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

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

We'll begin with Vice President Harris making news in a speech on Sunday in Selma, Alabama,

commemorating the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, at which she called for an immediate six-week

ceasefire in Gaza. Then in a clear rebuke of Netanyahu, on Monday she met in the Oval Office with

Benny Gantz, a member of the Three-Man War Cabinet, and essentially the leader of the opposition

in Israel. Joining us to discuss the reaction in Israel to strong pressure from the US for a ceasefire

and what amounts to leadership change is Dr. Gai Ziv, a professor in the Department

of Foreign Policy at American University School of International Service and Associate Director

of the Metzka-Swartzburg Center of Israel Studies, where he teaches courses on U.S.-Israel relations

and Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

He has worked in the United States Department of State on Capitol Hill

and for leading non-profit organizations that promote American involvement in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking,

and is the author of Why Hawks Become Doves, Shimon Peres, and Foreign Policy Change in Israel,

and his latest book is Netanyahu versus the generals, the battle for Israel's future.

Then we'll look into the role of the right-wing Supreme Court in appearing to go out of

its way to protect Trump in the ruling yesterday in the Colorado case and the delay in the

January 6th case, while the judge in Florida

seems to be bending over backwards to help Trump as the state case in Georgia flounders with the

prosecutor on trial. Joining us is Lawrence Douglas, the James Grosfeld Chair in Law

Jurisputence and Social Thought at Amherst College and a contributing opinion

writer for The Guardian. His latest book is Will He Go, Trump and the looming electoral meltdown

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