I'm looking right at you, President Biden. Are you gonna be the president that funds and enables a genocide? Or are you gonna be the president that puts your foot down and stops the genocide? That's what we're here to ask. >> Speaker 2: The woman you just heard from is with an organization known as Jewish Voices for Peace, [00:00:16] whose members were arrested just yesterday as they were demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip while demonstrating in the nation nation's capital yesterday. Now while the Biden administration remains steadfast in its unwavering and unconditional support for the Israeli government, there are some members [00:00:35] within the administration, within the state department specifically, who have a problem with the unconditional support as all of these Palestinian civilians are being reported killed in the Gaza Strip. A US State Department official has resigned over US Foreign Policy [00:00:53] on Israel's war in Gaza. Josh Paul is the individual here. He served as the director of Congressional and Public Affairs for the US State Department's bureau of Public Military Affairs. So in his resignation letter, Paul made which he made public. [00:01:08] He makes clear that he has a problem with the shipment of weapons to Israel as the Palestinian death toll continues to rise. Paul helped oversee the transfer of US weaponry to allies, a position that he acknowledged was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises. [00:01:28] In recent days, US shipments of ammunition and so-called smart bombs and other weaponry have arrived in Israel which was already the largest recipient of US military assistance. The Biden administration is reportedly preparing to ask Congress for [00:01:46] another military package, which will go to both Israel and Ukraine to the tune of $100 billion. >> Speaker 3: Ridiculous. >> Speaker 2: And the Associated Press reported that the Biden administration is also getting US defense companies to expedite weapons orders to Israel, so [00:02:03] they can carry out this war that we're currently all seeing before our very eyes. Now with that said, I wanna go to the letter that Paul put out because I think it gives you a sense of how much he's been struggling with his role within the government. [00:02:18] I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do. In my 11 years, I have made more moral compromises than I can recall, each heavily, but each with my promise to myself in mind and intact. [00:02:36] I'm leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued, indeed expanded and expedited provision of lethal arms to Israel, I have reached the end of that bargain. And his resignation letter came just hours after Biden embraced [00:02:55] Israel's far right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and reiterated his steadfast support for Israel. In response, Josh Paul said, I cannot work in support of a set of major policy decisions, including rushing more arms to one side of the conflict that I [00:03:14] believe to be short sighted, destructive, unjust and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse and which I wholeheartedly endorse. A world built around a rules-based order, a world that advances both equality and equity and a world whose arc of [00:03:32] history bends toward the promise of liberty and of justice for all. And he isn't the only one to feel that there are moral concerns in working for the Biden administration and carrying out these actions as this war continues. [00:03:50] There are others who have spoken to the Huffington Post, HuffPost as it's called now to say that they can't speak out. And that if they do, they might be retaliated against and they might lose their positions from these federal jobs. [00:04:06] The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, said in a report released earlier this week that the damage and casualties caused by Israeli attacks on Gaza were not proportionate to the military advantage. [00:04:23] And so the actions constitute a war crime. The commission added that the prevention of entry of food and medical supplies into Gaza is a violation of international humanitarian law. So there are some people speaking out. It's usually people outside of the United States government. [00:04:42] But in this case, you have someone who is brave enough to not only speak out, but give up his position, give up the work that he's been doing in order to speak out. >> Speaker 3: So first of all, this guy is an absolute American hero and I wish we had more people in government that had this kind of courage and [00:04:58] principles and conscience. Unfortunately, it's a breaking news story cuz there's one, we found one in the US government. So thank you. So now $100 billion, are you kidding me? This is a joke. [00:05:14] This is ridiculous. Whenever we ask for anything here for Americans, paid family leave, higher wages, public option, anything, what's the one thing that all of cable news screams at the top of their lungs? Both Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, all of them. [00:05:30] There's no money, how are you gonna pay for that? Well, for war, for want and destruction, apparently, we have plenty of money. >> Speaker 2: No, I want everyone to accept what their actual role as hardworking Americans happens to be in the United States. [00:05:45] We're just the piggy bank for endless wars and for defense contractors, that's what we are. When it comes to our tax money, actually, enriching our lives. Improving our lives, improving the lives of our brothers and sisters here in the United States. We don't have the resources for it. [00:06:00] We don't have the resources for it, Cenk. We can't do it. We don't have the money for it, but we will print money. We will print money for two things. Bailing out financial institutions and paying for forever wars abroad, that is what we will pay for. We will print money for that. >> Speaker 3: Everybody knows that's true. [00:06:17] I mean, later in the show, we're gonna tell you how the American people have lost all faith in American media and most of the American institutions, why? Because we all know you're robbing us to pay the defense contractors and every other lobbyist there is and the drug companies. [00:06:32] It's disgusting, we stop robbing us. So do we wanna help the Ukrainians? Yes, have we funded them already a lot? Yes, can you make an argument for funding them more against in that case, a war of aggression from Russia? [00:06:48] Yeah, you could make that argument. I'm open to that argument. Should we help Israel with things like, for example, intelligence? Yes. >> Yes. >> Because look, intelligence is the most important thing cuz Israel has every right to go after Hamas and you need intelligence to figure out the difference between Hamas and innocent Palestinians. [00:07:03] If you say, no, don't help them with intelligence, that doesn't make any sense, right? Well, the intelligence at least the bombings. Yeah, but those bombings are at least intended to get Hamas rather than dropping a giant bomb on a residential building. So yes, help them with intelligence, but a hundred billion dollars? [00:07:22] That's not even for Israel and it's not for Ukraine. It's for the piggy bank of gross, disgusting defense contractors. They go and bribe almost every politician out there and those stupid, lying politicians go out there. [00:07:38] And go, yeah, we need another $100 billion for you guys? Hell, no way, never to the American people. Republicans, what the hell have you done? Bunch of phony populists, what populism? What, where? America first, my ass. [00:07:54] You never serve the Americans. >> Speaker 2: So Cenk, you bring up an important point and I think we need to emphasize this, right? Helping Israel with intelligence is incredibly important, because you wanna root out Hamas which should not be conflated with Palestinian [00:08:12] civilians who have also been brutalized by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But see, you and I have enough brain cells to understand the difference, but Fox News likes to employ morons like Jesse Watters, who can't tell the difference. [00:08:28] And so they spew disgusting garbage like what you're about to hear. >> Speaker 4: I don't think we can have a Palestinian state at this point. I've had it with the Palestinians. I've given up on the Palestinians. If I was in Israel, I wouldn't be talking about a Palestinian state right now. I don't think Joe Biden should be talking about a Palestinian state right now and I [00:08:48] don't like how people try to differentiate between the Palestinians and Hamas. To me, I see people with guns, that's Hamas. The people without the guns are the Palestinians. They believe the same thing. The Palestinians hire Hamas to run their government. [00:09:05] You pull them, they all love killing Jews. It's in their charter. They say they believe in suicide bombings. Every time a Palestinian refugee goes to another country, it doesn't work out so well for the other country and for those Palestinians. No one wants them. [00:09:20] >> Speaker 2: He's saying all this is residential buildings are being bombed in the footage right next to him. >> Speaker 3: Yeah, so I don't have to say it, he said it. He's declaring himself a racist and he's saying, I hate all Palestinians and I don't care about them and [00:09:37] he's showing you pictures of them being killed and basically celebrating it. I mean, how disgusting a person do you have to be? And this is the other side. We say, hey, for God's sake, care about the innocent Israelis and the innocent Palestinians. [00:09:52] And they say, no, kill the Palestinians. Call them all terrorists and then make up things like, they attack people in every country they go in. What an outrageous lie. It just made that up 100%, cuz Jesse Watters is a liar. Almost everyone on Fox News lies for a living, that's what they do. [00:10:11] Like, who should we hate today? Who should we try to get fear and disgust, and anger towards, and get all of our side riled up to hate other human beings? That's what they get paid a lot of money for. One of the Fox News anchors just bought a $37 million house. [00:10:28] >> Bret Baier, yep. >> Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if the brick and mortar is made out of blood for all the hatred that Fox News has driven in this world. Rupert Murdoch is one of the most evil people that has ever lived on this planet. And so all of these guys just brazenly admitting, [00:10:46] why don't we just never give them a state, never treat them as humans? You're a disgusting person. >> Speaker 2: So let me balance that with another wonderful person because we talked about a state department employee, veteran of the department for 11 years, [00:11:03] quitting his job over the foreign policy toward this war in the Gaza Strip. Well, now an employee, a senior researcher with the Anti-Defamation League has just announced that he is quitting his position in the organization because of his moral issues with the messaging coming out of the organization. [00:11:22] So I wanna read a little bit from him and what he has to say. His name is Stephen C Reya. He focused on online hate and harassment as a member of ADL Center for Technology and Society. He resigned, because he couldn't square my morals and politics with the direction I saw the organization going in. [00:11:40] I think that the ADL does a lot of great work. And trust me, there are some amazing people there, but there are times when you have to stand up and say, enough. So what does he mean? Well, ADL's, Anti-Defamation League's Director Jonathan Greenblatt [00:11:57] has spurred indignation on the left for labeling Palestinian human rights campaigners as extremists. And reports of dissent among ADL staffers emerged earlier this year due to Greenblatt's framing of anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism. [00:12:13] >> Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, okay, so look, ADL is a very nuanced. They've done some great work, but Greenblatt is just he's out of control. So anytime anyone criticizes one single thing about the right-wing government of Israel, he jumps in and calls everybody anti-Semitic. [00:12:32] Jonathan, I got news for you. It isn't working anymore. You've cried wolf 2 million times. Look, there's massive anti-Semitism in the country and in the world and we're trying to help fight it together. And we appreciate the ADL when they fought against Muslim discrimination under [00:12:48] Donald Trump. But every time you make it political and every time you defend the gross right-wing government of Israel crushing and killing Palestinians and when we ask you to stop killing innocent civilians or you go anti-Semite, what? By the way, that's a slur against your own people saying that what? [00:13:07] Are you saying that you're all in favor of killing innocent civilians? >> Speaker 2: They're not. >> Speaker 3: They're not, you don't speak for them. Stop slandering good Jewish Americans by pretending that they're all in favor of this murder and mayhem. And that somehow, it's anti-Semitic to speak out against. [00:13:26] Look, other than old school idiots in Washington and a bunch of right-wingers online, nobody's buying that line anymore. That stuff used to work in the past. I don't care, you could say that 2,000 times over. No one cares, it's not gonna work. [00:13:42] There's real anti-Semites shooting up synagogues. And then when you could defend the killing of innocent civilians and pretend that's anti-Semitism to criticize that, you lose all credibility. This guy who left the ADL, total American hero. Now I'm gonna say something that I don't know how anybody's gonna feel about it, [00:14:01] but this is my true feelings. I think that Jews in America are going to actually save the Palestinians. And so you could say, that's crazy. I don't think you're right, Cenk, or why would that make a difference? Cuz at some point, Jewish Americans have always like when you look at [00:14:18] the different events in American history, the civil rights movement, you're fighting against the Muslim ban. You're fighting against right-wing extremism, you name it. Jewish Americans have almost always done the right thing. [00:14:34] >> Speaker 2: That's right. >> Speaker 3: And they've been a pillar of morality in this country. And right now, young Jewish Americans are rebelling at record rates going not in our names. No way, not in our names, okay? And I think that rebellion is gonna grow and grow, and grow, and [00:14:50] it's gonna go into the middle aged. I don't know if it'll get to the old because the older you are, the more set you get in your ways. Not everybody, not everybody. But unfortunately, I know from my experience as an immigrant. Older Turks more set in their ways, more obsessed with identity and [00:15:06] younger generations are better and see all of us as humanity. So again, not all older people. It's just general things, but I believe that there's going to be a movement among Jewish Americans that say enough. [00:15:21] Let him go, let him go. End the occupation, end this ridiculous cycle of violence and how has it helped Israel? How has it helped Jews in the world? All it's done is gotten driven incredible hatred towards Jews all across the world, [00:15:40] because you won't end the occupation. Everybody says, what are you doing? How long are you gonna brutalize these people? So that's my sense of it. Hope to God I'm right. And I believe in Jewish Americans, they have been the moral core of this country for a long, long time. [00:15:56] And I mean, America and I think they're gonna do it again.