Podcast #290: The Wars Before the War

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay interviews Jonathan Spyer, director of research at the Middle East Forum, about how Israel laid the groundwork for its war with Iran by confronting threats in Gaza

Welcome to the Quillette Podcast, which is usually hosted on alternate weeks by me, Jonathan Kay, and by Iona Italia. Quillette is where free thought lives. We are an independent, grassroots platform for heterodox ideas and fearless commentary.

And this week, I’ll be talking about a subject that many of you have spent the last week thinking about—the war between Israel and Iran, which began on June 13 when Israel attacked dozens of Iranian targets with the publicly stated aim of stopping Iran’s nuclear program.

Since then, Iran has retaliated, and there have been casualties on both sides—though the lion’s share of the damage has been suffered by Iran, including the killing of numerous senior ranking members of Iran’s military command structure.

With me to discuss this issue is Jonathan Spyer, a British-Israeli analyst who serves as director of research at the Middle East Forum. As you will hear, Spyer’s expertise is wide-ranging; which is a good thing since it’s difficult to analyse Isra…