Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

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This week we’re looking at the latest in Trump’s regime-change war on Iran and how it’s spilled over into Lebanon, where Israel has just killed another journalist, Amal Khalil.
Khalil was assassinated in a “double tap” strike while she was reporting in South Lebanon: the Israelis first hit her car, and then the house she fled to in an attempt to seek refuge. Israeli soldiers then blocked rescue workers from reaching her and she died under the rubble.
She is the latest in the hundreds of journalists who have been targeted and killed by Israel since October 7th.
To discuss Amal Khalil, the broader regime-change war in Iran, and why Israel is “afraid” of invading Lebanon, we speak with Mohamad Hasan Sweidan, researcher and academic based in Beirut.
Useful Idiots: What explains Hezbollah’s resilience? They lost their leader, they suffered very big setbacks with the pager attacks, and lost their land bridge in Syria, through which they could receive arms from Iran.But yet on the ground in Lebanon, they’re still able to fight toe-to-toe with Israel and impose serious costs, to the point where now Israel is afraid of invading and engaging in another land war.So what explains how Hezbollah, which many people thought was on its last legs, has been able to persevere and still be effective militarily?Mohamad Hasan Sweidan: There are three main reasons.Number one is ideology. Hezbollah has a very strong religious ideology that doesn’t believe in backing off. It believes it should continue fighting the oppressor until the end.Number two is that Hezbollah doesn’t have a choice. If they don’t rebuild themselves and if they don’t return to the fight, then all of Hezbollah will be destroyed. It’s a battle of no choice. And when you are in a battle of no choice, you continue till the end.Number three: Hezbollah represents a huge amount of the people inside of the country. There are Lebanese people who believe in resistance. So if Hezbollah decides to disarm, then you have other Lebanese people who will hold the weapons and go defend the land. Because history proved that the only way to defend the land is when you become a resistance.So there are three main reasons. Ideology, battle of no choice, and the people. When you have these main factors, you don’t have really a choice other than trying to resist, even if the cost or the price of resistance is very high.00:00 Intro
01:50 "We're starving them!" Congressmen celebrate killing Iranians
07:28 Washington Post columnist: "Kill the Iranian leaders who don't want a deal!"
09:23 Mohamad Hasan Sweidan interview
10:36 Israel murders journalist Amal Khalil
49:39 Why Israel is AFRAID of invading Lebanon

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Click here for the full hour-long extended interview with the Makdisi Brothers: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/full-episode-us-and-israel-plummet?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Alan Dershowitz Threatens Trump If He Doesn't Follow Israeli Orders https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/alan-dershowitz-threatens-trump-if?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Check out the Makdisi Street Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@MakdisiStreet
Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.

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Click here for the full hour-long extended interview with the Makdisi Brothers: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/full-episode-us-and-israel-plummet?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Alan Dershowitz Threatens Trump If He Doesn't Follow Israeli Orders https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/alan-dershowitz-threatens-trump-if?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Check out the Makdisi Street Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@MakdisiStreet
Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.
We’ve got another Useful Idiots Double Header this week: Second Secretary of the Cuban Embassy to the US David Ramirez Alvarez, as well as the Palestinian-Lebanese hosts of the Makdisi Street Podcast Professors Ussama and Saree Makdisi.
And while their respective topics take place a world away from each other (Cuba and Lebanon), a common theme connected both discussions: the US and Israel are losing global support rapidly as they kill and starve innocent people for sinister political reasons.
Saree Makdisi: There’s a fundamental split taking place before our eyes. The recent polls show this very, very dramatic shift in American negative perceptions of Israel and Zionism. It’s most pronounced on the left of the spectrum, eighty-plus percent of Democrats. But when you look at people under fifty, even on the right, even among Republican Evangelicals, they’re souring too because they’re like, ‘What the hell, what are we supporting?’Ussama Makdisi: I mean, you can’t slaughter children. You can’t starve a population the way they did in Gaza.David Ramirez Alvarez: We don’t say that the US has sponsored terrorism against Cuba. What we say is that many of the terrorist actions that have been executed against Cuba have been financed and organized from the US. And polls have shown that the American people don’t even support the US blockade. They’re losing support as they make [the people of Cuba] suffer.The US and its Israel arm have been increasing their attacks against civilians, schools, hospitals, and children, either through outright war crimes and terrorism or a brutal criminal blockade. Subscribe for the full hour-long interview with Saree and Ussama Makdisi for a debate on whether the US is being controlled by Israel or if they have their own motive for following Israel into war.
00:00 Intro
00:53 Hillary Clinton reveals she's working BEHIND THE SCENES to bomb Lebanon
04:31 The 7 Dems who voted to send MORE BOMBS to Israel
05:39 Chuck Schumer told by Dems: Step Aside!
07:31 Second Secretary of the Cuban Embassy to the US David Ramirez Alvarez interview
12:33 Trump threatens to bomb Cuba after Iran
40:29 Makdisi Professors interview
58:31 Debate: Is the new 'ceasefire' legit?

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Click here for the full interviews with former State Dept Official Alan Eyre and Iranian Journalist Séamus Malekafzali: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/full-episode-americas-strategic-weakness?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Dana Bash's Obsessive Hatred for Hasan Piker Reveals CNN's Fake Journalism Mentality https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/dana-bashs-obsessive-hatred-for-hasan?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Check out Séamus' podcast Turbulence: https://turbulencepod.substack.com/
Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.

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Click here for the full interviews with former State Dept Official Alan Eyre and Iranian Journalist Séamus Malekafzali: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/full-episode-americas-strategic-weakness?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Dana Bash's Obsessive Hatred for Hasan Piker Reveals CNN's Fake Journalism Mentality https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/dana-bashs-obsessive-hatred-for-hasan?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
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This week, after Trump threatened to wipe out Iran’s civilization, he backed down and announced that he was instead accepting a two-week ceasefire with Iran. Israel responded to the ceasefire announcement by going on a rampage in Lebanon, killing well over 200 people, attacking civilian targets, including apartment buildings inside Beirut.
When Iran claimed that the U.S. is in violation of the ceasefire because of Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon, Vice President J.D. Vance, touted by corporate media as a “skeptic” of Trump’s war, gave this response:
“There’s a lot of bad faith negotiation going on. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never indicated that was going to be the case.What we said is that the Israelis offered, frankly, to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon. Look, if Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart, that’s ultimately their choice. We think that would be dumb.”It’s just not factually true that Lebanon was never part of the ceasefire: Pakistan, the government that brokered the ceasefire, said explicitly that the ceasefire applies “everywhere including Lebanon.”
But Vance is pretending that Lebanon wasn’t included and then scolding Iran for daring to want to spare Lebanon from relentless Israeli attacks. So with Vance now joining Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in negotiations, what is the expectation for this team to be able to produce diplomacy?
To analyze this, plus why Iran is emerging from these ceasefire talks with “a superior strategic position” while the United States “is greatly weakened from a strategic point of view,” we spoke with two guests: Iranian-American journalist Séamus Malekafzali, who was formerly based in Beirut and co-hosts the podcast Turbulence, and former State Department Official Alan Eyre, who was part of negotiating the Iran nuclear deal under the Obama Administration in 2015.
To see the full interviews with Séamus and Alan, including a full analysis of what happens next in the Strait of Hormuz, whether this ceasefire is legit, and why the US secretly armed protesters in Iran, please subscribe to Useful Idiots.
00:00 Intro
01:15 Dems respond to Trump's ceasefire in WORST WAY POSSIBLE
06:06 NATO Chief defends his "Daddy" Donald Trump
08:29 Séamus Malekafzali interview
15:01 What is happening in Beirut?
30:41 Why Iran has MORE control over Strait of Hormuz now
31:57 Former State Dept Official Alan Eyre interview
35:13 JD Vance mocks Iran over Lebanon
44:00 The Netanyahu-Obama Showdown

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