The conversation centers on the ethical and legal implications of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, particularly the extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure and the targeting of entire communities. Rob and Rob analyze satellite imagery and official statements, noting that the scale of destruction—such as the collapse of homes, schools, hospitals, and cultural sites—goes far beyond military targets. They argue that Israel’s actions, including cutting off power, water, and food for months, and openly discussing ethnic cleansing and occupation, demonstrate a deliberate intent to destroy a population. This aligns with the legal definition of genocide, which requires intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. While some dismiss the term as politically charged, Rob stresses that the evidence—such as the destruction of 330 structures, the targeting of civilians, and the open statements by Israeli officials—validates the claim. The argument is further weakened by the fact that Israel, despite claiming to act in self-defense, sent medical aid and food, which contradicts the idea of a complete extermination effort. The political fallout is evident, with Israel’s public approval dropping sharply since October 7th. Rob concludes that even if the precise legal classification of genocide is debated, the moral failure of such actions is undeniable. The discussion also critiques the Israel lobby’s dismissal of the term, pointing out that it is not a matter of exaggeration but of factual alignment with international standards. Ultimately, the conversation underscores that the actions in Gaza represent not just a war, but a profound moral crisis that challenges the foundation of modern warfare and human rights.
(upbeat music) - Oh, hello, what's up, what's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. All right, you're having some trouble with the internet gods, looks down on us. How are you, Robbie the Fire Burnstein? - Doing well, I'm between porches, temporarily displaced, but I'm having fun. What about you? But I don't like that it looks, I can't tell whether you're outside or not, so it seems like I am currently outside. But luckily some fans hooked me up with this sweatshirt 'cause I didn't bring any winter gear, so I'm good. - Rob, we can find you a hotel, I'm sure. (laughing) - No, no, I'm on my buddy's porch, we're gonna, we're gonna barbecue in a bit, we went for a hike, you know, real casual, heterosexual, not my lover friend relationship. - Rob, you don't have to start justifying things to me, Rob, you're living good, you're barbecuing, you're on, I don't care what it goes on in between that. - All right, well, listen man, there's a lot of depressing news in the world, so yeah, me and you got it well, we got to get out there and tell some jokes. Where are you telling jokes next? - So I got a whole bunch, first is in Salt Lake City before you get out there for the weekend, so come hang out for port stores, the only chance to see my FBI in Trapman's scheme presentation. And then next week, I've got a bunch of Texas shows, Texas A&M, then a big one in Austin, where I'm gonna make Scott Horton sit through my entire presentation, and then fact check me. - Tell me all this stuff I got wrong. I'm looking forward to that. - Oh, definitely have a bunch. (laughing) - Always have so much. - Well, good, I've already done it and most of the towns I'm gonna do it in, so you know, that's okay, but I can correct it before I film it, and then doing Childrenburg on Saturday, gotta be like my sixth time doing that, and that's find even more dates at portstore.com. - All right, hell yeah, and of course, then this weekend we will both be together, as we're meant to be, but as I'm only truly happy, we will be out in Salt Lake City at the Wise Guys there, and then at the Wise Guys in Las Vegas this weekend, comicdevsmitt.com for tickets. All right, so gosh, I got a bunch of stuff on my mind, but I did think that we kinda gotta start here with this topic that has really, I gotta say, rattled me a bit more than I expected to, we really did have an effect on me, but it was the latest images out of Gaza, that were, okay, so these were, their Google, what is it called? It's Google Earth, I believe it's called, so Google Earth, they take the pictures, the satellites and I do not play around with it, but the form sure you have Rob where you can zoom in and kinda see any point on the globe, and I guess they periodically update them, and so they kinda just updated this portion of the globe, but this happens to contain this area of Gaza that has been destroyed, where journalists haven't been let in, and so these are some of the best images that we get. Now of course Rob, like as you know, this is I guess what was a little bit, maybe it was, it's not as if this is so much worse than anything we've seen. We've kinda seen aerial drone footage, we've seen that this is what Gaza looks like. I don't know though, there was something particular about some of these images. I don't know if I'm saying like I encourage people to go look through 'em or not, it's kinda dark and morbid, but there was something kinda profound where you'd see just like trees, like how much this whole place has been destroyed. It really was, I don't know, it was something. And I'll tell ya, while there's been this whole thing about like Israel won't let the journalists in, this wasn't the first thing I said on Pierce Morgan the other day about it, you know, you start to look at some of these images, like I can understand why they want these to be aerial and not on the ground images, man, because doesn't that change everything? Like it really is, on some human level, the way our brain works, that is like a dimension change where you're now into the human dimension. You know, like if it was a video game and you switched from the aerial Google view into the person view, you'd be like, oh, I'm playing the game now. I'm a character and they get, you know, it's like, and there's, anyway, so I would just say that in any thoughts. - Well, I think the fact that the images were first updated this week, you know, Shed's new light on the situation, calls into focus that journalists have not been allowed in. And then on top of all that, I mean, when you just see the sheer level of destruction, which at the time I said, hey, you can't drop a leaflet on some guy's house and then just blow it up, that's not a justification. But when you see the totality of how much has been destroyed in the area, it just really showcases what they did was so undefensible. And for all the people out there trying to say that, you know, that these were all just military targets, I think even since this ceasefire, they've destroyed 10% more infrastructure. And so I think when you kind of see the total numbers now that they've accepted Gaza Health Ministry death numbers, and you see just the sheer destruction of what's taken place. I mean, anyone that's still arguing that what they did is justified is just criminally insane. - Well, let's, I mean, by the way, I apologize I was, thank you Natalie. Good producing. I was coming out of the wrong microphone before. Sorry, glad we fixed that early. So I would almost start like this Rob. Like, let's do it like this Rob, but here. First of all, Natalie, can you just pull up? I think we have one, let's see if this like translates well, but just to see one of the images for anybody who's watching. It doesn't kind of know what we're talking about. And I'm not showing you anything like brutal or graphic with little kids. But yeah, if you could put like this is the type of stuff we're talking about. And this is Bob Rob. This represents like you guys can go dig through them if you want to, but just look at that. And no, that represents all of Gaza. - The second picture is all of Gaza. - The second picture looks like an excavation site of ancient ruins. - Yes, yes, that's right. So, all right, you can take that down. I would be just like kind of give people a bit. And okay, so like when you look at something like that and you look at the, you know, that some of the numbers have come out Rob or whatever the estimates are, there's like 330 structures have been destroyed and like 80 something percent of all the structures in Gaza have either been destroyed or damaged or whatever. It was like essentially speaking, you know, Gaza's been destroyed essentially. Okay, so when you look at that, like let's start here. Let's start backward almost in a fair way. A pure thought experiment Rob, what could justify that? Like, isn't that like a fair thing to start with? Like what could ever justify you doing that to a city? - Destroying the entire thing. - Well, because you missed a phone call in a warning about what was about to happen and you funded the exact military division to keep them in power and make sure you didn't have a peace partner and then your whole area that you're responsible for gets real upset at you and you go, man, I really gotta go look tough right now. I just feel like Rob, if I was taking a test and I saw the question was what could possibly justify that and it was multiple choice and what you just gave was one of the answers, I'd go, well, that can't be right. That can't be the right answer, right? I mean, I've read my Thomas Aquinas just war theory. That can't be why it's okay to destroy entire cities. No, I mean, like honestly, and I try to do this and I'm not even trying to do this from like the strictest like Rothbardian, it is always wrong to kill an innocent person no matter what. Although, like, look, that is, I do think, you know, the correct view, right, that perhaps there could be some situation you could come up with where their only answer was to kill an innocent person. But there's still something wrong in doing that, like that innocent person still gets killed, that's still horrible in some sense. But to me, Rob, and I don't know, I mean, I'm not just, you know, again, a lot of great philosophers have tackled the question of war, I'm not claiming to be one. I've read a few of them. I would say that essentially the only way I think you could come up with a justification for something like this, like just looking at the picture. And I do think that there are some cases where there's a picture like that that like, oh my god, this is, you're already in very difficult to justify territory. You destroyed an entire people's place. OK, if the only way for that to not happen to you was to do that to someone else. Perhaps I could see getting to a point where I don't know that you could call it justified exactly. But you could go, dude, we were in this horrible situation where, you know, literally, they were going to do this to us or we were going to do this to them. And there was abs-- and obviously, the onus would be on you to really prove that. That there was just absolutely no other option, right? Literally, not commenting on Israel Gaza. Just commenting on doing that to anyone. That's the best I could come up with, OK? Just purely an abstract. It's like, if you said, you know, no, it's never right. It's never OK to kill an innocent person. But if I can absolutely-- you know, if I really absolutely know that a missile is coming from this one building that's going to take out my entire building, and the only option I possibly have is a missile that takes out their entire building. And like, there is no other option. Then like, maybe you could find a justification. I don't think there's any other scenario where you can't. I don't think anything short of that in other words. Like, if that's not going-- in other words, Rob. And I know this is kind of fucked up to make these type of decisions or something like that. But we do kind of--
And some way go, look, even after 9/11, nobody thought it was okay or very few, no sane person thought it would be okay to like just nuke every single Muslim country in the world. Just go, you know what, they killed some of our people, we're killing all of their fucking people. Like even, we never even thought we could nuke Afghanistan. You know, like nobody really ever thought that was in the, but to do that, to destroy an entire people and entire, you know, whatever you want to call Gaza, nation, you know, collection of cities or whatever. Like because one of your civilians was going to die or a few of your civilians, like no one would accept that. No one would accept like for a minor terrorist problem, we have to do this. The only thing that you could accept is like, something to that level of extermination was going to happen to you. And so you had to do it before it could happen to it. Because like where I'm going makes sense with this rub, I think this is like very basic moral like philosophy, right? Yeah. Well, Afghanistan, we couldn't nuke because we had to preserve the opium trade and make sure that their, you know, child rapists were a general coach culture was preserved. Rob, we don't defend the military industrial complex too much on this show, but have you ever tried to microwave your heroin before? Have you? I'm not going to work right, right, but so, but so the reason why, and of course, this is kind of why in every scenario, the Israeli defenders have to try to make it seem like that's what's happening here, dude, right? Like, yeah, it's a hostage situation where, oh my god, we're going to die unless we do this. But the problem is that this is on the level of like two weeks to flatten the curve. Or, or, or, I'm sorry, I should say this is on the level of, I was going to, I meant to say a round was two weeks away from getting the nuke and delivering it. It's just like no one believes that no one believes you. No one believes you. No one believes you. Like, it's like literally dude, like you got like, I mean, the people on the payroll and this tiniest liver of people who are still, you know, propagandized by this bullshit. But the fact is that October 7th, the reason why there is so much spec, so much speculation about whether October 7th was an inside job at the very least everyone would have to admit this is because it was such an enormous security failure, you know, they, they didn't have men on the exact place where you would think they have needed men between the wall that guarded them and Hamas. They had like eight hour, 13 hour response times to some of these events. The fact is just Rob that Israel's been living with Gaza next door since Israel existed. They've had Palestinians next door since Israel existed and for 100% of the history of Israel, they've, you know, they've been at war the whole time, but they both existed, you know. And the idea, they've existed with Hamas there since the 1980s. The idea that they couldn't have just like cracked down that this fortress of the world was going to suffer even another October 7th. The next day is ridiculous, no, they weren't, they could have defended against that. And it's just Rob, there is just no plausible way I see that anyone could possibly get to like Israel had to do this. Like anyone I say had to in some sense of like something on this level would have happened to them if they didn't. It just didn't have to. It was a choice. It was a choice to do this as a response to October 7th. And this was their choice to destroy all of Gaza. 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If you're waking up sore or tired before the day even starts, check out Ghost Bed. They're offering part of the problem listeners and extra 10% off their lowest prices of the season. So go check them out at ghostbed.com/problem and use the promo code problem for an extra 10% off their lowest prices of the season that's ghostbed.com, g-o-s-t-b-e-d.com/problem, promo code problem for an extra 10% off. All right. Let's get back into the show. What can I say? Right? Well, I think as we get more and more information, there's going to be more and more people with that exact perspective and the few people that we're trying to defend, it will have less, less little goofy talking points to cling on to of, hey, there was real military targets. The civilian ratio was appropriate. There was nothing else we could do. We had to show force. Whatever you've heard over the last couple of years, it's no one's going to be saying it. Well, I tend to think you're right about the, you know, Rob, I saw, I know, listen, man, I know I pat both of us on the back a little bit too much for this, but I do, you know, I do kind of say it for a reason, but I saw, I saw someone posted the, did I mention this to you already, but I saw someone posted a clip of us in COVID, doing a COVID episode. It was a clip of us in April of 2020. And Captain America that are great, or what's it? I'm sorry, I'm bad with the stuff, but he posted it was like us talking about the lockdowns in the absolute height of the very beginning of the lockdown is April 2020. And like, dude, it was just, I just, I was really goddamn proud of all the shit we were saying, man, like, and you, Rob, you add some, like literally, like we both made a bunch of great points that you're like, yo, that aged so well, like we were so right about all this shit. And at the time, it's like, you know, like, I know I've used this example before, right? But like, okay, so there's that time. I'm literally at the time, Rob, I'm in my mother-in-law's house at this time. I had, I mean, I had an apartment in New York City, but I didn't feel comfortable keeping my family there when the shelves were getting dry and riots. I thought we're about to pop off, which did end up popping off. And so I took them out and brought them to the burbs to my folks house. So like recording upstairs there. Now, cut to a few years later, I'm debating Chris Cuomo in front of a few million people. And everybody agrees with me and I'm making really good money and like everything's good, you know? And don't get me wrong. That Cuomo debate was a lot more fun than just being right about stuff when it really mattered at its most important point down. But I think Rob, like if we're going to be in this at all, then the whole purpose, the only real value we bring is if we're getting something right when it's really controversial and really unpopular to be right, because it's a lot easier. You can find a lot of people who will be right when it's the popular thing to be. But throughout this whole thing, man, which is hard to imagine, dude, this started as America was a pro-Israel country. We were in the minority, the clear minority on this position, you know, personally for many, many years. And I mean, dude, I don't know, man, it's one of the big advantages of just being able to see this shit clearly and get it right. Is that, yeah, this will age better, man, there's how are you, there's, dude, it's really crazy, Rob. Simultaneously, and we'll get into this a little bit. Simultaneously, as the Israel lobby is out there arguing that only buffoons call this genocide. That is literally what they're out there arguing, constantly, that you, that this is just so goofy and ridiculous. So all types of clips from Ben Shapiro, we got one from Bill Maher, maybe we'll play that in a little bit. All types of clips arguing this isn't a genocide and not just that it's not a genocide, but you must be a fool to think it's a genocide. And then by the way, here are the pictures, what did we do? Oh, yeah, we destroyed the entire fucking place. I mean, when you destroyed the entire place, one of the oldest, most continuously inhabited, like ancient, you know, areas of the world, man, I don't know, dude, it just, look, even if you want to argue, that's not genocide, which we could get into that a little bit, actually. Rob, you know, I remember your first comment, or one of your very first comments on this, as I was looking back at the great stuff you were saying about COVID in April of 2020. And I remember you said this in October of 2023. And it was right, like maybe a week after Israel, their initial response to October 7th. And so October 7th had happened to think about the optics there. Everyone was feeling bad about the poor people who got slaughtered in October 7th. And Israel's immediate response was to turn off the power and water and electricity to, or sorry, I repeat myself, to like the entire Gaza Strip. And like I remember it was like a few days after that where you just went and like essentially
All that had been signaled was that this war will be against the entire civilian population of Gaza. And you just went, they'll never get away with this, dude, you know? And like, I'm just saying, you were just like, in this PR game, there's no way they're going to win this. They're not going to be able to defend it. And literally, Rob, from that point to now, depending on the poll you look at, Israel has cratered something like 50 to 70% in approval. So anyway, I say all that to say, you got a couple right, buddy. I'll take it. It's nice to be right. It's all you get in this game. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, I just, I do think it's just important to, it's important not, you know, just for the sake of like kind of like, you know, pointing out the track record or something like that. But it's like, look, there's a reason why there's a reason why we were able to see those things, right? And it's the same reason why kind of, you know, in different ways, why we're also able to do it with this. Did I want that? Was there a clip I wanted to play before the Bill Mar one? Or is that actually feel like maybe that is the best one to go into off of this? Because, look, maybe even the Bill Mar put out this segment. He titled it genocide or not. Shockingly, Rob, there's no representative from the genocide side. And so I kind of thought like, why don't we, I mean, we could respond to that. Like, is this a genocide? And I don't think, well, certainly, I have called it a genocide several times. I've never really exactly been of the position, Rob, that like, no, like, I want to argue about the semantics. Like, this is genocide, not horrific war crimes, not horrific war crimes, plus ethnic cleansing, but genocide. And in fact, Rob, as you know, and I guess people who pay attention to it, no, I did not call what Israel is doing to Gaza intentionally. I did not call it a genocide. I went out of my way to not call it a genocide for, let's see, it was up till it was in March of 25 when I first started calling it a genocide. So it was in March of 2025. So October 23 to March of 2005, so like a year and a half of the, a war against the entire civilian population, just bringing hell on earth to, to plus million people, including like a million kids, and then after all of that, like, you know, half of this destruction, you know, whatever it was, Rob, it wasn't like 330,000 homes destroyed at the time, but it was like 120,000 or something. So like, after all of that, then Smotrich, the like number two or number three post of the Israeli government who is basically Gurbals, he announced that not one grain of wheat would get into the entire Gaza Strip. And for three months, it didn't. He just put them on a starvation blockade after all of that. And at that point, Rob, what was I to say to all of the other anti-Israel people next to me calling it a genocide? Well, I was sitting here saying, I don't want to use the word. I just want, yeah, fuck it. I don't know, dude. I mean, I called, I called what the Saudis did to Yemen, a genocide for all those years, because I think it was. It was a war of genocide. They were bombing wheat silos, dude. Wheat silos. What is that? Okay. So like hundreds of thousands of people die because you're conducting a war. I consider that a war of genocide, right? But when I was calling Yemen a genocide, it wasn't like it was more like, okay, this is like the strongest possible language you can use that's still accurate to condemn this end. But when it was Israel, obviously, you call what the Jewish state is doing a genocide, you're playing on the Holocaust. There's all this other thing. It becomes this whole debate about semantics. I was like, I'm just gonna stay away from all that shit and go, but at this point, all this time later, like the argument for it being a genocide is just stronger, objectively, stronger than it's ever been. And now these guys are coming out acting as if it's laughable. And just to be clear, Rob, like again, objectively speaking, I'm not even saying here this definitively is or isn't a genocide. I will say there is room for debate on the subject. I will say these guys are absolutely wrong, objectively, to dismiss it as if this is a ridiculous idea. And it's because they don't want to be honest about it. They don't want to be honest about what the term means. It's that simple. Yeah. I personally am of the view that I condemned what Israel did and it's absolutely atrocious as to whether or not it falls into the category of genocide. I'll leave it to the academics. Yeah, which is fine. Which is fine. I'm like literally, and I'm fine literally almost with what I just said. I'm fine with, like within the question of that, me and you could say, hey, this is a question for like scholars, you know, genocide scholars, which there are. And the biggest organization of them came out and called this a genocide. But, you know, okay, so they've kind of had this debate and decided. But the point I just want to make is that these Israel lobby hacks are absolutely wrong to dismiss this claim. And there are no positions to do so. I think the ones that say that it's morally atrocious that anyone would even consider that it is. It's already enough in the realm of academia for serious consideration or even coming on that side that without having looked at the definition of genocide or whether or not this reaches it. Because like I said, that's just a little bit more academic than could you just me just going, Natalie, just, just to be like, could you just pull up the legal definition of genocide? Just Google the legal definition of genocide, we'll just pull that up because they'll quote it right from the international law because just I just want to like say this. I'm not like, again, I'm not like getting into, I don't want to spend the rest of the time debating whether or not this meets this claim. I just want to say to be clear, it's because this is the quote, right? It's specific acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national ethnic racial or religious group, okay? So just to be clear here, right? This, like go through this again, specific acts with the intent, okay? So it has to be act, you have to be doing things to people and it has to be intentional. It's a part of genocide, too, like what your intent is to do it. And then it has to be trying to wipe out in whole or in part a specific group. Now Palestinians clearly meet a specific group, there's no question about that. I guess, I guess the problem is meet a specific group. Sorry, go ahead. I guess the problem that this conversation somewhat runs into and like I said, I really haven't done a dug in, but that or in part probably means that this meets the technical definition. And what you're running up against is that most people in their heads, they think that when you're saying genocide, you're thinking of in whole and that in part would not miss that definition, which I've had exactly right. Yeah. That's exactly right. And I think it's really important because let's actually like get to the bottom of this and like stop talking past each other here, right? So like because this is it that I think is really important. So just for example, because I think this gets to exactly what you're saying, I've heard many as I'm sure others have too. I've heard many Zionists refer to October 7th as a genocide. Now, I'm not saying that's the standard talking point and perhaps they're being a little bit hyperbolic, but hey, Rob, let's be completely fair here by that definition. It is debatable. Like, and I'm going to sit here and say, dude, if let's say they grabbed some of those terrorists who committed October 7th, let's say they snatched some of them up. You know, right after killing a bunch of people, they grabbed them and they were being charged and like, okay, obviously, I'm not saying they'd be charged under the international court or whatever, but like, let's just say they were and like, they go, you know what, we're going to ratchet up the charges to genocide. You were there to destroy a group of people in whole or in part with intent. I mean, look, I would say at that point, you go like, this does seem to kind of be abusing the spirit of what we all consider genocide to mean. But hey, crime or river. I mean, technically, yeah, by the letter of the law right there, that guy is kind of guilty of that. I don't know. You know, and so look, what am I admitting there, Rob? That obviously there is some, and this is why I avoided using the term genocide for so long. In fact, I said this once on, I think it was the first time I was on breaking points. I got into this. But I went, the thing is that even though what Israel is doing probably meets the legal definition of genocide, which is part of the reason why, you know, they were able to get the international court of justice, you know, to at least say that it was plausible. While that's true, most people's conception of genocide is more like, oh, you're killing every single member. Like, like, Israel just went in there and put every, you know, like went in there and just literally went, oh, we're here to kill every single member there. And we're going to do absolutely everything we can with all of our power to kill every single member. Now, while that is something that comes to people's mind in a genocide, the problem that the people making that argument have is that it's a legal term and that's not what it means. So again, we're in this point where you're like, it's kind of like, okay, so let's just say what it is rather than, you know, debate over whether or not we have this term. But also just making the point that obviously it is debatable whether or not this term applies to it. We can get into this a little more. Let's, let's jump to the bill more clip because I think this all, this will kind of.
