The Young Turks - Controversy On Campus

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Columbia University faces a full-blown crisis as a rabbi calls for Jewish students to ""return home."" Israel strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and kills 22, mostly children, as the US advances an aid package. House approves $95 billion aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan." HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian), Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Sleep, sleep, sleep. That's what I do. The Gah! All right, well, the Young Turks, JQ Granite Kusparian with you guys. Huge day of news, of course.

So we've got campus protests, which apparently are the number one issue in the world. Somebody had a chant, we'll talk about it. And as usual, we will give you all the relevant information. and all the different perspectives. Israel had more strikes in inside Gaza. But don't worry guys, now we're funding it to the tune of $26 billion. So a lot to get to, including Matt Walsh and his antics later in that program. So a little bit of social issues and a little bit of political issues.

All right, Anna, take it away. Well, we begin with chaos on campus. This morning as demonstrations continue on university campuses, New York's Columbia University announcing all classes will be held virtually today. University President Manus Shafiq issuing a statement saying, we need a reset to de-escalate the rancor. The campus tends submit demonstrations denouncing the Israel-Hamas war. Columbia University canceled in-person classes today as pro-Palestin-person protests

continue on campus and across the country. Now, last week, police arrested more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had set up an encampment on campus as part of their push to pressure Colombia to divest from companies connected to Israel. Now, the encampment began the same day that Colombia's president, Manus Shafik, testified before Congress and essentially did everything she could to plague the members of Congress who were using that hearing as an opportunity to get their sound bites for campaigning purposes. But nonetheless, she failed in placating them.

Elise Stefanik, Republican Congresswoman, is calling for her to step down anyway. Now, several students were suspended for taking part in last week's protests, including Isra, Hershey, the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar. And since those arrests, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have set up encampments on other camps. campuses around the country, including at the University of Michigan, MIT, and Yale University where several dozen protesters have already been arrested and were arrested as of Monday morning. Now the protesters at Columbia also continued to rally throughout the weekend, which has caused a massive wave of backlash, which I'm sure some of you may have already seen on social media, online, and through the news, including some Jewish leaders on campus.

who are calling out the threats toward Jewish students. In a letter to Jewish students earlier Sunday, Rabbi Eli Bukler of the Columbia Barnard Hillel and Craft Center for Jewish Student Life recommended they return home and stay there, saying it was clear the university and city police cannot guarantee Jewish students safety in the face of extreme anti-Semitism and anarchy. Now I want to give just an example of what people are pointing to, when they talk about the threats toward the Jewish students, why some of the Jewish students

are feeling unsafe. Let's go to the first clip. So look, the vast majority of protesters were not hateful or violent. But unfortunately, there were a few instances of chants that were hateful and should have been squashed immediately. So here's a video to give you an example. Let's watch. My check. Repeat after me. We have Zionists who have entered the camp. We are going to create a human chain. We are going to create a human chain.

Where I am standing. So that they do not pass this point. They do not pass this point. And infringe upon our We're privacy, and bridge upon our privacy, and try to destroy our community. And try to disrupt our community. So that's one of the examples. There's another example that I'll go to in just a moment, but Jane weigh in.

Yeah, so two things about that one. There were no Zionist trying to infiltrate at that point, as far as we can tell. There was a guy who was wearing a star David, which is a very, very normal necklace for Jewish Americans to wear, any Jews to wear. So there's a difference between Zionists, infiltrators. I hate the word Zionist, but that's another topic. And some of those exist. Apparently one of the ones that are pretending to be a Hamas supporter, turns out, no, is on the other side. And that's why a lot of the agitators have their faces covered, because at least some of them are actually on the pro-Israel side trying to make the protesters look bad.

So has that been confirmed, really? Yeah, the one with the Al Qasam sign. So, but in this case, we are showing you this because don't do that. And that's on campus. And that's not Randos. The next one we're going to show you is Randos that are by campus. But this was on campus, that's bad. Pinpointing someone with a star David necklace, bad.

Don't do that. Any type of anti-Semitism is wrong, immoral, is not. not one percent progressive is the opposite of what's progressive and deeply counterproductive. But you're seeing some of the worst that I have seen. The others are very debatable, like one video that's been pointed out by a lot of people in the media as anti-Semitic is someone saying F Israel. That's not anti-Semitic at all, okay? So you might be adamant about Israel, but that has nothing to do with a commentary about

Jews or non-Jews, that's about the government of Israel. Right? So now we're gonna show you the one I think is the worst, but remember, these are not necessarily students and they're outside campus. Yeah, so this is outside campus. You have protesters on the streets threatening violence against Israel. Let's watch. We love you. We love you. We don't want you're rocking too. So, you know, calling for Hamas to take out another Israeli soldier. They're threatening violence against Israel.

I can totally understand why that kind of chant would make Jewish students feel unsafe. It's outside of campus, but it's near campus. And these are the kinds of chants that led to the rabbi calling on Jewish students of Colombia to avoid going to. avoid going to campus for their own safety today. Can I, sorry, I got a comment on that one too. Look guys, overall, we're gonna give you more context here in a second. I think that these things have been overly, greatly exaggerated by the American press. I don't know who those people are, their faces are covered, I can't see any of them.

