The flaring conflict between Israel and the Palestinians — a conflict that has exploded quickly and expansively — has dominated the news in recent days and raised a host of pressing questions. To answer them, we spoke with Steven A. Cook, Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on Arab and Turkish politics as well as U.S.-Middle East policy. Steven is the author most recently of False Dawn: Protest, Democracy, and Violence in the New Middle East, a member of our editorial board, and a longtime contributor to the Octavian Report.