East to West | Voices of the Middle East

In this episode of East to West, host Balig Sladeen sits down with Ella Rosenberg, an expert on the Iranian economy with extensive experience analyzing financial systems and capital movements, to understand how do they survive decades of crippling sanctions?Ella Rosenberg, whose research focuses on how funds are transferred from the Iranian regime to European countries explains that the Western idea of a "normal" economy, where goo...

In this explosive episode of East to West, host Balig Sladeen sits down with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gaza-born analyst who speaks openly about the one topic everyone avoids: what people in Gaza REALLY think about Hamas. No slogans. No propaganda. Just personal experience, raw emotion, and truths that rarely escape the region.Ahmed shares what friends, relatives, and civilians whisper behind closed doors — the fear, the pressure, th...

Decades after World War II, Israel’s Mossad made a shocking decision: to reach out not to kill, but to recruit one of Hitler’s most infamous commandos, Otto Skorzeny. What drove this extraordinary move, and what does it reveal about espionage, morality, and survival in the shadow of history?In this episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with Oded Ailam, a former senior Mossad officer and JCFA researcher, who share...

In this gripping episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with Mosab Hassan Yousef — the son of a Hamas co-founder who became one of the movement’s fiercest critics.

From inside the heart of Hamas to a global stage, Mosab unveils the true face of the ideology that birthed the October 7th massacre. He explains how Hamas grew from the Muslim Brotherhood’s radical vision, why “globalizing the Intifada” means spreading c...

In this episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir welcomes bestselling author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza together with Dr. Dan Diker, President of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, for a penetrating discussion on October 7th as more than just a terror attack.Together, they examine how Hamas’s atrocities marked a civilizational turning point — an assault not only on Israel but on Judeo-Christian values...

Thirty-two years after the Oslo Accords, the grand promises of peace have given way to waves of terror and deep disillusionment. Now, as war rages in Gaza and governments around the world move to recognize a Palestinian State, one question looms: is this a genuine roadmap to peace — or an invitation that rewards more violence? In this episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with Ambassador Alan Baker, a key negotia...

In this episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir sits down with Oded Ailam, former senior Mossad officer and researcher at the JCFA Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. Together, they mark one year since Israel’s daring “beeper operation” against Hezbollah in September 2024 — a covert move that crippled Hezbollah’s communications, eliminated thousands of commanders in minutes, and triggered a domino effect ac...

In this powerful episode of East to West, hosted by Sarah Martinez Amir, we sit down with Mosab Hassan Yousef, also known as The Green Prince — the son of a Hamas co-founder who made the extraordinary choice to break away and expose the truth about the movement from within.Mosab reflects on the aftermath of October 7, the suffering in Gaza, and the propaganda war that has reshaped global opinion. He explains why the chaos in Gaza i...

In this urgent episode of East to West by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh, the first Druze woman elected to the Knesset and a fierce advocate for her community, about a devastating wave of violence targeting the Druze in southern Syria.From children killed in their cars to hospitals under siege, Kamal-Mreeh reveals how jihadist militias have resurfaced u...

On October 7, women were systematically targeted by Hamas. Now, Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a UN insider and legal scholar, reveals why the world — including leading women's rights organizations — stayed silent.She co-authored the Dina Project’s explosive report, which shows: Gang rape and genital mutilation across multiple sites; Assaults against hostages that continued in captivity; A coordinated, intentional use of sexual v...

Why is the word "genocide" being weaponized against Israel while true atrocities around the world go ignored? In this powerful episode of East to West, JCFA’s Sarah Martinez Amir sits down with Egyptian-born national security expert Khaled Hassan to expose the media’s dangerous manipulation of language, and its consequences for Jews worldwide.From Piers Morgan’s viral interviews to BBC Arabic’s October 7th coverage, Hassa...

In this powerful episode of East to West from the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, host Sarah Martinez Amir sits down with Netflix star and software engineer Miriam Haart. Speaking live from Tel Aviv during the 12-Day War, Miriam opens up about finding herself in bomb shelters instead of Pride parades — and why she refuses to hide her identity in the face of rising antisemitism, even in the progressive spaces that...

In this gripping episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with Zineb Riboua, Middle East scholar at the Hudson Institute, about Operation Rising Lion — the Israeli strike that shattered Iran’s strategic command and sent shockwaves through the Middle East.Zineb explains how Israel pulled off one of the most sophisticated deception campaigns in modern military history, why Iran’s grip on its proxies in Lebanon, Yemen,...

In this gripping episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with Iranian activist Gazelle Sharmahd — the daughter of Jamshid, a journalist kidnapped, tortured, and executed by the Islamic regime. As Israeli airstrikes hit the gates of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, Gazelle shares a deeply personal and unflinching account of life under the Islamic regime. From the systematic torture of children to the regime’s infiltrat...