Israel Has the Epstein Blackmail

Former Israeli spy living in Canada, Ari Ben Menashe appeared on the Consortium News podcast with host, Joe Lauria and Elizabeth Vos.

While working at Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Ben Menashe worked with Israeli spy, Robert Maxwell in London. He says Jeffrey Epstein was a regular visitor in London to Maxwell’s office and that it was Maxwell who got Epstein involved in his pedophilia blackmail operation in the 1980s. This is how Epstein met and started dating his daughter, Ghislaine.

Ben Menashe confirms what he’s been saying for years, that the testimonies of victims, like those of the late Virginia Giuffre were accurate. He reconfirms that Prince Andrew was not being blackmailed but he was being used as a useful idiot to lure high profile clients to be blackmailed. He says he was not aware of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell working for any other Intelligence agency besides Israel’s.

Ben Menashe also reconfirmed that former President Bill Clinton and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak were blackmailed by Epstein and this is what caused the 2000 Camp David Summit peace talks to fail, because the Israeli government wanted war, not peace.

He says the Trump administration’s recent framing of the Epstein blackmail files as “a hoax” was an attempt to circumvent Netanyahu and his Epstein files, in their efforts to broker peace in Gaza and to avoid what had happened in 2000.

He says this ruse was obviously poorly-formulated, as Ghislaine Maxwell was not convicted on charges stemming from a “hoax”.

Ben Menashe says:

“[Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak] were very close to finishing a deal with a Palestinian State in place…And what happened with Epstein really changed the course of history, Israeli history, with that incident…

“I’m guessing, that the American administration this time did not want to repeat that story again…

“They were afraid that the Epstein files were going to be used against Americans to put pressure on American politicians to go along with Mr Netanyahu. And for once, the American government did the right thing.

“They said, ‘There’s no files, forget it. There will be no pressure on us from that end’…”
Ben Menashe goes on to say that, as a Jewish Israeli citizen with a daughter and three grandsons living in Israel, he is ashamed of what Netanyahu and the Israeli government have been doing in Gaza, killing over 50,000 Palestinians and 2,000 Israelis and that he wants nothing to do with the Israeli state.

He says President Trump is trying to bring peace in the Middle East and Netanyahu is fighting against him, as are some politicians in the US.

He says he wants Netanyahu to step down and for there to be a change of government in Israel to stop the genocide; for there to be an Israeli government willing to compromise with their neighbors.

Ben Menashe believes that the peaceful solution would be a Palestinian Governor appointed by the Cairo-based Arab League to run Gaza. He says the Saudis are willing to put money into this and the Egyptians are willing to protect Gaza with their troops and they’re willing to lease land in the Sinai peninsula to Gaza for an airport and a seaport.

He believes the Trump administration thinks this is the right thing to do; to side with the Arab League, rather than with Netanyahu, in order to stop the killing in Gaza and he believes most Israelis would go along with this.

He would like to see Americans, regardless of their party politics or their feeling about Trump to back a ceasefire in Gaza and a peace deal like this

A full transcript appears below.

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ROUGH TRANSCRIPT

Ari Ben Menashe: My take on it is that President Trump wants a deal in Gaza, wants a ceasefire. For once, he’s doing the right thing, he wants the right thing, he wants a ceasefire in Gaza. And the Epstein files were going to be used, they were afraid that the Epstein files were going to be used against Americans to put pressure on American politicians to go along with Mr Netanyahu. And for once, the American government did the right thing, they said “There’s no files, forget it, but there will be no pressure on us from that end.”

Joe Lauria: Well, wait a minute, if he has the files, he could still release them and not only put pressure on them, but embarrass the Department of Justice for lying about it, if he wanted to do that.

Ari Ben Menashe: Yeah, well, that would be too much even for Netanyahu to do. Even for Netanyahu.

Joe Lauria: If he was working for Israeli intelligence, Israeli intelligence, whether it was your-

Ari Ben Menashe: I am sure they have copies of the videos, and I’m sure they do. But Trump comes along – or somebody in the Justice Department comes along – and says, “Hey, we have no evidence, forget it. They can say whatever they want, but we have no evidence, and we’re going to do what needs to be done. Our policies are our policies, and we’re not going to buckle under pressure from the Israelis.”

Joe Lauria: Right. (Reads from script) “The United States Department of Justice leaked to the media a two-page memo that seeks to end the drama of the pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and whether there was evidence, particularly video evidence, that Epstein had blackmailed material on a list of very powerful men, showing them committing illegal acts with underage girls.

“Also on Sunday night, as the memo was leaked, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving in Washington for a series of meetings, still going on, at the White House, the Congress, State Department, the Pentagon, and with other powerful actors in the Capitol. Netanyahu is seeking continued US backing in his quest to ethnically-cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population and to continue his war against Iran.

“The Department of Justice Epstein memo said that ‘Its, quote, systematic review revealed no incriminating, quote, client list,’ close quote.

“There was also no credible evidence, the DOJ memo said, found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties, close quote. The memo seeks to disconnect Epstein’s crimes from any of the powerful men whom he associated with.

“The memo says, consistent with prior disclosures, this review confirmed that Epstein harmed over 1,000 victims. Each suffered unique trauma. None of the hours of video evidence Epstein filmed with hidden cameras in his various residences will be released or even discussed.

“The court seal on these videos, quote, ‘served only to protect victims and did not expose any additional third parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing,’ close quote. The memo also says that video from the jail where Epstein was being held in Manhattan showed that no one entered his cell area on the night that he died, and thus, the Department of Justice ruled that he died by suicide. Case closed.

“Or is it? Here to connect Netanyahu’s visit with the release of the Department of Justice memo is Ari Ben-Menashe, who is a former official with Israel’s Defense Intelligence Agency.”

Thanks for coming on, Ari. First, you were on our show some time ago, and you laid this out.

I’d like you to do it again. Can you please explain, before we get into the details of the memo, what were the links between Epstein and Israeli intelligence?

Ari Ben Menashe: He was working for Israeli intelligence. It’s as simple as that.

Joe Lauria: What was his job?

Ari Ben Menashe: Collect information about important people around the world.

Joe Lauria: To do what with? Sorry?

Ari Ben Menashe: Maybe blackmail them or use it against them.

Joe Lauria: And how do you, I know you worked inside Defense Intelligence. I think you had some personal experiences. Tell us how you know this and any direct experiences you had.

Ari Ben Menashe: OK. I used to work with Robert Maxwell in London, and Epstein was a regular visitor in London to Robert Maxwell’s office. And Robert Maxwell was the one that introduced Epstein to Israeli intelligence at the time. This goes back to the ’80s.

And we’re all much younger than 1980s and while working with Maxwell, Epstein also met Maxwell’s daughter, who became his girlfriend, who started working with him.

Joe Lauria: This is Ghislaine Maxwell.

Ari Ben Menashe: Yes, Ghislaine Maxwell. Ghislaine Maxwell is now in jail. She was sentenced to 20 years in jail for working with Epstein. There were a number of ladies that testified against her, that she was pimping them to other people through Epstein.

And I’m just wondering what the Justice Department is going to do with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving 20 years in jail, whether for exactly what they’re saying, “Did it not happen?” Was the judge crazy? Were the four witnesses lying? Was the fifth one that died in Australia lying about all this? Did Prince Andrew, who was also connected to them, pay compensation to one of the girls, did he just paid for no reason? Just wondering about all that.

Joe Lauria: What was she charged, convicted of, do you know?

Ari Ben Menashe: Particularly, the conviction was about her working with Epstein and pimping underage girls.

Joe Lauria: Pimping the girls to powerful men, or to other men.

Ari Ben Menashe: Yes, other men. There were other men.

Joe Lauria: There was a client list, in other words.

Ari Ben Menashe: Apparently, there was, yes.

Joe Lauria: If there were no client list, she would not be in jail for pimping them.

Ari Ben Menashe: Correct, correct.

Joe Lauria: So, it wasn’t that she abused the girls herself, although there may have been an allegation of that too, I think. But it was the men, Epstein and these men who did the abusing, she arranged, a nice way of saying –

Ari Ben Menashe: She was the person arranging these. Right. But some people who might be powerful.

Joe Lauria: Now, he took videos. Elizabeth, let me ask you this, because you’re an expert on this. How many houses did he have video cameras in? I think it was Arizona, the island, Florida, and the New York townhouse?

