Michael B. Oren was Israel's ambassador to the US from 2009 to 2013 and has been a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and a contributing editor to New Republic. In the first half, he shared his analysis of the Ukraine/Russia conflict from a Middle Eastern perspective, as well as how world leaders are handling these turbulent times. Recently, Ukraine's Pres. Zelenskyy asked Israel to help their cause, and Oren believes Israel should lend their support. He is concerned that if Putin becomes desperate enough, he might unleash nuclear weapons. Oren suggested that this is the time for very serious diplomacy and "out of the box thinking, so we don't reach that 'push the button' point."

Regarding the upcoming elections in Israel, he talked about the possibility of Netanyahu returning to the role of prime minister, as he gives Israelis a sense of security. Oren warned, "we are headed for a regional confrontation in the Middle East," and that the Iranian regime is intent on getting a nuclear weapon. Israel plans to stop them from doing this and will likely face rocket attacks over the conflict, he continued. "We'll have no choice to move our army into Southern Lebanon or beyond that...Israel is going to prevail, I have no doubt about it; the question is the price and the degree to which the United States will stand with us," he remarked. Oren also commented on situations in Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, and China.

-------------

Thriller author and instructor of writing at UCLA, Lynn Hightower, has lived in a haunted house. In the latter half, she discussed scary aspects of the paranormal and the supernatural, including hauntings and entities, which she explores in her novels. Her latest work, "The Enlightenment Project," features the character Dr. Noah Archer, a neurosurgeon, who was possessed at the age of eleven (and treated by an exorcist), so he has no choice but to believe there are dark entities out there. Archer tries to develop a medical protocol to help people build a defense against demonic forces, she said. In her earlier book, "The Piper," she delved into the phenomena of phone calls from the dead. The period when she was writing this work was when she lived in the haunted house, so she was able to incorporate actual incidents into the novel.

Spirit encounters can be malevolent, she cited, but people can be comforted by knowledge that exorcists have shared with her-- that we each have autonomy over our soul. For instance, with the family that stayed in the house that the movie "The Conjuring" was based on, the oldest daughter experienced fewer issues because she blocked the phenomena by telling it to stay away from her. Signs of possession include eye color changing, loss of memory, and the feeling of something controlling you. Suppose the symptoms are due to mental illness rather than the supernatural. In that case, there is generally an internal cause such as trauma, Hightower explained, but if it's genuine possession, it stems from an external condition. During the last hour, callers shared their spooky encounters, including one from Linda in Washington state, who believes that she is actually dead.

News segment guests: Catherine Austin Fitts, John M. Curtis