In a remarkable speech on the Senate floor this week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Israel to dissolve its government and change course. If not, Schumer warned the United States would have no choice but to intervene. Dailywire reporter Tim pierce interviewed Arieh Lightstone, former senior advisor to the US ambassador to Israel, for his reaction to Schumer's ultimatum and Democrats' increasingly hardline approach to Israel. I'm Georgia Howe with DailyWire editor Chief John Bickley. It's Saturday, March 16, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire. The following is an interview between Daily Wire reporter Tim pierce and Aria Lightstone. Former senior advisor to the US ambassador to Israel.

Aria, thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

Senator Schumer called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and for Israel to hold new elections this week. What was your reaction?

I'm My first reaction is that this may be one of the most public betrayals of any ally in US history, and that is without exaggeration. When the problem to peace in the Middle East is our democratically elected ally and not the people who rape, murder, and behead people, we've completely and totally lost our way, and even more, to be the democratically elected senator from New York and to have not only no fear of electoral repercussions, But to believe that this is electorally advantageous for the Democratic Party is petrifying for the future of America.

To your knowledge, has a US political leader made a public statement like this, pushing an ally to dissolve its government and change course?

Not in my following of politics, not in foreign policy, and not when our ally is in the process of fighting for a war of, I don't want to say it's existential survival, but for its meaning and purpose, and in that way, it's survival.

Schumer has been a supporter of Israel and even touted his record on Israel during his speech on the Senate floor. Why turn on Israel so publicly now?

I think this answer is actually pretty easy. The Democrats, led by Joe Biden and followed by Chuck Schumer in this case, are stuck in between a rock and a hard place. They need to be in favor of the Palestinians. The challenge is the Palestinians, in this case, and it's not all Palestinians, but Hamas, specifically, have shown themselves to be some the worst, most vile human beings on this planet. It's very hard to be in favor of them. Then in what way? I want to be very clear. I'm speaking about Hamas, not Palestine people at large. How do the Democrats justify trying to stop Israel from finishing the job in Raqqa and from demanding the hostages back and instead calling for this ceasefire, because ultimately what the Democrats want is this to be done so Biden has a chance for re-election. So the only way to do this is to say this is not Israel's war, this is Bibi's war. And if they can go ahead and make Bibi the enemy, then all of the repercussions that they will then push onto Israel will be justifiable to their base because, yeah, we should really support the poor people who are dancing at the music festival, and we should really support Israel's rights to be able to protect itself.

But Bibi has gone too far. If you see what Schumer said, he had all of the right things. I've got Bibi, I've got Smultrich, I've got Benvier, I've I've got the West Bank, and I've got settlers, because these are the real enemies of the American people. The fact that he thinks people would believe that is so insulting to the average American. This is an 80/20 issue, as all of your hosts on Daily Wire like to say, this is American people are worth Israel. The Democrats are willing to die on the hill of the 20, and I don't think it's 20. I think it's 2. I think it's 2% that they're willing to die on this hill. The only way to bring it closer to 50% is to say that a Bibi and use words like who? Be be and from.

Benny Gantz, Netanyahu's primary political rival, visited the White House earlier this month, and reports suggest that US officials didn't treat him any better privately than Netanyahu is treated publicly. Why do you think the Biden administration publicly targets Netanyahu, especially given that Israel is currently governed by a war cabinet in which Netanyahu and Gantz are both members?

There's an enormous difference in between how they treat Bibi and how they treat Gantt, and the following. Bibi is publicly admonished, and Gantt, the discussions that happened in the meeting were against some of the Israel's policies as led by Bibi. In other words, they brought Gantt to Washington, DC to see if they can create their hero who will rescue the Israeli people. They didn't ask Bibi to come to Washington, DC. They asked the leader of the opposition who happened to have formed a wartime cabinet with the Prime Minister because Benny Gantz is a good man, and he believes in the future of the State of Israel, and he does not want to play politics. And they brought him to Washington, DC to see if they can convince Bibi to walk back. And then they discovered something shocking that Bibi does not have Bibi policies. Bibi is representing Israeli policies. And when they saw that Gantt said that they had such egg on their face because this was the moment to be able to call out and say Bibi is different. Now, Gantz comes back, and what winds up happening, this is the greatest irony of all of these things.

