The Eric Metaxas Show - David Friedman

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel in the Trump administration, David Friedman, joins the show to discuss his new book One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

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Vicki, welcome back. We're taxes. Are you Greek? Are you Greek? Yes, I believe so. That's where the metaxis comes from. Vicki, listen, I think I've mentioned it on the air, but I was so excited I wanted to get you on the air to say this. When I read the list of people who signed up for the cruise because folks if you listen to the program you know we're doing a cruise the greek islands next june i'm thrilled i'm excited i tell everybody sign up at least look into it because it's going to be tons of fun go to eric mataxis dot com slash cruise eric mataxis dot com slash cruise and i was reading the list of who signed up you know and vicky your name was on there and i

flipped out. I said, if you're coming on the cruise, like, I'm done. I know it's going to be fun. I already knew it was going to be fun, but the idea that you're coming and obviously your husband, Paul, I mean, this is, I'm just so thrilled that you decided to join us. It's going to be more fun for everybody because you're there. Such a sweet thing to say. Well, no, it's totally true. I mean, like, I'm not saying it just to be polite. You, you, it's just, it's just, it's, It's just phenomenal that you're going to be there. I feel like it's like, you know, Eric Mattax's show and, you know, they're not ready for primetime players starring, you know, Victoria Jackson and who else,

I don't know, John Smirak, I don't know if Albin's coming. But the fact that you're coming, I think people are going to come just because you're coming. Like you're going to draw people more people come because they already know it's going to be more fun if you're part of it. So thank you for wanting to come. It's just wonderful. Thank you for inviting me.

I got this email, and I know it was sent to everyone, but I thought it was just to me. No, no, no, no, no. The email, I sent the email, you always do this. You do this all the time. I sent an email to a handful of friends, and obviously you're one of them, saying, in case he hadn't heard about this, I want you personally as my friend to know, we're doing a cruise in June. These are the details.

This is how you find out more. And if possible, please think about coming. And I sent it to, you know, any friend that I could think of whose email I have current, that, you know, who's a good friend. And I thought, you know, come if you can. It'll be fun. And you obviously got it, read it. And you signed up. Immediately signed up.

First of all, it's hard to get time with you. You're too busy. I haven't gotten to know your wife good enough because I only got to have dinner with her once, twice, kind of. And my husband, I always want to take him on a trip somewhere and he's afraid of traveling. But because I am dying of terminal cancer, he can't say no. Terminal cancer is the only kind of cancer that you can die of. So that's being redundant. Yeah, you are an English professor.

I just have to make light of terminal diseases. You, we talked about this last time you were on the program. I'm always hopeful, and that's why, you know, I don't, whenever somebody says like, oh, I'm dying of something, it's like, well, wait a minute. What does God say? Because we know that I've known people that have been miraculously healed genuinely. And so it's, but it is true that you have had a really grim diagnosis recently. And what's the latest update? Because the last time you were on, we said we got to get you back on

because you were going to have some appointment to find out more. Oh, well, as I was saying, I'm really milking this terminal cancer thing because Paul will do anything for me now. He gives me massages every night and he watches the shows I want to binge watch streaming and he... Leave it to you to make terminal cancer diaccharging. It's a diagnosis. Funny.

You've managed to do that, Vicki. You've managed to do that. That you're milking the term. I mean, honestly, it's like a movie, except it's real. It's your real life. But it sounds like a great plot for a movie. Let me ask you, seriously. So because, you know, Paul is a good husband, he says, okay, if you want to go on this cruise, now, I guess, I can't say no.

Okay, I'm going on the cruise. He's going to have a great time. We're all going to have a great time. So I'm very, I'm really very, very excited about this. And you, well, we haven't planned out every detail, but it's going to be, it's going to be amazing. I mean, honestly, the more I look into it and the more I think about where we're going, we're going through the Dardanelles. Have you ever been through the Dardanelles before?

I don't know what that is. Well, it's a, it's a rash that you can get if you eat the wrong stuff. And if you've been through it, anybody's been through it. anybody's been through the Dardanelles, you know, you know what I'm talking about. But I got to tell you, it's exciting. It's exciting. We're going to go to Ephesus. Oh, cool.

Yeah. Well, I knew it's biblical. I know Greece is biblical, and I know you're Greek, so you might be an expert on it, so you're the one to go. Greece is biblical. Sweden, Holland, they're not biblical. They're not mentioned in the Bible. People have no business living in nations.

that are, they don't even, they're not even mentioned in scripture, but Greece is mentioned in scripture. Because Paul's like, it is not safe to travel internationally at this time. And I'm like, Paul, there'll be so many Christians there, nothing can happen to us. But secondly, we should go to Norway, because that's where I'm from, instead of Greece, which is where Eric is from. However, Norway is not in the Bible. It's not in the Bible.

So no one has any business going there. to Holland. The Dutch people are in rebellion against the living God. It's unacceptable. Well, so Vicky, seriously, like, this is going to be fun. And now people have to fly to Athens on their own, right? That's not part of the cruise. But you go to Athens and we're leaving. The boat leaves June 6th and it returns June 16th. So it's 10 days. The whole thing is amazing. But there's also a pre-cruz thing. If people say, you know what, I have time. I want to go to Athens for a few days before the boat leaves. We're doing a Socrates in the city thing.

I think it's the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth. It's like three days of touring around and seeing stuff. And we're going to do a Socrates event in Athens. By the way, Socrates lived in Athens. So we're going to do a Socrates event in Athens. So this is before the cruise. So most people probably won't do that, but some people will do that. And then probably other people will think, well, you know what?

I could do the Socrates and the city thing in Athens. but I can't go on the cruise. So who knows? But I hope most people will do both, and it'll be fun. Did Paul the Apostle give a speech in Athens? I know he didn't know. He did, but they were not able to record it. But he did give a speech on Mars Hill.

And I am going to, we're going to go visit Mars Hill when we're in Athens. So anybody who comes to, now you can't sign up for the pre-cruz thing yet because we haven't put the details down. But if people want to do that, part of that, and obviously you can do this on your own or you can do it with the group. But I'm going to be visiting Mars Hill and a number of places around Athens. But that's, you know, one of the most exciting. I mean, the idea that you're on the very place where Paul spoke to the Athenians. Yeah.

Now, that would be really cool. I have to see that. Are you going to stand on the same spot he stood on and say? I'm going to speak out of the same microphone. Cool. A lot of people don't know that they kept that stuff. It's in a monastery and it's a real old school microphone. It's not even electronic. But you know what? It is what it is. We're going to go with it. So you, have you never been to Greece before ever? I got to get a handstand picture there. I don't have a handstand picture from Greece yet. So you've never been to Greece? Are you kidding? Of course not. What do you mean? Of course not. People assume that big celebrities they're on John. Johnny Carson, they're on Saturday Night Live.

Like, they're world travelers and stuff. They're hanging out with P. Diddy. And you're telling me, no? Well, big celebrities, the first thing they think of is Paris. Have you ever been to Paris? Yes. You have been? Want to see my handstand photo from Paris?

You know, it was just on the tip of my tongue to ask for that, but you beat me to it. So hold on a second. Vicki has left the microphone. What? What? Oh my gosh. That looks Photoshopped. Is that real? Well, I put a filter to make the colors pop because it was a gray day. So that's you doing a handstand in Paris? Okay, now, folks, we're going to a break. Don't go away. So you're putting money away, saving for the future, for retirement, for your family. You're doing what you're supposed to do, right?

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Great to be with you. You have a brand new book out, absolutely brand new, with kind of a provocative thesis. I spoke to you about it a couple of months ago here in New York, and I said, I would love for you to come in my program and talk about it. So the title of the book is One Jewish State, the last best hope to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So what in a nutshell is the thesis, which you shared with me about this proposal you have? So for the last 50 years or so, the only thesis for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the two-state solution, right, which is basically creating an independent Palestinian state in the area called the West Banker. People refer it to as Judean Samaria.

post-October 7th, I mean, I was against it beforehand, but I think post-October 7th, I don't think you need to be Oliver Wendell Holmes to make the case that the two-state solution doesn't work. Because we look at the circumstances in Gaza. Gaza was, you know, there hadn't been a Jew living in Gaza for 18 years. Excuse me. Hasn't been an Israeli soldier on the ground prior to October 7th in Gaza in 18 years. Gaza was, you know, given its independence, the people of Gaza elected Hamas, they got billions of dollars from all kinds of organizations, including, unfortunately, America. And they self-governed, and they self-governed themselves into one of the most dangerous terrorist states in the entire world, taking all their money, not using it to build schools or hospitals, but basically to build this massive network of terror tunnels and weapons of mass destruction and creating the greatest home court advantage of ground warfare in the world. So, you know, point one, if you will, is we can't have a two-state solution.

And the second is well, well, then what? And the then what is to sort of look at this area, look at Judean Samaria, West Bank, whatever you want to call it, and start looking at resumes of the various candidates who could rule over this area, starting with, we disqualify the Palestinians for self-governance because even in the West Bank and areas where they live alone, Israelis aren't allowed to go. They've created hotbeds of terror. So look at the resumes of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt. Not that any of them want to, but even if they wanted to, you know, these are countries with, these are failed states with GDP per capita of somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000.

In Israel, you have a GDP per capita of $55,000. It's a first world country, top tenet economy in the world per capita. And then you look at the second point, which is, Israel has a track record of empowering its minority citizens. 20% of Israelis are Arab. More than 20% of the most elite universities in Israel are Arabs or Arab students. Arabs have really kind of hit the pinnacle of any area that matters. You know, law, business, research, high tech.

They're all active as Israelis are. So Israel has shown the ability to work with an Arab minority. And then, if you will, maybe the cherry on top is, Well, you know, those of us of faith, what does God say about all this? And, you know, God has been very clear from the book of Genesis, including then all the prophets thereafter that, the Jewish people, have been given this land. This is biblical Israel. You know, it's Hebron, in Shiloh, and Bethlehem and Bethel, places that so many American towns

are named after. So my thesis is that Israel needs to expand its sovereignty to Judean Samaria to the West Bank in a way that brings prosperity, human dignity, national security, protection of religious sites to all the inhabitants of the land and all the people of the world. That's the thesis. When you say protection of religious sites, because not everyone, myself included, is aware, really, of the details. You know, even when people talk about Gaza, the West Bank, it can be confusing and muddy. So let's be clear. Right now, what holy sites holy to Christians and Jews are in Gaza, are in this territory that's been run by Hamas for some years?

So let me just be clear. I mean, Gaza has some biblical relevance, but I'm really talking about the other side of the country. I'm really talking about Judean Samaria. in the West Bank, not about Gaza. I mean, Gaza is right now a mess. It's the, it's in the middle of a war that has resulted in just, you know, destruction and death. And it's too soon. It's really too soon to talk about the future of Gaza.

I'm not that arrogant that I would, could predict, you know, what to do next than Gaza. It's got to be stabilized. It's like, you know, a patient comes into a hospital with a, you know, with his leg, you know, in three pieces. You know, we're not talking about, you know, running a marathon. First we're talking about, you know, getting the patient's, stable. So, but the West Bank has the ability to be stable now. I mean, it's, it's got a population. It's not at war. There are hotbeds of terror there, but, but there, if I can answer your question as to that territory, yeah, I mean, it's, it's biblical Israel. I mean, from the north going down,

you start with, you know, Nazareth, where, where Jesus grew up, right? And, and from there, you know, he walked along this path. I made a movie about it with Mike Pompeo called Route 60, the biblical highway with your network, co-producing. go down, you got the city of Shrem or Nablus, where Joseph was buried, where Abraham first came, when Abraham heard the calling from God. That was the first city he came to. In Hebrew, we call it Shrem. In English, it's referred to as Nablus. You have Shiloh, where Samuel, the prophet was born, where Hannah taught the world how to pray, where it was the Jerusalem before there was Jerusalem, Bethel, where Jacob had his famous dream of a ladder ascending to heavens, where the angels came up and down.

They promised him that he would, God promised to Jacob, that his progeny would have this land, this biblical territory. Of course, Jerusalem, which has so much significance to Jews and Christians. You know this well, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Garden of Gatsimony, the stations of the cross. Jerusalem, of course, is the site of the temple of the Jewish people. where King David ruled, or King Solomon ruled, where the temple was built, Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, the tomb of Rachel, where Rachel was buried, Hebron, which Abraham purchased as a burial place for him and his wife, Sarah, and Isaac and Rebecca and Leah and Jacob.

So I could go on and on. I mean, this is the Bible, you know, from top to bottom. But for those of us who are not really clear on the current outlines of National Israel, and what you're proposing. In other words, how would the one Jewish state, the one state solution, affect some of the areas that you're talking about? So with all the places that I just mentioned,

with the possible exception of Jerusalem, because Israel has already extended its sovereignty to Jerusalem, all these other places are relatively inaccessible right now. We talk about Israel being the land of the Bible. All those places, with the exception of Nazareth, are considered by the world, not to be part of Israel. They consider it to be part of either

people call it the Palestinian territories or occupied the Palestine. I mean, whatever the words are. But not Israel. No one says this is part of the state of Israel. But what does Israel say? What is this? In other words, this is where it's always, it's confusing to folks like me who are not really following this the way you are.

What country are we talking about? I look on a map. You've described all of these places. They are within national Israel. but that is not accepted by much of the world. Is that the idea? I'll make it even more confusing. Even Israel has not extended its sovereign to these areas.

It is treated as territory that Israel controls, but it's not sovereign Israel. It's just people call it, you know, it's the West Bank. Some people call it Palestine. Some people call it, you know, Israeli. Well, we're not going to call it Palestine, but would we call it, oh, that's the West Bank? that's what the West Bank is?

Yeah, it's the West Bank. I mean, the phrase that I use, I use the biblical phrase of Judea and Samaria, but, you know, it's the same thing as the West Bank. But it's not, in other words, if I go to Israel and I want to go to some of these places, you're saying it's dangerous? You're saying, what are you saying?

Certain places, well, you can go to these places. It is, it is in some point. place is very dangerous. In some places, it's okay. It depends. Each place is different. Each community is different. But you are leaving sovereign Israel and you are in a territory in which Israel doesn't provide the police force, the Palestinians. Israel has an army there, but the army is focusing not on, you know, day-to-day law and order, but more, you know, larger issues. It's a, it's, if it sounds confusing, it's because it is. You can go there, but you, but you, but you, but you will not be in territory that anyone calls Israel because it's considered this disputed territory

that hasn't been resolved now in over 50 years. So it's considered disputed territory by everybody. This is not just the Palestinians. In other words, we can agree that this is disputed territory as of now. In your book, One Jewish State is proposing that it no longer be disputed territory. We're talking to Ambassador David Friedman, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel under President Trump. The new book is One Jewish State. We'll be right back. Hey, folks, hold off on purchasing your first order from Balance of Nature because I've got some information you need to hear.

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When you get the blues. Come on, get rhythm. When you get the blues, get a rock. Welcome back. I continue my conversation with Ambassador David Friedman, former U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Trump. The new book is One Jewish State, and it is a provocative, controversial proposal, but most of the things that I believe in are considered provocative and controversial, because much of the world is wrong about a lot of stuff. So it's worth looking into this.

Now, in the book, One Jewish State, Ambassador Friedman talks about there being only one country earmarked. in the scripture for the Jewish people. There are 49 Muslim countries, many Christian, Buddhists, Hindu countries, only one Jewish state. So, Ambassador Friedman, what is the pushback that you are getting or that you will get on this concept? In other words, I know there are people who would disagree strongly with this. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and at least consider what they say. Why do they not like this idea? What is it about your idea? it seems to me from our conversation thus far that they would say, wait a minute,

you're proposing that Israel take over these disputed territories. No, no, no, these disputed territories we say belong to the Palestinian people. I don't even believe there's such a thing as the Palestinian people, but we'll put that to the side. You're saying as a result of what happened on October 7th, Israel needs to act decisively and to take back these, so-called disputed territories? Yeah, look, I think, I think, you know,

we could have a dispute for another 50 years, it would only bring misery and poverty to people in this kind of very challenged region. This land, you know, as from a perspective of faith, this land was given to the Jewish people by God, but that's only part of the argument. The main part of the argument is that, you know, only Israel has the capacity within this region

to bring, you know, national security to everybody, to bring prosperity, to bring, you know, to bring opportunity. And, you know, when I was in government, you know, kind of the dirty secret that the Palestinian people would tell me privately, kind of whispered to me, but wouldn't say publicly is, we don't want to be ruled by Palestinians. I mean, we've been ruled by Palestinians. They take all the money that they're given in foreign aid. They put in their pockets. They see their leaders.

Their leaders live like, you know, like sheikhs of some, you know, oil-rich kingdom. And they're not. You know, they fly on, you know, incredible, you know, Boeing business jet planes and they live in palaces. And their people starve because they're, it's. There's no culture of self-governance there. The Palestinians, as you point out, they're not, they haven't been a people. They're tribal, their Bedouins, whatever they are. I don't want to be pejorative.

I mean, they're human beings entitled to the same dignity as everybody else. But they're not going to get there through self-governance because they've never attempted to create any of the institutions of self-governance that we would be proud of, that we want to be part of. So, you know, that, but it also dovetails, though, of course, with biblical prophecy. And it also dovetails with Israel's track record, which has been. had been very positive. So look, you know, I understand the Palestinians would like a place. The reality is, if you go back in history, the Palestinians have a state. It's called Jordan. You know, Jordan was part of Palestine back in the 1940s.

72% of mandatory Palestine was peeled off by the Brits and given to Jordan. 60% of the people who live in Jordan are Palestinians. Palestinians don't self-governed in Jordan either. Palestinians are governed in Jordan by a kind of sort of semi-fictitious kingdom called the Hashemite kingdom, King Abdullah and his and his progeny. But that's, no one's complaining about that. I mean, Jordan's a failed state, you know, it's a dictatorship. 60% of the Palestinians live, but they'd much rather live in Israel. All of them would rather live in Israel. Nobody wants to live in an area governed by Palestinians because they just don't do it well. And so, you know, as Mike Pompeo said, you know, very interesting,

in the foreto my book, you said, I guess we really shouldn't be surprised that God's vision for this region is actually the best outcome for everybody who lives there. And that's really the the critical point of the book. Okay, so you were saying earlier that we've had 18 years of, what, something like self-governance by the Palestinians? So we got, we'll split up because there's the Gaza side, there's the West Bank side, so on the Gaza side, 18 years of self-governance, they elected Hamas, and they completely blew it, created a terrorist state.

On the other side, you have Oslo, 1994. So that's more than 18 years. That's like 30 years, right? And 30 years, Oslo divided the West Bank into sections. Two of those sections, area A and B, are governed by Palestinians. So roughly half the West Bank right now, to this day, is governed by Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority. What do they do? What are they best known for?

The pay-for-slave program, they have a pension system in which they provide pensions to their people. If you kill a Jew, you get a higher pension than if you don't. I mean, if you can believe this, it's barbaric. Okay, now look, look, we have to, whenever anybody says anything like incendiary, I want to say slow down. Let's say that again because what you just said is true. Right. If you kill a Jew, you're incentivized to murder Jews. Say more about that because a lot of people aren't aware of this.

So the Palestinian Authority, remember, they're supposed to be the good guys, right? They're not Hamas. They're supposed to be the good guys. They have a pension system. It's called, colloquially, pay for slate. Okay, and it's been outlawed. Pay for slay. And it has been outlawed in America.

You know, America will not support this under a law called the Taylor Force Act, named after an American Marine who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Jaffa several years ago. But they have a pension system. Now, you got a basic pension. If you are jailed for assaulting a Jew, you get pension plus X. If you kill the Jew, it's pension. plus why? If you yourself are killed in that process,

your family gets death benefits which is pension plus Z. So there are all these systems that are calibrated based upon the severity of the crime you commit against Jewish people. We're not making it up, ladies and gentlemen. I'm talking to Ambassador David

Friedman. The brand new book is one Jewish state. The last best hope to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We will continue in a moment. Hey there, folks. Once again, My Pillow has been canceled by another box store. So they're passing an incredible offer exclusively to My Listeners. That's you. The standard My Pillow retails for 4998, but for a limited time, you can have one for only 1498.

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We're talking with Ambassador David Friedman, former U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Trump. The new book is One Jewish State. In it, Ambassador Friedman writes, it is this clarity that tells us we must try something new. It is this clarity that tells us Israel must plan its future on its own and not obsess about what others think. And it is this clarity that compels us to go back to basics to return to the biblical value. and divine covenants that unite the Jewish people. What are you referring to when you say it is this clarity before we continue? Sure. So the clarity there is October 7th.

October 7th. Yeah. We all know what happened, but the brutality, the two things. The brutality, unspeakable atrocities committed against Jewish people, the worst since the Holocaust, coupled with the support of the Palestinian people, given for that barbaric conduct. More than 80% of those polled supported what Hamas did. And to me that was, you know, again, I was against a Palestinian state before then,

but that to me was the nail in the coffin. I mean, if that's how you really feel about the Jewish people, you really want to kill them, murder them, destroy them, we're not going to give you a platform from which to do it. It's not going to happen. It's interesting because I think serious Christians and Jews both suffer from something, which is often being over-gracious. In other words, you want to be, you want to take the high road. And so in dealing with those who advocate for Palestine,

Israel and to some extent the United States goes far out of its way to be over-gracious. And there's a place for graciousness, but to be over-gracious is to fall into error. And it seems to me by now, and this is what you're talking about, the clarity of October 7th, you say, well, this is now the fruit of what we have been doing. In other words, we play nice, and you come in and you butcher and rape over a thousand of our civilians. All right, maybe we made a mistake in being over gracious. We're now going to get serious. It sounds to me like that's right, and it sounds to me like that's where you're coming from. Yeah, there's a famous saying I'm probably not getting exactly right, but they say,

you know, when you're merciful to the evil, you know, you bring evil to the merciful, you know, and you have to, we want to be, we want to be gracious. We all want to be gracious. We all want to support every human being. Every human being is creating the image of God, every Palestinian. I mean, what I try to say about this book, the point I try to make, this is not a right-wing book. It's not a left-wing book.

You know, it's not pro-Israel. It's not pro-Palestine. It's not pro-religious. It's not pro-secular. I do believe this book, if implemented, under Israeli sovereignty, I believe the Palestinians will have the best quality of life available to them under any other scenario. It's not because we want to hurt them. It hurts the Palestinians.

It hurts Israel, too. Just radicalizes that, makes them violent. That's not a good outcome. Well, let me just say, I remember, you know, when President Trump was persuaded largely by you, to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Everybody said, what? Yeah, it's the right thing to do. But don't do it because if you do it,

there's going to be hell to pay, wiser heads, George W. Bush and others, oh, they said it's the right thing. They said they would do it. But in the end, they saw, oh, no, no, no, we can't do it. Those naysayers were wrong, and it was the right thing that President Trump did. But it's not necessarily the right thing.

In other words, we don't know. And it seems to me what you're proposing is it's a much bigger deal than merely moving an embassy, building a building. It would require what some people will call a military invasion. In other words, this is the sort of thing that I could imagine wise voices saying would trigger World War III. I mean, to be clear, this is not like, you know, we move some lines on a piece of paper. So that to me is the conundrum at the heart of this, that maybe it's the right thing, but is it possible without triggering greater conflict? So here's why I don't think it creates, I mean, again, I can't predict what every single reaction would be. The Israeli military is already there.

I mean, the Israeli military is on the ground in Judean Smith. in the West Bank. They are there. They are ruling over it already from the military perspective. There are pockets where Palestinians have some control where they failed. But the Israeli army is there. It's not like the tanks have to start moving in. Here's what the book does, which we don't have today. The only way for Israel to deal with hostile Palestinians right now is with a stick. They have a military. There's a military consequence to Palestinian radicalism. There's no carrot, right? There's nothing, there's no carrot.

This creates the carrot. This is a plan where Israel will just, we'll take over, but not as a military occupier, not as a military presence, but we'll take over and say, we're responsible for you guys. You know, we're responsible for your prosperity, for your human dignity. We're responsible for your health care. You know, we're going to help you build better schools. And it's a big lift. And I think the punchline here also is this has to include an expansion of the Abraham Accords.

That's how you get there, right? You have to go to our friends in the Emirates, in Saudi Arabia, in Bahrain, in Morocco, and say, guys, look, we all know. Let's just get real here. You don't want a Palestinian state. You know what it's going to look like. You're fighting the same enemies that Israel's fighting. You're all fighting radical Islamic extremists. They will take over this Palestinian state. None of us should want it. How do we make it better? We've got to get together and have a program where you help us. Help us bring to this area more prosperity, more opportunity, build roads, hospitals. They got a lot of money. They want this area to be safe and secure as well. That, to me, is kind of the way this gets put, not through some kind of an announcement overnight. Israel's coming in, we're taking it over. It's got to be done slowly with a consensus inside of Israel, inside America, inside the Gulf, and a partnership, and actually do it.

Nothing here suggests an overnight power play that could result in violence. And I ought to have said it, but you, sir, are one of the leading architects of the historic Abraham Accords. So you know a little something about what we're talking about here. You're not just throwing out an idea. It seems to me sound, and I hope it gets a hearing. It's going to – maybe it will take President Trump's re-election before you can move forward with this. I'm guessing that that's what's behind your thinking.

Yes. And the other thing is this. Look, I, step one, step one is I want people to read the book and talk about it. And if there's things that they don't like about it, say what they don't like about it. I mean, it's not a monopoly on ideas. Well, we have to end it there. But just grateful for your work, Ambassador David Friedman. Thank you. Thanks, Erica. Pleasure. Hey there, folks. Before we go, I want to mention tonight, I'm going to be on Flashpoint. If you're part of the Flashpoint Army, or even if you aren't, check out Flashpoint tonight. I should be on there for the whole hour tonight on Flashpoint. Earlier today, I was on Newsmax with John Bachman. This weekend, I'm preaching at King's Church in New York City. Look up King's Church. That's my dear friend, David Englehart, who's the pastor there, but I'll be speaking on my book, Religionless Christianity. If you haven't read that yet, I think it will bless you. Religionless Christianity.

It's the sequel to Letter to the American Church. I should also say you can go to letter to the American church.com to watch the film letter to the American church. I want to mention that. I also want to mention that I'm going to be traveling everywhere this month. So I recommend to you, please. Go to my website, Erictaxas.com, and look at my speaking schedule because I'm probably coming near you. I mean, I'm coming to so many different places that it's unbelievable.

I have a very, very busy October. I covet your prayers, as we say in the Christian church. I covet your prayers because it's a battle. There's a lot going on. A lot of exciting things going on. Before I forget, I want to say two more things. I want to remind folks about the Heritage Foundation. They are sponsors on this program, and they are the ones that are behind Project 2025.

Every time a conservative administration is poised to come into power, so obviously we hope Trump will be reelected. If he's not, it's over. But they create like a raft of initiatives and policies. stuff and personnel, and they've labeled this one, Project 2025. And it enables a Trump administration to hit the ground running. And you can imagine how tough it would be that you're out of power and then suddenly, boom, now what?

And so the Project 2025, the idea behind it is to help a conservative administration hit the ground running with immediate policy proposals and stuff. So if you want to learn what's in it, because the left is trying to demonize Project 2025, because they're scared of it as they should be, go to 25truth.com. 25truth.com. And, man, we got a lot of exciting guests the rest of this week. I want to say, Chris Himes, before we forget, a number of people have been writing. to us at the website, Ericmetaxis.com. And folks, I recommend you go there if you want to write an email to me.

But next, either this week or next week, I want to read some of these emails because some of you have written the sweetest emails, the most encouraging emails. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. And it means a lot to me. If you want to comment on the radio show, go to Metaxistalkis talk.com. we'd love your questions. I would love to do

and ask Metaxus with your questions, but you have to go to submit your questions at MetaxusTalk.com. Chris Ims is checking that. And if we get your questions and they seem like something that I can answer, we'll do it. We'll do it on the air.

We just have seconds left. Let me remind you, folks, if you're interested in signing up for the cruise, we just found out that there's like a window of opportunity for the people signing up to come on our portion of this cruise. They have a number of rooms reserved on the ship. And so you have to get in early. And they told us by October 31st is the deadline.

So if you're thinking about it, think hard about it so you can make your decision because I don't, you know, I don't know what happens after October 31st. But I know that they told us that that's the date where they're holding a certain number of rooms. So you want to go to Eric McTan. Maxis.com slash cruise, Ericmetaxis.com slash cruise. We'll talk to you tomorrow.