0:01

All Zone media.

0:08

Hello everybody, and welcome

0:11

to it could happen here. My

0:13

name is Sharene, and a

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lot has happened recently and

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we definitely need to talk about it. There's

0:21

a lot to cover and

0:24

things are changing every day. I

0:27

can't possibly talk about everything in a thirty

0:29

minute podcast episode, but

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just for context, I'm recording the bulk of

0:33

this on Wednesday, October eleventh.

0:37

There are many different things that we should get

0:39

into, and we'll probably get into them in other episodes,

0:41

so look forward to those. But

0:43

today I want to talk about why

0:45

exactly this attack from

0:48

Hamas is so different and

0:50

so unprecedented for

0:52

many reasons, and why the response

0:54

by Israel is also extremely

0:56

unprecedented. There

0:58

has been a lot of a lot

1:01

of death, and I thought a better

1:03

way to start to learn about this

1:05

might be with something really specific, like

1:08

learning about the border fence that

1:10

has been cajing in Gaza for years,

1:13

why Israel thought it was so impermeable,

1:16

and how they were wrong. So let's begin

1:19

the video and images going around on social

1:21

media of a bulldozer breaking

1:23

through a portion of the fence that has

1:26

long enclosed the Gaza stript for years.

1:29

This cage that surrounds that

1:31

territory, the image

1:33

of a bulldozer there's running straight

1:35

through it and Palestinians running to the

1:37

other side. I don't think

1:39

you can find anything better to

1:42

represent the long history

1:44

of Israeli Palestinian tensions,

1:47

the decades of brutal Israeli occupation,

1:50

the recurrent Hamas bombings and rocket

1:52

strikes, and the political deterioration

1:55

on both sides than this image.

1:58

No one thought this was going to happen. Professor

2:01

Clive Jones, director of Institute

2:03

for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at

2:05

Durham University, said, this

2:08

is the first time since nineteen forty eight

2:10

that any Palestinian militant movement

2:13

has taken territory in Israel proper.

2:15

That symbolic victory and defeat

2:18

for Israel will resonate across

2:20

the region. So on

2:22

the morning of October seventh, there

2:24

was a surprise attack from Hamas against

2:27

Israel. What happened was a colossal

2:29

failure of Israeli intelligence as well

2:31

as the Israeli government. I'll

2:34

go into this in more detail in a bit, but in

2:36

this surprise attack, resistance fighters

2:38

were entering in up to twenty nine different

2:40

locations outside the Gaza Strip.

2:43

Most significantly, fighters tore

2:45

through the border fence, which has also been called

2:48

the Iron Wall. They knocked it aside

2:50

with bulldozers, drove right through it with

2:52

jeeps and motorcycles, other

2:55

hamas fighters sailed right over it with

2:57

fan powered gliders, and others

2:59

hopped on boats to try to reach the other side

3:01

by sea. A crucial

3:03

component of Israel's defense from an attack

3:05

like this, or at least it was supposed to be,

3:08

was this sophisticated border fence.

3:11

I want to talk about how exactly Israel

3:15

came to build this fence, because

3:18

throughout most of its history, the IDF did

3:20

not want much to do with defensive

3:22

measures. Its traditional security

3:24

concept rested on three complimentary

3:27

pillars, deterrents, early

3:29

warning, and decisive battlefield

3:31

victory. Guided by

3:33

this concept, the IDF built offensive

3:36

power designed to deter its enemies

3:38

from attacking, and intelligence raised

3:40

in order to detect when that deterns had

3:42

eroded. If it was unable to convince

3:45

the other side that it was better off avoiding

3:47

conflict, the IDF would bring the

3:49

full might of its offensive capabilities

3:52

in search of a rapid and decisive

3:54

quote unquote victory, which

3:57

just means they would end up killing a lot of people.

4:00

They would fly in cities and masker hundreds

4:02

of people in order to essentially make

4:04

the other side lose all hope and not

4:06

fight back, and if they did, to

4:08

tell them never to fight back again. This

4:11

would, according to this concept, initially

4:14

strengthen the terrens. The

4:16

idea of defense for Israel

4:18

began sneaking into the conversation in the nineteen

4:21

sixties, as Israel considered purchasing

4:23

the Hawk surface to air missile system

4:25

from the US. This idea

4:27

had some opposition at the highest level

4:29

of the IDF Air Force.

4:32

Commander Ezer Wiseman opposed

4:34

the idea on the grounds that it would give Israel's

4:36

political chiefs an excuse to

4:38

avoid the bold offensive operations,

4:41

in this case, surprise air strikes that

4:43

would take out entire buildings, which

4:45

he viewed as necessary to win

4:47

a war. In the end, though

4:50

five Hawk missile batteries were purchased

4:53

just before the nineteen sixty seven Six

4:55

Day War for thirty million dollars,

4:58

the first makings of the present day

5:00

security fence began in nineteen ninety

5:03

four after the signing of the Interim

5:05

agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza

5:07

Strip when Israel constructed a

5:09

forty mile fence along its boundary

5:12

with Eastern Palestine. The construction

5:14

was completed in nineteen ninety six, though

5:16

it didn't necessarily represent a hard

5:19

border. In two thousand

5:21

and five, under former Prime Minister Ariel

5:23

Sharon, Israel carried out a disengagement

5:26

from Gaza, which included, among other

5:28

things, pulling out its troops. This

5:31

meant that the one kilometer buffer zone

5:33

that the Israeli Defence Forces maintained

5:35

after the first fence was torn down by Gazans

5:37

in two thousand was no longer a possibility.

5:41

A plan for an alternate forty five fence

5:43

a few dozen meters east of the original fence,

5:46

entirely on Israeli land, was then

5:48

developed. The present day

5:50

forty mile long barricade has several

5:53

sections, a twenty foot high smart

5:55

fence, which is the over the ground fence

5:58

with a maritime section by sensors

6:01

to detect encourageents from the water, and

6:03

an underground wall of classified depth

6:05

and thickness with sensors to detect

6:08

any digging. The overground

6:10

barrier, which makes up eighty one percent of

6:12

the fence is supported by a complex

6:14

network of cameras, radar systems,

6:16

as well as command and control rooms. One

6:19

hundred and forty thousand tons of iron

6:21

and steel were used in the construction

6:24

of the underground wall, which took

6:26

three and a half years to complete. The

6:29

total cost of the project is estimated

6:31

at one point eleven billion dollars.

6:34

The project of the quote unquote smart

6:37

fence was publicly announced in twenty sixteen,

6:39

and in twenty twenty one, Israel announced

6:42

the completion of the smart fence, which

6:44

included an underground concrete barrier.

6:47

This addition, which I feel like is important

6:49

to mention, was because Hamas

6:52

used underground tunnels to blind side

6:54

Israeli forces in twenty fourteen, Access

6:57

near the fence on the Gaza side was limited

6:59

to farmers who were on foot. On the

7:02

Israeli side, observation towers

7:04

and sand dunes were put in place to monitor

7:06

threats and slow intruders. With

7:09

the announcement of its completion in twenty twenty

7:12

one, the then Defence Minister Benny

7:14

Gantz said the barrier placed a quote

7:16

iron wall between Hamas and Southern

7:18

Israel. But on

7:21

October seventh, as we saw the

7:23

wall failed massively, and

7:25

a surprise series of coordinated

7:27

efforts enabled Tamas to get past

7:29

the wall. The fence was breached

7:32

at twenty nine points, according to the IDF.

7:35

There were also Israeli guard towers positioned

7:37

at every five hundred feet along

7:40

the perimeter of the wall at some certain

7:42

points, and the Hamas fighters there

7:44

appeared to encounter very little resistance.

7:47

It soon became apparent that the border

7:49

was minimally staffed, with much

7:51

of Israel's military diverted to

7:53

focus on the unrest in the West Bank.

7:56

Matthew Levitt is the director of the counter

7:59

Terrorism Program at the Washington Institute

8:01

for Near East Policy. He said

8:04

the most compelling parts of the system were

8:06

the ones that provided indicators and

8:08

warnings. But you don't

8:10

see in advance that someone is masked

8:13

at the fence. It's still just a fence,

8:15

a big fence, but just a fence still,

8:18

he says. The idea of a bulldozer

8:20

getting that close to the fence at all

8:23

just boggles the mind. The

8:25

attack has been documented as the

8:27

following. To put it very

8:29

simply, using commercial

8:31

drones, Hamas bombed Israeli observation

8:34

towers, communications infrastructure,

8:36

and weapons systems along the border.

8:39

Israel said Hamas fired more than three

8:41

thousand rockets into its territory, with

8:44

some reaching as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

8:47

Militants also use explosives

8:49

to blow up sections of the barrier, and

8:52

men and motorbikes drove through the gaps

8:54

and then the bulldozers did the rest

8:57

and this allowed for enough space for their larger

8:59

view to drive through. Experts

9:02

said an attack of this magnitude with all

9:04

of these elements would have required weeks

9:07

at least of preparation and

9:09

subterfuge. But maybe

9:11

you're asking, well, why now, why

9:13

did Hamas now decide to

9:16

launch an attack of this magnitude.

9:18

There are some clues in the name that Hamas

9:21

gave the attack. They named it Operation

9:23

of Axa Flood. Just days

9:25

before the attack, hundreds of Israeli settlers,

9:28

with the protection of the Israeli forces,

9:30

stormed at Alexa Mosque and occupied

9:32

East Jerusalem. I've talked about

9:35

this before, but this compound

9:37

is a very important and contested

9:39

religious site, and it's often

9:42

very often a target by Israeli

9:44

settlers and the IDF, and

9:46

Hamas said it launched its attack

9:48

in response to the desecration of Aluxa.

9:51

Muhammad'ef, the Rassam Brigade's

9:54

commander, said, we have

9:56

decided that the time has come to draw

9:59

the line for the the enemy to understand

10:01

their time is up and they can't keep

10:03

going without consequences.

10:06

But again, experts said this plan would

10:08

have taken weeks to plan. I'm

10:10

sure the attacks on Aleximosque

10:12

played a role in the attack, but

10:14

it was probably being worked on for quite

10:17

some time before that. And

10:19

Hamas also said the attack was a response

10:21

to decades of Israeli violence and occupation.

10:24

The daily impact of that occupation on

10:27

the lives of Palestinians in Gaza and

10:29

other occupied territories like the West Bank

10:32

is a huge part of this story. Let's

10:35

take our first break before I forget

10:38

no clever segue here, Just

10:40

listen to these ads and

10:52

we're back. Analysts

10:54

and experts have been warning for months

10:57

that the reality on the ground in Palestine

11:00

in Israel was leading up to this. Nor

11:03

Udin, a political analyst and

11:05

former Palestinian Authority spokeswoman,

11:07

said the record number of Palestinians

11:10

killed, dispossessed, injured

11:12

and traumatized by Israeli forces and

11:14

settlers across the occupied West Bank,

11:17

the continued siege on Gaza, the

11:19

relentless attacks on El Samosque,

11:21

they were all pushing the situation towards

11:24

this moment. I don't think anybody

11:26

imagined the particulars of this moment, but

11:28

I think everybody with a sense of what was going

11:30

on knew that this quote unquote

11:32

calm was deceiving and

11:35

that something was going to happen, something

11:37

big. And it did happen.

11:39

The wall came down. But for the

11:42

two point three million Palestinians

11:44

who have been virtually trapped for fifteen

11:46

years, as well as the Palestinians on the West

11:48

Bank, who have been constantly surveilled,

11:50

having their movement restricted, and have experienced

11:53

growing military violence, bulldozing

11:56

through this fence means something else.

11:59

While the Israeli response was

12:01

fed by the failure of this system,

12:04

making the future of all Palestinians even more

12:06

precarious. The impact of Saturday's

12:08

attack for Palestinians is hugely

12:10

significant psychologically and symbolically.

12:14

It shatters the idea of Israel's military

12:16

superiority. It's a physical

12:18

symbol of breaking out of the open

12:20

air prison they've been held captive in letting

12:23

them step onto the land that they've been forced

12:25

out of, some of them for their entire

12:27

lives. Most of the Palestinians

12:29

and Gaza are children, and they have only

12:31

ever known life within the confines

12:34

of that fence. So bulldozing

12:36

a hole right through this fence to the other

12:38

side will obviously have ripples

12:40

in more ways than one.

12:43

I want to mention something here that I've been thinking

12:45

about is that Gaza is often

12:47

referred to as the world's biggest

12:49

open air prison, which is true,

12:52

but I was thinking about it, and prison

12:55

implies that they did a crime.

12:58

They did not do a crime. The Palestinians

13:01

are innocent. They're stuck

13:03

in a cage against their will, and

13:05

they have no way out. I think

13:07

a better way to describe Gaza might

13:09

be an open air concentration

13:12

camp, the biggest open air concentration

13:14

camp period. This is just something I've

13:16

been thinking about because I feel like open air prison

13:19

implies they're all criminals and

13:21

they're not, so just something to

13:24

think about when it comes to semantics and

13:26

the power of words, I suppose, even

13:28

if it's subconscious. Gaza

13:31

has been under a land, sea and air

13:34

blockade since two thousand and seven. More

13:36

than two point three million Palestinians

13:38

live there, all crammed in and

13:41

they cannot leave without Israeli permission,

13:43

which very few people get.

13:46

Hamas is a political and armed group

13:48

that took control of two thousand and six, and

13:51

there hasn't been an election since. It's

13:54

part of a regional alliance which also

13:56

includes Iran and the armed group has

13:58

Bela and Lebanon. Hamas

14:00

has been designated a terrorist organization

14:02

by Israel, the US, and the EU,

14:05

among many others. We'll be doing

14:07

a history more in depth about Hamas

14:09

soon, but it's important to note that

14:11

Israel basically helped create it. More

14:14

details will be in that episode, obviously, but

14:17

just to summarize very briefly, Israel

14:20

bolstered Hamas's creation and funded

14:22

its expansion because it wanted to divide

14:24

the Palestinians amongst themselves, and

14:27

they viewed the leftist PLO,

14:29

the Palestinian Liberation Organization,

14:32

which was the governing party at the time,

14:34

as a threat, and so they encouraged

14:36

Hamas to flourish and

14:39

thrive, which leads us to now

14:42

again, that'll be a separate episode.

14:44

There is so much to cover, and

14:46

I can do it all today. Although

14:48

the PLO used to be the

14:51

dominant party decades

14:53

ago, in recent years, the PLO

14:55

and the secular FATA party which the PLO

14:58

is centered around, is often criticized

15:00

for being ineffective, and so many

15:03

Palestinians see Hamas as the

15:05

most active group when it comes to resistance

15:07

against the violent Israeli occupation. Palestinians

15:11

have lived in violent occupation for seventy

15:13

six years and the world has

15:15

largely done nothing. Palestinians

15:18

have no outside support whatsoever,

15:21

and no one is coming to their aid or

15:23

rescue. They unfortunately

15:25

only have this militant group because

15:28

of this, and also just

15:30

a reminder that Palestine has

15:33

actually tried everything and that violence

15:35

is not their first resort. Many

15:38

Palestinians don't even support Hamas.

15:41

Let's not forget about BDS, which

15:43

is a Palestinian nonviolent

15:46

movement which calls for boycott, divestment

15:48

and sanctions for Israel. BDS

15:51

is now deemed illegal. In

15:53

twenty twenty one, thirty five states

15:56

passed anti BDS laws, so

15:59

even boycott Israeli products

16:01

is suddenly illegal. So

16:03

that was BDS. People are obviously

16:06

still engaged in BDS and I encourage everyone

16:08

to read more about it, because divestment

16:11

and sanctions work. It worked in South Africa,

16:14

but here we are. And then

16:16

in twenty eighteen, Palestinians

16:18

in Gaza mounted the Great March of Return

16:21

to show the world their plight. Day

16:24

after day they walked unarmed

16:27

to Israeli's military fences around

16:29

Gaza. How did Israel

16:31

respond to this non violent protest.

16:35

They shot eight thousand Palestinians

16:37

with live ammunition, killed two

16:39

hundred and twenty people and wounded

16:42

thirty six thousand, one hundred

16:44

and forty three. Palestinians

16:47

are getting killed regardless of the

16:49

existence of Hamas, because Israel

16:51

bombing Gaza isn't actually

16:53

about Hamas but occupation

16:56

and ethnic cleansing. Israel

16:58

and Hamas have fought many on and off

17:00

quote unquote wars. I say,

17:02

quote unquote because it's not

17:04

a war if only one side has an army,

17:07

and I personally really hate when it's referred to

17:09

as a war because it's falsely portraying

17:11

an occupation as an equal fight when

17:14

there's actually an oppressor and an oppressed.

17:17

But regardless, the last big war

17:19

Israel had had with Hamas was in twenty twenty

17:21

one. In the past, it's usually

17:24

been an exchange of fire across the Gaza

17:26

border. Hamas launches rockets

17:28

into Israel, Israel drops more bombs

17:30

on Gaza. Hamas launches rockets

17:32

into Israel, Israel drops more bombs

17:34

on Gaza, and so on. Usually

17:37

this results in a huge civilian

17:39

death toll in Gaza, with Israel

17:41

bombing entire residential buildings and killing

17:44

entire families and hundreds of children.

17:47

And just a reminder here that Gaza does

17:50

not have an iron dome to

17:52

defend itself. When Israel

17:54

bombs Gaza, it does

17:56

so knowing it is very densely populated

17:59

and filled with hundreds of

18:01

innocent people that have nothing to do

18:03

with Hamas. They drop bombs

18:05

on buildings, hospitals, schools,

18:08

nothing is off limits. I

18:10

don't have to remind you, or maybe I do that They've

18:12

also killed members of the press, clearly

18:14

wearing press vests, but

18:17

I guess that's another topic for another day. What

18:20

happened this time around with the attack

18:22

that Hamas launched on October seventh,

18:24

was very different, though it's

18:27

repeatedly been called unprecedented,

18:29

and this is true for a few reasons. One

18:32

because of the scale of the attack that Hamas

18:34

launched, and two because nobody

18:37

really saw it coming. As

18:39

of this recording, more than one

18:41

thousand and two hundred Israelis and

18:44

foreign nationals, the majority of whom

18:46

were civilians, were killed

18:49

and more than three thousand were wounded. Hamas

18:52

also said that it captured more than one hundred

18:54

Israelis, including some senior military

18:56

officers. Nothing

18:59

like this, especially at this magnitude,

19:01

has happened since two thousand and six, when

19:03

Hamas captured one Israeli soldier,

19:06

Galatchilit and held him

19:08

in Gaza for five years. And

19:11

three days after Hamas launched this

19:13

attack on October seventh, there were still

19:15

gun battles going on between Hamas fighters

19:17

and Israeli forces in the three main

19:20

areas in southern Israel.

19:22

And despite verified footage and reporting

19:25

from Gaza that indisputably shows

19:27

countless Palestinian children who Israel

19:29

has killed so far, Israel's

19:31

murder of Palestinian children is receiving

19:33

little to no media attention in

19:35

the US or globally. But

19:39

they create the worst possible enemy,

19:42

so the world supports the destruction

19:45

of an entire people, and

19:47

as an Arab, I want to

19:49

mention that it's really hard to see

19:51

all of this play out, and if you have any

19:53

Arab friends, I'm sure they're going through it too,

19:56

especially if they're Palestinian, because

19:58

it's almost like dejah of

20:01

what happened after nine to eleven, and

20:03

what happened after nine to eleven didn't really stop.

20:05

To be honest, it's not like a somophobia took a break

20:08

and then came back. It's always been there, but

20:10

now it's very shameless and disgusting,

20:14

and it makes no attempt to cover itself

20:16

because it's not only ignored, but encouraged

20:19

in order to validate the actions

20:21

of the US military in the Israeli military.

20:25

Another reason for this all being so unprecedented

20:28

is Israel's failure to stop it from

20:30

happening. The Israeli Army

20:32

is one of the world's most sophisticated military

20:34

and intelligence organizations, as well as

20:36

one of the most powerful armies in the world. Because

20:39

of the United States support and billions of

20:41

dollars in funding, any kind

20:43

of communication going in and out of Gaza,

20:45

at least in theory, would be listened to by

20:47

Israel's intelligence units. And again,

20:50

the offense is heavily militarized, but

20:52

still it collapsed. I

20:55

think another significant result of

20:57

this, which I kind of touched on earlier, is

20:59

that the success full attack from Hamas

21:01

completely undermines the never endingly talked

21:04

about power of Israel and the power

21:06

of their army and military, especially

21:08

their capability in the region. It

21:10

kind of disrupts their entire image

21:13

in a way.

