Bush Endorses Israeli Withdrawal Plan; FilmWeek
Bush Endorses Israeli Withdrawal Plan
In a policy shift on Wednesday, President Bush endorsed Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw Israeli troops and about 7,500 settlers from the Gaza strip and portions of the West Bank. The controversy rose over the Israeli plan to keep five settlements in the West Bank (Ariel; Givat Zeev; Maale Adumim; Gush Etzion, and Kiryat Arba), thus enlarging the state of Israel to include land seized in the 1967 Middle East War. The Bush administration views this as a way to jump-start the static peace process; the Palestinians are outraged, seeing this as an end-run on previous peace plans. Will this new agreement, and Israeli withdrawal, finally create a new Palestinian state? If so, will the Palestinians be able to stem the violence against Israel? And what does Bush’s staunch support of Sharon’s policy mean for future US peace brokerage in the Middle East? Larry Mantle talks with Zvi Vapni, Deputy Consul General of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, Salam Al-Marayati, an American Muslim of Iraqi descent and the director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Los Angeles, Dr. Nadev Morag, Director of the newly founded Center for Israel Studies at the University of Judaism, and Josh Block, spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, America’s Pro-Israel Lobby.
FilmWeek
Larry Mantle and critics Jean Oppenheimer of New Times and Andy Klein, film editor and chief critic of both CityBeat and ValleyBeat discuss this week's new film releases, including Kill Bill Vol. 2, The Punisher, Young Adam, La Vie Promise, The Triology: After the Life, Lana's Rain, A Thousand Clouds of Peace, Close Call, Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion, and Prisoner of Paradise.
Special screenings this week include Civic Cinema: A Mini-Festival of Politically-Minded Documentaries at the Laemmle Theatres, Written and Directed by Jules Dassin at LACMA, and the Bombay Melody Film Series at UCLA.