141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore

2026-08-24 · 68 min · episode 141 · 13 entities

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Asserted relationships

→ references havivgur.substack.com website

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://havivgur.substack.com/
→ appeared on Ask Haviv Anything podcast

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evidence rules-v5
141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore
→ hosted by Haviv Rettig Gur person

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evidence rules-v5
Feed author/publisher: Haviv Rettig Gur
→ discusses History website

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: History
→ references Haviv Rettig Gur person

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur
→ references Havivrettiggur website

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur
→ references Rebuild website

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://ats.org/rebuild

Entities found in this episode

websites 8

mentioned havivgur.substack.com website

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://havivgur.substack.com/
references havivgur.substack.com website

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://havivgur.substack.com/
mentioned History website

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: History
mentioned Havivrettiggur website

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur
mentioned Rebuild website

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://ats.org/rebuild
discusses History website

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: History
references Havivrettiggur website

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur
references Rebuild website

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://ats.org/rebuild

persons 4

mentioned Simon Sebag Montefiore person

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evidence rules-v5
141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore
mentioned Haviv Rettig Gur person

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evidence rules-v5
Feed author/publisher: Haviv Rettig Gur
hosted by Haviv Rettig Gur person

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evidence rules-v5
Feed author/publisher: Haviv Rettig Gur
references Haviv Rettig Gur person

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evidence rules-v5
Link in episode "141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore": https://tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur

podcasts 1

appeared on Ask Haviv Anything podcast

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evidence rules-v5
141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore

Episode description as stored

To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur). And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur). -- Why does the West misunderstand the Middle East? Best-selling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore returns to the pod to discuss The Cauldron, his sweeping new history of the region, from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of its modern states to oil, Islamism, revolution and the Arab Spring. The book is a kind of prehistory of present-day Western stumbling in the Middle East. Western powers repeatedly arrive with grand political theories — imperialism, nationalism, socialism, liberal democracy — only to watch them change beyond recognition or collapse on contact with the region’s deeper identities, loyalties and social contracts. It is a conversation about the states that endured, the ones that failed, and why the Middle East remains so intensely debated in the West — and so poorly understood. -- This episode is sponsored by the Technion. Israel became the Startup Nation by turning talent into strength, ideas into industries. For more than a century, the Technion has trained the engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs who transformed Israel into the Startup Nation and delivered breakthroughs that changed the world. Now Technion scientists are advancing the next wave of innovation to help power Israel’s next chapter. Israel. Engineered by the Technion. Join us. Visit https://ats.org/rebuild . -- If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.substack.com/. You can also Buy Me a Coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur. It helps us keep the lights on. Patreon and Substack are also the platforms where you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live. If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠. Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.