Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Over a year after the start of Israel’s mass-murder campaign in Gaza, what Netanyahu anticipated to be a swift destruction and short-order real estate sale has escalated into a regional war, slipping further out of his control with each attack.Elijah J. Magnier, a journalist who has covered the Middle East for over 35 years, specializing in politics, strategic and military planning, and terrorism and counter-terrorism, joins the show to give an update on Israel’s war on the Middle East.“We don't have a loser and a winner now,” he says. “They're both fighting, and certainly Israel is not winning.”So what is happening? After the IDF’s assassinations of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Nasrallah and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who each proposed multiple peace offers which were all refused by both Israel and the US, the chances of a ceasefire have plummeted, leaving only uncertainty for the region.Day after day, Magnier explains, Israel mounts attacks which aren’t the decisive and strategic successes they planned but instead amplifiers for the international coalition forming against them.“The mistake that Israel did,” he continues, “was bombing the south of Lebanon, forcing the inhabitants to be displaced. The entire society that Hezbollah is part of and the society that protects Hezbollah is already displaced. Therefore, Hezbollah doesn't have anything anymore to be afraid of. It gave more freedom for Hezbollah to attack the Israelis.”Subscribe for the full interview with Elijah J. Magnier for a full military analysis dissecting the next moves for each side and the one way to stop Israel. Plus, who does Elijah think would be worse for the region: Trump or Harris?And catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Marvel Announces Next Movie: Liz Cheney the Liberal SuperheroThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“They want world war.”This is the conclusion, after fighting in the IDF, after watching Israeli aggression expand for decades, and after watching the occupation and destruction of Gaza, of Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner. Haim’s latest book, An Army Like No Other, shows how the state of Israel has been formed out of its wars.So after last week’s politically-focused interview with Norman Finkelstein, we’re now running a military analysis with our guest Haim, who fought for Israel in the 1967 War and has seen first-hand how the army is embedded in all aspects of Israeli daily life and identity.He begins with the notion that what is happening in Gaza could be called a war:“Israel is not fighting against any army at the moment,” he explains. “They're not able to train an army that can fight guerrillas.” And the reason why is a centuries old truth of war. “Those guerrillas in Gaza, in the West Bank, the people of Hezbollah, and other organizations are all fighting for their home. They are fighting to defend their right to live where they are. And they will fight over it until they're killed or they're winning.” The Israelis, on the other hand, “are fighting for real estate.”And the US, in it’s long-term plan to weaken Russia and China, is more than happy to have Israel play it’s local part in this. “It is the West,” says Haim, “that is doing this genocide, and Israel is the tool.”Haim goes on to explain a history of the conflict in the Middle East, how it has expanded, when it will reach the inevitable breaking point, and the only way Israel can be stopped.“I don't think that anyone can actually stand in the way of this unless BRIC came together and said, ‘We will destroy you if you start this war. You want a deterrent? This is the deterrent.’ Now, the Russians more or less said this. And if you follow the press, Biden thinks that they are bluffing. Well, that's not a joke.”Iran also gave a similar warning, he says. “What the Iranians have done is told Israel, ‘Please, please, please don't fight us. We don't want to fight you. We don't want to kill people in Israel. We can do that. Just give it up, stop the genocide, and we promise we won't touch you.’”But if those warnings continue to be ignored? Haim asks: “Who is going to stop it? I don’t know.”Subscribe for the full interview with Haim Bresheeth-Zabner on the Israeli occupation policy that is worse than the Nazis, an analysis of who in the West is really in charge, and a dark conclusion from this genocide: “Life is [now] impossible in Gaza.”Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Bill Maher vs Chappell RoanThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“I think the reasonable conclusion is that Gaza is no more. There's nothing left in Gaza.”Monday the 7th marked one full year of genocide in Gaza, the darkest era of a decades-long occupation by Israel, which has now begun to spread into the broader Middle East region.This week we’re joined by Gaza expert and Useful Idiots fan-favorite Norman Finkelstein to look back on this genocidal year.Norm points out that this is not, as Western and Israeli media claims, an “Israel-Hamas war.” This is not war. This is genocide. And Israel is not targeting Hamas; they are killing civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, and picking off journalists, health workers, and children.“I read this letter,” he tells us, “from sixty-five physicians from around the world who gave testimony as to what they observed. And every one of the physicians testified that the children who were coming into the hospital had bullet wounds to the skull or to the chest. No shrapnel. It wasn't bombs and shrapnel. It was targeted bullet wounds to the skull and to the chest of children. What does that have to do with war?”“There were fifty-four disabled children who used the school in the convent complex. They fired two shells at it. What does that have to do with war?”Norman also recalls meeting Hezbollah members, and shares what he got wrong about the organization. “Israel, he says, “is willing to kill for material benefit, and Hezbollah and Hamas are willing to die for survival” He also recounts his time meeting Hamas leaders, and explains Israel’s unfair advantage:“Israel is the entrenched, concentrated manifestation of Western imperialism. It's got deep roots. It's got the whole Western system behind it, that Western system which won't let go. It will nuke China before it lets go of its global dominance. And in order to defeat it, it requires a very long-term struggle and intense calculation.”Subscribe for the full interview where Norman explains this despair, and the generational hopelessness which lacks historical precedent.“Our generation,” he laments, “has, for good reason, lost the belief, the conviction that we have the force of history behind us. That we have the force of justice behind us. Our generation believes there's a good chance we'll be defeated. There's a good chance we're not going to win.”But that doesn’t mean we should give up.“The only thing I can say as a conclusion is you never know. You can only know one thing for certain: If you do nothing, it can only get worse.”It’s that certainty that he says keeps him going. “If you resist, there are moments where it looks very grim. And then there's that folk song, it's always darkest before the dawn. It's this hope that keeps me carrying on. It's always darkest before the dawn.”“There's another reality. There's something in the human constitution that simply can't do nothing. In the face of such death and devastation, you just can't.”Plus, check out this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Kamala Harris reveals her main difference with Joe BidenThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“It's very bloody and very violent and very dangerous.”Lebanese political scientists Bashir Saade and Karim Makdisi shed light on Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah and more.Since the situation is so volatile, news is constantly breaking: after we recorded the interview, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister told CNN that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire just before he was assassinated by Israel. The temporary ceasefire, he claimed, was called for by President Biden, President Macron and other allies during the UN General Assembly. During the interview Karim and Bashir predict what is to come. “The cost is going to be very high,” warns Karim. “It’s going to be very bloody.” They also reflect on why Israel’s attack on Lebanon was inevitable, but not because of Hezbollah. “I think this is a war that has been coming,” Karim explains. “It's a war that was going to happen. And if it wasn't going to happen now, it would have happened a year from now. You have an expansionist Israel. It has always been expansionist.” And, Bashir adds, “Hezbollah is prepared for this.”They discuss the double standards faced by the IDF, which is called the most moral army in the world, and Hezbollah, which is described by western media and politicians as terrorist. As Karim explains:“Hezbollah could target civilian areas. But it's just not in their doctrine, in a sense, to hit civilian areas for the sake of it. In the way that for the Israelis, with the Dahiya Doctrine, you can level the entire civilian area if you think there's some kind of military target inside. This is something the Israelis have been doing since 1948.” Coming tragically full circle, Israel’s Dahiya Doctrine, which calls for disproportionate military responses and the targeting of civilians (war crimes), was named after a Beirut neighborhood where Nasrallah wound up being murdered. The West justifies Israel’s war crimes by claiming that Hamas uses civilians as human shields. But this week, when Iran launched a missile attack on a Mossad weapons base, CNN itself admitted that the base was embedded in a civilian area.“The Mossad headquarters and military and defense ministry,” Karim explains, “are in various very civilian areas inside main Israeli cities. So does that mean they’re targets? Does that mean all the civilians working there and around there are targets? Does that mean that it's legitimate under self-defense or any other kind of doctrine? Does it mean that Hezbollah can blow up cell phones and pagers?”Notably, the very same western politicians and media who accuse Hamas of using human shields are absolutely silent when it comes to Israel’s documented use of Palestinian and Israeli human shields.Subscribe for the full interview with Bashir and Karim on the state of Hezbollah after the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, how corporate media is constantly working to cover up Israel’s crimes, how martyrdom is portrayed differently based on who does it, and what Bashir and Karim are calling “political suicide” for the Democratic Party.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: John Kerry Wants to Save Democracy (By Ending Democracy)Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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Momodou Taal is a PHD student at Columbia, traveling on a visa from the UK. So when he led a pro-Palestine protest against Columbia and their donor Boeing, his foreign status was used to attack him. Columbia University now has plans to deport Momodou.Or, as corporate media would put it:Now, more protests are erupting across campus as Cornell threatens Momodou with deportation, and while his lawyers are working around the clock to keep him here, his status is in jeopardy. Tonight (Friday) at 5pm is his deadline, so tune in now, follow him on Twitter, and show your support. Let’s hope they can’t get away with this one too.Thank you for supporting Momodou, independent media, and Useful Idiots. Join our community here:Useful Idiots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:You know him from a hundred cartoons and a thousand podcasts – and now he’s a Useful Idiot. It’s comedian James Adomian, bringing jaw-dropping impressions of Jordan Peterson, Bernie Sanders, Elon Musk, Mike Pillow, Marc Maron, and more.And all of them have a lot to say about the Harris/Trump matchup.Who is Elon Musk’s new fascist girlfriend? Does Bernie think he sold himself out? What would Chris Matthews say about the election if he were still at MSNBC? Close your eyes, and you’ll be convinced they’re all really here.Plus, James does a deep dive on the changing nature of comedy, from the conservative era post-9/11 in which he and Katie had to fight to get progressive voices heard, to the leftist scene in the Obama years, and the swing back right in the 2020s. He explains how, similar to left journalism, the progressive comedy space is spread thin, losing ground to a smaller and more cohesive (and heavily funded) right.Subscribe for the full episode where James gives a roadmap for the left to escape this rut, shares his path as a gay man in comedy, and teaches us about the history of oppression in his family’s country of Armenia (okay, maybe it wasn’t all so lighthearted).You can watch James’ hilarious new standup special here.USEFUL IDIOTS NEWS: We have a bonus interview coming out later today with Cornell student Momodou Taal, who Cornell is attempting to deport for his pro-Palestine protests. Stay tuned.And don’t miss this week’s Thursday Throwdown: CBS News lets Blinken get away with murderThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Retired US Marine Jim Webb joins Useful Idiots to give a military analysis of America’s neoliberal wars waged around the world. If you miss history class or are fascinated by combat strategy and the decisions of generals, this episode is for you.We start in Ukraine, where everyone waited anxiously this week as Joe Biden teased a dangerous message to Ukraine: the approval of shooting long-range Western missiles into Russia. In the past month, Biden’s hawkish policy showed he was increasingly flirting with the idea, but Webb explains:“There were leaks leading up to this meeting between Biden and Keir Starmer last week saying that a decision was pretty much imminent, but it didn't happen. And it didn't happen after Vladimir Putin said that if Biden approves this, then basically the U.S. will be at war with Russia.”And it’s this waning end of hope for Ukraine, with desperate attempts at surprise attacks, forced conscriptions, and escalated war tactics, that Webb describes as the latest failure in the Washington neoliberal war machine.“We just don't know how bad the war is,” Webb says. “The lengths that the U.S. has taken to ensure the Ukrainians stay on the battlefield.”And that machine knows that as the number of killed Ukrainians skyrockets into the hundreds of thousands, their clutch of control will finally slip. “The descendants of Hillary Clinton's State Department are still driving the bus. And it's the last grasp, the last dying breaths of a really hardcore neoliberal element that is in control. They know that if this fails, then their entire project across the world is going to come into intense scrutiny, beginning with Ukraine.”So Webb gives a military history of the conflict, explaining the strategic (and nonstrategic) decisions made by each side that brought us to this point, and maps out how the upcoming decisions of Biden, Putin, and Zelensky could lead to peace or to war.He also answers the burning question: What will be the foreign policy difference between a President Harris and a President Trump?Subscribe for the full interview with Jim Webb where he explains who really started the Russia-Ukraine War, how Ukraine’s Kursk invasion was actually a trap laid by Russia, and why Israel’s string of pager explosions should be considered a terrorist attack.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Hillary Clinton Wants to Lock Herself UpThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Eight years ago, people were shocked at the insanity of the Trump campaign and his xenophobic border policies, pining for a more civil age where debates were proper and kids weren’t kept in cages.In 2024, those days seem simpler.John Washington, staff writer at Arizona Luminaria and author of The Case for Open Borders, joins Useful and reports something that may seem hard to believe: Trump’s campaign promises in 2016 are actually more progressive than either of the candidates’ we saw in this week’s debate.“Kamala Harris,” he says, “has wholeheartedly embraced policies that are to the right of where Trump was when he took office in 2016.”And it was all there in the debate. When Trump attacked her for being soft on the border, she didn’t argue that America is a nation of immigrants, built by immigrants. In fact, she didn’t talk about immigrants at all. “She talked about drug smugglers, human traffickers, and people who illegally crossed the border. But she didn't really give any idea of America as a nation of immigrants, which is the most boilerplate standard go-to on the left.”But in the past three years, what the US considers ‘left’ has shifted drastically. “It's also important to remember where we started,” Washington says. “At the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, they were asking for a hundred-day moratorium on deportations. Now they've gone way past the center and are at the right.”The Biden administration in a single term has already deported or expelled over three million people. “He's taken the mantle of Deporter in Chief,” a title that was previously held by Barack Obama.And as we heard in the debate, Kamala Harris is following in his footsteps. “The policies that she is fighting for are vehemently anti-immigrant. They would raise the asylum threshold, build more wall. They would put more surveillance technology on the U.S.-Mexico border. They would detain people for longer.”Tell us, Democrats, which of those things counts as a lesser evil than Donald Trump?Subscribe for the full interview with John Washington, where he describes the real danger of the “they’re eating the pets” hoax, violent reality at the border, how the media is spinning it to protect Biden and Harris, and how borders affect what is happening today in Gaza.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: We found the WORST moment of the debate (and it’s not about pets)Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Though Western media has barely covered it, Israeli soldiers engaged in what can only be described as a gang rape of a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman, an Israeli military prison in the Negev desert, which Israeli media has dubbed the Israeli Guantanamo Bay.When Israeli police detained soldiers who engaged in the rape, which was recorded and broadcast on Israeli TV, Israeli citizens, including Israeli politicians, protested not the rape but rather the attempt to hold the rapists accountable. In addition to these "right to rape" protests, the governemnt has given the rapes its blessing. Hanoch Milwidsky, a member of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, said during a session of the Knesset, that “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum” is "legitimate." A one off gang rape would be bad enough. But the truth is this is merely one example of a systemic epidemic of abuse. In fact, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a haunting report on the Israeli prison system which it described as “a network of torture camps.” The title of the report is what an Israeli jailer told a Palestinian prisoner when he arrived at one of these torture camps: Welcome to Hell. To learn more about this hell, we spoke to Sarit Michaeli, the international advocacy lead for B’tselem, which focuses on human rights abuses in the occupied territories. The abuse suffered by Palestinian prisoners was not random. Rather, “the most gruesome accounts” of the victims revealed “the systemic nature of what has been happening in the Israeli prison system. After October seventh, Israel turned the prison system that deals with Palestinians into a network of torture camps.”This is not a case of a few rogue actors or bad apples: “The most important thing,” says Michaeli, “is that none of this is the result of individual actions by any sort of individual prison guard. These are systemic actions inspired by [National Security] Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.” And while the torture may have been inspired by Ben Gvir, it's approved of and encouraged by the Israeli government. The testimony of the Palestinian detainees is harrowing. Fadi Baker, a 25 year old father and lawyer recalled, "they put cigarettes out in my mouth and on my body. They put clamps on my testicles that were attached to something heavy. It went on like that for a whole day. My testicles swelled up." Another detainee witnessed the killing of a Palestinian prisoner: "He screamed in pain constantly, begging for the doctor. The guard would come now and then and swear at him and tell him to shut up. In the morning, the guards came to count us. One said, 'Get up, you animal. Get up, you dog.' They checked him, and the whole place went silent. Finally, the doctor said, 'There’s nothing to be done.' One of the guards said to them, 'My condolences.' And they all started laughing. They put him in a black body bag and carried him out like trash."Eighteen year old Muhammad Nazzal recalls, "they kicked us and hit us with metal batons. Every time I tried to cover my head with my hands, they hit me on the hands as well as the rest of my body... people beat me again, and also strip-searched me and took photos of me naked." He also witnessed a fatal beating. When a prisoner dared to ask if there had been a ceasefire, "they beat him to death. The guards simply left him there for half an hour after the assault."Subscribe to watch the full interview with Sarit Michaeli where she describes the “sadistic... orgy of hate and revenge that Israeli society was plunged into," explains why it's Netanyahu, not Hamas, that's blocking a ceasefire deal, and argues that Netanyahu is rooting for a Trump victory. Plus, she reacts to a truly terrible clip from the Israeli podcast “Two Nice Jewish Boys.”And don’t miss this week’s Thursday Throwdown: AOC vs Predator – Is anti-genocide a predatory stance?Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:In the name of democracy, neoliberal French President Emmanuel Macron is thwarting democracy in a move that some are calling a coup.The French left coalition, The New Popular Front, shocked the nation (and Macron) when they won the elections in July. Usually this would mean that a leftist candidate becomes the Prime Minister. But in the name of “institutional stability,” Macron is refusing to allow this to happen.So, the leftist France Unbowed party, a member of the New Popular Front, is calling for mass demonstrations on September 7.Our guest, France Unbowed Member of Parliament Danièle Obono, joins Useful Idiots to explain it all: “It's very disrespectful to the voters that their government would not actually be serious about what they voted for. They voted for us because our platform is to implement changes, to raise the minimum wage, to rebuild social services, to fund healthcare and education and environmental policy, to provide shelter and legal papers to migrant people. The voters should be respected.”But, Obono vows, “they won’t succeed in silencing millions of people.”Obono also criticizes Macron for cozying up to France’s fascist far right: “People [are] quite shocked that he would agree with the far right. It triggered something very deep within the people because the National Rally is an actual fascist party. They target migrant people, Muslim people. People feared for their lives, for the future of their kids.”Subscribe for the full interview with MP Danièle Obono where she explains how Macron plans to use the far-right to launch a coup, how her comments about Hamas incited a government probe on her, and why France just arrested Telegram founder Pavel Durov.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: CNN is offended that Palestinians wanted to speak at the DNCThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Western media presents Hezbollah as a group of savages, targeting civilians and trying to drag Lebanon, and the entire Middle East, into war.But, Lebanese journalist Ghadi Francis explains, this couldn’t be further from the truth: “The armed resistance in Lebanon and in Palestine and in Yemen and in Iraq is just the reaction to the decades of oppression, to the decades of blood.”And though Ghadi doesn’t share Hezbollah’s ideology, she is grateful for it: “The ideology gives so much confidence to these fighters and patience and resilience to their families.” And she is grateful that Hezbollah is fighting to protect her, the Lebanese people and the Palestinian people. “The concept of resistance, it's the concept of life, to give my kids a future that I couldn't have.”Ghadi warns against trusting Western media. “After the 40 beheaded imaginary Israeli babies,” why would we “still believe them?”Social media is revealing the truth that traditional media has been covering up: “You are seeing now the tremendous videos and feeds coming out from Gaza. I tell you, this is not new. The same things have been happening, but cameras weren't there and social media wasn't there.”Although Hezbollah and other resistance movements are painted as instigating violence, they are reacting to it. “The armed resistance in Lebanon and in Palestine and in Yemen and in Iraq is just the reaction to the decades of oppression, to the decades of blood.”Israel’s terrorism is presented as self defense, while Hezbollah’s self defense is presented as terrorism. But “when someone else is killing your infants, you’d have to be like God or a prophet to be able to forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive, decade after decade after decade.”Subscribe for the full interview with Ghadi Francis on the difference between how Israel and Hezbollah fight wars, the growing desperation in the west that could lead to a ceasefire, and her own experience in Hamas’s tunnels.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Everyone’s laughing at you, CNN.Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“The colonial era never ended in the Middle East. The colonial spirit that drives white, Northern, European, American, military-industrial, racist, apartheid, Christian powers is still with us.”Palestinian-American journalist Rami Khouri, who is a Distinguished Public Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut and author of the new book Understanding Hamas, has been reporting on conflicts in the Middle east for 55 years. “And the most striking thing to me in that entire period is what we're witnessing today.”This week the world is watching the potential face-off between an Israeli-American alliance against a new alliance of forces in the Middle East. Will Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran trigger a regional war?Khouri explains how the tumultuous history in the region brought us to where we are today, and he points a finger at not just nation states and governments, but Western media:“The mainstream media has played such a central role propagating the various lies and exaggerations and racist stereotypes that have kept this conflict going for so long.”And they don’t just report on war. They profit off it. “We have to not be drawn into the CNN, New York Times, MSNBC fantasy world of cartoon-like diplomacy, and the projection of the US as the great provider of peaceful life and democracy in the face of these barbaric Muslims and Arabs and Iranians. This is a fantasy world that has been created in the West, and a lot of people made a lot of money out of it.”So we asked Rami Khouri: will all this lead to a new war in the Middle East?Subscribe to hear his full answer, plus how Israel has repeatedly rejected peace deals, the difference between Judaism and Zionism, how to properly understand Hamas, and the one way to end this occupation:“The Israelis have revealed, in all its ugliness, the barbaric, violent spirit that is their Zionist movement in the genocide in Gaza. There has to be an international mechanism to force Israel to do what it has never done.”Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Is Tim Walz antisemitic for not being Josh Shapiro?Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:When the US government has been running a decades-long regime-change operation, sabotaging another country with shadow governments and crippling sanctions, it’s hard to take anything it says about the country’s leaders at face value. Which is why, as Venezuela held elections this week and corporate media shouted reports of stolen elections, dictatorship, and civil war, you might find yourself asking:Is any of this actually true?Journalist Anya Parampil, author of the new book Corporate Coup: Venezuela and the End of US Empire, documents the bipartisan efforts of the last four US presidents to destroy Venezuela’s economy enough to remove its leaders from power and instate a US-backed puppet as head of state.“You can't deny,” she says, “what was an orchestrated demolition of the Venezuelan economy on behalf of foreign powers.” And while we hear repeatedly from corporate media that the problems come from within Venezuela, whether it’s dictatorship, gangs, or corruption, Anya points out a basic truth:“Coming at it from the point of an American, I'm not going to intervene in your country at all, and beyond that all I know is that their lives would be better if the sanctions were lifted.”She explains why, even after the constant meddling of neocons like John Bolton and Gargamel-doppelganger Elliot Abrams, the piracy of the country’s oil, and the destruction of countless people’s lives with harsh sanctions, the US has still been unsuccessful in regime change.Subscribe to hear the full interview with Anya Parampil where she details how each US president from Bush to Biden made efforts to derail Venezuela’s economy, how these efforts have actually created the immigration problems they love to complain about, and Anya’s epic 2019 interview with Tucker Carlson which led to a call from then-President Trump.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: The State Dept Doesn't Know What a War Crime IsThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Palestinian writer and poet Mohammed el-Kurd is from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. He became known around the world when he resisted the theft of his family home by Israeli settlers.Now, as he and his community continue to resist, he is constantly asked in Western media: But what about their feelings? Where will the settlers go?His response created a meltdown for corporate media elites: “I truly don’t give a f***”In a new satirical parody of the disingenuous Western media, Mohammed expands his answer: “Why should I care about what happens to the settlements? What happens to the people who have been bombed to smithereens? What happens to our relatives who are in prisons rotting away without charge or trial? But what I'm asked to care about is the hypothetical future of the settlers who drink their coffee from my balcony.”So we chat with Mohammed on Useful Idiots to find out why he’s using satire to make fun of the corporate media that treats Palestinians so disingenuously.“Ever since this genocidal onslaught on Gaza started,” he says. “It's become more and more circus-like. Being a Palestinian in the media sphere almost feels gimmicky, like it's being done for entertainment values. We are told to take these ridiculous accusations seriously, to respond to them in good faith. In reality, when you're responding to them in good faith, you're giving them power over you.”Mohammed’s parody, which he made with Jewish Voice for Peace activist Morgan Bassichis, is instead titled In Bad Faith. “When you're satirizing them, when you're dismissing them, you are in fact flipping the script. It teaches the audience at home something. It inspires them and incentivizes them to be more flippant, to be more irreverent, to refuse these kinds of investigations and interrogations.”What is serious: Mohammed goes in-depth on what it was like to have people violently raid his community and steal their homes.“They would look at us like they were at an auction for zoo animals. And that's how it felt. We grew up with settlers doing all kinds of sexual harassment, verbal abuses, and they're always protected by police. We would have busloads come into our front yard and sing their religious songs and scream their expletives at us, spit at us. If I didn't live that life, I would not believe it.”Subscribe for the full interview with Mohammed el-Kurd where we ask him if there’s any difference between Trump and the Democrats, discuss the New York Times’ complicity with their rampant anti-Palestinian propaganda, and find out: will Kamala Harris be any different?Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Biden forgets he’s at war around the worldThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“Is the revolution around the corner? I effing hope so!”Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters returns to Useful Idiots as bold and funny as ever, with takes on the UK’s new “self-serving Nazi” Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the meaninglessness of the Trump assassination attempt, the real devastation happening everyday in Gaza, Julian Assange, and so much more.Roger laments that our leaders are “Joe Biden, who thinks he rules the world” and “Keir Starmer, who's a self-serving, career Nazi. They would do anything, tell any lie, adopt any position that can give them power and influence.”Waters asks what would have happened if the assassination attempt on Trump had been successful: “Nothing. There'd be another puppet there instead. It doesn't make any difference.”Which is why Roger believes working hard to get these people, Trump and Biden, out of office is so important. “You have an opportunity now to take part in the existential battle for the human soul that Aaron and Katie and I and millions, billions of people all over the world are engaged in. Because we care about right and wrong and we care about human rights and we care about our brothers and sisters.”And if we don’t? “We are heading towards World War Three very, very fast.”Last week, Aaron appeared on Piers Morgan in a debate with two very angry Zionists. The week before, Roger debated Piers himself. The two trade stories of the frustrating environment and how blatant lies (beheaded babies, evidence-less sexual assault of Israeli women), and propaganda (the covering up of Israel’s mass violence of its own people on October 7th) are being shoved down our throats.“People on this issue just repeat again and again claims that have been debunked. They've been doing it since Joseph Goebbels and Herman Goering suggested it in the late 1930s. The bigger the lie you tell, the better it is. You just have to keep repeating it.”Subscribe to hear the full interview with Roger Waters where he shares stories of his meeting with Julian Assange, a song from his upcoming album, the fascist uniform he wears for his live shows, and what he does every day to make a difference in the world.“It's not easy. We all of us wake up in the morning and burst into tears, and then think ‘All right pull yourself together you big lunk. There's work to be done.’ And we think what can I do today to to make a difference? However tiny it is, what can I do today that is not standing by, silent and indifferent? What can I do?”Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Joe Biden thinks he's the MOST RESPECTED world leaderThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

By popular demand, we are unlocking the extended interview with Ian Proud. Watch the full chat here:From July 2014 to February 2019, veteran diplomat Ian Proud was posted to the British Embassy in Moscow where he advised UK Ministers on sanctions against Russia.His embrace of diplomacy over war made him a Misfit in Moscow.Proud joins Useful Idiots to explain how British diplomacy failed in Russia, and how a strategy other than aggression and saber-rattling could have averted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He gives a complex history of the conflict, beginning with the 2014 West-backed coup in Ukraine, and culminating in Boris Johnson’s infamous in person threat to Zelensky that he must reject a peace deal.We ask Ian if it was Biden who instructed Johnson to do so.And today, with a (“so-called”) peace summit convened by the Ukrainian government and Putin making his most concrete peace offer to date, Ian’s long history as a British diplomat in Moscow gives us a chance to pull back the curtain on the talks that could potentially end the proxy war.Subscribe to hear the full interview with Ian Proud where he explains:•How the US’s Victoria Nuland undermined peace talks at every step since 2014•Boris Johnson’s admission that the proxy war is about “defending western hegemony” (and his embarrassing meeting with the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion)•The UK’s role in the dirty war in Syria•The UK’s role in aiding Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza•How much the British government and its allies invest in propaganda (or, as they call it, strategic communications) to deceive the public into going along with their proxy wars•And the 2024 US presidential election: Would there would be any foreign policy difference between Biden and Trump?Useful Idiots is off this week, so we are unlocking a fan-favorite episode. Thanks for your support!For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot and support independent media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“If this is my story, then how do Palestinians feel?”This was the turning point for Jewish Arab Israeli Alon Mizrahi, a Mizrahi Jew who grew up in Israel facing racism and discrimination his whole life because of the color of his skin and the type of Jew he is. Mizrahi Jews ancestrally come from the Middle East. Ashkenazi Jews, like Netanyahu, come from Central and Eastern Europe.“I wasn't an Israeli,” Alon says. “I was treated differently, I was looked at differently by teachers in school, in university, by people everywhere. And when I was willing to accept that there's no such thing as an Israeli, my next step was, if this is my story, how do Palestinians feel? Or how do Arabs feel?”Alon felt the long-engrained Zionism taught to him beginning to splinter. “And then I started reading about the actual history of Zionism and Palestine. And it didn't take long for me to get it. It has nothing to do with reality. Zionism is 100% fiction. There's not one grain of truth to all of it.”So as the story he was told began to break apart and the death tolls of Palestinians rose each year, all without any word from the media he was instructed to trust, Alon’s worldview, like many people’s these days, has turned cold.“I'm in a stage in my life,” he says, “where I question everything. Nothing is sacred for me. Nothing. People are sacred. Children and babies are sacred. But that's the only thing. The rest I don't give a f*ck about. I'm willing to accept everything I know about anything is a lie, a political lie, brainwashing, propaganda.”As an Israeli who is now awake inside of Israel, Alon Mizrahi tells us his government’s plans:“Netanyahu is preparing for a bigger and more apocalyptic war.” He believes Netanyahu will soon invade Lebanon, opening up a new front in order to keep his power steady as the war rages on. But Lebanon is not Hamas: their army and arsenal are fully equipped. Which is why Alon has such a dark prediction for Israel’s current fate: “National suicide.”And how does that end? “I think this is going to be the war that breaks Israel.”Subscribe for the full interview with Alon Mizrahi on Netanyahu’s promise not to stop his assault on Gaza, the wider war with Lebanon, and the prospect of a coming Armageddon.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: NYT accidentally exposes Biden's big debate lieThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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265 days into Israel’s assault on Gaza, Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization Diana Buttu joins us from Haifa with a stark warning:Things are going to get worse.“For Netanyahu,” she explains, “he needs to open up another front in order to maintain his power. He's made it clear that he's not going to push for a ceasefire. He doesn't care about the Israeli captives. And so it's pretty clear to me that he's going to go ahead and attack Lebanon.”Israel has no aim to rescue its hostages. It never did. “If they actually cared about them, they would have done what should have been done very early on, which is negotiate a ceasefire. Instead, they’ve done the opposite. And this is why you can look at these ceasefire proposals with such skepticism. Because instead, what they’ve done is bombed Gaza to virtual smithereens.”Diana, whose father survived the Nakba in 1948, moved to Haifa in 2000. And like many others, she believed what the media told everyone to believe: that with a simple peace plan, Palestine would be fixed.Then she arrived in Palestine and saw the true reality.“All of the things that had been dismissed by the mainstream media,” she says, “I had dismissed too. I had dismissed this idea of settlements and the impact of settlements. And I kept thinking, it'll be undone. It'll all be undone. I dismissed the harm of what it means to be a Palestinian political prisoner, to be somebody who's abducted in the middle of the night. I dismissed the harm of the checkpoints. I dismissed a lot of things. And so when I arrived here, it was the first time that I had to confront the reality that this political process was not going to undo any of those harms.”Stopping the bombs is one thing. Stopping settlements, returning land, granting rights to Palestinians, and removing the literal wall that cages them is another.“They talk about reconfiguring the prison, reconfiguring the occupation, but they never talk about ending the occupation because this mentality of control permeates deep inside Israel.”There’s only one way this ends, Diana says. “It's going to end when the world says that it's enough. And that's it.”Diana also shares haunting stories of Palestinian children who were kept in Israeli torture prisons for months, and the ways that western corporate media has worked to cover it up.This week’s interview with Diana Buttu will not be paywalled. We hope you’ll listen to and share her important perspective.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: CNN compares Keffiyehs to Confederate Flags, where Van Jones claims that wearing a keffiyeh around Israeli government supporters is as much a call for violence as waving a confederate flag in Harlem. And we celebrate the freedom of Julian Assange, a rare victory that couldn’t have happened without supporters of independent media like you.Thanks for your support, we’ll see you next time.For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot and support independent media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:From July 2014 to February 2019, veteran diplomat Ian Proud was posted to the British Embassy in Moscow where he advised UK Ministers on sanctions against Russia.His embrace of diplomacy over war made him a Misfit in Moscow.Proud joins Useful Idiots to explain how British diplomacy failed in Russia, and how a strategy other than aggression and saber-rattling could have averted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He gives a complex history of the conflict, beginning with the 2014 West-backed coup in Ukraine, and culminating in Boris Johnson’s infamous in person threat to Zelensky that he must reject a peace deal.We ask Ian if it was Biden who instructed Johnson to do so.And today, with a (“so-called”) peace summit convened by the Ukrainian government and Putin making his most concrete peace offer to date, Ian’s long history as a British diplomat in Moscow gives us a chance to pull back the curtain on the talks that could potentially end the proxy war.Subscribe to hear the full interview with Ian Proud where he explains:•How the US’s Victoria Nuland undermined peace talks at every step since 2014•Boris Johnson’s admission that the proxy war is about “defending western hegemony” (and his embarrassing meeting with the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion)•The UK’s role in the dirty war in Syria•The UK’s role in aiding Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza•How much the British government and its allies invest in propaganda (or, as they call it, strategic communications) to deceive the public into going along with their proxy wars•And the 2024 US presidential election: Would there would be any foreign policy difference between Biden and Trump?Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: White House would NEVER pause shipments to Israel, reports White HouseThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe to watch the full interview here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:President of the US/Middle East Project Daniel Levy used to be an Israeli peace negotiator. Today, he’s a leading critic of the Israeli government. This former insider talks to us about the real goals behind Israel's assault on Gaza, why the U.S. is so enabling of Israel, and the political impact this will have on Biden.He describes Israel's depressingly narrow political spectrum: “from apartheidists with a smiley face, through to ‘reoccupy Gaza permanently,’ through to the expulsionist eradicationist camp.” It’s a bleak but increasingly undeniable reality that what was once considered the left in Israel and the US has now become ‘the right but nicer about it.’And what is Netanyahu's plan?“Right now I'm not sure that Netanyahu has a plan of what his morning-after looks like. To the extent to which there is an ongoing Israeli position, it’s ‘entrench the control,’ it's ‘maximum land,’ and it's this matrix of domination which is going to prevent any Palestinian freedom rights. The idea is push them out and resettle Gaza now.”Daniel also blasts the so-called peace process: “What they’re essentially saying,” Daniel explains, “is ‘let's go back to the status quo ante,’ which is a regime accurately described by Palestinians, Israeli human rights NGOs, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and the International Court of Justice as meaning the bar of a legal definition of apartheid.” Subscribe to hear the full interview with Daniel Levy where he explains what the US gets out of its enabling of Israel, Hamas’s new goals, and how he went from Israeli government official to leading critic.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Brian Stelter warns Trump will arrest Rachel MaddowThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe to watch the full interview here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“Netanyahu has messaged over and over again that he will not end this war. Israel absolutely and categorically refuses to end the war until Hamas is totally defeated.”This is the analysis of Nathan Thrall, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and writer who lives in Jerusalem. What’s surprising, however, is the newly announced deal brokered by Israel and the US which stipulates that Israel would agree to a ceasefire if the hostages were returned.“The giant loophole in this deal,” explains Thrall, “is that it comes in three phases. A permanent ceasefire comes in the second phase. The first phase is a limited prisoner exchange, and so Hamas has very little reason to believe that Israel will go into this and actually see it through to the end of the three phases.”Israel’s intransigency and unyielding occupation makes Thrall loath to talk about the potential of a one state or two state solution.“The discussion about solutions and about one-state-versus-two has served to distract people from the real present day reality. What that distraction has allowed people to do is to treat the present reality, the more than half century long present reality, as though it's temporary.”Focusing on the one or two state solution allows people to “debate the fantasy Utopia” and perpetuates the lie that the occupation is “only temporary. Clearly it can't last, they say, Israel is going to have to choose either to give Palestinians citizenship or give them a state”The reality is that “Israel doesn't have to choose. It will require a revolution in the way that the world treats Israel for it to have to choose, and maybe we're on the road to that now but it's a very long road.”Subscribe to watch the full interview with Nathan Thrall in which he discusses his Pulitzer-winning book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy, which tells the story of a deadly school bus crash caused by harsh restrictions imposed on Palestinians living in Jerusalem.Thrall also updates us about how the main characters have been affected by Israel’s response to October 7. For example, Abed recently told Thrall “in all his life and experience of this occupation, these are the greatest restrictions on movement he has ever seen. It can take hours to travel distances that used to take half and hour inside the West Bank.”Also in the extended interview: For people who claim that Hamas broke the ceasefire, what was the state of violence in the occupied West Bank prior to October 7? What is life like in Gaza, where he spent 6 weeks. What’s it like being an American Jew in Gaza? And what kind of revolution would have to happen to reach peace?Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté debunks the Washington Post's Grayzone propagandaThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe to watch the full interview here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“They knew,” repeats Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. “They knew this would result in killing. They knew this would result in immense physical and mental harm. They knew that by declaring a siege with no food, no water, no fuel, no medicines, people would be destined to die.”She continues, citing the definition of genocide: “These are conditions calculated to ‘bring about the destruction of a group in whole or part,’ and this is why it's genocide.”Working at the UN, Francesca Albanese released a groundbreaking report titled Anatomy of a Genocide, which concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide has been met.And Albanese is not alone in her conclusions. The International Court of Justice found plausible grounds for the genocide case against Israel. And the International Criminal Court has sought arrest warrants for Israeli officials over genocide.“The reason,” Francesca explains, “why Israeli leaders are being investigated and hopefully one day prosecuted by the ICC is because Israel has proven unwilling and unable to comply with international law [related to] war crimes against humanity, genocide, and oppression.”And the Biden administration is complicit:“The US administration considers the ‘red line’ as a sort of movable geometry. They keep on pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable, they keep on pushing the red lines further and further in order to justify their lack of action. The current administration is embroiled in this catastrophe in a way that words can’t say but justice can fix.”Subscribe for the full interview with Francesca Albanese where she responds to the argument that Israel has a right to defend itself, explains how mainstream media has censored her accounts of sexual violence against Palestinian women, and details the threats the ICC has received from Israel over their war crimes inquiry.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: John Kirby feels “perfectly comfortable” with Israel bombing RafahThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe to watch the full interview here:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comThe first 50 people to click this link get 30% off ONE YEAR of Useful Idiots: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/first50Subscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“Israel makes a killing from the occupation,” says journalist Antony Loewenstein in his new book The Palestine Laboratory, which uncovers how Israel has profited off the terror it reigns over Palestinians.“Israel's military uses the occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that they then export around the world to despots and democracies.”And with this scheme, he explains, Israel is able to genocide three birds with one stone.First, most obviously, they achieve their goal of control and carnage in Palestine, making the territory unlivable for the indigenous people in an effort to take the land. Second, Israel’s military industrial complex is vastly enriched from the sale of weapons and tech. And third, Israel’s weaponry allows them to to commit mass terror in Gaza:“After 1967, there were many nations that publicly opposed what Israel was doing, but the insurance policy is that Israel has been selling weapons and surveillance tech to so many countries for so long that those nations were less likely to criticize Israel where it matters, like the UN.”And the vast extent of this insurance policy is likely greater than we realize.“No one even knows, by the way, how many countries Israel has sold weapons to. I calculate anywhere between 125 and 145 nations, which is the majority of nations on the planet, have bought some form of Israeli weapons, surveillance tech, or repressive technology.”But since October 7, Antony explains, Israel’s grip over the world is slipping. Subscribe to hear the full interview in which Antony explains why “Israel is a house of cards,” how companies like Google and Amazon “are directly complicit in potential war crimes,” and why Israel’s potential war on Hezbollah “would make what's happening in Gaza seem like kindergarten.”Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Blinken's Neo N*zi Pizza PartyThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe to watch the full interview here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comThe first 50 people to click this link get 30% off ONE YEAR of Useful Idiots: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/first50Subscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“I really have never seen anything like this, in Palestine or anywhere else in the world.”Palestinian-American writer and human rights activist Susan Abulhawa has been to Gaza twice since October 7th. Her harrowing experience is hard to hear, but so important to listen to.“The inhumanity is hard to fathom,” she says as she describes images far worse than what we’ve been told so far about Gaza. “It is a constant state of terror.”We had Susan on to pull back the curtain of censorship held over Palestine, and she reveals the horrifying truth: zip ties tied tight for children’s hands, a heat wave turning tents into ovens, an epidemic of flies, mosquitos, and scorpions, grandparents who have lost their entire families, and a story of a house cat wounded and orphaned from his family, barely able to survive.And as the US continues to fund this terror, Susan gives a stark warning: “If we allow this to continue without any accountability or serious consequences, then there will be no more limits for what these fascists will do. And it won’t stop with Gaza.”But this week after a just-for-show shipments pause, Biden sent another $1 billion of weapons to Israel. So we asked Susan about the 2024 election and the question that keeps coming up: But won’t Trump be worse?Susan responds: “I don’t know what’s worse than what Biden’s done. What can possibly be worse than genocide? What is worse than besieging two and a half million people in a tiny, densely-populated place and then bombing the hell out of them? Watching for seven months a live-streamed genocide and sending billions upon billions every month to this monstrosity to continue this genocide. What could possibly be worse?”Subscribe to hear the full interview with Susan Abulhawa about academic censorship, the policing of pro-Palestine speech, and why she was canceled for her comments about Zelensky.This episode is very hard to hear, but Susan explains that we cannot become desensitized to the horrors our governments are creating. Listen to and share Susan’s reporting. We appreciate your support of Useful Idiots and independent media.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: GOP brags Trump hates Palestinians more than Biden doesAnd see Katie’s mashup of politicians’ and corporate media’s hypocrisy on Zionist violence here.Subscribe to watch the full episode here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Palestinian journalist Said Arikat may have the hardest job in the world: every day he walks into the State Department briefing room to ask serious questions about the United States’ support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, only to be met with the smirking grin of Joker-cosplayer Matthew Miller:Arikat is one of the last legitimate journalists working in Washington, and his pressure on warmongers like Miller, John Kirby, and the Biden administration is essential in holding their feet to the fire, especially at a time when the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times is working around the clock to cover up their complicity.So from inside Washington establishment politics, Said shares his thoughts on the US’s plans for more war and the way the Biden admin enables the “gangster state” of Israel.“This is really an army that is indoctrinated in criminality to kill the Palestinians, to show them they’re not human, to torture them. Shame on the Europeans, shame on the Americans, they’re the ones that should be held in contempt for allowing such a huge crime to take place under their eyes.”Said, as is sadly the case with all of our Palestinian guests, also has personal stories of family members killed by Israel. Which is why it is so important for him and the rest of us to continue to stand up against the genocide.But more and more people are seeing through Israel’s lies, which has Israel worried: “They are panicking because Americans can’t be fooled and blackmailed by AIPAC for much longer.”Subscribe for the full interview with Said Arikat on the power of the college encampments, the House’s racist antisemitism bill, Israel’s attack on Rafah, and the Biden administration’s meaningless “pause” on weapons that will have no impact on Israel’s plans.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Billionaire tech bro calls protesters an "infection inside our society"Subscribe to watch the full episode here:

Useful Idiots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:In a disturbing assault caught on camera, Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein was attacked and arrested by police at Washington University in St. Louis. She, along with her campaign manager Jason Call and hundreds of others, were arrested for peacefully protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.As they held their ground, cops attacked Dr. Stein with a bike and pinned Jason to the ground. They recount the aggressive story in this week’s interview.This campus beatdown is the latest in a long line of fascist attacks at colleges around the country, with students and professors hospitalized as US leadership looks on. President Biden, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, corporate media journalists, and countless members of congress have condoned or even encouraged these police attacks, giving them the green light to escalate their violent methods.And Dr. Stein has a theory for why:“The red flags are flying all over the place that they really are losing their stranglehold,” she says of the global empire. “It’s a scary moment because the bear has been cornered and knows that it’s under attack. The empire is striking back in every way that it can because its days are numbered.”The growing protests around the country are a sign that things are changing and people are committed to that change. “It’s a very distressing and disturbing moment but it’s important to also recognize that behind that is this power of a different world rising up.”Subscribe to watch the full interview with Dr. Jill Stein and Jason Call where we analyze Mayor Adams’ claim that professional protesters are taking over Columbia, debunk CNN’s propaganda that the wife of a terrorist has joined the students, and explain why it is actually the Zionist counter-protesters who are spreading dangerous antisemitism.And for a full recap of corporate media’s dishonest bias against student protesters, including a sickening speech from CNN’s Dana Bash and a weird rant from NYU Professor Scott Galloway, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Pervy Prof is Horny for Genocide.Watch the full interview here:

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Watch the full, unpaywalled episode here:Jamie Stern-Weiner, Ahmed Alnaouq, and Colter Louwerse, authors of Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm, join the show just in time to check Netanyahu on his sickening new video address instructing the US government to censor college protesters:“Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” begins the Israeli leader in a speech that comes across as desperate. “They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty. They want to kill Jews wherever they are. It has to be stopped.”Israel murdered many family members of our Palestinian guest Ahmed, including fourteen children under the age of 13. When Netanyahu lies that protesters are against Jewish people and not against Israel’s uncountable horrors, it becomes crucial for journalists to thoroughly debunk his dangerous claims.So Jamie, Ahmed, and Colter lay out a complete history of Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians, from the mass murder in Jaffa in order to create Tel Aviv, up through the massacre at the Great March of Return (Ahmed shares personal stories from the march). They show the countless attempts at peaceful protests by the Palestinians that were met with Israeli violence, and explain how today’s college protests, including a large contingent of Jewish students, signify that years of peaceful protesting is finally making a global impact.This week’s interview will not be paywalled because we think Netanyahu’s claims should be debunked for everyone.If you want a full breakdown of the college campus protests, the Israeli actors posing as protesters to disrupt them, and the professors who are gunning to censor and expel the brave students, subscribe to watch our Thursday Throwdown. We cover it all here: Columbia protests organized by CHINA (say MSNBC conspiracy theorists)Thanks for supporting Useful Idiots and independent media.For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot and support independent media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe