Jeremy Bowen: Making Sense of the Modern Middle East, Part One

Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm head of programming, Conor Boyle. For this episode, we're joined by Jeremy Bowen, international editor for the BBC and author of The Making of the Modern Middle East. Jeremy Bowen has been a defining voice for much of BBC News's international coverage over recent decades. He was made the BBC's Middle East correspond in 1995 and was Middle East editor from 2005 to 2022. Jeremy was originally supposed to be with us in London to discuss the Israel Hamas war on the complex history of conflict in the wider Middle East on Monday the 28th of October 2024. However, after some breaking news surrounding potential Israeli retaliation against Iran, he was forced to stay in the Middle East to report on unfolding events. So instead of attending in person, he recorded an in depth pre-recorded discussion with Intelligence Squared CEO, not McAllister, reflecting on the events that have led to the terrible ongoing conflict of the Israel Hamas war. Matt McAllister was Middle East correspondent for Newsday and formerly its Jerusalem bureau chief. Part two of this event is our onstage panel at London Smith Square, continuing the conversation and discussing whether there are future solutions to ending the conflict in the Middle East. Intelligence Squared premium subscribers can get early access to part two straight away.

Head to intelligence squared.com slash membership to find out more or hit the IQ two extra button on Apple. Now let's join Intelligence Squared CEO, Matt McAllister, in conversation with Jeremy Bowen. Jeremy, thank you so much for joining us. We will all remember October the seventh. Forever. But is there another date that you would choose and there's so many, there's the war of nineteen forty eight, war of nineteen sixty seven, seventy three, or it beans assassination in ninety five Gaza's election in two thousand and six.

Which date would you choose for to help us sort of understand how we got from there to here? Well, thanks for inviting me and I'm very sorry that I wasn't able to uh Turn up at the meeting. I very much wanted to and um but you know, this is one of the uh goes with the territory for this job, to be honest. I'm uh Extremely unreliable guest as uh Many of my friends are indeed former friends.

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