He obviously hated Israelis because he was going to kill about 170 of them on this plane, killing himself too.
So that's fanaticism and hatred of an incalculable level. But that's what we're facing, and that's what the entire Western world and America are facing. And I think President Trump understands it. Many of the American people understand it. But there's some who've fallen prey to this.
Propaganda, primarily carried out on social media, that vilifies Israel. Israel is the is the David here, fighting this Goliath of global Islamic Islamist fundamentalism that seeks to seeks death to Israel, death to America. That's what they chant. Death to everything in between. And this is something we recognize, and I think we recognize it with incredible heroism.
And that is Prime Minister Netanyahu with us this morning on Fox and Friends, talking about the extraordinary events that took place on that Dubai airline that was en route was en route to Tel Aviv. Joining us now is Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO, National Director of the ADL. Jonathan, we'll get to your report that you released, but first, I want you to comment on the would-be hijacking. What stands out to you about these series of events?
Well, first of all, it's absolutely incredible to imagine the heroism of these people. Just a few weeks after we honored the.
Solom anniversary of nine eleven, and we think about the sacrifice of the folks on flight ninety three, and then the sort of ingenuity and the resilience of these Israelis. Only Israelis could figure out how to get into that cockpit, subdue the hijacker, wrestle him to the ground, take over the plane, somehow land it, and there are other. Pilots on the plane—it's incredible. Look, the heroism of that Indian pilot who was stabbed and still managed to open the door can't be understated. I mean, think—is you think you learn from nine eleven?
So you say we got to fortify that cockpit door. How many people thought you'd have to protect yourself from a copilot? A copilot stabbing the other guy, right?
Now I think there are big questions about: Was this a lone wolf? Was he Iranian backed? Was he Hezbollah associated? We need to understand those things because the Iranian. Oman, he's yeah, he's an Omani national, and you know Oman has very warm relations with Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Oman has very close relations to the IRGC and the regime, so I think t here is questions to answer. But look, the idea that this, and by the way, the most he was yelling. By the way, the prime minister said this is the first time I heard this. After he was subdued and tied up, he said, "Kill me!" kept yelling, "Kill me!" So this guy, that suicide bomber mentality, I want to kill you know, kill me now. This is jihadism one and one.
And twenty five years later, I think about the heroism of Todd Beamer. I think about what he said, you know, "Let's roll," and thank God the Israelis said, "Let's roll," and they took this guy down. By the way, the other interesting thing: these images of Saudi personnel treating Israeli. You know, hostages on the ground in KSA is unbelievable. Like, if the Saudis and the Israelis can normalize, it'll change the whole region.
It was about to before October seventh. That's why Hamas did it. Hamas doesn't want peace; they want war. Yeah, and they guess what? Guess who's telling them what to do?
Hundred percent. The Iranians, obviously. Hundred percent. So the thing is, what people don't understand is the status, and I think Democrats do understand. The status quo wasn't working.
That's right. Even before October seventh. That's right. It was a, it was percolating. That's right.
They just kept flowing arms and money to one side as Hezbollah, the other side Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and before Assad, it was coming from Syria too. Totally right. We're not sure what's happening in Syria, but it's definitely better. And they don't like the Iranians, and they don't like Hezbollah, which is certainly a plus. Way, way better.
Look, I. I think the reality is that the Iranians did invest in Gaza. They invested in terror. They invested in tunnels. They invested in a militarized infrastructure.
Think about that. Twenty years, Brian, not a university built. Not like a medical facility created, right? Not a meaningful like education system. No industrial parks.
No business incubators. But what did they build? They built missiles. They built tunnels, and they built a terror infrastructure like the world has never seen. Right.
So you have the the thing that happened after October seventh has been this rise of anti semitism.
Something you wouldn't never in a million. I never in a million years expected it. When you did this study and came up with the report. What's behind it? Look, I'll tell you.
I had heard many stories about authors telling me their book signings were being canceled. Popular, successful authors telling me they could no longer. Their manuscripts weren't being bought, or their proposals were being dropped by publishers. And then we heard about like stand-up comedians or singers or other artists being canceled. Venue saying we can't show you on put you on our stage because we're afraid.
Or just canceling them altogether, and then we heard about museums.
So we decided. I mean, we're ADL, we're a data-driven organization. We said, just look at the data and see what's going on. And sure enough, we did like a thorough, comprehensive review. Looked at forty-plus museums, and there's not a pattern.
There's a campaign to erase and exclude Israelis and Jews from their exhibitions, from their stages, from their publishing houses. It's in. Credible, it's deliberate, and what's behind it? Think number one, you have cowardice, cowardice of these institutions. Number two, this sort of woke—you know, Elon Musk calls it the woke mind virus.
This idea that somehow Jews are oppressors, and that we all have to play these oppression Olympics, and if you have bought into the DEI industrial complex, as many institutions have, you know how many of them included Jewish people or Jewish identity in their diversity and inclusion kind of framework? Zero.
Now they included African Americans and Latinos and LGBTQ, and I get that and I appreciate that. But if your notion of diversity or inclusion excludes Jews, something is profoundly wrong. How many Jews are there in the world? Fifteen million, maybe fifteen million of nine billion. Would you say that's yeah?
Would you say that's minority? I mean, because that's what the the DEI is supposed to looking out for minorities who are oppressed and held down, or held back, or having bias against them. In theory, so you you the Jewish community qualifies, don't they? One would think, yeah, one would think, yes.
So they don't.
So which is really I never saw it in my lifetime. We used to read about it, right? I never saw this in my in my lifetime and. Um, I I don't, and I I try to wrap my head around where it came from because you would think maximum compassion after October seventh, instead you got maximum anger, and you had demonstrations October eighth. How is that?
Yeah, like we're ending operation in Gaza.
Well, let's be honest.
So groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, which is essentially like a proxy for these organizations, literally they were organized. We saw, you know, ADL. We monitor extremists. They release. Content on October the eighth, instructing their chapters on college campuses across the countries to engage in direct conflict with, you know, Zionists on their campuses.
These guys were ready for it.
So, what's behind it? Again, I think for state and non-state actors like the Islamic Republic of Iran, like Qatar, and like the others, were literally using this as a pretext to push their agenda. Look, we see it in our politics. We see it in our kind of these cultural spaces. We've seen it on these college campuses.
It's deliberate. It's organized, and we've documented it.
So what happens is people say, "Well, just because I'm against Israel doesn't mean I'm against Jews." What's your reaction? I'm so glad you raised that. You know, Mayor Mardani released his quote-unquote plan to tackle anti-Semitism. He called it the first ever municipal plan. It's the first ever municipal plan since Eric Adams' plan, by the way, like his predecessor.
So it's the first one since Eric Adams. But like talking about anti-Semitism and not recognizing the connection to Israel is like, or releasing a plan. It's like, you know, Rabbi Cosgrove said this this week in New York. It's like having a plan to deal with lung cancer and not talking about smoking. Like the anti-Israel narrative, the anti-Zionist fervor is so bigoted, it's racist, and it's driving so much this anti-Semitism.
Yeah, and it's and by the way, if you're a Democrat, you got to run on two things: you're against Israel and Netanyahu and APEC. Yeah, you take APEC money, they panic. You know, I think Bill Maher talked about this last week. Like, woke 2.0 is just Gaza. And it's insane.
There was no genocide. The statistics bear it out. There was no genocide. But Democrats are running on this as if it's some sort of dogma, right? And it's terrifying to me how any individual, let alone an entire political party, can be so captured so quickly, Brian, by the mob.
So Troy Troy Jackson is running for the Senate seat in Maine. It's basically a dead heat. He apologized for this, but listen to this comment, cut nineteen. You called the Israel war with Gaza a genocide. Yes, I re-stated that last week.
You know, I mean, it's unfortunate that there are people here in Maine that don't like to use that term, only because you know they're Jewish and and. You know what that means to them with the Holocaust. You know it fits that description, and you know it is. It's it's an unbelievable thing that's happened there. That people that are innocent are being murdered, and and it is a genocide.
Oh my God. Clearly, he's quite a scholar. Right.
You know, he may have been better than the Nazi Graham Platner, who almost ran. But again, you can say that word all you want, but it is the new big lie. And just saying it over and over again doesn't make it real. There was no genocide. Like the statistics don't support it.
The evidence to support it. And people aren't being murdered there. Who was murdered? Were twelve hundred innocent people in Kibbutzim or at a music festival? Or who was slaughtered in the streets by Hamas?
You know, in their savagery on that day, that's who was murdered. Israel responded with a defensive war. I'm glad they did it. You look, and just so we're clear, innocent civilians were killed, and that is a tragedy. It is a tragedy.
Never the intent. Never the intent. Absolutely not a genocide.
Well, the other thing is, just the simplest term is this. You know what Israel is capable of doing. Yeah, you guys could have carpet bombed the whole place. They could have. Everybody could have been dead.
They could have. That's because you could say, well, that's Jim.
Now you could say, deserved or not deserved, because we were just dropping bombs in Berlin. Clearly, but you could say, deserved or not, we had no smart bombs then anyway. Totally.
So you could just say that.
Well, they that that's how they responded. They they killed everybody. Yeah, but that's not what you guys did. In fact, you lost lives trying to make sure innocent people did not die. That's a fact.
Soldiers were. Killed, because rather than just carpet bombing, right? They went in house to house, door to door, and put their lives on the line.
