Veterans for Peace Radio Hour jim wohlgemuth

Bruce Carruthers our resident expert on VA Health Care updates us on a VA report that slams privatization, but can we get it released so that it can make a difference? Then we turn to Student protests with an update from the encampment at Vanderbilt. Then the Freedom Flotilla was blocked through the efforts of Israel and the US. Will another country offer a flag to let them sail? Finally, as college administrators consider the National Guard, we remember Kent State Day through song.

Today Harvey and Jim catch up and follow up with the alumni and student involved in the protest on the Vanderbilt campus. Harvey targets Boeing putting profit over passenger safety. We also reflect on an interview between Aaron Mate and Norman Finkelstein from six years ago about the Palestinian right to resist, the right to defend themselves. Veterans for Peace also has another letter, this time to Biden, calling out his violations of the Symington Glenn amendment in providing aid to a nuclear state (Israel) that has not signed on to the NPT. We finish up with a new song from Dave Rovics.

Vanderbilt University in Nashville is leading the way in the draconian responses against pro-Palestinian rallies and protests. Today we talk to a Vanderbilt Alumni, a Vanderbilt student who was suspended but now faces probation, and a Staff Writer for the Nashville Scene who was arrested. We find out what the students were protesting and why. We talk about the disparate treatment of pro-Palestinian efforts versus more reactionary groups. We try to understand the Chancellor's principled neutrality to education at Vanderbilt. Think about principled neutrality; what might that actually mean? We ask the question is Vanderbilt University betraying or actually upholding it history of dealing with protests on campus? We finish up with Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine.

Larry Hebert was able to join the show for this in-depth discussion of his hunger strike in support of Palestine and against the Biden foreign policy of Biden's unconditional support of Israel's genocide on Gaza. We missed our initially established interview time because Larry was directed to go to Walter Reed Army Hospital for blood work and a mental evaluation. After being cleared, he talked to us from the grounds of the US capital. We talked about his hunger strike, his protest, his frustration that Aaron Bushnell's self-immolation generated more of a response in the Middle East than it did in the US, and his disillusionment about the US Military. We finish with Eddie Mack and The Sound of War.

Veterans for Peace specifically documents the national and international laws that the US is violating in its facilitation of Israel's genocide in Gaza. Executive Director of Veterans for Peace Mike Ferner and VFP member Jack Gilroy join us to specifically go over that charges VFP alleges in a letter to Anthony Blinken and other senior members of the State Department that calls on the Inspector General to initiate a criminal investigation. They specifically detail how the US is in violation of at least six domestic statutes and treaties. To see the letter: https://www.veteransforpeace.org/files/4017/0777/8707/VFP_StDept_ltr_FINAL_2-11-24.pdf

We know that Israel has made claims that it has a greater historical claim to the land than the people in the West Bank and Gaza. So what do the historical facts actually say? For that we turn to Middle East Historian, retired teacher, and activist Krishna Madan to trace the turbulent history of the people who lived on the land east of the Mediterranean Sea. We talk to Krishna personally and refer to the presentation he gave to Veterans for Peace which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EUnXQOhtoE&t=30s