Judging Freedom - [SPECIAL] Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Will Israeli Officials Blow Up any US/Iran Peace?

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

[SPECIAL] Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Will Israeli Officials Blow Up any US/Iran Peace?See 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. Tragically, 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? 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 Friday, June 5th, 2006, Professor Jeffrey Sachs will be with us in just a moment. What will the Israelis do to blow up any peace plan between Iran and the United States? But first this. The bugout bag designed for elite survivalists, preparedness experts, and field-tested professionals is now available to the public, including multiple days' worth of food, a water bottle with built-in filtration, That's right, our friends at My Patriot Supply have announced their fully stocked Go bag

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When you go to preparewiththejudge.com, you'll unlock a limited time $100 discount. Get your survival go bag today. with $100 off at Preparewiththejudge.com. That's preparewiththejudge.com. Professor Sachs, good day, to you, my friend, and welcome here. Thank you, of course, for your time. Do we know if negotiations between the United States and Iran

are still going on, even though we have a sort of non-cease-fire, ceasefire? I don't believe that there are deep negotiations on major issues taking place. I don't think that there ever have been. The U.S. has had its demands. Iran has rejected those demands. The U.S. does not have the leverage to impose those demands. And I think it's in that sense that there hasn't really been a process of any deep negotiation.

What there is is some kind of attempt, I think, by both sides to stop the shooting, to try to quiet things down, to establish some order in the energy markets. But in my view, that is not predicated on an overall agreement on complicated issues like the nuclear issues. It doesn't depend on achieving that. And I very much doubt that those deeper issues could even remotely be addressed in the coming months. What is this, what is the value of a ceasefire both sides are going to continue shooting at each other? Well, I think what is possible and what probably both sides want is that there isn't direct shooting by, the United States at Iran or Iran shooting at the Gulf neighbors or a continued blockage of exports of oil and gas from the Strait of Hormuz and from the countries of the Gulf. I think both

sides have an interest in reaching that kind of practical accommodation. Iran, actually doesn't want to be attacked. The neighboring countries in the Gulf don't want to be attacked. Trump faces an election, the midterm election in November with the gasoline prices sky high and his approval ratings at historic lows and continuing to decline. The public in the United States is absolutely against this absurd war. It's quite clear that this was a war based on a completely flaky idea of a one-day regime change that failed three months ago, but given politics, that failure could not be acknowledged. And so we've been in not quite a state of limbo, but a state of periodic shooting and threats ever since then.

So everything that we're facing right now is because of a debacle, a stupid idea that the U.S. could take over Iranian governance by killing the leaders was what was implemented on February 28th. No one but Donald Trump believed it. He was wrong. Since then, we've been trapped. We're trapped with the high energy prices, a potential escalation to military disaster. Now, at the same time, Israel is in a rampage. It is a genocidal country that has committed a genocide in Gaza, which is ongoing, and it is invaded Lebanon. And it is a government of fascists at the top of a particular kind. But these are people who believe that force is the only

approach, that there is a greater Israel, which has as expansive borders as they want it to be. So if it's including part of Lebanon, okay? If it's including part of Syria, okay. And this is a mindset of a government that is crazy to quote President Trump. I can't even quote his actual statement. Right, right, right. But when he said that, he reflects both the truth, a sad truth, and he reflects American opinion and he reflects world opinion. There was a stunning posting by the Pew Research Organization a couple of days ago about public opinions towards Israel. Every country in the world has a negative view of Israel right now. When Trump said in that report, everyone hates Israel now, he's completely right.

And the reason that is, let's be clear, is that Israel is doing hateful things. It's killing people in the most racist, bloody-minded way, all captured on camera, on video. And so in this sense, you have a hate-filled government. And now, to come back to your question, sorry to meander, but that is a different issue from the issue of keeping energy prices from strangling the way. world economy and from a revival of shooting across the Persian Gulf. Restraining Israel is a task in and of itself. And I think the two are actually to an extent separate. Iran rightly says, well, we're not going to have an agreement with you until Israel stops the killing. Israel will not stop the killing. Israel will not stop the killing.

In this sense, there won't be a formal agreement most likely. Israel will thwart that. But that doesn't stop an informal reality in which the U.S. should just pull back, as I say, go home. It was a failed, dumb idea. Go home, let the straight open up, let energy prices come back down. And at least that part of the issue could be not solid. but put in abeyance. It wouldn't solve any of the other issues. Now, when it comes to the U.S. and Israel, I think there's another simple answer, which is it's time for the United States to cut off military and financial aid to Israel.

