Nathan Thrall is an American author and journalist best known for his coverage of the Middle East, particularly the Israel-Palestine conflict. The son of a Jewish émigré from the Soviet Union, he grew up in the Bay Area of California and received a Bachelor of Arts at the University of California in Santa Barbara. He was working in film editing when his grandmother was killed in a car accident shortly after visiting him. She had wanted him to do a Birthright trip, where young Jewish adults visit Israel for 10 days. After that trip, he received a master’s degree in politics from Columbia University and began a career as a journalist covering the Middle East. Thrall spent a decade working for the International Crisis Group, an organization dedicated to preventing the outbreak and escalation of wars around the world. Since then, he has been one of the most respected American journalists based in Jerusalem. His work has been featured in a host of prestigious publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and The Economist, and he has taught at Bard College. His previous book, The Only Language They Understand (2017), an analysis of how the Israeli-Palestinian peace process broke down, was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews.