when it comes to the operation the flood, many things were shattered: one was israel's so-called invincibility on the military front, the other which iran's leader has pointed out to is the us plan for the region which fell apart due to the operation, well in this edition of the... spot we will look at the different schemes that the us had had like backing israel when it came to the palestinian issue, or the plans it had to take over syria or helping israel defeat of lebanon, all of which have failed. first let me introduce our guests for this edition of the program. rick sterling, investigative journalist joins us from wall no creek california. and. historian and journalist

joins us from heselt over in belgium. welcome to you both. rick sterling, let me first start with you. um, we're looking at the statements that iran's leader has made, and of uh, in the overall scheme of things pointing to the american agenda in the region, of which uh, he has said that the operational flood actually disrupted us policies. uh, first of all, do you agree or not, and second of all, which us policies do you think that at least ranks in the... when it comes to the statements made there by iran's leader, well so far we haven't seen many policy changes from the biden administration unfortunately, but what what i think is very true is that the the public perception of israel and and the middle east generally is is undergoing big changes, previously there was across the board support for israel, and that has fallen dramatically, one description is: is that is

cratered uh the just a couple of weeks ago uh two-thirds of the american public was calling for um a ceasefire uh and yet in congress only 11% of congressional representatives are supporting a ceasefire and in the senate only three out of 100 or are supporting uh a ceasefire and the biden administration of course is largely got along it's uh made some suggestions to netanyahu, but it's been uh largely uh devoid of calling for any um any substantial change, so i think can i just jump in quickly here and ask you a quick question, when biden doesn't agree to a ceasefire, he does that mean he wants the war to continue? uh, effectively, yes, uh, and it's what we're seeing is is uh, is the the... continuing influence of the is israel

lobby, but that that is is undergoing a big change now, we we would know in 1967 during the sixth day war, one of the effects of that was to build up this mythology of israely security and military dominance, and that wanted lot of support, especially among the jewish population in the united states, what we're what we've seen since october 7 is that that mythology has has exploded uh and uh we're seeing lot of uh jewish americans who are now ashamed of israel and and especially among the youth there are a lot of there's a lot of activism it's been a sea change in the public perception all right this public perception uh breters is something that perhaps uh many as auguster said uh you know maybe many were not aware of or were not educated enough uh or did not have the knowledge. when it came to the the conflict

between israel and palestine, which brings me to another statement made by iran's leader that what has happened in the last uh 50 days or so is what israel has done in the last 75 years. uh where uh it has violated palestinian rights settlements uh he said for example as one example he said uh which uh they have killed anyone standing up uh to them including women and children do you think that was part of the driving force then based on the explanation given there by the iran's leader where many have come out supporting palestine? well i think indeed we see much wider support base nowadays in the west i mean in particular much wider support base for pales'. and has been the case in the past decades, um, i mean as as as an activist for the palestinian cause, myself, it is always been very frustrating to see the immense power and influence that designist lobby and just designist influence or designist politicians have on decision making

in europe and in north america, now the influence on decision making has not really changed much at all because this happens behind the scenes and at the top ashlon of society, but we see... that in these societies the west, the the pressure from the bottom layers of society, the pressure from the streets, from the people themselves, has exploded far beyond what has been thought possible, i think up until just few months ago, because of the sheer cruelty and brutality of design entity, and of course the fact that media has now a far wider potential to break through the... media monopoly than it had before now if you want to see what is going on in gaza you just have to go on certain on social media you just have to go online and you can find you the the the confirmed and vetted reports and and images even of the the massackers being committed by

designers entity the mainstream media might not show it but people know where to find it and people are enraged by it and so that's why you see this increase not just increase support for seasfire and increased support for you know the stop the bombing in gaza, but increased support for the palestinian cause in general, because people start to research, people start to investigate, that is exactly the reason why so many western governments have gotten so worried about the banning the slogan from the river to the sea, palestine will be free, because this was the slogan that was chanted by thousand, hundreds of thousands of people across across europe. not just across the world where you expected, but also by the people in countries like germany and france and united kingdom and the united states where you anti-zionist activism was was very difficult to organize up until recently, so hamas has and and not just the

resistance in general as one a significant victory in terms of the in terms of the popular support and the popular framing and the popular understanding of the... liberation struggle, well uh, i'm very curious, i'm stuck on uh rick sterling, the fact that he said many jewish americans, i think you said are shamed of uh of being jewish, is that is, i think that's what you what you said, i'm wondering uh, to what degree is that evidence and how you have either reached that conclusion or read it, or maybe you're seeing it, or maybe you you heard it from other people, how that has come about for you to uh make that claim right now? yeah, one clarification, no, i didn't say that... they're ashamed of being jewish, they're uh, they're proud of being jewish, but they're ashamed of israel, and ashamed of zionism, they're coming out and and really underscoring the difference between judaism and zionism, which of course is a fundamental

difference, the conflict is not over religion or ethnicity, it's over land and and justice, so i think that's an important. important change and i do believe that there's growing numbers of of uh people across the board, of course the arab uh community in the united states is very very significant at large and they have been incredibly mobilized as well as the as well as the young jewish population, we had we had action here in oakland california, that was primarily organized by young jewish uh activists uh 700 people uh blockaded the oakland federal building with 600 of them being arrested uh this was unprecedented so um there's a big see there was a sea change happening in that regard. okay well if there's a sea change

happening in that regard breters what about the fact that you have uh um the us enabling israel by providing the weapons to commit the war crimes that uh uh basically we witnessed the genocide unfolding on our screens, which then brought out people uh such as uh for example uh jewish americans to then be ashamed of israel. shouldn't then uh the us also be looked in that vein? well yeah, definitely, and think a lot of people within the the the rising palestine solidarity movement and and the campaigns tried to it are understanding that as well. of course, we have to bear in mind that at the end of the day, the design entity is a relatively small country when it comes to or entity when it comes to territory, even when it comes to population. they even they even at this point they only house about half of the entire

population of jewish people in the world, talking about seven million israeli jews, which is a little bit irony considering the fact that they consider themselves to be the quote and homeland for all jews to go there, but we have to understand and think a lot of people understand that nowadays that this is all part of a greater for the lack of of better terminology, because they are connected, it is all connected to the military industrial complex of the united states, it is connected to very specific sort of difficult situation that is happening among some evangelical christians as they call themselves, which is dubious within the united states, it is connected to the oil industry, it's connected to the power to the military common structure of the united states. itself and it's connected to the wider geopolitical interests of the west, i mean we have to always bear in mind that the

early zionists including theodor, the founder the ideology himself, they were always very keen on pointing out the fact that the zionist venture was a colonialist venture that was aimed amongst other things to bring a quote and quote civilized western society into the again code and quote barbaric east, this is parts and parcel the of zionism from the very beginning, without western support, without the support of the united states in particular, but also of of nato in general, the uk, of the european union, without all this support, the entity of israel would collapse practically overnight, probably they will probably fight what they have and what they have captured, but without western support this will falter and that is why you lot of this palestine solidarity movements are aimed not just at protesting against

israel but against taking practical steps to support to to to end all support for israel and this can take very concrete measures such as trying to stop arms shipments which has happened i believe in in italy and in spain not uh quite recently but even things that are let's say a bit more wider away further away from the military part such as here in belgium where the most important university, there is a significant movement now that is asking for the complete cessation of all collaboration between belgian universities and the academic world of israel, to to further isolate it in the way that has been done back in the 1980s with party regime in south africa, sure, well um, we need to also talk about the um plans that the us had when it comes to west asia, some call it the middle east, but before we get to that, i have to ask you this rick sterling because uh this has made some news um the us actress and

activist cynthian nixon uh going a hunger strike along with what apparently are um some other activists and also state legislators in front of the white house uh she is very well aware of what is happening to the gosons now this is not to highlight her but to highlight what she's saying but uh in addition to that when you have uh many she's one of many actor and actresses that have come out, does the us president and the white house realize, do they realize the type of support worldwide that palestine has gained and how tainted the image of israel has become, and i use this as one example, do you think that this has rattled their cages or not? i i don't think they fully realize it, but they definitely partially realize it, because the the protests have been taking place all over uh north america um you had the uh canadian

prime minister trudo who was uh basically disrupted from a uh restaurant dinner he was having in vancouver by um by activists uh you've got in the when when president biden was in the san francisco bay area a week ago a protester shut down the bay bridge which is the major transit point for hundred for probably half million drivers every day, they shut it down for four hours, you had a traffic jam that lasted, you know that went for went for 10 or 20 miles. uh so they are definitely aware of it uh and i think the the individual uh efforts uh that uh people that you know celebrities are are doing is is is part of it, but it's the mass action primarily around the world and including in the united states and including in in new york and and elsewhere. this um notion of the

middle east of west asia as we call it uh great yankers that the iran's leader has said that the operational flood actually in a sense ruined the plans that uh the us has had for the wider region, well we can see what it has had done when it comes to supporting israel the palestinian claw uh cause, but we're looking at other aspects here, in one of his statements it mentions syria uh, it mentioned uh yemen, it mentioned uh um the plans that it had in that regard and also lebanon i should. say not yemen um regarding hezbollah standing up to the force as one of the leading resistance groups um do you think that the us uh has an interest after defeat being defeated in these areas to continue uh with what it's doing and the participation it has in west asia. i think there is definitely

a continuation of this imperialist interest. in the west asian region, and unfortunately the the the leadership, the leading echelons of american society, they live in ivory tower, in a way in which they they they listen to the their own geopolitical analysts, they listen to their economists, they listen to the warhawks, they they think about how they can further increase the reach of us empire, rather than look at the at the facts on the ground necessarily, and rather than than than being able to really grasp. always really grasp the reality as it exists, however we have seen that the united states, when really push comes to show and when they are forced to reckon with the facts as they present themselves, that they will be forced to sometimes make humiliating retreats, such as happened in afghanistan, this has been the longest war in us history, took them 20 years

countries of trillions of dollars, costted of course hundreds of thousands of lives, unfortunately mostly on the... on side, but in the end the americans withdrew, ingnominously so, like it was started to to look like the retreat from vietnam back in the day, it was it was chaotic and it was absolutely humillating for them, but they had to do it and they they knew when they had they had to come to realization that retreat was the only option, i think that's why you see a there is a clash coming or already happening brewing between the the different factions with within the elites, biden, joe biden represents the old school, let's say of american imperial policy, that's why he wants to basically bring america back to the way in which it was, let's say, as a leader within a unipolar world order, that's what his goal was, but joe biden is, i think one of the

last representatives of a dying breed of us politicians and more real. politicians uh realize that there something has to change, they are trying to pivot us policies in a different direction. donald trump for all his flaws was one of politicians was trying to biv it away from the constant imperialist madling and constant invasions everywhere, so it's going to be very interesting to see of course how the 2024 elections will go and which faction within the us elit is going power, but i think for west asia in particular, it is probably going to be beneficial if even if only because the united states has more to fear nowadays from countries such as china and russia and will probably try to dedicate more attention in the pacific region as a result. well, one of the things that that has uh stood in the minds of uh at least palestinian leadership and also the minds of many is when the prime minister netanyahu um rick sterling uh picked and he loves his props of the un, we must

say, when he picked up that uh piece of cardboard, another piece of cardboard where the... the country of palestine was not on it, we had the palestinian foreign minister in the un security council meeting today talk about that, we had uh the uh the pa ambassador to the un also make reference to that, so that is something that is standing out, this is part of the project of the new middle east, i think in the context of maybe israel with the backing of the us, uh, do you think that uh this uh is something that uh israel and the us actively pursue together. um, or is it an israeli plan where the us backs israel on that? given the fact that netanyahu presented it in the informa and manner that he did, are we talking about two different scenarios here? which both spell out new middle east in their words. i think they're failing on both counts. um, the u.s. and israel are pretty much joined at the hip,

and um, and but i think israel is seeing the more farsited people are are going to be seeing that the us is in decline, the empire is in decline, and um, you know, there may be big changes in israel, hopefully they'll come to realize that there has to be dramatic. change, i mean in the united states there's an influential columnist at the new york times named thomas friedman and um and he's uh he's been saying that he's been cautioning ever since um after october 7 that israel has to accept a two-state solution they have to stop the uh the uh the settlements on in the west bank and so forth um obviously that's not happening under netanyahu administration. and as we know israel is is extremely divided um and netanyahu is is if he loses is uh position right now he may go to go to prison

uh so he that israel is in is in uh is in a state of crisis and the us is in a state of decline we can see all over the world i mean they failed in the effort to uh topple the the government in damascus um uh they have the agreement between the reconciliation to the extent that that exists between saudi arabia and iran is extremely important, china being the broker of that, so i think people throughout west asia are seeing that the us is in decline, their power and influence, is is on the win and and they're going to be acting accordingly, and this lx flood is going to be seen, i think in history as as an important. milestone as a tipping point in in that process. so uh, i'm going to save the the last question for you brenders, isn't it ironic that when we have seen what has

unfolded in the gaza carnage in this genocidal war that israel has conducted, that has been backed by the us, militarily, especially, maybe even in terms of the the war, scenarios that iran has been in the forefront of the palestinian cause since uh the days of imam. "ho made it a priority to realize the palestinian situation that that is now considered iran that is for the us to be somewhat of an enemy where iran has been sounding the alarm all this time, yeah this is an ironic development and it it goes to show that um there is a significant fear of the. influence that the iranian islamic revolution of 1979 had on the wider region, because whenever there is talk about palestine or about any informative resistance

in the wider west asia region for that matter, just think of lebanon, syria and yemen as well, for example, the western media, mainstream media always point fingers at iran immediately, as if iran is like, they like to portray iran as a country, us as if iran has a sort of... imperial ambition within the wider west asia region, which of course is not true, but the reason why they they they like doing this is because the 1979 revolution has had reveration the wider area in order to sure the the resilience and resistance in this case for example of the the palestinian people, mean movements like the islam movement and hamas itself only pop up after of course the reverberations of the islamic revolution. okay, all right, sorry to interrupt you, we're just fresh out of time, but thank you so much. brankers, historian and journalist from hasselt belgium, and from walnout creek, california, rick sterling,

thank you, pleasure for your input, investigative journalist, with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight from and the team, it's goodbye.

يعني هذا اقل شيء ممكن نقدم والنعم ويدن والنعم والنعم الله

the flood operation against israeli regime has disrupted policies in the region. mediators are engaged in intensive talks aimed at extending the humanitarian powers in gaza, which is in the sixth day. and israeli forces rayed a refugee camp in jane in the occupied west bank, killing two palestinian children and injuring several others.