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The Middle East in 2025: The Beginning of a New Era — or a Year of More Chaos
Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun walks after being elected as the country’s president at the parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Following Hamas’ barbaric invasion on October 7, 2023, events initially seemed confined to yet another localized confrontation between Israel and the Gaza Strip. However, developments across the Middle East since then have proven otherwise.
Rapid political and military shifts are propelling regional actors into a whirlwind of change. In an era shaped by foreign interventions, demographic and cultural shifts, and the influence of social media, the Middle East is transforming before our eyes, presenting challenges that lead to a range of possibilities — many of which remain unclear.
Israel’s response to the October 2023 events, culminating in the elimination of much of Hamas’ leadership, extended beyond Gaza’s borders. Lebanon, under Hezbollah’s control, was drawn into the chaos. The targeted killing of Hassan Nasrallah in Operation “New Order” created a leadership vacuum, possibly setting the stage for Lebanon to reinvent itself. The election of Joseph Khalil Aoun, a Maronite Christian, as Lebanon’s new president, represents an effort to prevent the nation’s collapse, restore stability, and reinforce Western influence.
Yet Lebanon’s internal issues, coupled with resistance from extremist factions like Hezbollah, cast doubt on whether Aoun can restore balance to a country that has been deeply fractured for more than 50 years.
Meanwhile, Syria’s crisis deepened following the flight of Bashar al-Assad, a president whose long, bloody civil war shattered his country.
Despite his name –“The Lion” — Assad ultimately revealed himself as fearful in the face of external and internal threats.
The emergence of Abu Muhammad al-Julani, former leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, as Syria’s leader sparks both hope and concern, as the new regime is associated with extremist Islam. And Russia’s retreat in Syria, due to being bogged down in the Ukrainian quagmire, has significantly boosted Turkey’s influence.
Ankara is steadily becoming Syria’s new patron, following the decline of Iranian dominance, aligning with Erdogan’s ambitions to resurrect the glory of the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, Turkey’s control over northern Syrian territories and Israel’s incursions into southern Syria illustrate the shifting regional power map. The central question is how Syria’s new leadership will tackle these challenges, maintain internal stability, and strengthen its position in the region.
Not far away, Yemen continues to be the battleground for a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, with the Iran-backed Houthis launching missiles and drones at Saudi targets. Joint Israeli-American strikes, supported by Saudi Arabia, against Houthi military infrastructure have raised the question of whether Iran’s influence in Yemen will wane or persist as a threat.
In this context, while military shifts introduce new challenges, it remains unclear whether they will lead to long-term stability or exacerbate the conflict.
The situations in Egypt and Jordan are fundamentally different, yet similarly characterized by internal pressures. Egypt, under Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, continues to suppress opposition, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood. However, the ongoing economic crisis threatens to undermine the country’s stability. The economic crisis is not just a domestic issue but a regional and global one, as Cairo struggles to secure Western support, particularly through large-scale development and investment projects. Jordan, considered relatively stable in the Middle East, faces mounting internal pressures while striving to maintain economic and security stability. The Hashemite monarchy’s position may come under renewed scrutiny this year, especially as tensions grow between local and global interests.
What is clear is that the Middle East is undergoing a dramatic transformation, with military and political events intertwining with social and economic developments. Social media, which has rapidly proliferated, plays a decisive role in shaping public opinion both locally and globally. The flood of information and growing criticism on these platforms directly influence governmental actions and public sentiment.
Against this backdrop, it is difficult to predict whether the region is on the brink of a stable new era, or whether more regimes will collapse or undergo significant change. A key question remains how Israel, as a central and influential power in the region, will shape the Middle East’s near future. It is evident that Israel’s governmental decisions — whether economic, judicial, or political — will continue to significantly impact the trajectories of neighboring states and the directions their leaders choose to pursue.
Itamar Tzur is an Israeli scholar and Middle East expert who holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Jewish History and a Master’s degree with honors in Middle Eastern Studies. As a senior member of the “Forum Kedem for Middle Eastern Studies and Public Diplomacy”. Tzur leverages his academic expertise to enhance understanding of regional dynamics and historical contexts within the Middle East.
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Palestinian Authority: Jews Should Go to America or Europe, and Gazans Should Flood Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is trying to garner international support for an alternative to President Trump’s plan to relocate the Arabs of Gaza to countries “with humanitarian hearts.”
The PA has called Trump’s plan “satanic,” and instead wants the Jews to leave Israel to make room for the Gazans in Israel — the place that the PA calls Gazans’ rightful home.
Official PA TV suggested that the Jews should go back to Poland or Russia, as Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported last week.
A senior PA official, Jibril Rajoub, is now suggesting that Trump take the Jews to America:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “[US President Trump] is talking about expelling the original residents of Palestine and forgets that Israelis come from 76 countries, so let him take them to him.”
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Feb. 15, 2025]
Rajoub also hopes for Fatah-Hamas unity to “besiege” Israel, “and those who stand behind the Jewish State, ” through “comprehensive popular resistance” — a term that also refers to the use of terrorism:
Jibril Rajoub: “We in the Fatah Movement support building bilateral rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas… so that our strategic option in the next stage will be comprehensive popular resistance and an organizational rapprochement that pertains to the PLO… What Netanyahu and Trump have said must constitute for us an incentive to achieve our unity and re-examine many political policies. I hope our brothers in Hamas will also understand that they need to do some self-inspection in a way that will allow building a future for our people and besiege this occupation (i.e., Israel) and those who stand behind it.”
The concept of Israel becoming Jew-free was also echoed in the PA’s official daily:
Instead of uprooting the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, why don’t you return the Israelis to the countries from which they came?’
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 7, 2025]
Senior PA officials, such as Mahmoud Abbas himself and his senior advisor, propose that Gazans flooding Israel would bring “comprehensive peace and real coexistence” and that “then there will be no problem”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “If the Americans want a solution, the only place they [the refugees] need to return to is their cities and villages from which they were expelled during the Nakba [i.e., “the catastrophe,” the establishment of Israel] … He [US President Trump] who thinks he has the power to impose a new deal of the century or to exile our people and take control of any inch of our land is deceiving himself.”
[Official PA TV News, Feb. 15, 2025]
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The solution is simple and easy: To return them to the cities and villages from which they were forcibly removed in 1948, then there will be no problem…”
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Feb. 5, 2025]
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “He should return them to the cities and villages from which they were expelled in 1948.”
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Feb. 5, 2025]
PMW has reported numerous times that the Palestinian Authority does not recognize Israel’s right to exist within any borders. All of these statements by the PA leadership hoping for Israelis to leave and be replaced by so-called refugees reflect messages that the PA regularly broadcasts to its people and upon which it educates its children.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is PMW’s Founder and Director. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
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How Hamas Is Using Goebbels’ Propaganda Tactics in Gaza
US-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen and Russian-Israeli Sasha (Alexander) Troufanov, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, are escorted by Palestinian Hamas terrorists and Islamic Jihad terrorists as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
“It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle.”
That statement is often attributed to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, who understood the power of a lie, repeated over and over again. Whether the quote is accurate or not, Goebbels certainly used that very principle to cultivate the myth of the so-called Jewish-Communist betrayal that allegedly led to Germany’s defeat in World War I.
This propaganda enabled Hitler to tap into the frustrations of many Germans suffering from the Great Depression of the 1920s — and also fueled long-standing hatred toward Jews, which eventually culminated in the Holocaust.
It is doubtful that Goebbels, sitting in a Berlin bunker just before taking his own life along with his wife and six children, could have imagined how his principles would live on in the modern era — adopted by those far removed from the so-called Aryan master race. But reality proves that the method works: A lie repeated often enough becomes an absolute truth.
This past Thursday, we witnessed yet another instance of Hamas’ propaganda — this time regarding the return of the bodies of Oded Lifshitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir, who were kidnapped during the October 7 massacre. For months, Hamas operatives claimed that the family had been killed in Israeli airstrikes, even conveying this false information to the captive father. However, forensic examinations have now revealed the grim truth: They were brutally murdered by these terrorists. Yet, just as in 1930s Germany, the lie was repeated so frequently that it became a fact in the eyes of many.
Another example of Hamas’ propaganda unfolded last Saturday, when the release of six Israeli hostages was accompanied by a carefully orchestrated propaganda spectacle — when two other hostages were forced to watch, enduring yet another round of psychological terror. It is worth noting that Hisham Al-Sayed was released discreetly — perhaps because he is Arab or Muslim, or maybe because he did not fit Hamas’ propaganda narrative.
These events played out before crowds of Gazan families who came to cheer and praise the “heroism” of the kidnappers.
Israeli television, rightfully, refrained from broadcasting this spectacle, which echoed Goebbels’ tactics of creating a narrative in which Jews are portrayed as the real monsters. We have seen this before — in pro-Hamas posters depicting the Israeli Prime Minister as a bloodthirsty vampire.
The big lie continues to thrive: We are told that the Bibas family was kidnapped for their “protection”; that Hamas seeks to establish a peaceful Palestinian state alongside Israel; that a genocide is occurring in Gaza; and that Palestinians are the descendants of the Philistines and Jebusites. There is no truth here — only an endless repetition of falsehoods until they are ingrained in the global consciousness.
Thus, when Israel’s forensic institute confirmed that the Bibas children were brutally murdered as early as November 2023, and that Shiri Bibas’ body wasn’t returned but was instead replaced with that of an unidentified Gazan woman — it no longer came as a shock. The only question that remains is: What lie will they try to sell us next week?
What Joseph Goebbels pioneered in the 1930s has found new life in the age of social media. History proves that in the fight for truth, silence is not an option.
Itamar Tzur is the author of The Invention of the Palestinian Narrative and an Israeli scholar specializing in Middle Eastern history. He holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Jewish History and a Master’s degree with honors in Middle Eastern Studies. As a senior member of the “Forum Kedem for Middle Eastern Studies and Public Diplomacy,” he leverages his academic expertise to deepen understanding of regional dynamics and historical contexts.
The post How Hamas Is Using Goebbels’ Propaganda Tactics in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Media Fall for Hamas Propaganda in Coverage of Israeli Hostage’s ‘Kiss’ to Captor
Families and supporters react as they celebrate the release of Omer Wenkert, a hostage who was held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, on the day of the release of six hostages from captivity in Gaza as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gedera, Israel February 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Rami Shlush
Hamas’ despicable hostage release this weekend was widely covered. But foreign media outlets chose to highlight one particularly nauseating propaganda moment — when Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov kissed a Hamas terrorist onstage after being ordered to do so.
For Gaza photojournalist Ashraf Amra, who infiltrated into Israel on October 7 and was honored by Hamas leadership, it was literally the money shot — which was later sold to Getty Images and platformed by media outlets, including The Times of London and Daily Express.
For Sky News, it was a moment of “warmth.”
Getty Images, The Times, and Daily Express all failed to check the source of the photo.
Amra is a Hamas propagandist: He was fired from Reuters and AP after HonestReporting exposed that he was honored by former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and that he hosted an Instagram Live calling on Gazans to invade Israel during Hamas’ massacre on October 7, 2023.
Here’s Amra getting a kiss from Haniyeh in 2023 and receiving an honor from the unlamented Hamas leader in 2012. pic.twitter.com/VdWXN6wB32
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 23, 2025
These media outlets also know that Hamas is producing propaganda moments from their despicable staged hostage release ceremonies.
While they might be bound to cover these events, why should they also be helping to line the pockets of a friend of Hamas?
It’s even more problematic when the media seem to forget what Hamas’ staged spectacles are all about, which is exactly what happened to Sky News’ Diana Magnay.
In a live broadcast on Saturday, as Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen, and Omer Wenkert were humiliated by Hamas on stage, with one of the camera-wielding terrorists clearly instructing Shem Tov to kiss his captors, Magnay overflowed with emotion: “Some amazing scenes today … this is very unexpected to see that kind of reaction, that kind of warmth.”
Is @DiMagnaySky so naive that she honestly believes the “amazing scenes” she’s commenting on are a product of “warmth” between the hostages and the Hamas terrorists who held them for 504 days?@SkyNews, this is truly embarrassing. https://t.co/AkVNDEiGkf pic.twitter.com/OgpQ0cL3Ys
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 23, 2025
Even without the later clarification by Shem Tov’s father — who said it was all staged — Magnay, or any other journalist, should not have fallen for Hamas’ propaganda in such a painfully naive way.
Is it so difficult to cast doubt on a live show staged by terrorists who don’t even try to hide their propagandist goal?
The answer is that Hamas got what it wanted. Without the international media noticing, the world has gotten used to the spectacles; they have gotten used to the lies; and they have gotten used to the manipulation. They just want the money shot.
Hamas succeeded in normalizing its own evil.
And it is easily sold by Hamas-affiliated journalists to the gullible media, who celebrate it as “amazing scenes.”
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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