Characterize the prioritization of the Israel Defense Forces, what they what their operations in Gaza are intended to dismantle the military infrastructure of Hamas that made it possible to perpetrate an attack like the world saw on October 7th. [00:00:15] And I want to be clear, I think they should be able to protect themselves against a similar attack. We have long supported them in their ability to do that. But they also directly struck an ambulance. - They struck refugee shelters 2 or 3 times. - That was incredible. [00:00:31] Mostly because statements like that are rare in the United States Congress. That was Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro, and I agree with him wholeheartedly. Israel should defend itself and should go after Hamas. But the way in which they're doing it has led to an insanely high [00:00:47] civilian death toll in Gaza. Innocent Palestinians are dying as a result, and I love that he brought that up in this context. Now, not everyone is willing to sit back and accept anything and everything that the Israeli government wants to carry out. As you just saw, Joaquin Castro is one of them. [00:01:04] So let's get to a little more video, and then we'll talk about how congressional staffers are also taking a stand. - Let's watch. - So we take votes for support. You know, as we as we try to assess the situation, I think just as the world is [00:01:22] aghast at the barbarity of what happened on October 7th, the world also looks at that and asks the question about why an ambulance, why 30 something members of the press have been killed, why 4 or 5000 children have already been killed. [00:01:39] Now there are growing calls for a cease fire. And just today, President Joe Biden was asked, what are the chances of a cease fire? And he said, no, none. So Israel has agreed to daily four hour humanitarian pauses. [00:01:59] So the people who are dealing with the aerial bombardment in northern Gaza can flee to southern Gaza, which is also dealing with an aerial bombardment. So, Jake, before we get to the congressional staffers, your thoughts on what Castro said there, what is the likelihood that AIPAC and the Democratic [00:02:17] majority for Israel will heavily fund whoever his primary challenger might be? - Yeah. - No, no, the dam is breaking. And this is a really important development, guys. So Castro is borderline progressive. I wouldn't call him a progressive, but he's progressive adjacent. [00:02:35] But my point there is that he's not a diehard left winger. So he's a little bit more establishment wing of the party. So for him to come out and say no, I am questioning Israel and they're killing a lot of civilians and I'm not comfortable with it. [00:02:52] That means that the tide is turning. And just a couple of days ago, Mark Pocan, who is a progressive and who is the head of for a while, the head of the Progressive caucus, came out swinging against AIPAC in a way that I have never seen in American politics. [00:03:09] He's like, he started he cursed them out and he said, come for me. I know how much money you guys spend, but you know what? You guys are right wingers. You mainly support Republicans, and you support the Republican traitors who try to overthrow our democracy. And basically and it's not a tough guy, right? [00:03:27] But he was so mad that he was like, you're not coming for me. I'm coming for you. Now, there's in this great strength that AIPAC had. And I remember talking about this with Ari Berman, who wrote a piece about it in the Nation, like over a decade ago. And he made a great point. [00:03:42] He's like, they actually don't have that much money compared to the giant industries like the drug companies, the banks. ET cetera. But they concentrate their money on races in a way that is so flamboyant, right, that it gets everybody's attention. Hey, we're going to defeat Nina Turner in Cleveland, and we're going [00:03:59] to find this hack, this nobody. And we're just going to hand her the election by spending 4 to $6 million to make sure she wins. She's a nobody. She only raised her hand to say, I'm willing to be the most corrupt, and that's why we're giving it to her, in essence, through the ads. And so when people see that, they they panic. [00:04:15] Even the legendary populist John Fetterman panicked and he said, okay, okay, okay, whatever Israel wants. And he's still saying it to this day. So that is how they use people as an example. And it was actually it's a brilliant tactic. It's a tactic I'd like to use at Wolf Pack to ironically target [00:04:31] all the corrupt congresspeople. Okay, now having said that, it's not working anymore because now there's two. The dam is broken and there's too many Democrats going, oh yeah, I'm against you, I'm against you, I'm against you. What are you going to do now? You don't have to save money that the drug companies have and the oil companies have. [00:04:47] ET cetera. Yeah. You can't come for all of us. So this is a really important moment in American politics where they have begun to defy one of the most important lobbies in my lifetime. That's a really interesting perspective. And. I am curious to see how that all plays out. I think you're making a good point. [00:05:03] The one thing I will say is that they have directed their ire toward Rashida Tlaib. And so there are ads playing in Michigan right now. They blasted out an email that basically has her face superimposed on images of [00:05:19] what Hamas did on October 7th, essentially spreading a message that Rashida Tlaib is supportive of what Hamas did. So if they're going to target anyone, it's clear to me that they're going to focus their energy on Rashida Tlaib. And look, I don't do this ever on the show, but please show Rashida Tlaib [00:05:38] your support, because what she is doing in calling out the brutality in Gaza is important. The fact that she got censured for speaking out about that is pretty gross, to say the least. And so if you can support her through donating to her campaign, [00:05:56] even showing her support on social media, I think that would go a long way. Go ahead Jake. So look, Rashida Tlaib is has certainly been imperfect in this entire situation. Like, I hate the term from the river to the sea. Agreed. [00:06:11] And so I wish she hadn't used that in the ad. And in early days, I didn't love the response. ET cetera. That's not the point, guys. And if you want to be mad at her for that, no problem. Okay. But trying to eliminate her and censure her and all of these things for her standing up, largely 90% of what she did was stand up for Palestinians, [00:06:29] which in my lifetime before Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. And to be fair, Keith Ellison before them, no one ever stood up for Palestinians in the United States Congress. Then later, Bernie Sanders was also heroic in that regard. So but when they go to target her and say, okay, if you disagree with this lobby, [00:06:48] we are going to eliminate you, we're going to lie about you, we're going to put your face on terrorist pictures, etcetera. No, that's when people have to rally and go, not on our watch. We're tired of this. We're tired of you eliminating every politician that dares to disagree with you. So I totally support what Anne is saying. And one more thing. [00:07:06] Remember, in the censure vote, 22 Democrats joined the Republicans. And and what happened to unity? Even Pramila Jayapal, who does not have a record of strength, let's be honest. Yes. Agreed, came out and said that those people had betrayed the party and had really strong language. [00:07:22] And thank you for saying that. Credit where credit is due because they never believed in party unity. It was always a gimmick to get progressive votes. And any time a progressive is on the line, they immediately attack them. But remember, in the old days, all of the Democrats would have joined the [00:07:40] Republicans in censuring Rashida Tlaib. So it's a new day and the dam is breaking. So there's hope there. There's also hope in the fact that four Republicans voted no on censuring Talib. Guys, this is beyond Israel and Palestine. The wings are getting realigned. [00:07:59] Yes, there's a political realignment here, and I don't know where it ends and what the final results will be. But there is now and this is not this is a good development. There is now Republicans and Democrats voting with each other that you would never expect from the opposite ends of the spectrum, [00:08:15] and not because of the old bipartisanship, which is, oh, hey, your corporate donor agrees with my corporate donor. Okay. That used to be bipartisanship in Washington. Now there's a bipartisanship where they're going, I'm just going to vote my conscience. I don't care if the right wing or the left wing agrees. I don't care what. And a lot of times it's it's. [00:08:32] And some of those Republicans, we disagree vehemently with so many of what they stand for. But as long as they're not corrupt and they're being honest and they're actually voting out of principle, fantastic. I think there's also some likelihood that voters have become far more politicized [00:08:49] and far more politically active. There are far more protests happening all across the country for various issues. And so I don't know if it's equalizing things among voters versus corporate money, because, look, the whole point of the corporate money is to fund [00:09:05] the campaign so they can run the ads and win their reelection bid. But if you are angering your own constituents, that money's not going to help you out. And so now I go to the congressional staffers because this is where I it really does warm my heart because this was a bipartisan effort, [00:09:23] a real bipartisan effort. So congressional staffers, 100 of them from both political parties, Republicans and Democrats, staged a walkout yesterday on Wednesday to call for lawmakers that they work for to endorse a ceasefire. [00:09:38] Okay, so HuffPost reports that gathered on the US Capitol steps. The staffers held a moment of silence and led prayers for the 1400 Israelis killed by Hamas in its October 7th attack and the more than 10,000 Palestinians killed by the US backed Israeli force in its retaliatory bombardment of Gaza. [00:09:59] The group of congressional staffers also read this statement prior to their moment of silence. Let's take a look. We are congressional staffers on Capitol Hill, and we are no longer comfortable being silent. We were horrified by the brutal October 7th. [00:10:16] Attacks on Israeli civilians, and we are horrified by the overwhelming response by the Israeli government that has killed thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Our constituents are pleading for a ceasefire, [00:10:33] and we are the staffers answering. Their calls every day. Most of our bosses on Capitol Hill are not listening to the people they represent. We demand our leaders speak up. Call for a ceasefire, a release of all hostages [00:10:50] and an immediate de-escalation now. We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of every single beautiful and innocent life. We now, in a moment of silence in interfaith prayer for those. [00:11:07] Could we have lost? I should also note that they have the American people behind them. There are 80% of Democrats, Democratic voters, who want a cease fire, and 66% of voters overall are calling for a cease fire. And so I love what they're doing. [00:11:23] If you want to support what they're doing in calling for a cease fire, let's go to graphic six real quick. You can go to Ceasefire TODAY.com. That's Ceasefire TODAY.com. Any final words? Yeah. So in my book I talk about several different studies that show that politicians, including Democratic politicians, are far more conservative [00:11:40] than their voters, than the average voter, not even just the Democratic voter. And every study shows this. It's in the book justice is coming. But the staffers in the past would have never protested their own representatives. Unheard of the fact that over 100 of them are out there going, [00:11:59] no, the people that we work for are wrong, and they are way more conservative than the average American voter, including most Republicans. They're more the Democrats. A lot of times the Democratic congresspeople are more conservative than the Republican voters. [00:12:15] And so this is a this is another interesting realignment situation. There's a rebellion afoot. I think people are sick of this system overall, and they're starting to hear the voice of the American people. If you enjoyed this video, that's because of our members. They make us independent, they make us strong and they make us honest. [00:12:33] Become a member today by hitting the join button below.