When Reagan Pressured Israel
History As It Happens
English - April 23, 2024 08:30 - 1 hour - 88.4 MB - ★★★★★ - 41 ratingsNews History politics history news perspective Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
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After Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982, President Ronald Reagan grew infuriated by Israel's siege of Beirut because of thousands of civilian casualties. His administration cut off some arms shipments to Israel, and Reagan himself tore into Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to convince him to withdraw. Today, President Joseph Biden is being criticized for failing to effectively exert U.S. pressure on Israel to curb its campaign in Gaza to protect Palestinian civilians and avoid provoking a wider Middle Eastern war. In this episode, historian Salim Yaqub, an expert on U.S. foreign relations and the Middle East, delves into the analogy between Reagan in 1982 and Biden in 2024.