July 23 - How Much Did Israel Help Create Hamas?; If Putin is Proven Guilty Will Russians Blame Him for Irresponsible Brinksmanship?; Indonesia's New Leader Joko Widodo

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an analysis of the diplomatic efforts underway between U.S. Secretary of State Kerry and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu to end the latest war in Gaza. Robert Dreyfuss, an investigative journalist who covers national security for The Nation, Mother Jones and Rolling Stone and is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, joins us. He is the author of “Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam” and we discuss the extent to which Israeli intelligence services, in particular Shin Bet, used religion to thwart Palestinian nationalism by encouraging the growth of Hamas from 1967 to 1987 during which time the number of mosques tripled in Gaza from 200 to 600.

Part 2

Then we speak with Nina Khrushcheva, a professor in the graduate Program of International Affairs at The New School whose latest book is “The Lost Khrushchev: A Journey Into the Gulag of the Russian Mind”. We discuss if and when the verdict in the shoot-down of the Malaysian airliner implicates Russia and Vladimir Putin, will it damage his popularity with the Russian people who so far see him as a skillful tactician, not someone who has damaged Russia’s economic interests and global reputation through irresponsible brinkmanship?

Part 3

Then finally we get an assessment of Joko Widodo, the new leader of the world’s fourth most populous country, the third largest democracy and the biggest Muslim nation, Indonesia. Sylvia Tiwon, a professor of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and author of “Breaking the Spell: Colonialism and Literary Renaissance in Indonesia” joins us to discuss the challenge by General Prabowo, who lost in the recent election by 53% to 47%, and whether the populist policies of the new leader will break the grip of the military in Indonesian politics and slow the destruction of the country’s rainforests and the ease the oppression of its indigenous peoples.