Luke Thomas

And again, maybe we need to do a better job of asking them.

And maybe you'll get an answer that says they want to invite some other greater degree of law enforcement into their lives.

But to me, it seems like a great way to solve a problem is to ask the people who live there, how can we help you and to see what kind of answers they give.

I've been probably outspoken on that all my life.

My name is as ordinary Anglo-Saxon as it comes, right?

Like of clear European descent, which of course I am.

But my mom was an Armenian Christian born in Syria who was raised in Lebanon and in particular Beirut.

She grew up in Beirut.

She grew up in Beirut at the time it was, you know, more widely considered to be the Paris of the Middle East.

And that has always kind of shaped my perception because, you know, what her impressions were of what State of Israel did and what it was.

This is obviously long, long, long before October 7th, you know, decades, obviously.

preceding that preceding even the intifada the first intifada um so yes i have always felt that palestinian advocacy has been missing in mainstream media in american culture i don't think i've seen anything in my life as challenging as the last two years relative to that it's funny you mentioned that we started this conversation talking about have i ever been like afraid to speak out about um political issues here's let me let me connect the dots for you a little bit

Um, the only time in my life, so I've criticized different countries at different points in different sports contexts, Qatar in the World Cup, I mean, um, you know, China with the Olympics with the Uighur Muslims or, you know, whatever the situation may be relevant to that.

The only time I ever got a phone call about a country I criticized

was when I asked why a MMA organization that's now defunct called Bellator, why they were holding shows in Israel.

This was 2018.

That is the only time I ever got a call about it where someone was asking me, hey, maybe tone this down and don't do it.

And I was simply asking a question, which is why are MMA promotions going to a country that has been credibly accused of apartheid?

It's a very simple question.

And, um...