The Young Turks - Gunning For Trouble

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Gaza Civilians, under Israeli barrage, are being killed at an historic pace. CNN reports Israel will label anyone who celebrates the release of Palestinian prisoners as terrorists. Joe Biden moves to lift nearly every restriction on Israel’s access to U.S. weapons stockpile. White House grapples with internal divisions on Israel-Gaza. HOST: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 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. It's up! Welcome to TYT. I'm your host Anna Kaspari, and we have a fantastic show ahead for you all. Jake Ugar is out. He is gone for the majority. of the week. He will be back on Thursday. But between today and that time, I will be hosting

the first hour solo. Second hour, I'll be joined by a co-host today and tomorrow. Wasney Lombre is kind enough to join me. Wednesday will have John Iderlo join me for the second hour and the bonus episode for our members. Now, where is Jank? Well, you have an opportunity to see where he's at because he is going to be interviewed by the Breakfast Club early tomorrow morning. You can listen live at 9.30 a.m. Eastern time, 6.30 a.m. Pacific at Power 105.1. If you're local in New York, or if you're not local in New York, you can just check it out at the IHeart Radio app where you can listen to all sorts of content, but the Breakfast Club is also carried on IHeart Radio. So definitely check that out. Again, that's tomorrow morning, 9.30 a.m. Eastern time, 6.30 a.m. Pacific.

Also, today is Cyber Monday. So if you're looking for some stalking stuff, offers or if you're in need of new TYT merch, all you need to do is go over to shop tyt.com and you can enjoy 25% off site wide today only. Just use the code cyber 25 in order to get that discount. All right, without further ado, let's get to our rundown of the day. We've got a lot planned for today's show. We're going to talk a little bit about how George Santos, the embattled Republican congressman, plans to fight back against those who are trying to expel him from Congress. That'll be in the second hour of the show.

We're also going to discuss Biden's attempts to launder his image following some of the fallout he's been facing due to his response to Israel's aerial bombardment in Gaza. So stick around for that. Right now, though, I wanted to share a pretty surprising piece that I came across in the New York Times over the weekend. And it's a sobering piece, an important piece, and I want to give them a lot of credit for doing this report to begin with. So in a stunning new piece, New York Times reporter Lauren Leatherby sheds light on the

insanely high number of Palestinian civilians who have perished as a result of Israel's military campaign in Gaza. That campaign has included intense aerial bombardment of North Gaza and airstrikes, targeting hospitals, refugee camps, UN buildings, mosques and churches. And while Palestinians in northern Gaza have been displaced by forced evacuations to the south, that region of the strip has also been suffering airstrikes by the Israeli defense forces. Now, in this new New York Times article, Leatherby notes that civilians are being killed at a historic pace. In fact, people are being killed in Gaza more quickly than in the deadliest moments of the U.S.-led attacks in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.

Now keep in mind that those U.S.-led attacks were widely criticized, both by us and by human rights groups. But those also happen to be the same attacks invoked by the Israeli government in an effort to justify the IDF's brutality in Gaza. Now, if you take the Israelis at face value, you'd think, you'd believe they're being tactical, careful, and mindful of civilians to prevent the high volume of casual. The Times notes that Israeli forces say they use the smallest available ordinance to achieve their strategic objectives in order to cause the minimal adverse effect on civilians. In fact, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conriquez, who serves as an IDF spokesperson, emphasizes this claim repeatedly in cable news appearances and in print journalist interviews. Now, we do a lot in order to prevent and where possible minimize the killing or wounding of civilians. We focus on Hamas, he says. But the numbers make it pretty clear that his statement isn't really rooted in reality. Women and children account for nearly 70% of all deaths reported

in Gaza, even though most combatants are men. An extraordinary statistic, Rick Brennan, the regional emergency director for the world health organizations eastern Mediterranean office said at an event this month. According to estimates from the independent British research group known as Iraq body count, more women and children have been reported killed in Gaza in less than two months than the roughly 7,700 civilians documented as killed by U.S. forces and their international allies in the entire first year of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. I'm just really going to ask you to let that information sink in, because that is unbelievable, that is stunning.

And guess what? A similar theme plays out when you compare the death toll in Gaza to the number of civilians the United States killed in Afghanistan. But the numbers are even more insane when you consider the length of time in which these civilians were killed. The number of women and children reported killed in Gaza has already started to approach the roughly 12,400 civilians documented to have been killed by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan during nearly 20 years of war. And that's according to Netta Crawford, a University of Oxford professor who is co-director of Brown University's Cost of War Project. Now, in its analysis, the Times chose to use the most conservative estimates of Palestinian

casualties. Now, the Washington Post, by contrast, recently noted that more than 14,000 Palestinians have been killed. Now, with that in mind, in the nine-month Battle of Mosul, which Israeli officials have cited as a comparison, an estimated total of 9,000 to 11,000 civilians were killed by all sides in the conflict, including many. thousands killed by the Islamic State, and that's according to the Associated Press. A similar number of women and children have already been reported killed in Gaza in less than two months. Clearly, this comparative analysis provided by the Times really helps to put Israel's brutal war in Gaza in perspective. For example, we've been reading and watching, pundit after

