thousands gathered at the chicago convention to call for sease fire in gaza and an end to us weapon sales to israel. the march on the dnc, as it was called, demanded immediate and permanent seesfire in gaza. to convention kicked off on monday is thousands of democratic officials and supporters descended on chicago to celebrate camala harris's candidacy. ahead of the us presidential

election november. now, meantime, the genocidal war on gaza is claiming more civilian lives using us supplied arms. ironically, peace talks are also going on simultaneously. now welcome to the spotlight. ony and these are our guests in this episode. sadn, professor of political science at the per university joining me from ramala. also with this is richard becker, anti-war activist with the answer of coalition out of san francisco. welcome to the show, both gentlemen. now, professor, let's start with this protest i just told you about at the outside of the democratic convention venue in chicago yesterday, of course is four-day event. now protesters have told camala harris that they won't vote for her in case the us does not bandy regime. so it's... quite

evident that many americans are not cognisance of what's happening to the palestinians in gaza, what israel is doing there, and they want their officials to do something serious about it. your take on this, please. well, good evening to you and your guest from san francisco as well as for all your viewers. yes, we think that in the democratic convention and what happened in chicago today, we are talking here about the problem. the democratic party today, because they are losing lots of votes and especially young people, those who are in support of the palestinians and against the war, regardless of supporting the palestinian or not, people who are against the war and against the american supplies of weapon to to israel to continue with this genocide, everyone is now realizing that there is a genocide and especially in the united states after... the movement of

the students uh which was unprecedented since you know the vietnam war, so we are talking about you know a big movement of young people uh generally uh this young generation who are their votes are crucial for uh the democratic party, but now the democratic party really of are in big problem, on the one hand the relationship with israel, they can't say you know we are going to take this kind of action, and at the same time they are... risking the losing of these votes, crucial votes for the democratic party, so we put huge question mark over you know camel harison in in the elections and the her chances to win in front of trump in in this coming elections, so the demonstration today it was that you know that big and they gave the... the the the if you like their

statement to the democrats in in their convention that we need you as this generation, young generation, we need you to stop sales of of or or providing israel with weapon and with with the bombs and with support israel and to really work on stopping the war, because so far the administration now in its weakest form, especially you biden's administration and they can't pressurize even israel to stop the war and we saw that in the negotiations going on between uh blincan and netanyahu just yesterday so uh i think that this movement by the people is just to give the voice to the democrats to really make their mind if they want the the elections that uh camilla harrison to to to win the elections. or not, it's up to the

democrats to take action. okay, now richard, at his deancy speech present, byiden yesterday just suffice to say that protesters have point, and and this is while washington is still funneling uh funds and arms to the telaviv regime, they're being used on the genocidal war on gaza, so any difference between the president and vice president, camilla harris of course is acknowledged that while palestinian suffering, palestinians are suffering in gaza, this is what thank god is at least acknowledged, but she's not promised any actual policy change and she has not announced that she's against arms embargo against israel. yes and of course president biden has been a staunch supporter of israel for many decades now. he's repeatedly proclaimed himself to be a zionist. he says, "i'm not jewish, but i'm a zionist. i'm a

firm zionist. i stand for iron clad support for the state of israel. uh, the democrats have a problem, and as your other guest was. referring to your guests in romala was referring to is that they're trying to not have a division a significant division open up at the convention that would endanger their chances which i have improved tremendously since biden dropped out of of retaining the presidency of winning the presidency in november but the big the big problem that they have and the big big potential problem that they're trying to to cover over or sometime in some way uh remove it from the headline is the genocide that's going on in gaza, the genocide carried out by us weapons and while they talk about things like this where as was pointed out they biden

said that they have the protesters have point, it's trying to smooth over things, the reality is is that yeah they had the... protesters of course have point, they have a completely valid point, the genocide is going on and it has to be stopped, but at the same time the weapons continue to flow from the united states to israel, israel could not have carried out this genocidal assault a heavily populated area uh, could not carry out its policies in general without the backing of the us. you know, i i think one of the things that is often missed in the western media is that, "the zionist movement and the state of israel never could have come into being without the backing of one of the big imperialist countries up until 1948 it was britain. britain really opened the door without the bellford declaration, there could not have been a stated and and that support

for colonization, because the zinanis at the beginning had no military of their own, they had to find someone else's military that would another sponsor that would support them after the..." left it was the french up until 67, they were the main armors, but since 1967 hundreds of billions of dollars in in military aid, lesser amount, but still significant amount in economic aid has flowed from the united states, from the tax payers the united states, to support the state of israel in all of what it has been doing, yeah, now professor nam, richard bicker rightly said, he mentioned you, big bucks flowing and also arms, going israel's way and this has been going on and on for years and years. i want to ask you, why can't we expect a sea change, a drastic change in the us policy vis of israel, palestine and then the conflict they have regardless of who runs the oval office? well, yes, we have to understand

