Update: this action, now closed, ran in May 2018. 

Yesterday, President Trump announced his choice of former Republican Congressman and current CIA director Mike Pompeo to be his nominee for Secretary of State. This is a potentially catastrophic decision that could lead the U.S. to war against Iran and threaten Israel’s national security.

Pompeo is an ultra-hawk on Iran and fierce critic of the Iran nuclear deal. After Trump was elected in November 2016, Pompeo tweeted, "I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism." He has used his post as CIA Director to push for the demise of the agreement, and we expect him to continue to do so as Secretary of State. This is despite the continued support for the deal from numerous U.S. and Israeli security figures.

President Trump today fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to succeed him in heading the State Department.

What do you need to know? Here are key takeaways from the shakeup at State, including links to recommended readings.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

This week, Alpher discusses Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's upcoming, unprecedented three-week visit to the US; whether there is an Israel angle to MbS's visions; Jason Greenblatt's opinion piece last week in the Washington Post which seemingly envisioned a future Hamas role in a US-led peace process; and Hamas's upcoming mass march toward Israel’s border fence planned for May 15, the seventieth anniversary of Israeli independence and of the Palestinian “nakba”.

PeaceCast is back after a long hiatus. Ori Nir is back from Israel and the West Bank. Debra Shushan is back from AIPAC's policy conference in DC.

In this episode, Ori and Debra talk about AIPAC, about APN's Israel Study Tour, and about the Encounter program that Ori attended in February in Israel.

The featured segment of the episode is an edited version of a conversation that APN's Board of Directors had at Haaretz's office in Tel Aviv with Editor in Chief Aluf Benn.