The Young Turks - Hostage Negotiations

Episode Date: November 22, 2023

A "New Yorker" writer went missing after reportedly being taken by Israeli forces. Details of a possible Hamas - Israel hostage deal emerge. Former Obama official caught on camera berating food vendor with Islamophobic smears. Federal appeals court ruling Voting Rights Act Section 2 enforcement. HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) and 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 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. Woo! It's up. Turkey. All right, welcome to the young Turks, Jake Eugenic is sparing with you guys. A lot of different issues for you guys.

Why is Matt gets so unpopular in his home state? we'll discuss, media matters right or wrong in targeting Elon Musk. A little complicated. Ooh, that's unexpected. Okay, so that's a little bit later in the program. And of course, unfortunately, we have news out of gossip. Yep. All right, so let's actually start with that, beginning with this video.

In a recent essay in the New Yorker magazine, Abu Toha wrote, I sit in my temporary house in the Jabalya camp waiting for a ceasefire. I feel like I'm in a cage and being killed every day with my people. The only two things I can do are panic and breathe. There is no hope here, he wrote. Renowned poet and writer, Mosab Abu Toha, has luckily been released by Israeli authorities after previously being abducted by them at a checkpoint as he and his family was seeking to flee the Gaza Strip at the Rafa border crossing. Now his whereabouts were unknown for a few days,

and his wife was obviously very concerned. At the time when he was still detained, there was an interview on Democracy Now, you know, featuring a lawyer by the name of Diana Butu, explaining the conversation she had with Toha's wife and some of the fears that they had in regard to what his fate would be. Again, luckily he's been released. But I want to go to the next video. And also note that he appeared on democracy now just a few weeks ago. Take a look. Where do we immigrate? We have been, we were born on this land. My parents were born in on this land. My grandparents were born on this land. My great-grandparents were born here. ask anyone in Israel, most of them would tell you that their grandparents were born

somewhere else. And even, I only have a Palestinian passport, which is really not very helpful when I leave Gaza, if I could leave Gaza. So where do we go? And Netanyahu, on the second day of the escalation, asked the Palestinians in Gaza to leave. He said, leave now. But where do we leave? And why should we leave? We have nowhere else to go. So he is a 30 year old father of three. One of his children was born in the United States. And so he has been able to leave Gaza in various occasions in the past. Obviously he was seeking to leave the Gaza Strip with his family in an effort to find safety because obviously we know that there are aerial bombardments by the IDF, not just in the northern

part of the Gaza Strip, but also in the south. They had apparently gotten clearance to leave. And prior to his release, in an interview with democracy now, Canadian lawyer Diana Butu explained the conversations that she had with his wife. Let's watch that video. We'll open up for discussion afterwards. He was seeking refuge in the Chevalia refugee camp. His own home was bombed and and shattered to pieces. While he was in Jebelia refugee camp, the Israelis perpetrated a massacre in Jebelia, which was 70 meters away from where he was. was. He twice escaped death. And his son is an American-born citizen. They, along with the rest of the family, finally got clearance to be able to leave Rafah to go elsewhere. And as they

were fleeing from the heavily bombed north of northern part of the Gaza Strip, they were forced to go through a checkpoint what was supposed to be a safe passage on Salahideen Road, which is the road that leads from the north to the south, at that checkpoint, at that military area, he, along with hundreds of other people were forced to raise their hands. He was forced to put his son down on the ground, his young son, three years old, raise his hands in the air. And he and hundreds of others, men and women, this has been confirmed by his wife, were then abducted. They weren't arrested, they were abducted, kidnapped by the Israeli army, with everybody else told to continue on. His family is not in Raffa. They are still trying to get to the south. It is near impossible

to get to the south. And his family still has not heard from him. They have no idea of his whereabouts. So after that interview today, we heard news that he was released by IDF forces. I want to go to Graphics 7. Democracy Now had posted about it saying that Diana Buttu, the lawyer that you just heard from reports, Mossab Abu Toha was taken to an Israeli prison where he was beaten and interrogated with 200 others before being released. Now he is receiving medical treatment and is with his family. Jank. Okay, so we talked about the hostages that Hamas took and we tell Hamas, of course, to give the hostages back. They're in the middle of negotiations now. By the way, a lot of Israelis furious with Netanyahu on how those negotiations are going. But what,

Western media never talks about is the hostages that Israel takes. They do it all the time. So here's an abduction where they separated dad from his three-year-old. He's an innocent Palestinian poet, and they beat him and torture him. Why? Because he's a Palestinian man. Good enough. Now, if Hamas did that to Israel, at least the whole world would be talking about it 24-7, everybody in American media would say, to be fair, not everyone in American media, they've been much more balanced now. But certainly American politicians would say, oh, we need to send $14 billion over so that the other side can be killed. But so the hypocrisy is endless. Right now, there's a hostage negotiation going on right now to exchange hostages. So we'll

talk about that, more about that a little bit later. And Israel's planning give three times as many hostages back the Palestinians as Hamas took. So that means they have well more than three times as many hostages. And by the way, the ones that Israel's returning are also women and children. So why did they take innocent Palestinian women and children as hostages? And why doesn't the American government ever care about it? This is something that is done regularly to Palestinians. And so when the state does it, it doesn't make it any less terrible or immoral or terroristic.

So imagine you're a Palestinian in any moment the state of Israel can come and snatch you up, take you away, You beat you. And then go, what, what, what, what? We're just the state. So since we're a government, we're allowed to do all that. And you can't completely, you know, but if you fight back, you're a terrorist. If I do it to you, I'm just the, we're the best democracy in the Middle East. It's a joke.

It's a sick, sick joke. So, and the idea that he mentioned there, I really want to mention real quick, this idea of, why did the Palestinians just move to other Arab lands? It's one of the most obnoxious talking points I've heard my entire life. Absolutely ridiculous. Why don't you just pick up from where your family lives, just move somewhere else. Who cares, you're all Arabs anyway, what do I care, right? I don't care if I take, and then I'm gonna take your land.

I'm just gonna take your land in your home, okay? So I mean, we could do this a thousand ways. Oh, Americans, you're North American. In fact, Texas, you're so close to Guadalajara. Why don't you just move to Guadalajara? Who cares? Somebody else is gonna take your home, somebody's gonna take your ranch, your property, and everything else. They're gonna own it, and you're gonna have to move to Guadalajara and figure out how to start over.

Who cares? You're all North American, who cares? Why don't you just move, right? No, what Israel's doing and has been doing for 56 years is brutal, it's an occupation, it's oppressive, and when you target civilians, I don't care if it's the government doing or individuals doing it, it's war crimes, terrorism, et cetera. Absolutely. And I want everyone to just take a moment and try to put yourselves in the shoes of this family

and what they experienced as they were trying to get to the Rafa border, where they They were given clearance to leave through that border, to flee the Gaza Strip and find some safety. So the wife of Toha, Maram Abu Toha, said that as the family walked past Israeli troops and tanks, soldiers called out to dozens of men and ordered them to approach for questioning. Their families were forced to keep walking, she said, echoing similar accounts by other Palestinian families. This is the New York Times reporting, by the way.

Let me continue. When they called on Mr. Abu Toha, he was carrying his three-year-old son, Mustafa, his wife said. I was in front of him by three meters and they told him, drop the kid and come toward the military, Ms. Abu Toha said. Mustafa was calling out to his dad. She ran back to get her son, she said, risking being shot by Israeli soldiers. Walk quickly or else I will shoot you, she said the soldier yelled at her. And then really, as we walked a bit, he started shooting on the road and the wall.

So when the New York Times reached out to the IDF, the Israeli military did not respond to any questions about the reports. I think since this is an individual who had a, it was known publicly. I mean, he's written for the New Yorker. He's written for a number of American publications. There was an outcry following his detention. I think there was increasing pressure by the IDF to release him. That's why he was released. But this is the kind of terror that people are living with in the Gaza Strip.

Not only are they dealing with the aerial bombardments, not only are they dealing with shelling of the homes and the refugee camps that they're living in. They're also dealing with these checkpoints where innocent people are getting rounded up and they're being interrogated as if they're Hamas militants when there's no evidence that they're Hamas militants. There was nothing to insist or indicate that this guy was a Hamas militant. or a terrorist. Let me change the ethnicities, keep the same exact fact pattern, and then see what you think of it. A Jewish poet is walking, is being relocated from his home and being driven into a refugee camp or a ghetto.

And as he's carrying his three-year-old son, a German soldier comes by and tells him to put the three-year-old son, Isaac down. And Isaac's crying and crying as the Jewish mom tries to go and grab the kid. And then the German soldier threatens to murder the mom and the kid as well as they kidnapped a Jewish poet and then torture him later with for absolutely no reason. Now, how does that sound? That sounds pretty goddamn barbaric, doesn't it? It's the same exact thing. All of these labels, Jew, Muslim, Christian, Israeli, Palestinian are nonsense. were all human beings.

It was terrible when others did it to Jews all across the world, did it repeatedly. It is now terrible when Israel does it to Palestinians. And if that hurts your feelings, that's definitely on you and not us. You should go check to see what in the world you are supporting and make sure that you do not and be a decent human being. I want to now pivot to the reality that journalists are facing on the ground, not only in the Gaza Strip, but increasingly in the southern portion of Lebanon, where now we're hearing more and more reports of journalists dying as a result of

of aerial bombardments by the IDF. So let's talk about that. So I came across this tweet and it noted that journalists Robbie Mamari and Farah Omar were killed in Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon. So this is graphic nine, it features a photo of the journalists who were killed. And this is in Lebanon, right? So the tension between Israel and Lebanon is increasing with more and more of these military scuffles that are playing out. You have two journalists who

were just recently killed. But let's talk about the overall number of journalists who have been killed as a result of this ongoing war. Most of them have been in the Gaza Strip. The deaths bring the number of journalists who have been killed since the Israel Hamas war began last month to at least 50, at least 50, according to the committee to protect journalists. Most were Palestinian journalists working in the Gaza Strip. Now journalists are supposed to be protected so they can do their job so they can report on what's happening and transpiring on the ground. We know that the movements of journalists in the Gaza Strip have been restricted by the

IDF. CNN has reported on multiple occasions that they're embedded with the IDF. They're the ones who kind of control the situation and they have to turn their footage into the IDF for review before they can release it out in the public. and report on what they've been seeing and experiencing in the Gaza Strip. Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon on October 14th killed Reuters video journalist, Isam Abdullah, and wounded other journalists from France's international news agency, along with Qatar's Al Jazeera TV. So in the first month of the Israel-Ghasa war, that was the deadliest month for journalists,

since the Committee to Protect Journalists began documenting journalist's fatalities in 1992. So at what point is the United States government going to look at what is happening? Take inventory of the number of civilians and journalists who have been slaughtered as a result of this war and really reconsider the unconditional support that's being provided for the right-wing government of Israel. Yeah. So I'm going to give you some numbers here. Let's see if you find them as discomforting as I do. So Israel is now killed more than 50 journalists in a matter of a couple of months. The previous highest death count of journalists was during the height of the Syrian civil war as Bashar al-Assad, the dictator, and ISIS combined for 30 journalists. killed in that year. Last year, 42 journalists killed worldwide the entire year. Israel's already at 50. We haven't hit two months yet. We're barely past a month. They've already hit 50. 42 worldwide the year before. Russia, terrible invasion of Ukraine, the poor

Ukrainian people, 15 journalists killed last year. Already in a month and a half, over 505-0 killed by Israel. So I ask the supporters of the right wing government of Israel, is the IDF the worst military in the world? They're just, they're the gang who couldn't shoot straight. God, oh, there goes another journalist we murdered. I mean killed accidentally, I mean collateral damage, I mean they had it coming, I mean, God damn it, aren't they Palestinians or Arabs, we're trying to cover this when we're trying

to do propaganda instead? Are they the worst military in the history of the world? They just can never shoot straight. Or is it possible that they're murdering those journalists because they don't want news to come out of Gaza? And if that hurts your feelings, it isn't on me, it's on the IDF for constantly murdering journalists. Remember what they did to the American journalist, Abouacquet?

They just shot her in cold blood, shot her in the neck and watch their bleed out. And then lied about it. And then light about it, keep that in mind. It took an investigation, including an investigation that was done by CNN of all places, that confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that the IDF had in fact shot and killed Abuakle. And look, you see the actions being carried out and you can decide that you want to be blind to the reality and find some other excuse for why so many innocent civilians have been killed and why so many journalists have been killed.

But what about the statements coming from officials within the Israeli government? What about the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, making abundantly clear to the world that he does not believe that anyone living in the Gaza Strip is a non-combatant? And that statement has been echoed by other members of the Israeli government. The former Israeli intelligence chief said that on national television as well. I mean, how many examples do you need? How many times do they need to tell you for the international community? And more importantly, the American government to accept what is actually happening on the ground in Gaza right now.

Look, everyone accepts it, except the American government and half of American media. Used to be all of American media, now half of broken free and are actually reporting the truth. Look, this stuff is obvious. Look, Israel is now one of the most tyrannical governments in the world. The idea that it's a democracy is a sick joke. sick joke. So, oh, we're a democracy for us, but not for you guys. We're going to keep five million of you as prisoners and hostages, and we're going to take away your dignity, your respect, your humanity at every turn. And we're going to murder journalists who cover

it. But we're a democracy. We're the best democracy. No, you're not. No, you're sorry, you're not. That's not how democracies work. So you can't have one set of people brutalize and occupy the others and go, oh, no, no. But since I let my people vote, that it's a democracy. Who cares that I'm enslaving others? Well, I care. No, that's what tyrannical governments do. There is no excuse for it.

So I don't care. I don't care about this. Tanasas talk of allies. What ally? What has Israel helped us with? Oh, intelligence against other Muslims. Well, they're the ones who created the problems in the first place with the Muslim world. So, oh, wow, thanks for the help.

after you start a giant fire and get almost all the Muslims in the world to hate America, you gave us intelligence to kill more Muslims. Wow, what a big help that ally's been. Sorry guys, sorry, they're not really an ally, they're definitely not a democracy. They keep murdering journalists at a far greater rate than Bashar al-Assad, Hamas, or Vladimir Putin. Now you want me to call them a friendly ally democracy. You can look, guys, we see the pictures, enough, the propaganda is over. You can do that propaganda all day long in Washington, D.C., and you could pretend that everybody's an anti-Semite, you can do all of that.

It isn't going to change the fact that the whole world sees all of those dead children. We see them, and you can't unsee them. Whenever you're looking at Gaza, all it is is rubble. Almost everything is destroyed. And Israel says, not enough, kill them more. And Isaac Herzeg, president, so-called president, Isaac's statements are the statements of a terrorist. There's no ansips or butts. He's saying, kill the civilians.

There are no non-combatants. That is exactly what terrorists say. That is exactly what Hamas says. That is exactly what al-Qaeda says. Oh no, but they're an ally, but they're a democracy. So their terrorism is okay. Oh, there are state governments, so it's okay for them to do terrorism. No, it's not.

No, it's not. I want Israel to be a great, wonderful, beautiful country. But right now, there are a tyrannical government that is murdering, that is murdering civilians and journalists at a record pace. That's reality, whether it hurts your feelings or not, stone cold facts. Well, our top ally in that region has decided that they are not going to engage in hostage negotiations in regard to American hostages that were kidnapped by Hamas. So we've got that story and more when we come back. All right back on Ti-T-Chankana with you guys, more news.

Well, we have some updates on the hostage negotiations that have been taking place between the Israeli government and Hamas through Qatar. So let's get to the details on that. Very close. Very close. You could bring some of these hostages home very soon. But I don't want to get in the details of things because nothing is done until it's done. Well, Biden's at least right about that. Nothing is done until it's done. And these hostage negotiations can absolutely fall apart at any given moment. However, there have been increasing reports that a deal is imminent. I want to be clear, it seems like it's imminent. been hearing that for the last several days. So we'll see where this all heads, but for now, there is no deal in place. With that said, keeping that in mind, here's what we do know about

the tentative deal so far, and this is according to reporting from Axios. So they report that according to the tentative deal, Hamas would release 50 Israeli women and children who are being held in Gaza. In exchange, Israel would release around 150 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women, and children. The hostage exchange would take place during a four-day ceasefire. So the tentative agreement makes no mention of a permanent ceasefire. It would just be a four-day ceasefire, notably to do the hostage exchange in a safer environment without all the aerial bombardments taking place. Additionally, Israel would allow 300 aid trucks to enter Gaza per day. Are they not merciful? Now, there's also a possibility of a second phase in this deal. And it would be similar

to the first phase. Hamas hostages would be swapped for Palestinian prisoners at a ratio of three to one. And the hostage exchange would once again take place during a ceasefire. But there are a few wrinkles in the deal. Here's one of them. Nanyahu's office knows. that any deal is subject to appeal from the victim's families, an important point of procedure under Israeli law to the extent that any deal involves a prisoner exchange or families of victims of terrorists within Israeli jails have a right to appeal to the Supreme Court against their release and they would have 24 hours to do so. And it's unclear what would happen to the hostage deal if an appeal were granted by the Supreme Court.

And here's another issue, according to NBC News. According to a senior Israeli official, Israel is currently only negotiating for its citizens and says that other countries will have to negotiate for their own terms with Hamas. Dual nationals, those who hold Israel citizenship along with other countries, are included in Israel's deals, the official said. So in other words, if there are American citizens who were kidnapped by Hamas, Israel is showing absolutely no interest. In fact, they're vocalizing. They have no interest in including them in these negotiations with Hamas. They need to fend for themselves, which I find interesting.

When it comes to American taxpayer money being funneled to the IDF, the Israeli military, They're all ears when it comes to helping the release, helping to release those hostages from Hamas. You guys can deal with it on your own. Fascinating. The Americans are going to get released because America is also part of these negotiations. They have a ton of leverage, et cetera. Israel's mainly saying, hey, the Thai workers that got kidnapped, we don't care about you guys at all. Yeah, that's also gross.

You go deal with it on your own. What do we care? I mean, we don't care about the hostages period. We've been dropping bombs on their heads the entire time. We haven't got like all the Hamas guys are in the tunnels. We show you the tunnels are completely unaffected. So we're just killing people, civilians. And if you happen to be the Thai hostages have to be part of them or any other country, we don't care.

We just want we haven't cared the whole time. We just want the Israeli family members of the hostages to get off our backs already. Yeah, they're really getting on our nerves. Okay, that's the sense I get. And I have evidence to prove why I think that. Yeah, so we're gonna get to that in second. And so as I get frustrated at Israel being calling democracy, which it definitely isn't.

It is keeping five million prisoners in West Bank and Gaza Strip. But at least there is a democracy within the citizens of Israel, right? So, and there's a vibrant culture of disagreement, vocalizing your opinions, dissent, and that's great, and I love that inside Israel. I wish they would apply it to the Palestinians, but that's a different issue. But so within Israel, everybody's about a net in Yahoo. Well, I shouldn't say everybody, but a lot of people are, and including the hostage families, because he has, he's shown no interest in the hostages.

And by the way, this is, I mean, look, I don't know what kind of pressure Israel in America put on Hamas. My guess is Qatar put a lot of pressure on Hamas. But this is a great deal for Israel. Why? Well, first of all, remember, Israel is returning three times as many hostages. Well, that sounds like, well, they're getting, the Hamas is getting a great deal. They're getting three times as many people. wait a minute, Israel's returning hostages, and they're all women and children.

Why did Israel take women and children as hostages in the first place? And how come nobody ever complained about that? And so what if they return them? Israel can go back and kidnap them the next day. They have all the power in the world. And why do you think Israel every once in a while rounds up Palestinian women and children? So they can keep them as hostages for leverage in situations like this. Oh, you'd like to, you took some hostages, you're terrible, Hamas.

How dare you do the thing we've been doing all along? Well, we'll go take more, so what? So Israel loses nothing from this. They could take five times as many Palestinian hostages the very next day. And the world wouldn't even notice, and America wouldn't complain, nobody would complain, right? And then one other reason why it's a great deal for Israel is, they're not even, the Hamas is not getting a permanent ceasefire, Israel's not withdrawing, they're just gonna pause for a couple of days, and they're just gonna pause for a couple of days, and they're have said in the deal, then we're gonna go back to bombing the living crap out of your civilians. Right. I'm sorry, I met Hamas, who I can't get inside the tunnels. So there's

no, like, I can't believe they're gonna do this deal. So look, I want the hostages released on both sides. So I'm thrilled, great, take the deal, right? But man, this is an unbelievably good deal for Israel. Since the beginning of this war, Israeli family members of the hostages have been deeply concerned and have disagreed with the IDF's bombardment of the Gaza Strip. They don't agree with what they're doing. They're also obviously concerned about their loved ones, their well-being, their safety. And so with that in mind, they have been increasingly protesting the Israeli government. They've been increasingly confrontational with Israeli officials and authorities.

And so let's hear what they had to say to Israeli politicians. during a parliamentary panel about a proposed death penalty for captured Palestinian militants. With that in mind, let's watch the video, see how it all went down. something that's now he can be to make

to go them to do you know the deal, but he not here. And because it could be

he's not he'll be not to the people, he not to have the

people, he don't have been the family that's shardat

topet, he, he's not tohap she, he's not alhap my abight,

the abight, not to want to want to It's a very simple. I want to have my bat my wife. The deal of

this, to understand to me and to have seen life of Jewish. And incom to talk on death,

that's the word that the most I've heard at this shalt be talking about the

two, three and nine five. So that confrontation continued even further after

the panel had ended. Itamar Ben-Gavir appeared to portray the highly confrontational session as harmonious. In a post on X, Ben-Gavir posted a photo of him, hugging one of the relatives along with the caption, we love and embrace the families of the abductees. And then Gil Dickman, who is the man who appears in the photo, who's being hugged by Ben-Gavir in the image, wrote a scathing response, take your hands off of me, Dickman, whose cousin, Carmel got was taken on October 7th said, my look here says it all. I told you don't hug me.

You hugged anyway. I told you don't put our loved ones at risk. Still, you took a risk all for the picture. Okay. Dickman also accused Ben Gavir of having no limits. Everyone sees that you are making a circus about the blood of our families, Dickman added. It's not too late. Stop. And there was one other family member who, you know, he made a statement about, you know, you guys are so obsessed with killing Arabs. How about you save Israelis? You get, you get what I'm saying? Like, and that was such a powerful moment and such a true statement, because rather than being so hyper-focused on killing people in the Gaza Strip, how about you actually spend a little bit of time placing some energy behind getting our hostages back? I love these families so much. First of, remember,

they're the innocent civilians who were victimized by Hamas in the first place. They're the biggest victims in all of this inside Israel. And so the fact that the right-wing government of Israel doesn't even care about them is disgusting. They're just using them as pawns to be able to do the land grab and the massacres inside Gaza. So this is the Jewish culture that I love so much. You defy authority, you question authority, you dissent, and you argue for, for cherishing life instead of cherishing death. So I love everything that those families said, and they speak for all of us.

And remember, Israel is not a monolith. There are great, you know, it's there's a whole variety of people there. There's left wingers, right wingers, there's people in favor of peace, people in favor of war. Right now, because of the attack of Hamas, and unfortunately the culture changing over all of these years within Israel, there is a mindset of, no, they're all anti-Semitic, and they're all very They're all violent, the Palestinians. So we have to show them the only thing they understand, which is violence. And don't pretend that the right wingers in Israel don't think that. They one billion percent believe that.

And all they have shown the Palestinians is the stain, lack of humanity, death, destruction, okay? So you have to get rid of your right wing government. Right wing governments all across the world are driving us to war, death, and hatred. your better angels like those families win the day so that we cherish everyone's life and get those hostages back. But the monsters, the absolute monsters that run the right wing government of Israel don't care.

All they see is blood and they want to kill more and more innocent Palestinian civilians. And look, I think that their actions here have been clear, not just now, but for decades. The Israeli press has shown over and over again how much Netanyahu has helped Hamas. And part of the reason he did that was to split the Palestinians and because he didn't want to do a peace deal with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. They have no excuse for not doing a peace deal with them. There's no terrorism coming out of there and there hasn't been for a long, long time. But they want to occupy them and they want to grab more land and put more settlers in.

So they encouraged Netanyahu, encouraged Hamas, funded Hamas. It's Israeli press that's covering this. And after he built up Hamas, and then Hamas attacks and kills his own civilians, he still doesn't care about his own civilians. He doesn't care about his own hostages, because they got to grab that land. This is not an Israeli way of thinking, and it's definitely not a Jewish way of thinking. It is a right wing way of thinking. Do not let these monsters define who you are.

When we come back from the break, we'll talk about the hatred that's spilling over here. to the United States where a halal cart vendor was viciously harassed by a former Obama administration official. We've got that story and more coming up. Don't miss it. Back on T.I.T. Jank, Anna, we need her seven. Thank you for joining. We appreciate you in Benjamin Royal, gifting five young tourist memberships as usual. You're awesome, Benjamin. All right, Anna. Just a fair warning. If you have issues with high blood pressure, be careful with this next story, because I definitely experienced a spike in mind. Let's go. But you're a terrorist. You support terrorism.

Listen, go. I'm not suburb something. Do you support terrorism? I'm not some, go. I'm just working here. You're a terrible person. You kill children, not me. What? My kids? What about my kids? You kill children, not me, go.

I didn't kill children. Okay, why see here? You know why? If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn't enough. It wasn't enough. Go. The man you just witnessed harassing

a halal cart vendor in New York City has been identified. His name is Stuart Seldowitz, who not only served in the Obama administration, but actually had a pretty high level position. He was the deputy director and senior political officer in the United States State Department's Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs for a long time, okay, from 1999 to 2003. So in that four year period, he served in that very specific role. And it's important to keep that in mind as we show you more video footage of the kind of harassment he engages in of various, I guess,

halal cart vendors. So sadly that video was just a small glimpse of the verbal abuse that he is engaging in. X users have actually posted three separate videos of him harassing the vendor whose identity is unknown for now. It's unknown when each video took place or which like when these specific incidents took place. But the accounts who are posting the video state that the incidents occurred over a two-week time period. So that aside, let's get into more of the footage, and then we'll tell you a little more about who Seldoitz is. First, let's watch Seldowitz repeatedly make some pretty disgusting Islamophobic comments to

the vendor. Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad did? Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad? I don't speak English. You only speak English? No, no English, no. You don't speak English. Yes.

All right. That, see, that just shows how ignorant you are. Because your Muhammad was a rapist. It says in the Hattis. Oh, Muhammad. Your holy book. Oh, Muhammad. What?

Oh, Muhammad. Muhammad, your prophet. You know who means. My prophet? What do you think of that? People who use the Quran as a point. Does it bother you? Does it bother you?

Tell me the truth. I don't speak English. You don't speak English? Ah, speak bad. That's why you're selling food in a food cart, because you're ignorant. What am I thought that you pray to a criminal? Listen, Mr. I'm working now, okay? Can you leave this?

Public. You're not working. I'm just working here. There's nobody here. I'm going to put big signs here that say this guy believes in Hamas. Not only was that Islamophobic and deeply bigoted, it was absolute elitist trash. You're harassing a man who is making an honest living. You're looking down your nose at him like that.

It's just absolutely vicious and disgusting. There's more. That's just the beginning of it, believe it or not. Okay. I hate that this is happening in America. And it's now happening to Jews and Muslims. The poor Jewish guy gets attacked in a rally. Six-year-old Palestinian kid murdered.

Stopped 27 times. Yeah. And this, look, this Stuart Saldowitz guy is, of course, a terrible human being. I mean, he should hide and shame for the rest of his life. He said 4,000 dead Palestinian children, I wish we'd killed more. But okay, so there's terrible human beings across the world, and he happens to be one of them. If you're in any way related to him, you should be deeply embarrassed. And I know it's not your fault, but you should shame them.

for the rest of his life, she never want to be associated with a monster like that. A barbarian who is pro-terrorist, killing civilians and children. That is exactly what terrorists advocate for, and that's exactly what Stuart Seldowitz advocated for. A terrorist cheerleader, that's who that son of a bitch is. Okay, so let's be clear about that. Now, but he's just an individual, 330 million people. I get it, there's hateful people, there's hateful people on all sides, right?

And he doesn't represent everyone, not by a long shot, he doesn't represent his ethnicity, he doesn't represent anyone, he only represents himself, okay? But what I'm concerned about it is that guy was in charge of Palestinian affairs for the United States government for four years. I mean, what do you think he did to Palestinians? It makes a lot of sense, actually, when you consider what U.S. foreign policy toward Palestinians has always been. It makes a lot of sense, okay?

Now, he has been fired from his job. We'll get to that in just a moment, but he's no longer working in the government, right? He had a different job. But I think that unfortunately, his ideology, his hateful, disgusting ideology is what fuels a lot of the policy decisions that are made by the United States government toward innocent Palestinian civilians. This is why I think, you know, there's without any debate, without any question, constant cover for whatever the Israeli government wants. to do. It doesn't matter what the ideological bent is for the Israeli government. Right now, it's super far right, okay, to the point where they threaten their own citizens if they engage in pro-Palestinian protests. I mean, that's not something that's supposed to happen in

a democracy, but that is what's happening currently in Israel. But it doesn't matter. The U.S. government has always provided cover for the Israeli government regardless of what they've done to Palestinians. And what you looked at, that man that you watched in that video, is part of the reason why. This is what he believes. Okay, he's defiant about this. I want to go to one other video. Let's go to the next one where he decides to attack and question the vendor's immigration status.

But you should learn English and it'll help you. Of course, yeah. When they deport you back to Egypt. I don't know, what's your name? It's not your business. You ask me. Now I gave you my answer. You give me your answer.

What? Do you hear legally? No. Why should I go? It's a free country. It's not Egypt here. Okay, I'm going to go to the police. Go. Props to that gentleman for intervening.

I'm grateful that he did that. Now in case if you're wondering whether his identity has been confirmed, he himself has been confirmed. He himself has confirmed his identity to the Daily Beast. He said that he's the one who is, in fact, harassing the vendor. Stuart Seldowitz confirmed to the Daily Beast that he was indeed the man recorded. The bottom line is, yes, it's me, Seldewitt said. And so did he defend his actions? He attempted to.

Seldowitz told the Daily Beast that the footage only shows one side of the story and that the vendor touched things off by expressing his support for Hamas. There's no way that's true. I don't believe, yeah. This guy's deeply racist. We saw it on tape. There's no way he's telling the truth. about anyone of Arab or Muslim background.

No way. He asked him if he rapes his daughter. Come on, what kind of a sick man is this? Who would ever hire a sick racist like Stuart Seldowitz? Who? Who in their right mind? You're saying, oh, if I hire that guy, I'm advocating for the death of Palestinian children and deeply, deeply racist against all Arabs and Muslims.

Going around asking random people he thinks are Muslim if they raped their daughters? Who would hire a monster like that? Why don't you say, my company, company loves monsters and racist if you hire a guy like this? Oh, you don't like it when it's public. When you thought you had power over that vendor because he's poor, you were happy to mock him and belittle him and what? You were trying to agitate him until he does something? Then you could get him what arrested or beaten or whatever you were trying to do.

But now that it's public, I'm sure all of a sudden you caught feelings, didn't you? This affects me, my life. But when you're beating down on a poor guy who doesn't have any power, then you were a tough guy, weren't you, Stuart? You're a disgrace to anyone associated with you. So just to be clear about what his position was in the government, Seldowitz was acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under Obama and was deputy director slash senior political officer.

in the US State Department's Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003. Now, if you're wondering, you know, what happened after these videos were released, you know, there's obviously a lot of backlash toward him as a result of his harassment. Well, we found out that he was employed by, as the Foreign Affairs Chair for Gotham government relations, which The Daily Beast has described as a powerful lobbying and political communication shop. This afternoon, Gotham stated that Seldowitz hasn't contributed to our work in years and all affiliation with him is ended. But as you can probably tell, that statement kind of conflicts with the press release. So there is something fishy. Like I don't know. Like the press release

notes that he's still working for them, but then they claim, no, no, he hasn't been working with us for a while and he's been relieved of duty. So I don't know. I don't know what the truth is. It seems as though they've let him go. But I would not want to be that guy's employer. I mean, he's just a ticking time bomb. The fact that he felt emboldened enough to speak to someone, a freaking vendor in the streets of New York City that way tells you a lot of what he feels he should be allowed to do and say. It says a lot about you if you hire that guy knowing his track record, especially given that he hasn't apologized. Look, man, I overall, I don't like cancel culture.

I don't want to go and have people, you know, hounded for the rest of their lives fired, never can get a job, et cetera. But I just said it in this clip. Why? Because the guy didn't even apologize. He has no morals, no qualms, no decency at all. And the thing that sickens me most is that he thought he had power over those guys. That's why he was rubbing in in their face.

Ha, ha, you're poor. Ha, ha, you're Arabs. So you rape your daughters. What kind of a sick person does that and doesn't even apologize? And at this point, if he apologize to get his job back, who believes this guy? Come on. That guy doesn't look like he, he doesn't have a non-racist bone in his body. You can feel the hatred for Muslims pouring from every poor. But I'm telling you right now, do not make the same mistake that he's making. Do not double that hatred. He doesn't represent anyone else. He doesn't represent his background at all. He's just an individual, a deeply despicable individual, but do not go around spreading. that hatred no matter who it is and where it goes. Because that that hatred is what brings the all the poison into the world in the first place, no matter who you're doing it to. All right, let's switch gears entirely and talk about some of the other issues in our country today, including the possible dismantling of the Civil Rights Act.

So, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a ruling that could further gut the Voting Rights Act by allowing only federal government, only the federal government, rather than individuals, private citizens, or civil rights groups to sue under a key section. of the law. So the appellate court, according to Politico, ruled that there is no private right of action for Section 2 of the law, which prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race. That, in practice, would severely limit the scope of the protections under Section 2. So on paper, those protections are themselves completely unchanged by the ruling. Like the language hasn't changed, everything's the same. It's just that the interpretation of this court of appeal, has changed the meaning of what the law actually allows for. So for decades, it's important to keep in mind, put this all in context.

For decades, private parties, including civil rights groups, and individual voters and political parties have actually brought Section 2 challenges on things like redistricting, so gerrymandering, or voter ID requirements, right? This is a way for people to challenge changes in. election laws on a state level. Now, after reviewing the text, history, and structure of the Voting Rights Act, the district court concluded that private parties cannot enforce Section 2, the judges wrote. The enforcement power belongs solely to the Attorney General of the United States. So this means that a decision to bar private challenges to the Voting Rights Act

would reserve decade, or I should say reverse decades of legal practice. It also means that outside groups have repeatedly brought successful Section 2 challenges and litigate alleged violations of the law far more frequently than the federal government does. And if this interpretation stands, then it will erase all of that. Moving forward, this practice will no longer be allowed by private citizens or civil rights groups or other organizations. Only the federal government can bring forth these challenges to election laws. So I have, I'm going to introduce nuance to this in a second. But first, the first part is easy. So why is this conservative court doing this?

Because they don't want the NAACP and private individuals bring forth cases. Because there'll be a lot more cases. And there's a second reason why. They know that the federal government, if it's run by a Republican president, won't accept any challenges. You can do anything you like, you can redistrict so that the black folks have no representation in any of these states. And a Republican president like Trump's gonna be like, great, why would I want less seats?

I want more seats, who cares about racism? That's hilarious. I mean, if you heard anything Donald Trump is saying, he doesn't mind racism one bit. So this court goes, oh great, when we're in charge, we'll get to be as racist as we like. So yes, so that's the terrible part, the obvious part. So voting rights act is being destroyed right in front of our eyes. And it was one of the great landmarks of American politics that we were able to protect minorities to laws like the Voting Rights Act.

That's right. Oh, go ahead, drink. So where's the nuance coming? Look, I hate the gerrymandering in the states. And so some of these districts get gerrymandered. So they're black districts and white districts and left-leaning districts and right-leaning districts. And the politicians are in essence picking their voters. Right.

Instead of the voters picking their politicians. It's an effort to basically dilute certain demographics of voters to help a particular party get an edge in elections. And both parties do it for sure. I do think it's important to remember that there's a recent case out of Alabama in which gerrymandering in an effort to dilute the black vote was challenged. And so this interpretation of section two in the Voting Rights Act would not allow for this type of case to be brought forth and this, you know, gerrymandering to be challenged. The Supreme Court cited this summer with a group of civil rights groups and individual voters who argued that Alabama's congressional maps

likely violated the Voting Rights Act, which led to the court ordered creation of an additional majority black district next year. Thomas pointedly noted in his dissent in that case that the court had not addressed the private right of action question. By the way, this Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision is very likely going to be challenged all the way of the Supreme Court. We know that there are at least two Supreme Court justices who have a similar interpretation. Neil Gorsuch is one, and clearly Justice Thomas is the other. Yeah. And. And I want you to understand how gerrymandering works. What they do is they stuff all the Democratic voters into a small number of districts.

So the Republicans in the red states, so the Republicans can win more seats. But now in order to do that, your, the Republicans have a smaller percentage buffer for them to win. And they take, for example, with South Carolina, and take as many black voters as they can and put it in a Jim Clyburn seat. And a lot of the elite black Democratic politicians betray their own people. And Jim Clyburn is the number one example of that. And he worked, and this is reported out recently, he worked with Republicans secretly in his own state to make sure that blacks had less representation.

As long as his seat was more safe. Because he's like, oh, you're going to give me all the black voters. So there's not two black districts. There's only one. But my seat's going to be safer and I'm going to have more power. I'd love to work with you racist Republicans. I'd love that. That's who Jim Clyburn is.

That's how a lot of these elite politicians in D.C. are like, oh, I am the right skin color. I am the right identity. So you should vote for me and you should support me. You're not allowed to criticize me. Yeah, what did you do for black voters? Who cares that you're black? What did you do for black voters?

And what you did was you betrayed them if you're Jim Clyburn. And so that's among the hundred reasons why I hate gerrymandering. And I'm not alone, 90% of Americans, both Republicans. voters and Democratic voters hate gerrymandering, because what they do is they take all choice away from us. So the reality is that these districts should not be based on race or which politician it favors. It should be done in a neutral way so that everyone is represented, but we don't live in that world. Instead, it's going to get gerrymandered, and now thanks to this decision, it's going to be further gerrymandered in a racist direction to wipe out even more black voter

voting districts. So we'll see how this plays out, like I said, while at this current moment, it's unclear what the next plan of action is for those challenging the Eighth Circuit Court's interpretation of the Voting Rights Act, it is likely going to be challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court. And look, to be frank, I was pleasantly surprised at how the United States Supreme Court, as conservative as it is, ruled in regard to the racist gerrymandering that took place in Alabama. So I think it would be a mistake to just automatically predict that they are going to agree with what the

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals is saying here, how they've ruled. We'll see how it plays out. But if they do agree with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, it will mean that the Voting Rights Act, which was already previously gutted by the Supreme Court, will be further dismantled. And it'll be more more difficult for civil rights groups and private individuals to challenge election laws in various states. One last thing. You know, right wing all of a sudden loves activist judges. So when it's activists in their direction, they're like, oh yeah, you're going to come up with a new precedent that didn't exist before? Can we just, can we just, let's be frank about something, okay? All right. Everyone loves activist judges. Everyone. Okay, you just don't like it when the activist judges aren't on your side.

Let's just keep it real, Jank. We all know it. You know it, I know it, the American people know it. I've been perfectly consistent about it my whole life. Right. But you're not wrong, everyone else. The minute it's an activist judge in their direction, whether it's on the issue of abortion or the issue of money in politics, all of a sudden, they flip positions instantly.

I've never flipped positions on it. Judges are supposed to interpret the law, not write it out of whole cloths. They just keep writing laws. And the number one benefactor guys isn't the right wing or the left wing, it's corporations. They took out, this is what the whole point of my book is, justice is coming, they took over the Supreme Court and allowed for nonstop corporate bribery and rule in America. And they literally said in the memo that created that, we want activist judges in order to take over the Supreme Court and hand it over to the Chamber of Commerce.

That's how we're all getting screwed. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we'll talk about Elon Musk's lawsuit against the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America. Does he have a case? Well, we'll parse it all out when we return. 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 slash t-y-t.

I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.