The Daily Signal - Besides Israel, There Will NEVER Be a Sovereign State West of the Jordan River | Amb. Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter

Episode Date: May 18, 2025

Gaza will never become an independent nation, Israel Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter says.   “There's not going to be an independent sovereign state other than Israel west of the Jordan River,” Leiter told The Daily Signal.   “There could be all sorts of autonomous arrangements,” he said, “but there's not going to be an independent sovereign Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. It's just not going to be.”   The nation of Israel extends from the Joran River west to the Mediterranean Sea to form the narrow country that is roughly the size of New Jersey. Since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, pro-Palestine protesters in America and round the world have chanted, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” referring to Palestine fully occupying the land between the Joran River and the Mediteranea Sea, in turn eliminating the nation of Israel.   Following Oct. 7, there is a “complete absence of bandwidth” in Israel for the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel. There is, however, a great deal of interest in Israel to expand partnerships with nations in the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, according to Leiter.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. But there's no love loss there. And why should peace for hundreds and millions of people be held hostage to the whims of Mahmur Abbas or Yasser Arafat? I mean, people who have dealt with terrorism all their lives. It doesn't make sense. People who still, to this day, can't condemn October 7th in the activities of Hamas. So there's no reason why we can't move ahead.

Ambassador Leiter, thank you so much for taking the time to speak of the Daily Signal today. Welcome. Thank you for having me. Well, it's a real privilege. I was really fascinated. We were talking a little bit about it earlier, but fascinated to learn that you were actually born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, of all places. Scranton, Pennsylvania. My bank is still on Joe Biden Boulevard. Don't hold it against me. We'll try. We'll try not to. How long were you when you moved to Israel? I was 18. You were 18. Yeah. I had completed high school studies at 16. I went to rabbinical seminary when I was 17, studied for two years, and then said, my future's in Israel. Wow. And how long then were you in Israel before you were in Israel until becoming the ambassador? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I've been there for 47 years. I've traveled the world. I've spent time in South America advising governments. I've done some work in Africa. A lot of work in the Gulf where President Trump is now visiting, spent a lot of time in UAE in think tank capacity, but I've always lived in Israel since I moved at the age of 18. Wonderful, wonderful. I recently had the privilege of traveling

just a couple weeks ago to Israel and got to meet with your counterpart, Ambassador Huckabee, and he stressed. A counterpart and good friend. Wonderful. Well, great man. And he is. He is indeed. And you both have difficult jobs that you're navigating in a very intense time, obviously. I spoke to him on Friday to congratulate him on a wonderful press conference he gave on the issue of humanitarian aid to Gaza. And I shared with him. He asked me for a piece of advice because I've been added just a bit longer than he is. And I said, look, the best advice that I got was to put on my seatbelt. And I haven't taken it off since I landed here at the end of January.

Washington under President Trump is quite the roller coaster. There's never a dull moment. And Jerusalem is always a roller coaster. It's the eye of the world, it's the eye of the storm. So Mike is there in the middle of it. And he'll do wonderful things for the United States, for the Judeo-Christian ethic, and for our futures. Absolutely. Well, something that he has stressed and that I know is important to you as well and that you speak about is just how critical that U.S.-Israeli relationship is. And maybe let's start there just talking about kind of where we stand today,

how important this partnership has always been between our two countries, but especially right now. Yeah. Well, right now, let me try to couch this in historical and philosophical terms. We are emerging from an age of postmodernism, which basically said no to belief, no to science. There's nothing really that matters. There's no objective truth. There's no objective morality. and Israel is a battle against that notion. I think the Judeo-Christian morality is a battle against that notion. Yes, there is such a thing as objective truth. There is such a thing as objective good and evil.

And our fight against Hamas and the Iranian proxies is exactly the fight for that. For, yes, there is something called evil. We are fighting that evil and we are representing an objective truth and objective good. So it is very, very pivotal at this time. You know, the Middle East was moving towards accommodation with the notion of the Jewish people were turning to their homeland in the fulfillment, the vision of Isaiah and the prophets. And that means that there is a metanarrative of history that works. You know, postmodernism came and said, there's no such thing as metanarratives.

So they kind of poo-pooed everything that brought an answer. answer to the human condition. You know, they threw out all the isms and all the theologies. And here you've got a metanarrative where 2,500 years people have believed in this idea of a promising future for humanity, of a messianic age, right? And here the Jewish people have come back to the place where the prophets roamed and made that statement. So there is a meta-narrative that seems to be echoing some truth.

And the battle against that is the battle that's represented by Iran and its proxies. So our fight against that is at a very, very pivotal time and has not to do just with our security, but really with the security of Western ideas and its Judeo-Christian foundations. In regards to Iran, we're seeing President Trump continue to say he wants a deal with Iran regarding their nuclear program and ensuring that they don't have a nuclear weapon. Both Trump and Prime Minister Net and Yahoo have been very clear. Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. How are these talks between the U.S. and Iran regarding their nuclear program?

How are you viewing those? Is it possible for the U.S. and Iran, in your view, to reach an agreement where Iran, for one, follows that agreement. it doesn't break it and agrees to not continue to seek a nuclear weapon. Well, Virginia, there's so much to unpack your question. Obviously, you've read broadly on the issue and you're able to pack into a question so many important issues. There's a lot of confusion about Iran and nuclear power. You don't need nuclear enrichment. It don't need fissile material for a civilian nuclear energy program.

You just don't need it. There's 57 countries in the world who have civilian nuclear energy, who don't have enrichment capabilities. There are no countries that have enrichment capabilities that don't have the bomb. So if they're insisting on enrichment capabilities, it's very clear what they want. And we know, I mean, look, our intel is pretty good. We know exactly where they're going. We know exactly where they're heading.

When you enrich to 60%, it's a sprint to 90%, which is weapons grade uranium. It's just a sprint. The big contest is going from zero to three and a half percent. That's what takes the longest. They've done that a long time ago, right? So what we insist on, and for us, this is existential. Okay, this is existential. They call us the one bomb country.

And Israel's a tiny country. It's true. you know, one bomb and we're gone. It's the size of New Jersey. We always say it's the size of New Jersey, but actually New Jersey's round, it's kind of like a hamburger, you know, but Israel's like a hot dog. It's, you know, it's just very long, very, very, very narrow, very narrow. People don't understand just how narrow it is. I drove this morning to you from one side of Washington to the other. It must have been more than nine miles, which was the entire width of Israel prior to 1967. And with Judean Samaria, right, expanded Israel, greater Israel, as they like to call it, it's 40 miles wide.

That's the entire width of the state of Israel. So a very tiny country, Iran repeatedly says that their intention is to destroy us. Now, you know, as you know, Virginia, there's a lot of Holocaust legislation and Holocaust study and Holocaust museums. And sometimes I sense that with all the Holocaust study, the main point of the Holocaust is somehow lost. And that is that if somebody says they're going to kill you, believe them. It's just very simple. It's more important to understand that than it is to understand how many people were deported from this particular village in Poland. We have to understand that.

They repeatedly say, we are going to destroy you. We have to believe them. So it's existential for us. they cannot have enrichment facilities and the centrifuges that they have, which are not needed for civilian nuclear power, have to be dismantled. So, you know, our mantra is dismantle, dismantle, dismantle, and if you're going to reach a deal to do that, which is fine. If we can do it in an agreement, full dismantlement is to distrust but verify. Yep. Okay?

And we're not trusting and verifying because these guys, they're affecting. fantastic at lying. Okay, they just lie. You know, they sell Persian carpets in the Shook and they do it very well. And it's important to emphasize this is the government of Tehran. We're not talking about the people of Iran. The people of Iran are peace-loving people and they want to integrate into the West. I think the president touched on that when he talked about a glorified future for Iran. He's talking about the people. They want that. You know when our prime minister Netanyel sends videos on on Fridays to the people of Iran, they're circulated to the tens of millions. They love it. They translated into Farsi and circulated in Iran and they love Netanyahu, all right? If he took a survey in Tehran,

he'd come out way ahead of the Mullahs. They are, the Prime Minister always says, they're the second most Americanized country and supportive of the West after Israel in the Middle East. Interesting. Very interesting, right? Yeah.

So if we were to remove this nuclear threat, this nuclear weapon threat by Iran, by the government of Iran, the people that prosper. I think the president's vision for a prosperous Iran is brilliant, but it has to come after full dismantlement. If there's not full dismantment, we're going to be threatened. Europe's going to be threatened. You're going to be threatened here in the United States. And the people of Iran will continue to suffer.

Yeah. The Abraham Accords, I think, play a really big role. in this conversation because I think what other Middle Eastern countries are doing. Iran is, of course, watching very, very closely. We've seen with this past week and Trump's trip to the Middle East, him calling on additional countries being added to the Abraham Accords, including being very specific that he wants Saudi Arabia to join in their own timing, he said. Your thoughts on this.

What countries would you like to see added next to the Abraham Accords, joining? those Abraham Accords? There's actually only one country. I wouldn't want to see join the Abraham Accords. I'd like to see everyone join, except not Iran under this regime. That's not relevant for them to be part of it. And I've heard grave reservations about Qatar, okay? Because on the one hand, they're supporting all sorts of good things.

And on the other hand, they're supporting all kinds of evil things like Hamas. You know, they're great at supporting the fire department and the arsonists at the same time. So we have reservations, deep reservations about Qatar. But everybody else is welcome to join the Abraham Accords, should join the Abraham Accords. I mean, you know, this has been sustained since 2019. We have a wonderful relationship. You take the UAE, for example. I spent a lot of time in the Emirates.

And I felt safer in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, you know, with the keep up. on my head, identifying as a Jew openly, then I do in many European towns. Really? Yeah. Yeah. It's wonderful. Why is that, do you think? Well, there's an atmosphere of tolerance and acceptance and moderation that they've worked on.

You know, there's a wonderful minister in the government who's written a book about the Muslim Brotherhood. His name is Jamal al-Souedi. And he writes a book and describing how UAE dealt with the Muslim Brotherhood. with the Muslim Brotherhood in weeding them out of government and seeing to it they don't have positions of power or in education. It really began there with education. He took those extremist teachers out of the system

that were really poisoning the minds of kids, took them out of the system and deep programmed all of this extremism that was spreading throughout the Middle East. And that was a real Arab Spring in UAE. And they've just created. in an island of toleration, cooperation. We talked about doing all sorts of things, for example, in Africa to raise the Human Development Index, using development in Israeli technologies, advancement, innovation, using the financial resources of the Gulf, working together to improve

the human resources and the Human Development Index in countries suffering in Africa. There's all sorts of things that we can do together. So in terms of the Abraham Accords, they have proved that the Palestinian issue should not be, you know, cutting off our nose to spite our face. Well, we're not going to make peace. We're not going to move ahead because we have this issue with the Palestinians. By the way, Saudi Arabia, I sat with many Saudi Arabians. They won't say this publicly, but I sat with many Saudis and think tanks over drinks. Good conversation.

Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola and Sprite and ginger ale. And they, there's no love loss there for the Palestinians. There's a lot of lip service, there's a lot of political correctness that has to be stated, but there's no love loss there. And why should, why should peace for hundreds and billions of people be held hostage to the whims of Mahmur Abbas or Yasser Arafat? I mean, people who have dealt with terrorism all their lives. It doesn't make sense.

People who still, to this day, can't condemn October 7th in the activities of, of Hamas. So there's no reason why we can't move ahead. We could create cross-border infrastructure, for example, that can run from Haifa to Riyadh, to the Gulf, okay? The Gulf of Arabia or whatever it's not going to be called, right? And everybody along the road, Jews, Judea-Saharia, Palestinians throughout Judean-Samaria, Jordanians that are in desperate need of water, Saudi Arabian villages in the western part of the country that are parched dry, if we have a cross-border infrastructure running with desalinated water, with telecommunications,

with transportation lines, with utilities such as gas and oil, everybody's going to benefit along the route. Why should that all be held hostage to something that's never going to happen? There's not going to be an independent sovereign state other than Israel west of the Jordan River. There could be all sorts of. autonomous arrangements, a lot of economic development. We can all sorts of, you know, Emirati-like areas that are autonomous in the Palestinian areas.

That's fine. But there's not going to be an independent, sovereign Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. It's just not going to be. There's a complete absence of bandwidth within Israel for this now, particularly after October 7. So Saudi Arabia should join. And wouldn't it be wonderful if a country like Indonesia would join? with hundreds of millions of Muslims. And couldn't we get Malaysia to follow suit?

And how about African countries with large Muslim populations that could also jump into the Abraham Accords? Do you think Egypt, whatever? Well, Egypt, we already have a peace treaty with. It's a colder, even though it's much older than the Abraham Accords are. I mean, we've had peace with Egypt since 19, what is it, 78, 79.

But Camp David Accords. But it's unfortunately a colder piece that it should be. We'd love to see, you know, hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting each other's countries. There was a time when Israelis did visit the pyramids, but they're horrifically uncomfortable right now in Egypt. Egypt doesn't want us to visit. We think Egypt could be far more cooperative when it comes to Gaza. Why the heck not open up the gates? And people talk about President Trump saying, well, we'll force them out.

He never said, we're going to force them out. He said, we're going to let them out. Right now they're forced in by Egypt. So, you know, open up the gates, let people in Gaza decide where they want to go, offer them alternatives. These are very industrious people, by the way. If they're not dominated by a terrorist organization like Hamas, I mean, you know, Americans don't understand this.

imagine MS-13 taking over a county with two million people. That's what's happened in Gaza. This is MS-13. Murderous thugs who rape, steal, and murder at whim, have taken over two million people. Now, if we're successful, and we will be successful in destroying them, these people will be freer. They could be free to stay in Gaza if they'd like. They could be free to go elsewhere. They're very industrious.

Anybody who absorbs them is going to be thankful. as long as they're not under this rubric of terrorist domination, this totalitarian system that they've been subjected to now for so many years. Yeah. Well, to that end, Israel has announced a very aggressive plan to really complete the mission of totally eliminating Hamas. If Israel succeeds in that, the question is what happens in Gaza? Who's in charge? do you see, I know there's plans right now for the Israeli government to go in and kind of, you know, lead and rule things and make sure everything is under control. Would that be a long-term solution to have Israel essentially ruling Gaza? Well, it could be, not necessarily. I think that, you know, people talk about the day after before they can imagine what the day after could potentially look like.

As long as there's doubt about whether or not Hamas will remain stand. It's very difficult to think out of the box. Other than, of course, President Trump who was thought out of the box with his plan for Gaza. I'll get to that in a moment. The government decided on really three things right at the outbreak of the war, you know, on October 8th.

Number one, Hamas would be destroyed. Number two, all our hostages will be freed. And number three, Gaza can never become another Hamasthan. It can never become an area where, which can launch that kind of attack on Israel as we saw on October 7th. If you want, let's say it this way, Gaza will be free, okay?

And there's no Israeli occupation in Gaza prior to October 7th. We left, lock stock and barrel. Everybody pressured us and said, get out in the occupation. Even though it's not occupied, it's disputed territory, an occupied territory, but we left.

We pulled up our Jewish communities there. We tour 10,000 people from their homes, all for the sake of peace. And what we got was Hamas and we got October 7. So those three goals have to be accomplished. Destroying Hamas, freeing our hostages, and ensuring that Gaza will never become again a launch pad for a massacre against the Jewish people. Now, once that's accomplished, the first two, the release of our hostages, all of them, and destruction of Hamas, there will be so many opportunities that can open up.

Okay, it could be the Riviera of the Middle East, as President Trump has said. He's also said that, you know, it could be owned by the United States and run by the United States together with his partners. I mean, look, he just brought in, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars of investment by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE. And, you know, Qatar has put so much money into building tunnels for terror purposes in Gaza. Now let's get Qatar to put in money to build it, not for terror purposes, but this time they'll be on the side of the firefighters, not the arsonists, okay? So they could do that. They could be there. And we can imagine this happening.

And in the interim, there could be a period of time when the Gazans themselves, as this is being rebuilt and as the planning for management is underway, where the Gazans could live elsewhere and be industrious and productive members of society. in those countries who need laborers, who need people. There are many countries like that. So we just have to be able to think differently, think out of the box. Stop using Gaza. This is a thing that Egypt could come around to doing. Stop using Gaza. Stop using the Palestinians as a kind of whipping boy against Israel.

This has been the refrain for so many countries for so long. You know, anything Israel does is wrong. Anything Israel does is immoral. Anything Israel does is, you know, politically incorrect. Just stop it. Just, you know, just calm down. Let's think about what the best thing to do is. And the first thing would be for Egypt to open up the gates and say, wherever you guys want to go, go. By the way, today, as we're speaking, as I was driving into your driveway, Virginia, I got a message of 300 Gazans who chose to leave through the services of Israel's armed forces and asked to go elsewhere. And they were serviced by us. But it's, you know, it's a trickle. There are literally hundreds of thousands.

who have voiced a real interest in leaving, we just have to facilitate that. Yeah, they need a path out. Critical. You mentioned, of course, the hostages. That's something that's on everyone's mind, I think, around the world is there are still 58, some alive, at least 20 still alive. Well, we know that there's 20 alive. But, you know, this is just something that is so thoroughly unconscionable that there are people. being held in the 21st century in dungeons underground. We have to negotiate with them to get them out. I mean, it's just, it's really insanity. Yeah. It shouldn't be. It's the height of immorality. You know, so the Ten Commandments, we have, Thou shall not murder, and thou shall not steal.

And the interesting thing is that the rabbis in the Talmud said, well, there's another verse in Leviticus that talks about not stealing. So what does it mean in the Ten Commandments? Why would it say it twice. And they come to conclusion that the not stealing in the Ten Commandments is not to take hostages, not to steal people. Wow. Okay, so the Ten Commandments really refers to, you know, holding people ransom. The other reference refers to regular, you know, stealing goods, material goods. And it's very interesting that the Bible would point that out, would state emphatically, exclusively, you don't take hostages. People are not to be used as bartering tools for achieving. political goals. And this is their violation of the Ten Commandments. And we should say that.

And they say, look, enough of this. This is the kind of barbarity that has to end. And we are in the forefront of fighting against this barbarity. I believe that my son gave his life for this battle against the barbarians in the name of morality. That's how I live with his memory. Yeah. Yeah. Your son, Moshe, passed away, was killed in November of 2020. 23 serving in the IDF. Share a little bit about Moshe, if you would. What comes to mind when you think about this. The only thing that's difficult to share is a little bit.

He was a larger than life individual. He was the love of my life. He was my inspiration. He was my oldest, first one of my eight children to call me dad. And he was a very unusual individual. He spent 15 years. in special ops. Wow.

And most of his operations are still classified. Wow. One of the highlights of his service was when he trained with Delta Force here in Fort Bragg, and he had wonderful experiences together with the American Armed Forces. At the age of 33, after 15 years, he was in line to become commander of Air Force Special Ops. It's the equivalent of our Delta Force. Okay.

And he was sent in the interim to secure Israeli doctors who were sent to the Philippines in 2014 at the earthquake. And he came back from that experience. And he said, Dad, I'm going to med school. I said, just a second, you're in line to become commander of the Special Ops. And he said, listen, I spent 15 years chasing down bad guys. In the Philippines, I saw doctors take people out of rubble where they were buried for six and seven days without food and barely without oxygen. I saw them come back to life. I saw our doctors from Israel bringing these people back to life.

He said, when you see that experience, it's life transforming. He says, I want to be with them. That's where I'm throwing my lot in with the medical field. So at the age of 33, went back to school and got himself in. to med school and struggled for six years. And in August of 2023, he received his white jacket, graduated. And on October 8th, he was supposed to start rounds in the hospital and a kind of internship residency.

And he was tapped by the general of the Southern Command to lead the first company. He was already battalion commander because in reserve duty, which he would do 80, 90 days of reserve duty a year in med school. He also went to battalion commander's course, which he completed. It's a two-year course in reserves. And he could have gone in as a battalion commander to Gaza, but he told the general in command, he said, look, I've got my company team here that I've worked with for five years in reserves. And I'm going to go in as the lead company. So, you know, division goes in like in a pyramid, and the lead company is at the at the top of the very tip so he um he he led uh he led the forces basically it's a large

division it's it's commandos and reserves five five one he led them in to northern gaza and fought for two weeks uh led all the battles the initial battles and uh very very successful on friday afternoon uh understand now it was exactly 321 in the afternoon He went into his assignment was to find a tunnel shaft where the Hamas terrorists were keeping hostages and missiles to fire into our cities. And the intel said that it was in a mosque, the main mosque in this town called Beit-Khanoun. And he scoured the mosque and didn't find it. But he was determined if the intel said there was a shaft there to find the tunnel.

And he began to enter on foot. into the surrounding buildings. And in the second building in the inner room, he found the shaft. And as soon as he found the shaft, he announced in the wireless, I've found the tunnel, Shabbat Shalom, which means have a pleasant Sabbath, a peaceful Sabbath.

And as soon as he said Sabbath, the terrorists who had followed him in a hidden camera, set off a massive explosion. And he was killed together with three of his soldiers in that room. On the other side of the wall, five of his command team had their legs blown off. Three lost one leg and two lost both of their legs.

But thank God they survived and they're functioning now. So he was a great inspiration to me. And the truth of the matter is that it's because of him that I took this position as ambassador to Washington because when the prime minister called me over the past few years and asked me to take different positions and I said no because I didn't want to go back into political, public life.

