Transcript:
The Inside Story: Israel Hamas - Six Months of War
Episode 139 – April 11, 2024
Show Open:
Unidentified Narrator:
This week on the Inside Story…
Israel’s war against Hamas at six months. Hamas remains entrenched in Gaza, and the hostages remain in captivity.
In Rwanda, thirty years after a brutal genocide, the country remembers.
And in our weekly focus on US politics, Donald Trump announces his position on abortion and draws criticism from both sides of the debate.
NOW... On the Inside Story, the Israel Hamas War at 6 Months.
The Inside Story:
CARLA BABB, VOA Correspondent:
Welcome to the Inside Story. I’m Carla Babb. Six months into the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Israel is at a crossroads. Israeli forces have not been able to eradicate Hamas or free the remaining hostages. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.
LINDA GRADSTEIN, VOA Correspondent:
Israeli media reports say Israel will buy 40,000 tents to evacuate Palestinians from Rafah ahead of a planned ground offensive. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said that Israel “has a date” for an invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Israeli analysts say that even without an invasion of Rafah, the six-month-old war with Hamas is at a crossroads.
Amos Yadlin, Former Israeli Director of Military Intelligence:
It can be escalation to a regional war, because of Iran, because of Hezbollah, and it will move from Gaza to the north, from a limited war in Gaza to a regional war, or it can, and it can de-escalate to a process that will de-escalate the war and will fix some of the problems. We’re really facing crucial days, maybe a week.
LINDA GRADSTEIN:
Both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are proxies of Iran, and Yadlin says tensions with Iran have recently skyrocketed since Israeli strikes killed a senior Iranian general in Damascus last month.
Amos Yadlin, Former Israeli Director of Military Intelligence:
This is not the first time that Israel is targeting Iranian officers – Israel took the gloves off on October 7 – until then in the last decade Israel attacked Iranian activities – supplying of weapons to Hezbollah, building air bases, moving missiles to Syria, but Israel was very careful not to target Iranians. Since the 7th and the 8th of October, when Iran launched its proxies against Israel, from Lebanon, from Syria, from Yemen, from Iraq, Israel changed the policy and in this case made a big hit to Iran.
LINDA GRADSTEIN:
Israel has also come under growing international criticism for the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The U.N. says more than a quarter of Gaza’s population is on the verge of starvation. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights told the BBC that there is plausible evidence that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.
Volker Turk, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights:
The collective punishment that was declared with the siege indeed amounts to a war crime, and it needs to be dealt as such.
LINDA GRADSTEIN:
Israel says the problem is distribution of aid and says it is not responsible.
Michal Hatuel Radoshitzky, Security Analyst, MIND Israel:
I don’t think to the best of my assessment that the problem is with the trucks going in, there is enough supply going in. Where the problem lies is in the picking up the goods that are delivered and distributing them. So that is a serious bottleneck that we are seeing and here we need to ask where the U.N. organizations are, where the civil societies are, where are the people who need to distribute these goods?”
LINDA GRADSTEIN:
Egypt has been hosting indirect talks between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire and hostage release, amid conflicting views on their chances for success.
Linda Gradstein, VOA News, Jerusalem.
ANITA POWELL, VOA White House Correspondent:
The White House says that Israel is ready for a cease-fire after six months of brutal fighting but that Hamas leadership is unwilling to meet Israel's terms and release some of the hostages seized during the October 7 attack on Israel, which provoked an Israeli military campaign that has flattened much of Gaza.
Jake Sullivan, US National Security Adviser:
There could be a cease-fire in place today that would extend for several weeks to be built upon longer if Hamas would be prepared to release some of those people. So let's train the attention where it belongs, which is that the world should say at this moment to Hamas, ‘It's time, let's go. Let's get that cease-fire.’ We're ready. I believe Israel is ready.
ANITA POWELL:
Family members of some of the American hostages met with White House officials Tuesday to press for their return.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Father of Hostage:
We have heard is that there is a deal on the table right now that all of the parties agree to and are willing to work with. We are waiting now, and the world waits for Hamas to get to 'yes.' It is in their court.
ANITA POWELL:
The Biden administration began calling for a cease-fire a month ago. But not all Israelis want one. On Monday, this group marched near the Gaza border to demand the opposite.
Yael Lasri, Protester:
Instead of telling the international community to place pressure on Hamas to release the hostages, they are placing pressure on Netanyahu and our government. We didn’t start the war — they did, OK? They murdered 1,200 of our people.
ANITA POWELL:
And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also seems determined to press forward with plans to attack the southern city of Rafah, over Washington’s objections.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister:
We will complete the elimination of the Hamas battalions, including in Rafah. There is no force in the world that will stop us. There are many factors trying to do this, but it will not help, because this enemy, after what he has done, will not do it again.
ANITA POWELL:
Analysts say U.S.-led diplomacy is critical to ending this conflict, and warn that Hamas, which has deep roots in the region and strong ties to Iran, is a formidable foe whose appeal may be growing in the face of Israel’s assault on Gaza and on Iran-supported groups in the region.
Merissa Khurma, Wilson Center:
It remains to have tremendous popularity currently across the region, which is very disconcerting as well, because this is a form of radicalization that the United States and its allies should be concerned about.
ANITA POWELL:
But as Israeli bombs rained down Tuesday, not on Gaza but into neighboring Lebanon, the prospect of peace feels very far away.
Anita Powell, VOA News, the White House.
CARLA BABB, VOA Correspondent:
Since the October seventh attacks on Israel by Hamas and its allies, Israel has fought battles across multiple border regions. And the conflicts go well beyond Hamas. A recent uptick in Hezbollah rocket fire has left some Israeli towns deserted with no plan in place for residents to return. Pilar Cebrián has this report from the Israel-Lebanon border as narrated by Veronica Vilafañe.
VERONICA VILAFAÑE, VOA Correspondent:
In mid-March, David Azulay walks by rubble and abandoned homes in Metula, the northernmost town in Israel, where he heads the local council. He points out Metula's proximity with Lebanon.
David Azulay, Head Council of Metula:
Here is the border, you see?
VERONICA VILAFAÑE:
Since the Hamas militant group attacked Israel on October 7, about 100,000 Israelis have fled their homes along the northern border. Thousands more are still being evacuated from communities like this one, creating ghost towns.
Although Metula stands deserted, it remains a target of rocket fire from Lebanon's Hezbollah militia. Azulay estimates it receives an average of 50 shells every week.
David Azulay, Head Council of Metula:
This house has been hit on Wednesday, with two Kornet missiles.
VERONICA VILAFAÑE:
Azulay guides a group of journalists through the devastation in his town. He says that he stayed behind to protect his and his neighbors' homes.
David Azulay, Head Council of Metula:
We are trying to seal the houses and the roofs.
VERONICA VILAFAÑE:
After a missile hit the upper floor of this house, it went up in flames, leaving it uninhabitable for the family that owns it.
David Azulay, Head Council of Metula:
How will they return?
VERONICA VILAFAÑE:
Azulay says most Metula residents evacuated on October 16 and are staying in hotels on Lake Tiberias.
Sarit Zehavi is an Israeli military reserve officer and the founder of an Israeli border security research center. She says there is an ongoing danger of Hezbollah attacks.
Sarit Zehavi, Alma Research and Education Center:
They wouldn't want to create an invasion of thousands of invaders because, as I said, they prefer to drag Israel into war rather than initiate it, but they are still capable of infiltration of one force here, one force there.
VERONICA VILAFAÑE:
A point of concern: a network of Hezbollah tunnels in Lebanon.
Sarit Zehavi, Alma Research and Education Center:
Tactical tunnels definitely exist that enable them to move from one building to another like you saw in Gaza. Explosive tunnels, and strategic tunnels that enable Hezbollah to transfer launchers and labor from one area to another.
VERONICA VILAFAÑE:
With no end to the conflict in sight, the Israeli military patrols the area. It is uncertain when Israelis will be able to safely return and rebuild their homes in the country's abandoned northern towns.
For Pilar Cebrián, in Metula, Israel, Veronica Villafañe, VOA News.
CARLA BABB, VOA Correspondent:
Moving now to Central Africa where thirty years after the Rwandan genocide survivors continue grappling with fear and trauma. They say ongoing battles against misinformation and genocide denial make matters worse, prompting calls for increased education and awareness toward a world free from genocide. Reporting from Kigali, Rwanda, Senanu Tord has this story.
SENANU TORD, Reporting for VOA:
Patrick Sindikubwabo was only four years old when his father and three siblings were killed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Thirty years on, he says the memory still haunts him and is a part of his story he can never forget.
Another survivor, Jean Claude Mugabe, was nine when his father and uncles had to flee their house, leaving women and children behind. He says his relatives sought refuge in the village church but were found and many of them killed.
Jean Claude Mugabe - Genocide Survivor:
I lost many siblings, close relatives such as aunt, uncles, cousins, if I count it very well, they reached 65 people. My uncle, the brother of my mom, he died with his wife and his whole children, so the family finished.
SENANU TORD:
Mugabe later found his little sister and father had been murdered.
Jean Claude Mugabe - Genocide Survivor:
I participated in burying his remains. The only thing that I could remember was his jacket,that was what remained.
SENANU TORD:
During a 100-day period in 1994, Rwanda’s Hutu majority killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates. The genocide in Rwanda was sparked by hate speech, mostly over radio, by Hutu extremists against Tutsis.
Mugabe says many survivors were traumatized, grieved, and radicalized, and at his age, he did not understand why his dad had to be killed.
Jean Claude Mugabe - Genocide Survivor:
Some time back, I say, if I can see the killer of my father, I will revenge as well.
SENANU TORD:
The Aegis Trust, a non-profit dedicated to genocide prevention, has been running genocide memorial centers across the country with the goal of helping people heal and learn about genocide prevention.
Freddy Mutanguha - Aegis Trust:
We do it through peace education programs by understanding the past but also building up the skills and values that help people to be able to develop critical thinking, empathy, personal responsibility.
SENANU TORD:
Mugabe has been a part of the program and says it has helped him heal. He has even met with some of his father’s killers and forgiven them.
Jean Claude Mugabe - Genocide Survivor:
I understood better, better and more better when I worked with the memorial and I started also supporting others from my community and my colleagues who have not yet moved forward.
SENANU TORD:
UNESCO cites a lack of education as one of the causes of the genocide, saying people turned against each other through misinformation. They have moved to recognize four memorial sites in Rwanda as World Heritage sites.
Audery Azoulay - Director General of UNESCO:
The sites have to be preserved because what happened here, matters for all humanity. It is a stain on universal conscience and we have to preserve the sites so first as to fight against distortion or denial of history.
SENANU TORD:
Rwanda is marking the anniversary of the genocide against Tutsis with 100 hundred days of remembrance. During this period, survivors are calling for more education and awareness to help combat genocide denial and misinformation, part of their healing journey.
Senanu Tord, VOA news, Kigali, Rwanda.
CARLA BABB, VOA Correspondent:
Now to the United States where millions of people from Texas to Maine witnessed a rare total solar eclipse. Here’s hoping you saw it, as the next one won’t pass over North America for another 20 years. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh definitely saw it at a viewing event hosted by NASA and Purdue University at the Indianapolis Speedway. He brings us this story from Indiana.
KANE FARABAUGH, VOA Correspondent:
The decision to come to Indianapolis, Indiana’s famous Motor Speedway to join the crowd of spectators witnessing a total solar eclipse came at the last minute for Enrique Catalan and his family. It was supposed to be a regular day of school for his children.
Enrique Catalan, Eclipse Viewer:
We’re skipping today! They are approved by us!
KANE FARABAUGH:
Catalan and his family drove two hours from northern Indiana to witness something that had left an impression on him as a teenager in Mexico during a partial eclipse.
Enrique Catalan, Eclipse Viewer:
That’s why we are here. I remember when it happened when I was young, and now I want them to experience it as well… but they are going to experience a total eclipse.
KANE FARABAUGH:
The racetrack was one of several locations where NASA and its partners hosted programming in the “path of totality,” the swath of the U.S. that can see the moon completely blocking the sun as the eclipse makes it way northeast.
Clouds didn’t spoil the view at the speedway when day seemingly turned to night for several minutes as the moon blocked the sun.
Charles and Cathy Maher from Chicago, Illinois, felt sharing the event with the massive crowd in Indianapolis was a unifying moment in a country politically polarized in a presidential election year.
Charles and Cathy Maher, Eclipse Viewers:
Cathy Maher:
Nobody’s going to be talking about what side the sun is on or the moon is on…
Charles Maher: …it’s not red or blue…
Cathy Maher: …it is sort of a little break from everything going on.
Pam Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator:
Today, millions of Americans will stand together, looking up at the sky in awe and wonder at this cosmic coincidence that makes our moon look like it's exactly the same size as the sun.
KANE FARABAUGH:
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy says her agency’s efforts to study this rare event weren’t isolated to just a few locations across the country.
Pam Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator:
We are really focusing also on citizen scientists. We have a program where some people have been trained to use solar telescopes all around the country.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Mung Chiang is president of Indiana’s Purdue University, which boasts a number of graduates who became NASA astronauts. He hopes the accessibility of the eclipse to a large number of young Americans might help inspire them to pursue careers in science.
Mung Chiang, Purdue University President:
It is not just a watch party for three minutes. It is a lifelong educational journey, and today is a very meaningful special stop along that journey.
KANE FARABAUGH:
For those who missed witnessing the 2024 total solar eclipse, the next opportunities to see one firsthand in the United States won’t occur until 2044 and 2045.
Kane Farabaugh, VOA News, Indianapolis, Indiana
CARLA BABB, VOA Correspondent:
April is Arab-American Heritage Month here in the U.S. It highlights a community often battling to overcome negative stereotypes. VOA’s Dora Mekouar in Dearborn, Michigan, recently visited the Arab American National Museum, an institution at the forefront of that fight.
DORA MEKOUAR, VOA Correspondent:
Arab immigrants have been coming to America since at least the 1890s. Many came at first for economic opportunity, and then later because of political turmoil in their native lands. The mission of the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, is to tell how these immigrants became a part of the fabric of America.
Diana Abouali, Arab American National Museum:
We communicate the American narrative in the voices of Arab Americans. They express their experiences in their own words. This provides people with a more authentic and real representation of what it means to be Arab American.
DORA MEKOUAR:
This immigrant story isn’t well-known among mainstream America. And what little Americans do know about Arabs is often informed by negative stereotypes.
Jasmine Hawamdeh, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee:
The obvious one would be the angry Arab, the terrorist Arab, the being afraid of the Arab that comes from abroad. I think that's the very obvious one, but it's a bit overplayed. And I think one of the more harmful stereotypes that currently exists in American media is the oppressed Arab woman.
DORA MEKOUAR:
The Arab American National Museum tries to correct those narratives. One exhibit compares how Arabs are often portrayed by outsiders with how Arab Americans view themselves.
The museum shares the full range of the Arab American experience. Including work life. Those who serve their country. Artists and their work.
Unidentified Kitchen Worker:
Of course we have olives. Of course we have hummus.
DORA MEKOUAR:
And daily life, complete with things traditionally found in an Arab kitchen.
Diana Abouali, Arab American National Museum:
We're not always responding to misconceptions and narrative, although that's a major part of our work and a major sort of impetus for creating a museum like this, but also we're sort of presenting ourselves, as we are, unapologetically.
DORA MEKOUAR:
Prominent Arab Americans are also featured. Here’s the desk of Joseph Haggar, a Lebanese immigrant who created the iconic Haggar men’s pants brand in 1926.
Diana Abouali, Arab American National Museum:
You know, the Arab Americans were very entrepreneurial.
DORA MEKOUAR:
The museum’s diverse offerings include lists of Arab American passengers on the doomed Titanic, which sank in 1912. As well as challenges to religious misconceptions.
Diana Abouali, Arab American National Museum:
Half of the Arab American community is Christian. And in fact, the earlier immigrants, who came in the late 19th century, early 20th century, were predominantly Christian.
DORA MEKOUAR:
Arab Americans are a diverse community that come from 22 Arab countries stretching from northern Africa to western Asia. But once they settle in the U.S., the museum director says, they become as American as they are Arab.
Dora Mekouar. VOA News. Dearborn, Michigan.
CARLA BABB, VOA Correspondent:
Unless you haven’t had a phone, or a radio, or television, you’ve probably heard the United States has a presidential election this year. We leave you this week, as we will from now until at least November, with coverage of the U.S. presidential campaign. Reproductive rights remain an important issue in this year’s election. Florida’s supreme court recently paved the way for both tighter restrictions on abortion and an upcoming ballot measure to undo those restrictions in November. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.
SCOTT STEARNS, VOA Correspondent:
Abortion as a divisive issue in this presidential election gained new momentum last week with Florida’s high court approving a law banning abortions in the state after six weeks.
That brought renewed questions for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump about whether he supports prominent members of his party who want a nationwide abortion ban.
On his social media site Monday, Trump said each state should decide on its own.
Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Candidate:
Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative (laws) than others and that's what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people.
SCOTT STEARNS:
States have those rights following a 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned nearly 50 years of federal protections for abortions.
In his video, Trump thanked six justices by name, including the three appointed by him, saying he is “proudly the person responsible” for ending federal abortion protections.
Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Candidate:
My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state.
SCOTT STEARNS:
Joe Biden has been campaigning hard on reproductive rights, vowing to return federal abortion protections that were decided in the case Roe v. Wade.
Joe Biden, U.S. President:
Folks, if America sends me a Congress that are Democrats, I promise you, Kamala and I will restore Roe vs. Wade as the law of the land again.
SCOTT STEARNS:
Biden’s running mate and vice president, Kamala Harris, is part of a campaign to link Trump to more extreme abortion views.
Kamala Harris, U.S. Vice President:
How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need, to tell women what is in their best interests. We have to be a nation that trusts women.
SCOTT STEARNS:
Harris and Biden are focusing on reproductive rights as abortion has been a losing political issue for Republicans since the Supreme Court decision, with two high-profile losses in referendums in Ohio and Kansas.
For this election, Trump appeared to urge his followers to recognize the political vulnerabilities of alienating moderates on abortion.
Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Candidate:
You must follow your heart on this issue, but remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and, in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline.
SCOTT STEARNS:
The head of one of America’s biggest anti-abortion groups said Monday she was “deeply disappointed” by Trump’s failure to back a nationwide ban but said the group will still back Trump against Biden.
Issues of reproductive rights in this presidential election will also be fueled by a coming Supreme Court decision on whether to tighten restrictions on access to the drug used to start most medication abortions.
Scott Stearns, VOA News.
CARLA BABB, VOA Correspondent:
That’s all for this week’s episode of The Inside Story. Thanks for watching.
For the latest news you can log on to VOA news dot com.
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Catch up on past episodes at our free streaming service, VOA Plus.
I’m Carla Babb, We will see you here next week. Thanks for watching.
