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WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE HOLDS A NEWS CONFERENCE ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE PERSIAN GULF WAR.

Documenting various aspects of air pollution, water pollution, and soil contamination that is international and global in scope. This has given rise to environmentalism and the environmental movement that generally seek to limit human impact on the environment... Night scenes of a large city, lights, traffic, people. Fruit on trees, people eating, fruit market. Large number and groups of people in motion. Long shot of an offshore oil platform, industrial plants. Contaminated water flowing from a pipe, polluted river, sign that reads Danger. Polluted Water, No Swimming. More scenes of dirty, contaminated water flowing into streams some contaminated with oil. Man-made trash, garbage in river. Several scenes of factory smoke stacks belching smoke into the air. Industrial plant chimneys spewing pollution into the air. Smoke from engines of jet aircraft. Automobiles in large parking lots. Numerous scenes of automobiles and buses, close-up of exhaust pipes of vehicles, people in traffic jams. Layer of smog over a city. Shows results of a lake polluted with fertilizer and man-made trash, garbage washed up on shore. Abandoned junk cars and automobiles. Various city scenes, freeway traffic, houses dotting the landscape. Various scenes of bugs and insects, spraying insecticide in a field and orchard. Oil spill clean up. Processing garbage and waste. Man-made islands masking oil installations coast of California, aerial view of freeway and freeway interchanges. Long shot people on bank of river, in a large pool, and at a beach.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

08:16 Black Consciousness Movement by Andrew Jones. Various leaders of anti-apartheid movements in South Africa talk about their struggle. In Johannesburg, protesters sing and dance while boarding a bus. 15:13 Krishna vs. Christians by Nancy Cain. A short video about a Hare Krishna parade in Venice Beach, California and the Christians who are on hand to protest it. 36:13 Habitat for Humanity by Nancy Cain. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter help put up a house for a black family in San Diego. Picketers protest because an environmental impact survey wasn't conducted at the construction site.

KIDS BY THE BAY

00:00:00:00 [Flyer about US-Russian cooperation in Arctic is accompanied by Russian newsreel about environmental impact of humanity in area]---CU Still handout "Environmental Working Group Jo ...

Bright green sea turtle swimming on the surface above dead coral reef. Filmed in North Western Australian waters.

Environmental Impact of Paris Agreement Pullout

Aerial view of a whale-watching jet skier rapidly approaching a whale at the surface, stopping quickly as it dives. People whale are advised to not closely approach whales, not travel at speed and not make sudden turns, so as not to affect the animals. Filmed in Broad Bay, Unalaska, Alaska, USA.

Soviet RDS-2 atomic bomb test, 1951. Mushroom cloud rising after the detonation of this atomic bomb test, also known as Joe 2, which took place on 24 September 1951 at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in what is now Kazakhstan. This test had a yield of 38 kilotons of TNT. A total of 456 Soviet nuclear tests were conducted at the Semipalatinsk site between 1949 and 1989. This test was the second atomic bomb developed by the USSR. It was detonated from the top of a 30-metre-tall tower, by a signal sent from a bomber flying overhead

