Q&A: US and Israel’s ‘special relationship’, the World Cup and who polices Trump’s board of peace?

**Jamie Rubin** (0:02)
This is a Global Production.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:05)
Bennett said they could potentially annex 60% of the Occupied West Bank. Jimmy, it's called Area C. That is huge.

**Jamie Rubin** (0:14)
Whatever you called our power, it's never going to be the same.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:19)
President Trump has kept a very low profile. He has not been to any of the matches or in any significant way. People have, at least in many of these places, have appreciated that. I'm still stuck on you saying the man on top and the woman on top, right?

**Jamie Rubin** (0:35)
And the woman on top.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:36)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hello, everyone. It is us, Christiane Amanpour and Jamie Rubin, with our Q&A episode because this is where we answer your questions, as we are always delighted to do. Jamie, take it away.

**Jamie Rubin** (0:52)
Timothy on email asks, during the early Iran War, many Asian countries reliant on oil through the Strait of Hormuz urged citizens to conserve fuel. Nearly four months on, what is the current fuel situation in those countries? I don't know the specifics of the answer to that, but I do know that there is a serious backlog, that there are serious problems in many, many countries.
And in fact, there's been some studies coming out that one of the only countries that really benefited from all of this is China, because they stored a lot of oil, they were able to prevent a lot of their exports, and because of their electric cars and many other factors, they are the ones suffering the least from the damage to the world economy from the war. And Asian countries have had serious damage, not just about oil, but fertilizer and certain goods and certain supplies that have really damaged the prospects of economic growth for many countries around the world. And, you know, I just have to say that because the war was so unexplained in its justification and there was no real attempt to build world opinion, I mean, I can't think of anything that would do more damage to perceptions of the United States than people suffering from a war that they never really were told why it was so important.

**Christiane Amanpour** (2:15)
And this real suffering, I mean, the big, big energy sufferer was the Philippines and they put in energy emergency mechanisms and rationed it and called a state of emergency on this.
I don't know whether that's still in place, but as you say, everybody knows that even if the Strait of Hormuz was fully opened right now, it would still take, according to the analysts, quite a long time to get oil supplies moving back to where they should be and to fill up depleted stocks and all the rest of it. But the other thing, as you said about fertilizer, it is heartbreaking to see some of these countries in Africa, Asia, others, they can't afford to eat half of these places. It's just really, really, really knocked them for six and it's been a terrible, terrible thing and it's heartbreaking to see this. It really, really is. I don't think anybody even gamed that out at all, much less the Strait of Hormuz. But what actually was going to be the actual human catastrophic consequences for the, yep, for the less well-off world. It's again a North-South divide. Okay, Paul on email. A UN inquiry accuses Israel of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Palestinians. At what point does the US reconsider its special relationship with a country repeatedly accused of such crimes by international bodies?

**Jamie Rubin** (3:41)
I'm going to start answering that, because I could see that was the way the softball was thrown in my direction. Look, I think we already are reconsidering our special relationship. I think the Democratic Party is going through, I mean, just analytically, this is just true, going through a real deep think about what it means to be Israel's friend and ally when that country is run by government that performs an axe and proceeds in ways that are so unexplainable and horrific, especially in Gaza during the war, where the lives of the innocent Palestinians were just not given any serious consideration in the opinion of so many people in the United States. The United States is reconsidering it. I think that's true.
The Republicans are reconsidering it. There are prominent MAGA supporters, including the great good old Tucker Carlson, who've left the Republican Party precisely for not only, but mostly because of his belief that Israel's consideration is too great in President Trump's foreign policy. So that reconsideration is going on. It's a good question asked by Paul.