hello and welcome. to press tv spotlight, i'm marsia hashimi, thanks so much for being with us. well, as the zionist regime continues its genocide, the united states promises it more weapons and its continued support. this was said by the secretary of defense lloyd austin, who is in the israeli entity and meeting with the war cabinet, but as the american zianis genocide continues, so does the resistance inside of the occupied palestinian territories and beyond. i'd like

to welcome my guests to this program to help me look at all of this. anthony hall, professor of globalization, luthbridge university, out of leth bridge, and gilbert doctor, independent international affairs analysts out of brussels. thank you both for being with me. well, let me start this off uh with anthony. why do you? austin has gone to israel again at this time? well, who can really know? i'm sure there's so much going on underneath the radar, but uh, what we see is a full-fledged assurance that the us is behind this assault on gaza, that the weaponry will continue, that the link between these two countries. which are almost now

amerged country under a higher politic called zionism, that this will continue, and of course he wants to get some kind of arab unity to fight the, let's call them yemenis, not the hooutis anymore, they do control a country called yemen, and of all the arab countries, they are the most courageous, they are the most unstinting in showing port uh and of course this is going to embarrass other arab countries that aren't showing anywhere that level of commitment uh putting lives on the line to uh save uh the meniced people in the uh gaza strip so we can talk about all kinds of underpinnings and context that's my reading of uh of it initially okay?

well gilbert, and based on what the americans are saying and doing, isn't this genocide as american as it is israeli? well, yes, it certainly is, and the united states has lost face internationally, the the utter hypocrisy of everything the united states has said about the russian ukraine war being so horrible and so murderous, that has all been wiped away but different order of magnitude of violence, destruction and and ethnic cleansing that israel has been practicing with american support ever since october 7th, so that that is one thing, the other thing to mention is that within the united states the complicity and the act of participation actually of of united states military in in support of israel's devastating activity. in

gaza, that is something that has affected the broad public and particularly young people, how long this can go on really depends on factors outside of the region, it depends on the political determinations within washington whether biden's plans to be reelected next year are being totally destroyed by the by the disaffection of young people. young democrats with respect to to this this war, and so america is very big factor um in the war's possible continuation or endering, whatever, whatever, the defense minister austin says and the the there is more to it than meets the eye, if this israeli offensive stops in his tracks, it also could be caused. by something that's

happened in the last several days, which is a minor thing one would think, but considering the scale of of devastation and death that israel has rought, the outrage and... neighboring countries and the shock that is felt by even in the least tenderhearted countries of the west when they watch on bbc or cnn or what or euro news what israel is perpetrating in in in gaza, there is shock and dismay, but all of these big picture issues may be um maybe nothing compared to what is happening or may yet happen within israel over the... uh the murder of the three uh hostages who would who had somehow been freed, somehow come come to uh come home they thought and were murdered by by israeli army, that has had very big effect on the israeli public, it is proven the utter falseness of

mr. netanyatu's government when it declares that that releasing the hostages is a priority, and uh i might add... it has a different dimension to the israeli activities, yes they are very regretful, they slaughted their own, but is still more important that they fired on people who had raised the white flag, right? that tells you something about the nature of this government, about the nature of the war ministry and the senior military of israel, indeed, stay with me, let me get anthony back in on this discussion, well anthony. footage claiming that it had found major tunnel of the resistance, however the resistance said that they were too late with their discovery because that particular tunnel was the one used on october the 7th for the al-a flood operation and it's a very limited tunnel. um,

your thoughts on this overall, because - on the one hand they're trying to show that they have accomplish something. on the other hand, one could ask, well, first of all, why would people need tunnels to begin with, unless they're imprisoned. these uh tunnels are something to behold. um, remind myself that hochimin, the north vietnamese had tunnels, how did they withstand that enormous bombardment, that carpet bombing? uh, they had tunnels, and so uh, gaza, the hamas has dug tunnels, wonder what the history? of that digging is and this is very strong card, this changes everything really, and i think the israelis are sort of demonstrating, they really don't know what's going on, and of course the question now of the tunnels

possibly drowning uh the hostages, hamas has reported that 60 of them have been killed already, mostly in the... now this question of united states and what is going on in the united states, think of the reality that in these forthcoming elections, so say biden loses and he will lose lots of support, but who are the contenders? the contender is trump, you tries to exceed all others in pledging allegiance to israel and delivering. what it would like in terms of capital recognition, the capital, national capital or the golland heights and number three is uh robert f kennedy jr. who represents major alternative for the american voters, he's now

going independent, but even he has this overwhelming commitment that he makes very clear to israel, right or wrong, whatever, "this has to underline for the us public that their government is not really democratic government when it comes to this issue, there are no major options being presented. now we have three candidates all the same, so this signals to uh people uh that this zionist power is out of control, that it dominates the uh opposition parties or the alternative parties, and and and as far as ' hoping for elections, elections we know are corrupt, and uh, they used covid as means to throw the last election and mail-in ballots and all, and why would we expect this coming election to be any better? now this uh demonstration of what the israeli military is all about, i

think this firing at three israeli do we call them hostages, obviously they were freeed, they'd escaped... whatever, but there they were, taking their clothes off, trying to demonstrate they have no weapons with the white flag, and they're shot by the idf, and that is a... demonstration not only for israeli public opinion, but for the world that this uh is israel fighting force which is 100% back by the united states sort of created, united states really created israel, britain created israel as a outpost, as a colonial outpost for the west with the sudan canal, and then in 19 after world war ii, the us took over this colonial. project and developed uh uh the the founding of israel in

1948 began a genocide which is continuing now which is culminating now so things are emerging that show the poverty of uh anything approaching the rule of law in the world right now how deeply depraved our society as a whole our global society has become yes indeed well gilbert what about the uh 'uh when we see the resistance, the palestinian resistance, um, it is true that israel is definitely uh killing a lot of kids, lot of women, lot of civilians in general, but they are really not crushing the resistance as that was their goal when going into that, i want to look at this and that even still, the they are able, the resistance is still able to send rockets to the occupied'. city and territories, i want to look at that side of things and how is that, how are they able to do that with all of the firep that the

israeli regime has? oh, it's admirable, but let's not get confused about who is who and what is what, the that they have that hamas has stayed this far and has resisted and found ways escape the the the awful onslot of israel, that's very very good, however that is not a victory, the the damage that they have... done to the idf, is appears to be rather pottry compared to the damage that israel has done to the to the gaza palestinians, 20 thousand people dead, that is not offset by by a missile here and there that may have succeeded in in getting through the iron dome and striking somewhere or other on on empty street in israel, that is not war, that is simply an expression of of anger and... just it's not going to resolve the conflict by by hamos having a few missiles to

fire here and there, the question is what else is the is the greater community in the middle east prepared or able to do, and as we see, aside from lot of jawboning and and posturing, they haven't done much. iran made remarkable and very important proposal to to impose an oil embargo on israel, and even that did not pass in opec and so the only economic uh the economic war on israel has been has been initiated in the last few days or weeks uh precisely by the hoothies or yemen in their in their missile strikes on container ships and in their boarding parties on other ships passing to the red sea that is to this point the most effective. uh um way of getting the attention of the world and and bringing to the attention of the world, the

economic cost that this war may bring not just to the neighborhood, but to the whole world if it doesn't turn into a regional and global um connetic war. well, anthony, let's talk about the yemenis, um, because actually today they stopped two more as ships headed to the regime. ye, many military spokesman said if gaza does not receive the food and medicine it need "all ships in the red sea bound for israeli ports, regardless of their nationality, will become a target for our armed forces. i like to hear your thoughts about this and uh the effectiveness of not or not of what they're doing. well, the emimenese uh stood up to huge battering uh, where the projectile at the front was saudi arabia, but saudi arabia of course was backed up with us. weapons, this group within yemen called the hootis, we were referring to them

as the hootis, they have prevailed, and to my way of thinking, they have demonstrated right up to this point, a tremendous um commitment and determination to stand up against something intolerable, and it's really kind of interesting that the whole world, the only real example... we have of a country, of a polity that will go beyond words and pronouncements and declarations and votes that will actually take a stand are the... uh yemenes in this situation, and so uh, i cannot help, but look at that as heroic statement, heroic stand that should send a signal now that uh, we we are going deep now into this conflict, it seemed that with the firing on the three young palestinian uh,

three, three, three young israeli men uh who had the white flag up, that there was a moment there, that the domestic pressure on netanyahu, that it seemed it was possible there would be some kind of uh cease fire, some kind of truth, something to deal with the larger picture and establish a procedure, but with lloyd austin coming in in the way that he did a full-fledged you know salesman for the military industrial complex were having worked for all these arms agencies which are making a killing on this, and he acts essentially, like uh somebody who got in the job by affirmative action, he's really done nothing to demonstrate much thoughtfulness or leadership, and he's acted true to form as delivery boy to the us uh israeli coalition to simply say, continue on,

it's all right with us, we're we're with you, uh, you were our project, uh, israel was our military. outpost in the middle east, you still fulfill that function, we're behind you, uh, biden, um, is uh, all this talk about the political trouble he's in, but there's no alternative in the whole us system to vote for anything other than this uh, complete backing of the most extreme israeli government we've ever seen, this is the most uh awesome, terrible spec spectacle i've seen in my... lifetime of kind of billboard genocide taking place with al-jazera and press tv covering the nitty gritties of it. it's it's amazing. i don't think the people in the power uh vacuum in the little bubble of power can understand how throughout the world this is a symbol of the de depth of the

