S8 Ep295: THE OCTOPUS STRATEGY: IRAN'S PROXIES AND ISRAEL'S COUNTERATTACK Colleague Seth Frantzman. Frantzman employs the "octopus" metaphor to describe Iran as the central brain directing proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis to encircle Israel. He detail

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 10 January 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

THE OCTOPUS STRATEGY: IRAN'S PROXIES AND ISRAEL'S COUNTERATTACK Colleague Seth Frantzman. Frantzman employs the "octopus" metaphor to describe Iran as the central brain directing proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis to encircle Israel. He details Hamas's October 7 strategy: massacre civilians, seize hostages, and retreat to human shields and tunnels to await international pressure on Israel. The conversation outlines the IDF's counter-strategy, which involved cutting Gaza in half via the Netzarim corridor and systematically clearing areas from north to south. Frantzman notes the extensive tunnel network discovered in Khan Yunis, which served as a learning ground for IDF anti-tunnel operations. OCTOBER 7 WAR BY SETH FRANTZMAN NUMBER 3
1868 NAZARETH

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchel. I'm John Batchel. I'm speaking with my colleague,
0:08.3	Seth Fransman, of the Jerusalem Post of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
0:14.8	I am very pleased to be able to speak to Seth as much as I can every week about the ongoing conflict in Gaza and now the
0:23.5	potential of conflict in the north because of Hisbalah on the West Bank, from the Houthis in
0:31.3	Yemen, and certainly from Iran, the driver of this. There are metaphors that we need to introduce
0:36.9	right away because they come
0:38.3	from reporting in Cess book. Early on they needed a way to describe the battle plan of Hamas
0:44.8	having attacked. But that's the battle plan of Iran. There is a mistake to be made if you
0:52.1	concentrate too much on Hamas
0:54.2	and not look at the octopus's brain.
0:58.0	This is a metaphor that was used by the war cabinet, I believe,
1:02.7	to describe and what was going on.
1:06.0	How does it work, Seth?
1:09.9	Well, Iran is obviously the head of all these proxy groups in the region.
1:15.0	They're supported Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as militias in Iraq, as well as in Syria.
1:22.9	Iran is at the pinnacle of its power today, under this regime, it seems like this regime is powered, basically.
1:29.2	It has been backing these groups like Hasbolo for decades.
1:32.9	It's been slowly building them up.
1:35.3	And over the last 10 years, it's actually had a huge amount of success.
1:40.3	It was able to get its kind of tentacles into Yemen and back the Houthis and move drones
1:45.3	and missiles to the Houthis so that they can fire ballistic missiles up to, you know, 1,500 miles
1:49.8	almost. And they were able also to infiltrate Iraq after 2003, but especially in the last few years
	...

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