The And then. Hello and welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood in a profanation of

all its holy, three guests in three segments today. We'll hear from Treta Parsi

of the Quincy Institute on the global implications of the

war in Gaza, from the veteran national security journalist James Bamford on Israel's spying

and US universities, and from Alberto Tosano on fascism today.

Time is tight, so straight into it.

My first guest is Trita Parsi,

Executive Vice President to the Quincy Institute

for Responsible Statecraft, and an expert in Middle Eastern politics.

He was born in Iran, but his family moved to Sweden to escape political repression.

His father had the distinction of being jailed by both the Shah and the Ayatollah.

He's got several books to his name, most recently losing an enemy, Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy,

published in 2017 by Yale University Press. Here he is to talk about the global

political context of Israel's war on Gaza. Treta Parsi. What is your

understanding of why the US is so steadfast in its support of Israel. It's not doing any favors to our

international standing. The old Cold War varieties about communism and Arab

nationalism seem totally obsolete now. So how do you read this unquestioning support of everything Israel does?

It is really difficult to understand it because I cannot identify any compelling

national security interests being at stake here that would justify the position the U.S. has taken.

On the contrary, the cost, as you mentioned to the U.S's global standing is massive.

I mean the United States was taking understandable pleasure in how Russia isolated itself

through its invasion of Ukraine and how in many ways it gave a major boost to the idea of

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