MEF Wires

Middle East Forum Wires are summary accounts and audio recordings of MEF speaking events.

Wires are written by MEF staff and (when summary accounts) are generally not reviewed by the speaker.

To see a listing of forthcoming MEF events, please click here.

Audio, Video and Transcripts
Gregg Roman Testifies Before the Knesset on the Cost of Redeeming Hostages
The Mishnah Warns Against Redeeming Captives at Exorbitant Prices—Not from Callousness, but from Wisdom
December 24, 2025
Audio, Video and Transcripts
Eastern Mediterranean Contributions to Middle East Security
The Middle East Forum participated in a high-level panel on “Eastern Mediterranean Contributions to Middle East Security” at the Delphi Economic Forum in Greece.
April 18, 2025
Audio, Video and Transcripts
The Middle East: Harris and Trump Policies Explained
November 4, 2024
 · 
Ahnaf Kalam
Fluttering Israel flag on crimson red sky with smoke pillars background. Israel problems concept.
Audio, Video and Transcripts
Israel’s Crucible: Forging a New Security Paradigm
Navigating Complex Threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and Beyond in a Shifting Middle East Landscape
October 6, 2024
 · 
Gregg Roman
Winfield Myers
Audio, Video and Transcripts
The Challenges of Countering Islamism in the West
May 17, 2023
 · 
Sam Westrop
Winfield Myers
Audio, Video and Transcripts
The Counter-Erdoğan Coalition: Taking on Turkey’s Strongman
May 17, 2023
More from MEF
Israel’s new Alumot unit is designed to move artificial-intelligence tools directly from development to frontline forces while Washington debates how deeply to institutionalize U.S.-Israel defense-technology cooperation.
Middle East Forum Online
The U.S. Can Debate AI Integration; Israel Has Already Operationalized It
Israel’s Alumot Unit Turns Battlefield AI From Research Into Real-Time Combat Capability
June 26, 2026
 · 
Amine Ayoub
U.S. and Kenyan defense officials at the construction site for a runway expansion and airfield infrastructure project in January 2026, at Manda Bay, Kenya.
Middle East Forum Observer
Will Kenya Supplant Djibouti as the Pentagon’s Counter-Terror Hub?
Washington Is Expanding Its Military Footprint with a $71 Million Overhaul of the Manda Bay Airfield in Kenya
June 26, 2026
 · 
Siyad Madey
Tehran is determined to link the two fronts (i.e., Iran/Hormuz and Lebanon), insisting that failure in one means failure in both. Iran hopes by so doing to formalize a mechanism by which it can both protect its main Levantine proxy and create and widen divisions between Washington and Jerusalem. Image: an Israeli air strike in Marjayoun, Lebanon on April 1, 2026.
Middle East Forum Online
Can Israel Fend off Hezbollah Without Alienating America?
Israel Has Sought Throughout to Detach Its Battle with the Iranian Proxy Group Hezbollah in Lebanon from the Negotiations
June 25, 2026
 · 
Jonathan Spyer
Part political thriller and part moral reckoning, The Closing Window examines what happens when strategy leaves the conference room and lands on the shoulders of ordinary people.
Press Releases
Gregg Roman Releases New Literary Espionage Thriller—The Closing Window
In His Debut Thriller, Middle East Forum Executive Director Gregg Roman Follows an Air-Defense Colonel, a Labor Organizer, and a Nurse Trapped Inside a Fragile U.S.-Iran Ceasefire—And the 60-Day Clock Counting Down on the People Peace Left Behind
June 25, 2026
Federal prosecutors allege that members of the University of Michigan’s “Student Intifada” used threats, intimidation, and property destruction—conduct major newspapers have repeatedly framed as pro-Palestinian activism and a free-speech dispute.
Middle East Forum Online
The Media Minimizes University of Michigan’s Student Intifada
What the Coverage Leaves Out About the University of Michigan Indictments
June 25, 2026
 · 
A.J. Caschetta
The Strasbourg Judicial Court dismissed the defamation and religious discrimination lawsuit filed by Iman El Feki against French Muslim Brotherhood expert Florence Bergeaud-Blackler.
FWI News
Strasbourg Court Axes Defamation Case Targeting Top Expert on the Muslim Brotherhood
Lawsuit Sought to Silence Scholar Exposing Islamist Infiltration in French Universities
June 25, 2026
 · 
Jules Gomes
FWI News
U.K. Muslim Police Association Urged End to ‘Islamist’ and ‘Jihadist’ Labels
Top Official Defends Hamas, Vilifies Israeli Army as ‘Zionist Terrorist Group’
June 25, 2026
 · 
Jules Gomes
The Iran national football team is governed by the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran.
Middle East Forum Observer
The Revolutionary Guard Has Infiltrated Iranian Soccer. The U.S. Was Right to Limit Visas
The Islamic Republic Uses the Men’s National Soccer Team to Promote Propaganda and to Enforce Political Compliance
June 25, 2026
 · 
Joseph D’Hippolito
Pope Leo XIV appears at the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City in May 2025.
Middle East Forum Observer
Catholic Zionists Press Pope Leo XIV for Magisterial Declaration on Israel
Theologians Highlight Vilification of Israel by High-Profile Antisemitic Catholic Influencers
June 25, 2026
 · 
Jules Gomes
A street scene in Baghdad, Iraq.
Middle East Forum Observer
The Real Metrics to Determine if Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi Upholds His Reform Agenda
His Government Emerged from the Same Forces That Have Run Iraq for Two Decades, Under the Supervision of Iran’s Qods Force
June 25, 2026
 · 
Ali Mahmoud