Interview with Liad Ortar of Tel Aviv University about his days in the Army and history from the Oslo agreement to Sharon.,INTERVIEWER:,Say and spell your name INAUDIBLE,LIAD ORTAR:,04:00:59:21>>>,My name is Liad Ortar L-I-A-D O-R-T-A-R I'm a masters student in Tel Aviv University. I master in the field of environmental consequences of war. I research the connection between the ongoing conflict in the world and especially in Israel and the destruction derogation of the environment. Prior to that I was peace now settlement watch team coordinator. After that I've been working with the former minister S------ I was assistant to the minister. I was an assistant to the minister ah after that I was a, a great peace campaigner in Israel. I lead quite a lot of public campaigns concerning Mediterranean pollution the air pollution all kinds of environmental issues. And since then I'm a private consultant I'm working with NGO's with public campaigns and doing my ah research in university.,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE,LIAD ORTAR:,04:02:11:16>>>,Most proud. I think the, the, the the situation basically this is a year ago. Two days ago it was the 6th of august and we mentioned ah it was 58 years to Hiroshima it's the Memorial Day for Hiroshima bomb. And exactly a year ago I was on a trip in Nepal and during my trip in Nepal I volunteered for 2 weeks in a, in a small village by the, by name of Godengoda. It's near a city of Polka. And in this time I'm spending in the village we ah organize a special memorial a special ceremony with the children over there. And we were about 12 people ah French and German and American from all over the world and we did ah and we just one after the other we read ah everyone read something concerning the war and, and the Nepalese translated the sentence to Nepalese to the local language and I said the language that the sentence in Hebrew. Like everyone said the same sentence in German, in French, in English and it was me standing in front of I don't know about 500 Nepalese children speaking Hebrew and everyone's looking quite admirably at me and saying that the only way ah that the only way to stop wars is by changing the one person behavior.,LIAD ORTAR:,04:03:44:10>>>,Like um this is the way to, to stop the ongoing wars all, all around the world and, and I remember this was a moment that I said I'm the only Israeli and I'm quite proud being that and representing the country and the nation.,INTERVIEWER:,What are 1 or 2 personal experience that have most profoundly affected INAUDIBLE?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:04:12:05>>>,Yeah. Um. You know when, when you grow up in Israel um you collect quite a lot of experiences and scenes from television. And um if I, if I want to look back in perspective to my adulthood to my growing up especially speaking politically wise and I'm looking for that one event I don't know, I don't know if I can ah pinpoint an event. But I can tell you that ah one of the most ah influential experience I had was when I was working Peace Now. And during, during that day destruction was quite different and you could travel around the West Bank and Gaza quite freely. It was a situation like this. And I remember going around with my car between one, between one ah settlement to the other. And I cannot forget the way that the settlers looked at me. This is something that really ah had a very profound impact on me because the way they looked at me as some like a INAUDIBLE someone from Peace Now coming over to their territory, espionaging them their new houses, their new settlements. It's, it's something very, very it was very difficult for me to bear this, this ah this glancing,LIAD ORTAR:,04:05:41:01>>>,I think the other ah event which is you know quite common to all of the other people in my, in my age is the is Robin assonation. Ah this was quite a trauma it was ah it was during also it is an experience that has a connection with religious people with settlers and it was ah when I was in the army I was ah time commander and I had all my soldiers around. We were all looking the television and they were all religious and then they said that Robin was murdered. And I cannot forget that that my response to the situation was profoundly different than their response. Like I was all shocked I start cry, I started to cry. I didn't know what to do with myself and I don't know what they did it was just different from my reaction.,LIAD ORTAR:,04:06:35:21>>>,This was quite a, quite a an important event. And through the years there were a lot, a lot more but these are something that I can you know mention. ,INTERVIEWER:,Was there a time that you were least proud to be an Israeli?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:07:00:07>>>,Yup. I was. I think um there's something very um when you look of, of life in Israel and I'm looking for the reason for the event that I'm shamed of the country or who I am it is something that follows me through the years through different events. Ah one of the events it's it was a very big article in the, in the journal ------- in the, in the Saturday journal. They did a very big piece about ah the uprooting of olive trees. It was for me I, I was really I was ashamed, I was embarrassed, I was um I was saddened I was you know just can't find the right word to do that but it was a very tough experience for me ah especially when I have Palestinian friends from people from villages near ---quila. Ah I work with a Palestinian research centers and after that going back and talking with them knowing that your own people did something which is it's a crime. It's a crime against the environment. It's a crime against human, humans it's there's no other, no other way to define that.,INTERVIEWER:,Could you explain what happened to the olive trees?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:08:26:00>>>,Yeah. What the story ------- is that a systematic there's a system of stealing olive trees all the olive trees old ones and young ones ah during the construction of the fence. Ah Israeli constructors ah collaborated with local gangsters something like that and just systematically uprooted hundreds of olive trees and sold them to Israelis to the gardens in Israel to ah landscape ah garden in the streets of Israeli towns and um this is something you know I just when I go, when I travel around and I see all the olive trees in places that there's just no reason for them to be there I go around and ask myself ah are they originally from there or where are, where did they come from. This is story is quite a a shocking one. And the shocking thing that nothing happened after that like no one was persecuted. No one there were no charges brought up against those thieves just nothing happened we just went through the next day and went back to the normal life ah which is also quite sad.,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE,LIAD ORTAR:,04:09:46:15>>>,In 93 to 96 I was a time commander in the INAUDIBLE Heights. ,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE,LIAD ORTAR:,04:10:02:26>>>,Um luckily the majority of the time that I spent in the, in the army my service wasn't in the West Bank but was in Lebanon before our withdrawal in Lebanon and ah the --- Heights. Ah I did quite a lot of reserve time in the West Bank and I remember one, one incident in um you know in the, in the checkpoint there is kind of a routine ah that, that what the soldiers do they dry, dry, dry up this like the name of the routine. They just take the, the credentials for the, the passport all the id's from, from the people that come to the, to the check point and just let them dry up in the, in the sun for 2 hours 3 hours for no for no ah particular reason. I remember once when I when we started um to serve in the West Bank it was when I was a reserve solider I was a commander of this kind of checkpoint and one of my I went to do a checkup of the of the place and one of my, I saw a bunch of Palestinians standing in the sun and I asked the solider you know I was the commander and I had deputy and you do and you ah change roles I asked him what are you doing what are they doing if you, what's going on. He said ah it's ok I'm just trying them out. I said why's that. Because they don't have any they didn't have the passport and the passport is wrong something is, is a bit of a problem with them.,LIAD ORTAR:,04:11:30:07>>>,And I said it's not acceptable to me. If you anything against those people please call the police and let them arrest them and take them into custody and if not I ask you to set them free and let them go back to their houses. And the soldiers were quite mad at me what are you doing this is not the right way to do we've been doing that forever etcetera, etcetera. I say I'm not I do not care about what you use to do. I do not care about your, your norms or what it's regular to do in the checkpoints when I'm commander this it's not gonna continue and I just set those people free. And I think one of them we called the police and they took them because they had some kind of a problem. But ah ah luckily for me for my periods in the army and the regular service and in the reserve I didn't do quite a lot of time in the West Bank although I've been there a lot in Peace Now and in demonstration and I've been arrested there on the way to Havron and I've been to Havron quite a lot with Palestinian friends and I have a lot of experiences from them and a civilian as, as an Israeli not as a solider.,INTERVIEWER:,Why do you think Israel had to make a peace agreement with the Palestinians in 93?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:12:51:21>>>,I think when, when you look back at 93 and about the dynamics, the political dynamics that pushed Israel into um creating or um um advancing peace agreements with the Oslo accords and everything that happened to that over there I think this was like um a blink something um a phenomena. Something which is not a norm in Israel that a bunch of people leading people from the academia and foreign civil, civil servant from the minister of affairs or foreign affairs they stood up and they said we are taking control of our own destiny. We are um leading or we are paving our way, our the Israel way for the future or the Israeli Palestinian way for the future. We cannot continue um to run our life with no without any leadership, without any direction like, like a boat surfing on the water. We have to take charge of this surfing boat ah by the name of the state of Israel and we have to lead them to a save haven. ,LIAD ORTAR:,04:14:15:02>>>,And this what happened in 93. And, and I go back to what I said in the beginning it was a blink. It was something of a of a uniqueness because since then it all stopped and for the last 5 years and especially 3 years during the anitfata and it it's period that exact it relates directly to the 35 years of occupation till ah the Oslo agreements. We have um a leadership one after the other, one after the other Israeli governments that's basically doing nothing. Basically sitting on this ah crumbling ship ah which is the Israeli Jewish sovereignty over the state of Israel and going from one place to the other trying to survive storms, trying to survive war and just hoping that the next day it's going to be better. Like the most phenom, the most common Israel ah ah phrase it's gonna be ok. Like we're not gonna cause that to be ok. We're not gonna lead that to an ok harbor we're just gonna wait and something will happen and god will come and, and save us. And this is I think happened in 93 and sadly it was a unique event in our history um that was um was hurt was um undermined by, by enormous pressure from the Israeli society from Israeli society to my opinion lead by the settlers and their ah high role position in, in the government and by the army. ,LIAD ORTAR:,04:16:02:05>>>,These are two enormous powers in the Israel society. They took the Oslo agreement, they took ah um they dynamics of um reconciliation and crumbled it. And I'm, and it's not and, and for reason I'm not talking now about Palestinian side because no one is a saint but I formally I look upon myself as to look for the blame and not, not ah turn to my neighbor.,INTERVIEWER:,How did you feel personally emotionally immediately in the days after the Oslo agreement?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:16:44:18>>>,Yeah ah. It was a day that I was in the army. I just began my service.,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE,LIAD ORTAR:,04:16:53:00>>>,(HEBREW) In the days after, after the Oslo agreements it was these were my first days in the army and, and um (HEBREW),INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE,LIAD ORTAR:,04:17:23:24>>>,The days of 93 at the beginning of the ah Oslo agreements and all the you know the new winds that were blowing, blowing in the Middle East you know peace and everything ah I was in the army. It was the beginning of my, of my service and I remember we were all very ah optimical, optimist. Optimistic about the situation. Um it was we really had the feeling of a new era beginning. An era of ah of reconciliation. An era of ah um new times, new times of peace. It was um the high point of the high tech um boom. Everyone were working and earnings quite a lot of money. We had the Israeli market had ah was growing enormous rates. Um it was good time but basically I, I passed through them when I was in the army.,INTERVIEWER:,Did you have hope or INAUDIBLE this was just a blink?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:18:43:20>>>,No we were hopefully but I remember when I started my work in Peace Now ah in 96 and I started to reveal the real situation what's going on in the West Bank the ongoing settlement continue, of the settlers building new places the situation that they were in I knew something was wrong. I knew something ah that basically the situation is not solved. That the situation in the every day life for the Palestinians is, is as worse as it was for the last 30 years the basics dilemma, the basic hardships of life didn't change. And, and the Israeli people and the Palestinian people do not know each other. Do not know, do not know um know each other hardship. Don't know each other ah life's or different attitudes towards life. And one of the main thing, main um ah efforts that I did join during those days was to ah initiate quite a lot of dialogues meetings in the Vesalom near Jerusalem between Israeli students and Palestinian students. I, we even tried to build a joint Israeli student Palestinian Israeli student organization with a joint newspaper Israeli and Arabic. I, I really imagined that as a, as a triangle that it's like two triangles of two nations the, the connection was only on the top level. Only on the, on the pinpoint of those triangles and these were the people that were one to the other the leaders, the politicians, the foreign ministers but if you go to low, to a lower level of this triangle you had 2 nations that didn't know one another.,LIAD ORTAR:,04:20:31:11>>>,Didn't know the difference between one another and basically didn't accept that or were not aware that it was especially for the Israelis that the hardship of life continues in the West Bank and it can not go on forever. And when you live an everyday life in Israel which is quite a pleasant one and a modern life it's very easy to close yourself into your own border and not know what's going on in the on the other side and pretend that hey today it's ok so probably everything is ok but it's not because something is tumbling under the water.,INTERVIEWER:,During Oslo right after Oslo what were your highest hopes about the Palestinian situation?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:21:21:18>>>,Um I think that the highest hopes. I think the hopes that I had um during the days after Oslo um concerning the Palestinians and concerning the Israeli um was to get um the root of life into a normal way as, as fast as it can be. Like I said hey it's a new page I'm just I want to turn the page around and turn from 60 page 61 to page 62 and forget what happened before that. And forget what happened in the first 60 pages like it's a fresh start we are starting from scratch. We are starting from zero to ------. We have a clean board in front of us and let's start all over again. And it was and it's still quite a naïve approach towards life and especially towards the Israeli Palestinian conflict which is rooted to so many um so many things aspects in life religious ones um some cultural one so many.,LIAD ORTAR:,04:22:38:10>>>,So I thought that for maybe the biggest thing the, the har, the one thing that I hope for the Palestinian is for them to turn and to be like me. Without me being able or wanting to become a little bit like them. And and ah and it didn't happen and it didn't happen because I went over and I had friends and we had lunch together and I had canafeenablos and I was in Ramadan and hervron and they invited me for dinner after in the, in the later evening after when you can eat in Ramadan. And I said hey everything is normal because we're eating together and we're speaking over the phone and when you take this criteria's into west life or in the life in west countries and say hey this is being normal. But in the evening they still have to go through quite a lot of checkpoints and they cannot go abroad. And if they go and if they are to go from Jordan to Egypt they have to go through Saudi Arabia and not through ah Gaza which is you know 50 minutes drive. And um and we just couldn't understand that. And basically not, not a lot of things changed for them and for us. Ah we embrace this, this aspect of normality and say hey everything is ok. And everything wasn't ok. And then it blew up in our face.,INTERVIEWER:,You mentioned before that the settlers and the army were the ones that brought down and you believe that the Palestinians were betrayed. Do you see the Palestinians as being betrayed or do you think it was a joint thing that brought it down or?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:24:31:18>>>,Um we're looking at, at the betrayed role in this conflict. Um I do not think it's it's the Palestinian that were betrayed because as, as I told you as I mentioned before um I formerly and, and basically I look upon myself the guilt for the um for the reasoning the situation happening the way it is and not at the Palestinians. And I do not think the Palestinians were betrayed. Maybe they were but it's not the most important issue for me. The most important issue for me and the one that is that was betrayed in this conflict is the Israeli people. Is, is the majority of secular people that want to live a normal life in this country. And they are the one that are being betrayed in an everyday basis foremost by the settlers. Being cynically ah that they are cynically using the army for their own benefit or cynically using the institution the, the explosion, the terror attacks the blood that's being spilled all over for their religious fundamental reasons of um um redeeming the, the country and waiting for the messiah the all of Israel is our country and we can do whatever we want etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. ,LIAD ORTAR:,04:26:00:03>>>,They are the one that ah cause the, the betrayal on the Israeli people on the Israeli nation and on the future of the Israeli state as a sovereign and Jewish country that I believe its future is shaken in an every day basis and it's quite um it's, it's going farther, farther from reaching that, that goal. Especially what, what they do they took Zionism and put a keeper on that and turned that into a monster.,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE Palestinian actions that you feel less confident in after the Oslo agreement?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:26:44:25>>>,Um I can tell you that the events of open the tunnel in Jerusalem in the wailing wall INAUDIBLE open the tunnel INAUDIBLE it was a very tough event for me ah because one of my, one of my friends in school died over there. He was in an armed vehicle and he was shot ah ah during those fights. Um so looking back at the events that Palestinians did after Oslo this was the, this was the event. Um I can not remember I think there were quite a lot of small events like stabbings or things like that happened on an everyday basis but you know we even got use in the last 2 years for explosions that tens of people died so you cant imagine a scenario when you get used to people being stabbed and nothing happened and the country is not tumbling around them. ,LIAD ORTAR:,04:27:53:29>>>,I think it was like the Israeli side and the Palestinian side just took the Oslo agreements and did all they could in order to destroy that, destroy the chance of um living together to nations in one country.,INTERVIEWER:,Why do you think Camp David failed?,LIAD ORTAR:,04:28:25:16>>>,You know the, when you um ah you look on Barak behavior and Arafat behavior and you want to find who'd guilty is it Barak guilty is it Arafat guilty. I think Arafat did an enormous mistake by the side of the Palestinians. It was ah I think they got over their proposal that they do not have any chance of getting that proposal again concerning ah territorial ah exchange of land and the right of return and all of the other things that brought up in Camp David. But I think also Barak did quite a lot of mistakes and um it was his um aggressive way of conduct negotiation. The thought that you can come over ah enter this political swamp the Israeli political swamp from being a general of chief of staff. And by clearing the desk with a, with a with throwing your hand and you can start all over again and this is the end of, of the conflict. Um I think it was a wrong attitude. I think a conflict the Israeli Arab conflict is something that will ah continue for quite a lot of years. I think hundreds of years you can look at Ireland. And I think the main um part that wasn't embraced paradigm one main um um way of analyzing situation it wasn't embraced by, by Barak and it was quite a mistake that a conflict um has a historical roots and is gonna stay here. ,LIAD ORTAR:,04:30:28:25>>>,And the way to solve that conflict is not by ah untangling it and forgetting it it's by causing the conflict to be irrelevant for our everyday life here. And um and you have to give this conflict space because it is something that has to do with everyone's life in Israel. It doesn't matter if you're an Israeli that I was for example born in Heifa and grew up with Arabs. And with um knowing that maybe the place that my grandmother lived use to be of Arabs of 48 and if it's, if it's the refugees of 48 that live in Syria or in Lebanon or if it's the, the refugees of 67 that live in, in big cities in the west bank and not in their villages. So the conflict it's, it's a part of our identity and we have to embrace that we have to make peace with the conflict first of all and nothing thinking it's gonna be one clear day that we're gonna all wake up and peace is gonna prevail and that's it and it's all gonna vanish. It's not gonna vanish. The conflict is here and it's here to stay and we have to turn it into part of our life and turn into an irrelevant factor of our life.,LIAD ORTAR:,04:31:46:13>>>,By putting other by introducing new factors like economic like ah environmental one something that I'm promoting quite ah extensively these days. By both nations looking at our common resources the water, the air, the ground, the biodiversity and understanding the conflict hey we've been in conflicts we are continuing to be in conflicts but let's deal with that. Let's not think that if we're gonna divide east Jerusalem or west Jerusalem or give sovereignty to god it's gonna solve everything because it's not gonna solve.,INTERVIEWER:,Describe a personal experience that made you most confident that peace can prevail INAUDIBLE,LIAD ORTAR:,04:32:52:02>>>,You know when you look and something that I've been mentioning till now when you look for that one event um that changed attitudes towards peace, towards war, towards the conflict I, I, I do not believe in this way of analyzing the of analyzing reality. And um you know there are 2 processes in life. You can divide any kind of process into two kinds, two categories. One it's a goal orientated process. And one is a process oriented process. I do not believe that when you, when you start um a peace process or any kind of, of, of negotiation process between two ah rivals and say hey I want at the end to reach a two state solution so let's, let's ah get over the procedure the bureaucracy over the way let's just get this let cause we both know what's gonna be in the end. Then you loose everything because the one thing the thing is that is most important to my belief is knowing that there's importance in being the process itself. And running to the end. I do not know what's gonna be at the end of the Israeli Palestinian um I don't know peace process or let's say acquaintance program process. ,LIAD ORTAR:,04:34:20:27>>>,I do not know what's gonna be in the end and as I continue reading and analyzing the situation I, I tend to believe that the solution that should be at the end is a one state for two nations with different component and different federal way of governing and not one fence that is dividing this country in a brutal way environmental way into 2 different ah segregation camps or like but, but to stunt the way that they um south African policy in a, during a partite. ,LIAD ORTAR:,04:35:01:23>>>,So there isn't to my opinion one event that made me believe in the peace process. It's, it's the every day life it's the small thing. It's the, it's the one event about the olive trees. It's the event about confiscating land. It's the event about demolishing houses in east Jerusalem without the, the municipality giving any other alternative or planning alternative to the people that live here that are a quarter of a million people. So I do not believe in one event that changed everything. I believe in, in the importance of being in a process and understanding the small steps during, during this process and it's important. And, and the one thing that is most important thing for me um the main focus to my opinion is not the Palestinians. Palestinians their our cousins, their our friends, their our, their our are equals to us and this is something we have to relate to. But in order to promote any kinds of agreement it's time for the Israeli people the Israeli nation to stand up and decide what's good for its future. What where do you want this ship to go. And this is something that hasn't been happening in Israel for the last 35 years and we've been just drifting around from here to there. And, and ah this is the most important thing standing the Israeli nation and saying for our future the best thing is to do 1, 2, 3 and starting to do that and not waiting for those INAUDIBLE for something to fall out from heaven and save us all.,INTERVIEWER:,You don't want to pinpoint specific actions of the Israeli government that you think have not been conducive to the peace process since Oslo? ,LIAD ORTAR:,04:37:14:02>>>,I'll give you um when you look back on the dynamics from Oslo agreements till these days and I'm looking for the events that did difference basically to my opinion or to my perspective of life I think one of them was Manta Humar (HEBREW?) I think this, this was very important event because basically um it was one of the last places that you could ah make a geographical or establish a geographical connection between east Jerusalem and ah and Ramala and the city from, from the north. And I've been in all of these, these neighborhood. Um and it was, it was amazing. It was a mountain, it was a forest with, with ah with pine trees. It was like in the middle of desert Judah in the middle of Jerusalem. All houses around, around it everything is dry. And then you have a gray mountain. And this mountain became like the goal of, of Netanyahu of his, of his government.,LIAD ORTAR:,04:38:26:05>>>,And it was, and we were, I had I was in numerous ah demonstrations over there I was I think I was arrested there, I was chained there. We were, we did so many things over there but nothing we couldn't do anything to stop there. And now it's a mountain of houses. Um that's still the connection the geographical connection between Jerusalem east Jerusalem to the north parts, the --- of, of Ramala. So --- this is one of the things. I think the other, the other event is for me was very important was also during the time of, of Netanyahu um it was the 50 jubilee of Israel 50 years. And ah and decided that the formal events of 50 years formal ones are going to be in hevron. It was something which was unbelievable to us. I was working then in Peace Now. We were, I was after Peace Now we were shocked. And we had a large demonstration on the checkpoint stores --- and there were fighting's and we were clashing with the police. And I was arrested there I was beaten by the police. And, and we were standing there trying to shout out shout out to the Israel nations hey look what's going on we are celebrating 50 years but on the expense, expense of a whole town being under curfew. This is something that cannot continue. Sadly not all of the people heard our cry but this was quite an, an effective event. And um those are when I look back maybe those are not the historical events that changed history but for me they were very important ones.

