Prof. Eyal Zisser is Chair of Contemporary History of the Middle East and Vice Rector at Tel Aviv University. He is also the author of several books and a prominent columnist for Israel Hayom, and previously served as Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.

Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman was Deputy Director for foreign policy and international affairs at Israel’s National Security Council. Prior to this he held senior posts in IDF Military Intelligence for over 20 years. He is currently Vice President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Assaf Orion is an international fellow at the Washington Institute and a senior researcher at INSS. He previously served as head of the Strategic Division in the IDF Planning Directorate. He led the IDF team in the tripartite mechanism in Lebanon with UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces, took part in the US-Israel Security Dialogue, and represented the IDF in negotiations with the Palestinians.

Dr Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC, and an expert on regional security in the Middle East. In the past he has consulted for the CIA as well as the US Departments of State and Defence. 

Roni Fantanesh Malkai is an Ethiopian Israeli activist, commentator and author of ‘We Are Black Jews’. Born in Ethiopia, she came to Israel as a young child. Roni campaigns on issues affecting the Ethiopian Israeli community, with a particular focus on education and social mobility.

Yaakov Katz is a former military correspondent and editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, where he continues to write a weekly column. He is the author of four books, relating to Israeli security including his most recent work on October 7. He also served as a senior foreign policy advisor to then Minister of Education and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett.

Elliott Abrams is Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. He previously served in senior roles in the US government, including as Deputy National Security Advisor for President George W. Bush and as Special Representative for Iran in the first Trump administration.

Hagar Chemali is a former US official who served in several national security and public affairs roles, including as Director for Syria and Lebanon at the National Security Council under President Obama. She is the founder and creator of the award-winning world news show Oh My World! On YouTube, an adjunct professor at Columbia University, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and co-founder of the Lebanon Israel Peace Alliance. 

 Ambassador Amira Oron served for three decades in Israel’s Foreign Ministry and dedicated her career to diplomatic activity in the Arab world. She was Israel’s Ambassador to Egypt from 2020 to 2024, having previously served in Cairo in the 1990s, later as Head of the Egypt Department at the Ministry. She was also the head of Israel’s diplomatic mission in Ankara.

Samer Sinijlawi is a Palestinian political activist and the founding chairman of the Jerusalem Development Fund. Born in the Old City of Jerusalem, he became politically active during the First Intifada and later emerged as a leading voice calling for Palestinian reform, democracy, and renewed engagement between Palestinian and Israeli moderates.

Prof. Chuck Freilich is a former deputy national security advisor in Israel and long-time senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, he now teaches at Columbia and Tel Aviv University. He is also the author of three books on Israeli national security affairs.  Prior to serving in the National Security Council, Freilich was a senior analyst in the Israel Ministry of Defence, a policy adviser to a cabinet minister and a delegate at the Israel Mission to the UN.

Dr Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC, and an expert on regional security in the Middle East. In the past he has consulted for the CIA as well as the US Departments of State and Defence.  

Koby Huberman is an Israeli high-tech veteran and business strategist. He is the co-author of the “Israeli Peace Initiative (IPI)”, and co-founded the Israeli Regional Initiative Group, which since 2006 promoted a new horizon for the Israeli-Arab conflict: a “Regional Package Deal” with a 2 states solution as part of a “Regional Framework”. He serves on the advisory board of MENA 2050 and also the co-author of the “Take off to 100” a vision and a strategic plan for the build-up of Israel following the crisis October 7, 2023, profiled in Fathom in May 2024  and a co-founder of the “Coalition for Regional Security”.

Dr Ahmed Al Khuzaie is a political consultant working predominantly with politicians in the United States and with diplomats based in Bahrain. His work focuses on Gulf affairs, regional security, and public diplomacy, with particular emphasis on Iranian influence, the GCC, and the Abraham Accords framework.

Dr. Col. (res.) Eran Lerman was Deputy Director for foreign policy and international affairs at Israel’s National Security Council. Prior to this he held senior posts in IDF Military Intelligence for over 20 years. He currently teaches Middle East studies at Shalem College in Jerusalem, and in post-graduate programmes at Tel Aviv University and the National Defence College.

