keeping you up to date with world news every half hour on press tv. a welcome everyone, we are now beyond 125 days into one of the most barbaric campaigns of genocide the world has ever witnessed. israel, backed by the west, including the us and uk, has unleashed a criminal crusade of aggression against palestinian. the besieg

gauza strip and every rule of engagement violated, every war crime committed and all the values of humanity breached, and now there are many hopes of seizfiire could put an end to nightmare as claimed nearly 28, palestinian lives, over 13,00 of which have been children. today we bring dimensions of this potential seizfire into our spotlight. join us for the program. is amal wahdan, humans right activist and political analyst joining us from romala and ali risk, journalists and political analys joining us from beirot. i like to welcome you both to the program, um am, we're going to start with you in occupied uh romala. amal, now we know there's a the seasfire proposal that's calling for a 345. day phases and will

involve a stop to the fighting, the delivery of aid, captive exchange, reconstruction of efforts and complete israeli withdraw from gaza. now the us says it's optimistic about this deal, the qatari and the egyptian mediators, they like it, but the israeli prime minister doesn't. why? mean, doesn't the does the regime demands have to be as disproportionate when it comes to the ceasefire as this campaign of genocide has been thus far. um, actually, it's not a surprise that the war cabinet, the israeli war cabinet has been spectacle about this proposition by the palestinian resistance, actually, netanyahu has declared his opposition to this deal yesterday. when he

said that um he is gonna continue with the war until um he meets all the goals that were set um forward which is um disarmment of hamas and actually um continue to um occupy some parts of the gaza strip and there is no talk about ' seis fire that would lead to a political solution, of course they are this government is against the political solution, it's against the two state solution, though the two state solution doesn't meet the aspirations of the palestinian people, the majority of the palestinian people actually defuses this this two state solution, so what we have in front of us is a government that is determined on one thing only that they

want to release the prisoners, the israel the israeli soldiers prisoners from the hands of the resistance, the palestinian resistance, and they want to continue controlling gaza, actually gaza was not liberated as we think or as the word might think, it was under siege, under blackade for 17 years and the... 2005 withdrawal from the from the israeli direct occupation did did not mean that it was a free territory, they were under not only sie, they cannot have any connection with the outside world and they had been um there no connection with the west bank even or with 1948. territories, so gaza's

situation was actually under occupation, so this talk about the the seasfire. and about the negotiations, blinking, blinking visit to the area, is not going to bring anything forward unless they exerp, the us, i mean, exerp some pressure or real pressure, the question here is whether the us is ready to exerpt some pressure at this radical and... terrorist government or no, and actually if the us administration was against this, i don't mean to cut you off am all, i want to come actually back to you to speak about the us and anthony blincan and what their so-called policy is on all of this, but let

me welcome mr. ali risk to the program real quick, i don't mean to be rude and cut you off, i'm going to come right back to you. ali, welcome to the program, now ali, to almal's point, i mean, uh, the the regime's premier benjamin netanyahu. he says we're just this is a funny he says we're only several months away from achieving victory in gaza when asked about this um uh cease fire i mean do you think he is referring to putting an end to hamas is what he's been saying all along him and his his uh his cabinet or to what this may sound like to lot of people is that he means an end to gaza the gaza that we know it the way it's been thus far to a mal's point. look, i think that um netanyahu statements, you have to remember that netanyahu is leading the most right-wing government in israeli history, so i think that some of those statements no doubt are related to the fact that you have these right-wing figures like smotric and ben gavir

who represent the right-wing settlers if you would like, and he he has satisfy them, otherwise his government will fall as so i don't think that his statements yesterday necessarily mean that categorical rejection the proposal, i have, i think we have to be cautious in that regard, i am not you know entirely optimistic about a cease fire or a true or whatever you want to call it, i stopped the fighting from being reached, but i'm at the same time i don't think that you could completely rule out that some kind of a cease fire is going to be reached to my information and is really... delegation is heading to cairo, a hamas delegation is also heading to cairo, so those visits, these this diplomatic flury if you would like, points out that something is, continuing, that the chances are still alive, they're not completely dead, um, the us, it's true that

it's not putting real pressures on the netanyahu government as of yet, for domestic reasons related to the fears on the part of the biden administration. that the pro israel lobby will attack him and that would undermine his chances for re-election, but very important development happened in the past few days was a stance issued by saudi arabia when they said that we we won't normalize ties with israel unless the fighting in gaza comes to a stop, that was very, very important issue because the biden administration is pinning its hopes on saudi israel normalization. now i think that the main, the main development we we have to await is will this stance push the americans into exerting more pressure on netanyahu and will this development indeed make netanyahu himself change his behavior because one of

netanyahu's one of the achievements he always brags about is that look under my premiership or my time as prime minister we normalize with the uae. we normalize with other countries, normalizing with saudi arabia would be considered to be jackpot for him, so so this development does potentially possibly, i'm not saying it's certain, but it might possibly change change the calculations and push netanyahu towards seizing the fighting, it might not come under the title cease fire, it might come under the title truce, whatever, but maybe halt to the fighting, i think that still remains possible in the near future. show, thank you, ali, and you were referring to the fact that anthony blincan, the us secretary of state since october 7th, has been out to the region a handful of times, but it seems every time he comes out, whether before he leaves washington, he talks about the um unacceptable civilian death tool, the israelis have a right to defend themselves,

or, basically he's he's called that everything but genocide, ask that he's going to come out here and push for possibly a cease fire, but yet every time he's come and he's left, it seems like the israelis and... new dimension, a whole newriad of war crimes against the palestinians, so it begs the question, what's going on, is this political theater by washington or is there genuine? there and push for a real sease far. yeah, well um, the thing is, blincon has said or repeated most of the time that is or he was only focusing on releasing the hostages, as he called them. this is his main concern, he doesn't give a dam about um the 600 palestinian political prisoners that... um are under the captive of the israeli authorities, occupation authorities, and he

doesn't mention the 7,000 prisoners who were arrested after october 7, so most of the time he focuses on one thing and one thing only, um, if there are that concerned about the human casualties, the palest lives that has been taken all through this period, 27, over 27 marters and more than 68 injured and displaced in rafah alone there is 1 million.7 people who were displaced from north, middle and khanunes area, while rafah itself is only 200 or has only 200 palestinians, the human situation in the gaza strip is is very dire,

north, in north gaza, there is 300 thousand people who are starving to death, the americans do not care about human, palestinian human lives, they care only about their military base here, which is the the colonial. settler regime in palestine, that's their main concern, and they don't want to lose this foot step in this area, so that's their own um concern. otherwise, why would they um provide the a colonial regime with ammunition all the time, what why would they provide them with financial aid, with the political and diplomatic cover up, so um... "the palestinians know for sure that the americans are um complicit in this genocide

crimes against the palestinians and this would not change the fact on the ground and we have the resistance that changed the whole equation here and the palestinians when the palestinian resistance put forward a proposition and i don't think that they will..." be back, there is no negotiations, they have discussed this with other fractions, with other resistance group, and they come up with this proposition, and this will not change, i don't think that we are going to see a real solution, cease fire coming soon, unless the israelis go through real loss in lives and economy. thank you - and ali, i'd like you to weigh in on what al

was saying, if the us is really concerned and blincan's been out here supposedly this time around that he's come out, he's uh gone into tel aviv and he's tried to approach this far right cabinet pushing saying that washington wants this uh cease fire to really work this time, yet supposedly this is all uh reported by israely media that his pleas have been falling on deaf ears with this far right cabinet that you referring to, so he's had to approach supposedly centris and the benny gadans in their so-called war cabinet. so my question to you, and i'm all said this really well, that if they are really this concerned, um, why are you shopping tel aviv for sease fire? all you have to do is withhold the $2,14 billion dollar plus packages that you're providing the uh regime to carry out this campaign of genocide, and possibly you'll get results and get everyone listening. again, um, you have to look at the

strength, you have have to look at the domestic policies in the us. israel is case, it's not, israel is not just an american foreign policy issue, it's one of those cases where it's a foreign policy issue and domestic policy issue due to the strength of the prois ready lobbies in the us, bidon according to his calculations, as it seems um is not ready to enter onto a collision. with the israeli government for a simple factor or one of the facts is that as i said before this would undermine his chances for being reelected, republicans are already. accusing him, in fact bengalier, the the israely far right minister an interview with wall street journal, if you saw that interview, he said that trump would be better for israel than biden would be, so even the israelis are playing on these uh domestic political issues in the us, that according to biden's perspective, makes it very difficult for him

to make really or to take really tangible action against the israelis and you have to add to that the fact that biden to... begin with is very pro israeli figure, he said it time and again that you don't have to be a jew to be a zionist, so his pro israeli credentials are well-known, so i think you have several factors now which um would make it very unlikely that the american administration would put real pressure on the israeli government, you see that america's being dragged into a regional war, it's just about you, it hasn't reached a war in the traditionals. sense, but you see what's happening in syria and iraq where there are acts of war taking place, the assassination of a leader in the hazballah, iraq, the strikes which the americans are launching against yeman and the counterstrikes against the american and british ships, this all calls for america to indeed put a, take tangible measures, because sessfire and gaza

would make all of all of this come to a stop, but it hasn't, and that just shows you... how concerned the americans are regarding or how how the white house is so concerned about the domestic politic political calculations and at the same time how it supports israel to this extent, but uh once again i go back to the saudi is saudi stance, the saudi stance because the american administration has pin so much hope on the normalization, the saudi condition of not normalizing bef before a cease fire in gaza that... may that may push the situation a bit forward and make the americans exert more pressure on the israelis, it's not guaranteed, but it might be that impetus which is required to push things in that way, and and how much do you think um that weighs in on things, um that the saudi factor at this point in the seasfire talks? almal, do you have a? well,

um, again, i think we having some some sort of connection problems here, i can hear you now, the americans has also to be pressure, i mean, the whole area here has been on fire um, since the beginning of what they call the arab spring, and now with the access of resistance, uniting together in different parts of this area, the only um demand that they have that the us should leave this um area, they should leave iraq, they should leave syria and they should get out of this area, and i can see that the pressure has

been put against us forces in iraq and syria by the iraqi resistance and "the situation in the red sea and babil mandib is known ansarullah is putting pressure there i think the americans has to be pressured to leave the country to leave this area and if they do the the israely eventually will um lean back - what i wanted you to to weigh in on is when ali mentioned that right now the golden goose the elephant in the room for the israelis may be for netanyahu to try to get" some kind of political win and normalized ties with the saudis, that being the stickler for him to propose sease fire in gaza. do you feel the saudi factor at this point is important for the regime? if we can get normalization, it will stop its campaign of genocide against palestinians. okay, seems like we lost a

mall. all right, ali, i'm going to come back to you. it seems like we uh, we just lost her uh, so how do you think? benjamin netanyahu, we know right now with his uh political and legal challenges that lot of people feel it weighs in on how he he's approaching, how he's approached it since october 7th and how he's going to continue to uh approach this campaign of genocide and a potential sease far. a lot of people feel the same with president us president joe biden that their uh political standing his right now uh record low popularity right now and possibly going up against a... gaining in popularity donald trump should he stand for the republican nomination, which it seems like he will, that all of this may weigh in on the fate of a cease fire in gaza. how do you? that well, look, regarding uh netanyahu, i think that um, the accountability which he might face as

result of the corruption charges and other issues, this, i believe is one factor in his wishes to prolong the war, but it's just one. i think there's another factor which isn't mentioned often is the fact that the israeli society in general has shifted very much to the right, and that is manifested in the presence of uh members of cabinet like smart rich and bengavir, the fact that you have very far right israeli government, the most far right in history shows that the israeli society has become very far right, and so when netanyahu, as we saw in his remarks yesterday, when he continues to talk about the goal of eliminating hamas and tries to make the statement or to claim that they made significant games against hamas, this is all addressed to a an israeli society which is the majority of it, "i know there are some segments which are not considered to be right-wing, but the high majority of it are those right-wing racist figures, so that's i

think another important factor we should bear in mind. biden, as you mentioned, also has his own political dilemmas, he's trailing trump according to most opinion polls, um, and if he does put real pressure on israel, like put conditions on military aid, etc., the republican party is going to be very..." quick on pouncing on that and taking advantage of it to show that he's weak against against israel or or he's too strong against israel and weak against the resistance access. in fact, the strikes which have taken place in iraq and syria and yemen, despite the escalatory nature of military action, many of the pro republicans and some republicans themself continue to label him as being too weak and try to push him and say that real action require. is attacking iran, people like the republican senator lindsay graham, so with that atmosphere again, biden appears to has have his hands tied, but at

the same time he risks alienating, and i think he has alienated already, the arab american vote, people in michigan and elsewhere in swing states which are considered to be pivotal in biden's re-election campaign, so i think with all these factors in mind, i think that what biren is trying to do is that he's not going. to take any steps which could anger or backfire and make the pro-israeli lobby launch a campaign against him, at the same time he's trying to advocate for a cease fire and talk about the necessity of allowing aid to enter in a way or according to his hopes that might keep or make the arab americans vote for him once again. i think those are biden's calculations, but um, you know, all of this makes it still quite difficult. for a cease fire to be reached if we were to focus on those considerations, but i still think in this particular round in these last this latest round of talks in paris, i still think

that there does remain a chance to achieve something, it might not be a cease fire, it could come under the name temporary truth or whatever, but there is a possibility i think for the intensity now of the violence to decrease, but but when you look at netanyahu and his cabinet, their rhetoric hasn't changed, ali they're still talking about "we will not let up until we end hamas, until we finish hamas, lot of uh experts and analysts feel that even the israelies know that they cannot put an end to hamas, that hamas is one resistance faction, there are many, it's an ideology, as long as there is occupation, there is going to be resistance, as long as there's ethnic cleansing, there is going to be resistance, as long as there's a partide and marginalization of the palestinian population, there will be resistance, whether you call it hamos or whatever, that the even the israelis..." know this, it's just excuse to try to prolong this thing, and maybe to your point, they might want to try to prolong it until the they get a hawkish republican in office to see uh if they can take gaza

completely away from palestinians, is what a lot of people feel at this point? incidentally, i'm not uh very um, i don't agree very much with that opinion that if trump comes to the white house that would necessarily mean a more pro israeli policy uh, remember just quickly on this point, remember that trump in the last the last time around he populated his cabinet or his government with very hawkish figures, people like mike pompeyo, mike pence, james mattus, very anti- iranian figures, that won't doesn't necessarily have to be the case in the next cabinet, in the next government, uh, possibly tucker carlson, the well-known former fox news host, he might be cabinet figure for all we know. "we know that he was very much against the military action against iran and very much against what trump did, the attack which led to the death of the marty uh general qasim sulaimani, so i..."

there was also necessarily 100% that it you remember you also remember pompeo going to the occupied golen heights recognize it recognizing it officially supposedly from washington's point of view as part of israeli territory you saw the proclam proclamation as in alcuds you saw the uh moving in the embassies you saw the so-called deal of the century being pushed upon palestinians one that they laughed off and then trump went after unrefunding at that point something we're seeing at repeat up he was pretty hot. against palestinians in favor of israelis? i'm not denying that, i'm not denying that he was hawish, and i, i, i condemn the policies which you referre to, and i condemn the assassination of qasim sulaymani and muhandis, the point i was trying to make is that his government last time round was populated with evangelicals, people who support israel ideologically and who oppose

iran ideologically. "this time, this time round, if trump is re-elected, he might not necessarily populate his cabinet with the same figures. we know that he has very big disagreements now with mike pence for example, who used to be his vice president, um, but aside from that, going back to your earlier question about the israelis and about what nataniau might do, don't they know that this that they can't achieve their goal, i think that they do know that that they can't achieve the goal of defeating hamas, but..." uh the israelis, this government doesn't have a strategy, um, it doesn't have a strategy for the day after, the americans are aware of this by the way, and there have has been some indirect criticism, so i think that the only thing netanyahu is trying to do right now is satisfy his government number one, his political or his survival in general, keeping out of prison as a result of the corruption charges and also trying satisfy a right-wing israeli society, the israeli s again i have

emphasize it's very much shifted to the right in that racist direction and when netanyahu makes these remarks about defeating hamas and about you know all this kind of victory rhetoric, that's very much addressed to those right wingers, the people who brought about this government or who contributed by the way to bring about this fascist government. thank you, ali always a pleasure to have you on and pick your mind on things and unfortunately we lost amal earlier but i want to thank you. both for joining us on the program earlier left us everyone, human rights activists and political analysts joining us from occupied romala and ali risk there journalists and political analyst joining us from beirout and that brings us to the conclusion of this segment of your press tv spotlight, thank you for tuning in and bye-bye for now.