July 8 - Another War in Gaza Looms; A Parallel Government in Afghanistan?; The Tech Giants are Not Fighting to Preserve an Open Internet

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the possibility of a full-scale invasion of Gaza by Israel’s Defense Forces in response to rocket attacks from Hamas as tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been inflamed by the murders of Israeli teenagers and the grisly revenge killing of a Palestinian boy. Gabriel Piterberg, a professor of Middle East History and author of “The Return of Zionism: Myths, Politics and Scholarship in Israel” joins us to discuss what military force might achieve, given that it has been used on Gaza before without any apparent success.

Part 2

Then we speak with a former United Nations political officer and election monitor in Afghanistan about the latest contested election with the same candidate who was cheated in the last election Abdullah, Abdullah, claiming victory in last month’s election although preliminary results have his opponent winning with 56.44% to Abdullah’s 43.56%. Christine Fair, the author of the new book “Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War”, joins us to discuss the threat by Abdullah to create a parallel government when NATO is preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan in the face of ramped-up Taliban attacks, with one on Tuesday that killed 16 including 4 NATO soldiers from the Czech Republic.

Part 3

Then finally we examine why Google, who led the battle to preserve net neutrality and an open Internet back in 2006, is now absent from the fight leaving it up to the smaller tech companies and start-ups to take on the cable and telecom giants Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner and Comcast who want paid prioritization on the net that would allow them to become the gatekeepers and tollbooths speeding up their content while slowing down yours.Julie Samuels, the Executive Director of Engine Advocacy, a public interest group that supports the growth of technology entrepreneurship, joins us to discuss why Google, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Yahoo and Microsoft can afford bad net neutrality.