RUSH: Now folks, I have a thought here, actually a bunch of thoughts, and I want to share them with you. I could be wrong about some of this, but I want to share it with you and a lot of it is the product of just turning on television and watching the pundits’ playground opine on what’s going on in the Middle East. You know how I keep talking about how you got to be vigilant and not get caught up in the daily media bubble (because it’s so easy to do)? I think some of our guys, some of our pundits, some of the people on our side in Washington can’t help themselves either. They get caught up in the whole action line, the whole media bubble of any story, but particularly this one. Now this is my take on this. 
I think the battle between the Israelis and Hezbollah really is the first battle in the war between Israel and Iran. Iran is fighting Israel right now via their proxy, Hezbollah, and they’re testing Israel’s resolve. They’re testing Israel’s Commitment. They’re checking Israel’s weaponry. This Ahmadinejad guy believes the world’s going to end in three years and he’s going to bring it about, and the first step toward that is destroying Israel and after that he wants Arab nations to unite and take out the United States. I’m not making this up. This is what the guy is saying. He’s having little back door meetings with Vladimir Putin from whom he is buying arms and weapons.
When you look at Hezbos, see Iran. Here’s what’s happening though. This is where I part ways with what appears to be the conventional wisdom. Israel is winning this. Israel is winning this and I think Israel is winning this big, and when this is over there will be no debate that Hezbollah will be much, much weaker, that it was no match for Israel, that it will have been forced out of southern Lebanon despite years of digging in, rocket attacks on Isreal, Iran’s regional influence will have been weakened. It will not destroyed, it will have been weakened. Now this is all predicated on the Israelis continuing this assault and even ratcheting it up. They have to obliterate these guys. They have to leave no doubt about this because of this so-called PR offensive, PR war that the media is just itching to claim Israel has lost. They can’t wait to declare the Hezbos the victors. There can’t be any question about it when it’s all over. I don’t think very many people see this the way I do.
They’re too focused on PR victories, they’re too focused on what the Hezbos are saying to see the truth. It’s been said that we’re in World War III. We are. But this is one of the major battles of WWIII just as Afghanistan and Iraq are too I believe. Iran is going to be weaker for this as a result of this. It will be weaker. Its proxies will suffer a devastating defeat. I think they have already despite the reporting and handwringing even by some of our own people. I think the Hezbos are in much worse shape than anyone dare discuss. One of the reasons I think this is all the continuing calls for ceasefires. We must stop the suffering and killing. It’s gone on long enough. Do you think if the Israelis were getting their clocks cleaned anybody would care to stop it? Hell no, folks. If the Israelis were losing this thing and getting their clocks cleaned and on the way to being defeated, you wouldn’t hear one person in France, in Germany, or Russia, or the United Nations talking about a ceasefire. You got to learn to read the stitches on a fastball here.
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RUSH: Have you seen any of the mainstream media raising these doubts about Condoleezza Rice’s competence? Is she up to the job? I think there’s a little racism in this questioning and I think there’s a little sexism obviously. I know it was never asked of Madeleine Albright, and it was never asked of Ron Brown. It was never asked of Joycelyn Elders, except by us, but we didn’t care if she was competent or not because she was funny. She was good material. I tell you. I ask this –and speaking of competence, the other day I told you about this idiot, the French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy (I’m just Americanizing the pronunciation of his name). He called Iran a stabilizing force in the Middle East, and he just blew everybody away by saying this.
It was just two days later that Ahmadinejad came out and said the whole solution to the problem is to destroy Israel, and so now Douste-Blazy said, “I totally condemn these words,” responding to Ahmadinejad’s statement that the solution to the current Middle East crisis was to destroy Israel. “Peace and security in Lebanon and the borders has to be preserved by the Lebanese government and people. Deployment of foreign forces is not acceptable in any shape unless it’s just, based on UN rules and preserves the unity and territorial integrity of Lebanon.” These words, Douste-Blazy says, are absolutely unacceptable on anybody’s part. Just two days prior to this he talked about what a “stabilizing force” Iran was. You want to talk about incompetence. Go to the United Nations and go to France specifically.
These points that I made to you before the commercial break that Israel is winning, that they’re fighting Iran via the proxy, the Hezbos, that this is WWIII, that Israel is going to win and they must win big. They already are. The Hezbos will be weakened. Iran either doesn’t have the ability right now or the will to attack Israel from its own territory. I’m not saying they won’t have it any time soon, but right now they’re content for the Hezbos to do this. All this talk about massing an army. The Syrians won’t go in there because they know they’ll be blown off the map. The Israelis are just waiting for a chance to level Damascus. One thing the Syrians and Iranians know, is if the Israelis wanted to they could level Damascus tomorrow and they could level Beirut.
They could level Beirut, they could level Lebanon if they wanted to and this these people know. What they’re testing here is the resolve of the Israelis and it doesn’t help when you have all these nincompoops in the diplomatic community ringing their hands saying, “Oh no, we must stop the suffering!” This is a whole different era and a whole different day. I think what’s also been demonstrated here folks is that Syria’s military is a hollowed out shell of its former self. It’s helping the Hezbos, Syria is too weak to take on Israel directly. There’s a whole lot to see from what’s happening here and so few do. 
They get caught up, as I say, in the media bubble and that becomes the frame and the context. I’ll tell you something else this shows. Despite all the early upsetedness that I shared with you and a lot of other people did too, it shows that Israel is not weak and it shows that Israel is not afraid to take on this enemy and that the Israeli people still have the will to fight. Hezbollah and Syria and Iran are clearly stunned by Israel’s unrelenting attacks. I don’t think they thought the Israelis would do this, especially over the kidnapping of a couple of soldiers. I don’t think they had any idea that the Israelis would go as deep, send in ground troops in the numbers they have and bombed the areas they have bombed. As I say, all these calls for a ceasefire for several weeks now, that is because they know if the Hezbos suffer any further devastation they’re weakened.
Regardless of the propaganda everybody is spewing, which is repeated by our media. I’m looking at the reality of the situation on the ground. I’m not paying any attention to PR except to the extent that I’m ignoring it, to the spin. Where are all these aids? Where are all the allies of Hezbollah? Where is Iran? Where is Syria? Where are all these calls for ceasefires? Week after week, day after day, ‘We have to stop this.’ I just tell you again that if Israelis were losing and losing big there wouldn’t be one voice calling for a ceasefire anywhere. Another thing this shows is these terrorists can indeed be destroyed. Not just Hezbollah but al-Qaeda as well. I know a lot of people are out there criticizing Israel’s approach. I was one of them, demanding the immediate insertion of massive ground troops and so forth.
I’m not a general and the people leading the Israeli defense forces are. They apparently were right and critics like me were wrong. Israel used its far superior and massive air strength to soften up enemy strongholds. They just took out a bridge this morning that connects Lebanon to Syria. Just totally wiped out the bridge. That cuts off supply lines and the ability to escape. Now the massive numbers of ground troops are in there and they’re in there to mop up the enemy who cannot escape. All they can do is hide among the civilians and that is going to get civilians. In fact, just how many civilians are there in Lebanon anyway? When you get right down to it. How many quote on quote innocent civilians? Exempting the children. But this is all part of the PR spin that the Hezbos are a small bunch of people and Israel is wiping out all these innocent civilians. The media doesn’t get what is going on but I tell you who does. The enemy. Iran sees what’s happening, Hezbollah feels what’s happening. That’s why all the demands of ceasefire, cessation of hostilities, complaints about disproportionate use of power. If the enemy were winning this we wouldn’t be hearing any of these complaints. These cries in the darkness for ceasefires. I think a lot of conservative commentators too are ending up following on this rather than engaging in independent thought.
When they think things aren’t going well they line up with the naysayers and people’s moods and people’s attitudes can shift multiple times a day on this based on the way a media story is reported or not. You need to be an independent thinker. You need to be of resolve when watching this. You have to understand the context. It is a new day and a new way of doing things over there. What do we need to do? The United States needs to simply continue to support its ally Israel, fighting exactly the same enemy we face. Israel is winning. Israel is doing great. Damage to the enemy. Get off this ceasefire stuff. Let them finish what needs to be done.
A lot of people are complaining about the prime minister. I don’t think he’s the best but he’s not the story. The military is on the move. Israel is in fact winning and Hezbollah and their patrons are losing. They’re getting their butts kicked. Let me tell you point blank: they’re getting their butts kicked and it doesn’t take brilliance like mine to see it. Anyone can see it if you know how to read the players here as you immerse yourself in the media. Syria is impotent. Yeah, they’re sending munitions down there, but they can’t strike on their own for fear of being annihilated and the all powerful Iran can’t do anything either but sit by and watch and hope and pray that the Hezbos are somehow able to make a comeback. But it ain’t happening. The Hezbollah is losing. Israel is winning big and it’s not time to pull back at all. Time to mush forward.
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RUSH: Just a final thought here, folks. By no sensible analysis can it be said that Israel is losing militarily, and that’s another reason by the way we keep hearing spin about a ‘PR victory’ or ‘ideological victory.’ What the hell is that? Remember what I said about reality versus spin. The Israelis don’t care about the spin. They know they’re not going to win a PR or spin war with the media today and diplomatic community today. Not a chance. They’ll focus on what real victory is and that’s wiping out the enemy, which is happening. The enemy is losing and they want this to end before more of their forces are destroyed. Mark my words.
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