Boundless Insights - with Aviva Klompas

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to [email protected] or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas.
After five weeks of fighting, the United States and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire, halting strikes and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. But while the immediate crisis may be paused, the bigger questions are far from resolved.
In this episode, host Aviva Klompas speaks with journalist Eli Lake about what this moment represents. Has the war ended and if so, who came out ahead? 
They examine the damage inflicted on Iran’s military infrastructure and leadership, and whether those losses meaningfully change its long-term capabilities. Iran’s leadership is framing the ceasefire as a victory, with reports it may collect substantial fees from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, potentially offsetting sanctions.
Aviva and Eli also step back to assess whether the war was necessary, and how to interpret President Trump’s unconventional and often provocative communication style. They discuss how to distinguish between rhetoric and policy, and what Trump’s approach reveals about how this war is being conducted and understood.
Speaker Bio
Eli Lake is a journalist and geopolitical analyst, currently a contributing editor and columnist at The Free Press and host of the excellent Breaking History podcast. He was previously a columnist for Bloomberg, The Daily Beast, and Newsweek, where he covered national security, foreign policy, and global affairs. Known for his sharp analysis and independent voice, Eli brings a nuanced and thought-provoking perspective to some of the most pressing issues in international politics.

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to [email protected] or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas.
Global attention is focused on the war with Iran, but another issue is unfolding that raises urgent moral and political questions – the spike in attacks by Jewish extremists against Palestinians in the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria.
In this episode of Boundless Insights, host Aviva Klompas speaks with Yossi Klein Halevi about settler violence - how widespread it is and why it’s surging. The conversation also examines how these attacks affect Israel’s moral standing and where responsibility lies when it comes to enforcing the rule of law.
Guest Bio
Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. His 2013 book, Like Dreamers, won the Jewish Book Council's Everett Book of the Year Award and his latest book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, is a New York Times bestseller. Yossi writes for leading op-ed pages in the US, including the Times and the Wall Street Journal, and is a former contributing editor to the New Republic.

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to [email protected] or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas.
Iran has taken significant hits to its leadership and infrastructure, yet the regime remains in place, continues to project power across the region, and retains the ability to disrupt global energy markets.
So where does that leave us?
In this episode, host Aviva Klompas sits down with Ambassador Daniel Shapiro to examine what this campaign has achieved, whether the United States had a viable alternative to military action, and what a realistic end state might look like from here. They discuss whether an early off-ramp was missed, why both Washington and Tehran are advancing demands that appear impossible to reconcile, and what that signals about the role of diplomacy at this stage of the conflict.
The conversation also explores the credibility of U.S. claims that its objectives can be achieved without deploying ground troops, the uncertainty surrounding Iran’s leadership, and whether the current trajectory points toward a defined outcome or a prolonged and unstable phase of confrontation.
Guest Bio:
Ambassador Daniel Shapiro is a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East from 2024 to 2025, Senior Adviser on Regional Integration in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and US Ambassador to Israel from 2011 to 2017.

Professor Pamela Nadell joins Dr. Rachel Fish to examine the long history of antisemitism in the United States and how it has evolved from the colonial era to the present. They begin with the arrival of Jews in New Amsterdam in 1654 and trace how anti-Jewish tropes rooted in Christian theology and European prejudice were carried into American life from the very beginning. 
The conversation explores the shift from religious anti-Judaism to modern racial antisemitism, the role of immigration restriction in the early twentieth century, and the barriers Jews continued to face even as America projected ideals of freedom and equality. 
The discussion also examines how antisemitism changed after World War II, the unstable place of Jews within America’s racial framework, and the emergence of antizionism as a contemporary expression of Jew-hatred. Along the way, they consider how these ideas have entered public discourse, higher education, and political life, and what it means for American democracy when Jew-hatred becomes normalized.

Further Reading
Antisemitism, an American Tradition (W. W. Norton & Company, 2025) by Pamela S. Nadell

Guest Bio
Professor Pamela S. Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History at American University and is a leading scholar of American Jewish history. She is the author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today, which won the 2019 National Jewish Book Award, and her most recent book, Antisemitism: An American Tradition, traces the history of antisemitism in the United States from colonial times to today. The book received a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Award, won the 2025 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies, and was named a Wall Street Journal best book. A past president of the Association for Jewish Studies, Nadell has testified before Congress multiple times, including in hearings on antisemitism on college campuses, and serves as a consultant to Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life museum.

Host Aviva Klompas is joined by Ambassador Dennis Ross to assess where the war with Iran stands several weeks in and whether the current trajectory is leading toward a meaningful outcome or a prolonged stalemate.
While Iran’s military capabilities have been significantly degraded and key infrastructure has been damaged, the broader strategic picture remains unsettled. The regime is still intact, continues to launch attacks across the region, and retains leverage over global energy markets through the Strait of Hormuz. This raises a central question: what has this campaign actually achieved, and what can it realistically achieve from here?
The conversation examines the gap between tactical success and strategic clarity, including what the United States is ultimately trying to accomplish and how “success” should be defined. Ross explores whether weakening Iran’s capabilities is enough to change its long-term behavior, or whether the current approach risks leaving the core threat intact.
They also discuss Iran’s ability to rebuild with support from China, Russia, and North Korea, its use of energy disruption as a form of deterrence, and the indicators that would signal meaningful pressure on the regime. Finally, the episode considers the risks ahead, from mission creep to broader regional escalation, and what policymakers should be watching as the war continues to unfold.
Guest Bio
Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He also teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He served two and half years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, spending the first 6 months of the Administration as the special advisor on Iran to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. His newest book is Statecraft 2.0: What America Needs to Lead in a Multipolar World (Oxford University Press, March 2025).