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Gaza’s 2 million plus Palestinians are jam-packed in a small narrow enclave bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt and Israel. Since 2007 it has been ruled by Hamas. Hamas is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. Israel immediately imposed a blockade. Since then, Gaza has routinely been called the world’s largest open-air prison. Its air, land and sea routes are controlled by Israel. On October 7th, Hamas attacked Israel resulting in over 1,100 Israelis dead and the taking of several hundred hostages. Israel, with one of the world’s most advanced militaries, responded. Today, Gaza is in ruins. Palestinians have been killed and wounded in the tens of thousands. It has become, the UN says, “a graveyard.” How did this catastrophic situation develop? How did Gaza become Gaza?

Few issues are more freighted than the U.S.-Israel relationship. Overwhelmingly, Democrats and Republicans give Israel “unwavering” support. Internationally, it’s a different story. Opposition to the U.S.-Israel alliance is mounting, particularly on Palestine. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the UN where scores of U.S. Security Council vetoes shield Israel from criticism. Can policy change? Noam Chomsky says, “It’s very much in our hands. There are plenty of things we can do to compel the U.S. to join the world on this issue.” If that happens, he concludes, “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can certainly be mitigated, not solved, but set on a basis of a much more favorable outcome.” Recorded at UCLA.

China is a paradoxical global power. It's run by the Communist Party and at the same time it has a huge private sector which includes the world's largest number of billionaires. Its economy has been described as a mix of state capitalism and market socialism. Internationally its Belt & Road Initiative has spread its economic and political influence. Washington views China as “a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States.” The trade war grows. Washington imposes tariffs on Chinese imports. China just sends more goods to Africa and Latin America. The U.S. has surrounded China with a string of military bases. Taiwan and the South China Sea remain highly contentious issues. How U.S.-China relations play out will define geopolitics in the coming years.

Holocaust, derived from the Greek, is a large-scale calamity involving fire. Today, the term is specifically used to describe the German genocide of the Jews. But it has a long history. The European mass murder of Indigenous peoples in North and South America killed 55 million or 90% of the population, between 1492 and 1600, in a little more than one hundred years. More bloodbaths were to follow. In Africa, many millions were killed in the Congo by Belgium. Germany wiped out the Herero and Nama peoples in Southwest Africa. In the Middle East, that was quickly followed by the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians. Then came Auschwitz. Since the end of World War Two, barbarisms and genocides have continued: in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Myanmar and Gaza. Naomi Klein says, “The Nazi Holocaust is finally being placed in history connected to the terrors that came before and after.” Recorded at Swarthmore College.

In a May 1976 column in the Boston Globe Howard Zinn wrote “Memorial Day should be a day for putting flowers on graves and planting trees. Also, for destroying the weapons of death that endanger us more than they protect us, that waste our resources and threaten our children and grandchildren.” Sadly his column in the Globe was discontinued soon after. And even more sadly his words are evergreen. Veterans are still returning from foreign wars with lost limbs, bodies and souls. If an honest history is ever written of the U.S. shock and awe war on Iraq it may not be believed. Remember: weapons of mass destruction, axis of evil, mobile chemical labs, slam dunks, Curveball, smoking guns, mushroom clouds, cakewalks, liberators, regime change and mission accomplished? The architects of the war: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Feith, Wolfowitz, and others should be doing time instead of having a good time. Today, Iraq is a broken country. Nothing will bring back the hundreds of thousands of dead. The U.S. owes Iraq reparations for the destruction it has caused. But being the global superpower means you never have to say you’re sorry or face justice. The permanent war economy feeds on conflict and strife. Is it utopian to imagine a different future? Recorded at the University of Texas.

The Global North or the West is a group of countries led by the United States. In juxtaposition is the Global South, once called the Third World. In recent years, the Global North has undergone a significant economic and political decline. The geopolitical landscape is shifting thus opening new possibilities for Global South countries, particularly for China. A dramatic example of America’s isolation was the UN vote on Palestinian membership. The vote was 143 in favor, 25 abstentions and 9 against. Joining the U.S. no vote were such powerhouses as Nauru, Micronesia, and Palau. Increasingly, the U.S. position in the world is weakening. Its double standards, one set of rules for the master and his servants and another set for everyone else, has not won Washington many friends in the Global South. Recorded at Connolly Books.

In Sanskrit, Maya means illusion or magic. Maya is at work among people and nations who project carefully crafted positive images of themselves. The U.S. and Israel are no different from other countries. They claim self-defense as they launch massive attacks. They invoke international law when it suits them then ignore it when it doesn’t. Then there’s always the standard line about our so-called values which justifies their actions. Most people don’t have a clue about Israel-Palestine because they depend on heavily biased corporate news. Instead, they cling to shopworn myths and fantasies about themselves and their country. The Gaza bloodbath is enabled by the U.S. Are we “good Germans” pretending not to see? Recorded at the Chinook Center.

Why does the United States, the richest country on earth, have more poverty than any other advanced democracy? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages? What perpetuates poverty and what can be done to end it? “Poverty persists,” Matthew Desmond says, “because the rest of us benefit from it.” Recorded at Town Hall.

It's axiomatic that anything dealing with Palestine is deemed controversial. And if it is Palestinian American women speaking out even more so. Look at the vitriol and death threats directed at Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. She is Palestinian American and is speaking out as is Maryam Alwan, a Palestinian American student at Columbia. She is a Students for Justice in Palestine organizer in alliance with Jewish Voice for Peace. There is pushback. Asna Tabassum, an American Muslim, was chosen to give the commencement speech at USC until she was canceled after being targeted by pro-Israel groups. The sheer scale of death and destruction in Gaza and the ongoing expansion of illegal colonies and violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has shifted the narrative. In communities and campuses across the U.S., Palestinian American women are breaking down Orientalist cliches about being meek and submissive and are actively taking the lead. Recorded at Colorado State University.

The Iran-Israel attacks and the prospects of a wider Middle East war have dominated the news. Meanwhile, the bloodbath in Gaza continues. Genocide is the crime of crimes. We are witnessing it in real time in Gaza. The UN says, “The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history. Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” Israeli Prime Minster Netanyahu’s promised “mighty vengeance” quickly became genocide. As Chris Hedges points out racism enables genocide. He says, “Arabs, like all those with darker skin, are worth less in this moral calculus. This explains the outrage over the murder of seven employees from the World Central Kitchen and the silence over the killing of over 175 UN” Palestinian aid workers. Those who remain silent in the face of genocide are complicit.