Good afternoon. I'm Pat. There's just sorry about that. You gave Kim McAllister quite a start thinking it was time for her to start with the news. We're speaking with Phyllis Bennis. She's at foreign policy in focus and feels I know we have short short time. Here. I s Oh, I'm going to skip over some of the dynamics I wanted to cover with Netanyahu there. Two things. One is many people say that Israel is simply attempting to defend itself after Hamas launched Thousands of rockets into Israel, creating far less damage, of course, then the missiles that are going into Gaza. But doesn't Israel have a right to defend itself? And secondarily? What is the United States doing in? What should we be doing to press? I mean, really put the pressure on to achieve a cease fire. These are critical questions. You know, History is determined by when you start the clock. If you start the clock with when Hamas rockets began flying into Israel, then it's Hamas initiative, and Israel is just responding. If you take a couple steps back from that, why did him us start to send those rockets? Well, first of all, it's sent Seven rockets, not thousands in its first volley didn't hit anything, and that was in response in direct response to the attack on the El Aqsa Mosque. In Jerusalem that I spoke about earlier. This was ah, shocking thing for Muslims all around the world, in fact, when armed police went into the mosque and began firing tear gas and using stun grenades inside the mosque. And on what is the holiest night of Ramadan, holiest night in the year during morning prayers, and Hamas issued an ultimatum and said, Pull out your troops from the mosque and stop these evictions in Jerusalem. And it was. It was a deliberate provocation. On the Israeli side. There was no reason they needed to raid the locks on mascot that point. Uh, the rockets, then started firing. Now I happen to believe that mass nonviolent mobilization is a more effective tool. But I'm not a Palestinian. I'm not living in 14 years, 14 years Gaza has been under Ah blockade and Israeli blockade. You have Children who have grown up never leaving this tiny strip of land that is the most crowded strip of land in the world. And unless we've only got about a minute, I know we want to talk about ceasefire. Just question quickly on the cease fire. It's not new for the U. S. To refuse to reject the United Nations moves to declare ceasefire. It's happened before it happened in 2006 that happened in 2008 and nine it's happened in 2014. What President Biden finally gave in to the pressure to say the words we support a ceasefire. But that's like saying in the abstract as soon as Israel decides that they have killed enough Palestinians that now they they want to see far then we will Call for one. Until then, the Biden administration is still refusing. Congress is up in arms about this 29 senators have have signed a very explicit short statement calling directly for an immediate cease fire. World leaders are calling for it. And today has been a strike day for Palestinians and around the world for supporters of Palestinian rights to say there must be an immediate ceasefire and an end to the evictions. The pressure should be brought to bear in this country. We don't want to be led by an administration who is refusing to say the words. We need an immediate cease fire now. And when Israel says, Well, we're not ready to say Well, we are then going to make our arms and our $3.8 billion a year of our tax money that we give to the Israeli army. Dependent on an immediate cease fire if they don't Support an immediate ceasefire and carry it out. That money should be stopped. The arms sale should be stopped the announcement of a new arms sale that just emerged that's going to send $735 million worth of new missiles to Israel in the midst of this onslaught. Is an outrage. Members of Congress are feeling the heat they are expressing it. People in the street. Usually in a non defensive for this is an offensive war of an occupying power against an occupied population. That's what we're dealing with here. So let's a film Spanish. I wanna thank you so much for joining us today, and I'm glad you said what you said, because that's kind of the way I was leaning was we're providing all of this aid to Israel. We have a great deal of power. Here we do. We hold a lot and so we can use that power to get the violence to stop. And then work on a peaceful resolution means hold Israel accountable. That's what we need to aim for. Thank you so much. Phyllis Bennis, Phyllis Bennis with foreign policy in focus, and we're gonna get a news update from Kim McAllister and we will be back. We'll get to your telephone calls in a little bit more information about what's going on right now. At in Gaza and in Israel, I'm Pat Thurston, and you're listening to K.