Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Time: 12 o’clock noon
As I write these words, the Israeli Cabinet has just convened and has decided to reoccupy Gaza. This is after 22 months of heartbreaking war, where the double objectives have been the dismantling of Hamas and the rescuing of the hostages.
What has happened to create a change of military strategy for Israel?
Israel has eliminated much of the Hamas leadership, including Yahya Sinwar on October 16, 2024, in Rafah, Gaza, Mohammad Deif on July 13, 2024, in al-Mawasi, Gaza and Ismael Haniyeh on July 24, 2024, in Tehran, Iran. Israel estimates that they have eliminated 14,000 to 20,000 members of Hamas since the start of the war. Yet, Hamas has been able to regenerate thousands of young recruits.
Israel is not safe as long as Hamas exists. Hamas has displayed itself as a primitive terrorist group that hides behind its own civilians as it murders our own.
Many of the families of the hostages are deeply concerned, fearing that this might well risk the lives of their loved ones. We know, however, that the lives of the hostages have been the “life insurance policy” of the Hamas terrorist group.
Yet, we also know that members of Hamas have been slowly starving to death Israeli hostages captured on October 7, 2023, such as 24-year-old Evyatar David and 22 -year-old Ram Bravslavski.
We will also assess the prospects for what awaits after this conflict winds down, including the establishment of a Palestinian state following the conclusion of this conflict, as envisioned by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Irish President Michael D. Higgins, among others, and how it will affect the geopolitics of the region.
Here to discuss this escalation of the war is David Wurmser.
About Our Speaker: Dr. David Wurmser is a Senior Analyst for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy, as well as a Fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy. He also is the executive and founding member of the Delphi Global Analysis Group, LLC – a firm specializing in geopolitical risk analysis and mitigation for infrastructure, high-tech, defense and financial firms from the United States, Japan and India navigating in Israel – – since its founding in 2007. From December 2018 until September 2019, Dr. Wurmser also served as senior advisor to the U.S. National Security Advisor, Ambassador John Bolton.
Prior to this, Dr. Wurmser was the senior advisor from 2003-2007 to the U.S. Vice President Cheney on Middle East, proliferation and strategic affairs. Before becoming the senior advisor for the Vice President in 2003, Dr. Wurmser was the senior advisor to Under Secretary of State John Bolton at the State Department.
Immediately following the 9/11 attacks, Dr. Wurmser consulted until January 2002 for the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the U.S. Department of Defense on a war‐related classified project on understanding the nature and strategic significance of terrorist group networks and their interactions with states.
Before entering government, Dr. Wurmser founded the Middle East studies program at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in 1996. While at AEI Dr. Wurmser, published Tyranny’s Ally: America’s Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein.
Dr. Wurmser’s military service includes 11 years of intelligence experience in the U.S. Navy Reserves, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. LCDR Wurmser was mobilized during the Operational Vigilant Warrior following Iraq’s surge toward Kuwait in 1994 to serve on the Iraq Intelligence Task for the DIA. He is the recipient of the prestigious Defense Meritorious Service Medal.
Dr. Wurmser holds a B.A. (political science), M.A. (international affairs and international economics) and a Ph.D. (on U.S. foreign policy and Middle East affairs) from the Johns Hopkins University. In addition to his book, he has published extensively in in major periodicals including: The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Commentary.
