RUSH: Denville, New Jersey. It’s Alan. Great to have you, sir. Hi.

CALLER: Hi. Good afternoon, Rush. How are you?

RUSH: Good. Good.

CALLER: Okay. So just quick to the point. You mentioned before when you were discussing how President Obama had started using the term “ISIL” and staying away from “ISIS” and I think the reason behind that, and I also will back it up from what I recall hearing him say last night in a speech, was that ISIS, of course, Islamic State in Syria.
Now, Syria is something that happened way after President Bush left office. ISIL is — has the word “Iraq” in it. So it’s an inference to try to sort of pin the creation of Islamic State during the period of Iraq before President Obama came into office. And during the speech last night, I think it was around the 15 to 20-minute mark, somewhere in there, President Obama mentioned something about the US has dealt with Islamic State already during the Iraq insurgency. And, as I best recall, ISIS was not a factor at that point, we never heard of them, and the insurgency happened during the tail end of the Bush administration. So I’m just wondering what your thoughts are, that maybe it’s a tactic to sort of push it off back again to the previous administration.

RUSH: Well, I actually reject that for only one reason. You may be right that that’s what he’s doing, but that requires a level of deep understanding and sophistication on the part of his average voters that just doesn’t exist. I mean, everything you just said I guarantee you most liberals and Democrats are hearing it for the first time. I think most people are wondering, “What is this ISIL? Why does he keep calling it ISIL? It’s ISIS.” They’re not saying, “Well, that’s because ISIS he can pin to Bush, but ISIL he can’t, so he doesn’t want to –” I just don’t think that anybody in the Regime even thinks that people are going to think in these terms. I think there’s a totally different reason for this. And I don’t know how to say it. (laughing) (interruption) Well, it does. Snerdley is asking me, “Doesn’t it have something to do with Israel?” Yes, because the Levant is the entire region.

ISIS stands for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, or Iraq and Syria, that’s the I-S, and ISIL, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant includes more than Iraq and Syria. It would include Israel, which, to these people, Israel is a fraud. Israel doesn’t deserve to be there. That’s all Palestine and that’s what I think is behind the pronunciation, this insistence that it be called ISIL. He’s the only one that does it. I mean, others in the Regime do. Even the media calls it ISIS, but he sticks with ISIL.

I think he’s got a different audience for the term. I don’t think he’s talking to the American people. I think he’s talking to Iran. We just heard Walid Phares say that Obama’s linkage here is not to oppose ISIL because Iran supports ISIL, and it’s all to do with the sectarian violence between the Sunnis and the Shi’ites and the fact that Iran capitalizes on the sectarian violence, does not want it solved because they hope to end up controlling the entire Levant — uh, sorry — region. Didn’t mean to say that.

So your explanation makes total sense if people were attuned, the American people domestically were attuned to when ISIS began, when it didn’t began. See, I don’t think — I could be wrong about this. Very rare that I would be wrong, but it’s possible. I think the American people are so far beyond “Bush did it” and this and that. I mean, Bush is eight years ago now, seven-years. They know Bush had nothing to do with San Bernardino. He had nothing to do with Fort Hood. People know that when Bush was president, this stuff didn’t happen. People know that when Bush was president, there wasn’t an ISIS. ISIS and all of this happens to coincide with the election of Barack Hussein O. But the use of the word “Levant” has an audience in the Middle East. He’s not talking to us.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I looked it up. “ISIL” has been the official United States government-designation of the group since May of 2014. Now, I originally found that it was an Obama executive order mandating that the official name of ISIS be ISIL, back in May of 2014. Then I found something that contradicted that from the State Department. It seems that the State Department has amended the Obama executive order. I didn’t have much time to read it, and it’s in that legal government-ese that they write in.

It doesn’t matter who did it. The point is that according to the government, the group’s official government-designated name since May of 2014 is “ISIL.” Now Jean-Francois Kerry, our secretary of state, called them Daesh. They have a third name, Daesh, and he does that to sound more like the French. That is what the French call it. But the bottom line is, it’s ISIS.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Oh, and, by the way, just to reiterate something: ISIS versus ISIL. The Levant, includes Israel, includes much of the eastern Mediterranean shoreline. By using the term “ISIL,” it is meant to delegitimize Israel. It is meant to include Israel in the Levant, which would make it Palestine. I’m telling you, there’s a reason Obama does this, and his audience is not us.

He’s calling it ISIL for a foreign audience, not us. And he’s the only one doing it. Everybody calls it ISIS. He calls it ISIL. The media tries to tell you there’s really no difference, it’s the same. There’s a huge difference. ISIS, Islamic State, Iraq and Syria, that’s two countries. ISIL, Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, which is the whole region, but more importantly, it includes Israel in the Levant and Israel ought not be there. They don’t have a right to be there. Levant is us, it’s not them. That’s Palestine, is what Levant means. Don’t doubt me.