The rapture come, slap them in the face, huh? See, the end, see, what the Israeli government was up to, which I picked up on by studying Zionism and fascism, See, America back then in the 1920s and 30s and 40s and 50s, you

know,

So it just simply follows that Israel will get more or less what it wants What is the what is the big picture goal because like I think any rational person assessing the fact the US and the

UK really is the last allies that Israel has in the world.

And the populations of, oh, I'll speak for my country, the population here is becoming aware of the cost, excuse me, of this relationship.

And aware of the genocide in Gaza.

This again is not officially a government employee.

Yes, I think as Maggie Haberman was just informing us, he's actually not part of the government.

He has no official role, no official position, and therefore is essentially accountable only to his father-in-law, Donald Trump.

And we gotta stop fucking sitting around here thinking, would they give a fuck about a shit like this?

deeply invested both literally and figuratively in the middle east he relies to a very large extent on funding from gulf states and connections with various rulers and oligarchs and so on for for his business activities but is also someone who is very deeply intimately tied to israel and its imperial project

This again is not officially a government employee.

Yes, I think as Maggie Haberman was just informing us, he's actually not part of the government.

He has no official role, no official position, and therefore is essentially accountable only to his father-in-law, Donald Trump.

And we gotta stop fucking sitting around here thinking, would they give a fuck about a shit like this?

deeply invested both literally and figuratively in the middle east he relies to a very large extent on funding from gulf states and connections with various rulers and oligarchs and so on for for his business activities but is also someone who is very deeply intimately tied to israel and its imperial project

Moeen, why do you come to that conclusion? After all, isn't Kareem Khan the first and only prosecutor in the court's history to bring indictments against Israelis for crimes against Palestinians? And if the reports of the new arrest warrants are true, isn't that a result of the process he started?

Well, it's a very good question and allow me to respond by providing a bit of background.

When the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, was in the process of leaving and a new prosecutor had to be elected because a prosecutor is elected by a vote of what is known as the Assembly of State Parties, basically states that have ratified the Rome Statute and are members of the International Criminal Court.

There were several candidates.

Khan's main rival was, I believe, from Ireland or New Zealand, an individual known for their commitment to the court and to the work of the court.

Khan, who is a British barrister, was his candidacy was very strongly supported not only by the british government he was after all one of their citizens but particularly by two members who are not members of the international criminal corps but who consider it their business to elect the next prosecutor and i'm speaking of course about the united states and israel And they left no stone unturned to ensure that Khan would be elected.

They succeeded.

Can you unpack that argument a little bit? What's the strategic value of these institutions for Palestinians? And what are their limits given, you know, either veto power or intimidation and threats against prosecutors who could do so?

What- what is that faith and trust based on then in President Trump?

Well, I- I think it's misplaced.

I mean, ultimately this agreement will be implemented and this agreement will continue to be implemented if the United States decides it's in its interest to continue doing so.

What we saw in January, there was an agreement, and it later emerged that- that Trump's primary interest was ensuring that he had a diplomatic achievement on the day of his inauguration, and one tha- once that passed, he lost interest and in February, uh, the US basically authorized Israel to abrogate the agreement and to renew, uh, the genocide.

That may well happen now because the deadline for this agreement was tomorrow because that's when the Nobel Peace Prize is going to be announced.

Now that Trump is actually going to the region and is going to bask in the glory of this agreement, is that going to motivate him to ensure that it continues, um, or to the contrary, will he allow, uh, Israel to, as it has done in the past, to find ways to elude its commitments and to find a way either not to implement things or, uh, to resume its, uh, full-scale campaign? Those are unanswered questions and Hamas, uh, wasn't going, the Palestinians for that matter, weren't going to get better than, uh, than what's on offer in that respect.

What is the Hamas version of their future in Gaza? What does future governance look like to them?

Well, I think the key issue is the Palestinian future rather than the Hamas future.

Moeen, can you respond to this hostage ceasefire deal? What do we know? What has been laid out? What hasn't?

hasn't?Well, as you may recall, um, the Trump-Netanyahu proposal announced at the White House last week, uh, dealt with three sets of issues.

Um, the immediate ones, meaning an exchange of captives, Israeli withdrawal, uh, humanitarian aid, and cessation of hostilities, then, um, post-war governance, basically, uh, Project Blair, uh, putting him, uh, in charge as the viceroy of the Gaza Strip, and thirdly, but only very tangentially, uh, political issues, the crisis that produced this crisis, if you will.

The agreement that was, um, signed yesterday in Egypt deals exclusively with the first set of issues.

So, um, Israel and the Palestinians have agreed on an exchange of captives.

Uh, we don't yet know the details of that in terms of, uh, which Pal- which Palestinians will be released from Israel's, uh, prison system and according to what schedule.

Um, there is a cessation of hostilities, and there's a statement earlier today that Qatar and the United States have guaranteed that hostilities will not resume.

Uh, could you explain why you think that's the case?

Um, talk to us about what has been happening in the we- in the West Bank and particularly, you know, the information that- that just gets overshadowed because people are so understandably focused on the atrocities in Gaza.

Well, as- as you've just, uh, noted, um, developments in the West Bank have been very much overshadowed by the genocide in the Gaza Strip, but particularly in the Northern West Bank.

We've had Israel now for months launching these full-scale assaults, particularly on the refugee camps in the north of the West Bank, uh, Jenin, uh, Tulkarm, Tubas, but also a growing number of constant Israeli pogroms directed at Palestinian villages in the countryside from the north of the W- West Bank to the Hebron District, um, uh, in the South.

And Israel yesterday, as you said, announced the establishment, not the expansion of existing settlements, but the establishment of 22 new Israeli, um, uh, colonies, and Israeli leaders have explicitly said that their agenda is to make the establishment of a Palestinian state in this territory, um, uh, impossible.

Now why have they done this? There are different explanations.

Um, some people believe it's in order to, um, divert attention from what is happening in- in the Gaza Strip.

My own view is that it's more likely, um, that, and again, I'm speculating, but it's entirely possible that Israel recognizes that Washington is either ready to call time on the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip or is gradually heading in that direction, and either they believe they will be compensated for that in the West Bank or they may actually already have some kind of informal assurances from Washington that Washington will not only, um, not- not make an issue out of the establishment of these settlements, but may even be prepared to recognize a full or partial Israeli annexation of, uh, of West Bank territory.

Do you see any pressure going on behind the scenes on the US to stop the genocide, uh, from some of its allies, whether they're in Europe or the Gulf?