EMET | Endowment for Middle East Truth

Lies and Empty Promises: How Abbas fooled the West into Recognition of a Palestinian State
2025-09-03 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
The transcript will be available here
Several Western states, once Israel’s allies, intend to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the UN. These countries see this recognition as a final stamp of legitimacy to the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority and a punishment of Israel for its war in Gaza. In our conversation, we ask: What was the lie that Abbas told French President Macron that was used to justify his call for recognition? Why should the Palestinian people, even more than the PA, be rejected for statehood? Why is a PA state bad for Israel and the West? And why the US and Israel should respond to the PA statehood farce by designating the PA as a terror organization. Itamar Marcus joins us to provide much-sought answers to all of these questions.
About our Speaker: Itamar Marcus is Founder & Director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an Israeli research institute known internationally for its in-depth research of Palestinian society. He has presented PMW findings dozens of times in Congress, parliaments and conferences. PMW’s reports led to the Taylor Force Act, Israel’s “Deduction Law,” and his report on the PA-ICC contacts led to the US imposing sanctions on the PA, this past July. Itamar is a frequent guest on various international news networks, and is the author of “Deception: Betraying the Peace Process” & “Teaching Terror to Tots”. He was recognized among the world’s “top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life or the State of Israel.” by Algemeiner.

Is the Collapse of the Iranian Regime Necessary for Regional Stability?
2025-09-11 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here
Over the last several decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran had established a “ring of fire” around Israel. With the sole exception of the Houthis in Yemen, Israel has been able to eliminate a great deal of this existential threat. The Islamic Republic used their terror proxies to shield itself and to empower its strategic depth, The biggest existential threat, however, emanates from the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic of Iran. During the 12-Day War of June 13th through 24th, Israel and the United States were able to eliminate a great deal of the nuclear and the ballistic threat, as well as the cult of hero-worship for Ayatollah Ali Khomeini. This is a grand departure from previous US administrations and their philosophy which served to de-escalate the status of Israel and to embolden the Islamic Republic. Iran is now is encountering a period of destabilization. How likely is it that the Islamic Republic will rebuild their nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile program, which is a core value of the regime? Will their goals of the elimination of Israel remain unchanged? Where are the regime’s current vulnerabilities? What must Israel and the United States do in order to undermine the regime’s survivability and possibly lead to the collapse of the regime and replace it with a more palatable alternative?
About our Speaker: Barak Seener is an Associate Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and the founder of Strategic Intelligentia and the Gulf Futures Forum. Barak also co-hosts The Geo-Godfather Wars podcast on geopolitical affairs. Previously, Barak was a Global Intelligence Manager at HSBC and the Middle East Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) on whose behalf he has debriefed international defence and security policy makers and diplomats on matters relating to Middle East security. Barak has lectured at NATO as well as the Royal College for Defense Studies. He also staged the world’s first, and hugely successful conference in London at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) on Palestinian statehood. This examined the security implications for the Region bringing together leading Israelis, Palestinians, US and European representatives in London. Prior to joining RUSI, Barak was one of the Henry Jackson Society’s founders in Westminster and was the Henry Jackson Society’s Greater Middle East Section Director.
Barak published a book in 2018 entitled, ‘Commercial Risks Entering the Iranian Market: Why sanctions make investment in the Islamic Republic of Iran a high-risk proposition.’
Barak has published and provided analysis and expert commentary for a range of international broadcasters including Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Chinese CCTV, Fox News, Sky News, Voice of America, and news outlets such as Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, the Evening Standard, Jerusalem Post and Xinhua.
Barak has published in publications including Newsweek, the National Interest, the American Interest, Jane’s Intelligence Review and Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst on counter-terrorism, US-China dynamics, risks to supply chains, globalization and the end of the liberal international order, transatlantic relations, universal jurisdiction, nuclear proliferation and Middle East issues including the Arab Spring, tensions in Libya, Egypt and Syria, strategic and security dynamic between Iran and the Gulf, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Temperature of the State of Israel as it Enters Rosh Hashanah, 5786
2025-09-17 13:00 - 14:00
The transcript will be available here

As Israel moves into Rosh Hashanah 5786, there are internal and external pressures confronting the State. We will address the widening social, political, and ideological divides within Israeli society; current military developments—particularly the implications of recent escalation, such as the strike in Doha—and how shifts in strategy influence prospects for a negotiated resolution. In addition, the conversation will assess the growing international criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the legal and moral debates surrounding the definition of genocide, and whether diplomatic isolation or reputational concerns are contributing to an atmosphere of unease domestically.
In light of these developments, this session will also explore how global antisemitism is evolving—whether heightened incidents abroad and reports of antipathy in academic, cultural, and political spheres are affecting collective morale and identity among Israelis. To what extent can civil society bridges survive under the strain of war and polarization? How do diasporic perceptions feed back into internal debates in Israel? What role might international law, media narratives, and diaspora activism play in either deepening divisions or fostering reconciliation?
About our speaker: Avi Mayer is the founder of Jerusalem Journal and the immediate past Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post, the most-read English-language newspaper in Israel and the leading news outlet in the Jewish world. With more than a quarter-million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and a monthly audience in the tens of millions, Avi is considered one of the most prominent millennial voices in Israel and the Jewish world.
In 2013, he was named one of the “Jewish 100”—the top one hundred people positively influencing Jewish life—along with then-U.S. President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other leading figures. He has been named the third most influential person on ‘Jewish Twitter,’ just behind Prime Minister Netanyahu, and one of the most influential English-speaking immigrants in Israeli politics. He previously held leadership roles in some of the world’s leading Jewish organizations, including serving as Managing Director of Global Communications and Public Affairs at the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and as the international spokesperson of The Jewish Agency for Israel, the largest Jewish organization in the world, and of its then-Chairman, Natan Sharansky.
Avi has met with the President of the United States at the White House and he conducted the first newspaper interview with the Prime Minister of Israel after his election. He has addressed lawmakers in both the U.S. Congress and the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on numerous occasions. He is regularly invited to discuss developments in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world on international news networks and he and his work have been featured in some of the world’s leading publications. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Maryland, he has worked for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs; the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C.; Hillel International; and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He has served on the international boards of KAHAL, an organization for Jewish students studying abroad around the world, and ACCESS, AJC’s young leadership program. Avi currently serves as Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of Global Jewry and is a member of the ROI Community.
He is a former participant in the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies’ Jewish communal leadership program. Born in New York and raised in Jerusalem and Maryland, Avi served in the Israel Defense Forces as a spokesperson to the international media. He lives in Jerusalem.

The Road to October 7
2025-09-30 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here

Join us on Tuesday, Sept. 30, at 12:00 noon for a special EMET Zoom webinar featuring the noted historian and author Dr. Rafael Medoff, discussing his powerful new book, The Road to October 7: Hamas, the Holocaust, and the Eternal War Against the Jews
About Our Speaker: Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, in Washington, D.C., and the author of more than 20 books about the Holocaust, Zionism, and American Jewish history. Dr. Medoff has taught Jewish history at Ohio State University, Purchase College of the State University of New York, Yeshiva University and elsewhere, and he is a Fellow of the Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research at Bar-Ilan University. He is also a three-time winner of the prestigious Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism, from the American Jewish Press Association.
Medoff’s textbook, Jewish Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook, published by ABC-CLIO in 2002, was named an “Outstanding Academic Title of 2002” by the American Library Association‘s Choice magazine.
Rafi has authored scores of scholarly texts and articles, has successfully worked on several films about the Holocaust and has served as a consultant to Hollywood about the Holocaust.
