The President's Daily Brief - PDB Situation Report | July 26th, 2025: China Kidnaps American Citizens & Slaughter in Syria

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: China imposes exit bans on a U.S. Commerce Department official and a Wells Fargo banker, a provocative escalation in its standoff with Washington. Stephen Yates from the Heritage Foundation joins us to explain what Beijing's move signals—and what the U.S. response could be. Shocking reports out of Syria as government forces under interim president Al-Jolani are accused of massacring over 1,100 Druze civilians. Israeli-Druze journalist and former Knesset member Gadeer Mreeh shares her perspective on the targeted violence—and why Israel chose to intervene. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief DeleteMe: Visit https://joindeleteme.com/BRIEF & Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan. American Financing: Call American Financing today to find out how customers are saving an avg of $800/mo. 866-885-1881 or visit https://www.AmericanFinancing.net/PDB - NMLS 182334, https://nmlsconsumeraccess.org TriTails Premium Beef: Visit https://trybeef.com/pdb & get $10 off 20 Lbs Ground Beef Special Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right. Let's get briefed. First up, China is escalating tensions with Washington, oh really, by slapping travel bans on a U.S. Commerce Department employee and a Wells Fargo executive, both of them U.S. citizens, barring them from leaving China. We'll break down what's happening and what's behind these provocative moves with Stephen Yates from the Heritage Foundation. Later in the show, there's a slaughter in Syria. Government forces under the nation's interim president, Al Jolani, or a.k.a. al-Shara, as he likes to call himself these days, have been accused of carrying out mass murder, targeting that nation's

Druze population. Israeli-Drews politician and journalist Gadir Marie joins us with her insights on the atrocities. But first, today's PDB spotlight. China is escalating its pressure on Washington, imposing exit bans on two Americans. a U.S. Commerce Department employee and a Wells Fargo banker, preventing both from leaving the country. According to a State Department spokesperson, the Commerce employee and the U.S. citizen working for the patent and trademark office has been detained since mid-April. Chinese authorities ceased his passport, his cell phone, and personal belongings during a visit to the city of Chengdu.

U.S. officials say they're closely monitoring the situation, well, that's nice, and have engaged with Beijing in hopes of a swift resolution. Well, he's been detained since mid-Aprin. April. Okay. But is this a warning shot from China or a sign of something bigger? Joining me now is friend of the show Stephen Yates, a senior research fellow for China and national security policy at the Heritage Foundation. He served in the White House as deputy assistant to the vice president for national security and he's a very good friend of the show. Steve, thanks very much for coming back on the Situation Report. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Well, all right. Look at that. Always a pleasure. That's a very

nice thing to say. I appreciate that. You may think differently. after I ask a few questions. So let's start with the exit bans on the US citizens. Talk to me about that, what it means? Are they sending a message? What's going on here? Well, this is something that's happened repeatedly over the years. It has been a more prominent feature since China a few years ago passed a national security law.

And that national security law hit on things like their Chinese sovereignty over data that was in their country, which might include. international firms corporate information. It also held out the question whether corporate executives would be free to leave if there were, say, some government questions about who they were talking to or what they were up to that Beijing decided they needed answers to before they went. So we've had a few different executives who've been held up. In this case, recently, though, we had a U.S. government official that was among those that was held up for a time. time. And really, it doesn't make good rational sense. And I don't even know what Beijing

thinks they get out of it other than the flex. Because the Trump administration has made very clear from the president onward that they're trying to negotiate with China, that while there's been a lot of talk about decoupling, some of which coming from people like me, they're that the Trump administration is looking for a balanced position. in between. And the president goes on at length about how he's good friends with Xi Jinping and has that things are going great with China, some of which I think is sort of trying to shape mood music. I don't believe the president can possibly think things are excellent. But at the same time, if you got all of that near Beijing, why pee in the Cheerios over something like this?

And that's all this is. This is 100% negative. The Chinese foreign ministry is right now trying to translate pee in the Cheerios. Does anybody, I mean, are there any world leaders that actually have a good relationship with Xi Jinping? Is that a possibility? Well, I think there are several leaders who think they do. And that is a problem when they think that, but it's not real. Some of them are supposed to be U.S. allies. I mean, I remember the leader of France saying really tough things about how the U.S. doesn't take the threat from Russia seriously enough.

and then went and did a really white glove dance with Xi Jinping in China. And so, you know, there's a French leader seemed to be misguided and imagining he had a great relationship. Some of them are our adversaries or not our friends. Putin thinks he's got a great relationship with Xi Jinping. I doubt deeply, based on history and decades of development, that that is actually something that will pay off in a time of crisis that's transactional right now with. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but over time, Xi Jinping and the leadership he's got will take advantage

of anybody. And so I just think that it's delusional for people to think they have that. I don't think it's delusional to talk that way if what you're trying to do is to talk someone into negotiations or come to a table for a meeting. And that's sort of tactical versus do you really believe it? Yeah, there's always sort of that window dressing that goes on around any, you know, a foreign relationship or diplomatic effort. So I take your point there. The Chinese regime has said that the Wells Fargo banker, a U.S. citizen, that they're holding, have issued the travel ban on, is part of, without giving details, part of a criminal investigation.

They haven't given a reason for the U.S. commerce employee being held. Talk to me about from a Western perspective, how would you describe the rule of law in China? Yeah, well, it is the CCP controls every element of government. They make the laws. Those are the rules. You must follow them. It is not really open to interpretation by anyone but them. So it can mean whatever they want it to mean, whenever they decide they want to exercise some influence or coercion, what is often very conspicuous in these cases, not 100%, but too often, they do this to people who are ethnically Chinese. So, they're a U.S. citizen, but the message they convey is you owe an allegiance to your ethnic motherland more than

anywhere else you may claim to be a citizen, and you will follow our rules. And then, oddly, they try to put a European ideology, communism and socialism, as the ultimate power on top of this ethno state that they're trying to define and control. So there's more than a little bit of racism in this that doesn't really get much of the focus of the world that wants to find every sin in Western civilization. And here's a giant moat in the eye of Beijing as they do this. but that's one of the things that's in there. But it really also goes back to this national security law where they'll accuse people who in the financial industry

are doing normal due diligence as trying to access information that is air quotes a state secret. And that is fundamentally the clash of our economic civilizations right now. Yeah, it's really interesting. I look, I mean, I've got a company that does a variety of information gathering exercises around the world, due diligence. in particular investigations, strategic intelligence gathering, but on the due diligence side, you're absolutely right. China is a fascinating environment. It's a very difficult environment

for Western companies to do just basic due diligence, right? Because the Chinese regime, as you pointed out, considers everything to be a state secret. So just trying to understand the fundamentals of a company that a Western business may be interested in investing in is an extremely difficult process and also a potentially dangerous one from a Western perspective when you're trying to just gather basic background information on the performance of a company. So it is fascinating. The point you make about the, you know, going after the Chinese Americans and not considering that there's, they always go with the primacy of the Chinese ethnic background, right? So they they don't consider the U.S. citizenship or the other secondary citizenship.

That is also a hallmark of their espionage efforts, right? They have a long history of targeting first or second or third generation Chinese and trying to play off of that supposed loyalty to the homeland. But what's the, I suppose, I guess the question is, what's the business environment like? If you're a Western company, talk to me about that, because you would imagine that the Chinese regime, interested in growth, you would think, right?

This would be a normal Western perspective. Interested in growth would be more welcoming, would be more encouraging to Western investment. But talk to me about where we stand with that so far. Well, systematically, there is a lot in China economically that is more grassroots. It's not central government-led. the placement of a party official inside of companies that is national and comprehensive.

But a lot of decisions about what to manufacture, who to partner with and all of that, that could be really locally or provincially driven in the provinces of the equivalence of U.S. States and wouldn't be comprehensive. But doing business, say, as an American but otherwise, in China, you're in the middle of a vice group. One side of it is this national security law and everything's a state secret and sort of protected. And the other is you have to maintain compliance with American law too. So say you're in the fabric business and you want to know who you're hiring for labor. You want to know who your suppliers are.

You want to know if there are maybe potentially corrupt officials, local or otherwise in that mix. You need that information. but you also have to answer to U.S. authorities, too, whether you're violating American law on sourcing of your material from slave labor in Xinjiang. And a lot of fabric that has gone into a lot of American consumer goods and global consumer goods is alleged to be tied to that genocide and that slave labor supply chain. So if you're just trying to do normal business and you're out there in the world, you've got to be compliant with both of these systems at once.

Frankly, I think the Chinese make that harder than the Americans do, but Americans can be good at regulation too. Yeah, absolutely, particularly if you're in California. Steve, we've got a lot more to talk about, but if you could stick around, we've got to take a quick break, and then we'd be back with Steve Yates from the Heritage Foundation, right here on the Situation Report. Stick around. Hey, Mike Baker here.

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and enter code brief at checkout. Again, one more time, join deleteme.com slash brief, code brief. Welcome back to the PDB situation report. Joining me once again is Steve Yates of the Heritage Foundation. Steve, thanks very much for sticking around. We've been talking China, not all things, China. I want to shift gears slightly, right, and look across the water to Taiwan. What's the current situation with Taiwan?

It seems to come and go, right? There's a, usually when there's a massive military exercise being conducted by the Chinese military, but where are you right now with Taiwan? Well, right now, I think the central focus is on some domestic developments in Taiwan. They're in the midst of a recall process. So people from the U.S. state of California are familiar with recalls. But in Taiwan, their legislature is closely divided, another familiar situation to us, but it's controlled by the opposition to the president's party.

And there are efforts to pull back, I think, about a dozen of the Nationalist Party candidates. Now, when recalled, they would be vacating their seats temporarily. That would change the balance of power. The president's party would be in the majority. But there would be supplemental elections that would determine whether that majority for the Democratic Progressive Party of the president endure. or whether the KMT, the Nationalist Party, claws back enough of those seats to hold under their majority.

That's a little bit down in the weeds to a lot of people, but a lot's at stake. We're negotiating a major big, beautiful trade deal. I assume something is going to get concluded with Taiwan at some point before too long. They invest a huge amount in America and announced a lot in the AI supply chain. And they also offer to purchase an enormous amount of defense articles. But if the president's executive branch offers to make those agreements, if the KMT or opposition controls the legislature, that's hard for him to deliver. And so the outcome of this recall election season that should go about a month has a lot

hanging in the ballots. China has been relatively quiet during this period of uncertainty. that will not last. And a lot is hinging on, does President Trump go to China in October before going to the APEC summit in Korea? And as you know, Mike, when presidents kick into gear about they're going to go to China, a lot of people say, oh, please keep everything else quiet while we try to spin the China for a month or two. So that's kind of the rumbling that's going on now. We have a temporary pause in the focus on the military exercises and coercion that hasn't stopped, but this other drama is playing out more now.

To what degree is the Chinese Communist Party influence or metal, however you want to refer to it, in the Taiwanese politics, like what's happening right now with the legislature? How much influence does the CCP have inside Taiwan? They have significant influence by way of, in some cases, an ownership, stake in some of the media platforms. And there are a lot of people that come and go. There are people from China that will marry Taiwanese and live in Taiwan. And so there's a substantial number of options that the CCP has to try to influence things. Taiwan has a lot of experience with this. So they have among the most sophisticated systems in the world to inoculate against it.

It's imperfect, but it's way better than a lot of others. And the CCP doesn't want to be seen doing it too, obviously. That's blown back against them in several election cycles. The Democratic Progressive Party will accuse their opposition of parroting CCP talking points. And so the question of China's influence will be centered in this. So the recalled legislators are going to be branded as pro-China by their opposition. but it's just a big thick stew that's stirring right now on this. The CCP is definitely an ingredient.

But when it comes down to it, this is bare knuckles local politics. Okay. Do you think Trump will end up visiting in China in October? I do. Number one, I think he wants to. I think he has wanted to for some time. I think he's got a policy agenda he wants to talk in person about. would command Xi Jinping's time if he's there.

And whereas trying to catch him on the phone to have these conversations is proven more difficult than people might have wanted or thought. And when the president goes as far as Asia, they tend to want to knock out a couple of different targets of opportunity. So in an abnormal world, which we don't live in, he would go to Japan first, then go to Seoul for the APEC summit. And then after having touched down in both of those allied countries, go to Beijing, have the consultations and come back to the U.S. That would be a normal full schedule. But with President Trump, we don't get to know the order just yet. But I'm pretty high confidence he is going to try to go in that time frame.

Okay. And to what degree would, from a Chinese Communist Party's perspective, to what degree would they, to what degree would they play up a Trump visit? I mean, is this a sort of thing that would make big news inside China or the general population? Or, you know, what would that dynamic look like? Well, as we know, I mean, President Trump is pretty good about powering through news cycles to push the questions he wants asked, push the issues he wants to say. But that's in an adversarial. news environment in the West. In China, it's completely controlled by the state and the Communist Party of China. Barack Obama thought that he was going to go to China and the power of his

persona would be overwhelming. And by having a public speech at a university, he would be able to kind of move the arc of history on human rights in China and fundamental freedoms. That was delusional in a deep, deep way. Are you saying that didn't happen, Steve? Unfortunately, now, I wish it did. But I'm pretty sure if we put our analytical lenses on, there's no evidence that moves the needle. And the needle has sadly moved in the wrong direction since. And so Trump will go and he'll be able to push conversation.

But the Chinese, number one, will make the point, this is the president coming to them. And that matters in their system and their culture, the Chinese culture and the communist culture. And they will control the consensus as they define it as what was agreed to. And so they can take the president's polite words and basically say, this is America agreeing with us and cooperating with us. And will mysteriously delete the things that are, you need to pay for COVID and you got to stop fentanyl and whatever else. he may say. So that's the risk. I trust the president knows it. I hope that he can play hardball on it, but that's, I would much rather have Xi Jinping have to come to America than our president go there. But I don't think she's going to do that. Yeah. It hasn't been any indication that that would be in the

works at this point. Look, it's an interesting dynamic, right, because the U.S. president going to China in the current time, right, with obviously concerns about their, their aggressive buildup in the South China Sea, their attitude towards Taiwan. And then just some recent news, right, over the past 48 hours even of Chinese, you know, further Chinese espionage, right? Efforts to steal valuable proprietary information, their economic espionage that they engage in. Just the release of information related to a Chinese American in California, right, who was downloading and providing information to the CCP about very highly sensitive sensor developments, right, for detecting missile launches and tracking missiles. And so, you know, there's that. Then they, you know, the breach of Microsoft's

SharePoint software and targeting the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration. So these things are happening, right? I guess, you know, I am getting to a question, Steve, don't worry. Do you believe, you know, are you confident that Trump, you know, when he visits, if he visits, you know, will bring something like that up? Look, it's been, the cost is incalculable over the years in terms of their theft of intellectual property and research and development. But do you think that's something that he's going to do, or do you get the impression that he'll be so focused on trying to get some trade deal finished, that we're not going to have those difficult conversations with she?

Yeah, well, I'll put the hopeful Yates on for this one just because you'll be better for the United States and the world if these things work. I hope Trump is his normal self, which is a guy that is the most comfortable human and the most uncomfortable positions. We just look at when he was with Fed Chair Powell walking through that mega construction complex and arguing about what are the cost overruns and he would fire somebody if they had engaged in that kind of behavior. Fire who? Fire the guy that's standing next to him.

He was comfortable as a pig in mud talking through that right then. And if that kind of Trump goes and talks with Xi about, and by the way, don't mess with Taiwan. We're not going to do anything to be provocative on this, but don't mess with this. If he say, you know, stop screwing around with poisoning our people and trying to steal our stuff. Let's, you know, let's make beautiful business together and talk about it. As long as he is his normal self in doing these things, I like having Trump go to China and push the envelope on it. What I fear not specifically about him, but about every American I've ever seen go to China, is that the Chinese always key. doing all the stuff you mentioned before, during, and after any visit. They don't edit. They keep it

going. But Westerners think, oh, well, we shouldn't sell arms to Taiwan right now, or we shouldn't allow Taiwan leaders to be able to visit anywhere right now, or we shouldn't be criticizing them on human rights right now, or we shouldn't be pushing too hard on trade negotiations right now, And maybe we shouldn't press for a conclusion of a big, beautiful trade deal. Maybe it should wait until the president goes and visits. And that basically gives the Chinese two months of oxygen to delay, delay, delay. So that's what I hope doesn't happen. Optimistic Yates says normal Trump goes.

But the pessimist who's watched this stuff too long says, if they start putting too much on pause, that doesn't set the table the way they think it does. Yeah. Yeah, we do have a track record, I would argue. of seemingly not understanding the nature of the Chinese Communist Party and their mindset, the way they perceive and react and act on things. I mean, you know, a case and points that I've cited it before, President Obama going out there and standing next to Xi Jinping and saying, well, he's promised not to engage in any, you know,

further cyber shenanigans. And you think, you actually believe this? I mean, is that what you think? And then, of course, she doubled down. until today. Yeah. So, well, listen, Steve, as always, very insightful, always appreciate you coming on to the Situation Report. We will definitely be ringing your phone number again. I hope you pick up when we do. All right. Coming up after the break, over 1,100 Drew's civilians killed in a brutal campaign by Islamist forces loyal to Syria's interim president. And this is not just

an internal domestic issue. A U.S. citizen is among the debt. journalist and former Israeli lawmaker Gidear Marie joins us to break it down. Stay with us. Hey, Mike Baker here. I want to take just a moment of your time to talk about your personal finances. I know that's not everybody's favorite talk, but it is critically important to your financial health. Let me ask you a question. What if you could delay your next two mortgage payments? It's an intriguing question, right? Imagine putting those two payments in your pocket and finally getting a little bit of breathing room. Well, it's possible when you call American financing today. Look, if you're feeling stretched by everyday expenses, I'm talking about grocery bills,

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there's a money side to every story. And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now. at Bloomberg.com. Welcome back to the PDB situation report. Since the 13th of July, more than 1,120 Druze civilians have been killed in southern Syria in what observers are calling a campaign of extermination. Islamist malicious, loyal to Syria's interim president, El Zulani, or Al-Sirrha, just depending on what name you want to use for him, are accused of carrying out

the massacres, marked by dehumanization, desecration, and the deliberate targeting of a religious minority. Among the dead was 35-year-old Hossam Soraya, an American citizen from Oklahoma, who had returned to care for his ailing father. Now, Israel intervened with airstrikes on the 16th of July, citing a moral obligation to defend the Drues, but, of course, Israel drew international criticism, as they tend to do. While a ceasefire brought the violence to an end late last week, it wasn't until the dust settled that the scale of the slaughter really came into focus. Joining us now, is Gidear Marie. She's a journalist, a former Knesset member, and herself a member of the Drews community. But Gidear, thank you very much for taking the time to join us here on the Situation Report.

