AOC's Weasle Words - August 11, 2026

**Cenk Uygur** (0:13)
All right, welcome to The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, and joining me today is guest host Glenn Greenwald, everybody. So great to have him on, I believe. No, not yet.
Okay, fascinating. All right, so I find that out a little late as we do studio here.
Okay, so let me tell you what's on the show today and then we'll get going. So there's a secret reason why Israel does not mind straight of Hormuz being closed. So we'll talk about that. And should Hasan Piker be canceled? Yeah, we're still having that conversation. So, we'll explain, but especially vis-a-vis what AOC said yesterday about woke being crazy or on Sunday. And so we want to discuss that and hey, should we move on from that statement? Is that good enough? And is everybody happy with that? And then, I mean, as strange bedfellows continue, as the world turns, Tucker Carlson and Hunter Biden now buddies.
And they have reached some surprising agreements. So we'll get to all of that, but I think I'm going to get started with the first story.
All right, here we go.
Israel has a secret reason why they don't mind the Strait of Hormuz being blocked. So we, of course, minded greatly in America, but Israel has other reasons why they're kind of thrilled at how this war is going. Yes, they would have loved to have destroyed the entire regime and installed a puppet there by now. But the Iran war has helped cause a conflict between Iran and the Gulf countries. Israel believe that that drives them closer to Israel and away from Iran. It's done some significant damage to Iran, which they always enjoy. They love their neighbors being damaged. It's also helped them with their Leviathan gas field that has now opened up and now a new source of energy that they're very proud of. But there is yet another reason and that is actually about a pipeline that might be built, that might go through Israel. So let me explain. The Telegraph sets the whole picture for you. They say, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf's energy producers have a major problem. The main shipping routes to export their barrels of oil and tanks of gas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Strait of Hormuz have become too dangerous to use. Iran has blocked Hormuz in the wake of US Israeli strikes, while exports through Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea face constant attack from Houthi rebels. It has left Saudi Arabia, as well as some of the region's other key oil producers, searching for a solution. Now, many think that could come in the unlikeliest of places, Israel. Now, actually, it's not that unlikely, and we'll talk to Glenn Greenwald about it in a second.
There is some chance that Israel was perfectly aware that the Strait of Hormuz might get blocked, although they told Trump the opposite. And this might lead to their pipeline becoming a lot more valuable. So that makes it not unlikely, but literally potentially part of a plan to get us into this war to help Israel in ways that we didn't even know about. So, let me tell you a little bit more first.
Telegraph explains the scheme would see a pipeline built across the Saudi desert to the Israeli border, whereas second pipeline built through Israel in the late 1960s would carry it north to ports on the Mediterranean. If it worked, then it would create a new export route, bypassing the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz. Now, get a load of this. It's not like the Telegraph is just guessing at this. The Israeli officials have talked about it very openly, and a lot of them. We just have two quotes for you for today, and there are plenty, but the piece had many more. They explain, brief details of the scheme have been released by Eli Cohen, Israel's energy minister. Quote, the Gulf countries do not want to be dependent on either Iran or the Houthis in Yemen when it comes to their oil exports, which are the primary source of income. If you create a land route, you bypass both Iran and the Houthis. The best route is through the state of Israel. And here's a map so you see how it looks. So you got the oil coming out of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. And they need internal pipelines there and a pipeline to take it up to Israel. But voila, the last part of the pipeline goes straight through Israel and then pass the Strait of Hormuz, which is not necessary at that point, and into Europe. Well, golly gee, look at that lucky break Israel caught with this war, that it makes this a lot more likely. Now, if you're thinking, well, sometimes the people who defend Israel here in America will say, these are minor cabinet officials. They don't really speak for Netanyahu, it's absurd. They are all saying the same thing, but it doesn't matter in this case, because Netanyahu himself has said it. So they explain Israel is full of enthusiasm. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, said the pipeline could break Iran's grip on global energy. Quote, instead of going through the checkpoints of the Hormuz Strait and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, we just have oil pipelines, gas pipelines, going through the west, through the Arabian Peninsula, right up to Israel, right up to our Mediterranean ports. And you've just done away with the choke points forever, that is definitely possible. So before we get into more of the issues that help Israel in this war but hurt us, let me bring in Glenn Greenwald here. Glenn, do you think that this might have been one of the reasons that Israel wanted this war so bad?