borders and sovereignty. hello and welcome to prest tv spotlight, i'm marsia hashimi, thanks so much for being with of us. well, we're now on day 57 of the israeli genocide on gaza. more than 200 people have been killed with 600 being injured. in the last 24 hours, this after the seven-day.

genocide pause. what does it mean to take a pause in a genocide and then to return to right where you left off? well, believe it or not, this is the world we are living in today. and during this pause, the u.s. made sure that the zionist regime has been reloaded with the latest munitions, including the bunker busting bomb, which is meant to penetrate hard surfaces at death. now, just imagine what that can do while hitting a refuge. camp or an apartment building, this is the state of gaza and the world today. i'd like to welcome my guests to the program. in kenstone, executive member, hamilton coalition to stop the war, hamilton, ontario, and rick sterling, investigative journalist out of walnut creek, california. thank you

both for being with me. well, ken, let's start off with you. why do you think that the israeli regime didn't renew the truth? uh, the israeli regime was opp opposed to the truce in the first place. i believe it was forced into having a truce, first of all, because uh, the united states was putting great pressure on it to have a truth, uh, because the... populations around the world were rising up spontaneously in the streets and demonstrating and calling on their governments to uh pressure israel for a ceasefire, and um, i think that the u.s. um, wanted the uh, the you the uh hamas to have a cease fire, but they uh did not use the pressures that they could have to make sure sure that the seas fire was permanent. and

was a uh was a permanent military seasfire leading to uh a long lasting, permanent and just comprehensive deal for israeltine, and as a result, the genocide is continuing today, and israelis are the israeli population has uh is on the side of israel's government, recent polls showed that up to 90% of israelis approved of the attack on gaza, and that's because for years the israeli government has been turning more and more right-wing and the the current coalition that netanyahu leads is composed of people uh who are ultra right-wing, racist, um, many, supported by the setler. in the west bank,

and these are these are zellots, these are people um who uh, want blood, they want to destroy the hamas once and for all, they want ethnically cleanse all of israel, they want to destroy and demolish the alaxa mosk as the last remaining symbol of the palestinian people, and they want to create a third temple, these are like the zillets who of brought the wrath of the roman. empire down on on the heads of judea 2,000 years ago in a of rebellion in 66 ad, and uh that the in that rebellion, the temple, the second temple was destroyed and the jews were dispersed, and this is the kind of catastrophe that they're trying to bring about on the modern state of israel today, well rick, your thoughts, because we saw during this pause that they were hostages that were uh free. on both

sides, i mean, does the regime want its hostages free or not, or have the videos which have been coming out of those who have been freeed with hamas members, been a little bit too damaging to it, i think the netanyahu regime is is under internal pressure from the families of the hostages, so that was one factor, and the other factor is the immense amount of public outrage around the world, which ken was was talking about, that they they needed a letup from this, and so they they managed to make managed to get some hostages were. by hamas and some of the palestinian prisoners were uh were also released. i noticed that over 70% of the palestinian prisoners were 18 or under, and over half of them had never been convicted of a crime. so this just shows the discrepancy,

but in any case i think the uh the ceasefire was kind of necessary, it was necessary to have pause in the... genocide and now they're going right back at it. yeah, it is quite unbelievable. well, can, i mean, why has the united states resupplied the israeli regime with more arms even during this pass? well, the the the united states regards israel as an asset, a military base, if you will, huge military base in the middle east, it's part of its empire. around the world and the us wishes to maintain its hegemony in west asia along with the rest of the world. it hasn't yet realized that we are into a multipolar world now where it is not the only superpower a in a unipolar world and so the us came to

the rescue of israel by sending it all kinds of arms and also to help mallify or to offset the... economic cost of the war, the israelis are suffer, the israeli economy is suffering very badly from this war, it's costing hundreds of millions of dollars a day, 300,0 people are taken out of production, farms are lying idle, the the currency is taking a hit, there's all kinds of economic consequences, negative economic consequences to this war which the us is trying to uh ameliorate by sending billions of dollars and aid to israel, the fact is that the us could end this war tomorrow if it wanted um by one simple phone call telling uh from jenis hyjo to netanyahu saying uh you know we're going

to not use our veto, we are not going to have your back, we are not sending any more arms, we are not sending any more money, negotiate, come to the table and and bring up the just lasting and and comprehensive deal that's been on the books of the un since 1967, but the unfortunately the americans are not prepared to do so, and they have given the green light to israel to go ahead, and so as rick has said, the genocide is continuing. rick, in your perspective, what is the ultimate goal of the israeli regime with this genocide? na too, they would... to drive 2 million, 2.3 million gazans into the sin and out of israel, never to be returned, that is the goal, that is the dream, short of that, since they tried that initially, and and

washington, gave it a uh, gave it some level of agreement, but because of the uh quick response from jordan and egypt, um, they they realized that... was not viable, so they uh, they they dropped that, at this point in time, i think israel just wants to kill as many as possible, they want to make life that much more miserable, um, and even a friend of mine the other day was saying, well, what, why, why doesn't egypt except the except the refugees, so they're still, i think they still dream of doing this, they've taken one the most congested places on earth, 2.3 million people in a tiny... area a lot of people don't realize just how tiny gaza is, 5 miles by 25 miles, two and two and a quarter million people, and now they've compressed them into about half that space, and now most recently they're giving warnings to uh

residents of conjuns that it is now bomb boming zone, and that need they need to flee from there, so uh, it's unmitigated um, a torture to the... people and what what are the goals of tel aviv? the ultimate goal would be to uh drive the people out of the country, and short of that, killing as many as uh as they can get away with. hm, can you hurt what rick said? i mean, killing as many as they can get away with. let's look at that, let's let's break that down a little bit. um, what do you think that that will mean to these western regimes? because you just talked about the united states, basically, it could stop it today if it wants to, but basically israel is doing perhaps what it wants it to do. so, what does it mean now at this point in time if if israel. wants to uh take out all of the 2.3 million

citizens of the gaza strip for these western regimes, do you think that they will put their foot down and at the end of the day force the regime to stop? well, i'm hoping so, and so do millions of people, tens of millions of people around the world, in the in my city here of hamilton, i could go to a prop'. palestinian rally, march, demonstration every single day of the week, and this is being replicated across canada and around the world, so uh, i'm many countries have responded to these pressures from the grass roots by withdrawing their ambassadors, i think seven to nine countries by now have done that, others have made statements against calling for a permanent ceasefire, others are trying to to uh put together diplomatic moves so that this this up this moment of crisis can also be moment

of opportunity to create that just lasting and peaceful comprehensive deal for israel palestine. i don't think at the beginning if you had told me if you had asked me this question i would have said israel can do almost anything it wants, but now with masses of people in the streets putting pressure on their government. and governments actually moving and talking and condemning and withdrawing ambassadors, i don't think, and the fact that hamas is holding its own in this war, and not only holding its own, it's managing to uh kill israeli soldiers, destroy tanks and other equipment, so my guess is that the israelis are not going to win this war, they are not going to be able to wipe out the population of gaza, but still what will happen when it's over and there are two million people who are homeless or whatever is left of the two million people and egypt

says it's not going to take them what is we don't know what the solution will be but we hope it will be the solution based on resolution 242 back in 1967 for a just lasting and peaceful settlement of the whole issue. well rick you heard what ken was saying about uh basically that the regime isn't isn't winning in gaza, i mean as a matter of fact it has been humiliated in gaza, that after all of this time, it it really hasn't had military victories, but simply, yes, it has indulged in mass killing of civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure, what does that mean when you have this fourth strongest military in the world being stuck in this tiny strip um against this force that doesn't have a air force doesn't have. have navy um, how do you assess this? well, i think you put your

finger on it, they they're in a tough place uh, because they um, they initially set the goal as destroying hamas, hamas is social movement, it's not just, if they kill few of the hamas leaders, that's not going to destroy hamas, um, and yet if they stop beforehand, they will consider it failure. and that but continuing the the the genocide, continuing the the massacring of people, that's that's uh, increasingly losing them support from around the world, just yesterday, someone in atlanta, a protester in atlanta, georgia in the united states set himself on fire in front of the israeli consult, he's got third degree burns, he's in critical condition in the hospital, so this is just a... a sign of the uh the intensity the opposition to these atrocities that now

almost for the first time some americans are seeing on tv and seeing on on some mainstream tv, so i think israel uh is in a lose lose situation, what they're going to do to get out of it, um, it's it's unclear. well, you mentioned mainstream uh, television, and ken, i want to look at that, because it's been interesting, the the... few days there have been some interesting pieces even coming out of mainstream media and and actually um showing some of the realities on the ground there, how do you assess that are we? looking a certain transition or is it because the wave against the israeli regime has been so great with people standing up for the palestinians that this mainstream media felt that they have to be able to show a little bit closer picture of the reality your assessment? i think uh your latter point is

