From the River to the Sea: Ibaitik Itsasora (83) eta Scott Ritter

ots 18

Zionists in 2025… “Palestine never existed”

Zionists in 1899… “We will colonise Palestine”

Copied from @Resist0 5(Pelham).

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Sony Thang@nxt888

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Dr Dan Goyal@danielgoyal

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Jason Hickel@jasonhickel

mai. 24

Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr @Tanyaalih for your courage, passion and eloquence.

Watch EVERY MINUTE of this extraordinary interview about the grotesque murder of 9 siblings in Gaza.

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1926350733969969507

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Saul Staniforth@SaulStaniforth

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1926539635427024982

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Council Estate Media@CE_Media_

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt@FranceskAlbs

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Muhammad Shehada@muhammadshehad2

mai. 27

Right-wing Israelis storm Al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem, attacking Palestinians and chanting anti-Muslim slogans on “Jerusalem Day,” which marks Israel’s 1967 occupation of the city.

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1927141447587000659

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Ricky Hale@RickyHale_

Scott Ritter@RealScottRitter

Former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer Scott Ritter delivers a scathing critique of American foreign policy, its deep entanglement with Israeli interests, and the broader implications for peace and stability in the region — including the current geopolitical chessboard involving Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. From Trump‘s controversial meetings in the Middle East to the hypocrisy of U.S. alliances and the real motives behind lifting sanctions on Syria, Ritter breaks down why Americans—and the world—should be concerned.

Transkripzioa:

0:00

alam alaikum and welcome to another episode on tmj’s political current podcast there’s a lot going on in the

0:06

middle east the latest of which is the ongoing killings and starvation of palestinians as critical aid is failing

0:13

to reach them we’ve also had recently president trump’s trip to the middle east that resulted in trillion dollar

0:19

deals as well as a surprising decision to lift sanctions from syria and just on

0:25

friday we had the continuation of us iran nuclear talks the fifth round today

0:30

i am joined by special guest scott ritter who is a former un weapons inspector as well as a former united

0:38

states marine corps intelligence officer he’s joining me to break down lots of what we’re seeing on the news today as

0:44

well as what to expect moving forward [Music]

0:53

thank you so much mr ritter again for joining us on tmj news i really appreciate you giving us your time and

0:59

you’re joining us at a really critical point where there’s lots going on now one thing i want to start off with that

1:04

you have also uh tweeted about which i think is an interesting kind of start to this conversation is you mentioned how

1:11

anyone who calls themselves american should be outraged at the meeting that trump had with saudis muhammad bin

1:17

salman and syria’s golani why did you say so because gelani has the blood of

1:23

americans on his hands gelani is a terrorist gelani uh is part of an

1:29

ideology of hate that is responsible for um horrific attacks against american

1:35

citizens um here in the united states um he is a criminal uh there’s a reason why

1:42

we have a $10 million bounty on his head he’s not a good man he’s a horrible human being um i’m not an expert on

1:49

islam and i don’t pretend to be an expert on islam but i know enough that uh the islamic faith at least that uh

1:55

the way that it’s um explained to me by um islamic scholars and uh and imams of

2:03

peace uh the islamic faith would not tolerate uh making alawites crawl on the

2:08

ground and bark like dogs before they’re shot down in cold-blooded murder or tolerate the desecration of christian

2:15

churches and the rape rape and murder of christians in syria this is what golani does this is who he is so no no american

2:23

president should stand next to him unless it was to put a a knife through his heart because that’s all galani

2:29

deserves i try to be a man of peace i really do i i work at it every single

2:34

day um but i’ve said this before and i i’ll say it again golani is a rabid dog

2:41

i’m sure when he was born into this world he was as god intended but

2:47

something happened to him and he became a diseased animal a diseased animal that

2:52

threatens not only the american community but the syrian community and the global community and we need adakus

2:58

finch to put him down and donald trump should have been serving in that role not standing next to him u shaking his

3:05

hand giving him credibility and speaking about lifting sanctions um against syria

3:10

i mean it’s ironic um you know one of the sanctions they’re talking about lifting are the so-called

3:16

caesar sanctions which were imposed on syria because of allegations derived from photographs that were reach

3:22

released that alleged to show the tortured victims of the bashar al-assad

3:28

regime right um okay so we put sanctions on saying that this is a horrific regime

3:34

it’s committing torture etc etc all right let’s be consistent then how can we lift those

3:41

sanctions if golani is killing christians killing alawites killing sunni killing shia killing human beings

3:48

committing the same tortures the same murder that we accused assad of doing

3:54

how can we even consider lifting these sanctions i also remember that uh donald

3:59

trump fired you know had us air force aircraft drop bombs and fire missiles into syria in 2018 accusing syria of

4:07

having chemical weapons not allegations he said “we know they have an active

4:12

sarin nerve agent production capability and we bombed facilities associated with this.” okay mr president where are those

4:21

chemical weapons today what have you done to ensure that they have been destroyed or are you acknowledging by

4:28

standing next to golani and talking about the lifting of sanctions that were linked to allegations of continued

4:33

possession of chemical weapons by bashar al-assad that there were never chemical weapons that it was all a lie to begin

4:39

with this is the problem of this whole thing gelani is not a good human being i

4:44

believe in forgiveness but some things cannot be forgiven absolutely everything gelani has done cannot be forgiven right

4:51

right and and what you’re saying actually reminds me um it’s not the first time and in the history of the us as we know and as i’m sure you know

4:57

better where you know you have uh us leaders continuing uh diplomatic ties

5:03

and you know close diplomatic ties with entities that they had previously designated as terrorist groups terrorist

5:09

individuals terrorist organizations um we’ve seen it with countless examples one that comes to mind is the mek

5:15

actually um so we’ve seen this happen uh and usually it’s because there’s now a renewed interest that the us has what

5:22

interest do you think they have now with syria well the other thing before we we

5:28

talk about that i i think we need to underscore that the united states has politicized the

5:34

term terrorist and politicized the action of designating groups as for

5:40

terrorist organizations i’m not saying there aren’t terrorists out there we know that there are terrorists out there but i am saying

5:46

that the united states has a tendency to apply that label where maybe it shouldn’t be applied because in the the

5:54

grand scheme of things there’s the old saying one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter um so when we look

6:00

at the taliban are they a terrorist organization if we look at the mek i

6:05

mean are they a terrorist organization some people including myself might say yes but other people can articulate that

6:12

they are freedom fighters uh fighting for their cause i may not agree with that cause but at least they’re fighting

6:18

for a cause um and they’ve been sustained in that uh you know so

6:25

it one day they’re terrorists the next day they’re not then we decide to make them terrorists again not because

6:31

they’re terrorists but because of the politics associated with that label um

6:36

but sometimes there are real terrorists osama bin laden a genuine terrorist

6:42

straightup terrorist right and golani terrorist um that doesn’t mean that we

6:48

the united states are incapable of um trying to you know paper over the crimes

6:56

of in the name of greater interest we have negotiated with bad people in the past um you know there was a time when

7:04

jean kirkpatre when when she was um you know preparing to be the secretary of

7:10

state for uh ronald reagan uh she said you know we need to pick allies who help us

7:20

in our opposition against the big enemy um in the national interest so sometimes

7:25

we align ourselves with dictators and we did ally ourselves with dictators what are the interests here with golani right

7:35

um again i ap i’m just going to speak my mind i i i’m not here to insult anybody

7:40

and i don’t and i know i’m going to step on some toes but i’m just syria is an artificial construct i know

7:48

damascus is a historical city it’s been around for a long time and the and and damascus has been the center of many

7:55

great empires but the state of syria is an artificial construct that came out of

8:02

the aftermath of the dissolution of the ottoman empire at the end of the first world war a french mandate that brought

8:10

together lands with arbitrarily drawn lines on a map um and then they tried to

8:15

make it into you know possessing a national in uh identity um you can

8:21

condemn the bashar al-assad or even his father hafz all you want i’m sure there’s plenty of ammunition out there

8:28

for people to say they didn’t do this that or the other thing right but they were trying to make a syrian national

8:35

identity um imperfectly perhaps but they were trying they were they they started with nothing and they tried to advance

8:42

something called the syrian state now how do you turn arbitrary lines on a map into a nation state you tried to create

8:48

a national identity golani is the antithesis of a national identity galani

8:55

doesn’t represent the syrian nation galani represents um a perversion of

9:00

islam that speaks of a caliphate uh that uh that that that speaks of imposing uh

9:06

sharia law on a region not because they are syrians but because they are an

9:11

extreme expression of sunni fundamentalism um why is it in our

9:18

interest to support this it’s it’s literally not unless you say america isn’t doing this for america

9:26

but we’re doing it for someone else some other entity out there and there comes the problem exactly we’re doing this for

9:31

israel this is about israel about securing israel’s um you know sense of

9:38

belonging in the region eliminating threats to israel um and the united

9:43

states has been cultivating and here’s the irony of all this this man with the

9:48

$10 million bounty on his head this man with american blood on his hands because he did fight as a resistance fighter

9:56

insurgent whatever you want to call from 2003 to 2006 i believe in iraq right um but then he was captured and the the

10:03

thing of it is he was released i think he was held prisoner for about five years released around 2011 um

10:10

immediately this man who we released because he said “well he’s he’s not iraqi he’s not a threat suddenly is

10:16

tapped by al- zuahiri the number two of al-qaeda to go to syria and and create

10:22

this this jihad against bashar al-assad.” that’s about the time that

10:28

the defense intelligence agency was starting to promulgate um analysis that said that we need to support the black

10:34

flag of islam um and make common cause with them in syria to help bring down

10:40

bashar al-assad 2011 gadaki 2011 timber sycamore the transfer of billions of

10:46

dollars of libyan weapons through turkey into uh syria into the hands of al-qaeda

10:53

of al-nusra of isis uh to focused on bringing down assad this has been an

10:58

american project golani has been an american project

11:05

for coming on you know over a decade and a half this is the reality and when i

11:10

say an american project understand we don’t do anything in the middle east without running it through our close

11:16

friends the israelis so this is an israeli project and this sort of

11:21

underwrites i mean it puts people like me in a tough in a in a tough bind you want to know why why because i believed

11:29

people i i i lived in new york i mean right down the road is new york city

11:34

those planes didn’t appear out of nowhere they flew into the world trade center and they killed thousands of people another plane hit the pentagon

11:41

and i listened to people tell me that it was al-qaeda and i know it was al-qaeda i believed it was al-qaeda then i sat

11:48

there and watched us go to war against the global war on terror and while i didn’t uh support at all what we did in

11:54

iraq um i i i never once said we shouldn’t go after al-qaeda they

11:59

attacked us and so i bought into this so i am infuriated by golani by his resume

12:06

and yet now what i’m finding out is that i’ve been lied to that while the whole time while i was told to hate golani to

12:14

condemn golani to condemn the outrageous actions that he’s done that it represents the antithesis of what

12:20

america stands for it turns out it is exactly what america stands for this is

12:26

exactly what america stands for and this is the horror of it because 911 did

12:31

happen people were killed and we know who killed them right and yet we’re standing

12:37

side by side with the people who were ideologically aligned with those murderers saying that we can do business

12:42

with them this means america stands for nothing nothing and that’s disturbing

12:48

that’s what bothers me more than i can’t say more than anything else because look watching alawites crawl on

12:56

the ground bark like dogs and get shot is sickening bothers me watching christian churches watching what they do

13:02

to the shia watching them desecrate shia um religious mosques and and centers and

13:09

so all of this disgusts me but what disgusts me is more is that america is

13:14

facilitating this that america is empowering this and this is problematic in my mind this is deeply disturbing

13:21

absolutely it is disturbing and um i think i’m i’m going to kind of segue into you mentioned all of this is

13:26

because it’s in the interest of israel and one thing that you have also uh very openly said is that you believe israel

13:33

is the single greatest threat to the us and that you know even uh american

13:38

presidents have tolerated really the insult of things like israel spying on the us on american officials even their

13:44

infiltration of the pro-israeli uh lobby to steal american secrets as you’ve mentioned um out of fear for political

13:52

consequences the myth of israel as this great american ally was born and with it comes an empowerment of of american

