Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, Josef Avesar of the Israeli-Palestinian Confederation joins the show to discuss not the one-state or two-state solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but instead the Confederation approach to the issue. This is a very basic introduction to the Confederation model for Israel/Palestine that proposes a common government alongside Israeli and Palestinian governments. Hopefully, if this episode gains traction we can have another conversation with listener questions. In any case, it is important to think about ways that this issue can be solved. Especially in light of the October 7th Hamas attack AND the ensuing Gaza War that has seen Israel's bombing of Gaza kills tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians. After 75 years of war and conflict, Avesar argues that seeking peace is the realistic approach whereas the argument that peace is not possible is actually the naive approach. We will discuss all this and much more in this fascinating conversation. Although many argue that the Confederation model is a defacto one-state solution others argue that it's a compromise between the two-state solution and the one-state democratic solution. We'll get into Josef's views, his own views on Zionism, his debate with Alan Dershowitz about Zionism, the criticisms he's received over the confederation approach, the simulations that IPC does, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Simon Matthews, author of Free Your Mind!: Giovanni 'Tinto' Brass, 'Swinging London' and the 60s Pop Culture Scene, joins the show to discuss the life and career of European filmmaker Tinto Brass. Brass is perhaps most well-known today for his erotic/softcore features as well as the epic, star-studded effort Caligula (starring Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren among others), that was re-edited at the behest of Penthouse's Bob Guccione to the point of butchering Brass' original vision. Matthews, however, hones in on the works of Brass as they relate to the the era of mod culture in the days of London's swinging 60s. With a foreward by the legendary actor Franco Nero, Free Your Mind! explores such Brass efforts as Nerosubianco (aka Attraction), The Howl, The Vacation, and The Dropout and their relation to 60s pop culture and counterculture. We'll also be discussing such Tinto Brass movies as the controversial Salon Kitty about Nazi Germany (part of the Nazi chic boom of the 60s/70s film industry), the spaghetti Western Yankee, and Brass in relation to contemporaries like Russ Meyer and John Waters. We'll look at the politics of Tinto Brass and why his filmography, especially in Britain, has been overlooked. If you're unfamiliar with Tinto Brass this will fill you in on an interesting auteur in the world of filmmaking who hasn't gotten his proper due despite working with heavyweight actors like Vanessa Redgrave and the aforementioned Franco Nero. We'll also discuss the unmade films of Tinto Brass including the adaptation of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange that he almost made and a project that never materialized with Jim Morrison of the legendary rock 'n' roll band The Doors. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Paralalx Views, Peter Beinart, the Editor-at-Large for Jewish Current and author of The Beinart Notebook Substack, joins the show to discuss his views on Israel/Palestine amidst the war in Gaza. In his 2020 Jewish Currents article "Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine", Beinart definitively moved on from his two-state solution position on Israel/Palestine by declaring, "The two-state solution is dead. It’s time for liberal Zionists to abandon Jewish–Palestinian separation and embrace equality." In other words, he became a proponent of a One Democratic State solution for Israel/Palestine that advocates equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis alike. Beinart's positions sent shockwaves through the Israel/Palestine discourse due to his high-profile as a journalist and commentator. He joined me on this edition of the show to discuss why he sees the fates and futures of Palestinians and Israeli Jews as being intertwined. We'll discuss how he came to his positions and his own intellectual evolution as well as his writings addressing subjects like the American Jewish Establishment (no, he's not talking about an antisemitic conspiracy theory, but rather the institutions that make up the American Jewish community), the dual loyalty trope, antisemitism, anti-Palestinian bigotry, and much, much more. And, of course, amidst this discussion the issue of the war in Gaza and Israel's bombardment of Gaza, which has claimed an estimated 25k+ Palestinian lives, after the October 7th Hamas attack will be part of the conversation. Peter will also offer his thoughts on pushes for a ceasefire, the beliefs of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, what he believes needs to change about U.S. policy on Israel/Palestine, and a potpourri of other topics as well.

On this edition of Parallax Views, retired diplomat Patrick Theros, who served as the United States Ambassador to Qatar from 1995 to 1998 and is currently a Strategic Adviser for Gulf International Forum, joins the show to discuss Israel/Palestine and the war in Gaza from a diplomat's perspective and his Responsible Statecraft piece "Who’s the superpower around here?". We discuss what Biden must do in this situation not just for the sake of Palestinians, but also Israelis. Theros argues that if a President isn't willing to take the risk of making difficult decisions then what is the point of being President. He also laments the lack of diplomatic thought in approaching the Middle East arguing that you have to understand the perspective of the various players in the region and in many cases people do not do this. We also discuss how the GCC Gulf states have responded to the Gaza war, Iran in relation to the Gaza war, actions of past presidents like Eisenhower and HW Bush in regard to Israel/Palestine, Bill Clinton and Camp David 2000 (and the often repeated but contested claim that Arafat turned down a fair and generous offer), and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, last month I spoke to journalist Jeffrey Sharlet, known for his books on the Christian Nationalist movement (The Family and C Street; the former has been made into hit Netflix documentary miniseries), to discuss his latest work The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. The book is a series of essays exploring the chaotic moment that Sharlet calls the "Trumpocene" and delves into everything from the January 6th insurrection and death of Ashli Babbitt to the Men's Rights Movement. Given he New Hampshire primary on January 23rd, I felt that now was the perfect time to release this prescient conversation. In this conversation we cover a number of topics including: - The "F Word"; or fascism - The rise of the far-right in the U.S. and its global ascendancy - Trump and Gnosticism; Jeff's citing of the Gnostic poem "Thunder Perfect Mind" in relation to the Trump/MAGA movement phenomena - Jan 6th and the death of Ashli Babbit; what drove Ashli Babbit into Trumpism and the MAGA movement? - QAnon and the power of narratives in mobilizing the American right-wing - Revisiting Jeff's groundbreaking journalism on The Family, C Street, the Council for National Policy (CNP), and Christian Nationalism - Christian Nationalism and Trumpism as radical reinterpretations of Christianity; the Church itself as not being the be-all-end-all of Christian Nationalism (it's much bigger than that) - Jeff's experiences reporting on the MRA movement and the ways in which they start with some true observations (men have high suicide rates, custody issues, etc.) that are chucked away in favor of misogny and all-out attacks on feminism (even though some of their initial observations can also be found amongst feminist works such as Susan Faludi's Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man) - And more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Israeli pollster, political consultant, and political scientist Dahlia Scheindlin joins the show to discuss a number of topics ranging from the war in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian to her new book The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled. Dahlia is also one of the main voices that has written about the confederation approach to Israel/Palestine. We will discuss what the confederation approach is, why Dahlia doesn't believe it is a one-state solution by another name (and why it actually fits into a two-state solution approach for the 21st century), how it could potentially work (especially in regard to Jerusalem) and the promise Dahlia finds in it, and more. Dahlia will also discuss her polling/survey research on Israeli public opinion, her work with Palestinian pollsters, and Israeli public opinion of the Occupation.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Prof. Ian S. Lustick, author of Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality, returns to discuss his TIME Magazine op-ed "History Tells Us How the Israel-Hamas War Will End". Looking back at previous Israeli wars, such as the Israeli-Lebanon war of 2006, Prof. Lustick discusses what he believes will bring about the end of the current war and how the U.S. and President Biden will factor into the equation. He also gives a history lesson the trajectory of Zionist/Israeli political thought over the years, with a particular focus on comparing and contrasting Revisionist Zionist Ze'ev Jabotinsky and the party seen as his ideological heir, Likud (currently led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). Israel, he argues, has moved beyond a key element of Jabotinsky's "Iron Wall" strategy for dealing with Israeli-Arab/Israeli-Palestinian hostilities. NOTE: THIS WAS RECORDED BEFORE SEN. BERNIE SANDERS' BID TO PROBE ISRAEL OVER HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS (noted because this is mentioned at the end of the interview)

On this edition of Parallax Views, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s former foreign policy advisor James R. Webb, son of Sen. Jim Webb, joins the show to discuss U.S. foreign policy, Israel/Palestine, Gaza, Yemen, Iraq, and the risks of the current Middle East turmoil escalating into a very nasty regional war. Webb recently resigned from RFK Jr.'s campaign over Gaza (you can read his resignation letter here). James served a Marine infantryman from 2005-2010 and has worked on the Hill, bringing him into contact with politicians like Bernie Sanders and working with Rand Paul. He'll bring those experiences to this conversation.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Nick Bryant, the reporter who published Epstein's Little Black Book full of names and addresses of Epstein's associates, joins the show to discuss the sordid sagas of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in light of the recent unsealed documents related to the case. For some time now Bryant has been reporting on issues related to sexual political blackmail as cases of child sexual exploitation like the Jerry Sandusky scandal. In his first book, The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse and Betrayal, Bryant delved into the murky waters of the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union scandal that included allegations of child prostitution rings being ran by then rising GOP star Lawrence E. King. As I note in the conversation, I found Bryant's book on the subject more substantial than the other well-known book on the topic, Senator John W. DeCamp's The Franklin Cover-Up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska. Since that book, Bryant has also written or co-written two other books dealing with the phenomena of sexual political blackmail, The Truth About Watergate: A Tale of Extraordinary Lies & Liars and Confessions of a D.C. Madam: The Politics of Sex, Lies, and Blackmail (w/ Henry W. Vinson). He's also, as previously stated, played a role in drawing attention to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, like Maria Farmer and Virginia Giuffre, by publishing Epstein's little black book, writing a basic primer on the Epstein/Maxwell sagas for ScheerPost entitled "The Jeffrey Epstein Cover Up: Pedophilia, Lies, and Ghislaine Maxwell", and directing the501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization Epstein Justice.

On this edition of Parallax Views, playwright Matthew Gasda joins the show to discuss his Compact Magazine piece "Downtown Demons" about micro-celebrities and micro-cultures in New York went from rebellious parties during the pandemic to feeding political nihilism in the guise of far-right politics. Matthew is the author of the play "Dimes Square" and discusses the scene culture of Manhattan during the pandemic in this regard. Those with and interest in the culture and trollish politics that have emerged out of Manhattan in the past few years through podcasts, events, and Peter Thiel money, may want to give this a listen. Matthew argues that the trollish politics of the scene culture can evolve into something much more dangerous and bleak in the course of conversation and we also manage to tie-in the pro wrestling idea of "kayfabe" into our discussion of meme culture, micro-celebrity podcasters, and the like.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Shaul Magid, author of Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical, returns to discuss his latest book, The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance. In said series of essays Shaul explores Jewish identity, Israel, Zionism, anti-Zionism, Jewish intellectual history, and more from a provocative but thought-provoking manner that even manages to delve into his own intellectual evolution going back to his youthful involvement in Israeli counterculture. At much of the core of the book are the questions: "Has Zionism exhausted itself?" and what exactly is the importance of Exile in Jewish culture and thought. We'll also delve into the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movements and the Jewish community's response to it, Shaul's critique of liberal Zionism, the idea of "counter-Zionism", the Gaza war and the October 7th Hamas attack, settler-colonialism and Shaul's critique of pro-Israel voices using the rhetoric of "freeing Palestinians from Hamas" since the war began, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Jerusalem-based attorney Daniel Seidemann, known for his participation in in numerous Track II talks on Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians, joins the show to discuss the plight faced currently by the Old City of Jerusalem's Armenian Christian community amidst the chaos Israel has found itself in since the October 7th Hamas attack and Israel's war in Gaza. It's a strange story of suspicious activities and subterfuge that, as Daniel notes, could be write out of a movie or a mystery crime-thriller novel. A shady real estate developer and other actors have brought about an existential crisis for those living in the Armenian Quarter. It's a complex tale that we'll unravel involving real estate, Jewish and Israeli-Arabs, the extremist settler movement, the nature of life in Jerusalem, and more. In addition, Daniel and I will talk about the two-state solution, why remains a two-stater, the need to end Israel's Occupation of Palestinian territories (and how the Occupation is harmful to Israel), the one-state reality, a meeting Seidemann had with John McCain in 2015, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, historian of religion Prof. Daniel Boyarin joins the show to discuss his fascinating book The No-State Solution: A Jewish Manifesto. A self-described "diasporic rabbinic Jew", Boyarin grapples with Jewish identity contra both Zionism and cosmopolitanism, in the process making a radical for a Jewish nationhood without the nation-state in the form of the Jewish diaspora. This conversation, recorded in October, is a fascinating conversation that delves into Boyarin's intellectual evolution from his early days supporting socialist Zionism to eventually abandoning Zionism altogether. In addition to discussing both Zionism and anti-Zionism, Boyarin expresses his skepticism of cosmopolitanism, at least as it is often thought of in Western capitalist society, as well as trying to discover a Jewish peoplehood that is distinct from Zionism. And yes, we do discuss the Oct. 7th Hamas attack and Israel's bombing of Gaza since that time which has now claimed over 20,000 Gazans lives. Boyarin will also give his thoughts on where he and his friend the philosopher Judith Butler converge as well as where they part ways, the ideas of Simon Dubnow and Jewish autonomism, his personal belief that Zionism has been a catastrophe for the Jewish people, the possibility of a nationalism that avoids the "poison" of the state, the importance of the Jewish diaspora to his book and its thesis, thoughts on the Jewish protests against Israel's bombardment of Gaza, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, we dive into Israel/Palestine history, including such troubling topics as the Nakba (the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948) and the Tantura Massacre (as well as it's suppression in Israel and Israeli academia), with noted historian Ilan Pappe. Alongside figures like Benny Morris and Avi Shlaim, Pappe was one of the Israeli "New Historians" who shed light on aspects of Zionist and Israeli history (specifically the founding of Israel) that challenged conventional/traditional narratives. Joining me as a guest co-host on this edition of the program is "Karl Barx" (or Bassam) of the West Bank Robbery podcast. The conversation begins with Prof. Pappe offering his thoughts on the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza which has claimed 20,000+ lives. We then delve into Prof. Pappe's journey away from political Zionism and taking a critical approach intellectually to the history of Israel and its policies. In this we regard, we end up discussing the impact of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the first Intifada, and Prof. Pappe's service in the IDF. During the course of our conversation, we also cover: - Propaganda, dehumanization of Palestinians, and the ways in which propaganda lays upon layers of history - What has changed in Israeli narratives before the October 7th Hamas attack and now? - The argument that once Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party are gone the Israeli center or Israeli left will be able to change the Israel/Palestine situation in a radical way - Laying out the two camps within elite Israeli politics; the Israeli messianic far-right (the state of Judea) vs. secular Zionists (the state of Israel); how do Palestinians see the internal political dynamic between the two camps? - Prof. Pappe's archival work as a historian; the documents he went through showing evidence of the ethnic cleansing/expulsion of of Palestinians in 1948; declassification laws in Israel; the "Village Files" and their importance to Prof. Pappe's scholarship; suppression and reclassification of historical documents; the importance of copying and preserving documents; the importance of juxtaposing different archives - Plan Dalet or Plan D as the blueprint for the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948; Direct Orders documentation and the specific importance of Order #40 of 1948 in relation to Israeli settlements and what is happening in Gaza today; the names of Israeli operations in the 20th century and why the specific names are important in regards to what they tells us about Israeli policy towards Palestinians - Yitzhak Rabin, The Jordanian Option, and the mass arrest of Palestinian activists in the 1970s; the origins of Israeli policies seeking to attack secular, left-wing Palestinian activists and promoting Islamic, right-wing factions at the expense of those left-wing elements as a divide-and-conquer strategy - The Tantura Massacre, micro-history, the suppression of the Tantura massacre in Israeli society and Israeli academia, and how both Prof. Pappe and one of his students, Theodore Katz, suffered major academic setback due to said student investigating the massacre; a brief rundown of the Katz Affair and the ways in which Katz and Pappe were both later vindicated in regard to the Tantura case - The myths about Israel with a particular focus on Nakba denial and Joan Peters' historically inaccurate From Time Immemorial; what Prof. Pappe considers the most noxious myths about Israel - Noam Chomsky and the question of political Zionism vs. cultural Zionism; the One Democratic State Campaign and protections for Jewish identity in a one-state Israel; where Prof. Pappe potentially disagree or takes issue with the political vs. cultural Zionism distinction - And more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Amb. Karim Haggag, Amb. Karim Haggag joins us to offer his thoughts and commentary on Israel/Palestine and the Gaza War with a particular focus on the transformation of the Israel-Palestine conflict over the past three decades, the dangers of the current moment, the divisions in the Palestinian national movement, the Israeli settlement project and the influence of the far-right in Israel, the existential narratives at work in both Israeli and Palestinian political and social life, and the erosion of the two-state solution paradigm. Karim Haggag served for twenty-five years in Egypt’s diplomatic corps, is a former Egyptian Press & Information Office Director, a professor of practice at the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo, and co-managing editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs and director of Masters of Global Affairs. Other topics covered in the course of our conversation: - Israel's 2018 Jewish State Law, the rise of the messianic Jewish far-right in Israel and the mainstreaming of expulsioninist rhetoric in Israel, and Palestinians fears of a new Nakba (referring to the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians) - The Israeli intelligence ministry concept paper that lays out a program for pushing Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and how Egypt & President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's objections to this plan - El-Sisi's core considerations: 1.) not wanting Egypt to be party to another expulsion of Palestinians (we discuss this in relation to criticisms arguing that Egypt simply doesn't want to accept refugees), 2.) the security threat potentially posed by such an expulsion (ie: if Gazans are pushed into the Sinai so too will Hamas) - Criticism of Israel's lack of clearly stated strategic goals in the current war beyond "the destruction of Hamas", the logic of Israel's previous "mowing the grass" military approach to the conflict in the past and its failure, and the maximalist approach Netanyahu is taking to the Gaza War - The failure Western diplomatic approach to the conflict and the assumption that there will be a "Day After" scenario where Hamas is destroyed - Entrenched divisions in the Palestinian national movement between Hamas and Fatah - The Camp David 2000 Summit that brought together Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, and Yasser Arafat in peace talks; the narrative that Arafat passed up a "generous offer" from Israel - And much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, we return after a Christmas break to continue coverage of the Gaza War and Israel/Palestine. In recent days Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, and publications like The Jerusalem Post have talked about plans for a "voluntary migration" of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and trying to get other countries in the region to "absorb" displaced Gazans. As comments like these continue to be made and the bombing of Gaza goes on, destroying the 25-mile strip of land and its infrastructure, Palestinians warn that this all amounts to a second Nakba, referencing the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and society. Before the holidays, I spoke with Holocaust and genocide studies scholar Raz Segal, an Israeli historian, about a piece that he wrote in October 2023 for Jewish Currents entitled "A Textbook Case of Genocide". Segal argues that Israel's action in Gaza do, in fact, amount to a genocidal assault on Gaza and that multiple statements from various Israeli officials shows the intent. This conversation should be especially relevant in light of Netanyahu's most recent statements. We discuss international law, Prof. Dov Waxman's criticism of Raz's Jewish Current piece, misunderstandings of what genocide is, settler colonialism, other genocides and ethnic cleansings in history, the protests against Israel's current approach to Gaza, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, a double feature continuing our coverage of Israel/Palestine. First up, Democratic Socialists of America member and Jacobin contributor Yaseen Al-Sheikh (aka Y.L. Al-Sheikh) joins the show to discuss the DSA perspective on the Gaza War and Israel/Palestine. We'll also be hearing Yaseen's perspective as a Palestinian. And yes, we do cover the controversy around the DSA that has arisen in the media since the October 7th Hamas attack. On the second segment of the show, Bassam of the West Bank Robbery podcast joins as special guest co-host to speak with Belgium-based French author, filmmaker, and longtime pro-Palestinian activist Frank Barat. Frank has interviewed such influential figures as philosopher Judith Butler, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and Israeli historian Ilan Pappe on issues related to Israel's bombing of Gaza and Palestinian liberation. Frank will talk about his involvement with the Palestinian cinema/film community, his work with the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, and more. Please check out Frank's work: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC71XS626j36e2HSXoEyJnBA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4frankbarat/

On this edition of Parallax Views, muckraking journalist Ken Silverstein, the man who covers the seedy, sleazy side of beltway politics he calls "Washington Babylon, returns to discuss a potpourri of topics. We begin with a discussion of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has occurred in response to the Oct. 7th Hamas attack and has incurred a terrible loss of Palestinian civilian lives. Ken is openly calling it a genocide. We discuss why as well as his feelings about all of that has occurred in the past few months with regards to Israel/Palestine from his perspective as an antifascist Jew. We then switch to number of different topics including the role Ken played in publicizing and popularizing the now infamous photos of the recently deceased Henry Kissinger seemingly picking his nose in public and eating his boogers. We also revisit the story of Ken's late friend/collaborator, former Counterpunch head honcho, and Village Voice "Beat the Devil" columnist's Alexander Cockburn's troubles with the Israel Lobby. We look at this story in the context of criticism of Israel in the current day and fears of criticism being shutdown. Before closing out Ken tells us about his latest story for The New Republic, Did "Bob Menendez’s Donors Know They Were Paying for $64 Steaks?", and how politicians live the luxurious high life thanks to the failures of campaign finance law.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our coverage of the Gaza War and Israel/Palestine. Robert A. Pape, a Professor of Political at the University of Chicago specializing in international security studies (and author of such books as Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It with James Feldman; Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War) joins the show to discuss his Foreign Affairs piece "Israel’s Failed Bombing Campaign in Gaza: Collective Punishment Won’t Defeat Hamas". We discuss why, based on Pape's research, the likely outcome of Israel's bombardment of Gaza, which has claimed thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians, will result in radicalizing more Palestinian/bolstering support for Hamas. We'll also discuss the problems with Israel's justification for the nature of it's bombing campaign (specifically its invocation of the Allied bombing of Dresden and Hamburg in WWII), the Israeli concept paper that argued for pushing Gazans into Egypt's Sinai, the bait-and-bleed strategy of terrorism (in which a violent non-state actor seeks to engender and extreme response from a state actor in order to bolster support for itself), the Abraham Accords, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our coverage of the Gaza War w/ guest John Robb, proprietor of the Global Guerrillas blog and author of The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization. Robb has been arguing as of late that Israel has lost the information war long-term on Israel/Palestine and that this is due to the open-source, tribal network warfare employed by critics of the Israeli state. He points towards a dramatic shift in how those under the age of 40 view Israel. In other words, support for Israel among the youth is cratering. Robb will explain his views on networked tribalism which involves three key ingredients: empathy triggers, moral framing (tribal pattern matching), and fictive kinship. This, he says, has allowed critics of Israel to make gains in the information war over Israel/Palestine. We'll also discuss the issues of antisemitism, attempts to conflate antisemitism and antizionism, the campus free speech debate over free speech, American hedge fund manager Bill Ackman's crusade against pro-Palestinian campus activists, Candace Owens' hosting Norman Finklestein on her show, Ben Shapiro, how pro-Israel advocates could conceivably even lose segments of right-wing support, manufactured hate crime incidents, and much, much more.

On this edition of the Parallax, we go over the life and career of controversial diplomat Henry Kissinger, who passed away at the age of 100 on November 29th, 2023. Although hailed by many in the U.S. Establishment as one of the most important minds in international relations and diplomacy through the 20th century, many on the Left (and even, as we shall see, some on the Right) take a more critical view of Kissinger. Namely, many left-wing activist and commentators, including, most famously, the late Christopher Hitchens, have argued Kissinger was a war criminal. In the first segment of the show, Michael C. Desch, Packey J. Dee Professor of International Relations at the University of Notre and founding director of the Notre Dame International Security Center, discusses Kissinger from an realist perspective. Kissinger, as anyone familiar with him will know, is often considered one of the prememinet realist school of international relations figures of the 20th century. Desch, however, argues otherwise making the case that Kissinger was only an "occassional realist". In this conversation we delve into what realism is, the rift between Kissinger and his realist mentor Hans Morgenthau over Vietnam, why Desch thinks realist's should look towards Morgenthau more than Kissinger for foreign policy realism, the accusation that realism is social darwinism applied to nation-states, conservatism and realist thought, a realist perspective on the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende, the conflict between big L Liberalism and realism, the Thucydides quote "the strong do what they cand and the weak suffer what they must", balance of powers and realism as a theory of peace rather than war, and much, much more. In the second segment, journalist Tim Shorrock, Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing, returns to discuss Henry Kissinger and his bloodstained legacy in international relations and foreign policy from an anti-imperialist perspective, Tim offers a scathing critique of Kissinger's life and career from Kissinger's involvement in Vietnam, the bombing of Cambodia, the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende, the East Timor massacre, and more. We'll also delve into Kissinger and President Richard Nixon opening up the U.S.