The war in Gaza is now set to enter its second month. As it does so, Israel has agreed a pause in the fighting for humanitarian aid and while Hamas releases some of its hostages. What are the strategic consequences of this agreement and what comes next in the war?

Meanwhile, after the US’s initial support for Israel, a degree of daylight is now opening between the US and Israel with regards to who will control Gaza “the day after” Hamas is destroyed. Who will establish and manage the governance of Gaza is contingent upon answering an even more challenging question: how to deradicalize a population after years of indoctrination into a genocidal jihadi philosophy? If there is never a purely military solution to an insurgency, what limits does radical Islamism place on any political solution? Beyond considerations regarding the day after, how can efforts at deradicalisation contribute to Israel’s military strategy to dismantle Hamas and prevent a Hamas 2.0 from arising in its place?

The Henry Jackson Society is pleased to invite you to this timely discussion with regional experts who will be offering their views on where the Hamas-Israel war may take us and how it is going to shape and affect relations in the region and beyond.

This is the latest in an ongoing series of events providing expert insight on the ongoing Israel crisis.

Cynthia Farahat is an Egyptian-American bestselling author of ‘The Secret Apparatus: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Industry of Death’ , columnist, political analyst, counterterrorism expert. She co-founded the Liberal Egyptian Party in Egypt, which advocated for peace with Israel, capitalism, and the separation of mosque and state. She studied Islamic jurisprudence for more than twenty years and co-authored ‘Desecration of A Heavenly Religion’, which was officially banned by Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 2008 for its criticism of Egypt’s blasphemy law. She was a fellow at the Middle East Forum for eleven years.

Farahat landed on an al-Qaeda affiliated group’s hit list and was officially banned from entering Lebanon for her work fostering regional peace. For almost a decade, she received daily death threats from Islamists. After her belated brother was kidnapped and tortured, her friend was murdered, and Islamists tried to assassinate her in October 2011, Farahat immigrated to the United States.

Farahat has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, briefed more than three hundred congressional offices, and advised intelligence and law enforcement agencies. She received awards for her work in counter-terrorism. Her writing has been published in many national and international outlets, and her work has been translated into more than twenty languages.

Colonel (res) Dr. Eran Lerman was deputy director for foreign policy and international affairs at the National Security Council in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. He held senior posts in IDF Military Intelligence for over 20 years. He currently is the Vice President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. He also served for eight years as director of the Israel and Middle East office of the American Jewish Committee. He teaches in the Middle East studies program at Shalem College in Jerusalem, and in post-graduate programs at Tel Aviv University and the National Defense College. He is an expert on Israel’s foreign relations, and on the Middle East. A third-generation Sabra, he holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, and a mid-career MPA from Harvard University.

Barak Seener is a Senior Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and the founder of Strategic Intelligentia and the Gulf Futures Forum. Previously, Barak was a Global Intelligence Manager at HSBC and the Middle East Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) on whose behalf he has debriefed international defence and security policy makers and diplomats on matters relating to Middle East security. Barak has lectured at NATO as well as the Royal College for Defence Studies. He also staged the world’s first, and hugely successful conference in London at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) on Palestinian statehood. This examined the security Implications for the Region bringing together leading Israelis, Palestinians, US and European representatives in London 2011. Prior to joining RUSI, Barak was one of the Henry Jackson Society’s founders in Westminster and was the Henry Jackson Society’s Greater Middle East Section Director.

Barak 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 and expert commentary for a range of international broadcasters including Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Chinese CCTV, Fox News, Sky News, Voice of America, and news outlets such as Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, the Evening Standard, Jerusalem Post and Xinhua.

Barak has published in publications including Newsweek, the National Interest, the American Interest, Jane’s Intelligence Review and Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst on counter-terrorism, US-China dynamics, risks to supply chains, globalization and the end of the liberal international order, transatlantic relations, universal jurisdiction, nuclear proliferation and Middle East issues including the Arab Spring, tensions in Libya, Egypt and Syria, strategic and security dynamic between Iran and the Gulf, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

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EVENT SUMMARY

The Henry Jackson Society was delighted to welcome Cynthia Farahat and Colonel (res) Dr. Eran Lerman to a discussion on assessing the hostage deal in the Israel Crisis and the ramifications of radicalisation. Cynthia started by explaining how the Muslim Brotherhood works and operates by infiltrating high ranking government organizations and nefarious groups across the Middle East by putting its members into high-ranking positions and through various secret militant apparatuses.

Eran agreed with Cynthia, went on to say that Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood that’s operating in Gaza ruling under a totalitarian political ideology that has been rooted in early 20^th century European nationalist antisemitic propaganda rhetoric from Nazi Germany about the elimination of the Jews that’s been carried out by Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups up until the present day. He went on to say how risky the ceasefire can make the hostage deal negotiations and will require a lot of work between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as well as Egypt and the United States to help rebuild and deradicalize Gaza of Hamas rule.

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