pundit, condemn Vladimir Putin as an evil butcher following his invasion. into Ukraine. And look, to be clear, Putin absolutely should be condemned. No question about it. But one should ask why the same condemnations aren't being uttered about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's far right government. More than twice as many women and children have already been reported killed in Gaza than have been confirmed killed in Ukraine, according to United Nations figures after almost two years of Russian attacks. More children have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli assault began than in the world's major conflict zones combined across two dozen countries during all of last year,

even with the war in Ukraine, according to UN tallies of verified child deaths in armed conflict. Now Israel said it had engaged more than 15,000 targets before reaching a brief ceasefire in recent days. And of course, that's all about the hostage exchanges. But it is not just the scale of the strikes. It's also the high civilian death toll having a lot to do with the weaponry provided to them by the United States. And that includes U.S. made 2,000 pound bombs that can flatten apartment buildings. In one documented case, for instance, Israel used at least two,

2,000 pound bombs during an October 31st air strike on Jabaliyah, a densely populated area just north of Gaza City, flattening buildings and creating impact craters 40 feet wide, according to an analysis of satellite images, photos, and videos by the New York Times. Air Wars independently confirmed that at least 126 civilians, were killed. More than half of them, children. Experts say that Israel's use of these weapons in a region as densely populated as Gaza is shocking.

Mark Garlosco, a military advisor for the Dutch organization Pax and a former senior intelligence analyst at the Pentagon, said of Israel's use of these bombs, quote, it's beyond anything that I've ever seen in my career. And to find a historical comparison for so many large bombs in such a small area, he also said that you may have to go back to Vietnam or the Second World War. In fighting during this century, by contrast, U.S. military officials have believed that the most common American aerial bomb, a 500-pound weapon, was far too large for most targets when battling the Islamic State in urban areas like Mosul, Iraq, and Raq Assyria.

And after initially questioning the death toll in Gaza, the Biden administration now concedes that the true figures for civilian casualties may be even worse. Barbara Leif, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs told a House Committee this month that American officials thought the civilian casualties were very high, frankly, and it could be that they're even higher than are being cited. So what exactly does Netanyahu have to say for himself? I mean, he points to atrocities committed by other nation states in the past, right? I mean, he cited the accidental bombing of a children's hospital by Britain's Royal Air Force when it was targeting the Gestapo

headquarters in Copenhagen in 1945. During visits to Israel by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Israeli officials privately invoked the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which together tragically killed more than 100,000 people. In other words, Netanyahu and members of his coalition government have been engaging in endless whataboutism. So let me do the same. What about the modern international laws of war that were developed in response to the very atrocities committed during World War II. You know, the atrocities that he likes to point to as an excuse for what Israel is currently carrying out. In 1949, the Geneva Convention's codified protections for civilians during

wartime, making clear that militaries must not target civilians directly or indiscriminately bombed civilian areas. The Geneva Conventions also state that accidental harm and the killing of civilians must not exceed the direct military advantage to be gained. And guess what? On July 6th, 1951, the newly formed state of Israel ratified the Geneva conventions, making it one of 196 countries to do so at the time. But Nanyahu certainly doesn't act like that ratification ever occurred, since he insists on using atrocities committed before the Geneva Conventions as an excuse to brutalize and slaughter Palestinian civilians.

But one thing is clear in an era where all we would get is one side of the story that tended to justify the actions of the Israeli government and the IDF. It is a breath of fresh air to see analysis like this, a sobering look at the number of civilian deaths, a comparative analysis showing just the unusual high volume of civilian casualties compared to other wars that have taken place in recent years. This is important reporting. And when, you know, when legacy media outlets like the New York Times put out reports like this, they should get positive reinforcement. They should be applauded for it. Obviously, the New York Times isn't perfect. Obviously, the Washington Post isn't perfect. Obviously, CNN isn't perfect.

But there are these little breakthroughs in their reporting that really give you a realistic look at what's happening on the ground in Gaza. And I will thank them for doing that because I know the kind of attacks that they might receive for doing so, right? Allegations of anti-Semitism, allegations that they don't believe in Israel's right to exist, absolute complete utter nonsense that's only meant to silence people, including journalists. of which, by the way, 67 have been killed as a result of this war and the IDF's aerial bombardment of Gaza. So a lot of this stuff you should keep in mind as you hear propaganda, to be clear from both sides, you need to look at the civilian casualties, you need to question whether or not the actions taken by the IDF are going to lead to peace for the Israeli people in the long run. or whether what they're engaging in only serves to breed more extremist ideology. And I would venture to say that is what's happening right now.

And it's a damn shame because innocent lives are being lost. And in the end, no one is likely to be safer as a result of it. I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Nissan. Buy your tickets now. I get a free chili dog. Chili Dog, not included. The Naked Gun.

Tickets on sale now. August 1st. All right. I want to move on to updates on the hostage exchange currently taking place between Hamas and the Israeli government. of details to get to in regard to that story. So let's get right to it. In the first two days of this ceasefire agreement, Hamas has freed a total of 26 Israeli hostages. A total of 50 are to be released over the totality of this four-day ceasefire. The hostage exchange and four-day pause in bombing, which began on Friday of last week, was supposed to end today. But luckily,

there has been another two-day extension in this pause of fighting, of war, of bombings. Now, as part of this deal, Hamas had agreed to free 50 women and children. And of course, these are the hostages that Hamas viciously took captive and kidnapped on October 7th. Israel, in exchange, agreed to deliver increased aid to the Gaza Strip. They've been sending about 200 trucks of aid. I thought the original agreement was 300 of these trucks. On usual days prior to the war, 500 trucks carrying aid for Palestinians would enter the Gaza strip.

So you can see, obviously, they're not getting enough humanitarian aid, even given this agreement having to do with the hostage exchange. But nonetheless, here is some more information about how this exchange is taking place, including some details about the 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons who are going to be let go as a result. Let's watch. A White House official confirms that this agreement has been reached to extend the truce between Israel and Hamas by at least these two days. This is something that the Biden administration had been working on actively with the president making calls all weekend long. We know he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, and they specifically discussed this possibility with the U.S. pushing for this extension with the hopes of getting more hostages released.

Of course, that first American, the dual Israeli American citizen released yesterday, that four-year-old girl Abigail Adan, who turned four in captivity on Friday after her parents were murdered by Hamas since she was taken hostage. for 50 days before being released yesterday back to some of her family members in Israel. That is the first American to be released and returned. I just want to note that that four-year-old girl who, thank God, has been released by Hamas, is now an orphan because Hamas slaughtered her mom and dad. So it's really important for people to not buy into propaganda on either side, because I've noticed that, you know, you'll see some videos that argue that Hamas treated these hostages really well, gave them the medical attention that they needed.

Guys, please don't buy into that, okay? Remember, they have an interest in keeping the hostages alive because the hostages are the only leverage Hamas has in these negotiations with Israel. So don't act like they're doing it out of the goodness of their hearts or Hamas is some humanitarian organization. These are terrorists who went out of their way to kidnap innocent civilians and take them across the border to Gaza, where they've been dealing with Israel's aerial bombardments and have been living in tunnels in the dark. So let's just be clear about that. Now with that said, as of this morning, the Financial Times reported that since the hostage

agreement went into effect on Friday, Hamas has released 39 women and children and 18 foreigners. Israel has freed 117 Palestinian women and children from its prisons. Now, that was reporting from early this morning. Since then, we've seen reporting indicating that Hamas has released another 11 hostages today. And Israel had agreed to extending the temporary pause in bombing for every 10 hostages that Hamas releases. So I'm guessing the 11 hostages that Hamas released today is the reason why Israel agreed to extending this pause in bombing. It was supposed to end earlier today and they didn't end it. They decided to extend it, as I mentioned earlier.

Now understandably, family and friends want to celebrate when hostages or prisoners are released. But CNN did a fascinating report, which again, these reports tend to surprise me from legacy media outlets, which have a history of siding with Israelis and providing cover for anything Israel does. But they wanted to draw attention to how Palestinians have been treated as their loved ones have been released from Israeli prisons. So let's take a look at that reporting, and I'll talk a little more about what's going on. Here in East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities were better able to enforce the dictat of their far-right national security minister. who has deemed the prisoners released today as terrorists,

but not just that. He said any Palestinian who celebrates will themselves be charged as terrorists. I mean, just to break that down a little bit, there is no grounds to call them terrorists because by Israel's own reckoning, those 39 prisoners were 15 minors, 10 of whom were only charged, and 24 women, 23.

were detained, not charged, and 10 of the minors were detained, not charged. It complicates telling this story. So imagine your daughter has come home to you, and you have to hide indoors to express your joy. So I thought that was an important report by CNN, and please check out more of the work that that particular reporter has been doing in regard to the so-called Palestinian prisoners. Because a lot of them seem to have been imprisoned on no charges, no due process. I want to be clear, there was a list showing the prisoners that would be released by Israel. A few of them had been charged with attempted murder.

But most of them have not been charged. As the reporter mentioned in that video that you just saw, 15 of the minors had been detained with absolutely no charges. And this really highlights a practice in Israel known as administrative detentions. What are they? Well, they should remind you a little of the indefinite detentions that the United States is guilty of committing in Guantanamo, for instance, where you have individuals that don't get any due process, have not been charged with anything, have not been found guilty or convicted of anything, but they're just indefinitely detained in Gitmo, right? Now, it appears that Israel has a similar practice, and as we condemned what was going on in Guantanamo Bay,

we should condemn what Israel is doing with these administrative detentions. Now, what are they? Let me fill in the blanks. It's the indefinite detention of Palestinians by Israel. Many of the prisoners are held indefinitely without being charged or convicted of anything. So they can do this for six months, but once the six months are up, they can renew the indefinite detention. Many of the released prisoners were in fact teens accused of throwing rocks. And in fact, there have been instances of teenagers throwing rocks getting charged and then sentenced, convicted and sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison for doing so.

Think about that. For throwing rocks. Now, I want to give you more details on who some of these prisoners are. So on October 12th, for instance, in the West Bank village of. of Wadi al-Sikh, Israeli soldiers and settlers detained three Palestinians and spent hours abusing them. The Israeli newspaper, Heretz, reported that the Israelis stripped the detainees down to their underwear, blindfolded, and photographed them, beat them with knives and an iron pipe, put out cigarettes on their bodies, and even urinated on them.

Boy, it sure sounds a lot like what our soldiers did in Abu Ghraib. Okay, so I mean, that was such a shameful moment for the United States, for its military, something that we condemned. And I just want to be clear, if we're willing to condemn the war crimes committed by our own military, by our own government, I don't think that we should judge Israel and Israel's government, which likes to tout its democracy, by a lower standard. Let me continue. A tool of repression, Vox reports that Israel has long deployed against Palestinians and has used even more aggressively in recent weeks is administrative detention, a practice that allows Israel to jail Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trials.

meaning without due process. And by the way, when the trial happens, it's not done in regular courts or a regular court system, as is the case with Israeli citizens. They get charged in or they undergo trial in military courts. Now, human rights groups have in fact deemed Israel's use of administrative detention as a blatant violation of international law, even beyond administrative detention when charges are brought against Palestinians in the West Bank. They're most almost always tried in military courts that have a near perfect conviction rate. By contrast, Israelis are usually tried in

civil court. Palestinians, in other words, are sent to a trap door instead of a fair trial. And guess what? Even reporters are targeted by this. Over the years, Israel has detained hundreds of people, including dozens of journalists, for security concerns that amounted to nothing more than social media posts. And since October 7th, Israeli forces have been aggressively policing what Palestinians are saying online. So merely including a Palestinian flag on a social media post or quotes from the Quran are being targeted by Israel as sources of incitement. So with all of that in mind, it's really important. to understand how skewed the framing is when it comes to this exchange, because, you know,

the Israeli government has really painted these Palestinians as terrorists. And if you celebrate their release, well, we're going to consider you terrorists for celebrating the return of your loved ones, the release of your loved ones from, you know, these administrative detentions. And I think the fact that they're willing to call their family members celebrating their family members return and calling them terrorists is just another indication of how easy it is for a Palestinian to be considered a bad actor, a criminal, a terrorist, an imminent threat to Israelis, right? It doesn't take much. Now, there's nothing stopping Israel from carrying out this injustice. In fact, while Israel has released 117 of these prisoners so far as part of the hostage swap, they've also, at the same time, detained another 116 prisoners across the occupied West Bank. And so this was an argument that Jank was making on the show as we were talking about the negotiations

for the release of hostages. Jank argued, look, the Israelis are actually getting a really good deal because there's really nothing stopping Israel from rounding up more Palestinians and detaining them through these administrative detentions. And it appears that is exactly what's happening here. Now finally, I want to pivot to the extension of the pause. Prior to the additional two-day extension, Hamas had wanted to extend the pause and President Joe Biden, to his credit, seemed to want the pause to be extended as well. I mean, he's not calling for a ceasefire. God forbid he do that. But he was negotiating behind the scenes to extend the pause. Israel seemed pretty poised

to continue with the bombing. And its defense minister, Joav Galant, which you've heard a lot from in the past, said that this will be a short respite after which the fighting will continue with intensity and pressure will be made to bring back more hostages. At least two more months of fighting is expected. So the Israeli government really has no plan to engage in a prolonged ceasefire. They want to go back to war. They want to go back to bombing. And they've already made clear that once the bombing continues, the target will be in the south where all of these Palestinians were told to evacuate two for their safety. So the civilian death toll is expected to rise as a result of that. However, Israel did agree to an additional day in the pause

for every 10 additional hostages that Hamas releases. And it appears that that is taking place as we speak. But I also want to draw attention to another wrinkle in this story that I don't think is getting enough attention. Because the way this is all being framed makes it appear as though all of the hostages that are currently in Gaza were kidnapped by Hamas. What that leaves out is the fact that there are other gangs that also crossed the border into Israel and kidnapped hostages that

But Hamas does not know the whereabouts of. And this is something that was made clear by the Qatari Prime Minister. So let's go back to the Financial Times and they're reporting on this. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Tahi said to the financial times that more than 40 other women and children are being kept captive in Gaza who were not believed to be held by Hamas. He said the truce could be extended if Hamas was able to use the pause in the conference. to locate those hostages.

