Principal Research Associate, Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies
Principal Research Associate at the Institute for National Security Studies, and former Political Analyst at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, at Tel Aviv University in Israel
Israel Strikes Gaza for Third Day Israel's three days of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip is its most ferocious attack on Palestinians in decades, leaving some three hundred dead and more than six hundred wounded. Questions are being raised about whether Israel intends to launch a ground offensive as well. Israel is targeting Hamas strongholds to stop the Islamic Palestinian group from launching rockets into southern Israel. But the Gaza Strip is a tiny, densely crowded area, and civilians who live and work close to Hamas institutions have been caught in the fire. The International Red Cross has appealed that urgent humanitarian assistance be allowed to enter Gaza and tens of thousands of people have protested in the streets of Arab capitals. What role do upcoming parliamentary elections play in timing of Israel's military actions? How are Arab nations responding? What impact will the strikes have on the way President-elect Obama shapes his foreign policy agenda?
Israel Strikes Gaza for Third Day Israel's three days of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip is its most ferocious attack on Palestinians in decades, leaving some three hundred dead and more than six hundred wounded. Questions are being raised about whether Israel intends to launch a ground offensive as well. Israel is targeting Hamas strongholds to stop the Islamic Palestinian group from launching rockets into southern Israel. But the Gaza Strip is a tiny, densely crowded area, and civilians who live and work close to Hamas institutions have been caught in the fire. The International Red Cross has appealed that urgent humanitarian assistance be allowed to enter Gaza and tens of thousands of people have protested in the streets of Arab capitals. What role do upcoming parliamentary elections play in timing of Israel's military actions? How are Arab nations responding? What impact will the strikes have on the way President-elect Obama shapes his foreign policy agenda?
After Southern Lebanon, What about the Palestinians? UN Security Council Resolution 1701 stopped the fighting in southern Lebanon with the promise that France would help enforce it by leading a 15,000 member peacekeeping source. Today, the French newspaper Le Monde reported that France is scaling back to a "symbolic" contingent of 10 officers and 200 engineers. Meantime, as Hamas and the Palestinian Authority talk about forming a "unity government, there's a threat to dissolve all civil institutions and demand that Israel keep order in the West Bank and Gaza. Has the success of Hezbollah emboldened militants or will it lead to diplomacy in the region's oldest conflict? What about Israel's plan to pull out of the West Bank? We get an update from the UN and the Palestinian territories, where events have been out of the limelight because of the fighting in Lebanon.
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.