Skip to main content

tv   Washington Journal Shibley Telhami  CSPAN  October 17, 2023 7:29pm-8:02pm EDT

7:29 pm
involving you to discuss the latest issues of government, politics and public policy from washington, d.c., and across the country. coming up wednesday morning, the latest in the house speaker vote from the capitol with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and president biden's trip to israel. c-span's "washington journal" join in live on c-span, c-spannow or online at c-span. org. >> tonight, watch c-span series in partnership with books that shape america and mark twain's novel written in 1894. because of the subject matter. the book has sold more than 20 million copies and profound
7:30 pm
impact on american literature. and quotes earnest hemming way says it comes from one book called "huckleberry finn." so join us on the program to jinn the adventures of huckleberry finn tonight at 9:00. at c-span. org. and be sure to scan the code to listen to our companion podcast and learn more about the book's features. our common humanity.
7:31 pm
7:32 pm
7:33 pm
number two, >> he is going to need to counsel them on going after hamas and not recklessly endanger civilians. and the blockade and that is
7:34 pm
against the rules. course, isran interests and israel has the right to defend itself, but not to recklessly in danger civilians. we need to protect our american interests. we have interests because we would be drawn in. it cannot be up like check -- be a blank check. this could expand in a way that creates a humanitarian disaster that draws a lot of actors in. the first one to be mindful of is hezbollah and the fight from the north in lebanon. hezbollah is more powerful than hamas.
7:35 pm
the israelis do not want them to get involved. in my opinion they don't want to get involved. lebanon would stand to lose a bot, especially civilians. it is a lose-lose for civilians. people pay a price for this. more importantly, if you draw the u.s. into that fight, the president has issued a warning to hezbollah. hezbollah is and ally of iran. hezbollah could draw iran in. host: let me focus on the civilian side of this for second. this is the editorial board of the wall street journal today. "palestinian lives matter, except for hamas," saying that the responsibility for palestinian lives rests with
7:36 pm
hamas. "hamas was left in power in gaza plot the assault earlier this month. israel's goal is to destroy hamas." in the future it will save as many israeli lives as it will save palestinian lives. guest: they cannot justify recklessly endangering civilian lives. we do not know what is being targeted. you a lot of leaders in israel are saying our mission is to extract a price. we see some all whose hearts harden on both side, who no longer differentiate between civilians or hamas or israel and
7:37 pm
the military and the rest of the civilian, israeli population. that is wrong. there are rules of international law, rules of war that have to be abided by. they are being abided by. hamas is to blame for the attack, and for being the destructive organization that it is. nothing excuses what they have done. in all honesty, they took control of gaza in 2006. gaza was still under occupation at that time with no end in sight. clearly, the west bank right now, the occupied west bank is under control of the plo, which is not using violence.
7:38 pm
we cannot just use an awful organization like hamas that has committed war crimes a a justifications -- as a justification for hurting tens of thousands of civilians. we prepared to pay the price of having tens of thousands of deaths in gaza. they are for achieving a political end. that political end will not ring about any outcome that you remember. this is a population that is mostly made up of refugees and descendants of refugees who left their homes in central israel.
7:39 pm
if you witnessed the bombings and you felt guilt -- whether or not it is about hamas, what will happen to the young people who will grow up next? what will happen after you destroy hamas? the president of the united states has the most influence with the parties on the ground, he needs to go beyond hearts at the moment, he needs to be sober. host: as we know, president biden is headed to israel today. he will be there tomorrow in meetings. we are expecting a statement from the president as well. the phone lines are open. republicans, (202) 748-8000 --
7:40 pm
republicans, (202) 748-8001. cracks, -- democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. as folks are calling in, i want to go to your foreign affairs piece that you co-authored over the summer on this question of a two state solution, saying israel's one state reality is time to give up on the two state solution. liza tend to give up on a tuesday -- why is it time to give up on a two state solution? guest: the promise of two states has been used as a smokescreen to hide a one state reality.
7:41 pm
i was in israel and the west bank a few days before the horrible attacks took place, and when you go to the west bank, you go to a city like bethlehem or the smaller towns around, and you see not only the wall that is cutting through the city, but also the separation wall through the city and the encouragement of jewish settlements read on the foothills that belong to these towns. it is so impossible to separate. we now have 600,000 israeli settlers all over the west bank. it is impossible to envision that they -- it is illegal under international law.
7:42 pm
they have been going nonstop. the reality of a government in israel that does not believe in -- "the palestinians have to accept what they got. we have an environment we are not recognizing. our worry is that while we are saying "let's wait for 2 states," it has been 56 years of occupation. the palestinians do not have equal rights. they live miserable lives. this does not justify what hamas did, by the way. one of the problems we have in our discourse is people think when you explain, you justify.
7:43 pm
this is what we doing social science. it does not mean we justify. you have to understand the context in which there was a lot of despair in because there -- in the west bank of gaza. people were expecting something to happen when biden was elected. the biden administration to settlements at the united nations. peace between israel and the arab countries, including negotiations to bring the saudis into -- that was not happening. it looked like palestinians were completely helpless in this environment. that is usually an opportune
7:44 pm
moment for militant groups to:. hamas exploits this obviously. the surprise attack on israel will have to be analyzed for years to come. there is an environment that was not related to hamas that still exists now. settler violence was increasing in the west bank because you have a far right israeli government, who have people who are not shy, these ministers, high-level ministers like the minister of national security who very clearly is in support of violence for settlers, including the right to attack vulnerable palestinians. the horrible conditions are
7:45 pm
unrelated to hamas. hearts are hardened. you see in the case of the israelis the witness of the horrific attacks that made them extremely vulnerable for a few days. you look at how many people now want to turn gaza into a parking lot. at the same time this hardening on the palestinian side of the hearts to permit what should not be permissible. nothing should ever justify the targeting or reckless endangerment civilians. i hope that our hearts never get so hardened as to allow that. host: i have 20 minutes left with you, and plenty of colors. this is richmond, virginia,
7:46 pm
independent. caller: thank you, professor. can israel be charged with a genocidal crime in and international court of law in sweden? with that even happen? do you even think netanyahu will -- when you look at the history of his actions over the year, it is to completely annihilate the palestinian people, and did not even come up with a state solution. host: let me take those 2 questions. guest: with regards to genocide, i'm not an international lawyer, and i will leave that to the lawyerd to determine. more crimes for sure -- wa crimesr, for sure.
7:47 pm
amnesty international has always identified war crimes by israel, as well as by hamas, but that goes without saying. the question is what can be done in the international community to pursue that. there are cases underway. it does sometimes affect the ability of the international community to punish. there is some restraining fact that takes place. in some cases israeli military leaders or former military leaders were dissuaded from going into countries in fear of the case that would be brought against.
7:48 pm
i doubt very much that anything of that sort would happen anytime soon. the role of the states as a supporter of israel o prevent those cases from moving forward -- the settlements is the clearest case, put aside war crimes committed by each side. when you're looking at the settlement issue, which should be clear, every american administration until trump took issue with them and post them -- opposed them, but every time the united nations wanted to take up the issue in light of new settlements taking place in israel, the united states either vetoed the resolution or worked hard to prevent it from coming up. that is why there has been no accountability for settlements. settlements have been growing
7:49 pm
and growing. host: johnstown, pennsylvania, this is wrong, one for -- ron, mine for democrats. caller: why don't we give the palestinians the iron dome technology? at would cease a lot of the destruction on both sides. my other question might be a little absurd. we are such good allies of israel, why don't we make florida the new israel? host: we will take up your first question on arms ships. guest: put aside the sentiment in congress on israel and palestine, the palestinians do not have a state.
7:50 pm
this article is based on the book that me and my 3 colleagues put together on the one state reality. that book was saying we are talking about the palestinian authorities as if it was a real state. you are talking about an authority that is managing some of the affairs of palestinians on the west bank. the nature of statehood, all of that is controlled by israel militarily in reality. even gaza, which obviously does have martine amis, especially -- have more autonomy, especially with hamas in control, but the air and land are patrolled by israel. israel is considered to be the occupying sovereign power.
7:51 pm
there is no palestinian state, for one thing, to do anything or empower them to defend their people, to control in a real way the domestic arena in which they exist. that issue does not come up. arabs and jews, israelis and palestinians are slated to live there together. no one should be pushed out. no one should be made homeless. they are slated to live together. the reality is deeply unjust. in our book we say certainly on the west bank, it is akin to apartheid. that is not something that should be tolerated. i do not see a political
7:52 pm
solution on the horizon, but whatever political solution will take place, it has to be equitable. it has to be just. it has to protect the dignity of both jews and arabs israelis and palestinians. short that, we will see these bouts of horrific violence over and over again. we need to think about a political horizon. i blame the eight biden administration, not for the attack, but for not working hard enough to create a political horizon was real for israelis and palestinians. they have managed the crisis, instead of finding real hope for people. host: two knoxville, iowa -- to knoxville, iowa, this is linda.
7:53 pm
caller: i believe there should peace. the biden administration needs to stay out of this, and let netanyahu do what he does best, to protect his people. when the biden administration is getting involved it has gotten dirtier and dirtier. it is all over the world what some of the palestinians are doing, not the ones living next door. i think the biden administration is doing a terrible thing. they have no soul. those people who were murdered, innocent babies, grandmothers, grandparents, it is just terrible. there has to be a solution, and the biden administration is not going to bring that to the people. let's pray for peace around the
7:54 pm
world. guest: thank you for your prayers. i think those innocent people, whether they are a jewish child or an arab child, an israeli child or a palestinian child, they were cut short. it is hard to know the exact numbers, but hundreds of children have been killed in the past 10 days, those were young kids who had dreams, had loved ones, families. thank you for focusing on taft -- that. our common humanity should be front and center, while we are watching this immense suffering. we cannot think of it as a strategic game, winning or losing this or that as the only issue on the table. it is an issue everyone has to
7:55 pm
consider. as for biden, my theory is that the u.s. is implicated in israel-palestine. we at the biggest backer of israel in terms of protecting israel at the united nations more than any other country in the world, providing israel with cutting edge to elegy -- technology to maintain its dominance in the region. we also give some funds to the palestinian authority, especially for humanitarian purposes in those territories. the u.s. has major interests in the region. we could get drawn in. we have troops in the gulf region. we have energy interests the
7:56 pm
region. the israel connection could draw us into a war that we do not want, especially with iran. they have to be mindful to look after america's interests when they're going out there. you cannot give them carte blanche. there is an israeli government that many americans, including the president, has ministers in a high-level whose interests are not identical with america's interests, and we cannot assume that they will just do the right thing. the israeli people have seen them fail in predicting this attack and initially countering it. there is a lot of division in
7:57 pm
israel. israelis rally around the flag right now, like everyone else. can we trust them to do the right thing, not only in limiting themselves to self-defense, but in terms of doing things that do not drag us into war? host: how much do you think this attack a good go saturday was about ongoing peace talks between israel and saudi arabia? i was hamas scared about the -- why was hamas scared about those peace talks? guest: when i am looking at this attack, and by the way, we were all shocked by it, meaning surprised, including those of us who are watching this closely. everyone who i have spoken with in the u.s. government, outside the u.s. government, in the middle east, in israel, in the
7:58 pm
palestinian areas, no one predicted this and were surprised, not that hamas would want to do this. it is that they had the capability to do it, and a capability that the israelis born able to detect -- were unable to detect or respond to. there will be a lot of questions about that. a former cia director suggested that israeli intelligence might have been compromised. thiss is something the salves will visit later down the road. in terms of the timing, whether it was technical or if a an property time revealed
7:59 pm
itself -- to the extent that it was belated, they have to calculate where they can win politically. the despair in gaza -- you have settlers. there were -- they -- biden seemed to want peace without the
8:00 pm
resignation. there is >> c-span's washington journal, ally form involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics and public policy from washington dc and across the country, coming up wednesday morning, we discussed the latest in the house speaker but from the capital with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and a preview of president biden's trip to israel. c-span's washington journal,
8:01 pm
join in the composition live at 7:00 eastern wednesday morning on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. ♪ since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress from the house and senate floors to congressional hearings, party briefings, and committee meetings. c-span gives you a front row seat to have issues are debated and decided with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered. c-span. your unfiltered view of government. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including sparklight. >> the greatest town on earth is the time to call home. and it's our home too.
8:02 pm
we are facing our grading -- greatest challenge. we are working around the clock to keep you connected and doing our part so it is easier to do yours. sparklight support c-span as a public service along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> members of the house hp their first round of votes to elect a new speaker. but cdidate obtained the required number of votes. jim jordan, the republica nominee, got 200 votes. and hakeem jeffrs ceived 212 from democrats. there were 20 republicans voting fosomeone else other than representative jorda members are set to rur wednesday at 11:00 a.m. eastern to continue with the second rod of voting. up next, a look back at th first round followed by reaction from house members. presence. the next order of business is

76 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on