Free speech is alive and well. On today's news talk, TNT. Free speech is indeed alive and well here on today's news talk. And long may it continue to be so because it has never been more needed than at this critical time in the history of humanity. I know everybody says that about every year. But I think more and more people are beginning to wake up to the fact that there's something wrong with this picture. And with that in mind, I'm delighted to bring on the line, Dr. Frank Romano, veteran peace campaigner, author and academic. Welcome to the programme, Frank. Thank you, Basil. It's great to be back. Now, I'm going to read a post, a social media post from Ralph Nader, former Green Party candidate president, which reads, follows the Israeli genocide in Gaza, reportedly has its specialised teams that take destructive turns. One team specializes in destroying United Nations relief and health buildings. Another team specializes in blowing up school shelters where sick and dying families are huddling. Another team focuses on wholesale removal of hundreds of thousands of refugees, having gone to what Netanyahu called safe areas into new unknown areas, exposed to whatever the F16s choose to destroy. Another team specialises in hunting down Palestinian journalists and their families, and indeed murdering them. I mean, this is what the American people are being told. They've got to vote for, Frank. It's a new low, isn't it? But the key point here is this tweet from Ralph Nader. It won't be widely publicized. The talking heads on the major networks basically all been brainwashed into this uniform support for genocide. I mean, there's a real, I'm noticing a real dichotomy in a way two different versions of reality between genuine human beings and people who have a major part, a major part of their heart, soul and brain missing. Am I wrong, Frank? Actually, you've sort of recited a part of what Butch Ware, who's running with Jill Stein on the Green Party ticket, said that with those of that have a functional heart in the brain, we're trying to galvanise these votes. And so what they're saying is now with this issue of genocide, people are finally seeing what the military industrial complex really is and how much more than 50% of the Congress puts money into the military. And we see the manifestation of its a priority, which is exactly what Ralph Nader said. And so they are saying in the past, the Green Party hasn't succeeded that well. You know, it's had maybe received about a million or so both each presidential election. But that we're focusing on the propaganda that was spun against what they've been saying all along because of the Gulf War, they spun that. And so now it's hard to do that with this genocide coming and this Butch Ware and Jill Stein says it's a duopoly, just two parties. And we talk about democracy. It's a travesty when you've got two parties that are in line, one of which one representative of which will be elected, most likely, who are genocidal. And the genocide is what galvanising people and what Jill Stein from the Green Party and Butch Ware from the Green Party think they're going to be able to get votes from both the Democrats and Republicans this time more than ever because they catch out of the bag. They finally see people are seeing what the military complex is doing. And now they're looking at how spending over 50% of the congressional budget is on military and all these bases outside. And what it's manifested in genocide. So I think it's very powerful now. And it's a very turning point in American politics. And we also see democracy is one of the important elements of democracy is pluralism. Pluralism means different solicitors of parties. We don't have that in the United States. It's really a duopoly as Butch Ware has stated. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, it's very largely the case in the UK as well, because we have our archaic first-past-the-post system, which means that it's very difficult for insurgent political parties, new groupings, anything populist. Oh, that's a dirty word, according to the oligarchy, you know. So, you know, we've had passed, you know, governments of only two colours for the last hundred years. United States is even worse, if anything. And the Democratic Party couldn't even give a platform to a Palestinian speaker during the recent convention. You know, all sorts of other voices were heard. Jill Stein pointed out that in the upper tier of the auditorium in Chicago, all the corporate boxes and donors sold for millions of dollars at a time, the whole circus has become so obviously so deeply corrupt, you know, with these sort of robotic flag waivers on the floor of the convention and the fully choreographed messaging with this word joy at the DNC. I mean, I think it was. And then, of course, the anointments of a candidate for whom nobody had cast a single vote and a party actively trying to suppress the candidacy of any insurgent like Robert Kennedy or Jill Stein. I mean, it's always been bad, Frank, but, you know, I just think with each cycle, so the sort of corruption malfeasance and hollow sham of American fake democracy becomes ever more exposed. Absolutely, and the fake with the capital F, finally Americans, and we're talking about the average American, which is very uncultivated and educated, is finally because of what's happening today and focused on the genocide. And also, people were seeing even average Americans, normally the bobblehead Democrats, the bobblehead Republicans, of course, extremely third party, a third party must