It’s that time of the week again. One Jerusalem Radio’s TOCS, 6:30pm PST, streamed live from Blog Talk Radio. Head over there after the show starts for a chance to ask questions in the chat room or get on the air. The podcast will be available immediately afterward, though of course it’s much less fun.
This week’s interview is with Noam Bedein, the founder and director of the Sderot Media Center. I’ve been pushing them on you guys for at least a couple years. The SMC is the only NGO doing consistent media work on the ground in Sderot, which is in turn the only city on the planet where civilians are constantly targeted by rocket barrages (so much much for Israel’s vaunted military superiority, which is supposed to be the basis of “risks for peace”).
So singular is the SMC, that they were the ones called upon to provide evidence and testimony to the Goldstone Commission about Hamas’s war crimes. None of that made it into the UN resolution – and it was never going to, which is why the Israeli government rightly refused to cooperate with Goldstone’s kangaroo court – but it’s good that an NGO was there to make sure that Goldstone couldn’t claim official ignorance. Noam will update listeners on the situation in the Negev, where schoolchildren are again under Palestinian rocket fire, and talk about his organization’s role in bringing that to public attention.
As always Dan Diker joins in at the beginning of the show, if only to make sure that there’s some expert saying something. Major topics: the Israeli/UK rift – which as of this morning required the British Prime Minister to clarify that UK policy recognizes that Israelis are people too – and Iran’s global proliferation network. There’s also a segment on the myth of linkage that I’d really like to get to – we’ll see if we have time.
Money line from the UK segment, bearing in mind that it takes a lot to get Diker using strong language about anything, let alone about diplomacy itself: today Britain is “leading the charge to uproot and delegitimze the Jewish State.” That’s a week after Sweden tried to divide the ancient capital of the Jewish people. Bold!
References:
* Noam Bedein – Sderot In An Era Of Hamas War Crimes [TOCS]
* Noam Bedein, the founder and director of the Sderot Media Center. [MR]
* Brown: Livni welcome in UK any time [JPost]
* Obama: We Must Achieve Peace By Forcing Israel To Give Up Jerusalem And Open Its Borders [MR]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* TOCS
* Cast Lead
* Britain
