Useful Idiots

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Israel, the so-called beacon of democracy, with whom the U.S. shares so many values, and, to quote Hillary Clinton, an “unshakeable bond,” just passed an ethnicity-based death penalty law.

On March 30, the Israeli Knesset approved a law that was introduced by the party of National Security Minister Ben-Gvir that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners by hanging. Israeli prisoners are effectively exempt from this new law.

To analyze this “genocidal” new law, we speak with two guests: Haifa-based Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu, and Ofer Cassif, a member of the Israeli Knesset representing Israel’s Communist Party, who lives outside of Tel Aviv.

Useful Idiots: Ofer, you have called Israel’s new death penalty law “genocidal.” Can you elaborate?

Ofer Cassif: The law doesn’t apply to Jews. It applies solely to Palestinians. No need to say much about it. It’s very clear.

Secondly, they are tried by military court, and this law also says that the military court “must accept the death penalty.” It has no other choice. And the law has another section which says that the Chief Commander of the West Bank is not entitled to pardon nor to mitigate the death penalty.

When I say it’s a genocidal law more than a death penalty law, it’s not because it’s going to actually carry out a genocide. It’s because it enables and legitimizes a genocide. That’s the point.

How come? Those who propose the law and the majority of those who voted in favor of the law consistently say that there’s no such thing as Jewish terrorism. If the law deals with terrorists, and there’s no such thing as Jewish terrorists, by definition they are excluded altogether.

But the other side is that all Palestinians are terrorists.

The vast majority of those who proposed this bill and in the public at large argue that there aren’t innocent Palestinians. You remember that after October 7, the common parlance in the Israeli discourse was that ‘no one is innocent in Gaza,’ including the children. According to that, all Palestinians are terrorists. But if all Palestinians are terrorists, and this new law says the terrorists should be killed, what’s the logical conclusion? All Palestinians should be killed.

That’s the reason that I refer to it as a genocidal law.

Useful Idiots: Diana, I heard you in an interview with Jadaliyya where you said that this new death penalty law to some extent “doesn’t matter.” Can you expand on the law and what you mean that?

Diana Buttu: There are two different legal systems that exist from the river to the sea.

If you are an Israeli, no matter where your crime is committed, you’ll be tried under the Israeli civilian system. So what that means is that if you’re an Israeli settler who’s living in an illegal settlement in the West Bank and you kill a Palestinian, you’re going to an Israeli civilian court.

If you’re Palestinian, you’re going to an Israeli military court.

So what’s the difference? Under this new death penalty law, the civilian court can sentence the death penalty if the defendant killed “with the intent to deny the existence of the state of Israel.”

So let’s think about who is going to have intent to deny the existence of the state of Israel: it’s not going to be an Israeli settler because they’re killing in the name of the state of Israel.

Just this year alone, from the start of 2026, Israeli settlers have killed eight Palestinians, and none of them have been tried. Nobody’s even been arrested, much less tried. If you look at the percentages of Israelis who actually get any form of prosecution, it’s three percent. That’s it.

Let’s go to the other side, which is the military court system. Only Palestinians fall under that system. And what will happen under this new law is that it’s going to be a mandatory death sentence. And let’s look at the prosecution rates: 90 to 96 percent. The reason it’s so high is because they use “secret evidence.” They extract confessions through torture. So we now have a system where they’re going to impose the death penalty.

The reason I’ve said that it effectively doesn’t matter is because we’ve seen that Israel’s now killed, at a conservative estimate, 75,000 Palestinians. It’s committed genocide in Gaza. The Israelis openly talk about there being no innocence. They gun people down at random. As I mentioned, there’s very low prosecution rates, so they can already kill with impunity. So they’ve just codified it. Because they can. Because they know they’ve been able to get away with genocide. So why not entrench it in law? Why not? Why do anything but?

Subscribe to Useful Idiots to support our work and see the full interview with Knesset Member Ofer Cassif on whether Israel killed its own people on October 7 with the Hannibal Directive and the rise of Judeo-terrorism.

You’ll also get Katie and Aaron’s weekly news recap, including an analysis of Aaron’s latest appearance on Piers Morgan. It’s the Friday Free-for-All: Rubio Claims Iran Can’t Take Care of Its Own People As Trump Announces Daycare Will No Longer Be Funded By the Government

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week: “Imagine an Iran that instead of spending billions of dollars supporting terrorists or weapons, had spent that money helping the people of Iran, you’d have a much different country.”

President Donald Trump (who very clearly needs to arrange some sort of morning meeting with his staff to get their talking points down) this week: “The United States can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country, we have all these other people, we’re fighting wars! We can’t take care of daycare! You’ve got to let a state take care of daycare and they should pay for it too! They have to raise their taxes. It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. We have to take care of one thing: military protection.”

Which means, by Marco Rubio’s own logic, that since he runs a regime change operation against any country who he claims to choose war spending over its own people, that his next regime change operation MUST BE against: the United States.

It’s only fair, Marco.

Also in this Friday Free-for-All: Aaron returns to Piers Morgan Live to make an Iran argument in front of an international audience that no one else is making, walrus war hawk John Bolton can’t say what Trump’s plan is but loves it anyway (as long as it includes regime change), and Lindsey Graham actually can’t stop grinning as he talks about murdering Iranians.

Everything’s SICK! Watch with Katie and Aaron so you can laugh instead of cry at all of it. Thanks for supporting our work, subscribe to watch the full episode here:

Thank you to the generous Useful Idiots community: our second fundraiser just passed our goal of $20,000!

HEAL Palestine delivers urgent relief and long-term support to Palestinian children and families. Through their four pillars—Health, Education, Aid, and Leadership—they provide critical care and resources while centering grassroots leadership and community-led recovery.

This is our second fundraiser to get money to aid groups working in Palestine. Our first, for the Middle East Children’s Alliance, also raised over $20,000 to help kids in Gaza.

Thanks so much to our amazing community for sending help to those who need it most. To join our fundraisers for HEAL Palestine or the Middle East Children’s Alliance, click on the linked text and select the DONATE button on the fundraiser next to the video.

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– Katie, Aaron, and Wilson

Come see Aaron speak tonight (March 30) at a panel in Montreal: "The Struggle Continues: The Fight For Palestine Across Borders"

Katie and Aaron watched the worst people on the corporate Sunday news shows. They picked out the worst moments from the worst people. And then they watched them all live.

It’s a jam-packed episode making fun of Marco Rubio, Jake Tapper, Tom Cotton, and more unhinged warmongers. Subscribe to join our community and get full episodes, Friday Free-for-Alls, and bonus content.

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Katie and her fellow travelers got detained and interrogated by the US government on their way back from their trip to Cuba. Katie tells the full story.

PLUS: Ben Shapiro debases himself with an out-of-touch take on the US-Israel War on Iran, JD Vance tanks his political future with a weird nuclear-suicide-vest rant, former Secretary of State under Biden Antony Blinken goes dead-eyed to react to the thousands of murdered Iranians, and so much more.

Your support for independent media fuels our journalism in Cuba and analysis of the worst people in the country. Subscribe to support us and watch the full episode here:

Click here to join Katie and Aaron LIVE at 3:15pm est:

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First, Aaron goes live at 1pm est with Brazilian journalist Pepe Escobar to discuss the latest in BRICS, Israel, the US, and the war on Iran.

Then, Katie and Aaron are doing the Friday Free-for-All LIVE at 3:15pm est with a special update from Katie’s trip to Cuba. We’ll send that link out before the show.

It’s a busy week here at Useful Idiots, and with the news moving so quickly, the only way not to be outdated is to run it LIVE! See you soon

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This morning President Trump told Fox News that Iran “wants to make a deal badly,” and that the most recent talks happened last night with Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and their counterparts.

Awkwardly, the Iranians claim that no talks have happened. So who’s lying?

Are the Iranians misleading the media? Is Trump boasting a deal he’s unable to make? Or is this a repeat of what happened in Cuba, where Marco Rubio lied to Trump about fake negotiations in order to convince him that war was the only possible option? Did Witkoff and Kushner fake these talks to Trump?

Aaron and special guest Sana Saeed unravel the story and react to the varying degrees of warmongering responses given on social media. It’s an hour and 45 minutes jam-packed with liars, sycophants, warmongers, and corporate tools. You won’t want to miss it.

During all this, Katie’s on a mission to Cuba with CodePink, Jeremy Corbyn, and other brave journalists to end the murderous siege on the country. Your support for Useful Idiots helps fund the journalism we do!

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