Dr. Yehuda Blanga is a senior lecturer with tenure in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. His area of specialization is the politics, regimes, militaries, and societies of Egypt and Syria. He also researches the military and political involvement of the superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union—in the region, particularly in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since the Arab Spring, Dr. Blanga has also examined the political and social impact of football in the Arab world and Iran. In 2020, he published his first book, US, Israel and Egypt Diplomacy in the Shadow of Attrition, 1969–70.