This week’s episode comes to you live from the nation’s capital. We were joined by two freshman members of Congress, Representative Donna Shalala (D-FL) and Representative Van Taylor (R-TX). We talked with them about the key issues they plan to tackle while in Congress, including strengthening U.S.-Israel relations and building bipartisanship. The episode was recorded in front of a live audience as part of AJC’s National Leadership Council Advocacy Fly In, featuring a series of meetings with tho...
Jan 18, 2019•39 min
The BDS movement has climbed its way up the Hill in the form of a bill targeting proponents of the anti-Israel boycott campaign. On this week’s episode, AJC General Counsel Marc Stern sheds light on the bill and other legislative measures against boycott efforts. Also joining us is AJC Transatlantic Institute Director Daniel Schwammenthal, who discusses the state of the relationship between the EU and Israel and the steps needed to mend it.
Jan 11, 2019•38 min
In a shocking move last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the dissolution of the current Knesset. With early elections now set for April 9th, join us as Lahav Harkov, Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post, dives into recent developments, analyzes the political turmoil, and suggests what we can expect in the short months leading up to the elections for the 21st Knesset.
Jan 03, 2019•34 min
Remain in the West Bank or withdraw from the territories? Micah Goodman, director of Beit Midrash Yisraeli-Ein Prat and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, tackles this controversial debate in his book, Catch-67, which was recently published in English. Goodman navigates us through the complexity of this issue and explores alternatives for moving forward on this week’s AJC Passport.
Dec 21, 2018•32 min
Earlier this week, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights released its second survey on discrimination and hate crimes against Jews in the EU. The survey’s troubling results are a reminder of the pervasive problem of anti-Semitism in Europe. Katharina von Schnurbein, Coordinator on Combating Anti-Semitism for the European Commission, joins us to discuss the findings from this survey. Our second conversation is with AJC CEO David Harris, who joins us to share his insights on how Europea...
Dec 14, 2018•35 min
Is it possible to bring stability and reconstruction to Gaza? Ilan Goldenberg and his team from the Center for a New American Security and the Brookings Institution set out to answer this question in their new report, "Ending Gaza’s Perpetual Crisis: A New U.S. Approach." Ilan Goldenberg, Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, joins us to discuss the report's recommendations and the state of U.S. policy towards Gaza. We are also ...
Dec 06, 2018•50 min
One in three Europeans knows little or nothing about the Holocaust, one in four thinks Jews have too much influence in finance, and one in five thinks Jews have too much influence over the media and global politics. A devastating new report by CNN has found that antisemitism is alive and well in Europe. Joining us to discuss the troubling findings is CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, who led the network’s investigation. Our second guest is AJC Europe Director Simone Rodan-Be...
Nov 29, 2018•33 min
This week, Israel experienced the worst bombardment since 2014 as Hamas fired over 450 rockets into cities and communities across southern Israel. The assault left one dead and scores wounded as tens of thousands of Israeli families huddled in bomb shelters. After a ceasefire was reached, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced his resignation in protest of the agreement, destabilizing the governing coalition and drawing calls for a new election. Joining us this week to discuss the s...
Nov 16, 2018•38 min
In a dramatic election that saw a record number of voters flock to the polls, both parties had reason to celebrate. For the first time in over eight years, Democrats will take control of the House. In the Senate, Republicans have expanded their control of the chamber. Joining us this week to discuss the trends of the election and what it means for U.S.-Israel relations is Norm Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Pe...
Nov 09, 2018•28 min
In the wake of the horrific attack at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday that left eleven dead and six wounded, AJC launched a global campaign called #ShowUpForShabbat to show solidarity with Pittsburgh’s Jews and send the message that Jews will not be intimidated away from their synagogues. Joining us to discuss the tremendous response to the campaign is AJC Associate Execute Director and Managaing Director of Global Communications Avi Mayer. Our second guest is Fernando Lottenberg, President o...
