Featuring Alex Traiman, CEO and Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Jewish News Syndicate

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Time: 12 noon, Eastern Standard Time, 6 p.m. Jerusalem Time

To the average viewer, the Middle East is now at a very serious juncture. On October 19, 2023, the Yeminis Houthis began to strike ships in the Red Sea, and on December  4, 2023, they began to strike commercial shipping lanes in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait of the Gulf of Eden, striking United States warships over 170 times. They have also re-initiated launching missiles at Israel. The United States, under President Trump, had decided to strike back with “overwhelming lethal force.”

After failing to respond to the next stage of negotiations offered by President Trump’s envoy,  Steve Witkoff, including the failure to release the American hostage, Eden Alexander, (along with the remaining live and dead hostages), the  Israelis have initiated renewed strikes on Hamas in Gaza. Was there something else Israeli military intelligence knew to cause it to strike at Gaza now, or has Israel finally reached a limit in allowing Gaza to be governed by Hamas? And is  Israel’s plan now to give up on the remaining 60 or so hostages languishing in Hamas’ terror tunnels?

What is Trump’s response to the Arab plan initiated in Cairo?

What about Hezbollah on the northern front? Will they hold their fire, as the Israeli military is being occupied in Gaza? What is happening in Judea and Samaria? How is Israel responding to Ahmed al Sharaa and  the Hyatt Tahrir al Shams takeover of Syria?

What is happening with judicial reform? Why is the Shin Bet Chief, Ronen Bar, being fired? Is there an internal Israeli progressive attempt to undermine the Trump-Netanyahu relationship?

Most importantly: What is happening on the Iranian nuclear front? Will the United States finally assist Israel in removing this threat?

And finally: How is the Trump era of foreign policy different from those of his predecessors? What are realistic diplomatic and strategic goals for Israel to set in the era of Donald Trump?

Here to answer these questions and more is Alex Traiman, CEO and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of the Jewish News Syndicate.

About our speaker: Alex Traiman is CEO and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of the Jewish News Syndicate. A veteran Israeli journalist, radio-show host, documentary filmmaker and startup consultant, he writes on Israeli politics and U.S.-Israel relations. He has conducted one-on-one interviews with Israeli officials, among them Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose recent speech to a joint session Congress he attended and covered. Other key figures include members of the Knesset, government and War Cabinet. He has also interviewed U.S. senators, congressmen, ambassadors, former CIA heads and national security advisers. He interviewed then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on an official visit to Jerusalem. He has appeared on the BBC, Bloomberg, CBS, NBC, FOX, News Nation and Newsmax, and is a frequent guest on WABC and CBS radio. An NCAA champion fencer in the Yeshiva University sports hall of fame, he moved to Israel in 2004, and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and five children.