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- [00:04]
Dan Sinor
You are listening to an art media podcast.
- [00:13]
Deborah Pardes
It's Wednesday, july 22nd. This episode was recorded at 7pm new york time on Tuesday. I'm deborah pardes, and this is arc news daily. The Trump administration is facing two fronts in the Iran war, the external one against Iran and the internal one where the US Appears to be losing support to continue the strikes. On the domestic front. This is what a hearing in the Senate sounded like yesterday afternoon.
- [00:45]
Pete Hegseth
The supplemental funding request is not a substitute Palestine.
- [00:49]
Deborah Pardes
This is illegal. Mr. Secretary, please don't want this. Suspend until order is restored. In the hearing room, protesters interrupted Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's testimony before the Senate multiple times and held up signs that read, no war on Iran. 90 million people. Your hands are bloody. One protester was heard yelling, your hands are bloody. The hearing continued after all four protesters were escorted out by the Capitol Police. Then Hegseth was asked about the cost of the war.
- [01:26]
Pete Hegseth
Senator, the estimate we have as of today is 37.5.
- [01:31]
Deborah Pardes
That's about 12 billion more than the estimate he gave in late April, and it comes despite a record $1 trillion defense budget passed by Congress earlier this year. He stressed that $37 billion figure includes projected costs through September, and noted that military training would need to be reduced without an urgent budget supplement. Senators also grilled Heseth on the broader strategy in the war, which has continued to escalate over the past nearly. The US And Iran continue to trade attacks, and the damage is spreading throughout the Gulf. Trump's latest threat is to hit the nuclear facility buried deep underneath Pickaxe Mountain, which he said would happen soon and would happen, quote, very heavily. Hexseth was asked about that directly in the hearing yesterday by Republican Senator John Kennedy.
- [02:24]
Donald Trump
Do we have the ability to destroy whatever is underneath Pickaxe Mountain?
- [02:31]
Pete Hegseth
Senator, a lot of our capabilities are classified. But if anybody in the world can reach anything on this, on God's given, God's green earth, it's the United States military, the most powerful military in the world. It's all about options and trade offs.
- [02:42]
Deborah Pardes
As to how the facility would be taken out, it's not clear. Airstrikes alone are thought not to be enough, as it's carved into granite rock deep underground. So it means Iran can, if it wants to continue on its enrichment track, as long as it still has its stockpile to work with. Yesterday, for the first time in nearly two decades, a Lebanese president sat across from a US president in the Oval Office.
- [03:11]
Donald Trump
Mr. President, it's an honor having you. Thank you very much. No thank you. Thank you. I've been looking forward to this visit for a long time. Thank you. Meeting such a great president like yourself, that's a very nice thing. See, he knows how to get to me.
- [03:24]
Deborah Pardes
According to a US official who spoke to the Saudi media, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with Trump to discuss a formal plan to disarm Hezbollah and strengthen the Lebanese army, but only if Israel withdraws completely from the south of his land. The first test phase of that withdrawal started Monday, where Israeli troops began to leave two so called pilot zones and Lebanese soldiers moved in behind them as planned. But a separate incident yesterday showed how tense the situation remains. Lebanese soldiers crossed into Israel's larger buffer zone, which went against the two armies agreement. The IDF said its troops fired warning shots into the air. No one was hurt, and the Lebanese soldiers pulled back. Trump was non committal on how he could support the withdrawal, but said he would look into the incident. Of course, Hezbollah remains at the core of the dispute. They've refused to disarm and keep threatening Israel. Trump was asked whether he would hold direct talks with them and he said this.
- [04:30]
Donald Trump
I would speak to Hezbollah. I, to everybody. I'll speak to people that a lot of people think I shouldn't be speaking to and things work out.
- [04:36]
Deborah Pardes
Trump added, he'd only do it if the Lebanese president asked him to.
- [04:40]
Donald Trump
If the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, you know, he's lived with Hezbollah for a long time.
- [04:45]
Deborah Pardes
The US itself designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It's backed by Iran, and no sitting president has publicly entertained direct contact with the group. We'll see if Trump follows through. But one thing he did do is promise to authorize US Airlines to fly direct Lebanon for the first time since Washington suspended the route in 1985. Writing on truth Social, he said that it was so that Americans can easily visit this beautiful land. Tonight marks the start of Tisha Baav, the day the Jewish people commemorate the destruction of both temples. They're believed to have fallen on the same day, years apart. Hence Tisha Baav, which literally means the ninth day of Av in the Jewish calendar. The Babylonian army burned the city of Jerusalem when it destroyed king Solomon's Temple 2,600 years ago. But thanks to research and hard archaeological work, today we can still see new remains of the city. In a video about a new discovery, Dr. Johan Oregev from the Israel Antiquities Authority said, it makes you feel that you are witnessing the very moment of destruction, the moment when it all happened. The dig site is at the city of David national park just outside the Old City walls, where Regev and her team recently uncovered massive wooden beams. They once formed the roof of an inner courtyard in a building from the First Temple period, according to the excavation director, Efrath Bozer. Previous finds allowed researchers to date the objects within a few hundred years, but this one is different. Efrat says. The rings in the wood that survived the fire allow them to narrow that window to as little as 10 years and therefore to conclude they were burned during the destruction of the first temple in 586 BC. The wooden beams were miraculously preserved by plaster, which had melted off the walls and sealed the wood inside a protective casing that has survived for centuries. Even more striking, researchers believe that when the residents of Jerusalem returned after the destruction, they deliberately chose not to clear the ruins away, but to preserve and build on top of them. Professor Yuval Gadot from Tel Aviv University referred to it as a landscape of memory, which he a uniquely human quality, the attempt to remember and preserve what once existed. Just like the timing of this discovery days before Tisha Baav, He said, the calendar and the excavation have synchronized. Today you can see and feel the destruction of Jerusalem. I'm Deborah Pardes and this is ArkNews Daily. See you tomorrow.
- [08:11]
Dan Sinor
Hi, it's Dan Sinor. Israel is heading into one of its most consequential election, and this time the whole world is watching closely. Hot takes and daily noise are pretty much guaranteed to populate your media diet. But as with any election, there's a deeper story about identity, religion, democracy, and what kind of country Israelis want to live in. That's why ARC Media launched Israel Votes, a special initiative across Call Me Back For Heaven's Sake and Ark News Daily. You'll hear from the leading candidates shaping the race along with analysis and reporting from two of Israel's leading political analysts, ARC Media contributors Nadavael and Amit Sega. Join us for Israel Votes, your front row seat to the election that could define Israel's future. Go to arcmedia.org votes to watch and listen. See you there.