Episode Transcript
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0:05
Hello! And welcome to Useful Idiots.
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I'm Katie Helper I'm about to.
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Have a great deal. We have a great deal of content
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for you to the oh nice. Segue at in that
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will you. Make. You and what's going
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to go on with our for basic
0:58
food groups though. and what do we
1:01
have for Democrats? Sack for Democrats Suck.
1:03
We're going to turn to this Really?
1:05
Shocking. News for me at least this
1:08
week when the International Criminal Court requested.
1:10
Arrest warrants for the leaders of both
1:12
Israel and Hamas. Personally I'd say I
1:15
was surprised I didn't I think the
1:17
Icy See would do it. I've always
1:19
seen them sort of a geopolitical. Tool.
1:22
Of the west there's a reason the
1:24
cop international caucasian court because they're basically
1:26
only indict African leaders occasionally the go
1:28
after like up designated bad guy or
1:30
in the u his eyes like poodle
1:33
or Milosevic. but as the actually dated
1:35
or we saw the indictment. For.
1:38
Is. A Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and
1:40
enjoy Defense Minister you are Golan
1:42
along with three Hamas leaders And
1:45
the bottom illustration is very upset.
1:47
So let's look at how Joe
1:49
Biden handled in his. Let
1:51
me be clear reject the I
1:53
see she's application arrest warrants against
1:56
Israel. who claps
1:58
for that like what are you if you
2:00
were supportive of Biden's view and against what
2:03
the ICC did. Wouldn't you boo? Yeah.
2:05
It's an odd thing to get excited about. It's like you're
2:08
not at a rock concert or like a pop concert. Whee!
2:11
Whee! Let's condemn the ICC. Woohoo!
2:15
We don't like seeing people being held
2:17
accountable for genocide. Whee! I
2:19
wonder if anyone like took out a lighter. Wave
2:22
it around. Whatever these
2:24
words may imply, there's no equivalence
2:26
between Israel and Hamas. By
2:29
the way, that was a major talking point
2:31
going around. Everyone, all of Israel's defenders were
2:35
claiming there was no equivalence between Israel and
2:37
Hamas. Well, this is the
2:39
point, right? Because they can't actually dispute the case on
2:41
the merits because they're being accused of war crimes, you
2:45
know, massacring civilians and depriving them
2:47
of basic aid, which Israeli leaders
2:49
openly promised to do. So given
2:51
how overwhelming the evidence is, they
2:54
can't actually attack this case on
2:56
the merits. So they're creating a
2:58
straw man issue of the
3:01
ICC drawing an equivalence between Hamas and Israel, which
3:03
the ICC did not do. They just happened to
3:05
announce the charges at the same time. By the
3:07
way, I mean, if you want
3:09
to get into it, I agree there's no equivalence
3:12
between Israel and Hamas. First of
3:14
all, the crimes of Israel are
3:16
exponentially higher. And, you
3:18
know, from a legal standpoint, there is
3:21
no equivalency between an occupying power and
3:23
a militant group that resists it. That doesn't mean that
3:25
Hamas didn't commit war crimes. Like you don't have you
3:27
don't have carte blanche to commit war crimes if you're
3:30
resisting military occupation. Right. But
3:32
in terms of the equivalence, yeah,
3:34
it's not even close. Israel
3:37
is not only committing mass
3:39
murder, but it's a state party with obligations
3:41
because it's carrying out an occupation.
3:43
Palestinians have legal right to resist occupation.
3:45
They don't have the right to kill
3:48
civilians, but they commit
3:50
war crimes against civilians, but they have
3:52
the right to resist. So Biden's
3:54
right. There's no equivalence just for the wrong reasons.
3:57
Exactly. Now
4:01
it's clear, Israel wants to
4:03
do all it can to ensure civilian protection.
4:05
But let me be clear, contrary
4:07
to allegations against Israel made by
4:09
the International Court of Justice, what's
4:11
happening is not genocide. We
4:13
reject that. We
4:16
always stand with Israel and
4:18
the threats against its security. I mean, so
4:21
again, you notice how he's not challenging the
4:23
case on the merits. He creates a straw
4:25
man of an equivalency, which ICC did not
4:27
do. And then he talks about the ICJ
4:29
case, which is separate, where Israel is accused
4:31
of genocide. The ICC, which
4:34
is requesting these indictments, isn't alleging genocide. So
4:36
you can see how desperate they are right
4:38
there and how angry they are because they
4:40
actually cannot challenge this case on
4:42
its merits. They bring up two unrelated
4:46
aspects of this that don't speak to the merits
4:48
of the ICC case. Right.
4:51
Really flimsy, pathetic. There
4:53
has of course been a bipartisan freak
4:55
out over this ICC move. And we're
4:57
going to hear from the Republicans on
4:59
this, Katie, when you do Republicans suck
5:01
very surely. But let's look at
5:03
how Democrats are handling this news. And
5:05
Anthony Blinken, the Secretary of State, went before Congress
5:09
where a Republican Senator, Jim
5:11
Reish, who was just an ultra hawk,
5:14
ultra neocon, basically said to him that
5:16
we want to take action against the ICC. And
5:19
Anthony Blinken, in true bipartisan
5:21
fashion, said absolutely, we
5:24
want to take action against the ICC too. The
5:27
extremely wrongheaded decision
5:30
by the ICC prosecutor yesterday,
5:33
the shameful equivalence
5:35
implied between
5:38
Hamas and the leadership
5:40
of Israel, I think that only complicates the
5:42
prospects for getting such an agreement. We'll
5:45
continue to forge ahead to do that. But
5:49
that decision, as you said, on
5:51
so many levels is totally
5:54
wrongheaded. And we'll
5:57
be happy to work with
5:59
Congress. with this committee on
6:01
an appropriate response. So there we go. That is
6:03
Anthony Blake inciting with the Republicans and saying, yes,
6:05
we're going to respond to the ICC. And
6:09
I presume that means, I don't know,
6:11
reviving sanctions on the ICC, which
6:14
the US has imposed before when they try to
6:16
go after US forces or thought about going after
6:18
US forces in Afghanistan. There's also
6:20
the Hague invasion act, which
6:22
was passed during the war on terror, where basically
6:24
we threatened to invade the Hague if ever they
6:26
prosecuted anybody for US war crime.
6:29
It's embarrassing. Who knows what kind
6:31
of fun things they'll come up with, but
6:34
that's the bipartisan response. Now, what's
6:36
extra ironic about all this is
6:38
that all of a sudden when the
6:41
ICC tries to hold Israel accountable for war
6:43
crimes, ICC is out of line.
6:45
It doesn't have jurisdiction. We're going to even sanction it.
6:47
We're going to do whatever. But
6:50
when the ICC goes after Russia, it's a much
6:52
different story. And here
6:54
is Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
6:56
vowing that, yes, while we
6:58
completely reject the ICC when it comes to
7:01
Israel, when it comes to them
7:03
accusing Russia of war crimes, it's
7:05
full steam ahead. We're going to keep cooperating with them.
7:08
Regarding the question of whether or not we'll
7:10
continue to provide support to the ICC
7:12
with respect
7:14
to crimes that are committed in Ukraine,
7:17
yes, we continue that work. So
7:19
how's that going to work? We're going to keep
7:21
working with the ICC when it comes to going
7:23
after Russia, right? But
7:26
if they also, I don't know, pass sanctions against the
7:28
ICC, is that going to be awkward? What
7:30
is it saying about the ICC's position
7:33
on Russia? Yeah. And it's
7:35
like, if they're actually working with the ICC as
7:37
they've been doing, they've been cooperating. Like,
7:40
how practically are they going to do that? For example,
7:42
if they sanction the ICC, that means
7:44
that they can't talk to them and they can't work with them.
7:47
So how are they going to do it? Are they going to, is
7:49
there going to be some carve out where they're going to walk in
7:51
the office and be like, all right, we're here to talk
7:54
about Russia. And here's like a little
7:56
case file for, here's like
7:58
some data that we've gathered about Russia. But
8:00
also here's like I have to
8:02
slap you on the wrist too because and I have
8:04
to like I have to turn my back on you Because I'm not
8:06
supposed to talk to you about Because
8:09
you went after Israel too. It's just gonna be very
8:11
awkward. It's awkward. Yeah It's like telling a
8:13
friend that they have terrible judgment while also
8:15
agreeing with that friend crashing
8:17
someone else I mean, we've
8:19
all been there. We've all been there I mean, you
8:21
know, it's maybe very who knows maybe it's very like
8:24
relatable behavior by the bottom of the nation to be
8:26
so Mercurial, but
8:28
well, it's like relatable Democracy,
8:30
it's relatable awkwardness. Yeah, because they're
8:32
being such hypocrites. Yeah. Yes,
8:35
it's awkward because of pictures like this This is a
8:37
photo op that was done back when the
8:39
ICC was the greatest thing in the world because they
8:41
were going after Russia so here is a
8:44
group of senators visiting the
8:46
ICC including the prosecutor who
8:48
just sought the Israel indictments Karim
8:51
Khan and he's there with
8:53
a group of visiting Democratic senators including My
8:56
friend Chris Coons my train Yeah,
8:59
and the currently on trial
9:01
Bob Menendez who's Facing
9:04
a massive corruption case In
9:06
New York City, we know accused of taking things
9:09
like gold bars and have a lot
9:11
of cash in his home to help a halal
9:14
food distributor in the US so
9:17
You know, it's just it's the US is
9:19
a very fickle friend very very little friend fair
9:22
weather friend Yeah, you know also Menendez his
9:24
wife Killed someone
9:27
I believe was vehicular manslaughter She
9:30
ran someone over with her car. Yes, that's a
9:32
that is not a case that that she caught
9:34
and It was rumored that
9:37
Bob Menendez legal strategy was gonna entail throwing her under
9:39
the bus Under the
9:41
car under the car. There we go.
9:44
All right. Well for For
9:46
Republicans suck. Let's see how Lindsey
9:48
Graham senator Lindsey Graham reacted to
9:51
the ICC requests for arrest
9:53
warrants So we hopefully
9:56
together we'll find a way to restaurant
9:59
display with the ICC because if they'll
10:01
do this to Israel, we're next. This
10:04
group tried to come after our soldiers. Yeah,
10:06
you can clap all you want to. They
10:09
tried to come after our soldiers in
10:11
Afghanistan, but reason prevailed. So
10:14
at the end of the day here, what
10:16
I hope to happen is that we level
10:18
sanctions against the ICC for this outrage to
10:20
not only help our friends in Israel, but
10:23
protect ourselves over time. Mr. Secretary, your statement
10:25
yesterday was excellent. The person
10:27
statement was excellent. The American
10:29
consumer statement on the floor was excellent about
10:32
the outrage here. They have destroyed the
10:34
notion of complementarity. They have misled people
10:36
in the United States Senate about their
10:38
intention, and they shall and will pay
10:41
a price. Mr. Secretary, I appreciate what
10:43
you've said. It is now time for
10:45
us to act. A couple
10:47
of interesting things there. Notice how
10:49
bipartisan, as you mentioned before, Aaron,
10:51
how bipartisan the condemnation of the
10:54
ICC is. There's really no daylight
10:56
there. But also, I like how
10:58
honest Lindsey Graham is. He's saying if they
11:00
go after Israel, they could go after us.
11:03
From Lindsey Graham's mouth to God's ears, that's what
11:06
I say. Exactly. But it's funny
11:08
that he's saying that part out loud because
11:10
he's kind of exposing the fact that, I
11:12
mean, to him, obviously, he's claiming
11:14
that it would be as preposterous to go after
11:16
the United States as it would be to go
11:19
after Israel. But for anyone with a working brain,
11:21
of course, what this really means is
11:23
the US is afraid of the ICC
11:26
for daring to go after Israel,
11:28
but also imagine if they went
11:30
after the United States, which would
11:32
be equally unacceptable.
11:35
But the United States and Israel
11:37
is united by its common values, including
11:39
war crimes. And just
11:41
on the issue of Gaza alone, the ICC
11:43
should be going after the US because the
11:46
US is equally complicit. Israel
11:48
cannot be doing what it's doing without US support, military,
11:51
diplomatic at all levels. So
11:53
I bring it on. Another Republican
11:56
Who had an interesting response to the
11:58
ICC decision is House. Mike
12:00
Johnson, America first. America.
12:03
Should. Punish the I see see. And
12:06
put Karim Khan back in his place
12:08
and of the I see see is
12:10
allowed to threaten Israel's leaders. We know
12:12
that America will be next. There is
12:15
a reason that we've never endorsed the
12:17
International Criminal Court because it is a
12:19
direct affront to our own sovereignty. We
12:22
don't put any international body among among
12:24
or above American sovereignty. and and Israel.
12:27
Does. That the doesn't do that either.
12:29
Or Congress's review and all of our
12:31
options. Right now we have some very
12:34
aggressive legislation everyone to push isn't as
12:36
quickly as possible. Oh, it will impose
12:38
sanctions. And if the
12:40
I see see move forward with it's
12:42
absurd warrant arrest or request the song
12:44
Love This is going to be an
12:47
even bigger international from. And
12:49
what is Mike Johnson mean when he
12:51
says putting our time back in his
12:53
place? Well, we actually have a pretty
12:55
good idea that that has. This is
12:57
what Cream Khan said during a Cnn
13:00
interview about things he was told. By
13:02
certain elected leaders. Strategic.
13:04
Interests. And of course I've
13:06
had some elected leaders says be to me and
13:08
are very believe in a be very blunt. This.
13:11
Court. Is built for Africa.
13:14
And. For said slight Pluto was
13:16
what one senior leader. Told
13:18
me cel. how dare you Cream
13:21
pie on how dare you. Not
13:23
follow our rules are very
13:26
hypocritical: unprincipled, selective application. Of
13:29
International Law and as you Now and
13:31
as we told you Karim. You're. Only
13:33
allowed to go off to Africa and and
13:35
people like them. You're. Not the
13:37
International Criminal Court your the International
13:40
Caucasian Court. So go after African
13:42
leaders and maybe a few. Not.
13:45
Africans if we really really don't like them.
13:47
What Latimer put, bullets, It. Know. What else?
13:50
I'd love to know. Of course are you
13:52
know from with country. That.
13:54
that senior official who yeah holding got
13:56
come from i'm gonna guess it comes
13:58
from my the us UK. But
14:03
it's really a mask off moment. It's really a mask
14:05
off moment. The contempt that
14:08
our elites have for international law,
14:10
for all this
14:12
talk they have about the rules based
14:14
international order. Well, I guess the International
14:16
Criminal Court trying to hold war
14:19
criminals accountable is not a
14:21
part of the rules based international order anymore because now
14:23
it's actually trying to apply some
14:25
standards to people who we're
14:28
in league with. Also, isn't that
14:30
so disgusting to say that they're gonna put them
14:32
in this place? Oh yeah, it's very
14:34
racist language. So racist. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:36
Put them in this place. Exactly. Yeah.
14:39
But that's America First or Mike Johnson.
14:41
Right. America First means doing Israel's bidding.
14:43
It means, you know, like talks about
14:45
like, you know, our sovereignty, respect for
14:48
our sovereignty. Well, where's the respect for
14:50
our sovereignty in, you
14:52
know, letting Israel basically
14:54
destroy the US
14:57
reputation, its professed commitment to
15:00
international law, letting its lobby groups
15:02
buy off Congress members constantly
15:04
with its, you
15:06
know, all the money that APAC spends on
15:09
congressional races, all the meddling it does in
15:11
US democracy. Where's the concern about US sovereignty
15:13
there for a so-called America Firster? It's
15:16
really America kind of Firster. It's
15:19
America tied with Israel Firster. Yeah.
15:22
So what do we got for isn't that weird,
15:24
Aaron? For isn't that weird, we're gonna go over
15:27
to Germany, where
15:31
look, you know, we're just, we're
15:33
journalists here, right? So we're just reporting this news,
15:35
we're bringing it to you. I
15:38
don't want to put imagery of a
15:40
guy licking toilets on the air, but this
15:43
is what a German politician did. His name is
15:45
Martin Neumeier, and he went
15:47
viral after he filmed himself licking
15:50
public toilets. So let's go to the tape. A
15:52
German politician is under fire after he
15:54
was seen licking public toilets in a
15:57
series of inappropriate videos. German politician Martin
15:59
Neumeier alleged. There we go. Listen,
16:01
the categories isn't that weird? The
16:03
imagery is of a German politician licking toilets and toilet
16:05
implements. So
16:09
I think that's weird. I mean,
16:11
I think we fulfilled our duty
16:13
as providing him weird. He's
16:16
apparently a candidate with the FDP, which is a
16:18
very, very, very, very, very, very hard
16:21
to understand. I mean, I think
16:24
we fulfilled our duty as providing
16:26
him weird. He's apparently a candidate
16:28
with the FDP, which is a,
16:30
you know, a German right
16:32
wing party. Always the right wingers
16:34
who do really weird shit. Yeah. Now
16:37
listen, have we done our due diligence on this
16:39
story? Have we gone deep and researched this? No,
16:41
we have not. So, I don't
16:44
know. Is this maybe some kind
16:46
of scam or something? Like a
16:48
deep fake? Like AI? No
16:51
senior candidate is this guy. I don't
16:53
really know. But all I know is
16:55
we saw on Twitter that a German politician was licking toilets
16:57
and we thought it was weird. And that's enough for us.
16:59
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
17:02
Exactly. Yeah. So
17:04
for, isn't that terrible? Let's hear what
17:07
once a very long time ago, slightly
17:09
relevant person, John Lovett had to say
17:11
about Bernie Sanders on Fox News. And
17:14
Bernie Sanders is, he's always been,
17:16
you know, I
17:18
think he's, I said it before and I'll say it again.
17:21
He's a self loathing Jew and
17:24
there's a lot of them. And
17:30
you know, you go, why do you say that? I
17:32
go, well, it's clear as a bell. You
17:39
know, he's not for Israel. They
17:44
have to stop this war. Why isn't
17:46
he condemning Hamas for starting it? What
17:49
about that? And
17:51
whatever you think of Trump, the
17:53
fact is that he's done more
17:56
for Israel than any
17:58
president. in the
18:00
history of this country. OK, so John
18:03
Lovett, full disclosure, I've fought
18:05
with on Twitter over whether
18:07
or not Israel is committing
18:09
genocide. A couple things here. He
18:11
takes a really long time to make
18:13
points that are really not very intelligent
18:16
or well thought or thought provoking. You'd
18:18
think that saying such garbage would kind
18:20
of flow, roll off the tongue more. So
18:23
there's that. The other
18:25
thing is that he accuses Bernie
18:27
Sanders of being a self-loathing Jew
18:29
because he doesn't support Israel, which
18:31
is in itself an anti-Semitic trope.
18:33
That's the dual loyalty trope, suggesting
18:36
that all Jews support Israel, conflating
18:38
being Jewish with supporting Israel, which is something
18:41
anti-Semites do. And he says Bernie
18:43
hasn't condemned Hamas. Now we on the show have talked
18:45
about how not only has he condemned Hamas, but he
18:47
kind of put the blame on them for
18:49
starting the war on October 7th. Which
18:52
of course I'm sure John Lovett likes. So
18:55
for all those reasons, that's
18:58
my isn't that terrible? So Katie, what
19:00
I'm hearing you say is that you're a critic of
19:03
the critic. Yeah, I'm
19:05
a hater the hater. No, but you're a critic
19:07
of the critic because people… Oh, I get it.
19:10
OK. … are the animated show The Critic. Sorry,
19:12
I'm sorry that went over my head for talking.
19:14
I forgot about that. Yeah, you're right. That's true.
19:16
Yeah. It was a short-lived sitcom.
19:20
I don't recall watching it, but I remember it was
19:22
on after The Simpsons. OK. But
19:25
yes, The Critic has turned into
19:27
a critic of anybody
19:29
who isn't kissing Israel's feet, and that
19:31
includes Bernie Sanders because he raises some
19:34
human rights concerns about mass murder. So John Lovett
19:36
is not happy about that. And
19:40
yeah, well, listen, if
19:42
you're a Hollywood star and you would
19:45
like, no matter how marginal you are at this
19:47
point, if you are
19:49
there to defend Israel and its mass
19:52
murder, its extermination of civilians, you'll
19:54
get a spot on TV. Right. Fox News
19:56
will have you. Probably all the networks will
19:58
have you. That it
20:00
and I and a sitcom. Who Enough and in
20:02
a brand new. Design.
20:04
As credit. Assaulted a terrible show.
20:07
His fictional show would be just as terrible
20:09
as I clip. we just aca. Navy
20:11
and Debra Messing. that sorry and movie where
20:13
they both go to. Israel. Has ever
20:15
met her and prices since Israel. Be careful what
20:18
you wish for up to me during my tomorrow
20:20
Yeah yep you know it is be to direct
20:22
it. Yeah, I'm
20:24
Brett Gelman Has Darnell so vast this is
20:26
a nightmare without turning than they were. All.
20:29
right? and those your for basic food groups. For
20:32
this week's guess, we're joined
20:34
by Anthony Low in Steam
20:36
User, independent journalist, filmmaker and
20:38
cofounder of Declassified Australia. His
20:41
latest book is the global best
20:43
seller, The Palestine Laboratory How Israel
20:45
exports the technology of occupation around
20:47
the world. The was based in
20:49
Israel, Palestine and Israel Islam from
20:51
two thousand and sixteen, two thousand
20:53
and Twenty sore and talked and
20:55
to me about his work on
20:57
how Israel. Basically. Uses.
21:00
The. Occupied Territories as
21:02
a. Testing. Ground
21:04
for tools of war and
21:06
surveillance and what's going on
21:09
right now in Gaza. Any
21:11
also is the subject of
21:13
an interesting short documentary about
21:15
seeing a killer who opposes
21:18
Israel. Or it. Let's go to
21:20
everyone. Knows
21:26
headed to be talking to him. Anthony
21:28
Low and scenes was the author of
21:30
among other bucks, the Palace and Laboratory
21:32
or is he would sands in a
21:34
laboratory How Israel exports to technology of
21:36
Occupation. Around the world so. Can. You
21:39
give people an overview of how Israel
21:41
does export the technology of occupation around
21:43
the world. One of the
21:45
things that I investigate in his book
21:47
is that pretty much since Israel's birth
21:49
and Nineteen Forty Eight very soon after
21:51
that Israel are rarely saw the need
21:53
to make friends. Now with the new
21:55
nations, make friends have signs. Highly unusual,
21:57
but the way that they did that.
22:00
was trying to build a domestic arms
22:02
industry. Back then, obviously, it was pretty
22:04
basic weapons. But pretty much
22:06
from the mid to late 50s, they're already
22:08
selling weapons, including to Germany, West Germany then.
22:11
Fast forward to 1967, there's obviously
22:13
the Six-Day War. Israel takes over
22:15
huge amounts of territory of Palestine.
22:17
And really, the trajectory from then
22:19
to now, so close to 55, 60
22:21
years, is
22:23
that Israel has used the occupied
22:25
Palestinian territory to the testing ground
22:28
for a range of tools
22:30
and technologies to control Palestinians.
22:33
By doing so, they use it as a
22:35
very effective marketing tool. So they say to
22:37
many nations, and this happened before 1967, but
22:40
it's certainly accelerated since, even
22:43
nations that publicly were opposed to the
22:45
occupation, who would say, this is terrible,
22:47
you should end the occupation, Israel
22:49
has been very effective from
22:52
its perspective to
22:55
promote a way to control
22:57
so-called enemy populations. So we're talking
22:59
about South Africa during
23:01
apartheid, Guatemala in the 80s,
23:04
when they're literally committing genocide, Iran before
23:06
79. I mean, the list goes on and
23:08
on and on. And one of the reasons I wrote the book, which
23:11
obviously is more the historical part, though,
23:13
is that many people know about the
23:15
US role in backing autocracy around
23:17
the world since 1945. That's
23:19
more known, on the left at least. What's
23:21
far less known is that Israel often was doing
23:24
exactly the same thing, often in concert with the
23:26
US in many of the same countries, to the
23:28
point where, for example, in Chile after 1973, when
23:32
Pinochet takes over, at
23:35
various points, I have this in the
23:37
book, Declassified Documents, the US is saying
23:39
that Israel, in fact, is providing more
23:41
weapons to Pinochet than the Americans were
23:44
even. So the
23:46
so-called laboratory is what Israel is
23:49
doing in Palestine. And as a
23:51
way to promote what they
23:53
say is an effective way to control an
23:55
occupied population. Obviously, in the modern age, just
23:57
briefly, after 9-11, which
24:00
on paper had nothing to do with Israel, although
24:02
you could argue indirectly it did. There
24:05
was a massive explosion in Israel's defense sector
24:07
that they were saying to the world, you
24:09
want to fight a war on terror, so-called
24:13
war on terror, let us show you how to do it.
24:16
And in the last 24 years, Israel's
24:18
defense sector has soared. And
24:20
that is not really changing, I would argue, since October
24:22
7 either. You
24:25
refer to Israel's weapons industry
24:27
and surveillance industry as an
24:29
insurance policy. Can
24:31
you elaborate on that concept? So
24:33
I think this insurance policy, again, the
24:36
caveat has little bit of been what's happened since October 7,
24:38
but we can talk about that in a minute. But essentially
24:40
what I mean by that is even nations, after
24:42
1967, there were many nations
24:45
that, as I said, publicly opposed what
24:47
Israel was doing. You must give those
24:49
territory back, stock occupying Palestinians. But
24:52
the insurance policy, what Israel has been
24:54
selling weapons and surveillance tech to so
24:56
many countries for so long, that
24:59
those nations often were either less likely to
25:01
criticise Israel where it matters, like the UN.
25:03
And for example, often what
25:05
Israel has been doing, both during
25:07
Netanyahu's era, but certainly before, is
25:10
to almost use surveillance
25:12
tech and weapons as a way to get
25:15
more support at the UN for certain votes.
25:17
So obviously, if you look at most UN
25:19
votes, it's pretty much the entire world
25:21
on one side. This has been the case for years.
25:23
The entire world on one side. And
25:26
the other side is Israel, the
25:28
US, Palau, Micronesia,
25:30
and often Australia, shamefully,
25:32
my country. But
25:34
pretty much on the face of it, it seems
25:37
like the whole world's against Israel, at least at
25:39
the UN. But that's obviously not the reality. Putting
25:41
aside obviously the US as important role. It's
25:44
the fact that Israel has been selling, and I
25:46
calculate, no one even knows, by the way, how
25:48
many countries Israel has sold weapons to. I
25:51
calculate anywhere between 125 and 145 nations, which is the majority of
25:53
nations on the planet, have
25:58
bought some form of Israeli... weapons,
26:01
surveillance tech, repressive technology,
26:03
including I might add in the Arab
26:06
world. And it's
26:08
pretty clear, and this again was the
26:10
case before October 7, but since, no
26:12
Arab nation has actually truly cut ties
26:15
with Israel, and none of them will.
26:17
Yes, they've been critical. Yes, they've said what
26:19
Israel is doing is terrible. It should stop.
26:22
But let's be clear. None of them have
26:24
cut ties, and they won't. Why? Well,
26:26
today in the book, and I think this is proven correct
26:29
since October 7, all those
26:31
nations are talking about Saudi, UAE,
26:33
Bahrain, the list goes on. They
26:36
have many reasons for doing what they're doing. But
26:38
I think a key reason is they
26:40
are so desperate, and they have received
26:43
massive amounts of repressive technology from Israel
26:45
long before October 7. They
26:47
want to maintain a relationship with Israel to
26:49
get close to the US, and
26:51
that I think would be one key reason that
26:53
the Abraham Accords, these so-called normalization
26:55
deals that were struck at the end of
26:58
the Trump era, were nothing about peace. It
27:00
was about an arms deal between all those
27:02
nations in Israel. They got what they wanted.
27:04
Israel got so-called friendship. And
27:06
of course, all those nations are petrified of their own
27:09
people. I mean, look, if you look at what's
27:11
happened since October 7, most
27:14
of the Arab nations, where they're allowed to
27:17
protest or at least tried, a few Poles,
27:19
Arabs, or most Muslims, frankly, in all those
27:22
nations, they all fundamentally oppose their own government
27:24
deals with Israel. And the governments know that.
27:27
And they're all petrified of the Arab Spring
27:29
happening again. This is the Arab elites. To
27:32
me, it seems like Israel
27:34
has tried
27:37
to convince both itself and others that
27:39
they are increasingly welcomed in the Arab
27:41
Muslim world. But in fact, that's nonsense.
27:44
With Arab elites, they are. Yes,
27:46
there's increasing traffic between Dubai and
27:48
Tel Aviv. That's undeniably true. But
27:51
if you ask the majority of people in all those
27:53
Arab nations, and I think it has a lot to
27:55
do with Israeli repressive tech, which, as I say in
27:57
my book, they've been selling this stuff
28:00
for $1.5 million. for about a decade, talking
28:02
about phone hacking tools, surveillance technology. So
28:05
Israel is essentially claiming to be
28:07
the only democracy in the middle of the
28:10
job as these nonsense, but they're selling repressive
28:12
technology to other states to repress their own
28:14
people. And it's kind of
28:16
a house of cards. I think, I think
28:19
Israel's position and so-called security
28:21
is a house of cards long
28:23
before October 7th, I would argue.
28:26
And since October 7th, how have we
28:28
seen Israel put the Palestine laboratory into
28:30
action? You know, one of the things that happened
28:33
very quickly on October 7th was
28:36
during the Hamas attack was how easily,
28:38
obviously it took a lot of work
28:41
for Hamas to do this, but the
28:44
so-called security around Gaza
28:46
evaporated immediately. Hamas
28:48
was able to breach both the so-called
28:51
security barrier, the wall that I've been through many
28:53
times when I visited Gaza as a journalist in
28:56
the last 15 years, they
28:58
knocked out pretty much, they made Israel blind
29:00
essentially for 10 or 15 hours. And
29:04
you would think on the face of it, that
29:06
would mean that many countries would say,
29:08
why would we trust you,
29:11
Israel, to sell
29:13
us surveillance and repressive technology when
29:15
you yourself have not protected your
29:17
own people? And
29:20
I've seen no evidence of that. And what I mean by
29:22
that is that it's early days, we
29:24
don't know exactly what armed skills are going to happen
29:26
in the coming months and years, that's true. But
29:30
what we've seen in Gaza pretty much
29:32
since October 7, pretty much starting on
29:34
October 8th, Israel has
29:36
been testing huge amounts of weapons in
29:39
Gaza. I'm talking about
29:41
surveillance drones, so-called quadcopters, which
29:43
basically are killer drones, drones that kill
29:45
people with a weapon, robot
29:48
dogs, both American and Israeli
29:50
companies. I'm
29:53
talking about various other kinds of surveillance
29:55
tech, and they're using that
29:58
and trying to promote that globally. So there's
30:00
been two major arms fairs globally since
30:02
October 7. There's been many others, but
30:04
two major one. Paris late
30:06
last year and Singapore near me a
30:09
few months ago. And at
30:11
both those arms fairs, Israel had a large
30:13
presence, both as a state
30:15
and private Israeli defense company. And
30:18
they are promoting tools and technologies they
30:20
are using in Gaza openly, battle
30:23
tested. I mean, I use that word, but so do
30:25
they. Now, obviously, we don't
30:27
know exactly who's buying those weapons yet, but
30:29
you can be rest assured, as history shows,
30:31
that unless there is a
30:33
political or economic price for
30:36
Israel doing these actions, committing mass
30:39
slaughter in Gaza, these
30:41
weapons will continue to flow. There are many,
30:43
many nations that are very keen from
30:46
Cambodia to Vietnam to
30:49
Singapore, vast parts
30:51
of the Arab world. In countries,
30:54
I would argue, in Latin and South
30:56
America, that have been vocally against what
30:58
Israel is doing. History
31:00
would suggest they're very keen to still buy some
31:02
of that tech. So Aaron, what they've
31:05
been doing is they've been live testing weapons in
31:07
Gaza, promoting it often on social media. And this
31:09
is what I talk about in the book. There's
31:12
almost this feedback loop that Israel, in the
31:14
last 10 years, realized that
31:16
the way that they promoted themselves
31:18
globally wasn't working anymore. What
31:21
I mean by that is that Israel had
31:24
believed, with some justification, that
31:26
for many, many years, not that they controlled the
31:28
media, but they were able to shape the narrative
31:31
pretty effectively from their perspective. Of course, there were
31:33
always critics. Obviously, Palestinians who didn't
31:35
share that view. But if there was
31:37
a study I quote in the book, I think it was
31:39
a study of looking at
31:41
how many opinion pieces in the New York
31:43
Times, from 1970 to 2010, like 2% written
31:45
by Palestinians. I
31:48
mean, just an insane erasure of Palestinians.
31:50
That's changing a little bit. But
31:53
social media changes the game. So
31:55
Israel has got a whole army
31:57
of social media warriors. employed
32:00
by the state in Israel and globally, trying
32:03
to pump out propaganda. Now you could argue
32:05
how effective or not that has been since
32:08
October 7, I would argue not
32:10
particularly effective in
32:12
some circles. But the
32:15
caveat always I say to people is, yes,
32:17
for those of us on the left, Israel lost
32:19
the left years ago, except for
32:22
Germany, which is a whole weird, as you know,
32:24
exception to the rule. But
32:27
in many parts of the global right and
32:29
far right, Israel has never been more popular.
32:32
And that's in fact growing since October 7.
32:35
And as the right in Europe and elsewhere is
32:37
surging in support, I think we are mistaken
32:39
if we think that what Israel
32:42
is doing in Gaza, in some
32:44
circles, does not elicit more support
32:46
and solidarity. And the weapons
32:48
are a key part of that. And when
32:50
it comes to surveillance, like for
32:52
an average citizen in Gaza prior
32:55
to October 7, how
32:57
deeply surveilled are they by Israel? All
33:00
communication in and out of Gaza is monitored.
33:02
Now it doesn't mean every single conversation is
33:04
listened to. It's like the NSA, as we
33:06
know in the US, monitors every conversation, not
33:08
like every single call is listened to by,
33:10
you know, Joe Biden, of course, it doesn't
33:12
work that way. But every communication is
33:15
monitored and tracked. That's
33:17
done by a unit called 8200, which
33:19
is Israel's kind of NSA, essentially.
33:22
And so
33:24
all forms of communication, phone calls,
33:27
mobile cell phone calls, emails,
33:31
social media. If
33:33
a Garza wants to get in and
33:35
out of Gaza to go to education
33:37
outside, to go to medical care, just
33:39
to travel, there has
33:41
been massive amounts of surveillance done on
33:43
those individuals before they have to be
33:46
interviewed by an Israeli officer
33:48
at areas, which is the
33:51
border crossing between Israel and
33:53
Gaza. I've many friends
33:55
of mine in Gaza, some of whom are still there,
33:57
some of whom have got out, who
34:00
have got out since October 7, but
34:02
have talked about what that surveillance means,
34:04
that the information that Israel has on
34:06
an individual who has no connection with
34:08
terrorism or anything is extraordinary.
34:11
And that's because of both human intelligence,
34:13
Israel has, we don't really
34:15
know the numbers of people, but Israel has
34:17
over the years used a
34:20
number of Palestinians to spy on Palestinians. That's
34:22
not exactly a breaking news
34:25
story. Now, how many? We have no idea.
34:27
I don't think it's tens of thousands, but it's
34:29
a decent number. Although it's interesting, since October 7,
34:32
I would argue it's pretty clear that Israel is
34:35
operating fairly blind actually in
34:37
Gaza, despite spending insane amounts
34:39
of money on so-called
34:41
intelligence for years. So there are drones that
34:43
monitor Gaza 24-7 when I've been there over
34:45
the years. Many times you hear low level,
34:47
only see them in the sky. Some
34:50
of them are armed, some of them are not. And
34:54
since October 7, though, there's been a massive
34:56
expansion of this that, again,
34:58
I've been reporting on this and have friends of mine
35:00
who have seen this with their own eyes in Gaza,
35:03
a huge expansion of facial
35:05
recognition technology and biometric tools,
35:07
documenting and monitoring and recording
35:09
Palestinians, often when they're being
35:11
forcibly moved from point A
35:13
to point B, from the north
35:15
to the south, from Rafa to
35:17
somewhere else, God knows where. And
35:21
that information, like we're seeing increasingly in
35:24
the West Bank in the last years,
35:27
of a growing attempt to document
35:30
every single Palestinian citizen.
35:32
Now, what I mean document,
35:34
I mean building a profile of
35:37
that person. What do
35:39
they do? Where do they think? What
35:42
are they writing on social media? Where
35:45
do they want to go? And what Israel has
35:47
often done, both in the West Bank, although, of course,
35:49
Gaza is more of a field in the West Bank,
35:52
is often weaponize that information
35:55
to curtail people's freedom of
35:57
movement. So, for example, it's
35:59
not unusual. the West Bank and indeed I've heard
36:01
in Gaza too of Israel
36:03
trying to blackmail gay Palestinians or for
36:06
that matter someone who is not so-called
36:09
officially gay, you know, is a straight man married
36:11
to a woman, is having an
36:13
affair with a man for example or vice versa,
36:15
whatever the sexual orientation, Israel
36:18
will weaponise that and say,
36:20
it's happened many times, we
36:23
will expose this to your wife,
36:25
to your family unless
36:27
you spy for us and again
36:30
we don't know the numbers of people
36:32
who are essentially giving into that, many
36:34
people I know basically say FU and
36:37
they won't spy for Israel but
36:39
I'm sure some do because they're petrified of
36:41
being shamed in their own community. So Israel
36:45
grossly weaponises intelligence
36:48
against Palestinians which has been the case for
36:50
years, there was
36:52
evidence of this at least 15 years ago and I'm
36:55
sure it's happening, I know it's happening now. What
36:58
about the way that weapons
37:00
have been used against protesters
37:02
here protesting Israel's assault
37:05
on Gaza? One
37:07
of the relationships between Israel and the
37:09
US which has got some attention but
37:11
not nearly enough is after 9-11 there
37:14
was a push as
37:16
I said before by many in the
37:19
pro-Israel lobby and Israel to
37:22
try to sort of make the
37:24
Israeli way, so-called way of
37:26
dealing with trouble as in
37:31
Palestinian as
37:34
an example to how American police forces could
37:36
treat their own people. And
37:39
what I mean by that is American
37:42
police don't need to go to Israel to
37:44
learn to be racist. So
37:47
American police are going to be racist for
37:49
historical reasons, a range of reasons, they don't
37:51
need Israel for that. But what's happened after
37:53
9-11, a few years after
37:55
the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League
37:58
began these police training
38:00
tours basically between both countries. Many
38:04
police forces, senior police went to
38:06
Israel to spend time
38:08
with the police and the military to
38:10
learn what they claim was counter-terrorism techniques,
38:12
essentially. And there's
38:15
huge amounts of evidence, not just since
38:17
October 7 but before, of
38:20
American police forces. Again,
38:23
not every American police nanowoman has gone
38:25
to Israel, but many have. And
38:27
this program has continued. During COVID, it took a
38:29
bit of a break for obvious reasons because of
38:31
travel restrictions. But there was a
38:33
lot of internal debate, from
38:36
my understanding, within the ADL, which is, in
38:39
my view, a grossly extremist
38:41
organization that should not get any kind of credit
38:43
for documenting hate at all. But that's not how
38:45
most of the media views it. There are a
38:47
number of ADL members who have left, staff
38:50
members who have left in the last years, right,
38:52
as you guys know. Because
38:54
of this training, because of this unhealthy
38:57
relationship, and yet, this
38:59
training continues. So
39:02
it's hard to say that every single police
39:04
force that's repressing peaceful
39:06
protesters in America got trained by Israel,
39:08
but some certainly have. And
39:12
it's not just the training, it's
39:14
also the ideology. It's about saying
39:16
that, when you go to
39:18
Israel, and you
39:20
spend time as a policeman
39:22
or woman training with Israeli
39:24
police, well, a lot of people, on
39:27
this podcast, they would know, but the
39:29
wider population might not know, is
39:31
that Israeli police, and border police, particularly,
39:33
have a brutal record of abusing Palestinians.
39:35
I mean, I'm not even talking about
39:37
even in Palestine, I'm talking about within
39:40
Israel itself. Forget about Palestine for
39:42
a minute. So
39:45
that kind of police exchange, it's,
39:47
by the way, it's not that's happening with the US.
39:49
There is, Israel is training
39:51
police in Kashmir, in
39:55
many other countries. This again is how
39:57
the laboratory works. Israel is selling its...
40:00
to me the danger
40:02
of that and the awareness I think that
40:04
more and more Americans are now having, especially
40:07
since October 7, the brutal
40:09
crackdown on many peaceful protesters in your
40:11
country, I think
40:14
is showing people that Israel is not the
40:16
model we want to follow. Now,
40:19
we say that, but
40:21
many other nations disagree. And the one
40:23
I focus on the book just briefly
40:25
is India because I think India is
40:27
the biggest country in the world, the
40:30
largest population in the world. Modi
40:32
is about to get a third term. He's
40:34
increasingly Hindu fundamentalist leader who wants
40:36
to, well, there's 200
40:39
million Muslims in India and there is a
40:41
real attempt to isolate and
40:43
target them. There are regular pogroms against
40:45
them and the relationship between India and
40:47
Israel today very much reminds
40:49
me, as I say in the book, of Israel
40:52
and South Africa back in the day. This
40:54
is a defense relationship, but it's also
40:57
an ideological relationship where they share,
40:59
obviously, one's a Hindu nation, one's
41:01
a Jewish nation. But
41:03
there is an understanding that as
41:05
an ethno-national estate, we need to behave
41:08
in a certain way. And that's the kind of
41:10
training that American police are getting in Israel when
41:12
they go there. There was also this
41:14
incident at Columbia where
41:16
students think that they were
41:19
sprayed with skunk water. I don't know if you
41:21
saw. Yeah, I did. Look,
41:24
I can't say much beyond what I saw
41:26
in the reports. I mean, what people probably
41:29
might not know is that that is a
41:31
very common tactic of Israeli
41:35
forces in the West Bank
41:37
to go after peaceful protesters,
41:39
other Jewish protesters or Palestinians.
41:42
And I've seen it happen. I mean, I've
41:44
lived for many years in Palestine and I've
41:47
seen it with my own eyes how this
41:49
works, that it's a so-called crowd control technique.
41:51
Again, something which can be
41:53
exported to other areas. And it's pretty
41:56
clear in the last
41:58
few months that although this is a That
42:00
was the happening. Under the under the
42:02
Biden administration there is a growing. Interesting.
42:05
Even. More. To militarize
42:07
the American police which is
42:10
deeply disturbing and there's a
42:12
growing it's him to find
42:14
ways to like happened in
42:16
the Nineteen sixties again student
42:18
protests against Vietnam. To infiltrate
42:20
these protests against the genocide
42:22
in Gaza. And.
42:25
I don't think it will work understood from a
42:27
nickel become so they're in for try as I
42:29
don't doubt that. second. Who. Knows how
42:31
many I'm sure there are. Good
42:35
luck trying to him. And he says the
42:37
same logic right where they're trying to ban
42:39
ticked off in America because some politicians worry
42:41
that American young people suddenly interested in Palestine.
42:43
let's ban the at that the game information
42:46
on a nice try guys. Good luck with
42:48
that. I'm a set of it's laughable. And.
42:50
Yet dangerous on not a blind defender.
42:53
Tick tock tick tock is problematic for
42:55
a thousand residents. But the idea that
42:57
you would. Try. To ban
42:59
and at because you're worried that
43:01
a young Americans are engaged in.
43:04
Concerned. By mass slaughter in
43:06
Gaza the seems like assault the wrong way to
43:08
deal with a problem. When. It comes
43:10
to the corporations involved in the past laboratory
43:13
who who are some the major players in
43:15
and who are some firms that. Who's.
43:18
Bob and my surprise people. Are much
43:20
of the first example surprise table but one
43:22
of the he has got a bit of
43:24
press. Similar seamounts is something could project nimbus
43:26
with. some of your viewers will have may
43:28
heard about. This is a project that was
43:30
launched his years ago. With. Google
43:33
and Amazon. Snc
43:35
providing cloud services to Israel, including
43:37
the military. This
43:39
existed before October seven
43:41
and is very very
43:44
concerning questions around. Those.
43:46
Companies involvements it since
43:48
October seven because Israel
43:50
has been. using.
43:54
Artificial intelligence warfare against
43:56
the Palestinian population in
43:58
Gaza. Good. Goal and
44:00
Amazon directly complicit in those
44:03
potential war crimes. Helens here.
44:05
Obviously. A large
44:07
American company. surveillance coming with a huge
44:10
global rates. Has.
44:12
Partnered with the Israeli government. Should decide
44:14
within less than Amazon and Google are
44:17
some your views will know this. There
44:19
has been massive protests within those companies.
44:22
Against. What? They
44:25
buses are doing. Building.
44:27
The connections. There's. Also, a
44:29
growing high but swain Silicon Valley
44:31
in the Us and Israel mrs
44:33
happening before October Seven, but it's
44:35
actually Scylla since. That's.
44:39
Israel. Economically is. Obviously
44:42
taken a hit to an extent
44:44
because they're in war and they
44:46
are spending insane amounts of money
44:48
on on the war in Gaza.
44:51
Many. Many Silicon Valley investors
44:53
are increasingly same. A
44:56
viable path to supporting Israeli
44:58
defence companies. Isn't
45:00
saying before October? Seven Men Fact, it's increasing.
45:03
Another company which is an Israeli one
45:06
that has influence in the Us. his
45:08
elbow Elbert is Israel's biggest defense company.
45:10
Very involved in the war in Gaza
45:12
amongst other places because there are L
45:15
but surveillance towers along the Us Mexico
45:17
border. That's been the case for a
45:19
number of years. And started
45:21
during a bomber, it continued during
45:23
Trump and finished during fine with,
45:26
I think, shows just as a
45:28
brief aside that. This
45:30
is really bi partisan in the
45:32
Us. that yes. I
45:35
think Trump's potential. Immigration.
45:37
Policies disturbed me greatly but it's all
45:40
like by Than in the last three
45:42
years has had a liberal wonderful open
45:44
border poll To let's be clear in
45:46
the sec what Biden has been doing
45:48
is deepening that hi tech surveillance that
45:50
was started during a bomb and continued
45:52
during Trump's I just as as as
45:54
to further that Barack Obama back when
45:56
Biden was desperate to get. believe
45:59
the more dollars the Ukraine proxy war and
46:01
billions of dollars more for Israel. He
46:03
basically agreed to accept all of
46:05
Trump's anti-immigrant policies just to
46:08
win Republican support. And then the deal collapsed because
46:10
Trump, Trump didn't want to let Biden be more
46:12
anti-immigrant than him. So that deal collapsed, but Biden
46:15
throws rhetoric about respect to immigrants is undermined
46:17
it. I
46:19
agree. And it's worth saying also in 2020, in
46:21
the last, in your last
46:24
election cycle, that there are many
46:26
of these private contractors who work
46:29
on the board, including Elvis, who
46:32
in fact, were giving more money to the Democrats than
46:34
the Republicans. Now, how that's going to play out this
46:36
year, we'll have to wait and see. But
46:38
I think that because, as you rightly say,
46:41
Aaron, all these companies know
46:43
it's not going to make a huge difference
46:45
who wins on this issue in November. I
46:47
mean, I would argue that Trump's immigration policies
46:49
might be worse, but nonetheless, the brutality will
46:51
continue regardless of who's going to win. And
46:56
these American corporations, Google,
46:58
Amazon, Palantir and others are
47:00
so deeply complicit and I
47:02
think, frankly, are open to
47:05
massive boycott campaigns. No one could say, how
47:07
do you boycott Google? It's not
47:09
easy. Google is sort of everywhere as
47:11
is Amazon in a way. But
47:13
I think there is a real importance
47:15
to make people aware that you have
47:18
all these companies, major companies
47:20
that are so deeply complicit in what
47:22
Israel is doing and I think it's
47:24
one interesting point is finally that in
47:26
the contract of Project Nimbus, it's written
47:28
into the contract that even
47:30
if there is an attempt to try
47:32
to boycott those companies, the
47:35
contract would still continue. It's
47:37
like a little clause written in the
47:39
contract. Now, that almost exactly
47:42
you could say smart. Yes, from their perspective. I
47:44
mean, I would say in the end, that won't
47:47
work, not tomorrow or next week, but years down
47:49
the track. But look, I
47:51
think what you'll find is that as Israel
47:54
and I think this has slightly changed since October
47:56
7, I mean, let's be clear, the headwinds in
47:59
some countries. still remains very pro-Israel. There's no
48:01
doubt about that. But you will see
48:03
in the coming months and years, I don't doubt that,
48:05
some countries will impose arms in Bago. It won't be
48:08
the US, of course. It won't be the UK. It
48:10
won't be Australia. Some countries will. And
48:14
it is possible, I think, that
48:16
some countries, including maybe in Western Europe, impose
48:18
sanctions. I mean, Belgium, for example, has talked
48:20
in the last month. Belgium is
48:22
not a massively powerful country, but it is
48:24
a Western European state talking
48:26
about potentially imposing sanctions
48:29
on Israel. That was reported in the
48:31
Israeli press last month. I
48:34
think Israel is well aware of these
48:36
potential headwinds, which is even more reason
48:38
why they're going to be looking for
48:40
investment from Silicon Valley and elsewhere in
48:43
years ahead. And it's why I would argue
48:45
that their arms industry, which the latest figures
48:47
we have, just finally, with 2022, we
48:49
haven't got the figures from 23 yet. 12
48:53
and 1,500,000 US, massive,
48:55
the highest by a mile ever. I'm almost positive
48:57
last year is going to be more. And
49:00
some of that, though not all, was coming
49:03
after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where
49:05
a lot of European nations
49:07
flocked to Israel, saying, please,
49:09
please, please, sell us all
49:11
your missile defense shields and
49:13
various other surveillance tech.
49:15
And Israel was happy to do so. And
49:19
I've seen no indication, by the way,
49:21
since October 7 that that has changed
49:23
from those European states at all, none.
49:26
What is Israel's goal in this attack
49:28
on Gaza, this war on Gaza, this
49:31
genocidal war? And
49:34
to hear the rest of the
49:36
interview, please go to usefulidiotspodcast.com. That
49:41
was great. Very cool. And once
49:43
again, Anteolomatine's book, which Katie is holding
49:45
up, is called The Palestine Laboratory, How
49:47
Israel Exports the Technology of
49:49
Occupation Around the World. Yeah,
49:52
that's great. And definitely check out
49:54
the extended interview. If you're not already
49:56
subscribers, you should become subscribers because the
49:58
extended interview really fascinating and
50:01
he talks about his experience in Gaza.
50:03
And it's also, we'll also put a link to
50:05
the documentary that he's featured in. Which
50:08
is called Not in My
50:10
Name and it
50:13
aired in Australia, got a big reception. Yeah.
50:15
And it's available around the world too. Well,
50:18
he continues in a fine tradition of just
50:21
really brave, insightful
50:23
Australians, Julian Assange, Caitlin
50:26
Johnstone, John Pilger. Sure.
50:29
R.I.P. Kylie Minogue, you could
50:31
argue, you know, is in
50:33
that tradition. I mean, the crocodile Dundee guy.
50:35
Paul Hogan, absolutely. Yeah. But thank you, Australia,
50:37
for all you've given us. And
50:40
thank you to our audience for tuning
50:43
in. Our website is uciliitiuspodcast.com to support
50:45
the show. We really appreciate your support.
50:47
You keep us going. We have a
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limited offer going on. It's
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a special deal flying off the digital shelves where
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for one full year of Useful Idiots.
51:01
It's a hot deal. Take advantage while you can. And we'll
51:04
see you next time. Bye everybody. Bye, Ron. Thanks
51:09
so much for listening to and watching Useful
51:12
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