Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jon Elmer, Terry Wolfwood, Janine Bandcroft Aug. 6, 2012

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook

This week: Last week, the European Union came through for Israel, upgrading special trade status, strengthening economic ties on myriad fronts, and reversing trade penalties for the Gaza massacre of 2008. Most incredibly, all this was undertaken in violation of the EU's own European Neighbourhood Policy that requires "preferred trading partner" status be reserved for those nations respecting international human rights, democratic values, and the humanitarian obligations expected of civilized governments. And all this without AIPAC, or a November election.

Jon Elmer is a Canadian writer and freelance photojournalist who has lived in and reported from Occupied Palestine for the better part of the last decade. Jon has photographed and reported from more than a dozen countries, including Nepal, the Basque region, Western Sahara and Morocco, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Jon's work can be found featured across the internet at Al Jazeera English, the InterPress Service, and Le Monde diplomatique among others, and at his site, JonElmer.ca.

Jon Elmer in the first half.

And; Theresa Wolfwood is Director and co-founder of the Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation, and is a writer, photographer, and long-time activist who has travelled from the highlands of Mexico to the gates of Gaza and beyond in pursuit of peace, social justice, and women's rights. Terry has written for Briarpatch, Peace News, and Third World Resurgence, among others, and is the local co-ordinator of Victoria's Women in Black. Today at noon, the Women in Black held their Hiroshima Day vigil downtown at the tourist office, across from the Empress Hotel to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the role Canada played in the production of the bombs that were needlessly dropped upon the people living there.

Terry Wolfwood standing vigil for the dead and remembering the continuity of life in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city's streets and beyond. But first, Jon Elmer and Israel reaping rewards from the jostling line of its foreign "best friends."

Listen. Hear.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://GorillaRadioBlog.blogspot.com

 

While the influence of the Israeli lobby and the Likud party it represents over American policy is obvious, that power is never more apparent than during an election year. Every four years, nearly every politician in the United States bends over to proffer unquestioning fealty to the Zionist project and offering lip service to its agents in America. That obeisance is something as predictable as the seasons once were, and true to form president Obama not two weeks ago fell all over himself in efforts to appease Israel, even as its leader publicly humiliated his envoy, Leon Panetta.

The Bomber proved again his service by signing into law an expanded military "cooperation" deal entailing: a further 70 million dollars for Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system; allowing Israeli firms get a bigger piece of the F-35 fighter jet production deal; and providing an extension of US loan guarantees to better help Israel secure international monies at low, low rates. Doubtless the Republicans are burning the midnight oil to top the president's gift package.

But, it's not just campaign-mad U.S. politicians catching the Israel aid craze; last week, the European Union too came through, upgrading special trade status, strengthening economic ties on myriad fronts, and reversing trade penalties for the Gaza massacre of 2008. Most incredibly, all this was undertaken in violation of the EU's own European Neighbourhood Policy that requires "preferred trading partner" status be reserved for those nations respecting international human rights, democratic values, and the humanitarian obligations expected of civilized governments. And all this without AIPAC, or a November election.

Jon Elmer is a Canadian writer and freelance photojournalist who has lived in and reported from Occupied Palestine for the better part of the last decade. Jon has photographed and reported from more than a dozen countries, including Nepal, the Basque region, Western Sahara and Morocco, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Jon's work can be found featured across the internet at Al Jazeera English, the InterPress Service, and Le Monde diplomatique among others, and at his site, JonElmer.ca.

Jon Elmer in the first half.

And; August Sixth is the day of the year set aside these last half-dozen decades or so to remember the horrors of war, and more specifically the horrors experienced by the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. On this date in 1945 the first of two atomic bombs was dropped on that country, first immolating more than 100,000 people in Hiroshima, (many thousand more would later die of their injuries, and untold thousands succumb to, or spend their foreshortened lives suffering from the effects of "atomic disease") and two days later, the act was repeated in Nagasaki with similar results.

Theresa Wolfwood is Director and co-founder of the Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation, and is a writer, photographer, and long-time activist who has travelled from the highlands of Mexico to the gates of Gaza and beyond in pursuit of peace, social justice, and women's rights. Terry has written for Briarpatch, Peace News, and Third World Resurgence, among others, and is the local co-ordinator of Victoria's Women in Black. Today at noon, the Women in Black held their Hiroshima Day vigil downtown at the tourist office, across from the Empress Hotel to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the role Canada played in the production of the bombs that were needlessly dropped upon the people living there.

Terry Wolfwood standing vigil for the dead and remembering the continuity of life in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city's streets and beyond. But first, Jon Elmer and Israel reaping rewards from the jostling line of its foreign "best friends."

G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and

providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.

 

Some past guests include: M. Junaid Alam, M. Shahid Alam, Gilad Atzmon, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, David Barsamian, Mark and Rhoda Berenson, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, William Bowles, Mordecai Briemberg, James J. Brittain, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudovsky, Diane Christian, Paul Cienfuegos, David Cromwell, Ezili Danto, Jon Elmer, Yves Engler, Anthony Fenton, Jim Fetzer, Laura Flanders, Chris Floyd, Connie Fogal, Susan George, Stan Goff, Amy Goodman, Denis Halliday, Chris Hedges, Sander Hicks, Julia Butterfly Hill, Scott Horton, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Chalmers Johnson, Diana Johnstone, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Naomi Klein, Brewster Kneen, Betty Krawczyk, Anthony Lappe, Frances Moore Lappe, Jason Leopold, Jeff Leys, Dave Lindorff, Jim Lobe, Jennifer Loewenstein, Stephen Marshall, Robert Massoud, Loretta Napoleoni, John Nichols, Ken O'Keefe, David Orchard, Riki Ott, Greg Palast, Mike Palecek, Michael Parenti, Robert Parry, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, William Rivers Pitt, Justin Podur, Lila Rajiva, Jack Random, Sheldon Rampton, Paul Craig Roberts, David Robb, Paul de Rooij, John Ross, David Rovics, Danny Schechter, David Schindler, Vandana Shiva, Tim Shorrock, Norman Solomon, Jean Saint-Vil, Starhawk, Grant Wakefield, Harvey Wasserman, Paul Watson, Bernard Weiner, Andy Worthington, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.

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