Judging Freedom - Max Blumenthal : Iran Fully Prepared.

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

Max Blumenthal : Iran Fully Prepared.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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That's an equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited. plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, September 29, 2025. Max Blumenthal joins us now. Max, thank you very much, my dear friend.

I have a lot of questions for you. And I know this presser is going on as we speak. Do you have any handle on what Trump, and Netanyahu are announcing? Yeah, I wish that we were talking an hour from now so I could process more what's actually taking place. But it does look like there is an agreement on a 21-point plan, which is basically a pacification plan that is deeply corrupt for Gaza.

Most Israelis want to end the war. Netanyahu has been weakened, but he's accepting it, at least tentatively. and a Gaza International Board of Peace will be established with Trump at the top. At the bottom are like low-level Palestinian and Arab technocrats. And Tony Blair is supposed to oversee the provisional authority. So he becomes the new L. Paul Bremer of the Gaza Strip. Hamas members are given safe passage, basically, to leave.

Who's a Hamas member? Hamas won Palestinian national elections, sorry, Palestinian legislative elections back in 2006. So anyone who voted for them, that would be kind of a form of voluntary migration. And Gaza City is still being destroyed as we speak. And Trump has stated that if Hamas refuses this deal, basically he's made them an offer. They are not allowed to refuse. And Israel has full authority to totally destroy them. There is a withdrawal plan, which Israel is supposed to abide by.

Can Trump enforce it? I doubt it. And that, according to Trump, Arab and Muslim countries will be dealing with Hamas, meaning Egypt and countries that are very hostile to them. So they will be pitted against Hamas. Again, I wish I had more time to assess this. Last point is Netanyahu seems a little disappointed. And there are rumors filtering out of the White House that Trump sees Netanyahu as politically weakened.

And we've talked for months and months and months about how any ceasefire, however temporary, I mean, if it lasts for 60 days or more, would unravel Netanyahu's coalition. And Smotrick and Ben-Govir have already condemned this deal. And Ben-Govir has condemned Netanyahu for apologizing to Qatar for the recent attack, which obviously he was forced to do as part of it. this deal. So he's weaker than ever. And will his government collapse? It's possible. Again, I can't really make an assessment now. I think his government will

collapse, could collapse upon implementation if he actually forces the military out in a way that does not provide the religious nationalist settler camp with the new Gushkatif style settlements that they're seeking. Remember, Bezschev style settlements that they're seeking. Remember, Osmotrich, the finance minister, said that the final solution for Gaza is actually a real estate deal, and it's going to be Jews-only real estate. So Netanyahu is in peril now, and obviously Trump is frustrated with him. Trump has also made some bizarre comments about how Iran could join the Abraham Accords. I think...

I'm sure Netanyahu loved hearing that. Well, I mean, it would only happen after Iran's... government, Islamic Republic, was destroyed and there was regime change because Iran would never join the Abraham Accords and submit to Israel, which is what the Abraham Accords is about. So all these problems, and we're going to know, I think, in 72 hours, whether all sides actually are able to agree to this. Hamas agreed a week ago. Again, they've been agreeing to this since at least March or sorry, May of 20. But this time they openly agreed to return all hostages in exchange for several conditions, which had supposedly already been agreed upon. So Hamas is demonstrating enormous flexibility. And again, this is after Netanyahu tried to eliminate, kill their entire negotiating team in Qatar.

What is your take on the meeting that you and Scott Ritter and Jeff Sacks and I in about 25 or 30 others had with President Poschkian of Iran last Wednesday. Well, this was like a press conference for anti-war figures. There were activists there. There were journalists. There were, you know, pundits and very broad panoply politically was represented there. And Peschkian wanted to speak to the American public through us rather than speaking to to the Trump administration, which cannot really be moved in his view at this point because it is so subservient to Israel, as Tucker Carlson's sources in the Middle East have been saying, Netanyahu's boasting about how he has Trump under his thumb. So Pazesh Guyan warned in that meeting that war is

coming. He said, for sure they will attack again, referring to Israel and presumably the U.S. And he even grimly forecasted his own, another attempt on his own life and stated that Iran has prepared five to six steps ahead of every contingency, including the elimination of its elected president. So the reason the meeting was held was Iran expects war at any moment, just talking to contacts inside Iran. They're all expecting it. many were expecting it sooner, but they feel like the snapback sanctions, which were hypocritically imposed by the E3, three European countries that were part of the P5 plus one, after the U.S. ripped up the deal, the JCPOA, that the snapback sanctions were really the trigger for another potential war.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, has told TAS, the Russian wire service that he is hearing from his own sources that Israel's preparing for a war on Iran. And this might be a way for them to blow up the 21-point plan in Gaza for Netanyahu to shore up his coalition. At the same time, Lavrov has said that his sources, and in Israeli media has also said this as well, echoing Pazashkian in our own meeting, the war will be more violent, and Iran's government is much stronger than Israel understood during the 12-day war. And Peschkian said that his society, he's a reformist president.

He represents sort of the urban middle class and that wants a more socially liberal society. And he has been more critical of the Islamic Republic than previous presidents. And he stated that even harsh critics in Iran and opponents of the Islamic Republic united around the flag and behind the military because Israel killed so many civilians, and they were so offended by the unprovoked nature of that attack. And what that really means is that Israel, in attempting this surprise attack, forfeited its ultimate objective of destabilizing Iranian society to the point where they actually achieve regime change and the streets become uncontrollable. And so Iran has a political advantage there going into what appears to be the next round

of a more violent conflict. forgive me if we've covered this before why did the israeli's bomb a prison an iranian prison was it an accident or was there some diabolical purpose to killing prisoners and the people visiting them now that that's a great question and it connects directly to the last point i made israel bombed evin prison and they thought i mean this is like the most extreme neo-conservative delusional thinking. They thought by bombing this prison that they would send a message to the part of Iranian society that opposes the Islamic Republic, that Israel stands with them and wants to actually liberate the prisoners in Evan prison, who many of them are sort of considered

political prisoners, including people who have attempted to foment regime change, as well as dissidents. And it's always harshly condemned by the human rights industrial complex. So Israel bomb the gates, thinking they would send a message and that it would lead people into the streets. Instead, what they wound up doing was not only killing many prisoners, killing social workers, killing prison guards, killing families who are there to visit their dissident family members, and they wound up facing the harshest consternation from some of the loudest voices. Supporting regime changed like Nargis Mohamedi condemning Israel for doing that. So it completely backfired.

And this really speaks to the delusional thinking that animates Israel's war on Iran. There won't be a regime change war this time. It will be a war in which Israel seeks to drag the U.S. more deeply into this conflict, which could lead to global economic disaster with the Strait of Hormuz being closed. And again, they think they have Trump under their thumb. Do we know any more about the efforts at the home of Bill Ackman and East Hampton, Long Island, New York, to dissuade Charlie Kirk from his rejection of the Zionist ideology? Well, you know, if I'd been an advisor to Peschkeyan, I would have told him to go before the UN

and declare that Americans oppose war with Iran, including, Charlie Kirk who lobbied against it in the White House. Like that would have really made waves. I reported that at the gray zone and Vice President J.D. Vance came out on Charlie Kirk's show sitting in his empty host chair and corroborated what I said. And then I followed up by reporting on this secret influencer meeting where Charlie Kirk was screamed at by a Zionist fanatic influencer named Natasha Hausdorf, who heads a group called lawyers for Israel, U.K. lawyers for Israel, their job is basically to get everyone who protests Israel's genocide jailed. They've been behind the efforts to jail the Irish band Kneecap

for condemning Israel from the stage. So Charlie Kirk was facing all of these fanatical figures at a time when his own conservative grassroots is against the war with Iran, when he was against it, was against Israeli malign influence in the United States. And since I report, on that meeting, we've been learning so much about Israel's influence operations in the United States through, for example, the meeting Benjamin Netanyahu held with young influencers who all appear to be on his payroll in one way or another. Outside the UN, I just debated one of them on Pierce Morgan, if you want to call it a debate. And it was pretty bonkers. I mean, she, I don't know. I mean, Hitler had influencers too, but Lenny Riefen

install had talent. Like, I can't believe some of the people that Netanyahu is recruiting. It's like this short bus of right-wing racists. And they, and then she, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, asked Netanyahu, um, what do we do to stop Candice Owens and Tucker Carlson from influencing all of these conservatives to oppose Israel's, uh, designs across the region and in the U.S. and he said, he called them the Woke Reich. So he called American personalities Nazis. And then he said, we need to basically buy TikTok, which is what is currently taking place with Larry Ellison, the friends of the IDF donor and Oracle billionaire, who's a friend of Netanyahu's who's buying

TikTok with Andresen Horowitz, Horowitz being Ben Horowitz, the son of the anti-Palestinian agitator David Horowitz. Netanyahu is basically saying they're buying it for Israel. Then they're buying Paramount, Ellison and his son are buying Paramount, putting out an October 7th propaganda film on HBO Max this October 7th. And then they're installing Barry Weiss, the voice of the Zionist, 0.1% is editor of CBS News, according to reports. So this is the agenda that was reflected at the Hampton's secret influencer retreat that I exposed. And it's what's making Netanyahu nervous and why he's doing this is he's losing the last bastion of pro-Israel support in the U.S. among the conservative grassroots.

And let me close this window so I can get better sound here. We're back. All right. Chris has this woman that you're talking about asking a question of Netanyahu. Watch this. So something I would like to raise, which was actually my first published paper, was how you and the Likud Party are cut from the same ideological. cloth as Trump and the GOP in America.

And so specifically with Charlie Kirk's assassination, who was a big mentor of mine, who's my first mentor in the space. Evangelicals, from all my research, evangelicals are the reason that Israel has been supported in public sphere outside of just Jews. So with Charlie's assassination and with the kind of trajectory that we see with, like, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, I guess I'm curious about what's another game plan if we lose evangelical support for the state of Israel? what's our backup plan to be strong, like, outside of the diaspora?

Is this woman who calls herself a Jewish-American princess? Is she a Christian evangelical? No, I think she's Jewish. Her last name is actually Schwartzbin, which isn't exactly a Gentile name, but she just goes by Deborah Leah because that's more influencer-y. And, you know, she went on the requisite propaganda tour to Israel, denied the existence of a Palestinian state. And in my interview, my engagement with her,

she came in pretty hot and accused me of being funded by Iran, which would be a violation of U.S. sanctions law. And it would be also, it's highly ironic that she would make that accusation because it's not as though she's well known for anything. She's no one had ever heard of her before. And she's essentially a creation of Netanyahu. Israel's billionaire cutouts in the United States as they seek to take over social media to prevent young people from continuing to rebel against this genocide that Netanyahu

is unleashed in Gaza. And he's obviously failing. But she's part of a coterie of influencers who are all sort of anti-woke, conservative. And it's all because of Netanyahu's problems with the conservative grassroots where, according to every single poll of young American's attitudes, Republicans under 35, now oppose Israel, are done with it for the most part. This is even happening in evangelical communities. It's even happening to some extent within Mormon communities. And it really comes down to two simple things. The scene that we just saw there, where Netanyahu calls to buy U.S. media for a foreign country,

America firsters don't like that, and they don't respect Israel firsters within their ranks. And number two, some of them are actually consistently pro-life and don't like waking up to social media showing them other people's children being shredded every day because they're designated as demographic threats to the ethno-supremicist exclusively Jewish state. And that problem ain't going away. Here's another clip of influencers hired by Netanyahu. Imagine supporting people who start wars just to lose the wars so they can cry about it and then try it all again. You must see anti-Semites are literally obsessed with Jews.

Now walk with me. While you must see anti-Semites are stacking eviction notices, Jews are out here stacking up businesses. Jews control all the industries. Maybe if you spent more time taking notes from successful people, you wouldn't have to spend your nights and weekends spreading hate from your anonymous account with an anime profile picture. Do you work as hard as Jews? Do you network like Jews?

No, because you're too busy cheering on a group of musty terrorists who smell like dirty earring backs. And if we're going to keep a real, you're really mad because your income is giving side hustle. Period. How are you going to hate from outside Shabbat? You can't even get in. Yeah. Is that convincing?

No, of course not. It's absurd. It's obscene and they're literally rubbing it in the faces of Gentiles who refuse to bow down to the Israeli order. This is a video I found on TikTok actually and I tweeted it out. And I saw a lot of pretty prominent conservatives who I wouldn't describe as Israel critics actually express. discussed, including Tim Poole, who met privately with Netanyahu at the Blair House during his last trip to D.C. So it's not working. I forget the name of the woman in the, who appears in that, but she was a sort of budding sports journalist who is represented by the Hollywood agent Casey Wasserman, who is actually one of the top Zionist fundraisers for Joe Biden and for the

Democrats, which is ironic because she's being marketed as a conservative influencer. And Xavier D. Rousseau, who is one of the figures who went to the Secret Hampton's Influencer Summit with Bill Ackman. And every time I tried to ask him about it, he'd tell me he has to go to three weddings in Italy or he was wine drunk, a really absurd character who was flown on the Israeli government's dime, reportedly, to go into the Gaza frontier to a Gaza humanitarian Foundation's site and mock starvation in Gaza. He actually said that Hamas leaders are eating all the ramen and that's why they're on Ozzympic. Again, I don't know how that convinces anyone.

It's just, it sort of might amuse the death cult that supports what's happening in Gaza, but I don't think it convinces anyone else. And this is a lot of money. I mean, the Israeli foreign ministries ponied up for this year, $150 million. And they're not just paying conservatives. It looks like CNN's Van Jones. who comes from the left is in their back pocket as well. They're getting everyone on board for the last final battle on the eighth front of Netanyahu's global war, which is the battle for the American mind. He must know that he is hemorrhaging support in the United States.

Have you received, you personally, and the Grey Zone received backlash because of your coverage of the efforts by Ackman and Company to intimidate Kirk before he died? Well, we could, and I don't know what could take place. What wound up happening was that my reporting was some of it was amplified or echoed by Candice Owens, who was Charlie Kirk's comms director. She was part of this whole network and was flown. to Jerusalem when the embassy, U.S. Embassy was moved by Sheldon Adelson on a private jet, I think with Charlie Kirk. And then she turned against them in a very strong way and has much

more influence and cachet on the right and within Trump world than I do. And her live streams about Charlie Kirk's killings. I mean, if you watch one of them, they're getting more engagement than pretty much anyone, especially anyone pro-Israel like Ben Shapiro, who's an astro-turfed. creation. So they went after her and really I've put a target on her back and it was a complete meltdown that ensued for a week after the Bill Ackman Hampton's Influencer Summit, but they focused on her because she's sort of a, I would say, a greater threat to their narrative. And at the same time, they are obviously threatened by any real reporting that takes place around this and there's more to come. There's a lot more to come. And we're

And we should look at the precedent that they've said in the Gaza Strip, where in advance of the reoccupation of Gaza City, the Israeli army assassinated the last remaining well-known, internationally known journalists, especially Anas Sharif, but they also assassinated Reuters correspondent, the Reuters correspondent in a hospital in Khan Yunus. Then, in a double-tap strike, they assassinated the Associated Press photographer, Mariam Daga. So that's what they're doing to journalists there. And as they continue to lose and fail on the world stage, I believe they will escalate their operations against the, against investigative journalists who threaten their objectives. CNN is reporting, and maybe this came about when you jumped on this show, that Trump says there is no agreement, but they are close to it.

And then, of course, he made a big deal out of Netanyahu's reluctant and maybe politically suicidal apology to Qatar for the airstrike. And then they left without taking any questions at all. Yeah, of course. I mean, and Netanyahu will never, ever take questions outside of a controlled setting. He was actually supposed to have to do an event at the synagogue that Ivanka and Jared Kushner attend in the Upper East Side yesterday with Mark Levin from Fox, but he will never meet with an Israeli journalist to answer tough questions. The missing persons and hostages for him in Israel is

strongly behind what Trump is doing. The majority of Israelis, as we've discussed, have genocidal views, but the vast majority also support a ceasefire. They want whatever Jewish life is left in Gaza to be preserved. And if Trump lets this one, fail and fails to exercise the massive leverage that any U.S. president should have on the president of a tiny little apartheid colony. If he fails to do that, those hostages will be dead. And it will be another massive political failure that will highlight the real power, the real power dynamics where Trump has essentially been controlled again and again. And the next event will likely be an attack on Iran. So this is where the rubber meets the road. And Trump needs to

exercise some leverage for the first time. By the way, I mean the apology to Qatar, that looks like something that Trump delivered in exchange for the $400 billion that Qatar put in the control of Trump incorporated after his visit over there. So that was the leverage they had, along with three cabinet-level Trump officials who are former Qatar lobbyists. But it needs to go further. Well, Max, thank you very much. Again, your knowledge of this is encyclopedic. And I know you wanted to hear Netanyahu, who was on while we were on. I deeply appreciate your jumping on this. All the best to you, my friend. We'll see again next week. Thanks a lot, Judge. Thank you. And coming up at 4 o'clock on all of this, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Judge Napolitano for

judging freedom. Thank you.