A surprise attack killed 1200 people inside israel. The besieged gaza strip is facing a humanitarian catastrophe as israel intensifies its Bombing Campaign that has already killed over 1000 palestinians. I have never seen airstrikes of this kind. In 2014, not 2008. No war like this. Every minute and every second there are airstrikes. Amy we will go to ramallah in the occupied west bank to speak with my stuff up Mustafa Barghouti and to tel aviv to speak with israeli journalist gideon levy. Then we host a debate between two leading progressive activists in the United States. Medea benjamin and barbara smith. They will also discuss u. S. Funding for israel. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The death toll in israel and palestine has soared over 2200, with at least 1200 israelis and 1000 palestinians killed since fighting broke out saturday. The majority of palestinian debts are in gaza. At least 18 reported in the west bank. Israel is amassing some 300,000 reservists close to gaza as it continues to pound the besieged enclave with airstrikes. Officials warn gaza is on the cusp of a humanitarian catastrophe as the territorys power plant is running out of fuel. The scale of atrocities committed against civilians is continuing to come to light. Rescuers are still pulling bodies from the rubble. Everybody tried to escape death only to find it. The occupation planes followed them. They came to find shelter. They were taking refuge next to the stairs. They targeted them and killed them. This is the blood of injured people. Some injured people were sleeping here. This is their blood. Here was a mother and their children. We just took the children from the rubble. Amy among the dead and gaza are at least seven journalists. On tuesday, media workers held a funeral procession for two of the slain reporters. Blue press helmets placed on their bodies. A local press unions at the head of its committee of women journalists was killed alongside her husband and children when their home was bombed. A gazan journalist has been chronicling the war on social media, giving a rare firstperson insight into the constant evacuations, bombings faced by residents of gaza. No internet, no electricity until now. We dont know what is happening in the world. Amy in israel, over 100 bodies were found at the beeri kibbutz. It was attacked by hamas fighters, killing entire families, including children. Meanwhile, at least 100 hostages are believed to be held by hamas in gaza. Among those missing are u. S. Citizens. This is a father of a hostage. It was destroyed in a barbaric, inhuman attack in which dozens of my friends, neighbors were killed. Many dozens more are either known to be hostages or missing. I am here speaking today, reaching out to my son who grew up on the kibbutz. He is an arm links the way gaza, evidently, but could not be farther from me and our family right now. Amy President Biden spoke to netanyahu tuesday and did not urge restraint in israels response to the attack by hamas. Pres. Biden this is an act of sheer evil. More than 1000 civilians slaughtered. Slaughtered. Among them at least 14 american citizens, killed. Amy President Biden did not refer to slain palestinians or the illegal Israeli Occupation of palestinian territories in his remarks. The first shipment of advanced weaponry from the u. S. Arrived in israel tuesday. Antony blinken is scheduled to land in israel thursday. Will have the latest after headlines. Afghanistan was rocked by another 6. 3 magnitude earthquake early this morning in western Herat Province as locals are still reeling from saturdays series of deadly quakes. The regions governor said todays earthquake caused huge losses, though its not clear yet how many people were killed or displaced. Rescuers are still working to recover residents who perished over the weekend. This is one of the survivors. In some neighboring villages, dead bodies are still under the rubble. They could not pull the bodies yet. Some people have tents and some do not. Amy it is believed at least 3000 afghanis were killed in the first earthquake this weekend. In burma, at least 29 people, including children, were killed in a military raid monday night on a refugee camp in the northern kachin state near the border with china. The camp is home to people displaced by violence and was located just a few miles away from the headquarters of the kachin independence army, which has been in a decadeslong conflict with the burmese army. This is one of the deadliest assaults on civilians since the military seized power in the february 2021 coup. The National Unity government, which was established by democraticallyelected burmese politicians ousted during the coup, condemned the attack as a war crime. A spokesperson for the military junta has denied responsibility. Though a recent u. N. Human rights report found a seemingly Endless Spiral of military violence in burma. In the netherlands, climate activists are celebrating after lawmakers on tuesday approved a motion requiring the dutch cabinet to come up with a plan to phaseout fossil fuel subsidies. This comes after a sustained campaign by activists, including a nearly monthlong blockade of a major highway. This is Lucas Winnips of Extinction Rebellion netherlands. After monthlong of more than 9000 arrests, the Dutch Parliament cabinet came up with sinners for a phaseout fossil fuel subsidies. During this campaign, we achieved transformation of Dutch Society with three quarters of the people now wanting a phaseout of fossil fuel subsidies. Even one third of the people want immediate stop of fossil fuel subsidies that Extinction Rebellion demands. Amy activists say they are prepared for more action if the government fails to follow through on phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. The u. N. s World Food Programme has resumed Food Distribution to 900,000 refugees across ethiopia four months after suspending the aid. In june, the u. S. Also suspended its food aid, accusing the Ethiopian Government of weaponizing humanitarian aid as military units seized the supplies. The World Food Programme said it has fully revamped safeguards and controls to ensure the food reaches those who most need it. In related news, the u. N. Special adviser on the prevention of genocide is warning ongoing fighting between Government Troops and local militias in ethiopia is leading to a heightened risk of genocide and other crimes in the tigray, amhara, afar, and oromia regions. In niger, the first set of french soldiers have started to withdraw from the country after orders by nigers military coup junta following their july takeover. In the capital niamey, residents welcomed the french soldiers departure. Today dispatch of french soldiers who have arrived and who will, god willing, shortly be taking to the road to return home, is only the culmination of the struggle that the people have engaged in. The people are on their feet to demand the departure of the french soldiers from niger soil because one thing is certain, niger remains for the people of niger. Amy this comes as the u. S. Formally designated the ouster of president Mohamed Bazoum and military takeover as a coup, suspending aid to niger. But u. S. Officials say they do not plan to remove any of its 1000 military personnel from niger. Embattled new york Congressmember George Santos was charged with 10 more criminal counts tuesday. The superseding indictment accuses the republican lawmaker of inflating his Campaign Finance reports, including fabricating contributions and charging donors credit cards without authorization. And Hughes Van Ellis, one of the last remaining survivors of the 1921 tulsa race massacre, has died at the age of 102. As many as 300 black people were killed when a white mob burned down what was known as black wall street, the thriving African American neighborhood of greenwood. The last two known survivors of the massacre are 109yearold viola fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis sister, and 108yearold Lessie Benningfield randle. In 2021, all three testified before the u. S. Congress in favor of reparations. This is Hughes Van Ellis. Because of the massacre, my family was left with nothing. We were made lepers in our own country. Amy in august, the Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from survivors of the massacre, whose reparations lawsuit was dismissed in july. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman in new york, with democracy now s Juan Gonzalez in chicago. Hi, juan. Juan hi, amy. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Amy gaza is on the verge of losing all electricity as israel continues to bombard the territory while imposing a siege blocking the import of all fuel, food, and electricity. The death toll from israels massive Bombing Campaign has topped 1055 palestinians with over wounded. 5000 meanwhile, the death toll in israel has soared to 1200 following saturdays shocking attack by hamas militants. Another 2400 israelis have been wounded. Hamas is believed to be holding as many 150 hostages. Israel is now preparing to launch a Ground Invasion of gaza. Tension is also growing along the israellebanon border where Israeli Forces and hezbollah fighters have repeatedly exchanged fire. Earlier today, a u. S. Plane carrying ammunition landed in israel a day after President Biden gave a speech at the white house where he reaffirmed u. S. Support for israel but made no reference to israels bombardment of gaza which has reportedly killed at least 260 children and 230 women since saturday. According to press freedom groups, at least seven palestinian journalists have also been killed. Inside gaza, residents say there is no safe place for civilians to go. This woman lost her brother in an israeli airstrike. We had fled, escaping from death. There were continuous airstrikes over our heads. They told us to come. We came to find out. If we stayed in our houses, we died. If we go in the streets, we died. Oh, my beloved brother, he fled from one place to another. May your soul rest in peace. I have no people left except for 20 stop i hope to carry their children. Oh, my beloved brother. Please, god, dont take anyone else. I cant handle anymore. I hope i die before them all. Amy she would not to describe the scope of israels Bombing Campaign. She spoke from a nursery or her family had taken refuge. I have never seen airstrikes have this kind. Not in 2014, not true thousand eight. Ive never seen anything like this. Every minute and every second there are airstrikes. Every minute there are martyrs in their houses, young people, children. I cant talk. I swear im so tired. We have never witnessed strikes like this. We thank god when the day is done. They say will be worse. We wonder what else can happen. The coming days can be harsher. Amy meanwhile, tensions are high in israel as hamas continues to fire rockets. Meanwhile, hezbollah has claimed responsibility for firing an antitank missile at an Israeli Military post near the lebanese border earlier today. Residents in northern israel say they no long feel safe. It doesnt feel very safe because if they came into our house and they did anything they wanted without any way of protecting ourselves, this is a very unsettled this is israel. This is the 21st century. We should feel secure. We should feel like we have a home to go back to. Many people in israel, unfortunately, are not feeling say. They dont have a house anymore. They dont have family. The line for the funerals are endless. Theres so much pain. Beyond explanation of words. This is truly a nightmare. Amy we begin today with dr. Mustafa barghouti, a palestinian physician, activist, and politician who serves as general secretary of the Palestinian National initiative. He has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2006 and is also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization central council. He is joining us from ramallah in the occupied west bank. Dr. Barghouti, welcome back to democracy now if you can give us the context for what is happening right now, what youre most concerned about. We are talking to you and the occupied west bank as hundreds of thousands of israeli reservists are moving down to gaza. What concerns me most is this process of dehumanizing palestinians. Which western government leaders, including President Biden, are participating. Dehumanizing palestinians to deliver we were called animals. Human rights watch was absolutely correct when they came out the statement saying this kind of description of palestinians is nothing but justification of war crimes from them. That is what is happening now. The crimes happening, israeli locate on gaza. Depriving 2. 2 Million People from water, food, electricity and medical supplies. Depriving them from the possibility of normal life. Children are lacking water, lacking milk. I get calls from our people constantly. Patients who have kidney problems, need dialysis who could die in two or three days because they could not get it. Patients with cancer who lost treatment. And other sick people who are in very deep situations. This is not the only situation. In addition to that, the second crime that is happening is the bombardment of gaza with terrible airstrikes. You have just said it took the lives already of 1000 innocent civilian palestinians. It slaughtered no less than 260 children. But the worst thing is 250,000 people have lost their homes. Thousands of houses have been destroyed. Buildings have been smashed to the earth. People dont have a single space which can be safe for them. I heard an israeli saying she was to be safe and i want her to be safe, but they should also remember also palestinians need to live in peace and security. More than that, israel is back to using what was prohibited, which is white phosphorus. They used it in 2008 campaign on gaza. Now they are back to using it. It is prohibited. It is forbidden. But they use it openly. The more important thing, netanyahu is saying that palestinians should be evicted from gaza. Preparing for a ethnic cleansing of the population of gaza. He said every palestinian in gaza should leave their homes. He did not say where to. Maybe to the sea. But his spokesperson of the army made it clear, he said in a statement in the newspaper that all palestinians in gaza must evict to egypt. These people, these criminals who committed ethnic cleansing against 70 of the Palestinian People in 1948, 70 of the population from gaza were among these people who were evicted from palestine. Now they are subjected to the possibility of another kind of ethnic cleansing that would empty gaza so netanyahu can annex it. Now i understand after all of these threats with ethnic cleansing, what netanyahu meant when he said he would change the map in the order of the area for 50 years to come. Now understand what netanyahu did when he carried the method israel. In the United Nations, in front of the whole world community, a map of israel that includes annexing the west bank, annexing gaza strip come and annexing east jerusalem, including also heights. Golan heights. Nobody said a single criticism to that except maybe the german government. This is the background of what is happening. Let me also say, what we see now in gaza is only a result of a protracted problem of 56 years of Israeli Military occupation of palestinian lands. How many times on your show, amy, and on other shows we said the solution is to end the Israeli Occupation palestinians . To stop the were system of apartheid ever . How many times we said building settlements in the occupied territories would destroy any perspective for two state solution . How many times we complain about settler violence and terror against palestinian communities . I find President Biden, unfortunately, practiced excuse me for that, but i have to say mr. Biden practiced Racial Discrimination between americans who carry israeli citizenship and americans who carry palestinian citizenship. I did not see him say that those a very peaceful journalist who was palestinian and american and was never held to account come was indicted for killing her. He did not say a word about american palestinians whose houses were burned and whose cars were attacked and whose lives were threatened by israeli legal settlers, some of whom also carry american citizenship. Illegal settlers, some of whom also carry american citizenship. I do not want anyone to be killed. Im against killing children. But today and now, israel is preparing a huge ground operation on gaza. If that happens, it will be a total disaster. If ethnic cleansing takes place, this will be a terrible, terrible, terrible disaster for everybody. If the ground operations start, it will definitely lead to the explosion in the north and hezbollah getting involved and maybe this will lead to a whole regional war. I think what we need to hear is a balanced, reasonable, and responsible actions. And nothing continuation of dehumanizing palestinians and using palestinians of responsibility even when palestinians are killed. I think that netanyahu doesnt care about his people. I think netanyahu is the most corrupt, opportunistic politician ever. This man cares only about his position. He does not even care about the 150 or 200 israeli prisoners down in gaza. If he cared about them, he would accept immediately a ceasefire, except accept a Prisoner Exchange so these people can come back home safe and palestinian prisoners would be released, some of whom have been in israeli jails for 44 years. This is the solution. But netanyahu knows if they will find him responsible for negligence. Lack of preparation, intelligence failure, military failure, political failure. He will be sent out of office, which means he will go to jail because of four cases of corruption against him. He knows that. That is why he is ready to kill anybody to stay in office. This man does not care about lives of palestinians or israel is. He said we will fill the west bank with settlers in settlements so that palestinians would lose any hope of a state of their own. And in they would have one of three choices. Either to emigrate or accept subjugation to israeli rule or die. That is the finance minister of israel. And we did not hear any from netanyahu nor from mr. Blinken nor from any other leaders who are now, unfortunate, participating in escalating the situation rather than calling it down. The big question palestinians have, the big question that palestinians have is why the double standard . Why the United States and europe send to ukraine 224 billion of equipment, of planes, of tanks to fight with essays occupation . And why in our case they are sending arsenal and money and support to the occupiers of palestine . Juan dr. Barghouti, you are in the west bank. What has been the response of the Palestinian Authority to the attacks on gaza . Also for our listeners and viewers, if you could talk about the escalation in attacks in the west bank by both settlers and the israeli army since this extreme rightwing coalition of netanyahu came to power . Since the attacks started in gaza by israeli airstrikes, there were many demonstrations in the west bank. All peaceful, nonviolent demonstrations. The israeli army responded with gunfire. Until this moment, young people were shot and killed by the israeli army without them engaging in any kind of military action. And that has been our life. One of the main reasons the attack happened in gaza by hamas is during the last eight months before this whole thing started, israeli army and settlers killed 248 palestinians, including 40 children. And now in addition to that, most roads in the west bank are blocked. There are 650 military checkpoints, many of which are totally closed to palestinians. The only passage is almost closed all the time. Palestinians live in cluster separate from each other and people are extremely worried about what might happened. We just heard the israeli is loading a whole division with tanks for the possibility of re invading the west bank as well. The most difficult thing is not only the army attacks at palestinians, but also the settler attacks. The settlers are completely crazy. Theyre completely criminal in their attitude toward palestinians. They have already attacked so many villages. They have already attacked killed so many palestinians. That is the kind of fear and worry that we have. Juan how should egypt and other arab countries in the region respond . Before i respond to your question, i have one little piece of good news, although it is painful news. You mentioned the name of the journalist salam, who is one of the seven journalist killed by israel. Luckily, but painfully, this panelist was found alive after 31 hours with her three children below the rubble of their destroyed house. Unfortunately, her husband died. She is injured and the three children are injured. You can imagine the horror she went through being under the rubble for 31 hours. And only by luck somebody heard their voice. This race is the question, how many tens of palestinians are now below the rubble and nobody can try to save them because the places are constantly bombarded . Regarding egypt, i would say the egyptians have two responsibilities. One is they should not allow israel to evict and ethnically cleanse palestinians to egypt. This must not happen. I warn you come if israel succeeds in evicting palestinians from gaza now and conducting ethnic cleansing, this would be an obligation of most extreme religious jewish extreme position in the israeli government. It would mean the next plan will be to ethnically cleanse the west bank as well. And throw palestinians out of the west bank. These are not theoretical concepts. This is exactly what they fear, with a speak about about palestinians, especially now after all this process of humanization of palestinians. The other thing egypt must do is to provide support immediately to gaza. We are ready to help our people. We are ready to collect water, food supply. My organization in particular is already engaging in preparing all these materials. We are ready to send them to gaza, to egypt even. But israel says it will bombard any supplies. It is a National Responsibility to stop israel and prevent that from taking place. Amy dr. Barghouti, i want to ask about the relationship between the plo, Palestinian Authority, and hamas, wellknown for the tension between the two, to put it mildly. As you know, hamas as well as g hide, the palestinian political groups, militant groups that are not in the plo, but their problems even inside the plo. I think now not only because of what is happening on the ground but also israel. They did everything to humiliate the palestinians. The israeli army invaded any spot the authority should be in charge of, including ramallah and we pay taxes to the Palestinian Authority through israel and israel cuts away a lot of these resources. The solution to this is nothing but unifying all palestinians without exception. You know my stance, i set it a long time ago, what we need is after this war ends is Free Democratic elections. It will be a pluralistic democratic system through which groups like us can try to do their best to push the direction of democratic transformation, but also would allow palestinians to coexist peacefully in a good political system. At this very moment, sounds not only israel and the United States all the time refuse that we should have democratic and free elections. It is another form of double standard. Amy dr. Mustafa barghouti is speaking to us from ramallah a , palestinian physician, activist, and politician who serves as general secretary of the Palestinian National initiative. Next up, we speak with journalist gideon levy of haaretz stay with us. [music break] amy mum sing to the world by nai barghouti. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Netanyahu bears responsibility for this israelgaza war. That is a headline of an editorial in the israeli newspaper haaretz. The papers editors wrote we go now to tel aviv where we are joined by gideon levy, awardwinning israeli journalist and author. Columnist for the newspaper haaretz and a member of its editorial board. His most recent piece is headlined israel cant imprison two million gazans without paying a cruel price. If you can talk about how israel is are responding right now, what you feel is important for people outside israel, especially in the United States, to understand and to do. At this point, 300 theres an 300,000 reservists moved along the gaza border. And the one or two days, you could feel it everywhere. Nobody expected this unprecedented situation. It broke many perceptions, both hamas and palestinians and their capabilities. [indiscernible] the more time passes, the more horrible scenes are exposed. I can tell you, i have been so many times to the south in times of war. What i saw was nothing like happen in the past. I must say sidebyside, i mention here, here is also a big sense of taking revenge. A big desire to take revenge. Growing up to dangerous levels. The same anger is directed at the government. I think the government wants this war was this war is over, hopefully soon, the government is going to pay a helluva price. I dont see the situation in which netanyahu continues and all the ministers around him. They would be defined as neonazis. Those people who called for all kinds of terrible things to do and did nothing to make israel prepared for any danger and continue that is astonishing that we are now in the sixth day after the war and you dont see the government. They are so preoccupied with their own political careers, political manipulation. Nobody takes care of the situation. The army is preparing itself for a ground operation. But except of the army, i was in so many homes that were bombed, so many people that lost of loved ones. Nobody came to them. Nobody offers them any assistance. Israel is falling apart. The man who governed israel for the last 16 years is the one and the only one to blame before anyone else. This goes without saying. I guess, israelis will go to the streets and will have only one demand, netanyahu go home. If not, be sentenced for this irresponsible policy that you have been committing. Juan gideon levy, i wanted to ask you, according to press reports, as many as 1500 palestinian fighters of hamas were killed inside of israel. So the enormous number of militants who were able to get into israel, could you talk about the decision of the government to relocate large portions of israels army from the gaza border to protect far right settlers on the west bank . Sure. That is one of the big failures on saturday, not the only one. The first is, the surprise. Were are so proud about the sophisticated with all the devices. They know everything. And then an operation which was prepared for one year by hundreds of militants, they did not hear about. So that is the first failure. The second, obviously, those abandoned. [indiscernible] crazy settlers guarding them. Not only guarding them, collaborating with their pogroms. They saw the pogroms and did nothing. The army is busy for years now, not only recently. Always running and chasing after palestinian children who throw a stone and after all kinds of suspected palestinians the army with illegal checkpoints. Arresting somebody without any legal basis in the middle of the night. Then this is the result. Instead of a professional, motivated experienced army, you get a bunch of no ones who dont know what to do. Because after the first shock, they spent hours and hours until the army showed up. That is unbelievable. Juan this issue of netanyahu preparing for an invasion of gaza. Can you talk about the immense undertaking that this involves, having to go literally house by house or building by building in gaza to find any of the hostages being held . The enormity of this project . To go from building to building is impossible already because there are many buildings still down and im not sure how many buildings were left for example. To find the hostages alive, really, it is nice for hollywood scenes. I dont see it happening. The invasion into gaza has some other goals, namely to put an end to the rule of hamas. This is another Impossible Mission because you can feel the current top people of hamas you cannot kill the ideology of hamas, they will always be replaced. Ground support is supported now by almost all israelis. At the same time, i can tell you we can assure you israel will go for a ground operation. It will take a few weeks or navy a few months. Take so much blood of palestinians and israelis, mainly palestinians come obviously. By the end of the operation come you can invite me again to democracy now and you will see we are standing exactly in the place that we stood one week ago. Because as long as israel continues to believe gaza will be solved by brutal force, emotions of revenge justified emotions, then we will get exactly to the same place. This vicious circle will not be solved by power. Not be solved by tanks. Will not be solved by troops. Only by political agreement. Above all and first of all, lifting the criminal siege for god sake. To guarantee the security of israel. So what happened out of the siege except the suffer of 2 Million People . What did it contribute to the security of israel, the sea . Amy i wanted to ask you the differences, the call of the families of stop the family members one after another talking about being, for example, a peace activist, sank please use restraint and the contrast between that and President Biden as he addressed the nation yesterday, deciding consciously and in the readout of his conversation with netanyahu a few minutes before he spoke, saying they did not call for restraint. Your response . How important is the president of United States position here . We have less than a minute. In less than a minute, i can tailor last night when i was watching President Biden, i really envy you americans that you have such a leader. I never thought so before last night. But last night, biden was a real leader, someone you can trust because he was extremely sincere and someone you can rely on. If netanyahu would have taken the same speech, he would not be netanyahu. Netanyahu is politics and here comes biden and tells israel what israel wanted to hear, i will love him to say more things about the palestinians. He ignored it totally this is very regretful. By the end of the day, israel needs some kind of leadership. Nobody is iran really to understand we have to go for a new way. Nobody is there. Amy gideon levy, thank you for being with us awardwinning , israeli journalist and author. And author. Columnist for the newspaper haaretz and a member of its editorial board. We will link to your most recent piece israel cant imprison two million gazans without paying a cruel price. Coming up, a debate between two leading progressive activist in the u. S. Over funding for ukraine and a discussion about increasing funding, military funding to israel. Back in 20 seconds. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with Juan Gonzalez. President biden said tuesday he will ask congress to approve emergency funding to bolster israels retaliation on palestinians in the gaza strip after the surprise attack by hamas. On monday, Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell said congress could as a single emergency defense spending bill in coming weeks for israel, ukraine, and taiwan. In order to vote, Congress Must move past political chaos after hard right republican lawmakers who oppose aid to ukraine ousted House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy last week and have yet to approve his replacement. For more we host a debate on Ukraine Military spending with two leading progressive activists. Medea benjamin is cofounder of the group code pink, author of war in ukraine making sense of a senseless conflict. Conference diplomat solution to the war in ukraine instead of sending more weapons. Last week, 11 members of code pink were arrested as they occupied the office in d. C. Of vermont independent senator Bernie Sanders to call for peace talks. Also with this, barbara smith, author, activist, and scholar who is part of the ukraine solidarity network. Cofounder of the Combahee River collective and author of many books. We welcome you both to democracy now barbara, lets begin with you. You are a black feminist organizing solidarity with ukraine. Can you talk about why . I know some thank you for having me. Hi, medea, even though i cant see you. I know many people might wonder about that because i am so known for the black feminist politics that we started building in the 1970s, but if people read the statement which was written in 1977 and published about a year later, one of the things in the statement talking about solidarity with other people around the world. We from combahee, my politics have always been turn nationalist. So because of where i live, i live on unseeded land in the Capital Region of new york known as albany, i have friends i have been politically active here for all the decades i have lived here and i have friends who were involved in issues around ukraine. Last year i was mindful of what was going on in ukraine but i was not in any organization. They were telling me about the fight in and among people in our progressive and left communities right here locally and how it was really very painful and upsetting that people who had worked together for years, even decades, were not in disagreement about ukraine. So there were informal meetings here and they told me when they were in these meetings were on zoom so i did not have to leave home. I went to those local meetings. We did not have a name at that time. People from our Capital Region were also participating. Some were participating in the ukraine solidarity network. That is how i got involved. As far as why i got involved is because my politics have always been about fighting oppression wherever it might be an whoever is targeted by oppression. In war this case, this war this war, this invasion by russia. I stand with the people of ukraine. Juan medea benjamin, could you talk about why you have been persistently now calling for peace negotiations in ukraine . Also, why you oppose funding of weapons to ukraine of course, much of that money is being spent to pay for u. S. Weapons, basically, for the defense industry. But there are reports now that President Biden is going to increase his request for ukraine for the initial 24 billion additional was asking to as much as another 100 billion that he is going to request from congress. Especially after your last segment, juan, hearing about the atrocities in palestine andi, i feel such a heavy heart about the military madness. There is no military solution in the case of palestine. There is no military solution in the case of ukraine. I think the sayingst sanest voices are calling for Peaceful Solutions to both of these crises. In fact, the president of Colombia Gustavo Petro at the United Nations before this latest round of violence in palestine came out and said the u. N. Needs two urgent peace conferences. Want to deal with ukraine and want to deal with palestine because the world needs to come together to do with what he calls a mother of all crises, which is climate change. We have to get off this treadmill of military madness that only benefits the Weapons Companies and brings suffering, death, destruction to people who are the victims of militarism. So as progressives, i think we have to come together and say to the democrats like Bernie Sanders, like to the squad, you know in your heart of hearts Bernie Sanders, we read his own words right before the ukraine invasion saying there needs to be negotiations. There are no military solutions to these crises. I think for all progressives, and im happy to be on with you, barbara, but i think you know in your heart of hearts that we have to find Diplomatic Solutions to this crisis. In the case of ukraine, weve seen from pentagon documents, from the latest counteroffensive, ukrainians are not winning the war. They are losing so many other soldiers, there civilians. That is why we formed this coalition, to bring groups together from veterans groups, progressive democrats of america, to build more of a movement in the United States to force the democrats to join with those in the right wing of the Republican Party who are saying enough is enough, stop funding and feeling this war, lets find a solution. Juan medea, we never we almost always refer to the war as an unprovoked invasion. We are hearing the same know about the hamas attack, that it was unprovoked. You have a clear stand on this issue. Absolutely. It is ridiculous to say it is unprovoked. Unprovoked does not mean it is justified. We say this is a provoked invasion that the United States and nato, whether it is from violating their agreement not to expand nato eastward and now surrounding ukraine, whether it is the u. S. Involvement in the internal affairs to be supporting a coup in 2014 that overthrew a democratically elected government that had good relations with russia and put one in that was antirussia, whether it was the funding of groups that Victoria Nuland crowed about you spending 5 billion to create this kind of Civil Society the u. S. Has been heavily involved in trying to shape ukraine to be a prowestern, antirussian government. And of course, the u. S. Would never tolerate having an antiu. S. Military alliance on its borders. We saw what happened in the 1962 Russian Missile crisis. We should learn from the lessons of jfk who negotiated and came up with a compromise with khrushchev and also said when youre in a conflict with a Nuclear Armed country, never leave them with the option of either a humiliating retreat or the use of a nuclear weapon. That is exactly what we are setting up in the case of ukraine. We should be very concerned about more funding of this because it is so dangerous. We have already sent and cluster bombs, depleted uranium, longerrange missiles. It will be inevitable if this keeps going that it will affect directly a nato country, which will invoke article 5 of all of nato countries getting involved, u. S. Troops getting involved, and increase the likelihood of use of nuclear weapons. We must stop the military madness. Amy barbara smith, i want your response. Medea, you are at an antioccupation protest that was antiIsraeli Occupation of palestine. As medea talks about ukraine, your final thoughts . So many things that were just said are about what should happen in an ideal world. Sadly, we do not live in that ideal world. We are dealing with putin. St said, medea, what we should be guarding against is a nuclear confirmation because if we dont go to peace talks why are we afraid of nuclear war . It is because putin is a autocratic imperialist ruler. That is why. One of the things we do is we are in direct contact with people on the ground in ukraine. Also we are in direct contact with dissident russians who dont live in russia because if they did they would either be in prison or dead. These are socialist, people with whom we share politics. Im a socialist. The combahee is a socialist feminist statement. We have listened the people who are on the ground and the stations. Amy barbara smith, we have to leave it there but we will continue our conversation and post it at democracynow. Org. Barbara smith and medea benjamin. [captioning made possi welcome to nhk newsline. Israeli Prime Minister has convinced opposition leaders to form an emergency government and were cabinet. They want to wipe hamas off the face of the earth. At least 2300 people have been killed in the worst