Background Briefing: April 27, 2021

On By gram

 

Did Iran Send a Signal With the Missile That Landed Near Israel’s Reactor at Dimona?

We begin with the increasingly dangerous shadow war underway between Israel and Iran following a missile fired from Syria landing near Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona which is being downplayed by Israel as a stray missile when it might well be a signal from Iran’s ageing Ayatollah that they could respond to the recent Israeli attack on Natanz if they chose to. Joining us is Thanassis Cambanis a Lebanon-based journalist who writes “The Internationalist” column for The Boston Globe and is the author of A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah’s Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel. We discuss whether this shadow war could get out of hand since the Israelis are invested in preventing Biden’s revival of the JCPOA deal with Iran and the Republicans are now in a lather over their latest fake “Benghazi” scandal having made up a story that John Kerry is a traitor. With Israel’s top military and Intelligence chiefs coming to Washington next week, we will assess whether Iran’s proxy Hezbollah could be planning an attack on Israel which is a concern expressed by Israel’s Army Chief of Staff, Aviv Kochavi. 

 

Winners and Losers in the 2020 Census Results

Then we examine the results of the 2020 Census which gives two new House seats to Texas and one each to Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Montana and Oregon and takes away one seat from California, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Dr. Michael McDonald, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida who is the principal investigator of the Public Mapping Project and the Director of the United States Election Project, joins us to discuss how much the Republicans could now gerrymander their way back into control of the House.

 

A Leading Expert on Our Endless Wars and the Need For Civilian Control of the Military

Then finally we speak with investigative journalist William Arkin, one of America’s premier military experts about his new book, just out, The Generals Have No Clothes: The Untold Story of Our Endless Wars and his article at The Military Times “With the withdrawal from Afghanistan, are we indeed ending perpetual war?“ We discuss Arkin’s call for a new era of civilian control over the military and the need for a Global Security Index, the security equivalent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.