that there is a strategic relationship between the united states and israel, from the point of the deep state in the united states, israel is not only an allie it is their extended hand if you like in the in the region and the last period the uh americans were trying to push israel to be you know to normalize relationship with all the arab countries and especially in the gulf states and to form a kind of an alliance or kind of a you know pack between all of them led by israel especially that israel have this reputation of its big army and strong army and alliance supposed to be against iran in the region and to protect these regimes and which promised by the americans to be protected by them and especially during trump's era when he said that they can't live

two weeks without us, so because of that there is this big relationship between israel and united states, so they can't afford to lose israel. now... during the war there was you know huge problem in this problem is that israel lost this kind of power and reputation if they couldn't finish a palestinian faction or the palestinian. resistance in gaza, which is very small area, how could they really lead the region and to be you know this kind of powerful alliance? so they are in in deep trouble. now the americans are trying to restore the power of israel and to bring back you know the power of israel and its ability to you know to stop or to to confront if you like. any threat in in the region, especially when we are talking about the middle east and

the interest of the american especially in the gulf states and the oil, so for all that all these reasons the the americans are can't afford to lose israel or to have israel weak, because of that they are continuing to you know support them in spite of the fact that they know and everyone know now that israel is is leading not only a genocidal war against the palestinians and gaza, but also they are breaking all kind of laws and international laws and humanitarian laws and commit crimes, war crimes one after another in on on a daily basis. we think also that from the very beginning that the americans also were participating in this war by supporting israel, by continuing of support and in all levels, not only by money, weapon, but also politically and you know diplomatically, especially in the united nations. when they used the veeto many times to prevent any resolution against israel,

exactly and every possible way they could, they actually a party to the war. now uh, richard, let's turn to gaza now, and iof, in one instance, i can mention today, attack killed a dozen palestinians, uh, it targeted mustafa hoffice school in gaza city, you know, this is the place where 700, 800 palestinians, they are displaced forcibly, and they had only... school uh to take shelter in and that school was also hit today in dozen palestin including women and children again unfortunately lost our life so what's the west doing exactly only just watching this and slamming israel? mean why don't they treat palestinians the same way that they treat ukrainians? well yeah and you now we see the a british journalist who was arrested at the airport ' and held for 24 hours and and our own what we see colleagues,

what we see happening yes is the is that uh the west and particularly the uk, france, germany, the us, they they're not doing anything to stop the genocide that's going on, this murderous campaign uh, but they do arrest people who report on it, so their attitude is please don't report, please don't... report uh they say to trying to make it clear to western journalists and all to all journalists that they do not want to be bothered by these kind of these reports that are going on a time when they've thrown in with israel fully thrown in with the state of israel and the you know today i think really biden uh is not acting as the the leader of the us anymore he's really retired already uh it's really blinc and blincon is there with nanyahu, blincan has the authority and the means by which to bring an end to this, and

and the fact that that is not happening is shows and and as as your other guest said, israel remains a very critical element in the us global empire and particularly of course in the middle east region, and as the light itself, we have this pretense that the united states government stands for democracy in the world and... that its closest allies in the region are the apartite state of israel and no one can question anymore whether it's an apartite state, mean someone can question it, but we have nothing to stand on, and then these monarchs, these monarchies, family monarchies in bahrain and uae and saudi arabia and morocco, these are the great friends of of the us and israel in the region, and these are states in which the great majority of people who are... the workers can't vote, aren't citizens, have no rights whatsoever, and where the family

monarchies sit at top you know great fortunes and the people suffer, and so this is the the reality of us foreign policy rather than what is presented to the world as foreign policy supposedly based on democracy and freedom etc etc etc. right now professor namra uh richard mentioned yesterday and then he traveled to egypt team met with president there and president says that it's now time time to end the gaza war, which risks throwing the region into a broader conflict, that is, i'm quoting him, difficult to imagine, this is the warning that present gave, so what exactly is washington doing here, i mean talking peace with egyptians with kataries, hamas is not there at the table, and then the same time all this is going on, i mean the funding,

fueling the war in gaza, american bombs, shattering schools, killing people in gaza. yeah, well uh, we know that the american wanted this war to stop, it's quite obvious that netanyahu is trying to pull the whole region into a regional war, and he want to involve and implicate the americans in this war, because he can't do it on his own, and that in his thinking, that will return and restore the the power of israel in this case by targeting iran, but not by his own forces, but by implicating and bringing in the united states. "now the united states at this moment they are not in that mood at all, they can't that, they are not willing to go into a new war, especially in the middle east, and especially with now the involvement in ukraine and what happened in afghanistan, so it's really very complicated for them, and also it will be not only costly, but also we

are you know approaching the the elections in in november, so they are not willing now to..." be involved in the region, especially that they do know that all their bases in the region will be targeted by the iranian, by the houties, by the iraqis as well as by hizballah in in in and all others, so in such case it's not in their best interest now to be involved in a war, so they don't want that, they want to diffuse the situation, but apparently netanyahu still insists, on the 2nd of july there was this biden's... initiative for the seiz fire and to stop you know the war and to make the exchange of prisoners, which hamas accepted and this situation or or what biden suggested became even a united nation resolution, now it became obvious and hamas accepted and that put netanyahu apparently in a very bad and

awkward situation, he don't, maybe he was relying that hamas will will refuse. this initiative, but they accepted that and they are willing to do it, but now netanyahu, he brings in more conditions, and he put forward more conditions. the problem is that the americans changed the initiative and started to comply with what netanyahu wants and that what happened also yesterday in the meeting between and netanyahu, said by the end of the day that yeah we agreed on everything and israel agreed to the new modification of... the americans, why? why should we accept the modification? especially you talk about the palestinian resistance, so now the their position is against this new conditions, and apparently netanyahu put these forward to escalate the situation in the region and to pull us all into a regional war. right, richard, speaking of netanyahu, he is told

relatives of the israeli captive celled in gaza that he's not sure there will be a cease fire. "he also stress is important to maintain control over the philadelphia corridor, you know, the major is sticking point and the seas fire negotiations, and we have present biden also on the other hand saying that hamas is backing away from the deal, it's biden who has professors that he changed, he modified some of those provisions uh of the deal that hamas agreed to, and now so given the circumstances, how do you see a prospective peace?" " well, you know, i think that what what netanyahu has been doing is he's been walking kind of tight rope, the the open fascists in his government, bengabeer, smoke rich and some others have threaten to leave the coalition, bring down the government, unless the war continued, and so and the us is calling on calling on israel,

netanyahu to enter into some kind of seace. so now it looks like netanyahu feels he's gotten past the that problem that the latest reports are that the if there's some kind of an agreement that it would be they ben gave and wouldn't might leave the government but wouldn't leave the coalition could stay in power he's gotten more popular and this is very telling among the population in israel by killing ' hamas and leaders of hazballah in lebanon, that's made him more popular, so he's feeling like he's making his way through this, and as long as he can cont continue and this is what went on with the oslo accord too, we should recall is that israel has no intention of a real cease fire of anything

that resembles justice for the palestinian people, but they need to have the us run interference for them internationally, so that it looks like the us can keep talking about, oh yeah, they're for, they're for peace, israel's for peace, they want to see, no, they don't want any kind of sease fire that would conceivably be acceptable to the palestinian. but they want to continue to look as if at least for world public opinion that they have the us, they have the us shielding them from criticism by pretending that yes indeed they do want to cease fire they don't right and sad let me read some quotation for you enough with the briefings enough with the tweets enough with the rhymes in front of cameras now who do you think these comments belong to? is really opposition leader lapit on x, this is uh what he posted and he argues that i'm quoting him, all of netanyahu's attempts sabotage negotiation should stop deal now before they

all die, so you see many even not only israeli people, there are also officials, former officials, members of public, they want uh deal and they want their captives back home, everybody except netanyahu, so how do... see about the future, what's gonna happen next? well, i think that netanyahu had pulled israel into a situation, which is really, really, very, very awkward situation. let me just have this scenario, if stop the war and netanyahu and they called for early elections and netanyahu is not the prime minister anymore, now any new government, they have to deal with the problems with the army, the problems with the economy, the problems with the... and foremost the problem with the palestinan question which is not you know even if they won this let me say war right uh what about after five years three

years two years five years 10 years can can anyone say that this is not going to be repeat again so the whole question is that any government now new government really especially in the opposition they are reluctant of you know doing that so let's yahu deal with the whole situation, so they are not that much serious in really getting netanyahu out, in spite of the fact that all them, they are asking netanyahu to go ahead with this deal, maybe some of them and there were polls in in in israel showed that around 70% of the population in israel or the public, they want the deal, but the deal only to end the issue of the uh prisoners captured by by the by the palestinian resistance and after that continue the war to continue this is the problem all right that's all the time

we have unfortunately let me thank my guests s nim and ramela and richard ber and san francisco thank you and thank you for watching this episode of the spotlight on press tv i've been your host najafy i'll see you next time they have memories of uphill battle with a now executed iraqi dictator saddam hussein and his now defunct baptist regime and the like who sough to stifle the pilgrimage. today centuries old arbain. is still alive thanks to those who serve the pilgrims of imam hussein from across the world.

heron says no attack on his interest has got unanswered and israel should have wait a calculated and precise response to the assassination of. leader in taiwan, another school sheltering displaced people comes under israel's track and gaza with at least dozen people killed in the attack and damas condemns the us president's remarks about its estance on gaza true sale as a green light for israel to continue its genocidal war.