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uh, for almost 100 days, palestinians in gaza have been fighting back, is where the occupation forces who have ruined most of the tiny coastal, killing more than 23,000 people, mainly women and children. now, tel aviv is closes. washington has directly of

engaged in ethnic cleansing and lending full support bit monetary or military hardware and intelligence. secretary of state blincon just had tour of west asia meeting with number of ranking officials there discussing genocidal war on gaza and the future of the palestinian land. the fact of matter is that in words, american officials criticized targeting civilians in gaza, but in action they give the iof soldiers weapons to do just that and even more. welcome to spotlight, i'm behrus, and these are our guests in this episode. rick sterling, investigative journalist is joining me from walnut creek, california. of nicholas js davis, independent journalists and author of the blood on our hands is also joining us out of miami. okay, welcome to the

uh show, gentlemen. now let me uh begin uh with uh rick if i may, that there are uh many analysts uh rick arguing that it's not possible for the televive regime to continue with the crimes against palestinians without the backing of the us and of course involvement and we yesterday we had president biden uh making this a speech in a church in south carolina where he was heckled, there were some people in... to him by shouting, if you really care about lots of lives you're talking about, okay, let's have cease fire in gaza now, so to begin, let's review the us president's performance vis the us managed israeli war on the gaza strip, well of course israel could not continue the this war without support from the us, the us has provided over 25,000 bombs and 57, shells,

israel has dropped over the first 89 days they dropped over 6500 tons of bombs. without the us support and very sadly and unfortunately right at the start said that israel is going to get whatever it needs enacted this, the the us is completely complicit and a collaborator in this in this genocide. now nicolas, protest in us cities that also on social media recently, they've been calling president biden genocide joe and also that... was repeated in this church speed yesterday, they said that genoside joe, you have the blood of more than 20,00 palestinians on your hand, does he deserve such a name? absolutely, um, i, i think the uh, the problem for the us is um, is really

one of public relations, and it's and it's the way people around the world see it, the united states is guilty of killing far more civilians. and have been killed in gaza in in all of its wars, um, in in mosul, in iraq, an iraqi kurdish intelligence report estimated the civilian dead at 40,000, um, and that as in gaza was not counting many more thousands buried under the rubble, rakha, i've never seen an actual estimate of civilian dead in raca. uh, but uh, by many accounts, rakha was more completely destroyed even than uh, than the the center of mosul. um, so so the united states government, whether it's under bush or

or obama, or trump or biden, has no problem with killing tens of thousands of civilians, what they do have a problem with is, whereas in their own wars, they... the they skillfully are able through control of the media to to prevent global awareness of just how many civilians they are really killing. in this case, the whole world is watching in horror as the israel uses american weapons to kill tens of thousands of civilians and that is a public relations political problem. for the american government, now rick, uh, there is poll that indicates that 70% of young americans do not approve of joe biden's policy on this uh war on gaza. the question is, why he should defy people's demands?

well, it's because of uh zionist um influence in in washington, sadly, you know, 70 or 75% the... "american public supports a cease fire, and yet in congress it's something like 15%. and that is because of the influence of the israel lobby in congress with congressional representatives and senators. it's a sad state of affairs and and reflective of the lack of democracy in the united states. and nicholas, let's now take a look at what." of state and blincan's been doing, he was a tour of the milice as you now, and he's met with number of you know officials in the region. now he's saying that he opposes the israeli ministers were calling for the people in gaza to be forced outside their homeland to be in their words resettled

and so that they could make room for israeli settlers to go and akab their lands and make parks and all of that. they said there are 2.2 million people okay, have two million people out, just... let's keep some 200 thousand inside, so blincon is also saying that civilian lives must be protected and enough is enough and all all that jazz, but just last week we saw another multi-billion dollar in aid allocated to this israely genocide in gaza, dichotomy, double standard, what is this? yes, absolutely, and i mean at the beginning of the whole massacre, the united states sent marine major general james glynn who took part in the us massacres in falluja and mosul uh to to advise the the israelis on their operation in gaza, so

there's all this complete continuity between us war crimes and and um and israeli ones, but on the question of of actually killing and driving out the population of gaza, the genocide of the the people of gaza, which of course the international court of justice is taking up. thursday, um, the the us, of course, this is again, it's embarrassing to the united states, uh, uh, as and you know, so that of course the united states, like israel is dismissing the charge of genocide, saying, oh, don't be absurd, you know, this can't be genocide, it's the israelis for god's sake, but um, the, but the denials... from the us are are transparent, a bunch of journalists including ryan grim, confronted

um the state department spokesman matt miller about the statements by um by the israeli officials, ben gravier and smutrich, and and of course um, matt miller insisted that... "this is not israeli policy, these people are speaking out of turn, but of course the us intelligence cannot be unaware that literally few days earlier netanyahu himself a liquid party meeting had said that that was exactly his plan, and that the only, and in fact he he said he wanted to give the people of gaza a choice between leaving or staying and being..." build and and he then told danny danon, the former israeli un ambassador, the

problem is not that we don't want to do this, the problem is that we can't have so far have not found any country that will accept uh 52 million refugees from gaza. rick, during is the recent tour of uh this region, blincon uh talked to some arab uh leaders uh to encourage them to get along with televiv regime. he also talked to uh benjamin netanyahu regarding the post war governance structure in gaza. what's the purpose of his visits in your opinion and what has the future of palestine got to do with the us? well, i think to some extent they're they're covering for israel to some extent the the us um does not want a wider. more at this time, and and they are, they are concerned about the israel and new possibly intentionally

provoking a larger, a larger conflict, so i think there's an element of it that wants to, put the damper on the most extreme elements in in israel, um, but what what's going on right now, we all uh, you know, oh, thanks to... the south africans for filing the petition at the international court of justice, and i think it's not coincidence that just a couple of days ago israel said that they are entering new phase and it's going to be less intense with less ground troops and less less bombing, and i think that's a direct result. i think the us is also concerned, because it's even organizations such as save the children and unicef are reporting that over 1 children have had one or two limbs amputated right, and this is sometimes without anesthesia, so

in some respects this is a war on children, so the the information, the news, the publicity about the reality of the war on the ground is getting out lot through social media and through alternative media such as press tv. now nicholas mentioned south africa. apart from divising policies and drawing road maps, washington has done much more to help these really occupation forces continue committing their crimes against palestinas unhindered, and one example is this that the us national security council spokesman john kirby called the south african lawsuit against israel at the icj, i'm quoting him, meritless counterproductive and without any basis in fact whatsoever, i want your take on that place, and how can justice? yes, absolutely, the um, i think it would be

very hard for the international court of justice to to rule that this is not a genocide, between all the statements of intent and and the south af, south africa in applying for this case, included an 84 page. document documenting what israel is doing and and also 10 pages quoting what israel leaders say they are doing. "as we have discussed, they are talking openly that they want to kill or expel the people of gaza from from their homeland, and and so really, i i think there's a real chance here that the icj will in fact rule against israel under the

genocide convention, and and the first provisional measure that south africa has asked." them to take is to order a cease fire, to order the israelis to end their military operation in gaza. now, with the us, as as an integral part of this operation, absolutely complicit with israel in the genocide, even though the united states has not actually been named as um, you know, as a target of the of the south african case. um, this is this is going to be, just almost unprecedented uh, global public relations problem for the united states in fact, the the the court orders israel to stop, because you know, is israel going to stop, i don't think so, israel has signaled again and again

and again that uh, it takes all the u.s. actions simply as a green light and it is and it it it it essentially ignores calls from around the world to stop to stop killing garsans and uh so so then we will have a situation with the us backing uh an operation that the international court of justice has openly in front of the whole world um called a genocide and this is, you know, i, i, i don't know where this, where, where this is going to go in terms of us relations with with countries all over the world, this this almost nothing that the us or israel has been able to do for the last 25 years, no matter how many people they have killed in all their wars, um, that the us, with its huge economic

and military power has some... has seemed, completely immune to the rule of international law, it's officials enjoy blanket impunity, and nothing so far has has really, even as more countries in the world trade more with china than with the united states, the the economic basis of american power is is dwindling away, and yet its ships patrol the oceans of the world, it's troops occupy 800 military bases around the world and countries have been reluctant to um to to sever their their relations with the american empire um and but i think i think this what is happening today in gaza is so public, it

is so recognized by people and governments all over the world, over 150. countries voted in the general assembly to call for a ceasefire, and united states is gonna is facing a crisis in it's a historic crisis for its imperial ambitions. yeah, 150 countries voted further, the us vetoed, a couple of pushes at the security council, they say enough of civilian lives, protect them, and then the vetos resolutions for a cease fire. rick, uh, what about the icj? i just wanted to ask you, can we be hopeful that justice will finally be served, no matter who who's becuse this is genocide, many countries also joining this, there, they're pitching again, they're standing behind south korea's uh push, can we get out of uh get something out of icj and see justice served? i think i think the south african initiative is gaining

increasing support, even within the united states, the are organizations that are... campaigning and and appealing to uh foreign governments and foreign embassies in washington and and new york at the united nations to support the south african petition uh and yes i think the international court of justice is uh is important i think the decision they had in 1985 uh uh by nicaragua against the us uh for the us um funding and promoting it. and creating the army to attack nicaragua and attack