And in an interview, he said the following. If they get additional women and children, there will be an extension. We don't yet have any clear information how many they can find because one of the purposes of the pause is they, meaning Hamas, will have time to search for the rest of the missing people. And he also argues, and I agree with this argument,

that there needs to be mercy on Palestinian civilians, something that the Israeli government and the IDF has no interest in. They again, want to go right back to bombing as soon as they can. But the Prime Minister of Qatar also says something that I think is so true. The more you brutalize innocent civilians in Gaza, the more family members get wiped out. You will see an increase in extremism. So it is counterproductive to on one hand argue,

Well, we got to root out extremism, we got to root out Hamas, but engage in military actions in the Gaza Strip that only breeds more extremism and radicalizes more people because they want retaliation after their families have been wiped out. So I just think that this is all so incredibly counterproductive. I hope Israel take some of the advice that allegedly the U.S. government is giving them behind the scenes because of it's As we know, public facing Biden, public facing Anthony Blinken, public facing John Kirby, every single one of them just repeat that Israel has the right to defend themselves. And the U.S. will defend them no matter what and supply the weapons no matter what. But if it is in fact true that Biden behind closed doors is warning Netanyahu to avoid making the same mistakes that the United States government and its military made following the 9-11 terrorist attacks, I just hope he takes that advice.

I hope he's listening. So far it doesn't seem like it, but I am happy that there's at least an extended pause in the bombings that the Palestinian civilians have been overwhelmingly suffering from. For now, we're going to take a break, though. And when we come back, we've got more news for you, including, well, the Biden administration basically fighting to make it easier for Israel to access any weaponry that it wants.

from the stockpile that the United States has based in Israel. That and more coming up, don't miss it. Welcome back to the show, everyone. Just want to give a quick shout out to R. Carlson, Carlson 32, who says, Anna, your authentic and genuine approach to Gaza in all stories that is admirable. Know that we, the members, see it, feel it, and appreciate it. It must be exhausting and overwhelming, but we thank you. Thank you for writing that.

I would just make one small change in that comment, which I'm super appreciative of. I don't do it alone. I've got a team of incredible producers who are strong-minded. hardworking, just diligent. And so I just want to take a moment to thank my team. Taylor Ellis, Kate Patino, Alyssa Sammons, you guys are amazing, could not do this without you. All right, with that said, let's move on to our next story,

having to do with the Biden administration and the loosening of some of the rules pertaining to weapons that the Israeli government can access. The Biden administration is seeking to ease restrictions to US weapons stockpiles that are based in Israel, which by the way, I don't think most Americans were privy to. I certainly wasn't aware that this was going on. But if Biden gets his way, it would allow for the Israeli defense forces to have near unlimited access to this weaponry. And look, the restrictions are put in place for a reason. And we're going to get to that. This news comes in an alarming report by Ken Clippenstein of The Intercept.

Let's get to those details. Now before we explain what restrictions the Biden administration wants to remove, we need to actually understand what these stockpiles of weapons are. And they're apparently scattered all around the globe, but we certainly have a stockpile of weapons based specifically in Israel. So Clippenstein reports that the War Reserve stockpile allies Israel, okay, that's what it's called is the largest node in a network of what are effectively foreign U.S. weapons cashes. Now, the United States is only supposed to spend, only supposed to spend $200 million

a year restocking the weapons stockpile in Israel. But keep in mind that that's about the half, that's about half the total amount that the United States is supposed to spend annually on its international weapons stockpiles. So when you take a look at all of the money they spend overall every year, their budget every year for these international stockpiles, about half of that is spent specifically on the stockpiles based in Israel. Now, these stockpiles, for good reason, are subject to all sorts of regulations and restrictions. For example, Israel is normally only allowed to access obsolete or surplus classes of weapons, according to Al Jazeera.

However, what the Biden administration wants to do is basically get most of those regulations removed specifically from the stockpiles based in Israel, so Israel can access them more easily. The White House's supplemental budget request would remove the annual $200 million spending cap for the stockpile, meaning he would like to be able to spend even more money on that stockpile in Israel, allow Israel to access any weapons in that stockpile without any concessions, okay, and shorten the advance notice that the White House is required to give Congress before a weapons transfer takes place, meaning that this is an effort to make the weapons transfers, less transparent, more opaque. Why? Like, why the need for secrecy when it comes to

these weapons transfers? I think that's super shady, super weird, and I want to know exactly why Biden thinks that's a good idea. Now, Josh Paul, who's the former State Department official who resigned over U.S. arms assistance to Israel, spoke to the intercept about this, and here's what he had to say. The president's emergency supplemental funding request would essentially create a free flowing pipeline to provide any defense articles to Israel by the simple act of placing them in the Israeli weapons stockpile or other stockpiles intended for Israel. Okay? Now, Biden's supplemental budget request has already passed in the House. All that needs to happen now is the passage in the Senate. I really don't see any reason why I wouldn't pass in the Senate.

there aren't enough senators who are against providing unwavering support to the Israeli government and the Israeli defense forces. It hasn't happened yet. I could be shocked and surprised by the failure of this request or this proposal to pass in the Senate. I guess we're going to have to wait and see. But it's important to make clear that this isn't the Biden administration's only attempt to escape accountability for their support, unwavering commitment. to Israel. Whereas the Biden administration released a three-page itemized list of weapons provided to Ukraine, down to the exact number of rounds, the information released about weapons sent to Israel could fit in a single sentence. National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby,

stated in a press conference, for instance, that the U.S. is simply trying to protect Israel's operational security, but he doesn't really explain why they were so. transparent with the assistance in regard to weapons for Ukraine, but want more secrecy when it comes to weapons transfers for Israel. William Hartung, a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an expert on weapons sales, explained that the real reason is probably this. I think the purposeful lack of transparency over what weapons the US is supplying to Israel on a daily basis is tied to the larger, policy of downplaying the extent to which Israel will use those weapons to commit war crimes

and kill civilians in Gaza. And I think that's actually a really good theory. In a previous report on the show today, I shared how, you know, foreign policy experts, experts who know a lot about military weaponry and what's typically used in these types of wars were really shocked to find that the IDF has been dropping 2,000 pound bombs in their air strikes in Gaza. That is something that the U.S. government has not engaged in, especially when it comes to densely populated urban warfare. And the reason why they don't is because they want to minimize the number of civilian casualties. Typically, the types of bombs that are utilized are 500-pound bombs that don't do as much damage. They're not as likely to flatten an entire apartment

building, for instance. But Israel has decided to take a completely different move, a different tactic in using these far more extreme bombs as they do their airstrikes in Gaza, which explains the high civilian death toll. Now last week, Bloomberg obtained a leaked copy of the US arms sent to Israel, and here's what they found. The weapons include thousands of hellfire missiles, the same kind being used extensively by Israel in Gaza. Doesn't surprise me at all. And despite By the Biden administration's pretty desperate efforts to conceal their support for Israel and conceal the types of weapons they want to provide for Israel, American voters apparently can see through it and they're not happy. So according to a November poll by Reuters Ipsos,

just 33% of U.S. respondents now believe Washington should back Israel in the war, as opposed to being a neutral mediator or backing the Palestinians. At the same time, only 31% of U.S. respondents support sending Israel weapons compared with 43% who oppose. Public opinion has flipped pretty dramatically from feeling deep empathy and support for Israel following the terrorist attacks that were committed by Hamas on October 7th to now feeling a lot more sympathy toward Palestinian civilians because you see the absolute destruction that has taken place in the Gaza Strip. Half of the buildings completely and utterly destroyed.

Nothing for these Palestinian civilians who have fled to the southern region of the Gaza Strip to return home to. Okay, you look at the thousands of innocent civilians, a vast majority of people represented in the death toll happened to be innocent Palestinian civilians. That type of brutal military action in the Gaza Strip, of course, is going to flip public opinion from being. in favor of Israel to being, I don't want to say against Israel, but really questioning whether the U.S. support for the Israeli government, regardless of what the Israeli government carries out, they're just not in favor of it anymore. That's totally flipped now. So it's something that I wish the Israeli government was smart enough to take into account and maybe shift gears a little bit as they move forward with this war. But something tells me that

they're defiant. They're going to continue carrying out. these airstrikes as soon as the pause in bombing for the hostage exchange commences. We'll see how it all plays out, but it's really depressing to see the Biden administration engage in more secrecy and efforts to engage in more opaque weapons transfers between the United States and Israel. So we'll, of course, update you all on that if it passes in the Senate. For now, though, we're going to take a break. we come back, we've got more news for you, including a fascinating piece by the Washington Post that I believe was just attempting to launder Biden's, you know, reputation, because he's not

doing so well in the polling and he's not doing so well with young voters and Arab American voters because of his unwavering support for Israel's far right government. So I'm going to tell you what they're trying to do to kind of soften his image when we come back. Welcome back to the show, everyone, I'm Anna Casparian, and I want to talk a little bit about how the Biden administration has noticed that Biden's taking a little bit of an electoral hit in regard to his unwavering support for Israel's farm. right government and the actions they've taken in Gaza. So maybe it's time to soften things up a little bit. So let's get to that story. President Joe Biden's approval rating has taken a massive hit during Israel's war on Gaza. His handling of the war, which can be summed up as unconditional support for Israel, has also highlighted internal divisions in his administration. But in a new piece,

The Washington Post makes clear that Biden is attempting to basically, in my opinion, launder his reputation and soften his image in regard to how he's handling this war in Gaza. So reporters at the Washington Post spoke to 27 White House officials for their reporting. That includes senior administration officials and also some outside advisors. And here's what they found, that the division within the White House is to some degree between Biden senior long time aides. They tend to be a little more sympathetic toward Israel and an array of younger staffers with diverse backgrounds.

So the younger staffers are the ones that are more likely to speak out against Biden's unwavering support for Israel, regardless of what Israel does, regardless of how far right the Israeli government is, regardless of how many civilians are killed in the Gaza strip, they've got a problem with that. And I have to say, this might be the first. time, I see the very real benefits of hiring young, diverse staffers, because they provide a perspective that otherwise would not be provided in the White House. You know, typically with the Biden administration, especially when it comes to cabinet

positions, there was a lot of tokenism going on. I'm just keeping it real. A lot of, oh, look, you know, we have diversity in like the appearance of our administration. but there really wasn't diversity of thought when it came to a lot of these appointments. Now I'm hearing about these staffers, apparently there's a lot of diversity of thought in that area. And so I just want to say that is a win. That is something that I actually commend Biden for. Now with that said, I thought that this excerpt from the Washington Post piece was fascinating.

Even top advisors said they recognize the conflict has hurt America's global standing. Quote, we're taking on a lot of water on Israel's behalf, one senior official said. I've never heard that phrasing before. I don't know what taking on a lot of water is, but it sounds bad. Seems like this top advisor is fully aware that, yes, this is actually hurting the global standing of the United States and the way the world really views our country and our government. But most of the piece is basically looking to paint a less hawkish President Joe Biden or a president who is, you know, trying to hold Israel accountable behind the scenes.

And I want to give you examples of how the peace seeks to do that. They write that White House officials contend that Biden's bear hug approach to Israel has given him credibility with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nanyahu, allowing the president to exert the kind of pressure that led to the current hostage deal. deal and fighting pause. Okay, but this isn't a ceasefire. We all know that. And the Israeli government, along with the IDF, has made it abundantly clear that as soon as the hostage exchange ends, they will intensify the airstrikes, likely in the southern region of the Gaza Strip, where all of the millions, 1.7 million Palestinian civilians

have fled to for safety, okay? the bombardment took place mostly in the northern region of the Gaza Strip. So now they're going to focus on the south. So like Biden bragging about this pause, sure, I guess it's something. But does the unwavering support for Israel really lead to the kind of peace that we desperately need in this ongoing war? U.S. officials are now using the pause to urge Israel to make its expected military operation in the south of Gaza where nearly two million Palestinians are concentrated, more targeted

and less deadly, according to two senior administration officials. But how are they going to do that when we're supplying them with 2,000 pound bombs that they're dropping, in my opinion, indiscriminately? And keep in mind, you have Palestinians from northern Gaza evacuating to southern Gaza, Gaza already overall was densely populated. Now the South is going to be even more densely populated as 1.7 million Palestinians fled from the north to the south. It's going to be a lot harder to do targeted operations in southern Gaza. We know that, right? We know that the death toll is going to explode once the airstrikes continue, right? That's the reality of the situation. How exactly does the Biden administration think that the IDF is going to do targeted

attacks? How? But we'll see. I mean, they say they're working overtime behind the scenes trying to persuade the Israeli government to, you know, maybe don't slaughter as many innocent Palestinian civilians as they have been since the beginning of this war. There was some concern in the Biden administration about an unintended consequence of this pause. I just want to remind you of this reporting from Politico, that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there. and turn public opinion on Israel. So while publicly, the Biden administration is bragging about the pause,

internally, privately, they were concerned that the pause was actually going to reveal just how brutal the IDF's military actions and aerial bombardments in Gaza have been. Now, back to the Washington Post. The White House also insists that it has influenced Israel's military tactics, pointing out that more than 100 aid trucks a day are arriving on average in the Gaza Strip. Remember that prior to the war, 500 aid trucks would enter the Gaza Strip every day. So going from 500 to 100, especially with a brutal war taking place where people are going to need a lot more humanitarian aid, not really something to write home about if you ask me.

The piece also says that Biden has taken a strong stance against Israeli settlers. So Biden has, okay, I got to say, this quote from this one unnamed official, I don't know if they intentionally worded it this way. I don't know why they worded it this way. I'm sorry, I get it. I'm a child. This is not a laughing matter, but come on. Biden has banged BB really hard on settler violence and civilian casualties in private, one official said. Now, what does that mean? how hard did Biden bang Netanyahu on settler violence? Well, Biden said that the United States is prepared to issue visa bans against Israeli settler extremists who have attacked Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

So that's the threat being issued by Biden. He issued that threat through an op-ed that he wrote in the Washington Post. However, it's also important to remember that the Israeli government apparently got called out for a budget commitment that they made recently. So let's go to Joseph Fontellis, who is the vice president of the European Commission. Here's what he posted this morning on X, formerly known as Twitter. Quote, I'm appalled to learn that in the middle of a war, the Israeli government is poised to commit new funds to build more illegal settlements.

This is not self-defense and will not make Israel safer. the settlements are grave international humanitarian law breach, and they are Israel's greatest security liability. So the way Biden is framing the violence carried out by Israeli settlers makes it appear as though they're acting on their own accord, that these are individuals who are untethered to the Israeli government and the IDF, when in reality the Israeli government has been funding the illegal settlements in the West Bank, in the occupied West Bank. So is Biden going to hold the Netanyahu government accountable for that? Or is he just going to pretend like the settlers are acting on their own accord

and that they should be sanctioned individually without ever having to deal with the Israeli government and their support for what the settlers are doing? That's the real question. Now, there's more. The piece also addresses the fallout that Biden suffered after expressing deep speculation over Gaza's death toll numbers. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, this is the moment. The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says Israeli forces have killed over 6,000 Palestinians,

including 2,700 children. You've previously asked Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties. Do these numbers say to you that he is ignoring that message? What did they say to me is I have no notion that Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. Okay, so that was the moment that upset a little. lot of people, especially Palestinian Americans and Muslim Americans. So the post reports that the following day, Biden met with five prominent Muslim Americans who protested that they saw as his insensitivity, what they saw as his insensitivity to the civilians who were dying,

all spoke of people they knew who had been affected by the suffering in Gaza, including a woman who had lost 100 members of her family. appeared to be affected by their account. Quote, I'm sorry. I'm disappointed in myself, he told the group, according to two people familiar with the meeting. I will do better. The meeting scheduled for 30 minutes ended up lasting more than an hour, according to one White House official, and ended with Biden hugging one of the participants. But as this attempt of softening Biden's image continues, deep within this Washington Post piece near the very end, There's an excerpt that's relevant.

They write that the central dispute between Biden and Netanyahu is not over a ceasefire. No, no, no, no, no. They both agree a ceasefire would be unacceptable. Neither one of them supports it. But over the view in Washington that Israel has an unacceptable standard for proportionality. So Netanyahu doesn't like that some members of the U.S. government are looking at the high Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza. and they're arguing that this is not proportionate, that this is unacceptable. Netanyahu can't stand that.

And by the way, these are criticisms that are made behind closed doors. They're not criticisms that are made publicly. And so that's the area where apparently there's some disagreement between Biden and Netanyahu. But the fact of the matter is they're both against a ceasefire. They're both against an end to the bombing that has, displaced, you know, countless Palestinians, 1.7 million of them that has killed thousands of innocent civilians, many of whom are children. Biden's totally cool with that continuing. Now, I do want to move on, though, because the concern, I feel that the concern from the Biden

administration about the civilian death toll is also kind of hollow. Because when you look at what Biden is doing, like his actions mean way more than his words or what he's allegedly saying behind closed doors to Netanyahu. Okay, he is trying to loosen restrictions to the stockpile of weapons that the United States has based in Israel. So how are you going to loosen those restrictions and make it easier for the IDF to access all sorts of weaponry in secret, by the way, without having to notify Congress. Well, simultaneously pretending to be concerned about the high civilian death toll. If you are concerned about the high civilian death toll, then your actions should bear that out,

but they're not. So finally, I do want to juxtapose the meeting that he had with some Muslim Americans, which ended with a warm embrace of one of the participants, with a meeting that he had with a few people following the death toll skepticism meeting that he had. One meeting between White House aides and about a dozen Palestinian Americans turned contentious when participants warned that Biden would lose Arab and Muslim voters over his handling of the war. An aide explained that Biden was not thinking about the issue in political terms and instead was trying to prevent World War III, according to one person familiar with that meeting.

One of the Palestinian Americans in the meeting, though, said the participants left with more resolved to organize their communities not to vote for Biden in the 2024 election. The person said Arabs and Muslims would also not vote for former President Donald Trump, who has called for banning travel to the United States from Muslim majority countries, but could sit out the race. So they're just abstaining from voting in the presidential election. But speaking of the presidential election in politics, obviously this effort to soften Biden's image is political because Biden has been hurt politically by his unwavering, undying devotion to Israel. So in the beginning of the conflict, says one official, in the beginning of the conflict, we had a more nuanced approach to this.

If we had a more nuanced approach to this, the administration could have distanced itself in a way that would be safer for it diplomatically and politically, said Stephen Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. The no daylight strategy is causing a lot of problems for them, meaning the Biden administration. And I want to go to Graphic 12, which makes it again very clear to me that this is all political. Biden's foreign policy team has long been mindful of the influence of Washington's pro-Israel lobbying organizations, groups like A-PAC and the Democratic majority for Israel. But the changing demographics of key swing states, such as Michigan, home to a growing Arab-American

community, is prompting some Democratic analysts to question the conventional political wisdom. So again, Biden could attempt to soften his image by softening his rhetoric. But the fact of the matter is, you have to take a look at his actions, and if he's willing to transfer more weaponry to the IDF with less transparency, if he's willing to refuse any ceasefire that would end the aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip, if he's willing to continue through his actions, support the Israeli government and whatever the IDF wants to do in Gaza, well, then what he has to say is, really irrelevant. Talk is cheap. Action speak louder than words. And I'd like to see Biden actually make some moves that would hold the Israeli government and the IDF accountable for the high civilian death toll and take some action to prevent this from happening in the future. And we have yet to see that. All right, we got to take a break. When I come back, Wosney-Lombay joins me for the second hour of the show. Don't miss it.

Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks, support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.