Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. There's been some extraordinary news that has gone
Speaker 1: ahead and happened tonight. The Islamic Republic of Iran has
Speaker 1: launched retaliatory air strikes on Israel. As we speak, literally
Speaker 1: right now, Shahid style drones. Hundreds are raining down upon Israel,
Speaker 1: being intercepted at least some by air raids. There has
Speaker 1: been sirens all across air defense systems are firing. We
Speaker 1: have some video that I'm going to go ahead and
Speaker 1: play for everybody right now, and I'll continue to talk
Speaker 1: over it. So what you guys can see in front
Speaker 1: of you, this is video that has been put out
Speaker 1: by the Israeli media and as well as the Israeli government,
Speaker 1: so we feel comfortable sharing it with you. At the
Speaker 1: very least, what we could say is they claim that
Speaker 1: this is what is happening above their skies. This has
Speaker 1: now come this extraordinary moment after a dizzying last few hours.
Speaker 1: Some indications happened earlier today. President Biden was at his
Speaker 1: vacation house in Rehoved Beach in Delaware. He flew back
Speaker 1: for an emergency meeting of his National Security Council. Immediately
Speaker 1: after he returned to the White House, the news became
Speaker 1: official and they put out a statement. I'm going to
Speaker 1: go ahead and share that statement with all of you
Speaker 1: right now. Here's what we had and this is given
Speaker 1: to us a few hours ago from the White House.
Speaker 1: They say Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel.
Speaker 1: President Biden is being regularly updated on the situation. Here's
Speaker 1: the key line. President Biden has been clear. Our support
Speaker 1: for Israel's security is ironclad. The United States will stand
Speaker 1: with the people of Israel and will support their defense
Speaker 1: against these threats from Iran. What is very also important
Speaker 1: that everybody takes into mine here is this that I'm
Speaker 1: going to go ahead and show everyone the United States
Speaker 1: actually is engaging in shooting down some of these drones
Speaker 1: over either Iraqi or Syrian or Jordanian airspace. Here is
Speaker 1: the key message, just from a US defense official. In
Speaker 1: accordance with our ironclad commitment to israel security, US forces
Speaker 1: in the region continue to shoot down Ranian launch drones
Speaker 1: targeting Israel. Our forces remained postured to provide additional defensive
Speaker 1: support and to protect US forces operating in the region.
Speaker 1: So there you have it. The United States is now
Speaker 1: officially engaged on Israel's behalf shooting down these drones. Not
Speaker 1: the first time, remember that we fired against who the
Speaker 1: ballistic missiles which were headed towards Israel. But extraordinary nonetheless,
Speaker 1: because the US has now officially entered this war in
Speaker 1: terms of Israel's defense, the big question is what is
Speaker 1: going to happen next. Now, what is very important for
Speaker 1: everybody to know is that this message that came out
Speaker 1: from the Iranians, that actually happened after the strikes became official.
Speaker 1: So I have it here in front of me. This
Speaker 1: is from the Permanent Mission of Iran to the United Nations.
Speaker 1: Here's what they say. Iran's military action was in response
Speaker 1: to the Zionist regimes aggression against our diplomatic premisses in Damascus.
Speaker 1: This matter can now deemed concluded. Let's spend some time
Speaker 1: on that. That's very important. The matter can now be
Speaker 1: deemed included. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake,
Speaker 1: Iran's response will be considerably more severe. It is a
Speaker 1: conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime from which
Speaker 1: the US must stay away. So let's pay very close
Speaker 1: attention to that. The Iranians are saying, this is our
Speaker 1: response to you bombing our embassy in Damascus, where an
Speaker 1: IRGC commander was killed. They're making clear America stay out
Speaker 1: of this now. Already that line has been crossed. But
Speaker 1: what they're saying is if we end it here, then
Speaker 1: that's it. But we are now receiving news that is
Speaker 1: actually coming out of Israel. Keep in mind that it
Speaker 1: is the middle of the night over here. But I'm
Speaker 1: sharing here a senior is really official. This is from
Speaker 1: Israeli media. They are saying from a senior is reel
Speaker 1: official pledging an unprecedented response to Iran's attack and urges
Speaker 1: Israelis not to go to bed due to what is
Speaker 1: coming Iran's way. So this is a very very dangerous
Speaker 1: moment for the world everybody. I mean, just to do
Speaker 1: a little bit of analysis here, the Iranian response clearly
Speaker 1: was calibrated to give a ton of heads up to
Speaker 1: the US and to Israel. It took hours for those
Speaker 1: drones to fly. They could have used cruise missiles, ballistic missiles,
Speaker 1: and much more destructive technology. This is a show of
Speaker 1: force on their behalf. But also it was calibrated as
Speaker 1: they put in their message, and it was one where
Speaker 1: they knew that the vast majority of the drones would
Speaker 1: be intercepted by their air defense systems. This wasn't really
Speaker 1: calibrated to be like a major and a stunning attack.
Speaker 1: They had a ton of heads up. The question now
Speaker 1: right doesn't end here? Or now are we on the
Speaker 1: escalation ladder? The United States military is now involved in this.
Speaker 1: We're shooting down drones on Israel's behalf the Israeli military.
Speaker 1: Now are they going to engage militarily directly against Iran?
Speaker 1: This would be unprecedented in terms of what is happening,
Speaker 1: and I deeply fear that this is the exact nightmare
Speaker 1: scenario that we've all been waiting for since October seventh.
Speaker 1: You know, it's been exactly almost six months now since
Speaker 1: the conflict. But really what we all saw when Israel
Speaker 1: struck that embassy in Damascus is that entered a new
Speaker 1: kind of phase of the conflict, and it entered a
Speaker 1: big decision matrix that we talked about with doctor Tree
Speaker 1: de Parsi on the show, and I know that Krystal
Speaker 1: and Emily talked about this as well. What is Iran's
Speaker 1: response going to be? Nobody knew and now we do know,
Speaker 1: And now The question is is how is the West
Speaker 1: going to respond to this? How is the US going
Speaker 1: to respond to this? How is Israel going to respond
Speaker 1: to this? If Israel responds with overwhelming force and they
Speaker 1: directly strike targets in Iran, Tehran, for example, well it
Speaker 1: is almost certain now at this point that the United
Speaker 1: States would be involved in this, given the fact that
Speaker 1: we literally shot down some of these drones and the
Speaker 1: military is now engaged here. The big question, and this
Speaker 1: is where my heart goes out to every US service
Speaker 1: member family and serving in the Middle East right now,
Speaker 1: is that we have tens of thousands of service members
Speaker 1: who are all across the Middle East, Iraq, Syria, Jordan.
Speaker 1: As we all found out when three of our service
Speaker 1: members were killed bah Rain. We have the US name
Speaker 1: maybe the fifth Fleet. Warships have been flooding into the
Speaker 1: Persian Gulf apparently over the last twenty four to forty
Speaker 1: eight hours. What's even more extraordinaries that the US Military
Speaker 1: Central Command commander was on the ground in Israel when
Speaker 1: the news broke that the Iranian drones were coming. Apparently
Speaker 1: the general has departed, But just to give you an
Speaker 1: idea of how deeply involved the US military is here
Speaker 1: in the response. There's also some major questions what is
Speaker 1: Israel going to do and are they going to tell
Speaker 1: us what they are going to do. All of the
Speaker 1: current reporting that we currently have indicates Israel did not
Speaker 1: clear its Damascus strike with the United States, But of
Speaker 1: course we respond in their defense anyways. Are they going
Speaker 1: to clear and coordinate whatever the hell their response is
Speaker 1: going to be with us? And will we as citizens Americans,
Speaker 1: are we going to bear the responsibility to defend Israel?
Speaker 1: This could very well be the beginning of a new
Speaker 1: Middle Eastern conflict. Would be the third ordinary, actually the
Speaker 1: fourth if you count Syria, extraordinarily of my lifetime, and
Speaker 1: I am only thirty one years old. So it's a
Speaker 1: very sobering night here in Washington. The phones are definitely
Speaker 1: ringing across the hook, all across the entire world. There's been,
Speaker 1: you know, major sirens and alerts going out in Jordan
Speaker 1: and Iraq and in Syria, all the inklings of a
Speaker 1: full blown diplomatic crisis. We're going to stay on the
Speaker 1: story everybody and will monitor everything that continues to come out,
Speaker 1: and should anything break overnight, we'll give everybody an update
Speaker 1: on Sunday, and of course we'll have a show for
Speaker 1: everybody on Monday as well. So again i'll just close
Speaker 1: with thoughts for all of our service members who are
Speaker 1: in the Middle East right now, perhaps even engaged in
Speaker 1: the fight, you know as we speak, because this is
Speaker 1: one where the last time that we were there, a
Speaker 1: lot of people lost their lives, and this is one
Speaker 1: that I really hoped that we would never ever see again.
Speaker 1: But our leaders seem very intent. Bipartisan consensus already so
Speaker 1: far of US military, the US Senators already calling for
Speaker 1: direct engagement with Iranso. The ground is set if they
Speaker 1: wanted to be, and this very well could be the
Speaker 1: match that struck it all. We'll go see you guys later.