DEEP DIVE — The Middle East has changed dramatically since President Donald Trump left office in 2021. An always-tense part of the world has seen an unprecedented act of terrorism against Israel, followed by major wars against Hamas and Hezbollah, and – also unprecedented – Israel and Iran engaged in military strikes against one another. All of which has drawn a major deployment of U.S. military force to the region and raised fears of a full-blown regional conflagration.
“We face the very real danger of a further regional escalation of conflict…the risk of a further escalation between Iran and Israel,” CIA Director William Burns said at last month’s Cipher Brief Threat Conference. If anything, that risk has only heightened since.
