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So today is primary day in New York and also Colorado. Actually, Lauren Bobert is going to be on the ballot, maybe losing her primary, but the one that most people are focused on is in New York. Jamal Bowman versus Westchester County Executive George Latimer. We can put this up on
the screen. A lot of this race hinges on Jabal Bowman's pro Palestinian stances, his increasingly vocal stance, which is interesting I'll get into in a moment, and the massive flood of money into this race, which is making it literally the most expensive congressional primary in history. Dan Maren's has a look at some of the underlying dynamics here. That's an interesting read. He says, it's not just a
pack out. Jamal Bowman alienated voters who once supported him. So, you guys may recall the way Jamal Bowman originally was able to win the seat was also in a Democratic primary, took out Elliott Engle. Now, Ingle had been a stalwart ally of the pro Israel crowd. He was a top recipient of a pack funding. He was, you know, really
staunched on that point. And Jamal Bowman at that point was trying to take sort of the liberal Zionist position, the sort of more more moderate J Street style positioning there. I think perhaps he hadn't really thought all that much about the issue, was trying to just say the things that Democrats typically say to try to appease everyone. He wins that seat. It was in the context of the
Black Lives Matter protest. Elliott Ingle had gotten caught on a hot mike, you remember the soccer saying basically like the only reason I'm hers because I'm up for election. He was never in the district. He took it for granted. And so Jamal Bowman is able to win the district has always been a little bit difficult for him because it is a combination of there's a part of the bronx in there that's very like diverse working class. There
are other diverse working class neighborhoods in the district. There's also a significant area of like affluent suburban liberals and a significant Jewish vote as well. So there were a lot of lingering bad feelings among those for whom Israel is their number one issue about Jamal Bowman taking out
Ellie and Engel. And then post October seventh, when Jamal Bowman emerges as one of the most vocal Congress people in service of the Palestinian cause and you know, not going along with all of these resolutions that are being passed through Congress, et cetera, he ends up with a giant target on his back and his opponent, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, who is you know, very like centrist right laying he doesn't want to raise He's really running
on like I won't raise anyone's taxes, including the billionaires. He's taking one hundred percent of the APAC line, et cetera. He's also a really well known figure in Westchester County because he's been a local politician there. So those are some of the dynamics we can go ahead and put this or what do we have next? Is the terroristiat or the thought that we have next.
We've got a little.
Taste of some of how Jamal Bowman has been talking about the funding that's been going into this race. He and George Latimer in one of their debates. He's talking about how Apak has been funding his opponent, et cetera. Let's take a listen to how that exchange went.
The wealthy and particularly from my opponent's campaign, billionaire Republicans are buying our democracy. The reason why our democracy doesn't work for working class people and the majority of the American people is because of big money in politics. He is running a big money campaign. They're spending more money in this race to get me out than they have ever spent in their history, meaning Apak more money than they have ever spent. The house dog.
Is one issue, one issue, special interest. Their issue, according to Politico, is Israel.
Correct, So let me I think I still had time on the clock. Good. So their one issue is Israel, not Mount Vernon, not the Bronx, not New Rochelle, not Portchester, not White Plains, not Tuckahoe, Israel. And they recruited him to run against me, and they're spending more money in this race than they have ever spent in their history. Why because I'm fighting against the genocide in Gaza and because I'm speaking up for black and brown people here.
We should not be sending billions of dollars to another country to commit genocide while we are struggling to live day to day right here in this district.
Thank you.
I mean, I agree with him, but you can see there he doesn't. He doesn't have She calls it a genocide. And there's a lot that's interesting about this doger. So, first of all, Apak has put in some fifteen million dollars into this race, which is astonishing. And most of the ads they're running, by the way, don't have anything to do with Israel, but they obviously prefer George Latimer over Jamal Bowman. So what they've gone with, and what Latimer has gone with, is this idea that Jamal Bowman
is all talk and no substance. In Latimer's this like technocratic executive who's going to be actually able to, you know, work the levers of power and deliver for the district. So that's you know, that's the dynamics of the campaign. One of the things that's really interesting with Jamal Bowman is, as I was saying before, when he was first running, it seems like I don't know that he had a really well formed opinion on the issue.
