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tv   SPOTLIGHT  PRESSTV  August 23, 2024 10:02pm-10:31pm IRST

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of hello and welcome to spotlight. the us keeps claiming progress. has been made in talks for ceasefire in the gaza strip. at the same time, it keeps funding and arming israel's war machine against the people of gaza, and it also helps tel aviv maintain and strengthen the all-out siege on the palestinian territory. now alongside the uh everyday bombings, the weaponized starvation, and the lack of medicine and basic necessities, gazens faced the threat of a polirus outbreak with the international community incapable of taking meaningful
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action, what options do the palestinians have, but resistance? we'll discuss that more in tonight spotlight with our guests. political, analyst and academic, ali ham joining us from the lebanese capital berut, and we also have actives and political analyst batoti joining us from the british capital london. well welcome to the program to the both of you, let's start off with mr. hamiah in beirot uh and uh let's begin our discussion uh with uh with this horrendous appalling and gut-wrenching genocide that is going on, as we speak just last week, a dark milestone was passed with over 40,00 palestinians, mostly women and children are being slaughtered in cold blood, and of course when the death when when the dust settles the... death toll will definitely be
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much, much higher over 10 months of war crimes, bombings, starvation, sniping, etc., and the international community has sat idly by as these horrors unfold before our very eyes. mr. ham, yes sir, i would like to start to say that "we see that with every visit of us secretary of state to the area, we see new massacers committed by the israeli entity, and we see that they are talking about massacers, they are talking about, we we can say by all means it's not only massacers, it's ethnic cleansing, it's like more than holocaust, it's a certified holocaust that the israeli is committing in a..." and in
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west bank also we have to mention west bank what's going on because we have so many detaines of pow as they want to call them every day that we have in west bank more than 500 now deting nees in the hand of the israeli soldiers they are attacking as as we see that the infrastructure everywhere in gaza uh putting like a war of pressure against hamas because because they cannot uh make like a confrontation against the military wings of hamas in gaza, they attack the civilians destroying hospitals, schools, water tanks, even they attack the uh positions and centers, so they will not, they of they want to make not only to to kill the people, by bombs, but to kill people also not
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to have enough uh medication and treatment in hospitals, because most of hospitals they they have luck and shortage of fuel, doctors and uh equipments, so the israel is trying to not not only to to make a displacement of the palestinian, but it's a certified holocast is done by the israelis. they they have to to mention also that the israelis now are doing what they been called or supported by the american, the american is supporting the israelis to attack and from one hand and the other hand the american are declaring negotiations once in doha, the second time in cairo, and all those is maneuvering and they are trying to destructing the whole world.
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that they are going to to have uh cease fire or so, but it's like some kind of conditions, israeli conditions by the tongue, american tight. and uh, miss sobaiti, i want you to address the issue of uh, the inaction of the international community, which i mentioned earlier uh to mr. hamian, of course, uh, the un, it says a 90% of the gaza population is now displaced, schools and shelters, housing displaced families uh, in gaza, they continue to be targets of the israeli regime, it's also using starvation and hunger as a weapon of war, how is fighting hamas and the resistance in any way tie. inducing famon and hunger on palestinian children in gaza, the israeli onslot and massacre, it was never uh just against the resistance, it was a genocide against all of the people in gaza. do you agree with that? it's exactly as you say, the war is not against the resistance
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persay, it's against the collective palest, against the collective palestinian people, because the people themselves are the resistance, you know, just identifying as a palestinian, you are condemned to death, the contention of the israeli occupation entities with the... entire existence of the palestinian people, because the israeli settlers know they are not the default, and they have essentially stolen this land, in which is people were displaced in 1948, so strategy for continuing the war is really just to create the most unbearable conditions for the palestinian families, i mean you mentioned the targeting of children, that's the most precious thing to to anyone as their children, so they want to really break the palestinian will through the excruciating emotional pain of watching your children get blown to pieces, so they can essentially push for... palestinians to leave, the same as what happened in the nakba, expulsion and population transfer, there's other solution that the israeli occupation entities willing to accept, doesn't want two state, certainly doesn't want a one state, it cannot rebezza with the resistance standing stronger than it was pre october the 7th, ultimately these past months have really just shown the dirty
