Al Jazeera Podcasts.

Today, Jeffrey Epstein was trying to reshape the Middle East.

All the people that fell into his web, they were all essentially commodities to him, traded for

the advantage of one single cause, which is Israel.

How a convicted sex offender leveraged his money and contacts to advance Israel's agenda

and his own.

I'm Kevin Horton, and this is The Take.

Today's episode zooms in on an overlooked part of the Epstein Files.

We're looking at how he worked as a middleman and sometimes almost like a diplomat,

securing connections and businesses between powerful players. Different governments, different interests. Before we continue,

tell us what angle of this monumental affair you think we should look at next. We're always looking

for your input. If you enjoyed this perspective, don't forget to rate the show five stars. It helps tremendously.

I'm Craig Mokaiber. I'm an international human rights lawyer and analyst, served for over three decades at the United Nations and stepped down from my post at the UN headquarters in New York in October of 2023, and we are speaking from New York.

Okay, so Craig, thank you for coming on the take, and it's really great to have you on the show today.

But before we drill down on Epstein and Israel specifically, I did want to introduce you a bit

to our audience. So can you just tell me a little bit about the work that you did for the UN?

Sure. Well, I spent more than three decades at the United Nations with postings and missions in countries around the globe,

including, by the way, in Palestine, where I undertook several human rights missions.

But my final post before stepping down in October of 2023 was as director of the human rights office at United Nations headquarters in New York.

And you made headlines on October 28, 2023, and that there was just three weeks into Israel's genocide on Gaza, when you wrote a resignation letter to the UN High Commission for Human Rights.

In it, you said the United Nations was failing in its duty to prevent the genocide.

I would say that three years later, that counts as prescient.

...