Today, Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that it is time for Israel to officially annex territory that does not belong to them the West Bank. Now that Donald Trump has been elected as the 47th president of the United [00:00:15] States, here's what he said verbatim. Quote. Trump's victory brings an important opportunity for the state of Israel. During Trump's first term, he said, we were on the verge of applying sovereignty over the settlements in the West Bank, and now the time has come [00:00:32] to make it a reality. And then he continues, I have no doubt that President Trump, who showed courage and determination in his decisions in the first term, will support the State of Israel in this move. Now, with Donald Trump, everything is transactional, [00:00:48] and one of the transactions that certainly spoke volumes for Trump during the election process was the nearly $100 million donation he received from Miriam Adelson. As long as he agreed to allow Israel to annex the West Bank. [00:01:04] So that's the reason why you have, you know, far right leaders in Israel giving us the impression that he, you know, Trump has given them the green light to do this annexation. Now, to be 1,000,000% fair here. The annexation had already begun under Biden, and Biden did nothing about it. [00:01:24] So my biggest issue with our government, as it pertains to this story and to any issue involving Israel, is that the American voters don't get an opportunity to choose between one or the other because they're both the same. Both parties enable anything and everything Israel wants to do. [00:01:43] And so while I am certainly going to be deeply angry and critical over Trump enabling what Israel wants to do here and essentially stealing more land from the Palestinians, I also want to be clear that Biden was no better and well. [00:02:00] So I slight disagreement there. Okay, so so Biden was seemed to be maximum terrible on this issue. As a thank you gift for the genocide, gave them $26 billion to do more. But, Netanyahu, Smotrich and the other guys in the Israeli cabinet were under the [00:02:19] impression that he would not allow them to fully annex the West Bank. And so, I mean, you say he wouldn't have, except they think that he wouldn't have. Right? So whereas Trump is saying I'll do everything Biden did, but on top of that, I'll let you annex the West Bank. [00:02:35] And guys, we're going to talk about Elise Stefanik in a second. They're going to be the UN ambassador, green light for any war crimes. So that's Trump, just as I told you, has taken Biden's horrific policy and magically found a way to make it worse. So this is definitively, in my opinion, well, it's not my opinion. [00:02:54] It is definitively worse if he allows them. He hasn't done it yet, but if he allows them to annex the West Bank, all the claims of antiwar president flushed down the toilet. There isn't any force on earth that's going to allow the Palestinians or anyone else to go. Oh, yeah. [00:03:09] Why don't you just take it all? There's 3 million Palestinians there. Why don't you just treat them as your slaves and just take all their land and run a fascist government that that ethnically cleanses them? No. The Muslim world is not going to accept that. The Arab world is not going to accept that. [00:03:25] And that would be Donald Trump starting a giant war. And if he does that and he goes, oh, those dirty Muslims attacked for no reason. Poor Israel had a right to steal their land. I mean, defend themselves. Yeah. You're going to have one of the biggest wars you've ever seen in the Middle East, [00:03:41] and it's going to be 100%. No, to be fair to Anna's right. Not 100% Donald Trump's fault. 100% of both parties fault. Yes, yes, that's what I'm trying to say. Like that is what I'm trying to say. I am not at all serving as an apologist for what Trump is very likely going to do [00:03:58] in enabling Israel. I have no doubt that he will. I have no doubt it will be disgusting and awful in every way. What I do have a problem with, though, is doing this comparative analysis that I think is unfair because Biden has not pumped the brakes at all at all. [00:04:13] If Netanyahu said, hey, listen, the pro-Israel lobby just bribed you. So I can, like, literally spank you publicly on national television. So go ahead and bend over. Let me spank you. Biden would be. Oh, yes, sir. Yes. May I have another, sir? - That's Biden Jake. - It is so pathetic. [00:04:30] Let me give you an analogy and see if we get agreement on this. So if you watch mainstream media, they'll tell you that Biden is driving 55 miles an hour. He's doing it perfectly, balancing the Israeli interest, because there are special, beloved ally who deserves a blank check and can commit any war crimes they [00:04:45] like while they're defending themselves. And but at the same time, my God, his heart goes out to the Palestinians. And what a wonderful guy. I mean, he doesn't do anything for them, and he allows and finances their slaughter. But he cares. He cares about the Palestinians. So they say he's driving 55. And I think you and I agree he's actually driving. [00:05:02] Pick a number 100, 120mph in Israel's direction. Okay. Sure. So what Trump is saying is, I'm going to come in and I'm going to be a maniac, and I'm going to drive 200 miles an hour in Israel and war's direction. [00:05:17] Yeah. There's no indication that Trump would do otherwise. There's one. Well, potentially two things that could persuade Trump to pump the brakes. I would not bet money on it, but I do want to at least bring it up for for one. [00:05:33] You know, Donald Trump has been having conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu. He's had three conversations with Netanyahu recently. He's also having conversations with Mohammed bin Salman, who, of course, is the Saudi prince who is not in favor of what Israel has been doing in Gaza. [00:05:51] In fact, he made clear that the Abraham Accords, which was that business deal that was implemented under Donald Trump's first term, will go nowhere unless the slaughter in Gaza stops and Donald Trump really cares about the Abraham Abraham Accords. [00:06:08] That's like one of the things he loves to tout as an accomplishment from his first term. So I'm curious to see, you know, he's being pulled in two different directions to some extent, and there could be a possibility where MBS has some influence over him, but I would not bet money on it. [00:06:24] That's where I personally am on that issue. The other thing is, you know, the America First crowd, which certainly does not want to get involved in another war. And I was curious. All right, we're already starting to see some signs that Donald Trump is going to go along with what Biden was willing to go along with. [00:06:40] So what's America First saying about this? And, you know, one of the people who endorsed Donald Trump close to the election was Dave Smith. I don't know if he considers himself America first, but he's certainly a libertarian who does not want to get involved in wars. And he's already starting to criticize Trump over this. [00:06:57] So I'm curious if look, the difference between Biden and Trump is Biden never gave a damn about his his voters or his base. That was clear. Trump has an obsession with being admired, and he seems to care about his base more, [00:07:12] so they might have more influence on him when it comes to foreign policy. But again, I want to be real with you all and just be clear that I wouldn't necessarily bet money on it, because the Israel lobby is very powerful, and his relationship with Netanyahu seems to have gotten closer. [00:07:28] Okay. So, I was going to say things along similar lines. Let me tell you, the two people that I think can stop it very similar to yours. But first, I want to explain to folks why Trump's going in this direction. Money. Miriam Adelson, the latest numbers. We thought she was going to give about 90 and it might be more than this, [00:07:44] but the number I read today was that she gave Trump's PACs $137 million. Oh my God. Okay. And we reported for you guys because Haaretz reported in Israel that Miriam Adelson had one giant ass from Donald Trump. [00:08:00] Remember what that was annexing the West Bank? So right after Trump was elected, he goes, the church It goes great, Trump said. We're going to annex the West Bank. If you think it's a coincidence that he got $137 million, and right after he got elected, the Israeli right wing says, we're doing [00:08:18] exactly the thing you reported on earlier. Okay, well, then you're a sucker, and I can't help you. Okay, so money is the number one reason why. Now, to my agreement with Anna. There's two people that can stop it. Mohammed bin Salman and Joe Rogan. [00:08:33] Okay, so Mohammed bin Salman could say I'll bribe the Israelis. Okay, so she gave you 137. I'll give you 1.3 billion. Okay. But don't let him do that, because then my people will demand I go to war, [00:08:49] and that'll get me toppled and killed. And I don't want it. I like being a dictator here. I got a nice and easy and comfortable. The only thing that could ruin it for us is if Israel goes to slaughter more Palestinians and still more Arab land, because then we'll have no choice. Because the entire Middle East will be the largest powder keg you've ever seen [00:09:05] in your entire lifetime, right? So. And how could they bribe Trump super easy, just like they did last time. They gave Jared Kushner $2 billion to manage, of which he gets 2% every year automatically 20% of the profits that he makes. That's the hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes, by the way. [00:09:22] They could just go, you know what? We got a great idea. We're starting another $2 billion investment fund, and we think Don junior should run it. Okay. We think Baron should run it. It doesn't matter. It's super easy to get him the money. So that is one possibility because Trump has said I'm for sale. [00:09:40] It's an open auction. Right. So okay, the other possibility is exactly what Anna is saying. The Rogan's of the world, the bro podcasters, etc. Go, no, we're not religious zealots. We're not the old evangelical Christians who go, oh, Israel has to kill all [00:09:55] the Muslims so that Jesus can come back and murder even more people. They're not in that camp, that camp exist, but the Rogan's of the world think that they're a little loony, okay. And they are. So now what do they think? They think I don't want to give any more money to anything, right? [00:10:11] And I wish they cared more about the Palestinians than I think some of them probably do. To be fair. About Rogen, Rogen has actually been very good on the topic of Israel and their treatment of Palestinians. Yeah, I think 011 actually went too far on Rogan's podcast, on that issue the other day. [00:10:27] But because he made it about Jewish people instead of about Israel, don't ever make it about Jewish people, okay? It's about the government of Israel. Governments do bad things, but it's okay. Look, guys, as I correct that still, we're on the same I think we're on a similar trajectory. [00:10:42] So if the if the bros etc.. Right. That new, branch of MAGA goes, oh, you guys are killing Muslims. Oh, we you the left was right about us. We just hate everyone and we hate Muslims and we're bigots. But yeah, they have Israel slaughtered them with our money, right? [00:11:00] If that's who they turn out to be. Well, okay, then we're screwed, right? Because it turns out they were giant liars and hypocrites and they exact hateful people that the liberals said they were right. But if they're in any way earnest and they go, no, I don't want to spend [00:11:17] any more money killing those poor people or enslaving them, or occupying them, or starting this giant war in the Middle East that has some percentage chance of stopping Trump. But currently they are not on that trajectory. They're on the trajectory that his donors paid for, which is crushed. [00:11:33] The Palestinians giant green light to Israel to do any expansion, any war, any war crime. You paid for the war crimes. And for now, Trump's saying you're getting the war crimes and will pay you to do it. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. [00:11:49] Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows [00:12:06] and specials right after they air. So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you.