the main point of my book that israel must make decisions according to israel. we do not have to think or to try to satisfy anyone. even if it means telling our allies or the american president or the e.u. or the u.n., we do not agree with you. i'll give you two examples. i'm going to do with the issue of iran. because if i could not do it will be the first question. but before iran, let's speak about iraq. in the early 80s, decided to attack a nuclear reactor in iraq. it wasn't popular here in the u.s., but we did it and we were condemned by the u.s., the state department. we were condemned by the u.n. years later, people appreciated the grave issue he took was for the benefit of the american people. because then you invade iraq come you are able to go into iraq without the risk of the iraqi nuclear. thus go back to 1973. i'm sure some jewish people and the audience and for us, the jewish people yom kippur is the holiest day of the year, where we go to the shore, we pray 1973 turn yom kippur. even though i thought i knew everything before i wrote the book. when

, the nature of israel and the future of israel.and i just -- when i had to make up my mind what i want i understood that we have to make painful concessions now. for many, many years many of my predecessors used this term "painful concessions." i was ready to propose these painful concessions to the other side in order to make this plan and this peace possible and i proposed it. i put it on the table. i told it to my american friends to the president, president bush and to secretary of state condoleezza rice. they were shocked by the extent of concessions that i was prepared to make and they thought that it was very, very constructive in order to achieve peace. and unfortunately, as was already mentioned by you before, dr. abbas didn't respond positively to this, which i think was a grave mistake. >> rose: why not? >> well, there are many reasons. you know, i was about to retire. president bush was just retiring and a new president was about to come in. he had opposition within the palestinian community and i think that all these e

is uncritically pro israel or with very limited criticism of israel and you've seen a congressional leadership that was quite a lightweight on the subject many of them jewish american democrats howard berman gary ackerman others going and being replaced by people or whether republicans or democrats who frankly are less less informed less enlightened and have a simpler view of things and i do think that on all sides in the run up to the israeli election on the public's the political scene whether hamas or even some extent the way the p.l.o. handled the un bid and in congress you see people. appealing to the basis of the baser instincts of their constituency in a way that is at the expense of getting ill and how do you see this working with regard to the american political dimension of our relationship both with the palestinian authority and with israel i think dr bush has it right there is broad bipartisan support for israel and that's a very good thing in the united states the problem comes when members of congress and to some extent administrations don't understand exactly how to e

which are lopsided because they recognize israel's right to exist israel merely recognizes the p.l.o. as a legitimate interlocutor but hasn't recognize a palestinian state but hamas to become part of the diplomatic game from the palestinian national interest point of view unless it is going to damage the ability of the p.l.o. to function diplomatically has to. agree to abide by the by the basic decisions of the p.l.o. that have already been made that the commitments that have been made to a two state solution is there a sense that they are going to do this and they will know i don't think so i think there is a sense that they are hoping that the changes in the arab world qatari sponsorship of friendship with president morsi of egypt the islamist president there are changes in support of turkey changes in syria that they are banking on the idea that there is some kind of the arab spring or some kind of an islamic awakening and that they are on this riding this green tide to a new future of islamist domination of arab politics which i think is not going to happen although i think it's

israel. but they are not the same. and conflating the two creates a lot of confusion. so if a jewish professor at columbia law school writes a journal article defending the legality of israeli settlements, it's almost certainly not because the lobby orders or even prodded the professor. but because of the professor's personal identification with the jewish state. it's not a conspiracy, it's just ethic chauvinism. however, whereas it's almost guaranteed that the israel lobby will back the israeli government's current policies, whatever they happen to be and however indefensible they might be, that's, after all, what lobbies for foreign governments do. still, there's no guarantee that the jewish community will reflectsively -- reflectsively support these policies. the backing of american jews for israel has historically been conditional, and it's been circumstantial. it's been shaped by three factors; ethnicity, citizenship and ideology. plainly, american jews support israel in much higher perc

into what israel is.so, actually there is one thing i want to ask you about and it does go back to the war issue. how one experiences war in israel. part of that as you say, there is a big difference or has until recently been a big difference between certain parts of the country and their immediate experience of war. anyway the whole country experiences war because as a citizen army and when there's a war they are called up from every part of israel, as they were in the most recent war, the troops, 75,000 troops to the border and i'm sure almost every place in israel was represented. .. it. >> it implies it would be better if tomas were a better marksmen we're the israelis took less to protect themselves but it ignores day in and day out in different communities and the experience. their war is every day. >> guest: that is right. rarely i have never seen as the story of these people living with the constant sirens every time a rocket is close by. they had 15 seconds to get to the bomb shelter. some of th

and jordan, israel and syria and israel and egypt. this became a new conflict that emerged, one between israel and the palestinians. before 1967, you really didn't hear about the palestinians. it's not by accident a year after the war ended in 1968, the p.l.o., under yasser arafat, emerges as this powerful force in the arab world. we have been living with that as well. 1967 war was also inaugurated the strategic relationship between the united states and israel. people forget that israel fought the 1967 war not with american arms but with french weaponry. france was their principal ally. before 1967, one israeli prime minister one time for one hour had visited the white house. it wasn't israel's founder. june 1964. today ariel sharon or any israeli prime minister comes to washington, it's obvious he will march into the white house. that began that very, very close relationship, that cooperation began in the aftermath of 1967, not before that. >> as you acknowledge, one more book on the six-day war. there have been a lot of them. what

and while that book is about america's political system, "fortress israel" is a biography of israel's political culture which is an undertaking one has to take -- make with humility as an american. going back to tel aviv over several years driving up the hill to jerusalem and up and down that mediterranean landscape, i became fascinated with how the generals and the intelligence chiefs and the political figures of the ruling elite look out at the world and how strong what i call a martial impulse beats in their chest and how self-assured they are in dealing with us, the superpower, as if they were the superpower in a relationship that would be reversed. and this book is, of course, not about the arabs who comprise the largest culture in the middle east. the arab states are responsible for their own substantial shortcomings on the peace front but also for a legacy of hatred and incitement against israel that has to be dealt with in advance. it must be said the arab leaders have shown a deep hostility to the idea of jewish nationhood, and unlike their forebearers, they have shown little

it's very popular in israel to kill lots of palestinians in gaza . and have mass is seen as a monster and so a war against amounts when vote you know i want to talk about the wording of the operation pillar of cloud obviously referring to the bible and back in the bible. it was the pillar of cloud who let the israelis through with pete out of egypt and save them from the sorrow how much the torah narrative actually dominate the mindset of israeli war planners well the religious element in both in the israeli armed forces largely subtle are driven. not orthodox jews many of whom don't want to serve in the military refuse to do so but the religious complection of the israeli defense forces is steadily increased so religion is now very much bound up with its operations the language of some rabbis during cast lead was simply hair raising in terms of evoking old testament images of genocide against non jews. i think also it's true that this use of language reflects the fact that the israeli palestinian struggle which began as a sort of struggle between tw

they have cooperated with israel to help enhance israel's security. and we have to be honest with ourselves that, right now, all of this needs our political and economic support to be sustainable. it also needs a political horizon. so particularly in light of today's announcement, let me reiterate that this administration -- like previous administrations -- has been very clear with israel that these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace. we all need to work together to find a path forward in negotiations that can finally deliver on a two-state solution. that must remain our goal. and if and when the parties are ready to enter into direct negotiations to solve the conflict, president obama will be a full partner. now, some will say that, given the disappointments of the past and the uncertainties of today, now is not the time even to contemplate a return to serious negotiations, that it should be enough for israel just to muddle through dealing with whatever crisis arises. whatever crisis arises.

around the world that news went like a lead balloon i mean israel and the u.s. and now with him in a minority why don't you look at it where does this leave israel's claim to territories now so many nations overwhelmingly want to see palestine independent independent. i don't surprise you kevin by saying that israelis the majority of israelis including this government by the way have stated clearly that they'd like to see palestine independent both of us understand that there's a difference between saying palestine independent and doing it on your own with the united nations without israel as a partner as if saying that the impediment is just the state that's here let's do this hand in hand let's look forward and see how it. is how that's not it comes. a well one that hasn't worked over the years i'm one of the ones i'm a mother whenever people come to me with arguments i say why don't we look at both sides and in this case i want to look at both sides the decision that was made on thursday from my point of view as an israeli was anti israel not just pro palesti

both israel and hamas are claiming victory could do you think is the winner i don't think israel is the winner except in one sense and that is it demonstrated that the iron dome missile defense system will work otherwise in the arena of public opinion internationally in the region it lost heavily. nobody likes to see advanced military aircraft bombing civilian populations which is what was happening. and of course this energized egypt diplomatically in a new way and it generated a lot of support for the palestinians in gaza. despite the fact. many of the governments that came to visit sent their foreign ministers here to gaza for example don't like hamas at all in fact they fear it so it clearly strengthened the . how matz both in the palestinian territories and in the arab world politically and i think that's a victory for hamas and a defeat for israel but israel invokes the right to defend itself against terrorism and this is a claim backed by countries such as united states and germany you certainly don't deny israel this right to certainly not and but that doesn't mean that you can

in egypt have been dramatic in terms of what it means for israel israel can no longer depend on a u.s. backed dictatorship in egypt which will enforce its will enforce israel's will despite the opinion of its population you now have despite the the extraordinary chaos in egypt at the moment you have a government that is largely accountable to its own population and has to take public opinion into account in a way that the mubarak tater ship never did what you don't have is a change in u.s. policy and as long as the israelis can count on uncritical support from the united states which so far they can there will be mild criticism but there will not be a hint of what real accountability would look like that would mean for example the u.s. saying to israel your settlement policy is illegal all the settlements are illegal and you need to stop them now when israel says no the answer would be ok you're an independent country you can do what you want but you know that thirty billion dollars that we've pledged over these ten years you know the four point one billion dollars in tax money direct

eron davidson, you were born in israel.his is obviously an extremely sensitive comparison that many object to. >> it is true. it is. it is gaining more ground and becoming more common discourse, though. as you saw in the clip, the government ties through the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's were extremely deep. the armed each other with nuclear weapons. these were the government did something called sanction busting where south africa cannot export products, manufacture them and sent them out to the rest of the world, labeling "made in israel." >> an obviously now, the whole divestment movement is again another parallel in terms of what happened, in terms of resistance were worldwide resistance to the continuation of the oppression of the palestinians as a was in south africa. >> there was a very fast-growing global movement that is modeling's up on the anti- apartheid movement of the 1980's, and taking its cues from their, recognizing apartheid ended as a result of internal resistance as well, so there needs to be a palestinian

israel. maybe not this. tourist brochures but distinctive enough to show that after all these years siberia still that was like i knew where else. continues here in r.t. one area of america's economy which is thriving is its prisons packed to the rafters with criminals who make up a very lucrative and cheap labor force and explains businessmen spend millions to keep it that way. in the us the market for cheap labor is booming behind bars in the last fifteen years partnership between prisons and private manufacturers has increased significantly there are becoming america's very own chinese style manufacturing line behind prison walls prisons in fact advertise themselves such as an alternative to outsourcing cheap labor to china or elsewhere on the web we came across this pitch that prisons prepared to persuade private sector companies to come and do business with them take a look. there is not enough folks that will do this type of work in this country so therefore we're bringing bringing back this industry t

israel today rules the entire the entire country all of palestine or all of israel but again i call it. half the population about six million or six and a half million people are israelis the other half close to five and half million are palestinians and israel governs the israelis and palestinians are different laws right so you have the laws that govern people like myself israeli jews who really live in a democracy free to come and go as they please and then you have the laws that govern the palestinians about a million and a half of them are israeli citizens racist laws over thirty laws in the logbooks that discriminate against them specifically and i live in an entire environment of racism and discrimination and then you know i just wanted to jump in there yeah you really do hear that you know israel's the greatest democracy in the middle east that's a really really important point i want to move on now because with a lot to go over i want to play you something that glenn beck said i know these friends but i think that what he's going to say right here really exemplifies what a lot

produce of israel except this isn't israel this is the jordan valley in the west bank and this farm is deemed illegal under international law the european union imports around three hundred million dollars worth of products from here each year now a group of twenty two n.g.o.s from across europe is looking to highlight the issue and has published a report in which it claims imports make the settlements viable because they are produced in illegal settlements which are contrary to international humanitarian law should be banned out of the european union now if this is not possible at least the consumers have to have the possibility to. to decide for themselves if they want to buy products which have been produced in legal settlements you'll see farmers this land is much concerned by the thoughts of european n.g.o.s he says he's here because his government told him it was ok to be here. because i was told he. saw a circle where i was told they could get more the state of israel told me time to go go i'm told i'm an occupier when i go to i was nothing. in denmark and the united kingdom goo

to the international arena becoming a un recognized observer state which could allow it to pursue israel over claims of war crimes. egypt's power struggle spirals rival forces gather strength for the showdown over the draft constitution and the president's self-imposed supreme authority got the latest on. plus watch this space there are more wiki leaks on the way julian aside from his more ground shaking revelations next year as he talks to us to. live near to new central moscow is kevin owen here it's one am moscow time now the palestinians moved a big step closer to being fully recognizes independent last week the u.n. voted to upgrade the administration's diplomatic status to a normal member observer state middle east correspondent paula slee reports now on how the move may signal a change in the way the world sees israel's actions. it might have been a foregone conclusion but that didn't dampen the jubilation on the streets of palestine. overwhelming support for upgraded palestinian state has to a nonmember observer state in the un one hundred thirty eight voting in favor nine agains

approach to israel at this stage. well first of all as you already mentioned in your question germany spain from the u.n. vote germany didn't vote for the palestinian cause which is in a pretty good. use for a vote so first of all germany of spain germany didn't turn its back against. the protests from german politicians against the settlement politics right now are in my opinion more or less symbolic because they are telling the protesters they are not defined or noticing that this is a violation of the peace plan off the middle east but we will have to wait until the end of the baby if this political shit big if it's really culprit if this protest follows a political action we have to see the difference of our protests and that this political action to be honest i don't think that there will be any political action coming out of the order of protests. now israel is facing increasing isolation in europe there's been talk all possible essentials of tel aviv doesn't back down and settlement decisions do you expect this

or israel can block us that the i.c.c. when they're not parties what do you just mentioned netanyahu you know continuing with building settlements we saw extremely aggressive rhetoric coming from netanyahu is administration saying that they want to bomb gaza to the middle ages but you know the defense minister is saying that they want to topple the hamas leadership if they do indeed get granted stated what do you think they're going to do i mean it didn't bother going to follow through with any of these these aggressive threats that they made before this happened. you know it's if mr marino all compo had announced he was opening an investigation and. israel over the canceling operation i doubt very seriously we wouldn't see what i call cast lead to just terminated in november with a personal greenlights from obama so it's clear if you read all the israeli news media they are terrified of the i.c.c. . taking action against them and my strong advice to the palestinians is that that's more that's what should be done because i

and as israel feels increasingly isolated at the u.n. over its expansion policy the arab spring means it's increasingly isolated in its own neighborhood as well the turmoil has seen it become the target of more toxic militant rockets and even stray shells from across the border with syria policy a report. there's a storm brewing in the middle east and it's leaving a chill in the hearts of most israelis say what you might about the arab spring it poses an obvious problem for tel aviv they mean and so we've seen just a few weeks ago. plenty of missiles falling on israel form a radical. i dream and we see. already the beginning of maybe a attrition war in the golan heights we see plenty of the angels in the mediterranean sea israel's backyard has become a lot more dangerous in the last two years weapons from libya are leaking across borders and landing in the hands of unknown militant groups the trouble ahead a symbolized by the muslim brotherhood sweep to power in egypt from this rally in june and ominous promised by the movement to make t

palestine moves up to the international arena becoming a recognized state which could allow it to pursue israel over claims of war crimes . also this half hour of news egypt's power struggle spirals while the forces gather strength in a showdown over the draft constitution and the president's self-imposed supreme authority a correspondence where. us watch this space that. way it seems the sun promises more ground shaking revelations next year as he talks to us r.t. . kevin owen it's eleven pm now here in moscow and the main story of the week just gone the palestinians moved a step closer to being fully recognized as independent the u.n. voted to upgrade the administration's diplomatic station status to ignore member observer state middle east correspondent paula reports that now on how the move may signal a way in the way that the world sees israeli actions from now on. it might be foregone conclusion but that didn't dampen the jubilation on the streets of palestine. overwhelming support for upgraded palestinian state has to a nonmember observer state in the un one hundred thirty eight voting i

at the three men that i usually refer to the first one is the best of the creation of the state of israel which is the myth is that after the united nations . passed a resolution to partition palestine that. the palestinians does not accept this resolution and then began a massive attack to destroy the small jewish community that was living there at the time. and then miraculously within a year you know state of israel was created in the small jewish state programs and so forth. but then when you look at the details you see that the jewish community at the time which is a small group of immigrants really less than half a million immigrants are living there it's i were suddenly given by the united nations like the lion's share of the country and the palestinians who are the vast majority in palestine at the time were were deprived of more than half of their land which is absurd and then you look further and you see that the jewish community had a massive militia of almost forty thousand armed men which my father was a was your father was an officer and there was the cool of the palestinian

which promptly shut down cash flow to the region israel collects around one hundred million dollars in taxes and customs duties which goes directly to the palestinians but that will now be used to pay their substantial debts to israeli companies earlier israel also announced further settlement expansion the palestinians un upgrade doesn't change the situation on the ground but allows the autonomy access to international organizations to challenge israel's actions earlier israeli academic middle east and told my colleague kevin zero in that statehood should be achieved through peace talks. the majority of israelis and . in the sky every move by the way has stated clearly that they'd like to see palestine independent both of us understand that there's a difference between saying palestine independent and doing it on your own with the united nations without israel as a partner as if saying that the impediment is just the state that's here let's do this hand in hand without negotiations without us as a partner to do a one sided to impose it on israel and they feel the strong need to giv

it's a very fine question you know clearly this is ongoing are israel's. planning to consolidate control over history. and i would think again. their political motivations in demonstrating to israeli public. he's our fortunes are greater on divided jerusalem. let's let's draw a big issue here because certainly as i'm sure as i'm sure you well know most of the world anyone watching the news in the recent. basically what many have been calling a two week war between israel and gaza we saw a lot of violence a lot of death a lot of israeli air raids as well might this move not be seen as counterproductive off after israeli officials and palestinian officials for then to have some sort of cease fire and here we have israel saying well we're going to build a whole bunch of new settlements. yeah absolutely and i think government officials see. the resolution on the palestinian state to be sort of the diplomatic counterpart to hamas movement in gaza and thus their strong reaction those of us here on the ground fighting for an equitable and sustainable jerusalem cl

plenty of missiles falling when israel form a radical. i dream and we see. already the beginning of maybe a christian war in the golan heights we see plenty of danger to israel's backyard has become a lot more dangerous in the last two years weapons from libya are leaking across borders and landing in the hands of unknown militant groups the trouble ahead is symbolized by the muslim brotherhood sweep to power in egypt from this rally in june an ominous promise by the movement to make sure and not kind of the capital at a minimum what we'll see is the free for weapons money and supplies from egypt into the gaza strip we will see egyptian volunteers going into the gaza strip to fight that's the minimum moving up from there the possibility of egypt israel war is by no means impossible but it was democracy that brought the muslim brotherhood to power and our deal both israel and the west came to espouse but both are now waking up to the reality that things might in fact have been better under the previous dictatorships at least for them we had a difficult situat

i really believe neither israel use existing threat for iran or iran existential threat to israel we had just global disease or summit conference here and i told the conference that even today israel is the are always using the wrong issue justifying the nuclear bomb saying iran is existential threat for israel but the fact is israel is that israel produced nuclear bomb before islamic revolution where the shah of iran was that a lot of is rape. israeli nuclear bomb has nothing to do with iraq because it was massed produced before of evolution now they are using islamic revolution in order to justify which i would not why this argument iran has really been stigmatized in the public domain for the past few years what can their own do to persuade the west that it's not building a nuclear weapon i believe. iran has been ready for cooperation with the i.a.e.a. to remove the ambiguity. during all time you'll remember in two thousand and three to talk to two thousand and five we implemented additional protocol we implemented a subsidy arrangement called three point one we have been suspende

vote as israel announces plans to build new settlements in the west bank and east jerusalem. egypt is heading in deeper into chaos after the country's top court halted all work in protest over being blocked from ruling on the new constitution this comes amid a public outrage triggered by president morsi his self-imposed powers. wiki leaks will release a draft a raft of the new and shocking revelations in the next year according to julian assange speaking to r.t. the whistleblower says the new material is said to rival even the publication of the u.s. diplomatic cables. in live from our studios in central moscow this is r.t. glad to have you with us the palestinians that moved a step closer to being fully recognized as independent the u.n. voted to top grade the administration's diplomatic status to a nonmember observer state our middle east correspondent hosley are reports now on how the move may signal a change in the way the world sees israeli actions. it might have been a foregone conclusion but that didn't dampen the jubilation on the streets of palestine. overwhelming su