on the other side of it we know how must tell israel that we are here to breach that border and come and kill civilians we take them in israel very seriously that's the one thing you can trust must bring ching a border breaching the border of any country is an act of war do not ask is wrong not to defend this of it ok let's put that point this was a point of the line with the issue i'm prominent british israeli historian former professor here oxford university. any other country would do what is rather israel has a right to defend itself is what we here i served in the idea. in the mid one nine hundred sixty s. and i served loyally empowered leigh because in my plan the idea was true to its name it was the israel defense force but after the drew nine hundred sixty seven war everything changed. israel became a colonial power and the idea became the brutal police force of

a brutal colonial power but there is absolutely no serve the phone's justification for your throw of brutal policies in gaza over the last eleven years a whole series of war crimes were committed in israel continued to commit war crimes in gaza in every successive vicious assault on a day because of gaza will come home isn't out of prison not the problem that points that you keep saying you know israel has a right to defend itself israeli families are at risk but when you look at the numbers over the last ten fifteen years just alone the ratio is phenomenal is that gazans who are being killed not israelis in their thousands five hundred kids killed in one summer bombardment their racial speaks of the ruthless cruelty of the hamas leaders so you don't take responsibility for any death of any palestinian civilian because ultimately it's all hamas is fault always yes it is so great get out of jail free yes it is yes it is i'm not saying that they're not accidents

which are deplorable. but the responsibility squarely lies with us danny i want to ask you this israel prides itself on being a democracy. supposedly the only democracy in the middle east yet in recent years even israel's own human rights organizations are saying democracy there is under assault from a series of authoritarian racist far right laws israel is the marker see rule of law you know to our leaders were thrown into jail and you know what it was an arab israeli who threw the president of israel into jail when the knesset the israeli parliament passes the boycott law which makes any israeli organization that calls for a boycott against israel's liable to be sued for damages the not by law which cut state funding from any organization which marks the country's independence day as a day of mourning the n.-g. o. law which targets quote unquote foreign funded human rights organizations one parliamentarian israel called it a semi fascistic law that harms democracy and is reminiscent of putin's russia i see israeli politicians but of course because in israel you can say anything and

you can at the know but no one attacks the israeli government more than the israelis in their newspapers in israel is a democracy anybody can come and go say and speaks what he wants reuben rivlin who's the president of israel not a liberal and conservative very much anti palestinian state he says israel israeli society is sick it is our duty to treat this disease you don't agree with him either i don't agree with that but i see really are people saying that they will go mad because they are well they are concerned they are entitled to their or your long concern about these very well and they are listen they speak subjectively doesn't mean that this is the objective situation it's not that is what is perfect no country is let me get let me give an example of some let me give you some of your time in office you were in government under a door lieberman you were his deputy foreign minister he was foreign minister huey and you wanted to subject israel's one and a half million citizens of palestinian citizens to an oath of loyalty to israel as a jewish state a proposal so controversial one minister of the time described as borderline fascist do you know their every american i don't know how it is here. pledge the

law the loyalty of allegiance every day in school americans their pledge allegiance to christianity they have a separation of weeds and we don't you know the proposal was you had to support israel as a jewish state or so but judaism is not only a religion always a nationality that's even worse it's not only ask you because the pledge allegiance to a religion and a race they're not part of and you are not to the us the believe is a way of life is a culture is the whole civilization if you will. so there is nothing wrong to use a plate of these policies when you have actually water it out there is so this is a country that clothes you and protects you and give you jobs and give you money it put it toward the arab israelis ok down to you are a palestinian state in them israel do you recognize the very rosy picture being painted by absolutely not the one thing that he is conveniently overlooking is that israel is describes itself as being a jewish state which by its very definition excludes me and the state is founded on this concept of jewish privilege which means that when the when the supreme court

this court that he lied so much has faced the question of whether israel is a jewish state or a democracy it has always chosen jewish state which means that she wish privilege exists and we see this through everything from the sixty laws that directly discriminate against palestinian citizens of israel to the way that people such as i align and others deal with palestinians for everything from calling for our heads to be chopped off for us to be drowned for oaths of loyalty what they fail to recognize is that that we didn't come to israel we didn't immigrate to israel israel came to us thank you many would say you are on the left of the political spectrum when you look at israeli society today do you worry about the trends do you share president rivlin view that this is a quote unquote sick society that needs some kind of treatment i'm very troubled about the trend in israeli society israel within its original borders is

