In this episode of the Promised Land podcast, MLI Senior Fellow Casey Babb sits down with Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, an Egyptian-American intellectual and senior research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, to discuss the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. Recording on June 18th during the sixth day of hostilities, they explore the strategic implications of Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and whether the United States will join the fight.
Hussein brings his expertise on Middle Eastern geopolitics, foreign funding of universities, and regional dynamics to analyze why this confrontation was inevitable given Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Israel’s existential imperatives. The conversation covers the realistic prospects for regime change in Iran, the ongoing Gaza conflict and hostage situation, and why traditional solutions like the two-state solution may be counterproductive.
They also examine shifting Arab attitudes toward Israel, particularly among Gulf elites, and discuss the rise of Western radicalism and anti-Semitism. Hussein argues that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a complex system of international political maneuvering rather than a genuine bilateral dispute.
Hussein Aboubakr Mansour is an Egyptian-American intellectual specializing in modern intellectual history. His work focuses on Arab political thought, Arab intellectual history, and the globalization of antisemitism and revolutionary radicalism. Hussein previously served as an assistant professor of Hebrew language and culture at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. His writings have appeared in Commentary, Tablet, Mosaic, and the Athens Review of Books. Hussein is a sought-after commentator and speaker on issues of antisemitism and extremism in the Middle East. In 2022, he was awarded the Per Ahlmark Award by the UN Watch for his advocacy for human rights, and in 2024, he was awarded the German Mercator Fellowship from the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg. He is a senior research fellow at ISGAP, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.
Show Notes:
Hussein’s recent Substack article
Israel’s 1981 strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor
Israel’s 2007 strike on Syrian nuclear reactor
Qatar and Al Jazeera
Civilian toll:
A lifeline lies in ruins: Iranian missile destroys a rehab center for disabled kids in The Times of Israel
Live updates: Israel reports ‘direct hit’ on hospital by Iranian missile after targeting Arak nuclear reactor in NBC News
With few shelters but plenty of roadblocks, East Jerusalem Arabs squeezed by war in The Times of Israel
Israeli death toll rises to 24; nearly 600 injured in Israel Hayom
