amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> the level of corruption resembles the mafia more than the government. amy: secretary of state pompeo delivers a speech against iran on sunday. tweetingows up by "never ever threatened the united states again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which through history few have

suffered before." direct actionat against nuclear weapons in the united states. >> we want very much to get as close as we possibly could to the heart of the weapons systems themselves. amy: on the anniversary of martin luther king's navalination, -- entered marine bases. one of the largest in the world. hammers, armed with crime scene tape, 80 bottles full of their own blood and charged the u.s. with crimes against peace. one of many around the world. the majority of the activists are in jail. we speak to to our who are -- we speak to two who are out. of the granddaughter

movement. eight defining moment in the annals of zionism. --: is really lawmakers israeli lawmakers sign a statement. from the jewish voice for peace. all that and more is coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president donald trump lashed out at iran's president sunday, warning he was prepared to unleash dire consequences on iran if its leader threatens the united states again. in a sunday evening tweet addressed to iranian president hassan rouhani and written in all caps, trump wrote, "never, ever threaten the united states again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever

suffered before. we are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death. be cautious." trump's threat came just hours after president rouhani warned the u.s. against attacking iran, saying "war with iran is the mother of all wars." trump, don't play with the lion's tail. you will forever regret it. amy: rouhani's comments came afafter hours after secretary of state mike pompeo compared iran's leaders to con artists and mobsters during a speech to a largely iranian-american audience in california. this comes as the u.s. is working to restore sanctions against ironic and companies that do business with iran-after trump withdrew the u.s. from the landmark 2015 iran nuclear deal in may. we'll have more on the trump administtition's war of worords

with iran later in the broadcast. in afghanistan, at least 14 people were killed and more than 40 others were wounded sunday after a suicide bomber struck near kabul's main airport. the attack ripped through a crowd of supporters of afghan vice president rashid dostum, an ethnic uzbek politician who had just returned to the afghan capital from more than a year of self-imposed exile. dostum was unharmed in the explosion. dostum left afghanistan last year, after the country's attorney general ordered the arrest of his bodyguards for allegedly torturing and sexually assaulting a rival politician. dostum was also involved in a massacre in 2001 that killed up to 2,000 taliban prisoners of war. elsewhere in afghanistan sunday, gunmen stormed a mosque in eastern nangarhar province, opening fire and killing four worshippers during evening prayers. in northwestern pakistan, a susuicide bomber strtruck a cony carrying a candidate in pakistan's general election, killing him and his driver and wounding three other people.

the pakistani taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed ikramullah gandapur, a member of the pakistan justice movement, the party headed by former cricket star-turned-frontrunner imran khany. the bombing came on the eve of wednesday's general election, and amid increasing violence aimed at derailing the vote. earlier this month, a massive suicide bombing at an election campaign gathering in the southwestern province of balochistan killed 151 people and injured another 200. back in the united states. the fbi has obtained a recording in which donald trump discussed how to suppress the story of karen mcdougal, a former playboy model who alleges she had a year-long extramarital affair with trump in 2006. in the tape, made before the 2016 election, trump reportedly discussed with his former attorney and fixer michael cohen whether to buy the exclusive rights to the story of karen mcdougal, who alleges she had an

affair with trump. at the time, mcdougal had sold her story for $150,000 to the national enquirer, a tabloid published by trump's close friend david pecker. the paper ultimately kept the rights to the story and refused to publish it, in a process known as catch and kill. the tape will now be available to prosecutors in any future criminal investigation of michael cohen, after trump's legal team reportedly waived attorney-client privilege on the recording. on sunday, the lawyer for another woman trump allegedly had an affair with, but don't film start stephanie clifford, also known as stormy daniels, predicted more recordings of trump's conversations with michael cohen will emerge. this is michael avenatti, speaking on abc this week. >> this s is not the only tape. there are multiple tapes. i do know there were more tapes of trump. there are multiple.

