It Could Happen Here - Collapse of the Iron Wall

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

Shereen talks about the recent violence in Palestine and Israel, why Hamas’ surprise attack is so unprecedented, and how Gaza is suffering as a result.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You should probably keep your lights on for

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It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. CallZone Media. Hello, everybody, and welcome to It Could Happen Here. My name is Shereen, and a lot has happened recently, and we definitely need to talk about it. There's a lot to cover, and things are changing every day.

I can't possibly talk about everything in a 30-minute podcast episode, but just for context, I'm recording the bulk of this on Wednesday, October 11th. There are many different things that we should get into, and we'll probably get into them in other episodes, so look forward to those. But today, I want to talk about why exactly this attack from Hamas is so different and so unprecedented for many reasons, and why the response by Israel is also extremely unprecedented. There has been a lot of violence, a lot of death, and I thought a better way to start to learn about this might be with something really specific. to start to learn about this might be with something really specific, like learning about the border fence that has been caging in Gaza for years, why Israel thought it was so impermeable, and how they were wrong. So let's begin. The video and images going around on social media of a bulldozer breaking through a portion of the fence that has long enclosed the Gaza Strip for years,

this cage that surrounds that territory, the image of a bulldozer just running straight through it and Palestinians running to the other side. I don't think you can find anything better to represent the long history of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, the decades of brutal Israeli occupation, the recurrent Hamas bombings and rocket strikes, and the political deterioration on both sides than this image. No one thought this was going to happen. Professor Clive Jones, Director of Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Durham University said, this is the first time since 1948 that any Palestinian militant movement has taken territory in Israel proper. That symbolic victory and defeat for Israel will resonate across the region. So on the morning of October 7th, there was a surprise attack from Hamas against Israel.

What happened was a colossal failure of Israeli intelligence as well as the Israeli government. I'll go into this in more detail in a bit, but in this surprise attack, resistance fighters were entering in up to 29 different locations outside the Gaza Strip. Most significantly, fighters tore through the border fence, which has also been called the Iron Wall. They knocked it aside with bulldozers, drove right through it with jeeps and motorcycles. Other Hamas fighters sailed right over it with fan-powered gliders, and others hopped on boats to try to reach the other side by sea. A crucial component of Israel's defense from an attack like this, or at least it was supposed to be,

was this sophisticated border fence. I want to talk about how exactly Israel came to build this fence. Because throughout most of its history, the IDF did not want much to do with defensive measures. Its traditional security concept rested on three complementary pillars, deterrence, early warning, and decisive battlefield victory. Guided by this concept, the IDF built offensive power designed to deter its enemies from attacking, and intelligence arrays in order to detect when that deterrence had eroded. If it was unable to convince the other side that it was better off avoiding conflict, the IDF would bring the full might of its offensive capabilities in search of a rapid and decisive quote-unquote victory. Which just means they would end up killing a lot of people. They would fly in cities and massacre hundreds of people in order to essentially make the other side lose all hope and not fight back. And if they did, to tell them never to fight back again. This would, according to this concept initially, strengthen deterrence. The idea of defense for Israel began sneaking into the conversation in the 1960s as Israel

considered purchasing the Hawk surface-to-air missile system from the U.S. This idea had some opposition at the highest level of the IDF. Air Force Commander Ezra Wiseman opposed the idea on the grounds that it would give Israel's political chiefs an excuse to avoid the bold offensive operations, in this case surprise airstrikes that would take out entire buildings, which he viewed as necessary to win a war. In the end, though, five Hawk missile batteries were purchased just before the 1967 Six-Day War for $30 million. The first makings of the present-day security fence began in 1994, after the signing of the interim agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip when Israel constructed a 40-mile fence along its boundary with eastern Palestine. The construction was

completed in 1996, though it didn't necessarily represent a hard border. In 2005, under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel carried out a disengagement from Gaza, which included, among other things, pulling out its troops. This meant that the one-kilometer buffer zone that the Israeli defense forces maintained after the first fence was torn down by Gazans in 2000 was no longer a possibility. A plan for an alternate fortified fence, a few dozen meters east of the original fence, entirely on Israeli land, was then developed. The present-day 40-mile-long barricade has several sections. A 20-foot-high smart fence, which is the over-the-ground fence, with a maritime section manned by sensors to detect

incursions from the water, and an underground wall of classified depth and thickness with sensors to detect any digging. The overground barrier, which makes up 81% of the fence, is supported by a complex network of cameras, radar systems, as well as command and control rooms. 140,000 tons of iron and steel were used in the construction of the underground wall, which took three and a half years to complete. The total cost of the project is estimated at $1.11 billion. The project of the quote-unquote smart fence was publicly announced in 2016, and in 2021, Israel announced the completion of the smart fence, which included an underground concrete barrier. This addition, which I feel like is important to mention, was because Hamas used underground tunnels to blindside Israeli forces

in 2014. Access near the fence on the Gaza side was limited to farmers who were on foot. On the Israeli side, observation towers and sand dunes were put in place to monitor threats and slow intruders. With the announcement of its completion in 2021, the then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the barrier placed a quote, iron wall between Hamas and southern Israel. But on October 7th, as we saw, the wall failed massively, and a surprise series of coordinated efforts enabled Hamas to get past the wall. The fence was breached at 29 points, according to the IDF. There were also Israeli guard towers positioned at every 500 feet along the perimeter of the wall at some certain points, and the Hamas fighters there appeared to encounter very little resistance. It soon became apparent that the

border was minimally staffed, with much of Israel's military diverted to focus on the unrest in the West Bank. Matthew Levitt is the director of the counterterrorism program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He said, the most compelling parts of the system were the ones that provided indicators and warnings. But you don't see in advance that someone is masked at the fence. It's still just a fence. A big fence, but just a fence. Still, he says, the idea of a bulldozer getting that close to the fence at all just boggles the mind. The attack has been documented as the following. To put it very simply,

using commercial drones, Hamas bombed Israeli observation towers, communications infrastructure, and weapons systems along the border. Israel said Hamas fired more than 3,000 rockets into its territory, with some reaching as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Militants also used explosives to blow up sections of the barrier and men and motorbikes drove through the gaps. And then the bulldozers did the rest and this allowed for enough space for their larger vehicles to drive through. Experts said an attack of this magnitude with all of these elements would have required weeks, at least, of preparation and subterfuge. But maybe you're asking, well, why now? Why did Hamas now decide to launch an attack of this magnitude? There are some clues in the name that Hamas gave the attack. They named it Operation al-Aqsa Flood. Just days before the attack, hundreds of Israeli settlers, with the protection of the Israeli forces,

stormed al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. I've talked about this before, but this compound is a very important and contested religious site. And it's often, very often, a target by Israeli settlers and the IDF. And Hamas said it launched its attack in response to the desecration of al-Aqsa. Mohammadieff, the Qasem Brigade's commander, said, We have decided that the time has come to draw the line for the enemy to understand their time is up and they can't keep going without consequences. But again, experts said this plan would have taken weeks to plan. I'm sure the attacks on al-Aqsa Mosque played a role in the attack, but it was probably being

worked on for quite some time before that. And Hamas also said the attack was a response to decades of Israeli violence and occupation. The daily impact of that occupation on the lives of Palestinians in Gaza and other occupied territories like the West Bank is a huge part of this story. Let's take our first break. Before I forget, no clever segue here. Just listen to these ads. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement

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And we're back. Analysts and experts have been warning for months that the reality on the ground in Palestine and Israel was leading up to this. A political analyst and former Palestinian Authority spokeswoman said, The record number of Palestinians killed, dispossessed, injured and traumatized by Israeli forces and settlers across the occupied West Bank, the continued siege on Gaza, the relentless attacks on al-Aqsa Mosque, they were all pushing the situation towards this moment. I don't think anybody imagined the particulars of this moment, but I think everybody with a sense of what was going on knew that this quote-unquote calm was deceiving and that something was going to happen, something big. And it did happen. The wall came down. But for the 2.3 million Palestinians who have been virtually trapped for 15 years, as well as the Palestinians on the West Bank who have been constantly surve for 15 years, as well as the Palestinians on the West Bank, who have been constantly surveilled, having their movement restricted, and have experienced

growing military violence, bulldozing through this fence means something else. While the Israeli response was fed by the failure of this system, making the future of all Palestinians even more precarious, the impact of Saturday's attack for Palestinians is hugely significant, psychologically and symbolically. It shatters the idea of Israel's military superiority. It's a physical symbol of breaking out of the open-air prison they've been held captive in, letting them step onto the land that they've been forced out of, some of them for their entire lives. step onto the land that they've been forced out of, some of them for their entire lives. Most of the Palestinians in Gaza are children, and they have only ever known life within the confines of that fence. So bulldozing a hole right through this fence to the other side

will obviously have ripples in more ways than one. I want to mention something here that I've been thinking about, is that Gaza is often referred to as the world's biggest open-air prison, which is true. But I was thinking about it, and prison implies that they did a crime. They did not do a crime. The Palestinians are innocent. They're stuck in a cage against their will, and they have no way out. I think a better way to describe Gaza might be an open-air concentration camp, the biggest open-air concentration camp, period. This is something I've been thinking about because I feel like open-air prison implies they're all criminals, and they're not. So just something to think about when it comes to semantics and the power of words, I suppose, even if it's subconscious. Gaza has been under a land, sea, and air blockade since 2007. More than 2.3 million

Palestinians live there, all crammed in, and they cannot leave without Israeli permission, which very few people get. Hamas is a political and armed group that took control in 2006, and there hasn't been an election since. It's part of a regional alliance, which also includes Iran and the armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, and the EU, among many others. We'll be doing a history more in depth about Hamas soon, but it's important to note that Israel basically helped create it. More details will be in that episode, obviously. But just to summarize very briefly, Israel bolstered Hamas's creation and funded its expansion because it wanted to divide the Palestinians amongst themselves,

and they viewed the leftist PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was the governing party at the time, as a threat. And so they encouraged Hamas to flourish and thrive, which leads us to now. Again, that'll be a separate episode. There's so much to cover, and I can't do it all today. Although the PLO used to be the dominant party decades ago, in recent years the PLO and the secular Fatah party, which the PLO is centered around, is often criticized for being ineffective. And so many Palestinians see Hamas as the most active group when it comes to resistance against the violent Israeli occupation. Palestinians have lived in violent occupation for 76 years, and the world has largely done nothing.

Palestinians have no outside support whatsoever, and no one is coming to their aid or rescue. They unfortunately only have this militant group because of this. And also just a reminder that Palestine has actually tried everything and that violence is not their first resort. Many Palestinians don't even support Hamas. Let's not forget about BDS, which is a Palestinian nonviolent movement which calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions for Israel. BDS is now deemed illegal. In 2021, 35 states passed anti-BDS laws. So even boycotting Israeli products is suddenly illegal.

So that was BDS. People are obviously still engaged in BDS, and I encourage everyone to read more about it because divestment and sanctions work. It worked in South Africa, but here we are. And then in 2018, Palestinians in Gaza mounted the Great March of Return to show the world their plight. Day after day, they walked unarmed to Israeli's military fences around Gaza. How did Israel respond to this non-violent protest? They shot 8,000 Palestinians with live ammunition, killed 220 people, and wounded 36,143. Palestinians are getting killed regardless of the existence of Hamas because Israel bombing Gaza isn't actually about Hamas, but occupation and ethnic cleansing. Israel and Hamas have fought

many on and off quote-unquote wars. I say quote-unquote because it's not a war if only one side has an army, and I personally really hate when it's referred to as a war because it's not a war if only one side has an army. And I personally really hate when it's referred to as a war because it's falsely portraying an occupation as an equal fight when there's actually an oppressor and an oppressed. But regardless, the last big war Israel had had with Hamas was in 2021. In the past, it's usually been an exchange of fire across the Gaza border. Hamas launches rockets into Israel, Israel drops more bombs on Gaza, Hamas launches rockets into Israel, Israel drops more bombs on Gaza, and so on.

Usually this results in a huge civilian death toll in Gaza, with Israel bombing entire residential buildings and killing entire families and hundreds of children. And just a reminder here that Gaza does not have an iron dome to defend itself. When Israel bombs Gaza, it does so knowing it is very densely populated and filled with hundreds of innocent people that have nothing to do with Hamas. They drop bombs on buildings, hospitals, schools. Nothing is off limits. I don't have to remind you, or maybe I do, that they've also killed members of the press clearly wearing press

vests, but I guess that's another topic for another day. What happened this time around with the attack that Hamas launched on October 7th was very different though. It's repeatedly been called unprecedented, and this is true for a few reasons. One, because of the scale of the attack that Hamas launched, and two, because nobody really saw it coming. As of this recording, more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, the majority of whom were civilians, were killed, and more than 3,000 were wounded. Hamas also said that it captured more than 100 Israelis, including some senior military officers. Nothing like this, especially at this magnitude, has happened since 2006, when Hamas captured one Israeli soldier, Galat Shalit, and held him in Gaza for five years.

And three days after Hamas launched this attack on October 7th, there were still gun battles going on between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces in the three main areas in southern Israel. And despite verified footage and reporting from Gaza that indisputably shows countless Palestinian children who Israel has killed so far. Israel's murder of Palestinian children is receiving little to no media attention in the U.S. or globally, but they create the worst possible enemy so the world supports the destruction of an entire people. And as an Arab, I want to mention that it's really hard to see all of this play out. And if you have any Arab friends, I'm sure they're going

through it too, especially if they're Palestinian, because it's almost like deja vu of what happened after 9-11. And what happened after 9-11 didn't really stop, to be honest. It's not like Islamophobia took a break and then came back. It's always been there. But now it's very shameless and disgusting. And it makes no attempt to cover itself because it's not only ignored but encouraged in order to validate the actions of the U.S. military and the Israeli military. Another reason for this all being so unprecedented is Israel's failure to stop it from happening. The Israeli army is one of the world's most sophisticated military and intelligence

organizations, as well as one of the most powerful armies in the world because of the United States' support and billions of dollars in funding. Any kind of communication going in and out of Gaza, at least in theory, would be listened to by Israel's intelligence units. And again, the fence is heavily militarized. But still, it collapsed. I think another significant result of this, which I kind of touched on earlier, is that the successful attack from Hamas completely undermines the never-endingly talked-about power of Israel and the power of their army and military, especially their capability in the region. It kind of disrupts their entire image in a way. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show,

where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all.

It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome. I'm Danny Trejo. Won't you join me as the fire and dare enter? Nocturno, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonorum. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters... to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I also want to quickly mention that the claim that Hamas' attack was unprovoked is ignoring the years of brutal occupation and exactly why they attacked in the first place. It was a surprise, yes, but I would never say it was unprovoked because you can't keep someone in captivity their entire lifetime and expect them to hug it out. And maybe what I'm saying sounds radical to you, especially by the standards of American media. But here is this award-winning Israeli journalist and writer, Gideon Levy. He wrote an incredible piece about what's happening right now. He writes opinion pieces in a weekly column for Haritz, and he focuses particularly on the Israeli

