Background Briefing: October 19, 2023
The War on Children as Bombs Fall on Gaza Where Half the Population is Under 18
We begin with the war on children as bombs fall on Gaza where half the population is under 18 and as every kibbutz baby for Hamas in an oppressor, and every Palestinian baby for Netanyahu and his cohorts is a future terrorist, we search for some way to stop the killing and speak with Amy Wilentz. An award-winning writer, her books include The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier and The Rainy Season: Haiti Then—and Now. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in general nonfiction in 2020, she is the former Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker, a long-time contributing editor at The Nation and teaches in the Literary Journalism program at the University of California at Irvine. She is the author of Martyrs’ Crossing, a novel about the Oslo peace process in Jerusalem in the mid-1990, and we discuss her article at The Nation, “In Gaza They Don’t Even Bother to Call It Peace.”
The Search for Humanity and Compassion Amid the Killing
Then we look further in a search for humanity and compassion amid the killing and speak with Dr. Sa’ed Atshan, a Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. His areas of research include contemporary Palestinian society and politics, global LGBTQ social movements, and Christian minorities in the Middle East. He is the author of Queer Palestine and The Empire of Critique and the coauthor of The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians. His forthcoming book is Paradoxes of Humanitarianism: The Social Life of Aid in the Palestinian Territories and we discuss his article at Truthout, “I Wish Americans Could See the Humanity of Palestinians as They Do With Israelis.”
The Kraken is Released on Probation and Will Testify Against Trump and His Cohorts
Then finally we examine the plea deal Sidney Powell made with the Fulton County prosecutor in Georgia in which the Kraken was released on probation and will testify against Trump and 16 of his cohorts in the racketeering case brought by DA Fani Willis. Joining us is David Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers political and global news. He previously reported for Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The National. We discuss his latest article at the Atlantic, “What Sidney Powell’s Deal Could Mean for the Fulton County Case Against Trump.”