13:59

jewish community because now they can use israel as a lever to lever

14:05

themselves into political relevance right people have to remember the the strength of the arab lobby that was in

14:11

the united states uh because oil is king oil is money and one thing the uh

14:17

israelis don’t have is money they’re playing they’re broke oh they got no money uh but the arabs have lots of

14:24

money so one of the tricks that would political tricks of all time is how the israelis were able to supplant arab

14:30

money and they they did that through creating myths um and and so it’s the

14:36

myth of israel the myth of myth of the israeli ally but you know the the uss liberty attack proves that they weren’t

14:42

our ally that they could easily kill americans when it was politically convenient for them to do and lie about

14:47

it even if it was a mistake um uh you know how the israelis treated us uh when

14:53

they invaded uh lebanon in 1982 when marines landed to uh to enforce or to

14:59

protect the plo in their evacuation the disdain that the israelis had towards american marines those aren’t allies

15:06

they’re not our allies they’re not our friends and then of course jonathan polard i was in i was an intelligence officer in the marine corps at the time

15:12

of polard’s uh treason right and um today there are people who are willing

15:19

to talk about what polard gave i can’t i signed non-disclosure agreements um and

15:25

the reason why i signed non-disclosure agreements about the work i did is because the work i was doing and the information that i was receiving was

15:32

critical to the national security of the united states absolutely critical and one whiff of this could damage could

15:38

cost us billions of dollars in collection potential pullard got what are known as the crown jewels of the

15:45

american intelligence community um and he gave them to israel and then israel our good

15:53

friends gave them to the russians to the soviets in exchange for liberal immigration policies so the russians got

16:02

all of the intelligence that we had been collecting against them and how we were collecting it and all this and it

16:08

destroy it gutted us it it this is in the middle of the cold war israel is not our friend not our friend at all but

16:15

they were they were successful in manipulating that you know it things came to a head about the time of the

16:22

gulf war i don’t know if people remember but there was the animosity between um i

16:27

think it was yak shamir and um and george herbert walker bush uh the

16:33

president of the united states there was one time when paul wolitz who has gone down in history as one of the all-time zionists u on instructions of the

16:40

president gave the israelis the phone number and said “call us when you’re serious but we don’t want to talk to you

16:46

now.” could you imagine an american treating the israelis that way and what happened is the the american jewish

16:53

community realized at that point in time that they were losing the americans um

16:58

that they were losing their influence right and so this is where you get the rise of apac this is where you get a

17:06

doubling down this is where you get the project for a new american century which is supposed to be about americans but it

17:11

was created by a cabal of people linked to israel how to use america’s national

17:17

security fears and translate that into the empowerment of israel which means

17:23

the empowerment of american jewish community and you see the rise of apac the the you know when you look at

17:30

american policy it’s not just that we do things for israel everything we do is linked to money money is power and that

17:38

money is usually linked into the military-industrial complex etc so israel simply becomes a narrative that’s

17:45

used by political entities to empower themselves in a broader uh spectrum so

17:51

the power you have as a as apac isn’t just what is done for israel but the fact that you can leverage israel into

17:58

having influence in every aspect of american life every aspect of american life it is about empowering americans

18:05

who happen to be jews into controlling america the american agenda far beyond

18:11

simply israel this is why i say that israel is not calling the shots benjamin

18:16

netanyahu he can be a pain in our neck as he’s proven he came in tried to tip the scale uh you know on on on

18:24

presidential elections in the past um but at the end of the day literally an

18:29

american president could pick up the phone and terminate the relationship between israel and the united states now

18:34

there might be a political cost to be paid but israel is not calling the shots

18:40

and the interesting thing about donald trump is when he says america first he means america first uh he’s smart enough

18:47

to know to under smart enough to understand though the power of the israel the pro-israeli lobby not just

18:53

about israel but about everything this is why he surrounded himself with zionists it’s not about it’s not about

19:00

what he wants to accomplish with israel it’s he what he recognizes the power of these zionists to accomplish the broader

19:07

agenda that he has uh but those zionists are american zionists not israeli

19:13

zionists and a lot of them are christians you know a lot of people are

19:18

are christians they’re not they’re not jews so that’s why i say that this isn’t about the israelis calling the shots

19:25

this is about americans using israel to achieve a broader objective of controlling america right and you’ve

19:32

also mentioned um how only a president like trump and this i believe this was a

19:37

tweet that you that you had uh written that if he does really follow through in the direction that he’s headed in he can

19:42

potentially create the conditions where and i quote you say israel will be no more what what direction are you

19:49

referencing uh when you write that and why do you believe that he can actually accomplish that

19:57

well first of all it’ll be because of the actions of israel not the actions of the united

20:03

states um israel is killing itself as we speak um how how else do you explain

20:10

having france belgium and canada turn on israel in the recent days

20:17

um you know the world is starting to question the viability of the continued existence of israel uh because of its

20:24

genocidal policies um even trump is starting to come under trouble right now

20:29

because you know americans and i and i and i and i mentioned this a while back

20:35

i mean i don’t want to sound indifferent to death because i’m not i mean you

20:40

mention one little girl’s name and i’ll start crying you know so yeah you know

20:45

it’s uh you know i’m not indifferent to death but i’m also i recognize the

20:51

reality of the human condition and i said there will come a

20:56

time when we will just become exhausted by the death of

21:02

palestinians and there and then we will become immune to

21:08

it until we are no longer immune to it meaning that you know there there there

21:14

is there is a there’s so when something first happens to you you’re shocked by it you’re shocked by

21:20

it you know oh my god but if it keeps happening the human condition is to develop you know is to desynthesize

21:27

yourself to it and it becomes the norm but then people of

21:33

conscience when they’re exposed to an a norm that cannot be digested by their

21:40

conscience become outraged and we’re reaching the point of

21:45

collective outrage tragically it’s required so many innocent palestinians to die and this is

21:53

israel’s fault 100% israel’s fault yes we facilitated yes we gave them bombs

21:58

yes we green lit this i’m not absolving america of anything here we are as guilty as they are but they’re the ones

22:04

implementing the policy and it’s become so sickening that even americans who

22:11

turned off the tv stopped you know reading the news just blinded they just said “i don’t want to know anymore about

22:18

this it’s too disturbing it’s broken through that.” and they’re becoming

22:23

disturbed to such an extent that it is empowering them to confront this

22:30

problem in a way that maybe they wouldn’t have been when they were desensitized to it even trump is now

22:36

waking up saying “i i can’t look at dead palestinian children anymore.” i mean i mean i would kind of i guess push back

22:43

on that because i really do think trump himself as well as obviously the biden administration i don’t think this is

22:48

based on um you know i don’t think it’s divided on party lines the loyalty that american presidents have to israel but

22:55

it’s true that the average population has definitely woken up the outrage is absolutely there i mean the protests

23:01

have not died down in the least even though the crackdowns have only intensified but i would say despite all

23:07

of this the leadership israel and america i know you mentioned you know israel is the one doing it but israel

23:12

would be in no position to continue what it’s been doing for over a year and a half if it weren’t for the direct

23:19

material and military support of the united states so they’re also directly

23:24

um just as much as israel if not more involved in what’s going on but i would say i don’t think that the the leaders

23:31

the ones who are enabling this to happen really care how many palestinians die i think it’s no they don’t they they don’t

23:37

you’re you’re again um you know no because i mean trump himself he

23:46

also trump had the opportunity especially in his recent trip to the middle east if he really wanted to he

23:51

could have brought up the prospect of a ceasefire with with gza and he did not um right i i guess the point i’m trying

23:58

to make is isn’t that trump suddenly grew a moral conscious trump became aware of political opportunity that’s i

24:05

think what what we’re talking about here because nobody it’s not that nobody cares about

24:11

the palestinian people of course there are people who care about the palestinian people i care about them um

24:17

i know my daughter who wears a kafia in war one when she graduated from georgetown even under threat of losing

24:23

her degree um and who’s participated in these demonstrations and um you know and

24:30

such she cares and i know media benjamin personally she cares i know code pink

24:35

cares ray mcgovern uh was on a show with me the other day and we were talking about us-russian relations which i

24:42

considered to be one of the most important issues of our time for the existential survival of my of my nation

24:48

and ray believes that too that he had to interject because of gaza and the horror of gaza and because of his love and and

24:54

and caring for the palestinian people so people do care this care doesn’t translate into

25:03

political power though um that’s that’s the problem there’s been so many people

25:09

caring but the palestinians continue to die because the people in political power aren’t feeling the

25:15

pressure i think trump now is feeling the pressure and this pressure comes from different different forms and i

25:22

kind of want to draw a little bit of attention to how you mentioned obviously the recent um incident where the two

25:27

israeli embassy staff members were shot dead um and you know there was one tweet where you mentioned rather than uh

25:33

creating the conditions where yuron and sarah were murdered in their name pro palestinian activists should have

25:39

reached out to these two young diplomats to engage in a dialogue which could save palestinian lives and i guess first

25:46

reading that i i found that take to be very problematic because really if dialogue were to be the solution to this

25:53

ongoing genocide that’s only been getting worse um then it would it would have shown itself for the past seven

25:59

decades and we’ve only been seeing the situation intensify and um you know you

26:04

yourself obviously being in the position you have been you you have seen israeli officials zionist officials saying

26:11

things like there are no innocent people in gaza even even the children so the

26:16

guy who killed yon has tweeted horrific things horrific things i mean yeah and again i i completely agree that you know

26:24

shooting people dead does absolutely nothing to save lives you mentioned as well that protesting doesn’t really do

26:30

much to save lives either it’s really the least people can do to be present and show their disgust at what’s

26:36

happening but i also think it’s very simplistic and and possibly naive to think that dialogue could solve what

26:41

we’re seeing especially knowing that dialogue only works if the other side that you’re speaking to is willing to

26:48

even admit that you know there’s humanity in these people and we don’t even see that coming from the zionists

26:54

we don’t even see them acknowledging that palestinians even have a right to exist on the land that belong to them so

27:01

really i think um dialogue for so long hasn’t worked and that’s why we are where we are that’s why we’re seeing all

27:07

these horrific scenes coming out and really there being no stop to them so i guess i wanted to ask you what what you

27:13

meant by that knowing that for so long dialogue has failed and zionists are in

27:19

they have absolutely no intention to accept peace knowing that for them peace

27:24

is just palestinians accepting their fate and just going back to the same situation they were in for so long yeah

27:31

um first of all i’ve been around the world a couple times in my life i’m i’m

27:36

long in tooth and um i’ve i’ve got some experience in conflict and conflict

27:44

resolution um i know full well that dialogue

27:50

is 99% of the time is a non-starter because

27:57

uh especially in conflict because people have made a decision that this is crossed a line where they’re willing to

28:04

lay their lives down and once you’re willing to lay your life down then you’ve chosen bang bang bang over talk

28:10

talk talk um that’s that’s the harsh reality of it and and that’s the case

28:16

but in the history of conflict there comes a

28:21

time that 1% window opens up where dialogue is possible and unless you’re

28:29

prepared to engage in dialogue and you have the tools capable of conducting

28:35

that dialogue you’re going to miss that 1% and you’ll transition back into fight

28:40

i give you an example um and oftentimes when we look at things like especially americans because you know we’re the

28:46

american centrics we are the center of the world baby the world revolves around us and we only care about our

28:52

perspective so a lot of times when you take a look at um for instance us soviet

28:58

arms control um you know we always say well the soviets became prepared you know we we

29:04

we we made them accept the potential of arms control that it was you know that’s

29:10

our perspective that something about the soviets changed right but the reality is there’s something about us that changed

29:16

the soviets were the ones who exploited a 1% window to create the opportunity

29:22

for dialogue that led to for instance the intermediate nuclear forces treaty being signed in december of 1987

29:30

implemented 1988 in the elimination of an entire category of nuclear weapons that threatened global existence just a

29:37

few years prior both nations were committed to spending billions of dollars to build these weapons and deploy these weapons as part of policies

29:44

that were you know if left you know unimpeded would have resulted in a an

29:49

exchange that led to the end of the world um while we were building those weapons nobody wanted to talk about

29:54

disarmment we weren’t even allowed to talk you might remember the history of that uh nitsi paul nitzi was the

30:00

negotiator and he went in his walk in the woods with his soviet counterpart but both sides nobody was ready for that

30:07

at that time but you know what nitsi and and the guy talked you see what i’m saying they

30:13

created a toolbox a tool set that eventually created so

30:18

my my feeling is that and and and i have

30:23

to say i’m on the palestinian issue i’m this is a new conversion to me can would

30:29

you allow me to walk myself through this because i i i’m being i’m being attacked viciferously but i don’t care i mean i

30:36

do care but i don’t i mean i i believe what i believe and i believe what i believe because i believe it and people

30:42

saying they oppose me or against me but i i think i do owe people an expl not not an explanation but an accounting of

30:50

how i got here okay um i did a interview or a debate with um alan dersowitz uh

30:58

who is a noted constitutional lawyer but also a um staunch supporter of israel a

31:06

zionist and in preparing for that debate because

31:13

i’m a very combative person i mean you’re seeing the good side of me but i i’m fully capable of just being a mean

31:20

son of a gun um and i was sort of ready to to do that right and i i i i did my

31:27

due diligence i i i watched several debates i read several

31:33

exchanges and i had all the ammunition and i had my notes you know all done up i i could sit there and rip them apart

31:40

and have and i could walk i could have walked away from that debate a hero in

31:45

the middle east in especially in the pro palestine scott ritter is great awesome dude way to go you rock buddy you rock

31:54

right and then i i said “okay but then what does that achieve what did i accomplish i have a unique opportunity

32:00

here to have a engagement with alan dersuitz what do i achieve by

32:06

replicating what other people have done turn it into a shouting match recrimination and all that because i

32:13

looked at each one of those debates and i honestly did this i looked at each debate and then i looked at the death toll of palestinians and i said “how did

32:20

that debate help the palestinian people how did it help their cause?” the answer is it didn’t at all didn’t at all it

32:27

didn’t help them at all now i’ve also studied alan dersowitz’s

32:33

um non-israeli writings when he writes about the constitution when he writes

32:39

about you know this is a man who was involved in the innocence project he’s a guy that uh helped bring dna evidence

32:46

into like to free innocent people from jail okay i mean that’s a different side

32:52

of him right we don’t talk about that we don’t talk about the fact that he’s a human being who understands the difference between right and wrong and

32:58

that there’s compassion in his heart so the question is how can i touch that compassion in a

33:05

way that promotes something different a different outcome because the the the goal here

33:13

should always be to do something to help the palestinian people what will advance

33:20

their cause or if you can’t advance their cause can you save a life can you

33:26

save some lives can you do something to improve the lives so i thought that by

33:32

having this conversation with allen even though we disagreed that turn it into an

33:38

exchange of ideas that isn’t as rewarding viscerally for the for the pro

33:43

palestinian audience because they’re like you’re giving them credibility you’re giving them this you’re giving them that no i’m not he has his words i

33:51

have my words i’m not saying that i was the perfect uh foil for the palestinian cause maybe there people out there that

33:56

could have explained the nakba 20 times better than me of course they can there’s people that can explain many aspects of the the palestinian situation

34:04

in the history of the crimes committed against palestine better than me but they would not have furthered the

34:10

possibility of dialogue and what came out of this was alan dersowitz himself

34:16

acknowledging the possibility of dialogue saying we had an exchange here

34:21

that was respectful that um that even though we disagreed we found some points of common

34:28

cause that were based on a shared humanity shared compassion um and i and

34:35

i and i walked away from that saying there’s a potential here a potential to

34:40

begin a dialogue not because alan duritz is going to change what he believes in

34:46

or anything but at some point in time the situation on the ground in israel is

34:52

going to deteriorate to the point where that 1% window is going to open and the

34:59

israelis will be ready for dialogue and the question is are we ready for that

35:04

and the other thing is it’s not just dialogue with the israelis that we should be seeking we have a government

35:10

right now that is dead set against the palestinian cause straight up dead set against it but politics politics rears

35:18

its ugly head now and then and often times because of political realities um

35:24

politicians are compelled to say we we got to do something different and the moment they say we got to do something

35:30

different we have to be open up to new ideas who among us is ready to engage if

35:36

we haven’t built the toolbox if we haven’t established the connectivity there and so that’s what i because i

35:43

look at this you don’t need me on the street demonstrating okay you’ve got plenty of

35:49

people out there who demonstrate and they’re far better at than me you don’t need me doing a whole bunch of other

35:55

stuff so my question when ray mcgovern challenged me on the the the the on on

36:00

on trump watch you know i i i i felt chastised to be honest because he was

36:05

like “we really have to do something.” and i’m like “well what what what can i do?” and i and i i spent a lot of time

36:12

thinking about it and i said you know what if i could have saved henry

36:19

would that have been a victory yeah absolutely what if i could

36:24

save one palestinian child or mother what if by having a dialogue with

36:31

somebody i could influence the situation so that doctors were able to treat patients

36:38

food was able no i’m not going to solve this problem i can’t solve this problem

36:44

but what i can do is create a process of connectivity that could save a life that

36:52

could make the conditions better for some people and in doing so create that

37:00

connectivity of dialogue so that when that 1% window

37:06

opens up they’re ready to do it they’re ready to act if it weren’t for paul nitzi marching in the woods with his

37:13

counterpart we may not have gotten the inf treaty that action even though it was shut down by both sides who said “we

37:20

don’t want this.” that action created a toolbox a tool set the potential the

37:25

possibility so that’s what i’m doing is it popular hell no excuse my language i

37:31

i’m i i i you know i i i look at my twitter following and i know that i’ve

37:36

really touched a lot of nerves because you know this is just like down again i

37:41

i would say it’s not that i i do agree with you i i think dialogue in itself is a is a very useful tool in fact we’ve

37:48

seen since the beginning of you know and we’ve seen it more since october 7 because there’s just been such an influx

37:54

of information on social media and otherwise like people not just taking uh you know part in protest but we have so

38:01

many people who are also engaging in things like street theater in um you know workshops setting up like so many

38:08

different like stations to just educate people on what’s happening and have that conversation i do think that’s a

38:13

valuable thing what i think is an issue is assuming or um somehow believing that

38:21

dialogue with let’s say israeli diplomats with israeli officials or even zionist officials is somehow going to

38:27

achieve that peace and i know you mentioned that one opening that 1% but the reality is even if that 1% opens up

38:35

zionism as a as an ideology as a force is never going to stop acting in a way

38:41

that is against how it’s been designed and the reality is that zionism by nature is a genocidal ideology it is an

38:50

expansionist ideology it has no regard for human life and we’ve seen that um they’ve had so many chances to really

38:57

take um criticism and stop stop killing really and we’re seeing all of this

39:03

continue because despite the multitudes of people that have come out and called

39:08

for peace and called for even dialogue so many people have have thought of that as well but there’s just never an

39:15

intention but the thought of it or acted on it there’s two different things have they acted acted on it in dialogue with

39:22

with zionist is that what you’re saying i mean dialogue the thing is let’s take for example the two-state solution talks

39:29

in for the two-state solution had have happened so much like it’s it’s something that you know it’s almost

39:34

exhausted because every time there’s a conversation it’s as though that just equates to zionists and you know

39:40

israelis saying all right we’re any any deal we’re going to accept will somehow have to still end up with palestinians

39:47

being under our control and not having you know their their statethood essentially accepting their fate and

39:53

just being quiet about it so when when you have dialogue that only results in that kind of a conclusion really there’s

39:59

no way no way to go with it you know right but let me can i throw out i hear everything you’re saying and

40:06

i’m not disagreeing with you of course um at all this is probably going to destroy my

40:12

cred or my viability as a negotiator or a dialogue um uh you know encourager or

40:19

facilitator but uh let’s go back and use the the you know something that i’m

40:24

pretty familiar with um the us soviet arms control

40:30

negotiations right many of the people that were promoting arms control negotiations with

40:36

the soviet union were not proponents of the

40:41

survival of the soviet union they viewed the soviet union as a bastion of communist ideology and they had been for

40:49

prepared for decades to that that that was an existential threat to the united states so the process of entering the

40:55

negotiation with the soviet union to get to get rid of nuclear weapons wasn’t

41:01

about saying we want the soviet union to continue to exist it was saying that we want to mitigate

41:09

the threat posed by nuclear weapons in the possession of the soviet union right

41:14

we began these this disarmament process um as i said the treaty was signed in

41:21

december 1987 um i was the first weapons inspector on the ground on july 1st 1988

41:27

and we successfully implemented this and it turned into uh the start treaty and

41:32

other uh things uh on christmas eve 1991

41:37

the soviet union disappeared the russian federation replaced it um the negotiations in arms control

41:46

played a very critical role in achieving that outcome and it was called a victory by the same people who promoted arms

41:53

control they saw the end of the soviet union the end of communism they called it a victory so what i would propose to

41:59

you is remember my going in position that israel is is defeating itself just

42:04

like many people would say that the soviet union was defeating itself dialogue isn’t designed to

42:09

sustain the zionist entity dialogue is designed to help coax the zionist entity

42:16

into a manageable collapse um just like

42:22

arms control was used by many people to coax the soviet union into a manageable managed collapse uh the soviet union

42:30

needed that engagement in arms control i’m telling you right now that israel

42:35

soon and maybe even now needs dialogue they don’t know they

42:41

need it maybe they don’t recognize they need it but if it’s offered to them they may take it because they are isolated

42:48

like they’ve never been their economy is in tatters and what dialogue would do

42:53

with the israelis is a hopefully mitigate some of the the death and

42:58

destruction that’s taking place against the palestinian people today but

43:03

b them into moving in a direction that they

43:11

think helps them survive but actually is like putting them in hospice and just

43:18

peacefully allowing them to go away because i don’t think that the zionist concept is a survivable viable

43:25

uh sustainable concept i think israel is dying as we speak the question is what can we do with this dying entity do we

43:34

let it lash about and kill as many people as possible including palestinians or do we try to mitigate

43:40

the harm by engaging with and containing and controlling this um and and that

43:46

that’s again i’m not you know only a fool would say i know everything and my

43:53

way is the best way right what i’m saying is i looked in the mirror and asked myself what could i bring to the

44:00

table okay i’m not a demonstrator i’m not a vigil holder i’m those aren’t

44:06

those aren’t my that’s not my toolbox right so if i want to engage in a meaningful way what could i bring to the

44:13

table and the tool set that i have is of dialogue ask the iraqis ask the iraqis

44:19

about the role i played in helping uh overcome a variety of existential

44:25

problems that we faced from 1991 to 1998 uh ultimately yes we failed we we got

44:31

the the war you know some people might say that what i did even though i didn’t know this is what i was doing was

44:37

mitigate and and and facilitate the collapse of saddam hussein’s regime by

44:42

engaging in dialogue um i didn’t mean it to be that way it wasn’t my goal and my

44:48

objective but i prevented wars from breaking out on several occasions i

44:53

helped promote uh disarmament um and in doing so um i helped create a a smoother

45:02

transition i mean we ultimately had to go to war and i was against that war as you know uh i never once promoted that

45:08

conflict but i’m just saying that that war could have happened sooner or could have been more destructive if it weren’t

45:15

for the engagement i firmly believe and this is why i’m i’m basically nullifying myself

45:22

that engagement with israel will help facilitate the collapse of israel i believe that uh that a dialogue with

45:27

israel u is actually a tool that could be used to manage the israeli collapse so that uh it doesn’t lead to as much

45:35

death and destruction as it it currently is um but and i don’t believe the time

45:40

is right now for that dialogue but i want to build the tool set i want to have the walk in the woods i want to uh

45:48

create you know create the acknowledgment that the potential exists because there will come a time when the

45:55

israelis reach um you know the desperation of gorbachev as the system is collapsing

46:03

and they are desperate for a helping hand they’ll be out there asking for a helping hand and um and and the reality

46:09

is you mentioned there’ll be out there asking for a helping hand and the united states will be there the united states

46:16

always is there and that’s the that’s what makes all of this so much more complicated is because so long as you

46:22

have an entity like the us essentially guaranteeing that zionism will continue

46:28

and that israel will have that military and financial backing to continue doing everything it’s doing that time will

46:35

never come so long as the us is continuing to do that but why can’t we have why can’t we have dialogue because

46:40

you know when i speak of dialogue it isn’t just with israel in fact the most important dialogue is the dialogue it

46:46

takes internal to the united states absolutely and we’ve had lots of that i mean we have there’s so much obvious

46:52

just like a very basic example you know footage that comes out from you know officials standing up you know talking

46:58

about this whole idea of why is our country continuing to militarily supply

47:04

israel when we have problems of our own when you know our military should be a force for our national strength and you

47:11

know you and these are these are republicans themselves who are saying stuff like this so you know obviously we

47:17

assume that democrats are more kind of uh favorable to the palestinian cause

47:22

but we’re seeing across the board just dialogue and criticism and all of this pouring out criticizing the us for its

47:30

continued funding of israel and yet nothing changes the us continues to send

47:36

you know funds taxpayer money and people are just left you know demanding that they don’t demanding their officials to

47:42

do something about it and they just can’t because so you’re not speaking to the right officials so so who who are

47:48

the officials we should be speaking to i don’t know rfk jr

47:54

you say he’s he’s best friends with shimuly beech and he’s marched in the marches and he’s done this and that and

47:59

the other thing he’s also the you know cabinet member um who has has spoken

48:05

about um promoting health and human services um the betterment of health

48:10

what if we created a dialogue that talked about what can we do to advance the the

48:15

the humanitarian aid in in gaza right and i mean in situations i guess what we

48:22

generally look toward as well is precedent asking ourselves a question has there ever actually been a case in

48:27

the past seven plus decades where officials either in the us or israel or

48:33

between the us and israel have come together to address this issue and us

48:38

seeing any any benefit in it um what we’ve seen is you know there are moments

48:43

of just you know things not happening and then you have just another wave of genocide another wave of genocide and it

48:49

just doesn’t and it just doesn’t end i i i’m not i’m not i’m not i’m not disagreeing with anything you say and

48:55

i’m not trying i’m trying to um minimize the frustration you feel i’m a

49:02

solutionoriented person that’s yeah i’m trying to find a solution what i’ll say is this one of the reasons why i i

49:08

mentioned rfk jr.’s name is that i had great success in engaging with him on

49:14

the russia ukraine issue right and over the course of many months and many conversations he actually was in a

49:21

position where he intervened with the trump administration to achieve a major policy shift that could lead to the

49:28

french and nuclear war and the potential of peace um that’s a dialogue that you

49:34

know many people would have said don’t do it don’t don’t engage don’t don’t don’t don’t because it’s why why would

49:40

you want to do that well because you’ve got to start talking i’m not saying that this would be the thing maybe there’s

49:46

other people we could talk to as well uh in the administration and again you don’t go in with them with the solution

49:52

you don’t say “oh your job is to solve.” you begin a dialogue that opens the door for something look there will come a

49:59

time when israel will

50:08

not be able to exert the influence that it currently exerts because it will be

50:15

in such a de desperate straits and what we want at that point in time is people to acknowledge that and be prepared to

50:23

as i said put israel into hospice as opposed to continuing to fund because if

50:29

you know if israel becomes a desperate state and all we do is pump more weapons and and uh and and and and money into

50:36

them they’ll just lash out as they go down they’ll take as many people down with them as they drowned um i don’t

50:42

want that to happen i’d prefer israel to be in a um in a in a hospital bed um getting fed nicely they get to watch tv

50:50

as they slowly pass away um but you can’t you can’t get to that unless you

50:55

begin a dialogue with the policy makers it’s it’s too easy finding congressional

51:01

opponents is lowhanging fruit you know it’s it’s just too easy i mean i can go out and find a congressional person

51:08

that’ll sign on to a you know or at least claim they want to sign on to a bill or articulate or say something but

51:14

at the end of the day the bill never gets out of committee or never even gets into committee um and and nothing

51:20

changes you got to go to the decision kind of you know we’ve even seen the un in come

51:26

into the picture multiple times it’s not even just once you know and and the the

51:31

devastating reality is even the icj or the un none of them have the power to say anything to israel essentially it’s

51:38

all just a formality as we know um and even you know an institution that’s supposed to be have some kind of

51:46

legitimacy in preventing such devastations from happening around the world essentially is rendered useless in

51:52

this situation 100% again when i looked in the mirror and said “what can i do?” all of this

52:00

reality screams out at you i mean it it’s such a bad reality that you know

52:06

ultimately you say “i can do nothing i’m not as you’re saying what can we do?”

52:11

it’s like hitting our head against a brick wall we’re not advancing this cause at all we’re not promoting you know israel will never say yes

52:18

my thing is we need to be prepared if israel at some point in time does say

52:25

yes that there has to be and one of the reasons why you know again i doubt this

52:32

would ever happen but um let’s just put your my resume up there as who would

52:37

israel take as a potential interlocator we’re both on record being viciferously

52:43

opposed to the genocide in in the in the israeli government but did you spend

52:48

four years working handin glove with israeli intelligence did you go into the heart of the kyria uh were you involved

52:55

in briefings with the prime minister um you know did you did you get the special

53:00

tour of israel in their in their helicopter and go to masada and go to the golan heights and and uh and all

53:06

that i did um thankfully i did not right but well you say thankfully but who

53:11

would the israelis be willing to talk to of the two of us well if you did speak to them then what would you say came out

53:18

of it i don’t know the fact i i would think that first of all uh simply

53:24

speaking to them would be a victory opening up a line of communication that’s the first thing is to get them

53:30

willing to even say “okay let’s talk.” and then you start in with low expectations i don’t think you go in to

53:37

hit the home run uh you just want an at bat you want to get to the plate you want them to pitch a ball um you want

53:44

them to acknowledge that there’s a game to be played uh and then you find the

53:49

voices uh i mean there you know who knows how these things could work out but you know simply trying finding a a

53:57

doctor uh in gaza who’s who needs a specific kind of medicine for a specific kind of patient and sitting down with

54:03

the israelis and saying you know this this would go a long way to show uh the

54:09

human side of of of israel which is lacking right now uh would you you know

54:15

what do you say we work together you know let’s get that medicine i’ll take

54:20

it in i’ll hand it to that doctor they’ll save that life and i’ll come out

54:26

and then we’ll see where we can go from there i mean is some people say “well you’re just playing to the israelis it’s

54:31

you’re prop you know it’s part of their propaganda all that.” i say “i just saved a palestinian life,” which is more

54:36

than even like uh humanitarian aid trucks that have been allowed to go into

54:41

israel even those are targeted of course of course there’s there’s no there’s

54:47

nothing good happening right now so that that’s kind of why that’s the reason why i i mentioned like uh having dialogue

54:53

and negotiations with the side that you know you mention hey this would this would soften how the world sees you guys

54:59

i don’t think they care i don’t really don’t think they care they know the world hates them they know all these

55:04

protests these protesters despise them and yet they just continue and right but how many american politicians are you

55:12

know don’t care about something until they’re compelled to care because reality changes that’s all i’m saying is

55:18

at some point in time there will be an israeli prime minister whose name is not benjamin netanyahu hopefully sooner

55:23

rather than later um and there will be a cabinet that doesn’t have people like binge and these other genocidal maniacs

55:31

in them um and at that point in time the

55:36

politics of survival may evolve to the point where they need to talk to

55:41

somebody they need a lifeline because things are just so bad for them israel is destroying itself its

55:50

economy is in shambles nobody talks about the economic aspects of this war but israel’s economy are in shambles why

55:57

trump is promoting the abrams accords because the abrams accords i i know you’re uh you’re you’re

56:03

very knowledgeable so i i’m confident that you remember before october 7th

56:09

when joe biden was in uh india and he announced the um india middle east

56:15

economic middle east european economic quarter that netanyahu came out the same

56:20

day and said this is the greatest moment in modern israeli history and i’m like

56:26

that’s quite the rhetoric what do you mean by that and he meant it because he said this will propel us from being this

56:34

isolated nation that is dependent upon you know economic and and military and political support into a nation standing

56:41

on its own feet as part of a regional economic complex where we take the lead

56:48

where we are at the heart of this this will turn israel into a legitimately viable economically viable socially

56:55

viable um member of the n you know the the global community of nations that’s

57:02

what israel what it wants recognizes has to happen for its survival exactly and

57:08

today it’s the opposite they went in the exact opposite trajectory their economy is isolated nobody’s investing everybody

57:16

condemns them they aren’t part of the international community they’re an isolated nation as one friend and one friend only and we’re not even that good

57:22

of a friend anymore um so they’re going downhill in the case of syria i think it it could also a lot of what we’re

57:28

hearing as well is that there was definitely a deep israeli influence as well there especially knowing that you

57:34

know israel has already um occupied parts of the country with syria essentially having no say in that

57:40

process not even pushing back and many are saying that even that has been uh kind of an orchestrated event for this

57:46

larger greater israel plan what are your thoughts on that first of all when we talk about this

57:52

this this larger greater israel plan um you know the way it’s often sold is this

57:59

is an evil zionist scheme that’s been hatched in jerusalem and tel aviv uh by

58:05

the evil you know zionists and i’m not saying they’re not evil and

58:10

i’m not saying a scheme wasn’t hatched but um let’s let’s look at what was

58:16

happening in syria are we denying therefore the turkish involvement

58:23

i mean no we do we do know turkey is also heavy right right right so so well kind of pushing uh wasn’t it turkey

58:31

and um nbs who were pushing for trump to be lifting the sanctions yeah yeah you know this is this the point i’m trying

58:36

to make is so this scheme of greater israel seems to have a ankora element to it and a riad element so this grand

58:44

israeli plan um seems to be actually a collaborative

58:49

effort by a whole bunch of nations um which tells me another thing i’d like to throw out

58:58

there that probably will get me shot at some point in time in my life but

59:04

um the israel seems to be a tool used by a lot of nations to achieve a lot of

59:10

policy objectives um and that the the people on the short end of the stick

59:16

almost always appear to be the palestinians and then uh the shia um

59:24

and so to sit here and and you know israel is a useful foil i guess for the

59:29

gulf arab states but i think you’re you you you have to acknowledge the

59:35

connectivity between israel and turkey the connectivity between israel and gutter between israel and saudi arabia

59:41

israel and the united arab so when we speak of greater israel what we’re speaking of

59:48

is the abrams accords which were a mutually beneficial

59:54

relationship between israel and its regional neighbors it’s not an evil

1:00:00

zionist plan it’s a plan carried out by a number of nations um that is designed

1:00:08

to eliminate the possibility of palestinian state and uh create a

1:00:15

permanent state of confrontation between sunni and shia um in the region because

1:00:22

yeah exactly because the united states and these other nations when you’ve allowed your

1:00:30

national identity and your national security to be defined for decades by

1:00:37

security and military um how do you justify the continuation

1:00:44

of that you need conflict you need an enemy you need somebody to fear um and for the

1:00:52

sunni world that has been turned into the axis of resistance the iranian

1:01:00

driven axis of resistance now we saw the myth of this when china came in and

1:01:06

successfully negotiated a reproach bomb between saudi arabia and uh and iran but

1:01:12

america can’t have that because we need that we need a sunni shield against the

1:01:19

uh shia crescent um and this is the other thing that trump was promoting at

1:01:24

the time when he’s trying to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the iranians

1:01:29

about you know hopefully ending the nuclear crisis and preventing the

1:01:35

possibility of a larger war in the middle east he seems to be undermining his own

1:01:40

efforts by engendering the kind of instability that comes from promoting

1:01:47

u not regional cohabitation and cooperation but splitting the region

1:01:52

into a sunni shield and a shia crescent well thank you so much mr ritter for joining me today i appreciate your time

1:01:59

and your experience and hope to talk soon well thank you very much and good luck going forward and let’s keep our

1:02:07

prayers open for the people of palestine absolutely thank you if you like what you see here at tmj news please like and

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share and subscribe to our channel for more weekly content tmj news is a grassroots independent media outlet and

1:02:21

you can find ways to support us by reading the caption below thank you for joining us for today’s episode and we

1:02:27

look forward to seeing you again

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