Peloni: In an interview with Sid Rosenberg which focused on international affairs including Russia and China, Sec. of State Marco Rubio addressed ongoing efforts to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, the European countries recognizing a Pal state, cease fires in Gaza and more. The is an excerpt from this interview relating to these topics. The full interview can be read HERE. Pity there were no questions about Jolani ruling Syria.
U.S. Embassy & Consulates in China
QUESTION: Yeah, that’s right. So while we talk about designating the cartels, Marco, as a terrorist organization, I got to ask you: Why wouldn’t you guys designate the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR? I just – I look at these organizations, I have a mayor’s race here in New York City with this psycho, this lunatic Mamdani. Both of these groups you know are behind him, especially the Muslim Brotherhood. Is that something you think we can count on maybe in the near future? Maybe not CAIR just yet, but certainly the Muslim Brotherhood?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, all of that is in the works, and obviously there are different branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, so you’d have to designate each one of them. But let me just tell you that there’s a process which I didn’t fully appreciate till I came into this job, and I know people don’t want to hear about processes, but because these things are going to be challenged in court, right? Any group can say, “Well, I’m not really a terrorist – that organization is not a terrorist organization,” so you have to show your – you have to show your – the paperwork. You have to show your work like the – like a math problem when you go before court.
So we have to go through this process internally where you have to do the review, you have to document and justify what it is. You can know something is what it is, but you still got to go through it so that when someone comes back, as you’ve seen – they don’t hesitate to go to court now. We are tied up in hundreds and hundreds of lawsuits of every kind. All you need is one federal judge – and there are plenty – that are willing to do these nationwide injunctions and basically try to run the country from the bench. So we’ve got to be so careful.
But all of those things are – that you just discussed, without getting into great detail because I can’t yet, are in the process. We are constantly reviewing for groups to designate for what they are: supporters of terrorists, maybe terrorists themselves, whatever it may be. We haven’t done this in a long time, so it’s – we’ve got a lot of catch-up to do. And you’ve mentioned a couple names, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, that are of grave concern.
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QUESTION: Finally, I saved the best for last, the most passionate for me, and that is the Israel-Hamas situation. You’ve been —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.
QUESTION: You’ve been terrific. And Marco, I know how you feel about Bibi and Israel. I don’t know how a country that went through what we went through October the 7th all of a sudden became the criminals on October the 8th, but I knew it was going to happen. It happened quicker than I thought, to be honest, Marco, but I knew it was going to happen. But now we still have 20 hostages left there. Bibi wants to take over complete control of Gaza. Very simple question: Do you believe if in fact Netanyahu does that, that sooner than later it will mean the end of this horrible war?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, there’s no doubt the war ends the day Hamas stops existing as a military threat. I mean, that’s the bottom line people don’t understand. The guys who led this thing, that killed and murdered and raped on October 7th – horrifying – I mean, since – forget about October – they don’t talk about it anymore. They’re talking about, yeah, it’s a one-day thing, it happened, it was very bad – it’s all been forgotten. It’s now all about the humanitarian crisis. And I’m not for a humanitarian crisis. I’m just telling you that that’s all people are focused on now, and not October 7th, which is —
QUESTION: Yeah, but if you bring up the humanitarian crisis, Marco, is it not fair to say that while the world is blaming Israel, that is just inaccurate, that Hamas and other forces inside Gaza take all that stuff – it’s not Israel or America’s fault.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. No, that’s right. And so I think the bigger challenge that people forget is the humanitarian crisis existed even before because of Hamas. In essence, they have held captive the 2 million people that live in Gaza. They – that’s their human shield. They hide behind these people and they put them out front on purpose while they hide in tunnels. I think it’s also important to remember, if we’re going to talk about the humanitarian crisis, we should spend an equal amount of time talking about the fact that, as we speak, there are 20 living human beings in deep suffering underneath tunnels. And there’s no cameras there. There’s no BBC news crew in the tunnel interviewing these hostages. The only thing we see from them are some propaganda videos that Hamas puts out, which is horrifying, okay? We need to be reminded of that.
We also need to be reminded that none of this would have happened, there would have been no war, there would have been no bombings, there would have been none of this had Hamas not done what it did on October 7th. They’re the ones that started it. They’re the ones – and a group like that cannot be allowed to continue. It has to be eliminated. It has to be eliminated. Everybody says – we agree – the Arab League came out and said we agree Hamas needs to be disarmed, it can – disband it – they can no longer exist. But you’ve got to do something about it. They’re not going to just do it voluntarily, and to do something about it involves, unfortunately – now, it would be great if Hamas just quits tomorrow and says look, we’ll quit, we’re out of the terrorism business, we surrender, here’s our guns. But that’s not going to happen.
QUESTION: Right. No.
SECRETARY RUBIO: And so as long as Hamas exists, there will be no peace in Gaza. That’s a fact. You can have a ceasefire for 30, 60, 90 days. You can do whatever you want. You will not have peace in Gaza as long as Hamas exists. And the sooner we grasp that and the sooner people grasp that, the sooner they understand what the objective has to be here.
QUESTION: And to wrap this up in a nice little bow, Marco, what’s going on with these European countries? I mean, this guy Macron, he’s a disgrace. Let’s be honest. France, Canada, the UK – the UK is threatening you and Trump: hey, if there’s no peace in September, we’re going to do this. Australia, Ireland – what’s going on with these European countries?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, and first of all, it’s largely meaningless, right? It’s symbolic, and they’re doing it primarily for one reason, and that is their internal politics, their domestic politics. In the UK, in France, in many parts of Europe and Ireland, for a long time their domestic politics has turned anti-Israel or whatever it may be, and they’re getting a lot of domestic pressure to do something, but it’s largely meaningless. The truth of the matter is that the future of that region is not going to be decided by some UN resolution. It’s not going to be decided by some press release by a prime minister or a president from some country. It’s going to be decided on the ground. It’s going to be decided by: when will the day come when Palestinian areas are not governed by terrorist organizations? Because that’s truly what this comes down to, and that is the security of Israel.
The reason why there’s a war right now in Gaza is because Israel was attacked. And as long as people govern these spaces who are going to attack Israel, you are not going to have peace. So for everyone who wants peace in the Middle East, it begins by eliminating and wiping out or moving away the groups, the organizations that are willing to attack Israel, who make it their purpose the destruction of the Jewish state. That’s a fact. Whether people want to accept that or not, the sooner they accept it, the sooner we have a chance at peace there. It’s difficult and it ain’t easy, but that’s a fact. But all these statements are meaningless, like they’re not – they’re not going to change anything.
QUESTION: Good to hear that. We got to find a way to get Rabbi Kaploun – he loves you; I know you love him – and Mark Walker jobs, because the Senate’s going to take about 10 more years, I’m afraid, Marco. I have no idea what these people are doing.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, it’s unfortunate. It takes a long time. But these are good people. We’ve got to get them in place.
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