Since Hamas viciously killed more than 1,200 Israelis, unleashed brutal sexual assaults, and dragged away some 240 hostages, global focus has increasingly turned to the situation in Gaza as Israel tries to destroy Hamas and force the hostages’ release. But the war still has profound effects within Israel amid continuing rocket attacks, mass evacuations, military call-ups, advocacy for hostages, and grief for those killed on October 7th. Helping us understand wartime life for Israelis are three Israeli-American journalists: TV correspondent Nicole Zedeck of i24 and freelance reporters Michele Chabin and Hillel Kuttler. Moderating the discussion is Dr. Ken Stein, the CIE President and Emory University Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern history and political science.
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President Trump’s Executive Order Promising U.S. Protection for Qatar, 2025
President Trump issued a presidential order placing Qatar under the military protection of the United States. He did not submit his policy for U.S. Senate ratification, as would be necessary for the staying power of a treaty. The U.S. had never offered such protection to an Arab country, let alone one that sits across the Persian Gulf from Iran. The action was viewed as a direct response to Israel’s intrusion into Qatar’s sovereignty three weeks earlier in a failed attack on Hamas leaders in Doha. But the order might have been a step toward including Qatar in the Abraham Accords. And Qatar is potentially a key funder in rebuilding the Gaza Strip.
College Syllabus: “Israeli Culture and Society: 1880-Present”
“Israeli Culture and Society: 1880-Present” Eli Sperling, Emory University, Spring/Fall 2019 Upon its inception, Zionism needed more than political and financial solutions to actualize a Jewish home in Palestine. It was necessary for the architects…
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“Zionism: Ideology and Practice in the Making of a Jewish State” Scott Abramson, UCLA, Winter 2020 This course tells the biography of Zionism. Uniting social, intellectual, cultural and political history, it exhibits its subject in…
CIA Director George Tenet’s Israeli-Palestinian Ceasefire and Security Plan, June 2001
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Trump-Netanyahu News Conference, September 2025, “The Promise of a New Middle East Is So Close”
President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu explain their expansive vision for a peaceful Middle East through the implementation of a 20-point U.S. plan to end the Gaza war with the support of many Arab and Muslim countries.
Trump Plan to End Gaza War, September 2025
A comprehensive U.S. plan to end the Hamas-Israel war is unveiled eight days before the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
#151 Contemporary Readings September 2025
Maya Rezak and Ken Stein, September 30, 2025 Oded Ailam, “Hostages, Rival Clans, and Empty Promises: The Next Middle East Flashpoint,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, September 30, 2025. Neil Bar and Harel Chorev Halewa,…
Donna Robinson Divine, “Politics and Society in Ottoman Palestine: The Arab Struggle for Survival and Power”
Divine, Donna Robinson, Politics and Society in Ottoman Palestine: The Arab Struggle for Survival and Power, Lynne Reinner Publishers, Boulder, 1994, pp. 191-215 (with author’s permission, September 2025) This is a rigorous analysis of the struggles of…
