Judging Freedom - Phil Giraldi (fmr CIA): Is the US an honest broker with Israel?

Episode Date: November 30, 2023

Phil Giraldi (fmr CIA): Is the US an honest broker with Israel?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. Today is Wednesday, November 29th, 2023. Coming up, Phil Giraldi, and I will ask him the question, is the United States an honest broker between Israel and Hamas? But first this. Judge Napolitano here. The world is falling apart and the government wants to spend money to try and save it. The Israelis are defending themselves from the greatest onslaught in their history. Ukraine is collapsing. We are trying to fund both on borrowed money and borrowed time.

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And if you want to diversify what's in your IRA from stocks and mutual funds, Thank you. to $15,000 in bonus gold or silver. Call today, 800-511-4620, learjudgenap.com. When you talk to them, tell them the judge sent you. Phil, welcome back, my dear friend. You have written an extensive piece on the various PR pressures that the government of Israel has put on the Congress of the United States. Let's start with some basics. What is AIPAC, A-I-P-A-C? Well, AIPAC is generally seen as the most powerful and most direct component of what is referred to as the Israel lobby. AIPAC stands for American Israel Public Affairs Committee. And if you go to their website, you will see that they are very open about saying that they exist basically to support Israel

in its relationship with the United States, meaning they are there to make sure Israel maximizes what it gets out of that relationship in terms of weapons, in terms of money. And the thing that most people forget about, but it's maybe the most important thing, is political cover. The United States gives political cover to Israel in organizations like the United Nations, for example. So Israel is never held accountable for anything. So that's basically what this all comes down to. Are the AIPAC people foreign agents? I mean, they're lobbying for a foreign government to the American government.

If you or I became agents of the government of Italy, we'd have to register with the Justice Department in order to do it. It's perfectly lawful, but you have to tell the feds that you've become a foreign agent. can address that pretty well because I've had the government accuse me of wanting to attend a conference hosted by an Iranian group that they did not approve of. And the several Americans and myself who wanted to go just to attend this conference were told that we would be subject to criminal penalties under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, which basically says that anyone acting on behalf of a foreign government, under direction of a foreign government, which AIPAC definitely does, as well as probably 20 other groups that support Israel that I could probably come up with in mentioning that it does

this, but the United States government is afraid to try to make it register. John F. Kennedy was the last president who tried to do so, and many believe he paid the price for that. Wow. So this is a foreign lobbying group that lobbies the federal government, but they don't register as foreign agents. What does it mean to register as a foreign agent? Do you still just fill out a form or do they monitor what you do? Do they treat you as if you're a spy? Well, in a sense, they do. The thing is, if you register under FARA, your accounts become open to see where you're getting your money from. Because many of these groups are tax exempt. So they don't even have much transparency in terms of where their money comes from. And also the big thing is that you have to be accountable for the meetings that you have with embassy officials here in the United States, and you have to be transparent about what you discuss. So this would be a big burden on top of a group like AIPAC, where they actually would have to talk about how they're subverting the

United States government. That would be a problem for them. What about the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League? Are they in the same category as AIPAC? ADL plays it a little bit differently. They tend to focus more on what they see as anti-Semitism and other issues like that in the United States. But the fact is, of course, they are also 100% all in favor of Israel. And the trick they pull is to make it appear that people who criticize Israel do so because they're anti-Semites. And of course, if you're

an anti-Semite, that could be construed as a hate crime. And again, we're criminalizing free speech in this sense. If I say something that they disapprove of, ADL disapproves of about Israel, they'll say I'm an anti-Semite just on that basis. And they will come after me and they will have their lackeys in the U.S. government come after me too. What happened with the Iranian conference? Did you end up going or not going? I ended up not going because I got a very specific letter from the Justice Department telling me that I could be fined up to, and this was what was funny about it, I could be fined up to $321,000 if I went to this conference. Where did they get that number from? Exactly. There was no explanation for it.

Somebody must have pulled it out of his behind, but it was incredible. And none of the other Americans who were invited to this conference, all of whom were decent anti-war type people, we were all afraid to go. None of us went. Wow. Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted by a vote of 412 to 1 to 1. So there was one dissent and there was one abstention to equate opposition to the Netanyahu government with anti-Semitism. Now, this is just a resolution of the House. It's not legislation. But I often wonder why they do these things. The one and the one where the abstainer was Qarun Tlaib, who was herself Palestinian,

who was disciplined by the House two weeks ago because she sang a song using a phrase from the river to the sea. The dissenter was the model of personal courage and constitutional fidelity, in my view, Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky, who basically was of the view that this was not for the government to do, to get involved in this kind of thing. But why does the government do these things? And why are the numbers so overwhelming? 412, there's 435 members of the house there are a few vacancies and there were a few people not there 412 to one to one how does something get that lopsided well uh the simple

answer is it's because they're under the thumb of the Israel lobby uh and Israel has penetrated our government system very effectively through the lobby. And this is what you get out of the other end. As far as these people are concerned, there is a First Amendment and you have freedom of speech in the United States, unless you're saying something about Israel. And this is appalling. This is disgusting. But the fact is they get away with it because they have such influence. I would even go further control over many congressmen. They they are major donors to congressmen. And this has an impact. They have major, major influence over what appears in the media.

And this has a major impact on politicians running for office. And basically, as you open a newspaper today, you go and watch television news live, every other story is about antisemitism. So this is pounded into the American brain, that this is a criminal thing to believe that someone like Benjamin Netanyahu is beyond criticism, because to criticize him is anti-Semitism and to hell with the First Amendment. I mean, that is really absurd. Netanyahu is under fierce criticism from Israelis. His poll ratings are down worse than Joe Biden's. He heads a minority government. Most secular Jews in Israel can't stand him. And yet members of Congress suffer terribly if they publicly criticize him. Were these lobbying groups involved in bringing the United States to the invasion of Iraq, one of the most ill-guided military disasters of the modern era?

Well, I would have to say, yes, they were. They were supportive of the invasion of Iraq, just as they've been constantly bleeding about how they want the United States to take on Iran. I was reading some news items today, and they were making the point that Iran is threatening us through what has been happening in Syria and uh and Iraq well what's happening in Syria and Iraq is we are illegally occupying both those countries militarily but this kind of stuff goes on and on but the uh Iraq war was primarily uh instigated by a group of Geo of Jewish neoconservatives who were primarily located in the Pentagon. This was the Office of Special Plans. This was Paul Wolfowitz. This was a number of people that were working together and producing fake intelligence to make the case that Iraq was a threat to the United States, which was a total fantasy. But this is

the basis that we essentially went to war on. And these were the people that did it. And this was more the neocons in government rather than these groups initiating it. But the groups were right as soon as these narratives came out. Who is Amos Hochstein, and what is his relationship to the American government and the Israeli government? Yeah, that's an interesting story that just kind of came out a couple days ago. And Amos Hochstein has recently been appointed by the president as his envoy to Israel and Lebanon in an effort, apparently, to keep that situation from exploding. Now, that's the explanation for it. But the funny thing is, Hochstein is an Israeli.

He's Jewish. He served in the Israeli army. After he got out of the army, he came to Washington. And this was in the 90s. And he basically went off like a rocket. His trajectory through the offices started with a Jewish congressman, went on from there. He was for some time under Obama, the State Department's energy person. And as far as the author of some of the pieces I've seen on Hochstein, he doesn't even have a college degree. And so anyway, now he is the man in Israel and Lebanon, and he's basically an Israeli.

Now, where is the U.S. interest in this? And why would anyone be crazy enough to appoint an Israeli to go and mediate a situation involving Israel, particularly as in this case, there is a great deal of money on the table. The concern is that if Gaza is basically destroyed, which is possibly what is in the cards right now, the Israelis will have access to a great deal of gas and oil reserves that are right off the coast of Gaza. That'll be under the control of Israel. And it's worth billions and billions of dollars. So this is a whole strange little thing that's happening here. Is there any precedent of which you're aware from your experience in the military and in the intelligence community where the president of the United

States to dispatch a person who's a citizen of a foreign country to represent the United States in negotiation between that country of which he is a citizen and another country at which they're at war. Hochstein is an Israeli and a citizen of Israel, and he supposedly is negotiating in behalf of Joe Biden, correct me if I'm wrong, Phil, between Israel and Lebanon. Do I have that right? Well, the question is what could go right? I mean, basically, this is a guy whose fundamental loyalty is to Israel. His mother and father currently live in Israel. He was educated as far as he was educated in Israel. He served in the military in Israel. And he's over here like a carpetbagger. And this guy is going to do what's right for

Israel. And why should anyone question that? That will be where he'll come down. Have you ever heard of this before? The president of the United States designating a citizen of a foreign country to mediate on behalf of the United States between that other country of which he's a citizen and their adversary? The interesting aspect of this is that he still is an Israeli citizen. So you wonder how he got a security clearance. I have heard many cases, of course, where people were born in other countries and emigrated to the United States. And when they become American citizens, they have to renounce their other loyalties and frequently give up their passports. And here we have a case where a guy is a current citizen of a foreign country that is involved in serious negotiations. And he essentially has been given this job

where he will be doing things that could benefit that foreign country. So this is really odd. What can you tell us about a guy by the name of Itamar Ben-Gavir, who's the minister of national security in the Netanyahu administration and who opposed the hostage swap and opposed the truces that came about in order to produce the hostage swaps? Well, Ben-Gavir is the ultimate hardliner. He's a guy who believes and has pushed forward legislation that basically says if a Palestinian is protesting about something, the nearest soldier can shoot him dead and there will be no consequences. So this is where his head is uh he is one of several cabinet ministers in the netanyahu cabinet who are fully in favor of eradicating um gaza and this is uh and then there's also of course one cabinet minister who's in favor of using a nuclear weapon to do it.

So this is the kind of thinking we're getting out of Israel at this time. And also bear in mind, there's a lot of stuff going on in the West Bank where the remainder of the Palestinians live. There have been over 200 Palestinians killed by police and military and by armed settlers since all of this started. And there have been over 2,000, I think the number was 2,300 Palestinians who have been arrested in what they call preventive detention, where the government doesn't even have to charge them. It just throws them in jail. Well, the people that have been arrested are called prisoners.

The people that have been kidnapped are called hostages. I think they're both hostages. Al Jazeera reported this morning that as soon as the Israelis released 39 Palestinian hostages, they began arresting, and they arrested 133 more. So do these negotiators who arrange for these hostage swaps, did they forget to prohibit the kidnapping of more hostages? Yeah, that's the funny part of it. And I noticed that right away when they came to this agreement. I said, my God, these people are going to be released, but they're still going to be on the West Bank and the Israelis could turn around and rearrest them the next day. The whole thing

doesn't make any sense. Let's see in the next 24, 48 hours, how all this kind of stuff plays out, whether this leads to something that maybe is more definitive or something that humanitarian, no, I hesitate to use that word. But let's, let's see where it goes, because the whole thing doesn't, it lacks a certain credibility. Mr. Ben-Gavir, I guess, is in charge of the Israeli police when they're in the West Bank or when they're in Gaza. And he has prohibited demonstrations of joy. these public demonstrations where the Palestinian hostages arrive from the Israeli jail and then they're greeted with large crowds and much enthusiasm. And he has attempted to suppress that joy by instructing the Israeli police to use an iron fist in which to do so how does a character like this become in charge of the police in a place like palestine well you know he basically uh he has a certain song that he

sings that appeals to uh netanyahu and his crew it's uh this guy is not there by accident he's uh he's been rewarded for what he is and what he says and he and um bear in mind how this all started back in october 6 7. um ben gavir also is in charge of the police in jerusalem oh and um there was um a mob of armed settlers um at the-Aqsa Mosque, which is one of Islam's holiest sites, who were attacking worshippers. And they were doing this with the police standing there and watching it. Was this a contrived incident to start another incident maybe over in Gaza, which is now being exploited to basically carry out a genocide i don't know but that has that's certainly moving around in my head so i i you

know these these people are some of these people if you listen to them talk they're fundamentally evil they they are quite willing to kill thousands and maybe even millions of people or force them to leave their homes and push them into Egypt or push them into Jordan, into a refugee camp. They're quite happy to do that. And this is disgraceful. And Biden should be the one pushing back on this, but he's not. The Telegram has reported that Hamas was rehearsing for the October 7th attack since last December, so December of 22. So that would mean 10 months of rehearsal. And the Financial Times has reported that a group of about five female IDF members, young women who were trained to operate tanks, noticed an extraordinary amount of use of drones, as if the drones were practicing something

on the Gaza side of the border between Gaza and Israel. And these young women reported it to their bosses, who basically just dismissed what they said. The last of the reports was on October 6th. How could the vaunted Mossad have been so wrong, arrogant, indifferent? Or do you think Bibi knew about this ahead of time? Well, I would say they were all of that. But I think in addition to that, there is, at least I believe, there is a political element that this was allowed to happen. And that would have to go up to the top levels of the netanyahu government i believe that because there's just too much evidence that this was known the israelis also

had their own informants inside gaza who were probably seeing these training exercises so this was all being reported and the fact that they did not react to it respond to it in what one would think is a normal way indicates to me that there is another level we're looking at a level that probably will not be exposed until the war is over and there's an investigation of what prime minister and netanyahu knew and uh knew and when he knew it. I say when the war is over. He stays in office, I would think, for as long as the war goes on, so he has an incentive to keep the war going on.

What will happen when these prisoner swaps are over? Will the IDF go back to annihilating the Gazan people and trying to force them totally out of Gaza, even aiming weapons at South Gaza where they told the northern Gaza residents to go to for safety? Well, I suspect that's the next phase. Netanyahu keeps repeating that the military aspect of this will be returned to after the swaps are over. So that's why I would expect in the next 48 hours or so, we're going to be seeing where this is going to be going. What's your feeling? I think we're going to see a lot more blood.

Okay. Wow. Thank you, Phil. Thank you for your analysis and for your time. As unpleasant as these topics are, it is gratifying to hear your analysis and explanation of what it is. All the best to you, my friend. Well, thank you for having me on again. Of course. Coming up at four o'clock Eastern, the great Professor John Mearsheimer and a special guest at five o'clock Eastern, Max Blumenthal, Judge Napolitano. Oh, keep remembering to subscribe. We're up to two hundred and forty one thousand. Our goal is a quarter of a million by Christmas. So we have a few weeks left.

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