Key Figures and Their Roles in US Actions in the Middle East

This is another special episode of Long Reads looking at Israel’s war on Gaza. Our focus today is on the politics of the Biden administration and its backing for Israel. Joe Biden and his team are still giving their firm support to Benjamin Netanyahu as he talks about a war lasting for “many months." With a presidential election due in the fall, there appear to be strong echoes of Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam in 1968.

Akbar Shahid Ahmed is the senior diplomatic correspondent for the Huffington Post. He’s been following Biden’s policy and the dissent among US government officials. We spoke on Tuesday, January 2nd, shortly after an Israeli bomb attack that killed a Hamas leader in Beirut, sparking fears of a wider escalation.

Find his coverage of Gaza here: https://www.huffpost.com/author/akbar-shahid-ahmed

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.