washington my mission peace in the middle east so will this quartet be able to get israel and palestine to sing the same tune. we don't risk u.s. default. on our obligations. because we can't put politics aside but politics sure have not stopped washington from flirting with a deadline so with more field that talks over the weekend what will really happen if the u.s. does default. and friends with benefits as corporate leaders cuddle up to politicians today the chamber of commerce job summit why does

a good job still so hard to find. from takes to grenades exactly who are u.s. police serving and protecting with stockpiles of military hardware. good evening it's monday july eleventh eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lyster and your watching r t well history might be in the meeting at a diplomatic dinner happening right now according to the state department at the state department hosted by secretary of state hillary clinton right here in washington just a short distance though it's not registering much of a blip on the mainstream media radar it's important nonetheless right here a major effort is being made to kick start the stalled israeli palestinian peace talks representatives from the middle east diplomatic quartet are meeting now this is made up of the u.n. russia the e.u. and the u.s. we'll get to a discussion of the ongoing peace talks and what's at stake but first you may

recall the negotiations ground to a halt last year when israel failed to renew a partial freeze on settlement construction in the west bank argues post there gives us a firsthand look at some of the stakes in the debate over settlements with a look at the old arab village of lift. this sort of the mountains of jerusalem are the remains of a once bustling community only the memories of those who once lived here have survived intact i feel no need for the comeback i thought to be. my village. to see the hobson's the world through this rain also to remind me my father. got caught up among the cacti and fick trees but in one nine hundred forty eight just before the state of israel was declared his family evacuated and like the hundreds of villages that disappeared in forty eight and sixty seven most of the

original houses of lifter are still here so they really were heard shooting and south. side they will shoot you they begin with the whole caboodle hold to the hopi they will shoot you they were our another group inside the room in a corner and they did so as the brigade. us because one of seven hundred thousand palestinians who became a refugee in one nine hundred forty eight his childhood home was quickly absorbed by the newly established jewish state almost new people as the man who lived his house in london for new probabilistically was forced to do just because. we hadn't. considered as absentee and he lost the property in nearly nine hundred fifty s. jews moved into the abandoned homes like you only your comments parents they were also refugees fleeing arab countries will likely become dangerous after israel was created the israeli government sent him to live in lifter your nieces to prevent

arab owners from returning when they came here and therefore live here years without water without electricity to come here it goes on for the first memory here as a very important most of the original two hundred jewish families lived because life in the mountains was difficult and the government was slow to develop the area no one has lebanese how those for forty six years all that remains are stone walls where wild flowers and grass now grow lifter is empty. and it's into that emptiness that the israeli government now plans to build more than two hundred luxury homes and she kotel shops and a museum insisting they'll preserve the area's history we will find ourselves with a neighborhood where history has been conserved there will also be documentation and the story will be told of who lived there as we do in all the neighborhoods of jerusalem but really lucky i could say it's palestinian land and

a double injustice why are you one roy away. and when. yanni. for everything we will came from anywhere in this where why i come in my village and come back. down back to my precinct and live. with. me and so and. so i'm going for kind of stimulants lift it is a physical the mind of injustice and survival but for a fair number of israelis it's an eyesore and they'd rather not be reminded of what happened here every time they drive into jerusalem policy r.t. lifted. and joining us now from more in the studio is brian becker national coordinator of the answer coalition you've also been involved in activism. in this conflict for the palestinian cause cracked that's right in in in two thousand and

two after the israelis reinvaded the west bank the answer coalition held the largest demonstration ever in u.s. history one hundred thousand people same of the palestinians must have their rights including the right to return home ok and not something that you know both sides agree on t.j. solution but within the needs quartet there is a lot of differences of opinion opinions on what that means and how to get there and what members are willing to do in order to put pressure on israel in a situation like in settlements so what is really the point of the mideast quartet as there is an analysis that arafat in effect as a global mediator well i think from your right there are different different desires different agendas within the quartet from the u.s. government point of view the purpose of these renewed hearts is to put pressure on the palestinian authority which having received nothing from the israelis and nothing from the americans during the past years seeing israeli settlements growing

and expanding in spite of president obama's promise that this that there would be a halt freeze and settlement construction in the spring in spite of the fact that the siege of gaza has taken so much in spite of the fact that the israelis are claiming all druce on for themselves the united states government recognizes that they are in a crisis because the postilion authority which has been acting fundamentally as a proxy for the united states in the last few years has become discredited largely within the palestinian community within palestine within the historic palestinian borders within the west bank and gaza and they have reunited with hamas that means that instead of acting as a proxy for the united states they're recognizing that the traditional palestinian resistance forces must be reforged in order for the palestinian dream. of a return to their homeland in the creation of a palestinian state that you realize so the u.s. is using these talks actually to pressure the palestinian authority to break from hamas and come back in the u.s.

for what is the likelihood of peace talks getting back to the table and how much is it stake in the quartet think that in doing that because i know one of the other of read on there is that the impetus for these talks now is that if the tambour the palestinians are pushing for a vote in the u.n. on recognizing palestine and that the quartet if that is and then can get by the international community on this and that that if they protest for getting them back to the table for talks now how important is that happening now i think it's very important i think it's not that the world would be divided in fact the world would unite if there was a vote at the general assembly recognizing the legitimacy of palestinian statehood it would pass overwhelmingly and because of that the israelis and their american sponsors are doing everything possible to to convince the palestinian authority and the other palestinian anthony's not to have a resolution introduced in september at the u.n.

general assembly which would recognize the validity of palestinian statehood so right now they are using the talks to do several things one is the talks take place in the context with the united states has cut funding to the palestinian authority about one hundred fifty thousand palestinian authority employees are getting no pay or very little pain in july there's a desperate condition because rallies are going quickly forward with more west bank settlements and united states are saying to the palestinian authority unless you get back on track with the american government unless you drop your your desire to have a general assembly vote for palestinian statehood unless you come back into the fold then the americans will offer you nothing in return so even though they've delivered nothing to the palestinians they're now same come back to the bargaining to. will but the bargaining table as we know from the palestinian papers those we licked leaked documents from wiki leaks the palestinian authority gave the israelis for all of jerusalem gave up the right of return allowed settlements to continue

and still the israelis just laughed at them and said thanks but no thinks so but at sanish different now because this keep three to an empath over the same issues over settlements but yet you don't see members of the mideast quartet and being a light at how to address the settlements you see for example just and beg you ari about the un security council to condemn none and the united states was you know did not take part not a veto you know they were the only member that did that so is that a hindrance to this process i think that we're i think in that in terms of the big picture the arab spring the change in egypt in particular in egypt with its eighty three million people who who really don't want to continue to be partners with israel and sponsoring the siege of gaza or the the war against the palestinian people that's what scared me in a new impetus to the palestinian struggle to have something new happen it can't be one simply within the borders of the west bank or gaza or even historic palestine

what we now call israel so the american government in particular which is the primary sponsor of israel which gives israel three billion dollars a year the largest recipient of of u.s. foreign aid they realize that israel can become increasingly isolated so they're trying to come up with some solution but the solution is not acceptable to the broad mass of the palestinian people because it means giving up the rate of return giving all of jerusalem to israel and allowing these west bank settlements to continue so there's they're between a rock and a hard place they need a settlement but as long as they're following the israeli agenda or supporting the israeli agenda which has its own narrow. aims to guard what we're in more palestinian territory there can't be a resolution so where will the palestinians look they won't work america will give up with that they'll start to look at him. shipped to tunisia to jordan to the people within the region who themselves are in a state of operas in and who have been in a inherent sort of solidarity with the palestinians is the yes or no if the quartet

is not successful in bringing israel and palestine together to negotiate a peace talk tables in the next few weeks they are dead they failed as global mediators i think they have failed i think i think it's really not about mediation i think it's about pressuring the palestinians the palestinians are being driven to i would say channels they're going to go to the u.n. if they can they're going to look to their arab sisters and brothers for another resolution so the u.s. has been relying on the palestinian sort of upper crust but that's crumbling because the israelis give nothing in return that's interesting we'll have to wait and see what happens but we appreciate your insight while talks are going on right now a working dinner and we're told with a quartet that was brian becker national coordinator of the answer coalition and from concerns over collapsed peace talks and concerns over financial collapse is the united states three weeks away from that very scenario of financial collapse well that's what some argue the u.s. is getting closer to with its failure to raise the country's support team point three trillion dollar debt ceiling now despite another week another weekend as well

a failed that talks between bomb makers president obama had a press conference today and he's still pushing for a big long term solution here's what he said i'm happy to consider all options alternatives but they're looking at the things that i will not consider are a thirty day or a sixty day or a ninety day or one hundred eighty day. temporary stopgap resolution to this problem this is the united states of america and you know we don't manage our affairs here in three month increments. you know we don't risk. us default. on our obligations. because we can't put politics aside now this coming from officials who have really not been able to put politics aside they've missed several deadlines to raise the debt ceiling and are trying to agree on all of this still just three weeks before default when

international investors such as the chinese are already concerned rating agencies have all expressed concern saying that the credit rating of the u.s. is threatened obama and many other lawmakers say washington have to raise the debt ceiling period but what happens if it doesn't wall to shed some light earlier i spoke with peter schiff he's president of euro pacific capital and i asked him as someone who doesn't want the corporate tax rate he wants it lowered someone who says the united states has to tackle deficits if he would risk default in order to achieve achieve some of those principles. first of all i think this is a ruse i mean the fact that we're talking about the gulf at all merely proves that the fall is inevitable eventually the only question is what or business the fall take and when does it happen but if the president was really concerned about the fall if congress was concerned about the ball what they would be saying is don't worry there is no way we will stop making payments on our debt we will cut

everything else first we'll cut social security we'll cut medicare we will prioritize interest payments and principal payments on the national debt if they said that then default would be a risk they only want to use the specter of the fall so that they can have a justification for raising the debt ceiling the reality is the best thing that we can do for this country is not raise the debt ceiling and you know maybe of congress goes down the debt ceiling increase the stock market might sell off just like the ways sold off when the congress originally rejected the tarp but that was the right thing to do and oftentimes the markets make the wrong move and a knee jerk reaction but if you really are concerned about that isn't spending which i am the only way to stop it is to stop it in its tracks so these are just excuses that the government is making and and first of all we have precedents for the fall we default that and i think seventy one you know if you own a u.s. treasury bond in one hundred seventy for every thirty five dollars you had the united states government promised to give you one ounce of gold and then the

default on that promise we told our creditors we're not going to give you any gold for your transfers and it was a catastrophic result it was a nine hundred seventy it was a runaway a stagflation the price of oil went up ten fold because we defaulted on that promise so another recession interest rates going higher profit board for americans are these consequences that you see in the consequences of the fall if the united states doesn't reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling the worry it we're going to another recession regardless here we're going we're we're still in the depression but. the fault is not an automatic consequences. of not raising the debt ceiling the governess collecting over two trillion dollars a year in taxes i think the interest payments on the national debt are actually three hundred billion a year much of the exact number but we have roughly ten times the money we need so the only way we will default on our obligations right now we might do it eventually but the only way we're in the fall bomb in august is if congress and the president

choose to do that because there is plenty of money and you know it's the stick because that president obama obama is making right now that's what's threatening our congress because he is telling bondholders that they are the low man on the totem pole the one with a because ok ok i hear you're saying how easy it is saying that you know what everybody is saying that the debt ceiling has to be raising us cannot just fall isn't that because aiming to reassure markets is not reassuring anybody he is telling our creditors the minute we cannot borrow any more money we will stop paying back the money we've already borrowed you see the debt ceiling is about a self-imposed borrowing limit but what happens when our creditors impose a lending limit what happens when china says i don't want to lend you any more money then what we were already told what happened then we're going to fall then we're not going to pay back any of the money that you've already loaned us we are saying to the whole world this is a gigantic ponzi scheme what the president should be saying what congress should be

saying is we will honor our debts don't worry at all there is no chance of default we will make cars in other spending but that's not what we're saying we are telling our creditors that people who get so security checks are more important than people who buy u.s. treasuries are they are they are they are americans who rely on social security more important to america then bondholders their investors than us that of course they are and they're more important to politicians because foreigners don't vote that's why they should not be saying that this is very dangerous for the president to admit how weak the position is for our foreign creditors that we were. pass that aside the minute paying interest on the day it conflicts with making social security payments with the dollar was backed by gold but we promise to pay old people lou they will always get bal you for years because we're going to pay them in gold but when we defaulted in the one nine hundred seventy one if you don't promise to pay anything of value so the only thing that gives treasury value is the

belief that we are going to have a sound monetary policy but basically what the president said just go to the middle we got a problem we're not going get any money or just the great mass of inflation and you're not going to get the burgeoning growth you don't get golden investors are still waiting to see whether they're going to get paid on their debts that was peter schiff president of euro pacific capital and all of the debt discussions and the tricks on capitol hill where is the talk of jobs we cannot forget friday june jobs report showing unemployment is only getting worse well there is a discussion happening but you can decide if it sounds like it will help the situation meeting today about jobs with the chairman of the president's council on jobs and competitiveness who is c.e.o. of g.e. jeff immelt now he's also known for heading jeanie that company that famously paid no taxes last year and which said u.s. jobs law adding them overseas under general watch now this was also at the chamber of commerce which is one of the largest business lobbies in washington and included

there too were politicians now earlier i spoke with labor journalist mike elk and i first asked him what interest these folks all have in job creation. they keep as few workers employed as possible and keep them working as much as possible and for as little as possible that's looming these people have no real desire for humans they see human capital with merely another commodity not something that they really see any social value so i mean they don't have much interest in job creation but the they need one over the long run if they want to sell one of the products but i think increasingly what you're seeing in the u.s. is that a lot of companies feel that they don't have to invest in american or because of global markets or expanded well yet you have middle classes that are burgeoning in brazil and india they can buy you know washing machines or whatever g.e. products but come on this is him and he is the jobs are there you want to create jobs i mean other plants i mean i mean he has a plan but if you look at his plan for dean just as asian in america you have to remember his mentor jack welch is the head of g.e.

said you know i wish you could put factories on a barge so that you can ship them anywhere around the world wherever leverage cheapest and you know more has continued in the tradition of the c c g he should twenty nine jobs overseas or twenty nine plans since obama's taking office and thousands of jobs and thousands of jobs and on top of that he just got you know huge wage cuts to workers at general electric was part of their negotiations so i really don't think jim was a credible person and i wonder why the president is even working well let's switch gears to talk a little bit about then job creation and industrialization in this country we have seen a little bit of a rise and auto manufacturing we've seen a little bit of a rebound and i'm curious you know some of this job creation in some of these plants for example you see foreign companies foreign automakers coming over volkswagen they opened a plant in tennessee last month two thousand workers were hired that's an example why do you think they opened their plant in tennessee versus say detroit where there's a trained workforce or the automakers were part of the reason they did it was the

massive amounts of infrastructure investment that they get there in kind of city i mean massive amounts of cleaning stimulus money they've got to open up plant which is which is really ironic since they're senator bob corker. against the stimulus targeted for the stimulus money for the plan all right but what about growing the system might some of these rates knowing that you know i mean isn't that why companies would go to a state like that as opposed to someone like it's right you know it's nonunion but the interesting thing is that why has already signaled its willingness to the united auto workers to have in for a new election happening so there's a lot of interest in talk to you is the only foreign auto maker in this country that doesn't screen out members that were previously union member so and germany has always had a probably or rights record and the last four to employ it was in america in greensburg pennsylvania this is in the eighty's my mother actually worked there was a union shop shovel too it was always when i would have you know shaft i was labor journalist michael gets the whole thing on line and as we've heard the u.s. is broke there's a scarcity of jobs but the department of defense has the money to pass down hand me

down weapons to the police plus of them why has the department of defense given millions of military weapons and armor carriers to civilian police forces across the country and why have paramilitary swat rates increased by more than a thousand percent over the last few decades well earlier to get some answers i spoke with independent journalist rania colic she investigated this all in a recent article and i asked her how much of the distinction between the civilian police force and the military what separated very distinctively by law has been eroded is that she said. well there's a little bit of a distinction about basically what happened to rocky and i go back to first one thought he was worth and that he did back in sixty is. unusually strong teams were going to reaction to you know we don't like your way about hijackings and and bank robberies and hostages generations where you needed to have extreme force to come into your situation and they were pretty popular corrupt seventieth's because they

weren't used very often and now there's like what he thinks percent of swat teams are actually are actually trained by active duty military personnel. in russia ration so there's also the surplus the military surplus program that was as delegated throughout the eighty's and ninety's where you got equipment from the military that was no longer being used given to that long course so it was some of the stuff like that and you know when i say like that and there's also armored personnel vehicles and machine guns and i called helicopters and some cave so you have a situation where local dog has the only being trained by the military but it's also dressing up like the military it's weaponized like the military is a sort of you know really good let me get in iran as because i want to have a little bit more of a discussion about this one of the arguments for this kind of militarization is to protect police death and violence against police is something that you mention in

your article so what is wrong with that that justification could you seem to believe there is one well there's nothing wrong with wanting to protect belief and of course they should be protected however a lot of people trying to make the case that we need to militarize the police because pilots against police officers have gone up astronomically and there's actually isn't the case in fact of violent violent crime in america have gone down and been on a downward trend and on top of that the f.b.i. collects data and you will be interested in the uniform crime reports about how many police officers actually been killed and assaulted and that number has to be pretty constant especially good luck that it's been around fifty police officers that year that have been killed in that i mean it's not good but at the in time that's not increasing but that if that's been going on over the last decade and you argue that this military data has been going on for longer than that last several decades and along with the violent crime then can you make a case that it is this militarization that has decreased this violence against police and the violence overall well but i mean that's not the case because again

like again violent crime is gone down and violence against police has pretty bad been pretty much constant washington all tradition of police actually. sleep violence rather than deescalate it which is apparently the idea of it because we have a heavily armed police. like swat team raiding people's homes all the time i mean there's a lot of instances where people believe their homes are being broken into and somebody might be going to try to cut their gun and try and protect themselves and that leads to somebody getting killed usually the person who's being raided so they're in there it hasn't got any correlation between the idea that militarizing the police force has led to what least being being jailed is in a box people end up being killed and hurt in the process that was independent journalist ranya colic and sticking with injustice the british royal couple were in los angeles over the weekend and it was such a big deal for the u.s. mainstream media that look at this they had to break in with it who live footage of

their arrival during a discussion on the jobs report that was on c.n.n. john king just one example of the reaction but are he's wrong glenda found plenty more he showed us the fervor and so cal over kate's wardrobe among things and also he took a look at the real impact of royalty on skid row we're going to visit him. the british newlywed during japanese labor talks town television news stations went all out to cover every single step the do conventions of cambridge to los angeles to mamma she stepped up and. walk out the red carpet made last night in los angeles the new duchess of cambridge have been wowing her style on the final day of the royal couple's visit the media to send it on skid row where the neighborhoods homeless couldn't be less excited about work it is wearing chemical. you know and space for their business or here in america ok perhaps excited is not the best

way to describe this a bit carlos the homeless veteran is disgusted with the media frenzy surrounding the royal newlyweds visiting this poverty stricken area. and trying to do something for him some of the royal spectators have traveled hundreds of miles for a trance. here on skid row now this is a neighborhood where many of these people would otherwise never set foot in what would you tell them if they came up here to talk about. i would cry a little bit and be very excited and then i would just tell them thank you for coming to wrap up their trip the rose couple visited with poor children and unemployed veterans in one of los angeles's most desperate disadvantage areas but it's been the more glamorous parts of willing kate's visit finally back has served

as a distraction from all the hard to swallow stories like young going debt ceiling talks the wars in afghanistan iraq and libya the foreclosure crisis and who can forget the salacious casey anthony trial i think the visit the visit is another example of the corporate press and corporate media. essentially using the opportunity. for ratings and they're going to focus on issues that they know going to generate ratings they know. fashion items and i walk is wearing who made her dress it's estimated more than fifty thousand people are without a home or meal each night in los angeles county many of those are homeless veterans like carlos who have a tough time talking about the obvious attention on skid row but perhaps after the dust settles and will and kate say their goodbyes maybe the mainstream media and paparazzi will step around to see the real.