The American empire has peaked “and we are on the way down… and we try to hold on”, says Richard Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who notes that the BRICS coalition of economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is gaining an edge over the United States.

Wolff tells host Steve Clemons that it’s “a very difficult experience for Americans” to realise that they lost wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. And despite unconditional support from the US, Israel will not be able to prevail in the long run.

“Israel is a country of a few million people and is not going to control and run the Middle East … with or without the United States,” argues Wolff.