a democracy it's a flawed democracy but so are all other democracies but if you look at least in the west bank and gaza israel most emphatically most decisively is not a democracy it's an ethnic recy it's a system in which one ethnic group dominates the others and there is another word for it not proceed and there is apartheid. and this is what is really thank you. and ask you two questions one is the same question asked of him to you worried about the trends in israel does that worry you at all and secondly do you respond to his claim about israel being and if not proceeded about every democracy around the world has its own unique features the israeli democracy and these radiation belts and established because of what happened in

a partially because of what happened in the holocaust and therefore a jewish majority must remain for safety and security because we've seen what happens when you're on the rest of the world for your safety number to anyone else who lives as an israeli has absolute equal rights every israeli arab has the same rights of university of hospitals of supreme court and law journal she's going to be saying no the knesset has time and again been asked the simple question is israel a state that's founded on equality or is there no equality and time and again it will not allow a simple law that calls for equality and the fundamental problem is that they do not recognize my right to exist and this is a very you have are being arrested by israeli police have you ever been beaten by israeli police and if you have ever actually i will tell you to tell you the truth you know i used to be ok thank you thank you can check the bruises she is all bruised up right let's just be clear

first you're saying that if you haven't been beaten by the israeli police you're equal member of society and then when someone says they have been beaten by israeli police you say where are the bruises listen this time there was going to clarify she went to support what she denied education was she denied social so that was your definition what is your definition hold in she is ill or a lot of people like me like americans during the jim crow era could go to school it doesn't mean that there wasn't massive said. gratian and discrimination to see what there is not that we are all by jews and arabs can go to school together and they do go to school there either i would probably just on t.v. just a few weeks ago israelis are saying they want to sell a house in their town to a palestinian family and how many arabs and how many arabs that's fine and if you say i'll listen did you say that's fine the israeli people protesting against the sale of a house not in their house and you ok with they can protest which is good are you saying it's good your words for people to protest against the sale of a house to a palestinian family to keep the town jewish only because that's what i just said happened and you said fine and then you said good are you ok with that listen you

have people here and there while you do not believe that they are right but you would condemn those are also would you condemn those protests because a moment ago it is good that they're protesting because it's a democratic society that has to be ok with the blue tent protest or whatever you want but you condemn those goals as it's called freedom of expression and he is going to ask you to give some free speech do you condemn those protests i condemn anything which is biased against race a lawsuit against gender do you condemn those protests danny clews going to a match or what they represent whatever you like that you just do something that we adults are i condemn any racism ok ok general statement you remember who wrote us though i would condemn the oh ok we got the another one since you're in a mood of condemnation benjamin netanyahu you say you don't speak for the government in fifteen he said during the election campaign the right wing government is in danger arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls surely that was an example of unashamed naked racism towards

a fifth of the population from the prime minister of the country i would not use this i would not do that but you have to understand something else. in democracy right in democracy you do everything you can do in order to win the elections and i mean races all of the racist things to what i'm asking you do you agree it's racist it's wrong but not racist we're going to take a break is going to continue in part two we're going to be talking about the iran deal and israel's position on iran and nuclear weapons we'll be hearing from our very patient audience here in the oxford union to join us after the break. the world's primary cocaine producing nation. is at the forefront of the war on drugs we're talking about serious organized crime as a country where reaching a critical point while some have made fortunes many others have suffered at the

hands of this multibillion dollar industry growth in this business will go on forever change almost global policies do who are the winners and losers of this illicit trade snow of the andes on al-jazeera. piece of the top stories from al-jazeera funerals have been held for hamas fighters killed by israeli airstrikes in gaza on friday an israeli soldier also lost his life during fighting along the israel gaza fence a truce brokered by egypt and the u.n. appears to be holding for the moment but has more now from west jerusalem. israeli officials we've been speaking with are not calling it a ceasefire they are saying in fact that calm has been restored on israel's border

with gaza they are saying that activities are returned to normal but they are not calling it a ceasefire now hamas also wasn't going to cease fire when they were talking about this cease fire for all intents and purposes that's what it is but it is a very shaky truce at this point syrian rebels who surrounded in the south west have begun arriving in opposition held areas of the province of how much more than fifty buses carrying two thousand three hundred people have reached the town of my brooke government forces to be making strong gains in the south protesters have returned to the streets of the nicaraguan capital as months of political unrest pick up momentum anti government demonstrators are demanding president daniel ortega steps down and calls fresh elections donald trump has accused his former lawyer of potentially acting illegally after it emerged he secretly recorded the us president discussing payments to a former playboy model the recording was seized during an f.b.i.

raid on michael cohen's office earlier this year in the recording trump reportedly discusses paying money to karen mcdougal who claims they had a ten month affair campaigning has begun in pakistan for weapons days general election below while bhutto zardari the head of the pakistan people's party and son of the assassinated former leader benazir bhutto has been holding rallies in karachi india is scrapping taxes on senator pads in what is being hailed as a major boost for girls' education they were previously taxed at twelve percent sparking protests when it was imposed last year the additional cost became a problem for girls and women especially in poor and rural areas. dozens of wildfires are raging across sweden which is experiencing its worst drought for seventy four years it comes after months of high temperatures and has prompted an appeal for help to other european nations those are your headlines let's return to head to head off season but i.

thank you but i have. joined this week by danny aiello on former israeli deputy foreign minister founder of the group the truth about israel at danny you have lobbied extensively against the twenty fifteen iran nuclear deal the g. c.p.o. a you think it's a bad deal and like prime minister netanyahu you welcomed president trump's decision to pull the united states out of that deal to violate it said to be clear you don't agree that the deal with all its faults is working and is putting off the realisation of the iranian nuclear vision by ten to fifteen years you know if you look for the last two and a half years since the deal was signed in vienna you see the aggression of iran not only has multiplied by two by ten times iran since signing the deal has become much more aggressive has not stopped testing ballistic missiles and you do ballistic

missiles only to put a warhead which is nuclear nothing else and the deal itself is not actually neutralizing the capability of iran it just supposedly suspends it and so people who say about people who say the iran deal is neutralized a major threat to the world they're wrong absolutely former head of shin bet israeli intelligence already gillum you're right baby maybe then we're just what i said earlier about with all its faults it's working it's putting off realisation of the iranian nuclear option you know. head of israel's military general it's a model you know that the head of israel's military in the former head of its spy service don't let me guess what. the head of his really billet eery you still there working with everybody because we have pluralism of ideas ok the subs now. the substance is that there is a sunset clause where they can now in seven and a half years become a nuclear country the substance is that there is no verification which is robust

and many sites are precluded a debate as they are declared military i.a.e.a. the un body tasked with investigating nuclear programs around the world says quote iran is subject to the world's most robust nuclear verification regime under the huge a c.p.a. which is a significant gain as of today the i.a.e.a. can confirm that the nuclear related commitments are being implemented by iran that was him in may so who should we trust the head of the i.a.e.a. or you trust the facts trust the facts and straight logic common logic i believe that they are not lying they do not find anything but why are they finding anything because they have twenty four days in advance to let them know they are coming and there are many many areas which are designed military areas where they have no entry to now we know that you run his lie and his cheated time and again as they remember but wait a minute as that is a signatory to n.p.t. nonproliferation treaty they have broken all the rules all international commitment

i don't understand if it's common sense as you say why is it that the head of israel's military the former head of shin bet the former head of mossad your spy agency the former head of israeli military intelligence the former head of israel's atomic energy commission the chair of israel space agency is your country's top military defense intelligence nuclear experts saying the deal's a good deal it protects israel it protects the region protects the world well why should we dig in all of them and trust you benjamin netanyahu and donald trump they did not say it's a good deal he said it's the situation we bit better than before and i say it's not better than before it made to put iran on hold but we are not certain and yet the world's known. next but in open letters the top nuclear scientists in the world the e.u. the un the they all say it's working i know international diplomacy there's nothing which is more hypocritical than cynic there is some interest where in the in between i can tell you that until thirty eight most people here said germany nazi germany is not

a threat ok were they all wrong yes they were all wrong is in the probably all the wrong and funny yes they are it's funny you talk about predictions in one thousand nine hundred ninety two your prime minister said iran was three years away from building the nukes that was twenty six years ago in one thousand nine hundred five he said iran was three to five years away from building nukes in two thousand and nine he said there were one to two years away from building nukes the boy who cried wolf had a better record with wolves netanyahu has with iran's nuclear program why do you think you have any credibility the israelis when you come and talk about iran's nuclear cause you've been wrong for twenty six years we're not wrong some things have happened in between there were some who prevented iran to rush for it and there were some there were some every to do years not to know you should have warning and suddenly something happened to make is war well just inaccurate well ok we'll tell you i can tell you the iranians themselves say that the international community is sabotaging their program so good things have happened so ok let me ask you this question sabotaging their program how many nuclear weapons does iran have

as of today right now i hope ok how many does israel have no idea no idea you were in the government they don't tell you that stuff no idea who they tell i'm telling you i. never discussed it but it's irrelevant between you never discussed israel's nuclear weapons you can say that hand on heart you've never discussed israel nuclear you're expecting us to believe that the deputy foreign minister of israel never discussed israel's nuclear deterrent seriously don't know so i let the turkey tell you it's not all slogans and soundbites mehdi tell you so i did not discuss israel nuclear weapons i did discuss israel nuclear policy there is a big difference ok ok.