President Biden asked me to come
here today,
really for four reasons.
First, to demonstrate
the commitment of the United States
to Israel security.
To start to work toward greater
stability and reduce tensions in
the West Bank and Jerusalem.
To support urgent humanitarian
reconstruction assistance for Gaza,
to benefit the Palestinian people.
And to continue to rebuild our
relationship with the Palestinian
people and
the Palestinian authority.
>> That was Secretary of
State Antony Blinken who held
a joint press conference with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Now, unfortunately,
many of the same talking points
that were used to, by US officials,
were regurgitated during this joint
press conference.
But there was some good news to
come out of it,
including incredibly important
foreign aid to Gaza specifically,
and I'll give you the details, and
the exact figures in just a moment.
But, there were certainly some
talking points by Blinken in
an attempt to draw these false
equivalencies in regard to
the level of violence on the Israel
side and the Palestinian side.
And also when it comes to
casualties, and
it's just not equal at all,
here's what Blinken had to say.
>> Intense behind the scenes
diplomacy led by President Biden
working very closely with
the Prime Minister helped produce
last week ceasefire.
Now we believe we must build on it,
that starts with the recognition
that losses on
both sides were profound.
Casualties are often reduced to
numbers but behind every number is
an individual human being.
A daughter, a son, a father,
a mother, a grandparent,
a best friend, and as the Talmud
teaches to lose a life is to lose
the whole world whether that life
is Palestinian or Israeli.
I underscored to the Prime Minister
something that President Biden made
crystal clear throughout
the violence.
The United States fully supports
Israel's right
to defend itself against attacks,
such as the thousands of rockets
fired by Hamas indiscriminately
against Israeli civilians.
>> So he specifically says that
the casualties on both sides was
profound.
And of course doesn't offer
any numbers but indicates that
the numbers are uneven, the numbers
are uneven but it doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter the numbers are even
in that there was disproportionate
force used on the Palestinians
living in the Gaza Strip.
Because every
person who dies has family,
I agree every person who dies has
family members, every person who
dies it's a tragedy, it's a loss.
I'm specifically talking
about civilians here.
But there were hundreds of deaths
on the Palestinian side and
a little over a dozen deaths on
the Israel side.
And that's because the military
capabilities are not the same,
this is asymmetrical and they
leave that part out of the story.
But it's just frustrating to see
the United States even as the US
media has started to evolve and
shift the narrative to something
that's a little more accurate.
The US government has decided
to continue on with their same
narrative on this.
Which is pretty tragic because it
gives you very little hope that
things will change in terms of US
foreign policy in the region >> So
they force us into nonsensical
false equivalency conversations,
is every life precious?
Of course.
Then did Israel act that way?
No. Did the US act that way?
No.
So the 12 Israelis that lost their
lives, it's an absolute tragedy.
The 239 civilians loss
on the Palestinian side is also
a tragedy, it is simply a tragedy
that is literally 20 times higher.
So if you say no the 12 Israeli
lives are worth more than the 240
Palestinian lives,
well, you're a racist.
And you don't believe every life is
precious, so
spare me your nonsensical quoting
of religious texts that started
this in the first place.
So now, the most important part of
all what Blinken said is okay,
we're going to rebuild Gaza like I
get it no you're not shut up.
You know how you rebuild Gaza?
You free them, and
that doesn't mean
we kind of stopped occupying them.
But we built made it an open air
prison because they can't control
their borders, they can't really
govern themselves.
The West Bank can't govern
themselves at all,
they're dirty Palestinians who
obviously should be occupied decade
after decade after decade
because they're too violent.
So spare me your nonsense
quotes from religious texts.
Again that part of the problem to
begin with, okay, but the most
important thing is we bomb, we
rebuild it, we bomb we rebuild it.
But are you ever going to free
the prisoners?
And by the prisoners, I don't
mean the hundreds of people that
Israel is rounding up right now for
daring to dissent with them within
Israel that's also happening in
a so called democracy.
But now Blinken says, no, we're not
going to give any money that
is going to get directed to Hamas,
because Hamas is a bunch
of terrorists.
Hamas is a bunch of terrorists
because they kill civilians, let's
go through this one more time.
But Israel killed 20 times
the civilians, well,
they didn't mean it,
they really suck at their military.
They just said we killed all
the civilians again, just like last
time when we killed thousands of
civilians, our military sucks it
doesn't know what it's doing and
it's also the best in the world.
Did you know what you were doing
and intentionally kill those
civilians, which would definitely
make you a terrorist?
Or do you have one of
the most incompetent militaries
the world has ever seen?
No, you knew what you're doing,
if you said, well, I'm kind of
throwing rockets in the direction
of possibly Hamas and by the way,
the government is Hamas.
So I can call anyone Hamas inside
Gaza Strip pretty much and
then I have to kill all those
civilians golly gee.
No I am tired of the wordplay and
then they say okay Hamas is
terrorists because they killed,
one of the 12 killed was an Israeli
soldier.
No, whatever fake definition we had
of terrorism was killing civilians,
not soldiers in the middle of
an armed conflict killing soldiers
is not terrorism,
it's the conflict itself.
And then Israel turns around goes
how we murdered a bunch of Hamas
terrorists, their military buddies,
by the way, by the way,
and that's part of conflict.
They say the same thing,
same standard, right?
But then they say, we also killed
their political leaders.
Imagine if Hamas had killed
Netanyahu, god they're terrorists,
right?
We're not giving you
any money that's going to go
to the terrorists,
but they run the post office,
they run the medical buildings,
you know why?
because they run the government.
You know why?
because they won an election.
Well no, that doesn't count because
we don't like them, they killed
civilians, but you killed 20 times
and it doesn't matter propaganda.
Those are by definition
Muslim dirty Muslim terrorists and
Israelis is their beloved knighted
statesman in a so called democracy.
So I don't know where the hell
the money is going to go but
Hamas runs the government in Gaza
whatever little there is of it and
so- >> The money is going to go to
[CROSSTALK] >> It's going to go to
stupid allies that will do whatever
Israel and America tells them to do
let's get real about that.
If you're not sending it to Hamas,
you're going to send it to lackeys
who are going to find a way to get
it to whoever is considered safe
enough.
In other words, won't raise their
head in rebellion,
as the imprisonment of millions of
people continues decades on it.
>> This is the current strategy for
regime change,
that's what they want.
I mean, I think it's pretty clear,
I'll give you the details.
So this is the second graphic here
Blinken announced nearly $40
million in aid to the Palestinians
including $5.5 million in emergency
assistance for Gaza.
That brings the US assistance to
the Palestinians under the Biden
administration to over $360 million
after the Trump administration had
cut off nearly
all assistance to them.
Now the Associated Press continues
to write that the United States is
trying to bolster Abbas meeting,
Mahmoud Abbas who's a politician in
for Palestinians,
who was sidelined by recent events
in his rivalry with Hamas.
And on the international stage,
Abbas heads the internationally
backed Palestinian Authority.
Which administrators or administers
parts of the occupied West Bank,
but whose forces were
driven from Gaza when
Hamas seized power there in 2007.
So, I mean, you can kind of read
between the lines there.
This is an attempt to push for
regime change through financing.
I think that there's a possibility
could help Palestinians but
at the heart of what the US is
trying to do is essentially
minimize the power of Hamas.
I don't know how that's going to
end up, I don't think that this
ongoing violence is going to just
completely stop.
Yes, there's a ceasefire right now,
but I think the statement from
Benjamin Netanyahu during this
press conference is telling,
because he doesn't hide anything.
He's very transparent about
what he's demanding here.
And before we go to
the video I want to read this quote
where Netanyahu spoke of building
economic growth in the occupied
West Bank, but said.
There will be no peace until
the Palestinians recognize Israel
as a Jewish State.
Okay, so let's stop for a second,
recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
So what happens to the Palestinian
citizens of Israel?
What happens to them?
What does that mean?
>> I would say they're
theoretically under a democracy
come on, let's keep it real,
they're second class citizens etc.
But look, to me recognizing Israel
as a Jewish state is a ship that
has likely sailed.
I know now, a lot of people
are saying what's the solution?
Let's put everybody together and
do a vote.
It's the most unrealistic solution
I've ever heard.
Whether you think it's morally
right or not, it doesn't really
matter because there is a 0%
chance that the Israelis
would ever agree to it.
Not just the right wing government
of Israel, but
any government of Israel.
So, let's move on to productive
things, let's get the two states.
I don't really care what Israel
calls itself as long as
the Palestinians actually have
their own government.
To Mahmoud Abbas,
I was hopeful about his leadership.
When he first came in, he seem less
radical than the former head of
the PLO Arafat, and it looked like
he was working on a peace deal and
I was hopeful about that.
Obviously Yussack Rubin got
assassinated by an Israeli
terrorist and
it was unfortunately the most
successful act of terrorism that
I've ever seen in my lifetime.
And then rewarded by other right
wingers like Netanyahu said, great,
we killed Rubin, I mean,
a terrorist who completely agrees
with me politically happened to be
killed by main political opponent.
And I hated peace he was about to
make peace now I'll never make
peace thank you terrorist is
Netanyahu's position.
Okay so don't tell me Netanyahu
doesn't like terrorists, okay, and
by the way who started Hamas?
Israel started Hamas.
They thought it was a great idea to
split the PLO, oops.
And by the way,
who funded the mujahideen that
turned into the Taliban and
al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, we did,
America did, oops, oops, oops,oops.
Okay, here's a simpler solution,
stop imprisoning millions of people
and the occupation today.
I see all over social media, no but
Czech the Palestinians has
agreed to the peace deals we wanted
where we would have taken most of
their land.
So we did not release the prisoners
because the prisoners did not know
their role in their place, release
the goddamn prisoners, okay.
They're all prisoners you
are occupying them and
occupation is not in any way
democratic, all right.
Anyways, the US guys, let's give up
on the mirage that US is neutral.
Blinken goes to Israel to do
propaganda on behalf of Israel and
last part of that is the money that
they gave to the West Bank,
I'll give them credit,
was a brilliant piece of strategy.
And what they did was they
funded people like Mahamoud Abbas
in the Palestinian authority until
they became compliant because they
didn't want the money to stop.
So the West Bank is under control
because they have leadership
that is under control and is not
going to push for a peace deal.
It's not going to push for anything
they're totally compliant and
that's what Blinken went to do in
the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians should know when
they are conquered.
We will now fund other people in
Gaza and try to make them
as compliant as Mahmoud Abbas is so
the Palestinians will never have
a state.
That's what happened yesterday.