions of this genocidal parasite regime. And the public can see it with their own eyes that they're lying and repeating talking points that just don't work anymore.

And so when someone like George Galloway is able to stand up in parliament and put it to their face, they have no response. It really makes me wish that not only did we have someone like George Galloway in the U.S. Congress, but that we had, I mean, and I'm not a big fan of the British system, but I do think question time and forcing the leader of the country to answer to the representatives before everyone is actually, it's a pretty cool thing to watch. And I don't think Biden would get through five minutes of it here. No, no, not at all. Not at all. Nor would Mike Johnson or Mitch McConnell. You know, I've listened to this clip several times. And the last time, the one we just played for you i what i heard george shouting

in the background well while the prime minister was talking we'll take another listen to it and and see if we can discern that it was his voice but the talking points obviously are out there here's david cameron lord david cameron the former prime minister, now the foreign minister, making similar, even more absurd comments on a British talk show on Sunday. What about Iran's frustration at part of its sovereign territory being flattened? Well, I would argue there is a massive degree of difference between what Israel did in Damascus. And as I said, 301 weapons being launched by the state of Iran at the state of Israel for the first time, a state-on-state attack, 101 ballistic missiles, 36 cruise missiles, 185 drones. That is a degree of difference.

And I think a reckless and dangerous thing for Iran to have done. And I think the whole world can see all these countries that have somehow wondered, well, you know, what is the true nature of Iran? It's there in black and white. Well, he's making that moral equivalency argument. Actually, it's not even moral equivalency argument. He's arguing that there was no right to defend under the UN Charter, of which Great Britain is, immune target, a consulate. The Iranians didn't kill anybody and attacked only military targets. Yeah, absolutely. And what did you notice? What I noticed while watching the coverage of Iran's strike this weekend was that immediately on Iranian state TV, when they announced the

launch of these drones and missiles, they cited the article in the UN charter that justified their action. I mean, when have we ever heard an Israeli official come out and explain when they say that they have the right to defend themselves, the right to exist. We hear these broad statements without any concrete reference to international law constantly from Israeli officials and in Washington and in London, as I mentioned, we hear about the rules-based international order, but we never hear them actually cite those rules when they're taking their action because of course, Israel's right sees its bombing of hospitals and schools and complete utter destruction of civilian life in Gaza as defending itself. And that's not actually the way the law works. And Iran here did come out very

clearly and state that the UN Charter granted it the right to respond. As you mentioned, they targeted military installations in Israel that are responsible for carrying out this genocide in Gaza and also conducting strikes on sovereign Iranian territory. So there is no moral equivalency in everything David Cameron and Rishi Sunak say, much like Israeli officials themselves, is projection. When David Cameron says that the world can see Iran for what it is, there's no more question about what its intentions are, that's in fact exactly true about Israel. As a result of October 7th and the war that came afterwards, it is Israel that has been exposed, is naked for the world to see as a bloodthirsty, genocidal regime that is dedicated to securing as much of greater Israel that it sees fit, which is beyond even Gaza at this point. We cannot underestimate

what the plan there, I heard Colonel Douglas McGregor say earlier that this is a plan that was on the shelves and they've taken it off and dusted it off. It's exactly true. And so it is Israel, what David Cameron said about Iran there is true about Israel. And it's time for Americans now to say that we need to act accordingly and begin to reassess our position and our relationship with Israel and as it relates to the Middle East. God, how I wish people would listen to you. It doesn't even seem in the realm of probability, maybe even possibility, given the ironclad grip that the donor class has on the American government. I mean- I think they want us to believe that, but the popularity of your show demonstrates that people

are waking up. And that's the one thing that warms my heart and gives me hope during all of this darkness that we've experienced over the last several months is that I do believe, and this show is proof, that there is a mass awakening happening in the United States. People are beginning to realize that the lies about history and current events and about Israel that we've been told all of our lives are not true and that we shouldn't be afraid to use our voice to question and say the truth. And we see this playing out in conservative media with what happened with Candace Owens at the Daily Wire or what happened when Tucker Carlson came out and interviewed a priest from Bethlehem about the treatment of Christians in Israel, the reaction to that he got. There's nothing that

they can do anymore. The donor class and the establishment, the media financial establishment that would like to prevent us from having these conversations, there's nothing they can do now other than call us names, make us feel afraid, just like they want the entire region to be afraid of Israel. And make us feel hopeless, as if our voice doesn't matter and that our fate is sealed. But as Iran demonstrated with Israel, there's no reason to be afraid. We actually have the right and ability to stand up and speak these truths. And you're doing it every day. CNN just reporting that President Putin has called upon Prime Minister Netanyahu and the head of Iran and President Biden to engage and foment a ceasefire in the Middle East. You're not going to get that

