Episode Details

Press TV

Joining us on this edition of the News Review, we have Professor of International Relations at Lebanese University, Mr. Jamal Waqim, who's joining us from the Lebanese capital Beirut. Also from Saidia, Morocco, we have political commentator Kevin Barrett. Gentlemen, welcome to the program.

Let's start off with Mr. Waqeem. We're listening to the comments by U.S. President Joe Biden, who claims that the Israelis have put forth a rational offer. I want to get your thoughts on that. How do you read into those comments by the U.S. president? And the main question here is, can the Israelis even be trusted in such a situation?

Jamal Waqim: Well, of course, Biden is supporting Israel ever since it launched its aggression against Gaza. And he's supporting all its political stances and initiatives. He wants Israel to be victorious in this aggression against the resistance in the Gaza Strip. And that's why he's endorsing all conditions and prerequisites for such an objective to be achieved. This is how we can understand Biden's comments.

In this regard, of course, Israel cannot be trusted. Throughout the Arab-Israeli struggle, it was only checked by power and by force, not by any negotiations or any agreement. So that's why I believe that these conditions that have been put on the table by Israel are not acceptable to the resistance in Gaza, and this will drag on the conflict in the Gaza Strip, leading to more and more civilians being killed by the Israeli army.

Mr. Kevin Barrett, I want to get your thoughts as well. Do you agree with our guest in Beirut that these conditions that are being put forth by the Israelis in Washington are not acceptable? Why is that? And do you also see that Washington and the Tel Aviv regime just keep kicking the ball down further down the field?

Kevin Barrett: Yeah, I think he's right. The Israelis are looking for a so-called “temporary ceasefire” which would allow for all of their hostages to be released. And then after that ceasefire is over, they would be free to continue committing genocide and pulverizing Gaza without any restraint.

Obviously that's a non-starter. The only way the Palestinian resistance can reasonably be expected to release all the Israelis in its custody is if there's going to be a permanent ceasefire, not a temporary one. And that's the main sticking point here, it seems.

The Americans, unfortunately, are seeking an Israeli victory. They are on the side of the Zionists. Biden's administration is surrounded by Zionists. And they don't want to see their side lose. They also have political problems, though, because Biden will very likely lose the next presidential election if there hasn't been some kind of durable peace.

Now, what he would like to see, I suppose, would be some sort of imaginary Israeli victory. But there's no such thing. That can't happen. There's no prospective path to the Israelis defeating Hamas and getting their people back alive. That's not going to happen in any Israeli “victory scenario.”

But they have these delusions, Netanyahu does, because all the other alternatives involve Netanyahu leaving power and very likely entering prison. And the Americans are really just hostages of the Zionists, and so they entertain these lunatic fantasies.

Ultimately, the Americans are going to have to put pressure on the Zionists to accept some kind of permanent cessation to this genocide. That's the only reasonable way this can end, and that's the only way that Biden can preserve his chances of being reelected.

Professor Waqim, let's talk about the hypocritical stance that we're seeing from the United States. On one hand, they're showing that they're pushing for a ceasefire, but on the other hand, they