Richard Seymour returns to PTO to discuss the crisis and background to the crisis in Israel-Palestine. A little over a week ago US national security advisor Jake Sullivan, speaking at the the Atlantic festival, rattled off a list of positive developments in the Middle East which he argued had allowed the Biden administration to focus on issues elsewhere in the world. Referencing the truce in Yemen, a decline in hostility in the US's relationship with Iran and what he characterised as America's stable presence in Iraq - where around 2,500 US soldiers remain - he commented that “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”

On Saturday Sullivan's comments came back to haunt him as Hamas carried out an unprecedentedly large scale breakout from the Gaza strip and launched attacks on the Israeli military and Israeli civilians that have claimed over 1200 lives at the time of recording. Deaths on the Palestinian side from Israel's predictable assault on Gaza are heading towards parity, and undoubtedly those numbers will escalate dramatically as Israel continues its air campaign and prepares to launch a ground assault. The following interview with Richard Seymour was recorded earlier today - the 11th of October - and before it became apparent that a national unity government would be formed in Israel.