Between The Lines - Israeli peace and justice activist Ofer Neiman: assessing prospects of the newly resumed long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks (Week Ending Aug. 16, 2013)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

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New Round of Middle East Peace Talks Greeted with Skepticism and Concern

RealAudio MP3

Posted Aug. 7, 2013

Interview with Ofer Neiman, an Israeli peace and justice activist, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has coaxed Palestinian and Israeli diplomats back to the negotiating table, three years after talks broke down due to Israel's refusal to put a settlement ban in place in the West Bank. This time around, the Palestinians have agreed to talks despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal again to freeze the construction of new settlements. And although Netanyahu has declared an informal halt to settlement building for the time being, his government has taken other actions that bolster settlers already living there – which some assert demonstrates bad faith.

Meanwhile, critics in the U.S., the West Bank, and in Israel point out that the U.S. is hardly an "honest broker," since Washington has for so long supported Israeli policies and provided billions of dollars of aid and weapons. Others observers express concern that the lead negotiator appointed by Secretary of State Kerry – Martin Indyk – is a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel who has worked for pro-Israel lobby groups in the U.S. such as AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Ofer Neiman, an Israeli peace and justice activist who's involved in the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, campaign, to pressure Israel to end the occupation of the West Bank. Here he shares his view of the new round of peace negotiations, an outlook very different from the majority of Israelis.

OFER NEIMAN: I would go with the words of an Israeli journalist and blogger, a very smart guy, named Noam Sheizaf, one or two sentences. He's posting from July 23: "Don't cheer these peace talks." And he adds, "To register their recent success, Kerry and the Obama administration destroyed whatever was achieved in the last two decades. For the first time since the 1991 Madrid Conference, the starting point for the negotiations are the positions of the Israeli right." And I definitely subscribe to Noam's point of view. So what we're going to see right now is pretty much negotiations from scratch in which the Likud government, with very extreme views, will try to use its force to dictate some Palestinian acceptance of the facts on the ground, namely checkpoints and settlements, so I don't think we should be cheering those peace talks.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Does most of the Israeli public say they support a two-state solution?

OFER NEIMAN: It seems that most Israelis have become quite apathetic about the situation because they can go on with their lives in Tel Aviv and other places without any thoughts toward the occupation. Matter of fact, when we had suicide bombings in Israel, people were more concerned; in a way they had to think about the occupation. Now when things are more quiet, most Israelis don't care, and I also think that for most Israelis, the status quo is the best option. No one wants to discuss two states or one state. People just prefer the status quo because there are huge obstacles and problems involved in both these scenarios, so people just stick to the present, and of course this means that the overwhelming majority of the Israeli public is practically giving the settlers carte blanche – and Likud of course, and the generals, Israel's ruling elite – they're giving them carte blanche to go on with their colonial project, especially the settlements. People are paying lip service to the two-state slogan. They say, I support a two-state solution; I want to have peace, but nothing beyond that for most Israelis.

BETWEEN THE LINES: There was an interesting article in the New York Times recently quoting many top officials in the Likud government saying they want a one-state solution, but by that they meant a solution in which Israel would take over all of the West Bank and incorporate it into Israel proper. Do you think there's much support for a one-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians would live as equals in a nation that encompasses Israel and the West Bank?

OFER NEIMAN: Well, we can see active support only in some so-called radical circles. Again, the overwhelmingly majority of the public, they don't want a one-state solution because many of them stand to lose their privileges and there are huge issues involved – Palestinian refugees, Palestinians being able to live inside Israel's current borders, many other issues. Of course, this ridiculous single-state solution supported by various Likud (word unclear), it's not a democratic solution. Basically, most Israelis support the current. In fact, what we have now is pretty much a one-state solution – a one-state apartheid solution and most Israelis support that; they don't want to change things too drastically.

BETWEEN THE LINES: As an Israeli activist who's been working for many years for a just solution to this situation, do you see any ray of hope?

OFER NEIMAN: I do see a ray of hope in the global mobilization of activists and NGOs against Israel's apartheid policies. One relative term is, of course, the BDS campaign, so maybe we can call it global civil society. Another problem we have is that some of the more established peace groups – I can name Peace Now and Americans for Peace Now and J Street – I think they are responsible for this very false celebration of the so-called resumption of the peace talks, marketing it as some big achievement, without addressing the core issues, for example, the imbalance of power between the Palestinians and Israel and without countering apartheid – without naming it, without doing too much against Israeli actions on the ground, and that's another element of the problem, that some parts of what should have been a peace camp, a serious opposition, basically are acting as cheerleaders for John Kerry and the U.S. administration.

For more progressive views on the situation in Israel/Palestine, visit the Israeli blog, 972mag.com.