Deal with whats on his desk quickly approaches. But first, a horrific series of attacks prompts a declaration of war. Israel lays siege to gaza in retaliation for a surprise attack by hamas militants. The regions fragile peace now shattered, raising fears of broader violence across the middle east. Thanks for watching. Getting answers. Im kristen sze. Israel is now increasing airstrikes on gaza and sealing it off from food, fuel and other supplies as the wars death toll rises to nearly 1800 on both sides. And hamas is also escalating, vowing to kill captured israelis if Gaza Civilians are targeted without warning as this is developing quickly. So were going to try to break it all down for you. Hamas,hich has ruled the gaza strip since 2007, launched an attack inside israel over the weekend, killing hundre and taking others hostage. So what is hamas what does hamas want and why is this happening now . Joining us live to try to explain all this is benjamin bloom, law professor and associate dean for Global Programs at uc law of San Francisco, formerly known as uc hastings. Professor bloom, thanks for your time. My pleasure. I just want to be totally transparent with our viewers about your background. You were born in israel and are a dual citizen, right . Thats correct, yes. All right. And we are going to approach this conversation, obviously, from an objective and academic angle, really to help people understand the history, because theres so much there. So explain to us who are the main actors in the current conflict. So as you pointed out, the main actors are israel and hamas. Hamas is the governing authority in the gaza strip to be and to be distinguished from them, the governing of the west bank and hamas launched an attack on israel on saturday, and israel now is retaliating and trying to lay siege on gaza and release the hostages that have been taken. There are around 150 hostages that are currently in hamas custody, and that is where those are the two main actors. And thats where things stand at the moment. Right. But you know, palestine is a part of it as well. And i think people need to understand the relationship between palestine and palestinians and hamas. So if you can explain that, okay, so palestine is a collective name for both the west bank and gaza , but those two geographical regions are quite distinct in terms of the bodies governing them. So hamas is currently in control of gaza, but in the west bank, the Palestinian Authority is in charge. And the political orientation of the Palestinian Authority is slightly different. So palestine again, is a collective name for both the west bank and gaza. But there are distinctions between the bodies governing them and the politics of both regions. So im sure different people will answer this differently. But what is it that hamas wants . Why did it launch this attack . What is this ultimately a battle over land . So land and control and sovereignty are mostly whats at stake here. And this is a conflict that stretches back at least a century. It began, some would say, in 1882, but others would maybe pinpoint the aftermath of the First World War or and basically what the Palestine Authority and hamas in gaza would like is a sovereign palestinian state. And one that is recognized by the International Community, one that has its own military and control over its foreign affairs. And israel is reluctant, want to have such a such a neighbor at its borders. And so thats thats really what this war is about. So it is it is about land, but mostly about control and about sovereignty over the Palestinian Authority and over over the gaza strip. So what was the impact of british colonialism in that region on whats happening today . So as i mentioned, in the aftermath of world war one, the british were given a mandate from the league of nations, which meant that they were supposed to prepare the region for selfgovernance and as part of the mandate that they were given, they were supposed to provide for a Jewish National home in what was then the mandate of palestine. Then very quickly it became evident that britain could not abide by its obligations towards the palestinian population. That was in what is now what is now israel and build a Jewish National home. And so in 1947, the un had the partition resolution that would that essentially decided to divide what is now israel into two states. One arab, one israeli, after the british left in 1948, a war erupted in which each of each of the factions, each of the factions managed to take over a certain amount of land. Those borders were not defensible, and that led to the 1967 war. Later, the 1973 war. And so this is a conflict that has been ongoing. But the legacy of british colonialism lives on in the middle east in terms of making commitments for other regions of the world and trying to partition and transfer populations as in artificial ways that only breed conflict. Can i just ask you, watching this, why a Music Festival being worthy attack was centered . We just saw horrible images of young people being kidnaped, kept elderly as well. All this bloodshed. I know you have seen weve all seen too many episodes of bloodshed in this ongoing conflict, which has complicated origins, like you said. But how does this particular one hit you . Well, why a Music Festival . I think we dont know all the details just yet. There was obviously a huge failure on the part of the Israeli Intelligence of not detecting this in advance. My reading of this is that a lot of these attacks and a lot of the hostage taking is purely opportunistic. The Music Festival was was there people were vulnerable and susceptible to being kidnaped. And so thats what thats who they kidnaped. Same with children, elderly or killed or kidnaped simply because because they were there in terms of how this strikes me differently, and as you pointed out, i grew up in israel. I grew up in israel in the 1990s. And there were suicide bombings and urban busses then. I think the difference here is that weve we havent seen quite such a hostage situation in quite a while in situations where hostages have been taken. They have typically been Israeli Soldiers in the course of their duty. And those situations that prompted negotiation where israel had released hundreds, sometimes thousands of terrorists in return for a single or 2 or 3 Israeli Soldiers who had been kidnaped. But to have civilians kidnaped from their homes. And that is something that is unprecedent and is, i shouldnt say perhaps unprecedented. This is something that we saw in the 1960s and 70s in israel, where the plo went into into schools in israel and held hostages, airplanes. But this is something that hasnt happened in quite a while. Look, this is one of those issues that is just so divisive. And youve seen protests even here in the bay area. Right. And on university campuses, some decry cry hamas brutality in attack. But but they some of them do point to israels role in shaping the suffering of palestinians over the last few decades. I dont know if you saw harvard student groups issued a joint statement saying we, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli Regime entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence, end quote. Im not asking you to you support or rebut that, but as an academic, can you explain to those who dont really understand this, why there are those who see it that way . So i think and this is a conflict where there are no heroes and no villains, there is plenty of blame to go around on both sides. Um, those who i think the question here is where do you start this narrative and where do you start the story . Do you start it on saturday or do you start it on the israeli with the israeli retaliation that came immediately afterwards . Do you start this in 1918, 1922 . And there have been many missteps on both sides and both sides. The other quite a bit of suffering. And so i think a lot of this is purely a function of what ones political orientation is and which side they would like to take. I think in this particular conflict, the brutal attack on civilians is something that i definitely dont think that one could paint hamas to be the heroes in this story. Professor bloom, that was really eye opening, i think thought provoking. Its kind of like where does the narrative, when does it begin . Where do you want to start it . Right. But now im going to ask you, where does it end . What are the ways that this could end . Thats a great question. I think a lot of this will boil down to how much pressure and how much influence the International Community can exert, particularly over the release of hostages. I think that one of israels main objectives here is to release the hostages. Um, there is a broader context in israel itself around the netanyahu government and the divisiveness of that government in terms of some constituted amendments in israel. So netanyahu in this position is has quite a strong motivation to come down hard on hamas and weve heard him make statements that hell reduce the gaza strip to rubble and cut it off from from all other supplies. A lot of this will have to do with the diplomacy and i think the United States has a very significant part in this significant role to play, as well as the United Nations in trying to reduce the hostages and bring this to an end as quickly as possible with as little additional bloodshed as possible. Yeah, associate dean of Global Programs at ucla of San Francisco, binyamin blum, thank you so much. Really appreciate your insight. Thank you. Kristin coming up next, the clock is ticking for Governor Newsom to decide the fate of more than 700 bills still sitting on his desk. Over the weekend, he went on a vetoing spree, striking down many to the surprise of many. Well dive into that with welcome to big tobaccos fantasyland. A new, healthier World Without cigarettes. As long as you dont count the 6 trillion sold worldwide every year. And vaping wont lead to smoking, if you ignore the research that says otherwise. In big tobaccos fantasyland, the deadliest industry is your friend. Shh. And he exercised his veto power, striking down a slew of bills, surprising many allies in the process. So what is this about joining us live now to dive into what he signed, what he didnt sign and whether all that is a sign of future ambitions is abc seven news insider phil mateer. Hey, phil, thats right. Its a sign of the times or it is right. But the sign is v for veto. Lets start there. Right. Tons of vetoes. Which one surprised you as well . I cant say that there were many there that really surprised me. Christian, given the tone of the state, given the tone of the budget, and given the fact that there is a National President ial election underway. And as we begin this campaign season, were not only gavin newsom is in the spotlight as governor, but also the entire state. So, for example, his decision to veto the decriminalization portion of psychedelics and allow for their use magic mushrooms in the in the such. Now, sure, its been proven or its been speculated that it could help with post Traumatic Stress disorders and other medical facts. But cases but and its been done in oregon. But newsom felt that this particular version of the law left too many questions unanswered. No real controls, real questions about what kind of studies it would should be done and whether or not this was the right time. And indeed, if you looked at the bill, there were some questions there. Scott wiener, the state senator from San Francisco that was proposing this, you know, they said, well, how about if we, you know, decriminalize it and well kind of put together the structure afterwards . Newsom i dont think, wanted to be the guy that was signing that at this particular time. Kind of related, what about vetoing amsterdam style cannabis cafes . Youre kind of on the same theme right there. Now, this was a thing that would have brought amsterdam, allowed people to sell pot in clubs, have entertainment there. So serve drinks. Im not sure. I dont think it would be alcohol drinks and food. Basically. Like you said, an amsterdam style destination place where you could go get high and have a good time for the night. Now, it was interesting how he his logic in vetoing it was he said that, well, actually, you know, you you smoke the pot and the smoke gets in the air and we have no smoking ordinances in the workplace. And so the people that would work at these clubs would be exposed to pot smoke. And that that goes against the states smoking ban. You want to buy it, you want to buy it. You dont. You dont im not sure how many votes hes going to lose as a result of vetoing it. But having signed it would have opened up the door to a lot of national and International Attention on this issue. When i think hes got some other issues hed like to be talking about. Interesting. It sounds like he was looking for like very narrow reasons, right . Not that i rejected morally or dont think the whole thing is a good idea, but on technical grounds because it doesnt mean that. So it does avoid that opening up that can of worms of being on the National Stage and kind of being criticized by the right. It does. And it also listen, when you when you say no, you got to come up with a quick reason. Its like a cut. You dont want to sit there and be sawing with it a philosophically different. You just say, hey, nice idea. We dont have he did the same thing with condoms, distributing them free in high school said, you know, maybe, but you know, were at a 30 billion deficit. You know, youre not saying that the local schools would have to pick up the tab for this. We would. And he says, so we just dont have the money right now. Now, in all these cases, youre finding a specific nail to hang that picture on the veto on and its a its a comfortable one because you cant argue with these. It takes it out of the realm of philosophy and puts it in the realm of practicality. And if you can score it that way, do it. I do believe ive seen some Supreme Court decisions written in that way. But, phil, let me ask you, when you take this as a whole, what is the i dont know, reading the tea leaves about his political ambitions as well . You know, if i took it as a whole, i would say that hes trying to weave his way down an increasingly crooked road on state and national politics. Lets take a look at some of the things he did sign. For example, he signed a bill that requires Large Businesses to come clean with their climate green gas emission. Thats something that will play on the National Stage. And, you know, people would say thats a good thing to happen here in california. Wed have more accountability. He signed into a law creating a commission to take a look at fast food and oversee fast food workers. Long underpaid, under served. Theyre going to be getting a raise. And thats something that he can tout nationally. And so thats an interesting one that he signed. He signed one on on on actually one that was interesting. Also was on medicine. If we can go to medicine just back for a second. This time im talking about insulin, where the state is going to go in the business of partnering up to produce more drugs like the insulin there. And there was a move to cap the copays for insulin at 30 or 35. And he said, we dont need that now because what wed be doing is just subsidizing an industry. What we need to do is bring our own products on there that are cheaper. So that again is looking at a National Model saying how do we make pharmaceuticals less expensive . We dont necessarily underwrite them and give the big pharma more money. We come up with our own partnerships to build them and create them and manufacture them and sell them to ourselves cheaper. So on some ways, hes hes blazing into new ground, you know, nationally and in other ways hes hes sort of pulling back. So i see. I see him signing more of the practical things and getting away from sort of the things that california, quite honestly, is rather famous for. Yeah, indeed. Okay. Whats left . I mean, hes got very little time left still. I think hundreds of bills. Right. What else do you expect to pass that remains to be seen. I will say, because he has so many right now, im still going through, which ones he signed and which ones hes vetoed because hes been going on for a while. One of the ones im really interested in that has a direct effect on the bay area is whether or not hes going to greenlight light speed cameras for. Oh yeah, thats still waiting tickets. Yeah. Okay because weve have a big problem with that. And theres been a back and forth on that and i havent seen any, any, any nos there. Its interesting to note, however, and i think you appreciate this as well as the timing of all this, he says it friday, saturday, sunday over the weekend. All right, phil, now youre turning into a pumpkin yourself because youre out of time. So thank you very much. Well check in with you next time. Take care. 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