Thank you, Mike, for having me. For the benefit of our viewers, if you could take just a bit of time, and he was sort of a top line, a 30,000 foot look at the Drews community, because I'm not sure that the majority of our viewers are aware of the background here. So if you could just talk about the the nature of the Druis community to some degree. That would be very helpful, I think. So we are talking about a tiny minority. The majority are living in the Middle East, 1.5 million Druis members. The religion was originated 1,000 years ago in Egypt, and we experienced persecutions and massacres, but we succeeded to survive.

Now the Druis people are living in four countries in the Middle East, in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and in Syria. There are so many unique facts that the religion was originated from the Islam, but we separated ourselves. The most important value to know about the Jewish people, that we have no territorial, no national aspiration. It's not written in our religion, Mike, that one day we will have our own country, that we will form our own entity.

That is why we are loyal to the country that we were born in. That is why Israeli Druze are loyal to Israel, Syrian to Syria, Lebanese to Lebanon, and Jordanian to Jordan. Specifically in Israel, we are the loyalist minority living in Israel. We are a successful model of an integration as a minority. We draft into the IDF in the highest percentage in Israel, which is 82%. It is higher than the number among the Jewish sector. So we are talking about a peaceful minority with no territorial or national aspirations. Is there cohesion, though, between the communities that are located in the various countries?

In other words, what I mean is I understand what you're saying here, that the loyalties are to the country you were born in, but overall, is there something that binds the Druze community together, whether they're in Syria, whether they're in Jordan, Israel, Lebanon? Yes, but it's complicated. Since we are living in the most complex geopolitical arena, think about it. Israel does have peace with Jordan, but it's, December, 24, we had a dictator in Syria, Kwan Bashar al-Assan, in which physically, technically, you couldn't meet them, you couldn't contact them or talk to them. So we find ourselves, as Israeli drew, as the most influential, strong minority, although we are tiny minority, 150,000, less than 2% of the population, but because we live under a democratic state, so we succeed to bring our voices, to reach top national position, and to, to, to, to, to, to

influenced both domestic policy and also regional policy. Okay. And how large is the community in Syria? So here is the point that what happened in Syria was very symbolic because we are talking about Sweda, which is historically the major location, the symbol of the existence of the Druze in the Middle East. We have their 700,000 Druze people, as we mentioned, peaceful minority, not a threat. that is targeted in this unprecedented terror attack again and again since December, as we had, since we thought we are talking about instability, transition more, that rapidly became a terror attack against, or a campaign of terror against every minority. We saw these attacks

happening might against the Allah was in March. We saw that the Ruhus community being attacked in April. We saw that happening against that Christian. community last month and now again in July against the June. So I understand that you are living under a state that is changing its identity and that we are dealing with extremists. You know, this is the most important lesson that we are learning. I don't see here liberal, sophisticated, educated, open-minded leadership, what I see in extremism, Islamism, fundamental, radical leadership that is trying or seeking to lead. And for me, after seeing this,

I don't want to describe or two graphics, but I'm sure you said the barbarism, the brutality, like October 7th as I had as an Israeli rule, but now it is Julianist style with five years old children being raped, beheaded, snide, people during the line, with 1,100 casualties. How large is that community?

in Syria, the Druis community in Syria. You know, it's 150,000 you say, in Israel. What is the size of the community in Syria? 700,000. The main majority, the biggest community in the Middle East. And, you know, it is the community of Sultan Bash al-Atrash, the iconic Syrian rule leader who led the Syrian revolution in 1925 against the French. So we are talking about loyal citizens, peaceful minority.

and when you see this organized, very well-equipped, trained, hundreds of vehicles and fighters heading to Sweda, operating freely, committing this massacre, killing everyone, shaving the beard of the religious laws leaders and attacking every symbol of heritage, of religion. You understand that there is a huge dissonant of what we are hearing from Aljulani. You know, when he's wearing his Western suit,

He went to the West that embraced him very quickly, at him very rapidly. He's buying legitimacy, and he see that there's a huge dissonance, because what I see is totally different. So we are calling the West first, you know, to believe that this is happening, to hold their horses, to rethink about the foreign policy. How are we going to deal with Syria? How can you trust the person without understanding if he is reliable, if he does have the capability, the ability, the willingness to build a real pluralistic equals, Syria that would accept and respect all minorities and not to think that the majority, the Sunni majority, will force other minorities to adopt Islam. And it's not what is. If I could, I'm sorry for interrupting. For the benefit of the viewers,

again, this may sound like a simplistic question, I know, but what is the, what's the, what's the primary reason for this, for this conflict. What, what is the, you know, is it a religious conflict between the Islamist government now of Valjulani, who now goes by Al-Sharah? And you're absolutely correct, the West has embraced him very quickly. I think out of this, sort of this traditional Western hope, right, that things will be different after Assad. And so if they just hope for it enough, maybe it will happen. And, and you're right. He went from, you know, an al-Qaeda member and wearing his uniform during the overthrow of the government to suddenly he's in a suit and an expensive watch. And, you know, look at this. We can drop the sanctions. And so there is this sense of, oh, if we just push this forward quick enough, maybe we can change the trajectory of Syria.

But if I get back to that other question, what is the primary reason for the conflict? Why the attacks on the Druze community from this new Islamist government? Wow, it's excellent question, Mike. Because, you know, I agree with you. Everyone was so enthusiastic after these deadly, bloody years of civil war to see like flourishing Syria, Swiss style. And, you know, I don't expect an ISIS remnant now in the phase one to build a democracy. But, you know, everyone embraced him very quickly, rapidly, and unprecedented. Like, let us remove sanctions.

Like, hey, hold your horses. We are talking about an ISIS remnant. And, you know, we are in modern era that you can open up and see what he was saying, what he believed in, as a man living in a cave, fighting every value I believe me and you and all of our audience cherish. So yes, all your horses. And for your question, our main challenge is to reframe the terminology because the regime immediately said, we don't agree, they don't represent us, they don't symbolize the new regime, we don't control them, we didn't send them. Guess what for me? Regardless if you do control or not, if you did send them from Damascus or not, if you seek leadership, you must understand that you are responsible if you seek to be the no president. So they are trying to frame it as a minor clash between Bedrids and Jews.

But what we are witnessing, if it happened again and again, for Allah, for courts, for Christians, for Jews, for any minority, who is not a Muslim, so we understand that you are dealing with. for Allah, for courts, for Christians, for Druus, for any minority, who is not a Muslim, so we understand that you are dealing with a dangerous systematic policy to change the identity of Syria. And we are trying to convince and to explain to the world that we are not dealing with a domestic issue between Syrians. I really encourage our audience to study the case of Syria to open math and simply to hear the authentic voices that we are hearing of, Fighters who came from Chechnya Mar, Mike, from Afghanistan, they are not native, they don't speak Arabic, and what they are chanting.

Jerusalem is next. And as an Israeli post-October 7th, I do believe my enemies. And this is, yes, there is a religious factor there. There is terrible leadership with terrible priorities, and it is much more beyond a minor clashes that happened one time since December 24. and the West and the Middle East and the region must reframe it in that way, that we are talking about factions regardless of if Giuliani is controlling or not, that are destabilizing the whole arena and reminding ourselves, Israel post-October 7 is not the same Israel before October 7.

We're talking about two separate timeframes and certainly a different mindset, I believe, when it comes to Israel before and after the 7th of October. And I want to explore this more after the break because I think you've made a really important point, which is they've been trying, at least the Islamist government in Syria, has been trying to frame this as the actions of criminals and just militias, the Bedouins against the Druze. They're trying to frame it in that sense. Reporting came out that the Islamist government sent their forces up there,

and those as the government forces were supporting the Bedouin militias in this action against the Drew's community there. And then, of course, to your point, it's not just a domestic issue because now Israel has been involved with their strikes and efforts to protect the Druze community. I want to touch on that, Gidear. But if you could stay right where we are, we have to take a quick break. And then we'll be back with more from Gadir, a former Knesset member, member of the Druze community herself, and a journalist here on the Situation Report. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, here's an important fact that you might have missed in your busy day. July, and we are in July, is National Grilling Month. It's true. And Tritails Beef, a terrific company, is here to help you celebrate it the American way.

I'm talking about over a fire with real beef raised by real ranchers. Tritails is a fifth generation family-run ranch in Texas, and they deliver pasture-raised, grain-finished, beef with zero shortcuts straight from their ranch to your home. It couldn't be simpler. There is no middleman. It just goes straight from their ranch to your door. step. And right now, you can get $10 off their 20-pound ground beef bundle plus two free flat iron steaks. All you got to do is head to trybeef.com slash PDB. Stop Gup and fill your freezer in celebration of national grilling month. Again, go to trybeef.com slash PDB today. Welcome back to the PDB situation report. Joining me once again is Gadirin Marie, a journalist

and former member of the Israeli Knesset and a member of the Drews community. And we've been looking at the background of the Druze community. We've also been looking at the recent conflict in Syria involving the new Islamist government, Bedou and militias, targeting the Druze community in and around Sweda. Gadir, talk to me about the Israeli military's actions, stepping in in an effort to support, protect the Druus community in Syria. Talk to me about how that's gone, how it's received, inside Israel and where you think this may be going? So Israel, post-October 7th, is implementing the doctrine of zero trust. In the way, Mike, we were so disappointed and we don't rely on international guarantees.

Do you remember what happened in 2000? We withdrew completely from Lebanon. And what we saw was Hezbollah, a terror militia that became to a terror organization, became to terror enemy and the army, holding the enemy. eight biggest missile arsenal in the world that were equipped, funded, heavily funded, and trained for 23 years till October 23. So we don't want to create another model and simply wait. Same model we had with Hamas in Gaza. Do you remember we withdrew completely in 2005 from Gaza? What we saw, we saw terrible leadership with terrible priorities who were building Gaza underground

instead of investing in human capital. They were growing for 18 years. years. I don't have to explain to you that political movements can do much better in Gaza instead of Sinwar and these terrible leadership. So Israel now cannot wait. We understand post-October 7th. We do believe our enemies. When we hear them chanting Jerusalem is next and now we need the buffer zone to implement the demilitarization policy. We wouldn't allow them to grow and then, okay, let us wait and see and deal with them after five or ten years. We understand first that this is not a domestic issue between Syrians. And it is correct and right from the strategic point of view at the state of Israel,

not to allow them to threaten our northern border. And it is right from the basic humanitarian moral level as a continuation of the special, unique, strong, brave relationship between the Druze and the Jews in Israel to protect also the Druze in the Middle East. So we are talking about strategic notic and humanitarian motive. Now the IDF has conducted airstrikes in and around Sweda and also over Damascus.

How has that been received inside of Israel by the population? So, you know, we are intellectually mature enough to understand that this is the last thing that we need, reminding ourselves that we are still in a war. Two days ago, our IDF chief, Iyalzamir, said that 2025, the war is not ended, even 26 probably we will have another round with Iran. We are dealing Mike with seven active fronts in the West Bank, in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, in Iran, and some would add even the domestic polarization.

So the last thing that we need now, another front in Syria. But again, through the doctrine of zero trust, we understand. that we need to finish the job. Israel is watching. Israel is back as a rising lion. Israel back as the regional superpower that we will not allow any head of octopus slash Iran or any proxy to grow,

to reach these abilities. And you know, we are not naive. You cannot fight terrorism. You are fighting with brains, with perceptions, and this is the hardest thing to do. But we see that if you invest enough attention, energy, and time, you can achieve great damage to these radical, fundamental. I even put them leadership. I don't know if there are audience that are listening in quotes because Jolani study in Jolani background.

How can you believe him? And, you know, Sterea is a crucial point, in a crucial momentum. We need liberal leadership. We don't seek to see another destabilizer and having this Kanshi now playing in a different direction, the opposite direction that we need it to be. So when Jolani, or as he refers to himself now, Al-Sharat, when he talks about, yes, our new Islamist government in Syria is going to be an inclusive one. We're going to, you know, consider and protect all the various groups and minorities that make up the Syrian population. clearly you're not buying that. But again, I go back to, you know, there's been this sense of hope, whether it's misguided,

you know, whether it's warranted, you know, that's definitely up for argument. But there's a sense of hope from the West, in particular to the U.S. So they've dropped sanctions, they've removed them from, you know, sort of this terrorist organization list. and there's talk of cooperation and perhaps a signing of an agreement between the Syrian government and Israel, where do you think that may be going? I mean, I suspect I know based on our conversation to this point. But I guess I'm trying to get a sense of, from your perspective, how do you pragmatically deal with Syria at this point? Because you do, there is that sense. sense, we would like to see stability, obviously. But, you know, are you saying, look, you've got a trust but verify. So as you pointed out earlier, hold your horses. Let's see if there's actual, you know, proof and action that they will follow through on these grand ideas that they've spouted.

More than that, you don't have to be a political expert. You are a smart journalist, Mike. Allow me to ask you, real policy, common sense. When you see this terrorist shaving of the beards of religious man. Do you think that this is the positive, promising signal that we have an emerging democracy in the Middle East? When you see them raping five years old child, when you see them sniping children, burning hospitals, people who are sick and filming that, and then being guided by Damascus, please don't film. You know what is the terrible challenge? We are dealing with smart, charismatic leadership in Damascus. But I understand them. I was born and raised in the Middle East.

