Tag: October 7 war

In this episode, the guest is Amar Dank, a researcher of war termination, for a conversation about how leaders make decisions on continuing or ending a military conflict. The discussion focuses on the concept of the "gambler's dilemma," taken from Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory, and examines how loss aversion can lead leaders to continue and escalate wars in the hope of erasing prior losses, even at the cost of taking greater risks. The model is applied to the Russia-Ukraine war, the "Swords of Iron" war, and the conflict with Iran.

In this episode, the guest is Dr. Tuvia Buk, a reserve first sergeant, combat medic, and author of the book "Heroes of Palmar". The episode is about the Palmar (Plugat Marpe, or Medical Company), an innovative medical evacuation unit in the IDF, and the revolution it has brought to combat medicine. Dr. Buk talks about the unit's activity in the "Swords of Iron" war, the technologies it uses, and the human challenges its members face.

This episode's guest is Lt. Col. (res.) Avi Shalev, author of the book "Yoman al-Qasmi" and a researcher of Arab culture. Shalev analyzes the October 7 events through the prism of a Palestinian television series titled "Qabdat al-Ahrar," which aired about a year and a half before the attack. According to him, the series not only offered a chilling prediction of the attack's details, but also exposes the depth of the Israeli intelligence failure, which stemmed from a profound cultural misunderstanding of Palestinian society and Hamas.

The episode features Noa Shusterman Dvir, head of the Palestinians and the Region Program at MIND Israel, a center for policy, national security, and strategy consulting. Shusterman Dvir analyzes the reasons Hamas still controls Gaza even after the release of the hostages, the dynamics that led to the cessation of fighting, and the challenges facing the reconstruction of the Strip and the day after the war. She discusses the humanitarian situation, the negotiations on the demilitarization of the Strip, and the involvement of international and regional actors, including Egypt and Turkey.

In this episode, the fourth in a series marking two years since the Iron Swords War, Boris Gorelik hosts Ronen Abramov, a population officer and social cohesion officer in Battalion 419 of the Home Front Command. The episode is dedicated to the "silent people," the soldiers and civilians who worked behind the scenes during the war. It focuses on the battalion's activities in the Gaza envelope after the October 7 attack, the psychological coping with the atrocities, and the importance of resilience and social cohesion.

Prof. Yoram Gadron, a medical psychologist and psychoneuroimmunologist, is a guest on the episode to talk about resilience. He explains what mental resilience is at the individual and community levels, presents its biological basis, and suggests practical ways to strengthen it and cope with trauma and prolonged stress.

In this episode, Dr. Yagil Henkin, a military historian and a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, joins the podcast to discuss the nature of heroism in armed conflicts. The conversation covers the definitions of heroism, its expressions in the modern era, its moral context, and the ways it is commemorated.

This episode is a conversation with Lieutenant Colonel (res.) Yuval Leikin, who was responsible for creating the October 7 atrocities exhibit. Leikin describes the process of collecting the materials, the moral and practical challenges, and the insights that arose from dealing with the atrocities and the motives of their perpetrators.

In this episode, Dr. Yaron Friedman joins the show to discuss the Israeli airstrike in Doha, the capital of Qatar, which targeted senior Hamas officials. The conversation, recorded shortly after the strike, deals with the reactions in the Arab world, the diplomatic implications of the operation, and Qatar's role as a host and financier of the terrorist organization.

This episode features Dr. Yaron Friedman. According to Friedman, the collapse of the Iranian Axis of Resistance in recent months can be explained by a chain of betrayals and broken agreements. He reviews these betrayals, which began during the Syrian civil war and culminated in the current war.

In this episode of "This Week in the Middle East", the guest is Mariam Younes, a peace activist and expert on Lebanese society and Israel-Lebanon relations. Younes, a native of Lebanon, analyzes the reactions and trends in Lebanese society since the events of October 7, through the elimination of Hezbollah's leadership and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, to the campaign against Iran.

Dr. Harel Chorev, a senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center, is a guest on the podcast to discuss the emergence of Yasser Abu Shabab, a local figure in the Gaza Strip who is cooperating with Israel, and to examine the broader strategy of relying on local clans for the day after Hamas.

In this follow-up episode, Dr. Adi Schwartz, co-author of the book "October Seventh" (with Dr. Einat Wilf), returns to present his vision for resolving the conflict. After diagnosing the roots of the conflict in the previous episode, Schwartz this time focuses on the question of what to do and what practical alternative Israel should promote.

The episode features Dr. Adi Schwartz, a research fellow at the Misgav Institute and the Ben-Gurion Research Institute, and the co-author of the books "The War of Return" and the new sequel, "The October 7th War". According to Schwartz, the October 7th attack is not a new event in its essence, but rather another manifestation, a particularly cruel and tragic one, of the Palestinian idea of return, which has been at the heart of the conflict for a hundred years.

This episode's guest is Dr. Daniel Sobelman, a lecturer in international relations at the Hebrew University and a research fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University. Dr. Sobelman, who recently published his book "The Axis of Resistance", explains the concept of asymmetric warfare, describes the development of the Axis of Resistance as a strategic community, and analyzes the effects of the current war on the axis and its perceptions.

The guest on the episode is Raam Neri, a marine ecologist from Ben-Gurion University's Eilat campus and a member of the "Sharks in Israel" association. Neri discusses his master's thesis, in which he researched the illegal fishing of sharks and batoids (cartilaginous fish) in the Gaza Strip. The study, based on data collection from social media, provides a rare glimpse into Gaza's fish market, the fishing methods in the Strip, and the effects of war and the blockade on the marine environment.

The episode features Samer Sinijlawi, a Palestinian political activist who defines himself as a member of the Fatah opposition. In the conversation, Sinijlawi explains why he believes it is important to speak to the Israeli public, analyzes Palestinian public opinion after the events of October 7, and describes the leadership change he thinks is necessary on the Palestinian side to move toward a solution.

In this episode, Yaron Friedman reviews the events of 2024 in the Middle East, a year characterized by a multi-front war and regional upheavals, and tries to assess the expected developments in 2025. The conversation moves between the different fronts, from the inner circle of Gaza and the West Bank to the wider circles of Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and the Gulf states.

This episode of This Week in the Middle East hosts Professor Gad Yair, a sociologist from the Hebrew University, for a conversation about the connection between national traumas and constitutions or founding documents. The conversation, held against the backdrop of the October 7 events, examines how traumas shape the identity of peoples and their laws, and what the consequences of the current trauma might be for Israeli and Palestinian society.