Are Western leaders sleepwalking into a disaster in the Middle East?

As regional tensions surge amid Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, its allies in the US and Europe have refused calls to de-escalate the conflict and prevent the staggering toll on human life from spiralling further. 

Western countries vowed to stand by Israel as it responds to the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas, with many invoking the language of the ‘War on Terror’ and a ‘Clash of Civilisations’. But unlike conflicts in the past, these countries have increasingly found themselves isolated on the world stage, at the United Nations and on the streets of major cities.

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with Palestinian thinker and political strategist Wadah Khanfar.

Khanfar says Israel and its allies are desperately trying to maintain Western hegemony in the Middle East and beyond, but they cannot see that the world has already moved on.

Wadah Khanfar is the President of Al Sharq Forum, an independent network dedicated to developing long-term strategies for political development, social justice and economic prosperity of the people of the Middle East. He previously served as the Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network. He has been ranked by Foreign Policy Magazine as the first in The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers and as one of the most 'Powerful People in the World' by Forbes magazine (2009). He was born in the Palestinian town of Rama in 1968.