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face of the capital of the capitalist structure ruling the world and have removed those masks of deception, such a scale of atrocity has not happened since world war ii, you all conventions and... agreements to prevent such a genocide from happening have been shown to be complete lies in front of the real tests that we're seeing materially on the ground. the formation of the entity in 1948 and everything by extension linked to it is the biggest shame for the world because the world superpowers conspired to uproot the palestinians and the world turned a blind eye. so you mentioned the international community here, the hope comes from the resistance front globally as well. that is not the governments, but it's the people of the nations rising against this entity and saying: enough as enough in all forms, from diversment campaigns in universities, to shutting down weapons factories, to challenging in the workplace, fighting the disinformation war and the rest of it. and staying with you, mr. sai, because uh, mr. hamii issue he spoke about the issue of the the peace talks. we know the diplomatic
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efforts have been ongoing over the past months to establish a cease fire in gaza and exchange uh of prisoners between israel and hamas. a deal however is yet to be reached over uh the constant. changing of israeli demands um with regards to the recent negotiations, sources and also interviewed hamas officials say israel has changed its conditions over the last minute, now hamas has always stated that it's committed to the un back proposal that was agreed to early july, and the latest us back text that was conveyed at the end of the doha talks, again they align with the israeli demands, why does israel along with the us? continue to put up new road blocks and obstacles in these talks. his ending is linked with the end of the war and he knows this very well. this war should have been stopped months ago. i don't think anyone could have predicted it for going on for this long, simply because the israeli
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occupation entity is shooting itself in the foot and it's fragmenting more and more with time and it's accumulating defeat. we know that netanyahu is elongating the war because his whole survival is linked to it for that reason. 'even gallant came out and challenged netanyahu's bravery for continuing the war at the expense of the israeli occupation entity, so really netanyahu himself has become an existential threat to the entity, he's also hoping and betting on the fact that they might discover tunnel networks, locate yahya sinwar or achieve something by luck since the entity hasn't achieved anything yet in these past 10 months, and that is with the weakest link of the resistance axis on the ground, and that is hamas, if you consider compared to the whole resistance axis'. and in addition, netanyahu wants to continue to create the most unbearable conditions for the palestinians. also, there's another perspective here, and that is he might want to also touffen the israeli society up, you know, traditionally, the occupation entity is society of luxury, they aren't used to war, and he wants to put the reality in front of
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them, that as society now they are fighting a war of existence and survival, and so netanyahu is resorting to the utmost degree of delay because he knows that america will not abandon the israeli occupation entity. because it is their project and they won't allow their project to be defeated at the hands of the resistance access. i ham, you mentioned the us secretary of state earlier, anti blink and he is issue. a warning calling the ongoing gaza cease fire talks, possibly uh the quote unquote last opportunity to secure a hostage deal. last opportunity indeed, before israel kills more captives by recklessly bombing gaza. that matter itself the captives dying under israeli bombs has been a major point of discontent from within the israeli public itself. we are talking about negotiation that was born dead and see that the american uh supportive of israel by not using the 2000 pound bomb but they are
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allowed to use 1000 pound bomb so it means kill but not uh 200 people at the same time you can kill uh 100 people and massacker 100 people 120 150 but don't do it so widely i think uh about what's going on "the american are, as we know, they ship more than 450 shipments of uh arms, weapons, also ammunitions, military equipments, even the f-35, 40 of them were shipped to the israeli entity, we are talking about the last chance given by the american for the negotiation to be success, i think they are..." bluffing, they are lying, they are trying to put the israeli conditions, when we we are talking
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about only sees fire and exchange of pow, it means this is what israel wants, but the the main goal for hamas is to withdraw first and see fire withdraw and then we talk about the exchanging of pows, so beside that all what the american try to put on the table, it's not true, it's a big lie, they give the israelis more than 10 month to destroy gaza, to demolish the buildings, to erase families from registers and they are trying now to appear as they are mediators, i think from the beginning they called themselves, the american called themselves uh... negotiators, but not mediators, they call themselves
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negotiators and they call uh the arab countries uh as mediators, so there is differences between negotiator which can impose the conditions, and the mediator only as they take the message and try to to make compromise and put the pressure against the palestinian to... accept the israeli's conditions. i don't think this will uh go anywhere. i think the negotiation after what's happening between the israelis and the american and the crowd crowding and pushing with their fleets against gaza on the mediterranean sea and new aircraft carriers. they don't want this uh this fire to happen as the palestinian for the relaxation of. palestinian, they are doing that because israel is in deep uh, in the corner, they
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don't know what to do because they most of their uh military power are now uh collapsing, if you are talking about the armed forces, the infantriries, they are trying to do their best by the uh air air force, this is the best for them to do, killing uh committing. massacres and they have the full support of the united states and even though one when biden declared on 31st of may about the un resolution 2735 for seasfire, the the israeli did not did not implement any or accept any of those conditions and they pushed the the ball on the hands of of uh hamas to say that hamas did not accept it. sure, missowai, the pro-
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palestine demonstrations in the united states, they came into the spotlight again during the democratic national congress in chicago. give us your overall assessment of these demonstrations, with all this anger at home, how come american politicians won't even second guess their support for israel? the opposition against the israeli occupation entity very naturally is becoming. greater with time as we're witnessing all these crimes in front of us, um, but it hasn't reached the point of changing american policies yet. administrations in the west will take this opposition into consideration. i think especially in the long run, it is not in the interest of these of the western establishments to continue supporting the israeli occupation entity, um, given um, you know, the west's need for the israely occupation entity itself will naturally and incrementally be reduced with time, because the entity has proven to be a sheer and utter failure, so my assessment is that the entity naturally with time will match to shrink its
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true size, it cannot be given role greater than what it can perform competently, um, what's the oc entity under netanyahu rejects palestinian control over ghazza and seeks direct control, america and certain western powers are seeking two-state solution. if you consider where we were and where we are, compare the fact that just few years ago, you know, the abraham accords that trump was pushing forward, which which the american establishment accepted, denied and rejected the idea of palestiny statehood, um, but the reality of october the 7th and that shift in power balance has forced the two state solution to be put on the table and the palest. file to be uh recognized and spoken of again after it's been you know placed on the shelf for all of these uh decades um and so america's focus is really on the political settlement ultimately that is what it wants um america wants to see an enter this war it wants to see a cease fire although it is not pressuring the israeli occupation entity right now in particular given the fact that
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it is election period but ultimately the american strategy includes the formation of new government in gaza that is western friendly of course when we say two state quote quote and quote it's not palestinian sovereignty and and defense that that we're talking about over here we're talking about western friendly entity ultimately because it's in america's interest before it's in the israeli occupation's interests to defeat hamas they want to weaken the husan resistance and continue with targeted and limited operations on the ground because the war has been a sheer and otter failure so i think with time uh american support will will shrink uh for the occupation entity but right now especially right now in times of crisis, america cannot but protect the israeli occupation entity because israel is an american project first and foremost, it cannot allow its project to basically collapse at the hands of the resistance and accountability for the failures of israel in defeating the khazan resistance will ultimately happen uh post war. ali ham the
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lebanese resistance movement hezbulah and israel have been trading fire since the beginning of the onslot. on gaza, the uh um tensions have severely escalated recently as israel awaits hezbulah's response to the assassination of its top commander ford shuk, how do you assess uh the height and tensions along the southern lebanese border? do you think that it can spiral into a broader regional war and can the israelis deal with the consequences of a full-blown war with hezbulah and the entire resistance front in the region? we see that the israeli army is about 65000 soldier uh we have about 175 active and we have they have about 500 more than 500 or 475 reserve in reserve and they cannot split their active army between gaza
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and west bank and lebanon. what we see that up to now the uh resistance from lebanon uh they are uh bombarding the israelis by conventional uh weapons, missiles, old missiles, we are talking about 122 millimeters and also 107 millimeters. we are talking about some snipers, we are talking about burkan, falakwan, almas one, two and three, so they still did not use the strategic uh missiles against the israelis, which is hidden just to bombard, in case we have the war expanding, they will hit directly tel aviv and goshdan, so the israeli knows, the the israelies know about by now that up to now the lebanese resistance only
