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Program Information
Takes on the World
Commentary
Host Jeff Blankfort
 Jeff Blankfort  Contact Contributor
June 13, 2018, 1 p.m.
This commentary is longer than usual as it had to be sandwiched around an important interview with Robert Fisk. I begin by remarking that Donald Trump has kept his campaign promise to reshape the US relations with its traditional allies which he claimed had been abusive on their part. With his pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Trade Pact, the Paris Climate Agreement, and with tariffs, verbal and tweeting combat with fellow G-7 countries, Trump has essentially upended the post 1945 world order that had been dominated by the US, all of which bring smiles to Vladimir Putin.

I then attack the US media for its faulty reporting Israel's attacks on the March of Return protests in Gaza and begin by citing an article on the criminal nature of the bullets used by Israeli snipers to kill and maim protesters, citing article in the British Medical Journal by Dr. Nafiz Abu-Shiban, chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Gaza's Shifa Hospital and from Medicines Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) on the nature of the wounds and the sad prognosis for the victims.

I then briefly cite Nikki Haley's veto of a UNSC resolution against Israel and her failure to get more than the US vote on a resolution condemning Hamas, causing her to declare the UN to the the enemy of Israel.

I go on to quote Bernie Sanders' critique of Israel's actions and cite Peter Beinart's article on Sanders in the Jewish weekly Forward which praises Sanders for “dramatically changing the Beltway discourse on Israel,” and how Sanders has posted videos, the most recent featuring statements from Gazans telling their own thoughts and disabusing the notion they are being used by Hamas. This is followed by my exchange with our congressional representative, Jared Huffman, who is the subject of a Roots Action petition, calling him out for his unwillingness to criticize Israel. Huffman's response, which I read, places the blame for the Gaza tragedy on Hamas.

I follow this by reading from Gideon Levy's scathing attack on Israel's attempt to smear Razan al-Najjar, the 21 year old medic, murdered by an Israeli sniper, as being something other than what she was.

I then cite a story in the Forward about how an Israeli and US team, financed by Sheldon Adelson used a special app to make sure that favorable mainstream stories on Israel's response got more “likes.” After suggesting that the US organization, the Israel-American Council be forced to register as a foreign agent, I then go into the history of Pres. Kennedy's efforts to have the American Zionist Council register with FARA that were cut short by his assassination.


I conclude by playing a 1:10 statement by the well known TV host Anthony Bourdain, who reportedly committed suicide on the humanity of the people of Gaza which the world hasn't recognized







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00:22:53 1 June 13, 2018
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