The Young Turks - Israel Escalation Explained

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

Rocket fire in the Gaza strip has killed 26 Palestinians and 2 Israelis as the U.S. promotes Israel’s right to continue killing innocent people, including children. 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. All right, well, look at the church, Jane Cougar, Anna Casparian, Dr. Deborah D and Munar al-Qadi. with you. So those two folks who just joined by hit the join button, they're doing a preemptive membership here. I think that the

words out in the street is going to be kind of a killer show. So people are like, we've got to join right away. The bonus episode, even more amazing, that's for the members. So people are like, hit the joy button like crazy. Don't break it guys. Don't break the button. That's on YouTube. You know if you got Amazon Prime, it's

free for you on Twitch. You go to t.yt.com slash prime. Very easy to understand. Tyot.com slash join is, of course, the godfather of all joints. Okay, that was a random plug for membership in the beginning, just because I saw your names and I love you guys. Let's do the news, Casper. Let's freak it do the news. There's a lot going on in the world. Let's talk about it. There's yeah, well, let's talk. Let's yell at times. Let's laugh at times. It's TY2. Probably no laughing today, but anyway, proceed.

Israel says it hit Hamas military targets, but this morning, Gazins inspected collateral damage, property, and in the past 24 hours of widespread violence, say Palestinian authorities more than 400 were wounded and 24 killed. Unfortunately, the violent conflict between Israeli and the Palestinians continue today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committing to increased airstrikes in Gaza. In fact, some of those airstrikes led to the collapse of a 13-story residential building in Gaza, the residents of that building were given an hour to evacuate before the attack occurred. So far, we're learning that the death count on both sides has increased, but certainly

the death count is much higher on the Palestinian side, with now 28 people killed, including 10 children and one woman. Israel claims that 16 of those individuals were Hamas militants, although that has not been confirmed. Hamas, of course, has retaliated. with rocket strikes of their own. And what we're also learning is that, you know, Netanyahu is not in any way planning on backing off. In fact, he says that he plans on using even more force. He says following a situational assessment, it was decided that both the might of the attacks and the frequency of the attacks will be increased on Gaza.

Hamas will receive blows now that it didn't expect. Israel also mobilized 5,000 reserve soldiers in order to go to the border between Israel and Gaza. And so, as you can see, unfortunately, the situation continues to escalate. More people are getting killed. And it's just absolutely devastating. I have more details, but Jank, I wanted to give you an opportunity to jump in. Yeah. So Dan Yahoo says Gaza will get a tax they didn't expect.

No, they expect it. So you murdering Palestinian kids is the norm. It's not the exception. Nobody's going to be surprised by it. So what, nine both days and counting, right? And right now they look like they have about roughly 20 to 1 kill rate, 20 Palestinians for one Israeli. And Israel usually likes to keep that around 100 to 1. And maybe the kids are 20 to 1, as in 20 Palestinian kids for one Israeli citizen, right?

And of course, it's the usual excuses by the right-wing government of Israel and their military that lies every time. So Hamas is firing rockets from where they live. That's unacceptable. So we're going to knock down 13-story buildings. We're going to kill the kids. We're going to kill the grandmothers because Hamas is hiding behind them. There was nothing we could do. It's, look, that's only for suckers and for people who just want to believe the Israeli side no matter what happens, right?

By the way, the Palestinian should make the same excuses. I don't want either one of them firing missiles. I don't want either one of them killing each other. I'll get to how we can stop that in a second. But Israel says, hey, we were trying, we were kind of trying to hit military places, kind of wink, wink. we just happen to kill all your kids instead. So I don't see why the Palestinians don't say, yeah, we were aiming for Israeli military installations.

But their aim sucks, and their rockets suck, and they don't have Iron Dome, so they hit somewhere else. Like, do I like that excuse? I hate that excuse. But that's the same excuse Israel uses. When Israel uses it, everybody high fives. High fives. Oh, collateral damage.

You killed the people's kids. So what? So what? So what? collateral damage. You were trying to kind of hit somebody as a militant in the middle of a city. And people buy it. Like, that's a real excuse. And the reason I say the Palestinians should use it is because if the Palestinians use it, everybody would be outraged. They'd be like, how dare you lie like that? But it's word for word what Israel is saying. No, we believe Israel. We don't

believe Palestinians because Palestinians aren't people. They don't count. So let me get to my constructive solution real quick, Anna. Before you do, though, let me just give you more details because I think it's important for people to understand that, like, the way it gets presented by some in the media, although it's interesting, I am seeing a difference in, I guess, the tone of some of these reports, whereas before it seemed as though no matter what, Benjamin Netanyahu would be defended, supported, and there was a lot of both sides nonsense going on. I'm seeing a little bit of a change, but certainly not enough in terms of telling the truth about what's happening on the ground, and how, you know, every time we see this conflict happen, you know, 2014 was the, I guess, most recent example of things becoming as violent and intense as they are now. There was just this weird effort to make it seem as though both of them have the same military capability, both are using the same level of force, when in reality, Israel's side, the Israeli government is using disproportionate force, Disproportional force, disproportionate force by using their military capability.

They also have the Iron Dome that helps to intercept the rockets that Hamas is, yes, using against Israel. They are intercepting most of them. There are a few that made contact in Tel Aviv. Luckily, from what we know, the damage, though, is not as intense as what we're seeing in Gaza. In Gaza, as I mentioned, there's a 13-story building. that's completely collapsed. Yes, Israel used the same excuse of, you know, children are dying, but those children are being used as human shields.

So what can we do? Total liars, by the way. There are people using, in a past, have used kids as civilian shields. It was Israeli military. There's pictures of it. There's a video of it. They take little Palestinian kids and put them in front of the soldiers and advance with weapons with soldiers in front of them.

And then they have, and then they just turn around with a straight face and say, oh, no. It's Palestinians that do it. So if you believe the military of really almost any country and you're a reporter, you're a schmuck and you're a useful idiot. Oh, the Pentagon said it, so it must be true. The Israeli defense forces said it, it must be true. The Turkish military said it, it must be true. The Saudi military said it, it must be true.

I mean, who's that stupid? By the way, in America, usually most of the reporters. But to be fair to them, as Anna said, they've actually done a pretty good job here of pointing out casualties on both sides. Right, a little better than usual. A little, way better than usual, not anywhere near reality, but way better than usual, I'm being fair. Yeah, just a few more things real quick. And then the other thing that seems to be left out of the conversation quite often is how this started in the first place.

Like, who is the aggressor here? Because, yes, there is a longstanding conflict between the Israeli government and the Palestinians. But the truth of the matter is that conflict was dormant until all of a sudden Benjamin Nenya, who decided to do very specific things to antagonize Palestinians, and that has led to the conflict that we're experiencing right now. So for instance, the clashes started at the beginning of Ramadan a month ago when Israeli police actually put barriers to stop people sitting in the Damascus Gate Plaza from being able to practice their religion, you know, do their religious ceremonies. And so, of course, the Palestinians saw that as a provocation. And this is the area

where they would gather during Ramadan, so you can understand the timing of it as well. Also an Israeli plan to evict Palestinians from their home. We talked about that yesterday, and so that's in Sheikh Jaraa specifically. All of these actions led to an escalation of violence. So you have to also keep in mind who the aggressor is here, rather than just simply both sidesing it and acting as if they're both simultaneously increasing the violence and the tension. So that's the oldest trick in the book in the Middle East. Oh, he started it, he started it, you can't tell, we're done with it.

So I kill 10 or 100 times as many as their people, but they half our guys think they started it so it's okay. And we got the idiot American reporters to say that they can't tell and we're done with it, right? I'll come back to why America is so important in that context. But in this case, it's the clear as day. There's one very obvious answer to who started. And it's not the case every time. In this case, it was Netanyahu. He's got political interests.

He can't form a government. Not only is Anna right about every fact that she stated, you can go look up, those are absolute stone cold facts, right? But he raided the Alaksa Mosque. Yeah, twice. And there was no justification for it. They didn't even bother presenting any evidence that there was any agitation there. They just said it.

And because they know that at a bare minimum, most of the reporters in the world, but especially American reporters, will call it 50-50. And they will write it 50-50. The Israeli government says that somebody threw a stone, no evidence provided. Hey, they just happened to have this giant like raid ready to go and that they launched. It wasn't like impromptu and the two cops went in and they had to go back them up. No, they had the raid planned for political reasons. There's no question that Israel started here.

Obviously there's schmucks here in America who are right wing and who just they hate, they're racist, they hate Palestinians, they're bigots, They hate Muslims, so they just say, oh, no, the Palestinians started. Maybe in other instances, you could do a little bit of that and depending on the situation. And this one, it's crystal clear. But it doesn't matter. They shut off their brain. They're not having a real conversation. So now, we're unbiased.

So I'll tell you right now, they'll say, oh, no, that's not. How can you claim to be unbiased when you just told us the facts that Israel's at fault? Because they're the facts. That's what unbiased means. It doesn't mean you, it means you don't blindly support one side of the fact. or the other. I'm not blindly supporting the Palestinians. Hamas should not fire rockets into Israel. Okay, here, furthermore, I love that Israel has Iron Dome. I've seen Iron Dome shooting down those missiles. Every missile of Hamas that Iron Dome shoots down saves lives, or potentially saves lives.

So I'm thrilled that America gave Israel Iron Dome. Now, my question to the right wing in this country is, will you be equally fair and say we should also give Iron Dome to the Palestinians? Pause, let the right wing heads explode. No way, this okay, you're crazy, you gave it to the terrorists. Wait, wait, wait. What if I'm happy that we're saving Israeli citizens' lives, why wouldn't you be happy that we're saving Palestinian civilians' lives? Because you don't want to save Palestinian civilian lives. Oh, but they're terrorists.

Okay, wait, hold on, let's break this down. So both sides are bombing each other. One side bombing the other side way more, killing way more, including their kids. And the side killing more people is the one that started it, and has the bigger weapons and kills more people, and they both are doing it for political reasons. Remind me who the terrorists are again. Look, in the old days, they just say terrorists and Muslim, and it was over. You don't know that if you're young, you don't know the bad old days.

For 20 years, as I've been doing news in this country, you are not allowed to defend Palestinians. If you did, you were immediately called a terrorist lover. and it worked because it wasn't just the right wing. It was the mainstream media. New York Times and NBC and CNN. They would all call you terrorist sympathizer if you dared say one positive word about Palestinians in general. They were oppressive. And then I asked the question, and before you weren't allowed to ask these questions, and we did it anyway.

And that's why we have our own company, and we don't go work for people who have other interests. Okay. So it we're asking the same thing. What the hell is, what is a terrorist? So when America bombs a wedding, we go, oh, well, they had it coming. They were terrorists. Who the hell is they? Who the hell is they, right? And if when they, if they bombed our wedding in America, we'd call them terrorists and we'd hate them forever. We bombed their weddings. We're not a terrorist. We're not, because why? Because I don't know, identity. We're Americans and they're Muslims. And those civilians who we killed through our drone strikes, they were just collateral damage. That's it. They were just collateral damage.

Okay, can Hamas say that? Oh, no, no. Every Israeli civilian killed was just collateral damage. It's okay. Can you imagine if they said that? It's okay, the Israelis were just collateral damage. But we say it about Palestinians as if it's totally normal. So when I say, hey, why can't we give Iron Dome to the Palestinians?

So they're also safe. So people don't die on either side, I guarantee you everyone in Washington, well, mine is now a couple of and progressives, would be outraged. How could you protect the lives of Muslims? Muslims? Palestinians, aren't they all terrorists? Of course we can't protect their citizens' lives. We can't protect their babies' lives.

You know what a bomb does to a baby when it lands? It incinerates it. Nine children were incinerated today by the Israeli military. That's very uncomfortable for those of us who want Israel to survive and thrive. and be a great democracy in the Middle East. But they did do that. They did do that. Yeah.

And you want peace in that region, right? I mean, for everyone, including Israeli citizens who have now been put in harm's way as a result of Netanyahu's actions, three Israelis are dead, right? So three Israelis, including today the latest Israeli casualty was a 50-year-old woman. And this is a situation that did not need to happen. Again, where did the aggression begin? And it started with Benjamin Nenya, who taking very specific actions with the intent to anger religious Palestinians who are trying to practice their own religion during this

time. That's what this was all about. I want to go to a video in just a second that gives you a really great summary of exactly what he's done, because it's important to see where this started. But before we get to that, I also want to provide some evidence of the kind of brutality that members of the Israeli military have been conducting. And once they see that reporters are filming them, maybe they change their minds a little bit because they don't want to be filmed,

maybe throwing grenades at innocent people. Take a look. An ambulance there, they were journalists. Here we go, look at this, here we go. Oh, he's just told him it to throw. You can see it. They saw the camera and didn't show. But there you can see in his hands.

It was happening off camera was an ambulance. I'm not sure if you could hear the reporter, but the reporter was referring to an ambulance that was off screen or off camera, and that member of the Israeli military was going to throw a grenade at them. Why? Why? What's the need? Yeah, I don't know if that's a stun grenade, tear gas, whatever it is. I think it's a stun grenade. Yeah.

And of course, you don't throw it when the cameras are rolling because you're embarrassed at what you're doing because it's a war crime. But Israel commits war crimes on the regular. Every one of these conflicts, they commit war crimes. And again, it's not, guys, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. The problem is state power. It's not just Israel. China commits war crimes, America commits war crimes, Turkey commits war crimes.

Oh my God, Saudi Arabia, endless war crimes in Yemen, right? But our media loves, generally speaking, loves people in power. So when the state does it, it's not terrorism. When someone fights back, oh, that terrorist! Terrorists murder their kids! Murder their kids! And call it collateral damage. But that's literal, guys.

It makes you super uncomfortable, some of you, right? But it's literal. So here, effect those rights in our member section. Where the hell's the U.N.? Netanyahu is clearly committed. war crimes by murdering civilians? What's the point of having charges of war crimes if we can't charge Israel or the U.S. with them? Look, the U.N. can jump in and eventually they probably will two years from now, right? And they'll say that usually what they find is that, yes,

the Israeli military was not just targeting military outposts. They were just hitting civilians to teach them a lesson. Because, you know, Palestinians are children. They need to be taught a lesson. They're not real people. They're not sentient human beings. You know, they only understand, they're savages that only understand violence. That's why we had to murder them. They only understand violence because we, that's why we had to murder them. Okay, and that's literally the things that they say.

And right-wing idiots in this country go, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, we had to murder the people who believe only in violence. We had to murder, murder, murder, murder them because they believe in violence. Okay, but in this case, the UN is useless. There's only one power in the world that matters here. It's the United States of America. Yep. And as long as we say, Israel can do no wrong, and we're not going to do a goddamn thing about it,

no matter how many kids they kill, and no matter how obvious it is that Netanyahu started this conflict, and he did it for political reasons, and no matter how many war crimes Netanyahu commits, there's no way in the world of American government is ever going to do anything about it. That's why Israel is empowered to be lawless. And by the way, you think that helps Israel? It doesn't, it destroys the moral character of a nation when their allies and friends will not hold them accountable. Once you have someone who can go above the law, international law or otherwise, and act with impunity, they will act with impunity.

And that doesn't help that country. It hurts that country. But we can't get people to see straight because the right wing rule all over the world. Honestly, that's the case. And by the way, Israelis, I love you. But stop voting for war criminals and war mongers. Same goes for Americans. Same goes for Turks.

Same goes for everyone. But in the case of Israel, you're ruining the country. You're ruining it by saying, yes, we want tyrants in charge. We want murderers in charge, right? Oh, yeah, they killed two of us and we want to kill 200 of them. What does that leave you with? Do you really think that's the moral position? And do you think starting fights like this is the moral position?

Why don't you look inside yourself, inside your own heart, and find the great culture that I know exists there and actually do something moral to stop this madness? When we come back from the break, we'll give you the U.S. State Department's position on this, and as you can expect, it's not great. See you in a few minutes. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fitting the Republic, or U.S. The Republic, or, you know, UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic

that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must have learned what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been

fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be able to be. You know, So, you know, so

You know, I'm going to Bye. Super Chat, Giant Pie 12 says, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza says death toll from the ongoing Israeli airstrikes to reach 32, including 10 children, and 220 others have been wounded.

Peter Hamby on YouTube Super Chat says, is bad enough when a leader like Netanyahu murders kids for his racism? It's absolutely disgusting when the mainstream media glorifies and praise the leader for this behavior. What if it was their kids, huh? I remember we once asked Dave Rubin about that on a show we did back when he was here.

And I think it was Steveo asked him, what if it was, because Israel was bombing in elementary school. And he said, what if it was in an elementary school, your kids were in? He was fine with it. Yeah, and Dave was like, that's an unacceptable question. Well, why is it unacceptable? Because in his mind, his kids matter. They're actual human beings. Palestinian kids are not human.

So you just murder them any way you like. Apparently he doesn't like some ideas. Yeah, yeah. Apparently that idea was too hot for him. Yeah. Okay, Kevin Carlton and Jordan Kethler. Thank you guys for joining by on YouTube by hitting the join button below. I got so many here.

Chicago Ghanai says from our member section, of course a lot of America support Israeli colonialism. I mean, America was found on colonialism. Good point. Mr. Fioruva says, isn't Gaza like the Holy Land? Shouldn't God be pissed since they're shooting this holy place with rockets and missiles? I got news for you, which you obviously know. He doesn't exist, nor is it Holy Land. There's nothing holy about it.

It's just a murdering ground for different religious people to kill each other over and over again. Dragon was a girl tattoo makes a good point. Wait what? I thought Jared Kushner created peace in the Middle East. Remember when the Trump people were like, no, no, no, Jared solved it. He got the United Arab Emirates to recognize Israel when they were already best allies. It's already solved. Does it look solved, guys?

Does it look like Jared Kushner should have been in charge of foreign policy for the United States? We'll be back. Thank you. All right, back on a Young Turks, Jenk and Anna with you guys. All right, more on the Israeli story. As the death toll increases through this Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the State Department has been asked to weigh in and give an official statement on it. And so, unfortunately, we're about to hear from its spokesperson who will not commit to an answer

condemning the death of Palestinian children and innocent civilians. Let's take a look at the first video where one reporter actually challenges him on the narrative coming from the State Department on this conflict. When in fact one side has F-35s, they're bombing the Palestinians. In fact, that's the only place on earth where the F-35 has been used in combat. And the others have stones. I mean, what is this both sides? Like, one side is occupying and the other side is being occupied.

Could you care to explain what is the both sideism here? Well, most recently we have called on all sides to the escalate. That includes Hamas. So that has been our message since late last week. It is our message now. So, I mean, the U.S. State Department's messaging on Israel overall hasn't been changed. They have put out statements about how Israel has the right to defend itself, even though Israel was the aggressors dating back to a month ago when they decided to restrict

the rights of Palestinians to practice their religion within Israel. They also raided the Alaksa Mosque, not once but twice. And they also limited the number of Palestinians who can go there to practice their religion. And of course, as we've shared with you, they're also trying to evict Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in Israel as well. And so to both sides this is absolutely ridiculous. And the real question is, you know, while the United States government believes that Israel has the right to defend itself from any aggressor, including Hamas or, you know, any other potential adversary, does the U.S. State Department believe that Palestinians have the right to defend themselves since they're not the ones

who started this conflict to begin with? So that's a great question. And one they're about to ask him and he is going to be stone cold busted, right? The hypocrisy is going to be through the roof. But even on this, we, you know, are asking for caution from both sides, and that's why we blamed Hamas. That didn't sound like both sides. It sounded like you were just blaming one side, the side that didn't start it, okay, and the side that's getting butchered right now.

That's what it sounded like, because that's what it was, but it's about to get way worse. So let's go to this next clip, and the real question is, do Palestinians have the right to defend themselves? The question is asked to this U.S. State Department spokesperson, Ned Price. We're speaking of the principle of self-defense. I'm asking if you think that the principle of self-defense applies to the retaliatory, the airstrikes that they're conducting in response. This is a very fluid situation.

I would hesitate to comment on operations beyond the rocket fire that is clearly targeting innocent civilians in Israel. So I would hesitate to speak to specific operations that have just occurred. But the broader principle of self-defense is something we stand by on behalf of Israel and every other country. Do you think that Israeli military response to the rockets coming in, a military response to the rockets coming in is covered by this broader rubric of self-defense, right? Self-defense often does authorize the use of force.

So he's giving a pretty wishy-washy answer there. First, let me just give credit to the reporters asking the questions in the first place, because as long as I've been doing this job, I honestly haven't seen that type of framing in the questions being asked of the U.S. State Department on this particular conflict. So it is fascinating to see how things have changed just a little bit, and that's a positive thing, because these difficult questions do need to be asked. But secondly, you know, the narrative regarding aggression by Hamas is skewed in, you know, the answer by Ned Price there. Because three Israeli civilians have died as a result of this conflict. On the Palestinian side in Gaza, to just today, a 13-story residential building collapsed as a result of, you know, air strikes done by the Israeli government. And then there's also the fact that 28 Israelis are dead, 10 of whom were children, one was a woman.

And so every time this conflict comes up, while the U.S. government would like to do this both sides' argument, the truth of the matter is it's an uneven conflict, certainly with military capability and the aggression used. Yeah, so you're being very generous to Ned Price. Ned Price is basically acting as a spokesperson for Israel, not for the United States of America. If you want to cry about that, you can, but it's super obvious. Here, look at what he said. Hey, if the Israelis have a right to do self-defense, do the Palestinians have one, too? Because you said it was a broad principle. You heard him say it on the tape.

It's a broad principle. If you're struck, you can do self-defense. Well, it's a fluid situation. So you're asking me to comment on the Palestinian casualties. I won't comment on him because, what, are they human? They're not human, right? So it's the broad principle apparently does not apply to them. It only applies to the Israelis.

And you said it was a fluid situation, but then you told us Hamas did the attacks against, did the rocket fire on Israel. Wait, I thought you said it was fluid and you didn't know the facts on the ground. But you know Israel struck Hamas. So how is one side fluid and the other side isn't fluid? Or perhaps you're a liar purposely defending your so-called ally, no matter what the facts are. that America is neutral in this is hilarious. Let's stop the fiction. Reporters, that was amazing, there's more, okay? But can you guys also ask them, are you guys still pretending to be neutral? It's obvious that you lie on behalf of the Israeli

government every single time, fluid my ass, and you have now had a chance in that price. Have you come back out and said, yes, good point by them. Broad principle, just like I stated, of self-defense, the Palestinians have a right to self-defense, and that's why they fired the missiles into Israel after they were attacked. No, you didn't say that. You would never say that. You would, and look, I get it. You would never say Hamas is a right to defend itself by firing missiles.

But you say every time Israel has a right to murder their kids, self-defense, self-defense. Self-defense. So why? Why uneven? Look, if you're in the rest of the world, you're wondering why I'm harping on this, what I'm saying, the most obvious thing in the world. That's because you don't live in America. In America, there's this, like, literally insanity where everybody's like, no, facts don't need to apply.

And logic doesn't need to apply. Israel, golden and always right, Palestinians lower than dirt and don't count as human beings. I know you can't believe it, right? You can't, no, that's the assumption of almost everyone in power here in America. So let me just say that Ned Price is simply carrying out the beliefs of the commander in chief. because Joe Biden, as someone who's had a long standing political career, has certainly weighed in on this conflict between Israel and Palestine. There's no question. In fact, let me give you some specifics. Believe it or not, back in 2001, the Bush administration had a little

pushback for Israel. So in 2001, when the Bush administration criticized Israel's policy of assassinated, suspected, suspected Palestinian militants, Biden disagreed with that criticism. He was actually to the right of the Bush administration on this. He said, quote, my view has always been that disagreements between Israel and the United States, those differences should be aired privately, not publicly. Like, in other words, how dare George W. Bush, the warmonger Republican, criticize our beloved Israel. I'm going to go to the right of him.

That's who Joe Biden is. You think Joe Biden's going to be fair to the Palestinians? All this progressive happy talk in Washington. Oh, he's the next FDR. He's the next LBJ. Who are you guys kidding? Who are you kidding? No, he's going to do, he's going to privately encourage Netanyahu his friend.

He who he loves. Netanyahu is a tyrant. When Trump said the tyrants were terrible tyrants who were his friends like Kim Jong-un, everybody was like, oh, I can't. And Mohammed bin Salman. Oh, Trump is such a bad guy. And he was. Biden says the tyrant Netanyahu killing kids right in front of our eyes.

Who clearly started this conflict is a wonderful beloved guy. Oh, yeah, Biden, humanitarian, let's give a Nobel Peace Prize. Get out of here. Look, the powerful in this country are giant hypocrites. And I want to sorry, Anna, one more thing. This isn't just about Israel. It's the powerful versus the powerless. It happens in every context.

Trayvon Martin, every right winger in this country said that George Zimmerman had a right to defend himself because Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old kid, might have hit him. He didn't, but they say, oh, he might, he might, he might have hit him. So Zimmerman had the right to defend himself by murdering the kid with a gun. When I asked the right winger on this show, I said, well, did Trayvon have a right to defend himself? Zimmerman had the gun and pursued him. Did Trayvon have a right to defend himself? No.

The powerless don't ever have a right to defend themselves. Only the powerful do, according to the right wing, which only cares about the powerful. and generally speaking, the U.S. media, which thinks the powerful are the beloved and the powerless are the people you have to crush. Again, exception of those two wonderful reporters you saw in that video. There is a few more videos I want to get to, including this next one, where the deaths of children is brought up, and Ned Price is asked specifically whether or not he condemns those deaths. Let's watch. Talk about what you said about the principle of self-defense. any way apply to the Palestinian? Do they have a right to self-defense? Do Palestinians have a right to

self-defense? I'm in broadly speaking, Saeed. We believe in the concept of self-defense, we believe it applies to any state. I don't think that I certainly wouldn't want my words to be construed. I understand. I want to ask you, I don't want to harp on this either, but, you know, the Israelis killed 13 people just now, you know, including maybe five or six children. Do you condemn Do you condemn the killing of children? Saeed. I'm asking, do you condemn the killing of Palestinian children? Obviously, in these reports are just emerging.

And I understand, I was just speaking to the team. I understand we don't have independent confirmation of facts on the ground yet. So I'm very hesitant to get into reports that are just emerging. Obviously, the deaths of civilians, be they Israeli or Palestinians, are something we would take very seriously. Okay. No, no, hold on. Okay, give me one minute, please.

Okay. Why don't you just condemn the killing of children, period, period. I condemn the killing of children. Why can't they do that? Why is it so controversial? Even in this context, should just say that it is worth condemning the death of children as a result of this ridiculous conflict. Why is that a hard thing to say? They're so afraid to say anything that might upset Benjamin Netanyahu, which like drives me crazy.

Look, I don't know why. It's the easiest thing in the world. world to condemn the death of children. But he can't even get himself to do that. They're so terrified of Netanyahu. Someone who, by the way, we have not only provided the Iron Dome for, but we have also increased military spending for, increased U.S. foreign aid toward. Our tax money, taxpayer money, is being used to fund the murders that we're seeing on these videos right now. That's what we're doing as a country. And, you know, Biden's foreign policy across the board, not just in regard to this conflict, has been complete and utter dog crap.

It just has. Already talking about, you know, recognizing Juan Guaido as the leader of Venezuela, someone who wasn't democratically elected, just a U.S. puppet, just wanting to, like, put in, install whatever U.S. puppet we want in Latin American countries. You know, but you brought up Mohamed bin Salman earlier, Jank. I mean, Biden is like, oh, Trump is awful for not wanting to hold Mohammed bin Salman accountable. We are going to do a study to make sure that he's the one who did this to Jamal Khashoggi, and then there's going to be consequences.

And you know what happened after that study came out that confirmed that MBS ordered the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi? Nothing. Nothing. Biden didn't want to do a damn thing about it. The foreign policy coming from the Biden administration is more of the same. Absolute dog crap. My favorite part of that video was when Ned Price looked like he was outraged at the suggestion.

He's like, the reporter asks him, do you condemn the killing of Palestinian children? And he's like, Sayid. And then he goes, no, basically, no, I don't condemn it. I'm going to talk out of both sides of my mouth. And I'm only going to acknowledge what the Palestinians have done, even though there's, according to him, fluid reporting on what's happening. But the Palestinians are definitely guilty. But the Israelis, I won't ever acknowledge their guilt. Okay, guys, let's just be done with it.

You all know it. America is a racist country. and there are leaders, including Joe Biden, is racist. And you can say, oh, well, he's not racist against black people. One could argue about that. But I guess Muslims, Joe Biden is deeply bigoted. And against Palestinians specifically, he's horrifically racist. The idea that a Palestinian life would be equal to an Israeli life, Joe Biden would never,

look, he certainly would never admit that. But much more importantly, he would never act that way. He would never act like they're equal. If an Israeli citizen gets killed, he's understandably outraged and I'm outraged. If a Palestinian civilian is killed, I'm- At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them.

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ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months. for free with this exclusive link just for T-Y-T fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. I'm equally outraged. He doesn't give a damn at all and we'll never do anything about it.

Anyone pretending otherwise, honestly, you're a fool. And I don't know why you're a fool, but you're still holding on to the prayer that Joe Biden is going to be a progressive and hold his friend, the tyrant Netanyahu accountable, He didn't hold Muhammad bin Salman accountable. And the guy's a butcher, okay? The only thing that matters to, yes, corporate Democrats, as well as corporate Republicans, is power, power, power, power, power. And yes, if you don't think that the APAC in the lobby here in America has influence on American politicians,

you're a moron and should retire from reporting immediately and go be a plumber because you don't know how to do your job. Oh, no, pack money. What name so? I don't pack money affects me politicians we I just had Nina Turner on the show her opponent at corporate corrupt Democrat is signaling to Israeli packs to go attack Nina Turner on an issue that doesn't have anything do with Israel she's basically saying come spend millions of dollars against my opponent and wink wink when I win I will be by the way an African American Democrat who will then support Israel no matter what but you got to spend the money now. The corruption is so obvious. Yet every reporter's like what other than Ryan Grimm who wrote the story in The Intercept, every reporter is like, what corruption? No, no, no, if you say money, Saudi money, Israeli lobbyist money affects American politicians when they ask for and get millions of dollars. You should, oh, that's

outrageously anti-Semitic. Well, okay, how about Saudi money? How about Saudi money? That's all say anti-Semitic. Now come on guys. you aren't reporters, just shut up, go be a plumber. You're not reporters unless you're telling the truth about both sides here. And so those two that ask those great questions, they're awesome. Ned Price, go work for Israel because you are, look, but to be fair to Ned Price, he's just doing what his boss tells him. That's exactly right.

I mean, he's a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department. This is the U.S. State Department's position. Yes, and to be fair, that he would kowtow to the Saudis just as well. He would grovel on the floor. Not quite as much because they're Muslims. So he'd say, I mean, we have to protect them even though they're awful and they butcher people. Muslims terrible. But we're not going to do anything about it because they have money, okay?

And there are allies. Okay, no, pack money doesn't matter. The lobbyists don't matter. Every reporter in Washington except those two and Ryan. Seriously, I'm not kidding. About a handful. Every other one sucks at their job. Sucks.

Scarbrose out there. Defending the Israelis, of course, of course, MSNBC, the home of war mongers. Brian Williams talking about beautiful bombs, Scarborough cheerleading the massacre of Palestinians. That's the Washington's idea of a left-wing channel. Hilarious, but I'm sure that Rachel and everybody else is going to tear in to the U.S. government supporting the right-wing tyrants of Israel. Oh, no, it's a democratic government. You have to kiss their ass, right?

the left wing channel on on television you guys are a joke by the way you know I got more no no no how about how about you let's take a break because we got to

and we'll be back and Jenks on fire okay this I feel like we're both demonstrating like the aggression today on the show like you're the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian aggression I hate that analogy

no I know I know I'm just kidding obviously I'm just kidding obviously But I'm gonna say one last thing, guys, I know, I can't help it. I know, I know. If it was the Palestinians who were powerful and they were crushing the Israelis, then I would be on the Israeli side and say, why the hell aren't we doing anything about the Palestinian aggression? How many Israelis kids do they have to murder before we do something? But nope, nope, doesn't matter, no. And I guess my deep frustration is I thought facts and logic mattered and I thought humanity mattered.

And I, of course, at this late date, I realize that's a joke for the U.S. government. And it's a joke for the reporters who kissed the ass of the powerful to actually call out obvious facts on the ground. All right, we'll be back. I don't know. So, you know, I'm going to be able to. Okay, back on the young Turks during the break at least. You guys wrote in so many amazing things. Ecclectic miscellania writes in,

I wonder how many of these bombs were paid for by Obama's record setting $38 billion aid package to Israel in his final term. Democrats and Republicans both have blood on their hands. That is certainly true. Again, defensive measures like Iron Dome I'm in favor of, but we probably, you know, we pay a giant portion of Israel's military. Those bombs that murder Palestinian children have made in the USA written all over them. And then idiots like Scarborough will say, they hate us because they hate us. They hate us, they hate us, just for no reason. Just because you murder their kids that all of a sudden they hate you. Yeah, that's how it works, Joe, you monster. Him and Glenn Greenwald

got into a Twitter fight today. Joe Scarborough is the only one that could make me agree with Glenn Greenwald. So defending the Cheney Empire Scarborough is. And anyway, I'll go to more of your comments. Melissa, the defender dragon says, no question what Israel is doing wrong, is wrong. I'm devastated as a Jewish person that I don't feel like we have a home. America is the primary country for Jewish people and we have rising anti-semitism fueled by Trump and now Q&N. That is absolutely true. We talk about it on the show all the time. I'm scared for people to find out my ethnicity as I live in a deep red county in Florida. That being said, the Israeli government has decimated the idea of being a safe haven for Jews.

Before I keep going, how sad is it that Jewish Americans now are afraid to say what their identity is in the United States of America? And it's totally true. We have insane anti-Semitism here in this country as we have this problem in Israel. But hold on, let me keep going. She says, she's worried about that the Israeli government decimated the idea of being a safe Haven for Jews. They're creating an unsafe situation for everyone there. I told my mom once that I didn't think we should even have Israel, but now I agree with our position that we need to have

a country for our people. There aren't that many of us as it is. My protest is not getting my Israeli citizenship until the Palestinians are free, but that doesn't mean I don't grieve for the dream of what Israel could have been. It's impossible for me to agree more with you. I remember There's a great documentary, and it was like the five former heads of security in Israel. And near the end, they talk about a professor in 1967, an Israeli professor warned. He said, we're going to lose the moral character of this country if we become the oppressors. We have got to free the Palestinians. Otherwise, it doesn't just destroy the Palestinians.

It destroys who we are. God, that he was so right, and it's so haunting to hear those words. I'm going to be able to be. All right, back on TYT, Jankana with you guys. All right, one last quick story, it's so disheartening one, but about the Israeli-Palestin issue. Okay, so there's a new video out of some extreme right-wing Israelis celebrating the burning of the Alaksa Mosque, okay?

You see the fire of the mosque in the background. I don't want people to get a wrong impression, Al-Axom Mosque is not completely burnt down, right? But there was that moment in time and apparently they thought it was just such a wonderful thing. Now, as you watch these people, I want you to think about Charlottesville. And I want you to think about what if it was another religious building that was being burnt down? Imagine a synagogue being burnt down and Palestinians cheering and celebrating around it. What would American media say? What would you say?

What would we all say, right? What if it was a church being burned down, the Vatican being burnt down? And people are celebrating around, right? So now here, watch the video. All right, you remember when I hadn't seen that video. Yeah. Like yeah. And apparently they're chanting, may Palestinians names be erased. So they're trying to clear Palestinians out of their homes and drive them from East Jerusalem, ethnic cleansing. Then they're chanting about how the Palestinians should be erased as a mosque is burning.

their most sacred mosque in that area is burning. So remember what they chant in Charlottesville. The Jews will not replace us. Now these guys are basically saying the Muslims will not replace us. And the hate goes around and around and around. And I just read one of our members saying here in America, she has no place to go because here in America, anti-Semitism is on the rise.

And QAnon thinks the Jews are doing everything wrong, the MAGA, et cetera, all these guys. And she's afraid to say, because she lives in a red, County, that she's Jewish. She's right. The anti-semitism here is out of control. And they think, oh, the Jews control everything. It's horrible.

It's horrible. And then they're in the streets. I remember during Charlottesville, it's not talking about much. But there was a synagogue that was surrounded by the literal Nazis during what happened in Charlottesville. And the people were afraid to come out for their lives. And our hearts broke for them. That's what decent people should do.

The Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Americans here were at the vanguard of protecting Muslims in this country when Donald Trump came for them, when they tried the Muslim ban. So here we have done a great job of solidarity on many issues, okay? But then you see the extreme right wing

in Israel like that. And it's impossible not to have visions of Charlottesville, just replace religions. Because the right wing is a cancer. Their ideology is hate the other. Hate the other. The other is not us.

The other is not human. Attack the other and erase them no matter what. The problem isn't Israel or Palestine or America. It's that the ideology of you must destroy the others. And that is exactly what you saw in that video. And it was disgusting. The only way I could be more disgusted by that video is if I was an Israeli citizen. To have that be shown to the world.

And by the way, Israeli citizens, there is a way that you could combat this, so this is not what you look like to the rest of the world. You could vote out the tyrants. You could vote out the right wing. You put Nanyahu in charge, this is what you get. So please, for God's sake, as I ask the Americans to do the same thing and countries all over the world, Israelis, if you don't want to be seen as that, then don't vote that way, vote for someone of any moderation, and for God's sake, free the Palestinians already, saying that

they cannot be free and that they must be occupied for five decades. Because why? Palestinians are by nature violent? That is a deeply racist ideology. Don't do it. It doesn't just hurt Palestinians. It hurts Israel. For God's sake, turn around. All right, this is our final story of the day on the conflict, and it has to do with what U.S. politicians have to say. So New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang decided to weigh in on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and his take was just as misinformed and ignorant as it was during the 20 presidential primaries. He says, quote, I'm standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks and condemn the Hamas terrorists. The people of New York City will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere.

Now, that would be a perfectly fine statement if the facts of the current conflict taking place right now were different. But the fact of the matter is, this aggression began with the Israeli government, trying to to evict Palestinians from their home, also restricting Palestinians from being able to practice their religion in their most sacred mosque. That mosque was under attack two nights in a row with Israeli forces raiding it. A portion of the mosque was set on fire.

I mean, it's just, the list goes on and on. You look at the death toll on both sides, and of course there's a disproportionate amount of Palestinians, including 10 children, who have been killed in this violence. And so that take might have been okay, I don't know, even five years ago where people were just openly putting out statements like this without acknowledging the Israeli government's aggression. But that's not the case here. In fact, I was personally surprised to see how much blowback Andrew Yang received as a result of this take.

And there were some constituents who approached him because they were upset about this take. And that's what that confrontation look like. What do you have to see about your tweet directly to New Yorkers right now? It's heartbreak in all of us is not given in the least. It's heartbreaking. It is. You can't believe in dying. So no idea of the United States.

Do you condemn Israel for that? Do you condemn Israel for their unjust acts against the innocent posting? Sir, we got the public. We got the publicist over here. I'm talking to him. Don't say anything that's getting up your can't say. And that's why you don't have my vote and I guarantee you you don't have to vote of a lot of New Yorkers. What's also interesting, Jank, is that he brought up the fact that New Yorkers stand behind Israel and all of that.

But Jewish people in America actually do condemn the violence that's taking place right now. In fact, I'm going to give you one quick quote from the editor of the Jewish Current's newsletter. You should follow him on Twitter as well. I think that he has really great takes on many different foreign policy topics. But he says, quote, I realize you knew approximately zero New York Jews until about six months ago. But I promise you, not all of us feel this way. Yeah. So sometimes on Twitter people get exercised over tiny little things, right?

So you'll say, I had a great tuna sandwich today. And they'll say, oh, I guess you don't care about the people dying of COVID. Yeah, that's- Okay, so that happens all the time, right? This is not one of those. No, this is a situation that at a bare minimum, you have to mention both sides. And in reality, of course, there's no question that Nanyahu's government raided the Alaksa Mosque. They're trying to remove Palestinians from East Jerusalem.

And they, as always, have used disproportionate force and killed civilians and children, right? There's no question about any of that. So when Andrew Yang puts out a statement that doesn't mention Palestinians at all and just says, oh, we stand with Israel, that's like saying when Muhammad bin Salman murdered Jamal Khashoggi, we stand with our ally Saudi Arabia. I guess Saudi Arabia is our ally, but that's not the time to say it. And so, and it's certainly not the time to be one-sided about it. So at a bare minimum, this was awful pandering.

And it was kind of thoughtless pandering, like, oh, New York is very Jewish, I'll say we love Israel when they're under attack, and then I'll get more votes. No, that's unsophisticated, right? You're right, yeah. It's most Jewish Americans vote for Democrats, and a lot of them are very progressive. That doesn't mean that they can't be biased on this issue? Of course, some are, and I'll tell you from personal experience, I have people who are Turks and my family, and they're very progressive, and they ask me about something in Turkey,

And all of a sudden, they're not progressive. I get it, I get it, right? So, but to think that that's a blanket statement that you can get away with in New York, and that's your way of supporting Jews in New York, that's just really bad form, okay, to say the least. Yeah. But now when you go from the least to the more, it's also cruel. And I love that we live in a new America. In the past, that would have been the most anodyne tweet of all time,

and everybody would have celebrated him. He would have been asked to come on Joe Scarborough and talk about how wonderful Israel is. And everybody would go, now they're like, they're in his grill, right there with a camera. And I like Andrew, but that was terrible. And I love the people who were putting a camera into his face and going, now answer the question. Answer the question. You're running for mayor in New York. You've got to answer the question.

There were some who celebrated that tweet by Andrew Yang, including Senator Ted Cruz, Megan McCain, and Stephen Miller. So those were three individuals who were very much in favor of that tweet. But the point that I want to make, you touched on something that I think is important, Jank. Why it is that Andrew Yang had this particular take, I think that we give a lot of politicians way too much credit. And when it comes to Andrew Yang and his political aspirations, I think that it applies. So Andrew Yang has consistently failed on answering questions about foreign policy. It's not his expertise. It's very clear that it's not something that he has in any way delved into. In fact, during the Democratic primaries for the 2020 election, he was asked about a

litany of foreign policy issues, including the conflict in Israel. And I just want to provide one video from 2019 showing you exactly where he's always stood on this issue. Israel is a very, very important ally of the U.S. Certainly some of the actions that are being taken there are deeply problematic and run afoul of some of the standards that we'd like to see countries meet. I'd be hesitant to say that they are in violation of those standards. Wait, what? Yeah, no. I know now he's running, now he's running for mayor, right?

But back then he was running for president. You got to do better. You just got to do better. And to me, the pandering is so over the top. And it makes it look ugly. So it reminds me of when Carly Fioranian running for president, University of Iowa was playing Stanford. And they were about to have the Iowa primary.

She's from Stanford, right? And she's like, oh, normally I'd root for Stanford, but I'm going to root for Iowa. And everybody was like, shut up. Even the people in Iowa were like, you're such a pandering fool. Like everybody knows you don't care about football and everybody knows you're trying to kiss our ass. That's so ridiculous, right? But again, this one is honestly worse because there's a lot of lives on the line and it wasn't just pandering.

It was cruel to basically erase Palestinians from this equation. And then finally, look, it's not impossible. for me to agree with Ted Cruz or I'm having trouble saying the words, but maybe even Stephen Miller. I literally don't know a single instance where I've agreed with Stephen Miller, but I guess it's not technically impossible. But if Ted Cruz, like I agree with Ted Cruz on export import bank. So there, there's one thing, right? Okay. But if Ted Cruz and Stephen Miller liked a tweet of mine that said the sky is blue, I would go outside and check to see if the sky was blue again. Okay, I mean, you really got to wonder what you did wrong if you got

the worst people in America to agree with you. But you know, Megan McCain's father was John McCain. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know that. Just in case you forgot. And on top of that, she's very sophisticated. Okay, so now we're going to go to our break. And when we come back, we are going to talk about the mayoral race in New York because apparently two of the candidates have no idea what the cost of housing is. So I'll have that discussion and more when we come back. We'll see you in a few minutes. 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.