Imperialism, Propaganda & War: The Truth Biden Hid and Trump Let Slip — Katie Halper

[Mehran] Welcome, Katie,
the floor is yours.

[Katie] Thank you.

That was great.

[Applause]

Hi, everyone.

Thank you so much
for coming tonight.

The organisers were
really adamant that tonight

not just be depressing,
but be inspiring

and give people hope.

Oh, I'm glad you're
already laughing, okay.

I know it's funny right,

to think of something on
this topic being inspiring.

In that vein, I want to start off
tonight with actually a game.

This game is called:
Who said it,

Donald Trump
or Noam Chomsky?

[Audience laughs]

Let's see how everyone does,
ready?

Who said the following,
ready?

In some cases, I'm not
going to quote verbatim

because if I
quote verbatim,

it's too obvious from
the style of talking.

It will either be a quote
or a summary of what they said, ok?

So who said:

The U.S. won't sanction Saudi Arabia
over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi

because that would
jeopardise billions

in arms sales to Saudi Arabia?

Raise your hand if
you think it's Trump.

Okay, Chomsky?

All right, it was Trump.

[Audience laughs]

Not only was it Trump, but
he was saying it about himself.

He was explaining why he
wouldn't sanction Khashoggi.

Okay, let's see what's next.

We left troops behind
in Syria for the oil.

Okay, who says Trump?

Okay, Chomsky?

Trump, ok, good, good one,
all right.

Who said in response to
claims of Russian interference

in US presidential elections,
who said in response to that:

'The US has interfered in the
elections of many other nations.'

Chomsky - Trump

Chomsky

[Audience laughs]

Ok, who said:

'The Iraq war sunk America's prestige?'

Chomsky?

Trump?

Chomsky.

[Audience laughs]

Who said: 'There are a lot of killers,

what do you think,
our country's so innocent?'

Trump - Chomsky?

That was Trump.

Who responded to the claim that:

'The only one who wants the 
war to continue with Hamas,

who responded to
that claim saying:

'Actually, Israel is the one who
wants the war to continue.'

Trump, ok.

Chomsky?

Trump.

The reason that we
can even play this game

of who said it:
Donald Trump or Chomsky

is because they do have
something in common.

They state inconvenient truths.

There are a few differences
obviously.

Starting with the fact that
when he's not stating

inconvenient truths,

Donald Trump is lying pathologically
and rather creatively and flagrantly.

Also they have a totally
different value system, right?

Let's go back to one of
the earlier quotes I did

about how Israel wants
the war to go on.

That was actually taken during
the one and only debate of 2024

between Trump and Biden.

Biden said that the only one who
wants the war to continue is Hamas

and Trump said:
Actually Israel is the one.

But he finished that sentence.

The full sentence was:
'Actually Israel is the one

and you should let them
finish the job,'

So there he has it,

he's critical of Israel
in a weird way

or maybe he's praising Israel
according to his moral values.

Obviously, Chomsky would have shared
that same observation about Israel

wanting the war to go on
but would use that

to then argue why
Israel should not

be funded by the
United States, right?

He also, I should bring up
one other thing

that Trump said that really
resonated during the debate,

which was at the end,
Joe Biden said something

and Trump said: 'I really
don't know what he said.

I don't think he knows either.'

[Audience laughs]

At that moment,
we were all Trumps.

Ok, back to the
Trump-Chomsky game,

I don't bring it up to taint
Chomsky as Trumpian

it's not to praise
Trump as Chomskyian

it's not to make some lazy horseshoe
theory based observation about

the Left and Right
meet each other.

And it's not to argue that
Trump isn't an imperialist

or that Chomsky is.

And also, I'm not
an excelerationist,

I'm not arguing that it's a good
thing that Trump was elected,

I don't believe that it won't
get better until it gets worse.

I'm saying that a silver lining
of Trump's presidency

is that he is laying bare the
brutality of American imperialism,

a brutality the Democrats
tried to conceal.

So we should take
advantage of that.

Now, as disgusting as it is

[Applause]

as disgusting as it is

for Trump to announce plans
to open a Riviera on the Gaza Strip,

isn't it nice to hear someone
admit that our foreign policy

when I say our,
I'm talking as an American,

our foreign policy isn't
driven by a commitment

to fairness, justice, and
the rules-based order?

Isn't it helpful to know
that in fact,

there is no rules based order?

Isn't it helpful to not pretend
that the US funds

and enables Israel because
it's a democracy?

Another example is Ukraine.

People are scandalised that
Trump spoke to Zelensky

like a petulant, ungrateful,
uncooperative

and self sabotaging child,
which he did.

But isn't that in some ways
preferable to what Biden did?

Biden may have said nice
things about Zelensky

but what did he actually do?

He dangled NATO membership
in front of him,

while knowing full well,
that was never a possibility.

He claimed to care about Ukrainian
sovereignty and self determination

while sending Boris Johnson to tell
Zelensky not to negotiate with Putin

one month into the war.

Had they done that, the war
would be over by now

thousands of people would be alive

and Ukraine would have more land
than they will ever have now.

It's also worth noting that 52% of
Ukrainians want a negotiated settlement.

When people say listen to Ukrainians,

you should find out what
Ukrainians are talking about.

Trump speaks crudely and cruelly
of natural minerals in Ukraine

but if the US is going
to exploit Ukraine,

isn't it better that Americans know
what the war is really about?

And isn't it better for Ukrainians to
know what the US is really prioritising?

Another thing I want to thank Trump for
is bringing Elon Musk into the forefront.

Because like Trump,
he's exposing things, right?

First of all, this guy
literally comes out with

a chainsaw to demonstrate how he 
wants to cut the welfare state.

Which again, that would
be like a parody,

that's something the Left would
say about him, to critisise him.

But he actually does it.

[Audience laughs]

That's how out of touch he is.

Also it was great when
he gave the Nazi salute

not because I'm a fan
of the Nazi salute,

but because it was so great at
exposing the absolute bankrupt,

hypocrisy and rank
hypocrisy of the ADL,

the Anti Defamation League

which claims to combat anti-Semitism
but really creates anti-Semitism

by suggesting that...

[Applause]

-they're not clapping for anti-Semitism
they're clapping for calling it out-

by suggesting that being Jewish
and being Zionist are the same thing.

I mean, maybe it's like a bad sign

when you're talking points
are shared by the KKK.

Think about the people
who use the terms

'Zionist' and 'Jewish'
interchangeably, right?

It's like David Duke types,
real neo-Nazis

and of course,
the ADL and AIPAC and Israel.

Politics makes strange bedfellows.

When Elon Musk
gave that salute,

what was so great about it was
that the ADL had to defend him.

The ADL said that it wasn't
actually that problematic,

people were on edge, people
need to calm down,

people were being too sensitive,
but it was totally kosher.

[Laughter]

My word, not theirs at
the end, but basically

I paraphrased.

So that was useful because
it laid bare what despicable

people the ADL are.

Now, I also liked it because
it brought out Steve Bannon

and he did another salute,
but the reason I like Steve Bannon

is because he makes
me feel really special

because he said that
the number one enemy

are Jews who are
critical of Israel,

American Jews who
are critical of Israel.

So, I was kind of blushing.

[Laughter]

[Applause]

How much time,
when did I start?

I forgot to check the starting time
sorry, alright.

The other good thing
about this is that

people are seeing
thru the Dems.

They are waking up to the fact

that the Democrats did not
fight against Trump.

They don't really want
to fight against Trump

the way he needs
to be fought against.

They are feckless,

they care more about defeating
someone like Bernie Sanders

than defeating someone
like Donald Trump.

[Applause]

People are waking up to that.

The numbers are that Democratic
voters , have very low

opinions right now of
Democrats in Congress.

Now, to be fair, I have to
mention these people.

There are some people
who are truly awful,

who continue to blame 3rd party
voters for giving us Trump,

taunt Palestinian Americans
for staying home or

voting third party.

They refer to them
as 'Dearborn voters'.

They tell us that people are

self-indulgent practicers
of purity politics

who needed to do whatever it
took to stop Trump.

Well, if people need to do whatever
was needed to defeat Trump.

shouldn't that have
included Kamala Harris?

Because for a year and a
half a significant and vocal

portion of the Democratic
Party electorate

and their Progressive base
organised, begged and demonstrated

for the party to change it's policy

of blanket diplomatic
support for Israel

and curtail extraordinary lengths
to arm an active genocide in Gaza.

The polls showed this would
have helped her numbers.

Was it not self-indulgent
and Trump-enabling of her to

ignore the base and instead
run around with Liz Cheney

and brag about getting
an endorsement from

war criminal Dick Cheney?

And by the way, a YouGov
IMEU poll showed that 29%

of voters nationally
who voted for Biden in 2020,

and cast their ballot for someone
besides Kamala Harris in 2024

did that because ending
Israel's violence in Gaza

was the top issue
effecting their vote choice.

So again, Kamala Harris should
have been listening to her base.

Remember the person running
is supposed to earn votes, right?

It's not the other way around.

Another thing that's
positive is that people are

seeing through the media.

So more than 75,000
subscribers have cancelled

their Washington Post
subscription since Jeff Bezos

announced he would
only promote free market

and libertarian ideals.

Another example,
thank you for saying the

quiet part out loud, Jeff.

Again, that's like a critique
that you wouldn't make

of him, Yanis, but he's
saying it about himself.

Also, MSNBC viewership
is really low.

And I do want to say how disgusting
Western media has been on Gaza.

I actually learned this
kind of firsthand.

My experience was not
that bad and it certainly

pales in comparison to
Melanie's which you'll

hear about shortly.

But I made a video at an
outlet called 'The Hill'.

I wrote a monologue saying
that Israel is an apartheid state

and for that, I got fired
and even though there was

really nothing you can say
because the video pointed

out how many people including
the Israeli Human Rights

Organization, Be'tselem,
and including former

Israeli Prime Ministers were
calling it an apartheid state.

But, people are seeing
through the media

because the media is just
an arm of the state,

not only the United States,
but of Israel.

One of the most I think,
disgusting examples of this

was the way that
rape was reported on.

The Western media
was totally complicit

in this narrative of
a mass rape,

coordinated mass rape,

systemic mass rape committed
by Hamas, they claimed.

All of the witnesses walked it back,

all of the witnesses
were debunked.

No one was saying,
this wasn't an issue of

believe women because
no one was saying

it happened to them.

Now, the same media who
covered that story and

never retracted it decided
to ignore the fact that

it was documented that
Palestinians were raped.

I mean, this was covered
by Israeli media and

somehow Western media
never covered it.

This isn't like, you don't
even have to go to Haaretz.

This was Centrist
and Right-wing media

that covered this.

This was sexual assault
captured on video.

And this is something
that you actually had a

member of the Knesset.

debating whether or
not to arrest people

who had raped
Palestinian prisoners.

That's what the debate was about.

There were protests when they
started to arrest soldiers,

but the protests weren't
about the rapes,

the protests were
about arresting them.

And you actually had a member
of the Knesset being asked

rhetorically: So is it
legitimate to insert sticks

into people's rectums?

And a member of the Knesset
said, yes, it's legitimate.

Why wasn't that story
all over Western media?

Why don't the people
who claimed to care

about rape and sexual violence
talking about that?

So you have to remember this,

that the media is
totally untrustworthy

when it comes to
this issue, especially

and they don't care
about Palestinian lives.

[Applause]

But, luckily it's becoming
harder and harder to paint

the pro-Palestine movement
as anti-Semitic.

It's becoming harder and harder

to conflate anti-Semetism
with anti-Zionism.

And again, I'd like to
remind people that

to suggest that conflation
is anti-Semitic,

it's the old dual loyalty trope

which is that all Jews are monoliths

and we're all loyal to Israel.

I think it's undermined by the
fact that you have people

like so many Jews protesting
the war in Gaza

but it's also undermined
when you see

the state which claims to
care about Jewish safety,

do things like arrest Jewish
students who are protesting.

That's something that unites
the whole Western world, right?

You see that happening in the US,

You see that happening

in Germany, with Yanis but also,
where you had Udi Raz

who was wearing a Yamaka, thrown
down the stairs by German police.

You see that when you have
a literal holocaust survivor

like Stephen Kapos who's being
questioned by the police

for protesting for Palestinian rights.

You see that in London when you
have someone like Haim Bresheeth

who is the son of holocaust
survivors an Israeli,

arrested for saying that Israel is not
going to be able to defeat Hamas.

All of these things are being laid bare.

I want to just end off
by quoting someone

because the real inspiration
comes from so many different

struggles that are
so interconnected.

But, I know a lot of
people are like:

what can give us hope, or
how do we keep going

and I feel like hope
actually is a discipline

and a choice and we owe it
to the world to keep it.

I understand loosing hope but,
we have to keep reinventing it.

People here probably
know who Refaat Alareer is.

He was a poet and professor
in Gaza.

[Applause]

He wrote a beautiful poem
called: 'If I Must Die'.

He was murdered by Israel.

He was targeted.

It wasn't just a
random war crime.

It was a targeted one.

His sister's apartment building
was struck

but it was just the sister's apartment,
they knew he was there.

They didn't take out
the whole building,

they just took that one out
because they wanted to kill him.

They wanted to kill him
because this poet spoke out

against Israel's genocide.

He and I were corresponding a couple
of months before he was killed.

I asked him: What can we do,
what can we do in the West?

And he said: Thank you for offering, more 
pressure on the media, more coverage,

more Palestinian voices, more protests, 
hopefully Israel is curbed asap.

And so, that is the message
that I wanted to leave you with.

More pressure on the media,
more coverage, more Palestinian voices,

more protests and hopefully
Israel is curbed asap.

No matter what happens, we
have to keep doing those things.

Thank you.

[Applause]