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CONFLICTED: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Message Heard
An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of war, fundamentalism and their global implications through first-hand experience.
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- 5 days ago1h 19m
Israel’s Road to Endless War
Elizabeth Tsurkov returns for another Conflicted Conversation. This time, the conversation turns to Israel after October 7th. Elizabeth traces her own political journey from the Israeli right to a hard-won humanism, then explains how Israel’s old security doctrine collapsed — and why the new one may lead not to safety, but to permanent war. Elizabeth and Thomas discuss: Israel’s security doctrine after 7 October Israel’s shift from deterrence to pre-emption Why deterrence without a political endgame failed Gaza, Hamas and the limits of military victory Hezbollah, Lebanon and Israel’s buffer-zone strategy Israel’s new "buffer zone" security perimeter Iran’s missile threat and Israel’s war with Tehran The Abraham Accords, IMEC and bypassing Palestine Why real Israeli fears may be producing the wrong answers Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Elizabeth's personal website: https://elizabeth-tsurkov.net/en/ Find Elizabeth on X: https://x.com/LizHurra Find Elizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-tsurkov-79491b15/ Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago1h 6m
Has Trump Lost the Middle East?
Aimen returns to bring us up to date on all the latest manoeuvrings in the Middle East. Aimen and Thomas discuss: Trump’s chaotic, micromanaged Iran diplomacy and reliance on inexperienced “real estate” advisers. Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Turkey, and Egypt as flawed or compromised mediators with “skin in the game.” Why Aimen thinks Switzerland would be the proper neutral US–Iran mediator. Oman’s tilt toward Iran amid assumptions of American decline and future Iranian regional weight. The UAE–Saudi split over Iran: Emirati hawkishness versus Saudi caution and strategic bruising. Saudi resentment over Yemen, Houthi attacks, Israel’s freer hand, and lack of US security guarantees. Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, and Iran: efforts to decouple the Lebanon front from the US–Iran track Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago1h 5m
The West Bank Is Reaching Breaking Point
Hamza Abu Howidy returns for another Conflicted Conversation. Last time he appeared, he told us his personal story of growing up in Hamas-ruled Gaza, how he was imprisoned and tortured by Hamas for speaking out against their oppression, and how he entered into exile in Germany just before the 7 October attacks changed everything. This time he switches from Gaza to the West Bank, telling Thomas all about the other side of Palestine — a side which goes overlooked, but which is increasingly becoming a zone of almost unbearable conflict. Hamza and Thomas discuss: Settler violence as settler terrorism How Israeli settlements undermine the Oslo process Settlement expansion as a strategy to prevent a Palestinian state The shift from a two-state ideal to a one-state reality The Hardal movement and Smotrich’s political world The Hilltop Youth: origins, ideology and violence The dual legal system in the West Bank The Yehuda Shmuel Sherman incident and the revenge attacks that followed E1 and the threat to a viable Palestinian state The West Bank economy after 7 October Palestinian municipal and national elections Israeli elections and the lack of hope for political change Israel’s post-7 October security doctrine The Board of Peace and the problem of Hamas disarmament Arab disillusionment with resistance ideology Find Hamza on X: https://x.com/HowidyHamza Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago1h 3m
My Road to Conflicted (with Jake Warren)
Because Aimen is still away, we’re taking this opportunity to introduce you all to our executive producer Jake Warren. A journalist and programme-maker, Jake not only had the idea for Conflicted, he is also the founder of Message Heard, the company that produces the show. Jake and Thomas discuss: Conflicted’s origin story Jake’s Hungarian-Jewish grandfather who escaped on the Kindertransport His early work for Vice Media in North Korea, Rwanda, and Lebanon How he won the trust of notorious Islamist preacher and organiser Anjem Choudary while covering his story Visiting the family of murdered soldier Lee Rigby How Jake first came across Aimen’s story How Thomas and Aimen became friends Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Find Jake on X: https://x.com/TheJakeWarren Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago1h 11m
Jeremy Hunt: Democracy’s Defeat Is Not Inevitable
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks with Tory MP Sir Jeremy Hunt. Over fourteen years of Conservative government, Hunt served as Culture Secretary, Health Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. But in this discussion, Jeremy draws especially on his eventful year running the Foreign Office to argue against Western defeatism and to make the case for liberal democracy. Sir Jeremy discusses: The view from inside power during Britain’s 2010–2024 crisis years Britain’s imperial inheritance, post-Brexit identity, and the “Global Britain” problem Trump’s 2018 NATO shock and Hunt’s case for higher European defence spending China, Russia and Iran as the new autocratic challenge to liberal democracy Yemen and the Stockholm Agreement as a tragic test of humanitarian diplomacy Iran, hostage diplomacy, the JCPOA and the limits of Western coercive power Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced by Thomas Small and Ross Field and edited by Mariana Ramirez-Zablah. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago1h 13m
The Madman Theory from Nixon to Trump
Is Donald Trump mad? Or is a practitioner of the Madman Theory — and therefore not mad at all? James D. Boys, author of U.S. Grand Strategy and the Madman Theory: From Nixon to Trump, argues that the Madman Theory is not madness, but the performance of madness: a tactic by which a sane leader feigns irrationality to make an adversary believe there is even a one percent chance of overwhelming, disproportionate force. In this new Conflicted Conversation, Boys explains: What the Madman Theory means Donald Trump, unpredictability and Trump Derangement Syndrome Nuclear strategy, Eisenhower, and Cold War brinkmanship Barry Goldwater, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the politics of nuclear fear Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and the Madman Theory in Vietnam Trump’s use of Madman tactics against North Korea, Iran, NATO and trade partners Whether Trump’s second-term grand strategy is chaos, coercion or calculated geopolitical pressure Follow James on X: https://x.com/jamesdboys Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm *** DONATE to Thomas’s fundraising campaign! *** *** WATCH the campaign's documentary film! *** Find us on X: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago1h 9m
The UAE’s OPEC Withdrawal & Trump’s Wartime Dilemma
*** DONATE to Thomas’s fundraising campaign! *** *** WATCH Thomas's documentary film! *** Aimen is back with a huge amount of behind-the-scenes information on what’s been happening in the Middle East in the past three weeks—especially on the real reasons the UAE withdrew from OPEC, and what’s been going on inside Donald Trump’s head as he tries to chart a course to victory in the Iran War. Aimen and Thomas discuss: The recent discovery of HUGE shale oil reserves in the UAE The Mar-a-Lago deal the UAE struck with Trump Why the recent OPEC shake-up had NOTHING to do with Saudi Arabia The truth about UAE and Saudi attacks on Iran Did the UAE, Saudi, and Qatar really beg Trump not to resume the war? How Iran’s military capability remains STRONGER than people think The corruption behind Pakistan’s mediation efforts in the Iran War The benefits and liability of Trump as a War Leader Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- May 14, 20261h 1m
Utopia or Dystopia? The Truth About Jewish-Muslim History
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks to Marc David Baer, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics, about his new book Children of Abraham: The Story of Jewish-Muslim Relations. Marc discusses: The recent stabbing in Golders Green, North London The myth of utopian co-existence and the counter-myth of total antagonism The earliest encounters of Jews and Muslims in Arabia The Qur'an's mixed messaging about Jews The reality of Sharia dhimmitude laws Jewish-Muslim relations in the Khazar Kingdom, in Al-Andalus, and in the Ottoman Empire Colonialism and the rupture of Jewish-Muslim relations Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Jewish-Muslim solidarity today Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm Find Marc on X: https://x.com/MarcDavidBaer1 Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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About CONFLICTED
An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of war, fundamentalism and their global implications through first-hand experience.
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