You know, he had, Yeah, you and I interviewed him at the time. He was yeah, he was kind of all over the place.
I mean, he just you know, it was sort of like very typical. And there's a lot of new politicians who are like this.
They just haven't thought all that much about it, They don't know all that much about it.
So he gets into office and he agrees to go on a trip to Israel that was sponsored by J Street. Now J Street is meant to be the like liberal Zionist alternative to APAC, so they're not as hardline, they're not his right wing. They're in favor of a two state solution, but they're still Zionists. So he decides to go on this trip. And actually, at the time it was a big thing on the left. The DSA was very upset about the fact he was going on this trip,
et cetera. But as it turns out, according to his own telling, actually going to Israel and seeing the reality and meeting with Palestinian these young Palestinian students actually visualizing and experiencing the reality of the apartheid system there, and how some places are just you know, off limits if
you're not Jeoish, off limits certainly if you're Palestinian. That actually really changed his view and even made him feel like, you know, this this nonsense we've been fed about the two states solution, how this is an ongoing process, like this is a fantasy.
So the more that he.
Came in contact with the reality of what Israel is today, not just the sort of like top line talking points that liberals have been speaking to for years and years and years in the absence of like an actual desire among the Israeli government to pursue any sort of a piece. Once he actually had exposure to that, it hardened him in terms of his pro Palestinian positions and made it
so he's not just a liberal Zionist now. It's shifted him to really being an anti Zionist, and he speaks about that now and has a lot of sort of moral force. So you know, the bottom line here is he's very very very likely to lose.
Today.
We've got the new York Times article we can put up on the screen here. APAC on leash's record fourteen point five million dollars in a bid to defeat Jamal Bowman, critic of Israel. The delusion outside spending, they say, also includes another one million from a different pro Israel group. There have been some other groups that have come in on Jamal Bowman's side, but obviously can't even come close
to matching that amount of money. This is a PAC also making good on their promise to unleash one hundred million dollars to take out and punish anyone who is a critic of their pro Israel policies. So you know, they really want to make an example of him, and I think they have a very good chance to do it. Let's put this up on the screen from Ryan. This is the latest poll and it has Jamal Bowman losing badly to George Latimer forty eight to thirty one, and
that polling has shifted. There's limited polling in the context of a primary, but what we've seen it is shifted dramatically since that APAC money has come in.
Definitely friend of the show. Dan Marins in the Huffington Post in his ride up, though he did say that Bowman has kind of been not at odds with the district, but he gave himself an opening that October seventh was going to be exploited. So they talk about that vote against the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill back in twenty twenty one, which is very important to people in New York because of various tax breaks hidden.
Within there thanks to Chuck Schumer.
They also talk apparently here about that pulling of the fire alarm.
A lot of people were very.
Rist about that entire situation, they say, And this is a He has a quote here from a chair of the Democratic Committee who actually was a Bowman donor as recently as January, and he said he had been frustrated with Bowman's failure to follow through on efforts apparently to arrange conversations quote with her rabbi and other Jewish friends, as well as his July twenty twenty three decision not to attend Israeli President Isaac Herzok's speech to Congress, which Bowman,
as you said, cited his previous Israeli visit as reason for not doing something.
I think I was the one who said there were no uninvolved civilians.
With the Madi Hassen interview, which was after October seventh. What Maren's rights in the piece is basically, you have the fire alarm thing. You already had some previous just like annoyance with these like normy liberal Democrats, and then Israel toured gasoline on the fire and gave all the money in the world to anybody who wanted.
To exploit that.
You put all of that together, and you've got the perfect storm to be able to kick him out of office.
Yeah, and I always appreciate Dan's writing, and I think the piece is worth reading. But I will say that, you know, if you just look at the polling and the way it's moved since the money came in, Like clearly the APAC money has been very significant.
Part of this race.
And it's also really clear, I mean from the way APAC has positioned itself and some of the races they've got involved in. Dan seems to suggest that if Jamal Bowman had just moderated a little bit on Israel, he may have playcated them. And I just don't buy that because we saw them come in, for example, to a race in California where the person who was running whose name I'm blanking on. He hadn't even he'd been a
little bit critical of Benjamin Nett Yahoo. But he was pro Israel, like he was on all of the talking points. But they still, because they're worried about him dissenting even a little bit, they still put millions into that race to try to defeat him. And so Jamal Bowman had already said enough that I think there was if you don't go along with every single thing that they want.
They know George Latimer is.
Going to do everything, you know, and they already were upset that he had taken out Elliott Ingle. So I don't think that there was a space for him to position himself. There just isn't, you know, at this point, the sort of positioning of a quote unquote liberal Zionist,
It really isn't possible anymore. It's just that that space is gone because we've all been faced with too much of the reality of what Israel is, what it does, the way it lies, the way that processes the occupation, the way the occupation has expanded under every Israeli administration, whether they were right wing or quote unquote moderate or not.
So you know, to me, what was interesting is that Jamal Bowman, the more that he came in contact with that reality, the more his position shifted against, you know, what had been the liberal Zionist sort of standard talking points. And you see this, you know, the stance with Joe Biden where he's kind of a no man's land, still trying to pair it the liberal Zionist position when it makes it doesn't really make sense to anyone. It's become
very binary. You're either, you know, against the what I see in what Jamal Bowman anothers see is a genocide, or you're not. So I don't know that there was like a middle ground that he could have occupied that would have kept a pack out of this race, which is why people like John Fetterman, when he was looking to keep a pack in their affiliated or allied super PACs out of the race, he just went to them
and was like, tell me what I need to say. Literally, according to Ryan Graham, and that's the only way that you can get away with it is you're just literally like, I will, I will sub out my Israel policy to you. I will do one hundred percent of what you say. If there's even like a hint of independent thinking or daylight.
Forget it. They want you gone.
I don't think it's Yeah, I mean it's a smart political strategy here obviously, especially with the constituents that you've got. It's like the perfect storm. And yeah, I mean look in general it was a problem for him. It always was we'll see how things go. But it's not looking good. Yeah, it's not looking good.
Yeah, it's I think it's would be a massive crazy things have happened, but I think it would.
Be It would be crazy if he wins.
I will say, what you want a blow to a pack?
Would that?
It would be shocking? Yeah, I will say. I was telling you, guys, I was.
I was at the gym yesterday and somebody random asked me to go, hey, who is that congressman who can bench four oh five?
That is Jamal Bowman. So maybe he is winning over.
The critical bodybuilder demographic. They're like, that's all I need to know about it.
Look crazy.
I'm just saying, there are a lot of bros out there who are impressed. He did three reps, four or five decent form. That's I'm impressed.
Yeah, impressed, we completely I mean I don't know that much about I know that that's a lot of weight.
But people were saying, this is.
Like the you know, he's like the top point five percent yea.
Of like powerlisters.
I would put it this way, if you're not juicing and you're able to do that naturally, that is shocking. So you know, I always thought, no offense, I thought he was fat, But now after seeing that, I'm like, no, he's got that that power lifting body. Yeah, he's got like the he's got the meat and he's got the muscles.
So respect where it's deserved.
Yeah.
Last thing I'll say on this before we move on to what's going on in Ukraine is just you know, Jamal Bowman is not stupid. I'm sure he knew that this was going to be an issue for him in this race. He knows his district, he knows I think there's about one hundred and fifty thousand Jeish people. Not Jewish people aren't a monolith, right, they'd all all see the things that the way that Apak does. However, and
there's also classified among Jewish people that we've seen as well. However, the Jewish people in his district are predominantly relatively affluent, and he knew this was an issue, right, and he said genocide, and he you know, called in question some of the lies in the propaganda, and he's been very outspoke. He's taken votes that I'm sure he knew were going to be a problem for him, and he deserves quite like that is actual political courage.
I'm sure he.
Knew he was risking his seat when he was taking those votes. And so I just want to say I appreciate that, I respect it, and we'll see what happens for him tonight.
For a pack.
If they lose, oh boy, I was devastating for them. If they win, you know, it's there successfully demonstrating once again that you are punished if you dissent from their line on Israel. And that's really their goal here, is to you know, put a target on his back, to make an example of him, to show they've got the muscle to prevail in you know, at least in certain.
Places in the country. So we'll see what happens, right, all.
Right, So we wanted to bring you an update on this protest that happened in Los Angeles. So the protests, which no one in media will apparently tell you, was in the context of a real estate event at a synagogue where they were selling off stolen land in the West Bank, exclusively available by the way to Jewish people. Now, in America, restrictive covenants are illegal. You can't say this neighborhood is for whites oldly anymore. But in Israel you
can say this neighborhood is for Jews only. And so there's been a series of these real estate events. There was one in t Neck, New Jersey. There have been some in Canada. This was the latest happening in la and so protesters showed up to protest this event. Counter protesters also showed up. And the whole thing, as the cops are just standing by and letting it happen, devolves into chaos and violence, would be a little bit of a taste of.
That, you know, you've got.
I don't know who's who, who's instigating, et cetera. I can tell you there were journalists who had their one journalist who had his phone stolen by a pro Israel protester. I also want to mention that there were protests outside of that t Neck, New Jersey, synagogue real estate event as well, and those remained peaceful because the cops kept the two sides separated. So there have been This isn't even the first time that protests have erupted at this thing. Okay,
so that is what it looked like. Let me show you the poster of the real estate event that was, you know, for what was occurring at this synagogue. They say, come and meet representatives of housing projects and all the best Anglo neighborhoods in Israel. And again this group, the my Home in Israel real estate company. They offer properties
that are for sale in the occupied West Bank. And you know, this is illegal by international law, probably illegal in US law too, certainly against US policy, et cetera. The way this was covered in the press was so incredibly dishonest.
It was unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Well, actually it's totally believable, and part of the course, honestly the way that they oay that.
They approach it, because as you so, I check in, I log in, I was like, okay, wow, it was like some crazy stuff went down in Los Angeles, and so I look into it and I'm like, by the way, as people know, I'm I'm pretty neutral on this.
I'm open to it.
A bunch of Palestine Caffea Maski's you know, beaten people up.
It's possible, skeptical.
So we look into it and they're like, oh yeah, it doesn't seem good. Now all of this, all these politicians start condemning the act. Everyone's like, oh my god, this is terrible. There was a pogrom in Los Angeles. Now I'm starting to get suspicious because any someone starts to see that language come.
Out like wait a second.
So then you know, our producer is like, well, you know it was in response to a real estate event, And I said, what what are you talking about? So then we start to look and we checked it. We had to check that flyer. We confirmed it. We go to the Los Angeles Times and we read, you know, the local paper about what happened, and you have to read, I want to say, twenty paragraphs.
Now we had this input it up on the screen.
Yeah, we can put D three please guys up on the screen. And it takes scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to discover the context of the real estate event. And in my opinion, that kind of does change everything though, because all the rhetoric that I see online is everyone's like, why are they protesting?
And synagogue. This is disgusting.
This is a religious temple, Like, how can they do this out of all the places to choose. I'm like, okay, Well, if you're a host in a real estate event auction and off land in the West Bank and it says Anglo neighborhoods early, that's a little bit crazy.
Can we all agree with that?
All?
Right?
Now?
I'm not saying anybody gets deserved violence. You know, I don't think there should be any violence. Oh good ah, this side agree, but you know, legitimate I think around for a protest, So I mean, this is what I mean.
Let's flip it around. So I'm Indian.
Let's say that there is a Hindu temple like the one I used to go to where I was growing up, and there was an event there where they were auctioning off land in Kashmir. That'd be a little bit crazy, yeah, And we said it was only for Hindus, and then a bunch of Pakistani showed up and we were and then there was like a clash or whatever, and people said that they had unprovoked attacked.
But be even me.
