For Your Eyes Only - Video Infoblog: What Events Lead to the Current Situation in Israel and Palestine?
Intro
0:00
we should start with just a brief background of the history of the Israeli and Palestine conflict and what led to
0:10
today obviously when you try to give a background story of a conflict the
0:17
question is always where do you begin because depending on where you begin it
0:24
can be seen as a partisan issue um I will take where we begin at
0:33
1948 the indigenous population of Palestine
0:39
numbered um about 1,300,000
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the what we're called back then the Zionist settlers namely Jews who came to
0:52
Palestine roughly from the beginning of the 20th century on they numbered roughly 6
1:01
100,000 by 1947 there was a
1:06
irreconcilable conflict between the indigenous Arab
1:11
population and the Zionist Jewish settlers that conflict was then thrown
1:20
into the hands of the newly created United Nations and the UN was its designated
1:28
responsibility was to try to work out a resolution a
1:34
settlement of the conflict not necessarily applying the highest principles of justice but trying to
1:42
combine as in most conflicts principles of Justice with practicality what's
1:50
possible the United Nations General Assembly and what's called UN resolution
1:57
181 it divided Palestine or proposed that Palestine be divided into two
2:05
states an Arab state which would compromise approxim
2:10
comprise approximately 44% of Palestine and a Jewish state which would
2:17
comprise approximately 56% of
2:23
Palestine on the Arab side did not accept that
2:30
recommendation for two main reasons one they were the indigenous
2:36
population and number two that and therefore their rights should have
2:43
priority uh or their desires and aspirations should have priority and number two because the
2:51
division did not remotely correlate with the demographic balance in Palestine the
3:00
600,000 Jews were allocated 56% the Palestinian Arabs were allocated
3:09
44% a conflict then ensued What's called the first Arab Israeli War in which
3:16
neighboring Arab states also intervened by the end of the
3:22
war uh Israel had absorbed not the 56% that was allocated it in the
3:31
partition resolution 181 but they absorbed
3:36
80% of Palestine two areas were not absorbed by
3:43
Israel number one the Gaza Strip which came under Egyptian administrative
3:52
control and the West what's came to be called the West Bank including East
3:59
Jerusalem which came under Jordanian control in
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the course of Israel's Creation in 1948 it expelled about
4:12
90% of the population within the Border 90% of the indigenous population within
4:20
the borders that became Israel of those 90% roughly
4:27
750,000 Palestinians were expelled from the area that became
4:32
Israel of those 750,000 about 250 to 290,000 they fled
4:42
to Gaza and they are the
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origins of the Gaza population today the
4:53
population of Gaz at the time was about 80,000 so now that that population of
4:59
God was swamped by the refugees who were
5:05
expelled in 1948 without wanting to anticipate too
5:12
much of what's going to come in a few moments so those
5:17
refugees and their descendants now constitute now meaning
5:24
today they constitute approximately 70% of the population of
5:32
Gaza so when we hear today about the population of Gaza roughly now 2.2
5:40
million people of those 2.2 million people approximately
5:48
70% constitute refugees and their
5:53
descendants now to go back to where we were in the very uh condensed historical
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record in 1967 there was another war between
6:07
Israel and the neighboring Arab states and the course of that
6:13
war two things happened it was the second if you want if the term can be
6:19
used it was the Second Great exposion about
6:25
300,000 Palestinians were expelled from the areas that Israel now count conquered
6:33
and the areas Israel now conquered were the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
6:40
including East Jerusalem so the bottom line is in
6:48
1900 Palestine was the population was about
6:54
90% Palestinian Arab in 194
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7 the population was about 1,300,000
7:06
Palestinian Arabs and 600,000
7:12
Jews and in 1947 before the popular partition plan
7:20
Israelis owned about 6% of the land in
7:25
Palestine the partition resolution a Ed the newly created state of Israel 56% of
7:34
Palestine by the end of the war of 1948 Israel controlled 80% of
7:43
Palestine after the June 1967 war Israel now
7:50
controlled all of Palestine the H of Palestine had now come under Israeli
7:58
control under international law uh because these territories were
8:05
conquered by Israel in the course of the war under international law they weren't
8:12
part of Israel as a legal fact they
8:18
constituted what under international law is called occupied
8:24
territories and the abbreviation that eventually came to be used was o
UN Resolution 242
8:30
PT occupied Palestinian territories in addition to the West Bank
8:37
in Gaza in the course of the 1967 war
8:42
Israel also occupied the Syrian Goan heits and the Egyptian
8:51
Sinai once again the question of how to resolve this seemingly intractable
8:58
problem was thrown into the court of the United Nations and there were very uh
9:07
protracted deliberations both in the general assembly and subsequently in the
9:14
security Council and the proposal put forth by the security Council it was
9:22
embodied and probably the most famous resolution in the United Nations history
9:28
is called UN resolution 242 and the essence of UN resolution
9:36
242 is very simple it's based on un principles international law
9:45
principles and the principles of the UN Charter those principles are number one
9:52
which is spelled out in the Preamble to UN resolution 242 the first principle
9:59
well is it's inadmissible to conquer territory by
10:04
War it's inadmissible to count conquer territory by War
10:11
Israel acquired the West Bank Gaza
10:16
Egyptian Sinai Assyrian G Heights in the course of a war and therefore according
10:24
to international law and un principles Israel had no tit
10:29
to those territories that was the first prong of
10:34
UN resolution 242 the second prong was
10:41
that Israel as a state had the right under the UN Charter
10:48
to live at peace with its neighbors and therefore the Arab states
Land for Peace
10:55
the neighboring Arab states and any other parties to the conflict had a legal obligation to accept Israel as a
11:06
state in the region that came to be called the land
11:13
for peace land for peace solution to the
11:18
conflict namely Israel had to relinquish
11:24
control of the West Bank in Gaza now I'm talking strictly about the Palestinian
11:31
Israeli Dimension because there's of course still the Egyptian Dimension with
11:37
the Sinai desert the Syrian Dimension with the Golan Heights but from here on
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in I'm going to put them to the site because obviously we're talking about
11:49
this topic now in light of the most recent events so right at this point I'm going
11:57
to home in just on that Palestine Israel
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dimension of the conflict having said that the terms of you on resolution
12:08
242 were very straightforward number one Israel had to
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withdraw from all the Palestinian territories it acquired during the 1967
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war what I referred to isra a moment ago as the occupied Palestinian territories
12:30
the opot and in turn the Palestinians were obliged to
12:38
recognize Israel as a legal State a
12:43
member of the United Nations and as a member of the United Nations here I'm referring to the state of Israel it had
12:51
all the rights and responsibilities all the rights and all
The PLO
12:56
the duties of any other member State and that was and strange as it may
13:05
sound to you it's already more than 50 years later a half century it's more
13:11
than a half century later those have remained the terms for settling the
13:18
conflict and now the question becomes which side has been the
13:26
obstacle to that settlement the conflict it could be one side it could
13:33
be the other side and of course it could be both
13:38
sides on the Palestinian side the leadership that emerged to represent the
13:45
Palestinians soon after the June 1967 war a leadership was called the
13:52
Palestine Liberation Organization or the PLO and that was led by a fellow who may
14:01
be familiar to your listeners namely yaser Arafat beginning in the mid
14:10
1970s so once again we're talking about a half century ago beginning in the mid
14:17
1970s the Palestinians accepted the terms of UN resolution
14:25
242 those terms I spelled out to you a moment ago B withdrawal in exchange for full
14:35
recognition the Palestinians accepted those terms Israel did
14:42
not Israel was not prepared to relinquish control over the territories
After 1967
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or at any rate parts of the territories
14:55
that they had conquered in the 196 67 War their attitude after
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1967 was the same as their attitude after
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1948 you recall I said the uh UN
15:15
resolution 181 allocated 56% of
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Palestine to the Israelis they conquered 80% and by holding fast to that
15:30
80% the International Community eventually
15:35
aced accepted the Israeli fed are
15:40
complete so the expectation of the Israelis after 1967 was If We Hold Fast we can retain
15:53
control over the whole of what they call the Israelis call the land of Israel
16:00
namely the West Bank Gaza and so forth so Israel was
16:07
determined not to relinquish control over a large part of the
16:15
territory let alone recognize a Palestinian State
16:23
living side by side with it come 1982
16:28
who what one very good Israeli political scientist avner
16:35
Yan coming by 1982 Israel faced a very big
16:41
problem and AD Yan called it the Palestinian peace
16:48
offensive namely the PLO was determined with the support of the
16:54
International Community to gain
17:00
recognition support and eventually the application of pressure to force Israel
17:08
to accept the terms of international law and the UN
17:15
Charter Israel faced with the escalating
17:20
pressure on it then provoked the Palestinians or attempted to provoke the
Lebanon War
17:27
Palestinians into a war what was called the
17:35
1982 Lebanon war sometimes it's called the first Lebanon war and at that point the Palestinian
17:44
leadership was headquartered mostly refugees no entirely refugees excuse me
17:52
headquartered in Lebanon Israel launched the war and in
17:58
the course of the war Israel killed roughly 15 to
18:04
20,000 Palestinians and Lebanese
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overwhelmingly civilians it's worth noting for your listeners and actually
18:17
the Israeli Death kill rate back in
18:22
1982 was actually much higher than any of the recent Israeli ass on Gaza or any
18:30
of the recent Israeli conflicts armed conflicts with its neighbors after the 1982 War the
18:38
Palestinians were defeated in the course of that war as I
Civil Revolt
18:43
said about 20,000 Palestinian and Israelis were killed overwhelmingly civilians and the
18:50
PLO went into Exile in Tunis at this point a Palestinians West
18:58
Bank in Gaza who were under occupation
19:04
realized that nothing is going to happen externally in order to abet their
19:13
aspirations to statehood Independence
19:19
self-determination and so in 1987 the Palestinians in Gaza and the
19:26
West Bank went into civil Revolt
19:32
overwhelmingly nonviolent it was called your listeners
19:37
who are not old enough to remember uh it came to be called the first in I TI f a d a uh a civil
19:49
nonviolent civil Revolt I happened to be there during that civil Revolt I lived
19:57
in a pal Palestinian Christian village outside Bethlehem called B Sor and I
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lived in a Palestinian refugee camp or right across the street from a Palestinian refugee camp uh in Hebron
20:12
called faar Camp uh and that first
20:19
in Israel exerted a huge amount of violent force uh and that too suffered a
20:29
defeat and that defeat climaxed in what came to be called the oo Accord so your
20:39
listeners I think at this point I've gotten the key uh dates and numbers
20:46
they'll remember when conversation comes up UN resolution 181 that's 1947 you on
20:54
resolution 242 that's 1967 and they'll now remember another
21:00
term that constantly comes up namely the oo Accord now under the terms of the
21:06
Oslo Accord it was signed between the Israeli Prime Minister Yak Rabin and the
21:13
head of the PLO yaser Arafat and it was presided over by US President Bill
21:21
Clinton some of your listeners and viewers will recall what's come to be called a great handshake on the White
The Great Handshake
21:28
House lawn when President Clinton is flanked by the Israeli and Palestinian
21:35
leaders the essence of the Oslo Accord there is a written Accord but then there
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is a political reality uh the Palestinians as a result
21:45
of that Accord were not granted a state or even the right to a
21:55
state what they were granted was a five-year interim period that was the
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climax in 1999 in the course of which some sort of
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settlement would be worked out and in return the Palestinians gave Israel that
22:16
full recognition so as your listeners by now will I think
22:23
gather the Palestinian responsibility the under UN
22:29
resolution 242 was fulfilled to allow Palestinians
The Palestinian Responsibility
22:35
to exercise their right of self-determination and statehood in the
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20% of Palestine that remained namely the West Bank including East Jerusalem
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and Gaza well the Palestinians never got that from
22:55
Oslo in fact they didn't get anything from
23:00
Oslo in fact they got the reverse because in the course of those
23:07
