From the River to the Sea: Ibaitik Itsasora (38) eta Scott Ritter

Gaza BEFORE Israel showed up

Israel is a criminal state

Ruby @MarupeneM

@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu

ooo

Why it’s important to understand Hamas’s political wing, with Helena Cobban

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2VGOv9xdJM)

We are joined by Helena Cobban to discuss the prospects for the ceasefire proposal and other regional and global developments. Helena, a writer and author with decades of experience and knowledge about the region, is the director of Just World Educational.

One of the organization’s latest projects is called “Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters.”

This series of public conversations and other educational resources is inspired by the observation that the broad, dishonest and often virulent campaign of demonization that Israel and Western powers have long maintained against Hamas constitutes a serious obstacle in the path of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a just peace.

Nora Barrows-Friedman, Asa Winstanley, Ali Abunimah and Jon Elmer of The Electronic Intifada were joined by Helena Cobban on the day 243 of the livestream.

You can watch the entire broadcast here: https://youtube.com/live/SqCbhhONu7Q

Transkripzioa:

0:00

let’s bring on Helena Cobin Helena is a writer and author with Decades of experience and knowledge about the

0:06

region she’s the director of just World educational one of the organization’s

0:11

latest projects is called understanding Hamas and why that matters the series of public conversations and other

0:18

educational resources is inspired by the observation that the broad dishonest and

0:23

often virent campaign of demonization that Israel and Western Powers have long maintained against Hamas constitutes a

0:31

serious obstacle in the path of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a just peace Helena thank you so much for

0:37

joining us on the electronic and defa live stream it’s so good to have you back well it’s great to be with you and

0:43

Ally and you guys are some of my favorite people and you’ve done the most amazing work but hey you have to inflict

0:49

Matt Miller on us for S you know I mean when my son tar was

0:55

about eight years old I was briefly the head of the Cub Scout Troop you know and

1:01

we would not have accepted Matt Miller into our Cub Scout Troop I mean for his

1:06

his just sheer mendaciousness his ability to stand up there and just spout lies yeah

1:14

yeah um yeah Allie do you wan to yeah so I mean what do you think is going on

1:21

here Helen do you think that the Biden Administration what it sounds like to me

1:26

is that they’re done with this they want it over because the the election is

1:31

coming up but they’re not what they’re not willing to do is to take the decisions that they need to make to end

1:39

it which would be the United States saying to Israel we’re done we’re cutting off the weapons Pipeline and

1:46

you’re just going to stop this now they want and or or is it simply an elaborate

1:53

uh theater in order to continue the war but blame Hamas for its continuation or

2:00

is it something else I I think it’s both of those things that you mentioned but I

2:05

think we also have to understand how unbelievably inept Biden’s diplomacy has

2:12

been across the board you know it’s not just on the Gaza crisis but on the

2:17

Ukraine crisis and just about every single ma major thing that’s going on

2:22

you know I’ve I’ve studied US foreign policy for a god 50 years or whatever

2:28

and um you know I know a lot of the people who’ve done high high high level

2:33

um diplomatic work for the US many of them were very serious people who

2:39

understood what they were talking about and had Decades of experience you know you look at cant you look at

2:47

um I mean everybody I have to say prior to to Bill Clinton’s presidency you had

2:54

very strong secretaries of state and um secretaries of defense National Security

3:00

advisers and so on but um now Biden has

3:06

as his secretary of state and his National Security advisor two people who have been his staffers for decades you

3:12

know they don’t have their own expertise they don’t have their own networks of um

3:18

people that they they trust they don’t have books that they’ve published that

3:23

are you know worth reading at all do they have any books I mean they they have been good staff people for Joe

3:30

Biden through how many um senatorial campaigns that’s who they are so you

3:36

can’t expect them to be able to guide this person now I don’t want to get into

3:42

agism because I am as it happens 71 years old I think you know so I have to

3:47

be very careful about being agis but really the guy is not at the top of his form um I I don’t know how many people

3:54

here have read the Time Magazine um interview which was conducted interest

4:00

ly couple of days before the the May 31st announcement but they embargoed it

4:07

I guess and then released it yesterday or the day before he comes across as

4:12

extremely incoherent as he always does when he’s talking you know not with a teleprompter

4:19

and even with the teleprompter remember that place where he said you know something about blah blah blah

4:26

pause and he said it like you know poor guy you know sent him to like a

4:33

care home someplace honestly but meantime he is in charge of the world’s largest nuclear Arsenal and he still

4:42

thinks if you read the Time Magazine transcript that the United States does

4:48

and has the right to unilaterally hegemonically run the whole

4:56

world so it it is very sad for the rest of the world well it’s one thing to run

5:02

the whole world when you’re actually capable of running it for better or

5:07

worse I’m not saying that that that was ever a good thing but there was a point where the United States was actually

5:13

powerful enough to dictate to the world I suppose we’ll come to that let let’s park that for a second because we’re

5:19

going to come back to that discussion but just sticking with what’s going on

5:26

with this so-called ceasefire proposal I mean when you listen to Matt Miller

5:32

there providing this sort of alternate reality in which Israel has completely

5:38

agreed to this Israel is ready to implement it as soon as Hamas says yes

5:43

when that’s patently not the case uh and it

5:50

is Hamas that has consistently said yes we agree they’ve agreed for more than a month to a re to a proposal that was

5:57

approved by the United States and then Israel undermined it I mean who who is

6:03

this aimed at I mean who is this blatantly false messaging aimed at who

6:09

do they think it will persuade do they think it will persuade um members of the

6:15

security Council uh do they think it will persuade South Africa Brazil China

6:21

and Russia do they think it will persuade American voters do they think it will persuade um Democratic Party

6:29

donors do they think it will persuade uh members of the Washington press call who

6:35

is this aimed at so a couple of things there Ally first of all this proposal

6:41

this kind of set of you know the three three phases and each of them being roughly six weeks and you get into you

6:47

know deeper and deeper issues as they proceed this has been around since the beginning of the year and Hamas has

6:54

agreed to it essentially since February so it’s not just one month it’s four months you know that ENT

7:00

Hamas has been saying yes this is how we want it to happen and you know they’ve they have I think support from Egypt and

7:08

Qatar on this and you know who are us allies and now Joe Biden is presenting

7:14

it as if it’s the Israeli proposal like it it’s totally while Israel rejects it

7:21

and then they blame her yeah but but Ali’s question as to who this is directed to in his um speech itself he

7:29

he seemed to be making a pitch to the Israeli voters you know he said there are some in Israel including in the

7:36

government who won’t like what I’m about to say but you know here’s what I’m saying and I’m essentially I think he

7:42

was trying to present it as though he was appealing to Israeli voters and you

7:49

know the hostage family Network there um and and maybe to

7:56

get Benny gants to step forward and you know

8:01

topple Netanyahu but but he doesn’t know how to do it number one Biden does not know how

8:09

to do it and number two you know as I wrote recently two can play at that game

8:14

I mean if Biden thinks that he can like assemble a little Israeli coalition to

8:21

topple Netanyahu Netanyahu certainly knows how to come to the US Congress

8:27

remember this he’s been invited by Chuck Schumer hakee

8:32

Jeff Mike Johnson and whoever the hell and they are and and Jeff yeah hakee

8:39

Jeff and Chuck Schumer are the two Democratic leaders in Congress and Mike Johnson and would it be Mitch McConnell

8:47

it is it’s Mitch McConnell the two Republican leaders of the the house and and Senate and just to just to to remind

8:55

People Helena that just like was it a month or two ago Chuck Schumer the most

9:01

senior Democrat in the senate had called on Netanyahu to go and said how he was

9:08

leading Israel to disaster and how there needed to be new elections in Israel and here he is inviting him to address the

9:17

US Congress so we could have a a you know a

9:23

repeat of what we saw in 2015 after the uh after President Obama had completed

9:30

the jcpoa the nuclear deal with Iran to which Netanyahu was opposed and he came

9:36

to Congress and spoke out against the jcpoa and against the president from the

9:42

halls of the US Congress this could well happen I don’t know when you know

9:47

Congress is planning to have um Netanyahu come it some people say maybe

9:53

July but it it’s bizarre that the two leaders of the Democratic Party in the

9:59

Congress have concurred with this and the other very bizarre thing that we need to underline is that at the same

10:07

time that uh this week that that netan sorry Biden has this thing on the table

10:13

this so-called peace plan he signed off on on the transfer of an additional

10:19

massive package of us arms to Israel so it’s not even as if he is kind of trying

10:26

to use the levers of us power to forward

10:31

his own purported diplomatic proposal indeed um and uh yeah Helena I

10:41

mean I I want to get your your thoughts um on you know this this kind of like us

10:49

uh policy of of um trying to force Hamas to Just Surrender that’s that’s you know

10:57

according to the US and Israel that is the plan that they want Hamas to adhere to what’s your thought on that and also

11:05

um you know that that could be a good segue into talking about uh your project

11:10

understanding Hamas and why it matters that you’re doing with just World educational um if you could talk about

11:16

that why you’re doing it and and what what it uh what the intention is with it

11:22

yeah I’ll come back in um on like this idea that you negotiate with Hamas on a

11:30

deal that would involve Hamas self-immolating self-destroying ain’t

11:36

going to happen you know even in 1982 when the US negotiated with abar with

11:44

yasa Arafat to exit Beirut he was allowed to exit Beirut with his all his

11:51

armed people from fat and the rest of the PLO with their arms on a ship and

11:56

then they went off into the sunset in uh Tunis and Yemen and various other places

12:02

so that was one thing you know you can negotiate that kind of a deal but you cannot negotiate in good faith with

12:10

another party that you’re actually saying your goal is to destroy them so

12:16

the whole thing is is political theater of the most grotesque and genocidal kind

12:24

honestly so let’s talk about understanding Hamas which

12:30

you know I’ve interviewed Hamas leaders in Gaza and elsewhere since um the early

12:38

1990s maybe the late 1980s you know I my memory sometimes gets a little fuzzy um

12:45

being as how I’m so old but um you know people in this country I I

12:53

actually have on the shelf behind me one of your books and this is from I

12:59

know if I should say the date 1984 I think or 1984 but this is this is a uh

13:06

tremendous reference volume that is sort of one of the seminal uh works and

13:15

that’s just to give uh people who are just joining us or who don’t know you a sense of the depth of your uh knowledge

13:22

and how far it goes back thank you ali um yeah I don’t get any royalties from

13:28

Cambridge un University press anymore for that it’s all in the public domain but I’m happy for it to be in the public domain so yeah um I’ve been interviewing

13:37

Hamas leaders for a long time and I

13:42

understand obviously that there were times when Hamas as a matter of decision

13:49

for example in response to the killings by bar Goldstein in 1994 of I think he

13:57

killed 29 wor shippers in the ibraimi mosque in uh in in Hebron and at that

14:05

point Hamas said you know if he if he can do this then we will visit something

14:11

similar on Israeli civilians and they Unleashed a deliberate campaign against

14:19

is Israeli civilians and then they took the decision to stop that in I think 97

14:26

or so so you know these are political decisions that they make it’s a

14:31

political organization it has very deep Ro roots in Palestinian Society but a

14:39

lot of people in the Palestine Rights Movement here in the west don’t even

14:45

want to talk about Hamas which is to me incredibly

14:51

patronizing it’s a very you know like I would rather talk about humanitarian

14:57

things and if you insist on talking about Hamas that’s going to distract

15:03

attention from the humanitarian needs you know honestly I mean I totally understand the

15:11

need to talk about the humanitarian crisis and so many people are doing

15:19

wonderful work but I do go back to some work I did on Rwanda in the 1990s when

15:27

there was the uh the genocide there and there were people

15:34

in Uganda who were taking the bodies of the genocided people out of the river as

15:41

they came down the river and burying them on the banks of the river I I forget which R River it was in Uganda

15:49

and people Western correspondents went and said to them like how do you manage

15:56

to do this what can we do to help you you know bury all these bodies and the people who are burying the bodies

16:03

said we don’t need your help burying the bodies we need your help stopping the

16:09

bodies coming down the river and that’s the way that I look at

16:15

the need for smart informed political

16:20

intervention in this Dreadful genocidal conflict so long as people don’t want to

16:26

talk about Hamas they only want to talk talk about humanitarian stuff the bodies

16:31

will continue you know so yes Hamas has done some bad things guess what Israel

16:40

has done some bad things guess what the US has done a few bad things guess what SAT and the PLO did

16:49

some pretty terrible things back in the day now I was a little bit involved

16:54

thank you Ally for the shout out for the book but you know then I I worked with

17:00

my my spouse Bill Quant a little bit on helping to open up a diplomatic Channel

17:06

between F and um George Schultz at the end of the uh George HW Bush

17:14

Administration and it was really important work it didn’t immediately lead to anything and then when it led to

17:21

something it led to Oslo but that’s you know that wasn’t our fault but you know it was a matter back

17:27

then in the 1980s of trying to De demonize the PLO which was widely and in

17:36

some instances correctly described as a terrorist organization it was an it was

17:41

a political organization that on occasion as after the Black September

17:47

had made a deliberate decision to use some forms of anti-civilian violence as

17:54

as had by the way Nelson Mandela which he describes in his book The Long walk

17:59

to Freedom which is also on the shelf behind me where he describes uh very in

18:05

in great detail the strategy of thec the African National Congress which included

18:11

um the resort to what he called terrorism using his word um but the

18:17

point of course is that um this VI this type of violence

18:23

what what Nelson Mandela says is the form of the struggle of the oppressed is determin by the oppressor in other words

18:30

neither the PLO nor Hamas nor the African National Congress wanted to use that kind of violence but uh right there

18:39

you go another key key uh text but but the the point is that the violence of

18:46

the oppressor which is always far greater is never described as terrorism

18:51

that it’s only the response of the oppressed which is described as

18:56

terrorism um project and you know Nora is actually on our board at justor Ed

19:02

and she’s been a really super supporter for this project she even came onto our last webinar and really enriched it

19:09

there um we had three webinars five webinars in which we um Rami hurri who

19:16

is a Palestinian Christian in case you didn’t know Palestinian Christian from Nazareth and I had these five webinar

19:24

conversations with five Specialists so the specialists were people who had

19:30

written books about Hamas aam Tamimi Paula kidi wonderful Italian

19:38

writer khed Haru and moain Rabani and um somebody

19:47

else oh a really amazing um Dutch specialist

19:53

whose work I was not familiar with till I pulled this together called Yun gunning so yurun is actually a really

20:01

smart guy um teaches at Kings College London he is one of the founders of a

20:07

whole field of academic study called critical terrorism studies so you know I’ll be quite honest

20:15

I had never even heard of critical terrorism studies until you know I started getting getting like into

20:22

contact with yurun but it’s it’s a serious field that they founded about 15

20:27

20 years ago essentially doing for the field of terrorism studies what people

20:35

um broadly here in in the United States do in in the field of critical race studies you know taking apart all the

20:42

myths that are have been created and sustained in the past in order to

20:47

essentially serve the colonial agenda um in the case of terrorism

20:54

studies so it was really useful to have Yun he was on our third um webinar and

21:01

he had spent a lot of time in the 1990s doing his research in Gaza

21:07

interviewing a broad very broad range of of uh Hamas people and other people in

21:13

Gaza in its early years Paula kidi um who was the other non-palestinian expert

21:20

that we had um worked as a journalist and researcher in Jerusalem in the early

21:27

I think 2003 through 2012 and she again in that capacity she

21:33

did a lot of interviewing of Hamas people especially during during that crucial time when Hamas ran for

21:41

elections in the PLC elections that was like accepting Oslo in a way and then

21:50

when they won the elections they you know felt the absolute wroth of the

21:56

Israeli us Imperial uh oppression machine so it was these were five

22:02

amazing conversations um the last one was with aam Tamimi who is london-based

22:08

Palestinian veteran researcher who is um we we describe him as close to Hamas um

22:16

with reason I think because this is the title of his book it’s Hamas a history from within this is

22:24

what how it’s titled in this country in England it has a different uh different title but you know it was it was really

22:32

good for us to have these conversations and cover some of the very basic stuff about you know hamas’s Origins within

22:40

the kind of Social Service networks of um the Muslim Brotherhood essentially

22:46

and then how they decided to enter Politics as such and their their

22:52

attitudes to women and the many many ways in which Hamas is very clearly not

23:00

identical to Isis which is what obviously um the Israeli talking points

23:06

on October 7th and since have been you know Hamas equals

23:12

Isis and and people on the left in this country seem to have bought a huge

23:18

amount of that Kool-Aid you know and and not to want to talk about Hamas because

23:24

it’s like disquieting for them and that’s may say Helena I think that’s a

23:30

key point which is that even a lot of people who uh ostensively support

23:38

Palestine or the Palestinian struggle people who would consider themselves on

23:44

the left will preface their comments with condemnation of Hamas of course

23:49

Hamas is terrible but of course what Hamas did is you know incomprehensibly

23:54

horrible but these sorts of statements and uh I think the importance of what you’re

24:01

doing is enormous because the these tactics of

24:06

demonizing the uh the the this is what colonial uh rulers always do they

24:14

demonized the African National Congress they demonized the anti-colonial struggle in India they demonized it in

24:21

Ken all it was the same story all over the world we’ll never talk to these people we’ll never you know the

24:27

Americans of of course demonized the Taliban accused them of the worst uh

24:32

crimes possible and then of course they negotiated with them and and withdrew from

24:38

Afghanistan uh and the Taliban are back in power and you may love them or hate them but it’s none of our business

24:44

because you know that we can’t decide what happens in Afghanistan if there’s any lesson that the so-called West

24:51

should take it’s that but these tactics of demonization rather than receding and

24:58

and this was a key I mean this is something I’ve also studied and read a lot and written about you know the the

25:04

peace process in Ireland required the DD demonization of

25:10

shin Fain and the IRA the Irish Republican Army now Shin faine is is the

25:16

leading party in Ireland very likely to win elections it’s now the governing

25:21

party in the north the the British occupied north of Ireland and you you

25:28

you know there’s still a lot of dissatisfaction people say well Ireland is still partitioned part of it still

25:35

under British rule that’s true but they successfully ended the violence which is

25:42

not a small thing and there is a political process but that could only come about with the DD

25:49

demonization of shin feain and the IRA and their Rec the recognition that these

25:54

were stakeholders without whom you could not have any Prospect of a political

26:01

settlement but it seems to me that in the west these tactics are actually

26:06

expanding now to demonize everyone so Russia is demonized China is demonized

26:12

anyone who disagrees with the United States is demonized and to even speak to

26:17

them is to reward them uh so you can’t negotiate with your opponents or enemies

26:24

until they’ve surrendered to you first well if if they’ve already surrendered to you what is there to negotiate about

26:31

and if they won’t surrender and you can’t defeat them and you’re unwilling to talk to them then you’re completely

26:38

stuck so uh I no no no no Alie you’re not stuck it if you can’t talk to them

26:44

then you have to carry on genociding them I mean that’s what the Israelis really want to do and you know that’s

26:52

true so you know that’s their agenda here I would say you know like maybe

26:59

maybe two-thirds of the Israeli body politic thinks that and this is in some

27:05

of the the opinion polls thinks that what the military is doing in Gaza is either just right or not

27:12

enough right but I mean that’s more or less what we’d expect from Israel but

27:18

you know you would expect something different from the United States or

27:23

perhaps the Europeans or others I don’t want to uh blow my own Trump but I’m going to a little bit um I’m going to

27:31

drop tomor I’m going to drop in the chat uh a link to this article which I wrote

27:37

in June of 2021 and this was just after uh the previous Israeli War on Gaza and

27:47

uh the article is headlined um I don’t know if we can bring it up I’m sorry to

27:53

surprise you with this tomorrow but it’s it’s titled it’s time to change liberal

27:59

discourse about Hamas and I take on some of these questions one of the points I try to make is that you have to actually

28:08

listen to what Hamas is saying you have to listen to what its leaders are you

28:14

have to read what its uh founding documents and subsequent policy documents say in order to understand it

28:21

and that would seem to be a very basic point that is lost on most most people even many people on

28:30

the left who are happy to adopt the sort of demonizing talking points about Hamas

28:36

rather than to actually pay attention and so you with your project you’re

28:43

going much further of course than I went in this article uh and I think that’s

28:48

very um really very commendable and people can find those

28:53

conversations uh on the just World educational you YouTube channel where uh

29:00

they’re all uh there the um the the five

29:05

webinars with KH who also wrote an excellent book about Hamas um I forget

29:14

the title of it but it’s also an excellent book with um paa

29:20

Ki Rani and aam Tamimi and these are all

29:26

really excellent discussions that people should uh I highly recommend people

29:31

listen to if I could just get back to what you’re saying about the left there Ali

29:37

by the way thanks for the shout out I mean you know actually these uh videos on YouTube have been getting better

29:45

viewership numbers than anything we’ve done since we had VJ prashad on at the beginning of the Ukraine war um and so

29:53

I’m just delighted that we seem to be meeting a real need I think they you know they gone pretty

30:00

uh pretty viral and um yeah Norah is also signaling something that was in

30:06

Mondo Weiss by um Abdul jaad Omar yeah

30:11

Omar yeah that very very important but I think what has been happening over let’s

30:16

say I don’t know maybe it’s always been the case in this country um you know I

30:22

grew up in England in the 1950s and 1960s the era of DEC colonization when

30:29

it was just like meat and potatoes everything every day practically on the BBC you’d have

30:36

like the leader of some African or Asian country that last week was in jail and

30:42

accused of the worst things and and terrorism and and all kind of terrible

30:48

things and here he is this week on the BBC and the local governor general is

30:53

hauling down the Union Jack and they’re hauling up the you know the flag of the

30:59

independent country and who is the new president it’s the guy who last week was in jail you know that that was like

31:06

seeing decolonization in action and the National Health Service

31:11

were the two things that like defined my childhood honestly um and both of them

31:18

were only made possible because of decisions that that the government made to move away from militarism and toward

31:26

you know better policies and and sadly that has been reversed by more recent

31:31

governments in this country you never had that like very Vivid experience of

31:39

decolonization as a thing I mean in as much as Americans have a history of

31:44

relationship with colonization it was like wiping out the Native American

31:50

peoples right across the country here and then you know saving Europe um which

31:56

also involved saving European Empires in two world wars in in the 20th century

32:04

and then getting bogged down in Vietnam which was you know obviously a very

32:10

salutary experience for many Americans who had never realized like how brutal

32:17

colonialism is and that it harms everybody and if you think back to the

32:23

demonization of the Viet Kong in the day you know I remember reading in in readers’s

32:31

digest my my auntie heti used to have like back copies of the Readers Digest

32:36

and I you know they they were publishing all kinds of stuff about the Viet Kong you know like how they cut the breasts

32:42

off women and they rape people and they do this and that which of course was exactly what the Americans were doing so

32:49

as with the case of Israeli demonization of Hamas it’s a projection of their own

32:56

kind of worst dis desires that they project onto the

33:01

oppressed so I think Americans and westerners in general have become very

33:08

used especially since the end of the Cold War to looking at the world in terms of kind of Rosy colored spectacles

33:16

of Human Rights and humanitarianism and let’s keep the emphasis on human rights

33:21

you know so if Hamas is accused of violating human rights oh if Iran is ACC

33:27

accused of violating human rights oh if China then we have to jump on that bandwagon and all the movements have to

33:34

do with that rather than the underlying realities of an existing Colonial order

33:41

especially in Palestine so you know I I think those are some of the things that

33:46

have been going on and that that’s why we’re doing the project now it does matter that people should understand

33:53

Hames well Helena we we have a few minutes left but we wanted to get your

33:58

analysis on um the global you know geopolitical shifts that are happening

34:04

um the rise of China and Russia and relative decline of the United States um

34:10

can you talk about the picture you’re seeing and what you read into it and do you think that Russia and China for

34:16

example are doing enough to try and end the us back genocide in Gaza and hold

34:21

Israel to account oh gosh just a few minutes

34:28

we never have enough we never have enough time with you we never do so well that’s sweet of you so um I did write a

34:35

piece in Boston Review um that came out in February about the fact that the the

34:43

operation um Deluge whatever it’s called alaxa Deluge whatever flood alaa

34:51

flood the the the October yeah the um October prison

34:58

breakout from from Gaza occurred within a specific Global

35:05

Dynamic um of obviously crumbling us power and growing Chinese ability

35:14

to exercise constructive diplomacy in many

35:19

regions of the world including West Asia which is what I call the Middle East not to be um eurocentric about this anymore

35:27

more so um the one of the key things there was was the reconciliation they

35:33

brought about between um Iran and Saudi Arabia which changed a lot of things in

35:39

the region and then you had the the Russians

35:45

um withstanding the US military complex in

35:53

Ukraine um and and the whole us-led military camp campaign in Ukraine and

35:59

you had bricks um expanding so there’s a lot of little pieces that happened

36:05

during 2023 prior to October 7th that signaled that the intern the global

36:11

balance is changing but it has not changed enough yet now that change which

36:18

I think is characterized most clearly by the erosion of us power has certainly

36:24

been accelerated by um the resilience that Hamas has shown at all

36:33

levels militarily politically and in terms of just sticking by their guns I don’t mean

36:41

guns I mean sticking by their position in in Gaza it’s really and their guns frankly

36:49

and their guns yeah mean and their guns yeah so I don’t know if any of you saw

36:55

the this is pathetic Helena do audio visuals okay I don’t know if any of you

37:00

saw the um maybe maybe tamarrow can find it and pop this into into the

37:06

chat I should have sent this I’m sorry the Palestinian Center for policy and

37:11

Survey research which is KH shaki’s um body that he runs out of rala and

37:20

it’s generally I have to say fairly anti- Hamas in its orientation in as

37:25

much as you know if you look at the way he asks questions and he’s very focused on electoral you know if if it was Maran

37:32

baruti against yya Sinar who would you vote for if it was Mustafa baruti

37:38

against against is hania who would you vote for but he this one that he

37:44

released most recently in April on the pcps.org website has some amazing

37:52

opinion research and what he’s saying

37:57

that up here Helena and click click click on it yeah tomorrow click oh it’s

38:04

it’s a PDF so you you get the PDF and go down to page 16 sorry about

38:10

this it’s uh I think also it was also here I think I also sent you the yeah

38:18

yeah super okay so what okay I really have to look at this look at TH those

38:24

two over on the right there this is um now I shall ask you about several

38:30

Palestinian actors and whether you are satisfied or dissatisfied I I assume

38:36

that the numbers they give here are satisfied with their performance in the current War so these questions were

38:43

asked of the same panel of respondents in the West Bank and in Gaza remembering

38:50

that there are more people in the West Bank than there are in Gaza in December

38:55

2023 and in March of 20 24 so if you look at the Gaza figures over on the

39:00

right there um can you actually make this bigger

39:05

tomorrow yes yes and go over to the right so between December and March so

39:14

the blue is Hamas as an actor are you satisfied with the with the performance

39:20

of Hamas orange is yya sinir as a personality um

39:28

gray is fat is fatter as an organization and yellow is President abass so look at

39:35

the trend between December and March in Gaza Hamas and Hamas actually gained

39:44

more support in Gaza in spite of all the truly terrible things that the Israeli

39:51

military was doing in Gaza to the people there between December and March and

39:58

um then you know the numbers for fat and abess are are very low if if tomor could

40:05

come out a little bit but it’s fine if if she can’t um yeah I mean it’s also notable uh you

40:13

know I mean I don’t know how you could take a valid opinion poll in Gaza under

40:18

these circumstances I used to do various social uh studies and surveys and and

40:26

the idea of getting a valid sample and but nonetheless and as you point out

40:32

this outfit does tend to be anti Hamas historically or at least not very

40:39

favorable towards them so it’s telling that even they are coming up with this

40:44

so I I do think that that is an interesting uh observation um but I guess where I was

40:52

going with this I’m sorry I I just find these numbers fascinating and he does give a fairly good description of how he

41:00

did you know how his people did the methodology in Gaza um I also think the

41:06

the figures for the West Bank are interesting although you know the support for hammer and sinir went down

41:12

between December and March still they are ways ways higher than support for

41:17

feta and and abass in in in the West Bank you know where where the US funded

41:25

patronage networks you know should be like just revving up the support for

41:30

fata and and and abom mezin but sadly it doesn’t seem our our tax dollars seem

41:35

not to have been terribly effective in that regard but um that was just to

41:41

underline the fact that there is resilience at all levels um in Gaza by

41:47

Hamas and its networks of supporters who you know are extremely active at many

41:54

levels of policing of you know Social Service provision trying to organize the

42:00

people in in the uh displacement centers and so on and so forth that resilience

42:06

has really forced the IC and the

42:12

icj and the International Community RIT large to

42:19

confront the horrors of what Israel is doing you know back in the colonial era

42:24

if the British were like bombing the heck out of floi what was it the freedom

42:31

something of South Yemen the people in South Yemen the independent uh independence movement in South Yemen the

42:38

British Air Force was bombing the out of them and nobody really knew

42:43

nobody could really care maybe you know somebody would write a little report in uh in some Soviet newspaper or whatever

42:52

but now you’ve got a mobilized International Community that is responding to this resilience by Hamas

42:59

and to me one of the really interesting things that’s happening right now especially with the ICC see the ICC um

43:08

is essentially a uh a European project It’s

43:14

like because most European countries are um members of the IC by the way the

43:21

United States is not a member of the ICC um and it was kind of a I I did a

43:27

lot of work on the IC 20 years ago um it was basically a way for them to kind of

43:34

hold to to bring criminal cases against bad black leaders in Africa so

43:44

it was kind of a a quintessential human rights slash humanitarian type of thing

43:51

and they managed to get many many countries um in the global South to sign on to the ICC treaty using their aid

43:59

dollars you know to um essentially buy support from countries in the global

44:05

South but it does have like um a one like it’s supposed to apply to everybody

44:13

not just bad black leaders but also bad white leaders so finally Karim Khan you

44:21

know the chief prosecutor was forced to ask for arrest warrants against netan

44:27

yahu and um and Galant and also of course against um Hamas and yya sinir

44:34

and uh isma hania but

44:41

this sent the US political system into

44:48

paroxismo Matthew Miller our friend Matthew Miller in the state department you know he hates I mean the state

44:55

department says that you can’t trust the ICC you know and they’re going to they’re not going to allow the IC to

45:02

send anybody here to this country and it’s just like the campaigns against the

45:07

IC although of course of course although Helena um Lloyd Austin the US Secretary

45:15

of Defense when he was asked if the Pentagon would continue to assist the IC

45:21

to gather evidence against Russia and Ukraine he said yes of course yes yes

45:27

the so the the united states recognizes the IC when it comes to its own

45:34

interests of of trying to uh isolate

45:39

Russia but doesn’t when it comes to its friend and Ally and client Israel so but

45:45

I mean to to sort of uh bring it back to

45:51

um Norah’s question about the geopolitical shifts I mean

45:58

clearly the US is losing power they can’t just give orders as they could 203

46:05

years ago Po in the immediate Cold War um post Cold War period um when or at

46:14

the time of the the first Iran the first uh US Iraq War in

46:20

1991 uh or the US invasion in 2003 when the whole world was sort of terrified of

46:29

the United States post 911 um I think it’s fair to say the US

46:35

uh now inspires more contempt than fear around the world

46:41

um uh and certainly not a lot of love as it used to accept in in small Pockets

46:47

like uh Far West Asia which is the term we should now use for Europe and

46:54

um uh you know a few other little I saw Paul the other day that even Japan which

47:00

the public was very pro-american the public now uh is is Shifting so the

47:06

these shifts are happening but at the same time and and you as you mentioned China in particular is playing a much

47:13

bigger role we see it playing a huge role in terms of bringing Saudi Arabia

47:19

and Iran together um they they recently

47:24

just a few days ago uh uh hosted Arab leaders for a Sino Arab Summit um so

47:31

China is clearly taking on a bigger role but you know there

47:37

are criticisms saying well but when it comes to stopping this genocide um which China has been very

47:45

critical of and it’s been one of the few countries that has openly uh defended

47:51

the Palestinian right to resist through armed struggle you don’t hear that very often from

47:58

countries when can we see these shifts starting to have a decisive role

48:05

not simply um let’s say weakening the us as an actor but actually uh

48:13

strengthening or or maybe we don’t want that maybe we don’t want a world in which one country can give the orders

48:21

are we shifting towards a functional International System uh in which the UN

48:27

Security Council would actually play a role possibly and hopefully a reformed

48:33

Security Council or are we in a period of an in between period that’s going to

48:38

last a long time maybe you don’t I mean you can dust off your Crystal Ball but

48:44

maybe you don’t even have it with you oh I have it I got in my pocket right here

48:49

so um I would say when can we see the International Community um taking an

48:56

active role in ending this genocide I would say

49:01

when they have figured out how to overcome or or work around the US veto

49:07

because as you mentioned obviously the Security Council is extremely anti-democratic and dysfunctional by

49:13

virtue of the veto so um I just go back

49:20

to again my childhood in the 1950s when Anthony Eden and G mole of uh France and

49:29

Boron of Israel undertook this tripartite aggression against Egypt with

49:35

the goal of toppling president Jamal Abdul nasar so two of those three

49:41

parties had vetos in the security Council at the time because of the

49:46

international situation Eisenhower was opposed to this tripartite aggression he

49:52

was desperately embarrassed by it at a time when he wanted to Jin up and anti-russian anti-soviet um feelings in

50:01

and actions in the world so how did he deal with the um veto that the British

50:08

and French had in the security Council he basically pulled the the economic

50:15

plug on both countries but especially Britain he said you know we’ve been

50:20

supporting the pound sterling for a long time that do that’s not necessarily going to carry on happening and within I

50:27

want to say 24 hours or maybe you know 36 hours after he delivered that um

50:34

Anthony Eden retracted and agreed to withdraw from Egypt they did actually as

50:42

part of that occupied Gaza and committed many horrible uh atrocities inside Gaza

50:48

so there is a way of getting around a veto um that is that is short of nuclear

50:56

war you know know because another way would be to bomb the other country but that’s not going to happen and we wouldn’t want it to happen and that is

51:02

to actually bring economic power to bear so I am thinking um based on a lot of reading

51:11

that I’ve done a lot of people I’ve talked about these things with that um

51:16

the Chinese and the Russians and their allies in bricks um maybe not so much

51:22

the Indians but who knows but you remember bricks has recently expanded it now includes um South Africa and Egypt

51:30

and turkey is wanting to join it’s a um Saudi Arabia has joined Iran has joined

51:37

it’s a very interesting um new multi-polar economics based organization

51:46

that is not a military block so you know I think many of us are hoping that it will really usher in a new era of

51:53

multipolarity using um a sense of international fairness and a

52:00

sense of um joint economic

52:06

interest to build a new Coalition in the world that is not built on military

52:12

power so when might they pull the plug on on the US dollar that’s my question

52:19

in the way that isenhower pulled the plug on uh on on the pound sterling you

52:24

know the way that uh Joe Biden is going in his slavish um imitation of Donald

52:33

Trump in terms of anti-chinese policies at every level economic and Military I

52:41

think you know he’s it it’s so foolish and this is again coming back to the

52:47

fact that he doesn’t have any adults in his advisory like councils in the National Security Council um so he’s

52:54

he’s really bringing forward the day when the bricks and their allies are

53:00

going to say look sorry we cannot no longer continue supporting the the uh

53:07

the US dollar and that you can see some of that is already happening dollarization it’s painfully slow as of

53:14

now it’s not you know your 24hour Dwight Eisenhower picks up the

53:19

phone speaks to Anthony Eden and and then everything happens you know very speedily but we are building that world

53:26

we are building a new multi-polar world and it just you know breaks my heart

53:32

that it’s being done through so much misery in Gaza and the destruction of 10

53:38

universities in Gaza and all the plans that my publishing company had for doing

53:44

you know joint projects with people from Gaza those projects our plans will

53:51

continue but in the meantime we have to get through this misery so yeah and of course just just before we we let you go

53:59

Helena we remind people that you published through just World Books this

54:05

wonderful important volume Gaza writes back I I also published this I have to

54:12

say by by 10 years ago yeah 10 years ago can you imagine like what what effect

54:18

those SJP people have had over the past 10 years but yeah I’m very proud of of

54:24

what what we’ve published yeah you closely with our dear

54:29

friend and uh it is now and you you know Ali we’re going to be bringing out a new

54:35

Memorial edition of his book with a with a wonderful forward I’m literally going

54:41

to put Ally on on the spot here because Ally has promised to write the forward for the new edition and it’s my honor to

54:47

do so and it and it is now six months tomorrow six

54:53

months rat was murdered we remember him every day and continue to see the light

55:00

that he shines throughout the world through the enormous impact he’s had on so many people and uh we’re grateful to

55:08

you for the work you did with him and contined to do by disseminating his work

55:13

as well indeed uh well Helena Cobin you are the director of justworld educational and um

55:21

we can direct people to go to justworld education.org um and sign up for uh the newsletter

55:30

you’ll get informed about um the next uh hopefully there will be more Ser uh in

55:35

in the understanding Hass series um but you can get all the information oh we’re planning a a mixtape that’s great I love

55:43

it um inspired by uh by the resistance itself um and uh yeah Helena cin thank

55:51

you so much for all the work that you do um and uh and we’d love to have you back back on very soon of course thank you

55:58

guys for all you do um I’m just going to sit here and listen to John Elma wonderful we’re all gonna learn

56:06

from John thank you so much Helena thank you thanks for watching this video

56:11

please subscribe to our YouTube channel hit like leave a comment these engagements help us with the YouTube

56:18

algorithm and it helps us to get around Silicon Valley censorship as much as possible it does make a difference you

56:25

can also support support our journalism by going to electronic in.net and clicking on donate now thank

56:33

you

oooooo

@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu

ooo

Mohammad Marandi vs Scott Ritter: IS IRAN’S Nuclear Program A Threat To Global Security

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq5qNGUeI6g)

Mohammad Marandi vs Scott Ritter: IS IRAN’S Nuclear Program A Threat To Global Security Watch Mohammad Marandi and Scott Ritter debate whether Iran’s nuclear program poses a threat to global security. Dive into the complexities of nuclear power in the Middle East and the implications for international relations.

Transkripzioa:

0:00

what do you think would be the future of

0:02

the Iranian nuclear principles and

0:05

programs because the recent intelligence

0:07

Community intelligence Community report

0:09

on Senate says that uh Iran is not

0:13

developing nuclear weapons the 2003 uh

0:16

abandonment of its nuclear programs are

0:19

still on and it refers to the Supreme

0:20

Leader kenis uh fatwa um but if this

0:25

continues what is the future of uh

0:27

Iranian nuclear program

0:30

there are a couple of things here one is

0:32

that the United States that admits that

0:34

since 2003 as you rightly point out that

0:37

Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons uh

0:40

I would add that before 2003 Iran was

0:43

never pursuing nuclear weapons that’s

0:46

just uh a fact and uh but in any case at

0:49

least there’s an agreement that for the

0:51

last 22 years Iran has not been pursuing

0:54

nuclear weapons so the threats being

0:57

made against Iran are

1:00

violations of international law not just

1:04

any attack an attack would be a clear

1:07

active aggression but threats against

1:09

Iran are violations of

1:11

international uh Iran’s nuclear program

1:14

is the country’s right uh before the

1:17

Revolution uh the nuclear program had

1:20

been initiated with Western

1:23

support but since Iran is now a

1:25

sovereign and independent country and

1:27

it’s no longer a client regime like

1:29

other regimes in the

1:31

region the west has determined that Iran

1:34

should not have a peaceful nuclear

1:36

program Iran simply will not accept that

1:39

uh nuclear energy for Iran is important

1:41

Iran uh right now produces electricity

1:45

Iran produces medicine it uses nuclear

1:49

energy in different fields and it wants

1:53

to be able to make sure that it can

1:55

produce its own uh enriched uranium in

1:58

case supplies are cut off off at some

2:00

point we were a country where the United

2:02

States imposes maximum pressure

2:04

sanctions Iran wants to be as uh doesn’t

2:07

want to be vulnerable it want to it

2:09

wants to be as well protected as

2:12

possible but then of course there is the

2:14

other issue and that is Iran is a

2:16

threshold State and uh that is I think

2:21

linked to to the fact that the Israeli

2:24

regime has nuclear weapons and the

2:25

United States has threatened uh Iran

2:29

with nule nulear weapons before uh

2:32

Hillary Clinton once threatened Iran

2:35

with nuclear weapons and the Israeli

2:37

regime just during the genocide one of

2:39

their government ministers threatened

2:41

Gaza with a nuclear weapon so when you

2:43

have such uh Sinister actors meaning the

2:49

regime in Washington and the regime in

2:51

Tel Aviv the Iranians obviously will

2:54

want to uh keep an eye on their National

2:58

they want to keep they want to be very

3:01

careful about their National Security

3:03

and so an advisor to the leader Dr Ki

3:07

said I think three times maybe over the

3:11

last uh year or so or a year and a half

3:16

or so that uh if there is an imminent or

3:20

uh threat to Iran’s

3:22

um to Iran’s

3:25

uh existence or an existential threat to

3:29

Iran’s something like that I’m I’m

3:31

paraphrasing uh then Iran will

3:33

reconsider its nuclear

3:35

posture and Iran’s nuclear program is

3:38

very developed it’s one of the top 10 uh

3:42

most developed nuclear programs in the

3:44

world Iran’s missile defense

3:46

capabilities Iran’s missile def missile

3:50

capabilities in general are among the

3:53

best in the world

3:55

so the Iranians are they’re not foolish

3:58

they know that when the United States is

4:01

threatening the country and the ex the

4:03

the future of the country the very

4:05

existence of the country or the Israelis

4:07

are doing the same remember these are

4:09

genocidal regimes that wipe out Nations

4:13

I don’t know if you saw the exchanges

4:16

but in the uh signal group where vice

4:21

president Vance when he was told that a

4:24

building a civilian building collaps

4:26

killing everyone inside he said great

4:28

something like that in in Yemen the

4:31

interesting thing of course is that they

4:33

didn’t kill any of the top leaders

4:34

contrary to what they thought they did

4:36

or they claimed that they did none of

4:38

the senior military or political figures

4:40

of ansar and the yemeni government have

4:43

been uh killed or martyred in these air

4:46

strikes contrary to what the Americans

4:48

are saying but they destroy a civilian

4:51

building murdering everyone inside and

4:53

then they celebrate these are the

4:55

Sinister monsters that Iran is dealing

4:58

with so obviously while Iran’s nuclear

5:01

program is peaceful but the Iranians are

5:05

very careful about the uh intentions the

5:10

actions and the behavior of uh

5:13

Washington and Tel

5:15

Aviv let me just start by uh saying that

5:18

I disagree with your premise altogether

5:21

I mean first of all I uh I’m 100%

5:24

against nuclear weapons I’m a big

5:26

nuclear zero guy I’m a nuclear armed

5:28

control guy I actually got rid of

5:29

nuclear weapons back in the day so what

5:32

I’m about to say is not reflective of

5:34

how I would like the world to be but as

5:36

the world

5:37

is and I will have a hard time standing

5:40

by I don’t blame you on this but um are

5:43

you telling me right now that India

5:44

doesn’t have a nuclear preemption of

5:46

attack plan option out for Pakistan

5:49

India doesn’t have a first uh First

5:51

Strike uh Doctrine you’re telling me

5:54

that Pakistan was loading up nuclear

5:56

weapons and saying that they’re going to

5:58

fire them against India that India will

6:00

absorb Pakistan’s attack without

6:01

carrying out any

6:04

preemption

6:06

um I don’t know that but India I will

6:09

tell you right now that India has a

6:10

preemptive strike you don’t have nuclear

6:13

weapons you don’t have the weapon

6:14

systems that India has um and Pakistan

6:17

has a first strike policy too it’s not

6:20

declared it’s not announced but if

6:22

Pakistan saw India putting its nuclear

6:24

forces on full alert making preparations

6:26

the intelligence where India is going to

6:28

launch tomorrow the P but Iran doesn’t

6:31

have nuclear weapons that’s uh just a

6:33

second you’re getting ahead of the

6:35

myself okay that’s that’s what the

6:38

intelligence Committee in in the Senate

6:40

uh uh suggested recently no they didn’t

6:43

suggest I’ll tell you exactly what they

6:44

said because I know what they said I’m

6:46

intimately familiar with this problem

6:48

all right um but I’m just starting off

6:50

with the notion that if the United

6:52

States did something the whole world be

6:55

ah against it there would be backlash

6:58

but not as much as you think and now I’m

6:59

going to tell you why because Iran is

7:03

not allowed to have nuclear weapons now

7:05

you’re going to say but Scott didn’t the

7:08

national threat assessment recently

7:10

briefed by Tulsi gabri the department or

7:12

Director of National Intelligence the

7:14

United States Senate make this case what

7:16

they said is

7:19

this that there is no evidence that Iran

7:22

is assembling a nuclear weapon or

7:24

pursuing the Assembly of a nuclear

7:26

weapon and there’s no evidence that the

7:29

Iranian leadership has given orders for

7:31

such a weapon to be

7:34

assembled do we concur that’s what they

7:36

said yes okay so

7:40

now I’ve been saying that forever I

7:43

agree with that statement I think

7:44

everybody the Iranians agree with that

7:46

statement but that’s not the issue let’s

7:50

get back to why the jcpoa was

7:53

negotiated okay before we get into the

7:55

whole viability of the jcpoa the purpose

7:58

of the JCP OA was to create a one-year

8:01

breakout window so that if Iran decided

8:05

to violate the terms of the jcpoa and

8:08

kick out inspectors that the

8:10

International Community will have one

8:12

year to respond before Iran could build

8:16

a nuclear

8:18

weapon that one year was deemed to be

8:21

the the acceptable window I just want to

8:25

remind everybody because they go we go

8:26

back to the JCP go back to the JCP one

8:29

year Window Guys breakout window one

8:32

year Iran today is literally one

8:36

week one

8:39

week that is

8:43

unacceptable now if Iran could

8:45

articulate that that one week was simply

8:48

because they’re pursuing peaceful

8:50

nuclear energy and you know that jcpoa

8:54

allowed for the expiration of sunset

8:56

Clauses that would give Iran the

8:58

opportunity to put in very uh thorough

9:01

capable centrifuges as opposed to the

9:04

old IR ons and twos which are very

9:05

inefficient high efficiency centrifuges

9:08

that could produce lots of uranium

9:10

enrichment enriched a 3.5% by the way

9:14

3.5% for use and conversion to fuel rods

9:17

which would go into the expansive

9:19

Iranian nuclear energy program

9:22

manifested by reactors built all over

9:24

the

9:25

country you can say okay I get it

9:30

um now you could make an argument that

9:32

Iran needs a minimal amount of 20%

9:36

enriched uranium because they have the

9:38

Tron research reactor and the United

9:40

States and others have made it

9:41

impossible for Iran to get that so you

9:43

say Okay produce enough 20% enrich

9:47

uranium so that you can produce the fuel

9:49

plates necessary to operate that reactor

9:52

but that’s like a one cuge Cascade

9:55

operation that only has to operate for a

9:57

limited period of time and then never

9:58

operate again for many many years

10:00

because you don’t need that much 20%

10:03

uranium do you need the ability to

10:06

convert uranium heof floride into

10:08

uranium metal yes I just said you need

10:11

you need the metal plates to be produced

10:12

so you have a limited capability to do

10:15

that um what need does Iran have for 60%

10:20

enriched

10:23

uranium and there’s no and yet Iran has

10:26

gone down the road of producing

10:27

sufficient 60% enrich uranium which is

10:30

literally one step away from becoming

10:32

weapons grade one step away being fed

10:36

into a Cascade that has been purpose

10:37

built in the underground facility in

10:41

feo so you jam that in there you now get

10:44

your 90 plus percent enriched uranium

10:47

that you turn into uranium metal and

10:50

then you have a cheap gun design that

10:52

can be loaded onto any missile you want

10:54

that gun design you know it’s a

10:56

theoretical now but it’s it’s it’s there

10:58

but so you see what I’m saying the

11:00

Iranian program as it currently exists

11:03

is a weapons preparation program there’s

11:05

no other way to describe

11:07

it no other way to describe it why does

11:12

Iran have 60% enriched

11:15

uranium there’s no other reason to

11:18

describe it now that still comports with

11:21

what the Senate said there’s no evidence

11:23

that Iran is seeking to create a weapon

11:26

and the political leadership continues

11:28

to say they don’t want to have this they

11:30

haven’t given the political green light

11:32

but now let’s complicate it further

11:35

because yes those two statements are

11:37

true but then why did the former head of

11:40

the Iranian nuclear program the military

11:42

side say that um Iran could build a

11:46

weapon very easily and it was backed by

11:48

similar statements made by senior

11:50

civilians these are statements made last

11:52

year February March April

11:55

May um why did the Iranian Parliament

11:57

say that we have to put together a

11:59

committee to go to the supreme leader to

12:01

get him to reverse the fatwa so that we

12:03

can do and why did the expedience

12:05

discernment Council uh one of the senior

12:08

advisory bodies to the um supreme leader

12:12

talk about the religious conditions that

12:14

it would have to be met in order to

12:16

reverse the fatwa and that those

12:18

religious conditions have been

12:21

met so let’s go and reverse engineer now

12:25

the intelligence program that’s been the

12:27

intelligence that’s been given to the

12:28

United States Senate

12:30

yes the Iranian leader has not made a

12:33

decision but according to the Iranians

12:36

themselves that decision could take

12:37

place at any time and the Preparatory

12:39

work has already occurred that all that

12:42

has to happen is the supreme leader

12:44

wakes up one morning goes

12:46

go

12:48

now we go to the next issue they haven’t

12:52

assembled a bomb

12:54

Etc the gun design is one of the easiest

12:56

designs out there it’s it’s not a

12:59

difficult design all you need is the

13:01

phom material it’s literally a certain

13:05

amount of uranium metal a slug taken out

13:08

a tube high explosive jam it in and you

13:12

go critical and it blows up and it can

13:15

be loaded

13:16

onto Delivery Systems of not great

13:20

sophistication I would say that some of

13:22

the um Warheads that Iran’s using today

13:26

that they have used against Israel have

13:28

more sophistication in terms of U the

13:31

potential of you know acceleration and

13:34

heat to disrupt their operation than the

13:37

gun design meaning that you don’t even

13:40

have to test this and the Iranians have

13:43

said we are there when I have an Iranian

13:45

General tell me we have assembled all

13:47

the components necessary except the phys

13:50

material I believe him now they haven’t

13:53

assembled it but it can happen literally

13:55

within the space of a week by the time

13:57

they finish enriching the 60% uranium

14:00

hexif floride into the weapons grade and

14:03

they convert that to metal they will

14:04

have functioning weapons ready to be

14:07

loaded up with uranium slugs loaded on

14:09

the missiles

14:11

deployed that’s a nuclear weapons

14:14

capability potential that Iran claims it

14:17

doesn’t want doesn’t want to pursue but

14:20

they are there and if you’re United

14:22

States of America whose close Ally is

14:25

Israel this is an existential threat to

14:27

the existence of Israel

14:30

now we can sit here and play all the

14:32

game well the United States shouldn’t

14:33

support Israel maybe not Israel’s an

14:36

evil Zion this and entity I

14:38

agree but it doesn’t matter what you and

14:40

I think it doesn’t matter what we tweet

14:43

the morally righteous positions that we

14:45

throw in to the Digital Universe to have

14:47

an echo chamber and everybody loves us

14:49

because we’re saying the right things

14:52

the reality is Iran has a nuclear

14:54

weapons potential admitted by Iran

14:57

that’s represents an ex existential

14:59

threat to the existence of a close

15:01

American Ally whether we want them to be

15:03

close or not and the Trump

15:04

Administration which has stacked itself

15:06

with more Zionist per square inch than

15:08

any other Administration is going to

15:11

defend

15:13

Israel and now that we’ve defined it as

15:15

a nuclear threat because it is a nuclear

15:19

threat you can’t describe it as anything

15:21

other than a nuclear

15:23

threat then the United States has the

15:27

exact same

15:30

preemptive strike plans that India has

15:32

for Pakistan Pakistan has for India and

15:34

anybody has in the world today when it

15:35

comes to nuclear weapons but we’ve been

15:37

honest about it you see we actually have

15:40

put forward nuclear postures for many

15:42

decades now that say that we can use

15:44

nuclear weapons preemptively in a wmd

15:47

environment and a non wmd environment

15:50

and we’ve taken this posture and we’ve

15:51

actually turned it into employment plans

15:54

you know who did that Donald

15:56

Trump Donald Trump actually built a

15:59

employment plan to launch preemptive

16:01

nuclear strike against

16:03

Iran we built weapons especially for

16:06

this

16:06

purpose now you’ll say well but isn’t

16:10

that extreme again look at the sometimes

16:13

people need to be careful what they brag

16:15

about because apparently B2 bombers flew

16:18

over Yemen and dropped these massive

16:21

bombs against you know underground

16:22

facilities and everybody’s

16:24

going they didn’t work they collapsed

16:27

the entrance but the facility lives and

16:29

the YY came in through another one your

16:31

big bombs didn’t work which is exactly

16:34

why Donald Trump has made low yield

16:37

ground penetrating nuclear weapons that

16:39

do

16:40

work so when people say why would the

16:43

United States use nuclear weapons

16:44

preemptively I just told you because the

16:47

Conventional Weapons can’t do

16:49

it they can’t do

16:51

it and if we’re going to say we’re going

16:53

to take out the Iranian nuclear

16:55

capability then we will take it out

16:56

using the weapons that are designed for

16:58

that

17:00

purpose and then the other thing people

17:02

need to understand is

17:04

that people are used to pointing a

17:06

finger at America going you can’t really

17:08

win Wars anymore can you because guys

17:12

you go in and you bomb people and then

17:14

it’s done I I want to remind people that

17:16

we’re not waging a war of national

17:18

termination against Yemen it’s a very

17:21

limited attack against very limited

17:23

targets you want to look at what a war

17:25

of national termination looks like look

17:28

at the Strategic G campaign that we

17:29

launched against Iraq in Desert

17:32

Storm sustained uh and I was one of the

17:36

planners for that so I’ll just tell you

17:38

it was designed to collapse the Iraqi

17:40

Society that’s what it was designed to

17:42

do the weapons we have today are much

17:44

better we have a lot more of them so we

17:47

can collapse societies much quicker and

17:50

if Iran thinks that the initial attack

17:53

against it is going to be a very limited

17:55

strike they’re wrong if the decision’s

17:58

made to take out Iran’s nuclear

17:59

infrastructure then we will also take

18:01

out the political component of that

18:03

nuclear program the weaponization aspect

18:06

of it which is a regime we believe is

18:08

prepared to either issue the order or

18:10

has already issued the order to create

18:11

nuclear weapons this will be a regime

18:13

change

18:15

operation uh it will be horrible to

18:18

behold it will end Iran as we know

18:21

it now Iran may I mean you know again

18:24

the Twitter spheres are they’ve got

18:27

5,000 missiles none of which can hit the

18:30

United

18:31

States um we can destroy Israel possibly

18:36

I can see that

18:38

secretly I’m not unhappy with that but I

18:41

can’t really say that uh you know I’m

18:43

not here to defend Israel whether Iran

18:45

can destroy Israel or not is beyond the

18:48

point um whether they can destroy a

18:51

handful of American military bases is

18:52

beyond the point because if it gets to

18:55

the point where Iran does this or

18:57

attempts to do this Iran will no longer

19:01

exist and that’s what I’m trying to stop

19:05

I’m trying to stop the termination of a

19:07

Nation it’s very difficult because

19:10

there’s a lot of Iranians out there who

19:11

have a lot of Pride as they should and

19:15

they should be heavily insulted by the

19:16

policy positions the United States of

19:18

America has taken as they should is it

19:21

fair for America to make the demands

19:23

that it’s making no it’s not fair at all

19:25

not fair at all Iran is on the right

19:28

side of history with one

19:31

exception you’re building a nuclear

19:33

weapons program and you’re trying to

19:34

pretend you’re

19:36

not you’re getting too cute you’re

19:39

saying we don’t have one but secretly we

19:41

could but it’s no longer secretly

19:43

because your official said we could

19:45

you’ve crossed the

19:47

line and there’s no defending that not

19:51

at all it’s indefensible why because

19:54

Iran signed the nuclear nonproliferation

19:57

treaty Iran agreed to safeguards and

20:00

inspections Iran agreed that it will not

20:01

be a nuclear weapons State these are all

20:04

things Iran agreed to and Iran currently

20:06

is a member of the

20:09

npt Iran claims it’s adhering to the npt

20:12

so far it appears that it has because

20:15

even the things that we’ve spoken about

20:17

minus maybe the secret preparation of a

20:20

nuclear weapon um 60% uranium it’s not

20:24

against the law article four of the uh

20:26

the npt allows Iran to have toal control

20:28

of the um the nuclear uh cycle uh and

20:33

60% uranium is still considered to be

20:35

low enriched uranium you can’t make a

20:38

weapon out of it it’s not weapons grve

20:40

um so you know Iran has all this going

20:43

for it except why did they allow their

20:46

people to say these stupid

20:48

things these are confessions these are

20:50

confessions made by very Senior People

20:53

by policy makers by decision makers by

20:56

members of the Iranian government um

20:59

and it is condemned Iran because now the

21:02

United States has every justification

21:04

under international law to take a

21:06

hardland hard land a Hardline stance

21:09

against the Iranian nuclear

21:11

program um and that’s that’s where I

21:14

stand on

21:15

this hi my name is aish man I along with

21:20

jotis man have started this platform the

21:23

last two years we have tried to build

21:26

content for the left and Progressive

21:28

Force say we have interviewed economists

21:31

historians political commentators and

21:34

activists so

21:35

far if you have liked our content so far

21:39

and want us to build an archive for the

21:41

left I have two requests for you please

21:45

do consider donating for the cause link

21:48

is in the description below also if

21:51

you’re are not able to do so don’t feel

21:53

sad you can always like our videos and

21:56

share our videos to your comad

21:59

finally don’t forget to hit the

22:02

Subscribe button

oooooo

Geure herriari, Euskal Herriari dagokionez, hona hemen gure apustu bakarra:

We Basques do need a real Basque independent State in the Western Pyrenees, just a democratic lay or secular state, with all the formal characteristics of any independent State: Central Bank, Treasury, proper currency¹, out of the European Distopia and faraway from NATO, maybe being a BRICS partner…

1 This way, our new Basque government will have infinite money to deal with. (Gogoratzekoa: Moneta jaulkitzaileko kasu guztietan, Gobernuak infinitu diru dauka.)