WTH Aren’t We Holding Iran Responsible For The Attack on Israel? With Elliott Abrams
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2023
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On October 7th, Israel suffered the worst attack it has experienced in its history at the hands of the terrorist group Hamas. 900 casualties in Israel, including at least 11 American citizens – not to mention around 150 hostages taken by Hamas, most back to the Gaza Strip where they will be held as bargaining chips. The shocking adjectives being used are spot on: heinous, evil, unconscionable. And one lesson has emerged crystal-clear: weakness on Iran does not lead to moderation and bonhomie, it leads to bloodshed and paves the path for terror. Obama’s nuclear deals; Trump’s tougher but ultimately unsustainable approach; Biden’s inattention and subsequent $6 billion bribe to Iran – and people wonder why the Iranian regime thought that now might be a good time to push the envelope even further. What happens next will be decisive. We have watched Biden slow roll aid to Ukraine while Congress tears itself apart. We have watched successive administrations hope that pivoting to Asia will put the Middle East in the rear-view mirror. It won’t. When tyrants and terrorists are persuaded the US is weak, they act. The time has come to change their minds.
Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, DC. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in the administration of Donald Trump.
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.1 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. What hell's going on? |
| 0:01.1 | Who in God's name knows what it's all about. |
| 0:34.8 | Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. |
| 0:36.7 | Mark Thiessen. |
| 0:37.6 | Welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:39.1 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:41.5 | Mark, what the hell is not going on? |
| 0:43.7 | What the hell is going on is there has been an unprecedented terrorist attack invasion of the state of Israel. |
| 0:51.9 | 900 people have died in Israel, including 11 American citizens at the hands of Hamas, |
| 0:57.3 | but not really at the hands of Hamas alone, at the hands of Hamas and their terrorist |
| 1:01.9 | regime backers, the Iranian regime. |
| 1:04.9 | More than 260 kids were massacred in a coordinated attack. |
| 1:10.4 | I can't believe I'm saying these words, a coordinated |
| 1:12.1 | attack on a music festival. The Hamas terrorists came in, they stole Israeli military and police |
| 1:18.1 | uniforms, set up roadblocks on the road outside this music festival, and then sent in terrorists |
| 1:25.9 | with paragliders to attack the music festival, forcing the kids to flee towards what they thought was safety in the hands of Israeli police and military, only to find out that those were terrorists too and they started shooting them and massacring them. |
| 1:39.2 | Who conducts a coordinated attack on a music festival? |
| 1:42.5 | You just sent me a tweet that I almost, my jaw dropped. |
| 1:47.1 | Of that 900 people, 40 babies were murdered. |
| 1:51.2 | 40 babies. |
| 1:52.5 | These are people who went into homes, killed grandmothers, killed babies, raped women. |
... |
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