Israel is, as your expression, put it as you showed, blank, crazy. And it is. And the United States people know it. By the way, what's so ironic about all of this is that our deep state, which is utterly in the hands of the Zionist lobby, is at this moment, despite all of what Israel is doing criminally, is actually negotiating with Israel an even closer military alliance right now. You're talking about Section 224 of the National Defense Authorization Act. That is exactly what I'm talking about. And behind the scenes, this real conspiracy between the U.S. and Israel, I think it's the right way to put it because it's out of the public view, it's out of public understanding, it's against public opinion. They're trying to create an even stronger intelligence, military alliance. as we speak, unbelievable. Without a treaty that would require two-thirds of the Senate to ratify it.

And without the public understanding at all what's happening. Let me divert a little bit. How badly does Benjamin Netanyahu need war for his own domestic political survival? Well, we know that the moment he stops being prime minister, first of all, he's likely to go to jail. And that's also what Donald Trump said. The man's a crook as well as being a murderer. And so this is his particular problem.

I think what we're observing is something more than that, though. We are really observing a rogue state and a political regime that is beyond Netanyahu personally. This is not primarily personalistic politics. This is a state philosophy and approach that dates for decades that says we will prevent a Palestinian state and go to war with anybody in the Middle East that supports a Palestinian state. We will invade other countries that will. And we can do all of this because we have the unconditional backing of the United States of America. America. What will the Israelis do if Trump and Posseschkin shake hands either literally or metaphorically on a peace agreement?

Well, you know, Israel depends totally on the U.S. backing. Israel can't for one day continue what it does without. out the United States giving three kinds of support, military support, financial support, and diplomatic support. So if the United States ever chooses to be a sovereign country and to pursue American interests, Israel will have a choice. It can commit suicide, which I hope it doesn't do. It's already hated around the world. Or it could learn to live within its borders,

and to live like a normal country. That's hard, but that's what it would have to do. And this is mostly the U.S. choice. It's not Israel's choice in the sense that the United States should choose a foreign policy that is in the interest of the United States. And that is an interest of peace and in an interest of a Middle East that is not in perpetual war and bringing us to the brink of global economic and military, well, economic disaster and military confrontation.

How could an agreement between the United States and Iran be enforceable? Well, first of all, treaties exist and are enforceable if they're in the mutual interest of the country signing them. So the treaties are not enforceable if one side rips them up. We had a treaty with Iran, and it was a good treaty. It was a serious treaty. It was not only a treaty between the United States and Iran, but also with China, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, and the entire UN Security Council was called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

and it was ratified in 2015. It was a serious treaty written and negotiated with high professionalism, considerable technical detail, and it was being abided by. So the question of how it would be enforced is it was self-enforcing in the sense that the Iranians wanted it to work. For them, the idea was no nuclear weapons, deep inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency, very limited nuclear activities other than

the nuclear power, in other words, very low enrichment thresholds and so forth. And Iran scrupulously followed all of that. What they were expecting, as the quid pro quo, that was that the U.S. would release assets that it had seized of Iran illegally, in my view, and lifting unilateral sanctions on Iran. So the idea was a normalization of economic relations in return for a strict regimen of monitoring and verification that there would be no breakout of any nuclear activities in Iran to a nuclear weapon, which they repeatedly said they didn't want, period. And so this was a completely valid treaty.

And it was self-enforcing because it was in the U.S. interest and in the Iranian interest. And it was backed by the U.N. Security Council. Then Trump ripped it up in 2018. This is just a self-owned blunder, a self-goal. You know, this is just the terrible mess that the United States creates for itself. the current war dates back to eight years ago when Trump ripped up a totally valid treaty, at which time the straight of four moves was opened. Inrichment was below 3% thresholds.

There was full monitoring of the nuclear agenda. Now, why did Trump do it? Because he's not very smart, because the systems don't operate in the United States rationally, and because Netanyahu told him to do it. Very simple. None of it makes sense. So we spend trillions of dollars over stupid things like this because we have no professionalism because it's all a game because it's bribes and it's lobbying and people don't think there's no serious process. You send Whitkoff and Kushner as your negotiators. Come on. This is absurd. What would Netanyahu and company do if Trump and Basishkin shook hands? I mean, they're not, again, I don't mean literally.

The Israelis are not going to leave Gaza or stop invading Lebanon voluntarily or in the interest of world peace. are they? Yeah, they would if the United States actually acted properly because what has led Israel down this path since 1967 is that it always had grand ideas. But every time it took a step that was against international law, against U.S. interest, against peace, the United States didn't stop. them. So they became more and more emboldened over the years and over the decades. And they moved in illegal settlers into the West Bank. They put Palestinian homes on fire. They killed Palestinian farmers

and dispossessed their lands. And they got away with it constantly. So they became empowered as a result of this. The ideology in Israel right now is so ugly compared to what it was 40 years ago, but it's the ugliness of incredible arrogance. And Netanyahu's claim to fame is that he brought the Christian evangelicals on side. That was his trick that made his career,

was that it wasn't the Jewish lobby in the United States, which was always there since Harry Truman recognized the state of Israel, and that's part of the original founding, but it wasn't in extremism until Netanyahu figured out, aha. There's a big base of Christian evangelicals who see the end of the world coming, who see rapture, and who view Israel as a part of that story, and I'm going to cash in on that. And that's a lot of Trump's voter base. So Israel became radicalized and emboldened by decades of doing things that were shocking, killing people, brazenly what they call mowing the lawn. Can you imagine a term like this how ugly, how sickening,

how vile? But this is the wink-wink term for let's go kill some hundreds of Palestinians every two or three years to keep them in place. I mean, Colonel Wilkerson told us yesterday that one of these Israeli extremists actually used the most horrific term dating back to the Nazis, the final solution. I mean, these people really are mad. They became incredibly empowered by their success of using the United States and not finding opposition. and no matter how many war crimes, the U.S. Congress would stand up and give a standing ovation to Netanyahu when he showed up. And however many times Trump or anyone else yelled at him in the end,

they signed their defense cooperation framework. You know, this is what has empowered this madness. But you ask me, what would they do if the United States, which it will, by the way, it will, it will break with this policy because ultimately the American people are sick of it. The more they learn, the more disgusted they are. You think the American people just desperately want Israel to invade all these other countries? No way. Or to kill so many tens of thousands of people, no way.

And to pay for it? Right. Thank you. And to pay for it. Of course, there are people in the United States. We should understand this, especially in Silicon Valley, that are making a lot of money from this. And he thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for his support of Israel following the October 7th attack of Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip. And he came to Israel to stand with us during our darkest hour, a visit that will never be forgotten. See if you can take him down, Chris. But the point is that this actually needs to be reversed, and it's possible to be reversed. You know, regimes that do terrible things can stop doing terrible things when they don't have the backing to do terrible things.

So there's nothing absolutely irreversible and intrinsic in all of these crimes. the United States has to say, look, you have borders. The borders are the 4th of June, 1967. Go live within your borders. There's going to be a state of Palestine next door, and both sides are going to operate peacefully. And then there's actually going to be normalization of relations between Israel and the rest of the region. And no need for war. Is this a pipe dream? It's not a pipe dream. It is one of these facts that is absolutely within reach. And tragically, we don't do it until so many terrible things have happened. You know, many of us refer to Winston Churchill's famous line, which is the United States always does the right thing after it's tried everything else. And the question is, When are we going to get around to this?

And I think I said it, I think it was already the second or third week of Israel's war on Gaza after the October 7 attack by Hamas. I said that Israel would be on a path of self-destruction if it followed this incredibly radical line. And I had an interview in the Israeli newspaper Hararets on that. And I think it probably seemed shocking and wrong and naive to readers at that point. But I have to say this is exactly how things are going. When you look at the lack of at the opposition to Israel around the world, take unfavorable, ratings, if I may just say so. Do you have an unfavorable opinion of Israel? Sweden, 78%, Spain, 78%,

Netherlands, 76%, U.S., 60%, 37% favorable. Canada, 65% negative. Then you go to the Muslim world. Pakistan, 95% unfavorable. Malaysia, 89%, Indonesia, 86%. Japan, by the way, 83%. negative. Australia, 79% negative. Bangladesh, 79% negative. Turkey, 97% negative. Latin America, pretty much across the board. People are disgusted. So this is a rogue state that became so arrogant because it had the unconditional U.S. backing. But the American people are absolutely against this. The young people, by the way, are way off the charts against what Israel is doing. And that's the direction our politics will follow. What will come of this in the end?

Israel could lose its own statehood because the ultimate answer, which perfectly plausible one, is a single, unified, binational, democratic state, and that becomes the ultimate future. or Israel could recognize that its own ultimate survival depends on it living in peace with Palestine and with its neighbors. But what they count on is something different, which is perpetual support by the United States. And what they don't understand is two facts. One is the United States is not all powerful. It can't defeat Iran, for example, not on terms that are acceptable. And second, the United States no longer will give unconditional support to Israel, period, whether they think so or not.

So the Israelis probably don't get this. They don't want to hear it. They don't understand it, but it's the truth. Professor Sacks, thank you very much. Another brilliant analysis, just like all of your others. Have a great weekend, my dear friend. We'll look forward to seeing you next week. Excellent. Great. See you next week. Thank you.

Bye. Bye. It's Friday. So coming up at the end of the day at 4 o'clock this afternoon with Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern, and we have so much to discuss the Intelligence Community Roundtable. Justin O'Poelteno for judging freedom.