of 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 us made sure that the zionist regime has been reloaded with the latest munitions, including the bunker busting bomb, which is meant to penetrate hard surfaces out of 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. in 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 re? knew the truce uh, the

israeli regime was 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 of populations around the world were rising up spontaneously in the streets and demonstrating and calling on their governments to... uh pressure israel for a ceasefire, and um, i think that the us wanted the uh, you the uh hamas to have a cease fire, but they uh did not use the pressures that they could have to make sure sure that the seas fire was permanent and was a uh was a permanent military seasfire le leading to of uh, a long-lasting... permanent and just

comprehensive deal for israeltine, and as a result, the genocide is continuing today, and israelis are the israeli population has uh is on the side of israel's government, recent polls 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 um turning more and more right-wing and the the current coalition that netanyahu leads is composed of people uh who are right-wing uh racist um many uh supported by the settler movement in the west bank and these are these are zelots these are people um who uh want blood they want to 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 of temple. these are like the zellots who brought the wrath of the roman empire down on on the heads of judea, 2,00 years ago in a rebellion in 66 ad, and 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 uh, because we saw during this pause that there were hostages that were uh freeed on both sides, mean does the regime wants 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 family. 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, that they they needed a letup from this, and so they they managed to make uh managed to get some hostages released by hamas and some the palestinian prisoners were uh were also released, i noticed that over 70%. 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 in any case i think the the ceasfire was kind of necessary, 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 israel regime with more arms even during this pass? well, the the united states regards israel as an asset, a military base if you will, a 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 multi-polar world now where it is not the only superpower 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 suffering, 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 ameliorate by sending billions of dollars in aid to israel, the fact is that the us could end this war tomorrow if it wanted, by one simple phone call telling uh from jenis hijo joe 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 um 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, gave it a uh, gave it some level of agreement, but because of the uh quick response from jordan and egypt, um, they they

realized that was not viable, so they uh, 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 a except 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 a 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 bombing 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 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 stop 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 ghaza 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 done that, others have made statements uh against calling for a permanent ceasefire, others are trying to uh put together a diplomatic moves so that there this this up this moment of crisis can also be moment of opportunity. to create that just lasting and peaceful, comprehensive deal for israel,

palestine. i don't think at the beginning, if you had told me, if you had asked me this question, i 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, destroy tanks and other equipment, so my guess is that the 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, no? 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 of the whole issue. well, rick, you heard what ken was saying about 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, after all of this time, it really hasn't had military victories, but simply, yes, has indulged in mass killing of civilians and destroyed 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 assess this? 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. um, 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 uh, the genocide, continuing the the massacring of people, uh, that's that's uh, increasingly losing them support from around the world, just yesterday, someone in atlanta, a protester in atlanta, georgia and the united states set himself on fire in front of the israeli consulat, he's got third degree burns, he's in critical condition in the hospital, so this is just a sign of the the intensity of the opposition to these atrocities that now almost for the first time, 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, um, 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 palace. siting is that this mainstream media felt that they have to be able to show 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. 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 uh the other night on cbc i think it was they had a a big deal explaining what bds was boycott investments 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 of the people 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 um 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 what what unfold it on october 7, which was total collapse of the israeli military, and of course it's been now, in in some places that many of the israeli civilians were killed by the idf in their in their random

shooting from a patchy helicopters and tanks on the ground. they weren't killed by hamas at all, they were. killed in the crossfire uh uh from the uh from the idf, the israel offensive forces it should be called uh, 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 waged countless massacres. this is the most extreme example, but uh, 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 you know prior to that, netanyahu

even called it, mowing the lawn, you need to mow the lawn every couple of years, comparing it to 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 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 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 these israelis are have a racist attitude towards palestinians, they consider them untermension subhumans 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 wider 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 ansrala 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 uh the genocide continues and intensifies, and uh, we as people of peace, anti-war activists, 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 we let's in on that, well rick, your your thoughts on that, how likely do you see uh, this situation expanding with more parties get involved? i'm really not sure i think a lot of the parties do not want it to happen to expand 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 incumbant on the world to do what we did, with south african apartite, to mount massive

protests and to force international organizations, to pressure international organizations to join that call and force our governments to to remove themselves from from supporting israel. okay, and on that note, thank you both for being with me on the spotlight, ken stone, executive. 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 us on another spotlight. i'm marsia hashi, we hope to see you right here next time. goodbye.

ان شاء الله المره الجايه.

he will be a target to the israeli occupation, the israeli occupation does not want the journalist to succeed in covering these violations. the hospital was targeted with white phosphorus bombs that resulted in huge fires. we were afraid we would end up burned alongside the patients inside the room. what is the history of the palestinian resistance? وما بعد تلك كان عندها قرار

استراتيجي هو تجزئه الامه العربيه وخلق كيانات منفصله عن بعضها ومتعاديه مع بعضها وتشل بعضها بعضا لقد عدت اليوم من فلسطين لكن صدقوني لم اعود الا لكي اعود الى فلسطين. sore between cycles of boom and dust until it revived the hopes of the people in defeating the israeli project. unyielding resolve, look into the tumoltuous life of yaoscer arafat, the palestinian

leader who dared. did at the negotiation table with israel only to face broken promises and shattered dreams. witness his lifetime tour from fighter to a diplomat and again from a diplomat to fighter to save palestine. this is story of sacrifice, betray and unbreakable spirit of a leader who fought against all of.

your headlines on press tv, israel is launching fresh air strikes on gaza after killing more than 15,000 palestinians, most the women and children in the besieg coastal territory. the hisbolla resistance movement hits israely military targets in retaliation for strikes on southern leben. and people around the world hold rallies to show solidarity with palestinians and condemn israeli genocide in gaza.