Israel loses Gaza war—and its PR war

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Welcome back, everyone. Press TV of rolling coverage here after a Gaza ceasefire has been announced in Doha, Qatar, by the prime minister of Qatar just hours ago, a highly anticipated ceasefire that's to be basically implemented in three different phases involving a complete end to the genocide, the bombing, the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of the besieged Gaza Strip, as well as an initial Israeli troop withdrawal from major cities and ultimately a complete withdrawal aid getting into desperate Gazans, Gazans being allowed to go back to the demolished homes or what's left of them. and aid, desperately needed aid to get into Gaza. And this is supposed to be ended with prisoner exchanges, which are supposed to take place in three different phases. And also in the ultimate phase, we're supposed to see reconstruction begin for Gazans. Now to monitor the ceasefire is going to be the U.S., Egypt, and the Qataris working out of Cairo, the Egyptian capital, to closely monitor that it's implemented by all parties.

Joining us is Ahmed Al-Najjar, press-TV correspondent from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunus to gauge reactions to this announcement of the Gaza ceasefire and see how Gazans are reacting to it. Hello, Ahmed. Congratulations to this victory for Palestinians after 15 months of a nightmare. Tell us what people are saying and how they're celebrating the ceasefire down there in Gaza.

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Ahmed Al-Najjar: A couple of hours ago, right behind me here next to Nasser Hospital, the streets were filled with people who came, who have no connection to internet or electricity and came here just to have the recent developments regarding the ceasefire and to their fortune. It was announced the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister announced that it will take place on the upcoming Sunday. Within three days it will go into effect. However, since then, they return to their tents, they return to their makeshift shelter, return to wherever they are displaced as they have been put in a state of disappointment that it didn't start right away, as Israel is pressing ahead with more attacks on the Gaza Strip, reminding them that their happiness, their safety, wasn't even completed yet.

We're talking about at least 10 Palestinians who were killed just since the announcement of this ceasefire, just in Gaza City, where the occupation has carried three airstrikes. One of them targeted a residential building for Anabih family within the eastern parts of Gaza City. Another one was a series of fire bursts conducted within area in northern Gaza, and another one that targeted a group of civilians also within Gaza City. Here in Khan Yunis City, at least two airstrikes were committed within the so-called safe zone. One of them targeted a tent in western Khan Yunis. The second one targeted a residential building within Gizan Rishwan area that claimed the lives of at least two Palestinians.

The Palestinians are still hoping that this announcement of ceasefire will eventually lead to the ultimate end of this genocide. However, three days is not a short period compared to Israel's capacity of conducting more attacks on civilians and claiming more lives of the Palestinians who all hope that they will be fortunate enough to survive until next Sunday to witness this ending once and for all.

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Thank you Ahmed. Joining us also now is Kevin Barrett, author and political expert joining us out of Saidia, Morocco, and Sakina Datou, author, journalist, and producer joining us out of London. Dr. Barrett, always a pleasure to check in with you. Hope you're safe and doing well. Now, we know that the ceasefire may have just been announced, but you heard our correspondent. Palestinians have already been killed since the announcement of the ceasefire a couple hours ago. It's not supposed to take effect until Sunday, January 20th, four days away. It seems like the Israelis want to continue the genocide up to the very last minute. Your initial thoughts on the ceasefire and your level of optimism with respect to it.

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Well, it's extremely good news, of course. But it's just so disgusting the way that the Zionists behave. The Palestinian side, once the ceasefire is announced, even though it doesn't take effect until Sunday, they're not going to be going around trying to kill Israeli civilians, children and women. And they're probably not even going to be blowing up Israeli tanks, because they're decent human beings who can get into the spirit of "we're having a ceasefire here, even if it doesn't officially begin until Sunday."

But these Zionists are just cartoon villains. They've been behaving so abominably now for over a year, and it seems like it's hard for them to stop, apparently. They just can't resist the opportunity to commit more murders before the ceasefire goes into effect.

And, you know, as good news as this is, and if it all plays out well, God willing, then....We'll be so happy that the most intense phase of this genocide of Palestine has ended, and inshallah, the whole genocide will eventually grind to a halt.

But we're not going to forget this. And we cannot let ourselves imagine that these people are going to change their stripes overnight. As we've seen, they're still killing people, even though the ceasefire has been announced. What kind of people are these? It's outrageous.

And then another point to make just quickly here, before we go to the other guests, is that this easefire comes in on Sunday. It's basically in time for the inauguration of Donald Trump. And this reminds me of what happened back in 1980 when the Reagan-Bush campaign timed the release of the American hostages in Tehran for the incoming Reagan administration after having helped bring down the Carter administration through back-channel dealings with the Iranian government at the time. And that didn't work out all that well for Iran, given that the Reagan-Bush administration wasn't really any better than the Carter administration had been, to say the least.

Nobody expects the Trump administration to really be any better (than Biden). This unexpected move of Trump pressuring Netanyahu and his evil government to get this ceasefire done, that's a good sign. But I certainly wouldn't put any faith in this crazy ultra-Zionist Trump administration in terms of what kinds of policies that they'll be pursuing.

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And before we go to Sakina Datu out of London, Dr. Barrett, really quick, I want to put this question to you and then go to our other guests. How do you assess the winners and losers of this 15-month campaign—militarily, politically, and in the sphere of public opinion—between Palestinians and the Israelis?

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This is an overwhelming victory for the Palestinians. Netanyahu and the Israeli government clearly announced the goals of the war, which were to completely destroy Hamas, so there wouldn't be any Hamas left when they were done, and to free the captives by military means.

They completely failed. The Israeli military killed far more of their own captives than they rescued. And Hamas is stronger now than it was in October of 2019. And Anthony Blinken just admitted that. He just publicly stated that Hamas is recruiting more than enough people to replace its fighters who are martyred.

So Israel has failed completely in its objectives to this war, and it's done so while it's demonstrated to the world that it can't win a military fight, but it can massacre huge numbers of civilians. It can commit genocide in Gaza. It can force Lebanon to back off by mass murdering Lebanese civilians.

All Israel can do is commit genocide. But militarily, it's a complete paper tiger. It has failed utterly, and its loss of this war to Hamas and this great victory for the Palestinian resistance will be one for the history books, and it will mark a turning point in the eventual complete liberation of Palestine.

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Very optimistic, and thank you there, Dr. Sakina Datu. Welcome back to the program. Your assessment, if you could, I'd like to put that same question to the winners and losers of this campaign, the Palestinian resistance or the Israeli entity.

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Sakina Datu: Definitely Palestinians. Palestinians in different formats. The axis of resistance that, like the previous guest said, has not been dismantled, which was what we were hearing all along was the goal of the Zionist regime, but also ordinary Palestinians because of the resilience that they have shown and the fact that they refused to go away anywhere. They refused to be defeated and for their homeland to be stolen from them. So they are definitely the winners, but there are also other winners. I think in the region, I would say a country like Yemen, I see it as a winner. Yemen was a wild card. I don't think anybody expected them to create the kind of resistance that they showed. So Yemen is definitely a winner. I think Iran has shown a huge leadership, the military exposure that people didn't have and did not understand the power of Iran, that came forth in these months.

So those are the winners. The losers, yes, then I think Syria, it can be counted as a loss. But again, you know, Syria is a loss on the surface. But if you dig deeper, Syria really is a minefield. And so Israel thinking that they have been able to capture some of the territory in Syria or even the ISIS that have gained power over there, this is temporary because that region is going to prove to be very, very difficult for them. And of course, the Zionists, everything that they wanted, they failed to achieve. And this deal we are talking about, of course, it is welcome. And we hope, really hope that so much atrocities that we have seen will now, there will be some level of peace. However, we have seen Israel not able to hold a ceasefire for long. They have done that in Lebanon already. Despite the ceasefire, we constantly seen that they are violating those those agreements. So I am optimistic, but I'm also cautious about how much this will hold, especially if the deal involves the release of hostages, the detainees. What happens after that? Are they really going to continue holding the ceasefire?

Now, the issue of Trump, I think, is very interesting here. There are some news, and of course, this is not confirmed, but we are hearing that in exchange for a ceasefire, he has offered Netanyahu some kind of a deal for annexation of the West Bank. And of course, Trump is a huge supporter of the Zionist entity. So much as it is good news and we're happy for the Palestinian people who have been subjected to a brutal genocide in the last months. Going forward, we really don't know how this is going to unravel. So it is with a pinch of salt that we are optimistic about this ceasefire.

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And Dr. Barrett, I'd like to put this question to you as well. What has the Gaza genocide taught us? And when I say us, not necessarily us, me, you, and Sakina Datu, the three of us seem to be pretty passionate students of history when it comes to the Palestinian cause and struggle. But the global community, in essence, as a whole, what has this Gaza genocide taught us about Israel, about the Palestinians, the Palestinian struggle, about the U.S., about the Europeans, and about the necessity, the pressing necessity for an autonomous, self-governing Palestinian future?

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Kevin Barrett: Well, this genocide has really opened up a huge new gap between the global South and the American empire. And it's not really a new development. This has been going on for centuries. But Western colonialism and imperialism has changed. It dominated the globe now for a few centuries. But that period is coming to an end as the global south is the site of virtually all economic and even demographic growth these days.

So there's a global transformation happening. And right at the moment of this transformation as, for example, China, becomes the world's biggest economic producer and leader of technology and displaces the United States in that role with military power probably not far behind—At that moment, we have this display of the absolute depravity of the Western soul as the Imperial Center in Washington, D.C. gives complete support to months of the most sick, depraved genocide that you could ever imagine. And it gets live streamed, not only by its victims, but even by its perpetrators, who film themselves committing the most disgusting abominations, slaughtering children and dancing in the houses of the people that they've slaughtered and expelled.

And so this has been put on display for the whole world to see. And everyone who's awake with a conscience paying attention has seen it. And that means that the world will never be the same. The global south is never going to forget this. And it's going to know that we need a completely new set of global institutions. And so as we get this hyper-nationalist Trump coming in who wants to demolish the actual architecture of the American empire, pull out of NATO, get out of all these alliances, basically end all American cooperation with its vassals, which is the way it's been running its global empire. That's in a sense a surrender. Trump's ideology represents a surrender of the American empire.

So we're seeing a global transformation and an impending retreat from U.S. empire. Maybe they'll invade and occupy Greenland instead of the rest of the world. That would be an improvement, I guess, for everybody but the people in Greenland.

But the genocide of Palestine has been the event that symbolizes to the whole world that we absolutely have to change. We have to take power out of the hands of these genocidal madmen in Washington, D.C., and these bankers and financiers and Zionist lunatics who have so much influence over them. And we need a new, more democratic world in which the 80% of the world that is the global south has 80% of the power. Currently, it's more like the 20% of the world, the Western empire, holds 80% of the power and vice versa. And we need to flip that. We need a more democratic world. And I think that the world's being appalled by this genocide will contribute to pushing people to make those changes.

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