[SPEAKER_05]: Hello, everyone.
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome to useful idiots.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Katie Helper.
[SPEAKER_09]: I'm Erin Mattay.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you so much for being here.
[SPEAKER_09]: Our website is yousfloodyitspodcast.com.
[SPEAKER_09]: Go there to support the show and get bonus content.
[SPEAKER_09]: This week, we will check in on the latest in the US is really war on Iran and it's spill over across West Asia, including into Lebanon.
[SPEAKER_09]: We'll be speaking with two different guests.
[SPEAKER_09]: Holla Jaber, who is based in Lebanon, a veteran journalist, covering West Asia, and Sami Alarian, who is an academic based in Turkey, two very informed voices.
[SPEAKER_09]: But first, we do a weekly recap segment called The Friday Free For All.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's for our paid subscribers.
[SPEAKER_09]: If you're a free subscriber, here's a preview.
[SPEAKER_09]: Now, if you watched UCLA's Monday morning, just a few days ago, you would have seen Trump's top economics advisor, Kevin Hessett, say this.
[SPEAKER_08]: Do you need to ask Congress for more money to pay for what you're doing?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think right now we've got what we need, whether we have to go back to Congress for War and something that I think that RUSVO and OMB will look into, but the latest number, you said 11.3, the latest number I was briefed on was 12, and so it's consistent.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is something that we've got, the weapons that we've already got in place to do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we're not necessarily going to need any kind of supplement for
[SPEAKER_09]: It's so good, you know, we've already spent $12 billion on this unprovoked war against Iran.
[SPEAKER_09]: But we're good.
[SPEAKER_09]: We don't probably probably don't need to go back to Congress to ask for more money.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I'll go.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll go into it.
[SPEAKER_09]: Three days later, oops, we actually need $200 billion.
[SPEAKER_09]: Here is Defense Secretary or Secretary of War, Pete Hegsett.
[SPEAKER_02]: 200 billion dollars.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that number could move obviously.
[SPEAKER_02]: It takes money to kill bad guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're going back to Congress and folks there to ensure that we're properly funded for what's been done for what we may have to do in the future.
[SPEAKER_02]: ensure that our ammunition is everything's refilled and not just refilled, but above and beyond.
[SPEAKER_02]: We present a Trump, as he said, rebuilt the military.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's first term didn't think he'd use it as dynamically in his second body had.
[SPEAKER_02]: So thank goodness he did that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And investment like this is meant to say, hey, we'll replace anything that was spent.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now that we're reviving our defense industrial base and rebuilding the arsenal of freedom and cutting deals like our great deputy secretary's here is doing long lead times on exquisite munitions.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to be refilled faster than anyone imagined.
[SPEAKER_09]: So exquisite, and yeah, it's so expensive to kill bad guys that we need, sorry, U.S. taxpayers, we need another just another $200 billion.
[SPEAKER_09]: Which by the way, is a lot more than was ever allocated for the Ukraine proxy work.
[SPEAKER_09]: And if you remember people like Trump were making a big deal out of that, like we were spending all this money on these foreign wars, and if you elect me, no more endless wars, anyway, never mind that, give me $200 billion for exquisite ammunition.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I don't know who's happy or they have, I guess they have kind of different personalities, like maybe different like Myers-Brig scores or I, you know, in the empath, whatever those things stand for because Hessen is like really, he's kind of like, deviously happy, whereas Hexith is just like hyperactive happy, but it's great to see that they're both so joyful about killing people and using up so much money.
[SPEAKER_09]: and heaven for bed, we give people health care or... Oh, great.
[SPEAKER_09]: And jobs, I'm gonna forget that.
[SPEAKER_09]: We need that $200 billion to destroy more infrastructure in Iran, blow up more schools, kill more school children, I guess.
[SPEAKER_09]: Well, someone who was not in board with that was Joe Kent, who was a top counterterrorism official who resigned.
[SPEAKER_09]: this week and said, the obvious that Israel helped push Trump into this.
[SPEAKER_09]: And because of that, he's being attacked as of course, anti-Jewish.
[SPEAKER_09]: And among those who are so offended by Joe Kent, is of course, archmio-con supporter of every single regime change war, John Bolton.
[SPEAKER_09]: And before we hear from him, we're going to hear a little bit from Joe Kent.
[SPEAKER_10]: uh... who is in charge of our policy in the middle east who is in charge of when we decide to go to war not in this case with what the secretary described and later on the president later on speaker the house and in the way the events played out the Israelis drove the decision to take this action which we knew would set off a series of events meaning the Iranians would retaliate
[SPEAKER_08]: The president has said publicly that that's not true Israel did not force the United States his hand here, but what did you hear in that answer there?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I heard anti-Semitism.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is a trope that repeats itself throughout history.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Jews are in back of everything and maneuvered poor innocent Donald Trump.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, well, one thing I would say is that, yeah, that is a trope that the Jews are in the back of everything.
[SPEAKER_05]: But note that Kent did not say the Jews, he said Israel.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, and not also that Marco Rubio said, right after launch this war, that Israel made us do it.
[SPEAKER_09]: That Israel was going to the crack first.
[SPEAKER_09]: And that's why we attack.
[SPEAKER_09]: So even the Trump administration is endorsing what John Bolton now says is an anti-Semitic trope.
[SPEAKER_05]: Exactly, right.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I hope because puts Rubio on blast, I think Rubio needs to step down as an anti-Semite.
[SPEAKER_05]: But of course, Aaron, you're wrong.
[SPEAKER_05]: You didn't hear that Marco Rubio said that he actually didn't say that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Unfortunately, it was recorded, but he did claim that he hadn't said that
[SPEAKER_05]: because it was a little awkward because he said that is really made us do it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Then Trump said actually we forced Israel's hand.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then he was asked, we'll be all about it.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then he had to pretend that he hadn't said it.
[SPEAKER_05]: But again, technology is such that we know he did say it.
[SPEAKER_09]: All right.
[SPEAKER_09]: Well, so maybe it's anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish to listen to Marco Rubio and believe in when he says something.
[SPEAKER_09]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_09]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_09]: I'm going to stop in this chain.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay.
[UNKNOWN]: Well,
[SPEAKER_05]: the sentences and whisper.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Jake Tapper of CNN who loves to call everybody, anti-Jewish if they dare criticize the Jewish state.
[SPEAKER_09]: And he was speaking to house foreign affairs chairman Michael McCall.
[SPEAKER_05]: And to see the full Friday free for all where we have to sit through a very painful, but kind of amusing non-mayacle buff from Tulsi Gabbard, as well as some ADL supporters talking about why it's only the cool kids who oppose genocide, please go to useful idiotspodcast.com.
[SPEAKER_09]: For our first guest, we are joined by Hala Jaber.
[SPEAKER_09]: She is an award-winning journalist, former senior correspondent for The Sunday Times, who has spent decades reporting on West Asia.
[SPEAKER_09]: I spoke to her in Bay Route about Israel's assault on Lebanon, which has displaced more than 1 million people.
[SPEAKER_09]: and killed hundreds with Israel threatening much more carnage in its effort to defeat his balla.
[SPEAKER_09]: And Hala has extensive experience covering his balla.
[SPEAKER_09]: And I spoke to Hala about the carnage, the toll of Israel's assault so far and the threat of far worse.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hala, Jay Brith, thank you so much for joining us.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you for having me.
[SPEAKER_07]: Anywhere you want to come?
[SPEAKER_09]: you are a veteran journalist, you are in Beirut, Israel has been launching a new round of aggression against Lebanon, talked to us about what's been happening.
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, currently, the escalation is on all fronts from the south to Beirut's sudden suburbs and the Bika, and they even expanded last week to target certain buildings and areas
[SPEAKER_07]: in the capital they wrote itself.
[SPEAKER_07]: Previously they would target an apartment.
[SPEAKER_07]: Two nights ago we saw them literally bringing an entire building down.
[SPEAKER_07]: Basically what we're seeing is a shift if you want in the target widening the scope.
[SPEAKER_07]: To add no pressure on both has well loved but also on the Lebanese government and the population at large in Lebanon which is making the situation quite
[SPEAKER_07]: for people that are now displaced.
[SPEAKER_07]: We have about maybe one million, give or take.
[SPEAKER_07]: And as you know, Lebanon is not a massive country.
[SPEAKER_07]: And they would itself is not a big city.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's already quite so tired.
[SPEAKER_07]: And it's got a lot of infrastructure problems.
[SPEAKER_07]: So this is, this is like pushing it to the edge if you want, of what it can take, tolerate, or absorb.
[SPEAKER_07]: And these are part of the dangers aside from the military side of things.
[SPEAKER_07]: This is from the social point of view, because also the country itself is split into those who are following those who are against.
[SPEAKER_07]: And the more you pressure, the more you create anger within a particular set of society.
[SPEAKER_09]: Before we talk more about these really aims here, can you tell us a bit more about the targets they've been hitting?
[SPEAKER_09]: You mentioned Israel's blew up a residential building in Bay Route.
[SPEAKER_09]: Tell us what you can about all the other civilian targets that Israel has hit during this assault.
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, what we've noticed in this particular round is that Israel seems to be, you know, for a better or lacking the targets it had in the previous war, whereas in the previous war, it had exactly exact locations of, you know, of targets that it wanted from the leadership, commanders, operators, and went for those, and over the last 15 months it tried to do similar.
[SPEAKER_07]: On this particular occasion, we're not saying that it's sort of repeating attacks on targets that have already been taken out, building sorry apartments that targeting neither Israel is identifying who they're targeting and on this side of the equation we're not getting any information to suggest that
[SPEAKER_07]: XOline was then, has been eliminated to use their words, right, or killed, or assassinated.
[SPEAKER_07]: Many of the many of the attacks or the strikes we're seeing are actually residential buildings.
[SPEAKER_07]: even when they claim they're targeting an apartment, that apartment is in a residential building, which is occupied by civilians, children, woman, the old age, you know.
[SPEAKER_07]: So when you hit an apartment, you're not just disrupting that, you're disrupting the entire building.
[SPEAKER_07]: The building that they brought down today is a girl.
[SPEAKER_07]: That was in a location that's very much, if you want, near what the road calls downtown, which is the new area, the high end area of the road, which was rebuilt post civil war, where you have most of the, you know, your top-notch fashion shops, trends, restaurants, even the Surai, the government building,
[SPEAKER_07]: So they hit that building very close now.
[SPEAKER_07]: Again, we have, I have no definite information, but what's been said, what I've heard is that they think what they believe that Hizvalla and this is, this listen to this, Hizvalla is actually storing cash, money at the basement of the building and therefore they target it.
[SPEAKER_07]: And, you know, some of the things that they've been doing is just like targeting all of his volas, you know, the banks system that they have.
[SPEAKER_07]: And they're putting out things that, you know, they're hiding money here and they're hiding gold and and and therefore we target them.
[SPEAKER_07]: These are lies, these are untrue, these are, this is fake news, basically.
[SPEAKER_07]: These banks actually hold money for people, civilians, not has Bala, civilians who actually prefer, from Islamic point of view, they prefer to bank in a system that is, is dynamically run, then, you know, because they don't get interest and they don't get this and they don't get that, then they do them, the normal banks.
[SPEAKER_07]: They've been hitting all these banks for the last two weeks.
[SPEAKER_07]: They haven't, you know, not just the Beirut, the Bekar, and the South.
[SPEAKER_07]: Wherever they find them, wherever they know they are, they've been hitting these banks.
[SPEAKER_07]: They did that last time as well, using the same claims and accusations, as well as taking precautions and post war, people's monies were returned.
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, it reminds me a little bit if you want or it's reminiscent of when they use the shifah hospital in Gaza.
[SPEAKER_07]: to claim that, you know, underground, there is this headquarter, military headquarter, and, you know, they're hiding fighters there, the brain of Hamas is all there, and that's where they're planning the war.
[SPEAKER_07]: By the end of it, that was a fallacy, and we also for ourselves, you know, via the deal and clips that came out of Gaza, that this was not true.
[SPEAKER_07]: They're using the same kind of excuses with these banks, that has well as hiding money and they're claiming this is the money of the Lebanese.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's actually not the money of the Lebanese.
[SPEAKER_07]: and the money of the government, it's not, it's neither the money of the government nor the money of the Lebanese at large, it's the money of people that have banked in these banks.
[SPEAKER_07]: So what we're seeing is no longer controlled escalation, but a widening war that is no longer
[SPEAKER_09]: And you mentioned one million displays where people going and, you know, how is this putting even more strain on an already very precarious situation inside of Lebanon?
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, many of the people displaced, I mean, most schools or a lot of the schools now, I'm sorry, I don't have the exact numbers, you know, they're no longer opening schools, but they've been turned into shelters for the displaced.
[SPEAKER_07]: So, a lot of people are staying in schools as shelters, some in churches, some mosques,
[SPEAKER_07]: you know, there are different categories.
[SPEAKER_07]: You have this category where they're sheltered in school.
[SPEAKER_07]: You have the stadium.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's a massive stadium in Lebanon where all the sports events happen.
[SPEAKER_07]: That was opened as well last week and many are staying there.
[SPEAKER_07]: You also have a lot of people that have friends and families.
[SPEAKER_07]: So they say, so you have one flat, one tiny, for example, I'll give you an example.
[SPEAKER_07]: you know the like the concierge or the photo that runs the school opposite to where we live.
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, it is a small school there and that's cool now as well is filled with this place.
[SPEAKER_07]: He has a very small place just around the corner, he lives with his mother and family.
[SPEAKER_07]: He was telling me the other day that 15 other members are staying with them in very small quarters.
[SPEAKER_07]: So you have people, you know, one little flat, one family, also a housing like few or four other families.
[SPEAKER_07]: When you have those that are better financially and they can rent places, so they're renting apartments, wherever they can find them.
[SPEAKER_07]: But this is also causing problems because not everyone is believed or not.
[SPEAKER_07]: Not everyone is actually wanting to rent apartments.
[SPEAKER_07]: And one of the questions a lot of people are asked when they're checking is, are you shocked?
[SPEAKER_07]: If you're shocked, yes, it's as blunt and as bleak as that.
[SPEAKER_07]: And if you are a Shiite, sorry, we do not rent to you.
[SPEAKER_07]: They think that having a Shiite there means a target, you know, two things.
[SPEAKER_07]: Some people think that they become a target as a result.
[SPEAKER_07]: Others, it's few sectarian and hatred.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, but this is how this country is going.
[SPEAKER_09]: And that's part of the U.S. Israeli strategy, which they pursued across West Asia, is to amplify sectarianism as they did in Syria right next door to Lebanon.
[SPEAKER_09]: Israel's been targeting journalists.
[SPEAKER_09]: They've assassinated a top editor at Al-Manar, which is a Hezbollah television network killing members of the family also in the process.
[SPEAKER_09]: And then this just happened.
[SPEAKER_09]: This is a British journalist Steve Shweeney.
[SPEAKER_09]: reporting from southern Lebanon and his camera captures the moment when Israeli fighter jets bombed where they were reporting from.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is this is that moment.
[SPEAKER_09]: So that's Steve Sweeney reporting as was rarely jet bombs his position.
[SPEAKER_09]: After the attacks, Steve Sweeney went on air and he was okay.
[SPEAKER_09]: He was treated for some wounds, but him and his crew survived.
[SPEAKER_09]: But he said that he believed that this attack was deliberate.
[SPEAKER_04]: But what I do want to say is that this was a deliberate targeted attack on journalists.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's no mistake about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: This was an Israeli precision strike from a fighter jet.
[SPEAKER_04]: What we were doing was we were reporting on the attacks on bridges, which is effectively severing South Lebanon from the rest of the country.
[SPEAKER_04]: One million people now internally displaced.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the real story.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not about us coming under attack as journalists.
[SPEAKER_04]: What we're seeing now and what we were reporting on is this.
[SPEAKER_04]: plan for Israel to ethnically cleanse the south of Lebanon.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is, without doubt, an attack this is on the scale, or bigger than the scale of the Nakhbar.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the fourth displacement of a million people which remains at war crimes.
[SPEAKER_04]: And also we have to say that attacking journalists is a war crime, attacking civilian infrastructure is a war crime.
[SPEAKER_04]: But if they think that they're going to silence us, if they think that we're going to stay out of the field,
[SPEAKER_09]: Can you talk to us about how Israel's been going after journalists?
[SPEAKER_09]: Especially Lebanese journalists, let alone foreign ones during this war.
[SPEAKER_07]: It was actually terrifying to see what he had to go through and Israel would probably claim and say that he was in the wrong place and that they would want people not to be there.
[SPEAKER_07]: They always use that excuse.
[SPEAKER_07]: But we've seen Israel target journalists before, last year they targeted several Lebanese journalists and while they were asleep, others were filming, they were very clearly marked as journalists.
[SPEAKER_07]: This is intentional.
[SPEAKER_07]: There is no question in our minds.
[SPEAKER_07]: Israel has been targeting journalists in Lebanon, but it's also targeted the history of Israel and journalists from Gaza is testimony to what it does.
[SPEAKER_07]: Steve was quite lucky today.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank God he survived with some injuries with nothing major.
[SPEAKER_07]: But it is, you know, it is a testament to what Israel does, but also to the fact that the international world continues to ignore such acts, these are war crimes because journalists should not be targeted and they have, you know, there are international laws against such things, but we see Israel is now behaving and you know, it's got impunity, it does what it wants and no one actually cares.
[SPEAKER_07]: Tonight to go again, Israel targeted Lebanese, a very prominent Lebanese journalist who works for Almanat and actually he is one of the quietest, sweetest, kindest, softest men.
[SPEAKER_07]: They didn't just take him out, they killed him and his wife and injured some of his children.
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, when one incident like this happens, you might say it's a coincidence.
[SPEAKER_07]: But when it's repeated, within short space of time, then it becomes clear that these are not coincidences anymore.
[SPEAKER_07]: These are target attacks.
[SPEAKER_09]: Let's talk about Israel's goals here.
[SPEAKER_09]: They're employing essentially a wide-scale Dahia doctrine.
[SPEAKER_09]: Dahia doctrine named after the area of Lebanon that's deemed to be a supportive of his Bala, which is real destroyed.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's part of a tactic to terrorize the civilian population and get them to turn against his Bala, which was formed to resist Israel's invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s.
[SPEAKER_09]: and putting the pressure on his bola and what exactly do they want?
[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, do they want the Lebanese army to try to disarm his bola itself?
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, they've, you know, Israel has been quite blunt about what it seeks.
[SPEAKER_07]: And it runs the buffer zone in the south.
[SPEAKER_07]: It wants the Lebanese army to actually engage against Hezbollah and in doing so that brings or threatens Lebanon with a civil war.
[SPEAKER_07]: And what we're seeing is when it's widening the scope of its military war against Hezbollah.
[SPEAKER_07]: by involving the city, by adding, it's adding pressure on people, it's adding pressure on the government, adding pressure on society.
[SPEAKER_07]: So there is, again, I say, there is a section in Lebanon that is anti-Hizballah.
[SPEAKER_07]: And anti-Hizballah's resistance and anti-the war that's going on currently.
[SPEAKER_07]: And they're very loud about it and very outspoken about it.
[SPEAKER_07]: by pressuring the city to such a point it's also helping it or it's also pushing it to the point of no return where within within they would itself and within the country itself you have people that are so angered that it might you know that the spillover could turn you know it might it would it would take a small fight.
[SPEAKER_07]: One gun used, you know, one guy against another from a different, you know, from a different group or different belief or different religion.
[SPEAKER_07]: And it could, it's like a spark, they're looking for sparks to create internal conflict.
[SPEAKER_07]: If Lebanon goes into internal conflict, that allows Israel to do whatever it wants and to impose whatever conditions it wants.
[SPEAKER_07]: And these are all parts of Israel's package in, in how it's dealing with Lebanon.
[SPEAKER_07]: So it's not just fighting it militarily in the South or the Bika, it's actually fighting it even within society itself.
[SPEAKER_07]: As far as has well as community is concerned, these people have been through
[SPEAKER_07]: hell back and forth over decades.
[SPEAKER_07]: Not from Hezbollah, from Israel itself.
[SPEAKER_07]: These people know and have learned the very hard way, who has actually defended, supported and has been the backbone for them.
[SPEAKER_07]: It was never the Lebanese government.
[SPEAKER_07]: It was Hezbollah's resistance.
[SPEAKER_07]: So these people are committed to that.
[SPEAKER_07]: They believe in that.
[SPEAKER_07]: They believe in them because most of these resistance come from the villages, the same villages and towns.
[SPEAKER_07]: of these, of this community, they're not strangers, they're not aliens, they didn't drop from Mars or space, they're Lebanese, they're not Iranians, contrary to what some, you know, a lot of people like to use as rhetoric, you know, they're Iranians, there's two judges, then none of these, these are the actual people of the South, these are the people of that land and they are part and parcel of the society, they are it's soul if you want,
[SPEAKER_07]: And the community is Hezbollah's soul.
[SPEAKER_07]: And these two are like entwined.
[SPEAKER_07]: And you can't cut that embalico cord and Israel is trying to do so.
[SPEAKER_07]: But the more it pushes, the more this community recognizes that again, this is the resistance that is defending them.
[SPEAKER_07]: So far, the army has been pulled away from the south, totally absent from all the areas
[SPEAKER_07]: which Hezbollah had withdrawn from as per the agreement of last year of 2024, right?
[SPEAKER_07]: Now the army has been withdrawn.
[SPEAKER_07]: The area has been left vacant for Israel to do whatever it wants.
[SPEAKER_07]: And on top of that, you have a government telling the only force that's actually fighting the enemy and an invasion to this arm.
[SPEAKER_07]: People are seeing this and people are angered, not at Hezbollah.
[SPEAKER_07]: at a government who was yet again abandoning them in their hour of need.
[SPEAKER_09]: How much influence does the Trump administration have over the Lebanese government?
[SPEAKER_09]: It's said that the U.S. embassy in Beirut is among now the largest in the world.
[SPEAKER_07]: It actually meds the question as to why the U.S. embassy is the second largest in the world after the Iraqi embassy, after the U.S. embassy in Iraq, Lebanon comes second.
[SPEAKER_07]: And when Lebanon is about 10,400 and something, point something square foot, it's like, why do we, why does the US need to have such a mammoth embassy?
[SPEAKER_07]: But it's not an embassy, it's a fortress.
[SPEAKER_07]: And God knows what goes on in there.
[SPEAKER_07]: Now, do they have influence or absolutely they do?
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean,
[SPEAKER_07]: On a day-to-day basis, they have influence.
[SPEAKER_07]: We've seen it before when they have an input in every little integrity internally.
[SPEAKER_07]: Lebanese government talks about sovereignty.
[SPEAKER_07]: And yet, you have the American dictating to them what they should shouldn't do, who they should appoint or who shouldn't appoint, who's Prime Minister, who's president.
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, the current Prime Minister and the current president were both appointed and assigned by the U.S.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, agreed.
[SPEAKER_07]: They were voted in by parliament, but there were deals made.
[SPEAKER_07]: And now these deals have been negated.
[SPEAKER_07]: Today, for example, we have the Prime Minister and an interview with CNN saying that he is offering President Trump that he as Lebanon is willing to go to direct negotiations with Israel.
[SPEAKER_07]: And just before I came on the show, I was reading Israeli officials basically saying, well, we won't be negotiating with the Lebanese government because they have nothing to offer.
[SPEAKER_07]: You see, again, the Lebanese government cannot offer this really anything, the actual people who can offer this really or eventually come to some kind of understanding are the people fighting in the South, the resistance, Hezbollah.
[SPEAKER_07]: That is the party to any negotiations, and anything suggested aside from that is just
[SPEAKER_07]: We will not be negotiating with the government because we don't believe that it can't offer us anything.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's saying that we will consider, this is just before I came on your show.
[SPEAKER_07]: We will be considered the Lebanese government and Hezbollah one and one, you know, the same thing.
[SPEAKER_07]: And we will be expanding, we are determined to do a buffer zone and we will be expanding in this war.
[SPEAKER_07]: And we will be doing more targets.
[SPEAKER_07]: So the targets are basically they will next stage probably infrastructure within Leban, within Beirut itself, to add further pressure on the government or to push for what they want for the army to go against Hezbollah.
[SPEAKER_07]: And the reason the army hasn't is because the leader of the army, the commander, the army commander, has refused.
[SPEAKER_07]: And has argued with the same government,
[SPEAKER_07]: But this is not the way for this is in dangering the country.
[SPEAKER_07]: This could push the country into a civil war, into internal conflict.
[SPEAKER_07]: He brought four suggestions to them to the government on how to try and allow the army to defend the country and they rejected it.
[SPEAKER_07]: And they told him, no, withdraw your army and we need to disarm his ballad.
[SPEAKER_07]: These are the orders.
[SPEAKER_07]: On top of that, they outload Hezbollah.
[SPEAKER_07]: On top of that, a few days ago, you have the Minister of Information, obviously, it's not his decision.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's a government decision, who announces that the local media can no longer use the word resistance when referring to Hezbollah to the actual resistance on the ground fighting.
[SPEAKER_07]: That they just call them, name them as Hezbollah.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's, you know, when you sit and you watch it, and you think, I mean, in what logic, what senses that may, I mean, it doesn't make sense.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's not logic, which country on earth, when it's being invaded and occupied, goes against the people that are actually trying to put up a fight against the invading forces.
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, that's treasury, if anything.
[SPEAKER_09]: And you mentioned that Hezbollah actually pulled back under a ceasefire deal that was reached in late 2024.
[SPEAKER_09]: For people who think that Hezbollah started this late as round when they fired into Israel after Israel's assassination of Ayatollah Hamani.
[SPEAKER_09]: The talk about it, what Israel's been doing since that ceasefire was reached back in late 2024.
[SPEAKER_07]: So there was a ceasefire agreement reached towards the end of November, 2024, which stipulated that both sides will stop fighting.
[SPEAKER_07]: Hezbollah will withdraw from south of the Ritani, all the way north of the Ritani.
[SPEAKER_07]: The Lebanese army will take over all that area.
[SPEAKER_07]: as well to its borders, and neither sides will fire at the other, but each side, each side has the right to defend itself.
[SPEAKER_07]: However, what happened is when, however, what happened is really maintain, is where it would do, but maintain four points that it occupied in Lebanon, along the South.
[SPEAKER_07]: And over the last 15 months took another one, so there were five points in total.
[SPEAKER_07]: During which time, during 15 months, up to two weeks ago, much second, Israel violated and reached that ceasefire over 12,000 times, killing over 500 people.
[SPEAKER_07]: Even though Hezbollah has the right to respond, according to the ceasefire, Hezbollah refrained from even firing one bullet, Hezbollah thought for several reasons.
[SPEAKER_07]: Amongst which was it was allowing the Lebanese government who took it upon itself to say, we can defend the country and please abide by the ceasefire.
[SPEAKER_07]: We don't want a further rule in Lebanon.
[SPEAKER_07]: So Hizballah allowed the country 15 months or allowed the government 15 months to use whatever powers it has or diplomatic channels to bring and end to these violations and reaches.
[SPEAKER_07]: as well as leader frequently whenever he made a speech won the government saying, you know, this is continuing, our patients will come to an end.
[SPEAKER_07]: no one responded.
[SPEAKER_07]: Nothing happened.
[SPEAKER_07]: The military was there and was not allowed to do anything.
[SPEAKER_07]: The military is not, I mean, let's be frank.
[SPEAKER_07]: The Lebanese Army, too, is the one institution left in this country that everyone still rallies around.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's like the one thing that keeps the glues Lebanon together to this point, right?
[SPEAKER_07]: Because people have this
[SPEAKER_07]: We have this thing about it.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's sentimental.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's about the only thing that we look up to and say, well, it's diverse and it represents all of us.
[SPEAKER_07]: And the soldiers are brave men.
[SPEAKER_07]: But this military has never been allowed through its history to be well equipped enough to take on a fight with Israel.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm not saying to launch a fight against Israel.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm saying to defend itself or its country from Israel.
[SPEAKER_07]: It doesn't have the necessary weapons, the equipment,
[SPEAKER_07]: But the Lebanese government keeps on promising that this is the army that's going to defend the country.
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, when the time came, they withdrew it.
[SPEAKER_07]: They pulled it back.
[SPEAKER_07]: So on March 2nd, Hasmalah decided enough was enough.
[SPEAKER_07]: No.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, it so happened to coincide post the assassination of Khameen, Ayatullah Khameen, the Supreme Leader of Iran.
[SPEAKER_07]: And again, the usual suspects, if you want, locally and internationally, jumped on it to say that, you know, they're doing the bidding of Iran.
[SPEAKER_07]: Now, let me put some logic into this Iran with its arsenal that we're watching.
[SPEAKER_07]: irrespective whether some rate it or not, but it has tens of thousands of missiles and ballistic missiles and drones and you name it, they've got it, right?
[SPEAKER_07]: As well as a non-state actor, it's entire arsenal, it's miniscule compared to what Iran has.
[SPEAKER_07]: It going into a war cannot be for Iran's sake because it's neither going to make or break
[SPEAKER_07]: war that's already going, or the Iranian power, you know, it's it.
[SPEAKER_07]: It just doesn't make sense.
[SPEAKER_07]: So, but, but from a military point of view, as well as always new, it was going to eventually have to respond because everybody else was failing.
[SPEAKER_07]: So, as well as pick that moment,
[SPEAKER_07]: From a military point of view, recognizing that this is a good time for it to be involved.
[SPEAKER_07]: Why?
[SPEAKER_07]: Because why Iran is engaged with Israel?
[SPEAKER_07]: They both have similar targets, one enemy, one denomination, one common interest, okay?
[SPEAKER_07]: And if has Balani did support, the Iranians already being engaged in Israel can provide that support.
[SPEAKER_07]: Whereas if Hasballa was fighting this on its own, Iran will not be able to come say and defend it.
[SPEAKER_07]: Should something happen.
[SPEAKER_07]: But in plus, there has been coordination which we see.
[SPEAKER_07]: So sometimes both Hasballa and Iran are firing.
[SPEAKER_07]: into Israel, each the targets at the same time and they're trying and and they're engaging and and Hezbollah also recognize that if it's involved now with with Israel concentrating on Iran, it's defense mechanism if you want along the borders is lower.
[SPEAKER_07]: So it allows for Hezbollah
[SPEAKER_07]: So from a military point of view, it was the right moment for Hasbalat to be doing this.
[SPEAKER_07]: It was nothing to do because it's there doing Iranian bedding or it's there or because of post-hame or to avenge him in his death.
[SPEAKER_07]: Iran is capable of doing that without Hasbalat.
[SPEAKER_07]: Does that make sense?
[SPEAKER_09]: to make a toast, and how a jibber to thank you so much for taking the time to join us and explaining to us the situation in Lebanon, which has gone overlooked in these rarely U.S. assaults on Iran, but you've given us a lot to think about.
[SPEAKER_09]: Very grateful for your time.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you, Aaron.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you, everyone.
[SPEAKER_07]: It was a pleasure.
[SPEAKER_05]: That was a fascinating interview, and now for another fascinating interview, I speak to Sam E. Allarion, who is the director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul's I'm University.
[SPEAKER_05]: Originally from Palestine, he lives in the U.S. for four decades, where he was a tenured academic, prominent speaker and human rights activist before relocating to Turkey.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you so much for joining Dr. Allarion.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you for inviting me.
[SPEAKER_05]: course.
[SPEAKER_05]: Before we get into any specifics, I just want to ask you about your sense of what is happening right now in this great regional war as I've heard you so aptly describe it.
[SPEAKER_05]: What you think the most important things that are happening right now are and what you think the media is either missing or misrepresenting that you would like to clarify.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, obviously a lot of people, by now, should know that this is a war of choice and it was imposed on Trump, whatever they used to get him to be part of it from the Israeli side.
[SPEAKER_06]: Israel after October 7, after two years, Jerusalem, the war on Gaza and now the...
[SPEAKER_06]: the war on West Bank, how they can annex as much land as possible.
[SPEAKER_06]: They try to say that with one all these wars, they would like to establish hegemony, and they would like to become a world power.
[SPEAKER_06]: The only country that stands in front of them to achieve this particular goal is Iran.
[SPEAKER_06]: They say Iran is the head of the sneaks, and they've been trying for decades as Netanyahu says to get the United States involved in some kind of war against Iran, I think he tried twice with the Biden administration, they didn't take the bait, and now he's been seven times to the White House until he was able to convince Donald Trump not only to join this war, but even to lead it.
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, the misconception, of course, is that Trump himself had no idea what's his scaring himself into.
[SPEAKER_06]: A war against Iran cannot be won, especially when you say that your goals are regime change or somehow to break up the country.
[SPEAKER_06]: That shows so much ignorance about the history of Iran, about the people of Iran, the nature of its political system,
[SPEAKER_06]: He thought that this could take a week or two or something like Enigracua and I sorry, something like Venezuela model.
[SPEAKER_06]: And it's far from it.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, he can kill some leaders, but they will be easily replaced.
[SPEAKER_06]: This is a regime that's been there for 47 years.
[SPEAKER_06]: It was waiting, it's preparing for such eventuality.
[SPEAKER_06]: When the United States would actually be full enough, I'm talking about the president here, to wage a war against them.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I believe the media has been cheering this from the sidelines.
[SPEAKER_06]: They don't tell the American people the truth.
[SPEAKER_06]: And the truth is that the American bases are open for Iranian attacks, particularly using different drones and missiles.
[SPEAKER_06]: We're talking about an inability of the American government.
[SPEAKER_06]: to defend its own interests.
[SPEAKER_06]: He boasts about that.
[SPEAKER_06]: He will be able to open the the the the the sea shipping through the straight homes.
[SPEAKER_06]: That would be a toll order.
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean even with the use navy.
[SPEAKER_06]: The use navy has admitted beforehand.
[SPEAKER_06]: I believe.
[SPEAKER_06]: that they cannot achieve this goal, they will do whatever they're ordered, that's what they're paid to do, but they would not be able to actually have regime change or impact the country in a way that Donald Trump can achieve the Israeli goals of being of defeating Iran and being able to establish the regime.
[SPEAKER_06]: So the end result is that you're going to have a war of attrition.
[SPEAKER_06]: And whatever Trump says, by the way, this, it's unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, he lies with every breath and sometimes with every inhale and every exhale, we'll have a different life.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's just unbelievable how they are fooling again, using the same tactic, the same rhetoric.
[SPEAKER_06]: that we heard back 20 years ago when they were invading Iraq.
[SPEAKER_06]: And the same thing over and over again.
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, I went back actually and looked at some of the, what the government was saying during the Johnson administration, when it came to Vietnam, it's the same trick.
[SPEAKER_06]: And people are tired of this.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think eventually people will see it for what it is.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's a naked aggression on a nation that did not pose a threat.
[SPEAKER_06]: about the missile, about the nature of Iran, has been alive, they were not conspiring to kill him, they were not conspiring to attack the United States, they're not trying to build a nuclear weapon, all these are lies, and these lies have been told to the American people to justify or that was Israel's decision rather than the United States.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I actually wanted to ask you to react to a video of Pete Higgs at the Secretary of War, as he likes to call himself, which is kind of unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to know what you had to say about these recent comments.
[SPEAKER_02]: Today, we've struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is not incremental.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is overwhelming force applied with precision.
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, today will be the largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was.
[SPEAKER_02]: As I've said from day one, our capabilities continue to build Iran's continue to degrade.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're hunting and striking death and destruction from above.
[SPEAKER_02]: Iran's defense industrial base, the factories, the production lines that feed their missile and drone programs, being overwhelmingly destroyed.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've hit hundreds of their defense industrial bases directly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Their ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit of all.
[SPEAKER_02]: ballistic missile attacks against our forces down 90% since the start of the conflict same with one way attack UAVs think kamikaze drones down 90% now the Iranians will still shoot we know that but they would shoot a lot more if they could but they can the last job anyone in the world wants right now senior leader for the IRGC or besiege temp jobs all of them
[SPEAKER_02]: And to borrow a page from Admiral Ernest King in World War II, we've decided to share the ocean with Iran.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've given them the bottom half.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've damaged our sunk over 120 of their Navy ships with battle damage assessments pending for many more.
[SPEAKER_02]: See, oftentimes we have to wait a few days on battle damage assessment to get the real number.
[SPEAKER_02]: Their surface fleet is no longer a factor.
[SPEAKER_02]: Their submarines, they once had Levin,
[SPEAKER_05]: There's obviously a lot of bluster there on the statements that were made on Thursday by Pete Hexet.
[SPEAKER_05]: Can you separate the facts from fiction?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I mean, this guy's obviously he's trying to, it's a site, site operation.
[SPEAKER_06]: What he's trying to do is to psyche the people and tell them that we're winning and that the other side is still to be decimated and obliterated and defeated.
[SPEAKER_06]: That these are the,
[SPEAKER_06]: The words that Dalatram uses when he tweets, but the fact in the matter is that Iran is still shuddy, Iran is having a war of attrition, that a war of attrition is continuing for now over 20 days.
[SPEAKER_06]: Whatever his roster, whatever his say, it's total exaggeration as I see it.
[SPEAKER_06]: First of all, you cannot defeat your opponent or change the regime from the air.
[SPEAKER_06]: you know the Taliban didn't have a single air and who wanted the end, who was fleeing and leaving in a hurry.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hamas didn't have any air and two years they could have pacified Hamas over Gaza which was 360 kilometers square.
[SPEAKER_06]: Iran is a vast country.
[SPEAKER_06]: Iran is 1.65 million kilometers away.
[SPEAKER_06]: We're talking about an area greater than Western Europe.
[SPEAKER_06]: If you put the United Kingdom and France and Italy and Spain and Portugal and the Holland and and Belgium and all of them together and Germany, Iran will still be bigger.
[SPEAKER_06]: So whatever he's hearing is hitting obviously, but Iran is not going to surrender.
[SPEAKER_06]: it's not going to submit to whatever dictates he may have.
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, you can change the regime through two means and not even guaranteed.
[SPEAKER_06]: One is ground invasion.
[SPEAKER_06]: He had to assemble 300,000 people to attack Iraq so that they can bring down so that them who see.
[SPEAKER_06]: And so Dom has seen and the Iraqi regime was much, much weaker than Hamas, than Iran.
[SPEAKER_06]: And then you have the use of nuclear weapons, which basically were going to change the whole international system.
[SPEAKER_06]: If the United States is earlier to use a tactical nuclear weapon, we're talking about the completely different work.
[SPEAKER_06]: So going back,
[SPEAKER_06]: all these battle achievements, let's say, I'm not going to achieve his goal.
[SPEAKER_06]: Let's see, what is the goal here?
[SPEAKER_06]: What is the answer to his goal?
[SPEAKER_06]: They want to bring the regime down.
[SPEAKER_06]: They want to break up the country.
[SPEAKER_06]: they want a regime change, they will not be able to do that.
[SPEAKER_06]: On the other hand, what does Iran want?
[SPEAKER_06]: Iran wins by surviving.
[SPEAKER_06]: Iran wins by continuing to hit these soft targets.
[SPEAKER_06]: American interests, whether they are American bases, or American companies, or disrupting the state of warms.
[SPEAKER_06]: Let's see what Trump says now for over a week.
[SPEAKER_06]: He said he's going to escort tankers.
[SPEAKER_06]: force them that they can pass the state of Wormus.
[SPEAKER_06]: On the other hand, Iran says that this will not happen.
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, whose word has been kept so far?
[SPEAKER_06]: And then it shows the idiosy.
[SPEAKER_06]: I can't believe this person is actually president of the United States.
[SPEAKER_06]: He calls the Chinese asking him to join.
[SPEAKER_06]: The Chinese already have their tankers going and leave it.
[SPEAKER_06]: Why would they join?
[SPEAKER_06]: Join what exactly?
[SPEAKER_06]: They have already been exempted, the Russian tankers, the Chinese tankers, and even the Spanish now after they broke relations with Israel, they would be allowed in.
[SPEAKER_06]: So it's just, it's just, again, as you said, blaster.
[SPEAKER_05]: Dr. Aran, you have written a bunch of really interesting articles, but you've also written some interesting Twitter threads, and I wanted to show one where you actually talk about how you think Iran could surrender, quote and quote surrender, you don't put in quotes, but I'll put in quotes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Here are the terms for surrender.
[SPEAKER_05]: If Iran is listening, this should be the response to Donald Trump's demand for complete surrender.
[SPEAKER_05]: A real ceasefire requires one full U.S. military withdrawal from the Persian Gulf region, two immediate and total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
[SPEAKER_05]: Three complete Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, four Israeli withdrawal from any Syrian territory's occupied after the fall of the Assad regime.
[SPEAKER_05]: Five, the lifting of sanctions on Iran and reparations for the damage caused by this illegal war, six and end to the siege of Gaza in the beginning of its immediate reconstruction without conditions, seven reconstruction of Lebanon after Israeli destruction, eight accountability for war crimes under international law and the handling and the handing over of Netanyahu and other work criminals to the ICC, the International Criminal Court.
[SPEAKER_05]: PS, the American People and Congress, time for
[SPEAKER_05]: have any Iranian officials reached out?
[SPEAKER_06]: No, but actually they have said much of what's written here, it has been given by the spokesperson of the Revolution of God, and also the Foreign Minister, they're asking for reparations, they're asking for accountability, they're asking for the lifting of the sanctions on Iran.
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, they also said, which implies some of the conditions said there, that this is whatever solution we're going to end up with, it has to be regional, in other words, has to include, you know, their their allies like the, the, the, the, the opinions which gives me hope.
[SPEAKER_06]: that once this is over.
[SPEAKER_06]: And of course, they have said that the Americans need to leave.
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, how that is done, obviously, we'll see in the coming days.
[SPEAKER_06]: But all these conditions have been said in one way or another by some Iranian officials.
[SPEAKER_06]: So hopefully they had listened.
[SPEAKER_05]: You also wrote in a post last week that based on the way the war is going, you explained how if, quote, regional, Arab allies become directly involved in the conflict, the Houthis and Yemen are likely to expand the scope of their participation.
[SPEAKER_05]: This would threaten maritime navigation routes, energy, infrastructure, and global trade paths thereby broadening the scope of the war and raising its economic costs for the United States and allies.
[SPEAKER_05]: So can you expand on what the implications of further who the involvement would be?
[SPEAKER_03]: And to hear the rest of the interview, please go to useful idiotspodcast.com.
[SPEAKER_05]: And you are definitely going to want to become supporters of the show if you're not already at usefulityaspodcast.com because I have an extended chat with Samuel Ariana that is really fascinating and I guarantee you will provide information that you've never really considered.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that chat is about whether the United States controls Israel, whether Israel controls the United States or a little of both.
[SPEAKER_05]: And again, to find that you can go to useful idiotspodcast.com.
[SPEAKER_05]: And thanks again to Sami O'Aryan for joining us and to our previous guest, Hala Jeper.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thanks so much for listening to and watching useful idiots.
[SPEAKER_09]: For extended episodes, bonus content and our weekly Thursday throwdown episode, please subscribe at usefuleditspodcast.com.
[SPEAKER_09]: Support the show for free by subscribing on YouTube or rumble, and wherever you get your podcast.
[SPEAKER_09]: If you like the podcast, don't forget to rate and review.
[SPEAKER_09]: You can also follow us on Twitter at usefuleditpod.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thanks for supporting independent media.
[SPEAKER_09]: We'll see you next time.
[UNKNOWN]: You