2024-07-31 Netanyahu’s end game: Why Israel killed Hamas chief in Iran | Gideon Levy | The Big Picture S5E1 Two assassinations. Two capital cities. Less than 24 hours. One struck an apartment in downtown Beirut, killing a woman and two children – targeting a Hezbollah senior commander.Then just hours later, a strike in the heart of Tehran, assassinating Hamas’ most high profile figure, and its political chief – Ismail Hanieyah.
Israel has claimed the first attack, though not the second – at least not yet – but the reverberations are already starting to be felt – as are fears that we’re barreling towards an inevitable regional war – one that could spiral quickly out of control.
This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with award-winning Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy about the significance, and wisdom, of the two high profile assassinations.
Hanieyah’s killing in particular threatens to derail the already fragile ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, which have so far failed to put an end to a horrific 10-month war that killed more than 39,000 Palestinians and 1200 Israelis. It also pushes the United States deeper into a corner. The Biden Administration has failed to pull Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the brink, but continues to supply him with weapons used against a civilian population in Gaza, while undermining attempts to hold Israel to account internationally.
Now less than 100 days before an election that could return Trump to the White House – can the US really afford to follow Israel into a war with Hezbollah – and possibly – a war with Iran? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9JB8jMu3lk
Levy, Daniel – Former Israeli Peace Negotiator (also see Cease Fire)
Updated 2024-08-27
2024-08-13 Former Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy: U.S. Is Part of “Axis of Zionist Extremism” The United States, Qatar and Egypt are urging Israel and Hamas to hold a new round of negotiations to finalize a ceasefire deal in Gaza. However, Hamas is urging mediators to enforce the ceasefire terms proposed by President Biden in May that Hamas already agreed to and that Israel rejected. Daniel Levy, president of the U.S./Middle East Project and a former Israeli peace negotiator under Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin, says U.S.-led efforts for a ceasefire are likely to fail as long as the Biden administration remains unwilling to pressure Israel. “It’s quite clear Netanyahu does not want a ceasefire deal,” says Levy, who adds that the Washington playbook of unlimited support for Israel and threats to keep other regional actors in line could pull the U.S. into a wider Middle East war. “America is playing the role as a member of the axis of Zionist extremism.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO8OwqMDDAU
2024-07-11 Netanyahu “Trying to Do Everything to Prevent a Deal,” Says Ex-Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy discusses ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued hostility to compromise and the Biden administration’s ineffectual mediation. Contrary to its claims of brokering peace, the U.S. “will continue to send the weapons” Israel uses to devastate Gaza, unremittingly fueling an increasingly unpopular war, says Levy, who is now president of the U.S./Middle East Project. Democracy Now! is an independent global newshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pfJzZ2xAkU
2024-07-05 Palestine Post: Latest News and Developments This week marks 9 full months of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. As we’ve done just about every Monday since October, we’ll turn back today to our recurring segment – The Palestine Post, talking about the latest news from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the efforts that people are taking from across the world to stop it. We spend an extended hour (far too long to air on our slot on KPFA’s radio airwaves) in conversation with Nora Barrows-Friedman, a staff writer and editor at The Electronic Intifada, and also a former KPFA host and producer.
We’ll discuss a new report by the Lancet on the projected direct and indirect death toll in Gaza to be in the area of 170,000. Then we’ll talk about Haaretz’ report that Israel used the ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7th, which the Electronic Intifada previously reported just a few days after the Al Aqsa Flood and were lambasted for their coverage by mainstream media. We close with a discussion on the potential for ceasefire talks as representatives for Hamas and Israel meet in Cairo and Doha as well as a new commitment from the Presbyterian Church to divest from Israel bonds. To read the Lancet report: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltexthttps://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder-july-8-2024/
Not Another Bomb! Kamala Harris, Pledge to Enact an Arms Embargo We know that in order to achieve a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the U.S. must stop arming Israel’s war and occupation against Palestinians. That’s why we are calling for an immediate embargo on US arms to Israel. Join us in calling on presidential candidate Kamala Harris to distance herself from Biden’s disastrous policy of arming Israel’s ongoing genocide and occupation in Palestine.
2024-08-24 ‘Muslim Women for Harris’ Abruptly Withdraws Their Support The group “Muslim Women for Harris-Walz” says they can no longer support Kamala Harris after being informed that a Palestinian American speaker could not address the Democratic National Convention (DNC), per Newsweek. The group responded, “We cannot in good conscience, continue Muslim Women for Harris-Walz, in light of this new information from the Uncommitted movement, that VP Harris’ team declined their request to have a Palestinian American speaker take the stage at the DNC.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/muslim-women-for-harris-abruptly-withdraws-their-support/ss-AA1pn6tq?
2024-08-19 Kamala Harris Is Reaching Out to Arab American Leaders, But Will There Be Any Change in Gaza Policy? Arab American voters could significantly impact the 2024 presidential election, particularly in Michigan, home to the largest Arab community in the United States. Many of these voters, incensed at U.S. support for the Israeli war on Gaza, have mobilized over the past year to pressure the Biden administration to change policy, including by casting hundreds of thousands of ballots for “uncommitted” in Democratic primary elections to signal their demand for policy changes. We speak with Osama Siblani, founder and publisher of _The Arab American News_, who has had several meetings with senior figures from the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign. Despite all those meetings, “nothing has happened” except “more killing,” Siblani says. “Something has to be done to stop Benjamin Netanyahu’s appetite for killing.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr6KiRizPDk
2024-08-17 Harris Is Better Than Biden on Gaza—But She Must Go Further As U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris steps into the spotlight to take over the Democratic ticket from President Biden, some on the left have so far withheld their support. Of central concern are her views on Palestine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Will she stake out a different policy than Biden when it comes to indiscriminate Israeli warfare on Palestinians, which has so far received unconditional US aid and political support?
For better or worse, much of Harris’s positions on Palestine are presumed by proxy to Biden’s. Indeed, Biden administration officials themselves have stated there is no daylight between hers and Biden’s positions on Israel’s war in Gaza. When pressed at public events this past month – prior to her candidacy – Harris restated Biden’s position and endorsed a two-state solution.
Harris has certainly not been an avowed, true believer in Zionism the way Biden has historically been. As a US Senator, Harris opposed SB-1, an anti-Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) bill backed by the Zionist lobby, on constitutional free speech grounds. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/harris-biden-gaza-policy
2024-08-12 Kamala Harris’s Israel Quandary On Saturday, Israel struck another school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza, this time killing at least 100 people, including dozens of children. The Israeli government made the usual excuse that the complex was also sheltering Hamas. The White House didn’t even bother to protest. These attacks have become all too routine. At least 17 school buildings have been targeted over the last month, killing at least 163 Palestinians, according to the United Nations.
On Wednesday, campaigning in Michigan, Kamala Harris was heckled by pro-Palestinian demonstrators. As she was honing her attack on Donald Trump, chants broke out, “Kamala! Kamala! You can’t hide! We won’t vote for genocide!” Harris eventually shut them down by saying, “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”
But these protesters are not going away. Harris’s effective deadline for offering some policy change is the Democratic National Convention, which begins in just a week in Chicago, where more disruptive protests are planned. So far, Harris has taken only baby steps toward a different policy. At a campaign event in Phoenix, Harris said that “far too many” Palestinians had been killed “yet again,” adding that Israel had a right to “go after Hamas” but also has “an important responsibility” to avoid civilian casualties. But words alone, as Biden has repeatedly found to his humiliation, do not change Israel’s policy. https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-08-12-kamala-harris-israel-quandary/
2024-08-09 “Uncommitted” Co-Chair Layla Elabed on Meeting Kamala Harris, Pressing VP for Arms Embargo on Israel We speak with the co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement, who briefly met with Vice President Kamala Harris this week as the Democratic presidential candidate is under pressure to define her platform on Palestine. Layla Elabed spoke with Harris before her rally in Michigan to press her on a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel. “I was very emotional in that brief exchange. I did feel like her sympathy and empathy towards me was very genuine, but Palestinian children cannot eat words,” says Elabed. “We need action.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0j4084JBVc
2024-07-25 Kamala BLASTS “Unpatriotic” Netanyahu Protesters Who Burned U.S. Flag, Gavin Newsome SWEEPS Homeless Jordan Chariton is Live with Steve Grumbine to discuss the recent D.C. protests against Netanyahu’s visit with American leaders and Congress, including Kamala’s response to the protesters. https://substack.com/home/post/p-147010972
2024-07-23 What Would President Harris Do With Gaza? It’s all but official: With President Biden stepping aside, and virtually the entire party lining up behind her, Kamala Harris will be the Democratic nominee for president.
But that raises the question of just what Harris would do as president. In the arena of foreign policy, the president has sweeping authority, and nowhere has that power been more consequential of late than with the Biden administration’s firm support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
On Gaza, the picture is less clear. Here the Biden administration’s lockstep support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s frankly genocidal war—which has now killed something like 30 times as many people as the 10/7 attacks, the large majority of them civilians—has badly split the Democratic Party. In particular, it seems to have deeply alienated certain blocs of young and minority voters, especially in vital swing state Michigan. https://prospect.org/world/2024-07-23-what-would-president-harris-do-with-gaza/
2024-07-22 Uncommitted Movement: Harris Must Speak Out Against Gaza Genocide The grassroots pro-Palestine movement behind hundreds of thousands of protest votes in the Democratic primaries against President Joe Biden is now urging Vice President Kamala Harris to come out against sending more weapons to Israel now that she is likely going to take Biden’s spot as the Democrats’ presidential nominee.
“For months, we’ve warned that Biden’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza would hurt his electability,” the Uncommitted National Movement wrote in a statement shortly after Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris on Sunday. “Now, it’s crucial for Vice President Harris to take a clear stance against weapons for Israel’s war and occupation against Palestinians.”
The Uncommitted movement made waves during the Democratic primaries, earning several dozen delegates nationwide after over half a million voters selected “uncommitted” rather than voting for Biden. The movement, first organized in Michigan, was aimed at sending the Biden administration a message that Biden was losing the support of a huge swath of voters due to his unwavering support for Israel as it has slaughtered tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of Palestinians in Gaza.https://truthout.org/articles/uncommitted-movement-harris-must-speak-out-against-gaza-genocide/
2024-08-10 Where Is the Mass Outrage Over Israel’s Abu Ghraib? It’s been just over 20 years since CBS News published the sobering photographs that proved the U.S. Army was carrying out unspeakable crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Rape. Degradation. Homicide. Torture, both psychological and physical. Sexual humiliation. The revelations of U.S. barbarity were greeted with horror around the world and played a major role in turning opinion against the Iraq War.
In recent days, it has become all too clear that something comparable to Abu Ghraib—and very possibly worse—has been taking place in Israeli prisons since October 7 when the war on Gaza broke out. The report, based on interviews with 55 Palestinians detained since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, is distressing to read. It provides evidence of degrading treatment, arbitrary beatings, and sleep deprivation, as well as the “repeated use of sexual violence, in varying degrees of severity.” In addition, last month the United Nations Human Rights office published a report that found shocking abuses in Israeli military facilities and prisons, where at least 53 Palestinians have died since October 7.
2024-03-04 Organs Israel is accused of stealing organs from dead Palestinians. Medics and relatives in Gaza have reported bodies being returned with missing hearts, kidneys and livers. But this isn’t the first time Israel has been accused of organ theft. https://www.tiktok.com/@ajplus/video/7342537382761188638
2009-11-26 Israeli Organ Trafficking and Theft: From Moldova to Palestine In August Sweden’s largest daily newspaper published an article containing grisly evidence suggesting that Israel had been taking Palestinian internal organs. The article, by veteran photojournalist Donald Bostrom, called for an international investigation to discover the facts.
Israel immediately accused Bostrom and the newspaper of “anti-Semitism,” and charged that suggesting Israelis could be involved in the illicit removal of body parts constituted a modern “blood libel” (medieval stories of Jews killing people for their blood). The fact is, however, that Israeli organ harvesting—sometimes with Israeli governmental funding and the participation of high Israeli officials, prominent Israeli physicians, and Israeli ministries—has been documented for many years. Among the victims have been Palestinians.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Chancellor’s Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley, the founder of Organ Watch, and the author of scholarly books and articles on organ trafficking. She is the pundit mainstream media call upon when they need expert commentary on the topic.
2023-10-22 Palestine Letter: Israel is Imposing a Blackout on Gaza to Hide a Massacre We’re only at the beginning of one of the most protracted and brutal wars in Gaza’s history. I dread the upcoming days. This might be our time to leave this world, torn apart in a random Israeli airstrike.
The next day, electricity, internet and water are all cut off. I start to feel that, step by step, we’re being cut off from the outside world, until it doesn’t exist. Israel wants to intentionally cause a blackout so that we can’t report on the massacres it’s committing in Gaza. They’re preparing for something huge, and without a way of telling the world, no one will know until it’s too late. https://www.wrmea.org/israel-palestine/palestine-letter-israel-is-imposing-a-blackout-on-gaza-to-hide-a-massacre.html
List of massacres in Israel – Wikipedia List of massacres in Israel is a list of massacres that have occurred in Israel after the 1948 Palestine War. Mostly Palestinian Resistance Terrorist Attacks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Israel
Deir Yassin massacre – Wikipedia The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when Zionist paramilitaries attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, killing at least 107 Palestinian villagers, including women and children. The attack was conducted primarily by the Irgun and Lehi, who were supported by the Haganah and Palmach. The massacre was carried out despite the village having agreed to a non-aggression pact. It occurred during the 1947-1948 civil war and was a central component of the Nakba and the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre
Tantura Massacre – Wikipedia Took place on the night of 22–23 May 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Around 40–200 Palestinian Arab villagers from Tantura were massacred by Israel’s Haganah, namely the Alexandroni Brigade. The massacre occurred following Tantura’s surrender, a village of roughly 1,500 people in 1945 located near Haifa. The victims were buried in a mass grave, which today serves as a car park for the nearby Tel Dor beach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantura_massacre
2024-08-16 Why Israeli Soldiers Rape, Torture, and Massacre Instilling fear in the Palestinian people is not a side effect of the IDF’s brutal violations of human rights. It is the strategy.
On October 25, Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin told Arutz Sheva-Israel National News that “Muslims are not afraid of us anymore.” It might sound odd that Feiglin saw the element of fear as critical to Israel’s well-being if not its very survival. In actuality, the fear element is directly linked to Israel’s behavior and fundamental to its political discourse.
Historically, Israel has carried out massacres with a specific political strategy in mind: to instill the desired fear to drive Palestinians off their land. Deir Yassin, Tantara and the over 70 documented massacres during the Palestinian Nakba, or Catastrophe, are cases in point. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/idf-rape-torture
2023-04-09 The Deir Yassin massacre: Why it still matters 75 years later Seventy-five years ago, Zionist militias tore through Palestinian villages, massacring the villagers and expelling those who remained alive, to clear the way for the creation of the state of Israel. An estimated 15,000 Palestinians were killed and hundreds of thousands fled their homes to live as refugees in other parts of Palestine or neighbouring countries, an event known by Palestinians as the Nakba – “the catastrophe”.
On April 9, 1948, just weeks before the creation of the State of Israel, members of the Irgun and Stern Gang Zionist militias attacked the village of Deir Yassin, killing at least 107 Palestinians.
According to testimonies from the perpetrators and surviving victims, many of the people slaughtered – from those who were tied to trees and burned to death to those lined up against a wall and shot by submachine guns – were women, children and the elderly.
2022-12-02 Tantura massacre: Documentary exposes Israel’s foundational myth Filmmaker Alon Schwarz challenges Israel’s narrative about the 1948 massacre of a Palestinian village. In his quest to get to the bottom of what happened at Tantura in May 1948, the graduate student, Teddy Katz, interviewed around 135 people, both Palestinians and Israelis, collecting 140 hours of testimony for his thesis at the University of Haifa. His subsequent dissertation detailed how the Alexandroni Brigade, one of a dozen brigades established by the Zionist paramilitary organisation known as the Haganah, had massacred up to 250 Palestinians after the village had fallen. https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-tantura-massacre-documentary-foundational-myth-exposes-how
2021-12-09 Classified Docs Reveal Massacres of Palestinians in ’48 – and What Israeli Leaders Knew Testimonies continue to pile up, documents are revealed, and gradually a broader picture emerges of the acts of murder committed by Israeli troops during the War of Independence. Minutes recorded during cabinet meetings in 1948 leave no room for doubt: Israel’s leaders knew in real time about the blood-drenched events that accompanied the conquest of the Arab villages
2024-07-31 Netanyahu’s end game: Why Israel killed Hamas chief in Iran | Gideon Levy | The Big Picture S5E1 Two assassinations. Two capital cities. Less than 24 hours. One struck an apartment in downtown Beirut, killing a woman and two children – targeting a Hezbollah senior commander.Then just hours later, a strike in the heart of Tehran, assassinating Hamas’ most high profile figure, and its political chief – Ismail Hanieyah.
Israel has claimed the first attack, though not the second – at least not yet – but the reverberations are already starting to be felt – as are fears that we’re barreling towards an inevitable regional war – one that could spiral quickly out of control.
This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with award-winning Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy about the significance, and wisdom, of the two high profile assassinations.
Hanieyah’s killing in particular threatens to derail the already fragile ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, which have so far failed to put an end to a horrific 10-month war that killed more than 39,000 Palestinians and 1200 Israelis. It also pushes the United States deeper into a corner. The Biden Administration has failed to pull Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the brink, but continues to supply him with weapons used against a civilian population in Gaza, while undermining attempts to hold Israel to account internationally.
Now less than 100 days before an election that could return Trump to the White House – can the US really afford to follow Israel into a war with Hezbollah – and possibly – a war with Iran? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9JB8jMu3lk
2024-05-17 Why Israel is in deep trouble: John Mearsheimer with Tom Switzer US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on 29 September 2023 that “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.” That all changed on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, which unsurprisingly invaded Gaza to destroy Hamas.
After more than six months, it appears to many that Israel is losing its war in Gaza. At the same time, Israel is fighting Hezbollah on its northern border, relations between Jerusalem and Washington are strained, and the International Court of Justice has ruled that a plausible case can be made that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Meanwhile, there is great danger of escalation across the region, as the fighting between Israel and Iran makes clear. Indeed, there is a possibility the United States, which is already fighting the Houthis, might end up in a war with Iran, which neither country wants.
What might be the lasting consequences of these conflicts? Who will emerge weaker and who stronger? And what does this crisis mean for U.S. foreign policy in the region, Ukraine and East Asia? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAfIYtpcBxo