كل الشعب على الاستعداد كل الشعب على الاستعداد كل الشعب على استعداد كل الشعب على الاستعداد a نرفع باعلى صورت.

the israel's genocidal war is a complicated one, on the one hand, the genocide is continuing with tens of palestinians killed a daily basis. on the other hand, israel assassinates the lead palestinian negotiator, yet it has said that it will attend the new ceasefire talks, while the u.s. is pushing for sease fire, provides the israely regime with bombs, $3 and a half billion dollars of military aid, and then a $20 billion dollar military package. in this edition of the spotlight, we will look at the chances for secefire amits the possibilities of major hazbollah. and iran retaliation, first let me

introduce our guests for this edition of the program. daniel, author and researcher joins us from bayroot. also joining us is eve zangler, author and activist who joins us from montreal. welcome to you both, daniel yes, let me first start with you and ask you about the strike that happened at the school uh... which was a real uh uh shocker in terms of the massacker that happened uh and we had 125 palestinians that were killed as a result uh now it was said that the air strike actually hit a school but it it hit the mosk and it was during morning prayers we know that some reported as such but many did not um and my question to you lies in how this strike happened and in what was used three 20 pound bombs uh that we know of the mk84 us made uh it would cover 100 meter area and

destroy anything within that, why do you think that was used in such a ferocity and with such extreme explosives when they could of have used a lower dosage of bombs unless their intent was for maximum civilian casualties? well, i think the intent has been all along to maximize civilian casualties because this is a genocide, israel regime has made it clear time and time again that it will kill as many palestinians um as it can, and by using all sorts of different weapons and targeting civilian infrastructure um and killing people in schools and mosques all throughout gaza, and we've seen that repeatedly uh since october 7, of course none of this has started on october 7, but now 10 months, over 10 months into the ongoing genocide, the israeli regime continues to carry out atrocities, i, struggle to find

words uh to even describe the pictures that we see coming out of gaza, this human suffering, the relentless killing of um civilians, beheading of babies, and at the end the israeli regime continues and because it is able to do so, because it has the full backing of the united states and this very fragile so-called international community, so to get back to... your question, i think part of the answer is that the israeli regime has no red lines, it has no snow restraint, and it continues this genocide uh, because it is not being stopped. well, when you take a look at the uh volume of bombs that have been dropped these angler, mean it's it's really shocking. i remember and i'm sure you also remember how when the news came out that uh in uh the bombs that were dropped in the gaza strip uh and this is going back to i believe um... in november that it was uh amounts to

roughly the number of bombs that were dropped onto nagasaki hiroshima about 18,00 pounds and when you fast forward to... to uh april or may we're looking at 70, i'm sorry, 18,00 pounds and then now we're looking at 70,00 tons uh that have been dropped, i mean that's gaza strip which is just a tiny sliver, i mean isn't that incredible in itself in terms of uh the entity that's providing the bombs to the israeli regime and that's the us and everyone says i think there was a israeli general that said "if the us stopped, we we'd have to, we'd have to uh wrap up in five days, stop providing the the new the new shipments. um, yeah, i mean, this is uh, this is a completely uh, subsidized us genocide

where they're literally delivering the weapons into televive uh, shipments coming on regular basis and uh, and those..." shipments are uh you know blowing up palestinan children uh it's there's other way around that the the recent announcement of 20 billion arms package uh that at least it seems like it's a bit more sales rather than just donations most of the rest has just been donations the us giving not selling giving the weapons uh this new package seems like it's more sales uh but it's we're talking about 20 billion a a bunch of that's longer term kind of weaponry f15, but a whole bunch of it is mortar shells and the like and think a billion and a half and it's not exactly clear how much of that's going to be subsidized by the us uh uh tax payer uh this is no it's unbelievable i mean the message the symbolism beyond the concrete weapons the

symbolism of uh delivering this level of us weaponry while the horrors i mean and again it's not just the horrors and gaz the horrors and gaz are beyond belief but also up people in tehran, blowing up people in beirot, obviously the regular bombing in in in syria that's been going on for years, it's just a constant, constant israeli warfare with complete, complete endorsement uh by uh by washington, what's your impression of that uh daniel, when you take a look at the 20 billion dollar military package, i mean yes there's a distinction between giving it and... it, but the end result i believe is the same, and you also have the fact that you have the half billion dollar, annual, i believe is that assistance that militarily the us gives israel, top of, by the way, when i talked about the bombs, when the 500p bombs were not sent and then got approved, it came

to be that there were $14,000 of the 200 pound bombs that had already been sent to the is regime along. with five or 10,00 of the mk84, which is the lower uh 500 pound bombs. i mean, you know, this is just uh crazy when it comes to this region, which is a tinderbox already. absolutely, but it's also not a surprise, the israeli regime and its uh so-called security and safety and comfort has been at the center of the us foreign policy, we could also argue at the center of us political um identity and... "the united states has not just since october 7, but also in the decades prior to that, made it very clear that there is absolutely no limit, very much uh is a continuation and the result of

this very as the bipartisan regime, both parties call it iron clad support for the israeli regime and which leads to this genocide and now as..." this genocide continues the united states is in addition to all of this military um support and we need to remember of course the israely regime would not be able not only to commit this generic but also probably wouldn't exist without the stone support of the us but in addition to this uh we we get all of these distractions on the political discourse level where the us pretends to be interested in a sease fire and negotiations and uh while it continues to fund this uh this genocide um, so when the united states, no matter if it sells or donates weapons to the us, sorry to the israeli regime, is it also does so in itself interest, because it is eventually responsible for this ongoing genocide in gaza and for the ongoing israeli aggressions on neighboring countries from uh lebanon, syria,

yemen and iran. yeah, i mean, maybe you can help us uh look at this through your lens, zangler, when we take a look at the fact that you have the killings that are... a daily basis and massacurers top of that uh then you have the whole package being announced by the us in terms of military assistance and then you have the talk of the ceasefire. box where just prior to that uh there was the assassination of top hisbollah official along with the assassination of a uh the lead negotiator of uh the palestinian resistance group hamas but yet israel says uh yes we're ready for talks right now can you put those together for us? you you have to be really uh uh creative to put those things together obviously it's it's a comedy it's a comedy that the israelis assassinate the top uh ceasefire nego shader and then say they're into into uh cease fire negotiations, it's a comedy when the americans uh just keep

rehashing the same story about wanting a ceasefire and we're on the cusp of a ceastfire and this is goes for months and months um while providing 20 billion more package uh while continuing to, mean they justified the american biden administration statement about the recent slaughter school um was basically you saying well hama, we know hamas has operated in these areas in the past, so getting very close even justifying uh the massacer uh beyond again providing the weapons and all the other diplomatic cover, so the the mean the even the cease fire what we we sort of get talked about the cease fire, it's all a little bit hazy to me where like the the israelis are going to maybe agree to the seasfire for like six weeks and get get the israelis that are that are captured in in gaza out and then they're going to go right back to bombing again, that seems to be what netanyahu wants and it's

biden, so that what what it's it's really just sort of some sort of pause, the're not actually even calling for an actual cease fire, not not even really serious discussion of that, um, but but the the bigger picture of course is is that if washington wanted a ceasefire, washington needs to impose the ceasefire, and the imposing of the ceasefire is exactly the opposite. of what it's been doing, it has to say stop or we stop the weapon shipment, or more specifically just stop the weapon shipment, and and uh, it needs to start even, just even saying diplomatically, the at the un, they're still kind of blaming hamas for for uh, the lack of uh uh, success of ceasefire negotiations, the they're still lying, even when the new york times is reporting very clearly that it's netanyahu that's been blocking this for months and months. uh the american officials are still publicly declaring what they know is abs absolutely not true, which is is that

the the obstacle is is is hamas, so there's so many different ways in which the the americans are making the whole world uh treating us like idiots uh, obviously the israelis, i mean it's even more crass with them uh, but this is this is you know the us is um is the power source here and it needs to absolutely uh shift gears. "and unfortunately there is no evidence that that's um that's happening anytime soon, sure. well, one of the figures that i left out here, which i want to ask you, daniel, and that is uh yahya sinwar. i left that out the picture, because we know that as soon as he was appointed, which had its own message in terms of the unity of the resistance, um, you had the um israely foreign minister come out and say, we need to assassinate him, and i'll never forget when you had the uh israeli ambassador to the un who held up a card with yahya sinwar's phone number, i'm not too sure if that..." phone number is accurate or not uh, but it's a temptation, but saying that's the man that we need to negotiate with, but

at the same time they call for his assassination. i'm trying to understand what israel's approaches here when it comes to then these uh ceasefire talks. yeah, that's a good question. i don't think there is any logic uh in the approach of the israeli regime other than trying to distract at this point and sort of create this discourse while it continues to commit ' the the genocide um because one of the facts that we've seen now there's a lot of focus on uh the cease fire talks and negotiations whereas of course the genocide continues and it is you know even if you go back to the to the mere question was already mentioned in this conversation uh before about the uh the the cease fire what would a cease fire uh then even mean it wouldn't mean an end to the genocide this genocide is a consequence of this ionist ideology, so um the genocide itself continues

to cease fire talks, can at this point be seen, maybe even as a distraction from it for the israel regime to buy time, and as we've seen it has actually assassinated the other side that it was supposed to negotiate with, at the same time of course we need to keep in mind this is settler colonial uh context in which the settler colonies committing an genocide against the indigenous people, so in this context as well the... ceasefire just in itself seems alarming because it has become normalized rather than uh talking about an actual intervention on behalf of palestinians or imposing sanctions against the israeli regime. and then we find ourselves in a situation where the israeli regime assassinates uh the leader of hamas in another country in tehran in iran and then um claims it's going to assassinate the new leader of hamas so it's very much again the israelis uh very much making fun of this entire situation while they continue to carry

out this genocide because none of these talks have so far um been productive nor have they... uh uh eased any of the tension on the people uh in in gaza. well, it's reach the point where we are looking now uh at ev zangler, the retaliation uh that is uh coming based on all the different pieces of news that we either read or hear about, and that's uh the retaliation to come from hisbollah and from uh the islamic republic. just a military uh point of view, eve zangler, if we were to take a look at a retaliation either from hisbullah or from iran, if they were to focus on uh sending their missiles either one, either one a time, meaning either hisbullah does it its own or the islamic republic does it its own, that would pretty much destroy the israeli regime. isn't that something that the israeli regime has taken into account?

well, they definitely taking into account uh, and what you see is lot of pressure from the us and european countries against iran to uh measure their response. i think that iran and hezbulah slightly different, but iran's in a difficult position because i i think netanyahu clearly wants to start a regional a full-scale regional war and he really wants to draw draw the us into a full-scale regional war, and iran doesn't want that, i think for very good reason. 'iran doesn't want that, i don't think you know millions of people will be killed in that kind of context, both in iran, other countries in the region and and probably in israel and palestine etc. um, but so iran wants to respond in a way that is enough to have some deterrence against these ongoing provocations

and ongoing killings by by israel, but not tip it so far that'. the both the israeli government has the justification they're looking for escalate and and also quite honestly with the israeli public have the sort of need to escalate so if there's a significant number of israelis were killed there will be lot of political pressure on israel escalate against either iran or or or lebanon hezballah so um think it is a really it's a tricky uh position uh the... what biden is trying to now kind of pressure it seems like iran into and i think israel to maybe some extent is to make some sort of exchange uh for an end to the killing in gaza at least temporarily uh in exchange for iran not responding. i i don't think that that's enough for the iranian government. i don't think they're going to agree to that, but but uh maybe they will, maybe they have their own

calculations as well in terms of what they can what they can do and how fearful they are of netanyahu and you now setting up a whole regional war, but but i think that the netanyahu wants escalate, there's a big faction of the israeli um public and security establishment that are they are fanatical people, they want more war, their whole history is just war and more war, more war, and this is um, so i think government is right to be uh cautious, well - i'm going to tell you uh here um daniel in terms of what's biden has said uh iran expected to push off attacking. israel if a gaza ceesfire deal is clinched, the line coming from iran, cease fire negotiations, and i'm reading this because i can't do it any other way, in case i might be sending message, i want to make sure that this is what is said, iran um has said sease fire negotiations, separate issue than retaliation, a promised retaliatory

strike could be delayed, and i underline that word to allow talks to progress, what's you reading into these two two statements? yeah, it's very clear, these are two different uh issues, because the cease fire talks are one thing uh, iran's announce ration is something else, we need to keep in mind that the israeli regime conducted carried out assassination on iranian soil iranian territory, violating iran's sovereignty and a very open aggression against uh iran, and i think that it has been you know obviously communicated very clearly from iran that there will be retaliation. the resistance factions in the region have also identified or announced a retaliation for other assassinations that israel regime has carried out and this is obviously also important. in the context of uh deterrence uh because the israeli regime would otherwise obviously uh continue now when it comes to the um to the

response from the west we see once again that um israeli attacks on iran don't provoke any critical response in the west but rather anticipation of uh an iranian reaction then becomes something that is framed as a potential escalation something that could trigger a rather regional uh all-out war, obviously once again fitting this very western frame in which iran is identified as the source of uh of of any conflict rather than actually being what it is, which is a stabilizing force in the region, it continues to act as a deterrant against israeli regime, because we could also ask the question how far would israelies have gone if it wasn't uh for iran and anti-resistance, so yes to come back to your question, "i think these are you know two separate issues and at the same time the united states continues uh to to talk about the seas fire without actually uh talking about it. all right, another issue we

need to talk about since we're drawing to a close here, but it's pretty important, and that is the economic collapse of some who have said is uh uh something that the israeli regime is experiencing here, eve zengler. you had fish that downgraded israel's credit credit rating just recently, and you also have another uh piece of news that uh shows the depth. the economic crisis for the israeli regime, and that is how 46,00 big businesses actually shut down um since october 7th and up to 60 thousand uh for the year 2024 is projected and there's so many other ways that uh the israely economic crisis is severe and to the point that it's really hemoraging pretty badly um isn't that something israel um should be concerned about, i mean you have people that are migrating out of the occupied territories, you have uh businesses shutting down uh you have a budget deficit. said and you have problems now with uh credit overall, which means selling bonds is not going to be as easy, there's not going to be that many buyers to fund this uh onslot. again,

shouldn't this be point of concern for israel? oh, it's definitely a concern for israel, the economic uh consequences are are substantial uh, the the you know the wall street journal had a big story, front page story a week ago or so about this israeli sold... who's uh a reservist fighting and how his business is collapsed while he's off fighting and uh laid off whole bunch of people and he's now he he has to pay uh he the banks are going to take his business but they while he's in the military there's a reprieve there's some law that says you can't uh go bankrupt while you're you know fighting but whenever he ends he's going to be he's going to be bankrupt and you know there's many many other stories similar to that uh israel is and this is also where the the sort of us support and and stuff becomes important right and that if israel had to pay for all these weapons it's even it's even more difficult to uh to to pull off this level of uh of destruction but the the economic impact

is undoubtedly real uh there's all kinds of people of course 60 thousand plus people who've uh been been displaced from the border with uh with lebanon um these are real economic impacts you have stories online uh one of the i think successes of the of the hold off strategy of of hezballah in iran has been to uh instill a whole bunch of fear among israelis and i i see all these images online of israelis who last recent days out of sort of fear of this attack they're they're leaving the country and there's a you also the airlines uh many airlines shutting down flights yeah all this is having a big impact on on israeli economy and it's important to note that as time goes on this becomes a bigger and bigger issue each each added month, each added, three months becomes even more of economic impact. um, and and uh, but that's why also why it's so important for the the activists and the movements around

the world to ramp up that economic pressure and other countries that have you like turkey that is ability to shut off the oil and stuff like that, all that becomes and obviously yemen's success on the on the on the boats has been important in wrapping up that uh that pressure. thank you very much, we're fresh out of time, danji. author and researcher from beirot, zenger, thank you, author and activist from montreal, thank you to you both. with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight from me cover topway in the team, it's goodbye. as gaza faces the genocide of the israeli occupation, new leader... emerges from the ashes. yahya sinwar, the newly appointed leader of hamas, takes the helm after the assassination of martter ismail han. his rice sends a powerful message to tel aviv. you

took one leader. but even stronger force has risen to lead the resistance, from his underground command center in gaza, senward orchestrates the fight, proving that the resistance is far from over. meanwhile, in washington, narrative of false hope emerges: a prisoner swap and temporary cease fire are touted as steps towards peace, but is it truly an end to the genocide in gaza? senoir leads the resistance, hamas steers the fight, and the world watches this week on the midi stream.