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Trump to Gazans: Does it matter where you live?
What does it matter where you live? It's a question as old as humanity. Our ancestors first traveled the world as nomads, but once we started farming and putting down less literal roots, the land beneath our feet became a crucial part of our identity.
A handful of millennia later, it's still the question driving the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Why must Israelis live in what they call Israel? Why must Palestinians live in what they call Palestine?
With a fragile ceasefire held between Israel and Hamas, President Trump stands beside Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, during a Washington press conference. Trump stuns the world, and apparently Netanyahu, by proposing to take over the Gaza Strip and turn it into, quote, "The Riviera of the Middle East." To the thousands of displaced Gazans, he says, don't go back.
President Trump is asking Gazans the same thing I asked you moments ago: What does it matter where you live? And honestly, it is a fair question for him to ask—though he's not exactly posing the same question to Israeli settlers on the West Bank. But if the region's bloody history has shown us anything, it's not so much asking the question that matters but who gets to answer it.
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
Podcast: The State of the World in 2024 with Ian Bremmer
Listen: The world is grappling with intense political and humanitarian challenges—raging wars, surging nationalism, and a warming climate, to name a few. Yet, we also stand at the brinkof some of the most transformative opportunities in human history. So how do we make sense of the future and what’s next? Ian Bremmer breaks it all down in a special edition of the GZERO World Podcast: The 2024 State of the World.
Each year, Ian examines the biggest political moments (and movements) and shares an honest assessment of where we are… and where we’re going. Most worrying? Leadership, or rather, the glaring lack of it. Nowhere is this clearer than in ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, where everyone claims to want peace, but no one is both willing and able to make it happen. But it’s not all bleak.There are plenty of reasons for optimism. Ian Bremmer discusses the good, the bad, and where we all go from here in his 2024 State of the World, delivered live at the GZERO Summit in Tokyo, Japan.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.
UNRWA funding cuts threaten Lebanon's Palestinian refugees
GZERO went inside the Shatila Camp in Beirut, one of Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camps, to better understand what the loss of UNRWA funding would mean for the people who call it home—the teachers, doctors, and local government workers who rely on UNRWA to provide basic services, like education, healthcare, and clean water to residents. The agency says it has enough funds to last through June, but it will need to make some tough choices after that.
“The reason UNRWA still exists after 75 years is because there is no political solution,” says Dorothee Klaus, URWA’s Lebanon director, “It is time to find a solution for Palestinian refugees to live in dignity like everybody else.
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week on US public television (check local listings) and online.
Gaza protests highlight the need to build cooperation vs. confrontation, says Eboo Patel
It’s time for college students to rethink how they protest, says Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, a nonprofit that works with hundreds of campuses to foster healthier dialogue. In a wide-ranging interview with Ian Bremmer for the latest episode of GZERO World, Patel criticizes the confrontational culture on campuses, urging a shift from romanticizing conflict to embracing cooperation. He challenges the dichotomy of oppressors and oppressed, advocating for a more nuanced approach to diversity that resembles a potluck of ideas.
“We absolutely need to change the default setting on campuses from confrontation is romanticized to cooperation is the norm."
College campuses are actually the perfect venues for this kind of dialogue, Patel says, and professors and administrators can leverage their intellectual backgrounds to foster the kinds of productive dialogue that students need more than ever. Everything else, like demanding the disbanding of campus police, Patel says, is nothing more than a distraction.
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week on US public television (check local listings) and online.
- US inching away from Israel on Gaza war ›
- Israel-Hamas war: Who is responsible for Gaza's enormous civilian death toll? ›
- Chaos erupts overnight on US campuses. What’s next for student protesters? ›
- How campus protests could influence the US presidential election ›
- Campus protests spill over into US political sphere ›
Covering Columbia's campus protests as a student and GZERO reporter
The past few weeks of student protests, counter-protests, and police activity at Columbia have been the tensest moments the University has seen in over 50 years. What’s it like to be a student and graduating senior during this historic moment?
When GZERO writer Riley Callanan began her senior year at Barnard, the women’s college within Columbia, she never expected it would end this way: thousands of student protesters, an encampment and takeover of an administrative building, the attention of the national news media, armed police officers swarming campus, and, ultimately, a canceled graduation ceremony. Now, as she tells colleague Alex Kliment on GZERO World, instead of senior galas and grad parties, Columbia students are having intense debates over the Israel-Palestine conflict, antisemitism, and free speech.
Callanan has been documenting it all—from the early protests on the academic quad to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson delivering on her library steps. GZERO correspondent Alex Kliment sat down with Callahan to hear more about what it’s like to be a college senior in 2024, what she saw during the protests, and what happens after graduation.“We absolutely need to change the default setting on campuses from confrontation is romanticized to cooperation is the norm."
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week on US public television (check local listings) and online.
- With summer looming, where will student protesters turn next? ›
- From the inside out: Is Columbia’s campus crisis calming down? ›
- Chaos on Campus: Speaker Johnson's visit fans the flames at Columbia as protests go global ›
- Columbia & Yale protests: What campus protesters want ›
- Campus protests spill over into US political sphere ›
Campus protests over Gaza: Now what?
Something is happening here—on college campuses, that is. But what do we make of protests that turn violent, like what we saw at UCLA or even some of the Columbia conflicts? In a wide-ranging interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World, Eboo Patel, founder of the nonprofit Interfaith America, talks about his work on hundreds of college campuses to find common ground. His core message is simple: "Cooperation is better than division."
Patel advocates for a shift in focus from confrontation to cooperation on campuses, suggesting that universities should foster environments of civil discourse. He proposes initiatives like teach-ins and dialogues to explore constructive solutions to complex issues. "I think the problem here, the thing that universities could control, which I think that they have gotten wrong in many cases over the course of the past five years, is the default mode has been set to confrontation, not cooperation."
It's true that finding common ground can be easier said than done when tensions are high. But as Patel points out, the majority of college campuses have been able to debate the Israel-Gaza war without the kind of chaos or violence we've seen on certain campuses. "The media, for good reasons, covers planes that crash and not planes that land," Patel explains.
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week on US public television (check local listings) and online.
- From the inside out: Is Columbia’s campus crisis calming down? ›
- Crisis at Columbia: Protests and arrests bring chaos to campus ›
- Chaos erupts overnight on US campuses. What’s next for student protesters? ›
- How campus protests could influence the US presidential election ›
- Campus protests spill over into US political sphere ›
Ian Explains: Will the Gaza campus protests work?
Have the student protests worked? College campuses nationwide have become protest hubs, echoing past movements demanding change. From Columbia to UCLA, students are pitching tents, occupying buildings, and clashing with police over Israel's actions in Gaza. The core demand: divestment from Israel. Whether it's cutting ties with Israeli donors or businesses, students are risking penalties to be heard, Ian Bremmer explains on GZERO World.
This activism mirrors the 1968 protests at Columbia, which targeted US involvement in Vietnam. Then, as now, divestment was a central demand, albeit from different sources. Some progress has been made; Brown and Northwestern students have reached agreements with administrators. Worldwide, youth are voicing discontent over Gaza.
However, not all support these protests. Some lament another disrupted commencement, while Jewish students feel marginalized and threatened. Can these efforts change US policy? President Biden's recent remarks suggest otherwise, as does Congress' recent passing of $15 billion in military aid for Israel. But Biden needs Gen Z's support for reelection. They have leverage, and they know it.
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week on US public television (check local listings) and online.
Ian Explains: Why Israel's Netanyahu continues to antagonize Biden on Gaza
What is Bibi thinking? Ian Bremmer explains on GZERO World.
As the Gaza war enters its seventh bloody month, leaders in Washington, Jerusalem, and Gaza are asking what is motivating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu. And while we can't read his mind, we can follow what he's saying. "Our goal is to destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas in Gaza" Netanyahu recently said. "There is no substitute for victory."
Israel has launched over 30,000 airstrikes on Gaza since the war began on October 7, killing more than thirty thousand Palestinians, including 14,000 children. Meanwhile, over a hundred Israeli citizens remain Hamas hostages. And according to US intelligence, Israeli Defense Forces have only managed to destroy about 30% of Hamas leadership in those six months. Victory, in short, remains a long way off.
This leads back to the original question: What is Bibi thinking? Well, he's doing what he knows best: holding onto power. To remain prime minister, he must appease a governing coalition of hard-right religious nationalist parties that are resolutely opposed to a ceasefire, not to mention any long-term political settlement with the Palestinians. While the Gaza war is becoming increasingly unpopular internationally, within Israel, there remains a broad base of support for it. And finally, Netanyahu and Biden both know that regardless of internal frustrations, the US will continue to supply Israel with billions of dollars in military backing.
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week on US public television (check local listings) and online.
- Netanyahu flirts with a lengthy stay in Gaza ›
- How Netanyahu used Hamas to avoid talks of a two-state solution ›
- Netanyahu’s failed Gaza strategy ›
- Friedman: Netanyahu is no longer at the wheel ›
- Yuval Noah Harari: Netanyahu's 'Deep State' fears enabled Oct 7 attack ›
- Israel-Hamas war: Netanyahu hostage to far-right coalition, says author Friedman - GZERO Media ›
- Author Thomas Friedman on how the Gaza war could end - GZERO Media ›
- Ukraine will define the future of NATO - GZERO Media ›