Progressives Push For The U.S. To Recognize Palestinian State

TYTurks

TYTurks News Channel #TYT #TheYoungTurks #BreakingNews Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna is drafting and circulating a letter for the United States to recognize a Palestinian state. Cenk Uygur, Yasmin Khan and Jackson White discuss on The Young Turks.  CHAPTERS: 0.00 A HERO Has Emerged!!! 1.30 What's In The Leaked Letter 4.15 The Meaning Of This Moment 7.30 Cenk BLASTS Marco Rubio 8.45 Cenk Goes OFF On Israeli Gov't Propaganda 11.20 This Is Truly Courageous  "Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is circulating a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio among House lawmakers calling for the United States to recognize a Palestinian state. Khanna, a prominent progressive voice in the House with aspirations for higher office, has become increasingly vocal in recent weeks about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and in his criticism of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC. " TYT is the largest online news network in the country. It presents news, context and analysis. We have dozens of on-air hosts on half a dozen major channels on almost all the platforms. We also have a live 24-hour news channel that features all our shows. #TYT #TheYoungTurks #BreakingNews "Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is circulating a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio among House lawmakers calling for the United States to recognize a Palestinian state.

Transcript

00:00So yesterday on the show, we talked about how Canada is making moves towards

00:04recognizing Palestine officially as a state.

00:08And while President Trump is reluctant to follow suit, progressives in Congress,

00:12led by Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, are pushing for the US to also recognize

00:17the Palestinian state. So Cenk, this document was leaked, so they weren't ready to go public with

00:23this just yet. But it does feel very encouraging, like a step in the right direction. What do you

00:28think? My God, finally, we have a hero. And so look,

00:33I'm not saying it lightly. Ro Khanna has come on this show and we brawled and you can go and look it

00:38up, okay? When we disagree, we fight over things. But he comes back and I respect him for that.

00:45We've talked about that before. But to start a movement to recognize a Palestinian state,

00:51that is the most out of bounds, unacceptable thing you could do in Washington.

00:56So we got a rebel on our hands. I mean, that never happens in Washington,

01:01never. There's a lot of fake rebels, but no one who would dare to fight against

01:05AIPAC and the might of Israel. So the fact that Ro Khanna is doing that,

01:10it shows tremendous leadership as someone who's finally authentic,

01:15someone who finally means it. I think this story is absolutely huge. And he's got eight people

01:21with him already and maybe more on the way. So let's tell you all about it.

01:24Nine people actually, and yes, maybe more on the way. So here is what the draft document says,

01:30according to Jewish Insider. And this is, again, it was leaked. It says,

01:34we are writing to request that the United States officially recognize a Palestinian state.

01:39As this tragic moment was highlighted for the world, the long overdue need to recognize Palestinian

01:45self-determination. A draft version of the letter obtained by a Jewish insider reads,

01:49just as the lives of Palestinians must be immediately protected, so too must their rights

01:54as a people and nation urgently be acknowledged and upheld. It has long been acknowledged by much of

02:00the international community and previous US administrations of both major political parties

02:06that a Palestinian state recognized as a full and equal member of the community of nations

02:11is necessary to fulfill the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people and ensure the

02:17state of Israel's survival as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people. A viable Palestinian state

02:24will need to fully recognize Israel and adopt a framework to guarantee Israel's security,

02:28including the disarmament of and relinquishing of power by Hamas in order to be broadly embraced

02:34by the community of nations. We will need to work closely with the Palestinian people,

02:38the Palestinian Authority, our Arab allies, and Israel to make this feasible.

02:44So as Cenk mentioned, as of yesterday, the letter was signed by nine other congresspeople,

02:49all Democrats, including Greg Cesar, Lloyd Dodgett, Veronica Escobar, Maxwell Frost, Al Green,

02:56Jared Huffman, Pramila Jayapal, Mark Pocan, and Bonnie Watson Coleman, a lot of Texans there.

03:02Kana has only just begun outreach with this letter this week, so more will hopefully sign on to it.

03:11And the plan was not to send this to the UN General Assembly until September.

03:16In a statement to Jewish Insider, this is what Kana had to say about the leaked document. He said,

03:22this is the moment for the United States to officially recognize a Palestinian state. All 22 states in the

03:28Arab League this week called for a non-Hamas Palestinian state that recognizes Israel.

03:34And in a memo to his colleagues, Kana wrote this, as the devastating toll of the war in Gaza continues

03:41to mount, this tragic moment has underscored the urgent need to acknowledge Palestinian

03:45self-determination and take meaningful steps toward a just and lasting resolution

03:51to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio

03:57is insulting the intelligence of those supporting Palestinian statehood saying,

04:02at the end of the day, Hamas is sitting there saying, we're winning the PR war.

04:07We've got all these countries lining up on our side of this argument.

04:11And in an interview with Fox News Thursday, he said this, the 140 heads of state threatening to

04:18recognize or ones that have already recognized a Palestinian state can't even tell you where

04:23this Palestinian state is. Okay, if there are 140 heads of state around the world that agree on

04:30one thing and the United States is within the minority here, then maybe not a great idea to

04:36insult them. And the fact that people can't, he's assuming people can't tell you where Palestine

04:40is on a map. I don't know who he thinks he's dealing with, but it's not the MAGA base anymore.

04:46So Jackson, this is very encouraging. I don't know how far it's going to go.

04:52Hopefully he will get more names to sign on to this. I know there are probably some names that

04:58were not mentioned that people are hoping would have been mentioned. But again, that's only 10 so far

05:04and he was giving himself until September. So what do you make of this? And are you hopeful

05:09that maybe it's not going to go anywhere, but maybe it's moving in the right direction?

05:13Well, I think that what I'm mostly hopeful for is just how there's some tides changing.

05:19Because this, for instance, is not just the right thing morally,

05:22but it's also the correct way to respond to this politically. You look at the polling and

05:27you're seeing that the Democratic base, whether it's liberals or progressives,

05:31are pretty fed up and finished with both Netanyahu and Israel's campaign against Palestinians.

05:37Also, Democrats are at pretty historic low polling right now, a direct reflection of people's

05:44dissatisfaction with the general weak approach, the milquetoast approach that they have of

05:50constantly capitulating. You hear this on the liberal outlets like Pod Save America,

05:57the I've Had It podcast with those two ladies. People are railing against them all the time.

06:02And so this is some of how you address that. So this goes beyond just recognizing Palestine as

06:08a state. This goes further into progressive policies, whether that's if you're not pushing

06:12for universal healthcare, at least the public option. All the private health insurance companies,

06:19they still can make plenty of money with a public option.

06:22And also, this is some of what we saw with Kamala's campaign. And when she started to go down,

06:28when she was talking about things like free home care, expanded Medicaid and things like that,

06:34that strikes a nerve and what people need. So again, in addition to this being the right thing

06:39morally, this is really what the Democratic establishment needs to be doing politically

06:44to get more people on their side. Especially as we just saw in the story before this, we got people

06:48like Sean Strickland and all types of right wingers who are dissatisfied with APEC's influence and

06:54control over our government. So I think that somebody's got to be the first one to jump into the deep

07:00end. So I think that this can help encourage at least the Democratic Party to further step in

07:06that right direction. But it's incumbent on us, the voters, to get better, more progressive politicians

07:12in office at the end of the day. Yeah, so let me jump in with a bunch of stuff.

07:16So first of all, Marco Rubio, that guy's Israel first through and through.

07:20Yeah, he is. Every single time. How dare you challenge our beloved Israel?

07:26I can't believe the whole world is against them. You're all hate Jews, you're all racist and

07:30bigoted. My God, anti-Semites, the Democrats and Ro Khanna. How dare you now bow your head to Israel?

07:36Do you know how much money they've given me? Yeah, Marco, we do. AIPAC has given Marco Rubio

07:43a ton of money throughout his career. In fact, Taylor, look that up for me,

07:47and we'll give the exact number in a minute. We got a poll here. I'm curious what you guys think.

07:53So the show's live 6 PM every day, Monday through Friday. We're crazy, we do a two-hour show,

07:58so you can catch it anytime between 6 and 8. And you're part of the show when you do it,

08:02so live chat's part of it. So should the US recognize the state of Palestine?

08:06I hope this is a blowout, okay? But for all decent people, this is the most obvious thing

08:14in the world. I mean, there's two deeply ironic things that Israel uses as propaganda to try to

08:24prevent a Palestinian state. So this is on tyt.com, 75 to 25, wow, really? Now I know there's a small

08:32number of votes, right? But I encourage people to keep voting. I can't understand any reason why

08:38we wouldn't recognize Palestine as a state. So number one, Israel's propaganda is,

08:46no, the Palestinians will always attack Israel. So we can't let them have a state because then

08:52they might have a military, they might have guns, they might have weapons, and then they will

08:56obviously try to murder all the Jews like we're doing to them. I mean, they're the dangerous

09:02savages, right? Well, that's a deeply racist point. They're saying the Palestinians are the only people

09:08on planet Earth who cannot govern themselves. But the minute they have sovereignty,

09:13they will use it to try to murder everyone around them.

09:18That does kind of describe Israel right now as they've attacked five neighbors,

09:22plus absolutely leveled Gaza, plus starving the Gazas, plus killing endlessly in the West Bank.

09:31But even so, even with the factual basis for it, I would never be that racist,

09:36and say the Israelis can't govern themselves. But the Israelis are that racist, and they say,

09:41no, the Palestinians are so beneath us, they're so inferior, they should never govern themselves.

09:48And by the way, this is not hyperbole, they voted on it.

09:50And this current Israeli government voted that Palestine should never exist as a state.

09:55Okay, now that leads us to the second piece of propaganda. They say, we can't let the Palestinians

10:00exist, because it says in some charter somewhere, in some theory and hypothetical part of the

10:07multiverse, that if the Palestinians had infinite power, the extremists that are in power now would

10:13still be in power, which is not at all true, okay? But if the Palestinians had power,

10:17they would prevent Israel from existing. Okay, now two absurdities about that.

10:22Number one, Israel is almost the safest state country in the whole world. They have nukes,

10:28they have a military that is larger than the rest of the countries combined near them,

10:32and they have Iron Dome. They're the only country that has Iron Dome.

10:35They're as safe as, they're as dug in as they could possibly be. Good, I don't want them going anywhere.

10:42But then they think, my God, we're in existential danger, we're all gonna die. No, you're not,

10:47no, you're not. You're one of the biggest militaristic colonial empires in the world.

10:52You have a giant military, you have nukes, you're not going anywhere. On the other hand,

10:57it's you guys that are preventing Palestine from existing. And every dumbass in American media,

11:04every crook that's an American politician goes, I'm so worried about Israel existing.

11:08They probably laugh their ass off, they probably go off camera and go like,

11:12Palestine doesn't even exist, and Israel's preventing it. But we're pretending the real

11:17problem is the Palestinians not allowing Israel to exist. We tricked the American people.

11:23Okay, well, I'm sick of you tricking the American people. No, I love what Ro Khan is doing.

11:28And guys, you have no idea how courageous it is. Because you think, most of you, if you're good,

11:35decent, moral people, you think this is obvious. Of course,

11:37the Palestinians should have a state, right? Why are they the only country that's not allowed

11:41to have a state? But in Washington, the reason why this is, other than the fact that AIPAC runs the

11:47entire place, and they will put a price on your head. And they're spending already 2 million against

11:52Tom Massey, who was a Republican. They already spent over 4 million on the Cori Bush, Jamal Bowman,

11:58the Nina Turner, and the Andy Levin races, right? And they won every one of those races.

12:04They come in and they go, we're gonna bribe our way to victory. You better not oppose Israel.

12:08And Ro Khanna and these other nine are like, no, we're gonna take that risk, already huge

12:13courage. But the second thing is, it puts other Democrats on the line.

12:18Now, you gotta say, hey, wait, are you for the Palestinians?

12:23Or you, but you're actually work for AIPAC in Israel. So which one is it? And Democrats,

12:30a lot of Democrats don't wanna answer that question. So the fact that they're asking

12:34them that question is super brave. Again, for us, it might seem normal.

12:38But in the Washington culture, this is thermonuclear.

12:44Like, you're gonna make us tell the American people whether we're for

12:47the genocide or these poor Palestinians? How dare you? That would embarrass me.

12:52I wanna take millions of dollars from AIPAC and not get caught.

12:56And now because of this, I might get caught. Goddamn right, you might get caught.

13:00I love it, okay? So thank you to Ro Khanna for leadership and courage on this.

13:06Always credit where credit is due and massive credit here. And it doesn't matter if you're

13:10a right winger who believes in getting rid of the AIPAC money like so many of them do now.

13:15And you like Tom Massey, and it doesn't matter if you're left and like Ro Khanna on other issues.

13:21On this issue, we should all be united. There is no reason for this foreign government

13:26to run our government. And obviously they do because this is such a giant story.

13:31They're like, my God, 10 congressmen have opposed Israel out of 535 people in Congress.

13:41And they're like, Washington is horrified by it. Just the mere fact of saying the Palestinians are just

13:47as human as anyone else. And of course they should have sovereignty and an independent state.

13:52That is an unthinkable thought in deeply occupied territory of Washington DC.

14:00Yeah, I just wanna say real quickly, Marco Rubio mentioning the PR war is kind of ridiculous

14:05because Benjamin Netanyahu is literally going on podcasts right now spreading propaganda.

14:11He's making claims about aid getting to Gaza or rather not getting into Gaza. That his claims

14:17are not supported by any international authority. Everyone else, including Israel in the past,

14:23have said that they're the ones who are preventing aid from getting into Gaza.

14:27And I just wanna say real quickly, I said this on Indisputable earlier this week. But I just wanna

14:30remind our viewers that famine, like what we're seeing in Gaza right now, does not just happen.

14:35It is a deliberate weapon of colonization, of genocide, of exploitation. And people can see

14:42what's happening for themselves and they can see that it is horrific. And I love that this is getting

14:47spoken about not just with the Democrats and the progressives, but that it's happening on both sides.

14:51That people can see that the United States is really just kind of a pawn for Israel, this tiny country

14:58thousands of miles away on a different continent in the Middle East and they're pulling our strings.

15:03It is embarrassing and it is inhumane and I'll leave it at that.

15:08Yeah, hold on, hold on. Before we go, I wanna give you the number that I promised you.

15:13Marco Rubio has taken $1,013,563 from APEC and that's just from APEC. That doesn't include Miriam

15:22Adelson, Paul Singer and all the other people who bribe individually on a regular basis, all of our

15:30politicians. Yes, they are legalized bribes, but they're bribes nonetheless. They are money that

15:35they give to people like Marco Rubio and they say, hey, you will not work for America, you will work

15:40for Israel. And Rubio goes, of course, sir, every country is wrong, America's wrong, American Republicans

15:46are wrong, Democrats are wrong, only Israel is right. I'm the American Secretary of State.

15:50And morons in mainstream media will tell you, no, you can't say that.

15:55No, Marco Rubio is not affected by a million dollars. Come on, mainstream media is the worst

16:04of the worst. What a bunch of preposterous liars. Obviously, Marco Rubio works for Israel

16:11because they gave him a million dollars. The rest of us all know that because we didn't escape from a

16:17mental asylum and wind up on CNN set. Every time you ring the bell below,

16:22an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.

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