Dexter Filkins
speaker
521 appearances
3 recordings
2 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard 16 Sep
Dexter Filkins’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
So in the first Trump term, the focus of the Middle East, apart from Saudi Arabia, was Israel.
And it was Israel's going to get what it wants.
And so...
What that meant and what it has meant over the past, you know, two Trump administrations is Israel has been very aggressive in the West Bank about settlements and about, you know, moving people in and kind of disregarding Palestinian rights.
And so in 2020, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said he made indications we're going to annex part of the West Bank.
the occupied West Bank.
We're going to annex part of them where the settlements are, essentially, where a lot of the settlements are.
And so Yusuf al-Otaiba, a lot of your listeners probably never heard of him, but he's a very influential figure in Washington, D.C.
He is the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, longtime ambassador in Washington.
he's alarmed by this and he tries to head it off and he writes an op-ed in which he says, look, if Bibi will not do this, then we will recognize the state of Israel, United Arab Emirates.
And he just put it in an op-ed in an Israeli newspaper.
And I think basically what happens after that is Jared kind of seizes the moment.
He sees that as a diplomatic opening.
This potential disaster...
you know, the annexation of parts of the West Bank, he sees an opportunity and grabs it.
And it happens pretty quickly over the course of several weeks and months.
The UAE recognizes Israel.
Bahrain recognizes Israel.
Several states in the Middle East that had never had diplomatic relations with Israel decided to take the big step and do it.
And in exchange for Bibi basically holding off
Showing 161–180 of 521 · page 9 of 27
← Previous
Next →