The wrath of Israel is concentrated on Gaza City and elsewhere in the north. This is what was happening while the strip was under a mobile and Internet blackout. No means to call an ambulance, so they use whatever vehicle they can find, [00:00:16] knowing the next missile or airstrike won't be far off. The Palestinian Red Crescent sent video of people sheltering in Al Qud's hospital in Gaza City, which they say the Israeli Defense Forces have told them to evacuate. [00:00:34] >> Speaker 2: Last week, Israel launched its ground invasion into Gaza. Now, it's not a full ground invasion yet, but that is what is planned for the near future. And as The Washington Post has reported, their early movement and near term objectives remain shrouded in secrecy. [00:00:53] Now, of course, the general statement you'll hear from Israeli lawmakers, from the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is that they want to root out Hamas. Sometimes they slip and they share a little more of what they plan to do. [00:01:08] And I'll get to that in just a moment. But as a result of this, the families of the hostages that are currently held captive by Hamas in Gaza are worried. That the Israeli government isn't really concerned about the well being of their loved ones. [00:01:24] And they do have cause for concern, as footage from inside Gaza shows the danger that the hostages are in. Yes, by Hamas, but also by the endless airstrikes and now the ground invasion into the region. Let's watch. [00:01:39] >> Speaker 1: An Israeli soldier took a video showing his platoon raising the Israeli flag, as he put it, in the heart of Gaza. The IDF sent in more forces overnight, releasing footage of tanks and, for the first time, foot soldiers, reportedly inside an open area in northern Gaza. [00:01:58] Last night, the Prime Minister said the war against Hamas would be long and difficult. They showed armoured bulldozers operating on the Gaza side of the Ares crossing, where they say they found Hamas fighters trying to exit a tunnel. [00:02:14] Hamas, for its part, released a video which appears to show a wire guided missile strike on an Israeli armoured vehicle. One in a column that had entered Gaza, a sign that this battle will not be cost free for either side. [00:02:31] Early this morning, an Israeli airstrike hit the Bilal bin Rabah mosque in central Gaza. How much more before Israel decides that's enough? >> Speaker 2: The death toll in Gaza is roughly 8000 people. It was confirmed this morning that of those 8000 reported deaths, [00:02:50] about 13 of the individuals were Hamas militants. So go ahead and do the math. Nonetheless, on Friday night, Internet and cellular service were cut, plunging Gaza into digital darkness. Spotty service returned on Sunday. That was after the Biden administration apparently pressured Netanyahu to [00:03:09] basically turn on the telecommunications services and the Internet services there. Netanyahu, in a televised statement Saturday night, described the escalation as the second phase of the war. Now, the Israeli Defense Forces on Sunday, over the weekend, [00:03:25] released this short black and white video. You saw a little bit of that in the last clip we showed you. And as The Washington Post also reports, these are not the targeted raids the IDF that the IDF carried out last week. Which it said were executed by small, [00:03:41] elite units that crossed back into Israel at the end of their mission. This is the beginning of what Israeli leaders are warning could be a very long war. Which would see Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, destroyed and a new entity installed to govern the enclave. [00:03:59] Now IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari referred to the three-phase plan outlined by the IDF minister Yoav Gallant on October 20. So it includes first airstrikes, as we all saw, airstrikes that continue to [00:04:15] happen on the Gaza Strip, even as Israeli soldiers enter for a ground invasion. That will be followed by lower intensity operations with the objective of eliminating pockets of resistance. And finally, the removal of Israel's responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip [00:04:33] and the establishment of a new security reality for the citizens of Israel, according to the statement that was issued by his office. So all of this is really concerning for the Israeli families who are wondering how the hostages are doing, [00:04:50] who are wondering whether the hostages are still alive. Now, Hamas put out a statement arguing, saying that there were 50 Israeli hostages who have already died as a result of the Israeli airstrikes. Look, I would take that statement with a grain of salt. [00:05:06] We have no confirmation of that. However, I think it would be foolish to think that all of the hostages are okay, considering the bombardment that the IDF has engaged in and continues to engage in, and there is no ceasefire in sight. We'll get to the ceasefire in just a moment. [00:05:22] Cenk, what are your thoughts? >> Speaker 3: Yeah, I wanna knock down a bunch of absurd talking points from the right-wing government of Israel. But first, on the Hamas statement, of course we don't trust Hamas that the bombings have killed 50 hostages. I would put a boulder of salt on that. [00:05:38] First of all, we don't know that the number is 52nd of all. We don't know how many of them Hamas killed as opposed to the bombings, however many there were. But as we are incredibly skeptical about what Hamas puts out, we're also incredibly skeptical about what Israel puts out. And so, along those lines, first of all, [00:05:55] let me just knock down the most common talking point, maybe, of my life. Which is, if you'd like to kill Palestinians, you just say to, Hamas is using them as human shields, so that's why we kill them. Just think about that for a second, right? Everybody has the first half of the sentence. [00:06:11] Hamas is using human shields, but they never do complete the second half of the sentence. So we killed them not just Hamas, but the human shields. So even if that statement were true. I'm asking you, would you kill the human shields? [00:06:26] And now Israel's right-wing government is doing something even more absurd. They're killing their own human shields. So not only are they killing Palestinians indiscriminately. And don't, please, please, with the well, no, we told the residential building [00:06:42] seconds before we killed everyone inside that we were going to bomb it, and then we destroyed half the city. Telling me that's not indiscriminate is absurd on its face, right? But now the Hamas has the Israeli hostages and American hostages and hostages from all over the world. [00:06:59] And Israel, I mean, you could say, hey, you know what? What's fair is that apparently they don't care about human shields no matter where they're from, right? Even if they believe that talking point. So why are you, okay, which leads to the next point about the hostages, which is that they're almost certainly in the tunnels. [00:07:14] And most of the press acknowledges that they're almost certainly in the tunnels, and now Israel is saying that they're not even gonna go into the tunnels. And I get why. There could be booby trapped. Almost certainly are. That gives Hamas an advantage in dark tunnels that they're familiar with and [00:07:29] Israel defensive forces aren't. I totally get it. At the same time, if all you do is blow up the tunnels and the hostages are in the tunnels, you're saying, I don't give a damn about the hostages lives. And look, and you could say, hey, it's Hamas's fault for taking the hostages in the first place, and that's absolutely true, right? [00:07:46] But still, you're doing an act right now that could lead to their death. And so there's also responsibility for that as well, right? And then, guys, this whole idea of Well, if Hamas would just go out into the middle [00:08:02] of a field and put up their military base, well, then we could bomb that and then kill everyone inside, and then they wouldn't have human shields. Wakey, wakey. It's a tiny little place, Gaza, right? There is no military bases cuz there is no government. [00:08:18] And if there was a military base, Israel would kill everyone inside instantly well before this, right? As soon as they see Hamas, they kill Hamas. So, yeah, they live in an open air prison along with 2.2 million other prisoners. [00:08:34] And last thing here for a sec here, and then I'll get back to more details, which is that. When they say they're going to kill everyone in Hamas and they're going to eradicate Hamas and they're going to destroy Hamas, as Anna just alluded to in Netanyahu statements, and you'll see a lot more of that. [00:08:53] How do you accomplish that mission and how do we know when it's done? This is like when America said, we're going to liberate Iraq. >> Right. >> Speaker 1: How do we know when they're liberated, right? And we never found out, and it just lasted forever and ever, and Afghanistan lasted 20 years. [00:09:09] And now Netanyahu is saying, until we eradicate Hamas, does Hamas come out and say we are eradicated? Do a random other Palestinians come out and say that they're eradicated? Who determines that they're eradicated? In other words, it's a war with no end. And then Netanyahu knows he's got a reckoning, a political reckoning, [00:09:27] coming to him with Israeli citizens as soon as the war is over. So he's never going to end the war. So he has put an impossible standard that can never be met so that the war is perpetual. >> Speaker 2: Last week, Hamas had offered to release a larger [00:09:43] amount of hostages at once, up to 60 of the hostages. But the argument was, you got to stop with the airstrike so we can actually carry this out safely, but also we want you to release Palestinian prisoners within Israel. [00:10:01] And, of course, the Israeli government refused to do that now. The hostage prisoner exchanges from the past were pretty lopsided, where Israel was willing to give up a ton of prisoners, up to a thousand, I believe, in return for one IDF soldier. [00:10:20] And then it turned out that some of the prisoners that they released planned the attacks that were carried out in Israel. So I understand a little of the ideology or the mentality that the Israeli government might have in regard to refusing to maybe, in their minds, make the same mistake again. [00:10:37] But that, along with other actions that have been taken by the Israeli government in response to Hamas, make it appear to me, at least this is my opinion they're not really all that concerned with the hostages, and the hostages are very likely in those underground tunnels. [00:10:55] And what the IDF is saying is, well, we don't wanna go into the tunnels that's a huge risk on our lives. So we have found creative means in destroying the tunnels. Okay, but if the hostages are in the tunnels, the hostages gone, they'll be dead. So as long as we're all acknowledging what the strategy is here and [00:11:14] if people are okay with that, all right, I certainly would not be if I were a family member of one of the hostages. And the hostages have been speaking out, so I want to give them a voice here, not the hostages the family members of the hostages have spoken out. So, in a protest outside Israel's defense headquarters in Tel Aviv, [00:11:32] dozens gathered carrying pictures of the captives, chanting, return them now. Again, Hamas offered that deal on Saturday. Hamas on Saturday, according to AP News, offered Israel in exchange the release of all hostages in Gaza for all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. [00:11:49] The plight of the prisoners is deeply emotional for Palestinians, who widely see the prisoners as freedom fighters. Now, Israel has a long history of agreeing to these lopsided exchanges. So it was in 2021 when they released 1000 prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, [00:12:07] who was an IDF soldier kidnapped and dragged across the border to Gaza. Now the family members are speaking out, family members of the hostages, including Mirab, Leshem, Gonen, whose daughter Romi was believed to have been kidnapped by Gaza and taken into the Gaza Strip. [00:12:25] She says this in regard to how Netanyahu is handling the hostage situation. We are scared, we are worried. Where are they? What's happening with them? Who is taking care of them? We heard yesterday about the tanks going in, and we are all concerned. [00:12:40] And she says that the families believe that the swap deal would actually be incredibly popular and would get a lot of support among the Israeli people. That's her opinion, I haven't seen any polling on that, so I can't confirm it. But she also says they feel like they're left behind, and [00:12:56] no one is really caring about the hostages, said Micki Haimovitz, a former lawmaker who spoke on behalf of the hostages families at Saturday's protest. No one is explaining what's going on. Now, with that said, I do wanna go to the reaction from Netanyahu, [00:13:14] who's being pressured increasingly to engage in a ceasefire. He's not interested in a ceasefire, so let's hear what he has to say about that before we also talk a little bit about his fundamentalism and what's motivating his actions here, let's watch. [00:13:32] >> Speaker 3: Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack of 911, Israel will not agree to a cessation of assilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7. [00:13:48] Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen. >> Speaker 2: And I wanna be clear. While Netanyahu does not want to engage in a ceasefire. [00:14:06] The United States, for the most part, is not part of Know international community urging Israel to engage in a ceasefire. They wanna pause for humanitarian aid to come in, but that's it. >> Speaker 1: No, yeah [COUGH] there's been no calls for [00:14:22] a ceasefire from America at all. And so even Bernie Sanders, who has acknowledged that Palestinians are human, which is as far as anyone in Washington will go and know Israel's need to defend itself, does not excuse killing innocent civilians. And we appreciate Bernie for saying that, but he has still not called for [00:14:40] a ceasefire, even though hundreds of his former staffers and supporters have asked him to call for a ceasefire. So in America, the barbarism continues. Now, some people say, well, yeah, speaking of barbarism, would you have done a ceasefire after 911? [00:14:55] Well, let me ask you guys, how did our reaction to 911 work out for us and for the whole world? It worked out disastrously. Not only did we go to war in Afghanistan and stay there for 20 years, but we also randomly invaded a Middle Eastern country that didn't even attack us on Iraq. [00:15:13] And killed 100s of 1000s of innocent civilians, lost thousands of our own service members, spent trillions of dollars. So if that's your model for how Israel should respond, you should check your sanity, cuz that was the absolutely disastrous response to 911. [00:15:30] If we had done a diplomatic route, a different route, a more specialized route, for example, I keep saying Special Forces. We actually had Osama bin Laden cornered by Special Forces in Tora Bora and Rumsfeld, refused to go in. [00:15:45] That's according to the New York Times, that had excellent intelligence on it. So we did the exact wrong thing after 911, and now people are refusing that as an excuse for Israel to do the exact wrong thing, having learned nothing from our experience. And we created a situation there that was so [00:16:03] volatile that it endangered the whole world. And now Israel is doing likewise. So what Hamas did was brutal and awful. But in the overreaction, Israel is endangering not just innocent Palestinian lives, but Israel itself. [00:16:18] >> Yes, exactly. >> Speaker 1: Now the rage is boiling over the whole world. And so so Netanyahu has set Israel on a disaster course, and we've got to move him off that course as a friend and an ally of Israel. [00:16:35] Not because we dislike Israel, but because we want the right thing for both Israel and the Palestinians. >> Speaker 2: Exactly, not only is the indiscriminate bombing and killing of Palestinian civilians immoral and flies in the face of international law. [00:16:52] But it also, in the long term, is not at all strategic in keeping the Israeli population safe. Because consider what is currently happening in the Arab world, the protests and the fury that's currently happening. [00:17:07] At first, Erdogan in Turkey, the leader of Turkey apparently was supportive of Israel. >> Speaker 1: Yeah, he came out with a very pro Israel statement, and actually, there's a lot of sense to Turks and Arabs are different, ethnically different. And so because of a lot of Arab immigrants and this is a lot of irony here, right? [00:17:24] And interesting points here. But because of a lot of Syrian Afghan immigrants into Turkey, there's kind of an anti-Arab sentiment in Turkey now. It's a shame that that exists, but it does. And so there was a lot of support for Israel in the beginning, and Turkey and Israel are longtime allies historically, right? [00:17:41] But then when the Turkish population started seeing the bombing of Gaza, and they are seeing it far more graphically than we are, cuz American media censors that. But Turkish media is not censoring it. So they're seeing body parts on television. 24/7 so the rage began to build in the population until Erdogan, [00:17:59] who almost never flips, flipped his position and said, not only are we not on Israel's side anymore, but we think Hamas are freedom fighters. >> Speaker 2: On top of that, he is considering expelling Israeli diplomats from the country. [00:18:14] So there's and look, it's not just Turkey, okay? The United States is aiding and abetting what's currently happening. So as a result of the rage that militants are feeling and acting on in other countries like Syria. [00:18:30] The United States is now doing airstrikes in Syria, okay? Israel is considering a preemptive war against Lebanon. This is unraveling and quickly snowballing into a potential world war. And the idea, the notion that this is somehow going to keep Israeli [00:18:51] civilians safe is ridiculous and laughable and dangerous. So if you care about Israeli civilians as we do, and I think we've proven it with how aggressively we have condemned Hamas and what they did to innocent Israeli civilians on October 7. [00:19:06] You should be concerned with the disproportionate reaction and response by the Israeli government and the IDF that has now killed thousands of civilians. 90, what? 98% I mean, I don't know, do you Do the math, Chenk. [00:19:23] >> Speaker 2: Yeah. >> I mean, roughly 8,000 civilians dead or ,000 people dead, only 13 confirmed Hamas militants. >> Speaker 1: One of our members, Rays, wrote in with a really great point. >> Speaker 1: Wait, what happens if Trump is elected and the right wing is in a very isolationist mood? [00:19:39] And let's say that Netanyahu is successful in something he's been trying to do for over a decade and uses this as an excuse to start a war with Iran. But then Trump and the Republicans withdraw and go, no, we don't wanna get involved in foreign wars. Good luck, Israel, now, you set the Middle East on fire. [00:19:55] We helped you to set it on fire. Iran is four times the size of Iraq, and now you're in a war with them, and they have the ability to send in drones, missiles, you name it, right? That is a disaster scenario that for the first time in my life, [00:20:12] risks an existential threat to Israel, and Netanyahu is walking Israel right into it. So if you love Israel and you think Israel is an important ally of America, do not let him walk Israel into that trap. [00:20:28] Because that, for the first time, endangers the actual existence of Israel. But that's if you make the war broader, do not make it broader, there is no conceivable end to that strategy that winds up better for Israel, [00:20:43] let alone the Palestinians and the rest of the Middle East.