Ep 287. - Is This the War That Breaks the Middle East? | Sami Hamdi
In this episode of The Thinking Muslim, we’re joined by political analyst Sami Hamdi to unpack the escalating confrontation with Iran - and what it reveals about the world order shaping our lives.
We examine claims of a preemptive strike, the shifting power dynamics between Washington and Tel Aviv, and whether U.S. policy is being driven by Israel’s actions. From reports that Tucker Carlson urged restraint to voices like Marjorie Taylor Greene framing this as a defining political divide in America, the stakes have never been higher. What role are Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states really playing?
Are Arab governments truly autonomous, or constrained by deeper alliances? Is Iran’s strategy sustainable, and could this conflict spiral beyond control? We also assess Benjamin Netanyahu’s regional vision and the risk of wider destabilisation. Join us for a principled, in-depth discussion on what these events mean for the future of our ummah in international affairs.
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Transcript - This is an automated transcript and may not reflect the actual conversation
Introduction
0:05
Samiham and welcome back to the Pinky Muslim. Thank you for having me. Well, alhamdulillah,
0:11
it's good to have you with us back here in London. We've been around the world, but alhamdulillah, it's good to be back in this city. Alhamdulillah, a city where missiles aren't falling. Subhan
0:18
Allah. And uh that's really what I want to talk about today. This really brutal, horrifying attack on Iran. Uh subhan Allah, the funeral of 185 school children took place yesterday. girls, young
0:29
girls who were buried under the rubble. Uh it was a pretty shocking scene and a pretty shocking funeral to witness. By all accounts, uh confirmed by the Omani foreign minister, the Iranians were
Enduring an Unjust Western Order
0:40
ready to comply with all of the nuclear demands, the enrichment demands of the United States on
0:45
the eve of the attack on Saturday. Many ordinary Iranians are today suffering. Um, Sammy, I suppose
0:53
my first question is how long how much longer can we tolerate such an abject unjust western centered
0:59
world that cares so little for innocent lives? I've thought about this question for a while. The
1:06
idea that when it's a western life that is taken, Western governments and Western leaders rightfully
1:13
so, commemorate, mourn, grieve, hold marches. We've seen the sophistication that's involved
1:22
in recognizing the dignity of the fallen western citizen if that's what we want to call it. We say
1:32
that the western government doesn't give value to those lives and and I agree with you. I'm not denying that whatsoever. But I'm saying that who is first who should be giving that value to those
1:41
lives? Who is first that should be mourning and grieving and giving value and giving dignity to those lives? The first actually should be Muslim governments because my view is that if Muslim
1:51
governments give that value then by extension everybody else will give that value because they understand how valuable it is when a Muslim or a Muslim or any citizen whether they're Christian,
2:01
Jew or the like in the region when they die when they see that the local governments give value to those lives then it follows that everybody else when they see that from afar they know that the
2:10
custom and tradition and courtesy is they should give value to those lives. But your question implies why don't they give value to those lives? And I agree with you on that question. That's
2:19
perfectly fine. But maybe we should flip it on its head. When a western government sees that a Muslim government doesn't give value to these lives, that a Muslim government doesn't give value to
2:28
the ordinary sanctity and dignity of a human being. Here I'm not talking about the Iranian regime to the girls. I'm talking about the regimes in the region, whether it's the likes of Egypt
2:35
or beyond. when they see that these governments routinely are built on a foundation and a basis
2:41
whereby the citizen does not have dignity but rather the citizen is a slave to an authoritarian
2:47
system. By what logic do you expect a westerner to turn up to a Muslim country? See the way the
2:53
government treats that citizen and then you demand from the westerner to give the dignity that the own Muslim doesn't give to the other Muslim in that regard. The reason why I say this is the
3:02
number of girls who were killed with in in Iran is a heartbreaking story. It's heartbreaking in
3:07
terms of the girls that were bombed and killed. It's a trademark Israeli strike. It's a trademark
3:12
American strike. It's a trademark Western army strike that we've seen in Iraq and Afghanistan and the like. But the protests coming out from where they should be coming out are not coming
3:21
out. And that's why I argue that the first place in order to restore the dignity if you want any dignity to be given by these western governments is we should also give it to ourselves and and
3:30
people should also give it to those locals and those citizens in those countries as well. We see it even if if we're really going to push it really hard. We see even for example in some
3:39
Muslim states where other members of the um are pretty much in de facto terms enslaved. We don't even give dignity to those within our own um we bring them in as workers. We bring them in as de
3:49
facto slaves. We make them 20 people living in a flat and in the rent. If they get into a car
3:54
accident with a prince or the like, we deport the worker rather than give justice to the worker when it's the fault of the prince or the fault or whatnot. All of these injustices taking place,
4:03
we work them from 5:00 a.m. in the morning until midnight, maybe even then seven days, 7 days a week, and then we tell them that they should be grateful because at least they're here
4:10
and getting a salary and they make more money than they would make in Pakistan or Bangladesh or these other places. In other words, we deny the very dignity to members of our ummah when they come
4:20
while giving giving dignity to the westerner when they come and then we ask when the result of that cumulative treatment of those citizens is that nobody gives the proper respect to our sisters
4:33
who were killed in that strike. That's not a way of me dodging the question. But my my it's
4:39
the same answer I gave with regards to the Gaza genocide when people said why are you harsher on the Muslim rulers than you are on those who are supporting the genocide amongst the western
4:47
states and I give the same answer here is a mer is the American government doing anything unusual
4:54
or different in its support for the Israelis in their genocide. No, they have always supported the Israelis. The only reason Israel survives is because of American support. Israel has always
5:03
provided military tanks. Its bases are used to protect the Israelis. America has always come
5:08
to the rescue of the Israelis. Is Europe doing anything strange in the way that it supports the Israelis in Gaza? No. Europe continues to support them. Even in Bosnia when Kbilt and these other
5:18
Europeans came in and they were offering the ethnically cleansed areas to the to Madic and
5:24
the Cetnik and the fascist Serbs. Europe believed that was a good deal because they said better we give it as a semi-autonomous region then hand it over to a potential Muslim majority European
5:34
majority ethnic Europeans and the like. Europe has been doing this as recent as the 1990s. So what
5:40
surprises you about their support with regards to the Israelis? There's nothing surprising in that regard. I'm not I would be more surprised if they changed overnight and suddenly supported the
5:47
Palestinians. What shocks me is when the Muslim government that was supposed to support Gaza,
5:53
the Muslim government that was supposed to look after the dignity of those girls who was killed, the Muslim government who supposed to respect the rights of those citizens and provide some
6:01
sort of defense. That Muslim government who used to support is now supporting the genocide. Again, you can see I'm not talking about Iran. I'm talking more broadly over here because it's
6:09
the the broad theme that led to us not talking much about this. It's the point that those Muslim governments have now got to a stage where they're supporting the genocide. So to restore the
6:17
balance, I want the Muslim government to step up first before I ask that western government to step up. I will ask the western western government. We do it here all the time. We write to our
6:25
representatives. We write the heinous crime. For those who who are watching this, for example, and haven't written to their local representatives to denounce it, I would ask you why haven't you
6:33
written? The prophet Muhammad sallall.aii alaihi wasallam from the middle of the Arabian Peninsula
6:39
in the middle of the desert writes letters to the emperor of Rome to the emperor of Persia and to the patriarch of Egypt to tell them that they need to change their ways and they need to respect that
6:49
the prophet Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. They need to uphold the rights of the neighbors, uphold the rights of the citizens. The audacity of a man illiterate orphan in the middle of the
6:57
desert to write a letter to an emperor. Did anybody write a letter even the basic of eman to the representatives at least to acknowledge and say these were my sisters who were killed? The
7:05
reality is that we complain a lot by the western government and I'm not saying that we shouldn't. I'm not saying I'm not defending them in any way whatsoever, but rather I'm saying the reason why
7:13
CNN and these others don't even give the basic courtesy for this death is because many Muslim I'm
7:19
not going to say we cuz I'm not part of that. Many Muslim governments, they don't give that respect over there. I didn't expect the answer to be that long about it, but may Allah inshallah give
7:27
them mercy. give them Jenna inshallah and these innocents who were killed and all of the other Iranians under that bombardment and being bombed into oblivion by the Americans and Israelis. Uh
7:35
when we trailed this program some people who know your view about Iran's actions in the Middle East
7:41
for the last 10 20 years uh they responded by saying oh it's Sammy he's going to be very
Sami’s Reflections on the Bombing of Iran
7:47
negative towards Iran once again. Um u I usually ask you for your analysis. I want to ask you about
7:54
your feelings. How did you feel on Saturday when the Israelis and the Americans bombed Iran? There is often an assumption that when you talk politics, it's like watching a stadium of two
8:06
teams playing against each other and that you are an ultras fan for one team, desperately supporting them against the other and that no matter what your team does, you will always support your team.
8:16
I think that is a very flawed way of looking at politics and very much in in the modern western
8:22
party system how we've adopted it. I think there is an assumption that in political analysis that
8:28
everybody loves to be right. I tell you a story of of of of somebody that we know but I won't mention who it was and and nobody will figure out who it is. This friend of mine gave me anal an analysis
8:38
of what he thinks will happen in Turkey in 2028 with regards to the succession and how Erdogan is
8:43
going to deal with protecting his legacy given that it's still everybody's worried about what happens in 2028. Is it bilerogan? Is it is it is it fid? Is it Ibrahim Khalen? So anyway,
8:54
he came up with a very interesting theory which I won't express at this moment in time because I don't want to offend anybody. So I didn't he's not somebody with enough clout or a background
9:05
whereby I would judge I would say he's an analyst you rely on but it was a sound argument but I
9:13
have nothing to measure it with. One day we're sitting together we went into a uh we went into
9:19
somebody's house of uh an analyst who I take his opinion very seriously. I think he's a a genius
9:26
of our times that we were sitting in SVO sitting together and every now and then I like to go see
9:32
him privately to bounce my own ideas off him and also to share our analysis together so we figure out what's happening. Yeah. So I had just come from Istanbul at the time. So he asked me Sammy
9:43
uh what did you hear in Istanbul? What's your take? So we start going back and forth and then he
9:48
gave me his view which almost was identical to the view of this friend of mine. So this friend got
9:55
so happy even though the outlook was quite gloomy. He got so happy that he had got it right. He stood
10:02
up and he went I got it right. You know like I got it I I got it right. And then we're looking at him
10:08
and we're like even if you're right the scenario is not a good one. Why would you celebrate the
10:17
situation getting worse? It sometimes when you're talking you get you get you get into this game
10:22
like what's my accuracy rating? Yes. Did you see I you see somebody who tweet and he'll be like I predicted this one year ago. I predict. But if you predicted something worse and you were right.
10:31
Why are you celebrating? Does that not break your heart? If you are somebody who said yes, Iran is going to get bombed and when it get bombed you say guys see I told you so. Those are people's
10:39
lives being killed. No one takes pleasure in it. That somebody is getting killed. that an innocent person who his entire life is a shopkeeper on the edge of a street in Thran who wakes up every day
10:49
goes opens a shop in the morning goes and sells whatever they're selling kooi day and the like and then he goes home and he wakes up every day opens it maybe gives some charity to the local masjid
10:58
or whatever just he's not involved in politics what crime did he commit so he should be killed why would I celebrate what's happening to the Iranians even if I acknowledge the Iran's crimes
11:07
in Syria in Iraq and Yemen my hope is not that Iran gets destroyed my hope is Iran just stops
11:13
My hope is not that Iran, for example, gets destroyed and blown into oblivion. It's, "Yeah, Iran, what you did? Just stop what you're doing in Syria. Stop what you're doing in Yemen." This is
11:22
very different from saying when you ask me how I feel. The reason is such an offensive question. It
11:28
implies that I would love to see Iran destroy or see Iranians get killed. That somehow I'm dancing
11:33
and I take pride when those girls are being bombed in the school. That's not it at all. Everybody knows what I dream of and what everybody else dreams of. that we can go from Morocco all the
11:43
way to Indonesia visa free travel. You go through the border because we're all one um we're all one brother. We're all the same way you do in the EU and the like. The point of the analysis is not to
11:52
say who is right or who is wrong or who is evil or who is good. The point of analysis and this is the whole point of political analysis is where can you identify the opportunities and agency
12:03
whereby a scenario that's destined to get worse you might intervene and make it better. The whole
12:09
point of analy the whole point of your podcast, whether you realize it or not, is so that when the world says the Zionists control the world, we show they actually don't. They're actually losing
12:19
public opinion in America. They're struggling to convince Trump. Netanyahu has to go eight, nine times to Washington to go and speak to Trump. Netanyahu is not as strong as you think he is. So
12:28
the person listening says, "Oh, wait a minute. If they're not as strong as they think he is, what is it that's making the difference? Do I actually have agency?" The point of analysis is
12:38
the situation is not what you think it is. See it for what it actually is. See the confusion
12:44
where Trump has no idea what to do in Iran. See the confusion where the Israelis have no idea
12:50
what they want to do. They just want chaos in order to be able to take more land. See where the Saudis don't know whether they should join in with the Americans or whether they should
12:57
lobby the Americans at the risk of incurring the wrath of the Israelis and getting the Americans to stop bombing Iran. see it from bin Zed in UAE who doesn't know what he prefers. Iran getting
13:07
destroyed and supporting the Israelis or having Abu Dhabi get bombed and that oasis of security, the image being blown out of the water, no pun intended, being blown out of the water whereby
13:17
now no one moves to UEIE anymore because they remember those missiles being bombing down. Bin Zed doesn't know what to do. Bin Salman doesn't know what to do. Trump doesn't know
13:25
what to do. Netanyahu doesn't know what to do. The point of political analysis is not to say let Iran get bombed. is to say Iran, do you know there's a way back for you? Iran, you know,
13:35
if you stopped with the sectarian killings in Syria and in Lebanon, you do know people would be willing to live side by side with you. Everybody says it's some of split or the like. It's not.
13:45
It's it's an injustice that is perpetrated against a group of people where as a Muslim you say this
13:53
is something that is wrong. When bin Salman does it to a Sunni Salman, you ask bin Salman release
13:58
the guy from prison. When Iran does it to its own following, you say Iran stop doing this.
14:07
Justice is the foundation of all dominion and oppression is what heralds and it's it's actually interesting. I'll finish on this point so no one thinks that it's just a religiously motivated
14:15
thing. I'm watching this uh Chinese drama called uh Growling Tiger, Roaring Dragon. It's about a
14:22
civil war period in the 200 AD real. It's based on a book called Romance of the Three Kingdoms. So in it, there's a character, the main character is Simi. Simi is known in Chinese history as a
14:30
genius, genius politician, genius general. But there's a scene in it where he has a city he's
14:36
about to capture. And he knows if he conquers that city, even though he has a high position in government, the royal family won't like the glory he'll receive from it. They'll use him to
14:47
take the city and then kill him later. So anyway, he has a debate with his son where his son says,
14:52
"Dad, maybe we shouldn't take the city. If we take it, we'll be we'll be killed. Let's retreat
14:57
now and tell the emperor that we couldn't take it." And he tells his son and he says, "Listen, why'd you keep doing it in a Machavevelian way? The right thing to do is to take the
15:06
city and liberate these people. Let's go and take the city and go and do it and see what happens afterwards." The point here being is you have your political analysis, but you also have
15:14
the what is good in this world. Then I think the problem when you keep doing political analysis is
15:20
is that everything becomes like it's a game gain theory matrix it's you know lobbying power what
15:27
the reason the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was so extraordinary in what he did is
15:32
because he could have taken what we would call pragmatic decisions today and he did take some of them but he gave you a vision of a greater hope where the world could look so different
15:41
my vision of the world is not one in which Iran doesn't exist my vision of the world is is one in which we live side by side without the flag of Fatim Zah or Hussein being raised in Yarmm or in
15:52
Syria and slaughtering Syrian kids as a result of it. It's just a case of just stop it. So I'm very offended by the question to put it quite frankly. Uh I understand why you asked it but I think that
16:02
the one who posed the question or who asked you to pose the question and I'm going to throw it back. The reason the question was posed was in their world they are supporting their team. M in
16:13
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18:20
So, let's move on to the analysis. Um, yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio
18:25
made an extraordinary statement. um I think it was a a Q&A with with a journalist and
18:31
uh the journalist pushed him on why this was a preemptive action in Iran on Saturday and
Israel - U.S. Power Dynamics
18:36
he said it was preemptive from the perspective that uh if Israel had gone in unilaterally the
18:43
backlash would have come to the US anyway and so in a way they preempted Israeli unilateral action.
18:50
So Israel forced the Americans into this conflict. I mean that sounds extraordinary to me. I mean,
18:56
how do you understand that power relationship then between the Israelis Netanyahu on one hand
19:01
and the Trump administration on the other? I think that Rubio said the quiet part out loud.
19:07
I know everybody is calling it extraordinary, but I think it's extraordinary only in so far as Rubio has said what many people always believed, which is that when Netanyahu lobbied for a war in Iraq,
19:17
a war in Iraq came very soon after. when Netanyahu uh lobbies for war in the region,
19:23
America tends to go and intervene on behalf of the Israelis and they go and bomb and R and before they would market it as we're going to bring in democracy. We're going to bring in,
19:32
you know, freedoms. We're going to go liberate the people. I think this time Rubio said, "Listen, I'm not bothered with the PR stuff like I'm not bothered with propaganda stuff. You guys ask me,
19:40
I'm going to ask you bluntly. Israel told us they were going to go bomb anyway. We knew Iran would respond by attacking us. So, we thought, what the hell? Let's go bomb with the Israelis and go bomb
19:47
Iran instead." I think that Rubio who's looking for a presidential bid as well and believes he can
19:55
only do it through APEC and through the Israelis. I think that he is surprised by the reaction from
20:00
the MAGA base as a result of that statement being made because now you have even Matt Walsh who was sort of on the fence a little bit coming out and saying wait a minute are you telling us
20:08
that we have no material benefit in going into the war with Iran we only did it as a result of the Israelis. You know how Marjorie Taylor Green coming out and saying this country is no longer
20:16
Democrat Republican. This country is about America first versus Israel first. To answer your question directly about the power dynamics. I think the power dynamics were made abundantly clear when
20:25
Biden was president in the sense that Biden looked at a Democrat base which was overwhelmingly pro Palestinian. Biden looked at a Democrat voter base that very clearly told him that we don't
20:35
want to support this genocide. Biden looked at an uncommitted vote in Michigan, which was a big blow to him, where his chief of staff or one of his campaign managers came out, according to Reuters,
20:43
on the night of the uncommitted vote, and said, "This is a big disaster for us. We need to seriously start listening." Biden looked at that base, heard the screams and cries of his base,
20:53
met with the families of the Palestinians. Uh, Leila Hadad, who who we know very well, went to see Blinkin as well, and and Blinken told them that this is going to get way worse before
21:02
it gets better. They knew what their base wanted. They knew what the American interest was and they
21:08
still went with the Israeli interest which is to go and commit genocide and help to facilitate the theft of land, the humanitarian corridor to help with ethnic cleansing, humanitarian beer,
21:17
to help send Marines in to help the Israelis when they were stuck in Gaza City. The point here that I'm saying is that Rubio didn't tell us anything new about the power dynamics. We always
21:24
knew what those power dynamics were. What Rub was extraordinary about what Rubio said was is not
21:30
only that he admitted it publicly, but look at the American reaction for the first time. The American reaction is not we have to support the Israelis come what may because we support the Israelis
21:38
and they're important ally. The reaction is wait a minute we're letting US servicemen die for the Israelis. Why? Why are we giving all this money to Israelis? Why are we supporting the Israelis
21:48
in that regard? The power dynamic suggests that Israel has this overarching influence over the US today which led to it into Iran. But I want to point to a couple of things that lead me to
21:58
to suggest that Israeli influence is cracking rapidly. First of all, you'll notice that the
22:06
White House spokesman responded to Matt Walsh's tweet, suggesting that she's been ordered by Trump
22:12
to respond to the growing rift in MAGA in that make America great again base, Trump's base about
22:18
the growing opposition to the Israelis, suggesting Trump is concerned about that base and has now deployed the White House spokesman to respond to Matt War specifically responding to the figures
22:26
that are over there. Trump met with Tucker Carlson who went to see him to tell him please don't go to war with the Iranians. Trump meeting with Tucker Carson after slating him online suggests
22:35
that Trump is looking at his base and he's saying that yes, I have the pro-Israel base, but I have a base that's increasingly anti-Israel. I could pay a heavy price for supporting the Israelis
22:44
over here. Let me just let me think about what to do over here. Tucker, come and speak to me. And he speaks to Tucker. And according to New York Times report, he told him, "Listen, I understand
22:52
what you're saying. I understand." He didn't tell him, "Shut up and stop talking about me." He goes, "I understand what you're saying, but really I have no choice." Not in a way where he's you
22:59
know which is like a saying which says when you have no say in anything whatsoever but it shows
23:06
that Trump is very wary about the debate that's taking place in his base. Netanyahu's interview
23:11
yesterday at the time of this recording at least on Fox News. That's Trump saying to Netanyahu, listen, my base are really angry. And Netanyahu, the suggestion is that part of his convincing of
23:23
Trump to embark on the attack on Iran is he pitched the idea that one, it would be quick.
23:28
It would be like a Maduroesque experiment. We'll get rid of Kamehameh. We'll do regime change. You can claim it as a hero and we'll do such low casualties that everybody will say it's
23:35
the greatest operation ever. And your people will celebrate you for it. Netanyahu going on Fox News.
23:40
It's almost as if Netanyahu is saying, "I need to make sure Trump feels like he's celebrated, so I need to go talk to his base." So Netanyahu goes on Fox News, and what does Trump tweet? Trump says,
23:49
"Everybody tune in to Netanyahu's appearance on Fox News." It's Trump saying to his base,
23:55
he he sees them angry. He sees that they are concerned. He sees that they're turning on
24:00
him. He sees that they're really angry with the Israel part. And he's telling Netanyahu, "Listen, you promised me that I'd benefit from this. You told me if I go in my base will celebrate me. Go
24:10
on Fox News now and go and tell them why we're doing this. Give the AR because my arguments are falling on deaf ears. And Netany, when you watch the interview, you can see him struggling,
24:17
desperately trying to say, "No, we're not controlling Trump. No, we're not pushing Trump to go and do it." The reason why I say this is the power dynamic used to be Israel says something,
24:26
Biden jumps. Israel says something, Obama seeds. Israel says something, George Bush says how high.
24:33
The point that I'm saying is that it appears that Trump may have seeded to Israel and gone
24:40
with their plan with regards to Iran at Israel's behest, at Israel's pressure, at Israel's lobbing,
24:46
at Netanyahu'sing, you know, 8, nine visits to Washington. But I'm still not sure if Donald
24:52
Trump is entirely aligned with the Israelis in the way that previous presidents were. Primarily
24:59
because the narrative war that's taking place in MAGA and the push being made by the Israelis
25:07
desperately trying to convince MAGA that America has an interest in this suggested the Israelis
25:12
themselves recognized they may have pushed it too far. And I finish what Takson said which was very interesting even though I still find it quite extraordinary that people start quoting him quite
25:20
often these days given his history once upon a time. But in any case it's like when you were
25:25
saying earlier how do you feel about Iran when somebody flips I welcome it. Tucker Carlson said
25:31
addressing the American population after meeting with Trump that if we go to this war with Iran it will be because the Israelis demanded it of us not because we have an interest in it. And he
25:40
said the reason the Israelis are pushing it is the Israelis believe this is the last chance they have
25:45
to get America involved in a war of their choice because the shift in public opinion has been so
25:51
significant with the Gallot polls now showing that an overwhelming majority that a majority not overwhelming but a majority of Americans now for the first time ever now sympathize with the
26:00
Palestinians more than they sympathize with Israelis. Israel believes that the Congress that's coming after the midterms where APEC is now pariah, the Congress that's coming in the
26:09
next election and the future Congress in future elections when that public opinion now manifests electorally, Israel may no longer have the impact or the influence that it has today ever again.
26:19
Donald Trump infamously or famously said that Israel used to control the Congress. I don't think they control the Congress anymore, indicating that even he's aware of that particular shift.
26:28
When you ask me what is the power, what does that tell us about the power dynamics with regards to Israel and US today? Once upon a time, I would have said that Israel has almost complete
26:38
influence over Washington. Hammed bin Jim, the former Katar prime minister in 2018. He told France 24, it's on YouTube. Anybody, anybody can find it. If anybody's looking for it,
26:48
it's bas France 24. It's about November 2020, November 2018. Hammed basim is asked, "Why does
26:55
everybody want to normalize with the Israelis?" And besum says when you see anybody getting close to the Israelis, it's not because they like the Israelis, it's because they believe that Israel is
27:04
the key to the Congress and the White House. That was the case in 2018. The power dynamics of today, despite the fact that American and Israel are both bombing Iran, in my opinion, is that Israel's
27:13
influence is cracking so much that Donald Trump may have gone along with them this time in Iran,
27:18
but the PR campaign that's taking place suggests that if Netanyahu cannot convince Trump that his
27:24
base will celebrate him for it, Trump is very capable of turning around and saying, "No, no, no, no, no, enough, enough." And I think the way that Trump keeps changing from we want regime change
27:34
to we had candidates to replace him but we killed them by accident to we're willing to work with the
27:39
regime just under a different name. I think the way that Trump has no idea, there's no consistency in his statement indicates that Trump has said to the Israelis, "Make this work for me. But if you
27:49
don't, because this is your war, this could be and we're waiting to see what the ramifications are of
27:55
that." This Ramadan in the sacred courtyard of masjid al thousands of worshippers gather each
28:04
evening waiting for the call to prayer, waiting to break their fast together. For many, this moment
28:12
is more than a meal. It is a reminder of unity, faith, and resilience of the beautiful people
28:20
who sit on the grounds of this beloved place. You can be part of this gathering by sponsoring a warm
28:28
ifar meal for families at Masjid Laka. Maximize your rewards this Ramadan by feeding the fasting.
28:38
Turn your compassion into hope. Visit btml. us/thinkingmuslim to learn more and give.
28:46
So what are the the war aims of Israel then? Like what does Israel ideally want to achieve
28:51
from this? I we've heard that um and you you know you you've said it there very well that
28:56
um Trump has differed on the aims he from day to day. He's he's mentioned different aims.
29:02
Pete Hexf almost turned it into an ideological war like a war against Islam when he uh conducted his
29:08
press conference yesterday. Marco Rubio laid out very limited aims like JD Vance very limited aims.
29:15
I think it was just the ballistic missile naval capacity that he he focused on. So there is a
29:21
there's a wide range of objectives that are being uh discussed within Washington. Uh so there's an
29:27
incoherency there in in the strategic thinking of of the Washington elites. But of course this war
Netanyahu’s Strategic Objectives in This Conflict
29:34
began by Netanyahu. So what does Netanyahu hope to achieve from this conflict? I think Netanyahu
29:41
there are three reasons why he went to war with Iran. I think the first is that Tel Aviv without
29:51
intending in my opinion have seen Iran's influence diminish significantly in the region over such a
29:58
short period of time. In 2014 the Iranians openly boasted that they control four Arab capitals
30:05
Beirut, Baghdad, Damascus and Sah. And they made this statement after the Houthies took over after the Houthis toppled a a national dialogue of all the Yemen parties. The Houthis for those who who
30:15
who don't know much about them, the Houthies are of a belief that nobody anybody who is not from
30:20
the family of the prophetam is not allowed to rule and if somebody rules who is not from that family, it is obligatory to go to war with them. So this war in Yemen is the seventh war in Yemen as the
30:29
Houthis try to restore the imam that fell in 1962. Netanyahu believes that given that has been now
30:37
significantly diminished, is dead, theah don't have as much influence anymore in Lebanon, the
30:43
Saudis are now resurgent, Americans are resurgent, the government is being formed again in Lebanon.
30:48
Given the events that took place in Syria, where Ahmed may not be Israel's ideal candidate, but
30:54
certainly Ahmed Shara reflects a defeat of Iran in Syria, albeit the Israelis. I'm not sure now who's
31:00
worse Iranians or Ahmed given that Nuriel Maliki who in Iraq who has been nominated for prime
31:06
minister of Iraq a comeback for an Iranian proxy and the Americans are now stepping in and Nin
31:12
Maliki it's unclear whether he will be established as prime minister because the Americans are really pushing once upon a time the Americans used to negotiate with the Iranians and in many cases
31:21
the Americans used to have no choice but to accept the Iranian candidate in order to keep some sort of working relationship and stability in Iraq. The Americans now are able to push once more against
31:29
the Iranians and Nur Maliki is scrambling to try to find some sort of deal between them. Given that the Houthis in are struggling to take more territory to establish themselves, the Israelis
31:41
are saying that this is a golden opportunity to really go after Iran and take their head of the
31:47
snake in their words, not mine, and go and embark on regime change. So the first reason is they
31:52
genuinely believe this is a golden opportunity given Iran is in full reversal. Let's go in. Let's change the regime. Let's dismantle their ballistic missiles that keep getting fired at Tel
32:00
Aviv and keep getting fired and the like. Iran is the only country really causing us any real problems via their proxies. Their missiles keep getting fired into the Israelis, albeit forever
32:08
reasons Iran has. But in any case, Mr. President, this is an opportunity that won't come again. Let's go and do it. That's the first reason. The second reason is the Israelis are deeply concerned
32:17
that unlike Biden who you could ask something of Biden and Biden would do it because he's a
32:23
Zionist irrespective of what the Americans would say, Donald Trump is unpredictable. I was with I
32:29
haven't got permission to tell the story publicly from the individual, but I was with a a prominent
32:34
uh anti-ionist Jew who speaks quite often. There are there are quite a few of them, so nobody will tell which one it is. So, we were sitting in a room in New Jersey and uh somebody
32:43
said to him, "What do you think about those who say that, you know, Trump is better than Harris?"
32:50
It's not a claim I necessarily made, but in any case, I felt the question was a dig at me kind of even though I don't know where people get this idea that I said vote Trump. But anyway, he says
32:59
to this, the view of this professor was that with previous presidents, when Israel wanted something,
33:06
US presidents operate within what Israel would allow them to do through Apac and the like Obama himself in his memoirs writes about the troubles that he had with Apac. He said, "But the problem
33:14
with Donald Trump, these are his words, not mine, is that Trump is so narcissistic and egotistical, that for the first time ever, it's true, we don't know what Trump is going to do,
33:23
but for the first time, neither do the Zionists." When Trump came to power and imposed a ceasefire, he took the Zionist by surprise. They like, "What? What? What on earth are you doing? We we gave you
33:31
$230 million through Aden to help you get elected. Why on earth are you imposing a ceasefire?" And
33:36
the reason Trump imposed that ceasefire was for no other reason than he wanted the Nobel Peace Prize. Literally, that's the only reason he imposed that ceasefire. When he did that 21point peace plan
33:44
that everybody said was disastrous and it's true it was disastrous. The Palestinians understood that Trump hadn't even read the details of that 21 point peace plan. What he wanted was the headline
33:52
that we give peace. When he accepted his sign said what on earth are you doing? Why are you restricting us in committing the genocide for the sake of your own personal gate? The point that I'm
34:00
saying here is is that with Donald Trump, the Israelis are deeply concerned that he talks big
34:08
but prefers negotiation and that he might actually be an anti-war president who withdrew from Syria, withdrew from Afghanistan. You mentioned the Omani foreign minister. If what he says is true,
34:17
and I think it's true, that the Iranians were negotiating with the Americans and had reached a stage whereby the Iranians were saying to Donald Trump that Trump were willing to do 0% enrichment.
34:28
When Witkov the week before gives an interview to CNN, and they ask him, "What's Trump's plan
34:34
with Iran?" And he goes, "We're surprised that we've built all these amassed all these forces
34:39
around Iran and they still won't give us any concessions." implying Trump's intention with
34:44
amassing the forces was not to invade Iran. It was to show some sort of muscle. The Israelis are
34:50
deeply concerned that Trump might actually arrive at a deal with the Iranians in the way that he's arriving at a deal with the Palestinians. Some people might say, "What the earth does he even
34:59
deal with the Palestinians?" I know the Gaza Board of Peace is disastrous. It's a horrible institution. But I would argue that the Gaza Board of Peace, the Zionists are also not happy with it
35:09
because it contains Qatar. It contains Turkey. It contains states that Israel said were a red
35:14
line in the negotiations with Trump. And also, Israel wants to go back and bomb and hit Gaza.
35:20
They don't want an entity that suggests they won't be able to go in and annex Gaza. In other words, the Gaza Board of Peace may not be something the Palestinians are happy with, but it's also
35:28
something the Zionists aren't happy with. That unpredictability of Trump is deeply troubling to the Israelis. The reason the Israelis preemptively preemptively went after Iran is because the
35:37
Israelis were terrified that Iran and Trump might actually get to a deal. If they got to a deal, it means that the excuse of war that the Israelis keep using. Why are they going doing a grand
35:46
invasion in Lebanon? Because we need to fight Iran. Why they are bombing Syria? We need to fight Iran or Ahmed. Once you take that excuse away, what pretext does Israel have to achieve
35:56
the greater Israel that the Israeli ambassador Mike that US ambassador Mike Huckabe told Tucker
36:02
Carlson that they have every right they can go wherever they want as far as they go to establish greater Israel. They need the pretext of war. The second reason they're bombing Iran is Trump is too
36:11
close to a deal with them. So they go and they tell Donald Trump and this is the point when you were saying about Israeli aims. I don't think they told Trump let's do a campaign to invade
36:21
Iran. I think the way they pitched to Trump was Mr. Trump what you did in Venezuela wow like that
36:27
was amazing that was extraordinary Mr. to Trump I think you can do it in I think Trump told him I
36:33
don't see how so Netanyahu flew to try to explain to him failed to convince him when Takasa went to
36:38
see him Netanyahu then flew again to say listen you can do it like you can do like Madura and Trump said I'm not convinced yet Netanyahu hasn't pitched this as a long-term invasion he's pitched
36:47
this as do a Maduro s get so they got kami within like one or two days they've only bombed Netanyahu
36:54
believes as long as we can prevent a deal that forces a ceasefire or peace in the region
37:00
as long as we keep any war alive even with the Iranians, we can expand our borders. That's his second reason. And the third reason I think the aim of the Israelis is that whatever happens in
37:11
public opinion in America, maybe the issue is the Americans are angry at wars that don't produce
37:17
anything. So, let's give them wars that produce something. Let let's let's work really hard to say to them, okay, he was your enemy. We killed him very quickly. Let's give them tangible aims.
37:26
You're worried that they're turning against you, but we can make it so they don't turn against the Israelis, will give you a war where you actually produce something. So, I think the Israeli aims,
37:33
and your question was limited only to the Israeli aims. I think the Israeli aims have more to do with an existential crisis. The existential crisis of let's get to Iran while it's weak. Let's try
37:44
to give a win for our allies in the US so they can push back against public opinion and let's
37:50
try to redraw the region in case we're unable to redraw it later on if we have an unfavorable US government. So then how do you assess the Iranian tactics to date? Because it seems
37:59
like we can question the morality of it, but it seems like it's been pretty effective and they've
38:04
created havoc across the Arab world. They've been hitting uh largely military targets, but also some
Impact on Civilian & Energy Infrastructure: An Effective Strategy?
38:10
civilian infrastructure has been hit, airports and hotels in UAE, in Qatar and these sorts of places.
38:16
Uh they've been disrupting energy supplies, energy infrastructure, oil supplies. uh oil uh the Qatari
38:23
LG plant uh went offline yesterday. It uh created a 50% plus spike in uh in LG exports around the
38:32
world. Um we saw the potentially Aramco was hit although there's some debate about that. We can
38:37
talk about that later. Um already Qatar and UAE are lobbying with Washington for a very limited
38:44
uh conflict, a short war. Um, do you think that the Iranians are are uh are playing a effective
38:53
strategy here to try to dissuade a a long conflict and a potential regime change in Iran? I think
39:02
there's a reason why the Americans have never gone to war with the Iranians in an open all-out war.
39:07
I think the reason being is that Iran despite its military weakness in comparison to the Americans
39:15
and despite the by by contrast despite the lack of sophistication in its weapons in comparison
39:23
to F-16s and you know stealth bombers and and the like I think that the Iranians and the Americans
39:32
understand very well that a war between them hurts both of them. M so you've seen how oil
39:37
prices have now spiked. You've seen now that the shipping going through the hormma straight hormma
39:43
straight is now blocked. So that's 20 something% of shipping in the world of oil tankers and the
39:48
like suddenly they're unable to leave the hormma straight or go into the hormma straight. I think there was always an understanding that Iran even if it gets a bloody nose it's able to
39:59
land some blows to the so the Americans never went into an all-out war with the Americans. I think that the Iranian strategy, the Iranians are aware that the Israelis are desperate for a
40:09
war. So their concern is that before there used to be agreements in terms of how these escalations
40:14
take place. For example, with the assassination of Kasamsmani, Kasamsmani humiliated Trump publicly
40:19
in Baghdad when his militias and his supporters stormed the US embassy in broad daylight in
40:25
Baghdad. Trump said, "This is way too much. You've embarrassed me in public. I need to take a scalp." And Kasumani was assassinated soon after. And the Iranians, they said, "Okay, touche, but we
40:34
need something as well." They fired some rockets at an empty military base and they deescalated. Historically, there's always an agreement between the Iranians and the Americans in terms of how
40:41
these escalations take place to ensure that an all-out war doesn't break out that hurts them both. This time, the Iranians are concerned that the Israelis are in such a hysteria about their
40:51
existential crisis that Trump might be pushed into an open war. The Israelis are hoping to trap Trump
40:57
into a war. So the Iranians want to ramp up as quickly as possible to make Trump realize how
41:03
much an open war is going to cost that even if you kill even if you kill the sophist the leadership
41:08
in in our we can cause you a lot of pain and I think that's being done through oil that's also
41:13
being done through Iran is aware of the manner in which lobbying works in America. You'll remember
41:21
when Trump visited uh the region he got a promise of 1 trillion from Saudi 1.2 trillion from UAE and
41:26
then 1.4 for trillion from the Qataris. Iran is hitting the Gulf States in the hope that these Gulf states will spend their money on lobbying Trump to stop the war. Not because they want to
41:36
do a favor for Iran, but because listen guys, I will burn this region if I'm the one who's going
41:43
to get burnt. Like, we either stand together or we all die together. We can compete, but we have to respect the rules of our competition. I think the Iranians are hitting Dha in particular to say to
41:53
the Kataris, listen, I know you have money. go and give it to Donald Trump. Do whatever lobbying you
41:58
need to do and tell Trump to stop hitting me. Then he bombs the UEE and says, "You guys are the ones who normalize with the Israelis. He's hitting Abu Dhabi and Dubai especially hard to say to them,
42:06
listen, you thought going to them, they protect you. We're going to make sure you're not protected. We're going to embarrass you. We're going to humiliate you." Bin Zade,
42:13
if you want a way out of this, get Trump to stop hitting us instead. And I think right now the U is debating to what Bloomberg is reporting. They're already now lobbying Trump, telling him, "Please,
42:21
please, please, Mr. president stoping the Iranians because now he's hitting the Fairmont Hotel and they're hitting the BJ Arab and they're hitting all this stuff and now we have experts who are now
42:29
who came to move to Dubai thinking it's a secure freedom and and secure environment now they're leaving us and they're leaving in droves and our whole economy is dependent on expats he's hitting
42:38
Bahin to say to the Bah you who normalize with the Israelis you have money as well go and leverage go and lobby Trump tell him to stop the Iranians in hitting so many targets so far they're trying to
42:49
say the reality that you fear we're going to bring it to reality And the only way you can stop it is if you guys go to Trump and tell him, "Please stop the Iranians." Which is a tactic that could
42:57
work. The inverse could happen, however, which is whereby you have a country like Saudi Arabia,
43:03
which during its beef with the UAE may have made a tactical error. The Americans,
43:12
if the beef had been limited to Sudan and Yemen, the Americans initially would have looked at the
43:19
conflict between Saudi and UAE and would have said, "These are two allies that are pro-Israel
43:24
who have strategic differences to protect Israel. We need to reconcile them." UAE may have gone
43:30
overboard. Let's get the UAE to come down in Sudan and come down in Yemen and get them to see to the
43:36
Saudis to keep the Saudi normalization track on point. The tactical error in my opinion was that
43:42
the focus by some Saudi analysts on Israel in particular meant the Americans went from saying
43:48
these are two pro-Israel allies falling out with one another, we need to reconcile them to Saudi,
43:54
Wait a minute. Are you saying you're reversing normalization with Israel? Are you saying that the open airspace you open for the Israelis and are you saying that the the process of normalization
44:03
you're going to shove it? Lindsey Graeme went to see bin Salman specifically to say to him, "Listen here. I need to know, is this a strategic beef between you and bin Zed over Yemen and Sudan?
44:15
Or are you opening the door back to reversal of normalization with the Israelis? And are you going
44:20
to make this Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi alliance against the Israelis? Cuz I may be able to help
44:25
you if you're still pro-Israel, but you just have a disagreement zed." But if it's like what these other guys are saying on Middle East and and and Ahmed and these others, then let me tell you bin
44:35
Salman, we will give everything to bin Z and we'll make sure that he destroys you. So bin Salman now
44:41
is in a position whereby what do I do here? I was lobbying against an attack on the Iranians.
44:47
But now I'm stuck because I'm being asked by Rubio and asked by the congressman and asked by Lindsey Graham, have I turned against the Israelis? They were asking me what do I want in Sudan and Yemen?
44:56
Now they're asking me, have I turned against the Israelis? I've now lost the momentum. And not only that, Turk doesn't want to join me because Turkey is worried that if I bin Salman am unable to
45:07
defeat Bin Zed, Bin Zed will take revenge on the Turkish economy and bring it crashing down through
45:12
lobbying of Washington via Israel. Turk is saying, listen, I will support Saudi Arabia, but I'll send
45:18
Haken Fedan to the UAE to say to the UAE, listen, I'm not all in on this. Like can we find some sort
45:25
of in that regard the tataris are saying look bins man we want him to win but can he win and does
45:35
he have the ability he might have the resources but does he have the intelligence and political
45:41
acument to win bin zed is not an easy guy to be so bin salman if momentum is your way we're with you
45:49
but we want to keep good ties of bin zed goes to Abu Dhabi and goes and sees bin Z to say to him,
45:55
listen, like we're not all in on this. The Saudis are saying, I can't convince the Turks and Kataris
46:01
to join me. I'm trying to convince the Muslim world that derided me for my concerts and raves by
46:08
releasing Mashiah from prison. He's been releasing a lot of prison to try to win back that Muslim vote, Muslim vote, Muslim support. He looks at Egypt. Egypt got excited in the beginning. Egypt
46:22
said, "This is great. Bin Salman is going to hit bin Zed and I'm going to see get some, you know, economic liberation after being bullied by bin Zed for ages in Sudan." Egypt goes to Haftar in Libya,
46:33
tells Haftar, "Shut down the airport. Stop supporting UAE proxies." But Haftar turns around to Cece and says, "But Cece, do you really think bin Salman can beat Ben Zed?" And Cece says,
46:45
"Well," he goes, "Okay, I'll shut down the airport for a month and let's monitor the situation as it
46:50
goes." The Saudis one theory being bandied about is they wanted to punish Haftar for doubting by
46:58
approaching Islam and GDI and the suggestion is GDFI is mysteriously assassinated in order to
47:05
prevent the Saudis from really. So CC goes from openly saying that the there's a Gulf
47:11
state that is causing problems to going to visit bin Zed and saying to bin Zed, yeah, can we? So
47:20
the Saudi crown prince now when Iran is hitting Saudi, he was lobbying against an Iran attack, but now has to prove his loyalty to Israel in order to find some way to push back against the
47:30
UAE. So these reports that suggest that somehow he said that he lobbied for the attack could may well
47:36
have been in this context in which he says what do I have to do you know to to win back up these are
47:41
the Washington Post reports the Washington Post even though they have no Middle East team anymore but anyway right they said that the Saudis were lobbying uh the in the week before Saturday they
Did Saudi Arabia Lobby Against Strikes on Iran?
47:50
were lobbying with the Israelis for an attack on Iran but but the Saudis have at least some Saudi
47:56
analysts have said that this is nonsense and it didn't happen. I don't think they lobbed for the attack. I think a statement was made across the table in the bid for the Saudis to say, "I'm pro-
48:04
Israel, but help me against the UAE." I think a statement was made where the Israelis said, "Yes, but we need to hit Iran." And Saudi said, "We're with you on your interest, and we agree that Iran
48:12
is a threat to you." A statement like that might have been made that implies it was a lobbying, but I don't think Saudi lobbyed for for a genuine attack on on the Iranians. The reason why I
48:21
mention all of this is with the Saudi response to Iran. Iran is bombing these capitals on the basis that they will lobby Washington to stop attacking Iran and reigning the Israelis. But there is a
48:31
plausible scenario where bin Salman who called bin Zed in order to strike some sort of truce really
48:41
needs US support against the UAE against bin Zed who is arguably the greater threat at this moment
48:47
to Saudi Arabia. So if the Israelis convince Trump to go in another two weeks and Trump says to the
48:54
Saudis, I want you to get involved. I'm not saying Saudis will join. I'm saying that it wouldn't be
48:59
an immediate no from the Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman because of the situation that he finds himself in whereby he thought everybody would rally behind him against the
49:07
UAE. But it seems that Erdogan is terrified of bin bin Zed. The other groups are terrified of bin Zed
49:13
because of Bin Zed's influence and lobbying power in Washington at a time in which Turka needs very
49:19
good ties with Washington in order to shore up what's happening in Syria against the Israelis. Needs very good ties with Washington in order to shore up their defenses against the separatist
49:28
Kurdish movement and all this other point. The point is that Iran is certainly demonstrating
49:35
that there are high stakes to this war. The suggestion is that Trump is already looking for a negotiation for a ceasefire. Steve Bannon posted a tweet where he said, "We already got
49:45
what else does Trump need?" The Omani foreign minister has already indicated that the Iranians may be prepared to sit down with Donald Trump. I think the only obstacle to talks at the moment
49:53
right now between Iran and Trump is Trump has his scalp, which is the Iranians need one, and I
49:59
think the Iranians are still looking for one, and I think the Israelis are hoping that Trump doesn't give Iran one so they continue this conflict. I think Trump may want an offramp. The Iranians
50:09
need a scalper before they can have this offramp. What sort of scalp? What sort of scalp would this be? I think that the Iranians ideally would want to hit a US base. The US would not allow them to
50:23
kill US soldiers because that would force American public opinion in in their opinion to get Trump to
50:29
get involved directly and for much longer. They don't want to drag the US into an actual war. So they don't want to kill US servicemen, but they need something that makes, you know, Jalal on the
50:38
thinking Muslim and and and and others on Twitter to be like, yes, Iran really hurt the Americans.
50:44
What that looks like, I'm not sure at this moment in time. And I think that more than anything else, I think the Iranians are gambling that in the absence of a scalp, if we can last two weeks,
50:54
Iranians believe they can last 60 days of bombing campaign from the Americans. If we can last 30 days until people start saying that it's impossible for America to continue this
51:03
war and look how strongly we managed to survive it, I think it's a time issue. It needs another two weeks before the Iranians turn around and say, "Look, we're still standing after 2 weeks." And
51:11
I think that's what they're looking for. The Israelis are hoping within those two weeks, some American soldiers are killed by the Iranians. There were three jets that were shot down by
51:19
Kuwaiti anti-air defense. Mhm. Israelis tried to claim Iran did it the same way that there's
51:24
a suggestion that Iran might have done it with Aramco. The Saudis and Iranians are trying to play down Aramco. But the point that I'm saying is that I think the Iranians don't have a scalp,
51:32
but they believe if we wait out 2 weeks, 3 weeks of bombing campaign and the world says this looks impossible, this will be our climb down. So back to back question about Iran's tactics. from what I
51:42
gather from what you've suggested there that Iran tactically at least is is succeeding, you know,
51:50
it's being able to um to find a attritional conflict here where it's not defeated any
Iran’s Tactical Strategies
51:58
anytime soon. uh it's using its weaponry, it's basing its weaponry out and using it
52:03
against civilian and military targets in such a way that it causes maximum damage but also it
52:10
uh creates a ground swell of opinion within the Arab governments that things need to be
52:16
sorted very soon and we need to come to an end of this conflict and of course they're impacting
52:21
uh international energy uh prices. So, are we saying that tactically at least the Iranians are
52:29
are are comfortable at the moment? I don't think necessarily that they're comfortable. I think that
52:34
there are too many uncertainties that take place. I think if soldiers are killed and they prove that
52:42
it's Iranians who kill them, how does Trump react? Does Trump react by saying that, okay, Marjgery Taylor Green has a point. This price is going to be too high and I need to withdraw.
52:51
Or does he come out and say as has been suggested that this is a holy war and Americans should die
52:58
as Trump said there will be casualties in this and Trump decides that because now American troops are killed now I have to really go out into a war and they whip up the sort of you know American fury
53:07
you know with Mission Impossible films and the like and you know Saving Private Ryan and and they go into Iran. There are too many uncertainties for Iran to feel comfortable. I think the ferocity of
53:16
Iran attacking even those who are sympathetic towards it in terms of mediators like hitting
53:21
in Oman or hitting Dha in particular, I think suggests that the Iranians really feel like this could be quite desperate. I don't think the Iranians feel like their tactics are clever
53:31
or that their tactics are correct. I think the Iranians are trying to say, "Let's play poker and let's go all in. Let's see how far you're willing to go before the first person blinks."
53:39
And that's why I think the Omanis are really frustrated. I think when the Omani foreign minister goes publicly to talk about the deal or the negotiations, Omanis don't do that and they
53:48
don't normally do that. That indicates that the Romanians were deeply concerned that the Americans
53:55
and the Iranians might have been sitting and talking and coming closer to a deal. But there's
54:00
a third party that doesn't want the deal that's keep pushing Trump towards a conflict. There is a Twitter account belonging to somebody who is part of the logistics of the negotiations in Oman
54:10
between the Iranians and the Americans and he was saying that the negotiations were going back and
54:15
forth and they were improving rapidly and that the both parties were beginning to agree on certain terms. He goes, "The unusual thing was I'd open the TV and Trump would say there's no progress.
54:24
It's too slow. It's too slow." He goes, "But we're looking at it and it's rapid." Theis were deeply concerned that Trump knew the progress of those negotiations, but there's a pressure coming to
54:32
bear outside from the Israelis that meant that he's insistent on that war. The Iranians, I'd
54:38
be wary of saying that their tactics that they're doing, you know, their tactics are clever or smart
54:44
or or whatnot. The Iranians themselves, given the damage that's already been done to Tahran with I I
54:52
think the Iranians believe they're in a do or die situation, just as the Israelis are in a do or die
54:58
situation. The only power that's not in a do or die situation is the Americans who've been dragged in on the part of the Israelis. And the only referee who can stop this war are the Americans.
55:06
So I think the Iranians are trying to lobby the Americans through bombing the Gulf States. The Israelis are lobbying the Americans through Apac. and Trump is in between two people shouting down
55:15
his ear and no one quite knows exactly what Trump wants from this. So just to focus in on again uh
55:20
on the tactics of Iran because of course they're hitting DHA, they're hitting Oman, they're hitting
55:26
countries that have historically at least been uh operating in their favor, places of mediation. Um,
The Risks of a Maximum Damage Strategy: Losing Arab Public Support?
55:34
is there a danger that maybe in the short term the Iranians have this spray and prey type of approach
55:39
where they're trying to create maximum damage and as you said they want to test how the attritional
55:45
uh quality of the Israelis and the Americans and whether they can stand a long conflict but
55:50
at the same time are they not losing Arab public opinion especially in those countries that have
55:56
historically been a little bit more sympathetic towards them. I'm not sure Iran cares too much about Arab public opinion. I think that when you look at their policies in Syria and Yemen and
56:05
Lebanon over the years, I think it's abundantly clear that Tehran did not really care in any way whatsoever about what Arabs thought about the Iranians. I think when you see statements made by
56:14
Iran over the years, such as the one we mentioned earlier about we control four Arab capitals, you know, Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, and I I think the Iranians never paid too much attention to what
56:25
Arabs actually thought about. I think there was a sense on the part of the Iranians even in the sea in the way that they embarked on demographic changes in Syria where they'd enter villages,
56:33
Sunni villages and load them on buses and send the inhabitants elsewhere and bring Shir in inhabitants to occupy those homes and the like. I don't think the Iranians have ever
56:43
been too interested in Arab public opinion at all when they were strong. I think at this moment in
56:48
time they don't care either about Arab public opinion primarily because they're aware how much they've lost Arab public opinion with regards to Syria. They're aware of how much they've lost
56:56
public opinion regards to Iraq, they they're aware they've lost public opinion as a result of Yemen. I think more than anything else, the Iranians in their desperation to find some sort
57:05
of end to this war, I think they believe that if we can get these Gulf states to spend their
57:12
money on Donald Trump, if we can get these Gulf States who have lobbying power over Donald Trump, they have influence over Donald Trump, if we get them to lobby on our behalf,
57:21
then maybe they can stop the war. At this moment in time, Gulf states are too scared to offend the Israelis. This is Iran Iran's perspective. They've been too scared to offend the Israelis to suggest
57:30
to Trump that they don't want war. Often it's how do I balance between the the two? You'll notice,
57:35
for example, like many statements, you won't find UAE's name on it. The reason you won't find UAE's name on it is because the UAE doesn't want to offend the Israelis. It wants to keep its name out
57:43
of it. For example, Iran is saying that these Gulf states, you guys are worried about the Israelis, you need to fear me, too. So, I know you guys don't want to lobby Trump to end the war because
57:52
you're worried about offending the Israelis, but I'm going to make sure that you have no choice but to go and lobby Trump. So, I'm going to bomb you in that regard. And I don't care what you think of
57:59
me. I don't care what the Arabs think of me. And that's always been Iran's position in so far as
58:04
it went to embark on its project of establishing this cresant that goes from Tehran all the way to Beirut. So, I don't think it's a big deal for the Iranians. I don't think they necessarily care.
58:13
Uh I think that the for the Iranians they believe that uh the power will win respect and as long as
58:19
we are powerful people will have to deal with us whether they like us or not. And I think that's still the Iranian policy at this moment in time. Marjgerie Taylor Green um a former representative
58:29
uh for Georgia I think it is on X said that um and just like uh that we are no no longer a nation
58:37
divided by left and right. We are now a nation divided by those who want to fight wars for Israel
58:42
and those who just want peace and to be able to afford their bills and health insurance. Um,
58:48
is this really the key political divide in America going forward? I think that ever since Harris lost
58:54
and ever since Gaza played a decisive role in Harris's defeat, I think that there's been a
58:59
growing realization that the issue of genocide has permanently altered the electoral considerations
59:08
of ordinary Americans. When Manny won, many people tried to dismiss as being a situation that
59:15
is limited to New York because New York always produces radicals like AOC and and the others.
59:21
But then when you have elections like New Jersey for example where the incumbent who was supported by APEC in the past and openly stated that he supports Israel's right to exist and supports
59:29
Israel's right to defend itself and the like. This incumbent was concerned at the shifting trends
59:35
amongst electoral public opinion and the growing sentiment that Apac is a pariah and anybody who
59:41
Apac supports people are going to vote against. So he came out and he said he didn't hold the stick from the middle. He still held it from the Israeli side but he said I support Israel but I would
59:48
condition aid. So APEC fearing the ramifications of such statements put up a candidate against him
59:55
in the primary in the Democrat primary. There was a candidate who in the beginning had no chance of winning and a candidate who was endorsed by Bernie Sanders but was a bit far off who was pro
1:00:04
Palestinian anti-Israel as a result of that split between the two Apac candidates. This candidate
1:00:10
ended up winning the New Jersey primary because everybody came out in order to punish Apac. There are reports that indicate that Apac no longer gives funds directly to people because they
1:00:18
are concerned if they're seen giving directly to people then the Americans will be galvanized into voting against that candidate because they took Apac money. So reports even that they are giving
1:00:26
money now to Hakeim Jeff or others they're trying to find other vehicles through which to give money in Lord to support those particular candidates. I think that Marjorie Taylor Green reflects a
1:00:34
sentiment whereby the Americans are now voting no longer on the basis of Democrat and Republican, but they're now in increasingly demanding from their representatives, prove to me you belong to
1:00:43
America first as opposed to belonging to a foreign government. You have James Fishbach running in Florida, a Republican who openly has come out and said that the $380 million that Florida gives to
1:00:52
the Israelis, I I would I I would stop giving it to the Israelis. Why am I going to give it to the Israelis when the Israelis don't bring benefit to the Americans? And my issue is with
1:01:01
Florida first. I need to support Florida first. He comes out and he says that Israelis are trying
1:01:06
to restrict our freedom of speech. I will protect the freedom of the American to say that there is a genocide taking place in Gaza. You have it on both sides, Democrats and Republicans. You have
1:01:15
other candidates coming out and saying, "I will not take donations from Apac." You even had there was a a poster that came out listing a list of candidates that Apac endorses. One of those there
1:01:25
came out and said, "I reject this endorsement. I reject this endorsement. I'm not associated with Apac in any way whatsoever." The reason I think that Marjgerie Taylor Green is saying is because
1:01:33
the genocide in Gaza and the outpouring of outrage that took place on social media and the exposure
1:01:40
of ordinary Americans to those videos and those images that has left a permanent mark on the likes
1:01:46
of Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and these others who as Christians have turned around and said as a Christian I can't support this. That change is now permanent. Americans can't unsee what they've seen
1:01:56
and there's a new generation of Americans that are now deciding to vote. The main focus now is
1:02:01
who votes for America. I mean, you're seeing now amongst the MAGA, they're saying Trump, why are we doing a war on behalf of Israel? They're calling it Israel's war. Tucker Carson saying if we go,
1:02:09
it's because of Israel. Mike Huckabe did the interview and thought he did a good job with Tucker Carson. And then spent the next week tweeting all clarifications about what why because
1:02:18
Americans were saying you sound like an Israel Israeli ambassador, not as an American ambassador. Takaz in the interview says, "Can I express my outrage as an American that you seem to
1:02:26
be defending the Israelis over the Americans, even going to the extent of celebrating the Israeli army over the American army?" I think what Marjorie Taylor Green is is hinting at or
1:02:35
or saying quite quite frankly, quite bluntly, is the reality of what's happening in America.
1:02:40
People are no longer voting based on Democrat or Republican, or at least many of them are no longer voting based on Democrat and Republican. If you're a Democrat who supports Apac, they'll vote
1:02:47
for another candidate. If you're a Republican who supports Apac, they'll vote for another candidate. The question now is what does it mean to be American and what does America stand for? Because
1:02:55
the narrative now is America is getting dragged into conflicts and giving money to Israel and not
1:03:00
receiving anything in return except chaos, more wars and the death of US personnel and the like.
1:03:06
I think that how that manifest in the midterm elections, we're already seeing it. Apac tracker,
1:03:12
we're seeing it now in the primaries taking place. We're seeing Politico produce a headline that says House Democrat her seat may be under threat as a result of her past positions on Israel. That's
1:03:23
Politico saying it which is owned pretty much by Zionist group. Yeah, there are Zionist Axios is
1:03:29
openly recognizing it as well saying that now this is becoming a major issue. The Israelis are trying to respond with a narrative war that is failing miserably and they've lost American
1:03:37
public opinion in that regard. So I think this is why Takasan comes out and says the reason Israel needs this war with Iran now is because after the midterms they may not be able to get such
1:03:45
a war again because the Americans are lashing out at the Israelis and in the words of the ADL
1:03:50
they have permanently lost an American generation and that generation is about to vote. So Sammy,
1:03:56
how bad can it get for Iran? Uh Donald Trump is is promising a third wave and he said that wave will
1:04:02
be far more heavier in terms of losses for Iran uh than uh than previously. Um uh what are the
1:04:11
Israelis and Americans capable of doing? Donald Trump has has to give his base or the American
1:04:18
public opinion something that can justify going to war after promising to be an anti-war president.
1:04:24
Whether suffices is unclear yet, but I think also the Israelis want to keep going. But there's also
1:04:32
another dynamic which is that Iran may have committed a strategic mistake in hitting those
1:04:37
Gulf states that we talked about. The reason why I say that is UAE, Qatar, Kuwait or these smaller
1:04:47
states, given their vulnerability militarily, it may well be that Iran's bombing campaign pushes
1:04:55
them to lobby the Americans in order to end that particular war. But when you bomb Saudi and Saudi
1:05:04
turns around and let's suppose that bin Salman decides not to lobby Trump, but to say, "You know what? We're going to respond in kind. We will not allow it to be said that not only did you try to
1:05:14
bully the region through the proxies, but now you hit us on the mainland as well. We have to respond in kind as well to show you we're not the same Saudi of the past that used to, you know, calm
1:05:22
down and used to do things in in quiet or behind the scenes. We're going to hit you back as well.
1:05:27
If Saudi Arabia starts doing that, what happens for example if Pakistan for example invokes its
1:05:33
security pact with the Saudis? It would never invoke such a security pack against the Israelis would like but against Iran and against most certainly it's very much a possibility it could
1:05:41
invoke that security pack and as a desire to win over the Americans and win over Washington while
1:05:47
it's wrestling with India it's already bombing Afghanistan getting some stick for it may as well
1:05:53
bomb Iran in that regard as well what happens if Pakistan starts getting involved if Pakistan and Saudi Arabia start getting involved with Donald Trump in hitting Iran Erdogan doesn't want to be
1:06:02
seen as the guy who sat on the died in the midst of a clear once Trump finds the momentum what's
1:06:09
becomes Israel's war now becomes Trump's war and it becomes more Trumpian so Erdogan decides to say
1:06:14
you know what we'll lend some logistical support to and we have a Iraq version too where they go into Iran and this time completely dismantle the regime now Iran may be different from Iraq in the
1:06:24
sense of Iran is 90 million people it will cause huge shock waves across the region and the like but I think that given the genocide that we've seen in Gaza given Biden's relent
1:06:34
support for it. Given that the international order has crumbled all around us, given that people aren't even pretending anymore, Mick Carney of the Carni of Canada came out and said, you know,
1:06:43
we used to pretend. Now the reality is that we're not pretending anymore. We're in I wouldn't say
1:06:48
uncharted territory, but we're in darker times. It's very much possible this could really backfire for the Iranians. And we're already seeing the Saudis debate between themselves whereby they say,
1:06:57
"Okay, America has a prominent Saudi commentator said, "America has abandoned us in that it's
1:07:03
giving all of its defensive support to the Israelis while they're abandoning us to the
1:07:08
missiles and Qatar alle allegedly has 6 days left of Patriot missiles. Does Katar wait until
1:07:14
those missiles run out or does it turn around and say, you know, Iran really has gone rabbid
1:07:20
now the government can't control the IRGC, the Islamic revol the Iranian revolutionary guard course. Maybe there should be an Arab coalition now that goes into Iran and finally ends. They've
1:07:30
lost Syria, they've lost Lebanon. Let's just end this once and for all and go into Iran. This is also a possibility, albeit at this moment, it's a bit of a distant possibility. Trump suggests that
1:07:39
I mean I mentioned earlier that Trump was looking for some sort of talks to start them again with Iran. But if Trump sees that there is momentum in the war that now suddenly he's not necessarily
1:07:46
being opposed in the region but he can create some sort of international coalition with Saudi Arabia with these other states against the Iranians that looks very different. And if the death of the six
1:07:56
American soldiers that BBC is reporting have been killed, the reality is that there is a possibility
1:08:04
that this could end up into an Iraq 2 in Iran by which everybody says this won't be Iraq. We'll try
1:08:10
a different experiment again and the Gulf States are brought into it, not because they wanted it, because Iran forced them into it by bombing the cities and bombing the Gulf States.
1:08:19
In that regard, I think this could get really bad, especially for the Iranians, and I think
1:08:25
the Iranians are aware of it, which is why we're seeing these extreme measures of bombing the Gulf capitals itself. I don't want to sound all doom and gloom about it. I do think that there will be
1:08:34
repercussions for the region and repercussions politically for America domestically and repercussions for Israel and its standing in the international world. But I don't think Israel is
1:08:42
considering that at this current moment in time. I think the Israelis are thinking only about their own interests at the moment and they're dragging America into it. and America seems to be walking
1:08:50
into it despite the internal changes. So I think this this could get really bad for the Iranians,
1:08:55
the Arab governments. I mean one thing this has exposed is just the breadth of America's presence uh in the heartlands of of Islam in the heartlands of the Muslim um the Arab countries and
1:09:07
um it exposed just the the enormity of the infrastructure that exists the American
U.S. Military Bases in the Arab Region: Strategic Vulnerabilities
1:09:13
infrastructure that exists all across the uh the Muslim world but also in the in these Arab
1:09:19
countries but also has exposed a little bit their vulnerability uh as you said you know Qatar or UAE or these QA to these states It's never thought that such a calamity would would
1:09:30
uh uh would reach them. I mean this is uh unprecedented for for these countries that as you
1:09:35
said have sold themselves as being uh havens for peace and haven for attracting foreign investment
1:09:42
and and foreign business. Um uh notwithstanding of course the oil supplies that are currently
1:09:50
uh being jeopardized by by this conflict. Um, what does this tell us about the vulnerability
1:09:55
maybe of these Arab states? One of the the reasons that my father fell out with Iwan,
1:10:01
with the Muslim Brotherhood is when Saddam invaded Kuwait, many in the Muslim Brotherhood, they supported Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. My father was a journalist at the time and he wrote
1:10:09
an article in which he said that Saddam's invasion of Kuwait is a disaster for two reasons. He said
1:10:14
the first is with the position of the Muslim Brotherhood taking a position the Gulf states will never forgive this Islamic movement for supporting Saddam's invasion of a Gulf nation because it
1:10:24
implies that that's what they want to see for the rest of the Gulf States. The second reason he said was that the Americans have been struggling to establish military bases in the region. Now Kuwait
1:10:33
is going to get one because now the Gulf states are going to say that given there's an immediate threat from our own brother in the backyard, we need to bring in the Americans in order to protect
1:10:41
not from the Americans but the immediate threat is not America. The immediate threat is not the Israelis. The immediate threat is Saddam and Iraq and the immediate threat is the goate. Whatever
1:10:49
dynamics you want to talk about oil and Kuwait selling oil and stuff is irrelevant. The point here is that the reason for the presence of these American bases in the region is not because these
1:10:58
countries willingly went to the Americans and said please can you establish a base here? It's because there is a threat within the region between brothers in which when a brother fights a brother,
1:11:06
they bring an outsider in order to protect that brother against the other brother. And that's how those American bases emerge. Like for example, you talk about base in Katar, it's pointing towards
1:11:14
Saudi. It's not pointing towards towards Elite. You talk for example the base that's in in UAE, it's pointed towards Saudi, it's not pointed towards all these bases are pointed towards each
1:11:22
other in that regard. And the Americans were able to capitalize on that. In other words, you talk about the breath of those American military bases. It's the doing of the region itself in terms of
1:11:31
how they compete with one another. When you talk about an awakening, an awakening in what sense? Is it an awakening in terms of a security apparatus in which we need to develop our own indigenous
1:11:41
security apparatus? But against who? Because your you still believe that your threats are are in the
1:11:47
region. Your threats are Iran, your threats are, you know, Israel or or your threats are the UAE which is involved in Yemen or in Sudan. So when you're building indigenously, it still doesn't
1:11:56
solve that problem in terms of how you develop indigenously against an indigenous threat. In other words, the utility of American military bases are still there. If America turns around
1:12:05
tomorrow and says, you know, we'll up the number of Patriot missiles. We'll give you high-tech technology in the negotiations that took place between Saudi Arabia and America. Bin Salman asked
1:12:13
for nuclear technology. He said, if Iran has a bomb, we need a bomb. If Iran has that technology, we should have that technology as well. It it's still it's the the prospect of security
1:12:22
is not geared towards what America might do in the region. It's geared towards what Tahan might do,
1:12:28
what Abu Dhabi might do, what Riyad might do, what DH might do, what Kuwait might do or these places.
1:12:33
And I think that's at the crux of it. I think that the bombing of Iran on these capitals may not awaken these leaders in terms of establishing their own security infrastructure. It may well
1:12:42
tell them that for all intents and purposes, where are Russia and China for Iran? Where are they?
1:12:47
Everyone talks about, you know, a multi-olar world. Everybody talks about a world in which America is no longer dominant. But the reality is that Iran when it goes up against Israel,
1:12:57
Israel, American proxy, the reality is that Iran, which aligned itself closer to Russia and China.
1:13:02
Russia and China are nowhere to be seen. Some people might say, okay, China gives it access to some satellite technology that allows it to identify where American ships are. But Iran is
1:13:11
not keen to hit those American ships and Iran is not keen to kill those American soldiers. I mean, you think about all those ships on that. Okay, they're killing six American soldiers here or
1:13:19
kill seven American soldiers here, but nothing on the in comparison of the scale of what the Americans and Israelis are killing in Iran. Iran is trying to give Trump a way in which okay,
1:13:28
we want to make a statement. We might kill one or two, three, four American soldiers, but we'll try to kill not enough. So, it would provoke a fullout war. The point being is Iran
1:13:36
doesn't believe that Russia and China are going to Russian to help it replace its security infrastructure or even to protect Khame the leader of the state from an American bomb was killed in 2
1:13:46
three days despite Iran being aligned with the Chinese and the Russians. So when these Arab nations turn around and they say we want to build our own indigenous security apparatus where are
1:13:54
they going to go? You talk about Pakistan's jets that down the Indian jets with Chinese technology.
1:14:00
Does Iran not have that similar technology? If it does, why is it unable to deploy it in a way that Pakistan deployed it? The point that I'm saying is these Arab leaders will be looking at themselves
1:14:08
and saying, "Okay, we want to establish our own security infrastructure. China didn't work for Iran. Russia didn't work for Iran. Russia didn't work for Bashar al-Assad. China didn't work for
1:14:20
the reality is America according to these leaders is still the dominant power in its use of military
1:14:28
force its capacity to use that military force and its willingness to use that military force.
1:14:34
Therefore, if you're looking for protection, you still look towards Washington. And that's might that might be what galvanizes Donald Trump to say, okay, I'm suffering domestically and yes, in the
1:14:42
midterm elections, I'm I'm going to struggle as a result. But I have two years to make up for it later on with this American might, American power, especially if Trump turns this from an America
1:14:51
Israel war into an Arab Iranian war as a result of what Iran has done to those Arab capitals. And
1:14:57
that's why if we're talking more broadly, Iran's strategic mistake may not be in that it confronted
1:15:03
the Israelis. The strategic mistake may well be that those Arab nations that could have lobbyed
1:15:08
Trump on your behalf to stop that particular war, you drove them into going to war with you instead
1:15:14
because they when they were forced to reckon with their security apparatus, they were never going to rely on you and Tehran because you already violated them in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.
1:15:22
You already showed them that when this America doesn't protect them, you're ready to eat up their
1:15:28
lands. There's no way they're going to build a security apparatus on your on your basis. So they
1:15:33
they're not they don't want to spend the time to build it on their own because they still see fires around the region. So they take the shortcut and they go towards the Americans instead given that
1:15:41
Erdogan still doesn't have the capacity to be able to replace that security infrastructure over there. You talk about an Arab awakening amongst the Arab rulers. It may well be that they're
1:15:50
awakening and this is the scenario that I dread. This is this is for me the worst case scenario. It may well be that they awaken to what they perceive to be the reality, which is that for all of the
1:16:00
talk of alternative security arrangements, America is still the most reliable security guarantor and
1:16:05
they will side with the Americans and go into Iran. And when that happens, the fallout in
1:16:10
the entire region would be catastrophic. So all the discussion about hopeful talks post
1:16:16
uh the breakout the break uh breakout between the UAE and Saudi Arabia hopeful talks about a Sunni
1:16:22
access even Netanyahu talked about this Sunni axis he's forming uh in the Muslim world you think
Is a Sunni Axis Emerging?
1:16:28
that's exaggerated I don't think it's necessarily exaggerated I think it's what Erdogan is trying to achieve I think that Erdugan calculated from 2003 and even before that there is it is very difficult
1:16:40
for Israel to accept a Muslim Muslim leader in charge. Which is why I think Elder Erdogan started
1:16:47
slowly alternating here and there, but very slowly and surely Islam re-islamifying a Turkish
1:16:54
identity that Turk sought to de-Ilamize in order to secure some sort of acceptance and international recognition from the international community. I think that Erdogan has always known
1:17:04
that there is a prospect for a confrontation with the Israelis given their ambitions in the region and the like and which is why he spent so much money on his own defensive infrastructure. I
1:17:12
want to build indigenously. I want access to technology outside so I know how to build my akinas and how build my bacters and build Erdogan is very much well aware that he needs to build
1:17:22
this military infrastructure in that regard. It's why Erdogan when he pursues that foreign policy
1:17:27
abroad in order to pursue that sort of Muslim first identity in Africa, in North Africa, in
1:17:32
Syria and these others, the reason he pushes that identity is not just because he has his conviction inside obviously for all of the pragmatism that he displays and all the criticisms that that we've
1:17:41
made of him is because Erdogan believes that if he can have people to buy into that sort of vision, they will let him establish Turkish bases in Libya, Turkish bases in Somalia, allow him to
1:17:51
expand his reach in the belief that At some point, Israel is going to demand war against Turkey,
1:17:56
against Turkey in the way that Napali Bennett is now demanding that war. So Erdogan I think knows that Turkey on its own cannot survive on its own. Which is why when Iran Khan was in Pakistan,
1:18:05
there was a rapid push in order to try to bring Pakistan on board. And when Iran Khan fell,
1:18:10
Erdogan was deeply disappointed but believed he still needed Pakistan, which is why he immediately brought Shabb Sharif and these others to say to them, can we still develop on our security
1:18:19
ties that we've developed because we need to build this. Of course, Pakistan always tries to balance
1:18:24
in the sense of we're worried what the Americans will do to us or the Chinese or the Russians. So, they prefer to be a client state as opposed to an independent state that asserts itself. But
1:18:32
regardless, I think Erdogan wants to create such an access. He does. The problem is binsman is
1:18:41
fearful that any alliance with Erdogan will be at his expense because binsman wants to ally as Saudi
1:18:48
Turkey and Erdogan wants to ally as Muslim Muslim and given that Erdogan has a more stronger Muslim
1:18:55
identity then the risk is the Saudis that bin Salman governs may have an affinity closer to
1:19:00
Erdogan in the long term and that might affect bin Salman's domestic stability. bin Salman wants to deal with Erdogan as a Turk, not as a Muslim. Whereas Erdogan wants to deal with bin Salman as
1:19:10
a Muslim, not as a Turk. The problem is even when he approaches the UAE, when he sends Hakan to the UAE to say, you know, you don't need to do all of this. We can work together in Sudan, in Ethiopia,
1:19:19
in these other places, the UAE prefers to deal with Erdogan as a Turk as opposed to a Muslim. Because in the words of bin Zed, if a man was to stand in Mecca and say I am the Mahi,
1:19:28
80% of my army will go and join him. I don't like the impact the resonance that Erdogan has over my
1:19:33
people who go and pray in the mosques. I would prefer Erdogan speaks as a Turk not as a Muslim which is why Erdogan alternates between that nationalism and between the Muslimist. Erdogan
1:19:41
would like to create that access. I don't think it's an exaggeration. Israel knows what a powerful
1:19:47
axis that might be. But Israel also knows that the competition between the Muslims and this is the
1:19:54
point. It's like Andooia with the 32 tyifas that the competition between the Muslims means that we
1:20:00
will always find an ally amongst the Muslims who's ready to fight against the other. We will find the UAE to squeeze bin Salman. We will be able to find the Iranians to squeeze Saudi. We'll be able to
1:20:10
find all of these allies. We'll be able to find the Iranians to help us in the Iraq war. People forget that Iran played a significant role in the Iraq war and in the aftermath and in forming the
1:20:18
governments and in creating the institutions that are paralyzed today. The point that I'm saying is that when you ask the question, is Israel worried about a Sunni access? Yes. Can it be
1:20:29
created? Some nations are trying, but some nations categorically do not want it. And it goes back to
1:20:35
the point I made earlier, which is that the Saudis hit the UAE on the normalization of ties without
1:20:42
realizing that they ruined what made bin Salman so effective against UAE. Consider this. If Turkey
1:20:50
had gone after the UAE over Sudan and over Yemen, Washington would have accused Erdogan of Islamism
1:20:56
and they would have probably sanctioned Turkey or Turkey and they would have forced this is what Erdogan fears which is why he sent down to UAE. They would have said he's promoting Islamism. The
1:21:05
Epstein files say we're worried that Iran Khan was doing the same and the like and that Erdogan is a threat in in bringing conservatism back to Turkey. Erdogan would have have to spend so much money
1:21:14
lobbying America to tell them no but I'm still your NATO ally. But most likely UAE could convince Washington to sanction Turkey the way Trump did in 2019 in the aluminium industry. IfQatar had done
1:21:24
it,Qatar hosts so much of the Muslim Brotherhood that it would have been easy to accuseQatar of being a haven of supporting. SoQatar couldn't get the American support. Bins man's trump card,
1:21:35
no pun intended. Bins man's card that made him so fitted against the UAE was he was recognized
1:21:40
in Washington as a deislamizer. He is recognized in Washington as an asset in removing Islam from
1:21:46
Saudi Arabia. He's trying to push it out. He's trying to create the Vatican of Mecca and Medina by focusing on the normalization aspect in going after the UAE instead of focusing on Yemen and
1:21:56
on Sudan. They raised alarm bells in America by telling the Americans that hang on a second UAE
1:22:01
was able to say to America that bin Salman is going to go lean on the Islamists again. You don't need to be careful. So they went oh wait a minute we thought bin Salman was was with us.
