September 9 – The Obama/ Netanyahu Fence Mending; Americans Targeted in Jordan; Will Blaming the Press Mean Less Scrutiny of Candidates?

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the White House meeting today between Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama that was the first since the signing of the Iran nuclear deal that Netanyahu aggressively opposed which Obama considers one his greatest diplomatic achievements. Kate Gould, the Legislative Representative for Middle East Policy for the Friends Committee on National legislation, a Quaker lobby in the public interest fielding the largest team of registered peace lobbyists in Washington D.C., joins us to discuss the increase from $3.1 billion a year in U.S. military aid to $5 billion that Israel is asking for and efforts to repair the strained relations between the two leaders.

Part 2

Then we examine the killing of two American police trainers and the wounding of two others today in Jordan at the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center which came on the 10^th anniversary of terrorist bombings at three Jordanian hotels which left 60 people dead. The author of “Inter-Arab Alliances: Regime Security and Jordanian Foreign Policy”, Curt Ryan, a Professor of Political Science at Appalachian State University who is also a Fulbright Scholar to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, joins us to discuss the enormous strains on this fragile state coping with floods of refugees and wars on its borders.

Part 3

Then finally we analyze whether the press scrutiny of Dr. Ben Carson’s many claims that are not meeting the fact-checking test will lead to more focus on issues and policies the Republican candidates are espousing or whether blaming the press will lead to less probing questions being asked of those seeking the presidency. Matthew Sutton, the Distinguished Professor of History at Washington State University and author of “American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism” joins us to discuss the religious underpinning of Ben Carson’s magical thinking.