Will MAGA fractures push Trump to pressure Israel?

Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Leaders in France, Canada, and the U.K. have stated they would recognize and call for Palestinian statehood at the next General Assembly of the United Nations. The calls from world leaders come on the heels of troubling images of starvation and famine in Gaza. President Trump has long been an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Trump also pushed back against Netanyahu’s claims that there was no starvation in the region. It’s a rare pressure campaign on the Israeli government to improve conditions for Palestinians as the conflict between Israel and Hamas wages on. But will it result in meaningful change? Are other factors playing into Trump’s callout?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It is time for left, right and center, everybody. I'm David Green. So recent images of starvation
0:07.4	in Gaza appear to be riveting the attention of world leaders and moving them to act.
0:13.3	French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will recognize an independent state of Palestine
0:18.6	at the UN General Assembly next month.
0:21.3	Britain's prime minister, Kier Starmor, says his nation plans to take the same step if Israel
0:26.5	doesn't take what he described as substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza,
0:32.5	and that includes a ceasefire. Canada has also said they'll recognize a Palestinian state,
0:36.8	but they have placed demands on the
0:38.8	Palestinians for that to happen. As for the United States, well, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister
0:44.2	Benjamin Netanyahu have generally kept in lockstep since Trump returned to the White House,
0:49.3	which is why this recent exchange of public comments on the plight of civilians in Gaza is so notable.
0:56.2	Here is Netanyahu speaking recently at an event in Jerusalem.
0:59.1	There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.
1:04.3	All right, and here is President Trump a day later.
1:07.0	Some of those kids are, that's real starvation stuff. I see it. And you can't fake that.
1:13.2	So Trump said that during a visit to Scotland. He was meeting with the UK Prime Minister.
1:18.5	The World Food Program is reporting that nearly a quarter of Gaza's population is under what it describes as famine-like conditions with acute malnutrition rising at an unprecedented
1:29.6	rate. Meanwhile, the United Nations reports that hundreds of Gazans have been killed by Israeli
1:34.6	fire near aid convoys and food distribution sites in recent weeks. We should say aid groups have been
1:41.9	warning of the risk of this dire famine in Gaza for months now.
1:47.6	So it's fair to ask what led Trump to break with Netanyahu and begin pressuring him now?
1:54.1	And what, if anything, is going to change because of that pressure?
	...

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