Joining us on this edition of the News Review, we have Professor of International Relations at Lebanese University, Mr. Jamal Waqim, who's joining us from the Lebanese capital Beirut. Also from Saidia, Morocco, we have political commentator Kevin Barrett. Gentlemen, welcome to the program.
Let's start off with Mr. Waqeem. We're listening to the comments by U.S. President Joe Biden, who claims that the Israelis have put forth a rational offer. I want to get your thoughts on that. How do you read into those comments by the U.S. president? And the main question here is, can the Israelis even be trusted in such a situation?
Jamal Waqim: Well, of course, Biden is supporting Israel ever since it launched its aggression against Gaza. And he's supporting all its political stances and initiatives. He wants Israel to be victorious in this aggression against the resistance in the Gaza Strip. And that's why he's endorsing all conditions and prerequisites for such an objective to be achieved. This is how we can understand Biden's comments.
In this regard, of course, Israel cannot be trusted. Throughout the Arab-Israeli struggle, it was only checked by power and by force, not by any negotiations or any agreement. So that's why I believe that these conditions that have been put on the table by Israel are not acceptable to the resistance in Gaza, and this will drag on the conflict in the Gaza Strip, leading to more and more civilians being killed by the Israeli army.
Mr. Kevin Barrett, I want to get your thoughts as well. Do you agree with our guest in Beirut that these conditions that are being put forth by the Israelis in Washington are not acceptable? Why is that? And do you also see that Washington and the Tel Aviv regime just keep kicking the ball down further down the field?
Kevin Barrett: Yeah, I think he's right. The Israelis are looking for a so-called “temporary ceasefire” which would allow for all of their hostages to be released. And then after that ceasefire is over, they would be free to continue committing genocide and pulverizing Gaza without any restraint.
Obviously that's a non-starter. The only way the Palestinian resistance can reasonably be expected to release all the Israelis in its custody is if there's going to be a permanent ceasefire, not a temporary one. And that's the main sticking point here, it seems.
The Americans, unfortunately, are seeking an Israeli victory. They are on the side of the Zionists. Biden's administration is surrounded by Zionists. And they don't want to see their side lose. They also have political problems, though, because Biden will very likely lose the next presidential election if there hasn't been some kind of durable peace.
Now, what he would like to see, I suppose, would be some sort of imaginary Israeli victory. But there's no such thing. That can't happen. There's no prospective path to the Israelis defeating Hamas and getting their people back alive. That's not going to happen in any Israeli “victory scenario.”
But they have these delusions, Netanyahu does, because all the other alternatives involve Netanyahu leaving power and very likely entering prison. And the Americans are really just hostages of the Zionists, and so they entertain these lunatic fantasies.
Ultimately, the Americans are going to have to put pressure on the Zionists to accept some kind of permanent cessation to this genocide. That's the only reasonable way this can end, and that's the only way that Biden can preserve his chances of being reelected.
Professor Waqim, let's talk about the hypocritical stance that we're seeing from the United States. On one hand, they're showing that they're pushing for a ceasefire, but on the other hand, they veto three United Nations Security Council resolutions for a humanitarian ceasefire. There's also been this notion circulating that the bloodshed could stop with just one phone call from the US president. How do you view this inconsistency and hypocritical stance by Washington?
Jamal Waqim: I believe that Biden administration fully supports the Israeli aggression. But at the same time they don't want to lose the Arab votes and the Muslim votes in the United States, especially since they are running in elections. So that's why on one hand they give Israel a free hand to continue its aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza, and at the same time they play this card, or let's say they try to appear as if they are trying to call for a ceasefire or an agreement in order to win over the Arab and the Muslim voters in the United States, especially since Biden is in a very dire situation right now. He's not being able to withstand the pressure by the Arab and the Muslim lobby in the United States. And at the same time, he's not faring well against his opponent, Donald Trump. All expectations say that he will lose the upcoming elections due to be held in November. And this is how we can understand the hypocritical stance of the Biden administration in this regard.
Kevin Barrett, your thoughts on that issue as well. The U.S. hypocrisy. Our guest, Professor Waqim, believes that this facade that the Biden administration is putting on with attempts and struggling to get a ceasefire is to keep the Arab and Muslim votes in an election year. But if that's the case, that ship has set sail and it's departing fast, isn't it?
That's right. They just had the Super Tuesday vote yesterday, which is the biggest primary election voting day in the United States. And approximately 20 percent of the Democratic voters in the state of Minnesota voted uncommitted. So that was even more than in Michigan, the key swing state, last week. So the voters are sending a very strong message to Biden that continued tolerance or even all-out support, as it appears, for this genocide is going to lead to those people not voting for him.
It's kind of mind-boggling that the Zionists have so much power that they can force a sitting U.S. president to essentially guarantee his own failure to be reelected. He would rather face that loss of office than bite the Zionist hand that feeds him. It makes you wonder, what kind of power is that? How do they exert that power?
Some of it is money. It's been estimated that the 50-plus major Jewish groups led by AIPAC and their supporters donate up to half, between a third and half, of the campaign money that flows into American elections. And these are bribes that are basically considered under the euphemism of campaign contributions.
So the money is one big factor. The media is another. The Western media is totally controlled by Zionist Jews. Now, let's be honest and admit that some of them, more and more of them, especially younger Western and especially American Jews, are turning against Israel and its genocide of Palestine. But the fact is that the bulk of the power in that community is very much pro-genocide, pro-Zionism.
And finally, there's organized crime. We've seen American presidents and would-have- been presidents like John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy murdered by the state of Israel along with their people in the American military and intelligence apparatus. Those people are essentially the same people that blew up the buildings on September 11, 2001. So the Zionist presence in organized crime is incredibly important, and we shouldn't forget that anybody who goes up against them is inviting retaliation.
All right, that's all the time we have for this segment of the program. Thanks to my guests, Professor Jamal Waqim joining us from the Lebanese capital Beirut, and also political commentator Kevin Barrett joining us from Saidia, Morocco.
PS: Regarding yesterday’s post “Why Are Arab Regimes So Impotent in the Face of Zionist Barbarism?” here is an excellent contribution from my once and (insha’allah) future radio guest Daniel Haqiqatjou.
Biden's Bogus Ceasefire Shenanigans