The Oh, Hello and

Welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood, the strict

constructionist double-headed today. We'll hear from Muin Robani on the

Gaza War and the politics of Israel, Palestine generally, and then from the economist

Stephanie Stancheva on how much people hate inflation and why.

There's a lot of mystification and misinformation in the media about the Middle East. Here's someone to cut

through the nonsense and get to the major points. He's Moien Rabani, someone with a

broad understanding of the politics of the region, especially Israel Palestine.

He is co-editor of Jodolia, an ezine that covers the region

where he also hosts its Connections podcast, Muin Rabini.

To start with, what is Israel's aim? They're clearly not wiping out Hamas, which reappears as soon as the IDF leaves town.

They are wiping out Gaza as a civilization.

Is the wiping out the real aim or is Bibi just trying to stay out of jail and Gaza is collateral damage to him?

How do you read it?

There is the formally announced aims.

There is also what I would say are the informal aims that have been enunciated but not necessarily

this formal policy. And then there are also hidden aims. So the formal aims are first and foremost to eradicate Hamas to basically

destroy its military capabilities and its ability to govern the Gaza Strip.

And later a second formal objective was added,

and that was to return the captives

that were taken on October 7th to Israel.

And as many people have pointed out, those two aims

...