Middle East Forum Podcast

In Jordan, King Abdullah II has steered a delicate course through a turbulent region, balancing global alliances with domestic pressures, as vividly captured in The Most American King, the first comprehensive biography of the king. Drawing on over 100 interviews with Abdullah’s classmates, former Jordanian ministers, and CIA directors, author Aaron Magid, a former Amman-based journalist, traces Abdullah’s journey from a Massachuset...

In southern Syria, the Druze community—split between pro- and anti-Damascus factions—has long navigated alliances amid local Sunni Arabs and shifting regime forces, all entangled in the remnants of Iran's "Axis of Resistance." Yet, Israel's evolving policies over the past few months, from its support for religious and ethnic minorities to tentative outreach toward Damascus's new government, have complicated ef...

Rising antisemitism, multiculturalism, and postmodern relativism currently threaten the well being and security of Israel and the Jewish people. Josh Hammer argues that the West’s survival hinges on Israel’s strength and the Jewish people’s right to self-determination. From the trauma of October 7, 2023, to global anti-Israel sentiment, the stakes are clear: a proud Jewish heritage is vital to the West’s endurance. How does Israel ...

What will Happen Next in Gaza? Is the war coming to an end? Is another temporary ceasefire imminent? Might the long declared IDF military surge to conquer the Gaza Strip be about to begin?Ashley Perry is an advisor to the Middle East Forum’s Israel office. He served as adviser to Israel's minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister in 2009-15, and has also worked with Israel's Ministers of Intelligence, Agricultur...

For decades, Iran's theocratic regime has wielded unyielding control, fueling regional instability through its nuclear ambitions, proxy militias, and ideological fervor, casting a shadow over the Middle East. Yet, amid escalating internal protests, economic collapse, and external pressures from Israel's precision strikes on key military targets in 2025, whispers of regime change are growing louder. How might a post-regime I...

The Middle East has been transformed by the recent Israel-Iran war, with profound strategic, diplomatic, and military consequences. The war was the culmination of the contest which commenced with the Hamas massacres of October 7, 2023. How will this conflict reshape the Middle East’s power dynamics? What are the prospects for peace or for further escalation? Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh is the director of Eastern Mediterranean Policy at the ...

For decades, evangelical Christianity championed Israel and religious freedom. As a result, it often found itself clashing with supremacist strands of Islam. Deep concern over Christian persecution—largely in Muslim-majority countries post-Soviet collapse—fueled wariness of political Islam’s aggressive forms. Recently, things have begun to shift. Some evangelical institutions in the US have begun to embrace woke ideologies, softeni...

As Israel’s battle with the Islamic Republic of Iran continues in its new phase of direct conflict after four decades of proxy wars, numerous questions remain. How is Israel defining victory and what means does it have to attain its goals? What role with the U.S. play militarily, diplomatically and politically? What does defeat look like for Iran and what does the future hold for its citizens? What does all of this mean for the Mid...

For decades, Iran’s network of proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and others—formed a formidable "Axis of Resistance," projecting Tehran’s influence across the Middle East. Yet, Israel’s 2025 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and IRGC leadership, followed by devastating retaliatory campaigns, have left these groups reeling. From Hezbollah’s decimation in Lebanon to Hamas’s weakened grip in Gaza, Iran’s once-mighty proxies fa...

In a perplexing twist, segments of the LGBTQ+ community have aligned with Islamist terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, despite these Islamist groups’ brutal persecution of individuals from this community. From Pride parades chanting “Queers for Hamas” to slogans like “Gays for Gaza,” some activists champion pro-Palestinian causes while ignoring the imprisonment, torture, and execution of LG...