Middle East Forum

12/19/2025

A new Middle East Forum report raises serious questions about what Northwestern University’s Qatar campus is actually designed to do.

Rather than operating as an open academic institution, the report finds that Northwestern University’s Qatar campus functions as a selective credentialing pipeline for Qatar’s ruling families and elite.

Nearly one in five graduates since 2014 comes from a small circle of powerful clans that dominate the country’s government, media, and economy.

The overlap between who funds the campus, who governs it, and who benefits from it challenges claims of academic independence — and highlights how American university brands can be leveraged by foreign power structures.

Read more:

https://www.meforum.org/mef-reports/how-the-qatari-royals-and-elite-conquered-northwestern-universitys-qatar-campus-in-doha

Northwestern/Qatar Operates as a Selective Training Ground for the Same Families Who Finance and Control the Campus

12/18/2025

What happened in Australia may be a preview, not an outlier.

Michael Rubin warns that rising antisemitism, combined with political appeasement in parts of Europe, is creating a dangerous environment for Jewish communities across the continent.

Ignoring early warning signs has consequences — and history shows how quickly rhetoric can turn into violence.

Read more:

https://www.meforum.org/mef-online/after-australia-will-jewish-people-in-europe-be-next

Australia Is the Canary in the Coal Mine, but the Real Explosion May Soon Come in Ireland, Norway, and Turkey

12/17/2025

Live at 3:00 p.m. ET — Israel Insider with Ashley Perry! 🎙️ If you want deeper context on the news from Israel and across the region, this episode is for you.

Register now:

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12/17/2025

X’s updated transparency rules have exposed a synthetic Gaza disinformation network — accounts amplifying recycled imagery and emotive text while masquerading as front-line sources.

Strengthening platform transparency, metadata standards, and third-party verification can help limit the influence of fabricated narratives while preserving open discourse.

Full analysis:

https://www.meforum.org/mef-observer/xs-transparency-rules-expose-a-synthetic-gaza-disinformation-network

Accounts Falsely Presented Themselves as Civilians in Gaza, Posting Emotive Casualty Claims and Siege Narratives

12/16/2025

MEF analyst Eric Navarro joined Newsmax to assess the security implications of a deadly attack on U.S. forces in Syria—and what it reveals about America’s continued military engagement in the region.

He explains why the threat from ISIS and radicalized actors has not disappeared, why deterrence depends on action rather than rhetoric, and why a U.S. pullback would only allow threats to metastasize—endangering allies and the U.S. homeland.

▶️ Watch the full analysis:

12/16/2025

A new research initiative launches today at the Middle East Forum.

The Dhimmitude Institute will examine the historical and contemporary treatment of religious minorities under Islamic governance—an issue too often ignored or distorted in public debate.

By commissioning empirically grounded, policy-relevant research, the institute aims to clarify how legal, social, and economic systems of religious hierarchy have operated in the past and continue to shape realities today.

Read more:

https://www.meforum.org/press-releases/middle-east-forum-launches-dhimmitude-institute

New Research Initiative Honors Pioneering Scholars Bat Ye'or and David Littman While Addressing Modern-Day Religious Oppression

12/16/2025

You cannot police every beach, café, or public walkway.

On Fox News, Jim Hanson explains why terror groups target iconic locations like Bondi Beach, how extremist narratives spread unchecked, and what governments must do to stop attacks before they happen.

Read more:
https://youtu.be/JWCjxoSGJ04

MEF Chief Strategist Jim Hanson spoke with FOX News about the deadly attack at Bondi Beach where Islamist terrorists attacked Jews at a ceremony celebrating ...

12/15/2025

Egypt’s security environment is shifting fast — from Houthi attacks on maritime traffic to instability across the Horn of Africa.

Starting in 10 minutes, Egyptian Member of Parliament Mohamed Farid joins our podcast to explain how Cairo is responding: the impact on Suez navigation, Ethiopia’s Red Sea push, cooperation with Somalia and Eritrea, and the consequences of the civil war in Sudan.

Don’t miss this timely strategic briefing — register now:

https://www.meforum.org/podcasts/december-15-2025-egypts-security-challenges-in-the-red-sea-and-africa-with-mohamed-farid

How is Cairo responding to ongoing instability in the Red Sea and in Africa? Mohamed Farid, recently elected to Egypt’s parliament, will share his views on Cairo’s stance toward ongoing Houthi attacks and their impact on Suez Canal traffic, as well as Egypt’s broader approach to the Horn of Af...

12/15/2025

The Bondi Beach terror attack did not come without warning — and the record makes that clear.

In a forceful essay, Gregg Roman argues that Australia’s leadership spent more than two years treating an escalating terrorist threat as a social-cohesion issue rather than a national-security crisis.

The question now is whether Canberra will respond with the resolve once shown after past national traumas — or allow political paralysis to define what comes next.

Read more:

https://www.meforum.org/mef-observer/after-australias-bondi-attack-will-albanese-match-howards-courage

If Investigation Confirms Iranian Involvement in the Bondi Massacre, Canberra Must Sever Diplomatic Relations with Tehran

12/15/2025

A Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach became the target of terror — and it didn’t happen in isolation.

In a sharp analysis, Danielle Pletka explains how years of political signaling and indifference toward Jewish concerns created an environment where antisemitism could escalate openly and violently in Australia.

From chants of hatred to firebombed synagogues, the warning signs were visible long before the attack. The failure, she argues, was not surprise — but sustained alienation and avoidance of accountability.

Read more:

https://www.meforum.org/mef-observer/hanukkah-terror-has-roots-in-australias-alienation-of-jews

Canberra Once Aligned with the United States on Middle East Issues, Including Israel, but Prime Minister Albanese Has Hewn a Different Path

12/12/2025

Palestinian independence is collapsing under the weight of internal fragmentation and failed governance.

A model of localized Arab autonomy under Israeli external control may be the only framework with any stability, argues Aaron Shuster in his analysis.

It’s a provocative rethink of what comes after the two-state idea.

Read more:

https://www.meforum.org/mef-observer/palestinian-independence-is-a-fantasy-external-control-is-essential

Arab Communities in the West Bank and Gaza Need to Be Decentralized Arab Emirates with Internal Autonomy, Under Overarching Israeli Control

12/09/2025

Information warfare isn’t supposed to make your opponent stronger. But that’s exactly what happened here.

A bot-driven, AI-enhanced influence operation targeting Iran collapsed so quickly — and so publicly — that Tehran used it as proof of foreign manipulation. Instead of undermining the regime, the campaign gave it ammunition.

Gregg Roman’s latest analysis shows how amateur digital warfare becomes a liability, why Iran was able to expose the network in weeks, and what real influence operations actually require.

This one is blunt, detailed, and worth your time.

Read the full piece:

https://www.meforum.org/mef-observer/when-information-warfare-actually-works

Israel’s Persian Bot Fiasco Shows Exactly What Not to Do—and Reveals the Path to Cognitive Victory