crisis, devastating wars, terrorism, the israeli lobby, crackdown, diplomacy, crimes committed, make sure to join the show through facebook, twitter, only onpress tv.

how many ways can a war crime be committed? that is a question that should be answered by of the israeli machine forces and the supuriers. some of them include force displacement, using food as a weapon of war, or killing execution style. the us- israely genocidal war has also included using fosphorus bombs, which are internationally banned weapons. in this edition of the spotlight we'll look at the atrocities committed by the israel regime forces, aided by the us and its allies support, which has shown the true nature of this regime. and his backers to the entire world. we also look at whether israel can continue this war, since on the ground it is a losing straight. first let me introduce our guests. edward horgan is a former peace keeper who joins us from alimer ireland. also joining us the political commentator from chicago. welcome to you both, edward, i'll start with you. we're looking at some of

these atrocities that are being uh committed there um in the bessieg gaza strip and it's coming to light. um one of them that i like to ask you about uh is that's made lot of news and it's come viral is about the 11 unarmed palestinian men who were uh um executed in front of their family members in the al-ramal neighborhood and of course this has been categorized as a possible war crime um tell us your thoughts about that and how we're noticed. seeing more and more these war crimes that uh are coming to light, even though we know that this has been going on of for quite some time. yes, it's quite clear, in fact is war crimes are being committees and this a combination of all these war crimes means that genocide is happening at the moment in gaza, not just in gaza, but against the palestinian people as a whole, and the reaching comments in fact by president erdogan of turkey comparing um

prime minister netanyahu to hitler uh are unfortunately justified uh the crimes being committed, you mentioned already uh the use of phosphorus munitions and in particular the use of depeted uranium, these are chemical weapons which are banned by international law uh, but there is little doubts that the... convention 1948 is been activated and genocide is been committed a very clear scale by the israeli government led by prime minister netanyahu, well we need to go through few more of these uh shabir risby in order to shed light and give more uh, i guess wait to what the topic of this program is all about and uh looking at the refusal to allow

fuel or water into gaza, that's considered war crime, um, impeeding aid to gaza, war crime, restricting food, we hear a lot about that these days, these are all war crimes, now the thing is, your thoughts on that, of course, but the thing is whether you are committing war crimes and it's just an act or with the intent to actually commit a genocide, because there is, maybe it's slight, but there's a big difference. in the end result, now there is a big difference, but i think you have to also dial it back to before, this aggression on guz started to which everything you said, cutting off water, cutting off electricity, cutting off valuable resources, things that you need to build and thrive, this is already being done by the zionist regime, not even just in this quote onqute war, but that is what the occupation entails, it is an occupation is apartide regime, and they control the flow of water and resources. and all these things into

gaza, and if you were doing that before the war, and now you, increase that level of just severity of cutting off these valuable resources, then it's completely. intentional what you're trying to do, and as israeli officials say over and over again, they're trying to push the palestinian people in the gaza strip into the sign, this is what it's all about, and the their officials are even saying this, they're saying, raise gaza to the ground, push them out of gaza, resettle them, so it's becoming very clear that before this aggression started it was kind of slow burn, but now they've intentionally increase this to finally conclude what they've been meaning to do for decades and that... the complete expulsion of palestinians from their own land and it's an act of not only genocide but ethnic cleansing. well uh when you have um edward israely officials who have made public statements uh when it comes to expressing their aim to actually deprive uh the uh civilians in the gaza strip from

things like water, fuel and food. these are statements that many israeli officials have uh basically reflected when it comes to what they're doing, then does that make them a count and therefore open to prosecution, one the difficulties at the moment is that the whole issue of international law has been cast aside not just by israel but also by its backers, united states in particular, the un charter is being ignored and being beached very seriously, it's what i think quoting from the genocide convention 1948 in the present convention. genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethical, racial or religious group, such as killing members of the group, causing serious body harm or mental health to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group

conditions of life calculated to bring about his physical destruction and hold or impart, so what we are seeing in fact is the genocide convention being very clearly broken as defined by that convention and all these war crimes and they are war crimes, but they all add up in fact to a clear breach of the more serious piece of international law, the genocide convention. yeah, unfortunately these conventions and as you said all international norms and laws have been cast aside uh as you mentioned because of the us, but um this force displacement. itself as a war crime uh and you said that that is the ultimate aim of a israel and recently we've noticed how netanyahu actually has said that uh it wants to push for what it called a voluntary migration for palestinians. um what i'm curious about over here is uh what the is

the stance when it comes to for example the us who has said that they're completely against it even arab countries have come out and said that even european countries but uh i'm sure that that is something that is discussed with the us. do you think that the us is saying one thing out in the public, but behind closed doors actually is after that? the united states has proved itself to be an unreliable player and not only an unreliable player, but the main aggressor in in this um terrible genocide in gaza. now the united states politicians can go out and say, hey, we oppose displacement of palestinians, but in reality, in material reality, what they're supporting when they turn a blind eye to israely warcr. when they turn a blind eye to genocide, when they refuse to, go forward with the cease fire, is that israel can do whatever it wants because we support it, they can tell the joe biden or even any anyone from the opposition party from the republicans can say, no, we should not displace the palestinians, the palest, the

only way that we can kind of resolve this is two-state solution, but effectively what they're doing through their own actions is pushing the palestinians off a ledge based off refusing even slap israel on the wrist uh we've seen anthony blinklin go to israel twice, he's going there again uh going to talk to other people in in west asia about kind of this conflict and how it can come about an end, but as far as material reality suggests he's he's completely okay with this displacement of palestinians um he hasn't actually said anything that would stop israel from continuing this down this path. and even in within its own kind of us debates right, within presidential debates within even just the political culture of the united states, they say that they want two-state solution, but everything that they support is actually the elimination of the palestinian people,

and on that uh are we looking at that being really a goal that you think that that is what uh not only israel but the us is after edward, i mean uh if we want to take a look at what's happening on the ground just in terms of the mirror number of bombs that have been dropped we're looking at about 29 from the last count that number i'm sure has increased because this is from few days back and these are majority if not all provided by the us and what's more? alarming is the types of bombs, 43% of them are called these dumb bombs where they have no uh direction as to where they're hitting, they could hit anywhere, they just drop him and it explodes where it explodes, so we can see how that also is a contributing factor to the large number of casualties that have taken place, are we looking at them wanting to make gaza unlivable for the palestinians? yes, i think that's quite true, us president joe biden has claims that he has asked. israel not to use indiscriminate bombing, but the reality is

this is not indiscriminate bombing, it is targeted bombing of the palestinian people in gaza, the women and children and males also are being targeted by the israeli a huge scale, so claiming that the us has been trying to influence. the israel in this matter is is is false in fact, the us is supplying the vast majority of the bombs that are being dropped and these are being dropped in a targeted manner to kill as many people as possible and to destroy the infrastructure of gaza to make the whole of gaza strip unlivable into the future, this is a gross breach of international. law uh and it is very clearly uh a targeted act of genocide.

um there there are couple other uh instances where uh really makes one wonder about the uh nature and the character of the people that are executing this uh genocidal war and i have to ask you on one of them uh there she and that is the theft of organs that we have received in the news where we are looking at uh uh the fact that organs of 80 palestinians that have been uh reported uh their bodies were abducted by the regime's uh uh forces and uh they returned the bodies in a state of decomposition where organs were missing um and uh made their identification difficult uh what does that say about the nature of the israeli washim when uh this type of thing happens which by the way is in their report card in the past yeah precisely it is in the report card they've actually admitted to doing this multiple times in the past. and it just goes to show the absolute criminality uh the israeli regime, it's a completely

inhumane regime, it was built on these sort of crimes and has continued these crimes, and whether the world is looking or not, it is unafraid to continue committing these crimes. what does it say about a regime when it steals bodies from hospital um that it first bombarded, then it raided, then it stole the bodies, then it returns the bodies in a horrific state with obviously like clear markings that "organs are missing uh, loved ones can't even bury their their dead properly, and it kind of makes you wonder um, where are these organs going, what is it supporting? if it's their own health industry, if it's their own criminal corporations, then these corporations um are knowingly taking uh stolen property, they are knowingly participating in crimes against humanity, because if they accept such organs, including the idf who likely also..." to harvest these organs in order to kind of hop out its own soldiers, they are knowingly

engaging in crimes against humanity, they are knowingly breaking the rules of warfare, and there's clear admission from their own side that they will continue doing this, that they've done this in the past, and that's actually even encouraged. um, the instance, i don't know if you heard, i'm sure that perhaps you have edward, regarding the uh uh, sniper, where it was described as a cold blooded murder of these two christian women a gaza church, um, i mean, that really also um, had a reaction, not only worldwide, but from the us, for whatever that's worth, but uh, where does that fit in the equation of israel's right to self-defense? absolutely, the targeting of women and children by israeli soldiers and by snipers, clearly is also war crime. "equally concerning is the assassination of an iranian general in syria

in recent times, this may well have been intended to provoke an expansion of the war into the wider middle east, and this is very dangerous, clearly such assassinations are also against international law, but the reason behind them, i think is deeply worrying that israel may..." be hoping in fact to expand the war into um lebanon in particular uh and possibly to uh expand the war against iran, so this is... also serious crime, but there are so many serious crimes been committed by israel over the last two and a half months, that there can be no doubt in fact that they are intentionally committing genocide, not accidentally, and the us is not just complices in the genocide, it is an actual participant, so that the

president biden in fact in time should also be before the international crim. court which prime minister netanyahu, but of course uh, they will avoide accountability if they can at all by using their vetos and whatever, so these scale of what's going on is immense, and accountability in the long term must be achieved, because otherwise the collapse and the breaches of international law, affect all of humanity, not just the people in the middle east, but humanity is a whole. yeah, and that uh really is showing itself here. um, when we're taking a look shabir, at the fact that you have the us playing the pivotal role that it is playing, uh, what kind of mechanism can come into play in order to

prevent the further uh massacre that's taking place? let's not forget uh, even though 80s days has passed. "this war is continuing, this genocidal war has not stopped. i mean, it's very hard to digest the fact that a couple hundred palestinians killed in the span of 24 hours should become common news. it's still very hard to to digest that. so what can be done to prevent that from happening on an international scale um, and - i guess come to at the us uh, in order to prevent the us from his participation. great question, so the united states is..." clearly uh beyond complic as a primary player in the genocide of the palestinians. that being said, the united states also holds key positions in, for example, the unsc, uh, it holds a permanent seat to which it can just veto away anything. um, it also has lot of influence in things like the international criminal court, which claims to be neutral, but is clearly showing its bias as we are

over 80 days into this genocide, and they have barely lifted finger where. but you know when it comes to the the adversaries of the united states, the icc is always quick to act. when it comes to the future of things, i think we're looking a future where the united states needs to be slowly exited out and shown the door and anything that actually holds any key to progressing humanity forward, the united states has shown time and time again that is not on the side of peace, is not on the side of making sure that war stops, that's not on the side of humanity, but rather it's on the side of the profiteers that control the cap, the us economy, this... would be the people that benefit from more than the most, this would be the military industrial complex, it would be the pharmaceutical companies, it would be you know the oil companies in the united states, and the united states is clearly showing that's not interested in peace, it's not interested in being a player that progresses humanity, instead it's going to be the player in the room that stops progress that it makes sure war keeps going, because for the united

states, the war is the most profitable thing possible, especially if it gets to dictate how the war is played out. so to answer that, whatever equation that the future holds in terms of dictating peace and ensuring peace works, the united states cannot be a part of that, it has shown it cannot be trusted, it has shown that it's only interested in its own imperialistic missions, whatever equation that humanity comes up with for ensuring peace, for ensuring stability, the united states can never be a part of it, it cannot be allowed it, um, and and on that note, when you take a look at way that the massacers are accumulating in terms of the mounting death doll uh edward um you there is a thing that nato has in is uh i think the un i'm sorry has in his doctrine and it's r2p uh where it comes for the rescue like they used in libya um of course this is not something that that i'm guessing obviously can be used when it comes to the gaza strip based on obviously

the way that the structure of the un is set up but uh there is a failure there and uh the mechanism that is not uh uh preventing the massacers from taking place, what would you propose to take place here? uh, i think it's clear at the moment that what's happening in gaza is part of pattern that has gone on since the end of the cold war, the us sought to become the soul power in the world, uh, what happened in iraq, afghanistan, syria, libya, yemen, is part of a... the pattern by the us of resource wars and gross breathes of international law, what we're seeing now in gaza is by far the most. of course uh breaches of international law, the un has failed catastrophically um, not because it

doesn't want to succeed, but because it's not allowed to succeed by the abuse of the veto, particularly by britain, france and the united states and now most recently to a certain extent by russia also in ukraine, so we we need to find a situation where the... "if the un cannot be reformed because of the veto, then we may have to look beyond the un, and the or else to get the un general assembly to use motion has been used in the past called the uniting for peace to overrule the security council in matters such as this, but the growth breach of the power of veto by the five permanent members needs to be got around. somewhere otherwise the un itself will have to be replaced. uh one of the spectrs that uh also is showing itself uh in the past at least few days a consistent basis

rather sh is the fact that you have uh some major uh losses that the regime forces are experiencing. um the official i believe counts by israel which is always underreported by them is 150 but um that count is by far much lower than the actual number uh you have the uh hamas leader on the gaza strip that has come out and said it's close to 500 actually. now um, they also have suffered when it comes to their tanks and military equipment. um, do you think that this is a type of genocidal war that israel uh believes that is fighting for its existential? that's if it doesn't win this then that they feel that there will not be foot for them to stand on when it comes to uh just uh the entity itself. absolutely, because everything they're showing right now is showing what israel actually stands for, which is like genocide, genocidal occupation, and right now it's trying to justify its own

existence by going to war with hamas, but it's falling straight into its face, um, if you look at the ambush, the specifically the ambush that happened on december 12th, there's a cascade of events that i want you to notice here, on december 12th, several israeli defense forces uh were ambushed by hamas, they had a lot their officers killed. this was a very demoralizing day for the israelis and you could see it in the media that they knew that something was wrong that their forces were failing, but if you look a few days ahead of that shortly right after right, their officers were killed, that ruins troop, then they killed three of their own people because they panicked, they they shot their own, they shot their own people that were in the gaza strip that were being held captive, and then after that i want you to notice something right, the... officers are being killed, are killing their own people, troops, troop moral is down, what did they do next? they went and they tried to broker a temporary cease fire for exchange of hostages. this is a clear marking, that

didn't come out of nowhere, that wasn't like out of the blue, it wasn't out of thin air, they needed to save face because they knew that they are losing, that they're losing their own people, the their own media is turning against them, and in order to kind of boost morale and go back and lick their wounds, they offered the... um this bad deal that hamas said no to. after that, after hamas said no, what did they do next? the entirety of the gollani brigade retreated, they called it regrouped, but we know they retreated, they are losing, it's clear, and they can't even justify this invasion, the only thing that they have to show is a clear genocide before the world, that's all they have to show for it, and now they're struggling, they're making these anxious attacks like killing an irgc officer, they're trying to pull..." united states into it uh so that they can make any sort of political or material win, but the fact of the matter is they're doomed, they can't win, and that the only thing they have to show for it our

crimes against humanity is genocide and ethnic cleansing. indeed, unfortunately we fresh out of time, i was going to ask you about the looting of the homes also that has taken place uh, which is showing itself, but unfortunately we don't have that time. let me thank a guest edward horgan, former um peacekeeper from limeric ireland, also chiber rizby there, political commentator from chicago, thank you to you both. with that come to an end for this edition of the soft light from the team, it's goodbye.

the headlines this hour incessents and indiscriminate bombardments claim the lives of more innocent civilians on day 82 of the israely genocidal war in gaza. resistance fighters destroy multiple armored vehicles and kill or injure a number of israely occupation forces across gaza, and palestinians in the west bank more and the latest victims of an israely drawn attack on the nur shamp's refugee camp.