occupation of Palestine, and he has won awards for his articles on human rights. He wrote an incredibly moving, powerful piece called Israel Can't Imprison Two Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price. I want to read excerpts from this because he is speaking as an Israeli, and I think it's extremely important to hear what he has to say. Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance, the idea that we can do whatever we like, that we'll never pay the price and never be punished for it. We'll carry on undisturbed. We'll arrest, kill, harass, dispossess, and protect the settlers busy with their pogroms. We'll fire at innocent people, take out people's eyes and smash their faces, expel, confiscate, rob, grab people from their beds, carry out ethnic cleansing, and of course,

continue with the unbelievable siege of the Gaza Strip, and everything will be all right. We'll build a terrifying obstacle around Gaza, and we'll be safe. We'll rely on the geniuses of the Army's 8200 Cyber Intelligence Unit, and on the Shinbet Security Service agents who know everything. They'll warn us in time. It turns out that even the world's most sophisticated and expensive obstacle can be breached with a smoky old bulldozer when the motivation is great. This arrogant barrier can be crossed by bicycle and moped, despite the billions poured into it and all the famous experts and fat cat contractors.

We thought we'd continue to go down to Gaza, scatter a few crumbs in the form of tens of thousands of Israeli work permits, always contingent on good behavior, and still keep them in prison. We'll make peace with Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates, and the Palestinians will be forgotten until they're erased, as quite a few Israelis would like. We'll keep holding thousands of Palestinian prisoners, some without trial, most of them political prisoners, and we won't agree to discuss their release even after they've been in prison for decades. We'll tell them that only by force will their prisoners see freedom. We thought we would arrogantly keep

rejecting any attempt at a diplomatic solution, only because we don't want to deal with all that, and everything would continue that way forever. Once again, it was proved that this isn't how it is. A few hundred armed Palestinians breached the barrier and invaded Israel in a way no Israeli imagined possible. A few hundred people proved that it's impossible to imprison two million people forever without paying a cruel price. Just as the smoky old Palestinian bulldozer tore through the world's smartest barrier, it tore away at Israel's arrogance and complacency. And that's also how it tore away at the idea that it's enough to occasionally attack Gaza with suicide drones and sell them to half the world to maintain security. On Saturday, Israel saw pictures it has never seen before.

Palestinian vehicles patrolling its cities, bike riders entering through the Gaza gates. These pictures tear away at that arrogance. The Gaza Palestinians have decided they're willing to pay any price for a moment of freedom. Is there any hope in that? No. Will Israel learn its lesson? No. On Saturday, they were already talking about wiping out entire neighborhoods in Gaza,

about occupying the Strip and punishing Gaza, quote, as it has never been punished before. But Israel hasn't stopped punishing Gaza since 1948. Not for a moment. After 75 years of abuse, the worst possible scenario awaits it once again. The threats of flattening Gaza prove only one thing. We haven't learned a thing. The arrogance is here to stay, even though Israel is paying a high price once again. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears very great responsibility for what happened, and he must pay that price. But it didn't start with him, and it won't end after he goes. We now have to cry bitterly for the Israeli victims, but we should also cry for Gaza. Gaza, most of whose residents are refugees created by Israel.

Gaza, which has never known a single day of freedom. I just think that piece is very powerful and I know I read a good chunk of it, but I think it's important to hear, especially from an Israeli. But as he mentioned, Israel, because of this, has responded to the attack with extreme force. Prime Minister Lil Bichna Anyahu said, the enemy will pay an unprecedented price. Israel has bombed Gaza for days, hitting Gaza with airstrikes, targeting hospitals, mosques, entire residential buildings, and calling Palestinians animals to the media. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said, We are fighting animals and acting accordingly. Israel also said that it wants to wipe out Hamas's military capability and end its control of Gaza, which doesn't really make sense because they're kind of targeting anything and anything they can hit, including civilians, and at the end

they want control themselves. So I think a lot of right-wing Israeli politicians, which is most of them these days, say MT, stupid shit. And it also looks like, amidst all this, that a ground invasion is likely going to happen because the IDF has been readying tanks and military jeeps. It sucks that I have to like say this out loud, but peace should not come at the expense and the brutal oppression of others. There was no peace before this attack. The violence of the Israeli occupation has been there since the state was established in 1948. Hamas is a direct result of that violence.

1748. Hamas is a direct result of that violence. There has never been peace in Israel because it was created in violence. And this clearly does not justify Hamas killing innocent people. That is never okay. But Israel also can't justify killing thousands of people because of that. killing thousands of people because of that. Abby Martin, who is the creator and host of The Empire Files, she also made the film Gaza Fights for Freedom, which I highly recommend. She posted this exchange on her Twitter between her and one of their field producers in Gaza. And he says, I'm scared, Abby. I feel I could die any second. Most of the people here lost power and internet connections, so we don't know where they hit. Entire neighborhoods are being erased. They killed 1,200 of us so far and destroyed massively, and yet they say they have not started yet. We know massacres are coming, and we're sure they got the green light from the U.S. to kill us all.

So that is a perspective of someone standing in Gaza, living in fear, which isn't entirely new as far as living in fear goes, because that's been the reality for Gazans for decades. But this time it's different, because it's very clear that Israel is committing a purposeful genocide. But they're in the dark, with no one to help them. And I can only imagine how helpless and hopeless it feels. It just breaks my heart. I just wanted to give an update. An unfortunate update. Because things are just fucked.

And people keep dying. But I'm recording this update on the afternoon of october 12th like a day after i recorded the original stuff and israel has killed 500 palestinians in the gaza strip since this morning 500 in the last six hours 12 hours. Gaza's health ministry said that 1,537 Palestinians, including 500 children and 276 women, have been killed. And there are almost 7,000 others wounded because of these Israeli airstrikes. Loss of this magnitude is unsettling and overwhelming. And I also want to mention something I just learned. Israel has bombed the international airports of Aleppo and Damascus in Syria. And this has forced them out of service. So not only are they massacring entire families in Gaza, but they're also dropping bombs on civilian airports in Syria.

And the Western media still wants you to think that Israel is the victim. It bears repeating that Gaza is very densely populated, with 2.3 million people trapped in a very small space, unable to leave, with nowhere to escape to. with nowhere to escape to. An example of this empty, stupid rhetoric that Israeli politicians are saying is when Netanyahu said that civilians should leave and evacuate Gaza. He said that knowing full well that that is impossible because his government forbids it. He said that to the media so the world can see that he is just and not trying to attack any civilians. It's all a fucking show, like I guess all politics are, but it's still really infuriating, and I hate it so much. And in Gaza, before all of this, before the thousands that have already died, there was already a blockade. They were trapped for 15 years. And now, in addition to this blockade,

Israel has imposed a total siege on Gaza, inflicting collective punishment, which is illegal under international law. But Israel routinely commits war crimes and goes about its business unchecked. Why would it be any different this time? Remember that half of Gaza's population are under 18. Hundreds of children have been murdered and horrific videos have been circulating

of the destruction of Gaza, of bodies and babies and innocent people being pulled out of the rubble. I had a breakdown last night because I saw a video of a Palestinian father holding his dead child's corpse and hugging it for the very last time. And I'm very privileged to be sitting here recording this. And if I have difficulty processing it, I cannot imagine what Palestinians are going through. Israel controls everything in Gaza. They've cut off electricity, food, water, and gas for an entire population. Israel is massacring Palestinians in a blackout on purpose so they're unable to connect with anyone from the outside. No electricity also means that hospitals have no way of the already

limited machines they have available to them so they can save lives. Before this, the water in Gaza was already 97% undrinkable, and now it's completely gone. This will lead to dehydration deaths, among many, many other deaths. Israel is starving an entire population, live on your television, openly committing genocide as the world watches on, as it always does. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at CoolZoneMedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more.

After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of riot. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the

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