Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-03-03 Tuesday

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Democracy Now! Tuesday, March 3, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. We have the strongest and most powerful by far, military in the world, and we will easily prevail. We're already substantially ahead of our time projections, but whatever the time is, it's okay, whatever it takes. The U.S. is sending more troops and fighter jets to the Middle East as the death toll mounts in the region. after the U.S. and Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran four days ago. Iranian drones have hit U.S. embassies and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, while Israeli troops move deeper into Lebanon. This comes as Secretary of State Marco Rubio defends the preemptive U.S. strikes on Iran.

The President made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against Iran. American forces, and we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties. We'll get the latest on the U.S. Israeli attacks on Iran and look at the escalating regional war. Plus, we speak to economist Michael Hudson, who says the U.S. Israeli attack was to prevent

peace not to advance it. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, DemocracyNow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Iran's state broadcaster says U.S. and Israeli attacks have killed 787 people since President Trump joined Prime Minister Netanyahu in a massive bombing campaign, striking 153 cities and more than 500 sites across Iran since Saturday. Much of the violence is directed at Iran's capital Tehran, where thunderous explosions rang out for a third night in a row and into the daylight hours. residents woke to scenes of widespread destruction with city streets littered with debris from collapsed

buildings. One attack hit Nulipar Square in eastern Tehran, flattening buildings and killing over 20 people. Drop site news reports two explosions hit the area, a smaller strike followed by a larger double-tap attack that devastated much of the neighborhood. On Monday mourners in the southern city of Minab held a mass funeral Monday for 165 schoolgirls and staff killed Saturday on the first day of the U.S. Israeli strikes when a missile hit a girl's school. Meanwhile, red, alert, sirens have been activated across much of Israel with the Israeli military reporting missile interceptions over West Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Elat. On Monday, Ali Larjani, the Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council warn, quote, Iran, unlike the United States, has prepared

itself for a long war, he said. Iran's nuclear agency says there's been no leakage of radiological materials after a strike on its Natanz nuclear facility by the U.S. Israeli coalition. Officials said the strike damaged, the entrance to the site in Isfahan province, but there were no signs of increased radiation. On Monday, Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency said he'd seen no indication that Iran's nuclear facilities have been damaged during the latest U.S. Israeli strikes. We haven't seen major military activity targeting the nuclear facilities. We have been looking at different satellite images.

there might be something there, but not significant or comparable in any way to what we saw last time. Global energy prices are climbing, and Iran's continued attacks on oil and gas infrastructure across the Gulf. On Monday, a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, saying any ships attempting to cross the narrow shipping channel will be set of fire. About a fifth of all oil consume worldwide passes through the strait each day. At least three oil tankers have been struck so far. Cutter's state-owned fossil fuel company suspended all liquefied natural gas production after two of its facilities were hit. That followed a drone attack that halted operations at Saudi Arabia's largest domestic oil refinery.

Oil production has also halted in Iraqi Kurdistan and in the Tamar gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel's coast. Saudi authorities say two Iranian drones hit the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, causing what they described as a limited fire and minor damage. The strikes came after the U.S. State Department urged Americans in 14 Mideast countries to leave. Meanwhile, Middle East Eye reports the Trump administration stonewalling request by some of the U.S. Gulf states to replenish their supplies of air defense interceptor missiles, which typically cost about $4 million each amidst reports that even the Pentagon may run low on interceptors in a matter of weeks. Iran's been launching $20,000 one-way attack drones at Gulf nations, hosting U.S. military bases with about 10 percent of the drones slipping past defenses.

Israeli soldiers have invaded parts of southern Lebanon and Israel's largest escalation of fighting there since it signed a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in late 2024. Israeli airstrikes have hit the capital of Beirut for a second consecutive day targeting residential neighborhoods. They also struck Lebanon's Beqha Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut. The Lebanese health ministry says the death toll from the attacks has climbed to 51 with 100. 54 people injured. Meanwhile, Hizbella claimed an attack on an air base in northern Israel. In the Gaza Strip, the World Food Program says a border crossing pivotal to providing food and supplies to Palestinians as reopening after Israel closed Gaza's borders on Saturday as it began its attacks on Iran. Despite the reopening of the Karam Shalom crossing, human rights and aid groups have accused Israel

of reinstating a starvation policy in Gaza. Philippe Lazar. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees wrote, quote, after more than two years of unspeakable suffering and a spreading man-made famine, people still lack the most basic supplies despite increases in AIDS since the ceasefire, Lazarini said. President Trump made his first public remarks Monday since unilaterally bringing the United States into a war with Iran. Trump spoke from a White House ceremony where he awarded the Medal of,

honor to three army soldiers, even as the Pentagon said the U.S. military death toll from what it's calling Operation Epic Fury had risen to six. Trump dedicated a few moments to honor the service members who died before launching into a lengthy monologue about his renovations to the White House, including his plans to build a new ballroom. I picked those drapes in my first term. I always like gold, but I think we can save a lot of money. just saved curtains. But, and it will be, it'll be spectacular. It'll be the most beautiful ballroom.

I believe it's because I built many a ballroom. I believe it's going to be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world. On Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined top generals and intelligence officials in a classified briefing for select members of Congress Monday. After the closed-door briefing, Rubio told reporters the president had opted to join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. planned war in Iran rather than trying to stop the Israeli assault or even to avoid getting involved. The president made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.

We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties. Meanwhile, MS now is reporting that when FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen FBI personnel last week because they were part of the investigation into Donald Trump's mishandling of classified documents. Patel targeted an elite counter-espionized unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran.

The U.S. military may have used artificial intelligence tools made by tech company anthropic to aid in its deadly air attack on Iran. The Wall Street Journal and Axios reported the Trump administration's decision came despite Anthropics announcement last week, rejecting the use of its Claude AI model from being used for mass domestic surveillance or in fully autonomous weapons systems. The journal reported U.S. military officials use the AI tools for intelligence purposes and to help select targets. On Friday, President Trump ordered all federal agencies to stop using Claude, denouncing Anthropic as a, quote, radical left AI company, unquote, after Anthropic refused to concede to a Pentagon ultimatum Friday for full access to its AI tools. On Capitol Hill, calls are growing for lawmakers to regulate online betting platforms known as prediction markets amidst allegations of insider trading that, including. includes profiteering from U.S. military strikes. Bloomberg reports $529 million was traded on contracts

tied to the timing of the strikes on the polymarket prediction market. One polymarket account called Maga My Man made more than a half million dollars betting on the U.S. attack on Iran with the first trade placed just over an hour before the news broke publicly. This echoes similar bets on the U.S. military operation Venezuela placed on polymarket and other prediction markets, including Kalshi. Donald Trump Jr. sits on Polymarkets Advisory Board and his venture capital firm has invested tens of millions of dollars in the company. Both the Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ended active investigations into polymarket after Trump returned to the White House last year. In Texas, voters are taken to the polls today for a close.

closely watched Democratic primary between Congress member Jasmine Crockett and State Representative James Tullerico, who are vying for a highly contested Senate seat in a heated midterm election that could determine which political party will control Congress during Trump's final two years in office. Incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn, who's served in the Senate for over two decades, is facing off against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the GOP primary. both are Trump supporters. Crockett as a progressive who staunchly denounced Trump's policies, while her opponent, Tullerico, has appealed to Republican voters and put his Christian faith at the center of his campaign.

In Minnesota, the Justice Department's indicted another 30 people on federal crimes for participating in a peaceful protest in January at a St. Paul Church or one of the pastors worked for ICE. Attorney General Pambandi confirmed over two dozen people have been arrested. The new indictments come about a month after independent journalists, Don Lemon and Georgia Fort and prominent civil rights activist and attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong were also charged for what the attorney general called their roles in the protest at City's Church. They were covering it. In related news, a federal judge has summoned Minnesota's U.S. attorney Daniel Rosen and several ICE officials to appear in a St. Paul court today over violations and, immigration cases. The officials are facing civil and criminal contempt charges for repeatedly ignoring court orders, including refusing to return belongings such as cell phones, cash, and passports to immigrants who are released from detention. This comes as a separate federal judge

has ordered the Trump administration to bring back a wrongfully deported immigrant to the United States. Emilia Peña Jimenez was sent to Mexico Dissego. despite two court orders mandating his release from detention in Minnesota. A court filing said Jimenez may have been denied access to a lawyer before being forced to sign removal documents that were not translated into Spanish. His case is among hundreds of complaints that have been filed in Minnesota courts. And prominent Iraqi human rights defender and feminist advocate Yanar Muhammad was killed in an armed attack on her home in Baghdad on Monday. You know, had reportedly returned to Iraq from Canada a few days before her murder by two unidentified gunmen who opened fire as she stood outside her home. Enar Muhammad was the co-founder and president of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq.