1:22:08
Let's go and confirm. So now bin Salman is stuck in that regard. The point being is that if bin Salman joins such an access of a Sunni access with Erdogan, what how does Washington react?
1:22:20
Washington doesn't allow bin Salman off the hook that easily either. And that's the reason why I think one of the glaring lessons that will take place after all this is finished is for all of
1:22:29
the talk of a multi-olar world, China and Russia failed miserably in Syria. They failed miserably
1:22:36
in Iran. They may be an economic alternative but they will they are not strategic allies in
1:22:42
the way that America became a strategic ally for these Gulf states. And therefore the conclusion of these Gulf states and going back to the scenario that I fear the most is that it won't be let's
1:22:50
push towards a Sunni axis. It will be let's up our efforts in America and further entrench the
1:22:56
American security apparatus and just try to convince them that we can be as valuable as Israel is or hope that public opinion in America shifts so much that they abandon the Israelis
1:23:05
and they might treat us with more equality. What did say? He said they're giving more to Israel to defend themselves than they are to us. Maybe all they the awakening will be give us the same you
1:23:14
give Israel. So what should we do? I mean um at the very beginning you talked about the ideal of political analysis. is political analysis isn't just to delineate facts, isn't just to research
1:23:25
and and and understand the reality in front of us. We're understanding that reality because we
Building Agency Within the Ummah
1:23:30
want to change it. We want to shift it. If it's a bleak reality, as you've just described there, this could be very bleak. The Arab countries could come squarely behind the Americans and
1:23:38
the Israelis and then we end up back to where we were 5, 10, 15 years ago. Um uh so how do we
1:23:46
create agency within ourselves within the ummah so that we're able to change the fate of events
1:23:52
that the end result isn't as bleak. What can we do with this now that we're possessed with these
1:23:58
scenarios? What can we do to change and impact the world around us such that there is an access,
1:24:04
call it a Sunni access or Muslim access, an access that um unites and that is able to uh create a as
1:24:14
you said uh military uh uh military equipment, military technology which is uh self- sustained,
1:24:21
which is internal. How do we get to that stage? Optimism is not rooted in certainty in this world.
1:24:27
Optimism is rooted in the uncertainty and that all certainty belongs to Allahhana tala that only
1:24:33
Allah knows the only Allah knows the unknown only Allah knows what's going to come next the reason why that gives you room for optimism is we can analyze this all day but in reality there could
1:24:42
be a dynamic that we haven't even considered yet that emerges in the most random of places that ends up resulting in a domino effect that ends up resulting in changes that we didn't think were
1:24:50
fathomable the reason why I say this is that you've asked me questions about the dynamics surrounding the Iranians but the reality is that one of the reasons why we're seeing such loud
1:25:00
narrative battles come out of Tel Aviv is because there is a dynamic that is emerging in the states and emerging in Europe whereby public opinion is shifting in such a way that as I said earlier
1:25:10
Israel believes this is the last chance that it has with this American population. What does that mean? That means that the Israelis are aware that for all of the strength they are manifesting
1:25:19
against Iran and for all of the brutality they are manifesting with the Americans against the Iranians, that manifestation of strength is not coming from a position of strength. It's coming
1:25:29
from a position of weakness. See it for what it is, not what you think it is. The the the bombing
1:25:34
that's taking place against the Iranians is not a manifestation of American or Israeli strength. It's a manifestation of a hysteria on the part of Tel Aviv that they might actually be losing and
1:25:44
the winds are changing against them because when they look at America who they're relying on in order to deliver that support and that aid, they are finding now that they are being questioned
1:25:52
in places in America they were never questioned before. They are finding now that their brand is becoming toxic. They're finding that people don't want to stand alongside them anymore because
1:26:01
they're worried they're going to lose elections. This is what I meant in that it sounds like it's doom and gloom, but we analyze a particular event. put it back into the wider picture,
1:26:09
the wider tapestry of history and you will find that in reality agency still very much exists.
1:26:15
Trump doesn't know if he wants a ceasefire or if he wants to continue the war with Iran or if he has a plan for what happens with Iran. He said we want regime change. Then he said we want to keep
1:26:22
the regime. Then he said we had two, three, four candidates lined up to take their position but they happen to be dead. Then he turns around and says that actually maybe we want somebody to come
1:26:31
to power who was willing to engage in US interest but is willing to keep their infrastructure in
1:26:36
check. Trump doesn't have a sanity of what he wants. The Israelis don't know if Trump tomorrow is going to do a ceasefire or if he's going to continue the war with them, which is why Netanyahu
1:26:46
is going on Fox News speaking to the American people trying to explain to Trump's base why
1:26:51
they need to support him on this. Somebody who's certain about what's coming. Doesn't do that. He's
1:26:57
uncertain. And so he's taking all those steps. Why? What is the uncertainty rooted in? It's
1:27:02
rooted in the possibility of an emergence of a scenario that Netanyahu does not want. It's rooted
1:27:08
in the emergency of a scenario that Trump does not want. In other words, we look at it as doom
1:27:14
and gloom. But the reality is that uncertainty on their side suggests that even if you don't know
1:27:19
what is the ideal scenario, they certainly believe such scenarios exist even if you cannot see them.
1:27:26
That hope exists even if you cannot see it. That a good solution exists even if you cannot see it.
1:27:31
This is why Allah always insists that only he knows the unknown. The reason Allah tells you that he monopolizes that for himself is to give you hope that if none of us know what's going to
1:27:41
happen next, then let's all do what we can do with what we have. Let's all roll the dice. Let's all
1:27:47
push and wrestle with one another until we see what Allah has written moving forward. The point
1:27:52
being is if the Zionist doesn't know what's going to come next, that should give you hope. That shouldn't give you gloom. If the Zionist doesn't know if they will win, that should give you hope
1:28:00
that even they don't know they don't they won't win. There's this scenario where they see they will lose. So let's keep pushing until we discover what is this scenario that means that they will
1:28:08
lose. That's the beauty of Allah being the one who knows the unknown. That's why Allah subhana
1:28:14
wa ta'ala didn't allow the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam in his lifetime to see Islam in London. It doesn't mean that the prophet wasallam wasn't sure Islam would reach London. He
1:28:23
didn't need to be alive to see it. Allah knew it would get there and Allah was sufficient to deliver it. All the prophet Muhammad had to do was in his environment do what he had to do based on
1:28:34
Allahh which is to render Quresh and Mecca into a haven for the Muslims from which we would all
1:28:40
congregate and perform a hajj and perform our pilgrimage and it would form the religious and ideological basis through which we are always able to reset no matter how bad the situation
1:28:48
gets. That's the beauty of uncertainty in that yes it can bring chaos but in this uncertainty
1:28:55
it can give you hope but what happens in these midterm elections if Apac takes a walloping what
1:29:00
does Trump turn around and say does he turn around and say as Biden did and say I don't give a damn about what happens inside America I'm going to support the Israelis anyway that's not in Trump's
1:29:09
nature let's assess things politically what is Trump's most likely reaction to a heavy defeat
1:29:15
that is rooted in dissent over US support for the Israelis. Do you think Trump turns around and
1:29:20
says, "I'm going to support the Zionists again." He's going to tell them, "No, I want to win again. Maybe I want to change the constitution where I'm not encouraging these things." But I'm saying his
1:29:27
reaction is, "Maybe I shouldn't have been so close to them. Maybe they're not as powerful as I thought they were. I'm going to go listen to the Tuckers more often, listen to the Candacees more
1:29:35
often. I'm going to alienate the Israelis." This is what they're terrified of. In such a scenario, you have agency. What changed public opinion in such a way that Netao had to go eight times
1:29:45
to Washington weaving in and out of states that might implement the ICC arrest warrant and then lobby and then try to present a plan and then try to drag Trump into a war with the Iranians. What
1:29:55
is that shift in public opinion? Who brought that change? The people who brought that change without
1:30:00
any exaggeration were not Muslim governments. It was not a coordinated campaign from any Muslim
1:30:06
capital. It was ordinary people who chose to raise their voices, who chose to protest, who chose to mobilize. Here in the UK, we have this election that took place in Gordon and Denton
1:30:15
where all the polls suggested it was neck andneck and in the end it wasn't neck and neck. The Green Party won 40% of the vote. But what happened? How did the polls get it so wrong? They underestimated
1:30:25
the impact of a people whose minds have shifted as a result of the genocide that took place in Gaza.
1:30:30
Everybody is saying that Gaza that Lewis Good analyst or or presenter I think on LB on the
1:30:36
news agents came out and said we need to reckon with the impact that Gaza is going to have in this election because it doesn't seem to be going away. The reason that shift has taken place you were
1:30:45
telling me looks all doom and gloom. And I admit somebody who listened to the analysis might think that oh this seems like it's going to be a worst case scenario. It's true. It could get worse. It
1:30:54
could it could be Ysef Alisam who's been in the well for so long even though he's pulled out he's
1:30:59
about to be sold into slavery in somebody's house. It could be that after slavery in that house he's about to be thrown into prison. It could be from calamity to calamity. It could be. But the point
1:31:09
of the uncertainty is Yusam doesn't know what's coming next in that yes it could be bad in that
1:31:14
he goes to prison but he also doesn't know that he's going to come out alaz in the end. That's the point of politics in identifying where the agency lies. That shift in public opinion in Europe and
1:31:24
in the US should not be underestimated. There's a reason why Netanyahu spent $50 billion on TikTok.
1:31:31
He spent in order to silence the voices of ordinary people. Why? He wasn't upset that people were changing their minds. He was upset that people were changing their minds and then
1:31:40
acting on it. He wasn't upset. Napali Bennett said, "We 3,000 years we couldn't convince people to like us. We're not going to start now." Even though he's exaggerating, but in any case,
1:31:48
what he meant was they're not interested in people liking them. They're not interested in people liking Israel. What he's concerned about in the shift of public opinion, he's concerned that
1:31:57
because of that shift, people actually act and do something. They go and vote differently. They go
1:32:02
and buy differently because of the boycott. They go and protest differently. They go and stand with causes they didn't stand before. They go and canvas for things they never canvas before. They
1:32:11
go and say things they never said before. They go and normalize things they never normalize before until Kama turns around and says, "Oh my goodness, I need to recognize a Palestinian
1:32:20
state because while I'm Zionist, I don't want to lose my position for the Zionist." Macaron turns around and says, "I'm recognizing a Palestinian state. I don't want to lose my seat because of the
1:32:27
Zionist." Trump turns around and says, "I'm going to do a ceasefire and a Gaza board of peace." The Israelis tell him, "Don't include Qatar and Turkey." But Turkey turn but Trump
1:32:35
turns around and says, "I liked I like my friend. I'm going to put him on the board of peace." and he puts him and the Israelis feel they can't control things in the way that they would like
1:32:43
to control it. There's a beauty to uncertainty. There's a beauty to the way that only Allah knows
1:32:48
what comes next. There's a beauty that only Allah knows. The Zionist doesn't know. There's a beauty
1:32:53
that only Allah knows. The American doesn't know. There's a beauty that only Allah knows. Bin Salman doesn't know. There's a beauty that only Allah knows what's coming next. Sami Hamdi
1:33:04
doesn't know. There's a beauty that only Allah knows what's coming next. Andreas Creek doesn't
1:33:09
know. There's a beauty that only Allah knows what's coming next. Nigel Faraj doesn't know. The
1:33:14
reason Allah monopolizes it to himself is to say to you nothing is a foregone conclusion. Nothing
1:33:20
is certain. Everything can change in an instance. Bashar als can fall in 10 days. The French can
1:33:27
leave Algeria after 132 years. The British can leave Egypt. The Italians can leave Libya. Vietnam
1:33:34
can be free. The Dutch can leave Indonesia even after committing all of that genocide. The beauty of the unknown is you ask somebody who lived there, they'll tell you, I don't know when
1:33:43
these French will ever leave. And when they left, they went, "Oh my god, they actually left." Yeah, Muhammad Khalik and Jazik. Oh, Prophet Muhammad, congratulations. Algeria has been returned to you.
1:33:54
The beauty being is that Allah returned it to you. Yeah, Muhammad. The point that I'm saying is nobody knows it. If you ask anybody who lived under colonization, they will tell you,
1:34:04
"We thought we'd live our whole life under colonization. The unknown belongs to Allah." And the reason the unknown belongs to Allah alone is to give you hope. Is to tell you that Netanyahu
1:34:14
plans, but Allah plans and Allah is the best of planners. Is to tell you that Trump and Hath are planning and they may plan and Allah is planning and Allah is the best of planners. That Sammy
1:34:23
might plan, Sammy might prepare and say this is the way the map looks like, but Allah knows how to alter that map completely. The reality is that there is a beauty to the unknown. We tend to fear
1:34:33
the unknown because we fear it will get worse. But those of old, the reason they love the unknown is
1:34:38
because they knew Allah was in charge of it. They knew Allah was in charge of the unknown. And he
1:34:45
is sufficient to leave in charge of the unknown. The reason why they chose to walk when Mus Alam
1:34:50
was scared is because he didn't know what was coming next. When Harun and Moses say to him,
1:34:58
what are they saying in this? We're scared that he is going to take liberties with us and abuse
1:35:05
us. So their assessment of what's coming next is the they're saying to themselves that what's
1:35:11
coming next is doom, gloom, and disaster. Allah doesn't tell them what's coming next. Allah says,
1:35:21
"I'm with you. I'm seeing things and I can hear. Allah doesn't tell them, Pharaoh, you're going to defeat Pharaoh. You're going to win over sorcerers. Allah doesn't tell
1:35:31
them the unknown. Think about it. He doesn't tell them what's coming next. He tells them, "Go move forward. I can see everything and I can hear everything and that should be sufficient for
1:35:42
you to move into the unknown." We fear the unknown and that's fine. Mus Alisam feared it too. But
1:35:49
there is no excuse for not moving because Allah is the one who sees and hears. As he heard and saw
1:35:54
when Musa went to Pharaoh, Mus Alam did not know he would split the sea. Allah split it for him.
1:36:01
Mus Alisam did not know that he would beat those sorcerers. Allah defeated the sorcerers for him.
1:36:06
They the reality is Ysef Alisam did not know the meaning of his dream. He didn't know the dream.
1:36:14
will come. Father, I've seen that the moon and the sun are prostrating before me and I see 11
1:36:21
stars. They're all prostrated before me. Doesn't tell him what the dream is about. Yam doesn't
1:36:26
know what the dream is about. Do you know when he knows the unknown? When it actually happens and it becomes known, he goes, "This was my dream. This is what it meant." The beauty of the unknown is I
1:36:36
don't know what will happen with Iran. Only Allah knows. I don't know what will happen with the Arab states. Only Allah knows. What I do know isund 100 years ago they were all colonized. 100 years
1:36:47
ago the British were all there and the French and Sykes Pico and they did those borders. The British
1:36:52
and the French are out. The Americans came in. I don't know what will happen in 100 years time. Maybe they will watch this podcast and laugh and say look how they thought it was like this and
1:37:00
it ended up like that. His his status quo does not last. And the reason why I say this is your
1:37:05
question supposees in this doom and gloom what can we do? Everybody is doing so much. Even with
1:37:11
regards to the boycott, those who do even of good deed, Allahh sees it. That shift in public opinion
1:37:18
in America is real. Now in the polls in the UK, the two leading parties are no longer Labor and
1:37:24
Conservative who supported the genocide. They are reform and green. I'm not saying reform are good. I'm saying people are so dissatisfied with the way the status quo has been. They're now looking to
1:37:34
two other parties. Americans are so dissatisfied with the support for the Israelis that Marjorie Taylor Green is saying it's no longer Democrat and Republican. It's now America first versus
1:37:43
Israel first. Why did that change happen? And this is the point I finish on. Why did that change happen? It didn't happen because of a grand multi-million dollar campaign. It happened because
1:37:55
an ordinary individual, a collective group of ordinary individuals from around the world,
1:38:00
they finally believed their word can actually have an impact. They finally believed where they buy stuff can have an impact. They finally believe that their protest have an impact. They
1:38:08
believe that as long as they moved, Allah could amplify it. The act that is done consistently,
1:38:13
Allah elevates that deed. When they finally believed, they shook the realms of oppression.
1:38:18
Those Epstein fouls came out and is taking everybody down one by one. The reason why I'm saying is don't assume this status quo will last. It will always change. The reason it changes is
1:38:28
because everybody has agency. how you deploy that agency. You may not know its impact in Allah's
1:38:33
grand plan, but it does have an impact whether you realize it or not. And we're seeing it across the world. And this is why we finish with Allah's words. Allah says when the victory of Allah comes
1:38:47
and you see people entering your ranks in waves, they're entering in huge numbers. Suddenly
1:38:54
on that day when that victory comes, glorify Allah and ask for forgiveness. Why ask for forgiveness? Allah says ask for forgiveness because when that victory comes it will come in a way we
1:39:04
didn't expect it. We analyze here and the victory came this way. It will come in a way where like how did it happen? The prophet signed the treaty of three years ago and already we're in Mecca. It
1:39:12
will come in a way where is like how am I going to take Jerusalem? He wins oh my goodness I can take it. It comes in a way where the Muslims say how we going to defeat the Mongols and say and they go
1:39:21
and they defeat they defeat the Mongols and ended up turning the whole tide of battle. It comes when Omar Mkhtar knows he's probably going to die amongst the Italians. But when they ask him,
1:39:29
"Yes, they have they have their planes and we have random cars and small handguns. How are we ever going to beat them?" And he says, "Do their planes fly over the throne of Allah
1:39:37
or below the throne of Allah?" And they say he fly they fly below the throne of Allah. He says, "The one on the throne of Allah is with us. We're destined to win." And he looks Gratzani
1:39:44
in the eye just before he gets executed and tells Gratzani, you can kill me fine, but generation after generation are going to keep going because there's a book that tells
1:39:52
us that only Allah knows the unknown. And therefore it's always worth trying. Allah says when that victory comes from where you don't expect it. They committed genocide in Algeria in
1:40:00
1945. 17 years later Algeria is free. They killed Omar Mktar. Libya is free within 20 years. All
1:40:06
of these changes happen when that victory comes from where you don't expect it. From where Omar soldiers didn't expect it. Ask forgiveness for the times that you doubted it was coming. Ask
1:40:16
forgiveness for the times when you doubted that act that you did and the impact that it had. Ask for the times when you doubted and laughed that the shift in public opinion was irrelevant.
1:40:25
Ask forgiveness for the times when you doubted the impact of the boycott and that Coca-Cola that you told your friend what's one Coca-Cola going to do even though Allah said those who
1:40:34
do even an atom of good deed Allah sees it. Ask forgiveness for when that victory comes. It will come in a way only Allah knew it could come. In the dynamics only Allahh knew that they existed.
1:40:43
In a way only Allahh knew it would come. You know when Allah talks about Allahh tells Mus
1:40:49
Alam tell your people to go into this land he tells Mus Alam tells his people they say we're
1:40:54
not going in there the the too strong for us they're too powerful for us two people next to
1:41:00
Mus Alam pious people they tell the people Allah promised it to you they say Allah promised Allah
1:41:07
claims he knows the unknown and has promised it unless Allah tells us the unknown we're not going
1:41:14
go you and Allah and fight we're going to be here sitting down if Allah knows the unknown let him go with you if I don't know the unknown I'm not moving even though there was a prophet amongst
1:41:21
them Allah forbade them from any sort of victory or glory Allah left them humiliated 40 years the
1:41:28
next generation comes Talut's army marches and when you read the story his army are hesitant
1:41:35
we don't have any power against look at them what are you doing what are you marching for why are we doing this taloud. Look at them and look at us. Look at the silence and look at us. Look at
1:41:45
America and look at us. Yeah. Yeah. Taloud. Taloud says, "Go. Allah has given us a promise." And you can imagine they probably went, "Oh, this promise he keeps talking about." And they march with them
1:41:53
reluctantly. Then Talut wants to test them. Whoever drinks from the river is not from me. Look at this guy trying to ban us from drinking from the river. Well, I'm drinking. He goes down.
1:42:00
They drink from the river except a a small number of them. Taloud tells him, "Stand, stand." Allah's given a promise. The whole description of his army is that they're constantly like, "I don't get it.
1:42:10
He keeps telling us we're going to win. Look at them and look at us is not introduced or implied
1:42:17
in the surah until the and killed Goliath. In other words, the surah is structured whereby Allah
1:42:24
gives no indication how that solution is going to come to pass. Allah gives no indication that solution is even coming. Allah gives no indication that the solution has already been set. All Allah
1:42:35
asked Tal to do was move. All Allah asked Tal to do was move move forward. Show me my promise is
1:42:43
enough. Show me that when I tell you that every act you do can have an impact. Show me that promise is enough for you to do that action even if the whole world looks like it doesn't have an
1:42:52
impact. Show me that when I tell you that victory is going to come and I don't show you how that
1:42:57
promise is enough for you to keep protesting, to keep raising your voice. And when I tell you that
1:43:04
that your word can make the enemy turn into a friend, can make go from an enemy to a khalifa
1:43:09
from an enemy to the sword of Allah from takson to becoming the one who rinses my kakab one of the
1:43:15
loudest proponents against Israel and Zionism today. The reality is Allah tells you is that promise enough for you to keep talking and keep moving? Do you are you grateful for the power I
1:43:25
gave you or do you insist on bartering with me for the power that you want? Are you saying to Allah,
1:43:31
I don't want this power you gave me because you didn't give me this power instead? Or will you ask for forgiveness on that day for the times when you said this is all we have? When in reality,
1:43:39
when the victory comes, you realize all we had was what changed the world. All we had
1:43:44
is what transformed America. All we had is what transformed Europe. All we had, that's the phrase
1:43:50
you used, even though Allah said there's value in it. All we had transformed the whole Muslim world.
1:43:58
Allah accepts that repentance. These questions, despair is not the attribute of a mmin. It's
1:44:04
not the attribute of a believer because the believer knows no matter how bleak it gets when the when the oppressors surround the house of lai and he says,
1:44:15
"If only I had power against you or a powerful ally to resist." Allah doesn't say, "Oh, you are wretched and you are condemned." Allah says, "They're being punished in the morning. Take
1:44:24
your stuff and leave." Allah's power is manifest no matter how l might feel in that situation.
1:44:29
Allah's power is manifest no matter how might feel in that situation. Allah's power is manifest
1:44:34
no matter how much agony Miamisam feels. Allah's power is manifest no matter how scared Mus Alisam
1:44:41
is. Allah's power is manifest no matter how the companions say when is the victory of Allahhana
1:44:46
coming. Allah's power is manifest always. Despair is not from the believer. No matter how dark it
1:44:51
looks, Allah is so magnificent. just wait until he delivers it again. In the past 100 years ago,
1:44:57
they were colonizers and they colonized the Muslim world. Today, they're not colonized because Allah put out feats of extraordinary feats that enable that liberation. I can't
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wait to see what extraordinary feat he does that allows us to pray in.
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Thank you so much. We have to break our fast now. Thank you so much for your time today. Asalam alaikum. Now, you've reached the end of this show, and the fact that you've stayed
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until the very end tells me that you truly believe in our work. Please consider making a one-off donation or becoming a member by visiting thinkingmusim.com/membership.
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Now, your contributions give you exclusive behind-the-scenes access and the ability to ask questions to our guests and monthly calls with myself,
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