the declaration of war officials have described the latest israeli airstrike the military research center near damascus was pummeled with rockets early sunday morning the arab league has condemned the strike demanding action from the u.n. won't do k. calls for an end to the arms embargo on the opposition saying peace in the region is now under threat. in a court has sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen years in jail for throwing bombs during regime riots last year our top stories this hour.

the look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly here on. syria israel has effectively declared war after its planes bombed targets in damascus the second airstrike in as many days syria's state media says israeli rockets targeted a military research center on the outskirts of the capital video footage an eyewitness account suggests the attacks hit weapons dumps triggering large explosions syria says a number of people were killed and wounded amid widespread destruction the arab league has condemned the strikes and demanded the u.n. security council act to stop any more meanwhile a t.v. station run by lebanon's hezbollah militant group showed images of what it claimed was the site of an israeli air strike in syria this unverified footage was reportedly taken at the site of a military research facility. after the attack in the center itself appears not to have been hit the strike apparently left a major road filled with and shell casings. middle east correspondent paula slim

has more tension on the ground is. leasing and increasing by the hour the syrian information minister. said after a special cabinet meeting that syria will not accept a breach of its sovereignty all of its security and that all options were on the table syrian officials say that they've turned syrian artillery also to face towards israel the syrian deputy foreign minister finds alarm said the alleged israeli attack on syria is addictive ration of war now make that has said that syria will retaliate against israel in its own time and in its own way meanwhile iran which has a defense agreement with syria says it will respond to alleged israeli airstrikes on sunday morning and it's also urging neighboring countries to stand up to israeli aggression we haven't heard anything so far from the israeli government the israeli military also continues to refuse to either confirm or deny the reports that are

detect syria in the early hours of sunday morning israel however has declared the north of this country a no fly zone to civilian flights this is a precaution that's also a way of defusing the situation and for allowing it to be allowed in for the defense missile system to be put into place the iron dome is being deployed in the north of israel it's aimed at protecting northern israeli cities from short range missiles that could be fired from either levanon also both the mayor of haifa which is israel's largest city in the north is also taking steps to potentially increase the level of readiness of the cities citizens meanwhile the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu held an emergency security cabinet meeting that meeting adjourned without any statements in fact the only statement we've heard from the israeli prime minister was after his weekly cabinet meeting on sunday morning and he did not comment on the strikes the only thing he said was reiterating his

commitment to israel security they were earlier that a senior and named israeli official conversion confirmed that tel aviv was responsible for sunday's strikes that would be the third strike inside syria that israel has carried out since january this year. egypt has condemned the israeli air strikes on syria with the arab league also demanding action from the u.n. security council the league says there's been a dangerous violation of an arab states sovereignty article two of the united nations charter bans the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state a u.s. white house spokesman meanwhile has said that obama feels israel is justified in his concerns over the threat from hezbollah what is go to church card in washington and party boyko in london told us more earlier about the reaction coming from the u.k. and the u.s. . the u.k. foreign secretary has said that this latest israeli air strike is making the case

stronger for lifting the e.u. arms embargo on the syrian opposition according to william hague this recent escalation of the conflict shows that there's a real risk that the violence could spread outside of syria and into the wider middle east of course this isn't the first time that the u.k. has called for an end to this e.u. arms embargo in fact it's become somewhat of a regular occurrence this is just the latest reason that they're citing for providing extra assistance to the syrian opposition and we know that germany has to provide extra weapons to provide weapons to the syrian opposition we also know that yet the united nations have begun reservations about it they say that flooding the region can only create more violence underscores many international observers of been keen to point out that arming the syrian rebels could have some very dangerous consequences for the wider region and for israel of course as well

a lot of people are still very wary of what took place in libya the libyan scenario when weapons flooded out from. these army and into mali and algeria into neighboring countries there still a lot of problems to do with that so it's a lot of countries are very fearful about making that mistake again gaia to you know are there any indicators that the you are about israel's attacks in advance the u.s. and israel according to both governments work very closely in terms of intelligence gathering so it is difficult to believe that washington didn't know anything about israel's plans to bomb damascus the question that is very much unclear at this point is whether the strikes were really about hezbollah or whether it was an intervention into the civil war in syria the sources in the u.s. government on officially call for strikes just as they did. days ago when said they were targeting weapons headed for hezbollah in lebanon the meskins sees it

differently they see the strikes is an attempt to boost the morale as they say of the rebels whether or not the strikes were actually intended as an intervention into the syrian civil war they may affect it anyway there is another concern the strikes are based on some secret information and also the weapons heading somewhere even television or washington have officially confirmed anything and many worry that we're stepping into the spirit gray area worse right against another country can be carried out in absolute secrecy the strikes come days after the u.s. defense secretary said washington is rethinking its position on or mean the rebels the defense secretary did also say he personally has not decided whether he would be wise to provide weapons to the rebels he said the administration is looking at a range of options at the moment as you can see there is nothing definitive in the administration's remarks at this stage but put together the events of this week which now include the israeli strikes may have created

a certain momentum and this kind of momentum could actually bolster the forces on the ground and result in more violence in a country where it's already devastating israel has closed part of his myspace to civilian aircraft following those strikes on syria but his asia terms. told me a little earlier the attacks are merely plan b. if the u.s. and other nations fail to accomplish their mission in syria. if anybody believes that any saying israel does in the middle east it does not go so the americans later you know group back to play in the garden go back to kindergarten it doesn't work like this in the real world they did it because they were concerted with the obama administration which is in a bind at the moment they cannot intervene directly in syria they know that the support for the so-called rebels all the different strands of the rebs is going nowhere because they're likely retreating instead of adventuring so israel with

this provocation there will be for a response either from syria either from hezbollah all or better yet from the point of view of the obama administration and israel from iran so if iran and syria don't do anything for the moment they just wait you do this will be seen as it is just a provocation but if there is you know the slightest bit of a response from either syria or iran that's the perfect prick text fred what do you need shock and awe against syria just how dangerous is this situation now is this really a sign of what everybody be worried about is the sparking of a regional conflict just briefly. yes absolutely and in fact this proves among other things how desperate this so-called coalition of the willing us brits friends saudi arabia qatar and turkey with what's going on inside syria they were expecting of our share of government to collapse in a few months it's over two years it's still in place there are no major defections you know they still control the business classes in damascus in aleppo it's still

there it could fight for a long time and they want a quick resolution so they use israel as a proxy it's the perfect foil you know and they can blame israel in fact the arabs the arab league which nowadays is a manics of nato the other blaming israel saudi arabia is into it as well because the u.s. the saudis that israel is they are actually arming the rebels as well they see that it's going nowhere ok let's activate plan b. let's start bombing syria and see if they respond. well earlier my colleague researchers spoke to me told him he's a correspondent for israel's had its newspaper he believes the airstrike is justified as a preemptive attack to ensure the nation's security this is part of the israeli policy which you can describe as pownce but do not announce don't let the syrian regime transfer its surface to surface missiles and surface to air missiles to

because of allah but don't brag about it so while the reason no official confirmation you can take you almost as face value when you hear the u.s. side confirm it officially what about the legality of israel bombing syria like this without even a un mandate i mean how do you expect the international community to react to this well the israeli and syrian governments have been paying a fragile cease fire for the last forty years however next door in lebanon on the lebanese government does not control hezbollah and has well i want to take these arms from syria and position them with eleven and while you may say that flying over a lebanese space is not exactly according to international law this is nitpicking and while there are many reasons on other aspects to be critical of israeli policy

it does seem that this time around it is quite balanced because only trying to prevent and preamp further conflict so i'm so you talk about the israeli airstrike the passive explosion you call this a balanced reaction to unconfirmed reports that the syrian officials are moving surface to air missiles to hezbollah which they are denying at the time you call it balanced ok let me clarify first of all the reason of course and regrettably so a massacre going on in syria has gone on for the last two years. many thousands of people being killed others perhaps in the hundreds of thousands being uprooted and now being refugees across the border and what israel is trying to prevent is another lebanon war this is perhaps a minor our price to pay. in order not to pay the bigger price of the killing and we have our which will be read by another lebanon war so let's see

what you think about these air strikes on syria and what you feel is the agenda behind israel's actions well these are the responses so far on our online poll of r.t. dot com it's on our home page be good to hear from you haven't already done so log on and tell us what you think so far the response is a here on screen forty four percent believe this israel carrying out west implants to help the syrian opposition thirty three percent believe this is indeed an undeclared war now on syria sixteen percent believe this is not a message just being sent to syria but also a message to iran bigger regional implications play here and finally seven percent believe that israel is defending itself against the threats from has been our well antiwar activist jim brann he says that israel won't face any repercussions from the international community because the influence that america has on the un security council any intervention of that kind is is going to make the situation

worse as well as being a violate basic violation of international law which clearly israel strike today and the previous ones have been as well but william hague is justifying his favorite method of intervention which is arming the one side in the in the fight on the basis that israel is pursuing its favorite method of intervening which is bombing and it's completely unacceptable syria will be very careful in this because i think it's probably an israeli provocation anyway it may well be that. to retaliate all it's trying to provoke hizbullah into retaliating and remember that israel has a very serious court to settle with a smaller because twice once in the year two thousand and once in the year two thousand and six hizbollah inflicted a very serious defeat on israel so israel certainly wants to get this ball and the united states has vetoed i think forty four united nations security council

resolutions concerning israel when they get anywhere near. cramping israel's ability to carry out the strikes that we've seen lately so at the end of the day i'm sure that the united states would simply veto any u.n. security council resolution with teeth and in a way you can say that perhaps some of these voices in the region know that perfectly well we're also closely monitoring developments in the region all line at all dot com. live here in moscow with a weekly late to find out why dozens of bahraini protesters got fifteen year jail terms and how europe may day with tear gas and water cannons all this after the break. every detail. every piece of metal.

and every one of those who will step on the red square on the ninth of may are ready. for the big three day parade. want the live coverage on r t. critic three. three. three. three. three. three. video for your media project a free media party dot com. he

continues here on r.t. a court in bahrain is sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen years in prison each their all aged between sixteen and thirty four and have been found guilty of carrying out for a bomb attacks during the government protests which engulfed the kingdom last year one of the lawyers claims his client was tortured until he gave a false confession that monica has been widely criticized for its vonage suppression of protests rallies you seek capital has more. this group of thirty one protesters as you said is aged roughly between sixteen and thirty four so you can imagine for the sixteen year olds this is an incredibly hefty sentence they all come from island in the northwest part of the country which has been the hotbed of protests that have rocked since early twenty the eleven now these protesters have

been sentenced on a range of charges including for example setting a car on a flyer protesting possession of petrol bombs and also attempted murder this is according to the lawyers but the protesters deny the charges they say that they're innocent and they in fact claim that they were coerced into confessing in order to get these charges now the background to all of this is these escalating protests that we've seen in bahrain that as i mentioned began in two thousand and eleven basically what you have is ongoing unrest with the majority of shiites in the country demonstrating and demanding a greater voice in the political system that has been ruled by the sunni monarchy ruled in many ways with an iron fist these protesters allege and so what began as peaceful gatherings people taking to the streets to protest has really transformed into what we've seen in many cases brutal crackdowns by the police with tear gas being used mass arrests of protesters in fact one of the most best known cases of people when the regime essentially cracking down on some of the protesters was the case of libya where job who was actually interviewed here on our t.v.

by giuliano song and in august twenty twelve he was actually sentenced to three years in jail for participating in one of these protests so a lot of human rights activists say that this and i'm tenable situation that these people are really stepping out to demand democracy but they've really been met with an iron fist so well of course continue to washy see how this situation develops but it's quite possible that the sentence the sentencing of these thirty one protesters could spark fresh arrest in that country. and jay a political analyst eric draitser says bahrain's u.s. ties means it's able to deal with the uprising any way it sees fit but the people of bahrain have been ruled by one single family of a minority in the country so if you're talking about the vast majority of that country having lived in a state of disenfranchisement for their entire lives and they see and remember that bahrain was in many ways the the kernel at the very beginning of the arab spring

and the struggle that has continued in bahrain since that early part of two thousand and eleven gets no attention in the western media primarily because as i and many people listening already know bahrain is a client of saudi arabia which is a client of the united states bahrain houses the u.s. fifth fleet bahrain is central to the u.s. imperial plans for the region and for that reason the democracy upsurge in bahrain has been marginalized while the fraudulent uprising in syria has been glorified this illustrates the hypocrisy of the united states and the hypocrisy of its policy in the region. this week workers around the world joined a day of protests against unemployment poor salaries and violations of their rights a number of may day rallies in particular made headlines in turkey there was violence with police resorting to tear gas and water cannons against angry crowds

at least twenty eight injured and dozens were arrested and these here are pictures from barcelona where the rally was also marred by clashes with police thousands took to the streets throughout the whole of spain protesting against austerity and unemployment which is at record highs and may day protests as march in athens as well all part of a twenty four hour walk following the recent cutback of fifteen thousand public sector jobs and it comes as the e.u. faces the prospect of another year of recession and job losses according to the latest forecasts now these are the three countries with the highest unemployment rates in the eurozone in greece over twenty seven percent of the workforce is out of a job one in spain one in every four is unemployed and portugal's rate is not far behind at seventeen and a half percent ortiz to cilia has looked into help people across europe are dealing with skyrocketing unemployment and find out that leaving their country is

a popular choice. the unemployment rate in the years old has recently reached a record twelve percent and for those aged twenty five and below in countries like spain and greece that number is as high as more than fifty percent with very little signs of any economic improvement and for those who are looking for a job that search is no longer just about trying to find work many are now trying to leave their home countries. like niccolo wriggles e a biology graduate from italy now working in a shelter in brussels and the situation in italy is really awful because the only thing i was able to get is a really short contract like. three mile for six months with absolutely no possibility of growing out in an industry or in the laboratory anything most of most of them were totally unpaid because you can't really fink of your future he says it wasn't

a walk in the park in beijing either as many companies require a working knowledge of both french and dutch a barrier that may be hard to overcome but perhaps still more attractive for some of that going back home i read that in two thousand and twelve. the person the person that of young people who emigrated from italy and grew up by thirty forty percent in two thousand and twelve i really don't know what will be integers information and it's not just e.u. citizens feeling the pinch foreigners would come to europe to seek new opportunities starting their will businesses and building their lives have now will also change their minds freds iana this meant leaving greece and going all the way back to her native ecuador and while homesickness was the initial reason for the move she has no regrets about making that decision the sixth one had also many

foreigners decided to leave grace and move to countries like germany and switzerland but the greeks who stayed behind are saying that the situation is really difficult there for instance servicemen he used to get one and a half thousand euros are now paid just one hundred our place has been open for two years even though still new i believe we have very good prospects for the future. something she says just isn't possible in europe right now to trend if you look at the figures in countries like ardent some people argue that a whole generation has left and perhaps for good things are not related to i don't think so i believe rather stay here for one time does our sylvia r.t. brussels. the phase of british politics appears to be changing with some unexpected results coming out of the local elections as last week the anti you anti establishment u.k. independence party picked up a quarter of the votes propelling it from the margins into a real force let's take

a closer look well you keep going one hundred thirty nine new local councillors that's up from just eight the labor party finished two hundred ninety one seats up and the two coalition parties in government were badly hit we can see there the liberal democrats losing one hundred twenty four seats and the conservatives the tories down three hundred thirty five seats they are left to contemplate how to get their frustrated voters back from ukip prime minister david cameron is now planning to focus on the main issues of u. kipps program e.u. membership and immigration in his speech outlining the government's legislative plans are to ask the deputy leader of the u.k. independence party paul nuttall if he felt the conservative party was about to wrestle the initiative away. david cameron is committed to the european union we know that because he said if that is it our friends and he will campaign to stay in and if you're members of the european union you can't control your own borders so

we have a problem in this country where we have twenty two percent youth unemployment a million kids in britain who are going to work every day and what about to open our borders or to twenty nine million remaining in a bulgarians when restrictions for on january first and commoners are permitted that is not a good can do about that so quite frankly we're not worried that he's going to park his tank on our because he simply can't we will take a seat in the house of commons if not two seats before the general election in two thousand and fifty if we continue on our trajectory in byelection zameen we are finishing seconds and a lot of buy elections now particularly in the north of england and i think that we can eventually take a seat in a byelection but let's not forget that a big elections next year the european elections take place in june two thousand and fifteen these are the elections that we will win i genuinely believe we will send more any peace but it's a brussels than any other party and then into. it we'll be standing in every single

constituency and we will be putting up a good fight if we enter the election on double digits ahead of the liberal democrats we have leadership debates in this country and will be on those leadership debates and he would wipe the floor with clegg cameron and. while u.s. president barack obama is pushing for tighter gun control laws those opposing the idea of pledging to never surrender at their annual meeting the national rifle association said the fight against the proposed legislation on extended background checks is far from over the artes miniport reports from texas they're not short of support. the national debate over gun control may be among the most divisive issues in the united states but it's also proving to be a p.r. success for america's largest and strongest kind of rights organization approximately seventy thousand people turned out for the national rifle association's annual meeting taking place here in houston texas those in attendance

are not allowed to fly any of the weapons or ammunition but they certainly are allowed to pick up the guns hold them in their hands aim them and get a good feel of what these weapons are all about for the kids there are air guns that the kids are allowed to shoot also virtual gods to play with in recent weeks u.s. president barack obama's a first for the ring gone control legislation failed in the senate that effort of course was for strengthening garden background checks when you hear from the people that turned out they say that they will stand behind the n.r.a. to continue to fight any efforts washington makes on furthering gun control legislation i think it shows feel. free. and. most in this show are supporting the n.r.a. because they are a backbone for believing in fighting for our rights former vice presidential

candidate sarah palin and texas governor rick perry are among the long list of names of pro-gun conservatives that addressed a crowd throughout this three day event all those that spoke accuse president obama of leading a vicious attack against the second amendment now the n.r.a. is c.e.o. wayne la pierre referenced last month's boston terrorist attacks asking the audience how many bostonians wish they had a gun two weeks ago as an unprecedented manhunt for the bombing suspects was underway now ironically as the u.s. leader has been making his efforts to strengthen gun. laws gun sales have been occurring increasing and membership to the n.r.a. has been expanding so while the issue of guns for means very divisive for the nation so far in this ongoing political battle of the n.r.a. is clearly proving itself to be strong enough to go up against and defeat the

president of the united states reporting from houston. r.t. . you're watching the weekly here in r.t. coming up a little later this christ is risen risen indeed that's right go to an orthodox church is sunday night says kicks off with happy believers baking cakes and eating decorated eggs a special report from the service is coming up after the break. we all see themselves as dying swans in their dreams. but only one of the cells will ever make it to the top. they're ready to give their lives for the chance to die on stage if only once.

not even broken wings computer. for generations at the risk if it ballet sweat and tears. more news today is once again flared up. these are the images go world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations rule the day. continues here not sure real on the streets of london it may sound far fetched but some muslim vigilantes are trying to make it a reality in some parts of the british capital the unconventional tactics of these

so-called defense patrols of sport controversy from all religious groups are sarah first caught up with some of the new leaf fledged vigilantes. videos of nisson vigilant taste clients and pay serial or unsuspecting members of the public first hit the headlines there was an outcry in britain well since then some arrests have been made because artist found out self-titled most of them but sells a still in operation the muslim community will continue to patrol the streets and clear the streets of the first isn't illegal activities this group called themselves the shari'a project. they make a point of differentiating themselves from the more hardline muslim patrol his video is called such anger everything with scenes like this we're almost. out of we're proud of. our work. a little longer

a little bit calmer and really focused on. this patrol they say that whilst they share many of the same keys as the other patrol they'd never employed the same tactic. to the bank. i mean looking at those patrols i can say that is commendable that muslims have come out and actually decided to take some kind of action against you know these things taking place. about their actual actions and the shouting of people. but it's quite intimidating obviously there is always a better way to do things my approach as a muslim. i used to advise my muslim brothers i see you do an action that helps the appropriate always advised. the many in the mainstream muslim community these patrols are a cause for concern with the videos ensuring widespread media coverage many muslim

leaders have condemned their actions is wrong and i'm representative these individuals are a fringe minority you know they don't represent the muslim community there's two point seven million muslims in the case and they they they you know they would never. condone this type of behavior the groups were very clear to us that they have peaceful intentions some of the members are alleged to be involved with the more extreme patrols while members served three and a half years in prison on charges of terrorist fund raising and inciting terrorism . and it didn't take him long to make his more hardline vs known all over the land going to him i believe so because i believe those who disbelieve in the oneness of god part of this vision would be the end point anyway and those laws that they establish with that would go with them would. be a roll makes it into the empire so i have no respect for visual whatever i asked the leader of the sharia project whether he was concerned by statements like that i

said you know if you take it from the passive approach then i don't think you fix the country and you don't break so we're doing no shouting and protesting your food before you start with the charade which i think some things are really costly for your day to day this in many base amongst the muslim and the white british community there are worries not just about these actions but about the potential repercussions the relatively small minority could have on a much larger scale so r.t. london. vigils held last night kicked off a week of celebration. and his. resurrection. joining a religious procession. to go and children of the.

last. of the most exciting part of the sort of traditional. main cathedral. is that. christ is free so the phrase. read each other with the celebration continues. in the church. in jerusalem and is described as believers as a miracle that happens alfre here on the eve of the easter celebration later that fire is distributed to be our docks countries including. russia serbia drew and many others and it was also brought to russia. in moscow. and was delivered to the christ deceivers. in the country and that's where the main easter service was taking place this service to begin shortly before

midnight on saturday chris and believers holding candles and carrying. around the cathedral. glory following the resurrection of jesus christ and service for several hours and well into the early hours of sunday it was also attended by the russian president vladimir putin in the last week. and really despite what a lot of this day as it was pouring with rain throughout saturday still hundreds of people here. on this special night service easter is a pretty sedate it's a by quite a long period of caustic believe us abstain from meat x. fish and products for forty eight days which they turned to spending praying and this is a night service is then followed by the easter sunday that's one of those give each

other colored the be prepared and special russian easter bread which is cool it is really a very special moment on a special day for millions of our dogs to believe worst around the globe as they celebrate the most important date in the art of doc's calendar. brings up the paper not only but with the news team with morphine just over twenty minutes from now in the meantime off to the break we hear from dr. he's author of how the u.s. is on the mind peace in the middle east and into the next. and yet another step along the pointless anti gender crusade activists in sweden are pushing to promote a new gender neutral pronoun these activists want the term hen to replace the pronouns han and haun which mean he and she respectively i think the logic of these

bizarre gender neutral movements in the e.u. is that they really feel that it's awful to force someone into a role that doesn't fit them you know i can kind of see this i remember back to when i was a boy in school and with me there was a kid what kind of only female friends and i certainly wasn't a sports a toy trucks kind of kid if you understand what i mean you know i could see this guy having all those male stereotypes shoved down his throat you know made his life at school really unpleasant but the whacko liberal answer to some tiny amount of people being pushed into gender roles they don't like is to force everyone else into a genderless world they don't like fantastic i guess gender neutrality advocates can speak swedish how they like and they're free to use this word hen but don't force everyone in the country to do things your way the overwhelming majority of the world is very happy with its gender thank you very much but that's just my opinion. choose your language. killing spree killer though if you.

choose to use the consensus. choose. the stories but if you. choose. to.

he is an author and professor at columbia university and his new book is called brokers of deceit how the u.s. has undermined peace in the middle east joining our team now for an exclusive one on one interview is dr rashid khalidi thank you very much for taking the time stick with me today pleasure now you argue that over thirty plus years the u.s. has used language to undermine the peace process and you say even the phrase peace process one spoken by u.s. administrations has been extremely disingenuous why so well the term peace process itself is an example of what i'm talking about orwellian language and saying things that are fundamentally not true united states brokered peace treaty between egypt and israel took of a number of years but they got it they got a result president carter started working on palestinian autonomy so-called another word that's used in my view in a disingenuous way in one nine hundred seventy eight thirty five years ago so

united states has been engaged in a process there's no question for three and a half decades it hasn't produced peace and i are here in this book that in fact if you look structurally at what where they were trying to attempt they couldn't achieve peace what they were trying to do in essence was to do something that was under a ceiling of what israel would allow and now that did not amount to anything that the palestinians could ever accept it didn't really amount to real statehood or real self-determination so it was a process which was described as a peace process but it really wasn't it couldn't have led to a resolution of this conflict what is the u.s. gain from undermining peace in the middle east many would argue that it's in the u.s. his interests to create peace in the east there are two state solution well in the past it's clear that achieving peace between major countries like egypt and israel for example wasn't the u.s. interest it was a u.s. interest because a clash between egypt and israel had the potential back in the days of the cold war of a superpower conflict in one seventy three for example. fortunately on the palestine

issue there is no weight of opinion no body of powerful interests that say you have got to resolve this because it will be harmful in this and that way to the united states if you don't there was briefly during the occupation of iraq when you had a number of leading strategic figures the then secretary of defense secretary gates the then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff admiral mullen and general petraeus when he was commander in iraq all of whom said america's bias on this issue america's failure to resolve this harms it in the arab world but you don't hear that forcefully argued in washington what you do hear forcefully argued is people who say no no no you mustn't push beyond certain israeli red lines and these people have tended to prevail in the past here it's essential saying that the u.s. right now is acting as so-called lawyers for for israel they're not as as mediators or broker as between israel and palestine in the book i talk about numerous cases where this is exactly what happened and i end up using the term that was in fact

not even i didn't even coined the term israel's lawyer it was an american diplomat who's been engaged for decades in this aaron david miller and he himself was quoting sector state his injure so i think it's an apt term in fact united states has not been an honest broker when i was an advisor to the palestinian negotiators from ninety one to ninety three we saw multiple instances of the united states supposedly mediating but in fact being even less forthcoming than were the israelis themselves and so you know clearly the united states has not been an honest broker or a fair mediator in fact it has tended to be even less even less willing to take certain daring moves than were the israelis at certain points now in the past alice stands have had a certain level of confidence in certain u.s. presidents right you argue that right now the palestinians carry disappointment in the u.s. president barack obama. well. a number of us presidents including president obama

at early stages in their presidency have tried to push beyond the arm biloba of what is accepted in terms of what the israelis will let you get away with basically what the lobby will accept what israeli prime ministers will fight you over they say obama's tried i would argue the president carter tried president reagan tried president bush sr tried president clinton tried and president obama tried but in each case they have been they've been they've been rebuffed and they haven't pursued pursued a persisted in what they were trying to do so i think we've now reached a point where. a interim supposedly interim solution is palestinian authority which was established back in the mid ninety's has been there for almost twenty years and there has been no resolution of the conflict and palestinians of i think lost confidence not just in this president but in the united states says that mena the prospects of an israeli palestinian resolution under obama. will not happen and will it be eight years wasted when he leaves the white house do you think that what we're.