Video Infoblog: Max Blumenthal & Miko Peled : Where is the War in Gaza Going?

Transcript

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my name is Bruce F I'm Vice chairman of the committee for the Republic uh and I welcome everyone today

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for hazarding the inclement weather and uh

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treacherous sidewalks to get here I know it's an ordeal especially in Washington when snowflake sends tear to bureaucracy

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yes we're gathered tonight to be undeceived of the orwellian propaganda

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of the Israeli Lobby the B Administration Congress and University campuses about the ongoing October 7th

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Israeli War in Gaza that has endured for more than 100

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days this grizzl has no end insight

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our speakers display Fearless intellectual depth and moral

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courage m p who I'm told is on his way up from the parking lot and Max B was

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here in the front row they accepted ostracism within their communities as the price of speaking

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truth to power the committee s celebrates

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citizens who have what it takes to declare the emperor has no

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clothes as we would not give equal time to proponents and detractors of the

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force of gravity or Newton's Laws of Motion we do not give equal standing to

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truth and its opposite we will be enlightened by Mo and Max across a full spectrum of Front

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Burner issues Israel Palestine genocide

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netanyahu's motives and Maneuvers the expansion of the war to the West Bank

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Syria Lebanon the Red Sea and now

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Iran the idolatry of Zionism and the criminal complicity of

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President Biden in Congress in Israel's indiscriminate

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killing that's our government our two speakers are masters of their subjects

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like brandise and Holmes on Free Speech Thomas Jefferson wrote in the

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Declaration of Independence let facts be submitted to a candid World

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Judaism is a religion a subscription to the 613

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Mitzvah enumerated in the Torah it is not a racial category it is

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not a nation state it is the worship of God that

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transcends National boundaries anti-zionism is not

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anti-Semitism it is a defense of Judaism in its most pristine unsolid

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state by any rational application of the genocide convention ratified in 1951 Israel is

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committing genocide in Gaza you read section two of the genocide convention

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Jo all recommend genocide is not an idiosyncratic concoction of any

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individual it states genocide includes the quote deliberate creation of

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conditions of Life calculated to physically destroy million any group in whole or in

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part here 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaz in whole or in

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part there is now pending a genocide lawsuit in the international court of justice brought by South Africa we

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probably will get a preliminary ruling within a few weeks the Israeli government has made

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Gaza uninhabitable no food no

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water no medicine no hospitals no shelter no

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place to hide even churches and Israeli hostages waving White Flags shouting in

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Hebrew are fair game for the IDF the United States has criminally

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aided and abiding Israel's genocide with billions of dollars of military aid

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intelligence and diplomatic support in the United Nations security

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Council we as citizens of the United State have

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a duty to speak out against what our government is doing to Idol in the face

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of genocide is to is to disrespect George Washington Thomas Jefferson James

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Madison Patrick Henry among other Giants of the American Revolution they all gave or risked that

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last full measure of Devotion to make Liberty the rule of law

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and the march of the Mind the glory of the United States now we have Max Blumenthal will

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present first and then we'll have

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[Applause]

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beep space up

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here the mad for that let me get my

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water like red fox up here in my whiskey thank you all for coming out tonight

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especially want to thank Bruce for that really warm introduction on such a cold

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night and uh John Henry for pulling this together John

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pull together my talk at the national Press Club on Goliath uh the great chass

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Freeman and uh and uh Norman actually it was Norman

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bebom who introduced me there wasn't it it was so R uh you know in memory of

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Norman I I really wish you were here tonight but so many good friends are here and as always it reminds me to

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never trust anyone un under 30

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I'm a little under the weather bear with me how much time do I

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have 15 minutes okay have to cut this down severely I

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actually didn't think I would be let me set a timer then I didn't think I would uh be speaking at this point in the war

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it's been a 100 days um and uh you know I've been talking

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about this for years and years and years years operation protective Edge remember in 2014 large parts of Gaza were

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destroyed hundreds and hundreds of children and women were killed in 51 days I wrote a book about it 51 Day War

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I did a film killing Gaza and uh it I mean this film killing

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Gaza really sets the stage for what you see now which is just 51 days but an

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intensification a full-on Genesis ital plan and did anyone who asks you now do

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you condemn theas did they condemn anything that has taken place before October 6th I mean we're talking about

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one military assault on Gaza after another since Gaza was placed under siege in

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2005 supposedly during a withdrawal placed under the panopticon system

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Israel controls its airspace its perimeters it's its sea there's no freedom of navigation for gaza's fishing

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industry Israel places uh gazan citizens or residents they are not citizens of

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any state under uh what Dove Weiss glass an adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister ahud called the Gaza diet we

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will thin them out but won't allow them to starve and so Israel employed complex mathematical formulas to calculate what

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each Resident was allow which cic intake they're allowed now the caloric intake

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is zero most people in Gaza are surviving off one meal a

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day the pressure at the border will become unbearable and we will have to kill and kill and kill all day every day

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that is what Arnon sofair who helped design the siege of Gaza and Israeli academic and demographer said in 2005 as

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The Siege went into effect so let's move to October 6 not October 7th October 6th

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Gaza was under siege National Security director Jake at the Aspen security conference declared that the Middle East

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had never been quieter under Biden's watch and they were moving liberally and freely without any bother in the world

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towards full normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel a peace between the

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rich that would place the Palestinians the Palestinian problem in the

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historical ice box Forever on October 6 Gaza was desperate ignored isolated

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Hamas which was running Gaza as I've seen on multiple trips there like any

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other government in the Middle East maybe more effectively than um some of them you know they had people out there

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directing traffic running health ministries and so on they had no diplomatic channels they

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were declared a terrorist movement they had no way of forcing negotiations to end this Siege and they were expected to

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continue to remain Under Siege and occupation forever as we saw the highest

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number of killings by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank many times since

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the second and tiata as we saw alaxa the alaa compound the third holiest site in

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Islam invaded again and again with worshippers brutally beaten so the Strategic rational for October 7th was

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devised by Yahya senoir prime minister of Gaza now in a tunnel maybe living

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under disguise who was the architect of the prisoner swap for gilad Shalit Who

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was the Israeli uh Soldier taken captive in 2006 released in 2011 for 1,27 captives

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including Yahya senoir who was the lead negotiator from inside prison he had spent most of his life in an Israeli

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jail fleu in in Hebrew that's why he's prime minister the goal

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was to get hostages so that you can force negotiations that have been denied

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to you force diplomacy and wipe out the Gaza division that is enforcing this Siege this criminal siege that has

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killed your sons your mothers and your families that is precisely what took place on October 7th

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when Israeli military bases from rim to nalaz overtaken the Gaza division was

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wiped out eras crossing the home of the Gaza Siege where Kat which devised the

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complex mathematical formulas was overtaken wiped out by a Guerilla Army

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entering Israel on cheap Chinese motorbikes this was not just a shattering of Israel's psychological

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security blanket it was a political Scandal of unprecedented proportions Israel's Military Intelligence apparatus

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and spy Tech that it exports throughout the world exposed as a paper tiger Palestine placed back at the center of

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History a normalization between the gulf monarchies and I don't care what Prince fol said in Davos

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today the normalization is off the table Israel's borders were temporarily

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shrunken for the first time since 1973 in the South which is a closed

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military zone and in the north by Hezbollah which has entered the conflict so what does Israel

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do how does it respond well first it responds with its own psychological War which has been waged on us as well as

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its own population its own Narrative of October 7th the worst killing of Jews since the Holocaust beheaded babies a

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woman whose fetus was cut out of her pregnant woman an entire family tied together mutilated then killed while

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Hamas militants all ate lunch all repeated by Joe Biden who falsely claimed to have seen photographs of this

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and Tony blinkin all to justify genocide and prevent a ceasefire all false most

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most origin of this and and let's not let's be clear as Obama would say let me

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be clear and now I'm going to be completely convoluted unless I'm reading off a teleprompter

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um Hamas did shoot people they did kill civilians on October 7th I am not denying that but Israel couldn't stick

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with that case they had to go further in order to evoke the Holocaust in the imaginations the traum traumatized

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imaginations and psyche of its own population and to compel Western support for what it was about to do which was

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going to be uh essentially convening of an einot group in reenactment Society in

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Gaza so where did these where did these these uh Tall Tales come

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from one organization mostly called zaka an ultra Orthodox supposed rescue group

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with no coronary credentials which claim to show up in the southern communities of

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Israel a guy named Yosi landow you'll see him quoted prominently in the New York Times who confirmed the beheaded

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baby story no beheaded babies ever materialized spread the LIE of a beus

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cut from a pregnant woman and continues to lie uh yes yesterday the New York Times published a puff piece on his

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organization zaka which has just raked in a $3 million donation from Russian

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billionaire Roman Abramovich and a$ 125,000 donation from Mark Zuckerberg

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all thanks to these lies which have raised their profile yesterday in the New York Times Yosi Lando said he found a woman stabbed in her

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genitals there there are physical records of what took place on October 7th to everyone names of the victims and

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none of this has ever been registered there's no physical evidence zaka is at the center of the

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Hamas Mass rape uh scop which is being pushed by the Israeli foreign Ministry

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through reliable Vehicles like Hillary Clinton and Cheryl sanberg who appeared at the United Nations to uh spin this

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out at the Israeli mission that Hamas used rape as a strategic weapon on October 7th there's no documentation of

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any rape no testimony from any rape victim so anyone who said they're a rape

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victim the Israeli government said well we can't provide you with any of them to to journalists who asked because they're

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all dead or in mental institutions you can't hear from them so we get very

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lurid testimonies from supposed eyewitnesses who suddenly surfaced months after the fact in the New York

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Times in a piece published called screams without words by Jeffrey Gelman who is noted for admitting to

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fabricating quotes in a story about Robert gab's government in Zimbabwe

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which actually got Zimbabwe and locked up in prison we have the lead person in the

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Jeffrey ghettman article in the New York Times the woman in the black dress gal abdos who was found dead on October 7th

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next to her car her whole family much of her family

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her sister and her brother-in-law have come out and denounced the New York Times for manipulating them and for

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inventing the story that she was raped and said it was basically impossible we've debunked this in detail at the New York Times along with this whole story

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but the purpose of this of these atrocities extreme atrocities is this is a

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genocidal conspiracy it is to use the media and our governmental figures and

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people we supposedly trust especially liberals and particularly feminists because the progressive base for Joe

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Biden does not support this war it's to use them to compel our support for this

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genocidal assault and so we have to be critical about it when we hear about all these burned bodies on October 7th and

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again this is not to deny that Hamas killed many people non-combatants as it took them captive

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it all points to something much darker and more scandalous was it possible for Hamas to

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have reduced all of those homes and cubits ber to Rubble with kalashnikovs

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and rocket propelled grenades or did something else take place like what tuval scapa who was the member of the

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security team for kibuts bery in southern Israel said when he told the Israeli newspaper hars the commanders in

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the field made difficult decisions including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the

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terrorists along with the hostages look at the homes in this kibuts which is now

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being turned into a de facto second Holocaust Museum in New yadvashem by

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Israel welcoming everyone from Elon Musk to Jared Kushner those homes were destroyed by tank shells Israeli tank

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shells and we now have video of Israeli tanks firing on homes which they knew contained Israeli citizens in this

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kibuts the pessy Coen home 15 Israelis were killed in one tank shell strike we

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know that because an Israeli actually survived two Israelis survived and they

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described that in Israeli media that the Israeli Special Forces killed everyone in that home who had been held captive

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and they knew they were going to kill them they eliminated everyone including

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the hostages said a Survivor Yasmin por so they even shelled their own military

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bases at the Aras Crossing with a missile this is something that Colonel

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no erz who was an Israeli Air Force officer operating on October 7th called

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Mass Hannibal Hannibal is a reference to the carthaginian general who poisoned

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himself rather than being taken captive the Hannibal directive is a semi secret now well-known once secret Israeli

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directive to attack or kill Israeli captives if they're taken by

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Palestinians or the enemy to prevent a painful prisoner swap like the one which

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saw gilad sh exchanged for over 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners

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including Yahya senir the prime minister of Gaza so now you have over

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200 captives people are being taken captive in ways they never have before on October 7th what does Israel do well

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now we know through the largest newspaper in Israel and a correspondent

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Ronan Bergman who also contributes to the New York Times that on October 7th and I'm quoting directly the IDF

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instructs all its fighting units in practice to use the Hannibal procedure without clearly mentioning this name the

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instruction is to stop at all costs any attempt by Hamas to return to Gaza the actual meaning of the order is

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that the main goals to stop the retreat of the Hamas Commandos and if they took hostages with them then even if this

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means risking or harming the lives of the civilians in the area and wette reports that over 70 cars

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were destroyed by Israeli tank shells or Apache helicopter missiles on October

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7th in many cases everyone inside the cars were killed so look at the photos

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that Israel's showing everyone of all of the October 7th massacres and atrocities that often shows people who are

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physically roasted inside their cars many of those people are not even Israelis they are Palestinians many of

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them are Israelis who were taken captive so now we know that many of the people killed on October 7th among that 1,200

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total that we keep hearing about were killed by Israel using the same tactics that they're now using in Gaza because

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they know nothing other than indiscriminate use of heavy weapons and disproportionate force and I keep

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getting called a conspiracy theorist by Israeli media Hamas called called me a conspiracy theorist I

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got a email from the Washington Post planning to paint me as a spreader of

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disinformation and my colleague Aaron mate were writing about Friendly Fire casualties and for some reason that

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article hasn't really materialized or come out and it might be because of the

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preponderance of evidence from Israeli media let me check my timer I'm still on

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October 7th and I think it's 100 days later I got two minutes

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left okay I think I can wrap this up and moo will big picture what big picture

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big picture well I want to just get the big picture on on this propaganda campaign being waged by Israel is number

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one it's believed by most it's not all Jewish Israelis that many many babies

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were beheaded on October 7th no babies were killed on October 7th when I say

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babies plural the plural one baby was accidentally shot which is horrible

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named Mila Cohen 11 months old in K Berry so whenever you hear like Jake Tapper or Joe Biden or whoever say

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babies were killed you know they're lying just based on these evidence that we have clear

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evidence yes the Israeli records you can find these records at at hars the

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Israeli Social Service Security Administration it's all there um but the point is to drive the Israeli the Jewish

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Israeli consensus for a genocidal military assault whose objective is not the elimination of Hamas

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which is impossible because they have a mass base among the population they are the population in many ways but the

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elimination of Gaza as a Palestinian entity and The Disappearance of its

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population or what Ron durmer special assistance to Netanyahu called the thinning of the population and this is

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what we saw with the South African presentation at the icj accusing Israel

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of having the potential to commit genocide I've never seen more evidence of genocidal intent expressed by the

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leadership of a country and its population than what we've seen from Israel and it's often not that they're

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caught in the act but that they're freely broadcasting it proudly to the international public and especially to

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the Hebrew speaking public on Tik Tock showing themselves committing war crimes

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today we saw the Israeli military blow up 12 residential blocks in conun on Tik

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Tok the soldiers were flaunting it yesterday we saw soldiers flaunting themselves opening up a in someone's

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house and stealing their money $90 million has been taken from Gaza according to the government there you

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it's day after day you see these videos of Israeli soldiers declaring there are no uninvolved senior IDF officers

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Lieutenant Colonel Orin Schindler the 74th Battalion of the 188th Brigade we need to make sure that wherever the IDF

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goes in Gaza there's Devastation there are no innocence Heritage Minister amii eliahu proposed dropping a nuclear

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weapon on Gaza and said that people in Gaza need to be dealt to fate worse than and death and on and on and on only 1.8%

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of Israelis believe that Israel has used Too Many explosives on Gaza according to gaza's government 65,000 tons of

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explosives have been dumped on the Gaza Strip three times more than was used on

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hirosima 247 Palestinians killed every day 48 mothers 117 children three Medics two

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teachers 10 children two teachers killed every day

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and 10 children have lost one or two one or two limbs each day over 1,000

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children have had procedures to amputate their limbs performed without anesthesia yesterday a video emerged of a father

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who is a doctor performing an amputation on his daughter's leg without anesthesia

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and you know I'm GNA just make two points I'm going in I'm going one minute

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over time I'm make two points one just about the genocide and Gaza and then one kind of a big picture Point um I think

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Q&A will be great um one of the we've been working with local journalists in

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Gaza to bring there's this reality on the ground to you from the gry zone go check out our YouTube channel and see

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those video reports we as journalists from outside Gaza cannot go in and you'll notice that mainstream

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journalists are not exactly lining up and pressuring their governments or the Israeli government to demand they be

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allowed to go in one of the most painful stories that we reported uh through

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local Palestinian journalists was of a 13-year-old girl named dunia abum Mosen who had survived an air strike on her

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home that killed much of her family her parents she miraculously survived her leg was amputated and she was brought to

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al- Naser Hospital in KH Yunis in Southeastern Gaza and uh she gave an

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interview where she said that you know she still had hope in life she wanted to um get a prosthetic and become a doctor

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and help other children walk again who had lost their legs cuz so many other of her generation

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had um soon after that interview and we had

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our journalist arrive to the hospital soon after this happened an Israeli tank shell fired on the hospital and blew her

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head off and killed her in her hospital bed that tank shell was one of the 14,000 tank

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shells FastTrack to Israel in a sale that bypassed Congress presided over by

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Tony blinkin of the US state department we had no say as American taxpayers as

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American citizens and whether Israel could have those tank shells there's no AR there there is no restriction at all

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on what the US government is giving to Israel there's no transparency and when I brought that to the doorstep of the

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state department and asked the state department spokesman last week about that he said no we we we we notified

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Congress in a way but essentially we notified them by invoking emergency law and we told them we're invoking an

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emergency law to bypass the arms control act so that's what we're dealing with here who will stop them before they kill

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again how can we stop them the only people trying to stop them are the

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regional resistance the axis of resistance which spans from Southern

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Lebanon to Syria to tan to sa and Yemen and these are the targets of the enable

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March of neoconservatism which was spelled out in the project for a New American Century document we have to see

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Gaza as a step on the way to the prize of taking out Iran we have to see the

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regime change plot against Syria in which the US and the Gulf States and

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NATO funded death squads to try to remove Bashar alassad we have to see the

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the six-year war on Yemen causing one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis

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crises as an attempt to weaken Palestine and make this genocide possible this is

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about imperialism it's about Empire it's about neoconservatism it's not just about human rights so we have to see the

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bigger picture here and I just interviewed Muhammad alaiti who's the spokesman for the hudis and what he said

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was we are waging a respons essentially a responsibility to protect military

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intervention to protect a population that is totally defenseless and we're

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using any means at our hands most Arabs are completely hopeless under the control of dictators we fought a

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revolution in our country to be able to do this and stand up for our brothers and what they're doing is choking

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shipping at its most vital point in the Red Sea in babaa in a largely bloodless

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military operation to stop a genocide this is the first time in my life one of

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the first times I have seen a moral military intervention because in my country all the military interventions

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which have been waged by the liberal humanitarian interventionist r2p crowd inspired by the writings of Samantha

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power the people who are in the Biden White House have re have have have

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caused nothing but destruction and instability and so this is what the Biden Administration has created on this

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this is the cycle the Biden Administration has created with its refusal to call for a ceasefire it could

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end all of this this cycle of escalation by just doing a ceasefire but they can't do it so they're bombing Yemen

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to stop the one movement which controls most of this country from intervening to

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stop a genocide the bombing of Yemen is designed to prolong and preserve the

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worst most obvious genocide that I have ever witnessed who will stop them before

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they kill again people in the region are going to take up arms to stop Israel

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before they kill again that's what's happening and we have been rendered voiceless here so what the reason we're

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here tonight is to get our act together and figure out what we're going to do this

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year to stop this and to get in the way of the inexorable inexurable March of

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neoconservatism thank [Applause]

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you a lot of Q&A yeah Q&A is gonna be really important all right it's always

30:37

better all right good evening and uh it's a hard act fall after Max thank you

30:42

all for being here sorry I was late it's harder to get in Uber these days and or today with the snow and that's why I was

30:49

late so I apologize um again thanks Max I only caught half of half of that well that

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was pretty powerful like I said said a hard act to follow you know if we had a choice which

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we like Max I think Illustrated very clearly if we did have a choice what would we want to see

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happen it's our taxpayers by any it's our you know we pay the

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salaries we pay uh out of our taxpayers we pay the Navy we pay the military we

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pay the government we pay our Representatives we vote for our Representatives so I for one would like

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to see the six Fleet which as I'm sure you know is in the Mediterranean come in to stop Israel and

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provide humanitarian Aid to humanitarian Aid to Gaza over two million people have

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been being massacred in broad daylight on Prime Time the six Fleet is right

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there they can stop it right now and provide

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necessary beond necessary like crucial humanitarian Aid to these two million people that have never done anything

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wrong say what you will about the resistance say what you will about what happened on October the

32:08

7th nothing nothing on the face of the Earth

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justifies this Savage Slaughter of innocent civilians nothing does and the

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six Fleet is right there they can stop it provide humanitarian Aid declare no

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fly zone over Gaza and at least Stop The Killing if nothing else so where are our voices we're

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paying for this our elected officials are voting for this how is this even

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possible that we as taxpayers as we that we as people who are part of what's

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supposed to be a democracy it's our elected officials that are voting to do

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this I remember Max mentioned the 14,000 tank shells I remember when this was announced the 14 ,000 tank there's

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something about that number that just I couldn't get rid of it was like imp haunting me 14,000 tank shells for what

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there's no tank Palestinians have never had a tank Palestinians have never had a war plane Palestinians never had an army

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never in the history have ever had an army yet we are believing we're buying

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into this complete nonsense that somehow Israel is defending itself from what

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from what a bunch of guys with flip-flops and an AK-47 that's it and a handful of

33:34

bullets and and we're talking about big picture here fine let's let's let's expand the picture here a little

33:42

bit the genocide of the Palestinian people has

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been going on since the state of Israel was established in other words actually before the state of Israel was

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established as soon as the United Nations passed this ridiculous

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resolution of partitioning Palestine it was the end of November

34:06

1947 a wellth thought out well planned and very well executed campaign of

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genocide and ethnic cleansing began in Palestine now what is

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so cynical about this this was three years after the end of the

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Holocaust three years after the end of the Holocaust the world allow the world allowed a campaign of ethnic

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cleansing and genocide to take place in

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Palestine which is three hours flly from from from Berlin four hours fed from Paris it's not some place at the end of

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the world that nobody can see or hear it was right there how could we possibly let this

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happen three years after the end of the Holocaust and we know in case anybody

34:58

has any doubts we know this because Amnesty International told us an aarid regime was put in place over

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Palestine and this new regime was called Israel so of course because it's Israel and it's so biblical we can't say

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anything about it how could we possibly resist how could we possibly claim anything bad about this biblical

35:17

creation which is Israel for 75 years my father was an

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officer in 1948 when I hear Palestinians many of them are in Gaza because he he

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was he operated mostly in the southern part of the country who come from these Villages

35:36

that I know my father participated in those so-called battles if you want to

35:41

call them battles it was a campaign of ethnic cleansing against a nation that has no military but fine let's assume

35:47

they were battles I cringe I

35:53

cringe Villages and towns there were no they are no longer there

35:58

gone gone and people treat this like it was

36:05

some kind of a military I don't know Miracle people who

36:12

don't believe in miracles by the way people are completely secular and don't believe in God suddenly believe that

36:17

that was a miracle and then the miracle came back by the way in 1967 when Israel's massive military

36:24

force assaulted its neighbors and five days managed to Triple the size of the

36:31

state of Israel and kill 18,000 Arab

36:38

soldiers how could we possibly allow this to happen where were we it's been

36:44

going on for 75 years now right now the focus is on Gaza as it well should

36:50

be but let's talk big picture there are two million Palestinian citizens of Israel

36:58

no one no one dares to leave their home no one dares to send a message a text

37:05

message no one dares to post on social media doctors

37:10

Engineers uh you know teachers principles people are fearful of their

37:15

life you know why because their life is cheap

37:21

because as we all well know the Israeli government has been handing out M16s to

37:27

citizens and if you kill a Palestinian who may be wand wandering around in Tel

37:32

Aviv there will be no recourse there's nowhere to go with that even if that Palestinian happens to be a citizen of

37:41

Israel when the Palestinian Fighters came out of Gaza on October the 7th they basically were able to capture all of

37:47

Southern Palestine the entire southern part of the country call the nakab or the ne as Israel calls

37:54

it a great deal I think most of the refugees in the Gaza Strip come from that part of the country the southern

37:59

part of Palestine there are 300,000 Palestinians

38:05

citizens of Israel who live in that part of the country they are the poorest of the poor among Israeli

38:10

citizens the which is opposed which is basically a desert is a very fertile desert Israeli settlements cities towns

38:18

Kim like we heard enjoy some of the highest standards of living in that part

38:23

of the country you know why because it's very fertile and agriculture of course is subsidized anyway if I go back there

38:30

tomorrow as an Israeli citizen I can I can lease a rench and I can grow

38:36

anything I possibly want I will have all the water I want all the subsidies I want

38:42

Palestinians whose land that was and are now living in basically

38:48

townships are not allowed to engage in agriculture these are

38:54

farmers the Palestinian better in our Farmers they're not allowed to engage in

39:01

agriculture now on a this is on a normal day this got nothing to do with now this is on normal when things are

39:10

good more than 2,000 homes are demolished just in that part of the country on a regular basis before

39:17

October 7 you know how many of those homes are Jewish homes anybody want to

39:25

guess zero how could that be you mean Israeli Jews never break the law they never build without a permit I know

39:31

people who build without a permit you think the Army comes and demolishes their home no this is kept only for

39:38

Palestinians and these are citizens of Israel and that's only that part of the country and another 40,000 40,000 home

39:46

demolition orders which are now being fast-tracked for the Israeli for the

39:52

Palestinian citizens of Israel and other parts of the country that's excludes the bang excluding

40:00

Jerusalem and that was the good old days that was before October 7 before October 7th Israel had some

40:08

6,000 political prisoners they doubled that number after October 7th every

40:14

Palestinian friend I have has been has been uh has been arrested some were released some were

40:20

not everybody was beaten and tortured I just interviewed Isa amra

40:25

from heon probably one of the most important most courageous leaders of Palestinian uh Civil Disobedience and

40:32

unarmed resistance in Palestine the kind of guy that makes

40:37

Martin Luther King proud and Elsa Mandela proud as they look down on him he was beaten

40:46

tortured sexually abused on October the 7th in Hebron as in the other cities

40:52

throughout the West Bank Palestinians have an hour in the morning and an hour at night to leave their

40:59

homes why because the abuse and I just spoke to he

41:05

said the other day I just interviewed him the abuse they have seen before October 7th seems like the good old days

41:12

he said it's a whole new level of joy that the Israeli soldiers and settlers

41:17

are expressing now as they catch and and and beat up and torture Palestinians a

41:23

whole new level why Palestinians in Jerusalem if you don't

41:29

know they have their own status they're not citizens and they're not part of the West Bank they're kind

41:36

of in their own you know I always say you know I have Palestinian friends in Jerusalem whose families have been in

41:42

Jerusalem consistently for 800 years

41:48

recorded they have no citizenship they have no rights if they leave for a couple of

41:53

years they're gone their status is gone their right rights are gone the property is gone I've been gone for 30 years I

41:59

can go back to Jerusalem tomorrow like nothing happened my grandparents immigrated 100

42:05

years ago from you know Eastern Europe and these were the good old

42:11

days so now finally the world has woken up finally

42:17

we see Israel being taken to court to the icj finally accusations of

42:23

genocide are presented and Israel has to defend itself finally which is doing if

42:28

if anybody's been paying attention clearly they've been doing a very poor job at defending themselves because how

42:34

could you possibly possibly defend yourselves the stories that Max

42:40

reiterated I won't repeat at nauseum when clearly the evidence shows

42:46

that none of that happened and even if it did even if it

42:54

did 20 5,000 innocent civilians

43:01

dead is that justified not to mention the fact the Palestinian fighters in Gaza are still

43:07

fighting they're still fighting people say well they have an

43:13

objective to destroy Hamas to bring down Hamas to eliminate this to move that as

43:19

though there's some kind of a strategy as though there's something here that makes

43:25

sense Israeli military was humiliated once

43:30

again on October the 7th just as it was exactly 50 years and one day before that

43:38

in 1973 some of us are old enough to remember the October 1973 War when the

43:43

Israeli military was surprised and humiliated and why are they

43:49

humiliated because the Arabs wouldn't dare this is what we're taught this is

43:54

what we believe the Arab Arabs wouldn't dare well every time they dare they succeed every time they dare they

44:01

succeed the Israeli military was proven clearly to be nothing more than a paper

44:08

tiger the great Israeli intelligence apparatus nothing more than a paper

44:14

tiger every time they're put to the test they're humiliated and they failed well this time they decided just like any

44:20

gangster would just like any mobster would to

44:26

take revenge on the weakest most defenseless victims the Palestinians in

44:33

the Gaza Strip now the official number I think from Palestinian sources in Gaza is

44:40

about 23 24,000 dead the estim the people estimate estimate that there are

44:48

at least 50,000 because they haven't uncovered

44:54

they've not yet uncovered all the day it's impossible to do that when all the bombing and so forth is taking

45:00

place how can we sit here and pay for this how can we sit here in Washington DC and allow this to

45:08

happen it's been 75 years three years after the

45:15

Holocaust genocide ethnic cleansing and aarti three crimes defined as crimes

45:23

against humanity being committed by a state that we pay almost $4 billion

45:29

dollar a year in foreign aid never mind the fact they don't need foreign aid it's a rich

45:35

country it's a rich country Israel doesn't need foreign aid and now

45:42

this I have to say this my friends

45:48

clearly clearly as Max was saying there are two

45:54

options when it comes to the Israel Palestine question two option and none

45:59

more believe me I was born and raised in Jerusalem my father was a general in

46:06

1967 then he dedicated his life to this idea of the two-state solution whereby

46:11

Palestinians would enjoy their own you know the right to

46:17

self-determination in the small part of the their their own land of Palestine which is the West Bank and the Gaza

46:23

Strip Israel did everything it possibly could could to make sure that never

46:28

happens you know they call it the six- day war but actually it was a 5-day War the war ended after five days you know

46:34

why they call it six days if you open the Jewish prayer book and I know you had Rabbi Shapiro here if you open the Jewish prayer

46:41

book the term six days of creation six days of creation six days of creation it was a miracle a Six Day War was a

46:49

miracle that's why they called it sixth day war it was a a war that ended in five days on the fifth day of that war

46:55

my father stood up at the first meeting of the Israeli High command now he was one of the generals

47:01

who pushed very hard to start the war at the end of the war he said okay now we won it's great we give back the

47:07

territories we make peace with our neighbors and we're done our children won't have to

47:13

fight and two things happens as he was saying this number one his comrades in arms it'sin and all these others said

47:20

you out your mind we just finished the job that we didn't finish when we established Israel we got our all our

47:26

lands why in the world would we make peace why do we want to give it back that's one thing that happened the

47:31

second thing that happened Israel built massively for Jews only in East Jerusalem and in the West

47:37

Bank making it impossible impossible for the two-state solution

47:44

idea to ever materialize my father and his Navy T continued the the rest of his life to

47:50

pursue this idea as he was seeing it become less and less and less viable

47:56

the two-state solution is a myth it never existed there was never a chance for it it's there's no virtue to it

48:01

anyway I mean I don't really know what the virtue of the two-state solution is so we basically have two options and no

48:10

other we support the state of Israel as America does we keep sending $4 billion dollar a

48:17

year and allow the the genocide the ethnic cleansing and the apartheid to

48:23

continue and if that it fits in with our values and by all means but if we want

48:30

peace and there is a recipe for peace then we must we must do everything we can to

48:39

dismantle the aparte state to end the genocide to demand guarantees for the

48:47

Safety and Security of Palestinians not for a short period of

48:53

time not for a ceasefire but forever with a political solution a

48:59

political reality that will change the way business is done and that is a

49:06

single democracy a free Palestine from The River To The

49:12

Sea and that's that a free Palestine from the river to the sea with equal

49:19

rights is the only recipe for peace between Israelis and Palestinians the

49:24

only one only equality only Bringing Down the aparte and ending this this

49:30

this Slaughter of innocent civilians gives Israelis and Palestinians a chance a chance to live

49:38

in peace and the only place in the world that can make that happen is Washington

49:45

DC here in Washington DC decisions are made about what happens there Palestinians are doing everything they

49:51

can but they are like prisoners in a Maximum Security Prison in a concent ation Camp a friend of mine from Gaza

49:57

says it used to be a concentration camp now it's a death camp we have to demand that our elected

50:03

officials that our tax dollars go to Bringing Down and dismantling the aparte

50:09

state and establishing a democratic free Palestine from the river to the sea with

50:15

equal rights then we will see a peaceful prosperous future for Israelis and

50:22

Palestinians thank you very much

50:31

[Applause] we're gonna have

50:36

questions do you want us to sit here or do you want us to sit no yeah you guys come up here

50:47

okay do you think that there are elements in Washington that have deliberately created a doom Loop for our

50:53

democracy giving un lied to Israel which then purchases our

50:59

legislative and executive branch I'm sorry what was the prop the question you

51:05

think that there are elements in Washington that have deliberately created a doom Loop for our democracy by

51:13

giving unlimited money to Israel which then purchases or threatens both our

51:19

legislative and executive branches well I mean it it it seems it

51:25

seems to me that seems to me that the um the various

51:31

lobbies that work for Israel that operate here in the United States here in Washington are using the system that

51:38

is provided to them in America I mean this is this is something that's being provided to them they're not doing

51:43

anything that is unique they have interests they have they have their own agendas and they're using whatever is available to them to the fullest

51:51

extent um but I think I think this goes beyond Washington DC there zionists realized very early on that in America

51:57

all politics is local and so over 100 years ago they began working you know in every city in

52:05

every state you know people running for school board people running for city council mayors of course police Chiefs

52:11

and so on so it starts a lot much much earlier than when people actually come

52:16

to Washington DC that's why Americans don't need to be convinced to support Israel I mean the pressure helps and

52:23

APAC and all these groups help but Americans from very early on in school

52:28

in church I mean everywhere they go what they hear in the news you know popular culture Israel is

52:35

a good guys that's kind of the way it is Arabs are bad guys and so I think it's it's it's it's actually a lot more

52:41

sophisticated and goes far back longer than most people anticipate what happens in Washington DC the final step kind of

52:48

the final push or most of the work is done I think locally in in area in arenas that we don't even re realize

52:56

Arenas that we don't even realize um because of that effective but they're using the tools that the system

53:01

in America provides for them allows for them yeah just to

53:08

uh to make Miko's point A lot of people are surprised by Senator John fedman

53:14

being the biggest advocate for Israel in the Democratic party you go up to his office and it's like his whole door is

53:21

plastered with pictures of the hostages I don't know I walk through the Senate the other day like every door is the

53:27

hostages or a trans flag hostages trans flag that's American politics today so

53:34

but feder he has the hostages but he was supposed to be a progressive you know he wears his hoodie he looks like uh like

53:40

Jimbo from The Simpsons you know you think he's like hanging out at a 7-Eleven parking lot you might be able to reach him if you're a progressive no

53:48

no I mean the other day John fedman said uh you know South Africa needs to uh sit

53:54

this one out the icj one of the few times he showed up in the Senate was at an Israel Lobby

54:00

event you don't see him here you he was never even at city council when he was

54:05

the mayor of bradock and there's like 22,000 people there he couldn't even make his way to city council he's he's

54:11

basically a cyborg he had a stroke he he needs machines to help him talk and the

54:17

Israel Lobby is just taken basically hacked his brain but they started in Pennsylvania long ago and right now

54:24

there's a major campaign in Pennsylvania with Billboards all over the state thanking John fedman and it's run by the

54:30

former Chief of Staff to Bob Casey his predecessor in the Senate who is a major

54:36

figure for APAC a local figure so fedman was they took fedman early

54:42

on uh and made him into this this this Zionist Monster Who's

54:48

just like take going further than leud Bobby Kennedy Jr I mean I we can

54:53

get into that later but but but Moo's right there is a very strong local component to all this Muriel Bowser here

54:59

in Washington DC like three or four years ago she was taken on a trip to Israel to uh Inc uh Tech deals for

55:07

Washington DC new tech and research and development deals so it's even happening here so what what's going to happen if

55:13

somehow the city council decides to divest from companies that are involved in the occupation Muriel Bowser is gonna

55:20

veto and who is her Mentor Michael Bloomberg so he's

55:26

right hi um is this on it's on just keep it close

55:34

Blumenthal um you mentioning all this other stuff what about that crazy story about maybe a week ago there were three

55:40

hostages who actually escaped from Hamas um they were screaming in in in in in

55:48

Hebrew um they took off their shirts which I found out later is because they wanted to show they didn't have suicide

55:54

vests on they held up white legs they all got killed and I'm sorry remember what your

56:02

name was P I think I've seen you you remember his name but not mine thank you very

56:08

much mine's longer Jerusalem F around 10 years ago um but um the other thing

56:14

about you were asking about what's um behind this I think part of it is not necessarily Israeli Lobby I think it

56:21

would be like what some people like the defense industry or term military industrial complex my understanding

56:29

is not just Israel but every country who gets military a and required to spend about 77% of it

56:38

stuff wello can also feel the I mean you're you're a veteran of the Israeli

56:43

Army right s sadly yes I mean I know you're not proud of it um so yes Israel

56:51

the Golani Brigade just had an entire Division come out of Gaza and what did they accomplish well Israel has failed

56:58

in all of its stated military objectives they have failed to release the host Liberate the hostages through force and

57:05

they failed to eradicate Hamas they've won the war on Palestinian babies however and so the Golani Brigade in

57:14

shua which is an area east of Gaza City which is really the one of the key bases

57:20

of armed resistance to Israel um three

57:25

uh is male Israeli hostages captives located a unit of the Golani

57:32

Brigade took off their shirts and followed all the instructions you know to demonstrate that they're not a threat

57:38

waved a white flag and were screaming in Hebrew two were shot by a sniper and

57:43

then a unit the unit tracked the third down and killed him execution style why because that's what they do to everyone

57:49

they thought they were Palestinians and that's what they've been doing to Palestinians field executions over and

57:54

over there had been so many field executions barging into people's homes shooting everyone on January 11th uh

58:02

Palestinians were killed north of Gaza City on uh on uh saladine Street uh

58:10

trying to wait just sitting there waiting for an aid truck because Aid rarely reaches Northern Gaza and Israel

58:15

sent tank fire and quadricopter drones to kill 50 of them I mean just this is

58:20

what's happening day after day so they just thought they were Palestinians and killed them so they've Israel has liberated maybe

58:29

one hostage they've freed one hostage and that hostage has a soldier living in their house basically all the time to

58:36

prevent them from speaking to the media about what actually happened um they

58:42

there is a an Israeli sociologist uh yigal leevi wrote in harit that Israel

58:50

is actually aiming to kill as many of it of the captives in Gaza as possible as

58:56

an extension of the Hannibal procedure on October 7th that I explained and it appears they've killed some 50 captives

59:05

uh one of them who was filmed being taken on a motorcycle from the Nova Electronic Music Festival uh appeared in

59:11

a hostage video yesterday that was released by The Alka brigades the armed wing of H and she said that two other

59:19

hostages that I was with were killed in an air strike and I was pulled out of the rubble hostages or captives who have

59:25

been released through the negotiations have gone to the war cabinet meetings and screamed at

59:32

Netanyahu and said the only way out of this is to stop these air strikes and negotiate because the air strikes almost

59:38

killed me and my greatest fear was being killed and that you would blame Hamas for it they're openly saying it there is

59:45

a contingent of the Israeli public that wants them released with negotiations but there is also a contingent strongly

59:51

represented in netanyahu's Coalition that wants them all dead because releasing the captives directly

59:57

contradicts the objective of genocide eradicating not just Hamas but

1:00:05

Gaza ni had another a question you want

1:00:12

to I'm Mike springman S yes uh I'm an attorney author political commentator

1:00:19

and former American Diplomat uh the current situation is presented as something new and entirely different but

1:00:25

doesn't it go back to the 20s and 30s to plan doet of David benan and the Zionist

1:00:32

consultancy where the object was to cleanse Palestine Palestinians through

1:00:37

blowing up houses blowing up Villages and murdering men women and

1:00:43

children well the short answer is absolutely yes there's no question about this this is it's it's a it is

1:00:51

definitely part of the plan to eliminate the Palestinian people there's no

1:00:56

question about this clearly I mean this is this is this is horrifying even by Israeli standards

1:01:04

I mean Israel has has massacred before it had um killed civilians I mean it's

1:01:10

funny when people talk about killing civilians there are nothing but civilians when you talk about Palestinians Palestinians have never had

1:01:15

an army they've had small groups of resistance Fighters small Guerilla groups but they've never had an army so

1:01:21

when Israel uh bombs uh refugee used to bomb refugee camps in in Lebanon or

1:01:26

Syria they're killing civilians when they're bombing Gaza they're killing civilians when they raid cities in the West Bank they're killing civilians when

1:01:33

they deny Palestinian citizens of Israel water and Medical Care citizens of

1:01:38

Israel I'm not even talking about the horrific situation in Gaza they are killing civilians it is a

1:01:45

multi-pronged campaign of genocide without any question now if you look at

1:01:51

the definition of course you know this is serious this is a serious allegation and um but it's fully Justified and if

1:01:58

anybody has any doubt the definition of genocide of of of the crime of genocide

1:02:03

is very clearly stated and one of the things that came up at the icj and constantly comes up as what might be

1:02:10

problematic about about accusing some a country of genocide is that you have to

1:02:16

show intent so if Israel you know bombs the hospital and kills everybody inside

1:02:21

or bombs the building and murders civilians once or then it's not genocide there's no intent it was a mistake maybe

1:02:28

when they do it consistently like you said where it's well planned it's written down it's it's expressed by

1:02:34

every Israeli politician for 75 years that this is the intent and then we see it happening on a regular

1:02:40

basis then clearly there's intent I mean I'm not only talking about Gaza right now there's clearly intent to

1:02:47

to to Massacre as many civilians as possible but this goes on exactly like you said it's been going on for from the

1:02:53

very very beginning that was the plan now on top of that because genocide is

1:02:59

not only killing a people it's also destroying their country destroying their homes destroying their culture destroying their identity well what

1:03:05

happened to Palestine look at anybody here ever been to uh Thomas Jefferson's place in

1:03:11

monello if you walk into the house to the foer remember there's a big map of

1:03:16

Africa if you look up to the north and east what does it say you should take a

1:03:22

look it says Palestine every map you look at prior to May 15 1947 any plan

1:03:28

says Palestine Suddenly It's Israel and everybody forgot that it was Palestine the European Europeans and other

1:03:34

countries were trading with Palestine Palestine had a rich economy a rich

1:03:40

cultureal life a political life cities major cities that were taken I know I'm I'm kind of expanding a

1:03:46

little bit you know people say that Israel that the the Zionist made the Desert Bloom really you should look at

1:03:53

air aerial fotos was taken by the British of the naab the desert it was

1:03:59

all cultivated land by the Palestinian bedu major cities yafa hi Jerusalem AKA

1:04:07

major cities were built the Zionist stole at all there people had monies in

1:04:12

the banks there were Banks newspapers produce cotton citrus fruit olive oil

1:04:21

not to mention and on and on and on they stole it all they didn't make the Desert Bloom they stole a country that was in

1:04:26

full bloom but that was the intent and then they named it they changed the name they called it Israel they Chang the

1:04:32

names of cities they changed the names of streets within the cities that they took and then they started claiming that

1:04:37

there's no such thing as a Palestinian people that is all part of the genocide plan without any question so it does go

1:04:45

back all the way through those years absolutely they built a mental institution on Daren site of one of the

1:04:51

worst massacres of 1948 yeah what could be more symbolic than

1:04:57

that yeah thank you obviously the roots of

1:05:05

this go back a long ways uh how much would you say is within the manipulation

1:05:11

of the judaic faith uh or it's collision with expedient factors and other

1:05:17

political agendas British others so on a great all these great games well I

1:05:23

believe you guys heard Rabbi Shapiro speak here a few while back this has nothing to do with the Jewish

1:05:29

faith the most important rabbis throughout

1:05:34

history stood and resisted and to this day resist this notion of Zionism in the

1:05:41

year 1900 maybe Rabbi Shapiro mentioned this in the year 1900 1900 Zionism was it in its

1:05:50

infancy the major rabbis of the world published a book in

1:05:58

Hebrew and that book basically was a warning to Jewish people from the

1:06:04

dangers of Zionism and they said basically three things number

1:06:10

one this notion of a so-called Jewish state or Zionism will bring violence to the Holy

1:06:19

Land and then they said it will ruin the good relation between Jews and Arabs and

1:06:25

Jews and Muslims that existed throughout the Arab world and in Palestine and then they said it would

1:06:32

cast doubt as to the Loyalty of Jewish people in the countries where they live because Jewish people have been living for thousands of

1:06:39

years as a Jew as a is a religious minority in other countries now the very definition of Jews as a nation again

1:06:45

Rabbi shapir may have said this is that they are a nation United by its faith

1:06:51

not by a language or a country or a nationality so none of this has anything to do with Jews and if you look at the writings of

1:06:57

the early zionists and even the expression of of of you know my parents generation as they looked at the at Jews

1:07:04

Like religious Jews to them a Zionist is the opposite

1:07:10

of a Jew they said these words you know they despise Jews

1:07:16

traditional Jews believing Jews but Judaism is of course a faith it's a religion so they tried to create

1:07:22

something that is complet completely completely uh you know different than

1:07:28

what Jews are and what Judaism is they created this notion that Jews our nation like regular Nations that the Bible the

1:07:36

Old Testament is a history book that has nothing to do with faith

1:07:41

and that Palestine is our homeland so that's what this is about and of course you know the

1:07:48

the back in those days the early 20th century white Europeans giving

1:07:55

Brown people's countries to their friends was no big deal and so the balur decoration is basically that Lord balur

1:08:00

who was the foreign minister of you of Great Britain giving a pro making a promise to Lord rshad who's a Jewish

1:08:07

millionaire that he could have somebody else's country that's how things were done and

1:08:13

the Socialist wound which was the majority of Jews in the pale of settlement my familyes from most of them

1:08:19

were killed in the Holocaust uh they were officially anti

1:08:29

well they didn't come from the Boon they came from the stadle though yeah so

1:08:34

um I would just like to say that um how extraordinary it is to be in this room

1:08:40

with two people with such depth of knowledge about this issue and how lucky

1:08:46

we all are to hear this in Washington um it seems to me that that

1:08:55

the reaction now to what's happening in Gaza in this country I mean addressing

1:09:00

what you were saying about we need a state with equal rights this is what we

1:09:05

need we don't need we can't have a two-state solution because that's been precluded by what's happened so um given

1:09:14

that and the importance of the United States in making these decisions uh isn't it extraordinary that

1:09:22

there are now these demonstration with 400,000 people in Washington isn't

1:09:27

it extraordinary that people now can talk about the H the history of the Palestinians in a way they never could I

1:09:35

mean over many many years people have been completely ignorant about this so perhaps it's a result of people like you

1:09:43

standing up and talking about this but what's the next

1:09:49

step those what do we do questions always baffle me I'm just kind of a

1:09:54

Critic and a gadfly I don't know if you yeah I've got plenty of ideas I'm happy

1:10:00

to share my ideas what do we do next is this you know the protests are wonderful clearly but they're not going to solve

1:10:06

the problem let me put it this way if if if

1:10:13

if you are an American politician today if you're an American citizen at

1:10:19

all but let's let's you know say a decision maker and you to make an informed

1:10:25

decision about this issue you do not have the tools

1:10:31

why because there has been a a

1:10:36

robust systematic pushing of this very compelling

1:10:42

story that supports the idea of Israel and there's never been an

1:10:47

equivalent on the other side there's never been an effort made and I'm not blaming anyone it's just the way it is

1:10:54

there's never been an effort even remotely even remotely similar by the

1:11:00

Palestinians to what the zus have been doing here for over 100 years so education you said education

1:11:06

these protests are important without any question but they're not going to change

1:11:13

the reality they're not going to change what decision makers decide here in Washington DC never mind the politics

1:11:19

for an example never mind the narrow-minded interest let's say somebody wants to to make an informed decision they do not have the

1:11:27

information about the other side ask any anybody a politician somebody in the

1:11:33

street what do they know about Palestine half of the people will confuse it with

1:11:38

Pakistan and I've seen this I've heard this and nothing wrong with Pakistan of course but it's not Palestine right the

1:11:45

half that have heard of Palestine will say terrorism maybe settlements Israel

1:11:50

something that's been going on to there's no Foundation of understanding there's no

1:11:57

Foundation of Education about the other story about the other narrative which is

1:12:03

not only at least as compelling not only at

1:12:08

least as as you know going back in history but it has one quality that the

1:12:15

Zionist narrative does not have excuse me the truth the Palestinian

1:12:22

story which I only heard late in life because I was raised on the Zionist

1:12:27

you know po the Zionist stories in megadoses of course is the truth so you don't need to

1:12:34

be lies like Max was saying lies upon lies upon lies upon lies every day and kind of twist and turn with the

1:12:41

lies no you have to tell the truth there was a country with a culture

1:12:47

with a history with a people with a language with tolerance it was called

1:12:53

pales and it's a history that goes back you

1:12:58

know as far as we can any any any historian can can can write Herodotus the father of of of the of History wrote

1:13:06

about Palestine the name Palestine referring to that country goes back thousands of years that does not exist there's no one

1:13:14

educating there's no one promoting it in a way that can compete with the other side and that I believe is the effort

1:13:20

and it's something that I've actually kind of been talking to some people in Washington DC about about creating there

1:13:26

is no institution no State no no nobody there's no no organized effort to

1:13:33

present that and until that's presented we're not going to be seeing any change in the

1:13:38

decisionmaking uh levels because people just don't know now I'll say one more thing and that is that it's not only

1:13:46

it's not just about making a compelling story and telling the truth but it's doing it in a way that can actually move

1:13:53

people to say you know what we've got something here we need to consider people ask me very often how do

1:14:00

we put Palestine front center because Israel is front center so this young man that I know who happens to be

1:14:06

Palestinian and he works as an intern in one of the Senator's offices and he just very casually were having a conversation

1:14:12

he said you know we get 300 emails every day from St with us which is a Zionist

1:14:19

organization 300 emails every day every Senator every Congress person every member of Congress I'm sure the White

1:14:25

House the Press from one one Zionist organization you know

1:14:30

what they get from the Palestinian side you know once a couple of times a

1:14:35

year there's like a day where activists go in and try to talk to staffers and that that sort of thing nobody's competing with that nobody's even trying

1:14:42

and unless that happens unless we can create that and quickly then we're not going to see

1:14:48

change unless we can create a place actual place with a Palestinian flag here in Washington DC

1:14:54

and and make sure that Palestine exists in Washington DC we're going to see more of the same in

1:15:02

Palestine I'm Richard Rubenstein um and I want to thank you for this great

1:15:07

presentation thank you um I want to ask you about the two-state solution I especially want to ask because I saw his

1:15:15

father speak at the British Embassy I think it was the

1:15:21

80s sometimes uh he very gave a very impressive speech but then I gave him a hard time about

1:15:27

the two-state solution and I I wanted to ask you a couple of things about that

1:15:34

one um the two-state solution is now being presented by opponents of the by

1:15:40

many Advocates of the ceas fire human in Gaza as the as the way to go uh Jeffrey

1:15:49

sax kind of obsessed with the idea and so I wanted you to say some more about

1:15:55

why you think it's impossible but second um I I wanted to

1:16:01

mention also uh especially since I teach conflict resolution that when people talk about

1:16:09

the one state solution uh that is by most people

1:16:15

automatically seen a as as a state in which the the

1:16:21

Jewish Community basically be driven out of the Poli and there's no there's very little

1:16:28

understanding that it's possible to have a single state with equal rights for everybody where certain communal rights

1:16:34

are recognized so I'm wondering what we can do to kind of make it clear that a

1:16:39

Jewish State should you know it's time to end the Jewish state but not a single

1:16:45

state necessar doesn't have to necessarily be an anti- jurist yeah I mean you make a good point

1:16:52

my father like I said from the fifth day the end of the 1967 war until he died in 1995 that was he he

1:16:58

dedicated his life now my question is what are the virtues of the two-state

1:17:04

solution my father would say being a Zionist is that it preserves the Jewish

1:17:09

State on 80% of Palestine that was stolen in 1948 it legitimizes the ethnic

1:17:15

cleansing of 1948 and it allows for some you know

1:17:21

recognition of Palestinian rights fine but I still I I'm not convinced by

1:17:28

that I don't know what are the virtues of the two-state solution number one as opposed to having a democracy with equal

1:17:34

rights why should Palestinians accept the two-state solution I have no I I can't even think of a reason for them to accept it why should people accept that

1:17:42

another Nation stole their country living in their homes living in their cities and they are confined to a small

1:17:49

force of their country you know under conditions that was imposed on them by somebody else within borders that were

1:17:56

imposed on them by somebody else because the two-state solution presupposes that the

1:18:02

Palestinians need to agree to live within the confines of boundaries that Israel established the West Bank is not

1:18:08

doesn't have natural boundaries it was never there Israel Drew these when they decided where they wanted their boundaries to be in 1949 that was it

1:18:15

same with a Gaza Strip before 1948 there was no such thing as a Gaza Strip Israel

1:18:21

you know drew it on a map so why should Palestinians accept it what are the virtues but maybe the more interesting

1:18:28

question might be how is it going to work exactly how's it going to work Israel

1:18:34

there's no West Bank anymore so there is no West Bank Israel made absolutely sure there will not be a West Bank so there's

1:18:40

no West Bank there is what Israel calls Judea and Samaria which are completely

1:18:45

integrated with Israel the highway system the shopping malls the the AP you know the cities and towns built there

1:18:52

completely integrated ated except as it's defined by Israeli

1:18:57

bureaucracy there are pockets of an alien population within Jude and Samaria

1:19:04

that's the only problem now these pockets of an Al now the alien the alien

1:19:10

population are the three and a half million Palestinians living in ghettos there they're the aliens you understand

1:19:16

the the psychology so how is exactly going to work they're going to take all of they're GNA you know

1:19:23

who's going to do this it also presupposes there could be an Israeli government that would agree to recognize

1:19:30

the rights of Palestinians to self-determination well if you recognize it in ramala and in Hebron what about

1:19:36

yafa and hia and all these other cities where Palestinians still reside so it makes no sense I don't know what the

1:19:42

virtues of it are and I don't think anybody can can can explain those and it's impossible an absolutely impossible

1:19:51

um scenario people refer to to it when they don't want to tell the truth which is that you support racism

1:19:59

and support Israel or eject racism and support a free Democratic state with

1:20:05

equal rights and the only people that assume or that state that a

1:20:11

single state with equal rights will harm Jews are zionists because they don't want it to happen they say well we have to protect

1:20:17

the Jews well history shows us that the Palestinians are the ones that need to be worried not the Jews and not the

1:20:23

Israeli citizens yeah it's like a fake goal to justify avoiding and protecting

1:20:31

the real source of the problem which is Zionism that's why Tony blinkin when he was on his Mega tour anti- diplomacy

1:20:37

tour in the Middle East to prevent a cease fire was constantly talking about a two-state solution for which there is

1:20:44

no constituency in the holy land and for which there is no physical

1:20:50

possibility as moiko said they're entire cities built around East occupied East

1:20:56

Jerusalem arel Mal adumim whose master plan cuts the West Bank in half so if we

1:21:01

have a two-state solution based on this principle of ethnic ethn religious separation are we to believe that

1:21:07

hundreds of thousands of Jews are going to have to just leave these cities that they've built with giant universities

1:21:13

and medical centers in the West Bank and they're not going to freak out and say this is the Holocaust and resist it at

1:21:20

all costs no it's just simply imp possible and they made it impossible by Design as Netanyahu said in his appeal

1:21:27

to the is Israeli public he said keep me here I know you don't like me you're mad at me for October 7th but I more than

1:21:33

anyone prevented a two-state solution by manipulating the Americans that's what now he's proudly saying what he once

1:21:39

said in private and that is

1:21:46

popular goad

1:21:51

yeah

1:21:57

it turned on it is I must say I

1:22:02

don't I don't fully agree with what's been said about the two State solution

1:22:08

the problem is the appeal Commission in

1:22:15

1937 was generally commended for its impartiality and the key recommendation

1:22:22

of the appeal commission was there needs to be partition there also needs to be

1:22:28

simultaneous recognition of a Palestinian State uh to provide security against

1:22:34

rther Jewish incursions and that was right then and

1:22:40

it's right now and it is within the power of the

1:22:45

United States to do a fairly simple thing seems to be and that is to

1:22:51

recognize Hamas government or whatever government the Palestinians on the West Bank and in

1:22:58

Gaza and in North can agree upon as a state with the immunity the

1:23:06

international immunities that such states have what the boundaries

1:23:12

are probably begins with not the peel commissions with the UN resolutions

1:23:18

perhaps modified around erra and the 500 settlers on the West Bank either will

1:23:26

have to move or assimilate what are the virtues of all this what are the virtues

1:23:32

of all this the virtues of it all are that they are realistic in the sense

1:23:37

please don't interrupt I just asked no no I'm just asking well you're kind of holding forth I mean this is our

1:23:46

show we're the anti-semitic Jews so Virtues Of very simply are that it

1:23:54

may actually be realizable in the short run there commission realizable no

1:24:02

improvement to be gained by denying International recognition to a

1:24:08

Palestinian State and that has been the policy for 50 years well I I appreciate

1:24:13

that Spirit but the peel commission is partly what triggered the Arab Revolt the appeal commission was rejected by

1:24:20

the Palestinian po because it handed over key assets and a majority of land

1:24:26

to the Jewish Colonial minority before the ethnic cleansing of

1:24:31

1948 it is what led to the first spake of violence against the colonial

1:24:39

presence both British and Zionist in the Holy Land by Palestinians because it was

1:24:45

so unfair it ended overa to the Jewish colonizers it basically threw the

1:24:50

Palestinians back into the lands and that was even and that was

1:24:56

before 1948 let's make let's let's make another point about

1:25:08

know ahead okay well we can talk more I'm happy to talk more with you at the

1:25:14

table the drink table I hope that it's

1:25:20

over I was gonna make another point but and okay I just want to

1:25:29

say thank you if you've traveled in the West Bank as I have for couple of weeks 10 or 12

1:25:36

years ago there is no more two State solution whatsoever possible hundreds of

1:25:41

checkpoints thousands hundreds of thousands settlers have already taken what might have been the second state

1:25:48

whether anybody wants it or not I have to say throwing ice or wet blanket over

1:25:56

a one state because I can when I was there 10 or 12 years ago that was what looked possible that's what looked like

1:26:04

the ideal one Democratic state with rights for everybody it's gone now with

1:26:09

the hatred that been brought today I think I just don't see these people ever

1:26:15

living in so I have a solution which would should have been the solution back in

1:26:22

the early 20th century in the mid 20th century in the postwar period which was let everyone come to the United States

1:26:28

where were we offering you've left the elephant in the room unmentioned everyone the

1:26:34

Holocaust has not been mentioned and the Holocaust story is what makes Israel

1:26:40

palatable we should have offered visas to all the European Jews right like that and I think we should offer a green card

1:26:47

to everybody in this situation today well uh that's assuming Palestinians

1:26:53

want to leave Palestine and come to America and I don't think they do the Jews let's give the Jews and I'm sure many of the Israelis don't either uh you

1:27:00

look let me let me let me put it this way let's pretend for a minute that this is 1988 or

1:27:05

1989 and somebody standing behind the podium and saying in five years Nelson Mandela will be president of a free

1:27:12

post-apartheid South Africa how many people you think would say yeah that sounds reasonable that sounds like it's

1:27:20

doable none not even one now when when

1:27:25

it starts it goes very fast are we at that point right now we don't know yet I think I think October 7th presents

1:27:32

presented us with a possibility to push beyond what we're seeing today and

1:27:37

what we think today is possible to a point where this becomes possible the other thing is this I think many people

1:27:43

think that creating a a free Democratic Palestine with equal right we need to

1:27:49

wait for the Israelis to agree well again let's take South Africa how many

1:27:54

white South Africans were willingly happy and just woke up one day saying let's end apartheid today no South

1:28:02

Africa was on its knees Cuba sent tanks to Angola to start rolling back the apartheid regime right they had massive

1:28:09

support from certainly the Eastern block and so forth South Africans couldn't play sports anywhere they couldn't

1:28:17

participate in any Arena culturally academically diplomatically athletic you know they couldn't go anywhere they were

1:28:24

on their knees the clerk was not a hero that deserved you know the Nobel Peace Prize

1:28:31

he was on his knees and had nowhere to go so he stood up one day and he said

1:28:37

we're going to unban all the political parties we're going to free all the political prisoners and we're going to

1:28:42

call for a one person one vote election that was the end of a part tide and I tell I'm telling you if we do the right

1:28:48

thing if we demand sanctions if we pursue the idea of boycotting Israel and not allowing Israel to participate in

1:28:54

all these Arenas then we will see Israeli Society

1:29:00

on its knees and it may well be Netanyahu who stand up stands up behind a podium one day and says we are freeing

1:29:06

all the political prisoners we are unbanning the political parties and we're calling for one person one vote

1:29:12

election over all of Palestine and I'll say just one last thing and that is that the challenges that were faced by South

1:29:19

Africa with 40 million impoverished black Africans that never had the chance to go to

1:29:26

school does don't don't exist in Palestine you have too Highly Educated societies two societies that have

1:29:32

traditions of democracy two societies that can create a functional productive democracy the next day so I absolutely

1:29:39

think it is possible I thank you as a [Applause]

1:29:45

concession wonderful on to a close and let's give a standing

1:29:50

ovation

1:29:56

okayv