Understanding Israel's war strategy

Here in the West, since Israel turned the tables on Hamas and began its offensive,  the focus has been almost exclusively on the effects of the war on Palestinians in Gaza.

War is awful. It causes us to kill. And once a war is launched, it will inevitably result in death and destruction. But Israelis see this as an existential fight, and it's bigger than just Hamas or Gaza; it goes to the heart of Western civilization.

Still, questions abound over Israel's goals, its strategy and its execution...

Major General (ret.) Amos Yadlin began his 40-year military career in the Israeli Air Force as a fighter pilot. He fought in the skies during the Yom Kippur War and was one of the eight pilots selected to carry out the strike on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor. More than a fighter pilot with 250 combat missions under his belt, Maj. Gen. Yadlin is a brilliant strategist who commanded the IDF Military College and National Defense College. He served as Israel's military attache to the United States, and was chief of the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate. A graduate of Harvard's Wexner Israel Fellowship Program and a Washington Institute for Near East Policy fellow, he's the founder and current president of MIND Israel, an Israeli national security consultancy.

I asked Maj. Gen. Yadlin to join me to help us contextualize the ongoing war with Hamas, understand Israel's strategy, and untangle the regional forces at play and the international ramifications.

I hope you'll tune in and join us for this conversation wherever you get your podcasts.