113: Will dumping Israel backfire on the Democrats? A conversation with Hussein Mansour

Ask Haviv Anything

Haviv Rettig Gur

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4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

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The Democratic Party is choosing party unity on Israel by ceding ground almost entirely to the anti-Israel wing. Hussein Mansour returns to the podcast to break down how this retreat of the Democratic center mirrors the DEI takeover a decade ago and other historic leftist collapses in history to a more radical wing. His analysis suggests that the shift is irreversible, that centrist Democrats will soon find themselves conceding more, and that this could have very bad consequences for the party going forward. From Fanon to Hasan Piker, inter-elite power struggles to the future of American power projection — this is a must-listen warning about the high cost of feeding the tiger you hope to ride.

There are few if any publications like SAPIR, the quarterly journal of Jewish ideas edited by Bret Stephens from the New York Times. You might remember we've hosted a number of people on the show to talk about topics they've written about for SAPIR: Coleman Hughes, for instance, about antisemitism in the African-American community, Alana Newhouse about why Zionism is useful to all. It's a beautiful publication not only in its content but in its physical appearance, and if you live in the United States you can receive it in print absolutely free. They won't even ask for your payment information.

If you sign up now you'll receive the forthcoming issue on the theme of America, in honor of this year's semiquincentennial (250th birthday). Lots of excellent stuff in this issue about the current political crises in both the Democratic and Republican parties, the decline of education, particularly history education, in the U.S., and tangible suggestions for America as it turns 250. If you want to start receiving this excellent publication 100% free, go to https://sapirjournal.org/AskHavivAnything.

Thank you to SAPIR for sponsoring this episode.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody. Welcome to a new episode of Ask, Kaviv, Anything.
0:08.3	I'm very excited to tell you to my guest today is Hussein Abu Bakr Mansour.
0:12.5	It's his third time on the podcast.
0:15.2	Hussein, as listeners will know, is originally from Egypt.
0:18.2	He is now a fellow at Jinta, the Jewish Institute for National
0:21.3	Security of America. He's an expert in Arab political thought on shifts within Islamist
0:27.3	movements and Islamist thought. His analyses, I have to tell you, run deep. They deal with
0:33.4	fundamental things about how the West, especially the United States, needs to think about
0:38.4	the Middle East and about the Muslim world.
0:40.2	He has a new article on his substack called the Abrahamic Metacritique.
0:44.3	That's the name of the substack.
0:45.5	This is a short article, and it's what we're going to talk about today, about the current
0:49.3	state of the Democratic Party stance on Israel, about how and why it chose to break with Israel totally. That is his
0:57.7	argument. And he explains that the Democratic Party is breaking from Israel as a kind of structural
1:04.0	surrender to a whole ideological movement coming in from the radical left and that it won't
1:09.6	stop there. We're going to talk about it.
1:12.0	It's really, really fascinating. Before we do that, I just want to tell you a word from our
1:16.7	sponsor. Very grateful to Saper, both as a subscriber and also for their sponsorship.
1:23.2	There are a few, if any, publications like it. It's the quarterly Journal of Jewish Ideas edited by Brett Stevens from the New York Times.
1:30.1	You might remember that we've hosted a number of people on the show to talk about topics they've written about.
1:34.9	Force appear, Colming Hughes, for example, about anti-Semitism in the African American community,
1:40.1	Alana Newhouse, about why Zionism is useful to everybody, why it's an interesting new way to frame the crises of modern life in the west it's a beautiful publication not just in content but also in physical appearance
	...

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