destruction, but none of this is presented here. so theyjust condemn anyone who dares to criticise israel. i don't know if weekly is a genocide. but it is a bloodbath, it is a terrible mass killing. do we care if it is legally a genocide or not. the israeli boron actor mind about pickling, their mind about labelling it as genocide. the? about pickling, their mind about labelling it as genocide. they mind, i cuess, labelling it as genocide. they mind, i guess. for — labelling it as genocide. they mind, i guess, for reasons _ labelling it as genocide. they mind, i guess, for reasons which - labelling it as genocide. they mind, i guess, for reasons which are - labelling it as genocide. they mind, i guess, for reasons which are for. i guess, for reasons which are for anyone who knows some history are understandable. to quote your country's president, he calls the accusations atrocious. and preposterous. you yourself mentioned to me your own past, your own parents came from germany and checkers are bulkier, there were

orchard and it and survived the nazi holocaust but much of your wider family did not. you know what genocide means but it does not sound like you share any of the israeli iuri about the application of that word to your country? i iuri about the application of that word to your country?— iuri about the application of that word to your country? i totally do. but remember _ word to your country? i totally do. but remember the _ word to your country? i totally do. but remember the same - word to your country? i totally do. i but remember the same president word to your country? i totally do. - but remember the same president who condemned international court of justice in the hague, signed on a rocket and at garzo, signed on a bomb that is aimed at garzo. this bomb that is aimed at garzo. this bomb might have killed innocent children or women, like most of the bombs did. but remember 60, 70% of the countries women and children. he is signing on a bomb and condemning those who criticise it. that is signing on a bomb and condemning those who criticise it.— those who criticise it. that is really shameful. _ those who criticise it. that is really shameful. could - those who criticise it. that is really shameful. could it - those who criticise it. that is really shameful. could it be | those who criticise it. that is - really shameful. could it be that there is something about israel, something about the jewish state which the international community

feels moved to act upon right now. i'm very aware as are many israelis that the united states military intervention in iraq cost hundreds of thousands of civilian lives as far as we know and we can point to many other military actions in the past 50 years which have cost tens, hundreds of thousands of lives and yet here we are with the international court of justice taking this historic proceeding against the jewish state. does that strike you in some ways as questionable?— strike you in some ways as auestionable? , . ., , ., , questionable? israel was always 'ud . ed questionable? israel was always 'udued on questionable? israel was always judged on different _ questionable? israel was always judged on different criteria. - questionable? israel was always judged on different criteria. wel judged on different criteria. we have to admit it. it goes both ways, it goes for the bed. israel feels and is part of the west. israel is considered the only democracy in the middle east. we don't want to be compared, neitherto middle east. we don't want to be compared, neither to sudan or syria.

we are something else. yes, stephen, there is a special sentiment out of there is a special sentiment out of the jewish people there is a special sentiment out of thejewish people about israel. the story of israel is a very unique one, you cannot compare it to any other country and still, nothing will make it easier for me and for any man of conscious, any person of conscious, what is going on in gaza. nothing of those things about the special case of israel, the special history of israel, obviously the barbaric attack on them. nothing of this should be forgotten. by the end of the day, what is happening now in gazais of the day, what is happening now in gaza is unforgivable and all of those things are very strong and powerful. they don't do anything to affect on the ground and by the time you and me are talking now, another child is being killed for nothing. we have seen in the past 2a hours is israel's prime minister, out and say

this" israel has no intention of permanently occupying gaza, or displacing its civilian population. israel is fighting us terrorists and not the palestinian population —— hamas terrorists." is never been so exquisite about his complete disinterest in a reoccupation or displacement of the people of gaza. good morning israel, good morning benjamin netanyahu. this shows you just how important is the procedure in the hague. because if at least this makes the israeli prime minister and to think about what we are doing and maybe restrain ourselves, maybe to understand that what was happening until now is unacceptable. it was was to get to the hague. unacceptable. it was was to get to the ha . ue. �* , unacceptable. it was was to get to the hague-— the hague. let's talk about your isolation, the hague. let's talk about your isolation. if _ the hague. let's talk about your isolation. if i _ the hague. let's talk about your isolation, if i can _ the hague. let's talk about your

isolation, ifi can put— the hague. let's talk about your isolation, ifi can put it - the hague. let's talk about your isolation, if i can put it that - the hague. let's talk about your isolation, if i can put it that way| isolation, if i can put it that way within the discourse inside your own country. there is no doubt survey after survey shows that israeli public as a whole are absolutely supportive of the idf operations inside gaza and as the death toll mounted well beyond 20,000 with more than 10,000 women and children killed in the operation, the support from the israeli public has been unwavering. doesn't that tell you something about the strength and the clarity of israel's message that it must act to protect and defend its people? ihla must act to protect and defend its --eole? ., ., ., , people? no argument about this. i think as the _ people? no argument about this. i think as the majority _ people? no argument about this. i think as the majority that - people? no argument about this. i think as the majority that israel - think as the majority that israel has the right to defend itself for sure. no doubt about it. the only question is if this permits us to do everything and anything, violating any international law article. let's

look in the mirror. is this what we want? does it serve us? does those thousands of children and women killed, what does it serve israel? i'll be a more secure place today than three months ago? mt; i'll be a more secure place today than three months ago? my point is that the vast _ than three months ago? my point is that the vast majority _ than three months ago? my point is that the vast majority of _ than three months ago? my point is that the vast majority of israeli - that the vast majority of israeli disagree with you. doesn't strike you may be on this occasion you have got it wrong? you you may be on this occasion you have got it wrong?— got it wrong? you know me for many ears, i got it wrong? you know me for many years. i was — got it wrong? you know me for many years, i was always _ got it wrong? you know me for many years, i was always quite _ got it wrong? you know me for many years, i was always quite lonely, - got it wrong? you know me for many years, i was always quite lonely, i i years, i was always quite lonely, i was always being held as a lunatic or wrong or antar is rarely. —— and thai israeli. as i look backwards in my additions in the past lately self—criticism is i wasn't radical enough. it self-criticism is i wasn't radical enou . h. , self-criticism is i wasn't radical enou:h. , . , self-criticism is i wasn't radical enou:h. ,. , ., self-criticism is i wasn't radical enou:h. , . , ., enough. it is incumbent on you as one of the — enough. it is incumbent on you as one of the most _ enough. it is incumbent on you as one of the most prominent - one of the most prominent commentators on the left in israel,

it's incumbent on you that if you say we have a right to self defence but this military operation, the massive bombardment and assault on gaza that has killed 23,000 people, if that is not the right way, you have to tell israelis what the alternative is. now you are coming? after we are deep in this blackhole. now you come to ask for an advice? no. we have to go much backwards, because this didn't start on the 7th. it started long before. but i will not go throughout the whole history from '48 and even before. but 16 years, we are putting gaza in a cage. what did we think will grow there? what did we think, in this experiment in human beings, maybe the biggest experiment in human beings, will grow in a reality in which 2.3 million people are put being put in a cage, or in a prison?

what can grow there? loving israel? pacifism? what can grow there? prosperity? what can grow there? so don't come now and ask what to do now. ask me 16 years ago what to do. the problem with that argument is that october 7th happened, the murderous assault on southern israel happened, and it changed the dynamic. the message that you've been delivering for decades to israelis wasn't being heeded then. but the whole dynamic has shifted since. you actually visited kibbutz be'eri, one of those kibbutz hardest hit by the hamas horrors. and you said, "i've never in my life seen "such difficult sights. it is impossible to let them pass "without settling accounts with everyone responsible." those the words of peacenik gideon levy. so i come back to this practical point — you've got to... to be credible, you've got to have an idea of how these people

that you want to hold to account can be tackled, if it's not by the idf�*s current strategy. we should tackle them, we should punish them. we cannot punish 2.3 million people. it's unacceptable in any case... but if hamas is woven into the fabric of gaza as notjust a military network, but a social, economic and political network, if they are ingrained and figuratively and literally entrenched in gaza, how else do you eliminate them? first of all, you can't eliminate them because for israel, any teacher who got a salary from hamas should be killed and any bank account who got a salary from hamas should be killed as well. i don't think so. hamas cannot be eliminated because it's, so many people said it before me, it's an ideology, it's a movement. it's very strong in the west bank. so then we'll go to the west bank and kill everyone there. it's endless.

we have to realise that there are certain things which are achievable and certain things which are unachievable in any condition. there are things which are unacceptable, also. killing this mass of children is unacceptable in any condition. now, coming back to the question, i think we punished gaza enough. i think we punished hamas enough. i think we have to do anything possible to release the hostages and we should now stop this war. it doesn't lead to any good place, neither for israel nor for the palestinians, by the way, and... so when ghazi hamad, a senior hamas official in beirut, just a couple of months ago says, "the al—aqsa flood 0peration" — their name for what they did on october 7th — "is just the first. "there will be a second, a third, a fourth, "because we have the determination, the resolve "and the capabilities." you're just saying, "oh, you know what? "we'lljust ignore that. "that's just rhetoric. "we won't take that seriously." and stephen, do you think

if we continue now and kill another 20,000 people in gaza and destroy the left, the left of what's left in gaza, then this will not happen? you really think that we can avoid everything and prevent everything and retaliated? no. there are limits to what we can do by power, by force. and we reached this point and now it's time to try something else. first of all, negotiation about the hostages. and, yes, we are facing a very complicated reality. i don't ever pretend in which in two minutes we will solve everything. but i know one thing. continuing this war will not solve anything, and more and more people realise it. so let's stop it for a while. let's sit down and, first of all, release the hostages in any price, by the way, because their time is running out. running out. i've talked to you on several occasions over many years, and itjust seems to me that in the past you have been part

of an identifiable, meaningful peace camp in israel. now, it seems the peace camp is dead. finished. there's gideon levy, a few other lone voices, and no real movement. what happened ? this is one of the big losses of 7 october. 7 october, with all the terrible crimes and atrocities and horrible scenes, really destroyed the last remains of the... ..of the peace camp around me. so many people say now, people who were quite supporting my views say now, "no, no, no, after the 7th, that's the end. "we cannot accept them. "we cannot forgive them. "and we don't want to hear about their. . .their suffer." and one, if i may say so, gideon, one reason for that is some of the staunchest supporters of coexistence who reached out

to palestinian communities, both in gaza, in the west bank, were murdered on october 7th. thinking of the canadian israeli vivian silver, who spent most of her adult life working for peace, murdered by hamas. did that not make any difference to you and your thinking? it affected my thinking. like any victim of the attack in october, would it be a peacenik or a right—winger, both shouldn't have been slaughtered the way they were slaughtered. and still i ask, does one attack really change all our values and all the things we in the left, or what is left of the left, that we believed in all our lives? and you know what, stephen, i want to ask you another question. we are so furious after the 7th and we change our minds and we are not ready for any empathy or mercy on the people of gaza. now, imagine yourself a palestinian

young man in gaza who was born into the siege and who is living under israeli attacks all his life. what does he care about israel? it's not one attack. it's hundreds and thousands of attacks. less brutal, obviously, than the 7th. but if you look at his life, he should be much more hateful to us than we are toward them. so let's put aside all those accounts. there was a horrible thing happening on the 7th, and we have to get up, get back to our values, because those are the only universal moral values i know. i don't know other moral values. i don't know revenge as a value. i don't know hatred as a value. and i don't think that it will lead us to anywhere. the fact that vivian was killed, does it help now that we kill 1,000 vivians in gaza? does it help to anyone? one of the most recurrent messages in your columns in haaretz since october 7th and since

