Ben Shapiro & Dave Rubin DESPERATELY Defend Canceling Candace Owens
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Speaking of champions of free speech, warriors of in the trenches of anti-woke.

Our friends at the Daily Wire have been making some waves this week by canceling Candace Owens, although they probably wouldn't put it that way.

And they're really going out of their way with sophistry. They are laying on the contorted logic arguments very heavy. So Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin got together to explain why what they did to Candace Owens is different from what they've been complaining about for many, many years now.

tunnel talk with dave rubin and ben shapiro yeah tunnel talk all right so let's do the elephant in the room for just a moment because i saw you this week on pierce morgan he asked you repeatedly about candace uh you repeatedly basically said i won't talk about that i don't want to talk about here too yeah and that's fine and you know it's interesting because we all sort of came up together to different extents and we've all done a million things together in public events and networks and all those things

It seems to me that at this moment, she's now a free agent. She happened to end up on Locals, which I created, and we're a platform, not a publisher that you guys are.

can you at least talk to just sort of where it's at now? She's not with you, she's free. - She's free to do whatever she wants to do, to be wherever she wants to be. The difference between a publisher like The Daily Wire and a platform like Locals is obviously that a platform should have a very broad range of speech that it allows, including speech that maybe even the creators don't believe is inside what they would consider to be the Overton window. That's a very different thing than direct subsidization of particular opinions.

The Daily Wire would not have a host, would not pay a host who was staunchly pro-abortion. They'd have no obligation to pay a host who was staunchly pro-abortion. And so when it comes to the hosts on the Daily Wire, obviously everyone was able to say what they want. Nobody ever comes to me and says, you can't say X. Nobody ever says that to Walsh. No one ever said that to Candace. But the reality is that there is an Overton window at the Daily Wire. Obviously there was a non-meeting of the minds. That's pretty much all I can say on this. And, you know, I'll

A lot of this has happened publicly. But to the extent that the Daily Wire is in fact not a publisher, that is in fact not a platform, it is a publisher, that means that there is no moral obligation for the Daily, and there's no free speech problem with the Daily Wire saying we don't wish to pay a particular host or that host saying I don't wish to work here anymore because again, there's a parting of the ways that I'm, that, you know,

is not really open for discussion at this point. - Does it surprise you that so many people, even on our side of this, are confused about that as it relates to free speech and quote, unquote, cancel culture? Like, severing a business tie, as long as you're not throwing someone in jail, they're able to be everywhere else,

- I'm not super surprised at the controversy, honestly, because to a certain extent, I think that there's been a reaction on the right to the excesses of the left. So because what the left did is they said that the Overton window ought to be closed so tight that no one can get inside the Overton window. Basically, if you're to the right of Hillary Clinton,

you can't be allowed inside. Yes, exactly. And not just with regard to platforms, but with regard to publishers. So for example, this week, NBC News deciding that Ronna McDaniel was too much for them. Ronna McDaniel can't work in NBC News. The sacred halls of NBC News must not be sullied by the former head of the RNC. Jen Psaki, however, can have a show on MSNBC despite being the press secretary for the White House five seconds ago. The right's response to that is, I think,

to say, you guys have shut the Overton window too tight. But I think some elements of the right have basically said there is no Overton window. The Overton window should be completely exploded with regard not just to platforms, with which I kind of agree, but with regard to publishers. So NBC News not only has an obligation to hire Ronna McDaniel, NBC News has...

has the obligation to hire Alex Jones, for example. Right. I don't think that's true. It just makes no sense at a business level beyond free speech. I mean, there's a reason that networks existed. Right, they have editorial positions. Daily Wire has a very strong editorial position on a wide variety of issues. And by the way, I should say that, you know, there are a lot of people who are suggesting this is about disagreements over Israel. I mean, I can safely say it is not about disagreements over Israel to the extent that

Without reference to Candace at all here, Matt Walsh has taken the position that America ought not be involved in the Middle East at all. Matt Walsh's position, so far as I understand it, and I've talked to him about it, is that Israel, in a conflict between Israel and Hamas, Israel is obviously a more moral party than the genocidal terrorist group Hamas, but also it's very far away, he doesn't care, and it doesn't involve America. That's just a pure isolationist position. I disagree with it. I think it's wrong. I think that it's short-sighted. But

Again, he's on our platform that is well within the range of acceptable discourse at The Daily Wire. So the notion that you have to mirror my exact perspectives on what Israel is doing in Gaza is obviously not true based on the roster of hosts that we currently have. There are a lot of other factors, obviously, at play. Right. So actually, let's connect that to something else going on that we did.

Oh, wow. Where to even begin with this? Okay, for one thing, his overall construction here, that it's not a platform, it's a publisher, agreed. But...

It is a publisher that has largely built its brand around not being like other publishers in that it is not going to drive people out for a difference of opinion. Now, if over the past several years when.

Barry Weiss leaves the New York Times, you had not attacked the New York Times as canceling Barry Weiss, and there are many other examples, then there'd be no hypocrisy here. But not only have you done so, you have literally built your brand around attacking other publishers, not platforms, publishers, who drive people out for lack of orthodoxy. Bringing up Ronna McDaniel, who has been

A defender of Trump's claims that the election was stolen. Well, certainly at MSNBC, which is basically the Church of Liberalism.

That is as great an offense as it is at the Daily Wire, a place run by a bunch of fanatically Zionist Jews to appeal to Christians who think Jews need to be in Israel as Jesus bait. That is an equal offense, and they were equally within their rights to get rid of Ronna McDaniel by your logic.

Yes, they distinguish between a platform and publisher at their convenience. At their convenience. Right. When that song, what was the song about shooting the black kids who stole chips from the store? Try that in a small town. Was that it? Right. The real crazy. Right. That song, Country Music TV didn't want to put that video on their channel. Right.

Well, they exercise some editorial control. They curate videos. They're a publisher. They are not a platform. If they decide they don't want to show that video, they're within their rights. But that's cancel culture, according to these types. Right. Whenever a conservative loses a book deal. Right. That's cancel culture, even though in there you're literally talking about a publisher. Right.

Right. Making a call, which books they want to put out and which ones they want to pass on. So, yeah, I mean, they, like I said, choose to distinguish publisher platform from

According to what when it suits them to do that. As for the Overton window. Yeah, he's allowing an Overton window that basically ends that it's none of our business. No advocacy for the people of Gaza is allowed on the Daily Wire. Obviously, Matt Walsh's stance on this is that it's none of our business. We should have nothing to do with it. That's as far left as you are allowed to go at the Daily Wire.

Although Matt Walsh, it's interesting that, and I assume he mentioned Matt Walsh before Matt Walsh took a stand against Greg Abbott. Matt Walsh, he does a weekly cancellation.

And this week he canceled Greg Abbott for creating or attempting to create safe speech zones where pro-Palestinian protests cannot be exercised on their college campuses, I think. And Walsh exorciated him for that as violating free speech.

So Matt Walsh is a complicated figure. You know, I, as somebody who's spoken a lot about transgender medicine and its contradictions and its lack of safety or science, I've drawn on his reporting a lot and I've always found it to be accurate. There are a lot of things that he believes that I do not. There are a lot of things, you know, I find rather abhorrent in his belief system.

But I have never really doubted that he is a person of principle, that he actually believes what he's saying. And I don't think it's a coincidence that he came out right when Candace Owens got fired and decided to take a stand like that. He's not a stupid guy.

He's tweaking them. He's tweaking them. I mean, to do that this week, that's almost daring them to fire him. And I would read into that. Maybe I'm wrong. He didn't like what happened with Candace Owens. And also another problem with this formulation. Okay, man, if Matt Walsh tomorrow turned around and came out as a, you know, liberal drag queen, you could maybe make an argument that that completely conflicts with your brand.

Candace Owen is a conservative who disagrees with you on one particular issue. Not talking about somebody whose whole brand has transformed into something just completely incompatible with the daily life. So you're just not going to tolerate dissent on this issue. You're just like the people you've been attacking for years. They're exactly the same way.

There are certain third rails, certain issues you absolutely cannot dissent on or you are cast out. And you did the same thing to Candace Owens. And as this poster points out, you've kind of undermined your reason for existing in the course of that. So this is Alexandros Marinos. First, Shapiro makes the argument that Daily Wire is a publisher like a magazine or a newspaper, not a platform like Locals.

Interestingly, he implies that the Daily Wire was subsidizing Candace Owens. This would imply they were taking a financial loss to have her there.

Shapiro and Rubin, however, have also been massive critics of cancel culture. How did cancel culture get its name from a campaign to cancel the Colbert report over a tweet? Much of cancel culture is about inflicting professional harm for bad opinions. God, do you remember when Stephen Colbert was a guy that they'd want to cancel?

Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's like the Stone Age. I forgot about that before he became a disgusting shell. This is a shambolic performance that brings the contradictions of the whole Daily Wire experiment to a head.

They were supposed to be a platform for conservative hosts. They were supposed to help those hosts break through to the various platforms. Now we suddenly find out that the hosts at The Daily Wire are subject to strong editorial positions on a wide variety of topics. I am not raising a free speech issue, but I am raising a brand honesty issue.

When they took in Gina Carano, who was fired for unpopular opinions, was their stance that Disney had a right to define its, quote, range of acceptable opinions? Or did they decry it as cancel culture? Selecting the hosts is one thing. Making it clear that the hosts have to stay within the lines acceptable to, let's be honest here, Ben Shapiro is another.

From a neutral business advice point of view, The Daily Wire makes a brand promise that it has now forsaken and as such will henceforth be seen as yet another media organization whose hosts cannot be trusted to be speaking their mind.

Perhaps Daily Wire signed a check they could not cash, but the fact of the matter is that they have done the exact thing they criticized many others for, the thing they got big and successful criticizing.

This is Dave Smith. It's amazing how many people rose to fame by opposing identity politics and cancel culture who have become the biggest censorship loving identitarians since a war involving Israel broke out. And that's that's exactly it. That's exactly it. As soon as this war broke out, much to our disappointment, you found out how many of these people are completely full of shit.

What they didn't like were opinions that they agreed with being canceled. They were never against cancellation. Yeah, absolutely. And that thing that

Shapiro said about halfway through that video. Well, you know, our hosts can say whatever they want within a certain Overton window. Well, that's that's exactly almost to the letter what YouTube says. We encourage a broad spectrum of opinions and values on our platform. We all know what that means, right? It means within a certain Overton window. And if you step outside of that.

Even if you don't know you're stepping outside of that, they can shit can you. And that's what happened here. Yeah, no, you can say whatever you want as long as you're okay with Israel bombing Al-Sheba Hospital. Sorry, why am I blurry?

What happened there? Well, yeah, we were looking the other day. What's his name? Clavin? We did the whole video about... Oh, yeah, the Christ is King guy. Yeah, this is really just blowing apart the contradictions in the whole Daily Wire brand. I mean, I could definitely see Walsh going next based on the...

video he did this week. If that's not a shot across the bow, I don't know what he could possibly have been thinking to do that literally the week that this Candace Owens thing blew up. Now, I believe Candace Owens will be just fine. If anything, she'll probably be better off professionally. Walsh, does he have that kind of appeal? Does he fit that kind of a niche? I don't know.

But again, I don't know. Yesterday was trans visibility day. He'll be eating off that for years. He probably cleaned up at least until next year. And then there will be another one. So there'll be another one. That's true. You got to build. You might be right. But yeah, I mean, we'll fall on Easter next year. It was, you know, like this was the big year. This, this, this was, this was a big one for him. He should do, he should do a followup movie. What is Easter? Right. Yeah. What is Easter? Yeah. Yeah.

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Treester, as we're calling it. Republicans slam Biden for proclaiming Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter, though it's yearly observed on March 31st. All right, so there's a lot to unpack here. We're probably going to make fun of everyone involved. A statement from President Joe Biden on Transgender Day of Visibility.

Transgender Day of Visibility, we celebrate the strength and joy and absolute courage of some of the bravest people I know. Transgender Americans deserve to be safe and supported in every community. But today, across our country, American extremists are advancing a hateful and extreme state of law that targets transgender kids and their families. No one should have to be brave just to be themselves. Come on, man.

Let me be clear, these attacks are on America and must end. The bullying, discrimination, and attacks on the trans kids face how exacerbate our national mental health crisis. More than half of the fuck-a-lame transgender seriously consider suicide.

Loving parents are terrified for their children's future. To help my administration provide dedicated emergency mental health resources. If you're a transgender young person who needs help, you can call 988-REASONABLE. Here at Suicide Prevention. Press 3.

Speak with a counselor. Specifically trained in support. They threw another letter in there. I didn't even know. LGBTQI plus youth. Now, I mean, it changes so fast. You just can't keep up. You're going to get canceled for leaving off a letter one of these days.

My administration will never quit fighting to end discrimination, to stand against these unjust state laws, and to guarantee everyone the fundamental right and freedom to be who they are. We'll never stop working to create a world where everyone can live without fear, where parents, teachers, and whole communities come together to support kids no matter how they identify. And every child is surrounded by compassion and love.

I want every member of the trans community to know that we see you. You're each made in the image of God and deserve love, dignity, and respect. You make America stronger and we're with you. Okay. All right.

the kinds of laws that he's talking about are laws regarding things like whether children are able to consent to medical treatments that will sterilize them for the rest of their lives that have a very high medical complication rate on the basis of I cannot say it enough

Total lack of evidence. Every country that has done a meta analysis of the data upon which the idea of gender affirming care in children is based have concluded that there are very low data to support it. Certainly nothing commensurate to the risk of harm to the child.

This is the kind of insanity that he is calling bigotry. So moving along now that we got that out of the way, um,

Republicans are taking aim at President Joe Biden for proclaiming Easter Sunday as the transgender day of visibility, though the two days only coincided this year by chance. Now, that's where I'm going to piss off some other people. Yeah, man. I mean, that was a dumb claim. It's always on. It's always on March 31st.

Do I think Joe Biden should have gone out of his way to make that kind of a proclamation given the coincidence of those things landing on Easter? No, he's kind of between a rock and a hard place, though, because the only people left who are going to vote for him are people who found that inspiring.

So what was he going to do if he didn't say it? They would have attacked him for it. And certainly nobody he would have pleased by not saying saying it is voting for him anyway. The trans. It was incidental. Like, you know, the the day just happened to. It just happened to go inside with Easter. Nobody designated it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the whole idea is absurd. Yeah. No, they sat down and said.

well how can we lose more votes than we're already losing on gaza well let's uh let's let's talk about the trans on eastern that's what i want yeah i mean it's just ridiculous so it was just random it was just one of those ones are into jesus's bathroom you know yes exactly i found them doing a line on the septic tank

The Transgender Day of Visibility, which was started in 2009 as a day of awareness to celebrate the successes of transgender and gender nonconforming people, is held annually on March 31st. The date of Easter, meanwhile, changes from year to year. But several Republicans seized on Biden's proclamation to attack the president.

It is appalling and insulting that Joe Biden's White House formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as Trans Day of Visibility. Former President Donald Trump's campaign said in a statement, it's appalling and insulting that Joe Biden's. Yeah, this is another piece of bullshit.

prohibited children from submitting religious egg designs for their Easter art event and formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as Trans Day of Visibility. Sadly, these are just two more examples of the Biden administration's years-long assault on the Christian faith.

We call on Joe Biden's failing campaign. You know, I mean, it's not attributed to Trump, but it sounds like he wrote this. I guess they just have like a good sense of his language in their ear by now. Right. We call on Joe Biden's failing campaign and the White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration of only the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Carolyn Levitt, national press secretary. Yeah, sure. This is Trump's burner account. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Biden administration had betrayed the central tenant of Easter in a post on X. The American people are taking note.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement Saturday, as a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American.

Well, that's very heartwarming. In this year's presidential proclamation, Biden said the Transgender Day of Visibility honors the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans.

Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our nation, the proclamation said, adding that they deserve and are entitled to the same rights and freedoms as every other American, including the most fundamental freedom to be their true selves. Biden issued the first ever presidential proclamation of its kind in recognition of the Transgender Day of Visibility in 2021 and has since issued a proclamation every year.

The national debate over transgender rights has grown increasingly contentious with Republican lawmakers at the state and federal level calling for a range of stringent laws, including restrictions on gender affirming care for minors and excluding trans women from competing in sports teams that align with their gender identity. Now, I want to make it clear because, of course, CNN is going to frame that and subtly phrase it as a fringe position.

That is the position of 70% of Americans. So 70% of Americans are MAGA extremists, according to the implications here. Some Republicans, including Johnson and Trump, also claim that Biden banned religious-themed designs at the White House's Easter events. The American Egg Board, who knew?

which partners with the White House on Easter events, said the procedures in place this year haven't changed.

Elizabeth Alexander, a spokesperson for First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, cast the Republican egg complaints as misleading swirl and posted on X, the American egg board flyer standard non-discrimination language requesting artwork has been used for the last 45 years across all Dem and Republican administrations.

Uh, but Donald Trump jr. Nonetheless made the claim that Biden is banning religious symbols from Easter celebrations at the white house while flying the trans flag and declaring Easter Sunday to be trans visibility day. This is the left's new religion. They want people worshiping the trans flag instead of God. They must be stopped. Okay. Um, uh,

Quote, I didn't do that, Biden said, when asked about proclaiming Easter Sunday trans day of visibility. Asked about Speaker Johnson's claim otherwise, the president replied, he's thoroughly uninformed. So, okay, so there's a lot going on there. So, yes, I think Easter falling on the same day, by coincidence...

put Joe Biden between a rock and a hard place. And he went with the few people who still think voting for him is a good idea because, uh, you know, who, who's he gonna win over by not catering to them, uh, at this point. Uh, but I mean, this was just incredibly stupid claims that were being made by his political opponents claiming intentionally put it on that day. And, uh,

The claim that he uniquely banned religious symbols on the Easter eggs. Apparently that's always banned. What's most interesting about that to me, because I didn't know anything about that, is how much Easter, even more than Christmas, really has fallen back to its pagan roots. I mean, at that point, if you're just going to completely take out

crucifix or resurrected Jesus and you just got a bunny and some eggs I mean you know you're back to midsummer you're back to you're back to just just a pagan ritual yeah and ironically a quite gay one you know pastel colored eggs fucking guys dressed up as bunnies with kids sitting on a fucking lap I mean it's gay

I'm going to become a gay holiday. So that's why I'm like, let me hear this fucking bullshit. Like, this is crap. I never realized how much... I guess I should have. But, you know, Easter is a very important Christian holiday, apparently. But I didn't really have a sense of that growing up as a kid, particularly.

Partly because of what you just said. Right. Right. Like, especially for Jews. All the religious iconography has been stripped of it. Like, when I was a kid, I was raised secular. The chocolate bunnies. My mother comes from a Catholic family. My father comes from a Jewish family. So we knew Easter as fun, egg hunting, eating chocolate and shit. I had really no idea what it was about probably until like fifth or sixth grade is when I learned it. Right.

Right. You know? Yeah. Right. I mean, but that's just bringing it back to its roots, right? I mean, it's just a harvest holiday or a, you know, renewal holiday. A holiday of the spring, of growth, of

planting of the crops, the changing of seasons. It's find out day. We workshop that on our patron show. You're saying good Friday is fuck around day. Easter is find out day. But yeah, no, growing up, I mean, because even Jews celebrate it with their kids, man, because they give them like the chocolate bunnies and the little like peeps.

They still have those, the Peeps. It's like pure sugar marshmallow. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Those are still out there. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, my kids loved it. You know, we did the egg hunt and everything and the decorating. Like, it's a fun day for a kid. Yeah, decorating the eggs. I had no idea the religious meaning of it until I was an older kid.

No, you're right. I probably, until I was older, I probably didn't understand what it was that like Jesus rose on that day. Yeah, I probably didn't get that when I was a kid. Right. It was just like the one with the chocolate bunnies. So, yeah, I mean, so, so, so, hey, Don Jr. by accident and in a roundabout way has a point that they're secularizing this holiday, but they didn't really do. The greens and the pinks and the blues. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they didn't secularize it.

You know, they've had like egg dying kits since I was little. And I'm sure long before that, like it hasn't been celebrated by a lot of people as a, as a religious holiday, not even really by Christians. Right. I mean, you go to a Christian's house at Easter. What do they got? They got the same shit. Jews have colored eggs and chocolate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. They got a freak. They got, they got a guy fricking nailed to the wall. You know, I don't know.

The guy coming out of the ground. They have a guy burst out of the shed in the backyard in a lion claw. Yeah.

Everybody knows that the people of Israel, the political class of Israel, the citizens of Israel are big fans of the Mad Max franchise and they're doing everything they can to bring on the foretold apocalypse seen in that film and the world that comes after. They figure they're already desert dwellers, they're ahead of the game. So Israel, according to Iran,

bombed its embassy in Syria, killing a top commander. Iran's consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus was flattened on Monday in what Syrian and Iranian media described as an Israeli airstrike, a startling apparent escalation of the conflict in the Middle East that would pit Israel against Iran and its allies.

A Lebanese security source speaking to Reuters said one of the dead was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iranian state television said several Iranian diplomats had been killed. Israel, which has repeatedly hit Iranian targets during the six-month war in Gaza, declined to comment on the incident following its usual practice.

Otherwise known as go get your fucking shine box. Iran's Tasnim news agency said five people were killed in the Israeli strike. Syria's Santa state news agency reported an unspecified number of deaths and injuries. Um,

Iran's Tasnim news agency said five people were killed in the Israeli strike. Oh, I see. Since the Iranian-backed Palestinian faction Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7th, Israel has ramped up airstrikes in Syria against Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia and Iran's guards, both of which support the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Um, so, uh, this is from a poster Ferris Iranian consulate in Damascus was bombed by Israel assassinating senior commander Muhammad Reza Zahedi. There are unconfirmed reports of three Iranian generals killed. Now who's the terrorist here? Who's goading a full blown war in the middle East? You condemn Hamas Keaton? Of course. Yeah, we condemn Hamas. Uh, but let's look at this footage.

I mean, now that I see it, it's not so bad. You put on a sofa, love seat.

Clear that right out. Breaking Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus in broad daylight. This is a severe breach of the Vienna Convention and a violation of Syria and Iran's sovereignty.

Israel wants to engulf the entire region in war, death and destruction with Western weapons and support. You know, seems to be a lot of that going around. You remember how Ukraine tried to convince everybody that Russia had intentionally bombed Poland? Yes. All of these proxy states are very eager to draw the United States into their regional wars.

Even though Poland is in the opposite direction, right? Yes. Like they had Wile E. Coyote firing the rockets. Oh, well, yeah. And, you know, speaking of classic cartoons, Zelensky was out there like Bullwinkle with his Boris routine. Yes, you see what we have been warning you of all of this time?

These people are psychos, man. Like they don't care about starting World War III as long as they can draw in the United States. So is this a violation of international law? I mean, who's counting?

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The premises of a diplomatic mission, diplomatic premises are the houses of ambassadors and are inviolable and must not be entered by the host country except by permission of the head of the mission.

Likewise, the host country must never search the premises, may not seize its documents or property, and must protect the mission from intrusion or damage. Article 30 extends this provision to the private residents of the diplomats. So this is George Galloway. It is not only Iran who will undoubtedly respond to what just happened to Damascus, but

But Russia, too, cannot continue to allow such savage violations of the sovereignty of its 50-year ally, Syria. Keep an eye on the Golan Heights.

This is Kavork Almasian. Israel targeted the Iranian consulate. This marks a significant escalation by Israel towards Iran, specifically targeting the axis of resistance. The strikes targeted a high ranking IRGC officer who plays a crucial role in Iran's operations in Syria.

Moreover, the attack specifically aimed at the Iranian consulate, which holds the status of a sovereign Iranian territory. Consequently, Israel strike can be interpreted as a direct attack on Iran rather than targeting targets that are Iranian linked or Iranian affiliated as the U.S. and Israel have previously concealed using such terms.

So, what does Israel want? Israel seeks to intensify and expand the scale of the conflict in order to compel direct involvement from the United States. American people need to understand the seriousness of the situation. Israel is actively attempting to involve their nation in another costly and dangerous conflict in the Middle East. How will Iran retaliate?

It is not easy to provide an answer to this question as Iran operates based on strategic decisions rather than emotions. Tehran aims to manage the tense situation in the region as the axis of resistance continues to make slow but effective progress against the U.S.-Israeli influence in West Asia. So what are your thoughts, Keaton?

Well, this is just more evidence, even more evidence that all of these disputes between Biden and Netanyahu, quote unquote, of these past couple of weeks have just been for show. Because what this tells me is that Israel is fully confident that we have their back no matter what. Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing this. Like if the last couple of weeks of tension were actual for real tension, then they might think twice before doing a thing like this.

If they think we're going to start conditioning aid, if they think we're actually going to bring Netanyahu here and give him the quote-unquote come-to-Jesus moment that Biden talked about, then they might not be doing this. The fact that they're doing this is just more evidence that they're really –

is not much actual rift there um as evidenced earlier uh this week or rather over the weekend where it came out that we've been sending them two thousand pound bombs this whole time uh even as we say things are getting out of hand and so this tells me that israel is as confident as ever uh which shows you that all of these um

So all of these rhetorical shifts are just that they are just surface level rhetorical shifts to try and win back some of the base that has left them over this issue, because if there were any teeth to back any of that up, it's far less likely that Israel would be doing this. Not to say they wouldn't. They've got a lot of chutzpah, as they say, but they'd be much less likely to.

Yeah. I think when you look at a situation like this, as many people have pointed out, World War I and World War II didn't erupt overnight. There were a series of events leading into them, particularly with World War II. There were a series of smaller battles and incursions that finally erupted into World War II. All it's going to take is

is for Russia and Iran and perhaps other parties. Jordan is getting a lot of pressure from its own people about its relations, diplomatic relations with Israel. They're having a lot of protesters on the street. All it's going to take is for some of these powers, perhaps the BRICS powers, to say, you know what, man? I don't think the United States could really take us on at this point.

They can't. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't happened yet. Right. I mean, this is far from the first provocation beyond Gaza and the West Bank, even since October 7th. Didn't they kill a Lebanese journalist back at the end of October? Right. I mean, you know, they've been up to this shit this whole time. I'm surprised it hasn't broken out.

sooner. I have a surprise that hasn't broken out by now. Well, I think that analysis is right. They are trying, just like Ukraine was trying, not lately. I think they've given up on it. Just like Ukraine was trying to get us into World War III. Now Israel is trying to get us into World War III. I think that we really don't have the balls unless we have to. And there's no...

You can't assume that past a certain point, as Russia did with Ukraine, they're not just going to say, fuck it. Let's go. Let's go. Let's settle this. Enough is enough.

Yeah, and that makes it more surprising. I mean, we would lose World War III. We wouldn't win World War III. Well, and that's why I'm saying, why wouldn't they? Because Putin, whatever your thoughts are about Putin, he's a smart guy, and he's got a good strategic mind. And if I'm sitting where Putin is sitting, I'm seeing a hollowed out, decadent country living on a financialized economy that's not really based on anything other than air.

that will tip over if you hit it with a really strong breeze at this point. That's what I'm thinking if I'm Putin. Maybe he talks to Iran. And also, not to sound like Marianne Williamson here, but I don't think this country has enough spiritual gas in its proverbial tank to actually go to war on that scale. I just don't see it happening. I can't see the military mobilizing for this government. I just, I don't see it. Well, how do you mean? You think they'll mutiny?

I just don't think they'll be able to feel the team. Yeah, I don't think they'll have signups. They would need it. They would need a draft at some point. If you're talking about the scale of combat that would be needed to actually fight a world war, you would need a draft.

You would need a draft. You're not going to get the recruits. Nobody's volunteering to go fucking fight Joe Biden, Joe Biden's war against Russia and Syria. They would need a draft. And at that point, you don't know what will happen. At that point, bets are kind of off. We've talked about this a little and you focus a lot on the on the breakdown and a belief in the institutions, which I agree with.

But I mean, what is it? Two thirds of people under 18 are obese at this point. Like, where are you getting these soldiers from? It's an out of shape, decadent society, man. If you're if you're talking about non-nuclear war and China and Russia and Iran team up, they'd eat our lunch all day and all night, in my opinion.

Yeah, and I think, I mean, those two things are not as disconnected as you might think. I think part of the reason, you know, it's a fat and decadent society is because it's a society that lacks any real purpose, any real sense of meaning, right?

I mean, that's when people let themselves go. They let themselves go once they've already had the kids they want to have. They got the wife they want and that's it. You know, you're you're you're living out the end. And that's what this country has been doing for a few decades, I think. And we are certainly in no shape now. I mean, this country is going to beat the Russians. Please, please. And that that might be why we haven't done it. It might be because we know we can't win it.

And we know that a conflict on that scale would probably usher in the kind of multipolar world that we're no doubt walking towards, but that would just accelerate it. Right. Yeah, I don't think it would take a lot to collapse the United States at this point. So Israel not contempt with all of the people, with all the people they murdered the first time.

came back to Al-Shifa Hospital on March 18th, and they left predictable devastation and death in their wake. So let's take a look at this that was put together by TRT World. ♪♪♪

So, Israeli troops end al-Shifa hospital raid, leaving behind bodies and trail of destruction.

Israel's military has withdrawn from Gaza's largest hospital, al-Shifa, after a 14-day siege that witnesses and Palestinian officials say has left buildings largely destroyed and bodies strewn across the complex.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed its withdrawal Monday, saying its troops had killed Hamas militants and seized weaponry and intelligence documents. Wow. Didn't we hear that the first time? And it turned out they were showing you whiteboards that were like the staff rotation at the hospital. They were telling you these were Hamas command structures.

The terrorist base in Shifa has been eliminated. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said Monday, praising the IDF's determined and professional action. He's the one who said Gaza should be wiped out or something.

He's the one who said human animals. Human animals. That's the quote he's most famous for. I'm not doubting that he said the other thing, too. You got to buy his album to get his greatest genocidal hits, but that was one of them. Medical crews are working to recover hundreds of bodies scattered across the grounds at Al-Shifa with at least 300 bodies found so far, according to Gaza's civil defense.

Determining the precise number of people killed is difficult, it added, because Israeli troops had buried bodies inside and around the complex and bulldozed nearby roads. Wow, Kian, that sounds like those stories you hear out of World War II, right? I'm not saying which army, just hear a lot of stories like that.

Uh, right. Ed Al Deshaun, director of operations at Gaza's civil defense told CNN it is almost impossible for ambulances to reach the hospital due to damaged roads in the city. IDF spokesman, rear Admiral Daniel Higari, uh, said 900 suspected militants had been detained during its two week operation.

More than 500 of these had been identified as members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Haghari said Monday, adding some of those detained are commanders and significant people. CNN is unable to verify the numbers of bodies inside al-Shifa independently because of the lack of reporting access in Gaza. CNN has reached out to the IDF on these figures but is yet to hear back.

Gaza's Ministry of Health said about 3,000 people were inside the hospital when the IDF began its raid on March 18th, its second on the facility in nearly six months of war with Hamas.

After claiming its first operation in November had been a success, the IDF in January said it had completely dismantled Hamas's command structure in northern Gaza, only for Hamas reportedly to return to the same site months later, sparking a renewed Israeli assault.

Qadr al-Zanun, a journalist from the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, also working for CNN, said the scene at al-Shifa after the IDF's withdrawal was like a horror movie. Bulldozers crushed bodies of people everywhere around and in the yard of the hospital, al-Zanun said.

Palestinians began arriving at the destroyed complex to search for missing family members. Quote, we found entire families dead and their bodies are decomposed in houses around the hospital, he said.

Um, Palestinians began arriving at the, oh, military vehicles are firing at the hospital buildings windows and at anyone who was caught moving between the hallways. Hamada Abdel Abie, a displaced Palestinian man sheltering at Al Shifa told CNN in March.

Civilian buildings like hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law, but can lose their protected status if they are used to commit acts harmful to the enemy. Israel has for years said Hamas fighters use mosques, hospitals, and other civilian buildings to hide from Israeli attacks and launch their own. Hamas has repeatedly denied the claims.

What they're basically saying is they're basically just allowing Israel to redefine international law in their case because they're saying, well, yeah, Hamas uses the hospitals, Hamas uses the mosques, Hamas uses civilian infrastructure, right? Therefore, it's not civilian infrastructure. Therefore, nothing is off limits. Right. Well, you know, I mean, we've made it's not funny, but we've talked about South Park, the hunting episode, right?

It's coming right at us. It's coming right at us. Exactly. It's coming right at us. Anything that they want to murder, they call Hamas. Anything they want to define as anti-Semitic, they call Hamas. Anything that is not in their interest, they define as Hamas. It's all Hamas. It's all Hamas. And when it's not Hamas, it's Hamas aligned. It's anti-Semitism.

And most people probably know this, but just in case there are those watching who don't, Al-Shifa is in Gaza City, which is in the north, which was supposedly already cleared out. So when Netanyahu was trying to make the case for a Rafah ground invasion, he said, well, there's not no place for people to go. They can go back up north since we've already cleared those areas out. And yet here they are again. Well,

Well, and look at how they've normalized war crimes and atrocity. Because if you remember six months ago, Israel, no, no, no, we didn't bomb the hospital. We didn't bomb the hospital. We wouldn't do that. No, it was an errant rocket from Hamas that it thought this is the same hospital. Right. Same hospital. But they're now saying is a Hamas center. Look what they just look what they did to this hospital. They were saying it was a Hamas center then.

But now it's just been such a constant stream of war crimes that they don't feel like they have to explain it beyond Hamas was there. Right. And they got caught lying about the evidence the first time. Right. And they're still going to come out and say, yeah, no, no, Hamas was there. Based on what? Where's your evidence? Yeah. No, they haven't shown. They have not shown anything. The Washington Post said there was no real evidence to back up what they said the first time.

And now they're not giving figures here. And, you know, that paragraph that CNN put in there about, well, you know, a civilian target can lose its protected status if it's used by the enemy to harm the enemy in war.

Would we settle for that? If a domestic terrorist shacked up in an American hospital, would we be OK with the American government going in, laying siege on the hospital, killing hundreds of people in the hospital, turning off electricity in the hospital, sending snipers outside across the street from the hospital, saying shoot anything that moves in the hospital, whether it's a terrorist, a doctor, a mom or a child? No, of course we would not be OK with that.

So it's not surprising that paragraph is in the article. But when you ask yourself, would we be OK with our military laying siege upon an American hospital just because there was a terrorist inside? Of course not. It's not even a question. Yeah, well, they left behind mass graves the first time when they attacked El Shifa. If you remember, we covered that. I think we covered it on Jimmy's show.

um, there was video of them uncovering mass graves. And according to this, they did it again. They're leaving behind mass graves and bodies in the rubble. It's just, um,

I mean, these are the things that you read in these nations that we're going to we would be screaming to the heavens about the human rights abuses. And this is an ally and we're sending them more bombs. We're sending them bombs of a type that are designed to level entire areas in a place that we know is primarily civilians.

The IDF said its troops had killed terrorists in close quarters encounters, located numerous weapons and intelligence documents throughout the hospital while preventing harm to civilians, patients and medical teams. All right, folks. So if you if you have access to X, you can go on there and see some of the videos of the starving soldiers.

and dead and maimed civilians left behind, including children. Jimmy actually shared a video, it wasn't al-Shifa, but of the IDF executing an old man with his hands in the air. This is just, this is as horrific as almost any video

war crime committed against a civilian population in world history. And it just keeps on compounding. It's just horrible. It stressed its operations in and around the hospital were a precise anti-terror mission and that it had done its utmost to minimize civilian harm.

International organizations have condemned the siege with World Health Organization Director General Tedros Antony Ghebreyesus, that's the best I'm doing there, warning that hospitals should never be battlegrounds. Who and other humanitarian groups had been warning of an ever-nearing famine in northern Gaza?

By late March, 70% of the population was suffering with catastrophic levels of hunger, according to a UN-backed report.

All 2.2 million people in Gaza do not have enough food to eat, with half of the population on the brink of starvation and famine projected to arrive in the north, quote, anytime between mid-March and May 2024, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

You understand what's going to start happening over the next few weeks? You're not looking at thousands. You're not looking at tens of thousands. You're looking at hundreds of thousands of people are going to die over the next two months if something is not done. And it doesn't look like anyone's going to do anything unless, now going back to the bombing of the embassy, unless this erupts into World War III literally.

Certainly Israel and the United States is not going to do anything to prevent this famine. No, I don't have anything. Is that all you got? Well, I just want to point out to put a button on it that Israel's making these claims about how they know Hamas is there. And I want you to remember last time, this is Jackson Hinkle posted this.

CNN analysis video suggests IDF might have rearranged weaponry at Al-Shifa prior to news crew visits. So you might remember this. You can look up the video pretty easily. CNN did a follow-up story showing how Israel had doctored the evidence, including, I believe, that whiteboard thing is in it. So you can't believe anything that these people say just because they claim Hamas is there. It doesn't mean Hamas was there. And certainly...

I mean, it's just so sick looking at that footage, looking at the scale of the destruction that they have the balls to tell people they it was a surgical strike where they took every every pain to avoid civilian casualties. Well, you're pretty fucking bad at it then. Yeah. And you're in a hospital, right? You have IDF soldiers.

On the ground in the hospital. It's not like you drop a bomb from the air. Right. So why are there any civilian casualties then? Right. You have people on the ground in there. Right. Right. We've heard reports. People be. I mean, we've heard reports of really horrible stuff.

happening, which I don't even want to say on this air. But we know that people were shot at point blank range in there. And if you look at some of the findings, you have people with hands tied behind their backs. I mean, it's just unthinkable stuff. And so, yeah, it's pretty obvious that their word is not to be trusted ever again. Ever again. Not just in the context of this conflict, but ever again.

We can only hope that some miracle saves the Palestinian people and that the people doing this to them are tried for their crimes one day the way that they need to be.

Don't freak out. Don't freak out. All the voices performed today are by the one and only, the inimitable Mike McRae. He can be found at MikeMcRae.com. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. That's it for this week. You be the best you can be, and I'll keep being me. Don't freak out. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't

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