hello and welcome to spotlight. it's been more than four months since israel started. it's on. slot on the gaza strip, nearly 28,00

palestinians have lost their lives and about 70,000 others have been injured. most of the population in the besieg territory have been forced to move to the southern city of rafa. now israel is preparing to invade palestinian's last refuge in the south of the gauza strip. un has warned of a blood bath if israel invades the city. where else do palestinians have to go and will there ever be an end to the deck? 's long western-backed occupation and genocide against the palestinian people, we'll try to find out in tonight's spotlight with our guests, former un weapons inspector in iraq, mr. scott ritter, who's joining us from bethlehem, new york, and also joining us from brussels, we have journalists in political analyst elijah magnere. gentlemen, welcome to the program.

let's start off with mr. rider. after 133 days of israeli terror, nearly 29,000 palestinians have been killed, most of them, of course, women and children in gaza. the israeli military is also rated the main hospital in the southern city of konjunes. the un rights office says israeli raid systematically target life saving infrastructure, especially hospitals. please share with us your perspective on this. genocide that is unfolding in gaza before our very eyes. well, first of all, we need to reflect on the fact that um, nobody's stepping up to stop this, nobody. not the united states who should be, because we're the nation that has the ability to put the most pressure on israel, not europe, um, not asia, not russia, not china, not egypt, not jordan, not syria, not saudi arabia, nobody is stepping up to stop them. "and we just

have to accept this reality that whatever is happening right now is apparently not a sufficient horror, not a big enough tragedy to to cause the moral compass of these nations to to to be altered, which means that any talk today of a palestinian state is empty talk, because you can't have a palestinian state if you don't respect the palestinian people, so we have to reflect. on another reality that at this point in time the israeli military has acknowledged that the goal and objective of the military defeat of hamas has failed that it's not going to happen so this is a conflict that will continue and the palestinian people will continue until which time either israel is able to eventually wear down hamas and defeat them or the international community becomes so outraged by the depravity of the... the uh

israelis when it comes to their the genocide, the war crimes they've committed, that there can be push on the part of the international community to uh to bring this war to an end, but right now, unfortunately uh, nobody's, i mean, people with heart are crying when they see the images of the babies, but no government has fundamentally changed its position, and so i think we're looking at continued violence for some point, okay, that thought, i'm going to come back to you in a minute, uh, mr. ritter, uh, elijah. magneera israel is bombing areas of gaza that it has designated as safe, wiping out entire families, and now it's planning ground offensive uh in rafa, which is holding more than half of the population of gaza, officials in cairo have already opposed calls to taken palestinians in case they flee, rafa, the north of gaza has been flattened, another war crime is looming in this south, where are gasons supposed to go? eu foreign policy chief joseph burell asked, are gas?

wasn't supposed to evacuate to the moon? well, josephl is right, because he was pointing out that the people in gaza ' have other place to go, because there are no safe places in gaza. now, i don't think this is a bad idea for the palestinian to remain in rafah, because if they are forced to flee to egypt, then this is another exodus, and this is exactly where benyamin netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, want them to be, to make sure that he can exterminate all those who remaining. gaza and consider them all as potential targets. now at the moment, the palestinian resistance is still fighting back in the north, is still firing missiles from the north, it is still fighting in kanyunis and is preparing itself in wafa. on the other

hand, there are the axis of the resistance on the front with lebanon, the iraqis and the yemen are also participating, and as far as we know that the access of the resistance is not going to allow israel to defeat the palestinians, so we understand that the potentiality of escalation is on the table today, because benyamin netanyahu is determined to continue the war, he's not listening to anyone, because he wants to remain in power and he is supported by the israeli far right minister. so for that the only hope of the palestinians is to stand and fight, and i understand that there are many civilians who are paying the price, but they have been paying the price since 1930, and if we want to look at the current history, from

the beginning of this war in the 7th of october, israel did everything to destroy everything possible in gaza and to render the city... impossible to live after the war, so basically it's not going to change anything, and it will be much better for the palestinians not to leave and for egypt not to open the gate and play in netanyahu's hands. right, scott rider, uh, is israel using the excuse of eradicating hamas, something that you also pointed out, it has failed to achieve to just to continue to kill palestinians, the israely prime minister's insistence on continuing the onslot and rejecting. any cease fires basically shows his goal as genocide against palestinians in continuation to that, what you mentioned in your first stance, you said that no government is stepping up, why is that? because the palestinian cause hasn't

generated uh, it doesn't resonate amongst anybody outside of palestine. let's be honest, egypt has never articulated adequately for a palestinian state, egypt and... enjoys the status quo ante, they receive significant money from the united states that's linked to the money that we give to israel, so they you know, if you create a palestinian state and it's premised on the notion of peaceful coexistence with israel, if peace breaks out all over, there might be a recalibration of this aid to egypt, um, syria hasn't uh done a good job of standing up for palestinian state, jordan has, jordan fears the palestinians, um, the the the only ones who have... done anything meaningful at this point in time is hesbollah in lebanon, but hezbollah is a political party, not a resist, not just a resistance movement and they have responsibility to lebanon, let's not forget yamen, well yemen is the soul exception right now, but the

yemen response is limited, they they have the ability to um interdict shipping and they and israel's paying very heavy economic price and so is... but it's not a game changing price. what the yemines are doing is a harassment, it's an inconvenience, but it's not enough to drive israel to its knees. um, now if yemen were able to get some of iran's hypersonic missiles and start attacking israeli cities, maybe we'd have a different, a different outcome or maybe if hezbolah unleashed some of its arsenal against israeli cities, we'd have a different outcome, but right now the the the heroism of the yemenes isn't enough to change. the outcome and hez doesn't look like it's ready to step up and engage in full-scale war with israel and until that happens, israel will operate with a free hand against the palestinians in gaza. us president joe biden recently said the israelis have gone over the top regarding the

assault on gaza, one must ask how far is too far in the support that washington is giving the israelis and the massacre that the israeli regime uh... committing the eu foreign policy chief once again said if you're concerned with the civilian debts to the us, then stop supplying them with arms. well, actually the us is concerned about the number. the civilians that is not arguing killing the civilians, but he saying over the top, because israel was killing between 450 and 500 palestinians every day, of which 70% as are children and women, so what the is what the americans are saying is they don't want to a permanent seas fire, they don't want to stop this war, but they... want netanyahu to kill less civilians and less children and women, but to continue his war

and to negotiate to free the prisoners and then to return to war and to fight against the palestinian resistance until he defeat them when his own generals are saying hamas is an ideology, the palestinian resistance cannot be defeated and it can be weakened only. so there is very clear indication from the united states and europe that they don't want the end of the war, they trying to bring humanitarian aid because that suits them for their own peace of mind to say, we're doing something for the civilians, but they're not managing, because less than 140 trucks are going in gaza every day, some days 40, some days 50, and nothing is going to the north of gaza of... humanitarian aid for the last 14 to 16 days, which means that there are all

the violation of international laws, the icj is starting on monday and israel has not complied because it is un accountable and because it is enjoying the full support of the united states at the united nations in supplying weapons and covering all the israeli crimes and sending them money, so this is why israel are on leash and they think they can do anything. scott rider, iran's foreign minister has said that israel wants to drag the us alongside itself into the quote unquote west asia quagmire. do you believe the israelis are seeking to expand their onslot on gaza into a wider regional conflict so they can get the us directly involved, and if so, are these actions producing the results that the israelies are seeking? "i think benjamin netanyahu has

articulated in the past that uh he uh he would like to see robust military action against iran for the purpose of uh eliminating iran's nuclear um infrastructure uh he recognizes that he could only do this uh if the united states went along but that's a different problem that's being faced right now i don't believe the israelis want to expand this conflict because" since if hezbulah ever meaningfully engaged, meaning not the the managed conflict, but a full-scale conflict, israel would lose, israel would lose galilee, there's a chance israel would lose the goal on heights and the israeli generals know this, so they want to maintain pressure, the threat of a regional conflict is a way of distracting american diplomatic efforts, but their focus is on resolving the crisis in gaza, and as your your other guess pointed out, look, they're in the... business of killing palestinians and nobody's stopping them, um, nobody cares about the palestinian people right now, the

international court of justice is ruling is meaningless because nobody's stepping up. the only way the united states can disentangle itself is if the price paid for continuing to support israel is greater than the price that they that that that that meaning that if the international community starts to hold the united states accountable, then maybe the united states will realize that supporting israel is losing. proposition, but at this point in time the united states isn't paying that price, and unfortunately, i think it's going to be the palestinian people that continue to suffer. elijah magnia, we uh, few minutes um earlier we were talking about uh yemen and uh the response that uh they've given to the uh genocide in gaza, also uh the response uh they've given against american and british ships to the ongoing strikes on yemen, talk to us about the yemeny. response to the gaza onslot, how you view it, and also the defined message that they have been

sending to the us and its allies so far. the emini have done incredible work from the beginning of this war, they try to bomb the israelis in support of gaza, but they were faced with the american and their allies interception missiles on the way, so what they have done is they found out that it is better to block the israeli shipments and prevent israel from having it in the same way like nothing had happened during this war. and suffer a little bit, even if gaza is suffering even more and always in the name of gaza, because the yemen were very careful in not diverting the attention on the palestinian cause, now they step up even further when the americans and the british started bombing yemen, and the british and the americans didn't learn that the yemen for

seven years was under the bombardment and was never flexible. so what the yemen are doing is by targeting all the american, the british and the israeli ships, they are imposing new rule of engagement on the baben mandib and they have promised to increase that, and i think the way they promise to increase is directly linked to the israeli plans to go into rafah and to force another exodus. the palestinians either toward egypt or towards the north of gaza or along the sea as netanyahu is thinking of doing, so this is why i said from the beginning, gaza is not going to be left alone, and the palestinians are not going to be left to the mercy of benjamin netanyahu and the most immoral army

in the world, that is the israeli occupation forces, because iraq and yemen... will increase the pace and hisbullah is already starting to use a higher caliber, so i think yemen can do lot by showing the world that the simplest way to stop the interruption of the navigation of the israeli shipments and the americans and the british is to stop the war on gaza. unfortunately, there is not enough will of the international community to stop the war and... netanyahu is not listening to anyone and the americans are not willing to commit the political suicide by stopping the support to israel, therefore it is up to the access of the resistance mainly yemen, because it proved very efficient and because also the front of lebanon is still within a controlled area and is not

destinated to expand depending on what's happening on the ground. in gaza, therefore yemen will find something new and i'm sure something will come up in the next weeks, but we haven't seen yet netanyahu implementing his plan to force in exodus, because he's still fighting in the north and he's still fighting in the souls, and the war is not over in these areas, as he is lying to his people and saying, "i'm going to move to another stage and go to rafa." because this is the last point, all the casualties that he's suffering are in the area that he claim to occupy but not control. scott rider, there was a recent us drone attack on the capital baghdad, iraqi capital baghdad, iraq of course condemn that calling it a breach of their sovereignty and iraqi resistance movement, following that drone attack called

for submitting a request to the un security council to demand the immediate. withdraw of foreign forces, the iraqi prime minister also stated that baghdad wants a quick withdraw of the destabilizing us forces from iraq. what do you think are the motives uh behind united states recent attacks on resistance groups in iraq? well, the motive is to make um, what the united states calls pro iranian proxies, pay a price for the sin of launching a drone strike tower. 22 uh killing three americans, wounding several others. the goal is to create a sense of deterrence to um imbue uh the pro iranian militias in in iraq with fear uh that the consequences they will pay for striking american targets uh will be greater

than any benefit they gain uh from that. um let's just be clear uh taking a case to the security council is meaningless given that the united states has veto, so that's just a political gesture uh, and the prime minister can say all he wants about his desire to remove troops, but the united states has disregarded iraqi political uh threats of this uh in the past, the only way the united states is going to withdraw is if the price they pay is intolerably high, and we'll find out how serious the iraqi milias are, if they uh continue to do this the pin 'you the pin prick attacks, then nothing will change. the only way this changes is with full-scale onslaughts that threaten american bases in iraq with being overrun and massive casualties at that point time'. "the united states will make determination that the price being paid to maintain a presence in iraq is too great and they'll withdraw, but that isn't going to happen until iraq uh steps up