that is first of all. and that ultimately will prove to be a big problem for the president. live by thetude sword, die by the sword is true. because the president knew that his attorney had taped conversations with people. amy: donald trump's former foreign policy adviser carter page has denied working as a russian spy, after the fbi released more than 400 pages from an application for a foreign surveillance warrant alleging he was targeted for recruitment by the russian government. in the heavily redacted document, the fbi said it, "believes that page has been collaborating and conspiring with the russian government, there is probable cause that such activities involve or are about to involve violations of the criminal statutes of the united states." carter page has yet to be charged with a crimeme. on sunday he called the fisa warrant misleading and a complete joke. this comes as president trump once again reversed his position on whether russia interfered in the 2016 election. after returning to washington

after a weweekend spent golfingt his new jersey resort, trump tweeted that reports of russian meddling work "all a big hoax." trump's latest reversal came after he tried to walk back his remark, made at his summit earlier this month with russian president vladimir putin in helsinki, that he didn't see any reason why russia would have meddled in the 2016 election. in israel, a cease-fire remains in effect after four civilians were killed along the border of gaza. during the flareup, israel launched dozens of fights. the death of an array israeli soldier was the first after nonviolent protests at the border at the end of march. israeli forces have shot and killed 140 palestinians during these protests while wounding thousands of others. we have the latest from israel and palestine later in the broaoadcast.

in i israel, hundrdreds of membs of the w white helmets have been evacuated toto jordan withth thr famimily members.. the evacuation was facilitated by israeli forces. that is after being granted access. the u.k., germany and canada have agreed to process the asylum claims. the evacuation came as thousands continued airstrikes nearby. others approached the border fence where they were turned around by israeli troops. ecuador's president has cleared the way for the president to withdraw asylum. to hand julian assanange over to authorities. he could soon face a prison term of up to two years if he is it in contempt of court.

a swedishto avovoid sexual assault investigation. he was cleared of those charges. this comes as the trump seeking toion is force the extradition to the united states. trump has again called for nfl players who take a knee during the playing of the national anthem to be punished. on friday, trump tweeted that playayers must stand at attenti, hand on heart, calling out nfl commissioner roger goodell over his $40 million annual salary and demanding "first time kneeling, out for game. second time kneeling, out for season/no pay." over the past two seasons, dozens of players have knelt during the anthem to protest police shootings of unarmed black men. cuba's national assembly has approved a new draft constitution that would pave the way for marriage equality. the document would define marriage as a "consensual union of two people, regardless of gender." this is mariela castro, daughter

of former president raul castro and director of the cuban national center for sex education.n. the constitution, marriage was established for heterosexuals aced on activities. so i think we have a right to place another vision of marriage. this is something i say to a lot of people. giving rights to someone doesn't mean taking them away from those who do have them. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i am amy goodman. trump lashed out saying he was unleash consequences to iran. trump wrote on sunday "never ever threaten the united states again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. we are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death.

be cautious." trump's threat came hours after the iranian president's speech eaearlier, inin which the iranin president warned the u.s. about pursuing a hostile policy against his government. >> mr. trump, don't play with the lions tail. it will only lead to a threat. ofhave been the guarantor the original waterway security through history. established the security of oil and shipping routes. don't forget that. you are not in a position to incite the iranian nation against security interests. the iranian nation knows its interests and has sacrificed to protect it so you are mistaken.

amy this comes as the united : states has stepped up pressure on iran and says it will reimpose sanctions, after trump decided to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear deal. it was crafted by the obama administration. in a speech sunday to a largely iranian-american audience, secretary of state mike pompeo compared iran's leaders to a mafia and promised unspecified backing for iranians who are unhappy with their government. pompeo spoke at the ronaldld reagan presidential library ouide los anangeles. corruptionl of resembles the mafia more than the government. to regime's revolution commit violent acts hasn't iran thatnynye from can remotely be called a moderate. the truth is, there are polished front men f for international cn artiststry. it doesn't make them moderate.

it makes them wolves in sheep's clothing. claiming that it harmsms the cae of moderates but these moderates are stl l violent.t. an anti-west agenda. you only have to take their own words for it. amy: pompeo stopped short of calling for regime change, but members of the trump administration, including national security adviser john bolton and trump attorney rudy guiliani, have ties to the mujahehedeen khalq or mek, a grp of iranian exiles who have called for regime change in iran. the mek was once on the state department's list of foreign terrorist organizations before reinventing itself as a moderate political group. on sunday, the national iranian american council placed a full page ad in the los angeles times with an open letter to pompeo that criticized the trump administration's ties to the organization. writing, "support for violent organizations such as the

mujahedin-e khalq which has used terror to kill iranians and americans alike by key advisors to and members of the trump administration raises serious concerns as to whether your administration's objective is to support the iranian people's struggle for democracy and independndence or to use their legitimate grievances to destababilize iran a and turn it into a faiailed state.e." we go to washington, d.c. where we're joined by trita parsi, founder and president of the national iranian american council. his most recent book is titled "losing an enemy, obama, iran, and the triumph of diplomacy." his latest piece for the new york review of books is headlined "why trump's hawks back the mek terrorist cult." welcome to democracy now. talk about the speech and trump's threatening speech against iran? >> mike pompeo's speech that he the ideaentially gave that he cares for the iranian

people could be negated by the un-trusted tweet by trump. essentially threatening war over twitter. it is and frankly always has been escalation of confrontation. orther it would be military the trump administration intensifying efforts to to promote iran unrest in iran remains unseen. without a doubt, this is not an administration that is pursuing a policy of actually trying to find a new way to negotiate striking a new deal. everything they do is only compatible with their own agenda. amamy i want to turn back to : secretary of state mike pompeo speaking sunday. the united states is undertaking a diplomatic

campaign to cut t off the funds iran uses to promote death and destruction. [applause] we have an obligation to put maximum pressure on the regime and we really will do so. especially in the banking and energy sectors. in the l last few weeks, our fos has been to work with countntris to get imports as close to zero as possible. amy: that was mike pompeo. >> you will see that a lot of what was said when it comes to criticism of the government, people will agree. at the end, it is oppressive, politically. and it is only increasing over time. but it is a mistake to believe that all these problems will cause people to think that pompeo, trump and bolton are the

answers to the problems. and while they are undermining democracy in the united states, they could increase democracy in iran. so ultimately it will fail. but it is an awareness that the -- andtration wants to what we have seen before is when escalates,states iranians escalate as well. outif they cannot ship oil then no one can. threatening to close that. have a devastating effect on economic markets and risk confrontation. because of this is in response to efforts by trump then the u.s. will move in. so it is dangerous. the can you talk about

timing of all of this? you knew last week that pompeo was preparing to give the address. i want to ask you who the audience was at the library where he spoke. president made his comments before pompeo spoke but knew about this. trump made his statement last night. >> this has been going on for some time. and it is indicative of the to take itistration to the next level. early on there were members of the trump administration that were not in line with this inking. it has taken them a year and a half to get to this point. but trump always wanted to move in this direction.

when it came to the audience yesterday, i spoke to several people in the audience and it was a mixture. people who want to see the --ted states take a more they have numbers in los angeles and many of them were in the audience, they didn't necessarily believe that their support forld be what pompeo was saying. the majority of the people in the audience were not iranian-american. even though was presented for and this goes to a larger point here. if the trump administration was actually interested in a genuine dialogue then the dialogue should have been initiated before trump pulled out of the

nuclear agreement. to come now, to say he is now interested in hearing what the iranian-american community wants to say, it is a genuine because he is already made his major policy movement. it is difficult to see that any feed act from the community could influence him to even marginally change that. could you put this in the context of the helsinki comment, the meeting that trump had with putin from russia? we don't know what they talked about for two hours. but what is russia's interest here? >> we don't know exactly what was said. a very important part of the puzzle. because the russians, so far, i wouldn't say their allies with iran but they do have allied interests.

the russians don't want to see the united states have more government in the middle east. isthey appreciate that iran opposed to american influence in the middle east. but particularly breaking out of -- withn sanctions ukraine and more. that is essentially offering them anything they want to get throw thens to iranians under the bus. but it isn't russia throwing iran under the bus as it is russia throwing europe under the bus. it may explain why trump has been so negative in his rhetoric for europeans. his what he had to say in

tweet last night towards iran t to one yearimilar ago, speaking against north korea. some said it could mean that he is preparing to make peace with iran? i find that unlikely. on the surface, it does look like that. and if these are bizarre negotiation strategies then at the end of the day's is better that if trump and the iranians negotiate to move past confrontation. but we have to keep an important element in mind. ,n asia and around north korea and even some of america's competitors, want to see the efforts between the united states and north korea and they definitely wanted to avoid a war between these countries becacaue such a war would b be nuclear. in the m middle east, you have a different scenario.

america's allies in the middle iran andy do not favor they oppose any dialogue. pushed the united states to go to war with iran. fightudi's want to iranians for the last americans. and in my mind, the susceptibility of the trump administration to pressure from these governments, it simply isn't likely that the endgame that trump has with these tweets is to drive things towards negotiatation. -explain who they are and whether pompeo is threatening regime change here? is the iranian opposition group founded in the 1960's and the first that

started to use violence against the regime. they did use terrorism back then. primarily assassinating members of the government and americans. later on, they were part of the iranian revolution. they wanted to execute the american hostages that were eventually released by the government. they ended up siding with iran hussein,-- with saddam which caused them to be seen as traders. and then they ended up becoming part of the private militia used for cleansing in the north of iran. a well-fundedve machine in washington. list,hen they were on the they actually had offices in

downtown d.c.. they did manage to get off the after arguing it was illegal. and they have zero support in iran right now. and it raises the question, why have members of the trump administration been open? are they not aware of the fact that this is a group that has zero chance of taking hold in iran russian i think they do know these things but there is something that the mek offers. these members are several thousand fighters who are trained in regular warfare and guerrilla warfare. a have massive experience in terrorism and assassinations. helpful if are not your goal is to bring about democratic change but could be helpful if your aim is to engage in some form of military action

in iran or an action to destabilize. so for those purposes, they are the only iranian opposition a typehat could provide of quality needed. and i suspect that is part of the reason why they are being so cozy with the trump administration right now. amy: we want to thank you for being with us. trita parsi is founder and president of the national iranian american council. we w will link to your recent bk is titled "losing an enemy, obama, iran, and the triumph of diplomacacy." when we come back, the d direct action against nuclear weapons in the united states. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. ♪ ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we look at the resistance against nuclear weapons in the united states, last april 4, the anniversary of martin luluther king''s assassination seveven catholic plowshares activists secretly entered naval submarine base kings bay in georgia one of the largest nuclear submarine bases in the world. they were armed with just hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood and an indictment charging the u.s. government for crimes against peace. their goal was to symbolically disarm the nuclear weapons at the base which is home to at least six nuclear ballistic missile submarines.

each submarine carries 20 trident thermonuclear weapons. the activists said they were following the prophet isaiah's command to beat swords into plowshares. it was the latest of 100 similar anti-nuclear plowshares actions around the world beginning in 1980 in king of prussia, pennsylvania. that f first plowshares action n 1980 w was led by the late danil and phil berrigan. phil's wife, liz mcalister, was one of seven arrested at the april 4 action. mcalister and two other activists - jesuit priest stephen kelly and mark colville -- remain locked up in pre-trial confinement in brunswick , georgia. for others, patrick o'neill, carmen trotta, martha hennessy and clare grady are under house arrest. all 7 could face years in prison if convicted. i recently spoke to martha hennessy and carmen trotta here at mary house, a catholic worker home here in new york. hennessy is the granddaughter of dorothy day, the founder of the catholic worker movement. carmen trotta helps run the st. joseph catholic worker house in new york.

i spoke to them shortly before clare grady was released and put under house arrest. i began by asking martha about what they did when they entered the nuclear sub base. >> i was with my friends, seven of us. and we spent nearly two years discerning and praraying about what we could do. at we walked onto the base kings bay. not a well-known site. on behalf ofre people who couldn't do such a thing or take such an action. exposewalked there to the trident nuclear arsenal. symbolically disarmed the

nuclear weapons. we were not anywhere near nuclear weapons. that group got a little bit closer to the bunkers. the booktially we left "the doomsday machine" on-site at the administrative machine at the strategic weapons facility of the atlantic. we posted an indndictment on the doors of the facility. manners that read the ultimate logic of the trtrident and we put up crimime tape. amy: and where did you go? the administration building. amy: why was this so important to do? >> i believe that the united states nuclear arsenal is the linchpin of white imperialism. rot upon the world.

, a threateded them against the world in mamany different ways thrhrough histor. from myself, i was able to take this kind of action and use this kind of discernment to offer up an effort to wake the world. to the terrible dangers that we face. these weapons, as long as we have them, at some point they will be used. ,nd i have had trips to russia korea, south korea, iran. and when i hear trump threatening these other , i can only taken seriously and take responsibility. personal responsibility to raise to make it obvious what

is in the mind. you, together with martha hennessysy went on the military base. describe what you did that day? took a very long walk inside the base. detached group that wanted very much to get as close as we possibly could to the heart of evil, which is to say the weapons systems themselves. therefore, we were disgruntled originally that the summary is being worked on. we would have tried to get to the trident itself. the fact was that we e went to e bunknker where the nuclelear wen

controls is housed. anand we managed to cut a few fences and were perplexed by the complexities of the last fence. frightened by it. as we were contemplating getting through that last fence, they were finally, after a couple of hours on the b base, t they hada responsese from m the base itse. bananner, whwhich sasays that nucleaear weapaponse illegal and immoral. and we wanted to show to the something soothing to came, we did tell them immediately that we came in peace and we were unarmed and we met them no harm. amy: what did you have with you when you got to that area? hammers and blood.

amy: what do you mean, blood? blood taken from people in the community. our own blood. the blood gets used as a symbol of life particularly within the catholilic-christiann faith.h. and thatat level of red is a constant danger warning. as they tried to say before, -- are designed to slap people awake. to the realities that are before them. we are more alarmed that we are angry. although i don't want to put down the notion of being angry. of what could and should be one of the greatest nations in the world, and the ongoing

persistence, persistently after world war ii. amy: what happened when you went to the building? how money people did you come with? and how did the military find you on base? ignored us for a while. they were most concerned with the people at the bunker. so i was with one other person. and the two of us brought litite hahammers. and vials of blood. machine." omsda we putp ouour posterss and we sw that there werpepeopleorkiking in t t building. and we did not go into t building. alough the door waunlocked t it wasery quiet. am what happened when the soldiers came? >> we were able to post our

ur our bloodnd po and right on the sidewalks. then we joined two other people display at the missile which welcomes visitors into the complex. and we joined them and we probably were there for perhaps an hour. we saw the cars going towards the other site. where our friends were. they didn't bother to handle us until at least an hour later. others -- three of us are released. we have family members to atattd to.

fourur are still in. amy: could you talk about the people you were there with and the significance of their engaging in the action? those who have been imprisoned since april 4? of -- should think i think, it was a compelling force in drawing this community together. at this late stage in her life. she still had the heart and courage and soul to want to enormous crimime. a war crcrime. ongoin the family had

engaged in four years. it was after the war in vietna thathehey regnizized -- having recoizized t hororro of vietnam , wh t the w fininal ended, they said, ok. so this episode of american history s s ende the empire is stilhehere. and the empire nee t to be exexposed byy an inrmed citizeny if we are going to continue to live in a democracy and they have been fighting the battle until the present day. indeed, our actions were the latest version of that. amy: t there have been scores of action since the first wasas let in 1980. almost 40 years ago.

explain what the plowshares is? why it is called the plowshares? claims there would come a point in time when people of -- we would no longer wage war upon nations, nor with a study war. nor what they study war anymore. this wasn't leigh's pulse first action? >> no. 1983. amamy: was it your first action? >> yes. amy: what made you decide to engage? in ahad participated

previous group and the discussion around the fact that this process brings us to a place of self disarmament really resonated with me. and i wanted to understand that on a deeper level. so if we are trying to live ofes, christ like lives caring for those who are most needy and postwar, i felt that i needed to really explore what this kind of an action looks like. it is a faith journey for me. it has increased my faith and .nderstanding it is the self disarmament. and it goes along with the work that we do with taking cover -- taking care of the homeless. holier.urselves more

the willingness to self-sacrifice. can you talk about the charges against you now? originally given state charges which were turned into federal chargrges. for chargesd having to be redundant. they are conspiracy, trespassssing, deprivation of governrnment property and naval property, something like that. is a misdemeanor facing six months. but others are more seririous. anywhere from 5-10 years. but they tend to threaten us with the worst. because they do not want citizens going onto these military bases. and so yes, we do face serious charges. amy: will you be able to bring your reasons for doing

what you did? >> highly unlikely. the federal courts have done an excellent job of disasallowing y kind of necessity defense. of course, we want to talk about the principles and the geneva convention and nuclear weapons and trident and submarines and typically, what has occurred is prosecution demands a list of terms that cannot be presented. so the jury never hears who we are. what we did or why we did what we did. everything gets reduced to destruction of property and trespassing. cut fencesl focus on ratherer than what is behind the fences. amy: your lawyers have presented a motion to dismiss in court. -- among those cited were

the actions of this are consistent with and supported by catholic social teaching that any use or threat of nuclear weapons is totally immoral. will the jurors be able to hear that? it will be a miracle if any of those declarations from a religious perspective or a military perspective and from a professor of law perspective -- it will be a miracle if any of those testimonies get into the court. amy: so why do you do what you do? >> because that is what we are called to do. it isn't necessarily a question of success or failure. and who knows? the holy spirit works in strange ways. perhaps there is some kind of

window in the current climate where some of these discussions could happen. it is a dialogue that desperately needs to happen. and the world is waiting for the u.s. courts to do what's right. amy: how are you preparing for years inin prison? it's hard to say how one would repair for something like that. it is a stripping down process. two months recently in prison and he gave me a a tastef what life woululd be like. you know, the works of mercy attend to the imprisoned. and a good way of doing that is living with them. so i do my best to prepare emotionally and spiritually. amy: how are you preparing?

that there is a way to prepare. i will say that there did come .way where i didn't mind man shall fears of going to prison had to do with violence among ththe prisoners. almost none of that. in fact, i saw a lot of cohesion prisoners. there was the potential for violence from the guards. but it was after two months that for the first time, i realized that the greatest fear aboutut prison's depression a at having your life neutralized. stop short. which is why a say to write cards to people. because they did come a time when i thought to myself that i was sleeping too much. because there was nothing outside and we need to change

that and get outside. a guatemalan cellmate who was a joy to m me. ways, he kept me sane. there were five of them. amy: immigrant detainees? >> yes. they came here to labor. i wish i spoke spanish and have gotten more deeply involved with them. in fact, i forgot t my roommat's name immediately upon hearing it. and he forgot my name. called me "my friend" or "sir." as we move into the

anniversary of the dropping of , there is a multibillion-dollar updating of the nuclear arsenal. trump is castigating his nato allies to spend more money on military. to engage in more military spending. your final thoughts? william has spoken to that with regards to the cost. it is bleeding our society. there is no democratic aspect to this.

trump is taking care of his friends. theftft from the globe. and it is an environmental catastrophe. been onee already million casualties, with the actual dropping of the bombs on open cities and in the production and open air testing. -- bridge, marshall island all of these people have been affected over the decades. it is the ongoing promotion toprohibition as s opposed cooperation. muchfriend was very admired here, t talking aboutute end d of organize lifefe. and what the end of the next generation is looking at -- the

two things that he g goes on to say in thehe speech are about global warming on one hand and the nuclear archers on the other side. i spoke to them at a catholic house here, both were wearing ankle monitors before trial so the government can track them. when we come back, what is happening in israel and palestine. ♪ ♪ [music break]

amy: " "we have e hope" by revolution makers. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we end today's show in israel where a cease fire remains in place between israel and hamas after four palestinians and one israeli soldier were killed on friday along the border with gaza. during the flare up israel launched dozens of strikes. they were targeted. the death of the soldier was the first and israeli forces have shot or killed 140 palestinians during the protest. well over 12,000 have been injured. this comes as israeli lawmakers drew widespread condemnation thursday when they passed a law that defines israel as the nation state of the jewish people and gives them the sole right to self-determination. the new law declares hebrew the country's only official language and encourages the building of jewish-only settlements on occupied territory as a national value. this is israeli prime minister

benjamin netanyahu. defining moment in the annals of zionism. amy: the controversial bill passed on a vote of 62 to 55, over the objections of arab-israeli lawmakers, who threw papers into the air in protest after its passage. we are joined via democracy now! video stream by yousef munayyer, the executive director of u.s. campaign for palestinian rights. in studio, rebecca vilkomerson is executive director of jewish voice for peace. she co-authored a new op-ed in the independent headlined "as jews, we reject the myth that it's antisemimitic to call isral racist" -- welcome both of you to democracy now. if you could talk about what has happened in gaza right now, the and the lawp to 140 just passed on thursday? event that wecent

have seen on the as a strip are sosort of an escalation that happens from time to time. many in the media and us here in the united states in the outside world to tune back into gaza based on the fear that it is on the brink of another major israeli bun bartman. the reality is that in the moments when we are not tuned in , the constant violence that they face, because of the siegetion and the israeli and the violent methods of enforcement that the israeli military uses to support those policies, they continue all the time. part of a broader agenda. in the state of israel. to what of resistance

it supports doing. imposing the will on the native population of palestinians in the west bank and gaza and occupied military. but also under the premise that it is the jewish population that deserves to be in control and that has no rights at all that thed be afforded to non-jewish as a favor. not something that they have to do because of principles of orality or democracy anything like that. the most recent step the israeli government has taken through the passage of this law is the proof , that israelis no longer care about pretending to balance this notion of being a jewish state and a democracy.

that was never the case. now, they are not even pretending anymore. of the passageor said they were passing this bill to make sure that no one has any doubt or thoughts about israel being a thought of its citizens. amy: rebecca, if you could respond to this nation state law ? >> i found it shocking but not surprising. anytime you have a set of foundational laws, a lot to approve the constitutional bill that will have an impact on future laws, to not treat the

population equally. so by tying this into the basic law, it is is shocking but not surprising because of the ongoing policies. here in the united states, i think it has been interesting because there is more unity against the bill. from the american jewish ,ommittee or reformer movements even right-wing movements, they have had minor concerns about the bill. and i think it is a collation to about thewhich talked population was moving to the right but the american jewish population was moving to the left. people were horrified by the extreme agenda that ththe government has been empowered by trump to act fully. amy: youou wrote a piece in thee

about how 40 jewish groups from different countries -- with falseis accusations that you say? >> this is an historic moment. we have 40 organizations around the world. and we felt like it was there important because there is so many efforts right now worldwide with specific strategies against anti-semitism which include chilling language at a minimum or critiques of israel. this has resulted in bank accounts being shut down in germany and the u.k. and people being prosecuted in france and in the united states, there is an anti-semitism awareness act which potentially makes it extremely difficult or people to speak out lyrically against israel human rights violations. so we felt it was important to

lead the jewish voice against .hat here int happens fromom gaza? >> i think there is great concern from what they happen in the coming months. we know the major israeli 20099,ment in 2008 and all of them proceeded israel elections by a matter of months. israelire expecting eleconons in 2019.9. given the ruling cocoalition, withth the passage of f right-ng legislation aimed a at routing e i wouldn'tf its space, be surprised if they were to attempt another sort of massive operation against the

palestinian population in gaza ahead of elections, once again. amy: we have to leave it there for now. yousef munayyer is the executive director of u.s. campaign for palestinian rights.çç??

chen: all right. well... good evening and welcome. it's great to be with all of you. i'm lanhee chen, the david and diane steffy research fellow at the hoover institution at stanford university, and i'm just really pleased to be onstage with amy chua tonight. amy is the john m. duff, jr. professor of law at yale law school and acclaimed author. many of you may know her for her parenting advice, but we're not going to talk about parenting tonight. we're going to talk about a subject that, you know, i think is very