Tera Dahl - Eyewitness: The War in Israel

Shownotes and Transcript

Tera Dahl has just returned from 3 weeks in Israel where she was reporting for Real America's Voice and Bannon's WarRoom. 
Tera returns to Hearts of Oak to share her time travelling throughout the country. 
She spent time with soldiers from the IDF, with civilians who are regularly having to use their shelters for protection and with those living in Gaza. 
Tera has seen the war up close and her experiences are fresh and raw.

Tera Dahl served as Senior Advisor in the Conflict, Prevention and Stabilization Bureau (CPS) at USAID as a political appointee during the Trump Administration. She also served as Deputy Chief of Staff at the National Security Council (NSC) working in the White House under the Trump Administration. She has advised members of congress, staff, and policymakers on complex national security and foreign policy issues. She served as a national security senior advisor to Congresswoman and former Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. She has travelled extensively overseas to areas of conflict and war, raising awareness and reporting from an on-the-ground and frontline perspective, giving a voice to the voiceless. She has helped produce several documentaries going into dangerous situations to uncover the truth and shine a light on darkness. She has spent time camping out on the frontlines embedded with the Peshmerga forces in Northern Iraq during the war against ISIS, on the frontlines with the IDF on the Gaza border, backpacking through the jungles of Burma with fleeing and persecuted Burmese ethnics, and has embedded with U.S. Marines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. She has travelled to Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria and throughout the Middle East providing humanitarian and medical assistance. She volunteered with the American Red Cross to serve and support U.S. troops overseas during the Global War on Terrorism.

Follow Tera on Instagram   https://www.instagram.com/tera_dahl/

Interview recorded 11.12.23

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Transcript

(Hearts of Oak)

Tera Dahl, it's wonderful to have you back with us. Thanks so much for joining us today.

(Tera Dahl)

Thank you, Peter, for having me. 

Always good to have you.
Of course, people can catch you on somewhere where I never delve, which is Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/tera_dahl/
That I think is the best place to find you, Tera.

Yes, it is. Yeah. 

Apart from on War Room regularly and Real America's Voice.

Real America's Voice. 

Obviously, all of that.
And I know that many of the viewers will have seen your couple of weeks actually long postings from Israel and I'm really delighted that you made the time today to come on and to share some of those experiences because I think you talked to a lot of commentators, military experts, politicians, but actually to talk to someone who's been there on the ground is fairly rare, I think.
So, I'm looking forward to finding out, but to tell us how do you get there?
I guess you don't just get a, there are lots of flights cancelled.
So I guess it's not just a case of going and booking a ticket with any regular airline, is it?

You can get there. I went to Greece and then from Athens, then I flew into Israel, but the airlines are limited now.

Definitely the US airlines are limited, they do not fly out of Israel. There's options to fly
There's a lot of flights still that are coming in and out, but the airport in Tel Aviv was very quiet, but there was more, I think more people and more flights than I anticipated.

Okay, what was the conversation?
Cause you're, you're no stranger to going to, to war zones. when I was last over after my WarRoom slot, Steve was regaling me with stories of him talking to you in far flung places.
So I guess most people would think, oh, it sounds a bit iffy, but for you, it's part of the job, I guess.

Yeah, I was in Israel. I have been.
I was in Israel in 2014 to cover the Gaza conflict, the war between Israel and Hamas in 2014 for Breitbart News.
And that's when I really saw like I had been traveling around the Middle East during the Arab Spring.
I had been to Afghanistan and Iraq, really, you know, on the ground with the war on terrorism, but especially especially during the Arab Spring prior to going to Israel in 2014.
And really, I just kind of fell into that because I was on the ground in Egypt during the counter revolution when you had the 30 million Egyptians go to the street to call for Mohammed Morsi's ouster, the Muslim Brotherhood's ouster in Egypt.
And I saw the way that the media was portraying that situation and how the media was impacting our policy. And I saw that it was impacting the Pentagon.
It was impacting Congress because that's how they viewed it.
That was their lens on the situation.
And so that's how I started to really understand the need for accurate reporting on the ground.
Because unless you're on the ground and you really understand the dynamics, you just read what the headlines are.
And then you follow the headlines and then you base your decisions upon the headlines.
So when you look at Israel, you look at the headlines, you look at the mainstream media. And it always has been going back to 2014 and going back to the Arab Spring and just the coverage from the mainstream media has been pro-Islamist.
And that's what I noticed. I noticed that back in 2012, 2013, they were very much pro-Muslim brotherhood.
And so when you look at Israel, you look at the war with Hamas, obviously Hamas is the military arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.
That is the mainstream media and the angle of it has been very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel, restraining Israel.
And so it was so important when I was there in 2014 because I saw that how the mainstream media and a lot of times they report from Gaza.
So you have the mainstream media reporters that are actually in Gaza.
Well, if you're reporting from Gaza and you're surrounded by Hamas, you're not going to be very pro-Israel.
It's going to impact your reporting because you're afraid for your life for one thing.
But you also have, it's just the angle of the mainstream media.
And so going on the ground for this war, I knew because I had already covered the Middle East conflicts in the war that it's so important to get that perspective, because of you can't just follow the headlines and you're seeing how tainted it is for an example at the hospitals. You know how Hamas uses hospitals and then when Israel hits back at the hospital. Then it's Israel's fault and they get charged with war crimes. Well, actually Hamas uses hospitals and schools for their military headquarters and they launched their rocket attacks from the hospitals, from the schools, and they used the children.
And so, Peter, when I went there, I knew it's so important to be able to get on the ground and to be able to write accurately of what's happening.
And that's exactly what I saw.
And that definitely was worthwhile because it changes your perspective.

Can I just ask you, just before getting on to what it was like there, I'm sure the viewers would be curious in how you prep for that, because you're not going into a normal environment.
It's not just a tourist or a journalist going to report on an event.
It's into a very dangerous situation.
How do you prepare? Was it that you had contacts before? Is it Real America's voice making those contacts?
Because obviously you don't want to land on the ground and then begin to spend your time building up those contacts and knowing who to speak to.
So how do you kind of go about preparing for that?

I think with any time that I've travelled overseas in the Middle East, you know contacts, you reach out to them, you reach out to your mutual friends that have contacts in Israel, and then you just kind of start with who you know, and then you build off of that. And that's exactly what, too, on this trip.
You have your contacts that I've had through my friends here, and then you let people know that you're coming over, I've been there before, and then you just build on that.
And when you're on the ground, it just opens up opportunities because you just build your contacts, your networking on the ground.
And one of the important parts of that was going up into the north.
I was able to go up into the northern part of Israel with the Christian community.
So I wasn't only, I was able to see, spend time with the Arab Muslims that are joining the IDF. I spoke with them.
I spoke with the Christian community that also served in the IDF.
And of course, the majority of the Jewish community, but I was able to get all those different perspectives.
So when we talk about building those contacts, it's important that you meet with all sides.
And I've always done that. Like when I went to Syria, as well, I met with the opposition first, who were trying to overthrow Assad, and then I went into Damascus and saw the other side.
So that's kind of just how I've always done it is and I depend on the locals, I mean, for someone, I guess, as a woman, going by myself.
I definitely, you know, you just have to have your faith in God, and then you just trust people, and you just build contacts and you just build relationships.

And what were you kind of expecting when you went out?
Because this current situation is simply because Israel have not dealt with the problem previously.
And this time Netanyahu I think feels and probably has to actually deal with Hamas living on their border.
But what were you kind of expecting when you went over?
Because I guess every war situation is different.
The relationships with the countries around, the population.
The sleeper cells they have, there are so many moving parts to the situation.
And what kind of were you expecting before you headed out?

I think I knew what to anticipate because I had been there to cover it previously, so I knew what to expect.
But as far as when we talk about preparing for this, like going into Israel, you would think there's so many people that were traveling there.
I think one of the highest tourism times before everything got cancelled, it was just they were packed with tours.
And one thing that is always, since I went there before a couple times, and then now this trip, is that Israel is constantly living under siege.
So as, you know, like for me going to visit during a war time, this is the normal for them, Peter. This is how they live.
They live under siege. They live every single house, every building, since you land in the airport, has a shelter.
No matter where you are, every single place you're at, whether it's a restaurant, whether it's a home, if it's a school, if it's a playground, they all have shelters.
And just think about how abnormal that is, is that they get hit.
Since Hamas launched the attack on October 7th, they've been hit with 10,000 rockets from Hamas. 10,000 rockets.
But it is the normal life for them. And the Iron Dome intercepts the majority of them.
But when the Iron Dome does not intercept them, the shrapnel kills people.
If that rocket hits, that can take out like a huge, that could kill so many people, those rockets, and they take, you know, you take it for granted because of the Iron Dome.
But there's multiple times, even like when I was there for my limited time, that if it wasn't for the Iron Dome, you know, you would have probably, you would have been hit by that, you would have been impacted by the shrapnel.
But it's that's not normal. So what they consider normal is not normal.
So they constantly so like for me to say, you go over there and it looks like, wow, you're going into a war zone. That's how they live.
You know, that's how they live every day of their lives.
Their children have to play in playgrounds that are actually shelters because they want the kids to make it, you know, they don't want kids to feel like they're constantly under war and to live in fear.
So what they do is they build their playgrounds as shelters.
So when the kids are playing in the tunnels, it's actually a shelter for the kids.
And so they only have a few seconds when they hear those sirens go off to be able to go into their shelters But that's normal for them So that's something that like it never surprises me just to see how they live their normal their daily lives going to school. Going to their synagogues. Just living their lives going to work and but yet they're constantly under rocket attack, constantly.
And even the day after that I left, there was a terrorist attack right in Jerusalem.
And that's just, that's how they live.

Well, in Israel, there are different parts of the society which engage in this situation differently. You have the military.
Maybe you want to just give us some of your thoughts or experiences you were talking to the military, because they are actually on the front line.
They're the ones that are trying to remove this, which has been a continual threat against Israel, Hamas.
And I saw some of the interviews you had with different individuals in the military.
Tell us about those conversations with the military.

Well, I think the military is they're very much focused and they're determined and they're resolute on eliminating Hamas. And they're not only on eliminating Hamas, but also Hezbollah.
You have to keep in mind too that Hezbollah there's 60 000 Israeli citizens that were evacuated out of the north and another 70 000 that were evacuated out of the south and they're all living in the hotels right now. So you have tens of thousands over, almost 200,000 Israeli citizens that are evacuated right now because of the threat from Hamas and because of the threat from Hezbollah.
And so, but their perspective, what they were saying is that they're first focusing on Hamas and they're going to eliminate Hamas because just like in 2014, when they were resolute on eliminating Hamas, and then because of the international pressure, a lot because of the Obama administration.
They pulled back and they stopped.
Well, look what's happened now, look at what has happened because they didn't finish Hamas back in 2014 or 2021 again and then look at how they use that ceasefire from 2021 basically Hamas was in a ceasefire since 2021 and instead of honouring that ceasefire they used it to rebuild rearm and and plan October 7 and so that's what happens when they say a ceasefire They're rebuilding and rearming and then that's what happened. So you have no option.
The military has no option. Israel has no option but to eliminate Hamas and they also have the threat from Hezbollah. So we just to keep in mind to that Hezbollah had, so Hamas used Hezbollah's plan that they have had for over 10 years to invade northern Israel and take hundreds of Israelis hostage, which would put pressure then on the Western countries. That was their plan.
And they did drills. They did, planned, like they did the planned training.
Previously, back in May 2023, there's video of Hezbollah doing these mock trainings, where it was the same attack that Hamas did on October 7th.
And so Hezbollah is a greater threat than Hamas. But the threat right now, the immediate threat, from what my understanding is, is Hamas.
They have to eliminate Hamas first, but they will have to deal with Hezbollah.
And they'll have to go back to the UN 1701, where Hezbollah is north of Israel.
So they're not on the Israeli border and it has to be enforced by the UN but they're gonna have to deal with the threat from Hezbollah because they have the same plan and those, Thousands of Israelis will not move back home until the threat from Hezbollah is completely eliminated as well. So they are getting attacked on all fronts and not to mention the attacks that are coming from the West Bank as well. And that's what I've heard too is that you know, people are asking why how did they miss it the intelligence failure?
And it was the biggest intelligence failure. They're saying since 1973. Well, they were focused so much on the West Bank.
They were focused so much on the threat from Hezbollah.
And they were also allowing thousands and thousands of the Gazan civilians to come in every single day on work visas.
And those Gazans that were coming in on work visas turned against Israel.
And a lot of them were the ones that were mapping out the exact locations for Hamas's attack on October 7th.
So that's what I learned talking to people.
Probably one of the most things that I took away was that they realized how wrong they were for this two-state solution, and living in peace side by side because they totally use what they were given to the Gazan civilians because the Gazan civilians, 70% of them support Hamas, and they use that against Israel.
And they use that opportunity where they were coming in on work visas, getting money, and they were the ones to turn against Israel and with all of the maps and the locations and commit that atrocious attack.
So that is another takeaway, but I have a lot to say on the Gazan civilians too.

Well, let me touch on, there's just one other thing you talked about, the military and the country, I guess, was living in a false sense of security because the borders have been fairly peaceful.
You've got economic relationships warming up between countries around.
And you haven't actually, it's been a long time since I remember hearing of a suicide bomber in Israel on buses or trains which used to hear of fairly often.
That seems to be have been eradicated and with the borders more secure than before.
Was it simply just a false sense of security? Israel thinking actually we've got economic benefits. And that's going to trump any in-built religious hatred which exists.

Yeah, I think it was a false sense of security. And I think a lot too was that they were allowing those, the Gazans to come in on those work visas.
And they just didn't think that they would do something, you know, to turn against them when they were allowing so thousands and thousands of them to come in.
And one of the, what really stuck out to me was the kibbutz's that were the most attacks, the worst attack that took place, the majority of them were the kind of thinking they call them the liberal, the leftist, because they were, they were the ones reaching out, you know, to the Gazan civilians, to Hamas.
Some of them, one example was a lady who used, not only one lady, but there were other women as well, that would, for years, would bring in the civilians to the hospitals and take care of the children in Gaza, and they murdered her.
And they murdered a lot of the people at the kibbutz who were the ones that believed that you could live side by side, the ones that believed that you could have that peace.
And that is something that even people that believed for years and years and had been involved in some of the peace agreements.
They said that was their biggest eye-opener, is how wrong they were, how wrong they were that you could have that two-state solution, and live side-by-side because they want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
And that was a big wake-up call.
And that's why I think the perspective is so different.
And I heard that there has never been more of a unity within Israel to annihilate and eliminate Hamas than there is now.
They said over 99% of Israel is all unified, that you have to eliminate Hamas.
So not only Hamas, but Hezbollah in the north as well.

Let me come back to you on Israeli failing.
You mentioned you've got a lot to say on the actual people living in Gaza.
I don't even want to call them Palestinians, but I will not even delve down that rabbit hole.
But those living in Gaza, they seem to, well, the world seems to want to blame Israel for the problems happening in Gaza under Hamas and the world doesn't seem to actually have any issues with Hamas being the government and democracy not functioning all of that and and it seems as though the people there certainly the media tell us that all their ire and anger is against Israel for their problems and not against Hamas.
Tell us about kind of what the conversations, what you learned about actually those people living in Gaza.

That was something that I learned right away when we were at the kibbutz.
They were talking about how people aren't mentioning, and they weren't talking about the 3,000 Gazan civilians that broke in and breached the wall after Hamas made the initial breach.
There were thousands of Gazan civilians, Palestinians, that came in and they stole trucks from the kibbutz's, and they stole and they looted within.
They took TVs and they stole things and those were the civilians.
And so you see all these pro-Palestinian protests and they're not pro-Palestinian.
If they were pro-Palestinian, why doesn't Jordan take them in?
Why doesn't Egypt take them in? Why don't these Arab countries take in these Palestinians that they seem to care so much about? Why? They don't want them.
Nobody wants the Palestinians because they're 70% pro-Hamas and they're indoctrinated since they're children, which I'd love to touch on the UNHCR funding too, the UN funding where this indoctrination is happening at the schools and it's being funded by the US, by the EU, by the European countries, right?
By the Western world for this indoctrination in these schools that is bringing up these little kids to kill Israelis.
So the Arab countries, they don't want them, But yet, in the whole world, everybody, it seems to be pro-Palestinian, but they're not pro-Palestinian.
They're pro-Hamas and they're anti-Israel. That's what that is.
So I don't even call them pro-Palestinian rallies or protests.
That's not what they are.
They're not pro-Palestinian. They're anti-Israel and they're pro-Hamas.

Yeah, we've seen that here.
The people there, because the media can tell us that it's sad that the people in Gaza, and obviously you have many civilians caught up in this, civilians on both sides and no one wants a war situation.
It's not good for any country but Israel didn't choose this.
But you look at the people in Gaza and on one side it's the poor people there, they're living under a difficult government but you've been to Arab Spring, different demonstrations.
I know I've had many conversations with those who had lived behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.
You have uprisings, you have people uprising to overthrow those above them. And that may not be easy.
And maybe me speaking as a Brit, it's easy for me to say that, but that's how history works.
And surely the same thing should work in Gaza.
If the people are unhappy with those above them, then they should overthrow them.

Yeah. And I think actually you're seeing more of that right now.
You're seeing where these Hamas members are surrendering in the masses.
And I think you're seeing more of the people starting to turn against Hamas.
But even like when you look at the statistics and the polling, you have 73% of the people that live in Gaza, the Palestinians, they support Hamas.
They're Hamas sympathizers. And a lot of that has to do with the indoctrination and the schooling since they're kids.
You see the videos of these children who have, you know, machine guns and they're taught and they're raised to just hate Israelis and they're honoured if they murder Israelis and that's their indoctrination.
So you've got to break that ideology.
You know, you can definitely eliminate Hamas as an organization, but it's an ideology that you really have to come against, which we've done in the past.
You know, look at what we did with Germany and Japan. So you can come against an ideology and that's what you have to do.
And so that is, yeah, that is a whole different conversation.

Looking at how the people live, that is all, as you pointed out, it's all funded by the West.
That perpetual hatred, that perpetual tension, when we have politicians talk about they want peace, but at the same time they're funding a terror organisation and keeping that pocket of evil right on the edge ready to kick off.
You're right it does seem to be that the West are guilty of what has happened.

The UN is funding it. The UN is funding that ideology.
The Western world is funding it. The United States is funding it and under the Trump administration they cut that funding to UNRWA.
They cut the hundreds of millions of dollars to UNHCR and Biden immediately restarted that funding again.
And that funding goes directly to Hamas and it goes directly to funding that ideology and that's taking place in that school.
So if you want to start with one thing to cut, which we could do right now, is eliminate UNHCR, completely eliminate UNHCR, and cut that funding that's going to UNHCR.
But right now they're launching, UNHCR has literally launched a Hamas campaign.
That's what they're doing. They are the spokespeople for Hamas and when you look them up and you look at the campaign that they're doing right now. You will see how they are basically launching a campaign and it's with US funding and it's with UN funding. So just think of that. We're funding Hamas's campaign.

UNHCR, tell us what that stands for. 

UN Refugee Program Agency.

Okay, that does explain a lot.
You mentioned about the Israeli people and a unity behind the government and the military.
That hasn't always been the case, and certainly I've seen a lot of self-hatred, maybe mostly from Israelis and Jews who live abroad and look back.
But with that unity, then that possibly does mean the job can be done.
May tell us about that, your conversations with people.

About the unity that's happening in Israel right now?
That is something they said, They're 99% unified and Israel too, they were having, they were so divided pre, and this other people will say, well, because the country was so divided before the Hamas attack over the judicial reforms.
That was the big focus in Israel. That was really dividing the country.
But after this Hamas attack, everyone has been saying they have never seen more unity. And when you get to Israel, that's what you see.
You see the Israeli flags all over the country, every building, all the roads.
I mean, every car has an Israeli flag. It's that, like you're unified.
It was like, it reminded me of September 11th, you know, after September 11th, every single American flag was sold out.
Everybody was unified. They were against terrorism and they were unified as a nation and a world.
The whole global community was unified. And that's where I don't understand why you're not seeing that now with Hamas attack. Hamas is ISIS.
Hamas is ISIS. It's the same funding, it's the same ideology, it's the same groups, the same kind of the countries that are behind it, the terrorist organization, the tactics, the beliefs, the ideology, all of it's the same. So Hamas is ISIS.
And the attacks that they did against the Israeli citizens when they killed babies, when they cut open pregnant women, when they raped women multiple times and then burn their bodies, they beheaded people.
I mean, that's ISIS.
You can't even fathom having anyone that would even think that they could support Hamas right now or support ISIS.
Just think of that if you had ISIS supporters, think of the difference in the perspective that you would see if you had all of these students protesting for ISIS, you wouldn't see that.
And if you held ISIS beliefs, you would be prosecuted, right?
The FBI is going to be hunting at your door if you showed any kind of sympathy with ISIS.
But why are they not doing that with Hamas?
Hamas is ISIS. Hamas is a designated terrorist organization.
They come from the same sources.
There's no difference in them, but yet we're allowing this like pro-Hamas.
Even in our campuses, sentiment.
I mean, you should have the FBI at the door, even having that, just like it was with ISIS. You should have that same mentality towards Hamas.
There's no reason in the 21st century to have a terrorist organization that commits those kind of barbaric, inhumane acts.
I mean, there's just no, there's no space for that. There should be zero tolerance for that.
And the world should be united as we were all united with the United States on 9-11 when we all came together, you know, for the war on global terrorism.
That's what we're dealing with. This is a global war on terrorism.
That's what we're fighting right now. And there should be no divide in that.
And yet you're seeing it all over, especially in the UK.

Oh yeah, in the UK. I want to pick up on some of the military in the north and Hezbollah and surrounding, but let me ask you about that world support or pressure, how the media have responded.
Europe have always had a very uneasy relationship with Israel.
Europe have traditionally sided with Arab nations against Israel.
America is quite different and America has generally been a bastion of support for Israel right from the beginning, from the modern day state.
But what is that like because you have in campuses, as you see here I guess in the States, a lot of pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian, because people don't know any better.
But generally the media, up until, they're still generally holding to be more pro-Israel, although you see that beginning to slip.
And with the BBC, it maybe lasted a few days before it slipped, but I think in the US, it's lasted a lot longer.
Tell us about that, because not only is there a military war but there's a PR and media war as well.

Yeah, and that was where I think it's starting to shift. I think right away there was all of that pressure and people saw that.
I think the social media, China was behind a lot of that on TikTok.
They were fomenting a lot of that anti-Israel.
I think China was a lot behind that, especially on TikTok social media.
But I think you're seeing it start to swing now.
And I think because people, when they see the videos and when they see it themselves, I think you can't defend it like it was so barbaric and inhumane what they did. No one can defend it so I think that's the difference that you're seeing and that's why it's starting to shift is because It is ISIS and when you when you see what how just that's why, when Hamas did this like 2014 when they launched the rockets and the war in 2014 it was very different because you just look at what, they targeted civilians, they targeted babies, they targeted women, and then they kidnapped them, they kidnapped babies, they kidnapped young little kids.
And so that I think people are seeing that anyone that is a human being, right, that has any kind of understanding or emotion, common sense, you have to condemn it.
There's just zero tolerance for that. And I think people are starting to see that.
And that's why it's important for the actual videos and the reporting to happen, because Hamas is launching this massive information campaign, massive information war, which they've always done.
You know, they've always done. And that's why you're seeing even pushback on the mainstream media.
You know, when just for a perfect example, I think several weeks ago when you had, Shiva hospital and it was and they were saying that it was Israel that hit it right and it was Hamas but yet look at the condemnation because of the false reporting and they had to push back and to be able to report the truth and you have members of Congress.
Rashid Talib, you know who was still not even believing Israel when all the evidence was there, even when the Biden administration themselves, you know came out and said no it wasn't Israel.
It was Hamas you know, you still had a member of Congress who was coming out there and spewing these lies against Israel because she's, you know, she's part of that false campaign against Israel.
And so I think you can't dispute the evidence.
You just can't. No matter what, you just cannot dispute the evidence.
And I think that's the information war that Israel is, they still have to battle it.
They absolutely have to battle it. And that's why it was important to go on the ground too, because you have to see it yourself. You've got to report it first-hand.
And if people were to see what I saw in the kibbutz's and what I heard, that's what will change your perspective.
That's what will make you see.
And that's why it is so important for the media to report it accurately.

Tera, you touched on the opposition in the left in politics, in the media, and we see that as well in Europe and the UK and our media is dominated by those on the left and politics that are on the left.
But we're all seeing another curious, I guess, voice come up and that's the voices that have appeared over the last kind of three, three and a half years on the COVID tyranny, demanding freedoms, angry at the restrictions we faced.
And there's a lot of anger amongst that group, certainly against Israel, because of how it locked down more than anyone else before.
It only allowed one vaccine to be used, the Pfizer vaccine. You didn't have any right to have anything else.
It seemed to be a test bed, an experiment.
And I think a lot of that anger against Israel, what's happened the last three, four years under that tyranny, has boiled over into hatred of Israel and Jewish haters.
And I've realised a lot of those groups are maybe more in the left and they've traditionally had that hatred of Israel.
And you see it popping up time and time again, groups that I would be surprised at.
I don't know where, are you having that in the US or is the opposition traditionally from the left on the politics and the media?

The left and the politics and the media. I think you have, the United States, you have such strong support for Israel.
The evangelical church supports Israel.
Democrats, Republicans, it's really dividing the Democratic Party.
You've got very staunch pro-Israel Democrats, and the Republican Party has always been very pro-Israel.
And so I think you do see it on the left. I think you do see it in that more of the Muslim Brotherhood, I think, influence the college campuses is probably the loudest where it's coming from.
But again, that's where you have to look at the sources of that.
I don't think it comes from the COVID lockdowns.
If you're pro-Israel, you know, you just, for me, it's my faith, you know, God will bless Israel.
Those that bless Israel be blessed. Those that curse Israel be cursed.
And so you support Israel. And it's not because of who the politicians are, it's not who's in office at the time, it's because God blesses those that bless Israel, and you stand with Israel. And it's a biblical mandate.
And I know that's where my position stems from, is I'm going to honour God, and I'm going to stand with Israel.
And it's not because of the politicians or who's in power or what their policies are.

I agree, that's 100% of where I come from, happily call myself a Christian Zionist because of what the Bible teaches.
But then you talk to a non-Christian and you say, well, do you pick Hamas or Israel?
Take your choice and don't tell me you want to live in Israel because of freedoms, but really want to hate Israel.
And that's, yeah, wanting the freedoms, but yet hating it. It's like wanting a pride parade through Gaza.
Well, go for it. You could be the first, and I want to be there to film it and see what happens.
You have tolerance and freedom in one country across the board, and yet across the border, not only across the border into Gaza, but in West Bank, in many of the surrounding countries, you have little freedoms.

Yeah, yeah, you do, you do. But they're a young country, 75 years old.
And so they're still growing and like when you look at Israel, it's a miracle, right?
Like it's an absolute miracle everything about Israel is miraculous. It was a desert and it's turned into a green land and is you know rivers and streams and lush and green trees and even just being there and you just see how beautiful Israel is and it's the hand of God and it's miraculous and there's no way that anything that Israel could have existed if it wasn't for God's providence in that country and his hand in doing it.

100%. You touched on, just coming near the end, you touched on the north and obviously the Gaza Strip is southwest.
You've got the West Bank to the east and you've got up there in the northern border, Lebanon and Syria.
You've got two countries which are failed states in effect and with Hezbollah.
I mean for a country and a military to be fighting war on one side, but yet they must be ready and prepared at a moment's notice to open up that on a second front.
It's horrendous, horrendous pressure and so far it has held off on the North, but as you say, they will have to deal with that.
But the Israeli military have shown time and time again that they are able to fight on many fronts, in 48 and in 73, to attack, to fight on every single front and to be able to push that back.
But that kind of, maybe touch on that, that constant state of readiness that has to be there.
Everything can't just go to Gaza, it has to be prepared, not only in the North Hezbollah, but also on the West Bank border as well.

And they are, you know, when I was there too, the IDF was, Hezbollah would launch rockets at Israel and Israel would respond.
So they're well positioned to be able to respond to Hezbollah, to be able to eliminate the threat from Hezbollah.
Just from what, you know, like, what I was told is that they're going to focus on the closest threat, the immediate threat, and that's eliminating Hamas, because, and that's also a quicker operation than Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has about 150,000 rockets.
They are a much, much stronger, well-equipped, dangerous force than Hamas.
Obviously, they're backed by Iran. But the one thing I think that Israel has right now is like the U.S.
Warships have been deployed, and they're not doing, actually, they're not doing the deterrence that they should do.
Obviously, our troops in the region have been attacked now, over 70 times every day they're adding to the attacks that are going on right now.
So the US needs to do much more deterrence to hold Iran at bay and to prevent Hezbollah from joining the war fully.
But I think what's the number one thing right now that is preventing Hezbollah is that Lebanon and the civilians in Lebanon do not want Hezbollah to join the war because they're the ones that will be eliminated.
And just like Hamas uses the schools and the civilians and the homes as their headquarters, as their military headquarters, and they hold their rockets and that's where they launch all their attacks and use it as their headquarters, that's exactly what Hezbollah does in Lebanon.
And they do it as well in the Christian communities in Lebanon.
Then they use the schools and they hold the civilians hostage and they use the civilians as their hostages just like they do.
You don't hear about it as much, but that's exactly what's going on in Lebanon.
And that's what Hezbollah is doing. They're hiding their rockets in these schools, in the hospitals.
So, Lebanon does not want Hezbollah to join this war.
And the civilians don't, because when the IDF, then Hezbollah will launch an attack from a Christian community, a village, or an area.
And that happened when I was there. They launched it from a Christian area, and then the IDF will respond.
And then it makes it look like the IDF is hitting a church. Well, no.
Hezbollah was using that church as their headquarters at their launching pad to launch these rocket attacks.
So of course, the IDF is going to respond to eliminate the threat, they have to.
But that's the tactics that they use. And so I think if you put pressure on Lebanon, and obviously, the Hezbollah has, you know, power and control in Lebanon, but I think that's where you could really deter Hezbollah.
And the UN could deter Hezbollah as well, like they already passed in 2006, the UN Resolution 1701 to be able to push Hezbollah up past the Latani River, so they're not on the Israeli border, but it's not being enforced.
Hezbollah attacks the UN forces because there's not enough, they attack them.
I've seen the videos of them attacking their trucks.
So Hezbollah dominates in that area, and they're not even supposed to be in that area.
So there are things already that exist that just are not being enforced that could really prevent from Israel having, or from that the Northern Front, really being an all-out war?

Just finish off on, where Israel goes the future, because Israel has to come out of this stronger.
It has to come out of this having defeated Hamas, and whatever that means for Gaza, that will have to be for others to decide.
But militarily and security-wise, has to come out the stronger.
And then politically, how do you see that happening? Because Israeli politics has always been fractured.
And what Benjamin Netanyahu, who's the great survivor, being what PM, differences a third or fourth time now since 96.
And obviously that has to pass over at some point, kind of how did you pick up on that political, obviously there's support for him, what he's doing, he needs to come out of this with a strong legacy, and I guess someone else has to also come up and continue his, I guess his boldness and determination to fight for Israel's security.
So let me just touch on that, that political side, what did you feel coming away from your trip on that?

I think Israel will come out stronger. I think that you will see something different in Gaza, Hamas will be eliminated and what that is, I didn't get the sense that Israel wants to take over Gaza.
I think they don't want to do that. I think you'll have the sovereignty of Israel, you'll have the sovereignty of Israel
involved but will that include security will that include Arab countries, you know, you hear talks about maybe Saudi Arabia the UAE.
One country that that I don't think should have any Impact at all is Qatar. Qatar should have absolutely no influence in Gaza because Qatar is the Muslim Brotherhood.
They are the problem and they should be sanctioned, you know the international community should be sanctioning Qatar but if you have like an Arab force, if you have a UN peacekeeping force, some kind of security, but it's Israel's sovereignty.
Israel should control, it's their country, and they should have the decisions and it should be in their control to decide.
It's their civilians, it's their people, it's their responsibility to keep the civilians of Israel safe and defend their country.
And so the US, I mean, the pressure from the Biden administration in any kind of way against Israel to have that sovereignty, you know, that needs to be pushed back on and that you need to allow Israel to be able to have that sovereignty.
And also I think the sovereignty as well over Judea and Samaria, you know, the Palestinian Authority, it's not okay for Israel to live under siege.
That's not normal. And they shouldn't have to live that way.
They should be able to eliminate the attacks.
I mean, just think if we were in Texas and someone in Mexico, or not someone, cartels were launching attacks with rockets every day at Texan citizens.
And they couldn't eliminate the threat, but instead they just had to build around it to protect themselves, right? They just had to build an Iron Dome or a defence system to be able to protect from the rockets. Instead of taking out the cartels who's launching the rockets.
It makes no sense, you know, take out the threat.
And so that's something that we need to get behind Israel and allow them to do that and to support them in doing that. But I think you will see a safer Israel, you'll see more sovereignty, and they should.
And that's where I think the international community, I don't understand their position in pressuring for a two-state solution, because there is no two-state solution.
It just doesn't exist because the Palestinian Authority is not, there is no structure.
It doesn't even, it doesn't make any sense. A, it's unbiblical, right? It's against God. You don't divide God's land.
Again, those that bless Israel, like America's policy, I think, is directly impacted by our decisions to bless Israel.
But there is just no common sense, viable option with the Palestinian Authority.
They just don't have the financial structure right now, and they want to eliminate Israel as well.

Tera, really appreciate you coming along and sharing your thoughts on your trip there. So thank you so much for joining us and sharing the stories you had from your trip. Thanks.

Thank you, Peter. It's so good to be with you. Thank you.