Boundless Insights - with Aviva Klompas

As the war with Iran continues, the conflict is raising fundamental questions about how the United States uses military power and how President Trump’s foreign-policy doctrine may be evolving. For years, Trump was closely associated with an “America First” approach that emphasized avoiding prolonged wars and limiting U.S. military involvement abroad. But the current campaign against Iran suggests...

As the war in the Middle East unfolds, its consequences are being felt far beyond the battlefield. The conflict has triggered fierce debate about American involvement, Israel’s role in U.S. foreign policy, and the future of one of Washington’s most important alliances. In this episode, host Aviva Klompas speaks with historian and former Israeli ambassador to the United States Dr. Michael Oren abou...

As the war with Iran enters its second week, the military campaign has already shown successes. Key leaders have been eliminated, missile and drone attacks have sharply declined, and critical parts of Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure have been damaged. But in the public discourse, a very different battle is unfolding. Across media and politics, fierce arguments have erupted about the leg...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. Following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, accusations that the operation was “illegal” and a violation of international law spread rapidly from social media to Congress to global institutions, often with great certainty and little explanation. In this episode o...

The United States and Israel launched a joint military campaign against Iran, signaling a decisive escalation after years of mounting confrontation. The operation appears aimed not only at degrading Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities, but at fundamentally altering the regime’s trajectory, with President Trump openly calling on the Iranian people to challenge their rulers. As strikes hit senio...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. As U.S. forces surge into the Middle East and diplomacy with Iran appears increasingly strained, questions are mounting about whether Washington is headed toward military action or using force to extract last-ditch concessions. Host Aviva Klompas is joined by Jonathan Schanz...

Extremism expert and political scientist Dr. Lorenzo Vidino joins Dr. Rachel Fish to explore the history and spread of radical Islamism and how it has taken root in Western democracies. They trace the movement’s origins to the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood, explain the difference between Islam as a religion and Islamism as a political ideology, and discuss how Islamist groups have adapted the...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. In this special live podcast from Sydney, Australia, host Aviva Klompas is joined by Kellie Sloane, Member of Parliament and Leader of the Opposition in New South Wales. Two months after the antisemitic attack at Hanukkah by the Sea in Bondi, Kellie reflects on what it meant...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. Since October 7, a key battlefield has been in courtrooms and international institutions. At the International Criminal Court, prosecutors have sought arrest warrants for Israel’s leaders. At the International Court of Justice, Israel is accused of genocide. And the United N...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. After more than two years, the mission to bring home every Israeli held hostage in Gaza has come to an end. For many Israelis, that moment has lifted an enormous emotional weight and raised a difficult question: Is the October 7 war over? Host Aviva Klompas is joined by Dr....

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. Israel’s political system is famously complex. It’s parliamentary, based on proportional representation, and rarely produces a clear majority - meaning governments are constantly being built, rebuilt, and threatened from within by their own coalitions. In this episode of Bou...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. Iran faced its most serious wave of unrest in years, as anti-government protests erupted across the country. Host Aviva Klompas is joined by Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to examine what’s happening on t...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. In this episode of Boundless Insights , host Aviva Klompas is joined by Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel, for a conversation about leadership at a time of profound national strain. Since October 7, Israel has been carrying deep loss alongside urgent questions o...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. In this episode, host Aviva Klompas is joined by former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren for a wide-angle look at the regional landscape heading into 2026. Together, they examine how recent diplomatic moves, shifting U.S.–Israel dynamics, internal pressur...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. Aviva closes out 2025 with actor, comedian, and podcaster Michael Rapaport for a funny and thoughtful look back. They reflect on how the last two years have reshaped Jewish life and identity, revisit the cultural and political moments that defined 2025, and talk about what t...

Sociologist and Jewish studies scholar Dr. Shaul Kelner joins Dr. Rachel Fish to examine the rise of antizionism as a distinctly American political and social movement. Kelner argues that contemporary antizionism is less an intellectual critique of Zionism than a political mass movement defined by praxis: the othering and exclusion of Jews through social and institutional action.  Their conversati...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. Host Aviva Klompas speaks with Loay Alshareef, an Arab Muslim peace advocate whose personal journey challenges some of the most entrenched assumptions in the Middle East. Raised in Saudi Arabia in an environment steeped in anti-Jewish narratives, Loay describes the beliefs h...

Please donate to support and the families affected by the Bondi Beach terror attack: www.charidy.com/supportsydney We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @AvivaKlompas. Aviva speaks with survivors of the terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead and dozens wounded. What began as a...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. In this episode, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis reflects on what Hanukkah asks of us this year, in the wake of the antisemitic attack on Jews in Australia. He explores how an ancient story of courage, conviction, and spiritual resilience speaks to a moment when Jewish commun...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. Israel is facing a moment without precedent: a sitting prime minister on trial for corruption is now asking the president for a pardon.  Benjamin Netanyahu has spent years fighting charges of fraud, breach of trust, and accepting gifts from wealthy associates. The trial has...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @avivaklompas. In this episode of Boundless Insights, host Aviva Klompas speaks with Dr. Einat Wilf about her decision to launch a new political party in Israel and what she believes the country urgently needs right now. Wilf explains why she founded the Oz Party, arguing that Israel must...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org, or message Aviva on X at @AvivaKlompas.  Boundless relies on your support to produce courageous conversations and nuanced analysis at a time when clarity matters more than ever. If this episode – or any of our work – has helped you better understand the moment we’re living in, please consider making a contributio...

Middle East analyst David Makovsky joins Dr. Rachel Fish to unpack the “phase one to phase two” handoff in Gaza: what the Trump plan actually changed, why returning the remaining hostages bodies still matters, and why an international stabilization force is unlikely to disarm Hamas.  Makovsky outlines a de-Hamas future for Gaza built on a West-Berlin model that pairs PA-Israel security coordinatio...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org, or message Aviva on X at @AvivaKlompas. In this episode, Aviva sits down with Dr. Michael Oren to examine the troubling spike in settler violence in Judea and Samaria. In recent weeks, attacks on Palestinian communities and farmers have become more frequent and more brazen, raising alarms among Israel’s top polit...

We want to hear from you. Send questions and comments to podcast@boundlessisrael.org or message Aviva on X at @AvivaKlompas. The Republican Party is in flux. Once unified around faith, freedom, and family, it now finds itself wrestling with internal divisions — between traditional conservatives, populists, and the MAGA movement — over what it means to be a Republican in America today. In this epis...