 On this show, daily debrief, we have often talked about the disastrous impact of the Israeli assault on the health system in Gaza. This continues, of course, with health workers being killed or arrested, facilities being attacked and aid being denied. In the West Bank too, health facilities have been a target in various ways. From direct physical attacks to smear campaigns. We go to Anna to understand the picture. Anna, thanks so much for joining us. The situation in the West Bank often not so much talked about, but attacks continue. Of course, attacks have been continuing for a very long time, but also intensifying since October. So maybe first could you give us a general picture of what is happening to health facilities and health workers in that region? Well, the attacks are very different when you look at the form of them in the West Bank if we compare them to Gaza, of course. So in Gaza, while we know that hospitals have been under heavy bombardment, so direct physical attacks. In the West Bank, we are talking more about just intrusions by the Israeli occupying forces. And another kind of terror that is being disseminated among the people and the health workers in the health institutions and health centers there. So just one of those examples, you know, as many media outlets have reported last week, we have seen something that's rarely been seen. And that's an intrusion by armed forces who are masked as patients, as health workers in the hospital, where they killed three people. So this is something that, again, many Palestinian commentators have warned that we'll have a very long-lasting impact on how people in the West Bank perceive healthcare, about how they relate to healthcare and to health workers, and have warned that, of course, you know, fear is going to only to grow after that. So if we look at the forms of attacks that have been conducted against healthcare in the West Bank, we know that what the aim of those is is to dehumanize health services, to dehumanize health professionals, and essentially just to destroy the hope that people have and the relationships that they have established with the health system. And of course, these attacks starting way before October, so could you also maybe give us some kind of a context into what kind of, what has been the health scenario overall in the West Bank itself and the kind of pressure people there have faced? Of course, so, you know, I think that we've talked about it here on People's Dispatch and on daily debrief on a number of occasions. But of course, the attacks against healthcare are one of the main parts of the Israeli occupation and attacks on Palestine. Because if you destroy a health system, of course, you know, you're destroying something that people need to survive. So it's being done in different ways. Of course, we've reported on the cases where Israeli forces outlawed or persecuted Palestinian civil society organizations who were involved in the provision of healthcare. That includes the health work committees, of course, which the case of which we have reported on also for a long period of time was then former director Shadda Ode spent almost a year in jail. Because the Israeli occupation found it, you know, proper to just outlaw the organization and to persecute the work that they were doing. But then again, other problems which which the occupation is causing are of course very reliant on the administration and so-called administrative part of healthcare. Many people in the West Bank, most of them actually, they need to travel to reach hospitals to reach essential treatment. And for that, they need special permits. So we've known that over decades, of course, Israel was very, very conservative with the issue of such of such permits. We know that people have died because they had been waiting for permits too long. We know that children were not allowed to be accompanied by parents because children were granted the permit, but parents were not. And so what we have seen since October 7, 2023 is that Israel has virtually just, you know, stopped all the permits that were already in place. So that has meant that, for example, thousands of patients could not access cancer care because there is no cancer care in the West Bank because again the Israeli occupying forces are saying that the treatments that are needed, the equipment that is needed is dual use. So essentially, alleging that the establishment of cancer and oncological services in the West Bank would not be for health purposes, but for resistant purposes. So that is yet again one of the ways that healthcare in the West Bank is being attacked. Thank you so much, Anna, for the update. A new security bill is in front of the U.S. Senate. It includes provisions for more money for the wars of Ukraine and Israel and an extremely harsh set of rules for restricting the entry of migrants and refugees. However, despite this win-win for the proponents of war and xenophobia, some sections still seem not entirely happy and this bill might struggle to pass the other chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives. We go to Anish to understand the politics of this bill. Anish, thanks so much for joining us. We have talked about this bill in the past which the Republicans and the Democrats have very different reasons for trying to push through and hence a lot of the disagreement. But maybe could you take us through the origins, what is really the agenda of this bill and what is the latest proposal that is in front of the Senate? Well, when we talked about the entire defense spending at the time, a previous version of the bill was struck down, primarily because Republicans wanted a much stronger or a much harsher border security or border control policy. And that pretty much included not just limiting the number of people who entered the borders but also potentially creating a system that will push back on asylum seekers even. And that is pretty much why we see this kind of new bill with an additional set of spending being pushed through right now by the Senate in a bipartisan manner. It is being pushed through with the support of a bulk of the Democrats even in the Senate and possibly it might get a significant number of Democrats within the House of Representatives to back it up. This bill is going to include funding, extra funding for Israel, for Ukraine, for right now even China and the Red Sea. So what we're looking at is an expanded set of proposals, which is going to bring in one of the most harshest border control, border control policy under the Biden administration. And this will include putting a cap on weekly number of immigrants who cross the border, which apparently according to the bill should not cross more than 5000 and there will be emergency measures which will essentially shut down the borders for all effects and purposes, but it won't be a total shutdown and it will also take out all protections given to the dreamers, which are people who are protected under the DREAM Act that intends to protect those who came to the United States as children, undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children and grew up in the country and pretty much you know are part of the country as well, but have irregular documentations. And so it also takes out those kind of protections. So what the Republicans have achieved is one of the harshest border control policy under Democratic administration and that is pretty much a win-win for them because if you look at it, most of them also support the hawkish war mongering that the Democrats are also engaged in when it comes to the war in Ukraine or for that matter the war in Gaza and in both the cases there has been massive proposals for about $60 billion to be sent to Ukraine or to be sent for the war efforts in Ukraine, which will actually continue the war rather than bring an effective end or a proper ceasefire to this situation. And obviously it is going to put in about $16 billion, about $2-2.5 billion for what they call the Red Sea operations included into Israel, which is running a genocidal war. So all of this is basically, you know, clearly showing the United States and its political elites united in their war efforts and in their, you know, imperialism at the same time a big win for the Republicans if you consider if this actually gets through the house as well. Obviously, this is still not enough for the Republicans who continue to dominate the house. The speaker already saying that it will be dead on arrival. And so we are actually looking at a situation where the Democrats have to be, are being pushed into a corner and they're actually taking it up rather than fight back on these proposals. That is really my question that it fated the bill seems kind of uncertain in the House of Representatives. So and I think even Donald Trump has criticized it, the speaker of the House of Representatives has criticized it. So what more do the Republicans want considering the already harsh nature of this bill in every aspect? Well, one thing that we could figure out is that it has some, some basic level of protection, which is basically a universal international standard for protection for asylum seekers, many of whom might be fearful of their safety or the family safety if they were deported back to their home countries. And in many of these cases, there are protections being inbuilt into this bill. And this is something that many Republicans do not want. And there are other proposals which actually basically consider human rights and human safety into consideration at the very basic minimum level, even though it is still going to be an atrocious level of deportation and even possible pushback at the borders. We are looking at a situation where the Republicans want at least the most right wing of the Republicans really want to push through a version of the bill that will be uncompromising at all levels when it comes to immigration, because that's what they have used as their election plan. We must remember that the United States is already in the, in an election mode, and obviously the pro-Trump Republicans, which are increasing in numbers by the day when you, you know, as the primaries are nearing, it's going to be far more difficult for the Democrats to hold on to this unless, and the reason why the Democrats are holding on to this is primarily because they want to fund the war efforts in Ukraine and the war efforts in Israel. And that is pretty much their only version of appeasing the right wing war hawkish tendencies within the United States. So it is, and that is the only major foreign policy achievement under the Biden administration as well. So this is, this is not a very good situation to begin with, because obviously the Republicans are not really opposed to any of the, you know, continuing wars around the world, but it's, they're just using that as a bait as, you know, using the Democrats push for more wars, and hijacking that to get what they want, which is harsher border controls. And that is going to be a significant, we have to wait and see how things are going to pan out, because obviously the speaker is not representative of the majority of Republicans. So we will have to wait and see how things pan out in the house itself. But definitely things are quite unsure and uncertain at this point in time. And we might see some delays in the coming weeks, but you know, and might even see some amendments that might be even more surprising. But we have to really just sit back and, you know, watch how things pan out right now for the moment. Thank you so much, Anish for talking to us. That's all we have in today's episode. We'll be back with a fresh daily debrief tomorrow. In the meanwhile, do 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.