Philip Weiss: Trump Declares U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's Capital, Angering World, Isolates America

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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With Declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's Capital, Trump Angers World, Isolates U.S.

Posted Dec. 13, 2017

Interview with Philip Weiss, co-editor of the online Middle East news site Mondoweiss.net, conducted by Scott Harris

On Wednesday, Dec. 6, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, setting off protests in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank and in nations across the Middle East and around the world. Trump ordered the U.S. embassy be moved from its current location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the coming years. The unilateral declaration on Jerusalem broke with 70 years of American foreign policy, which held that the final status of the disputed city should be determined by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Jerusalem, the home of revered Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites, is viewed by Palestinians as the future capital of a Palestinian state.

Although Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintain that the U.S. Jerusalem declaration is simply recognition of facts on the ground, people around the world expressed their opposition to the move with passionate protests in cities across the globe. While leaders of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas called for a new intifada or uprising, Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization declared that Trump had disqualified the U.S. from any role in future peace negotiations.

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Philip Weiss, co-editor of the online Middle East news site Mondoweiss.net. Here, he discusses how President Trump's Jerusalem declaration will impact people on the ground in the Middle East and its effect on the already frozen Middle East peace process.

PHILIP WEISS: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu went to Europe, tried to sell all the European nations on following suit – saying that Israel's capital is Jerusalem, and they all said, "No way!" So far, Trump is pretty alone here. And he does break with the tradition that Bill Clinton and George Bush and Obama observed, which was "We're keeping the embassy in Tel Aviv." In Bush and Clinton's case, they both ran on the promise to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and then wiser heads prevailed.

In Trump's case, he has followed through on a campaign promise that he made to the Israel lobby group AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee). As disruptive as it is, it's not as if doesn't reflect the reality, which is that Israel has devoured Jerusalem. It's been devouring Jerusalem since 1967, when it claimed the eastern half of the city after the 1967. The world has regarded that as an occupation.

The United Nations has repeatedly called it an occupation and Trump's decision is a huge blow to the two-state solution. But he has blown away the hypocrisy of American presidents, American administrations insisting that we're not going to move our embassy there. But on the other hand, we're not going to do anything to stop Israel from devouring east Jerusalem. And the damage to the two-state solution is what Israel and the Clinton administration has done, what the Bush administration has done, what the Obama administration has done. And Trump is in a sense simply acknowledging the failures of the American government to do anything to stop the Israeli settlement project.

BETWEEN THE LINES: As you said, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insist the U.S. move here in recognizing Jerusalem as Israeli is just a recognition of facts on the ground. But they maintain that this move by Trump will not derail U.S. efforts to initiate a new round of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. How much credibility does that statement have?

PHILIP WEISS: It has no credibility whatsoever for me. And in fact, I think that's one of the things that enrages and is most angering about this announcement. The claim that you can pursue a peace process when you have already ceded central issues in what is to be negotiated to one side. And that is what Trump did. That actually is, of course, what previous administrations have done. But when Netanyahu says that, when he says this in no way forecloses a two-state solution.

All he's trying to do is to keep Israel from being delegitimized in the eyes of the world because Israel wants it both ways. It wants to control all the territory and yet it wants to claim that's working toward a two-state solution. And when one prop of that delusion is removed, ie., you're not working toward a two-state solution, then the world has to move on and say hey this is apartheid. There's a struggle for equal rights going on here. Israel controls all the land.

And the last thing that Netanyahu wants is for such an international South African delegitimization campaign to begin. So he has to say, "No, we've got the two-state solution solution alive. It's alive and well, and in fact, his cohort in the United States, the right-wing Israel lobby is saying, no, no, this two-state solution is still right on the table. And they do this even if they know that they're not going to make any effort to bring that about. Promises that were made in Oslo and in the Oslo process a quarter-century ago have been demolished and the Palestinians have only seen less and less sovereignty over those years.

BETWEEN THE LINES: With Trump's declaration on Jerusalem, what are the repercussions, in your view for the United States and Israel, in terms of political and diplomatic isolation? The violence that we've seen crop up in places like the occupied West Bank and other regional capitals? What's the blowback for Trump and Netanyahu?

PHILIP WEISS: One has to begin by saying that I'm sitting in an armchair in New York and hopefully we would not suffer violence that's going to flow from this. But there will be violence flowing from this. And people will lose their lives. A lot of people will be hurt because of this decision. That being said, I think that the international consequences of this are extremely positive for Palestinians. I don't think Palestinians have ever had as much prestige internationally as they do right now. Because you see even mainstream American voices, journalists who have tended to side with Israel again and again and again, looking at this situation and recognizing that the Palestinians are getting screwed.

European countries are clearly very angry about this. Federica Mogherini, the foreign secretary of the EU, made it clear: "Netanyahu we are not acknowledging this." None of the European states are going to move their embassy to Jerusalem. And there's a great deal of sympathy for Palestinians that will translate into some real moves on the Palestinian people's part. I don't know quite what entity that will be. It's the BDS campaign – the boycott campaign – has been fostered by this move. Whether the Palestine Liberation Organization will take its case now to the International Criminal Court – that might be one of the outcomes of this. The PA (Palestinian Authority) might collapse. We are seeing an edifice of 25 years of lies of the Oslo process in which the Palestinians have been deceived again and again and again. And which the world has been told, "No, they are not a partner to peace, that edifice is collapsing."

And now we see that the Palestinians, they got screwed the other day in Washington and it just lights up all the times that over the 25 years that they have been lied to. And so I think that there will be a lot of people coming to their side. Countries coming to their side. International movements coming to their side. And that would be the good consequence of this decision.

For more information, visit Mondoweiss atmondoweiss.net.