Day: September 9, 2026

Briefings

Background Briefing: September 9, 2026

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Pressure on Netanyahu from MbZ Revealing His Warning About the Hamas Attack Was Ignored and Sanctions by the UK, Canada and France on Trade With Settlements

We begin with mounting pressure against Netanyahu’s reelection coming from a former ally MbZ, the head of the UAE, who revealed he warned the Israeli Prime Minister about the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 which Netanyahu did not inform his military and intelligence chiefs about, along with sanctions announced by the UK, Canada and France banning trade with settlements. Joining us is Steven Simon, who served on the National Security Council staff as senior director for Middle Eastern and North African affairs and also worked on the NSC staff on counterterrorism and Middle East security policy. He is currently a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a Distinguished Fellow and professor of political science at Dartmouth College and is the co-author, among other books, of The Age of Sacred Terror, and his latest book is Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East.

Trump’s War on History Targets the First African-American and First Historian to Head the Smithsonian

Then guest host Anna Leah examine Trump’s war on history and how his attacks have impacted the Smithsonian to the point the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie Bunch, who was the first African American and the first historian to head the world’s largest museum, education and research project, was forced to resign. Joining Anna is Georgetown University history professor Chandra Manning, the co-founder of Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian, a volunteer organization that has documented the Smithsonian displays in New York, Washington DC, and several traveling exhibitions. She has written two books about the Civil War, exploring soldiers’ changing opinions about slavery and emancipated people’s contributions to the war.