WEBVTT - Collapse of the Iron Wall 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:12.080 All Zone media. Hello everybody, and welcome to it could 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:16.680 happen here. My name is Sharene, and a lot has 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:20.320 happened recently and we definitely need to talk about it. 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:26.120 There's a lot to cover and things are changing every day. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.560 I can't possibly talk about everything in a thirty minute 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.480 podcast episode, but just for context, I'm recording the bulk 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:38.240 of this on Wednesday, October eleventh. There are many different 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.479 things that we should get into, and we'll probably get 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.240 into them in other episodes, so look forward to those. 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.400 But today I want to talk about why exactly this 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:52.400 attack from Hamas is so different and so unprecedented for 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.880 many reasons, and why the response by Israel is also 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:01.000 extremely unprecedented. There has been a lot of a lot 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.400 of death, and I thought a better way to start 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:07.520 to learn about this might be with something really specific, 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.600 like learning about the border fence that has been cajing 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:15.560 in Gaza for years, why Israel thought it was so impermeable, 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.639 and how they were wrong. So let's begin the video 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.680 and images going around on social media of a bulldozer 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.360 breaking through a portion of the fence that has long 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:30.920 enclosed the Gaza stript for years. This cage that surrounds 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.720 that territory, the image of a bulldozer there's running straight 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.400 through it and Palestinians running to the other side. I 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.560 don't think you can find anything better to represent the 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:48.440 long history of Israeli Palestinian tensions, the decades of brutal 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:53.160 Israeli occupation, the recurrent Hamas bombings and rocket strikes, and 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:58.320 the political deterioration on both sides than this image. No 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.440 one thought this was going to happen. Professor Clive Jones, 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.880 director of Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.680 Durham University, said, this is the first time since nineteen 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:14.120 forty eight that any Palestinian militant movement has taken territory 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:18.959 in Israel proper. That symbolic victory and defeat for Israel 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:23.280 will resonate across the region. So on the morning of 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:27.360 October seventh, there was a surprise attack from Hamas against Israel. 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.639 What happened was a colossal failure of Israeli intelligence as 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.040 well as the Israeli government. I'll go into this in 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.760 more detail in a bit, but in this surprise attack, 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:40.840 resistance fighters were entering in up to twenty nine different 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:46.080 locations outside the Gaza Strip. Most significantly, fighters tore through 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.120 the border fence, which has also been called the Iron Wall. 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.400 They knocked it aside with bulldozers, drove right through it 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.600 with jeeps and motorcycles, other hamas fighters sailed right over 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.840 it with fan powered gliders, and others hopped on boats 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:02.920 to try to reach the other side by sea. A 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.040 crucial component of Israel's defense from an attack like this, 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.000 or at least it was supposed to be, was this 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:13.680 sophisticated border fence. I want to talk about how exactly 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:18.760 Israel came to build this fence, because throughout most of 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.200 its history, the IDF did not want much to do 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:26.240 with defensive measures. Its traditional security concept rested on three 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:33.240 complimentary pillars, deterrents, early warning, and decisive battlefield victory. Guided 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:37.240 by this concept, the IDF built offensive power designed to 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.240 deter its enemies from attacking, and intelligence raised in order 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.120 to detect when that deterns had eroded. If it was 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.720 unable to convince the other side that it was better 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.240 off avoiding conflict, the IDF would bring the full might 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.760 of its offensive capabilities in search of a rapid and 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.960 decisive quote unquote victory, which just means they would end 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.640 up killing a lot of people. They would fly in 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.880 cities and masker hundreds of people in order to essentially 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.080 make the other side lose all hope and not fight back, 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.960 and if they did, to tell them never to fight 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:15.000 back again. This would, according to this concept, initially strengthen 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.640 the terrens. The idea of defense for Israel began sneaking 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.279 into the conversation in the nineteen sixties, as Israel considered 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.120 purchasing the Hawk surface to air missile system from the US. 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:30.000 This idea had some opposition at the highest level of 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:34.920 the IDF Air Force. Commander Ezer Wiseman opposed the idea 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.760 on the grounds that it would give Israel's political chiefs 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:42.360 an excuse to avoid the bold offensive operations, in this case, 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.800 surprise air strikes that would take out entire buildings, which 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.720 he viewed as necessary to win a war. In the end, 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.719 though five Hawk missile batteries were purchased just before the 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.839 nineteen sixty seven Six Day War for thirty million dollars, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.360 the first makings of the present day security fence began 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.599 in nineteen ninety four after the signing of the Interim 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.560 agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip when 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:12.279 Israel constructed a forty mile fence along its boundary with 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.400 Eastern Palestine. The construction was completed in nineteen ninety six, 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.760 though it didn't necessarily represent a hard border. In two 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.760 thousand and five, under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.760 carried out a disengagement from Gaza, which included, among other things, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.640 pulling out its troops. This meant that the one kilometer 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.880 buffer zone that the Israeli Defence Forces maintained after the 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.560 first fence was torn down by Gazans in two thousand 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.680 was no longer a possibility. A plan for an alternate 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.159 forty five fence a few dozen meters east of the 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:50.040 original fence, entirely on Israeli land, was then developed. The 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.960 present day forty mile long barricade has several sections, a 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:56.800 twenty foot high smart fence, which is the over the 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.440 ground fence with a maritime section by sensors to detect 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.400 encourageents from the water, and an underground wall of classified 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.800 depth and thickness with sensors to detect any digging. The 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.640 overground barrier, which makes up eighty one percent of the 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.920 fence is supported by a complex network of cameras, radar systems, 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.000 as well as command and control rooms. One hundred and 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:23.520 forty thousand tons of iron and steel were used in 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.920 the construction of the underground wall, which took three and 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.039 a half years to complete. The total cost of the 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:35.000 project is estimated at one point eleven billion dollars. The 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.600 project of the quote unquote smart fence was publicly announced 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.000 in twenty sixteen, and in twenty twenty one, Israel announced 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.680 the completion of the smart fence, which included an underground 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:49.919 concrete barrier. This addition, which I feel like is important 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:53.960 to mention, was because Hamas used underground tunnels to blind 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:58.120 side Israeli forces in twenty fourteen, Access near the fence 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.840 on the Gaza side was limited to farmers who were 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.720 on foot. On the Israeli side, observation towers and sand 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.240 dunes were put in place to monitor threats and slow intruders. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.200 With the announcement of its completion in twenty twenty one, 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.800 the then Defence Minister Benny Gantz said the barrier placed 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:20.400 a quote iron wall between Hamas and Southern Israel. But 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.840 on October seventh, as we saw the wall failed massively, 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:29.320 and a surprise series of coordinated efforts enabled Tamas to 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.720 get past the wall. The fence was breached at twenty 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.600 nine points, according to the IDF. There were also Israeli 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:40.080 guard towers positioned at every five hundred feet along the 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.960 perimeter of the wall at some certain points, and the 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:47.720 Hamas fighters there appeared to encounter very little resistance. It 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.480 soon became apparent that the border was minimally staffed, with 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.080 much of Israel's military diverted to focus on the unrest 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:58.440 in the West Bank. Matthew Levitt is the director of 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.000 the counter Terrorism Program at the Washington Institute for Near 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.680 East Policy. He said the most compelling parts of the 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:10.080 system were the ones that provided indicators and warnings. But 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.200 you don't see in advance that someone is masked at 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.240 the fence. It's still just a fence, a big fence, 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.680 but just a fence still, he says. The idea of 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.560 a bulldozer getting that close to the fence at all 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:27.400 just boggles the mind. The attack has been documented as 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:32.360 the following. To put it very simply, using commercial drones, 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:37.840 Hamas bombed Israeli observation towers, communications infrastructure, and weapons systems 