The first Trump Administration saw a visionary new set of partnerships in the Middle East created in the form of The Abraham Accords. Israel’s capital Jerusalem was finally recognised as such by the US, and Iran placed under maximum pressure with Trump’s disavowal of the JCPOA nuclear deal and willingness to strike directly against Iranian terrorism. Now that January 2025 is fast approaching, and with simmering conflicts involving Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran, it is hard to predict what the Trump administration’s policies will be. To discuss the potential approach an incoming President Trump administration may have towards the Middle East, the Henry Jackson Society is pleased to host Lt. Col. (ret.) Maurice Hirsch, an advisor to Israel’s Ministry of Defence, and Dr Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies.

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Photo credit: Maurice-Hirsch.jpg (1600×1066)

Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, an advisor to Israel’s Ministry of Defence and former Director of Military Prosecution for Judea and Samaria. Maurice Hirsch worked as the Head of Legal Strategies for Palestinian Media Watch, as a Senior Military Consultant for NGO Monitor. Maurice Hirsch was the architect of the Israeli law that strips citizenship from Israeli terrorists who have been convicted for terror offenses, sentenced to a custodial sentence, and receive a payment from the Palestinian Authority as a reward for their acts of terror. 

Photo credit: https://www.fdd.org/team/jonathan-schanzer/

Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at Foundation for Defence of Democracies and author of Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War. Jonathan Schanzer previously worked as a terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he followed and froze the funding of Hamas and Al-Qaeda. 

Photo credit: https://electracast.com/podcast/the-geo-godfather-wars/

Barak Seener is an Associate Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and the founder of Strategic Intelligentia and the Gulf Futures Forum. Barak also hosts a geopolitical podcast called The Geo Godfather Wars. Previously, Barak was a Global Intelligence Manager at HSBC and the Middle East Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. 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. 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.

This event can only be watched online. To register, please click HERE