8/4/25: Mike Johnson Bows To Israel, TikTok IDF Censor, Tim Dillon vs Bari Weiss, GHF Whistleblower Vindicated

24:24And she was, I really, really recommend that you guys go and watch that interview we did with her. And she was at Nassar Hospital, which is, and Tony Aguilar told us this as well, that's where two of the aid sites were closest to. And so they would get the bulk of the wounds from people who were shot at, who were going to these aid distribution sites. And she said it was like clockwork. Every day, you knew when the distribution happened, because a short time later, you would have 100 people come in with gunshot wounds. And she confirmed what I saw another doctor say as well, that they treated it, it appeared that the Israelis treated it like target practice, because one day, all of the wounds would be torso wounds, or the vast majority.

25:06The next day, it would be legs. The next day, it would be genitals. I mean, that is the type of barbarism, using human beings, starving human beings, luring them into these death traps for a little bit of meager rations, and then using them as literal target practice. It's not just doctors. It's not just Anthony Aguilar, who is talking about the horrors and the atrocities committed routinely by the IDF. You have an Israeli soldier who came forward to talk to the BBC about what he saw, the level of indiscriminate killing that he saw from his unit while he was in the Gaza Strip. Let's take a listen to that.

25:44Kay fought with the IDF in Gaza in early 2024. He described several incidents in which his unit killed unarmed people, including two boys he described as young teenagers. Anyone you see off the humanitarian road should shoot to kill. That's what we were told. Our commander qualified that. Of course, if it's a woman or a child, don't shoot. Try to detain them. Don't be stupid. Do you think there's a lack of accountability? I would definitely say there's a lack of accountability. When we lost some people in a firefight, it was just, f*** it. Destroy everything. Kill everyone you see. When we lost some people in a firefight, it was just, f*** it, destroy everything, kill everyone you see.

26:26And the BBC has sort of, they're part of this, I guess, global shift towards a little more scrutiny, a little more condemnation of what Israel is up to as we see these horrific images of starvation. They've done a number of investigations. They investigated over 160 cases of kids shot in Gaza between October 2023 and July 2025. At least 95 were shot in the head or chest. In all but two cases where eyewitnesses were available, Israeli soldiers were identified as the shooter. So if you're shooting kids in the head or chest, that's not an accident. That's an intentional murder of a child. Well, yeah.

27:00I mean, there's no denying it at this point. Let's get to those demands here because this actually just gives away the end game as well. Let's put the next one, please, on the screen. C7 from DropSite. Israel rejects key Hamas demands. Ynet reports Israel's latest response to the Hamas ceasefire sent tonight rejects several of the core demands, including, quote, dismantling the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, reopening the Rafah crossing, full withdrawal from the Philadelphia Corridor, and control over prison release sequencing. But I think really important, within that is what the Israelis themselves are doing in some sort of grand counterproposal where they're like, if you don't surrender, then we're just going to take over the whole Gaza Strip.

27:38Part of the reason why that's so crazy, though, is that that's what they're already doing. There already is the plan. They said they're going to annex it and have a, quote, indefinite presence. Like, what more? It's just the entire demand is basically a pretext for what they've always wanted to do from the beginning. I'm not defending Hamas. Of course, the hostages should be released, what they do to these, that guy is horrific. It looks horrible, you know, on camera or any of that. And at this point, you know, what Ryan was telling me is that even inside of Gaza is that the population is so beaten down that they're begging them to surrender because they're like, I can't take it anymore, you know, which I understand.

28:15Absolutely. I probably would be in a similar position. So they themselves though, at a political level are just refusing to sign on to something which they believe is going to be basically an annexation of Gaza anyways. But it is going to happen now at this point. It's more a question about military force and about the U.S. presence because that's the scariest part is that it would require some sort of U.S.-led administration over the Gaza Strip, which we should have nothing to do. We don't want our hands on any more of this than we already do. Actually ruling over and having some sort of political responsibility for IDF soldiers underneath that body, you know, going and murdering anybody that they want to, that is just like so horrific and disgusting.

28:59And that really seems like the path that we're on right now. Oh yeah. No, no, no doubt about it. No doubt about it. And lastly, you know, we can put this up on the screen. So every living former. Yeah, this is crazy. Yeah. For people who don't know. Yeah, so the number of former Israeli Mossad and Shin Bet, head of military intelligence, all of these people have now come out and signed this letter saying the war needs to end. So a rare event, the likes of which we have not seen. Heads of the defense establishment throughout the generations, almost all the people who were at the helm of security tonight call to stop the war and return the hostages.

29:38in a public call to the Israeli public and demanding from the Israeli government stop the feudal war, bring the hostages home in one phase. So you've also had this former deputy, Hedda Mossad, who came out and said, yeah, it's a genocide. It is, in fact, a genocide. And this is, from an American political context, another really significant development, which is the head of J Street, which J Street is like the liberal, quote-unquote, liberal Zionist organization, sort of counter to AIPAC. And a lot of Democrats, like Slotkin, for example, gets money from J Street. A lot of Democrats who aren't the, like, John Fetterman, just hard, hardcore AIPAC types, they get their talking points from J Street.

30:20And so the guy who is the head of that, Jeremy Ben-Ami, he came out and said, you know what? It is a genocide. Until now, he says, I've tried to deflect, but Israel is committing genocide. He said he was persuaded rationally by legal and scholarly arguments that international courts will one day find Israel has broken the International Genocide Convention. Until now, I've tried to deflect and defend when challenged to call this genocide, but I cannot and will not argue anymore against those using the term. I simply won't defend the indefensible. And as recently as last week, I watched him debate Mehdi Hassan on this very point and, you know, refuse.

30:55But I think basically because his argument he reflected on was so shallow that it just was untenable. I mean basically his argument was – and I'm obviously paraphrasing here – was like it hurts my feelings and other people's feelings to call it a genocide. I need to watch it. Yeah, I mean within the liberal – It was a good debate. I mean you know Medhi's good at – Medhi's good at – Well, I put Medhi out of it. I mean, if you're one of these people who is obsessed with like never – I mean, if you've ever been to a Holocaust museum or Yad Vashem or the U.S. Holocaust museum, never again. And you've bought into all of the precepts, then like what are we doing here in terms of the rhetoric?

31:31You know, by the way, which is ironic to me, is a significant number of people who are, quote, genocide deniers were the people saying that Russia wants to commit a genocide in Ukraine. Yeah. Just so people remember. Remember Butcha, the massacre? Yeah. We're like, look, I'm not, no one's defending it. Okay. Right. It's a massacre. Like, it's a massacre. I just said it. But my point is that they were like, this is a genocidal action by the Russian state. People know my feelings on the word, but my point, and this kind of gets to it, is, oh, it's genocide when Russia does it, but now it's not here.

31:59It's always usually used to justify U.S. dollars in intervention every time this thing comes about. But I'm just giving an example of how within, like, the liberal internationalist framework, you know, if you're still doing the denial and all of that, I just think you're a joke. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and here's the thing with this guy. He wrote like a sub stack post, I think, about this. And he said he's still not going to use it because it still hurts his feelings. But but he's no longer going to deny that that is what's occurring. And I'm telling you, I think it's really significant. I think I think a lot of Democrats take their cues from J Street.

32:32And so it may represent a really significant political shift because they are like the – they are the – they have a decent amount of funding behind them. They are the liberal Zionist organization for people who thought – for like Democrats who think Netanyahu is yucky but want to still support the state of Israel. That's a great way of putting it. This is the organization for them. I'll get some personal. And so they do have a lot of sway and influence. So I went to GW, which is like 35 percent Jewish. So, you know, it's massive J Street presence, right? And the classic liberal Zionist J Street supporter is like, well, you know, I'm Jewish.

33:07I support Israel. But of course I don't support the settlements. Or of course I don't. I don't know what it's like now. But this was, you know, 10, 15 years ago. And so at that time, like, J Street was one of the biggest political organizations on the campus, more so than AIPAC or any of these other places. In terms of, you know, supporting like dialogue or peace or any of that. It's kind of crazy to think about how that was the mainstream kind of democratic Jewish position in America, at least politically, whenever it came to Israel there at the time. So, yeah, for them to say that, like that is a sea change because, you know, this whole Netanyahu support Israel, you know, birthright out in the open and all that stuff like that.

33:44I don't think that's flying anymore. I'd have to go back and check. I should ask the people currently going. Liberal Zionism is not a tenable position. It is not a tenable position. I mean, not remotely anymore. I mean, it really never was. But now the contradictions have been heightened quite a bit. I would say post-Iran deal, 2015, Bibi's speech before it basically killed it. But yeah, from that point forward, especially now. But now, forget about it. Like, forget about it. And Democratic politicians haven't realized that yet. Maybe you and Ryan, I'm out tomorrow, but Ryan's in for me. Maybe you and Ryan will cover that Isaac Dovier piece about, you didn't see it, about how Democrats are realizing.

34:19Oh, yeah, yeah. I did. Yes, yes, yes. We got to shift a little bit on this. But they have no idea how far gone they are. And last thing on this, and we'll get to the free speech stuff, which dovetails very much with the conversation we're having here. But, you know, this position that AOC was espousing about offensive and defensive weapons. And Slotkin tried to pull that with us as well. And she did say that she would have voted against the offensive weapons if she hadn't been on Colbert that night. But anyway, that line came from J Street. That's the position that they had retreated to as well.

34:52And so when I say they're influential, that's what I mean. Like you can see the way that Democratic politicians are picking up their talking points and running with it, which is why I think that this is influential. But yeah, they have no idea how far off. Eight percent of the Democratic base supports what Israel is doing. And no, they don't think it's just Netanyahu. And if you just get him out of here, it'll be fine. They don't think that, oh, well, we could still send some weapons, but not these weapons. And, you know, oh, I don't really want to call it a genocide. Like, the base is so—in New York City, a plurality of Jewish voters are supporting Zoran Mamdani.

35:30Like, Zoran is an avowed anti-Zionist, an avowed, like, BDS supporter. And he is winning Jewish voters in New York City. Like, that's how far the Democratic base is. You have a large, a super majority of Democratic voters in New York City saying, yes, Bibi Duttonyahu should be arrested if he comes here, and 80 % saying it's a genocide. So Democratic politicians are so far behind the curve. It is just unbelievable how out of step they are. But we'll continue that conversation for sure on another day.

36:12focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible, so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anyway, too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves Boba. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Tarot Reed. That's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie.

36:47Yeah. I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. I don't think she was in American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Then Mary Steenburgen. Why are you guys talking to me like, why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really am trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. If you know me, you know I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy.

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38:21Our town is small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything. What happens when a quiet Tennessee town becomes the front line in a battle over the future of America? Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land in the area. The first thing you see when it pops up is pioneers in Appalachia. But they weren't just planting houses. We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the Christian way of life. Stop right there. Is that normal? A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment.

38:58God need men to rule. Great. And decides to fight back. Do not use my hard work to sell your bull. They're not just opposing what's being planned for here. Our hometown is not a test tube. They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

39:27Let's go ahead and get to TikTok deciding that they're going to install an IDF sensor in their organization to make sure that there isn't, you know, anti-Semitism, quote unquote, on the platform. Let's put this up on the screen. This is so incredibly wild. So the headline here is TikTok hires, quote, proud American Jew to tackle anti-Semitism on On the platform, appointment of Erica Mindell comes amid growing concerns over online Jew hate. They go on to say that her role will include developing and driving the company's positions on hate speech, ensuring alignment with global regulations. So like that bullshit anti-Semitism definition that was codified here in the U.S.

40:09Industry standards and best practices spearhead long-term policy strategies that position the company as an industry leader in combating online hate speech and analyzing hate speech trends, focusing on anti-Semitic content. And, you know, what doesn't get mentioned in this particular headline is the fact that she is a former IDF reservist. She made Aliyah after college. Join the IDF. Wait, she made Aliyah? Yeah. Oh my God. All right, can we all explain to people what that is? That's when you're an American Jew and you go home to Israel. That's what the right to return is for any Jew in the world.

40:44Listen, be my guest, all right? But maybe you should lose your citizenship, just saying, if you're willing to do that and go serve in the ID. If you feel so called by your religion to go and live in a foreign country, I wish you the best, but you should give up your passport and forever. And, you know, just my personal opinion. I would hope that everybody, but I mean, look, let's all be honest, dude. Those are the most dedicated, like pro-Israel scientists. Yeah, just like the converts, you know. If you were born in this country and you say, I feel compelled because of my religion to go and be a citizen of a foreign nation and to go serve in that other country.

41:18How, in what world are you ever loyal to this? You literally gave up your, you know, theoretically you gave up your citizenship. You feel called to go somewhere else. Then go. Why are you involved with us at all? Apparently that's a controversial position. So Crystal, can you now support my effort to ban TikTok? Now that you have a, huh? Let's, Libs, you've got it. Let's be honest. You were all on my - You know, I was, honestly, I was gonna make a joke about it. Like, yeah, maybe I could get on board with this. We're all on my side whenever we were talking about this pre-Israel. All right, liberals, everybody was because it was never about free speech.

41:54It's about Chinese control and large foreign control, not just Chinese, of our powerful technology platforms, which should be liable to U.S. law and should have at least some transparency, which, yes, I understand Meta, Google, and all those others. But we could regulate them if we want. We can't do the same with TikTok. So now that they have their pro-IDF sensor, join me. All right? I've been over here for a long time, since 2019. Let's kill it. Let's get it done. I don't think Trump will do this, especially now. You know, now it's pro-Israel and it was supposedly pro-Trump. Although I wonder what the vibe is on TikTok these days, what the political vibe is.

42:29Oh, it's not pro-Trump. But then why was it so? Why was it so pro-Trump? Well, I mean, just look at the way that young people have shifted. Yeah, true. Like, I mean, young men in particular. He's had the biggest fall from grace with young men as literally any demographic. So, no, I mean, the TikTok fuss, I always remember back to Nikki Haley citing on the debate stage like 10 minutes on TikTok makes you 50 % more anti-Semitic. I'm butchering the numbers here, but it was something ridiculous like that. And there are still Israeli, like Israelis and Israeli Hasbarists who believe that their only problem is like a messaging problem.

43:09and their only problem is like a social media problem. And, oh, I mean, Netanyahu said something like this in the Milk Boys interview, something like, oh, you know, the lie gets around the world before the truth can possibly catch up. And it's like, no, actually, the problem that you have is that people can see the truth. And TikTok has been an important part of that. It's not anti-Semitic, but that has been an important part of the rapidly shifting consciousness with regard to Israel. I mean, Israel has lost young people across the board, regardless of political affiliation. Like, it is done.

43:40It is over. The only group that still backs Israel are boomer Republicans, and they're not on TikTok. So, but it's not just TikTok. I mean, I'm not really on TikTok, and it's obviously all over Twitter. It's all over, you know, Instagram. I mean, this is, you can pick your social media platform, and people are able to watch video, YouTube, wherever you are. So, you know, I think they continue to believe that they can, like, censor and shut down criticism of Israel and that ship has sailed. It's over. I hate to say though, I still think that their strategy is correct because at this point, what else are they going to do?

44:15And what I mean by that is at this point, the long-term political support for Israel, that's dead. Don't we all agree? It's done. So if that's true, then what should you do? You should use the moment when your political system is the most captured and accelerate the greater Israel project. That's what they're doing. And that's genuinely what's happening. Yeah, that's right. We're going to annex Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, as much of it as possible. Kill as many Palestinians as we can get. Yeah, bomb Iran. Yeah, that's right. It's literally like a final solution. I'm choosing my words carefully, but it is.

44:45It's a final projection of the Greater Israel Project, the patch, by the way, worn by the IDF, and means what? It means that at that point, what U.S. president is going to roll it back after this, no matter what? It's not going to happen. So they know that. And so in a certain way, like, they're doing— No, they realize their time is limited. Yeah, exactly. And they're going for it. They are going for it. And so far, no one with any power has done anything to stop them. And I don't think they will. I mean, again, even if there's an anti-Zionist future president, like, what are we going to do? Invade Syria to roll back the IDF?

45:17Like, it's not going to happen, okay? Like, that's my point. And broadly, the Arab powers seem okay with it. I don't know what's going on over there, but they're like, okay. Well, I mean, because they're all bought off by us as well. Yeah, they're bought off too, too. Egypt gets so much aid from us. Jordan. Like these are, you know, these are just client states as well. Like they're paid to accept the Israeli state and whatever Israel wants to do. That's their whole role in the region, you know, after the Camp David Accords with Egypt that basically like cut off that sort of like national resistance.

45:45Right. 3.3 billion a year. You know, it's an impoverished country. They need the money. They need the military aid. I don't know. The whole situation is crazy. Yeah, no, it is. All right. So there was an incident that unfolded at Florida State University of this was in the gym. Apparently there was some dude wearing an IDF t-shirt, which is wild. And another student was not too impressed with his choice of attire. Let's go ahead and take a look at how this played out. Fuck Israel, free Palestine, put it on fucking Barstool FSU. I really don't give a fuck. You're an ignorant fucking son of a bitch.

46:22Okay, that's the incident. There you go. All right, so why are we even talking about this? All right, why are we talking about this? This reminds me of the 2014 era, right? 2014, 2015. I found a noose in my dorm room. National news story. Oh my God, racism, blah, blah. We're gonna start a commission. Oh my God, some sexual assault allegation. Kangaroo court, mattress girl. Everybody remember that? National story. Well, why are we litigating this? Now, nobody's defending the behavior of this young lady, okay? Well, look, okay. Some people are defending it, but. All right, fine. I don't think reasonable people think that that's generally how people should act in a gym or whatever.

47:00Although I will say, as you said, wearing an IDF t-shirt in a gym, that's a statement. At a gym that I go to, there's a guy who wears a Ukrainian shirt from the Azov battalion. I mean, would it be unreasonable for somebody to be like, hey, man, it's a Nazi t-shirt, just so you know. Let me just stay in my position to be clear because I don't support violence. Yeah, exactly. So everything she said, no problem. The shove, okay, I wouldn't do that. Keep your hands to yourself. Keep your hands to yourself. Don't go violent. That's right. I think that people wearing IDF t-shirts, you know, which are, you know, which is celebrating a genocide, I think they should be shamed.

47:35I think they should feel that there's going to be social societal consequences for wearing that shirt in public. I do support that. Reasonable position, free country. Can we all agree with that? All right. You know, we should take a poll. Should I say something to the Azov Battalion guy? I have not said anything. I've remarked on it. I go, hey, am I the only person who sees this? I was like, this is crazy. Which he literally has an Azov? Azov Battalion. Azov Battalion shirt. It's nuts. Anyway. Wow. That's a choice. That is a choice. I agree. I'm like, yo, this is a Nazi battalion. I was like, am I the only person who knows this?

48:08Like a Ukraine t-shirt? Yeah. Okay. Right. Okay. Azov Battalion. Azov Battalion. And, you know, wearing an Israeli shirt, I also don't think is acceptable. But you're wearing an IDF t-shirt? it? Again, that is a choice. It's a statement. It's a statement. All right, let's get to this. So why does anybody care about this at all? So Florida State put out a statement. Here's what they said. I'm going to read it from you. Florida State University is actively addressing the altercation. The FSU Police Department interviewed the two students. The matter is being reviewed for potential criminal charges for charges under the FSU Student Code of Conduct, and it looks like it's leading towards an expulsion.

48:44Fine. Nobody should care about this anymore. Well, the Attorney Attorney General of the United States says, thank you, President McCullough of the university, for your leadership and prompt action. Anti-savantism will not be tolerated in Florida or anywhere else. She tags a bunch of people who are working at the DOJ, including in this civil rights division, and says, my U.S. attorney are now investigating this. So they are investigating this as some sort of federal hate crime. Now, once again, I want to reiterate, this is just as nuts as during the racial panic of the 2010s. Whenever the federal government and others were coming in and were like, oh, we're going to preempt this.

49:24Well, I wouldn't go that far. Things got pretty crazy for a while. But my point is just that this is just like the Department of Anti-Racism and all this other stuff, you know, all fantasized by Ibrahim Kendi. I mean, just recently, there's a coffee shop in California. Look, I'm not going to defend it. They've had some drink which celebrated October 7th. And like actually did. They like named it after October 7th, after the leader of Hamas. Okay. I mean, fine. You know, boycott it. Whatever. There was two guys in there who got harassed. I don't support that. People who were Jewish. But they're being investigated and targeted by the DOJ Civil Rights Division.

50:03for about, this is a local matter in California, all right? Let's leave it to the justice system. It's a state, local, this does not need to be a national story. It's just like going after that baker for not, you know, for refusing to bake cakes for the gays, who, by the way, sought him out and sought that legal battle in the courts, just so everybody is aware. But that's my point, is that they're trying to weaponize the federal government to come in and like preempt and use like the highest federal statute levels, which were designed, I mean, let's think about it. These, you know, these hate crime laws and all this, these were designed for like lynchings.

50:41These were designed for like completely out of control, like a Jim Crow South society or, you know, the KKK or something like high level prosecution, not some altercation in a student gym in Florida. And of course, I'm sure they'll be like, oh, what are you saying? You defend it? No, it's a state matter, local matter. Leave it alone. Here's the thing. Okay, just to lodge my disagreement on the gay baker situation, I don't think you should be able to discriminate against people based on their sexuality. These guys had to drive 60 miles out of their way to go get their cane from this guy. No, but it's about the principle.

51:14But I do think it's different because here's the thing. They're trying to claim this is anti-Semitic. I don't even know if this guy wearing the IDF t-shirt was Jewish. They don't say. They said he was Jewish. I have no idea. There's no indication this person knew his religion. Like, you can object to the actions of the IDF without being anti-Semitic. So that's number one. Number two, even with regard to the expulsion, I want to know if Florida State really expels every single person who ever, like, shoves anyone on their campus. Fair enough. Is that a consistent standard? Because I really kind of doubt it.

51:43I really kind of doubt it. So, you know, consistent standards should be applied. But the reason I say this is more insane than anything we've seen in the past is because, obviously, it's not just about Florida State University. And by the way, Randy Fine tweeted that this lady who said the fuck Israel, free Palestine thing, that she was a Muslim terrorist. You have a member of Congress who is calling this girl on a college campus a Muslim terrorist because she objects to what the IDF is doing here. But this is a nationwide witch hunt for fake anti-Semitism. And we can go ahead and put D5 up on the screen.

52:21some of the things, some of the quote-unquote anti-Semitism training. You guys got to read this article because I am not going to do it justice. It is insane the things that freshmen coming in are being forced, like this propaganda struggle session bullshit that they're being forced to endure. So they focus in particular on Northwestern, which is under multiple federal investigations for alleged anti-Semitism. They said that they are implementing a training that will adhere to federal policy. And so again, all those people who said this codification of the anti-Semitism definition wasn't going to be a big deal, wrong, completely wrong, because that's what they're talking about when they're using that codified definition of anti-Semitism for this completely, completely insane training.

53:11So one of the things they do, they lay out 10 hypothetical anti-Semitic and anti-Israel situations, why the ADL views them as a problem and advises students on how to respond. So again, this was all developed by the ADL. One scenario explains why someone spray painting swastikas on a Jewish fraternity home is a problem. Yeah, that's a problem. That is anti-Semitic. That is a problem. I don't know that you needed a training to know that, but okay. I will say also though, half the time, by the way, again, GW, the original home of one of these scares, one of the OG fake, uh, fakeries was this girl in our, one of our dorms saying somebody keeps drawing a swastika on my whiteboard and I'm discriminated against.

53:49So they saw the camera. Oh, she was actually doing it the whole time. All right. I'm just saying, wasn't there some Barry Weiss, uh, anti-Semitic graffiti incident? I'm not, I'm not aware. Anyway, I'm just saying a lot of times it's fake. Okay. Let's just say if it's legit. Okay. Yeah. That, that is anti-Semitic. That is a problem. Don't draw swastikas. Don't do that. OK, here's the next example they give, which they equate to being the same as drawing swastikas on a Jewish fraternity house. Another example examines why flyers criticizing the Israeli government for demolishing Palestinian homes is similarly an issue.

54:26So they're equating swastikas with criticizing the Israeli government policy of destroying Palestinian homes and stealing their land. They want you to believe that those two things are equivalent. A third raises concerns over a hypothetical charge that a sponsored Israel trip is pro-apartheid propaganda. They want you to believe all of those things are anti-Semitism. So this is Northwestern, but this is schools across the country are implementing this type of insane struggle session, quote unquote, anti-Semitism propaganda that they're force feeding to their students and their incoming freshmen in particular.

55:06And it's not only that, the number of schools, it's like 60 plus schools across the country that are being targeted right now by the Trump administration. And, you know, they've already extracted these multimillion dollar effectively like bribes from these colleges to get them to leave them alone. It doesn't work, too, by the way. I mean, Colombia paid them off and it still didn't work. They didn't leave them alone. You know, you have them taking over the Middle Eastern Studies Department, the federal government basically taking over an entire department of study. Let's put D6 up on the screen.

55:41Brown University, another one here. They struck a$50 million deal with the Trump administration over allegations of campus anti-Semitism. And Glenn Greenwald has been going to war with Stephen Miller over this all-out assault on free speech, specifically on college campuses. Let's go ahead and take a listen. This is D4, guys. Let's go ahead and take a listen to a little bit of what Glenn had to say. Here's what he said about my tweet. Quote, this is just patently false. We have officials working continuously to identify, revoke, or deny foreigners' visas who espouse hatred for America or its people.

56:16This is a top priority. college students who witness such contact can use the ICE tip line. So that's about whether they're deporting students who criticize Israel, and I'll get to that, but that's the thing I'm leaving aside. As for the issue about restricting the speech of American students and professors on campuses, he says, also there is no, quote, speech code of any kind in the Columbia deal. There is an ironclad requirement with enforcement mechanisms to admit students based on actual merit and not illegal racial quotas set aside our preferences. Yes, that is in the deal. But the Trump administration also cajoled and coerced Columbia to adopt the IHRA definition, which severely attacks the free speech rights of American students at Columbia and professors by outlawing that long list of views I just showed you.

57:09Sagar, I think it's interesting that Stephen Miller felt the need to respond to him on this Yeah, I wonder. Look, I don't know. I have no idea why. I mean, it probably is getting to him because he – Stephen previously led a large legal fund from during the Biden administration that would challenge similar like DEI codes. And look, I mean, that's why – I mean, I'm coming from a place I think of principle – like I genuinely oppose all of this DEI racial training. A lot of the reason why that it – we are where we are. I would say a huge reason why Trump is president today is because of the backlash, especially if you want to talk about the demographic that I think about a lot, which is like young men becoming right wing.

57:47This is a huge part of it. Dudes having to sit through this bullshit in college and in HR trainings and they're like, you know what? Fuck this. I'm done. And so this is just an extension of that. Now, one reason why I would say this is worse is I can't listen to people who have criticized the latter and then accept the former. So if I spend 10 years in a political project talking about we need equality above the law with no more affirmative action, no more special treatment, no more DEI, no more special group, in-group, you know, hatred, and then we flip it around and use it now, I just can't deal with it.

58:20Like from Ben Shapiro and all these other folks. You have to admit this is worse, though. I mean you – See, I just can't go there. But Sagar, hold on. Let me just make my case. Kidnapping a student off the street for an op-ed criticizing – I agree. Yeah, I mean, that's why there is a use of the government here that goes beyond anything we've seen before. I mean, the number of investigations, the outright bribes, the taking over of departments, the deporting people based on wrong think for a particular nation, the implementation of these like, you know, DEI policies just for their chosen groups at schools.

58:52I mean, when you put it all together, it is it is like you said, it is maybe what Ibram X. Kendi would have implemented, but he didn't. There was no anti-racism department. Like, it is the fever dream of that, but realized in this incredibly authoritarian manner across the board. You have the fucking HHS with an anti-Semitism tax task force. Like, you have to acknowledge this goes beyond anything we saw. It's complicated because I would say at a cultural level, like Me Too, BLM and all that. But in terms of government action. So it's complicated because it felt actually more oppressive at the time because it was in private employment and it was backed up at various levels by the Obama and the Biden administration, but it was not fully enshrined to law.

59:36So I will absolutely grant you that. This time it's almost the reverse. We're at a cultural level, like anti-Zionism or an anti-Israel position is like widespread and basically 70, 80 % popular. But the government is the one cracking. I'm not sure which is worse. They're both horrible and they're bad. But I mean, I think you're right that culturally they have tried to achieve a full-on cancel culture. and because it's just been such a backlash against it that they haven't been able to achieve. But I think back to, you know, the sponsoring of those trucks with the names of students who were protesters trying to cancel and make sure they could never be employed, you know, all of that.

1:00:12So, and certainly, you know, in Hollywood, there's been a big price to pay if you were willing to speak out, especially early on against Israeli actions. So in any case, but that's why I think if we focus on specific government actions, I think this goes far beyond. And Glenn, I believe, agrees with you. Yeah, no, look, he's right. Look, yes, it's true. No, you know, anti-BLM activist was ever deported by the Obama-Biden administration, okay? Like, no, I don't know, you know, the guy who raped Mattress Girl, yeah, go in and look into that story. He did not even, I think he was a German national.

1:00:45He was never kicked out of school. He was, well, no, I think he suffered. I don't think so. He got his med school acceptance revoked. It's, look, again, that's a cultural thing, right? And by the way, he's 100 % innocent, if everybody wants to. And that was at Columbia, by the way. I was at Columbia. Yes, exactly. Where Miss Mattress girl hauled her mattress. I don't know why I'm still so upset about this. But the reason she was continuing to be upset is because there wasn't action taken against him on campus. Okay, sure. But my point is just even 10 years later, it still scars me because that was like a widespread national story or whatever at the time.

1:01:15But you're right. There was never an effort by the Obama administration to come in and rewrite, you know, the kangaroo codes. I mean, there was some, at least at a Title IX level. They didn't take over any Columbia University departments. Nobody was getting fined for not fining this dude. Or, you know, I could go on forever. Rolling Stone or any of these other, you know, hoaxes that all happened in the past. But, yes, it's complicated because at a cultural level it achieved massive dominance, but it was never backed up at a government level. In fact, though, I think the reason why it's being backed here at a government level is because they don't have the cultural power.

1:01:48You know, if things were allowed to go in a private institution way, it would be very, very different. But anyway. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible, so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anyway too, right? What do you think it is now?

1:02:17It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves Boba. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Taro Reed. That's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. Yeah. I don't think she was in American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Then Mary Steenburgen. Why are you guys talking to me like, why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game?

1:03:00I just really am trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. If you know me, you know I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover those things together through meaningful conversations with fascinating people. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you.

1:03:42You have something in your guts. You go with it. And Shawn Johnson recalled the moment she realized her now husband, Andrew, was the one. He was just so unapologetically himself and knew nothing of Hollywood. He hadn't been on a plane before without his family. It was so pure. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:04:11Our town is small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything. What happens when a quiet Tennessee town becomes the front line in a battle over the future of America? Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land in the area. The first thing you see when it pops up is pioneers in Appalachia. But they weren't just planting houses. We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the Christian way of life. Stop right there. Is that normal? A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment.

1:04:48God need men to rule. Great. And decides to fight back. Do not use my hard work to sell your bull. They're not just opposing what's being planned for here. Our hometown is not a test tube. They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:05:17Let's get to Tim Dillon now. We can always look at him for some relieving content here. One of the most tapped in and accurate podcasters of our generation. And here's what he has to say about the current political moment and about Barry Weiss's free press. potentially being valued at a quarter billion dollars. Let's take a listen. The political fallout from this scandal, it would be monumental and it would affect some of the wealthiest people in the world and our relationships with different countries, namely Israel. I don't care how many, you know, Barry Weiss, whose company is, you know, sold now, he's going to sell to CBS for$3 trillion or something.

1:05:55Larry Ellison's son's buying the free press. You know, the very important free press blog that on Substack is worth$250 million. And I like Barry, but the free, you know, the one that gets like 7 ,500 views on YouTube, that powerhouse conglomerate media company is worth$250 million, by the way. So the Tim Dillon show is apparently worth a billion. Hello, Miriam. Where's my fucking money? $300 million, a quarter billion dollars for Barry Weiss's blog in which she interviewed megastar Ross Douthat from the New York Times about why conspiracies have taken the hold of the American mind. And Ross goes, well, you know, the thing about conspiracies is there is an element of truth.

1:06:49Not in this one. There's not an element of truth. It's that it's all truth. It's like, oh, the grift is to go against Israel. It's like, clearly not. The grift is a quarter million dollars for the blog, for your blog. By the way, God bless. Nice woman, sweet, charming woman. Her and her wife, lovely people, no issue with them directly at all. They don't like me anymore, which is fine because, again, you're on the team or you're not on the team. You criticize one thing, I mean, you're off the team. But apparently the brand equity, and by brand equity means I'm willing to argue for shooting Palestinian toddlers in the face.

1:07:34That's the brand equity of 250 sticks. You shoot toddler in his face. Thank you. 303. Thank you very much. That was very good. And 300 million for you. I mean, when he's right, he's right. That's so good. That's so good. When he's right, he's right. Let's put this up there on the screen. This is from Lachlan Cartwright. It's from his newsletter. I just thought he did a phenomenal job here. So I'm going to read here a quote. It is not worth, he's talking about the free press, anywhere near the valuation Weiss and Berman have been claiming. According to two people familiar with the matter, there are a number of factors that should give any potential suitor pause.

1:08:09The former New York Times journalist is known for overspending. She has splashed cash on spacious office, overpaid to lure marquee names. The publication pays freelance writers$2 a word. They currently have 50 people on staff. Big name hires, many of others have departed. Meanwhile, the Free Press Signature podcast honestly lingers at number 31 in society and culture. 31. I shouldn't chart shame, but when we're trying to sell for a quarter billion, maybe I should. 31st in society and culture. Quote, drawing marginal revenue, the Free Press events such as monthly book clubs and debate series have failed to generate meaningful profits that only leave subscription part of Barry Weiss's business that is subject to churn.

1:08:50Then there is the reputational risk and he continues. So that's just at a pure business level. It's an open question to me whether they even. Whether those sub numbers are even real. Well, and also, I mean, what do they say the sub numbers are? It was like 155 ,000. I don't believe that. I don't believe it. But anyway, yeah. I mean, okay. So you go to their, now they do have their blog. They have other things going on. You go to their YouTube page, 331 ,000 subscribers. So we have roughly five times their number of subscribers at this point. Holy shit. Roughly five times. Okay. That aforementioned from Tim Dillon interview with Ross Douthat, which Ross really catching some straights there.

1:09:26Yeah, by the way, Ross is great. All right? Leave Ross alone. We love Ross. I want to have Ross back on the show, actually. Obviously, I have disagreements. I love Ross. That's awful guy. Anyway, on, okay, here's the headline here. Jeffrey Epstein and Conspiracy America. Epstein, hot topic online, right? Surely going to do some numbers. Yeah. 17 ,000. Woof. 17 ,000 views. the debate that they just put out between Eli Lake and Josh Hammer on Russiagate, 5 ,000 views. Wow. Okay, these are the metrics for a company that apparently is getting a valuation of 200. I mean, it's just absolutely insane.

1:10:06So, I mean, you were making the point before. Maybe we should celebrate this because what does this mean that we're worth? I was gonna say, in some ways, I want this to happen because it means I'm a centimillionaire on paper, okay? But no, look, it's all bullshit. This is ridiculous. Totally insane. And I'm not sitting here claiming to be number one. You know, there are a lot of big political YouTube channels out there that are way bigger. But I'm not sitting around trying to get quarter billion dollars out of Larry Ellison's son either, okay? So that's my point. The reason Tim Dillon's sketch hits so hard is because he's right.

1:10:34The whole value comes from her willingness to put an intellectual sheen on absolute monstrosities. That's what it is. It's in writing that Dylan Byers, who's, again, I know this may seem tedious, but this is important for all you guys to understand, that there are people like us. Listen, Tim Pool's not out there asking for a quarter billion dollars, all right? And he gets 15 times the number of views. He has more views than we do. PBD, any of these other folks. None of these folks are out there. You can think whatever you want about them, but they're running their own businesses, and they're not out there trying to be bought for billions and billions or whatever.

1:11:08And the point, though, in the Barry Weiss case is that it is entirely an intellectual sheen on pro-Israel and pro-Zionism. If you read about it, David Ellison and others are genuinely only want to buy the free press to support Israel. That's it. They want to support and put – what's her name? Barry on the CBS news board as an ombudsman. Budsman. Yeah. So she's going to fill the role as the TikTok IDF lady. Yes, as the censor. Same thing, but for CBS. Do you know why this is crazy? Do you know why this is crazy? This is a network television, like granted license from the government. CBS this news morning, like when you don't even have cable, this is network TV.

1:11:54CBS 60 Minutes, all of these legacy brands and all this would fall under her burden. That's why it's nuts. And CBS has already been the knee in a number of really significant ways. You know, they trimmed the sales of 60 Minutes because 60 Minutes was doing good reporting on Trump, but also specifically on Israel-Palestine that they didn't like. You had their longtime executive producer leave under duress. There's the Stephen Colbert situation, which, you know, I do think that that was a stop to the Trump administration. And I mean, it's both. I think it's both. It's a shitty show. Like, it's all of that.

1:12:25But I do think that was a stop to the Trump administration. You had CBS also settle a lawsuit, basically paying a bribe to the Trump administration. They want their freaking merger to go through. And this is why I think the Colbert thing was in part political, because right after that happens, then lo and behold, oh, they're getting approval for their big merger or whatever. So the government has said they're going to install like a bias monitor at CBS. And I guess Barry can be part of that team. So congratulations to her. It's just absolutely extraordinary. It does go back to what you're saying about how Israel realizes this is their moment, that they have lost the, you know, anybody under 40 in America, They have lost and they have, you know, completely outside of America and they've completely isolated themselves globally.

1:13:08Now is their moment. And so they are going for it. And part of going for it is this sort of like pushing of bias monitors at TikTok and at major network news with Barry Weiss being a significant part of that. And it's it is wild to see. Yep, that's right. All right. We've got Jasper standing by. Let's get to it. So I wanted to update you guys on an important development with regard to the veracity of the story of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation whistleblower, Anthony Aguilar, former Green Beret, who spoke with us last week. So a key part of his testimony was about a child named Amir, who he saw at one of the aid distribution sites.

1:13:47And Amir really struck a chord with him because he approached him after having scrounged some meager rations off of the ground. and he wanted to say thank you to him in English. Aguilar said that he grabbed his face and kissed his hands in gratitude for these meager rations that he was able to literally scrounge off the ground. And then shortly thereafter, the IDF fired, as they typically do, on Palestinians who were leaving the aid site and Aguilar saw Amir dead on the ground, having been killed by the IDF. So the GHF has put out a number of statements trying to call into question Anthony's testimony and specifically about Amir.

1:14:30They put on a photo of what appeared to be a completely different child on a different day and say, oh, here is Amir. He was fine. Here he is being happy. Well, we now have an update from a Middle East guy who were able to actually track down the family of Amir and to try to discover, OK, well, is he fine? Is he there in your care? Or what happened to him? We can put this up on the screen. They were able to identify the family, and the family says that he is missing. They have searched for him extensively. They've looked in all the hospitals. They've looked in all the morgues. They've gone to humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross.

1:15:04They have found absolutely no trace of him. The last time anyone has seen him alive is as pictured in those photos that Anthony Aguilar took. So really lending credibility to his story here. And, you know, obviously an absolute horror that this child was in all likelihood murdered. And then God even knows what has happened to his body. So in addition to that update, we wanted to bring in Jasper Nathaniel, who's a fantastic journalist. He writes over at Infinite Jazz on Substack. And he's been tracking really closely a lot of developments with regard to Israel, Gaza, and specifically the West Bank, which we want to get to in a moment.

1:15:46But first of all, just welcome, Jasper. Great to see you. Good to see you, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So you have a piece up at DropSite, which really fits hand in glove with the story about Amir and what's happening at these GHF sites. We can put this up on the screen where you dig into the way that this is really an information warfare and PR op. This has really nothing to do with aid distribution at all, which, you know, anyone who watches the show probably already knows that these are death traps where Palestinians, starving Palestinians are lured in and then indiscriminately shot on the way in and on the way out.

1:16:22But what specifically did you discover about the way that GHF operates? Yeah, I think that the big picture thing to keep in mind is that humanitarian work is a technical discipline. People go to school for a long time to study it. Obviously, there's a science to famine and famine relief. And people who run humanitarian organizations have a set of guidelines based on this and ethical guidelines as well that are meant to prioritize the people who need the aid and the relief. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, simply put, does not have any experts in humanitarian aid as part of it. It is run by basically mercenaries, intelligence operatives, ex-CIA people.

1:17:16And the most generous reading, I would say, if we assume that it was not actually meant to be killing hundreds and hundreds of people every week and starving the entire Gaza Strip, The most generous reading would be that it's an intelligence gathering operation. But it's just simply not there to feed the people. Because if it was, if it was, they would have experts in humanitarian relief working for it. But they just don't. So that's the sort of high level, I would say. So furthermore that we want to get with you, Jasper, just kind of going down this road, is what's going on in the West Bank. Can we put F3, please, up on the screen?

1:17:55This is something that you've been writing about for now quite some time. Quote, the annexation of the West Bank is complete with eyes on Gaza. Israel has quietly annexed the West Bank. We have covered the vote in the Israeli Knesset about this. But give us some of the concrete stuff that you point to that shows the actual annexation at a political and law enforcement level. So the military occupation of the West Bank is it's an actual legal designation that that is aligned with international law based on the Geneva Convention and Hague. And there are laws that the military occupation nominally has to adhere to.

1:18:35And the laws effectively say everything that's done as part of the military occupation has to be in the best interest of the occupied people. And nothing can be designed to, you know, put roots in the ground by the occupiers. Now, I don't want to give off the impression that the military occupation was, you know, is benevolent or is anything other than just cruel and barbaric. said that, it did in a weird way provide sort of insulation between the occupied people and the settler movement, which is ideological and messianic and wants nothing more than to just take over the territory. So what I mean by that is take somebody like Smotrich, the finance minister.

1:19:24Smotrich grew up in a settlement. He lives in a settlement today. He was not that long ago, one of the people that you see running around the hills in a mask, throwing rocks, setting fires to Palestinian villages. And now he is the finance minister. So when he came into power in February at the end of or in the beginning of 2023, he made a deal with the defense secretary, Yoav Gallant. And what that deal did was he installed himself inside the defense department, Smotrich did. And then he built what is effectively a shadow government inside the Defense Department made up entirely of people with his same ideology, with settlers.

1:20:05And they basically rerouted every decision that the military occupation made to this new civilian chain of command. And in doing that, they've been able to get rid of every single potential obstacle or hurdle on building settlements, on demolishing Palestinian villages. And again, it's not to say that the military had the best interests of the Palestinian people in mind, but they were on an ideological level, more concerned with keeping order and brutalizing the people, I would say, as opposed to the settlers who have just a sort of pure messianic vision of claiming Judea and Samaria on its own.

1:20:45So all that said, already well before October 7th, there was a fundamental change in the way the West Bank is governed that allowed settlement building to just run wild. And then October 7th happens, and Smotrich, I think it's fair to say, immediately recognizes an opportunity to frame everything that they're doing as security. So he starts conflating the Palestinian Authority with Hamas. He starts really doubling down on this idea that settlers have been pushing for a long time, that the West Bank or the settlers in the West Bank are Israel's bulletproof vests who are protecting Israel proper from all the supposed barbarians east of the Green Line.

1:21:30Settlers love to say, oh, October 7th never could have happened from here because we would have stopped it. And so it goes from just being, you know, they cleared all the bureaucratic hurdles to be able to build settlements. Now they have this idea of security on their side. Part of that also is actually telling the police and the IDF to stop enforcing laws on settlers. So settlers are now allowed to build illegal outposts anywhere they want. They are virtually never arrested when they do these pogroms and terrorize people. Literally today, there is a video of Yenon Levy, the settler who shot a Palestinian activist dead one week ago.

1:22:12He's back in the village today. He's in Umar Qayr today, continuing to build the settlement, continuing to terrorize the people. I'm not so sure that would have happened two years ago. And again, I can't emphasize enough, like things were not good two years ago, but now just all the rules are gone. Let me read a little bit from your piece because I think it's extraordinary. You say, Annexation is for all intents and purposes complete. Since Trump's reelection reportedly bankrolled in part by a$100 million donation from Miriam Adelson in exchange for backing annexation, Smotrich has grown more confident, calling 2025 the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.

1:22:55He's built a close relationship with U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who once said there was no such thing as a Palestinian. And Smotrich has declared they are now raising the flag of building and settling rather than hiding and apologizing. So when you say annexation is for all intents and purposes complete, what specifically do you mean by that? So the green line that ostensibly separates Israel from the occupied West Bank, that separation, there's a wall, of course, but also the separation is that there are laws in Israel that apply to Israel that legally cannot apply to the West Bank because it's not part of Israel proper.

1:23:37There have been a series of policy initiatives that have flown right through the Knesset that have taken the laws in Israel and applied them to the West Bank. And so in doing that, if you take all the laws of Israel and apply them to the occupied territory, if you take all the restrictions off of settlers from being able to build wherever they want, from being able to demolish wherever they want, at a certain point, what exactly is not Israel about this place? Right. And so I think that Smotrich, he doesn't use the word annexation, I've noticed. I think that he is aware that he doesn't need to say officially, we've annexed the West Bank to get everything he wants, which is full control over the West Bank.

1:24:28And an increasingly effective effort to basically ethnically cleanse the parts of the land that the settlers are encroaching on. And why does this matter in terms of what's happening in Gaza, you think? Well, I think that it matters on a moral and ethical level, of course. But also, I think it's worth saying that this idea of a Palestinian state or a two-state solution is really – it's built on the notion that there's a state in the West Bank for the Palestinians. And I think that the idea that that is the sort of practical thinking man's solution to the conflict, it's just as Palestinians lose any sovereignty or power that they have in the West Bank and Israel takes over more and more of it and Palestinians are confined into smaller and smaller Bantustans, it is just so obvious that there is no physical state that could be possible for the Palestinians to have there.

1:25:27So I think it matters on that sort of legal and diplomatic level. But it also, on a rhetorical level, let's say, it just completely wipes away the idea that what Israel is doing in Gaza is about eradicating Hamas. Because Hamas is not in the West Bank. You know, there may be a handful of operatives. But the West Bank, to the extent that it has militant groups, they are underground. They're not associated with the Palestinian Authority or with the government in any way. Most of the towns that the settlers are taking over, that soldiers are encroaching on, don't even have armed resistance. And so, you know, when they're bombing schools and hospitals and homes in Gaza and they're saying, oh, there was a Hamas operative there, they don't have that same excuse in the West Bank.

1:26:15And it just it brings into stark clarity this is about ethnic cleansing. There's simply no other justification for what they're doing there. Yeah, I mean, and quite the opposite. The PA have been, are basically collaborators. So, you know, they're supposed to be the moderates and they have basically done whatever the Israelis want them to do. And even that, then they get conflated as Hamas. Right. So the idea, you know, that's often offered of like, well, if the Palestinians just lay down their arms and try to negotiate. I mean, I think that is fundamentally disproven also by what is unfolding right now in the West Bank.

1:26:46I'd love your reflections on that, but also I wanted to get your reaction to, we covered earlier in the show, and I don't know if you've seen this yet, U.S. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, who is in Israel, became the highest ranking U.S. official, I believe, ever to visit one of these illegal settlements. What do you see as the significance of that? Yeah, I saw that just before I came on. He's at the Ariel settlement, which is in the north, what the settlers call Samaria. Well, the significance is that the Trump government, as they did in the first term, too, are just fully on board with annexing the West Bank.

1:27:22I mean, you said in the excerpt that you read that there was a$100 million donation that allegedly was in support of annexation. And Mike Johnson said something in his speech literally, you know, minutes or hours ago that I read where he said Judea and Samaria legally belongs to Israel. And I just want to say that it doesn't. Literally, it doesn't. There is no law in the world that would suggest, you know, what they call Judea and Samaria, which is the land of the West Bank, belongs to Israel. I mean, quite literally, it belongs to the Palestinians and Israel is just occupying it. So, you know, they have just like taken the mask off that they even care about a rules-based order.

1:28:13And, you know, they're just fully supportive of annexing the West Bank. I think, you know, for somebody like Mike Johnson or Mike Huckabee, these are evangelical Zionists who have, you know, their own messianic vision and prophecy for why they need all the Jews to return to Israel. It has nothing to do with actually caring about Jewish people. Certainly they don't care about Palestinian people. So it's just totally cynical. But frankly, the settlers will take any allies they can get, you know, especially those who are high up in the U.S. government. Well said, Jasper. Yeah. One last question for you, Jasper.

1:28:44There's a bit of a liberal fantasy here that, oh, if we just got this bad Netanyahu government out of here, then, you know, things could return to, quote unquote, normal, whatever that was in Israel. And with regard to the Israeli-American relationship, you know, what are your rules? reflections on that? Well, just again, focusing on the West Bank, because I think it's a good example of where the October 7th can't be used as an excuse. I just wrote a piece of my substack yesterday called the violent settlers are just doing their job. And what I mean by that is every single part of Israel's institutions, from the federal government to the courts, to the sort of various political entities, to the just general support or apathy from the population, is supporting the settlers in what they're doing, in their ethnic cleansing, in their violence, in their killing.

1:29:36And so, you know, if you want to say that it is just Netanyahu, then you would have to also acknowledge, well, then Netanyahu's ideology has completely swept through every single institution that matters in Israel. But of course, it's not just Netanyahu. I mean, this is much more deeply ingrained in people who just have utterly dehumanized Palestine, Palestinians. And it's alarming that anybody would even suggest that the settlement movement is fringe anymore, because the movement is actually central to the Zionist project. and the proof is in the pudding. I mean, it's not very hard to see how that movement, that violent movement has support across the board.

1:30:25Yeah, I totally agree with you. Jasper, tell people where they can find your work and where they can support you. Yeah, thank you. My sub stack is just infinite jazz, just one Z, J-A-Z. And then I see you smiling. I can, you know. I get the reference. Yeah, it's a good reference. My Twitter is also infinite jazz with two underscores. And I think on Instagram, InfiniteJazz1 underscore. Also, you could just search Jasmine Nathaniel. You should be able to find my work. But we'll put the links in the description as well for people. OK, great. Thank you so much for bringing attention to the West Bank, because it's just it's criminally undercovered in the mainstream media.

1:31:00And it's so important to talk about what's happening. Yeah, I think it really does create the full picture, even under these questions of genocide, when you see, you know, oh, it's not just what's going on in the Gaza Strip where you've got the but Hamas excuse. This is an across the board policy. So thank you for helping us to connect those dots, Jasper. Great to see you. Good to see you, man. Yeah, thanks for having me. Take care. Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate you. Ryan and I will be on tomorrow. See you then.

1:31:35I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clemens. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode, we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers.

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