East to West | Voices of the Middle East

In this episode of East to West, Balig Sladeen speaks with Dean Shmuel Elmas, reporter and geopolitics analyst at Globes, about Israel’s evolving strategic reality after two years of war.

From Iran’s weakening proxy network to Turkey’s growing influence in Syria, Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean, the conversation explores new regional threats, shifting alliances, and why Israel can no longer afford to think like an isolated island in a changing Middle East.

In this episode of East to West, Balig Sladeen speaks with Dr. Charles Jacobs, President of the Jewish Leadership Project, author, and longtime activist, on the ideological shifts that have shaped American public opinion over the past two decades. He explains how narratives formed in academia and media gradually filtered into mainstream culture, influencing how Israel, Zionism, and Jewish communities are perceived today.

In this episode of East to West, host Balig Sladeen sits down with Ella Rosenberg, an expert on the Iranian economy with extensive experience analyzing financial systems and capital movements, to understand how do they survive decades of crippling sanctions?Ella Rosenberg, whose research focuses on how funds are transferred from the Iranian regime to European countries explains that the Western idea of a "normal" economy, where goods are abundant and ordering is easy, doesn't exist for them. For Iranians, "bad is normal".

In this powerful episode of East to West, host Balig Sladeen sits down with Pastor Dumisani Washington, founder of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, to tackle a topic few dare to touch: how the Black community in America and across the world really views Israel and the Jewish people — and how that story changed over time.

In this explosive episode of East to West, host Balig Sladeen sits down with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gaza-born analyst who speaks openly about the one topic everyone avoids: what people in Gaza REALLY think about Hamas. No slogans. No propaganda. Just personal experience, raw emotion, and truths that rarely escape the region.Ahmed shares what friends, relatives, and civilians whisper behind closed doors — the fear, the pressure, the anger, the exhaustion, and the silent majority that never gets represented on screen. This is the kind of conversation that breaks narratives, challenges assumptions, and brings forward voices that have been ignored for years.

Decades after World War II, Israel’s Mossad made a shocking decision: to reach out not to kill, but to recruit one of Hitler’s most infamous commandos, Otto Skorzeny. What drove this extraordinary move, and what does it reveal about espionage, morality, and survival in the shadow of history?In this episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with Oded Ailam, a former senior Mossad officer and JCFA researcher, who shares the inside story of how this operation unfolded, and what it tells us about the complex world of intelligence and postwar justice.

In this gripping episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with Mosab Hassan Yousef — the son of a Hamas co-founder who became one of the movement’s fiercest critics.

From inside the heart of Hamas to a global stage, Mosab unveils the true face of the ideology that birthed the October 7th massacre. He explains how Hamas grew from the Muslim Brotherhood’s radical vision, why “globalizing the Intifada” means spreading chaos worldwide, and how the group systematically weaponizes both civilians and hostages in pursuit of power.

In this episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir welcomes bestselling author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza together with Dr. Dan Diker, President of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, for a penetrating discussion on October 7th as more than just a terror attack.Together, they examine how Hamas’s atrocities marked a civilizational turning point — an assault not only on Israel but on Judeo-Christian values worldwide. With chilling parallels to history and a call for moral and spiritual revival, this episode confronts the deeper stakes of the war in Gaza and the future of the West itself.

Thirty-two years after the Oslo Accords, the grand promises of peace have given way to waves of terror and deep disillusionment. Now, as war rages in Gaza and governments around the world move to recognize a Palestinian State, one question looms: is this a genuine roadmap to peace — or an invitation that rewards more violence? In this episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with Ambassador Alan Baker, a key negotiator and drafter of the Oslo Accords, to confront the legacy of Oslo and the dangerous crossroads the world faces today.

In this episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir sits down with Oded Ailam, former senior Mossad officer and researcher at the JCFA Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. Together, they mark one year since Israel’s daring “beeper operation” against Hezbollah in September 2024 — a covert move that crippled Hezbollah’s communications, eliminated thousands of commanders in minutes, and triggered a domino effect across the Middle East.