Here’s How Trump Is Changing the Game in the Middle East: Josh Hammer

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This is the 30 minute TV version of Jan Jekielek’s interview with Josh Hammer. The longer-form version was released on Epoch TV on June 7, 2025.

🔴 Watch the extended version of this episode: https://ept.ms/4dS8nbj

“You can essentially divide the region between two sets of players. You have the, broadly speaking, Western-aligned players, which essentially consist of Israel and the non-Islamist Arab countries—countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE—and then, on the other hand, you have the axis of Islamism—of support for Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and jihadism. And that, these days, is mostly the Iranian regime of course, Turkey unfortunately under Tayyip Erdogan, and Qatar, Qatar being the lead financier of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood,” says Josh Hammer, host of the Newsweek podcast “The Josh Hammer Show” and author of “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.”

“Iran is the source of evil in the Middle East. We should be very clear about that,” he says. “This is the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism. They have been ever since the hostage crisis that formed this horrific regime that ended the Jimmy Carter presidency in 1979.”

What does an America First foreign policy look like? How does Trump’s Middle East strategy fit into it? And what about the U.S. relationship with Qatar?

“America has always been engaged on the world stage. So the fact that we’re not necessarily going to be going around crusading in the name of spreading liberal democracy does not necessarily mean that we have no interest in the world. We’re America first, but you have to be America smart as well,” says Hammer.

CHAPTER TITLES
0:00:00 - Geopolitical Landscape: Western-Aligned Players vs. Axis of Islamism
0:00:50 - Defining America First: A Realist Foreign Policy Approach
0:07:17 - Trump's Middle East Strategy: First Trip and Diplomatic Objectives
0:11:20 - Qatar: A Complex Ally with Strategic Investments
0:14:07 - Syria and Potential Normalization with Israel
0:16:00 - Israel's Role in America First Foreign Policy
0:18:33 - US-Israel Relations: Navigating Potential Rifts and Future Prospects
0:23:09 - Concluding Thoughts on America First and Middle Eastern Diplomacy

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