C (52:01)
Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot to unpack there. And thank you so much for that question. Let me start with that last point, because it is such an important point, because one of the things that a lot of supporters of Israel do is that when we in America speak up about what is happening and what Israel is doing to Palestinians that is being enabled by America, the first thing that is often used to shut down conversation is, well, what about Sudan? What about Congo? What about any host of countries that are experiencing atrocities that rightfully deserve a lot of attention? But to your point, we in America have a tremendous responsibility for what Israel is doing in Gaza because we are bankrolling that entire country. We're giving it military aid, we're giving it diplomatic cover at the United Nations. We shield it from accountability at the ICC and icj. I mean, we're, we're sanctioning, we are literally sanctioning the international court that we also want to bring Vladimir Putin to justice. But when it came to Israel, that very same court we sanctioned because they wanted to bring Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Hamas to account. But when we talk about America's role in what is happening in Israel and Gaza, we have an extra responsibility because as I was saying, we provided diplomatic cover, we provided political cover. We are doing things in this country that we would not even allow for Americans to do. I'll give you one example. You are allowed to boycott American products if you want. If you want to stand up and say, hey, I would like to boycott these companies because I don't like what these companies are doing. And MAGA does this, and people on the left do this all the time. If we don't agree with the company, we're allowed to call for the boycott of that company. You're seeing in America, states pass legislation that are anti BDS laws, that if you want to boycott Israel or if you want to boycott Israeli companies because of what they're involved in, in the oppression of Palestinians, it is becoming illegal in many states in the United States, and that's absurd. So I think the reason the first Thing I would say about this is this issue is an American issue. This is not a foreign policy issue. This is an issue that is reflecting on our society and our country with how we spend our money, what freedoms we're willing to curtail, to exercise our rights of free speech. When it comes to the issue of Israel, what do we expect of politicians and how dark money and lobbying is affecting the way politicians in this country behave? That's kind of like on the, on the very high level part of the discussion. But when you go to the, to the nitty gritty of it, what I always say to Americans, and you probably know, I lived in Georgia. My parents, when they moved to the us they lived in Georgia for a little bit. I went to high school in Georgia. I lived in a deep red district for many years. It's now kind of a bit purplish, but I had a lot of experiences with Americans who didn't know the ins and outs of the conflict, but they understood what is right and what is wrong. And when you explain to people in very simple terms, there is a group of people who would like to have their freedom, want to live freely, want to be able to control their lives without being under military occupation. Americans understand that. And they understand that even more so when you explain to them, we are giving the weapons, we are giving the bombs, we are giving the diplomatic coverage that sustains that occupation, that maintains that occupation. And it's done for a whole host of reasons. Some of it is religious fanaticism. There's this kind of like, evangelical belief that somehow Israel is the biblical Israel that they have to support. We heard that from Ted Cruz in his interview with Tucker Carlson, just blindly accepting whatever Israel does, because that's what he thinks the Bible commands him to do. And I think most Americans, when you talk to them and you appeal to them on a very basic moral level, they understand, hey, that seems very wrong, that somehow my religion says you can kill other people, including Palestinian Christians, you can oppress Palestinian Christians, you can oppress all of these people in the name of some kind of religious or biblical prophecy. When we live in a country where we instill in people religious freedom, religious equality, the right to worship whatever you want. But when it comes again to Israel, it's all about a religious supremacy that allows that country to behave in a way that gets away with effectively murder, occupation, and oppression.
