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Paul Pillar discusses the multiple obstacles facing Phase 2 of the Gaza Peace Plan and prospects for the U.S.-Iran talks now underway even as U.S. forces are poised to attack Iran. A 28-year veteran of the CIA, Pillar is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy institute for Responsible Statecraft and at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies. He’s the author of several books on foreign policy. His most recent book, published in 2023, is “Beyond the Water’s Edge: How Partisanship Corrupts U.S. Foreign Policy.”

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Overcoming the Structures of Erasure and the Semantics of Genocidal Management with Aseel AlBajeh

"How do we talk about a reality that is being systematically erased in real-time?"

On this episode of Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond the Walls, we examine the epistemology of erasure and how to transcend it through factual reframing. We explore the reality that a genocide is not just committed with bombs, but maintained with words.

Host Jeremy Rothe-Kushel is joined by Aseel AlBajeh, the Advocacy Officer at the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD). A legal researcher turned advocacy strategist, Aseel joins us to elucidate the "Communicating Palestine" guide—a vital new strategic manual designed to help advocates move beyond defensive fact-checking and into offensive narrative power.

We dive into the guide’s core pillars—"Reframing Narratives" and "Engaging Palestinian Voices"—to understand how to shift the conversation away from the "security" traps set by the occupier and back toward the root causes of history, colonization, and rights.

Together, we use the guide to decode the deceptive language of "Peace Plans" and "Day After Scenarios" that currently mask permanent military encampment and starvation logistics in Gaza. We analyze the "Rogue Actor" myth of settler violence in the West Bank to reveal the unitary reality of state annexation.

Crucially, we confront the historical architecture of "Sacred Terrorism." Drawing on the definitive work of Livia Rokach, Thomas Suarez, and Naeim Giladi, we trace how the foundations of the Israeli state were built by self-confessed terrorists like David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin—figures who utilized political violence not as a desperate last resort, but as a calculated tool of statecraft. We examine how this history has been inverted, trapping Western diplomacy in a "double bind" where the victims are labeled terrorists to justify their erasure, while the state architects of terror are shielded by the very "Peace Process" they designed to fail.

Finally, we address the ultimate weapon of the status quo: Apathy. We discuss how the claim that the situation is "too complex" is often a deliberate tactic to induce paralysis. Aseel shares how the Communicating Palestine guide provides the epistemological confidence and ethical clarity needed to cut through this weaponized complexity, empowering listeners to move from feeling overwhelmed to speaking truth with power.

This episode serves as a primer for the upcoming Voices From the Holy Land online film salon and workshop on Sunday, February 15th.

Links & Resources

The Guest & The Tools:

• The Strategic Guide: Communicating Palestine
  • A comprehensive resource for reframing the conversation on Palestine, moving away from exceptionalism and towards universal rights and historical context.
• The Organization: Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD)
• The Event: Voices From the Holy Land: "Say What??" Workshop (Register for Feb 15th)

The Show:

• Radio Broadcast: Understanding Israel Palestine at KKFI 90.1 FM
• Substack: Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Rothe-Kushel

Keywords

Overcoming Structures of Erasure, Genocidal Manag

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Beyond the Language of the Israel-Palestine 'Conflict' and the Unconscious Grammar of Genocidal Consent with Alex McDonald

On this episode of Understanding Israel Palestine, a Beyond the Walls edition, we move beyond the kinetic warfare on the ground to examine the cognitive warfare in our own minds. We investigate the "deep structural politics" of language—the specific mechanisms used to manufacture consent and maintain an information blockade here in the West.

Our guest suggests that we aren't just "misinformed"; we have been acculturated into a specific foreign policy dialect designed to obscure the structural realities of what we have been taught to call the Israel-Palestine "conflict."

Jeremy Rothe-Kushel speaks with Alex McDonald, a researcher, co-founder of the Texas Coalition for Human Rights, and an educator working to correct the historical record in U.S. instructional materials. Alex brings the dual perspective of an analyst and a witness, having served on the Steering Committee of Voices From the Holy Land and as a volunteer on the Freedom Flotilla. He is the author of How I Learned to Speak Israel: An American's Guide to a Foreign Policy Language and When They Speak Israel: A Guide to Clarity in Conversations about Israel.

This conversation serves as a primer and invitation for a vital upcoming event. On February 15th, Alex will lead the Voices From the Holy Land (VFHL) Online Film Salon, a workshop dedicated to decoding and dismantling this disinformation architecture.

Links:

• Register for the VFHL Salon: Tinyurl.com/VFHL-February2026
• Alex McDonald’s Work & Books: SpeakIsrael.info
• Understanding Israel Palestine: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2016486
• Beyond the Walls: https://beyondthewalls.substack.com/

Keywords: Israel-Palestine, Cognitive Warfare, Manufacturing Consent, Alex McDonald, Voices From the Holy Land, Gaza Genocide, Foreign Policy Language, Disinformation, Deep Politics, Freedom Flotilla, Educational Bias, How I Learned to Speak Israel.