I needed just to think about 30 seconds. And I knew what my son would say. You know, he'd say, get off your butt dad and do this for me. So I'm doing it for him. I've got to live for him as well now. Yeah. For him, for the life that was cut short.

And for his children as well, my six grandchildren that he left, six beautiful kids. Yeah. So, and really for the future of, of our country. Wow. When you think about your son, when you think about your grandchildren, and you think about the work that you're doing on behalf of Israel here in the United States, what do you want your legacy to be at the end of your tenure as ambassador?

Well, first that I heard the daily signal. It's not necessarily the show, Virginia, but you know, you get a signal. I get a signal every day. Whenever I feel that I can't, I don't have the strength. You know, it's a roller coaster. Washington is really a roller coaster right now. It is. It always is, but I think that under President Trump, it's become even more of a roller coaster. I mean that in a good way, but it's a challenging way. And no two days are the same.

And I think my legacy will be that I stayed on the roller coaster and I brought it to a safe destination, you know, that everybody gets off the roller coaster feeling a little bit. riled but but safe and sound and secure we're in a historical period which is incredibly volatile where you know sometimes the bad guys win yeah the good guys don't always win and a lot has to do with whether or not we choose to rise to the occasion and that was my personal choice to rise to the occasion when the prime minister asked me to come here as ambassador and I think that I'm bringing my life experience of some 65 years to the fore and everything that I've experienced and learned and grown from, I'm able to tap into and hopefully do the right kind of job. Look, I want very much to

keep Israel as a bipartisan objective and ally of the United States. And it's difficult in the bipartisan atmosphere that exists here, but I really want to embrace everyone. to understand what what Israel means. You know, we have common values and common interests. And I think there's a very deep theological bond as well, you know, that so many Americans have. I mean, I spend every weekend Saturdays in synagogues and Sundays in churches. And it's beautiful to see sometimes, you know, I'll go into a church with people I don't know. And I'll quote a verse from Psalms. and the congregation completes it. I mean, it's just fascinating to me.

That entire congregation would know Psalms that well. And the conviction and the support for Israel and the return of the Jewish people to Israel and the Israeli heartland is heartwarming. So we need to come together and understand that Israel is not dragging America into something he doesn't want to do. America is only going to do what it wants to do and we respect that.

We want Americans to be more Americans and Israelis to be more Israelis and be friends at the same time. There's a dignity indifference. And I think that our histories project that dignity that there is indifference, the toleration of our society, the emphasis on freedom of thought, freedom of choice, but of conviction, conviction to the guiding hand of history, to the acknowledgement that there's meaning to life. and there's meaning to destiny, and that we have to work together to overcome the difficulties that are out there, you know, the evil that is there, to recognize that there is such a thing, contrary to postmodernism, there is such a thing as evil, and to contend with it.

And we'll come out together, we'll come out on top. Absolutely. Ambassador Lider, I need to let you go, but I would be remiss if I didn't ask you, as you're talking about this relationship between Israel and the United States, about some just recent shifts in that and specifically around the shift of U.S. military aid really becoming sales, you know, selling weapons instead of giving that as aid, those transitioning to sales. Your view on this transition in military assistance between the U.S. and Israel? Well, I think the more that Israel is independent, it's in Israel's interest, we've weaned ourselves off American aid. Israel today has a powerful economy.

We'd like to see the continued cooperation between our military and yours, our military and your military industry. Look, Lockheed Martin does a lot of business with F-35s because of our experience. There's no Army in the world that has as much experience as we have with many American products, and they're waiting to see how it works for us for selling it elsewhere. And we bring, you know, we're a very innovative country. And we bring tremendous amount of innovation. The reason, by the way, that we're so innovative is because we haven't chosen victimhood.

At every difficulty, we've chosen to overcome the difficulty and innovate to get along, to get by, to survive. And we bring that innovation and share it with our friends. So whether it's in the area of high tech or pharmaceuticals, health care, we have an awful lot to give. And we want very much to do that in partnership with our big brother. I mean, we're very much a little brother. And sometimes there's, you know, sibling tensions, sibling rivalries, but at the same time, we're one family.

And we always have to remember that at times of potential schism. Absolutely. Ambassador, thank you for your time. Greatly appreciate it. Thank you, Virginia. Subscribe to get the news. The legacy media won't tell you, and only the daily signal can bring to you.