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This week on Uprising:

* Israeli Offensive on Gaza Continues; American Jews Demonstrate for Peace
* Empire Notes on Israel: Notes on a Society in Confusion
* The Truth Behind Cheap Gas – Conversation with Michael T. Klare
* Black Agenda Report on Labor, Obama, and the Employee Free Choice Act
* Young People Celebrate Inauguration with High Hopes in Obama

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Israeli Offensive on Gaza Continues; American Jews Demonstrate for Peace

As the Israeli offensive in Gaza has continued for three weeks, the Palestinian Ministry of Health is reporting that more than a thousand lives have been lost with more than three hundred children among the dead. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman made a rare statement condemning the deaths of Palestinian children as “tragic and unacceptable.” Over the week UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in urging for a ceasefire. At the start of the Israeli offensive against Gaza, protests around the world immediately called for an end to the killing. From the West Bank to Egypt, to London, and even Chile, demonstrations have denounced Israeli military incursions. In the United States and Canada, Israeli consulates have become sites of protests for Americans Jews in cities like Toronto, New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Meanwhile, activists with the Free Gaza Movement continue their attempts to break the naval blockade of Gaza with boats laden with aid and other supplies.

GUESTS: Huwaida Arraf, member of the Free Gaza Movement, Lisa Adler, member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, participating at a sit-in in Los Angeles in front of the Israeli Consulate

For more information, visit www.ijsn.net.

Empire Notes on Israel: Notes on a Society in Confusion

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on Israel: Notes on a Society in Confusion.

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade.

Visit www.empirenotes.org for more information.

The Truth Behind Cheap Gas

Oil prices have fallen to $37 a barrel last week, dropping 27 percent since the week before. The low prices reflected at the pump are a welcome relief to car drivers across the country but few are paying attention to the global and domestic implications of those prices. According to author Michael T. Klare, low prices mean that oil producing countries are losing revenues, leading to cuts in their social services and public unrest. Low oil prices may also put research and development of alternative energy sources on hold. Which of course ensures that oil remains the dominant energy source for even longer. And, because of high surpluses as a result of a sudden drop in consumption from last year’s high prices, new oil projects are also being postponed. This means that when the world economy does begin to recover and consumption rises, oil demand will eclipse the lowered capacity leading to rising, and then skyrocketing oil prices, which in turn will lead to further financial and political instability worldwide. Indeed, whether we know it or not, most of the world’s problems, according to Klare, are at least in part, related to our addiction to oil.

GUEST: Michael T. Klare is the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is the author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum, and his latest book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Oil:

Read Michael T. Klare’s article here: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175018/michael_t_klare_the_problem_with_cheap_oil

Black Agenda Report on Labor, Obama, and the Employee Free Choice Act

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on Labor, Obama, and the Employee Free Choice Act.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Young People Celebrate Inauguration with High Hopes in Obama

Washington D.C. is gearing up for the highly anticipated inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday. At least a million people, and possibly as many as four million people are expected to gather for this historic event. As the numbers rise, so does the security detail. The 56th Presidential inauguration has broken prior budgetary records in preparing for the massive turnout. The District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia have spent an estimated $78 million for the event. Over 20,000 police and 11,000 military troops will be part of the extensive ground, air, and waterborne forces preparing for the first African-American to be sworn into the highest elected office. While D.C. makes elaborate plans for Tuesday, local activists around the nation, who played a huge role in electing Obama but who lack the means to go to DC, are organizing their own inauguration celebration events. In Los Angeles, where this program is produced, students and community organizers are gathering at a school in South LA to watch the inauguration and follow it up with political discussion of how to hold Obama accountable.

GUEST: Alfred Burkes, Community Coalition

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.” — Martin Luther King Jr.