EMET | Endowment for Middle East Truth

What is Happening Right Now Inside the Islamic Republic of Iran?
2026-02-11 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
The transcript will be available here.

As I write these words, negotiators between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran have just begun in Oman over their nuclear program. Yet, beginning on December 28, 2025, millions of protesters have poured into the streets in over 400 cities throughout Iran. One of the immediate reasons was that the rial has been profoundly devalued. Today it is approximately 42 thousand rials per dollar. Iranians are also suffering a tremendous water drought. They turn on the tap, and nothing comes out. However, what most of the Iranians want desperately are their basic human rights and freedoms. Yet the huge tidal wave for a counter-revolution on the streets of Iran has been met with unparalleled, brutal force. According to the National Union of Democracy in Iran, at least 40,000 protesters have been left murdered on the streets, crying out for the very freedoms we cherish in the United States.
If the United States fails to act, will this simply serve to embolden and further empower the Islamist Republic and all of the terror proxies throughout the region? Will this forever be a black stain on America’s moral legacy? How might this serve to empower Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis?

About our Speaker: Khosro Isfahani is NUFDI’s research director. He is a journalist and open-source investigator working on all things Iran with a focus on human rights, security, and armed forces.
Between 2009 and 2021, he worked in Iran as a frontline human rights defender in addition to his journalism work, delivering rapid aid to at-risk communities while documenting human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the Islamic Republic. While in Iran, he directly and indirectly worked with international media, human rights groups, and the United Nations.
Khosro left Iran in 2021 for a position at BBC Monitoring, where he was a lead analyst and reporter on Iran until 2023. At BBCM, he covered state killings and violence against protesters, along with military and security developments linked to Iran.
In 2023, he moved to the United States for a teaching position at Colby College in Maine, where he served as a professor and the human rights fellow with the Oak Institute and taught two courses on human rights and the modern history of Iran.
After his time at Colby, Khosro joined the Atlantic Council in 2024, leading the organization’s open-source investigation of human rights and international law violations committed by individuals within and linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran. His work with the Atlantic Council included in-depth investigations and publications with the University of Berkeley Human Rights Center and UCLA’s Promise Institute.
Khosro’s work has been published by various media outlets and American think tanks, including Atlantic Council’s IranSource, BBC World Service, BBC Monitoring, Slate, and Financial Tribune, along with rights groups such as Article 19. He has also contributed to the United Nations’ reporting on Iran.
His work includes reporting on social movements in Iran as well as state violence against protestors and persecution of marginalized communities. As an analyst, he tracks the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regional ambitions, military activity, and arms development; nuclear program; domestic, security, and foreign policy, along with war crimes committed by the regime and its proxies.

Israel 2048: A Blueprint for a Rising Asymmetric Geopolitical Power
2026-02-25 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here.

What does the state of Israel require to survive? In previous decades, the Israeli national security and defense establishments had assumed that status quo management was all that it took. Post October 7th, 2023, we have come to realize that defensive restraint and geostrategic risk no longer serve Israel’s interests. However, power projection across the Middle East, combined with technological primacy, should be at the core of a new technological golden triangle. Beyond that, the core mission of the Israeli civilization is to adopt a multidimensional approach as a spiritual anchor of not only Judeo-Christian and the Judeo-Islamic identity, which involves, as a first step, articulating a Jewish civilizational national mission. Alongside this, Israel requires a national strategy that integrates deterrence, diplomacy, technology, and economic policy with a military doctrine that adheres to sustained action against emerging military and national security threats.
A new study aims to jolt Israel’s security and technology establishment into embracing a new post-Oct. 7, 2023, business model that will advance the U.S.-Israel strategic partnership in the heart of the Middle East and across the globe.
The Henry Jackson Society study titled “Israel 2048: A Blueprint for a Rising Asymmetric Geopolitical Power” jumps into the future, with a view toward advancing American and Israeli security interests.
Read more with Fox News here.
About our Speakers:
Barak M. Seener is an Associate Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and the founder of Strategic Intelligentsia and the Gulf Futures Forum. Barak has also co-hosted the Geo-Godfather Wars Podcast on geopolitical affairs. Prior to that, Barak was a Global Intelligence Manager at HSBC and the Middle East Fellow at the Royal United Service Institute. Barak has staged the world’s first and highly successful conference in London on Palestinian statehood. He has 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 to Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Chinese CCTV, Fox New, Sky News, Voice of America, and news outlets such as Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, The Evening Standard, Newsweek, The National Interest, The American Interest, and Jane’s Islamic Affair Analyst.
David Wurmser is the executive and founding member of the Delphi Global Analysis Group, LLC. Dr. Wurmser served as senior advisor to the US National Security Advisor, Ambassador John Bolton, from December 2018 until September 2019. He has also served from 2003 to 2007 as senior advisor to Vice-President Richard Cheney. Dr. Wurmser is also a Senior Fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Foreign and Security Affairs in Israel and at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC. His diplomatic positions have included participating in high-level strategic discussions with Israel and Jordan, coordinating with foreign governments on Iran policy, participating with the US negotiating team at several Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meetings and conferences, and helping to negotiate basic rights in key countries, such as Qatar, prior to the 2003 Iraq War. Dr. Wurmser also founded the Middle East Studies Program at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr. Wurmser published “Tyranny’s Ally: America’s Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein”, (which the New Yorker called “the intellectual framework for President Bush’s freedom strategy in the Middle East.” He has published over 35 articles in major periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Commentary. Dr. Wurmser’s military service includes 11 years of intelligence experience in the US Navy Reserves, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

The New Middle East as We Know It
2026-03-04 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here

As the United States and Israel have waged war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, we are watching the Sunni Arab nations joining in on the coalition. As early as February 28 2026, , the Islamic Republic has launched missile and drone attacks against all six Gulf Cooperation Council Countries—the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait—retaliating against joint US and Israeli strikes. What had been struck was the Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, the Navy’s Fifth Fleet and the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Bahrain, the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, as well as the Kuwaiti International Airport, the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and the Port of Daqm in Oman.
Is his the beginning of a new alliance in the Gulf? How long will this endure?
Here to answer these questions and more is Dalia Zaida.
About our Speaker: Dalia Ziada was born in Cairo, Egypt. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father was a Lieutenant Colonel Engineer in the Egyptian Armed Forces. Dalia authored “The Curious Case of the Three-Legged Wolf – Egypt: Military, Islamism, and Liberal Democracy”. Dalia studied international diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tuft University. Dalia was instrumental in the uprising that initiated the 2011 revolution against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. Dalia had been named by CNN as one of the eight agents of change in the Middle East and by The Daily Beast as “one of the most fearless women in the world” for two years in a row. During the war between Israel and Gaza, Dalia voiced strong support for Israel. Unfortunately, this led to a strong backlash in her native Egypt, resulting in threats to her safety and to her life, along with accusations of espionage and incitement of war crimes. Dalia argued that Israel’s response to Hamas’ barbaric attacks, aimed at dislodging the Islamist terrorist organization, Hamas, and securing the release of hostages, was justified, on Israel’s part. Because of this, Dalia was forced into hiding, and she sought refuge within the United States.

The Internal Kurdish Resistance against the Regime
2026-03-11 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here.
As the possibility of the war with Iran widens, President Trump has called upon Iran’s domestic opposition to generate onslaughts against the Islamic regime. President Donald Trump has offered “ extensive air coverage” to Iranian Kurds and other forms of support to defeat the regime. President Trump is calling on Iraqi Kurds to open the way for Iranian Kurds, ant not to obstruct them on their path. As Bafel Talabani, of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan relates about a phone call with President Trump, “Trump was clear in his call. He told us the Kurds must choose a side in this battle — either with America and Israel or with Iran.” Another faction of the Kurds is led by Masoud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party. He had said that “It’s not about who has more active armed militias. It ‘s about who has more support from the inside.” A statement from another Kurdish party read, “All Iranian Kurds must abandon their bases and with draw support from the regime’s armed and repressive forces.”
On Thursday, the Iraqi Kurds reported attacks on their “political bases and headquarters” and a number of fatalities. They later called Iran’s attack on their bases in Northwestern Iraq a sign of Iranian “weakness and deep fear.” The Iraqi Kurds are substantially more organized than the Iranian Kurds. The statement from the Iraqi Kurds read that “the coalition will strengthen our resolve to continue to fight for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
It has also been rumored that the CIA might provide training and weapons for an internal military exercise against the regime.
Here to shed light on all of this is Diliman Abdulkader.
About our speaker: Diliman Abdulkader is the founder of American Friends of Kurdistan (AFK), an advocacy and education organization established to strengthen, protect, and promote U.S.-Kurdish relations. AFK supports policies that advance the national security and prosperity of Americans, Kurds, and our other allies. Diliman comes from a foreign policy and national security background, where he invests his time on Capitol Hill educating lawmakers and staffers about the plight of the Kurds. Diliman received his M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, D.C.

An Update on Israel’s and America’s Objectives in the War
2026-03-18 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here.
How are American and Israeli objectives on this war aligned? What are the points of difference? Will, President Trump, with one eye on oil prices and another on the mid-term elections cut this war short? Will that enable the Islamic Republic to continue it malevolent activities throughout the region, and the world?
Here to answer these questions is General Amir Avivi.
About Our Speaker: Amir Avivi was born 16 April 1969. He is a retired Israeli brigadier general at Israeli Defense Forces. He served as a military lieutenant at the Defense Establishment Comptroller Unit, he was the commander of the Sagi Brigade and the chief of staff for Israeli general and politician Moshe Ya’alon.
In 2020, he founded the NPO “Habithonistim” which consists of mainly high-ranking members of the Israeli security forces, and has been its leader ever since. Too, he is the chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF).
In May 2023, Avivi’s book No Retreat: How to Secure Israel for Generations to Come (ות) was published.

What is Happening in Lebanon, Today?
2026-03-25 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here.

We knew it would be a matter of time before Iranian-backed Hezbollah would start attacking Israel. Hezbollah, answering direct commands of its terror-masters out of Tehran, has been lobbing missiles across their southern border into Israel’s northern communities. Israel, in response to this, has been pounding Beirut and Lebanon’s southern suburbs, where most of the Shia and Hezbollah population reside. Israel, in their customary fashion, has warned the population to move north of the Litani River.
About our Speaker: Dr. Walid Phares is an engaging and highly sought after Middle East and foreign policy expert and pacesetter, often predicting trends and situations on the ground years before they occur. He has been a Fox News Terrorism Expert, is now Newsmax Foreign Policy analyst and has appeared on world and national media, including BBC, CNN, NBC, France 24, al Arabiya, al Jazeera, al Sharq, and has been widely published in many countries. He has co-launched two recent projects, “Educate America” platform to help reform US education of the Middle East and counter disinformation in the classroom, and “War and Freedom: Insights Talk” Podcast available on Yutoube,
He has served as an advisor to the US Congress and the European Parliament and has also served as an advisor on foreign policy to former President Donald Trump and a national security senior advisor to presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012. Dr Phares is the only expert/author who predicted the Arab Spring a year before it occurred in his pacesetting book, The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East (Threshold, a division of Simon and Shuster 2010). His book Future Jihad: Terrorist strategies has predicted the spread of the Jihadi ideology worldwide and his other book “The Lost Spring” has accurately predicted Iran and Jihadists strategies. His last book Iran An Imperialist Republic and US Policy (2003) has exposed the transaction between the Islamic regime and the US administration.
Dr Phares holds an extensive CV and noteworthy achievements in the fields of academia, government strategies, media and publishing critical advice on combatting terrorism and countering jihadi radicalization both stateside and abroad.
He holds a Ph.D in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Miami, and a Political Science Degree from St Joseph University and a Law degree from the Lebanese University in Beirut and a Master in International Law from Universite’ Jean Moulin in Lyons, France.
Dr Phares taught political science and Middle East studies at Florida Atlantic University between 1993 and 2004. Since 2006, he taught Global Jihadi strategies at the National Defense University in Washington DC, and was Vice President of BAU private university in Washington DC until 2018. Dr Phares lectures on campuses nationwide and internationally, including at the US Intelligence University. He lectured at Georgetown University, George Washington University, American University, Columbia, University of Chicago, Pepperdine, Boston College, Brandeis, UC Berkley, University of Colorado at Boulder, Loyola New Orleans, UC Santa Barbara, and many others including Ecole Militaire of France in Paris. Dr Phares lectures also to various academic associations including the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa in Washington DC and Middle East American ethnic organizations.
After having authored six books on Middle East politics and history (in Arabic) in the 1980s, Dr Phares authored another seven in English stateside since the mid 1990s. His most important volumes were published after 9/11 starting with Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and a critically acclaimed book that was ranked in the top ten books of the 2006 Foreign Affairs List. Future Jihad was read and cited by many members of Congress and the European Parliament. Dr Phares predicted the rise of jihadi urban networks and set forth strategies to counter them in the West and overseas. Dr Phares published two more books on global strategies: The War of Ideas (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) explaining the ideological indoctrination and The Confrontation a policy strategy book designed to isolate radicals. In 2014 he published The Lost Spring: Avoiding Catastrophes in US Foreign Policy. And last year Dr Phares published “The Choice” a comparative analysis of the Obama, Trump and Biden agendas in world politics.
Media and colleagues alike, rave about Phares’s hallmark book, which predicted the Arab Spring a year before it occurred: The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East (Simon and Shuster, 2010). The book was endorsed by US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and praised by many leading figures in Congress, political circles and media on both sides of the Atlantic.
For almost two decades Dr Phares led seminars and trained analysts and officials at several US national security, defense and counter terrorism agencies. He also addressed international officers from two dozens countries on terrorism and conflicts.
Dr Walid Phares is a native of Beirut, Lebanon, and immigrated to the United States in 1990. He speaks fluent Arabic and French as well as English. Prior to moving stateside, Dr Phares was a student union leader, a lawyer, a publisher, a university professor, and founded a social-democratic party, which he represented in several political coalitions.

Webinar with The American International Druze Public Affairs Council
2026-04-15 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here.
EMET Welcomes Formation of American International Druze Public Affairs Council (AIDPAC)
The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) formally extends its welcome to our new partners at the American International Druze Public Affairs Council (AIDPAC). We congratulate our Druze friends, among them former Israeli Minister of Communications Ayob Kara, on the formation of their new organization.
Nearly a century after the formation of the Jews-Druze covenant, we continue to see just how unbreakable the bond between our people truly is. Over the past two years, many young Israeli Druze men have been at the forefront of our never-ending effort to defend the State of Israel and ensure its place in the world. Many of them have made the ultimate sacrifice, and Israelis and allies of Israel are forever indebted to them. However, this partnership goes well beyond military service, as Druze Israelis play prominent roles in Israeli social, cultural, educational, legal and commercial life.
At the same time, we’ve seen Druze communities in other parts of the Middle East, and particularly in Syria, suffer unprecedented levels of violence. Last summer, Syrian government-aligned forces descended upon Druze villages in Al-Suwayda and massacred over a thousand members of the community in just a couple of days. This behavior by the Syrian government is the most horrifying example in a pattern of targeting of ethnic and religious minorities in Syria, which continues to this day. We’re proud to support the Israeli response to these atrocities, and share the State of Israel’s commitment to protecting the Syrian Druze – our brothers’ brothers.
This is a time of great risk and peril in the Middle East, but also that of great opportunity. For over two years, Israel has been fighting an existential war for its place among the nations. At the same time, this is a real chance to reshape the Middle East and ensure a more secure, peaceful and prosperous future. In this context, a force that tells the unique story of the Druze, as well as advocating for recognition of their inalienable rights, is needed more than ever. We’re proud to support AIDPAC in taking on this important task.

Celebrating Israel’s Birthday while Fighting Iran- A Zionist Reckoning…Or Resurgence?
2026-04-23 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here.

The Hebrew Calendar is punctuated with very meaningful moments dedicated to those who have survived and who have perished in the Holocaust; to those courageous soldiers who have sacrificed their very lives to sustain the state of Israel; and to all those who have committed and worked to be able to celebrate the gift of the return to the homeland of the state of Israel, making it a vibrant and dynamic society.
Gil Troy, is the author of 18 magnificent books, from the recently published “The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath” to “The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism and Jew Hatred”, to“Resist the Intifada” to a three volume guide on “The Writings of Theordore Herzl” to “Never Alone” written by Gil Troy and Natan Sharansky, to “Moynihan’s Moment” to many biographies of Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to Ronald Reagan, to “Why I am a Zionist”. He has also written scores and scores of articles for The Jerusalem Post and The Daily Beast.
Gil went to Harvard College, where he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree and Ph.D Degree. Gil is an American presidential historian and Zionist activist. He is a senior fellow in Zionist Jewish though at the Jewish People Policy Institute. He is a professor of history at McGill University, but now spends most of his time in Jerusalem.
Please meet the author who wrote, “My fellow Israelis and Americans, hang tough. We’re winning. But defeating evil takes toughness and patience.”
These words are like a salve for what Israel and the Jewish people have been enduring in the last two years.
You will have the opportunity to hear this powerful speaker on Thursday April 23rd at 12 noon. Kindly register.

A New 5 Point Plan for Fighting Antisemitism on the Ground and in the Courts
2026-04-29 12:00 - 13:00
The transcript will be available here.
Professor Jeffrey Lax is the Founder and Chairman of S.A.F.E. Campus, (@_safecampus) a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating antisemitism in academic environments. He is a seasoned legal analyst and recognized authority on campus antisemitism, frequently providing expert commentary across prominent news platforms such as CBS, NBC, Fox News, Newsmax, Court TV, Law & Crime, and Scripps.
In addition to his leadership at S.A.F.E. Campus, Professor Lax is a Professor of Law and Chair of the Business Department at Kingsborough Community College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. His expertise in legal matters, coupled with his extensive media presence, makes him a highly sought after voice in addressing antisemitism and advocating for policy reforms. Professor Lax’s work has garnered the attention of policy makers, educators, and donors alike. As a grandchild of four Holocaust survivors, Professor Lax is deeply and personally committed to ensuring the safety of Jews on college campuses and throughout greater society.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreylax/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbyy4yf_Jig
https://peterbeinart.substack.com/p/conversation-with-jeffrey-lax

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