So it was not to kill civilians. I mean, the the civilian the combatant civilian ratio of deaths is the lowest in any conflict in modern history.
So when Benjamin Netanyahu came out, I think it was about three months ago, and said. We have to be ready to produce our own weapons, make our own weapons, and we have to be in our mindset. We can't count on America to be selling us weapons, let alone giving us weapons. And not if Donald Trump's in office, or or. But I do worry about the next president because there's some on the right, like there's some on the right that are pro-Israel.
You're making a good point. I mean, look, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism isn't unique to the left, even though it's prevalent there.
Now it is also on the right. We have prominent voices.
Some used to be like literally on this network who are saying awful things that are. Off the wall, I would say, but the reality is, Americans, patriots, people of good faith. We know who our allies are. We know countries with democratic values. We know the countries that have stood with us time and again.
And Israel is there, and the anti-Semitism that seems to be at the root of this new found sort of this this view is really problematic. And I will tell you this, right? Like again, I'm a proud patriot. I'm an American, and I want us to invest in this country and strengthen this country. But I also want us to have a foreign policy again that's grounded in who our allies are and what our values are, and that's what's so.
Problematic about the anti-Zionism.
So, as you know, around our country, people see what's happening and they say, "I'm going to leave California. It's a beautiful place, but the taxes are too high, and the homeless is out of out of whack." And I don't like our representatives. They say they're leaving New York more than any other state. I think they're leaving New York. I think New York and Florida and Texas, right?
Florida and Texas.
So, if you're Jewish in New York City, you make up this. This is the second largest Jewish population in the world. That's right. Is there talk in the Jewish community is saying? Why are we staying here?
Yeah, I definitely have friends who have left. I have friends who who left after Mayor Mammadani won. And there are people who are very anxious because right now, you know, you have lunatics showing up at synagogues and screaming at people walking into services. You have kosher restaurants and Jewish businesses getting vandalized. You have people in public places getting threatened, and as and as our report shows, you have Jewish artists and authors and exhibits being canceled.
But you know what? You know what? My answer to that is, Brian, I'm going to fight. Yeah, I'm going to fight because this is my city, this is my state, and no one will push me out. You were in Michigan.
Yeah, El Sayed is. In a one or two points up on Mike Rogers, other people don't believe those polls, but that would be flipping the seat. But who is Al Sayed in your mind? Look, Abdullah Sayed, and I need to be careful because you know ADL is a C three, not a C four, and people can vote for what they want to vote for. But who is the difference?
One, you can't get involved. Yeah, I can't get involved in politics or endorse candidates. But here's what I can say. Abdul Al Saeed is running for Senate with a position that is overtly hostile to Israel. This is the man who, after the attempted suicide bombing of Temple Israel in Michigan, I was there yesterday.
I walked that building. I saw how this Hezbollah-inspired jihadist drove a vehicle packed with explosives into the building, and he—you know—he, I didn't know this when I went there. He had searched the synagogue, found out when do people eat lunch. And do the children show up at the preschool? He had searched all this on Google to maximize the number of casualties, which is classic Hezbollah: kill as many civilians as possible.
And again, he drove his car into the building. I met the brave security personnel who fought him. I mean, it's unbelievable story. After that happened, Abdul Sayed's comment was: "Hurt people, hurt people." Yeah, he's simple, but he's he's apologized for that since. He sort of walked it back and said the timing of what he said was wrong.
Yeah, the timing, the timing. Look. Hurt people, help people. That's what they do. That's what we do in our community.
But the guy that he, the guy that was after was his brother was a terrorist. His brother not only a terrorist, he was a Hezbollah commander.
So he was he was looking out for. He wants to pick up the terror mantle. Totally right. That's exactly correct. It's not like you know the way that it was initially portrayed as.
Oh, he was upset about his brother was killed in Lebanon. Like he was some fruit vendor on the side of the road. You mean if you're watching CNN? Yeah, exactly.
Now the reality is that this man was a Hezbollah commander who was targeted by Israel, and if you are an enemy combatant, that's the line of work you choose. You run that risk. Does it bother you? This is even close. It bothers me that it's close because Abdul Al Sayed, I think.
Has views that I find very problematic. No, look, people can vote wherever they want to vote for, but this is a man who has espoused positions that I find very problematic. And again, people should vote for who they want to vote for. But Abdul Al-Sayyid's comments on 9/11, the things he said in the past, I find. At best, problematic, and I am worried.
I am worried about the risk to the Jewish community. That's what I'm worried about. Absolutely, because there's more people like him who are going to run for office. Jonathan, where do we get your report? It's at adl.org.
State of the arts. Jonathan Greenblatt, thanks so much. Thank you, Ryan.