Elizabeth Vos: Yes, I mean, that we know of, we have evidence of, definitely the New York City townhouse that you mentioned. Definitely, that was allegedly reported to be wired completely. There was a whole room for surveillance. But I would imagine that all of his residences were wired for surveillance, for sure.

Joe Lauria: Right. And the Department of Justice is trying to tell us that these videos were “child pornography” and what else does it say here? It had nothing to do with any clients and that they weren’t really protecting the victims.

Elizabeth Vos: Yes. Essentially, they say that all of those hundreds of gigabytes of material were only of Epstein committing abuse himself. They don’t even mention Ghislaine, although the victims say that she also participated in that abuse often, but they don’t mention that. Or that it was pornography that he had downloaded from the internet that was totally unrelated and that he had all these residences wired for surveillance and that we should accept, though, that none of that material had any of those people in it.

Joe Lauria: So the key thing is it was just he himself committing these illegal acts, no one else. That’s what we’re supposed to believe.

Elizabeth Vos: Right. And the story completely changed. Pam Bondi, a few months ago, said that, you know, all of these thousands of documents, she didn’t specify videos only, she said documents, etc, were going to be gone through for review to protect the witnesses, but that stuff would be published. And now she’s saying, “Oh, well, don’t ask us to publish child pornography.”

And nobody’s asking for that for the first thing. And then but so the fact that the story has changed from “We’re only going to redact what’s necessary to protect victims and potentially national security,” to “There is absolutely nothing you will see because there is nothing to see other than Epstein, himself or what he downloaded.”

Joe Lauria: Before we get back to Ari, what do you think happened there? Did Bondi not know what she was talking about? Did she know what she was talking about and was told to shut up? What do you think happened?

Elizabeth Vos: I mean, it’s hard to say definitively. I would be just completely speculating here, but I think probably she was just told what to say. Honestly, that’s my take.

Joe Lauria: Right. OK. So this was leaked to Axios on Sunday night and a plane was touching down somewhere in one of the Washington airports on Sunday night. It actually was 1 a.m., I think, Monday morning. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would he have any interest in this kind of an operation that to protect an Israeli operation by any chance?

Ari Ben Menashe: Well, my take on it is that President Trump wants a deal in Gaza, wants a ceasefire, or wants – he’s doing the right thing. He wants the right thing. He wants a ceasefire in Gaza.

And the Epstein files were going to be used. They were afraid that the Epstein files were going to be used against Americans to put pressure on American politicians to go along with Mr Netanyahu. And for once, the American government did the right thing.

They said, “There’s no files, forget it. There will be no pressure on us from that end.”

Joe Lauria: Well, wait a minute. If he has the files, he could still release them and not only put pressure on them, but embarrass the Department of Justice for lying about it, if he wanted to do that.

Ari Ben Menashe: Yeah, well, that would be too much even for Netanyahu to do.

Joe Lauria: Even for Netanyahu. If he was working for Israeli intelligence, Israeli intelligence, whether it was New York-

Ari Ben Menashe: I am sure they have copies of the videos, and I’m sure they do. But Trump comes along, or somebody in the Justice Department comes along and says, “Hey, we have no evidence, forget it. They can say whatever they want, but we have no evidence and we’re going to do what needs to be done. Our policies are our policies, and we’re not going to buckle under pressure from the Israelis.”

Joe Lauria: Right.

Elizabeth Vos: Is this story, is this kind of the lost gospel, the story that we’re going to hear, do you think? I mean, is this really the end? Is this going to go on?

Ari Ben Menashe: I still want to hear what’s going to happen to Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s in jail for 20 years. If nothing happened, why is she in jail?

Elizabeth Vos: Yeah. I mean, even the conviction-

Ari Ben Menashe: Sorry, just a second. And I really think, in a way, President Trump is trying to bring an end to the war in Gaza, and he does not want pressure put on him by all kinds of stories on American politicians.

During the Clinton days, President Clinton days, there was a meeting between Ehud Barak, then Prime Minister of Israel, President Clinton, and Arafat. Now, the two people that were under pressure was President Clinton and Ehud Barak, who was also compromised by other Israelis. He was Epstein’s best friend, by the way. Yes. And as a result of that, there was no deal between Arafat and Israel, at the time.

They were very close to finishing a deal with a Palestinian State in place. So maybe, I’m guessing, that the American administration this time did not want to repeat that story again. Maybe President Trump did the right thing.

I don’t know, OK, to just say it. But again, how are they going to explain Ms Maxwell in jail? How are they going to explain that? How are they going to explain the testimony of the ladies that testified in court against Ms Maxwell?

So I think, in a way, their intentions were good. They were trying to put away pressure, push back on Netanyahu.

If you noticed, all the meetings were private. They were not public like before, between President Trump and Netanyahu.

And President Trump really wants to bring peace and a ceasefire and gasoline. Preventing him from doing that is Mr Netanyahu and people around him, and maybe some other politicians in the United States.

But the idea is bring a ceasefire in the United States, in Gaza, sorry. And if you noticed, he keeps on talking about “Ceasefire will be this week,” then maybe “next week”, and so on, if you watched the media.

So I think it’s very much related to that.

Joe Lauria: What happened to his idea of his golf courses, resorts, and all of that in Gaza? In February, when Netanyahu was in the White House –

Ari Ben Menashe: He said, at that time, he did not understand what he was saying and doing. But this time around, he really wants to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza. I can promise you that.

Joe Lauria: And you told me when we spoke before that there’s a plan to have someone come in and rule Gaza. Tell me about that.

Ari Ben Menashe: The idea is to have the Arab League, based in and centered in Cairo, run Gaza with a Palestinian Governor that will be appointed by the Arab League. And the Saudis are willing to put money in it. And the Egyptians are willing to give protection to Gaza by sending troops.

And the Egyptians are also willing to lease land for an airport and then port, lease land in Sinai for this. And the issue is very simple: Do you go along with the Arabs? Or do you go along with Israel, at this point? With not Israel, Netanyahu, sorry.

At this point, I believe the American administration believes it’s the right thing to do to go along with the Arab League and to stop the killing in Gaza.

Joe Lauria: And this is what you think Trump wants right now?

Ari Ben Menashe: Right now, this is what he wants, yes.

Joe Lauria: And in order to remove the blackmail option that Netanyahu carries, they decided to put out this memo saying, “There’s no material, no blackmail material. It doesn’t exist.”

Ari Ben Menashe: Yeah, that’s right. To defuse that. That’s my take. Yeah, that’s my take on it. But of course, there are a lot of loose ends that they didn’t think about: The girl in jail, the four girls that testified, the judge.

Joe Lauria: Like Andrew, why would Prince Andrew have paid that woman?

Ari Ben Menashe: It’s the same thing. He wasn’t a client. He wasn’t a client. It’s another loose end that they didn’t think about. That’s correct.

But again, the intentions were honorable intentions, but there are lots of loose ends.

Joe Lauria: Now, you say that Robert Maxwell and Epstein were good friends, or they liked each other. They both died.

Ari Ben Menashe: Robert Maxwell liked the young Epstein.

Joe Lauria: Did Epstein like anybody but himself? I wonder if Epstein liked anyone but himself.

Ari Ben Menashe: No, no, no, no. But Robert Maxwell actually was the one that introduced him to the Israelis. At the time when I met him, I refused to have anything to do with him because I felt he’s a bit of a whatever.

Joe Lauria: I’d love to know what you’re thinking, a creep or something like that.

Ari Ben Menashe: Something of that nature.

Joe Lauria: Robert Maxwell and Epstein both died from suspicious circumstances, suicides. Maxwell fell overboard, and that was a suicide, right? Nobody pushed him.

Ari Ben Menashe: Well, Maxwell, quote unquote, fell overboard his ship, his yacht that was named after his daughter that’s in jail right now, OK? And probably, because the Israelis did not want him to get arrested. Remember, he was about to get arrested by the Brits for stealing the pension funds and so on and so forth. It’s a whole different story right now.

Joe Lauria: I remember that. Yeah.

Ari Ben Menashe: So that was Maxwell. Not afraid he was going to talk? So somehow…

Joe Lauria: They were afraid that he was going to talk a lot.

Ari Ben Menashe: Yes.

Joe Lauria: The story is he was relieving himself overboard at the time and slipped. This is what I recall.

Ari Ben Menashe: Whatever. Whatever. OK

Joe Lauria: OK. So you’re saying the Israelis who somebody had someone on board that yacht with him and he was killed. And what do you think happened?

