Sep 3, 2021
Mondoweiss founder and senior editor Phil Weiss speaks to Khaled Elgindy about the first meeting between President Joe Biden and newly installed Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Earlier this year Bennett joined centrist politician Yair Lapid to build an unusual coalition of rightwing, centrist, and liberal political parties to topple Benjamin Netanyahu. This government marks the first time Palestinian Israeli political parties are included in a governing coalition. Bennett is a far-right political figure opposed to Palestinian statehood and ending settlement expansion, and he’s focused on Iran as the greatest threat to Israeli security.
Khaled Elgindy is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute where he directs the Program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs. Prior to that he was a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. Elgindy was an adviser to the Palestinian leadership on permanent status negotiations with Israel from 2004 to 2009, and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations of 2007 and 2008. He is the author of the book, Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump.