Strategic Deception and Calm Appearances

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Today’s Episode: 

On today’s episode, we are joined by Israeli journalist and Call me Back veteran Ronen Bergman. Ronen recently published a piece for the New York Times titled “A Memo in a Bunker, Intercepted Communications and Hamas’ Oct. 7 Plans,” in which he and his co-author Adam Rasgon discuss a recently uncovered six-page memo from August of 2024, which Israeli officials believe was written by Yayha Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and main architect of the October 7 massacre. Dan and Ronen discuss how this memo – as well as other documents discovered earlier in the war – shed light onto Hamas’s goals in launching the attack, and whether, in retrospect, they succeeded. 

(00:00) - Introduction

(07:23) - Sinwar’s memo recently discovered in Gaza

(09:45) - How Hamas meticulously documented its activity

(12:42) - How do we know this was written by Sinwar?

(13:51) - What this document directed Hamas forces to do 

(15:15) - Hamas terrorists ordered to record and broadcast their crimes

(20:20) - Sinwar’s strategy behind broadcasting October 7

(26:03) - What Sinwar got right, and what he got wrong

(28:53) - How Hamas activated support worldwide

(33:39) - 10 Hamas protocols obtained by the IDF in January, 2024

(37:25) - How Hamas managed to deceive Israel

(38:43) - How Hamas chose the date of October 7, 2023

(42:47) - Collaboration between Hamas in Doha and in Gaza

(44:33) - Sinwar’s goal of igniting regional war

(46:17) - Disrupting Saudi normalization and releasing Palestinian prisoners 

(49:04) - Sinwar succeeded at terrifying Israelis

(50:46) - The next phase in Gaza will determine the outcome of the war

CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor

ADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY - Executive Producer

MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor

MARIANGELES BURGOS - Additional Editing

MAYA RACKOFF - Operations Director

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research

YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer