Judging Freedom - Matt Hoh: Israel In Crisis

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Matt Hoh: Israel In CrisisSee 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, September 3rd, 2024. Matt Ho is here on Israel in Crisis and a little bit on the latest news with the attack on the military school in Ukraine. 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 and it has risen 33%.

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Protect your savings and retirement before it's too late. 800-511-4620, learjudgenap.com. Remember, hope is not a strategy, but gold is. Matt Ho, welcome here, my dear friend. I do want to talk to you at some length on the Israel in crisis, a lot of which seems to have come to a head over the weekend and is still coming to a head. But before we do, the latest news on the international front is the attack earlier today using apparently two ballistic missiles to destroy a military school in Pavlova, Ukraine, not far from Kiev. At latest count, 51 people are dead and more than 200 are injured. Among the dead apparently are Polish military instructors. How do you view this? Is this part of the slow, methodical, inexorable movement of President Putin's military,

or is this a response to the Kiev incursion into Kursk? I think it's the natural inertia of this war. I'll know. And thanks for having me on, Judge. You know, this morning I read about this attack. At the same time, I was reading about Bloomberg was saying, reporting that the United States is going to provide what are called JASM missiles, Joint Air to Soft Surface Standoff Missiles. Depending on what type we give them, probably the older version, it's got a range of 250 miles. Those are air launched, so they'll go with the F-16s. But this, of course, is the latest wonder weapon. And so you see how these two things go hand in hand, how this continued escalation or the increase in targeting of facilities that previously had not been hit before. We really

haven't seen the Russians hit these soft military targets. We have seen them hit critical infrastructure. We've seen them hit marshalling areas, logistics points. But to my knowledge, we haven't seen them hit things such as schoolhouses, which is essentially this is a military schoolhouse like we have. And so the fact that this came the same day as this announcement from Bloomberg that the U.S. be providing these JASM missiles to Ukraine, you know, again, it goes it goes hand in glove. Is a military school a legitimate, valid, moral, legal military target? I believe so. I mean, in the sense that it is uniformed, it is military. If you look at a lot of the commentary in the Western press, they'll talk

about the surrounding damage because this military school, which is a communications school, was in a civilian area, which is how these things generally are, unless you have them on a large secluded base like we have here in the U.S., you know, you have these schools oftentimes that are co-mingled with civilian infrastructure. And so in this case, when these two ballistic missiles hit this military school, there was resulting damage to the surrounding neighborhood, which I believe included a hospital of some sort. I mean, and this is the danger that

we're in, in the sense of seeing this war as it continues on, where if you're in this type of status quo, where neither side can throw a punch to knock the other side out. And let me be clear, even if the Russians advance all the way to the Nipah River, and so they control the river from Kherson to south, all the way to Kiev in the North. They still have not knocked Ukraine out. So it's essentially a stalemate. This goes right into the hands of those who want this war. Those who, who, who, who's not just their profits, but their souls depend on this type of war. People like Boris Johnson, people like Lindsey Graham, right? I mean, so this idea that you get to a point where even either what we're seeing right now or have been seeing for the last couple of years, small advances, short advances, you know, continual type of war of attrition.

But ultimately, with no way to knock the other side out, unless, of course, for the Ukrainians, they lose their funding, which doesn't appear likely anytime soon. You know, you have this fear that it develops into what essentially the Iran-Iraq war developed into, which was a war of cities, where because neither side could knock the other side out militarily, they descended upon each other's cities in terms of launching missile attacks from one another, missile attacks at each other. And as a warning to our neoconservative friends out there, that's where the root of the Iranian ballistic missile program comes from. So not only these types of wars morph into horrible things where you just increasingly turn up the dial on the other side in a vain attempt to cause such suffering and horror that they'll give up. And we know that never works. But also it has long lasting consequences

that you then have to deal with decades from now. One of the things also too I read this morning was that the Iranians reportedly are going to start to provide ballistic missiles to the Russians. So you have an Iranian ballistic missile program, as well as an Iranian defense industry, that even though it is under the threat of a war with Israel and the United States, has so much capacity, has so much surplus, that they're able to give their missiles to Russia just as they've been doing with the drones. So, I mean, there's all types of, you know, stories involved in all this that should be taken as warnings as to where this could go in the future. It could happen in the past. Is there any significance to the fact that Polish military officers, active duty Polish military officers were killed?

Yeah, I mean, absolutely, Judge, in the sense that this is a complex war. This is not just a blue versus red that requires the full support up to the point of Kriegers being pulled by the official a lot of European and American mercenaries, contractors, whatever you want to call them over there working on behalf of Ukraine in a contract and a mercenary status. If this is true about Polish officers in uniform being killed, that shows that the NATO countries were not keeping their forces far removed from the front. Where this attack occurred, it's roughly about a third of the way from Kharkiv to Kiev. So, you know, not in the central or western part of the country, especially.

So, you know, you're seeing that the Western armies, the NATO armies are willing to put their people forward. I think it's also they thought maybe that this is since it was it's a communication school, since it was in a civilian area, that it will be safe from attack. And certainly the Russians have told them that's not the case. We also one thing to mention, too, is that we have seen a large number of strikes coming from Ukraine towards Russia, particularly in the last week or two. Over the weekend, the Ukrainians launched a strike on Russia that involved about 150 drones. And there have been many civilian casualties within Russia, not just in the Kursk region, but say in the Belgorod region, where just over the weekend, a childcare center was hit. So you have these effects of this Ukrainian determination to cause harm to the Russians. And again, this whole master plan that we're going to make things

so stressful for the Russians that they're going to rise up and overthrow Vladimir Putin and his government. And the reality is, as we know, that's not what happens. What it does is it sets people further in their determination to support their government and to defeat the enemy. How much of a thumb-nosing to the West is President Erdogan's announcement that Turkey has made an application to join BRICS. I don't know how they could stay in BRICS and NATO at the same time. Yeah. I mean, I think the Turks, like many others in the region, many others around the world, understand that you need to begin making moves now for the post-American empire future. And certainly anyone with any sense in their head would think that, hey, signing up with BRICS is a good thing. This is a good deal for me and my

country. And I think that's the way the Turks are looking at it. So not just taking a bet that this is the best way to go forward, but also too, just in the plain economics of it, the size of BRICS, the number of nations that want to attract to it, the behavior of the American and Americans and and their vassal states, you know, driving people away. I don't know if you saw it, Judge, about the fact that, you know, the United States stole the Venezuelan president's plane. I mean, this type of like, right, outlaw, bandit, gangster behavior. Why would anyone willingly be involved within a coalition, within an alliance, within the empire with something that's so maniacal, that's so schizophrenic, that's so criminal, because it's only a matter of time before you fall victim to them. And of course, so I mean, it just makes sense that the Turks would do this. The stated purpose of that theft was because President Maduro, who's not an American,

obviously, is not in the United States, obviously, violated American sanctions by having Venezuela do business with Russia. So for that, the federal government sends a team of FBI agents and U.S. marshals to steal a Venezuelan plane that happens to be parked in the Dominican Republic. And I don't get how that could possibly be justified in an American court of law. I mean, and the Turks are major trading partners with the Russians. As we, as United States launches these sanctions that we're going to cripple Russia, what if President Biden, he said something like, we're going to reduce the ruble to rubble or something like that.

You know, as they launched these massive launched this massive sanction campaign that utterly failed, utterly failed in many ways was counterproductive. You saw these nations just increase their trade with Russia, India, of course, China, of course, Iran, but also Turkey. So a member state of NATO, I'm pretty certain since its formation, the Turks are understanding the changing world. They're understanding the dynamics that are pushing other countries to join, to unify in order to present some type of hedge, some type of alternative to the existing structure. And it's just not the American military structure, but it's the American economic structure. Because the Americans, what we have done, because we have controlled the world financial system since World War II, since we were able to

set up basically the computer system, the SWIFT system that runs all the world's banking networks, because those things pass through the United States, we claim we have jurisdiction over the entire world. So this, you know, why would you want to be a part of a system like that? So, you know, I'm just surprised more nations haven't applied for BRICS, even though there have been at least, what, a dozen more. It's increased to, I think, BRICS has eight or nine members now, I think. And it's- It has, I think Jeff Sachs said this morning,

about 10% more GDP than the G7 has. Correct, absolutely. The G7 are supposedly the hoi polloi of the economic world. Switching gears, Israel appears to be in crisis. Massive demonstrations outside of Prime Minister Netanyahu's home, a general strike which only lasted a day until the courts shut it down. Public criticism by Mossad, leadership of Mossad, Mossad Shin Bet and the IDF. has criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu for reintroducing again this effort to take over the judiciary. Great Britain has decided to reduce the amount of arms it sends.

Okay, this is a lot in one question. Let's start with Great Britain. Is this political? Is it symbolic or is it significant that Great Britain is going to reduce the arms and equipment it sends to Israel? It certainly aggravated Netanyahu. It did. It's ultimately insignificant in terms of the effect it has on the Israeli military.

I mean, the Israelis get about 70% of their weapons from the U.S., about 28% from the Germans, and then the other 1% or 2% comes from nations around the U.S., about 28% from the Germans, and then the other 1% or 2% comes from nations around the world. And the fact that the British only, this blocking of arms licenses to Israel only applies to 30 out of about 350 they have issued, less than 10% of what they actually do, shows that this is just a political gesture, particularly because what they have chosen to exclude from not being a part of that ban, most especially components for the F-35, the F-35, which is dropping the 2,000-pound bombs, which are massacring whole families in Gaza. The British have said, no, you can still get those parts for those things. We're going to ban

whatever these items are. But it is significant. It shows the pressure that the Starmer government is under and considers. Certainly the Tory government would never have even countenanced this. So while this is really a gesture, it's meaningless. Of course, it upset the Israelis, but everything upsets the Israelis unless you do exactly what they say. Even if you did exactly what Netanyahu would say, he'd still be upset with you. I mean, so the idea, though, is that it shows that the Labor Party at least understands they have to start changing some things. And, you know, so there is some significance there. It's a single step, perhaps, in the right direction. How precarious is Prime Minister Netanyahu at the moment?

The demonstrations against him were massive. The public is siding with the hostage families. Very legitimate, very legitimate argument made in ha arets this morning that he killed the hostages not personally pulled the triggers but was responsible for their being killed by his entranced intransigence during the negotiations yeah and if people uh who are listening uh rather than watching like I do that, somebody could put that quick just so people know what that headline was. So the headline there was as Israel erupts in anger, Netanyahu spins, lies and sentences the hostages to death. You know, can you imagine an American paper reporting or criticizing in such a way?

You know, and this is one thing I think we should know. People are fed up, Matt. You know this better than I. Yeah, I mean, I think what we have to remember, though, is that in some ways Netanyahu is still the most popular politician in Israel. If you have a poll of the available politicians, available choices for the Israelis, Netanyahu comes at top. Now, he comes at top with less than a third of the support, but it shows that his base

is really unshakable, that his base is really committed to this. And so that, you know, when I was watching these videos of these hundreds of thousands of people who are out in the streets, who we have to also make clear we're not out there for peace. They were not out there supporting a two state settlement. They're not out there protesting a genocide that's occurring. They're over angerness over him, over him and even this weekend, the Israeli cabinet voted on this question of the Philadelphia corridor, this idea of keeping Israeli troops on the border there between Egypt and Gaza. And it was eight to one. Eight of the cabinet members voted with Netanyahu saying we're not moving our troops out, which is what Netanyahu said last night in a televised address. We're not we're not removing the troops from Philadelphia corridor.

You know, in that eight to one vote, the one who voted against that was the defense minister, Yoav Galant. And, you know, I think General Halebi, the IDF chief of staff, so the uniformed head of the military, you know, he let the cat out of the bag. When Halebi said, why don't we just get this ceasefire for six weeks, get the hostages back, I'm paraphrasing, allow ourselves to refit and rest and reorganize, and then we can go back in. So even those who are arguing against keeping troops there in the Philadelphia corridor are saying, just for the time being, just use it so that we can use this ceasefire for our purposes, get our people back home, as well as reorganize and refit the army. But when I was watching the videos of all the people who are out in the streets, and I wish we could mobilize like that here in the United States. I mean, you're talking about an Israeli population, Israeli Jewish population of what, seven or eight million, and they get one seventh, one eighth of them out on the streets. I wish we could do that here in the US. But you also have to remember, say there are three quarters

of a million Israelis out on the streets, you know, the last day or so. There are three quarters of a million armed Israeli settlers who view those people as traitors, right? Who view those people as betraying the cause of Israel, who believe those people are betraying their God. And you know how this works, Judge, right? For those types of people, the internal enemy, the traitors are much more dangerous and have to be handled much more ruthlessly than the external enemy, the other. Even if you're going to consider the other, the Palestinians non-human, they are not as dangerous as the Israelis who are betraying us. So I see that, you know, matching up with this type of, we've talked about this before, this idea that is Israel heading

towards some kind of civil war. And certainly if the commentary we've heard from Israelis who are speaking out about this, whether it's Major General Brick, right? We've talked about him, whether it's Ronan Barr, the current head of the Shin Bet. Major General Brick had another op-ed in Haaretz today saying essentially the same thing, that we are making our own path towards self-destruction. This is what they're getting at, is that we are tearing ourselves apart internally. Ronan Barr's concern as the head of roughly Israel's FBI was that, look, these Jewish settlers, these armed settlers are terrorists, and we can't control this. And at what point then these armed settlers who believe that their righteousness comes from God, going to start turning their weapons on Israelis

who aren't behaving the way they want them to behave, right? I mean, so you see this and you see how do they get out of this? How does anyone think that Netanyahu is going to give up power so easily? There were supposed to have been elections in October, and I've not seen anything much about that. But it would be interesting to see what occurs if those elections don't go Netanyahu's way. But it's important to remember that among Netanyahu's base, he still has a great degree of support. We certainly understand where he's thrown in. Remember, Judge, five months ago, six months ago, when Benny Gantz was threatening to leave the war cabinet,

and it was kind of this question of which way is Netanyahu going to go? Is he going to go with the religious right, with the Ben-Gavirs and the Smotrses, or is he going to go with Gantz and Lapid and the other national security, militarist, nationalist types? Well, we've seen where he's decided to go. He's going with the religious right. And so, you know, this showdown may be coming and it may be something that, you know, is going to be really horrible to watch. And on top of all of that, it's going to do nothing to help the Palestinians because no one involved in this in the Israeli side, no one with power, no one with the ability to get people on the streets are saying anything about ending this genocide. And as we see what's occurring in the West Bank, we now have a pretty good indication

that is Israel going to start carrying out genocide, ethnic cleansing within certain parts of the West Bank in a slow motion replication of what they did in Gaza. Matt Ho, thank you very much, my dear friend. A lot to digest, but your analysis, of course, is deeply appreciated. We'll see you again next week. Thanks, Judge. Of course, of course. Coming up at 2.30, Eastern, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.