Since Gantz went to Washington, DC, and Biden and now Schumer have publicly attacked Bibi, Bibi's numbers have skyrocketed and Gantz's numbers have plummeted, because this is just as classic as can be. Schumer's speech will solidify Bibi's next election, and either he doesn't know, in all likelihood, he's too dumb to realize that.

Really? So the Biden administration's hostility toward Netanyahu could backfire.

Absolutely. The people of Israel do not want their government decisions being led by Biden, who just gave $10 billion to Tehran, to Iran, who thinks that there's equivalence in between Hamas and Israel, and who believes, as Secretary of State, Lincoln said, that Israel's number one priority in the war should be providing humanitarian aid to their enemies. Whose number one priority in war is not to defeat their enemies, protect their civilians, and then to make sure that there aren't civilian casualties. Anybody who says anything other than that doesn't know anything about war or the Middle East. And these are the repeated comments that all of the leadership of the Biden administration make. In Israel, they say, Oh, this guy showed up in the war. That was very nice. He gave a hug. He gave a hug in order to stab Israel on the back. And that is the realization that Israelis are having about the Biden administration. And that propels Bibi to enormous popularity, which is just ironic. It's not because Bibi is more loved or Gantz is more disliked. It's really a big part of the expression middle finger, the President Biden. There's no interest in him determining who wins democratically elected elections in Israel.

What do you make of President Biden's latest plans to get aid into Gaza? That is, have the US military build a pier in Gaza to facilitate aid to Palestinians?

It is fantastic virtue signaling. There's no shortage of aid being able to get into Gaza. It's what happens with that aid once it's in Gaza. This is what the failure of the entire Biden regime has failed to acknowledge, that the fastest way to help innocent Palestinians in Gaza is to aid and encourage Israel to defeat Hamas. Because as long as Israel is not taking out every last Hamas terrorist, then the person with the gun will take the aid. We've seen this. They killed an Egyptian truck driver. The aid can get to Gaza. The aid can even get in to Gaza. But once it's there, it winds up being taken by the bad guys. And the bad guys are still in power because the United States of America has told Israel, please leave them in power. So you can build a pier, you can build an underground tunnel, which the Gazans are very good to deliver it from that angle. But unless you get rid of the guns from the bad guys, they will continuously take the aid, which is the irony of all of this, is that Biden is funding both sides of the war.

All of the fuel, all of the food, goes first to Hamas, and then only after that to the innocent civilians in Gaza.

You've been watching the war closely since it began. What is the current state of the conflict?

There were 24 battalions when the war started, 24 Hamas battalions. People like to think it's a terror organization. It's an army. They control territory, taxes, very well-funded and well-trained army. They had 24 battalions. 18 or 19 of those battalions have been destroyed to the fact that they can no longer operate in a command and control fashion. There are six or five remaining battalions all left in the Raafiyah part of the Gaza Strip. The United States of America has asked Israel not to go into that part of the Gaza Strip because there are many, many civilians there. Israel has come up with a plan to move those civilians, but the United States of America said, You must stop. We will not support that. And that is the red line. Just today, it was leaked that they would be okay with targeted killings in Raafiyah, or Raafiyah, as people call it, as though they should be directing the war from the White House for what's happening on the ground in Gaza. And all of that is happening while we still have 134 hostages, including six Americans. Unfortunately, we found out this week that one of them has been declared dead.

So five Americans that we hope are still alive. If that wasn't bad enough, you have 100 rockets a day or so coming from Lebanon and to Israel, and nobody comments on that because that's not an obstacle to peace, because we've given now $10 billion more to Iran that funds Hezbollah, that funds Hamas.

R. E. A. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

That was an interview with Daily Wire reporter Tim pierce and R. E. A. Lightstone, former senior advisor to the US ambassador to Israel. And this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.

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