September 30 - Palestinians No Longer Bound by the Oslo Peace Accords; The Taliban's Capture of Kunduz; Growing Criticism of Saudi Arabia's Handling of the Hajj Tragedy

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the raising of the Palestinian flag at the U.N. today and the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s declaration at the U.N. that he was no longer bound by the Oslo Peace Accords which is the basis of the two-state peace accord with Israel. Khaled Elgindy, who previously was an advisor to the Palestinian leadership on permanent status negotiations with Israel and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations in 2007 joins us to discuss whether this is an expression of frustration with the Israeli occupation and the stalled, if not fraudulent peace talks, or whether this is serious and will mean an end to Palestinian security cooperation with Israel.

Part 2

Then we look into the capture of Afghanistan’s third largest city Kunduz by the Taliban in a humiliating blow to the government of Ashraf Ghani which has forced the U.S. to rethink its military exit strategy and consider leaving a few thousand more American troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016. A leading expert on Afghanistan, Thomas Barfield, a professor of Anthropology at Boston University and President of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies, joins us to explain the significance of this military defeat which is a boost for the new Taliban leader and how fragile the security situation is in the country after 14 years of U.S. and NATO military intervention.

Part 3

Then finally we are joined in the studio by Ani Zonneveld, the Founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values and Dr. Sheikh Maytham al-Salman, a prominent Shia cleric and Islamic Scholar. He is the author of “Non-Muslims in the Eyes of Islam” and we discuss the criticism being leveled at the Saudi ruling family over their handling of the crane crash and then the horrific stampede at the hajj in Mecca that has the countries whose citizens died, questioning the casualty figures and demanding the return of the bodies. We also discuss the broader issue of Sharia Law and its relationship to the tenets of Islam.