This episode features the most special guest to join Generation Jihad in two years: Thomas Joscelyn.

Bill's OG partner in crime is back on the show to discuss the newest variant of Disconnect-the-Dots Disease and its primary benefactor — who also happens to be the arsonist behind the dumpster fire currently engulfing the Middle East — and the dangerous cost of American ambivalence. 

Bill and Caleb are joined again by Edmund Fitton-Brown — former coordinator of the UN’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team — to discuss the group’s latest report on the threat posed by al Qaeda and the Islamic State. 

They unpack the report’s highlights and key takeaways, including uncertainty surrounding the new IS leader and why the reason behind it could be “earth-shattering;” West Africa’s slide into even deeper chaos; how only one ‘member state’ (🤔) denied that al Qaeda’s leader is inside Iran, the state which Edmund says is “the spider at the center of the web;” and more.

Bill is joined again by FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power CMPP) senior director Bradley Bowman to discuss broader U.S. military posture in the Middle East amidst the the death of three American service members last weekend in Jordan.

Housekeeping note: This was (naturally) recorded just hours before the U.S. announced that retaliatory strikes are in fact underway in Iraq and Syria on Friday, February 2.

Keeping this in mind while listening, all points are still relevant. 

Stay tuned for LWJ and CMPP coverage and analysis of the strikes — and for real-time hot takes, follow @billroggio and @Brad_L_Bowman on X.

Bill and Joe are joined by their FDD colleague Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD's Center on Military and Political Power, to discuss yesterday's tragic news of three U.S. service members killed in Jordan.

Bill is joined again by his FDD colleague and expert on all things Lebanon and Hezbollah, David Daoud.

They discuss the latest Israeli strikes against Iranian assets in Lebanon, the status of fighting in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, the pervasiveness of the IRGC in Lebanon, why Iran's master proxy strategy is so successful — and why it's so difficult for Washington to understand.

Bill and Joe catch up on the latest news from the Middle East, including U.S. pressure on Israel (led by Secretary of State Blinken) to come to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza while the U.S. also considers withdrawing its own troops from Syria; Israeli casualties in Gaza (including suffering the recent historic loss of 24 IDF reservists); Israeli strikes inside Lebanon; and, yes, more Houthi drama.

Bill and Behnam discuss the recent attacks in Iraq as well as the latest string of Houthi incidents and U.S.-led coalition's response. 

Bill and Joe discuss stats released this week by the IDF pertaining to its operations in Gaza and why escalation at Israel’s northern border with Lebanon is "just a matter of time.”

Bill and Behnam unpack the details they’ve been able to gather so far surrounding the U.S. and UK-led coalition strike against Houthi targets inside Yemen and whether this will restore deterrence. 

Accurate preview courtesy of Behnam: “We like to say ‘freaky Fridays’ here [we do not] — it can’t get freakier than the first-ever, historic use of force since October 7 by the U.S. and UK against the Houthis.”

Joe just returned from Israel and joins Bill to share insights from his trip which included a sobering visit to Nir Oz, one of the kibbutz communities along the Gaza border that was brutally attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023. 

Included in Joe’s haunting description of a scene “almost untouched since October 7” and frozen in time: “There’s still blood on the ground. There’s still blood on the walls. There’s glass everywhere. You can still smell burnt wood; a lot of these homes were burned with people still inside of them. There is still the smell of death.” His visit was also marked by the constant hum of heavy artillery and gunfire, apache helicopters, and the incessant buzzing of drones (AKA “the lawnmower of the sky”). 

Also discussed: being on sustained high-alert for shelling from rockets, mortars, and drones; spending time at Israel’s northern border with Lebanon to observe Israel’s management of the Hezbollah threat; takeaways from conversations with Israelis — from cab drivers to government officials — about the resolve of Israelis and the still-standing solidarity between them, whether or not they share the Biden administration’s insatiable appetite for a ceasefire, and why one Israeli official told him that on October 7, “Israel shrunk.”