crisis, devastating wars, terrorism, the israeli lobby, crackdown, diplomacy, israel gaza losses.

now is already prime minister netanyahu said yesterday that he experienced one of the most difficult days since the invasion of gaza. two dozen iof soldiers were killed on monday. is really media also reported at least 4,000 troops have become disabled. now palestinian sources of course saying that a regime underaccts his losses, fearing rising public anger. now 109 days passed since the us is radi genocide. war on gaza and tel aviv has

not been able to achieve any of its estated goals, and netanyahu has been under intense pressure from both israeli public and officials over his handling of the war on gaza. welcome to the spotlight, i'm behrus najafi, and these are our guests in today's edition of this spotlight. risk, political analys is joining me from beirout lebanese capital. charlotte gates, international coordinator with assamdun, palestinian prisoner solidary network is also joining us from vancouver, canada. good to see you both. now, beginning with ali, many of these uh iof soldiers are getting killed or wounded, as you just hear in reports especially yesterday, and at the hands of palestinian fighters in gaza, the number is rising, more and more. what does this say about the so-called invincibility of the... is really

military? ali well, i think one of the things, well, i think this is just um crowning, if you would like, or the culmination of what happened previously on october 7, the allox storm operation. uh, i think that since then since before then, actually, since the july 2006 war with hazballah, this invincible, invincible reputation of the israeli army. uh greatly diminished, but i think it was dealt on knockout blow on october the 7, uh, these latest losses which we're talking about right now, as i said, i think they're a culmination of that, and it just goes to show, i think that the israeli military without american support uh, would be easy prey uh for the opposing forces, you know, for whether it be of hamas, hazballah, uh, other allied countries and forces in the region. "and it just goes

to show that um america is all the more israel's lifeline uh, israel used to be perceived as a country or an entity which could defend itself, and i think that has now that equation has come to an end, and that makes israel more of a strategic burden, because i think that the american mindset, a burden for america, i'm saying, because the american mindset was that if we could withdraw from the region." focus on russia and china and israel maybe can take care of itself along with some other, along with taking care of other arab countries like saudi arabia etc. this is one idea behind the normalization of ties, so all this i think has been dashed away as a result of the fact that the israeli army turned out not to be invincible and turned out to suffer from very severe weaknesses, and this has i think a lot of strategic repercussions even a world. wide

stage. okay, charlotte, your stands on the same question. yes, well, it's very obvious that the mythology that the zionist regime has sought to promote about the invincibility of its army has fallen down in the face of very strong, organized and powerful resistance that's deeply rooted in the palestinian people, and the same is true of the the defeats that the same so-called invincible army has taken from the resistance in lebanon and is currently facing you know in terms of the ongoing resistance in yemen and iraq as well, wherever there is resistance that is deeply rooted. and the people, um, the fact is that the occupation army relies solely its ability to bomb people and kill civilians from the sky, wherever they're forced into actual ground combat with resistance forces, they take loss after loss and they show extreme cowardis in battle,

especially in comparison to the bravery and heroism of the resistance forces. and ellie, there are reports that the a large number of israel yuts are not willing in the present circumstances to join the... military and those who avoid joining the israel military may end up serving repeated prison services or be forced to return to recruitments, so what's netan trying to do, getting all iuf soldiers killed so he could have stay in power? i think that natanahu is very much focusing on his own political future, that's what we see. with the current israeli approach, did see those reports regarding um some of the israeli youth refusing to join the military and i think that this indeed is a big dilemma uh for the israeli side, the israeli defense minister, you of gallant

actually, i believe i'm not mistaken made some reference references to this, you have to remember, recall a statement here from hisb's leader sayid hassanlah when he said that um "the israeli citizens don't lack that attachment or connection to the territory because there aren't the original inhabitants of that territory or the rightful owners let's say of that territory. i think the same can be said about the israeli military. i think that there are some youth who no longer feel this connection to the israeli military and that is a big strategic um i think danger for the israeli side given how much" israel used to rely on military power, you recall how israel appears to be addicted indeed to military action, how it waged wars of aggression on nur numerous neighboring countries, so when this military power diminishes, israel has lost a lot of that

strength with strength which it used to possess, but i think netanyahu is behaving in a quite an unrealistic way, and at the same time uh... right, he is focusing on his own political future, but the problem is that um the americans who remain, the you know, they are the ones who keep israel alive if you would like, they are persevering or continuing with this support, that's what's keeping israel going, and i think that um, in that particular issue, netanyahu, we have to confess, has succeeded in preserving that american support and therefore preserving the continuation of... the war and keeping himself out of prison right and charlotte, the is really goal, one of the goals they stated was eliminating hamas, it's proved to be pipe dream, hasn't it, palestinian fighters are resilient, they are taking out more invading troops, resistance fighters in

lebanon, iraq and yemen also uh you know conducting the retaliatory uh operations inflicting more damage and fatalities on the occupation regime, your take? "the zionist regime has always declared that it is going to eliminate the leadership of the palestinian resistance. um, you know, when it was the plo organizations leading the resistance, they vowed to eliminate and never deal with, and never recognize the plo, the and that of that failed, their attempts to destroy hamass are failing, their attempts to destroy the resistance or failing, because it's a targeting of palestinian resistance, and that's of course pardon part." the attempt to force the palestinian people from their land and and confiscate their land and resources in future, and obviously this is a failed project, no setler colonial project is going to be able to erase the palestinian people and their resistance forces

whatsoever, and we have seen that, not only have they failed to eliminate the loyalty to the resistance and the active military operations of the resistance, which are uh striking significant blows against the occupation forces a daily basis, but the fact is is that the adherence to and support for armed struggle is the mechanism. for the liberation of palestine probably has greater support than it has had, you know, in a long time, because it's be, it's very clear that the palestinian people are facing an absolutely genocidal enemy force that is not willing to accept the existence of the palestinian people, because the any people that are determined to exist on their land are going to resist against their own genocide, and this... is the case for all of the forces in the region that are standing together and resisting zionism and imperialism, and they have not been able to

destroy any of them. now back to beirot, ali uh, you live in lebanon, so let's talk a little bit about how hisballah has been acting and it's kind of managed to uh get engaged maybe a third or a quarter of the uh iuf forces and of course they are losing more on the ground, especially since they started this ground invasion in gaza. hisbollah in here. along with yemanies and iraqis, they have been playing their own role, haven't they? uh, yes, they have, i think, one of the most important aspects to take in mind in hazballah's approach right now, is the it's a firm but calculated strategy whichballah is pursuing, it initiated the cross-border operations against israel as part of... solidarity with the palestinian hamas movement or with the other palestinian

factions as well, but it also aimed partially to protect lebanon itself, because according to how hazballah sees things and not just hazballah but others in lebanon, if hamas was to be defeated and if other palestinian factions were to be to be defeated, hazballah will be the next target or the next in line, so there's an ideological... solidarity, support for hamas and also we have that strategic angle of taking the fight to the enemy before the enemy comes and attacks you, and i think that is quite a sane approach given the ideological mindset of this current israeli government, people like bengavir and sm rich, i think that um they could be compared to the newcons if you recall in the bush administration and the aftermath of september 11. by they not only targeted in afghanistan but also went to target iraq and

elsewhere and i think that if this israeli government were to it succeed against hamas, i think it will take a similar strategy, so that is an important aspect to bear in mind in hazbullah's approach, and i think also another important aspect is the fact that hazballah is not allowing israel to drag it into an all-out war which would suit israel. timing, that's one of the main reasons why we have hazbullah being very calculated in its approach and being proportionate to the israeli responses, it has to be also admitted that if you were talking about this situation 20 years ago, any small cross-border operation from hazbullah would invited would have invited huge retaliation, that isn't taking place now and that oes very much to the deterrance which hazbullah has succeeded in, right, exactly, now charlotte, "the longer the aggression drags on, the more pressure is being heaped on uh prime minister

netanyahu. his early families are angry, he's not been able to bring their loved ones back home. some israely captives have even been killed in iof attacks and uh the question is if netanyahu cares at all about the release these captives? i think it's very clear that ned niahu doesn't care about the release of..." captives nedanyahu only cares about extending his political career and keeping himself out of jail um and so he's determined to continue the genocide and he's willing to kill tens of thousands of people in order to maintain his political career and in order to maintain himself as prime minister. i think it's um very clear that the um it's very clear that netanyahu doesn't care and is more than willing to kill... the captives of the resistance in order to prevent himself from

losing office and also stop the release of palestinian prisoners, which is of course the reason why there are zionist captives in the first place, because there are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of palestinians locked up in israeli occupation jails and it's been proven time and time again that the only ensured way of assuring their release from occupation jails is by conducting prisoner exchange, and netanyahu is trying to prevent that from taking place, and the occupation forces have been arresting thousands upon thousands of additional palestinians. in the west bank in the past weeks in addition to all of the civilian captives that they've taken from gaza and have held and have held in the most tortuous and horrific conditions possible because of the fact that they're trying to delute the potential of a prisoner exchange, which fundamentally is nearly inevitable and it's time for the occupation regime to face reality and release and empty the zionist

jails if there is an actual demand to receive their uh the... that are being held by the resistance, and of course the whole reason why there are captives being held in the first place is because once again the occupation has shown throughout the decades and decades that the only way that the palestinian people can reliably secure the release of the thousands of political prisoners held in zionist jails is to conduct an exchange. now ali opposition officials and other opponents of natanyahu they demand the war stop and the deal be clinch with hamas, some of them and of course a large number of people, they want an election to be held as soon as possible to get rid of nataniahu once and for all, so of course there was this no confidence motion and it was rejected by the kinness, they cited the reason that the election is not possible in war time, so i i want to see how you anticipate this process

heading for, where is it directed that? "well, netanyahu wasn't very popular to begin with, even before operational, and that was due to the proposed judicial reforms, which by the way, were recently rejected. um, so i think that will be interesting, i think by the way that the biden administration might pursue an approach to undermine natanyahu with the goal of replacing him with someone who would be more attentive to..." to the american advice or to what the americans want, someone for example like benny gunts, the reason being that if you notice over the past few days, the the big disagreement between biden and netanyahu has emerged about the so-called two-state solution, biden has been focusing on the two-state solution, speaking about the necessity of that,

netanyahu has refused and he has bluntly rebuffed uh biden. and i think that even before that things appeared to be a little bit tense, so i think that in addition to that domestic opposition you're referring to, i think you also have some opposition which is beginning to take shape on the part of the american administration, now the question is, will it push forward more pressures to work for example on a replacement for netanyahu, or will it continue to toe netanyahu's line or to try to provide him with incentives? like for example, proposing normalization with saudi arabia in exchange for a cease fire, we have to see, but i myself, i don't think that things appear too promising regarding how far the americans would go in pressuring or pushing natanyahu. now charlotte, how do you look at things, so what do you predict for a future israel cabinet given you know all the divisions that we see

among these israely officials themselves, the economy being entatters and receiving more blows uh out of this uh ruinous and bloody war the have launched, and also we have this great public discontent. so i think one of the things that's very clear is that the zionist project, you know, it has no legitimate project, it's a settler colonial, it's a settler colonial project that works as an agent of imperialism in the region and aims uh to divide the people from each other and from their landed resources and this kind of ongoing uh political rivalry that we see in the middle of what is ostensibly and what they will label in existential war, you know, if you compare that to on the other hand, the extremely high level of national unity by the palestinian people confronting genocide, um,

it's it's very obvious where people are unifying around cause and around a program of liberation. um, the one of the things that all of these quibbling zionist forces agree upon is the uh impulse to slaughter more palestinians, try to steal palestinian land and uh confiscate palestinian resources and defang and defuse all of the resistance forces in the region, and i mean they just want to take different ways of doing it, so people like smotrech and ben gavier are unhelpful. in many ways for this project, particularly in their dealings with the united states, the europeans, etc., in their kind of global marketing campaign and propaganda campaign, these kinds of people are not necessary. really helpful to that project, um, but the interests that they're serving are the same, it's a it's a dispute over how best to serve those interests, and

so we can't expect anything good from any of this, but all of it is a clear sign of the decay of the zionist project and it's you know long-term inability to hold together in the region. now ali, any prospect of a cease fire, palestinians have... announce it clearly that they want all other the detainees, all those palestinians held in israely jealous to be freed in return for uh israel in gaza, they want an end to the war once and for all, but this is not what qatar and egypt actually conveying the message and proposal from the israeli regime is saying they just want to give them two months time, and they said that in different phases we would have an exchange of prisoners and captes, whatever you call them, nothing else, this is not what the palestinians want, so what's the plan that n was trying to uh follow?

ali, are you there? so we have lost connection with ellie charlotte, go ahead with a question. well, i think that you know, it's the this push for the zionist occupation to stop the bombing is a popular call, like being echoed everywhere around the world, every day, literally every day, there are dozens of demonstrations and vigils and rallies where you know people, whether they're calling for a ceasefire and into the genocide, they want these, zionist bombs to stop dropping, and the reason why netan yahoo is refusing to... do so is both of course because the zyatus project is committed to carrying out the genocide of the palestinian people, but also because of the fact that it has not received any meaningful consequences,

sure we can see that european powers in the united states are a bit unhappy with the propaganda aspects of this genocidal campaign, but their response rather than to sanction the occupation has been to attack yemen um and so... so long as these forces are you know committed to this project of the destruction of the region and the confiscation of people's wealth and resources, you know, it's really critical for people in those countries to continue to get organized, to continue to build upon the tens and indeed hundreds of thousands taking to the streets and the capitals in the major cities, mean new york, london, paris, uh, berlin, these are the capitals of the... countries that are supporting the zionist genocidal project, and this kind of pressure can help to uh meaningfully support the palestinian people's uh struggle in bringing

this ongoing genocide to an end. hopefully. all right, thank you so much. appreciating my guest contribution. ali resk political analyst join me from beirut, charlotte cates, international coordinator with the samidon palestinian prisoner solidarit network from vancouver. and thank you for watching this episode of the spotlight. i've been your host. i'll see you next time.

when palestinian journalist shirin abule was killed by an israeli sniper on may 11, 2022, the israelis meant to get across a clear message that they don't want any narrative other than their own under decades old occupation of palestinian lands and their aggression. it wasn't the first. time is

really sought to put gag on the alternative narrative and every time it has failed. watch the history of the israeli measures and palestinian counter measures in this documentary.

israel launches artillery talks a major hospital in kan unis as the regime steps up deadly strikes on southern gaza. these were the army confirms the loss of 24 more troopers during intense clashes with palestina resistance fighters in gaza in the past day. the yemani army says that fresh us lead air strikes on multiple targets in yemen will not go unanswered and unpunished.