“MEANINGLESS Declaration!” State of Palestine Recognized By UK | Mike Huckabee vs Husam Zomlot

0:00Get a map out and show me where the boundaries of this Palestinian state would be. Many people think that the two-state solution is a Palestinian demand. Wrong. Do you know that the 1967 borders is 22 % of the historic Palestine?

0:16Piers Morgan:Was it advisable to categorize the relationship between the United States and Israel as like a marriage? That was not an allegory. It was an analogy. It is a story to make a point. Israel is not just a bunch of allies or a friend. It is, in fact, a very close partner. Even if your partner misbehaves, it is your responsibility. Israel would not be able to do anything without the U.S. direct. Never again we should allow our children to be slaughtered in front of the world like this. Tire families wiped out. Men executed in front of their families. Entire neighborhoods wiped out every day. You tell your partner, cool down, come down.

0:56Piers Morgan:The UN is a pointless talking shop of wasted potential which does nothing to end wars, at least according to Donald Trump. The president's barbarous hour-long speech was perhaps deliberately a powerful antidote to what many around the world see as a hugely significant week for the United Nations. Britain's decision to formally recognise Palestine as a sovereign state at this week's General Assembly is the most historic. The UK once ruled Palestine under mandate from the UN's predecessor. It was the first to commit to making it a state for the Jewish people. Now it says it's a state for the Palestinians too, recognized under law.

1:31Piers Morgan:Well, Israel's responded with fury and indignation. Shortly, I'll speak to the Palestinian ambassadors to the UK. We'll begin with Ambassador Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel. Ambassador, thank you for coming back to Uncensored. I appreciate it. Thank you, Pierce. Great to be back with you. First question right off the top, your reaction to so many countries, led by the UK, but France, Canada, Australia, 160 states in total now, recognising a Palestinian state. We're disappointed as a United States in our allies, people that we are great friends with, because, first of all, it's a violation of the Oslo Accords.

2:12That's problematic. But more importantly, it has had the opposite effect of what I think they wanted to see happen. The first thing that happened, as Secretary Rubio has repeatedly pointed out, it just ended negotiations with Hamas. That froze absolutely stone cold. The second thing, we've been desperately trying to work some resolve to the impasse between a financial crisis between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. There are some issues that are very harmful to the Palestinian Authority. Quite frankly, it's not good for anyone. Uh, remittance money should go back to the PA, but there's some unresolved issues.

2:52We were making progress and I've been going back and forth between Ramallah and Jerusalem, trying to work on it. When this happened, that ended the discussion and we're back to zero on that. And the third thing, uh, that, that happened is that it is emboldened Israel to start talking about declaring sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria. So all of those things I don't think were the intended consequences of the decision by countries like France and the UK to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state, but that's the result of it.

3:28Piers Morgan:I mean, there's something you haven't mentioned there, which I think is also highly significant, which is Israel's attack on Doha. Now, Qatar is an American ally. It is the home of the biggest American base in the Middle East, 10 ,000 or more servicemen and women there. Surely, as the ambassador, you must have been outraged by what Israel did there to one of your allies. I don't know that I would say that the US was outraged. We knew just barely in advance of it. That notification was given to the White House. But as the Prime Minister of Israel made very clear, it was their decision and theirs alone.

4:09It was not something the US was a part of, did not participate in, did not know well enough in advance to really make an impact on it. It was a decision they made. And whether or not it was the best decision, time will tell.

4:24Piers Morgan:I mean, you talk about the negotiations with Hamas coming to a screeching halt because of the announcement of the state of Palestine being recognized by so many countries. But many would say that this attack in Doha, which was directly targeting the Hamas negotiators who were at that moment gathering to consider a proposal for a peace settlement, it failed. It didn't kill any of the people it was targeting. It killed, actually, a Qatari official, was one of those who died. So it was a failure as an attack. But even if it had been successful, how on earth would anyone expect peace negotiations to continue if the very people on one of the two sides are being attacked with a view to killing them all?

5:16Piers Morgan:That, to me, made absolutely no sense. And if you're on the Hamas side and you are charged with trying to negotiate any kind of settlement, surely that would be the moment you would shut up shop because, actually, if you're going to get killed, what's the point? Well, Pierce, let's go back and just remember, Hamas had already pretty much shut those negotiations down. They were pretending that they were open to things, but they really weren't. That's why Steve Witkoff left. It's why the secretary made his statements. It's why everything had chilled. Nothing was really moving. Hamas was making unreasonable demands that were never going to happen.

5:54The president gave them a pretty clear mandate. President Trump said, let all the hostages go, not some. Don't dribble them out. Let them all go. And you have to leave. You have to give up any hope that you're going to continue to rule Gaza, to have a future in it, because you're not. And that's been a pretty consistent message, even from the Arab League, who unanimously voted for exactly the same thing. So let's be clear who Hamas is. You know this to be true. Hamas is the murderous barbarians who butchered people on October the 7th. They continue to hold hostages. They continue to torture them.

6:34They torture their own people. They put them in harm's way knowingly and threaten and even, in fact, do shoot them if they try to get out of harm's way when Israel is announcing that they're going to hit a particular terrorist target. So these are not people that even on their best day negotiate in good faith or have any intention of doing something that is moral. They just are incapable of that. Right, but is deliberately targeting the negotiators on the Hamas side

7:04Piers Morgan:with a view to killing them as they're considering a proposal, is that acting in good faith? I mean, surely that is not acting in good faith. And America, of all countries in the world, given it happened in the country that is one of their allies, you could argue their biggest ally, given the presence of so many American military there, surely America must have been... You said you had no forward knowledge. OK, but once you knew what they'd done, surely the United States, somebody, somewhere, you or Donald Trump or somebody, would have got on the phone to Netanyahu and said, what the hell are you playing at?

7:43I want to repeat, prime minister said it was their decision. They did what they thought would be instrumental in getting rid of some of the people of Hamas who are still making the big decisions. That's been problematic for this entire process. But Israel is trying to find a way to bring this to a conclusion. For 22 months now, plus, they've had hostages being held. We still have two Americans being held. They're deceased, but their families want their remains back. And Hamas has not budged. They really have not been serious about coming to any reasonable way to end this because they don't want it to end.

8:22If they let all the hostages go, there's nothing left holding them to any point of power. And that's where this situation has devolved. Whether Israel made a good decision, whether or not it was successful, one for the history books. But I know that the U.S. has had the position that we have respect for a sovereign country, Israel, who is our ally, our partner, and we recognise they're going to do what they think will help them get those hostages, all of them, out of Gaza and out from under the clutches of the monsters of Hamas.

8:57Piers Morgan:Well, look, to be crystal clear, obviously, I believe fervently the hostages should all be released. It's outrageous that they haven't been. And I view Hamas as a despicable terror group and the fact they won't release hostages reaffirms my view. Not that I needed it reaffirmed after October 7th. But given what is going on now in Gaza City, how comfortable are you, Ambassador? Overnight reported Israel killed 22 more people, including nine children, in strikes on Gaza City. A total of 51 people killed across Gaza today, according to the Hamas-run Health Authority, and I accept that you will doubtless quibble with their numbers, but we do know from the sheer scale of attacks going on there, it is highly probable that these casualty numbers are pretty accurate.

9:47Piers Morgan:It seems to me that Netanyahu and his government have taken a view of just levelling as much of Gaza as they can, rendering it uninhabitable, with a view to what Smodrich and Ben Giver and these very hard-right members of that cabinet keep saying publicly, which is that the war aim is no longer just about trying to defeat Hamas, which they failed to do, or release the hostages, which they failed to do. The new war aim is actually to dispel Palestinians from Gaza completely. And they've been brazen about this. And that, to me, as somebody who supported Israel's right to defend itself, in fact said it was their duty.

10:27Piers Morgan:And I said that for many, many months. But I can't sit back and in all good conscience say, when people are openly talking about ethnic cleansing, which is a war crime, that this should not be happening. Can you defend it? Well, let me dispute the idea that it's ethnic cleansing. I don't think that that is the goal. This could have ended October the 8th of 2023, as we both know. It should have ended then. This should not have gone on as long. Israel has tried pretty much everything. They've gone soft. They've gone hard. They've done ceasefires. They have done massive amounts of humanitarian food poured into Gaza more than has ever been poured into a country in the midst of a war.

11:11No one's ever seen this level of humanitarian aid. Now, most of it doesn't get to the people who need it because Hamas steals it, sells it, makes money off of it. So it's been a train wreck in that regard. I would also dispute the figures because it's such an unreliable source when we depend upon Hamas to give us the numbers of what's happening. But I would concede there's absolutely suffering going on in Gaza. There's deprivation. There's all kinds of horrific things happening. And if Hamas had even a tinge of conscience, they would just decide that there's no future for them and there's no future for the people as long as they continue to stay.

