Israel has freed 4 hostages after 245 days of captivity in Gaza. But despite this, many reports in the media are sympathizing with Hamas at least as much as with the hostages! This is something Glenn and Stu have never seen before. Instead of focusing on the hostages, the reports focus on the damage Israel is doing to Gaza (according to Hamas and other Gaza groups). And some have even complained that Israel didn’t WARN Hamas before the raid! Glenn asks how media outlets can continue to take these stances, even with reports that Hamas is using some of these hostages as slaves!
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Wow. The hostages at least four of them, the hostages have been rescued from two different locations during an operation that happened Saturday, during the day.
The medical condition is -- is normal. I guess.
Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza, said at least $274 Palestinians were killed, and more than 400 injured in the operation.
Gaza Ministry doesn't differentiate between fighters and civilians. So, yeah. Spokesperson for the military, put the figure fewer than 100.
You know, what I really liked is the fact that the -- all the reports start coming out about how bad it was for Hamas.
Dozens of injured people are lying on the ground. And medical teams are trying to save them. With the simple medical capabilities that they have.
Said the Gaza health ministry.
You know what he should have done? He shouldn't have built the headquarters for Hamas underneath your hospital.
You know, might have worked out a little better for you and your people, you know.
STU: Do you think, Glenn? Is there -- and this is not -- I've never been in this situation, so I don't know. Is there a path to avoid bombings, that include not taking hostages?
Is there something about taking the hostages that leads to this -- these --
GLENN: No. Those are totally separated.
STU: Totally separate.
GLENN: Totally. You're talking apples and eggs.
STU: Apples and eggs. Okay.
Yeah. I just wanted to make sure.
Because at some level, it almost feels like, when you take hostages and you torture them. And you keep them against their will. And do all these horrible things. That might actually be the reason why the -- the -- the Israelis would come in. I don't know if it's tied.
GLENN: No. Apples and eggs. And I say that, because oranges like apples, come from a tree. And then you can trace their roots down.
STU: Right.
GLENN: But you can't compare that to something that comes right out of the butt of a chicken. And I think that's what this is.
Is -- these guys. You know, the other thing is. You don't want civilians hurt, that don't keep your hostages at civilian homes.
STU: At all.
GLENN: You want us to believe that all the Gazans are also oppressed. And they just don't like Hamas.
Then why are you hold them in people's houses?
By the way, in one case, enslaving them. I think it was a doctor.
And gosh darn it, he was killed.
But he took -- he took one woman, and enslaved her at his house.
Made her -- forced her to take care of the house, and everything else.
Which is a better fate than honestly, what I think a lot of them would get. But I'm not giving them credit for this.
I am now giving them credit to add slavery to the list.
However, he was killed.
She -- she apparently was in the house. The IDF broke through the door. She thought it was Hamas. She freaked out. Just froze.
And they said, we're with the IDF. She didn't believe them. Then one of them came up to her and said, ma'am, we have to get you out of here.
May I throw you over my shoulder? And she started crying because she knew, that's not Hamas. And he threw her over the shoulder, and got her out. And yet, they're the bad guys somehow or another.
I don't get that.
I really liked the comment that I saw on the news, that Israel should have given Hamas some warning, that they were coming in.
Yeah.
Yeah. Me too. Me too. Me too.
STU: Those worked out well. The element of surprise. When you tell people about it. Is always a good part of it.
GLENN: Yeah. I thought it was unfair, on D-Day. Hitler slept through it.
We didn't call him up. And say, hey. This a couple of hours, we're come up, you might want to prepare. We didn't give him any notice. You know.
STU: Yeah. And it's weird. Just because we have many, many reports and such, about how -- what Hamas' directive is -- when -- if someone comes from the IDF. Or Israel should come for the hostages.
Shoot the hostages in the head.
It will be interesting why we wouldn't give them a heads up. Like, hey, we need to get these people shot before we get there. Or you're not going to be living up to your bargain with Hamas.
They're letting Hamas down!
GLENN: Right. Right. Right.
And you know what also is interesting?
Is, you know, we didn't give the heads up on D-Day. And nobody says that's wrong.
But then we did give the Japanese ten days of notice, about the bomb.
And named the cities, that we were going to drop it in.
And we still get blamed for that one.
I'm trying to understand.
It seems like, it doesn't matter what you do.
STU: Again, just like the whole thing we were talking about earlier. I don't have any internal knowledge here. But it almost seems like. Seems like, when Americans -- when Jews are involved, that side always gets blamed, no matter what the circumstances are! It can't possibly be that simple.
GLENN: Yeah. Especially the Jews. When the Jews are involved. By the way, any of us the Czech Republic. And do you remember the documentary I did on Kurt Garren, the movie actor from Germany who was Jewish.
He thought he was going to survive it. But he would been making fun of Hitler and the Nazis for like five years before they came to power. No. Not really.
And he was forced to make this propaganda film, at this concentration camp, that they had in this city, and it looked fantastic. I mean, everybody who was anybody in the Jewish -- you know, the scholars, the scientists, the -- you know, orchestral players, et cetera, et cetera.
All the people that the German people might know, they were all set to this one city in Czechoslovakia. It happened to be, I didn't know it when it went. It's right outside of Prague.
And it is terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.
It's a city. It's not like a concentration camp. It's like this beautiful, little city. But if what you know they used it for. You're like, oh, my gosh. This is creepy. And people still live there.
They moved in afterwards. And it's almost, you would like it, Stu. Because you and I are fascinated by things like Chernobyl. That have this horrible history. And then they're just vacated for a long time. People just started living back in this city. And it's really -- really weird.
But one thing I noticed. Is that we're doing a lot of the same things that they're doing back then.
Which is, you know, a little bit disturbing.
STU: Disconcerting.
GLENN: Yeah. A little bit. By the way, so we apparently provided support, for the raid.
Do you believe that?
STU: Normally, I would say --
GLENN: Yes.
STU: Yeah. That's like our main -- like that would be the thing.
Especially considering Americans were at stake. American lives are at stake, with the hostage lives as well.
You would think, it would be the main focus of our country right now. To make sure we get our hostages back.
I don't know. Now. It's so strange. I don't understand. Biden seems to be very, very back and forth on this.
Where he will sometimes say things that I think are actually pretty good. And then completely reverse himself, as soon as Ilhan Omar says something. Because I don't believe necessarily that we helped. But also, I don't know why we communicated that to the media, as well. If we didn't help. It doesn't seem to be the message that Biden wants to send.
GLENN: Here's the bigger thing.
Would Israel take our help, for something like this?
One leak, and it would have been all over. One leak.
STU: Yeah. Would you trust?
GLENN: You're going to bring the United States military and Intel into that world, and trust them to keep their mouths quiet?
No way. I don't believe it. I think Israel said that.
You know, to -- you know, kind of keep up the pretense that we're all in this together. But I would be shocked, if it was the administration that said, yeah.
Let's do this together. And let's keep it quiet. And it kept quiet.
STU: It's possible, we gave some guidance as to where they thought they were. Maybe some surveillance that supported the operation.
But you're right. I think as far as telling them, when it was going to happen. I mean, just think of every schlocky intern that works for the Biden administration.
But there's so many of these advisers that are so anti-Israel.
Even if you believe Biden is an old-school Democrat, and has some friendliness to Israel still.
Even if you buy that. You buy that he's Chuck Schumer, 1997. If you want to believe that, or Joe Biden 1997. He's changed so many times.
But like, if you believe that, maybe you would think, he would still be in favor of this.
But you can't trust any of the people around him. I mean, they're -- they're all like 28-year-old bloggers.
GLENN: Yeah. I know. And the Intel agency, which is hand in hand now, with the State Department. And none of those people want to do anything for Israel.
I just -- I would find it -- I would find it irresponsible, on Israel's part, to include anyone in the Biden administration.
Into their plans. Other than, hey. Would you help us do some surveillance -- you know, satellite surveillance.
Sure. When? Well, we just started the operation about 15 minutes ago. And here's what we would like to you surveil. You know what I mean?
Because that's the way some countries will do that with their allies. We start a war. We'll start something, and we'll call them up, just as we're launching the war, so there's nothing they can do to stop it or hurt it.
STU: Yeah, and, of course, that would be certainly a main concern of Israel.
I will say, Glenn. Have you ever seen another example. I couldn't come up with one off the top of my head.
But another example in history, where you have an operation. A wartime operation, to free hostages, that the -- the side that freed the hostages, is the one getting criticism.
I can't -- I can't think of another example.
GLENN: I know.
STU: Ever. Like you mentioned the camps.
Like, you know, we killed a lot of innocent Germans in our effort to see free the camps.
Right? Like, a lot of them.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.
STU: Maybe more than we actually freed. That was never -- that's something we make movies about, to honor the memory of those efforts.
You didn't criticize the army that's going in there freeing the hostages. Immediately after this, there were like four hostages freed. But the Gazans said 200 people were killed.
Like we're supposed to compare those numbers and say, oh, well, 200 was more than four.
So the Gazans said it, so we believe it.
GLENN: And even if it is true. Even if it is true.
By the way, you were keeping those four in the homes of regular people.
You're the one putting them in danger! You're the ones that built the -- the -- the infrastructure underneath the hospital.
You did it, because you like human shields.
That's why there's -- that's why they're there. So any of that stuff is just garbage.