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0:00The Middle East is in flames. Britain is being dragged into an illegal war, the aims of which are entirely unclear. It's
0:066 secondsa war of choice, and the man who chose it is Benjamin Netanyahu. Why, yet again, is the West dancing to Israel's
0:1515 secondstune. I've made a number of videos exposing Israeli crimes. This one is different. It's directed at conservatives and people generally who
0:2424 secondssupport the state of Israel. I believe our indulgence of Israel is not just morally wrong. It's against the
0:3131 secondsinterests of the US and the UK and ultimately against the interests of Israel itself. It is leading us all to
0:3939 secondsdisaster. Palestine is the place you come thundering, crashing into the buffers, the limits of the western
0:4646 secondsliberal moral imagination. The tragedy and complexity of Israel is that it's both a product of the most unspeakable
0:5353 secondsracism and a cause of it. Zionism was born from the suffering of Jewish people in Europe, culminating in the Holocaust,
1:021 minute, 2 secondsfrom a desire for a safe haven, a territory where Jews would for once be the hosts and not the eternal guests. It
1:101 minute, 10 secondswas framed as a return to a historic biblical homeland. and for its supporters. These two factors give it an
1:171 minute, 17 secondsentirely different complexion morally from other enterprises where predominantly European populations have settled far-flung parts of the world.
1:271 minute, 27 secondsThere's no doubt that the Zionist dream has enormous emotional power. The problem, of course, is the other side of
1:351 minute, 35 secondsthe equation, the people. It was inflicted upon the Palestinians whose experience of dispossession and
1:421 minute, 42 secondssubjugation was no different from that of countless other peoples subjected to European colonialism. In fact, arguably,
1:501 minute, 50 secondsit's been considerably worse than many,
1:521 minute, 52 secondsprecisely because of the license and indulgence granted to the Israeli state.
1:581 minute, 58 secondsLet's lay out the bold, indisputable facts. In 1948, more than 80% of the Palestinian population of what became
2:062 minutes, 6 secondsIsrael fled their homes. Now, if you want to believe this was not an act of deliberate ethnic cleansing, fine.
2:142 minutes, 14 secondsWhat's undeniable is that they were never allowed to return. In 1947, they were there. In 1949, they were not. The
2:242 minutes, 24 secondsgranting of the vote to that small fragment of the Palestinian population that remained provided a democratic fig leaf for the new state, one that was
2:332 minutes, 33 secondsblown away once the Israelis occupied Gaza and the West Bank in 1967.
2:392 minutes, 39 secondsThere Palestinians have no right to vote for the political entity, the state of Israel that controls their lives. Jewish
2:472 minutes, 47 secondssettlers, on the other hand, occupying the same territory do. Even in East Jerusalem, which as far as the Israeli government is concerned has been
2:552 minutes, 55 secondsformally annexed to Israel, Palestinians cannot vote. Political rights depend upon ethnicity. That is not democracy.
3:063 minutes, 6 secondsIsrael is and has always been a state whose defining feature is that it's structured to ensure the domination of
3:133 minutes, 13 secondsone ethnicity over another. What else does the term a Jewish state mean? This is the elephant in the room. the simple,
3:213 minutes, 21 secondsblindingly obvious, undeniable fact that the western political media class has decided that we must never mention or
3:283 minutes, 28 secondsacknowledge despite the fact that all of the world's leading human rights organizations including the Israeli NGO Bet Salam have denounced Israel as an
3:373 minutes, 37 secondsapartheite state. Now scour the history of the modern world. No people has ever
3:453 minutes, 45 secondsresigned itself to being secondclass citizens in their own country. Spend just 10 minutes at a checkpoint in the
3:523 minutes, 52 secondsWest Bank and you get it. The disfiguring dehumanization, the humiliation of elderly men and women
3:593 minutes, 59 secondsforced to stand in the sun for hours waiting for 18year-olds to search them.
4:044 minutes, 4 secondsThe brutalization of young men in particular, the daily control of rage that is the lot of every Palestinian. It
4:134 minutes, 13 secondsis simply emotionally, psychologically intolerable. Yes, you'll have periods of calm as successive generations are
4:214 minutes, 21 secondsbludgeoned into submission, but ultimately the spirit of resistance will always flare up again because it is
4:294 minutes, 29 secondshuman nature for it to do so. Now, of course, there are countries where settler colonial projects have succeeded and produced stable, prosperous nations.
4:394 minutes, 39 secondsThe United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada. But all succeeded only because demographic catastrophe was
4:474 minutes, 47 secondsinflicted upon the indigenous population. They effectively became entirely different countries through a
4:544 minutes, 54 secondscombination of disease and genocide. And disease isn't going to do the job for the Israelis. Let's imagine a best-case
5:015 minutes, 1 secondscenario from a Zionist perspective. At present, despite almost 80 years of expulsion and oppression, 50% of the
5:105 minutes, 10 secondspopulation between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea is still Palestinian.
5:155 minutes, 15 secondsPerhaps the Israelis will succeed in encouraging, and that's very much a euphemism, sufficient numbers of Palestinians to immigrate, that a solid
5:245 minutes, 24 secondsJewish majority is assured, that they cease to be South Africa and become Australia. Palestinians might be reduced
5:325 minutes, 32 secondsto an exotic remnant, providing cultural color, selling souvenirs to tourists in the old city of Jerusalem in Navalus in
5:415 minutes, 41 secondsHebron. Perhaps Israel will somehow veer back from what at present appears to be its trajectory towards what can only be
5:495 minutes, 49 secondscalled theocratic fascism, enabling its Western supporters to maintain the illusion in that tired old phrase that
5:575 minutes, 57 secondsIsrael is the only democracy in the region. But Israel isn't Australia. Just look at where it is. A tiny country in
6:056 minutes, 5 secondsthe heart of the Middle East, squatting on top of the Alaxa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The significance of which is never grasped in the West. Never
6:146 minutes, 14 secondsintegrated into the Middle East, but apart from it, a country defined by hostility towards indeed contempt for
6:226 minutes, 22 secondsthe history, the religion, and the culture of the people around it. And if you don't think Israel as a society rooted in contempt for its neighbors,
6:316 minutes, 31 secondsyou haven't spent time there,
6:336 minutes, 33 secondsparticularly in the West Bank with your eyes and your ears open. Does that really sound like a healthy, tenable,
6:416 minutes, 41 secondslong-term solution? What's the alternative? It's actually remarkably simple. It's the same as in all settler
6:496 minutes, 49 secondscolonial countries. the granting of full civil, political, and human rights to all of its inhabitants. One state
6:566 minutes, 56 secondssolution, two-state solution. That's something for the people themselves to decide. It all becomes much less intractable once the requirement of
7:057 minutes, 5 secondsethnic domination is removed. For Palestinians, this would require them to live in peace and harmony alongside people who have brutalized and
7:137 minutes, 13 secondshumiliated them for almost 80 years. And yes, there are Palestinians who yearn for a return to the Palestine of their grandparents and great-grandparents
7:227 minutes, 22 secondsgiven what's happened to them since. Who can blame them? But in my experience of Palestinians, and this includes those in
7:297 minutes, 29 secondsand around Hamas, the vast majority would bite your hand off for simple equality. Study the history
7:377 minutes, 37 secondsdispassionately analytically. In practice, whatever the defiant rhetoric, once you enter serious negotiations,
7:447 minutes, 44 secondsPalestinians have always shown themselves ready to compromise, almost pathetically so. Yasa Arafat in the 1990s settled for far, far less than equality.
7:577 minutes, 57 secondsThe problem is on the other side. Let's be clear. Equality, the granting of full civil, political, and human rights to
8:048 minutes, 4 secondseveryone means the death of the dream of a Jewish state. Yes, Israel would remain a land containing large numbers of Jews,
8:148 minutes, 14 secondsquite possibly a majority, but ethnic primacy domination would no longer be guaranteed.
8:218 minutes, 21 secondsAnd for all, we attempt to obfiscate the fact that has always in practice been the core requirement of Zionism. The law
8:298 minutes, 29 secondsof return, the right of any Jew anywhere in the world to go and live in Israel,
8:338 minutes, 33 secondscould be retained, but it would have to be accompanied by a right of return for Palestinians. To say people of one
8:408 minutes, 40 secondsethnicity can move to Israel on the basis of a 2,000-year-old biblical connection, but those of another
8:478 minutes, 47 secondsethnicity driven from their homes just 80 years ago cannot, is patently,
8:528 minutes, 52 secondsself-evidently racist and morally untenable. Just think of what Israel could be with its coastline and unique
8:598 minutes, 59 secondshistorical sites, the epicenter of the world's three great monotheistic religions. It could become a monument to
9:079 minutes, 7 secondsthe human capacity for reconciliation and coexistence. And from a western perspective, just imagine a world where
9:149 minutes, 14 secondswe don't find ourselves in a state of perpetual antagonism towards the world's 2 billion plus Muslims. where we don't
9:239 minutes, 23 secondsfind ourselves endlessly having to ally with dictators and monarchies in the Middle East because we know that as soon as those countries have governments that
9:319 minutes, 31 secondsreflect the will of their people, there will be no more cynical alliances with Israel. A world where we are not
9:389 minutes, 38 secondseternally morally compromised by our support for a state the vast majority of the world can see is racist, even if we
9:489 minutes, 48 secondscannot. Yes, America might lose its aircraft carrier in the Eastern Mediterranean. Yes, perhaps the CIA
9:559 minutes, 55 secondsMossad relationship might not be quite what it was. The deep state connections,
10:0010 minutesbut then without Zionism, how much would we need these things? And in any case,
10:0410 minutes, 4 secondsno one's going to stop the Americans placing an actual aircraft carrier in the Eastern Mediterranean. The idea that America's capacity to project power in the region depends on Israel is absurd.
10:1610 minutes, 16 secondsA peculiarity of the alliance with Israel was always that we managed to pick the one country in the region that has no significant natural resources.
10:2610 minutes, 26 secondsAgain, apply rational, dispassionate analysis. What does America actually get in return for the billions of dollars it
10:3410 minutes, 34 secondspours down the throat of the Israeli state? What's the cost benefit analysis?
10:3910 minutes, 39 secondsThe alternative is decades, possibly centuries of brutal repression and western complicity in that repression.
10:4710 minutes, 47 secondsIshmamar Bengavir and Basel Smottich may revel in such a prospect. But is that really what the bulk of Israel's
10:5410 minutes, 54 secondssupporters in the West want? Is it really what Israelis want? In the words of the great Desmond Tutu, oppressing
11:0311 minutes, 3 secondspeople makes you miserable. When you dehumanize others, you dehumanize yourselves. It's a horrible way to live.
11:1111 minutes, 11 secondsTo psychologically sustain it, you have to close off the best part of yourself.
11:1611 minutes, 16 secondsLook at this photo. A woman holds up a noose and a lethal injection,
11:2111 minutes, 21 secondscelebrating Israeli plans to introduce the death penalty for Palestinians.
11:2611 minutes, 26 secondsHer husband holds a gun labeled with the word occupation, a plane labeled with the word expulsion, and a house labeled
11:3411 minutes, 34 secondssettlement. This woman is not some fringe extremist. This grinning, learing spectre is the deputy speaker of the
11:4311 minutes, 43 secondsKnesset, the Israeli parliament. This is what oppression does to the oppressor.
11:5011 minutes, 50 secondsIt demeans and it disfigures. Is this really part of our western civilization?
11:5611 minutes, 56 secondsSomething we want to be defending and justifying. And if that moral spiritual argument carries no weight, there is a
12:0512 minutes, 5 secondscolder calculation. The present status quo, where less than 8 million Jewish Israelis are able to dictate terms for
12:1312 minutes, 13 secondshalf a billion Arabs, not to mention almost 100 million Iranians, is a bizarre aberration. It is a balance of
12:2112 minutes, 21 secondspower that cannot possibly endure. When and how the system of ethnic supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean comes to an
12:2912 minutes, 29 secondsend is impossible to foresee, but end it will. And when it does, the Israelis and those who've indulged them for so long
12:3612 minutes, 36 secondsmay well ru the fact they never learned to live as neighbors rather than overlords.
12:4312 minutes, 43 secondsMainstream media never analyzes or questions the fundamentals of the Western relationship with Israel. It falls on independent media to really
12:5112 minutes, 51 secondspick apart what's going on there. uh to look at it in depth and to question the basic assumptions that underly it on
12:5812 minutes, 58 secondsthis issue more than any other. We need independent media and I would encourage you to subscribe via patron to Doubledown News.
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