years from 1993 on Israel started to
23:13
Annex territories on the in the West Bank by
23:19
creating another term which will now Enlighten your listeners by creating je
23:25
uh Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the sement came to occupy more and
23:33
more territory in the West Bank Israel confiscated more and more land in the
23:40
West Bank until about half of the West
The Second Inada
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Bank was now under Israeli control
23:51
effectively annexed to Israel and so nothing came of that Oslo
24:00
Accord on the Palestinian site uh and then in
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2000 uh in 2000 September 2000 where
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reasons which time will not allow me a new Uprising occurred in the occupied
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Palestinian territories what came to be called the second in
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and uh the second intera began just as the first intera in
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1987 it was overwhelmingly nonviolent but Israel
24:43
fearful of a second protracted civil
24:48
Revolt akin to the first inada they then exerted maximum amount
24:56
of violent Force to repress it uh to use the cliche to nip it in the bud so just
25:04
in the first few days of that second inat just in the first few
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days Israel fired approximately 1 million rounds of
25:17
ammunition to repress that second nonviolent civil
The Kill Ratio
25:25
revolt and God second nonviolent civil Revolt then quickly spun out of
25:32
control and it became quite violent on both sides the kill ratio that first
25:40
three weeks of the second inter father was about 20 Palestinians to East to
25:48
each Israeli 20 to one as it happened I
25:53
lived there at the time not a long period but I was there and on one of my visits I did meet with the then head of
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uh Hamas his name was Dr rentis now I want to be careful my
26:11
memory is not perfect on these things so it's pretty good um I don't know if he
26:16
was the the fall head or he was one of the leaders he was eventually assassinated
26:23
by the Israelis um and Ian I did meet with
26:29
him as with all of those leaders at the time I don't want to speak about later a
26:35
very simple life very humble guy uh he would say his kitchen or his home looked
26:43
like a what we would say in the United States a tenament from the 19 you know
26:49
1930s and when I talked him about the situation it had already gotten quite
26:55
violent um on both sides Ides I do remember when I asked him about what was
27:03
going on I said do you think this is the right strategy your
27:08
strategy and he said to me when the first inter father
27:14
began the ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed was 20 to
27:22
what and then he said now it's I think don't get I could be
Is this a political strategy
27:30
wrong I try to be very I'm a stickler for facts I think he said now it's down
27:35
to six to one and I remember thinking at the time
27:40
and commenting to Palestinian friends I I thought to
27:47
myself this wasn't really a political strategy it was
27:55
just I for an I tooth for a tooth who was calculating the E
A tooth for a tooth
28:03
efficacy of the strategy he chose or Hamas chose just in terms of trying to
28:13
establish an equality not of human life but an
28:18
equality of death or corpses I of course can understand that
28:28
uh it's not for no reason that we have that saying an eye for an eye a tooth
28:33
for a tooth is still part of our moral vocabulary even though many people
28:40
repudiate it it still Rings loudly it resonates for a large
28:47
number of people uh and so I didn't think then it
28:55
was political it was a kind of noral
29:02
calculus in any event Israel once again exerted
29:09
massive death and destruction on the Palestinians
Torture
29:15
destroying huge amounts of land
29:21
homes incarcerating thousands of Palestinians in fact
29:28
uh carrying out a pattern of systematic massive torture of
29:36
Palestinian detainees somewhere on the order of tens of thousands were being systematically
29:44
and methodically tortured by the Israeli prison guards and professional
29:53
torturers and by 2000 6 2005 we will say the second anata have
30:03
been defeated come
30:09
2006 there were elections held in the West Bank and Gaza Israel had set up in
30:18
the occupied Palestinian territories after the uh September
30:26
1993 Accord they had set up an
30:31
Palestinian administrative government in the
30:37
occupied Palestinian territories it were came to be called the pa the Palestinian
30:45
Authority you will recall earlier I referred to the PLO the Palestine
30:51
Liberation Organization the Poo pretty much now disappeared from the scene
30:58
and it was replaced by what came to be called the Palestinian Authority and elections were
31:06
held and surprisingly for everybody amas agreed to participate in
31:14
the elections and surprisingly to everybody
31:19
they won because the Palestinian Authority
31:24
this administrative unit set up by is Israel was very
31:30
corrupt and self-serving and so the
31:35
Palestinians hoping for a government that represented them and not
31:43
individuals simply cashing in on their new status
31:48
of executors of Israeli policy they came to be called Israel's
31:56
subcontractors Hamas one and that's where the story really
32:02
begins which I'll try to bring up to the present now United States had
32:09
urged Palestinians including Hamas to participate in the
32:17
election but United States and
32:23
Israel were not pleased with the outcome
32:28
former President Jimmy Carter was in the occupied territories to monitor the
Economic blockade
32:35
elections and he pronounced them and now I'm quoting you completely honest and
32:43
fair elections when you when Hamas
32:49
won Israel immediately imposed a brutal economic blockade on
33:00
Gaza uh that blockade was
33:05
then uh supported by the United States and the E
33:13
the European Union Palestinians were never given a chance Hamas was never given a
33:21
chance the moment the results came in the screws were
The screws were turned
33:29
turned in the expect hope and expectation that the
33:35
Palestinians knowing that the screws would not be
33:41
unturned until they disposed of Hamas and
33:48
reinstated the Palestinian Authority Under the control of the
33:54
preferred authorities of the United States or the preferred figures of the
34:01
United States in fact Hillary Clinton at the time she was the senator from New
34:08
York she said we made a big mistake by not rigging the election
34:15
that's what she said we made a big mistake by not rigging the
34:21
election wow so the Palestinians ring
34:27
out faced with a brutal blockade Gaza is 5
34:35
miles wide and 25 miles long or at least it was that until
34:45
today when it seems it's going to be cut in half again without get to you get to
34:51
that in a moment what does 5 miles by 25 miles mean I'll just give you my
34:59
personal mental image of what that means I jog five miles along the Cony Island
35:07
Seashore every morning so it's the distance a person uh nearing 70 he jogs
35:15
in the morning at the beach what's the length of Gaza it's less than a marathon a
35:24
marathon is 26.2 miles and gas or yeah five it's about the size
35:32
of marathon uh Gaza just a little less uh and in that
35:39
territory there are 2.1 million people or 2.2 that's some give or take on the
Gaza is densely populated
35:46
action number uh that makes Gaza among the most densely populated places on
35:53
God's Earth it's more populated than
35:59
Tokyo I don't want to anticipate too much yeah now israels says it's going to
36:07
take control of the northern half of GSA which means among the most densely
36:15
populated places on God's Earth will now be
36:21
twice as densely populated uh after the current blood
36:30
leing uh nobody has allowed nobody for 20
36:35
years nobody with the rarest of exceptions nobody was allowed
36:42
in and nobody was allowed out so for you for the purposes of
36:49
today's conversation it means most of those Palestinians who crashed through the
36:56
gate of Gaza it was their first time ever leaving Gaza they were in their 20s they had
37:04
never seen anything except via the web they had
37:11
never seen anything of the outside world they had been confined to this
37:18
space for 20 years that's not
37:24
hyperbole that's not exagger ation about half of Gaza half the
Half of Gazas population has been unemployed
37:32
population for the past 20 years has been unemployed that figure or that
37:39
percentage Rises to 60% on when you look at the
37:46
youth so now your audience should
37:51
Ponder here is a population where a large
37:58
part has been left for 20 years to just
38:05
Pace back and forth in an area that's among the
38:11
bestest most deely popular in the world with nothing whatsoever
38:19
else to look forward to that's a fact you get up each morning
38:27
there's no work there's nowhere to go you can't
38:34
even try your look immigrating see what happens come to the United States come
38:42
to France no can't Le that's why David
38:48
tamaran the former British conservative prime
38:54
minister he described Gaza as an open a
39:01
prison Maru Kimberling a respected
39:07
Israeli sociologist at the Hebrew University he described
39:14
Gaza as the world's largest concentration camp the largest
39:22
concentration camp ever
39:27
the most of the water in Gaza is undrinkable
39:35
nonpotable uh of
39:42
Goa is by International humanitarian agencies it's labeled
39:51
severely strong and secure now collect all these
39:59
facts with one other fact every listener should
40:06
remember as Israel is now proceeding to annihilate by their own
40:13
admission to annihilate all human life in the nor all breathing life in the
40:20
northern sector of Gaza that half of Gaza
40:27
half comprises children one half of
40:34
Gaza are children if you can
Hightech massacres in Gaza
40:40
imagine the accumulated rage the
40:47
accumulated anger at being
40:54
trapped in Born Into the largest concentration camp
41:04
ever and then after 20
41:10
years they have that moment where they can exact
41:18
revenge on October 27 excuse me October
41:24
7 but that's still not the full picture in
41:31
fact as ghastly as that picture is it doesn't even
41:38
begin to touch the surface of the reality because
41:45
periodically Israel launches these
41:50
Hightech massacres on GSA and and in the course of
41:58
which they kill very large numbers of
42:03
civilians in operation cast lit
42:10
from December 26 1 2008 to January
42:18
17 2009 they killed about 1300 1,400
42:25
Palestinian 350 of them
42:30
children and demolish level
42:35
flatten 6,000 homes
42:42
uh then that was called operation cast
42:48
L I'll skip a large number of other
42:54
operations because time doesn't allow it I will only
43:00
say that try as I may I can never remember the names of
43:07
even half those murderous high
43:14
tech destructions visited on
43:20
Gaza what Amnesty International called it's not my title there in mind after
43:28
operation castled they issued a mammoth report
43:34
idled 22 days of death and
43:42
destruction in 2014 July August
43:49
2014 Israel initiate operation protective Ed
43:57
in the course of protective Edge it killed about 550 Palestinian
44:07
children it demolished 18
44:14
thousands the head of the international Committee of the Red Cross Peter moer is
44:21
his name m a r for those of you listeners who wanted to check my what
44:27
I'm saying now it's the icrc international Committee of Red Cross Peter
44:32
Mo he went to Gaza after operation protective Edge as the
44:39
Israelis called it and he said quote in all my
The magnitude of destruction in Gaza
44:47
life I have never witness
44:52
destruction on the scale that have now observed in
44:59
Kasa that's quite a statement just as bar
45:04
Kimberling describing Gaza as the largest concentration camp ever is quite
45:12
a statement but from a very responsible sociologist Peter
45:19
Mo describing the destruction as the
45:24
most the magnitude of the destruction remember the job of the president of the
45:31
icr is to visit War zones so he must have visited an awful
45:37
lot and he said he had never seen the magnitude of Destruction in
45:43
Gaza which means and here for the first time for the first time in everything I
45:49
just told you I'm happy to present the documentation that every word I sit
45:56
I wrote a book called Gaza an inquest into its
46:03
martyrdom which nobody has ever faulted for
46:10
lack of not just documentation but
46:15
voluminous documentation from reading through thousands and
46:22
thousands and thousands of pages of Human Rights
46:28
reports I started in 1982 it's 40 years later and I don't say
46:35
it with pride indeed I say with a little bit of embarrassment that's all I did
46:41
with my life document what happened there so I'm quite confident that every
46:50
claim I just made can be documented not by one source
46:56
but by voluminous sources with that as a side note let me
47:02
get to my one point of speculation every one of those
One point of speculation
47:10
youths who crash through the gates of Gaza I would
47:18
bet every dollar I owe every dollar that everyone because they knew
47:26
they weren't going to come back there was nowhere to hide in
47:33
Israel even if they managed to escape they were going to be
47:39
tracked down they knew that Dani knew was going to be their last day on God's
47:46
Earth and the night before they left
47:52
Gaza I would guess everyone of them kiss their mother
48:00
goodbye kiss their father goodbye and inside of them inside of
48:09
them they vow to
48:16
Revenge not only the life of misery Agony anguish and
48:27
torment that they experienced from the day of their birth
48:34
because they were born into that concentration camp but they also
48:43
vowed to Revenge the death of their brother their
48:51
sister their niece their nephew you all
48:57
those persons who perished whose bodies were
49:05
incinerated mangled and destroyed during
49:12
Israel's operations as they like to call it in
49:18
Gossip so and this is where I'll leave off and I shock
49:26
by what happened on October
49:31
7th I cannot say I was I
49:38
cannot I was shocked by the Ingenuity displayed by the people of
49:47
Gaza Gaza was probably the most surveilled place on Earth Israel has a
I was surprised
49:54
very s sophisticated not just external security system but also
50:02
internal there are many collaborators with Israel inside Gaza many and that the people of Gaza eluded
50:12
it it's very impressive you know Israelis are now stunned how could that have
50:18
happened so that part surprised me however
50:26
even as I was surprised don't I don't want to claim to be any kind of
50:31
Clairvoyant I was surprised by the magnitude of the deaths yes for
50:39
sure was I surprised on reflection at the
50:47
Vengeance that Inspire those killings no I can't say so
50:54
and I will leave leave you with one last thought and then you take over because I've taken more than probably what might
51:01
call be called a generous amount the time I want to be clear about
51:07
this I hope your program has a wide reach and we have a time you know an
51:13
opportunity to discuss things these things I'm going to just tell you something personal which I've not said
51:18
to anybody this is a very hard week for me I'm good at assembling facts
51:26
I'm good at putting them in a logical coherent order I can't
51:33
say I have the greatest moral judgment it's not bad but moral judgment is like
51:39
any other faculty requires study reflection you know it means knowing the
51:45
whole of moral philosophy and I'm not competent in that
51:50
area and most of my adult life I was a kind of might call acolyte disciple of N
52:00
chsky I think it's fair to say he was for 40 years a very close friend of
52:06
mine for reasons which I can't get into now he wasn't available for moral judgment not the
52:14
facts the facts I feel confident about but the moral judgment how does one if I
52:20
can use the Expression position oneself morally in light of what happened
American history
52:27
October 7th I really didn't know I was very confused when people asked me how
52:34
are you doing I would say well physically I'm very tired but morally
52:39
I'm much more tired I'm struggling with it so I went back to American history I
52:48
went back to American history I wanted to see what was just
52:54
briefly for your listeners because I don't know how uh Amer whether it's an American audience or an international
53:01
audience so in the American context we had slave revolts and the slave revolts were quite
53:09
bloody so for example the best known slave revolt in the US or the largest
53:15
was Nat Turner in 1831 the Nat Turner
53:20
Rebellion now that Turner was a Rel he black obviously he was a religious ftic
53:26
he was a zealot he was convinced that this rebellion was inspired by God and
53:34
all of his actions were sanctioned approved by God he gave the order to his
53:41
Confederates to kill all white people kill all white people in your
53:48
path and a lot of white people were killed
53:53
scores of white people were killed K by current terminology would call them
53:59
Innocents were killed I wanted to know how did the
54:06
abolitionists those who oppose slavery what kind of moral judgment did
54:13
they render on that Turner and so I went back one of the
54:18
greatest of the Abolitionist white was a fellow named uh Garrison William Lloyd
54:24
Garrison he was the editor of a newspaper called The Liberator and I want to see what did he
54:32
write and I have to say to me have to say to you it was very consoling to
54:39
me because he did what I did after
54:45
Gaza number one he said I told you
54:50
so we warned you and warned you and warned warned you and warned you we
54:56
meaning the abolitionists this was going to happen number
55:02
two he denounced all the Hypocrites the pious self-righteous
55:11
Hypocrites who were denouncing what happened in Nat Turner's
55:18
rebellion and number three and I hope your listeners will pay close attention
55:26
number three even though he said what happened
55:31
Jo did not turn her Revolt was horrible it was very
55:38
clear he never once condemned the slave Revol he did
55:46
not he did not I posted on my
55:52
substack I posted on my Twitter account
55:57
the full statement by William Lloyd Garrison he did
56:05
not and the Nat Turner rebellion and I described it to you just a moment ago
56:11
quite accurately it now occupies an honored place in American history it
56:20
does and William Lloyd Garrison is a revered figure there were
56:27
three there were basically William Lloyd Garrison Charles suner uh uh FIA Stevens
56:34
and Garrett Smith there are a few but he's one of the revered figures of the Abolitionist Movement to end
56:42
slavery so uh I felt assur even in the absence
56:49
of my mentor Professor chsky I felt
56:55
confident that I had applyed even though
57:01
my moral faculty is not finely owned I apply the right
57:09
judgment in this situation I've gotten some very
57:15
ugly back backlash uh from people who meant a lot
57:22
to me in life uh
57:27
however I if the judgment is right I won't
57:36
retreat