In 2003, she founded the first women's shelter in Iraq to protect women from trafficking and so-called honor killings, becoming the target of death threats over her activism. She was a frequent guest on Democracy Now, following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. We spoke to her in 2022 when over two dozen people were killed in Baghdad after armed supporters of the powerful Iraqi cleric Mukdad al-Assad al-Assadr clashed with government forces. And the strange thing is that those who started the demonstration that led to the clashes, to the killing and to the bombing around the city, nobody dares to challenge them

or to speak any bad word against them. It's as if I'm living the days of Saddam Hussein all over again where everybody is scared of a single person and nobody dares to say anything. It's a terrible situation. Enar Muhammad was killed yesterday. To see all our interviews with her, go to DemocracyNow.org.

And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. The U.S. is sending more troops and fighter jets in Middle East as the regional war expands four days after the U.S. and Israel assassinated Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Hamini and struck sites across Iran. Iranian authorities say at least 787 people have died so far.

On Monday, a mass funeral is held for the 165 people killed in an attack on a girl's school in the Iranian southern city of Minab. Most of the people killed were children. UNESCO condemned the strike, saying, quote, the killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation. of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law, unquote. Israel is also accused of striking the Gandhi Hospital in Tehran. Iran is retaliated by launching four days of strikes on Israel and U.S. allies across the region. On Monday, Iranian drones hit the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia.

The Pentagon's now revealed six U.S. soldiers died in an Iranian attack on a military facility in Kuwait. The U.S. State Department's urge U.S. citizens in over a dozen Middle East countries to leave. The wars sent oil and gas prices skyrocketing. On Monday, a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to set ablaze any ship that passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Israeli ground forces are moving deeper into Lebanon as Israel and Hezbollah exchange rocket fire. On Monday, Israel struck the Beirut Office of Ominar TV. Israeli strikes have killed at least 52 people in Lebanon so far. The Trump administration continues to give shifting rationales for why it attacked Iran

amidst ongoing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Monday. The President made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties. In a social media post early today, President Trump said the United States could fight wars,

quote, forever, claiming it has, quote, virtually unlimited supply of weapons. Trump expressed a similar message at the White House Monday. We have the strongest and most powerful by far, military in the world, And we will easily prevail. We're already substantially ahead of our time projections, but whatever the time is, it's okay. Whatever it takes, we will always, and we have right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that. We begin today's show with Nagar Mortezvi, Iranian-American journalist, host of the Iran

podcast senior fellow at the center for international policy. Nagar, thanks so much for joining us again after a special broadcast on Saturday when the strikes began. Can you talk about what's happened on the ground at this point? I know that most of the internet, almost all of the internet, is down in Iran. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Yes. So, as you said, on the first day of the attack, we saw that elementary school in the city of Mina being one of the target, 160 children killed. And I was just looking at videos from the funeral of those children in that city. And there seems to be a very, very large crowd essentially coming out in that town to agree for those children.

We've seen civilian infrastructure being part of the targeting and the death toll on the Iranian side. is rising over 500, the latest I saw, mostly civilians. And it's just very difficult to get in touch with people. Communication is very limited. And it's just this feeling of horror and anxiety for those who are underground. In Tehran, especially people are hearing explosions. And it's not very clear what the targets are. And those who can leave the city have been either left

or have been trying to leave the capital, but the attacks are also across the country. And it's just reminding people very quickly of the June war. Last year, the 12th day war when Israel attacked Iran and then the U.S. joined. But then also starting to, people who remember the 1980s war between Iran and Iraq are starting to have sort of memories of that era, which was also a very horrific war. lasted very long. And, Nagar, could you talk about the three-person

leadership council that's managing the day-to-day affairs as the country's leaders attempt to decide on a successor to Ayatollah, how many? Sure. Article 111 of the running constitution had already predicted this, that in the case of the

passing or death, in this case, killing of the Supreme Leader, immediately a council is formed consisting of the president, which now is the moderate, Mahmoud, Masoud Pazeshkian, the head of judiciary, a conservative cleric right now, Kolom Hussain Mosani-Ejee, and then also one clergy member of the Guardian Council, the powerful guardian council, which is Ali Reza Arafi, a fairly conservative and hardline clergy also. And then they will be in charge of essentially making decisions and running the country in place of a Supreme Leader until the successor is picked by the Leadership Council. And so that's the process.

