December 23, 2007

Broadcast Date: 
Dec 23 2007

A look at the silence that has characterized the US stance toward Israel's nuclear program, a sharp constrast with US policy toward nuclear pursuits by India, Pakistan, and Iran. Plus author Ruth Behar on the Jews of Cuba.

Episode segments
  • Israel and the Bomb
    Foreign Policy, Middle East
    Avner Cohen is the author of Israel and the Bomb and a fellow at the US Institute of Peace.
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark and Esther Kaplan

    Within the past year both Prime Minister Olmert of Israel and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have referred publicly to Israel as a nuclear power,  violating the longstanding don't ask, don't tell agreement established by Richard Nixon and then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. We discuss the origins of that agreement and subsequent US.policy toward India and Pakistan (like Israel, non-signers of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and Iran (a signatory).

  • Cuba's Jews
    Ruth Behar is the author of An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba.
    Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz

    In the wake of World War II, many European Jews found a haven in Cuba. But after the revolution, many, like Ruth Behar's parents, left for the US. In her new book, Behar uses reporting and photographs to describe a new generation of Cuban Jews.