6/16/26: Trump Slams Bibi Over Lebanon Attacks, Ben Shapiro Meltdown Over Iran Deal, Bari Weiss Vs Trita Parsi

24:58They can create things and do things as they want. They have control of these intelligence agencies, of diplomatic memos, of cables. Remember, Rubio is also not just the Secretary of State. He's also the National Security Advisor. So he runs the policy shop out of the White House. They can very easily manipulate these things. They also have a vast leak apparatus from the New York Times and Barack Ravid and all of these others. Stenographers will write anything, right? And so you can give them whatever you need. All of this intelligence and other things will all be laundered through the neoconservative press and be used explicitly as a way to attack, attack, attack, and to shape the decision matrix.

25:37so that every night on Fox News, it will be a drumbeat about how Trump is doing the wrong thing. Can he sustain that? Obviously, no. We watched what happened. And so that's my last caution is the 300, like the contours of the deal as of right now actually look like something that could work. But let's be real. This is a full-on existential threat to Israel as we know it and to their entire lobby here in Washington, and I would never bet against these people. The Ratcliffe thing, when I saw that, I was like, here we go. Like, this is day one. Now imagine day 35. Like the New York Times stories about all the warnings from Hegseth.

26:15And by the way, they're all going to start being real honest now. For 100 days we heard Iran's military has been decimated. Now you're all actually going to get the truth because they're going to use it as a pretext for why we shouldn't do the deal. We're going to get the real figures on the ballistic missiles. I just saw my first segment on Fox News yesterday. Actually, Iran's military hasn't been decimated the first time they've said it in 100 days. Right? So you're actually going to get the truth about Iran's military and its ballistic missile program and maybe even its nuclear enrichment and all that.

26:48Listen, I don't care about any of that. But they're going to use it as a pretext. So I'm just setting the space that the next 60 days, it's going to be wild. Just like how we went from after the 12-day war, like, oh, their nuclear program's totally decimated to, well, actually, no, it's not. And now we need to go to war to make sure that they can not produce nuclear weapons. Just wait. It's going to be something. But it'll be fun to cover it all with you. OK. We have Treat to Parsi standing by. Let's get to it. You're building your career, your routine, your future. But this summer, that's for you.

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28:41Expert appliance recommendations for the win. Shop GrandAppliance.com. Very excited now to be joined by our great friend, Trita Parsi, who has found himself under attack by the despicable Barry Weiss. Let's start with B0 up here on the screen. I do want to draw this to everyone's attention. Dr. Parsi has found himself attacked by the free press, who allegedly reported that he was being considered for deportation. So Dropside, Breaking Points, and the American Conservative have all started this petition to stand with Trita Parsi against deportation. There will be a link down in the description.

29:22And we encourage you to add your name to this petition to show the United States government how many American citizens stand here with our friend. But we are going to start, first of all, for his great analysis of the situation and of this war. And let's put A-0B up here on the screen. Sir, give us some comments here about Trump's latest musings on Hezbollah. So here he says, Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long. Too many people are being killed. You don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody. There are a lot of people in those apartment houses. They're not all Hezbollah.

29:54I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah. and, quote, I did not like that Israel striking Beirut, and I let them know that. What do you make of these kind of musings here on Israel and Hezbollah, which remains one of the key problems for Trump in actually attaining this ceasefire? Well, Trump is pushing back against the Israelis trying to sabotage his deal, and he's doing so not simply by saying, hey, don't sabotage my deal. He's going after specific methods that the Israelis are using to build up opinion against Israel. He's criticizing them for the massive amount of collateral damage that they're totally fine with inflicting, whereas the U.S.

30:33itself follows different rules. And it was under the Biden administration that the United States just lifted all restrictions on Israel. They could do whatever they wanted. And of course, Trump continued that for a while. But he's hinting here now that he's going to restrict that by saying that you don't have to kill and take down an entire apartment building. The Israelis attacked Lebanon just hours before the electronic signing, knowing very well that that was an Iranian red line and also an implicit American red line. It was a clear attempt by them to sabotage this. And I think that, you know, their hands is shown now and I think the glasses are off.

31:08The Trump administration is clearly seeing what the Israelis are intending to do and the only way to prevent them from doing so. It's not just these comments. I think they're helpful. It's not just these angry phone calls, although I'm pleased to hear about them. They have to make it very clear. The United States is not going to go into a war that Israel starts against America's wishes. Because the incentive for the Israelis is that they believe that by starting these wars, they can drag the U.S. into it. If you can make it absolutely clear that will not work, it will also disincentivize the Israelis from going down that path because there's no value for them doing so if they can't get the United States to get dragged in.

31:47And this has to be done not just orally, but also make it clear militarily, we're not going to be there for you. Yeah. I'm looking at Times of Israel headline right now. It says, amid U.S.-Iran deal, IDF says Hezbollah continues attacking troops in South Lebanon. We've already had at least one IDF drone strike within Lebanon. How much do you think that Iran will tolerate of this? Well, it depends between when we are talking about it. Will they tolerate it right now? Probably. Will they tolerate it after Friday? Probably not. And they will not tolerate, even though at this point it is Beirut that is the red line.

32:24I suspect that from the signing or at least shortly thereafter, it will be all of Lebanon. And then they're going to be very adamant about this, because if they allow for some strikes in southern Lebanon, well, then eventually the Israelis are going to push forward and push forward and push forward. So I think there's going to be a very firm line there. At least that's what they're going to have to do if they want to keep this together. But at the same time, it's very much also relies on them holding back Hezbollah. And Hezbollah will not be held back if the Israelis are still inside of Lebanon.

32:58The Hezbollah will not tolerate that the Israelis are occupying parts of Lebanon because otherwise this agreement, the ceasefire, can end up cementing an Israeli occupation of Lebanon. So I think the U.S. is also going to have to push the Israelis very hard to get out of Lebanon in order to make sure that that front does not jeopardize the much more important front from the Trump administration's perspective, which is to end this war with Iran. Yeah. Sir, I do want, you know, one of the warnings I gave before we were interviewing you is just about the sheer force of the Israel lobby and what they are about to bring down on the head of Donald Trump.

33:38You lived through the original Israel lobby attacks and ongoing from Barry Weiss herself. But what we are watching here with Ben Shapiro and others is a serious, serious threat that I don't want to diminish in any way to Donald Trump and really to the entire country. Let's take a listen here to a preview of what we're going to be hearing now for the next 60 days. Let's take a listen to Shapiro. Israel is going to have to respond to terrorism across its border. As we'll see, if the United States is going to suddenly become an advocate for the idea that Israel can't defend itself, then this is a giant L for the United States.

34:14And suddenly there's no difference between Israel defending itself and Hezbollah firing missiles and rockets at Israelis in Israeli territory. Okay, this is the problem. If you keep sending the signal to a terror-backing regime that chants death to America, that you want to deal with them so badly that you're going to tell our allies in the region to stand down, you are giving them an enormous amount of forward momentum. And that is a huge mistake. Huge mistake and a giant L here for the United States. The total fusing, sir, of Israeli and U.S. interests. There is no separate, you know, just conceptually to separate them is wrong from their perspective.

34:55Look, I think we have to remind ourselves of one very important thing. Yes, you're absolutely right, Sagar. This is going to be extremely tough. But Obama did win this fight. Obama defeated them back in 2015 and defeated them in Congress as well when there was this massive fight. And then every Republican was voting with the Israelis at that time. That means that this can be won again, but it's going to be a hell of a fight. There's no doubt about it. It's after Obama won the fight that they managed to destroy the deal by convincing Trump in 2018 to withdraw from the deal. But short of that, the president, once he puts down his foot, the track record is one in which he gets his way.

35:35because the Israelis at the end of the day, despite the fact that they can put forward a tremendous amount of resistance and inflict significant political costs on the president, the president will win. The question is, will he put down his foot firmly and focus on this matter, prioritize it, not get distracted and not let himself be convinced that it's better off for him not to fight this fight? Now, one thing I think is really fascinating when it comes to how the Trump administration is talking about this deal, trying to sell this deal to the American public, which is really different from the manner in which the Obama administration did it, is that the Obama administration only focused on this as a nuclear deal.

36:21They love talking about the nuclear details, about all of the guarantees and all of the inspections, and they never wanted to touch on the idea that this could be the beginning of a better relationship between the two countries, that this could lead to a transformation of the region. If that were to happen, that would be a valid and valuable bonus, but it was not something that they want to use as a selling point, nor did they even embrace the idea that it would be a good thing to have a better relationship with Iran after this. J.D. Vance's talking points are completely the reverse of this. He's starting off by saying, hey, this is going to transform U.S.-Iran relations.

36:58This is going to transform the region as a whole because we're going to end this enmity. Trump is talking about this as a peace deal. I think if you want to fight the Israelis on this in Washington, that is exactly the right way to do it, to go full on and explain that this is about changing the entire relationship and the region, enable the United States to get out of the Middle East because we shouldn't be there in the first place, and sell that to the American public instead of focusing on completely boring nuclear details that, you know, most Americans will not be able to fully understand anyways, because none of them or the vast majority of us are not nuclear scientists.

37:38So I find that very fascinating. It's complete reverse of how the Obama administration approached us. Yeah, which makes sense stylistically. Could not be more difference between the Obama administration and this administration. I wanted to play for you Mark Thiessen, who Trump had held up, you know, during the hostilities as someone we should all be paying attention to, who is very much in favor of the Iran war and now is very concerned about the potential end of war against Iran. He is raising specific concerns about the$300 billion reconstruction fund. This is B3, guys. Let's go ahead and take a listen to this.

38:12Apparently, we're going to give them sanctions relief and reconstruction based on performance. But that means that we're going to be giving them a lifeline to revive their regime after we had decimated it. That is a huge problem. because the Iranians may comply for a short period of time, but then we're going to have a weak American president and they're going to have gotten the money. And then there's talk of a reconstruction fund of hundreds of billions of dollars. We didn't they'll be like doing a Marshall Plan for Germany while the Nazis were still in power. So I'm anxious to see what what the details of the deal are and what gets negotiated.

38:48But I'm concerned. I agree. It seems like this is one of the primary attacks on the memo of understanding as we understand it and a potential deal. You heard from Shapir and also Levin, as we played earlier, that this is contrary to Israel's interests and is very unfair to Israel. You also had John Padora saying Trump chickened out, sort of like going straight at his manhood and his masculinity and saying this is embarrassing and humiliating for him. But on the on the financial aspect of this, you know, what do we know about how this is all going to work out? And how do you think that the administration will try to spin that?

39:26Because, of course, the right under the JCPOA, we heard endlessly about these pallets of cash and, you know, have heard about this for years and years afterwards. I'm sure Trump has talked about it as well. And so now you have significant amount of money that is going to flow to Iran, much of which is their own assets. However, it seems like a difficult piece for them to try to sell. So I'm hearing this critique also from some folks from the Democratic side. Oh, my God, they're going to get investments. Let's separate a couple of things. First of all, you have the unfreezing of their assets as a result of sanctions relief.

39:58That's their own money that they will have access to again, which is what they use in order to be able to buy food, medicine or other things. Then you have what is called this investment fund. We have to remember the Iranians have suffered$300 billion plus in damages as a result of this war. So this is a reconstruction fund that whether the U.S. is going to be part of it or not, we don't know yet. But it is an investment fund. This is the other countries in the region saying, OK, we are now going to try to have an economic relationship with Iran, integrate ourselves with the Iranian economy as a way of building a buffer against a future war.

40:39Because we want to make sure that, you know, we clearly cannot just rely on American bases or American weapons that actually ended up being a detriment to our security. So we're going to have to move away from this idea of just completely containing the Iranians. We have to integrate with them as well. And if we do that, we will build bridges that enables peace to actually flourish in the region in the very same manner that after Second World War, the Europeans needed to rebuild Germany in order to make sure that they integrated all of their economies and raise the cost of war. That is actually a very good thing.

41:12Now, I don't know if the US is going to be participating in it or not, but if the region wants to do this, and this is primarily going to be a regional thing, why on earth should the United States stand against that or even argue against that? Shouldn't it be better for everyone if they actually are doing things for themselves in order to be able to make peace more viable and more less likely, we should be very happy about that. We should be very happy that as part of this deal, we're actually giving the region a chance to take care of these matters on their own and make sure that they can do things on their own that leads to peace rather than to the United States having to push, you know, build more bases there or bring more troops to that region.

41:51One of the things, though, sir, is that, you know, as we continue to run the numbers, you know, I was just looking, Israel's whole economy is only 500 billion. Iran's rump economy is 437 billion. So an unsanctioned, you know, reconstructed Iran would be a many times bigger economic powerhouse in addition to strategic powerhouse, which would mean it's more important to the region, more important to the United States. But that's part of the reason why it seems to be so existential for them. And we're watching this in their press. Yeah, go ahead. Absolutely. I mean, this is part of the reason why the Israelis started to push for sanctions back in the mid-1990s, in order to make sure that Iran would not emerge as a potential rival to Israel, as a strategic partner for the United States.

42:36After the Cold War, the Israelis found themselves in a very, very dire situation. They were an outpost against Soviet penetration of the region, but there was no longer Soviet Union. And then the Persian Gulf War led to a scenario in which the U.S. actually moved closer to the Arab states in the region. And Israel was increasingly seen as a liability rather than a strategic asset. It's during this period that the Israelis reframe their alliance with the United States to not be a strategic one, but rather one based on shared values. I have no idea what that means, but nevertheless, that's when that term was coming up, precisely because the strategic underpinning of the relationship was now significantly weakened.

43:17And in that context, if the U.S. and Iran actually rebuild their relations, and I'm not saying they will, because I don't think there will be a partnership or an alliance, but if they were, this is a country that has gas, that has oil, that has a huge strategic location geopolitically, can control the Strait of Hormuz, has a market of 90 plus million people. If sanctions are lifted, it's probably going to be an economy three to four times the size of Israel, has an industrial base, a scientific base that is only second to none to Israel as itself. So it has all of the different things that could enable it to be a major, major player and an asset to the United States.

43:54One of the key things that held it back is partly the sanctions and Iran's own government because of their mismanagement, because of their repression, because of their corruption, and because of a political system that is just not capable of, you know, allowing the country to live up to its full potential. But this is something that the Israelis have been worried about for a very long time. And this is a nightmare scenario for them. Not only that Trump would end the war, but also lift the sanctions, because the war weakens Iran in the short term. Sanctions destroys a country over decades, slowly but surely destroys its social fabric.

44:33And the Israelis have been successful in having major sanctions on Iran for more than three or so decades now. To see those lifted would be an absolutely devastating blow to their approach and to how they define their interests in the region. Let's put B5 up just to underscore your point here. You know, you've got some quotes here and haretts from various Netanyahu allies, don't bullshit us, Trump, raging at the treacherous United States over the Iran deal. What does this mean for Israel? You know, let's say, I mean, look, there's still a lot of question marks, but let's say the official signing happens this Friday.

45:11Let's say we get 60 days down the road and they're able to come to terms on the nuclear file and the other, you know, major outstanding issues which remain. And the sanctions are lifted and Iran is able to begin to rebuild. There is no regime change. So far, it doesn't look like the proxy funding is contemplated as part of this deal either. How will Israel have to change? What will they have to reckon with? And what do you think that this will mean for Netanyahu and his own political standing? First of all, on the last part of it, this is going to be devastating for Netanyahu. And part of the reason why you have this public meltdown in Israel is also politically motivated.

45:53It's all about the upcoming elections and to finally unseat him, and he will probably end up going to jail afterwards. So this is, from his standpoint, existential. But for Israel, the Israelis could adjust to this reality, change their security doctrine, recognize that they have to find some sort of a modus vivendi with a lot of different countries in the region, that they They will not have security by constantly dominating their environment and thinking that they have to have total maneuverability in Syria, in the West Bank, in Lebanon in order to be secure, but actually vie for real peace, something that we have absolutely not seen from the Israeli government for at least 15 or so plus years.

46:35But I think, frankly, more likely is that they will not have the capacity intellectually, creatively, emotionally to be able to steer their ship in a different direction. And instead, you will see further attempts by the Israelis to sabotage this deal, even after the 60 days, even after it's been established, just as they did with the JCPOA. I think I mentioned on Tucker's show yesterday that I sat down with AIPAC after the JCPOA, and I thought that, OK, now it's going to be interesting to see how they're going to adjust to this reality. And I walked away realizing they're not going to adjust at all.

47:11They don't care that the deal has been sealed, that it's implemented. They're going to do everything they can to unravel it. And I suspect that that is the path that the Israelis will go this time as well. And they succeeded. But that means they succeeded. Exactly. Not under Obama, but they succeeded afterwards. And that may be their calculation, that they will succeed afterwards. But it means that during this period, they're going to be in a direct confrontation with Trump in a manner that I don't think Trump potentially will be as restrained as Obama was. Remember, one of the things that Obama did in order to kind of calm down the Israelis, that he signed that 10 billion, what was it, the 10-year deal, 30 billion, in which, you know, that was a way of trying to make sure that the Israelis calm down a little bit.

47:53We'll see if Trump does that. There are several bills in Congress right now that are going to try to integrate the U.S. military with the Israeli military, the U.S. intelligence with the U.S. with Israeli intelligence. He may end up accepting some of those things as some sort of a goody that he gives to the Israelis in order to calm them down. Very good point. You know, if they do go, they still won't go quietly. Almost certainly have to buy them off in some respect. You're building your career, your routine, your future. But this summer, that's for you. This season, escape into stories that feel like golden hour, rooftop drinks, and the kind of love that sneaks up on you when you least suspect it.

48:31Sourcebooks Summer of Romance brings together the rom-coms everyone's talking about. From Laugh Out Loud favorites by Lucy Score and Megan Quinn, to binge-worthy reads you'll want to finish in one sitting. Find your next summer read at Sourcebooks.com. That's Sourcebooks.com.

49:15Your story starts. And now, another appliance triumph from our friends at Grand Appliance. With two dogs, every wash load came out covered in fur. I went into Grand Appliance looking for a fix, and they recommended the Maytag Top Load with Pet Pro Hair Removal System. They had it in stock and installed it days later. And you know what? It really works. Lint rollers are a thing of my past now. Great recommendations from the appliance experts. Shop grandappliance.com. Grand Appliance dot com. We do want to shift now, sir, just to this deportation story. Let's put B7 up here on the screen. This was the initial free press story from about six days ago.

50:01Will the U.S. deport Trita Parsi from Jay Solomon, who I believe was fired in disgrace, if I recall, is one of the Washington's most quoted opponents of the Iran war. The administration is weighing whether to revoke his green card, with some officials arguing he isn't just another pundit. Tell us a little bit about, you know, were you caught off guard by this? Did you have some rumblings that something like this was going to happen? And, you know, what's been the general result now that it's been public for six days? Thanks, Agar, and thank you guys again for the petition and my support. I deeply, deeply appreciate that.

50:36So we knew that something was coming in the free press. They had reached out. We had no interest in talking to them. And we don't consider them to be a legitimate outlet in any way, shape or form. But also we knew that Laura Loomer had been tweeting for a couple of weeks now trying to get me deported. And obviously she has a track record of every once in a while getting her way. So we knew that there was an escalation of their attempts to silence me. As I write in my Substack piece about this, they've been trying to silence and cancel me for more than 25 years. The only difference now is that they're really going much further and they're trying to actually deport me, or at least they say.

51:14But what was really fascinating here is that within hours of this report coming out, the State Department came out and denied it, which is extremely unusual. But they came out and said that they don't have any plans, at least now, to deport me. And part of the reason why that happened is partly because of this public backlash that occurred, which was completely organic. We had nothing to do with it. and partly because there were elements inside the Trump administration that opposed this as well. And I think that led to this very unusual move of the State Department coming out and denying and essentially just completely blowing that story away.

51:50It was all based on one unnamed source in the State Department. And as I heard from some people inside, it may actually have been a rogue actor that hoped that by getting this story out there, it could trigger an investigation rather than there actually having been an investigation to begin with. But for now, it does seem to me that this backfired on them. But I don't think that they have given up, just like with this fight against the JCPOA and the nuclear deal. They will continue. And what I think is absolutely clear is that they can't win an argument. Clearly, they can't win a war either. So all they have is the attempt to try to cancel and silence people.

52:26Well, I have to think not only the public outcry. Also, as you said, there are some elements within the administration who were like, no, why would we do this? But also now the fact that Trump is on the side of a deal, like, look, we're on Trump's side now, right? Like, yes, please go ahead. So, I mean, but that's the nature of him, right? He's personalized the presidency. Everything's about whether you're with him or against him in this moment. I think you're, you know, you are a sort of consummate diplomat and analyst. The whole idea of Quincy is to bring together the anti-war right and left, something that obviously resonates very much with us on this show, you know, which is part of why we love having you on.

53:03and also because your analysis is so important and so spot on. So I would think that the fact that now we're in the phase of let's try to make this deal happen, that that would also provide you some protection for the moment, not that there's any guarantees for the long term. Yeah, I certainly hope so. And I think you also put your finger on something very important. I personally do think that the elevation of these attacks, it's not just because of the war and the fact that I'm out more in the media, But it is also because Quincy and Breaking Points and many others right now are trying to really build bridges between the left and the right so that we have a united front against this uniparty war machine.

53:42And that is a massive threat to all of these people who want us to just dominate every region of the world militarily, have 750 bases, constantly be at war with someone, invent new enemies so that we can have a larger military budget, etc., etc. And the fact that the left and the right is coming together in opposition to that is a huge threat. And I think Quincy has played a role in all of this, which makes it all the more valuable for them to try to silence and attack us. Right. That's all they can do. If you hadn't been effective, they wouldn't care. They'd say, keep going on, CNN. We like having you out there.

54:12It's the fact that what you say resonates and appeals to a lot of people, regardless of their partisan affiliation. That's exactly why they marked you on as a target. Well, yeah. The war is not yet over, but we do have, again, we have a link to the petition, and then we have a link to Dr. Parsi's substack, which is down in the description. We encourage you to go and to subscribe and to keep updated for all the excellent analysis. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

54:56You're building your career, your routine, your future. But this summer, that's for you. This season, escape into stories that feel like golden hour, rooftop drinks, and the kind of love that sneaks up on you when you least suspect it. Sourcebook's Summer of Romance brings together the rom-coms everyone's talking about. From Laugh Out Loud favorites by Lucy Score and Megan Quinn, to binge-worthy reads you'll want to finish in one sitting. Find your next summer read at Sourcebooks.com. That's Sourcebooks.com. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. The Splash into Savings event from Apple Vacations is here.

55:34Now through June 25th, save up to$150 on vacation packages, plus instant savings at select resorts in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and top U.S. destinations. Use promo code JUNE26 for these limited-time offers. Start planning today at applevacations.com or contact your travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. And now, another appliance triumph from our friends at Grand Appliance. With two dogs, every wash load came out covered in fur. I went into Grand Appliance looking for a fix, and they recommended the Maytag Top Load with Pet Pro Hair Removal System. They had it in stock and installed it days later.

56:15And you know what? It really works. Lint rollers are a thing of my past now. Great recommendations from the appliance experts. Shop GrandAppliance.com. GrandAppliance.com. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.