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.
December 6, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Part 3 of “What Is Zionism?” Zionism During the British Mandate for Palestine
Professor Arie Dubnov discusses the development of the Zionist movement during the British Mandate for Palestine. A historian who specializes in the study of Jewish nationalism, he holds the Max Ticktin Chair of Israel Studies at George Washington University where he serves as director of its Middle East program.
ListenNovember 29, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Part 2 of “What is Zionism?” Martin Buber and the Many Strands of Zionism (cont.)
Dr. Sam Brody, the author of the award-winning book Martin Buber's Theopolitics, discusses the many competing strands of Zionism and how they shaped the battle for Palestine. He also describes the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Martin Buber, whose prolific writings about Zionism and Israel/Palestine have been give relatively little attention as compared with his other works. Buber advocated for an egalitarian Zionism: a binational state in Palestine/Israel with equal rights for Jews and Arabs. Buber never gave up on his vision during his long career, which saw him flee to Mandatory Palestine from Nazi Germany. This is the second half of our conversation. The first half aired the previous week.
ListenNovember 22, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Part 2 of “What is Zionism?” Martin Buber and the Many Strands of Zionism
Dr. Sam Brody, the author of the award-winning book Martin Buber's Theopolitics, discusses the many competing strands of Zionism and how they shaped the battle for Palestine. He also describes the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Martin Buber, whose prolific writings about Zionism and Israel/Palestine have been give relatively little attention as compared with his other works. Buber advocated for an egalitarian Zionism: a binational state in Palestine/Israel with equal rights for Jews and Arabs. Buber never gave up on his vision during his long career, which saw him flee to Mandatory Palestine from Nazi Germany. This is part one of our conversation. Part two will air the following week.
ListenNovember 15, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Origins of Zionism (cont)
Professor Barry Trachtenberg continues discussing the origins of Zionism, a response to anti-Semitism that reflected the rise of nationalist movements in Europe. Until World War II, it was a minority movement within Judaism, one frequently facilitated by Christian Zionists who saw in Jews' return to Palestine after 2,000 years a fulfilment of Christian eschatology. From its inception it was a settler-colonial project that reflected European assumptions of cultural superiority, he says. Trachtenberg holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University.
ListenNovember 8, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Origins of Zionism
In the first of a series of programs on Zionism, Professor Barry Trachtenberg discusses the origins and early development of Zionism. Trachtenberg holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University, where he teaches courses on the Holocaust and Jewish responses to it as well as Zionism.
ListenNovember 1, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Palestine Exception at Swarthmore
Swarthmore students have faced unprecedented repression in their Palestine solidarity organizing in the past year, despite using tactics embraced in earlier campus struggles. A recent graduate of Swarthmore involved in campus divestment organizing details the double standard that exists at Swarthmore for Palestine-related speech. Students speaking out against the Gaza genocide, many of them low-income and/or people of color, face an array of administrative charges in an internal justice system that affords them few rights.
ListenOctober 25, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Israel’s Assault on the United Nations
Michael Lynk, professor of law at the University of Western Ontario and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied by Israel since 1967, discusses international law, Israel's defiance of it and its recent attack on U.N. peacekeeping troops in Lebanon. He notes that undergirding Western support for Israel is the residue of colonialism and the influence of a powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States.
ListenOctober 18, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The War is Coming Home: Palestinian and Israeli Peacebuilding Duo Call on Americans to Act
Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon are tourism entrepreneurs and peace activists that have been working for peace in Palestine and Israel for years. Hamas militants killed Maoz's parents on October 7th and Israeli prison guards beat Aziz's brother so severely that he died after being released from prison. Recently, they joined forces and are now traveling across the United States speaking about the need for Americans to act now for peace in the Middle East because inaction itself is a risk. They argue that their relationship, built on the basis of equality, offers a path toward reconciliation. The path of violence has led nowhere and the US has forgotten the art of diplomacy in its foreign policy.
ListenOctober 11, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Support for Israel Is Destroying U.S. Influence in the Mideast
Ambassador Chas Freeman, Jr., discusses the expanding wars in the Middle East, Zionist aims in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran, U.S. ineffectuality, and the catastrophic collapse of U.S. influence in the region.
ListenOctober 4, 2024 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Israel Applies Gaza Tactics in Lebanon as Hizbullah Refuses to Back Down
Heiko Wimmen of the International Crisis Group details the quickly changing situation in Lebanon and northern Israel after the assassination of Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and Iran's launch of ballistic missiles on Israel. We compare Israel's stated goals and tactics in Gaza with those in Lebanon. Absent a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel is unlikely to achieve its war aims in Lebanon.
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