the sanctions to date on myanmar as top military leaders are said in response to the mass killing of random muslims in 2817 the sanctions target myanmar's commander in chief and several other seo officers paris former president of $102.00 little has been arrested in the united states and faces extradition on corruption charges to later was accused of taking $20000000.00 in bribes from brazilian construction company order bresh to in exchange for lucrative contracts iran says its ballistic missile program is not open for negotiation with anyone or any country that contradicts comments from the u.s. secretary of state might pump a you who said to iran is prepared to talk about its missiles a new york police officer will not face charges for killing a black man he was trying to arrest the justice department made the announcement on choose day 5 years after eric garner died in a chokehold millions remain affected by the monsoon in southern asia at least 180

people are known to have been killed across india the pole. and pakistan the red cross is warning that entire communities have been cut off by wise and bosses increasing the chances of hunger and disease well those are the headlines the news continues on al-jazeera after listening post. there's no one way of telling us all a key thing is to write and to respect the best artists and it's great to get to know the person from the time. you're on t.v. and this story will live on on the web you're talking about israel and palestine how carefully must you use your words right now i'd like to think that i've always been careful. but at this moment i'm especially careful not because i want to get away with something but because i want to be heard. magine you're going on the air at c.n.n. and there are cameras there are bright lights there are questions being thrown at

you what goes through your mind what's going through my mind is there are so few opportunities for palestinians to be able to tell our own story i have to get this right it's like a hostile interrogation as a palestinian been i've so deeply internalized all the landmines that we can step on that i. it's almost 2nd nature and i also know it said some tough stuff has to be said so critics have to be made but at the core i believe that if i am careful with my words i can help contribute to a conversation that will lead to an outcome that is freedom justice equality and self-determination for every minute. hello i'm richard just heard you're watching a special edition of the listening post from washington d.c. we're still more than a year away from the american presidential elections but there are already more

than 20 candidates running on the democratic side vying for the right to take on donald trump in november 2020 as they establish their campaigns stake out their policy positions and fight for news coverage among the issues threatening to divide their party is this country's relationship with israel. america's support for israel usually at the expense of palestine has been unwavering one of the most reliably bipartisan issues in congress with republicans and democrats standing with their israeli allies through thick and thin but there is change in the air you can see that online and to a lesser extent on the airwaves we have i would say probably the best relationships right now with israel that we have ahead of president trump's unquestioning support of israel and its ever more hawkish prime minister has shifted the debate. in the democratic party the firmly pro israel old guard faces a challenge from

a rising wing of progressives and activists who are calling out israel as never before the goal must be to try to bring people together and not just one country which is now run like. there i say racist government they sense an opportunity to force previously taboo topics such as b.d.s. the boycott divestment and sanctions campaign into the political and media mainstream one of the most critical rights that we have in our country is freedom of speech i. have a right to economic point the narrative on israel is shifting not just here in d.c. but in newsrooms reflecting what is being said online on university campuses and amongst activists across the country that's what we're here to examine in d.c. new york city and the states of michigan and texas. the most recent

changes in washington began at the ballot box last year's midterm elections sent 111 new faces to the capitol resulting in the most racially and gender diverse congress in america's history for the 1st time more than 100 house members were sworn in today the 1st muslim women michigan's rashida to lead. and minnesota still had almost challenging conventional washington wisdom on immigration policy racial injustice and economic inequality is not what provoked the most intense criticism of these congress with their positions on israel to the same wave that brought in hung ahmed and xander. and the she that live into office the same wave that makes bernie sanders so popular amongst young people that same progressive wave is actually creating speech for 2 congresswoman to support boycott davis by sanctions for the 1st time to criticize israel very openly and to call

out the u. us his policy on israel more broadly the bipartisan nature of support for israel that for several decades has been sort of the standard position for any ambitious politician to take that has been blown wide open and part of it is the omar conversation part of it is the election and alicia to play we know that the progressive movement is increasingly seeing israel as an ally and increasingly are concerned about palestinian rights at the same time the critique and the punishment for critiquing israel is becoming much harsher we see that israel's influence is waning that the hetero doxie around israel as infallible as something that both sides of the aisle will protect we see that crumbling so it makes sense it makes sense that as it's crumbling there isn't a head gemini that holds up itself where people just self correct and self

discipline but instead there is a rise in the coercive force to punish those who step out of line support of the boycott divestment and sanctions movement has suggested that if you're a supporter of israel your guilty of jewelled loyalty in the past and she along with so i don't maher is part of an anti-semitic contingent of the democratic party now being protected by the democratic leadership i expected. what i mean by pushback is you know ugliness and hate and misunderstanding and anger being directed at me and really my faith or somebody that looks like me kind of developed into this massive kind of targeting attack as we should do to leave has been pressured and scrutinized in a way 1st term members of congress almost never are and she says what her colleague omar has faced has been worse a really critical time. all mar in so many ways is at the forefront of being a person that is there at the right time at the right place and we have to uplift

that so even before she became a congresswoman omar had been branded an anti semite for her criticism of israel then in february after a republican congressman repeated that accusation and an online debate ensued omar tweeted 6 words echoing lyrics from the world of hip hop words for which she would later apologize the benjamins were a reference to $100.00 bill omar was talking about the millions the pro israel lobby spends in washington the online reaction was swift. but. the opinion editor of a jewish newspaper the forward accused omar of peddling a malevolent trope. omar responded by calling out a power the american israel public affairs committee the most influential probe is really a lobby group in the u.s. but. reply went viral. this country is

desperately in need of a conversation for how we can be leveraging our closeness with israel to end the occupation of the palestinians that is not the conversation that congresswoman omar is having she did not criticize israel what she did was characterize support for israel among american. and among american jews in a way that was just off enough just long enough that it slipped to right into the well worn grooves of anti-semitic tropes what do i mean by that she criticized apac right the israel lobby. of course you can criticize a pack without being anti-semitic i do it all the time the problem was that she mischaracterized apac exactly in a way that fell into an anti-semitic trope just like everyone else you know i read i read the tweets and i thought i don't see this is being particularly anti-semitic

riva sickly controversial there are progressive american jews people i know well who hear some of the things that are being said and just it hits something deep inside of them and i think it hits them sometimes as allies who say i've been a good ally of the rights the palestinians or human rights but here this hurts me so much you've gone too far and the sense of we should be able to pull you back and tell you what is the right way to criticize israel so that you don't offend us by the same token it is not up to white or jewish progressives to tell palestinians or progressives of color what is the acceptable way to to to express their concerns that's not a good look for progressives to say the least and the controversy around omar's position on israel and palestine and the language he uses did not end with the tweet affair a few weeks later at a town hall meeting that was live streamed omar said this i want to talk about the

political will in. this country that says ok for people to push for a foreign country she was talking about israel the context was disregarded and once again she was called anti semitic the charge of anti-semitism is leveled at anybody who is potentially vulnerable to it so for example when. thomas friedman of the new york times says that a pact bought and paid for an applause line got congress to basically apply that to the other speech nobody or person that is anti semitic because they know the duck charge would not stick and somebody like thomas friedman by contrast when you have . muslim black member of congress making comments about the israel lobby she's much more vulnerable to that kind of charge she's a hater i'm going to say she's the whole world is watching watch an israeli audience supposed to take from a comment like that what she did not say critically she did not say anything about american jews using money to control politics and she said absolutely nothing about

american jewish loyalties to the united states or to israel or anything of that sort and yet that was the dominant narrative in the media which i thought was really preposterous the media pile on did not come out of nowhere it was a long time in the making a congress are under attack. it developed in the corridors and back rooms of american politics where legislators the reporters tracking their words anti-semitic trope and studio anchors across the country have collectively constructed and reinforced a largely black and white narrative on a story with multiple shades of gray this anti-semitic charged that is used against jewish people literally for hundreds of years the condemnations from the political side came not just from republicans but also from democratic congressional leaders like nancy pelosi and chuck schumer they reflect simply prepared a resolution for a vote to condemn anti semitism in effect they were singling out omar preparing to

bring her to heel but the pushback was fierce and unprecedented the young multi-ethnic progressive wing of the party demanded that any resolution and evolved over what it will have an old markets it had to condemn not only anti semitism but also islamophobia hate speech against immigrants the l.g.b. tea community and other marginalized america. then when key democratic contenders weighed in siding with the new guard over the old the democratic leadership did the math and realized it did not have the votes it had to concede to the pressure from the progressives the resolution is agreed and widen the scope of the resolution that marked a turning point. over the course of 70 years the american israel public affairs committee. has grown into

one of the most influential foreign policy lobbying groups in washington. it's very little conference is a key event on the capital's talent a mix of politics pageantry and hardcore partisanship $18000.00 people attended this year's gathering political consultants activists journalists politicians from israel and the u.s. including presidential candidates and congressional leaders. and. politicians have much to gain by allying themselves with the group has a disproportionate amount of clout to shape legislation promote pro israel politicians and direct funding very way from allied donors but one of the pacs greatest achievements lies in what is or is not said its ability to effectively set the boundaries of the israel palestine debate in the us across the political and media sphere one thing that's really important to remember is that lobbying is part

of the democratic process it's a pretty terrible part it is a corrupting influence a pac and not just the uses its power and influence to ensure the u.s. has no possessions but the n.r.a. uses its power and influence to keep there from being you know laws against the guns the oil and coal industry use the power of its lobby to make sure that environmental regulations are not passed even though we're in a crisis of climate change. in a capitol kneedeep in lobby groups a pac has plenty of company in foreign policy lobbying alone arab gulf countries like saudi arabia the u.a.e. and qatar all play a high stakes big money game to cultivate politicians influence them and shape media narratives usually out of the range of news cameras 8. pac used to be the industry standard in lobbying but the others have been catching up and there are on mistake about signs that things are changing this year 7 democratic presidential

candidates stayed away from this conference as recently as 4 years ago in 2016 that would have been unthinkable the longstanding taboo that you do not criticize a pac it's now being challenged d.c. is the most powerful lobby is facing the kind of scrutiny it's never seen. i think apacs really losing a lot of power trump in a way he obviated right he's a sort of one man israel so he made them a little bit a little bit obsolete on the right and he sort of made them toxic on the left because anything associated with israel is now going to have to account for its injustice it back at this point i would say it's really sort of it's losing a lot of power. and other jewish advocacy groups j. street jewish voice for peace if not now have emerged in the u.s. progressive voices now challenging apacs dominance over discourse on israel and

palestine and news outlets have grown bolder when dealing with journalists dig deeper into the group's work and question it more openly than they chose to or felt able to in the past as it becomes more and more clear that apac does not speak for the american jewish community and that in fact it is an odds with the majority of the american jewish community if we're going to see an increased willingness to investigate what is really about still the limits on discourse over palestine and israel remain and the consequences for venturing beyond them can be career threatening last november marc lamont hill an academic and activist as well as a paid political contributor at c.n.n. learned the hard way lamont hill made a speech on palestine at the u.n. it lasted 21 minutes and consisted. of 2837 words he ended it by calling for a free palestine from the river to the sea his critics online contended that those

last 6 words from the river to the sea amounted to a call for the elimination of israel the counter argument was that that was not what mont hill meant that the rest of his speech made that abundantly clear however within 24 hours without so much as speaking to lamont hill c.n.n. fired i can't say what red line across in literal terms because i wasn't given any specific reason or analysis obviously the speech was the red line the protests however from the speech were largely around those last 6 words from the river to the sea that's what at least became the pretext for the outrage from many people is there a double standard at play here because you get fired for saying what you said at c.n.n. and yet the network continues to employ for his punditry a former american senator rick santorum he once denied that palestinians even exist

so how much of this do you feel has to do with what gets said and how much is about who says it i think it's both if i had said as binyamin netanyahu son had said a few weeks ago on twitter israel is a jewish state from the river to the sea i would have not been fired i would have not been criticized i would have gone unnoticed now obviously when people of color or when muslims say there are even lower threshold for critique in this in this vein c.n.n. succumb to a very serious smear campaign against marc lamont hill that was driven by a wide range of pro israel forces the united states mandela was the editor of the washington examiner he accused marc lamont hill of supporting genocide against jews which is just utterly ridiculous.