For more of a fallout from Hamas's surprise attack on Israel, we are joined by Victoria Coates
former deputy national security advisor for the Middle East and vice president of foreign policy
at the Heritage Foundation. Victoria, thank you so much for joining us with your insights as this
is unfolding now for many, many hours. I want to get your thoughts on the sophistication
the scale of this and how it was missed by Israel as well as the United States
which is a great partner, particularly when it comes to sharing intelligence. Your thoughts
Well, thank you, Molly. And yeah, that's really the staggering thing is the scale and the
sophistication of this attack, which could only be carried out if a terrorist group like Hamas
which is a non-state actor, has a nation-state sponsor and that sponsor is Iran. Without us
and Iran, there's no way they can pull this off. And so we know Iran is taking all of the money
that's been flowing through it for the last two and a half years with the permissive attitude
toward its oil sales to communist China and pouring that into fueling an unprecedented
terrorist operation against innocent Israeli civilians. Victoria, Chris Jenkins, I have a
question for you because now the world is wondering who is behind this and why now
What can you tell us about that? Thanks, Chris. It's very clearly Iran. This is Tehran
lashing out at Israel, but also with a very specific purpose and at a very precise time
Fifty years after the Yom Kippur War, obviously, is a momentous anniversary
but also coming on the heels of the very open declarations by both Conqueror Mohammed bin
Salman of Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel of how close they were getting
to a truly historic peace deal to bring prosperity and security to their citizens
The Iranians hate that. That's a worst case scenario for them. So clearly, they've been
plotting this for some time, but when they saw an imminent deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel
they decided to pull the trigger. Victoria, I think you're raising something I've been wondering
about. Because of how big this is, how broad, how coordinated, the swath of land that they're
covering, the land incursion, as well as from the air, from the sea, how long has the planning gone
on for? You're talking about some of these other elements, diplomacy that are happening around the
world, and perhaps this is a long-time enemy that's always plotting to some degree and has
called for the end of Israel. But how were they able to do it at this moment, as you mentioned
when these historic deals were on the cusp? I think it's because they've been fattened up with
additional resources over the last couple of years. I remember in the spring of 2017
2018 timeframe, visiting Gaza with your former colleague, Heather Nauert, when we were both in
the Trump administration. And we went and saw all of the terrorist installations, the tunnels going
into southern Israel from Gaza that were being uncovered and destroyed. And we had a real period
of calm there for a while because Iran was being scarce with resources. We had the maximum pressure
campaign, the most significant economic sanctions in a generation to keep the money out of the hands
of Tehran, because when they get this money, all they do is spend it on terrorism. You can see an
almost dollar-to-dollar equivalence. If you unfreeze funds, if you let them sell oil, they spend that
money on violent mayhem in the region, and they spend that money on attacks on Israel
Victoria, just in the last 30 seconds we've got left, let's talk about the escalation ladder and
what we're going to see. Obviously Netanyahu's primary triage at the moment is to take back those
territories and towns from this ground invasion. But David, he's promising an unprecedented price
Hamas will pay. What does that look like? Yeah, it has to be a pullout campaign against Hamas
as if they were a state actor in this case. And it has to be a pullout campaign against
spreading Iranian influence. The White House, through its Office of Palestinian Affairs
their first response this morning was to call for restraint. That's the last thing the Israelis need
to hear. They need to hear that the United States has Israel's back and will support in every way
possible what they have to do to keep their country safe. Great insight, Victoria Coates. Thank you
for taking time. Please come back to us if you have any more developments. We appreciate it
Thank you. Hey, everyone. I'm Emily Campagno. Catch me and my co-hosts Harris Faulkner and
Kayleigh McEnany on As Numbered every weekday at 12pm Eastern, or set your DVR
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