Barry Rubin, a prominent Israeli Middle East scholar, has died.

Rubin, 64, died Monday following a long struggle with lung cancer, his family said on his Facebook page.

Rubin’s reach in the world of Middle East scholarship was broad and deep.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

At the time of his death, he was director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, a columnist at The Jerusalem Post, the editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs and a contributor to the conservative PJ Media website.

Rubin, a U.S. native, had been a Fulbright scholar and a fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received his doctorate from Georgetown University in 1978.

He was a noted peace process skeptic, saying that Islamism was too deeply embedded in the region to accommodate a true peace with Israel.

“Clearly, the Obama administration does not understand Middle Eastern regimes and terrorist organizations, and if it doesn’t, it will meet miserable defeats,” he wrote Jan. 12 on PJMedia.

Rubin’s focus was Turkey, and he was among the first to anticipate that the Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would lead to a rupture with Israel.

However, his interests were broad and he was indefatigable in pursuing them. Patrick Poole, a PJMedia colleague, on Monday recalled running into Rubin in July, in the garb of a Union soldier, at a re-enactment of the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount