Decision Points

In this special episode, recorded live as a Washington Institute Policy Forum, host David Makovsky sits down with leading Israeli experts Tamar Hermann, Yaakov Katz, and Amit Segal to discuss the stakes in Israel's first election since Hamas's October 7th attacks, the Gaza war, and the start of the 2026 Iran war. What are Israeli voters' main priorities? What will drive the wrangling over forming a new governing coalition? And what will the showdown between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot mean for Israel’s democracy, its relationships with its regional neighbors and Europe, and the U.S.-Israel special relationship? Prof. Tamar Hermann is one of Israel’s leading pollsters. She is a senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and the academic director of its Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research.Yaakov Katz is an Israeli-American author and journalist, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, and the co-founder of the Middle East-America Dialogue. He is a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, where he is now a columnist.Amit Segal is chief political analyst for Israel’s Channel 12 News, the anchor of Channel 12’s “Meet the Press” show, and a columnist for the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent polling shows that U.S. public opinion on Israel has plunged to historic lows after the grueling two-year war in Gaza and amid the unpopular U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Is American public support for Israel undergoing a fundamental shift, or is the current backlash temporary? What role will changing American public attitudes toward Israel play in the midterm elections and in U.S. Middle East policy moving forward?Host David Makovsky sits down with veteran Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg and former senior Trump National Security Council official Victoria Coates to go beyond the numbers, understand why so many Americans have soured on today's Israel, and explain what can be done.Victoria Coates served in 2019-20 as deputy national security advisor for the Middle East and North Africa and served earlier in the first Trump administration as senior director for strategic communications at the National Security Council. She is the vice president of the Heritage Foundation’s Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy.Stanley Greenberg is a New York Times best-selling author and a polling adviser to presidents, prime ministers, and CEOs worldwide. He was the senior pollster for President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, as well as for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, South African President Nelson Mandela, and Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Barak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Almost three years after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on Israel, the Palestinian jihadist group has been battered but not destroyed. Hamas has consolidated its control over the most densely populated portion of Gaza. Meanwhile, President Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza remains stalled, and Israel holds the bulk of the Strip. U.S. presidential envoy Jared Kushner recently met directly with Hamas leaders, even as the new Board of Peace is struggling to make progress toward Hamas's disarmament and Gaza's reconstruction. Will Hamas really disarm, or is it just stalling? Could Hamas ever transform itself into a widely accepted Palestinian political party, as Turkey and Qatar urge? And is there a way toward a better new chapter for Palestinians in Gaza? Host David Makovsky sits down with former U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials, Matthew Levitt and Neomi Neumann, to discuss the future of Hamas and Gaza. Matthew Levitt is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute and the director of its program on counterterrorism and intelligence. He served in 2005-07 as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Neomi Neumann is an adjunct fellow at The Washington Institute. She formerly served as the head of the research unit at Israel’s Shin Bet domestic-security agency and with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The recent NATO summit in Ankara raised the already high temperatures between Israel and Turkey, two major regional powers. President Trump says he's considering selling U.S. F-35 stealth fighters to Turkey despite the opposition of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Israel and Turkey remain at loggerheads over Turkey's support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas even as Israel and Turkey compete for influence in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean. As Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jockey for favor with President Trump and face rising criticism from Congress, are two key American allies headed for a collision?Host David Makovsky discusses the increasingly tense Israeli-Turkish relationship with Tamir Hayman, a former head of Israel's military intelligence service, and James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Tamir Hayman, a major general in the reserves of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is executive director of the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank in Tel Aviv, Israel. He served as chief of the IDF's Intelligence Directorate from 2018-21. James F. Jeffrey is a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute and a former U.S. ambassador to both Turkey and Iraq. He served as U.S. special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in the first Trump administration and as a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Gaza war is over, but the misery on the ground continues. Reconstruction in the Gaza Strip has stalled; Hamas refuses to disarm; and the world's attention has moved on to the Iran war and other issues. Gaza remains bitterly divided: Hamas retains its grip on Gaza's densely populated coast, and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ​recently said that he had directed Israel's military to seize 70% of the strip. With President Trump's 20-point peace plan stalled, Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure appalling humanitarian conditions.Host David Makovsky sits down with former Palestinian Authority peace negotiator Ghaith al-Omari and American-Israeli security expert Shira Efron to discuss ways to make progress in postwar Gaza. Ghaith al-Omari is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute and a former advisor to the Palestinian Authority's negotiating team during the 1999–2001 permanent-status talks with Israel.Dr. Shira Efron is RAND Corporation's distinguished Israel policy chair and has also worked at Israel Policy Forum, the Center for American Progress, and other think tanks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.