This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
As we continue to look at the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran and Iran’s retaliation, we’re joined by Ofer Cassif. He’s a member of the Israeli Knesset and the leftist Hadash-Ta’al coalition. He’s been a vocal critic of the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. In October, he waved a sign reading “Recognize Palestine” during President Trump’s address to the Knesset. He’s been repeatedly suspended from the Knesset for his outspoken criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza, joining us now from the Israeli city of Rehovot.
Thank you so much for being with us. If you can respond to what’s happening on the ground in Israel? I know that we could lose you at any point if you have to go into a shelter. But, overall, the peace movement in Israel, how is it responding right now, with it becoming very clear that Israel led this Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran, with some support from Saudi Arabia, convincing Trump to do this preemptive attack?
OFER CASSIF: Well, they call it a preemptive attack. Of course, it was premeditated, and the reason is not as they say. We all know that the real interests of the government of Israel and the government of the United States, like many others, is not really to save the Iranian people from the despotic, really suppressive regime, nor to prevent them for developing a nuclear weapon or the missile industry. The real interest is a political and economic interest, an imperialist interest, as ever. And the other things that are presented as if they were the reasons are merely excuses.
But the real interest of those governments, of those imperialists and their partners, is — the real reason is simply to do whatever they can in order to achieve their own economic and political interests at the expense of the peoples, including the people of Iran and the people of Israel. Unfortunately, neither of them is really interested in our well-being or in the people of Iran or the American people in their own welfare and good, so — and that’s the main issue. This is an imperialist aggression against the Iranian people. It’s not against the regime. They want us to believe it’s against the regime. It is against the people of Iran eventually. And history proves that.
And we, in the anti-occupation, anti-genocide, peace movement in Israel, we know that. It’s very difficult now at the moment to take to the streets and to demonstrate, because of the missiles and also because of the limitations posed by the government under the guise of emergency situation. But we know what is at stake. We know that the real interests of the governments are against the interest of the peoples, and we do whatever we can in order to protest and to stop this bloodshed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Ofer, I wanted to ask you: In terms of the level of response and resistance and counterattack by Iran on Israel, what has been the effect on the population? Did the government and the people expect this kind of response? And interestingly, here in the United States, we’re not seeing in the American media much, many images of what damage is being caused within Israel of these attacks by Iran.
OFER CASSIF: We are not sure about the damage either, because we don’t know if what the media in Israel shows is accurate and if it is indeed the full scale. We obviously don’t want anyone to get harmed, neither in Israel nor in Palestine or in Iran or anywhere else. That’s the reason we oppose this and opposed this war and aggression from the very beginning. But as I said, the real way to stop it is a diplomatic and political one, not a military one.
And unfortunately, at the moment, the majority within the Israeli public support the government and support the aggression against Iran. It is quite, you know, systematic. It always happened like that in the past. It happened when Israel launched the genocidal aggression against Gaza after the terrible massacre of 7 October. It happened many times vis-à-vis Lebanon, Syria and other places. In the beginning, we were almost the only ones. We, I mean the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, the Communist Party and some other anti-occupation and antiwar activists. We were quite isolated and marginalized in most events of war and aggression. But after a while, more and more people within the Israeli society began to understand that they went astray after the lies of the government, whether it was in Netanyahu’s government or another government, and began to protest against the war or the genocide or whatever.
So, I guess that that will happen again now. At the moment, we are a minority, not as tiny as we were before, because more and more people understand that this fascist government led by the criminal Netanyahu, who is, as we all know, suspected in a trial — and stand trial in charges of — and is accused in bribery and corruption, etc., etc. So, many people, more than before, understand that everything that this government has been doing, especially Netanyahu, are driven by — not by the interest of the people, but by the interest of the government per se. And because of that, although we are still a minority — and, alas, all the parliamentary opposition, apart from us, is in support of Netanyahu’s aggression and Trump’s aggression. Still, you can see that more people among the so-called common people are against it, still a minority. But if it continues, if this aggression continues, I’m sure that, sooner or later, we’ll see a majority standing against it. I just hope that we won’t get there, because the bloodshed until then is going to be much wider everywhere, in Israel, in Iran, in Lebanon and in Palestine, and obviously we don’t want that to happen.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about that impact in Palestine? You’ve said that the war on Iran would be used to justify increased oppression against the Palestinians?
OFER CASSIF: Absolutely. We can already see that. You know, under this government — it didn’t begin with this government. The occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, of course, is almost 60 years old. But the persecution and the discrimination against the Palestinian national minority within Israel exists since 1948, since the establishment of the state of Israel and the Nakba. But we can see that under this government in general, since 7 October in particular, and in the last few days even more, the deadly persecution of the Palestinians is on the rise.
We can see that there is a kind of a division of labor. You could see that while the Israeli occupation forces continue in bombing and attacking Palestinians in Gaza, and of course the aggression against Iran and Lebanon still goes on, you could also see that the fascist settlers, the terrorist settlers in the West Bank, do whatever they like under the auspices and even collaboration of the occupation forces, the encouragement, finance and support of the government. But the pioneer, as it were, of the pogroms and terrorist attacks, including murders of innocent Palestinians in the West Bank, is mainly executed by the settlers. And under the smokescreen of the war with Iran, you can see that it is much more easier on those criminals to pursue with those crimes, and nothing has been done.
Look, I personally have been sending letters since March '23. It's exactly three years since I first sent a letter to the defense minister — it was then Gallant, and later on Katz — and to the attorney general, demanding them to investigate, arrest and stop those terrorist settlers and their supporters in the West Bank. And for three years, nothing has been done. So it’s not a coincidence that it not only goes on, but it is worsening, because once they know they are not punished, not even investigated, why shouldn’t they continue with their crimes and even go further? So, if they began by igniting fire into fields and uprooting trees, now they are igniting fire and shooting individual people, including, by the way, international and Israeli activists, not only Palestinians. And under the smokescreen of the war, as I said, it’s getting easier on them, unfortunately.
And I put a lot of the blame on the international community. I also sent a few letters to The Hague, to the European Union, to some senators in the United States and some other institutions in the United Nations, etc. By the way, part of my suspension from the Knesset was because I sent those letters. But I had no other choice. That was the last resort, because as the Israeli institutes, those who are in charge and are responsible for the well-being of the occupied, as well, of the Palestinians, as long as they don’t do anything and even allow those crimes to go on, I had no other choice but to appeal to international forces. But nothing has been done.
AMY GOODMAN: Ofer Cassif, I want to thank you for being with us, member of the Israeli Knesset and the leftist Hadash-Ta’al coalition, speaking to us from Rehovot in Israel.
Coming up, economist Michael Hudson says the U.S.-Israeli attack was to prevent peace, not advance it. Back in 15 seconds.