11:52let the hostages go, end this war. They've been offered exile. That's a pretty generous offer. And I don't believe that it is the intention of the Israelis. You may have mentioned a couple of people, but I can tell you that it is not the intention of the current government to force displacement from people. They have said repeatedly, it's certainly the position of our president, that nobody should be forced to leave Gaza. People should be given a choice if they wish to leave, but nobody should be forced out of Gaza if they wish to stay.

12:24Piers Morgan:Where will they live if the place is literally obliterated? It's going to be a very challenging environment. Most of it is rubble. It's going to require an enormous level of temporary housing. But there have been other situations around the globe following a war when people were able to live through what is the aftermath and a complete mess. But when I was in Gaza and talked to people there, most of them said they wanted to stay. But what they did not want was Hamas having anything to do with the future. Every single person I spoke with had had a family member who had been murdered by Hamas, someone in their family.

13:05So there's no love there. And in fact, if anything, there is utter contempt for what they've been through. They don't blame the U.S. Interestingly, they didn't hate the IDF. I would have expected them to. but their contempt for Hamas was palpable.

13:22Piers Morgan:Do you believe in the idea of a two-state solution, ultimately? You know, I think it depends on where the two states are going to be. You know, let's go back to 1948 when the British mandate was first divided. And at that time, Jordan had control of most all of what we now call the West Bank or Judea and Samaria. They had most of Jerusalem. They had pretty much all of that land in the Jordan Valley, west of the Jordan, up into Jerusalem. Israel had a tiny little sliver. Here's my question. If a Palestinian state was the goal, how come they didn't put one there in the 20 years that they had to do it?

14:05And in 2000, I mean, let's go back to when Bill Clinton was negotiating, and Ehud Barak was the prime minister of Israel, offered Yasser Arafat 96 percent, 96 percent of the territory. And he walked away from it and said, no, that's not enough. So it's interesting that we keep hearing as if it's Israel's fault, there's not a two-state. But the truth is, the Palestinians have not taken advantage of what has been offered to them in the past. And now the question would be, get a map out and show me where the boundaries of this Palestinian state would be. In what part of all of Judea and Samaria is it going to cover?

14:53And how is it going to be marked off and how will it provide security that the Israelis can feel comfortable about, especially after what they've been through with October 7th and the barrages of attack from Iranian proxies, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

15:08Piers Morgan:So taking your view of it, you've just articulated, what would you find acceptable as a two-state solution? I don't know that I have a solution for it. I mean, there have been iterations that have been offered, but I'm not seeing one that is practical based on the current political climate. I think there are going to have to be some serious discussions as to will there be a complete end to what most Western countries call pay for slave. In the PA, it's called the Martyrs and Prisoners Fund. But you can't continue to fund terrorists and give them rewards for carrying out terrorist acts that kill people.

15:52You can't have a curriculum in schools that incite violence against people who are in Israel. Those are things that have to be dealt with. There just must be some definite, complete changes in the way that people look at each other. I'd love to see there be a solution that everybody is happy with, could live with, and people live in peace. But it's not something that can be arbitrarily apportioned because some people aspire to it. It will require some serious heavy lifting. And quite frankly, it's going to take some creative thinking as to how do you do this in a secure way so that people are not going to be under the threat of another October 7th.

16:38Piers Morgan:But it sounds to me that you're not 100 % opposed to the concept of a Palestinian state. Well, what I'm not opposed to is people living together in peace. There are a lot of people who... No, I understand that, but I'm talking more about the principle of a Palestinian state. Because, I mean, I found it interesting that you haven't just ruled that out, because obviously what the UK and other countries have been saying this week is they want to establish the starting block for a Palestinian state. And you're not saying that can never happen. So is there not a meeting here of mind where actually if the conditions are correct, then you would support it?

17:20Well, it's not my place to do it. I'm an ambassador. I don't get to make the policy. I carry it out. I tell people I'm not the chemist making the medicine. I'm the pharmacist that gets to dispense it. It'll be President Trump's decision on what our policy is. But here's what I can say emphatically, because this is the U.S. position. This move to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state, and Pierce, that's a little different than simply saying there ought to be one. These European countries, and also Canada, Australia, and others, are just saying, we're going to acknowledge and declare a Palestinian state.

17:56Well, you just can't do that. That's a violation of international law. It's a violation of the Oslo Accords. To do that without bringing Israel into that discussion and participation is only making things less likely to ever have a Palestinian state. So if the goal is to have one, I'll tell you, these European countries have gone about it in the polar opposite way of it being effective.

18:20Piers Morgan:What's your message for the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, who led the charge this week? I would say to him, it's probably best if you said maybe we were premature with this. Let's work toward a better picture of first getting the hostages out. Let's put our focus on all hostages coming out, resolving the war in Gaza, and then let's talk about the future, both in Gaza as well as in Judea and Samaria. That's what I would say to them. I think they jumped the gun way ahead of themselves and it really has created an additional problem that nobody, and I mean nobody, needed right now while we still have hostages that are being tortured by these monsters in Gaza.

19:04Piers Morgan:Finally, Ambassador, I want to play a clip of you talking about Israel as being the wife of the United States. It's gone viral, as you know. Let's take a look. This is a nation that is the most resilient I've ever seen on earth. It may sound a little bit this afternoon as if I'm almost speaking on behalf of Israel rather than the U.S., but I want to explain that part of my advocacy in our relationship is because if you came to my house tonight for dinner and you came in and you said, oh, Mike, we like you. We really think the world of you. We just enjoy being with you. I'm so excited to be here with you and have dinner with you.

19:46But your wife, we can't stand her. We don't like her a bit. I hope she's not going to be at the table. I would say, well, she will be. You won't be. Get out.

20:01Piers Morgan:Because if you were to insult my partner, you have insulted me. I guess my question about that, because it has gone viral, is, was it advisable to basically categorise the relationship between the United States and Israel as like a marriage? Well, first of all, let's be clear. You're a smart guy, Pierce. You know a lot about literary devices. That was not an allegory. It was an analogy. In other words, it is a story to make a point, which is exactly what I did. I think it's a very valid analogy. It would be a terrible allegory. But as an analogy, it's illustrative and it works because my point is simple.

20:46Israel is not just one of a bunch of allies or a friend. It is, in fact, a very close partner. We have a unique relationship with Israel in intelligence, military, civilization, technology, agriculture, energy. It goes on and on. My point is that when people are hypercritical of Israel, they're hypercritical of our partner that the U.S. has decided that is a very important partner to us. So we don't take it lightly that someone is condemning and calling our partner genocidal or running an apartheid state or guilty of war crimes. And that's why some of the actions that you've seen this administration under President Trump take have been pretty strong.

21:32I can't imagine how they could be any stronger. Why have we taken that? For exactly the reason that I spelled out in the analogy. It's because you insult our partner, you're insulting us.

21:45Piers Morgan:And finally, I'm about to speak to Hussam Zomlot. He's the Palestinian ambassador to the UK. He's been listening to our interview. What message do you have for him? Well, I say I hope that we can see some resolution on the financial impasse. I'd love to see that payments toward those who have committed acts of terror would not just cease in name, but in practice, and that there would be a full-throated denunciation of it and a full-throated demand for all hostages to be released and Hamas to be let go. And then I would say, call upon the European friends, those who have decided to stand with you for a declaration of a Palestinian state, and tell them you appreciate it, and that there may come a day in which you will really wish that to happen.

22:34But right now may not be the best time, and it cannot happen unless Israel is involved in those discussions, as per Oslo. So let's hold off on making a declaration, which is frankly meaningless. It does not have substance. It's symbolic. And let's work toward real solutions that give everybody a better future, because right now they're suffering in the Palestinian Authority. My visits there, not only with government officials, but also with business people, it's a dire situation. 39 percent unemployment, people not getting paid. The U.S. doesn't want to see the PA collapse financially. it's not in anyone's good and best interest.

23:14So that would be my message.

23:16Piers Morgan:Is it a mistake, you mentioned the PA, not to allow the head of the PA into the United States to be at the UN this week? I think it was the right decision, and it was one the president made, and the secretary obviously affirmed. And the reason was it was because this is a runaway train with all the European nations, including the UK and France and others, who are just going against everyone's best advice from the U.S. and Israel and saying this is not a right moment. You need to be putting pressure not on Israel. You need to be putting the pressure on Hamas. Let's end what's going on in Gaza for everyone's sake.