Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome back to Pod Save the World. I'm Ben Rhodes. And right now, Tommy is about 35,000 feet over the Pacific, flying back from Pod Save America's Australia and New Zealand tour. But with me today to help steer this ship is my friend, Eamon Moyheldin. Eamon, thanks so much for being here.
Great to be with you, Ben. Thanks for having me.
So Eamon, if you're not watching, he's the host of The Weekend Primetime, which are Saturdays and Sundays on MSNOW at 6 p.m. Eastern. And Eamon, we are now colleagues not just at MS, where I'm a contributor, but now there's this crooked MS. We're crossing the streams, as they say. So some crooked content is going to be on a show on MS.
Maybe this, I don't know, maybe you pop up on your own network here. Yeah.
That would be great, yeah. Actually, when I saw the news, I was very excited. You know, I think, you know, cross collaboration, Crooked Media is breaking new grounds and doing incredible things now for a couple of years. I think there's so much synergy between the two organizations.
And, you know, honestly, the way the media landscape is changing now, people are getting information and news and content and conversations online. in so many different places. So the more platforms you're on and the more places you are seen, the better it is for everyone. So I can't think of a better partnership than Crooked Media and MSNOW.
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Chapter 2: What were the main highlights from the Munich Security Conference?
She's out there. She's not been in a conference like this. You're not going to nail every answer. She does need to bone up on Taiwan. But like, I'm glad she was there. What did you think of AOC? And what did you think of kind of the way in which the Democrats seem to be groping for not just the person for 2028, but a message that can resonate on the world stage?
Actually, I'm glad that you picked examples from AOC for two reasons. And I actually think two of AOC's most strongest soundbites or comments were not the ones that you played. And those were good for the reasons that you outlined, but there's two other important ones. One, she talks about the rules-based order not working for everyone.
A couple of weeks ago, you know, Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, spoke at Davos and he talked the rules-based order is done and that it's, you know, right versus might. And right now, what we thought is the international rules-based order of the last several decades since World War II has collapsed or was on the verge of collapsing.
And a lot of people took issue with that because it was only when Canada or European countries became in the crosshairs of America and Russia or powerful countries around the world when it came to the issue of trade Did he then speak up?
But nobody was talking about the collapse of the rules-based order from any of these Western world leaders over the last two years when we were watching the genocide in Gaza. So what AOC did was actually smart. And I think that's part of the reason why young people in Europe, like young people here in the United States, are drawn to her. She speaks with a little bit of moral clarity.
And the issue of Taiwan is a political issue. And perhaps there is some moral issue to it, but it's certainly a national security issue. And so, as you said, she needs to kind of flush out that idea and see how the Taiwan issue fits into a moral foreign policy in which you could have had a very strong international rules-based order. Because she could have said, look, if we would have upheld
international rules and norms and order, we would have been able to have a much stronger alliance to say to China, you cannot overtake Taiwan with military force. But because the rules-based order has been eroded and destroyed for a variety of reasons, that idea of like the only way to defend other territory right now is purely by America committing troops.
And I think that's why that answer landed flat. The second part of the soundbite that you played, which was good, I think it was really important.
But another soundbite that she talked about that was so important, which I think is why young people are drawn to her, is that she said the United States has effectively enabled the genocide in Gaza for the past two years without any restrictions on weapons to Israel. And again, it's a moral litmus test.
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Chapter 3: How did Marco Rubio's speech reflect U.S. foreign policy?
And let's be clear, the goal here is not subtle. We had the finance minister, Smotrich, who's usually the id of this right-wing government, say about these recent steps, we are deepening our roots in all parts of the land of Israel. And he sees West Bank as part of Israel. And we are burying the idea of a Palestinian state. So this is not subtle.
I want to go through these moves and then ask you about them. And they may sound a little bureaucratic and the press are often described as administrative, even though they're really about annexation of other people's land. And cumulatively, they're just destroying what is ever left of the idea of the Palestinian state. So first, to give people some context.
The Oslo Accords divided the West Bank into three areas. Area A, which is 18% of the West Bank, that's under the control of the PA, the Palestinian Authority. Area B, that's 22% of the West Bank, that's joint control of the PA and Israel. Area C, that's 60% of the West Bank, that's under Israeli control. So first of all, a lot of people don't know this. Israel controls most of the West Bank.
People like to talk about the weak, feckless Palestinian Authority. Well, one of the reasons they're weak and feckless is they don't even control the territory that they're supposed to. But now the changes.
In the last couple of weeks, the Israeli government has made a series of announcements to make it easier for Israelis to purchase land from Palestinians, to expand Israeli enforcement, including the power to demolish Palestinian buildings, which they regularly do, into areas A and B, so the Palestinian-controlled areas, for violations involving, to quote the Wall Street Journal,
water-related offenses, damaged archaeological sites, and environmental hazards. So basically, pretext for them to just go in and demolish Palestinian structures. Made Israel the sole authority for planning permission near important religious sites, of which there are many. And for the first time since 1967, Israel will begin to designate large portions of Area C as state land.
And the goal is 15% of Area C in the next few years, unless the current Palestinian owners can prove their ownership. And as the Israeli organization Peace Now notes, that process requires landowners to prove ownership in ways that are really almost impossible for Palestinians to do so.
Look, Eamon, what do you make of these steps and what's been going on in the West Bank recently, something that doesn't get as much attention as it should?
You know, it's something that has been going on for years. I think now it's been... It's now official state policy and it's overt and the world can see it. But the reality of it is Israel has been annexing and expanding illegal Jewish settlements since 1967 in defiance of international law.
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Chapter 4: What is the current situation in Ukraine as discussed in the episode?
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Let's talk about the latest in Iran, which is, you know, you and I talk to people in the region. That's what everybody is very worried about right now and focused on. There's this ongoing threat of U.S. military action. There's a lot of U.S. military assets in the region. And there have been these indirect nuclear negotiations between the U.S.
and the Iranian government, which have been mediated by Oman. On Tuesday, there were talks in Switzerland about, They ended after what Amman's foreign minister called good progress, but we don't really know what that means.
The Iranian foreign minister said that both sides had agreed to, quote, a set of guiding principles and told state TV that this round of talks were more constructive and that progress was made. You know, kind of buzzwords of diplomacy without any details. This round of negotiations came after a visit to the White House by Benjamin Netanyahu last week.
At that meeting, Trump and Netanyahu apparently agreed to ramp up the economic pressure as if there's anything more you can do to sanction the Iranians. But they talked about targeting oil sales to China, which would involve sanctions on the Chinese, which would be further strain on the global economy.
I will say also that nobody's talking about the protesters anymore, who, you know, clearly there were thousands of people killed. That was the basis under which Trump said he was going to take military action. But now we're just talking about nuclear issues and ballistic missiles. I know we're reading tea leaves here, Eamon, but what is your read on the kind of state of play with Iran?
What are you hearing from the region about, you know, people's concerns or maybe hopes for what's happening?
Yeah, I mean, listen, I definitely want to answer that. But I was going to actually ask you because, you know, Riza Pahlavi was speaking at the Munich Security Conference. And actually I was going to ask you about that in terms of, I don't know if you had a chance to hear him talk, but I'm curious to get your thoughts about how he's kind of been elevated on the global stage now, right?
All of a sudden, and look, he's always had his followers. The monarchists always supported him and they've always kind of thought of him as a legitimate figure.
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