This is Jocko podcast number 470 with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening, Echo.

Good evening. The shocking attack in southern Israel this weekend was the most deadly killing of Jews since the Holocaust. The death toll is worse than the worst day of the Yom Kippur War. It is a massacre that will transform Israel and the Middle East.

The scenes of horror and bloodshed that resulted, including the murders of entire families,

the kidnapping of small children, the rapes of young women were seemingly intended to cause

maximum anger and shock inside Israel. More than 150 people were seized

by terrorists and taken back into Gaza where they are being held hostage. They include

women, very young children, and the elderly. In the cruel logic of the region where Israel is located and has been located for several

thousand years, Hamas's killing spree was not a repulsive example of the depths of human

barbarism.

Instead, it was considered a huge win and shredded Israel's vaunted military deterrence.

And those right there are some excerpts, obviously written after the October 7th attacks

in an article written by Alana Newhouse and

Jeremy Stern for Tablet Magazine.

Alana Newhouse is the editor-in-chief of that magazine, and Jeremy Stern serves as the deputy editor.

And Jeremy had an interesting path to that position, serving in the Army as an EOD officer,

working for the State Department, and eventually becoming a journalist.

And it's a privilege to have him here with us tonight to share his experiences and lessons learned.

Jeremy, thanks for joining us, man.

Thanks for having me. I guess we're gonna get

into a bunch of that you know going through your where how you ended up as the as

the deputy editor at tablet magazine and some of the things that you've written about

there but let's get to the beginning, the beginning of your life.

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