You know, make it a little bit more clear. Let's just get it on the table here. Genocide or not? Absolutely not. Look, if it's a genocide, it would have been the first genocide where Israel vaccinated, where the country committing the genocide vaccinated the population, where they sent them to-- Okay, so pause it there. You'll pause it for a second. So already Rob here, what you say, right? This is what they'll go to already, right? Look, dude, they sent vaccines in. Now, leaving aside the part that like, I don't know Rob, so many people are skeptical of vaccines, post-COVID. It just already almost becomes a self-defeating argument, whereas as soon as you go, they couldn't. They sent them all these vaccines. You're very huge percentage of people are going like, oh, did they? Wow, how generous. But even leaving that aside, the problem these guys have is that what they are saying is they're going look, dude. If the intent was to kill every single member of-- every single ghazan, then they wouldn't be sending in any medical devices, or any food aid, or any, anything. You know, you hear these people say it all the time. In fact, he's going to say it in a second, right? But they're-- so they're just building up to this point that they wouldn't-- they wouldn't do any of this if they could. There's two major problems with this, Rob. Number one is just that that's not what genocide means. There is no-- look, Rob, the term genocide, also so you know, is like as old as the legal definition. The term was coined in like the 1940s. It's quite like it's elite. It was enshrined into law, like shortly after being called a term. And the term doesn't sit like in that legal definition, Rob. There's nothing there that says. But if you give them vaccines, it's fine. If any food at all got in, it's fine. If you blockaded food for three months, but then let a little bit in and then cut a little bit back. And then rather than it's not a genocide. None of that, it's just-- it doesn't. And the fact that if you're sitting here going, yeah, but even if you want to argue, this demonstrates that they're not trying to kill every single person there, because they're at least trying to get some food or some medical aid into them, the genocide claim doesn't revolve around wanting to kill every single member of them. Like the legal statute says that wanting to kill part of them, 100,000 or so of them, and then destroy their entire habitat, intentionally to destroy the people so that they can't live. That meets to-- that rises to the level. So they don't have to meet this other claim. It is a straw man. You're coming in with a bar that isn't the bar that they have to meet. Right, maybe not a straw man, but a false argument of some sort. The Nazis gave Jews potatoeskin soup and materials to get rid of lice. There were-- right, well, look, it does not-- again, also, it doesn't prove that the fact that some Jews got food during the Second World War doesn't prove that Hitler wasn't trying to kill all of the Jews, and the fact that some aid got into Gaza doesn't prove that they weren't trying to kill all of the gossens. But the other idea-- I'm also just-- sorry, go ahead. It also just really doesn't prove as to the rate at which there might be choosing to do it as being socially acceptable with plausible deniability. That is number two. Yeah, I was literally saying one, and that's two. Is that-- because you're exactly right, Rob. Because the idea-- well, here, let's play the rest of the clip, and then Rob can make it. Because I think he's going to add the same exact thing. A food. It's just-- He still could commit a genocide of politics in a week, probably. They haven't done that because they have no intent to do it. OK, so pose up here. Because that's the other thing they always go to there, Rob, right? Is that-- this is the other big thing. And this is-- again, I just say to the pro-Israel people, this is why your argument is dying. This is why no one is-- like, this is why you're persuading no one. Because that argument is just total bullshit, dude. It is such fucking bullshit. It is so ridiculous to just go like, look, dude, like in the same way that, let's just say, you're physically-- OK, so Rob exercises regularly. He's a fairly strong guy. Let's say you walk into a convenience store or something like that. And there's a little old lady who's behind the desk. And I go to you and let's say you were trying to like steal. You know, you're trying to-- what do they call it-- shoplift something. And I were to say to you, well, dude, look. Rob starts shoplifting a bunch of stuff. I go, he's trying to take the whole fucking store. Someone else goes, no, he's not, dude. He's bigger and stronger than that lady. He could just go up and strong arm her and take everything if he wanted to. OK, well, like, actually, yeah, but then maybe she calls the cops. You know, like, maybe there was a security camera. Maybe there's something else. No, actually, the fact that you're bigger and stronger in that immediate moment does not mean you can get away with anything. Like, dude, do you think, think about what has happened to the popularity of Israel since October 7th? What do you think would have happened if they had done the scenario you mentioned? If they had just said, instead of, let's say, they go, that's how we're going to conduct our genocide. We're going to conduct it by just executing every single person. We're going to, in a week, murder 2 million people, not the 100,000. We're going to kill all of them. What would happen, Rob? It's really been destroyed. Absolutely destroyed. Even at that point, even America could-- even nobody could defend them at that point, dude. They would have absolutely-- so actually, Rob, no, it's not so clear that they could have done it like that. It's actually pretty damn clear, if you actually run the scenario out, that doing it that way would have gotten them absolutely destroyed and doing it this way is going to get them all of Gaza, the West Bank, most of the parts of Lebanon that they want, more parts of Syria, and the war in Iran that they wanted. So why would they do it that way instead of this way? So you know what I'm saying? Like, even if your intent was to exterminate every last one of the Palestinians, it would make more sense to do it this way than to do it that way. So this argument just flat out fails. Yes, Israel has nukes, and I'm not even sure. Someone asked a scientist about, you know, I mean, you're talking about right next door. I don't know which way the winds are blowing that day, if it actually is an option for Israel to nuke Gaza. But they do-- let's just say the winds are blowing toward Egypt and it's not a problem. You think they could have just dropped a nuke on them, and that wouldn't have, like, if this brought them down 70 points in approval, that would have brought them down 100% of everyone. So no, that wasn't an option. This is complete bullshit. And it doesn't-- it doesn't relieve you of the genocide charge. Hitler could have killed all the Jews day one. Does that prove he didn't want to? All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, Longtime Sponsor of the Show Hex Cloud, which is an unbelievable company. They have amazing products. If you're looking to level up your kitchen game or your grill game, you got to check out Hex Cloud. I have a bunch of their pieces. I got the grill set, and I have a bunch of their stuff in my kitchen, two pounds, and a pot made by them. All great stuff. 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Cook like a pro, get 10% off at HexCloud.com/Problem. That's H-E-X-C-L-A-D.com/Problem. All right, let's get back into the show. They got a problem with this one, which is they're trying to say, "Well, they could have had an immediate genocide, but I guess the reason why they didn't want the immediate genocide is because they wanted to pretend like they're the most moral army. They wanted to tell you about civilian to combatant ratios. They wanted to tell you about how we drop leaflets and where the only army that does that when we then flatten somebody's homes. We're only targeting. So they're even out in the media right now trying to tell you, "Hey, how dare you even call it this?" So clearly in engaging in these activities, they did not want to do it in the most transparent, violent, and immediate way. Well, but that's why it's. Because that's why when you start to actually look at what the. And again, obviously, look, dude, there is a degree of being provocative when people were using the genocide label, especially at the very beginning. But like, when you actually look at the definition, and you look at all the stuff that they're doing, you go, "Yeah, there's a very strong argument." And that, I mean, that really is kind of the essence of the point here. All right, let's keep playing a little bit. But matters when it comes to genocide. So I agree with Netanyahu and you. It really is the biggest lie of the 21st century. And I'm telling you, it's all the right now. It's all the right. It's all the right. Dude, I was so sure it was weapons and mass destruction. You're saying, dude, you're saying that the absolute destruction of Gaza, being called a genocide, that's the big lie. But the made up nuclear program that launched led to a war of aggression that got a million people killed and caused.
