Welcome to the Dispatch Podcast. This is Jamie Weinstein. My guest today is Ben Judah.

Ben is the director of the Transform Europe Initiative and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's

Europe Center.

He also is a journalist who has just returned from Saudi Arabia a couple weeks ago,

where he wrote about the kingdom and how it is dealing with the regional conflict that's going on over

there or the threat of regional conflict after the outbreak of the Israel-Gazah War.

So we get in all those issues about what is going on in Saudi Arabia and

the region and how they view Israel's fight against Hamas and Gaza. But we also

discuss with Ben what is going on in Europe where he is from and has written about in books like this is Europe and this is London, about what is the future of Jews in Europe with the outbreak of anti-Semitism we have seen in that region.

So we get into all those issues and many more

and what I think will be a very interesting podcast

for the dispatch followers.

But without further do, I give you Mr. Ben Judah. And then judo,

judo, welcome to the discussion podcast.

Thank you for having me.

I wanted to have you on because I read that you were in Saudi Arabia and you wrote a couple

pieces from there but you also cover Europe you're from Europe Jews in Europe as a

subject that you're familiar with so I think you are a perfect guest kind of for the moment we are in.

But let's start in Saudi Arabia and maybe discuss when you were there,

why were you there, whether the plan was to be there during what has

it gone on in the region or that just happened to be a byproduct of the

moment in time that you plan the trip and what occurred on October 7.

...