Le Parisien

WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE HOLDS A NEWS CONFERENCE ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE PERSIAN GULF WAR.

00:00:00:00 [Jack Moore of EPA SOT]-'The agency has reviewed substantial amount of info relative to the potential impact of these field tests & has concluded they will not result in any for ...

TWENTY TWO GROUPS HAVE BANDED TOGETHER TO FILE SUIT AGAINST THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY OVER ITS NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM. THE GROUPS WANT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS.

View through the net wall of Atlantic salmon being farmed in a pen in the Pacific Northwest. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is farmed all around the world, in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There are concerns that escapes of non-native fish may upset the balance of the ecosystem in the Pacific region. The high density of the farmed salmon in the pens also encourages diseases, especially salmon lice, which can easily escape the open pens and infect wild fish. From 2021, most non-native salmon farms were banned in the Pacific Northwest Coast region, but many still remain active. Filmed in March 2023 in Clayoquot Sound, off Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

MEGA BUILDINGS

Reax to WHO's warning on impact of air pollution

DR. FREDRICK WARNER TALKS ABOUT GULF WAR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Plastic bags, bottles and cups float in the Ocean. Seemingly harmless, they represent the massive environmental issue that is Global Ocean Pollution. Plastic in the Ocean is said to be one of the largest threats to our ocean ecosystems. Over 8 million tonnes is dumped in the Ocean every year. Discarded, abandoned or obsolete items which become dangerous garbage, is responsible for the deaths of huge amounts of Marine Life every year, through entanglement and consumption. The location here is Phi Phi Islands, Krabi, Thailand.

INTERVIEWER:,How did you become an expert on the Middle East and Arab history?,50:44:03>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, Yeah you know unless you have a couple thousand dollars to spend on a bio warfare suit and the supplies don't go. You'll just put another strain on the resources. ,INTERVIEWER:,They don't want tourists?,49:57:09>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, Well I made the mistake of asking my friends in the intelligence community to tell me every dirty trick we ever pulled on Israel and put it in the book called The Secret War Against the Jews and that came out in 91. and I think ever since then I have been deluged with people from various intelligence communities with more and more information about what's really going on in terrorism. I visited Jonathan Pollard in prison and heard his side of the story and I think that's gonna be a very interesting way to have a new book about how we got involved in this? Why are we at war in the Middle East? What could we have done differently? And quite frankly I think that our policy makers both democrats and republicans had a people that were blinded to ah the growing rise of Saudi founded terrorism. And that's the bottom line for me is there was enough money to generate a whole wave of terrorism. The Saudis use to brag that everyone in our State Department is so nice to them because they know when they retire they'll be taken care of. see it's not a bribe if you don't pay the money till them until the day after they leave government service. Then give them a book contract or a consulting contract.,51:53:13>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, A lot of double dipping. Steve Emerson did a very good expose of that. um so the Saudis found you can't by the US government but boy you can rent corners of the State Department. ,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE?,52:19:08>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, Yeah I have a, I think there's a lot of people within the US that if you give them enough money they would ah express their anti-Semitism in the form of terrorism. There was a sweet little professor at the university of South Florida named Sammy Alarian and a bunch of my friends in the CIA and FBI came and said look this guys a major terrorist. He and this professor Mashala are running Islamic jihad. Professor Shala by that time had taken off to Syria. He's now publicly known as the world leader of the Palestinian Islamic jihad. But professor Alarian was still there. ,INTERVIEWER:,Ramadan Shala?,52:55:23>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, Yeah Ramadan Shala was the ah 95 took over the Palestinian Islamic jihad. He's probably the leading director of suicide bombs into Israel. And ah but his partner in America, I couldn't believe the evidence professor Alarian was traveling around the country video taping terrorist conventions. And was being introduced as the head of Islamic jihad in America which is called by a different name you know for security reasons. And um after Alarian speaks he's standing under the poster for the passing Islamic jihad and the man who introduced him gets up and says now who will give me $500 to kill and shoot. We have people standing by in Jerusalem who will go out and stab at you. Who will give me $500 and make your checks out to ICP. ICP was Sammy Alarian's Florida charity. These guys were getting tax deductions for terrorism. The money would come the Saudi charities in Virginia, through Sammy's charities in Florida straight to the Islamic jihad to send suicide bombers.,54:04:17>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, A remarkable system. So I drew up a lengthy complaint filled with classified information and I, because of my previously high security clearances I had to give CIA and the other government agencies warning and give them an opportunity to sensor the complaint. And ah the FBI came to visit me and said how'd you find out some of this stuff there are only 21 people in the US government knew this now you're 22. said sorry I can't tell attorney client privilege. The day before I was to file the complaint I got a call from the justice department. They said please give us more time we really are gonna shut down the Saudi charities in Virginia that fund the terrorist groups. I said yeah that's what you told me in January and again in February and now it's March. So I'll give you till 4 o'clock tomorrow (PAUSE) And so I filled my complaint under embargo at 10 and an hour later the government launched operation green quest.,54:58:22>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, They finally raided the Saudi charities. and as they're digging through the computer records, that's why you see in the crackdowns on the Hamas groups and the Islamic jihad groups and all the little terrorist groups the Saudis were funding here. It was easier for the Saudis to fund terrorists groups in the United States because our surveillance was so weak. The minute they heard the word Saudi they just all turned away. And so they were actually having terrorist conventions in the United States because we were the safest place in the world for terrorist to meet.,INTERVIEWER:,Are we getting the John Malvo story right or is he possibly a ?,55:36:22>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, No he was just a nut case. I don't think there's much to that. I think these guys are (PAUSE) there will always be that sick 1% of the public that you know wants to be known throughout history. Look at Saddam Hussein there is a man who gives himself the Hitler salute in the mirror everyday. I mean he wants to go down in history as the Arab Hitler. He's may say he's mad or pathologically evil but he's still a genius. He still has an awful lot of power. Ah people like him we made mistakes in tolerating that kind of behavior. We should have been advocating democracy, education, tolerance. Instead we were letting the worst bigots and the dictators rise to power as long as they sell us oil at a discount.,INTERVIEWER:,What would you say is the wisdom for the Bush Middle East policy?,56:31:11>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Well I think the current Bush administration is very different than his dad ok. His dad was the leading Saudi lobbyist. Vice president Bush pounded the table in front for Ronald Reagan saying that we should bomb Israel. We should bomb and Israeli airbase because they had just bomb the Ociac reactor in Iraq. And Saddam Hussein was our friend. Luckily Regan talked former president Bush out of that.,56:55:09>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Young President Bush is a very different guy towards Israel. Um a few years ago a friend of mine from Florida Mel Semler who is now our ambassador to Rome. Back then Mel took governor Bush to Israel and their tour guide was Sharron. So the 2 men got to know each other. They toured the whole country and it really changed his attitudes. So unlike his father and his grandfather for the first here is a you know a member of the Bush family who is really pro Israel. That's never happened before. ,INTERVIEWER:,Anything else on George Bush Senior ?,57:34:07>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Well for years after he left office former President Bush were partners with the Bin Laden family. With a company called the Carlyle Group. And they were the leading lobbyist for the Saudis in Washington DC. The Carlyle Group is probably the most influential firm for the Saudi interest. And after 911 the Bin Laden family quietly resigned and they're allowed to leave the United States under very expedited circumstances so as not to embarrass the President, the former President. There's a lot of things that will be coming out on that.,INTERVIEWER:,What about the Bush policy to replace Arafat?,58:27:07>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,I it is true that we sort of were heavy handed in our demand that they replace Arafat as the Palestinian leader. It also true that most of the Palestinians desperately want Arafat to go. But on their own time and their own schedule and they will all rally together if we tell them he must go. I think Arafat is not gonna out live or outlast Saddam Hussein. That Saddam Hussein is really the last major money source for Arafat and as the American intelligence groups go through the Iraqi archives the money trail to Arafat is becoming clearer and clearer. We know the money has been funneled to him to launch terror attacks in Israel. The Syrians know this too. The Syrians have told all of their terror groups to have no communication with Arafat because they're afraid that ah once the US goes into Iraq and find the links to Arafat that they're gonna blame Syria for these attacks against Jews., INTERVIEWER:,You mentioned so many things calling attention of police besides Israeli policy, settlements (PAUSE)Israeli checkpoints. Can you really INAUDIBLE or are they actually a solution?,00:25:22>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,I think that Israel has a reactive policy towards terrorism that every time there is a new terrorist attack they close down the checkpoints and have more security precautions. And all that does is disrupt the Palestinian economy further and irritate the moderate Palestinians. Um the Israelis ultimate weapon is the economic one. The average resident of Gaza there's a per capita income of 1,700 a year. the average Israeli 17,000. 80% of Palestinian families derive their income from the Israeli economy. They have really no economy of their own. By closing down the Israeli economy it's really bankrupted the Palestinian people. They have had no benefits form the peace process and all of the burdens. Um we need to think outside the box. You know I think if you just build a wall around Israel it's very expensive and ah it will effectively sentence the Palestinian people to a lifetime of misery.,01:29:18>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,One of the things being suggested, and this is sort of interesting, is that we do in Iraq what we did in Afghanistan. Find the last king put him back on the throne, hold a constitutional convention. Well the Hashemite's were the last king in Iraq. So the king of Jordan's family could effectively reassume the throne of Iraq . they're descendants of the prophet Mohamed. It would be a step towards the restoration of the Kal--- INAUDIBLE . So you would see you know a Kurdish province, a Suny province, a Shea province maybe even a Palestinian province. There's a lot of talk about giving the West Bank back to Jordan. Right now they don't want to do it because the it would upset their demography so much. the Palestinians would have an overwhelming majority. But ah it is interesting that if you immerge Iraq and Jordan then the Palestinians become a tiny minority in a much larger kingdom.,02:26:23>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Now the Jordanians have no love for Palestinian terrorists. I mean King Abdullah's grandfather Abdullah the 1st was killed in 1948 precisely because he wanted to make peace with Israel. In black September the Hashemite's killed more Palestinians in 1 month than Israel has killed in 50 years. So Arafat would not survive long under Hashemite dynasty. 5 thousand Hasemite troops have been quietly moved into the West Bank in the last 30 days. 12,000 more are scheduled to arrive in the next 12 months. and to build have up a total of some 20,000 Hashemite troops. What I think you're going to see over the next year or two is that the king of Jordan will gradually take police power over the West Bank the Israelis will pull out. the king of Jordan, from what I'm told from my friends in the intelligence community, is quietly willing to offer the settlers dual citizenship. They will be both Jordanian and Israeli. So they can stay in site. ,03:33:21>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Um it'll be interesting to have Iraq and Palestine and Jordan all ruled by Hashemite ruler who is at peace with Israel, pro-western and favors democracy. , INTERVIEWER:,Doesn't sound like much of a majority to have Hashemite rule 3 societies each one of which the majority is non hashemite. Isn't that against Bush's whole theory of spreading democracy?,04:02:22>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,The idea 1958 Iraq actually had a democracy. It was headed by a monarchy as there was in England but they had a parliament it was a working functioning system. They want to restore that. but the idea is that by going back to the way things stood before World War I um the southern caliphate of Arabia you can unite all disparate and ethnic groups but with a democratic base. Each one would have autonomous self rule in their own province but be part of a democratic collation presided over if name if not in fact by the Hashemite's. now this whole idea is terribly threatening to the Saudis. Because they were the ones that threw the Hashemites out of Mecca and Median at gunpoint. And the idea of the Hashemites returning is horrible. Almost as bad of a democracy. Democracy and the Hashemites is the ultimate poison to the Saudis.,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE?,05:05:17>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,I don't think that the current administration is going to stop short. I think that we're gonna all the way in. we're gonna establish democracy in Iraq. There's been a lot of skepticism we're doing it for oil. People don't get it we don't really care who pumps the oil in Iraq. You know we'd be happy to hold it in trust for the Iraq people and not take a penny of profit. We've already made that offer. What happens is that once the Americans go in and establish a democracy in Iraq the sanction limits end. Iraq is only allowed to pump 1 million barrels a day. potentially it could pump 5 to 8 million almost as much as Saudi Arabia. So we wouldn't have to buy oil from the Saudis anymore. More importantly however pumps the oil whether it's Iraq companies or French companies on behalf of the Iraqis American ones more oil in the world causes prices to fall. Oil prices have the elasticity of a chain they go right down.,06:01:22>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,So if we dropped oil from 30 or 40 dollars a barrel down to 19 or 20 dollars a barrel that would effectively bankrupt Saudi Arabia. ,INTERVIEWER:,Is Saudi Arabia next? Is Saudi Arabia the next target for change? What is next? ,06:17:10>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Libya. ,INTERVIEWER:,What happens next? ,06:24:23>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Do you remember a weird speech that was made about the axis of evil ok. there's a bit to that. um when we go into Iraq we expect that we will find a document saying that some 405 Iraqi nuclear scientist have been moved to Libya. And that they're being equipped with plutonium from North Korea. That Kadafi has completed hallowing out a mountain to build a nuclear bomb assembly plant. And this hallowed out mountain is impervious to conventional bombings. Um so ah remember Bunker Buster bombs we used in the Gulf War it would go through 100 feet of concrete then explode. Well we have a new one now that may penetrate a 1000 feet of rock. And it can either carry a thermo barrack warhead or more likely a miniature nuclear bomb that would fry all the nuclear inside the mountain but collapse the mountain on top so no radiation escapes.,07:29:08>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,When we go into Iraq I think you're gonna see an intelligence treasurer trove. You're gonna find illegal weapons with French manuals and Cyrillic markings. We already know there were 80 German companies that were supplying Saddam Hussein. how many of them of were acting in violation of UN embargo. They've been doing it all along. I think Saddam Hussein is so confident because he knows precisely that France, Russia and china are making a fortune. They're all exporting his oil right now. the UN bureaucracy is making a fortune. The UN gets 2% of all the oil sold out of Iraq under their sanctions program. That's their administrative fee. It's the largest cash cow in UN history. And the bureaucrats don't want the gravy train to end. French companies have 60 billion dollars worth of contracts in Iraq. They don't want it to end. And the Chinese want to get a foothold in the area. So they're willing to start trouble too. In the long run it's all about the oil.,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE? ,08:52:18>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,The multinational corporations are the last pirates in the world. They look after multi national interests and not after American national interests and it's time we realized that. these guys are out to make a buck. Oil prices are going to drop in the long term not just because of Iraq. In 5 years from now we we'll have finished a pipeline across Afghanistan. The new Caspian base oil discoveries are about the size of the Alaskan ones. We're gonna help the Russians build a pipeline to the pacific ocean to ship Russian oil to California. So the worlds gonna be a wash in oil in a very short time. um and every 10 years someone says that we're gonna run out of oil 10 years and that's been going on since 1910. um and we keep finding you know new and better oil discoveries.,09:39:01>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,I think that President Bush was right, I hate to admit it I'm a democrat, but he was right about ah we do need to switch to the hydrogen fuel cell approach. You know our coal fields can generate in an environmentally safe manner and have hydrogen to run everything in the United States. The waste product is pure water. And that's not so bad.,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE? ,10:06:10>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,There's a major war going on inside the White House right now between what I call Bush's daddy's crowd the old oil and the traditional you know support the Arabs at all cost cause they're selling us the oil and the new people Condoleeza Rice I think is an absolute genius. Um and she really knew these terrorist groups back when the Russians were funding them. and now that the Saudis are funding them she knows how to the game is played. So I think there's a real sense in the White House that we simply can't afford to give into dictators anymore. No more appeasing the Saudis. 9/11 showed us the price that we have to pay for that. Um we have to bring democracy to the Arabian peninsula. We should have done it 50 years ago. Better late than never.,INTERVIEWER:,Will Saudi Arabia become an out right enemy or will it not go quite that far do you think? ,10:57:21>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Um one of the problems is if you take away the Saudi royal family you probably get some provinces in Saudi Arabia that would vote for Osoma Bin Laden. Ok so there is some sense that maybe the best thing to do is simply to back off turn our attentions to Iran and Libya.,11:16:25>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Iran is ripe for a democratic revolution. 83% of the population want the Mullahs out they want democracy back. I think we should support that.,INTERVIEWER:,Pakistan's run by INAUDIBLE and they've got nukes. ,11:35:12>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, I would say that about 25% of the Pakistani population would be supporters of the Islamic extremists but because of the peculiarity of the Pakistani electoral system those extremists have an inordinate impact on ah the legislation. Pakistan is, is only a democracy in a name. It really isn't it's a dictatorship. It's controlled by the army. Turkey is much the same problem. They have about 25% of their population are you know hardcore Muslim radicals but the army literally controls the power behind the scenes in Turkey. What we're finding out is that education, freedom of the press really destroys a lot of the old myths. They find out that um Israel is not in some crusading alliance with America to destroy Islam. That Israel has been respectful and tolerant of Islam. That we're not the enemy. That maybe the enemy all along has been Muslim dictators who distract their own people with waves of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism. I mean we need to do a better job of educating the kids over there so we don't have another generation of bigots.,INTERVIEWER:,If we're able to pop up democracy all over the Middle East will Jews get a break? ,13:58:26>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,If democratic states pop up all over the Arabian peninsula yeah I think it would be good for Israel. In the first place it would cut off rogue states and communication with each other. Democratic nations rarely vote to go to war or institute terrorism. But you know Israel and America share a common bond apart from you know love and respect for each other we are modern nations. That's one of the reasons I believe that Israel has been so persecuted for you were the first religion in the world to require literacy to practice your faith. By the year 85 BC every Jewish village no matter how small had to have a teacher. Widespread public education. And I think that that caused a tremendous growth not just culturally but in terms of business that the Jews became the postmen of the Middle East because they could always read and write. And wherever Jews settled they could recreate their culture . they were the people of the book. Um I think Asian kids in California maybe they're the new Jews today. you know they arrive in this country within 1 generation they're talking about too many Asian valedictorians let's put quotas on Asian kids in med school and law school. Exactly what's done to the Jews in the US 30 years ago.,15:17:15>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,So ah the only way for Jews to safe is to increase the education levels of their neighbors to the point where they can understand that you know how they have been manipulated into hating Jews and hating America. Modernity isn't the enemy. Ignorance is the enemy.,INTERVIEWER:,What should be the future of Israel now that the cold war is over and the paradigm has changed? ,15:44:12>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,We should be open and honest about our relationship with Israel. I remember in the Gulf War we actually flew wounded soldiers in planes over Israel to have them treated in hospitals in Germany. You know how many kids had their lives endangered because we didn't want to use perfectly world class hospitals inside Israel. It was as if we were embarrassed to be allies of Israel. We're not embarrassed anymore.,INTERVIEWER:,Can you expand on that? ,16:15:09>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Well I think that ah someone said Israel is Americas largest aircraft carrier. That ah we are of a great staging area both in Haifa where we bring supplies ashore and in Alat. One of the reasons we were concerned about Alat and Akaba was that Akaba was the port where we were gonna be resupplying a lot of the troops going into Iraq. We were concerned about chemical attacks in that area. That's why ah there's a battery of the new improved patriot missile and the new arrow 2 missile that section we have to keep the ships bringing the supplies in (PAUSE) training with the Israelis. We're learning a lot from Israeli tactics in urban warfare for example when we are going to send armored units it to seize the inter sections and strong points. But the door to door stuff will only be done at night when we use night vision glasses. We have a new imaging device that can see through walls. We have thermo barrack hand grenades that can stun the occupants without waves of concussion without setting everything on fire and burning the building down. So ah you know one general told me recently that he thinks we're gonna see more red white and blue flying in the streets of Baghdad when we liberated them like we did in Kabul., ,17:35:29>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, And Israel has played an important part of this. Israeli intelligence has been terrific. Israeli pilots have been flying our special forces troops into Iraq to prepare for the war. If the war goes as smoothly as people think it will be in no small part due to the contributions of Israel to the military campaign. ,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE? ,18:40:22>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,I think the greatest hoax of all time the best con game is that myth of the Palestinian refugee. The Arab states are saying there's 3 million 6 million Palestinian refugees. Here are the facts. the British took a census before 1948. there were exactly 460 thousand Palestinians living inside what is now Israel. Um after the 48 war of independence 140 thousand remained. So 320 thousand people left. That's all that's left that's all there ever was exactly 320 Palestinian refugees. Now the Israelis to their credit said that they're responsible for about 1/3 of that. they did have some military units kind of chase people out. but it's clear overwhelmingly clear that 2/3 of those 300 thousand they were ordered out by the Arab governments to get out of the way because they were gonna drive the Jews into the sea. They abdicated their areas under orders from the Arab leaders.,19:40:18>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Um so 320 people where did the rest of those refugees come from. Well they weren't refugees. Everyone who was poor in the Arab world who lives in Gaza the West Bank got refugee status in order to go on welfare because we were paying through the United Nations. And so all of a sudden instead of the 320 thousand refugees you get 3 million refugees. And they're not really refugees at all they're people who live in the West Bank always lived in the West Bank didn't flee anywhere but they're counted as a refugee simply because they're on the welfare rolls of the UN. ,INTERVIEWER:,What do really know that intelligence wise about the start of this conflict? ,20:29:15>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,I think the second intafata occurred because of Arafat had to stop the peace process. Um one of his negotiators meet privately with one of the intelligence people after the Barak plan was put before them. and ah the negotiator said my god if we can not make peace with you on these terms we don't deserve to have a nation. The Palestinian negotiator ah made explicit promises with authority the idea about the refugees retuning to the Palestinian state to Israel concessions would be made. It was all signed and ready for Arafat's signature. Arafat came running in and reversed his own negotiators on many points. Arafat single handedly wrecked the peace process.,21:18:21>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,I think the Israeli counsel general was, was right that Arafat wants the status quo. He can go on stealing money from his clan. Um and if he has a nation his theft will be diluted. Israel has said that Arafat has stolen some 3 billon. CIA estimates are 5 billion dollars. Ah it's a scandal. And the Palestinian people more than 80% of the polls know that Arafat's a crook that he's stealing money from them. but um I think you have to distinguish between the indigenous Palestinians who always you know lived at peace with Israel pretty much and you know worked in jobs in Israel economy. And the Oslo exiles that came in with Arafat. As far as I'm concerned they were just a gang of thugs that did what every other Arab dictator has done you know use and exploit the people for his own benefit.,INTERVIEWER:,I see a lot of similarities with anti-Semitism and what went on pre World War II. Expand on that concept and could it happen here in the United States? ,22:54:28>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,Yeah. It's interesting to look at the parallels between anti-Semitism in pre World War II Germany and what's going on now. Germany was a society that was considered the most advanced most civilized in the world and they have a very high percentage of secular Jews in its capital city Berlin although there were a tiny portion of the population. But ah any time you get a small ethnic group that values education it's gonna do well financially. And it's gonna be a pain in the neck to all of us fat, happy, lazy Germans or Americans who ever we are. Um groups that have stressed education as a part of their culture invite envy. We banned Jews from farming in the 4th century cause we were having all Christian farmers go to Jews and ask them to bless their fields. Well you know any farmer who can read and write is gonna out produce an illeterate farmer. And the Jews would learn about crop cycles and things like that.,23:51:18>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,So we simply banned them from farming and drove Jews into urban professions. The idea is that Judaism is a very wonderful religion but the core to its values this concept the modernity of justice, of education of lifting ones self up and bettering individual and society. Um that's why I think the Jews and the Irish get along so well. My mother always said the Irish were one of the lost tribes of Israel. My dad says it couldn't possibly be true we couldn't be related because the Jews can't drink and the Irish can't cook so.,24:24:05>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,But anti-Semitism you know when Hitler began to come to power the idea was the Jews were the scapegoat. They could be blamed for the failure of the German community for the German leadership in the World War I. They could take the blame. The League of Nations stood by (PAUSE) rose in wave after wave. We did nothing. Same thing happened in 67. United Nations promised you know Israel would be free from international blockade and we pull all the UN observers out. we ran away. That exactly invited the cycle of response that we're fighting against now. the Iraqis think that the UN sanctions are meaningless. They could laugh at us so do the North Koreans. So anti-Semitism is always a political tool for exploitation. For political reasons you know it's you can always dig up this kind of thing. There's a very sad joke from the holocaust. Um during the Spanish civil war there was a brief lull in the fighting and one man yelled across the trenches José why are we fighting each other. We're both Catholics. We're both Spaniards. We speak the same language. Why why are we having this civil. And the voice yelled back it's because of the Jews. And the man said but there are no Jews in Spain anymore. He said that's why we're fighting each other.,25:54:23>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,And so historically the Jews have been a convenient, readily, identifiable scapegoat target for political exploitation. In the 11th century the French would throw the Jews out take their money then ransack them back in. they treated them like a yo-yo. Um but through all that the Jews were the keepers of the flame of modernity. You know that every generation kid by the time he's 13 has to be able learn to read and write. That was a tremendous advantage to the Jews in terms of their intellectual growth and their preservation of their cultural identity. And it offended the Christians during the dark ages. That the Christians were you know dying of the black plague. One of every 3 Christians died in Europe. Only 20 thousand Jews died. What was the difference. Well you know once a year the Jews would clean up every scarp of food in the house. They would change the plates and clean it up. um at saka they would literally move out of their houses for 3 days. Well lice and fleas wont last for 3 days without a host. So the book of Ludavictis was actually sort of the worlds first pubic health code. The Jews were healthier people. Now when the Christians saw this during the dark ages they thought well we're gods chosen people the Jews are prospering therefore the Jews must have started the plague.,27:12:16>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,and all the greats myths of the medieval ages of the Jewish blood line. That's how it began it was you know envy of a superior culture and that culture was based on literacy. Um Germany was a very literate society but the Jews again were an easily identifiable target and you could whip up a wave of propaganda against them. now the western world has been silent for the last 20 years while Arab propaganda has been flooding the world with myths and lies about Israel. And the Israelis unfortunately haven't reacted well they just simply haven't bothered to rebut them. they just shrug off their shoulders and say so what else is new. Um it has not been a priority for America. It is now. I think the most important thing we need to be doing is to reeducate people that they have been lied to about what is going on. That Israel is not the aggressor. Israel isn't the invader. Israel has been trying desperately to make peace. It may take a while to change some minds but I think change will come.,INTERVIEWER:,INAUDIBLE? ,28:22:05>>>, JOHN LOFTUS:,We have to reeducate the world that Israel is not the aggressor. That Israel is not the invader. That Israel is desperately willing to work for peace. It's gonna take a long time to change the minds of the people in the Middle East but change will come inevitably.,INTERVIEWER:,In the long run Democracy and literacy is the key to peace in the region, Middle east? ,28:43:05>>, JOHN LOFTUS:, In the long run countries where the population are very literate and they express control of their lives democracy are not the countries that wage war. They're not the countries that fund racists terrorist groups. In the long run you're not gonna cure you know racism anti-Semitism until we have democracy and literacy restored to the Arab world. Maybe then we'll go back to the golden age of mimonities when Jews and Muslims lived in peace with each other.