it's been over three weeks since the start of operation protective that the latest military offensive launched by israel against the gaza strip to date the bombing campaign and subsequent invasion has resulted in the deaths of one thousand four hundred thirty two palestinians the vast majority of which are civilians including three hundred twenty seven children and one hundred sixty six women according to the gaza health ministry on the israeli's side as many as fifty six i.d.f. soldiers and the recent billions of also been killed according to reuters the situation on the ground is changing by the minute and these numbers reflect only the latest at the time of this broadcast as the casualties continue to mount and a series of proposed cease fires have failed there seems to be no end in sight to the bloodshed in fact just today the israeli government called up sixteen thousand i.d.f. reserve soldiers to bolster the ongoing military operation which would bring me

a ground offensive to eighty six thousand troops israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is calling the operation far just the first phase of a much larger campaign and vowed to continue to destroy hamas tunnels and with or without a ceasefire and in fact just yesterday during a humanitarian seize fire the i.d.f. shelled a crowded market killing seventeen people including one journalist aside from the deadly market bombing in israel has also carried out a number of strikes on residential areas medical centers and a u.n. building housing dozens of refugees shelter white house spokesperson urns called the attack on the u.n. shelter totally unacceptable and totally indefensible but not everyone in the administration shares that sentiment see despite a call by the international community for an investigation into gaza war crimes at the u.n. human rights council america was the only nation to vote against the. solution i've

also just learned that all parties have just agreed to a seventy two hour cease fire now given the amount of coverage i've given the pro palestinian of voices on the show i think it's important to also present the zionist perspective and that's why today i am featuring a debate between morton klein president of the zionist organization of america and max blumenthal journalist and author of the lie of life and loathing in greater israel now given the time difference between here and jerusalem this interview had to be pre-taped so to maintain the integrity of the debate we've made absolutely no edits aside from delays we experienced from the studio there check it out. let's start by giving each of you a minute to provide an opening statement on what you think is the primary cause of the current conflict between israel and palestine max let's start with you. there is no conflict between israel and palestine and israel palestine is a single unitary state and it is a conquest being carried out by the jewish state in order to dispossess and

ghettoize as many palestinians as possible it's been going on for seventy years the population of the gaza strip or eighty percent refugees living in the second most overcrowded area on earth they are the victims of this ongoing campaign of dispossession and that's the root of their resistance when they turn to violence it is because of the seventy year legacy of dispossession we need to see that and the siege and the ongoing siege the eight year long siege of the gaza strip which is develop this area deliberately as a part of seventy years of dispossession ghetto is ation an expulsion order to consolidate the ethnic purity of the jewish state morton. well of course this is utter nonsense. this is simply due to the palestinian arabs and the arab world's refusal to allow and accept jews living in their midst twenty two percent of israel are muslims and christians the arabs. offered

a state in one nine hundred thirty seven or ninety five percent of the rest of palestine in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight in the century half in two thousand. and in two thousand and eight they rejected statehood every single time because the goal of the of the arabs unfortunately is israel's destruction it is not a palestinian state fact the charter of hamas calls for the murder of every true it is a nazi like document. mahmoud abbas's charter the authority charter and ten clauses calls for israel's destruction of this is the cause of the of this ongoing war against israel is the refusal to accept a palestinian arab state the cause of this latest battle is three thousand missiles aimed into the into the population centers of israel attempting to murder as many jews as possible if there were no hamas missiles there be no israeli retaliation that simply this design to protect the citizens of israel max let's talk about that hamas charter which features that introductory quote my mom has israel rise and

will remain a react until islam eliminates it and as it had eliminated its predecessors how can israel negotiate with an organization that doesn't recognize its right to exist or that charter is in publication for decades hamas is repeatedly offered to negotiate and has negotiated they negotiated the prisoner swap i'm not a spokesman for hamas and i'm not going to defend their political goals were to. why we're destroying our regular viewing to bring you this russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov is holding a q. and a where the participants of the tenth russian forum the outcome of the international meeting in minsk and ukraine's crisis on the agenda let's listen in.

we had a. discussion. it was agreed yesterday that consultations they had had launched earlier on the issue must be intensified. ministers of trade and economy of the respective governments of our countries were tasked with coordinating our approaches to approaches to challenges problems that could be dealt with on an expert level where we could could reach some kind of compromise anyway experts would fail to come to terms heads of states could take it up. in any case that have to be done before september nineteenth this year a shame really because i believe artificial deadlines have no place in this. in this area in norman the leaders of russia ukraine germany and france met. initially they were actually. talking about the necessity to come to terms

to harmonizing the processes. processes in relations between ukraine and c.i.s. countries on the one hand and you queen and the e.u. on the other hand i believe that artificial deadlines will not be helpful but still we decided to meet them meet our ukrainian counterparts have and prepare some kind of a proposals before september nineteenth because when you stand that the ukrainian government in parliament are planning to have association agreements with the e.u. already fired in september the russian president has warned that in case it is without any coordination with the customs union and other customs union member states then in agreement with the c.i.s. . we will. seize we would seize to provide certain

trade preferences to ukraine and go to the most favored nation. which would be similar to our trade for format for other e.u. member states there is a just a general trade which is called m.f. and most favored nation. so once again this determination to ratify the association agreement in september at any rate on the part of ukraine actually demonstrates you know at a time when the other whether you can in parliament has been dissolved and a general election has been actually appointed we see that they actually want to have an agreement by the by the parliament in its auld composition before the general election but at the same time the they have decided to call

a general election early because they believe that the current composition of parliament does not reflect the political set up of the society so how is it you find this parliament inconsistent with ukraine's political presence but still you want to you want this parliament to ratify in september your vitally important agreements with the e.u. you know how is that so this was one of the issues for discussion yesterday another one was the was what everyone has characterized as a humanitarian catastrophe in south east ukraine and president. specially noted russia's initiative in sending a humanitarian convoy into ukraine and they. officially approached ukraine russia actually officially approached ukraine to form its. decision of our desire to send another humanitarian convoy shortly and president

putin personally notified president poroshenko of that yesterday we have reason to hope that we will find constructive logistic and technical solutions here in order to ensure the shipment of another hearing convoy into south east ukraine and i'm sure it will not be the last one because they need a lot of help. there. in kazakhstan and have also expressed their willingness to participate in those humanitarian convoys and so did the e.u. representatives and we will. this participation in the future will encourage responsible stance on the sufferings of this of civilians in east ukraine over a million people have already fled the region most of them. have fled for russia if you are interested i can tell you more information on that in detail upon your

request. one more thing about the economic issues that were discussed yesterday it was decided to restart the gas negotiations between russia and ukraine the european commission is also very much interested in that because. repeated warnings that they might actually cut off gas supplies from russia into europe they can only concern they can only have everyone in europe concerned and yesterday actually. kiev actually gave a promise that they would not intercept russian gas transit into europe to ukraine and a fourth issue that was yesterday. under discussion was this city for a cease fire and nationwide reconsideration in dialogue it was. agreed that we

would restart the activities of the context group that has met several times already including representatives of the russian government ukraine the. republics and. there is an understanding that such a framework must be used more actively as a first step and we issued. relevant peel yesterday in minsk russia kindly offered its capital minsk as a permanent forum as a permanent seat for such a context in media meetings of the contact group. we understand that south southeast ukrainian militia representatives would find it difficult to travel to kiev because the same people would like to see them arrested there and maybe indeed would be a better location better venue for such meetings now before we get to the q. any part of our meeting i would like to tell you one more thing russia is not

interested in a confrontation we are not interested in aggravating this hype around sanctions. i would like to remind you that long before the events in ukraine attacks against russia against russia's deputy asian were already getting out of hand and becoming adequate let's think back to march this year. when russia was actually accused of preventing a democratic revolution in syria supporting. the dictator other side and it is very interesting interesting today because the west used to say that they will not shake hands with assad but now it seems that they will have to cook to cooperate with him if they want to come back to to fishing to

combat these that make states in the middle east or think back to some other less significant cases such as the magnitsky case when i say less significant of course is a tragedy it is a human tragedy but it was used for information warfare purposes or remember edward snowden's case. which had. happened just on the eve of the global economic forum in petersburg or remember how russia was. accused in actually broadsided by. western media just for. hosting the winter olympics in sochi so this attitude toward russia is deeply entrenched with the leadership of me western countries the united states in the first place going back to that story when after this this long historic dominance in global politics and economy the united states and its

western allies are now trying to hold on artificially against all odds to their dominant position even though they do realize that. that time has passed it is not the time when the united states used to produce it used to account for half of the global g.d.p. of course they still have. a lot of influence including political influence and technical and economic power social networks that they use in order to hamper the process of formation of a truly democratic system of international relations googly this. this realization that you can you should not impose objective historic processes has not taken root in certain countries in the world it seems unfortunately we hope

this will happen sooner or later after all because if it does not russia will be exposed to unilateral economic sanctions in the we have to respond to them but that would not be our choice we don't want that we don't want a confrontation and of course the rhetoric that we see in western media. in this situation today of course it needs revision because it does not reflect public opinion it only reflects the. mindframe of the leadership of western countries who falsely claim that it is public opinion that urges them to act against a russia. even some political experts asks us ask us you know you see nato member states. take their votes unanimously on all issues how many ellis' russia have a well russia has plenty of allies we have

a lot of partners within the eurasian integration process and the brics and the c.s.o. the shanghai cooperation organization in the c.s.t. oh the collective security treaty organization. and i would see emerging nation emerging economies. in. around the world it is not as simple as it used to be during the cold war when you had the warsaw pact against nato and you knew that these countries would or would all act in unison and these these countries with this bloc would actually counter them you know unanimity these days is actually humiliating especially for countries who preach diversity and freedom of opinion freedom of expression what what what is much more relevant today is flexible alliances network alliances. yes many

of russia's partners don't vote. in any mystery with russia on certain issues within the u.n. security council for instance and with that country to the u.s. punish any many for station free will or defiance we know how. the united states. you know make their conclusions as you might put it mildly about . countries and governments who do not fall in line with their policies in their agenda we know that our that our partners are. in agreement with us on the most important issues we might have disagreements in this spirit is secondary issues and we don't take that as a tragedy we actually think that it reaches our relations rather than. rather than affect them in. the way. we are not shy to talk about our

disagreements we are not shy about presenting our point of view without pushing it as some kind of an axiom we actually say that this is a point of view and opinion we are ready to hear our counterparts but we also count on being heard we hope that our independence will not be seen as the case for punishing us that no one will actually want to punish us for you know being independent in our thinking i think that in the twenty first century that would simply be and except to bow we believe that independence and sovereignty are fundamental values for innovation and this is the way it is for us no this is the way it will be forever this doesn't only concern russia on edward snowden's case or the events in ukraine but simply russia's attitude on

how we see the world order. how we wanted to be fair democratic. how we wanted to rely on respect for international law in all the principle than guidelines of the un charter without. with integrity without any exclusive rights for anyone and if you take that as an attitude then most countries of the world are our allies in that thank you very much now i'm ready to take your questions. thank you very much mr lavrov then i suggest that we . begin with the questions from sector sector by sector sectors one each sector will be asking their own questions will start was set to one hello mr law for all i would like to thank you for this are two hundred eighty and for your visit to us it's a great honor for us to really appreciate your time. my name is or so from a high sound i represent them must. legal university. my question is russia

responded to the sanctions by the west in this regard how will our lists impact our for other international corporations including roman feel is the u.n. system and the corporation in the area of food security in tackling global issues and challenges in a syrian medical questions related to that how are we supposed to reconsider our overall global program in terms of agriculture fishery and other foot areas in terms of international cooperation and as young generations of young lawyers and agricultural workers how can we participate and help in this process thank you very much. you know food security is an inseparable part of security as

a whole of. sovereign nation you probably do you know. if you study this. you probably should know that. the task of providing enough food supplies that was a task for long before the events that you have. referred to in the question must be self-sufficient independent in its own food provisions and supplies we have every capability for that. we also have the capabilities to assure that prices food prices will be affordable for russian citizens in residence as for. russia has introduced they were a necessary response. to an except an acceptable. you need lateral imposition of sanctions it was by.

the united states and a number of. member states which were also in relation of their. rules. the sanctions imposed by our western counterparts include include restrictions on. access for bank for russian agricultural bank to foreign alayne the e.u. . and there is a federal bank that is tasked with subsidizing formers in russia. has been deprived of as part of its financial potential financial capacity. and so those are. those. sellers who. who imports. exports who import. into

russia would have access to those financial resources and they would have an even. in an even staining and even opportunities compared to russian producers russian agricultural companies and farmers therefore we decided to take this protective action in order to issue a protection in equal rights and equal situation to russian domestic producers specially considering the fact that some of our western counterparts are referring to russia nowadays not as a partner but as an opponent. that the russian government should probably. consider whether it is wise to have. a serious share of food coming from countries that view us as an enemy. so i think these two points. are actually very significant. in terms of decision making as regards these

economic sanctions in russia of course this has nothing to do with russia's cooperation with the international fora in associations the international foundation for agricultural development that we just recently. joined in entered all these sanctions will restrict or hamper russia's cooperation in interactions with those organizations in the institutions as regards russia. for. working in the area of agriculture in what kind of country they could make to ensuring food security i would actually trust there to you because you have majored in that you have received training. actually leave that to you and i'm fully confident in your ability think you. tried to vet was a russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov there talking to the participants of

russia's and all youth forum now he touched upon the outcomes of an international meeting in minsk where the russian and ukrainian leaders said down for the very first time he said that at the top priority right now is a ceasefire in ukraine's eastern region lever of also stress that kid needs to start a nationwide dialogue to ensure that all of the ethnicity is in ukraine have equal rights as soon as possible and set of sending a second humanitarian corridor voice is also essential a correspondent will also bring you the most important points they came out of choosing is meeting in minsk at the top of the next hour and what brokaw saying the foreign ministers q. and a in full live on r.t. dot com stay with us. for scott becoming independent schools a nation that nations should be self-governing to govern the feels better than

allowed someone else to do it for look. but. i would like to know did you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy shrek albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and across several we've been hijacked lying handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once told us i'm job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem of trucks rational debate and a real discussion that critical issues facing america find

a job ready to join the movement then walk a little bit make. me think of why we think there are good. sand beaches. coconut palms gently swaying in the ocean breeze. and frank. why he has a deep dark little secret a secret the u.s. government would like you to know about. through our labor. bilbo i did read the daily associated take a good novel will the new. i'm abby martin write the stories we cover here we're not going to hear any right other

big story the extra headline same time there's a reason they don't want you to know that in our part they're trying to raise that we should be completely out now let's break the set. the single greatest thing that got america out of the depression was the securities act of thirty three thirty four they were stored in a law and order to wall street it wasn't anything to do with repricing gold it had nothing to do our very little doing going into world war two it was bringing out law and order what's happened in europe the disintegration up law and order the wild west mentality of letting a bank like goldman sachs totally destroy a country like greece for a few quid. you claim is running out of many things money time and patience there's a growing recognition in europe that the ukrainian civil war must end through negotiations does partition go out the political will and does washington really

want peace. right from the scene. of the first street. and i think pictures. on our reporters twitter. and instagram. to be in the no movement on. differently here in syria now many of the members of congress the both parties who have gone to syria in recent months has said he's a reformer of the of mr president which is diddy's time for him to go. and still be at least two super newsgroup.

consulate condition in ukraine's crisis but it will do everything to facilitate peace that was a statement from president putin as he said with his ukrainian counterpart petro poroshenko for the very first time. blaze you rob said one of the region's largest chemical plants while ukraine's army continues to show other resistance hardwoods shelves. british authorities have been left shocked by the growing number of people getting radicalized into jihad they now want to take away those going to war so i'm encouraging citizens to spy on potential terrorists. as the popularity of civilian trains grows in the us.