Hezbollah is this terrific gun that Iran has that is pointed at Israel's head.

But that gun, if you fire it, if those 100,000-plus missiles attack Israel.

You know, they do a certain amount of damage and in some cases, who knows, maybe even catastrophic

damage, but Israel is still there when it's done, angry and armed and ready to go.

Iran has lost that weapon. It's gone.

So it's more valuable to you, you know, as a loaded gun on your table than as an empty smoking gun in your hand. It's 11 o'clock p.m. on Thursday, June 6th here in New York City. It's 6 o'clock in the morning on Friday June 7th in Israel as Israelis get ready to start their day.

Over the past eight months we've focused most of our attention on this podcast on Israel's perspective and on the

American perspective in the region since October 7th.

But what I wanted to do today is gradually zoom out from the Israelis and the Palestinians

and consider the perspective of other regional players throughout the Middle East

and then finally examine this war from the perspective of global powers like

great powers such as China and Russia. Has the Israel-Hamass war advanced their interests or

reverse them.

Our guest today is Walter Russell Meade.

He is at the Hudson Institute.

He is the Global View columnist at the Wall Street Journal.

He was previously the Henry Kissinger fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

He also has a terrific podcast at tablet magazine called What Really Matters. I highly recommend you subscribe both to the

podcast and you become a regular reader of Walter's Wall Street Journal

weekly column. Walter's also one of the biggest thinkers on U.S. foreign policy and the lessons of

history of U.S. foreign policy. He's also a prolific author. His most recent book is

the Ark of a Covenant, the United States, Israel, and the fate of the Jewish

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