from Joe Biden. You're going to get Chris play the montage this. Mr. President to Iran in this moment. Don't. I have one word. Don't. To any actor, state or non-state, trying to take advantage of this crisis to attack Israel. Don't. We have just one word. Don't. Right. Like Rishi Sunak and Lord Cameron, they got the message. But look, their argument is falling apart. Samantha Power the other day, the head of USAID, said under oath, famine is rampant among children. Children are dead of famine in Gaza. Why doesn't she call her boss and say, let's put a stop to it? We have the food. We have the medicine.

Tell Bibi to let us in. Samantha Power is one of the most insidious people working in the Biden administration. I mean, I've covered how she spearheaded the plan to basically build back better after destroying Ukraine through this war over the past two years with this new digital ID and technology that they would like to then use Ukraine as a lab to roll out this digital ID and passport that is something we know based on the COVID experience is something they'd eventually like to force all of us to use. And she's really this figure who parades as if she's some brilliant humanitarian or Joan of Arc. And yet she is really spearheading the new face of regime change and imperial wars in Washington, which is humanitarian regime change wars. I mean, it's really cruel and sick.

And you mentioned the fact that Iran had the right to respond for the killing of their diplomats and their generals in this attack on their consulate building. But really, Americans should recall, Israel has not only attacked our military forces in the past in order to get us into this war decades ago. That's what the purpose of the U.S. liberty bombing was, was to get us to fight this war for Israel that they're still trying to get us to fight in 2024. But that also just a few weeks ago, Israel targeted, deliberately targeted an aid convoy, people feeding starving Gazans, literally doing the Lord's work in Gaza, were targeted in a deliberate strike, or that Israel targeted in a deliberate strike, killing international civilians, including Americans.

I mean, when are we going to start pointing that out in the United States? And Samantha Power, she reminds me of Antonio Gutierrez at the UN, who constantly is complaining about the loss of life of UN workers in Gaza without actually naming their killer. He'll be, oh, it's so sad that all these UN workers and buildings were destroyed. Well, who did it? Here's another pathetic example this is my friend and former colleague Peter Ducey interrogating Admiral Kirby

on the one word don't number 13 Chris has President Biden considered maybe beefing up the public Iran posture to be more than just one word you're referring to don't. Yeah.

And so let's talk about... And they did it anyway. And let's talk about what we did, Peter. Let's talk about don't and did. Let's talk about Saturday night. He made it clear that he didn't want to see escalation in the region. And there was. Let me finish.

He added military resources to the region right after October 7th. And then when we had an inkling that this kind of thing was coming, he added even more military resources to the region, more destroyers that were capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, a fighter squadron that was able to shoot down drones. And that's what we did. So you can talk about the don't word all you want, but let's talk about what did happen.

And what did happen was Iran utterly failed. And if I'm sitting in Tehran right now, I'm betting that President Biden takes it pretty seriously when he says don't escalate. He's going to act to make sure that you can. Doesn't it get under your skin when he says something like the Israelis succeeded and the Iranians failed? Well, I think it speaks to the success of the Iranian strategy here, because what I noticed watching the spin on Sunday, on the Sunday talk shows and from U.S. government officials such as Kirby, is that if they're saying that this was a win for Israel and that Iran didn't achieve anything here, it means that they simply don't want to escalate

because they got the message. The message is that Iran can come back and Iron Dome might be depleted at that point. If Israel would like to escalate, it's not going to work out very well for Israelis. It already hasn't because forget about the fact that Iran didn't kill any civilians. This whole entire war and that strike in Iran has had the impact of draining Israeli society and its economy. People have left and don't plan on going back. So a few years from now, I think we're going to look back and see that this war in many ways led to the defeat of Israel and perhaps even the overall Zionist project. And what bothers me is hearing U.S. officials speak about Israel in this way, rather than as if they represented the U.S. people and the U.S. government and were trying to solve the issue.

I think the best defense would be an effective diplomatic class, but I haven't seen a great American statesman really in my lifetime. You could probably put Trump as the only one who tried to embody what it meant to be a statesman and make deals and sit down and talk to people you don't agree with. But it's really a conscious choice by Americans at this point. I think sometimes we have this idea that we're hated around the rest of the world as the evil empire. And we hear, oh, Iranians chanting death to America. The reality is if it weren't for a special relationship with Israel and this military, global military machine that we enforce around the world, people really love Americans. I've spent time from Venezuela to Syria to Palestine, even in Gaza.

I was just at the BRICS summit last year talking with people for government officials from South Africa and other countries that are seen as part of this alternative rising world. And the reality is, they would all love the United States to just grow up and participate in a world like an equal partner. And in fact, we will always be a very influential, powerful state. Europe might not be, the European powers might not be of transatlanticism and this network kind of comes to a close. But the U.S. will always be in good shape. And in fact, I was speaking with a member of the presidential advisory delegation from the Iranian delegation during BRICS last August.

And it was the day that Iran and Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Ethiopia, the UAE, all were joining, announced formally joining BRICS. And I said to him, I just wish that my government would behave like a normal, like as if we were a normal country. And he said, that's what all of us wish. That's simply what everybody that we think is our adversary. It's kind of like we're dealing with the people that just want us to behave like adults instead of injured children that sees everything as an attack on us. But we're no longer a republic, we're an empire. And that mentality pervades no matter which party is in control of Congress and almost no matter who's in the White House. Do you think Netanyahu's back is to the wall politically, diplomatically, militarily?

Yeah, I think his back has been to the wall for years. And he's so insecure that he's just balancing these various interests that are behind him. And I hope that one day we get answers about what exactly happened in the lead up to October 7th, because there were clear Israeli intelligence failures. And sometimes I wonder, there are people who think, oh, Israel created Hamas to do an attack such as this so that they would have the justification to go and clear out Gaza and pursue greater Israel. I don't believe that's true. But I think it's possible that someone in the Israeli national security establishment that is more radical than Netanyahu allowed it to happen in order to push him now into this situation where he knows he has to go totally as far as he as

possible with this war. And the minute that he stops, he's done politically. But then as I've discussed with you on this show, then the Israeli state and the Zionist project truly begins to unravel because he's keeping it together. He has the, he, he, he is, he's made himself into the Israeli state and, and Zionism is in, in peril as a members of the IDF has been utterly into civilian society from whence they came? But there's a process, kind of a coming of age process in Israeli society where, yes, you are drafted into the military. There's required service. And you're pretty much guaranteed to fight a war at some point because every few years Israel goes about this process of what they call mowing the lawn, pummeling down the civilian population in Gaza just to make sure that they don't get too strong and rise up. And this war has been like any other. But afterwards, Israeli soldiers, when they leave the service, they are given these,

I think it's two years off and they get paid still. And so what they all do is go to India and Central America and do a bunch of drugs. I mean, I've encountered these people in my own travels. There's always a hostel filled with former IDF soldiers dealing with their trauma. And it's not pretty. It's not pretty in Israel. That's why anyone who's gone to Israel and really interacted with Israelis, you can see that there's this constant tension. And I mean, there's the victimhood mentality, but also this fierce fighter mentality where people are just on edge all the time. And it's not it doesn't.

Yeah, it is not a healthy society. Israel, it's not. So these wars absolutely have an impact on that. And the one thing I'll add is as an American, I think of My Lai and the Abu Ghraib scandal or the video that WikiLeaks published showing U.S. troops mowing down a Reuters journalist in Iraq. And these were all instances that created outrage in U.S. media, in the public. They were scandals because soldiers were caught doing things that you're not supposed to do. And their own fellow troops, their own military establishment denounced them for it because they're just not allowed to do these things.

What's odd to me about the Israelis is that they do it on TikTok. They do it on Twitter. Just the average soldier has no qualms or fear that they're going to face repercussions or that people won't find them absolutely disgusting for what they do. It's a very odd mentality that I struggle, honestly, to understand as a human being. Well, you have a former director of the CIA and former secretary of state going over there to dance with the Israeli killers. I'm speaking of Mike Pompeo, of course. That's what he does. That's his full-time job is to dance for the Israeli lobby in the U.S. government. That's what his whole career was based upon. So it doesn't surprise me that he actually went there to dance with the Israelis himself. Anya, thank you very much for your time. Absolutely terrific. It's a warm,

no matter what we're talking about, to me, it's a warm, comfortable conversation. And I'm grateful. And I know the viewers are grateful because I see what they write about you. Well, it's my honor. And the feeling is mutual. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see you again soon. All the best. Take care.

A deeply informative and easy to watch conversation. Not my end, her end. Coming up at five o'clock, Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. We'll see you next time. and personalized learning. With courses available 24-7 and monthly start dates, you can earn your degree on your schedule. You may even be able to graduate sooner than you think by demonstrating mastery of the material you know. Make 2025 the year you focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu.