Background Briefing: January 28, 2020
Trump’s Take-It-Or-Leave-It Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan Without Palestinians
We begin with the final unveiling of the Middle East peace plan Trump has been promising as the deal of the century that Jared Kushner has been working on which was announced today in a White House ceremony attended by Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu. Joining us to talk about an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan without Palestinians is Lara Friedman the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace who was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer serving in Jerusalem and now briefs Members of Congress, Administration officials and others in the foreign policy/national security community. We will discuss the “take it or leave it” attitude Trump has towards the Palestinians warning them that this “could be the last opportunity” and the apparent compulsion of the Israeli right to humiliate the Palestinians, dismissing their claims for statehood and ties to their ancestral land with arrogant contempt. And while the fine print in Trump’s plan makes it clear that on every point and detail it is a win for Israel and a loss for the Palestinians, the most pernicious hidden detail is the land swaps. They are intended to kick out Israeli Palestinians who are Israeli citizens and have the third largest voting bloc in the Knesset, and incorporate them into a new rump Palestinian state to make Israel the pure Jewish state the settlers and right wing nationalists and their American Christian-Zionist backers consider to be God’s plan.
The Russians Will Elect Trump with No Holds Barred and No Expenses Spared
Then with more details in John Bolton’s book emerging that he shared his concerns with AG Barr about Trump’s coziness and financial deals with the Chinese and Turkish dictators Xi and Erdogan, we speak with Max Bergmann, the Director of the Moscow Project at the Center for American Progress who served as a member of the Secretary of State’s policy planning staff. He joins us to discuss Bolton’s concerns about Trump’s relationship with Putin and how every senator led by “Moscow Mitch” who votes against the conviction and removal of President Trump is giving a green light to another attack on U.S. Democracy by the Russians. But last time the Russians pulled their punches because they though Hillary Clinton would win. This time they will be all-in for Trump with no holds barred and no expense spared.
The Wounded Presidency and How Impeachment Shapes Foreign Policy
Then finally we speak with the historian Timothy Naftali, Professor of Public Policy and History at New York University and presidential historian at CNN who was the first director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. The co-author with Peter Baker, Jeffrey Engel and Jon Meacham of the new book “Impeachment: An American History”, he joins us to discuss his two-part series at Foreign Affairs, “The Wounded Presidency: How Impeachment Shapes Foreign Policy”.