I understand the language, the vibe, the nuances. And this is the challenge that sometimes we see things, we believe things, we deal with things that the West would deal with it in a delay of a couple of years. What we as Druze, what we as Israel is. So I trust my instinct. I trust what I see. You know, we have been taught at Harvard.

You see, believe. I do believe my enemies. So now I know that there are maps. We have serious discussions. serious discussions in Jerusalem and also in D.C. I am based in D.C. And when we understand we are putting a huge pressure on the new administration to rethink, to reshape its own policy toward the Middle East and towards Syria specifically. I see the enthusiasm of the envoy to Embarck or bring us peace. We are grateful for that. But we need to study carefully the case.

When you see these signs, you cannot say I didn't see, you know, as an Israeli. Last century, we said never again when we had the Holocaust. On October 7th, we were amazed that they succeeded to do that again. And do you know what I learned, Mike, when I saw Swayda? I was amazed to see how they implement the essence of terror. Same anecdotes, same incidents, same barbarism of teenagers who were playing violin, who would be killed, of a child that they just killed his father. In Israel, we had them.

opening his phone, opening Google Shunclay to negotiate with the terrorists not to kill him. So we had same, same incident in Syria. Or women being kidnapped on a motorcycle, we had same visual. Good, dear, how confident are you in the reporting that ties the Islamist government with the Bedouin militias? Again, the reporting being that the Syrian government claimed, Muslim's government claimed that they were sending force, up there to stop the violence. But then the reporting became, no, they're actually on the side of the Bedouin militias that have been engaged in the targeting of the Deroos community. How confident are you in that reporting that ties the Islamist government forces to the militias and being involved

in these attacks against the Druze community? The first of all, we are not dealing with storytelling. I am not here to tell the story. We have the whole accurate reports with data, numbers, facts, all. detailed, and you know we live in the modern era. There are cameras everywhere to document. There are devices with, as you know, I'm an Israeli that can penetrate every place, anytime, anywhere. So we are talking about reports.

It's not a story cell that someone told me. And they encourage our audience to study about Hayat Tahrir Sharm, which is HATF, these 40,000 fighters who fought with Al Jolani to rebuild Syria. Who are they? where they came from, what they believe in, what was the regional aspiration, what is the final destination. You should listen to them. You should understand that we all must care about what's happening in Syria because tomorrow, maybe the no front would be Israel. Maybe it would be Jordan.

Maybe a direct clash with Turkey. We are not naive when we understand that there are regional players invested with superpowers leading the project of Syria. But we are finding ourselves as a tiny minority, you know, this is my main challenge, to say, hey, I exist, I am a Jew. I was amazed that it was not an opening item in the main news in the U.S. When you talk about 1,100 people who were killed and you need to say, hey, I am a Jew. And, you know, I live in D.C. in the American accent. I are a Jew. I am not a Jew.

I am a Jews. D.R.U. Z.E. Please educate yourself. share about what's happening in the Middle East because tomorrow morning it may be in your door, in the U.S., in the West, or in Europe. The complexity here, I think, it doesn't lend itself to, you know, a typical news report that you might get on an outlet, a network, you know, where it's two and a half minutes. So there's because there is so many layers here, right?

And I think I'd love to continue this conversation. We're running out of time. But with you based in D.C., obviously one of the complexities here is this, the White House's desire to try to push forward the idea of normalizing relations between Syria and Israel, between the new government in Syria and Israel. And so I think their reaction to the airstrikes that were conducted by the IDF to protect the Drews community in Syria, their reaction was, well, how could you do that? Look, you're jeopardizing our peace talks, right? So it's, you've got. that complexity. Then you've got the complexity of the Iranian influence, right? They've lost an

ally when Assad fell. And the current Islamist government in Syria is saying, well, we're no friend of Iran. And so there's a lot of layers here that I think need to be talked about. I will say this, though. We are out of time, Gadir. And I very much... Just remember the sentence, Mike, the most stable thing in the Middle East is its instability. Yeah, yes. Well, well said. Absolutely well said. Listen, Gidear and Marie, journalist, former member of the Knesset, member of the Drews community. Thank you very much for taking the time here. I hope when we call you, you'll agree to come back on. Thank you, Mike, for having me. Well, yeah, there are many layers to this story. And unfortunately, the time that we have doesn't do it justice. So we will indeed have Gadir back on to talk more about this. And, particular where the White House may be trying to take that relationship between Syria and Israel and the realities on the ground.

Well, that's all the time we have for this week's PDB situation report. If you have any questions or comments, maybe you've got a humorous anecdote, maybe you've got a limerick, I don't know. Just reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. You know what we do, right? Every month we take that mailbag that Carl Mailman drops off at our underground layer. Then we choose the best questions, the comments, most interesting things, and we smash them all together into what we call an Ask Me Anything episode where we answer a lot of your questions

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