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- [00:14]
Amy Goodman
From New York, this is Democracy now. Following US Attacks on areas in southern Iran early today, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had destroyed fuel storage tanks, Patriot air defense systems and FPS systems at US Bases in Kuwait. Iran and the United States continue trading strikes as tensions rise over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran says the strait is closed to traffic. President Trump has declared the ceasefire over. And Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina dies at the age of 71. We'll speak with Jeremy Scahill of Dropsite News then. Armed Israeli settlers carrying US made M4 rifles detained Democratic Congressmember Rohana in the occupied west bank on Wednesday as he was visiting a Palestinian village destroyed by settlers.
- [01:17]
Ro Khanna
They detain us, they block off the road and then they call the idf. And the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.
- [01:25]
Amy Goodman
We'll be joined by the renowned Palestinian American historian Rashid Khalidi on the occupied west bank, as well as US Plans for a new embassy complex in Jerusalem. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The United States is continuing to bombard Iran amidst an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. On Sunday, US Central Command said the US had struck 140 targets in Iran in retaliation. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted US Military facilities in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Jordan. The escalating attacks come after Iran announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and President Trump declared the ceasefire was over. On Sunday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply concerned by the serious escalation, unquote. He urged Iran and the United States to, quote, urgently resume negotiations and to address outstanding issues through diplomacy. We'll have more on Iran after headlines with Dropsite News. Jeremy Scahill in the occupied west bank, armed Israeli settlers have carried out a number of attacks in recent days targeting local Palestinians as well as foreign journalists and even a US Congressmember. On Wednesday, armed settlers carrying U S made M4 rifles surrounded a van carrying Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, who is visiting a Palestinian village destroyed by settlers. Khanna said his delegation was blocked for about 90 minutes.
- [03:24]
Ro Khanna
Well, I'm certainly probably the first American politician who's been detained by the IDF and Israeli settlers. I mean, we were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed. They had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village. And we were just looking at it and these hoodlums come in with machine guns, an M4, an American made machine gun and they detain us, they block off the road and then they call the idf. And the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.
- [03:57]
Amy Goodman
We'll speak with Ro Khanna on Democracy now on Tuesday. In a separate incident Saturday, Israeli settlers armed with clubs, rocks and a knife attacked a group of journalists, including CNN's Jeremy Dimond. One of the journalists posted video of the attack on Instagram.
- [04:21]
Ro Khanna
Go,
- [04:30]
Rashid Khalidi
Go, go.
- [04:31]
Amy Goodman
Watch out, watch out. Israel reportedly arrested four individuals in the attack on the journalists. The incident occurred at the same location where a mob of settlers beat US citizen 20 year old Saif Musala to death exactly a year ago. To date, no one has been arrested for the death of Moussa.
- [04:56]
Jeremy Scahill
Let.
- [04:57]
Amy Goodman
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has died at the age of 71 after what his office called a, quote, brief and sudden illness, unquote. For decades, Graham had been one of the most vocal supporters of war in Washington. Gram died just after returning from a visit to Ukraine where he met with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. During the trip, Gram pushed for increased US Military support for Ukraine.
- [05:28]
Jeremy Scahill
We have a magic moment in time here in the coming months. If we do this right, increase Ukraine's lethality, get people to help us with Putin rather than propping him up, we can end this war.
- [05:48]
Amy Goodman
Lindsey Graham was a leading backer of the U. S. Israeli war on Iran, as well as a vocal supporter of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. He also pushed for a permanent occupation of Afghanistan and once called for a preemptive attack on North Korea. After Israel was accused of committing genocide in Gaza, Graham told the head of the International Criminal Court, quote, this court is for Africa and thugs like Putin. It is not for democracies like Israel and the United States, unquote. Graham became a close ally of President Trump. But during his unsuccessful failed presidential run in 2016, Graham had this to say about Donald Trump.
- [06:37]
Jeremy Scahill
He's a race baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn't represent my party. He doesn't represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for. And you know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.
- [06:54]
Amy Goodman
South Carolina's Republican governor will now pick a replacement to serve out the rest of Senator Graham's term, which ends in January. Republicans will hold a special primary in August to pick a candidate to run in November. In other news from the Senate, Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell has finally revealed details about why he's been hospitalized for the past month. In a statement, the 84 year old McConnell said he fell on June 14th at home and became, quote, briefly unconscious. He later developed what he described as a mild case of pneumonia. McConnell also released a photograph from his hospital bed with his wife, Elaine Chao. McConnell's planning to retire at the end of his current term in January. With McConnell's absence and the death of Lindsey Graham, the Republicans have just 51 votes in the Senate. For now, the Justice Department has subpoenaed four journalists at the New York Times after they reported President Trump's new Air Force One lacked key security features, including advanced anti missile capabilities. The Boeing aircraft had been donated to Trump by Qatar and then refurbished. Trump flew on the plane last week to the NATO summit in Turkey, but then took the old Air Force One home due to security concerns, the Times reported subpoenas were issued to the reporters, Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, who just won Pulitzer Prize, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmidt. The subpoenas were issued by Jay Clayton, the US Attorney in Manhattan who was recently nominated by Trump to serve as Director of National Intelligence. Clayton's confirmation hearing is set for Wednesday. A lawyer for the New York Times said, quote, this brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs. Unquote. The Committee to Protect Journalists head Jody Ginsburg said, quote, the subpoenas are an extraordinary escalation in President Trump's efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations and have a chilling effect on the work of journalists across the country. Unquote. The New York Times has revealed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has become the de facto viceroy of Venezuela, effectively controlling Venezuela's finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its government. Rubio's informal role began after US Forces attacked Venezuela in January and abducted the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores. Maduro's former vice president, Elsie Rodriguez, has since served as Venezuela's acting president. But the Times reports Rubio has essentially been running Venezuela from afar, even controlling Rodriguez's public appearances and statements, as well as as her governmental appointments. The Times likened Rubio's role to that of Paul Bremer, who was installed by George W. Bush to run Iraq after the 2003 US invasion. In Europe, a group of scientists warned extreme heat led to 10,000 excess deaths. In the last month, Germany recorded nearly 100 deaths by drowning. Over the weekend, wildfires raged in Spain, killing at least 12 people. It's one of the deadliest wildfires in the country's history. In Greece, authorities have urged residents in Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki, to stay indoors and secure their windows and doors because of toxic smoke caused by a recycling plant engulfed by a wildfire. Meanwhile in France, hundreds of firefighters are battling a wildfire south of Paris. A Trump appointed federal judge has approved a request by the Justice Department to dismiss seditious conspiracy charges against five members of the far right group the Proud Boys in connection with the January 6th insurrection. In his order, Judge Timothy Kelly said he did not agree with President Trump granting clemency to the rioters, but that he had no choice but to comply. After taking office, President Trump pardoned almostpardoned all of the nearly 1,600 rioters for taking part in the attack on the Capitol, which injured more than 100 police officers. Protests are continuing in Houston, Texas, after an ice agent fatally shot Lorenzo salgado Araujo, a 52 year old Mexican father who'd lived in the United States for decades. He was shot after being stopped while driving to a construction site with three other men who were detained. Houston Police Chief Diaz is expected to meet with the FBI on Tuesday and attempt to access evidence gathered by federal investigators. On Friday, the family of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and lawmakers gathered to call for an independent investigation after eyewitnesses disputed claims made by ICE agents. Hugo Baldera Ibarra is a lawyer for the family.
- [12:42]
Jeremy Scahill
After speaking with these men, I have no doubt that what they're saying is the truth. I know that these agents, the agency is going to try to cover it up. This is not the first time that it happens. This has become a pattern where ICE agents claim that they use their vehicle as a deadly weapon, that they tried to run over the agents and the agent shot at self defense. But all three of my clients reiterated that at no point was there ever an agent standing in front of the vehicle, nor was an agent ever placed in the line of danger. That is simply false and I believe my clients are telling the truth.
- [13:22]
Amy Goodman
We'll have more on this story later in the week. There have been protests of hundreds of people over the weekend In Houston, the Justice Department's investigating Yale's admissions practices for its medical school, law school and undergraduate college. Now, Yale Law School's dean Christina Rodriguez and several other law school faculty members are urging Yale's leadership not to settle with the Trump administration, saying it would be damaging to the rule of law and would compromise Yale University's reputation. According to the Yale Daily News, the university's first settlement offer was rejected by the Trump administration. Yale has since offered a second proposal. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said, quote, as I've told top Yale officials, Trump's word means nothing. An agreement with these corrupt bullies is only an invitation to more law breaking abuse, senator Blumenthal said. In election news, a federal judge in Atlanta has rejected the Justice Department subpoena seeking the names of election workers in Fulton County, Georgia from the 2020 election. Judge William Ray wrote in his order, quote, such a large disclosure of information threatens to chill participation in future elections, which will surely impact Fulton County. President Trump continues to repeat the false claim he won the state of Georgia in the 2020 election, accusing Fulton county officials of so called ballot fraud. It comes as President Trump is pushing Congress to pass the Save America act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and identification at the polls. Meanwhile, in Texas, the state's Attorney general, Ken Paxton, has reportedly listed an address where he did not reside while voting several elections during the last two years. This comes as Paxton has warned voters about misrepresenting their residents on election records. The president of Pen America, the novelist Dino Mengestu, has resigned from his position in part because of an article published by the organization about Israeli and Jewish writers denouncing cultural boycotts. Mengestu said in an interview with the New York Times he didn't agree with the publication of the article because it could cast the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as discrimination instead of protected political speech. Mangestu said, quote, we have the responsibility to be conscious and aware of how our work can impact and influence those debates, and especially if that means producing work that might actually restrict or limit or suppress what is constitutionally protected speech. Unquot. In the email to the New York Times, Pen America said, quote, pen America has long opposed cultural and academic boycotts, but we have always drawn a clear line between disagreeing with a tactic and defending the right to use it, unquote and civil rights leaders are backing an independent investigation into the mysterious death of Nolan Wells, an 18 year old black college athlete whose body was found last week on a barrier island in Mississippi. Wells had taken a boat to the island with a group of white friends to celebrate the July 4th holiday. The friends say Wells chose to stay on the island when they returned home. Authorities say Wells may have accidentally drowned, but his family has questioned the official story in part because Wills cell phone was found not with his body but in the possession of one of his friends who returned home. Wells mother spoke at a news conference Friday. Nolan was is the kindest soul. He never met a stranger. He loved everybody. He didn't care if you were black, white, purple, green, looked like a marshmallow, like he just wanted everyone to be in peace with one another. He just, he loved life and God gave him this big heart, which always scared us. Me and his dad had conversations with him all the time, not just about the importance of understanding our history as black people, but also the importance of how you have to move in certain spaces. The family of Nolan Wells is being represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who also spoke at Friday's news conference.
- [18:33]
Jeremy Scahill
It is because the family has distrust
- [18:38]
Amy Goodman
of the Mississippi law enforcement officials
- [18:43]
Jeremy Scahill
giving them a fair investigation, where their black son ended up dead after going out on a boat with three young white men. The history of Mississippi is something that they don't just read about in books, but it's a lived experience for many black Americans.
- [19:10]
Amy Goodman
And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. When we come back, the United States is continuing to bombard Iran amidst an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. We'll speak with Dropsite News co founder Jeremy Scahill. Stay with us, Sam. Old phone died by downhill strugglers. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The United States is continuing to bombard Iran amidst an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. On Sunday, US Central Command said the US had struck 140 targets in Iran. In retaliation, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted US Military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, destroyed radar systems in Oman and hit fuel tanks and ammunition depots at Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan. The escalating attacks come after Iran announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and President Trump declared the ceasefire over. On Monday, Iran's foreign minister said the United States had violated various parts of the MoU, the memorandum of Understanding, since the ceasefire began, including regarding control of the Strait of Hormuz.
- [21:29]
Jeremy Scahill
Under Article 5 of the Memorandum of Understanding, our effort was to work with Oman to establish a mechanism to ensure the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Unfortunately, this did not materialize because of overt and covert US Pressure on Oman.
- [21:45]
Amy Goodman
Meanwhile, the United States is claiming Iran had violated the mou. This is the US Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker on FOX News Sunday.
- [21:54]
Jeremy Scahill
Commercial shipping can't be terrorized in the Strait of Hormuz and obviously the memorandum of understanding between the parties was always performance based. And that President Trump, if shipping is attacked or if the Iranians want to act belligerent, then he will respond with overwhelming force.
- [22:14]
Amy Goodman
For more, we're joined by investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, co founder of Dropsite News. He's been closely following the negotiations. Thanks so much for joining us again, Jeremy. As the US Hits missile and defense systems and paramilitary revolutionary guard boats and a new round of attacks and a Iran retaliates by hitting, quote, additional enemy bases in the region, is this an escalation?
- [22:44]
Jeremy Scahill
Without question, it's an escalation. In fact, Donald Trump, quite bluntly, multiple times over the past few days, said that the ceasefire is over. He also implied that the memorandum of understanding that was signed between the United States and Iran was effectively dead in the water. But then he backtracked from that and falsely claimed that the Iranians were again begging him to talk. This has been a recurring narrative where Trump, for reasons that have to do with market manipulation or wishful thinking, promotes to the public the idea that the Iranians are somehow just sitting in Tehran begging Donald Trump to come back to the table. When reality paints a very different picture. Let's back up and summarize what's happened here. On February 28, based on a combination of tainted Israeli intelligence, wishful thinking, imperial hubris, and a belief that the United States can use its military to achieve any objective around the world, Donald Trump, for the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, stood as the American president that openly vowed to wage a war of regime change against Iran using military means. The Iranian government had said for months leading up to that February 28th initiation of this war that it was not going to just calibrate its response and engage in back channel communications with the United States when it decided to attack US military sites in the region. Because prior to this February 28th war, Iran had tried to have its responses to the US And Israeli attacking it be proportionate and aimed at not spurring or sparking a bigger war. This time they said they weren't going to do that. And for weeks on end, the Iranians fought back not one, but two nuclear powers. Pete Hegseth and other American officials, including Donald Trump, were every day proclaiming that the Iranian ballistic missile capability had been overwhelmingly wiped out, that its drone capability had been overwhelmingly wiped out, that the Iranians were begging Donald Trump to make a deal. And all of that was just one massive lie. And so what happened is that Donald Trump was facing a very severe crisis with his quagmire. And what he did is engage in a memorandum of understanding that quite overwhelmingly favored the Iranian position. And I think what we witnessed here was that Trump did this because he felt like, we'll let the Iranians think they're getting away with it, but we have no intention of actually abiding by the terms of this memorandum of understanding. That's why you immediately saw the United States try to open a parallel track in Lebanon. Lebanon was supposed to be party to this agreement that the United States signed. And instead, what the US And Israel have tried to do is to co opt the Lebanese government to have its armed forces serve as an Israeli US directed and backed counterterrorism, quote, unquote, force that is responsible for dismantling and disarming Hezbollah. And in fact, that framework that they thrust upon the Lebanese government allows the Israelis to remain indefinitely in southern Lebanon. The other aspect of this, Amy, is the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. There is no question, objectively speaking, that it's the United States that's been violating the terms of this agreement. It is quite explicit that Iran is supposed to have managing authority of the Strait of Hormuz, that it had deferred imposing any kind of fees for a 60 day period, and that a long term solution was going to be the result of bilateral negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Sultanate of Oman, the two literal states in the Strait of Hormuz. And what Donald Trump and the United States tried to do was say, well, we're going to now cut a side deal with Oman and we're gonna open this other corridor. And yeah, the Iranians can be in charge of this small slice of the Strait of Hormuz that happens to be just off their coast. But we're actually gonna have unrestricted access that completely obviates or eliminates any kind of Iranian management. And the Iranians have made clear that they're not going to accept this. And so the broader narrative is somehow that Iran wakes up one day and decides to just start attacking vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. From the Iranian perspective, the United States is in systematic violation of multiple terms of the Memorandum of Understanding. You know, I spoke over the weekend to a senior Iranian official who said that what the United States and the Trump administration did over the past few days was to engage in a psychological operation using prominent media organizations in the United States, specifically Axios and cbs. The stories that were pushed by the White House was that Iranian officials had somehow come to Trump and confessed to him that These strikes on these vessels in the Strait of Hormuz were the result of a rogue faction of the IRGC and that it doesn't represent the policy of Iran and that the Iranians plan to make some announcement with the Omanis that they're going to allow an opening of an alternative to corridor that's not going to be under Iranian control. And the Iranians told me, and these are Iranian officials that are directly involved with these negotiations, that all of this was just a concoction of the United States and then, in fact, the Omani government, which, by the way, Trump threatened to wipe the state of Oman off the map not that many weeks ago, that Oman has enormous pressure being put on it by the United States. And so, you know, Iran typically has good relations with Oman. But I think it's notable that in the response, the retaliatory strikes that Iran launched over the past couple of days against US Military bases in Kuwait, in Bahrain, in Jordan, they also struck targets inside of Oman. Now, you know, the Pentagon is often very secretive throughout Democratic and Republican administrations, but what we've seen under the Trump administration is that U.S. cENTCOM Central Command and the Pentagon at large have concealed the impact of Iranian strikes in some cases entirely. We don't know the facts to this day of certain things that happen in the first days of this war in terms of US Damages taken in the region, but also slow walking, any public revelations. The Iranians are claiming that they struck a number of key strategic drone facilities and missile launch sites in the Persian Gulf. And so, in summary, what I would say is that Trump, I think, has dramatically underestimated the Iranians from the very beginning. He's engaged in imperial hubris, wishful thinking. He certainly is announcing that this cease fire is blown up. But the reality at the end of the day is that Iran is not going to capitulate. Trump is used to his bullying tactics, working on a domestic political level, certainly within the Republican Party, but also on a global level. In other deals that he's pushed through, he engages in blackmail, bribery, coaxing and lying, and most of all, threats of force to try to achieve his agenda. Look what he's done with NATO countries. So the Iranians are really the first major power that has stood up to Trump and said two things. We're not going to give you some kind of fake victory narrative. Just so you know, all this stuff that goes on behind the scenes is they say to the Iranians, and I get this from Iranian sources, just give Trump this, you know, just toss him this chip and Everything is going to be okay. And the Iranians are saying, no, we're not going to do that. Quite to the contrary, the Iranians have shown that they are willing to face the prospect of Trump re escalating this to a dramatic degree because they believe that they won this war on a tactical level and that they don't need to concede anything to Donald Trump.
- [30:16]
Amy Goodman
This is U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker telling CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday that President Trump's a peacemaker and Iran is controlled by a bunch of crazy people,
- [30:32]
Jeremy Scahill
Jake and he wants a deal with Iran. He wants to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon, that they join the world as a contributor in a normalized country. But right now it's, you know, as President Trump has said and Marco Rubio has also stated, you know, this country is controlled by a bunch of crazy people. And ultimately, you know, they're going to have to understand the United States is very serious about this and will continue to be clear eyed on the threats.
- [31:01]
Amy Goodman
So that's US Ambassador NATO Matthew Whitaker.
- [31:04]
Jeremy Scahill
Jeremy well, as I've talked about on this program before, you know, the Iranians some weeks ago started enlisting the services of senior psychologists to help them help the Iranian negotiators in their communications to Donald Trump because they think that he is clinically mentally ill, that they're dealing with a sociopathic, erratic individual. And I think just objectively, anyone who witnesses the public conduct of Donald Trump and then compares it to the quite whatever you think about the Islamic Republic of Iran's politics, its internal policies, you can't argue that it's not a set of rational actors with institutions that operate in a quite predictable manner. The Iranians have a track record during this war of saying what they mean and then doing what they've said. Donald Trump is all over the map. He has multiple times threatened to bomb a multi millennia old civilization. He threatened to wipe out an American ally, Oman, the premier multi decade mediator between the United States and Iran. On the nuclear issue, Donald Trump is functioning as a toddler throwing a tantrum and then some incredibly dangerous warmonger in the world where he's raising the specter of wiping out entire civilizations, of bombing the clearly identified civilian infrastructure of countries. So I would say at the end of the day, you know what, what I think kind of captures the essence of this is when we've had negotiations between the United States and Iran, the Iranians have showed up with a, a team of people, most of whom have PhDs and are subject area experts. Donald Trump, with the exception of J.D. vance, sends people that overwhelmingly are showing up with last week's golf scores and their investment portfolios. And, and so I think the situation that we find ourselves in right now is that Donald Trump is again throwing this tantrum. He's threatening all sorts of things. He's saying that the deal is off. My understanding from Iranians, Iranian officials, is that the mediators are saying that he really does want an off ramp in this. He doesn't know how to handle it. He can't fabricate a victory narrative. And they're asking the Iranians to help in that effort. And I just don't see the Iranians doing it. I think they're going to remain entrenched in their opinion position that it's the United States that needs to de escalate and that Iran has discovered, and it's known this for years, but it never deployed it, that a weapon more powerful in many ways than a nuclear weapon in the hands of the Iranian state is their ability to impact the global economy by their management and domination of the Strait of Hormuz.
- [33:38]
Amy Goodman
Jeremy, before we talk about the death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, I just wanted to ask you very quickly about the Justice Department subpoenaing four journalists at the New York Times delivering these subpoenas to their home homes on Friday night after they reported President Trump's new Air Force One lacked key security features, including advanced anti missile capabilities. This is the Boeing aircraft donated to Trump by Qatar, which he's taking with him after he leaves. Says it'll be at the Trump Presidential Library. He flew the plane to NATO but didn't fly it back. He took the Air Force One home due to security concerns. Now, a number of news organizations have reported this, but the Times has been subpoenaed and very interestingly subpoenaed by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney here in Manhattan who's been nominated by Trump to serve as Director of National Intelligence. His confirmation hearing is on Wednesday.
- [34:41]
Jeremy Scahill
Jeremy, you know, I mean, what we're seeing here is an escalating war against journalists. I mean, we of course saw this under, under President Bush, President Obama, the use of the Espionage Act. But what we're seeing here really is the kind of organized crime family kingpin in chief. And Donald Trump believes that he can use the levers of American power to settle his personal scores. You know, he's, it's like the equivalent, the journalistic or free speech equivalent of putting out a hit on the free press. That's really what we're Witnessing here, you know, today they come for the New York Times, and tomorrow they're gonna come for other news organizations and other journalists. I mean, we are facing a very dire threat to press freedom under President Donald Trump right now. There's no question about it. Amy.
- [35:26]
Amy Goodman
Jeremy, we also want to ask you about the sudden passing of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who's died at the age of 71 after what his office called a brief and sudden illness. Graham was one of the most prominent supporters of war and especially the U. S. Israeli war on Iran. He died just after returning from a visit in Ukraine with pro president Volodymyr Zelensky. During that trip, Graham pushed for increased US Military support for Ukraine.
- [35:58]
Jeremy Scahill
United States not only recognizes Jerusalem as the eternal, indigenous and forever capital of the Jewish people, but also that the United States says that we're going to do something about it, not just by recognizing it openly and verbally. We have a magic moment in time here in the coming months. If we do this right, increase Ukraine's lethality, get people to help us with Putin rather than propping him up, we can end this war.
- [36:35]
Amy Goodman
The beginning of that sot was Mike Huckabee talking about what we're going to talk about our next segment. But that last voice was that of Lindsey Graham, leading backer of the U. S. Israeli war on Iran, as well as a vocal supporter of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Also pushed for a permanent occupation of Afghanistan and once called for a preemptive attack on North Korea after Israel was accused of committing genocide in Gaza. Graham told the head of the International Criminal Court, quote, this court is for Africa and thugs like Putin. It's not for democracies like Israel and the United States. Graham said he became a close ally of President Trump. But during his unsuccessful presidential run in 2016, Graham had this to say about Trump.
- [37:23]
Jeremy Scahill
He's a race baiting, xenophobic religious bigot. He doesn't represent my party. He doesn't represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for. And you know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.
- [37:38]
Amy Goodman
So South Carolina's Republican governor will now pick a replacement to serve out the rest of Senator Graham's term, which ends in January. Republicans will hold a special primary in August to pick a candidate to run in November. Jeremy, talk about the significance of this moment, the sudden death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
- [38:02]
Jeremy Scahill
Well, the first thing I'll say is that, you know, Lindsey Graham got his dying wish. He said he was going to be with Israel until his dying day. And he certainly was. He was one of the most passionate supporters of the most violent atrocities unleashed by the Israeli government on the people of Palestine, specifically during the Gaza genocide. He also was one of the major advocates of Donald Trump waging this war against Iran. Said it was going to be some of the best money that America had ever spent and that the United States was going to make so much money because of this war. What I would say is that since 911 in particular, Lindsey Graham has emerged as a man who was never able to leave the Cold War behind. His worldview was very much shaped by this sort of public projection of the idea that there were communists hiding under every rock and stone and inside of every closet waiting to pop out and destroy the American pie and American greatness. And in many ways, he sort of relegated him to a somewhat inconsequential footnote in history because he was so predictably and cartoonishly slavish to the agenda of America as an imperial force in the world. You know, he never met a war of aggression that he didn't passionately back. You know, he was a judge advocate general, a military lawyer, and he often wielded that as though he was sort of the leading American expert in the US Congress on military law. And yet he engaged in a legal analysis that was aimed at actually subverting the idea of any kind of democratic process when it comes to the justice system for, for instance, enemy combatants or people that were kidnapped as part of the CIA's kidnap and torture program. After 9 11, he was one of the most serious backers of the fraudulent narrative that led to the US Invasion and occupation of Iraq. And I say he's an inconsequential footnote because you don't need to know much about Lindsey Graham. The specifics of Lindsey Graham's career, because they're not notable for much of anything except the fact that you could always rely on him to speak, support the most destructive policies of a worldview that says that the entire world is filled with nails and America's hammer needs to run around the world finding all of those nails to hammer. I would say that his legacy is that he has sent a message to the rest of the world because of his policies, his perspective, and those like him in the US Congress and in American politics, that the United States will never learn from its mistakes. That imperial hubris is actually the brand of the United States. The fact that he ranted against Donald Trump when he was a candidate and then became one of the most loyal little poodles of Donald Trump's agenda says everything you need to know about Lindsey Graham. But as I said, he got his dying wish. He went down with his slavish dedication to Israel over the interests of the United States and the rest of the world.
- [41:02]
Amy Goodman
Jeremy Scahill, co founder of Dropsite news Coming up, armed Israeli settlers carrying U S made M4 rifles detained Congressmember Ro Khanna in the occupied west bank on Wednesday. They also another group attacked a CNN crew. We'll speak to the renowned Palestinian American scholar Rashid Khalidi. Stay with us. You'll know unless you try I'm walking on a wire for safety sake don't you go alone for now before you figure out what's wrong the parts for all they make never make sense
- [42:02]
Ro Khanna
Please
- [42:04]
Amy Goodman
answer me don't make a promise
- [42:11]
Ro Khanna
for
- [42:12]
Amy Goodman
the week Hope does last I always say correcting me would be in pain don't ever give up on yourself Stages by Minneapolis jazz musician and songwriter Sophia Showrock. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, i'm Amy Goodman. We turn now to the occupied west bank where armed Israeli settlers have carried out a number of attacks in recent days targeting local Palestinians as well as foreign journalists and even a US Congressman. On Wednesday, armed Israeli settlers carrying U S made M4 assault rifles surrounded a van carrying democratic congressmember Rohana who was visiting a Palestinian village that had been destroyed by settlers. Khanna. His delegation was blocked for about 90 minutes.
- [43:08]
Ro Khanna
Never really gotten to meet Palestinians and seen the occupation from the eyes of Palestinians. And it was important to me to have an uncurated extensive look at the human toll of occupation. I'm certainly probably the first American politician who's been detained by the IDF and Israeli settlement. I mean, we were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village. And we were just looking at it and these hoodlums come in with machine guns, an M4, an American made machine gun, and they detain us, they block off the road and then they call the idf. And the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans. I saw the arrogance in the the eyes of those settlers, 21 and 22 year olds with guns, laughing that they had detained us. The arrogance of those young IDF soldiers that my tax dollars are funding, having no respect for the fact that they were detaining Americans.
- [44:13]
Amy Goodman
Congressmember Ro Khanna will join us on Democracy now tomorrow, Tuesday. But in a separate incident Saturday, Israeli settlers armed with clubs, rocks and a knife attacked a Group of journalists, including CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Four settlers have been reportedly detained for their alleged involvement in the attack. One of the journalists posted video of the attack on Instagram.
- [44:38]
Rashid Khalidi
No, no, no.
- [44:38]
Ro Khanna
He's going to.
- [44:39]
Jeremy Scahill
Okay.
- [44:50]
Amy Goodman
Watch out, watch out. The incident occurred at the same location where a mob of Israeli settlers beat the Palestinian American Saif Musalat to death a year earlier. To date, no one's been arrested for Saif's killing. He was 20 years old. He was born in Florida. According to the Israeli human rights group Betsella, Israel's killed over 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied West bank since October 2023, including more than two children and teenagers. This all comes as the US and Israel earlier this month signed a deal allocating land for a permanent US Embassy in West Jerusalem, years after a temporary compound was established during Trump's first term in office. For decades, a group of Palestinian families have pleaded with the US Government to reconsider the embassy's location, saying the land where the embassy will stand in an area known as Allenby Compound was unlawfully taken from them. For more on all of this, we go to France, where we're joined by Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, author of a number of books, including the Hundred Years War on Palestine. Professor Khaledi, thanks so much for being with us. Start off by responding to these most recent attacks that we know, because this is a U.S. congress member. You've got got CNN attacked, but again on the same site as a Palestinian American a year ago.
- [46:26]
Rashid Khalidi
Well, this is one of many Israeli attacks on Americans. In the past. There have been repeated attacks on Palestinian Americans who have been detained, who've been brutalized, and in the case you mentioned, murdered. It's not at all surprising that this should extend to the detention for 90 minutes of a U.S. congressperson. The contempt Israel has treated the United States over many, many years, and the unwillingness of American administrations, one after another, to do anything about these infringements on Palestinian rights. I'm talking about human rights. I'm talking about property rights. I'm talking about the right to life is truly disgraceful. The administration has, in fact, come out with a statement in which one of its flags. I think a man named Gorka has actually attacked Congressman Hanna, rather than saying something about the Israeli settler thugs and the Israeli army personnel who actually detained a U.S. congressman. Typical, frankly, of the way in which the U.S. government has. Has related to these constant infringements on Palestinian rights, whether Palestinians under occupation or Palestinian Americans living in the occupied West Bank.
- [47:46]
Amy Goodman
And the whole story of safe the young American from Florida, Palestinian American who was killed there a year ago to the day when the CNN crew was attacked.
- [48:03]
Rashid Khalidi
I mean Israel has been killing American citizens for many, many years. You can go back to the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. You can go back to, to the murder of the journalist Shane Abu Ali. You can go back to the killing of an old man in a village near Jerusalem, actually near Ramallah by the Israeli army. They tied him up, they left him in the cold. He died of exposure. This happens all the time without any response from the Israeli government. They claim that they're investigating. Investigations never lead to prosecution or conviction if there even is an investigation. And the US Government just merrily goes along funding these atrocities against American citize citizens, not to speak of atrocities against Palestinians who don't happen to be American citizens. All of this is being done with our tax dollars and with the protection of the US Government in international instances like the Security Council where the UN issues, where the United States issues veto after veto after veto to protect Israel.
- [49:05]
Amy Goodman
You know, it's interesting, Rashid, you talked about Sebastian Gorka, Trump's deputy assistant to the President, senior director for counterterrorism who advised Trump in his first term but was push out after the forward. The newspaper revealed he once had ties to a Hungarian far right Nazi allied group and that he supported an anti Semitic and racist paramilitary militia in Hungary while he served as a Hungarian politician. Professor Khalidi Right.
- [49:36]
Rashid Khalidi
I mean I think the links of this administration to the far right are no surprise to anybody from the Charlottesville demonstration where the demonstrators chanted Jews will not replace us. About which Trump at the time said there were good people on both sides. To the appointment of a person like Gorka and many, many others. None of this should be a surprise. All of them happen to be in addition to their right wing and in some cases like Gorka, neo fascist orientation, blindly supportive of Israel. And those two things are increasingly going together. The love of Bibi Netanyahu and his government for the now defeated government of Orban in Hungary is just one example of the way in which Israel is getting together with some of the has long been doing this but has been getting together with some of the most noxious governments on earth.
- [50:31]
Amy Goodman
This is US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee speaking earlier this month about establishing the embassy in Jerusalem.
- [50:40]
Jeremy Scahill
The United States not only recognizes Jerusalem as the eternal, indigenous and forever capital of the Jewish people, but also that the United States says that we're going to do something about it not just by recognizing it openly and verbally, but we're going to plant our flag, our American flag on the soil of Jerusalem for a permanent and a brand new embassy compound that will serve as our mothership of diplomatic activities here in Israel.
- [51:17]
Amy Goodman
So that's the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. Can you talk about this agreement that was signed, rashid, between the U.S. and Israel right before U.S. independence Day? I think it was July 1, the U.S. building its embassy in Jerusalem on land. Talk about who owns that land.
- [51:38]
Rashid Khalidi
A large number of Palestinians own that land as private property, owns inalienable Islamic endowments, including my own family, dozens of Jerusalem families, including dozens of U.S. citizens. So here we have the U.S. government signing an agreement with the Israeli government to lease land that the Israeli government has no right to, to which we have title. We and many other families have title in order to establish an illegal embassy in Jerusalem, which is in violation of repeated UN Security Council resolution. United States should not have an embassy in Jerusalem in the first place. And to call it the internal, indigenous and forever capital of Israel doesn't change international law. That's a violation of international law. It's also a violation of the property rights of the Palestinians whose ownership of this land is attested right up to the end of the British Mandate when many members of these families were receiving rent from the British government which had established a military compound there, the Allenby Compound or the Allenby Barracks. So these families had repeatedly brought to the attention of previous American administrations the fact that this is our land. Israel has no right to it. The United States has no right to lease it from Israel. And right up until the Biden administration, there was a reluctance on the part of American governments, in spite of their unlimited support for Israel to take this step because it involved the United States leasing land that belonged to, among other things, American citizens. The private property, in other words, of Americans was being stolen by another government and then leased to the United States for use as an embassy. We learned through Freedom of information requests that under Biden, the State Department was considering the claims of the heirs, the heirs to the owners of these properties back in 1948, including myself and my family and many, many other Jerusalem families, including, I repeat, multiple US Citizens, as well as Canadian, European and other citizens. And they were worried clearly about these Palestinian property claims which are justified. I mean, we have done an enormous amount of research. We've gone through Ottoman, British, Israeli, Jordanian, Islamic court court files, and we've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt in materials that we submitted again, and again to the US government going back to the 1990s, that this is our land. Israel has no right to lease it to the United States. The United States has no right to lease it from Israel. We intend the heirs of the property owners back in 1948 intend to submit an updated request to the administration to explain why they have pivoted away from the hesitation of the Biden administration right up to the end of its term to go ahead with the lease of this property.
- [54:32]
Amy Goodman
And can you talk about the Mamila Cemetery, one of the two oldest Muslim burial sites in Jerusalem?
- [54:41]
Rashid Khalidi
Certainly. Another case of Israel trampling all over, in this case, one of the most sacred and holy sites to Muslims. This is a cemetery that was established probably in the 12th century. It includes warriors who fought with Salahdin Saladin against the Crusaders. It includes members of almost every old Jerusalem family, including my own. Many, many of my ancestors are buried in that cemetery. And it has been chipped away at, bit by bit, land taken over, turned into parks, parking lots, most nauseatingly turned into a museum of tolerance over the remains of Muslim graves, the remains removed. Nobody was ever told what happened to them. So the latest is an attempt to develop, quote, unquote, another part of this cemetery. And here we have yet another case of, you know, where an Israeli grave was disturbed right up to 1967 by the Jordanians. The howling reaches the heavens when one of the oldest Muslim cemeteries is repeatedly in Jerusalem, is repeatedly desecrated. Not a word, not a peep. So we have, on the one hand, this embassy issue, stolen land being leased by Israel to the United States. And we have, on the other hand, a case of one of the oldest, one of the oldest Muslim cemeteries in the world and one of the two oldest in Jerusalem being systematically desecrated over many, many decades. And what is apparently being planned is yet another desecration. In both of these cases, the heirs are going to do something as, say, the. In this case, the descendants of people buried in the cemetery are going to do something. We brought suit in Israel, and the Supreme Court did nothing. The Israeli Supreme Court. We were going to examine what our options are as far as this latest desecration of the Mamilla cemetery. Just as the heirs to the Allenby barracks property, which Huckabee, whom many of us call the Israeli ambassador to Israel, he's so deeply committed to every fabrication that Israel puts out, indigenous, eternal, forever, capital. All of these phrases that are churned out by the Israeli propaganda machine come tripping off his lips. So we're going to examine our options. And we will certainly submit a request to the administration to look into this.
- [57:06]
Amy Goodman
Rashid, if you could end by talking about the shifting views on Israel in the United States. This poll that just came out showing Mahmoud Mamdan, sorry. Oh my gosh. Showing Mayor Zoran Mamdani here in New York, something like 44% popularity ratings compared to Netanyahu at 32%. And the shifting views of American Jews. The most recent, Rahm Emanuel, former mayor of Chicago, where you also were a professor and chief of staff of President President Obama, giving a speech at University of Tel Aviv talking about Israel as a pariah nation.
- [57:49]
Rashid Khalidi
Right. Well, I think there's been a seismic shift in American views of Israel over the past four or five years. It was the biggest part of this shift was obviously triggered by the livestream genocide in Gaza, the fact that people were able to see with their own eyes what was actually happening instead of the carefully curated, lying description that the Israeli government fed to complacent American journalists who repeated it verbatim on CNN and in the New York Times and in other mainstream media. People were seeing for themselves that the lying liars of the mainstream media were not telling the truth and that what was happening was the slaughter of innocent civilians. And this has just shifted the views, not just of view.
- [58:32]
Amy Goodman
We have five seconds, Rashid.
- [58:34]
Rashid Khalidi
Pardon me.
- [58:35]
Amy Goodman
We have five seconds.
- [58:37]
Rashid Khalidi
It's shifted the views of everybody, Jewish community, young people, old people, even young Republicans.
- [58:42]
Amy Goodman
Well, I want to thank you, Rashid Khalidi, so much for joining us. Edward Said, professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, author of a number of books, including the Hundred Years War on Palestine. I'll be appearing virtually tonight in Montreal, Canada at the Q and A following the screening of Democracy now. About Democracy Now. Steal this story, please.