The Daily Signal - WARNING: Biden's 2-State Solution May Inspire Hamas-Style Terror in US, Israeli Says

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

President Joe Biden's decision to float a possible two-state solution in the aftermath of Hamas' terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 incentivizes terrorism and may inspire radical Islamist terror attacks in the U.S., a Knesset member tells "The Daily Signal Podcast."   Ohad Tal, a member of the Religious Zionist Party and part of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, responds to the Biden administration "basically resurrecting the idea of the two-state solution." Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Nothing else is Rees. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, February 28th. I'm Tyler O'Neill. I sat down with Ohad Thal. He is a member of Israel's Parliament, the Knesset, and also a member of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, an important caucus, and he came to National Religious Broadcasters Convention this last week because he wanted to meet many of the Christians here in America who are supporting Israel. And he actually had a really powerful, important message for the Biden administration.

There's been this talk now about returning, you know, resurrecting the idea of the two-state solution in Israel. And O'Hat-Tal warned me. He said this sends a horrible message in the Middle East that especially after October 7th, that sends the message that, that terror is the path to go. If you want to get achievements like this two-state solution that the Palestinians have been demanding for decades, terror is the way to do it. And so I think his message is extremely powerful. Listen to my interview with Ohadthal. We actually talked outside the event where Trump was about to speak at NRB. So listen to our interview right after this. For over 35 years, the Heritage Foundation Job Bank has been helping conservatives at all professional levels

find employment in key positions in Washington, D.C., and across the country. We can help you connect with positions in the administration on Capitol Hill, in public policy organizations, and in the private sector. To learn more about the Heritage Foundation Job Bank, go to heritage.org slash job dash bang. Well, this is Tyler O'Neill, a managing editor at The Daily Signal. I am honored to be joined by Ohad Tal. He is a member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, and a member of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus. It's so great to have you. Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here with you. So, you know, I think Americans are watching with bated breath as the war progresses in Gaza.

and there are other fronts almost opening up with the Houthis down in Yemen and Hespala sending rockets. How do you see the situation on the ground right now and how hopeful are you of ultimate resolution? Well, first of all, we have to understand that what Israel is now dealing with is nothing less than existential threat. Because what Hamas did on October 7th is basically showing everybody in the neighborhood of the Middle East that Israel is, weaker than what they maybe thought we are. And in the Middle East, it's very simple. When the second you are, the people think you're weak, everybody comes to take a bite. And of course, it's all part of, it's all orchestrated by Iran. And this is why we're seeing their older proxies. The hood is on the south and Hezbollah on the north and Iran themselves.

And of course, Hamas is part of it, are basically trying to destabilize the region. Because because they're real purpose. I mean, they call us the little Satan. The big Satan is what is happening here, America. This is the big Satan. And they're aiming at the West. So we are basically fighting. We are at the front of the war of we're protecting the West.

And I think also the world should really understand that. And this is why also it needs to support Israel, really eradicating Hamas and completing the job and sending a message to the entire, radical Islam, that the path of terror is not the right path to go. Yeah. So we had right leading up to the October 7th attacks. There was destabilization almost.

People would say in Israel very heated political arguments about the judicial reforms that Netanyahu supported. But now we've heard a lot of reports that Israel is binding together amid this attack. Would you say that that is accurate and would you say that Israel seems to have the intestinal fortitude to carry this all the way? You know, I've heard so many of the debates of the discussions here at NRB. Talking about the challenges America is now facing, basically the biggest challenge is about identity, the right for people to have their own identity, protecting their family values,

protecting their religious values, protecting the truth. And you know, I think this is the same story that we have in Israel. The judicial reform was not really about the questions of how are we going to elect judges in Israel. It was about what will be the identity of the country. And we know that there's a struggle between the right wing and the left wing, just as much as you have it here in America. It's exactly the same story, the same argue, the same thing happening here and there. And it's true that the war created like a...

a cat and made everybody together, but we should not also fool ourselves. Of course, there are forces who are trying, even today, destabilize the situation and take us back to October 6th, to the same struggles. And I think the vast majority of Israelis are not there. They're not supporting these approaches, but we have to fight that and to make sure that this thing will not go back to the same place. So do you think, talking about the Iran proxies in the region, do you think that defeating Hamas and having a definitive victory there will deter Hezbollah and the Houthis? Or do you think, you know, how do you see that playing out?

Well, for sure, that will be the necessary first step. Before that, we cannot even talk about preventing the war becoming much, much wider. If we will not defeat Hamas, then the appetite for the other proxies to go for Israel will only grow more. So we have to make sure that this time with Hamas, the story will be different than what we had in the previous 10 or 15 years, circles of fighting with them, and not really get a complete victory. this time it has to be for good. We have to complete the job. It will be hard.

It will take time more than we maybe hoped. But we have to complete this mission this time. And it's still, it's not promising us that we will not find ourselves in a war, in a bigger war. Because at the end of the day, again, it's not just Hamas. Hamas or just proxy of the octopus, which is the head is Iran. So do you see a lot of support from the United States right now, from the government and from the people. So I think we have a problem here because, as you know,

and I'm not just talking about the aid. I'm talking about much, much bigger thing. The fact that the administration now tries to push for basically resurrecting the idea of the two-state solution, because we, of course, we do not think that this is a solution. We think it's a huge problem. It sends a horrible message in the Middle East. It sent a message that, and especially after October 7,

it sent a message that terror, that's the path to go. If you want to get achievements, use terror. You'll get where you want. And that's a horrible message in the Middle East. Again, it's a horrible message for Israel, but it's a horrible message also for America. Because radical Islam, when they will get that this is the way to move forward, you will meet them here in America,

you will meet them in Europe, you will meet there everywhere. And I think we should send the opposite message. We should send a message that terror cannot be rewarded. Terror cannot be the right path to go. So this is also why I'm here to bring these messages. Yeah. So you're part of the Skenesite Christian Allies Caucus. And why do you see the support of Christians as essential to Israel?

Because you are our best friends in the world. world. That's the truth. Again, I think we find ourselves today, Jews and Christians fighting for the same things. We have the same challenges or very, very similar challenges. We're all fighting for identity. We're all fighting for the truth. We all fighting to be able to work for God. You know, this is why we are here. We are not just here to serve ourselves. We are here to serve much, much bigger purposes. So this is why we are here. And I think this is all these things and also the threats we have to face. I mean, again, those who try to abolish our identities, family values, religious values, national values, all these things. We're fighting the same challenges. So I think we have to

stand together and protect our Judeo-Christian values together. This is the time more than ever. And what message would you send to President Biden and to President and to Trump if he gets elected? That's you need to support Israel because Israel is serving America's interest, not less. I mean, we're protecting your interest in the Middle East. You know that Iran is every day, every single day is targeting American soldiers, assets, every single day. Every single day. And we're protecting that. So we are here, we are in the Middle East standing for America.

We are standing there for the free world. And we hope that America will understand that and also firmly stand with us, making sure that we will win this war. And Iran is very close to enriching weapons-grade uranium. How is Israel preparing for that eventuality? What do you see happening if they do this? First of all, just understanding. that this is, if this is their goal, they're not just seeking that in order to just have this bomb

in a bunker. They're preparing this bomb because their real goal is to destabilize, not just the region, they want to destabilize the world. We have to understand, again, after October 7th, we have to wake up and really understand what is their ideology. I mean, you know, people keep asking me, how didn't you understand what Hamas is planning? How is, what, what, Hamas is planning? How, How did it happen? The problem that Israel had wasn't that we didn't have the information. We had all the information. We knew what they were planning.

The problem was that we thought that if we want, if what's important for us is a better future for our kids, to give them better education, to have a good economy, we thought that this is what's important for them as well. We thought that if we will improve their economy, if you'll give them better jobs and better income, they will slowly but surely leave their desire to destroy us. But we woke up.

We realized that their ideology, the radicalism ideology, is that they care, they hate us more than they love their kids. This is what we realized. They want to destroy Western civilization. And they see Israel as a forefront of the Western civilization. This is why they're fighting us. So we're protecting that. and we're protecting the free world.

Yeah. So the two-state solution, that's a big red flag. What about these calls for a ceasefire? It's interesting they're calling for a ceasefire, but not for releasing the hostages, many of these activists. And the International Criminal Court is bringing up charges of genocide against Israel that just experienced a genocidal attack.

