The High Price of Saving a Single Soldier; Bailing Out California
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Israel may be on the verge of swapping a thousand Palestinian prisoners for one kidnapped soldier who's become a cause célèbre. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, we look at the dilemma faced by right-wing Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and the possible consequences, both good and bad. Also, bailing out California. On Reporter's Notebook, can a Rhodes scholar play in the National Football League and go to on to become a neurosurgeon?
Banner image: An Israeli demonstrator walks past cardboard cut-outs of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit during a protest outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem, calling for Shalit's release December 21, 2009. Photo: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images
Making News
Bailing Out California ()
The latest budget deficit will be at least $20 billion, and Governor Schwarzenegger wants Washington to help make up the difference. Without $8 billion in new federal money, he says welfare and two tax breaks for big corporations may go by the boards. Shane Golmacher reports from Sacramento for the Los Angeles Times.
Guests:
- Shane Goldmacher: Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times
Main Topic
The High Price of Saving a Single Soldier ()
Israel is obsessed with a young soldier kidnapped and held by Hamas in Gaza for more than three years. What is it worth to get Gilad Shalit back? Hamas is demanding release of a thousand prisoners, including a multiple-murder convict supporters compare to South Africa's Nelson Mandela, who might bring political unity to the Palestinian cause. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is caught between the ancient Jewish tradition of rescue and giving the kidnappers a major victory. What are the terms of a potential deal? What are the immediate risks and possible benefits in the long term?
Guests:
- Joel Greenberg: Spokesman, HaMoked
- Yossi Alpher: Co-Editor, BitterLemons.org
- Mukhaimer Abu Saada: Professor of Political Science, al Azhar University
- Uri Dromi: Senior Aide, then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
Links:
Reporter's Notebook
NFL's Myron Rolle Chooses Scholarship over Sponsorship ()
After star quarterback Michel Vick's prison term for dog fighting, the National Football League is overdue for image enhancement. So, consider Michael Rolle, who in less than three years at Florida State, earned a 3.75 grade-point average and All-America honors as a defensive back. In delaying entry into the NFL to spend a year as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, it's estimated he gave up $8 million. But he's already embarked on "a one-man marketing experiment" according to Lee Hawkins of the Wall Street Journal.
Guests:
- Lee Hawkins: Staff Reporter, Wall Street Journal
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Underwriters
Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.
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