the israeli military operation was launched has been this increased alarm you seem to feel at the dehumanisation of palestinians by the mass of israelis, and you seem to see a total lack of empathy. but don't you exaggerate when you say, as you've said recently, that israel, quote, "is going mad. "mccarthyism and fascism reign." you are...you are devaluing what israel is, are you not? no, stephen, because i see the phenomena and i always know how it starts and you never know how it goes on. and the beginning is very, very worrying because people were arrested for demonstrations. people. . .you say that we don't feel empathy. it's almost forbidden to express empathy with gaza. if you are an arab israeli citizen,

don't you dare to feel empathy with gaza because then you will be really in trouble. if you are jewish. .. come on, gideon, you... you haven't been silenced. you're one of the most powerful voices on your newspaper. i say if you are arab israeli, and then i say if you arejewish, be also aware. i wasn't silenced in my newspaper, but i was silenced on israeli tv and in other places. and don't complain, i have full freedom. i really don't complain. but by the end of the day, the feeling is that paying empathy now with gaza is an act of treason, no less than this. i don't remember such a phenomena ever before, so this should worry me as an israeli. this should more worry me. where are we reaching it? and above all, stephen, the role of the media. i cannot ignore this, because this time the israeli media play the role that i never saw before. i mean, we were always

criticising the russian media, covering the war in ukraine. "oh, look how they're covering the war in ukraine. "what a joke." we are much worse because we are doing it voluntarily. you cannot see any image of gaza in israeli tv and israeli newspapers. hardly see an image. israelis are not exposed to anything of the... nothing of the suffer... but... ..of the starvation, of the uprooted people. nothing. this is a democracy, when you don't show the truth? you talked earlier about empathy and putting yourself in other people's shoes. i'm now trying to put myself in your shoes. for you as a commentator who wants to influence opinion, shouldn't you try to reach israelis in a way that shows more empathy for them? for example, you still seem to support the economic isolation of israel through an international economic boycott. now, to most israelis, that is deeply unpatriotic. it is a betrayal of your own

country's interests. if you want people to come over to your side, shouldn't you modify some of your positions? i lost hope of really influencing. i'm not influencing. i'm really whistling in the darkness and i live with it. i mean, i don't know how to modify myself. you mentioned the boycott. do you have any idea how will we put an end to the apartheid and to the occupation from within? i wish i could influence israelis to wake up one morning and say, "oh, this occupation is so brutal. "oh, this apartheid is so much injust in it. "let's put an end to it." you really think this will ever happen? it will only happen if israelis will feel that they have something to lose. and this can happen only through an international intervention. so it's not very convenient. you think it's so convenient for me to call for boycott my country? but what else is left? we're out of time almost, but before we end, just a reflection

on the long course of your career. many, many years ago, you were an adviser to shimon peres, the arch proponent of a two—state solution. you've now given up on that two—state solution. you say that it is long past time when that was a real possibility. and you talk about a one state which you say must have full equality and which therefore, i would suggest to you, is the death knell for zionism. so are you now a person who no longer believes in any form of zionism, a state for the jewish people, a safe haven forever? zionism today isjewish superiority. there is no other way to define today's zionism but to say that in a place where two peoples are living, one people has more rights than the other. sojewish supremacy is not an option for me, and i don't see zionism

without jewish supremacy. and those who... but there could be a two—state solution in which actually, jewish supremacy in one state could coexist peacefully with palestinian arab supremacy in the other state. but you've ruled that out now? no, no, i didn't rule it out. ithink, istill think it's a wonderful idea. 0nly israel did anything possible to prevent it and to destroy it. because with 700,000 settlers in the west bank and eastjerusalem, a place where i visit regularly for 35 years now, there is no room for an independent, equal palestinian state, and we don't want a bantustan there. we want a viable state. it will never be when those 700,000 settlers are there and there is no—one in israel who will ever be able to evacuate those 700,000 settlers, the most powerful group in israeli politics. soi...

two—state solution could be more just and more implementable, but this train left the station. in a word, and it has to be a word... in a word, and i've known you a long time, have you ever felt more depressed ? no. definitely, no. but, stephen, we cannot finish our show with such a pessimistic vision. let's just remember that many unexpectable things happen in history, and we could not expect them. let's remember an expression which is not mine, that in this part of the world, one should be realistic enough to believe in miracles. so let's believe in miracles. gideon levy, thank you very much forjoining me on hardtalk. thanks.

although there. the risk of seeing some disruption due to snowball in scotland is increasing for tuesday, mind you we have seen problems, schools across parts of northern scotland with blowing adrift here in the past day or two. heading into tuesday we have another widespread frost to start the day, —22 —49 towns and cities but colder than that in rural areas. after the frosty start across the bulk of england and wales for tuesday we will see a dry day with 20 of sunshine around. what do much for the cold. 3— four celsius in most. an area of low pressure is working into all of the cold air bringing a

speu into all of the cold air bringing a spell of potentially disruptive snow. the temperatures vary across the system such that they will probably be remixed and for northern ireland, southern scotland and northern england with the heaviest snow over hills. but on the northern edge of the system we have colder air and that means the snow will come down to the low elevations and that includes the risk of essential belt end up in so we are looking at potentially very heavy falls of snow, 5—10 centimetres through the central loads of scotland, maybe 20 in one or two places, snowy weather over the southern upland is as well. all in all this could cause disruption, more snow follows for tuesday night and we will see snow over the higher parts of the pennines as well. heavy snow, tuesday the focused in scotland. anywhere in the central lowlands northwoods could see heavy falls, the southern upland is also could see problems, disruption seems pretty likely. in wednesday we have more showers pushing into the north

and area flood pressure of the atlantic, a bit of snow on the north lake getting a tickling of that in the far out of england. in europe someplace going around 20—30 centimetres. that means the most disruptive snow will be affecting northern parts of the uk into parts of the highlands where we could see ten or even 20 centimetres of snow and it's another day where we will have some places temperatures don't get freezing all day. into thursday it's a similar looking weather parted with the disruptive snow continuing across northern areas of the uk. across many inland areas, dry with earlier cloud in the sky, plenty of sunshine after a freezing cold start, it stays freezing cold. temperatures around three or four at best. were gradually going to emerge out of the freezer as bigger towards the end of the week and the weekend. will see low moving of the atlantic and the weather fronts eventually start to bring in milder air but it's a slow process, for friday was

a risk of snow affecting parts of northern scotland but otherwise it is a process of generally clouding over from the west with bits of pieces of bread pushing on towards northern ireland and temperatures very slowly creeping up to around five or six degrees in the west which is still below average for the time of year. we as we go to saturday, southwesterly winds take over bringing outbreaks of rain, the wind is strong, there will be gals around, could knock a few branches of trees. of course with the rain moving in, that's not necessarily something we want to see given how wet it has been of the past week and all the flooding problems we have seenin all the flooding problems we have seen in recent days. nevertheless i think short—term risk of disruptive snow on the way. to scotland for tuesday.

live from iowa. this is bbc news it's caucus day here in chilly iowa — the big question — will the temperature effect turnout — as the 2024 presidential primary season officially begins. and in dc i'm sumi somaskanda —— from foreign poicy to donald trump's legal challenges —— there are number of key issues that voters in iowa and across the country will be watching in the lead up to november. we are live in des moines, iowa ? where the first 2024 presidential contest will soon

be under way. republicans across 99 counties will meet at churches, schools, and polling location around the state in the next hour to choose their party 5 presidential nominee through the unique process of caucusing. former us president donald trump has the momentum as voting begins, with former governor nikki haley, florida governor ron desantis, entrepreneur vivek ramaswamy, and former governor asa hutchinson fighting to lead the republican party. which means —— all eyes now are on the race for second place. as the candidates spent the day making the case to voters and urged them to get out the vote. think out the vote. i president trump was the right think i president trump was the right president at the right time i agree with a lot of his policies, but rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him you know i am rights close —— chaos follows him and we can't be a countries in disarray and a

world on fire and go through four more