An Iraqi-born Jew, Elie Kedourie (1926-1992) left his native Baghdad to study at the London School of Economics, where he went on to serve as one of the leading scholars of the modern Middle East. From his doctoral dissertation onward, he was a fierce critic of the regnant Middle East studies establishment that deeply influenced British (and American) foreign policy after World War II, and continues to do so today. Michael Doran discusses Kedourie’s intellectual legacy and in particular his 1970 essay, “The Chatham House Version.” The title refers to the view of the Middle East proffered by the British counterpart to the Council on Foreign Relations—a view based on a flawed faith in a chimerical Arab nationalism and a tendency to blame Western imperialism for Arab pathologies. (Interview by Eric Cohen; audio, 48 minutes.)

This week, there have been numerous unconfirmed reports about the fate of Esmail Qaani, who is the head of the Quds Force, the expeditionary arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Benny Avni writes:

On Thursday, Sky News Arabic reported that Mr. Qaani was rushed to a hospital after suffering a heart attack. He became [the Quds Force] commander in 2020, after an American drone strike killed his predecessor, Qassem Suleimani. The unit oversees the Islamic Republic’s various Mideast proxies, as well as the exporting of the Iranian revolution to the region and beyond.

The Sky News report attempts to put to rest earlier claims that Mr. Qaani was killed at Beirut. It follows several reports asserting he has been arrested and interrogated at Tehran over suspicion that he, or a top lieutenant, leaked information to Israel. Five days ago, the Arabic-language al-Arabiya network reported that Mr. Qaani “is under surveillance and isolation, following the Israeli assassinations of prominent Iranian leaders.”

Iranians are desperately scrambling to plug possible leaks that gave Israel precise intelligence to conduct pinpoint strikes against Hizballah commanders. . . . “I find it hard to believe that Qaani was compromised,” an Iran watcher at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, Beni Sabti, tells the Sun. Perhaps one or more of [Qaani’s] top aides have been recruited by Israel, he says, adding that “psychological warfare” could well be stoking the rumor mill.

If so, prominent Iranians seem to be exacerbating the internal turmoil by alleging that the country’s security apparatus has been infiltrated.