For anyone confused about the current impasse, we offer historical information that helps explain it. For anyone who has been hearing only a one-sided narrative that lacks balance and context, we offer a balanced narrative.
Accordingly, we broadcast interviews with journalists, scholars, policy experts and activists who provide perspectives from both sides. In contrast to headline news that focus on the what but not the why, our programs clarify underlying issues. The programs reveal the counter-productive role the United States has played over the years in supporting one side over the other.
Public debate about the oppression of Palestinians continues to be stifled. For this reason, we offer these programs as a resource for those seeking truthful, uncensored information about relations between Israel, Palestine, and the United States. Furthermore, we hope these programs get people to listen, learn, and do their own research into what is and has been taking place in Israel Palestine.
May 23, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Embattled Faculty Defend Students’ Right to Protest and Academic Freedom
University administrators have imposed an unprecedented array of repressive measures designed to squelch student protests against Israel's war in Gaza. Faculty have been affected as well, with many losing their jobs for advocating for Palestine. Margot Patterson talks to NYU Professor Andrew Ross, the secretary of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, a national network of 130 campus chapters supporting student protesters and academic freedom, and Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), about the repression of dissent on campuses and the new McCarthyism. More than just pro-Palestine speech is at stake, they say.
ListenMay 16, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Starvation and Sumud in Gaza
Zeiad Abbas Shamroukh, Executive Director of the Middle East Childrens Alliance joins the show to talk about the conditions people in Gaza are facing, as Israels total blockade on food, water, and medical supplies enters its third month and international groups warn of starvation and famine setting in.
ListenMay 9, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Part II of “The Gaza Catastrophe:” Israel Vows Intensified Assault on Gaza
Israel is calling up thousands of reservists to escalate its war on Gaza. Its vow to rescue the hostages and eradicate Hamas comes after 19 months of a brutal assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians but has not dislodged Hamas or freed the hostages. Middle East analyst Khaled Elgindy discusses how a far-right ideologically driven government and a prime minister desperate to stay out of jail are prompting Israel to declare new war aims that include holding territory, reoccupying the Gaza Strip and forcing the Palestinian population into a small area in the south.
ListenMay 2, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Gaza Catastrophe: What Next for Israel & Palestine?
Middle East analyst Khaled Elgindy discusses Israel's continuing bombardment and total blockade on food and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the U.S. role in the ongoing destruction of the Gaza Strip and its people, and what lies ahead for Palestinians and Israelis if and when Israel finally ceases its onslaught. Elgindy is the former director of the Middle East Institute's program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs and the author of "Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians from Balfour to Trump."
ListenApril 25, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Repost: Stories from Gaza with Mahmoud Mushtaha
This week we are rebroadcasting an interview we aired on June 28, 2024 by my co-host Margot Patterson. She interviewed journalist Mahmoud Mushtaha, assistant manager of We Are Not Numbers, a non-profit in Gaza that pairs young Palestinian writers with professional journalists to help them tell their stories to an English-speaking audience. Mahmoud had left Gaza for Egypt just a month before the interview, in which he describes the harrowing conditions he and his family faced in Gaza. The conditions that Mahmoud describes have only intensified since his interview in June 2024.
ListenApril 11, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The IHRA Definition of Antisemitism and the Threat to Free Speech
Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, discusses the threat to free speech posed by the International Holocaust Rembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of antisemitism being adopted by many institutions, communities and states in the United States and around the world. The IHRA It is currently under consideration in the Missouri legislature. The definition associates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. While opposed by a broad range of groups, including human rights organizations, civil liberties groups, Palestinian rights defenders, peace activists, progressive Jewish and Christian groups, and even some strong pro-Israel supporters, the IHRA is increasingly being used as a legal standard. Friedman says the IHRA Working Definition of antisemitism is part of a long-standing effort to chill free speech on Israel and Palestine and to limit what can be said about Israeli policies and practices.
ListenApril 4, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Project Esther and the Neuroscience of Solidarity
On Oct. 7, 2024 the Heritage Foundation unveiled Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism. Since the Trump administration took office, this document has served as the basis for the escalating crackdown on Palestine solidarity in the United States, under the guise of combating antisemitism. To unpack this document, we spoke with Dr. Yoav Litvin, author a recent article entitled Project Esther: A Trumpian blueprint to crush anticolonial resistance. We discussed the document's fascist, McCarthyist overtones and how the initiative can be resisted.
ListenMarch 28, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Assault on Universities and Free Speech on Palestine
Margot Patterson talks to Dr. James Zogby about the Trump administration's effort to deport foreign students and scholars who have protested Israel's war on Gaza. The attempt to stifle dissent over U.S. support for Israel is part of a larger attack on free speech and academic freedom at universities that the Trump administration is waging. Pollster, Middle East scholar and the founder and president of the Arab-American Institute, the political and policy research arm of the Arab-American community, Dr. Zogby says what's being dismantled is an architecture of human rights that will not easily be rebuilt.
ListenMarch 21, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Image and Reality of the Gaza Genocide (Part 2)
This is the second part of a talk given by Dr. Norman Finkelstein at the University of Connecticut on February 27. The talk was sponsored by the Northeast Connecticut Gaza Peace Group. In this part, Dr. Finkelstein discusses the consequences of the horror inflicted on Gaza and makes recommendations for the tactics and strategy of the movement moving forward.
ListenMarch 14, 2025 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Image and Reality of the Gaza Genocide
This is the first part of a talk given by Dr. Norman Finkelstein at the University of Connecticut on February 27. The talk was sponsored by the Northeast Connecticut Gaza Peace Group. In this part, Dr. Finkelstein dismantles the characterization of the devastation in Gaza as a war between Israel and Hamas. To make this argument, he makes observations about the nature of Israel's actions in Gaza, notes the rulings of international legal institutions, and points out the reports of major human rights organizations.
Listen