Assal Rad joins The Mondoweiss Podcast to discuss media coverage of recent events in Palestine and Lebanon and the persistent pro-Israel bias in Western media.
Joe Biden said he opposes Netanyahu hitting Iran’s nuclear sites, but why should anyone trust him? The administration backed Israel’s invasion of Lebanon while he was publicly calling for a ceasefire. Will we see a similar contradiction on Iran?
Iran announced that its barrage of ballistic missiles was in retaliation for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Early on in the genocide, there was an assumption that a war with Lebanon would ease pressure on Gaza. But with the world’s attention now on the escalations with Hezbollah and Iran, Israel continues to carry out its massacres in Gaza in silence.
Hamas demands a plan to implement the original ceasefire deal proposed by the U.S. last July ahead of a new round of negotiations set to start this week.
Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett has been all over US media calling for an attack on Iran and assassinating Hamas leaders. But his views are fascistic. He praises war and how it transforms society, saying that World War II made the U.S. an economic power and October 7 will restore Israeli toughness and patriotism.
In a strident speech on August 1, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah said that the fighting with Israel has “entered a new phase” that goes “beyond supporting Gaza,” vowing an “inevitable” response to Israel’s Beirut bombing.
Israel’s assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders doesn’t aim to weaken the resistance. Its real motive is to restore the image of military and intelligence superiority in the eyes of the Israeli public.
Israel assassinated Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran after a series of mounting regional tensions that included unprecedented Israeli attacks on the “Axis of Resistance,” including airstrikes on Beirut and Yemen.
For some in Iran, the West’s relentless punishment has weakened the revolutionary fires of 1979. But for countless others, they are being rekindled by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.