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30 Issues: Iran, Israel and the Middle East
Steve Coll, president and CEO of the New America Foundation and staff writer at the New Yorker Magazine, compares Bush administration foreign policy in the Middle East to what Obama and McCain espouse and discusses the regional challenges the next president is likely to face.
Then
U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D- Brooklyn/Manhattan) and Zev Chafets, journalist and the author of Match Made in Heaven: American Jews, Christian Zionists, and One Man's Exploration of the Weird and Wonderful Judeo-Evangelical Alliance, discuss Barack Obama's policies toward Israel and the reactions of Jewish voters to his campaign.
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I wonder whether WNYC will have the journalistic integrity -- or even the decency -- to invite an Arab or Muslim on to discuss Obama and McCain proposals on the Middle East.
I think it would be hard to get that fair journalism in new york city.
Gregory - WNYC has had plenty of Arab and Muslim commentators...
I guess you didn't have the the integrity (or were too lazy) to do an archive search before making your comment...
"Barack Obama has established a strong record as a true friend of Israel, stalwart defender of Israel’s security, and an advocate of strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship. He believes that Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state should never be challenged."
http://jews4barack.com/mythfacts/
Why doesn't anyone ever mention the fact that Iran provided assistance the U.S. when it invaded Afghanistan after 9/11? Isn’t this relevant in the discussion about the level of diplomatic engagement with Iran?
The Sarah Silverman Schlep to FL campaign was fairly well discredited by the calculations of Nate Silver (of fivethirtyeight.com) the other day. He said, on the site of The New Republic, that the "bubbie" vote in FL is not irrelevant to the overall FL vote result.
See:
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=9f7761b4-6230-4da9-a3b3-a638fc2b2f3b
I am baffled as to why the defense of Isreal is a key part of our foreign policy.
It has cost us a tremendous amount, both in money and credibility, and has provided us with little or no benefit.
Correction: Silver said the "bubbie" vote is not especially RELEVANT to the FL vote.
He is saying the same thing Brian! What's your point?
Hey kelly dont be so reactionary to freedom speech!!
I have listened to WNYC for years and it is lacking in the Muslim perspective and most point of views that are not of the main stream perspective!!
Iranian support for Shiite militia groups poses the biggest threat to long-term stability in Iraq.
Iran continues to fund, train, arm and direct' groups intent on destabilizing its neighbor and its influence in Iraq is malign, the Pentagon said in its quarterly report to Congress.
While civilian deaths between June and August were down 77 percent on the same period last year, Iraq faces unresolved issues that may trigger fresh violence, including the status of the oil city of Kirkuk and the integration of Sunni tribesmen into the security forces, according to the report.
In an interview with Democracy Now on
Sep. 26, Amy Goodman asked Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whether he wanted to destroy Israel or whether he would be willing to recognize Israel.
Ahmadinejad said that the decision was for the Palestinians to make, and whatever the Palestinians decide, "we will respect it."
When are the shows exploring how the candidates' policies will effect Mexico, or Colombia, or Japan?
"Bomb, bomb, bomb...Iran"
McCain is scary.
The truth is reveled in jest.
If there is another terror attack on the U.S. we are going to war with iran no matter who is president. obviously i don't want this to happen, but we do have the precedent for it now.
Our approach to Iran going forward should take into account our weakened position in the world or, at the very least, Iran's belief that we are weaker.
We can't rely on the aggressive or coercive stance that McCain touts anymore, our position has changed, the environment has changed and continues to change.
#10 "israel" lol
whining about a "freedom of speech" issue...
what exactly are the Muslim perspectives that are non-mainstream that we supposedly never hear of?
be specific -- and we'll fact check and see if they're really being surpressed...
The New York Jewish community is
disproportionally blindly support Israel and the
behest of our own country!
Don't lump all the people of Iran with their leader.
I would hate to have someone believe that I believed what Bush stands for.
Norman #12 -- that's really lovely that the Iranian regime head will defer to the Palestinians on the whether genocide of Israel is a goal or not.
Good to hear.
#18 "israel"
The Global Muslim/Arab community is disproportionally blindly in hate of the West, America and Israel to the detriment of our own country!
Terry Gross recently had Akmadenajahd's translator on her show, Fresh Air. And he revealed that the actual translation of the Iranian leader's comment was not "Israel should be wiped off the face of the world" or "wiped off the map," but instead was literally translated as "Israel will vanish from the pages of history." Very different.
Brendan
East Village, NY
Has Ahmadinejad ever actually *threatened* to destroy Israel? I've heard him say it *should be* wiped off the map, but that's not the same thing. It suggests he's choosing his words carefully.
[8] Sonja Noring
when and if things are close everyone is RELEVANT
Question for Nadler:
I support Israel too.
But what have you done to support the Israeli peace movement?
Do you call on Israel to stop the expansion of settlements?
What a bunch of anti-Israel hypocrites and phonies.
Here's a "thought experiment."
How would you react to a regime that routinely states:
"(Islamic country) will vanish from the pages of history."
"(Arab country)will vanish from the pages of history."
Oh - but when it's Israel - it's ok...
nice.
Israel and the Neocons want us to spill our blood and treasure for their security!!
we should not do Israel's dirty work for them why they sit back benefit from our work.
Ahmadinejad repeatedly demonizes the state of Israel and openly calls for its destruction at every opportunity. Most notoriously, he described Israel as a "fake regime" that "must be wiped off the map."
He called the extermination of six million Jews during World War II "a myth".
Ahmadinejad's virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial are often matched by other Iranian leaders, and the Iranian regime itself has continued to sponsor anti-Zionism conferences and pseudo-academic lectures and exhibits questioning the fact of the Holocaust.
Brian is censoring our post again!!
in response to machmood (sp?) the ex-cia agent who spent years upon years in iran, who was on Brian's show in the last few days, said very openly and plainly that the president of iran had little or nothing to do with what the people thought or even wanted. that he was a shill of the iatola who actually ran the country. that for the most part the people did not want to wipe isreal off the map, accepted it as a fact, and not only were they willing to accept the presence of the united states but are willing to adopt some western ideas in order to make their country more progressive and help raise the standard of living.
Um I hate Sarah Silverman, not that this is relevant, but then again i do not think Sarah Silverman is relevant in a political discussion.
Apparently the fact the Israel is well know to have a nuclear bomb of it's own never enters any of these discussions. Tell me, why should Israel have a bomb and not Iran? Unless you're a neocon, an Israeli citizen, or a born-again Christian who thinks the world is about to end?
While I believe US foreign policy should view Iran w/suspicion, and that we should be very cautious in making any diplomatic overtures, I cannot understand why a discussion between the Presidential candidates must center around Israeli security rather than American security and regional stability.
Sarah Silverman is right, get moving people!
Florida can make or break an election, call your mothers and fathers and tell them to vote for Obama!
I am focusing on Obama and I am now on referring to him as President Obama because he will win.
Ya don't link Sarah Silverman to aything political...she has no credibility
What of pro-Isreal support among conservative Christians and neo-cons/neo-liberals.
Judaism is a beautiful culture and religion. If you fall in love with someone Jewish, it takes on a whole new meaning and means even more.
We need to work with the older Jewish population to lobby Obama.
Which was the last country Iran invaded? Which was the last government Iran overthrew? Which was the only country to ever use nuclear weapons on a civilian population? The US has some gall to accuse Iran of meddling in their own region after overthrew their democratically elected government, paid saddam to go to war with them and gave him chemical weapons to use on them, invaded the countries to the east and west of them, and when they offered us a truce we placed them on the "axis of evil". It's interesting how Iran leaders are painted as evil, but war mongers like Bush and Sharon are ok. No one seems to talk about Israel's nuclear arsenal or the fact that they don't allow weapons inspectors in. Or the fact that we give them over $3 billion in US tax payer dollars every year. How about we support no one over there? How about we worry about our country first?
Who gives s flying fandango what a poll in Israel says!
Jesse Califano 'The unspoken word- written!'
Polls are one thing- Actual elections are quite another. Just ask Thomas E. Dewey in November of 1948!!
Nationwide, Americans are NOT going to entrust the safety of America with Obama and the looney left of the Democrat Party.
McCain! Anyone!
How is refusing to talk to Iran other than threatening them with annihilation more likely to prevent a “second holocaust” than diplomacy with Iran?
Israel is a Democracy therefore it is far more trusted with the bomb than a non-Democracy.
That is a great reason
The U.S. is loosing is superpower status, soon it is going to be other countries telling us what to do. Lets see how we like it.....
American policy is inextricably linked to Israel not because the Jews run the world, or the US government, but because they are the only Western democracy in that region. If Liechtenstein was bordered by Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, they would also be important to our foreign policy.
It's not the Jews, folks. Unless you're an end-of-days evangelical.
Ok Leonardo, who will be first to "tell us" what to do?
To be clear, The Regents originally recorded Barbara Ann, but it was covered by the Beach Boys and became a hit for them in 1965.
ok, i hate to be the one to say it, but my family is jewish and i believe there is something fundamentally racist in this culture, i believe this is an underlying reason why they are a difficult group to rally for Obama.
#30 ask "why should Israel have a bomb and not Iran?"
Here's a start: Ahmadinejad, said that the "Zionist regime" must "be wiped off the face of the Earth." He called Israel a "fake regime" that "cannot logically continue to live."
Since he apparently favors a second Holocaust, even as he denies that the first one occurred, Iran's development and deployment of nuclear weapons would jeopardize the very existence of Israel.
Israel has never threatened genocide of anyone, does not want to wipe out any country or people not Iranians, Arabs, Muslims and / or Palestinians (despite the Israel-bashing propoganda)
If a large number of those in the Muslim and Arab world did not want destroy Israel, Israel would not need any weapons.
barry...how bout the "people" telling us what to do...
Yea know Reagan said, "start the bombing in 5 min"
and yet no bombing-joking is what it was.
Same with McCain dude.
Brian what a JA...to spend 3 seconds on the Babara Ann thing....
We are the "people"
Really Barry? I dont know at what point in history this is going to happen but i am going to take a wild guess and say that China will be one of the first countries to start bullying the U.S. like the U.S. has done to other countries.
The U.S. will not remain a superpower in the world not the way we are going, not the way we are overextending ourselves. Others will take over it is inevitable
Ask the Palestinians who live in a apartheid system if they have democracy!
Exactly...so the people should decide what to do in America's interest
A good Jewish friend of mine said recently, "I am uncomfortable with Obama." This man is about about 80, and a life-long Democrat. I hear his comment as code for saying,"I oppose Obama for reasons I do not want to state." Usually this code is about race. In the case of Jewish opposition to Obama, the idea of him as a hostile Muslim combines race and religiion.
That's not a bad guess.
What will their first "bully" be?
Since were speculating anyway
Kelly, here's a question for you:
According to Amnesty International, Israeli and Palestinian forces have been killing each other's children http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE02/005/2002
Amnesty International has called on both sides to prosecute the people responsible for killing children. Both sides have refused.
Do you want both sides to prosecute people responsible for killing children?
Sandra (45) -- You're right. Old Jews are old, and some of them, like many old people, are lovable Archie Bunker racists. Our hope is convincing them that Barack is Lionel Jefferson.
Palin answer generator - amazingly close to her real answers: http://interviewpalin.com/r0
"He called Israel a "fake regime" that "cannot logically continue to live." "
So? Just because people didn't support the apartheid regime in south africa doesn't mean they wanted to kill all white people.
You act as if Israelis have never said threatening things:
"We must expel Arabs and take their places."
-- David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.
"[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."
-- Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the 'Beasts,"' New Statesman, June 25, 1982.
"I would have joined a terrorist organization."
-- Ehud Barak's response to Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Ha'aretz newspaper, when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian.
Even Desmond Tutu recognized the state of israel as an apartheid state:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/apr/29/comment
Jesse Califano 'The unspoken word- written'!
American could never have defeated the USSR in a military conflict. However the USSR imploded from America and it worldwide allies economically isolating them... The very same strategy will bring down the Iranian economy (such as it now is- almost crashed!)without a shot being fired.
Tough Iranian talk is one thing... one missle attack by Iran and their country would be reduced to a parking lot with glass-fused gravel about the size of a quarter.
Ask the Palestinians who live under Hamas's murderous regime if they have democracy!
Ask any Muslim in the Middle East outside of Israel if they live in a democracy?
Ask any non-Muslim in any Muslim country in the Middle East if they live in a democracy?
Ask the families of the gay teenagers in Iran hung in public in Iran if they live in a democracy?
Ask any Egyptian, Syrian or Saudi Arabian if they live in a democracy?
BULLY:]
I'm guessing that India will be the first rising power to challenge us as a near pear.
However if it is China, as you suppose, I think the first "bully" will be the existing "bully" which is Taiwan, the second would be a continuation of the oppression of Tibet and on and on.
In fact China pretty much ignores us as it is.
I dont know thats a good question barry, exploration of oil in their region and in our region? if we are speculating
@ Mark
"Our hope is convincing them that Barack is Lionel Jefferson."
Now, THAT is funny!
install prince michael now
Those countries never claim to be Democracies,
Israel does claim to be a western style liberal society that is the difference!
You cant have it both ways, either you are or not!!
Well Leonardo, if you hadn't noticed China has long ago spearheaded the search for resources (like oil) in Africa, not to mention their procurement of a 300 billion dollar oil contract with Iraq(about 3 weeks ago)
So China is feeling pretty good it seems.
Guess who the next rising power (China-like) will be?
#[59] Student of History
That worthless fraud Desmond Tutu remains silent about the genocide and slavery being inflicted upon the people of Sudan by that country's abominable arab-muslim regime. Simon Denq asks where is Desmond Tutu when it comes to his people in Sudan calling out for freedom? The bastard is nowhere to be found. But he can be found making speeches lying about Israel being an "apartheid" state. He was visible when it came to condemning white South Africans during the years of apartheid. But when the perpetrators are Arabs, muslims and black Africans, he is nowhere to be found. He has nothing to say about the real apartheid and horrific human rights violations being practiced throughout the muslim world even when its victims are his fellow black Africans.
66 Reality Check! from NYC
No one is having it "both ways"
and when phonies like you condemn Islamic and Arab tyrannies that murder minorities and oppress women and gays in orders of magnitude far greater than anything done in the entire Arab Israeli conflict with same venom as you condemn Israel - then maybe you'll have an ounce credibility....
until then, the knee-jerk Israel-bashing is just a lot of hot air...
For Student of History,
You make a good point about the US being the only Country to use the Nukes. It is important to note as well
that we dropped not one but 2,..2 big o'nukes. So never forget that the US is made up of some pretty f-ing crazy outcasts from around the world.
Please to recall that the US is composed of all the losers who couldnt make it in thier own countries many who left under threat of death or worse. These folks make up the body politic of the US. Translation = "Dont F*ck with US.
A person that attacks one of the greatest humanitarians of our life time with such a vial disdain really says a lot about your world views kelly!!
Thank you for showing your true colors, no pun intended!
I'd like to know how our government can be running a "war on terror" yet turn a blind eye to terrorist acts carried out by the fanatical Zionist settler movement. They've stepped up violence against both Palestinians and moderate/pro-peace Israelis, even resorting to bombings.
Oh, but its only terrorism if its carried out by an Arab. As a Jew I'm ashamed of Israel's failure to control its own people.
[68] Kelly from Park Slope
You seem to attack anyone who doesn't view Israelis as supreme and all arabs and muslims as cockroaches. I suppose Gandhi is also scum in your view:
Gandhi asserted, "My sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and in the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after their return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?"
Well there is no protecting Tutu on his shameful silence about the genocide happening in his neighborhood.
But don't worry to much, they are pretty much all dead by now.
Look Turkey is loaded with Arabs and Muslims but it doesn't attack Israel. Major difference? It is a democracy.
Democracies don't attack democracies.
Look get the rest of the ME out of the middle ages and then we can talk, till then..... losers w/ potential
That is absolutely correct defend Israel at all cost and when that doesn't work attack the messenger!!
Israel is a apartheid system as it stands today and no in here pro or con can change that, deal with that reality.
73] Student of History
lol
I only attack people like you who hatefully try to smear people like me who support Israel
by lying, putting words in our mouths and trying to falsely portray supporters of Israel as having the kind of racist views that are the bread and butter of rants coming from Ahamadinejad and the leaders of many other Muslims.
I don't think that "all arabs and muslims as cockroaches or that "Gandhi is scum" though I understand why you would try to resort to lies and phony accusations rather than stick to the issues.
The Gandhi quote above, whether accurate or just another lie is funny, if it wouldn't be so sad, in that it seems to have forgottn that there are 56 "Islamic Countries" with vast swaths of land as a result of Islamic colonialism and imperialism.
Israel, a tiny country the size of New Jersey, whether you or Ghandi or Ahmadinejad, likes it or not, is the ancestral and historical homeland of the Jewish people and I'm sorry that people like you reject the right of the Jewish people to their homeland and sovereignty.
I'd wonder if you'd protest the need for the existence even one of the 56 Islamic countries.
I neither protest nor support islamic countries. I protest our financial and military support of other countries to our determent. why should billions of US taxpayer dollars go to Israel when we can't even provide health care to our citizens? I don't care if Israel operates an apartheid state, but don't use my tax dollars to support it.
Why should billions of US taxpayer dollars go to Egypt when we can't even provide health care to our citizens? I don't care if Egypt murders Christian Copts and other minorities, muzzles all dissidents and operates an apartheid state, but don't use my tax dollars to support it.
Former President Jimmy Carter said
that Israel had 150 nuclear weapons.
Israel refuses submit international inspection
to confirm whether or not it has nuclear weapons,but Iran has to?
Why?
Israel has refused to sign the nuclear
non-profileration treaty.
Why this double standard in the Middle East?
Didn't Eisenhower overthrow the democratically
elected government of Iran and install
a brutal dictator, the Shah of Iran?
Israel has plenty of nukes, so does the USA.
To complain about Iran is hypocrital.
Israel is a Democracy for Jewish people only,
not for Palestinians.
What you seem to leave out of your diatribe Kelly,
is that that land that the ancient was home land of the Jews as your indicate is that it also been the home to the Palestinians and Arabs in general for thousands of years and your lack of ability to recognize that fact and your inability to even consider this right, until the west imposed the state of Israel on the Arabs that has been Muslim territory ever seance the roman empire. That belongs just as much to them!
#81
please define "Muslim territory"
and explain to me why the brutal Islamist crusades and colonization of Israel means that Muslims need to imperialistically ethnically cleanse Israel from the tiny Jewish state so there should be a 57th Islamic state...
Last I checked Islam was invented approximately 700 years after Chrisitanity and many additional hundreds of years after Israel.
For Muslims to land-grab Israel is not really something you should advocate for...
there are hundreds of better "causes"
further re: #81 rant:
not sure what you mean when you say Israel was the "home to the Palestinians and Arabs in general for thousands of years"
Last I checked, even Arab historians don't think that "Palestinians" lived in Israel for thousands of years...
Arabs Muslims only started calling themselves Palestinian in the 20th century...
As a "student of history" please define the term Palestinian and Arab -- I suspect this could be one of the sources of your confusion.
can native americans ask for the americas back?
86 - native americans can and did....
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