be a communist or a socialist, are seeing, we're seeing the orchestration. And since the two parties in particular are engaged in direct or indirect genocide with Israel and all aspect, I think Americans are starting to wake up. And this might be a turning point election then, and a galvanized, a genocide of galvanizing people are waking up. But it's not, I'm not sure, you know, that we have enough time now to be able to galvanize for this election. But there's certainly momentum to change the system where the green party says, we need to have some type of socialized medicine. With all this money we're spending, the trillions of thousands of military, we can close some of these foreign bases and come back and have more of a socialized medicine, having a housing project where people are desperately, over 50% of blood desperately is barely hanging on for housing, etc. Because a lot of our money is going to the military. And again, this is why it's casting a shadow over the military because we're seeing the end result now on a daily basis, the consequences, the symbol of the military and just to accomplish, it becomes synonymous with genocide. Indeed, the way ordinary Americans are sort of completely ignored by their governments, you know, homelessness, well, it's your fault, you know, you're having to work three jobs to keep a roof over your head. Well, tough, just work harder, get a better paying job, the so-called American dream of being able to afford a family home on one wage is almost completely vanished. And yes, the eye watering, in my view, have seen amounts of money spent on weaponry on the military, as well, of course, as the billions of dollars offshore to Ukraine and Israel could be spent so much better at home. We're going to take a very short break from the headlines. When we come back, I'll talk to Frank about the latest from Gaza itself, we'll be right back. TNT. Today's new shot. TNT. And welcome back to the program. Interesting that last point from Matt Boylan there on the news. Israel has been accused of not being honest. Well, who knew about its intentions with the ceasefire negotiations? Netanyahu's never had any intention of enacting a ceasefire once the killing and ethnic cleansing to go on. Witness, what's happening in the West Bank as well, Israeli forces shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy, you know, today in far our refugee camp, the Wafah news agency reports that soldiers fired several bullets at the child, abused him and prevented ambulance crews from reaching him. Hamas says Netanyahu is thwarting a ceasefire deal by refusing to withdraw forces from Gaza's Philadelphia corridor. As you said, Frank, the bombardment killed at least 18 Palestinians yesterday and Palestinian officials say 4,000 residents have been forced to leave their homes at gunpoint in East genuine, as the UN says, Israeli forces are using war-like tactics against civilians in the occupied West Bank. And yet that total, you know, what Joe Biden this week came out talking about indicting Hamas leaders for the events of October the 7th while there is an active genocide and ethnic closing going on, which has now reached the West Bank where there is no Hamas. You know, cities are being ethnically cleansed that are supposed to form the heartlands of the Palestinian state that Biden says he supports, yet we see no pushback of any meaningful kind from Western governments, Frank. Now, and what is seemingly hypocritical is that due to the devastation of Gaza, this ongoing genocide, of course, Biden's in denial over this and just focusing on Hamas crimes, of course, which is such a laughable travesty. It's a sad travesty that we have here in the situation where in Gaza, we're trying to find some equanimity. And if there's any possibility of a ceasefire on the one side of his mouth, Biden's mouth, he's saying, well, we've got to do something. And of course, ours as well. And then stopping the flutella, which I'm very much a part of against Istanbul, I will engage. They've just some of the Mahdi Marvara people, and the Istanbul is having engaged in attaining themselves to the boat and to the port, to block the port where the boats are supposed to leak, go to Gaza, that I was supposed to be on. You should already be there with tons and tons of food, water, and medicine. Well, it's the Turkish government now that's stopping that. And I this Monday at two o'clock in front of the Turkish consulate, I will be organizing a demonstration to pressure the Turkish government to let the boats sail. So we've got this devastating issue of this genocide. And then we have Netanyahu saying, well, Hamas is not a great ceasefire. We cannot remove our forces from the Philadelphia quarter. And people don't know what that is. That's the whole border between Egypt and Gaza that Israel claims a lot of illegal arms are flowing, which is clearly wrong. The Egyptian forces have stopped, maybe something some have leaked through. There's just a pretext so that there won't be any ceasefire deal, which definitely gives rise to what Netanyahu wants. And now, since the war is simmering a bit in Gaza, even though it's still ongoing bombing, even during the polio vaccination, now he's shifting over to the West Bank. And believe me, Janine, I've spent time there. I lived in Tunisia. It was already half destroyed earlier, years ago, during an empty summit. And now they are targeting the Israeli forces. They're targeting Janine, and they're trying to root out some of the non-existing elements there to keep the fire going. They turn back to their people, say, you see? Okay, you think Gaza or we can find some type of ceasefire, but we've got an ongoing thing in the West Bank where people want to kill us as Jews in Israel, and it's like us events them, and we have the whole vicious cycle starting all over again, now focusing on the West Bank, and soon we'll be focusing, and they are focusing on Northern Israel and the Hezbollah, all to keep the war going, submitting how Netanyahu maintains power. I'm sorry. I mean, I think we need an international intervention in the West Bank and in Gaza, frankly, as quickly as possible, the United Nations troops, peacekeepers on the ground in the West Bank. Remember that the occupation is itself illegal. That was confirmed by the ICJ a few weeks ago. But I've also seen some very disturbing footage of Israeli settlers talking about the big slaughter coming up, that they are planning some kind of mass raid, mass murder of Palestinians in order to sort of finish off any semblance of, I mean, there are actually hundreds of thousands, if not billions of Palestinians living in the West Bank. But the settler raids in conjunction with the IDF, the two seem to be working hand in glove, and as I say, the footage I've seen is really very disturbing. It's a homicidal maniac talking about slaughtering as many people as you can, and, well, basically, that's the present face of Zionism. Totally, and what we need to focus on here is Israel still pretty much is acting with impunity. In spite of the ICJ, the ICC tendencies and decisions, they might not, they might as well not have bothered Frank, do you know what I mean? They might as well not have bothered. You know, everybody got excited by that ruling in January. Well, I wasn't because I saw, you know, you just passed, and I'm representing the Palestinians, I'm one of the worst of the ICC. You're absolutely right. People started and back they're all trapped, and we were saying, well, we'll see how things play out. And now that in Yahoo's saying, well, we're drawing a few soldiers from Gaza, he's finding a new front, but the settlers since 1948 have been attacking Boston, and then now they're saying, let's now take advantage of the fact that we're getting away with murder. Let's do it now in the West Bank. It's a perfect opportunity. We can turn the West Bank into Gaza, and who is going to, what's going to change? Who is, we can act with impunity, and continue this, and then move the arrest Israel, which is the overall objective of the far right, is to move Israel really into heaven and into Jordan, in this entire area, and they're on a roll here, on a murderous vicious wall with impunity. Belen Fernandez writing in Al Jazeera says, a desire to win the genocide in Gaza is not what motivates anti-government protests in Israel, rather the only lives that matter in the besieged, pulverized, and genocide-stricken Gaza Strip are the lives of the captives, whose captivity it bears underscore is entirely a result of Israeli policy and Israel's unceasing, sadistic treatment of Palestinians. Yes, we hear so much about the hostages, and I want to know what about the 9,000 hostages held in the Israeli torture Gulag. They're never considered, George Galloway was pointing out the six hostages that were killed. We had their names, their life stories. There's this abysmal asymmetry between the lives of Israelis and the lives of Palestinians when reported in corporate media. Exactly, and the six, we know their names and everything, and we're talking about six, the 9,000 are not considered hostages. You use that term rightly so, Basel, but the press in many ways, and the way the propaganda has been going, these are all terrorists. So we've got the propaganda machine going. They are hostages. They were also taken during war and should get protection of the Geneva Convention. We should know all the names of those who have been killed or injured in Gaza and so forth. But again, we've got the clear double standard and the value of life for Israeli Jews pushed to the high temporary level of Israelis. I would like to address those demonstrations in Israel. I lived in Israel as well, both in the West Bank and Israel, and their thinking is really, I hate to say even the left, even though they say, "Well, we've got to make peace with the Palestinians." Their focus really is to preserve Zionism. They're preserving Zionism because they think Netanyahu's tearing them apart and save the hostages. That is, unfortunately, that is their priority. I'm not thinking much about the Palestinians, which is clearly the worst devastating disaster almost in the history of this century, props in the history of this century and latter centuries, and yet their focus is their priority. We see that Netanyahu maintains his power in spite of these demonstrations. The names of the Palestinians that have been murdered in the genocide were being read out to attendees, delegates at the Democratic National Convention, and they literally stuck their fingers in their ears. We don't want to know as activists read out the names of some of those killed, and that's where we are with American politics. I'm afraid that's the level of debate. I think it's going to get better, Frank. That's all we can say. Yeah, things can only get better. We've got to go our time's up. Thank you so much for joining me, and I'll speak to you again soon, Frank. My pleasure. Take care, Basil. Thank you. There he goes. That's Dr. Frank Romano. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back. Bazzle Valentine on today's news talk T. N. T.
