That had done it. In this edition of the spotlight we will look at not only double standards and disinformation on the part of the western media and also their officials, but what has emerged as the us taking a leading role in this war, even though the us president joeden expressed grief for the hundreds of palestinians thought to have died in the explosion of the alahli Arab Hospital in gaza city. First let me introduce our guests for this edition of the spotlight. Sami ramadani is academic and writer who joins us from london. Batul sabeiti is an activist and political analyst, also joining us from london. Welcome to you both . Samy, ill first start with you. I was going to start out with the question that i had uh in front of me, but i couldnt help but uh look at the way that the information and news is pouring in on this war, and uh, you have on the one hand, how uh, the way the war is written through some of these uh, reputable socalled uh News Agencies where they say new uh Armored Vehicles have arrived for the Israeli Forces uh for for the war and and then after that you have 16 people to have been killed uh by the israel slot on khans um this is what the world has come down to and and in the case of israel and palestine in particular obviously its more glaringly clear as to uh where the lines have become blurred but i think the world has realized that how do you think uh this is being played out when it comes to the media side of things . I think the media has become the western media has become echo chamber of the politicians in the United States, britain, france, germany, there is no longer genuine free press that expresses an interest even of sometimes in seeking the truth, it they have become a propaganda arm of a war machine and the war machine is being manufactured and orchestrated in washington really, israel would not dare, this Israeli Regime would not dare commit such genocidal war and commit war crimes without, im sorry, i think that, yeah, let me move on, i think we we lost for second there, and i think thats the case. All right uh batul subaiti, let me let me come out at you with this uh double sidedness that were saying. For example, you had the us President Joe Biden will in israel say based on the information we have seen to date, it appears a result of an errent rocket fire by terrorist group in gaza. This is in reference to the hospital attack that took place. Okay, now uh, what, what is telling about this is the terminology that id like to throw at you prior to that, and thats highly likely. Weve heard highly likely in a number of previous wars that israel executed on the gaza strip, of which it turned out, turns out that that means its not with 100 certainty. There are many examples, maybe you can give us some, where thats the type of narrative thats put out there where it looks like they want to put the blame on the accues here being the islamic jihad, but really they dont have all the information there which uh supports that accusation with 100 certainty. Yeah, you know whats really funny, um, the idf itself joked about the hospital massacre, um, an hour, so so literally after it was committed, stating that, you know, due to the lack of medical equipment and medical staff that was decided to bomb the Baptist Christian hospital in gazza and to give them euthanesia death, um, this was actually in the arabic twitter of the idf, and the reality is they they. Because these children are terrorists in the. Their mothers, for example, you literally have netanyahu, even his social media advisor, naftali who tweeted uh, after the occupation strike from hospital, you know, they struck a terrorist base inside hospital. I mean, whats really interesting is, even the bbc itself, few days prior to that attack on the hospital, um, had claimed that actually, um, the Palestinian Resistance uses schools and uses hospitals as base, why . Because they know that the occupying entity is going to target these very sensitive areas. So they want to provide a cover for it. The reality is the zionist entity is not shy about showing the world the true face of its criminality. Theyve used chemical weapons, white phosphorus, they bombed the rafah crossing in which they ordered palestinians to evacuate through, killing hundreds, you know, preventing a trucks from entering into ghazah. This mass genocide that were seeing in front of us, they they gloat about it. Of course, the reason that theyre denying it and the worlds superpowers and medias are coming in their support and in their defense, is because the people of the world are waking up, it was that straw that cut the camels back, you know, we knew that actually overs were killed that they went out to deny that, but what i want to say about the media, especially in the west is that its either controlled by the government, so if youre talking about the bbc, its literally the government, and all billionaires, right . Um, its so what were seeing is just the continuation of old policies, and the reality is its britain that handed over palestine to the zinanists like it was a piece of bread. It was the un that was institution that was formed post World War Two by the victors of the war, so essentially the us, uh, britain and also the soviet union at the time, so that it can serve as institution through which they can practice hegeemony on the world, or the emerging superpower of the west, because britains uh colonialism fell into demise and america took over the reigns of power essentially, so so of course we shouldnt be surprised when we see that the media claims you know the israelis killed and and ghazans dead, because the media represents the interests of the establishment. Okay, we have Sami Ramadani back, what you continue where you left off, Sami Ramadani . Yes, i was trying to say that the uh, the western media are really. Conveying message which is been pushed out into the Media Channels in washington and they are spreading the message so that they can support as much as they could the israeli agenda and the israeli narrative to the world, so really this is the propaganda arm the Israeli Regime conducting this war against the Palestinian People. And the western media are definitely become the active propaganda arm of this war uh being launched by the Israeli Regime against the Palestinian People, its a genocidal war thats being covered up by the western media, and the western media tries as much as they could to portray the Palestinian People as the aggressors, as those who are committing crimes, as those are initiating eating all manner of criminal activity or really in reality its israel, its occupation policy for the past 75 years, they want us to believe, the media want us to believe that this war that israel is conducting, this genocidal war of the Israeli Regime has just started few days ago, and not some 75 years ago, and its not, they start to convince us that its not 75 years of. Occupation, of oppression, of apartite policies of uprouting the native population of palestine from their homeland, from destroying their farms, their olive trees, their homes, evicting hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, the they dont tell us that most of the population of gaza, this this most densely populated area in the world, most of this. Are actually refugees from the 1948 genocidal war against the Palestinian People, all this is covered up under pack of lies, they they just like they did over iraq, over pack of lies, they killed more than million iraqis and they want to hide the truth, they even target journalists who dare to tell a bit of the truth, just like they did in iraq killing tens of journalists, so really its. Its a package that is made in washington, spread through other western allies and the western media have become the arm of these wars of aggression and genocidal wars, so lets put some statements next each other, but the british Prime Minister wishunak went to israel, he said we would stand by israel, in his darkest hour, he welcomed the decision to allow aid into gaza, and he said israel was doing all that it could to limit civilian deaths, you had the us President Joe Biden said pretty much the same thing in terms of its allout support for israel, except for the fact that it was uh biden was in the war room devising plans to how to execute. And continue the war, and then you have the original minister for military affairs visiting the frontlines where he said, there will be a price for that and we will have to, we will have a price to pay, but we will go on until we complete this operation to the fullest, not once did any of those two leaders say, how about a ceasefire . It seems like they are just encouraging for this offensive to take place and more palestinian lives to be lost. Right, um, i do believe based on analysis, um, that the west was not prepared for this war at all, they dont want, they dont want the Israeli Occupation entity to enter into war, they do not want the expansion of the fronts uh, because the truth is um that if uh the occuping entity do ground invade, the front will expand, and they have no chances against the resistance in lebanon, who depeated them over 16 years ago and is a thousand times stronger now, and america did send warships to the region because the Israeli Occupying entity is is weak and we can see that and all theyve managed to do essentially since the start um of this confrontation is just massacre uh women and children and babies um so the reality is that western leaders sent their leaders to the region um to the occupy entity to calm them down to reassure them the west ultimately wants to manage i believe the defeat of the occuping. Entity um, because the forces sponsoring and supporting the occuping entity, they dont want a confrontation, this was not on their agenda, no one expected october the 7th to happen, and certainly the west right now is in a situation where the zionist entity is not a priority its list, its fighting for its survival as a unipolar power through its proxy war in ukraine to bleed russia, its its. Existentially threatened by chinas Economic Development and technological growth, thats where its priorities are, so i would argue that actually, yes, whilst the zionist entity um is still an important tool for the west um currently in terms of confronting and acting as an intelligence space to to confront russians in some respects and iran, the reality is that um the zionist entity is essentially losing the functional role for which it was created for, and thats to act as that arm and extension of um the superpower of the day, which is america, an area of strategic importance, because the area itself is becoming less strategically important, so the reality is that the American Intervention has everything to do with calming the tensions, ensuring escalation does not occur, thats all that we hear from the zionist, theyre rattled with the idea that the lebanese front may filly open or that other fronts will expand, because if major changes do happen and we do. See that happen then america wishes essentially what america wishes to do is it wishes to manage the affairs, it wishes to oversee it. Even, even if that entails the ending of the zionist regime through liberation of occupied territories, the the importance for america is that its holding to the reigns of this operation, it doesnt want the balance of powers to tilt at the hands of the resistance, it wants to still be that entity that has that control. Uh, i saw you shaking your head there, samtani, go ahead. Um, i, i take a different view, i think the middle east is still one of the most strategic areas for the United States as an imperialist power, and to say that it is no longer important, i think overstates the case, its true, obviously the european arena, ukraine, the challenge of china and russia, are are important issues, strategic. Issues for the for the us empire, but the middle east remains an anchor, whether its to do with oil, whether its to do as as a bridge to europe, its location in the entire, if you just look at the world map, youre talking about the arab and islamic countries stretching from algeria to to iran and turkey and afghanistan, pakistan, i think this is an area of absolutely strategic importance, and the United States, its true, are frightened of leban of the labanese resistance, are frightened of the power of. Iran are frightened of the general Resistance Forces stretching from yemen to syria through iraq and so on and obviously the palestinian Palestinian Resistance, this is a formidable power, but the United States is is worried, is frightened, but they are arming israel to the teeth, they are trying to bulster this, this monstrous power in the middle of the middle east, led by the israeli Israeli Regime, the Israeli Regime is a cornerstone of us policy in the middle east, and they would defend it as much as they could, its true, they will fail in my opinion, i think the resistance is much too strong, but the United States will still try to preserve this power base they established in the heart of the middle east, this zionist, city is powerful arm of the United States and they dont want to lose it. Irans leader has said something that was echoed by the iranian president s and id like to get your idea about that batul sabeiti and that is the fact that they have both pretty much said the same thing when it comes to muslim nations and also the resistance factions and they said theyre not going to sit idly by um and he said that uh youre going to face the rage of muslim nations um are we are we looking at that rage to translate. This time around because we have seen the rages before, um, but will it uh be uh a different scenario this time in terms of their rage given the type of massacres that weve seen take place, and unfortunately ones that may be coming up . Right, um, im going to answer that question, but just before that, i just quickly want to make point, and thats to uh respond, so the idea that politics and policies are are not based on good or bad intentions, the world runs on power and ability, there is reality is that the west knows it cannot rely a fragile entity to achieve its interests and the occupying entity was created in order to protect western interests, but now the occupying entity is in need of protection, so its ultimately losing the functional role for which it was created for, and if you also consider the fact that the us is now going in a direction more so of compromise eventually with the Islamic Republic of iran, because theres nothing that it can do to stop irans development. You know over those 40 years of brutal sanctions that its turned from a problem to an opportunity, and especially in this regards the israeli occupy entity becomes a liability, so with the evolution of developments and interests, the west recognizes also that policies must change, im not claiming that this will change in a month, it it will take several years, but the west has been dealing based a continuation of old policies, when we talk about the zinst entity, its its its seven decades, its a seven old colonial outpost, denial of the power balance on the ground and turning a blind eye to the facts leads to dealing with the wrong situation. The west knows that if it wants to achieve better results in the region, it must notice those ongoing changes, it must deal with the forces of real action that represent the people of the region. Thats where the actual interests of the west light. Now now to come back to your question, um, expansion. The front is not necessarily in terms of geographical areas, interventions and scenarios in war um are not made on the basis of an emotional decision, but its made on strategic and tactical grounds, and thats even if the publics patience runs out in terms of the massacres that were seeing, until the limits of the deterrance and this new equation thats been a established since october the 7 gets consolidated, and that is one of a. Offensiveness rather than defensiveness, it is one of entering into the 48 borders, its one of striking the heart of the ocupying entity, until that deterrance and this new equation is recognized, the atmosphere will remain hot and the arena um will remain entire world in more than one front. Let me see, how far do you think uh samdani, will the us, if israel goes uh and conducts this ground operation will come to the defense of israel, um if israel was seeing itself lose in that ground operation because uh almost um unanimously practically all fingers are pointed to the fact that israel is not going to be able to um strategically win and take over the uh resistance fighters in the ghaza strip especially if theyre going to go block by block uh of course we never know in a theater of war whats going to happen but uh if if it turns out that israels not able to win that uh, what, what, whats going to happen there, because if they backtrack, then uh, the whole notion, aside from the invisibility being shattered, which it has already, uh, they cant then over uh power palestinians any longer and stand tall against them. Palestinians will see that you know this is our opportunity right . Yes, i think, i think youve posed an important question here, and what i would like to remind the viewers of is the 2006 invasion of lebanon by the Israeli Regimes forces. That mission was to destroy the resistance in lebanon. Particularly led by hizbullah and in that war the United States actually pushed israel into that war, and at the time the saudi regime and some other arab regimes were also complicit in that war to invade lebanon and try to destroy the lebanese resistance. That failed. Israel in fact was pleadin