to the plate and physically threatens the uh american troops present on their ground, and right now i don't see the political will in iraq to do that. mr. magniam, brussel's last month, the us along with dozen countries, of course mostly western states suspended funds to onrua, that's the un agency that supports palestinian refugees. what was your? initial reaction to hearing this decision and also what consequences will this move have for the population in need of assistance in gaza right now? it is very unfortunate because israel has been aiming to defund ara for very long time, and what is most unfortunate is not the defunding, it is the narrative that the israeli intelligence is offering to the... world leaders and saying that there are 12 to 13 palestinians who are part of hamas and in ur and then condemn the millions

of palestinians who receive support from the united nation refugee organization in lebanon, in jordan, in syria and in palestine, so condemning all these people doesn't really come, from narrative from the israelis or a lie saying without offering any proof that to the confession of the american leaders and all the european leaders even the united nation who fired or suspended the 12 employee or 13 without any proof they admit that and yet they are submitted to the israeli will to... to suspend the funds on unura and force the palestinians to leave gaza. in fact, the only objective of the israeli government led by the extremist

benyamin netanyahu and all his gang is to expel all the palestinians, but not only in gaza but also in the west bank, because the funding ana in the west bank is putting really all the palestinians. trouble and we're talking about five to six million palestinians living in palestine today that are living only on the support of the united nations and if you look at gaza is made of dozens of refugee camps from palestinians who came from all over palestine during the 1948 exodus and later on so this militious step aims again to give another hit to the palestinians, but it's a direct message from the israelis that the palestinian need to understand that the israelis will never want

to live with them. this is why the palestinians can only stick to one thing, is the armed resistance to fight for their land, and i think this is what they are doing, and this is what the 7th of october offered for them as the only remaining choice. sure, one last question. for mr. ritter, you mentioned earlier that governments aren't uh stepping up to the plate, but it's been the exact opposite with regards uh to the uh um to the people, to the public, where just recently crowds in jordan took to the streets of aman, in solidarity with palessin is there protesting against the kingdom's continuation of exports of produce and vegetables and fruits to israel, similar demonstrations of course have been ongoing since the start of the... and cities around the world, do you think that this is the most isolated? israel has ever been because of this genocidal war?

think in terms of global public opinion, yes, there's no doubt that the vast majority of the people around the world oppose what israel is doing, and they oppose it vociferously. the problem is how to take this opposition and turn it into something that's politically meaningful, because the politic'. and economic elites that are making policy that continue to advocate in support of israel aren't moving, it's not, they're not being moved off of their position, and so you this public outrage hasn't found the the leverage necessary to get political outcomes and until it does, it's it's meaningless, because while it might be nice for a palestinian in ghaza if they can access a television to see demonstrate. somewhere in europe and the united states, the reality is within f minutes and israeli bomb is going to land near them, israeli tanks are going to slaughter people, israeli soldiers are going

to shoot innocent victims. and nothing is going to change, and uh, that that's just the the the reality. all right, thanks lot, gentlemen, former un weapons inspector, in iraq, mr. scott ritter joining us from bethlehem, new york, and thanks to journalist and political analyst elijah magnia, joining us from brussels and of course, a special thanks to you our viewers for staying with us tonight spotlight. it's good night for now, and see you next time. this is the story of nation that lived here for centuries until an obscure foreign regime emerged and began farming on their lands and brought in new people to replace the old nation. they picked the focal point of attention of different religions in the region, a highly regarded place at the heart of this arabic islamic setting. what would have happened if

hizbullah had been vanquised? that's perhaps the most significant and upsetting question about the 2006 war. much has been said about the 2006 war, about its motives, the behind the scenes and the circumstances around it.

you headlines on press tv, the international court of justice has warned that what is taking place in the gaza strip could lead to untold regional consequences. hezballah warns that if israel keeps crossing the red lines by targeting lebanese civilians, it will pay the price of its action with blood, and the answer movement says the united states exposed this hypocricy by its pro-israel move to designate the yemani group as terrorist.