You cannot fly the Ukraine flag and not fly the Palestinian one as well
and if you have a problem with that you need to look inside yourself
and ask why it is the case.
Because those situations they're not exactly the same
but they are similar they're of peoples resisting an occupation.
Ukraine backed by the US its resistance is good because it's a key pillar of US foreign policy.
Israel is also a key pillar of US imperialism and so its oppression
as the invader as the occupier is legitimised.
You have to do some serious mental gymnastics to not see that.
By all means fly your Ukraine flag I have no problem with it
I believe in National self-determination and liberty for all people
but also extend that to Palestine.
And if you don't if there's something inside you that's uncomfortable with that
you need to reflect you need to reflect on yourself and ask why.
Can I ask you to lower this flag please?
Why is that?
Because the club are not politically sided either way.
It was ok when it was Ukraine.
I absolutely agree with you that's the argument we've had.
One of the central mythologies of the Israel Palestine conflict
is this notion of a kind of parity of force.
Like there are the Israelis and there are the Palestinians
and they're roughly equal and they juke it out.
Palestine has no Army it has no Air Force Israel is a nuclear armed power
with one of the most advanced militaries on the planet.
The amount of military aid it receives from its main International partner
the US is gigantic, just in 2022 it received $3.3 billion in Aid.
It is completely lazy to suggest that these are just two groups
of roughly equal people juking it out.
It's interesting to note that despite the fact there are collapsing and struggling
economies a cost of living crisis in this country and around the world.
There always seems to be money for war:
That's why tomorrow I'm going to send to Congress an urgent budget request
to fund America's national security needs to support our critical Partners
including Israel and Ukraine it's a smart investment
that's going to pay dividends for American security for generations.
"The president defending his expected Friday request to Congress an unprecedented
estimated $105 billion in security funding for Israel and Ukraine."
Billions in Aid have been sent to Ukraine billions sent to Israel just during the period of the war
on terror the US spent over $8 trillion do and that is why the US has massive amounts of
homelessness and opioid crisis and various other social problems so you have to ask the question
whether that money was well spent I can remember being in Afghanistan it was the first tour we
deployed Hellfire missiles are fired from Apache £100,000 a pot and they could only be attached
to an aircraft for eight hours and so they only had a very limited amount of hours most of them
during my tour in 2006 were never fired and those missiles unused £100,000 of Pop were then taken
home deactivated decommissioned and incinerated unfired and when I looked at that even as a young
soldier with no politics really I started to think about the way the War Machine Works and
the amount of money that is spent on it and there are powerful corporate interests arms firms who
benefits from spending massive amounts on warfare they'll tell you it's about patriotism democracy
or some [ __ ] about the other guy hating our freedom but you want to know what it's really
about what do you see a kid from Arkansas doing his patriotic duty to defend his country I see
a helmet fire retarding gloves body armor and an M16 I see $17,500 and that's what war is really
about war is an economy anybody who tells you otherwise is either in on it or stupid there is
an Insidious relationship between politicians and arms firms and other parts of what we can
broadly call the military-industrial complex the truth is it goes beyond that it goes into things
like entertainment you'll see films which are approved to which kind of tow the line of the
Department of Defense or the ministry of Defense are given to support they're given equipment that
they can put on screen they're loaned troops for the day to run around and be extras what
undergirds that is the fact that war is profitable for a few people I mean it's not profitable for us
either spiritually or economically because it takes money out of our pockets it takes food
out of the mouths of our children it closes down our hospitals and wrecks our education system but
it's profitable for people who are in power some estimates suggest there have been half a million
casualties in Ukraine and we can look at that situation and other situations currently Gaz
and look at the huge amount of people the loss of people's lives the injuries to people physical and
mental which will play out for many years and you have to ask the question if a fraction of
the money spent doing that if a fraction of the money that ends up in the pockets of the CEOs
and shareholders of arms firms went into programs of peace and Reconciliation would it be different
and I think probably it would and it's always interesting to me how war is glamorized war is
kind of incentivized war is always rendered as necessary unavoidable even part of human nature
which I rejects war is something manufactured it's not something you do by reflex it's not
something you do by Instinct you don't deploy thousands of troops by accident or build aircraft
carriers by accident you trip over by accident these are carefully thought out processes which
are integrated into complex economies around the world all that money is pulled into those programs
of death and destruction instead of programs of education and peace and Reconciliation we have a
capacity for either thing and it's a matter of choice and political will you choose one over
the other one of the key reasons Israel's security is so important to the US and by extension Britain
is not out of any like deep love for Israel this is not how great power operates it's that Israel
is a key pillar of us imperialism we can think of it as an aircraft carrier but on land right
in the middle of the Middle East projecting influence protected and supported by the US
by US taxpayers money by us Hardware so we should not buy into these arguments we must protect it
because it's democratic the US isn't that fond of democracy go through the lists of the amount of
democracies that the US has overthrown in their tens Israel is a key pillar of us power in the
region we should be absolutely clear about that Wars are often fought under the banner of security
but that is very rarely what they provide we have seen increases in Terror attacks as a result by
people citing Iraq and Afghanistan for example because when you unleash a war um you can't
control what happens you unleash massive forces and pain upon the world and those things will
come back the bomber aadi who bombed the concert in Manchester it turns out that his family who
were part of the Libyan version of al-Qaeda who at the time because the opponents of Gaddafi were
supported by the British and they were brought out by the British resettled in Manchester but
obviously his radicalization continued which led to the deaths of those young concert goers
in those horrific scenes we saw not too many years ago and just since the recent outbreak of
bombing of Gaza we saw a Muslim child murdered we saw a teacher stabbed by an extremist we're
already starting to see these little examples of which I suspect sadly there will be many more the
idea that war is something that brings security as someone who's participated in it and someone
who's watched those outcomes as a journalist for a very long time just doesn't cut it just doesn't
Rob for me we should be very cautious when people tell us that we're fighting to bring security
because I think now and historically that's not what happens the world's a little bit more messy
and complicated than that and I think that's a bit of a a fluffy fantasy to be honest with war
rides authoritarianism both overseas and at home and this government has a particular taste for
passing authoritarian legislation which I have no doubt when starou takes power he will continue to
wield those laws unchanged unrepealed it may not be the case that you particularly agree with Pro
Palestine protesters and you may not agree with their stance but you should understand that people
should be able to air their views publicly and if you don't do that mark my words it will be your
thing down the line if you're really committed to democracy in any meaningful form you should
be very conscious and supportive of people's right to protest because this government isn't
and they will be coming for your thing next if there is a need to change the law just
as we did in relation to just stop oil protests last year I will not hesitate to act one of the
redeeming things about people is that people are repulsed by war that is the reason we are
constantly conditioned to glorify war that is the reason there are imperial and Colonial mythologies
this is propaganda this is not something which comes from us it comes from the top down humans
have the great capacity for violence but that is not the only capacity they have and the fact
they have to be constantly conditioned and stirred towards it tells you that it's not natural there
are other options and that's about political will it's about educating your mind it doesn't always
work there isn't always a happy ending but I take Hope from the fact that there is an instinct in
people to fight back against what is unfair we can look at that and take some soless and that's no
better example than among the Palestinian people who suffer decades and Decades of Oppression by
an occupying power we could take some energy from that I think so that's where I look for hope these
days more than ever and particularly in times of War as we're seeing in Gaza and Palestine at the
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