Tragedy in Gaza: Will this week’s events change anything?
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2024
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Two events in the Middle East have grabbed the headlines this week - the killing of seven aid workers, including three British nationals, in Israeli strikes in Gaza and the assassination of three Iranian generals in Syria. But will these events change anything?
Nick is joined by former chief of MI6, Sir Alex Younger, almost six months after his first appearance in the wake of the Hamas attacks. They reflect on how the war has changed since they first spoke.
Tel Aviv-based political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin updates us on the Israeli public’s view of the war as it nears the six month point.
And Radio 2 DJ and novelist Sara Cox swings by the studio to give us her moment of the week.
Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme. If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producers are Hazel Morgan and Joe Wilkinson. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Ricardo McCarthy and digital production from Elliot Ryder.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Is it really six months since this podcast was born? I remember it well, |
| 0:09.2 | it was my birthday. A happy day, a naive day. None of us could see what was to come. Just two days later, |
| 0:17.0 | the attacks in Israel on October the 7th that have done so much to change our world. |
| 0:23.7 | Today, we want to ask the question about whether this week's events will change anything |
| 0:29.8 | in that tragedy in Gaza. |
| 0:32.4 | And we want to focus not just on the awful tragedy of the deaths of those aid workers, which has dominated the news here, |
| 0:42.0 | but also on another event, which has made much more news, I think, in Israel, |
| 0:47.4 | which is something that would be seen as a triumph there, the death of three Iranian generals, |
| 0:53.0 | who were seen as coordinators of the axis of resistance. |
| 0:57.1 | A euphemistic term for all those people who don't just oppose Israel, but people who are seen |
| 1:03.8 | by Israelis as people who want to destroy their country to drive its people into the sea, |
| 1:08.9 | if you like. We're delighted to say we've got back one of our first |
| 1:12.6 | guests on the Today podcast, Sir Alex Younger, former head of the Secret Intelligence Service, |
| 1:17.8 | more popularly known as MI6. This is what Sir Alex told us in the days after October the 7th. |
| 1:26.4 | Hamas essentially laying a trap for Israel and will be well pleased if Israel commits itself |
| 1:32.1 | to an open-ended full-scale ground invasion of Gaza because of the scale and intensity of conflict |
| 1:39.1 | that that would entail and the loss of innocent life that would inevitably follow |
| 1:43.9 | and the extent to which |
| 1:45.2 | would put Israel's allies and partners in the region in an impossible position. |
| 1:50.8 | These are all things that basically Hamas wants. |
| 1:53.7 | This isn't about actions. |
| 1:55.2 | It's about reactions. |
... |
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