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

me and Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the

news. We'll begin with Israel's security cabinets, approval of a plan to capture Gaza in an

offensive that Prime Minister Netanyahu says will be intensive about which the finance

minister Smotrish says, quote, we are finally going to occupy the Gaza script and we will stop being

afraid of the word occupation.

Joining us is Dr. Gai Ziv, a professor in the Department of Foreign Policy and American

University School of International Service and Associate Director of the Melsa Schwartzburg

Center for Israel Studies, where he teaches courses on U.S.-Israel relations,

the Israeli-Palestinian peace, 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 assess whether Trump wants to repeal the 20th century or whether he is following

the plan of the ideologues and oligarchs

who backed his re-election.

Joining us is Paul Blumenthal, a senior reporter with the Huffington Post's politics team

based in Washington, D.C.

He covers courts, elections, political economy and political history.

...