April 01, 2012

Broadcast Date: 
Apr 1 2012

Beyond the Pale mourns the passing of the glorious poet and activist Adrienne Rich z"l.  Tune in to our April 8th show for a special tribute,

The pressure for and the consequences of a military assault on Iran.

What's next? We talk with two activists with Israel's July 14th movement for social justice.

Episode segments
  • Iran: Is a military attack inevitable and what will be the consequences?
    Foreign Policy, International Politics, Middle East

    Trita Parsi is the co-founder and current President of the National Iranian American Council and the author of A Single Role of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran and Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (both from Yale University Press).

    Marsha Cohen is a foreign policy analyst blogger and writer, specializing in Israeli-Iranian relations.  She writes at Lobelog and various other venues.
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Once again in the run-up to a US Presidential election the Israeli government, abetted by their allies in the US Congress, neo-conservative think tanks and AIPAC, is warning that Iran is on the brink of nuclear capability or worse, of acquiring a nuclear weapon, posing an existential threat to Israel and the region. Time is running out and all options must be on the table, particularly a military attack.  We talk with Trita Parsi about: what is known about Iran's nuclear program, the institutional and political obstacles to a diplomatic rapproachment, and about the realpolitik agenda behind Israel's concerns.

    Drawing on what we've learned from the invasion of Iraq, Marsha Cohen lays out for us the likely consequences of a military assault on Iran; consequences that have not been addressed in the mainstream media amid the talk of rising oil prices, a Hezbollah attack on Israel, and attacks on US targets in the region.

  • What's Next for Israel's J14 Social Justice Movement?
    Israeli Politics

    Stav Schaffir is a writer and spokesperson for the Israeli social justice movement, J14.   Her columns have been published in Haaretz, Yedioth Achronot, TheMarker, and Ynet.  In 2011 she was an editor for The Refugee Voice, an independent newspaper for the refugee community in Israel, published in 4 languages.

    Yonatan Levi is also a journalist.  He worked for several years as a magazine reporter, editor and translator for Yediot Achronot.  He also as the founding editor of The Refugee Voice.  He is currently on leave from his studies in literatue and history at Tel Aviv University.
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Several months before Occupy Wall Street activists gathered in Zuccotti Park, a tent city sprang up on one of Tel Aviv's most elegant boulevards and seemingly overnight hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands and then hundreds of thousands of Israelis were demonstrating throughout the country.  The numbers were staggering, the equivalent of 17 million Americans. 

    Initially organized to protest the high cost of housing, the protests quickly grew to embrace a wide range of familiar complaints--the growing gap between rich and poor, draconian cuts in spending on social and health services, the inadequacy of public transportation, the cost of education, privatization of state assets and so on. 

    Beyond the Pale talks with two of the movement's organizers about what they've achieved so far and about their plans for the future.  We also ask about making common cause with Palestinian citizens of Israel and about why they haven't said more about the settlements.