Are you saying I don't fully understand the situation? If so,bullshit. You stand in Gaza with a shoulder fired rocket launcher pointing towards Israel, you're a combatant. You're not a victim, you're a casualty
The radio effect is causing me to turn the volume up and down within the video to just hear and not be deafening on headphones. Less is more on that bit or turn the level of it down a bit so it isn't as harsh a launch in and from it. 🙏
Iran was once a land of tolerance and innovations. It's a shame what the land of Cyrus and Darius has become. The Iranians deserve much better than that supreme Bagoas-style tyrant.
If the west wants to get along with Iran all the US has to do is stop interfering is Palestine and Israel. 100% of Islamic terrorism in the last 50 years has been because of Western interference in Palestine and Israel. It’s truly bizarre that Westetn nations are fine with sacrificing their own citizens because of primitive superstitions.
@@StoneInMySandalAs long as Israel remains the West's strongest ally in the region, interventions will never stop. The West just suddenly dipping out isn't gonna magically stop all this madness. It's gonna take EVERYBODY involved developing some empathy for each other and working together towards a lasting peace...
Before the "revolution," I used quotations like that because I believe it was a step back for the area.. I agree it was a land of great growth and prosperity.. I wonder what it would be like now if... We would have been off fossil fuels by now. Nuclear energy would be fission by now.. Oh ! And let's touch on women's equity, shall we? I bet all if not most of women's unique medical needs would've been met by now, too.. And so much more..
@@CanadianDerwood The reason the revolution happened in Iran was because of how brutal and repressive the American friendly monarchy was that controlled Iran before it was a theocracy right? While the current government there is bad it wasn't any better before the revolution.
Hello Simon, big fan here and love the content you keep dishing. One thing to correct in the video, is that you mentioned Lebanon and Israel have a peace agreement, but this is inaccurate. The peace agreement was brokered by the U.S between Israel and the right winged militias during Lebanon's civil war back in 1983. It was annulled shortly after when the leftists militias took control of Lebanon. Today, in the Lebanese constitution Israel is considered an enemy state by all sectarian and political parties alike. Had to point that one out.
@@adamdudley8736 this channel is generally incredibly accurate and well researched, but things do still get missed sometimes. It may have even just been a misunderstanding by the editor trying to fix the phrasing. Still good that there are knowledgeable viewers willing to point out and educate of the mistakes that do occur though
you mean hezbollah, the radical muslim terror organization, took control over Lebanon, killing many christians living there on the way, and changing the what was once a liberal pearl in the middle east, to a land that now has islamic law and controlled by a terror organization that seeks to destroy the only jewish state in the entire world, even though 2Million muslim\christian arabs (palestinians) currently live inside israel and get full equal rights and work as doctors, politicians, etc... and some of them even serve its millitary willingly west vs barbarism basically
It should be noted that the Saudis and Isrealis were very close to reach a normalization of relations deal. That's one reason why Hamas through the support of Iran decided to attack Israel. It worked, sickeningly. The deal was put on hold indefinitely.
Nope, saudi wasn't going to do it. He was just playing with the idea of doing it, he still didn't give his demands, isreal wasn't going to agree to his demands for palastine and palastinians, now isreal just made it worse and evidently clear. Isreal and isrealis are not people you trust, we cannot normalize with people like that. They blew up the beirut port, they killed raffik hariri among other things, the lavon affair, etc.They are snakes, always have and always will be, 99% of us in the arab world dont want isreal in the middle east, all of palastine should go back to the palastinians, you dont have a right to give away land that doesn't belong to you in the first place, its arab lands. Isrealis should leave the same way they came, by boats. Europe should take them, germany especially since they OWE them for the holocaust, or the US should take them since they love them so much, you can give them one of your 50 states, you have 50 of them, 50! You dont throw away your trash in another mans back yard, YOU deal with them, you make the mistakes and problems with the holocaust you don't let us deal with it and pay for your mistakes.
@@A_R_B_G Nope, i know that, im kuwaiti, from Kuwait, I'm Arab and muslim. We in the arab world ALL know that. We dont normalize with our BIGGEST enemy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Iran will always be the closest ally before israel. I can assure you in the arab world, iran is not our enemy, we are very much united when it comes to isreal. Nothing is called suni shia, we are BOTH muslims, and they are OPEC members. We are willing to cut off oil supply from the US and UK and Europe until they leave the middle east, We will have russia and china and north korea on outside along with turkey, along with Pakistan and afganistan.I don't think the west can win against any of these countries, and we haven't included any of the african muslim countries.we ALL do not want isreal. can assure you, even egypt and countries who normalized only normalized because nothing else TO do, they might as well live with them, but i can ASSURE you they will flip sides in the snap of a finger to take down isreal. Egypt lebanon and jordan will easily cancel normalizations in flip if the arab world decides to rise up against isreal together. That's a sleeping giant waiting to wake up, they are all waiting for that moment to switch sides, that moment will come. Qaddafi warned us and saddam warned us and bin laden warned us, at that time we were in a slumber, but they have just woken a sleeping giant. Isrealis and isreal should head this warning and leave and give palastine back to the palastinians, the rightful owners or they will CEASE to exist by 2028.
What you said is true. As a Saudi, I can tell you that Iran does not want the establishment of the State of Palestine, because Saudi Arabia has set this as one of the conditions for normalizing relations with Israel. If this happens, it will be a success for Saudi Arabia, and Iran does not want this, and for this reason it ordered Hamas to launch a war.
Thanks! But fire the editor who thinks is a good idea to butcher the audio with that stupid tiny TV cut away. Makes me wanna throw my headphones. Nails on a chalkboard.🤢
It's also incredibly relevant to recognise that Sunni and Shia Arab Imperialism has displaced and murdered many many millions of people belonging to other native indigenous communities and cultures across the middle east and into Africa and Asia over the last several centuries. The narrative that Arab Muslimism has been and is now the only relevant and predominant native population is then asserted and not challenged within the west for fear of being called Islamaphobic.
they displaced people in the past, that justifies displacing people now, right? Look at what happen to the jews in the holocaust, ofc they have the right to an apartheid state
The mongol hordes, islamic conquest and european colonialism were probably the most radical shifts in demographics the world has seen. Also while the west African slave trade was mostly propogated by the portugese, spanish, french and english the east African slave trade was arab controlled.
Great ... we're back to the AM radio sound edit where Simons voice is suddenly twice as loud and makes everyone in the room wonder where that came from. ... great ... thanks for that. Seriously editor, its not about you.
Great content as always, Simon; thank you. Id really like to see a video explaining the differences between Sunni and Shia Islamic beliefs. Id like to understand the two better. Would you consider doing one?
Shia isn’t Islam and this is why people in Iran revolt. They worship clergies. They make people think it’s Islam when these Persians are actually an embarrassment. Majority of Muslims in the world are Sunni. Almost 95%. Sunni Examples: Indonesia Malaysia Morocco, Turkey, UAE, Egypt, Saudi, Etc etc Shia: Iran Iraq but it’s Iran that’s the biggest embarrassment. Shia are more polytheistic than monotheistic imo since they believe in fairy tales like Clergies can predict the future.
Damned fair game... i didnt consider that was his real voice and the editor just makes him sound normal every other time. I like it. I like it alot. @@dant.3505
6:34 that is not an entirely true statement. During those 2,000 years you're referring to, Jews, Arabs, and Christians held a presence in that land. At times during the Byzantine and the Crusades, Christians held that land and there was a more than significant Christian presence during, and after as a matter of fact. There has always been a Jewish presence in that land, even after the expulsion in 134 AD, and later when the Ottoman's took over and ruled from modern-day Turkey, when they expelled a good number of Jewish people. The Egyptians ruled for a time before the Ottoman, and definitely settled in the land. The census records from each of these empires confirms all this. So it is a gross over-simplification to say that 2,000 was an Arab-Muslim only territory. It was always more complex than that!
Furthermore, the name 'Palestine' was given to the Jewish land of Judea/Samaria (today Israel-Palestine and parts of Jordan) by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 132AD after a Jewish revolt, and Islam as a religion was founded in the 7th Century AD. Palestine as the name of an Arab peoples group didn't start to be use with the prominence of today until the last century.
@@TheInkPages Philistine predates Judea. "And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time." Genesis 21:34 It is the Israelites who came as immigrants from Egypt while the people of Philistine the Canaanites who later embraced Islam and Christianity had been living there long before the Israelites came.
@@sarahkareem1251 And GREEKS came as immigrants to "Philistia". "Philistine" - or, in the original Hebrew: "pilishtim" means INVADER. And the descendents of the Canaanites are both Arabs AND Jews. Have a nice evening!
Great content, like a few of the edits you made to the video here. Though that random switch to the small television screen with the voice distortion seems a little distracting as a viewer. Though maybe most people don’t care. Good work though!! You guys do excellent work.
May I recommend a topic of discussion that is related to this video. The subject of shipping routes and cargo shipping stability around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Given the recent cargo ship hijacking.
Presented here is what I found to be a fascinating & insightful overview of the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East with all its nuances & interactor players. This is a very interesting, enjoyable & topical to the Israeli/Hamas conflict playing out today.
It would be interesting to cover how Iran went from being Pro Israel and quite secular to Strongly against. Even with the revolution, i imagine that didn't come out of nowhere.
@Hasco254 The Islamic revolution in Iran occurred in 1979. The Majority of Arab israeli wars occurred before this. Iran (to my knowledge) was not hostile to Israel untill the late 80s onwards.
@@Hasco254Please go and study history. Iran (or Persia as it was known to the west at the time), was a predominantly secular nation untill the Islamic revolution of 1979.
@@Hasco254 Lol I cant believe how delusional people like you are, you say things that suit your case, the other guy proves you wrong and all you can do is ""no you are wrong""
Small correction: Lebanon never actually made peace with Israel The May 17th agreement never saw the light of day due to too much internal opposition of Gemayel's policy
Youre almost starting to inch in on mainstream news channels .... THIS is what i want from my news updates on a developing subject/situation. The information.
Interesting video. Very informative and great explanation of the region. However, there’s one big problem with the video. Even though it was never mentioned that Iran is or is not an Arab nation, indirectly the viewer might think that Iran is also an Arab nation. This misunderstanding has been widely shared throughout the western world and media. This doesn’t mean any of these nations is better than the other. It’s about the information accuracy. Middle East is made of Arab countries along with other nations such as Turkey and Iran. These cultures, obviously, share a lot with each other. But it’d be incorrect to assume they have same ethnicity or culture. As an Iranian in Canada I have encountered a handful of people who actually know the difference between these cultures. Again this doesn’t mean that I or anyone would think they are “superior” or by any means trying to be racist. It does make me uncomfortable however that majority of people, by default,assume I speak Arabic or am Arab. I’m pretty sure no one would like to be called something else than their actual nationality. Other than this, one of the most accurate videos about the situation in Middle East. Hopefully one day governments finally realize that their people have no problem with each other. As an Iranian I respect the Israelis and Palestinians and Saudis and find their cultures rich and unique. West is Modern and great but Middle East is rich in History and fascinating culture. Canada has been amazing and I am more than grateful that I was given the opportunity to come here and start a new life. however, I wish the governments would think more about their people so I wouldn’t have to leave my country, family and basically everything and come to Canada. But well, I hope one day people of the region can finally get what they deserve, democracy and freedom. Thanks for the video.
I actually only recently learned that Iranians aren't Arabs and in fact Persian, and that Farsi is the most common language. I don't know much else about the differences between Arabs and Persians, but I've also seen that your people, by tradition, are very welcoming and caring. As a white male in the US, I really worry about the west seeing Iran as a terrible place with terrible people, when that's not the case at all. Granted, I disagree with the government there and a lot of their decisions, but that shouldn't reflect on how truly wonderful the Iranian citizens seem to be.
@@xsaxia2008a simple difference between these ethnicities would be this, turks are originally related to mongols and central asia turkic tribes, arabs are a Semitic ethnicity, persian is one of the subgroups of Iranian ethnicity alongside kurdish, gilak, lur, baluch, etc. Iranian ethnicity is more closely related to Hindi and Caucasian ethnicities. Basically different historical roots, different migratory ancestors.
@Mahyarrk very interesting! I wasn't aware that Iran had so many subcultures- I thought it was rather homogeneous, mostly one culture that was shared by everyone. That's quite fascinating
The old love triangle, this is why any solution to any Middle Eastern problem creates multiple minor problems immediately and major problems in the near future. It's like a Rubik's cube that can't be solved.
Brave and well informed video always astonishes me you have the time for these larger videos along side your massive amount of normal content . Keep it up Simon!
Lolol. That’s like that spoof song: “Hey there, Khalilah, what's it like in Baghdad City? I'm 3,000 miles away but girl tonight you're looking pretty Can't you see? You're looking really hot, baby. Literally.” Lololol It shows a Muslim lady all wrapped in 50 scarfs, standing in the hot sand under the blistering sun. Lololollll
The super thanks button is removed on the comprehensive history video so I'll leave my pennies here! Thanks for all the great reporting you and your team are providing us!
How are you not mentioning Qatar? 3rd largest Natural Gas reserves, world's largest landlord, media empire through Al Jazeera? It is an absolute Fundamentalist Monarchy that hosts Hamas leaders and act as a intermediary for Hamas negotiations and communication? Or the Jewish populations that existed and even thrived in the Ottoman empire? Arabs did not reside in Jerusalem area until after the Arab Caliphates in 700. The oversimplification of Jews just recently showing up to a long established Arab area is a cause of contention. Its a land that is in the centre of the cradle of life and in the cross roads of mega empires, who lives there and since when is not straight forward. It does not justify the IDF's atrocities on civilians, but the over simplification of that narrative is divisive.
Not true! Palestine and Syria had been part of the Persian Empire as far back as 500 BCE, so "this land is singularly Jewish" is not true. Multiple ethnicities have lived concurrently in that area for thousands of years. Jerusalem in particular has served as a regional and provincial capital most of its existence, including under the Persian, Macedonian, Roman and Ottoman empires, so it's always been a highly integrated city - as evidenced by the fact that up until the British gave the region over to found Israel, Palestine already had a strong Jewish population.
@@DoIShootThemOrRun1)israel has never claimed that this land is "exclusively jewish",we accepter the partition plan in 1947 and 2 states solutions proposals in 1993,1999-2001 and 2006-2008. we preserve every acinet heritage that existed or still exists here,muslim and arab included-from old mosques to nabatean towns. 2)jewish community didnt in this land till tanzimat,we mizrahi/middle eastern jews were held as dhimmis alongside the christians and any wish to break free of the muslim or arab domination was answered with violence. in the late years of the ottoman empire they even banned ottoman jews from moving to villayat jerusalem,and banished the jews of tel aviv in 1914 and 1917... in 1929 the first communities to suffer attacks by the islamist supporters of haj amin el husseini were in safed and hebron,2 ancient,religious,unarmed,non zionist communities. and what the samaritans have been going through under muslim rule is even more horrifying...
Oh man please stop with the distorted voice. I listen to these videos to chill out and it totally ruins the experience to get that shrill sound blasting out of the speakers.
Another great video. You did however not mention that Israel existed as a country a long time ago but was renamed Palestine by Rome in the 1st/2nd century AD. Israel was reconstituted after WW2, but there is a much older land claim than the Palestinians. See the Merneptah Stele if you would like to see a non Biblical reference to early Israel.
Can't negotiate peace with people who call themselves God's chosen and look down on anyone who isn't them either. Religion is evil and the cause of all of it on every side.
Israel took the land by force. And Palestinians fighting for their land back. You can leave the land and on one will be chasing you. We don't have a problem with jews. We have a problem with zi*nism I don't care if you say this land belonged to jews 3000 years ago or anything. Israel didn't manage to even annex the land properly and take the responsibility of native people. and instead created an apartheid state. Anyway, the side that is losing people more are Palestinians and no pne cares. So be happy, i guess, for the israelis to successfully cleansing the problem they created
I am from Iran and I hope that we stay away from the Arab Israeli conflicts Right now many areas of Iran are under occupation and we cannot liberate those areas
@@dant.3505 During World War I and II, several areas of Iran were occupied, which Iran could not take back, for example, Zarkoh and Aria islands, which were occupied by Britain and later given to the UAE
Interestingly enough, despite both being majority Shia Muslim nations, Azerbaijan and Iran are *NOT* on the same side. This is both because Azerbaijan is one of, if not the single most Secular Muslim nation in the world, while Iran is a Theocracy, and because the majority of Azeris living in Iran, and Azerbaijan has no secret of their intentions to "liberate their people". To top it all off, Azerbaijan has also increased relations with Iraqi Kurdistan. I wonder why that could possibly be...
Do you know that Kurdish language is a iranic language? Iraqi Kurdistan was taken fromiran by turks, and the word azerbaijan itself is a Persian name meaning Guardian of Fire Azerbaijan is just want to be annexed by Iran, there's no such a thing as Azeri people they're turks who came from Mongolia if they're unhappy they can go back there,it was name given by Stalin to this region so in case they would succeed from USSR it would be a thorn in the side of iran cause there was an actual azerbaijan province in iran (just like North Mecedonia which has nothing to do with its slavic population), it was taken from iran by Russia in 1828 But Palestinians have the right to take their land BACK from European settlers who are not native!
@@worldofmix6766 perhaps, but by that same principle, Germany should be allowed to annex Austria, and also Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and England since they all speak Germanic Languages.
@@TD-ev4bw Afghanistan actually is entitled to North Pakistan. The people in North Pakistan are treated horribly by Pakistan and their military dictatorship.
Three Kingdoms situations like this are effective at keeping major offensives away, but the things that keep them opposed continue to boil under the surface. And when they do bubble over...
"Palestinian" arabs have NOT been there 2000 years. Arabs didn't get there in any number until their imperialist colonization in the 7th century. They weren't called palestinian until the 1960s. Jews have been there over 3000 years, more than twice as long as the arabs.
@sirhenrymorgan1187 arabs didn't come into play until the 7th century except as nomadic traders. The only ones not trying to expel the other are the Jews. The only one to give equal rights to everyone is Israel.
The arabs didn't genocide the people living there like what happened in the Americas. The Arabs intermarried with those peoples and their descendents are the Palestinians so the population is much older than the Arab conquests. And the Romans exiled the jews all over the place so they didn't live there for 3000 years. Before jewish migration in the 20th century historic Palestine had a 3% jewish population.
@@ahmedbenflah9712 What a lie. Because of the Arabs and the Ottomans the Samaritans almost cease to exist and only the Jews and then Israel saved them. In 1921 they wiped out the ancient Jewish community in Gaza. The Arabs are masters at ethnic cleansing and genocides. Before Jewish migration started in the 19 century the population in the land was less than 600,000 people.
Mainly first formed after 1948 with the formation of Israel and the Nakbah. The nations with close relationships with the US stayed quiet while the others were outspoken against it.
@@SilverPharoah Yes, the Nakba: All the surrounding Arab nations threw out their Jews, stealing their stuff, while telling all the local Arabs to get out of the way so they could k!ll all the JOOOOZ for them. They failed & have been whining about it ever since. Cherry on the sundae? All the Arab states made an agreement in 1956 NEVER to take in ANY of the refugees that THEY CREATED.
Hi Simon, big fan and great content as usual. A few corrections to this video though: 1) You repeatedly referred to terror groups as ‘non-state actors’ (though you did also call them terror groups a few times) - why call them non-state actors when they are terrorists? 2) During your explanation of the history of Israel, you said that Palestinian Arabs had lived there for 2000 years until Jews from the diaspora arrived during and after WW2. This is factually wrong on a number of levels: - Arabs come from the Arabian Peninsula (as opposed to the Levant), and only arrived in this region after the Arab conquest starting in the 7th century. That is barely half the time you mentioned (may seem like nitpicking, but I think it’s an important distinction to make when discussing origins, which is so important to this conflict) - Conversely, there has been a continual Jewish presence in what is now Israel since the Roman exile - the town of Safed for example was the centre of the Kabbalah movement since the 16th century. Hebron and Jerusalem have had Jewish populations since the 7th century (they were banned by the Byzantines before that). Tiberias has had an unbroken Jewish presence since the time of the Romans. - With regards to Jewish immigration to the region, it started in the 1870s, not during WW2, and I can’t understand how you can misrepresent that, as it is extremely well documented. By the start of WW2, there were already 550,000 Jews in the British Mandate for Palestine. Which by the way, Jews called themselves - Palestinians. Muslims called themselves Arabs, and only appropriated the name Palestinian in 1964 as part of a Soviet propaganda coup. - The vast majority of what we call Palestinian Arabs can trace their roots back to Egypt and what is now Syria, Lebanon and Jordan as little as 4-5 generations ago (not that many will admit it, though even Hamas leaders have). They came to the region that is now Israel as economic migrants, after the Jews and then British started industrialising the region. The Jewish population increased by 520,000 between 1860 and 1945, the Muslim population by about 675,000. Before Jews started emigrating to the region, it was a backwater of the Ottoman Empire, as ‘wasteland’ as described by several first-hand accounts. 3) You said that Israel’s land is incredibly important to the practice of Islam - again, this is absolutely false. If anything in Israel is important to Islam, it is Jerusalem, and only Jerusalem. Even then, this is far more controversial than you make it sound. During the schism in Islam after Muhammed’s death, during the 680s the Salafis briefly gained control of Mecca and Hijaz and banned Sunnis from entering. This prevented Sunnis from doing their pilgrimage, so they looked for an alternate site, and decided on the “Farthest Mosque” (the place Mohammed flew to during a dream) mentioned in the Qur’an, only no one knew (or knows today) where that is, so they decided on Jerusalem - why? Because it was already holy to the Jews and Christians, and so must be holy to the third Abrahamic religion, despite it never being mentioned in the Qur’an. That is literally the only reason Jerusalem is holy to Islam. The incredible irony is that the Sunnis recaptured Mecca within a few years and returned their focus to Mecca. Al-Aqsa was pretty much left forgotten and ignored for the next 1200 years, until a small population of another religion declared independence in Israel for the first time in 2000 years, and suddenly, Jerusalem was important to Islam again. Even more ironically, 80-90% of Muslims today are Sunni, yet they all pray and do pilgrimage to Mecca. The Shi’ite minority in Iran however, who always only considered Mecca and Hijaz as holy, are obsessed with Israel and Al-Aqsa. 4) You pointed out that Saudi Arabia and Iran see Israel as an intruder and ‘unlike the Middle Eastern population’. I think a more accurate portrayal would be that they see them as beneath them - remember that for 1300 years, Islam treated Jews (and other minorities) as second class citizens under the dhimmi system. Jews have lived in what are now Arabic lands since before Islam, and half of Israel’s Jews are of Middle Eastern descent. It is not that Israel is unlike their Muslim neighbours, it’s that the Muslims see Jews as beneath them.
Of course ❤ God gave these lands to the Palestinians FIRST, but then the jews found some dirt on God and threatened to expose him to the rest of the world unless God gave these Palestinian lands to the jews. Sadly, God relented and did as requested. And as the story goes, Israel has been bribing officials of any importance ever since. How many children has israel been allowed to kill so far?
non-state actors means they don't govermn a place, let's say you make a chess club, you are a non state actor, because you don't govermn anyone let's say you make a political group that receives taxes from some people, gives them the state services and enforce your rules over them, you are a state actor because wellyou are a goverment, ofc for a actual state in the modern day you need th erather ambigious "legitimacy" you can't be a state if no one cares about you, hence why groups like hamas can kinda be or not be state actors based on how much legitimacy you give them
I was less commenting on the state VS non-state nature, as calling them a non-state actor VS terror group, which most western countries call them. That being said, they are surely state actors by the definition you gave, considering that they won an election and rule Gaza, and Palestine is recognised by the UN as a state. We all know they receive funding from Iran and Qatar, so where's the ambiguity..?
@@87rapha oh mb,yeah both terms don't trumple each other so i guess it goes by what he feels like, or maybe it's just an attempt to look unbias, specially the way the narrative is going it's probably the most sound term economically speaking also yeah hamas is definitly the ruler of gaza at the moment, my point was that with so many actors on the region, and most of hamas leadership in qatar, idk if we could call it the legitimate goverment, gazais almost a lawless land at the moment
Calling the Levant the "Ancestral Homeland" of Islam is pointless. It was the Ancestral homeland of Israel LONG before Islam even existed. Islamic terrorism is the death throes of medieval ideals and concepts, and the horrific actions of Humas, Hezbolah, ISIS, ISIL, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and others should not be tolerated and all countries of the world should be their enemies.
Those who say that the Middle East (the East of the Arab world) was a world full of peoples, religions and cultures, and that Islam was the one that exterminated them, so far do not provide any evidence for their words, while in reality the Middle East 100 years ago included Jewish and Christian minorities of various sects in Every region and every large city, not to mention the various Muslim races and sects, all lived in peace before the fall of the Ottoman Empire (note: Islam has existed for more than 1,400 years),
Simon, there’s a very important point that you, like many, have left out in the historical context of this region. While you are absolutely correct in saying the Palestinians had that land for a couple thousand years before the “birth of Israel”, that particular parcel was known as Judea for several thousand years Prior to it becoming Palestine. It was in the early 130’s (AD) when the Roman Emperor Hadrian kicked the Israelites out of Judea, and renamed it Syria Palaestina as an insult to the Jews. It is well documented from Mesopotamia through Egypt, the Bible, Torah, and even Roman texts. In fact, prior to the land coming under control of the Israelites, it was the land of Canaan. Forgetting to mention that this land was Israel long before it became Syria Palaestina, now called Palestine is a major fopaux, and underscores Why the Israeli State is so important. There’s one other touchy subject that will be surprising to many. The Arabs, in general, are very mixed over the Palestinian people to begin with. While many do see them as fellow Muslims, there’s almost as many who don’t see them this way. It has more to do with the history of the people than anything else. They are seen as nomadic and more as “inferior” than equals. Maybe that could be a topic of a future video. I truly enjoy your videos, and know that countless hours go into your work. A huge shout out to both you and everyone behind the lens!
@@MisterOrgans the theory that the Palestinians are descendants of the Canaanite is just that, a theory. The religious texts you are referring to would then, in theory, give the Palestinians claim to Greece as equally as the Gaza Strip. We aren’t seeing that claim for a reason. There’s only one reason they claim Gaza as theirs, and that’s because they want the complete eradication of the Jewish population.
if all the arab wanted was the killing of jewish then they would have done so before in the times of the ottoman empire. the fact they only declared war after a bunch of immigrants and refugees laid claim to half their land should be enough proof that they don't hate the jewish but they hated zionist movement trying to steal the land they have been living in for thousands of years@@mikkelhanson4001
When has the ME, Subsaharan Africa, SE Asia, or Eastern Europe/Western Asia ever *NOT* known repression or conflict? Those regions are effectively synonymous with strife.
War has been the norm everywhere for most of history. The relative peace in Western Europe and North America in the last 70+ years is an aberration by all accounts.
Those who say that the Middle East (the East of the Arab world) was a world full of peoples, religions and cultures, and that Islam was the one that exterminated them, so far do not provide any evidence for their words, while in reality the Middle East 100 years ago included Jewish and Christian minorities of various sects in Every region and every large city, not to mention the various Muslim races and sects, all lived in peace before the fall of the Ottoman Empire (note: Islam has existed for more than 1,400 years),
Turkey is strong for sure, but I think Israel, Iran, and the bought and paid for PMCs of Saudis can easily contend with Turkey. They're not the singular powerhouse you paint them as.
@ISIPrava711 dude I understand you love your country, that's admirable, but everyone in middle east is dangerous in more ways than one, no one should be chasing wars.
According to the Euromed Human Rights monitor, the death toll in Palestine is now over 17,000, including over 7,000 children and almost 4,000 women, totaling over 15,000 civilian deaths all told (so far).
Those numbers are unverified ... also you're missing the distinction of the number of Hamas terrorists among those "civilians", as well as the percentage of those civilians who were killed either because Hamas wouldn't let them evacuate or because Hamas was shooting them as they were trying to evacuate. We don't actually know the number of people killed by IDF. However, since the "evidence" comes from Hamas, I would take it with a grain of salt. Trust - but verify. All the evidence Israel has presented so far has been verified by outside and independent sources - not so with Hamas.
@@cwjalexx The source has a good track record, but I agree that the number probably isn't 100% accurate. It's probably higher. Palestinian civilians are in an extremely perilous situation. If you look at images and video on the ground, South Gaza is basically nothing but rubble in a lot of areas. Food, water, and power are cut off. Hospitals, ambulances, and healthcare professionals are being targeted, making it difficult for people to get even basic medical attention, which is vital when you're in a warzone where civilians are being targeted. By the admission of Israeli officials, they are absolutely willing to bomb where civilians are present if it means they can get Hamas. So yeah, you don't even need statistics to figure that the civilian death toll is somewhere in the region of "a metric fuck ton."
Simon, it’s important to point out that both Saudi and Iran represent an extreme interpretation of Sunni and Shia Islam. Just like any other religion majority of both Sunni and Shia doesn’t subscribe to such a harsh interpretation. There isn’t much Shia example since they are mostly located in Iran but look at countries like Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, majority of North African countries and you see they are very much tolerant and dare I say liberal societies.
@@yoyojoseph Believe it or not you will find clips of Edorgan marching with the gay Turkish and Arabs in Istanbul in a time you wouldn’t find Bush or Clinton even entertain the thought of same sex marriage. And until very recently you couldn’t even wear religious clothing inside their parliament. Life gives you weird crossovers sometimes.
@@yoyojosephyes turkey is more of secular country but last couple years Erdogon has been gravitating towards religious nationalism and he’s been busy exploiting the regions Maine Sunni Muslim base n population and its religious fervor to push his domestic & foreign policy
@yoyojoseph yes. As a greek, it's us who have a state religion (orthodox christianity) and a whole separate place in which the orthodox church doesn't allow women and non Christian orthodox people. Turkey doesn't have any of that.
Thank you for this video. 2 small errors, though. First, You said the palestinian Arabs were living in what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories for 2,000 years. That is incorrect. After the exile of the jews from the area, it was populated by other groups that were sent by the Romans. Later it was ruled by the byzantines. The Muslim conquest only happened in the 7th century. And a true process of populating the area with arabs only began at the times of the ottoman empire. The Palestinians as people didn't truly exist as a proper national identity at the time. It was more of a localized thing. You had the ones in what is now southern lebanon-northern Israel, the ones in the west Bank and western Jordan and the Bedouin tribes in the desert which is part of Israel since 1948. They had a sense of identity, but it was sort of west-east axis when looking at a map of the region, not north-south. A large progress towards identity came through ideas of nationalism seeping to the ottoman empire from the west, and later also as backlash to what they perceived as Jewish takeover. Second, the recognition by lebanon. It happened shortly during the Lebanese Civil War but was reversed. Lebanon doesn't recognize Israel.
Complete & utter rubbish. Arabs have continuously resided in the Israel/Palestine region since the 7th century. The entire crusades were fought mainly against Arabs.
We have a European uninion.. America is basically a union of all 52 states but under one president.... now we just need a Middle easy union and an African Union (which exists but very casually lol)
You mean of the US didn't interfere with middle eastern affairs to destabilise the region, cause war and violence to keep the middle east divided in an effort to exploit the land of its resources and keep it's geopolitical power and interests? Let I remind you of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Palestinians converted to Islam, like ,turks, like Indians, like Persians, like Somalians and so on. The people of Palestinian, weather Christians, and Muslims always lived there.
According to the WHO (per flash report 22.nov 2023) , current casualty figures is over 50.000 in Gaza starting since the October attack. Over ~15.000 dead, over 35.000 serious/severe injuries. The WHO verifiication criteria is notoriously stringent so real numbers are bound to be substantially higher, so prefaces the WHO normally about ongoing conflicts but especially this one, with the population left largely unable to communicate and driven out from the worst devestated areas (re: can't count what you can't recover / see).
Sorry I don’t wanna be nitpicking but at 3:39 you used the logo of Tehran (capital of Iran) city council which is completely irrelevant to the subject, I might be mistaken here and it does actually mean something but if it is a mistake on your side, I hope this helps to understand the logo better for future references. Peace
1:45 - Chapter 1 - Introducing the trio
5:45 - Chapter 2 - The long cold war
12:05 - Chapter 3 - Shifting alliances
16:55 - Chapter 4 - Enter the chaos agent
Are you saying I don't fully understand the situation? If so,bullshit. You stand in Gaza with a shoulder fired rocket launcher pointing towards Israel, you're a combatant. You're not a victim, you're a casualty
The radio effect is causing me to turn the volume up and down within the video to just hear and not be deafening on headphones. Less is more on that bit or turn the level of it down a bit so it isn't as harsh a launch in and from it. 🙏
I totally agree. With feeling. I listen on headphones and the effect is jarring and painful. I love the videos, but the effect is driving me away.
the sound editor who discovered the distort button needs to stop it
A video on the Yemeni civil war would be a great companion to this one .
I agree.
Why doesnt war in Yemen never get any attention compared to Ukraine or Israel? Hundreds of civilians are dying there, too
@@excentrik5725cus it's Muslims killing Muslims and that's has little or nothing to do with the world
@@excentrik5725Yemen is not geopolitically important that’s why
@@vontai4553 and Israel is?
Iran was once a land of tolerance and innovations. It's a shame what the land of Cyrus and Darius has become. The Iranians deserve much better than that supreme Bagoas-style tyrant.
If the west wants to get along with Iran all the US has to do is stop interfering is Palestine and Israel. 100% of Islamic terrorism in the last 50 years has been because of Western interference in Palestine and Israel. It’s truly bizarre that Westetn nations are fine with sacrificing their own citizens because of primitive superstitions.
@@StoneInMySandalAs long as Israel remains the West's strongest ally in the region, interventions will never stop.
The West just suddenly dipping out isn't gonna magically stop all this madness. It's gonna take EVERYBODY involved developing some empathy for each other and working together towards a lasting peace...
Iran under the monarch was totalitarian and had constant repression, outside interference and war
Before the "revolution," I used quotations like that because I believe it was a step back for the area.. I agree it was a land of great growth and prosperity.. I wonder what it would be like now if... We would have been off fossil fuels by now. Nuclear energy would be fission by now.. Oh ! And let's touch on women's equity, shall we? I bet all if not most of women's unique medical needs would've been met by now, too..
And so much more..
@@CanadianDerwood The reason the revolution happened in Iran was because of how brutal and repressive the American friendly monarchy was that controlled Iran before it was a theocracy right? While the current government there is bad it wasn't any better before the revolution.
Hello Simon, big fan here and love the content you keep dishing. One thing to correct in the video, is that you mentioned Lebanon and Israel have a peace agreement, but this is inaccurate. The peace agreement was brokered by the U.S between Israel and the right winged militias during Lebanon's civil war back in 1983. It was annulled shortly after when the leftists militias took control of Lebanon. Today, in the Lebanese constitution Israel is considered an enemy state by all sectarian and political parties alike. Had to point that one out.
also i would like to add we in the ouwet did not have a peace agreement with isreal either the only " right wing " miliatia
Yeah Simon gets a lot of stuff wrong and says silly stuff sometimes
@@adamdudley8736 this channel is generally incredibly accurate and well researched, but things do still get missed sometimes. It may have even just been a misunderstanding by the editor trying to fix the phrasing. Still good that there are knowledgeable viewers willing to point out and educate of the mistakes that do occur though
you mean hezbollah, the radical muslim terror organization, took control over Lebanon, killing many christians living there on the way, and changing the what was once a liberal pearl in the middle east, to a land that now has islamic law and controlled by a terror organization that seeks to destroy the only jewish state in the entire world, even though 2Million muslim\christian arabs (palestinians) currently live inside israel and get full equal rights and work as doctors, politicians, etc... and some of them even serve its millitary willingly
west vs barbarism basically
I'd call Hisbollah right-wing rather than left.
It should be noted that the Saudis and Isrealis were very close to reach a normalization of relations deal. That's one reason why Hamas through the support of Iran decided to attack Israel. It worked, sickeningly. The deal was put on hold indefinitely.
Not only that, the plans for an economic corridor from India through Emirates, S.Arabia, Jordan and Israel to Europe has also been canceled.
Nope, saudi wasn't going to do it. He was just playing with the idea of doing it, he still didn't give his demands, isreal wasn't going to agree to his demands for palastine and palastinians, now isreal just made it worse and evidently clear.
Isreal and isrealis are not people you trust, we cannot normalize with people like that. They blew up the beirut port, they killed raffik hariri among other things, the lavon affair, etc.They are snakes, always have and always will be, 99% of us in the arab world dont want isreal in the middle east, all of palastine should go back to the palastinians, you dont have a right to give away land that doesn't belong to you in the first place, its arab lands. Isrealis should leave the same way they came, by boats. Europe should take them, germany especially since they OWE them for the holocaust, or the US should take them since they love them so much, you can give them one of your 50 states, you have 50 of them, 50! You dont throw away your trash in another mans back yard, YOU deal with them, you make the mistakes and problems with the holocaust you don't let us deal with it and pay for your mistakes.
@@A_R_B_G Nope, i know that, im kuwaiti, from Kuwait, I'm Arab and muslim. We in the arab world ALL know that. We dont normalize with our BIGGEST enemy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Iran will always be the closest ally before israel.
I can assure you in the arab world, iran is not our enemy, we are very much united when it comes to isreal. Nothing is called suni shia, we are BOTH muslims, and they are OPEC members. We are willing to cut off oil supply from the US and UK and Europe until they leave the middle east, We will have russia and china and north korea on outside along with turkey, along with Pakistan and afganistan.I don't think the west can win against any of these countries, and we haven't included any of the african muslim countries.we ALL do not want isreal. can assure you, even egypt and countries who normalized only normalized because nothing else TO do, they might as well live with them, but i can ASSURE you they will flip sides in the snap of a finger to take down isreal. Egypt lebanon and jordan will easily cancel normalizations in flip if the arab world decides to rise up against isreal together. That's a sleeping giant waiting to wake up, they are all waiting for that moment to switch sides, that moment will come. Qaddafi warned us and saddam warned us and bin laden warned us, at that time we were in a slumber, but they have just woken a sleeping giant.
Isrealis and isreal should head this warning and leave and give palastine back to the palastinians, the rightful owners or they will CEASE to exist by 2028.
@@A_R_B_G"no evidence" my ass. There is a deal and the timing of the attack was not coincidental
What you said is true. As a Saudi, I can tell you that Iran does not want the establishment of the State of Palestine, because Saudi Arabia has set this as one of the conditions for normalizing relations with Israel. If this happens, it will be a success for Saudi Arabia, and Iran does not want this, and for this reason it ordered Hamas to launch a war.
Thanks! But fire the editor who thinks is a good idea to butcher the audio with that stupid tiny TV cut away. Makes me wanna throw my headphones. Nails on a chalkboard.🤢
It's also incredibly relevant to recognise that Sunni and Shia Arab Imperialism has displaced and murdered many many millions of people belonging to other native indigenous communities and cultures across the middle east and into Africa and Asia over the last several centuries. The narrative that Arab Muslimism has been and is now the only relevant and predominant native population is then asserted and not challenged within the west for fear of being called Islamaphobic.
True👏👏
But that would make the video thirty seconds longer!
Respect 🙏...
they displaced people in the past, that justifies displacing people now, right? Look at what happen to the jews in the holocaust, ofc they have the right to an apartheid state
The mongol hordes, islamic conquest and european colonialism were probably the most radical shifts in demographics the world has seen. Also while the west African slave trade was mostly propogated by the portugese, spanish, french and english the east African slave trade was arab controlled.
Whoever thought it would be a good idea to distort the sound when "viewing" it through a TV - you were wrong, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Crying over something that isn't a big deal. Man, this generation is soft.
It certainly hurts over headphones (and I'm and old guy) @@christophermarriott1681
Tf you on?
Correct, that was a terrible idea. Please don't make that a new thing, it's headache-inducing and adds nothing to the end product.
Great ... we're back to the AM radio sound edit where Simons voice is suddenly twice as loud and makes everyone in the room wonder where that came from.
... great ... thanks for that. Seriously editor, its not about you.
Great content as always, Simon; thank you.
Id really like to see a video explaining the differences between Sunni and Shia Islamic beliefs. Id like to understand the two better. Would you consider doing one?
This would be really interesting, +1!
Kings and Generals did a decent video on this a couple years ago. Pretty easy to find!
Shia isn’t Islam and this is why people in Iran revolt. They worship clergies. They make people think it’s Islam when these Persians are actually an embarrassment. Majority of Muslims in the world are Sunni. Almost 95%.
Sunni Examples: Indonesia Malaysia Morocco, Turkey, UAE, Egypt, Saudi, Etc etc
Shia: Iran Iraq but it’s Iran that’s the biggest embarrassment. Shia are more polytheistic than monotheistic imo since they believe in fairy tales like Clergies can predict the future.
Hey guys, big fan of the channel. I think it's creative, but the audio from the scenes with the voice filter is jarring.
Thanks for actually using original graphics and pics instead of AI generated stuff.
Not a fan of the different voiced audio not gonnas lie but great video otherwise yo! Thank you
Damned fair game... i didnt consider that was his real voice and the editor just makes him sound normal every other time. I like it. I like it alot.
@@dant.3505
NGL: the editorial cut to the old timey TV made me think I was watching a Squire video.
Sound equalization on this video. The weird radio voice thing is crazy loud compared to the rest of the video.
With the cuts to the TV you're blowing my speakers out STOP
6:34 that is not an entirely true statement. During those 2,000 years you're referring to, Jews, Arabs, and Christians held a presence in that land. At times during the Byzantine and the Crusades, Christians held that land and there was a more than significant Christian presence during, and after as a matter of fact. There has always been a Jewish presence in that land, even after the expulsion in 134 AD, and later when the Ottoman's took over and ruled from modern-day Turkey, when they expelled a good number of Jewish people. The Egyptians ruled for a time before the Ottoman, and definitely settled in the land. The census records from each of these empires confirms all this. So it is a gross over-simplification to say that 2,000 was an Arab-Muslim only territory. It was always more complex than that!
Furthermore, the name 'Palestine' was given to the Jewish land of Judea/Samaria (today Israel-Palestine and parts of Jordan) by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 132AD after a Jewish revolt, and Islam as a religion was founded in the 7th Century AD. Palestine as the name of an Arab peoples group didn't start to be use with the prominence of today until the last century.
@@TheInkPages Philistine predates Judea. "And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time." Genesis 21:34
It is the Israelites who came as immigrants from Egypt while the people of Philistine the Canaanites who later embraced Islam and Christianity had been living there long before the Israelites came.
@ISIPrava711 "Tolerate"? As in "make them pay a tax just for being Jewish, or murdering them, as they periodically did starting from the 17th century?
@@sarahkareem1251 And GREEKS came as immigrants to "Philistia". "Philistine" - or, in the original Hebrew: "pilishtim" means INVADER. And the descendents of the Canaanites are both Arabs AND Jews. Have a nice evening!
@@SafetySpooon And the Israelites also came as immigrants from Egypt. They fought the Canaanites who were the natives and took over.
We love the channel Simon
The pitch of the TV announcer bit is waaay to high, gawd dayum my ears.
Great content, like a few of the edits you made to the video here. Though that random switch to the small television screen with the voice distortion seems a little distracting as a viewer. Though maybe most people don’t care. Good work though!! You guys do excellent work.
Good video. Hoping to learn more about the Middle East at this crucial hour ❤
Scary stuff. Glad this video got out.
May I recommend a topic of discussion that is related to this video.
The subject of shipping routes and cargo shipping stability around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Given the recent cargo ship hijacking.
Presented here is what I found to be a fascinating & insightful overview of the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East with all its nuances & interactor players. This is a very interesting, enjoyable & topical to the Israeli/Hamas conflict playing out today.
It would be interesting to cover how Iran went from being Pro Israel and quite secular to Strongly against. Even with the revolution, i imagine that didn't come out of nowhere.
@@Hasco254Pre Islamic revolution it was. Don't think it was involved in any of the Arab Israeli wars either
@Hasco254 The Islamic revolution in Iran occurred in 1979. The Majority of Arab israeli wars occurred before this. Iran (to my knowledge) was not hostile to Israel untill the late 80s onwards.
@@Hasco254Please go and study history. Iran (or Persia as it was known to the west at the time), was a predominantly secular nation untill the Islamic revolution of 1979.
@@Hasco254 Lol I cant believe how delusional people like you are, you say things that suit your case, the other guy proves you wrong and all you can do is ""no you are wrong""
@@RedDevilStudio the second israel invaded the palestinian land, every single muslim country + others were severely hostile
Thanks!
Small correction: Lebanon never actually made peace with Israel
The May 17th agreement never saw the light of day due to too much internal opposition of Gemayel's policy
Editor, give it up on the stupid old TV effect....
Youre almost starting to inch in on mainstream news channels .... THIS is what i want from my news updates on a developing subject/situation. The information.
Another great analysis
Interesting video. Very informative and great explanation of the region. However, there’s one big problem with the video. Even though it was never mentioned that Iran is or is not an Arab nation, indirectly the viewer might think that Iran is also an Arab nation. This misunderstanding has been widely shared throughout the western world and media. This doesn’t mean any of these nations is better than the other. It’s about the information accuracy. Middle East is made of Arab countries along with other nations such as Turkey and Iran. These cultures, obviously, share a lot with each other. But it’d be incorrect to assume they have same ethnicity or culture. As an Iranian in Canada I have encountered a handful of people who actually know the difference between these cultures. Again this doesn’t mean that I or anyone would think they are “superior” or by any means trying to be racist. It does make me uncomfortable however that majority of people, by default,assume I speak Arabic or am Arab. I’m pretty sure no one would like to be called something else than their actual nationality. Other than this, one of the most accurate videos about the situation in Middle East. Hopefully one day governments finally realize that their people have no problem with each other. As an Iranian I respect the Israelis and Palestinians and Saudis and find their cultures rich and unique. West is Modern and great but Middle East is rich in History and fascinating culture. Canada has been amazing and I am more than grateful that I was given the opportunity to come here and start a new life. however, I wish the governments would think more about their people so I wouldn’t have to leave my country, family and basically everything and come to Canada. But well, I hope one day people of the region can finally get what they deserve, democracy and freedom. Thanks for the video.
I actually only recently learned that Iranians aren't Arabs and in fact Persian, and that Farsi is the most common language. I don't know much else about the differences between Arabs and Persians, but I've also seen that your people, by tradition, are very welcoming and caring. As a white male in the US, I really worry about the west seeing Iran as a terrible place with terrible people, when that's not the case at all. Granted, I disagree with the government there and a lot of their decisions, but that shouldn't reflect on how truly wonderful the Iranian citizens seem to be.
@@xsaxia2008a simple difference between these ethnicities would be this, turks are originally related to mongols and central asia turkic tribes, arabs are a Semitic ethnicity, persian is one of the subgroups of Iranian ethnicity alongside kurdish, gilak, lur, baluch, etc. Iranian ethnicity is more closely related to Hindi and Caucasian ethnicities. Basically different historical roots, different migratory ancestors.
@Mahyarrk very interesting! I wasn't aware that Iran had so many subcultures- I thought it was rather homogeneous, mostly one culture that was shared by everyone. That's quite fascinating
@@xsaxia2008 you could look at Iran as the Balkans that didn't go down the path of fratricide.
There’re 35% of Iran people are Arabs & the other 65% of the people are Persian, Turks , Azaris , turkman, kurds boltchi & many other races
Outstanding video. One of the most intelligent YT videos of 2023. A+
Thank you for doing this...I can only imagine how much engagement you lose with these videos.
Keep up the bang up job guys across your monopoly of yt channels. In all seriousness do keep up the good job I enjoy the works on all your channels
The old love triangle, this is why any solution to any Middle Eastern problem creates multiple minor problems immediately and major problems in the near future. It's like a Rubik's cube that can't be solved.
Brave and well informed video always astonishes me you have the time for these larger videos along side your massive amount of normal content .
Keep it up Simon!
You can't really call anything in the middle East "cold" especially war.
Based.
More like a Hot War.
Lolol. That’s like that spoof song:
“Hey there, Khalilah, what's it like in Baghdad City?
I'm 3,000 miles away but girl tonight you're looking pretty
Can't you see?
You're looking really hot, baby. Literally.”
Lololol
It shows a Muslim lady all wrapped in 50 scarfs, standing in the hot sand under the blistering sun.
Lololollll
Maybe Lukewarm?
The super thanks button is removed on the comprehensive history video so I'll leave my pennies here!
Thanks for all the great reporting you and your team are providing us!
How are you not mentioning Qatar? 3rd largest Natural Gas reserves, world's largest landlord, media empire through Al Jazeera? It is an absolute Fundamentalist Monarchy that hosts Hamas leaders and act as a intermediary for Hamas negotiations and communication? Or the Jewish populations that existed and even thrived in the Ottoman empire? Arabs did not reside in Jerusalem area until after the Arab Caliphates in 700. The oversimplification of Jews just recently showing up to a long established Arab area is a cause of contention. Its a land that is in the centre of the cradle of life and in the cross roads of mega empires, who lives there and since when is not straight forward. It does not justify the IDF's atrocities on civilians, but the over simplification of that narrative is divisive.
Not true! Palestine and Syria had been part of the Persian Empire as far back as 500 BCE, so "this land is singularly Jewish" is not true. Multiple ethnicities have lived concurrently in that area for thousands of years. Jerusalem in particular has served as a regional and provincial capital most of its existence, including under the Persian, Macedonian, Roman and Ottoman empires, so it's always been a highly integrated city - as evidenced by the fact that up until the British gave the region over to found Israel, Palestine already had a strong Jewish population.
@@DoIShootThemOrRun1)israel has never claimed that this land is "exclusively jewish",we accepter the partition plan in 1947 and 2 states solutions proposals in 1993,1999-2001 and 2006-2008. we preserve every acinet heritage that existed or still exists here,muslim and arab included-from old mosques to nabatean towns.
2)jewish community didnt in this land till tanzimat,we mizrahi/middle eastern jews were held as dhimmis alongside the christians and any wish to break free of the muslim or arab domination was answered with violence. in the late years of the ottoman empire they even banned ottoman jews from moving to villayat jerusalem,and banished the jews of tel aviv in 1914 and 1917...
in 1929 the first communities to suffer attacks by the islamist supporters of haj amin el husseini were in safed and hebron,2 ancient,religious,unarmed,non zionist communities. and what the samaritans have been going through under muslim rule is even more horrifying...
Superbly written and delivered.
Oh man please stop with the distorted voice. I listen to these videos to chill out and it totally ruins the experience to get that shrill sound blasting out of the speakers.
Great video. Thanks for keeping us informed
Another great video. You did however not mention that Israel existed as a country a long time ago but was renamed Palestine by Rome in the 1st/2nd century AD. Israel was reconstituted after WW2, but there is a much older land claim than the Palestinians. See the Merneptah Stele if you would like to see a non Biblical reference to early Israel.
u cant really negotiate peace with people that say their entire existence is cause they want u destroyed and gone
Can't negotiate peace with people who call themselves God's chosen and look down on anyone who isn't them either. Religion is evil and the cause of all of it on every side.
Precisely
Israel took the land by force. And Palestinians fighting for their land back. You can leave the land and on one will be chasing you.
We don't have a problem with jews. We have a problem with zi*nism
I don't care if you say this land belonged to jews 3000 years ago or anything. Israel didn't manage to even annex the land properly and take the responsibility of native people. and instead created an apartheid state.
Anyway, the side that is losing people more are Palestinians and no pne cares. So be happy, i guess, for the israelis to successfully cleansing the problem they created
I am from Iran and I hope that we stay away from the Arab Israeli conflicts
Right now many areas of Iran are under occupation and we cannot liberate those areas
Iran under occupation from who?
Did Iran presently get invaded by a foreign army? If so, I don't know how I missed it.
@@dant.3505
During World War I and II, several areas of Iran were occupied, which Iran could not take back, for example, Zarkoh and Aria islands, which were occupied by Britain and later given to the UAE
@@EsfandiarNokhodaki okay, I see. What you mean is Iran lost territory in the world wars. I understand now.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell.
cheers to the writer
very good vision and analysis to what's going on
thanks for the video
Can we stop with the distorted voice
His voice sounds fine on my device. Turn your volume down. If it's too loud, it distorts it through your speaker. That's on you, not the channel.....
@@BackYardScience2000wow good job missing it entirely
1:31 - this is the crap he's talking about
Embarrassing yourself
Hopefully, Simon does a video on the hypocrisy of political commentary community.
Well a Happy Thanksgiving to you too. In all seriousness thank you very much for your spectacular reporting on these matters.
Interestingly enough, despite both being majority Shia Muslim nations, Azerbaijan and Iran are *NOT* on the same side. This is both because Azerbaijan is one of, if not the single most Secular Muslim nation in the world, while Iran is a Theocracy, and because the majority of Azeris living in Iran, and Azerbaijan has no secret of their intentions to "liberate their people". To top it all off, Azerbaijan has also increased relations with Iraqi Kurdistan. I wonder why that could possibly be...
Do you know that Kurdish language is a iranic language? Iraqi Kurdistan was taken fromiran by turks, and the word azerbaijan itself is a Persian name meaning Guardian of Fire
Azerbaijan is just want to be annexed by Iran, there's no such a thing as Azeri people they're turks who came from Mongolia if they're unhappy they can go back there,it was name given by Stalin to this region so in case they would succeed from USSR it would be a thorn in the side of iran cause there was an actual azerbaijan province in iran (just like North Mecedonia which has nothing to do with its slavic population), it was taken from iran by Russia in 1828
But Palestinians have the right to take their land BACK from European settlers who are not native!
@@worldofmix6766 by that sense wouldn't England be entitled to Australia and New Zealand, wouldn't Afghanistan be entitled to North Pakistan?
@@worldofmix6766 perhaps, but by that same principle, Germany should be allowed to annex Austria, and also Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and England since they all speak Germanic Languages.
@@TD-ev4bw Afghanistan actually is entitled to North Pakistan. The people in North Pakistan are treated horribly by Pakistan and their military dictatorship.
@@TD-ev4bw I like how we both intended the same argument but went in entirety differently directions. Great minds think alike!
Very enlightening, thank you
Informative and well narrated. Solid effort again champ
I've been waiting for this one. 👍
Three Kingdoms situations like this are effective at keeping major offensives away, but the things that keep them opposed continue to boil under the surface. And when they do bubble over...
Thank you!
"Palestinian" arabs have NOT been there 2000 years. Arabs didn't get there in any number until their imperialist colonization in the 7th century. They weren't called palestinian until the 1960s. Jews have been there over 3000 years, more than twice as long as the arabs.
I can tell where you get your news
@@Lykemthic reality
@sirhenrymorgan1187 arabs didn't come into play until the 7th century except as nomadic traders. The only ones not trying to expel the other are the Jews. The only one to give equal rights to everyone is Israel.
The arabs didn't genocide the people living there like what happened in the Americas. The Arabs intermarried with those peoples and their descendents are the Palestinians so the population is much older than the Arab conquests.
And the Romans exiled the jews all over the place so they didn't live there for 3000 years. Before jewish migration in the 20th century historic Palestine had a 3% jewish population.
@@ahmedbenflah9712
What a lie. Because of the Arabs and the Ottomans the Samaritans almost cease to exist and only the Jews and then Israel saved them. In 1921 they wiped out the ancient Jewish community in Gaza. The Arabs are masters at ethnic cleansing and genocides.
Before Jewish migration started in the 19 century the population in the land was less than 600,000 people.
Man i always knew Simon was a robot
Fascinating take on the Middle East from a macro perspective. When did this cold war start? With the Iranian revolution? The formation of Israel?
Mainly first formed after 1948 with the formation of Israel and the Nakbah. The nations with close relationships with the US stayed quiet while the others were outspoken against it.
Started in 1948 with Israel's creation with the 1979 Iranian revolution being a major variable added to the conflict.
@@SilverPharoah Yes, the Nakba: All the surrounding Arab nations threw out their Jews, stealing their stuff, while telling all the local Arabs to get out of the way so they could k!ll all the JOOOOZ for them. They failed & have been whining about it ever since. Cherry on the sundae? All the Arab states made an agreement in 1956 NEVER to take in ANY of the refugees that THEY CREATED.
Great analysis. Cold War. Great point
great presentations
Please lose the radio voice filter and please ensure the sound level is the same between segments.
Happy Thanksgiving 😊
Need some sort of positivity in this comment section
Ppl killing each other over whos fake magic man is right blows me TF away
Hi Simon. Another thing to correct is that Israel withdrew from Gaza on15th August 2005. She therefore did not occupy Gaza.
Israel bans items that can go into gaza controls its water its bordors launches what they call trimming the grass bombing gaza israel occupies gaza
I hope one day we can all learn to coexist in peace
Civilians from foreign countries have also been killed or kidnapped
Hi Simon, big fan and great content as usual. A few corrections to this video though:
1) You repeatedly referred to terror groups as ‘non-state actors’ (though you did also call them terror groups a few times) - why call them non-state actors when they are terrorists?
2) During your explanation of the history of Israel, you said that Palestinian Arabs had lived there for 2000 years until Jews from the diaspora arrived during and after WW2. This is factually wrong on a number of levels:
- Arabs come from the Arabian Peninsula (as opposed to the Levant), and only arrived in this region after the Arab conquest starting in the 7th century. That is barely half the time you mentioned (may seem like nitpicking, but I think it’s an important distinction to make when discussing origins, which is so important to this conflict)
- Conversely, there has been a continual Jewish presence in what is now Israel since the Roman exile - the town of Safed for example was the centre of the Kabbalah movement since the 16th century. Hebron and Jerusalem have had Jewish populations since the 7th century (they were banned by the Byzantines before that). Tiberias has had an unbroken Jewish presence since the time of the Romans.
- With regards to Jewish immigration to the region, it started in the 1870s, not during WW2, and I can’t understand how you can misrepresent that, as it is extremely well documented. By the start of WW2, there were already 550,000 Jews in the British Mandate for Palestine. Which by the way, Jews called themselves - Palestinians. Muslims called themselves Arabs, and only appropriated the name Palestinian in 1964 as part of a Soviet propaganda coup.
- The vast majority of what we call Palestinian Arabs can trace their roots back to Egypt and what is now Syria, Lebanon and Jordan as little as 4-5 generations ago (not that many will admit it, though even Hamas leaders have). They came to the region that is now Israel as economic migrants, after the Jews and then British started industrialising the region. The Jewish population increased by 520,000 between 1860 and 1945, the Muslim population by about 675,000. Before Jews started emigrating to the region, it was a backwater of the Ottoman Empire, as ‘wasteland’ as described by several first-hand accounts.
3) You said that Israel’s land is incredibly important to the practice of Islam - again, this is absolutely false. If anything in Israel is important to Islam, it is Jerusalem, and only Jerusalem. Even then, this is far more controversial than you make it sound. During the schism in Islam after Muhammed’s death, during the 680s the Salafis briefly gained control of Mecca and Hijaz and banned Sunnis from entering. This prevented Sunnis from doing their pilgrimage, so they looked for an alternate site, and decided on the “Farthest Mosque” (the place Mohammed flew to during a dream) mentioned in the Qur’an, only no one knew (or knows today) where that is, so they decided on Jerusalem - why? Because it was already holy to the Jews and Christians, and so must be holy to the third Abrahamic religion, despite it never being mentioned in the Qur’an. That is literally the only reason Jerusalem is holy to Islam. The incredible irony is that the Sunnis recaptured Mecca within a few years and returned their focus to Mecca. Al-Aqsa was pretty much left forgotten and ignored for the next 1200 years, until a small population of another religion declared independence in Israel for the first time in 2000 years, and suddenly, Jerusalem was important to Islam again. Even more ironically, 80-90% of Muslims today are Sunni, yet they all pray and do pilgrimage to Mecca. The Shi’ite minority in Iran however, who always only considered Mecca and Hijaz as holy, are obsessed with Israel and Al-Aqsa.
4) You pointed out that Saudi Arabia and Iran see Israel as an intruder and ‘unlike the Middle Eastern population’. I think a more accurate portrayal would be that they see them as beneath them - remember that for 1300 years, Islam treated Jews (and other minorities) as second class citizens under the dhimmi system. Jews have lived in what are now Arabic lands since before Islam, and half of Israel’s Jews are of Middle Eastern descent. It is not that Israel is unlike their Muslim neighbours, it’s that the Muslims see Jews as beneath them.
Of course ❤ God gave these lands to the Palestinians FIRST, but then the jews found some dirt on God and threatened to expose him to the rest of the world unless God gave these Palestinian lands to the jews.
Sadly, God relented and did as requested.
And as the story goes, Israel has been bribing officials of any importance ever since.
How many children has israel been allowed to kill so far?
non-state actors means they don't govermn a place, let's say you make a chess club, you are a non state actor, because you don't govermn anyone
let's say you make a political group that receives taxes from some people, gives them the state services and enforce your rules over them, you are a state actor because wellyou are a goverment, ofc for a actual state in the modern day you need th erather ambigious "legitimacy" you can't be a state if no one cares about you, hence why groups like hamas can kinda be or not be state actors based on how much legitimacy you give them
I was less commenting on the state VS non-state nature, as calling them a non-state actor VS terror group, which most western countries call them. That being said, they are surely state actors by the definition you gave, considering that they won an election and rule Gaza, and Palestine is recognised by the UN as a state. We all know they receive funding from Iran and Qatar, so where's the ambiguity..?
@@87rapha oh mb,yeah both terms don't trumple each other so i guess it goes by what he feels like, or maybe it's just an attempt to look unbias, specially the way the narrative is going it's probably the most sound term economically speaking
also yeah hamas is definitly the ruler of gaza at the moment, my point was that with so many actors on the region, and most of hamas leadership in qatar, idk if we could call it the legitimate goverment, gazais almost a lawless land at the moment
also just heard at 19:00 where he calls it a terror group and goverment
Amazing video Simon as usual!!!
Calling the Levant the "Ancestral Homeland" of Islam is pointless. It was the Ancestral homeland of Israel LONG before Islam even existed. Islamic terrorism is the death throes of medieval ideals and concepts, and the horrific actions of Humas, Hezbolah, ISIS, ISIL, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and others should not be tolerated and all countries of the world should be their enemies.
Those who say that the Middle East
(the East of the Arab world) was a
world full of peoples, religions and
cultures, and that Islam was the
one that exterminated them, so far
do not provide any evidence for
their words, while in reality the
Middle East 100 years ago included Jewish and Christian
minorities of various sects in
Every region and every large city,
not to mention the various Muslim
races and sects, all lived in peace
before the fall of the Ottoman
Empire (note: Islam has existed for
more than 1,400 years),
Things are shifting. New alliances are being formed. Old alliances are fracturing.
Simon, there’s a very important point that you, like many, have left out in the historical context of this region. While you are absolutely correct in saying the Palestinians had that land for a couple thousand years before the “birth of Israel”, that particular parcel was known as Judea for several thousand years Prior to it becoming Palestine. It was in the early 130’s (AD) when the Roman Emperor Hadrian kicked the Israelites out of Judea, and renamed it Syria Palaestina as an insult to the Jews. It is well documented from Mesopotamia through Egypt, the Bible, Torah, and even Roman texts. In fact, prior to the land coming under control of the Israelites, it was the land of Canaan. Forgetting to mention that this land was Israel long before it became Syria Palaestina, now called Palestine is a major fopaux, and underscores Why the Israeli State is so important. There’s one other touchy subject that will be surprising to many. The Arabs, in general, are very mixed over the Palestinian people to begin with. While many do see them as fellow Muslims, there’s almost as many who don’t see them this way. It has more to do with the history of the people than anything else. They are seen as nomadic and more as “inferior” than equals. Maybe that could be a topic of a future video. I truly enjoy your videos, and know that countless hours go into your work. A huge shout out to both you and everyone behind the lens!
I wouldn't say the arabs see palestinians as inferior in any way.
In fact most would honour them for their long fight against occupation.
Palestinian people are directly descended from Canaanites. Canaan was there before Israel
@@MisterOrgans the theory that the Palestinians are descendants of the Canaanite is just that, a theory. The religious texts you are referring to would then, in theory, give the Palestinians claim to Greece as equally as the Gaza Strip. We aren’t seeing that claim for a reason. There’s only one reason they claim Gaza as theirs, and that’s because they want the complete eradication of the Jewish population.
@@sibero5644 “occupation”. Well, I guess that’s one way of seeing Israel with their own lands. 🤷♂️
if all the arab wanted was the killing of jewish then they would have done so before in the times of the ottoman empire.
the fact they only declared war after a bunch of immigrants and refugees laid claim to half their land should be enough proof that they don't hate the jewish but they hated zionist movement trying to steal the land they have been living in for thousands of years@@mikkelhanson4001
Never, ever use that audio filter again please. Love the content. OGBB
When has the ME, Subsaharan Africa, SE Asia, or Eastern Europe/Western Asia ever *NOT* known repression or conflict?
Those regions are effectively synonymous with strife.
War has been the norm everywhere for most of history. The relative peace in Western Europe and North America in the last 70+ years is an aberration by all accounts.
Islam
Those who say that the Middle East
(the East of the Arab world) was a
world full of peoples, religions and
cultures, and that Islam was the
one that exterminated them, so far
do not provide any evidence for
their words, while in reality the
Middle East 100 years ago included Jewish and Christian
minorities of various sects in
Every region and every large city,
not to mention the various Muslim
races and sects, all lived in peace
before the fall of the Ottoman
Empire (note: Islam has existed for
more than 1,400 years),
Btw people only point out the difference between sunni and shia but the actually have more similarities than differences. 🇸🇦❤️🇮🇷
I mean yes turkey isn't smacked into the centre of the Middle East but as far as I know turkey has the strongest military in the middle east
Turkey is not considered a middle eastern nation
I dont think its army is stronger than Irans, they are probably around the same level of strength
Turkey is strong for sure, but I think Israel, Iran, and the bought and paid for PMCs of Saudis can easily contend with Turkey. They're not the singular powerhouse you paint them as.
@ISIPrava711 dude I understand you love your country, that's admirable, but everyone in middle east is dangerous in more ways than one, no one should be chasing wars.
When you started talking through the tv I thought I died
Only 3,000 deaths at time of writing? Crazy. We're at 15-20k deaths in total now..
You integrated the maps. Great.
According to the Euromed Human Rights monitor, the death toll in Palestine is now over 17,000, including over 7,000 children and almost 4,000 women, totaling over 15,000 civilian deaths all told (so far).
Those numbers are unverified ... also you're missing the distinction of the number of Hamas terrorists among those "civilians", as well as the percentage of those civilians who were killed either because Hamas wouldn't let them evacuate or because Hamas was shooting them as they were trying to evacuate. We don't actually know the number of people killed by IDF. However, since the "evidence" comes from Hamas, I would take it with a grain of salt. Trust - but verify. All the evidence Israel has presented so far has been verified by outside and independent sources - not so with Hamas.
Numbers are so low
Sounds fake.
I’ll believe it as soon as I see the methodology in how they got these numbers.
@@cwjalexx The source has a good track record, but I agree that the number probably isn't 100% accurate. It's probably higher. Palestinian civilians are in an extremely perilous situation. If you look at images and video on the ground, South Gaza is basically nothing but rubble in a lot of areas. Food, water, and power are cut off. Hospitals, ambulances, and healthcare professionals are being targeted, making it difficult for people to get even basic medical attention, which is vital when you're in a warzone where civilians are being targeted. By the admission of Israeli officials, they are absolutely willing to bomb where civilians are present if it means they can get Hamas. So yeah, you don't even need statistics to figure that the civilian death toll is somewhere in the region of "a metric fuck ton."
A death toll “creeping northward of 3000” … at time of writing! Jeez, just how old IS this, then?!
There are two areas in the middle East right now where women are on equal footing with men. That is Israel and any areas under the control of Kurds.
id say the gulf might be among them (atleast recently)
One colonizer and one colonized are more feminist during war. Literally while corporations profit from genocides.
More maps, helps, believe more visuals would help more, visual learner and designer here, so thanks.
Simon, it’s important to point out that both Saudi and Iran represent an extreme interpretation of Sunni and Shia Islam. Just like any other religion majority of both Sunni and Shia doesn’t subscribe to such a harsh interpretation. There isn’t much Shia example since they are mostly located in Iran but look at countries like Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, majority of North African countries and you see they are very much tolerant and dare I say liberal societies.
Turkey?
@@yoyojoseph Believe it or not you will find clips of Edorgan marching with the gay Turkish and Arabs in Istanbul in a time you wouldn’t find Bush or Clinton even entertain the thought of same sex marriage. And until very recently you couldn’t even wear religious clothing inside their parliament.
Life gives you weird crossovers sometimes.
@@yoyojosephyes turkey is more of secular country but last couple years Erdogon has been gravitating towards religious nationalism and he’s been busy exploiting the regions Maine Sunni Muslim base n population and its religious fervor to push his domestic & foreign policy
@yoyojoseph yes. As a greek, it's us who have a state religion (orthodox christianity) and a whole separate place in which the orthodox church doesn't allow women and non Christian orthodox people. Turkey doesn't have any of that.
I do not think Saudi Arabia subscribe to any extreme interpretation of religion. The main reason relies in core values.
Please choose a single volume for the videos.
Thank you for this video.
2 small errors, though.
First, You said the palestinian Arabs were living in what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories for 2,000 years. That is incorrect. After the exile of the jews from the area, it was populated by other groups that were sent by the Romans. Later it was ruled by the byzantines. The Muslim conquest only happened in the 7th century. And a true process of populating the area with arabs only began at the times of the ottoman empire. The Palestinians as people didn't truly exist as a proper national identity at the time. It was more of a localized thing. You had the ones in what is now southern lebanon-northern Israel, the ones in the west Bank and western Jordan and the Bedouin tribes in the desert which is part of Israel since 1948. They had a sense of identity, but it was sort of west-east axis when looking at a map of the region, not north-south. A large progress towards identity came through ideas of nationalism seeping to the ottoman empire from the west, and later also as backlash to what they perceived as Jewish takeover.
Second, the recognition by lebanon. It happened shortly during the Lebanese Civil War but was reversed. Lebanon doesn't recognize Israel.
Complete & utter rubbish. Arabs have continuously resided in the Israel/Palestine region since the 7th century. The entire crusades were fought mainly against Arabs.
What is the point of the old timey television with screechy speakers?
Imagine how powerful the entirety of the Middle East could be if they all just got along
Not that powerful, actually.
We have a European uninion.. America is basically a union of all 52 states but under one president.... now we just need a Middle easy union and an African Union (which exists but very casually lol)
You mean of the US didn't interfere with middle eastern affairs to destabilise the region, cause war and violence to keep the middle east divided in an effort to exploit the land of its resources and keep it's geopolitical power and interests? Let I remind you of Iraq and Afghanistan.
@@KerryFlanagan-p4x 50 states in america but yea
I liked the tv graphic
It's almost physically painful to watch this guy on account of how much he glows
People say World War III will begin in the middle-east, if the Middle Eastern Cold War become to hot.
The Arabs came to Israel in the 7th century not before.
Palestinians converted to Islam, like ,turks, like Indians, like Persians, like Somalians and so on. The people of Palestinian, weather Christians, and Muslims always lived there.
@@kashdiscovers1050nope
They are arabs from neighboring countries
And the people you mentioned didn't " convert " they were forced into islam
@@aga7299 go read your history
@@aga7299
The Palestinians are Canaanites, the Jews / Hebrews are immigrants who came there from Mesopotamia
@@kashdiscovers1050 cope with the facts
I've finally figured out why the warographics theme sounds so familiar. It's so similar to the old Time Team theme!
They started ground invasion over a week ago. We are on the brink of a few day ceasefire. This came out hours ago but is weeks out dated
Israel and Iran were playing chess ,Israel thought it was about to win and then Iran ckeckmated Israel in one move in October 7th
According to the WHO (per flash report 22.nov 2023) , current casualty figures is over 50.000 in Gaza starting since the October attack. Over ~15.000 dead, over 35.000 serious/severe injuries. The WHO verifiication criteria is notoriously stringent so real numbers are bound to be substantially higher, so prefaces the WHO normally about ongoing conflicts but especially this one, with the population left largely unable to communicate and driven out from the worst devestated areas (re: can't count what you can't recover / see).
1:27 I don't know why but I hear Simons's voice and see a small TV it makes me laugh?
If people would realize they believe in fake deity the world would be a better place
God The Father
God The Son
God The Holy Spirit
Sorry I don’t wanna be nitpicking but at 3:39 you used the logo of Tehran (capital of Iran) city council which is completely irrelevant to the subject, I might be mistaken here and it does actually mean something but if it is a mistake on your side, I hope this helps to understand the logo better for future references. Peace