MIDDLE EAST DEBRIEF: Hamas, Israel and What To Watch Next
SmartHERNews
Jenna Lee
4.9 • 660 Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2023
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What makes Hamas unique?
What is their ultimate goal?
Why did Hamas plan this attack now?
What should we watch for next?
We explore these questions with leading terror expert and author Jonathan Schanzer, Vice President of Research at the nonpartisan think tank - Foundation For The Defense of Democracies.
A Hebrew and Arabic speaker, Jonathan has spent his career researching terror groups, terror financing and how terrorism impacts policy around the world, and specifically in the Middle East. His most recent book examined specifically the relationship between Israel and Hamas: Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War.
Thank you to Jonathan for sharing his expertise with SmartHER News - You can follow him on social media and through FDD.
A few show notes:
The report I mentioned about the threat of violence has become a more verified story covered by Reuters - Here's the background to it.
The full BBC interview with Husam Zomlot
Here's a link to Jonathan's latest book
~~~
Thank you for supporting quick, concise, nonpartisan news during this historic news cycle. If you enjoy ad-free interviews like these, please consider joining SCOOP - our insider community that contributes to the success of SmartHER News for less than the price of a latte a month.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/smarthernews/exclusive-content
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, everyone. Welcome to Smarter News. My name is Jenna, and I'm so glad you're here today for a really |
| 0:09.0 | important conversation on a rapidly developing story, a war in the Middle East. And because we have so |
| 0:16.8 | many different developments happening hour by hour, I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on the |
| 0:20.6 | introduction. Here are the basics as we know it today. Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist group, |
| 0:26.6 | launched an attack in Israel on Israelis over the weekend. Israel responded by declaring war on Hamas |
| 0:33.5 | and attacking Hamas, specifically in the area where Hamas operates and lives, a place called Gaza. |
| 0:39.6 | I'm going to leave the basics there. |
| 0:40.8 | Even in that description, depending on the media outlet you listen to or the person that's speaking about this conflict, you may get slightly different versions. |
| 0:49.0 | We're going to talk a little bit about that or the reason why. |
| 0:51.8 | But when I first saw these headlines, there was one person I wanted to |
| 0:55.6 | talk to that I wanted to make sure you at Smarter News heard from. And it's a man named Jonathan Shanzer. |
| 1:03.5 | Jonathan Shanzer is the senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defensive Democracies. |
| 1:08.8 | That's a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:11.8 | I've known Jonathan for years. |
| 1:13.9 | I've interviewed him multiple times and relied on him as a reliable source of information |
| 1:19.4 | when it comes to terrorism in many different parts of the world. |
| 1:23.4 | But one of his areas of expertise is Hamas, Israel, Hezbollah. You're going to hear a little bit about that, Iran and beyond. In fact, Jonathan actually wrote the book, literally wrote the book on the most recent conflict that happened between Israel and Hamas in 2021. Here's the title of the book, Gaza conflict, 2021, Hamas, Israel, |
| 1:45.9 | and 11 days of war. Jonathan speaks Hebrew. He speaks Arabic. He's worked for the U.S. |
| 1:51.9 | government at times in the U.S. Treasury, looking at terrorism financing, which is really important. |
| 1:57.4 | Where's the money coming from? How is it being used? His doctorate was earned |
| 2:01.2 | looking at work involving how the U.S. Congress is trying to counter terrorism. And so his |
| 2:08.8 | whole body of work really focuses around terrorism, terrorism groups, but specifically the Middle |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jenna Lee, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jenna Lee and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.