. >> reporter: for the first time, hisham awartani, the palestinian american college student who washot and paralyzed, is telling his story, how he and his two friends were ambushed on a november night in burlington, vermont. he says because of racism >> growing up in palestine, this is something that i already -- had always thought was possible. >> but did you think it would happen here? >> not really, no. i definitely expected it would happen to me in, like, the west bank, in palestine, but not in vermont. >> reporter: hisham and his two best friends, kinnan abdalhamid and tahseen ali ahmed, all grew up together in the west bank doing everything together, including going to college in the u.s. with the war raging, the friends decided to stay with hisham's family in burlington during the thanksgiving break. >> hisham's uncle was driving us from bowling alley, and before we went into the house, we decided to walk around the block. that's what we usually do >> tahseen and i were both wearing the keffiyeh, like, the traditional palestinian headscarf, for a variety of reasons, practical

hisham. first of all, i would like to say that iran was not supporting yemen only during this period of aggression against against our country. uh, iran had a good cooperation history with us and when..." the war, when the aggression war happened against our country, iran was the only country that came in front of the whole world and said that i am with yemen, i am with yemani people, and also they used to give support in terms of medications in terms of other type of supports, the universities, health sector and other places, if not for the iranian support for yemen, officially in... the whole world, no one will hear the stories coming from yemen, so we do appreciate what has been given to our country, and we hope also this cooperation will continue when this aggression is over, we would give iran the first place in the form of rebuilding our country through different sectors that yemen needs and mainly reconstructing the country which was ruined. by the aggression, turning to gaza and the e

hisham. first of all, i would like to say that iran was not supporting yemen only during this period of aggression against against our country. uh, iran had a good cooperation history. with us and when the war, when the aggression war happened against our country, iran was the only country that came in front of the whole world and said that i am with yemen, i am with yemeny people, and also they used to give support in terms of medications in terms of other type of supports in the universities, health sector and other places, if not for the iranian support. for yemen, officially in front of the whole world, no one will hear the stories coming from yemen, so we do appreciate what has been given to our country, and we hope also this cooperation will continue when this aggression is over, we would give iran the first place in the form of rebuilding our country through different sectors that yemen needs and mainly reconstruct. the country which was ruined by the aggression. turning to gaza and th

hisham. first of all, i would like to say that iran was not supporting yemen only during this period of aggression against against our country. uh, iran had a good cooperation history with us, mhm. and when the war, when the aggression war happened against our country, iran was the only country that came in front of the whole world and said that i am with yemen, i am with yemani people, and also they used to give support in terms of medications, in terms of other type of supports in the universities, health sector and other places, if not for the iranian support for yemen, officially in front of the whole world, no one will hear the stories coming from yemen, so we do appreciate what has been given to our country, and we hope also this cooperation will continue when this aggression is over, we would give iran the first place in the form of rebuilding our country through different sectors that yemen needs and mainly reconstructing the country. which was ruined by the aggression, turning to gaz

hisham. first of all, i would like to say that iran was not supporting yemen only during this period of aggression against against our country. uh, iran had a good cooperation history with us, and... when the war, when the aggression war happened against our country, iran was the only country that came in front of the whole world and said that i am with yemen, i am with yemeny people, and also they used to give support in terms of medications in terms of other type of supports in the universities, health sector and other places, if not for the iranian support for yemen, officially... in front of the whole world, no one will hear the stories coming from yemen, so we do appreciate what has been given to our country, and we hope also this cooperation will continue when this aggression is over, we would give iran the first place in the form of rebuilding our country through different sectors that yemen needs and mainly reconstructing the country which was ruined by the aggression, turning to gaza

break. >> hisham's uncle was driving us from the bowling alley and before we went into the house wewalk around the block. that's what we usually do. >> tahseen and i were both wearing the kafir for a variety of reasons, because it was really cold, but on a more meaningful sense, it is because we felt as palestinians during this time period it's important for us to show our identity and to show that we exist and we're human. just walking along the street, you know, this man comes down the porch, approaches us, pulls out a pistol. >> tahseen was screaming when he was shot first. as soon as tahseen started screaming, i was running. >> did you know you were shot? >> i didn't quite process the fact until i looked at my phone and saw my phone had blood on it. i was like, oh, i've been shot. >> all units be advised. the shooter is unaccounted for. >> reporter: the next day federal agents arrested 48-year-old jason eaton, who lives steps from the shooting, and had an arsenal of weapons in his apartment. he allegedly told the authorities who arrested him, i've been waiting for you. eaton has

you know this better than anyone, hisham.n gain that sort of support after the sorts of actions they have committed against others and themselves? 0ne against others and themselves? one of the things they are good at is weaponising grievances. they take shared traumas that have happened in the general public and muslims imposed by gaza and they turn it around and pin grievances on an external battle. it is us versus them, the external flow. and they weaponising it. and they romanticise their violence in a way by using religious rhetoric. they use verses from the koran, and they say the whole campaign is called the promised conquest and the holy jihad, the promised conquest of jerusalem, the holy land, and thejihad against the jerusalem, the holy land, and the jihad against the heathens, against the thejihad against the heathens, against the dues, against the christians, anybody who stands in the way of the muslim nation. , ., ., ., , nation. john, i want to bring ou in nation. john, i want to bring you in here _ nation. john,

hisham jaber is a military analyst who joins us from beirot, and we also have tim anderson, the director of the center for counter hegemonic studies, joining us from cindy. welcome to you both. ashram jaber, let me first start with you. take a look at the first of all, the i guess strikes overall, uh, we're looking at two different locations that have been uh... uh targeted by the irgc uh, but uh, the timing of this is important, so let's start with that as to why you think uh the islamic republic and irgc have reacted at this point in time? salam assalam alaikum, it's normal, the iranian strike was expected after several crimes where has been taken by the enemy. uh, but it is the first time iranian strike directly targeting uh targets in syria, of course in the kurdistan area and arbil had to respond sometime and everybody knows the mosad station, everybody knows the uh crimes were making and the terrorist attack against iran you know and... in karman for by isis, pretended to be by isis and who is behind isis, and also the attack, the assassination of the leader musawi, iran has a stra

looking to the future still, - looking to the future still, hisham al—omeisy, yemen, as you know better have tried that _ up one solution? no, the saudis have tried that formula - up one solution? no, the saudis have tried that formula before. l have tried that formula before. if have tried that formula before. if they— have tried that formula before. if they squeeze yemen is enough... shutdown the airports and that— enough... shutdown the airports and that would basically force people — and that would basically force people to stand up and rise up against — people to stand up and rise up against the houthis. if anything it further galvanised support— anything it further galvanised support for the houthis locally. the houthis are really good — locally. the houthis are really good at — locally. the houthis are really good at propaganda and they make — good at propaganda and they make every year dependent on external— make every year dependent on external foes make every year dependent on external toes and depended on the saudi. this is wanting i agree _ the saudi. this is wanting i agree

abu hisham hefza allah who is the first person in charge of the movement the action in bekaa was a coordinationtion and agreement there was propaganda and culture in the cities and within the organizations , and this was the beginning of my relationship with haj abu salim. well , we were there at the first meeting of our organizations in belbek, and he was in charge of a parliament. there were several people under him, some of them became martyrs like the martyred commander hasan laqis, and some died like haj salah noon, and some of them were young and young people, now they are responsible for great responsibilities in the action movement. and lebanon's hezbollah is there now. from that moment our relationship started and started and we were together and worked with each other since 78 ad, almost 40 years. our friendship lasted for a long time and we continued to go to the cities and now after 78-79 we used to go to the cities and we used to go together in the same car at night . we used to go from city to city and his responsibility was to provide political analysis and my responsibility was

. >> yeah, it's the first time that hisham awartani has spoken public about what happened.entially they were three friends. they grew up together in the west bank. two are palestinian americans. they did everything together, including coming to college in the united states. they were hanging out at a relative's house during the thanksgiving break. they decided to walk out after they had gone to a bowling alley. they were talking about homework when this happened. >> talk to me about the night. what do you guys remember right before this happened. >> we were wearing the traditional palestinian head scarf for a variety of reasons, practically because it was really cold but on a more, meaningful sense, it's because we felt as palestinians during this time period, it's important for us to show our identity, and to show that we exist, and that we're human. just walking along the street, you know, this man comes down the porch, approaches us, pulls out a pistol, and i just remember gunshots and falling down. >> did you know you were shot? >> i didn't quite process the fact until

the coordination between musawi, the head of the religious school and the beloved brother, sayid abu hisham, may god preserve him who was primarily responsible for the amal movement in the bikar region at that time, there was coordination for the cultural effort in the villages and also within the organization and here this is where the relationship started between me and abu salim we met in the first organizational meeting in abalbak, he was the responsible for the organization, the group included a number of colleagues, some of them have fallen as marties likes and others we lost recently like: and most of these colleagues, were young people and individuals from amongst this group, they later on became officials in the amal movement before 1982 and then in 1982, ever since that moment this relationship began to develop and we continued to work together ever since 1978, meaning more than... 30 years, this long period of friendship, we used to visit the villages, i'm still talking about 1978, 1979, now we used to visit the villages at night, me together with haj abu salim in one car, one of

failed without general salemani also an exclusive interview with press tv, yemen's foreign minister hisham shadov said that general sulaimani was the main character who supported the resistance against israeli occupation and his efforts may have peaqued in the october on october 7th as hamos leaders once mentioned that he was the... marter of alts, what does this say about uh the stature and the the popularity would be the best way to say it of of general suleymani with regards to the resistance fronts and countries that out here uh to the resistance in the region? yes, shafied sulaymani, as i mentioned earlier, he was the main figure in in in orchestrating and connecting in a very in the most tangible and frontline way passable uh the uh the strategic connections and the strategic act of acts of material solidarity um between um accesses of the resistance between the different arms of the resistance axis and between iran and the fighting forces in lebanon, iraq, syria and and yemen, even even gaz... sulaimani traveled secretly toza many times and assisted in um building up lot of the weap

albuiti mr. welcome to the program now and an exclusive interview with press tv, yemen's foreign minister hisham sharaf uh says that general qasim sulaymani was the main character who supported the resistance against israeli occupation and his efforts may have peaked in october the 7th as the hamas leader has once mentioned that he was the martter of uh al-quds so please walk us through those comments by uh the emmy foreign minister and also about the uh the effect. that general sulaimani has had on the resistance front specifically in uh the resistance that we're seeing against uh the uh us slash israeli front in the region in yemen. bismillah rahmanirrahim of course uh he set actually the foundation in fighting terrorism in our region especially fighting and isis and as well he was uh as some people here say in yemen the ch the resistant, the shakeara of our region, he actually uh was kind of the connection between all the resistant, he was the one who who had set the plans in in as an example in fighting isis in iraq, we know that isis almost had total control of many areas in iraq, we have s

hisham al—omeisy is a conflict analyst and the head of pathways for reconciliation in yemen at the europeanso advised and worked with the us state department. thank you so much forjoining us, we really do appreciate your time. i want to ask you, given your knowledge and expertise of all of this and the fact that the houthis have withstood years of bombardment from saudi arabia, is this sort of action enough to deter them? definitely, it would deter them. if anything, it will anger definitely, it would deter them. if anything, it willangerthem, deepen the grievances and they will definitely retaliate. you have to remember they are riding on this popular wave of discontent with gaza, and this is a message that resonates well with their popular base and attacked, theyjust announced yesterday a call for a holyjihad with many yemenis lining up holyjihad with many yemenis lining up tojoin their holyjihad with many yemenis lining up to join their ranks so they feel empowered and emboldened, they will regroup and retaliate. you empowered and emboldened, they will regroup and retaliate.— regroup and

for more on this story i'm joined now by conflict analyst and expert on the middle east hisham al—0meisyemen adviser with the european institute of peace. thank you for coming on the program. we've seen these pictures out of yemen. thousands of people on the streets. what do you think the impact of these us—led strikes on the houthis will have in yemen? they ut a dent the houthis will have in yemen? they put a dent on — the houthis will have in yemen? they put a dent on houthis _ the houthis will have in yemen? ire: put a dent on houthis operations for that you have to or remember where dealing with houthis who managed eight years of coalition strikes in yemen so they'll definitely real thought. what i am worried about is the region because houthis have managed really dues managed to successfully this crisis to subvert the west. these strikes will fuel that sentiment for that what you've seenin that sentiment for that what you've seen in the past 12 hours in yemen and also reaction across the region is that sentiment being exponentially increase, thinking now the west is attacking us on

hisham al omeisy, is a conflict analyst and senior advisor at european institute of peace — he gave met's turning into a tit—for—tat. for the past few weeks now, this has been the eighth wave of a us led air strikes on sanaa and other governorates. but one of the things that we noticed is that these air strikes are actually pretty precise. i was talking to a lot of people on the ground yesterday and they basically said there was very limited casualties. but as franks mentioned earlier, although the goal is to degrade the houthi capabilities, they have dispersed their weapon caches across yemen. it's notjust in sanaa or taiz. they are hiding it in multiple other locations. and it's going to take a longer term to degrade that capacity. having said that, there's also the fact that their stashes are being replenished. so now a lot of weapons, a lot of missile components are being smuggled into yemen. so even if we manage to degrade some of the capacity, they're getting a lot of support and they're being resupplied. and with the houthis striking a defiant pose. this could go on for months,

middle east in nato bases that are at war , in deirozori we were unable to resolve the issue under hishambasket, which used to feed half of the middle east, in this regard, and their goal, as always, is a proxy war through subversive fighting with someone else's hands, something that they superbly rocked 100 years ago in 1917 on our territory, and in fact a civil war that turns into an international conflict when the zones are redrawn, and they want to act as a referee at the end of the conflict, this is their role, as they imagine it was prescribed, but then, well, if possible, just in two strokes, because i understand with such wide mouths what you say and what those who say that everything is dry, guys, write. i think that the provocation i went through israel, that is, it succumbed to it , in fact, of course, there was a provocation, we will talk about this for a long time , we have said many times in this studio that hamas, of course, acted obviously provocatively, so much so that israel could not help but respond as it responded in there were people in the israeli army in tsahal who

sharaf. welcome mr. hisham and thank you so much for your time. thank you. "the events of the october 7th which took the israeli regime and its western sponsors by complete surprise, marked the watershed moment in the palestinian struggle for the liberation of occupied territories, how did marter qasim sulaimani contribute to it? if everyone uh follows up on the sequence of events in the occupied territories, you will find that marter sulaimani was the..."

hisham sharaf. welcome mr. hisham and thank you so much for your time. thank you. the event. the october 7th which took the israeli regime and its western sponsors by complete surprise marked watershed moment and the palestinian struggle for the liberation of occupied territories, how did marter qasim sulaymani contribute to it? if everyone uh follows up on the sequence of events in the occupied territories, you will find that marter sulaimani was the one who us

hisham sharaf. welcome mr. hisham and thank you so much for your time. thank you, the events of the october 7th which took the israeli regime and its western sponsors by complete surprise marked watershed moment in the palestinian struggle for the liberation of occupied territories. how did martter qasim sulaymani contribute to it? if everyone uh follows up on the sequence of events in the occupied territories, you will find that uh martial sulaimani.

sharaf. welcome mr. hisham and thank you so much for your time, thank you. the events of the october 7th which took the israeli regime and its western sponsors by complete surprise marked watershed moment in the palestinian struggle for the liberation of occupied territories, how did marter qasim sulaymani contribute to it? if everyone follows up on the sequence of events in the occupied territories, you will find that martar sulaymani was the one who used to go...