Dr. Arash Azizi is an Iranian American historian, journalist, and author specialising in Iranian politics and society. He is the author of The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US, and Iran’s Global Ambitions and What Iranians Want, and is a frequent commentator on Iranian affairs across international media.

Sima Shine is a former senior official in Israel’s intelligence community who served for many years in the Mossad, ultimately heading a research and evaluation division. She later served as Deputy Head of Strategic Affairs at Israel’s National Security Council and as Deputy Director General in the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, where she oversaw the Iranian portfolio. She is currently a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv.

Jonathan Hackett is a United States Marine Corps veteran who spent 20 years across special operations and intelligence, much of that time focused on unconventional warfare. He worked with more than three dozen partner forces, including Kurdish groups in the Middle East.

Lt. Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi is the founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center, with 15 years of experience as an IDF intelligence officer focused on Israel’s northern front.

Danny Citrinowicz is a Senior Researcher in the Iran and the Shi'ite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies. He served 25 years in a variety of command positions units in Israel Defence Intelligence (IDI) including as the head of the Iran branch in the Research and Analysis Division (RAD) in the Israeli defence intelligence.

Bridget Toomey is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing on Iranian proxies, specifically Iraqi militias and the Houthis. Prior to joining FDD, she was a Fulbright Fellow in Israel where she completed an M.A. in security and diplomacy at Tel Aviv University.

Ruth Wasserman Lande is an Arab affairs commentator. She previously served as Israel’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Cairo and was a member of the Knesset for Blue and White, where she founded the Knesset caucus for the promotion of the Abraham Accords.

Retired Ambassador Marc Sievers is now the Director of AJC Abu Dhabi: The Sidney Lerner Centre for Arab-Jewish Understanding. He served as a US diplomat for more than 30 years across the Middle East and North Africa, including postings in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

Dr Rémi Daniel is a specialist on Turkish affairs at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, where he heads the European Research Program. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Hebrew University and was a Mediterranean Dialogue Fellow at the NATO Defence College in Rome.

Dr Ahmed Al Khuzaie is a political consultant working predominantly with politicians in the United States and with diplomats based in Bahrain. His work focuses on Gulf affairs, regional security, and public diplomacy, with particular emphasis on Iranian influence, the GCC, and the Abraham Accords framework.

Terry Newman is an entrepreneur and investor in the construction, security, and healthcare sectors. He has previously served as a strategic advisor at McKinsey & Company and as Chief of Staff to a member of the House of Lords. He is Chairman of BNA Public Council, a member of the World Jewish Congress, and holds degrees from Oxford University and Tel Aviv University.

Jonathan Javor is a political consultant specialising in campaign strategy and management. He has worked in politics and consultancy for over fifteen years and has consulted many senior politicians both in Israel and abroad, including Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister.

Jonathan Paris is a London-based Middle East analyst and former Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He also served as a consultant to the US government and was a Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Tal Hagin is an Information Warfare Analyst and Media Literacy Lecturer with over a decade of experience in information warfare and strategic communication. He also works as research fellow for FakeReporter, an Israeli watchdog group focusing on combating fake news, online incitement, and foreign influence campaigns.

Orna Mizrahi served for 26 years in the IDF, including as an intelligence analyst and as a senior officer in the Strategic Planning Division. She later spent twelve years at Israel’s National Security Council, culminating in her role as Deputy National Security Adviser. She now focuses on Israel–Lebanon dynamics, Hezbollah, and regional strategy at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

Jonathan was born in London, graduated with a degree in Arabic, Persian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. He completed his graduate studies in international relations, journalism and diplomacy at Harvard and received his master's from Columbia. Prior to the UN he worked as a journalist. He is also the author of Unveiled: Inside Iran’s #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt.

Together, they discuss the whereabouts and condition of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stock, as well as Iran’s use of proxies across the region. Andrea Stricker is Deputy Director of FDD’s Non-proliferation and Biodefense Program, and Behnam Ben Taleblu is Senior Director of FDD’s Iran Program.

Dr Najah Alotaibi is a Saudi academic, journalist and board member of MENA 2050. Dr Efrat Sopher is an Iranian Israeli security analyst and chair of the Board of Advisors at the Ezri Center for Iran and Gulf States Research at the University of Haifa.

Jonathan W. Hackett is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer with 20 years’ experience in signals, HUMINT and counterintelligence, and has served with the National Security Agency, the Defence Intelligence Agency, and Special Operations Command. He is the author of Iran’s Shadow Weapons: Covert Action, Intelligence Operations and Unconventional Warfare and The Theory of Irregular Warfare.

Shiri Fein-Grossman is the CEO of the Israel-Africa Relations Institute and a board member of the Forum Dvorah. She previously served in a number of positions at Israel’s National Security Council culminating as the Head of the Foreign Policy Branch for Regional Affairs, where she played a central role in advancing Israel’s relations with the Abraham Accords countries.

Lianne Pollak-David is a Founding Partner of the Coalition for Regional Security and Strategic Consultant. She worked as an Adviser at the PM’s Office and the National Security Council, and is a former member of the Negotiation Team with the Palestinians.

Natalie also discusses her work with the Combat Antisemitism Movement, her efforts to build alliances between Jewish and Iranian communities, and the importance of sharing the truth of October 7 with global audiences.

Lt. Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi is the founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center, with 15 years of experience as an IDF intelligence officer.

Yaakov Katz is a journalist and the author of four books on the Israeli military. He is also a former Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post, having also served as a senior foreign policy advisor to then Minister of Education and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett.

Edmund Fitton-Brown is a veteran British diplomat who served at numerous postings in the Middle East culminating as the UK’s Ambassador to Yemen from 2015 to 2017 and later coordinated UN expert panels on counterterrorism. He is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Dr Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky is a senior adviser and programme director at Mind Israel, an adjunct lecturer at Tel Aviv University, and one of the founding members of the Forum Dvorah. She holds a PhD in political science from Tel Aviv University.

She is a is a former British Army intelligence officer and worked on developing two of the UK’s National Security Strategies as part of Britain’s National Security Secretariat. She has been Senior Lecturer in War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; Head of the Strategic Horizons Unit in the UK Cabinet Office; and the Devil’s Advocate to Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee. 

Dr Jonathan Spyer is a British-Israeli analyst, writer, and journalist of Middle Eastern affairs. He is Director of Research at the Middle East Forum and Editor of Middle East Quarterly magazine. This is a follow-up interview from our earlier interview two weeks ago in Episode 264.

Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh, director of Eastern Mediterranean Affairs at the Middle East Forum, is a Druze-Israeli broadcaster, politician, and consultant. She was Israel’s first non-Jewish anchorwoman for main evening news in Hebrew and Arabic and, in 2019, became the first Druze woman elected to the Knesset with Blue and White, serving until 2022. In 2021, Isaac Herzog appointed her the first non-Jewish Senior Envoy of the Jewish Agency in Washington, D.C.

Jonathan Spyer is a British-Israeli analyst, writer, and journalist of Middle Eastern affairs. He is director of research at the Middle East Forum and editor of Middle East Quarterly magazine.

In the conversation – recorded during a media briefing hosted by BICOM – Oz Noy unpacks the tension between Israel’s declared objective of dismantling Hamas and the parallel goal of returning the remaining hostages. He assesses the security risks of a potential prisoner release, the strategic leverage of hostage diplomacy, and the role of Egypt and other regional powers.

Oz Noy served as a divisional head in Shin Bet (ISA – Israel Security Agency), equivalent in rank to a Major General in the IDF, before retiring in 2020. He now lectures at Reichman University in Tel Aviv.

Prof. Kobi Michael is a senior researcher at INSS and a visiting professor at the International Centre for Policing and Security at the University of South Wales. He served as the Deputy Director-General at Israel’s Ministry for Strategic Affairs and as the Head of the Palestinian division at Israel's National Security Council.

Please note that this episode was recorded before the Twelve-Day War with Iran.

Behnam Ben Taleblu is senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he oversees the organisation’s work on Iranian political and security affairs. He specialises in nuclear non-proliferation, ballistic missiles, the IRGC and its proxies, and internal Iranian dynamics. He has testified before the US Congress, the Canadian Parliament, and the UK House of Commons.

Helit served as a Director at the Israel National Security Council, heading the U.S.-Israeli bilateral desk and is a former Managing Director of the Council for Peace and Security. She also worked at the Congressional Research Service in Washington DC authoring several reports for Congress on issues related to weapons of mass destruction.

Edmund Fitton-Brown is a veteran British diplomat who served as the UK’s Ambassador to Yemen from 2015 to 2017 and later coordinated UN expert panels on ISIL, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. He holds advisory or fellowship positions with the Counter Extremism Project, the Middle East Institute, The Soufan Center and New America.

Dr Lynette Nusbacher is a strategic consultant and former British Army intelligence officer who was Head of the Strategic Horizons Unit in the UK Cabinet Office and Senior Lecturer in War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. She was part of Britain’s National Security Secretariat working on UK’s national security strategy.

Henrique Cymerman is a multi-award-winning journalist, fluent in five languages, with over 30 years’ experience covering the Middle East. He is also President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry between Israel and the Gulf States and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at the initiative of Pope Francis.

Professor Chuck Freilich is a former Israeli deputy national security advisor and currently a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a leading voice on Israeli national security strategy.

Professor Ofra Bengio is a senior research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and African Studies, where she directs the Kurdish Studies programme. She is also the author of 16 books and over 150 articles.

Professor Small  is the founder and director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), holds academic degrees from University College London and Oxford University, and is currently a research fellow at St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge.

Ilan is an expert on regional security in the Middle East. In the past he has consulted for the Central Intelligence Agency as well as the US Departments of State and Defence. An author and editor of a dozen books has been called one of America's "leading experts on the Middle East and Iran" by CNN.

Professor Gerald Steinberg is the founder and president of NGO Monitor. He is Professor Emeritus of political science and international relations at Bar Ilan University, where he taught for forty years. His research focuses on Middle East diplomacy and security, nuclear proliferation, and the politics of human rights and non-governmental organisations, an academic field that he pioneered 25 years ago.

MK Meron is a Yesh Atid MK and the co-Chair of the Israel-UK Parliamentary Friendship Group. She is a member of the Women's Rights and Finance committees in the Knesset. She completed her military service as a Captain in the Israeli Air Force.

Professor Rynhold is the Head of the department of Political Studies and the Academic Director of the Jonathan Sacks institute, both at Bar Ilan University. He is also the author of The Arab-Israeli Conflict in American Political Culture.

Dr. Krasna served for 30 years as a strategic analyst working for the Israeli government where his main focus was Israel - Jordanian relations. Since leaving government he is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Centre in Tel Aviv University. He also teaches at NYU’s Centre for Global Affairs.

Professor Dorit Nitzan is an advisor on humanitarian aid to Israel’s Defence Minister and the Acting Regional Emergency Director of the World Health Organisation's European Region Health Emergencies Programme. She is also the Director of the MA programme in Emergency Medicine at Ben Gurion University.

Professor Uzi Rabi, Ph.D (Tel Aviv University, 2000) is the Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, a Professor of Middle Eastern History at the Department of Middle Eastern and African Studies, and a senior researcher at the Center for Iranian Studies, all at Tel Aviv University. Formerly, he was the Head of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University.

Dr Guy Ziv is an associate professor in American University's School of International Service's US Foreign Policy Programme. His research focuses on foreign policy decision-making, the role of political elites in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and civil-military relations in Israel. He has previously worked for the US State Department and regularly appears across US and Israeli newspapers.

Haisan was born and grew up in Egypt, before moving to the US. He is currently adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, where he analyses Israel’s relations with Arab states and Muslim countries. Previously, he was a research fellow at the Washington Institute, where he focused on Israel-Egypt relations.

Professor Shany is the Chair in International Law at Hebrew University and its former Dean of Law. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Israeli Democracy Institute and a former Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. His PhD in International Law is from SOAS.