by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 28, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/28/headlines
U.N. Chief Urges Restraint After Israel Bombs Iranian Targets Saturday
Oct 28, 2024
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has urged for a return to diplomacy and “maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war” after Israel bombed Iranian military facilities and air defense systems Saturday. The strikes included a site linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran said four soldiers were killed. Israel also struck air defense batteries and radars in Syria and Iraq. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would take “an appropriate response” to the attack, but he reiterated that Iran does not seek a wider war. Israel’s attack came about four weeks after Iran launched a missile attack on Israeli military sites in response to Israel’s mounting assault on Lebanon and Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.
“North Gaza’s Entire Population at Risk of Dying”: Israel Decimates Northern Gaza, Incl. Hospitals
Oct 28, 2024
As the death toll from Israel’s 24-day siege on northern Gaza tops 1,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official is warning “the entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying.”
At Kamal Adwan Hospital, Israeli soldiers arrested and expelled nearly all male doctors and staff following its brutal raid. One of the victims of Israel’s assault on northern Gaza was the hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s young son Ibrahim. On Saturday, Dr. Abu Safiya led prayers for his murdered child as he laid him to rest. A nurse who survived the Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan described the siege.
Mayssoun Alian: “We were all surrounded from all sides. There was shooting from all directions with bombs and mortars, and they evacuated all those who were sheltering here, so that everyone leaves, both men and women. They separated men from women and made two queues. It was very, very humiliating for our men since they took them without clothes and nothing to cover with.”
Elsewhere in Gaza, an employee of Doctors Without Borders was killed in Khan Younis. And at least three more journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike. They were identified as Saed Radwan of Al-Aqsa TV, Hamza Abu Salmiya from Sanad News and Haneen Mahmoud Baroud from the Al-Quds Foundation.
DOJ Lawyers Call on Merrick Garland to Investigate Israeli Killings of U.S. Citizens
Oct 28, 2024
Lawyers at the U.S. Justice Department called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to launch investigations into crimes against U.S. citizens committed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including the killing of the activist Ayşenur Eygi. The letter to Garland highlighted the hypocrisy in the department’s refusal to acknowledge crimes by Israel while it has been outspoken against Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Israel Strikes Tyre, Killing at Least 7, as It Continues Its Assault on Lebanon
Oct 28, 2024
Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre have killed at least seven people today. The Israeli military issued evacuation orders for large areas of Tyre as it continues its deadly attacks. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health minister says Israeli strikes have targeted 55 hospitals in Lebanon as Israel seeks to impair the country’s health infrastructure.
Microsoft Fires Employees, Harvard Suspends Professors & Students over Gaza Solidarity Protests
Oct 28, 2024
Here in the U.S., Microsoft has fired two employees who organized a vigil for Gaza. The workers, who are both Arab, belonged to the protest group “No Azure for Apartheid,” which opposes Microsoft’s sale of its cloud technology to Israel.
Meanwhile, Harvard University has temporarily suspended dozens of students and professors from its libraries after they staged a series of silent “study-in” protests to bring attention to the genocide in Gaza, as well as the crackdown on free speech at Harvard.
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“This Carnage Needs to Stop”: Israel Bans Aid Groups from Gaza, Kills Over 1,000 in North Gaza Siege
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 28, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/28 ... transcript
Israel’s three-week siege of northern Gaza has killed at least 1,000 Palestinians. Most of the dead are women and children. On Saturday, Israeli forces withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital just one day after storming it, with health officials saying that soldiers detained dozens of male medical staffers and some of the patients. This comes as the Israeli government has banned six medical NGOs from entering Gaza despite the dire humanitarian crisis stemming from repeated displacements of the population, widespread disease, injuries from Israeli attacks, hunger and more. Some 43,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its war on Gaza last October, according to local officials, although the true toll is likely far higher. “The healthcare infrastructure is destroyed. Many of the local doctors have been either killed or kidnapped. The patients are left stranded; no one is providing any help to them,” says Mosab Nasser, CEO of FAJR Scientific, one of the six medical aid groups banned by Israel.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s in northern Gaza, where Israel’s three-week siege has killed over 1,000 Palestinians, most women and children. Gaza health officials say almost 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7th, more than 100,000 wounded, though the toll is likely far higher. On Saturday, Israeli forces withdrew from north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, one day after raiding it. Health officials say soldiers detained dozens of male medical staffers and some of the patients. This is a nurse describing how Israeli forces detained the hospital’s director.
MAYSSOUN ALIAN: [translated] They called Dr. Hussam and asked him to let the male medics out. So he did, and they left. This was also very, very humiliating for them since they were also without clothes. There were around 70 male nurses that left here. They took them to the external clinic. They started to destroy things. And we were the only nurses in the hospital without the rest of the medical team.
AMY GOODMAN: The nurse mentioned Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician. After Israeli forces retreated from the hospital Saturday, he buried his young son Ibrahim Hussam Abu Safiya, who was reportedly killed Friday in an Israeli strike on Jabaliya in northern Gaza.
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. As-salamu alaykum. Allahu Akbar. As-salamu alaykum. Allahu Akbar.
AMY GOODMAN: The doctor praying and mourning his son in his white hospital coat.
This comes as the World Health Organization reports the Israeli government has barred six medical NGOs from entering Gaza. One of them, the Palestinian American Medical Association, released a statement, saying, quote, “We urgently demand that the Israeli authorities rescind this decision immediately and urge the U.S. State Department, along with international bodies, to advocate for the immediate reinstatement of these vital medical services, which constitute a fundamental human right protected by international law and the moral fabric of our global community,” unquote.
For more, we go to Houston, Texas, where we’re joined another head of another organization, one of six medical aid groups Israel has banned from entering Gaza. Mosab Nasser is the CEO of FAJR Scientific. He helped lead one of the largest medical missions to Gaza in August of 2023. He was last in Gaza in May during Israel’s invasion of Rafah. Nasser also helped renovate parts of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. He is himself originally from Gaza.
Thank you so much for being with us. As we watch the director of Kamal Adwan, a man you know well, mourn his son, praying at his grave in his white medical coat, can you talk about who he is and the significance of Kamal Adwan Hospital?
MOSAB NASSER: Good morning, Amy. Thank you for having me.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is a Palestinian hero. He is an amazing, amazing doctor that I have known now maybe for about four years. And I had several meetings with him when I was in Gaza in 2022 and helped, as said, renovate the Kamal Adwan Hospital’s emergency room and the external clinics, as well as the rehabilitation room for children. Dr. Hussam is the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, who, by the way, has a foreign passport. He had the choice, like, you know, many Palestinians, to leave from there at the beginning of the war, but he refused. He stood his ground at the Kamal Adwan Hospital to save lives and save limbs and take care of those children who are left stranded in this carnage.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only children’s hospital in north Gaza. It actually serves about 400,000 or 500,000 people in north Gaza, and there is really no other children’s hospital. It has the ICU. It has a large room for premature babies with incubators. And it’s a central hospital. If that hospital is not functional, you’re talking about thousands of children, again, left without any medical support.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, we were just speaking with another Mosab, the poet Mosab Abu Toha, on Friday, who talked about bringing his young children to this hospital and talked about the director being a pediatrician, that it’s basically the children’s hospital there. Mosab Nasser, if you can describe what has happened there in northern Gaza and what happened to this particular hospital, the Israeli forces raiding it, and this description of the doctors and medical aides being stripped naked in front of the others?
MOSAB NASSER: Amy, FAJR Scientific is a humanitarian apolitical organization. We are actually specialized in surgical — in complex surgeries. We’ve been operating in Gaza even before the war. And we have a team in the north, a local team, that actually serves the different hospitals, including the Indonesian Hospital.
And the news that we get from the team on the ground, that Kamal Adwan Hospital was attacked by the Israeli army. I believe more than 30 medical staff members were actually kidnapped by the Israeli army, including Dr. Hussam briefly, and then he was turned back. So, he’s left maybe with a few — a couple of doctors and a few nurses to take care of over 150 patients at the hospital.
The news that we received also that the Israeli army stripped those doctors naked and literally took them into no one knows where, similar to what happened to our colleagues at Nasser Hospital and Shifa Hospital. I still have many Palestinian colleagues. I’d like to name a few: Dr. Ghassan Abu Zuhri from Nasser Hospital, who’s one of the top surgeons in Gaza, orthopedic surgeons, no one knows his whereabout until today; Dr. Hani Abu Taima, the head of the surgical department at Nasser Hospital; and many others, many others across Gaza. So, the disturbing news that also we have received is that the Israeli army destroyed the oxygen concentrators and tanks at Kamal Adwan Hospital, leaving children in the ICU and in the incubators without oxygen. Many of them actually have died.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you been meeting with U.S. government officials? And what have they said? Also, do you know how Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s son died? We heard died in an Israeli airstrike on Jabaliya.
MOSAB NASSER: Regarding your first question, yes. In fact, I just came back from D.C. this past Thursday, where I met with — visited the offices of a few congressmen and senators. And before, in fact, I’ve also visited the State Department in this past visit, trying to advocate for lifting the ban or the denial on the humanitarian medical organizations that were actually denied entry by Israel, especially at this time where we are actually needed on the ground the most.
And that decision to ban or deny entry to now six organizations — in fact, initially, the initial number that we’ve heard was eight organizations — it’s mind-boggling. Especially with what’s happening in north Gaza, why would you prevent such organizations from coming to provide their services? Especially the healthcare infrastructure is destroyed. Many of the doctors, the local doctors, have been either killed or kidnapped. The patients are left stranded; no one is providing any help to them. And especially we — in FAJR Scientific, we’re actually specialized in surgical interventions. And many of the injuries that come to the hospitals across Gaza are blast injuries — broken bones, broken skulls, you know, all kinds of multiple degrees of burns. So, those patients require an immediate attention. And if you don’t provide this attention to them, many of them actually will die a slow and painful death because of infections.
Regarding Dr. Hussam’s son, I really don’t know the details surrounding his death, but I was told that he was — you know, he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Jabaliya, as you mentioned.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, I wanted to ask you about a tweet of yours. You’re talking about a girl. “Mazyona is one of the children FAJR has been trying to evacuate out of #Gaza for months now. She sustained devastating injuries to her face—her face was nearly torn off. #Surgeons have held the remaining structure together, but she urgently requires a medevac for specialized care and bone surgery. [She] also still has shrapnel in her neck. She is of course in immense pain, [and] her condition is worsening. The platinum used surgically to rebuild her face is coming out, [and] doctors have stated [that] she needs surgeries outside [of] Gaza to save her life. Mazyona has been denied medical #evacuation four times. Authorities suggested that the medevac could proceed without Mazyona’s mother accompanying her. However, when her father attempted to take the next steps, Mazyona was again denied.” Explain her fate right now where she is.
MOSAB NASSER: That is another heartbreaking story, Amy, that I have been personally, as the CEO of the organization, following closely and advocating for Mazyona’s evacuation for almost three months now. I can’t tell you how many times I visited the State Department, how many times I talked to congressmen, how many times I’ve tried to reach to the Israeli authorities to try to evacuate her out of Gaza, with no results.
Mazyona was injured in the face — in her face, a serious injury. I mean, she has a viral video on Instagram and YouTube that you see how — when she was brought to the hospital, how she was bleeding. Initially, we submitted her mother as a companion. The mother was rejected by COGAT, the Israeli authority effectively. Then we submitted her father’s name. Then her father was rejected. Then we submitted the father’s aunt; then it was rejected. And then we submitted another aunt of the father; it was rejected. So, we are kind of left without any options. I don’t know — to the point, actually, I proposed my name to be a companion for Mazyona to get her out, and still we have not been able to get her out. In fact, the recent update we got from the local team on the ground, that she has potentially an infection, and if this girl is not evacuated as soon as possible, she could die.
Mazyona is one out of thousands, Amy. In fact, we have 12 children like Mazyona with serious injuries, some of them actually with a bullet settled in the head, that we wanted to take out, and we have not been able to take any of them. So far, since May, since the closure of the Rafah border, we were able — I mean, generally speaking, only 125 children were evacuated out of Gaza out of 2,500, if not more, needed an immediate evacuation. So, this carnage needs to stop.
AMY GOODMAN: Mosab Nasser, I want to thank you for being with us, CEO of FAJR Scientific, one of six medical humanitarian organizations Israel has barred from entering Gaza. He’s based in Houston and originally from Gaza.
Next up, we turn to Israeli political scientist Neve Gordon. He’s in London. He’s one of more than 3,000 signatories to an open letter titled “We Israelis are calling for global pressure on Israel to force an immediate ceasefire.” Back in 20 seconds.
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“Save Us from Ourselves”: 3,000+ Israelis Call for Int’l Help to Pressure Israel to Back Ceasefire
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 28, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/28 ... transcript
More than 3,000 Israelis have signed an open letter urging “global pressure on Israel to force an immediate ceasefire.” The signatories say they are motivated by patriotic duty to stop the country’s war crimes in Gaza and beyond, but say the lack of sanctions from other countries has allowed Israel to continue to pursue war, abandon the hostages still held in Gaza, ignore domestic opposition and persecute Palestinian citizens of Israel without real cost. “Unfortunately, the majority of Israelis support the continuation of the war and massacres, and a change from within is not currently feasible. The state of Israel is on a suicidal path and sows destruction and devastation that increase day by day,” reads the letter. For more, we speak with Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London, one of the signatories of the open letter, who says international powers including allies like the United States need to “put their leg down and say enough is enough.” We also speak with him about Israel’s well-documented history of using Palestinians as human shields, including in its current war on Gaza.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
“We, Israelis, are calling for global pressure on Israel to force an immediate ceasefire.” That’s the headline of an open letter signed by more than 3,000 Israelis, along with our next guest, the Israeli political scientist Neve Gordon. The letter concludes by noting, “The leaders of many countries make repeated statements about the horror they feel and verbally denounce Israel’s operations, but these condemnations are not backed by practical actions. We are replete with empty words and declarations. Please, for our futures and the futures of all of the residents of Israel and the region, save us from ourselves and use real pressure on Israel for an immediate ceasefire,” the letter says.
For more, we go to London. We’re joined by Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London. His recent Al Jazeera article is headlined “Israel has taken human shields to a whole new criminal level.” He’s author of Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire and co-editor of Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics and the Case of Israel.
Neve Gordon, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you start off actually by talking about what this letter says? And the number of people is — the last time we looked, it was 2,000 Israelis who have signed it. Now it’s over 3,000, Professor Gordon.
NEVE GORDON: There’s a feeling among Israelis that the change cannot come from within. We do not have enough power from within to change the course of actions that Netanyahu and his government have put in place. And the only way to stop the violence, to stop the genocidal violence in Gaza, to stop the violence in Lebanon, and to stop future attacks and geopolitical war in the region is that leaders in Europe and leaders in North America, particularly the United States, put their leg down and say enough is enough and threaten Israel that if there is no ceasefire, they will sanction Israel, they will stop arms trade with Israel, they’ll stop sending Israel money, and ultimately stop trading with Israel. So, our belief is, to save the populations that inhabit this region, we need such an action.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk directly about what’s happening in the United States, clearly the major arms supplier to Israel, and what you think of the role of the Biden administration, of President Biden himself?
NEVE GORDON: The United States has a memorandum for arms trade. And in that memorandum for arms trade, it says very clearly that countries or warring parties that violate international humanitarian law and the laws of war, the U.S. will not sell weapons to them, will not give them weapons or sell weapons to them. It is beyond doubt that Israel has been systematically violating the laws of war since October 7th, 8th, and yet the United States continues to send arms. And that has to do with many reasons. One is the power of the military corporations in the United States. The other is the lobbying groups in the United States. And all the United States really has to do — all Kamala Harris has to do today is say that “the minute I’m president, if there is violation of international law, I will stop sending arms.” And yet the United States is breaking its own laws in order to continue giving Israel arms so that it continues its violence in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere.
AMY GOODMAN: And your response to the grassroots protests across the country of the Biden administration continuing to support Israel?
NEVE GORDON: There’s a major gap, both in the United States but all across Europe and North America, between civil society and the political and financial elites. Civil society has been saying now for over a year, “Enough. We want to ceasefire. We’re against this human catastrophe. We’re against what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people. We want the Palestinian people to enjoy self-determination, to enjoy statehood like everyone else.” And yet the political and financial elites are continuing as if nothing is happening, supporting Israel. Here and there, there’s a kind of criticism from Biden, and yet Netanyahu is doing exactly as he wants to do, and the Biden administration is not doing anything. And there is fear from donors here during an election campaign. It’s a very complex system. But what we see is this major gap between the two kind of poles, the civil society pole, on the one hand, and the ruling political and financial elites. And I think we just need to continue doing what we do until we get them to follow their own laws, as they appear, for example, in the memorandum of arms trade.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Gordon, does Netanyahu have a plan for Gaza? And what about these negotiations that are now taking place in Doha, in Qatar? Apparently, Egypt has proposed a two-day ceasefire, release of four hostages. What is happening there? And what do you think needs to happen?
NEVE GORDON: Well, I’d like to say a few words about the bigger picture. I think Netanyahu, pre-October 7, 2023, saw himself as a figure of history, one that has led Israel to economic success, one that will normalize relations with Arab countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, and one that is slowly managing to erase the Palestinians from history. Come October 7th and the failure of the Israeli intelligence and after 35 weeks of protest against the judicial overhaul and the death of 1,200 Israelis and 250 Israeli hostages, he understood that his position in history has changed. And he’s trying to rebuild that through, I think, three axes.
One is the Gaza Strip. And I don’t — I have very little belief in the current negotiations. I think large parts of his coalition want to resettle the northern Gaza Strip, and that’s why we’re seeing what we’re seeing there and what your previous guest told us about the kind of displacement of the population there, the destruction of the whole infrastructure of existence of the population through the destruction of the hospitals, of the schools, of the mosques, etc. And ultimately, what Netanyahu’s coalition would like is to resettle that part of the Gaza Strip, enclose the rest of the Palestinians in the south, and probably maintain some kind of ethnic policing there for years to come.
In Lebanon, I think Netanyahu would like to cleanse the area that’s south of the Litani River from any presence of Hezbollah. And I think that’s going to last for quite a while now. I hope I’m wrong. But I think that it’s not going to end soon.
But I think that the crown of the jewel for Netanyahu and the only way that he thinks of himself as returning to history as a hero is through the bombing of the nuclear plants in Iran. I think everything is leading in that direction. Again, I hope I’m wrong. But I think now Netanyahu will wait for the elections on November 5th, and then he’ll decide how to continue on that strategy. So, I think the talks now in Doha are more of a cosmetic to a large process that we see unfolding now in Israel and the Middle East.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Gordon, we just have a minute, but you begin your recent Al Jazeera piece headlined “Israel has taken human shields to a whole new criminal level,” writing, quote, “The use of human shields in war is not a new phenomenon. Militaries have forced civilians to serve as human shields for centuries. Yet, despite this long and dubious history, Israel has managed to introduce a new form of shielding in Gaza, one that appears unprecedented in the history of warfare.” We have one minute. If you could explain?
NEVE GORDON: So, human shielding works through a politics of vulnerability, through the recognition that the civilian that is shielding a military target is not like a robust landmine or anti-missile defense system, but it’s the moral value that is ascribed to the civilian that supposedly deters the enemy from firing. So, if Hamas sees a co-patriarch dressed in civilian clothes, then, hopefully, that will dissuade them from firing and killing the human shield or try to deter it. When you dress the human shield in military garb, you’re not trying to deter Hamas from firing at the civilian, but you’re trying to actually lure Hamas so that they think it’s an Israeli soldier, that they fire at him, and then the Israeli soldiers can see where the fire is coming from and fire back. So it’s changing the whole logic of human shielding and using the vulnerability, instead of as a form of deterrence, in order to lure fire in, and basically relating to the Palestinian civilians not only as not quite human, as any kind of human shielding would relate to him, but actually as fodder, as a thing, as a shield, without the human in it.
AMY GOODMAN: Neve Gordon, we want to thank you being with us, Israeli political scientist, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London, is one of the main signatories of the letter that has now more than 3,000 signatories of Israelis calling on international pressure on Israel.
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“We Are in an Escalatory Cycle”: Trita Parsi on Latest Israeli Attack on Iran, Risk of Wider War
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 28, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/28 ... transcript
We speak with Iranian American policy analyst Trita Parsi about Israel’s latest attack on Iran on Saturday, when it bombed military facilities and air defense systems in the country. Iran said four soldiers were killed in the attack. Israel also struck air defense batteries and radars in Syria and Iraq. Israel’s assault this weekend came about four weeks after Iran launched a missile attack on Israeli military sites in response to Israel’s war on Lebanon and Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, part of a series of actions between the two countries since the outbreak of the war on Gaza last year. “The Israelis are just continuously escalating the situation,” says Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He warns that Iran’s relatively restrained responses to Israeli actions could encourage decision-makers in both Israel and the United States to “go all the way” and strike Iranian nuclear sites and other major targets. “This, unfortunately, is leading — much thanks to the approach of the Biden administration — towards a much larger escalation.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has urged for a return to diplomacy and, quote, “maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war” after Israel bombed Iranian military facilities and air defense systems Saturday. The strikes included a site linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Iran said four soldiers were killed. Israel also struck air defense batteries and radars in Syria and Iraq.
The Iranian president said Iran would take an appropriate response to the attack but reiterated that Iran does not seek a wider war. Israel’s attack came about four weeks after Iran launched a missile attack on Israeli military sites in response to Israel’s mounting assault on Lebanon and Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, the Hamas leader in Tehran, Iran, on Inauguration Day, where the Israelis killed him.
For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, author of several books, including Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy.
Trita, thanks so much for joining us for just these few minutes. If you can explain what took place this weekend and where you think where Iran and Israel will go next?
TRITA PARSI: Well, what happened over the weekend is the expected Israeli response to the Iranian response to Israel’s initial attack earlier on in April that started this whole exchange of fire between the two countries. What we don’t know, at least with confidence, is exactly how much damage the Israelis managed to cause in Iran. Clearly, there’s been some damage. There’s been at least five deaths. But the extent to which Iran’s air defenses have been taken out, etc., remains unclear. The Iranians initially played down the attack, signaled that they would not respond because it was not a significant attack, but the debate inside Iran seems to be shifting on that issue, precisely because of the deaths that has been caused by the Israelis.
The question the Iranians have is not only what options do they have that would avoid further escalation, but also how would it impact the American elections. Are they better off responding before or after the Iran elections? Is there a way for them to avoid responding at all, or would a lack of a response only further increase Israel’s appetite for striking Iran increasingly with impunity, if the Iranians are not striking back?
AMY GOODMAN: So, I wanted to ask you about Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s response to Israel’s attack on Iran. She said she’d like to see deescalation in the region, but added, quote, “I feel very strongly, we as the United States feel very strongly that Iran must stop what it is doing in terms of the threat that it presents to the region and we will always defend Israel against any attacks by Iran in that way.” Your response?
TRITA PARSI: Well, it is exactly this type of approach that has led us to this level of escalation — on the one hand, saying that we don’t want to see escalation; on the other hand, providing the Israelis with every equipment, every bomb, every piece of intelligence that allows them to escalate, then offering them protection against any Iranian retaliation, which then reduces the cost of escalation for the Israelis. And lo and behold, here we are. The Israelis are just continuously escalating the situation, striking more and more. They are now striking five or six countries in the Middle East. And all the United States says is that we would not like to see escalation, but we are providing every opportunity and every equipment and every logistical piece of material in order for the Israelis to have an easier time escalating the situation.
AMY GOODMAN: And your response to The Washington Post report that the Biden administration won assurances from Israel that Israel will not strike Iranian nuclear or oil sites in any retaliatory act? Do you agree with what our previous guest, the Israeli professor Neve Gordon, said, that he is concerned that that’s just where Israel is headed, perhaps waiting for Election Day next week, and then would do something like that after?
TRITA PARSI: Absolutely. The signals coming out of Israel, the signals coming out of those in Washington who want Israel to go further, is to essentially say, “See, it was relatively easy to strike Iran. What are we waiting for? Let’s go all the way.” And moreover, as I said on this show before, just because the first response at this time now was not going after the nuclear sites, because we are on an escalatory cycle, does not then mean that we will not end up with strike against nuclear sites and a full-scale war that that would prompt. So, the point is, it’s not where the first step is; it’s where this is leading to that is important. And this, unfortunately, is leading, much thanks to the approach of the Biden administration, towards a much larger escalation.
AMY GOODMAN: So, finally, Trita Parsi, you’re the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. What do you feel would be responsible statecraft right now?
TRITA PARSI: Right now the most responsible thing the United States could do, that would also lie in the U.S.’s own interests, is to actually pursue a strategy that truly deescalates the situation. Such a strategy would put pressure on all of the different parties, including of course the Iranians and the Houthis and Hezbollah, but it would also put pressure on Israel. And it would deprive Israel from all of the American bombs and all of the American material that the Biden administration has given them that allows them to just continue this war and to escalate this war. This is not terribly difficult to deescalate, if we actually pursue a strategy that is aimed at deescalation.
AMY GOODMAN: Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, author of several books, including Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy.