to help cater to its needs against russia. the war in gaza is on pause while the choose has been extended by another 24 hours. even though prisoner exchanges have taken place, israel has announced that it will resume the war as soon as the pausa ends. what does israel have to gain by resuming the genocidal war, which the only victory it has achieved is the murder of 15,00 palestinians, mostly women and children. in this edition of the spotlight we will look at how the israeli war with gaza has ruined israel's image worldwide, along with that of its stunch in supporter, the us, and how it has also created. divisions between politicians of

different countries who have come out supporting the palestinian cause. first let me introduce our guests: writer and political commentator joins us from bairoots. we also have ali salam, editor and chief at the basira press, joins us from tehran. gentlemen, welcome to you both. elliesk, pleasure to see you. let me first start off with this exchange of president or captives that's taking place, which is a good thing, it's in a seventh day right now, but at some point, not only will this end, at some point these civilians that are being held captive by hamas is also going to end and they're going to be left with israeli soldiers, do you think that that's going to then be a different ball game in terms of the type of exchange that's going to take place? well, i think that we're approaching the more complicated. if you would like of the um of

the true or the swap deals, um, the cia chief william burns is in qatar and trying to pursue this deal, i think you have to remember that, it appears that the more this situation drags on, the more the more the binding administration appears desperate to reach some kind of an end, in fact anthony blincon, the us secretary of state, is now in the region, and it appears from what i fread and what's being circulated, that he will focus on bring this current conflict to a complete and a complete cessation of hostilities, so with that in mind we are approaching as i said probably a more complicated phase, but i'm not sure that it will be complicated to the extent whereby the us will you know be okay or will give israel the same free reign or freedom of maneuver to continue with. operations, you know, this um,

the war has very much hurt the united states, maybe just as much as it's hurt israel in terms of us credibility, even maybe in terms of us interests, so whatever be the difficulties, i think we shouldn't underestimate the real possibility that the united states, the biden administration will put real pressure on the on the israelis to put a complete stop to the military operations, you have to also remember... that there are growing calls in congress, particularly from the democratic party to put conditions on american aid for israel, so i think all of these have to figure in the calculus of the bien administration, which make it quite a real possibility that they're going to use this current truce in order to push to a complete end of the violence. well, it's interesting that you say that, because if you can put that next to the...

politicians from the top down uh ali salam from netanyahu all the way down to the generals and even below that that they are saying we're going to continue this war, they're eager to actually continue this war, especially with what happened in the occupied west bank today today, um, and that's my question to you, where if they are so interested in continuing this war, what form are they going to continue it in when you have almost 2 million palestinians that are in the southern uh part of the gaza strip right now? "i mean, um, it would be, i think suicide for them to want to blanket bomb and continue the carpet bombing that they did in the northern part of the gaza strip in the southern part, uh, but uh, that is a question mark, first of all, if you agree that israel is going to continue with the war, if that is indeed the course that this is going to take, from the views of the various ministers within the israeli government, there are have already been many that have announced that they will." there's a split as to the

methodology to achieve the goals of the zist regime. now ultimately they all seek the longevity of the zionist regime. but they seek different means to achieve it, so netanyahu is just killing all the enemies and driving out the palestinians and hoping that uh the egyptians and the jordanians who are collaborationist regimes to begin with, but are concerned about their public invention nonetheless to pull the masses both in jordan and in egypt, so as we saw egypt kind of rejected the idea of taking in gusons as well as uh jordan may or may not play along with it, but that's that's the idea, but then there's the... the other side that fears the military defeats and humiliation of it and the widening of regional escalation including lebanon and especially the very brave, retaliatory attacks from yemen, which have

yet to be retaliated against by either the us or israel, which shows the fear that they have for expansion of the of the fronts beyond. just gaza, so it may be something in between, because as you mentioned earlier, the military captives are much higher value than the civilian captives and can be much greater bargaining chip for futures of palestinian prisoners illegally held withinus occupation jails, so it's possible that the this temporary pause may cease, but they may try to it out to avoid increasing hostilities from the fronts that they cannot handle, which is in the north with hizbullah and in the south with the various missiles that have been sent from yemen, so um, i don't think that they will increase it to the point where

they invite more greater responses from hezballah, but they will try to still take out their vengeence and their anger on gaza just as they've been doing it in the west bank and geneen especially uh as soon as the humanitarian cause basically started, they took out their the up anger that they can't release on gaza against jeneen, so we'll see where this goes, depends on the device in the israeli political spectrum. okay, well ellisk, there's always been a question mark when it comes to the us uh influence or control should i say, um, you said that the us wants this to end, i'm just looking a couple statements here that's been made by the uh secretary of state blincon, a temporary truce in the war with hamas was producing results should continue. he stressed the imperative of accounting for humanitarian and civilian protection in southern gaza before any military operation and also urged the immediate steps to hold settle extreme accountable for the violence against palestinians in the occupied west

bank. um, some say the us can in a blink of an eye stop this war. the same type of statement made to the war in yemen that the us could stop that war. with a phone call, does the us, we know it wields influence, but does it wield that much influence in this case to stop israel if it were, if israel wanted to continue this war? well, it does wild influence in the sense that it's the main supporter of israel, whether it be diplomatically, you know with the security council resolutions, how all the anti-israeli resolutions are vetoed or the resolutions that criticize israel? and more importantly, the weapons, i mean, america is often described as the lifeline of israel, and america's committed, as you will know to israel's qualitative military edge, providing it with more advanced weaponry, in order to guarantee israel this edge over all other

region players, so if you look at if you look at it from that perspective, if america was to take a decision to halt the weapons exports to israel, yes, america could in the blink of an eye uh put into this war but just mayly by making such decision, and that's why the calls which we're seeing right now from people like senator bernie sanders who expected to push vote a resolution to stop these arms exports our very important steps, even symbolically speaking, but i think israel also knows that the united states the biden administration has not reach the level yet where it's so afraid of the damage done to its reputation that it's going to go... head with these decisions you know to put hold to weapons, shipments etc. despite the fact that biden made an interesting statement just recently saying that it's a worthwhile thought when asked about if america should condition military aid to israel, so these

are very important developments, particularly when you see these statements coming from a president to has bragged more than once about himself being a zionist, but for the time being as things stand i think israel still believes correctly that the united states is not in the near future at least is not going to go to the extent why whereby it's going to put a stop to the arms shipment. and that is what gives america real leverage if america has a will to put a stop to this military aid and we're not there yet, and so for that reason natanyahu believes that he can continue with his with his freedom of maneuvering and continue to carry out these acts and these massicers. all right, just to continue along that line, ali i'd like to uh really um then go to other um topics or angles of this. i mean, this is really bringing out americans like uh the... us has not seen before in terms of the protests that are happening, the pro palestinian solidarity

protest. few weeks back in front of the white house, one of the biggest ones, i think the biggest one that washington dc experienced when it came to a pro-palestine protest, and now we're looking a hunger strike that is taking place in front of the white house with one of uh um us actresses uh cynthia nixon. not that her name matters, but it does, we got to give her obviously applause for doing it, not to highlight her, but the cause that she's uh that she's after there along with some uh state legislators uh that are basically slamming biden for what it's doing, i mean it's really uh hitting close to home when you have this type of a unprecedented hunger strike of all things happening in front of the white house and top of that you have uh apeck and israeli lobby that are putting millions of dollars into congress spending uh money there to basically squeeze out uh any... anti israel and pro-palestinian voices out of there, so that's unprecedented in itself too. do you think that uh this is

having a real impact when it comes to us, the law makers, white house and in turn then biden? it's possible that with enough public pressure, it's for guest there in tehan, i'm sorry, go ahead, both of our sorry, okay? um, so if if the american people put enough pressure on their politicians, then there might be some movement, now they might not move to the ideal that the american people ascribed to, but they they'll move, not out of any kind of humanitarian or moral concern, but as was mentioned by a previous guest, but concern for their interests, concern that this will eventually affect their interests, especially the very um suicidal kind of don't care what anybody think. path of netanyahu and they may prefer to shift to the more

liberal zionist throughout the oslo accords and the pseudo negotiations and these other type of fasads to kind of let off the pressure and let off the scheme and but the end goal would still be the same which should be humiliation and capitalation of the palestinian people and palestinian state but the the beautiful thing about what's going on in in america among the american people that it takes part on both sides of the political spectrum as well as beyond that because we be honest the left and... is false psychotomy within the us and these boxes are um kind of contrived and illegitimate and there's many independent people in the united states as well but you look on the right wing there's christian people who realize that zionism is a scam that uh um that they they the zionist spit on christians and burn churches and things like that on the other side you have people on on the left wing side who maybe oppose imperialism see from that perspective and in various shades in between so it's not like that's traditionally only on the democrat side or maybe even on some uh anti-establishment segments of the republican

side, you'll see, you'll see both of these sides converging together, and then when that happens, there may at some point be a critical mass, however, there's there's so many instances of voter fraud in the us on both sides, both republicans and democrats are guilty of it, um, there's there's the control of the media and the financing of campaigns, i believe it was here on press tv that former us congress. and synthia mackinny spoke about the pledge that she was forced to take and she refused and then she was basically outsided in the next congressional race, right? so there's a huge influence, but if the american people can kind of overcome that then there, there might be some uh, pragmatism on the part of the american administration, but i believe as smoke stream, so that's actually where we have to be most vigilant, actually when they start to move back, there they might have tried to cause the humliation of the palestinian nation. should be more decepted me and that's when we should be the most aware. it was just a couple days ago, maybe three days ago risk,

the us president joe biden made very interesting statements in a press conference. i forget the forum, i apologize for that, but he said that uh, i have a feeling that hamas and the resistance fighters did what they did because of this so-called uh normalization that was supposed to occur between israel and saudi arabia. he said, "i can't prove it, but i think that that's what." they did it, and he said, we're still going to go after it, so my question to you is, do you think that there are plans or anything that points to the direction where israel will come? out from the gaza strip and pursue this war in any other way with the backing of the us in order to make sure that that imc corridor ultimately is going to happen which goes through israel and then saudi arabia and other countries to europe. ally ws, well first of all, i think that biden made this

statement to uh, maybe convey the message that hamas toppled an american foreign policy or junndo. very important american foreign policy aim, and that maybe was used to justify some some of the american support given to the israelis, as i said due to the importance the united states attaches to that normalization between israel and saudi arabia, now as to the question of whether it will lead to you know new support to for a war or how will the americans support israel a future, on the backdrop of that, look again, sincerely believe the united states has reached the conclusion that it can't continue with the current approach is taking in supporting israel in committing acts of genocide uh so the big question then remains, how will america support the goal of eradicating or annihilating hamas, because biden has said that this remains a legitimate

objective, if you recall his statements, so will they resort for example to assassinations, this is something which has been... floated, an idea which has been floated about targeting hamas leaders even beyond the palestinian territories, in qatar, for example, maybe turkey, malaysia is another place that houses hamas officials, so the objective of as they say, annihilating hamas or weakening hamas, i think that's going to stay on board, but i'm not sure that um that means the continuation of the bombing campaign which we saw over the previous five to six weeks, as i said, that's just proving to be too costly for the american side, both in terms of its own image, its credibility, even in terms of biden's chances for re-election, and also in terms of the lives of american troops, the danger post to american troops, we saw how american bases were targeted in syria and elsewhere, so i

think all all this proves that it's just going to be too costly for america to continue with support with the current approach, so there has be a plan b against hamas, now we have to wait and see how that plan b will unfold. well, one of the things that uh came out uh i guess a couple weeks back uh when the idea a ali salam of uh uprooting palestinians forcibly displacing them and then spreading them from the gaza strip into egypt and from the occupied west bank into jordan. obviously both countries rejected that out right uh and uh specifically we noted that the... jordanian prime minister uh announced that uh this is tanta monte war, and there was announcement made that they had actually lined up some of their military on the border with israel uh so uh the whole notion then becomes as to what's going to happen, does israel have those kinds of plans? we know both are on the somewhat a us payroll, they're both getting military aid or financial assistance of $1.3

billion dollars or so um for each country, so uh and we know how egypt is mired in in a debt crisis of its own, and i'm sure this is going to be very tempting, what do you make of that, do you think that that is still a possibility? the resistance made sure that that was not a possibility by humiliating the dinos occupation forces within gaza, both in terms of before the grounds incursion and afterwards and perhaps the zinis occupation army is very fractured, there's been reports that we saw. many officers have been dismissed due to deserting the battlefield out of out of sheer cowardice, so it's not likely that this plan uh could come to firation. it's possible that what they're trying to do is essentially trying to reduce gaza as much as possible in terms of material losses and casualties and and they there's no

indication that they have weaken hamas or the islamic resistance and any. capacity, so the the military capabilities are still there, so as the world is very shocked from all these very horrific images of the zionist sistic genocide that's going on inside of gaza, there are many people that may in order to end naturally as as source of decency within their heart to naturally want to end this, and that's where the the that's where we have to be cautious, because currently, for example in the west bank. have this thing called the palestinian authority and they're basically an extension of the israeli occupation. mahmoud abbas himself admits that the security agreement that he has with designs occupation is sacred. i what kind of palestinian leader is it? he's agent of the occupation that butchers and subjugates the palestinian people and it humiliates them, so they may try to do something similar to that,

because we know like ilam musk has been coming to occupied palestine and saying we need to get rid of hamas and we'll rebuild rebuild gaz, we'll make it beautiful place without hamas, so they want to essentially take over the govern governance there, sure, and perhaps, i mean, i could be wrong, but perhaps establish similar collaboration as palestinian authority type regime over gaza. all right, fine. question to you risk uh, let's turn our attention to the occupied west bank, how do you see things going there? we've obviously noticed the numbers speak for themselves since october 7th, in terms of the numbers of palestinians that have been detained, 3,200, i believe is the name is the number or around that figure, the number killed around 215 or so, and displaced, demolitions etc have increased by many folds, uh, what is going to happen there, are we going to see a copy of what's going to happen in gaza eventually there? because uh, it may be incremental, it may be not as fast pace as what happened in gaza, but it adds up at the end of the day, when you look at the days, months, decades that uh that has been going

on at the occupied west bank, um, yeah, that is a possibility, i mean israel, the current israeli government, i think is very good at making new enemy enemies for itself, um, its behavior is up until now has been... just mainly motivated by sheer rage and vengeance and vengeance is not not a very good policy uh so you know the what what they're doing right now when the west bank uh yeah it does increase the likelihood that you might see a similar scenario and i think more importantly hamas has pursued very smart strategy whereby as hamas officials themselves seniors official osama hamdan stated that many of the palestinians released from captivity were not. hamas members, so this increases the popularity, i think of hamas and increases the enmity towards israel, from all different palestinians from all walks of life. okay,

i'm sorry to have jumped in, unfortunately we're just fresh out of time, but thank you and a pleasure to see you risk writer and political commentator from beirout, and ali salam, thank you, two alis in the house, editor and chief at the basira press, thank you to you both, with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight for me, and the team, it's goodbye.

russia federación.

49 days later it is crystal clear that the palestinian resistance hamas is not going anywhere anytime soon. on the contrary, hamas succeeded in pushing the israeli entity to a humanitarian truce despite statements by zinius prime minister benjamin netanyahu that there will be no ceasefire until hamas is. destroyed, but it seems that what is truly destroyed is netanyahu's reputation. hamas's control over the field situation was unwavering as the detaineds were released on time, which not only indicates that the hamas leadership controls its operatives contrary to what the occupation army was portraying, but also that there is loud and clear communications between them. victory, 49 days later, this week on the mid-east stream.

the headlines from the palestinian resistance movement hamas releases more israeli captives in the seventh phase of a prison exchange deal with the regime. palestinian resistance fighters conduct retalitory operations in the occupied. territories amid ongoing israeli atrocities and the yemani army says it will restart military operations against israel by hitting new targets if the rasian resumes its aggression against the ghaza strip.