Edy Cohen

Edy Cohen was born in 1972 in Beirut

Cohen was born in Beirut in 1972 to a wealthy Jewish family. He studied at a Christian school in the city. His father was kidnapped and murdered, and the family gradually left Lebanon.

In 1989 he moved to Paris, and in 1992 to Mexico, where his brother lived. He immigrated to Israel in 1995. He earned all his degrees at Bar-Ilan University, including a doctorate in Middle Eastern history in 2012, and did postdoctoral research at the Menachem Begin Center for Underground Movement Research.

Cohen specializes in Arab-Israeli relations, terrorism and Jewish communities in the Arab world. He wrote books on Mahmoud Abbas and on Haj Amin al-Husseini, and chairs the Kedem Forum, which promotes Israel's case in the Arab world. He appears often on channels such as Al Jazeera, BBC Arabic and Al Arabiya.

He ran in the Likud primaries ahead of the elections for the 25th Knesset but did not win a realistic slot. Since 2024 he has been a panelist on the i24NEWS show "The Arabists" and writes for the Israel Center for Grand Strategy. In 2025 he began hosting a Maariv Online podcast and organized a Tel Aviv conference on minorities in the Middle East.