If those are not people who are agitating from the other side, then they're incredibly dumb people. Like you're going to come to a protest, smear the students of Columbia who have been doing peaceful protest now for six months with a dumb ass chant about Hamas rockets? I can't imagine anything dumber and again more immoral. I don't know who they are. Whoever they are, they're obviously wrong. It has nothing to do with the students on campus. I know exactly where that is. I'm Columbia alumni.

That is off campus, okay? And those are randos. So Israel today killed 22 people, including 18 children, but let's talk about those rando chance. But for the people who want me to condemn them, that's the easiest thing in the world. Of course I condemn it. By the way, though, I will ask you in return, do you condemn the 25,000 dead women and children? No, no, we don't want to focus on that.

We want to focus on protests on campus. This is the way that I see this whole situation playing out. Okay, the way I see it is you have a house hearing a few months ago where the presidents of Ivy Leagues were grilled like crazy, unfairly grilled to some extent, but handled that hearing poorly and eventually ended up being forced out of their jobs. Then you have the president of Columbia having to sit through a hearing herself just last week. She's terrified of losing her job.

The day that she had the hearing was the day that she called on the university to essentially dismantle that encampment that was taking place on that campus. Because she didn't want to have to answer any questions about that. She wanted to be able to say, look, we did something, we squashed it. But what is the obvious result of trying to squash speech? More people are galvanized by that. So the protests grew, and that's what's been happening over the weekend. And while the vast majority of people, including the very student groups who organize these protests,

are in fact peaceful, are not anti-Semitic and have vociferously condemned the hateful speech and hateful chance, it doesn't matter, that's all the media wants to focus on because That's what gets the attention and that's what they can use to conflate the hateful people, whether they're provocateurs or whether they're actually pro-Palestinian protesters, with the vast majority of pro-Palestinian protesters who are not calling for violence against Israel, who are not calling for violence against Jewish students, who just want the endless deaths and murderers in Gaza to stop. Yeah, so I have a friend of Columbia and they were saying the protests were enormously contained

until the arrest began and then everything got out of hand. So they arrested a hundred students. Okay, show me proof that they were anti-Semitic. Show me a video that they're chanting that. Okay, then we're having a conversation, especially if they're chanting in, by the way, anybody's allowed to chant anything they want in this country. We let Nazis march in our streets in Charlottesville, in Skokie, Illinois, etc., right? So this is, so you're telling me we're gonna let Nazis march,

but we're not gonna allow peaceful protesters who say, hey, please, can you killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians. And then you're gonna tell me on top that it's not cancel culture. It's not cancel culture. You spoke out against Israel, arrest them. Show me the proof. Show me the proof that any person arrested did anything that was wrong, illegal, etc. Did they, if they, you show me proof that they're targeting Jews and I have Jewish family members who are on college campuses.

I'm not gonna have them targeted, are you nuts? I'm ready to crack down completely. Oh, you don't have any proof. So this- You don't have any proof of the people you're arrested. This is what they'll argue. I mean, Columbia University is a private university, it's private property, and they get to set the rules, and they have decided that they are not going to allow this form of protest on their campus.

And so anyone who continues protesting after the university said, you're not allowed to, is breaking their rules and is obviously vulnerable to being arrested. And here's one thing I'll say is, look, don't- Those terms have been communicated pretty clearly by the university. And so the protesters who are getting arrested should understand that they're engaging in civil disobedience and there's a good chance they're gonna get arrested. You can't then turn around and complain about getting arrested when you know you're gonna get arrested. That's part of the protest.

Yeah, I hear you, but as you pointed out last week, Anna, they recently changed the rules. They did, yes, that's correct. So before when you were protesting anything in the world, perfect. Okay, stay as long as you like. All of a sudden you're protesting Israel, we got to change the rules. You've missed the mark by two and a half minutes, that's it, arrest them all. Okay, I'm exaggerating about the two and a half minutes. But yeah, were these rules recently put in place to specially protect Israel?

Yes. And to protect the president. Exactly, that's exactly what I was going to get to. And to protect the deans and the presidents, because they know they're going to get called in for the Congress. Elise Stefanik is going to demagogue and then and then alumni are going to try to get them fired. And look at what Anna said in the beginning. It doesn't matter what you do to try to appease Elise Stefanik and Robert Kraft and alumni like that. It doesn't matter unless you're having giant protests of Palestinian saying kill more, kill more.

Robert Kraft's going to say, I'm pulling my money, which he did. He's the owner of the New England Patriots. So how dare you have any anti-Israel protests? I'm pulling my money. Okay, and then Colombia panics. And then I'm sure now they're considering firing the university president who was atrocious to those protesters because she wasn't atrocious enough. And it's the second thing about the rules. After the 1968 protests against the Vietnam War that were very similar to this, there were rules set in place that Colombia cannot call the police on protesters unless the administration and the faculty agree.

