In part two, historian and genocide scholar Omer Bartov discusses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisions to prolong the plight of the Israeli hostages and the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza in order to remain in power. Bartov also derides the U.S. billionaires who pressured university presidents to break up pro-Palestine student encampments.
In a much-anticipated ruling, the ICJ has unequivocally denounced the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip as illegal. Israeli-American historian and genocide scholar Omer Bartov contextualizes Israeli society’s widespread justification of the occupation and how Israeli politicians and mainstream media pundits are cheering on the torture of Palestinian detainees. He discusses the recent release of footage documenting the rape of Palestinians at the Sde Teiman detention center and the storming of several detention sites by Israeli far-right mobs in defense of Israel’s “right to torture.”
As Israel continues its campaign of destruction in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank has deteriorated, with the Israeli Defense Forces as well as settlers killing over 500 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7. Holocaust and genocide studies scholar Dr. Omer Bartov unpacks Israel’s genocidal strategy in the Gaza Strip, and describes the surge of settler violence towards Palestinians. Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has not only armed the settlers but has been incorporating them into Israeli forces operating in the West Bank.
Israel’s accusations against a total of 19 UNRWA staff members alleging their involvement in the October 7 attacks prompted 16 countries to pause or suspend $450 million in funding to the agency. A UN investigation resulted in one of the 19 cases being closed and four suspended due to a lack of evidence. Of the 12 staff members initially accused by Israel, 10 of them were fired by UNRWA, while the other two were killed. Israeli claims that 10% of UNRWA employees have ties to Hamas have yet to be substantiated. As Sari Hanafi explains, UNRWA provides critical infrastructure, housing, and education to Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza.
Following Israel’s killing of 7 WCK aid workers, Western politicians appeared to reconsider their unwavering support of Netanyahu’s government, if only for a brief moment. Iran’s attack on military targets in Israel, in response to Israel’s strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus, has since been cited by the U.S. and Germany as a justification for continued military support for Israel. Sari Hanafi, Professor of Sociology at the American University of Beirut, discusses Germany’s past genocidal war crimes as well as the ICJ case brought by Nicaragua examining Germany’s complicity in genocide in Gaza.
Israel’s objective is to maintain Jewish-Israeli dominance in the region by imposing inhumane conditions on Palestinians, resulting in the forced displacement of the entire population of Gaza. Paul Jay, the founder of theAnalysis, states that in order to understand the Israel-Palestine conflict, one has to view it from the context of U.S. global hegemony and monopoly capitalism.
The Israeli attack on a civilian aid convoy, which killed seven World Central Kitchen workers, has pushed U.S. officials to entertain policy alternatives to unconditional aid to Israel. Bill Hartung, national security and U.S. foreign policy analyst at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses the Biden administration’s weapons sales to Israel, many of which have not been reported to U.S. Congress. Hartung addresses the role of venture capital firms in shaping the U.S. defense industry, firms which advocate the development of dual-use technology or artificial intelligence as optimized tools to wage warfare.
In part 2, Walid Habbas provides a detailed account of Israel’s military operations in Gaza and its actions to separate Gaza into isolated areas with no public governance and little to no access to humanitarian aid. Not only is Netanyahu’s government holding up the flow of vital aid into the Gaza Strip, it is weaponizing the provision of limited aid in order to accelerate the breakdown of civilian structures and the mass starvation of Palestinians. A scholar on the unequal relations between Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories, Walid Habbas also discusses the political landscape of Palestinian ruling parties and their conflicting positions regarding the path to Palestinian liberation.
Israel has expanded its role as an occupying power in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip by building illegal settlements, establishing practices of indirect colonial management founded on military proclamations, and imposing checkpoints and blockades to control the livelihood of Palestinians since 1967 in particular. Walid Habbas, researcher at the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR), zooms out from the current atrocities and applies a bird’s eye view to flesh out the dynamics of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Besides military deployments enforcing the occupation, Walid delves into Israel’s control of Palestinian industry and the various forms of economic dependency that emerge from it.
Despite the ICJ’s ruling calling for the prevention of plausibly genocidal acts against the Palestinians, the IDF continues its slaughter of civilians in the Gaza Strip with impunity. Assal Rad, historian, and Middle East scholar discusses the plight of 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah and the absurdity of placing their livelihood in the hands of Israeli officials whose aim is anything but ensuring their safety. If Israeli government plans are not just another step towards ethnic cleansing, why won’t Prime Minister Netanyahu propose evacuating Palestinians to Israel in order to ensure their subsequent safe return back to the Gaza Strip?
In part 2, Joshua Landis discusses Hamas’ recent ceasefire proposal and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s planned ground incursion into Rafah. Netanyahu has rejected international calls to abandon a military onslaught on the densely populated area around the Rafah Crossing, where 1.4 million Palestinians from all over the Gaza Strip are seeking shelter in a 64-square-kilometer area. Landis contends that Bibi’s explicit repudiation of a two-state solution, as well as lack of plans to guarantee the safety of civilians before launching an invasion of Rafah, does little to assuage concerns about the continued ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
UAW president Shawn Fain called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza yet endorsed Biden, who has been accused of complicity in Israel’s genocidal war. Frank Hammer, a former president and chairman of the United Auto Workers local 909 in Detroit, joins theAnalysis to discuss the role of the UAW and the working class in balancing opposing Biden’s policies and a possible Trump victory.
Dr. Imad Salamey is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, and author of The Communitarian Nation-State Paradox in Lebanon. Part 1 describes the nature of the cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israel, including a strike on Hamas’ deputy leader al-Arouri. He also addresses Israel’s “Dahiya doctrine,” a military strategy of targeting civilian infrastructure with the aim of forcing civilians to jettison their political leadership or kick out combatant groups residing in the area. It was first deployed by Israel during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon to evict the PLO and is now being unleashed in Gaza under the pretext of rooting out Hamas.
Dr. Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says the U.S. and U.K. bombing of Yemen is illegal. He highlights the U.S. and U.K.’s spin doctoring of the Houthi’s stated objective of attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea until a ceasefire in Gaza is reached. He criticizes Biden’s disdain for obtaining Congressional authorization to launch offensive strikes in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.
Shir Hever discusses investigative work by the Israeli/Palestinian magazine +972, which exposed the use of AI targeting to justify the Israeli bombing of apartment buildings and hospitals.
Francis Boyle is an international lawyer and Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. On behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Boyle successfully initiated proceedings in 1993 against the former Yugoslavia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Boyle discusses South Africa’s recent request for an interim measure from the ICJ to halt Israel’s alleged violations under the 1948 Genocide Convention. He explains the merits of the case, the likelihood of the ICJ ruling in favor of South Africa, and the legal implications for both Israel and the United States.
Dr. Ardi Imseis is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Queen’s University, as well as a legal practitioner, having spent 12 years working for the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territories. Imseis argues that the UN has not been the standard-bearer of the international rule of law but, since 1947, has enforced “rule by law” in the way it has created and then “abused and selectively applied” international law with regards to the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. He discusses UN General Assembly Resolution 77/247, which calls on the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion on the legal status of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Israeli Member of Knesset Dr. Ofer Cassif is a member of the Hadash Party, which supports Jewish-Arab cooperation and workers’ rights. MK Cassif highlights how the occupation generates class inequalities and a regime of elite oppressors vs. the oppressed, which is not exclusively based along ethnic or religious lines. He outlines Prime Minister Netanyahu’s disregard for the well-being of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as a history of propping up Hamas.
Nadim Houry, Executive Director of the Arab Reform Initiative, discusses the role of Arab countries in the Middle East in demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and negotiating the release of hostages taken by Hamas. Normalization between Bahrain and the UAE with Israel, in addition to negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, has been disrupted as the Israeli bombardment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza continues. Houry also addresses previous attempts to advance peace, such as the Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, and argues that a regional rather than bilateral approach with Israel is necessary, one which requires a non-negotiable end to settlement expansion in the West Bank and brings Iran and other regional actors into the fray.
Israeli-born political economist Shir Hever joins host Paul Jay to discuss the urgent need for a cease-fire, humanitarian aid, and a negotiated end to what’s becoming a genocide.
Shireen Al-Adeimi, Professor of Language and Literacy at Michigan State University, lays out the U.S., U.K., and Canada’s role in perpetuating the brutal Saudi-led blockade of Yemen. She exposes Biden’s continued military support of Saudi Arabia, despite the administration’s pledge to only send defensive support, and calls into question the misleading dichotomy of “offensive” vs. “defensive” military support. Is a peace deal more likely now that the Houthi and Saudi representatives have met in Sana’a?