Josh Hammer (19:21)

Yeah, I'm laughing, but I probably shouldn't be laughing. Charlie, you know, we Woke up at 3am Local time here. The whole country had sirens nationally and you know, we have our six month old baby here. It's actually our first time flying with our babies. So it's no joke. So we immediately went down to the bomb shelter in the house where, where we were staying. We soon learned within minutes that these sirens were not due to incoming rocket fire. Instead, the IDF home command did sirens nationwide to essentially alert the people that, you know, major stuff was going down inside Iran. There was a potential of imminent retaliation there that I think was what the IDF was most concerned about. What they were concerned about imminent, immediate retaliation. There's now been over 12 hours, actually far more than that since that. And I think that the threat level has decreased. But to your very first question, Charlie, there's a bomb shelter probably 30 or 40 steps over there. So God forbid I can make a dashboard and I think I'll be okay.

Charlie Kirk (20:11)

Well, yeah, and I hope everyone in the audience understands that that's now become normal life in Israel. So you are outside right now and which is great, praise God, you can see the. But I just. So I have so many questions here and I'm just gonna kinda go to stuff I can get from you that I can't get from the cable networks. What is the vibe? You're there with your kid, you are there with, you know, so many people you care about. What is the morale like on the ground? Do the Israelis support this?

Josh Hammer (20:39)

Well, this whole trip and Charlie, like you, I've been to Israel a number of times. This whole trip thus far has been not exactly what we signed up for. So my wife and I were getting dinner the other night in the Tel Aviv area on the ocean. There was a massive siren. We ran to a bomb shelter. It turns out that there was A Houthi ballistic missile incoming from Yemen. That was just two or three nights ago. And now this is the mission of all missions, what Israel is calling Operation Rising lion, the operation inside Iran. Charlie, I'm here in the broader Tel Aviv area. As you can see in the background here, the sun is slowly starting to set. The Jewish Sabbath Shabbat is coming in. So I guess we're spending the Sabbath here. We were planning to be in Jerusalem, but we didn't want to get in the call car and drive an hour and a half, God forbid, getting stuck in traffic with a lot of missiles. Again, we have a six month old, so we're being smart state parents here, there. So we're locking down. Now what I can tell you is that the locals here, the roads are empty. The roads are basically like a ghost town. The supermarkets, it's like a hurricane. I've gone through hurricanes living in Florida, back home I've lived in Houston, Texas, Miami, Florida during hurricanes. Anyone who has been to a supermarket during a hurricane knows that the, that the shelves are just totally, you can't get any food items. There is a line around the door, curling around the supermarket. Same thing here. It feels like a hurricane like condition right now. Again, I guess we're going to see what actual hurricane in the form of an Iranian retaliation actually comes here. But the thing about the Israeli people, Charlie, and holding aside the Arab Israelis is a little more complicated. But the thing about Jewish Israelis, which are still the vast majority of the Israeli people, there is full consensus as to the Iranian issue. There are a number of very, very divisive issues here in Israel. Bibi Netanyahu, the two state solution versus one state solution with the Palestinian Arabs, the issue of the Haredi ultra Orthodox draft into the idf. There are a lot of very contentious issues here in the Israeli domestic political spectrum. But there's one very important point I think for your audience to know is that the Iran issue is not a contentious issue. I remember Speaking back in 2016, during the 2016 presidential cycle, I spoke with a far left member, a Jewish member of the Knesset, their legislature here, Charlie, dude was so far left, he was an actual Bernie Sanders supporter, I kid you not. And even this guy, even this guy who was a total peacenik on the Palestinians, a total liberal on all domestic issues, you name it there even. He was very sober and hawkish minded on Iran because there was an understanding here that Iran actually genuinely is the existential issue. And that if the IDF's mantra that never again means never again, if it means Anything whatsoever, then Iran has to be dealt with at some point. It turns out that they dealt with it, or at least started to deal with it while it happened to be visiting the country here.

Charlie Kirk (23:07)

I'm now going to refer to you as our Israeli war correspondent. We're going to have you on as much as you'll have us. I have so many questions here, Josh, just a more technical one while I have it on top of my head. I'm guessing that this will be a Shabbat that is largely not honored by the military in the best possible way. Right? I mean, it's not like the whole country is just going to go to sleep while Iran could launch a bunch of missiles. Am I correct in that regard?

Josh Hammer (23:30)

Look, everyone has to do what they can here. So, you know, not to get too deep in the weeds of Jewish law, but there is a well known Jewish principle known as pachuach nefesh, which basically means that there's an overwhelming imperative to save a human life at all costs. And, and when human life has to be saved at the expense of desecrating the Jewish Sabbath or any other of the violation of Jewish law, it has to be done there. So for example, Charlie, back home in Florida, where I pray, I pray to a local synagogue near the beach, there's a guy who has a walkie talkie there because he's actually an emergency driver for Hatzala, the emergency services there. So he's allowed to do that for reasons of khuach nepesh. So similarly here in Israel, when there is an active threat of the world's leading state sponsor of jihad potentially launching God knows what kind of missiles, drones or whatever we'll have here over the next 48, 72 hours? Who the heck knows? Yes, I think people are going to interpret and take it into their own hands.

Charlie Kirk (24:21)

It's just so I want to, I have so many questions, but I hope people understand that even in the midst of all the terror, still the Shabbat will be honored and the kadush will be said. It's just pretty amazing how I'm turning.

Josh Hammer (24:32)

Off my phone, Charlie.

Charlie Kirk (24:33)

Well, it's just, it's remarkable. So Josh, let me ask you. So now let's get more to like the technical side. Are you surprised? What is your reaction, I should say to the fact that Iran has not really responded yet, that we're coming on almost a 24 hour marker and there have not been missiles that are cascading down on Israel. Why is that? And is it because that Israel is just having a feeding frenzy in the interior of Iran right now.

Josh Hammer (24:58)

So it's such a real time, minute by minute situation that's a little hard to keep up with everything. I did hear maybe about 30, 45 minutes ago that there were rocket sirens in northern Israel. I assume that is from Hezbollah in Lebanon, or at least the remnants of Hezbollah in Lebanon, because Hezbollah has been dealt such a crippling blow over the past year or so by, by Israel. But Iran, Charlie, and this is why Israel apparently felt that this was the time to actually launch this operation that was literally decades in the making, was that they had done such, such an amazing job of crippling Iran's various proxies, Hezbollah in particular in Lebanon, with their massive 100, 000/podcast precision guided missile arsenal. That was always the Iranian regime's kind of sort of Damocles hanging over the Israeli people here. It's right on the Israel north there. And Israel knew that if they were to ever launch a serious operation against Iran, then Hezbollah would just rain down lots and lots of missiles on Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, or all the population corridors there. But Hezbollah has not been literally eliminated. But I mean, you know, 80, 90%. I mean, they are on really, really, really weak knees right there now. So the path was really, really clear. And then inside of Iran itself, you look at just the sheer number of the top ranking IRGC Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the general staffers that apparently have been killed over the past 12 to 18 hours there. I mean, Charlie, I think we're literally talking about a situation where the actual physical men who would literally call the shots are perhaps no longer with us. It's a pretty astounding thing to say there, but I think that's the reality inside Iran right now.

Charlie Kirk (26:23)

And so let me ask you the. So then it looks as if Israel is continuing a bombing campaign against Iran. I mean, how else can Iran respond if their missile capacity is largely disabled?

