The Bottom Line

Jan 31 2025 100 ep. 24 mins 1.3k
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A weekly take on US politics and policies and how they affect the world.

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Mearsheimer: ‘The Israelis lost in Gaza’ | The Bottom Line

Jan 31 2025 24 mins  
Despite the rhetoric, US President Donald Trump will not be able to ethnically cleanse Gaza nor resolve the Ukraine war, argues University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer. Mearsheimer tells host Steve Clemons that Arab governments fear “the risk of being overthrown by their populations” should they bend to Trump’s desire to “clean out” the Palestinian peop

What role do US tech giants play in powering Israeli war crimes? | The Bottom Line

Apr 28 2024 24 mins  
After Amazon and Google signed a $1.2bn contract to launch Project Nimbus, providing cloud technology to the Israeli government and the military, tech workers started to notice more Israeli use of artificial intelligence against the Palestinian people.Many of those engineers have become activists for “No Tech for Genocide”, including Zelda Montes, who was one of the dozens of G

US calls for ‘de-escalation’, but tensions rise in the Middle East | The Bottom Line

Apr 21 2024 24 mins  
In this episode, host Steve Clemons speaks with Ussama Makdisi, professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley; and Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.The exchange of direct attacks between Iran and Israel is likely to subside, but the shadow war goes on, which could intensify as long as the war on Gaza continues, argues Vaez.And as lo

Does Israel twist humanitarian law to justify Gaza carnage? | The Bottom Line

Apr 11 2024 24 mins  
To the United Nations official tasked with reporting on Palestinian human rights, international law is clear: Israel should withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967.Instead, Israel aims for the “impossibility to continue civil life in Gaza,” as UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese tells host Steve Clemons.Israel doesn’t den

How credible is US rhetoric on ‘policy change’ towards Israel? | The Bottom Line

Apr 07 2024 24 mins  
In this episode, Annelle Sheline tells host Steve Clemons that the contradictions in US policy toward Israel’s war in Gaza made her job as a State Department officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor “so difficult”. Sheline announced her resignation publicly on March 27.And Khaled Elgindy, a political scientist at the Middle East Institute, argues that US Pr

Biden’s 'double talk' on Gaza: Cynical election politics? | The Bottom Line

Mar 31 2024 24 mins  
The Biden administration has fallen into a predictable pattern on Gaza, according to Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch: Talk about concern for civilian casualties, but undercut any pressure on Israel to stop the war.Roth tells host Steve Clemons that US President Joe Biden is engaging in “cynical” election politics by refusing to enforce the UN resolution calling

Does Israel need to be forced by the US to end the war in Gaza? | The Bottom Line

Mar 24 2024 24 mins  
All of Israel’s modern wars have ended with US intervention, but the current war in Gaza has gone on for half a year because “Biden is a slow learner”, argues University of Pennsylvania political scientist Ian Lustick.Israel needs an outside power to blame when it cannot achieve its aims. “That's because the war aims are fundamentally political, and the military cannot achi

Professor Jeffrey Sachs: ‘US is complicit in Israeli genocide’ | The Bottom Line

Mar 17 2024 24 mins  
“Does the United States want to be complicit in genocide?” This is the question that US leaders should be asking themselves as Israel’s war on Gaza continues, argues Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs.Sachs tells host Steve Clemons that Israel could not continue “for one day” without US support, and the rhetoric from top Democrats criticising Israeli Prime Minist

Will Israel be allowed to continue its Gaza starvation strategy? | The Bottom Line

Mar 10 2024 24 mins  
US Senator Chris Van Hollen says it is time for the Biden administration to tell Israel, “If you continue to ignore us, there will be consequences.”Senator Van Hollen, who is one of seven senators (out of 100) to have called for a permanent ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, tells host Steve Clemons that Hamas’s surprise attack last year “does not justify the humanitarian

Will Biden reconsider his unconditional support for Israel? | The Bottom Line

Mar 03 2024 24 mins  
US policy on Israel “looks incoherent because it is incoherent,” argues Matt Duss, former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders, and this is making the United States look “feckless and weak”.Duss tells host Steve Clemons that Israel is violating US law by using US-supplied weapons while preventing humanitarian aid. But President Joe Biden “has simply taken the tools of levera