English transcript

I mean, look, the Israelis are tactically very

proficient. - Yes. - They have a very competent

intelligence service, and there's a lot that

we can learn from them in the craft of intelligence.

- Yes. - So they're very proficient, they're

very good. However, whenever we get information

from a liaison service, I think it's incredibly

important to realize that it could be given

to us to influence us as well as to inform us.

And the way that I would see Israeli information,

in particular coming from senior officials directly

to our senior officials, that caveat just wasn't

given frequently enough. And there's a lot of

times, some of this is just because of bureaucratic

practice, but a lot of it I think is just we

feel very comfortable with the Israelis. A lot

of them are dual citizens, they sound like us,

they don't feel foreign. We kind of go into

a more complacent mode where we trust a lot

of what they have to say, not keeping in the

back of our mind that they have their own agenda

and we have our own agenda at the end of the

day. Now, I'd say a lot of times we have the

same agenda. You know, it's very, very... I

think tactically, you know, the same when it

comes to fighting Hezbollah, when it comes to

fighting terrorism, sure. But when it comes

to what's our strategic goal in a war that's

going to have ramifications for our nation,

for the region, for global energy supplies,

I think most folks right now at the Pentagon

and the intelligence agencies, they would say

us and the Israelis actually have a different

objective here. I don't believe that our objective

has been clearly defined because we're shying

away from regime change. The Israelis are not

shying away from regime change. They want to

knock out lock, stock, and barrel the current

government. They don't seem to have a plan for

what comes next. Well, that was my next question,

and I think you would have heard tell of such

a plan. So if you're going to take out a government,

I think it's fair to ask what replaces it. And

I have asked a bunch of people, many people,

this question, never gotten any answer whatsoever

other than there's no plan, the Israelis don't

have a plan because they don't care. Do you

think that's fair?

I think that's completely fair. I think as Americans

rightfully, we want a clear stated objective

and end state for war. I think that's something

that was born out of the GWOT, was born out

of the Vietnam era. Americans want to know why

we're going to war and what the end state is,

and they can get on board in general if that's

clearly articulated. That's not the case with

Iran. The Israelis are different. I think a

lot of times, again, because a lot of them speak

English, they culturally feel the same, but

the Israelis have a much different tolerance

for how and why they're going to war and for

their endurance for war. The Israelis are completely

fine with Iran slipping into chaos. That means

that the Ayatollah and the IRGC can't really

threaten them anymore. Hezbollah's money might

be cut off in their head. And so complete chaos

in Iran is not necessarily a bad thing for the

Israelis. For us, for global energy, Straits

of Hormuz, our partners in the GCC, mass migration

problems in Europe, this is a major problem.

- It's a catastrophe for the world. - For the

world. Yeah.