Josh Hammer (26:39)

Well, look, they have the potential to try to launch extraterritorial assassinations. Charlie, I'll be honest with you. In a weird way, I actually almost feel safer here in Israel than if I were back home in the United States. I live in Florida, so Florida is kind of the exception to the rule. Florida is an incredibly safe place to be Jewish. It's an incredibly safe place, frankly, to be anyone. But I do think in a time like this, about more exposed Jewish communities, Israeli expatriate communities in blue jurisdictions. I think a lot about New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, places like that at, at this time there, because those are the places where the local government is not necessarily going to be up to speed at protecting vulnerable soft targets. Synagogues, kosher restaurants, things like that. At this time here, living here or not, I don't live here, but being here in Israel at this time here and having the, the IDF protect us, I feel pretty good for the most part there. But they do have the capacity. Iran, Iran has a lot of sleeper cells. They have a lot of sleeper cells, a lot of lone wolf agents, a lot of people all throughout the West, a lot of these crazy radicals, the Mahmoud Khalil on the university campuses, a lot of folks who are pledging and vowing to take up, not necessarily full on jihad in an ISIS style caliphate here in the Middle east, but just engaging in lone wolf style attacks very similar to what the Marxists did in slaughtering, brutally assassinating this two Israeli diplomats in Washington two weeks ago. So that's the kind of soft lone wolf target that I'm actually most scared of. At a time like this. I'm less scared about whatever is coming from Iran in kind of a paradoxical way, even though I'm right here, kind of in the crosshairs of fire.

Charlie Kirk (28:07)

Yeah, I mean I literally put up on Twitter, I'll read it to the audience, which is keep your head on a swivel. Biden. Let millions of people into America. Iran might activate some sleeper cells against Americans, stay armed. And I mean, that goes for all people. Right. Is the Iranian sleeper cells into the interior of the United States? Can Israel win this without United States troops?

Josh Hammer (28:29)

So it totally depends how you define when, Charlie. It seems to me that Israel is not, at least at this moment, seeking to decapitate the head of the snake. Again, we'll see. It's a very, very fast time situation there. It seems to me like if they were going to take their shot at the Ayatollah at Khamenei, it probably would have happened in the wee hours of the morning. Again, what do I know? I'm just kind of playing a speculation game here. But the goal of this operation, so far as I understand it, is simply to neutralize the nuclear threat. And if that is the goal, if that is the goal, then I think that Israel has already shown that is fully capable of doing that. Just to take one example, I mean, they had a large, large number of Iran's nuclear facilities. Just to take one example, Natanz, which is maybe the most infamous of all of the Iranian uranium enrichment facilities. Natanz has been kind of front and center of all these. Can Israel strike Iran Debates for the past 15, 20 years. Now, these debates have gone back a long time. Israel has, as by all accounts, according to the iaea, the UN International nuclear watchdog, they call it Natanz, has been completely obliterated. There is no more Natanz nuclear facility. I mean, that is an astonishing, astonishing thing right there. So again, if. If the goal of the Israeli operation Rising Line, I think is a name that, that the IDF is giving it, if the goal is to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat, then I think they are fully capable of doing this on their own. There's not going to be a ground invasion or anything like that there. It's not going to happen. I mean, the logistics that are just impossible to even contemplate. I don't know. I don't even know what that looks like. I mean, the tanks start rolling over Iraq. I mean, I mean, it's. It's not going to happen. So the goal of this is to tactical aerial strikes to, to neutralize a harrowing threat of the world's number one state sponsor of jihad. These fanatical Islamists who genuinely believe in 72 versions in heaven, all that there the goal is, is to decapitate their capacity to launch a nuclear strike on Israel, Europe, anywhere else if they were to ever acquire, God forbid, intercontinental ballistic missile technology. And so far they've been very successful, and I think, God willing, that they will continue to be very successful.

Charlie Kirk (30:27)

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Josh Hammer (31:50)

Yeah, Charlie, I don't think the US really has to get involved. I have never once actually in my entire commentary career called for the US to directly get involved in military or kinetic action against Iran because frankly, it's not my stance. I thought that the first Trump era maximum pressures economic campaign was very successful there. And then beyond economic pressure and placing crippling sanctions on the oil and natural gas exports to the Chinese Communist Party. Above all, there's I've always thought that Israel could take the military end of the bargain and do what needs to be done. All that essentially is needed from the United States is to cast the various vetoes at the UN National Security Council and things like that there. But Charlie, I would suggest that another way to view it actually is this way. Iran obviously is an existential threat to Israel. It is a major threat to other countries, but it is a larger threat to Israel. And I think it would be sloppy analysis to try to needlessly conflate the degree of the threat to Israel to others. There is a threat to the United States, but not the exact same threat. Having said that, it is a threat, Iran definitely does have American blood on its hands for 46 years, going back to the hostage crisis that launched the regime and ended the Jimmy Carter presidency, going Back to the 241 US Marines slaughtered at the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, from Hezbollah, the top Iranian proxy, the five to 600American soldiers killed by Qassem Soleimani supplied IEDs on the roadside of Al Anbar and Fallujah during the Petraeus counterinsurgency during the Bush and on and on and on we go there. So I think another way of viewing this is as follows, which is that Israel is acting as a good ally, should act in securing not just its own national interest, it happens to be an existential interest in this case there, but also then ultimately conducing to the enhanced and greater safety and security of the United States, of our European allies, and so forth. And so forth. The United States, Charlie, today and for the foreseeable future is a safer and more secure place because of what Israel is doing inside of Iran. This is a very, very key point there. Again, this was needed for Israel. Israel is acting as any sovereign nation state would do in its own national interest here. But the key thing, and I, and I make this point at great length in my book Israel and Civilization. But the key thing here is that when it comes to the Middle east, and this is kind of what you would, what you expect of an ally from a nationalist realist foreign policy paradigm, the key thing is that Israel's national interest in this region is overwhelmingly Venn diagram overlapped with the American region. The degrees may actually vary, for sure. I will happily and readily concede that there. But again, America is a safer and more secure place today from Israel simply doing this. In fact, America, in many ways is benefiting, frankly, on the cheap because we're not actually sending in any kind of troops. And no one is calling for that, by the way. No one. Seriously. Literally. I haven't found a single person who's actually calling for that there. So as long as it remains on the cheap, I think America looks quite good, actually.

Charlie Kirk (34:32)

Josh, please stay safe. I know that you are in a calamitous situation right now, and we'll be praying for you and praying for your family and praying for the peace in Jerusalem. Thank you so much.

Josh Hammer (34:42)

God bless you, Charlie. Thank you.

Charlie Kirk (34:43)

Thank you. I wanna just go a little bit deeper into the politics here. And we talked about the cautionary tale. These military operations are almost oversimplified in the media and they kind of have an immediate crescendo and then some complication as one proceeds. I could tell you, though, that young maga, especially, the more online you get, the more skepticism there is about America getting involved in this, in the quagmire, in the nonstop flow of military intervention in the Middle East. And the base will diverge from some orthodox opinions on Israel that you might hear on cable news or in the mainstream media, where the base might have diplomatic and sentimental support driven towards Israel, which of course, I've demonstrated over a very long period of time. Which the question is, though, how much money, how much funding are we getting involved and to what extent does that lead towards? Because I could tell you right now, a primary concern from the MAGA base. It is a phrase I hear all the time, Charlie, this is just to get the war contractors wealthier. Charlie, this is just to get people that are in the permanent war machine more money. They want more war and not peace. I hear this all the time from people, from those of you in the base. And with that, I want to hear from you right now. I want to be flooded with emails. Freedomarliekirk.com should we send more aid to Israel? Should we send military support? Should we not send any support at all? Email me freedomarliekirk.com that is freedomarliekirk.com thanks so much for listening everybody. Email us as always. Always. Freedomarliekirk.com thanks so much for listening and God bless.

Unknown (36:26)

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