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tv   The Bottom Line  Al Jazeera  March 5, 2024 10:30pm-11:00pm AST

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operating no slice in or out, paralyzed by gang violence, like much of the country. a gang leader and former police officer jimmy sherry's antics named barbecue is claimed responsibility for the attacks. seeing the aims to force the prime minister of you all the, to stand down. in an unusual move, the games are uniting to bring down the government. and analysts say this could be a turning point in the eighty's already to much was history of the government gave us the weapons to fight with our brothers and sisters now retained the guns and gave them to fight them because they don't do anything for us. games is over on 2 of the main prisons in the capital, producing several 1000 prisoners, including gang leaders. gun bottles are taking place in the streets. prisoners of escaped from several jails. it's miserable. the crisis is guessing list everywhere is unsafe. a con,
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find clients my taxi to make money to feed my children. i'm an old man. nothing seems to be functioning here anymore. thousands of people are fleeing their homes. many are having to queue up to get clean water. some tell you 0 if they haven't been able to find drinking water since sunday. we feel discouraged, we flew in a children can't go to school. we can't buy food. how can we live in such a situation with fi to my fellow haitians while with the same haitian people do us, administrative sion has urged americans to leave the country as soon as possible. canada has closed, its embassy, and some aid organizations suspended their operations due to the dangerous situation. thank you very much. the prime minister flew to can you last week to finalize a deal to set up a un task force led by can you to help restore order that triggered this latest crisis. but there is still no un troops on the ground to help
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authorities restore order. and the prime minister has yet to return. stephanie decker, which is 0 of thousands of people in the brazilian state of a cri, has been evacuated after heavy flooding. many roads and properties in the capital real bronco was inundated by flood water from the river cree. 19 of the local municipalities have declared an emergency. the government estimates more than $6000000.00 in humanitarian aid will be needed and that is in use or not all knowledge is 0 is always more when i would cite that out. is there a dot com? i'll be back in a half an hour with one use white on to the to stay with the literally firing in the groups of starving palestinians trying to get food aid in gaza. when does the, by the administration say enough is enough. let's get to the bottom line.
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the israel's one guy has gone far beyond killing 30000 palestinians. an injury more than 70000 now is realized preventing basic food a from reaching civilians who are facing starvation. us president joe biden and his administration are still fully behind israel refusing to call for permanency spire and us costs for more humanitarian aid have just fallen on deaf ears. there are signs that biden's policies will cost him votes during this election season, but will that force him to change course and in support for israel's war? today we're talking with matt dust, former foreign policy advisor to senator bernie sanders and currently executive vice president at the center for international policy map. thank you so much for joining us today. we're looking at, at the breakdown of a, i mean honestly, people are desperate to survive. desperate for food, starving surrounding a trucks and being shot on. i just want to ask you is this moment going to create
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any change in us policy? i would hope it would, but at this point, i don't know how many debts it's going to take for the president biden to shift policy. you are right. not only are as rarely, these really is a real is really government not owning this you have is really minutes to are appraising the actions of is really soldiers in shooting these starving and desperate palestinians. and as you said, these people are desperate. they are not getting anything close to sufficient humanitarian aid, and that is because israel has a policy of preventing humanitarian aid from getting to them. the administration recognizes that. in fact, us the other day. there was a story about how the administration is considering error dropping into gaza that let's think about this firm in the united states, would consider air dropping aid into gauze because the, the, the military that it is arming and supporting unconditionally is preventing that
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aid from getting into gaza in violation of us law by the way. and that's important to acknowledge to us law as prohibits militaries that receive us supplied weapons from preventing humanitarian aid of getting it prevents, you know, prohibits them from using those weapons and ways that violate international humanitarian law. that is clearly what is happening here. and yet after weeks and months of evidence that basically war crimes are being committed, clear violations of international humanitarian law. the by the ministration refuses to shift course. months ago, we did a report that looked at senator bernie sanders letter to dear colleagues saying that the united states could not be complicit. and what was an unfolding with what he called the in discriminant killing. okay, tell us to enhance a either way they use that word himself several times. right. and i, joe biden has use that thing. so i'm just wondering what is happening politically
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in this town inside washington, dc and around the nation in terms of respond you that did bernie sanders get any traction at all? have others that have tried to shine a spotlight on what's in folding right now? i understand there was a whole rip it october 7th attack. we're watching a nightmare, a horse situation now and response, and bernie sanders and said we are now complicit in this. what are your thoughts? he's absolutely right. no surprise. i agree with my former boss. we are absolutely complicit in this. we are complicit in the situation that led up to october set and the situation of continuing season blockade on gaza and occupation expulsion and daily humiliation for palestinians and the rest of the occupied territories. and as you said, just the, the atrocities of october 7th, are indefensible. israel has every right to respond and defend its people as a senator sanders has acknowledged. but what we have been witnessing for the past almost 5 months and or continue to witness today is not self defense. this is
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something else. um, so again, your question, what will it take? why, why, what will it take to really see an upsurge in washington? again, that is a that's, that's a tough question to answer because we are definitely seeing energy on the streets protests, especially from young, progressive democrats and beyond. the, we've seen an increasing number of members of congress, not nearly enough, but some, you know, raising these questions and, and raising the pressure. but as you know, the conversation about israel in washington, you know, kind of occurs in this weird, never, never land where the kind of conditions um that we impose on other partners and recipients of, of us aid simply never apply to israel. and the other piece of this too is when you have a democratic president. unfortunately, the case is, democrats are much less inclined to criticize what we are. we are seeing is clearly a failed and, and any 2 main. and i would argue,
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immoral policy. let me ask you about this, and this is an equation. i don't fully understand folks. on one hand, the united states is blocking all that much to impose any international sanctions in israel. for this, it has said that it is working at the same time to get food, support a, i mean, a secretary of state anthony blinking and an actual revise and jake sullivan. talk about how hard they're working to to overcome is really resistance course there which which they are very public about to get aid in. and yet we are still as i understand it, providing without condition bombs and munitions and even seeking more support for israel. but in the eyes of the world, whether you're in a developed country or a developing country, what does that equation look like? well, it looks incoherent because it is incoherent. president biden clearly believes that
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the way that us is real relationships and work. and he's believe this for a long time, is that if we have differences of opinion, we express those privately and conversations and but publicly it's basically shoulder to shoulder lock, step, support, unconditional support. and you know, obviously he's the president. he gets to make those decisions. but my response to that is how is that going? that does not appear to be going very well. and i think in the eyes of the world, the united states just looks feckless and weak. this is a partner state that is enormously reliant on us support, diplomatically, politically intelligence, militarily and the president. united states has simply taken the tools of leverage off the table and, and told his in his secretary of state and others to work without those tools. the united states could cut off a, we could diminish a, we could slow aid, we could stop the towing resolutions. and then you went, there's a whole range of things that escalating menu of options that we had. if we decided
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to apply real pressure, which we should have been doing long before now, to ask this question carefully, if president biden fails to use his leverage to constrain is really prime minister netanyahu his choices in this war to get a ceasefire. to get a to people in need and it created a monster triple difference in the, on the ground circumstances. given what we just saw in michigan with a 100000 people, basically voting uncommitted within the democratic primary and not voting for president biden in their own party. do you think joe biden will lose the selection coming up? and again, i will answer carefully as you asked it carefully, and no one never should overstate the impact of any foreign policy issue, i think on us selections. um, but i think what's important to note is that for many democrats, particularly young democrats, the issue of israel palestine this warrant because it is not just a foreign policy issue. it is an issue of,
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of social and racial justice. and that's why it resonates as strong one of the reasons why it resonates as strongly as it does. um, because i think that a 100000 votes for uncommitted is clearly a message. i think it was actually an impressive effort given how, what a short timeframe that had to get up and going and know there are similar efforts in other primary states. and i think it's important to acknowledge that these are from democrats who understand the stakes. they're using a tool to send the message in a way that is not intended to undermine biden's re election, but simply to send the message which is entirely appropriate that they are this, this policy is outrageous. and i do think that if president buying doesn't shift this policy, and i don't need a shift in messaging, he does not have a messaging problem. he has a policy problem. and i think if we're talking about an election that was already going to be very close before all of this, we're talking about an election that will very likely come down to a few $100000.00 boats in a few key states. this could make the difference. not i want to ask you about
