Elon Perry, a Professor of Middle Eastern History, Graduate of Tel Aviv University, is a popular lecturer around the world for schools, universities and on international cruise ships on the 4,000 years of history and politics of the Middle East.

lecture portfolio includes: The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. Entebbe Operation which he took part in as a soldier.  The undercover Mista’arvim (Fauda). Zionism and the Establishment of a Jewish State. History of Sephardic Jews. The Great Empires that ruled the Holy Land. The Crusades. The Suez Canal. 

Elon was born and raised in Israel. He worked as a journalist for 24 years, as a reporter, editor and columnist and as a journalist researcher/Investigator for several national newspapers as well as for radio and television. For the past 15 years Elon has been a British citizen and lives both in London and in Florida.

Elon served three years as commando soldier who took part in many operations and battles in pursuing terrorists in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Lebanon, where explosives damaged his respiratory system.

After completing 3 years of mandatory service, Elon served as a reserve combatant for 28 years. He participated in many operations, including those in cooperation with Mossad and other intelligence units in fighting terrorist organizations.

Due to his extensive experience as a military analyst, Elon is invited to speak at many events, on panels, and for media channels to analyze conflicts and wars, notably in the Middle East.

Topics: 

Israel-Gaza War – Analysis by a commando who fought in Gaza

The bloodiest ever Gaza war triggered by Hamas did not in fact start on 7 October 2023, the day that Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israeli communities, murdering 1,140 people, most of them civilians, and taking 250 hostages. It started 17 years earlier, in 2006, when Hamas took over governing Gaza. As a commando who took part in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including bold operations in the alleyways of Gaza, I will analyze the fighting from a military operational point of view, particularly on the issue of ground operations. As a journalist who covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for 28 years, I will analyze the war from the historical-political point of view.

The Israeli/Palestinian wars

The long bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict is told firsthand by someone who was a journalist and a commando combatant. I present a unique perspective due to a rare combination of covering the topic as a journalist for 25 years, and serving as a combat soldier in the Israeli army, taking part in hundreds of daring counter terror operations in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. This unique pairing has enabled my audiences to gain firsthand knowledge of operations and battles in a precise and analytical manner. The audience will get a comprehensive picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a primary source about the battles, events, bloody clashes, and confrontations that are continuing to this day.

I also describe operations and raids on well-fortified terrorist strongholds, to which we were sent despite their slim chances of succeeding, and where the intolerable conditions gave justifiable feelings of fear and uncertainty. Sometimes these involved face-to-face and short-range combat, where the individual’s qualities and skills were the key to success.

 

Elon Perry during his service in a commando unit of the I.D.F

Children in war

The story of vulnerable children who suffer from severe emotional and psychological trauma, due to the decisions of adults to wage wars. Spending days in shelters, unable to play freely in their own yard for fear of sirens and shells, these children are forever trapped in war-zones, living in constant anxiety. I was one of those. As an Israeli, I was born and raised under an ongoing war between two stubborn nations, each of which claims ownership of a tiny land whose rivers overflow with blood, due to their belief. The Arabs felt dispossessed of their land, and the Jews felt a strong need for a refuge where they would be safe from pogroms, persecution, and another Holocaust. In this talk, I describe how I was doomed to spend my childhood in the shadow of constant war, in severe poverty, with a lack of clothing, footwear, toys, pocket money, gifts, or birthday celebrations. All due to incessant war, which sucks up a nation’s budget to the point of starvation. I describe the long bloody conflict that ruined the lives of millions of Muslims and Jews, Palestinians and Israelis, who share the same biblical ancestor.

A talk based on real events about courage and survival against apparently overwhelming odds. A story of millions of children around the world who live out their childhoods under the terrifying threat of war.

As an inspiration to others, I describe how the difficulties I experienced in my childhood have followed me throughout the rest of my life and taught me how to make do with little, to appreciate everything, and live modestly.

Operation Entebbe

Operation Entebbe was a successful counter-terrorist hostage rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Army at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. I will describe the renowned Entebbe operation in full detail from the planning and training stages, to the assault on the terminal and the release of the hostages in Uganda. I will also share details that remained secret and banned from publication for 30 years and have now been allowed to be disclosed to the public.

                        The morning after returning to base   

            

Fauda – The undercover unit

The secret and dangerous activities of the undercover daredevils as seen in the popular TV series “Fauda”.

As a commando combatant who took part in various activities alongside the undercover Mista’arvim, I will share experiences and dangerous situations, some of them face-to-face battles in which we found ourselves in Gaza and in the West Bank. While assimilating among the local Arab population, we were commonly tasked with performing intelligence gathering, law enforcement, hostage rescue and counter-terrorism, and to use disguise and surprise as our main weapons to accomplish their missions.

                                                                         

History of Sephardi Jews

An exploration of the history of Sephardic Jews from north African roots, through to mediaeval Spain and Portugal. How and when did the split in the Jews into Ashkenazim and Sephardi come about? Their contribution to society in business, art, commerce, politics. The conflict and social divisions between the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities. The humiliating discrimination experienced by Sephardic Jews from the Ashkenazim who ran the young Jewish state. I will also talk about the difficulties of the first mega Aliya (Immigration to Israel) project.

                                                                                

The Crusades

Among most of the Europe and Mediterranean countries, the Crusaders were regarded as immoral, bloody and savage. Their goal was to spread Christianity worldwide by the sword and liberate the Holy Land from Islamic rule, led by the Muslim leader Saladin. This talk explores a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. Beginning with the First Crusade which resulted in the recovery of Jerusalem in 1099, dozens of Crusades were fought, providing a focal point of European history for centuries.

The ruthless and widespread massacres of Muslims, Jews and other non-Christians, resulted in a bitter resentment that persisted for many years. The Crusade’s kingdom over Jerusalem lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when its last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks who conquered the Holy Land from the Crusaders in 1291. We will explore what happened in the Middle East from the Rise of Islam to the founding of the Seljuk Empire and explain why that Empire failed to stop the invasion of the First Crusades and discuss the foundations of the Four Crusader Kingdoms of Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem.

One Canal and Three Wars

  

In this lecture I will talk about the importance of the Suez Canal. When was the Suez Canal dug and for what purpose? How important was it for the Mediterranean region, and whose interests did it serve? I will talk about the wars between Egypt – Britain – France – Israel that took place over it when the Egyptian President Nasser closed the canal and prevented freedom of navigation between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea and the Gulf.  I will describe one special heroic operation that had never been undertaken before. This operation, conducted by the Israeli general Ariel Sharon, became legendary and it is still taught in many military academies around the world. Towards the end I will describe Israel’s peace with Egypt and the assassination of Egyptian President Sadat, the first Arab leader to have signed a peace agreement with Israel.

The Great Empires that ruled the Holy Land

I will talk about Persians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Mamluks, Ottomans, and the British Empire. The bloodshed and many wars that took place over it for the past 4,000 years. The benefits and usefulness in controlling the Holy Land during the 1917-1948 Mandate that was granted to the British by the League of Nations. A mandate that promised to support and assist the Jewish people and ensure the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. The Holy Land and Jesus. The story of a tiny piece of land that is sacred for Jews, Muslims, and Christians – three religions living in harmony under Israeli rule.  The Kingdom of Solomon and David. The story of the Exodus from Egypt. The birth of Jesus Christ and the birth of Christianity. How this young Jew from Nazareth became the greatest and most famous leader in history. His journey through the Holy Land from Nazareth through Bethlehem to Jerusalem where he was captured by the Romans and crucified.