Dexter Filkins
speaker
99 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard Mar 2025
Dexter Filkins’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
When, for instance, you hear that the Navy is deploying ships that don't have enough sailors on them, Or, you know, the Army came up 15,000 recruits short of its quota in 2023. Those things are concerning because what if terrible prospect, but what if we had to go to war? What if we were attacked? Could we defend the country?
You know, it's like Trump throwing a hand grenade once again. But, no, look, he's right about certain things, right? We've tried it again and again and again. It hasn't worked. And so, you know, he's throwing the bomb. But, no, it's not serious. It's a cool headline. But, no, it was dead before it, you know, left the building.
Well, I mean, it's like try. Try what? So we're basically talking about ethnically cleansing Gaza of its people. OK, that's one thing. You know, they tried that in Bosnia. But the other thing is like just just look at the practicalities of it. He's like, well, the Egyptians, you know, they'll take in the Gazans. The Egyptians don't want the Gazans.
We tried to do that when the war started in October 2023. They don't want them. They closed the doors. Nobody wants them. You know, I think that President Trump got this idea from Jared Kushner, his son-in-law. Who kind of expanded on it, you know, some time ago and said, you know, it's great stretch of beachfront property there.
We'll ship the Palestinians out into the Negev, you know, which is the desert. And so, like, did anybody ask the Palestinians? No, it's just it's not serious. Who's going to do it? Who's going to pay for it? And in fact. As soon as he was done talking, the Saudis, who would ultimately end up financing, you know, any kind of reconstruction that there is, they just dismissed it out of hand.
They said, you know, we reaffirm our support for a Palestinian state. You know, again, kind of cool to talk about, but I don't think it's a – it's not serious. You know, Bibi loved it, but it's not serious.
You know, everybody loves the Mediterranean. But look, I mean, give Jared and give Trump credit the last time around. Jared came in, I think, not knowing very much about the Middle East, but he pulled off the Abraham Accords, which is, you know, the biggest peace deal in the Middle East since Camp David. You know, it's fresh thinking. It's like thinking outside the box.
But there's thinking outside the box, and then there's like living in fantasy land. And I think this is the latter.
Well, it did. I mean, yes, not not with the Saudis, but a number of other Middle Eastern countries, you know, step forward. Smaller ones. Yeah.
Yeah. And the Saudis are kind of on deck. And that's sort of, you know, there's a kind of idea of a big of a big grand Middle Eastern peace deal. And that would involve something like a Palestinian state, the Abraham Accords, including Saudi Arabia.
you know, look, there's a lot of destruction there right now, but it's also, it's an opportunity because there's so much destruction because these really evil actors like Hamas and Hezbollah are dead in the water. And Assad and Syria, they're gone. So maybe it's an opportunity to kind of reshape the Middle East.
And I think it probably is, but it's like, again, I think there's plausible, there's bold, and then there's ridiculous. And I think what we heard yesterday was... You know, the latter.
Yeah, I mean if like – if Jared Kushner and family are building hotels on the Riviera of Middle East, yeah, that's going to arouse resentment. Of course, it would arouse hatred. There's a lot of hatred already. There's tons of hatred. He did that press conference yesterday with Bibi Netanyahu who the United States has –
armed completely, you can agree with what the Israelis did in Gaza that it had to be done. Or you can conclude that Netanyahu was a war criminal. But the fact is, we armed him. And everybody knows that. And I think earlier this week, the United States just agreed, just announced the Trump administration, they're sending a billion dollars worth of arms to So it's like that's no mystery.
Like everybody already knows that. And so whatever resentment there is, and I think there's quite a lot, all the Palestinians know where those guns came from. And they came from us.
Well, it's really, really difficult. And look, this is what we're talking about right now is the world's most intractable problem. And Trump's right. You know, we tried and tried and tried and we've failed. Or the world, you know. So what does the future pretend? I think...
What's been happening, I think kind of out of view, is that as the Israelis have been prosecuting the war in Gaza, you know, after being attacked by Hamas, they've kind of pushed forward very rapidly with new settlements in the West Bank. And some of those settler groups have been attacking Hamas. Palestinians and Palestinian residents and civilians. And that's been proceeding very rapidly.
And because the people around Bibi who basically keep him in power, it's a coalition government, that's what they want. And that's their price for keeping him in power, which is basically unfettered authority to do what they want to do in the West Bank. And that's been happening very rapidly. So it's a fair question in 2025 to
Is a Palestinian state even viable anymore or is it just kind of a pipe dream that like everybody just kind of pays homage to? But is it essentially a pipe dream? Like it's not going to happen anymore. And that is what has been happening on the West Bank, which is – They're trying to make it impossible by flooding the West Bank with more settlers.
And so it just makes a settlement every day more difficult. It makes the formation of a Palestinian state, which, you know, has been – has been or had been American policy for many, many years, which is to support a homeland for the Palestinians and that ultimately that is the best – that gives the best chance to have a lasting peace in the region is to give them a homeland.
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