Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael J.G.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the University of Connecticut's Prof. Jeremy Pressman, Director of Middle East Studies at UConn and author of The Sword is Not Enough: Arabs, Israelis, and the Limits of Military Force, joins the show to discuss the myths of the 2000 Camp David Summit and Taba talks. During recent appearances in media programs such as Morning Joe w/ Joe Scarborough, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brought up the old trope that "the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" that is often invoked when discussing PLO leader Yasser Arafat and the 2000 Camp David Summit. This is used to say that Arafat failed the Palestinian people and "rejected an offer". It's also a talking point used to justify use of military force rather than pursuing a political solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. It forecloses on the possibility of a diplomatic solution or peace being achieved by saying the Palestinians are "not ready" for peace.
Prof. Jeremy Pressman wrote a researched, footnoted piece entitled "Visions in Collision: What Happened at Camp David and Taba?" that pushes back on this oversimplified narrative of the Clinton-era diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Palestinians. We'll dig into all the different areas of the 2000 Camp David Summit as well as dealing with the pre-history of it, specifically the Oslo Accords and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. We'll also compared Camp David to the Abraham Accords, cycles of escalatory violence, land swaps and the two-state solution, the Confederation model and the arguments against the two-state solution, the power asymmetry between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. concessions made by the Palestinians in negotiations, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Prof. Joel Beinin joins the program to discuss his July 2023 972 magazine essay "A century after its founding, the Israeli Communist Party is at a crossroads". In said essay, Prof. Beinin gives a history of Communism and the Communist Party in Israel/Palestine that offers an insight into how the Left dealt with issues such as Zionism, anti-Zionism, Arab nationalism, partition, imperialism, and colonialism as they related to Israel/Palestine and the Middle East during the 20th century.
In our conversation Prof. Beinin will give a history on the Communist Party in Israel/Palestine that delves into the splits between Palestinian and Israeli in this history as well as how the Soviet Union, the Cold War, the aftermath of the Holocaust, Egyptian President Abdel Nasser and Arab anticommunism, the formation of Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) in Israel, the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Communist Party successful mobilization against Israeli Minister of Agriculture Moshe Dayan's proposed Consolidation of Lands Law in the 1960s, and more. We'll also discuss the failings of the Communist Party in Israel/Palestine and the lessons that can be gleaned from those failings for the Left today in regard to Israel/Palestine.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Leila Hilal, an international human rights lawyer and the former co-director of the New America Foundation Middle East Task Force, joins the show to discuss her experiences as an advisor to Palestinian negotiators, Israel/Palestine, Israel's assault on Gaza, the situation in the West Bank and settler violence, misunderstandings about UNRWA, the U.S.'s refusal or inability to reign in Israel during this war, dynamics of extremism and containment, Yasser Arafat and the PLO in the era of the Oslo Accords, risks of regional war and the recent confrontation between Israel & Iran, the role of the Arab world in Israel/Palestine going forward, the "Palestinian Never Miss an Opportunity to Miss an Opportunity" trope and dehumanization of Palestinians, the recent settler attack on an aid truck, the one-state reality and Palestinians' struggle for bare life survival/search for dignity in the West Bank, the Second Intifada's effect on Palestinians and Israelis, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Palestinian children's books author Rifk Ebeid, author of Baba What Does My Name Mean?: A Journey to Palestine, You Are the Color, and Birthday Kunafa, joins the show to discuss her books, Palestinian identity and experience, and her animated children's short I Am From Palestine. We'll also discuss how one of her books was censored a Philadelphia library, the need for Palestinians to know their stories and identity, suppression of Palestinian identity, positive and negative feedback she's gotten on her children's books, thoughts on the Gaza protests, centering Palestinian voices, the Nakba ("The Catastrophe" or 1948 Palestinian expulsion) and the Naksa ("The Setback" or the 1967 Palestinian expulsion), Rifk's awareness of her Palestinian identity even going back her early childhood, Ron DiSantis and Republican book banning efforts, the absurdity of being theatened by a children's book, Rif's work in speech language pathology, censorship, and a number of other topics.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Israel has commenced its operation in Rafah. As this was happening I was interviewing Khalil Sayegh, a D.C.-based Palestinian Christian who was born and raised in the Gaza Strip. Khalil is also the co-founder and President of the Agora Initiative, a non-profit that works to promote democracy in the Middle East.
Khalil gives a crash course in the Palestinian perspective on Israle/Palestine in the course of our conversation starting with a discussion of his own background and experiences as a Palestinian who grew up in Gaza. We also end up discussing issues related to how the Palestinian cause, the quest for Palestinian self-determination, can advance forward in these turbulent, uncertain, and grim time of war and bombardment. Among the topics covered are: the need for external pressure to be put on Israel, Israeli obstinance on a two-state solution, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Marwan Barghouti, Zionism and anti-Zionism, diplomacy, the Occupation, the West Bank, the shrinking Israeli left, Benjamin Netanyahu, the problem with thinking that a figure succeeding Netanyahu such as Yair Lapid or Benny Gantz will immediately lead to optimal outcomes, the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, the Nakba and Palestinian displacement, Israeli maximalism, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, we've got a trouble feature. First, Jordan Elgrably of the Marza Review and editor of the new volume Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction joins the show to discuss Israel and attacks on writers and journalist past and present who forward Palestinian perspectives. We'll also talk about Gaza as a laboratory for laboratory for repressive, surveillance technologies that are then later used in the U.S.; racist depictions of Arabs and Palestinians in U.S. media and the professional Islamophobia industry; social media, the attacks on TikTok, and the way social media has advanced Palestinian perspectives; the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh; and much, much more!

In the second segment of the show, reporter Kevin Gosztola from The Dissenter joins us to discuss his latest article "Israel Could Ban Other Media After Banning Al Jazeera". We discuss the raid of Al Jazeera and the 45-day band being placed on the news organization shortly after World Press Freedom Day.

In the third and final segment of the show, Jonah Raskin, a legendary figure from late 60s/70s left-wing counterculture and activism, speaks with us about his Counterpunch op-ed "Columbia Protests Now and in ‘68". What are the parallels between the days of rage that were the 1960s and 1970s, when FBI COINTELPRO thought to disrupt student activism and the National Guard was sent in to put down protesters in what became known as the Kent State Massacre, and the incredible moment of protest arising on today's college campuses around the issue of Gaza?