 The United States has been Israel's biggest backer in its genocidal war on Gaza. However, there is a clear disconnect between the political class and the streets. What explains this? The Rishisunna government has renewed its immigration treaty with Rwanda despite widespread condemnation. What is this deal about? This is the Daily Debrief. These are your stories for the day. And before we go any further, if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit the subscribe button. The ruling class of the United States has wholeheartedly endorsed the Israeli war on Gaza, backing its justifications, amplifying its propaganda, and most importantly, sanctioning weapons. However, the mood on the streets in the country is very different. Over the past few weeks, we have seen hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets against a brutal Israeli war. Trade unions are also taking a stand against Israeli attack and increasing numbers. We talked to Natalia Marquez to understand the situation. Natalia, thank you so much for joining us. So first, let's take a look at the trade unions. There's been an uptick in trade unions support or solidarity for the people of Palestine and against the Israeli war. So could you maybe take us through what some of the major pronouncements have been, what is the kind of mobilization taking place? So the United Auto Workers, which represents hundreds of thousands of workers in the United States across many different sectors called for a ceasefire last week and also announced the creation of a divestment and just transition working group indicating an interest in possibly divesting from Israeli apartheid within the union. This union position follows the United Electrical Workers, the UE statement, calling for a ceasefire, which many unions and union locals have signed on to. This was a statement that was released back in October. This signifies a major shift in the labor movement in the United States. It shows that labor is actually willing to deviate from the Democratic Party line on support for Israel. Right now, establishment Democrats are firmly and staunchly defending Israel through every atrocity, every genocidal action. The press secretary for the White House heavily denounced calls for a ceasefire coming from within the Congress by progressive politicians. The UAW itself has also refused to endorse Biden for quite some time, which is unusual for union in the United States to not endorse the major Democratic Party candidate. So it really shows a shift in how unions are thinking about their relation to the Democratic Party and official positions that the Democratic Party takes. You know, Sean Fain expressed explicit support for a ceasefire, the president of the UAW. And the UAW, of course, is coming off of a majorly successful contract campaign where they won, you know, really record gains for their workers. Let's go from here to the larger question of pro-Palestine mobilizations taking place in the U.S. itself. We've seen hundreds of thousands of people, week after week, coming to the streets. What is the kind of larger broader mobilization that is taking place? Since the national march on Palestine, for Palestine, on Washington, D.C., on November 4th, mobilizations across the country have largely moved local. But because of the holiday season, a lot of the focus of the mobilization has shifted to disrupting business as usual. There were major shutdowns of commercial centers on Black Friday across the entire country, which is Black Friday being one of the most profitable, if not the most profitable days for the retail sector in the United States. The idea being we disrupt the centers of profit. We force those people in power to listen to the demand for a ceasefire, a liberated Palestine. Of course, with Christmas coming up, a major holiday in the United States, there have been disruptions of tree lighting ceremonies and other Christmas festivities. There were several disruptions of the well-known Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade. And those were very high-profile because of how high-profile that parade is across the country. How many people tune in to watch it on Thanksgiving Day? And actually, we're exposed to people waving Palestinian flags or people disrupting the parade route on that day. And it's expected that more disruptive actions, occupations of lobbies, of major centers of power like banks or media organizations, those sorts of actions will continue and continue to escalate. And in the midst of all this, we have the U.S. political class, of course. Another resolution passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. So what is the broad political consensus that is there right now? How are the Republicans? What are the positions they're taking? What is the kind of division between the Democrats as well on this issue? So the House of Representatives recently voted on a House resolution that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Actually, that's essentially a direct quote. What the resolution says is that it clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. It also claims that the slogan from the river to the sea is a rallying cry for the eradication of the Jewish people. And also denounces and specifically names different pro-Palestine, Palestine solidarity actions in the United States, including the November 4th, March on D.C. for Palestine. Almost every single member of the House, 311 out of around 430-ish members of the House, voted in favor of this resolution, which is essentially saying that even if you're Jewish, if you're anti-Zionist, you're anti-Semitic. Anyone who is practicing anti-Zionism is practicing anti-Semitism, which is obviously a wildly controversial thing to say. This resolution follows many similar resolutions, condemning Hamas, condemning support for Hamas on college campuses, which is quite the accusation to make of pro-Palestine protesters on college campuses, demanding that Hamas release hostages, etc. There really are no resolutions affirming Palestine solidarity. There is a resolution that was voted on affirming Israel's right to exist. There is no resolution affirming Palestine's right to exist. These resolutions are largely supported by both parties, maybe a little bit more on the Republican side. This latest resolution, 216 Republicans voted for it and 95 Democrats voted for it, with quite a few Democrats voting present or not voting, so essentially abstaining from the process. Only 14 members of the House voted against it, which sort of shows the climate politically in these major centers of power, and shows that there is really a broad consensus on support for Israel in the U.S. Congress. Thanks so much, Natalia. We'll come back to you for further updates on what is happening in the United States. The Rishisuna government is continuing its right-wing policies with respect to immigration and refugees, and specifically the much reviled Rwanda deal. British Home Secretary James Cleverly visited Kigali to sign a fresh deal after the earlier version was struck down by the British Supreme Court. Now, the British government plans to address the concerns raised by the Supreme Court by certifying through the legislature that Rwanda is a safe country. The absurdity of this method aside, the deal has been severely criticized by rights activists. We go to Anish for more details. Anish, thank you so much for joining us. It's maybe in a way shocking, but maybe also not so much shocking considering this government that the Rwanda agreement, the immigration agreement which activists have been condemning for many, many months, many years now, is once again back on the table. We have the Home Secretary traveling to Kigali signing a deal. So what is this new Rwanda migration agreement about? Well, according to the UK government's statement, the agreement pretty much supposedly addresses the concerns that the Supreme Court, the UK Supreme Court had raised regarding the deal before striking it down as legal. Now the issue is that the only thing that it pretty much addresses is that Rwanda was not considered a safe country by the UK government while it was trying to implement the previous deal and now it pretty much will be doing the same right now, trying to declare the country as a safe country and then going ahead with the deal, a deal that they had spent millions of dollars more than 200 million already and not a single person has been sent, no asylum seeker has been sent to the country yet. Obviously because of the court cases and such, but definitely the fact that it is quite apparent that the UK government pretty much understands the kind of threat that they are putting all these asylum seekers through by sending them on a one-way trip to Rwanda pretty much and then overlooking that just to get a deal signed pretty much shows the desperation that the current government is and right now because this is pretty much the only thing that they have with the election season coming in, the only thing that they want to act on are immigrants and asylum seekers and pretty much crafting down on them, preventing them from entering the country and cutting down the number of people who come into the United Kingdom and that is the only thing that they have to actually consolidate its right-wing and conservative vote bases in the UK and also perhaps gain some votes from the non-conservative bloc as well but that remains to be seen because in every other aspect of the government, the British government, the Sunna government has failed miserably and that is pretty much for all to see at this current point in time Right, the government also announcing a new regarding immigration itself imposing some fresh restrictions and curbs, so what is that about as well? Well, it is pretty much going to set new criteria, more stringent criteria to actually immigrate into the UK including increasing the income criteria which was always the thing that the UK used to allow for people to migrate to Britain for work to about a significantly higher level, nearly 75% higher than the previous benchmark. It is also going to increase the income criteria for people who are already working in valid work visas to be allowed to have their families over or dependents into the United Kingdom and despite assurances that the healthcare sector will be actually exempted from this new set of policies on certain levels. So it is quite clear that it is these workers who are going to be the worst affected. The health and care sector in the UK for our audience are pretty much dependent right now on skilled migrant workers and it is pretty much on them that they work in the current system including the NHS and it is basically attacking many of them because most of them will not be having the same kind of income as the current set of criteria stipulate and that will actually force them to work in the UK alone without their families, without their dependent children and that is going to further discourage a large number of workers. And despite assurances that the health and care sector workers, migrant workers will be exempted under certain circumstances it is quite clear that the sweeping nature of these policies are going to affect them the worst at this point in time forcing many of them to work without their families even many might even be forced to report back their families in fact back to their home countries and that is going to and pretty much that is the intention they do not want people like the whole point how rhetoric against immigrant has completely gone from just targeting undocumented workers which was always dog whistle to attacking minorities but it has gone from there to not having or not wanting immigrants altogether and there is this whole very ambitious plan for them to cut down about 300,000 migrants net immigrants into the country by the next year and that is simply the point this has reached a sort of peak in many ways and will pretty much mimic the right wing rhetoric that there are not like the immigration has gone out of control they are already seeing like supposedly the most diverse cabinet in UK history and it's pretty much the black brown ministers and prime ministers who are actually pushing for a policy that is going to attack and target workers not just workers migrant workers but also students many of the students will be now far like already the student visas are far very highly scrutinized in the UK but it will go down a step further now preventing them from actually landing a job even in many cases through different routes and that is again that is definitely going to affect and impact how you know migrants are going to be viewed rather than actually preventing or controlling the flow of migrants as they plan to do and on top of that they are not addressing some of the big issues which are far more than migrants which is the fact that the UK the British government has been incapable of controlling inflation incapable of controlling you know spiraling poverty rates and that and the complete lack of investments into health sector into welfare is pretty much the reason why these resources are stretched and it's not immigrants who are already contributing far more than they actually gain from coming into the country and this is definitely an attempt to you know take away attention from their failures at governing the country to people who are already the most vulnerable in the United Kingdom Renish thank you so much for that analysis this is an issue we've been tracking very closely and I think we will continue to track especially as we move towards election year as well thank you so much and that's all we have time for today we'll be back tomorrow with another episode in the meanwhile please visit our website peoplesdispatch.org follow us on all the social media platforms and if you're watching this on YouTube please hit that subscribe button