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Ilan Pappé: The Israel lobby is real. This is how it works

Ilan Pappé: The Israel lobby is real. This is how it works

  If you mention the Israel lobby in the mainstream media then, more often than not, you’ll face accusations of antisemitism. There are of course people who talk about the Israel lobby in antisemitic terms, but that doesn’t undermine the fact that it exists, and has existed for well over a century. This week’s guest is Israeli historian and author Ilan Pappé. His new book details the origins of zionism and the struggles against it throughout the 19th and 20th…

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Rev. William Barber: Poor & low-wage Americans are the real 2024 swing voters

Rev. William Barber: Poor & low-wage Americans are the real 2024 swing voters

  Dr. Rev. William J Barber II argues that the issue of poverty in America is often racialized and marginalized as a Black issue, ignoring millions of impoverished white people. In his new book, the esteemed civil rights campaigner aims to expose myths about race and class in order to reconstruct American democracy. He joins the show to discuss the causes of poverty and the policies that can address it.

Trump keeps flip-flopping his policy positions after meeting with rich people

Trump keeps flip-flopping his policy positions after meeting with rich people

Politico reports: Donald Trump privately hinted at a shift in immigration policy at a Business Roundtable meeting last week. He told the group “we need brilliant people” in this country, according to one of the attendees, who was granted anonymity to describe a private meeting. And when he talked about finding ways to keep American-educated talent at home, some top CEOs, like Apple’s Tim Cook, were seen nodding their heads. The public move came a week later: On “The All-In…

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Sotomayor issues dire warning on Supreme Court ruling on noncitizens

Sotomayor issues dire warning on Supreme Court ruling on noncitizens

The New Republic reports: In a ruling delivered Friday, the Supreme Court decided 6–3 that U.S. citizens have no constitutional interest in their noncitizen spouses being able to enter the United States—despite the fact that a married person has an inherent interest in their spouse being able to live in the same country as they do. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned the ruling is an obvious sign the court will seek to overturn protections for marriage equality next. Sotomayor…

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Robert Reich: 60 years ago today, the Klan murdered my protector

Robert Reich: 60 years ago today, the Klan murdered my protector

Robert Reich writes: I’ve shared some of this with you, but today marks 60 years since it happened — when the Klan murdered my protector. I was always the shortest kid in school, which made me an easy target for bullies. To protect myself, I got into the habit of befriending older boys who’d watch my back. One summer when I was around 8 years old, while visiting my maternal grandmother at her cabin in the Adirondack Mountains, I found…

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Smotrich describes ‘mega-dramatic’ government bid for Israel to cement control of West Bank

Smotrich describes ‘mega-dramatic’ government bid for Israel to cement control of West Bank

The New York Times reports: An influential member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition told settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that the government is engaged in a stealthy effort to irreversibly change the way the territory is governed, to cement Israel’s control over it without being accused of formally annexing it. In a taped recording of the speech, the official, Bezalel Smotrich, can be heard suggesting at a private event earlier this month that the goal was to prevent…

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Israel unprepared for full-blown war with Hezbollah — senior electricity official

Israel unprepared for full-blown war with Hezbollah — senior electricity official

The Times of Israel reports: Israel is not prepared for the damage its electricity infrastructure would sustain if a full-scale war were to break out with Hezbollah, the head of the company responsible for planning the country’s electrical systems warned on Thursday, though he later cast that remark as “irresponsible.” “We are not in a good situation, and we are not prepared for a real war. We are living in a fantasy,” said Shaul Goldstein, who leads Israel’s Independent System…

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The Supreme Court walks back Clarence Thomas’ guns extremism

The Supreme Court walks back Clarence Thomas’ guns extremism

Mark Joseph Stern writes: The Supreme Court upheld a federal law disarming domestic abusers on Friday, significantly narrowing a radical 2022 precedent in the process. Its 8–1 ruling in U.S. v. Rahimi is a major victory for gun safety laws, a much-needed reprieve after two years of unceasing hostility from the federal judiciary. Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion walked back maximalist rhetoric—recklessly injected into the law by Justice Clarence Thomas—that had imperiled virtually every modern regulation limiting access to firearms. Thomas…

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Why Democrats think Biden’s problem is Biden

Why Democrats think Biden’s problem is Biden

Politico reports: Democrats keep doing surprisingly well in special elections. The party’s most vulnerable Senate incumbents are running ahead of their rivals in key battleground states. One of Democrats’ signature issues — reproductive rights — has repeatedly proved a winning message. And yet Joe Biden is struggling to pull even with Donald Trump. It’s another ominous sign for the president: Even as other Democrats are running strong, the party’s down-ballot successes aren’t translating into momentum at the top of the…

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Open the door wider for refugees

Open the door wider for refugees

Ilhan Omar writes: Of the many titles I hold—congresswoman, mother, sister, organizer—one represents a part of my identity that I hold particularly close to my heart: refugee. People frequently come up to me and share their own refugee stories. We immediately ask each other how long it has been since arriving in the United States. In my case, it’s been 29 years since my family and I were given a golden ticket to start a new life in America as…

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How a network of nonprofits enriches fundraisers while spending almost nothing on its stated causes

How a network of nonprofits enriches fundraisers while spending almost nothing on its stated causes

By Ellis Simani This story was originally published by ProPublica. In September 2020, the Federal Trade Commission joined regulators in four states to sue four men behind a notorious telemarketing company called Outreach Calling. The FTC alleged that the company, which it described as a “sprawling fundraising operation,” had raised millions on the promise of helping the needy — cancer patients, veterans, firefighters — but instead used the money to line its pockets. The case was meant to put fundraisers…

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Israel’s arms suppliers risk responsibility for human rights and war crimes violations, say UN experts

Israel’s arms suppliers risk responsibility for human rights and war crimes violations, say UN experts

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: The transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel may constitute serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws and risk State complicity in international crimes, possibly including genocide, UN experts said today, reiterating their demand to stop transfers immediately. In line with recent calls from the Human Rights Council and the independent UN experts to States to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military…

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Israeli military official says Hamas cannot be destroyed, as rift with Netanyahu widens

Israeli military official says Hamas cannot be destroyed, as rift with Netanyahu widens

CNN reports: Israel’s top military spokesman has said Hamas cannot be made to “disappear,” casting doubt about whether the government’s war aim of defeating the militant group can be achieved and drawing a sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The idea that it is possible to destroy Hamas, to make Hamas vanish — that is throwing sand in the eyes of the public,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Read Adm. Daniel Hagari said Wednesday in an interview with Israel’s…

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Risk of nuclear war at its greatest since the Cuban Missile Crisis

Risk of nuclear war at its greatest since the Cuban Missile Crisis

Matthew Bunn writes: Dark clouds loom on the nuclear horizon, with threats from all directions: Russia’s nuclear bombast in its war on Ukraine, China’s construction of hundreds of nuclear missile silos, North Korea’s missile testing, India and Pakistan’s ongoing nuclear competition, and Iran’s push toward nuclear weapons capability. In response, US policy-makers are discussing whether a further American nuclear arms buildup is needed. At the same time, evolving technologies, from hypersonic missiles to artificial intelligence, are straining military balances and…

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Judge Aileen Cannon rejected entreaties from two other federal judges to step aside in Trump docs case

Judge Aileen Cannon rejected entreaties from two other federal judges to step aside in Trump docs case

The New York Times reports: Shortly after Judge Aileen M. Cannon drew the assignment in June 2023 to oversee former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents case, two more experienced colleagues on the federal bench in Florida urged her to pass it up and hand it off to another jurist, according to two people briefed on the conversations. The judges who approached Judge Cannon — including the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, Cecilia M. Altonaga — each…

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Norman Finkelstein: Through genocide, the whole legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state has been called into question

Norman Finkelstein: Through genocide, the whole legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state has been called into question

  We are living through a moment of social and political upheaval – one that has somehow aligned the Houthi rebels in Yemen, South Africa’s greatest legal minds and students across the wealthiest campuses in the world. They’re all fighting for Gaza, and against an increasingly isolated Israeli government and its Western backers. So are we witnessing a historic tipping point? Norman Finkelstein has documented the Israel-Palestine conflict for over 4 decades, with a particular focus on Israel’s actions in…

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