BRETT: We are entering into Day 10 — it is now Day 10 — of conflict between Hamas and Israel, as Hamas continues to shoot their rockets into Israel and the pressure continues to build on Israel to somehow set forth a ceasefire. Welcome. It is great to be here with you today as your guide host on the Rush Limbaugh Show and the EIB Network.
We want to invite you to be a part of the conversation at 800-282-2882. Later on in the program, we’ve got thoughts on aliens — and, of course, we’ll talk also about cicadas. But the main threat right here in front of us right now is this increasing pressure coming from the Biden administration on the administration of Bibi Netanyahu there over in Israel.
USA Today’s reporting in these last hours, “In his most forceful statement yet on the Israel-Gaza conflict, President Joe Biden told Israel’s prime minister he expects ‘a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire,’ the White House said on Wednesday.
“Biden has been quietly ramping up pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days to end Israel’s bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza — amid mounting international alarm over the rising death toll and growing demands from Democrats in Congress for a ceasefire.”
So, the Democrats in Congress — Speaker Pelosi, Chuck You Schumer — are calling for a ceasefire, and they’re pressuring Bibi Netanyahu to deliver that ceasefire. As you hear in the beginning of that quote, “In his most forceful statement yet on the Israel-Gaza conflict, President Joe Biden told Israel’s prime minister he expects “a significant de-escalation today…”
What happens if Hamas doesn’t deescalate? What if Hamas keeps shooting rockets? Who is pressuring Hamas to knock it off, to shut this down? Who is pressuring the Palestinian terrorists in southern Lebanon firing rockets into Israel? Who is pressuring these terrorists? Are we rely on the mullahs in the Iran?
Is John Kerry talking again to Javad Zarif? Who’s he talking to? And why is it that Bibi is the one that’s supposed to “deescalate” when the rockets are coming in from Gaza. Rush talked about this beautifully, the notion of the Middle East peace process and how that Middle East peace process should be working out. Here’s Rush.
RUSH: The whole idea of Middle East peace as a diplomatic solution? It’s impossible. There will never be one, and I’m glad Kushner said so. I’m glad he’s realized it. Kushner is very young compared to all these other diplomats, and he’s way ahead of the game here. But look at what we’ve had to put up with.
We’ve had Jimmy Carter and the Camp David accords, and we’ve had Clinton bringing Arafat and all these players to the White House. We’ve had everything under the sun, and it is one of these things that never ends no matter who the president is. No matter what party runs Washington — or runs Congress, I should better say — this is a thing that is just part of Washington that goes on and on and on to which there will never be a solution.
And yet it is something careers are made of. It is something that people have invested in for all kinds of reasons other than solution, and everybody plays along. The Drive-By Media duly reports every phase of the latest round of talks, ideas, negotiations on Middle East peace. What is Middle East peace? What is it, anyway? Is it still the Palestinians versus the Israelis and a Palestinian state? What is it anymore? If we achieved Middle East peace, what would be the result? What would happen? I don’t think anybody can even tell you anymore.
But the one thing I know. This is a conflict that goes back to the beginning of time. It is a biblical religious conflict that does not have a diplomatic solution. Not a single side in this dispute is ever going to surrender because somebody talks them into it. There’s never gonna be — and I have to think that all these people playing this game have to know this, which is why is it strikes me as a gigantic phony exercise. We’ve got experts on Middle East peace.
Whenever a mortar is launched in the Middle East, they’re brought out to television to analyze what it means and what’s going on. We don’t need any of that. We know that it’s a never-ending conflict. People that pay attention to it do. But there hasn’t been a conflict like this that has ever been solved with words, with the Red Cross, with environmental policy. It’s just never going to happen. The only way — and I’ve said this before; it’s nothing new. The only way this is ever gonna end… It’s like every other conflict ends.
It’s only gonna end when someone loses militarily and surrenders because of it. But nobody wants to start a war over this, not a permanent war. I mean, we’ve had Israel under attack. They’ve defended themselves, and they’ve been savaged and criticized for having the audacity to win each of these attacks that they’ve suffered. Israel continues to be portrayed as the problem in the area. And this is the whole thing that sustains all of this. But it’s never gonna end, and there are people that don’t want it to end.
Middle East Peace? The strife has become too profitable. It’s become too valuable to a lot of people’s careers and so forth. So I’m just saying that it’s refreshing. I don’t care if it was a leak that made it happen. It’s refreshing to hear Jared Kushner say, “There may be no solution to the conflict in the Middle East.”
There isn’t! Not the way we’ve been going about it. Where’s the evidence that the way we’ve been going about it for the last 50 years has a solution? There isn’t any, not a shred. Because you’re never gonna convince one side to quit and give up. Can I give you the best evidence ever? Bill Clinton was so desperate to be seen as the president who brought peace to the Middle East, he offered Yasser Arafat everything Arafat was demanding and threw in some goodies. What did Arafat do? Canceled his trip. He didn’t want any part of it. Arafat didn’t want the solution.
He was given everything he had been demanding; he didn’t want it. He didn’t want the solution, didn’t want to end the strife. It’s never gonna happen. Kushner sees it. It’s a good thing. Well, then what is the solution? Maybe there isn’t one. Maybe certain things just are the way they are. Maybe there isn’t a solution. Maybe what “is” is just the way it is and you manage it.
But this, Middle East peace? I mean, it’s been going for thousands and thousands of years; everybody has been tackling it the identical way.Nobody’s ever made any headway in it, not really. At some point you stop beating your head against the wall. Except they don’t. They continue to beat their heads against the wall and people profit from it and their careers advance on the basis of it. And we’re all misled that there is a solution out there this way. Kushner at least says that there isn’t.
BRETT: Now we know, looking backward across the Trump administration, when you get the Abraham Accords put into effect involving Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates. You had a side agreement going with Morocco. You had a side agreement going with Sudan. You have an agreement going with these states that would otherwise be troublesome for this Middle East peace process.
What it took from President Trump, by doing the Abraham Accords, was this. He looked at the problem from a different perspective. As Rush said, what is Middle East peace? What is Middle East peace and how do you impose an external peace on a part of the reason that has seen strife for the better part of 5,000 years? You can’t do it. So what do you do?
You take it one piece at a time. You establish these Abraham Accords. So you get Bahrain, you get the UAE, you get Sudan, you know the Saudis were willing to play ball, because they all view the real threat in the region as being Iran. That is a fact. Iran is the real, omnipresent threat. For 50 years before you get to the Abraham Accords, what do you have?
You have American foreign policy chasing the Palestinian answer, and all the Palestinians knew that all they had to do was to act out, take hostages, fire rockets, commit a terrorist act in the middle of Tel-Aviv or in Jerusalem or anyplace else, and they could absolutely sideline the peace process. So what did Trump do? What did Kushner do?
They came in and they said, “Okay, let’s work from the outside inward. Let’s work regionally to get individual agreements between Israel and these other countries that might otherwise be difficult at the United Nations, and let’s then see what happens when the only piece left is Hamas, is the Palestinian issue,” and what do you see?
You see rioting, you see attacks, you see drama at al-Aqsa, you see all of that happening. Why? What’s happening simultaneously? This is not happening in a vacuum. Simultaneously to this, the American delegation is in Vienna looking to capitulate to the Iranians, to pay them off, to get back in the JCPOA. The Iranians are the funders for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
So the answer to this is pressure on Iran, and what do you have? You have the Biden administration in real time looking at Iran and saying, “Yeah, we’ll transfer you money. We’ll get you what you want. We’ll give you what you need. You can just tell us you’re gonna be part of the JCPOA.
What do we think is gonna happen when they get sanctions relief? Where is that money gonna go? Right back to the Palestinians, and you’re gonna be back at square one, and the Iranians will now have a new weapon at their disposal. Not a nuclear weapon per se, but a weapon that they can use, which is, “We’re threatening to leave the JCPOA!
“We’re going to proliferate. We’re going to enrich uranium if you don’t give in to the Palestinians, if you don’t give in to Hamas, if you don’t give in to any of these folks.” Now, the Europeans have shown who they are for a very long time, but only recently have we seen who they really are.
Anti-Semites.
When it comes to this diplomatic problem involving Israel and Hamas, once again I ask, “Who is pressuring Hamas to play ball?”
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
BRETT: So over the weekend, there were massive protests and admonitions in places like Spain and in France and in Portugal, I believe. You’ve also got protests taking place in London. It’s not a surprise, because London is oftentimes referred to as a very, very aggressive hotbed for radical Islamist ideology. The Finsbury Park Mosque comes to mind.
We have seen these places export a large amount of anti-Semitism, anti-Israeli sentiment out into the streets of London and beyond. In fact, remember, we all recall very sadly the murder of Lee Rigby, the British soldier beheaded in broad daylight on the streets of London as people looked on.
PROTESTER: The solution? Very simple. Jihad! We have armies, we have tanks, we have soldiers. What are they waiting for? How dare they occupy al-Aqsa?
CROWD: (screaming and yelling)
PROTESTER: How dare they! We the Muslims in the West, we are with you!
CROWD: Allahu akbar!
PROTESTER: Very soon, you will see!
CROWD: Allahu akbar!
PROTESTER: You will see this!
CROWD: Allahu akbar!
PROTESTER: You will see this ummah’s response very soon when we remove these dictators, the tyrants. We don’t fear anyone but Allah!
CROWD: (screaming)
PROTESTER: We don’t fear the United Nations, the British government. We don’t give a damn! We only fear Allah.
BRETT: So what he says is very simple. “Jihad! That’s the solution. We have armies, we have tanks, we have soldiers. What are they waiting for? How dare they occupy al-Aqsa? How dare they! We, the Muslims in the West, are with you. Allahu Akbar! Very soon, Allahu Akbar. Very soon you will see. You will see this ummah’s response very soon when we remove these dictators, these tyrants.
“We don’t fear anyone but Allah. We don’t fear the United Nations, the British government. We don’t give a damn! We only fear Allah.” So tell me again how you’re gonna have a ceasefire conversation with this guy. People ask me, “Who’s the commander of Hamas?” The commander of Hamas is a guy that the Israelis have been trying to kill since the 1990s.
His name Mohammed Daif, Mohammed Daif, and he is somebody that they tried to knock off consistently since the 1990s, and he continues to survive. Literally, he is a man who has lost all of his limbs in battles and in attempted assassinations by the Israelis against him. So he’s in a wheelchair, and he’s taken care of by the senior command of Hamas, and they move him from place to place.
He is the commander. That’s the boss! That’s the guy who runs the operation. His name is Mohammed Daif,” and “daif” means “guest” in Arabic. So he is an omnipresent guy, he is an omnipresent guy, and it’s a very complex situation, especially when you have people in the streets of London who are out there calling for more revolution, more violence.
It’s unbelievable.
Rush spoke about politically incorrect truths, and here’s what he said.
RUSH: Newt’s comment on the Palestinians. Oh-ho-ho! Has that ruffled some feathers? This is Newt on The Jewish Channel, cable network. Correspondent Steven Weiss interviewed Gingrich and this is what Newt said about the Palestinian people.
RUSH: Oh, folks! That is lighting dynamite. That’s lighting dynamite and throwing it in a crowd of liberals. Oh, I know it’s a hundred percent true. Golda Meir said the same thing. Numerous statesmen and women have said the same thing, but the conventional wisdom something different now: The Palestinians are a historical people, and they are living in a historical place stolen from them.
I mean, that’s it. (interruption) Well, they should go to Jordan, not just Jordan, other places, too. But there’s not a race of people called the Palestinians. There never has been, and Newt’s right about this. But they exist as a foil for the other Arabs. I’ll tell you who sells the Palestinians out all the time is other Arabs.
What happens to the Palestinians, basically what they do to themselves, is what the rest of the Arab terrorist world points to and says, “See, that’s why the Jews are so bad! Look what the Jews are doing to our people.” You need that to keep happening if you want to keep blaming it all on the Jews. Newt starts off explaining that he was right about it.
NEWT: Was what I said factually correct? Yes. Is it historically true? Yes. Are we in a situation where every day rockets are fired into Israel while the United States, the current administration, tries to pressure the Israelis into a peace process? Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth: These people are terrorists.
They teach terrorism in their schools. They have textbooks that say, “If there are 13 Jews and nine Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?” We pay for those textbooks through our aid money. It’s fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, “Enough lying about the Middle East!”
RUSH: Okay, that’s one of these dead-on truths again, but the truth’s politically incorrect because it’s so threatening to people. It upsets applecarts.
BRETT: What stops people from fighting? What is the number one thing that can stop people from fighting? I’m not talking about bombs. I’m not talking about a military solution. I’m talking about the thing that stops people from fighting is trade. In the postwar model in Europe, what did you have take place? Obviously, we had the Marshall Plan; we rebuilt Europe in the wake of World War II.
But what emerged afterwards in the West? You had a trading bloc. The Germans were trading with the French, they were trading with the English, they were trading with the Italians. Trade. Countries that trade with each other don’t go to war with each other. We don’t go to war with Canada. We’re not going to war with Mexico. We don’t go to war with Japan.
We fought them in a war, rebuilt them, and they are a large trading partner for us. Look at Dubai, the jewel of the Middle East, wealthiest part of the world in that part of the world, right? Dubai. You look at Gaza. Gaza is a coastal area. You’ve got amazing beaches! You’ve got a beautiful opportunity to develop that.
I’m sure if Hamas would put down the rockets and stop bombing Jerusalem, stop bombing Tel Aviv or Lod or any of these places, that the Israelis would look to trade with them. In fact, when the Jordanians tried to aid today, Hamas shot at aid workers from Jordan! The answer to this is capitalism, free-market models, nations trading with each other multiply. But not the kind of trade you would think.
Jeff in Tampa, Florida, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
CALLER: Brett, you are executing guide host duties flawlessly.
BRETT: Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.
CALLER: A question from the class here at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
BRETT: Mmm-hmm.
CALLER: Where are the rockets that Hamas is firing on Israel built? Are they Russian missiles? Are they Iranian missiles? I’m thinking the answer to this question would completely change the discussion in the Middle East right now.
BRETT: Okay. Great question. I’ll answer it, ’cause we’re up against a break, and thank you for your kind words, Jeff. They are originally Iranian missiles. There’s this belief that they have about 8,000 of them, okay? They have been, over the last number of years, building those rockets themselves in Gaza. So they’re not being shipped in on boats or over the desert. They’re making them themselves. That’s how advanced Hamas is.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
BRETT: Well, the answer is — in regarding Joe Biden’s expectation that Bibi Netanyahu will need to, you know, significantly ratchet down the drama between Israel and the Hamas forces. Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to Biden, quote, “Israel is determined to continue this operation until the goal is achieved, to restore peace and quiet.”
As we speak, you know, you’ve got rockets going back and forth from Hamas and into Israel, and Bibi Netanyahu has just signaled to the rest of the world that he’s not much interested in Joe Biden and his policy prescriptions. I’m wondering if The Squad had any effect on that, wondering if The Squad had any effect on Bibi Netanyahu’s decision to not partner up with Biden on this call for a ceasefire.
I mean, after all, it was Rashida Tlaib who called Israel an apartheid state. You’ve had AOC, Ilhan Omar, the rest of The Squad all calling it apartheid. It’s disgraceful, and it is disgraceful the way this is playing out. And make no mistake, that is a very strong message being sent to the broader Middle East by Benjamin Netanyahu that he’s not much on taking Joe Biden’s policy positions, given the fact that Joe Biden’s crew is sitting down with the Iranians as we speak, trying to figure out a way to pump more money into their regime.
More on that straight ahead.
Vinny is in Fort Wayne, Indiana, joining us now. Vinny, welcome to the show, Vinny.
CALLER: Hey, thank you for having me. Thank you guys for doing a great job of keeping Rush alive with all of us.
BRETT: Thank you.
CALLER: You know, when you sometimes go to the radio and you hear that beginning, you hope you hear his voice.
BRETT: Oh, I know.
CALLER: Like waiting for a phone call from a lost family member, you know, you kind of look forward to it, but you guys are doing a great job.
BRETT: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: My question is this: I’ve been on this earth since 1968, and I don’t know that there’s ever been a year where there wasn’t a conflict in the Middle East.
BRETT: Right.
CALLER: And what do you see as a solution? Because it seems every four years, something pops off and then there’s a conflict and then it calms down and it happens again.
BRETT: Right.
CALLER: Is there a solution, or is this just gonna be the cycle that we live with our entire life?
I imagine as another Drive-By call mentioned, Vinny, who called into the program earlier, you know, Benjamin Netanyahu to go on TV and read all the ceasefires that have been broken in the last 45 years and probably go on for days and days. I think this is a cycle, until people decide they don’t want it to be a cycle any longer.
Jimmy Carter was able to broker the Camp David accords with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. They wanted to have peace. It was achieved. There are successes, but it’s up to Hamas, which is a terrorist organization, to want to come to the table. I don’t see ’em wanting to do it.
CALLER: So how much of the Iranian money that was given to them went into those Hamas rockets?
BRETT: I think a substantial amount. I think a substantial amount. It’s been spread all over the Iranian militias in Syria. Certainly, Hezbollah controls much of Lebanon. This is a regional problem coming from the Iranians. They are the malign actor behind all of this.
CALLER: You know, I guess we really miss Trump now, don’t we?
BRETT: Ha. Absolutely. Great, great stuff, Vinny. I appreciate you calling in.
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