This wouldn't have happened had Iran not been hurt so bad, its proxies decapitated, and Russia being bogged down in the Ukraine.

And if I'm sitting in Tehran, I'm worried. I'm worried about Syria. I'm worried about my hands

chopped off in Hezbollah and the Houthis. And I'm very worried about Israel losing its fear factor

in not coming close to my sovereign territory.

The bottom line is tectonic shifts, you know, are at play.

The earthquake where the big volcano hasn't erupted yet.

It's 1 o'clock p.m. on Wednesday, December 4th here in New York City.

It's 8 o'clock p.m. on Wednesday, December 4th in Israel, as Israelis are winding down their day in the middle of what is yet again a very eventful week.

Before today's conversation, one housekeeping note, as I mentioned in our last podcast conversation, in support of the good work of the Jewish Food Society and their charity auction to raise

funds for the organization, I am auctioning off lunch. You can have lunch

with me. You can bid on lunch with me if you really want to break bread and talk about the

state of the world. I'm happy to do so. So we'll have a link in the show notes to the item where

you can bid. And there are a few other terrific items as well that are worth bidding all in the support of the Jewish Food Society, so please take a look. And now on to today's

conversation. Over this past week, we have been monitoring developments in Syria, where there

has been a significant escalation in its on again and offagain and seemingly on-again civil war.

Rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, will refer to them as H-T-S,

launched a surprise offensive, swiftly capturing key areas in northwestern Syria,

including 13 villages in the strategic towns of Urum al-Sugra and

Anjara. Two days later, the rebels had breached Aleppo, one of the largest and most important

cities in Syria. It's actually Syria's second largest city, so this makes the rebels advance their most substantial accomplishment, at least

in the last few days. In response, Syrian government forces, the forces of Bashar Assad,

supported by Russian airstrikes and Iran-backed militias, have initiated counterattacks to halt

...