Investigative journalist Philip Weiss discusses the divide between establishment foreign policy realists and neocons on Israel/Palestine issues, the Goldstone fact-finding mission’s conclusion on Israeli crimes in Gaza, the ability of narrowly focused interest groups to dominate U.S. policy and the hard reality of life in the Gaza Strip.

MP3 here. (25:37)

Philip Weiss is an investigative journalist who has written for The Nation, New York Times Magazine, The American Conservative, Jewish World Review and other publications. He is the author of American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps and writes the blog “MondoWeiss.”

Rebecca Vilkomerson, National Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, discusses the activist campaign to stop Caterpillar from selling bulldozers to Israel, what interested people can do to help promote peace, how the peace party can learn from the organizational and media saturation successes of the war party and the importance of criticizing anti-Semitism as well as those who misuse the charge (see MuzzleWatch).

MP3 here. (23:24)

Rebecca Vilkomerson is the National Director of Jewish Voice for Peace. She has over fifteen years of experience in community organizing, advocacy, program development and fundraising in the United States and Israel. In the U.S., she focused on economic justice issues, especially regarding women. She has been an active member of JVP since 2002, and lived in Israel with her family from 2006-2009.

Most recently, Rebecca worked for a Palestinian Israel public policy center and a Bedouin-Jewish environmental and social justice organization, as well as continuing her work as an activist for a just peace in Palestine and Israel. Her study, Public Policy in Divided Societies: The Case for a Civil Rights Institution was published in July, 2008 by Dirasat, the Arab Center for Law and Policy. She is also currently an editor of Jewish Peace News. Rebecca is a graduate of Connecticut College and has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University.

Eugene Bird, president of the Council for the National Interest Foundation, discusses Obama’s leaked plan for a Palestinian state, evictions and house demolitions in non-Jewish areas of East Jerusalem, increasing agreement among foreign policy elites that Israel must make concessions and how Iran’s nuclear issue is exaggerated by Israel to divert attention away from the Palestinian issue.

MP3 here. (44:29)

Eugene Bird is President of the Council for the National Interest (CNI) and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the organization. He is the former Counselor of Embassy in Saudi Arabia and has served in Jerusalem and in several other Middle East posts. He has followed the peace process from Washington and in the field since 1993. He was at the Camp David talks as a reporter, and at the Wye River talks between Israel, the Palestinian leadership and President Clinton. He is knowledgeable about the politics and leadership of Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, where he is well known as a journalist and the leader of CNI.

Ran HaCohen, author of the “Letter From Israel” column at Antiwar.com, discusses the fascist characteristics of the Israeli state, Obama’s generous concessions on settlements that weaken U.S. leverage, the narrowly defined news spectrum that dominates Israeli media, Gaza’s permanent status as an open air prison and the unlikely prospect of Egypt or Jordan helping Israel by administering Gaza and the West Bank.

MP3 here. (28:16)

Dr. Ran HaCohen was born in the Netherlands in 1964 and grew up in Israel. He has a B.A. in computer science, an M.A. in comparative literature, and a Ph.D. in Jewish studies. He is a university teacher in Israel. He also works as a literary translator (from German, English, and Dutch). HaCohen’s work has been published widely in Israel. “Letter From Israel” appears occasionally at Antiwar.com.

Ira Chernus, professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, discusses the dominant narrative of Israel: a vulnerable Western-style democracy in a sea of hostile Arab nations, the destructiveness of race and class based stereotypes, the Israeli and Palestinian peace groups ignored by the media and the lessening stigma of publicly criticizing Israel.

MP3 here. (28:18)

Ira Chernus is a professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of Monsters To Destroy: The Neoconservative War on Terror and Sin. His article “Palestinian Violence Overstated, Jewish Violence Understated” appears on TomDispatch.com.

Investigative journalist Philip Weiss discusses Netanyahu’s right-wing biblical rhetoric in response to Obama’s groundbreaking Cairo speech, the U.S. media’s long-awaited questioning of Israeli settlements, Israel’s accelerating departure from Western values and the sub-human living conditions forced on Gaza residents.

MP3 here. (31:26)

Philip Weiss is an investigative journalist who has written for The Nation, New York Times Magazine, The American Conservative, Jewish World Review and other publications. He is the author of American Taboo : A Murder in the Peace Corps and writes the blog “Mondoweiss“.

Jim Lobe, Washington Bureau Chief for Inter Press Service, discusses Hillary Clinton’s emphatic rejection of any kind of Israeli settlement growth, the Obama administration’s (first in a generation) hard-line on Israel, the low probability of a Palestine/Israel 2-state solution even with a settlement freeze and allegations that Netanyahu sees Iran as Amalek – eternal biblical persecutor of Jews.

MP3 here. (26:11)

Jim Lobe is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy, particularly the neo-conservative influence in the Bush administration. The Washington Bureau Chief of the international news agency Inter Press Service (IPS), Lobe has also written for Foreign Policy In Focus, Alternet, Tompaine.com, and was featured in BBC and ABC television documentaries about motivations for the US invasion of Iraq. His articles appear regularly on Antiwar.com.

David Bromwich, professor of literature at Yale University, discusses the standard Israeli practice of making incongruous conditional demands to avoid serious discussion of a Palestinian state, the propaganda and fundraising boon Ahmadinejad has been to AIPAC, the radicalizing effect recent Russian immigrants have had on Israeli politics and how the Iranian nuclear scaremongering may be designed for American consumption.

MP3 here. (40:15)

David Bromwich teaches literature at Yale. He has written on politics and culture for The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, and other magazines. He is editor of Edmund Burke’s selected writings On Empire, Liberty, and Reform and co-editor of the Yale University Press edition of On Liberty.

Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell during his tenure as Secretary of State, discusses how the Bush administration ignored the perfectly adequate Geneva Conventions guidelines for classifying war-zone detainees, the ethical and practical considerations of detaining and interrogating innocent civilians to “fight terror,” the counterclaim to Dick Cheney’s assertion that torture prevents terrorism and the end of an Israel/Palestine two state solution. Wilkerson also says he would cooperate with the prosecution of Dick Cheney for war crimes – not that that would ever happen.

MP3 here. (30:10)

Larry Wilkerson is a retired United States Army Colonel and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. He is chairman of the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative and wrote “Some Truths About Guantanamo” as a guest post on The Washington Note.

Investigative journalist Philip Weiss discusses the aftermath of Chas Freeman’s withdrawal from NIC chairman consideration, the alienation of liberal American Jews from the Israeli government, the opportunity to break up the monolithic AIPAC lobby and the conflict between Zionism and democracy.

MP3 here. (21:19)

Philip Weiss is an investigative journalist who has written for The Nation, New York Times Magazine, The American Conservative, Jewish World Review and other publications. He is the author of American Taboo : A Murder in the Peace Corps and writes the blog “Mondoweiss“.