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.680 along the border. Israel said Hamas fired more than three 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.240 thousand rockets into its territory, with some reaching as far 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:49.760 as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Militants also use explosives to 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:53.120 blow up sections of the barrier, and men and motorbikes 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.760 drove through the gaps and then the bulldozers did the 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:59.720 rest and this allowed for enough space for their larger 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.520 view to drive through. Experts said an attack of this 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.040 magnitude with all of these elements would have required weeks 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:12.320 at least of preparation and subterfuge. But maybe you're asking, well, 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:16.400 why now, why did Hamas now decide to launch an 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.000 attack of this magnitude. There are some clues in the 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.480 name that Hamas gave the attack. They named it Operation 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:27.520 of Axa Flood. Just days before the attack, hundreds of 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.360 Israeli settlers, with the protection of the Israeli forces, stormed 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:35.240 at Alexa Mosque and occupied East Jerusalem. I've talked about 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.840 this before, but this compound is a very important and 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:43.480 contested religious site, and it's often very often a target 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.600 by Israeli settlers and the IDF, and Hamas said it 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:52.720 launched its attack in response to the desecration of Aluxa. Muhammad'ef, 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:57.560 the Rassam Brigade's commander, said, we have decided that the 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.080 time has come to draw the line for the the 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.400 enemy to understand their time is up and they can't 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:07.960 keep going without consequences. But again, experts said this plan 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.360 would have taken weeks to plan. I'm sure the attacks 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:15.040 on Aleximosque played a role in the attack, but it 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.160 was probably being worked on for quite some time before that. 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.640 And Hamas also said the attack was a response to 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:26.040 decades of Israeli violence and occupation. The daily impact of 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.640 that occupation on the lives of Palestinians in Gaza and 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.080 other occupied territories like the West Bank is a huge 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.959 part of this story. Let's take our first break before 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:41.400 I forget no clever segue here, Just listen to these 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:56.520 ads and we're back. Analysts and experts have been warning 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:00.000 for months that the reality on the ground in Palestine 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.040 in Israel was leading up to this. Nor Udin, a 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:08.800 political analyst and former Palestinian Authority spokeswoman, said the record 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:14.040 number of Palestinians killed, dispossessed, injured and traumatized by Israeli 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.920 forces and settlers across the occupied West Bank, the continued 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:22.000 siege on Gaza, the relentless attacks on El Samosque, they 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.560 were all pushing the situation towards this moment. I don't 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.600 think anybody imagined the particulars of this moment, but I 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:30.880 think everybody with a sense of what was going on 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.120 knew that this quote unquote calm was deceiving and that 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:39.520 something was going to happen, something big. And it did happen. 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.800 The wall came down. But for the two point three 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.800 million Palestinians who have been virtually trapped for fifteen years, 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.200 as well as the Palestinians on the West Bank, who 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.720 have been constantly surveilled, having their movement restricted, and have 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:58.439 experienced growing military violence, bulldozing through this fence means something else. 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.000 While the Israeli response was fed by the failure of 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:06.960 this system, making the future of all Palestinians even more precarious. 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.439 The impact of Saturday's attack for Palestinians is hugely significant 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:17.400 psychologically and symbolically. It shatters the idea of Israel's military superiority. 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.679 It's a physical symbol of breaking out of the open 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.800 air prison they've been held captive in letting them step 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.319 onto the land that they've been forced out of, some 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.679 of them for their entire lives. Most of the Palestinians 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.440 and Gaza are children, and they have only ever known 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.079 life within the confines of that fence. So bulldozing a 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.320 hole right through this fence to the other side will 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:43.480 obviously have ripples in more ways than one. I want 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.080 to mention something here that I've been thinking about is 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.920 that Gaza is often referred to as the world's biggest 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.440 open air prison, which is true, but I was thinking 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.840 about it, and prison implies that they did a crime. 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.800 They did not do a crime. The Palestinians are innocent. 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.800 They're stuck in a cage against their will, and they 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.280 have no way out. I think a better way to 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:13.000 describe Gaza might be an open air concentration camp, the 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.560 biggest open air concentration camp period. This is just something 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:18.640 I've been thinking about because I feel like open air 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.800 prison implies they're all criminals and they're not, so just 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.520 something to think about when it comes to semantics and 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.160 the power of words, I suppose, even if it's subconscious. 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.599 Gaza has been under a land, sea and air blockade 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.600 since two thousand and seven. More than two point three 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.600 million Palestinians live there, all crammed in and they cannot 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:46.840 leave without Israeli permission, which very few people get. Hamas 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.440 is a political and armed group that took control of 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.760 two thousand and six, and there hasn't been an election since. 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.079 It's part of a regional alliance which also includes Iran 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.640 and the armed group has Bela and Lebanon. Hamas has 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.160 been designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, and 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.560 the EU, among many others. We'll be doing a history 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.400 more in depth about Hamas soon, but it's important to 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:15.120 note that Israel basically helped create it. More details will 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.960 be in that episode, obviously, but just to summarize very briefly, 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.640 Israel bolstered Hamas's creation and funded its expansion because it 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.880 wanted to divide the Palestinians amongst themselves, and they viewed 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:32.680 the leftist PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was the 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.160 governing party at the time, as a threat, and so 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:41.080 they encouraged Hamas to flourish and thrive, which leads us 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.840 to now again, that'll be a separate episode. There is 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:47.760 so much to cover, and I can do it all today. 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:53.680 Although the PLO used to be the dominant party decades ago, 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.120 in recent years, the PLO and the secular FATA party 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.760 which the PLO is centered around, is often criticized for 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:05.040 being ineffective, and so many Palestinians see Hamas as the 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.920 most active group when it comes to resistance against the 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:13.120 violent Israeli occupation. Palestinians have lived in violent occupation for 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.960 seventy six years and the world has largely done nothing. 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:22.320 Palestinians have no outside support whatsoever, and no one is 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:26.240 coming to their aid or rescue. They unfortunately only have 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:30.720 this militant group because of this, and also just a 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:35.520 reminder that Palestine has actually tried everything and that violence 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:40.440 is not their first resort. Many Palestinians don't even support Hamas. 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:46.280 Let's not forget about BDS, which is a Palestinian nonviolent 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:50.160 movement which calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions for Israel. 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:55.520 BDS is now deemed illegal. In twenty twenty one, thirty 0:15:55.560 --> 0:16:00.680 five states passed anti BDS laws, so even boycott Israeli 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:05.680 products is suddenly illegal. So that was BDS. People are 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.400 obviously still engaged in BDS and I encourage everyone to 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:12.440 read more about it, because divestment and sanctions work. It 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.320 worked in South Africa, but here we are. And then 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.480 in twenty eighteen, Palestinians in Gaza mounted the Great March 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:24.840 of Return to show the world their plight. Day after 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:29.920 day they walked unarmed to Israeli's military fences around Gaza. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:35.520 How did Israel respond to this non violent protest. They 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:40.160 shot eight thousand Palestinians with live ammunition, killed two hundred 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:44.360 and twenty people and wounded thirty six thousand, one hundred 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:49.200 and forty three. Palestinians are getting killed regardless of the 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:53.640 existence of Hamas, because Israel bombing Gaza isn't actually about 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:58.800 Hamas but occupation and ethnic cleansing. Israel and Hamas have 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.360 fought many on and off quote unquote wars. I say, 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.720 quote unquote because it's not a war if only one 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:08.560 side has an army, and I personally really hate when 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.639 it's referred to as a war because it's falsely portraying 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.840 an occupation as an equal fight when there's actually an 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:19.320 oppressor and an oppressed. But regardless, the last big war 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:22.120 Israel had had with Hamas was in twenty twenty one. 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.520 In the past, it's usually been an exchange of fire 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:29.840 across the Gaza border. Hamas launches rockets into Israel, Israel 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.479 drops more bombs on Gaza. Hamas launches rockets into Israel, 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.399 Israel drops more bombs on Gaza, and so on. Usually 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.600 this results in a huge civilian death toll in Gaza, 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:45.080 with Israel bombing entire residential buildings and killing entire families 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.879 and hundreds of children. And just a reminder here that 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:53.160 Gaza does not have an iron dome to defend itself. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:57.359 When Israel bombs Gaza, it does so knowing it is 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:02.280 very densely populated and filled with hundreds of innocent people 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.639 that have nothing to do with Hamas. They drop bombs 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:10.680 on buildings, hospitals, schools, nothing is off limits. I don't 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:12.480 have to remind you, or maybe I do that They've 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:16.320 also killed members of the press, clearly wearing press vests, 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.879 but I guess that's another topic for another day. What 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.320 happened this time around with the attack that Hamas launched 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:27.960 on October seventh, was very different, though it's repeatedly been 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.520 called unprecedented, and this is true for a few reasons. 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.120 One because of the scale of the attack that Hamas launched, 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.399 and two because nobody really saw it coming. As of 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.520 this recording, more than one thousand and two hundred Israelis 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.960 and foreign nationals, the majority of whom were civilians, were 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:52.359 killed and more than three thousand were wounded. Hamas also 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.280 said that it captured more than one hundred Israelis, including 0:18:55.320 --> 0:19:01.520 some senior military officers. Nothing like this, especially at this magnitude, 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.880 has happened since two thousand and six, when Hamas captured 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:09.040 one Israeli soldier, Galatchilit and held him in Gaza for 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:13.679 five years. And three days after Hamas launched this attack 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.479 on October seventh, there were still gun battles going on 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.120 between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces in the three main 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:24.960 areas in southern Israel. And despite verified footage and reporting 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:29.399 from Gaza that indisputably shows countless Palestinian children who Israel 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.080 has killed so far, Israel's murder of Palestinian children is 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.760 receiving little to no media attention in the US or globally. 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:43.280 But they create the worst possible enemy, so the world 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:48.000 supports the destruction of an entire people, and as an Arab, 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.560 I want to mention that it's really hard to see 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:53.720 all of this play out, and if you have any 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.800 Arab friends, I'm sure they're going through it too, especially 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:01.240 if they're Palestinian, because it's almost like dejah of what 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:04.280 happened after nine to eleven, and what happened after nine 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:06.720 to eleven didn't really stop. To be honest, it's not 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:08.720 like a somophobia took a break and then came back. 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:14.000 It's always been there, but now it's very shameless and disgusting, 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:17.400 and it makes no attempt to cover itself because it's 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:21.239 not only ignored, but encouraged in order to validate the 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:25.479 actions of the US military in the Israeli military. Another 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:29.080 reason for this all being so unprecedented is Israel's failure 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.520 to stop it from happening. The Israeli Army is one 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.359 of the world's most sophisticated military and intelligence organizations, as 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:38.600 well as one of the most powerful armies in the world. 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.560 Because of the United States support and billions of dollars 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.919 in funding, any kind of communication going in and out 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.399 of Gaza, at least in theory, would be listened to 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:51.800 by Israel's intelligence units. And again, the offense is heavily militarized, 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:57.199 but still it collapsed. I think another significant result of this, 0:20:57.240 --> 0:20:59.560 which I kind of touched on earlier, is that the 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.840 success full attack from Hamas completely undermines the never endingly 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.640 talked about power of Israel and the power of their 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.879 army and military, especially their capability in the region. It 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:24.960 kind of disrupts their entire image in a way. I 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.080 also want to quickly mention that the claim that Hamas's 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:32.840 attack was unprovoked is ignoring the years of brutal occupation 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.120 and exactly why they attacked in the first place. It 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:38.720 was a surprise, yes, but I would never say it 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.840 was unprovoked, because you can't keep someone in captivity their 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:46.679 entire lifetime and expect them to hug it out. And 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:51.080 maybe what I'm saying sounds radical to you, especially by 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:54.960 the standards of American media. But here is this award 0:21:55.040 --> 0:22:00.119 winning Israeli journalist and writer Gideon Levy. He wrote an 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.480 incredible piece about what's happening right now. He writes opinion 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:07.639 pieces in a weekly column for Herots, and he focuses 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:12.040 particularly on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and he has 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:16.240 won awards for his articles on human rights. He wrote 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:21.560 an incredibly moving, powerful piece called Israel can't imprison two 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:26.040 million Gozzens without paying a cruel price. I want to 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.800 read excerpts from this because he is speaking as inn Israeli, 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:32.960 and I think it's extremely important to hear what he 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:38.080 has to say. Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance, the 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:40.720 idea that we can do whatever we like that will 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:43.080 never pay the price and never be punished for it. 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:49.560 Will carry on undisturbed. We'll arrest, kill, harass, dispossess, and 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:53.280 protect the settlers busy with their programs, will fire at 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:58.360 innocent people, take out people's eyes and smash their faces, expel, confiscate, 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:01.600 rob grab people from their beds heads, carry out ethnic cleansing, 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.680 and of course continue with the unbelievable siege of the 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:08.840 Gaza Strip, and everything will be all right. We'll build 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:12.400 a terrifying obstacle around Gaza and will be safe. Will 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.240 rely on the geniuses of the Army's eighty two hundred 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:19.320 cyber intelligence unit and on the Shinbet Security Service agents 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:23.080 who know everything. They'll warn us in time. It turns 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:26.800 out that even the world's most sophisticated and expensive obstacle 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.439 can be breached with a smoky old bulldozer. When the 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:34.280 motivation is great, This arrogant barrier can be crossed by 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:37.800 bicycle and moped, despite the billions poured into it and 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:42.600 all the famous experts and fat cat contractors. We thought 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:45.240 we'd continue to go down to Gaza, scatter a few 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:48.040 crumbs in the form of tens of thousands of Israeli 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:52.000 work permits, always contingent on good behavior, and still keep 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:55.280 them in prison. We'll make peace with Saudi Arabia and 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:58.840 the United Emirates, and the Palestinians will be forgotten until 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:03.360 they're erased. Quite a few Israelis would like we'll keep 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:07.320 holding thousands of Palestinian prisoners, some without trial, most of 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:11.400 them political prisoners, and we won't agree to discuss their release, 0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:15.520 even after they've been in prison for decades. We'll tell 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:18.200 them that only by force will their prisoners see freedom. 0:24:18.920 --> 0:24:22.080 We thought we would arrogantly keep rejecting any attempt at 0:24:22.080 --> 0:24:25.280 a diplomatic solution, only because we don't want to deal 0:24:25.320 --> 0:24:28.480 with all that, and everything will continue that way forever. 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:32.199 Once again, it was proved that this isn't how it 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:36.199 is a few hundred armed Palestinians breached the barrier and 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:40.199 invaded Israel in a way no Israeli imagine possible. A 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:44.160 few hundred people proved that it's impossible to imprison two 0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:48.800 million people forever without paying a cruel price. Just as 0:24:48.840 --> 0:24:53.600 the smoky old Palestinian bulldozer tore through the world's smartest barrier, 0:24:54.200 --> 0:24:58.320 it tore away at Israel's arrogance and complacency. And that's 0:24:58.400 --> 0:25:00.560 also how it tore away at the idea that it's 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:04.320 enough to occasionally attack Gaza with suicide drones and sell 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:08.639 them to half the world to maintain security. On Saturday, 0:25:08.800 --> 0:25:13.240 Israel saw pictures it has never seen before, Palestinian vehicles 0:25:13.520 --> 0:25:17.199 patrolling gets cities, bike riders entering through the Gaza gates. 0:25:17.560 --> 0:25:21.720 These pictures tear away at that arrogance the Gaza Palestinians 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:24.879 have decided they're willing to pay any price for a 0:25:24.960 --> 0:25:28.760 moment of freedom. Is there any hope in that? No? 0:25:29.560 --> 0:25:34.200 Will Israel learn its lesson? No. On Saturday, they were 0:25:34.200 --> 0:25:37.960 already talking about wiping out entire neighborhoods in Gaza, about 0:25:38.000 --> 0:25:41.520 occupying the strip and punishing Gaza quote as it has 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:45.880 never been punished before. But Israel hasn't stopped punishing Gaza 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:49.879 since nineteen forty eight, not for a moment. After seventy 0:25:49.960 --> 0:25:53.840 five years of abuse, the worst possible scenario awaits it 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:58.560 once again. The threats of flattening Gaza prove only one thing. 0:25:59.400 --> 0:26:02.840 We haven't learned a thing. The arrogance is here to stay, 0:26:03.240 --> 0:26:06.280 even though Israel is paying a high price once again. 0:26:07.480 --> 0:26:11.320 Prime Minister Benjamin Nyaho bears a very great responsibility for 0:26:11.359 --> 0:26:14.359 what happened, and he must pay that price. But it 0:26:14.400 --> 0:26:17.240 didn't start with him, and it won't end after he goes. 0:26:18.119 --> 0:26:21.160 We now have to cry bitterly for the Israeli victims, 0:26:21.520 --> 0:26:25.520 but we should also cry for Gaza. Gaza, most of 0:26:25.560 --> 0:26:30.600