04/12/19 04/12/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from boston this is , democracy now! a arrest, the scandal, it is not just u.s. government. the british are cooperating, ecuador is now cooperating, sweden before had cooperated. the efforts to silence the journalist who was producing materialals that people in power

did not want. amy:oday, noam chomsky the hour oththreats democracy from the arrrrest of wikilileaks , foununder julian a assange, we attorneyeys are vowingng to figt his s ssible extradition to o te united states, to the unprecedented fifth term election of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. ofwe are facing the spread what is sometimes called the ultranationalist reactionary international. just had a victory yesterday. netanyahu election in israel. amy: from israel-palestine to julian assange, from nuclear war to climate change, noam chomsky the world-renowned beloved and much of professor for over 50 years, returns to boston speaking to over 700 people at the old south church.

all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. totoday we begin with the headlines. we are broadcasting from boston. attorneys for wikileaks founder julian assange are vowing to fight his possible extraditionon to the united states following his arrest in london. onon thursday, b british picice foiblyly remed assssan from thecuadorere embassy, where he hahad taken asylylum from a sesn ars. soon aer his arrest, u.s. auththorities unsesealed an inindictment accccusing him ofof coconspiring witith army whiseblower chsea mannin who leaked a trove of sensitive documents to wikileaks, including evidence of u.s. war

crim in iraq a afghanist. cnn reportinghe justice department is expected to bring additional charges against assange. in london assange's attorney , jennifer robinson warned the prosecution of assange could jeopardize press freedom. >> it sets a dangerous precedence all media organization and journalists in europe and elsewhere around the world. this precision means any journal -- this precedent means any journalist can be extradited for prosecution of u.s. for having published truthful information about the united states. i have just been with mr. assange. he wants to thank all of his supporters for their ongoing support. and he said, "i told you so." amy: another member of assange's legal team, the spanish lawyer baltasar garzon, said he fears assange may be tortured if extradited to the united states. he spoke to reporters in madrid.

>> chelsea manning was subjected , so we think it is the same case. we have e serious unfofounded reasonons for thinkiking this cd happen.. amy: juliaian assange wawas arrd shortly y after the ececuadorian governmement withdrew hisis polilitical asylumum. former e ecuadorian prpresident rafael cororrea criticizized ecuador's current t president lenin momoreno for whahat happe. cocorrea wrote -- "the greatest traitor in ecuadorian and latin american history, lenin moreno, allowed the british police to enter our embassy in london to arrest assange. moreno is a corrupt man, but what he has done is a crime that humanity will never forget." at the white house president , trump was asked about with felix on thursday. >> do you still love wikileaks? pres. trump: i know nothing

about wikileaks. it is not my thing. amy: while donald trump claims he knew nothing about wikileaks, he repeatedly praised the whistleblowing site during the 202016 campaign for publishing internal dememocratic party emails. pres. trump:p: this just c came. this just came out. wikileaks. i love wikileaks. amy: we will have more on the arrest of julian assange later in the program. protests are continuing in sudan following a military coup that ousted lonongtime leader omar al-bashir. on thursday night thousands of , protesters defied a military-enforced curfew hours after sudan's defense minister awad mohamed ahmed ibn auf was sworn in to head a new transitional military council. the sudanese military has suspended the country's constitution and imposed a three-year state of emergency. anti-governmnment protesters hae vowed to stay in the streets. >> is they do not ring a civic government representing the sudanese people properly, our revolution will be incomplete

and would not represent the hopes and people -- dreams of the sudanese people so we will continue to strike and stay at the square until all of our legitimate demands are met. amy: "the washington post" is reporting white house officials have pressured immigration authorities to bus immigigrant detainees to sanctuary cities and then release them as a way to punish critics of the president's immigration policies. president trump has long railed against sanctuary cities which have barred local police from cooperating with federal immigration agencies. senior t trump advisor stephen miller discussed the proposal with officials at ice but the agency reportedly opposed the idea. president trump has reportedly tapppped matthew albence to bece the new head of immigration and customs enforcement. albence made headlines last when -- lasast year when he compapard family detention centers to summer camps. >> a think the best way to describe them is to be more like a summer camp.

these individuals have access to .4/7 food and water they have educational opportunities. they have recreational opportunities -- both structured as well as unstructured. there are basketball courts,s, exercise classes, soccer fields we put in there. amy: last week president trump withdrew the nomination of actiting ice director ron vitieo to head the e agency, saying g e wasn't "tough" enough for the role. the senate has confirmed former oil lobbyist david bernhardt to head the interior department. he replaces ryan zinke who stepped down in december amid multiple scandals and ethihics investigations. since joining the interior department in bernhardt has 2017, worked to make the approval for land and offshore drilling projects easier and proposed limiting protections for endangered species. democratic senator bob menendez said a vote for david bernhardt is a vote for offshore drilling. the institute on taxation and economic policy has found that

the number of large u.s. companies who paid nothing in federal taxes has doubled in recent years. the institute named over 60 companies that did not pay federal taxes in 2018 despite many making billions in profits. the compmpanies include amazon, netflix, general motors, ibm, chevron, eli lilly, delta, occidental petroleum, honeywell, prudential, halliburton, whirlpool, and goodyear. meanwhile, democratic presidential candidate senator elizabeth warren has introduced a proposal called the "real corporate profits tax" to force companies to pay a 7% tax on all profits over $100 million. senator warrenen outlined the pn on thursday on msnbc. > the simplicity of it is pat of what mamakes it work so well and makes s sure no giant corporation in this country gets away with paying zero while small companies andnd families e having to o pick up ththe tickeo run the country.

amy: the trump administration has refused to allow prominent palestinian human rights to enterar barghouti the united states. barghouti is co-founder of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement or bds. in a statement barghouti said -- , "this u.s. entry ban against me, which is ideologically and politically motivated, is part of israel's escalating repression against palestinian, israeli and international human rights defenders in the bds movement." barghouti was scheduled to give talks at nyu and harvard university and to meet u.s. lawmakers. he was also booked to appear in our democracy now! studio next tuesday. shocking sururveillae e video fm insidede a chicago high school s been released showowg police officersrs pushing and dragginga 16-year-old african-american student down a flight of stas before they beat and tased her. the inindent occurrered in januy and d directly contradicicts the inititial claim of t the offices

ththat thehe student wasas to be fofor the violence.. the stududent was s initialllly charged with two felony counts, but the charges were l later dropped. her family is now suing the city. students at georgetown university in washington, d c, have overwhelmingly voted to create a reparations fund for the descendants of slaves once sold by the university. the students agreed to pay a fee of $27.20 each semester in honor of the 272 people sold by the school in 1838. georgetown freshman nile blass helped push the measure. >> i want everyone here to know that we cannot remove the historical pre-context to our current context. the direct quality of life of these individuals who were used as objects and equipment for our university can be directly tied to the decisions that are georgetown faculty of the time created. amy: and 31,000 workerers at the

stop & shohop grocery chain have launched a strike in connecticut, massachusetts, and rhode island. stop & shop's parent company earned $2 billion in profits in 2018, but workers are being asked to accept cuts to their health care and pension benefits. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from boston. today we spend the hour with noam chomsky, who visited his hometown of boston this week where he was a professor at massachusetts institute of technology for more than 50 years. he now teaches at the university of arizona in tucson. over 700 people packed into the old south church thursday to hear the world renowned dissident and father of modern linguistics speak about threats to democracy, from the issue of israel-palestine to the arrest of julian assange, from nuclear

war to climate change. after viewing part of a new film about him called "internationalism or extinction," noam chomsky talked about the past two years under president trump. >> if you will indulge me, i would lili to start w with a brf reminiscence o of a period which today in similar to many unpleasant respects. exactly 80ng of years ago almost to the day, of thed to be the moment first article that i rememember having written on political issues. easy to date, it was right after the fall of barcelona in

february 1939. the article w was about what seemed to be the inexorable spread of fascism over the world . 1938, austria had been annexed i germany. a few months later, czechoslovakia was placed in the the muniche nazis at conference. in spain, one cicity after anotr was falling to franco's forces. fell.ry 1939, barcelona that was the end of the spanish republic. the remarkable popular revolution, and arcucus revolutn

1938 had d already been crushed by force. it looked as if f fascism was going toto spread without end. it is not exactly what is happening today, but if we can borrow mark twain's famous phrase, "history doesn't r repet but sometimes rhymes." too many similarities to overlook. fell, there was a huge flood of refugees from spain. most went to mexico, about 40,000. some went to new york city, established anarchist offices in union square, secondhand bookstores, and danforth avenue. that is where i got my early political political education,

roaming around the area about 80 years ago. now it is today.y. butid not know at the time the u.s. government was also beginning to think about how the spread of fascism might be virtrtually unstoppable. they did not view it with the same alarm that i did as a 10 year old. it.ow knonow how to do the state department was rather mixed with what was the significance of the nazi movement was.. there e was a xonsul --- u.s. back pretty mixed comments about suggesting maybe they are not as bad as everyone says. he stayed there until pearl

harbor day when he was withdrawn . famous diplomat named george kennan. not a bad indication of the mixed attitude towards these developments. out could not have known it at the time, but shortltly after this 1939, the state department and the council on foreign relations began to bury out planning -- carry out plananning about the post world war. what the post-world war i look like. in the early years, right about that time, the next few years, they assumed that the post world would be divided between a nazi -controlled world, most of eurasia, and a u.s.-controlled world which would include the

western hemisphere, the former british empire, which the u.s. would take over the parts of the far east. and that would be the shape of the part -- post world. most of the views we know were maintained until the russians turned the tide. stalingrad of 1942, the huge -- made it pretty clear the russians would defeat the nazis. the planning changed, the picture of the post world changed, went o on to what we he seen for the last period since that time. well, that was 80 yeyears ago. today, we do not -- we are not facing the rise of anything like

naziism, but we are facing the spread of what is sometimes cacalled the ultranationalist ,eactionary international trumpeted openly by its advocates, including stephen bannon -- the upper sorry what the movement. just had a victory yesterday. the netanyahu election in israel solidified the reactionary alliance that is being established. all of this under the u.s., run trump, pompeo, bolton. could borrow a phrase from george w. bush to describe them, but out of politeness, i won't.

the middle east alliance consists of the extreme reactionary states of the region -- saudi arabia, united arab emirates, egypt under the most brutal dictatorship of its history, israel at the center of severefronting iran, threats that we are facing i in latin america with the election , putir bobolsonaro in brazil in power the most extreme, most outrageous of the right wing ultranationalists who are now plaguing the hemisphere. yesterday, lenin moreno of ecuador took a strong step toward joining the far right alliance by expelling julian assange from the embassy. picked up quickly by the u.s..

will face very dangerous future unless there is a significant popular protest. mexico is one of the rare exceptions in latin america to these developments. western europe, right-wing parties are growing. some of them are very frightening in character. there is a counter development. yoyoung is her f focus, the forr finance minister of greece -- yet is here fox is, the former finance minister of greece, very important individual along with bernie sanders, have urged the formation of the progressive international to counter the right-wing international that is developing at the level of states, the balance looks y in the wrong

direction but states are not the only entities. the level of people is quite different. that could mean the difference. that means the need to protect the functioning democracies to enhance them, to make use of the opportunities they provide for the kinds of activism that have led to significant progress in the past could save us in the future. and go back with professor noam chomsky in boston in half a minute. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue the hour with world-renowned linguist and political dissident noam chomsky. he spoke last night here in boston at the old south church. >> i want to make a couple of severe about the difficulty of maintaining and instituting democracies, the powerful forces that have always posed the achievements of somehow salvaging and enhancing it and the significance ofofhat for the future. but first, a couple of words about the challenges that we , which you heard enough

about already and will know about. i don't have to go into them in detail. to describe these challenges is extremely severe would be an er ror. the phrase is not capture the enormity of the kinds of challenges that lie ahead. any serious discucussion of the future of humanity must begin by recognizing a critical fact that .he human species is now facing the question that has never ,efore arisen in human history a question that has to be answered quickly -- will human society survive for long? well, as you all know, for 70 years we've been living under the shadow of nuclear war. those who have looked at the record can only be amazed that

we have survived this far. time after time it has come extremely close to terminal disaster even. miminutes away. it i is kind of a miracle we hae survived.. miracles do not go on forever. this has to b be terminated, and quickly. therecent nuclear review of trump administration traumatically increases the threat -- dramatically increases the threat of conflagration, which would affect the terminal for the species. we may remember this nuclear posture review was sponsored by jim mattis, who was regarded as .oo civilized to be retained the administration gives you a sense of what can be tolerated in the trump-pompeo-bolton worlrld.

there were three major arms treaties. m treaty, imf treaty, the new start treaty. the u.s. pulled out of the abm treaty and 2002.2. anyone who believes adding ballistic missiles are defensive weapons is deluded about the nature of these systems. the u.s. has just pulled out of the inf treaty, established by gorbachev and reagan in 1987, which sharply reduced the threat of war in europe, which very quickly spread. the background of that signing of the treaty was the demonstrations that you just saw depicted on the film. massive public demonstrations were the background for leading to a treaty y that made a very significant difference.

worth remembering that and many other cases where significant popular activism has made a huge difference. lessons are too obvious to enumerate. administration has just withdrawn from the inf treaty. the russians with true right afterwards. if you take a close look, each side has a kind of credible case saying the opponent has not lived up to the treaty. a picturewho won of how the russians might look at it, the major journal on arms control issues had a lead article a couple weeks ago by theodore postal pointing out how dangerous the u.s. installations of anti-ballistic missiles on the rurussian border, how dangerouous they are and can be perceived to be by the russians.

tensions are mounting on the russian border. both sides are carrying out provocative actions. we should -- in a rational world, what would happen would be negotiations between the two sides with independent experts to be -- to evaluate the charges that each is making against the other to lead to a resolution of these charges, restore the treaty. that is a rational world. but unfortunate, it is not the world we are living in. no efforts at all have been made in this direction. and they won't be unless there is significant pressure. well, that leaves the new start treaty. the new start treaty has already been designated by the figure in

charge, who has modestly described himself as the greatest president in american history. he gave it the usual designation of anything that was done by his predecessors, the worst treaty , we happen in human history have to get rid of it. if in fact this comes up for renewal l right after the nextxt election, not a lot is at stake. a lot is at stake. and whether the treaty will be renewed. it has succeeded in very significantly reducing the number of nuclear weapons to a level where above what they ought to be, but way below what they were beforore. and it could go on. meanwhile, glolobal warming proceeds on its course. during this millennium, every single year, with one exception, has been hotter than a last one.

there were recent scientific others,james h hansen and which indicate the pace of global warming, which has been increasing since about 1980, may be sharply escalating, may be moving from linear growth h to expoponential growth -- which means doubling every couple of decades. we are already approaching the conditions of 125,000 years ago abouthe sea level was roughly 25 feet higher than it rapid meltingthe of the and arctic -- and arctic, huge ice fields. that point might be reached. the consequence of that are

almost unimaginable. i won't even try to to pick them but you can figure quickly what that means. meanwhile, while this is going on, you regugurly read i in the press euphoric accounts of how the united states is advancing in fossil fuel produduction. now surpassed saudi arabia where the lead of fossil fuel production, the big banks -- j.p. morgan chase and others -- are pouring money into new ,nvestments in fossil fuels canadian tar sands. ththis is all prpresented with t euphoria, excitement. we're now reaching energy independence. we can control the world, determine the use of fossil fuels in the world. barely a word on what the meaning of this is, which is quite obvious.

it is not that the reporters, cocommentators don't know aboutt . the ceo of the banks don't know about it. of course they do. but these are kind of institutional pressures thahat e extremely hard to extricate themselves from. you can put yourself -- try to put yourself in the position of say the ceo of jp morgan chase, the biggest bank, which is spending large sums in investments in fossil fuels. he certainly knows everything you all know about global warming. it is no secret. but what are the choices? basically he has two choices. one choice is to do exactly what he i is doing. the other choice is to resign and be replaced a summit yells who will do exactly what he is doing. -- somebody else who will do

exactly what he is doing. it is not an individual problem, it is an institutional problem, which can be met but only under tremendous public pressure. we have recently seen very -- howically how it can the solution can be reached. a group of young people, sunrise -- got to theized point of sitting in , arousingnal offices interest from the new progressive figures who were able to make it to congress under a lot of popular pressure --alexandria ocasio-cortez actually place the green new deal on the agenda. that is remarkable achievement. of course it gets hostile attacks from everywhere. it doesn't matter. a couple of years ago it was unimaginablele that it would be

discussed. as a result of the activism of these group of young people, it is now right in the center of the agenda. it has got to be implemented in one form or another. it is essential for survival. maybe not exactly in that form, but some modification of it. tremendous change achieved by the commitment of a small group of young people. thatat tells you the kinind of things that can be done. [applause] meanwhile, the doomsday clock of the bulletin of atomic scientists last january was set at two minutes to midnight. that is the closest it has been to terminal disaster since 1947. the announcement of the

settlement -- of the setting mentioned the two major familiar threats, the threat of nuclear , which is increasing. the threat of global warming, which is increasing further. and it added a third for the first time, the undermining of democracy. that is the third threat along with global warming and nuclear war. and that was quite appropriate because functioning democracy offers the only hope of overcoming these threats. they are not going to be dealt with by major institutions, state or private, acting without massive public pressure -- which means the means of democratic functioning have to be kept alive, used the way the sunshine movement did it, the way the

great master missed ration in the early 1980's s did it, and e ay we continue today. amy: back with noam chomsky in conversation, in 30 seconds. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. sit down with noam chomsky for a public conversation, i asked him about the arrest of julian assange. >> the assange arrest is scandalous in several respects.

one of them is just the effort of government -- and it is not just the u.s. government. the british are cooperating, sweden is cooperating, before had cooperated. the efforts to silence the journalist who was producing materials that people in power did not want the rascal multitude to do about. that is basically what happened. wikileaks was producing things that people ought to know about those in power. people in power don't like that, so therefore, we have to silence it, ok? this is the kind of scandal that takes place, unfortunately, over and over. to take another example, right next-door to ecuador in brazil,

or the developments that have gone on that are extremely important. this is the most important country in latin america. one of the most important in the world under the lula government early in this millennium, brazil was the most -- maybe the most respected country in the world. it was the voice for the global south under the leadership of lula da silva. notice what happened. there was a coup to eliminate the nefarious effects of the labourur party, the workers par. ththese are described by the wod bank -- not me, but the e world babank, as the golden decade in brazil's history with radical reduction of poverty, of massive extension of inclusion of marginalized populations --

large parts of the p population, half were brazilian,n, indigenos whwho were brougught into socie- a sense of digninity and hopee r the popopulationon. ththat couould not be tolerated. -- after he left office, kindnd of a soft c coupe place. i won't go to the details, but the last move last september was to take lula da silva, thehe mot popupular figure in brazil who s almost certain to win the forthcoming election, put him in --l -- solitary confinement essentially a death sentence, 25 years in jail, banned from reading press or books, and crucially barred from making a public statement.

unlike mass murderers on death row. in order to silence the person who was likely to win the election. he is the most impmportant political prisoner in the world. do you hear anything about him? is a similar case. we have to silence this voice. you go back to history. some of you may recall when mussolini's fascist government put antonio gramsci in jail. the prosecutor said, we have to silence this voice for 20 years. can't let it speak. that is assange. and other cases. that is one scandal. the other scandal is just the extraterritorial reach of the united states, which is shocking . i mean, why should the united

other -- why should no state could possibly do it, but why should the united states have the power to control what others are doing elsewhere in the world? outlandishis situation. it goes on all the time. .e never even notice it at least there is no comment on it. but take a trading agreements with china. what are the trade agreements about? they are an effort to prevent china's economic development. it is exactly what they are. modelhas a development the trump administration does not like, therefore, let's undermine it. ask yourself, what would happen observe the not rules of the united states is

trying to impose? boeingfor example, when or microsoft or r some otherer r company invests in china, china wants to have some control over the nature of the investment. they want some degree of technology transfer. they should gain something from the technology. is there something wrong with that? states how the united developed what we call stealing technology from england. it is how england developed taking technology from more advanced countries -- india, the low countries, even ireland. that is how every developed country has reached the stage of advanced development. if boeing and microsoft do not like those arrangements, they don't have to invest in china. nobody has a gun to their heads.

