AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to switch gears a bit, although, I mean, there are, of course, connections. You have the latest news, where the Israeli prime minister also talked about Charlie Kirk as — I think he called him “a lionhearted friend of Israel” who “fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization,” he said. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces rounded up over 1,500 Palestinians in Tulkarem Thursday, ordering a curfew for the city’s residents. The crackdown came as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu approved a plan to dramatically expand illegal West Bank settlements, greenlighting the construction of 3,400 new homes on land Palestinians want for a future state. Netanyahu spoke at a signing ceremony Thursday.

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] We said there would not be a Palestinian state, and we say again there won’t be a Palestinian state. … This place is ours. We will take care of our country and our security and our heritage.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you have Netanyahu at the signing ceremony saying that he would — there is no place for a Palestinian state. Your response, Mehdi Hasan?

MEHDI HASAN: One of the only good things, Amy, about this Israeli government, which is the most far-right, racist, genocidal government in Israel’s history, which is saying a lot — one of the only good things about this Israeli government is that they just — you know, they say the quiet part out loud. They do say what they’re thinking. They do say what they mean and mean what they say. So, when they say there will be no Palestinian state, that’s the truth. They don’t plan to have a Palestinian state. They are opposed to a Palestinian state, which is much more refreshingly honest than some of those Israelis in the past who have said, “Oh, yeah, we support a two-state solution,” while carrying on building the same settlements that Netanyahu and Smotrich and co. are doing.

It just reminds us of how much gaslighting, Amy, there is in this country, in our media, in our Congress, where Democrats, in particular, hide behind the two-state solution crutch. “Oh, yes, my solution, a two-state solution.” Well, there is no two-state solution. The Israeli government says there is no two-state solution. They are doing everything in their power to make sure that a two-state solution can never happen, practically, by, you know, cutting up the land, building Israeli settlements that will prevent the establishment of any future Palestinian state. So, in that sense, you know, thank you, Netanyahu, for saying what we already knew, that you are someone who’s opposed to a Palestinian state, who has blocked a Palestinian state multiple times, including right now.

By the way, Amy, I should also point out, Bezalel Smotrich is the one who announced those settlements in the West Bank, and Netanyahu is now echoing what Smotrich says. Again, there’s a faction in this country that wants to say, “Oh, ignore Smotrich. He’s just a fringe figure.” No, Bezalel Smotrich is the finance minister of Israel. He’s in control of the West Bank. And what he’s doing, Netanyahu is following. So this is the entire Israeli government. This is their worldview.

By the way, you mentioned 1,500 people taken in the West Bank. And there’s a word for that. It’s called “hostages.” There are Palestinian hostages being held by Israel without charge, disappeared. No one knows where they are. They’ve committed no crimes. They are hostages in the same way that the people Hamas took were hostages.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to also switch to another issue. Last week, the U.S. attacked a boat in the southern Caribbean, killing at least 11 people. President Trump claimed the boat was carrying drugs from Venezuela, but offered no proof. The Pentagon recently sent warships to the region, after Trump secretly authorized use of military force in Latin America under the guise of the “war on drugs.” In response, Congressmember Ilhan Omar has introduced a new War Powers Resolution seeking to block the Trump administration from conducting future military strikes in the Caribbean. This is Congressmember Omar speaking to you, Mehdi, Thursday in a Zeteo town hall.

REP. ILHAN OMAR: It is Congress that declares war, and we have not been given that, that authority, by this president. And it’s, I think, really important for us to insert our authority in declaring war. What we are seeing with multiple strikes throughout the world that the president has authorized is that he does not have the authority to be able to do so, and specifically the strike that was carried out in the Caribbean against the Venezuelan vessel. I think it’s important for the people to recognize that we cannot just go out and terminate people. You know, this is — this is not something that is allowed under international law, and it’s certainly not allowed under U.S. law.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Ilhan Omar speaking to you, Mehdi. AP is reporting the Venezuelan boat was heading back to shore when the Trump administration bombed it, and that might have been bombed twice. And the whole question being raised: If it was a drug boat, why were there so many people on it? Were these, in fact, migrants? Mehdi Hasan, the significance of what’s taken place, and also the latest news that the House passed legislation to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Iraq authorizations for use of military force, the AUMF, in a bipartisan — 

MEHDI HASAN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — vote Wednesday, moving against two pieces of legislation that have vastly expanded the president’s ability to use military force in the U.S.’s forever wars in the Middle East?

MEHDI HASAN: Well, let’s start with the AUMFs that you mentioned. Yes, they have been used to expand power and force of the U.S. state. They have been abused by presidents of both parties, stretched beyond all imaginable use based on the original intent of those AUMFs. I’m glad they were repealed, but look at how long it took, you know, over 20 years for the “war on terror” one, for the 2002 one for Iraq, over 30 years for the original Gulf War one.

This is why I’m skeptical that Ilhan Omar’s War Powers Resolution will go anywhere. She’s much more optimistic than I am. I interviewed her yesterday, as you showed. She thinks she’ll get a lot of votes for it. Unfortunately, our Congress loves endless war. Our Congress loves to hand over its war-making power to the president, both parties. And therefore, it is very worrying when you have a president like Donald Trump in the White House and the power he has.

And, you know, Barack Obama, with his drone strike policy, laid the groundwork for Donald Trump’s drone strike policy. Donald Trump, in his first term, actually carried out more drone strikes than Barack Obama did in his two terms. People don’t know that. But, of course, all of that was set up for Trump.

And you look at that boat attack. It does look more and more like an act of mass murder, 11 people killed. We don’t know their names. We don’t know who they were. We don’t know what they are supposedly accused of, just a generic “They are narcoterrorists. They are drug traffickers.” Based on what? The whole point of the United States is that the president doesn’t just get to kill people and we believe him on his say-so, especially this president, who lies about everything.

We just learned recently, Amy, from The New York Times that in his first term, he sent the SEALs into North Korea to plant a listening device, and those Navy SEALs ended up killing a boat full of unarmed Koreans, North Koreans, and then coming out and not telling the world, not telling the United States, not telling Congress. So, why would we believe anything Donald Trump says on the national security front? You trust you trust Marco Rubio? You trust Peter Hegseth? You trust Donald Trump? No.

In fact, The New York Times is reporting this week that the boat was turning around, and they still attacked it. This was a boat that was 2,000 miles away from the U.S. coastline. There’s no scenario in which you can say, “It was an imminent threat to the U.S. That’s why we attacked it.” It was thousands of miles away, and it was heading in the other direction and, as you say, had 11 people on board, which is very strange. Most drug boats don’t have that many people on board. So, I hope there is some kind of investigation, an international one, if not a U.S. one, because it looks like Donald Trump may have just murdered 11 innocent people.

AMY GOODMAN: Mehdi Hasan, I want to thank you for being with us, award-winning journalist, editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo. We’ll link to your new piece, “Hypocritical Conservatives Are Using Charlie Kirk’s Horrific Murder to Cynically Smear the Left.”

Again, this breaking news: President Trump says that the suspected shooter is in custody. And also this breaking news: Trump says he’ll send the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee.

Coming up, Brazil’s Supreme Court has sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison after being convicted of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: The late, great Odetta, performing in our firehouse studio September 11th, 2002, a year after the September 11th attacks. Yesterday was the 24th anniversary of those attacks.