But it's in a war time. I don't know if this is going, this decision is going to happen right now. It depends on also how long the war is going to continue. There seems to be no end in sight, even though the U.S. had announced that this is going to. going to be short. I think from the press conferences yesterday, it's just not clear how long it's going to go. So I don't know if they can sort of do this succession during the war time or they're going to see this as a transition. This is an interim council and then potentially to the Supreme Leader after the war is over. And I'll just end with the fact that the clergy from the

Guardian Council, Aliazza, our office, seems to be one of the likely candidates. at least that's being talked about as potentially being the successor. But there's also other candidates who had been sort of on a list from the past. And President Trump has, in public statements, offered, quote, complete immunity to any members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, who lay down their arms. what's your sense of how the IRGC is functioning right now, given especially this quite impressive resistance that the Iranian government has launched against not only the United States and Israel, but many of the Gulf states that have been maintaining U.S. bases?

So, you know, the U.S. has military superiority, absolutely, and they've caused a lot of damage from day one, including killing the country's supreme leader. But I don't think they understand the dynamics of this country. There seems to be a total lack of understanding. And when you listen to the comments of the president himself, Secretary of State, the presser yesterday with the Secretary of War, it's just, I don't think they understand the situation they're dealing with. many of us Iran analysts had been warning that starting a war with Iran is going to potentially be even more difficult and challenging than the war in Iraq, which already was a big failure on the U.S. side. And the irony is that President Trump himself had been attacking, if not mocking past presidents for starting these kind of endless, unnecessary wars in the Middle East, including attacking President Obama for thinking or potentially wanting to attack. Iran. And now he's become a president that has attacked Iran for the third time, the first time,

2020, assassination of top general Soleimani, second time last year, Midnight Hammer, and this is the third time. And so the Iranian thinking or sort of the policy, the defense doctrine or posturing in Iran is that he's going to keep coming back for us unless we fight back. And this is exactly what we're seeing the Iranians doing, essentially playing the long game here that, first of all, they see this as an existential threat. They're fighting a war of survival, and that's why they're essentially doing fighting with all their might, whatever is left of it, and that they're not going to stop soon until they have inflicted, as they think, enough pain so that this doesn't keep coming again, because in six months and eight months in a year, this mowed grass sort of policy

that Israel has vis-à-vis Gaza, and of course now we're seeing in Lebanon, that's something that the Iranians want to end. To say the least, Nagar, in these last 30 seconds, you've been critical of the Iranian government, but you're also, to say the least, fiercely critical of what's taken place right now. Absolutely. I mean, it is a repressive state. That's a fact. Nobody denies that and how the government treats its own citizens.

We just saw protests in January, thousands of people being killed by this government. But you can hold both truths at the same time that the military. intervention is not going to help that situation. This is not helping Iranian protesters, Iranian dissidents, or any Iranian who is living on the ground. I think that's just a fact that's being missed, that somehow this is helping, this is going to bring better governance or democracy, nation-building to Iran. We just haven't seen the U.S. have a successful track record time and again when they've tried this military intervention in the region. And I honestly don't think that is the goal for the U.S. or for Israel. This is a geopolitical situation. They want a weakened Iran for the Israelis.

I think they potentially want a failed state situation, a country that poses no threat to them and that can potentially go in and attack anytime they want. Nagar Mortezavi. We want to thank you so much for being with us, Iranian-American journalist, host of the Iran podcast, Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy. Coming up, we look at the escalating regional war in the Middle East. We'll speak with Palestinian-American journalist Rami Khoury. Stay with us. The road is long. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. The U.S. is sending more troops and fighter jets to the Middle East

as the death toll mounts in the region after the U.S. and Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran on Saturday. Iran's retaliated by striking Israel and U.S. allies in the region. Over the past day, Iranian drones hit U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Meanwhile, Israel sent more ground troops into Lebanon, Israel and Hezbollah exchange attacks. We go right now to Rami Khoury, Palestinian-American journalist Distinguished Public Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut. He's also a non-resident senior fellow at the Arab Center, Washington, D.C. Rami, thanks so much for being with us again. if you can respond to what has taken place. Now this escalation with Israel's escalation with Lebanon and this shifting rationale for why the U.S., though they have said from Marco Rubio to House Speaker Johnson,

that they were supporting Israel in doing this, that Israel took the first move and that they understood that if Israel, attacked Iran. They felt Iran would attack Israel. So Iran would attack the United States, and so Israel was making a preemptive, so that United States was making a preemptive move. Sorry, I'm sounding so confused, but the rationale also been very confusing. Well, it sounds like a new puzzle in the newspaper that we've got to figure out. But this is the constant, one of the constant factors that we see going on. Now, there's three or four things that have converged. One is this confusion and militaristic overkill from the United States. It's been there for 40 years or so in the Middle East. And it goes from Iraq to Iran, to Lebanon, to Libya, to Somalia, all over the place.

Second one is that the Israelis have continued since the 1940s, the Zionist movement, and now the state of Israel, they've continued to try to expand their region of sovereignty and control and expand their region of hegemonic influence across the entire region. They don't want anybody in the West Asia, North Africa region to challenge them or offer a different alternative or fight them. The third one is the nonstop attempts by two groups in particular, the Iranians and the Palestinians, who since 1947 have been denied by the U.S. UK and Israel have been denied their right to self-determination.

In other words, the Iranians and the Palestinians are not permitted to exercise their self-determination rights to have the kind of sovereignty they wish, they're entitled to by law, and to chart policies that they want to charge. So there's been non-stop Zionist, Israeli, American, British military action and political action, coups, and all kinds of things in Iran and in Palestine. And that's why the Iranians and the Palestinians are the two groups of people who continue to resist in any way they can. They can't match the military might of Israel and the U.S., but they can match the determination

to live in dignity and freedom and self-determination. That's the third one. The fourth one is the inability of any combination. of Arab countries to mount a cohesive diplomatic or military response to the threats that they face all the time. Whoever the threats may be coming from. Mostly they're coming from Israel. Sometimes they come from the US, sometimes from Iran, sometimes from somebody else. So all of these have converged together, and we're seeing ultimately now the consequence of allowing the state of Israel with full UK and then U.K. U.S. support to run wild across the region militarily, do whatever it wants, annexed territory, colonized territory, carry out ethnic cleansing, do a genocide, and they tell the West we're the only

democracy, and we're protecting the West from the barbarians in the Middle East. This has gone on now for decades and decades, and it's astounding that there's very little done about this. The region can't do very much, but it's astounding that the Western democracies have done virtually nothing other than mostly support or parrot Israel. And this is causing people across the world to look at the idea of Western culture and Western liberal democratic tradition as a hoax. It's not serious. It's not sincere and it's not credible. And we're seeing it in practice today. And Rami, I wanted to ask you about the religious impact of what has happened over the last few days, this killing of Ayatollah Khomeini, and also the fact that the what's happening at the street level, not at the government level in many of the Middle East countries,

but we're seeing massive protests and Pakistan attacks on the U.S. embassy there in Iraq, in Bahrain, and the lack of understanding of the United States government that Hamani was not just a supreme leader in Iran. He was a religious figure throughout the Shia portion of the Muslim world. And he was a model of ideology and resistance to many people who are not Iran. or Shiites around the region and around the world. The big force that is asserting itself now via Israel and the U.S. and some other Western countries like the UK, Germany, is the continuation and the rejuvenation and the digital reconfiguration of Western colonial imperialistic militarism. This has been going on since the 15th century.

The Europeans have gone out and carried out conquests and holocausts and genocide all over the world, killing millions and millions of people. And this is the latest configuration in the digital age. And Israel is peer-heading this with the U.S. in the Middle East. And the people in the region, the ordinary people, have protested this steadily for the last. century and are unable to do anything about it because none of the countries in the Arab region, not a single one in the Arab region, has practiced true sovereignty, credible sovereignty. In other words, they can make decisions for their own well-being on their own.

They have to get permission from Israel or the U.S. or Turkey or Iran or Saudi Arabia or somebody outside their country has to approve what they want to do. and therefore they're powerless, and the people are powerless, and the combination of powerless people and powerless governments has given rise to these non-state armed movements, like Hezbollah, Hamas, Ansarullah, and many others, and has led to massive immigration out-migration of the finest young minds across the region. So this is the terrible situation that the populations of these countries face,

And they just can't do anything about it. The 10 years of the extraordinary Arab uprisings between 2010 and 2020, it was an incredible movement, a historic movement, where the whole region the people were out in the streets, and they were just calling for dignity, good governance, reasonably priced food, decent education, less corruption, and steady electricity supply. They were not asking for revenge for cutting people's heads off.

And they were ignored by their leaders, and then they were beaten up by their leaders. So this is the dilemma that has faced this region in the modern period since statehood was introduced in a serious way in the 1930s. We've had a century now of non-state states, states that don't have the authority or the capability or the will to act as sovereign states. and therefore this is what we end up with. The Israelis do what they want, the Americans do what they want, other people penetrate the region. And public protests will always be an immediate emotional response, demonstrations.

A lot of this, you see it on the Internet. But in terms of organized political action, there's very little that is going on. And now we're going to see in Iran, And whenever this attack stops, there'll have to be some kind of transition. The Iranians themselves are in the process of creating a new leadership and deciding what they want to do. I don't think there's going to be radical change from the old to the, from Khomeini to the new leadership. There might be some changes here and there.

And I don't think we're going to have a system where the Iranian people will be directly or, or, or, incredibly involved in making these strategic decisions about the government's ideology, the government's policies, the government's priorities. This is the trouble. The whole region is run by top-heavy autocratic systems that don't consult their people and don't give them an opportunity to express themselves. And until this pattern is broken, we're going to unfortunately see this going on for years and years. And what do you make of Israel is now calling up 100,000 reservists and renewing its war in Lebanon against Hezbollah? I think this is expected. They've done it many times. Every time they've done it, they've occupied land, they've killed a lot of people, they've destroyed a lot of villages and homes and public facilities.

They retreated. Nothing changed and they had to come back and do it again. All it does, as it's done in Palestine, as you're going to see now in Iran with the American-Israeli assault, all this does is heighten the determination of indigenous people to find out how they can resist. They don't know how they can resist. They don't have the military power. They don't have the organized political mechanisms to do that. So people are constantly searching for what to do.

And I think we're going to see the same thing in Lebanon. The thing in Lebanon that's different is the internal structure, of Lebanon is very delicate. It's a balance between four or five major groups that are ethnic and religious groups, and they're deeply influenced by foreign actors like Israel, the U.S., France, Iran, others. And Lebanon is way more delicate than most of the other countries, and it's fractured several times and had civil war, and may do so again. I hope not, but this is what makes Lebanon unique. And the Lebanese themselves don't want to have a peace treaty forced on them with Israel.

And this is what they're afraid of for now. And this is what the Israelis and Americans are trying to do. Rami Kori, want to thank you for being with us, Palestinian-American journalist, distinguished public policy fellow at American University of Beirut, also non-resident senior fellow at the Arab Center, Washington, D.C. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. as we continue to look at the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran and Iran's retaliation, we're joined by

Ofer Kassif. He's a member of the Israeli Knesset and the leftist Hadashhtal coalition. He's been a vocal critic of the Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu. In October, he waived a sign reading, recognized Palestine during President Trump's address to the Knesset. He's been repeatedly suspended from the Knesset for his outspoken criticism of Israel's war on Gaza, joining us now from the Israeli city of Rojavut. Thank you so much for being with us. If you can respond to what's happening on the ground in Israel, I know that we could lose you at any point if you have to go into a shelter.

But overall, the peace movement in Israel, how is it responding right now with becoming very clear that Israel led this Israeli U.S. attack on Iran, with some support from Saudi-U.S. Arabia, convincing Trump to do this preemptive attack? Well, they call it a preemptive attack. Of course, it was premeditated, and the reason is not, as they say. We all know that the real interests of the government of Israel and the government of the United States, like many others, is not really to save the Iranian people from the

despotic, really suppressive regime, nor to prevent. them for developing a nuclear weapon or the missile industry, the real interest is a political and economic interest, an imperialist interest as ever. And the other things that are presented as if they were the reasons are merely excuses. But the real interest of those governments, of those imperialists and their partners is the real reason is simply to do whatever they can in order to achieve their own economic and political interests at the expense of the peoples, including the people of Iran and the people of Israel. Unfortunately, neither of them is really interested in our well-being or in the people of Iran

or the American people in their own welfare and good. And that's the main issue. This is an imperialist aggression against the Iranian people. It's not against the regime. They want us to believe it's against the regime. It is against the people of Iran eventually. And history proves that. And we, in the anti-occupation, anti-genocide, peace movement in Israel, we know that.

It's very difficult now at the moment to take to the time. the streets and to demonstrate because of the missiles and also because of the limitations posed by the government under the guise of emergency situation. But we know what is at stake. We know that the real interest of the governments are against the interest of the peoples and we do whatever we can in order to protest and to protest and to. to stop this bloodshed. If I wanted to ask you, in terms of the

level of response and resistance and counterattack by Iran on Israel, what has been the effect on the population? Did the government and the people expect this kind of response? And interestingly, here in the United States, we're not

seeing in the American media many images of what damage is being caused within Israel of the attacks by Iran? We are not sure about the damage either because we don't know if what the media and Israel shows is accurate and if it is indeed the full scale. We obviously don't want anyone to get harm neither in Israel nor in Palestine or in Iran or

anywhere else. That's the reason we oppose this and oppose this war in aggression from the very beginning. But as I said, the real way to stop it is a diplomatic and political one, not a military one. And unfortunately, at the moment, the majority within the Israeli public support the government and support the aggression against Iran. It is quite, you know, systematic. It always happened like that in the past. It happened when Israel launched the genocidal aggression against Gaza. after the terrible massacre of 7 October.

It happened many times vis-à-vis Lebanon, Syria, and other places. In the beginning, we were almost the only ones. We, I mean, the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, the Communist Party, and some other anti-occupation and anti-war activists, we were quite isolated and marginalized in most. events of war and aggression, but after a while, more and more people within the Israeli society began to understand that they went astray after the lies of the government, whether it was a Netanyahu's government or another government, and began to protest against the war or the

genocide or whatever. So I guess that that will happen again now. At the moment, we are a minority, not as tiny as we were before, because more and more people understand that this fascist government led by the criminal Netanyahu, who is, as we all know, suspected in a, in a trial and stand trial in charges of, and is accused in bribery and corruption, et cetera, et cetera. so many people more than before understand that everything that this government has been doing, especially Netanyahu, are driven by, not by the interest of the people,

but by the interest of the government per se. And because of that, although we are still a minority, and alas, all the parliamentary opposition, apart from us, is in support of Netanyahu's aggression and Trump's aggression, still you can see that more people among the so-called common people are against it.

It's still a minority, but if it continues, if this aggression continues, I'm sure that sooner or later we'll see a majority standing against it. I just hope that we won't get there because the bloodshed until then is going to be much wider

everywhere in Israel, in Iran, in Lebanon, in Palestine, and obviously we don't want that to happen. And what about that impact in Palestine? You said that the war on Iran would be used to justify increased oppression against the Palestinians? Absolutely. We can already see that. You know, under this government, it didn't begin with this government, the occupation of the West Bank is Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, of course, is almost 60 years old.

But the persecution and the discrimination against the Palestinian National Marquisition. minority within Israel exists since 1948, since the establishment of the state of Israel and the Nakba. But we can see that under this government in general, since 7 October in particular, and in the last few days even more, the deadly persecution of the Palestinians is on the rise. We can see that there is a kind of division of labor. You could see that while the Israeli occupation forces continue in bombing and attacking Palestinians in Gaza and of course the aggression against Iran and Lebanon still goes on,

you could also see that the fascist settlers, the terrorist settlers in the West Bank do whatever they like under the auspices and even collaboration of the occupation forces, the encouragement, finance, and support of the government. But the pioneer, as it were, of the programs and terrorist attacks, including murders of innocent Palestinians in the West Bank, is mainly executed by the settlers. And under the smokescreen of the war with Iran, you can see that it is much more easier,

on those criminals to pursue with those crimes. And nothing has been done. Look, I personally have been sending letters since March 23. It's exactly three years since I first sent a letter to the defense minister. It was then gallant and later on cuts. And to the Attorney General demanding them to investigate. arrest and stop those terrorist settlers and their supporters in the West Bank, and for three years, nothing has been done. So it's not a coincidence that it not only goes on, but it is worsening,

because once they know they are not punished, not even investigated, why should they continue with their crimes and even go further? So if they began by igniting fire into fields and uprooting trees. Now they are igniting fire and shooting people, including, by the way, international and Israeli activists, not only Palestinians. So when under the smoke screen of the war, as I said, it's getting easier on them, unfortunately. And I put a lot of the blame on the international community. I also sent a few letters

to the Hague, to the European Union, to some senators in the United States and some other institutions in the United Nations, et cetera. By the way, part of my suspension from the Knesset was because I sent those letters, but I had no other choice. That was the last resort because as the Israeli institutes, those who are in charge and are responsible for the well-being of the occupied as well, of the Palestinians. As long as they don't do anything and even allow those crimes to go on,

I had no other choice by to appeal to international forces, but nothing has been done. Ofer Kassif, I want to thank you for being with us, member of the Israeli Knesset and the leftist Adashhtal coalition, speaking to us from Rahovaf in Israel. Coming up, economist Michael Hudson says the U.S. Israeli attack was to prevent peace, not advance it. Back in 15 seconds. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. The U.S. Israeli attack was to prevent peace not to advance it.

That's the headline of a new article in counterpunch by the economist Michael Hudson, who details how President Trump opted to attack Iran despite progress made during last week's U.S. Iran negotiations in Geneva. In the piece, Hudson writes about the significance of these comments by Oman's foreign minister, Bader al-Assadhi, who appeared on CBS's Face the Nation Friday, one day before the U.S. attack. If the ultimate objective is to ensure forever that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, I think we have cracked that problem through these negotiations by agreeing a very important breakthrough that has never been achieved any time before. We're joined now by the economist Michael Hudson, President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends,

distinguished research professor of economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City. Thanks so much for being with us, Michael. I mean, it seems that the Oman Foreign Minister flew to Washington so he could directly address this issue, saying more progress had been made and that the deal was going to be one better than Obama's. He didn't trust President Trump's envoys, Jared Kushner, and as well as he didn't trust Kushner to convey the level of progress that had been made. So he spoke directly himself to the American people through the U.S. press.

Your response. The fact that progress has been made and that Iran negotiators had agreed not to only not to have an atom bomb, but to reduce their refined uranium, to shift the refined uranium outside of the country, and to submit to an unprecedented degree of oversight, made it urgent that the United States attack Iran immediately because what happened was that after the Iranian negotiators went back to Iran, Khomeini, and his religious leaders,

and the military leaders sat down to have a meeting to draft their reply accepting the U.S. demands. But none of this was about an atom bomb to begin with. The whole reason that America's attacked Iran has nothing to do with its getting an atom bomb because it wasn't getting an atom bomb. The aim was to control near-eastern oil by the United States. And General Petraeus years ago had outlined this whole. plan in saying, well, we're going to conquer seven near-eastern countries culminating in Iran. Well, actually, the plans go way back to 1974 when OPEC quadrupled the prices.

And the United States said, well, you can quadruple the prices, but we need to control the world's oil trade, because oil is a choke point. Every country needs oil for its indescent. for its transportation, for its electricity, to heat the home. And if we can control the world's oil trade, then we can use that as an arm of U.S. diplomacy. And we don't have to own the oil. We don't have to overthrow the OPEC countries, like we did the Iranian government in 1953 when they wanted to nationalize oil. Your OPEC countries can nationalize your oil. You can take control of Aramco and the other countries, but you have to make an agreement that all of your profits and rents from the oil will be lent back to the United States, recycled in the United

States, priced in dollars and invested in U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. bonds, and U.S. stocks, so that the money, the vast dollar inflows from your oil exports will all be part of it. of the U.S. economy. I sat in on meetings in the White House in 1974 when this was discussed because I had been the specialist that Chase Manhattan for the U.S. balance of payments and specifically for the oil industry. And from the very beginning, the U.S. foreign policy was based on if we can control the world's oil trade, then we really have control of the world's economy. But in order to do this, we have to prevent other countries from buying oil from countries not controlled by the United States. First, by Iran after the Shah was overthrown. Then you can't

let them buy from Russia after 2002. So you had the sanctions against Russia and the destruction of the oil pipeline. Then the sanctions against Venezuela to prevent countries from buying from Venezuela, and now back to Iran to prevent Iran from selling its oil to China. 80% of Iran's oil exports had gone to China. So the whole idea from the beginning was to consolidate the U.S. ability to control oil and thereby to give Trump and the U.S. administration the ability to turn off the lights, to turn off the power, to turn off the electricity to other countries. if they did not agree to follow U.S. foreign policy

to maintain sanctions against other oil countries, against Russia, China also. Michael Hudson, we're going to continue this conversation, post online at DemocracyNow.org. Michael Hudson, economist, will link to your article. The U.S. Israeli attack was to prevent peace, not to advance it. Michael Hudson, President of the Institute,

for the study of long-term economic trends. I'm Mimi Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. I'll be in Savannah, Georgia on Saturday. Check our website at Democrysnow.org.