Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson: Will the Palestinians Surrender?

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

Larry Johnson: Will the Palestinians Surrender?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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information. The writing is on the wall. Now is the time to consider shifting some of your dollars into gold and silver as your bedrock financial asset. Call my friends at Lear Capital, the leader in precious metals, investing for over 27 years. They help me diversify into gold and silver. They can help you too. Call Lear today at 800-511-4620, 800-511-4620, or go to learjudgenap.com. Larry Johnson, welcome here. It's always a pleasure, my dear friend. What have you learned recently in your own research about the Palestinian determination to resist the IDF genocide and remain in Gaza. But it really is pretty remarkable if you think about it, that they are confined to an area that's about 25 miles long, from north to south, and five miles wide east to west,

maybe 10 miles wide east to west, but it's not a big area. And they didn't have artillery they didn't have air defense they didn't have any kind of fixed wing or aircraft or attack helicopters to use then it certainly didn't have any armor no tanks And despite all of that, they've gone up against the Israeli army, who is routinely described as the most powerful force in the Middle East. Well, if that's the most powerful force in the Middle East, what they have succeeded in doing after 14 months of war, going on 15 months now, they've killed almost 50,000 men, women, and children. Israel claims that 16,000 to 20,000 of those are Hamas fighters. I don't believe that at all. But Hamas continues fighting, and they continue resisting.

And just the other day, they killed four more Israeli soldiers. And that's the problem for Israel. It doesn't have an unlimited supply of men that they can just throw into what has turned out to be a little bit of a meat grinder for Israel. Now, it's been a terrible, terrible price paid by the Palestinian people that occupy, that are in Gaza. You know, upward of 80% of the structures in that area have been destroyed. Mosques destroyed. Major infrastructure destroyed. You know, they've tried to make it an uninhabitable place for the Palestinian people and yet they continue to fight now we're getting news today that there's

been a breakthrough and negotiations on a ceasefire and a hostage release and I I thought we got sort of a hint of that last week when donald trump said you know went out and very bombastically stated that if there wasn't these hostages weren't released by the 20th of january there'd be hell to pay well you know the the palestinians have already paid the the price of four hells so you, one more is not going to make any difference. But that told me that actually I think there was progress on the negotiation front because Trump is positioning himself to take credit for it.

And maybe he does deserve credit for it because I think we need to look at that. I'm choosing to post on truth social uh jeff jeffrey sachs excellent commentary on the despicable nature of benjamin netanyahu uh so i i don't view these things in isolation i think we have to take it as a whole that that there is some movement and that you're going to see the remaining hostages that hamas took released in exchange for a release of 1,000 or 2,000 Palestinian hostages that Israel has taken. Why shouldn't we accept uncritically the numbers given out by the IDF? Which numbers would those be?

The numbers where they said that 16,000 of the slaughtered Gazans were Hamas fighters, and you said you didn't believe the number. Yeah. They're not wearing uniforms. They're not carrying badges. And the Israelis certainly aren't going in there collecting the bodies and counting them up. So this is more reminiscent of body counts in vietnam oh man we killed to kill 100 of them how do you know well we just you know took an area and did a did some math computations you know there's no they have no way of knowing that's the way in fact

what some of the reports indicate is that hamas yeah they've lost fighters people there have been fighters that have been killed but the only way you can tell that is if they've been out in the open carrying a firearm but the they're also growing in strength more and more of the you know the hamas did not necessarily prior to the start of October 7th enjoy widespread support. But the Israeli actions against the Palestinian people have solidified that support for Hamas. And is bringing, you know, there are 16, 17-year-old boys that are joining up to fight. Because they've seen their their mothers their sisters their fathers their brothers killed who who wouldn't want revenge in the

face of something like that is Hamas continuing to resist the IDF militarily inside Gaza. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I said they lured, there were reports the other day that they had wired a tunnel and the Israelis entered it and they blew it up, the Hamas blew it up and it killed seven Israelis and wounded a number of others. So yeah, Israel's continuing to suffer casualties, which, you know, I think, I believe is one of the motivations, at least maybe not from Netanyahu's part, but certainly from the standpoint of the Israeli Defense Force, that they need to stop the bleeding. They recognize they don't have unlimited resources. They are largely a reserve army.

That means they're dependent upon reservists who work regular jobs and then will go take off from those jobs to serve in the military. That's okay for a month or two. After 14, 15 months, boy, that gets to be a drag. It puts a strain on the families. It puts a strain on the families it puts a strain on the businesses and then then you get the emotional strain because what what these Israeli soldiers are doing is they're murdering civilians and while there may be a few psychopaths on the side of the Israelis men

men without any kind of moral conscience at all. What we're seeing is there's actual evidence that some of these soldiers, when they are haunted by the reality that they have murdered unarmed children and women and unarmed civilian men, and that lingers with them and you've had you've had a number of uh increased number of psychiatric cases as well as suicides so you know any any general worth or salt is going to recognize we can't continue to put our soldiers into situations where they're going to dehumanize themselves because it doesn't make for a strong army how many uh palestinians are still living in gaza i think uh close to a million they don't have anywhere to go you know that's that's the problem they've um that they're being driven from point to point um

you know sort of tongue-in-cheek they they could they could write a book on survival that would rival anything out there how how to survive how to feed your family in and and this is in winter time now you know we've we've seen some of these horrific images of children that have been frozen to death little babies, simply because there is no heat to keep them warm. And yet they continue, they go on. Here's a comment by Steve Witkoff. Now, Mr. Witkoff is a real estate developer, but has been chosen by President-elect Trump to be his Middle East envoy.

I guess this is to replace Amos Hochstein. Yeah. But here he is last week on Fox News, cut number three. I think they're going well, but I would also tell you that it's the president's strong stance, his certitude in asserting that all hell will break loose, that is moving people. I lost a son. I lost a child. And so these parents think about this every single night when they go to sleep.

We have to get them home. It's the American hostages. It's all the hostages. And by the way, there'll be plenty of Palestinians who will be released as a result of this, and they'll go home to their families. So I think this is something that the world needs to see. We need this moment. Mr. Whitcourt forgot that they won't have homes to go back to because they've been destroyed by the IDF. 2,000-pound bombs and everything else well actually a lot of what he's you know a lot

of the palestinians that are going to be released have been picked up in the west bank so the and while the israeli settlers have been destroying those homes in the west bank they still do have some territory oh these are not necessarily gans. Correct. Correct. Now, what's interesting is it is reported that Witkoff, even though he is in an incoming administration, is actually participating now in Qatar with the Biden representatives in negotiating with Hamas and with Israelis. So, you know, that's pretty remarkable. All of this nonsense about, oh, there's going to be hell to pay. Judge, when I moved from CIA down to State Department and started on the 1st of November 1989, one of the main issues we were focused on at the time were the hostages that were being held in Lebanon. We had several U.S. hostages and European hostages that were being held by a variety

of groups, including Hezbollah and Amal. And good Lord, it was a priority to find them. You know, remember that was the Iran-Contra had its roots in Reagan trying to cut a deal using Ali North to get those hostages out. And we had all intelligence assets dedicated to it. We had, you know, Delta Force standing by. There was a top secret U.S. Army unit. At the time, it was known as ISA. And they had personnel on the ground in lebanon

one of them was a he's a friend of mine um that uh he was a japanese american he was running around disguised as a japanese tourist snapping photographs looking for these people and we could never find him you know you know we could have blown up all of beirut it wouldn't have brought the hostages out the same and so this this trump well there'll be hell to pay i i know that's their talking point well i think all they're doing is positioning themselves so that when the deal is made trump will get to say take a victory lap maybe rightly so right right you almost uh i can't blame him and he'll he'll argue that he put public pressure on both sides to uh to uh come to an agreement well and in fact you know you've played jeffrey sachs interview uh with uh was i

think the cambridge student union and uh you know that message that do you think that that was just simply an isolated fact no that that was you know as I mentioned earlier this is all you have to take it all as uh comprehensive why do you think the president uh did that five days after he said I'm Israel's best. He didn't say I'm Netanyahu's best friend. He said, I'm Israel's best friend. He sent in a clear message to Netanyahu as Jeffrey Sachs, his colorful description of Netanyahu as a person of, let's call it questionable parentage. So, you know, that was intended to send a message to Netanyahu. Hey, you know, Trump is not necessarily, he's not a net,

they don't have a bromance going on. He remembers that Netanyahu couldn't wait to welcome Joe Biden in as the successor to Donald Trump. You know, Trump's got a memory like an elephant on that stuff. Should Trump trust, should any American president trust Netanyahu? Oh, heavens no.

Netanyahu's wife shouldn't trust Netanyahu. I mean, he is one of the most conniving, immoral leaders that we've ever seen. He has no regard for the interests of the Israeli people and completely inhuman when it comes to dealing with Palestinians. Are Israel and Iran preparing for war with each other as we speak?

Well, Iran has just completed a series of military exercises that included demonstrating air defense systems and how their military units respond to an attack. Israel has not conducted similar exercises. They can't. They're too caught up with the daily grind of war. We'll know the next eight days or probably seven days, because a week from today, Donald Trump will be inaugurated. This is, I think, Israel's last chance to try to start a war with Iran.

I think the very last thing Donald Trump wants is to start office with a new war in the Middle East. He's going to negotiate. He's going to talk. is to start office with a new war in the Middle East. He's going to negotiate. He's going to talk. He's going to find a way to do this nonviolently. Because I think he knows that if he does get bogged down in war, it will destroy his presidency. And I think he's looking at a legacy of,

to be known as the man who brought peace. And if he can generally bring about a reconciliation and peace between Israel and Iran, good Lord, that would be a miracle. Yeah, it sure would. Does Iran have a nuclear weapon? I think they've got the capacity to build one. I don't know if they have now made that final decision to cross that Rubicon. I would not surprise me if they did that in the wake of some of the recent, you know, Israel's attacks into Syria and the fall of Saddam, I mean, of Bashar al-Assad.

And at that point, Iran recognizes, you know what? Countries that don't have a nuke get invaded. Countries that don't have a nuke get toppled. Maybe we need to have a nuke to buy some insurance. That kind of thinking wouldn't surprise me. But they have also had previous to this the the religious fatwa prescribing it prohibiting it that they saw that as if you will in the front to islam and they you know took the religion seriously yeah and why is it that the U.S. and its allies accept Israel's nuclear weapon,

the technology for which was stolen from the United States, the authorizations for which were never sought and thus never granted, but not Iran's? Yeah, well, that fact's been on the table for 65 years. It's like that movie Fight Club. We don't talk about the first rule of Fight Club. Don't talk about Fight Club. The first rule of Israeli nuclear force, don't talk about Israeli nuclear force. Don't admit it.

But all can see that it's there. So it's there as a capability that, you know, could be used as a form of suicide. Because there is no real way that Israel could use that tactically or strategically that would enhance and secure Israel's safety. It would, in fact, have just the opposite effect. And it would bring other countries involved. You know, we were – so today is the 13th. We're four days away from Russia and Iran signing a new comprehensive security agreement that will encompass economic, political, as well as military dimensions. Then you have, you know, Russia and China will be conducting joint naval military exercises in, I think, the next three months, in three months, with Iran.

So Iran's not isolated, even though, you know, the West likes to pretend, oh, yeah, we're isolating them, we're hitting them hard with sanctions. But Iran is starting to dig itself out of that. And its current leader, Pozhetskian, the president, has been, you know, they're talking behind the scenes. And I'm sure there have been some approaches made to Trump about negotiations. I think Trump, given the opportunity, will negotiate with Iran as opposed to go to war with Iran. And that, you know, that's put Netanyahu off course. But I think that's one of the reasons Trump sent that message via Jeffrey Sachs. Yeah.

Sachs was the message bearer to Netanyahu. This is what I really think of you. I will, in fact, you could make the case that Trump recognizes that if Netanyahu and his crazies on the religious right are allowed to pursue the course of action that they're pursuing, it will culminate in the destruction of Israel.

And Trump actually, yeah, I think Trump genuinely loves the Israelis. But he recognizes, I think, as well, that what they're doing now is self-destructive, and it will cause Israel to die, not live. Is Israel overextended? I meanended I mean right now Larry they're claiming 40 percent of what a month ago was Syria as part of Israel oh absolutely look and this is the other uh the other thing people have misjudged is that you know you know initially with the fall of Bashar al-assad everybody's going ah great victory for Israelrael great victory for turkey oh big loss for russia big raw loss for iran nonsense you know one of the things israel had in place with bashir al assad and it they had penetrated assad's intelligence and military leadership. They had Israeli agents at the top. So they knew what Iran was doing

with the government of Syria. And Iran was not dealing covertly with Syria. They were open. It was an open diplomatic and military and intelligence exchange. So in a way, Israel had great insight. They had good vision. They could understand what was going on. Once that was eliminated, all of a sudden, there's no formal government for Iran to deal with. Iran's going to continue supporting Hezbollah. Well, guess what? There are smuggling roots throughout Syria and Iraq and Jordan that have existed for centuries. These tribes that are out there and there are criminal organizations. Iran uses them. So now all of a sudden Israel is blinded. It has, I would argue, less intelligence about what's going on on the ground instead of more.

And on top of it, it does not have an unlimited military force. It's still suffering casualties, as we talked about in Gaza. It's suffering casualties in the West Bank. And it's suffering and suffered casualties in Beirut. I think that's one of the other motivations right now that you at least from the idf standpoint that they're pressing for a ceasefire larry a pleasure my dear friend thank you very much as always and thank you for the double duty look forward to seeing you at the end of the day at the end of the week with ray mcgovern all right my friend thank. Thank you. Thank you. All the best. Coming up at the remainder of

today at one o'clock, the always worth waiting for Scott Ritter and at three o'clock, Matthew Ho, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thanks for watching!