Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Backgroundbriefing.org. I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with an announcement by Hamas's political leader that it has accepted a ceasefire

deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar as Israel's Prime Minister and head of the IDF vowed to destroy

the remaining Hamas fighters in Rafa.

Joining us to discuss the impasse as Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire and Israel, a temporary

one, is Dr. Guy Ziv, a professor in the Department of Foreign Policy at American University

School of International Service and Associate Director of the Meltzer-Schwarzburg Center for Israel

studies where he teaches courses on U.S.-Israeli relations and Israeli-Palestinian

peacemaking. He has worked in the United States Department of State and 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 the possibility of a change in U.S.-Israeli Palestinian foreign policy

as a result of grassroots pressure from students and activists in the

way policy changed towards South Africa as the US changed course and stopped supporting the

apartheid regime. Joining us is Jeremy Surrey, who holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for

leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he's a professor of

history and public affairs. He's the co-host of the podcast, This is Democracy, and the author

and editor of a number of books, including The Impossible Presidency, the Rise and Fall of America's

Highest Office, Henry Kissinger in the American Century, and most recently civil wars by other means,

America's long and unfinished

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