At the core of the Israel-Palestinian conflict is not only about land or security; it is about competing claims to justice. One philosophical truth stands out: a nation cannot secure its future by indefinitely denying other people their fundamental rights.
Today’s podcast guest is Jason Pack, Senior Analyst for Emerging Challenges at the NATO Defense College Foundation and Associate Fellow at RUSI. He is the Host of the Disorder Podcast, and author of Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder.
In this episode, we discuss the end of the post-WWII global order and the prevailing disorder since 2011, the loss of American leadership, the Memorandum of Understanding between Iran and the United States, particularly in comparison to the 2015 JCPOA, and the broader regional fallout from the war with Iran.
Listen now; link in bio.
Full bio
Jason Pack is the Founder of Libya-Analysis LLC, and the host of Disorder, a geopolitics podcast co-produced with Goalhanger Podcasts. He is an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and the Senior Analyst for Emerging Challenges at the NATO Defence College Foundation in Rome.
His most recent book, Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder (Hurst 2021 / Oxford University Press 2022) is a ‘cross-over’ academic book that explores what Libya’s dysfunctional economic structures and its ongoing civil war reveal about our era of 21st-century geopolitics. Jason’s ‘Enduring Disorder’ concept – that we no longer inhabit the post-Cold War World, but have entered a new era – the ‘Enduring Disorder’ – was conceived to describe the collective action failures that have come to define international politics.
Jason has lived in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Oman, Qadhafi-era Libya, and Trump-era Washington, DC. Proficient in Arabic, French, and Hebrew, he has been kidnapped twice, and served as the Executive Director of a K St-based Trade Association. He is open for media appearances about US foreign policy, conspiracy theories, the state of the global system, neopopulism, and especially the Middle East.
When not podcasting or consulting on the Middle East, Jason plays backgammon semi-professionally. He was the 2018 World Champion of Doubles Backgammon, came 2nd place in the 2024 World Championship of Speedgammon, and has achieved the rank of Grandmaster – placing him in the top 100 players in the world. He also writes about gambling’s connections to geopolitics.
Today’s guest is Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal, Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University. In this episode, we discuss differing narratives between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs and how to bridge that gap, the decline of the Israeli peace movement, and changing public opinion toward Israel abroad.
Listen now; link in bio.
Full bio
Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal is Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University. Dr. Bar-Tal received his graduate training in social psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and completed his doctoral thesis in 1974. He previously served as a Director of the Walter Lebach Research Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education, Tel Aviv University and as President of the International Society of Political Psychology, and was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Israel Journal. In 2013 he received honorary membership in the Polish Society of Social Psychology.
Since the early eighties his interest has shifted to political psychology and the study of the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peace building, including reconciliation. In the latter area, he studied the evolvement of the socio-psychological infrastructure in times of intractable conflict that consists of shared societal beliefs of ethos of conflict, collective memory, and emotional collective orientations. He also studied socio-psychological barriers to peacemaking and ways to overcome them, and acquisition of the conflict repertoire by children and adolescents.
Within this scope of studies he developed with his collaborators theoretical frameworks for concepts like siege mentality, intractable conflict, delegitimization, collective victimhood, socio-psychological infrastructure, culture of conflict, effects of lasting occupation, barriers to peace making, construction and struggle over conflict supporting narratives, acquisition of intergroup psychological repertoire, early development of the ethos of conflict, transitional context, collective identity, and peace education, among many others.
Elizabeth Hoffman, Executive Director, North America at ONE, joined me on my podcast to discuss the urgent humanitarian situation in Sudan as a result of its ongoing civil war. She speaks about the background to the civil war and the players involved, and discusses the techniques of fear being used in the war, and the horrific crimes against humanity being committed by both the RSF and the SAF.
Listen to this and more in my latest episode, available now - link in bio.
Global violence today is metastasizing, not contained; over 180,000 violent events reported globally by the International Institute for Strategic Studies signal a world in which conflict has become a baseline condition rather than an exception. More than 130 armed conflicts now rage—over twice the number of 15 years ago—shattering infrastructure, tearing apart social fabric, and normalizing dehumanization as a political weapon. Women and children bear the brunt: hundreds of millions live within range of armed clashes, with millions of preventable deaths and lifelong trauma caused not only by bullets and bombs but by hunger, disease, and gender-based violence unleashed by war’s chaos. Yet the UN system and the world’s democracies appear increasingly paralyzed—trapped in vetoes, geopolitical rivalries, and hollow declarations—offering gestures of concern rather than the coordinated, enforced accountability this modern plague of violence so desperately demands.
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Donald Trump did not invent America’s vulnerabilities, but he has driven them to a breaking point. His contempt for democratic norms, alliances, and international law has transformed the United States from an anchor of a rules based order into a disruptive force. The damage extends far beyond decisions like the war on Iran, stretching the credibility of US institutions, Western cohesion, and the balance of power with adversaries sensing opportunity. Whether the United States recovers from Trump’s inflicted wounds on America depends on the choices its leaders have yet to make. America may not regain unipolar dominance, but it can help shape a more stable and decent order—if it proves to the world, and itself, that it can still govern and lead responsibly.
alonben-meir.com/writing/america-at-250-a-reckoning-and-a-call-to-conscience/
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Madarchod
At the core of the Israel-Palestinian conflict is not only about land or security; it is about competing claims to justice. One philosophical truth stands out: a nation cannot secure its future by indefinitely denying other people their fundamental rights.
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So I have spent some time looking at dozens of news reports, and pro Israel site,s etc.I have some serious points therefore I refer to the Canadian Human Rights Museum, now if the Nabka display was of little consequence the outcries would not be a vocal, intense and even bordering on the extreme. So when you review the UN investigations, dozens of live video footage, photographs,, UN observer reports, eye witness reports, reports from Doctors without borders, and other Humanitarian organisations, as well as Gazan Nurses, doctors, paramedics international journalists, and dozens of volunteers that helped with distributing and transporting aid. It is quite evident that what Israel , the IDF and the settlers are doing, is not a lie, it is not made up , it is not a Muslim , Hamas, etc . campaign of misinformation. It is physically impossible, that thousands of highly competent people who are trusted for their judgement , critical thought, and their professionalism from dozens of countries languages and cultures , who have absolutely nothing to gain by distorting their personal experiences or group experiences of the atrocities committed by the IDF etc would do so, Even Jewish workers, volunteers etc, who have experienced the same, would also have nothing to gain, other than ensuring that their experiences are recorded. The atrocities have been ongoing for decades, , it is not just a short intense period, no ,it is decades of evidence recorded, catalogued and finally submitted by the UN inquires. Like the Nazis, atrocities were not only recorded, but paper records were recovered, eye witness accounts , photographs movie footage, , death camps, and dozens of other sources. over a from the late 1930's to 1945.. So why the intense narratives , pressuring countries ,business owners to fire employees who criticise what Israel is doing. Why are actors, musicians, artists , pod castors, journalists, and other professionals being silenced, losing careers, being doxed, and dozens of other forms of shaming and personal attacks, just for criticising the actions of Israel and their soldiers and settlers. It is well known that Israel sends lobbiests to infiltrate and pressure the individual governments to silence their critics, it is al;so documented in news articles, and reports regarding Israel 's interference in the US federal government ,as well as Canada and the United Kingdom. So it begs to answer this question: Why the intense pressure, the millions spent to influence individual senators, MP'S , CEOS, owners, institutes of education. News organisations, if the narrative, and the evidence was not in any way implicating and damning? My answer: This entire Israelis campaign and that of pro Zionist Jewish organisations, is to hide, to silence , to flip the narrative, to censor and deny the hard indisputable evidence that is disclosed by investigative techniques , media , witness and survivor, . accounts. It is clear they are failing, they are reverting to silencing the truth of their action, in an attempt to legitimise their plans, whether it is the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, the destruction of homes and entire villages and towns and violence in the west bank and Lebanon, or their Greater Israel Project, the Israelis version of the Nazis Liebensraum , or living space. So we revert back to the Nabka display in the Canadian Human Rights Museum.. If this display was not of any significance there would not be the intense pushback by pro Israelis Jewish organisations , and other groups and individuals that we see right now. That very pushback is the key, the very attempt to silence the truth , the act to deflect the importance of the Palestinian Historical narrative and the NABKA. This very measure is not just to prevent the truth from being exposed, it is meant to hide the shame, to prevent legitimate criticism, and the application of justice to the perpetrator.
Faaaaarrrrrrt?
As the United States marks its 250th anniversary—a testament to endurance, sacrifice, and democratic aspiration—it does so in a dark, foreboding shadow. At this defining moment, the nation finds itself led not by steadiness or vision, but by a figure whose erratic conduct, corrosive narcissism, and moral decay mock the very ideals this milestone is meant to honor. How has a republic forged in defiance of tyranny succumbed to the sway of a self-styled savior, elevated by a following that seems willfully blind, placing partisan loyalty above the fate of the nation itself? I watch America, once the continent of conscience, sink into the gray fog of decree and fear, a de facto kingdom draped in a flag. Authoritarianism blooms where solidarity dies; when the heart no longer binds us, power arrives with batons and whispered laws, imposed like chains mistaken for gains.
alonben-meir.com/writing/america-at-250-a-reckoning-and-a-call-to-conscience/
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VOTE 💙💙💙💙💙💙🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸Let’s take our country back ❣️👊🏼
Hitler, trump, Jim Jones... I can't see the difference
Remember Pretti and Good Nov 3rd!
Powerful. Thank you.
Sad but very true.
Yet you defended Joe Biden. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
impeach
Still better than any democrat scum.
