The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line episodes:

• 04.28.2024

  What role do US tech giants play in powering Israeli war crimes? | The Bottom Line

  After Amazon and Google signed a $1.2bn contract to launch Project Nimbus, providing cloud technology to the Israeli government and the military, tech workers started to notice more Israeli use of artificial intelligence against the Palestinian people. Many of those engineers...

  
• 04.21.2024

  US calls for ‘de-escalation’, but tensions rise in the Middle East | The Bottom Line

  In this episode, host Steve Clemons speaks with Ussama Makdisi, professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley; and Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group. The exchange of direct attacks between Iran and Israel is likely...

  
• 04.11.2024

  Does Israel twist humanitarian law to justify Gaza carnage? | The Bottom Line

  To the United Nations official tasked with reporting on Palestinian human rights, international law is clear: Israel should withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967. Instead, Israel aims for the “impossibility to continue civil life in Gaza,” as UN Special...

  
• 04.07.2024

  How credible is US rhetoric on ‘policy change’ towards Israel? | The Bottom Line

  In this episode, Annelle Sheline tells host Steve Clemons that the contradictions in US policy toward Israel’s war in Gaza made her job as a State Department officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor “so difficult”. Sheline...

  
• 03.31.2024

  Biden’s 'double talk' on Gaza: Cynical election politics? | The Bottom Line

  The Biden administration has fallen into a predictable pattern on Gaza, according to Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch: Talk about concern for civilian casualties, but undercut any pressure on Israel to stop the war. Roth tells host Steve...

  
• 03.24.2024

  Does Israel need to be forced by the US to end the war in Gaza? | The Bottom Line

  All of Israel’s modern wars have ended with US intervention, but the current war in Gaza has gone on for half a year because “Biden is a slow learner”, argues University of Pennsylvania political scientist Ian Lustick. Israel needs an outside...

  
• 03.17.2024

  Professor Jeffrey Sachs: ‘US is complicit in Israeli genocide’ | The Bottom Line

  “Does the United States want to be complicit in genocide?” This is the question that US leaders should be asking themselves as Israel’s war on Gaza continues, argues Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs tells host Steve Clemons that Israel could...

  
• 03.10.2024

  Will Israel be allowed to continue its Gaza starvation strategy? | The Bottom Line

  US Senator Chris Van Hollen says it is time for the Biden administration to tell Israel, “If you continue to ignore us, there will be consequences.” Senator Van Hollen, who is one of seven senators (out of 100) to have called...

  
• 03.03.2024

  Will Biden reconsider his unconditional support for Israel? | The Bottom Line

  US policy on Israel “looks incoherent because it is incoherent,” argues Matt Duss, former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders, and this is making the United States look “feckless and weak”. Duss tells host Steve Clemons that Israel is violating US law...

  
• 02.25.2024

  What happens when Gaza’s health system collapses? | The Bottom Line

  The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was the last big medical facility in the Gaza Strip destroyed by Israel’s war. The World Health Organization says Israel killed 627 doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and other healthcare workers between October and January. With almost...

  
• 02.18.2024

  Why are Israel and its Western allies targeting UNRWA? | The Bottom Line

  About 20 countries have announced suspension of funding to UNRWA, the agency that has been providing services to Palestinian refugees since 1950. The official reason for the suspension was Israel’s accusation that a dozen UNRWA employees in Gaza had participated in...

  
• 02.11.2024

  Why does the US refuse to call for a ceasefire in Gaza? | The Bottom Line

  The United States' support for Israel’s war on Gaza makes the country look ineffectual and hypocritical to the rest of the world, according to Harvard University professor Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. Walt tells host...

  
• 02.04.2024

  US presidential candidate Cornel West: 'Biden is a war criminal' | The Bottom Line

  American voters feel “impotent and hopeless” as they approach an election where the main choices are a “neo-fascist Pied Piper” (Donald Trump) or “the war criminals of the Democratic Party”, argues independent presidential candidate Cornel West. West, one of the United...

  
• 01.25.2024

  How is the White House spinning the media on Gaza war? | The Bottom Line

  Actions speak louder than words, so journalists should conclude that Israel’s war on Gaza is proceeding exactly as the Biden administration likes, argues Jeremy Scahill, one of the co-founders of the independent news website The Intercept. Scahill tells host Steve Clemons...

  
• 01.18.2024

  Why does the US act as Israel’s lawyer? | The Bottom Line

  President Joe Biden’s failure to demonstrate the same regard and sympathy for Palestinian suffering as he has shown Israel has turned the United States into “Israel’s lawyer,” says former US State Department official Aaron David Miller. Miller tells host Steve Clemons...

  
• 01.11.2024

  French historian: Israel destroyed 4,000-year-old culture in Gaza

  Israel waged 15 wars against Gaza in the last 75 years, and all failed to resolve the core issues, says former French diplomat Jean-Pierre Filiu, professor of Middle East Studies at Sciences Po. Filiu tells host Steve Clemons that Gaza’s rich...

  
• 01.06.2024

  Former US general: Israel may win in Gaza, but fail in the region | The Bottom Line

  By mimicking United States tactics in World War II in Germany and Japan, Israel has made a grave mistake with its war on Gaza, according to retired US Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt. Kimmitt tells host Steve Clemons that Israel’s tactics...

  
• 12.30.2023

  How do Palestinians factor into Israel’s vision for the Middle East? | The Bottom Line

  David Frum, staff writer for The Atlantic magazine and a pro-Israel supporter, tells host Steve Clemons that Israel and the United States should “avoid solution-ism” for the Palestinians and focus on day-to-day necessities, like food and water. The way Israel has...

  
• 12.26.2023

  Why do evangelical Christians support Israel? | The Bottom Line

  In the evangelical Christian worldview, the 1948 creation of Israel was a fulfilment of Biblical prophecy and the Palestinians are either “non-existent” or “the enemies of God, because they are the enemies of the State of Israel”, explains Palestinian human...

  
• 12.23.2023

  Ex-Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad: ‘PLO should expand to include Hamas’ | The Bottom Line

  “No national liberation movement in history is based on what its enemy wants,” says the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad. For the Palestinian Authority to have any legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian people, the Palestine...

  
• 12.20.2023

  Why the war on Gaza is not making Israel safer | The Bottom Line

  Contrary to what Israeli leaders say, the war on Gaza is not making Israel safer, according to political scientist Ian Bremmer, founder of Eurasia Group, which studies geopolitical risk. Bremmer argues that the human carnage created by Israel in Gaza over...

  
• 12.16.2023

  John Mearsheimer: Israel is choosing 'apartheid' or 'ethnic cleansing' | The Bottom Line

  Israel has gone far beyond “going after Hamas” in the first 10 weeks of its war on Gaza, according to one of the United States' leading political scientists, John Mearsheimer. He tells host Steve Clemons that murdering hundreds of civilians daily...

  
• 12.14.2023

  Are Biden’s warnings to Israel sparked by fears of 2024 election? | The Bottom Line

  University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami says US President Joe Biden is making his decisions on Palestine and Israel “based on personal beliefs, personal preferences, personal emotions,” and “not necessarily driven by a considered assessment of American interests at stake”. Telhami...

  
• 12.09.2023

  Gaza war unleashes anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim sentiment in the US | The Bottom Line

  For expressing their opinions on the Israel-Palestine, many Muslim Americans and Arab Americans have paid a hefty price, including the loss of jobs and suspension from college. Universities across the US are also cracking down on student activism. Since the beginning of...

  
• 12.07.2023

  Are Israel’s attempts to demoralise the Palestinians backfiring? | The Bottom Line

  Some US officials have talked about the need to protect innocent Palestinian lives, but US President Joe Biden has said almost nothing. Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Steven Cook says it was a mistake for Biden to have offered the...

  
• 12.02.2023

  On Palestine, the gap between the US right and left is huge | The Bottom Line

  For many on the American right, the Palestinians are a proxy for Iran and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel are "criminals". On the left, the Palestinian issue is about a nation striving for freedom. The only thing both sides agree on is that...

  
• 11.29.2023

  Is Biden's two-state plan for Israel and Palestine a fantasy? | The Bottom Line

  After the war on Gaza, US President Joe Biden says he wants to “reinvigorate” the attempts to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But the devil is in the details. After the Hamas attack on Israel, and Israel’s scorched-earth war on...

  
• 11.22.2023

  US General Petraeus: Israel's war on Gaza to last for ‘months, not weeks’ | The Bottom Line

  Israel has not explained what it seeks to accomplish in its war on Gaza beyond the destruction of Hamas, according to US General David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA and former commander of US forces in Iraq and...

  
• 11.18.2023

  Is Biden's stance on Israel out of sync with mainstream America? | The Bottom Line

  President Joe Biden's rigid pro-Israel stance would have been considered convention for United States policy 50 years ago. "It's not a mainstream position any more," says Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East programme at the Center for Strategic and International...

  
• 11.15.2023

  Can the US have an honest debate about Palestine and Israel? | The Bottom Line

  When the US Congress voted to censure the only Palestinian-American member of the House, congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, it argued that she was “promoting false narratives” on the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Journalists Ryan Grim and Katie Halper tell host Steve...

  
• 11.11.2023

  Should Israel learn from US mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan? | The Bottom Line

  In Afghanistan, United States General Stanley McChrystal referred to “insurgent math” to explain how every civilian killed by US forces led to 10 new insurgents. This is the same problem Israel is creating for itself by killing massive numbers of innocent...

  
• 11.03.2023

  Should Palestinians, Israelis live equally in one state? | The Bottom Line

  Israeli-American peace activist Miko Peled has been advocating anti-Zionism for decades, arguing that Western governments who back Israel “are supporting the fight against justice, the fight against peace”. As US officials stress the need for a two-state solution, Peled tells host...

  
• 10.28.2023

  Is the US in trouble in the Middle East? | The Bottom Line

  While the United States government fully backs Israeli actions in its war on Gaza, other countries have taken a different approach. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Israel’s actions have “gone beyond the scope of self-defence”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan...

  
• 10.21.2023

  Why does the US not support a ceasefire in Gaza? | The Bottom Line

  Israel has killed more than 4,385 Palestinians, destroyed entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, and shut off food, water and electricity to millions of people after a Hamas attack killed more than 1,405 Israelis on October 7. United States President Joe Biden wants...

  
• 10.12.2023

  Stephen Walt: US, Israeli strategy on Palestine has failed | The Bottom Line

  Decades of misguided strategy have wreaked havoc on the region, even before Hamas’s recent attack on Israel and the Israeli response in Gaza, according to Harvard University Professor Stephen Walt. Global powers have allowed the status quo to fester. Washington still...

  
• 10.05.2023

  Is this the end of large-scale support for the war in Ukraine? | The Bottom Line

  Was it an historic blunder for Western leaders to keep expanding NATO eastward, even though they knew it would provoke a war with Russia eventually? Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs argues that the United States provoked the tragedy in Ukraine, and...

  
• 09.28.2023

  How worried are Americans about their choices in the 2024 vote? | The Bottom Line

  Will the Republican-led impeachment inquiry succeed in painting United States President Joe Biden as “crooked"? Will it backfire and be judged as a colossal waste of time? Can Biden’s attempt to paint the 2024 election as a “fight for democracy”...

  
• 09.21.2023

  Andrew Yang: Americans are fed up with both Republicans and Democrats | The Bottom Line

  A society overflowing with guns and drugs. Politicians who would rather cater to the extreme fringes of their parties instead of the country as a whole. And dark money flowing in from secretive billionaires with eccentric agendas. This is the United...

  
• 09.14.2023

  The Oslo peace accords: Historic achievement or historic tragedy? | The Bottom Line

  The peace treaty signed by Palestinian and Israeli leaders on 13 September 1993 was a game-changer. The Oslo Accords, brokered by Norwegian diplomats, were supposed to be a five-year plan. Palestinians achieved some degree of self-rule in disjointed parts of their...

  
• 09.07.2023

  Is it time for a ‘reset’ of the US strategy in Africa? | The Bottom Line

  The days of Africa's resources being used to benefit Western powers instead of the African people are dwindling, argues the former representative of the African Union to the United States, Arikana Chihombori-Quao. Although a string of recent coups may give the...

  
• 08.31.2023

  Jaron Lanier: Artificial intelligence is not a threat to humans | The Bottom Line

  What if the fears of artificial intelligence are unfounded? Is AI nothing more than a “mashup” of everything available online? And is there zero possibility that machines could one day build other machines, making humans irrelevant? Earlier this month, host Steve...

  
• 08.25.2023

  After the first US Republican debate: Who’s up, who’s down? | The Bottom Line

  Eight of the nine Republican candidates vying for their party’s nomination to run for president of the United States next year held their first debate and exposed the divisions inside today’s Republican Party. Most agreed to support former president Donald Trump...

  
• 08.17.2023

  Does artificial intelligence pose a risk to humans? | The Bottom Line

  Jaan Tallinn is no stranger to disruptive tech: 25 years ago he co-engineered Kazaa, which allowed for the free download of films and music. He also co-engineered Skype, which disrupted traditional voice and video communication. But when he looks at the...

  
• 08.10.2023

  Is an overheated planet the ‘new normal’? | The Bottom Line

  With wildfires and relentless heatwaves, 2023 is on track to become the hottest year on record. But temperatures have been rising for years, and journalist Jeff Goodall has been travelling throughout the US to document the changes that are already happening...

  
• 08.03.2023

  Does Trump face any serious competition in the Republican Party? | The Bottom Line

  Whenever former United States President Donald Trump faces new legal trouble, he gets more donations and support from his base. At least a dozen Republican politicians are competing to be the party’s nominee in the 2024 election, but opinion polls show...

  
• 07.28.2023

  Is it time for the West to double down on the Ukraine war? | The Bottom Line

  Russia will be able to “turn the world upside down” if the West slows down its support for Ukraine now, says Chuck Hagel, a former United States secretary of defence. To maintain the Western order, the Biden administration has no choice...

  
• 07.20.2023

  Are Iran and the US on the verge of a new agreement? | The Bottom Line

  For Washington, the negotiations with Iran are about making sure Tehran does not create nuclear bombs. For Tehran, the negotiations are about easing the Western sanctions that have been holding back Iran’s economy. And with elections being held in the United States...

  
• 07.13.2023

  Why Ukraine won’t be joining NATO anytime soon | The Bottom Line

  When great powers feel insecure and vulnerable, they lash out in unpredictable ways. This is what happened after the United States was attacked on 9/11, and it’s happening now as Russia feels besieged and encircled by NATO. According to American political...

  
• 07.06.2023

  Why are Americans stuck with a choice between two major parties?

  Millions of Americans say they are dissatisfied with both of the major parties: Democrat and Republican. And millions never vote. So why can’t any third parties break through and become viable alternatives? And could a big third party reduce the...

  
• 06.29.2023

  Did COVID change the way we think about relationships and money? | The Bottom Line

  The long-term effects of the pandemic are becoming more evident day by day. Globalisation was dying, but the virus accelerated the process. Loneliness has become the “invisible epidemic”. Since instability is the norm, younger investors are not afraid to make...