Biden Stands at the Precipice of a Greater War in the Middle East and His Political Future

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The Intercept

Politics, Unknown, Daily News, History, News

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2024

⏱️ 72 minutes

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Summary

The killing of three U.S. soldiers at a remote military outpost in Jordan, claimed by Iraqi militia groups to be retaliation for U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza, has set the stage for a response by the Biden administration that has blamed Iran for helping support the attack. After years of attempting to pivot away from the region, the Biden administration now looks set to deepen its military involvement in the Middle East as it fights the Houthis in Yemen and squares off in an escalating proxy war with Iran.

This week on Intercepted, Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain discuss the trajectory of the U.S. long war in the Middle East with Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan and a longtime writer and commenter on the region. Cole discusses the basis of the ongoing U.S.–Israel security relationship, the perspective of anti-Israel militant groups in the region, and the prospects of the expansion of the war despite the Biden administration's desires to keep it contained.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The This is intercepted. Welcome to Intercept it. I'm Jeremy Skahill and I'm Hurtaza Hussein.
0:37.0	Maiz, there is a lot to discuss this week. We had the initial ruling that came down from the International Court of Justice in the Hague
0:45.5	that overwhelmingly ruled in favor of South Africa in its case against Israel for what it alleges is genocide in Gaza and the Israeli government
0:58.7	responded to that. Well, first of all, by declaring victory and aided by the United States projected the impression of what took place at the Hague as the judges telling Israel that it could continue waging its war and that it just needs to be careful
1:14.4	when in reality that is not at all what happened but perhaps more important
1:19.2	than the spin campaign that Israel and the United States have been engaged in coming out of the Hague ruling is that Israel launched a full on attack against one of the primary humanitarian initiatives that exists or remains in Gaza and that is the
1:37.3	United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian refugees in the near east.
1:43.3	Now, this organization has been in the sniper scope of Israel
1:46.9	for quite a long time.
1:48.8	And the Israelis view this as an entity
1:51.9	that is going to ultimately aid the establishment of not just a
1:56.2	Palestinian state, but the right of return of Palestinians who were forcibly expelled
2:01.6	from their homes.
2:02.6	And the Israelis provided the United States with information that they said they obtained
2:08.3	from signals intelligence and intercepted cell phone communications as well as the testimony of people that Israel has taken
2:18.9	prisoner and interrogated and they say that they documented at least a dozen employees of this very
2:26.4	important UN agency that were involved in some way or another with the October 7th
2:31.7	attacks and again I emphasize that with the
2:33.3	again I emphasize that some of this intel the Israelis say came from the
2:38.0	interrogation of people that it snatched during its ground operations in
2:42.0	Gaza but then the propaganda campaign snatched during its ground operations in Gaza.
2:43.0	But then the propaganda campaign and this initiative by Israel intensified this week
	...

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