Guys, I'm going to skip ahead to the graphics that I asked for about Colombia in a second, okay? And you know what happened? Columbia violated the rules. They didn't ask the faculty. That's why a giant portion of Columbia faculty join the protest today. So if are we arresting people for violating the rules, then why don't we arrest the president? Why don't we arrest everyone in the Columbia administration for violating the rules? Oh, only if you violate the rules and you agree that Palestinian shouldn't be killed.

So I wanted to also provide some of the statements from the student groups who have organized these protests, these demonstrations because they have in fact condemned the individuals who are, you know, engaging in inflammatory and hateful rhetoric. So this is from the Columbia students for justice in Palestine. We are frustrated by media distractions focusing on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us. Our members have been misidentified by a politically motivated mob. We have been docks in the press, arrested by the NYPD and locked out of our homes by the university. We firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students, Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish,

black and pro-Palestinian classmates and colleagues who represent the full diversity of our country. And as they say, many of the protesters themselves happen to be Jewish. One Jewish Columbia Ph.D. student, for instance, named Jonathan, told CNN the following, Columbia students organizing in solidarity with Palestine, including Jewish students, have faced harassment, doxing, and now arrest by the NYPD. These are the main threats to the safety of Jewish Columbia students. On the other hand, student protesters have led interfaith joint prayers for several days now, and Passover Seder will be held at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment tomorrow. Saying that student protesters are a threat to Jewish students is a dangerous smear. But that

That is exactly, I knew it was gonna play out this way, and it is an injustice. Because for all the debate that took place in regard to university speakers that left-wing students disliked, and we spoke out against those students because we feel that speech of all kinds should be fostered on a university campus. Like what's the point of spending all that money to go to an Ivy League institution if you're not able to talk about and demonstrate about controversial. issues. These are supposed to be campuses where people are supposed to duke it out ideologically, right? Obviously, there should be no cover for anyone who threatens anyone's life or poses a threat

to anyone. But the majority of these protesters are peaceful. But it appears that there's a third rail in this country. And the third rail is any demonstration having to do with a critique of Israel, how it's conducting its war in Gaza, and what its government is up to. And I just find it so strange, Jenk, because some of the most, you know, even further when it comes to free speech absolutism, right? Some of those folks are now like laughing at the protesters getting arrested, laughing at the protests, getting dismantled. So which one is it? Is it only free speech when the message is something that you're in favor of? Because for me, there's all sorts of messages that are, you know, carried out on college campuses that I disagree with. But that kind of speech

should be protected nonetheless. Yeah, so I want to give you more perspective. President Serene Joseph Union Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with Columbia University, put out a different statement showing solidarity with the protesters saying that they've seen them do nothing wrong as far as that anybody has proven. And they've seen outside agitators come and go, but what's happening right now to the protesters This is an enormously unfair. Let's go to the pictures that I promised you guys.

These are the now the faculty joining in massive protests against the Columbia administration for taking away the rights of those protesters. Okay, tons and tons of people coming out to protest. And well, how is it painted in the press? Because this is so important, guys. Are we talking about the needle or are we talking about the haystack? Because when you want to deceive people, what you do is you get, you get, All of the focus on the thing that you want,

whether it's small or large. So we just showed you two videos that I think are bad. And that is what's running on a loop on television, as if that's all that's happening. And then are they being super clear that the 100 students arrested had nothing to do with those videos, that they were arrested for staying too long past the new rule deadline?

I don't see, like maybe some clarify, but is there massive clarification? Remember, the students didn't do this, These are the videos, these are the people who got arrested for a completely different reason. No, there's a giant, enormous flip out over it. So you go to my Twitter measures as an example. And this is an interesting example because they'll say a nonstop, do you condemn Hamas? Do you condemn protesters?

Do you condemn this? Do you condemn that? And tons of demands about what I need to condemn, right? At the same time, you look at the same Twitter mentions, dozens, maybe hundreds of people every single day saying, Israel hasn't killed enough. They should kill more Palestinians. Palestinians are Nazis. They should be killed.

Who cares if it's their babies or their children? They're going to grow up to be terrorists anyway. Kill them, kill them, kill them. So are there, is there 24-7 talk on mainstream media about, hey, look at all these people online saying murder more Palestinians. That's not subtle. It's not around the edges. It's not, hey, I saw a guy with a necklace.

It's, I want to murder more Palestinians. Giant national freak out over it? No, zero, nothing, nothing, nothing. I don't report it ever, you know why? Because in America, that's the most normal thing in the world to hear that Palestinians should be murdered. And there's never, ever going to be any consequences for that. Guys, this isn't about Jews, Muslims, et cetera.

By the way, 37 brave Democrats voted against the aid that Israel is about to get the $26 billion. One of them, and oftentimes the case, Jamie Raskin, a wonderful progressive legislator, he's now made a lot of inroads into this. establishment, he's ruffling feathers by doing that, he's Jewish American, and he still takes a brave stand to say no, no more money to Israel, as long as they keep killing civilians. And as Anna pointed out, some of the protesters themselves are Jewish, and they're saying that this has heard Jews on campus, the arrests more than any chant has.

So but okay, but again guys, you see a chant that's bad, you see something that's do, don't excuse it, address whatever is being done wrong and say it's unacceptable. And all that person is going to do who's saying something terrible or God forbid targeting the individuals walking by, etc. All they're going to do is they're going to hurt your movement. They're going to hurt that person. They're immoral. They're dumb. Kick him the hell out, okay? But don't come and tell me that the number one problem in the country is two chance off campus at Columbia or the number one issue in this case, in this issue, 18 children dead. Nobody chanted near the children.

They just killed the children. But that gets what, 1% of the coverage today in mainstream media. So let's be honest about what's happening. Yeah. All right, let's take a break. When we come back, we'll give you some updates on what's going down in Gaza. And then later we'll talk about that appropriations bill as well, which has an additional $26 billion in,

military and humanitarian aid to Israel. We have that and more coming up, don't miss it. on Gaza and unfortunately there isn't much good news to share, but what we were all fearing, which was Israel's invasion into Rafa, seems to be underway. So let's talk about it. The Israeli military is escalating attacks on the southern Gaza city of Rafa, where millions of displaced Palestinians have gone to seek refuge. And over the weekend, the IDF carried out a series of devastating strikes that left civilians

So according to reporting from the Associated Press, they write that Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafa overnight killed 22 people, including 18 children. I'm pausing so we could really take that in. Out of the 22 people killed, 18 of them were literally children. Health officials said Sunday, as the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to Israel, and I should note that that military aid was in fact approved to the tune of $26 billion. Now the first Israeli strike in Ratha killed a man, his wife, and their three-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti hospital, which received the bodies.

The woman was pregnant and the doctors saved the baby, the hospital said. The second strike killed 17 children and two women from an extended family. Quote, these children were sleeping. What did they do? What was their fault? asked one relative, Mohamed al-Bahiri, who said that his daughter, Rasha and her six children, the youngest 18 months old, were among those killed. A woman and three children were still under the rubble.

And here's the father of one of the children killed, demonstrating perfectly why targeting civilians is not a pathway toward peace in this region of the world. Let's watch. No words can bring any comfort to Ahmed. His wife and daughter were amongst the victims. He cradles the body of five-year-old Allah. I don't want to say anything to the world or to anyone because this is an unjust world. It's deprived of all human values and morals. It only understands the language of power.

Now Israel's been doing near daily raids in Rafa, and in fact they've vowed to continue the air raids and even expand their ground offensive into Rafa. Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, quote, in the coming days, we will increase the political and military pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to bring back, is this a joke to bring back our hostages and achieve victory? We will land more and painful blows on Hamas soon. The fact that he even brings up the hostages is honestly a massive insult to the family members of those hostages. It really is. So today, if you turned on television at all, what you would have heard is, There was two chance near a college campus.

And so everyone is anti-Semitic, everyone is at fault for not loving Israel enough. And you would have barely heard that 18 children were massacred by Netanyahu and the Israeli government. So, I mean, I don't know how many times I have to say it in how many different ways. But, you know, so if in the midst of the Armenian genocide, there were anti-Turkish chance in America, I could understand why there would be anti-Turkish chance. And I wouldn't, I would hope that I wouldn't go around going, so what about the murdered Armenians? So what? My feelings are hurt.

My feelings are hurt. How about that dad? His feelings were hurt. And unfortunately, that brother is 100% right. There's only one thing that this world cares about, power. You either have it or you don't. Everything else is window dressing and marketing. It's true.

What Israel has done to the Palestinians is indisputably 30 times worse than what Hamas did to Israel. What Hamas did to Israel was terrible. Do you condemn it yet? Yes, I condemn it with all my heart. Now, do you condemn Israel doing 30 times worse? worse to those poor people, to that dad where they murdered his five-year-old daughter. They murdered his wife. They murdered 18 people today.

Don't tell me it was an accident. 25,000 women and children are an accident. I mean, look, I'm trying desperately to keep a political. And we have open minds here and open hearts. And I'm trying to understand the people still defending Israel. But I'm having a real hard time at it. So you tell me that things are hateful against, you know, people who support Israel here. But you're not concerned about how hateful killing 34,000 people are, 77,000 injured, a million starving.

I mean, just on one day alone, mass grave, 18 kids dead. 18 kids dead is worse than a thousand chance, a million chance. Is that the sense you get here in America? No, not at all. In fact, you mentioned people starving in Gaza, and it's because of the restriction of humanitarian aid going into the Gaza Strip. One of the issues in which Israel succeeded on was the defunding of UNRWA, which is a UN humanitarian aid organization that was providing aid to Gazans in the Gaza Strip. Well, Israel had claimed that a huge portion of the UNRRA workers happened to be Hamas sympathizers or members of Hamas.

That led to an investigation that was carried out by the United Nations. This story just broke. And their review of the allegations made by Israel has basically found that the allegations are unfounded. They made clear that they were not specifically looking into the allegations having to do with some UNROW workers who are alleged to have taken. taken part in the October 7th massacres, but they did look into the other claim that Israel made, that 13,000 employees of UNRWA were part of Hamas or Hamas sympathizers.

