A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is set to begin—but what does it actually mean? And why does it sound completely different depending on who’s reporting it?
In this episode, Ryan breaks down the truce through headlines from Al Jazeera, Israel Hayom, BBC, Anadolu Ajansi, and more—unpacking how media bias shapes the narrative across global outlets. From prisoner swaps to political positioning, this isn’t just about peace—it’s about who gets to define it.
He also calls out U.S. leadership spin (Trump vs. Biden), and questions if this ceasefire is progress or just a photo op.
Chapters:
00:00 - Middle East Politics: Complexity Over Soundbites
01:16 - Ceasefire Agreement Breakdown
02:44 - Peace Treaty vs. Ceasefire
03:46 - Trump, Biden, and Political Optics
10:13 - Arab Academic Perspectives
13:06 - Israeli Press Reactions
20:37 - Prisoner Deals & Military Pullback
24:03 - Media Spin and Narrative Bias
28:08 - Global News Outlets: Side-by-Side
31:17 - Predictions & Final Reflections
🎧 All links → linktr.ee/stayinthegraypodcast
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Perspectives all over the place because that's something like
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this. When you've got religion
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involved, you've got politics involved, you've got all these
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things involved. Everybody's saying a little bit
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different. It's kind of twisted and it's
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very interesting. So I just thought it'd be fun
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for us to. I immediately went to Al
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Jazeera. Why not?
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This is the region, Arab countries, the, those are the
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countries that often time overlooked by the United States.
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This person said the US is simply a supply line to the war
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because of the funding of Israel.
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OK, fair enough. I mentioned that that I admitted
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that we've given more to Israel when he said that the hell to
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pay ultimatum woke everybody up and he thinks that Israel will
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take him more seriously than Joe Biden.
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And this was the Israel Haim, and I'm going to go with that.
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They immediately said this is a deal between Gaza, Jerusalem,
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Qatar, the Egypt symbol, Washington, DC and Mar a Lago.
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Anybody and everybody knows what that means.
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That means that Trump is involved and Israel is the
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publications saying as much. Now they're not happy.
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No, you would think Israel would be OK fine.
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Our, you know, their allies. They've been taking care of us,
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but they're kind of pissed off right now.
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Here's the draft of the ceasefire deal.
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OK, Phase one, it's supposed to be 42 days.
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Hamas released 33 hostages and Israel releases 30 Palestinian
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prisoners for each civilian hostage and 50 for each female
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soldier. Forces move out of the popular
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areas and they go to the edge of Gaza Strip.
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I had it at one point, I think it was about 700 meters.
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And they let the displaced Palestinians return to their
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homes and get treatment, get aid and as it comes in from us and
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whoever. Welcome to stay in the Gray
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Podcast. We explore news that gets people
00:01:57
talking by blending comedy and controversy.
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I'm Ryan. And I'm Trey.
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Together, we dive into tough topics with a combination of
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humor and some insight. To join us as we navigate the
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Gray areas of the world and engaging in real conversation.
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Come get to know us. All right, today, January 16th,
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2025. Cannot believe it's halfway
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through this month already. I feel like it was just New
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Year's. Today is ceasefire in the Middle
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East. How about that?
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A lot to talk about. Let's do it.
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All right, this treaty, I say peace treaty.
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Let me correct myself. It's a ceasefire.
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What's the difference between the two?
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Well, one of them is we're just not going to shoot you for a
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while. It's a ceasefire versus a peace
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treaty, which I I view is more of a long term deal.
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But you know, either way, there's something going on over
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there and that's good news. But I didn't want you guys to
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get all specific on me for saying peace treaty.
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It is a ceasefire in Gaza between the Israeli government
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and the Palestinians, who Hamas is the head of.
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So First off, it's it's set to start January the 19th.
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OK, that's, that's only three days away.
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But when they made this agreement, it was like, we'll do
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the 19th. Why?
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Why not just immediately don't understand that.
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Somebody has a better explanation.
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Please let me know if it was just they wanted to be done.
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I mean, they're pushing it all the way up till the 19th.
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We're going to talk plenty about it.
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But Donald Trump, his ultimatum, if you will, was by the time I'm
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in office on the 20th. I don't know if that's why it's
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the 19th or if it's just I, I have no idea.
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So just visualize these people just all right, we got three
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days to fuck some shit up. Let's go in there and do it.
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And then obviously on the 19th, it's like, oh, I'm sorry, we're
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we're good. Let's go have a beer.
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All right, So who's responsible? You knew immediately this is
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going to happen and it's kind of sad.
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I mean, it's entertaining for all of us, but it's sad for the
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rest of the of the world when it comes down to who is responsible
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for pushing this through? Who's responsible for finally
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getting Israel and Hamas to say, OK, it's time, let's do this
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thing and everybody, you know, the the two main culprits are
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taking credit. Donald Trump who tweeted slash
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posted on all the platforms, I, I not all of them.
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I believe he mainly did his true social and it said there's a
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deal coming for release of the hostages.
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That was kind of his focal point.
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It wasn't he didn't use the word ceasefire until later on in a,
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in a longer post, but early on it was they, we have an
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agreement on the hostages. Let's do this more to come
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really soon. And then, of course, Joe Biden
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ignores that and he steps up later on in the day and gives
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the speech, doesn't mention Trump at all, takes credit, says
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we've been working on this since last May.
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So why now? Why all of a sudden they're both
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sides going, all right, let's finally do this.
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I'll leave it to you to decide who was responsible, but we'll
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talk about it a little bit. Truths.
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Trump's big, big thing was that he came out and said there will
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be hell to pay, hell to pay. I think he was mainly talking to
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Hamas because he was talking about the those, those Israeli
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hostages. Israel has plenty of hostages
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from Gaza and Palestinian hostages of their own, which
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we'll get to as well. So I'm not sure kind of what
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what Donald was saying there. I mean, I know that the the
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hostages from that initial massacre that kind of kicked
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started this thing a year and a half ago, I believe, you know,
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they've still there. And I think that's what he
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meant. But he said by the time I'm in
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office. So that's key in in a lot of
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what we're going to discuss. And like I said, Biden credits
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his plan. And the Biden administration has
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given a lot of money to Israel. I realized that our government
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always does. And I believe that there are
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some some packages that have also gone out to Arab countries
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as well that have been kind of victims of, I had to use the
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word victim because it is both sides.
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There's been some damage there. There's been lives lost.
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And so there's some recovery plans in in effect there and aid
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to those countries as well. But the money going to Israel
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was obviously day and night above the other amounts.
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And so I think that probably didn't sit well with Hamas.
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It probably didn't sit well with all of these countries that are
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maybe influential and and Hamas kind of agreeing on this
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ceasefire. That might be something to do
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with it, Joe. It may be a reason they they
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didn't listen until now until Donald got into office and gave
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that ultimatum. I don't know.
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Again, you decide. I'm just giving you my opinions.
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But that seems to be a pretty big one.
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All the backing of Israel by this government and, and not
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that that's going to go away. I'm not saying Donald's going to
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come in and cut Israel off, but he's also not going to let him
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just kind of run rampant all over everything.
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So let's move on. The way I'm going to approach
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this topic tonight is not just OK, this is what happened, blah,
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blah, blah, like I did for the last five minutes.
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What I'm doing tonight is immediately when something like
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this happens, I've begun to go, who's thinking what, what
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perspectives are out there? And then I start thinking of,
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oh, what bullshit publications am I going to read?
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How are they going to twist this?
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Who are they going to blame? The context?
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Is there going to be context or are they going to take it and
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just make it their own and so on.
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This I said, this is perfect. This is a war international
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issue, something that we're involved with way overseas.
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It's something that everybody knows about.
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It's it's uncomfortable. Nobody wants to deal with this.
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It's like the Russia and Ukraine situation.
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No one wants. It's just uncomfortable.
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It's it's more than that for the people involved, obviously, But
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for everybody else, it's just like something is just eerie
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here and let's let's try and help.
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It's all innocent people dying. That's no one.
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Does anybody really want that? And if you do, then maybe here's
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the problem, extremists. So let's talk.
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I immediately went to Al Jazeera.
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Why not? This is the region, Arab
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countries, the, those are the countries that are often time
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overlooked by the United States when it comes to their
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perspective. At least that's what a lot of
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people are claiming. I'm not sure I'm I'm on board
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with that fully. We have allowed people to stand
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on our soil and scream about killing Americans.
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The infidels, they're doing it right now all over the country
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and the Palestinian issue and the Israel issue and Gaza has
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forced that, but it's very uncomfortable.
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I'll use that word again for Americans to sit here and go,
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this is happening at our our universities.
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This is happening in, in our town squares down in the city.
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This is and, and they want to kill us.
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That's what they're chanting. They ripped down our American
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flag and hung a, a Palestinian flag.
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Are you kidding me? We're not going to go back to
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that. But this is not OK.
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So I would decided the bottom line was to go to Al Jazeera
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first. First and foremost, they usually
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are pretty neutral. They they try and really they
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try not to go One Direction on this.
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Unfortunately, they kind of did on this one.
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And I, I was disappointed, but at the same time, I understood
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this is an Arab publication overall and you're probably
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going to focus on those people more so than the not.
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But let me tell you, their approach was US pressure as a
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whole. So they weren't describing Trump
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or Biden in the pressure. However, there were two
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professors, one I'll, I'll do them both.
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One was at American University of Beirut, Rami Corey, And this
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professor said the following Trump may be the one to finally
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get Israel to define its borders and to stop relying on the US
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when they get themselves into a situation is kind of the way he
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put it. And I thought that, OK, fair
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enough. Again, credit to Trump by this
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person. Another person, public policy
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professor at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, again, I
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believe it's Qatar. I, I used to say Qatar in our
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good all American accents, but I think it's Qatar.
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So I'm going to go with that. And this person said the US is
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simply a supply line to the war because of the funding of
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Israel. OK, fair enough.
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I mentioned that that I admitted that we've given more to Israel.
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And he said that the hell to pay ultimatum woke everybody up.
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And he thinks that Israel will take him more seriously than Joe
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Biden. Take it for what it's worth.
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These are professors in at Arab universities and just giving you
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what they said. So there's still, like I said,
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there's a heavy bias towards the Palestinians, the big consensus,
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and it ended up being on both sides.
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But the first was that immediately all the Palestinians
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are like, this is so great, but they're not going to follow
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through. Israel's going to this is just
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temporary. I just hope I can get home
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before they go back on their word.
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I get it. But I'm just giving you what
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they're saying. The testimonials were, were only
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Palestinians who had negative things to say, of course, about
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Israelis. And it was just, and rightfully
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so, it was a bunch of stories about how a bunch of
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testimonials about their, how horrible it is, how this has
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been torture, how they hope to find family, how they hope to go
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back to a home that's not completely destroyed.
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All of those types of stories about their time in Gaza and,
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and during this conflict. And then there are Palestinian
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groups who are calling for this accountability from Israel.
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They want Israel to stand up and say we're the asshole here.
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It's all on us. And I don't think you're going
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to get that. Let's just start with the
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ceasefire. But to sit here and it's almost
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like you're saying we're not OK, We're not going to accept this
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fully unless you do this. No, we don't need to do that.
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Why just have the ceasefire later down the road, if you're
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talking to somebody, you can say, hey, how about some
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accountability? But that is not a good idea
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right now. Let's just stop the friction.
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Just do it, Get it done. My goodness.
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Imagine. Yeah, let's not shoot at each
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other anymore. But you better say that it's all
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this was all your fault. It's kind of silly.
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So let's move on to the Israeli publication, the main one there
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that I try to get the most popular of these, and this was
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the Israel Heyam, and I'm going to go with that.
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They immediately said this is a deal between Gaza, Jerusalem,
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Qatar, I think Egypt's involved Washington, DC and Mar a Lago.
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Anybody and everybody knows what that means.
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That means that Trump is involved and Israel is their
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publications saying as much. Now they're not happy.
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No, you would think Israel would be OK fine.
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Our, you know, there's our allies.
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They've been taking care of us. But they're kind of pissed off
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right now. They don't want the agreement
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the way that it sits, Joe Biden's agreement, if you will.
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And apparently Trump is trying to push that now on their front
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page, they have Donald Trump his his post that hostages this and
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that. And of course, that's more about
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Israel, Israeli hostages being freed.
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So of course, that made front page.
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But by doing that, are they insinuating that this is all on
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Trump now? This is it's almost like they're
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just like Biden isn't even here, just, you know, move on from it.
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And I think that was the MAR a Lago comment.
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And I think that was why Trump's on the front page with his post.
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But they're really mad about Netanyahu agreeing to this
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before Trump got into office because they feel like it would
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have been, they could have got a better deal once Trump was in
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there. They could have talked more with
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him. And he had the AB absolute power
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from a executive level, not suggesting that he has absolute
00:14:45
power of the government, people calm down.
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But the actual power, he's no longer just the president-elect.
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He's officially the president. And I think that they thought
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they could get a little better because they believe, just like
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the Palestinians, that Hamas, that they believe Hamas won't
00:15:01
follow through. They believe this is all, let's
00:15:04
just get a breather from this and then we can start back up.
00:15:09
And one of the reasons that they think this and it makes it makes
00:15:12
sense to a point that, and I'm going to give you the the deal
00:15:16
here in a second. I'm going to I'm going to read
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it to you. I probably should have led with
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that, but I'll do it here after I talk about this publication.
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One of the parts of the deal is that 1000 I read 2, but this
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this publication saying 1000 operatives for Hamas, they use
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the word operative are being released from prison.
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They're essentially prisoners. And I read somewhere that 250 of
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them have been sentenced to death and our life and all, you
00:15:45
know, the Max. And they're saying that that'll
00:15:49
just spark the violence. These operatives are free.
00:15:51
They're still, they still have the, their hatred for Israel and
00:15:54
for the Jewish faith and probably the West as a whole.
00:15:59
They still have that. They didn't go anywhere just
00:16:01
because they were freed. So now you're supplementing
00:16:04
what's left of Hamas with 1000 more operatives, if you will,
00:16:09
and you're dealing with a situation where they they
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strengthen themselves back up and then they hit again.
00:16:14
Seems to me like the extremist mindset.
00:16:16
That's why I don't like Hamas. Do I feel for the innocent
00:16:20
Palestinian people? Absolutely.
00:16:23
Who wouldn't feel feel bad for the innocent people?
00:16:26
It's the elected terrorist organization that's running it
00:16:30
all from that, from that side that I have an issue with.
00:16:34
I'm not for terrorism. If you're a terrorist group, I
00:16:38
don't like you. That doesn't mean I don't like
00:16:41
all Palestinians. So let's get over that.
00:16:45
They compared the release of all these operatives and then again,
00:16:47
this we're back to the Israeli publication.
00:16:49
They compared this to the release of some Guantanamo Bay
00:16:52
detainees right after 911, that about a year after it happened,
00:16:57
they were released and they were kind of around the borders of
00:17:00
Canada and Mexico when they they got out and that was it.
00:17:03
And I don't know enough about that.
00:17:05
I was pretty young when 911 happened, young enough to not
00:17:09
want to research. I was going to go drink or
00:17:11
something like that. But that's so they're mad.
00:17:15
I mean, they, they're mad, they're saying, and then they're
00:17:17
pissed because the another part of it is there are supplies and
00:17:19
there's aid that's going to go to Gaza to help everybody,
00:17:23
everybody in that region and try and rebuild and try and, and
00:17:26
stop gap, put a Band-Aid on it. And I think that that's part of
00:17:31
their issue. They're saying, well, you're
00:17:32
only helping to rebuild Hamas. That's essentially what that's
00:17:36
going to do is they're going to take the supplies, they're going
00:17:39
to take everything and they're going to, you know, get strong
00:17:42
again. And yeah, I don't see that as
00:17:45
being too far fetched either from their perspective.
00:17:49
And they're they're questioning why Trump is is willing to push
00:17:52
Biden's deal. That's the other thing.
00:17:53
They believe that that Donald Trump wants to help Israel more
00:17:58
in the sense this is kind of a little bit maybe too much 1000
00:18:03
people, 250 that were on life sentences, things like that.
00:18:06
And they they're calling it a slap in the face.
00:18:08
And so that's interesting. All of a sudden, our ally in
00:18:11
Israel and a lot of people who feel we're completely funding,
00:18:17
funding this group and this government now they're not happy
00:18:21
with us. So where's that, where's that
00:18:23
going to leave off? I don't know.
00:18:25
So let me go through this real quick before we move on to the
00:18:27
to the next part. The next part's just kind of fun
00:18:29
that I wanted to do and just because when it comes to the
00:18:34
publications, like I said, I was very interested.
00:18:37
I kind of jumped on really fast to kind of look at the different
00:18:40
perspectives all over the place because that's something like
00:18:44
this. When you've got religion
00:18:45
involved, you've got politics involved, you've got all these
00:18:47
things involved, everybody's saying a little bit different.
00:18:49
It's kind of twisted and it's very interesting.
00:18:51
And so I just thought it'd be fun for us to to do that
00:18:54
together instead of me just sitting here telling you what
00:18:56
happened and reading these people on both sides
00:19:01
testimonial, testimonials for what's happened for the last
00:19:04
couple years. But here's the draft of the
00:19:06
ceasefire deal. OK, Phase 1, supposed to be 42
00:19:09
days. Hamas released 33 hostages.
00:19:13
I don't know if that is. And that's including female
00:19:15
civilians and soldiers. I don't think that that that's
00:19:20
it, right? It hasn't shrunk down to 33
00:19:22
left. If it has, that's sad.
00:19:24
And if it hasn't, then why? Why are the rest of them not
00:19:27
being included? So I don't know about that one,
00:19:29
but 33 hostages and Israel releases 30 Palestinian
00:19:34
prisoners for each civilian hostage and 50 for each female
00:19:39
soldier. So that ends up being a lot of
00:19:43
people, comparatively speaking. So the the fighting is halted,
00:19:48
the four Israeli forces move out of the popular areas and they go
00:19:51
to the edge of Gaza Strip. I had it at one point, I think
00:19:54
it was about 700 meters. And then I realized that in
00:19:58
America we don't use meters. And I didn't know what the hell
00:20:00
that meant. I had an idea, but I think it
00:20:03
was something about 2200 feet or something like that.
00:20:08
From the edge of feet. I think it is feet.
00:20:12
Anyway, from the edge of the border, so they can stay inside,
00:20:16
but just inside, I mean, they're on the edge and they let the
00:20:20
displaced Palestinians return to their homes and get treatment,
00:20:23
get aid. And as it comes in from us and
00:20:27
whoever, Phase 2 is another 42 days.
00:20:30
I'm not sure why 42 on all these, but this is a declaration
00:20:33
of sustainable calm. Hamas freeze the remaining male
00:20:36
hostages. OK, so that's the answer to my
00:20:39
question. Soldiers and civilians in
00:20:40
exchange for a yet to be negotiated number of Palestinian
00:20:43
prisoners and a full withdrawal of the Israeli troops from the
00:20:47
Gaza Strip. So this is where I think maybe
00:20:50
both sides are going. OK, phase one, simple enough.
00:20:54
Phase two, now we're negotiating still.
00:20:56
Now we're going, hey, but how many are we going to have to
00:20:58
release per? And that's not that's if there's
00:21:02
a disagreement, they're going to start shooting each other again.
00:21:05
And that's not good. So we'll see the declaration of
00:21:09
sustainable calm. I kind of like that phrasing,
00:21:12
but we'll see what happens. And apparently they're supposed
00:21:16
to be completely out at that point.
00:21:17
Now phase three bodies of the deceased Israeli hostages are
00:21:22
exchanged for the bodies of deceased Palestinian fighters.
00:21:25
This kind of reminds me of like old school back in like, you
00:21:29
know, would you'd line up and battle with swords and and axes
00:21:33
and shit and then drag the dead away with you and then like
00:21:37
honour them on A and burn them on a fire or something.
00:21:42
I've been watching too much too many movies, Braveheart and Troy
00:21:45
and all those where all this happened.
00:21:48
But I think that this is kind of it sounds like that OK, here are
00:21:51
your bodies, here are your bodies.
00:21:52
And I get it that to a point that you loved ones want to have
00:21:56
some closure in that regard, but that's a lot of bodies.
00:21:59
And then the implementation of a reconstruction plan.
00:22:02
So OK, that's great. I hate that that's all the way
00:22:05
in phase three. But let's let's get something
00:22:07
going and, and help everybody just just live just you know
00:22:11
what? The border crossings for
00:22:12
movement in and out of Gaza are reopened.
00:22:14
So again, it's just kind of bringing everything back.
00:22:18
It's getting everything instead of instead of being a war zone,
00:22:20
this is a nice place to be to, to as as much as it can be.
00:22:25
And it would be bringing up relief to the, the hard hit Gaza
00:22:27
Strip where all the, you know, everything's rubble, 90% of the
00:22:32
population are displaced, things like that.
00:22:34
And if the deal is reached, it wouldn't go into effect
00:22:36
immediately, blah, blah, blah. So that's it really.
00:22:40
That's as it sits. I know there's probably a little
00:22:43
bit more than that, but you don't need to know it from me.
00:22:46
If you really, for those of you that really want to dive into
00:22:50
all the little bitty specifics, then I'm sure it's out there for
00:22:53
you. And the the main ones are are
00:22:56
what I just read and that's important.
00:22:57
I think. I think this just shows it's a
00:23:01
step. I'm kind of like minded to a
00:23:03
both sides. I don't know if it's possible.
00:23:05
I mean, this has been going on a long time.
00:23:07
This isn't something that's just definitely obviously not last
00:23:11
year when the massacre happened in Israel, but World War Two
00:23:15
people think it started then it didn't.
00:23:17
These groups have been added since Islam was established in
00:23:22
the the 7th century. Look at me.
00:23:26
And it's just, there's a lot of reasons for it.
00:23:29
And you can't just swoop in here with a ceasefire and think that
00:23:34
everything's going to be all right.
00:23:35
We have to continue to build on the ceasefire, build on peace
00:23:39
treaties and try and figure out how to coexist over there.
00:23:42
Because it doesn't. It's not it just didn't
00:23:45
happening. And so it's a step.
00:23:47
Let's see if Donald can come in and and you know, from from the
00:23:50
US standpoint, do something to continue to help.
00:23:53
I I don't know what that is besides aid to everybody, but
00:23:56
you know, I'm kind of tired of that with Joe and his tossing
00:24:00
the dollars everywhere. So that's that.
00:24:04
The other publications, how about Turkey?
00:24:07
Turkey's publication called Anadolu, I don't know how to
00:24:11
pronounce these letters in Turkish.
00:24:12
Anadolu Jhansi Ahansi, that's what I see is one of their most
00:24:17
popular publications in Turkey. And forgive me if I'm wrong, but
00:24:21
I believe that that's a heavily Muslim, heavily Islam as the
00:24:25
main religion there. And their credit is to Trump,
00:24:28
which is interesting. The no mention of Biden in their
00:24:31
their article about this. And this is one article, but it
00:24:33
was the main article like, OK, this is the Sea Steel is reached
00:24:36
or the ceasefires are reached. And it was a Trump on their end.
00:24:41
And then I went back over here and I had to go to NBC.
00:24:45
And I'm going to call you out because I think you're the
00:24:47
worst. I think Washington Post is up
00:24:50
there with you when it comes to the liberal rags.
00:24:52
I call them that. CNN probably, but they've made
00:24:55
at least some effort, unlike MSNBC.
00:24:58
And again, the other ones that are a little bit less Newsweek
00:25:00
and Huffington Post, New York Times is I think I read an
00:25:04
opinion piece the other day finally that wasn't all left,
00:25:07
but NBC is the usual stuff. I mean, it was just deflect,
00:25:12
deflect, deflect. No mention of Donald Trump's
00:25:16
warning his post, his this, his even the, the, the fact that
00:25:20
this is happening right as Trump's going to office.
00:25:22
It was all about this current administration, the deal of the
00:25:25
plan they made last May that just so happens to coincide with
00:25:29
Donald coming into into the the White House.
00:25:33
But I just don't understand why no one's pressing the issue of
00:25:37
why it's now, why it's took so long, why it's whatever, but NBC
00:25:40
don't want to have any of it. This is the deal.
00:25:42
They finally came to it and it was Joe Biden on the last
00:25:46
paragraph of the article I wrote on NBC, they did mention his
00:25:49
hell to pay called it a threat. So I don't know it.
00:25:55
I guess it is a threat, but to use that word versus ultimatum
00:25:58
or something makes it seem like Donald Trump is being the
00:26:03
aggressor. Just just the way it sounds,
00:26:07
especially when you didn't mention anything else the rest
00:26:09
of the time. Perhaps I'm forcing a little bit
00:26:12
on NBC, but there was definitely a difference in the way that
00:26:16
their article was written versus the other ones thus far.
00:26:19
How about this, We'll go to BBCBBC is, of course, British.
00:26:23
Out of the previous four that I've mentioned, BBC was the most
00:26:27
neutral. That's interesting because I've
00:26:29
found recently that BBC has kind of slid, you know, different
00:26:34
over here depending on their narrative at the time.
00:26:37
So this was interesting. So they did testimonials from
00:26:39
both, which I completely respected.
00:26:42
You had the Israelis that were excited, the hostages that were
00:26:46
being talked, spoken to their families.
00:26:48
Then you had Palestinians that were displaced from their homes,
00:26:52
talked to both. That's a great way to approach
00:26:55
it. BBC.
00:26:56
Good for you. But there's a mediation expert,
00:27:00
I guess, I guess with the organization there that he
00:27:04
believed at one point that that Prime Minister Natanyama from
00:27:08
Israel would hold off until the 20th.
00:27:13
So when Trump got in there, it would be like a present to him.
00:27:15
Like, here you go, this is for you.
00:27:17
We're going to do this. And I'm not sure what that
00:27:19
means. I'm not sure if Netanyahu felt
00:27:22
like this would help Trump politically or if this was
00:27:25
something that I mean, why wait? Why do that?
00:27:27
Why make it a thing? Just end it.
00:27:30
Just stop, just stop. Because I think just up until
00:27:34
the other day, they were they were they were bombing and doing
00:27:36
stuff. So this is not this isn't a lot
00:27:38
like they've they took a time out for a month and said, all
00:27:41
right, all right, we'll, we'll do this.
00:27:42
This is like boom. So no pun intended with the
00:27:46
boom. Sorry, I couldn't resist, but so
00:27:50
because Trump told Hamas by 1, you know, January 20th, did that
00:27:54
kind of propel Natanyama to to go ahead and and agree to it?
00:27:58
Probably. But I was impressed by BBC in
00:28:01
the way that they wrote it and and their their lack of of bias.
00:28:05
So good for you BBC. Just because I was curious, I I
00:28:10
picked 2 random countries way, way away those furthest away I
00:28:15
could. I'm sure there's some others
00:28:18
furthest away I could possibly think of.
00:28:21
I wish I had access to Russian publications but I didn't even
00:28:24
try to look. I assumed that wasn't a an
00:28:26
option for me, but I just went. So I went with Chile.
00:28:29
Why not? That's pretty fucking far way
00:28:32
the hell down South, way far away from the Middle East.
00:28:35
Their most popular publication is La Nacion and if there's
00:28:40
others that are up there with it, I apologize.
00:28:43
I just searched and you were number first one that came up,
00:28:46
La Necion. This story was the 4th story on
00:28:50
the front page, the 4th. It was fast, it was quick, there
00:28:53
was nothing to it. It was simple.
00:28:54
And there was no mention of Biden or Trump by name.
00:28:57
It was just the US. So maybe that's refreshing that
00:29:02
some countries aren't caught up in the political agenda of both
00:29:06
sides in the United States. But I went different direction
00:29:09
from the Middle East. I went straight east and I
00:29:13
landed in Thailand. So I went with the nation.
00:29:16
It's called The Nation Thailand, and I believe it's an English
00:29:19
publication so that people in Bangkok and around can have easy
00:29:24
access to their news. But so I went with that so I
00:29:26
didn't have to try and translate.
00:29:28
Hit the translate again. This wasn't even on the front
00:29:31
page of that publication. And this was the day after it
00:29:34
was, it was later in the day of the day it was announced.
00:29:37
So perhaps they were sleeping. I'm not sure the time difference
00:29:41
and how that all works, but there was nothing until I
00:29:45
searched. I had to search, so therefore
00:29:48
they were aware of it. I searched and it came up on the
00:29:51
second page way down, and there were twenty other stories before
00:29:55
it, one of them about a guy getting jail time for smacking a
00:29:59
a, a young lady on the bottom. That's more important to our
00:30:05
Thai listeners and our Thai citizens than the ceasefire in
00:30:10
Gaza. And I don't know why and I
00:30:13
don't, I don't know if it's because it just, it's not, it's
00:30:17
not us. We don't want to deal with it.
00:30:19
We want to give you local, more local news.
00:30:22
But I also thought maybe there are places in the world that are
00:30:26
just like, yeah, here they go again.
00:30:28
They're going to do talk ceasefire and then three months
00:30:31
later or a year later back to it.
00:30:34
I don't know. I don't know if it's the boy
00:30:36
that cried wolf with this story. The Thai newspaper is one of the
00:30:39
ones that is just kind of like, OK, we'll report it, but that's
00:30:42
it. I had to search and they were
00:30:44
obviously the most vanilla. They were the most neutral.
00:30:47
You know, BBC did great. But they're, they're kind of in
00:30:50
the middle of it. The British and they're, they're
00:30:52
all a part of it and they're considered the West as well.
00:30:54
So I'm talking about they were the most for that.
00:30:58
But overall, after looking at 7 publications, the nation,
00:31:02
Thailand was the most neutral and uncaring of the situation.
00:31:07
They didn't even, I don't even think I mentioned the US or like
00:31:09
there's a ceasefire. Good, good.
00:31:12
So I look for a little more in my reporting.
00:31:14
But you do you, Thailand. So that's where we're at.
00:31:19
I mean, I don't know. I mean, do do we really care
00:31:23
about who pushed it? I know I have my opinion and you
00:31:28
know, there's some bias there, I'm sure.
00:31:30
I expected Donald Trump to come in and and do what he said he
00:31:34
was going to do. The one thing that he did do in
00:31:36
his first term was try and fulfill his promises.
00:31:41
You might not have liked what he wanted to do, but he he wasn't
00:31:44
lying, talked about the wall. He tried to get it done.
00:31:48
He wants to do this. He's going to do it.
00:31:50
He's going to try. So one of the biggest things
00:31:53
about Donald Trump was that he did not want war anymore.
00:31:57
He didn't want nameless wars. And so because of that, this was
00:32:01
one of his priorities and he's not even in office yet.
00:32:04
I guarantee you he's pushing this.
00:32:06
I guarantee you he he can call it man Yama.
00:32:08
The other thing that was interesting and I and I had it
00:32:10
written down here and I don't know if I just lost it or
00:32:13
whatever. And I apologize because again,
00:32:15
I, I think I lost that note, but his envoy to the Middle East
00:32:21
pick his choice. This is what I'm sorry, I'm so
00:32:24
professional, but he's already there with the Biden
00:32:27
administration's envoy and, and he's working with them.
00:32:31
And so that's to me tells, tells you that Trump is involved.
00:32:34
And I know that it's because, you know, there's, there's a
00:32:36
transition of power coming, a transfer of power coming up.
00:32:39
And you want that you want the the new the new person to be
00:32:43
involved. But I just found that kind of
00:32:45
like, OK. And apparently he's he's doing a
00:32:47
lot of the negotiate, a lot of the talking.
00:32:48
And so that's how I just don't know.
00:32:51
It doesn't matter, right? Overall, we're happy this is
00:32:53
happening. You know, both sides screaming
00:32:55
are screaming at each other. Still, you got to back off from
00:32:58
that. You don't look at all the
00:33:00
perspectives. Well, I just did.
00:33:01
I gave you all of them. That's what people say to me.
00:33:03
You're American. You side with Israel.
00:33:06
Well, that's not true. I look at every issue.
00:33:09
I look case by case. Was Israel's attack on Lebanon,
00:33:13
the attack on Lebanon with Hezbollah as the terrorist
00:33:17
organization, was that, was there a reason for it?
00:33:20
Was it overkill? The whole cell phone exploding
00:33:22
everywhere? Was that did it wasn't
00:33:24
necessary? Was it in response to something?
00:33:26
Are they allowed to defend themselves?
00:33:28
I think if you're in war, you can defend yourselves.
00:33:30
It's just it's not Israel's fault that they're bigger and
00:33:34
badder and more powerful. It's not their fault if you're
00:33:37
in war. And what are you supposed to
00:33:39
hold back and say, oh, sorry, we're overpowering you.
00:33:42
We'll give you a chance. Now the time is over for this.
00:33:45
Like stand in front of each other and you fire.
00:33:47
OK, now you fire, now you fire. Now you fire.
00:33:49
It's it's all out. If you're in a war, no holds
00:33:52
barred, everything goes fair game.
00:33:57
So that's the problem I have with a lot of these people that
00:34:00
are that are oh, poor Palestine, poor Palestinians is because
00:34:04
they're in war. Yes, of course, nobody wants
00:34:07
people to die. But you can't sit here and and
00:34:09
just judge that it's happened in a lot in this country that now
00:34:13
it's this woke, this virtue signaling and everybody knows
00:34:16
how I feel about the woke. Thank goodness it's starting to
00:34:18
go away. But everybody that any conflict,
00:34:21
it's like the the one that's more powerful is always no good.
00:34:28
The poor, weaker country, no matter how corrupt they may be.
00:34:33
Zolensky are always getting the sympathy, especially from this
00:34:38
country, Well, from this country's quote, UN quote,
00:34:42
citizens. The government has been helping
00:34:44
Israel, but they're helping, they're helping Ukraine.
00:34:46
So it's a mess. We need to quit sending all our
00:34:49
money. Last show I talked about the
00:34:52
wildfires. I just am baffled by the fact
00:34:55
that each individual person, and I'm just throwing this in there,
00:34:58
each individual person affected by the fire and this is Joe
00:35:02
Biden talking. It's a one time payment by the
00:35:06
way, of $770. If I received that and I was
00:35:12
affected by the wildfires, I, I mean, I'd feel like it, I'd feel
00:35:16
like it was a huge slap in the face from, from my own
00:35:19
government. You've sent Ukraine, how much
00:35:21
money? You've sent the Middle East and
00:35:24
Israel. How much money, Taiwan, how much
00:35:27
money? North Carolina got shit on.
00:35:29
Hawaii was shit on when they had their issue a couple of years
00:35:33
ago. I think it was two or three
00:35:34
years ago. And now the wildfire is $770.
00:35:38
OK, thanks. It's just beyond me the amount
00:35:43
of help and international aid that we've given.
00:35:45
And then, you know, maybe we should have voted on it.
00:35:48
You know, maybe these packages they put together, maybe there
00:35:52
needs to be a vote because I know this country is not happy.
00:35:55
You get people that are screaming, Oh yeah, poor Ukraine
00:35:57
flying the Ukraine flags. And I, you know, unless you have
00:36:01
family there or you've moved here from there, you get take
00:36:05
the flags down. This is, this is silly.
00:36:07
Be aware of the war, help in a way we can diplomatically and
00:36:11
look at both sides and understand that Ukraine is an
00:36:14
innocent. Putin's an asshole.
00:36:16
Russia has got big problems. But it's not all what you're
00:36:19
told. It's not just because Russia
00:36:21
wants their land. Russia has so much damn land.
00:36:25
They have more land than anybody in the world.
00:36:28
But they but you, they want this, they want Ukraine.
00:36:30
Come on, look at what NATO is doing and look at the missiles
00:36:34
and the Rockets that have gone into Ukraine.
00:36:36
It's, I'm not defending Russia. I'm just telling you it's not as
00:36:39
simple as everybody wants to make it.
00:36:42
Then for us to give 2 or $300 billion to Ukraine.
00:36:46
There might be more there. Hunter Biden so I'll move on
00:36:51
from that. I just, I threw that in there
00:36:52
because I was I was kind of frustrated about the California
00:36:54
fires and I know I already did that show, but you needed to
00:36:57
hear it. And I'm kind of tying it
00:36:58
together here with with international conflict.
00:37:02
Let's move on and and go to about her comments to the show.
00:37:06
This is very easy and very quick.
00:37:08
And I, I, I just feel like this, I can't believe this
00:37:13
conversation actually happened between two men in the United
00:37:17
States of America in 2025. And it was in response to a clip
00:37:22
I put up where I began the clip talking about, well, the clip
00:37:25
was about how Joe Biden thought he could beat Donald Trump if he
00:37:29
if he had ran, he'd stayed in the race.
00:37:31
And, and I got a lot of laughing faces and including my own.
00:37:35
I think I commented myself and just laughed.
00:37:38
It was funny. So I started out by saying, all
00:37:40
right, I'm going to tell you about this.
00:37:41
It's fucking funny. Yes, I said, fuck, I'm so sorry.
00:37:46
And I got this guy that came on and he goes language.
00:37:49
He didn't lecture me. He just basically was was
00:37:51
pointing it out that I said I said a bad, I said an oopsie.
00:37:55
I said fuck, he barely didn't like it.
00:37:58
And I and and I just said, does it one bad word really bother
00:38:02
you that much that you felt you need to comment?
00:38:05
And I'm not going to go oh, through all this because it's a
00:38:07
lot. It there's a lot there.
00:38:09
Basically, I was told I wasn't a good person if I cursed or
00:38:16
swore. I mean, he literally said if
00:38:18
you're a good person, you would appreciate someone reminding you
00:38:21
that it's not necessary or polite to swear.
00:38:23
OK, I'm a grown man and you're talking about words that have
00:38:28
meaning because of other people way back in the day placing
00:38:33
meaning on them. And somebody saying these are
00:38:34
bad, it's not up to you to tell me what's bad.
00:38:38
Now, if you are a very religious, which he is, and I
00:38:42
said, you know, the Lord's name in vain in response to
00:38:46
something, all right, you can at least come on and say, hey,
00:38:49
don't you know, don't say that, Although I still don't think
00:38:51
everybody should stop for you. Who are you?
00:38:55
And he went on and I tell you what, everyone he did a making
00:38:59
this all dramatic, but he had a a paragraph.
00:39:03
I mean, it was like it was like a chapter from a book.
00:39:05
I mean, it's just like it kept going and going about the Lord
00:39:09
and about how he knows and all caps he knows the Lord and how I
00:39:16
am not, it is not OK that I say these things.
00:39:19
And then he went on to say that it was OK.
00:39:22
He said he admitted to swearing the other day when he caught
00:39:26
someone red handed stealing. He said there are times and
00:39:29
places to use those words because the regular words just
00:39:33
don't have enough impact. Well, that's how I felt about my
00:39:38
reel. It was fucking funny.
00:39:40
It wasn't just funny, it was fucking funny and you don't have
00:39:44
a right to tell me or judge me for that.
00:39:48
Simple as that. So good luck to you.
00:39:50
You know, this guy actually has a lot of followers.
00:39:52
He does some sort of bike riding or some shit and people follow
00:39:56
him. So thank you for stopping by and
00:39:58
thank you for your comment. Like and subscribe.
00:40:00
I'll do my best not to say fuck, fuck you, fuck as much.
00:40:05
Good luck to you. And on that note, we'll go ahead
00:40:10
and end tonight today. See, it's today here.
00:40:13
It might be tonight where you are listening.
00:40:15
And I'll give you the ending quote, but I hope, I hope you
00:40:19
enjoyed a different perspective on the ceasefire in the Middle
00:40:23
East. I hope you enjoyed the fact that
00:40:24
it wasn't just this is what happens.
00:40:26
And it's nice to look at perspective, especially in this
00:40:31
day and age where our media and people of power just lie
00:40:35
straight to our face. I mean, it's just lies.
00:40:38
And so I'm willing to look at both sides, but I'm also not,
00:40:41
I'm not, I'm allowed to come back and have an opinion.
00:40:44
That's not the, the virtue signalling, politically correct
00:40:48
opinion. And, and I do, and I have some
00:40:51
Muslim friends. They know who they are and, and
00:40:54
I, I want to learn from them. But at the same time, they know
00:40:57
that, you know, I've also grown up a certain way and that we
00:41:00
have opinions over here. I don't like that, that, that
00:41:03
their religion has extremists that want to kill me.
00:41:06
That's not comfortable for me. I'll say it again, comfortable.
00:41:10
It's not comfortable, I don't like it, but we talk, we talk
00:41:14
through it. In no way, shape or form am I
00:41:17
laying 100% of everything on the Palestinian regime.
00:41:22
But terrorist groups are terrorist groups and I tend to
00:41:26
learn more towards governments. And maybe I shouldn't.
00:41:28
I'm sure the Israeli government is not squeaky clean when it
00:41:32
comes to how crooked they might be and how the war crimes they
00:41:36
might have. They need to be held
00:41:39
accountable, not during the ceasefire, but they need to help
00:41:42
be held accountable. And we as as their biggest ally
00:41:44
and supporter of financially needs to say, all right, you
00:41:48
guys are good to go. We don't need to be doing this
00:41:49
anymore. We don't agree with some of your
00:41:51
tactics. Until someone is the balls to do
00:41:53
that and talk to both and and negotiate like this, it's not
00:41:57
going to end. And I challenge you now.
00:42:00
I'll challenge my own show right now.
00:42:04
I will say that there is another violent conflict and I hate that
00:42:08
this is my prediction. I'm going to push out a little
00:42:10
bit to seem a little bit nicer. I'm going to say six months.
00:42:14
I'm going to say by the end of summer there will have been some
00:42:17
other conflict between the two groups in Gaza and it's going to
00:42:21
spark some some sort of crazy thing.
00:42:23
So I hope I'm wrong. This is the one time I don't
00:42:27
want to win the bet, so see you guys next time.
00:42:31
The next show I'm going to have some guests, so look forward to
00:42:34
that. It's going to be a lot of talk
00:42:35
about some some very uncomfortable issues.
00:42:38
Uncomfortable. It's my word of the day
00:42:40
apparently, and I look forward to it.
00:42:43
So join us for that and I hope you enjoyed this one.
00:42:47
This is a a good little quote here to end the show.
00:42:49
A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch
00:42:52
breaking because it's trust is not on the branch, but on its
00:42:57
own. It's deep shit.