correct um i have noticed it here in canada on cbc and ctv and in the media. uh the discourse has changed and people who were never seen before uh on tv such as palestinians, palestinian organizers, leaders the muslim community and the arabic community in canada suddenly are on b and they're speaking eloquently about this issue um and uh the other night on cbc i think it was they had a a big deal explaining what bds was boycott investments and sanctions a campaign to bring israel to its knees and create create a long-term solution to the problem, so yes, the the massive resistance of the peoples of the world to the israeli genocide in gaza is forcing a change in the discourse of politicians and in the media around the

world, and that's a good thing. well, um, rick, do you see this war? now this genocide actually also being a tool in the hand of netanyahu, using this to actually stay in power, because if we look at leading up to this and the continual demonstrations against him, with the many israelis not satisfied with his performance, and of course after october 7th we had many who were not still, but but how do you assess netanyahu and connection to this prolong? uh situation as happening in gaza right now? i think if netanyahu and the people close to him knew that attack from from hamas was coming, they never predicted uh what what unfolded on october 7, which was total collapse of the israeli military, and of course it's been now

uh documented in in some places that many of the israelies. civilians were killed by the idf in their in their random shooting from a patchy helicopters and tanks on the ground, they weren't killed by hamas at all, they were killed in the crossfire uh from the uh from the idf, the israel offensive forces it should be called, but netanyahu of course is the longest serving israely prime minister, he's been around a long time, he's been through lot of conflicts, the person um, you know, has uh uh, he's, he's waited countless wars against gaza, he's waited countless massacres, this is the most extreme example, but um, in 2018 they mowed down peaceful protesters in the global march of return, people who were going in the thousands up to the up to the gaza border were just shot down

in cold blood, 200 died and thousands were injured, um, so so it's and then you know prior to that netanyahu even called it mowing the lawn, you need to mow the lawn every couple of years, comparing it to a suburban american household where you need to mow the lawn every couple of weeks, they were mowing the lawn by killing hundreds if not thousands and that's just level of the dehumanization of palestinians as seen israel is a is racist state uh it there used to a united general or general assembly resolution that zionism is racism, and it was a big mistake when that was withdrawn um in the early 1990s, because it's absolutely true, zionism is racism. how likely do you see that coming back, that terminology, especially when we see what's going on around the world today and trying to

put pressure on governments, ken um, i think uh, "you know, once you see these this genocide unfold before your very eyes, you can't unsee it, as they say, and i think people have recognized that the israelis are have a racist attitude towards palestinians, they consider them untermension subhumans and they they treat them like as if they were insects, it's it's disgusting, but i would like to add one point and that is we haven't yet talked and probably we don't have time much." but uh about the chance of a wider war, we know that israel has bombed syria several times, we know that there have been attacks on us military bases in iraq and syria that mantsala has unleashed, has captured two ships in the red sea and has been sending missiles against lat, um, there is the danger of a wider war as the genocide

continues and intensifies, and uh, we as people of peace, anti-war activists, we are concerned that this war should the attack on gaza should end, because the other possibility is a... wider regional war or even a confrontation between the great powers and well let's in on that, well rick, your your thoughts on that, how likely do you see uh this situation expanding with more parties getting involved? i'm really not sure, i think a lot of the parties do not want it to happen to expand for for obvious reasons, um, iran doesn't hezball and and lebanon doesn't, and i don't think the us really wants it either. um, i think where we're at is, of course the genocide occurring is just the just the tip of the iceberg, the root cause of all these problems is the occupation and

israeli apartide, and it's really incumbant on the world to do what we did with south african apartide, to mount massive protests and to force international organizations to pressure international organizations to join that call and uh force our governments to... to uh to remove themselves from uh from supporting israel. okay, and on that note, thank you both for being with me on the spotlight, kenn stone, executive member hamilton coalition to stop the war out of hamilton ontario, and rick sterling, investigative journalist out of walnut creek, california. and thank you viewers for being with us on another spotlight. i'm marsia hashimi, hope to see you right here, next time. goodbye.

ان شاء الله المره الجايه.

people in israel mark parim as a holiday to commemorate the saving of the jewish people from annihilation at the hands of the kemen empire in persia, as it is recounted in the book of esther. they've been using the occasion to play the victim, but what is the reality and is their truth in it? watch this documentary to gain some insight.

everyone you're watching here.

your headlines on press tv, israel is launching fresh strikes on gaza after killing more than 15,000 palestinians, most of them women and children in the besieg coastal territory. hamas resistance fighters say they have targeted israeli cities with barage of missiles and hit gatherings of the occupation forces in northern parts of gaza and people around the world have held rallies to show solidarity with palestinians and condemn the israeli genocide in gaza.