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Israeli-American Author and Peace Activist Miko Peled Fosters Dialogue with Palestinians, Slams Israel’s Government

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Miko Peled, author of The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine offers candid, critical views of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, from 1948 to the present.  Will Durst comments on the civil war inside the Republican party.  Peled holds Israeli and American passports and is a professional martial artist who lives in San Diego.  His book details his heritage: grandfather was a Zionist leader and signer of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, father was a young officer in the 1948 war and a top general in the 1967 war (who had a second career as a professor and back-channel negotiator with the Palestinians).  Peled served in the Israeli military as required and became an activist after his 13-year-old niece was killed in a suicide attack in Jerusalm.

We open with a chat about the Oscar-nominated documentary 5 Broken Cameras and its filmmaker, Emad Burnat from the West Bank Village of Bi’lin.  Peled knows Burnat and his brother Iyad (who was interviewed in our podcast 701, Jan 22, 2013) and talked about Emad’s mistreatment by US Immigration at LAX when he flew in for the Oscars.  Bi’lin is just one of the places that Peled has visited in his support for Palestinian rights.

Then we mention another Oscar-nominated film, The Gatekeepers, which presents 6 former Israeli Shin Bet chiefs.  Peled slams them as hypocrites, and says they should be tried at the International Criminal Court, not feted at the Oscars.

He is equally blunt about the Israeli government, Obama’s upcoming visit to Israel, and his observations when he recently visited Gaza by using a tunnel from Egypt. And he supports a one-state solution with Palestinians as full citizens.

At 40:45, Will Durst pops by to talk about the struggle inside the GOP.