Wednesday, September 30, 2026 | 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Israel Insider
with Ashley Perry

A weekly update on the most significant events happening in Israel.

Ashley Perry is an advisor to the Middle East Forum’s Israel office. He served as adviser to Israel’s minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister in 2009-15, and has also worked with Israel’s Ministers of Intelligence, Agriculture and Rural Development, Energy, Water and Infrastructure, Defense, Tourism, Internal Security, and Immigrant Absorption and as an advisor to The Negev Forum. Originally from the U.K., he moved to Israel in 2001. He holds a B.A. from University College London and an M.A. from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya).

Register Now

More from MEF
Boston Public Schools hired True-See Allah after he lost his job in the Suffolk County DA’s office over praise for Louis Farrakhan and remarks about a “Jewish guy that’s got short arms and deep pockets.”
Middle East Forum Online
Boston Public Schools Employs Farrakhan Supporter Who Lost Job with District Attorney
True-See Allah Praised Nation of Islam Leader as ‘Illustrious Leader, Teacher and Guide’
September 30, 2026
 · 
Dexter Van Zile
Italy has approved a decree-law banning face coverings in schools, which has incited an angry response from Islamist leaders in Italy and the United States.
FWI News
Meloni Government’s Sweeping Ban on Burqas and Niqabs from Schools Provokes Islamists
Italian Islamist Says Policy Is ‘White Supremacist’
September 30, 2026
 · 
Jules Gomes
Counterterrorism experts suspect that Salim El Koudri’s May 16, 2026, car-ramming in Modena, Italy was a deliberate Islamist terrorist attack, pointing to the driver’s planning, choice of location and time, and other data points uncovered in the investigation.
FWI News
Jihadi Car Attacker Filmed Four Terror Videos 48 Hours Before Deadly Strike
Italians Furious Over €6,500 Given to Moroccan Terrorist as University Scholarship
September 30, 2026
 · 
Jules Gomes
Mourners in the streets of Tehran for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's funeral.
Middle East Forum Observer
Iran Seeks Revenge for Killing of Khamenei
Avenging the Supreme Leader’s Death in the War Is State Policy, and Iranian Media and Officials Reflect It
September 30, 2026
 · 
Shay Khatiri
MEF in the Media
Jim Hanson on Middle East Issues
September 29, 2026
Outside the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Middle East Forum Observer
A Two-State Solution in Yemen Is a Practical Exit, Not an Ideological One
The U.N. Cannot Impose Trust, and Saudi Arabia Cannot Continue to Impose Its Trusteeship over South Yemen
September 29, 2026
 · 
Khaled Alyemany
The India-Pakistan Attari-Wagah border ceremony, a daily military drill held just before sunset.
Middle East Forum Observer
Are the Gulf Arab States Hedging Their Bets Between India and Pakistan?
The Gulf Arab States Increasingly Seek Relationships Based on Specific Capabilities, Rather than Exclusive Alignment
September 29, 2026
 · 
Radhika Lakshminarayanan
At the same time, there were surprising omissions from Netanyahu's address, omissions that reinforce the sense that Israel does not have a clear and viable plan right now for countering the central threat to its national security: Iran’s nuclear weapons program, its ballistic missiles, and its rapacious, tenacious regime.
Middle East Forum Online
What Netanyahu Didn’t Say at the U.N. Was as Telling as What He Did
The Prime Minister Didn’t Present Promised New Iran Intel or Issue Additional Threats Against the Regime, or Talk About Saudi Peace
September 28, 2026
 · 
Lazar Berman
Israel’s August 18, 2026, strike against the Abu al-Duhur airbase hours after a Turkish delegation departed the facility crystalized the collision now shaping Syria’s trajectory: Turkish efforts to build a permanent military foothold against Israel’s need for aerial freedom, in a contest over which power will fill the vacuum Iran left in the Levant.
Middle East Forum Online
Israel, Turkey, and the Contest for Syria
Post-Assad Syria Has Become the Primary Theater in Which Competing Visions for the Region’s Future Are Being Tested
September 28, 2026
 · 
Hussein Aboubakr Mansour
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife Emine have four children.
Middle East Forum Observer
Is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Gay?
Erdoğan’s Seeming Obsession with Homosexuality Is Not Unlike Closeted Homosexuals Who Are Among the Most Self-Hating
September 28, 2026
 · 
Michael Rubin