I'd be like, come on, guys like this, look they're within their rights. You know to show up. This is America last time I checked. None of that is in the public sphere. The way people are talking about it, it's as if it was totally unprovoked, and I just think, look again, I condemn violence. I don't think should have happened. I think the police should have kept them separate, et cetera. That said, if you don't report that, you are just being a platon dishonest.
So, because that's the issue.
Here's the way to be honest with you.
The LA Times, the fact they even mentioned that there was a quote unquote real estate event with none of the like, oh and by the way, they're selling you know, I legal stolen land, et cetera, and it's for Jews only. The fact they even mentioned that puts them better than like ninety five percent of mainstream coverage, which all portrayed this as like people just hate Jews. So they were
protesting a synagogue with none of the context. Now listen, I think it's fair if people want to say, listen, I don't care what they were doing in a synagogue. I think that a house of worship should be off limits parent you shouldn't protest. I don't agree, but I think that's a reasonable position you could take.
Okay, if you want to say, you.
Know, certainly you could say there shouldn't be violent, Okay, that's fine. I don't agree with the nature of the protest. I think also you could say, from a tactical perspective, was it wise to go and protest isn't knowing the way the media may portray it, et cetera. So I think that's a legitimate point of view to make that
argument as well. To pretend people just showed up because they hate Jews and they wanted to protest a synagogue is so incredibly dishonest, and this turns into, of course, a whole thing.
Joe Biden puts out.
A statement condemning the anti semitism, Gavin Newsom, the mayor of La Karen Bass, none of them acknowledging that. By the way, also, you know, selling occupied land in the West make that is supposed to be counter to US policy as well, So in theory they should be on
the same ideological side of the protesters. And then there's also just the double standard of every time a Palestinian protester pro Palestine protester does anything that the media can spin and lie about and colorably make a pear like it's all about anti Semitism. The president's got to put on a freaking statement. Well, there was an incident alleged in Texas where some unhinged woman asked a mom who's Palasaidian American? Where she was from, and then tried to
drown her kids. But when she learned that they were Palestinian American, where's the statement on that, where's the statement on the the you know Bezaliel's smoochurch Israeli minister a speech just came out where he said, hey, we're going to annex the whole West West Bank or you know the video we showed you yesterday where they tied an injured Palestinian to the hood of an IDF vehicle and are using him as a literal human shield. Like, where's
the outrage and the statements over that? But so this one, this drove me absolutely insane. Just to give you a little bit more background, here's D four can put this up on the screen. As I mentioned before, this wasn't the first of these events. This has been a series
of events across our country and also in Canada. This one is focused on the Teneck, New Jersey, event they described as the disastrous Gret Israeli real estate event and most of the events, they say was a company called my Home in Israel, which also was involved in this one in La brought along to showcase available properties in
both Israel and the Palestinian territories. It occupies multiple and it's in a building in East Jerusalem, East Jerusalem townhouses in the heart of the West Bank, and a five bedroom villa with a pool in the luxury enclave of a frat south of Bethlehem. From the first stop, they say, in Montreal, protesters have shown up to condemn the sale of houses built on settlements illegally expropriated from palest means. In the West Bank and in Teaneck. I believe we
actually covered here. There was a Jewish man who showed up at a community meeting and said, you know, this is outrageous, it's illegal, it's in Worl.
It shouldn't be happening here.
And he's in his words he said, and there's going to be a protest because I'm going to lead it. This was a Jewish man in that community. So that's the truth of what happened. Here, But maybe the most outrageous and dishonest coverage came from where else, CNN, where they had Van Jones joined to call it a pogrims As you rightly said, Sager, just listen to this insanity in the way that he portrays this.
If you don't like what's happening in Gaza, it's your right to protest. That's not a problem. But you protest a policy. You don't protest a people. When you protest a policy, you go to city hall and you protest, You go to the Israeli consulate peacefully, you protest, maybe you go to your elected representative.
Your protest.
You don't bum rush a Jewish neighborhood and run up on a synagogue.
That's not protesting a policy.
That's protesting a people, and that is across any line in America, and it has to be called out. You cannot protest a people. That is not a protest, that's a program, and that has to stop.
Let's talk about the policy.
Let's talk about how the Biden administration, how the president's handling the policy.
Van, how do you see it? Where does he need to improve on this?
Well, listen, I think that the president is in a tough position because the base of the party is very concerned about these images that we keep seeing from Gaza, and he wants to take a strong stand on behalf
of human rights for everybody. That's Joe Biden. At the same time, I think it's a little bit naive for some of the people that think that if it's Rael were just to suddenly just stop doing what it's doing, that rainbows and bunnies and sunshine would break out over the Middle East and it would all be, you know, be fine. The hostages have to be returned. If you can call for a cease fire, call for a seas fire on both sides, a mass is still firing its rockets. They
still have hostages kidnapped. So this is a complex issue. But here's what's not complicated. Politics can be complicated, geopolitics can be really complicated. How you treat your neighbors, how you treat people in your community, is not complicated. You don't run up I haven't seen any Jewish people running up on mosques with Israeli flags. If they did that, I'd be denouncing that too. There's certain things you don't do.
It is a red line. Don't if you want to be a part of a protest, and they say, we're going to go to a Jewish community center, We're going to go to a mosque, we're going to go to a Jewish restaurant. That's not a protest, that's a program.
Oh my god.
So if you done that whole segment, you would never know why the protesters were there. It's not just because they hate Jews and they wanted to protest in a Jewish neighborhood outside of a synagogue. It's so dishonest. He says, you protested policy, not a people. They literally were protesting a policy. That's why they were there. But you are too dumb or too much of a liar to actually inform your audience about what was going on. And like I was saying, listen, if you've got an issue, you
don't think that that's acceptable. Okay, lay that out, but give people the facts of why they were actually there. They weren't just quote quote quote unquote bum rushing a Jewish neighborhood and running up on a synagogue. Disgusting, disgusting, such liars, it's unbelievable.
What about the contexts?
Say whatever you want, but it's like when you put it out of the context. That's what really pisses me off. And why is it that me as a news professional has to glg deep just to figure out the most basics. And at the same time, I'm like, yeah, that's why I even have a job, right, Like, in a perfect world, you don't even need to exist. But this is exactly what the issue is. So regardless of where you are, Like you know, some of the rhetoric here, it's like
what are you going to do? Like are you going to send in the National Guard? I'm like, Yo, this is nuts. You're allowing foreign sales to happen in houses of worship. I mean, first of all, shouldn't you have your tax status poll if you're going to be doing stuff like that.
I don't think that should be allowed in American soil.
Maybe just me, I don't think you should be having foreign sale you know, foreign sales going down in houses of worship and stuff like this, which are official events.
So anyways and.
Close off, but to exclusionary too. Literally it means you can't go in and buy that real estate. I mean, that's not how we do things in America. It's you know,
since Civil Rights Act, the Fairhousing Act. You have to allow people of all backgrounds, racist genders, et cetera to be able to So you're having this exclusionary event that is in contrary, that is counter to international law, and you're saying people are not allowed to protest that, and the only reason that they possibly could have been protesting that is because of anti Semitism.
Yeah, exactly can't stand it all right, Crystal, what do you taking a look at.
More than forty thousand dead majority women and children, more devastation than Dresden, Hamburg and London combined, Bertal siege which has led to dozens of stardivation deaths and an entire population on the brink of famine, and all on AsSalt that has left nothing sacred, from schools mas to hospitals, cemeteries.
And refugee camps.
There's no world in which these atrocities committed by Israel and Gaza are justifiable, let alone righteous. But according to the Israeli government and our own, they are acceptable to be celebrated, even because they've been committed in service of a noble war aim eliminating Hamas. That's the logic that the Israeli public and a decent portion of our own has bought. Yes, the civilian deaths are bad, but it's a price we must accept in order to get the
Hamas bad guys. But a new analysis in Foreign Affairs by political scientists and international security expert Robert Pape reveals that not only has Israel's genocide and Gaza been morally outrageous, it has actually strengthened Hamas. Israel isn't just falling short in their war objectives. They have bolstered the very group they are supposedly seeking to destroy. They have murdered countless
civilians in service of making Hamas vastly stronger, incredible. But also, let's be honest, predictable turns out, death and destruction are not.
The same as victory.
So here is Paithe in that article headlined Hamas is winning quote. The central flaw in Israel's strategy is not a failure of tactics or the imposition of constraints on military force, just as the failure of the US's military strategy in Vietnam had little to do with the technical proficiency of its troops or political and moral limits on the uses of military power. Rather, the overarching failure has been a gross misunderstanding of the sources of Hamas's power.
To its great detriment, Israel has failed to realize that the carnage and devastation it has unleashed in Gaza has only made its enemy stronger. So essentially, Israel and the US have focused on how many Hamas fighters have been killed as a measure of the success of the war. That is entirely the wrong metric. It almost doesn't matter how many fighters Hamas has today. What matters is its recruitment potential for the future, how many new recruits can
they pull from the next generation. Media reports and local pollings suggest that number has surged massively. Here's the Jerusalem Post reportedly Hamas is already looking to capitalize on this IDF enabled surge in popularity. Now, this is a right wing outlet, so you've got to sort through the propagandabout quote unquote Gaza youths, which appears to be an attempt to legitimize killing children and their credulous acceptance of Israeli
lies about how many Hamas fighters they've actually killed. But the basics of the reporting are that Hamas is holding recruitment camps and training sessions to replace the fighters they've lost to death, injury, and arrest. They claim that Hamas is looking to add some twenty thousand new members to their ranks. But even this biased outlet has a pretty straightforward accounting of the landscape. Potential Hamas recruits face quote, eighteen year olds choosing whether to join Hamas or not.
On the one hand, face the reality that so many who have joined Hamas have been beaten and killed by the IDF. On the other hand, they currently have no horizon for finding work or doing much of anything other than sitting around in refugee camps, since no one has even started planning the rebuilding Gaza process, which is likely
to take many years. What they don't note is that those eighteen year olds face potential death in torture by the IDF whether or not they join Hamas, since the Israeli government has so indiscriminately slaughtered civilians and has operated under a presumption that all men and boys are to be assumed Hamas. Now, going back to Pape, Israel's actions have created ripe conditions for Hamas propaganda, according to him,
which has been received favorably by many Palestinians. He points out the polls have found HAMAS support and support for violence against Israeli civilians, both surging after October seventh. In addition, Israeli atrocities have fueled what he describes as a quote cult of martyrdom, increasing the allure of HAMAS members.
Quote.
People are less likely to volunteer for high risk missions if their sacrifices go unnoticed. A community that honors the fallen fighters of a terrorist group helps sustain it. Martyrdom, legitimizes terrorist actions, and encourages new recruits. Terrorists will act as they see fit, but it is the community that ultimately decides where an individual's sacrifice is accorded high status or whether it is broadly viewed as irrational, criminal, and
worthy of content. The community support for HAMAS has also directly hindered the IDF's ability to successfully target HAMAS leadership and locate hostages to additional supposed war aims. After all, what Palestinian with a shred of integrity would collaborate with the genocidal IDF YEP turns out. Indiscriminately murdering civilians while blocking peaceful pathways to negotiated settlement is a great way
to search support for violent resistance. If you create massive amounts of grief, despair, and rage and block all nonviolent political processes, don't be surprised when that rage finds an expression in violence. In the words of security analyst Internet hippo quote, I'm not a political expert, but if you eliminate Hamas but killed my whole family in the process, my first move would be to start Hammas two point zero.
The truth is, just as we would have been better off if we had done literally nothing in response to nine to eleven, Israel would have been better off if they had done literally nothing in response to October seventh. Now that's to say nothing, of course, of the Iraqi innocence and Palestinian innocence who were sacrificed on the altar
of personal political interest masquerading as counter terror. For my part, got enough respect for Biebe to reject the notion that he was too dung to operate at the intellectual level of Internet hippo. They knew their campaign wasn't going to eliminate Hamas, But in a sixth sense, strengthening Hamas actually serves Bbe's political interests. After all, he has consistently worked to bolster Hamas in order to block a potential peace deal and to maintain division between Gaza and the West Bank.
I don't see why that logic would be any different today. So long as Hamas remains, the IDF has endless justification for ras bombings and occupation, endlessly prolonging war that BIB wants to be endlessly prolonged. He can proclaim to gradualist international leaders that they have no partner for peace, even if he makes it clear he has absolutely no interest in a two state solution or any other long term piece.
The brutality of that annihilation campaign can satiate the post October seventh of bloodless from the Israeli public and begin to rebuild Netnyahu's political standing that's been working all while accomplishing BB's stated goal of quote finning out the Gaza population, which is the constant ethno state imperative. After all, if the whole logic of your state is that it must be controlled by a Jewish majority, then the very existence of non Jewish children is a looming threat to the
entire national project. Eliminating Hamas is a convenient pretext for neutralizing that demographic threat through the mass laughter of Palestinian children and mothers, in particular now in Gaza, Bibe and the IDEF have seemingly destroyed everything but Hamas, and that may well have been the point. It's a great piece from Robert Papa. I know you took a look at it as well. He talks about, you know, the body count figures in terms of the number of Hamas fighters
they've killed or are very disputed. Israeli say somewhere around fifteen thousand. US Intelligence says ten thousand, Hamas says more like five to six thousand. In any case, the amount of support for Hamas has been predictably dramatically surged. There has not been they were betting or there was some analysis of like, oh, if we, you know, make this really horrible for them, people will turn on Hamas. The opposite has happened. There's been a like rally around the
flag effect. Again, very predictable and very consistent with what we've seen historically in terms of bombed and besieged civilian populations, and so in spite of the technological military vast superiority in terms of the actual stated war aims, it's been a total and complete failure on every level.
Yeah, I keep coming back to North Vietnam, and I really recommend people need to go and read Robert Pape.
He is incredibly smart.
He's a scholar, he's a long studied air power, civilian populations, World War Two. I've read stuff for a long time, and since the October seven conflict, he's been doing amazing work. This is a very well reasoned piece. There's nothing emotional within it. It's just pointing to data. You're looking in your point look together the recruitment numbers, and look, if bombs could solve things, then we would have won the Vietnam War. If bombs could solve things, we would have
won the Iraq War and Afghanistan. Guess what happened in every single case is that it was counterproductive, usually unless it was for a direct military purpose, and in the long run, they outlasted us and they won.
I think in the same.
Case, they have the will, they have the ability to stay forever and to operate in the shadows, and to now fundraise both and fundraise and recruit for the people who have been victimized as a result of the policy. All they have to do is survive. Israel is warring against a quote unquote ideology good luck. Have seen people try before, they always lose.
It is not just it's not just that they're not defeated, it's that they actively Like Our operations in Iraq and the you know, attacks on civilians led to a surge in popularity for Iraqi resistance groups and you know, helped to create ISIS. Our operations in Afghanistan led to a star the Taliban was like down to almost nothing, and they were able to rebuild and you know, be such a formidable force that they just immediately take take back
over when we leave. Because our occupation and our atrocities provided the moral justification and searched the support for these groups. So our actions and now it's you know, obviously what's happening with Israel and Gaza have actually searched support for that group. Again, it's entirely predictable. This is something that we've been saying from the beginning. We highlighted those Jocko comments from the beginning of like this is not.
The way you go.
If you are actually serious about taking out Hamas leadership, getting the hostages back, you have to win over the population. You need them to collaborate with, You need to provide them a different path that isn't Hamas. None of that was done, And I don't think it's because they just didn't understand and they were stupid and foolish. I think it's because the goal was never really eliminated Hamas, especially
from BB's perspective. Again, he's always supported Hamas. I think he still finds Hamas to be very useful there because it gives him the pretext to do whatever the hell he wants. Prolong the war as long as he wants to be as brutal as he wants, you know, maintain his position of power, continue to block a two states illusion by saying there's no partner for peace. All that
logic still remains. So I can't be so naive as to think that he doesn't also understand what's going on here and how the idea of eliminating Hamas was always doomed to fail from the job