Background Briefing: September 23, 2024
As Netanyahu Goads Hezbollah and Iran Into War, Biden and Harris Will be the Losers But Seem Helpless in Stopping the Escalation
We begin with intensifying Israeli attacks on Hezbollah that have prompted an exodus of civilians leaving southern Lebanon as fears of a wider war increase. Joining us to discuss why Biden and Harris are tied to Netanyahu and appear unable to stop a war that will hurt the VP’s election chances is Habib Battah, a New York and Beirut-based investigative journalist, filmmaker and founder of beirutreport.com. A contributor to The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera, Lebanon’s The Daily Star newspaper, and others, he has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 20 years and previously taught journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut and now teaches at St. Lawrence University in New York.
Trump and Vance Are Not Trying to Win Over Voters But Are Focused on Stopping the Democratic Vote and the Counting of Votes
Then we get an update on an election in which Trump is not trying to win over voters but rather has the MAGA Republican GOP focused on preventing Democrats from voting along with gumming up the works when it comes to counting the votes. Joining us is Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones and a reporting fellow at Type Media Center. He is the author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America and his latest book is Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It. We discuss his article at Mother Jones, “MAGA Republicans Pass New Election Rules in Georgia That Could Rig the State for Trump.”
An Analysis of the Quad Meeting of the PMs of Australia, India and Japan Biden Hosted
Then finally we look into the weekend’s Quad meeting of the Prime Ministers of Australia, India and Japan Biden hosted in Delaware and speak with Cleo Paskal, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies focusing on the Indo-Pacific region and the strategic implications of the intersection of geopolitical, geoeconomic, and geophysical change. She has briefed government departments of the United States, United Kingdom, the European Union, India and many others and she is the author of Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic, and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map. She has testified before Congress on Chinese influence operations in the Pacific Islands.