How the Iran War will change the Middle East

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Professor Dana El Kurd (University of Richmond) and Professor Nader Hashemi (Georgetown University) about how the current war increases Iran’s “soft power,” why Saudi Arabia and the UAE are reacting differently to Iran and Israel, and why American hegemony remains in the Middle East.

 

Occupied Thoughts by FMEP · How the Iran War will change the Middle East
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​​Dana El Kurd is an associate professor at the University of Richmond in the Department of Political Science, and a senior nonresident fellow at the Arab Center Washington.

Nader Hashemi is the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and a non-resident fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and an MSNOW Political Commentator. His newest book (published 2025) is Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. He publishes regularly on https://peterbeinart.substack.com/.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with Harrison Mann, a former U.S. Army major and executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Middle East/Africa Regional Center who resigned from the Biden Administration in protest of his office’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Ahmed and Harrison discuss the seeming impunity of the elite making policy decisions and recommendations and the effort by senior Biden Administration officials to position themselves for power in the next administration. They also talk about the possibilities and realities of accountability for war crimes in Palestine.
See also Harrison Mann’s recent Zeteo article, “Biden’s Genocide Squad Must Be Stopped Before They Strike Again” and his August 2024 interview with FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart about Harrison’s decision to resign and why government officials continue to implement policies they consider immoral.

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Harrison Mann is a former U.S. Army major and executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Middle East/Africa Regional Center who resigned in protest at his office’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. He is currently with the group Win Without War and is a contributor at Zeteo.
Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. You can follow Ahmed on Substack at: https://ahmedmoor.substack.com and on X at @AhmedMoor.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with Omar Shakir, Executive Director of Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN), about DAWN’s new report on the revolving door between AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and U.S. and Israeli governmental institutions and the roles AIPAC plays in U.S. politics and public discourse. They also look at instances of conflation between Jewish people and AIPAC (including, for instance, by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro), as well as new and growing toxicity of the AIPAC brand and how that toxicity affects other political groups, such as J Street. See the new DAWN report, New Data Highlights AIPAC Ties to the U.S., Israeli Governments (5/20/26).

Occupied Thoughts by FMEP · Unveiling the Israel Lobby
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Omar Shakir is the Executive Director of Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN), the organization founded by the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that seeks to change US policy in the Middle East and hold human rights abusers in the region accountable. Prior to his current role, Omar served for nearly a decade as the Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch.
Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. You can follow Ahmed on Substack at: https://ahmedmoor.substack.com and on X at @AhmedMoor.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with analyst Ben Lorber about the definition of antisemitism today and how it compares to Islamophobia as well as the dynamics around finding common cause with white nationalists.

Occupied Thoughts by FMEP · Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, and White Nationalism
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See also “Joe Kent, who resigned over the Iran war, is not your ally” (Religion Dispatches, April 2026, by Kate Bitz, Elianna Boskoff, and Ben Lorber);
Ben Lorber works as a Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates a progressive thinktank focusing on antisemitism and white nationalism. He is also the co-author of Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism (2024).
Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. You can follow Ahmed on Substack at: https://ahmedmoor.substack.com and on X at @AhmedMoor.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with Matt Duss and Zuri Linetsky about the destabilizing nature of the Abraham Accords; the evolution of the security dilemma and how integration may drive destabilization by fostering aggressive behavior; and whether the Abraham Accords undermined the reinstatement of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the Iran nuclear deal) by the Biden Administration.

Also see:

Occupied Thoughts by FMEP · Abraham Discords — Normalization and Instability

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Matt Duss is the Executive VP at the Center for International Policy. Before joining CIP, Duss was a visiting scholar in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. From 2017-22, Duss was foreign policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt). From 2014-17, Duss was the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. From 2008-14 Duss was a National Security and International Policy analyst at the Center for American Progress.

Zuri Linetsky is head of research and analytics for Dandelion Works and an expert on geopolitics and international security.

Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. You can follow Ahmed on Substack at: https://ahmedmoor.substack.com and on X at @AhmedMoor.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with journalist Maya Rosen and analyst Natasha Soffer-Roth about the groups behind the nascent effort to establish Israeli settlements in Lebanon, the US-to-Israel pipeline of radical Zionists (such as Meir Kahane, Baruch Goldstein, and others), and the role that secular Israelis play in pursuing settlement policies.
For more, see:

Occupied Thoughts by FMEP · Israeli Settlements in Lebanon – a Movement Takes Shape

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Maya Rosen is an assistant editor at Jewish Currents.

Natasha Soffer-Roth (formerly Roth-Rowland) is director of research and analysis at Diaspora Alliance. She has a PhD in History from the University of Virginia, where she wrote her dissertation on the Israeli- and American-Jewish far right

Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. You can follow Ahmed on Substack at: https://ahmedmoor.substack.com and on X at @AhmedMoor.
In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with Mahmoud Mushtaha, a journalist and researcher from Gaza, and Obada Shtaya, the co-founder and CEO of the West Bank-based Institute for Social and Economic Progress. Mahmoud recently published two articles that focus on the thousands of people still missing in Gaza, drawing in part from research that Obada’s institute conducted. Ahmed, Mahmoud, and Obada speak about the people who have been disappeared in Palestine and the social impact on survivors, and they discuss their backgrounds and experiences as Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza.
Mahmoud’s recent articles:

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Occupied Thoughts by FMEP · Gaza’s Disappeared

Recorded on 5/4/26

Obada Shtaya is Co-Founder and CEO of the Institute for Social and Economic Progress. Mahmoud Mushtaha is a Palestinian journalist and researcher from Gaza, and the author of Sobrevivir al genocidio en Gaza (“Surviving the Genocide in Gaza”), his first book, published in Spanish. Their partnership is a product of the Palestine Reporting Lab.

Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. You can follow Ahmed on Substack at: https://ahmedmoor.substack.com and on X at @AhmedMoor.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Bard College Professor Ziad Abu-Rish about the roots of Israel’s aggression against Lebanon. They discuss why Israel has been attacking Lebanon since 1948, why Hezbollah continues to fight Israel, and why the Lebanese military can’t disarm Hezbollah. They draw upon this article that Ziad recently published in The Public Source, “Sovereignty Without Defense: The Army, the State, and Hezbollah’s Weapons.”

Occupied Thoughts by FMEP · The Roots of Israel’s Aggression Against Lebanon

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Recorded on 4/23/26

Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and an MSNOW Political Commentator. His newest book (published 2025) is Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. He publishes regularly on https://peterbeinart.substack.com/.

Ziad Abu-Rish is Associate Professor of Human Rights and Middle Eastern Studies and Director, MA Program in Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College. He is a scholar of the modern Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. His research centers around state formation, economic development, and popular mobilizations, particularly in Lebanon and Jordan. His teaching experience includes undergraduate and graduate courses in human rights; comparative state formation; various themes in Middle East studies; and research methodologies. Abu-Rish is the author of The State of Lebanon: Popular Politics and Institution Building in the Wake of Independence (Stanford University Press, 2026). He co-created (with artist Tania El Khoury) The Search for Power, a touring lecture performance and sound installation exploring the history of electricity in Beirut. Abu-Rish is also coeditor of The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order? (2012) and Critical Voices: A Collection of Interviews from and on the Middle East (2015). Abu-Rish has also authored several articles appearing in Middle East Report and Review of Middle East Studies and chapters in edited volumes on the political economy of the Middle East, the Arab uprisings, and teaching Middle East history. Abu-Rish also serves as coeditor of Arab Studies Journal and Jadaliyya e-zine, and codirector of the Lebanese Dissertation Summer Institute.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP President Lara Friedman is joined by political analyst/commentator Daniel Levy, President of the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP), for a far-ranging conversation about Europe’s equities, concerns, and options with respect to current events in the Middle East (the US/Israel war on Iran, Israel’s wars on Lebanon and Gaza, and Israel’s escalation in the West Bank) including with respect to US-Europe relations. Follow Daniel’s work on Substack.

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Recorded on 4/20/26

Articles by Daniel Levy that relate to this conversation:

Daniel Levy is a political commentator and President of the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP), which emphasizes the Palestine-Israel issue alongside regional conflicts, trends and geopolitics. From 2012 to 2016, Levy was Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to that he was a senior Fellow and Director of the New America Foundation’s Middle East Taskforce in Washington D.C. and a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation in New York. Levy was a Senior Advisor in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and to Justice Minister Yossi Beilin during the Government of Ehud Barak (1999-2001). He was a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Israel/Palestine peace talks at Taba under Barak and at Oslo B under Yitzhak Rabin (1994-95).  Levy is a founder and Advisory Board member of the newly formed Diaspora Alliance (combatting antisemitism and its conflation), a Council Member of the ECFR, and serves on the board of the European Middle East Project. He is a former Trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in New York and of the New Israel Fund, a co-founder of J Street, and a founding Editor of the Middle East Channel at foreignpolicy.com. He frequently writes for, is interviewed by and quoted in multiple media outlets and has been published in the New York Times, FT, and Foreign Affairs, amongst others.  Levy was born and educated in the UK where he has returned to residing and where he graduated with an MA and BA from King’s College, Cambridge with awards. His most recent testimony to the UN Security Council from February 2025 can be viewed here.

Lara Friedman is FMEP’s president. With more than 25 years working in the Middle East foreign policy arena, She is a leading authority on the Middle East, with particular expertise on U.S. foreign policy in the region, on Israel/Palestine, and on the way Middle East and Israel/Palestine-related issues play out in Congress and in U.S. domestic politics, policies, and legislation. Lara is also a preeminent subject-matter expert in the area of anti-Palestinian legislation and “lawfare,” including the weaponization and instrumentalization of the definition of and concerns about antisemitism. Lara’s research on lawfare and antisemitism-related topics – which she makes available to the public – is widely cited and widely recognized as the authoritative data in the field. Prior to joining FMEP, Lara was the Director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now, and before that she was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, serving in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis and Beirut.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks with Middle East policy journalist, analyst, and author Omar Rahman about the Iran War and its impacts in the region. Their conversation explores:

  • Iran-U.S. diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire, and challenges to ending this war.
  • The Trump Administration’s blockade of Iran’s blockade of the Straits of Hormuz
  • The impact of the Iran War on the policies/interests/unity of Gulf states
  • Israel’s war on Lebanon and its impacts for the region
  • The rapidly expanding/shifting Overton window with respect to support for Israel in the U.S.

Articles by Omar discussed in this podcast:

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Recorded on 4/16/26

Omar H. Rahman is a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, where he focuses on Palestine, Middle East geopolitics, and American foreign policy in the region. He is the Editor of Afkār, the Council’s online publication providing insights and analysis on current events in the region. He was previously a non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, and a research analyst at the Arab Gulf States Institute, where he focused on the political economy of the Gulf states. Rahman established his career as a journalist based in the U.S. and the Middle East, including three years in Palestine where he was a columnist for +972 Magazine. Rahman was also an associate editor at World Politics Review in New York, as well as an editor and senior Middle East correspondent at Argus Media. His writing has been published in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The National Interest, Lawfare, VICE, PBS NewsHour, Quartz, Al-Jazeera English, and The National, among other outlets. Rahman’s other work includes peer-reviewed policy papers. academic articles, and book chapters including in the recently-published volume: What is Israel/Palestine? (Routledge, 2022). Follow Omar’s work on X at: @omarrahman

Lara Friedman is FMEP’s president. With more than 25 years working in the Middle East foreign policy arena, She is a leading authority on the Middle East, with particular expertise on U.S. foreign policy in the region, on Israel/Palestine, and on the way Middle East and Israel/Palestine-related issues play out in Congress and in U.S. domestic politics, policies, and legislation. Lara is also a preeminent subject-matter expert in the area of anti-Palestinian legislation and “lawfare,” including the weaponization and instrumentalization of the definition of and concerns about antisemitism. Lara’s research on lawfare and antisemitism-related topics – which she makes available to the public – is widely cited and widely recognized as the authoritative data in the field. Prior to joining FMEP, Lara was the Director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now, and before that she was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, serving in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis and Beirut.