Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Habib Baar: Beirutreport.com Journalist and founder believes Israel has no incentive to stop

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Habib Baar: Beirutreport.com Journalist and founder believes Israel has no incentive to stop · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We'll go straight to the Middle East, where the situation
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: is moving fast. In just the last few hours, Iran
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: has sent up to three hundred and fifty missiles and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: drones into Israel, setting off the sound of explosions and sirens.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Now this is in response, i Ran says to Israel
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: killing senior Chzboula figures rather than necessarily yesterday's ground invasion
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: of Lebanon with US now, as journalist and founder of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: new site by Rootreport dot com, Hbib Batahabi, Hello.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Hi there.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: What do you reckon happens?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Now?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Does the US get involved?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it's hard to say what's on the
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: mind of US military officials. The US might be already
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: be involved in in the US is quite involved in
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: sharing intelligence with Israel, and there has been talk about
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: all kinds of you know, billions of dollars worth of weapons.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: All the bombs that are being dropped are American made,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So I said, I said, the US has already involved,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: it's unclear if they're going to be involved in to
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: more extent.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Israel says no one was killed because basically the iron
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: dome worked. Iransi's eighty percent of the missiles hit their targets,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: which is more likely to be true.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm watching videos online of the missiles hitting the ground,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: several missiles. I've seen at least five or six of
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the missiles hit the ground. So it depends on what
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: you're watching. And there have been videos of missiles touching down.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: So I think it's important to, you know, not always
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: take the Israeli government's position as fact because it could
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: also be a more of propaganda. In a time of war,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: militaries say things that will strike fear into their enemies
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: and not cause any kind of fear into their own
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: population and try to reinforce, you know, a kind of
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: confidence in their governments. So you know, there is the
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: missiles are landing, We've seen them videos of that.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: The smart thing for Israel to do right now is
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: not to respond to this, obviously at the risk of
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: escalating the thing. Further, is that what Israel does? Do
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: you think it just doesn't respond?
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean Israel has shown that it has no
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: acts with impunity. I mean Israel has not been stopped,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: you know, only more billions and billions of dollars and
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: more weapons are pouring on Israel. So Israel has no
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: incentive to stop. It seems Israel has the full backing
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: of you know, the European the Western allies of the
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: United States. There's been no real strong criticism, no no
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: pausing in the weapons shipment. So I think Israel believes
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: that it can do whatever it wants. It can. It
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: can flatten Lebanona, has has flatten eighty percent of Gaza,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: and we're seeing huge neighborhoods and Berio being flatten, and
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: we're seeing civilian areas being targeted there. There there's no
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: distinction often between military targets and civilian targets. So, you know,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Israel has been acting with impunity and it seems that
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: that's set to continue.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Is it possible that Iran has achieved what it wanted
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: to achieve, which would simply being seen to act right
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: because they've done that before. Is it possible there five
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: these missiles and had a few spots here and there,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and then they just let it go.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think you know Iran, you know,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: it would be difficult for Iran to take on the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: United States and Israel the time, you know, so they
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: probably do want to do some kind of limited action,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: it seems, but you know, the rockets are major rockets
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: and missiles, and they're falling down, and people, you know
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: in other Arab countries, you know in Palestinians, Lebanese probably
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: feel a bit of retribution now because they've been that's
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: what they've been dealing with. Although you know, it's important
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: to note that the missiles that Israel drops on the
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Palestinians and Lebanese there are no bomb shelters for them
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: to go to. So Israelis are very well prepared. They
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: get a lot of warning to have all kinds of
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: radar systems, but most Lebanies and Palestinians have no warning,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: maybe a few minutes at maximum, not enough time to evacuate,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: and they're often bombed to the next place that they go.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: So it's a very uneven battlefield.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Habib, it's good to talk to you. Thank you for
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: filling us in. Hebi Batahu's journalists and a founder of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Beirut Reports dot com. The UN has just let it
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: be known that they're going to be meeting tomorrow about
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the situation. Interestingly, it takes twelve minutes for a missile
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: that's fired in Iran to reach Israel, and it appears
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: at most of them would have been intercepted over Syria.
• 4:02
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• 4:04
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• 4:07
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