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President Bush Embraces “Bold” Israeli Plan To
Annex West Bank Settlements
House Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act: A Debate
Study Alleging Dominant Influence of Israeli Lobby Sparks
Heated Fallout
Retired Army Col. Charged With Sedition For Handing Flyer
on Anti-War Vietnam Vets
President Bush Embraces “Bold” Israeli
Plan To Annex West Bank Settlements
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in the United States
for his first official visit since coming to office. On Tuesday,
President Bush embraced Ehud Olmert’s proposal to annex
the major settlement blocs in the West Bank. We get reaction
from Afif Safieh, the PLO ambassador to the United States.
[includes rush
transcript]
President Bush yesterday embraced Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert’s proposal to unilaterally redraw Israel’s
boundaries in the occupied West Bank. Olmert is in Washington
for his first official visit since winning elections in March.
Speaking after the talks, Bush described the Israeli plan
as “bold.” But he urged Israel to resume direct
negotiations with the Palestinians and said a unilateral solution
was a last resort. Olmert’s proposal would remove around
60,000 Israelis from isolated settlements in the West Bank
but would annex larger settlements which house some 200,000
Israelis, excluding East Jerusalem. Olmert said Israel reserves
the right to impose final borders over Palestinian objections
if peace talks remain stalled and reiterated he would not
negotiate with a Palestinian government led by Hamas. The
militant group won a sweeping victory in legislative elections
in January. President Bush also condemned Hamas and said he
believes a negotiated settlement could still be reached between
Israel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Meanwhile Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh repeated
Hamas’ overture that it would call a long-term ceasefire
if Israel withdrew from all the land it occupied in the 1967
war. But the statement falls short of western demands for
Hamas to recognize Israel’s “right to exist.”
- Afif Safieh, PLO ambassador to the United States.
House Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act: A Debate
The House yesterday approved a bill to ban U.S. assistance
to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Anti-Terrorism
Act would make it difficult for nongovernmental organizations,
except those providing healthcare, to receive U.S. funds.
PLO Ambassador Afif Safieh, the Heritage Foundation’s
Ariel Cohen and Brit Tzedek V’Shalom’s Rob Levy
debate the issue. [includes rush
transcript]
The House yesterday approved a bill to ban U.S. assistance
to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Anti-Terrorism
Act was passed by a vote of 361 to 37. The measure would make
it difficult for nongovernmental organizations, except those
providing healthcare, to receive U.S. funds. The bill also
denies U.S. visas to members of the Palestinian Authority,
prohibits official U.S. contact with Palestinian officials,
and cuts off U.S. funding of United Nations agencies that
directly assist the Palestinian Authority. The White House,
which has already cut off direct aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian
government, said the bill went too far. A less restrictive
measure is being considered in the Senate. The US-led international
boycott of aid to the Palestinian Authority has plunged the
Occupied Territories into a financial and humanitarian crisis.
- Afif Safieh, PLO ambassador to the United States.
- Rob Levy, Washington representative of the US Jewish
organization Brit Tzedek V’Shalom, one of three Jewish
organizations active in lobbying against the legislation.
- Dr. Ariel Cohen, Senior research fellow at the Heritage
Foundation.
Study Alleging Dominant Influence of Israeli Lobby
Sparks Heated Fallout
In the recent study “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign
Policy", two distinguished political science professors
charge that the United States has willingly set aside its
own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance
the interests of Israel. In addition the study accuses the
pro-Israeli lobby, particularly AIPAC of manipulating the
U.S. media, policing academia and silencing critics of Israel
by labeling them as anti-Semitic. Media critic Michael Massing
joins us to talk about the fallout from the study. [includes
rush
transcript]
The “Anti- Hamas bill that passed in the House yesterday
was heavily supported by AIPAC, the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee. In fact, one critic of the bill, Congresswoman
Betty McCollum of Minnesota, accused AIPAC of threatening
her because she voted against the bill. She said an AIPAC
activist called her office to say that her QUOTE “support
for terrorists will not be tolerated.”
We turn now to look at a recent study that has caused an
uproar in the academic community and in the media. The study
is titled “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy."
The authors of the paper, Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard
University and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago,
charge that the United States has willingly set aside its
own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance
the interests of Israel. In addition the study accuses the
pro-Israeli lobby, particularly AIPAC of manipulating the
U.S. media, policing academia and silencing critics of Israel
by labeling them as anti-Semitic. Well, a new article in the
New York Review of Books examines this controversial report
and the reaction to it. It’s titled "The Storm
over the Israel Lobby". It was written by media critic
Michael Massing who joins us our in the Firehouse studio.
- Michael Massing, contributing editor of the Columbia
Journalism Review and board member of the Committee to Protect
Journalists. He frequently writes for the New York Review
of Books, the American Prospect and the Nation.
Retired Army Col. Charged With Sedition For Handing
Flyer on Anti-War Vietnam Vets
On Monday, Ann Wright, a Retired Army Colonel and former
U.S. diplomat, found herself handcuffed to chair inside the
Fort McNair military base in Washington after being detained
at the base. Her crime: passing out a flyer for the film “Sir,
No Sir: The Suppressed Story of the GI Movement to End the
War In Vietnam.” We’re joined by Ann Wright, as
well as the film’s director. [includes rush
transcript]
Two months ago on Democracy Now, we interviewed Laura Berg.
You might remember she is the Veterans Affairs nurse in Albuquerque
who was accused of sedition after she wrote a letter to the
editor criticizing the Bush administration’s handling
of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war. Well today we look
at another individual accused by the military of sedition.
Her name is Ann Wright. She is a Retired Army Colonel and
former U.S. diplomat. She spent 29 years in the military and
later served as a high-ranking diplomat in the State Department.
In 2001 she helped oversee the reopening of the U.S. mission
in Afghanistan. In 2003 she resigned her State Department
post to protest the war in Iraq. On Monday she found herself
handcuffed to chair inside the Fort McNair military base in
Washington after being detained at the base. She joins us
now in Washington to explain what happened.
We invited the Army to join us on the program. The Army declined
the offer. An Army spokesperson did issue a statement defending
its treatment of Ann Wright. The stament read “Col.
Wright was inappropriately distributing literature in violation
of Army Regulations 210-7 and 360-1, Section 3-8, which prohibit
distribution of any non-DoD material on an Army installation
without prior permission from the installation commander.”
- Ann Wright, retired Army Colonel and former U.S. diplomat.
- "Sir, No Sir: The Suppressed Story of the GI Movement
to End the War In Vietnam, " excerpt from documentary.
- David Zeiger, producer and director of "Sir, No
Sir" which is currently playing in theaters nationwide.
His production company is Displaced Films and he has made
films that have been shown on PBS, HBO and at festivals
all over the world.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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