Understanding Israel Palestine
by KKFI 90.1 FM Kansas City Community Radio
This show is inspired by Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, a local group that has advocated for 20 years for a fair and even-handed U.S. foreign policy that recognizes the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis. Our program offers interviews with journalists, scholars, policy experts and activists to offer multiple perspectives, and to clarify the underlying issues that are often obscured by headline news.
Episodes
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Jewish Values Propelled U.S. Rabbi to Defend Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank
Kansas City Rabbi Doug Alpert discusses his recent trip to the Occupied West Bank where he and other volunteers helping Palestinians harvest olives were detained by the Israeli military. Alpert says his Jewish values are why he seeks to defend Palestistians from violence by Jewish settlers and…
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Moving through Ongoing Personalized Trauma to Transformative Intergenerational Healing, and Beyond 'Transparency' to Truthful Accountability in Palestine and around the World (with Ashira Darwish)
Greetings and welcome to Understanding Israel Palestine: A Beyond the Walls Edition. I’m Jeremy Rothe-Kushel. We speak today in October 2026 at a moment of profound and agonizing contradiction. On the ground across historic Palestine—from the mass destruction of Palestinian lives & rubbled...
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A People's Tribunal Details Genocide in Gaza
Margot Patterson speaks to jurists Richard Falk and Hilal Elver about the work of the International Gaza Tribunal, a people's tribunal investigating and documenting Israeli war crimes in Gaza. A response by members of civil society to the failure of states and the United Nations to hold Israel...
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Who’s Arming Israel’s Wars?
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has dropped explosive power equivalent to seven times the Hiroshima bomb on Gaza. Where does this lethal arsenal originate, and which nations and corporations fuel this crisis? Hine-Wai Loose joined the show to discuss the organization she directs, Control Arms and…
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The Structural Origins and Damaging Impact of the Deep Israel Lobby Part 2 (with Grant Smith)
The Structural Origins and Damaging Impact of the Deep Israel Lobby Part 2 (with Grant Smith) Greetings and welcome to Understanding Israel Palestine, a Beyond the Walls edition, I am Jeremy Rothe-Kushel. For this episode, after a Beyond the Walls special Cyber Occupation Report, we return to…
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The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of Israel's Genocide in Gaza
How did the US media enable Israel's genocide in Gaza? What was happening in newsrooms as Israel intensified its onslaught on Gaza? Professor Emerita Robin Andersen joins the show to discuss how US media outlets encouraged Israel's genocidal campaign through uncritically repeating the lies of the...
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Ethnic Cleansing Accelerates in the Occupied West Bank
This program is an updated rebroadcast of a Nov. 21, 2025 program with Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of Israel-Palestine at DAWN (Democracy in the Arab World Now). He discusses the accelerating pace of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, the history of settler violence, the U.S. role in...
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How Deceptive American State Complicity in the Israeli Destruction of Palestinian Gaza Should Continue to Haunt (w/ Stacy Gilbert)
For this episode of Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond the Walls, Jeremy Rothe-Kushel speaks with Stacy Gilbert about the background of her public resignation from the Biden State Department, the longterm humanitarian crisis deepened by the ending of US financial aid and political support of...
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Anti-Muslim Racism in the American Political Zeitgeist
How is anti-Muslim animus driving races around the country, from Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Zohran Mamdani in NYC? What accounts for the way in which Muslims, a religious group entitled to freedom of religion, instead are targeted for their participation in American politics? Dr. Sahar Aziz of...
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In the Grip of a Foreign Power: America and the Israel Lobby
Professor emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and a specialist in the history and politics of the modern Middle East, Ian Lustick speaks to Margot Patterson about his and Eli Clifton's new book, Israel's Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power. Lustick says the...
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The U.S. War on the International Criminal Court
In July, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that the United States was launching a government-wide campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court. His announcement follows President Trump's Executive Order 14,203 in February of 2025 imposing economic sanctions on a dozen ICC...
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No Peace Prescription for Gaza, and Dr. El-Sayed's Proscription of AIPAC Impunity (with Richard Silverstein)
No Peace Prescription for Gaza, and Dr. El-Sayed's Proscription of AIPAC Impunity (with Richard Silverstein) For this episode of Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond the Walls, Jeremy Rothe-Kushel is joined by Richard Silverstein. Richard is an independent journalist, a Jewish American moral...
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U.S. Media Complicity in Genocide in Gaza
Margot Patterson talks to Robin Andersen, professor emerita of communications at Fordham University, about Andersen's new book, The Complicit Lens: U.S. Media Coverage of Israel's Genocide in Gaza. In it, Andersen writes that the mainstream media in the United States abandoned journalistic...
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How to Divest from Genocide by Direct Vote
Do you want to take action but don't know where to start? Ben Case, organizer, author, and co-founder of Project for Responsive Democracy joins the show to talk about Not on Our Dime Pittsburgh, a local campaign to divest from genocide by direct vote. He details how the effort started, its…
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Al Mufta7 (The Key) and the Long View from the Palestinian Intellectual Street (with Zahir Zaydani)
For this episode, we return to a 2021 interview with Zahir Zaydani, the penname of a grassroots Palestinian intellectual from the West Bank. As the news cycle escalates, returning to deeper, historical lines of analytical frameworks closer to the source ensures that we don't let the headlines...
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Telling Essential Stories Through Independent Media
The life and work of journalist Amy Goodman, host of "Democracy Now," is the subject of award-winning film-makers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's new documentary film, "Steal This Story, Please." Goodman has provided close amd consistent attention to Gaza and the Occupied West Bank since and even…
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Palestine's Prisoners
In this rebroadcast of an earlier episode, Eamon speaks with Hind Shraydeh, Jerusalem-based journalist, about the practice of administrative detention in Palestine and her own husband's ordeal as a prisoner (administrative detainee).
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Naomi Shihab Nye on Peace, Poetry and Palestine
Acclaimed poet and writer Naomi Shihab Nye discusses her life and work in this conversation that originally aired on Understanding Israel Palestine in March of 2023. The daughter of a Palestinian refugee and an American mother, Nye was a teenager living with her family near Jerusalem when the...
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Bills Before Congress Deepen U.S.-Israeli Military and Intelligence Ties
Ben Freeman discusses a provision in the fy 2027 National Defence Authorization Act that would deepen U.S.-Israeli military ties to an unparalleled degree, making them difficult to unravel and removing Congressional oversight and accountability. An equally alarming provision in the Intelligence...
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The Premeditated Clampdown: Alison Weir on the Calculated Campaign to Protect Israeli State-Sponsored Destruction
The Premeditated Clampdown: Alison Weir on the Calculated Campaign to Protect Israeli State-Sponsored Destruction In this archival dive from September 2021, Alison Weir, executive director of If Americans Knew, exposes the calculated rollout of weaponized antisemitism laws. Five years later, the...
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First Gaza, Now Lebanon
In this rebroadcast of the program of April 17, Sonia Meyerson-Knox provides historical context for Israel's war in Lebanon, its seventh since the founding of Israel in 1948. She discusses Israel's decades-long ambition to expand into Lebanon and why she believes Israel is intent not just on...
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Part II of 'From Oslo to Gaza': Mideast Peace Negotiator Robert Malley on the Errors of the Past
Mideast peace negotiator Robert Malley continues his conversation with Margot Patterson about the road to Oct. 7th. Part I of the interview aired May 15. In Part II, he speaks about the differing strategies pursued by Palestinian leaders Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, U.S. misconceptions of...
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The Architecture of Empire: Walter L. Hixson on the Israel Lobby and the Machinery of Endless War
The Architecture of Empire: Walter L. Hixson on the Israel Lobby and the Machinery of Endless War Part Two: The Nakba’s Blast Radius and the Capture of U.S. Foreign Policy Episode Description Seventy-eight years ago, the Nakba dismantled Palestinian society. Today, we are living inside its blast...
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From Oslo to Gaza: Mideast Peace Negotiator Rob Malley on the Revenge of History
Longtime Mideast peace negotiator Robert Malley talks about his and Hussein Agha's recently published book, Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine. Malley discusses how diplomatic illusions, blunders and deceptions undermined the Oslo Accords signed in…
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Arts and Culture in a Palestinian Refugee Camp
Abdelfattah Abusrour, founder and director of Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society in Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, Palestine, joined the show this week to discuss his life's work. We discussed how he came to found Alrowwad and the many inspirational students and works of art that have come of it.
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The Structural Origins of AIPAC & The History of Israeli Espionage in the U.S. (with Grant Smith)
Understanding Israel Palestine: A Beyond the Walls Edition Episode: The Structural Origins of AIPAC & The History of Israeli Espionage in the U.S. Guest: Grant Smith, Research Director at the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) Host: Jeremy Rothe-Kushel Episode Overview In this...
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Deja Vu: Israel Wages Another War on Lebanon
Sonya Meyerson-Knox spent 16 years in Beirut, Lebanon working as a journalist and for U.N. agencies before becoming communications director of Jewish Voice for Peace. She discusses the new war in Lebanon that began after the United States and Israel attacked Iran February 28, 2026, describing it...
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The Israel-Silicon Valley Nexus and the Penetration of U.S. Critical Infrastructure (with Mary Silva)
Beyond the Walls: The Israel-Silicon Valley Nexus and the Penetration of U.S. Critical Infrastructure (with Mary Silva) Episode Overview: While public discourse naturally gravitates toward the physical realities of the occupation and destruction in Palestine, a parallel, largely invisible...
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The War on Iran is About Palestine
Journalist, author, academic and editor of the news site The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud discusses the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and how it relates to Israel's war in Lebanon and Israel's effort to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the Occupied West Bank. He says…
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The War on Iran is About Palestine
Journalist, author, academic and editor of the news site The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud discusses the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and how it relates to Israel's war in Lebanon and Israel's effort to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the Occupied West Bank. He says…
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Genocide 2.0, the Iran Assassinations, and the Architecture of Regional Chaos (with Richard Silverstein) [Radio Edit]
As the devastation in Gaza threatens to be spilled over into a full-scale annihilation of Beirut, the Middle East crossed a Rubicon the morning this episode was recorded. With Israel’s sudden announcement of high-level assassinations targeting the upper echelons of Iranian leadership, the region...
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War Escalates as Energy Prices Climb
Civilian casualties continue to climb in the region, especially in Iran and Lebanon, as the US and Israel intensify their assault on Iran. Iran retaliates by using its array of drones and missiles to hit US and Israeli military targets in the region, oil infrastructure, and other civilian…
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Building Hope with Nonviolent Communication and Action
Mai Shaheen is a Palestinian peace activist and therapist who uses nonviolent communication in her work with victims of trauma. She talks to Margot Patterson about how nonviolent dialogue brings Israelis, Palestinians and internationals together for healing, solidarity and nonviolent action. A...
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Overcoming the Structures of Erasure and the Semantics of Genocidal Management with Aseel AlBajeh
Overcoming the Structures of Erasure and the Semantics of Genocidal Management with Aseel AlBajeh "How do we talk about a reality that is being systematically erased in real-time?" On this episode of Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond the Walls, we examine the epistemology of erasure and how…
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Beyond the Language of the Israel-Palestine 'Conflict' and the Unconscious Grammar of Genocidal Consent
Beyond the Language of the Israel-Palestine 'Conflict' and the Unconscious Grammar of Genocidal Consent with Alex McDonald On this episode of Understanding Israel Palestine, a Beyond the Walls edition, we move beyond the kinetic warfare on the ground to examine the cognitive warfare in our own...
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On the Ground in Gaza: An Aid Worker Describes Continuing Violence and Fear
Rasha Abouselem has been a humanitarian aid worker since 2014. In December she was in Gaza. She reports on the conditions she found there, the violence Palestinians continue to live with despite the ceasefire, the ongoing shortfall in aid, and the uncertainty and trauma Palestinians are living...
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A New Policy for the United States in Israel and Palestine
Josh Paul joins the show again to discuss A New Policy, the organization that he co-founded with Tareq Habash. A New Policy is an organization dedicated to transforming American foreign policy toward Israel/Palestine to reflect American values and foundational principles of liberty, equality,...
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The Pro-Palestine Movement in the United States Today
Ahmad Abuznaid, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, speaks to Margot Patterson about the war in Gaza in 2025 and the Trump administration's efforts to repress Palestinian activism in the United States over U.S. support for it. Abuznaid discusses changes in U.S.…
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We Refuse to Be Silent: Having Faith in the Truth
This is a rebroadcast of the second portion of a talk organized by Eyewitness Palestine entitled We Refuse to Be Silent: Having Faith in the Truth. This portion was given by Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and a member of the Steering Committee of the Freedom...
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“All My Dreams Have Been Erased:” Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in the West BankMilena Ansari joins the show to share the findings of Human Rights Watch's latest report about the forced depopulation of refugee camps in the West Bank. These actions of the Israeli army in early 2025, which constitute a crime against humanity, forcibly displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians, who have been prevented from returning.
Milena Ansari, Israel and Palestine Assistant Researcher at Human Rights Watch, joins the show to share the findings of their latest report about the forced depopulation of refugee camps in the West Bank. These actions of the Israeli army in early 2025, which constitute a crime against humanity,...
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Challenging Christian Complicity in Israeli Occupation, Apartheid and Genocide
The Rev. Dr. Allison Tanner is a Baptist pastor and national coordinator of the Apartheid-Free Communities Initiative . She discusses the effort to get Christian churches to pledge to become apartheid-free communities and oppose Israeli occupation and apartheid. Dr. Tanner will bring her...
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“The Detonator and the Survival Kit: Recovering the Map Beyond the Wreckage” featuring Jonathan Kuttab
“The Detonator and the Survival Kit: Recovering the Map Beyond the Wreckage” featuring Jonathan Kuttab "Welcome back to Understanding Israel Palestine, a Beyond the Walls edition. I’m Jeremy Rothe-Kushel. Today, we re-open a black box recording from a time of useful consciousness: my March 2021...
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Accelerating Ethnic Cleansing in the West Bank
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, Director of Israel-Palestine Research at the non-profit DAWN (Democracy in the Arab World Now), speaks about the accelerating pace of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, which is raising fears of a new genocide. He describes the history of settler violence, the U.S.…
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Mamdani’s Panopticon Burden: To Inherit the Hardened and Databased Political Epistemology of the Security State(s)?
Mamdani’s Panopticon Burden: To Inherit the Hardened and Databased Political Epistemology of the Security State(s)? By Jeremy Rothe-Kushel Host/Producer, Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond The Walls New York City is a paradox disguised as a metropolis. Above, the glass-and-steel canyons of...
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Severed: the Crisis of Amputation in Palestine
Jen Marlowe, the founder of Donkeysaddle Projects, and producer of the recent film Severed, joins the show to talk about the crisis of disability in Palestine and particularly in Gaza, where thousands of amputees struggle to get the care in the aftermath of Israel's escalated genocide and its...
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The Gaza Peace Plan's Uncertain Terms and Prospects
The project director on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group, an independent non-profit focused on preventing and resolving deadly conflict, Max Rodenbeck discusses the Crisis Group's recent report on the Gaza Peace Plan advanced by President Trump. He describes how Trump's…
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A Return to the Deep Politics of October 2023 - The Obfuscated Israeli Circumstances, Pretext and Intent of 'Israel's 9/11'
Two years after the October 7th attacks, a so-called Gaza peace deal is roughly unfolding. But there widely remains no serious analytical investigation into the full origins of that inciting event. Was it really a surprise? Or was it part of a deeper provocation, escalated by security stand-downs...
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Armenian Jerusalemites Resist Judaization of their Old City Home
In the fall of 2023, a shady land deal signed a few years earlier between the Armenian Patriarchate and an Australian-Israeli businessman came to light. Despite the Patriarchate's cancellation of the deal on Nov. 1, 2023, Israeli surveyors and settlers pushed ahead with their plans to develop the...
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Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond the Walls - "Cyberweaponry, Kill-Switch Diplomacy and the Technology of Occupation"
In anticipation of Voices from the Holy Land's upcoming October 19th online film salon "The Israel Occupation Tech Lab," we will hear a segment Jeremy Rothe-Kushel produced in December 2020 and then remixed for August 2021 titled "Cyberweaponry, Kill-Switch Diplomacy and the Technology of...
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No Weapons for Genocide: The People Demand an Arms Embargo
From the People's Conference for Palestine 2025: Over the past year, we have seen a shift in public consciousness: from demanding an immediate ceasefire to demanding a full arms embargo on Israel. Mass protests have erupted in the ports of Morocco, French dockworkers have refused to handle…
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About this show
This show is inspired by Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, a local group that has advocated for 20 years for a fair and even-handed U.S. foreign policy that recognizes the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis. Our program offers interviews with journalists, scholars, policy experts and activists to offer multiple perspectives, and to clarify the underlying issues that are often obscured by headline news.
Hosted by
KKFI 90.1 FM Kansas City Community Radio