relations all right for now thank you very much for westerners still i'm sorry for that well phyllis bennis is a fellow at the institute for policy studies and she joins me over skype from washington and phyllis there is a great deal we don't know about what has taken place in gaza israeli incursions i mean. perhaps israeli forces advancing into the strip. just a little way isn't necessarily an unusual thing but there are some unusual aspects to this particular raid because you have special forces going into the city of han eunice and they appear to have targeted senior members of the masses military wing very very difficult to know what precisely triggered something like this but what is your feeling your sense of why it might have happened now. well you know one way to look at this is to recognize that history is determined by when you start the clock so we could certainly say what convinced the israelis to move now but then the question would always be well what happened what it is really occupation forces do to make that happen whatever it was that they were responding to so i think loo

or phyllis bennis is a fellow at the institute for policy studies she says the killing of them has increased pressure on the u.s. to pull support for the war in yemen. well the murder of jamal khashoggi has certainly put more of a spotlight on the actions of saudi arabia in yemen of course a critique of the war in in yemen was one of the things that jamal had written about so the two issues are very linked but unfortunately i think the united states to certain degree france as well and certainly the saudi government all view the murder of jamal khashoggi as a public relations crisis not as a human rights crisis whether the human rights of jamal khashoggi or the human rights of the hundreds of thousands indeed millions of yemenis who have been impacted so terribly by this war so until that changes i'm afraid that the murder itself is not likely to bring about an end to the war it is giving some new attention to the horrors of the humanitarian crisis that is the war in yemen which is very important but i think the real pressure certainly here in the united states too for for actions like the b

palestinians as an dissuaded him from going ahead with the whole process right mike hanna thank you for phyllis bennis is a fellow at the institute for policy studies she says the u.s. support is key to why israel launches this kind of attack. i think what's perhaps more important than the specifics of the timing is the fact that regardless of the timing israel knows it can count on united states support for these actions that they will not be held accountable that the u.s. will guarantee some level of impunity for these kinds of attacks even when it flies in the face of international law so i think that broad assumption is far more important then that the tactical considerations certainly we know that there are plenty of people both in the cabinet and in parts of the security authorities who are eager to see any peace movement fail who are eager to make sure that there is nothing that starts to look like a ceasefire that want to be able to maintain military control including these so-called the language they use this racist term about mo in the lawn the sense of every several years the israelis belie

hearing a lot more concerned about public relations than we are about humanity all right thank you phyllis bennis joining staff from washington thank you. so i have for you on this news hour from london in the democratic republic of congo health officials a warning country is facing its worst outbreak in recorded history florida back at the center of election controversy with recounts ordered in the senate and governor races and in sport why the world's best tennis players are taking the choose across london. they came to remember fallen soldiers from a century ago leaders from seventy countries have gathered in the french capital paris to mark the hundredth anniversary of the end of world war one but for the american and french leaders it was also a chance to smooth over there that over defense diplomatic editor james bass reports from paris. at the elisei palace they were in damage limitation mode just as he touched down in air force one president trumpet tweeted the president back rolls calls for a european army were very insulting as they met face to face the french president seemed keen to s

rabbani joining us from new york thank you we are going to continue with this we're joined by phyllis bennis fellow at the institute for policy studies and author of understanding of the palestinian israeli conflict and she's joining us live from washington d.c. misspend it's always a pleasure to have you with us on al-jazeera i want to ask firstly your reaction to this attack and again the timing of it do agree with our previous guest maureen rabbani who is saying that this might be israel trying to give hamas what he called a bloody nose before any real progress is made on the peace plan that's been worked on by the united nations by egypt to really deescalate those ongoing tensions in gaza. well i think that's certainly a possibility mooing right that that is often an israeli approach here i think what's perhaps more important than the specifics of the timing is the fact that regardless of the timing israel knows it can count on united states support for these actions that they will not be held accountable that the u.s. will guarantee some level of impunity for these kinds of attacks even

her and their suffering is unlikely to end anytime soon without their head injuries iraq well phyllis bennis is a fellow at the institute for policy studies she says the killing of. has increased pressure on the u.s. to pull support for the war in yemen. well the murder of jamal khashoggi has certainly put more of a spotlight on the actions of saudi arabia in yemen of course a critique of the war in in yemen was one of the things that jamal had written about so the two issues are very linked but unfortunately i think the united states to certain degree france as well and certainly the saudi government all view the murder of jamal khashoggi as a public relations crisis not as a human rights crisis whether the human rights of jamal khashoggi or the human rights of the hundreds of thousands indeed millions of yemenis who have been impacted so terribly by this war so until that changes i'm afraid that the murder itself is not likely to bring about an end to the war it is giving some new attention to the horrors of the humanitarian crisis that is the war in yemen which is very important but i thi

well phyllis bennis is a fellow at the institute for policy studies she joins me now from washington oh it's clear that the human cost of the war in yemen continues to rise we have seen perhaps a shift in language over the past few weeks a possible diplomatic initiative unfolding possibly might the murder of jamal khashoggi helped bring about an end to this war. well the murder of jamal khashoggi has certainly put more of a spotlight on the actions of saudi arabia in yemen of course a critique of the war in in yemen was one of the things that jamal had written about so the two issues are very linked but unfortunately i think the united states to certain degree france as well and certainly the saudi government all view the murder of jamal khashoggi as a public relations crisis not as a human rights crisis whether the human rights of jamal khashoggi or the human rights of the hundreds of thousands indeed millions of yemenis who have been impacted so terribly by this war so until that changes i'm afraid that the murder itself is not likely to bring about an end to the war it is giving s

initiative the president trumps initiative is to guarantee above all else the security of israel phyllis bennis is a fellow at the institute for policy studies she says u.s. support is key to why israel launches this kind if it's not. i think what's perhaps more important than the specifics of the timing is the fact that regardless of the timing israel knows it can count on united states support for these actions that they will not be held accountable that the u.s. will guarantee some level of impunity for these kinds of attacks even when it flies in the face of international law so i think that broad assumption is far more important than the the tactical considerations certainly we know that there are plenty of people both in the cabinet and in parts of the security authorities who are eager to see any peace movement fail who are eager to make sure that there is nothing that starts to look like a ceasefire that want to be able to maintain military control including these so-called the language they use this racist term about mo in the lawn the sense of every several years the israelis believe

think it's a fair question that you should address to jerad question and our american friends phyllis bennisinstructor of the new internationalism project at the institute for policy studies and joins me now from washington d.c. good to have you with us on the program again mr bennett i mean we've seen this before short term clashes and a sharp intake of breath as we wonder what happens next a cease fire hold. you know i think we don't know yet clearly the interests of people in the gaza strip as well as the israelis on the other side of a fence have an interest in a ceasefire but the israeli government has made clear that it's not at all a done deal that it isn't necessarily mostly concerned about the possibility of casualties or anything else in terms of the cease fire this is about occupation this is about the continuing occupation of the gaza strip in a different form certainly than the occupation of the west bank we have soldiers in the main surrounding and besieging gaza only entering on occasion as they did on sunday in the israeli special forces went into the gaza strip. an operation