Ralph welcomes back Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson to share his view of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense and to get his take on the military and political situation in the Middle East. Then, from Tel Aviv we are joined by Alon-Lee Green, co-director of the Israeli peace organization “Standing Together” a progressive grassroots movement based in Israel that organizes Jewish and Palestinian citizens against the occupation and the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S. Army colonel. Over his 31 years of service, Colonel Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, and Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. Colonel Wilkerson also served as Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia, and for fifteen years he was the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and co-founder of the All-Volunteer Force Forum.

The Pentagon is now led by one of the least-qualified persons ever to be Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. He was exposed by the Democrats and the media when he was going through the congressional-confirmation process as ignorant, belligerent, vengeful, a woman-abuser denounced by his own mother, and a financial mismanager of the two groups that he directed. He's now Secretary of Defense.

Ralph Nader

What I'd like to see Hegseth do is try his best to get Trump to help him refuse that money (the $150 billion that Congressional Republicans have proposed adding to the military budget). Gordon Adams—a man for whom I have a lot of respect, who was an OMB-type for a long, long time and knows more about the defense budget than probably anyone alive—said the truth the other day when he said: when Defense gets tons of money, it's polluted, weakened, and turns into a place that can't do its job. When it has periods of scarcity—and the better the scarcity, the deeper the scarcity, the better the Defense Department—it turns out to operate pretty well. So I think that's stupid. I think it's the Congress doing it because the Congress has become a wholly paid subsidiary of the military-industrial complex.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

Alon-Lee Green is National Co-Director of Standing Together, a progressive Jewish-Arab grassroots movement. Previously, he worked for five years as a political and parliamentary adviser in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, and was involved in the legislative process and the building of citizens’ campaigns that influenced parliamentary decisions. During that time, he was responsible for laws advancing the rights of workers, students, and the LGBT community.

It devastates me to know that I'm part—as an Israeli citizen, as a citizen that wants to take responsibility of the society, the Israeli society, it makes me devastated and sick and so, so, so heartbroken to know that we are a part of and a reason for so many tens of thousands reported people that died… I do not understand how someone can come to us Israelis and tell us that this is in the name of our security. I cannot understand how someone can promise us that this will better our lives or create a good or a reality that is livable. I understand it as just something that promises more death.

Alon-Lee Green

It is a given fact, especially after October 7th, a lot of the soldiers went there and did what they did believing that they're fighting to defend, they're fighting monsters. But a lot of soldiers died there. A lot of mothers lost their sons. A lot of families joined the circle of grief. And this is something that changed people's perspectives and people's opinion about the war. A lot of soldiers came back wounded. A lot of soldiers came back with PTSD. And we are hearing voices right now of soldiers saying, “We will not come back there, even if you call us into reserve duty.” It exists in society. You can hear it. You can hear it also around the question of the hostages, soldiers saying, “I thought I'm fighting for 300 days to release the hostages. And now I realized I'm fighting for the delusional messianic ideas of the right wing to build settlements in Gaza or to forcefully transfer people from there. This is not the reason I went.” And it is a good awakening we see in our society.

Alon-Lee Green

The Israeli media and most of the Israeli parliament and political system celebrated Trump's declaration of forceful transfer from Gaza and the supposed takeover by the US of Gaza. They said things like, “It's a Biblical miracle,” “We live in Biblical times,” things like this. The reaction of Standing Together is the complete opposite, of course. This is not only a delusional, scary, and dangerous plan, it is also something that is not going to happen. Trump can dream until tomorrow to remove two million Palestinians from Gaza. It is not going to happen. But only speaking about it is the problem itself. Thinking that you can remove—I don't know how, but remove two million people from their homeland, fantasizing about somehow making people disappear from the land, it is a dangerous idea.

Alon-Lee Green

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