trillions of dollars, that wasn't the big lie. I'm sorry, there was this two weeks to slow the spread lie that kept like Americans on house arrest for years. I mean, like, what are you talking about? Dude, there was a, you can't get COVID or transmitted if you get this experimental vaccine, which might hurt you, by the way, this is the lie, this is at best, Rob, at best, Rob, this is a slight exaggeration. They're in their, in their strongest argument, genocide is a slight exaggeration. That's the realm of argument that we're in here, because, look, dude, I mean, again, well, here, we'll, we'll play through this before we just get into like what they actually did. Um, but so, yeah, let's keep going. And on the 2028 Democratic debate stage, raise your hands, raise your hands if you think he's real committed, a genocide. Well, it's not just a question on the debate stage. There was representative Hayley Steven, she's from Michigan. This week was followed to her car. This goes on all the time. I showed a tape at some other, uh, the guy Brad Wiener, who's Scott, Scott Wiener was running for Nancy Pelosi seat and a crowd gets around him and say it, say it. You have to say the word. The, the, this woman surrounded her and said, just say it and she said, you see what the gallows is? Is what, yeah? No, I just can say, the interesting thing is that there were all these other litmus tests that existed in 2020. And you see politicians like Pete Buttigieg took out. He had his pronouns on his social media account. He got rid of them. Right. So there's actually an effort to, uh, get away from what AOC has called work one. But the new litmus test is Gaza and genocide. That's replaced a lot of these old, uh, litmus tests. Um, yeah. So I mean, I don't know how the point about litmus tests does anything to prove whether it's a genocide or not. Um, but so I guess maybe it is like worth pointing out that, okay, so I think this like this rub and tell me if you think this is fair. Like, let's just for a second, leave out the word genocide, okay? Like, if the, if we're trying to be as charitable as we can to say the Bill Mar and that one guest who it's a little bit challenging to be charitable to them because they're such incredibly smug people. Um, but like if you wanted to say, hey, dude, well, I'll put it like this rub. Look, it is like when you see those pictures, if you're not following, you know, what's been going on in the war, it might, you could be shocked that so few people have died, right? Like, I mean, if I were to tell you that like 2.1 million people lived in Gaza and then showed you Gaza, you might think to yourself, like, oh my god, did 2.1 million people die? Like did, did, are there, are there 1.8 million people buried under there? And that's not right. That's not what happened. And so like, if they want to make the claim that like, no, Israel didn't just do that with all the people in there. Like that is true. So okay. Like if they, if they want to say that like when you use the word genocide, that's what people you're invoking in people's mind. And that isn't actually what happened. Then like, okay, that is a legit, that is a legitimate point, I suppose, to make. So like to be clear, what that's not what Israel did. Um, what Hamas says that there's 70,000 people underneath all that essentially. Like that's the, all that rubble that you see, they say there's 70,000 people underneath all that. There's the Israel, the Israeli supporters and the Israeli government spent the entire first two years of the war on, I mean, if you saw any debate and there were more debates on this topic than anything else through that time. If you saw any debate through that time every single time the pro Israel guy said, those are Hamas numbers. You're getting those numbers from the Gaza health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. Okay. At the end of this entire war, the official government, the, the official stance of the government of Israel is that they've accepted the Hamas figures. The Hamas figures are correct. Most estimates put it a bit higher, a bit north of 100,000. But so essentially what Israel did was immediately after October 7th, they cut off all the power, they cut off all the electricity, they cut off all the electricity, they cut off the water, they shut down Gaza, they immediately started bombarding it. They, um, they, uh, made all types of blatant statements openly about what was going to be done, Rob. I mean, from the very top all the way down through the civilian leadership and military leadership, all types of comments about Amalak and relocation to this day. The number two and three posts in the Israeli government openly talk about how they're going to ethnically cleanse the place. This is just openly, uh, discussed. Benjamin Netanyahu has been self said that they're going to occupy the vast majority of Gaza going forward, like they're taking over this area. So they, so they immediately start bombing the crap out of the place. Now in, in the bombardments of all this stuff, you see, like tons of people are getting killed. But what they would do is they would send out these leaflets, Rob, like you said, like not all the time, they bombed some places and not send out leaflets. Sometimes they would just take out a building because it was a terrorist they wanted, didn't matter if there were a bunch of innocent people there, they would just kill them. But a lot of other times they would force the civilians out. You know, we would read about this all the time, Rob, as it was happening, they force them out this way, they force them out that way. Sometimes they'd get killed in the process and they'd be starved. I mean, they're still living in like this day, they're living in like horrific refugee conditions. These people just have it absolutely. And then while Israel had the civilian population out, they made the decision to destroy the whole thing. Everything, everything, dude, like every, and you know, like, I don't even know what to say. I was talking on the phone with Horton about all of this the other day. But it's like everything because Gaza didn't have a government, like technically speaking, they were always ruled by Israel. But like, I mean, like almost like government buildings in the sense, Rob, just think about like this is Gaza. This is a place that millions of people have lived for hundreds of years. I mean, now most of the people who live there have lived there since the state of Israel, since the creation of the state of Israel because they were crammed in there. They're mostly refugees who were kicked out of Israel. But so every building that has every official record of every property deed and genealogy pool, every nursery, every playground, every single hospital, every single school yard, every single school, every single business, every all of it destroyed forever. Your entire lives, your history, your family, your mosques, your culture, all of it destroyed forever. And we are planning on taking it after that. And we're not sure what we're going to do with the rest of the people there. But it looks like we're probably going to try to kick them out. That's what they did. Okay. So call that whatever the fuck you want to call that. But I'm sorry, by the legal definition, the people are units of genocide got a damn strong case. And the people laughing about it or had nothing to be laughing about. It literally does remind me, supposedly, I got to reread this rub. I don't know if I'm remembering this right. But I remember