 It's been a month since Operation Alexa Flood and Palestine and the world will never be the same again. One month since the war on Gaza began, what are its implications? Hundreds of thousands of workers in Quebec and Canada walked out of their jobs on Monday in the first leg of a protest action. What are they demanding? This is the Daily Debrief. These are your stories for the day and before we go any further, if you haven't hit that subscribe button yet, please do. Today is November 7th and it's been one month since Operation Alexa Flood launched by the Palestinian resistance groups and one month since Israel's brutal war on Gaza began. It's safe to say that the region will never be the same again. The past month has been many things. It has torn the facade of Israel's claim to superiority and democracy, exposed the hollowness of every pious word spoken by the United States and above all, these 31 days have been a testimony to the resilience and resistance of the people of Palestine. This one month has also shown that regardless of what governments across the world say, the streets stand with Palestine. We go to Abdul for the analysis of the past month. Abdul has been one month since what is called Operation Alexa Flood and I think it's safe to say that much has changed in the world. It's no longer the region will never be the same again. Dramatic changes which I think will impact or resonate for decades I think. So maybe one month down the line could you sort of take us through what you analyze as the overall situation in Palestine as far as the developments are concerned? There are different ways one can look at what happened in last one month and how it has impacted the overall situation both in relation to the Palestinian question and also in relation to the global politics. When we talk about the Palestinian question, of course, the war apart from bringing destruction to the Palestinians in Gaza or kind of another set what Palestinians called the Nakba, that forced displacement of people as if Israel is helping to kind of remove a large number of Palestinians from the part of Gaza in order to in fact today Netanyahu said that he wants to maintain the control over Gaza for a few he did not say period for indefinite period after the war. It means that there is the Palestinians as far as the Palestinians in Gaza in Gaza is concerned of course they are facing renewed attack and there is full displacement and so on and so forth destruction. The humanitarian situation has gone back to worse. All those are on one point the material losses and the loss of the people life. Apart from that when we analyze it in the political context we also see that this war has also kind of brought the issue of Palestine back into the global politics. The kind of popular support the Palestinians issue has got all across the world. The kind of mobilization we have seen is very much unprecedented in the sense that after 2003 this is the largest popular mobilization on the streets all across the world. And this shows that at least you can say the unintended consequences from the Israeli perspective is the question of Palestine is no more kind of secondary subject to be discussed and people are trying to put it on the main course so that is one when it comes to the Palestinian issue. As in terms of the global politics of course this has exposed the war in Palestine the war in Gaza has exposed the imperialist project which Israel is and how kind of the Hippocratic the global politics pursued by the superpowers like us has been how that the talks of human life is empty. How they have been kind of reluctant to even implement the basic principles which they claim to champion on when it comes to Palestine people of Palestine the children of Palestine dying in hundreds every few hours. So yes of course there are there is a negative side the number of people have died the number of children in Palestine have died it has created an unprecedented humanitarian situation on the ground. But also it has kind of kind of reenergized the anti imperialist feelings in the large part of the world and kind of also brought the issue of Palestine back into the focus. So these are two ways of looking at how the war in Palestine this war in Palestine has impacted the global politics in last one month. It's an interesting point that you mentioned because I think like we talked about in earlier episodes this this the nature of Israel's brutal attack has thrown into sharp focus. You know where whereas earlier people could restrict themselves to statements or even in some cases pretend not to see or make very ambivalent statements now that is becoming increasingly untenable. And even for the United States in fact for all their attempts but let's maybe take a look at some more detail at the US approach itself because that has been very central to this whole question. And I think it's been quite revealing to see the extent to which the United States has been you know it is always backed Israel for decades of course. But the extent to which the United States is playing you know a very unfortunate brand of politics we know for instance that they even voted against the mention of a humanitarian ceasefire and insist on you know changing the language. So how do you see US politics you know its role in the region right now. Well as I said before this has basically exposed the US policies in the region like never before. Of course we have seen that in the last few years there has been greater realization that about Israel sorry about US policies the kind of you can say the emptiness or the rhetoric of the US policy being so empty of substance that on one side it talks about democracy human rights and kind of rights of the people in different parts of the world for example in Ukraine. But when it comes to kind of taking any stand in support of kind of freedom of people which everyone knows how Palestinians have been occupied and this is you can say in one way is the last surviving colony of the old type. Despite its being well known US has kind of refused to acknowledge that fact and has tried to play a role of kind of mediator between the two conflicted party this idea of two conflicting parties kind of putting Palestinians as an equal to Israel as if one is not occupied and one is not the That basically was not very clear all these years to a large part of large generation particularly which was born you can say post 1990s post 2000 and that basically has kind of been exposed like never before. If you see how they kind of vetoed the as you rightly pointed out in the United Nations Security Council resolution which basically talks about humanitarian ceasefire how they basically have deployed armaments and increase their presence military presence in the region just to kind of protect Israel's war in Gaza and how they basically trying to kind of in a way run Israeli foreign policy while Blinken and Biden visiting the region repeatedly trying to persuade Arab countries not to do anything not to kind of issue statements which are considered to be a quote unquote harmful to what Israel is doing. All of these basically in a way reaffirms the long standing and long held understanding of a section of the people that US is basically an imperialist project sorry Israel is basically an imperialist project in the region and US is the real the real puppet master and this as I said for a generation this was not the thing to be a thing to kind of accept now because of the things happening the way it is unfolding despite the media gag and everything this is reaching to a large part of people and they are increasingly realising how this is the case and in a way of course we don't know what will happen in future but in a way it is basically a kind of move forward for the much more just international politics in a way. That's a good point Abdul because I think like you were saying there's been maybe a normalization of the violence against Palestinians that has been taking place because one the intensity and regularity with which Israel has been conducting it over the years we've seen repeated attacks on Gaza, we've seen the kind of you know offensives that are taking place in West Bank, East Jerusalem and all that and whereas you know now many of those it has been thrown even starker. But one interesting thing you mentioned is also about the region itself and we know that prior to this there was this process of normalization which was going on which really the US had invested in massively and even some countries in the region at various levels were interested. The big question at that time was whether Saudi Arabia would at that point and there was also a different dynamic where within the region itself countries were sort of trying to work out the differences like between Iran and Saudi Arabia etc. So how do you see this last month and the kind of impact it has had on all these processes? Well I think the so called Abraham Accords are dead by and large for one reason nobody is saying that there will be no normalization with Israel in future but the way US has tried to push it kind of completely neglecting the Palestinian cause and it seemed for a while that a section of the Arab countries are very much willing to kind of accept that kind of approach is no more viable now and because not only because the number of people killed or the kind of atrocities and occupation has been exposed to the ruling classes no it is because the Arab population also has become much more assertive in a way that they are no longer willing to accept whatever comes from their governments in a way they were ready to do it before because for a very long time it seemed as we discussed earlier that the issue of Palestine is now almost like a very minor issue related to a small part of the world which has nothing to do with the rest of the Arab countries. Now the way it has unfolded the way it has required despite US attempts not to take regional regional dimensions it has taken regional dimension in a way that as I said before that Anthony Lincoln had to visit the region three times within a month to kind of persuade countries not to do it and so despite all those attempts it has acquired a regional dimension and the people in these countries are of course will not accept the kind of narrative which was being all this while that Palestine is not an issue for them. It is now much more accepted that Palestine is an Arab issue Palestine is a global issue it is an issue related to justice for the Palestinians that is one. One small point should also be made about the kind of image Israelis were trying to portray all this while in among the Arab countries that they are economically and technologically Israel is a superior country and Arab countries will benefit if they kind of align with Israel in one way or another and there is no benefit they are gaining if they are kind of in the name of Palestine they are kind of keeping away from Israel. So it is more harmful to keep away from Israel and it is beneficial to kind of be aligned with Israel. This notion has also been questioned in last one month because the small Palestinian resistance movement has been able to inflict a kind of attack on Israel which basically questions is so-called technological superiority or the superiority in weapon production and so forth. It has to depend it is very clear on the weapons supplied by the US diplomatic support supplied by the US money given by the US around $4.5 billion in aid. So all this basically exposes the invincibility of Israeli model in the region and that also will have an impact on the future diplomatic attempts to kind of make Israel much more acceptable in the region until there is an independent Palestinian state. Right, Abul, thank you so much for that analysis. So many issues like you said you know the question among other things for instance the whole question of the two state solution being dead has again once again become clear so much more clearer right now after all these developments as well. We also know that in the northern border Hezbollah has also taken a very powerful stand which you know which will only increase you know the problems Israel is facing and not to mention. I think Benjamin Netanyahu being more exposed than ever before in his political career so much to you know talk about as well. But thank you so much for that analysis and we'll be coming back to you for regular updates on Gaza on the resistance to Israeli occupation and apartheid. Around 400,000 workers in Quebec and Canada are gearing up for one of the largest public sector strikes in decades. In the Arab workers across sectors walked out of their jobs on Monday and are set for a major round of protest actions in the third week of November. Now the demands of those being made by workers across the world pay hikes that deal with inflation, decent working conditions in short respect for the labour. But the government seems unwilling to acknowledge these concerns if you go by the offers that they're making. Anish joins us for more. Anish thank you so much for joining us. Quite a massive strike by you know protest action by workers across sectors in Quebec actually and you know also sort of testimony to the kind of rising aggressiveness assertiveness of labour movements in that region as well. So could you maybe first take us through exactly what kind of workers are protesting, what are the kind of demands they've been putting forward and why are they making these demands? So right now what we're looking at is about four major sectors pretty much related to education, healthcare and social services. We are witnessing a whole host of strikes by different classes of workers. What we can look at is that it is not an entirely total strike that is shutting down the entire sector. But a certain kind of targeted strike that where you have public sector workers and essential services, you know, being running but other than that you have a whole host of other workers walking out. And that's about just 400,000, more than four, around four and 20,000 workers and that's a massive turnout for us, you know, a statewide strike in many ways. And that that is actually one of the highlights and we can actually expect more strikes in coming days. On 21st there was going to be another three days strike and there are probably going to be other strikes that are happening outside of this, you know, this coalition of trade unions of four major trade unions that are working in hand together. And these trade unions are pretty much the ones who are right now negotiating with the government for a wage hike. And in this, the strike itself is a result of the fact that the kind of offer that the government has given is not satisfactory. They have given a 10 percent, a 10.3 something percent of wage hike over the next five years. And that is not even, you know, forget about accommodating inflation rates. It's not, it's barely, you know, a two percent or two and a half percent rate hike over the next five years. And that is really not, you know, in keeping with any kind of precedent even, be it in Canada or Quebec. And this is something that is being strongly opposed. Obviously, they are having to deal with a very conservative, fiscally conservative government that does not believe that wage hikes are necessary for workers to thrive or survive even in the current situation. And despite the fact that Canada, unlike, you know, other western nations or even its neighbor, the United States hasn't done that badly when it comes to the cost of living crisis. It has, you know, managed decently well, but that doesn't mean that the effects were not felt on the working classes. And we have also seen, like many other places, rail wages coming down dramatically over the past few years. And so what the workers are looking for is an inflation, not just an inflation adjusted wage hike, but an inflation based wage hike over the next several years. And they have made that very clear, but the government pretends that there is no concrete, you know, proposal on the part of the trade unions, which is also not true. We have actually seen very clear set of demands. It says that they obviously haven't come up with an entire tentative deal. And that's the only thing that the government has against the trade unions as of now. We can actually, we are also seeing, you know, a set of strikes by teachers and nurses in this week load. And thousands, tens of thousands of other public sector workers in these sectors will be actually walking out of their jobs. And that will also be, you know, that will be happening aside from these four major trade unions calling for a national strike. So that is pretty much the scenario that we're looking at. We're looking at a generalized labor militancy of public sector workers, which obviously is coming from, you know, a significant level of victories that workers in North America have seen. And, you know, the least of all, which we saw with the trade, with the trade unions in automotive sector in the U.S. gaining major heights, especially bringing back cost of, cost of planning adjustments. This is definitely something that has boosted workers morale and the resolve to fight for fair wages and fair contracts in the coming years. Anish, I actually wanted to sort of ask you some more a bit about the last point you were mentioning, which is that there has been a general, you know, increase in assertiveness in, you know, the stress in terms of strengthening of trade union movements as well. So how do you see this happening in Canada as a whole as well? In part, like there are certain social contexts that are different in the case of Canada and the U.S. as well, at least in the case of Quebec, very specifically. But you do see certain kind of, you know, a overlapping of, you know, social struggle and working class struggle happening on the same plane, actually. Right now, the public sector workers that we're looking at are majority women. And that definitely is a major aspect on how and the necessity of this workers mobilization happening because obviously women, much like many other places are underpaid and compared to their male counterparts. And obviously, this mobilization is also highlighting that aspect of it, the fact that these public sector workers, especially in, you know, as teachers, as nurses, as auxiliary healthcare workers, as social service workers are, you know, a majority of them, a overwhelming majority of them being women. They do have to be, you know, given a certain kind of consideration on that level as well. So you are also seeing a certain kind of gendered class struggle in many ways in the way that they are pushing for better wages and better affair contract, along with the fact that there is a growing moment to actually address gender inequality in these sectors as well. So that apart from that, we, as I said, the victories of working class movement, not just in, you know, say what we saw with forge and remotors and, you know, all the automobile sector workers making major gains very recently. We have also seen strides being made in new forms of trade unionization in sectors that never really saw unionization before. And that is that has also rubbed off into Canada at this point. And this is pretty much an outcome of those victories and obviously the growing movement to bring out, you know, work, working class needs and, you know, working class demands to the forefront and to, you know, to the national position, which we have to point out like was more or less absent in the pre pandemic era, even though there were mobilizations that the impact that they had and the capacity to mobilize was severely restricted for various historical reasons. But right now they are overcoming all of that to actually make sure that there is, you know, a class mobilization happening that, you know, that hasn't happened for decades in the continent actually. And so this is part of that an extension of that and probably we will be seeing more, as I said, there are more mobilizations outside of this set of strikes in Quebec alone, and similarly in different parts of Canada. So we will be seeing more such trade union militant trade union mobilizations in the coming days in Canada for sure. Anish, thank you so much for that update. We'll come back to you when some of those mobilizations you were talking about take place. And that's all we have time for in this episode of Daily Deep Brief. Do visit our website peoplesdispatch.org, watch our videos, and before you go any further, if you haven't hit that subscribe button on YouTube, please do.