tv SPOTLIGHT PRESSTV October 11, 2023 10:02pm-10:31pm IRST
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it's day five of operation alocsa flood and the resilly regime forces have shown themselves for what they are, murderers from palestinians, women and children to un members, the death doll topping 1,55, latest count being 1100. in order to assist the israeli killing machine, the us weaponry and military arsenal has reached israel along with the... deployment of one, possibly two us aircraft carrier groups, doesn't this mean the us wants to add more firepower to the israeli killing of palestinians, which has been described as massacre. this is while gazan resistance groups continue firing onto the occupied palestinian territories, while two of the fronts appear to have opened up against israel, one from lebanon, the other from syria. let's find out what guest things, let me introduce some first. sarah bills is geopolitical analyst and independent journalist joining us from seattle. also
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joining us is heather lamastro who's an educator and founder of penn palestine who joins us from berky california. welcome to you both sarah bills i'll start with you and i like to get your reaction to what the israeli energy minister has said um confirming the fact that water is being blocked electricity and fuel from uh also uh is being blocked from entering gaza and he called palestinian's animals uh, what purpose does the killing of palestinians at this point serve uh israel when it comes to what is doing in the gaza strip? well, um, there's so, there's a mediad of reasons for this, first of all, that is genocidal language, united u and human rights watch has declared that to be award crime and a crime against humanity, so um, we're also in the process of of manufacturing consent, we have to remember that the... league is coming together much
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more strongly and bricks is being utilized as a unification device uh while the war in ukraine is not doing the job to bring russia down, they need a war in the middle east in order to thort the re- reunification of the arab world um, so that's really what's we're seeing, this is just a manufacturing of consent amongst the american people to give an excuse to put boots on the ground and carry or strike groups in the water off the coast. yeah, the deployment of the usa carrier group which at this point one uh, there's a possibility of another heathersto that might be deployed, um, there's there's a point where uh, the... role that the us plays um is not even being touched on. we do know, for example they provide israel with the military aid. we do know that some of these bombs, if not all of them are the ones that us has given to israel that's killing palestinian civilians. um, but the more fact the us has supported israel in the in
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international forms or venues such as the un, and then in the military aspect of it, with no if ans or butts. it's basically given the... light for israel to continue, so who's it fault here? is it just israel or that the us is is the accomplice here for the crimes that are being committed in a sense? i will say that you know israel would not have been able to get away with all of these atrocities against civilians for as long as they have without the backing and the support of the united states government, that's just fact, they would have been called out a world. stage uh more forcefully by the un and by other leaders, but you know, when you have nation like the united states that does what it does all over the world, one of the largest military superpowers in the world, you have them as your friend, as your ally, and there to unequivocally back you up, it allows lot of cover for your crime, so
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without doubt the united states is also a part and parcel of with this, they're responsible for this as well, uh, john kirby came out and said, we don't want to see this conflict widened or expanded, sarah bills, um, well, if you read between the lines, obviously it shows that this is something, and also the fact that it it has said the us doesn't want to get involved in terms of sending manpower, but it shows the us wants hands off on this, um, but it also shows how israel perhaps cannot handle this opening up a on different fronts here, um, what type of situation is israel finding itself to be in, put put that? perspective for us, because you have the war, you have the palestinian cause overall, but then you have what's happening from within, and now the reports of how you have the settlers and the palestinians, fighting each other, even hospitals, there was a report that indicated that israeli israelis went to the hospitals and kicked out
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the palestinians were there, who were injured, so this is this is the level of uh of how the crisis is now spread to that degree, what, what position is israel in right now, well israel has completely lost its footing, we were just actually just discussing this, i'm not really sure where the propaga i actually have served in the united states military. i'm not sure where the propaganda comes from, that the idf and mosad are two elite forces that have omnipresents around the world, we have seen failure after failure of the israeli army, and not only are they are, is this confusion putting more palestinians in danger, it is putting more israels in danger, the idf has been shooting each other uh left and right. their tanks are winding up in ditches, um, immediately following um one attack, intelligence attack, bibby asked for united states assistance, they can call up as many reservists as they want, this that doesn't mean that we have a battle tested army, um,
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we think that israel is so strong because of the sixth day war, we're forgetting that the sixth day war was ran by soviet generals and uh soviet war doctrine, so they are a completely different army, they are in complete dis um, the united states army is really no better, uh, i really don't think that the idf is in any way prepared even take on the resistance factions within gaza and syria and lebanon alone, let alone if other parts of the arab world get involved, i think israel has completely been embarrassed and has totally lost its footing, um, it's it's chaos, it's a mess, there was a particular um uh source indicating. uh about the skirmishes uh that turned out to be actually false alam, it was the sirens that went off um in southern lebanon, it turned out to be a false alarm, but it cited the channel 12 israel uh being the source, heather lamastro, and i and i went into the channel 12 israel, and i and i when i clicked on, one of the first things
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that uh came on was this huge banner on the top, asking for uh for funds for there to be contribution uh for people to uh to help out with this really reserve. just being one uh, i guess whatever funds they can contribute to that. when our guest talks about how the israely military is in that type of a condition. and 3000 i think was was the number of reservists that were that were supposedly reported to to have shown up uh then how can israel even think that it can uh move forward from here on i mean the islamic republic has said that uh israel is with this operation flood uh has been damaged to the point that it's irreparable what condition do you find israel and uh taking into account what august from seattle said yeah i mean i i think i'm i'm just really stuck on the word war because because language is important and when we use that word to describe a situation like this, it gives, it provides a
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connotation of the being a symmetry of power on the ground, and we know from years and years and years of evidence, going back 75 years that there is no equal sense of power on the ground, you have nuclear power that has of another nuclear nation in the united states who are running an operation against people without an army or an air force, so i really don't. don't encourage us ever use that word to describe the situationans and and um and the israelis um so i mean i i haven't i don't really have a good you know analysis on the situation regarding what's happening with the fighting on the ground my perspective comes from what i'm seeing coming out of gaza and the the humanitarian needs of the people and um you know when you have a region that is so incredibly tiny um 141 square miles, 345 square kilometers, very
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small region that people cannot get in and out of and right now they cannot get out, and you have 2.2 million people there, and 1.1 million of those people are youth and teens under the age of 18, this is major humanitarian crisis for the palestinians, this is not an equal footing, this is not you know both sides fighting a war against each other, this is mostly unarmed people, people who are... who are having things like it's been reported, i don't know if it's been substantiated, but we're hearing of white phosphorus being deployed upon them, this is an internationally bands weapon, um, it has been used on them before, this is not a fair fight, and this is we we need to call for for massive amounts of diplomacy, but we need a call for for for humanity, and it's i'm i'm taking this opportunity to call and to use my voice as one little person and with one little voice, i'm calling on world leaders, and heads of state to step up and say, we cannot do this, and i'm i'm asking them to
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strive to recover the innocence of eye that they had in childhood, and remember that there are children at the end of this conflict. okay, uh, sir, i guess their heather master was talking about the uh humanitarian aspect of what the gaza strip is experiencing, and towards the end there, which is something very important that i'd like to hear from you, is uh, for her, stating that there needs to be call for this to stop, basically, that there needs to be some kind of intervention. what intervention uh can come about when it hasn't happened in the past years throughout uh and also decades when we have seen this type of uh thing uh which some have uh compared that to slow ethnic cleansing when you have just palestinians dying almost every day or being killed by by by the regime forces and throughout the years and decades what what would make this situation different when they didn't interfere in the past in the way that they should have? it's not different at all um we see netanyahu's telling gazans to flee. where do they go to the ocean? um, this is peter propagandal may tried to make uh benjamin netan yahoo look altruistic, the
