Hamas

The Hashemite King’s Gambit

For decades, American policymakers have come to view the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as an indispensable ally in the Middle East, committing billions of taxpayer dollars to support Jordan's budget, economy, and military. Indeed, Jordan's Peace Treaty with Israel; its strategic position between Israel, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia; and its pro-American military and intelligence services remain critical to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
And yet, challenges inside this relationship are reaching alarming levels. From harboring one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists and inciting violence against Israel, to a member of its parliament facing charges for trafficking guns and gold into Israel, Jordan's recent behavior has U.S. policymakers considering their options.
Filling in for host Cliff May is Rich Goldberg, senior advisor at FDD. To discuss U.S.-Jordan relations, he's joined by FDD Senior Vice President for Research Jonathan Schanzer and Joe Truzman, research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal.

Israel’s Little Fires Everywhere

The Islamic Republic of Iran makes no effort to conceal its desire to wipe Israel off the map. Just this week, leaders called for the elimination of two major Israeli cities: Tel Aviv and Haifa. The regime in Tehran deploys a wide range of tools and proxies to achieve this end. The result was a series of low-level conflagrations over the course of the last several weeks, with Iranian proxies routinely attacking Israel both inside and just beyond its borders:
In Lebanon, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired more than forty rockets at Israel.
In Syria, the Iranian regime has deployed Shiite militias and military installations that Israel strikes with regularity.
In the West Bank, longstanding terror groups (and, now, some new ones) continue to attack Israel. The Palestinian Authority has essentially lost control, making the West Bank even more lawless and dangerous. Iran seeks to exploit this chaos.
In Gaza, the Hamas terrorist group routinely fires salvos of rockets into Israel — including about three dozen very recently.
All of this has been happening during the holy month of Ramadan, a period in which every year Iran has worked to stoke tensions and incite violence. This year has been no exception, with rioters at the Temple Mount throwing rocks and shooting fireworks at police.
Little fires everywhere. That’s what the Israeli Defense Forces saw this month. And from all appearances, the IDF has snuffed all of them out.
But there are no permanent victories in the Middle East — only permanent battles.
To discuss, FDD Senior Vice President for Research Jonathan Schanzer (filling in for host Cliff May) is joined by Brigadier General Jacob Nagel. He’s the former acting Israeli National Security Advisor under Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. He’s also a Senior Fellow at FDD.

From Malmo to Jerusalem

Jonathan Conricus was born in Jerusalem but grew up in Sweden. His family returned to Israel when he was 13 years old. A few years later he joined the Israeli Defense Forces, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and serving as the IDF’s international spokesman.
He joins Foreign Podicy host and FDD founder and president Cliff May to discuss his life, career, what it was like dealing with the journalistic herd, and – now that he’s retired from the military – opine on some of the Middle East’s many conflicts and controversies.
Also joining the conversation is Jonathan Schanzer, FDD’s senior vice president for research at FDD whose most recent book, Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War, challenges – and corrects – some of the major media’s inaccurate reporting on that conflict.

The Moment Israel Was Born

Israel is the world’s only Jewish-majority state and the only surviving and thriving Jewish community that remains in the Middle East.
Despite that — or, maybe, because of that — Israel has many enemies.
 You may think you know how this unique nation-state was born, but history, like science, is never settled. 
Jeffrey Herf, a Distinguished University Professor of Modern European History at the University of Maryland, has cast a fresh and scholarly eye on Israel’s origins, and turned his research into a new book: “Israel’s Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945 – 1949.”  
Today, he joins host Cliff May in FDD’s studio along with Jonathan Schanzer, FDD’s senior vice president who reviewed Professor Herf’s book for the Jerusalem Post.

Connecting the Dots from Tehran to Gaza

Israel’s latest armed conflict was with a group that calls itself Islamic Jihad, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ.
It’s supported, armed, and trained by the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
To learn more about this American-designated terrorist organization, how badly it was set back by the missiles of August, and what Iran’s rulers might do to build it back better, host Cliff May is joined by FDD Chief Executive Mark Dubowitz, who was in Israel during the three-day battle, and by FDD Senior Vice President for Research Jonathan Schanzer. Jon, who is also the author of Gaza Conflict 2021: Israel, Hamas, and Eleven Days of War, closely followed reporting on the fighting in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.

Turkey and America: Can This Marriage Be Saved?

Not so long ago, Turkey was widely regarded as the bridge between the Occident and the Orient, between Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East. Turkey separated mosque and state. Turkey was a NATO member. Turkey was economically dynamic despite not having oil. Turkey seemed to be democratizing.
That’s not how many of us see Turkey today under the increasingly authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Michael Doran is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and director of its Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. He’s served as a senior director on the National Security Council, a senior advisor in the State Department, and a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Pentagon. He has a doctorate from Princeton, and he’s the author of “Ike’s Gamble,” a thoughtful re-examination of the Suez Crisis of 1956.
FDD Senior Fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Middle Eastern specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, was, for some years, based in Turkey.
Reuel and Foreign Podicy host Cliff May agree with Dr. Doran on most issues — but not on Erdogan. They discuss the root of their disagreement in this episode.

Deal or No Deal: Confronting the Islamic Republic of Iran the Reagan Way

FDD experts have worked for more than a decade on the threat posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
As part of a multi-pronged strategy, FDD has shared nonpartisan research and analyses with policymakers, lawmakers, and the business community.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is slated to hold its first public hearing on the theocratic regime in more than two years with administration officials and top experts, and they have invited FDD’s Mark Dubowitz – who founded our Iran program – to testify as an expert witness.
He joins Foreign Podicy host Cliff May — along with FDD’s Rich Goldberg, who recently served on the National Security Council as the Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction; and FDD’s Toby Dershowitz who has played a significant role in shaping and messaging policies to counter the threats from Tehran — to discuss the impending Iran nuclear deal.

An Israel Briefing

Russia ravages Ukraine. China eyes Taiwan. North Korea prepares a nuclear test. And negotiations for a new — and worse — iteration of President Obama’s deeply-flawed Iran nuclear deal remain on life-support.  
The rules-based, American-led order is hanging in the balance — and although they weren’t granted a seat at the negotiating table, Israel currently faces a unique threat with a build-up of Iranian weapons at almost each of its borders.
Unlike with the Americans at the negotiating table, the theocratic regime in Tehran doesn’t want Israelis to submit — they want Israelis to perish. And also unlike the U.S., Israel takes this existential threat both literally and seriously.  
Inside its borders, meanwhile, there’s been new wave of terrorist attacks in recent weeks as tensions in Jerusalem again approach boiling.
All this as we reach the one-year mark since the Gaza conflict of 2021.
Filling in for host Cliff May, FDD Senior Vice President for Research Jonathan Schanzer (who literally wrote the book on last year’s conflict) is joined by Brigadier General Jacob Nagel — a Senior Fellow at FDD and former acting Israeli National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu (and who also contributed to the Hebrew edition of Jon’s book) — to discuss these and related issues.

Willful Blindness: Revisiting the 2021 Gaza War

In 2005, Israelis withdrew from Gaza – every soldier, every farmer, every synagogue, every grave. It was an historic land-for-peace experiment – and it failed.
In May, Hamas began firing missiles at Israeli cities, towns, and villages, sparking the fourth intense armed conflict since Hamas defeated Fatah and began ruling Gaza.
Many in the international media blamed Israel more than Hamas – despite the fact that it was Hamas that attacked; despite the fact that Hamas used human shields, a clear violation of international and U.S. law; despite the fact that Hamas’ intentions toward Israelis are openly and unambiguously genocidal.
Jonathan Schanzer, FDD’s senior vice president for research, a ground-breaking scholar of Middle Eastern affairs, has now produced the first and, so far, only book on this conflagration: Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus served as the international spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces during the fighting. Both join Foreign Podicy host Cliff May to discuss why Hamas fights and how Israel defends itself.

Israel’s Shield in the Sky

In May, Hamas leaders in Gaza — a territory from which Israelis withdrew in 2005 — launched more than 4,000 missiles at Israel, sparking an eleven-day conflict that would have been bloodier — on both sides — had the Israelis not been in possession of the Iron Dome, a marvel of engineering that intercepts and destroys short-range missiles before they can reach their intended victims. In other words, it is not a sword but a shield.
Last month, far-left House Democrats blocked a bill to keep the federal government operating until it was stripped of funds to help Israelis replenish interceptors for the Iron Dome.
A few days later, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer brought Iron Dome up as a stand-alone bill. There were 420 votes in favor and nine opposed.
To discuss these and related issues, Foreign Podicy host Cliff May is joined by Jacob Nagel, who has served in the Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli Defense Ministry, and the Prime Minister’s Office including as the head of Israel’s National Security Council and acting National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He headed the “Nagel Committee,” which was responsible for Israel’s decision to develop Iron Dome. He also led the negotiations and signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for U.S. military aid to Israel from 2018 to 2027. He’s currently a visiting professor at the Technion Aerospace Engineering Faculty and a senior fellow at FDD.
Also joining the conversation: Enia Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program as well as FDD’s National Security Network; and Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power.
Before joining FDD, Enia's work focused on strengthening U.S.-Israel relations including at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC); the Israel Allies Foundation; and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she served as a Middle East fellow.
Brad has served as a national security advisor to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. Prior to that, he was an active-duty U.S. Army officer, Black Hawk pilot, and assistant professor at West Point.

The UN’s Strange Obsession with Israel

An extraordinary number of organizations within the UN system spend most of their time, money, and energy demonizing and attempting to de-legitimize Israel — and claiming to defend Palestinians. 
Joining Foreign Podicy host Cliff May to talk about UNIFIL, UNRWA, the UNHRC, and several other organizations specifically committed to what is commonly – though perhaps not accurately – called the “Palestinian cause” are FDD research fellow Tony Badran; FDD research analyst David May; and Richard Goldberg senior advisor at FDD, and editor of a recently published FDD monograph, “A Better Blueprint for International Organizations,” to which all three contributed and which Rich edited.

Israel, Post-Bibi

For the past 12 years, Benjamin Netanyahu served as Israel’s prime minister, fighting wars and wars-between-wars against Hamas and Hezbollah; opposing President Obama’s attempts to propitiate Iran’s rulers who openly threaten Israelis with genocide; attempting to block blows from the United Nations, an organization that spends inordinate amounts of time and money slandering Israelis; engaging in palavers with Vladimir Putin who has now re-established Russia as a power in the Middle East; not convincing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to seriously negotiate with him; yet managing to establish Israeli diplomatic relations with a growing number of nations – including, under the Abraham Accords, Arab nations.
Netanyahu has now been replaced by a diverse coalition of his opponents – on both the right and the left and including an Arab/Muslim party.
How will the new gang cope with Israel’s multiple threats and challenges?
FDD senior vice president Jonathan Schanzer has just returned from the Holy Land. He joins Foreign Podicy host Cliff May for a wide-ranging discussion.

Eleven Days in May: The Latest Battle in the Long War Against Israel

The Islamic Republic of Iran provides Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad with rockets and other weapons, technology, training, and funding. Over 11 days in May, the two groups fired more than four thousand rockets at Israeli cities and villages.
President Biden supported Israel’s right to defend itself but, at the same time, his envoys in Vienna have been negotiating a return to President Obama’s Iran deal. Iran’s rulers want billions of dollars and other concessions in exchange for allowing America to rejoin a deal that at most slows their progress toward a nuclear weapons capability.
Since money is fungible, that means America will be helping fund Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as Hezbollah and Ansar Allah in Yemen.
Joining host Cliff May to discuss these developments are Lahav Harkov, Senior Contributing Editor and Diplomatic Correspondent of The Jerusalem Post; Jonathan Schanzer, FDD Senior Vice President; and Brad Bowman, Senior Director of FDD's Center on Military and Political Power.

Biden’s Mission to Realign the Middle East

President Biden has been eager to rejoin the deal that President Obama concluded with Iran’s rulers in 2015 and from which President Trump withdrew three years later.
The quarrel between advocates for, and critics of, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has been viewed as a disagreement over how best to prevent the theocrats in Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.
Michael Doran, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies dissent from that view. In Tablet, they’ve written a comprehensive analysis arguing that Mr. Biden intends to both enrich and empower Iran’s rulers – while simultaneously downgrading relations with Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Arab states, Israel, and other former friends (read their article here).
In other words, President Biden is attempting to establish a “new Middle Eastern order” — one that regards the Islamic Republic of Iran as America’s primary strategic partner in the region. They conclude also that President Biden has decided not to speak candidly about this dramatic change – which they call “The Realignment.”
As for latest kinetic battle between Israel and Hamas, they see that as an inevitable consequence of the Biden tilt toward Tehran. They discuss all this and more with Foreign Podicy host Cliff May.

Palestinians Head for the Polls – or Not

In the West Bank and Gaza, elections are not frequent occurrences. The last one was in 2006. Hamas, a terrorist organization opposed to a two-state solution and openly committed to Israel’s extermination, won a parliamentary majority. A Palestinian civil war followed.
A year later, Hamas ruled Gaza while the Palestine Liberation Organization held power in the West Bank. Attempts over the years since to reunite the two Palestinian factions have failed.
New elections are now scheduled – more or less. We’re hearing that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbasis now seriously considering a postponement. Till when? Who knows?
To discuss what’s going on and what it may mean for Palestinians, Israelis, the U.S. and other interested parties, host Cliff May is joined by FDD’s Jonathan Schanzer and Matthew Zweig.

The UN and the Illiberal International Order

With the defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945, the United States emerged as the strongest nation on earth. But rather than emulate hegemons of the past, American leaders envisioned a new and different world order.
Their goal was to organize an "international community," establish "universal human rights," and a growing body of "international law."
This project required new institutions, in particular the United Nations.
Three quarters of a century later, it requires willful blindness not to see that the UN and many other international organizations have become bloated and corrupt bureaucracies, increasingly serving the interests of despots.
To discuss what’s gone wrong and what might be done to prevent the UN and other international organizations from drifting further into the clutches of authoritarians host Clifford D. May is joined by Richard Goldberg, Orde Kittrie, and Emma Reilly.
Rich Goldberg is a Senior Advisor at FDD. Among his many government positions, Rich previously served as the Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the National Security Council, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to former Mark Kirk, both when Kirk was in the House and then the Senate. Rich is also an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. We thank him for his service.
Also joining is Orde Kittrie. He, too, is a Senior Fellow at FDD as well as a professor of law. He is a leading expert on nonproliferation law and policy, and an expert on international law, particularly as it relates to the Middle East. On lawfare, well, he wrote the book. Its title: Lawfare: Law as a Weapon of War. Orde served for over a decade in various legal and policy positions at the U.S. State Department. He was a lead US negotiator at the UN for the treaty on the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism and participated in drafting several UN Security Council resolutions.
Joining, too, is Emma Reilly who has worked in the field of human rights for almost 20 years. She joined the UN Human Rights Office in 2012. In 2013, she blew the whistle on an exceptional and dangerous policy: UN bureaucrats giving to the Chinese government the names of dissidents, including US citizens, who planned to engage UN human rights mechanisms. The bureaucracy’s response: To not fix the problem and to attempt to fire her instead.
All three join host Cliff May for this episode to discuss what happened and what, if anything, can be done moving forward to combat this high level of corruption.

War and Peace, and Wars Between Wars

In the past — at least in the past as we like to remember it — wars began with declarations and ended with surrenders or negotiated “peace agreements.”
In the real world — most emphatically in the real world of the 21st century — there are wars, and there are wars between wars.
Jacob Nagel, a senior fellow at FDD, served as head of Israel’s National Security Council. Before that, he served in the Israel Defense Forces, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
Bradley Bowman is senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). He has served as a national security advisor to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. He was also a U.S. Army officer, “Blackhawk” pilot, and assistant professor at West Point, from which he also graduated.
They join host Clifford D. May to discuss issues of war and peace — and the grey zone in between.
 
Subscribe to FDD's Foreign Podicy here on Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you enjoy listening to podcasts.
 
More from Cliff: https://www.fdd.org/team/clifford-d-may/ 
More from Jacob: https://www.fdd.org/team/jacob-nagel/ 
More from Brad: https://www.fdd.org/team/bradley-bowman/ 
More from FDD's Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP): https://www.fdd.org/projects/center-on-military-and-political-power/ 

Deal or No Deal

Following a lengthy period of incubation, President Trump has unveiled a plan intended to resolve the long-running Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Whether it can achieve that — whether such a goal is achievable any time soon — is worth an in-depth discussion. There’s no one better to have that conversation with than Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at FDD, who has written extensively on Palestinian politics and related topics.

Israel and the Fire Next Time

Israel is not always fighting a war but neither is it ever entirely at peace.
Most recently, a battle was fought in Gaza against Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group supported and instructed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Soon after, Israel hit threatening Iranian military installations in Syria.
To discuss Israel’s strategy for the battles and wars, present and future, Foreign Podicy host and FDD president Cliff May is joined by Gen. Jacob Nagel, a visiting fellow at FDD and a visiting professor at the Technion Aerospace Engineering Facility. In 2016 – 17, Gen. Nagel served as head of Israel’s National Security Council, and as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s National Security Advisor. He also headed the “Nagel Committee” which was responsible for Israel’s decision to develop the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Also joining the discussion is Jonathan Schanzer, FDD’s senior vice president for research who has written extensively about the Middle East in general and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in particular.

Whose Side is Turkey On?

Turkey is a NATO ally that claims also to be on the same side as the United States in the international fight against terrorism.
Nevertheless, has Turkey — under President Erdogan — become what is known as “a permissive jurisdiction for illicit and terror finance?”
A lawsuit leading to that conclusion has now been filed against a bank, partly owned by the Turkish government, on behalf of an American victim of terrorism and members of his family.
Foreign Podicy host Cliff May is joined by Jonathan Missner, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, in his first interview about this case. Jon is managing partner of Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner LLP and chair of the firm’s Global Practices and Corporate Strategy Groups. He’s also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Akyan Erdemir, a former member of the Turkish parliament, now a senior fellow at FDD, and Jonathan Schanzer, FDD’s senior vice president for research, also join the discussion — focusing on where Turkey is going, and the implications for the United States and Middle East.

Israelis stay the course

In the Middle East, elections are few, far between and rarely free and fair – except in Israel. After a tight, tough race, Benjamin Netanyahu has again been chosen by Israelis, positioning him to become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. FDD senior vice president Jonathan Schanzer was on the ground during the final days of the campaign. He joins host Cliff May to discuss the outcome and what lies ahead for Israel and the Middle East. 

Israel on the Brink, As Usual

Israeli elections are approaching, President Trump’s envoys are working on a new plan aimed at resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to threaten the Jewish state with annihilation.
To help make sense of these complex challenges, host Cliff May is joined by former Ambassador Daniel Shapiro and FDD Senior Vice President and expert on Palestinian politics Jonathan Schanzer. Prior toserving as U.S. envoy to Israel under President Obama from 2011 to 2017, Ambassador Shapiro worked on both the Hill and the National Security Council. He is currently a distinguished visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

In the Line of Fire: Human Shields

War is always going to be hell, but the laws of war are intended to make armed conflicts a little less hellish.
With that in mind, Congress recently passed—and the president signed—critical new legislation against the use of human shields: putting civilians in the line of fire to protect combatants. But more remains to be done.To discuss this war crime, host Cliff May is joined by FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz and FDD Senior Fellow Professor Orde Kittrie, who have been working long and hard to counter what Ambassador Nikki Haley told Cliff is “the most cowardly act you can imagine.”
 
From the episode:"Get Serious About Human Shields" by Mark Dubowitz and Orde Kittrie in The Wall Street Journal: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2018/08/23/get-serious-about-human-shields/
"Lawfare: Law as a Weapon of War" by Orde Kittrie (Oxford University Press, 2016: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/lawfare-9780190263577?cc=us&lang=en&
Cliff's interview with Ambassador Nikki Haley at FDD's National Security Summit (video and transcript): https://www.fdd.org/events/2018/08/28/fdds-national-security-summit-3/
Mark and Orde speaking at FDD's panel on Capitol Hill "Legal Implications Surrounding the Use of Human Shields" (video): https://www.fdd.org/events/2018/03/16/legal-implications-surrounding-the-use-of-human-shields/
More from Mark: https://markdubowitz.org/https://www.fdd.org/team/mark-dubowitz/
More from Orde: https://www.fdd.org/team/orde-kittrie/
More from Cliff: https://www.fdd.org/team/clifford-d-may/

Future Wars: a Conversation with H.R. McMaster

H.R. McMaster served as a U.S. Army officer for thirty-four years—including deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan—before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018. He then served as White House national security advisor. Now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, he also chairs the Board of Advisors at FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power.
He joins host Cliff May for a discussion about national security during a challenging and dangerous time—a time when the U.S. is threatened by a motley crew of rivals, adversaries and sworn enemies.

A Conversation with Ambassador Nikki Haley

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick was one of the visionaries who helped create the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies soon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Six years ago, FDD inaugurated an award in honor of the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — a statesman who vehemently opposed totalitarianism and resolutely defended American values.
 
This year, FDD’s Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Statesmanship Award was presented to Ambassador Nikki R. Haley who has brought a precise moral compass and a distinctly American voice to the United Nations. She sat down with FDD president and Foreign Podicy host Clifford D. May to discuss human rights, U.N. reform and other consequential national security issues we face today.
 
Resources:Woman of the world — Clifford D. May; The Washington Times
FDD’s National Security Summit featuring Ambassador Nikki Haley (Video available here; transcript available here)