America's best friends in the Middle East

America's best friends in the Middle East are all radical theocracies with a penchant for murder. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni country, has killed tens of thousands of Shia in Yemen and made hundreds of thousands homeless. The Saudi bombing has put five million Shia children in danger of starvation. 

Israel's decades long mistreatment of Palestinians has been equally barbaric. Two million live in Gaza, the largest open air prison in the world, subject to periodic mass slaughters of civilians by Israel's high tech weaponry. The Jim Crow life of Palestinians in the West Bank under a brutal Israeli occupation is hardly better. Like Saudi Arabia, Israel directs its hatred and violence towards those of the wrong faith. The Zionist regime is simply built on a foundation of Jewish supremacy. 

We are now witnessing America's rise of white, Christian nationalism. The radical right is highly armed and prone to attacks on Jews, Muslims, gays, immigrants, Latinos and women. Anyone who doesn't fit their theocratic ideals of purity. We can't just blame it on Trump, racist though he is. We can't just blame the Saudi and Israeli money pouring into the coffers of our corrupted politicians. Saudi Arabia gave the Clinton Foundation 10 million before Hillary's campaign, and billionaire Sheldon Adelson, an Israeli/American Zionist, donated 82 million to Trump in 2016. 

No, America's white nationalism reflects the racism of our expanding empire abroad, as well as the extremist views of our closest allies in conquering and occupying the Middle East.

Fred Nagel

Driven to ideas that will hopefully liberate us all from Zionism

November 15

GUEST: Heather Tenzer, documentary filmmaker and human rights activist, talks about her latest project, a film called "The Rabbis' Intifada" that tells the story of the Neturei Karta, a group of Orthodox rabbis speaking out in support of Palestinian liberation.

The Rabbis' Intifada 

Heather was a great guest, in part because she is still searching for the truth. Growing up in a Zionist household, she was shocked by the Neturei Karta. Rabbis against the occupation? Calling it a disaster visited on the Jewish people?

We didn't spend too much time on how the Neturei Karta dressed or even on what their other beliefs are. The issue is justice and how some rabbis come to put their religious values above nationalism and apartheid. Of course, Rabbis don't have to belong to that community to hold these beliefs. I went on the Gaza Freedom March several years ago and made a documentary about Jews who had come along on our trip. Some were Rabbis and some were not, but they all put human life above the needs of the theocracy that is Israel.

Talking to Heather I became more interested in her awakening than I did in the Neturei Karta. I think that is why her film will be so powerful. Heather is a fearless explorer, driven to ideas that will hopefully liberate us all from Zionism.

Secret from no one else but the American people

November 8

GUEST: Cambiz Amir-Khosravi, widely recognized, award-winning documentary film and video producer whose work ranges back to the early 1980s, talks about his latest film, "Inheritance," that explores his life as an Iranian American with family ties to the CIA coup of 1953.

Finding Father: Cambiz Amir-Khosravi’s Inheritance

Cambiz gave us a lively interview. It wasn't just about the good guys and the bad guys in Iran; too simple. Why do Americans always think in those terms? Does it have to do with how idealistic we are, or how ignorant?

Cambiz doesn't spend too much time on the US role in his country, but it is always there beneath the surface. Even the title of his film has a double meaning. It is certainly his inheritance as a son of a prominent Iranian politician. But it is also the inheritance of the US for what it did to Iran's first democratically elected president, Mohammad Mosaddegh. How do you destroy the hopes of a whole nation for a few oil companies without making a lasting enemy? But that is the secret history of the US since the end of WWII. Secret from no one else but the American people. Others on the planet are all too aware. 

Turn around and risk your life again

November 1

GUEST: Michael Hanes, former Marine Force Recon staff sergeant who was part of the initial 2003 US invasion of Iraq, and former US Army Ranger deployed to Afghanistan 2002 - 2004, talks about his life as a war resister and his visits to the West Bank, Okinawa and Japan as a member of Veterans For Peace
U.S. Veteran Visits Palestine

Mike Hanes is a soft spoken ex-Marine. He just tells you what is happening in the American empire, no holds barred. His story about becoming aware of US war crimes is a compelling one. He followed a fellow Marine around because he feared for his friend's life. Not from enemy fire, but from those in his platoon who didn't like what the two of them were talking about: illegal invasions and occupations in the Middle East.

His trips with Vets For Peace must have been a cakewalk after that. VFP exists to expose US militarism around the world, and they had each other's backs in Okinawa, Korea, and the West Bank.

Oh that more soldiers could turn that corner and look at what they did in other countries more objectively. But it still takes a special person to risk his life once for an occupation, and then turn around and risk it again to fight for human rights. Yes, I admire Michael Hanes.