Playback speed
×
Share post
Share post at current time
0:00
/
0:00
Transcript
6
2

Revisiting 50 years of American stumbles in the Middle East

Welcome to the Wake Up To Politics Book Club.
6
2

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress this afternoon, the room will be disproportionately filled with Republicans.

Dozens of Democrats are poised to boycott the speech in protest of Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza, which was ignited by the October 7th attack by Hamas and has since led to nearly 40,000 Palestinian deaths, according to the Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza.

Perhaps most notably, Vice President Kamala Harris — who would normally sit behind Netanyahu — will not be in attendance. Generally, that would mean Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the Senate president pro tempore, would preside over the session with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). But Murray declined too. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Ben Cardin (D-MD) will flank Netanyahu, the first time since 1989 that neither the VP nor the president pro tempore has presided over a foreign leader’s address to Congress.

Meanwhile, almost every congressional Republican will be in attendance for the speech.

Opinions on Israel — and Netanyahu — weren’t always so polarized along partisan lines here in the U.S. In fact, in the late 1980s, it was a Republican administration (George H.W. Bush’s) which Netanyahu (then a deputy foreign minister) accused of “building its policy on a foundation of distortion and lies,” language you would be unlikely to hear him fling against the GOP today.

That episode is one of the many highlighted in Steven Simon’s book, “Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East,” which is the first book being featured as part of the new Wake Up To Politics Book Club.

The book club will be a paid feature going forward, so make sure to click the button below to receive the next installments. But today’s installment is going out to everybody — both so everyone can see what the book club will be like, and because I think Steven has some important things to say, which are relevant ahead of Netanyahu’s address today.

You can click above to watch my conversation with Steven — there is also an audio player, in case you want to listen to it as a podcast while you’re on a run or during your commute, and a transcript, so you can read along.

There is no one better to be talking to on the eve of Netanyahu’s address than Steven, who has been studying and working on Middle East policy for nearly 40 years. He spent 15 years in the State Department and also served two stints on the National Security Council, under Clinton and Obama. “Grand Delusion” is his seventh book.

In the interview, Steven and I touch on a lot of interesting topics:

  • How the politics on Israel became so polarized in the U.S.

  • The state of the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas

  • Why Steven is skeptical about the long-term feasibility of a U.S.-Saudi defense treaty

  • What Middle East insiders are saying about the Biden-Harris swap

  • How the personal and religious leanings of U.S. policymakers have impacted the American outlook towards the Middle East

  • The Middle East threats that Steven thinks aren’t getting enough attention

We also talk about what Steven expects Netanyahu will say tonight — but the conversation goes much broader than Bibi, so it will not be stale at all if you save it for later and listen after the speech.

As we discuss, Steven’s book was published in April 2023, six months before October 7th, which makes this paragraph all the more prophetic:

“Given [President Biden’s] razor-thin margin in Congress, anything that gets in the way [of his preferred agenda], whether it relates to Israel or Iran, was likely to be pushed aside. His foreign policy is focused on China and Russia. But in the shopworn phrase favored by Washington pundits, you can avoid visiting the Middle East, but it can always visit you. If it does so during Biden’s term as president, it will be in the form of a confrontation between Israel and Iran, which will in turn depend on the fate of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. As of this writing, the jury is out. if it is restored, the arc of American intervention in the Middle East will continue to decline; if not, it will remain suspended. But not, one suspects, for very long.”

Steven’s book, which is organized chronologically by administration (from Carter to Biden), is essentially an account of 50 years of the Middle East visiting American presidents, often uninvited.

He is unsparing in his criticism of both Democratic and Republican presidents (as well as policies he worked on), as he ultimately comes to the conclusion that America’s misadventures in the region have been based — as the title suggests — on a “grand delusion.”

It is highly readable, no matter your level of foreign policy knowledge, and Steven — as a longtime government official himself — is a helpful narrator for understanding how policymakers think, and for tracking the (sometimes fraught) interactions between policymakers and intelligence analysts.

The book is also interspersed with anecdotes from his career, which overlaps precisely with the timespan covered, even including a fascinating one-on-one between him and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

You can watch or listen to our conversation here. Steven’s book can be found here.

The next installment of the Wake Up To Politics Book Club — available for paid subscribers — will cover “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism” by Tim Alberta. Buy it now to get a head-start!


A few more news items for your awareness before I go:

  • President Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. ET tonight to discuss his decision not to run for re-election. You can watch here. I’ll have more coverage of Biden’s speech in tomorrow’s newsletter.

  • Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday amid increasing scrutiny of the agency’s failures preceding the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. According to NBC News and The Washington Post, the Trump campaign plans to stop holding outdoor rallies, at the Secret Service’s encouragement.

  • Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) announced that he will resign next month after being found guilty of 16 counts of bribery, wire fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent. The move ends a 50-year career in New Jersey politics, which included two indictments and a stint as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (during which, a jury found, he was acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Egypt and Qatar).

  • The top two Democrats in Congress — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) — endorsed Kamala Harris on Tuesday, shortly after she became the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Harris held her first campaign event in Milwaukee, telling attendees that the November election will be “a choice between freedom and chaos.”

That’s all from me. Have a great day!

Discussion about this podcast

Wake Up To Politics
Wake Up To Politics
Listen to Gabe’s conversations with politicians, journalists, and political experts!