if anybody really believes in capitalism, they should be free to make any or richmond they want with china. if it involves technology transfer, ok. the united states wants to block that so china cannot develop. take what are called intellectual property rights. rights for medicines, for windows will for example. microsoft has a monopoly on operating systems through the world trade organization. suppose china did not observe these. who would benefit and who would lose? well, the fact of the matter is consumers in the united states would benefit. it would mean they would get cheaper medicines. it would mean when you get a computer, you would not be stuck with windows. you could get a better operating

system. bill gates would have a little less money. the pharmaceutical corporations would not be as superrich as they are, a little less rich. but the consumers would benefit. is there something wrong with that? is there a problem with that? ,ell, you might ask yourself what lies behind all of these discussions and negotiations? this is true across the board. almost any issue you pick you can ask yourself, why is this excepted? so in this case, why is it acceptable for the united states begine the power to even to give even a proposal to extradite somebody whose crime is to expose to the public materials that people in power don't want them to see.

that is basically what is happening. amy: what about what has happened in israel? prime minister netanyahu winning a record fifth term. right before the election, he annonounces that he will annex illegal israeli settlements in the occupied west bank. last month, trump officially recognized israeli sovereignty over the golan heights. if bennyfirst of all, gantz has been elected instead of netanyahu, the difference would not be very great. the difference between the two candidates is not substantial in terms of policy. netanyahu -- here is another example of the extraterritorial reach of the united states. netanyahu is somewhat more extreme. the united states desperately

wanted him to be elected. and the trump administration has been giving gift after gift to netanyahu to try to get him elected. it was enough to carry him over the roughly close to 50/50 election. one of them, of course, was to move the embassy to jerusalem in of not only international law, but even secured a council resolutions that the u.s. had participated in. very dramatic change. the segway, -- the second, equally dramatic, was to authorize israeli annexation of the golan heights. the syrian golan heights are under international law, occupied territory. major institution,

institution,t security council, international court justice all agree on this, israel did formally annexed the golan heights. but the security council, u.n. security council with the u.s. participating, declared that nolan void. void.l and unilaterally reversed it. saying he can get anything they want with the u.s. backing. -- just was trump's before the election, his declaration that if elected, he would annex parts of the west bank. that was with tacit u.s. authorization. strong measures that were taken to interfere radically witith a foreign

election. have you heard something about how terrible it is to interfere in foreign elections? i think maybe you noticed that somewhere. here are just in radically, considered fine. actualctly what are the consequences of that in terms of the way policy has been evolving? the fact of the matter is, not much. so take the annexation of the golan heights. in fact, it was declared null and void of the security council. it was condemned by the international court of justice. but did anyone do anything about it? has anyone been made to prevent israel's development of the golan heights? establishment of settlements,

enterprises, development of ski resorts, anything? no, nobody lifted a finger. nobody lifted a finger for a single reason -- the u.s. will not allow it. nobody says that, but that is the fact. now it is formally authorized instead of just happening. take netanyahu's proposal to annex parts of the west bank. that has been going on for 50 , literally. right after the 1967 war, both political parties, both major groupings in israel, former ,abor based parties conglomerate, they have slightly different policies but essentially, they have been carrying out a development

program in the west bank which is geared towards the very clear goal of creating what would be a kind of greater israel in which israel will take over whatever is of value in the west bank, populationalestinian concentrations, leave them isolated. and the rest of the region, maybe 150 or so little more orian enclaves, less surrounded by checkpoints, often separated from their fields, able to survive but barely. meanwhile, the jewish settlements are developed, cities have been constructed, major city constructed mostly under clinton incidentally, under the clinton years east of

essentially the road by six it from the west bank from the ones of north. jerusalem itself is maybe five times the size of whatever it was historically. all of these are linked by highly developed infrastructure projects. you can take a trip -- this is basically creating a pleasant tel aviv and jerusalem and the west bank. you can travel them on a big isghway, restricted to israel and tourists, not palestinians, more easily than you can get from the south shore to boston. never saying an arab. all of this has been steadily developed year after year with tacit u.s. support. u.s. provides the diplomatic

support, a lot of the economic support him of the military aid. sayshile, the government we don't like it, stop doing it, but providing the means for it. well, the only difference in netanyahu's statement with trump's tacit backing is, i'm going to go ahead and annex all of this instead of just developing it, subject to eventual annexation. these are the real things that have been happening. the netanyahu victory, as i mentioned b befor, solidifies an alliance that is being -- that has been developed. ofts of it have been kind undercover for years, not formal, , but functioning. now comiming into o the open o e states,ctionary arab

primimarily saudi a arabia, onef the mostst reactionary statetesn sisiorld,, egygypt under the dictatorship, the worst dictatorship in egypt's history, the united arab emirates, some israel right in the center of it. it is part of the international right wing alliance system, the reactionary, ultranationalist system that is u.s.g shape with the leadership, a kind of a new global system that is developing . south americica is under paulson --, another part of it bolsonaro, another part of it. amy: yet in the united states, there is this growing awareness. for example, the democratic against saudie yemen, uae's war in

fueled by the united states. does that give you hope? >> that is a very interesting development. that is actually bernie sanders. [applause] and it is a very important development, but let's notice what happened. the united arab emirate war in yemen has been a hideous atrocity. nobody knows, maybe 60,000, 70,000 people killed -- half the population barely surviving. thehe u.n. describes it as worst t humanitarianan crisis ie world. it i is a real monstrosity. it is been going on year after year using saudi arabia, uae using u.s. weapons, secondarily, british weapons. -- u.s. intelligence support

sorking closely with the sudi to target bombing and so on and so forth. all of this has been happening with no protest. then came the khashoggi killing, brutal killing of a journalist for "the washington post." that caused outrage. it should have, but that is not the reason why the yemen war should have suddenly had the spotlight shined on it, but it was. then bernie sanders came along with a couple of others and initiated the legislation which puts some cramps in the direct u.s. support for the war -- which is significant, but we should put it in the contetext f what in fact happen. i think we can be pretty confident that the trump

-pompeo-bolton will find a way around it to keep the war going, unless the public seriously protesests. there is something else worth paying attention to. the support for israeli expansionism, repression, the whole alliance that is developing -- that support has shifted in the united states sectors --re liberal roughly, the democratic party -- to the far right. not very lonong ago, the support cash --el w was raised based passionately in the liberal sectors of the population. it was a democratic issue. it isn't anymore. in fact, if you look at the polls him of people who identify , by nowes as democrats

to the support palestinian rights more than israel. that is her dramatic change. [applause] in the for israel now is most reactionary parts of the population. evangelical christians, different nationalists, basically, it is a far right issue. among younger people, this is even more the case. i can see it myself, just my own personal experience. up until about maybe 10 or 15 years ago, if i was giving a talk at the university, israel-palestine, even my own university m.i.t., i had have police protection -- literally police would try to prevent the meeting from being broken up. they would not let me walk to my car. i had to be accompanied by

police. meetings were broken up. nobody was objecting to this and it was happening all the time. but that has changed totally. it is a very significant change. i think that sooner or later, i hope sooner, this may lead to a shift in u.s. policy. there are some very simple moves that could be made in u.s. policy that would change the situation in the middle east dramatically. for example, one simple proposal is that the united states government should live up to u.s. law. that doesn't sound too germanic. the united states has laws like ,he so-called patrick laidlaw which requires that no military any militaryven to organization that is involved in

systematic human rights abuses. well, the israeli army has been involved in massive human rights abuses. if the u.s. were to live up to u.s. law, we would cut off aid idf, the israeli army. that step alone would have a major affect, not just the material aid, but symbolic meaning. and it is quite possible with the shift of public opinion, especially among younger people, there might come a point when there will be a call for the united states to follow its own laws. ok? [applause] again, not a very dramatic appeal. it would not even be breaking nenew ground. amy: noam chomsky. we spoke at the old south church thursday night. she was visiting his longtime home of boston. he was a professor at m.i.t. for over 50 years. at the end of the event, we

celebrated his 90th birthday. victim which happy birthday anna , ozbek and joe parker! democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy