saturday's airstrikes on syrian military site said to be storing chemical weapons the strikes are in response to a suspected gas attack on duma china's most popular social media site is reversing a decision to ban gay content on that site sign away bow backlash when it blocked videos and comics related to homosexuality the company said it was trying to comply with cybersecurity laws. dependence leaders in spain's catalonia region are appearing before supreme court judge for their role in last year's secession referendum spain wants to charge them with sedition and rebellion on sunday thousands of people protested of are so one of their all and for the release of what they call political prisoners hundreds of firefighters are battling a bushfire threatening parts of australia's largest city sydney two and a half thousand hectares of bushland have been destroyed since saturday for a commissioner some kenya selection board have resigned because of what they say is the board's dysfunction and leadership failure the commission was at the center of

controversy during presidential elections last year the main opposition candidate boycotted the runoff poll in october after saying the board failed to prevent irregularities montenegro's ruling party has declared leader milo djukanovic as one or of sunday's presidential election. results show him winning fifty four percent of the vote and that is enough to avoid a runoff. so those are the headlines the news continues on al-jazeera throughout the day keep it here for what is next. getting to the heart of the matter if most of the supreme leader calls you today and says let's have two weeks would you accept facing new realities what do you think reunification would look like there were two people keep the peace for unification the still new option for the first clue do you feel so sorry to hear their story on talk to al-jazeera. in syria can u.s. rockets stop bashar al assad's killing machine or will they just make things worse

and then gaza can anyone or anything stop israel from shooting and killing palestinian protesters we'll debate both those issues in this up front middle east special. on april seventh at least seventy syrian residents of the rebel held town of duma were killed in a suspected chemical weapons attack and hundreds more injured the syrian government is once again accused of carrying out the attack and this once again denied any responsibility for it but donald trump who now calls bashar al assad a gas killing animal wants to take matters into his own hands so will military action by the united states deter the future use of chemical weapons or is the u.s. president dragging the west into a new war with not just assad but with russia and iran joining me in the arena to debate this lake

a columnist for bloomberg view who specializes in national security matters and glenn greenwald the pulitzer prize winning author and co-founder of the intercept thank you both for joining me up front let me start with you when chemical weapons are repeatedly deployed in syria the international community led by the united states can't sit back and do nothing can it. right so this idea that the united states or its allies out to engage in military actions for humanitarian purposes was a major part of the case of the iraq war obviously there are other arguments but the idea that saddam and gassed his own people that he was oppressing his own people that were coming to liberate the iraqis that was an important part of the arguments lots of people were making back in two thousand and two two thousand and three and i don't think that turned out very well for the people reportedly trying to help the same is true when it came time for the intervention in libya we claim that we were going to help the libyan people by freeing them from gadhafi we killed gadhafi and then paid very little attention to what happened in libya in the aftermath

which was even worse suffering worse chaos militia rule the return of the slave trade so i think the record of people who claim that the united states is going to drop bombs in order to bring happiness or protect people in the world is an extremely poor one that's generally the excuse it's used for geo political motives that are really driving the war and not actually the real reason that it's being done which in turn means that the results are often quite poor but glenn a lot of syrians who oppose assad would say we tried it your way we tried the no u.s. no fly zone no u.s. assault on assad and hundreds of thousands of people are dead so there's no point comparing it to libya other interventions because the noninterventionist still resulted in hundreds of thousands of dead syrians yeah i mean that's always you know a problem is that you can take a problem in the world that's really horrendous as the series as the civil war in syria to any decent person obviously is and then just immediately assume that you as a foreign country thousands of miles away are capable with your military of improving

that situation because that's something that you want to believe but often times all you can do the only options available to you are ones that make it worse why does and that's wrong i think there are plenty of examples of times when american led air power such as the no fly zone in northern iraq between the two gulf wars that that first of all stopped a horrible slaughter of the kurds and second of all it created the space for. the creation of the kurdistan regional government now i wouldn't compare the kurdistan regional government today in northern iraq to switzerland or france but it's certainly better than almost all of the other alternatives in the region and that was only possible because american air power was protecting that region from saddam hussein second of all the comparison is a little bit off but glenn makes in my view because you know the lead up to the two thousand and three war was really about iraq i'm sorry the iraq war from two thousand and three was really about enforcing the cease fire that ended the nine

hundred ninety one gulf war which required saddam hussein to account for and dispose of his weapons of mass destruction and part of the export part of the justification was that in the end of the iran iraq war in one thousand nine hundred nine saddam hussein had used chemical weapons against kurds yet again. but at the time the us policy was that saddam hussein was largely an ally and still sold grain credits to the saddam hussein so there really was a much more alike to stand on this is responding in the moment to a chemical weapons attack it is not an isolated incident it's not a one off we've seen chemical agent used in script in the u.k. we have seen kim jong un use it to kill his half brother it is becoming unfortunately to use an important term of the moment normalized if you want to reverse that trend but shar all assad must pay a very heavy price ideally i would like him to stand trial for his crimes against the syrian people in a revolutionary tribe you know after you know

a glory but that doesn't necessarily happen someone needs to step in because if it is going to see someone in the united states well who else is a going to be the united states is the still remains the leader of the world if glenn greenwald but not like that anymore that's fine but if the united states does not do this no one well well that's also glenn greenwald. so. first of all i think it's an important point that was raised which is that you know saddam hussein used chemical weapons at the time that he was an ally of the united states and yet the united states didn't go in and punish saddam hussein for doing that because the united states isn't driven by humanitarianism they're not driven by opposition to come a co-op and they're driven by geo political interests and what we have here in the case of u.i. in the case of lots of people inside the trunk government the reality is is that they have a geo political side in the middle east and that geo political side is on the side of israel on the side of saudi arabia their new ally the new allies of the israelis and against iran and the guns has been there for taking out assad is

a way putting the scale of the finger on the scale of the side that eli is really on which is the side of israel on the side of saudi arabia and hurting iran and humanitarianism is the pretext for doing that also other examples like creating a no fly zone and in northern iraq for the kurds in this case what we have is a country where there is a very serious military presence on the ground of a nuclear armed country called russia so that if we start doing the sort of thing that would be necessary to cripple assad's air force or to in any way harm assad we're going to be not only bombing russian syrian military installations but killing lots of russians as well so what you're talking about is a serious risk of an actual hot war between two countries that have very deep seeded animosities going back decades and thousands of missiles pointed at one another cities with nuclear tipped an r k a cold war systems ready to be triggered

at any moment it's extraordinarily dangerous the kind of thing that eli is talking about even though he's using very moderate tones to do it the risks are enormous in terms of having various kind of turn into a conflagration that nobody has intercepted put the cops on me i'm against the iranians when it's correct on that and i fully intend one of the reasons i'm against a iran and i mean we're going to crush at this point is. because they have enabled funded and supported this ghastly humanitarian crisis which can't be compared to anything that israel or saudi arabia or c c n egypt has done and yes there are of course they're going to be prepared to. get it can't even really be compared to yemen in terms of the total cost and how long it's been the use of chemical weapons and everything else but more importantly the alternative to the u.s. getting involved is not going to be they'll just play it out and will be fine it's going to be a wider regional war which we're already seeing the israelis do not want the iranians to set up a base in syria and they are well within their rights and the other to scram prince

of saudi arabia knew the saudis through their moralities so if you if you the one thing that maybe could prevent an even wider conflagration at this point would be an american presence in syria at least it is there already to stay and to stop and to push back against the iranians in the reckons the question i have for you is is that why are you against them as well why do you think that they are equal belligerence in this particular contest with israel the united states when i don't think there is an argument there at all the problem is is that i don't think the message that you're claiming is going to be sent by having the u.s. it's the assad government in this devastating way that would be necessary to really send the kind of message you're talking about i don't think the message is going to be that's going to be received in the world is the message that you're claiming is going to be sent everybody knows that the u.s. has supported regimes in the past that use chemical weapons everybody knows that the u.s. right now is supporting israel as they slaughter journalist and peaceful protesters on the border with gaza which is also

a violation of the laws of war that you don't seem very interested in sending a message that people aren't allowed to do that everybody knows that saudi arabia is deliberately civilians and blocking medical care and medical aid to suffering children dying of all kinds of hideous diseases and starvation in yemen because we don't care about that because that's our ally doing that and that's the message that's going to be sent everybody understands outside united. but the real reason for this military strike will be that assad is an enemy of israel and the us found an excuse to go and attack and that's the only method of dealing with children we're already seeing a huge war in order to go do that with a person who is that he was commanding the armed forces who people have spent the last year saying is unstable is mentally unfit has the onset of dementia is purely driven by ego has no moral limits that's the person that we're going to be empowering to lead this extremely dangerous war with very little benefit in sight and that's why i just would also listen to just deal with the charge that you know i made earlier i just want to get your response to the you all soft on iran and

russia why was his question i don't have a soft spot for around in russia i think but the governments of iran and russia are extremely authoritarian i have nothing but bad things to say about both of those governments but there are a lot of bad governments all over the world including the closest allies of the united states and i don't think we should go to war against countries because their governments are authoritarian otherwise we'd be at war with most of our own allies and let me put glenn's point before we finish saudi arabia has volunteered to be part of a coalition to help punish assad while it's also starving blockading bombing innocent people in yemen do you not see a problem with the u.s. conference of all i think the u.s. should and can use its influence with saudi arabia as an ally and more effectively to try to mitigate that situation second of all i don't think that you can necessarily equate the rampage of the iranians in the region or for that matter russia which has acted like a nuclear armed rogue now really going on more than a decade to american allies as imperfect and flawed as they are and finally i

just don't think that the argument i think what this is really like you are going describe sort of the biggest humanitarian crisis we can say in a conflict unfold it sounds like you know well you know i don't i don't you tell the flaw it's a little imperfection it was like a typo you know it's the saudis aren't perfect that's all they're just not they have sort of thought. big difference here is that in terms of raw political reality is that the iranians are responsible for the roadside bombs that have maimed and kill in excess of two thousand americans in iraq and afghanistan they are a sworn enemy they had a rogue nuclear program well they're going to mission by doing that are over the saudis in the south and wait a second what were the americans doing in iraq what were the americans doing in iraq training in our protecting our government ones that we're not going to write a constitution i mean i'm sorry and you know try that on someone else you are basically saying that america because of its flaws because of its flaws of its

allies does not have any justification to ever act i think that syria is the refutation of that because that is we're watching the consequences of non intervention there because we feel bad that we made mistakes before and i just think we were through with that we have to move on the last word very briefly the united states hasn't had a policy of not intervention in syria it has arm the syrian rebels to it you know the billion dollars a year not enough to overthrow assad but just enough to keep the war going to the united states has played a big role in the events in syria thus far i don't think they're going to solve the problem under we'll have to leave it there glenn greenwald lake thank you so much for joining me in the arena. the united nations has called it deplorable the palestinians have called it a massacre in just the past two weeks israeli forces have killed over thirty palestinians and injured more than two thousand seven hundred along the border between israel and the occupied gaza strip as tens of thousands of protesters

gather to commemorate the great march of return multiple reports have cited unarmed palestinian civilians including journalists and children being shot and even killed by israeli snipers but israeli officials have insisted the protests are quote organized terrorist activity linked to hamas so will israel continue attacking civilians in the upcoming protests will the well do anything about it and how sick . difficult of a role is hamas really playing on the palestinian side joining me to debate this from los angeles use of executive director of the u.s. campaign for palestinian rights and from tel aviv danny aiello and former israeli deputy foreign minister thank you both for joining me in the arena danny let me start with you the israelis have killed more than thirty palestinians over the last couple of weeks including people who are now including teenagers including a journalist wearing a press jacket saying press on it did they all deserve to die in your view nobody deserves to die. unfortunately what we see here that hamas is in

a very very barbaric way would really. work crimes using civilians as human shields and they embed among terrorists snipers and some who carry. explosive charges and most of those that were killed where hamas terrorists and. their responsibility is with hamas if they would just forget this. war on israel recognize israel understand that we are there to stay then i believe we can really do a lot of things together in a peaceful way. most of the people who were killed one hundred terrorists hamas is to blame says danny ayalon. look unfortunately israelis think that you can shoot protesters on video in just scream how masset that and suddenly that becomes ok

unfortunately that's not how it works and we have seen lots of documented evidence on video of palestinian protesters who were shot when they were in no way posing any imminent threat to life to anyone on the other side of the fence so it's very clear here what is going on palestinians are protesting for their basic rights rights which are systematically denied by israel including the right to free movement where millions of people in gaza are practically indiscriminately denied the right to ever leave by by the state of israel and to enforce these policies the israeli state is willing to use brutal force even to gun down on armed protesters and members of the press who are wearing clearly marked. identifiers and i should say that it's not just the individual soldiers who need to be held to account for

murders that have been taking place in front of the word world to see but the upper echelons of the israeli state which ordered army snipers one hundred of them to go down to the fence along gaza and to respond to protesters with lethal force this is a criminal order and the international community i think is very right to call this out and demand accountability for danny do you believe these really military have the right to shoot unarmed palestinians at the border. well i would say every country every sovereign country has the right for sell defense this is very much anchored in the u.n. charter and enter international law what we see here is a real flagrant violation and i get that but i specifically asked about unarmed protesters unarmed protesters have not been shot and again i want to i

want to stress in my hands if you're going to fall i mean i hear all this demonstrably even though. we have been a member i would ask you why is hamas killing its own people and don't ask. me why it's harmless and question that with regard to you into why are these terrorists areally will ask me in order to shoot on our road that i'm going to let me ask you this danny i mean about to my original question and then i will ask you to forget about hama unarmed protesters you say israel hasn't killed we have seen on video people fleeing in the opposite direction with no weapons on them being shot i've seen it myself what do you say to people like me who have watched the videos of people running away from the fence being shot by israeli snipers what's your response just specifically on now maybe i would say there is no business for them whatsoever to be by the fence and they were warned it's a it's

a it's a war zone you do not send individuals and civilians into a war zone and i can tell you most of the people if not all of them were sent there and were forced there by hamas we also can see in the videos how hamas terrorists are sending them they wanted a million people march they got only twenty thousand and even those have been forced to do with it the issue of gaza is much bigger than just the. criminal march of the hamas it is that israel left gaza altogether thirty new. it is a go lift infrastructure greenhouses for the gazans in the belief that peace can just. come through you should respond to that point where israel left gaza and also deal with the point that these protests have been at least partly if not fully organized by hamas of the not even one of the journalists activists. says yeah we

invited hamas in to help us with logistics with media coverage with moral support to deal with both of those points of dani's raised. maggie i think it's quite revealing that in response to the question about why the israelis are caught on video shooting on armed protesters the response that we get is that the protesters shouldn't be protesting as if to justify the shooting of unarmed protesters and i think i think your viewers can clearly see that this is an attempt to justify what is clearly murder palestinians have a right to protest they have a right to protest anywhere that they want if they do so peacefully and many of these protesters were gunned down on video while not posing any imminent threat to the life of the israelis it was israeli soldiers that did this not how mess it was israeli soldiers acting on the orders of the israeli government not have mass you simply cannot keep blaming palestinians every time you kill palestinians it's unacceptable as far as whether or not the israelis left gaza they routinely enter

gaza's air space it's sea waters and fire into gaza any time they want just because you don't swim in a fish bowl with your fish doesn't mean that you don't control its life that's the way that israel exercises its control over gaza and its holy day two million people there in captivity i must stick with this you're going to the purpose of discussion to talk about the deaths in gaza you keep saying that terrorist if hamas is fold figure the protesters from and we had a journalist. who we all saw pictures of having been shot he was wearing a press jacket and he was shot by an israeli sniper what was his crime the crime may not be his crime is those who send him there. to send a message to someone who may or may not have some. infiltrate you can't just shoot

someone because you don't like who allegedly sent them what the hamas terror organization does hamas. uses human people who is shields to shield their terrorists and those who came on armed many where armed he was and journalists whose organization was vetted by the awareness lawyer but that you wouldn't understand it in front of a hamas terrorist he was shot in cold blood i mean those are the facts i want to say one thing you know israel which was the clear democracy you know we have since criticism and we check ourselves all the time the army he's going to do an investigation because they want to do after every operation in shooting so this is being investigated without any you know hiding anything use of danny keeps making this point about hamas and obviously you disagree you see is a deflection but just deal with the perception point here with gaza it is a problem is it not for the palestinian movement that whatever legitimate protest

or struggles they may have it is a problem in a place like gaza hamas rules gaza and that's always going to be the kind of the shadow that's always going to be an elephant in the room as it were that you have this group. which is regarded as a terrorist organization by many governments in the west which has a pretty horrific human rights record in gaza that's a problem is it not you would concede that. anytime you have people who are under occupation and struggling for their rights and they are being gunned down in very criminal ways we are going to hear all kinds of excuses to try to whitewash those those shootings and that that brutal repression of people rising up and the use of this argument to try to deflect and excuse the killing of palestinians in the gaza strip is disgraceful in my view and unfortunately this is something that has been used for

a long time and will continue to be used and should not be accepted. obviously you . i don't think these are really military did anything wrong but just from a perception point of view for israel's reputation this last few weeks in the coming weeks pretty bad surely you would concede that you have human rights organizations lining up to point out that you're possibly committing war crimes u.n. human rights officials are saying the same being western journalists are going there and seeing this for themselves the video footage is everywhere and you have your defense minister saying nobody's innocent in gaza and the troops should be commended for killing these people that's not a good look for israel what you call a clear democracy surely you'd concede that much. absolutely i would concede that much the pictures are not very rosy and certainly we do not like to see these pictures but again we have to see the broader context and nope any country in the world including all those countries western democracies that criticize us would not allowed

a stampede on their borders those countries are occupying their lands on their borders by the way well first of all this is the under debate you know the disputed areas but we've got certainly we left gaza to the last inch and i think hamas any provocation against us and knowing that we hope we'll have to defend ourselves just a factual point the u.n. says girls are still occupied i know you said it's up for debate last word use of what's going to happen the next few weeks these protests are going to continue what do you see happening i think these protests are going to continue and i think they're inspiring for palestinians who are looking at mass popular mobilization as a way to continue to resist and demand their rights and the very simple message from mr i alone and the israelis if you don't like to see these images of israeli soldiers shooting armed protesters and members of the press you should simply stop shooting unarmed protesters and members of the press you say from what i had done a lot will have to leave it there thank you both for joining me in the arena. but

our show up front will be back later this year. the partners. we're here to jerusalem bureau covered israeli palestinian affairs we covered this story with a lot of intimate knowledge we covered it with that we don't dip in and out of this story we have a presence here all the time apart from being

a cameraman it's also very important to be a journalist to know the story very well before going into the fields covering the united nations and global diplomacy for al-jazeera english is pretty incredible this is where talks happen and what happens there matters. more to an essential resource for all humankind across europe pressure to recognize water as a human right and put its management back into public hands is increasing i think that the european commission would be very very glad to impose was probably on anybody else the americans. those people who see every two years something to invest the profit of the one dollar up to the last drop on al-jazeera.