it is a pleasure to welcome an honorable and courageous man dr dean's to moral politics thank you for appearing tonight dr king's thank you it's good to be here now you've been an activist for over twenty five been curious what made you aware of the palestinian plight got you involved well i was the son of an air force colonel who we were in nato in brussels in one thousand nine hundred two during the munich olympics and like others i was appalled at the attack on the israeli athletes but and my father said well you know there's another side to this story and he told me a little bit about the palestinians and a couple days later in the stars and stripes newspaper i read on in the back page about in the attack in southern lebanon by israeli warplanes that killed over fifty lebanese and it was supposedly in retaliation to what happened in munich and i and i said to myself i was like junior high at the time or wait a minute these people in lebanon really had nothing to do with happen in munich so now we flash forward to medical school in the early one nine hundred eighty s when israel invaded lebanon and killed between fifteen and thirty thousand people in a month that  my attention and i became an activist in the u district of seattle at that time you know i noticed recently you were part of the free gaza movement your on the first boat sailing through that's right i was part of the maiden voyage that where we sent two boats from greece to cyprus and directly into the gaza strip i was the medical officer and we broke a forty one year old maritime siege that has been in place over gaza since one thousand sixty seven but what are we accomplished was we called attention to the world to the fact that gaza has been under siege and we were able to breach that siege five times between august of two thousand and eight and december of two thousand and eight since that time they've blockaded our boats but we're raising awareness in the world community about this siege because this siege needs to end the gaza strip is an enclave twenty four miles long and anywhere between four and seven miles wide and it has about one and a half million people that are crammed in there it's surrounded by or berlin wall the airway errors are patrolled by f sixteen and drones and the sea is patrolled by israeli warships and so these people and israel slowly turning the screws and cutting off supplies and putting people through a store slow starvation process  and so we're calling world attention to this fact by our nonviolent direct action i know you believe give up your place on the return boat ride to a tragically were to fifteen year old our boats have taken several palestinians out of gaza who have who need to be outside where they would be students that need to study or people with special medical needs yes so we're part of our mission has to be  has been to bring people out of gaza as well and they're not getting any kind of basic medical care in gaza that's a big problem the problem is not that gaza doesn't have well trained educated healthcare professionals it has many the problem is that the infrastructure of the hospital facilities in gaza are being bled into a dysfunctional delivery system mainly because medical supplies such as repair equipment for dialysis machines such as chemotherapeutic agents for oncology limits the amount of advance care that can be given in gaza and at the same time israelis on the boat with us such as dr jeff helper israeli committee against house demolitions we're not anti anyone we're we're pro human rights but that goes for all people who live in the area not just yours and so i don't think and also the idea that we're leftist but we had one woman one of our main organizers work for the oil companies we have a prominent attorney who was part of portland oregon is largest law firm  we have engineers we had medical people we had nurses so it's really easy to try to label people but it's much more complicated than that and yes we do have human rights workers who have been shot at by the israelis in the west bank why they were trying to promote the human rights of palestinians there so this really brings us to the good issue underlying the free gaza movement itself is that there is a humanitarian crisis you are in gaza city and you go through these bills for concrete make a little s turn in your in gaza and in during those years the people of gaza were a source of cheap labor to the economy of israel since that time however the israelis have built berlin wall around the entire perimeter of gaza and they've created what is been called the world's largest prison and again now since hamas was free and democratically elected in gaza israelis have tried to punish the entire population by sea imposing a siege such that basic supplies basic medical goods cannot get into gaza and so isn't collect the  this is man woman and child and grandmothers and grandfathers right is there any doubt about that there's no doubt about it i've seen the standard of living in gaza deteriorate since  hundred five i've seen the quality of the water deteriorate i've seen children who are grow stunted who have red frizzy hair not due to their genetics but due to protein now and nutrition which is going on so yes this is this is deliberately created this is a manmade humanitarian disaster that's unfolding in gaza this is this is part of the make a miserable make him reduce policy although it hasn't worked because the population of gaza continues to grow in spite of all the killings in spite of all the pressure to make people leave would you go so far as to even use the term ethnic cleansing oh sure the whole enterprise of creating a jewish state and that in a land that has other people as well has been a slow ethnic cleansing of course with the creation of israel in one nine hundred forty eight about three quarters of a million palestinians were pushed out of what became israel and about of the gaza population eighty percent of them are refugees and descendant of refugees who came from villages which now are in present day israel so there is this policy of make a miserable make unruly room carried out with bare subsistence and you can attest to having seen that sure did you see some other horrific tragedy of medical nature while you were there sure absolutely  i've been again in one thousand nine hundred five i was there two thousand and three two thousand and six and two thousand and eight when i was there in two thousand and six i visited a town called beit hanoun which is right across from the israeli town three hundred over the course of a week and then the day after they pulled out their their their tanks and their armored personnel vehicles an apartment building was attacked by ten missiles which killed one thousand members of one family and wounded a over fifty and this was all one member of one family and a ten minute span in an article you wrote you even commented that gaza fishermen are under under attack absolutely it's estimated fourteen gaza fishermen have been killed while trying to fish gaza waters as part of our free gaza movement we had members of our delegation who have been going out to sea with the fisherman and documenting if you look at my space or one of the video websites you can see pictures of israeli warships machine gunning the waters around gaza and fishing vessels so there's that kind of endless harassment to deprive gaza fisherman of their livelihood we've got to talk about why there's a humanitarian crisis miraca currently has a codependent relationship with israel and we have become israel's chief enabler let me say that you and i are friends and and one of us have drinks too much alcohol and over time it effects our families that affects our colleagues we start damaging the neighborhood with our reckless behavior the more we don't come to terms with the person's alcoholism the worse it gets our relationship with israel is similar when it comes to military aid to israel the bush administration recently authorized thirty billion dollars to the israeli government over the next ten years in spite of the recent assault on gaza in spite of the assault on southern lebanon two years ago and so basically israel is like a drunkard that's destroying the neighborhood all we hear about is the need for israel security but it keeps coming it to at the expense of everyone else in the regions security witness the iraq war that we don't know what about those rockets that are raining down in southern israel ok well if it's hard to expect the palestinian population who are being killed at a ratio of one hundred to one to absolutely not respond violently at all one hundred percent of the time is that hyperbole ok let's compare that to traffic fatalities in israel it's estimated that in the same time span about four thousand israelis have died in motor vehicle accidents there was a cease fire in place prior to this is really attack gaza that lasted about it was supposed to be six months and it lasted around five months and during that time no israelis zero israelis were killed from rockets that were greatly reduced coming from gaza in the same time span approximate hundred thirty four palestinians were killed in the west bank in gaza by israeli armed forces and letters and we don't hear about the provocations that israel does to try to the fatalities is terrible with only one and it resulted in some thirteen hundred in the palestinian dead last half of them women and children grandmothers and at the end of the conflict it was only three and then there were about thirteen soldiers nine of which were killed by their own i believe the total was thirteen ten ten of them soldiers and there were three civilians that were killed after the attack started and the israelis killed four of their own through friendly fire so the israelis actually killed more israelis than the palestinian state so it's very very lopsided despite all of the rhetoric that is are disproportionately one hundred dead palestinians for every dead israeli and not to mention the scores of thousands that are  and the fifty to one hundred thousand people who've been made homeless by this recent carnage so you you see you basically using your analogy of israel as the drunkard you see america is basically a bartender giving more drinks to obvious drunkard who's out of control and effects and pretty soon the bartender's going to lose his license as far as the the moral authority in the world community which probably we united states has and i would argue that the a war in iraq was largely pushed by the neo cons and the pro israeli forces within our government that allowed us to stumble into iraq and the quagmire that we've created there when our media our mainstream media off were we're not doing their job and questioning them the real reasons behind that war most of which turned out to be lies and deception let's hope that we're not adding iran to that list hopefully will be smarter kids time around the funnies never again you hear that off from the jewish community the people that support especially the people that support israel blindly how does a simple view well when i was in israel i did visit the  holocaust museum and it's reported there that six million jews were killed out of maybe a population of nine million jews in europe and so people like elie the cell came up with the phrase never again never again will the jewish population allow this to happen but i think you have to extend that never again to other populations like rwanda like the congo and like in palestine and like in iraq because it seems like we seem to let these these atrocities happen over and over again as long as it's not the jewish people but never mind that the palestinians had zero they had zero responsibility for what the nazis did to  so why is it that the palestinians can be sacrificed is your israel unstoppable if you look at the the jewish lobby in america you wouldn't which has happened recently with your house freeman and there's some question whe national intelligence director admiral blair can keep his job now because the lies after him it's a little frightening that these people are supposed to be representing the united states and i think chaz freeman is a very capable intelligence adolescent  but he's willing to speak the truth rather than just go along with what is politically correct correct it's a shame that we didn't have people like chaz freeman in power in the cia when we made the faulty decision to go into iraq and so yes those people are being blackballed there is a powerful force known as the pro israeli lobby it composes a very many groups one is a pac american israel public affairs committee but there's the a d l and there's various other organizations who tend to target anybody who has the gall to criticize israeli atrocities and so there's a big blind spot in most american politicians because they know that if they dare to question israel they will be attacked by the lobby and unfortunately chess freeman is the most recent example of many over the years they've been so successful at it over and over and over again you know speaking of these blind supporters do you think that it's just that they cannot see anybody as a victim but with the jews well certainly there are people like that but i also want to point out that there's a growing number of  jews in america and perhaps twenty percent of the israeli population that realize that this is not in the best long term interests of the israeli people to create a segregationist apartheid jewish  nation well yeah it's a little ironic that we will not go to the durban conference in geneva on on world conference on racism in the main reason is because things are going to be said that are critical of this fascist regime regime that democracy for jewish people only that now exists in israel a number of writers and two famous ones here shermer war reported a big turn in their report into a book that the it's the the israel israel lobby and us foreign policy as a regular yes in the basically their allegation comes right up to the point of the fact that basically there are some people who are pretty on america they're americans but they're operating in an american way and it's harming all of us to support israel and they're not just representing the israeli bali body politic they tend to represent the right wing elements of the israeli body politic the ones that are intolerant of non jews who happen to live in the holy land and we've seen israel drift with the recent election further to the right actually to the far right it's shocking that there are no liberal or mo candidates all of the three major contenders were very radical and the most radical had to make a pact with an even more radical packed ready to come to power is there is there any alarm that we should sense over or we should be confronting this and we keep giving israel a gallon of jack daniels when we should be confronting them for their excesses this last election of course some would argue that the attack on g that would help them in the election but now you have a choice between the present government in power lou could have headed by netanyahu who basically is not for any peace treaty with the palestinians whatsoever and you can't contrast that with libby livni and barack of the opposing parties who give lip service to the two state solution while they are increasing the amount of settlements in the west bank making a two state solution impossible incredible what what what is you know running that country and there are supporting it recently our secretary of state has demonstrated more of the past who's dishonest brokering that has taken place in the just and fair policy with regard to israel palestine i can certainly say that barack obama is less bad than george bush w bush was but but what has happened is not good i was glad to see george mitchell appointed as the special legs on but when hillary went to her donor conference on gaza when was this this was about two weeks ago and that would be late february and she pledged nine hundred million dollars to gaza but then this past week she put strings on it that none of it will go to gaza unless the the unity government recognizes israel's right to exist but let's analyze israel's right to exist for a moment that's a that's a very that sounds good but when has it been that nation states have an inherent right to exist the jewish people have a right to exist is really jews have a right to exist but so do palestinian arabs and muslims and christians and their agnostics all people have a right to exist but nation states not necessarily when we started negotiations with the soviet union if the precondition was that the soviet union had an inherent right to exist the cold war would still be going on so we need to stop that precondition besides nobody is demanding that israel renounces violence and recognizes palestine's right to exist or the palestinian people's right to exist it's pretty hard for a state was people that have been so protestant so brutalize to recognize acquiesce to their reports are they said and given that israel doesn't has never declared borders what when you ask the palestinian people to recognize israel's right to exist what you are saying is that they did need to deny their own right to exist and that's one thing that our that the mainstream media want explain and and the american public  being deceived about this hamas any worse than we could no they're fairly harmless i've met with the leadership of hamas when i was there in gaza along with anybody else let me paraphrase free gaza movement does not take sides on internal palestinian politics but we will meet with all the leadership no matter what their background but when you look at it at lethality of killing innocent people the israeli government is  way ahead to the degree of one hundred to one in killing of innocent palestinians and people say well what about the cousin missiles in the suicide bombing and i said i can put a stop to that right now if you want and they say how this outfit the palestinians with f sixteen helicopter gunships tanks they'll stop using suicide bombing and missiles and homemade missiles right away does that make it better than how is it morally justifiable for the israelis to be outfitted with all these horrific weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons by the way you know people are made of four hundred nuclear weapons at least so there's that this whole double standard in the hands of a drunkard and another way of looking at it is when you use the term terrorist that's become a very loaded term it's like saying the american indian movement is a savage organization there is a racist intonation in the way we use the term terrorist these days for you when you win the battle half way but if you simply label one right i notice our state department and our homeland security are actually labeling organizations terrorism soon good no one can have a different no one can really analyze it look at it logically world and according to the current skewed definition anybody who exerts any sort of armed resistance against the israeli regime is automatically terrorists but if by any application of morality israel were found to be the real source of terror we could never come to that conclusion and reading that even though it's obvious that the the birth of israel was founded on terrorism like the bombing of the king david hotel like the massacre in the village of derry a scene which wiped out and countless other villages and that's not just you saying that the british were on record as saying that right and most of the prime ministers of israel have quite a checkered past let's conclude with what people who are watching the show can do well there's lots of growing organizations in the united states that are taking on this this cause and let me just mention a few one is called the us campaign to end the you can make tax deductible contributions we have to build confidence in our congressional delegation and in president obama that they can take attack that's not one hundred percent pro right wing israel for israel's own good to take the blues away from the drunkard pretty much pretty much is there any role for the vestment boycott sanctions absolutely and they're starting to have some affects i think after this latest atrocity in gaza to europe and to actually england there's there's major movement going on now and now in our country hampshire college has recently divest it from israel there are israeli ships that the south african dock workers have refused to offload and so i think just less in the situation in apartheid south africa it took many years but boycotts divestment and sanctions were effective nonviolent means to try to change rogue governments behavior but the greenstone want to thank you very much for your courage and your forthright discussion of the free movement and the humanitarian crisis in gaza thank you very much for being a guest on more politics thank you and also push the mainstream media to report the whole truth