Accomplishments

Middle East Forum’s Impact Highlights

Throughout 2023 and into 2024, the Middle East Forum continued to lead the fight against Middle Eastern threats. By combining rigorous investigative research, influential policy work, expert media engagement, and effective coalition-building, the Middle East Forum drives change with demonstrable impact across its four divisions.

Action Impact:

  • MEF Action’s #DivestFromQatar campaign resulted in more than 26,000 emails and tweets targeting top American investors. This action campaign was intended to persuade the CEOs of a dozen private equity firms and hedge funds to stop receiving investments from the Qatar Investment Authority.
  • Started a new legal initiative bringing RICO and Anti-Klan Act charges against Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for their alleged coordinated harassment and intimidation of Jewish and Israeli students.
  • Spearheaded 6 grassroots campaign grassroots campaigns in 2024 so far, with 6 more to launch before the end of the year.

Publishing Impact:

  • Successfully launched the Middle East Forum Observer, broadening our rapid reaction analysis and coverage.
  • Published more than 1,000 articles in 2023 and the first half of 2024 across our publishing platforms and hosted more than 150 podcasts and webinars.

Investigations Impact:

  • Uncovered USAID’s ties to Islamist organizations in Southeast Asia, leading several U.S. senators to condemn the agency.
  • Revealed the plans by Young Democrat Socialists for America to launch a national strike in support of Palestine
  • Exposed that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) violated its own neutrality mandate more than 250 times since the Hamas attacks of October 2023.
  • Grew Middle East Forum’s database of Islamist individuals, funders, and organizations to encompass over 4,000,000 data points.

Statecraft Impact:

  • Played a pivotal role shaping discourse after the October 7 attacks, providing strategic guidance to Israeli authorities and successfully promoting the Middle East Forum plan for Israel victory.
  • Held nearly 200 Congressional meetings and shaped 17 Congressional letters, bills, and resolutions in the last year.


More from MEF
If the Saudi pivot is a strategy, the Red Sea littoral is its primary theater of application; if the Abraham Accords represented a vision of an integrated regional order anchored in normalization and infrastructure interdependence, the Red Sea is where that vision encounters the structural obstacles to its realization.
Middle East Forum Online
Contested Order: The Structure of End-State Competition in the Red Sea
February 1, 2026
 · 
Hussein Aboubakr Mansour
By allowing or facilitating the movement of radical elements toward the coast, unstable regimes in North Africa and the Levant gain a powerful bargaining chip against Europe. Their message is clear: “Fund our reconstruction and legitimize our rule, or the next boat to Lampedusa will carry more than just economic migrants.” Image: Iron boat used by migrants smugglers to arrive on the island of Lampedusa, Italy.
Middle East Forum Online
How Post-Assad Chaos and North African Smugglers Collide
The Diplomatic Veneer of the ‘New Syria’ Began to Crack, Revealing a Security Nightmare That the West Has Spent a Decade Trying to Prevent
February 1, 2026
 · 
Amine Ayoub
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reportedly has been in hiding since Israel's airstrikes began in June 2025.
Middle East Forum Observer
Khamenei Raises Specter of Regional War Amid Unrest at Home
Reports Indicated That Tehran May Be Willing to Give up Its Stockpile of Enriched Uranium to Prevent a U.S. Attack
February 1, 2026
 · 
Mardo Soghom
Saudia Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Middle East Forum Observer
If Saudi Arabia Flips to the ‘Axis of Ikhwan,’ What Happens to Qatar?
While Saudi Arabia Outlaws the Muslim Brotherhood at Home, Mohammed Bin Salman Empowers It Abroad
February 1, 2026
 · 
Michael Rubin
A file photo of Syrian refugees in Kobane, a Kurdish-majority city.
Middle East Forum Observer
The Newest Deal Between Syria and the Kurds Is Not Sustainable
The Agreement’s Ambiguity Leaves Room for Multiple Interpretations, Which Could Affect Its Implementation
February 1, 2026
 · 
Sirwan Kajjo
A terrorism investigation launched into Musa Abu Jafar in 2011 on allegations of al-Qaeda membership was quietly shelved in 2014 by the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after senior police chiefs and prosecutors involved in the case were removed from their posts. Image: Flag of Al-Qaeda
Middle East Forum Online
Al-Qaeda–Linked Cleric Operates from Idlib Under Protection of Turkish Intelligence Agency
Musa Abu Jafar Is a Salafist Cleric Who Has Long Promoted Jihadist Causes Across Multiple Countries
January 31, 2026
 · 
Abdullah Bozkurt
A supercomputer in a data center.
Middle East Forum Observer
Cyprus and U.S. Technology Cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean
An Agreement with Nvidia for a Computing System Reflects a Broader Trend of Deepening U.S.-Cyprus Technology Alignment
January 31, 2026
 · 
Nicoletta Kouroushi
Reports
A Field Report from Afrin: Assessing the Prospects for Return of Displaced Kurds
Property Restitution, Security Conditions, and Minority Rights in Northwest Syria
January 30, 2026
 · 
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Two Baptist writers who claim to champion religious freedom have gone on tour promoting a book about “Islamophobia” in the Christian church. Yet their book and public statements normalize Islamism—a movement that undermines the very freedoms they purport to defend.
FWI Opinion & Interview
Baptist Islamophobiacs Submit to Islamism in the Name of Peace
Scholars Confess the Sins of their Fellow Christians to Islamist Activists
January 30, 2026
 · 
Dexter Van Zile
People burn photos of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on January 10, 2026, in Milan, Italy, in support of Iranians suffering under the Islamic Republic.
Middle East Forum Observer
Iran’s Deadly Crackdown Fuels Expanding Resistance at Home and Abroad
Social Media Features Many Posts by Iranians Openly Welcoming Possible American Military Intervention
January 30, 2026
 · 
Mardo Soghom