There was no evidence of that whatsoever based on the investigation that the UN carried out. Yeah, let me be more clear. The Channel 4 in the UK has reported this. Other networks in UK have reported this. News organizations here in America have touched upon it. we shared it with you earlier, Israel has never provided one piece of evidence that one person at UNROW was connected to Hamas. So until they provide that evidence, it is a super fair assumption that they're absolutely positively lying. And the reason for that is now we've seen, for example,

the Gaza Health Ministry. They say, oh, that's the Hamas health ministry. Well, we've now double-checked their numbers hundreds of times with other news agencies and human rights groups. And they've turned out to be accurate every time. You double check IDF, they are inaccurate almost every time. You double check, oh yeah, 13,000 Hamas members killed. A couple of days later, we meant 9,000, because what difference does it make? We're making up the goddamn numbers. Oh, unres did all of these terrible things with Hamas. Okay, where's your evidence? I don't have any. Shut up and take their funding away, and they did. So they give $9 billion as part of the $26 billion package as humanitarian aid. But is it? It can't go to the number one organization that helps

Palestinians, which is UNRA, that's in the bill. So make sure it goes to ineffective organizations, not the one that's actually helping people, because we're all kidding about humanitarian aid. We're mainly sending bombs and death and destruction to Gaza. And here you are, mass graves and all. So I want to give you two quotes, one from the UN following this investigation and one from a spokesperson from Israel. The UN says Israel made public claims that a significant number of UNR employees are members of a terrorist organization. However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this.

And then in a statement on Monday, a spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry said, quote, Hamas has infiltrated UNRah so deeply that it is no longer possible to determine where UNRah ends and where Hamas begins. Yeah, I mean, they're a bunch of liars. So okay, can I just make up charges about the Israeli government? I don't need to make up anything because they're all barbarians. The cabinet that says keep bombing, 25,000, a stadium full of dead, innocent women and children, not enough.

And if you're making that claim that Israel should keep bombing, be honest with yourself. You're saying 34,000 dead civilians, sorry, dead people and 25,000 dead women and children, not enough. Keep bombing, keep bombing, keep bombing. Look, I don't want to say that that position is immoral because I've lived it for my, again, for my Turkish family and friends. When you get so biased, you can't see straight, you get into a kill them all mentality to protect your own. I understand. But we have to help folks snap out of it. 25,000 dead women and children is definitely more than enough. And what is their explanation? Well, 1,200 Israelis were killed. Yes, so are you saying, and by the way, a third of those were soldiers. That doesn't make

it any better. But every time you say 34,000, they go, no, soldiers, Hamas is involved in that. Okay, so are we being even? Are we being? So is it enough or isn't it enough? Help me get you to a point if you're out in the audience there and you mean well. And I'm sure that you do. I'm sure that you do because I have family and friends who mean well when we get blinded by bias. But you cannot in good conscience say that Israel hasn't killed enough innocent civilians. And that it was all a mistake. They're the most incompetent military.

They're angels and deeply moral unlike Hamas. But we're so moral as we mow down civilians 20 times, 30 times more than Hamas does. We're the moral army that just accidentally butchers 25,000 women and children. And don't tell me they weren't butchered. Okay, we can go over and over again. What happens when a bomb lands on someone? I mean, there's nothing left in Gaza. Like they've leveled huge portions of the Gaza Strip.

It's uninhabitable at this point. The only area that they hadn't completely decimated was Rafa, and they're currently doing that right now as we speak. In fact, the Israelis claim that they're doing their best to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafa as they intensify their ground invasion and airstrikes into that area. And so during a recent press briefing, Pentagon officials were asked, okay, can you give us some more details on how exactly Israel is going to evacuate? that number of people, because remember, you literally have over a million Palestinians who have been displaced from other parts of the strip seeking refuge in Rafa. So let's hear how a Pentagon spokesperson handled that question. We've heard from an Israeli source that these Israelis have made significant progress

in preparations to evacuate roughly a million people out of Rafa ahead of any possible operations there, and that the U.S. is aware of these efforts, which include preparing areas to the north with repairing pipes and setting up tents. Can you speak to those efforts? And does the relocation of these people meet with the sort of recommendations the U.S. is making to the Israelis as they proceed? I really can't. That's a question that's best addressed by the Israelis. Our position has not changed in terms of the importance of ensuring that humanitarian assistance and civilian safety are taken into account as Israel conducts its operations against Hamas. We're real detail oriented when it comes to the tens of billions of dollars that gets appropriated for this war effort, you know, toward Israel.