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comments that the president made. they were made regarding the talks between israel, him up and hamas, which the united states egypt and cut our, our mediating wits. here with the president said, my not security adviser tells me that we're close because it's not done yet. my hope is why next monday do you think those are solvent comments or as the president disconnected from reality? you know, i mean, well it's good to hope for things. i hope we'll get a ceasefire. money to it doesn't look like we're we're, we're trying much closer. but the bottom line, listen, they should continue their efforts to get that agreement to release the hostages. but there, you know, the decisions by israel and hung us, you know, the united states should make its own decisions. we are in fact obligated under the existing us law to make decisions with regard to our support of israel in this war,
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unrelated to whether is really it and whether is real and i must come to that sees for argument which i very much hope they do i want to show you a quote from nikki haley in this quote, she writes, they were warned that the sky would fall if we moved our embassy, they warned that our allies would turn against us. americans would be killed in war and the middle east would quickly ignite. guess what? that's just about an embassy and i don't want to mislead people to think that that is the only issue. but when you come to the abraham accords and one of the notion of the a very important as you can do a lot of deal making in the middle east and ignore the palestinian issue you've written. you've written yourself about this recently about the president's own view that somehow you could do a deal with the saudis, between the saudi and his release, and the part of an abraham a cord like process maybe get some sort of palestinian state pathway and people are tired of work pathway, but then 3rd, use this new arrangement to take on iran and around to interesting the region. i'm
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just interested in how you see this because when you talk about us actions and decisions, how badly aligned is the us frame with a reality in what it's trying to do in the middle east, with the realities on the ground in the region. you know, i think, yes, that's a great question. i think haley's comments just shows the blindness that has guided, not just republican policy, but us policy for a long time. and i think by no, unfortunately bought into this as well on the initially, you know, kept the abraham accords at arms length. but after a few months basically decided to embrace it. and part of that logic is, as you said, that the palestinians can just be shot that aside from a few crumbs here and there to keep them quiet. but we saw the moving of the embassy, the other steps of the company ministration took, which are consistent with that approach, which is just as real guess whatever it wants. and the palestinians get a cage. that is what let us to october 7 again, that's not to absolve a mouse for their choices. obviously their, their,
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their choices to commit that atrocity or are, you know that the key decision there, but it did not begin. history did not be den october 7. now getting to binds approach, i mean, as i wrote, it's important to understand that of the ministration their projects in the middle east right now is guided as is most of their foreign policy by one thing, strategic competition with china. and they see, you know, this is real normalization deal, which in my view as i've written, this is mainly your us, sorry, security deal. um that's kind of wrapped in a, in a candy coating of, of piece with israel in order to sell it to democrats. but that's the main function of that is to box china out of the middle leaves. there's also a component of confronting your own. but as, as you know, i mean a ron and saudi arabia and other countries in, in, in, in, in the region have been reaching slowly, step by step towards some form of the top. which is good because ultimately iran is going to be part of that region just as israel is. um. so any kind of arrangement
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that seeks to kind of box the rod out, i think it's not going to be sustainable either. that's not to downplay me. ron's horrible behavior in the region or to its own people. i mean we, we, we clearly need to take steps to confront that as we have been doing for a long time. i think we should take a different approach. i know that we were both supporters of the ron nuclear agreement and regret trump's withdrawal from it and, and, and biden's failure to get back into it. but i do think it's important to understand that kind of the key aim of their middle east policy, which once again is china. i'm just interested in kind of the message and brand of united states when it comes to democracy. as you look at what you see on folding right now in his real gaza, what you see unfolding in the region. does america have standing any longer? you know, it, you know, taking what you just said about this being a saudi security. veal: you know, in terms of its intent and purpose right now, how much does america lose standing in the region given that approach?
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i think we in losing your list. i think, i mean, the president biden is fond of this saying we should lead by the power of our example, not the example of our power. and i think on the, in that standard we are family, the example we are setting by continuing to unconditionally back this, this catastrophe in gaza is sending a horrible message. and i would add, especially in the wake of the russian war on ukraine. as i've written, i, i just, i think the, you know, the vitamin ministrations approach to ukraine has been very good. it's been a, you know, the effective, it's been moral. it's been principled in helping ukraine defend itself against an illegal dumb invasion. but i think all of the principal principles daylight laid out this entire argument they made in support of the ukraine policy. they have a slightly burned out to the ground, but by the way, they've approached israel's assault on garza again, i'm not going to pretend these 2 things are exactly the same. they are not. but if
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we are talking about a set of principles that we're talking about international law and the need to observe it, they, there's such a stark double standard being applied to these 2 conflicts and the entire world can see it and they have acknowledged it may ask you a question about the american political scene. you know, my best efforts to describe what's happening in the united states is that we're seeing what's always been in america. isn't you know, slightly isolationist wing that really does not see being engaged in the world as being in the interest of united states at all. and this populist merger with this notion that we can withdraw not be when you look at the chaos that you're seeing and israel gone to the weakness of the present of united states in this case. or you see the rejection of the notion that ukraine is relevant in any way, or the idea that maybe we just leave nato. how worried are you about a real isolationism taking hold in this white house and in this country as we see brewing right now, but with the 2024 elections and after right. essentially,
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i don't know if i would care to revise it as a selection, as somebody would characterize it is just kind of a unilateralism. you know, trump is, i know he's labeled a nice relation as a lot, but i don't think he is. he just has a very different approach of his, of the trip to how the us are behaving the world which is in america completely unbound by any rules in america. the behaviors of essentially as an imperial power that seeks tribute demands tribute from the rest of the world by virtue of our power, i don't, that's not isolation is that's just i can just imperial, but i see what you're saying. i mean, a lot of americans have very serious questions about this, this kind of settled multilateral organizations and partnerships and treaties and alliances. the united states helped build and in which we have imbedded our interest they have questions about is that serving our interests is that serving my family, my community. and i do think one of the lessons coming out of trump victory. and i
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think some people around president biden, to their credit, understand this, is that we need to have to do a better job of helping engage with these questions on the part of the american people to explain why some of these foreign policy choices are in their interest that actually help their families help their communities, but we have to actually make a credible argument that it's doing that. i don't think we can make that argument about garza us support for this war is not making american c for it is making americans less save by virtue of just in vastly diminishing our power and our credibility and our ability to set to stand up and speak credibly for a set of very important principles, we just see a case where the palestinian authority of uh, cabinet has been disassembled, has been, has been a dissolved i guess my question on that is, do you see us influence on the palace any inside of particularly with the p a is
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leading any direction that will get us to a different equilibrium. and this relationship many palestinians looked at the p a is essentially the guarantor for is really security and is really security services . i'm just interested in that move, which has been welcomed by the united states while saying no, i should say changing government in the is really cabinet. yeah. you know, i will say, i mean, as you said, i mean that is how unfortunately united states has treated the p a as essentially a sub contractor of these really occupation there. the priority there being that a deliver security, not for palestinians, but for his release. and i think changing that approach is absolutely necessary if we're going to move in a better direction, i would say about the dissolution of the policy and the government. that isn't it, it's a step towards recall if it is a step toward re constituting kind of the palestinian national movements or creating a kind of unified consensus base of palestinian voice that to negotiate the eventually with israel. that's good because that is absolutely necessary to get to, to, to
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a resolution is to have a palestinian leadership that can make credible commitments in around the negotiated table, which we simply do not have right now. and again, that part of the netanyahu's strategy was to make sure the palestinian state divided gaza ruled internally by a mass and thought to with its you know, the areas that they have some control of in, in the west bank. so ending that the vision and supporting the reconstitution of a palestinian natural voice and leadership is absolutely necessary. certainly best to something the united states cannot do, but we can get out of the way we can support them as they do it. but importantly, we have to recognize that a credible palestinian leadership supported by the palestinian people is going to include people that we do not like just as the as really leadership includes people we do not like. and i'm not just talking about been given here in small traits, even though we very much do not like them. there are others who have been parts of
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israeli governments in the past. um, you know, who's before, you know, legitimate constituencies among israel. so we just need to prepare, we just need to prepare to accept a palestinian leadership and you know, with people that we're not crazy about, we need to respect palestinian politics enough and take power, stand in politics seriously enough to acknowledge that they get to pick the people who speak for them, uh, let me just ask you, uh finally, what are palestinians being asked to do at this moment? are they being asked to accept the are unacceptable and to remain in, in a, in a place where there are no buildings infrastructure. i mean, if you're in the west bank, you've got killings, harassment going on there. you've got basically a destroyed and flattened infrastructure and most of gaza. you know, we're walking march 10th ramadan begins. i'm just interested in what palestinians are being asked to do in this moment. i mean, in gaza there being, as we can see,
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what they're being asked. i mean most of gaza has been turned into the moon. they are living in tens, crowded in what was already one of the most densely populated regions of the world . so i, i just, i like the words to describe what they're being asked to endure in gaza. and let's understand. garza was in the midst of an enormous humanitarian crisis before october 7th. and as you described in the west bank, it's, it's, it's, it's a daily grinding humiliation of check points and harassment by settlers. whenever palestinians, you know, are able to leave, you know, they're just population centers and, and, and villages is really, military has total control and then goes anywhere it wants in the entire west bank with complete impunity. and this has been the situation for years and decades. okay . and this, i just want to say has been part of how masses recruit recruiting program. this has helped to make the argument to many palestinians,
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and this is an enormous strategy tragedy. but the way to achieve your goal is the way to achieve freedom. the way to take control is to use violence. this is a lesson, but the united states has helped to teach because the problem is that was made to the palestinians years ago was embrace diplomacy, stop violence, and diplomacy. and negotiation is the way to achieve your liberation, and we have helped to show them that that is not true. and we need to change that equation very quickly. if we're going to get out of this on that task, executive vice president of the center for international policy. thank you so much for sharing your candid use with us today. thank you. see. and so what's the bottom line? israel's deadly incursion into guys, a triggered by a surprise attack that knock this really sideways on october 7th, has turned into one of the world's worst nightmares. god says, living conditions have disintegrated. no schools, no health care, no housing,
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nothing on day one is real, said it wouldn't allow food medicine, water, or fuel in the gaza. so us president joe biden, and his team just can't being surprised that people are starving and dying 5 months later. if they still refuse to play hardball with his, we'll still send munitions in bonds and kill palestinians and still insist that they're doing our best as the white house spokesperson says to encourage israel to change course. but with each passing day, palestine punctuates the weakness of the united states visa v. it's own allied and reinforces the idea that this is not some small regional mass, but rather a less than the other countries that americans somehow diminish now. and then if it won't stand with people for under physical and moral siege now, it's hard to believe that it would do so any time in the future. and that's the bottom line. the is the biggest global election yet in history. the world's biggest democracy,
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both its own epic showdown john main screen of offering jane butterfield really focusing on india as i traveling across the country, examining the issues of 6 and the 4th of athletics at this critical moment in the country history became beautiful. coming soon on august, the 1st genocide that we see real time is the victims themselves. there's a disconnect between what we are witnessing on social media versus what we're seeing on mainstream. it is always an attempt to frame a to side of them, but there is no 2 sides to this. the western media does have a western bias. understand what they are looking to see out and raise. the listening post covers how the news is covered in the whiners inside is what switch
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to new extinction. now the army enjoys and community groups. the group the back from the brain when east investigates early morning is feeding time as fish from industry. it's such a whole southern melisha why my richmond works here occasionally after he stopped going out to sea to fish 2 years ago. when my phone was on the way back to show the winds changed suddenly in less than 5 minutes, that would launch waves in my motors and i only thought of getting back safely. i lost half my catch, but i didn't care. changing with patterns means that fuel months would say for small scale fishermen to head out to sea, serena rama is a conservation scientist has been studying the impact of climate change on root communities. so everybody knows the temperature of the oceans. increasingly, it is also affects the movements of the species. so we have changed for species season now latino, they know where they used to be. fish and will come in. nice and easy to touch. 20
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milligrams of clips before. no, it is difficult to, you wouldn't get 5 kilograms. national fishing has been the backbone of coastal communities in the nation for generations. but that's the way of life is coming on the threat. the meaning is that the voltage is going to the pounds in the us for super tuesday the most important day in the presidential primaries. the low this is alex, is here, alive from bill back. people also coming up is realized to maximize every possible means every possible level of getting assistance to people who need us. secretary of state says the humanitarian situation in gaza is unacceptable and
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unsustainable. known that up in his rags from bonham and douglas right. the sci fi talks in cairo and we found an agreement.

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