Watch the full uncut interview HERE: https://thebrinkpodcast.substack.com
In this episode of The Brink, Andrew and Jake are joined by bestselling historian and author Simon Sebag Montefiore for a sweeping conversation about the history of the Middle East and his new book, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East.
Sebag challenges many of the assumptions shaping today's debates about Israel, Islam, and the wider region. He explains why Islam cannot be treated as a single political or religious force, why Israel is in many ways more typical of Middle Eastern history than Western audiences realise, and how Zionism fits into a much longer history of Jewish attachment to the Holy Land.
The conversation also examines what Sebag describes as the West's almost religious commitment to the two-state solution, despite the realities on the ground. From the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of modern nation-states to Turkey, Iran, and the decline of Christianity across the region, he explores how history continues to shape today's conflicts.
Finally, we look at America's changing role in the Middle East and the emergence of a new geopolitical order in which conflicts from Ukraine and the Caucasus to the Horn of Africa are increasingly interconnected.
Chapters
00:00 The Two-State Solution Has Become A Religion
02:28 Simon Sebag Montefiore On The Brink
07:25 The Truth About Islam
13:37 Israel’s Crisis From Within
18:50 Will Israel Survive Its Divisions?
24:15 The Real History Of Zionism
30:44 Why The Two-State Solution Keeps Failing
32:12 The West’s Contradiction On Nationalism
35:36 Does The Middle East Need America?
45:37 Why Israel Isn’t Historically Exceptional
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