Dennis Prager on Lindsey Graham, Iran, and Defending the West | Dennis Prager's Latest Thoughts

Dennis, how are you? Well, it's a very large question. I'm doing much better. I'm on room air about 15 hours a day. Breathing great. Speaking better. In that regard, it's good news. Paralysis is another question. But we're working on that too with electrical stuff. Thank God. Well, we'll talk about this later, but I'm starting to believe more and more in miracles and some sort of divine intervention. I am so glad that you're able to jump on to these conversations with us every week because there's so much that is happening in the world right now, and we just need your help. That's right. I wish my voice were out there. That's a big part of my regret about what happened. Because Charlie was silenced. Jordan Peterson is effectively silenced right now, and I'm somewhat silenced. It makes you believe in the devil. Yeah. You know, Dennis, we lost another friend, Lindsey Graham, who was a great patriot, an incredible person. This past weekend, he passed away suddenly. I was curious, what are your remarks on this horrible loss? It's a horrible loss. It's exactly what you said. I don't believe anybody engineered it, and it's a tragedy. His father died at approximately the same age from some heart ailment. It might be congenital, and it's a tragedy. He loved the country, and he loved American strength. I'll tell you when he won me over. When he lost his cool with regard to how Brett Kavanaugh was treated. He was right to do that, ruining a man and his wife's life for no good reason. I saw in him a hatred of evil. It's been my long-time belief that people on the left do not hate evil. They hate people who hate evil. We're seeing that right now. Whether it's Hamas, they don't hate Hamas. They hate Israel for fighting Hamas. They didn't hate communism. They hated anti-communists, and we're seeing it again. Lindsey Graham is a loss. You mentioned that there are these bizarre conspiracy theories on X and all over social media that Lindsey Graham was murdered. I want us to spend a minute talking about conspiracy theories because there seems to be this addiction where podcasters and social media influencers, they feel like they have to be the first to announce that they've discovered some sort of conspiracy theory. Immediately, they take to X. Immediately, they make something up. Of course, there's never a consequence for diverting people's attention from what is true. There's never a consequence for spreading conspiracy theories, except society suffers a grave consequence when we're constantly living in this chaotic conspiracy theory land. Look, there are sometimes conspiracies, but generally speaking, what you see is what you get. Charlie Kirk was murdered by Tyler Robinson. The evidence is overwhelming. I don't know why the judge postponed till September a decision on whether or not it could even go to trial. And yet, Candace Owens said that the Israelis blew up his microphone. And there are people who believe that. It's not a good trend. What the conspiracy theorists do is they don't allow for tragedy. There are no tragedies. There's only conspiracy. Let's talk a little bit about Iran and Turkey and going to the Middle East. President Trump, I think, was right with his first instinct about the Iranians. I know that there are people within the administration that were thinking that an MOU or a business deal with the Iranians would actually bear fruit. Looks like Secretary Rubio was correct this entire time. You can't really negotiate with the Iranians. They're terrorists. They don't really approach deals like business deals. What is your way of interpreting this entire exchange of an MOU with the Iranians and now the Iranians proving out to be what many who actually have experience in the Middle East realized would probably happen? What I've come to realize in the course of my lifetime is that a great segment of people living in a decent culture, namely Western civilization, do not understand evil. They think that everybody is sort of like them. I'll never forget when I came home when I was 21 years old. I came home from four weeks in the Soviet Union and I went around speaking and I spoke to the church about the Soviet Union. A woman stood up and said she was a member of a Soviet American women's group and they're just like us. They're just like us. That is such a common phrase among naive Westerners. They're just like us. But they're not just like us. That's the point. They live in a different value sphere. Iran's greatest aim is to destroy the West, beginning with annihilating Israel. That is all they live for. They don't live to make a good Iran. They couldn't care less if their people suffer. They slaughtered 40,000 of them, peaceful demonstrators, and they just machine gunned them 40,000. Some of them were still living when they were put in body bags and buried alive. These are monsters. And I've come to realize that people in the West are so naive. And, you know, going back, the visiting of Hitler, all peace in our time, the British Prime Minister, all they want, Hitler wants what we want. He just wants things that are good for the Germans. No, he didn't. He lived to destroy other civilizations, beginning as usual with the Jews. This is a very big problem that people do not understand evil. It's huge. And that could bring the downfall of Western civilization. You can't make an MOU with the Iranian leaders. They laugh at the idea. It's just a delaying tactic. Dennis, do you think the attempt for an MOU, an agreement with the Iranian, was something that was worth trying? Or do you think it's naive and shows lack of experience? Do you think we lost time and momentum by pushing for an MOU right after the bombings? Or is it just part of what needed to happen in order for people to wake up? Both of your answers are possible. I don't know. Yeah, we lost time, but what it did was cause the first degree of friction between Netanyahu and the president. That was the downside of it. Because Netanyahu understands evil. Virtually every Israeli does. Not every Israeli. There are many naive Israelis too, although not anymore. Not after October 7th. This is a huge, huge problem to think we're all the same. I hear that stupid idea all the time. Well, they love their children, and we love our children. Well, Nazis love their children. Communists love their children. What does that prove? Nothing. Elephants love their children. What does that prove? It's an instinct, not a value system. Well, sadly, those who are running Iran right now hate the West more than they love their children. I think they've proven that with their behaviors. That's correct. That is exactly right. What are your thoughts about President Trump meeting with folks in Turkey and possibly selling them an F-35? Do you trust Erdogan? Ah, this is a very important point. There's naive faith with regard to Erdogan. Erdogan is an Islamist, okay? He's not Western. Turkey got into NATO when it was a secular Western democracy, as from 1922 when Ataturk utterly changed the country, and he wanted people to be a Western democracy. And he did it. And then, ultimately, Erdogan came to office, and he wants to reinstate the Ottoman Empire. Armenians should be demonstrating in the streets. They didn't fare very well under the Ottoman Empire. I'm not sure any non-Muslims did, and that's what Erdogan stands for. But the president likes him, and he goes very much on his instincts, whether he likes somebody. I'm sure Erdogan charms him, but giving him or selling him F-35s, that's a big deal. Well, Dennis, I want to talk to you about the teachers unions, their last two resolutions, whether the NEA, the National Educators Association, which has three million teacher members, and the AFT, which is another one of the largest teachers unions in America. Both of them are going after President Trump. The NEA just voted in their agenda to spend $5.2 million on impeaching President Trump. The AFT just resolved that they want to advocate for a 50% in military spending reduction. They want to weaken our military? Why would the teachers unions want to weaken America's military? It just sounds bonkers. Why would anybody on the left want to? That's what they stand for. I don't know what makes them tick, that they don't understand that there's a good versus evil issue here. So what they do is they paint America as evil. Oh, what are you talking about? The adversaries are evil. That's why Tucker Carlson tells you how wonderful the Moscow subways are, and how safe he felt in Moscow, as opposed to some certain American cities. What they're doing is they're minimizing the evil of evil, and maximizing the depiction of evil among the good, namely America. It's a very, very bad thing. And that's why we need moral clarity. That's why I'm happy you're doing this. It just makes no sense. As we talk about what is happening in the world right now, Dennis, we talk about how other countries are voting for stronger leaders. Other countries are realizing that actually strength, and security, and military security is worth investing in. We're having countries in the West that are actually depleting their military might, that are actually teaching their kids that they should be less strong. Are we just cowering in the face of evil when we're teaching our children that they should advocate for military reduction, that we should advocate against strong leadership? What are we doing here? We have a crisis in our education system. If that's what they're doing, imagine what they're teaching kids in classes. Everybody's the same, and you gotta love everybody. The naivete, it's willful naivete. If you're naive at 15, it's excusable. If you're naive after 25, you have desired to be naive. Because it's very hard to confront evil. It's much easier to confront good, right? And that's what they do. That's what they stand for. You know, it reminds me this question that people often ask me. They say, well, Marissa, if we got more people to be aware of what's happening in America's schools, then we would be able to win this. And my reaction has been, I don't think that people are unaware of the evil. I actually think there are a lot of people who are aware of what's happening. I think they're worried about it, but they're not really doing much about it. They're thinking that somebody else is going to be doing the fighting for them, or somebody who is more articulate is actually going to go out there and speak against what it is that they know is happening. Somebody else is going to run for the school board. Somebody else is going to hop on the radio and speak. Somebody else is going to write an article. Somebody else is going to sit in Charlie Kirk's chair. Somebody else is going to do it. They're all waiting on somebody else to do it. And as we talk about divine intervention, is it possible that God is actually telling us that we can't keep relying on somebody else to do better or to be better than us at advocating for our own country, for our own future, for our own children? Is it possible that as we started this segment and you mentioned that people have been sidelined, is it possible that it's a message from God that we can't rely on others to do the fighting for us, that we can't hope that somebody else- I have to admit- You're more articulate than I am, and here I am, right? Now I am forced to do some of the work that I never thought I would be able to do or would have to do. All right. If the lesson learned is you can't rely on a few people to bail us out, and the idea that the other guy will do it, you're the other guy. So yes, I'm not sure that that's God's message. That's certainly a message God would give. Absolutely. There's no question about it. There's a law in the Old Testament and in the Torah, do not stand by the blood of your neighbor. You can't do nothing. It's a sin to do nothing. But doing nothing is very tempting. Yes, it's very tempting. There are many, many parents who know that the teachers' unions, that the education industrial complex is attacking our children, that it, at the very least, is not good for our children, but they're hoping that somebody else is going to do something. You know, it does remind me, as I was reflecting on your Torah study from this past weekend, which is very exciting that you got to preach Torah this past weekend to your minion. And it's probably somewhat kismet, at least I believe, that the weekend that you actually came back to preach Torah was the same portion that you read during your bar mitzvah. So also, possibly kismet. But maybe you can share this Torah portion with you and your teaching. And I may want to negotiate with you on the conclusion that you had from your Torah portion. Right. Okay. So in this portion, there is a statement by God that when the Israelites enter Israel, they are to have a lottery by lots. It's what it says. By lots, you will determine where each tribe lives. That way, God does not show any favoritism. That's how I read it. Now, if it's going to be by lots, then it's a matter of luck, whether you get a better place in Israel or not. And all I was saying is, I believe there's luck in life. And a family hit by a drunk driver and killed, it was their bad luck. I don't think it was karma. I don't think they deserved it. And I don't think God willed it. So what else is left? Luck. But I said over and over, all those who believe that it was God's will, I have no desire whatsoever to talk them out of it. In fact, I sort of envy them because it gives the tragedy a greater meaning than, oh, well, it's just bad luck. I don't believe that God forced me to injure myself this way. I think that God allowed the lack of friction between a wet foot and a wooden floor to operate the way it operates. Now, it may very well be that God did intervene in having my wife actually there when I fell. She missed catching me by a few seconds, but she was never up there when, at that time of the morning, she was always preparing breakfast for me downstairs in the kitchen or in the garage even where she would get supplies. So maybe God put my wife there. She literally saved my life as did a few other people in the course of my journey here. So I don't know. But I do believe that God allows luck to play a role, like with the family killed by the drunk driver. And none of us knows. I may be right. And those who believe God is behind it all may be right. But it's so hard for me to love a God who would will not a family be killed by a drunk driver. It's hard for me to believe that a good God does such things. So what's my choice? Do you think it's possible, Dennis, that a good God understands something bigger than what we can understand? And therefore, maybe sometimes God uses people in a way that hurts at a moment in time, it hurts the human. But ultimately, because he sees a bigger picture, he sees it as maybe part of the journey of what needs to happen. Do you believe that God does have some divine intervention in certain people's lives or maybe in all people's lives? And we just don't understand it because we see it in such a finite, small picture? That's very possible. Absolutely. Like Abraham. Like Abraham, for example, from the Bible, right? Yeah. God used a person in order to bring the concept of monotheism to the world. Like Moses, for example. God used just a regular flawed person to bring the Torah to humanity. I'm sure many Christians would argue that God used Jesus to bring his teachings of morality to the world. Is it possible that God continued beyond biblical times and continues beyond biblical times in using President Trump and sparing his life? Is it possible that God used Charlie Kirk in order to bring a spiritual awakening and a sifting of good versus evil? I think that the sifting between good versus evil has never been clearer to many of us since the murder of Charlie Kirk. There's just been this incredible, in some ways negative, but in some ways positive, of a sifting of who fights for good and who fights for evil. Is it possible that God does use people in a way that we can only understand later on, but we can't understand in this moment in time? Maybe you included, Dennis. Well, now you know why I so often said on my radio show and in speeches, what keeps me sane is the belief in the afterlife. Because somehow or other, things will be clarified. In an afterlife. I can only deal with what I know in this life. Everything you said is possible. I've never said it was not possible. I just have accepted the fact that God allows gravity to paralyze people who stupidly step on polished wooden floors without a towel underneath. Yeah. Well, there's certainly a lesson in that. Sometimes we go about our daily lives and we're not as careful as we should be. These things that we do every single day seem to be less dangerous, but it's oftentimes the things that we do every single day that actually could put us in danger because we're not that careful. That's certainly true. And also, I have had so many incredible events in my life, allowing me the privilege of being influential for good. I hope that's true. Maybe God did intervene a lot in my life. And I can't be angry at him for not intervening in this case. We don't know. What we do know is that, as God says in Deuteronomy, I have put before you this day, life and good and death and evil choose life. Hamas chooses death. They choose it. They're a death cult. And Douglas Murray has written a whole book on that thing. The death cults that celebrate death, but we celebrate life. So I don't spend a lot of time anymore trying to figure out, as you put it, stuff we can't know. And that's the way it is. We have to do whatever we do in this life to promote good and fight evil. To say that Erica Kirk was in some way involved in the cover-up or murder of her husband is about as evil as it gets. And so often, in both the Old and New Testaments, we are adjured to take care of the widow and the orphan. And this is an oppression of a widow that I've never seen in my life. It truly is amazing how things that should be so obvious to people, what is good and what is evil. It is amazing to me how chaotic things have become, how unclear things are to people. It's shocking. The support of a widow, the support of innocent civilians who are attacked by terrorists, the attack that we're seeing even on America and its right to defend itself against its adversaries. The things that should be so common seem to be so uncommon. It's more common to find uncommon sense than common sense. That is what has actually happened. But it's not merely an issue. Of common sense. It's an issue of what I said earlier, those who don't fight evil, fight those who do fight evil. The best example is Israel. Israel is a decent country. 20% of Israel are Arab Muslims. How come they haven't risen up in revolt? Because they know that they're the freest Arabs in the entire Middle East. They might be the freest Muslims in the world, for all I know. Did you see the Moroccans rioting after Morocco lost in the World Cup? I mean, it's unbelievable. In Britain, they were rioting in the UK. Well, you've been warning about this for years, saying that if you allow people who don't want to live by Western civilization ideals, if you allow them to keep coming into your country, you're going to end up disappearing your country. You're not going to recognize your country. And that is what has happened in much of Europe. And sadly, it may happen here in the United States if we don't start defending ourselves. I warned so many years ago, as you know, if you bring in people, you also bring in their values. You're not importing bodies. You're importing values. What if their values are the antithesis of your country's values? And now they're learning this. Denmark is leading the way, by the way, in not allowing almost any Muslims into their country. There are wonderful individual Muslims. Nobody denies that. But Islamic culture does not resemble Western culture in the celebration of the individual, the celebration of freedom. What's on the Liberty Bell? Is there a verse from the Quran? No, there's a verse from the Torah. And that's why it's very important that we say Judeo-Christian values. Don't drop the Judeo. That's completely dishonest. We don't have a Judeo-Christian theology. Obviously, they're different. They believe different things. But there are Judeo-Christian values. Well, millions of Christians and Jews know that we're in this together. Dennis, thank you so much. Love talking to you again. And God willing, we'll keep doing this. See you next week. That's a deal.