Ari Ben Menashe: I’m saying that it was probable that the Israelis had something to do with him relieving himself and slipping, OK?

But going back here, I don’t know. I’m not sure what happened in that cell.

Joe Lauria: Did you watch the video? Did they release the video, Elizabeth? Isn’t that right? Of the cell?

Ari Ben Menashe: No, I didn’t watch the video, but I doubt that it’s that easy to commit suicide in a cell like that. Did you watch it, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth Vos: I mean, it’s almost 11 hours of almost nothing happening. But there is… Apparently there’s one minute missing from it right around midnight. And then Pam Bondi’s excuse for that is that every night the prison resets the video. There’s a technical issue with that.

So what happened in that one minute? Who knows? So I wouldn’t speculate on the specifics of how he may have been murdered, as opposed to killed himself. But I’m very skeptical, especially if there was no evidence of other people being involved in any sort of wrongdoing with him. Or if there’s very little evidence of sex trafficking, etc, and he was charged with sex trafficking, then I guess he had nothing to worry about and why kill himself.

I mean, there are lots of different reasons to be very skeptical of that narrative. I also think it’s really interesting that since this memo came out, that it’s really split the right and Trump’s base.

A lot of his base is very, very angry and the part that isn’t, the segment of his base that seems to be basically saying, you know, “Get over it, who cares about Epstein, move on, it’s old news,” tend to be the Zionist social media accounts, like people like Ben Shapiro, etc. So I don’t know, I think that’s worth noting.

Joe Lauria: He’s saying, “Move on, forget about Epstein”?

Elizabeth Vos: Yeah. Echoing what Trump said, like, “Why are we talking about it? Who cares?” That type of stuff.

Joe Lauria: Yeah. So we don’t see him in the cell. You see the outside area and there’s no activity. You don’t see him killing himself, but you don’t really know.

Elizabeth Vos: Right, right. Exactly.

Joe Lauria: And there’s the missing gap, like Nixon’s missing gap on the Watergate tapes. We’ll never know what that minute may or may not have shown.

Elizabeth Vos: And we also don’t see his body taken out either. So, you know.

Joe Lauria: Let me go back to you, if I can, to your theory that this was Trump suddenly having a human conscience, he wants to stop the killing. Netanyahu and his gang, they clearly want to ethnically-cleanse this Gaza. They want to take it over, kick them out.

Now, I don’t know where you stand on the history of Israel. And from the very beginning, Ben-Gurion, according to his diaries, made it clear that Greater Israel was the objective and that many, many villages were destroyed and 700,000 Palestinians were driven out, many of them violently, some voluntarily, and some, yes, some Arab generals told them, “Leave and you’ll come back later once we win,” that kind of thing.

But is this a culmination of an 80-year-old project of Zionism in historic Palestine, to take it over completely by Jewish Israelis, to drive out Palestinians? Is this what we’re witnessing? And did you expect to see it happen to this dramatic scale in your lifetime?

Ari Ben Menashe: Well, I don’t believe that this is going to happen to this dramatic scale. But yes, it’s the story. They’re trying to kick out all the Palestinians. They’re starting to do the same thing in the West Bank and so on and so forth.

As a Jew, I’m embarrassed what’s happening and I want nothing to do with the Israeli State, because of this.

Elizabeth Vos: I have a quick question. What’s your take on the way that the Trump Camp, everyone who ran with Trump, Trump himself talked about the Epstein files. Now, when I look back at Trump’s recordings when he was interviewed and asked about the Epstein files, he did seem a lot more hesitant to go into that and to say, I will release those than he was about the JFK files and other subjects.

But he did talk about potentially releasing them and his supporters and the people that he now has in the administration definitely were enthusiastic. I mean, and you can look back at tweets by JD Vance from 2021 where he’s basically talking about it very openly, all of that.

So what do you make of that turnaround and also the way in which they did this ridiculous Phase One a few months, just a few months ago, where they gave right wing influencers these binders of documents that have been released publicly before?

I mean, if they were going to come out and say there’s nothing to see here, why have a big, a giant media flop a few months ago?

Ari Ben Menashe: I believe that they realized that if they release everything, a lot of people will be in trouble, not necessarily Trump himself, but others, as well. Yes.

Elizabeth Vos: So you think that they did have evidence and it wasn’t all just destroyed, initially when the FBI and whoever.

Ari Ben Menashe: No, I’m sure they do. I’m sure they do. I’m sure they do. But I think that they realized that this it’s too big a problem. It will create too big a problem for lots of people in the States. And again, I go back to that meeting between Arafat and Ehud Barak and Clinton.

And probably the two compromised people were prevented from doing a deal because of that, because of these tapes. Ehud Barak was a compromised, as well. It wasn’t only Clinton.

Ehud Barak has been known to be close to Epstein or doing stuff with Epstein. And a Deep State in Israel never wanted to deal with Arafat. They wanted, they were about, they were talking about the Two-State Solution.

Joe Lauria: Now they blame Arafat for that, don’t they? US Government, media, everyone in the U.S. who talks about this in the media and government blames Arafat for the failure of that deal that he rejected.

Ari Ben Menashe: Well, I have no comment about that.

Joe Lauria: You’re saying it’s Ehud Barak. But I just happened to see this morning by complete coincidence on Twitter, somebody posted a video of Brzezinski on his show with his daughter saying about that, that husband of hers was named Joe Scarborough saying, “Yeah, it was Arafat he rejected.” And Brzezinski said “No.”

Ari Ben Menashe: Why would he reject that deal? Why would he reject it? He was fighting for a Palestinian State all his life. Why would he reject a deal like that? As a starter, even as a starter.

I really go back to that and that incident, that time. And I think this was a historical thing. And what happened with Epstein really changed the course of history, Israeli history, with that incident, with that time.

Joe Lauria: It’s interesting, because Brzezinski on this interview says that it wasn’t Arafat’s fault, he was going back to the Arab capitals, but it was Sharon who came to power and then put an end to it. That’s what he said. He didn’t talk about anything about any blackmail material on Barak. He may not have known about it or he doesn’t want to say. But anyway, I just thought it was interesting that you brought that up. And I’d seen that this morning.

Now, let me ask you this, about something is changing in the relationship between the United States and Israel, not the government, but people, particularly young people, particularly Democrats.

We’ve seen now polls that show the exact opposite of Democrats of all ages, supporting Palestine more, Palestinians more than Israelis, Israel right now. There’s been a big change. Can the impunity that Israel has enjoyed for so many decades because of the diplomatic and political and military cover the United States gives it, is this possibly could end or will Israel survive in the same relationship?

Ari Ben Menashe: I don’t believe that Israel can survive this. The first thing that has to happen is for Mr Netanyahu to step down. That’s number one. Change of government in Israel and a government that’s willing to compromise, to compromise and do the right thing and stop the killing of the Palestinians and so on and so forth.

And I have a daughter in Israel. She has three young boys and I hope for a better future for them by having a peaceful resolution in Israel. But the first thing that has to happen is for Mr Netanyahu to step down. And just to compromise a bit.

Joe Lauria: From what I understand, most of Israel has supported this operation against Gaza; supports the genocide, basically.

Ari Ben Menashe: Well, well, it’s a good question how the Israelis are reacting to this. They have a problem with Netanyahu over October 7. Why did he allow it to happen, in the first place? And why wasn’t there a deal with the Palestinians and Hamas before this happened? He must have known about all the money and arms there, when they were getting from Qatar or other Arab countries. This wasn’t a surprise to Mr Netanyahu.

As you may have heard, two of the persons working in his office were accused of taking money from Qatar. Everybody’s asking questions about all that. So I think the Israeli population doesn’t know or aren’t sure what to make out of all of this. They are sort of thick. And I am sure that the people in Israel would like to see him go.

Joe Lauria: If all the hostages or the remains of the living heart are returned, would the public turn against the war then? I wonder if Netanyahu doesn’t want the hostages returned, B, doesn’t want to really defeat Hamas right now, because if those two things happen, what’s the excuse to continue the ethnic cleansing?

Ari Ben Menashe: Correct. Correct. Correct. I don’t think the Israelis would want to continue the war if this happens. OK.

And then Palestinians? Well, if Arab money comes in and rebuilds Gaza, OK. And you just make sure the border is shut down or there’s something, I don’t think the Israeli public will mind that.

Joe Lauria: Do you think that, and this maybe Elizabeth wants to weigh in on this, in terms of Trump’s change of heart, as you’re saying. Before, in February, he said, we got to clean the whole place out, we’ll find a nice place to live.

He’s talking like this is the South Bronx, Gaza. “They’re getting stabbed, they’re getting mugged.” They’re not getting stabbed and mugged, they’re having 2,000 pound bombs dropped on their tents. And then we’re going to build nice housing for them somewhere else, like a new development in Queens. I mean, this is the way he thinks of Gaza, this guy who doesn’t know anything, in my view, about that region. And now he’s changed his mind and he wants to end this.

Is it because he sees that his base, MAGA, has never been wanting this US involvement of our Middle East wars, particularly what happened after Iran? That wasn’t really, his base wasn’t all that popular, with the US getting directly involved with the war in Iran. I’m trying to figure out you think Trump has changed his mind, suddenly that he just wants the war to end now.

Ari Ben Menashe: I believe that he and the people around him realized that this is going to be devastating for the US and the Middle East. And I believe that the people around him realized that their relationship with the Arab countries will fall apart without a peace deal in Gaza, a ceasefire in Gaza. Remember, Saudi Arabia, oil.

Remember, now he wants Syria to make a deal with the Israelis. Not necessarily Netanyahu, I’m saying the Israelis. Yes? He wants a peaceful Middle East and he wants to get the Nobel Peace Prize for it.

He failed in Ukraine, but this one, he thinks he might be able to pull it off. I think so.

Joe Lauria: Peace Prize, but he also maybe sees, as you say, and I’m hoping the democratic politicians also see this, because they’re as guilty as anyone on Biden administration went along with this genocide from the start. I mean, they’re realizing this now two, almost two years too late.

Now they realize, wait a minute, bad for us, bad for our relations with the Arab countries?

Ari Ben Menashe: Now they realize this now. Because they realized this after two years and 50,000 Palestinians dead. At least. And 2,000 Israelis dead as well, by the way.

Joe Lauria: And damage from Iranian missiles. Let’s talk a minute about Iran. What is your assessment, having been just in the region and with your sources, of how much damage was done to the Iranian nuclear program, number one?

Ari Ben Menashe: I have a different question. Did the Iranians really have a nuclear bomb program? Did they have one? Sorry, let’s go there first. Did they really have a nuclear bomb program? I doubt it. And Netanyahu was left without enemies. Iran was the big enemy, right now.

So Netanyahu had to attack Iran, hoping to pull the United States into a much larger confrontation with Iran. But Trump did what he did. He said, “OK, we destroyed their nuclear capabilities. We aren’t joining the fight. That’s it.” Again, another smart thing that was done.

And Americans did not kill any Iranians. They bombed these sites without killing anybody. There were no civilians there. Again, I know people don’t like Trump, but I say this was a good move.

“OK, they don’t have any more nuclear capabilities. We destroyed all their capabilities. Whether they did or not, that’s a different story. But that’s it. We’re not entering the war. Israel, stop. Netanyahu, stop.” OK?

And you have to understand that there’s another thing here that caught my attention. There must be a very senior Iranian telling the Israelis where the generals are and so on and so forth. Because it’s not that easy to kill all those people they targeted. And I believe the Americans and the Iranian mullahs, as opposed to the Revolutionary Guard, have a deal together.

I believe the son of the Ayatollah, who’s running the show right now, has a deal with the Americans. And I think we’re going to see a deal and sanctions removed on the Iranians, which was a good thing. Obviously.

But I’m talking about the Ayatollahs, as opposed to the Revolutionary Guards. They’re two different entities. And the last thing Trump wanted, or the people around him wanted, was the Revolutionary Guards to take over from the Ayatollahs.

And this is why the talk of regime change was stopped by the Americans. Again, my belief that the right thing was done.

Again, I know I’m complimenting the Trump administration, but they did some right. They did some right things.

Joe Lauria: But has Trump gotten Netanyahu off his back? He apparently said, “OK, I hit them.”

Ari Ben Menashe: Probably not. Probably not. Probably not. Because the Israeli Netanyahu group has some powerful allies in the United States. Probably not. But he tried. He’s trying.

But again, I believe about Iran, the Americans did the right thing. I believe about Gaza, Trump has the right intentions, right now. I’m talking now. I’m not talking in the past.

But going after the Iranians like the way Netanyahu did was, again, criminal. But what the Americans did was the right thing to do. “OK, we destroyed all their nuclear facilities. Stop. They don’t have any more nuclear facilities.”

I’m saying what is being said. And again, there will be a deal between the Ayatollahs and the American administration.

And sanctions will be gone. And that would be a good thing for the Iranians.

Joe Lauria: Will Trump allow them to do any enrichment? And at what percentage?

Ari Ben Menashe: No, I don’t think they want to.

Joe Lauria: No enrichment at all? Zero. Because it goes back to 3.67%, which is what the Iranians have agreed. They want to go from 60% down to 3.6%. That means they will return to the JCPOA, which Trump foolishly…

Ari Ben Menashe: No, no, no. That’s all nonsense. Just stop. That’s it. You don’t bargain with the Iranians, because they’re very good at bargaining. They’ll bargain you to death, OK?

They will bargain you to death. You don’t bargain with them. You tell them, “Stop! Stop. I will make a deal with you, but stop. I will remove sanctions, but stop.”

Because the Europeans didn’t really get it, when they bargained with them for for years and years and years.

Again, this is not the type of thing that should have been done with the Iranians. They should say, “OK, you guys stop. We will do the right thing by you.”

Joe Lauria: Elizabeth, you want to go back to Epstein to tie this up?

Elizabeth Vos: I’m trying to see this from a perspective of him sort of standing up to the Israelis, in terms of hushing up the Epstein thing. But really, from my perspective, looking at his funding from the Adelsons and everything else, I can’t help but see this as just completely bending the knee to Israel. I can’t see it any other way.

If you want to try to argue that again, go ahead. But that’s just kind of my take. I didn’t have a response to that, but…

Joe Lauria: Elizabeth is saying that Trump is giving in to the Israelis and bending his knee to them. Or at least he will in the end, when this week is over, when Netanyahu is done in Washington.

Ari Ben Menashe: Maybe, but for now it’s a different story. Maybe at the end of the week, things will change again. Maybe.

Elizabeth Vos: I mean, and I say that not only because of Trump’s actions, but also because of Israel’s biggest supporters in his movement supporting and backing up his decision on these tapes, on the files, whatever you want to call them. I mean, you’ve got the Ben Shapiros of the world saying the exact same thing Trump is. This isn’t making Israel or Israel’s supporters angry that I see, whatsoever.

Ari Ben Menashe: I say that Elizabeth may be right. He’ll change his mind again. He’ll buckle again. But for now, this is the story. By the way, at the time, Robert Parry and myself, you know, we were close friends, yes?

We believed that Trump will somehow, with all his crazy ways, bring some sort of peace deal in the Middle East. We really believed that, at the time.

Joe Lauria: And you are still believing that?

Ari Ben Menashe: Yes. Yes. In his crazy ways, he might be the one bringing the peace deal in the Middle East. Yes.

Joe Lauria: Well, it’s about Donald Trump. And getting a Nobel Peace Prize would be the thing that would really make him happy. And that’s why Netanyahu went in and nominated him, or he said he would, whatever, the first day that he arrived. Because he understands flattery.

Ari Ben Menashe: Netanyahu was the last guy that-

Joe Lauria: But Netanyahu has to understand, in order for him to get the peace prize, he’ll have to do this Abraham Accords, right? And for that, they got to stop the fighting in Gaza.

Ari Ben Menashe: That’s right.

Joe Lauria: They can’t stop the fighting in Gaza.

Ari Ben Menashe: We’ll bring Syria, we’ll bring Saudi Arabia, we’ll bring everybody into the Abraham Accords, and we’ll make one big happy family. And he gets the Peace Prize, OK?

But what I’m saying right now is, if I were people in the States, I don’t care what color, what party they’re from: “Back Trump over the peace deal, the ceasefire in Gaza.” I would. Back him and vote. It doesn’t matter –

Joe Lauria: Well, he’ll get the Peace Prize, and you and Bob Parry will get the prognostication award that you had predicted this, that he will bring peace to the Middle East, and nobody would have thought that, and I still have a hard time thinking, but let’s see. I hope you and Bob are right. OK.

From forbiddenknowledgetv.net

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