00:00I make an effort. I'm on the hill two days a week, two full days a week.
00:06Probably make it three.
00:07It's always, well, it's more than one.
00:11Fair enough.
00:12There are a few other things I've got to do as well.
00:15Fair.
00:15But I always make it a bipartisan visit.
00:21And I'm well aware, but we're not the only issue out there.
00:25You know, the Mamdani effect is not exactly, is something that the Democratic Party is dealing with other than Israel,
00:33right?
00:34Israel is part of a much larger social metamorphosis than what's going on.
00:43So that nevertheless is of tremendous concern.
00:47And we have had to contend with fallacious, libelous accusations over starvation and genocide.
00:58When the media pounds that daily and when podcasters shrug their shoulders and say genocide as if, you know, it's
01:06an accomplished fact.
01:08It's a proven fact.
01:09You know, prove you don't have a sister.
01:12Do you prove you don't have a sister?
01:13It takes a long time to prove you don't have a sister, if you can't at all.
01:18You know, go prove what the numbers in Gaza were.
01:21You know, go back and try to readdress all the issues we faced.
01:28You know, go and explain to someone that Gaza is an area with 24 miles long and 8 miles wide
01:36with 350 tunnels underneath that area.
01:40That no army in the world has ever had to contend with.
01:44And when I ask some of my colleagues on the Hill who are critical of our actions in Gaza, well,
01:50what would you do?
01:52Never got a clear answer.
01:53Would you like Hamas to remain standing?
01:55Oh, no, no, no.
01:56Well, how would you like to?
01:57What would you like to do exactly?
01:58When you have an enemy that is not only hiding, this is often told, they hide behind children and women.
02:09That's not the point.
02:12They maximalize the casualties of women and children.
02:16It's not that they're willing to have them die.
02:19It's that part of the asymmetric warfare is the maximalization of civilians.
02:25The trilateral deal that you signed almost two weeks ago here in Washington was the result of, I believe, five
02:31rounds of talks.
02:32That stretch that week lasted for four days.
02:35I'm wondering if you could take us inside those discussions a little bit.
02:38You know, what were the main points of contention?
02:41During the signing ceremony, you complimented your Lebanese counterpart that she fought like a lion.
02:48What led her to do that?
02:50Were there any points in which you were concerned that the talks may fall apart?
02:54Just take us into those discussions if you can.
02:57So, grade and was Ambassador Hamada a good sparring partner?
03:02I don't remember signing up for your course.
03:07But, look, the concern, as I said before, you're talking about the MOU between the United States and Iran.
03:14So, I certainly, it's beyond my pay grade to give a grade to something that the United States negotiates with
03:22Iran.
03:22I can tell you what our concern is.
03:25In other words, I belong to the part of the government that is much more sanguine about the MOU than
03:36those urging some degree of panic.
03:38I'm not urging panic because I think this is clearly an agreement to get the straits open.
03:43This is not an agreement to end the nuclear weaponization of Iran.
03:50And, basically, we have to wait and see what that looks like once it's done, whether it's 60 days or
03:5690 days or after the midterms, whoever it's going to be.
04:01And, I'm quite sure that the administration didn't go to war to go back into a situation where Iran has
04:13a pathway to, once again, try and produce nuclear weapons, to massively produce ballistic missiles.
04:23It's important to understand what these ballistic missiles are, particularly when you have a large number of them, because, together,
04:29they equal a nuclear weapon.
04:31If you can overwhelm the missile defense systems, it equals a nuclear bomb, okay?
04:38So, that's why we're so concerned about the proliferation of these ballistic missiles.
04:42They had a plan, after June, to produce 300 to 400 a month and to reach 8,000 in two
04:51years.
04:52Now, during the war, we were able to keep out close to 90% of those ballistic missiles.
04:59But a ballistic missile is, you know, something half the size of this room, packed with explosives traveling four times
05:05the speeds of sound.
05:06When that hits, it's like a small nuclear weapon.
05:08It can demolish a neighborhood.
05:10So, if you were to fire not 40 or 50 at the same time, but you were to fire 400
05:17and 500 at the same time, you'd overwhelm all of the missile defense systems.
05:22That's why we're so concerned about that.
05:23And, I can't imagine that any ultimate agreement with Iran would include a, would be absent a clause limiting the
05:30development of the ballistic missiles.
05:31And, of course, the president said, I was in the Oval.
05:34I was standing right next to him when he was asked by journalists as to whether or not any deal
05:40with Iran would have to curtail support for proxies.
05:42And he said, yes.
05:43So, certainly, you know, we're going to weigh in and say, Mr. President, it's not an easy time.
05:49Let me, let me say that.
05:51It's not an easy time to be constantly accused.
05:55Let me just say this one thing and be very personal.
05:58If we were guilty of the things that we are accused of, my son would be alive today.
06:04And hundreds of other soldiers would be alive today.
06:09Because we don't strife bomb population centers from above.
06:12And we don't starve population centers.
06:14And we don't commit genocide.
06:16And that big, bold blood libel of which the members of the elite media have participated in one day will
06:26have to stand in front of their God, whoever it may be, and say,
06:32what we did was nothing short of the accusations of the Middle Ages about Jews using Christian blood for their
06:41matzahs and poisoning wells and spreading disease.
06:45Nothing short of that.
06:47Just one big, bold blood libel.
06:49And the like or dislike for a particular minister in the government who may have acted completely, who acted irresponsibly,
07:00not may or may have not acted, who act irresponsibly,
07:04has absolutely nothing to do with the truth, with the veracity of what I'm saying.
07:09We're facing a modern blood libel.
07:12And we have to contend with it.
07:13We'll contend with it.
07:14And we'll come out of it stronger than before.
07:17I'm quite convinced of that.
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