In the midst of their horrific assault on Gaza, Israel has already started drawing up battle plans for another war – this time with Hezbollah in Lebanon. In this episode, Mehdi exposes the disproportionate Israeli military doctrine that could ultimately kill thousands of Lebanese civilians. Plus, Middle East expert Vali Nasr breaks down what another war would mean for the region.
Also on the show, Mehdi asks US Congress Representative Greg Casar about President Joe Biden’s asylum ban and Representative Jamaal Bowman’s primary loss in New York. Mehdi is also joined by Israeli Historian Lee Mordechai, who recently accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Israel and Lebanon…
Mehdi takes viewers back to the 2006 Lebanon War, when Israel developed the Dahiya Doctrine – a military strategy that aims to intentionally inflict long-lasting and disproportionate damage onto their enemies as a deterrent.
“If you think Israel’s attacks on Lebanon in 2006 were disproportionate, if the Dahiya doctrine was bad back then, just think how much worse a war on Lebanon will be now that Israel has barely even gotten a slap on the wrist from its Western allies, especially the United States, for inflicting a full-blown genocide on Gaza!” Mehdi said.
Middle East expert Vali Nasr pointed out that a war in Lebanon with Hezbollah would also be a great danger for Israel themselves, even if Iran and the U.S. don’t get involved.
“Hezbollah has proven itself over 40 years to be a ferocious fighting force. It's the only fighting force that Israel has not been able to crack around it,” Nasir told Mehdi. “Hezbollah is capable of hitting northern Israel in a way that it would become uninhabitable for a long period of time, but if Israel's objective is to enable its population to go back [to Northern Israel], it [a war] will have the opposite effect.”
An interview with Rep. Greg Casar…
Earlier this month, in what was widely seen as an attempt to address his right-wing critics, US President Joe Biden implemented an asylum ban at the Southern border – one that critics say is straight out of Trump’s playbook. Mehdi asked Representative Greg Casar from Texas – a progressive and long-time advocate for immigration reform – what he made of Biden’s controversial move.
“Republicans have set this sort of trap, and it's the oldest trick in the book – distract from Republicans' failures to govern by picking on whichever vulnerable group… Right now, it's overwhelmingly Venezuelan and Haitian moms showing up desperate at the border,” Casar explained.
Mehdi also asked Casar about Representative Jamaal Bowman’s historic primary defeat on Tuesday night, after pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC spent 15 million dollars trying to unseat him.
“There is a clear message trying to be sent to progressives, but frankly to any member of Congress, that maybe infinite money can come into our elections,” Casar told Mehdi. “I think it's on the Democratic Party to stand up and say…no matter who's spending the money, this can't be allowed anymore because it would change our democracy in a fundamentally disastrous way if this happens at every primary.”
An Israeli historian accuses Israel of genocide…
Dr. Lee Mordechai, a professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has become the latest Israeli academic to accuse their own country of genocide, after an extensive research process that led to an almost 100-page paper with over 100,00 footnotes.
“The amount of information that can come out of Gaza is limited. A significant amount of these journalists in Gaza are also being killed. So all this is limited. Nonetheless, I've seen enough evidence, whether by journalists over there, whether by regular people there, and that has convinced me,” Mordechai said.
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