On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and conducted the largest pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust. The next day, Hezbollah began to rain missiles from southern Lebanon on Israel’s northern communities. Officials at the UN, other transnational organizations, various non-governmental organizations, and media platforms — AKA the “international community” — has responded to this Iran-backed terrorism mostly by aiding and abetting the terrorists and attacking Israel with a campaign we’ve come to call “lawfare.”

Host Cliff May is joined by two leading international law practitioners and experts: Natasha Hausdorff of UK Lawyers for Israel and FDD senior fellow Orde Kittrie.

The theocrats in Tehran have surrounded Israel with proxies — a “ring of fire,” as it’s being called. The regime’s nuclear weapons development program has made progress, too. And so has its development of the missiles that could deliver these nuclear weapons to targets anywhere in the world.

Plus: the regime has made common cause with Communist China, neo-imperialist Russia, and the dynastic dictatorship in North Korea: an “axis of aggressors,” as it’s being called.

For an update on Iran, its rulers, its proxies, its subjects, its victims, host Cliff May is joined by his FDD colleagues Mark Dubowitz and Reuel Marc Gerecht.

Twenty-three years ago, al Qaeda terrorists hijacked passenger jets to use as missiles and crash two into the World Trade Center in New York City and one into the Pentagon. United Airlines Flight 93 – thanks to brave passengers onboard – crashed into an open field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

These attacks came as a shock and a surprise.

But they shouldn’t have — particularly to the American intelligence community, professors of Middle East and Islamic studies at elite universities, the news media.

To unpack why and discuss the threats facing America and other democratic societies all these years later, host Cliff May is joined by his FDD colleagues Hussain Abdul-Hussain and Jonathan Schanzer.

General Randy A. George is the 41st Army Chief of Staff, making him a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest ranking officer in the U.S. Army. He enlisted in the Army decades ago, has commanded at all levels, and deployed to war multiple times.

What are America’s adversaries up to, and what lessons can be drawn from the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East? How is the character of war changing, and what is he doing to ensure that the U.S. Army is ready to deploy, fight, and win?

To find out, Bradley Bowman — senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power and guest host — went to the Pentagon to ask the general.

Before Matt Pottinger was a reporter in China, he served as a U.S. Marine, deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He then spent four years in senior roles on the White House National Security Council, including as senior director for Asia, and deputy national security advisor. Now, he’s a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and he’s Chairman of FDD’s China Program. And he’s the editor of a new book: “The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan.” He joins host Cliff May to discuss Xi Jinping’s Stalinist efforts to usher in “the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation” — and its possible consequences for Taiwan.

Taiwan is a vibrant democracy in the western Pacific just east of Communist China where Xi Jinping, the most powerful Chinese ruler since Mao Zedong, is the decider. His intentions toward Taiwan are imperialist and predatory. But it’s not just Taiwan that is in his crosshairs — he also seeks to displace the United States as the preeminent global power.

An FDD delegation led by RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, Craig Singleton, and Cliff May recently visited Taiwan. They discuss their visit and what Taiwan is doing to defend its homeland and its freedom.

Growing up a religious Muslim in Saudi Arabia, Loay Ahmed Alshareef believed that Jews descended from pigs and apes and Israelis lived on stolen land. Later in his twenties, he went to study abroad in France where his homestay family turned out to be… Jewish.

Despite initially contacting his school to be moved, he stayed put. Eventually his views evolved and he became a “proud Muslim Zionist.”

Loay joins FDD’s Hussain Abdul-Hussain and host Cliff May to discuss the ancient roots of antisemitism, its modern application on college campuses, how it fuels the war on Israel being waged by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies, why Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to reform Saudi Arabia could make the Kingdom ripe for peace with Israel and more.

In response to an attack last weekend that killed 12 Israeli children playing soccer in the Golan Heights, a top Hezbollah commander was killed in Beirut. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was also killed this week in Tehran. In response to the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist leaders meeting their demise, Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei threatened “severe punishment,” while Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah suggested he wants “a real response, not a performative response.” The region is teetering on the brink of a major escalation.

To discuss the events that unfolded this week and what could happen next, senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power and guest host Bradley Bowman is joined by his FDD colleagues Jonathan Schanzer and Behnam Ben Taleblu.

Daniel N. Hoffman spent decades as an officer in America’s “clandestine services.” He was a station chief in Moscow and Baghdad, and he was chief of the CIA's Near East Division. He also did a tour of duty in South Asia. He’s now a Fox News contributor and a columnist for the Washington Times where host Cliff May writes the weekly “Foreign Desk” column.

They discuss some of the many conflicts and crises underway, including Russia's illegal war in Ukraine and Israel's defensive war in Gaza.

When we talk about ‘hostage diplomacy’, it’s almost like we’re normalizing and legitimizing hostage-taking and admitting that American policy is not to deter hostage-taking or punish hostage-takers but simply to manage the criminals’ demands for ransom and the release of their terrorists and other rewards – and to do it with respect and civility.

Vladimir Putin is among the autocratic world leaders who understand how much benefit – and how little risk – is involved in taking hostages from countries that respect international law and then offering to trade them for something or someone he wants. 

Since March of last year, his regime has incarcerated and just sentenced to 16 years in prison Evan Gershkovich, a fully accredited foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, on what are obviously baseless and bogus charges.

But Putin also is holding another American journalist: Alsu Kurmasheva with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 

Her husband, Pavel Butorin, also an RFE/RL journalist, joins host Cliff May and his FDD colleague Rich Goldberg to tell her — and his — story.