Asher Fredman: If you look at the numbers, trade between Israel and Morocco, the UAE, Bahrain — even Egypt and Jordan — is up across the board.

Instability in the Strait of Hormuz has renewed interest in the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a proposed overland trade route connecting India to Europe through Gulf states, Jordan, and Israel. As maritime insurance goes up and uncertainty grows, the economic case for this overland route grows as well.

Published in Daily Wire, March  19, 2026.

*The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.

Meir Ben Shabbat: The idea is that the internal struggle that is supposed to bring about regime change will occur when the regime has been battered and destabilized, its command-and-control system reduced to only partial functioning, its mechanisms of repression damaged, its legitimacy at a low point, its proxies weak, and its economic hole deep. These are conditions that would enable citizens who oppose the regime to finish the job and take advantage of the rare opportunity. It is true that the outcome cannot be guaranteed, but it is clear that without these prior steps, there is no chance of it happening.

Published in The Free Press, March  19, 2026.

*The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.

Meir Ben-Shabbat: His status and influence extended far beyond any formal position he had. Since Khamenei’s death. Larijani managed the fight against Israel and served as the chief coordinator of Iran’s security bodies.

Right now, it’s not at all clear who’s running things. Khamenei’s son Mojtaba was selected as Iran’s third supreme leader, but he is believed to have been injured in the airstrike that killed his father, and hasn’t been seen since.

The strikes continue the process of severing and dismantling the chain of ideological, political, and operational command and control of the Iranian regime, placing it in an unprecedented crisis.

Published in Times Of Israel, March  18, 2026.

Meir Ben-Shabbat: Erdoğan’s Turkey does not conceal its ambition to expand its regional influence. Erdoğan is pursuing an assertive foreign policy that combines military power with active diplomacy in order to position Turkey as a central actor in several arenas of conflict.

Turkey views itself as a patron of the Palestinian cause. It seeks to play a major role in the reconstruction of Gaza after the war and in a potential international stabilization force.

Erdoğan’s ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and with Hamas provide these organizations with meaningful political and logistical backing, making it more difficult for Israel to isolate them on the international stage. His alignment with Qatar on some of these issues further amplifies their influence and increases the challenge of confronting them.

Published in JNS, March 18, 2026.

*The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.

Prof. Kobi Michael: This is not a new phase, but a continuing effort and a very successful and impressive one and a crucial component of the strategy meant to weaken the Iranian regime. This is to the degree that it will not be able to reconstitute itself and/or to become again a severe threat and destabilizing player in the broader Middle East.

At the very same time, by weakening the regime and paralyzing its capacities generally speaking and its domestic control specifically, the U.S. and Israel are facilitating the required conditions for the Iranian people to topple the regime.

Published in Fox News, March  18, 2026.

*The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.

Meir Ben Shabbat: Defining some communities as safe could encourage Iran to target them. Easing restrictions anywhere could be misinterpreted by the public as a lowering of the threat level everywhere, eroding preparedness.

Published in the New York Times, on March 16, 2026.

*The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.

Prof. Kobi Michael discusses the need for a prolonged military campaign to reduce the Iranian regime’s capabilities to their lowest point and the establishment of a robust monitoring mechanism to prevent it from reconstituting itself , . He envisions a weakened and fragile regime eventually collapsing from within due to an internal uprising by the Iranian people, supported by international efforts, though he emphasizes this goal requires strategic patience and time

The full interview took place on I24 Channel on March 15, 2026.

*The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.

Olga Deutsch: Europe’s response to the conflict involving Iran is characterized by deep internal fragmentation, where individual nations prioritize domestic political interests, local demographic pressures, and their specific relationships with the United States over a unified European Union stance.

Regional differences further divide the continent, as Western Europe favors diplomatic “soft power” and UN frameworks to manage internal unrest, while Central and Eastern European nations perceive Iran as an existential threat and lean toward stronger alignment with NATO and US strategic goals.

The recording of briefing with Olga Deutsch, Video credit: MediaCentral. 12 March 2026.

*The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.

Prof. Kobi Michael: This is part of war, and unfortunately we have gotten used to it. The number of missiles Iran was firing at Israel appeared to be falling by the day, suggesting Tehran’s strike capacity was declining. No one is happy about this, but everyone understands we had no other choice.

Published in Caixin Global, March  10, 2026.

*The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.

Prof. Kobi Michael: If the campaign in Iran is ended successfully … Iran will be much weaker, and Iran will not be able to continue supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. Then it will change the entire situation in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon dramatically.

When it comes to the Gaza Strip, actually, we are in a sort of status quo. The IDF continues on a daily basis to destroy all the terror infrastructure, tunnels, places that were used for manufacturing weapons and rockets. This is to signal to Hamas that if they continue breaching the agreement, they will pay a price.

The full interview was published in The Media Line, on March 10, 2026.

The opinions expressed in Misgav Institute publications are those of the authors alone.