Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore returns to Unholy to discuss his sweeping new book, The Cauldron: A History of the Middle East between 1900 and 2026. He tells Yonit and Jonathan that understanding the region today requires starting at the dawn of the 20th century — thanks to the long shadow still cast by the Ottoman Empire and its collapse. They talk of the often underestimated significance of Saudi Arabia, the convulsions that followed the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the extent to which Israel is - unexpectedly - a Middle Eastern state like any other.