As President Trump concluded his Middle East Trip, he was gifted with a $400 million plane from the Qataris to replace Air Force One, a defense deal from the Qataris that with investment pledges to the United States worth over two trillion dollars from the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the Qataris. The Qatari military will be purchasing billions in US armaments, including 210 state-of the-art Boeing jets, the UAE purchasing state of the art AI intelligence, and the Saudis have purchase over $1trillion worth of deals, plus the possibility of helping Saudi Arabia build a nuclear reactor.
On top of that, he has met with the former Al Qaeda and ISIS jihadist now in charge of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, lifting sanctions, and stating that this “would give Syria a fresh start.” Up until December, Ahmed al-Sharaa had a $10 million bounty on his head.
Trump has also just removed the CAATSA sanctions on Turkey and has promised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he will unlock a $23 billion F-16 deal, with Turkey’s aspirations for joining the F-35 program. On top of this, without any prior discussion with Israeli Prime Netanyahu, he has secured the release of dual American-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander.
Even more troubling, President Trump’s administration is engaged in high level nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2018, President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA. Now, he is saying, “We are getting very close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran.”
Here to make some sense of these recent developments is Dr. Emmanuel Navon.
About Our Speaker: Dr. Emmanuel Navon is an International Relations scholar and author. He lectures International Relations at Tel Aviv University (He was awarded the “Best Professor of the Year” prize by the Faculty of Social Sciences in 2022), is a Senior Fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), and a foreign affairs analyst for i24news. He has also taught at Reichman University and at the IDF’s National Security College.
Dr. Navon has authored four books and dozens of articles that have appeared in prestigious journals such as the Review of International Studies and the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, and in world-class newspapers such as Le Monde and Newsweek. His book The Star and the Scepter: A Diplomatic History of Israel (Jewish Publication Society/University of Nebraska Press, 2020) is an academic reference, which has been translated so far to Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, French, and Italian.
A sought-after public speaker, Navon has addressed the American Enterprise Institute, AIPAC, the Jewish Federations of North America, as well as leading universities such as Georgetown, Columbia, and Rice. Navon is a frequent guest for American, French, and Israeli media, and he has appeared on Voice of America, on France 24, and on the Knesset Channel.
Previously, Navon served as CEO of ELNET-Israel (the Israel office, and central hub, of the largest pro-Israel organization in Europe); as head of the Political Science and Communication Department at the Jerusalem Haredi College (affiliated to Bar-Ilan University); as founding partner of the Navon-Levy Group (a consultancy that promoted Israeli agricultural and energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa); as CEO of BNIC (an NGO that trained Israeli business leaders in diplomatic advocacy); and as consultant with ARTTIC (a leading European consulting firm specialized in R&D funding).
Dr. Navon was born in Paris, France, in 1971 and went to a bilingual (French/English) school. He graduated in public administration from Sciences-Po, one of Europe’s most prestigious universities. In 1993 he moved to Israel, enrolled in the IDF, and earned a Ph.D. in international relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is equally and perfectly fluent in English, French, and Hebrew, and is conversant in German and Italian. He is a husband, father, grandfather, and an active triathlete.
