A Debate with Dave Smith: Israel, Iran, and American Power

Note that this conversation took place before Hamas addressed some conditions of President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan and said it agreed to release all remaining hostages.

This was the most requested conversation I've ever had, and one of the longest and most challenging. Dave Smith—comedian, podcaster, and libertarian foreign policy critic—joined me for three and a half hours to debate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and American foreign policy more broadly.

We disagree on a lot. Smith recently published a video responding to my analysis of the conflict, and this conversation gave us the chance to unpack those disagreements directly—without dodging the hard questions or talking past each other. We covered Ron Paul's influence on Smith's worldview, whether 9/11 was driven by foreign policy grievances or jihadist ideology, the Iraq War, whether Israel wants peace, what Palestinians actually want, and what American foreign policy in Iran should be.

This is what substantive disagreement looks like: long, difficult, and hopefully enlightening.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices