July 27 - Huckabee Panders to Christian Zionists; The Damage Israel's Spy Pollard Did to the US; Obama and African Leaders Meet to End South Sudan's Civil War

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with remarks by Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckerbee who invoked the holocaust in criticizing President Obama’s deal with Iran, saying that Obama “will take Israelis and march them to the doors of the ovens”. Matthew Sutton, a Professor of History at Washington State University and author of “American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism” joins us to discuss Huckerbee’s attempt to appeal to Christian Zionists who love Israel because it is central to bringing about the rapture at the end of times according to their interpretation of the Bible’s book of Revelation. We examine the relationship between American evangelicalism, apocalyptic thought, and political activism during times of national crisis and war.

Part 2

Then we look into the possible release of Jonathan Pollard who is coming up for parole after serving 30 years for spying for Israel. CIA veteran Melvin Goodman, a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy and author of “National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism”, joins us to discuss the damage that Pollard did to America’s national security and why this spy, who first tried to sell America’s most valuable secrets to Libya, then Saudi Arabia, has become a hero in Israel and a bargaining chip in U.S./Israeli relations.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the talks underway in Ethiopia with President Obama and leaders from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and the African Union over the future of South Sudan which is mired in a brutal fratricidal war between two warring tribal factions. Lako Tongun, a professor of International and Intercultural Studies and Political Studies at Pitzer College, who was born and raised in South Sudan, joins us to discuss what pressure can be brought to bear on South Sudan’s president and vice president whose personal war with each other has cost the world’s newest country tens of thousands of its citizens killed with 2.2 million displaced.