Newt Gingrich: "Break the back of Hezbollah"

Hearing Newt Gingrich brilliantly articulate complex world events on national television, one can't help but feel they're listening to the man who ought to be the next President. Newt isn't afraid to say what needs to be said, and say it with conviction and intelligence, even if it ruffles the PC feathers of the liberal MSM. Simply put, he's the real deal who doesn't mumble like an idiot when faced with tough, loaded questions from a hostile interviewer.

Best of all, no top political figure in America is more fiercely pro-Israel than Newt Gingrich. While many politicos say guarded niceties and offer general well wishes for Israel, Gingrich pointedly calls the islamic enemy out and demands America entirely support Israel's need to wipe out the vile, terrorist enemy which threatens their very existence.

When interviewed on Fox News Friday by Alan Colmes on the Hannity and Colmes Show, Gingrich was asked what needs to be done to stop the violence in Lebanon and Gaza from escalating, and how to go about reaching a cease fire as soon as possible. Gingrich ripped Colmes for suggesting there was any solution possible short of total military victory by Israel over the vermin from Hamas and Hizbollah.

Today, on Meet the Press with Tim Russert, who's no friend of conservatives by any stretch of the imagination, Gingrich was masterful. Here's a few excerpts from the interview:

Russert: Mr. Speaker, what are we witnessing in the Middle East?

Newt: Well, let me, let me offer three observations. First, this is not the fifth day of the war. This is the 58^th year of the effort by those who want to destroy Israel. As Ahmadinejad, the head of Iran, says, he wants to defeat the Americans and eliminate Israel from the face of the earth. So we should not see this event in isolation...

Second, the Israelis withdrew from Gaza to create the circumstance of peace. The Israelis withdrew from south Lebanon to create the circumstance of peace. They now have a thousand missiles fired from Gaza, they've had hundreds of missiles fired from south Lebanon. You clearly have Iranian involvement, there are at least 400 Iranian guards in south Lebanon... The United States should be saying to Syria and Iran, "South Lebanon is going to be cleared out. We are for Israel and the Lebanese government breaking the back of Hezbollah, getting rid of all 10,000 to 13,000 missiles, and we will decisively stop any effort by Syria and Iran to intervene."

I mean, this is absolutely a question of the survival of Israel, but it's also a question of what is really a world war. Look what you've been covering: North Korea firing missiles. We say there'll be consequences, there are none... A war in Iraq funded largely from Saudi Arabia and supplied largely from Syria and Iran. The British home secretary saying that there are 20 terrorist groups with 1200 terrorists in Britain. Seven people in Miami videotaped pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda, and 18 people in Canada being picked up with twice the explosives that were used in Oklahoma City, with an explicit threat to bomb the Canadian parliament, and saying they'd like to behead the Canadian prime minister. And finally, in New York City, reports that in three different countries people were plotting to destroy the tunnels of New York...

I believe if you take all the countries I just listed, that you've been covering, put them on a map, look at all the different connectivity, you'd have to say to yourself this is, in fact, World War III.

Russert: Speaker Gingrich, President Bush, should he try to intervene in this latest Middle East crisis, seek a cease-fire?

Newt: It is explicitly wrong to bring pressure on the victim. I mean, Israel did everything it could to withdraw from south Lebanon, and the result was terrorist missiles. Israel withdrew from Gaza, creating an opportunity for a self-governing Palestinian people to create a place of prosperity, and they've created a place of terror. And I think for us to now say imagine that was Miami. Imagine Miami had missiles being fired at it every day...Do you think any American would say, "Now, we should have proportionate response. We shouldn't overreact"? No. We would say, "Get rid of the missiles." And, and John F. Kennedy, a Democrat who understood the importance of power in the world, was prepared to go to nuclear war to stop missiles from being in Cuba...

There has been a continuing failure of opportunity to strengthen the Lebanese government. There's been a failure of opportunity to train and, and, and reinforce the Lebanese Army. There's been a failure to say, "Look, we are ultimately going have to get - we're going to have to defeat Hezbollah, and if that means in the long run we have to do something about Syria and Iran, then we need to face up to this." Ahmadinejad, as recently as yesterday, the leader of Iran, said...

Russert: What do you mean do something about Syria and Iran?

Newt: I mean do whatever it takes - look, let's say that tomorrow morning the Syrians decide to engage Israel. Let's say the Iranians decide that they're going to reinforce their 400 Iranian guards.

Russert: What do you do?

Newt: Well, the first thing you do is say they're not going to have any over-flight privileges.

Russert: Isn't it...

Newt: The second thing you do is you say to the Syrians, we have great capacity to pressure the Syrians if we want to. I gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute three years ago and said that the State Department approach of trying to deal with this dictatorship would fail. I think by any reasonable standard, trying to be nice to the Syrians, trying to understand the Syrians, is a dead loser as long as this dictatorship is there, because the planning meetings with Hamas and Hezbollah occurred in Damascus with the Iranian and Syrian ministers.

Russert: But an attack by Syria or Iran on Israel would be considered an attack on the United States?

Newt: I think it should be, it should be an action that we would reinforce the Israelis and others in doing what is necessary... I'm saying the first step has to be to understand, this is an alliance - Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas - and you can't deal with it in isolation.

America, and the world, need Newt Gingrich to become the next president in 2008. To see the Russert interview in its entirety, which I strongly recommend, go here.

-MZ