Hi, everyone. Welcome to tonight's Firelight Chat. Tonight we're going to be talking about

Israel and Palestine, and you will meet two of my friends and trusted advisors, Omar

Baudar and Josh Lockman. Omar Baudar is a Palestinian-American political analyst based

in Washington, D.C. He has served in senior positions at leading Palestinian-American

and Arab-American organizations, where his work focused on United States policy towards

Palestine and Israel. He has participated in dozens of panels, lectures and debates on

college and university campuses throughout the U.S. His media appearances include the BBC,

MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Sky News, Voice of America, and other outlets, and his writings have appeared

in Salon, Newsweek, Huff Post, The Daily Beast, and other platforms. Josh Lockman is the

Director of Strategic Initiatives at J Street, a progressive Jewish organization, and has

been actively involved in local and international policies and the Middle East policy arena.

He has also taught international law and U.S. foreign policy at USC Law School since 2011.

Josh has appeared on CNN, BBC, and other media outlets regarding U.S. foreign policy in the

Middle East, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He earned his JD from USC Law School in

2008 and his BA from Yale University in 2004. I hope this is a meaningful conversation for you

as it was for me, whether Israel and Palestine is a subject you're already deeply involved in

or whether it's something you don't know much about at all. I hope that our Firelight chat tonight

elements are understanding. Thanks. So Josh and Omar, thank you both so much for being here. I'm

very grateful. Thank you so much, man. Thank you. So we want to take as deep a dive as possible

into the situation in the Middle East, the Israelis, the Palestinians, and particularly what

should be the role of the United States, and obviously here for obvious reasons, the role of

the American presidency. So Omar, if we could start with you, give us a little overview.

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