July 5, 2009

Broadcast Date: 
Jul 5 2009

Tom Robbins on the policy agenda behind the Albany Senate gridlock; Roya Hakakian on the social forces behind the Iranian protests; plus Israel intercepts a shipment of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Episode segments
  • The Policy Agenda Behind the Albany Senate Coup
    New York Politics
    Tom Robbins is a staff writer with the Village Voice.
    Esther Kaplan

    Tom Robbins unpacks the hidden agenda behind the comic-book facade of the Senate gridlock in Albany. It is, he argues in a recent Village Voice article, "the local version of a banana republic coup" with much at stake for New Yorkers.

     

  • Is the Iranian Revolution Over?
    International Politics, Middle East
    Roya Hakakian is a print and broadcast journalist, documentary film maker, poet and memoirist, a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and a board member of Refugees International.  In her memoir, Journey to the Land of No, she describes growing up as a Jewish teenager in post-revolutionary Iran.
    Esther Kaplan

    The violent suppression of the street protests in Iran has moved the struggle for reform to inside the precincts of the regime itself.  We talk with Roya Hakakian about the prospects for change in the short and long runs, the role of women in the opposition movement and how the global community should respond.

  • Israel Intercepts Free Gaza Movement's Latest Aid Shipment
    Israel/Palestine, Occupation
    Ewa Jasiewicz is a freelance journalist and a coordinator of the Free Gaza movement.
    Esther Kaplan

    On Tuesday, June 30 the Israeli Navy intercepted and boarded the Greek ferry, The Spirit of Humanity, which was carrying the Free Gaza movement's latest shipment of humanitarian aid and reconstruction supplies for Gaza.  The boat's cargo was confiscated and its passengers--21 human rights workers and journalists, including  Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and International Solidarity Movement co-founder Adam Shapiro-- were taken to an Israeli port, where they were held and charged with entering Israel illegally.  (They've since been released and deported.)

    Click here for Gideon Levy's scathing commentary in Haaretz.