Speaker 1: All Zone media. Hello everybody, and welcome to it could
Speaker 1: happen here. My name is Sharene, and a lot has
Speaker 1: happened recently and we definitely need to talk about it.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to cover and things are changing every day.
Speaker 1: I can't possibly talk about everything in a thirty minute
Speaker 1: podcast episode, but just for context, I'm recording the bulk
Speaker 1: of this on Wednesday, October eleventh. There are many different
Speaker 1: things that we should get into, and we'll probably get
Speaker 1: into them in other episodes, so look forward to those.
Speaker 1: But today I want to talk about why exactly this
Speaker 1: attack from Hamas is so different and so unprecedented for
Speaker 1: many reasons, and why the response by Israel is also
Speaker 1: extremely unprecedented. There has been a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of death, and I thought a better way to start
Speaker 1: to learn about this might be with something really specific,
Speaker 1: like learning about the border fence that has been cajing
Speaker 1: in Gaza for years, why Israel thought it was so impermeable,
Speaker 1: and how they were wrong. So let's begin the video
Speaker 1: and images going around on social media of a bulldozer
Speaker 1: breaking through a portion of the fence that has long
Speaker 1: enclosed the Gaza stript for years. This cage that surrounds
Speaker 1: that territory, the image of a bulldozer there's running straight
Speaker 1: through it and Palestinians running to the other side. I
Speaker 1: don't think you can find anything better to represent the
Speaker 1: long history of Israeli Palestinian tensions, the decades of brutal
Speaker 1: Israeli occupation, the recurrent Hamas bombings and rocket strikes, and
Speaker 1: the political deterioration on both sides than this image. No
Speaker 1: one thought this was going to happen. Professor Clive Jones,
Speaker 1: director of Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at
Speaker 1: Durham University, said, this is the first time since nineteen
Speaker 1: forty eight that any Palestinian militant movement has taken territory
Speaker 1: in Israel proper. That symbolic victory and defeat for Israel
Speaker 1: will resonate across the region. So on the morning of
Speaker 1: October seventh, there was a surprise attack from Hamas against Israel.
Speaker 1: What happened was a colossal failure of Israeli intelligence as
Speaker 1: well as the Israeli government. I'll go into this in
Speaker 1: more detail in a bit, but in this surprise attack,
Speaker 1: resistance fighters were entering in up to twenty nine different
Speaker 1: locations outside the Gaza Strip. Most significantly, fighters tore through
Speaker 1: the border fence, which has also been called the Iron Wall.
Speaker 1: They knocked it aside with bulldozers, drove right through it
Speaker 1: with jeeps and motorcycles, other hamas fighters sailed right over
Speaker 1: it with fan powered gliders, and others hopped on boats
Speaker 1: to try to reach the other side by sea. A
Speaker 1: crucial component of Israel's defense from an attack like this,
Speaker 1: or at least it was supposed to be, was this
Speaker 1: sophisticated border fence. I want to talk about how exactly
Speaker 1: Israel came to build this fence, because throughout most of
Speaker 1: its history, the IDF did not want much to do
Speaker 1: with defensive measures. Its traditional security concept rested on three
Speaker 1: complimentary pillars, deterrents, early warning, and decisive battlefield victory. Guided
Speaker 1: by this concept, the IDF built offensive power designed to
Speaker 1: deter its enemies from attacking, and intelligence raised in order
Speaker 1: to detect when that deterns had eroded. If it was
Speaker 1: unable to convince the other side that it was better
Speaker 1: off avoiding conflict, the IDF would bring the full might
Speaker 1: of its offensive capabilities in search of a rapid and
Speaker 1: decisive quote unquote victory, which just means they would end
Speaker 1: up killing a lot of people. They would fly in
Speaker 1: cities and masker hundreds of people in order to essentially
Speaker 1: make the other side lose all hope and not fight back,
Speaker 1: and if they did, to tell them never to fight
Speaker 1: back again. This would, according to this concept, initially strengthen
Speaker 1: the terrens. The idea of defense for Israel began sneaking
Speaker 1: into the conversation in the nineteen sixties, as Israel considered
Speaker 1: purchasing the Hawk surface to air missile system from the US.
Speaker 1: This idea had some opposition at the highest level of
Speaker 1: the IDF Air Force. Commander Ezer Wiseman opposed the idea
Speaker 1: on the grounds that it would give Israel's political chiefs
Speaker 1: an excuse to avoid the bold offensive operations, in this case,
Speaker 1: surprise air strikes that would take out entire buildings, which
Speaker 1: he viewed as necessary to win a war. In the end,
Speaker 1: though five Hawk missile batteries were purchased just before the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven Six Day War for thirty million dollars,
Speaker 1: the first makings of the present day security fence began
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety four after the signing of the Interim
Speaker 1: agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip when
Speaker 1: Israel constructed a forty mile fence along its boundary with
Speaker 1: Eastern Palestine. The construction was completed in nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: though it didn't necessarily represent a hard border. In two
Speaker 1: thousand and five, under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel
Speaker 1: carried out a disengagement from Gaza, which included, among other things,
Speaker 1: pulling out its troops. This meant that the one kilometer
Speaker 1: buffer zone that the Israeli Defence Forces maintained after the
Speaker 1: first fence was torn down by Gazans in two thousand
Speaker 1: was no longer a possibility. A plan for an alternate
Speaker 1: forty five fence a few dozen meters east of the
Speaker 1: original fence, entirely on Israeli land, was then developed. The
Speaker 1: present day forty mile long barricade has several sections, a
Speaker 1: twenty foot high smart fence, which is the over the
Speaker 1: ground fence with a maritime section by sensors to detect
Speaker 1: encourageents from the water, and an underground wall of classified
Speaker 1: depth and thickness with sensors to detect any digging. The
Speaker 1: overground barrier, which makes up eighty one percent of the
Speaker 1: fence is supported by a complex network of cameras, radar systems,
Speaker 1: as well as command and control rooms. One hundred and
Speaker 1: forty thousand tons of iron and steel were used in
Speaker 1: the construction of the underground wall, which took three and
Speaker 1: a half years to complete. The total cost of the
Speaker 1: project is estimated at one point eleven billion dollars. The
Speaker 1: project of the quote unquote smart fence was publicly announced
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen, and in twenty twenty one, Israel announced
Speaker 1: the completion of the smart fence, which included an underground
Speaker 1: concrete barrier. This addition, which I feel like is important
Speaker 1: to mention, was because Hamas used underground tunnels to blind
Speaker 1: side Israeli forces in twenty fourteen, Access near the fence
Speaker 1: on the Gaza side was limited to farmers who were
Speaker 1: on foot. On the Israeli side, observation towers and sand
Speaker 1: dunes were put in place to monitor threats and slow intruders.
Speaker 1: With the announcement of its completion in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: the then Defence Minister Benny Gantz said the barrier placed
Speaker 1: a quote iron wall between Hamas and Southern Israel. But
Speaker 1: on October seventh, as we saw the wall failed massively,
Speaker 1: and a surprise series of coordinated efforts enabled Tamas to
Speaker 1: get past the wall. The fence was breached at twenty
Speaker 1: nine points, according to the IDF. There were also Israeli
Speaker 1: guard towers positioned at every five hundred feet along the
Speaker 1: perimeter of the wall at some certain points, and the
Speaker 1: Hamas fighters there appeared to encounter very little resistance. It
Speaker 1: soon became apparent that the border was minimally staffed, with
Speaker 1: much of Israel's military diverted to focus on the unrest
Speaker 1: in the West Bank. Matthew Levitt is the director of
Speaker 1: the counter Terrorism Program at the Washington Institute for Near
Speaker 1: East Policy. He said the most compelling parts of the
Speaker 1: system were the ones that provided indicators and warnings. But
Speaker 1: you don't see in advance that someone is masked at
Speaker 1: the fence. It's still just a fence, a big fence,
Speaker 1: but just a fence still, he says. The idea of
Speaker 1: a bulldozer getting that close to the fence at all
Speaker 1: just boggles the mind. The attack has been documented as
Speaker 1: the following. To put it very simply, using commercial drones,
Speaker 1: Hamas bombed Israeli observation towers, communications infrastructure, and weapons systems
Speaker 1: along the border. Israel said Hamas fired more than three
Speaker 1: thousand rockets into its territory, with some reaching as far
Speaker 1: as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Militants also use explosives to
Speaker 1: blow up sections of the barrier, and men and motorbikes
Speaker 1: drove through the gaps and then the bulldozers did the
Speaker 1: rest and this allowed for enough space for their larger
Speaker 1: view to drive through. Experts said an attack of this
Speaker 1: magnitude with all of these elements would have required weeks
Speaker 1: at least of preparation and subterfuge. But maybe you're asking, well,
Speaker 1: why now, why did Hamas now decide to launch an
Speaker 1: attack of this magnitude. There are some clues in the
Speaker 1: name that Hamas gave the attack. They named it Operation
Speaker 1: of Axa Flood. Just days before the attack, hundreds of
Speaker 1: Israeli settlers, with the protection of the Israeli forces, stormed
Speaker 1: at Alexa Mosque and occupied East Jerusalem. I've talked about
Speaker 1: this before, but this compound is a very important and
Speaker 1: contested religious site, and it's often very often a target
Speaker 1: by Israeli settlers and the IDF, and Hamas said it
Speaker 1: launched its attack in response to the desecration of Aluxa. Muhammad'ef,
Speaker 1: the Rassam Brigade's commander, said, we have decided that the
Speaker 1: time has come to draw the line for the the
Speaker 1: enemy to understand their time is up and they can't
Speaker 1: keep going without consequences. But again, experts said this plan
Speaker 1: would have taken weeks to plan. I'm sure the attacks
Speaker 1: on Aleximosque played a role in the attack, but it
Speaker 1: was probably being worked on for quite some time before that.
Speaker 1: And Hamas also said the attack was a response to
Speaker 1: decades of Israeli violence and occupation. The daily impact of
Speaker 1: that occupation on the lives of Palestinians in Gaza and
Speaker 1: other occupied territories like the West Bank is a huge
Speaker 1: part of this story. Let's take our first break before
Speaker 1: I forget no clever segue here, Just listen to these
Speaker 1: ads and we're back. Analysts and experts have been warning
Speaker 1: for months that the reality on the ground in Palestine
Speaker 1: in Israel was leading up to this. Nor Udin, a
Speaker 1: political analyst and former Palestinian Authority spokeswoman, said the record
Speaker 1: number of Palestinians killed, dispossessed, injured and traumatized by Israeli
Speaker 1: forces and settlers across the occupied West Bank, the continued
Speaker 1: siege on Gaza, the relentless attacks on El Samosque, they
Speaker 1: were all pushing the situation towards this moment. I don't
Speaker 1: think anybody imagined the particulars of this moment, but I
Speaker 1: think everybody with a sense of what was going on
Speaker 1: knew that this quote unquote calm was deceiving and that
Speaker 1: something was going to happen, something big. And it did happen.
Speaker 1: The wall came down. But for the two point three
Speaker 1: million Palestinians who have been virtually trapped for fifteen years,
Speaker 1: as well as the Palestinians on the West Bank, who
Speaker 1: have been constantly surveilled, having their movement restricted, and have
Speaker 1: experienced growing military violence, bulldozing through this fence means something else.
Speaker 1: While the Israeli response was fed by the failure of
Speaker 1: this system, making the future of all Palestinians even more precarious.
Speaker 1: The impact of Saturday's attack for Palestinians is hugely significant
Speaker 1: psychologically and symbolically. It shatters the idea of Israel's military superiority.
Speaker 1: It's a physical symbol of breaking out of the open
Speaker 1: air prison they've been held captive in letting them step
Speaker 1: onto the land that they've been forced out of, some
Speaker 1: of them for their entire lives. Most of the Palestinians
Speaker 1: and Gaza are children, and they have only ever known
Speaker 1: life within the confines of that fence. So bulldozing a
Speaker 1: hole right through this fence to the other side will
Speaker 1: obviously have ripples in more ways than one. I want
Speaker 1: to mention something here that I've been thinking about is
Speaker 1: that Gaza is often referred to as the world's biggest
Speaker 1: open air prison, which is true, but I was thinking
Speaker 1: about it, and prison implies that they did a crime.
Speaker 1: They did not do a crime. The Palestinians are innocent.
Speaker 1: They're stuck in a cage against their will, and they
Speaker 1: have no way out. I think a better way to
Speaker 1: describe Gaza might be an open air concentration camp, the
Speaker 1: biggest open air concentration camp period. This is just something
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about because I feel like open air
Speaker 1: prison implies they're all criminals and they're not, so just
Speaker 1: something to think about when it comes to semantics and
Speaker 1: the power of words, I suppose, even if it's subconscious.
Speaker 1: Gaza has been under a land, sea and air blockade
Speaker 1: since two thousand and seven. More than two point three
Speaker 1: million Palestinians live there, all crammed in and they cannot
Speaker 1: leave without Israeli permission, which very few people get. Hamas
Speaker 1: is a political and armed group that took control of
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, and there hasn't been an election since.
Speaker 1: It's part of a regional alliance which also includes Iran
Speaker 1: and the armed group has Bela and Lebanon. Hamas has
Speaker 1: been designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, and
Speaker 1: the EU, among many others. We'll be doing a history
Speaker 1: more in depth about Hamas soon, but it's important to
Speaker 1: note that Israel basically helped create it. More details will
Speaker 1: be in that episode, obviously, but just to summarize very briefly,
Speaker 1: Israel bolstered Hamas's creation and funded its expansion because it
Speaker 1: wanted to divide the Palestinians amongst themselves, and they viewed
Speaker 1: the leftist PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was the
Speaker 1: governing party at the time, as a threat, and so
Speaker 1: they encouraged Hamas to flourish and thrive, which leads us
Speaker 1: to now again, that'll be a separate episode. There is
Speaker 1: so much to cover, and I can do it all today.
Speaker 1: Although the PLO used to be the dominant party decades ago,
Speaker 1: in recent years, the PLO and the secular FATA party
Speaker 1: which the PLO is centered around, is often criticized for
Speaker 1: being ineffective, and so many Palestinians see Hamas as the
Speaker 1: most active group when it comes to resistance against the
Speaker 1: violent Israeli occupation. Palestinians have lived in violent occupation for
Speaker 1: seventy six years and the world has largely done nothing.
Speaker 1: Palestinians have no outside support whatsoever, and no one is
Speaker 1: coming to their aid or rescue. They unfortunately only have
Speaker 1: this militant group because of this, and also just a
Speaker 1: reminder that Palestine has actually tried everything and that violence
Speaker 1: is not their first resort. Many Palestinians don't even support Hamas.
Speaker 1: Let's not forget about BDS, which is a Palestinian nonviolent
Speaker 1: movement which calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions for Israel.
Speaker 1: BDS is now deemed illegal. In twenty twenty one, thirty
Speaker 1: five states passed anti BDS laws, so even boycott Israeli
Speaker 1: products is suddenly illegal. So that was BDS. People are
Speaker 1: obviously still engaged in BDS and I encourage everyone to
Speaker 1: read more about it, because divestment and sanctions work. It
Speaker 1: worked in South Africa, but here we are. And then
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen, Palestinians in Gaza mounted the Great March
Speaker 1: of Return to show the world their plight. Day after
Speaker 1: day they walked unarmed to Israeli's military fences around Gaza.
Speaker 1: How did Israel respond to this non violent protest. They
Speaker 1: shot eight thousand Palestinians with live ammunition, killed two hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty people and wounded thirty six thousand, one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty three. Palestinians are getting killed regardless of the
Speaker 1: existence of Hamas, because Israel bombing Gaza isn't actually about
Speaker 1: Hamas but occupation and ethnic cleansing. Israel and Hamas have
Speaker 1: fought many on and off quote unquote wars. I say,
Speaker 1: quote unquote because it's not a war if only one
Speaker 1: side has an army, and I personally really hate when
Speaker 1: it's referred to as a war because it's falsely portraying
Speaker 1: an occupation as an equal fight when there's actually an
Speaker 1: oppressor and an oppressed. But regardless, the last big war
Speaker 1: Israel had had with Hamas was in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: In the past, it's usually been an exchange of fire
Speaker 1: across the Gaza border. Hamas launches rockets into Israel, Israel
Speaker 1: drops more bombs on Gaza. Hamas launches rockets into Israel,
Speaker 1: Israel drops more bombs on Gaza, and so on. Usually
Speaker 1: this results in a huge civilian death toll in Gaza,
Speaker 1: with Israel bombing entire residential buildings and killing entire families
Speaker 1: and hundreds of children. And just a reminder here that
Speaker 1: Gaza does not have an iron dome to defend itself.
Speaker 1: When Israel bombs Gaza, it does so knowing it is
Speaker 1: very densely populated and filled with hundreds of innocent people
Speaker 1: that have nothing to do with Hamas. They drop bombs
Speaker 1: on buildings, hospitals, schools, nothing is off limits. I don't
Speaker 1: have to remind you, or maybe I do that They've
Speaker 1: also killed members of the press, clearly wearing press vests,
Speaker 1: but I guess that's another topic for another day. What
Speaker 1: happened this time around with the attack that Hamas launched
Speaker 1: on October seventh, was very different, though it's repeatedly been
Speaker 1: called unprecedented, and this is true for a few reasons.
Speaker 1: One because of the scale of the attack that Hamas launched,
Speaker 1: and two because nobody really saw it coming. As of
Speaker 1: this recording, more than one thousand and two hundred Israelis
Speaker 1: and foreign nationals, the majority of whom were civilians, were
Speaker 1: killed and more than three thousand were wounded. Hamas also
Speaker 1: said that it captured more than one hundred Israelis, including
Speaker 1: some senior military officers. Nothing like this, especially at this magnitude,
Speaker 1: has happened since two thousand and six, when Hamas captured
Speaker 1: one Israeli soldier, Galatchilit and held him in Gaza for
Speaker 1: five years. And three days after Hamas launched this attack
Speaker 1: on October seventh, there were still gun battles going on
Speaker 1: between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces in the three main
Speaker 1: areas in southern Israel. And despite verified footage and reporting
Speaker 1: from Gaza that indisputably shows countless Palestinian children who Israel
Speaker 1: has killed so far, Israel's murder of Palestinian children is
Speaker 1: receiving little to no media attention in the US or globally.
Speaker 1: But they create the worst possible enemy, so the world
Speaker 1: supports the destruction of an entire people, and as an Arab,
Speaker 1: I want to mention that it's really hard to see
Speaker 1: all of this play out, and if you have any
Speaker 1: Arab friends, I'm sure they're going through it too, especially
Speaker 1: if they're Palestinian, because it's almost like dejah of what
Speaker 1: happened after nine to eleven, and what happened after nine
Speaker 1: to eleven didn't really stop. To be honest, it's not
Speaker 1: like a somophobia took a break and then came back.
Speaker 1: It's always been there, but now it's very shameless and disgusting,
Speaker 1: and it makes no attempt to cover itself because it's
Speaker 1: not only ignored, but encouraged in order to validate the
Speaker 1: actions of the US military in the Israeli military. Another
Speaker 1: reason for this all being so unprecedented is Israel's failure
Speaker 1: to stop it from happening. The Israeli Army is one
Speaker 1: of the world's most sophisticated military and intelligence organizations, as
Speaker 1: well as one of the most powerful armies in the world.
Speaker 1: Because of the United States support and billions of dollars
Speaker 1: in funding, any kind of communication going in and out
Speaker 1: of Gaza, at least in theory, would be listened to
Speaker 1: by Israel's intelligence units. And again, the offense is heavily militarized,
Speaker 1: but still it collapsed. I think another significant result of this,
Speaker 1: which I kind of touched on earlier, is that the
Speaker 1: success full attack from Hamas completely undermines the never endingly
Speaker 1: talked about power of Israel and the power of their
Speaker 1: army and military, especially their capability in the region. It
Speaker 1: kind of disrupts their entire image in a way. I
Speaker 1: also want to quickly mention that the claim that Hamas's
Speaker 1: attack was unprovoked is ignoring the years of brutal occupation
Speaker 1: and exactly why they attacked in the first place. It
Speaker 1: was a surprise, yes, but I would never say it
Speaker 1: was unprovoked, because you can't keep someone in captivity their
Speaker 1: entire lifetime and expect them to hug it out. And
Speaker 1: maybe what I'm saying sounds radical to you, especially by
Speaker 1: the standards of American media. But here is this award
Speaker 1: winning Israeli journalist and writer Gideon Levy. He wrote an
Speaker 1: incredible piece about what's happening right now. He writes opinion
Speaker 1: pieces in a weekly column for Herots, and he focuses
Speaker 1: particularly on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and he has
Speaker 1: won awards for his articles on human rights. He wrote
Speaker 1: an incredibly moving, powerful piece called Israel can't imprison two
Speaker 1: million Gozzens without paying a cruel price. I want to
Speaker 1: read excerpts from this because he is speaking as inn Israeli,
Speaker 1: and I think it's extremely important to hear what he
Speaker 1: has to say. Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance, the
Speaker 1: idea that we can do whatever we like that will
Speaker 1: never pay the price and never be punished for it.
Speaker 1: Will carry on undisturbed. We'll arrest, kill, harass, dispossess, and
Speaker 1: protect the settlers busy with their programs, will fire at
Speaker 1: innocent people, take out people's eyes and smash their faces, expel, confiscate,
Speaker 1: rob grab people from their beds heads, carry out ethnic cleansing,
Speaker 1: and of course continue with the unbelievable siege of the
Speaker 1: Gaza Strip, and everything will be all right. We'll build
Speaker 1: a terrifying obstacle around Gaza and will be safe. Will
Speaker 1: rely on the geniuses of the Army's eighty two hundred
Speaker 1: cyber intelligence unit and on the Shinbet Security Service agents
Speaker 1: who know everything. They'll warn us in time. It turns
Speaker 1: out that even the world's most sophisticated and expensive obstacle
Speaker 1: can be breached with a smoky old bulldozer. When the
Speaker 1: motivation is great, This arrogant barrier can be crossed by
Speaker 1: bicycle and moped, despite the billions poured into it and
Speaker 1: all the famous experts and fat cat contractors. We thought
Speaker 1: we'd continue to go down to Gaza, scatter a few
Speaker 1: crumbs in the form of tens of thousands of Israeli
Speaker 1: work permits, always contingent on good behavior, and still keep
Speaker 1: them in prison. We'll make peace with Saudi Arabia and
Speaker 1: the United Emirates, and the Palestinians will be forgotten until
Speaker 1: they're erased. Quite a few Israelis would like we'll keep
Speaker 1: holding thousands of Palestinian prisoners, some without trial, most of
Speaker 1: them political prisoners, and we won't agree to discuss their release,
Speaker 1: even after they've been in prison for decades. We'll tell
Speaker 1: them that only by force will their prisoners see freedom.
Speaker 1: We thought we would arrogantly keep rejecting any attempt at
Speaker 1: a diplomatic solution, only because we don't want to deal
Speaker 1: with all that, and everything will continue that way forever.
Speaker 1: Once again, it was proved that this isn't how it
Speaker 1: is a few hundred armed Palestinians breached the barrier and
Speaker 1: invaded Israel in a way no Israeli imagine possible. A
Speaker 1: few hundred people proved that it's impossible to imprison two
Speaker 1: million people forever without paying a cruel price. Just as
Speaker 1: the smoky old Palestinian bulldozer tore through the world's smartest barrier,
Speaker 1: it tore away at Israel's arrogance and complacency. And that's
Speaker 1: also how it tore away at the idea that it's
Speaker 1: enough to occasionally attack Gaza with suicide drones and sell
Speaker 1: them to half the world to maintain security. On Saturday,
Speaker 1: Israel saw pictures it has never seen before, Palestinian vehicles
Speaker 1: patrolling gets cities, bike riders entering through the Gaza gates.
Speaker 1: These pictures tear away at that arrogance the Gaza Palestinians
Speaker 1: have decided they're willing to pay any price for a
Speaker 1: moment of freedom. Is there any hope in that? No?
Speaker 1: Will Israel learn its lesson? No. On Saturday, they were
Speaker 1: already talking about wiping out entire neighborhoods in Gaza, about
Speaker 1: occupying the strip and punishing Gaza quote as it has
Speaker 1: never been punished before. But Israel hasn't stopped punishing Gaza
Speaker 1: since nineteen forty eight, not for a moment. After seventy
Speaker 1: five years of abuse, the worst possible scenario awaits it
Speaker 1: once again. The threats of flattening Gaza prove only one thing.
Speaker 1: We haven't learned a thing. The arrogance is here to stay,
Speaker 1: even though Israel is paying a high price once again.
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Benjamin Nyaho bears a very great responsibility for
Speaker 1: what happened, and he must pay that price. But it
Speaker 1: didn't start with him, and it won't end after he goes.
Speaker 1: We now have to cry bitterly for the Israeli victims,
Speaker 1: but we should also cry for Gaza. Gaza, most of
Speaker 1: whose residents are refugees created by Israel, Gaza, which has
Speaker 1: never known a single day of freedom. I just think
Speaker 1: that piece is very powerful, and I know I read
Speaker 1: a good chunk of it, but I think it's important
Speaker 1: to hear, especially from an Israeli. As he mentioned, Israel,
Speaker 1: because of this has responded to the attack with extreme force.
Speaker 1: Prime Minister a little Bitchna NYAHUO said the enemy will
Speaker 1: pay an unprecedented price. Israel has bombed Gaza for days,
Speaker 1: hitting Gaza with air strikes, targeting hospitals, mosques, entire residential buildings,
Speaker 1: and calling Palestinians animals to the media, Israeli Defense Minister
Speaker 1: Joav Galant said, we are fighting animals and acting accordingly.
Speaker 1: Israel also said that it wants to wipe out hamasa's
Speaker 1: military capability and end its control of Gaza, which doesn't
Speaker 1: really make sense because they're kind of targeting anything and
Speaker 1: now anything they can hit, including civilians, and at the
Speaker 1: end they want control themselves. So I think a lot
Speaker 1: of right wing Israeli politicians, which was most of them
Speaker 1: these days, say empty, stupid shit. And it also looks
Speaker 1: like amidst all this that a ground invasion is likely
Speaker 1: going to happen because the IDF has been readying tanks
Speaker 1: and military jeeps. It sucks that I have to say
Speaker 1: this out loud, but peace should not come at the
Speaker 1: expense and the brutal oppression of others. There was no
Speaker 1: peace before this attack. The violence of the Israeli occupation
Speaker 1: has been there since the state was established in nineteen
Speaker 1: forty eight. Hamas is a direct result of that violence.
Speaker 1: There has never been peace in Israel because it was
Speaker 1: created in violence, and this clearly does not justify Hamas
Speaker 1: killing innocent people. That is never okay, But Israel also
Speaker 1: can justify killing thousands of people because of that. Abby Martin,
Speaker 1: who is the creator and host of The Empire Files.
Speaker 1: She also made the film Gaza Fights for Freedom, which
Speaker 1: I highly recommend. She posted this exchange on her Twitter
Speaker 1: between her and one of their field producers in Gaza,
Speaker 1: and he says, I'm scared, Abby, I feel I could
Speaker 1: die any second. Most of the people here lost power
Speaker 1: and internet connections, so we don't know where they hit.
Speaker 1: Entire neighborhoods are being erased. They killed twelve hundred of
Speaker 1: us so far and destroyed massively, and yet they say
Speaker 1: they have not started yet. We know massacres are coming,
Speaker 1: and we're sure they got the green light from the
Speaker 1: US to kill us all. So that is a perspective
Speaker 1: of someone standing in Gaza living in fear, which isn't
Speaker 1: entirely new as far as living in fear goes, because
Speaker 1: that's been the reality for Gazans for decades. But this
Speaker 1: time it's different because it's very clear that Israel's committing
Speaker 1: a purposeful genocide. But they're in the dark with no
Speaker 1: one to help them, and I can only imagine how
Speaker 1: helpless and hopeless it feels. It breaks my heart. I
Speaker 1: just want to give a update, an unfortunate update, because
Speaker 1: things are just fucked and people keep dying. But I'm
Speaker 1: recording this update on the afternoon of October twelfth, like
Speaker 1: a day after I record the original stuff, and Israel
Speaker 1: has killed five hundred Palestinians and the Gaza strip since
Speaker 1: this morning, five hundred in the last six hours twelve hours.
Speaker 1: Gaza's health ministry said that one thousand, five hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty seven Palestinians, including five hundred children and two hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy six women, have been killed and there are
Speaker 1: almost seven thousand others wounded because of these Israeli airstrikes.
Speaker 1: Loss of this magnitude is unsettling and overwhelming. And I
Speaker 1: also want to mention this something I just learned. Israel
Speaker 1: has bombed the international airports of Aleppo and Damascus in Syria,
Speaker 1: and this has forced them out of service. So not
Speaker 1: only are they massacring the entire families in Gaza, but
Speaker 1: they're also dropping bombs on civilian airports in Syria. And
Speaker 1: the Western media still wants you to think that Israel
Speaker 1: is the victim. It bears repeating that Gaza is very
Speaker 1: densely populated, with two point three million people trapped in
Speaker 1: a very small space, unable to leave, with nowhere to
Speaker 1: escape to. An example of this empty, stupid rhetoric that
Speaker 1: Israeli politicians are saying is when Natanyahu said that civilians
Speaker 1: should leave and evacuate Gaza. He said that, knowing full
Speaker 1: well that that is impossible because his government forbids it.
Speaker 1: He said that to the media so the world can
Speaker 1: see that he is just and not trying to attack
Speaker 1: any civilians. It's all a fucking show, like I guess
Speaker 1: all politics are, but it's still really infuriating and I
Speaker 1: hate it so much. And in Gaza, before all of this,
Speaker 1: before the thousands that have already died, there was already
Speaker 1: a blockade. They were trapped for fifteen years. And now
Speaker 1: in addition to this blockade, Israel has imposed a total
Speaker 1: siege on Gaza, inflicting collective punishment, which is illegal under
Speaker 1: international law. But Israel routinely commits war crimes and goes
Speaker 1: about its business unchecked. Why would it be any different
Speaker 1: this time. Remember that half of Gaza's population are under
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds of children have been murdered, and horrific videos
Speaker 1: have been circulating of the destruction of Gaza, of bodies
Speaker 1: and babies and innocent people being pulled out of the rubble.
Speaker 1: I had a break down last night because I saw
Speaker 1: a video of a Palestinian father holding his dead child's
Speaker 1: corpse and hugging it for the very last time. And
Speaker 1: I'm very privileged to be sitting here recording this, and
Speaker 1: if I have difficulty processing it, I cannot imagine what
Speaker 1: Palestinians are going through. Israel controls everything in Gaza. If
Speaker 1: cut off electricity, food, water, and gas for an entire population,
Speaker 1: Israel is massacring Palestinians in a blackout on purpose, so
Speaker 1: they're unable to connect with anyone from the outside. No
Speaker 1: electricity also means that hospitals have no way of the
Speaker 1: already limited machines they have available to them so they
Speaker 1: can save lives. Before this, the water in Gaza was
Speaker 1: already ninety seven percent undrinkable, and now it's completely gone.
Speaker 1: This will lead to dehydration deaths, among many many other deaths.
Speaker 1: Israel is starving an entire population live on your television,
Speaker 1: openly committing genocide as the world watches on as it
Speaker 1: always does. It could Happen Here as a production of
Speaker 1: cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
Speaker 1: visit our website coolzonemedia dot com or check us out
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to podcasts. You can find sources for It could Happen Here,
Speaker 1: updated monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening.