Patrick hennikson, geopolitical analyst joins us from los angeles. Also joining us charlotte kates, International Coordinator at the sami doon Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network from vancouver. Welcome to you both uh patrick hanning, let me first start with you in this incident with the usbased a truck uh where seven gaza aid workers, it included uk, us and australian citizens. Uh, we saw lot of uh reaction. From this overwhelmingly uh around the world, but in in particular one that stood out was the way that the us President Donald Trump came out and uh compassionately said that uh, this was just such an unfortunate mistake uh, which it was uh, but when you put that into context of over 32,00 palestinians that have been murdered all this time, he did not show that kind of compassion for the genocide thats taking place. First give us your reaction on the incident itself and the way that the us president reacted to it. Yes, yes, well, the incident itself, its debatable whether uh, it was accident or not, i think its very, its too early to make that determination, uh, is very specific uh targeting uh, and very specific operation that wasnt just striking one vehicle, but three in total, uh, as the occupants of the vehicle fled to uh escape in another vehicle that was hit when they fled to second time that was hit, so um, to say this was accident is still up for debate, i think. Thats very important uh second of all um what what does this mean look at the overall ramifications of it what whats the end result the end result is lessaid uh getting into gaza um so we still have to sort of siff through uh the incident and the after effects of this uh to find out what it really means uh Going Forward i i really have a hard time believing the israelis did this by accident i think this more likely was intentional but intentional with a certain set of objectives um to come out the other side, um, also it could have been a case where there could have been somebody on board uh that became suddenly became a target uh for the idf, these are all things open for discussion at the present time, as far as Donald Trumps reaction to it uh, and just general western selective outrage, its selective outrage, they cant find it within their uh within their hearts, within their moral or Ethical Center uh to condemn whats clearly a brutal genocide which has been carried out for the last six months. Against the native palestinian population in gaza, but yet its time for you, moment of silence because of west western aid workers uh were killed, theres been a number of un employees that dozens in fact killed since the beginning of uh this phase of the conflict, not a tear was shed, not a word was raised in concern from any uh us officials or european officials that i could see uh after all these un workers were were killed in the opening weeks. Of israels repacious Bombing Campaign on gaza. Yes, the fact the data that we have is 196, including more than 175 un staff. So short case, what do you think . Is this a considered effort by israel . Given the fact that uh, even the coordinates were given out on this, and yet despite the coordinating movements uh relate to the israel um, i guess army, the convoy was sit anyways, um, is there a considered effort by israel to stop aid from getting to palestinians . It doesnt even matter if this was usbased or any. Type of assistance, is that what their goal is . Yes, of course, i mean, the designist regime is carrying out a genocide in palestine, particularly in gaza right now, and part and parcel of that is denying basic services and needs to the Palestinian People in gaza, this includes the brutal attacks on Health Facilities such as the massacre that we just witnessed at alshifa just days ago, this includes the. Going targeting of bakeries that we have seen throughout the past six months, this includes, i mean, historically, in gaza, we have consistently seen the zionist forces targeting farming. Areas along the socalled borders of gaza, the colonially imposed borders and fishers out at sea in order to prevent gaza from developing Food Security and food sovereignty, so this is just a continuation and exacerbation of the existing policy of the zionist regime in targeting the food needs and food resources of the Palestinian People in gaza. This is part of the same policy that weve seen time and time again, what we initially saw from the zianist regime, was this demand um to dissolve unra and instead replace it with private institutions with relationships with western intelligence agencies, but fundamentally the purpose of that demand is to deny palestinians access to basic fundamental needs in attempt to drive palestinians from the land and complete a genocide. Um, the zionist regime is using starvation as a weapon of war. Theres no question about that. They want to carry out a genocide, they want to impose conditions of surrender on the Palestinian People, and the people in their resistance are refusing this completely, and so theyre determined, um, this is very much like when we think about the siege of leningrad or the battle of stalingrad, when people were fighting back against the nazi forces, thats what the Palestinian People and their resistance are doing right now, and theyre facing the same kind of siege thats determined to attack human life and all of its capacity, so thats the reality of what the situation is, and thats why, yeah, of course theyre going to attack aid workers, and when aid agencies responded to those attacks by saying, oh, well, were going to stop providing aid in gaza, thats doing nothing but aiding the zionists and carrying out their genocide and war crimes. Try to understand here, what the us has gone himself into patrick henningson, on the one, on the one hand, unless the us is aware of whats happening, because when you take a look at what is happening, its nothing short of a genocide. Along with all the other uh gruesome facets of this uh uh war thats happening in and and all the different for example our guest there talked about uh this massacer that uh was it pretty much unfolded we werent even aware uh up to 400 dead bodies some were tied behind their backs some were executed many of them women and children and the bodies of decapitated that had happened from a short while ago and there many instances of that were coming up on the six months of this genocidal war does the us realize whats happening when it comes to the israeli regie . And does it approve it and give it give it a green light, the green light we see given is through the arms sales. Yeah, i i think being being in the United States, i can tell you that the basic level of Political Awareness of the average Media Consumer member of the american electorate, its extremely low, because the the Media Coverage is completely onesided, censorship by omission is the basic order of the day when it comes to any coverage. Late into uh israel or gaza, theres been a few breaches in this information firewall, but on the whole how the political establishment operates in america is they will not ver from any policy if theres not any significant public pushback, so how do you control public pushback . You control the images that are shown in the media, any emotive images that might elicit a public reaction, those are those are uh basically muted and rarely shown, so the average american doesnt. The true scale of the of the horror of the situation there, so thats the main problem, and the the United States government is completely on board with, i would say everything that israel has done from the beginning and continues to do, to think that the United States and military would be constructing a jetty or appear in the almost along the sort of the green line of of north and south gaza uh and that somehow this doesnt have any military or strategic uh aspects. It is totally naive. Okay, what theyre trying to do is effectively cut off the north and the south of gaza in order to finish emptying out the north and make it a military security zone, and so this is a this is peer to bring in us ships and transport ships to evacuate the poor gazans and and this is how the United States plans to turn the Public Relations war back in its favor to use its military, to use its ngos uscid etc. to rescue and bring. Aid to the poor people of gaza when all along the United States has been the main enabler of the Bombing Campaign of this uh absolutely unprecedented violent and destructive and you can only call it a mass a mass killing on industrial scale by the israelis and the United States military the israeli couldnt couldnt carry this out for another minute uh if not for the bombs uh the amunition the targeting assistance the satellite reconnaissance the Drone Technology the us person the Patriot Missile batteries that that form the iron dome etc. Wouldnt happen without the United States, so and thats what this whole sharad that youre seeing with the World Kitchen uh ngo and. This this facade of air dropping aid uh into gaza by the United States, this is just Public Relations to turn the tide on whats been a to an unminigated disaster for the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party an election year. I know that sounds crass and craven, but thats exactly i believe what were looking at. All right, uh, about 700 thousand uh, more or less uh, is what were looking at charl case when it comes to northern gaza, in terms of the uh palestinians who are grappling with starvation, some are fighting for their lives. Uh, looking at increased number who have uh died as a result uh this is really a horror thats unfolding and soon its going to spike because theres no aid theres no food what do you make of the fact that if you do a simple Google Search it was just three weeks ago that theres any news on this uh socalled us gaza port thats supposed to bring in food except for the two guess runs that maybe the you made and some of these airdrops that are killing palestinians also uh it just puts into question and the sincerity of the us when it comes to the food aspect and aid for palestinians . Well, i dont think the sincerity of the us is in question. The fact is that the the us is is very clearly entirely insincere when it comes to the needs of the Palestinian People and is very sincere when it comes to sending billions of dollars more weapons to the zionist regime to carry out the genocide of the Palestinian People. Um, there theres no question about what the us takes seriously and what it and what its lying about kind of a very bold faced lie um and attempting to kind of uh sanction and target anyone who does otherwise, i mean just yesterday at the United Nations um at the emergency hearing of the Security Council convened against the zionist regimes uh horrific illegal attack on the Iranian Embassy in damascus, the us representative uh spent his time talking quote warning iran and talking about the socalled Syrian Regime um when it was iran and syria that were the victims of a bladent aggression and violation of all forms of International Norms and principles so its very clear what the us is serious about and what its and what its bladently lying about and one of the things its bladently lying about is any interest in providing aid and support to the Palestinian People, the socalled port off of gas. Is nothing more than excuse to introduce even greater and more overt military us presence directly in the region. Um, and further more, the us um is the entity that is making sure that the rafa crossing remains closed. If the United States wanted to ask egypt to open the rafa crossing, it is capable of doing so any minute. It is just as much as it is capable of putting pressure on the zionist regime. Cutting off the flow of weapons, its also equally capable of putting pressure on the egyptian regime to open the rafa crossing and allow the thousands and thousands and thousands of trucks that are stacked up there uh passage through the what what are the um, mean this is its very obvious what the us would do if it were interested in the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian People, the us is interested in maintaining imperialist domination and hegemony in the region and its going along and arming and aiding israels genocide in order to do so. Some countries are shying away now, not shying away, theyre putting a ban on their export of arms there. Uh, patrick, in terms of that, we can look look at canada, halting arms sales to israel, denmark and italy have already suspended their arms exports and according netherlands has ruled the government to do the same, although some of these licenses uh uh are from before where the uh theyre still getting exported to israel, but uh from january on um do you think that uh looking at countries realizing and the uk is ming this over realizing that we need to we need to stop uh associating with israel in a military aspect because clearly the number of deaths are pointing to the fact that genocide indeed is taking place. Yeah i have a hard time uh accepting that any of these countries are seriously considering some kind of an arms embargo or sanctions against israel. Look at how quickly the world jumped top of the. Federation uh in the opening weeks, the opening days and weeks of their special military operation uh in the dumbas in the ukraine, it was global full sanctions package, the likes of which the world had never seen before, and if you look at the civilian casualties in that conflict over two years, this is even backed up by un data, its its the lowest in terms of conflict of that scale, conventional conflict, the lowest amount of civilian casualties, more more casualties in fact on the uh russian east eastern ukrainian russian side what what the point im making is israel has shattered all records in terms of the speed and the repaciousness of the killing uh since october 7th. And theres not been one call for sanctions against uh israel, the most obvious sanctions would be in arms embargo, um, so the United States is really the main country, i think that matters uh in that equation, but there are other uh nato Member States like france, germany is also a big uh supplier of equipment and support for the Israeli Government for the idf, and so is britain, and so that would be the most obvious place, the only reason youre hearing noises about it now is because theres starting to get some serious pushback from important sections of the electorate and governments are losing confidence uh from the people and also credibility, because they are backing what is ostensibly now, and i think everyone can agree, it is a genocide thats taking place in real time, so if these governments want to maintain any credibility at the g20, any of these global confabs uh at the United Nations, un Security Council, theyre going to have to start making some serious moves, but i honestly dont think theyre serious. About it, because then the talking point comes from the israeli lobby, which is that you cant leave us in the lurch, you, you cant leave us exposed here, weve got to hamas and the iranians and hezballah, they want to push israel into the ocean, so thats the talking point, you must arm us because otherwise well be overrun by the arabs, i know this sounds like ridiculous, but this is the general narrative, and this is what flies in washington, that is the acceptable storyline in washington, and that justifies. The fullthroated support for israel on every single conceivable level militarily. Yeah, but the buyers uh have to be also in tune with the facts. Uh, charlotte cates, youre looking at uh the fact that uh, well, lets put aside the one that stands out, over 32,00 palestinians killed, looking at uh, for example, the gaza strip, 70 to 80 of that strip is uh, basically destroyed, turned into rubble, youre looking at uh, the. Medical uh facilities that have been destroyed, youre looking at the massackers in different instances and youre also looking at the press uh where you have uh, i think close to 200 uh reporters and press people that have been also killed, mean everything is to the max almost when you take a look at the proportion of it, what else then can there be de deduction on other than that israel in almost all aspects is uh after a genocide and its eliminating basically any. The stance in the palestinian way, mean this is absolutely the case, the zionist regime is carrying out a genocide, the zionist project has always been a genocidal, colonial, illegitimate project since its inception, it has never been anything else, and it is a project that is fully aligned with imperialist powers, the leading imperialist powers in this case the United States um as well as to uh lesser extent because of the the balance of power. That exists in the world, britain, france, germany, uh, canada, the european union, etc. , um, the zionist regime is carrying out, is carrying out a genocide, it is failing to accomplish, its a stated military goals, it has not destroyed the Palestinian Resistance