June 1, 2010

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Whole Show Blow-by-Blow

It's Tuesday, June 1st.

Israel says its soldiers were attacked after they dropped from helicopters onto a ship bound for Gaza, in the middle of the night, with their weapons visible, in international waters.

Currently, apparently the people on board thought they were pirates. Weird.

This is The Current.

Israeli Raid - Rafet Akguna

We started this segment with a clip, with sounds from yesterday as about 10,000 Turks marched outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul. There were other protests in Toronto, Ottawa, New York, London, Paris, Melbourne, Sydney and Jakarta, all comdemning Israel's raid on a series of ships bound for Gaza - a raid that killed 9 people.

The protests continued today outside the Israeli embassy in Ankara, Turkey. The raid has provoked a storm of official international criticism from Britain, France, China and Egypt, as well as from the European Union and the Arab League. After a night of negotiations, the UN Security Council is calling for an impartial investigation into the raid, releasing a statement that is weaker than that demanded by Palestinians, Arab Nations and Turkey. Rafet Akgunay is Turkey's Ambassador to Canada. We spoke to him in Ottawa.

Israeli Raid - Panel

To examine the diplomatic fallout for Israel in the wake of these attacks The Current called on two people. Jonathan Schanzer was a counter-terrorism analyst with the U.S. Treasury Department. And he's now the Vice President of Research for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He was in Washington.

Paul Heinbecker is a former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations. He's now the Director of the "Centre for Global Relations" at Laurier University and a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. He was in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Current put in requests to speak with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon and Canada's ambassador to Israel. All of those requests were turned down.

PART TWO

Gaza Blockade - Eyad Sarraj

We started out this segment with a clip from Mousa Yousef. He's a Doctor at the Al Awad Hospital in Jabilya in Gaza. And he talked about the challenges he faces trying to get the equipment he needs to care for his patients.

Anna Maria Tremonti spoke to him last year, at the height of Israel's military operation in Gaza. Since then, the hospital has increased its number of beds, opened two more operating rooms, built two generators and dug a well that has made it self-sufficient in water.

It hasn't been easy. Doctor Yousef says it took 14 months to get a donated elevator to the hospital, and that it came through only after the World Bank intervened. He spends much of his time just trying keep the hospital supplied with the basics.

Among other things, that ill-fated flotilla bound for Gaza was carrying equipment meant for the Al Awad Hospital. It has been three years since Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza, in response to the election of Hamas.

And according to Eyad Sarraj, the blockade affects almost every aspect of life. He is a psychiatrist in Gaza. He's also the founder of The International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza. And we reached him in Gaza this morning.

Gaza Blockade - Panel

For their thoughts on what it would take to end the blockade on Gaza, The Current spoke to two people who are considered moderates on their respective sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.

Yariv Oppenheimer is the Secretary General of Peace Now, a group founded in 1978 and considered to be Israel's oldest and largest peace group. He was in Tel Aviv.

Moustafa Barghouti is an Independent Palestinian legislator, as well as a former Palestinian Presidential candidate and one of the founders of the Palestinian National Initiative, an attempt to build an alternative to both Fatah and Hamas. He was in Ramallah.

PART THREE 

Lung Cancer - Doc

Last year, more than 23,000 Canadians were diagnosed with lung cancer. The statistics suggest most could die, usually within months. In fact, more Canadians die from lung cancer than from breast, prostate and colon cancers combined. And the rate of lung cancer is rising.

Yet this silent scourge receives little funding and scant attention. New research in Canada and elsewhere is finding that early detection can lead to more effective treatment.

Alison Armstrong prepared a documentary about the research going on in Toronto. It's called "Breathe Normally." We aired the documentary.

Lung Cancer - Francoise Baylis

Making early detection of lung cancer widely available raises some interesting ethical questions. For her thoughts on some of them, we spoke to Francoise Baylis. She's the Canada Research Chair in Bioethics and Philosophy at Dalhousie University. She was in Halifax.

Last Word - REM

And we left you with a musical thought on the value of breath. We played REM's "Try Not to Breathe." 

Music

Artist: REM

CD: Automatic for the People

Cut: 2, Try Not to Breathe

Label: Warner Bros.