The MENA Mix: Regional Recap is a monthly video podcast, produced by the Institute for Middle East Options (IMEO). Each episode features rotating experts who unpack and analyze key news stories shaping the Middle East and North Africa.

Our April episode brought together Owen Alterman (i24NEWS English Senior Correspondent) and Mohammed Daraghmeh (Palestinian Journalist). They explored the war involving Iran as experienced by Palestinians and Israelis, developments in the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli domestic politics and elections, and the evolving media landscape, including coverage challenges and public pressures.

Owen Alterman is a senior correspondent at the i24NEWS English channel, where he serves as a lead analyst on Israeli society, foreign policy, and politics. Following October 7, he also served as a commentator and U.S. affairs correspondent on the network’s Hebrew channel, where he continues to appear as a panelist. He is a PhD candidate in Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University, with research focused on international broadcasting in the region. Previously, he was a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and an associate at Allen & Overy LLP in New York. He holds an AB, summa cum laude, in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Mohammed Daraghmeh is a senior Palestinian journalist based in Ramallah, where he has covered Palestinian politics and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict for more than three decades. He previously worked with local outlets including Al-Quds and Al-Ayyam before joining Associated Press as a senior correspondent covering the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He later served as bureau chief in Ramallah for Asharq News. His reporting has spanned the rise and collapse of Israeli–Palestinian negotiations, as well as successive wars and confrontations in Gaza. He is the author of Aqsa Uprising: Death Fields, a book on the second Intifada, and regularly participates in regional and international forums on the conflict.