July 13, 2025 • 34 mins
This episode uncovers the hidden connections behind today’s headlines in the Middle East, revealing how wars, peace deals, and shifting alliances are all part of a larger strategy reshaping the region. From Gaza to Yemen, it traces the real-world impact of policies that have moved from the political fringe to the center of power. You’ll hear how international support and silence have enabled dramatic changes on the ground—and why understanding these patterns matters now more than ever. Tune in to see how the dots connect, and what’s at stake for the future.
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Episode Transcript
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Raheel Khan (00:00):
Welcome back to Khannecting the Dots.
This is the conclusion of my twopart series on Netanyahu's
efforts to reshape the MiddleEast.
Last week, the headlines wereall about possible ceasefire
negotiations, peace talks, anddiplomatic breakthroughs.
Trump and Netanyahu were shakinghands at the White House.
(00:21):
The EU announced newhumanitarian deals.
Everyone was talking about howto end the war in Gaza.
But while those handshakes andpress conferences were
happening, Palestinianscontinued to die by the
hundreds.
While diplomats discussedhumanitarian access, plans moved
(00:42):
forward to relocate allPalestinians to one area of the
Gaza Strip from where they can'tleave.
While leaders spoke of peace,almost 800 people have been
killed just because they wereseeking aid to survive.
There's a disconnect here thatshould make us all pause.
When you look beyond thediplomatic theater to what's
(01:04):
actually happening on theground, a different story
emerges.
In my last episode, I coveredthe 12 day war between Israel
and Iran.
Today I wanna show you how thatconflict, the ongoing situation
in Gaza, the escalating violencein the West Bank and military
operations across Lebanon.
(01:25):
Syria and Yemen aren't separatestories.
They're chapters in the samebook, and that book is about
reshaping the Middle East, inways that go far beyond what
most people are aware of.
So let's start where thedisconnect is most obvious,
(01:45):
Gaza, where the gap between whatwe're told and what's actually
happening is impossible toignore.
What does it take to get food inGaza nowadays?
The answer, reveals a horror somethodical, so deliberately
cruel that it's hard to imagine.
(02:05):
Until you hear from the peopleliving through it every day.
NPR released a news report lastweek in which their Gaza
producer, Anas Baba, detailedhis harrowing efforts to get
food from a Gaza humanitarianfood distribution site.
In the story he says.
"I have lost a third of my bodyweight after nearly 21 months of
(02:29):
war in Gaza.
People are pale and weak.
They walk supporting themselvesby grabbing onto walls and
fences, women and children faintin the street." This is a
desperation that drivesthousands to risk their lives
for a bag of flour On Baba'sjourney, he says he"faced
Israeli military fire.
(02:50):
Private US contractors pointinglaser beams at my forehead,
crowds with knives fighting forrations and masked thieves, all
to get food from a groupsupported by the US and Israel."
He explained that the GHF sitesdon't have fixed opening hours.
They often open and close thesite within minutes.
(03:12):
If Palestinians approach a siteand it's still closed, they come
under fire.
Continuing his account.
He stated,"when we reachedcloser to the site, we were
surprised to find an Israelitank.
The crowd was wrong.
The food site was not yet open.
Every single person started toretreat and run.
(03:32):
The tank immediately openedfire.
I heard people screaming thatwere injured, others cried out.
My brother died.
My cousin died...
Finally at 2:00 AM the gunfirestopped.
We took it as a sign that thesite had opened.
I ran with the crowds toward thefood distribution site, stepping
over bodies." This isn't arandom incident, it's systematic
(03:57):
policy.
In June, 2025, one of Israel'sown newspapers, the left-leaning
Haaretz, published aninvestigation titled,"it's a
Killing Field (04:07):
iDF soldiers ordered to shoot deliberately at
unarmed Gazans waiting forhumanitarian aid." Israeli
soldiers speaking anonymouslydescribed being ordered to fire
at unarmed crowds waiting forfood aid, even when those crowds
pose no threat.
One soldier called these siteskilling fields where they use
(04:30):
heavy machine guns, grenadelaunchers, and mortars against
hungry civilians.
But it goes deeper.
In the same article, one veteranfighter talked about private
contractors making fortuneswhile civilians die.
He explained"any privatecontractor with engineering
equipment, receives 5,000shekels, roughly$1,500, for
(04:54):
every house they demolish."These contractors and their
armed security often go wherePalestinians are allowed to be,
to destroy their homes, and ifthey feel threatened in any way,
they're allowed to shoot tokill.
"So for a contractor to makeanother 5,000 shekels and take
down a house, it's deemedacceptable to kill people who
(05:15):
are only looking for food." TheBBC uncovered further disturbing
details about Gaza HumanitarianFoundation contractors.
One contractor described anincident when a Palestinian
civilian seeking food fell tothe ground after gunfire.
He stated"a Palestinian mandropped to the ground,
motionless, and then anothercontractor standing there was
(05:38):
like, damn, I think you got one.
And then they both laughed aboutit." GHF team leaders have even
referred to Palestinians as"zombie, hoards", behaving as if
they're playing a video game,not dealing with actual humans
who have lives and familiesthey're trying to feed.
Even if one survives the gunfireand is able to get some food,
(06:00):
they're still not safe.
The NPR producer continued hisstory.
Leaving the site, we werestopped by four masked thieves
holding big knives.
They told us we had two options,give them half of our loot or we
would be harmed." He and hiscousin threw two bags of food at
the thieves and ran.
(06:21):
Baba was one of the lucky ones.
He got food and made it backrelatively unharmed.
There's countless that don't.
He recounts"At 4:30 thatmorning.
I went to the hospital to ascene of screaming and blood.
The hospital had run out ofwhite shrouds to cover the
deceased.
The dead bodies lying in thehospital floor were covered by
(06:42):
the same empty sacks once filledwith flour given out as
international aid that they hadtaken with them in the hopes of
filling them up with food."Since these US backed sites
opened in May of this year,almost 800 Palestinians have
been killed while seeking food.
Over 600 at the GHF sites andanother 180 at routes for aid
(07:05):
convoys.
Just last week alone, there wereat least 30 people killed,
several of them children.
This is in addition to thehundreds that have been killed
by Israel's bombs, includingeight children at a school.
All while ceasefire negotiationssupposedly continue.
(07:26):
The killings have reached apoint, that the head of the UN
Agency for Palestinian Aid hassaid that Israel is turning Gaza
"into a graveyard of childrenand starving." When Haaretz
published its piece on theKilling Fields, Netanyahu called
them"Blood Libel" labelingfirsthand accounts from his own
soldiers as"maliciousfalsehoods, designed to defame
(07:49):
the IDF, the most moral army inthe world." Yet since then,
major outlets like NPR, BBC, andPBS have documented firsthand
accounts of Palestinians riskingdeath while trying to collect
food from aid sites.
The pattern is clear.
(08:10):
Unarmed civilians, desperate foraid are routinely met with
deadly force.
Shot and killed by"the mostmoral army in the world." The
daily killings are only part ofa broader strategy that's been
months in the making.
This isn't just about stoppingHamas, it's about emptying Gaza
(08:34):
entirely.
The plan became public back inFebruary of this year when Trump
had proposed that the US"takeover Gaza" and turn it into the
"Riviera of the Middle East",displacing its 2.2 million
residents.
Within days Defense MinisterIsrael Katz announced that
Israel would prepare plans forthe"voluntary departure" of
(08:57):
Palestinians from Gaza.
But the mask slipped quickly.
Just two weeks later,communications minister Schlomo
Karhi openly called this a"deportation plan",
contradicting Netanyahu'seuphemistic language about
"voluntary migration".
By March, Israel had establishedan entire government agency to
(09:19):
oversee Palestinian"voluntarydeparture".
In the past week, on July 7th,Katz announced a specific
implementation plan, ahumanitarian city built on the
ruins of Rafa that wouldinitially house 600,000
Palestinians from the Al-Mawasicoastal area, with the eventual
(09:41):
goal of concentrating all theGaza's residents in this single
enclosed zone.
Many critics around the worldare calling this plan a
concentration camp.
It's a loaded term, but that'sexactly what this is.
The Israeli government plans onconcentrating the entire
population of Gaza in oneenclosed area.
(10:04):
The Palestinians would undergosecurity screening before being
allowed in, and once inside theywould be as Katz himself stated,
"not be allowed to leave thezone." The only way they could
leave is to deport to anothercountry.
What Israel is proposing is aconcentration camp and ethnic
cleansing all tied up togetherin one neat package Against this
(10:29):
backdrop of starvation, murder,and plans for mass displacement,
we have ongoing ceasefirenegotiations.
Hamas submitted a positiveresponse to recent proposals on
July 4th, but Netanyahu calledtheir conditions"unacceptable to
Israel", but still authorizingthe negotiators to continue
(10:50):
talks.
Last week, Netanyahu was inWashington where he met with
Trump twice as well as otherlawmakers.
Trump has expressed optimismabout reaching a deal, saying
that the two sides are probablyjust weeks away.
The times of Israel evenrecently reported that the Trump
administration is assuringmediators.
(11:11):
It won't let Israel resume theGaza war after the 60 day
ceasefire.
But here's the fundamentaldishonesty of it all.
Even as Trump is pushing forpeace and reportedly giving
assurances, he approved a new$510 million arm sale to Israel.
This while hundreds morePalestinians are being killed on
(11:34):
a weekly basis.
And let's face it, any supposedpersonal guarantee from Trump
doesn't really mean much,especially in this context.
He has never cared about thePalestinian issue.
Remember.
This is the same guy locking upand deporting pro-Palestinian
protestors and insulted Senateminority leader Chuck Schumer,
(11:57):
by referring to him as aPalestinian.
He just wants his name on apeace deal so he can claim
credit and move on.
He doesn't care what happensafterwards.
And what about this peace deal?
Let's take a closer look atwhat's happening.
The original proposal thatIsrael supposedly accepted: a 60
(12:18):
day pause in the fighting;phased release of the hostages
over 50 days in exchange forPalestinian prisoners;
resumption of aid into Gaza,handled by the UN and Palestine
Red Crescent; Israeli forceswould pull back to a buffer zone
along Gaza's borders.
Hamas responded a few dayslater, seeking: a permanent
(12:40):
cease fire guarantee, not just atemporary pause; complete
withdrawal of all Israeli troopsfrom Gaza, not just the buffer
zones; unrestricted humanitarianaid without Israeli
interference; and release of allhostages and prisoners as part
of a comprehensive deal, not instages or with uncertain
(13:01):
timelines.
In just the past few days, thewar of words between the two
sides has escalated, dimminghopes for a peace deal.
Netanyahu spelled out Israel'sminimal requirements.
Hamas must disarm be dismantledmilitarily and politically, and
disappeared from Gaza entirely.
(13:22):
He warned that this isn'tachieved through talks, israel
will do it with force.
Meanwhile, he apparently toldhostage families that releasing
all captives at once wasimpossible leading Hamas to
condemn this as proof of his"malicious intentions." Now, I
know that as a terroristorganization, many people will
(13:43):
find it hard to take what Hamassays at face value.
But Netanyahu's"maliciousintentions" have been described
by more credible sources aswell.
An editorial in Haaretz alsowarned that if Netanyahu is in
charge of brokering any peacedeal, it's bound to fail.
They argued that he's repeatedlysabotaged peace processes when
(14:06):
they threatened his politicalsurvival.
His entire strategy depends onmaintaining perpetual crises.
Keeping the conflict going toavoid corruption trials and
potential state inquiries.
In October 7th Failures, theystated"that unless Trump forces
the Prime Minister's hand, theremight be no ceasefire and no
(14:27):
hostages released." But there'san even deeper problem with
these negotiations.
The Palestinians are being facedwith the ultimate devil's
bargain.
Continue with the massstarvation, daily bombings and
killings, or agree to a peacedeal during which time they may
be forced into a concentrationcamp and eventually expelled
(14:49):
from the land they have alwayscalled home.
If Gaza represents the mostvisible horror, the West Bank
reveals the growingpervasiveness of that horror.
Since October 7th, 2023, atleast 1000 Palestinians have
been killed in the West Bank,the deadliest period since UN
(15:09):
record keeping began.
There have been over 1800documented settler attacks, an
average of four per day.
Since October 7th, the Israelimilitary has called up 5,500
settlers into regional defensebattalions and distributed 7,000
guns to settlement securitysquads.
(15:30):
We're watching the officialmilitarization of settler
violence.
Just over a week ago, settlersset fire to Palestinian property
and soldiers killed threePalestinians in the village of
Kafr Malik.
And on July 11th, Israelisettlers beat an American
citizen to death.
Seif al-Din Muslat, aPalestinian American from
(15:52):
Florida visiting his family inthe West Bank.
Each story of violence is atragedy.
But let's talk about oneparticular incident that
captures the essence of what'sbeen happening in the West Bank.
On March 24th, 2025, just threeweeks after winning an Oscar for
"No Other Land", Palestinianfilmmaker, Hamdan Ballal was
(16:15):
attacked by armed Israelisettlers outside his home in the
village of Susya in the WestBank.
It started when a group ofsettlers arrived to his village
and started to attack hisneighbors, two farmers in their
sixties.
When he tried to document theviolence, three masked settlers,
including one who had previouslyattacked him and was known to
(16:36):
authorities, came after himbeating him outside his front
door as his wife and their threesmall children screamed in fear
for his and their lives.
Israeli soldiers soon arrivedoutside his home where they shot
live rounds into the air.
Then one soldier pushed hisrifle into his leg and told him,
"I will put the shot in yourbody." After the attack, Ballal
(17:02):
and two other Palestinians weretaken away by Israeli soldiers
and detained in the militaryfacility where he said he was
handcuffed, blindfolded, andbeaten.
His attackers were left to walkfree.
After his release still bloodiedfrom his ordeal.
Ballal described his experience.
"I was blindfolded for 24 hours.
(17:24):
All the night I was freezing.
I heard the voice of soldierslaughing about me." Describing
the incident with the settlers.
He said one settler kicked hishead"like a football".
He went on to say.
"I told myself, if they willattack me, if they killed me, I
will protect my family.
His wife stated,"of course,after the Oscar, they had come
(17:45):
to attack us more, I feltafraid." Think about the
depravity of this incident.
An Oscar winning director beatennearly to death as his wife and
children cower in fear.
Why?
Because he had the audacity toexpose Israeli settler violence,
to a global audience.
This fits a pattern that Haaretzhas been documenting with
(18:07):
increasingly urgent language.
In April, they published aneditorial titled"Pogromists Rule
The West Bank." By June,"QuietWest Bank, Pogrom in Progress".
The word pogrom traditionallyused to describe the massacre
and ethnic cleansing of Jews isbeing used by an Israeli
newspaper to describe what Jewsare doing to the Palestinians in
(18:31):
the West Bank.
While Gaza Burns and the WestBank faces Pogroms, Israel has
steadily expanded militaryoperations across the region.
Each front serves the samestrategic purpose, eliminating
obstacles to Israeli regionaldominance.
In Lebanon, despite the November2024 ceasefire agreement.
(18:54):
Israel has carried out hundredsof airstrikes on different parts
of Lebanon, killing at least 250people and injuring over 600.
Israel is also still holdingfive strategic posts inside
Lebanon that it's refused towithdraw from.
Even last week, Israel continuesto launch airstrikes into
Southern Lebanon and had alimited ground incursion.
(19:18):
This while the US attempts tobroker a more permanent
ceasefire between the twocountries.
Here's the catch, though.
Israel is demanding the completedisarmament of Hezbollah.
While Hezbollah's leaders insistthe group needs to keep some
weapons to defend Lebanon fromIsrael.
Israel's message is clear,complete surrender, or continued
(19:40):
occupation.
And amid all of this, the US isallegedly floating the idea of
getting Lebanon to sign on tothe Abraham Accords.
Let's look at Syria, whichrepresents the clearest example
of opportunistic territorialexpansion.
When Assad's governmentcollapsed last year in December,
Israeli forces moved withinhours, launching Operation Arrow
(20:04):
of Bashan with over 600 strikesin eight days, destroying 70 to
80% of Syria's strategicweapons.
Israel has expanded itsterritory in Syria by several
hundred square miles and claimsthe 1974 Disengagement Agreement
has collapsed.
This was supposed to betemporary, but Netanyahu later
(20:26):
declared the occupationindefinite.
Since then, they have built atleast nine military posts in
Syrian territory.
In February of this year, Israelescalated its invasion of
Southern Syria while conductinga wave of airstrikes there and
in Damascus just one day afterdemanding the complete
demilitarization of SouthernSyria.
(20:49):
Now Israel and Syria are engagedin US brokered advanced talks
aimed at normalization with theUS hinting at Syria's potential
inclusion in the AbrahamAccords.
All the while Israel maintainsits expanded, territorial
control.
Now let's turn to Yemen.
Because what's happening thereis yet another example of the
(21:11):
bigger pattern we've beentracing throughout this episode.
The Houthis backed by Iran areanother piece of what's often
called Iran's axis ofresistance.
They're one of the groups thatcould stand in the way of
Israeli dominance in the region.
In late 2023, the Houthisstarted attacking cargo ships in
(21:32):
the Red Sea saying they weredoing it to support Palestinians
under Israeli bombardment.
Since then, they've targetedover a hundred ships causing
chaos for global trade andsending Suez canal traffic
plummeting by more than 60%.
That's not just a regionalproblem, that's a shock wave
felt around the world.
(21:52):
The latest U.S.
response was"Operation RoughRider" launching more than 800
strikes on H targets; commandcenters, air defenses, weapon
depots, even factories andports.
Civilian areas got hit too,according to some reports.
By May the US and the Houthisagreed to a ceasefire.
(22:13):
But here's the catch.
Israel wasn't part of that deal.
That wasn't an accident.
It meant Israel could keepstriking Houthis targets while
the US stepped back.
And when the Houthis ramped upagain recently, sinking two
ships, killing several crewmembers, and reportedly taking
hostages.
Israel responded by bombing atleast three Yemeni ports and a
(22:36):
power plant.
Each new round of attacks andretaliation pulls Israel deeper
into the conflict, all under thebanner of security.
But if you zoom out, you see thesame logic at work as in Lebanon
and Syria.
Systematically weakening anyIranian back group that could
challenge Israeli power in theregion.
(22:59):
This isn't just about defense,it's about making sure no
resistance, no matter where itcomes from, can threaten the new
regional order Israel is tryingto build.
Israeli officials frame theseoperations as defensive,
eliminating terroristorganizations that have attacked
Israel.
But this narrative obscures acrucial irony.
(23:21):
Many of these groups formspecifically as resistance to
previous Israeli actions.
Hezbollah emerged in 1985 duringIsrael's 18 year occupation of
Southern Lebanon.
The group's legitimacy andsupport grew as it positioned
itself as the primary forceresisting Israeli occupation.
(23:41):
Hamas was founded in 1987 as adirect response to Israeli
military occupation of Gaza andthe West Bank.
They were initially toleratedand even indirectly encouraged
by Israeli authorities as acounterweight to the secular
Palestinian LiberationOrganization.
One of Netanyahu's ownassociates, Israeli General
(24:03):
Gershon Hacohen, once said,"Netanyahu's strategy is to
prevent the option of twostates.
So he's turning Hamas into hisclosest partner.
Openly, hamas is an enemy,covertly, it's an ally."
Israel's head of ReligiousAffairs in Gaza's said back in
2009,"Hamas, to my great regretis Israel's creation." And the
(24:27):
Houthis, as I mentioned aboveanother Iran backed proxy, while
not directly created by Israeliactions, escalated their attacks
against Israel, specifically outof solidarity with the people of
Gaza.
The pattern is clear.
Israeli military actions createresistance movements, which then
become justification forexpanded military operations.
(24:49):
Which create new forms ofresistance.
It's a cycle that ensuresperpetual conflict, exactly what
Netanyahu's political survivalrequires.
Each military victory removesanother obstacle to further
expansion.
As you heard above, the AbrahamAccords keep being teased as a
(25:10):
way to end Israeli aggression.
Before I dive further into thisissue, let's first talk about
what the Abraham Accordsactually are.
In 2020, the Trumpadministration brokered
agreements between Israel andfour Arab countries; the UAE,
Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
These countries agreed toestablish full diplomatic
(25:33):
relations with Israel, somethingthat had happened with only two
Arab nations prior- Egypt in1979 and Jordan in 1994.
But here's something that's nottalked about much.
For decades, most of the Arabworld maintained a unified
position called the Arab PeaceInitiative.
Launched by Saudi Arabia in2002.
(25:55):
It offered Israel peace andnormalization with all 22 Arab
League countries, but only inexchange for a complete Israeli
withdrawal from occupiedPalestinian Territories and the
establishment of a Palestinianstate with East Jerusalem as its
capital.
The Abraham Accords shatteredthat consensus.
(26:16):
These four countries normalizedrelations with Israel without
requiring any meaningfulconcessions on Palestinian
rights.
Palestinians weren't evenconsulted.
The message was clear.
Palestinian liberation was nolonger a prerequisite for Arab
Israeli peace.
Sadly, some if not many Arableaders had given up on the
(26:39):
Palestinian cause already.
Just last year, Saudi CrownPrince Mohammed bin Salman,
allegedly told then Secretary ofState Blinken.
"Do I care personally about thePalestinian issue?
I don't, but my people do." Hismain reason for not normalizing
ties with Israel, fears ofassassination.
(26:59):
He didn't want to end up likeAnwar Sadat, the leader of Egypt
after the 1979 Peace Treaty.
The Abraham Accords representthe fundamental shift from a
Middle East where Palestinianrights were central to regional
peace, to one where those rightshave become an obstacle to
regional integration.
And now these very same accordsare being used as a carrot, a
(27:23):
way to stop Israeli aggression.
The message, stop caring aboutthe Palestinians, normalize ties
with Israel, and we'll stopbombing you and killing your
civilians.
To understand where this is allheading, we need to only listen
to what Israeli leaders aresaying themselves.
In September, 2023, Netanyahupresented to the UN a map
(27:45):
showing the new Middle East withIsrael encompassing all of
historic Palestine.
No West Bank, no Gaza.
Just Israel from theMediterranean to the Jordan
River.
This wasn't a mistake.
This was Netanyahu presentinghis vision.
A Middle East where Palestinesimply doesn't exist.
(28:07):
"From the river to the sea.
Israel will be free", is aslogan.
Israeli leaders are apparentlyokay with.
But listen to what is coalitionpartners, the people he depends
on to stay in power are sayingopenly.
National Security MinisterItamar Ben Gvir, convicted in
2007 of racist incitement nowcontrols West Bank border
(28:28):
police.
He has handed out thousands ofassault rifles to West Bank
settlers and boasted aboutworsening the conditions of
Palestinian prisoners.
He has also stated that it's a"moral obligation for Jews to
return to the Gaza Strip" andencouraged the voluntary
departure of the residents ofGaza.
(28:48):
Finance Minister BezalalSmotrich declared,"there's no
such thing as a Palestiniannation.
There never was a Palestinianpeople." He controls Israel's
Settlements Administration, andhas stated, Israel's goal is
"destroying everything that'sleft of the Gaza Strip".
Promising total destruction,"which has no precedent
(29:09):
globally".
Under his authority, Israel in2024 confiscated more
Palestinian land in the WestBank than in the previous 20
years combined.
He has also displayed maps ofsomething known as"Greater
Israel" while publicly speaking.
This concept's roots go back toa biblical passage describing a
(29:30):
land promised to the Jewishpeople from"the river of Egypt
to the Euphrates".
This has been discussed by farright groups for over a hundred
years.
Modern day interpretations rangefrom land Israel currently
controls, occupied Palestine andGolan Heights, to territories in
neighboring countries such asJordan.
(29:51):
Syria and Lebanon.
There's an even more extremeversion that comes from Israeli
writer and politician, AviLipkin, who laid out his vision
of territorial goals, in aJanuary, 2024 video that went
viral across the Arab world,this is what he said.
(30:36):
Let's stop for a moment andthink about what he's saying
there.
This is the most extreme visionof Greater Israel.
Territory that goes far beyondoccupied Palestine and the Golan
Heights.
He wants parts of Lebanon.
Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, andSaudi Arabia.
(30:57):
He believes Israel would takethe holiest sights in Islam.
So why are we listening to thisguy?
He's surely fringe even byIsraeli political standards.
But so were Ben Gvir andSmotrich up until recently.
In Israeli politics today, whatwas once fringe has taken center
stage.
Those once considered faroutside the political norm are
(31:20):
now king makers.
It's a pattern we've seenelsewhere too.
In the US beliefs that oncebelonged to the political
fringe, now set the agendawielding influence, and shaping
decisions at the highest levelsof government.
Okay.
Let's take a step back for asecond.
I've covered a lot in thisepisode.
(31:40):
It's easy to get lost in all thedetails.
The point I wanna make here, mytake home message is that what
we're witnessing across theMiddle East are not a random
series of events.
When you start connecting thedots, it becomes clear this is a
coordinated strategy, enabled byinternational support and
(32:02):
indifference, that treatsPalestinian existence and Arab
resistance as obstacles to beremoved.
Ideas once confined to thefringes are now shaping real
policy.
The results of this almost 800Gazan's killed trying to access
aid, a dramatic rise in settlerviolence in the West Bank,
(32:24):
hundreds, if not thousands,killed the across Syria,
Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran.
All in the name of Israelisecurity, but as we've seen,
it's about more than security.
It's something far more widereaching.
Then there's the AbrahamAccords.
Once hailed as Peace Deals nowfunctioning as a framework for
(32:46):
coercion.
Countries face a stark choice.
Accept Israeli territorial gainsand strategic dominance through
normalization or face increasingmilitary attacks that destroys
infrastructure and killscivilians.
And this transformation ishappening with American weapons,
American diplomatic cover, andAmerican silence.
(33:09):
Every bunker buster bomb, everyartillery shell, every UN veto.
Enables not just the immediateviolence we're witnessing, but
the broader project of reshapingthe Middle East according to
this vision of Israeli hegemony.
But American involvement alsomeans we have the power to stop
it.
If we choose to use that power.
(33:30):
American public opinion isshifting.
Favorability towards Israel ison the decline.
Now is the time to make ourvoices heard.
Support organizations thatadvocate for justice and peace.
Contact your representatives andtell them to stop supporting
Netanyahu's vision of a newMiddle East.
If this episode has opened youreyes to the connections you
(33:52):
hadn't seen before, don't letthat awareness fade.
Share this episode.
Talk about it.
Follow the podcast wherever youlisten.
Leave a review and remember,staying informed is a great
first step, but now we shouldact on what we learned.
The world won't change becausewe hope it will.
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It changes when we refuse toaccept the unacceptable.
Until next time, stay curious,stay critical, and stay
connected.
Welcome back to Khannecting the Dots.
This is the conclusion of my twopart series on Netanyahu's
efforts to reshape the MiddleEast.
Last week, the headlines wereall about possible ceasefire
negotiations, peace talks, anddiplomatic breakthroughs.
Trump and Netanyahu were shakinghands at the White House.
(00:21):
The EU announced newhumanitarian deals.
Everyone was talking about howto end the war in Gaza.
But while those handshakes andpress conferences were
happening, Palestinianscontinued to die by the
hundreds.
While diplomats discussedhumanitarian access, plans moved
(00:42):
forward to relocate allPalestinians to one area of the
Gaza Strip from where they can'tleave.
While leaders spoke of peace,almost 800 people have been
killed just because they wereseeking aid to survive.
There's a disconnect here thatshould make us all pause.
When you look beyond thediplomatic theater to what's
(01:04):
actually happening on theground, a different story
emerges.
In my last episode, I coveredthe 12 day war between Israel
and Iran.
Today I wanna show you how thatconflict, the ongoing situation
in Gaza, the escalating violencein the West Bank and military
operations across Lebanon.
(01:25):
Syria and Yemen aren't separatestories.
They're chapters in the samebook, and that book is about
reshaping the Middle East, inways that go far beyond what
most people are aware of.
So let's start where thedisconnect is most obvious,
(01:45):
Gaza, where the gap between whatwe're told and what's actually
happening is impossible toignore.
What does it take to get food inGaza nowadays?
The answer, reveals a horror somethodical, so deliberately
cruel that it's hard to imagine.
(02:05):
Until you hear from the peopleliving through it every day.
NPR released a news report lastweek in which their Gaza
producer, Anas Baba, detailedhis harrowing efforts to get
food from a Gaza humanitarianfood distribution site.
In the story he says.
"I have lost a third of my bodyweight after nearly 21 months of
(02:29):
war in Gaza.
People are pale and weak.
They walk supporting themselvesby grabbing onto walls and
fences, women and children faintin the street." This is a
desperation that drivesthousands to risk their lives
for a bag of flour On Baba'sjourney, he says he"faced
Israeli military fire.
(02:50):
Private US contractors pointinglaser beams at my forehead,
crowds with knives fighting forrations and masked thieves, all
to get food from a groupsupported by the US and Israel."
He explained that the GHF sitesdon't have fixed opening hours.
They often open and close thesite within minutes.
(03:12):
If Palestinians approach a siteand it's still closed, they come
under fire.
Continuing his account.
He stated,"when we reachedcloser to the site, we were
surprised to find an Israelitank.
The crowd was wrong.
The food site was not yet open.
Every single person started toretreat and run.
(03:32):
The tank immediately openedfire.
I heard people screaming thatwere injured, others cried out.
My brother died.
My cousin died...
Finally at 2:00 AM the gunfirestopped.
We took it as a sign that thesite had opened.
I ran with the crowds toward thefood distribution site, stepping
over bodies." This isn't arandom incident, it's systematic
(03:57):
policy.
In June, 2025, one of Israel'sown newspapers, the left-leaning
Haaretz, published aninvestigation titled,"it's a
Killing Field (04:07):
iDF soldiers ordered to shoot deliberately at
unarmed Gazans waiting forhumanitarian aid." Israeli
soldiers speaking anonymouslydescribed being ordered to fire
at unarmed crowds waiting forfood aid, even when those crowds
pose no threat.
One soldier called these siteskilling fields where they use
(04:30):
heavy machine guns, grenadelaunchers, and mortars against
hungry civilians.
But it goes deeper.
In the same article, one veteranfighter talked about private
contractors making fortuneswhile civilians die.
He explained"any privatecontractor with engineering
equipment, receives 5,000shekels, roughly$1,500, for
(04:54):
every house they demolish."These contractors and their
armed security often go wherePalestinians are allowed to be,
to destroy their homes, and ifthey feel threatened in any way,
they're allowed to shoot tokill.
"So for a contractor to makeanother 5,000 shekels and take
down a house, it's deemedacceptable to kill people who
(05:15):
are only looking for food." TheBBC uncovered further disturbing
details about Gaza HumanitarianFoundation contractors.
One contractor described anincident when a Palestinian
civilian seeking food fell tothe ground after gunfire.
He stated"a Palestinian mandropped to the ground,
motionless, and then anothercontractor standing there was
(05:38):
like, damn, I think you got one.
And then they both laughed aboutit." GHF team leaders have even
referred to Palestinians as"zombie, hoards", behaving as if
they're playing a video game,not dealing with actual humans
who have lives and familiesthey're trying to feed.
Even if one survives the gunfireand is able to get some food,
(06:00):
they're still not safe.
The NPR producer continued hisstory.
Leaving the site, we werestopped by four masked thieves
holding big knives.
They told us we had two options,give them half of our loot or we
would be harmed." He and hiscousin threw two bags of food at
the thieves and ran.
(06:21):
Baba was one of the lucky ones.
He got food and made it backrelatively unharmed.
There's countless that don't.
He recounts"At 4:30 thatmorning.
I went to the hospital to ascene of screaming and blood.
The hospital had run out ofwhite shrouds to cover the
deceased.
The dead bodies lying in thehospital floor were covered by
(06:42):
the same empty sacks once filledwith flour given out as
international aid that they hadtaken with them in the hopes of
filling them up with food."Since these US backed sites
opened in May of this year,almost 800 Palestinians have
been killed while seeking food.
Over 600 at the GHF sites andanother 180 at routes for aid
(07:05):
convoys.
Just last week alone, there wereat least 30 people killed,
several of them children.
This is in addition to thehundreds that have been killed
by Israel's bombs, includingeight children at a school.
All while ceasefire negotiationssupposedly continue.
(07:26):
The killings have reached apoint, that the head of the UN
Agency for Palestinian Aid hassaid that Israel is turning Gaza
"into a graveyard of childrenand starving." When Haaretz
published its piece on theKilling Fields, Netanyahu called
them"Blood Libel" labelingfirsthand accounts from his own
soldiers as"maliciousfalsehoods, designed to defame
(07:49):
the IDF, the most moral army inthe world." Yet since then,
major outlets like NPR, BBC, andPBS have documented firsthand
accounts of Palestinians riskingdeath while trying to collect
food from aid sites.
The pattern is clear.
(08:10):
Unarmed civilians, desperate foraid are routinely met with
deadly force.
Shot and killed by"the mostmoral army in the world." The
daily killings are only part ofa broader strategy that's been
months in the making.
This isn't just about stoppingHamas, it's about emptying Gaza
(08:34):
entirely.
The plan became public back inFebruary of this year when Trump
had proposed that the US"takeover Gaza" and turn it into the
"Riviera of the Middle East",displacing its 2.2 million
residents.
Within days Defense MinisterIsrael Katz announced that
Israel would prepare plans forthe"voluntary departure" of
(08:57):
Palestinians from Gaza.
But the mask slipped quickly.
Just two weeks later,communications minister Schlomo
Karhi openly called this a"deportation plan",
contradicting Netanyahu'seuphemistic language about
"voluntary migration".
By March, Israel had establishedan entire government agency to
(09:19):
oversee Palestinian"voluntarydeparture".
In the past week, on July 7th,Katz announced a specific
implementation plan, ahumanitarian city built on the
ruins of Rafa that wouldinitially house 600,000
Palestinians from the Al-Mawasicoastal area, with the eventual
(09:41):
goal of concentrating all theGaza's residents in this single
enclosed zone.
Many critics around the worldare calling this plan a
concentration camp.
It's a loaded term, but that'sexactly what this is.
The Israeli government plans onconcentrating the entire
population of Gaza in oneenclosed area.
(10:04):
The Palestinians would undergosecurity screening before being
allowed in, and once inside theywould be as Katz himself stated,
"not be allowed to leave thezone." The only way they could
leave is to deport to anothercountry.
What Israel is proposing is aconcentration camp and ethnic
cleansing all tied up togetherin one neat package Against this
(10:29):
backdrop of starvation, murder,and plans for mass displacement,
we have ongoing ceasefirenegotiations.
Hamas submitted a positiveresponse to recent proposals on
July 4th, but Netanyahu calledtheir conditions"unacceptable to
Israel", but still authorizingthe negotiators to continue
(10:50):
talks.
Last week, Netanyahu was inWashington where he met with
Trump twice as well as otherlawmakers.
Trump has expressed optimismabout reaching a deal, saying
that the two sides are probablyjust weeks away.
The times of Israel evenrecently reported that the Trump
administration is assuringmediators.
(11:11):
It won't let Israel resume theGaza war after the 60 day
ceasefire.
But here's the fundamentaldishonesty of it all.
Even as Trump is pushing forpeace and reportedly giving
assurances, he approved a new$510 million arm sale to Israel.
This while hundreds morePalestinians are being killed on
(11:34):
a weekly basis.
And let's face it, any supposedpersonal guarantee from Trump
doesn't really mean much,especially in this context.
He has never cared about thePalestinian issue.
Remember.
This is the same guy locking upand deporting pro-Palestinian
protestors and insulted Senateminority leader Chuck Schumer,
(11:57):
by referring to him as aPalestinian.
He just wants his name on apeace deal so he can claim
credit and move on.
He doesn't care what happensafterwards.
And what about this peace deal?
Let's take a closer look atwhat's happening.
The original proposal thatIsrael supposedly accepted: a 60
(12:18):
day pause in the fighting;phased release of the hostages
over 50 days in exchange forPalestinian prisoners;
resumption of aid into Gaza,handled by the UN and Palestine
Red Crescent; Israeli forceswould pull back to a buffer zone
along Gaza's borders.
Hamas responded a few dayslater, seeking: a permanent
(12:40):
cease fire guarantee, not just atemporary pause; complete
withdrawal of all Israeli troopsfrom Gaza, not just the buffer
zones; unrestricted humanitarianaid without Israeli
interference; and release of allhostages and prisoners as part
of a comprehensive deal, not instages or with uncertain
(13:01):
timelines.
In just the past few days, thewar of words between the two
sides has escalated, dimminghopes for a peace deal.
Netanyahu spelled out Israel'sminimal requirements.
Hamas must disarm be dismantledmilitarily and politically, and
disappeared from Gaza entirely.
(13:22):
He warned that this isn'tachieved through talks, israel
will do it with force.
Meanwhile, he apparently toldhostage families that releasing
all captives at once wasimpossible leading Hamas to
condemn this as proof of his"malicious intentions." Now, I
know that as a terroristorganization, many people will
(13:43):
find it hard to take what Hamassays at face value.
But Netanyahu's"maliciousintentions" have been described
by more credible sources aswell.
An editorial in Haaretz alsowarned that if Netanyahu is in
charge of brokering any peacedeal, it's bound to fail.
They argued that he's repeatedlysabotaged peace processes when
(14:06):
they threatened his politicalsurvival.
His entire strategy depends onmaintaining perpetual crises.
Keeping the conflict going toavoid corruption trials and
potential state inquiries.
In October 7th Failures, theystated"that unless Trump forces
the Prime Minister's hand, theremight be no ceasefire and no
(14:27):
hostages released." But there'san even deeper problem with
these negotiations.
The Palestinians are being facedwith the ultimate devil's
bargain.
Continue with the massstarvation, daily bombings and
killings, or agree to a peacedeal during which time they may
be forced into a concentrationcamp and eventually expelled
(14:49):
from the land they have alwayscalled home.
If Gaza represents the mostvisible horror, the West Bank
reveals the growingpervasiveness of that horror.
Since October 7th, 2023, atleast 1000 Palestinians have
been killed in the West Bank,the deadliest period since UN
(15:09):
record keeping began.
There have been over 1800documented settler attacks, an
average of four per day.
Since October 7th, the Israelimilitary has called up 5,500
settlers into regional defensebattalions and distributed 7,000
guns to settlement securitysquads.
(15:30):
We're watching the officialmilitarization of settler
violence.
Just over a week ago, settlersset fire to Palestinian property
and soldiers killed threePalestinians in the village of
Kafr Malik.
And on July 11th, Israelisettlers beat an American
citizen to death.
Seif al-Din Muslat, aPalestinian American from
(15:52):
Florida visiting his family inthe West Bank.
Each story of violence is atragedy.
But let's talk about oneparticular incident that
captures the essence of what'sbeen happening in the West Bank.
On March 24th, 2025, just threeweeks after winning an Oscar for
"No Other Land", Palestinianfilmmaker, Hamdan Ballal was
(16:15):
attacked by armed Israelisettlers outside his home in the
village of Susya in the WestBank.
It started when a group ofsettlers arrived to his village
and started to attack hisneighbors, two farmers in their
sixties.
When he tried to document theviolence, three masked settlers,
including one who had previouslyattacked him and was known to
(16:36):
authorities, came after himbeating him outside his front
door as his wife and their threesmall children screamed in fear
for his and their lives.
Israeli soldiers soon arrivedoutside his home where they shot
live rounds into the air.
Then one soldier pushed hisrifle into his leg and told him,
"I will put the shot in yourbody." After the attack, Ballal
(17:02):
and two other Palestinians weretaken away by Israeli soldiers
and detained in the militaryfacility where he said he was
handcuffed, blindfolded, andbeaten.
His attackers were left to walkfree.
After his release still bloodiedfrom his ordeal.
Ballal described his experience.
"I was blindfolded for 24 hours.
(17:24):
All the night I was freezing.
I heard the voice of soldierslaughing about me." Describing
the incident with the settlers.
He said one settler kicked hishead"like a football".
He went on to say.
"I told myself, if they willattack me, if they killed me, I
will protect my family.
His wife stated,"of course,after the Oscar, they had come
(17:45):
to attack us more, I feltafraid." Think about the
depravity of this incident.
An Oscar winning director beatennearly to death as his wife and
children cower in fear.
Why?
Because he had the audacity toexpose Israeli settler violence,
to a global audience.
This fits a pattern that Haaretzhas been documenting with
(18:07):
increasingly urgent language.
In April, they published aneditorial titled"Pogromists Rule
The West Bank." By June,"QuietWest Bank, Pogrom in Progress".
The word pogrom traditionallyused to describe the massacre
and ethnic cleansing of Jews isbeing used by an Israeli
newspaper to describe what Jewsare doing to the Palestinians in
(18:31):
the West Bank.
While Gaza Burns and the WestBank faces Pogroms, Israel has
steadily expanded militaryoperations across the region.
Each front serves the samestrategic purpose, eliminating
obstacles to Israeli regionaldominance.
In Lebanon, despite the November2024 ceasefire agreement.
(18:54):
Israel has carried out hundredsof airstrikes on different parts
of Lebanon, killing at least 250people and injuring over 600.
Israel is also still holdingfive strategic posts inside
Lebanon that it's refused towithdraw from.
Even last week, Israel continuesto launch airstrikes into
Southern Lebanon and had alimited ground incursion.
(19:18):
This while the US attempts tobroker a more permanent
ceasefire between the twocountries.
Here's the catch, though.
Israel is demanding the completedisarmament of Hezbollah.
While Hezbollah's leaders insistthe group needs to keep some
weapons to defend Lebanon fromIsrael.
Israel's message is clear,complete surrender, or continued
(19:40):
occupation.
And amid all of this, the US isallegedly floating the idea of
getting Lebanon to sign on tothe Abraham Accords.
Let's look at Syria, whichrepresents the clearest example
of opportunistic territorialexpansion.
When Assad's governmentcollapsed last year in December,
Israeli forces moved withinhours, launching Operation Arrow
(20:04):
of Bashan with over 600 strikesin eight days, destroying 70 to
80% of Syria's strategicweapons.
Israel has expanded itsterritory in Syria by several
hundred square miles and claimsthe 1974 Disengagement Agreement
has collapsed.
This was supposed to betemporary, but Netanyahu later
(20:26):
declared the occupationindefinite.
Since then, they have built atleast nine military posts in
Syrian territory.
In February of this year, Israelescalated its invasion of
Southern Syria while conductinga wave of airstrikes there and
in Damascus just one day afterdemanding the complete
demilitarization of SouthernSyria.
(20:49):
Now Israel and Syria are engagedin US brokered advanced talks
aimed at normalization with theUS hinting at Syria's potential
inclusion in the AbrahamAccords.
All the while Israel maintainsits expanded, territorial
control.
Now let's turn to Yemen.
Because what's happening thereis yet another example of the
(21:11):
bigger pattern we've beentracing throughout this episode.
The Houthis backed by Iran areanother piece of what's often
called Iran's axis ofresistance.
They're one of the groups thatcould stand in the way of
Israeli dominance in the region.
In late 2023, the Houthisstarted attacking cargo ships in
(21:32):
the Red Sea saying they weredoing it to support Palestinians
under Israeli bombardment.
Since then, they've targetedover a hundred ships causing
chaos for global trade andsending Suez canal traffic
plummeting by more than 60%.
That's not just a regionalproblem, that's a shock wave
felt around the world.
(21:52):
The latest U.S.
response was"Operation RoughRider" launching more than 800
strikes on H targets; commandcenters, air defenses, weapon
depots, even factories andports.
Civilian areas got hit too,according to some reports.
By May the US and the Houthisagreed to a ceasefire.
(22:13):
But here's the catch.
Israel wasn't part of that deal.
That wasn't an accident.
It meant Israel could keepstriking Houthis targets while
the US stepped back.
And when the Houthis ramped upagain recently, sinking two
ships, killing several crewmembers, and reportedly taking
hostages.
Israel responded by bombing atleast three Yemeni ports and a
(22:36):
power plant.
Each new round of attacks andretaliation pulls Israel deeper
into the conflict, all under thebanner of security.
But if you zoom out, you see thesame logic at work as in Lebanon
and Syria.
Systematically weakening anyIranian back group that could
challenge Israeli power in theregion.
(22:59):
This isn't just about defense,it's about making sure no
resistance, no matter where itcomes from, can threaten the new
regional order Israel is tryingto build.
Israeli officials frame theseoperations as defensive,
eliminating terroristorganizations that have attacked
Israel.
But this narrative obscures acrucial irony.
(23:21):
Many of these groups formspecifically as resistance to
previous Israeli actions.
Hezbollah emerged in 1985 duringIsrael's 18 year occupation of
Southern Lebanon.
The group's legitimacy andsupport grew as it positioned
itself as the primary forceresisting Israeli occupation.
(23:41):
Hamas was founded in 1987 as adirect response to Israeli
military occupation of Gaza andthe West Bank.
They were initially toleratedand even indirectly encouraged
by Israeli authorities as acounterweight to the secular
Palestinian LiberationOrganization.
One of Netanyahu's ownassociates, Israeli General
(24:03):
Gershon Hacohen, once said,"Netanyahu's strategy is to
prevent the option of twostates.
So he's turning Hamas into hisclosest partner.
Openly, hamas is an enemy,covertly, it's an ally."
Israel's head of ReligiousAffairs in Gaza's said back in
2009,"Hamas, to my great regretis Israel's creation." And the
(24:27):
Houthis, as I mentioned aboveanother Iran backed proxy, while
not directly created by Israeliactions, escalated their attacks
against Israel, specifically outof solidarity with the people of
Gaza.
The pattern is clear.
Israeli military actions createresistance movements, which then
become justification forexpanded military operations.
(24:49):
Which create new forms ofresistance.
It's a cycle that ensuresperpetual conflict, exactly what
Netanyahu's political survivalrequires.
Each military victory removesanother obstacle to further
expansion.
As you heard above, the AbrahamAccords keep being teased as a
(25:10):
way to end Israeli aggression.
Before I dive further into thisissue, let's first talk about
what the Abraham Accordsactually are.
In 2020, the Trumpadministration brokered
agreements between Israel andfour Arab countries; the UAE,
Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
These countries agreed toestablish full diplomatic
(25:33):
relations with Israel, somethingthat had happened with only two
Arab nations prior- Egypt in1979 and Jordan in 1994.
But here's something that's nottalked about much.
For decades, most of the Arabworld maintained a unified
position called the Arab PeaceInitiative.
Launched by Saudi Arabia in2002.
(25:55):
It offered Israel peace andnormalization with all 22 Arab
League countries, but only inexchange for a complete Israeli
withdrawal from occupiedPalestinian Territories and the
establishment of a Palestinianstate with East Jerusalem as its
capital.
The Abraham Accords shatteredthat consensus.
(26:16):
These four countries normalizedrelations with Israel without
requiring any meaningfulconcessions on Palestinian
rights.
Palestinians weren't evenconsulted.
The message was clear.
Palestinian liberation was nolonger a prerequisite for Arab
Israeli peace.
Sadly, some if not many Arableaders had given up on the
(26:39):
Palestinian cause already.
Just last year, Saudi CrownPrince Mohammed bin Salman,
allegedly told then Secretary ofState Blinken.
"Do I care personally about thePalestinian issue?
I don't, but my people do." Hismain reason for not normalizing
ties with Israel, fears ofassassination.
(26:59):
He didn't want to end up likeAnwar Sadat, the leader of Egypt
after the 1979 Peace Treaty.
The Abraham Accords representthe fundamental shift from a
Middle East where Palestinianrights were central to regional
peace, to one where those rightshave become an obstacle to
regional integration.
And now these very same accordsare being used as a carrot, a
(27:23):
way to stop Israeli aggression.
The message, stop caring aboutthe Palestinians, normalize ties
with Israel, and we'll stopbombing you and killing your
civilians.
To understand where this is allheading, we need to only listen
to what Israeli leaders aresaying themselves.
In September, 2023, Netanyahupresented to the UN a map
(27:45):
showing the new Middle East withIsrael encompassing all of
historic Palestine.
No West Bank, no Gaza.
Just Israel from theMediterranean to the Jordan
River.
This wasn't a mistake.
This was Netanyahu presentinghis vision.
A Middle East where Palestinesimply doesn't exist.
(28:07):
"From the river to the sea.
Israel will be free", is aslogan.
Israeli leaders are apparentlyokay with.
But listen to what is coalitionpartners, the people he depends
on to stay in power are sayingopenly.
National Security MinisterItamar Ben Gvir, convicted in
2007 of racist incitement nowcontrols West Bank border
(28:28):
police.
He has handed out thousands ofassault rifles to West Bank
settlers and boasted aboutworsening the conditions of
Palestinian prisoners.
He has also stated that it's a"moral obligation for Jews to
return to the Gaza Strip" andencouraged the voluntary
departure of the residents ofGaza.
(28:48):
Finance Minister BezalalSmotrich declared,"there's no
such thing as a Palestiniannation.
There never was a Palestinianpeople." He controls Israel's
Settlements Administration, andhas stated, Israel's goal is
"destroying everything that'sleft of the Gaza Strip".
Promising total destruction,"which has no precedent
(29:09):
globally".
Under his authority, Israel in2024 confiscated more
Palestinian land in the WestBank than in the previous 20
years combined.
He has also displayed maps ofsomething known as"Greater
Israel" while publicly speaking.
This concept's roots go back toa biblical passage describing a
(29:30):
land promised to the Jewishpeople from"the river of Egypt
to the Euphrates".
This has been discussed by farright groups for over a hundred
years.
Modern day interpretations rangefrom land Israel currently
controls, occupied Palestine andGolan Heights, to territories in
neighboring countries such asJordan.
(29:51):
Syria and Lebanon.
There's an even more extremeversion that comes from Israeli
writer and politician, AviLipkin, who laid out his vision
of territorial goals, in aJanuary, 2024 video that went
viral across the Arab world,this is what he said.
(30:36):
Let's stop for a moment andthink about what he's saying
there.
This is the most extreme visionof Greater Israel.
Territory that goes far beyondoccupied Palestine and the Golan
Heights.
He wants parts of Lebanon.
Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, andSaudi Arabia.
(30:57):
He believes Israel would takethe holiest sights in Islam.
So why are we listening to thisguy?
He's surely fringe even byIsraeli political standards.
But so were Ben Gvir andSmotrich up until recently.
In Israeli politics today, whatwas once fringe has taken center
stage.
Those once considered faroutside the political norm are
(31:20):
now king makers.
It's a pattern we've seenelsewhere too.
In the US beliefs that oncebelonged to the political
fringe, now set the agendawielding influence, and shaping
decisions at the highest levelsof government.
Okay.
Let's take a step back for asecond.
I've covered a lot in thisepisode.
(31:40):
It's easy to get lost in all thedetails.
The point I wanna make here, mytake home message is that what
we're witnessing across theMiddle East are not a random
series of events.
When you start connecting thedots, it becomes clear this is a
coordinated strategy, enabled byinternational support and
(32:02):
indifference, that treatsPalestinian existence and Arab
resistance as obstacles to beremoved.
Ideas once confined to thefringes are now shaping real
policy.
The results of this almost 800Gazan's killed trying to access
aid, a dramatic rise in settlerviolence in the West Bank,
(32:24):
hundreds, if not thousands,killed the across Syria,
Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran.
All in the name of Israelisecurity, but as we've seen,
it's about more than security.
It's something far more widereaching.
Then there's the AbrahamAccords.
Once hailed as Peace Deals nowfunctioning as a framework for
(32:46):
coercion.
Countries face a stark choice.
Accept Israeli territorial gainsand strategic dominance through
normalization or face increasingmilitary attacks that destroys
infrastructure and killscivilians.
And this transformation ishappening with American weapons,
American diplomatic cover, andAmerican silence.
(33:09):
Every bunker buster bomb, everyartillery shell, every UN veto.
Enables not just the immediateviolence we're witnessing, but
the broader project of reshapingthe Middle East according to
this vision of Israeli hegemony.
But American involvement alsomeans we have the power to stop
it.
If we choose to use that power.
(33:30):
American public opinion isshifting.
Favorability towards Israel ison the decline.
Now is the time to make ourvoices heard.
Support organizations thatadvocate for justice and peace.
Contact your representatives andtell them to stop supporting
Netanyahu's vision of a newMiddle East.
If this episode has opened youreyes to the connections you
(33:52):
hadn't seen before, don't letthat awareness fade.
Share this episode.
Talk about it.
Follow the podcast wherever youlisten.
Leave a review and remember,staying informed is a great
first step, but now we shouldact on what we learned.
The world won't change becausewe hope it will.
(34:14):
It changes when we refuse toaccept the unacceptable.
Until next time, stay curious,stay critical, and stay
connected.
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Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
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