Dave Smith vs. Coleman Hughes Debate: Israel and U.S. Foreign Policy

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For months, my audience has been asking me to have this conversation. Dave Smith—stand-up comedian, host of the Part of the Problem podcast, and one of the most prominent libertarian critics of U.S. foreign policy—recently made a video responding to my analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We disagree about a lot. So we sat down for three and a half hours to hash it out.

The conversation was challenging in the best sense. It was long and substantive, and I was genuinely uncertain about where it would go. 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.

At the outset, I told Smith I wanted to focus on the issues that matter—not on personal attacks or referendums on either of us as people. He agreed immediately.

We found common ground where we could: Both of us think neoconservatism has been disastrous, the Iraq War was a catastrophic mistake, and America should be far more skeptical of foreign intervention. But we part ways on Israel, the role of ideology versus grievances in terrorism, and whether withdrawing from the world makes America safer or not.

This conversation won't resolve those debates. But I hope it models what good-faith disagreement looks like: civil, rigorous, and unafraid to follow the argument wherever it leads.

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.

00:00:00 – Intro
00:02:25 – Ad: Uber
00:02:59 – Dave's Libertarian Awakening
00:09:40 – Why They Hate Us: Foreign Policy vs. Radical Islam
00:32:37 – War Spending, Debt & The Federal Reserve
00:38:47– Anti-War Philosophy: Where Are the Limits?
00:52:42 – Did Israel Influence the Iraq War?
01:27:15 – Selling the Iraq War: Tony Blair and the Ethics of Intervention
1:38:48 - Trump and the U.S.–Israel “Special Relationship”
01:52:48– Was There Ever a Partner? Negotiations, Distrust, and Gaza
02:15:29 – Parallels: Slavery, Segregation, and Occupation
02:17:56 - Gaza, Hamas & The Morality of War
02:37:28 - Palestinian Statehood & the 1967 Borders
02:47:47 - Withdrawing from the West Bank
03:05:39 - What if America Cut Off Support for Israel?
03:09:59 - The Puerto Rico Analogy: Choosing Stability Over Sovereignty
03:14:40 – Iran and the 12-Day War