In this special episode of The Bulletin, host Mike Cosper sits down with senior vice president of research at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Jonathan Schanzer, to talk about the terrorist backstory of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Peeling back the layers of history, Cosper and Schanzer discuss the origin story of Hamas, Hezbollah’s involvement in spreading Islamism, and Iran’s aggressive influence in an already fragile region.
Joining us this week: Dr. Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he oversees the work of the organization’s experts and scholars. He is also on the leadership team of FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power, a project on the use of financial and economic power as a tool of statecraft. Jonathan previously worked as a terrorism finance analyst at the US Department of the Treasury, where he played an integral role in the designation of numerous terrorist financiers. Jonathan has written hundreds of articles on the Middle East, along with more than a dozen monographs and chapters for edited volumes. His book, Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine, is still the only book on the market that analyzes the ongoing Palestinian civil war. Jonathan testifies often before Congress and publishes widely in American and international media. He has appeared on American television channels such as Fox News and CNN, and Arabic language television channels such as Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera.
Listen to More in This Bonus Series: Making Sense of the Israel-Hamas War Antisemitism and the Jewish Identity Hamas and the Laws of War
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