Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin on Disrupting the U.S. War Machine

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The Intercept

Politics, Unknown, Daily News, History, News

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2024

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

The past week in Gaza has seen a major escalation in Israeli attacks against the besieged and starving Palestinians trapped in a killing cage. The Biden administration has aggressively sought to portray itself as being increasingly at odds with Israel’s tactics, mostly focusing on U.S. threats to withhold some weapons shipments if Benjamin Netanyahu conducts an invasion of Rafah. But the cold reality is that Israel has already bombed and occupied large swaths of Rafah.

The regime has ordered the forced exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, not only from Rafah, but also from areas of northern Gaza, once again thrusting masses of civilians — many of whom are wounded, starving, dehydrated, and traumatized — on a desperate hunt for a place to pitch a makeshift tent as they await either death or a ceasefire.

Despite the White House leaking stories to insider media outlets about how Biden is fed up with his great friend Netanyahu, the U.S. has made clear it continues to arm and support the Israeli regime.

This week on Intercepted, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the feminist antiwar organization Code Pink, speaks with Jeremy Scahill. Since the launch of the so-called war on terror in 2001, the 71-year-old activist has spent more than two decades disrupting congressional hearings, chasing members of Congress through the halls of the Capitol for answers, and traveling to countries the U.S. has labeled as enemies. Benjamin discusses her personal path to activism and the siege on Gaza, and offers a guide on how ordinary people can disrupt business as usual in the chambers of power in Washington, D.C.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The This is intercepted. Welcome to Intercepted, I'm Jeremy Skahill.
0:36.0	The past week in Gaza has seen a major escalation in Israeli attacks against the besieged and starving Palestinians trapped in a killing cage.
0:45.4	The Biden administration has aggressively sought to portray itself as being increasingly
0:50.2	at odds with Israel's tactics, mostly focused on U.S. threats to withhold some weapon shipments
0:56.2	if Benjamin Netanyahu conducts an invasion of Rafa.
0:59.8	But the cold reality is that Israel has already been bombing and has occupied parts of Rafa.
1:06.0	They brought tanks in and knocked down the I-Heart Gaza sign at the Rafa border crossing.
1:12.0	This was essentially a stunt by the Biden administration. the you have John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson coming out and saying, well,
1:24.3	ho, ho, people are making a big deal about this.
1:26.9	Let me be clear, most of the weapons are still flowing to Israel.
1:31.5	The Israeli regime has ordered the forced exodus of hundreds of thousands
1:36.7	of Palestinians, not only from Rafa, but also from areas of northern Gaza, once again thrusting masses of civilians, many of whom are
1:46.3	wounded or starving, dehydrated, all of whom are traumatized on yet another desperate hunt for a place to pitch their makeshift
1:55.8	tent as they await either death or a ceasefire. Now despite the White House
2:01.7	leaking stories to insider media outlets about how Joe Biden is fed up with his great friend Benjamin Netanyahu,
2:09.0	the reality is that the US continues to make clear that it stands behind Israel, that it continues to
2:15.2	arm it and support it. Well today on the show we're going to spend the hour with one of
2:20.0	the most dedicated peace activists in the United States, Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Code
2:25.7	Pink.
2:26.7	Since the launch of the so-called War on Terror in 2001, the now 71-year-old activist has spent more than two decades disrupting congressional hearings, chasing members of Congress through the halls of the Capitol, trying to question them on issues like the war in Gaza.
2:44.3	Medea has traveled to countries around the world that the United States has labeled
2:48.7	enemies.
	...

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