May 12, 2025
Israeli Politicians CHEER ON Starvation Of Palestinian Children
Israel's Knesset held an alarming hearing on the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
- 18 minutes
The conditions in Gaza
is getting more catastrophic than before.
- We are now seeing children are starving.
- And we can begin.
To Parliament by.
Parliament can arrive to.
[00:00:26]
Make sure that man that you just heard say
that Gazans need to be starved
is actually an Israeli Knesset member
by the name of Toshisada,
admitting again on Israeli television
that starvation isn't just, you know,
[00:00:42]
a side effect of this war on Gaza.
It's part of the goal, it's part of the
Israeli government and the IDF's strategy.
And sadly, he is far from the only
member of the Israeli parliament who sees
starvation as a tool for punishing
and driving civilians out of Gaza,
[00:01:03]
which of course is considered a war crime.
It violates international laws.
Now, the Israeli blockade of Gaza
is now in its third month, and blockade of
humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.
This began in early March.
[00:01:20]
No food, water or medication
has been allowed into the territory.
- Jank.
- Yeah.
So that guy you just saw
is a bona fide fascist,
and he is very similar to the Nazis.
So I hope I'm being clear enough
with what some members
of the Israeli government are up to.
[00:01:37]
When you and don't tell me that you're
offended by that, if you support a guy
who says, let's starve children to death.
That is Nazi 101.
So and if you say no, it's okay
because they're not Israeli children,
so we can starve them to death.
[00:01:52]
Their lives don't count. That's Nazi 101.
Okay. So, And I wish he was alone.
And I wish he was a lone madman
in the Israeli government.
And we could give you the context
and say, no, don't worry.
It's not like the Israeli government
actually voted to do that policy.
[00:02:10]
But we can't tell you that because Israeli
government did vote to do that policy.
And there are tons of voices,
as Anna is about to explain to you
inside the Israeli government,
literally saying, yeah, of course we
should starve their children to death.
And in fact, and this is the most amazing
part of the story, they think that it
[00:02:27]
is immoral not to starve the children.
- Yeah.
- Amazing.
Do you remember in the beginning
of the current war on Gaza,
there was that big debate about
whether the IDF had bombed a hospital.
- And they're like, oh my God.
- We would never do that.
[00:02:43]
The IDF is a moral army.
We would never bomb a hospital.
Every hospital in Gaza is obliterated.
And, and and now they are actively
saying out loud, in public and in
internal debates about how they would
like to murder Palestinian children.
[00:02:59]
- With our money.
- Yeah.
And of course, they won't ever do it
with their own money.
They need our money
to not give the Palestinians food.
Okay, so now if you're still defending
this particular Israeli government,
you really, really need to go and clarify
your morality because you don't have any.
[00:03:18]
- Yeah.
- Okay.
There is no excuse for this at all.
At all.
But again, the bias is so deep that
those Knesset members and cabinet members,
they really believe that it's immoral
not to murder these people.
I mean, it is a case study
in dehumanization because they have
[00:03:37]
so effectively dehumanized Palestinians,
including literal babies,
literal children, that they loudly
and proudly declare that they are
intentionally starving them to death.
So let's get to those details.
Let's get to all the different Knesset
members who have weighed in on this.
[00:03:52]
Now.
Haaretz has reported that last week
the Knesset held a first of its
kind discussion on the humanitarian crisis
in the Gaza Strip.
But I want to be clear
they weren't holding this hearing
in order to do something to help
Palestinians who are suffering
[00:04:09]
as a result of this humanitarian crisis,
they're more worried about the public
relations fallout from what the
Israeli government and the IDF is doing.
They're worried about the PR, so that's
why they're holding this hearing now.
During the meeting, Doctor Sharon Shaul,
who is, from Natan, an Israeli based
[00:04:28]
organization that provides humanitarian
aid around the world, remarked, quote,
I think that even everyone sitting around
this table doesn't want a suffering child
to be unable to receive painkillers
or minimal medical treatment.
And to her surprise, that actually
ended up setting off a firestorm
[00:04:47]
during this hearing, her assumption that
nobody wanted Gazan children to starve
apparently was incorrect.
So Israeli lawmaker.
Hold on Israeli lawmaker Amit Halevy
from Netanyahu's Likud party
angrily interrupted her to say this,
[00:05:03]
quote, I'm not sure you're speaking for us
when you say we want to treat
every child and every woman.
I hope you don't stand behind
that statement either
when fighting a group like this.
The distinctions that exist
in a normal world don't exist.
[00:05:20]
No, they do exist.
It's just that you're a monster
and you'd like to be like the Nazis
and murder children.
That moral distinction exists for the rest
of us who are not Nazis like you.
[00:05:36]
- Okay.
- And so.
So, so look, look, hold on one second.
I want to be clear, doctor Sharon Shaul
is the head of the medical sector
at Natan Worldwide Disaster Relief.
And she's a wonderful person.
She's an Israeli, and she's saying,
can we please get them medical attention?
Because I would hope none of us would
be for children starving to death
[00:05:56]
or not being able to deal with pain.
And Anna's got more details
in a second for you.
So good person.
The rest of them attack her.
They're like, how dare you!
It is immoral to not want
to cause these children pain.
Okay, well.
Monsters defined.
There is no excuse for it at all.
[00:06:13]
And if you're trying
to make excuses for it.
Okay.
And now we know what you
would have done in the 1930s.
Yeah. Look.
Amit's thinking is barbaric.
Thinking, okay?
It's barbaric
the way a barbarian would think.
And so, in the beginning of this war,
when Netanyahu tried to frame this
[00:06:31]
situation as a war between civilization
and barbarians, really?
You're going to claim that you guys
are the ones representing civilization,
fighting against barbaric actions.
[00:06:47]
And what Hamas did on October 7th,
to be sure, was barbaric.
But what does it say of
the Israeli government when their response
is a thousand times more barbaric?
- Yeah.
- Killed far.
More civilians
than Hamas did on October. 7th.
[00:07:03]
Imagine if Hamas said,
well, of course we should starve
all Israeli children to death.
They were occupying us. They deserved it.
And they were hiding behind
the human shields of Israeli babies.
So we starved them all to death.
We would all rightfully say
they are the worst monsters in the world.
[00:07:18]
- Right.
- Now.
Israeli government officials
are saying it and saying it's immoral
if you don't starve them.
So let's give you the horrific details
of what these Nazis said.
So Shaul responded to that statement
by saying, I hope that you too,
[00:07:34]
don't want a four year old whose arm has
been amputated to go without painkillers.
I hope you have that empathy, too.
Then lawmaker Limor Son Ha malek
decided to jump in.
This individual is from the Religious
Zionism party and they say that the only
[00:07:52]
treatment needed here is for you.
So now threatening your own,
threatening Israelis.
Oh, you dare to be a decent person,
doctor Sharon Shaw.
You need treatment.
Yeah, yeah, there's something wrong with
you, another participant remarked.
[00:08:08]
My God, this is so sick.
You are the sickest doctor I've ever seen.
Well, how many Nazi doctors do you know?
Do you know Doctor Mengele and his,
you know, descendants or something?
And I mean, all the doctors, you know,
think that you
should starve children to death.
[00:08:24]
Jesus, what kind of Nazi doctor hospital
are you familiar with?
Because, guys, Haaretz is reporting this.
It's an Israeli paper.
There's plenty of perfectly
good things in Israel.
Their freedom of press
within Israel's fine.
They murder all the journalists in Gaza.
That's a different situation, right?
[00:08:42]
There's good people
like Doctor Sharon Schultz.
Sometimes their courts do the right thing.
Sometimes.
ET cetera.
So, but what we are seeing is something
shocking that we have never seen before,
where government officials in an
allied country, a country we fund, are
[00:08:57]
actively saying we should murder children.
And if you and if you're a doctor and you
don't support us inflicting pain on
children, starving children and murdering
children, you're not a good doctor.
Sadly, it didn't end there.
Now, someone who was there
at the time of this hearing
[00:09:15]
by the name of Yashar Lifshitz Lifshits,
whose son, was, you know, an Israeli man
who was kidnaped and murdered by Hamas.
You can look, I find the quote that I'm
about to read absolutely deplorable.
[00:09:32]
But I also understand that when Hamas
kills a family member of yours, you're
going to want to retaliate and retaliate
in incredibly cruel, unfair ways toward
people who didn't even do anything wrong.
Right.
And so, with that in mind,
this is what Lifshitz said.
[00:09:50]
Although there are almost no innocents
in Gaza, any moral person can understand
that starving children
is not something we can be proud of.
This is a person whose own family
member was killed by Hamas,
and is able to see things way more clearly
than the scum in the Israeli parliament.
[00:10:07]
And I mean it when I say scum.
Not all of them, but the ones who are
openly saying that they're in favor of
starving, defenseless children to death.
They're scum.
They're scum, and we're funding them.
Is this going to be a point
of contention in America now?
[00:10:23]
Do we have to debate this on cable news?
Well, if I say, hey, maybe you shouldn't
starve the Palestinian children to death,
will I be called an anti-Semite?
And the answer is,
you know what the answer is?
Yes. They will debate it.
And yes, we will be called anti-Semitic.
They'll say blood libel. Blood libel.
[00:10:39]
You're saying that the Jews, because it's
a Jewish state, are murdering children?
No, I'm not saying it.
They're government officials
are saying it, and they're saying that if
you don't murder children, you're immoral.
I've never seen anything like it,
and I can't.
I've said it a million times.
I'll say it another million.
[00:10:55]
It's not all Israelis.
You see the other Israelis.
And I agree with Anna.
If Hamas killed your son,
you get to be super enraged by it.
And I don't call you any of those names
because you're in a different category.
You're understandably super upset
about something terrible
that happened to you, right?
[00:11:11]
The others seem to relish killing these
children, and it's not because they're
Jewish or Israel as a Jewish state,
because power corrupts
and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We in the United States have enabled this
by saying every time Israel did a massive
[00:11:26]
war crime and something despicable,
we said, thank you very much.
Here's a new blank check.
Murder as many people as you like.
Just absolutely oppress the Palestinians
and treat them like they're non-humans and
kill as many of their children as you can.
Thank you sir. Here's another blank check.
[00:11:42]
That's how the American government
caused this catastrophe.
And Israel wouldn't be in this shape,
and the government officials wouldn't be
this monstrous if we didn't continue
to give them a blank check after every
terrible thing they have ever done.
Let me read you the rest of his comment.
[00:11:57]
He says there's a line we need
to make sure we don't cross.
Seeing mothers
with dead children in their arms.
Is that what will bring back our hostages?
Our strength also lies
in the justice of our path.
I just want to say Lifshitz is
absolutely right, and I commend Lifshitz
[00:12:16]
for having this view.
This is the this is the humane view. Okay.
But unfortunately, there are so many
members of the current Israeli parliament
who don't agree with him.
So ha ha.
Melek, the lawmaker
from the Religious Zionism party,
[00:12:32]
scolded him in response, though, saying
it's terrible that you even bring that up.
It's terrible, awful and horrific
that you're talking about starvation.
When our children were butchered
so cruelly, What do you think is happening
to the Palestinian children?
[00:12:47]
The Palestinian children
are being butchered right now
by your government, by your military.
That's exactly what's happening
right now as we speak.
And on top of that, as they're being
butchered, as innocent civilians are being
butchered, the Israeli government is
blocking humanitarian aid to ensure that
[00:13:03]
either they die suffering in unbearable,
unspeakable pain, or that they die
without any chance of keeping them alive,
helping them survive
through through medical intervention.
It's disgusting.
And they think they're the moral ones.
That's the amazing part about all of this.
[00:13:19]
Yeah, and he's yelling at a,
you know, again, the family member
of someone who was killed by Hamas
as if they don't have and I don't agree
with everything that Lipschitz said.
I don't agree that there are no innocents
in Gaza, but I get that they are upset
about the situation.
But even so, they say, well,
what are we going to do?
[00:13:35]
Be the monsters
that we think we're fighting?
And the cabinet members go,
absolutely, we should be those monsters.
We should be way worse than their bosses.
They killed 36 of our children.
And we've only killed
about 20,000 of theirs.
Why? We should starve them all to death.
[00:13:52]
All the little babies.
You see how they're the monsters?
No, brother. I see how you're a monster.
So I see how both sides.
By the way, 36 kids.
Terrible. We've said it a billion times.
Terrible, right? If you don't.
