Middle East Policy Council (MEPC)

MEPC publishes the quarterly Middle East Policy journal and operates TeachMideast, an MEPC program that provides curricula on affairs in the Middle East. ¹ TeachMideast uses MEPC’s journal and other texts to provide resources on conflicts in the Middle East, including articles that claim Israel has engaged in terrorism against Palestinians at a greater scale than the Palestinian terrorists have against Israel. The articles also assert that Israel is of no “moral legitimacy” to refuse negotiations with Palestinian terrorist organizations. ⁴

Background

The Middle East Policy Council is a charitable advocacy organization that reports on foreign policy and global affairs issues pertaining to the Middle East. It was founded in 1981 and publishes a quarterly journal titled Middle East Policy and a Breaking Analysis publication. ¹

TeachMideast is an education campaign of MEPC that provides information about the different countries in the Middle East. It also publishes curricula on the Middle East for teachers to incorporate into their classes. ⁵

TeachMideast

“The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” is a curriculum published by TeachMideast that has “curated” content for teachers to provide lessons that TeachMideast claims will allow students to understand the context of the history of the Israel-Hamas conflict. ⁶

The curriculum topics includes a debate about whether or not anti-Zionism is antisemitic, an article that claims Israel established unlawful settlements through military force, an Al Jazeera documentary on the U.S. State Department-designated terrorist organization Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and a documentary on Hamas, which is also a designated terrorist organization. ^{6 7}

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict curriculum also includes an article published by the Middle East Policy Council titled “Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” ⁶ The article argues that Israel is predisposed to engage in violence against Palestinians and that Israel has engaged in a greater scale of terrorism against Palestinians than the Palestinians have against Israelis. Because of this predisposition, the article concludes, “the truth should make it clear that Israel has neither the moral legitimacy nor the national interest to refuse to negotiate with Palestinian organizations that have employed terrorism, particularly Hamas.” ²

Publications

In 2025, the Middle East Policy Council published an essay titled “Biden, Trump, and the Gaza War” that reviews attempts by the Biden administration, President Donald Trump, and previous U.S. presidents at negotiating peace between Israel and Palestinian representatives. Regarding the post-2023 Israel-Hamas war, the article claims the Biden administration capitulated to Israel’s rejection of a ceasefire and subsequently “pressed the Israelis rhetorically to wind down the campaign and protect civilians, but they had no intention of doing so—and Washington had no intention of asserting its power.” As the article was published shortly into the second Trump administration, it says it was unclear how committed Trump would be to supporting a ceasefire. It argued that historically, U.S. presidents should have been more active in demanding Israel halt military operations and that the U.S. should have engaged in less conflict in the Middle East, as it argued U.S. operations’ purpose was solely to expand Israel’s influence. ⁸

Ties to Saudi Arabia

In 2007, the Middle East Policy Council received $1 million from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia labeled as being for “future projects.” The Washington Examiner reported that then MEPC vice president and board director Anne Joyce stated that the funding was to advance “U.S.-Arab relations” and to transition from an “excessively pro-Israel focus.” ⁹

Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas W. Freeman, Jr. served as the president of MEPC at the time of the grant from the Saudi Arabian royal family and is a member of the board of directors of MEPC. ^{10 11}

Through speaking engagements hosted by MEPC and in his published works, Freeman has accused Israel of wanting “land more than peace.” Freeman advocates, “No more military guarantees that disincentivize diplomacy aimed at achieving long-term security for Israel.” Instead, he advocates a foreign policy that supports increased diplomacy between Saudi Arabia and Iran and its allies. Freeman also argues that Israel’s defense strategies, in conjunction with the United States’ support, make “no sense at all in terms of stabilizing the Gulf,” so he argues that the U.S. should abandon support for Israel’s defense. ^{12 3}

Leadership

Bassima Alghussein has worked as executive director of the Middle East Policy Council since January 2021. ¹³ She is also a term member for the Council on Foreign Relations and as a managing partner of Alghussein Global Strategies. She previously served in the Obama administration’s Department of Energy, where she was appointed a congressional and intergovernmental affairs advisor. ¹⁴

Financials

In 2023, Middle East Policy Council reported $286,336 in total revenue. ¹⁵ MEPC also reported $1.0 million in total expenses, $453,018 of which was spent on funding its Middle East Policy quarterly journal. ^{16 17}