Jewish Policy Center (Webinar Recordings – Audio Only)

Westerners who think the new government in Damascus will turn out to be moderate and willing to compromise with the west are kidding themselves, according to Middle East scholar Harold Rhode.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is the coalition of Sunni Islamist insurgent groups which overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December, toppling a Baathist dictatorship which ruled Syria for more than half a century. Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, who previously served as head of the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, is head of HTS as well as Syria’s new president.Jawlani is his nom de guerre; these days, he goes by his given name, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa.

Jawlani/Sharaa “doesn’t talk for Syria,” Rhode told a JPC webinar Thursday. “He talks for his terrorists.”

Rhode, who served as an advisor on the Islamic world in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1982 to 2010, characterizes HTS as “”al-Qaida in another form.”

There are two groups inside Syria’s complicated ethnic/political mosaic with a history of good relations with Israel: First, there is the Druze community, mostly in southern and western Syria near the Golan Heights and Lebanon, which is establishing, in large part, closer ties with Israel. Second are the Syrian Kurds, in particular the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF), a Kurdish-dominated militia that signed a peace treaty with the HTS government earlier this month.

A critical question is what the SDF will do with thousands of ISIS prisoners it has been guarding for almost a decade in the wake of the US-led military campaign against that group:Specifically, would the Kurds release a large number of violent, dangerous prisoners to curry favor with HTS?

Rhode doubts that would happen.

At 6:30 a.m. on October 7th, Ella Mor’s life was irrevocably transformed when she awoke to the reality that her two young nephews had hidden in a closet for many hours, after losing their parents. From that moment, she embarked on an unexpected journey – transitioning from a homeopath with a private clinic in Jaffa to a global advocate for Israel.

Ella’s lecture does not focus on the pain of October 7th but rather on the incredible inner strength that emerges in times of crisis – inner strength that emerged among the people of Israel.

Join us for an extraordinary conversation.

President Trump’s plan for Gaza was, not unexpectedly, shocking. UAE Ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, called it “difficult,” but said, “We’re all in the solution-seeking business, we just don’t know where it’s going to land yet. I don’t see an alternative to what’s being proposed. I really don’t.”

After a burst of negative reaction from Jordan and Egypt, they, along with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman met in Riyadh to talk about Gaza.

Join Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies to learn whether the Arab states have a plan – and, if so, how it works with Israel’s security needs and the determination of the US and Israel to uproot Hamas from the region.

The overthrow of Bashar Assad in Syria by the Jihadist-oriented HTS ended one horrifying chapter in Syrian history. It also fundamentally changes the Middle East both politically and militarily. The US, Turkey, Israel, and others – including Kurds, who live across various borders – face the worrisome possibility of the re-emergence of ISIS.

Join us as Dr. Mark Meirowitz, Professor of Humanities at SUNY Maritime College, and expert on Turkish foreign policy, discusses the complex elements of an evolving regional crisis that has rarely made it into the American media.

Since the rise of American industry after the Civil War, the titans of American business have wrestled with the very difficult question of how to deal with an increasingly powerful federal government. In his superb new book, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry, presidential historian Tevi Troy analyzes how titans of the corporate world, including John D Rockefeller and Henry Ford, dealt with government power and a growing administrative state.

In his book, Troy explains in detail how Rockefeller tried to keep the federal government at arm’s length, only to President Theodore Roosevelt break up his Standard Oil Company. Ford worked to persuade President Woodrow Wilson to stay out of World War I, lobbying so aggressively that at one point Wilson ejected him from the White House.

Ford, a fervent isolationist, fought hard to keep the United States out of World War II. But after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Ford became a strong supporter of the war effort even though he detested FDR. 

Speaking to a Jewish Policy Center webinar Thursday, Troy provided vivid images of a visit to a Ford plant by FDR and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to see firsthand how the company was contributing to the war effort. At one point, Ford found himself in the back seat of one of his vehicles, sandwiched uncomfortably in between FDR and Eleanor. 

In his book, Troy provides plenty of interesting stories and colorful detail about prominent business figures like Time magazine founder Henry Luce and Hollywood icon Lew Wasserman, a Democratic Party donor who nonetheless developed strong ties to Republican leaders as well.

While his book was published before Elon Musk’s all-out plunge into the 2024 campaign on behalf of Donald Trump, Troy said he was surprised by the “level of hatred” directed at Musk by the ideological left. He added that the “woke whiners” at The Washington Post who complain about efforts by the paper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, to distance it from the hard left, don’t seem to understand something important: that Bezos is tired of losing millions of dollars as a result of his paper’s plummeting circulation.

On October 7, 2023, the world witnessed events that significantly reshaped the security landscape in Israel and beyond. This webinar will delve into how Israelis perceive global dynamics and navigate the complex security challenges that have emerged in the aftermath. Join us as Dan Diker, President of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) discusses the minds set of Israel’s security and political establishment, as well as the society at large.

Hamas started the war against Israel long before 10/7. But Israel’s response since that date has delivered extraordinary blows to Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and the Iranian government. Iran’s proxy Bashar Assad has fallen to Turkish-supported, ISIS-aligned HTS. Russia has been removing military assets from Syria, while the US have been striking ISIS bases and Israel takes out Syrian weapons depots, including chemical weapons sites.

Is the continuing upheaval news or bad? Will it bring stability or more war?

David Daoud, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies will join us on what is – accidentally but fortuitously – Lebanon’s presidential election day.

There was a moment of relief that the murderous war criminal Bashar Assad was ousted. It was followed by awe at the IDF’s ability to deny the rebels Assad’s stocks of chemical weapons, Russian and Iranian military equipment, and air defense capabilities.

But then, the next round of worry started. Who does the “interim government” represent? (Hint: HTS and its leader are on the US & UK terror lists.) What role does Turkey play? How will Iran respond? What will happen to Israel’s friends, the Kurds? Or to Syria’s Druze community – family to Israel’s Druze citizens? Or to Jordan?

Join us for a conversation with Barry Shaw, Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies as he explores the actors and the actions in post-Assad Syria.

The “ceasefire” agreement between the US and Israel, and between the US and Lebanon, along with a “designated” interlocutor for Hezbollah, is complicated to say the least. And questions arise. Start with: What did Israel gain? Will the agreement last? Who will enforce it? What happens if one party tries to enforce provisions and another party calls it an act of war? Is the UN/UNIFIL a reliable partner? We have a lot more questions.

Join us for a conversation with EJ Kimball, Director of Policy and Strategic Operations for the non-profit US-Israel Education Association as we look forward.

Last month, an identifiably Jewish Chicago man was shot while walking to synagogue on the Sabbath. While attacks against American Jews have generally been prosecuted as “assaults” or “hate crimes,” this time the assailant was charged with “terrorism.” A native of Mauritania, he had been “encountered by US Border Patrol at the California border in 2023,” according to ICE, but then entered the country.

Join us for a conversation with Todd Bensman, Senior National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies to discuss the current state of America’s borders – north and south.