Decoding the Middle East: A conversation with analyst Seth J. Frantzman - interview

Anyone who has studied the history and current events of the region that we in Israel call home knows that there is one indisputable truth: the Middle East is complicated – and that’s putting it mildly.

The geopolitics of this part of the world is filled with so many moving parts, from individuals to internal politics, to armed groups, to complex money trails, to diplomacy both overt and covert, that it’s hard to keep track of it all. It involves the maneuvering of huge groups of people; the trafficking of weapons, goods, and narcotics; and the roles of foreign powers like the US and Russia and how they interact with the players involved.

It takes a seasoned expert to understand all of this. But ask anyone in The Jerusalem Post office, and everyone will say the same thing: Seth J. Frantzman can do it all.

As our most senior Middle East analyst, Frantzman has had years of experience in studying our regional puzzle, and the results of that are evidenced with his publication of three books and countless articles. And as Israel’s conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah continue, that ability has become more important than ever.

The Jerusalem Post sat down with Frantzman to talk about his journey to Israel, his work in journalism, and the most complex issues he’s ever encountered.

What brought you to Israel?

I was living in Arizona in 2003, having just graduated with a BA in history and political science. Since neither of these degrees was very useful to find work, I ended up doing cold calls at night trying to interest people in home mortgages. This was the height of the sub prime mortgage frenzy, so it was a brisk business. However, it was not very fulfilling work.

I had always wanted to study for an MA, and I also was interested in Israel and discovering my Jewish background and faith. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem offered an MA program in English, and I enrolled in it in early 2004. This was as the Second Intifada was winding down, and not many people were coming to Israel.

I arrived in the spring of 2004 to learn elementary Hebrew over the summer before the courses began. I’d been to Israel before but I’d lived abroad in Italy and Russia, so it seemed like a natural next step.

What got you interested in journalism?

When I was at the University of Arizona, I worked in student politics, both in student government and with the College Republicans. This got me interested in writing a column or op-eds for local media.

By the time I graduated, I was able to get a few pieces published in the Tucson Weekly, and I began to send articles to newspapers such as The Jerusalem Post about developments in the Middle East. From writing op-eds, I got into doing book reviews and then writing feature stories on various issues.

Journalism has a role to play in politics and being the first record of what will become history. As someone interested in both politics and history, working in journalism was a natural fit for me. It is more fast paced than academics, where I previously worked, and enables one to witness events as they unfold and also influence readers about those events.

What eventually brought you to ‘The Jerusalem Post’?

I began contributing to the Post in 2005 or that era and eventually started writing a column a few years later. Around 2011, I became the op-ed editor and later transitioned to focus on Middle East affairs.

You have an incredible range of expertise and have covered geopolitical issues all over the world. What is the most complex issue you’ve ever covered?

The refugee crisis in Europe in the summer of 2015 grew as migrants, mostly from Syria, made their way from Turkey to Greece. There were millions of Syrian refugees who had fled the civil war in Syria in 2011 and 2012. By 2015, as the Syrian regime received support from Russia, it was clear they wouldn’t return home soon.

Many of them chose to leave Turkey for the EU. Germany expressed interest in hosting many of these migrants. However, to get to Germany they had to cross from Greece into North Macedonia, and then Serbia, before finding roads north through Hungary or Croatia.

I wanted to cover this mass movement of a million people in September 2015, but it was unclear how best to do it. I ended up renting a car in Thessaloniki, Greece, and driving north.

I spent time with migrants on the Greek and North Macedonian border. I even gave some of them a short ride in one of the countries I went to. In Serbia near the Hungarian border, I slept in my car and then decided I would walk with the migrants toward the Hungarian border. I happened to be there on September 15 when the authorities closed the border. It was a harrowing and complex experience.

What was interesting to see was how authorities were basically moving these people north, completely without any border checks. I was with migrants who walked openly across borders. As a passport holder, I could choose to go down the road a few miles and cross a border with a passport or walk openly from country to country.

In some countries, buses were lined up to take the people north. Volunteers from other countries came to help, including some Islamic organizations that wanted to help because the migrants were primarily Syrians and Afghans.I gave my socks to some Afghans who were sheltering near an abandoned train station at one point and asked if it was difficult for them here. They described crossing Iran, Iraq, and Turkey over mountains in the snow. This seemed like the easy part of the journey.

In November 2015, two months later, terrorists carried out a massacre in Paris. It appears that one or more of the perpetrators transited to Europe via the migrant path that I had witnessed. They were able to easily pass borders without anyone bothering to document them because of a failed process in which European countries chose to pass on migrant problems to the next country rather than ever documenting who was transiting their country. [Ed: see “‘Miles to go before I sleep’ - On the front lines of the migration crises in Europe,” JPost.com September 16, 2015.]

What is your favorite moment or anecdote from your career?

On October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas attack on Israel, I was on the Gaza border covering the war near Yad Mordechai. There was an Israeli tank unit that had arrived to help defend the border. Some of the men were sitting on their tank waiting for orders. One of them asked for a photo, so I snapped it and said I’d send it to him via Messenger.I asked for his number, and when I put it in my phone, his name appeared in my contacts: Dar Cohen. It turned out I’d met him years before in Sderot. Now we had both returned to this area for this war.

Months later, Dar Cohen, a reservist, left Gaza after his tank had helped lead the way against Hamas. I got a chance to finally interview him. It was nice to see things come full circle and get to sit down and discuss what we had experienced [“Meet the Israeli tank unit that led the way into Gaza,” JPost.com, February 8, 2024].

What advice do you have for aspiring journalists?

Journalism is a rewarding and fascinating career that gives one the privilege to experience things as they happen and sometimes interview people or organizations that are changing the world.

It’s not an easy career, and when it comes to how the industry is changing, it may not even be a career; but it’s worth pursuing because it provides one the privilege to be where things are happening as opposed to having to have those events filtered through others and explained by others.