October 11, 2009

Broadcast Date: 
Oct 11 2009

Hugo Chavez's "Jewish problem"; Jewish seniors weigh in on health care reform; plus, have town hall mobs hidden the way health industry lobbyists are using their financial muscle to shape the legislation?

Episode segments
  • Anti-U.S.? Anti-Israel? Anti-Semitic?
    International Politics, Israel/Palestine, Global, Occupation, Anti-Semitism, South America
    Sara Miller Llana is a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor, where she writes about Latin America.
    Josh Nathan-Kazis and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has long been a vocal opponent of the State of Israel and so wary of U.S. intervention that he has allied himself with U.S. bête-noires, Iran and Cuba.  But some worry that his geo-political interests overlap with a tendency to scapegoat Jews. Beyond the Pale talks with journalist Sara Miller Llano about what some Jewish leaders see as a new level of anti-Semitism in Latin American and especially in Venezuela.

  • Jewish Seniors Weigh in on Health Care
    Health Care, Domestic Policy, Jewish Communities, Jewish
    K.E.Feldman

    The New York Times reports that many U.S. seniors oppose changes to the health care system because they fear reductions in their Medicare benefits. Do Jewish senior share these fears?  Would they be willing to make some sacrifices to benefit the young and the middle aged?  K.E.Feldman visits the Workmen's Circle to find out.

  • Health Care Reform: Follow the Money
    National Politics, Health Care, Domestic Policy
    Sheila Krumholz is the Executive Director of The Center for Responsive Politics.
    Josh Nathan-Kazis and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    While the media has been focusing on the extreme rhetoric in the health care debate, in Congress it's been business as usual as health industry players use their financial clout to shape legislation.  The Center for Responsive Politics, in collaboration with the Sunlight Foundation, reports on the web of campaign contributions to key members of Congress, from outside lobbyists and their health industry clients.  Beyond the Pale talks with CRP's Executive Director about the ties between Finance Committee members and industry lobbyists (who are frequently former staffers) and the health care and insurance corporations and their trade associations.

  • Clawing Back Madoff Profits
    National Politics, Domestic Policy, Jewish Life, Jewish
    Josh Nathan-Kazis is a free-lance journalist and a regular contributor to Beyond the Pale.  He also writes for The Forward and is the News and Politics editor for The Faster Times.
    Josh Nathan-Kazis and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Should the net losers in the Madoff Ponzi scheme be able to claw back some of the profits from the net winners?  Does it/should it matter that some of the latter are charities?  Josh Nathan-Kazis explored this question in The Forward.