00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:00
well it's not going to be any surprise
00:00:04
to anyone in the
00:00:06
room if I say that we are living in
00:00:11
difficult the fancy word is
00:00:15
fraud which basically means burdened or
00:00:19
overwhelming
00:00:21
times it won't come as a surpris anyone
00:00:25
in this room if I say to quote a famous
00:00:30
uh American These are times that Tri
00:00:36
men's you were around today he would say
00:00:38
men's and women's
00:00:41
souls and on top of
00:00:46
that I do not
00:00:48
believe that there are any rational
00:00:52
grounds at this particular moment for
00:00:58
optimism I believe
00:01:00
that when you talk to
00:01:02
adults you should treat them like
00:01:06
adults and part of treating them like
00:01:09
adults is not to
00:01:12
patronize not to
00:01:15
condescend not to act as if they are un
00:01:21
unable unable to absorb the truth and I
00:01:28
have to give happy to talks with
00:01:32
rainbows if there are grounds to be
00:01:36
optimistic I would be the first to
00:01:40
declare them but I do not believe at
00:01:43
this particular point there are rational
00:01:47
grounds to be
00:01:49
optimistic the
00:01:51
situation in Gaza is
00:01:56
catastrophic and in my opinion
00:02:00
it's quite
00:02:02
possible that it's cross the line of no
00:02:06
return that I believe is
00:02:10
possible now it might be
00:02:14
asked if there's no grounds for
00:02:19
optimism then why should one
00:02:23
persevere it would seem to be a
00:02:28
pointless EX
00:02:31
exercise but I think there are at
00:02:34
least three solid reasons for
00:02:39
persevering number
00:02:41
one nobody can predict with certainty
00:02:45
the TR the the
00:02:47
future surprises happened there is an a
00:02:52
proverb that it's always darkest before
00:02:56
the
00:02:57
dawn so there is always the the
00:03:01
possibility not the
00:03:03
certainty but the
00:03:05
possibility that there will be a turn
00:03:08
around and my dire
00:03:11
forecasts will prove to be
00:03:15
wrong number
00:03:17
two it is
00:03:20
untrue that if we do
00:03:22
nothing then things will just continue
00:03:26
on
00:03:27
their course that's natural
00:03:31
there's a simple iron rule in these
00:03:35
particular
00:03:36
moments if you do
00:03:39
nothing things will get
00:03:41
worse they will not stay the same if you
00:03:45
do
00:03:47
nothing if you don't exert yourself at
00:03:52
all the other side has an insatiable
00:03:57
Hunger for More power
00:04:00
more
00:04:01
wealth and they will keep taking
00:04:06
more as the expression hand has it the
00:04:10
hunger increases with each
00:04:13
bite so if we do
00:04:17
nothing bad as things seem right now
00:04:21
they will be much
00:04:25
worse number three or the third reason
00:04:29
in my
00:04:30
opinion why we should
00:04:33
continue is because it's the right thing
00:04:37
to
00:04:39
do some of you probably all of you are
00:04:43
familiar with
00:04:45
the Chinese Sage
00:04:49
Confucius and it was famously said of
00:04:54
confusious that he
00:04:57
persevered in the faith of the knowledge
00:05:01
that it was
00:05:03
hopeless now that might sound
00:05:08
irrational but being that we are human
00:05:11
beings which is to say not
00:05:15
computers or simply reasoning
00:05:19
machines it's not irrational to
00:05:23
persevere in the face of the knowledge
00:05:26
that it's hopeless
00:05:30
because part of our being b e i n g part
00:05:36
of our
00:05:37
being
00:05:39
cannot do
00:05:42
nothing in the face of the
00:05:46
horrors that have been
00:05:48
inflicted on so many you're being
00:05:55
rots goes into
00:05:57
Revolt in the knowledge that you're just
00:06:00
sitting there doing
00:06:04
nothing as a
00:06:07
people is being
00:06:10
systematically
00:06:12
methodically in real time
00:06:16
on the screen being wiped
00:06:21
out so in order to live with
00:06:27
yourself you continue to labor you
00:06:31
continue to
00:06:33
persevere even as a part of you
00:06:38
believes that it's
00:06:41
hopeless if I just might briefly go back
00:06:45
to the second
00:06:46
Point namely things get
00:06:50
worse they don't stabilize they get
00:06:53
worse if you do nothing there was a
00:06:57
famous pacifist
00:07:00
named EJ
00:07:02
musy and he said the problem with war is
00:07:09
the
00:07:10
Victor is
00:07:12
convinced that violence
00:07:15
works the Victor is
00:07:19
convinced that violence
00:07:22
works and after 16 months now there are
00:07:27
many Israelis
00:07:30
who have become
00:07:32
convinced that violence
00:07:36
works and that bodess very badly for the
00:07:41
West Bank for parts of Lebanon and who
00:07:46
can calculate where
00:07:49
else so that's another reason or a
00:07:52
supplementary reason why even if the
00:07:57
situation has become reversible in
00:08:01
Gaza there are still ample grounds to
00:08:05
keep
00:08:07
persevering because
00:08:09
Israel in a celebratory
00:08:12
mood has now convinced
00:08:16
itself each time a
00:08:19
gin returns to his or her home in North
00:08:24
Gaza discovers there's nothing there
00:08:29
it's just a parking
00:08:31
lot and he or she who with
00:08:36
exhilaration went to the
00:08:39
north suddenly turns around in
00:08:45
Despair and goes back to the South
00:08:50
looking for the tent in which here or
00:08:53
she had lived for the past 16 or less
00:08:59
months
00:09:01
[Music]
00:09:02
normally I would leave those remarks for
00:09:05
the end but I decided today to begin
00:09:10
with those remarks so as to Simply
00:09:14
establish where I personally stand on
00:09:19
how to go
00:09:20
forward I do not look at any news I do
00:09:26
not look at any videos I do not look at
00:09:29
any pictures from that part of the world
00:09:33
because that at least in my own case
00:09:36
makes me completely demoralized and
00:09:40
despairing I want to continue I want to
00:09:43
persevere so I just pursue my course
00:09:48
regardless of what's going
00:09:52
on
00:09:54
now in the time that remains and I'm
00:09:56
going to scrupulously watch you because
00:09:58
I have the problem with making a flight
00:10:01
in the time that remains I want to do
00:10:04
basically two
00:10:06
things first of all in the case of
00:10:09
what's happened in Gaza over the past 16
00:10:14
months there are two aspects in my
00:10:17
opinion two
00:10:19
aspects one is the factual
00:10:24
record what happened in
00:10:28
Gaza and and number
00:10:31
two there are real moral
00:10:36
questions that Gaza raises about what's
00:10:40
happened these are in my opinion
00:10:43
legitimate
00:10:45
questions which are matters of
00:10:48
judgment and when it comes to matters of
00:10:52
judgment people should be reasonable
00:10:56
enough to agree to disagree
00:11:00
so I may render some
00:11:03
judgments which people in this room or
00:11:06
in our society broadly may not agree
00:11:10
with but I think there should be grounds
00:11:15
for
00:11:17
disagreement however I do not
00:11:22
believe I
00:11:24
emphatically do not believe that there
00:11:28
is any any
00:11:30
real
00:11:32
controversy about what has happened in
00:11:37
Gaza beginning October
00:11:40
8th I do not
00:11:43
believe that any reasonable
00:11:47
person reading the documentary
00:11:51
record as it has been
00:11:54
assembled by the leading human rights
00:11:57
organizations in the world World be it
00:12:01
Amnesty
00:12:04
International which said which concluded
00:12:07
a 250 page
00:12:10
report on the events after October 7th
00:12:14
They concluded that Israel was
00:12:17
committing genocide in
00:12:20
Gaza be it the UN Commission of
00:12:25
inquiry which was headed by na'vi P
00:12:29
the South African lawyer and former
00:12:31
human rights Chief in the
00:12:33
UN which concluded that Israel was
00:12:36
committing acts of
00:12:39
extermination in
00:12:42
Gaza which includes Human Rights
00:12:46
Watch which concluded that Israel was
00:12:50
committing acts of
00:12:52
extermination and genocide in
00:12:56
Gaza which includes
00:13:00
literally
00:13:02
literally every major human rights and
00:13:07
humanitarian organization in the world
00:13:11
which reached the same
00:13:16
conclusions it is
00:13:20
not and I will
00:13:22
repeat it is
00:13:25
not a complicated question
00:13:30
it is
00:13:32
not a controversial
00:13:36
question that when you as human as Human
00:13:41
Rights Watch
00:13:43
documented when you
00:13:47
systematically deny
00:13:50
deprive a captured population of
00:13:56
water when you system atically deny
00:14:01
it
00:14:03
food when you systematically deny it
00:14:07
Fuel and
00:14:10
electricity when you as has been
00:14:15
copiously
00:14:17
documented when you
00:14:20
target waste water and
00:14:22
sanitation
00:14:25
facilities when you target
00:14:30
hospitals when you
00:14:32
systematically
00:14:34
pulverize
00:14:36
universities when you
00:14:39
target as has been
00:14:42
documented when you
00:14:45
target the skulls and chests of
00:14:50
children I do not believe and let's
00:14:55
leave the eye aside I I don't believe
00:15:00
any rational
00:15:02
person looking at the documentary
00:15:07
record can possibly conclude anything
00:15:11
other than Israel has been and
00:15:18
continues to carry out a genocide in
00:15:23
Gaza that's the factual record
00:15:30
now there is a second aspect to that
00:15:34
factual
00:15:36
record which to my
00:15:39
knowledge has been kept in the
00:15:43
dark and that fact is there are a large
00:15:48
number of
00:15:51
researchers who have simply
00:15:54
collected the
00:15:56
statements by Israeli isales from the
00:16:01
top to the bottom of the political
00:16:06
lad from one end of the political
00:16:10
Spectrum to the other end of the
00:16:14
political
00:16:16
Spectrum statements from
00:16:19
across Israeli Civil
00:16:23
Society television
00:16:26
commentators musicians
00:16:32
writers and these
00:16:36
collections of
00:16:39
statements can fill and do
00:16:43
fill they fill hundreds of
00:16:47
pages it's
00:16:49
absolutely
00:16:51
breathtaking if you doubt my word as you
00:16:56
should question a
00:16:59
authority never take a person at his or
00:17:02
her
00:17:03
word unless he or she has established a
00:17:06
real track record and then of course you
00:17:09
attach more value to that person's
00:17:12
statement but even he or she could be
00:17:15
exaggerating or downright
00:17:18
line so for those of you who are
00:17:22
conscientious you can look at this The
00:17:25
Collection by Lee Mori M MO r d e c h i
00:17:31
AI he's a Princeton trained
00:17:34
historian he teaches at Hebrew
00:17:37
University he teaches byzantian
00:17:41
studies uh he assembled this very thick
00:17:45
collection of statements by
00:17:50
Israelis or you can look at the
00:17:53
submission it's called a letter to the
00:17:55
security Council from South
00:17:59
Africa It's 121 pages single
00:18:05
space was May 29th I think it was
00:18:09
submitted to the UN Security Council
00:18:12
it's absolutely mind
00:18:15
numbing one genocidal statement after
00:18:19
another genocidal statement after
00:18:21
another genocidal statement after
00:18:23
another another another
00:18:24
another so here's the thing
00:18:30
Israel if you
00:18:32
look at what they write in their
00:18:36
newspapers what they post on
00:18:42
Facebook what they
00:18:46
tweet what they say
00:18:49
on public affairs radio and TV
00:18:53
programs they aren't in the least hiding
00:18:57
the fact that they're committing
00:19:00
genocide they are proud of it they are
00:19:06
boasting about it they relish it they
00:19:11
mock they mock every child woman and men
00:19:20
killed I find it personally
00:19:25
disgusting the way there is this
00:19:28
distinction between women and children
00:19:32
killed versus men
00:19:34
killed as if every man is a deserving
00:19:37
Target in
00:19:40
Gaza we should never use that phrase
00:19:44
It's Not Just Women and Children the men
00:19:48
don't deserve to live in
00:19:51
Gaza they
00:19:53
boast about the homes they destroy
00:19:58
they take
00:20:00
videos of the
00:20:02
universities they
00:20:04
pulverize they relish and
00:20:08
mock the
00:20:10
dead as they take their
00:20:14
bulldozers not just to bulldo
00:20:17
homes but to roll over the bodies that
00:20:22
they have
00:20:23
killed so it's not as if we're relying
00:20:29
even though it's
00:20:31
enough it's not as if we're just
00:20:34
relying on the human rights
00:20:38
organizations it's not just as if we're
00:20:40
relying only on what the World Health
00:20:44
Organization has to
00:20:46
say what UNESCO has to say what UNICEF
00:20:51
has to say what care has to say what
00:20:56
save the children has to say and on and
00:21:01
on and on I said and I repeat every
00:21:06
humanitarian
00:21:07
organization is saying the same thing
00:21:11
about what's going on or has gone on in
00:21:15
Gaza it is not controversial but even if
00:21:19
there
00:21:20
were even for argument sake even if
00:21:23
there were doubt about it maybe they're
00:21:27
all anti
00:21:29
antisemitic maybe car is anti-Semitic
00:21:32
and maybe UNICEF is anti-Semitic and
00:21:34
maybe this is an this organization is
00:21:37
anti-Semitic and that organ okay maybe
00:21:40
that's
00:21:41
true for argument
00:21:44
sake but then how do you
00:21:46
explain all the statements that are made
00:21:50
by the senior government
00:21:52
officials by the most influential
00:21:55
figures in Israeli Civil Society
00:21:59
there are
00:22:01
times there are times when it's
00:22:04
warranted it's
00:22:07
Justified to make the distinction
00:22:10
between the state and
00:22:13
Society because there are times when the
00:22:17
state does not accurately represent the
00:22:21
feelings the sentiments of society in
00:22:24
general I am old enough to live have
00:22:27
lived through the Vietnam War in my
00:22:31
country and there was a period you could
00:22:34
say during the height of the Vietnam War
00:22:38
where the actions of our state our
00:22:43
government did not reflect the feelings
00:22:47
and sentiments of a large part of our
00:22:53
society
00:22:54
however that
00:22:56
cannot and I don't say this
00:23:00
gleefully I don't say it
00:23:04
happily but that cannot be said of
00:23:07
what's happened in the past 16
00:23:10
months the destruction the extermination
00:23:14
the genocide in Gaza is not a
00:23:19
state project it's a national project
00:23:25
the entire Israeli Society with its eyes
00:23:31
open with clear presence of mind with
00:23:37
full
00:23:39
knowledge with full
00:23:42
knowledge of what's going on they see it
00:23:47
in those Facebook postings they see it
00:23:51
in the tweets they see it
00:23:55
everywhere in the full knowledge of what
00:23:58
what's going on they have reached a
00:24:03
consensus that it must be it must be
00:24:10
that by the end of this conflict Gaza
00:24:14
will be no more that's the
00:24:17
consensus it's not just Mr
00:24:22
Netanyahu or the former Defense M
00:24:25
Minister Mr Galant
00:24:28
now some people like to say it's the far
00:24:32
right one of those favorite Expressions
00:24:35
the far right Mr smotr and Mr
00:24:40
benir no first of all the whole country
00:24:46
is the far
00:24:47
right there is no far
00:24:52
right and across the
00:24:55
board across the board from one end of
00:24:59
the political Spectrum to the other and
00:25:01
from the top to the bottom it's a
00:25:04
national project to for once and for all
00:25:10
liquidate
00:25:12
Gaza that's the factual site and I feel
00:25:16
very
00:25:18
confident in rendering that
00:25:21
judgment based on having
00:25:24
spent the past 16 months day day in and
00:25:28
day out reading one more document one
00:25:32
more
00:25:33
report large
00:25:35
reports on what's got what's happened in
00:25:39
Gaza but then there are two moral
00:25:43
questions which I believe are more
00:25:48
complicated the two moral questions you
00:25:51
might call for those of you who watch
00:25:55
YouTube you might call them the Pierce
00:25:59
Morgan
00:26:00
questions and for the past 16
00:26:04
months Pierce Morgan has been
00:26:07
drilling every
00:26:10
guest in per particular those guests who
00:26:14
don't want to join the genocide
00:26:20
bandwagon he's been asking two
00:26:23
questions unlike
00:26:26
others I think those are the right
00:26:29
questions unlike
00:26:32
others I think those are tough
00:26:36
questions unlike
00:26:38
others I had to think hard and mentally
00:26:43
sweat a lot trying to find my
00:26:48
way the first question is for those of
00:26:53
you who watch him he's now I'm sorry to
00:26:57
say
00:26:58
a lick spitt Trump
00:27:02
siant a
00:27:04
gring lick spit from cofant a pathetic
00:27:11
sight to
00:27:13
behold knowing full well that the the
00:27:17
way
00:27:18
to uh as the woman is Dixon said before
00:27:24
the path to the proximity to power is to
00:27:28
massage his ego in any case that's an
00:27:33
aside in any event the first question is
00:27:38
obviously do you
00:27:40
condemn what Hamas did on October
00:27:44
7th I think honest people will
00:27:50
acknowledge that's not an easy
00:27:53
question and it took me quite a long
00:27:57
time
00:27:59
to figure out how to answer that
00:28:03
question I knew
00:28:06
instinctively
00:28:08
intuitively I could not condemn what
00:28:12
Hamas did not because I'm some flaming
00:28:19
radical or
00:28:22
some
00:28:24
lunatic
00:28:26
Jihadi the reason reason I couldn't
00:28:29
condemn it was because I had spent the
00:28:35
past 15
00:28:38
years
00:28:40
chronicling what had been done to the
00:28:44
people of Gaza and where they
00:28:49
stood on October
00:28:54
6 in the face of that knowledge
00:28:59
something told me I couldn't
00:29:03
condemn
00:29:05
so what am I referring to I'm going to
00:29:09
have to be very brief because of time
00:29:12
can you tell me where we
00:29:14
stand yeah I can only I have to use
00:29:20
telegraphic language at this
00:29:22
point the simple fact is that from 194 8
00:29:28
forward when Gaza became Gaza in
00:29:33
1948 from 1948
00:29:37
forward every
00:29:39
time and I should clarify for younger
00:29:42
people in the room Gaza was under
00:29:45
Egyptian administrative control from
00:29:49
1948 to
00:29:52
1967 in
00:29:53
1967 it came under Israeli control but
00:29:57
there's one one common
00:29:59
denominator between both of those
00:30:03
experiences Egyptian and then
00:30:06
Israeli the common denominator was every
00:30:10
outside
00:30:12
Observer who came to
00:30:14
Gaza walked away describing it as a
00:30:19
concentration
00:30:21
camp that's true of un
00:30:24
officials in n in the 1950s
00:30:28
that's true for the older people in the
00:30:30
room the father of our former
00:30:34
presidential candidate Al Gore Al Gore's
00:30:38
father went to visit Gaza his father was
00:30:41
also a senator he went to visit Gaza
00:30:44
right after Israel conquered it he went
00:30:48
before Congress and he says Gaza is a
00:30:50
huge concentration
00:30:52
camp in
00:30:55
2004 the head of Israel's National
00:30:58
Security Council the equivalent of our
00:31:01
head of the
00:31:04
CIA he wrote quote Gaza is a huge
00:31:08
concentration
00:31:10
camp every
00:31:12
Observer coming to Gaza walked away with
00:31:16
the same mental
00:31:19
image for those of you who are
00:31:22
unaware
00:31:24
half half the inmate
00:31:29
of that concentration camp are
00:31:32
children when you look at this young man
00:31:35
sitting here this young man sitting here
00:31:39
those
00:31:41
constitute imagine this room were half
00:31:46
children from here to there down the
00:31:50
middle to the end children that's
00:31:53
Gaza and all of
00:31:56
them all of them were born into a
00:32:00
concentration
00:32:02
camp but that's only I'm sorry to say
00:32:07
that's only the
00:32:09
beginning because beginning in
00:32:13
2006 Israel
00:32:15
imposed this brutal blockade on
00:32:19
Gaza a blockade where they prohibited
00:32:24
chocolate from entering Gaza
00:32:28
they
00:32:28
prohibited baby
00:32:31
chicks from entering Gaza they
00:32:35
prohibited potato chips from entering
00:32:39
Gaza the list of the things they
00:32:42
prohibited was so
00:32:45
long that they finally decided to just
00:32:48
compose a list of what can enter
00:32:55
Gaza so we have a concentrate ation Camp
00:33:00
compounded by a brutal medieval criminal
00:33:06
Siege of
00:33:08
Gaza and then for those of you in this
00:33:11
room who are old enough to
00:33:14
remember because bear in mind the video
00:33:18
you watched of me is already 20 years
00:33:21
ago since then Israel periodically
00:33:27
launches
00:33:29
it's Hightech Killing Spree in
00:33:32
Gaza some of you will remember the
00:33:36
names
00:33:38
20089 operation protective
00:33:41
Edge
00:33:43
2012 operation pillar of
00:33:46
Defense
00:33:48
2014 operation protective
00:33:53
Edge during protective Edge
00:33:58
the head of the international Committee
00:34:00
of the Red Cross Peter Peter
00:34:03
Mor
00:34:05
he took a tour of Gaza after what Israel
00:34:09
did in protective Edge and he commented
00:34:13
quote in all my professional life I have
00:34:18
never seen such destruction as I saw in
00:34:22
Gaza in all my professional life a
00:34:25
person whose entire resume consists
00:34:28
of visiting combat zones he said I've
00:34:31
never seen such destruction as I saw in
00:34:33
Gaza now guess what you ready for
00:34:37
this during operation protective Edge
00:34:42
there were 2.5 million tons of rubble
00:34:45
Left Behind
00:34:47
2.5 sounds terrible right sounds
00:34:51
horrible right sounds ghastly right
00:34:54
leaves you a gas right did to me
00:34:58
but the estimate now is that Israel as
00:35:02
of this moment has left behind 50
00:35:07
million tons of
00:35:10
rubble 20
00:35:12
times protective
00:35:15
Edge when Peter Mo said I've never seen
00:35:18
destruction like this ever
00:35:24
before in protective Edge 18,000 homes
00:35:28
were destroyed or severely damaged you
00:35:31
know what the figure is now about
00:35:35
300,000
00:35:37
92% of the homes in Gaza
00:35:42
92% have been damaged or destroyed 92%
00:35:47
that's quite an
00:35:48
achievement no wonder the Israelis are
00:35:50
so
00:35:51
happy that's a pretty impressive
00:35:54
achievement
00:35:59
so
00:36:01
that's what Gaza
00:36:04
was a concentration camp compounded by a
00:36:09
middle a middle medieval Siege combin
00:36:13
compounded by the periodic killing
00:36:16
spre and truth be told truth be
00:36:21
told the world had forgotten about Gaza
00:36:24
by October
00:36:26
6th all the talk in the town was about
00:36:29
the Abraham Accords and whether the
00:36:32
Saudis would
00:36:33
join and it looked to the people of Gaza
00:36:37
like the whole regional conflict was
00:36:41
going to be solved over their
00:36:44
heads 60% of the young people in Gaza
00:36:48
were
00:36:49
unemployed all they had to look forward
00:36:52
to each
00:36:53
day for their entire lives
00:36:58
because most of them were born after The
00:37:01
Siege was imposed in
00:37:05
2006 so those young men in Gaza who
00:37:09
burst its
00:37:10
Gates on October 7th burst the gates of
00:37:14
the Concentration Camp those young men
00:37:18
they were born into a concentration
00:37:21
camp it's 26 miles long the length of a
00:37:25
marathon 5 miles wide
00:37:29
all they had to look forward to each day
00:37:32
was to Pace the
00:37:34
perimeter of the Concentration Camp they
00:37:38
had no
00:37:40
past they had no
00:37:42
present they had no
00:37:45
future they were born into a
00:37:47
concentration camp they languished in
00:37:51
that concentration camp and as of
00:37:56
October 6
00:37:58
they were destined to die in it in the
00:38:02
face of those
00:38:04
facts it seems to
00:38:07
me that one can even though it might
00:38:10
sound
00:38:12
contradictory one can
00:38:16
say
00:38:19
simultaneously that Horrors occurred on
00:38:22
October
00:38:24
7th I do not believe in the current
00:38:28
state of our knowledge it can be
00:38:32
disputed that Hamas committed Mass
00:38:37
atrocities on October 7th I believe you
00:38:42
can
00:38:43
acknowledge that
00:38:45
fact but
00:38:48
simultaneously say I refuse to condemn
00:38:53
those who carried out those acts because
00:38:57
because they were given no
00:39:00
choice no
00:39:03
option except to be born into to
00:39:07
languish in and to die in that
00:39:11
concentration
00:39:13
camp there's more to say in that topic
00:39:17
but time doesn't allow me I got the one
00:39:21
minute hook for which I'm grateful
00:39:24
because he's doing uh uh I'm being done
00:39:27
a f her to keep on schedule I'll leave I
00:39:31
want to just leave on one other question
00:39:34
the second question by Mr Pierce Morgan
00:39:37
has always
00:39:39
been but Israel had to do
00:39:44
something and doesn't Israel have the
00:39:47
right to
00:39:50
selfdefense you couldn't really
00:39:54
expect that Israel would do nothing
00:39:58
after the
00:40:00
atrocities of October
00:40:03
7th and that too is not an easy question
00:40:07
to answer and I had to ponder it at some
00:40:14
length and here I'll just
00:40:17
end on an
00:40:19
analogy and you decide for
00:40:22
yourselves whether the analogy works for
00:40:25
you for younger people in this room who
00:40:29
spend too much time on the computer and
00:40:32
not enough time reading books and
00:40:35
analogy is a
00:40:38
comparison okay
00:40:41
so though I suspect You Knew What
00:40:44
analogy was yes you look like a bright
00:40:46
young man you too look bright but a
00:40:49
little too much time on the
00:40:51
web so here is the analogy
00:40:57
there is a battered
00:40:59
woman her husband batters her and
00:41:03
batters her and batters her day in and
00:41:08
day out
00:41:10
tormented agonizing
00:41:13
screams agonizing
00:41:15
shrieks hoping a passer by a neighbor
00:41:21
will do something to rescue her from her
00:41:26
condition the neighbors hear the
00:41:29
shrieks they hear the
00:41:32
torments they know what's going on but
00:41:37
they do
00:41:39
nothing the woman finally summons the
00:41:42
[Music]
00:41:44
courage to call the
00:41:47
police the police
00:41:49
come they
00:41:51
[Applause]
00:41:52
investigate they find
00:41:55
evidence they find
00:41:58
voluminous that means a lot it's a big
00:42:01
word they find
00:42:03
voluminous
00:42:05
evidence they write up a
00:42:08
report just like all those un
00:42:12
reports over the past 20 years that have
00:42:15
been written up on
00:42:17
Gaza they write a report and they find
00:42:22
that the woman is being battered and
00:42:24
tormented and the husband is engaging in
00:42:27
criminal activity just like the UN
00:42:30
reports found about Israel's periodic
00:42:34
killing sprees in
00:42:37
Gaza they present the report to the
00:42:40
district
00:42:41
attorney he takes it puts it in the desk
00:42:45
drawer and it just collects
00:42:48
dust just like all those un reports
00:42:52
which collect dust at the UN and collect
00:42:56
dust on night
00:42:58
bookshelves and then
00:43:03
finally the man is approaching her again
00:43:06
her spouse is about to beat her again
00:43:10
torture her
00:43:12
again she grabs a kitchen
00:43:15
knife and she stabs
00:43:19
him and she stabs him a second
00:43:23
time and she stabs him a third time
00:43:28
at this point he grabs his pistol he
00:43:32
shoots her and kills
00:43:34
her now the way our law is
00:43:40
constructed where he brought to court as
00:43:43
several of the lawyers in this room
00:43:45
could probably attest he would almost
00:43:49
certainly be
00:43:52
acquitted on the grounds of
00:43:55
self-defense that he had had the right
00:43:57
to self-defense he had the right to kill
00:44:00
her but I ask
00:44:03
you as a moral
00:44:07
judgment did
00:44:09
he have the right to kill
00:44:13
her in
00:44:16
selfdefense
00:44:18
or after having tormented and tortured
00:44:24
her for 20 years
00:44:27
years he had
00:44:31
forfeited his right to
00:44:34
self-defense he had no right of
00:44:38
self-defense after what he had done
00:44:41
thank you