Nathan Thrall


Nathan Thrall is an American writer, journalist, and analyst on the Middle East. He is currently a Jerusalem-based Senior Analyst with the Middle East & North Africa Program of the International Crisis Group covering Gaza, Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank. His writing has appeared in English in The New York Times, The New Republic, GQ, Slate, The Guardian, and The New York Review of Books, and in Arabic in Al-Hayat, Asharq al-Awsat, and Al-Quds al-Arabi. A contributing editor at Tablet magazine and a former member of the editorial staff of The New York Review of Books, he has appeared on the BBC, NPR, and CNN.

Background and education

Thrall received a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara's College of Creative Studies and an M.A. in politics from Columbia University. He lives in Jerusalem.

Critic reception

Reviewing The Only Language They Understand, Neil Rogachevsky wrote that Thrall "merely perpetrated his own distorting image of Israelis, Palestinians, and America’s role in the Middle East." The Jewish Book Council's Bob Goldfarb wrote that the book "brings unparalleled clarity to the dynamics of Israeli-Palestinian relations, and is an essential guide to the history, personalities, and ideas behind the conflict."

Writings