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guzons were told to go towards egypt, egypt said we're going to bring in aid convoys and what did israel do? they reacted by bombing these corridors. what are where are the gazans supposed to go? something has to give, like heather said, it's the humanitarian aspect. idf has done incredible job, the hasbada is so strong in the united states that people here are convinced that everybody that lives in gaza is a... legitimate combatant. i don't know how we've gotten to this point and i don't know how we back away from it, but there is an enormous and humanitarian crisis right on the brink. they have turned off the electricity. um, palestine has said that they are running out of fuel. they cannot, that means they cannot give each other water, they can't put out the fires. this is a manufactured crisis. this can be avoided if these corridors can be opened and israel stops patrolling them with fighter jets. um, you know, this is what. israel and the united states will do, they'll create humanitarian crisis to give an excuse to intervene and they'll intervene however
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they want, so that's all that you're seeing right now, nobody can get in there, nothing can get out, uh, syria can't help, egypt cannot help, russia cannot help, nobody can help unless unless israel allows it, and they are not allowing it, they are creating the man, they are creating the humanitarian crisis that can absolutely be avoided, um, it's interesting how this um gaza strip uh for the past 16 years going on 17 hedha has been under this siege, we know that in the first few years maybe uh was highlighted adequately somewhat, but then it was forgotten. and and you know it's like a pressure cooker right, mean if you want to really compare it, so at some point it did explode and we did see unfortunately the wars break out, we have seen obviously outbreaks that have happened, but overall what we saw uh in terms of what accumulated and then broke out in the past five days that initiated this is uh it blowing up to the point that uh the uh resistance fighters had
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to do what they did, now uh we're not trying to promote anything here out of uh what happened there but rather what led to that and the ones in the ghaza strip right now uh are being killed to what degree do you think uh this narrative in the media is uh painting the picture just diffiably in order for the viewers to get an idea that this is not just the one-side of story where israel is the victim in the west there is there is only one narrative and in the west especially in a country where i live the united states the narrative is it is one country defending itself from another country of terrorists, and as we know, it's all one region, um, it is not a separate country, it is, it's not an autonomous nation or people with even really um vast sovereignty uh, they don't really have, they don't have sovereignty, they might have a little bit of agency over how they run their society, but um, so in the west, it's it's just lot of fear mogering, lot of
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propaganda, there i have no hope for the west um describing this accurate. and for portraying and showing a clear and accurate picture, i just don't, it's it's not going to happen here. well, bills, it was 1948 when israel was created, and we know how that creation, what it had to entail, in terms of the palestinians being driven out of their villages, many were killed, homes were destroyed, um, and uh, you you had lot of bad things happening at that point, now hamas was created back in 1982, of which right now, lot of fault is being leveled against this. group, but before that there was no hamas, so then where did uh, why isn't that those that approach being even uh put into the picture, because this needs to be highlighted, and of course the media is one part of that story, but also education on this needs to be put out there, why has that not happened? we have
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to work around the clock to come to push back on this narrative, as heather said, there's very little hope in trying to control this. um, we know what, why hamas was created, it was created out of necessity for israel to have a legitimate enemy, um, we know that they were elected again in 2006 and israel has not allowed them to have uh elections since then so they can keep hamas and power in order to have this formidable enemy, we know that other arab nations have normalized their relations with hamas as well as russia, so in the hamas was created out of necessity, but it's also been legitimized out of necessity, need hamas at this point, um, but it's been demonized since it's inception, even though it's been legitimized now, it's hard to push back, very hard to push back on that narrative, that's hamas is palestinians and palestinians are hamas and hamas is also a terrorist group, which is it couldn't be further from the truth, but the heather said hit the nail on the head, there is there's no
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hope here, there's no hope for fixing this narrative, these people want world war 3 on the behalf of israel, and this victim narrative of israel being con the constant attack from syria, lebanon and palestine is exactly what what i called it, it's a myth. um, israel is consistently the aggressor in that region, and in the west we're led to believe it's the opposite, and that's why hamas has continued to exist because it creates the scape goat. uh, do you think that, go ahead, i can just because because you know, israel has been bombing the gaza strip since the early 1950s, long before. for hamas ever existed, but there is all this focus on hamas and i say, well, what about all those years prior, and if it were not hamas, it would be somebody else, so you know we can call it whatever and put the blame on whoever, but you know the bombings have been happening for decades and and and we need to to recognize that and and make point of that, that this isn't a recent issue, this isn't a hamas issue. well, that recognition is
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exactly what the point i was trying to make in in our questions, but moving to another issue here um sarah if i ask you and that is the fact that uh when you take a look at the us and how uh on many different occasions it was involved in the mediation between israel and the palestinians it did not uh capitalize on that it tried to uh pretty much make it a one-sided story in terms of the gains for the israeli side and uh this puts again the role the us in this whole process um as to why it did not do what was necessary uh when it had this opportunity to uh bring some kind of, i guess resolve to this, do you think that the us failed in that respect? i think they failed on purpose, i mean in the 90s joe biden made famous speech on... on the congress floor saying you know we is united states needs israel more than israel needs the united states. if there was not an israel in the middle east, we would have to invent
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one, and that is a quote from joe biden, they know that they need israel and they need and they need israel more than israel needs the united states. so keeping israel placated is more important than negotiating for peace. um, we know that those peace accords were never going to work out, and they weren't weren't meant to work out, so.... i'm i'm just, i don't think that the united states wants peace in that region, it's there's there's um, there's a benefit in chaos for the united states, they're able to steal resources, keep these governments in flux and um never allow them to progress forward, and that's by design, that's by design. listening to the conversation that we're having right now, it sounds pretty um, i guess hopeless that there's going to be any type of uh peace or resolve, but uh we're looking at. what the reality is currently as we speak, and uh, heather, correct me if i'm wrong, uh, the the people who lived in southern a part of israel, i don't think people are going to
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live there because of what has happened, when you take a look at the uh way that the palestinians are being massacred right now, uh, who knows what's going to happen, of course, we're speculating, but uh, if netanyahu follows through making that deserted island, uh, then that place, there's not going to be many people that are going to live there, and and take a look at the landscape within israel, you can see what's happening with netanyahu and his extreme far right cabinet, which i'm not too sure if there is going to be one left after this, but they're having problems of their own in that respect too. 30%, 25 to 30% of israelis were fleeing israel before this broke out with those protests of the judicial reforms, now that figure is most definitely gone up, we hear about different nationalities moving out of israel, what's going to happen to israel then, what what what shape is this going to take in the aftermath? to tell you the truth, i don't really care what happens to israel, my main focus is on what happens to the people who live under constant threat, and
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that is the people who are not granted equal protection under the law in the holy land, under either the occupation of israel or as uh palestinian citizens of the israely state, that is what i am am very focused on and i am focused on how we best serve their humanitarian. needs at this point um it's for it it's for really them to figure out you know what's going to happen with with their country um i'm not my focus is not really on what's going to happen with them in the future in the depth of hopelessness uh sarah bills uh the partide regime of south africa fell apart and there's other examples also what do you think would lead to that happening in this case if you see that at all a minute please we know the internal turmoil of israel between the people and the government, i just don't think that this is sustainable, just like you said, that cabinet is on the brink of disaster, it's falling apart, um, like heather said, we don't need
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to be concerned with what happens with israel because they have so many people protecting them, we need to be concerned with what's happening on the ground to people, we may lose palestine, we may lose syria, if we lose these nations, then we lose the middle east, and that is not something that the world can afford to do right now, at the behest of israel, a manufactured state, i just, i, i just... i agree with heather whole-heartedly, i i don't really care, i don't, i don't, what, i don't know what happens next, but why does it matter, you know, i just, i don't know, this cannot go on, apartide regimes are not sustainable, they can't go on. okay, thank you very much for that, sarah bills, geopolitical analyst and independent journalist who's served in the us army at some point, from what i gathered, from seattle, thank you, sarah bills, heather lamastro, educator and founder of penn palestine from berkley, thank you to you both, with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight. from the team, this goodbye.
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the headlines this hour, five days of indiscriminate israeli attacks on gaza claimed the lives of more than 1,00 palestinians including 260 children. russia's president vladimir putin accuses washington. setting westasia on fire by planning to dispatch an aircraft carrier to the region. also the headlines, more and more rallies are held worldwide in support of palestinians and in condemnation of israeli massacre of people in gaza.
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