Nov 02, 2018•30 min
This week on AJC Passport, we talk about Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan’s visit to Israel and what it means for relations between the Jewish state and China. We’re joined by Mercy Kuo, President of the Washington State China Relations Council and member of the advisory council of AJC’s Asia Pacific Institute to discuss the visit and China’s growing influence in the Middle East. Our second conversation is from one of our first episodes. It features The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins on Vice Preside...
Oct 26, 2018•22 min
The grisly murder of Saudi journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago has prompted unprecedented backlash in Washington, D.C. against the Saudi government. Joining us to discuss the fallout is Hady Amr, a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former senior diplomat in the State Department under President Obama. Our second conversation is with AJC Berlin Ramer Institute Director Deidre Berger, who joined us to discuss Chancellor An...
Oct 19, 2018•46 min
In a surprise move earlier this week, Nikki Haley announced that she would be stepping down from her role as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. The statement prompted an immediate flurry of speculation in D.C. and on social media regarding her next steps. For the pro-Israel community, Haley’s departure also raises questions on who will replace her as America’s voice at the UN and whether the next ambassador will be able to fill Haley’s shoes in combating rampant anti-Israel bias at the UN. J...
Oct 12, 2018•27 min
At the height of the Second World War, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill articulated a vision of a world living at peace, with free trade, human rights, and democracy at its center. After the war, their nations helped bring that vision—dubbed the Atlantic Charter—into being, creating the world we know today. But now, seven decades later, the charter and the global system it envisioned are under assault. This week on AJC Passport, we’re joined by journ...
Oct 05, 2018•32 min
Each year, leaders from around the world descend on New York City for the UN General Assembly. For the NYPD, these world leaders leave behind a slew of unpaid parking tickets. But for AJC, that all of them are in one place presents an unparalleled opportunity to advocate for the Jewish people globally. Our guest this week is our chief advocate, AJC CEO David Harris, who joins us to explain what happens at the UN General Assembly and what AJC does when it meets with visiting leaders behind closed...
Sep 21, 2018•20 min
Twenty-five years ago this week, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat joined U.S. President Bill Clinton on the White House lawn to sign the Oslo Accords, the first-ever peace agreement between the two sides. This week, the Trump administration announced that it is closing the PLO’s office in Washington, D.C. What happened? We’re joined by Aaron David Miller, Vice President for New Initiatives and Middle East Program Director at ...
Sep 13, 2018•25 min
This week on AJC Passport we’re bringing you a special segment: a deep dive into the Mossad’s use of targeted killings. Joining us to discuss the secretive agency’s tactics is Ronen Bergman, an investigative journalist and New York Times Magazine staff writer who spent years combing through archives and conducting interviews with Mossad officials to write the best-selling book Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations. Our second guest is AJC Asia Pacific Instit...
Sep 06, 2018•31 min
The Trump administration is cutting $200 million in aid meant for the Palestinians. The move comes on the heels of previous cuts to U.S. funding for projects in the Palestinian territories. We sat down with Tamara Cofman Wittes, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs at the U.S. State Department, to analyze what impact the cut will have and what it reveals about the administration’s strategy. Our second guest is Josh Gla...
Aug 31, 2018•39 min
Is a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the offing? How did the United States and Turkey—NATO allies—find themselves in a trade war? We answer those questions and more on this week’s edition of AJC Passport. Joining us to talk about the Gaza ceasefire, growing election talk in Israel, and his biography of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is Haaretz writer Anshel Pfeffer. We are also joined by Dr. Henri Barkey, a professor at Lehigh University and former Middle East Program ...
Aug 24, 2018•52 min
If you’re a high school senior or the parents of one, you’re about to embark on a wonderfully stressful journey: picking the right college. If you’re Jewish, that comes with a few extra considerations: Is there a Jewish a cappella group? How’s the kosher food? What about BDS on campus? To answer these questions and more, we spoke with Laura Adkins and Aiden Pink, two young journalists at The Forward who designed a comprehensive guide that ranks over 200 colleges across the country based on what ...
Aug 17, 2018•23 min
As we recorded this episode on Thursday morning, southern Israel was battered by rockets from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Our guest, former IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel (res.) Peter Lerner, briefed us on the attacks before diving into the topic of the week: the Druze community’s protest against the Nation-State Law and why he joined it. Our second guest was AJC Washington Director Alan Ronkin, who discussed how AJC joined forces with the Urban League to speak out against white suprem...
Aug 10, 2018•28 min
Is President Trump trying to get Iran to come back to the negotiating table? During a press conference on Monday with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Trump indicated that he would be ready to meet with Iranian leaders without preconditions. We therefore decided to open up the AJC vault and share with you a conversation we recorded with Emily Landau, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, who talked about precisely this strategy. Landau leads t...
Aug 03, 2018•47 min
Is Israel becoming a litmus test on the “woke” left? This week, Teen Vogue published an article that sought to tie issues of police brutality in the United States to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. Our guest this week is journalist Emily Shire, who joins us to explain the evolution of Teen Vogue and give us a follow-up on her viral New York Times article from 2017, which asked if feminism still has room for Zionist women. For our second segment, we are joined by AJC Jerusalem Director L...
Jul 27, 2018•32 min
President Trump had a headline-grabbing visit to Europe. During the trip, he called the European Union a foe of the United States and received sharp blowback for his deferential approach to contentious questions such as whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Over in Israel, a controversial bill that would define the character of the state passed over the objections of Israel’s president and leading Jewish organizations around the world, including AJC. Joining us to discuss the reaction ...
Jul 20, 2018•44 min
A confirmation battle is brewing. This week on AJC Passport, we dive into the world of U.S. Supreme Court nominations. Joining us to discuss this hot-button issue is AJC General Counsel Marc Stern, who has appeared four times before the Supreme Court and is one of the Jewish community’s experts on the court, the separation of church and state, and religious liberty. Stern talks to us about Brett Kavanaugh, and what everyone gets wrong about confirmation fights. The segment is followed by a conve...
Jul 12, 2018•39 min
A political earthquake just shook Mexico. This week, in a landslide victory, political outsider and left-wing nationalist Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the Mexican presidency with an anti-establishment and anti-corruption campaign. Joining us to discuss this dramatic development is Dina Siegel Vann, Director of the AJC Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs. Our second guest this week is our Warsaw-based Director of AJC Central Europe, Agnieszka Markiewicz, who is joining us to...
Jul 06, 2018•29 min
Last week, we took you front and center at AJC Global Forum in Israel by bringing you the much-anticipated Great Debate. This week, we take you behind the scenes and bring you some exclusive conversations from our biggest event earlier this month. First up, friend of AJC Passport and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro (2011-17) discusses the outcomes of the embassy move to Jerusalem and Israel’s endgame in Syria. We also explore the implications of potential U.S. recognition of Israeli sov...
Jun 29, 2018•32 min
For those of you who were unable to join us in Jerusalem for the AJC Global Forum—or for those who want to relive the moment—we’re bringing you this year’s Great Debate. In the 2018 iteration of this AJC Global Forum staple, Member of Knesset Stav Shaffir of the Labor party faced off against Mayor Oded Revivi of the West Bank settlement of Efrat. Their question: “One State or Two States, Is There a Solution?"
Jun 20, 2018•39 min
AJC Passport hits the road! This week’s episode comes to you from Jerusalem. Recorded in front of a live audience for the first time, we sat down with journalist and author Matti Friedman to discuss one of the least reported-on angles of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the press that covers the struggle. Drawing on his years of experience as an AP reporter, Friedman talked with us about how the editorial process shapes coverage and fielded questions from the audience of more than 350 college s...
Jun 13, 2018•52 min
Can the stories Israelis and Palestinians tell about their history help them achieve peace? It's a question that keeps acclaimed author Yossi Klein Halevi up at night. This week’s AJC Passport features a special conversation with Klein Halevi. He discusses grappling with this question and how it led him to write his latest book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor. Hear him explain what he wants Palestinians to know about Israel's national narrative and how this knowledge might help both peoples ...
Jun 06, 2018•32 min
