Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the withdrawal from the war cabinet by two Israeli army generals

and former chiefs of staff of the Israeli Defence Force,

Gaddy Eisencott and Benny Gantz, the leader of the opposition.

We'll discuss how Netanyahu's governing coalition faces more calls for elections and threats from hard-line right-wing ministers, while U.S. Secretary of State Blinken makes his eighth visit in eight months to push for a ceasefire, which the hardliners will not support.

Joining us from Israel is Haggai Matar, an award-winning Israeli journalist and political

activist.

He is executive director of the 972 magazine.

Then we'll look into the results of the European Union parliamentary elections in which

the fear of a right-wing sweep did not materialize, although Francis

Marine Le Pen got 31% of the vote compared to Macron's 14%.

And the far-right AFD, alternative for Deutschland in Germany, made gains, as did the Freedom Party

in Austria.

Joining us is Daniel Kellerman, McCourt Chair at the School of Public Policy at Georgetown University as well as Professor of Law at Georgetown Law, the author of Eurolegalism,

the transformations of law and regulation in the European Union, and the rules of federalism, institutions and regulatory politics in the EU and beyond.

He is the senior associate in the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for

Strategic International Studies and a member of the Executive Committee of the European Union Studies

Association.

Then finally we get an update on whether there will be an end to the war in Ukraine

ahead of next week's peace conference in Switzerland, at which China will not be there because

Putin was not invited and Saudi Arabia won't attend because China is not going. Joining us is

...