21:24

I also want to quickly mention that the claim

21:27

that Hamas's attack was unprovoked

21:29

is ignoring the years of brutal

21:32

occupation and exactly why they

21:34

attacked in the first place. It was a surprise,

21:37

yes, but I would never say it was unprovoked,

21:39

because you can't keep someone in captivity their entire

21:42

lifetime and expect them to

21:45

hug it out. And maybe

21:47

what I'm saying sounds radical

21:49

to you, especially by the standards

21:51

of American media. But here

21:53

is this award winning Israeli

21:56

journalist and writer Gideon Levy.

21:59

He wrote an incredible piece about

22:01

what's happening right now. He writes

22:04

opinion pieces in a weekly column for Herots,

22:06

and he focuses particularly on the

22:08

Israeli occupation of Palestine, and

22:11

he has won awards for his articles

22:13

on human rights. He

22:15

wrote an incredibly moving, powerful

22:18

piece called Israel can't

22:20

imprison two million Gozzens

22:22

without paying a cruel price. I

22:25

want to read excerpts from this because

22:27

he is speaking as inn Israeli, and

22:30

I think it's extremely important to

22:32

hear what he has to say. Behind

22:35

all this lies Israeli arrogance,

22:38

the idea that we can do whatever we like that

22:40

will never pay the price and never be punished

22:42

for it. Will carry on undisturbed.

22:46

We'll arrest, kill, harass,

22:48

dispossess, and protect the settlers

22:50

busy with their programs, will

22:52

fire at innocent people, take out people's

22:55

eyes and smash their faces, expel,

22:57

confiscate, rob grab people from their

22:59

beds heads, carry out ethnic cleansing, and of

23:01

course continue with the unbelievable

23:04

siege of the Gaza Strip, and everything

23:06

will be all right. We'll build

23:08

a terrifying obstacle around Gaza and

23:10

will be safe. Will rely on the

23:13

geniuses of the Army's eighty two hundred

23:15

cyber intelligence unit and on

23:17

the Shinbet Security Service agents who

23:19

know everything. They'll warn us in time.

23:22

It turns out that even the world's most

23:24

sophisticated and expensive obstacle

23:27

can be breached with a smoky old

23:29

bulldozer. When the motivation is

23:31

great, This arrogant barrier

23:33

can be crossed by bicycle and moped, despite

23:36

the billions poured into it and all the

23:38

famous experts and fat cat contractors.

23:42

We thought we'd continue to go down to Gaza,

23:44

scatter a few crumbs in the form of tens

23:46

of thousands of Israeli work permits, always

23:49

contingent on good behavior, and still

23:51

keep them in prison. We'll make

23:53

peace with Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates,

23:56

and the Palestinians will be forgotten until

23:58

they're erased. Quite a few Israelis

24:01

would like we'll keep

24:03

holding thousands of Palestinian prisoners,

24:05

some without trial, most of them political

24:08

prisoners, and we won't agree

24:10

to discuss their release, even after

24:12

they've been in prison for decades. We'll

24:15

tell them that only by force will their prisoners

24:17

see freedom. We thought we would

24:19

arrogantly keep rejecting any attempt

24:21

at a diplomatic solution, only

24:24

because we don't want to deal with all that, and everything

24:26

will continue that way forever.

24:29

Once again, it was proved that this

24:31

isn't how it is a few hundred

24:34

armed Palestinians breached the barrier

24:36

and invaded Israel in a way no Israeli

24:38

imagine possible. A few hundred

24:40

people proved that it's impossible to

24:43

imprison two million people forever

24:46

without paying a cruel price. Just

24:48

as the smoky old Palestinian bulldozer

24:51

tore through the world's smartest

24:53

barrier, it tore away at Israel's

24:55

arrogance and complacency. And

24:58

that's also how it tore away at the idea

25:00

that it's enough to occasionally attack Gaza

25:02

with suicide drones and sell them to

25:04

half the world to maintain security.

25:07

On Saturday, Israel saw pictures

25:09

it has never seen before, Palestinian

25:12

vehicles patrolling gets cities,

25:14

bike riders entering through the Gaza gates.

25:17

These pictures tear away at that arrogance

25:20

the Gaza Palestinians have decided they're

25:22

willing to pay any price for

25:24

a moment of freedom. Is

25:27

there any hope in that? No? Will

25:29

Israel learn its lesson? No.

25:33

On Saturday, they were already talking about

25:35

wiping out entire neighborhoods in Gaza,

25:37

about occupying the strip and punishing

25:39

Gaza quote as it has never been

25:42

punished before. But Israel

25:44

hasn't stopped punishing Gaza since nineteen

25:46

forty eight, not for a moment. After

25:49

seventy five years of abuse, the

25:51

worst possible scenario awaits

25:53

it once again. The threats

25:55

of flattening Gaza prove only

25:58

one thing. We haven't learned a

26:00

thing. The arrogance is here

26:02

to stay, even though Israel is

26:04

paying a high price once again. Prime

26:07

Minister Benjamin Nyaho bears a very

26:10

great responsibility for what happened, and

26:12

he must pay that price. But it

26:14

didn't start with him, and it won't end after

26:16

he goes. We now have

26:18

to cry bitterly for the Israeli victims,

26:21

but we should also cry for Gaza. Gaza,

26:25

most of whose residents are refugees

26:27

created by Israel, Gaza,

26:30

which has never known a single day of

26:32

freedom. I just think that piece

26:34

is very powerful, and I know I read a good chunk of

26:37

it, but I think it's

26:39

important to hear, especially from an

26:41

Israeli. As he mentioned,

26:44

Israel, because of this has responded

26:46

to the attack with extreme force.

26:49

Prime Minister a little Bitchna NYAHUO said

26:51

the enemy will pay an unprecedented

26:54

price. Israel has bombed

26:56

Gaza for days, hitting Gaza

26:58

with air strikes, targeting hospitals,

27:00

mosques, entire residential buildings, and

27:03

calling Palestinians animals to the media,

27:06

Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant said,

27:09

we are fighting animals and acting accordingly.

27:12

Israel also said that it wants to wipe out hamasa's

27:15

military capability and end its control

27:17

of Gaza, which doesn't

27:19

really make sense because they're

27:22

kind of targeting anything and now

27:24

anything they can hit, including civilians, and

27:28

at the end they want control themselves. So I

27:30

think a lot of right wing Israeli

27:32

politicians, which was most of them these days, say

27:36

empty, stupid shit. And

27:39

it also looks like amidst all this

27:41

that a ground invasion is likely going to happen

27:44

because the IDF has been readying tanks

27:46

and military jeeps. It

27:48

sucks that I have to say this out loud,

27:50

but peace should not come at the

27:53

expense and the brutal oppression

27:55

of others. There was no

27:57

peace before this attack. The

27:59

violence of the Israeli occupation has been

28:01

there since the state was established in nineteen

28:04

forty eight. Hamas is a

28:06

direct result of that violence.

28:08

There has never been peace in Israel because

28:10

it was created in violence, and

28:13

this clearly does not justify

28:17

Hamas killing innocent people.

28:19

That is never okay, But

28:22

Israel also can justify killing thousands

28:25

of people because of that. Abby

28:29

Martin, who is the creator and host of

28:31

The Empire Files. She also made

28:33

the film Gaza Fights for Freedom, which I highly

28:35

recommend. She posted this

28:38

exchange on her Twitter between

28:40

her and one of their field producers in Gaza,

28:43

and he says, I'm scared, Abby,

28:46

I feel I could die any second. Most

28:49

of the people here lost power and internet

28:51

connections, so we don't know where they hit. Entire

28:54

neighborhoods are being erased. They

28:56

killed twelve hundred of us so far and

28:58

destroyed massively, and yet they

29:01

say they have not started yet.

29:03

We know massacres are coming, and we're

29:05

sure they got the green light from the US

29:08

to kill us all. So that is

29:10

a perspective of someone standing in Gaza

29:13

living in fear, which isn't entirely

29:16

new as far as living in fear goes,

29:19

because that's been the reality for Gazans for

29:21

decades. But this time it's different

29:24

because it's very clear that Israel's committing

29:26

a purposeful genocide.

29:29

But they're in the dark with no one to

29:31

help them, and I

29:33

can only imagine how helpless and hopeless

29:35

it feels. It breaks

29:37

my heart. I just want

29:39

to give a update, an

29:42

unfortunate update, because things

29:45

are just fucked and people

29:48

keep dying. But I'm recording

29:50

this update on the afternoon of October

29:52

twelfth, like a day after

29:55

I record the original stuff, and Israel

29:57

has killed five hundred Palestinians and the Gaza

30:00

strip since this morning, five

30:03

hundred in the last six hours

30:05

twelve hours. Gaza's

30:07

health ministry said that one thousand,

30:09

five hundred and thirty seven Palestinians,

30:12

including five hundred children

30:15

and two hundred and seventy six women, have

30:17

been killed and there are almost

30:19

seven thousand others wounded because

30:21

of these Israeli airstrikes. Loss

30:24

of this magnitude is unsettling

30:27

and overwhelming. And I also

30:29

want to mention this something

30:31

I just learned. Israel has bombed

30:33

the international airports of Aleppo

30:35

and Damascus in Syria, and

30:38

this has forced them out of service. So

30:41

not only are they massacring the entire families

30:43

in Gaza, but they're also dropping

30:46

bombs on civilian airports in Syria.

30:50

And the Western media still wants you to think that Israel

30:52

is the victim. It

30:55

bears repeating that Gaza is very

30:57

densely populated, with two point

30:59

three million people trapped in a very

31:01

small space, unable to leave,

31:04

with nowhere to escape to. An

31:07

example of this empty, stupid

31:09

rhetoric that Israeli politicians

31:11

are saying is when Natanyahu

31:13

said that civilians should leave and evacuate

31:16

Gaza. He said that, knowing

31:19

full well that that is impossible

31:21

because his government forbids it. He

31:23

said that to the media so the

31:25

world can see that he is

31:28

just and not trying to attack any

31:30

civilians. It's all a fucking show, like

31:32

I guess all politics are, but

31:34

it's still really infuriating and

31:37

I hate it so much. And in Gaza,

31:40

before all of this, before the

31:42

thousands that have already died, there was already

31:44

a blockade. They were trapped

31:46

for fifteen years. And now

31:49

in addition to this blockade, Israel

31:52

has imposed a total siege on

31:54

Gaza, inflicting collective

31:56

punishment, which is illegal under

31:58

international law. But Israel

32:01

routinely commits war crimes and goes

32:03

about its business unchecked. Why

32:05

would it be any different this time. Remember

32:09

that half of Gaza's population are under

32:11

eighteen hundreds of children

32:13

have been murdered, and horrific videos

32:15

have been circulating of the destruction of Gaza,

32:18

of bodies and babies and

32:20

innocent people being pulled out of the rubble.

32:23

I had a break down last

32:25

night because I saw a video of a

32:28

Palestinian father holding his

32:30

dead child's corpse and hugging

32:33

it for the very last time. And

32:35

I'm very privileged to be sitting here recording

32:37

this, and if I have difficulty

32:39

processing it, I cannot imagine what Palestinians

32:42

are going through. Israel

32:44

controls everything in Gaza.

32:47

If cut off electricity, food,

32:49

water, and gas for an entire

32:52

population, Israel

32:54

is massacring Palestinians in a blackout

32:56

on purpose, so they're unable to

32:58

connect with anyone from the outside. No

33:01

electricity also means that hospitals

33:03

have no way of the already limited

33:06

machines they have available to them so

33:08

they can save lives. Before

33:10

this, the water in Gaza was already

33:12

ninety seven percent undrinkable,

33:15

and now it's completely gone. This

33:17

will lead to dehydration deaths,

33:20

among many many other deaths.

33:23

Israel is starving an entire population

33:26

live on your television, openly

33:29

committing genocide as the world

33:31

watches on as it always

33:33

does. It

33:39

could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.

33:41

For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit

33:43

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33:50

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33:54

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