But we can't be bothered to learn the details of what Israel is going to do to effectively evacuate more than a million civilians before they bomb the crap out of Rafa. Because it's not important, Jank. It's not important to our government to learn those details. And to relay those details to the American people. What's the point of these press conferences? What do we learn from these press conferences other than the fact that you have spokespeople in Biden's state department who are completely incompetent, a million percent biased in favor of one side, and who essentially drive Biden's foreign policy in a direction that the majority of American people are not in favor of? But it doesn't matter. Who cares? It's just innocent people we're talking about who are getting killed with bombs that have been supplied by the United States. Yeah. So as I've said a million times, this is not only.

only horrific for the Palestinians who have to suffer through these war crimes and this genocide and this ethnic cleansing. But it's also awful for Israel. So look, in the U.S., you're not getting an accurate picture of what the rest of the world thinks. Because in the U.S. you get gaslit into a debate. Hey, about why the 1,200 killed on October 7th is so much worse than the 34,000 Palestinians killed. The rest of the world goes, do you guys have problem with math? Are you, like, are you guys stupid? Because they don't understand the brainwashing that happens with American media and American politicians.

They're like, we all have, you guys, in America, don't you guys have eyes? All of Gaza is destroyed. 85% of the people are homeless. And how is 25,000 dead women and children morally acceptable? And why is that better than 1,200? Like I don't get it, 1,200 terrible dead. That's awful, 34 kids killed on October 7th. 15,000 kids killed that are Palestinian.

And you guys are having a debate about which one is worse, and that debate is settled at the 34 kids killed is infinitely worse than the 15,000 kids killed in Gaza. Well, why don't we just scream to the world, We don't care about Palestinian lives at all. You can kill all the Palestinians you want. In fact, if you do, will give you $26 billion to kill more. Because that's a fact.

That's actually what happened this weekend. The Senate's going to approve that right away, and Biden has promised to sign it instantly. Why? Because they're in a panic. Netanyahu is about to level Rafa and make this 10,000 times worse. Biden and Mike Johnson and Akeem Jeffries all know that. And they all take money from APEC and it's their top donor for all three of them. So they're like APEC, we promised to serve you.

Loyalty, kill more. Here's $26 billion aid package gift tied bowtied gift for you. Please kill more. Don't tell me they're not saying kill more when they're sending them money to kill more. And they're about to. Rafa is going to be absolutely level. This Netanyahu is one of the biggest monsters of my lifetime. Don't tell me I can't criticize him because he's the leader of beloved Israel.

And they are beyond condemnation. You cannot do it. Otherwise people will be offended. Last thing, in the West Bank, an ambulance driver murdered by settlers. Of course, nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7. Well, they're not Hamasian in West Bank. It doesn't matter, the settlers can kill with immunity. If you can't see what Israel has become, their right-wing government has become monstrous.

They have become the thing that they despised most, and that they were most worried about, warned the whole world about rightfully, and unfortunately, because of tribalism, they have now become the thing that they despise. We'll talk about that war funding bill when we come back. I want to thank all of you guys, Erica, thank you for upgrading. You can join through the join button just like they did. We appreciate it and we need it. We need you guys to help us do this show.

As you can tell, we do it without fear or favor. Anna. Well, let's talk about what Congress was up to over the weekend because they certainly do think we have resources for certain things. It's just not for you. Let's get to it. Members of Congress waived Ukrainian flags and chanted Ukraine on the House floor after it became clear, more money would be sent to Ukraine to fight off Russia. Over the weekend, the House allocated tens of billions of dollars for foreign wars through bipartisan legislation. And isn't it nice when our lawmakers can reach across the aisle to provide cash for weapons and foreign wars.

Now, House Speaker Mike Johnson garnered enough support from Democratic lawmakers in order to secure the passage of this appropriations bill, or I should note, there were four separate bills that were voted on. The House voted on four separate bills, which amount to a total of $95 billion, three for funding Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. A fourth bill could result in a nationwide ban of TikTok. Now, the legislation also includes $60 billion. for Kyiv, $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza, and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region. It would direct the president to seek repayment from the Ukrainian government of $10 billion

in economic assistance, a concept supported by Donald Trump, who had pushed for any aid to Ukraine to be in the form of a loan. But it would also allow the president to forgive those loans beginning in 2026. So there is a loophole to basically erase that debt should a future president decide to do so. Now, since Russia's invasion in 2022, Congress has approved a total of $113 billion in war funding for Ukraine. And the last time Congress had approved any funding for Ukraine and its war against Russia's invasion, they did so in 2022. So it's been a while since Congress has appropriated more funding, although the Biden administration did manage to work around Congress to secure some funding, additional funding in recent weeks for Ukraine

ahead of this appropriations bill. Jank. Yeah, so look, I'm old enough to remember when the whole Congress told us we don't have enough money for paid family leave, higher minimum wage, lower drug prices, a lot of these These things, voting rights don't even require any money. And they just said, we're not gonna do it. But it helps the American people, we got no interest in it. And I'm old enough to remember when the media called Joe Manchin a moderate and Chris

Kirsten-Cinnama, a moderate for voting down these bills that would have helped the great majority of Americans that the great majority of Americans want. But we were told that they were moderate because we can't afford it. And they're fiscally conservative, really like level-headed, serious people. You know that we cannot afford anything for the American people. Oh, war, of course. Unlimited money. Unlimited. We were going to give Israel $14 billion.

No, let's make it 26. Now, nine of it is for aid, and I hope that it actually goes to aid, because as we explained earlier in the show, it's not allowed to go to UNRWA, which is the number one organization providing aid for Palestinians. Regardless of the organization that gets the funding to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, How does the humanitarian aid enter Gaza exactly? It can't even enter, and second of all, you wouldn't need as much humanitarian aid if we didn't also send them $17 billion to kill more Palestinians. And that's what's happening here.

So let's not pretend that that's not happening because that's definitely what this is. So whenever we need to kill some other people, we got plenty of money for it. You know why? Because several reasons, but all tied up in one word, lobbyists. So the defense contractors are going to, as we say, often unfortunately, literally make a killing. They're going to make so much money from this. The oil companies could make more money, and of course, APEC. So APEC's the number one donor to Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries and Joe Biden.

And not one mainstream media article ever mentioned any of the funding from defense contractors or A PAC as potential reasons for why this aid package got approved. Now one mentioned it one time as far as I saw. If I'm wrong, please Senate it. You're telling me the $100 million that APEC's going to spend, let alone the defense contractors, didn't affect this vote at all. It's not even worth mentioning.

Absurd, absurd. Today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in regard to a case having to do with homeless people in a town in Oregon. Basically, the town banned encampments, and as a result, of course, they were taking a court for doing so, because they literally don't have a single shelter in this town. They don't have a single shelter. So where exactly do you expect people who are homeless to go? Bear with me, you're probably wondering why I'm bringing up this case, but it's relevant.

We have a real housing crisis in this country, a real housing shortage. Yes, the homeless issue is a lot more complicated. than people wanna make it out to be. It's not simply a housing issue, but housing has a lot to do with it for a lot of Americans who were pushed out, priced out of rental units, obviously priced out of being able to afford a home to buy for themselves and their families.

And so the argument is where do you want them to go? If you're going to start citing people who pitch a tent and decide to sleep on the sidewalk, if they're not allowed to do that and there's not enough housing and there's no shelter for them to go to, what do you want them to do? My point in bringing that up is the federal government has totally abandoned this issue. And what do we keep hearing from the government when it comes to issues that matter most

to American citizens? We don't have the money for it. How are we going to pay for it? Oh, there's a legislative filibuster in the Senate. That $95 billion could have been very useful in spurring a construction bonanza that we desperately need in this country. But that's not the priority. The priority isn't that.

The priority is to think of ways to, I guess, criminalize people who literally have no other place to go but the sidewalks or in parks or somewhere outdoors to sleep. It's just, it's insane what we're prioritizing in this country. But also, you know, we focus a lot on Israel and I stand by everything that we've said. But I also want to talk about Ukraine a little bit because what is the end game? I want to know what the end game is. Okay, people will get jumped down my throat. How dare you? We must help Ukraine defend itself.

I hear you, but what is the end game? They have lost more ground to Russia. What is the strategy? I just want to understand what the strategy is. Ukraine is enormously complicated because did we partially agitate for that war? Yes. Did we prevent basically a peace treaty when Boris Johnson went over there and made Zelensky rip up the peace treaty?

Yes. Does that mean that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was okay? No, okay, and should they keep the republics that they're already occupying? No, I don't want that, but I'd see no pathway to a peace treaty in the short term without giving up land of Russia, which then feels like you're rewarding their imperialist, aggressive, offensive war against Ukraine. So it is a very, very difficult question, okay? So but if you say to me, hey, let's keep sending. that money, I ask the same question and I ask, how long? And are we positive that that money is better spent there than here? So if you say to me, the $9 billion in aid, it's not just going to Palestinians, it's going to help a lot of countries in Africa, et cetera. Are you comfortable

with that portion of the bill? Yes, partly because we broke Gaza. We helped to destroy Gaza. We should help to rebuild it. In the famous words of Colin Powell on Iraq war, if you break it, you own it, right? So I can understand the logic of saying, hey, don't give, you know, money to critical things that Americans need because we broke those people over there and we need to help them. Or we didn't break them in Africa, but God, we're going to save so many lives. Okay, I see the logic of that. In Ukraine, that's why it's close, because you are saving lives, you don't want Russia to gain from this offensive war. But at the same time, whenever it's defense contractors getting the money first, man, all of a sudden they could find

infinite money. I just, I have a problem with this being so open-ended, right? And so I want to have a better understanding of what people who support the limitless money going to Ukraine. What do you want the end game to be? Because a lot of money has already been provided, not just from the United States, but from other European countries who understandably have a massive stake in the game, Right, Poland's been really contributing to this war effort. But the money has not helped Ukraine maintain control of their land. They have lost ground. So what is the, what's the strategy?

So honestly, as best as I can tell real quick, and then I want to get to the two other things regarding these bills, is that you have basically two answers. One is do a peace treaty now where the Russians basically keep the land they're occupying. or drag this out with no timeline at all, two years, 20 years until the Russian military is exhausted like we were and they were in Afghanistan. To turn Ukraine into Afghanistan, I don't know that that helps Ukraine. And so because, look, remember, the U.S. has a different interest than the Ukrainians do. The Ukrainians want their land back.

They're very nationalistic, understandably so. Understandably, I get it. They were invaded, et cetera. but they also want peace at some point, right? They want both of those things. The Americans care a little bit about those things, the American government versus the people, right? But the main thing the American government wants is,

if you're being honest, for this war to drag on as long as humanly possible, to keep draining the Russian military of all of its resources and to bankrupt Russia in Ukraine as they hang on for dear life year after year after year. So if the Ukrainians suffer in the meanwhile, America goes, that's a price you're paying on our behalf to train the Russian military. And look, to be fair, Ukraine and its president, Vladimir Zelensky, has been asking for this aid for a while. Like it's, it's not like the U.S. is, you know, forcing it on Ukraine. Ukraine has been asking for the military aid, and they got the military aid.

And by the way, this is precisely why you have this ongoing civil war within the Republican Party. House of Representatives. You have the pro-Trump America First crowd that does not want to provide more funding for foreign wars, whether it be Ukraine or Israel. And then you have the Mike Johnson crowd. By the way, Mike Johnson really presented himself as an America first type legislator, but kind of flipped the script as soon as he had this position of power as the House Speaker. So as a result of this, you have figures like Marjorie Taylor Green speaking out.

I want to go to this next video, which gives you a sense of how she felt after the bill was passed by the House of Representatives. And then he did this bullshit here on the House floor, foreign war package that does nothing for America. It's unbelievable. I'm thankful that America gets to see who this man is. I'm thankful that America gets to see who the people that voted for this is, because this silly way it's going to change. People have to see the truth. Now there were, there's a significant portion of Republican lawmakers who voted against funding to Ukraine in particular. Remember, there were four separate bills, so they were able to vote separately on Ukraine.

The vote was 311 to 112 in favor of aid to Ukraine, with a majority of Republicans, 112 of them voting against it. And one representative, Dan Muser of Pennsylvania, voting present. Jake. So I want to clarify the vote count and then get to the last part of the bill. So 101 Republicans voted yes, 112 Republicans voted no. So majority said no on the Republican side. And if you are America first like Marjorie Taylor Green is, you might hate her, et cetera. But that is a consistent position to say, no, I do not want to fund Ukraine, Israel, or anyone else. And she did vote against both of those different pieces of legislation. So she She was internally consistent as the right wing were throughout.

So you could disagree with their policies, but that is where the Conservatives stand today in America, okay, just so you know. Now let's turn to the Democrats, 37 brave Democrats voted no, including I think all the Justice Democrats, Roe Kana and Jamie Raskin. So, but that means 173 Democrats voted yes on the Israel portion. I think every one of them except one president vote voted yes on Ukraine. Okay, so I don't ever want to hear any Democrat outside of those 37 come and tell us. Oh no, the Democratic Party cares so much about Palestinian lives.

No, you just funded to kill more Palestinians. You just said 34,000 dead is not enough. 5,000 women and children dead. Not enough. We're giving you a $17 billion gift to kill more. And by the way, no restrictions. Full green light. So on this show, if there is a story about Joe Biden or the Democratic leadership, wagging your finger at Netanyahu or anything along those lines or boy, he really gave him hell over the phone. We will tell you every time that it is a lie. It is not at all true. Joe Biden loves the. maniacal far right wing government of Israel, and will give them any amount of money and any

green light that they need under any and all circumstances. If I said to you, if there's only only 2,500 dead women and children in Palestine, that they'd fund them even if there was 25,000 dead women and children, people would say, oh, come on, I don't know about that, they just did. Now, when I tell you, it doesn't matter if the number's 250,000, I'm not sure if it matters of its 2.5 million. As long as the APAC checks clear and the defense contractor checks clear, Biden and the Democratic Party will fund any genocide as long as they get paid off of it and they get to keep their power. And if someone tells you it is not relevant that APAC is going to spend a hundred million dollars legally bribing politicians this election cycle

alone, well, look, I don't think anybody's that stupid. So they're obviously lying to to you on purpose while calling themselves reporters and journalists. 11.2 million dollars to Joe Biden from APEC. And as I've said now many times, Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries, their number one donors, APAC. They will always serve their donors. In this case, it happens to be APEC. Last thing, these morons also did more sanctions on Iran because, oh, they worked so well recently.

Oh, no, right. Iran just fired all those rockets at Israel because the sanctions. Don't work, peace treaties work. You know how many times they fired rockets when we were under the peace treaty that Obama had signed with them? Zero. But the morons think more agitation is the better way to go because defense contractors. And lastly, they voted to ban TikTok as if they weren't ridiculous enough. So, oh, the real danger is kids dancing on TikTok.

The Chinese government does not own TikTok. I now believe that national security is 100% BS made up so-called concern because TikTok is turning kids progressive and against Israel and by the way Facebook is funding lobbyists to make sure they kill TikTok because that's how this so-called democracy works open auction all the politicians are for sale and highest bidder wins even if it's a foreign government all right we'll be right back You know,