Background Briefing: March 26, 2024

Is Israel Becoming a Strategic Liability For the United States?

We begin with the growing rift between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu and get an analysis of whether there could be a foreign policy shift beyond the immediate difficulty of dealing with an arrogant leader who is invested in continuing a war in order to stay out of prison. Joining us to discuss the broader strategic issues involved in the currently tense relationship with Israel is Jon Hoffman, a policy analyst in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute and a professor at George Mason University specializing in Middle East geopolitics and political Islam. He was recently awarded the “40 under 40” award from the Middle East Policy Council for his work on U.S. foreign policy in the region, and his work has been featured in Middle East Policy, Open Democracy, The Cipher Brief and Foreign Policy Magazine. He has an article at Foreign Policy, “Israel Is a Strategic Liability for the United States: The special relationship does not benefit Washington and is endangering U.S. interests across the globe.”

 

Today’s Oral Arguments Before the Supreme Court on a Nationwide Ban of a Medicated Abortion Drug

Then we look into today’s oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the efforts by a small group of anti-abortion fanatics, backed by bogus unscientific claims, who have managed to get the Supreme Court to consider banning a drug that has been on the market for over 20 years and is safer than Tylenol. Joining us is Michele Goodwin, a O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and Co-faculty Director of the O’Neil Institute at Georgetown University. She is the host of the popular podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin, at Ms. magazine and is the author of a number of books, most recently, Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood. In 2018 she was bestowed the Sandra Day O’Connor Legacy Award by the Women’s Journey Foundation.

 

After Today’s Trading, Trump’s Essentially Worthless Company is Suddenly Worth $15 Billion?

Then finally we speak with Jay Ritter, the Cordell Eminent Scholar in the Department of Finance at the University of Florida. Known as “Mr. IPO” for his work on initial public offerings, he previously served as president of the Financial Management Association and we discuss today’s mania on Wall Street with the public offering on Trump’s essentially worthless Media and Technology Company under the ticker DJT (Trump’s initials) suddenly being worth up to $15 billion in market capitalization.