it is genocide, but a massive scale, 12,00 tons of bombs equivalent to bomb the us drop in hiroshima, which killed hundreds of thousands, fuel to run generations, the generators, that is for electricity to save human lives and starvation due to no food supplies, the gazan people are being massacred with multiple war crimes committed by the israeli regime and its accomplices, such as the us, welcome to the... this

edition of the spotlight in this edition we will look at why this massacre is being pushed not only by the us but by few other countries as well who are against the seasfire and also the possibility of their involvement in this wart ritter former un weapons inspector who's joining us live in bethlehem new york also we have with charlie kates and international coordinator of samidun palestinian prisoner solidarity network from vancouver. thank you very much to both of you for joining us. let's begin with scott. we are witnessing massacre a large scale that could uh be called based on textbook definitions, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and despite that we are witnessing countries such as the us and few western european countries. supporting israel, why is

that? well, the united states and europe have for a long time uh been the top supporters of israel, i think it's linked to the let's just be very honest here, um, the strong jewish communities in both locations and the i guess the romance they have attached to the israeli state based upon the horror of the holocaust, the notion that there needs to be a jewish home. in the middle east and uh and that this must be secure and on on the surface, none of that's a problem, except you overlay the reality of political zionism, and uh, and you understand that the creation of this jewish homeland came at the cost of the aspirations, the lives, the dignity of hundreds of thousands of palestin back in 1948 millions of palestinians today, but the jewish lobby, the pro israeli lobby. has taken control of

the um the political dynamic in both the united states and in europe to the extent that you can't have meaningful discussion about the reality of the situation today give you an example right now of these palestinians who are suffering uh simply to call this out and talk about it you're accused of being anti-semic this is one of the arguments that's put out there any time so i tries to have meaningful discussion about the reality of um of the middle east the reality of israel as currently exists, and we we continue to support israel blindly, i mean, and i mean literally blindly, because we open our eyes, we'd see the that it's literal genocide, it's not a suggestion of genocide, it's literal genocide that's transfiring today in gaza, and it's been going on for decades, we've just ignored it, we've we pretended it wasn't happening, but we can't ignore now uh, well scott, since you pointed out and you mentioned that date, 1948, well that was a time when colonialism was. the thing, there's no doubt about it,

but the united states, look, the america's romance with israel didn't begin in 1948, we uh, actually the american jewish community was a little bit hesitant uh about embracing israel because of the colonial aspects of zionism, it wasn't until the 1967 war that um, suddenly the notion of a tiny embattled jewish homeland uh, this this narrative took hold and the american jewish community embraced, but america, that's the irony of it, america has been anti-colonial uh, from from the very beginning of the united nations, we were against british colonial uh, powers, we were against the french, we were against uh the the dutch holdings in the uh, in the far east, and yet we allowed this zionist state to be created in the middle east, which is a prototypical colonial, um, methodologies of acquiring land, oppressing people, etc. okay, let's bring in our guest from uh... vancouver, canada, who could add a

bit of zest to that argument, you just forwards thought, well, canada has also a terrible history when it comes to... taking over the land of the aboriginal people who uh the first nations who were so do you believe the reason why these countries are backing israel is pretty much because they are in a way complicit themselves if we go back in history these are the people who have committed the same crimes the only difference is back then there was no social media there was no smartphone and that is why they could get away with it fundamental fundamentally yes i mean i have to uh differ um with scott in the ass and that the united states has been an anti-colonial power while uh certainly uh the us rebelled against british colonialism, locally it was also engaged in a settler colonial process targeting um indigenous land and indigenous lives, and of course it has become the center of imperialist power and control in the world,

particularly in the past 75 years and is the dominant colonial force in the world today, and so it's support for zionist colonialism and occupied palestine, much like canada. is not an anomaly, but part and parcel of it of the same way that the united states and canada engage in relation to asia, africa and latin america across the board and certainly towards iran and towards the arab region, and we've seen this over and over and over again through the years and the zionist project all we saw itself as a colonial project and it was always viewed by its western dters and supporters as mechanism maintaining control and division. against the people of the region and their ability to control their own resources, their own destiny and their own future, and what we saw on october seventh, the tremendous uh military operation, resistance action that was undertaken by the palestinian resistance on october 7th, was

the fact that just as in lebanon, just as elsewhere in the region, the capacities of the resistance have reached the point where it is possible to talk about defeating the... patient, it is possible talk about undoing colonialism in palestine in a meaningful way, not only as an ideal, but as material reality on the ground, and so what we've seen is this absolute, this absolutely panicked um and and genocidal response to that, not only by the zionist regime and occupied palestine itself, but also by every imperialist power in the world, the united states, canada, britain, germany, france, italy, the the... list goes on and on and what these countries all have in common is that they are engaged in a process of extracting the resources and value from the people of the region against the will without the consent of the people of the region and that the colonization of palestine

is it plays an indepensible role in this process and so all of these states view the future of so-called israel, the future of thisler colonial project in occupied palestine. as essentially a referendum on the future of us led imperialism in the world today, and so what the palestinian resistant, the action of the palestinian resistance posed a true threat to this form of violent domination and control that has done so much harm to people around the world, to millions upon millions, hundreds of millions, billions of people around the world, um, and that is something that they are willing to engage in all-out gened. in order to prevent that from happening and so we're reflected obviously most glaringly and mostly um you know in the rubel see in gaza in the 700 marters that have fallen but also in the ongoing repression and attacks and attempts to

silence any kind of movement for justice even as larger rallies and demonstrations come out for palestine we've ever seen any point in history exactly and the organization that you represent smi duon has also been repressed particularly over the past 20 days and we will definitely get to that, but let's hold that thought and go back to scott, if uh you were actually able to convince him about that, and scott, what do you think the world take for people in countries such as the us and western europe and canada to stand up for what's right, to stand on the right side of history and uh side with the oppressed palestinians? i mean, it's going to take a fundamental shift in the narrative, look. in the united states, we have embraced israel as an extension of ourselves, uh, the notion that israel is just like us, democracy, just like us, people who share the same values and such, and so, and of course united states we have this very peculiar religious aspect,

where fundamental christians, are waiting for the rapture, the uh, the end of days, um, believe this can't happen unless there's an arm get in for an arm get it to exist, israel must exist, and so they blindly support israel for these, for any number of reasons, we've been supporting israel, and we've been buying into the israeli narrative that they are good, the... don't have their act together, they're an immature nation, the uh and hamas are terrorist organizations, etc. um, what will it take what's happening right now? i don't mean to be too uh flippant here, but when you say 7000 marters, there's two million marters in gaza today, these are people who are carrying out the kind of non-violent resistance that has to happen to break the spirit of the oppressors, the... sacrifices played out live on tv a daily basis help expose the lies of israel, every

aspect about israel today is lie it is not a democracy, a repressive fascist zionist state, they don't comply with the law of war, they violate the law of war on an ongoing basis. in the past if you dared to mention this, you were shouted down, but you can't be shouted down now with the images playing themselves, not just the horrors in gaza, but the israelis themselves, the mask has fallen, listen to the zionist, defend what? going on, and you understand that these are people, uh, they may, their ancestors may be cyvers of the holocaust, but these are people who embrace the same methodologies that were used by nazi germany against their grandparents, the exact same methodologies are being used today, and people are starting to wake up, the their eyes are being opened, and this is why you see the demonstrations in the street, and i think this is going to mark the end of political zionism, i don't think political zionism survives this crisis, as long as the people of gaza. stay strong and what i mean stay strong, i mean don't surrender, don't give in, suffering is horrendous, but it's

the suffering they're doing today, i believe is the only thing that will wake the world up, exactly, you're absolutely right, and of course since you mentioned a public opinion uh, and of course uh the international community becoming more aware of what exactly is happening on the ground, that is basically due to the day and age that we live in where we have social media, everyone of us has a smartphone with us. and with that uh cell phone, well each one of us is a reporter, which brings me to the next question from charlotte, well charlotte, sam has been uh repressed, you haven't been able to operate the way you used to, first of all tell us uh, give us more details about that and how uh, mainstream media is trying to take away the narrative and not allow independent media outlets uh, particularly social media platforms that can allow uh independent news to spread. are being repressed by world powers? well, absolutely, so what we're seeing across the board for organizations and

movements that are working to advance palestinian liberation, is that hand in hand with this genocidal assault on gaza, what we're seeing all of the western imperialist powers kind of lining up to engage in session internally, to try to stop this you, undeniable sea change in popular support and this undeniable sea change in public energy and opposition and rejection of their government's policies of complicity with and support for after genocide taking place against palestinian people, so in for example, this includes germany where the german state, while using the excuse of you know guilt over the crimes of nazi germany, but we have to push back and challenge that narrative, because the german state is acting like a party that feels guilty or bad about itself, instead was actually doing is support fascist forces in ukraine and elsewhere, while at the same time, blame palestinians and arabs for anti-semitism, so it's actually

a way of of displacing responsibility for naziism from germany, um, so we see the german state is engaged in a tremendous amount of basist repression, it's stap, corporate media in germany is engaged in the...