The U.S. has officially joined Israel’s war on Iran, bombing Iranian nuclear sites and obliterating what was left of the nuclear talks. With Trump hinting at regime change, the world is now watching to see how Iran will respond. Is this the end of diplomacy? Does Iran now view nuclear weapons as the only way to deter U.S. and Israeli aggression? Can Iran survive? Rania Khalek is joined by Trita parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute, for a special live episode of Dispatches to b...
Jun 24, 2025•40 min
As Israel’s war on Iran escalates, the media continues to flip the script—framing Israel as the victim and Iran as the aggressor, despite Israel initiating the conflict with bombings, assassinations, and covert attacks. In this special live episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek is joined by political analyst Assal Rad to expose the media’s double standards, the U.S. role in orchestrating the war under the false pretense of diplomacy, and the bigger geopolitical consequences of this growing conflic...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 23 min
As Israel commits a live-streamed genocide in Gaza, Western media and political elites continue to center one narrative: Jewish fear. But what about the actual victims of this genocide—Palestinians? Journalist Nora Barrows-Friedman joins Rania Khalek on Dispatches for a fearless conversation on Zionist indoctrination in the Jewish diaspora, how antisemitism is being weaponized to silence critics of Israel, and how Jewish identity politics has been manipulated to cover for unspeakable crimes. Fro...
Jun 16, 2025•37 min
Israel has launched an all out war on Iran, with hundreds of strikes accross the country on military, nuclear and civilian infrastructure as well as assassinations of military commanders and scientists. This shocking escalation comes as the U.S. publicly distances itself, even as prominent American politicians cheer it on and while Washington pretended to pursue nuclear negotiations with Tehran. Veteran war correspondent Elijah Magnier joins Rania Khalek for a special live episode of Dispatches ...
Jun 15, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Zionism didn’t just dispossess Palestinians, it also helped destroy centuries-old Jewish communities across the Arab world. Historian Avi Shlaim, born in Baghdad and now a leading voice in exposing Zionist mythology, joins Dispatches to reveal how Israel used false flag terror attacks, including Mossad-led bombings in Iraq, to force Arab Jews to flee. In this wide-ranging conversation with Rania Khalek, Shlaim connects the founding violence of the Israeli state to its ongoing genocide in Gaza, c...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 19 min
The internet wasn’t made to set us free. It was designed to surveil, suppress, and control. On this episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek speaks with journalist and author Yasha Levine to expose how Big Tech became the digital arm of empire. From AI-generated kill lists in Gaza to Silicon Valley billionaires coding the future of authoritarianism, this is techno-fascism in real time. Elon Musk works with the Pentagon. Peter Thiel builds tools for ICE. Mark Zuckerberg scrubs dissent while currying f...
Jun 04, 2025•49 min
Trump’s return is not just a political comeback—it’s a warning. As the tendency towards fascism gains strength in the U.S., what does that mean for the world’s most powerful empire? And what kind of resistance can actually stop it? On this episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek is joined by Eugene Puryear to break down what rising fascism looks like in an American context, from the weaponization of ICE to the collapse of international law in Gaza, and why anti-imperialism must be at the heart of an...
May 31, 2025•1 hr 19 min
The European Union isn’t just complicit in the U.S. empire — it’s helping drive it. In this episode of Dispatches , Rania Khalek speaks with Marc Botenga, a Belgian Member of the European Parliament with the Workers’ Party of Belgium, about how Europe became a willing footsoldier for NATO’s wars, U.S. economic domination, and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Botenga doesn’t mince words. He calls Europe’s role in Gaza a European genocide. He explains why supporting peace in Ukraine is taboo, how censor...
May 15, 2025•35 min
Israel and its apologists claim they’re committing slaughter in Gaza to protect Jews and prevent another Holocaust. But that’s a scam. Historian of Palestine Zachary Foster joins @RaniaKhalek on Dispatches to discuss. He exposes how the pro-Israel establishment in the Jewish American community is helping the Trump administration weaponize antisemitism to justify genocide in Palestine and fascist policies at home, and how empire is using Judaism as a human shield for imperial conquest. The full e...
Apr 23, 2025•41 min
The Gaza genocide isn’t just happening on the ground. It’s being enforced through code, algorithms, blacklists, and billion-dollar tech firms. Meta is censoring the truth. Microsoft is complicit in the genocide machine. AI is targeting students. Rupert Murdoch’s empire manufactures the lies to justify it all. This isn’t the future, it’s now. And the fight for Palestine is the front line of a global war on dissent. Rapper and activist Lowkey joins Rania Khalek on Dispatches to expose the machiner...
Apr 17, 2025•41 min
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Farah Nabulsi joins Rania Khalek on Dispatches to talk about her powerful new film The Teacher , an emotional and political drama set in the occupied West Bank. Inspired by true events, The Teacher follows a Palestinian schoolteacher as he confronts personal trauma, settler violence, and the capture of an Israeli soldier by the resistance, forcing impossible moral decisions that reflect the brutal reality of life under military occupation. The film captures the full spe...
Apr 09, 2025•42 min
Rania Khalek hosts a special live episode of Dispatches with Ali Abunimah, executive director of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine. They dive into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the global silence enabling it, and why this brutal new phase was always Zionism’s endgame. From U.S.-funded fascism abroad to rising repression at home, nothing is off the table.
Apr 07, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has triggered a global crackdown on dissent, with Western governments not only enabling the atrocities but also waging war on human rights and free speech. Join a special live episode of Dispatches with Rania Khalek as Craig Mokhiber, former director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, unpacks the ongoing genocide, the fascist assault on pro-Palestine voices across US campuses, and the unprecedented erosion of international law....
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Najla Said joins Dispatches to talk about Palestine, identity, and the challenges of growing up Arab and American in a country that doesn’t always make space for that kind of hyphenated identity. Najla is an actor and writer who’s used storytelling to explore themes of belonging, displacement, and resistance. She’s also the daughter of Edward Said, one of the most influential intellectuals of our time, whose work and teachings at Columbia University continue to shape how we understand colonialis...
Mar 31, 2025•44 min
Macklemore, musician and Executive Producer of the new documentary 'The Encampments,' joins the show to discuss the upcoming film. It follows activists Mahmoud Khalil and Grant Miner as they organized the Columbia student encampment for Gaza—an action that sparked an international student movement against Israel’s genocide nearly a year ago. In theaters now, visit the-encampments.com for showtimes and to book your tickets.
Mar 27, 2025•15 min
Neoliberalism is collapsing. Imperialist hegemony is cracking. And the liberal center has no answers. In this episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek is joined by renowned Marxist economist Prabhat Patnaik to break down the multiple overlapping crises facing global capitalism. From Trump’s “America First” contradictions to the rise of neo-fascism, the failure of sanctions, and the assault on working people, Patnaik explains why only the Left can offer a real alternative. 🎧 This is just part of the ...
Mar 24, 2025•39 min
Western media has played a central role in justifying and whitewashing Israel’s assault on Gaza—just as it has done in past U.S.-backed wars from Iraq to Syria. Journalists who claim to champion press freedom are silent as activists and students face unprecedented repression for speaking out on Palestine. Why does the media function as a propaganda arm for empire, and how do we push back? Rania Khalek is joined by Assal Rad, a scholar of Modern Middle East History, a non-resident fellow at DAWN,...
Mar 15, 2025•47 min
The past several days have seen horrifying sectarian massacres in Syria. Over 1,000 people have been killed, mostly Alawites and some Christians, in Latakia and Tartus. The perpetrators? Sectarian death squads from HTS, led by Syria’s new president, Mohammed al-Jolani—formerly the leader of Al-Qaeda in Syria. Western media is whitewashing these atrocities, falsely framing them as “revenge” against pro-Assad remnants. But the truth is clear: Syria is now controlled by Salafi jihadists who openly ...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 15 min
Trump’s people are reshaping the US political system, gutting institutions, while selling scores with all enemies foreign and domestic. But is their push for mass deportations, and the abolition of DEI, the Department of Education, USAID and other soft power institutions really in the ruling class’s long term interests. Are we witnessing the collapse of an empire, or simply a reactionary reconfiguration of power? And how should those of us who oppose U.S. imperialism make sense of these contradi...
Mar 08, 2025•43 min
The field of psychoanalysis has long colluded with Zionism, justifying Israeli crimes while pathologizing Palestinian resistance. Lara Sheehi, an assistant professor of clinical psychology and author of “Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine,” was targeted for being unapologetically anti-Zionist. She joins Rania Khalek on Dispatches to discuss Zionist repression, psychological warfare, and the fight for decolonization. 📢 Watch the full interview exclusively on Patr...
Mar 05, 2025•46 min
Trump’s return isn’t just chaos, it’s a calculated strategy. While liberals dismiss him, Trump understands raw economic power in a way centrists fail to grasp. What is his master plan, and how could it backfire? Meanwhile, Musk & other billionaires are the new ruling class. As capitalism dies, we enter technofeudalism, where corporate overlords control entire infrastructures of power. And in Europe, elites literally cried over the U.S. pivoting away. Does Europe have any real sovereignty lef...
Feb 24, 2025•39 min
Syria is entering a new phase, and the regional balance of power is shifting. Gulf states, Turkey, and Israel are recalibrating their strategies, while the U.S., Russia, and China assess their next moves. Iran and Hezbollah, once deeply entrenched in Syria, are now facing new challenges. Meanwhile, Israel has expanded its presence in the occupied Golan Heights, and Trump is pressuring Egypt and Jordan to accept Palestinians expelled from Gaza. Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics, joins ...
Feb 20, 2025•59 min
For decades, U.S. imperialism has operated not just through military force but through a vast system of economic coercion, media manipulation, and covert operations. The World Bank, IMF, and USAID present themselves as tools of development, but in reality, they enforce American dominance under the guise of aid. Now, with Trump and Musk cutting USAID, many see this as a shift, but in reality, it’s just a restructuring of the empire. What does this tell us about the evolving strategies of imperial...
Feb 14, 2025•53 min
Following the Gaza ceasefire, Israel is already preparing for its next round of ethnic cleansing with full Western backing. Pro-Palestine activists are facing escalating repression, Trump is pushing a new ethnic cleansing plan, and Israel’s increasing resemblance to fascist regimes is impossible to ignore. Rania Khalek speaks with Tony Greenstein, a Jewish anti-Zionist, Marxist, and anti-fascist activist, about the historical roots of Zionism, the weaponization of the Holocaust, and the imperial...
Feb 11, 2025•58 min
The Palestinian resistance has defied overwhelming military force in Gaza, adapting and surviving despite Israel’s strategy of genocide and starvation. What does this war teach us about asymmetric warfare, military resilience, and the future of anti-colonial resistance? Why has Israel failed to eliminate Palestinian fighters despite its apocalyptic destruction of Gaza? And how has the regional Axis of Resistance, from Yemen to Lebanon, reshaped the battlefield? To discuss all this and more, Rani...
Feb 01, 2025•50 min
In this episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek is joined by author, historian, and journalist Vijay Prashad to discuss how the West’s increasing reliance on violent repression, from Gaza to Cuba, signals not strength, but desperation. Prashad dissects the moral collapse of Western imperialism and the challenges facing the Global South as they navigate an era of “hyperimperial” aggression. 👉 Listen to the full episode by becoming a Breakthrough News member at https://www.patreon.com/BreakthroughNew...
Jan 23, 2025•41 min
Rania Khalek was joined by historian Ussama Makdisi to discuss 15 months of genocide in Gaza. They explore academic complicity, Gaza’s “scholasticide” (the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s educational institutions), Israel’s expansion into Syria and the Golan Heights, the history of Arab Jews, and the future of resistance in the region. The full interview is available to Breakthrough News Members only. You can become a member at Patreon.com/BreakthroughNews . Ussama’s article discussed in the ep...
Jan 16, 2025•47 min
Rania Khalek hosts a special live episode of Dispatches w/ Ali Abunimah, executive director of the Electronic Intifada and author of “The Battle for Justice in Palestine.”
Jan 14, 2025•1 hr 32 min
The year 2024 has seen so much loss from Gaza to Lebanon, it can be easy to fall into despair. Despite its recent gains, Israel still cannot win, says Palestinian writer Susan Abulhawa. Abulhawa is a novelist, poet, activist and author of many books, including "Mornings in Jenin." This is just part of this episode. The full interview with Rania Khalek is available for Breakthrough News Members only. Become a member at https://www.Patreon.com/BreakthroughNews to access the full episode and other ...
Dec 23, 2024•41 min
Seismic shifts accross the middle east over the last year, from the genocide in Gaza, to the fall of the Assad regime in Syria to the killing of Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, will reshape the region and force changes in the way resistance operates. Rania Khalek was joined by Bashir Saade, an Interdisciplinary Lecturer in Politics and Religion at the University of Stirling and author of the book “Hizbullah and the politics of remembrance.”
Dec 20, 2024•51 min
