BONUS: The Lobbyists Who Don’t Want A Ceasefire

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota sits down with Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) to discuss the House’s Israel-Palestine ceasefire resolution as well as the public pushback from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has been lambasting the ceasefire resolution as well as some progressive House members.  Recent polling shows a majority of Americans support a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and yet only 18 members of the U.S. House of Representatives officially support a ceasefire resolution. This is explained in part because America’s political discourse has been dominated by conservative groups such as AIPAC that equate opposition to Israel’s right-wing government to rising anti-semitism. 

In today’s interview, David speaks with Pocan, who has been publicly calling for a ceasefire. Pocan was recently criticized by AIPAC after he called out the organization for polarizing the national conversation and demonizing Democrats who question Israel’s policies. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

BONUS: Last week’s bonus episode of Lever Time Premium featured an interview with music writer Robin James and musician Greg Saunier about the the state of the music industry after the online music platform Bandcamp, which was recently sold to the licensing company Songtradr, laid off 50 percent of Bandcamp’s employees amid union contract negotiations.

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