Friday Focus: Iran tests America’s resolve and anti-Zionism becomes a winning strategy in New York

Programming note: Friday Focus will be taking a summer break. We will be back with new episodes starting September 11 (and, of course, if any serious news breaks over the summer!).

Janice and Rudyard begin by unpacking an IRGC attack on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, exposing a fundamental divide between Washington and Tehran over freedom of navigation. While the U.S. insists on open access without fees or restrictions, Iran views the waterway as a source of leverage. If the two sides cannot bridge that gap, what hope is there of resolving the far more consequential nuclear dispute? Iran sees a U.S. president who makes a lot of threats but does not have the resolve to make good on them.

In the second half, the conversation turns to Israel’s waning international support and the growing political potency of anti-Zionism. Following a string of primary victories in New York by candidates sharply critical of Israel, Rudyard and Janice ask whether opposition to the Israeli state is becoming a defining electoral issue, particularly among younger voters. They explore the claim that for figures like Zohran Mamdani, Palestine is a central political cause, and consider why anti-Zionist—and at times antisemitic—rhetoric is generating such traction across parts of both the political left and right, and whether that trend can be reversed.

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