Book Talk | Crossing the Red Line
Biden, His Advisors, and Israel’s War in Gaza
Will US officials face accountability for providing carte blanche support for genocide? In his searing new book Crossing the Red Line, investigative journalist Akbar Shahid Ahmed meticulously examines the Biden administration’s unconditional support of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza. Focusing on Biden’s inner circle of advisors, Ahmed reveals how the United States enabled Israel’s aggression and complete disregard for U.S. and international law, bankrolling Gaza’s wholesale destruction. With these very Biden officials now aiming to rehabilitate their public image, Ahmed’s book is an essential reminder of the need for reckoning in the Democratic foreign policy establishment and beyond.
Join a conversation with the author alongside Annelle Sheline, research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute who resigned from the State Department in March 2024 over the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israel, and Khaled Elgindy, senior research fellow in the Middle East program.
The conversation will take place on Tuesday, November 10th from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET.
Panelists
Akbar Shahid Ahmed
Akbar Shahid Ahmed is the diplomatic correspondent at The Washington Sun. For his Gaza coverage, he has received a Writers Guild Award and a New York Press Club Award and has twice been named a finalist for the Livingston Award. Based in Washington, D.C., Ahmed previously covered foreign policy at HuffPost for twelve years. He is a Yale graduate who grew up in Karachi, Pakistan.
Khaled Elgindy
Khaled Elgindy is a senior research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and adjunct instructor at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. He is the author of Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump (Brookings Institution Press, 2019). Elgindy previously held positions at the Middle East Institute (2020-25) and the Brookings Institution (2010-18).
Annelle Sheline
Annelle Sheline, Ph.D., is a research fellow in the Middle East program. She previously served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs (DRL/NEA), before resigning in March 2024 in protest over the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israeli military operations in Gaza. Her book “Weaponizing Tolerance: Arab Monarchies and American Support for Moderate Islam” will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2027.
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