All Hell Breaks Loose After US Congressman Detained By Allies, Trump Silent

0:04All right, joining me on IHIP News is Congressman Ro Khanna, who represents California's 17th Congressional District. Congressman, you traveled to the West Bank last week and were detained by Israeli settlers. Let's pop up your tweet about this. You say, Israeli settlers brandishing American-made M4s detained me and other Americans on my trip to Palestine. When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers and continued our detention. They made a huge mistake. You will be hearing more soon. I think that soon is now, Congressman. What happened? We were at Zenuda Village. It's a village that Yanan Levy, an extremist settler, and his group had destroyed, burnt to the ground.

0:53And we were looking at an elementary school that had been totally demolished. It is a place where other members of Congress actually had been six months ago, Congressman Kasten, Congresswoman Rosa DeLora. And while we're there and I was taking some photographs, suddenly I hear, Ro, Ro, get in the van. I thought we were late to our next engagement. I get into the van with three other Americans, some Palestinians, some Israelis, and we're surrounded by these vigilantes, 21, 22-year-olds, one with a M4, another with a weapon. They're circling our van. They had parked their car outside our van so we couldn't leave.

1:33They are wiping our windows, laughing at us, videotaping us, and basically had us detained. And then when the IDF comes 20 minutes later, they further block us in. They allow these vigilantes to call other settlers who park cars to block us in. Our interpreter goes out to talk to the IDF, because we're on the line with the American embassy, and says, look, you've got American citizens there, there's a congressperson there. They said, we don't care. That doesn't matter to us. This is our land. And we are literally detained for 75 minutes. Thankfully, there's a career person, a number two person at the American embassy, who basically who calls Israel and finally the police come and we're able to go.

2:22But it was a harrowing experience. Did you fear for your life? I did. I mean, look, I thought things would be fine, most likely, but these are young people. They were cursing if something went wrong, if we looked at them the wrong way. If we said something wrong, it could have escalated. I had Cam Caskey with me, who is a Parkland survivor, and he doesn't mind my sharing this. I mean, he was having a panic attack and has psychological scars from what happened. I mean, because of what happened at Parkland. But what I am hoping people will take away, I mean, I understand right now the conversation should be about the Americans detained and Netanyahu lying about it and not caring about it.

3:09But I'm hoping that this will actually get people to see what happens to Palestinians every day. Because if we were Palestinians and not American, that van would have been attacked. We would have probably been beaten or shot at. And we have taken a lot of videos of Palestinians. It was one of the first Palestinian-led tours in the occupation. And I'm hoping that the attention this incident has gotten will get attention for what we're going to talk about with those Palestinian voices. The IDF issued a statement lying about what happened, saying soldiers quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians and reopened the blocked road.

3:48There have been zero arrests for what happened. And what does it take, if not this, to realize that Israel is not the ally that these politicians on both sides of the aisle say that they are? Jennifer, I genuinely could not believe what they said. I mean, unfortunately, today there's body camera footage that was released that basically shows the IDF soldiers further blocking, blockading us and taking the side of settlers. But they are contradicting the account, not just of an American government official, of three other American witnesses, of a New York Times photographer, of the New York Times reporting, of Reuters reporting, of the Israeli security guard who was there, of the Israeli extremist settler expert who was there.

4:37And they're just lying. I guess people who lied about the genocide are going to lie about the detainment of Americans. But if it was any other country, if this had happened in China and Saudi Arabia, you would have had them say, this is horrible. We're going to prosecute. We're sorry this happened. And it wouldn't be the international incident. It is the audacity of power where they feel totally impunity to do what they're saying. And Israel needs to be treated like an occupying power that is engaged in apartheid in the West Bank and that has committed a genocide. and that those are just the facts on the ground.

5:14They absolutely are the facts on the ground and I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have a conversation with somebody where we can both acknowledge those facts and then talk about, all right, how do we fix this? What should our relationship be? But you bravely went into enemy territory this morning. I'm talking about Fox News, of course. And they tried to blame you for this. Let's play the clip. Americans, we need the arrest of these people who detained us, who threatened our lives. Congressman, it is disingenuous to call those local security officials random settlers. These are people who operate in the area regularly.

5:56Further, sir, I have to point out to you that other members of Congress have visited this area, but with prior coordination, we understand that your team did not do that. That's false. We had informed the Israeli embassy. The only reason our lives are saved is because of the excellent work of the American embassy. Congressman. I mean, they're calling the vigilante settlers the local police force. It's almost an admission of what's wrong. Because, yes, those vigilante settlers are acting as the police in the occupied territory, harassing and intimidating Palestinians. But we've put up the pictures of these people on social media.

6:41They're obviously violent settlers. They have nothing to do with the police. And that's who detained us. But here's why they're reacting so strongly to what I did, because they don't want American politicians to do that again. I've been to Israel three times. I've met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Prime Minister Bennett. Before October 7th, I would vote for aid. I would go on these trips and they curate it for you. Then they have you meet in Ramallah where you meet with President Abbas and a few Palestinian leaders. But you don't see everything. And so this time I was challenged. They said, why don't you go and take one trip to see the world through the lens of the Palestinians?

7:22And it has totally affected and changed me in seeing the reality on the ground, seeing that Palestinians don't have water to wash their own clothes or flush their own toilets, seeing that settlers can just go and beat up a Palestinian or vandalize their house, and there's nothing they can do. And so what Israel is saying is if you don't come on a propaganda tour, even if you inform us and you're saying that you want to do a Palestinian-led tour, that somehow that is illegitimate. So if you're an American politician, please don't think of doing what Ro Khanna did. That is how they have covered this up, because they know if 15 people did what I did and this started to get out, they would lose all support in America as they're already starting to lose support.

8:05Congressman, I don't think Americans truly understand what the settlers are doing. I think we get such censored news about what the government of Israel does and what they allow. I had a young gentleman, a Palestinian named Mohammed Elkurd on my show. And when he was 11 years old, a settler from Long Island, New York, went to the West Bank, and they took over his house and started living with him. And he was subjected to strip searches at the age of 11, every single day. And I don't think the American public quite understands what's going on, that you have somebody from Long Island, or the Bronx, or wherever that says, I want to go get my land and the West Bank, and they just go and take it.

9:01And the country that allows this to happen is Israel, who we're told is this incredible democracy. And it's just, pardon my language, but it's just such a jet stream of bullshit that we've been sold about all of this. And then when you go and expose this, and you can see that on both sides of the aisle, support for the Israeli government is plummeting. I'm curious if any of your pro-Israel colleagues have called you since you returned. Well, first of all, you're absolutely right about the facts on the ground. And I didn't understand it fully in a real visceral way until I went there. We could spend the whole show talking about the stories I heard, but one of them, just to give you a sense, it was a Palestinian family that was in their home.

9:57An 18-year-old daughter was studying, and the night before I visited, they had settlers banging on her window, rattling the house, throwing things at the house, and then putting an Israeli flag on the Palestinian home. And now she's scared to study. Another Palestinian-American, this 14-year-old, was shot to death, 21 bullets because he threw a rock at a car. And he has no ability to get an investigation, even though his son was a Palestinian American and the bedroom is still untouched. He broke down in tears describing how they haven't changed the bedroom. So it's just inhumane what's going on.

10:40I will say that a number of colleagues have reshapied, I was very touched, Governor Shapiro, who we don't always share the same view, actually called me just on a human level to say, hey, Ro, are you OK? And what happened? And what did you see? But I wish more people would just treat this as a human issue as opposed to the ideological issue that people have made it. Yeah, I feel like it's really arrogant the way Israel and in many regards, the United States, our own government. Preaches to people in a sanctimonious way about freedom and about democracy and about free press. And when you look at the data, Israel has killed, I think it's over 200 journalists.

11:33journalists still aren't allowed to go into Gaza to cover the damage there. And the ones that do that are Palestinian oftentimes get killed. And I can't think of anything more anti-democratic than the actions and the provocations and the war crimes of Israel. And then the American government support of that. And once you kind of unravel from the propaganda, the diet of propaganda that we've all been served up. And when I grew up in Oklahoma, I didn't give a shit what was going on in the Middle East. I'm in the middle of the country fighting Christian nationalists, right? But then when you open up your eyes to it, you can't unsee it.

12:12And I feel like this is going to be a huge, huge issue heading into the midterms. And you have voices like Rahm Emanuel, and now Josh Shapiro. And part of the story that's not covered as much is in the United States, there is a Jewish resistance. American Jewish people like Kam Kasky, who works for you, who was with you. There are a lot of Jewish voices that are a resistance to all of this that feel like it is a very much of an affront to the Jewish values that they were raised in. And all of that is completely suppressed, as well as the war crimes of Israel. And what can you speak to that, to, you know, your conversation with Shapiro, and then some of your colleagues who seem to be in the tank for Israel and still have these major blinders on, because I think that there's a reckoning in the works with this.

13:08And the other side, if we're critical of it, they want to say, oh, you're anti-American, you're Antifa, whatever, or you're anti-Semitic. And truly, if both countries are confident, secure democracies, you should welcome criticism. in a confident manner. First of all, these young Jewish Americans like Cam Caskey are incredible and give me such hope. I mean, Cam is more passionate about Palestinian rights than anyone I've seen. He's always saying, Ro, you need to go further. And there's a journalist there, Jasper Nathaniel, a Jewish American. He was beaten the night before because he was literally protecting Salman's house, the house I told you, which was attacked.

13:54And then he was detained by Israelis briefly the next day when they attacked Um al-Kerr. So people are putting their bodies on the line. And here's the amazing thing that these Palestinian homes that we went to, they love Cam and Jasper. They have no animosity just because they're Jewish or even some who were Israeli who doing protective presence. They feed them. They welcome them. They want to move beyond this. And that entire generation gives me such hope. And I wish that more people would listen and talk to them. But then you've got people, and I was just shocked by this because I served together with Kathy Manning.

14:37And she was a member of Congress, and she's the chair of the DFMI, Democrats majority for Israel. And she puts out a video this morning, perfunctory saying, I'm glad Khan is alive, and then criticizing me for taking a trip to the West Bank and not going to Israel at the same time and calling the whole thing a political stunt. And I said, how tone deaf are you? And I said, I've been to Israel three times. I've met with the hostages. I met with John Polin and Rachel Poland who lost their beloved son, Hirsch. I had advocated for Hirsch in a small way. I've seen the pain and the suffering of Israelis.

15:18But you're telling me that because I went and wanted to have one trip where I heard from things from a Palestinian perspective, and even that arranged through young Jewish Americans like Cam and Jasper, that that was a stunt. And it's just that That perspective is hurting, genuinely hurting our ability to get to a just peace. And I have so much faith and hope in this new generation. A couple of things. I was walking on the street in New York and this gay couple comes up to meet men. And they're like, we love your podcast. We're big fans. I was like, oh, thank you guys so much. And one of them said, I'm Palestinian.

15:56The other one said, I'm Jewish. And I said, oh, I've got to get a double hug for all of that. And I think at the end of this, you see the Palestinians that are so warm and welcoming to Cam and Jasper. You see the gay couple in the streets of New York. People don't care about this conflict. We care about supporting one another. And something that I think we have to just send off to the pastor, and I wish that your colleagues would understand this, this whole notion of when people are running for office and it's like, where's the first trip you're going to take? Like you saw this with Zoran's campaign.

16:30And everybody's like, well, I'm going to go to Israel for the 15th time. Nobody gives a flying fuck, pardon my language, if their politicians go to Israel. It's not that big of an issue. It's a huge issue for the politicians that take a lot of AIPAC money to satisfy the donors that have given them money. But I don't know a single person that gives a shit if their politicians visit Israel. There are so many problems in the United States of America. There are so many things that we need to sift through. Why do you think that is such an issue that always comes up? Do you think it's just the AIPAC situation?

17:09Because it's a really weird question. We don't ask people, are you going to go to France? You know, it's just all of the questions surrounding Israel with politicians are so weird to me. And look at the double standard that how dare a politician actually just go to the West Bank, right? I mean, after all these trips funded to Israel, I'm getting criticized after having taken three trips to Israel in my life for even going to the West Bank. But you're right. I mean, it is a ritual that American politicians had to do, which was profess kind of a willingness to be supportive of the Israeli government, not ask any questions.

17:53Some of it was driven by the lobbying groups of APEC. Some of it was just this story we told ourselves that Israel, because they were allied of ours during the Cold War, they were a critical ally. And it was done with no understanding of what was going on. And once you go and you see it, you can understand why there would be so much anger, not just in Palestine, but in the Middle East, because they see America is supporting all of this. And they know that America could stop all of it. And so obviously, you can't have peace in the Middle East unless you solve the issue of the Palestinian injustice.

18:34Anyone who goes there will say it's impossible. And we just have been shielded from that perspective. But it's changing now. It really is. But it's a fight, as I'm seeing being criticized on national television by the Israeli ambassador, by the Israeli prime minister, by Democrats, majority for Israel. And then people, you know, I'm not looking to make news. I went there to have a trip to put out videos of Palestinians. When we were detained, I thought, okay, they're going to arrest these folks and it makes the point of Palestinians. But what I'm doing when I challenge power, when I challenged Elon Musk because of the USAID cuts, it's provocative to folks with power, provocative when we challenge the Epstein class.

19:19And people say, well, why are you continually making news? I said, it's not me making news. I'm questioning power that is unjust. And those people in power are reacting and lashing out because they don't want that changed. And this younger generation gets that we need to speak truth to power to build a more just world. Elon Musk, last time you were on, he threatened to sue you. I'm wondering, have you been served any papers yet for that lawsuit? I have not. Have you been served nothing crickets crickets from the musk camp but um you talking about the politicians and doing this performative trip to israel and kind of breaking that propaganda down and saying let's look at the other side of this let's go to the west bank and see what what we're supporting and promoting it reminds me of your former colleague who's a total nut for the record i just want to say matt gates but matt gates said on a podcast that when he went to israel he had like a handler like an apac handler and there was a he went to back to his hotel room at some point early he had forgotten something and i don't know if i believe him or not but that there was somebody in his room and he suspected there were like cameras in his room and there's all of this you mentioned epstein and there's all of these pretty not so thinly veiled connections between the epstein files and why was he doing all of this?

20:41And there's a suggestion out there, backed by some of the drops, and I think people want more, which I know you're fighting for to get released, that he was doing work for the Israeli government to honeypot people, to blackmail them. Have you seen in that files that you have unearthed with Thomas Massey, Any link between Jeffrey Epstein working directly with the Israeli government? Many of those documents are classified, and the Epstein Transparency Act repass didn't cover the classified documents because Congress can't declassify them. But in the process of getting these files released, I've spoken to Julia Brown, who is the most respected journalist on Epstein.

21:29And she believes that there are credible questions about what Epstein's link was to foreign intelligence, credible questions about what his motives were and the people supporting him that need to be asked. And the only way we're going to get answers on that is if a president appoints a commission to declassify some of those documents or at least provide a public report to the American public to understand who Jeffrey Epstein was, what his relationship was with intelligence agencies, and make sure we can never have this happen again. But I think the through line here is that there are a group of people who have wielded power in a way without any accountability, whether it's what I call the Epstein class who raped and abused underage girls, whether it's Elon Musk buying himself a position with the president with hundreds of millions of dollars in a super PAC and just cutting the aid of the poorest people, or whether it's Israel as a government that literally is watching Palestinian lives subject to settler violence and doing nothing about it.

22:38And what young people, I think, are saying is this is not just. This is not right. This is not fair. The world we're growing up in is not a fair world. And they want better for America. and that's why I have so much hope in them. They haven't been jaded in what they are willing to stand up for. And to me, that is really the test. I always admired my grandfather. He's a greater person than I'll ever be. He spent four years in jail as part of India's independence movement. And one of the things I always admired about him was his courage because he didn't know if India would be free. And I admire that about Cam.

23:18I admire it about Jasper. I'm worried about some of these young folks. They're showing courage. And that to me is the most important thing we right now need for a better America and a better world. Yeah, I think about this all the time with Trump's fascist takeover, the most powerful and the most privileged capitulated first. And those of us everyday Americans are showing more courage than the people who just, you know, really had or positioned to tell him to go F off. Okay, final question. Netanyahu responded to the situation with you yesterday on Meet the Press. Let's play the clip. It is a vigilante effort, not by the settler community.

23:59They're 99.9 percent, you know, law-abiding citizens. They work, they serve in the army and so on. There are 150 juvenile delinquents that are not part of that community. They come from the other parts of Israel. I don't want vigilantes of any kind. And we are working to put them under the law. But I think if we put things in perspective.

24:27What's your take on that? And what's your take also on corporate media kind of platforming him in a way that really doesn't frame what he really is, which is a war criminal that is evading arrest from the ICC? Yeah, and they're not asking him about the genocide and the accountability. But look, this is a country, Israel, that had pagers go off in taking out people in Hezbollah or got Sinwa and Hamas. You're telling me that they can't arrest right now these young people brandishing M4s like this second? Of course they can. Their pictures are all over social media, and they have the most sophisticated military operation.

25:17And so they're choosing not to arrest them. Now, the prime minister calling them juvenile delinquents, whatever you want to call them, they're extremist settlers related to Yanan Levy. Why aren't you arresting them? Why aren't they arrested today? Why aren't you arresting the settlers who were associated with them? Why aren't you investigating the IDF? It is a choice. And the choice that they're making is they don't care about world opinion. They don't care about America. They obviously didn't care about what happened to American citizens. They care about a extreme right wing vote bank in Israel that that refers to the whole place as Judea, Samara, land, and wants to take over the West Bank.

26:06And they know that if they arrest these settlers, that they would be upsetting Ben-Gavir, Smoltridge, and that group, and an election's coming up, and they don't want to do that. And that's the facts. And so the prime minister is getting away with it because some of my own former colleagues are taking his side, as opposed to what would be the normal response. You know, how dare they detain an American government official with other citizens? And what are they going to do about it? That literally would be the normal response if I was in Saudi Arabia, China, almost anywhere else. And the fact that that's not the normal response here is what gives Netanyahu the license to do what he's doing.

26:50Yeah, imagine if you did it in France, our ally, and they detained you for 72 hours. Imagine the news cycle that that would be. The way that Israel is able to operate with impunity and the pathological lies and propaganda they use to sell it. I think the time is kind of ending on that and the public is really wised up. Congressman, I always enjoy our time together. Thank you so much for highlighting human beings that are living under this brutal settler terrorism in Palestine. Because at the end of the day, Americans need to know that we write Israel a blank check to support them. So thank you so much for your time today.

27:32Well, thank you for your voice. And being someone from Oklahoma, you know, you get it and you can help share this truth with so many Americans. And I just appreciate what you do. Thank you. Bye bye.