Hello and welcome to background briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with how Netanyahu has humiliated Biden and Blinken and boxed in Kamala Harris

to support Israel's war on Gaza and Lebanon now that the Israeli Prime Minister is suddenly

popular, having assassinated Hezbollah's Nasrallah and possibly Hamas Sinwa.

Joining us is Aaron David Miller, a Middle East analyst and negotiator, who is a senior fellow

at the Canadian Doundment for International Peace, focusing on U.S. foreign policy.

He has been an advisor to six secretaries of state, and under President Clinton, he served as

the Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator for Arab-Israeli negotiations. His books include The Much

Too Promised Land, America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli peace, and his latest, The End of

Greatness, Why America Can't Have and Doesn't Want Another Great President.

Then we'll examine the indictments of the Mayor of New York City with a focus on the

kleptocratic state of Turkey, in which Erdogan in his cronies have pocketed billions while

throwing chump change to Eric Adams.

Joining us is David Phillips, a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University,

a visiting scholar at Oxford University, and the former director of the Peace Building and Rights

Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University.

A former senior advisor and foreign affairs expert to the United States Department of State

during the administrations of Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama,

he chaired the Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission

and the Track 2 program in Turkey and the Caucasus.

And his books include Unsilencing the past,

...