Month: July 2024

Briefings

Background Briefing: July 31, 2024

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With Assassinations in Tehran and Beirut, Netanyahu Taunts Iran and Hezbollah to Bring It On

We begin with the assassination of Hamas’s top negotiator by a missile in Tehran where Ismail Haniyeh was attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president. We discuss the almost certainty Israel was behind the assassination along with the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut who was the right hand of the leader of Hezbollah and assess how much Netanyahu is taunting Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis to “bring it on” in a regional war with Iran and its proxies. Joining us is Nader Hashemi, the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. A Non-Resident Fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now, he is the author of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future and Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East.

 

The Arrest of 9 IDF Soldiers by Military Police For Gang Rape of Palestinian Prisoners 36 of Whom Have Been Tortured to Death

Then we go to Israel to speak with Haggai Matar, an award-winning Israeli journalist and political activist. He is the executive director of +972 Magazine and we dicuss the detention of 9 IDF soldiers by military police for the gang rape of Palestinian prisoners, 36 of whom have been tortured to death in a detention facility in the Negev desert. We discuss the demonstrations at the prison and the military court in support of the arrested soldiers by a right wing mob that included members of the Knesset. 

 

A Profile of Senator Mark Kelly as a Possible VP for Kamala Harris

Then finally we get a profile of Arizona’s Senator Mark Kelly who is on the short list of likely Vice Presidential nominees to be chosen by Kamala Harris before next Tuesday and speak with Jim Small, Editor In Chief of the Arizona Mirror, a non-profit newsroom in Phoenix that covers state and local politics and government. A native Arizonan, he has covered state government, policy and politics since 2004 and previously was the Executive Director and Editor of the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting as well as the Editor of the Arizona Capitol Times. We discuss his latest article at The Arizona Mirror, “AZ Dem Party endorses Mark Kelly for VP, urges Kamala Harris to pick him.”