UNRWA remains the backbone of humanitarian assistance in Gaza, providing food, medical care, education, clean water, and psychosocial support to more than a million Palestinians caught in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Efforts to dismantle or delegitimize the agency threaten to deepen civilian suffering and undermine the delivery of lifesaving aid.
Today’s podcast guest is Dr. Dania Arayssi, a Senior Research Fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and a scholar of Middle East political economy and participation. She also serves as an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and teaches at George Washington University. Her research focuses on Middle East politics, with particular expertise in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Hezbollah.
In this episode, we discuss the fragmentation of the order and power that used to exist in the Middle East, the efforts of Iran to spread their influence and power in an attempt to hold on to the old order, the possibility of a NATO-like alliance in the Middle East, and the potential for security arrangements like the Mecca Agreement eventually encompassing Israel alongside its neighbors.
Listen now; link in bio.
The Netanyahu government`s policies of dispossession, widespread destruction, displacement, killings, and terror against Palestinian civilians betray the moral inheritance of Judaism. They endanger Jews worldwide by creating the poisonous impression that all Jews are complicit in Israel’s atrocities and giving unprecedented rise to antisemitism.
Sudan is facing one of the world`s worst humanitarian catastrophes, yet millions of civilians remain without adequate protection. Since the conflict erupted in April 2023, tens of thousands have been killed, more than 10.5 million people have been displaced within the country, and millions more have fled across borders.
As Israelis vote today, the stakes extend far beyond Netanyahu’s political survival. The result of the election raises a profound question about Israel’s democratic future, moral standing, and place in the world. In my recent article, Israel’s Fateful Election: A Nation on the Brink, I examine how democratic erosion, settler violence, international isolation, and endless warfare threaten Israel’s founding promise. Military superiority cannot substitute for political vision. The prospect of victory for the opposition parties will have a historic implication: the new government will face a Herculean task only to repair the most devastating damage that Netanyahu has inflicted on Israel’s international standing, but also on Israel itself and on the Palestinians. Read my full analysis:
alonben-meir.com/writing/israels-fateful-election-a-natioin-on-the-brink/
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Reports of potential U.S. strikes against Iran raise a fundamental question: What is President Trump’s endgame? Military superiority cannot substitute for a coherent political strategy. Further attacks risk Iranian retaliation, wider regional instability, and another prolonged conflict with no clear resolution. Iran’s nuclear ambitions and regional activities pose serious security challenges, but military force alone cannot resolve them. Nor should Washington allow Israel’s security priorities to dictate American decisions about war and peace. Trump must recognize that a tactical military win against Iran will result in a strategic failure. Iran will not surrender, not now, not ever. Only a negotiated agreement can achieve both the US and Iran’s interests.
6 CommentsComment on Facebook
Who’s laughing now?
we had this for 47 plus years, time to finish them
The USA has great interest in peace between stable nations of that region. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the only obstacle to peace.
We have been fighting Iran sense 1979.. President Trump just decided to really do something about it.
You on drugs.??? You can NOT negotiate with terrorists....
Wasted weapons Wasted money Wasted planes Wasted bombs Wasted lives Wasted bases Wasted reputation Wasted humanity All for Vanity
I agree with Barack Obama’s criticism of Donald Trump’s White House makeover. Obama humorously compared Trump’s extravagant decorations to what the White House might look like if Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. The comparison is funny, but the message behind it is serious. Trump’s obsession with gold, luxury, and grandeur reflects how he approaches power: as something to display rather than a responsibility to serve. The White House belongs to the American people, not to the president occupying it. While millions of Americans struggle with rising living costs, Trump is more concerned with projecting wealth and power. Obama’s joke exposes something troubling about Trump’s presidency: the transformation of public service into a spectacle of personal vanity and stupidity.
5 CommentsComment on Facebook
Obama has failed America in everything he did and will be remembered as the first anti president!
OBAMA BETTER WATCH HIS WIFE INSTEAD. HE IS A NO BODY.
Seems Obama didn’t care how the White House looked, he is jealous Trump did it and he didn’t. Although he did put in a basketball court, for his own personal use. Trump put in a ballroom for all Presidents to use and fixed the rose garden so reporters wouldn’t have to walk through soggy grass.
they'll have to take a shovel to the white house after he's gone.
I am not surprised by Trump’s vulgar comments about Nicki Minaj’s body. What disturbs me more is the crowd cheering as the president of the United States degrades a woman. At a Michigan rally, he reportedly called her backside. The issue extends beyond Trump’s long record of allegations and controversies involving women. It is the normalization of degrading behavior—and the willingness to celebrate it. How did we get to a point where such language earns applause instead of condemnation? When audiences cheer a president’s vulgarity, they do more than excuse it: they help sustain a political culture that turns disrespect into entertainment and treats the humiliation of women as an applause line.
1 CommentComment on Facebook
it's not normal. nothing about trump is normal