total monstrous consciousness of those who are so used to conducting power of life and death over. the human population that somehow or other this is going to be expressed and it's not going to find some expression in the united nations or it's got to be in the streets, it's got to be coalition building like we've never seen before a global basis, and it's not always going to be polite. all right, stay with me, well gilbert, continue to look at the resistance in general, i want to look now at hezbollah, which started its attacks one day after the beginning of the alaxa flood off. your assessment of what hazbollah is doing because they have opened up of course another front, the israelis have to deal with the northern side of this, and of course the settler colonias who were near that border had to be evacuated. um, how costly do you think this is for the israelis, this other front with hezbollah? well, moment

ago we speak about the hoodis who in western press. as rebels, my fellow panelist has very correctly equated hoodies with yemen as a state, so that's the same thing comes up with hezbollah, it is presented as wild radicals, however the the like hamas also within within palestine, this the the leaders of these various movements have been some very sophisticated people, and so it is with with hesbollah and they're doing their calculations. it was estimated that at the start of of the conflict back in the early days of october that hezbulah has an arsenal of 100 thousand missiles or more capable of overwhelming the iron dome and and doing massive destruction in israel, however that would come at the cost of massive destruction to lebanon, and that is pretty obvious, so

they have the leaders in hezbollah have made the point that we can we can't do some serious damage uh if we really want to to israeli forces, they have pinned down perhaps a quarter of the israeli army in the north uh towards the border, they have forced the evacuation of perhaps 50 thousand israeli settlers who were in residences near the border with lebanon, but who are um within reach, easy reach of of hezbollah artillery, not to mention missiles, so um they have... made point, but they have not gone too far, they have not gone beyond a certain red line, which would threaten a full-blown war with israel, which they don't want, because it's going to be very costly war. a costly war in lives and material and better avoided, but that is true of of iran as well, it's true of all of the middle east players, nobody uh

wants this to become regional war, nobody wants an escalation, and so all the actors are proceeding very cautiously. one thing to say on behalf of this caution is that if for example the neighbors or iran had gone in at once and responded to the devastation which israel was all in the first days of its offensive uh reaking in in gaza, then uh it would not have been clear to the world at large what the true face of the israeli military is and their ambitions of ethnic cleansing, that would not have been clear, now it's perfectly clear, if this should rise, it should escalate to original war, the the powers in the world, the world public opinion is well informed. of what the basic issues are and who is who, and that is something that only could have come about with a certain amount of indulgence and patience. we all are horrified the 20,00

palestinians have lost their lives, and that still leaves two million, 280 thousand palestinians who have not lost their lives, and that is the object has to be objective of all reasonable people of this time, to do everything possible to stop this war in its tracks, and as i said, for political reasons, domestic, the united states and all of american foreign policy is only a projection of domestic issues, it may well be that despite the seeing the the big words of mr. austin, the united states is privately counseling israel, the netanyahu government to stop this or else, the or else being a massive pressure on on israel as a whole to to wisen up. "they are behaving as if they're the united states, the united states has gotten away with murder literally a massive scale, for the last 25 years when it's played the role of the world's only superpower,

israel is not the world's only superpower or second superpower or third superpower, and however much support it gets the united states, it cannot get away with murder, so i think that that the restraint this has been shown till now has served a constructive purpose. okay, let me see, anthony just raised his hand." 30 seconds, anthony, go ahead, i'm just about out of time, but go ahead. there's one person who would like to see a regional war, that's benjamin netanyaho, benjamin netanhou, in the events of october 7, where israel plays the victim, where the occupier gets to play the victim, that is so cut through with falseness, with a prior knowledge, with fraud on different levels, we need investigation into october 7 uh, 2023 to decide really. make it clear who are the victims and who are the perpetrators here, including in the events of october 7th itself. okay, now that no, thank you both for being with me on this spotlight. anthony haw,

professor of globalization, liith bridge university, out of leth bridge, and gilbert doctor, independent international affairs analyst out of brussels and thank you viewers for being with us on another spotlight. i'm marzia hashim, we hope to see you right here next time. goodbye. on thursday, january 29, 2004, a plane carrying lebanese prisoners landed on the runway at bayroot airport, but in this celebration, the chair of the only prisoner that was not released.

the sun shown to announce the beginning of new day. it was the 13th day of the war on the gaza's rep. look at the missile. what did we do to deserve being hit by this? the army bombed the children on the beach and destroyed our houses. they killed children, men, women, and all. i have other place to go, so now my children and i are homeless. it is the israelis habit from ages, they say

that children fight.

this week's africa today program focuses on israel's evil transactions in africa. the list is endless. it includes sell of weapons to the south african apartide regime to kill african freedom fighters. looting congo's minerals and selling weapons to conflict breaden african countries. hold-winking african countries with dubious agricultural projects. this racist regime is now taking desperate africans to farms in occupied palestine amid the us israel war on gaza.

the headlines this hour israely war planes carry out fresh indiscriminate strikes on gaza's southern town of raffa, killing dozens of civilians there. the us refirms israel. will get all the money and military support needed to continue the genocidal war on the gaza strip. andiemen warns the newly formed us-l military coalition in the red sea of painful response against any violation of its sovereignty.