Transcription
Before I start, I want to mention to you that the Stonewall Myth documentary has come out by our very own Harry Robinson, and it goes into the history of the Stonewall movement, and it's really quite interesting. Uh, slightly depressing, slightly sad, very sad, but you should actually go ahead and watch it.
Um, now I want to talk a little bit about the Middle East and the war that we find the West engaged in in the Middle East, with more and more countries being drawn in. And I want to talk about Italy, really, from the religious dimension, because I feel that this isn't discussed enough, unfortunately, and when it is, it's a bit one-sided. We can all agree that the Muslims have a bit of an extremism problem. Can we? Putting it a touch lightly? Can, can we, can we agree on that? Where you're coming from though? Um, I, I could argue, you know, that old line of the problem with Islamic fundamentalism are the fundamentals of Islam. So, is it really extremism? But I, 100%, agree with the point you're talking, 100%. And you had the former president of Iran, Mahmud Ahmed, saying to European foreign ministers, how chaos is actually a good thing, because when chaos comes, you see God more clearly. And maybe it'll bring about the Mahdi and the end days.
I, I always thought that that God was meant to symbolize order, a divine order, not a divine chaos.
You'd think so. That seems to be the other guy. And incidentally, that is mainstream Shia thinking, including by people like, for example, who just got whacked in, in Iran. So, Ahmed was sort of riffing a little bit on his own, but we can agree that he's insane. We can broadly agree that he's insane. And then we can say that widely in Islam, you get statements like this one. Um, "The end times shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. So, and the Muslims shall kill them until the Jew hides behind trees and rocks. And the tree or the rock will say, 'Oh, Muslim, oh slave of Allah, that is a Jew behind me. Come kill him.'"
This was one of, except for this tree, because it is a tree of the Jews.
This is the Jewish tree. Okay. Apparently. Apparently. Um, and this is from the Hadith, the statements of Muhammad. So, it's not actually from the Quran, but it's accepted as true by pretty much all mainstream Muslims.
This was one of the, the favorites of Callum, the late Callum, peace be upon him, right?
Um, he pointed this one out to me. It's very interesting, isn't it? It's it's written right there in the Hadiths, which are, very important.
Yeah. Extremely authoritative. Like, you, you, you can't go against what's in the Hadith. If you are going to be a mainstream Muslim, you have to accept that this is part of your thinking and that this relates to the end times.
The issue is that it's not just the Muslims, and we have to be a little bit honest about that, and it's uncomfortable. You have a growing movement within Judaism that is trying to build the third temple, and that requires destroying what is called the Al-Aqsa Mosque, allegedly on the site of the third temple. This is supposed to be the third holiest place in Islam, and it's the place that Muslims originally prayed towards. They prayed towards Jerusalem and the temple before beginning to pray towards Mecca. And here there's a collection of Jewish rabbis explaining that they want to rebuild the third temple.
Great thumbnail pick as well there, by the way. Uh, just, jeez.
I mean, it, I didn't choose this. This is how it shows on YouTube. I have nothing to do with it. But let's listen to a couple of these guys, and then maybe we can see whether or not we should be worried about this kind of extremism as well.
"Messiah is coming, and all the Jews are about to be brought back to the land of Israel, and the third temple is about to be rebuilt. Many people forget this detail about October 7th. But if you look at the name of the operation, what was it called? Remember, Storm Al-Aqsa. If you think about it, what did it have to do with Al-Aqsa? It was miles away. But here in lies the secret to what's going on and the chaos in the whole world. The whole world knows deep down inside. The Muslims, the Christians, the atheists, the Buddhists, you name it. Everybody knows it. Messiah is coming."
What's Mashiach?
Uh, the Messiah.
Okay. So this guy is saying that the Messiah is coming, and that the war that started on October 7th is intended to pave the way for that, and for the destruction of this mosque, uh, squatting on top of the alleged site of the third temple, and you're going to get this happen.
Just for the idiots here on this topic, which is me, what's the Al-Aqsa point that he's making there?
So basically, um, like I said, on the site of the Temple Mount, there's a mosque, and it's called Al-Aqsa. And Hamas named their October 7th operation, "The Flood of Al-Aqsa," be not "The Storm," which because they cast it as a defense of the Muslim holy sites, because over the last few years, um, the Jews have been going into the site of the third temple more and more often and praying there, and Muslims find that insanely offensive. How dare the Jews pray at the site of the third temple?
So, there is this extremism here. Now, there are other views. This rabbi explains that, um, the, the, the Messiah cannot come through war. And so I just wanted to point that out, that it's not everybody who believes that it has to be through war. And this gentleman makes that point clear, that it's not going to come through bloodshed. It's not going to come through war.
But then you have the Rebbe of Chabad. Chabad-Lubavitch are a Jewish supremacist sect within Judaism. They believe that other people don't have equal souls to the Jews, and that they only have animal souls, and only Jews have truly elevated souls. Again, this is not all Jews believing that.
I learned that from the Epstein emails.
Yes. Yes. Yes. So, it, it kind of matters because Chabad was asking Epstein for money, by the way, for, just as a bit of a side note. Um, but this man is incredibly important. He is the most influential Jewish leader in the 20th century on the religious front, not on the political front. And he is saying here something that I think we should listen to. It's in Yiddish, but you can see the translation.
"If the temple was not rebuilt in your lifetime, it's as if it was destroyed in your lifetime." Emphasizing the duty of Jews to rebuild the temple on, you know, by removing Al-Aqsa Mosque.
But wasn't it destroyed in the time of the Romans? Wasn't it Trajan?
It was destroyed in the time of the Romans. And mainstream Christian theology is that Jesus Christ is the temple, and he is the living temple, and there is no need for a new temple. But as we will see in a moment, that is not a point of universal agreement among Christians. And this man is used to be incredibly influential. There are videos of him meeting with bankers and with business leaders and with all kinds of others. And his word was massively respected. I think the, um, his birthday was made the national education day in the United States or something like that. And, um, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. So he's a genuinely important person.
That's an interesting thing to happen where he's saying that the person awarding him the, the Presidential Medal, presumably the President of the United States at the time, would not have an actual human soul. They would have an animal soul. And yet they're awarding him a medal.
Okay. Interesting.
You have to make do with what you can. And here's another person in Israel explaining that the third temple is going to be built, and that this is absolutely necessary. And another person, also a rabbi, debating whether or not the Levites will, or who whose last name is Cohen, essentially, are going to go back to being, Cohen means priest, are going to go back to being priests when the temple comes, when the temple is rebuilt. So this is an animating principle for a lot of Jews. But there is debate on how it is going to happen. And for some, the war is an opportunity for that to happen. And we should know this, because just as we need to know about Sunni radicalism and act accordingly, we should know about this kind of radicalism, given its ability to aggravate some Muslims, say from Indonesia all the way to Morocco, which is definitely going to affect Europe. Just in that spirit of understanding what is going on, this should be understood.
And then you see people preparing the red heifer. Now, to rebuild the third temple, according to some Jews, including this gentleman, uh, a red heifer, a perfect red heifer without a blemish, must be slaughtered and then burnt, and then the ashes would be used to consecrate the vessels that will be used in the service in the temple, and this is seen as a required preliminary step. So you have to conduct animal sacrifice of a red cow that can't have any spots on it.
Yes. And apparently they are being bred in Texas, and a bunch of them were moved to Israel. And then they finally.
And then last night, Byron Stinson, uh, posted a video.
"This was the first red heifer sacrifice in over 2,000 years, done with a perfect priest. Ritual was completed outside of the camp, aligning with Numbers 19. And it was the perfect one. It was a ceremony. They did sacrifice a heifer, red heifer. And they do have the ashes for the purification ceremony. It was a legitimate ceremony that was done with a Cohen, a priest, that was done with a very qualified red heifer."
What if I told you that?
So the guitar was he about to sing about the red heifer? That was mental. I don't, I don't, I don't even want to know where this would have gone. But in the same way that we need to understand the sources of Islamic radicalism, which are the Quran and the Sunnah, the, the sayings of Muhammad, we need to understand what's going on here, because some people believe that this pathway is going to lead to the rebuilding of, uh, the temple, and that includes the current American Secretary of War. And let's listen to him for a moment.
"And today, Jennifer and I and others had a chance to go see the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall tunnels, uh, so much of the old city. And as you stand there, you can't help but behold the miracle before you. And it got me thinking about another miracle that I hope all of you don't see too far away, because 1917 was a miracle. 1948 was a miracle. War of Independence. 1967 was a miracle. Six Day War. 2017, the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital was a miracle. And there's no reason why the miracle of the reestablishment of the temple on the Temple Mount is not possible."
What a load of rubbish. Like, no, these were things done by people. Um, they're not miracles. Much of it was drawing up legislation.
I, I personally do believe in the miraculous. That's a different conversation. But so does he. And as a Christian, you're supposed to believe that Jesus Christ is the temple, and that there is no need for another temple. And indeed, the physical destruction of the second temple was precisely because it has been replaced by Jesus Christ. If you're a Christian, you believe that this is part of God's divine plan. Pete Hegseth disagrees, and it really matters, because right now he's engaged in a war against Iran, which is going to encourage certain elements of Israeli society, and I'm not saying all, and I'm not saying all Jews, I, but I am, sorry, saying that this is real, because we've just seen it on video. It is going to encourage them to attempt to build the third temple, and this is going to have at least some consequences. It's surprisingly prevalent, this Christian Zionism, amongst the American administration. Obviously, Ted Cruz with his famous interview with Tucker Carlson. Huckabee, I know you've got coming up. Ex says it's quite strange how, how, because we don't really necessarily understand that in Britain, how widespread that is.
It is very widespread, and it is seen as part of a divine plan. And there is some disagreement as to who wins out in this, because if you're Protestant, you might believe that the Jews would be condemned. You might not believe that. Uh, that is a point of debate within American Protestantism. Um, and if you are, uh, Jewish, you believe that the righteous among the nations, which would include people in their view like Hegseth and Huckabee, would have a portion in the world to come, however that is defined. So there are these theological issues that are animating people. And it's one thing for this to be some random guy in Israel saying, "I'm going to burn a cow, and it's going to bring about the temple." It's a fundamentally different issue when it's the Secretary of War, and the Ambassador to Israel, and the, I think Ted Cruz is the head of the Foreign Affairs, uh, committee in the Senate, and others of that caliber who have that role in informing foreign policy.
You see, my intuition, my thinking would be that surely Christians should be against ritualistic animal sacrifice. I know I am.
Um, and so.
Yeah, that's kind of my view as well.
It, it seems, especially since it's settled in the New Testament.
Mhm.
That it is not what goes into a man that purifies him or soils him. It is what comes out of him, as in what he says and how he behaves in the world, that is what makes you dirty, not what meal you had for breakfast. If you had bacon for breakfast, you can still be clean. It's fine.
Makes intuitive sense. Yes.
You'd think so. You'd think so. And this is the mainstream Christian position. So these guys are engaged in a word that I love to use, which is heresy. And it really matters when the ambassador to Israel, the American ambassador to Israel, think says things like that.
I'm trying to understand the implications of your theology for geopolitics, because you're saying that the present government of Israel has a moral right to take over what are now other people's countries.
No, I didn't say that.
Then what are you saying? I saw this recently in an extremely telling exchange between the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, who I know and I've always liked.
Carrie, excuse me, I'm going to interrupt the discussion. This is not a commission on defining religions or calling out any theology or this is not, um, the commission for that.
And a woman I don't know, never met, who's on the religious liberty commission or something. And she said, "I'm a Catholic, and Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know. So, are all Catholics anti-Semites according to you?" He kept saying, and everyone on the panel seemed to keep saying, you have to believe in Israel's right to exist. But it did raise two questions I think are really important, and I hope you'll answer them. One is, where does that right come from?
You could say it comes from the Bible. I would say that it does. They have a biblical right.
I just read Genesis 15, as I have many times.
And that land, I think it says from the Nile to the Euphrates, which is once again, basically the entire Middle East. So God gave that land to his people, the Jews, or he didn't. You're saying he did? What does that mean? Does Israel have the right to that land? Because you're appealing to Genesis. You're saying that's the original deed.
It would be fine if they took it all. It would be fine if they took it all, by me.
I understand if you feel that way and you say it in church, religious liberty and all of that. If you are an ambassador to a foreign country, it's different.
Yeah, I thought that was bonkers. There was even that rumor that that delayed the US military action in Iran because it was so mental.
The entire Middle East went crazy over this. They all went crazy over this, because essentially a key part of the American administration said to all of their allies, "We're going to let the Israelis take over. It's fine. It's fine if they take it all." His words. So, it really matters. And the connections around this kind of stuff are kind of important, because Netanyahu and Jared Kushner, the current American envoy to negotiate with Iran, um, are very old friends. And apparently Netanyahu used to sleep in Jared Kushner's bed when he visited New York.
He would stay in it. Do we know if Kushner was in it?
No. No. There's nothing inappropriate going on. There's nothing inappropriate going on. He was a very close family friend, and we have a clip of Netanyahu confirming it, but you can see it in the, in the segment in the comments, like it's fine.
Quite well known, isn't it, really?
It's quite well known that they're very old friends. And, um, you have here Kushner visiting the Wailing Wall with, um, Ivanka and Steve Whitlock, the other envoy negotiating with Iran. But Kushner is also a big supporter of Chabad, the people who want to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque and build the third temple, whose Rebbe is on record saying that this is kind of important, and the temple has to be rebuilt, and that is the, according to him, the accepted site of the temple. So I'm not going into a sort of history of archaeology here. Are they right or are they wrong? Completely separate from that. Completely separate from that. It's actually something that I don't know enough about to say. But he gave them, uh, his family gave them three and a half $100,000, almost. And then Jared Kushner himself gave Chabad a million dollars for their center in the United Arab Emirates. Uh, and he did that actually quite recently in 2024, right after Trump won the elections. So you can kind of see that this ideology is held by people in power. Some of them are discreet about what they say, like Jared Kushner, although their donations make their beliefs more evident. And some of them are stupidly indiscreet, like Mike Huckabee, who, as a diplomat, should slightly know better.
But this isn't the end of the extremism here. This isn't really the end of it. Um, you have Ben-Gvir, the, uh, security minister in Israel, who leads a party called Jewish Power. And he accepted in 2020 that he needs to take down the photograph of a mass murderer who shot 29 people while they were praying, 29 Muslims while they were praying in Hebron, a city that is believed to hold the grave of Abraham. So that is quite substantial, and that's exactly where he shot them. And he had a photograph of this guy up on his wall and took it down in 2020 so that he could be part of the next cabinet. He's a supporter of Meir Kahane. Um, he says that he doesn't want to expel all the Arabs, but when he said that he doesn't want to expel all the Arabs, he was roundly booed by the audience, according to the Times of Israel. So we're not cherry-picking sources or choosing sources that would be unacceptable or anything like that. And Meir Kahane, the guy that he admires, um, actually started a terrorist group and was convicted for it. And one of his fans is now sitting in the Israeli cabinet. And he tried to pass a law saying that non-Jews in Israel will be obliged to assume duties, taxes, and slavery. If he does not agree to slavery and taxes, he will be forcibly deported. Now, I'm not sure if slavery is an accurate translation, because it could mean indentured servitude. It could mean a bunch of different things. So, I just want to highlight that. Uh, he says that a non-Jew will not live within the jurisdiction of the city of Jerusalem, which is kind of how the Muslims don't allow anybody who isn't Muslim from entering into Mecca and Medina. And any non-Jew who has a relationship, a sex marital relationship with a Jew, is liable to 50 years in prison. These were part of the legislations that he, he supported. And one of his acolytes is now minister of security in Israel. And the minister of finance is somebody who kind of shares the same views. So to object to Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza, um, and this is according to a former deputy head of the Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service. This guy, the finance minister, is described as a Jewish terrorist who planned to blow up cars on a major highway during the 2005 Gaza engagement. He is a terrorist. He's Jewish, but he's a terrorist. Elan reportedly said at the time of the disengagement, he wanted to blow up cars on the Islamia. We caught him with 700 L of the stuff. Now, Smotrich denied that this ever happened, but a former deputy head of the Shin Bet versus a politician, I'll choose the security guy. They tend to be a little more honest, but I don't know for certain.
And, um, then you have Rubio saying that the Israelis kind of forced America's hand into this war. I found that very interesting that it, it seems like the United States, despite all of their martial power, um, are following in the footsteps of of Israel and being led by them, basically.
When they're the ones funding it and arming it, and presumably they'd be able to say no.
Well, yeah, it's, it's sort of a fundamental problem whereby you're a significantly more powerful nation being led around by the nose by a weaker nation, who, actually their existence relies on the United States. If the United States didn't defend them, the nation of Israel probably would no longer exist.
Exactly. Exactly. So, there is this reality here that, and, and Rubio is a very hardcore Israel supporter, full-on, like Hegseth, like obviously Jared Kushner, like Whitlock, the other guy negotiating with the Iranians. And so the picture that you end up getting is, uh, somewhat problematic, really. And what you're getting is that Netanyahu is fulfilling his dreams. That he's longed for 40 years for a strike on Iran, and now the Americans are delivering it. They are delivering it because a bunch of insane extremists are running the Trump policy team when it comes to Israel and the Middle East, and they are associated with people who want to rebuild the third temple, triggering a bit of a problem with the Muslim world. All of Europe would feel the repercussions of that problem. But that is how policy is being made, because it's not clear that there is a plan for what to do about Iran. It's not clear that Iran can be, you know, defeated in the conventional sense, because you will get Hezbollah in the mountains with drones lobbing drones and missiles at everything that passes through the Persian Gulf. That's completely discounted from the planning, and that's how the policy is being decided for the benefit of people who believe things that I would argue are a bit extreme.
I would say so. I mean.
Do you argue that they're a bit extreme?
I think that's putting it lightly, to be honest.
So, it seems that the West is strapped between two kinds of fanaticism. Both of them are quite destructive. Both of them don't particularly like mainstream Christianity, as far as I can tell. And, uh, that's a bit of a bad situation to be in. What do you think?
It's quite weird to think about. I was just thinking, it's weird to think about what would have happened if the Democrats had got in, because as you say, it's, it's quite a, something quite unique to this Trump administration. It seems to me.
Not really.
You don't think so? You think it's the deep state, the permanent state.
Republicans have always been very pro.
Oh, yeah. Not just the Trump administration, but would the Democrats have done this? That's what I'm interested in. I don't think they would have done this in quite the same way. And in fact, um.
The likes of Hegseth and Cruz wouldn't be around.
No, I, I don't think they have the same, wouldn't have the ear of the president if a Democrat had won. But, uh.
Perfect timing for Netanyahu to say this, you know, this is what I longed for for 40 years. This is the moment.
Pretty much. Pretty much. And you know how much money the Adels have paid? And the Adels are fully on board with this belief system. And you know that Allison has funded Rubio. And you kind of ask yourself, well, is this really how foreign policy should be done on behalf of donors associated with religious fanatics? And I don't think that's a very good idea.
You get in trouble, don't you, for saying it? I mean, because people say, why, as Josh just said, why does Israel lead America? But it's really not. As we're pointing out here, it's not really Israel. People within the institution, within the administration in America, who happen to have these views.
Yes.
They've also been selected for by, uh, financing, haven't they? In that they they've got to their positions because they've been, uh, propped up by wealthy benefactors.
Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, it seems to me that they're both a bit fanatical. That's what I'd say.
Troubling times. Very, very.