Yeah, that's a huge hypocrisy. I mean, you know, first of all, we had a ceasefire on October 6. We didn't initiate anything with Hamas. We just remind people, we withdraw from the Gaza Strip on 2005, gave it all to the Palestinians. Billions of dollars were invested in Gaza. They could have made it to the Singapore of the Middle East. But instead, they chose to take all this money and invested in missiles and underground tunnels, terror tunnels. make it into the biggest terrorist of the world.

So if the world wants to push us to a ceasefire, it's very simple. We're all in favor of ceasefire. We wanted a ceasefire. We did what we had in October 6. Again, two conditions. Bring us back all the hostages. They are currently holding 134 hostages in their hands, including elderly and women and babies.

Babies, they're holding little babies in captivity as we speak. us back the hostages. Lay down your guns and surrender, and you will get a ceasefire the second after. Not before. And you said, yeah, lay down your guns as the other. Returning the hostages was the main thing in surrendering. Exactly.

It's as simple as that. I mean, again, Israel desires peace more than anything. For 30 years, we're doing everything we can to get peace. We were ready to make massive concessions. I mean, just to remind everybody, Israel is a country the size of New Jersey. That's it. And yet we were willing to,

Israel leaders in the past 30 years, we're willing to give a lot of pieces of our land to the Palestinians in the hope that will achieve peace. But unfortunately, all what we got from all these concessions, it didn't brought us closer to peace. It only brought us more terror and more attacks and more massacre on our kids, on our babies, on our women. And we cannot accept that any further.

We had enough of that. We have to try different alternatives. And the only thing that can ensure that we will not have another October 7th is to really, really complete the job, eradicate Hamas and has a clear victory in this war, which is something, unfortunately, we didn't do in the past 30 years. Yeah. I'm also seeing, it seems like, clear hypocrisy, much of the legacy media and those in Congress are supporting Ukraine funding and pushing with the war in Ukraine, which, you know, I sympathize with, Ukraine was invaded by hostile foreign power in the case of Russia. But they're not accusing Ukraine of engaging in genocide and responding to Russia's invasion. And they're supporting Ukraine while seeming not to support Israel.

Does that seem like a double standard to you? How do you see this situation? Well, of course it's double standards. But we know we're in Israel. We got used to it. I mean, we know many people in the world are anti-Semites. They're just in the sky. and they're using all kind of sophisticated words today

because it's not politically correct to be anti-Semite. So they're saying all kind of things. But it's basically, I mean, when the UN condemnment Israel time and time again, while in other places in the world, like in Russia, in Ukraine, in Syria, in so many other places in the world, hundreds of thousands of people are being killed, refugees from so many places in the world, the world doesn't say a word.

And only in Israel, when we are, again, we didn't initiate anything. We are just protecting ourselves. We're doing everything we can to differentiate the civic population in Gaza and Hamas. We're doing everything we can. I mean, our soldiers protecting the Gazans, the Gaza civilians, when taking them to safe zones while Hamas people are shooting them. And so we cannot even do that. We cannot even protect ourselves.

You cannot even fight back with Gaza after they butcher their people, after they're raped our women, after they burned our babies? Does that make any sense to a normal person in the world? Of course it's hypocrisy. Well, is there anything else about the situation, about the Biden administration that you would like to add? Again, I think we do appreciate the fact that America stood with us and supported us in this war, but again, we have to complete the job. We cannot stop now before Hamas is completely eradicated.

and we cannot offer them a state as a reward for October 7. These things, it's just, it's threatened the very existence of the state of Israel, and we will not accept that. And we hope that our friends in the world, including the administration, the current administration, will understand that they're hurting Israel. They're posing a real risk to our existence, and we will not accept that. Well, thank you so much for speaking with me. Of course, my pleasure. Thank you so much.

And that was Ohad Thal. Again, this is Tyler O'Neill, managing editor at The Daily Signal. If you enjoyed what you heard here, feel free to, you know, subscribe, leave a five-star rating and review. We read all of your feedback. And also, don't forget to check in to this very podcast feed at around 5 p.m. this evening when we'll bring you the top news of the day so you can stay informed on your evening commute home. Again, this is Tyler O'Neill with The Daily Signal. Remember to tune in for our top news edition this evening. Thank you. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Luey and Kate Trinco.

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