crisis, devastating wars, terrorism, the israeli lobby, crackdown, diplomacy. gaza under attack, make sure to join the show through facebook, twitter, only on press tv, les bombardements qui ciblent des civils et des infrastructures.

i'm deeply concerned about the clear of violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in gaza. let me be clear, party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law.

hello and welcome to prest tv spotlight, i'm marsia hashimi, thanks so much for being with us, well we're now on day 57 of the israeli genocide on. gaza, more than 200 people have

been killed with 600 being injured in the last 24 hours, this after the seven-day genocide pause, what does it mean to take a pause in a genocide and then to return to right where you left off. well, believe it or not, this is the world we are living in today, and during this pause, the u.s. made of sure that the zionist regime has been reloaded with the latest munitions, including the bunker busting bomb which is meant to penetrate hard surfaces at death. now just imagine what that can do while hitting a refugee camp or an apartment building. this is the state of gaza and the world today. i'd like to welcome my guests to the program. kenstone, executive member hamilton coalition to stop the war. hamilton, ontario, and rick

sterling, investigative journalist out of walnut creek, california, thank you both for being with me, well ken, let's start off with you, why do you think that the israeli regime didn't renew the truth? uh, the israeli regime was a opposed to the truce in the first place, i believe it was forced into having a truce. first of all because uh the united states was putting great pressure on it to have a truth uh because the populations around the world were rising up spontaneously in the streets and demonstrating and calling it on their governments to uh pressure israel for a ceasefire and um i think that uh the us um wanted the uh the you the uh hamas to have a ceasefire. but they did not use the

pressures that they could have to make sure sure that they see for was permanent and was a permanent leading to uh a long-lasting, of permanent and just comprehensive deal for israel, palestine, and as a result, the genocide is continuing today, and israelis are the israeli population has is on the side of israel's government, recent pols showed that up to 90% of... israelis approved of the attack on gaza, and that's because for years the uh israeli government has been turning more and more right-wing and the the current coalition that netanyahu leads is composed of

people uh who are ultra right-wing, racist, um, many, supported by the settler movement in the west bank, and these are these are. these are people um who uh want blood, they want to destroy the um hamas once and for all, they want ethnically cleanse all of israel, they want to destroy and demolish the alaxa mosk as the last remaining symbol of the palestinian people, and they want to create a third temple. these are like the zelets who brought the wrath of the roman empire down on the heads of judea to. years ago in a rebellion in 66 ad, and uh that the in that rebellion uh, the temple, the second temple was destroyed and the jews were dispersed, and this is the kind of catastrophe that they're trying to bring about on the modern state of israel today.

well, rick, your thoughts, because we saw during this pause that there were hostages that were uh freeed on both sides, mean does the regime? want its hostages free or not or have the videos which have been coming out of those who have been freeed with hamas members been a little bit too damaging to it? i think um the netanyahu regime is is under internal pressure from the families of the hostages, so that was one factor, and the other factor is the immense amount of public outrage around the world, which ken was was talking about uh that... they they needed a letup from this, and so they they managed to make uh uh managed to get some hostages released by hamas and some of the palestinian prisoners were uh were also released. i noticed that over 70% of the palestinian

prisoners were 18 or under, and over half of them had never been convicted of a crime, so this just shows the discrepancy, but any case i think the uh the ceasefire was kind of necessary uh, it was necessary to have pause in the genocide and now they're going right back at it, yeah it is quite unbelievable, well can, i mean why has the united states resupplied the israeli regime with more arms, even during this pass, well the the the united states regards israel as an asset, a military base, if you will, huge military base in the middle east, it's part of its empire around the world, and the us wishes to maintain its hegemony in west asia along with the rest of the world, it hasn't yet realized

that we are into a multipolar world now where it is not the only superpower in a in a unipolar world, and so the us came to the rescue of... israel by sending it all kinds of arms and also to help uh mallify or to offset the economic cost of the war, the israelis are suffer, the israeli economy is suffering very badly from this war, it's costing hundreds of millions of dollars a day, 300,0 people are taken out of production, farms are lying idle, the the currency is taking a hit, there's all kinds of economic consequences negative. economic consequences to this war, which the us is trying to uh ameliorate by sending billions of dollars in aid to israel, the fact is that the us could end this war tomorrow if it wanted um by one simple phone call telling uh

from jenis hyjo to netanyahu saying uh, you know, we're going to not use our veto, we are not going to have your back, we are not sending any more arms, we are not sending any more money, negotiate, come to the table and and bring up the just lasting and comprehensive deal that's been on the books the un. since 1967, but the unfortunately the americans are not prepared to do so, and they have given the green light to israel to go ahead, and so as rick has said, the genocide is continuing. rick, in your perspective, what is the ultimate goal of the israeli regime with this genocide? nakba too, they would love to drive two million uh... 2.3 million gazans into the sin and out of israel, never to be returned. that is the

goal, that is the dream. uh, short of that, since they tried that initially, and and washington uh gave a uh, gave it some level of agreement, but because of the uh quick response from jordan and egypt, they they realized that was not viable, so they they they dropped that. uh, at this point in time, i think israel just wants to kill as many as possible, they want to make life that much more miserable, um, and even a friend of mine the other day was saying, well, what, why, why doesn't egypt accept the accept the refugees, so they're still, i think they still dream of doing this, they've taken one the most congested places on earth, 2.3 million people in a tiny area, lot of people don't realize just how tiny... gaza is 5 miles by 25 miles, two, two and a quarter million people, and now they've compressed

them into about half that space, and now most recently they're giving warnings to uh residents of conjuns that it is now bomb boming zone, and that need they need to flee from there, so uh, it's unmitigated um, a torture to the palestinian people, and what, what are the goals of? tel aviv uh the ultimate goal would be to uh drive the people out of the country and short of that um killing as many as uh as they can get away with. can you heard what rick said, i mean killing as many as they can get away with. let's look at that, let's let's break that down a little bit. um, what do you think that that will mean to these western regimes? because you just talked about the united states basically, it could... it today if it wants to, but basically israel is doing perhaps what it wants it to do, so what does

it mean now at this point in time if if israel wants to uh take out all of the 2.3 million citizens of the gaza strip for these western regimes, do you think that they will put their foot down and at the end of the day force the regime to stop? well, i'm hoping so. and so do millions of people, tens of millions of people around the world, in the in my city here of hamilton, i could go to a pro-palestinian rally, march, demonstration every single day of the week, and this is being replicated across canada and around the world, so uh, i'm uh, many countries have responded to these pressures from the grass roots by withdrawing their ambassadors, i think seven to nine countries by now have... on that uh, others have made statements uh against uh calling for a permanent ceasefire,

others are trying to uh put together diplomatic moves so that the this this up this moment of crisis can also be moment of opportunity to create that just lasting and peaceful comprehensive deal for israeline. i don't think at the beginning if you had told me if you had asked me this i would have said israel can do almost anything it wants, but now with masses of people in the streets, putting pressure on their governments and governments actually moving and talking and condemning and withdrawing ambassadors, i don't think, and the fact that hamas is holding its own in this war, and not only holding its own, it's managing to uh kill israeli soldiers, destroyed tanks and other equipment, so my guess is that the is israelis are not going to win this war, they are not going to be able to wipe out the population of gaza, but still what will

happen when it's over, and there are two million people who are homeless, or whatever is left of the two million people, and egypt says it's not going to take them, what is the, we don't know what the solution will be, but we hope it will be the solution based on resolution 242 back in 1967 for a just lasting and peaceful settlement, the whole issue, well rick, you heard what ken was saying about uh uh, basically that the regime isn't isn't winning in gaza, i mean as a matter of fact it has been humiliated. in gaza that after all of this time, it it really hasn't had military victories, but simply, yes, it has indulged in mass killing of civilians and destroy civilian uh infrastructure. what does that mean when you have this fourth strongest military in the world being stuck in this tiny strip um against this force that doesn't have an air

force, doesn't have navy, um, how do you asset? well, i think you put your finger on it, they they're in a tough place uh, because they um, they initially set the goal as destroying hamas, hamas is social movement, it's not just, if they kill few of the hamas leaders, that's not going to destroy hamas, um, and yet if they stop, beforehand, they will consider it failure, and that, but continuing the the gen'. continuing the the massacring of people uh, that's that's increasingly losing them support from around the world. just yesterday, someone in atlanta, a protester in atlanta, georgia in the united states set himself on fire in front of the israeli consult, he's got third degree burns, he's in critical condition in

the hospital, so this is just a sign of the the intense. the opposition to these atrocities that now almost for the first time some americans are seeing on tv and seeing on on some mainstream tv, so i think israel uh is in a lose lose situation, what they're going to do to get out of it, it's it's unclear, well you mentioned mainstream television, and ken, i want to look at that because it's been interesting, there the last few days there have been some interesting pieces even coming out of mainstream media and and actually um showing some of the realities on the ground there, how do you assess that? are we looking a certain transition or is it because the wave against the israeli regime has been so great with people standing up for the palestinians that this mainstream media felt that they have to

be able to show uh a little bit closer picture of the reality, your assessment, i think your latter point is correct, um, i have noticed it here in canada on cbc and ctv and in the media, uh, the discourse has changed, and people who were never seen before, on tv, such as palestinians, palestinian organizers, um, leaders of the muslim community and the arabic community in canada suddenly are on tv, and they're speaking eloquently about this issue, um, and and uh the other night on cbc, i think it was, they had a a big deal explaining what bds was, boycot investment and sanctions a campaign to bring israel to its knees and create create a long-term solution to the problem, so yes, the the massive resistance the peoples of the world to the israeli

genocide in gaza is forcing a change in the discourse of politicians, and in the media around the world, and that's a good thing. well, um, rick, do you see this war now, this genocide, actually also being a tool in the hand of netanyahu, using this to actually stay in power, because if we look at leading up to this and the continual demonstrations against him, with many israelis not satisfied with his performance, and of course after... october 7th we had many who were not still, but but how do you assess netanyahu and connection to this prolong uh situation as happening in gaza right now? i think if netanyahu and the people close to him knew that attack from from hamas was coming, they

never predicted uh what what unfolded on october 7, which was total collapse. the israeli military and of course it's been now uh documented in in some places that many of the israeli civilians were killed by the idf in their in their random shooting from apache helicopters and tanks on the ground, they weren't killed by hamas at all, they were killed in the crossfire uh from the uh from the idf, the israel offensive forces it should be called, but netanyahu of course is the longest serving israeli prime minister, he's been around a long time, he's been through lot of conflicts, the person um you know has - he's he's waited countless wars against gaza, he's waited countless massacres, this is the most extreme example, but um in 2018 they mowed down peaceful

protesters in the global march of return, people who were going in the thousands up to the up to the gaza border were just shot down in cold blood, 200 died and thousands were injured, um, so so it's and then prior to that, netanyahu even called it, mowing the lawn, you need to mow the lawn every couple of years, comparing it to a suburban american household where you need to mow the lawn every couple of weeks, they were mowing the lawn by killing hundreds if not thousands and that's just level of the dehumanization of palestinians as seen israel is a is racist state uh it there used to be a united general or a general assembly. resolution that zionism is racism and it was a big mistake when that was withdrawn um in the early 1990s because it's absolutely true, zionism is

racism. how likely do you see that uh coming back that terminology, especially when we see what's going on around the world today and trying to put pressure on governments. ken um, i think uh, it's you know once you see these this genocide. unfold before your very eyes, you can't unsee it, as they say, and i think people have recognized that the israelis are have a racist attitude towards palestinians, they consider them untermension sub-humans and they they treat them like as if they were insects, it's it's disgusting, but i would like to add one point and that is we haven't yet talked and probably we don't have time much, but about the chance of a... war. we know that israel has bombed syria several times. we know that there have been attacks on us military bases in iraq and syria, that ansara has unleashed, has

captured two ships in the red sea and has been sending missiles against lat. um, there is the danger of a wider war as the genocide continues and intensifies, and we as people of peace, anti-w. activist, we are concerned that this war should the attack on gaza should end, because the other possibility is a wider regional war or even a confrontation between the great powers and well let's in on that, well rick, your your thoughts on that, how likely do you see uh this situation expanding with more parties getting involved, i'm really not sure, i think a lot of the parties do not want it to happen to expand for for. for obvious reasons, um, iran doesn't, hezballah and and lebanon doesn't, and i don't think the us really wants it either, um, i think where we're at is, of

course the genocide occurring is just the just the tip of the iceberg, the root cause of all these problems is the occupation and israeli apartide, and it's really incument on the world to do what we did, with south african apartide, to mount massive. protests and to force international organizations, to pressure international organizations to join that call and uh force our governments to uh to remove themselves from uh from supporting israel. okay, and on that note, thank you both for being with me on the spotlight, kenn stone, executive member hamilton coalition to stop the war out of hamilton ontario, and rick sterling, investigative journalist out of walnut creek, california, and thank you viewers for being with. with us on another spotlight, and marzia hash, and we hope to see you right here next time, goodbye.

ان شاء الله ان شاء الله المره.

oslo accords were supposed to bring prosperity to palestinians. however, in gross violations of the accord, israel permanently enforced these west bank divisions. palestinians have not reaped economic benefits of area sea. well of course are see is the big problem because. that's where israel maintains total control and where it also sets up legal settlements and generally acts in whatever way it wishes. meanwhile, israel is facing a massive labor shortage. palestinian workers, which are about 25% of our human resources in the sector, are not coming, are not trying to us, they're not permitted to work in israel. this is while

the fate of palestinians hangs in the balance. israel has launched fresh air strikes across the gaza strip the day after the end of a week long trip. the gaza health ministry says the palestinian death poll from the aggression since october 7 has now surpassed 15,200. most of the casualties are women and children. velgasland brigades has fired a barrage of missiles at tel avilon and several other cities, response to the massacre of palestinians in gaza. group also attacked israeli troops, tanks and military vehicles in various parts of northern gaza.