A similar way that you see in the us, where you have this hard right that is intransigent, netanyahu, Prime Minister netanyahu, playing to that franchise, and so it really builds on this. I dont know if i agree Withjonathans Perspective on this potential Civil War lets not call it that, lets be careful not to overstate it but this internal clash is in many ways the crisis. The israeli. Fight with hamas is something weve seen before, in 2014. This new dimension of internal strife, while it may not reflect, asjonathan notes, the broader Feelings Ofjewish Israelis and Arab Israelis, the kind of horrific violence we are seeing, person against person, within israel, has the ability to undo a lot that has been built over the last decades, in trying to make israel a multicultural state and to include Arab Israelis in part of the democracy. Clearly not a complete project by any means, but this is a huge setback. And even netanyahu, who likes to pit one side against the other, has recognised this, calling these outbursts, this violence against jews and arabs by the other side pogroms, which is a very laden word by netanyahu. Lets pick up on that, because we can talk in a minute about the palestinian political leadership, and there are all sorts of criticisms, whether about president abbas cancelling the elections yet again, hamas not obviously being a democratic organisation, butjust in terms of israeli politics, quite interesting that the leader of the united arab list, mansour abbas, who has been talked of as a possible Coalition Partner in a new government that does not include Benjamin Netanyahu, that he is one of those calling for the protests by arabs over the al aqsa mosque, for those protests to be halted, because he says hes worried they will lead to something far more dangerous. In a sense, could this be a potentially positive moment for political leaders within israel, to recognise the risk and do something more creative to avert that danger . I think there was that opportunity, perhaps, to come up with a creative solution with the fourth election results israeljust saw in quick succession, thats because of their slightly strange political system where you have to form a Coalition Government from, really, blocks of votes either on the right or left. For the first time, there was this arab party which could have been the kingmaker, could have been the Deal Maker in holding together a coalition, and so that was quite uncomfortable for some, especially on the right, especially more zionist minded parties. Especially as that particular party has islamist tendencies as well. So i think it might be that the time for forming creative solutions in forming a government have now passed. And i think it might be a bit late to say that there could be dangerous results from those protests that have been encouraged by hamas injerusalem, for example on the Temple Mount and around Sheikh Jarrah because that has already happened. What has happened as a result of that is a spiral of events which Saw Hamas launch six rockets onjerusalem, which is the holy city for israel, as well as it is forjews and christians, and then israel had to respond to that, they said, and so there is All Out War going on in the south, and people in israel are undergoing a barrage of rockets and people in gaza are undergoing Air Strikes from the israeli military with quite some force. So i think perhaps the time for those creative solutions has passed and perhaps the window of opportunity to include an arab, slightly islamist party in a coalition has also passed, because now i think what we have seen is the highlighting of divisions and also the idea that perhaps some in israel society, who started those protests and riots, Saw Weakness in the debate and negotiations going on to make a government, and perhaps capitalised on that with this violence. Perhaps they saw that this strong zionist government that Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to form with his share of the votes maybe suggested israel was weakening or cracking. I dont think it is going to be easy for that to be part of the government now. Jeffrey, before i bring celia in and we broaden out and go into the global segment, just a thought on what is happening in the south. There is lots of talk from lots of players within israel, beyond israel beyond The Middle East, indeed calls from the white house, from Joe Biden for de escalation. Is that realistic to use that language, given this is a fundamental, deep seated problem that just keeps erupting . So, this is an interesting question, the role ofJoe Biden in this. Really, since he was Vice President under obama, he has for years tried to pivot away from The Middle East, and really, as president , his focus, he wanted to focus and he has tried to focus on china, russia, climate change, on toning the tension down with iran, and he was really keen not to engage in middle eastern politics and israeli arab politics in the way that the us has in the past. You dont always control events, even if youre president of the united states, and in this Case Biden Now is playing catch up. He is trying not to be the lead on this, trying to enable local actors, qatar, the united arab emirates, especially egypt, to mediate this, as egypt did in 2014. And he really doesnt want the us to play the lead. But, you know, this is becoming much bigger than any individual. Whether netanyahu had a personal agenda for trying to hold onto hisjob and avoid being thrown out, whether biden wanted to stay on the sidelines, this is now something very Big And very worrisome. Can it go on . Ultimately, israel is much stronger than hamas. If this escalates, israel has the firepower, but i think both sides recognise that. I think it isjust hard to see how theyre going to step back, now that so many rockets have been exchanged, so many deaths have already occurred. Celia, it is interesting this is a long way away from the asia pacific region, but it is one of those international issues that people, for example, governments like japan, which has always sought to play a role of Mediator Role in international politics, they often find themselves involved in this. Is there much interest in what happens in The Middle East in your region . There is a rising amount of interest. Lets look at the role of china. Chinas Foreign Minister played a visit to The Middle East earlier this year, and, crucially, really tried i to take the middle ground visited saudi arabia, then went to iran and signed a 25 Year Investment Deal with iran i so chinas trying to start playing i more of a role in The Middle East. They even offered to broker talks between the israelis and palestinians later this year. However, as soon as the violence broke out in the past week, beijing really called on the united states and said, Joe Biden is not doing enough, | they are ignoring the suffering | of muslims, particularly with the palestinians, i which is interesting. Because of the treatment of the uighurs in china. Exactly, so when it comes down to it, i think the impulse in beijing, and frankly among a lot of countries in the region, is to instantly look to washington and wonder what is going on. I and unfortunately, i think manyl people have been disappointed by the biden administrations reaction. Theyre really falling into linel with the idea that they simply have not done enough, they have not come out strongly enough to denounce the violence. And jonathan, is that part the problem with what celia alluded to with china, that its finding honest brokers, people regarded within the region, on all sides, as not having a dog in this fight, in the way that washington Cannot Be regarded because of its long history of involvement in The Middle East . Im going to say something a bit controversial. This is the right place for it i assume that is why you invite me on the programme this would not have happened if Donald Trump was still president. And so, i do think that hamas are making the calculation to launch those rockets and to really escalate the violence even before the launch of the rockets, they are responsible for trying to capitalise on the crumbling of the palestinian elections before they even happened, when they were cancelled, they have been whipping up anger among palestinians in the West Bank to try and show themselves as the true protectors of Islam And Jerusalem there in the holy sites. I think all of this is partly because they saw an opportunity there, notjust, of course, from the us side. But also they saw an opportunity with a weak fatah, so weak that it cancelled those elections, having thought Mahmoud Abbas might be able to renew his term into a four Year Term as president. He is about 15 years into his four Year Term. Its actually 17 years, but its almost immaterial, isnt it . The fact is he was supposed to have one four Year Term and stand for elections. That election never happened. Thats right, and this gave hamas the time to act. They have been stockpiling weapons. They have weapons, better weapons, now, longer range weapons that came from iran. They have been stockpiling these weapons. Iran will have a hand in this as well, they will have had something to do with this, if not only the supply of those weapons and financing. All this is the perfect storm, and, as you say, some of that is from the international scene, really, that america is perhaps not seen as being terribly interested at this stage underJoe Biden, and that is really one part of the jigsaw. The others are that hamas wanted to try and prove itself to the palestinian people and take part in this internal Debate And Struggle for representation of palestinians. And i think that israel is acting so firmly now in its reaction because it feels it has to show that that Cannot Be allowed to happen. They keep saying they cannot accept a Cease Fire at this stage because they have not achieved their aims. What are those aims, you might ask yourself . Those aims are to absolutely crush Hamas Capability because this last happened in 2014. It has been relatively quiet since then. Of course, there have been rockets here and there, but its been sporadic. To have had 2,000 rockets, some of them not being caught by the Iron Dome Defence system, and only about 90 of them can be caught by it. So there have been deaths, there has been a lot of disruption, destruction in israel as well. That is Something Israel does not want to see happening. So it wants to send a very clear message to hamas. Jeffrey . I think on the biden question, while some are saying biden has been asleep at the switch, this is a conscious, lets be clear, this is conscious policy by biden, and biden does not want the us to have to go in and referee this perpetually. And his view is, lets pull back, let others come in and resolve this. The only way to stop this kind of behaviour is if we do not come in and use our muscle to make everyone behave, and then they go into their corner and they come back and fight again. This is a calculation that may not work, and as it builds it threatens not to work, but this is not, to be clear, Biden Being asleep. He was probably a bit slow to react earlier this week, given how quickly things escalated. He is also under huge pressure within his own party, the left wing of his party, alexandria 0casio cortez, Bernie Sanders Standing Up for the palestinians and saying, this is not about two equal parties throwing bombs at each other, Firing Rockets at each other, this is about an imbalance of power and israeli muscle. And yet of course he has got a very strong pro israel constituency, and he himself has declared himself a pro Israel Guy in the past, so he is trying to balance a lot of, as always, competing interests here. I think we have now reached the point here for all of these people where this is coming something very, very Big And very scary. Jeffrey, jonathan, thank you very much on that. I am going to come to celia now for something happening in your region, celia. Hosting the Olympic Games can transform a citys global reputation. Think 12'>London 2012 or indeed tokyo 1964. Japan was hoping the return of the worlds athletes in 2020 would have a similarly positive effect. Covid forced the International Olympic Committee to delay the games by one year. Just eight weeks before the olympics are scheduled to begin, the head of the Ioc Cant even visit japan because of the scale of coronavirus infection. Celia, we kind of have talked about this at different points on different programmes over the last few months will they, wont they, will they, wont they . Weve heard again today from sebastian coe, from world athletics. He is confident it is going to go ahead. He is one of those who has been the most positive in the messages coming out. But the other noises are very far from being that sure. Absolutely, i mean, it is almost like two worlds are in play at the moment. It is fascinating, really. Tokyo won the olympics back in 2013 with the slogan the olympics will be safe in our hands. But frankly, the number. Of voices inside japan that are mounting to say, actually, we do not| think that is true, we do not think that this is a safe thing to have. We are seeing now the Junior Doctors union, other medical unions, really voicing their disapproval, we are seeing Top Ceos i one this week called it a Suicide I Mission to carry out the olympics. And frankly, when you look at how tokyo, the government, has been handling the covid crisis, you can understand why people are so angry. For example, theyve come out. To admit that they are not using. They have not sped up their Approval Process for vaccinations, and so it is very, very difficult, really. Theyve only approved one vaccine so far. Only 1 of the population is fully vaccinated. Theyve also said, actually,. We do not have enough people to staff vaccination centres. But at the same time, they are calling on nurses to go and work at olympic venues, and so, public anger is mounting, and really the government is not doing a good job in convincing its own people that they really do care i about dealing with the covid crisis. While mounting a fantastic olympics. The olympics is turning into a bit of a cross for the Prime Minister to bear, isnt it . And it seems to be dragging down his not very high popularity ratings, even when he started in the job. It seems to be pushing him down and down and down, almost every time he speaks on it. Iyeah, whats really sad is the aiml was to host the olympics and really project this image ofjapan as this i nation full of vitality, energy,. This really exciting country, and to really recast it, in a way, and instead it is. The Prime Minister is struggling. His Approval Rating is at 35 i at the moment and the country is really struggling to recast i itself as anything but a country really fumbling to deal with really intrinsic things like Covid Measures and restrictions. How Big A deal would it be forjapan if the olympics were cancelled altogether . It would be a massive problem. This is the most expensive olympics in history. They have not kicked off yet and theyve already spent. 15 billion, and so i think the political Calculation L is that they might as well go ahead | and have the event and at least be j able to recoup some of the Goodj Feeling that might come out of it once the flame is lit, because if it does not go ahead, youre going to be faced with a situation where japanese taxpayers are paying for an event that never took place. That would be catastrophic for the ruling party, and i do not know if they will ever really recover from it. Jonathan, do you think it would be much of a games, even if it does go ahead given that in many parts of the world because of the effects of covid, a lot of the qualifying events have not happened, a lot of the athletes who would normally have taken place have not been able to take part in those because either they have had covid or they have been isolated, some have not wanted to be involved, because theyve been nervous to be involved in competitive events whether the whole Covid Effectjust colours the whole event in a way that means it will never be seen as a conventional traditional and therefore successful olympics . I do not think it can be. In 1894, the olympic motto was proposed to be faster, higher, stronger, but i do not think he was talking about Disease Infection rates, so i am afraid that however important the games are, the wider health of mankind has to come first. The Olympic Games are supposed to spread brotherhood between nations, using sport is a common language to express that Human Drive to excellence, but i do not think anything could be less in keeping with that olympic spirit than spreading a potentially deadly virus, allowing new variants to spread Around The World freely, not least when osaka has people who have died because theyve run out of hospital beds, less than 3 of the japanese population has been inoculated, nearly 60 of people injapan do not even want the games there any more at all. One of the great legacies of the olympics in every city it goes to is the promotion of sport and therefore improvement in health, but that will not be the case for this olympics. It Cannot Be seen as the olympics of good health, Cannot Be seen as the olympics for fair play. Itjust needs to be cancelled, i think. Jeffrey, cancelling it would be a big deal, not just forjapan, not just for the International Olympic Committee but actually for all those very big sponsors, the people involved in the broadcasting rights, all the rest of it theres a lot of money that hangs on an olympics now. These are not insignificant business opportunities, olympics games, and more thanjust, however important the sporting is, but we cannot ignore that. We cannot. We should, at this point, recognise that the ioc is driving this as much, or more, than the Government Ofjapan, and the threats against the Government Ofjapan if they cancel this are huge in monetary terms. As weve already noted, theyve already spent billions and billions on these games. The olympics were in trouble before all of this. Yeah. We have seen in the last ten to 15 years fewer and fewer cities offering to host the games because, far from being an opportunity to rebrand and project an image to the world, they come at huge costs. I covered the 2012 olympics from beginning to end for Abc News here in london, and it was a thrill, it was a success, it was. London pulled it off. It was about collegiality, community, the athletes got to meet each other, people came, they felt good, london really managed to do this in a way that was extraordinary, but i think we will look back and say. Rio struggled after that. They pulled it off, but with great political cost domestically. I think this is a real turning point. There is a day of reckoning. It was going to come. It is too expensive to float around from City To city every four years. It is too Big An ask. Something is going to have to give, whether it is a permanent or a rota of a few cities. Otherwise were not going to see democratic countries take this. It is going to be autocratic countries that do this and declare and use Dirty Money to build sport facilities. It is just not viable to see this Model Go ahead. And it is sad. These athletes have trained, there is. Those who cannot go, theyre not going to get another chance, many of them, as they grow older and life passes them by. And it comes at huge cost, but i have to agree with jonathan. This just completely undermines and discredits the notion of the olympic ideals, and as much as id like some degree of normalcy during this incredibly difficult period, the cost of it is so enormous that it really becomes impossible tojustify it on human terms, putting aside the monetary cost, which has to take a back seat. Interesting, celia, jeffrey there talking about the 2012 olympics. I was in singapore, which was the meeting where the bid cities came together and had to lobby the ioc. A phenomenal event. We had the president arriving from paris, tony blair, people queuing down the stairs wanting to meet him, because he was the big Rock Star of international politics at the time, and arguably his lobbying helped tip the balance in londons favour. That is what people who were there of all political persuasions and none subsequently told me, but even for london in 2012, it was a big price, there were lots of fears about security, the cost going out of control, about whether things would work and happen on time. In The End, they did. There is big risk, even if it goes ahead forjapan, because now, on top of it, doing it with empty stadia, with all this restrictions on people, it is not going to be the Fun Event that perhaps many would have hoped it could be. Listen, shaun, ive been talking to olympic organisers. I know were being very down,. But i will tell you what they have told me, and i think there is an elementj of truth to this. For the global spectators watching at home, it might not look that i different, actually. You will be able to see the athletes compete. | theyre quite. Ioc organisers are very committed to that. For the athletes themselves, i asjeffrey said, who have been working for not just years, but for decades in some instances, up to this moment, they will be able to have that moment that theyve i been looking forward to. The japanese organisers are emphatic i that they will maintain this bubble, i and we have seen in other Countries J that they have been able to pull off| Mass Sporting events and be able to maintain these bubbles, so i know that japan wants to go for this moment where we can. All feel as one and feel that kind of light at The End of the tunnel feeling. And maybe they will do it, maybe. We are ten weeks out. Maybe in 12 weeks time, we will be all thinking something quite different. If we are, we will do it again on this programme, and we can all of us eat humble pie, but im just going to ask you one quick question before we go. In your fantasy, in your dreams, if you could be an olympian in any sport, what would you be, jonathan . Oh, gosh put me on the spot i think watching the news . Does not count that is a cop out. Jeffrey, i have seen you on a cycle, so it would have to be cycling. You are right, i love cycling. I would be a marathon cyclist. But i have to say, the beauty of Olympic Rowing has always captivated me. Thats something that really thrills. Celia . I am canadian i have to say Figure Skating i of course you do thats it for dateline london for this week my thanks to celia hatton, Jonathan Sacerdoti and jeffrey kofman. The programmes back next weekend. Goodbye. There will be a few pleasant sunny spells at times today, reasonably warm in the sunshine, but we are dodging the downpours yet again across many areas, even where you started with some tragedy clad will build, you may find a heavy and thundery shower heading your way. Some quite gusty winds around, possibility of seeing hail. All this low pressure tracks across wales and england as we go through the day and this is where we will find not a huge amount of sunshine, even around the showers into this afternoon, and the showers into this afternoon, and the bright colours on the forecast indicate where some of them could be heavy, slow moving as well, for the most Part Light winds so they hang around for a period of time. Northern ireland and the Central Belt and northern scotland, some sunshine, the chance of catching a heavy shower, not everybody will. These are the winds, fairly light although gusty around some of the showers, but the strongest winds from the English Channel and channel islands. And temperatures 12 15 for the most part, just along the North Sea coast. The showers will be around still this evening and well into the night across the eastern side of england before eventually fading in the area of low pressure moves away. It is becoming mainly dry after midnight, but a cloud out towards the east, low cloud, hill fog, clearer skies in the west. Some rural spots down into low single figures. Low pressure is on the way out, close enough though along with this Weather Front to give us showers during monday so is that front drifts eastwards we will start with dry weather, a mixture of cloud and sunny spells, showers, heavy and thundery will migrate eastwards leaving western areas dry and sunny by The End of the afternoon and temperatures are no higher as we go through the week ahead. On tuesday, patchy rain, cloud into northern scotland, drifting further south, showers developing elsewhere, some of the heaviest ones across the southern half of england and wales on tuesday. Then, as the week goes on, wednesday looks to be quieter, more places staying dry, but the potential for some notjust more places staying dry, but the potential for some not just wet more places staying dry, but the potential for some notjust wet but very windy weather coming our way on thursday and friday. This is Bbc News with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and Around The World. The un Security Council prepares for an Emergency Meeting later, as the conflict between israel and palestinians in gaza enters a seventh day. Israel will continually hit the Hamas Terror Group until we feel we have reached our objectives. Hamas decided when to start this round but we will efforts to combat the indian variant of Covid Ramp Up in england, ahead of Lockdown Restrictions being relaxed tomorrow. I am confident that we can take this step tomorrow, but we should all be careful about how we take that step. So you ask me about eating indoors with people. Its still safer to eat outdoors rather than in when the weather allows