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- [00:00]
Michael Knowles
Violence has broken out in Israel as Hamas is firing rockets into the state of Israel. Israel defending itself. And our host of this show, Senator Cruz, will be headed where the rockets are flying in the coming days. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. Senator, I'm very glad that we are doing this episode from our very comfy studio here in Washington, D.C. and that we're not doing it under rocket fire in Israel. But you, you madman, are headed right into where the violence is.
- [00:40]
Ted Cruz
So, Michael, you're saying you're not gonna come with me and do a podcast on location alongside the Gaza Strip in a bomb shelter?
- [00:49]
Michael Knowles
You know, I've gotten sick of Zoom over the last year. This will be an instance. I think I'd prefer Zoom. I think Skype a further distance would be great.
- [00:58]
Ted Cruz
All right, you can zoom in from Beirut.
- [01:01]
Michael Knowles
Wonderful. The far more peaceful. Yes, you are headed there into a conflict that I think we can say without exaggeration, is the most complex conflict on planet Earth. I think a great many conservatives, even, certainly the leftists, but even a great many conservatives don't really know what exactly is at play here, what exactly the two sides stand for or why there seems to be perpetual violence. And I to some degree would count myself in that category. So, Senator, if you wouldn't mind, please explain it.
- [01:36]
Ted Cruz
Well, Israel is surrounded by nations that for most of the existence of the modern state of Israel, have wanted to drive it into the sea, have wanted to destroy it. If you look at Israel, the only reason Israel exists today is that it is militarily able to defeat its neighbors. There's been a whole history of Middle east wars where Arab nations joined together, attacked Israel. Every time they do it, they lose. And in fact, Israel gains territory. That strength has been critical to Israel's existence. If you look at what's happening with Hamas terrorists, these are terrorists in Israel that do not believe Israel has a right to exist, that they do not want there to be a Jewish state on the face of the earth, want to obliterate it. And they engage in deliberate, repeated acts of violence, terrorism. They target individuals, they target civilians, they target women and children, whether it is suicide vests and blowing up cafes or discotheques or malls. But they also use rockets. They use typically low tech rockets that are fired into Israel over and over and over again, seeking to cause mayhem. And they're doing a couple of things. One, they want to destabilize Israel. They want to create fear. And I'll tell you, I've been to Israel many times I've been along the Gaza Strip where the folks there are used to having a siren go off and having to run to a bomb shelter because in 10, 20, 30 seconds, a rocket could explode and kill you.
- [03:27]
Michael Knowles
Right.
- [03:28]
Ted Cruz
And it has an effect. I mean, I've talked with Israelis who, you know, it's like ptsd. I mean, they're dealing with. I mean, it's really frightening when you're playing with your child and suddenly have to run and hide because of fear of being killed. But another reason Hamas does this is they count on the media to be their propagandists. They know that Israel will have to respond, that if you start. I mean, imagine how people would react in Washington, D.C. if suddenly folks in Maryland began firing rockets in D.C. like, you would respond, and you would respond with military force. Inevitably, Israel responds and goes after the terrorists. And the press predictably takes the side of the terrorists and paints Israel as the bad guys.
- [04:17]
Michael Knowles
Now, I think also for people who are unclear of what Hamas is, it's confusing because they're terrorists in that they target civilians to achieve political ends. It's a very basic definition of terrorism. But they're also sort of the government elected by the Palestinian Arabs, even though Palestine is not a nation. But there were elections in 2005, and the people there who participated elected this terrorist group to represent them.
- [04:43]
Ted Cruz
That's right. And not only that, you have the Palestinian Authority, which is the governmental entity in the portions of Israel that are controlled by the PA that pays terrorists. So if you, Michael, go strap dynamite to your chest, and you walk into a mall in Tel Aviv and you blow yourself up and you murder a bunch of other people, you murder a bunch of Israelis, the Palestinian Authority will pay your family a stipend in perpetuity. They literally are essentially paying bounties. Go blow yourself up, and we'll take care of your family for you, and we'll celebrate you as a hero and martyr. And that is profoundly dysfunctional. But the media and the Democrats play this game of moral relativism. Well, they say, well, both sides are doing wrong. No. You know, years ago, the first time I visited Israel was in 2012. So nine years ago, and first time I traveled there, I went and visited a hospital on the northern border of Israel, right alongside Syria. It was the Ziv Hospital. At the time, that hospital had provided over $8 million in free, uncompensated care to Syrians injured in the horrific civil war playing out there. And I heard stories from Israeli doctors, Israeli nurses, how you would have a little Syrian Child, a boy or girl go to sleep in their bed, and a bomb would go off and blow up their home. And they would wake up, and they'd wake up in an Israeli hospital being treated. And these little girls and little boys were terrified. Terrified of whatever injuries they had, but even more terrified that it was Israeli doctors that were treating them.
- [06:43]
Michael Knowles
Right, right.
- [06:44]
Ted Cruz
And, you know, one of the physicians there told me about a woman who was a Syrian woman who said, my whole life, the government I've been told was there to protect me. Now they're trying to kill me. And my whole life, the people I've been told that hate me and want to kill me. Now you're saving my life.
- [07:04]
Michael Knowles
Right, right.
- [07:06]
Ted Cruz
So I wrote a number of years back, an op ed that was called A Tale of Two Hospitals. And it said you can tell a lot about a society by how they treat their most vulnerable. And a hospital's a good place to start. And I compared the Ziv hospital where they'd given all of this free care to Syrians wounded in the civil war. And I contrasted it to a hospital in Gaza, which is in the southern part of Israel that's under the control of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, where Hamas had based their headquarters in the basement of the hospital. And what they were doing now, mind you, this is a Palestinian hospital. In other words, the hospital is filled not with Israelis, but with Palestinians. And they were using Palestinians as human shields. And so you have mothers giving birth. They're literally using the mothers and the infants just being born as human shields. And from Hamas's perspective, it's a win. Win. Either, as ended up being the case, Israel will refrain and not attack the headquarters from which they're planning terrorist attacks on Israel. Okay, that's a win. If, like, Israel is afraid to attack their headquarters, Hamas is happy about that. Or on the flip side, if Israel does attack the headquarters, there will be a bunch of Palestinian patients, mothers and infants killed. It's great pr, and it's great pr. They know that cnn, they know that. New York Times, they know that the Democrats will say, see, the Israelis are monsters. We told you so. Either way. And in the practice of human shields is something Hamas does a lot.
- [08:47]
Michael Knowles
So this, this conflict is not particularly complicated. Obviously, the history is very complicated, but which side we should be on is not that complicated. If you elect Hamas terrorists to represent you, and if you celebrate in the streets on 911 as happened, I remember watching it play out live 20 years ago, then it doesn't seem like the United States should, should really Support whatever national cause you want to represent. And Israel has been a good ally. We've been good allies to Israel. That seems perfectly ordinary. Why is it that so many prominent Democrats are against Israel and are supporting the Palestinian Arabs? What is the argument? What am I missing here?
- [09:30]
Ted Cruz
Well, the far left hates Israel and actually the far left frequently traffics in anti Semitism where they despise Israel's right to exist. Look, Israel is a nation that shares America's value. Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle east. We provide about $3 billion a year in military assistance to Israel that produces enormous military advantages and national security advantages to the United States. I am the strongest defender of Israel in the US Senate and I resolved to be that when I was elected. But I defend our support of Israel, not as a welfare case, not like we're helping out this poor on their luck neighbor.
- [10:18]
Michael Knowles
Right, right. We're not just a national charity. Right? I mean, it's good to be charitable, but that's not the primary purpose.
- [10:23]
Ted Cruz
It benefits America. So you look at all of the enemies of Israel are enemies of America. You look at the Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader, the so called supreme leader of Iran. He leads mobs in chanting death to America and death to Israel. They call Israel the Little Satan. They call America the big Satan. The Big Satan, the Great Satan. And when Israel is fighting her enemies, Israel is fighting our enemies. Not only that, the Mossad, their spy network is second to none. It is incredibly effective. And so we get massive national security benefits from what they do with our assistance. For example, the Mossad did this raid on Iran that uncovered this cache of documents showing their nuclear program that they were actively working to develop nuclear weapons. Even when they said they were not that they were lying, it proved that they were lying. And by the way, they gave those documents to America. So they went on a commando raid, seized these documents. I mean, it's like something out of Jason Bourne. All of that is very much benefits us.
- [11:41]
Michael Knowles
Well, you're certainly right here in particular when you're talking about these prominent Democrats who hate Israel and don't think it should exist. I mean, there are elected Democrats who have repeated the slogan from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Which is to say Israel will cease to exist as a nation state and that state will be turned over to the Palestinian Arabs. So it's hard to be more antipathetic than that.
- [12:08]
Ted Cruz
Well, and listen, the barrier to Middle east peace has never been Israel. Nobody wants peace more than Israel. Look, it's Israeli babies that are being murdered. It's the citizens that live in the fear of terrorists. The barrier to peace is the Palestinians who, number one, refuse to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. They refuse. Their objective is to abolish the entire nation of Israel. And secondly, they refuse to renounce terrorism. In fact, they continue to pay people to commit acts of terrorism and murder innocent civilians. Until those two things change, you can't have meaningful peace. I will say, though, that all of us have been benefited from an incredible object lesson the last year of what works in the Middle east and what doesn't. So for years and years and years, Democrats have said there can be no peace. You can have no Arab, Israeli peace until the Palestinian situation is resolved.
- [13:11]
Michael Knowles
John Kerry said this as Secretary of State in 2016.
- [13:14]
Ted Cruz
Yes. He said it's impossible to solve until we solve the Palestinian situation. Well, it turns out that's totally wrong. Yeah. That's now been objectively disproven. Think about it. Last year, we were seeing this flowering of peace across the Middle East. Historic, the first peace agreements in decades, the Abraham Accords. As you know, I was there at the White House when the Abraham Accords were signed. And why were they signed? I think it's important to understand because there's a reason we had peace last year, and there's a reason we have war this year. And it's based on the policies of America last year and the policies of America this year. Why did we have peace last year? I think the single biggest thing that changed was clarity about where America stands. So you and I have talked before about the two biggest foreign policy decisions that Trump made. The first was the decision to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem. Yeah. You know, Israel was the only country on earth where we didn't have our embassy in its capital city.
- [14:17]
Michael Knowles
And it had been US Policy for decades to move the embassy to Jerusalem. We just never did. Every president said they would do it, and we just never did.
- [14:25]
Ted Cruz
Both Democrats and Republican presidents had promised to move the embassy, and then they didn't. And the reason why. So there was a big fight in the Trump administration about do we move the embassy? Both the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson and the Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, both of them vigorously argued against moving the embassy. They said, if we move the embassy, the enemies of Israel will be enraged, they will attack, it will cause violence, there will be violence in the streets, they said. And I made the case vigorously to President Trump we should move the embassy. That it would make absolutely clear to both our friends and enemies that we stand unequivocally with Israel. And I think there's power in clarity. Trump agreed with me, moved the embassy, and I was there the day the embassy opened up just over three years ago, that very same week. And I don't think it's coincidental the Trump administration announced we were pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. That's the most important foreign policy decision Trump made. Same dynamics. Both State and Defense opposed pulling out of the deal. I made the case repeatedly to the president in the Oval Office we needed to pull out of the deal. And again, he agreed with me, and he overruled his own State Department, his own Defense Department. Those two decisions are what produced the Abraham Accords, and I'll tell you why. So when the Abraham Accords were being signed, I spoke with the foreign ministers and the ambassadors of both the UAE and Bahrain. Both of them said the same thing. They said, it is now clear to us that America stands unequivocally with Israel. We want to be friends with America, so we'll be friends with Israel. It was that clarity and notice. There was no resolution to the Palestinian situation. It was simply they were making a decision. Being friends with America is a big damn deal. And so we'll suck it up and make peace with Israel. Now, fast forward to Biden. What does Biden do from day one? Begins undermining Israel. Begins undermining Netanyahu. By the way, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Joe Biden. And the Democrats hate him. Yeah, they hate him. They loathe him.
- [16:52]
Michael Knowles
Didn't Obama try to oust him?
- [16:54]
Ted Cruz
Yes, the Obama. They sent their political operatives to Israel to help run the campaign of his opponents. I mean, they despise him because he's strong and unequivocal. And to be honest, Netanyahu is more pro America than the Democrats are. Yeah, they despise Netanyahu. They began sending. Biden has sent over $100 million to the Palestinian Authority. So why did the money stop? The money stopped. We had been giving aid to the Palestinian Authority, and we actually passed a law in Congress called the Taylor Force Act. Taylor Force act is named after Taylor Force, who was a Texan. He was a veteran, and he was in Israel and was killed by a terrorist in Israel. And the Taylor Force act said, we're not gonna send us taxpayer money to any governmental entity that pays tariffs.
- [17:47]
Michael Knowles
Kills our people. Yeah, yeah.
- [17:48]
Ted Cruz
Like, if you're cutting checks. And by the way, it's a major budgetary line item for the paper. Funding the families of the martyrs. Funding the families of the terrorists who committed acts of murder. Because of that, the Trump administration, following the Taylor Force act, cut off the cash, said, you don't get any more money. What did Biden said? Oh, we're giving you the money. Over $100 million. And by the way, these are the same clowns that are now firing rockets in to Israel. Hamas is also funded by Iran. Biden's number one foreign policy objective is to reinstate the Iran nuclear deal. And you know, the funny thing is, when you undermine our ally and when you praise the terrorist and you say you give them money and you say you're gonna give them more money, suddenly they start engaging in more acts of terrorism and firing rockets. And they know that the press and the Democrats will side with the terrorists. And we're saying that especially from the squad. Yeah.
- [18:45]
Michael Knowles
So I think this is actually such an important point, both when you think of Iran enemy state actors and when you think of politicians, our opponents here in the United States, you can judge a man by his enemies. And so when I'm trying to think of this issue, which is so complex, and I look and I see the squad, aoc, Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, all these radical politicians that I think are wrong about everything when I see that they uniformly are against Israel. And then I look at the people who are supporting Israel and in the United States, but state actors as well. To me, I think, okay, if I don't know anything else about this conflict, it is likely that I am gonna come out on the side of Israel here. Just look at where the people are lining up.
- [19:38]
Ted Cruz
I think you're right. And it's worth noting that the politics on this has changed a lot. So for a long time in Washington, there's been a bipartisan consensus in support of Israel. Yeah. AIPAC is political action committee that works to encourage American Israeli cooperation and support. It's assiduously bipartisan, and I actually agree with the principle that we should have as much bipartisan cooperation as when it comes to standing with Israel as possible.
- [20:10]
Michael Knowles
Israel wants to continue to exist, whether it's Democrats in office or whether it's Republicans in office.
- [20:18]
Ted Cruz
That changed very significantly during the Iran deal. So the second term of Obama, they're negotiating the Iran deal. Netanyahu said, and I agree with him, that the Iran deal was an existential threat to Israel, literally going to the very existence of Israel, that a nuclear Iran, the odds are unacceptably high that the Ayatollah would use nuclear weapons on Israel. That's how much they despise The Jews, you know, the head of Iran's nuclear program, who, by the way, has since met his maker and many say at the hands of the Mossad. That has not been confirmed, but it is.
- [20:59]
Michael Knowles
I can't imagine. No, it's hard to. Hard to believe.
- [21:02]
Ted Cruz
He had written into his last will and testament that he wanted written on his tombstone the following. Here lies a man who sought the annihilation of Israel. Now think for a second just how much hatred you have to. Have to want. That's all you want to be remembered for is I sought to annihilate them. Them. That's what a lot of people don't get, is these people want to kill every Jew in Israel. And when you're dealing with bullies, when you're dealing with tyrants, weakness doesn't work.
- [21:45]
Michael Knowles
Yeah. This very point raises an objection that the leftist media and politicians bring up, which is, look, sure, Hamas is firing at the civilians, and that's bad. Yeah, they probably shouldn't do that, but they're firing these dinky little rockets. And the response from Israel has been disproportionate because they have better funding and they've got better weapons. And so it's unjust for Israel to respond in a stronger way than the way in which they've been attacked.
- [22:14]
Ted Cruz
Well, Israel has a responsibility to protect itself and to stop Hamas. And if you fire rockets trying to murder Israeli citizens, you're going to get a serious military response. That's why Israel exists.
- [22:27]
Michael Knowles
Also, if you're in a fight with a bully, I don't know. It's been a while since I've been in grade school, but I was not told, if a bully punches you, punch him exactly as hard as he punched you. I was told if a bully comes out and threatens you and punches you, you punch him twice as hard.
- [22:42]
Ted Cruz
I didn't think anyone punched anyone at Yale.
- [22:45]
Michael Knowles
It's really more of a slap. It's actually a bit of a slap.
- [22:47]
Ted Cruz
And a tickle, or just sit down and try to understand each other. So, look, that's absolutely right. Let's take this past week, what has driven the press crazy, which is that Israel bombed a building that happened to be the headquarters of the Associated Press. Now, it also happened to be the headquarters of a major operation for Hamas.
- [23:14]
Michael Knowles
In the building, an intelligence operation.
- [23:16]
Ted Cruz
And, you know, Netanyahu has said publicly that he had compelling intelligence that showed that there was a Hamas operation headquartered in that building. And it's been reported that he shared it with the US Government, with the Biden administration, I haven't seen any classified information on that. So I just know what's been reported. But a couple of points on this. Number one, that's consistent with Hamas pattern of using human shields, of locating in the AP headquarters. Number two, I'll wager $20 AP knew that. Of course, that they knew exactly. Because you know what those Hamas guys were their sources.
- [23:55]
Michael Knowles
Yeah.
- [23:56]
Ted Cruz
I mean, they are propagandists for the terrorists.
- [23:59]
Michael Knowles
It does raise a question, why did the AP have an office in Gaza? And there have been incidents in the past, by the way, that shows a bit of a deeper relationship here between these journalists.
- [24:11]
Ted Cruz
Well, and one of the things actually that the Israelis do, so they try to do everything they can to minimize civilian casualties. They go so far. So, for example, they notified the ap, get out of the building. So that the reporters were not there when they leveled the building. The AP knew. They knew exactly. You know, some years back, there was a story about Gaza. In Gaza, Hamas was storing their missiles in a kindergarten. Yeah. So they're literally, they're using, by the way, Palestinian kindergartners are the human shields. I passed legislation that imposes sanctions on any organization that uses human shields. I also passed a bipartisan resolution condemning the use of human shields as a war crime. So this has been an issue that I've been the leading voice in the Senate for a long time against using human shields. But I gotta tell you, when they put the missiles in the kindergarten, Hillary Clinton was asked about it. And her defense, she said, well, you've got to understand, Gaza is very small. So there's no other place to put the missiles, which is such utter garbage.
- [25:27]
Michael Knowles
Even by Hillary Clinton standards. That is a weak excuse.
- [25:31]
Ted Cruz
It is a very weak excuse. But you've got the Democrats are apologists, they're cheering for the terrorists. And the point I was starting to make before you used to have a bipartisan agreement on Israel when that broke was the Iran deal. Because what happened is the Obama White House told Democrats pick. You either pick us or Israel.
- [25:52]
Michael Knowles
Yeah.
- [25:54]
Ted Cruz
And Democrats picked partisan politics. If you remember, Bob Menendez, Democrat from New Jersey, became the first Senate Democrat to speak out against the Iran deal. The day he came out against the Iran deal, the Obama Justice Department leaked that they were indicting Bob Menendez.
- [26:15]
Michael Knowles
That's. Wow, the timing, actually. I remember they indicted him on the.
- [26:19]
Ted Cruz
It is the exact day they leaked it. And that was a bare knuckle punch. It was meant to tell every Democrat, you get on board or we will come after you. That's how rough they Play.
- [26:31]
Michael Knowles
Yeah.
- [26:32]
Ted Cruz
And I gotta tell you, I had ambassadors from major European allies in my office during the Iran deal saying, help us. Look, the Obama White House is twisting our arms, forcing us into this dumbass deal, and we need help. By the way, these European allies are now big supporters of the deals because they want to make money in Iran. But at the time, they realized how crazy it was. And aipac. Look, I've done a lot of work with aipac. I gotta say, AIPAC found its credibility very badly damaged because it set its number one objective as we've gotta stop this deal. Virtually every Democrat said, go jump in a lake. By the way, Schumer kind of played to oppose it, but he did nothing to oppose it. And then not a single one of those Democrats lost in the subsequent election for doing that. And AIPAC ended up being substantially weakened because the Democrats learned that they could tell them, go jump in a lake on their central issue, and not only would there be no consequences, AIPAC would turn around and raise money for them.
- [27:41]
Michael Knowles
Well, you know, this actually gets to the point we were talking about earlier, which is that clarity has a lot of power to it. And especially on this issue, as the battle lines, political battle lines, have really become clear here. People need to pick a side. You know, if you stand in the middle of the road, you gonna get hit by a truck. Senator, we are now running out of time. I hope that you are not hit by a truck. I trust that you'll be very safe. I wish you a very good trip into Israel, and I look forward to seeing you back here in America. Not over there, but back here in America. To discuss it very soon, next year in Jerusalem. Next year in Jerusalem. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
- [28:24]
Ted Cruz
Foreign this episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security pac, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations and candidates across the country. In 2022, jobs, freedom and Security PAC plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.