Understanding Israel's battlefields (& U.S. involvement) - with Dr. Fred Kagan

Next week we will release the new book by Saul Singer and me: "The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World", which you can order now at: www.amazon.com/Genius-Israel-Small-Nation-Teach/dp/1982115769/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LKV3ZLWLBOL1&keywords=dan+senor&qid=1694402205&sprefix=dan+senor%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-1 OR www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-genius-of-israel-dan-senor/1143499668 The speech that I reference in today's episode -- in which I discuss the resilience of Israelis in this moment -- can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WygtNbwf-tk By the time you listen to this episode, we may be witnessing escalation on Israel’s Northern border. Certainly there’s a highly anticipated address by Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah. This will be his first major address since the October 7 War began. If there is major escalation, we will be dropping an emergency episode with Dr. Matthew Levitt, an expert on Hezbollah who was on this podcast last week. Today’s guest is Dr. Fred Kagan, an expert in understanding war theaters – as he tries to help us understand the various battlefields in which Israel is currently fighting or might be fighting in the future. Fred is a former professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He spent meaningful time in the Middle East informally advising US military commanders. You can find more of Fred’s work at: The Critical Threats Project – https://www.criticalthreats.org/ Institute for the Study of War – https://understandingwar.org/