Understanding Israel/Palestine

Send us a text Since it's founding in 1996, Jewish Voice for Peace has advocated for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation, apartheid and war. In early May, JVP held its first national meeting since 2017.  Some 2,000 members attended the national meeting in Baltimore, which JVP said was the largest gathering of anti-Zionist Jews in history. The convention drew well-known figures including Angela Davis, writer Naomi Klein, Congressman Rashida Tlaib, journalist Amy Goodman and others to discuss and organize how  to end U.S. support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza in the face of increasing government repression.  This episode airs some of  the speeches from that meeting. It  includes remarks by Stephanie Fox, executive director of JVP, and Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a board-certified  emergency medicine physician  at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Chicago who has provided emergency care to wounded patients in Gaza. 

Send us a textHow have humanitarian organizations managed to deliver life-saving aid to millions of Gazans despite the dangerous and difficult conditions since Oct 7? Despite their success, why have the US and Israel set up an alternative mechanism for distributing aid under the auspices of the secretive Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)? What principles guide the field of humanitarian relief, and how does the existing UN-backed mechanism compare with the practices of the GHF? Abby Maxman, President and CEO of Oxfam America, joined the show this week to answer some of these questions and call on the world to allow her colleagues to do what they do best: deliver life-saving food, water, and aid to the people of Gaza as the UN announces that the entire population of the enclave is now at risk of famine.

Send us a textUniversity administrators have imposed an unprecedented array of repressive measures designed to squelch student protests against Israel's war in Gaza. Faculty have been affected as well, with many losing their jobs for advocating for Palestine. Margot Patterson talks to NYU Professor Andrew Ross, the secretary of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, a national network of 130 campus chapters supporting student protesters and academic freedom, and Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), about the repression of dissent on campuses, the weaponization of antisemitism and the new McCarthyism. They say what's involved is not just pro-Palestine speech but an effort to destroy American universities. | 

Send us a text Zeiad Abbas Shamroukh, Executive Director of the Middle East Childrens Alliance joins the show to talk about the conditions people in Gaza are facing, as Israel's total blockade on food, water, and medical supplies enters its third month and international groups warn of starvation and famine setting in. 

Send us a textIsrael is calling up thousands of reservists to escalate its war on Gaza. Its vow to conquer the entirety of the Gaza Strip, rescue the hostages and eradicate Hamas comes after 19 months of a brutal assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians but has not dislodged Hamas. Khaled Elgindy discusses how a far-right ideologically driven government and a prime minister desperate to stay out of jail are prompting Israel to declare new war aims that include holding territory in the Gaza Strip indefinitely and forcing the Palestinian population into a small area in the south. The war plan approved May 4 by the Israeli cabinet comes as Israel maintains a total blockade on food, water, fuel  and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip imposed March 2. Middle East analyst Khaled Elgindy is the author of Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians from Balfour to Trump. He teaches at Georgetown University, is a frequent commentator on the Middle East for the BBC, Al Jazeera and other news outlets and is the former  director of the program on Israeli-Palestinian Affairs at the Middle East Institute.

Send us a textMiddle East analyst Khaled Elgindy discusses Israel's continuing bombardment and total blockade on food and humanitarian aid to Gaza, the U.S. role in the ongoing devastation there,  and what lies ahead for Palestinians and Israelis when Israel finally ceases its onslaught. Elgindy is the former director of the Middle East Institute's program on Israeli-Palestinian Affairs and the author of "Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians from Balfour to Trump." 

Send us a textThis week we are rebroadcasting an interview we aired on June 28, 2024 by my co-host Margot Patterson. She interviewed journalist Mahmoud Mushtaha, assistant manager of We Are Not Numbers, a non-profit in Gaza that pairs young Palestinian writers with professional journalists to help them tell their stories to an English-speaking audience. Mahmoud had left Gaza for Egypt just a month before the interview, in which he describes the harrowing conditions he and his family faced in Gaza. The conditions that Mahmoud describes have only intensified since his interview in June 2024. On March 2, Israel resumed its blockade of humanitarian supplies and on March 18 the ceasefire collapsed after Israel bombed Gaza, killing 400 people in one day. On April 3, Mahmoud published an article for 972 Mag entitled “In Gaza's devastated hospitals, treatable patients face ‘slow, quiet death.' In the piece, he describes the well-documented massacre of Red Crescent paramedics on March 23 and the almost complete collapse of Gaza's medical system.

Send us a textIn a talk given on Thursday, April 10 at the First Presbyterian Church in Hartford, Issa Amro reflects on the challenges he and Palestinians have faced in nonviolently resisting Israel's ethnic cleansing in and around Hebron following Oct. 7. Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights activist who has dedicated his life to peaceful resistance against Israeli occupation in the West Bank city of Hebron. Together with the activist group he founded, Youth Against Settlements (YAS), he has become a leading voice in the non-violent movement, striving to create a future where Palestinians live freely and with dignity. 

Send us a textLara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, discusses the threat to free speech posed by the International Holocaust Rembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of antisemitism now being adopted by many schools, institutions, communities and states. The definition associates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. While opposed by a broad range of human rights organizations, civil liberties groups, Palestinian rights supporters and religious groups, the IHRA is increasingly being used as a legal standard. Friedman says the IHRA is part of a long-standing effort to limit what can be said about Israeli policies and practices and to suppress free speech on Israel and Palestine.

Send us a textOn Oct. 7, 2024 the Heritage Foundation unveiled Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism. Since the Trump administration took office, this document has served as the basis for the escalating crackdown on Palestine solidarity in the United States, under the guise of combating antisemitism. To unpack this document, we spoke with Dr. Yoav Litvin, author a recent article entitled Project Esther: A Trumpian blueprint to crush anticolonial resistance. We discussed the document's fascist, McCarthyist overtones and how the initiative can be resisted.  

Send us a textMargot Patterson talks to Dr. James Zogby about the Trump administration's effort to deport foreign students and scholars who have protested Israel's war on Gaza. The attempt to stifle dissent over U.S. support for Israel is part of a larger attack on free speech and academic freedom at universities that the Trump administration is waging. Pollster, Middle East scholar and the founder and president of the Arab-American Institute, the political and policy research arm of the Arab-American community, Dr. Zogby says what's being dismantled is an architecture of human rights that will not easily be rebuilt.

Send us a textThis is the second part of a talk given by Dr. Norman Finkelstein at the University of Connecticut on February 27. The talk was sponsored by the Northeast Connecticut Gaza Peace Group. In this part, Dr. Finkelstein discusses the consequences of the horror inflicted on Gaza and makes recommendations for the tactics and strategy of the movement moving forward.

Send us a textThis is the first part of a talk given by Dr. Norman Finkelstein at the University of Connecticut on February 27. The talk was sponsored by the Northeast Connecticut Gaza Peace Group. In this part, Dr. Finkelstein dismantles the characterization of the devastation in Gaza as a war between Israel and Hamas. To make this argument, he makes observations about the nature of Israel's actions in Gaza, notes the rulings of international legal institutions, and points out the reports of major human rights organizations. 

Send us a textShaul Magid, visiting professor of modern Judaism at Harvard Divinity School, talks to Margot Patterson about the long-standing debate among Jews over Zionism and about the impact of the 1967 Six-Day War on the Zionization of American Jews. The author of several books on Jewish mysticism, radicalism and identity, Magid says anti-Zionism is a Jewish phenomenon as old as Zionism itself, and distinct from anti-Israelism among non-Jews.P

Send us a textShaul Magid, visiting professor of modern Judaism at Harvard Divinity School, discusses his views and personal experience of Zionism, a movement that he says was from its very inception beset by internal divisions. Magid lived in Israel for a decade. He talks to Margot Patterson about the 1940s when World War II transformed Zionism from an ideology into a means of survival and describes his own evolving perspectives on Zionism. Magid is the author of several books on Jewish mysticism and Jewish radicalism. His most recent book is The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance.

Send us a textWhat is the spectrum of Zionism in modern-day Israel? How has this changed over time, especially since October 7? And what forces are driving the continuation of the current ceasefire deal? Ori Goldberg, a political analyst and academic based in Israel, joined the show to answer these questions.  

Send us a textHistorian Michael Brenner discusses the secular roots of Zionism, the stance of Liberal Zionists and the shrinking space Liberal Zionism occupies in Israel today. A professor of Jewish history and culture at the University of Munich, Brenner also holds the Seymour and Lillian Abensohn Chair in Israel Studies at the American University in Washington D.C. There he is also the directer of the Center for Israel Studies. He is the author of numerous books on Jewish history, including “In Search of Israel. The History of an Idea” and “Zionism: A Brief History.”

Send us a textThough Christian Zionism precedes Jewish Zionism by almost two centuries, this fact is often overlooked in discussions of Palestine and Israel. In this illuminating discussion with Prof. Robert Smith (Chickasaw), he defines Christian Zionism, pinpoints its historical origins, and connects this to the interplay between theology and Western empire in the past and present.  

Send us a textA retired CIA officer, senior fellow at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University and author of several books on U.S. foreign policy, Paul Pillar discusses his recent article on why the ceasefire in Gaza is unlikely to last. He says the political realities in Israel militate against making the ceasefire anything but a temporary pause and explain Israel's escalating attacks in the West Bank, the continued presence of Israeli troops in Lebanon and Syria and Israel's determined pursuit of war.  t

Send us a textFor centuries, Western countries have been attacking indigenous peoples and stealing their land in an ongoing process of settler colonialism, engendering resistance and international solidarity. Mazin Qumsiyeh returns to the show to place the Gaza genocide into this historical continuum. 

Send us a textFollowing his death Dec. 29th, 2024, President Jimmy Carter received accolades for his many achievements, among them his key role in the  1978 Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. But little attention has been paid to President Carter's efforts to make peace between Israelis and the Palestinians despite the ongoing war in Gaza. An international human rights lawyer and the executive director of the Christian Palestinian organization Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), Jonathan Kuttab met Carter on several occasions. He talks about Carter's advocacy for Palestinians, the president's controversial 2006 book “Palestine: Peace not Apartheid,”  his meeting with Hamas leaders and his views on the pernicious role of the pro-Israel lobby.

Send us a textHow should those committed to human rights and Palestinian liberation analyze the geopolitics of the Middle East? What does it mean to be an internationalist when it comes to the question of Palestine and the fall of Assad? Answering these questions is Joseph Daher, author of Syria after the Uprisings, The Political Economy of State Resilience; Hezbollah: the Political Economy of Lebanons Party of God; and Marxism and Palestine.  

Send us a textIn a 2023 Christmas Eve sermon entitled “Christ Under the Rubble” that drew global attention, the Rev. Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem charged the Western church with complicity in genocide in Gaza. Rev. Isaac delivered another sermon - "Christ is Still in the Rubble" - one week ago on December 20, 2024. In light of this, we're reposting our September 2024 interview with David Wildman, executive secretary for human rights and racial justice with the United Methodist Church's General Board of Global Ministries, who attended the Christmas Eve 2023 service in Bethlehem. In his role, he serves as a liaison to the United Nations, the Middle East and Afghanistan. He talks with Margot Patterson about the truth of that charge and what Christians are and are not doing to stop atrocities in Palestine.

Send us a textChristians in Bethlehem will mark Christmas this year, but in a subdued and reflective fashion as they pray for an end to the unfolding genocide in Gaza and the intensifying settler attacks in the West Bank. In the face of this, Sami Awad, in his position as Co-Director of Nonviolence International, works to create spaces to heal intergenerational collective trauma and develop leadership, especially youth. We discussed the challenges of doing this in Palestine and Israel and of the nuances of creating a container for the pain of all affected by violence in Palestine while remaining resolute and focused on the necessity of creative nonviolent resistance in the face of Israel's occupation. 

Send us a textThe author of two books on the intersection of gender, politics and religion in the contemporary religious right in Israel-Palestine, Lihi Ben Shitrit discusses Religious Zionism and the role of settler women in feminizing and mainstreaming the Israeli Occupation.  Shitrit is the director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University. She is the editor of the recent book "The Gates of Gaza: Critical Voices from Israel on October 7 and the War with Hamas." She talks with Margot Patterson about her books, the ascendency of the right wing in Israel, and the need for thoughtful reflection during a time of war.

Send us a textProfessor Arie Dubnov discusses the development of the Zionist movement during the British Mandate for Palestine. A historian who specializes in the study of Jewish nationalism, he holds the Max Ticktin Chair of Israel Studies at George Washington University where he serves as director of the university's Middle East program. 

Send us a textDr. Sam Brody, the author of the award-winning book Martin Buber's Theopolitics, discusses the many competing strands of Zionism and how they shaped the battle for Palestine. He also describes the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Martin Buber, whose prolific writings about Zionism and Israel/Palestine have been give relatively little attention as compared with his other works. Buber advocated for an egalitarian Zionism: a binational state in Palestine/Israel with equal rights for Jews and Arabs. Buber never gave up on his vision during his long career, which saw him flee to Mandatory Palestine from Nazi Germany. This is the second half of our conversation. The first half aired the previous week.  

Send us a textDr. Sam Brody, the author of the award-winning book Martin Buber's Theopolitics, discusses the many competing strands of Zionism and how they shaped the battle for Palestine. He also describes the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Martin Buber, whose prolific writings about Zionism and Israel/Palestine have been give relatively little attention as compared with his other works. Buber advocated for an egalitarian Zionism: a binational state in Palestine/Israel with equal rights for Jews and Arabs. Buber never gave up on his vision during his long career, which saw him flee to Mandatory Palestine from Nazi Germany. This is part one of our conversation. Part two will air the following week.

Send us a text Barry Trachtenberg, the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University, continues his discussion of the origins and early development of Zionism. A minority movement within Judaism until World War II, Zionism faced opposition from many Jews who believed it transgressed religious law and tradition. It was frequently facilitated by Christian Zionists who saw in Jews' return to Palestine after 2,000 years a fulfilment of Christian eschatology and a way of resolving what some saw as Jews' problematic presence in Euopean society.  From its inception, Zionism was a settler-colonial project that reflected European assumptions of cultural superiority.

Send us a textIn the first of a new series called "What Is Zionism?" Professor Barry Trachtenberg talks to Margot Patterson about the origins of Zionism in the late 1800s. By the turn of the 20th century, Jews living in Eastern Europe had experienced two decades of rising anti-Semitism. Some sought to change the conditions of the societies they lived in; others responded to emerging nationalism in Europe by developing ideologies of Jewish nationalism. Unlike other European peoples, however, Jews lacked territory. Those seeking a place where Jews could gather and establish a state eventually fixed on Palestine, where their quest for land and sovreignty almost immediately brought them into conflict with the people living there.  Trachtenberg holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University, where he teaches courses on the history of Zionism

Send us a textSwarthmore students have faced unprecedented repression in their Palestine solidarity organizing in the past year, despite using tactics embraced in earlier campus struggles. A recent graduate of Swarthmore involved in campus divestment organizing details the double standard that exists at Swarthmore for Palestine-related speech. Students speaking out against the Gaza genocide, many of them low-income and/or people of color, face an array of administrative charges in an internal justice system that affords them few rights.

Send us a textMichael Lynk, professor of law at the University of Western Ontario and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied by Israel since 1967, discusses international law, Israel's defiance of it and its recent attack on U.N. peacekeeping troops in Lebanon. He notes that undergirding Western support for Israel is the residue of colonialism and the influence of a powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States.

Send us a textAziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon are tourism entrepreneurs and peace activists that have been working for peace in Palestine and Israel for years. Hamas militants killed Maoz's parents on October 7th and Israeli prison guards beat Aziz's brother so severely that he died after being released from prison. Recently, they joined forces and are now traveling across the United States speaking about the need for Americans to act now for peace in the Middle East because inaction itself is a risk. They argue that their relationship, built on the basis of equality, offers a path toward reconciliation. The path of violence has led nowhere and the US has forgotten the art of diplomacy in its foreign policy.

Send us a textRet. Ambassador Chas Freeman, Jr., discusses the widening wars in the Middle East, Israel's hegemonic ambitions,  and the catastrophic collapse of U.S. influence in the region as a result of the Biden administration's one-sided, ineffectual diplomacy. By arming and funding Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza and brutal war in Lebanon, the United States is breeding hatred in hundreds of thousands of people who are being bombed by U.S. weapons. He notes that "If you bomb people, they bomb back," and warns of the grave consequences if the United States does not change course.  Freeman was in the U.S. Foreign Service for 30 years. He served as President Nixon's principal interpreter during Nixon's ground-breaking visit to China in 1972 and was the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the First Gulf War. He is the author of three books on foreign policy and two books on  diplomacy, 

Send us a textHeiko Wimmen of the International Crisis Group details the quickly changing situation in Lebanon and northern Israel after the assassination of Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and Iran's launch of ballistic missiles on Israel. We compare Israel's stated goals and tactics in Gaza with those in Lebanon. Absent a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel is unlikely to achieve its war aims in Lebanon. 

Send us a textMargot Patterson talks to Mideast scholar Juan Cole about last week's dramatic escalation in the year-long cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel's maximalist goals in Lebanon, the history of Hezbollah and how the failure of the Biden administration's policy on Gaza is scrambling traditional alliances in the Middle East and configuring new ones. Cole is the the Richard P. Mitchell collegiate professor of history at the University of Michigan. He is the author of several books on the history of the Middle East and on Islam. 

Send us a textJenna Martin is a Montana-based journalist who writes about resistance movements and politics and how the two intersect with each other. We spoke with Jenna as she was wrapping up her recent reporting trip to Egypt and the West Bank. In Egypt, Jenna spoke with families separated by the closure of the Rafah Border Crossing and their struggle to survive without documents as their loved ones remain trapped in Gaza. In the West Bank, Jenna traveled to Beita, where American activist Aysenur Eygi was recently killed by the Israeli army. Already tense before October 7, Jenna reports that a massive escalation has taken place in the West Bank. 

Send us a textIn a 2023 Christmas Eve sermon that drew global attention, the Rev. Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem charged the Western church with complicity in genocide in Gaza. Attending that Christmas Eve service in Bethlehem was David Wildman, executive secretary for human rights and racial justice with the United Methodist Church's General Board of Global Ministries. He serves as its liaison to the United Nations, the Middle East and Afghanistan.  He talks with Margot Patterson about the truth of that charge and what Christians are and are not doing to stop atrocities in Palestine,

Send us a textThis week on Understanding Israel/Palestine, we're rebroadcasting an episode from Let's Talk UNRWA, entitled An American in Gaza with Scott Anderson. Mara Kronenfeld, Executive Director of UNRWA USA, speaks with Scott Anderson, who is leading UNRWA's efforts in the Gaza Strip. They discuss the need for a ceasefire, the ongoing polio vaccination campaign, and the challenges of providing for millions of displaced people in Gaza amid the immense and ongoing damage to critical infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Almost everyone in the Gaza Strip has been displaced, many multiple times, with some unable to afford being displaced again.

Send us a textJames Gelvin, professor of history at UCLA and author of "The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War," discusses the war in Gaza and the student protest movement it's spawned. He says there is no military solution to the war or to the century-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians other than an independent Palestinian state, unlikely as that now seems. He advises student protesters to go off-campus and get into the Democratic Party if they want to change U.S. policy on Israel-Palestine.

Send us a Text Message.Retired Col. Ann Wright of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla details the numerous ships that have attempted to break the siege of Gaza over the years. After a summer sailing to European ports to raise awareness of the Gaza genocide, the Handala will be on its way to Gaza after repairs are completed. Zane Wolfang also reports from the DNC in Chicago, where police and protestors have been squaring off for a week while Uncommitted Movement delegates push for an arms embargo on the inside.

Send us a Text Message.Terrorism is generally held to be political violence that is illegitimate, but what confers legitimacy on some acts of political violence and illegitimacy on others? Is terrorism simply the name we give to the violence we do not like or support, while finding euphemisms for the violence we do like or support? Professor of history Richard Drake asks these questions in his popular course Terrorism - Violence in the Modern World at the University of Montana. With this critical frame in mind, we approach the history of terrorism in the Middle East, from the post-WWI Treaties of Versailles and Sèvres to the ongoing Gaza genocide. Our conversation concludes with a discussion of how Senator Robert La Follette, the subject of a book by Prof. Drake, came to understand US empire in the Middle East following WWI.