-China relationship in the 1970s, which many assess as one of the more positive moments in Kissinger's career. We also delve into why Kissinger is so well-regarded in the U.S. Establishment. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Mark Ames, journalist and co-host of the popular podcast Radio War Nerd w/ John Dolan (aka Gary Brecher), joins the show to discuss his 2014 NFSFWCORP piece "The Kings of Garbage, or, The ADL Spied on Me and All I Got Was This Lousy Index Card". Due to his anti-apartheid activism at Berkeley, Mark Ames found out in the 90s that he'd been spied upon by the ADL. His file listed him marked him as a "Pinko". This leads us into the story of Roy Bullock, an investigator who spied on anti-Apartheid activists for the Anti-Defamation League and the South African apartheid regime. Working with SFPD intelligence officer Tom Gerard (who also had a spooky background involving CIA dirty wars in Latin America), Bullock was involved in all kinds of skullduggery, including a case that almost led to the murder of a Simon Wiesenthal Center researcher so that an ADL researcher could take his job and make some extra cash. It's a wild story that involves a spy ring within the ADL spying on American anti-apartheid activists. This also takes us into a discussion of how the Irwin Sewell and the ADL had dossiers on antifascist researchers like Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates, the relationship between Israel and South African apartheid, the ADL's shift from focusing on far-right movement like the John Birchers to left wing activists in Berkeley and Arab Americans, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee and the car bombing assassination of Palestinian activist Alex Odeh, Abe Foxman (national director of the Anti-Defamation League from 1987 to 2015), the FBI (and LA Times?) vs. the ADL, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt's embrace of Elon Musk (and curious comments comparing him favorably to noted antisemite Henry Ford), ADL spying on black Americans like former Congressman Ron Dellums, the ADL as part of the National Security State, philosemitic antisemitism, Israel as being its own worst enemy, the canceling of author and journalist Vincent Bevins in Germany, and more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, historian Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, joins the show to discuss the Gaza War and the paradigm shift he beleives it has brought about. We are in a "new era", Prof. Khalidi argues. We also discuss the Biden administration's response to the bombing of Gaza. We also delve into the histories of Zionism, the state of Israel, and the Palestinian identity. Additionally, Prof. Khalidi comments on the settler-colonial paradigm and the controversies around it. Prof. Khalidi also addresses what he sees as the biggest misunderstandings and misconceptions people have about the Palestinian perspective and gives his thoughts on the October 7th Hamas attack, the 2018 Israeli Nation-State Bill, and more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Kenneth Roth, former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch from 1993-2022, joins the show to discuss the Israel-Hamas or Gaza War from an international law perspective with a focus on the issue of war crimes. We begin the conversation by discussing HRW's notable report on Israel and apartheid, which focused on the West Bank, from a few years ago. From there we delve into the question of war crimes in relation to the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Kenneth Roth will address the responsibilities of a country engaged in a war, the "Hamas uses human shields argument" employed by pro-Israel voices when Israel is criticized for disproportionate civilian casualties, the Oct. 7th Hamas attack, the question of genocide, the importance of international law and human rights in the 21st century, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza (lack of clean water and food), and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our coverage of the Gaza War with three different segments and guests. First up, Antiwar.Com's news editor Dave DeCamp joins the show to discuss the bombshell reports by the New York Times and Israel's 972 magazine related to the war. NYT reported recently that Israel ignored vital intelligence, specifically the blueprints for a major attack, in the lead-up to the October 7th attack. Meanwhile, 972 reports on the use of AI systems to hit non-military targets in Gaza; 972 referred to it as a "massive assassination factory). We'll discuss the significance of these two stories as well as the Biden administration's response to the war and what may be going on behind the scenes. In the second segment of the show, David C. Hendrickson, the president of the John Quincy Adams Society and professor emeritus of political science at Colorado College (and author of such books as Republic in Peril, Peace Pact, Union, Nation, Empire, and most recently Freedom, Independence, Peace: John Quincy Adams and American Foreign Policy) returns to give his take on the Gaza War, the Biden administration's response to it, the Israeli intelligence failure of October 7th, the massive casualties inflicted on innocent Gazans, the different varieties of international relations realism, John Mearsheimer Vs. Henry Kissinger and liberal realism vs. a crude "the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must" realism, dissent in the State Dept. over the Gaza War, Benjamin Netanyahu, Eisenhower vs. Israel (and George HW Bush vs. Israel), Obama's problems with Netanyahu, the lack of security around Israel's southern border before October 7th, and much, much more. In the final segment of the show, Muhammad Sahimi, a contributor to Responsible Statecraft and Antiwar.Com, joins the show to discuss the Islamic Republic of Iran's response to the Gaza War and the differences in approach between the hardliner and moderate/pragmatist factions in Iran when it comes to the war, the U.S. role in the Middle East, Israel, and related issues. NOTE: In the conversation with Prof. Hendrickson I misquote Thucydides. He wrote "The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must" not "The strong do what they can, the weak do what they must".

On this edition of Parallax Views, we turn from our coverage of the Gaza War and to cast a vital eye on the ongoing Israeli Occupation in the West Bank and the explosion of settler violence that has exploded there in the past two months. Prof. Dana El-Kurd, author of Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine and assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at University of Richmond. and Prof. Diana B. Greenwald, author of the upcoming book Mayors in the Middle: Indirect Rule and Local Government in Occupied Palestine and assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the City College of New York, join the show for an in-depth discussion of the situation in the West Bank and the plight of Palestinians there. The situation in the West Bank and settler violence supported by Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir remains an important issue when discussing Israel/Palestine at this current moment of crisis. We hope you find this show informative.

On this edition of Parallax Views, freelance journalist and Haaretz contributor Etan Nechin joins the show to discuss the doctrine of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bibi's attacks on the Israeli press (including Haaretz), consolidation of media in Israel, support of the Occupation, embrace of Elon Musk and the Israeli far-right, reframing of what pro-Israel means, and more. We'll also discuss the Israeli far-right's attacks on hostages' families since the October 7th Hamas attack, Etan's thoughts on the Israeli left and his critique of the international left, the Gaza war, the situation of the Jewish diaspora, parallels between the MAGA right and the Israeli right, the settler movement, the Biden administration, and much, much more. This was recorded on 11-28-2023.

On this edition of Parallax Views, scholar Louis Fishman, associate professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and author of Jews and Palestinians in the Late Ottoman Era, 1908-1914: Claiming the Homeland, joins the show for to discuss the latest news in Israel/Palestine, specifically the Israel-Hamas hostage/prisoner swaps and the issue of administrative detention of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. We'll also discuss Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the "From the River to the Sea" slogan debate, free speech and the one state solution vs. two state solution debate, Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti and the "Bargouhti Card", the Gaza War, the Oct. 7th Hamas attack, ceasefires and the possibility of the war continuing, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax, Dr. Mark Juergensmeyer, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Global Studies, Sociology, and affiliate of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, joins the program to discuss his classic 2000 book Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious (now in its fourth edition) in light of the October 7th Hamas and news reports of violent Israeli settlers wreaking havoc in the occupied West Bank. We discuss Mark's concept of cosmic war as an animating force for young men, misconceptions about the type of young attracted to religious violence and terrorism, Israeli terrorist Dr. Baruch Goldstein, Dr. Juergensmeyer's experiences with Hamas leaders, the final words audio tapes of Hamas combatants before their martyrdom and what they reveal, Timothy McVeigh and far-right terrorism, 9/11 the Bush administration's War on Terror folly in Afghanistan and Iraq, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, The New Arab Investigative Unit's Anas Ambri joins the show to discuss his articles "Rothman: The investor that angered Jerusalem's Armenians", "Ben-Gvir associate, settlers intimidate Jerusalem Armenians", and "Spyware brokers and Lebanon’s surveillance state". We delve into the Armenians in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem that are under threat from the mysterious Australian real estate investor Danny Rothman (aka Danny Rubinstein) and armed Israeli settlers. In the latter portion of the program, we delve into HackingTeam, spyware, and its role in the Lebanese army and Lebanese security state.

On this edition of Parallax Views, renowned Holocaust historian and genocide scholar Dr. Omer Bartov, Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, joins the program to discuss the Gaza War and the question of genocide in relation to both the October 7th Hamas and the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Other topics broached include: - The nature of the Occupation and how occupations effect both the occupied and the occupier; Israel/Palestine and fears of a second Nakba or ethnic cleansing of Palestinians - The Jewish parable of the Golem of Prague, the Israeli far-right as a Frankenstein's monster that must be deactivated, and the messianic, supremacist vision of figures like the Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir and violent settlers in the West Bank - The open letter Prof. Bartov and other scholars like Christopher Browning on the misuse of Holocaust memory; "An Open Letter on the Misuse of Holocaust Memory" (The New York Review of Books) - Will change happen when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's is out of office? - The UN definition of genocide; war crimes and crimes against humanity; disagreements with genocide scholar Dirk Moses - Risks of the current situation evolving into a genocide - And much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, The Nation magazine's National Affairs correspondent Jeet Heer joins the show to discuss the Gaza War and his article "Why the Anti-Defamation League Loves Certain Bigots". Recently, the ADL's Jonathan Greenblat embraced Twitter/X's Elon Musk, despite Musk's spreading of antisemitic conspiracy theories, because Musk said that words and phrases like "decolonization" and "from the river to the sea" would result in banning from the platform. We will discuss that as well as the more checkered elements of the Anti-Defamation League's history such as the Roy Bullock spying scanadal involving the South African apartheid regime and the case of the Los Angeles 8 (7 Muslim men and one Kenyan woman). We'll also talk about the Gaza war, insurgencies and how counter-insurgency wars are fought, the parallels between the rise of the far-right in the U.S. and the far-right in Israel, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, foreign policy commentator Eldar Mamedov, a contributor to Responsible Statecraft and Eurasianet, joins the show to discuss the rather hawkish foreign policy inclinations of Argentina's President-elect Javier Milei. We will also discuss MAGA populism's embrace of Milei, who seeks to take a metaphorical chainsaw to the entirety of the Argentinian state apparatus, and the arguments made by figures like Sohrab Ahmari against that embrace. Some issues discussed: potential for Milei to isolate Argentina form both South America and the world, potential impact on relations between Argentina and Brazil, Milei's views on China and Israel, and more. There's also a brief side-discussion on Nagorno-Karabakh and U.S.-Azerbaijan relations.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we take a break from current events coveage to present a Halloween Hangover episode featuring Dennis Daniel on his book The Horror! The Horror! A Film Fanatic's Obsession With the Cinema of the Macabre. A lifelong horror movie fan and monster kids, Dennis Daniel has contributed to such publications as Deep Red, Delirium, and Cinema Macabre. We end up discussing not only his lifetime love of horror but also the underground tape trading culture of the pre-DVD/Bluray era, the role Dennis played in a fiasco where Charlie Sheen mistook an underground Japanese horror movie for a snuff film, the poetic horror of French filmmaker Jean Rollin, the schlock-tastic Italian cinema of Bruno Mattei, the wild and weird world of Jess Franco films and his muse Lina Romay, the 1930s adaptation of Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff as the Monster, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Armenian Christian in the Old City of Jerusalem are purportedly under threat from Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir-backed settler movement as per reporting from The Armenian Weekly and The New Arab. Additionally, statements have been released by the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem and the Christian Scout Groups of Jerusalem. Dr. Bedros Matossian of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln joins us to discuss this troubling situation which involves settler extremists as well as a company known as Xana Gardens Ltd and its owner Danny Rothman (aka Danny Rubenstein). We also discuss the history of the Armenian people in Jerusalem, the Armenian diaspora and the Armenian genocide, Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey, The Cow's Garden, and much more. Dr. Matossian's bio: Dr. Bedross Der Matossian born and rasied in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, is Professor of Modern Middle East History and Hymen Rosenberg Professor in Judaic Studies; and Vice Chair of the Department of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he began his graduate studies in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. He completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2008 in Middle East History in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies. From 2008 to 2010, he was a Lecturer of Middle East History in the Faculty of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His areas of interest include ethnic politics in the Middle East, inter-ethnic violence in the Ottoman Empire, Palestinian history, and the history of Armenian Genocide. Der Matossian is the author, editor, and co-editor of seven books. His latest edited volume, Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century, published by U. of Nebraska Press (2023), documents how modern genocides have adapted with new strategies to augment established modes of denial. A powerful image from the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem taken by the prominent Armenian photographer Garo NalbandIan. Armenian priests standing in front of the tractor that destroyed the wall of the Armenian Seminary. - Dr. Bendross Der. Matossian

On this episode of Parallax Views, the noted genocide studies scholar A. Dirk Moses, author of The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression, returns to his intervention on the debate about whether or not what is happening in Gaza constitutes a genocide. He recently wrote the piece in the Boston Review entitled "More than Genocide". In addition to this we also discuss his scathing take on the open letter of solidarity signed by Jurgen Habermas and other major German intellectuals. In the second segment of the show, Dr. Waitman W. Beorn joins the show to discuss how British writer Douglas Murray, fashion model Fabio, and others are distorting Holocaust history by making defenses of the Third Reich in light of the Oct. 7th Hamas attack. These commentators are making the case that the Nazis were "ashamed" of the Holocaust, concealed their crimes as a result, and were remorseful for their action. Dr. Beorn begs to differ and believes this Nazi apology, like the clean Wehrmacht myth, could lead down dangerous paths.

On this edition of Parallax Views, recorded before the news that a deal between Israel and Hamas to reach hostages was announced as being close to being made, Helena Cobban, a non-resident fellow of the Center for International Policy, joins the show to discuss the UN, the Gaza War, international law, Hamas, Israel, and related issues. She also promotes her new podcast, co-hosted by Yousef Aljamal, entitled the Palcast: One World, One Struggle about the Israel/Palestine. Helena Cobban is also the head of Just World Educational. Recorded 11/16/23

On this edition of Parallax Views, two Jewish American perspectives on the Jewish American community's response to 9/11, the issue of antisemitism, and Israel/Palestine. First up, Dov Waxman, director of UCLA’s Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Israel Studies, joins the show to discuss the American Jewish community's response to 9/11, defining antisemitism (and why he argues that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism; Waxman was part of the Nexus Task Force that sought to combat antisemitism while arguably having a less broad and potentially politicized definition of antisemitism than the IHRA), his book Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict Over Israel, the idea of exiling anti-Zionist Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow and why disagrees with it, the debate over the value of the settler-colonial discourse, the different types of Zionism, his feelings on Palestinian anti-Zionist attitudes, and much, much more! In the second segment of the show Ron Kampeas, longtime reporter of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, discuss a number of the topics discussed with Prof. Waxman, but also the March for Israel rally, right-wing antisemitism and criticism of John Hagee's participation in the rally, the involvement of a "peace bloc" at the rally, the Jonathan Pollard spy case, Ron's reporting on the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, remaining objective in reporting on news that oftn hits close to home emotionally, Rashida Tlaib's use of the pro-Palestinian "from the rive to the sea", the murder of Chicago-based Jewish-American community leader Samantha Woll and the rush to assume it was a hate crime (since ruled out by police), differences between Jewish media outlets in both America and Israel, sentiments against Benjamin Netanyahu in the U.S. and Israel, and much, much, more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, this episode is a double feature featuring two experts on U.S. foreign policy, the Middle East, and the Israel/Palestine conflict: Geoffrey Aronson and Paul R. Pillar, both of whom have recent articles in Responsible Statecraft that should be of interest to anyone following the Gaza War. Geoffrey Aronson, the former director for Foundation for Middle East Peace and the editor of the bimonthly Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories until June 2014 discusses his piece "The Ghost of Ariel Sharon Hovers Over the Gaza Strip" about how Gaza faces what he calls a "The Future is the Past, The Past is the Future" scenario when the current war ends. He takes us back to the policies of Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel in the early 2000's, and offers a grim picture of what Gaza will look like going forward, but also the failure of policies by both Israel and the United States. In the second segment of the show, Paul R. Pillar, an academic and 28-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency as well as a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Studies of Georgetown University and a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, joins the show to discuss his articles "Is Gaza on track for permanent war?" and "With world's focus on Gaza, West Bank conflict brews". We'll discuss those articles as well as U.S. foreign policy, the October 7th Hamas attack, U.S. foreign policy, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, James W. Carden, former adviser to the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission at the U.S. Department of State, returns to the program to discuss his articles "The Coming War in the Caucasus" (The American Conservative), "Israel's Other War: Ethnic Cleansing in the South Caucasus" (Antiwar.com), and "Kurt Campbell: The Lobbyist As Diplomat". Fears are mounting that the Aliyev regime, with the ever-present hand of Erdogan's Turkey, could soon target southern Armenia only months after the ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. We'll also discuss Israel's role in arming Azerbaijan and the potential geopolitical reasons Israel has for doing so. Moreover, we'll discuss U.S.-Armenia relations, the Azeri lobby and it's influence in Washington, D.C., the resignation of Josh Paul from the State Department over the current Biden policy on the Gaza War, how elements of the so-called dissident wing of the American conservative movement's realism and restraint community have betrayed the plight of Armenian Christians, trauma-specialist Dr. Gabor Mate on Gaza, foreign policy fixture Kurt Campbell and his ties to shadow lobbying efforts, and more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Dr. Andreas Krieg, an associate professor in the School of Security Studies at King's College, London and author of Subversion: The Strategic Weaponization of Narratives, joins the show to discuss Israel's strategic culture and its failing. He argues that Israel has responded to the Oct. 7th Hamas attack with strategic ambiguity and is fighting the current war in an outmoded fashion. We also discuss his experience attending a workshop on Hasbara, the nature of Israeli information warfare and synthetic disinformation, the question of whether Hamas can be defeated and the issue of blowback, the IDF's entering the Hamas underground tunnels and the problems that poses for the IDF, how the underground tunnels Hamas is using are likely going to undermine Israeli technological advantage (ie: the issue of low-tech warfare), Israel setting itself up for a long war, the Palestinian insurgency movement and Hamas as an idea, the goal of "eradicating Hamas", the Biden administration, the need for a political solution to the Israel/Palestine and how avoiding it is against Israel's security interests, ceasefire, claims that videos of Palestinian suffering are a fake "Pallywood" production, and much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, a double feature on Israel/Palestine, the Israel-Hamas War, the bombardment of Gaza, the Oct. 7th attack, and related subjects. First up, Israeli hostage negotiator and peace activist Gershon Baskin joins us to discuss his experiences negotiating with Hamas, his harsh criticisms of both Hamas and the Israeli government (especially under Benjamin Netanyahu), what he refers to as the "New Form of Apartheid" in Israel, what it will take to get the hostages back and why that course of action will not be taken, his hopes for a future peace that will allow Palestinians and Israelis to both be offered dignity and a sharing of the land, his recent communications with Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad, and more! In the second half of the program (timestamp: 44:18), Jason Pack, author of Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder and co-host of the Disorder podcast with Alexandra Hall Hall, joins us to discuss his Foreign Policy piece entitled "Qatar Is the Key to Middle East Peace". Jason argues that a condominium of Arab states led by Qatar are the way forward for stabilizing a postwar Gaza. Qatar, he makes the case, must help take a lead in the administration of a postwar Gaza that will eventually deal with the issue of Palestinian sovereignty. We will also talk about the "global enduring disorder" paradigm for understanding international relations and events.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs' UN correspondent Ian Williams, author of UNtold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War, joins the program to discuss the longstanding bad blood between the UN and Israel going back to the assassination of UN official Count Bernadotte by the militant Zionist paramilitary group Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang) in 1948. We discuss this in light of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres making statements that drew the ire of Israel and pro-Israel voices as well as Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilda Erdan wearing a yellow star to the UN, claiming there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and saying the UN is aligned with Hamas. We'll also discuss longstanding issues between the State Department and Israel, AIPAC and pro-Israel lobbying efforts, Christian evangelical support for Israel and how that support is driven by apocalyptic religious views, 20th century Zionist paramilitary groups and terrorism, and more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, journalist James Bamford, known for his groundbreaking investigations into the NSA (The Puzzle Palace) and the Iraq War (A Pretext for War), returns to the program to discuss his recent The Nation piece entitled "Why Israel Slept" about the October 7th Israel intelligence failure and the Israel covert operation Project Butterfly back by the late billionaire Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson and involving a now defunct Israeli private intelligence firm known as Psy-Group. Psy-Group, for the uninitiated, was also a target of Robert Mueller in the Russiagate investigation. We'll also be going over some of the issues Bamford addressed in his latest book SpyFail: Foreign Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence. Bamford explains how Project Butterfly used Israeli resources, which could've been used for security in Israel (ie: along the Gaza border), for a cover operation aimed at de-legitimizing pro-Palestinian voices in the United States. Bamford also discusses AIPAC, the Iraq War and neoconservatives, the FBI officials who've voiced frustrations with pro-Israel lobbying groups, the intelligence failure of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Prof. Nathan J. Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and author of six well-received books on Arab politics, joins the show to discuss his grim analysis of postwar possibilities as covered in his Carnegie Endowment for International Peace piece "There Might Be No Day After in Gaza". We'll also discuss the concept of the one-state reality in Israel/Palestine and why it is different than talking about the one-state solution. Moreover Nathan will explain the situation in the West Bank and the settler violence happening there. Prof. Brown argues that the postwar possibilities for Gaza are dim, and he disagrees with a number of the commentators arguing that the United Nations (UN), Israel, or a multilateral coalition of Arab states including Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar will administer Gaza after the war is over. What he predicts is that Gaza will be turned into a "supercamp" run by camp committee and gangs with periodic attacks by Hamas and raids by Israel.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Prof. James M. Dorsey of The Turbulent World w/ James M. Dorsey blog returns to discuss the latest development in the Gaza War and the recent joint Arab League-OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) summit that brought together Arab and Muslim world leaders like Syria's Bashar al-Assad, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Iran's Ebrahim Raisi, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud, and others together in an emergency meeting about the Israeli assault on Gaza. We'll also discuss the rage in the Arab/Muslim world over the bombing of Gaza and what it could mean for autocrats in the region, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's invocation of Amalek during the Gaza War, the rehabilitation of Assad in the Arab world, perceived U.S. double standards in the Middle East, the censure of Rashida Tlaib, French President Emmanuel Macron's call for the bombing of Gaza to end, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the outspoken and often controversial journalist Eric Margolis, who has long covered issues related to the Middle East, South Asia, and Islam, joins the show to discuss his views on the Israel/Palestine situation, the bombing of Gaza, the implications for the U.S. and the Arab world, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our series on Israel/Palestine, the fallout from the October 7th Hamas attack, and the Israeli bombing of Gaza with Ariel Gold, Executive Director of the Fellowship for Reconciliation. Ariel joins the show to discuss her article "Who’s Drinking Netanyahu’s Genocidal Amalek Kool-Aid?". She explains what's troubling abut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's invocation of the biblical story of Amalek and what it entails. We also discuss the Christian Zionism, the Kahanist movement in Israel a far-right Israeli political figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir, the debate over if the current bombing campaign in Gaza constitutes a form of genocide or attempted genocide, and much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Ralph Leonard, a contributor to publications like UnHerd, Sublation Magazine, and Aero Magazine, joins the show to discuss a potpourri of topics related to Israel/Palestine including the uses and abuses of antisemitism, Hamas and the misunderstanding of Frantz Fanon, the Nakba (or Catastrophe) of 1948), the Likud Party and Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionism, Jabotinsky's Iron Wall essay, what Jabotinsky admits about the grievances of Palestinians that his modern day heirs in the Likud Party don't, Avraham Stern and the Haavara Agreement, the Israeli New Historian Benny Morris and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, clashing nationalisms in the Israel/Palestine issue, his UnHerd article "Hamas apologists have misunderstood Frantz Fanon", Zionist paramilitary groups like the Stern Gang & Lehi and Irgun, Jabotinsky Vs. the mainstream left-wing Zionists, the spectrum of Zionist thought historically and the triumph of Revisionist Zionism, Ralph's tweet that "The recent political conflict within Israel has basically been a struggle between the state of Judea & the state of Israel", the "eradicate Hamas" rhetoric used by the Israeli government, the ethics of violence and the debate around armed conflict, Israel's kibbutzim, comparisons between Israel/Palestine & Algeria and Israel/Palestine & Liberia, revenge bombing in Gaza, blowback, the cold realistic strategic view on Israel's Gaza operation, the Palestinians won't be willingly driven into the Sinai and the belief that trying that would lead to stability is foolish, the one-state dystopia vs. the one-state utopia, the fragmentation of Palestinian politics, and more,

On this edition of Parallax Views, political blogger Ettingermentum joins the show to discuss his piece "The President Who Stood Up To Israel and Won". We discuss President George HW Bush's rocky relationship with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of the Likud Party, the young Benjamin Netanyahu, Bush-era Secretary of State James Baker, AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Commitee), Bush's "New World Order" and the Middle East, how Bush responded to pro-Israel lobbying that painted him as anti-Israel, why Ettingermentum disagrees with the idea that AIPAC cost Bush re-election, Yitzhak Rabin, unconditional support for Israel vs conditional support, Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Israeli far-right, Obama's relationship with Netanyahu, the Camp David 2000 Summit and Clinton official Robert Malley's account of why it fell apart (he claims it wasn't all on Arafat), the October 7th Hamas attack and the Tet Offensive, Netanyahu vs. Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli Right's attacks on Israeli intelligence Shin Bet, Israel's unsustainable status quo, claiming they've "gone woke", Benny Gantz, and the real lesson of Bush's checkmating of AIPAC and Shamir. Clarification for James Baker's controversial comments: Did James Baker Really Say ‘F*** the Jews’? New Book Clarifies U.S. Diplomat’s Infamous Quote - U.S. News - Haaretz.com (archive.ph)