Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of
genocide scholars has concluded that
Israel's actions in Gaza do meet the
definition of genocide. To talk about
that and Britain's path towards
recognizing a Palestinian state, I'm
joined by the leading Turkish American
commentator and Democrat Jenk Huga. Jen,
thank you very much indeed for joining
the show. Um, first of all, this uh
declaration about genocide, uh, it may
not surprise people who've been studying
the situation. Does it make a
difference, do you think?
Well, look, we give Israel way too much
uh latitude to begin with. Uh this is
not an interesting debate. It's
obviously a genocide and all of their
talking points uh are the same talking
points that you know that every country
or empire that has ever committed a
genocide uses. So in the Armenian
genocide, the Ottoman Empire said, "Oh,
they were hiding behind their civilians.
We were doing self-defense. We had to
move them for their own good and our own
good." So, these are all the same things
we've heard before, ethnic cleansing and
genocide. Uh, the monstrous actions of
the Israeli government would really be
classified as terrorism if it was any
government other than Israel. We
constantly make special exemptions for
them. And at this point, people are
rightly beginning to ask why why do we
have to make all sorts of special
exemptions for Israel? We don't. They're
committing a genocide and it's
abominable. We should act very
aggressively against it. So, uh, your
president, I say yours, uh, lightly, uh,
Donald Trump is still chasing a Nobel
Peace Prize, and one of the things he
keeps talking about is the peace
negotiations around Israel and Gaza.
Where are they now? What where are they
left?
>> Well, so Hamas has accepted Netanyahu's
terms, so we should have a ceasefire
right now. Uh, but of course, as soon as
they did, Netanyahu changed the
goalpost. Uh, that's what he always
does. Now, he went from uh let's do this
in phases to now, oh, okay, you accepted
the phase portion. Now, I'm saying I'm
going to do it lump sum. And you know
why? And everybody knows why. Because he
doesn't want peace. He's the one that's
been blocking peace the entire time. And
we all know the internal politics of
Israel. If he loses the right-wing, uh
honestly, the the Ben Gabir and Smote
Rich are outright fascists and obviously
racist and obviously genocidal. And but
if he loses their support, he loses the
government. he can't win re-election and
he might go to jail. So he's not
basically Smote Rich and Ben are running
this government. Nanyahu is very happily
going along. He has said that his
mission is a greater Israel. He talks
about Judea and Samaria. Uh and he said
and they've already voted that Palestine
is never going to be allowed to exist.
So what is this? What you're going to
keep 5 a half million Palestinian
prisoners for the rest of our lives and
we're supposed to accept that they're
your prisoners and hostages and you're
going to run a dictatorial government in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And now
you say there is no chance for peace.
And one last thing, even the Israelis
now, all the scholars, their military,
etc. are admitting and leaking to the
press that yes, Netanyahu put an
unachievable objective of basically
eliminating every Hamas member. Uh they
know that they can't do that. That's not
a thing that can be done. And the point
is so that we never get to peace. Why?
They already have 75% of Gaza. They're
going to try to take 100%. A and
meanwhile um as we both know um settlers
are pushing further and further into the
West Bank. There's more and more trouble
there. More and more uh Arab people are
being killed there. Um what do you think
this means longer term for the future of
the state of Israel? Is this lethal for
Israel?
>> So look, first of all, uh they do so
much propaganda. One of them is, "Oh my
god, Israel's a right to exist and
people are going to come wipe us out."
Nobody's wiping out Israel. They have
nuclear weapons. They've they're the
only country in the world that has Iron
Dome. Uh they curiously had a standown
order for 6 hours on October 7th.
Otherwise, they're nearly an
impenetrable country. They also have a
bigger and and more lethal military than
the rest of the Middle East combined.
So, there is no existential threat to
Israel at all. It is either utter
delusional paranoia by the Israelis or
just outright propaganda to make it seem
like they're the ones in danger. No,
they are not, David. They are Goliath
and they are crushing everyone around
them. And yes, you're right. Uh they're
now having a discussion reported by
Axios just yesterday. Should they uh
annex the West Bank 10%, 30% or 60%. So
they're going to annex the West Bank as
well. They they're setting up greater
Israel. Uh unless you have this weirdo
special exemption for Israel in your
head, what they're doing is super
obvious. They are taking the land of
their neighbors and pretending it's
self-defense.
Uh, let me turn to American politics
because I know you cover that a lot as
well. Um, and I was noticing that you
are becoming increasingly worried that
Donald Trump is entirely serious about
trying to go for a third term, whatever
the constitution says.
Yeah. So, Donald Trump has authoritarian
tendencies. That's why I voted against
him. I worked hard against him. Uh, and
and I'm a guy who does not like the
establishment. So the standard
politicians like Marco Rubio on the
right, but also Joe Biden, Kla Harris on
the left. But nevertheless, Donald Trump
is a fake populist and he came in here
and his author authoritarian tendencies
are now in full display. He's bringing
out the military and US streets. It's
ridiculous. Making us look like a
developing nation. Uh and there's
absolutely no need for it. Talking about
a third term. Does he mean it? Of course
he means it. What he does is he
constantly tests the limits of his
power. And if you don't meet that test
head on, he just takes more and more and
more. And look, he look connected the
two stories, will he be able to do it?
Well, uh, for a while, he had this lock
on his, uh, voters, and a lot of you
might still think that he does. No. I'm
here to report from on the ground in
America that especially for independents
but even some uh you know Republican
voters when they see him covering up the
Epstein list, when they see him doing
whatever Netanyahu orders him to do, uh
they don't like it at all. And it's
obviously not America first. So the more
that he's Israel first, the more
credibility he loses. And so that's your
only silver lining in that otherwise
disastrous scenario.
>> Absolutely fascinating. What about what
do you um think when you see Tony Blair
coming over to advise Donald Trump on
the future of Gaza? Because you know
there has been this discussion about
whether the population would be moved
out temporarily and then brought into
some rebuilt version of Gaza. What do
you make of all of that?
>> All right. So when I see Tony Blair
coming in, I think, oh no, not again. So
look, let's be honest. Tony Blair was
among the people who helped start the
Iraq war. And at the time, Israel said
Iraq was their number one enemy. Iraq
had not attacked America or the UK. Uh
they not only did they were they not
part of al-Qaeda, they fought against
al-Qaeda. They obviously did not have
weapons of mass destruction. That's the
lie that Israel tells about every one of
their uh enemies. And so now what's the
lie being pushed? Oh, Iran has weapons
of mass destruction. We America and the
UK, all of you have to go to war on
behalf of Israel. It's sickening. And
Tony Blair is a cheerleader for that. So
I see that as a disastrous turn of
events. I don't think that he's an
honest actor. He's probably representing
Israel's interest there. He's not going
to want to go towards peace. So we've
we've got more war coming. I mean,
Israel just murdered the prime minister
of Yemen and and his entire cabinet. The
Houthis had had control of Yemen.
They're the real government of Yemen and
Israel just murdered all of them because
they feel like they have a right to
murder anyone they like. And then we all
have to go, "Oh, well, yo, special
exemption, Israel. You can do anything
you like." No. So, I I'm super worried
about Blair representing Israeli
interest there.
>> We're We're almost out of time, Jen. But
one final question. Donald Trump's
coming over to the UK pretty soon on a
big visit. What do you think he wants
out of us?
>> Look, he's got his usual things. He's
he's obsessed with the tariffs. He's
he's probably going to want to talk
about his golf courses. I mean, he's
just he's a legendary con man. Uh so and
and this whole thing of how you have to
ingratiate yourself. Look, if he's
signing up for American interest, uh I'm
America through and through and I'm very
happy about that. Like for example, if
there's a tariff and we do reciprocal
tariffs, that makes sense. But when he's
a madman and out on his own and for
himself, I'm not interested in it. So
buckle up. Brace for impact. He's
probably going to ask for maniacal
things you can't give. Okay, Jen Yuga,
thank you very much indeed for talking
to LBC.