watching, I read a book about this and then I watched a documentary about the Nuremberg trials. And I guess there was one point where like all the Germans are laughing about how they are going to be charged for fucking the Holocaust. Or whatever it was, genocide, I think was one of the charges. And then they started playing the films of the death camps. And like it wiped the smile off their faces. And they were like, yeah, we're going down, you know. And like, I don't know, dude, it kind of seems like that too. Like it seems to me that like if this was like a court of law, like this little gimmick that Bill Mars doing. But then once you actually explain the story, it's like, yeah, dude, the people making the accusation of genocide aren't saying they went in there and killed all two million people of that. Like we know that. But this is what they did do. And Jesus, fucking Christ, Rob, it's pretty rough. That was an epic rant. I think I got nothing to add to it. All right, you want to move over to we should do at least touch on a couple of these Ben Shapiro Mark Leven clips, dude. How can you not? How can you not? Rob, you tell me which one is the one we should start with? And it's out to be clear. I only saw one of these. And you said there were a couple other that were good. So what do you think? I would just start it right from the beginning, which I think I marked it at the 114 timestamp where they are claiming that the conservatives should be doing just fine in this upcoming election because only 4% of the population actually cares about the Iran situation. And wonderful. Yeah, so I would start it right from from from that. All right, let's jump in. Two friends of the show. Who would the American people? So whenever it happens in the midterms, it doesn't appear that Iran is going to drive anything one way or another. What's your take on this? I think that's exactly right. Obviously, there is a contingent who would love to see President Trump do poorly in the midterms who want Republicans to lose. Some of these people are openly saying they want Republicans to lose, by the way. Some of them are openly standing in favor of the pro-terrorism candidate, Michigan, Abdul Al-Sahed. So there are some people who are attempting to destroy the Republican Party from within in the hopes that they will then be able to sort of take over whatever remains of the Republican Party. I don't think that it's going to work. You know, when you look at the Iran issue, there's one thing that Americans hate more than anything else when it comes to foreign policy. And it is not foreign conflict, it is losing, it is losing and the rear.
reality is that the president has done Yomans work in reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and putting the United States in a position to really finish off the Iranian regime. I guess we started a couple of seconds like there, but off the top of my head, 4% was definitely in the number, and Mark Levin's claim is that only 4% of the population actually cares about the Iran war. Now just as a theoretical, let's just go that that's theoretically true. I'm going to say that that is totally bullshit. But how much do you think that number changes if you have the question, how concerned are you because of rising prices as a result of the Iran war? Or how concerned are you that Donald Trump did not fall through an America first agenda because he got distracted by a foreign war? And so if you're just going to ask people, do you care for fighting a war in Iran and would you like to see us win it? I'm going to say that it's totally not true, but the idea that prices are not the absolute biggest issue right now, and that Iran's not driving that, and that that's not the chief complaint amongst your average American citizen that we got dragged into another cragmire when we were promised no new wars, and it's affecting pricing. I mean, it's just it's certifiably not true. Well, you mean, look dude, they're just so it's such it's such that so then why isn't that you guys are about to get destroyed? So look, here's the thing where I'm it's not looked at people obviously look my think about how much I care about all these issues. My number one priority in life is that my kids are taking care of. After that, it's that my wife is okay, you know what I'm saying? Like I have more, and if I'm like if I was in a luckily I'm doing quite well, but like if I was in a situation where I'm really struggling to get the cost of feed my family and the cost to house my family, that's going to be my number one priority. So obviously people who aren't as obsessed with this stuff as of why would what's going on in Iran be as big a priority to them as the the things that they need Americans are putting groceries on the credit card right now. Obviously that's the number one priority. Also, their country has been completely demographically changed against their will. That's a big priority right now. Obviously Iran isn't the priority right now. But that is the entirety of our point idiot. That's not a point for you. That's a point in our column. If you launched a war of choice against a ran, then you better damn well hope that the polling shows that that's the number one priority of your constituency. Are you retarded? Come on, I'm sorry. Mark Levitt and Ben Shapiro are not particularly bright men. They're not. They're not impressive thinkers. But they're not this dom rob. What's the point is your voting base doesn't give a shit about around. And yet you launched this huge effort. You put your whole political thing on it. You're running on it now. And, you know, I guess in addition to that, I would say. But what was the thing that Ben Shapiro said that made me laugh? They're just holding out that there's a victory right around the corner. We just have to bomb. The accomplishment was that he did God's work when he opened the doors. Yeah, I never thought I'd never thought I'd live in a world with the open straight of her most rob. I never thought I would see such an accomplishment. You can't brag about it in accomplishment when you caused the problem like what? Come on, come on. This is low. Anyone with a 100 IQ can debunk any of this shit. How about how about this one, Rob? They just think about how like genuinely what a like. A low resolution low IQ. What the argument here would be to go. These people bought the Republicans to lose. You know, the people criticizing Trump want the Republicans to lose. Like, okay. The overwhelming majority of the people you're referring to right now, whoever is in these people's minds. It usually seems to be like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes and me and Megan Kelley or whoever else it is. It's almost all those people supported Trump. I don't want Republicans to lose just recently. And like, you could say, oh, they want Republicans to lose. But, well, look, how about this, Rob? Okay. Just off the top of my head. Because I'm old. I can go back in history a little bit now. This is what's cool about being old, Rob. I can remember 20 years ago, like no problem. So 20 years ago, 2006. There were midterm elections. Okay. The Republicans got destroyed in the midterm elections and lost both chambers of Congress. And the Democrats stormed back. And I think they lost both, they definitely lost the House. Nancy Pelosi comes in as the speaker of the House. And the Republicans tried to rally around George W. Bush. And in 2008, they ran John McCain. You know, the same exact George W. Bush foreign policy guy. And they got slaughtered by Barack Obama and it led to eight years of democratic control. Who right now would say it wouldn't have been better for the Republicans to just reject George W. Bush in 2006. Like, yeah, dude, we're not trying to rally on him. We're not running McCain next time. We're going to run someone who is against the war in Iraq. Yeah, you could have saved yourself the Obama eight years. You didn't have to go through the worst crushing defeat ever. You didn't have to go through the embarrassment of the John Bainer years. And the, you know, the, all those awful guys. Um, you know, Mitt Romney and the rest, you know, so like, no, obviously what, okay, so why would it have been better to bail on George W. But what was the problem with rallying around George W. Bush? Everyone hates his fucking guts. Everyone in the country fucking hated him. And why? Because he launched, he lied us into stupid wars that we lost. That is exactly what's going on right now, Rob. And it is crazy that these people don't see it. I know I've been saying this now for a year and a half, but it's just become more and more obvious the whole time. And it was clear as day to see just like the COVID shit, just like opposing the genocide, just like all of it. It was clear as day to see he's going fucking down. This is George W. Bush. So anyone telling you like, yo, we got to wipe our hands. That it's so low IQ to go. Oh, so you want us to lose? It's like, no, I'm saying like, it's like supporting that we will go, we will burn. We will crash and burn in 28 unless we find something else other than this is the point. Anything else you want to go back to that? No, no, no, let's hear the Carg Island pitch and the gas prices pitch. Oh God. Oh, Lord. The United States in a position to really finish off the Iranian regime without having to put boots on the ground in Iran. The president has to within his capacity to essentially finish the Iranian economy with a single bombing sortie over Carg Island or South Pars. The biggest thing, I think, that is the obstacle right now to just completing that victory is just a matter of decision made. Does the president actually believe that it deals on the table or does he die? I'm very skeptical. That's right. I'm going to put a word. Was it for a second, Rob? Because isn't it, isn't it convenient, Rob? That every time someone's defending this war, and it's unbelievable, dude. I saw, I saw Will Chamberlain, the guy who guaranteed or said said he'd be shocked if the Iranians lasted another month back in April. Back in April? Oh, yeah. He just said, he just said, we're winning the war. We're winning the war. It's looking better than ever. And they always rub. They always have this, and they say it with a lot of confidence. They go, listen, man, there is this military option. Let me tell you about if we went in here and then came in like that and then kicked your ass, fuck them up like here. We could just do that and win this whole thing. We could just do that. That option's right there. That's what I say we do. And that's why you support the war. Because you know, I got this option where we could just win the whole thing. Destroy the whole economy and this one option. Oh. And why isn't Trump doing that? It's a decision-making. He's waiting. Yeah, he's been sitting here for six months. Waiting. There's this obvious option to win the war, but he's just not doing it. And by the way, hey guys, when none of this comes true, when he doesn't do any of this, you know, Ben Shapiro will just move the goalposts and move on to something else. But literally what they are requiring you to believe. They're backing this up with nothing other than an assertion that this can be done and not telling you what the cost or how many people are going to get killed or what it could pot. What, you know, like the possible bad outcomes of this could be. It could be done. Isn't this doesn't this just not pass the smell test and why the fuck have they not done this yet? It seems like the option there is because it doesn't exist. There is no plan. Sorry, I call bullshit. Back it up with something. That you're you're muted. There's always a very simple way to win and somehow only Ben Shapiro knows it and nobody will take his sound advice on the simple solution. Like if Ben, if what Ben Shapiro saying is true. Am I getting this wrong, but like what Ben Shapiro saying is true. Shouldn't he be. As outraged at the Trump administration is we are maybe more. Yeah, because he's just leaving a simple solution on the tables that could solve all the problems. Like dude get rid of these jokers and the Pentagon and put Ben Shapiro in there. Dude, just fucking bum car guy. It's literally like dude. I mean, I don't know. I remember once buddy of mine. This dude named Greg. Black dude from Brooklyn. Love Greg. Haven't seen him in years. Great guy though. No, it's what it really threw you for a loop. Yeah, it was like a kind of hood black guy. But see, he was over at my old apartment that I used to have in Brooklyn and Lewis. J Gomez was there. We were like 25 years old or something like that. And we were over my apartment. We were watching UFC. Me and Lewis had just gotten into UFC. We were watching old UFC. It was a hoist.
crazy fight. And my black friend Greg goes, uh, man of that motherfucker came up on me. I just elbowed that motherfucker and hit him like this. And then I just told him for 15 minutes, what a child he sounded like right now. And I go, do you know what he's crazy would do? Do you, if he grabbed a hold of you, you think you would, you think you just look at it like you, it's like, I go, you sound like a seven year old boy right now going, I'd come in and go, I'm like, that's what Ben Shapiro's doing here. If it were me, I'd go down to Carg Island and I'd just be like, I kick him right in the fit like, yeah, okay, Ben, I guess that's your claim, then you should really be furious at the Trump administration. If they would just put you in the Pentagon, we'd have won this war already. And we'd go dominate the midterms. And now we're about to give him over to these crazy socialists to hate Israel, all because they won't do this one simple thing that you could do. You should, you should be calling for his impeachment. His, uh, his next dumbass pitch, which we can press play and it will catch a little bit of it. But he says, for those that are concerned with gas prices, if we don't end this now, it's only going to be a problem moving forward. And that's also not true, because you could just walk away, let them charge a toll. And that would be the end of higher gas prices. Yeah. Oh, okay. Right. Right. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It's just also, it's like just genuinely childish. All right. Here, let's, uh, let's, let's keep on outdeal on the table. But as you say, and the American people are significantly less interested in any foreign policy issue, than they are with how things are going here in, in the United States. And if the economic numbers continue to boom in the stock market, if they can use, well, and the unemployment numbers, if the wages increase to keep up with the inflation and inflation drops, then Republicans will do fine in the midterms and the rest of the presidency will be a success. It really is almost that simple. Pose it. Pose me here. Okay. So it's really is that simple. All we got to do is lower prices. It's really that simple. All we got to do is have this work go good and lower prices. What are the, what are the, uh, well, let's check Kalshi are, uh, our sponsor there. What are the Kalshi odds right now on the Republicans? Um, I'm sorry, I should say on the Democrats taking the House and the Senate. I should say that the episode is sponsored by Kalshi. Also, we have a link, which is kalshi.com/r/davesmith. If you want to go check out that site, you can keep yourself busy there for hours. They can, the prediction markets for everything. So go check that out. It is very interesting. Okay. Let's get back into it. What are, what are the Kalshi odds right now on the Republicans? I think it's like 70% or maybe I think it's higher in the House and I think it's something, I think it's around 60 and that it's going to be my guess. It's going to be 70 in the House and 60 in the Senate. I'm not sure though. I haven't, I haven't checked this recently. Those Kalshi markets move. You got to check them. I don't know where the markets going. But I got to say, well, look, dude, and as with all polls and with all markets and things like that, all the markets are a little bit different because people are actually putting their money into it. It's not these things aren't crystal balls that you're looking into the future, but it's like, it is interesting to see where people's money are right now in these prediction markets. And yeah, I already will tell you it's not looking good. So yeah, let me know if you have those backup. I don't know anything else on any of this Rob. I mean, it's like, what is that mean? Again, like, there was that old clip. If you remember, I always loved bringing it up when Thomas Massey pointed out that the math didn't add up on the amount of electric vehicles they wanted and how much juice was in the power grid to get the power to the electric vehicles. And that, and it was what's his name, the gay dude, Buttigieg. Buttigieg was up there and he goes, you know, he's got this new, you know, he's going to implement that all these cars have to be, you know, carbon neutral by, you know, this date. And he goes, but we don't have the power grid to have enough electricity. And he goes, that's why we need to reinvent the power grid. There you go. Oh, so you have nothing. So then you have nothing. You don't have the thing. That is what that means that is you have zero. You get zero out of 100 for that. And like for Ben Shapiro to just go, look, all we need to do is make the war work good, win, and then bring prices down. And then we'll win the midterms. This is delusional. I'm sorry, what is it? 91.5 dams, eight Republicans. I don't know what that hold on. Let's say, we're certain, wait, now hold on, which party will win the U.S. House? And what is the Democratic Party 91%? Oh, wow, Jesus, they were way higher than I thought. Okay, 91% they're at for the house. And where are we at for the Senate? Wow, 91% is where the money is right now. I mean, take that's for what it's worth. Hey, I'm going to change my criticizing the war. Can I wait? Can we change our guess for the Senate now? Now I want to go higher than that. I didn't realize that was great as high as it was. 70% maybe? I don't know. Geez. The house isn't going to be that high. I mean, the Senate isn't going to be that high. 62. Okay, so 91 and 62. In other words, utter catastrophe, Rob. Utter catastrophe. If you care about the Trump coalition at all, it is just impossible to overstate what an utter catastrophe, calamity, disaster this is. House is on fire. Defcon 80. This is the worst situation you could imagine, dude. And here, look, Rob, like why? Because Democrats are about to come back in, dude. And that's it. That's it. This is Trump's second term. That's it. This is the rest of it. Democratic control of Congress. And what does that mean? Oh, I mean, his entire domestic agenda is fucked. And what was it again, Rob? Remind me what Ben Shapiro just said. Trump voters care about. Oh, yeah. Everything they care about is fucked over the war. Now they can sit here and pretend all day long that it's not over the war. But I don't know, man, like saying, you know, if I literally their argument comes down to I've put all my chips in on policy A. And their argument is people don't care about policy A. So you can't say that policy A is the reason why this is a disaster. I mean, it's it's so dumb. It's like, I don't know if there was a pollutant in the air and you and I were criticizing the pollutant and the administration allowed for more of the pollutant. And then the pollutant killed all of the fields. And there was no grass grain or food. And then you said, well, people don't care about the pollutant. Whereas and everyone's upset about that there's no food. This is the natural consequence of the war was that there was inflation and prices went up. And so to firstly, I don't think the 4%'s even true. But if you're looking at it as being a price issue and pretending people don't care about the war, you're just one step removed from the policy that caused the price increase. Yep. Yep. All right. I guess we got to we got to leave it there. Guys, come out and see Rob go see him run the FBI special out in a in Salt Lake. Dude, that's going to be a lot of fun. Porchdoor.com, comment David Smith.com come see both of us out in Salt Lake City and in Las Vegas. We're looking forward to that. And yeah, catch you guys tomorrow, regular time, tomorrow, catch you then. Peace.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
The latest satellite images of Gaza reveal unprecedented destruction, highlighting the scale of civilian infrastructure loss and challenging the justification for military action.
Rob and Rob argue that the destruction of Gaza—especially the targeting of homes, schools, hospitals, and cultural sites—constitutes a moral and legal violation, potentially meeting the definition of genocide.
The legal definition of genocide requires intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group, and evidence shows Israel's leadership openly discussed ethnic cleansing and occupation of Gaza.
Israel's actions, including cutting off power, water, and aid, and destroying 80% of structures, go beyond military targeting and reflect a deliberate effort to displace and annihilate civilian life.
Critics of the "genocide" label argue it’s politically charged, but Rob counters that the term is not hyperbolic—it reflects the actual actions and intent seen in the war’s conduct and official statements.
The claim that Israel only targeted military sites is undermined by evidence of widespread civilian harm, forced displacement, and deliberate sabotage of essential infrastructure.
The political backlash against Israel has grown significantly, with approval ratings dropping 50–70%, and critics pointing to the hypocrisy of calling it a war while sending aid and vaccines.
Rob emphasizes that the moral failure of targeting a civilian population for destruction, regardless of semantics, makes the actions indefensible under international standards and basic human ethics.
Summary:
The conversation centers on the ethical and legal implications of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, particularly the extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure and the targeting of entire communities. Rob and Rob analyze satellite imagery and official statements, noting that the scale of destruction—such as the collapse of homes, schools, hospitals, and cultural sites—goes far beyond military targets. They argue that Israel’s actions, including cutting off power, water, and food for months, and openly discussing ethnic cleansing and occupation, demonstrate a deliberate intent to destroy a population.
This aligns with the legal definition of genocide, which requires intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. While some dismiss the term as politically charged, Rob stresses that the evidence—such as the destruction of 330 structures, the targeting of civilians, and the open statements by Israeli officials—validates the claim. The argument is further weakened by the fact that Israel, despite claiming to act in self-defense, sent medical aid and food, which contradicts the idea of a complete extermination effort.
The political fallout is evident, with Israel’s public approval dropping sharply since October 7th. Rob concludes that even if the precise legal classification of genocide is debated, the moral failure of such actions is undeniable. The discussion also critiques the Israel lobby’s dismissal of the term, pointing out that it is not a matter of exaggeration but of factual alignment with international standards.
Ultimately, the conversation underscores that the actions in Gaza represent not just a war, but a profound moral crisis that challenges the foundation of modern warfare and human rights.
FAQs
Genocide is defined as specific acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The key elements are intent and the targeting of a specific group, not necessarily the complete elimination of all members.
The destruction of Gaza's infrastructure and civilian population, especially with intent to destroy a specific group, meets the legal criteria for genocide. The intent, widespread destruction, and targeting of civilians strongly support this claim.
Critics argue that because Israel sent food, medical supplies, and vaccines to Gaza, the actions do not meet the strict definition of genocide. However, this response is challenged by the fact that such aid was suspended or limited during key periods, contradicting claims of a humanitarian effort.
The argument that Israel avoided immediate mass killing because it wanted to appear moral is undermined by public statements from Israeli officials openly discussing ethnic cleansing and occupation. These statements show intent to destroy Palestinian life and culture.
Google Earth images reveal the extensive destruction of buildings, hospitals, schools, and homes across Gaza, showing the scale of damage and illustrating the loss of civilian infrastructure and historical structures.
The prolonged nature of the conflict, including the blockade of food and medical supplies for months, and the deliberate targeting of civilian areas, strengthens the argument that the actions go beyond a military campaign and meet the criteria for genocide.
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