Hope for the best.

Expect the worst.

Some bring champagne, some die of furs.

No way of knowing which way it's going.

Hope for the best expect the worst.

Welcome to the commentary magazine daily podcast.

Today is Monday, August 5, 2024.

I'm John Podhor, the editor of Commentary magazine.

With me as always executive editor, Abe Greenwald.

Hi, Abe.

Hi, Abe. Hi, John.

And joining us for the first half hour of the podcast to talk about the crisis in the Middle East,

our friend, our contributing editor, a Puba at the Foundation for Defense of democracies and expert on all things.

Hamas, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, the huthies, anything in there, that's what you got from Jonathan Schanser.

Hi John.

Hey John.

Okay, so Jonathan, we are going to have you on for half an hour and then we're going to switch

topics and move on to the economic calamity that is going on today on Wall Street

with our friend David Bonson.

But let's get to it.

Everybody seems to be standing poised in wait for some potential regional war to break out

between Israel and Iran and its proxies over the, shall we say, the targeted limited casualty, but remarkably high value actions against leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps and just want to positive theory to you which is that

...