Middle East Forum Podcast

Close to the Middle East, with many connections to the region, Greece faces complex geo-political challenges, dominated by an increasingly threatening Türkiye. What are Athens’ best responses to Erdoğan’s multiple provocations? What are the other problems? What are the opportunities?

In the Arabic-speaking countries, the Jewish Holocaust in World War II is not taught in schools and is widely considered a taboo subject. This is in keeping with the Palestinian norm of rejecting any expression of concern regarding Jewish persecution. Given recent peace agreements between Israel and a number of Arab states, are Arabs relating to the Holocaust differently? If so, how? If not, why n...

Despite less international press coverage, Iranians continue to challenge the Islamist regime via demonstrations, economic strikes, and other acts of civil disobedience, organized and led by local neighborhood groups and supported by Iranians abroad. What direction is the uprising taking? What are its major challenges? What role do Iranians outside the country play?

Former Iranian diplomat and senior regime official Mohammad Jaffar Mahallati, now a professor of religion at Oberlin College, stands accused of helping to cover up a mass murder of Iranian dissidents in the late 1980s. Despite his continuing ties to the regime and Hezbollah, he remains securely employed at the college, which maintains radio silence. Is Mahallati unique? What should be done? How to...

The Palestinians - both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas - have built a strategy based on the hope and belief that they will eventually destroy Israel. What is the nature of this victory campaign? How can Israel learn from it and turn it on its head?

According to Ha'aretz, "Israeli Apartheid Week started in 2005 in Toronto, and since then has become an annual headache for pro-Israeli organizations, a growing concern for Israeli diplomats, and probably the worst time on campus for Israeli students." As the 2023 version ends at dozens of North American universities, we ask: What impact does this event have? Is it growing or declining?

Prime Minister Netanyahu has called for a compromise on the searing issue of judicial reform. While this move may appease reform's opponents, might it cause the government to fall?

What is the proper role of the Holocaust in Israeli life? Some say that peace with the Palestinians requires Jewish Israelis to set aside this memory. Is that right or, rather, should they better understand that traumatic experience?

Abdulrahman Bindamnan spent his childhood studying in Yemen’s Islamic schools. He memorized the Qur'an, a book of 77,000 words, and spent countless hours perfecting his Qur’anic pronunciation. Reflecting on this experience from the vantage point as a graduate student in the United States, he argues that too large a proportion of Muslim children fail to receive a secular education, and instead adva...

Israel's President Herzog offered a compromise on the heated issue of judicial reform. Will it help bridge the gap?

America is currently facing a historic crisis of mass illegal migration at its southern border. Government data reveals an alarming number of migrants on the FBI's terror-watch list caught at that border since Joe Biden became president. A "Muslim-only migrant shelter" has even opened in Tijuana, Mexico. What impact does this migration have on U.S. national security? What needs to change? What are...

Following years of uncontrolled mass immigration and failed integration of immigrants, Sweden has become a segregated social welfare state. Gang violence, crime, and Islamization are rapidly replacing Sweden’s traditional culture. Following its election success in 2022, the Sweden Democrat party supports a right-wing governing bloc promising to reverse immigration and multicultural policies. After...

The prospect of judicial reform has prompted unprecedented internal opposition in Israel. Why has a compromise not yet emerged? What needs to happen for that to happen?

Palestinians in Gaza are forbidden to express ideas or expose realities that displease Hamas, its Islamist rulers. Whispered in Gaza, a Center for Peace Communications initiative, breaches this blockade by featuring frank testimony from dozens of Gazans. What picture do they paint? How has this series, already viewed more than five million times, had an impact?

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, European governments usually viewed the Islamic Republic of Iran as not their problem. This perception changed significantly of late due to the women's-led revolt in Iran, Tehran siding with Russia in Ukraine, and Iranian acts of violence on European soil. Is the age of European appeasement truly over? What importance does this have?

PM Netanyahu is pulled one way by his coalition partners, another way by unprecedented protests and foreign critics. Can he reconcile these strains or might the government fall?

Just as marketing has a key role in business development, so it does in U.S. foreign policy, as Ben Rhodes made notoriously known in selling the Iran deal. Marketing also played a significant part in the Trump administration's Middle East accomplishments, including the move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, the Abraham Accords, and the "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran's regime. How did the...

Asra Q. Nomani has discovered a network of keyboard warriors who hide behind fake identities and pseudonymous Twitter and Facebook accounts. These digital trolls launch virulent attacks against Muslim reformers and other critics of Islamism who challenge their effort to destroy the American freedom of free speech. What successes has this army had? Is it getting stronger or weaker? How can it be co...

Increasingly, voices are predicting civil war in Israel over the judicial reform issue. Is such a scenario possible? Have Israeli politics ever been this divisive?

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has begun to reshape realities in the Middle East. Both China and Turkey are playing more prominent roles in the region, while Iran has been afforded a dangerous path to achieving its Islamist goals. How will this impact demographics and geopolitics? Is there any pushback by the West?

The 20th anniversary of the launch of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq approaches next month. Within weeks, Iraq plunged into insurgency and sectarian warfare as competing factions battled for control of the country. Institutions established then still remain in place today; how effective are they? Looking back, what did American policy get right and wrong? What insights does a look back provide for...

Abdel Bari Atwan is the London-based editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Rai al-Youm and someone with a long, well-documented record of antisemitism and support for anti-Israel violence. He had been a frequent guest discussing the Middle East on the BBC – until CAMERA UK's exposure ended that. But Atwan is just one of many Islamists featured by the BBC. Why does the network have a penchant for...

Five months of anti-regime protests in Iran amount to a monumental clash between the dictatorship and the people. That’s because, unlike previous uprisings in the Islamic Republic, which focused on specific grievances the regime could fix, demonstrators this time appear totally to reject the system in which they live. How much have the protests diminished the regime’s base? Will they win changes?...

With Palestinian violence against Israelis on the rise, why is the Netanyahu-led government so focused on judicial reform?

Per capita, Israel probably has the most international media coverage of any country. That coverage may also be among the most bifurcated, positive and negative. What are recent media trends pertaining to Israel? What is the key predictor of attitudes – religion, politics, or something else? Has social media changed what people know about Israel?