June 13, 2010

Broadcast Date: 
Jun 13 2010

Efforts to muzzle critics of Israel intensify in North America and Israel; Middle East policy analyst Phyllis Bennis on the international fall-out from the flotilla attack; plus Part 2 of K. E. Feldman's Birthright Chronicles.

Episode segments
  • Efforts to Muzzle Critics of Israel Intensify
    National Politics, International Politics, Middle East, Israel/Palestine, Jewish
    Cecilie Surasky is deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace and blogs at Muzzlewatch.
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    We talk with Cecilie Surasky about the latest efforts to muzzle critics of Israel, including threatening counterdemonstrators in San Francisco (see video on our main page for June 13, 2010);  Jewish Community Relations Council -NY's efforts to deny U.S. visas to Gaza flotilla participants;  legislation in the Israeli Knesset to criminalize supporters of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions; and the vilification of 89 year-old Helen Thomas for her thoughtless and hurtfull suggestion (for which she later apologized) that Jews get out of Palestine and go home to Poland and Germany, while giving a pass to Jerusalem Post deputy editor Caroline Glick for her vile video, We Con The World (if you've the stomach for it, click here).

    But, on the brighter side, Toronto Pride's efforts to ban the phrase "Israeli Apartheid" backfire (for how to support Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, click here).  And Jewish Voice for Peace launches a divestment campaign tagetting TIAA - CREF.

  • Gaza Flotilla's Global Fallout
    Foreign Policy, Global Justice, National Politics, International Politics, Middle East, Israel/Palestine
    Phyllis Bennis is Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC, and a Fellow at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam.  Her most recent book is Ending the U.S. War in Afghanistan: A Primer.
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Phyllis Bennis was in Istanbul when Israel attacked the Gaza flotilla.  We talk with her about the reaction in Turkey and elsewhere, including within the Obama administration.  Are we at a turning point (once again)?

  • The Birthright Israel Chronicles: Part 2
    Israel/Palestine, Jewish Life, Occupation
    Beyond the Pale contributor K.E.Feldman
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    In February 2009, Beyond the Pale contributor K.E.Feldman went on a Birthright Israel trip.  This is the second of her Birthright Chronicles.