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Part One:
We speak with Batya Ungar Sargon, opinion editor at The Forward, about Conrgress’s attempt to sanction Rep. Ilhan Omar for her criticism of the efforts of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) to persuade American Congressmembers to support (financially and otherwise) Israel’s government despite its allegedly illegal treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories. We discuss:
the substantive disputes;
the First Amendment issue of punishing someone (especially a member of Congress) for speaking her mind about political and policy issues when her views disagree with those of powerful leaders;
the manner in which someone speaks about such disagreements and whether (& to what extent) listeners might legitimately feel offended at allegedly discriminatory “tropes”; and
how much of the public reaction to Rep. Omar is related to her religion, her color, the clothes she wears, her youth, and/or her outspokenness.
Part Two:
We speak with Steve Paikin, host of the Agenda, one of Canada’s leading public affairs TV programs, about the burgeoning scandal that threatens the career of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. We learn about the criminal accusations against a leading Canadian company (with 50,000 employees) and about the allegations that Trudeau and his allies attempted to “unduly influence” the Attorney General in the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion. We await information about what kind of pressure Trudeau and his allies in fact tried to put on the AG, and a discussion of whether that rose to the level of “undue influence.”