[00:14:07]
If you think 36 kids dying by Hamas
is terrible, but you don't think 15
to 20,000 children already dead,
let alone the starvation
that's happening now, if you don't think
that's terrible, you're basically saying
I'm a racist, bigot, fascist.
[00:14:24]
And in this case,
you have earned that title.
And you say, oh yeah, my babies
are relevant, your babies are trash,
and I plan on murdering them.
That's exactly what a Nazi would say.
So there is a rabbi who's been vocal
in pushing back against this idea
[00:14:42]
that it's totally fine
to starve civilian children to death.
And his name is Rick Jacobs.
He penned an op ed
for the Washington Post titled I'm a Rabbi
Starving Gaza is Immoral.
And so he called Israel's assault on Gaza
[00:14:58]
a just war, but condemned the blockade of
food and humanitarian aid into the region,
saying that starving Gazan civilians.
Neither will bring Israel
the total victory over Hamas it seeks,
nor can be justified by Jewish values
or humanitarian law.
[00:15:17]
Will this policy bring home
the 59 remaining hostages,
including the 24 who are still alive?
It's unlikely, and contrary to the wishes
of almost 70% of Israelis who,
in a recent poll prioritized the hostages
return over that elusive total victory.
[00:15:33]
Further, he writes that Hamas is willing
to sacrifice thousands of Palestinians
by hoarding humanitarian aid.
Israel must not.
Depriving Gazans of food and water
will not make Israel safer
or hasten the return of the hostages.
Each of us who loves Israel must say so
and urge Israel to change this policy.
[00:15:54]
So I wouldn't be surprised
if this rabbi is currently being attacked
by members of the Israeli parliament.
Okay, I want to be clear about who he is.
He's not just a regular old rabbi.
He's the president of the Union for Reform
Judaism, which is the largest denomination
for Jewish Americans.
[00:16:10]
So he is representing Jewish Americans
more than probably anyone is
because that's the largest denomination.
And he's saying enough don't.
So, yeah, I don't agree with him
that it's a just war.
But of course he's going
to say that, right?
[00:16:25]
And so you want to have nuance
about your positions on Israel.
God bless man. I'll take nuance.
I'll take disagreements around the edges,
maybe even some core issues.
Right.
But if you cross the Rubicon
and you say, yeah,
let's starve their children to death.
[00:16:42]
There's no discussion with a Nazi. And so?
Like what?
That's because that's literal.
That's literal.
Let's murder their children is not
a thing that you can compromise.
What? We. Oh, let's compromise.
Murder half the children.
No, but Rick Jacobs is not doing that.
[00:16:57]
Rick Jacobs is doing something
really moral, outstanding,
and absolutely necessary.
He's basically saying without saying
the words, not in our name.
And thank you, Rabbi Jacobs,
for saying that I appreciate it.
We all appreciate it.
[00:17:13]
Everyone should rally around
Rabbi Rabbi Jacobs.
Okay.
And say enough because you're driving up
anti-Semitism through the roof.
Through the roof. Okay.
And and don't tell me.
Oh, they hated us anyway.
No, you fill in the blank.
Turks, poles, Jamaicans.
[00:17:32]
It doesn't matter
if the whole world sees that group.
Starving children to death.
F they're all going to hate you.
Why? Because of what you're doing, right?
Wake up, wake up. Listen to Rabbi Jacobs.
[00:17:48]
Please wake up.
Because if we here in America especially,
you know, rabbis, etc., moral leaders
don't come forward and say this is wrong
and we need to stop enabling Israel,
[00:18:05]
then we're never going to stop this.
If you keep sending the checks, they're
going to think, oh, we did a great job.
America thinks we did a wonderful job.
It just sent us a $20 billion gift
for our war crimes.
It sent us an $8 billion gift.
A $4 billion gift.
America won't stop giving us gifts
for this genocide and ethnic cleansing.
[00:18:23]
Let's do more of it.
That's the message
we're sending here in America.
And we all have to unite to make sure we
do not send that message, not in our name.
Every time you ring the bell below,
an angel gets its wings.
Totally not true, but it does
keep you updated on our live shows.
Now Playing (Clips)
Episode
Podcast
The Young Turks: May 12, 2025
- 16 minutes
- 18 minutes
- 14 minutes
- 12 minutes
- 13 minutes