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

As long as Israel keeps moving the goalposts, former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy argues, there's no way to reach phase two of the ceasefire in Gaza, which Israel itself signed. Levy, president of the US/Mideast Project, tells host Steve Clemons that the biggest question is whether the United States, which is the guarantor of the agreement, will allow Israel to scuttle it. Phase two requires Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and commit to the end of the war, which it is loath to do. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive

United States President Donald Trump sees many European countries as extensions of the Democratic Party abroad, and thus his “adversaries”, argues Ed Luce, the US national editor at the Financial Times. Luce tells host Steve Clemons that the string of European leaders “bringing fruits to the volcano” in Washington will not be able to change Trump’s views on Ukraine or Europe in general. “America now sees the world as a jungle,” he says. The power vacuum left by the US will usher in “a dangerous time ... when you have the revenge of geopolitics, the return of history,” Luce says. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #aljazeera #aljazeeraenglish #aljazeeranewslive

United States President Donald Trump's administration flipped the script on US-Europe relations in February. European officials were berated for being antidemocratic and were told their involvement was not needed in ending the Ukraine war. Meanwhile, US and Russian officials started meetings to end that war. Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute, argues that European fears of Russian expansion are greatly exaggerated. But Melinda Haring, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, tells host Steve Clemons that it’s dangerous for the US to reverse course on Ukraine and normalise relations with Russia.

Western ideals of morality and international law have been dealt a fatal blow by Israel’s war on Gaza, argues author Pankaj Mishra. Mishra, whose latest book is The World After Gaza: A History, tells host Steve Clemons that US and Israeli leaders are normalising the idea of mass expulsion of the two million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip and may eventually succeed in carrying it out as the world watches. The author dives into the racist logic behind some Western foreign policies and argues that India has lost “moral and diplomatic leadership” due to its support for Israel.

Though cost cuts pursued by US President Donald Trump may be popular among many Americans, economists differ in their assessment of these measures' potential outcomes. Peterson Institute for International Economics senior fellow Joseph Gagnon tells host Steve Clemons that Trump’s idea that tariffs on imported goods can replace taxes is unrealistic. The United States government is bloated and needs modernisation, Gagnon argues. But while measures including firing thousands of federal employees and gutting USAID can save billions, what impact could they have on the national economy and on the country's trillions of dollars in debt? Join the conversation on the long-term implications of Trump’s “major reform” of the US government.

Despite the rhetoric, US President Donald Trump will not be able to ethnically cleanse Gaza nor resolve the Ukraine war, argues University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer. Mearsheimer tells host Steve Clemons that Arab governments fear “the risk of being overthrown by their populations” should they bend to Trump’s desire to “clean out” the Palestinian people in Gaza. On Ukraine, Mearsheimer predicts a “frozen conflict” without a peace treaty, and warns that Trump should stop “slapping around” US allies if he wants their cooperation in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

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 have become activists for “No Tech for Genocide”, including Zelda Montes, who was one of the dozens of Google staff who were recently fired for protesting against their company’s involvement with Israel.Montes and tech entrepreneur Paul Biggar, who founded Tech for Palestine, tell host Steve Clemons why they refuse to build technology used for oppression, surveillance, warfare and apartheid.

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 to subside, but the shadow war goes on, which could intensify as long as the war on Gaza continues, argues Vaez.And as long as the wider Palestinian issue remains unresolved, there is little to no hope for long-lasting stability throughout the region, says Makdisi, especially with the US policy of rejecting equal regard for the rights of the Palestinian people.

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 Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese tells host Steve Clemons.Israel doesn’t deny the killings and mass destruction, but instead justifies its behaviour as “compliance with international humanitarian law”, Albanese says.And the failure of governments around the world to force Israel to stop the onslaught only weakens the idea of international law, “because it creates precedents for others to violate it”.

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 announced her resignation publicly on March 27.And Khaled Elgindy, a political scientist at the Middle East Institute, argues that US President Joe Biden is a big factor in the country’s stagnant policy toward Israel – supporting the war, with some alleviation of the humanitarian crisis. “Most people in the administration have probably moved on in their thinking,” Elgindy says.