Bassam Haddad (host) is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Executive Producer of Status Podcast Channel and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Calamity: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).
Palestine in Context Series
Israel's Elections
with Diana Buttu
In conversation with Bassam Haddad
Friday, October 30 2026
1 PM EST | 7 PM Palestine
In this conversation, Diana Buttu provides an update on Israel’s elections and the resulting gridlock. She addresses the peculiarities of the new contender Eisenkot as well as the nature and politics of the Palestinian parties/block in the context of the remarkable convergence of Israeli polity on the far-right and fascist right, regardless of “competing” parties. We close with a discussion of Netanyahu’s endless maneuverings to stay in power.
Featuring
Diana Buttu is a Palestinian lawyer and analyst based in Haifa and Communications Director to the Institute for Middle East Understanding. Diana was one of the lawyers who challenged the legality of Israel’s apartheid wall before the International Court of Justice. She is a frequent commentator and writer on Palestine, with articles appearing in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Guardian, Foreign Policy, and beyond.