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blind put the israeli and blind destroying and defeating all most of espinache towers. balloons and drones, uavs and even they use their some kind of air defenses against uh fighter jets, israeli fighter jets, but up to now did not did not use uh the the full scale weapons against the israelis, so i think if the uh the israeli entity wants to expand the war, it will go for regional war up to now, first of all the american wants this war to to be happen, but at at the beginning, but now the american are breaking this decision into two phases, i think... between the israelis and the american they have difference different policy but the same goal against the palestinian and against lebanon and the timing is not yet arrived to to have
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a full scale war against lebanon, they know uh for sure that if american or israel uh israeli entity attack lebanon at full scale war or big condensed air raids against. lebanon, i think most of the resistance access will interfere and we have we will have a big regional war may extend to be connected with the war between ukraine and russia, because between both of those fronts that we have the same enemy, maybe we have different doctrines, but we have the same enemy that they are fighting against the russians and we saw what happened in kore and the same... enemy that they are fighting against us and after the yemanies emilate the american navy in red sea and even in the arab
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sea or in eden gulf, we see that they have more encouragement for the russian maybe to help more. mr. vaiti, the israeli military, it has suffered heavy casualties in gaza where we can see the resistance remains strong despite the months. the israeli aggression there, since late october when the israeli invasion of gaza started, the regime uh has acknowledged the death of over 330 of its troops in the ground fighting, of course, the palestinian resistance group say israel is under reporting its casualties, and the actual figure is much higher, so the israeli said they want to destroy hamas, which they haven't, uh, they wanted to release the captives, which has not happened. they said that the war would make israel safer. which has not happened as well, has this military campaign in gaza been a huge failure across the board for the israelis? absolutely, as army reserved general yitzak break stated,
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you know the entity will collapse within a year of war against the ghazan and lebanese resistance continues, and he literally verbatom stated that israel is sinking deeper into the haz and mud, losing more and more soldiers. uh, the resistance now is a point where it was much stronger than it were pre october the 7th, the current fragmentation within the... entity has reached a stage where it is on the verge of a civil war, there is not a single point of unity within the entity, even with their master america, so it's become clear that the entity has not achieved any single one of its declared goals, this has been compounded by the cowardice that the entity suffers with direct confrontation on the ground, and this ultimately is a reflection of the border weakness of the israeli settler society, it's a society of luxury and investment, it's not a society of war, they have no deep affiliation to the stolen lands and most settlers have alternative countries from where they... come from, so the costs of the war have also been manmith, and there's a real threat to their production and service sectors overall across the entity. this is compounded with the social divisions that we
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see amongst the population on major issues, and if you consider the fact that the occupation regime is now begging for the west to form a coalition to protect it, to to protect it against iran, to protect it against lebanon, as though the primary function of the west is to protect the israeli occupation entity, rather the israeli occupation entity was greater to protect western. interests and america is now bringing all of its forces and all of its power to the region to intercept the incoming drones and missiles. this also shows you how strong the iranian deterrence is. the fact that half of america's warships and fleets and fighter jets have to be brought to the region standing its toes, not knowing when iran is going to throw those missiles into the entity is enough proof about the strength the deterrance of the resistance access. all right, thanks lot. that's all the time we have for tonight's show. uh, ali hamy academic and political analyst. joining us from the lebanese capital bayrut, activist and political analyst batoti, joining us from the british capital, london, thank you for your comments and also special thanks to our viewers for staying with us tonight's
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spotlight. it's goodnight for now and see you next time. they have memories of uphill battle with a now executed iraqi dictator saddam hussein and is now defunct baptist regime and the like who saw to stifle the pilgrimage. today, centuries old arbain walk is still alive thanks to those who serve the pilgrims of imam hussain from across the world.
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israel's intense attacks kill nearly dozen palestinians in gaza where the total death turneers 40,300. yeminies observe another friday of nationwide rallies in support of the palestinian people in the gauza strip and also eight people including six hesbala members are killed in israel air strikes in southern lebanon.