Judging Freedom - Ray McGovern : Netanyahu Changes His Objective Because He's Losing

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Ray McGovern : Netanyahu Changes His Objective Because He's LosingSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Fragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? the government? What if Jefferson was right? What if that government is best, which governs least?

What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for judging freedom. Today is Monday, March 30th, 2006. Ray McGovern will be with us in just a moment on Prime Minister Netanyahu changing his objectives because he's losing. But first this. Don't you just cringe when people say, I told you so. Sorry. I told you. Gold and silver would reap the benefits due to excessive money printing, inflation, and global uncertainty. It's here. It's happened. Gold and silver have reached all-time highs. Did you call Lear Capital and buy some? It's not too late.

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Call 800, 511, 4620, or go to Learjudge's nap.com. Ray McGovern, welcome here, my dear friend. And thank you, as always, for all you do. I know you had a busy weekend. You were in D.C. giving a remarkable lecture, moderating a remarkable group of peaceful protests. And I think you were also demonstrating at the Pentagon. For a while, I thought you were going to get arrested.

I know Mrs. McGovern did not want you to get arrested, so you didn't. Yeah, it's better to obey wives than what you hear. as a call from God. Before we get to Israel and what appears to be like Trump, it's change in objectives from regime change to the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, which of course was perfectly open two months ago, a few questions about Kushner and Whitkoff. Are they respected as negotiators?

Judge, I've said this before. They're shysters. I know the type. I come from the Bronx. Wirtcuff owns lots of apartment blocks in the Bronx where a lot of my friends lived. I mean, they cannot be trusted. When Netanyahu came to Marilago at the very end of last year, the 29th of December,

matched the plan. Number one, we're going to attack. Iran full bore. Number two, we're going to do this really clever surreptitious pretense that we're going to seek a mutual accommodation through negotiations. Now, when I saw Trump opt for negotiations by sending his two satraps out there, I was deceived and thinking, well, maybe Trump told Netanyahu no. Well, silly me. He told him, we got to be. We got this planned, and we can deceive these guys. And as I think Larry pointed out before, that deal was almost consummated, and we have the mediator of that deal, the Omani foreign

minister, who heard, and with the intermediary there in Geneva on the 26th of February, came back to Washington and told Vance and then told Margaret Brennan, look, who are this close, the Iranians have shown amazing flexibility on the enrichment issue. I mean, they're willing to let the IAE back in. They're willing to have maybe U.S. inspect, my God, well, we're this close. And, of course, the Omani Farm Minister feared the worst. He must have got a cold reception from Vance. And the next day on the 28th of February began the war.

So, I mean, talk about sheisters. I wouldn't trust them to walk my dog. Let me expand this a little bit. Dimitri Peshkov, one of the smartest political analysts around. He works for Vladimir Putin. Sergei Lavrov, probably the most respected international diplomat on the planet today. Do they trust Whitkoff and Kushner? Not anymore.

I guess whether it was a matter of trust, it was a matter of dealing with them. In other words, they were the person of representatives of Trump, president of the United States. That's the only people that Trump sent to deal with the Russians. So the Russians usually deal with such people. Why didn't they said, why didn't Trump send Rubio? Well, Rubio would have been worse still, okay? So these people seem to be trusted by Trump. Why not listen to them?

Why not listen to them from 11 in the evening until 4 o'clock in the next morning, as Putin actually did, and then said later, it was worth it because when every one of those little points that we're trying to work out on Ukraine, well, that's all gone now. There's no trust left between the Russians, the Iranians, or anybody else with these two sheisters. I'd be surprised if they show up anywhere in public anytime soon. The President of the United States is apparently desperate to bring about an end to the war. Is Prime Minister Netanyahu is desperate?

You know, desperate is a key word here. It means without hope. You know, when you have a delusional narcissist in power in Washington, Narcissism by definition, you can't be without hope for yourself or some sort of Deus ex machina to bail you out of a bad situation. Now as you know, Judge, despite all the arms and all the naval vessels and everyone going down there to the Southwest Asia, I thought that would be crazy for Trump to do it did attack Iran. Well, they did it anyway. Okay. Well, why did I think it would be crazy? Because

I knew the Iranians. They said, look, we're going to close the Strait of Hormuz. That would be crazy. Well, now it's closed except for people paying Juan and also people who are not supporting the United States. So that happened. Now, here I am confronted with this Kakamimi notion that U.S. Marines and paratroopers from the 82nd where I trained are going to be put somewhere anywhere. That's crazy. And I said, well, way of the second, McGovern, you said that before, didn't you hear? So, you know, Larry? You're so likable being so self-facing. I'm sorry. I just had to laugh. Go ahead, please. No, I'm sorry. Larry has it right with respect to the troops. The question is, when someone sensible will talk sense into Trump.

You know, this National Press Club event that I orchestrated on behalf of the Eisenhower Media Network and Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, I thought that what we ought to do was address the main question, and that is, why? Why are we doing this stuff? You know, it's enough to complain about, oh, there are no planning, saying, oh, now we're going to send troops. Why are we getting in the first place? And I'm going to read this, although I haven't committed to memory, and it's not the first time, but it bears repetition because you had Rubio on this morning, circumlocutting, as he learned well in that Ivy League school,

and talking about all kinds of things like nuclear ambitions. where's the proof? Where's the need to preempt? Where is the immediate threat? So here's what Rubio said two days after the attack on Iran. Quote, we knew there was going to be an Israeli action. Oh, so we knew there was going to be as an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack on American forces. and we know that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks,

we would suffer higher casualties, period, end quote. So preempt here, where's the imminent threat? Well, we heard about that from Joe Kent, didn't we? The guy who resigned. Next to the top of the National Television structure. And what he said was there was, no immediate threat. There was pressure on Trump from Israelis on that side of the ocean, and Israelis here. That's what caused it. So, you know, there was a title, what was a takeoff on,

it's the economy stupid, right? There was a title in one article I read last week, said, it's Israel stupid. Okay. Well, I didn't do that during this press conference, but that's the whole thing we have to bear in mind. Now, if Netanyahu is an extremist, and I've said before, he's politically vulnerable, because if things go south for him, he's going to end up in jail with his wife in that nice little bridal suite that they have already prepared for him. The Supreme Court has ruled against any pardon, okay? That's big news. So he's that personal, what, what's the world? The personal stake, an existential threat personally as well as an existential threat for Israel. So is he going to cave in? I think chances are better than even, and I'll say this one more time, that he would resort to nuclear weapons rather than cave in for either reason, the existential threat to Israel or for himself. And I don't know how to prevent that unless the Russians and the Chinese come in with both feet and say, look, this is not going to be tolerated.

We're going to be able to prevent this. And if you try to do this, this is what's going to happen. That will be worse still for Netanyahu. Trump, would he say, oh, please don't do that? Well, he might say that. Please don't do that. But as you know, Judge, the Israelis are much more fond of asking for forgiveness after the fact rather than permission before they go off half-cocked and attack like Iran.

Here is Secretary Rubio this morning. I'd like your thoughts on it, particularly what he says at the end about how long it will take to achieve U.S. objectives, whatever they are, Ray, Chris, number three. Now, they are making threats about controlling the Hormuz Straits and perpetuity, creating a tolling system and the like. That's not going to be allowed to happen. And the president has a number of options available to him

if he so chooses to prevent that from happening. happening. Obviously, I'm not going to discuss what those options are, and we're not going to discuss military tactics. The Department of War would be in charge of those things. I'd refer you to them, but obviously they're not going to discuss it with you either. But there is a way forward here to achieve our objectives. We are going to achieve our objectives in a matter of weeks, not months. In a matter of weeks, not months. So what are those objectives opening up the streets of war moves, which were open two months ago? Well, that's by point, Judge. The objections the objectives such as they were, came out of Trump's questionable mind, and they were to support

Mr. Netanyahu full bore, to deceive the Iranians into thinking that the U.S. could be negotiated with until the very end and then pushing them into this trap. So there are no other objectives except helping Israel do these things. Now, that's come a crop. That's not going to work. And there's no way, as Larry pointed out, there's no way that U.S. forces can land on Clark Island and be resupplied. This is a death trap. So I think, I hope, you know, I've been wrong before, right? I hope that this is bluff on the part of Trump.

But if the problem says he's crazy, you know, I'm crazy to think that he would be guided by reason. And my God, that means tens of thousands of people. badly wounded if not killed, but not taken back in body bags like Vietnam. No, no, we have transfer cases now. They're transfer cases and they are given a respectable reception. Give me a break. Those poor guys are dead and they're dead because Israel forced our president to do this. Here's Egyptian President Al-Sisi.

It's translated into English, pleading with a peace-loving President Trump. Watch this. I say to you, President Trump, that absolutely no one else has the power to stop the escalating war in our region, specifically here in the Gulf, except for you. And I am speaking to you in the name of humanity and on behalf of all peace-loving. and you, Mr. President, are among those who love peace. I am addressing you directly. In my name, in the name of the entire region,

and in the name of the whole world. And the dangerous consequences of this war continuing are even greater than this. Please, Mr. President, please. We are asking you to please help us bring an end to this war because we know that you are truly capable of doing so. Flattery will get you nowhere. Closure of the Strait of Hormuz will.

When gas goes up to $7, $8 a gallon, that will. When the midterms come closer, they too will. I wish I could say that Trump will draw the logical conclusions there and listen to somebody with some sense of rationality. I don't know what he's going to do, but he has all these choices to make. he's not going to, you know, that wonderful cartoon that Chris dug out on Friday with the psychiatrist with Trump on the couch and the psychiatrist saying, oh, now President Trump,

those moderate new leaders in Iran that you're talking with, are they in the room with us now? Well, he repeated it again this morning, Ray. Chris, the full screen from the President of the United States at 7.30 this morning. I'll read it. The United States of America is in serious discussions with, now this is in caps, the next six words, a new and more reasonable regime to end our military operations in Iran. Great progress has been made. But if for any reason, a deal is not shortly reached, which a probably probably will be. And if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately, quote, open for business, close quote, we will conclude our lovely stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all their electric generating plants, oil wells, and Cargile, and possibly all desalinization plants, which we are purposely not yet purposefully, not yet touched. This will be in retribution for our many soldiers and others that Iran has butchered and killed over the old regime's 47-year reign of terror. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump.

He really doesn't know what he's talking about, Ray. Yeah, it's not 47 years, Judge. It's 1953. When we overthrew the first popularly democratically elected Premier or Prime Minister of Iran. I was getting at a grammar school at the time. I remember there were pictures of this guy, Mossadegh, a Republican, a republic leader, first time in Persia for centuries, okay? And what happened? The British MRI-6 took us by the shoulder, the fledgling CIA, and said, look, you guys, when an upstart third world guy thinks that the oil under the sand in his country belongs to him, this.

is what you do. And they mounted a coup in 1953, Operation Ajax. I know some of the people were involved in that, old as I am. And they overthrew the duly elected Mossadegh and implanted a Shah who had a secret police second only to the Gestapo. And there's some doubt about that. They were terrible. And those were the people that were overthrown in 1979.

and when those young people, I don't condone violating embassies, but when they put those pieces together and they figured out, whoa, this is all the CIA thing. And now the Shahs in the United States, my God, let's make sure that the plans of the CIA and the others have to reimpose the Shah doesn't happen. That's why we got Khomeini. That's why we got the clerical regime. Now, it's our and our.

our tutor Great Britain's false. It's not since 1979. It's since 1953. That was the first successful covert action overthrow of a government in CIA's history, shepherded by MI6, so really knows how to do these things in the Middle East. I want to run a clip from a colleague of yours by the name of Sergeant Bryce Lockwood,

who was on the USS Liberty when the Israelis attacked and at that program that you ran last week of the National Press Club said the following. Chris number four. There has never been a U.S. Congress investigation into the attack on the USS Liberty,

which is required under Article 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution. to investigate acts of piracy on the high seas and violations of the law of nations. Survivors were ordered to silence. You say anything about this will send you to Fort Leavenworth and forget about you. And U.S. Congress, U.S. government, would do nothing. I remember lying on the deck in a radio room and hearing this Mayday go out. Firefox, Firefox, this is Rockstar, Rock Star.

Under attack by unidentified surface and air units require immediate assistance. It seemed that when the Israelis were firing rockets at us, they couldn't jam our distress frequencies because that would screw up the flight of the rockets. And that brief moment of time, that Mayday went out and immediately the shooting stopped. These motor torpedo boats were circling us and firing heavy caliber machine guns onto us. There were 3,100 strikes from the most heavy caliber machine guns. Mind you, Israelis were using unmarked aircraft violation of international law. Never resolved, never investigated, never prosecuted, never punished, rarely mentioned.

Yeah, that's old serge, Bryce Lockwood, when I first met in Springfield, Missouri. when I was on a lecture tour. Someone asked me from the audience, you know, you heard about John Mearsheimer and Stephen Wohl's book about the Israel Lobby. What did you think of it? I had just read it on a plane,

and I said, well, I thought it was great, except it didn't include the most damaging proof that the Israelis will stop at nothing to intimidate. What was that? USS Liberty. I looked out at the audience, blank stairs. There were three hands up when I said, who knows about the USS, let me pick the guy on the front.

Ramrod straight, he stood. Sergeant Bryce Lockwood, USS Liberty Crew, sir, head of the Marine Detachment, lost all my men to the torpedo at the patrol boat Israel sets. So that's where we struck up our syringe. Major I mentioned that is because I asked John Mircham, I said, John, look, you are out to prove the power of the Israel lobby. How did you miss the USS Liberty, 34 sailors killed, 174 wounded?

That's when the Israelis learned that they could literally get away with murder, murdering our own forces, and LBJ, McNamara, and the U.S. Navy to its, well, U.S. Navy would cover it up. Why did you include that? And John, I asked them recently again, and he said, look, right, we had so much stuff that we include everything else. Well, this is when they learned they could get away with murder, and they're going to do it again. And they are doing again if the 82nd has bad orders to land on a carf island or elsewhere in Iran. Well, they will be butchered because they can't resupply them. I don't know why anybody would do that to our folks,

except unless they were narcissists, unless they were a little bit deranged. Ray McGarman, thank you very much. You have such command of history and personal courage, notwithstanding how unpleasant these. These subjects are a great analysis, my dear friend. We'll afford to seeing you at the end of the week, probably at the end of the day on Good Friday with Larry.

Johnson. Thank you, Ray. Thank you, Judge. Coming up later today, at 2 this afternoon on all of this, the intriguing question, what is there to negotiate, Professor Jeffrey Sachs at 3 this afternoon, Advantage Iran with Kyle Anzalone. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.