Judging Freedom - Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Israel On the Brink

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Israel On the BrinkSee 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 Tuesday, July 30th, 2024. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson will be here with us in just a moment on Israel on the Brink. But first this. You all know that I am a paid spokesperson for Lear Capital, but I'm also a customer, a very satisfied customer. About a year ago, I bought gold and it's now increased in value 23 percent. So $100 invested in gold a year ago is now worth $123. If you have $100 in the bank, it still shows $100, but $100 in the bank is now worth 24% less. Inflation has reduced

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Learjudgenap.com. Tell them the judge sent you. Carter Wilkerson, welcome here, my friend. Of course, your time is much appreciated by the viewers and by me. What was your view of the speech of the floor of the House of Representatives that drew 58 standing ovations, one of them longer than a minute in duration, that offered no peace plan and was as bellicose as ever by Prime Minister Netanyahu in front of an audience bought and paid for. Okay, that's a loaded question, but take it as you wish, Colonel. Even Prime Minister Netanyahu recognized that the applause were stupid, asking him to shut up and let him talk. I was pleased that almost 50% of the Congress did not show up. I was pleased that the vice president decided not to officiate. I was pleased that I was there

as a protester, along with Dennis Fritz, command chief master sergeant of the Air Force, retired 32 years. We had 60 years of military experience between us. And we went to all the protests on the Mall. Of course, the authorities had been very clever and issued multiple permits so as to split them up all across the place. But by the time it came to actually make a protest at the Capitol, there were over 50,000 people there. And all of their messages were very pertinent and very

emotional and very persuasive. So there is a movement in this country that says what Bibi Netanyahu is doing is not right and should stop and should stop post-haste. His address though, to the essence of your question, is an embarrassment to the United States of America. That someone like that could come over having been convicted or almost convicted of almost all the things that we say are heinous and despicable. Congress is just a measure, a vivid measure of how much in the hands of that little state, Israel, much of the leadership of the United States is. And that, George Washington, for example, who had trouble in the same regard with the French, would say it is appalling and should not be. I was, well, first of all, I'm thrilled to know that you were there, part of the demonstrators. I'm thrilled to know there were 50,000 of you. I'm not surprised that this was not

in mainstream media. I think this is one of the worst days in American history when a foreign leader can come over here and literally pay for and buy an audience, and the audience members are the people that we've elected to represent us, not him. And they're cheering for him. They don't have our best interests at heart. What is the value of the American so-called alliance with Israel? What is the military value, if any, Colonel? There is zero value to it. I've said this many times. Formerly, I said it at the National

Press Club when I gave a speech, is Israel a strategic asset or a strategic liability? And I concluded very powerfully, I thought, that it's a strategic liability. But then I said, it's up to the American people to decide whether or not they wish to accept that strategic liability because of other issues like guilt for the Holocaust, like friends in Israel, like Jews in America and so forth. Those are reasons, too. They're not strategic. They're not security, but they are reasons for a close relationship with the state of Israel. But I said you need to ask the American people if they're willing to accept this grievous liability in terms of security for the other things that matter to them. We've never done that. I used to have this argument with Colin Powell.

When are we going to tell the American people just how much a strategic liability the state of Israel is? Our military knows it. David Petraeus even slipped up one day and before Congress admitted it. We have never told the American people this truth, and we've never asked for their view on it. And the Congress is a perfect representation of that. When's the last time a public war criminal,

war criminal, engager in genocide, runner of an apartheid regime, stood where Lincoln once stood on the well of the House? It's a colossal embarrassment at best, and it's a disaster at worst. It should never have happened. What do you think his goal was? Was he trying to talk the American Congress into getting involved in a land war against Iran, or do you think this was all for domestic Israeli political purposes? He was doing exactly what you said with regard to his private meetings with those members of the Congress who he thinks counts and his meetings with the structure, as it were, Trump that was to demonstrate to the Israeli people very simply that he still holds the United States in the palm of his hands, because he's in trouble. He's in deep trouble in Israel. So he needs things like that to reassert to his own people that they don't

want to get rid of him. Does he really think that the American public wants to get involved in a war in Iran? And if so, would it be a land war, Colonel, or would it be from the air? I think if you look at April 1st, April 14th, and April 19th or 20th, those three dates, I think you see the answer to that question. The first was when they struck, the Israelis struck the consulate in Damascus and really made the Iranians angry by killing some of their people. The 14th was when Iran, conducting just exquisite diplomacy with the United States through Oman, reattacked or reposted to Israel for that April 1st attack, but didn't do anything the United States

didn't want them to do and allow the United States, the Brits, the Israelis, and others to shoot down the predominant amount of their missiles and drones coming in. That was a very carefully orchestrated business. And then on the 19th or 20th of the same month, the Israelis were posted to Iran by striking an S-300 radar in Iran, utterly inconsequential act, proving that at the end of the day, if you piss off Washington, you are not going to get your wishes. And they kept themselves in abatement. Now the situation is very different, though, because now the potential to expand the war, disasters for Israel ultimately, I think, to Hezbollah is staring us in the face. Isn't the IDF exhausted? Hasn't it recognized that its efforts to crush Hamas have been a failure?

Isn't it ill-prepared to take on a military? That's what it is. It's called a militia, but it's really a military. As sizable, well-organized, and well stocked with weapons as Hezbollah is? Let me add to that, and shouldn't Netanyahu recognize that? I think all of what you've said is true, but what Netanyahu is counting on, because all of that is true, and maybe even worse than you just intimated, he's counting on the United States backing him up. I just watched the press conference in the Philippines. It occurred just a few minutes ago. And Austin has asked very pointedly the question.

He's asked it. I wish the reporter had asked it a little bit better. But he asked the question, will you defend Israel? And Austin came back with the standard pablum. If Israel is attacked, of course we will defend Israel. And so Netanyahu's got to make it look like Hezbollah did the attacking rather than Israel. Well, that's going to be pretty hard because Hezbollah, and I just listened also to the Lebanese foreign minister talking about Nasrallah and Hezbollah and what they might do. And his opinion, and I think he's dead right, is that they do not want a war with Israel, and Israel will have to start it for them to get involved. and the Australians have just told their people to come home, come home, leave. They've formed a NEO, a non-combatant evacuation operation, because they know the first thing Israel does is strike the Lebanon's airport, and then their citizens will

be stuck. You know, well, let's watch this clip from the Lebanese foreign minister this is yesterday this is July 29th Chris cut number four you know so we don't know who did it I know Hezbollah is accused by Israel that they did it as Hezbollah refuses my feeling isrians. And Hezbollah has been, you know, always targeting military positions of Israel, not civilians. The number of civilians killed in Israel were less than seven, while in Lebanon over more than a 100 killed by Israel in Lebanon. So I cannot understand why would Hezbollah do it. There's no logic in it. Speaking, of course, of the Israeli allegations that Hezbollah killed 16 Druze young men in the Golan Heights.

Now, the Golan Heights, Donald Trump notwithstanding, is not Israel. It is not recognized as Israel under international law. It is occupied by Israel. This would be a pretty lame excuse with which to attack Lebanon, but apparently Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to use it. Absurd, as you're intimating. I suspect that the Iron Dome missile that went up to intercept the missile coming in from Hezbollah, and we keep forgetting that Gaza itself is not as big as London, greater London, and Israel isn't a whole lot bigger either. So the skies, when they get filled with missiles,

are replete with missiles. And that interceptor probably hit the Hezbollah missile and came down itself or caused the Hezbollah missile to come down in the Golan, which as you said, UN Security Council resolution 497 has been judged illegal under international law. Tony Blinken once said, well, I know the legalities of it, but Israel needs it for its security. Well, I'm sorry, that's not the way the law is supposed to work. I agree with the Lebanese foreign minister, there's absolutely no reason for Hezbollah to have done this. And I believe them when they say they didn't do it. No reason whatsoever. And these were, as you said, these were Druze, these were Arabs living in the Golan Heights. Now, some of them might have been Israeli citizens, third, fourth class citizens to be sure, but no provocation for what Netanyahu

may make it a provocation for, which is an attack on Hezbollah. I don't see how he gets away with that, though. Do you fear a false flag? Do you fear the CIA telling Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, Iran now has a nuclear weapon? Or do you fear an actual violent false flag in the area? Some American special forces who we know are there are conveniently killed. In other words, an inappropriate, immoral, unlawful instigation to bring American troops into the fray. I have to say no to that because I know something of the absolutely exquisite operations that went on, as I described to you a few moments ago, to keep the United States and Iran from a war. And that was the April 1st, April 14th, April 19th incidents. That was incredible. I didn't think we had the capacity to do that kind of diplomacy anymore. I have to put Bill Burns at the center of it, the director of the CIA, because he's one of the few diplomats in the American government right now who knows what he's doing. We do not want

a war with Iran, nor does Iran, especially with the new president, want a war with the United States. So both countries will go out of our way as necessary to prevent that war. Now, Bibi, of course, wants it. It's his ultimate ask of the United States is to take Iran out for him. And now that he has the tanking and he proved it, he has the tankers. I was there when we started this. We've given him sufficient tankers to now tank his F-15 extended range fighters and other aircraft, F-35s, all the way 2,000 miles and get home again and do maximum damage in Iran or where that perimeter might extend. So he can do it. And that's what the attack on Hodeidah, the port of Hodeidah in Yemen was designed to demonstrate. Look, I did an 1,800 nautical mile attack. I can do it to you too. So it's going to be Bibi all by himself. Whether or not we'll back him up if he starts it is a huge question. He engages in some sort of, because as you say, Colonel, you're right, he's been angling for this his entire adult career, engages in an assault on Hezbollah. I mean, is he foolish enough to engage in an assault on Hezbollah without certain knowledge that the U.S. will back him? I think B.U. Yusin Yahu is to a point now where he believes his own magic,

and that's very dangerous. That's very dangerous. Your points are well made about the IDF. They would need another and possibly even a second after that call-up of reservists to take on Hezbollah. They're already very frustrated, the reservists that are on duty and have been on duty, because they do not see any strategy in Gaza. They don't know what the end game is. They don't know what they're doing there anymore, other than killing people. And of course, that's what Netanyahu wants them to do, is to kill as many Palestinians as possible, because that's his plan.

Kill, kill, kill. Ethnically cleansed. Don't want many Palestinians left at the end of the day. But the IDF doesn't see this, and they don't buy that as a strategy. And you call up 300,000 more, for example, to take on Hezbollah, you are courting disaster within your own ranks. And what are you doing to the Israeli economy, which is already in shambles? Yes. You take doctors, lawyers, dentists, school teachers, shopkeepers away from their work. Yes. The economy is going down and going down very rapidly. And there's not much you can do to resurrect it if you're going to

continue this pace of war and you're going to continue it with the methodology that you're currently executing. And you're going to invite more with Hezbollah. Is there any diplomatic way out of this, so long as Netanyahu is the head of the government? One of the first things I think the Israelis need to do, if they really care about the future and the viability of their state, however it might be construed in that future, is get rid of Bibi Netanyahu. Colonel, can we switch gears a bit in deference to your career in the military and your familiarity with the government, were you surprised at the slipshod way in which the Secret Service attempted to protect Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania? The more I learned about it, the more I am absolutely amazed at the incompetence and the lack of skill that exists there. I knew a little bit about the state of the Secret Service in particular

because my daughter and my son-in-law were Secret Service agents themselves, and they've been keeping me acquainted with the deterioration of the quality and the competence of the service, leadership and other things like that, both uniformed and plainclothes Secret Service, hurting for people, not having the best people and such. But what I've heard more and more and more not only demonstrates that my son-in-law and daughter were right and others whom I know from the old days in the Secret Service, but it's worse than even they predicted or described. I don't

understand how we've let it get so bad. And I would throw the Bureau into that too. I've had run-ins with the FBI, so I suspect that's all a matter of leadership too and recruiting. But we have some real problems in the security elements of the other security elements of the establishment than the military. When you were the chief of staff to Colin Powell, were you and he protected by Secret Service? We had our own security services state, which I sort of, as chief of staff, I sort of oversaw for him. The director of it would come in and talk to me from time to time. And Powell was very interesting in keeping it viable. So we essentially, here's a good one for you. We essentially fired the man, Carpenter, who was a secret service holdover,

director of state security, because we didn't think he was very good. And we hired a new retired Air Force Brigadier General to be head of our security. But yes, state has its own security apparatus. Are Secret Service agents of the same mental, physical, intellectual caliber of FBI agents? Or is that where you go if the FBI turns you down? That's an interesting question. I will say this, Quantico and Beltsville and other aspects of the training are probably similar. Not probably, they are similar.

But there's a different kind of individual that comes into the Bureau as opposed to those who come into the Secret Service. I'd have a hard time describing that personality difference, but it is a decisive difference in the quality of the person in the Secret Service and the quality of the person in the FBI. Here's Ronald Rowe, R-O-N-A-L-R-O-W-E, who's the acting director of the Secret Service, just about an hour ago before a Senate investigation committee being very strong in his testimony. Cut number six. This is from the second floor of the AGR building. This point of view is the point of view where the counter sniper team locally was posted. The gold arrow indicates where the shooter fired from. Looking left,

why was the assailant not seen? When we were told that building was going to be covered, this view is a reenactment by one of my agents. Laying flat, there was a five-inch rise on the middle of that roof. The assailant would have had to present his bore over that to get his shot off. The view underneath reflects the perspective that he would have had. Again, I call your attention back to the first exhibit if they'd have looked left. This is what our counter-sniper team saw. These were discussions that were had between the pittsburgh field office the local counterparts and everyone supporting that visit that day and that's why when i laid

in that position i could not and i will not and i cannot understand why there was not better coverage or at least somebody looking at that roofline when that's where they were posted. Basically, he's saying the coverage from that roofline was the responsibility of the local police. The local police have been all over the media pointing fingers at the Secret Service. This is the first time the Secret Service has made any effective defense. His predecessor, Cheadle, who has since resigned, really made no effective defense at all last week. I don't know how this is going to end. Would you feel comfortable protected by the Secret Service today, Colonel?

I would not. And let me just give you this history of what I think is the principal problem. The service has been unable to recruit in a decisive and effective way for a long, long time. And when I say a long, long time, I'm talking about all the way back when my daughter and my son-in-law were members, 20 plus years. As a consequence, the people they do have, especially the good people, are overworked terribly. They meet themselves coming and going. They don't have enough people to cover everything they have to do. So increasingly, they are using other security forces to augment and supplement their own capability to protect people.

This is for foreign visitors. This is for the president. This is for the vice president. This is for anyone on protective detail. So that is a huge historical problem that no one has corrected. It's not unlike the problem we have in the military now, where we are short every year on recruiting with the single exception of the Marine Corps. You get smaller and you get smaller. So your good people who are hanging around, staying around your professionals, get overworked, get their morale drops and your service in general, particularly your protective service falls off in its quality. This has been happening for some time,

and no one's done anything about it. Very, very interesting observation, Colonel. Forgive me, I forgot to mention one thing when we're talking about Israel, and I'd like to go back to it. This is Turkish President Erdogan yesterday. I'd like to know what you think of this. Cut number five, Chris. What was our import-export ratio in the defense industry? Where have we come to? But my dear brothers and sisters, let none of these fool us or should deceive us. We must be very strong so that this Israel cannot do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just as we entered Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we will do the same to them. There is no reason for us not to.

We only have to be strong so that we can take these steps. What do you think he means by characterized them, military into Israel? First of all, it's for the audience that he's sayingabakh, they basically did a few things, but they didn't do anything that was significantly effective. And they didn't put, as is insinuated by people commenting on these remarks, troops on the ground to the extent that they could influence the situation in either country. So one has to say that this is mostly rhetoric. At the same time, I think there's a golden opportunity for Turkey here. Erdogan has always wanted to be the ruler of the Islamic world, so to speak, the man to whom everyone looks, Sunni and Shia in every manner of Islamic world. Riyadh, go away. Tehran, go away. I'm the real ruler of the Islamic world. I am the Muslim

caliph, if you will, in modern terms. What better way to do it than to do something decisive with regards to the situation in Gaza? But I don't think he has the courage to do it, frankly. Colonel, a pleasure, my dear friend, no matter what we're talking about. Thank you, especially for your insight on the issues with the Secret Service. We already knew you're an expert on the Middle East. I didn't know you knew so much about the Secret Service and I very much appreciate it. Thank you, my dear friend. Daughter and son-in-law. Right, right. And a very dear friend who was a uniformed secret service agent on the Oval Office door for 30 years. And boy, do I know some presidential secrets. Oh, I'm dying to ask you about them next time.

That's a great tease. That's called a terrific tease in television. Thank you, my dear friend. All the best to you. Take care. Sure. Coming up, a fascinating interview. Coming up later today, not much later, at two o'clock Eastern this afternoon, Matt Ho. At three o'clock Eastern this afternoon,

Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. freedom. you