Book Reviews

Winter 2026 Book Reviews:
Book Reviews
October 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds
By Asaf Romirowsky and Donna Robinson Divine •
Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2025. 344 pp., $49 (hardcover and eBook)

Reviewed by Mitchell Bard
December 1, 2025
Book Reviews
Blindfold: A Memoir of Capture, Torture, and Enlightenment
By Theo Padnos • New York: Scribner, 2022. 400 pp., $25.00 (paperback)

Reviewed by Jonathan Spyer
December 1, 2025
Book Reviews
Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History
By Vali Nasr • Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2025. 376 pp., $35.00 (hardcover); $24.99 (eBook)

Reviewed by Patrick Clawson
November 28, 2025
Book Reviews
Forgotten Saint-Simonian Travelers in Egypt: Suzanne Voilquin, Ismayl Urbain, and Jehan d’Ivray
By John David Ragan • New York and Cairo: The American University in Cairo (AUC) Press, 2025. 349 pp; $69.95 (hardback), $68.99 (PDF), $68.99 (EPUB)

Reviewed by Roger F. S. Kaplan
December 1, 2025
Book Reviews
Driven to Their Knees: Humiliation in Contemporary Politics
By Roxanne L. Euben • Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2025. 280 pp., $99.95 (hardcover); $29.95 (paperback)

Reviewed by Craig Considine
December 1, 2025
Middle East Quarterly
New Directions in Israeli Media: Film, Television, and Digital Content
By Yaron Peleg, Eran Kaplan, and Ido Rosen • Austin: University of Texas Press, 2025. 364 pp., $55.00 (hardcover)

Reviewed by Sariel Birnbaum
December 1, 2025
Book Reviews
Contemporary Turkish Prison Diary: Reflections on the Writings of Said Nursi and Aleksander Solzhenitsyn
By İsmail Albayrak • Singapore: Springer, 2024. xx+144 pp., $109.99 (paperback), $84.99 (eBook)

Reviewed by Tom Gage
December 1, 2025
Book Reviews
Israel Strikes Iran: Operation Rising Lion—The 20-Year Backstory
By Edwin Black • Washington, DC: Dialog Press, 2025. 131pp., $30.00 (hardcover); $25.00 (paperback)

Review by Efraim Inbar
December 1, 2025
Book Reviews
Unveiled: Inside Iran’s #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt

By Jonathan Harounoff • Castroville, Texas: Black Rose, 2025. 181 pp.; $25.95 (hardcover), $15.95 (paperback)

Reviewed by Michael Rubin
December 1, 2025
More from MEF
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
Both Israel and Morocco are increasingly outmaneuvering their adversaries by creating undeniable facts on the ground while building robust international alliances.
Middle East Forum Online
The Parallels Between Morocco and Israel Are Impossible to Ignore
Both Nations Are Historical Pillars of Stability in a Volatile Region
June 24, 2026
 · 
Amine Ayoub
Articles by Islamist Watch
What’s Next for Wealthy Texas Islamism?
June 24, 2026
 · 
Sam Westrop