"Total Diaster!” - Israel's Plan, Iran Failure & Jared Kushner - Joby Warrick Video

In this 25 August 2026 published video, host Julian Dorey talks with Joby Warrick, a 2x Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and Middle East Expert. Since 1996, Warrick has been at the Washington Post, where he currently serves as a National Security Reporter. His newest book is out now: The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World’s First Super-Terrorist.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joby Warrick discusses Israeli strategies and Iran’s failures in this episode of the Julian Dorey Podcast. The conversation highlights significant failures and geopolitical consequences in the region.

The interview covers critical insights into Israeli strategy and Middle Eastern geopolitics by focusing on intelligence metrics, tactical success versus strategic stagnation, and the unintended consequences of asymmetric warfare. Warrick’s reporting and commentary highlight several key themes regarding how Israel’s actions reshape—and are reshaped by—the modern Middle East.

Warrick points to operations like the 2024 pager and walkie-talkie detonations targeting Hezbollah as marvels of intelligence engineering. However, he cautions that these spectacular covert actions rarely translate into a long-term political resolution. In discussions surrounding U.S.-Israeli dynamics under the Trump administration, Warrick notes that giving Israel total freedom to push its military boundaries creates unpredictable regional friction, often locking Israel into endless containment cycles without a clear “exit strategy”. Warrick emphasizes that while groups like Hamas can be physically or militarily shattered on the ground, Israel’s reliance on intense bombardment risks further radicalization, keeping the underlying extremist ideology alive.

Drawing parallels to his Pulitzer-winning work on the rise of ISIS (Black Flags), Warrick maintains that heavy-handed military actions and extensive damage to civilian infrastructure act as primary drivers for future radicalization. Alongside co-reporters at The Washington Post, Warrick unearthed captured documents revealing that Hamas’s October 7 attacks were deliberately designed to provoke an overwhelming Israeli retaliation. The goal was to force a regional multi-front war, isolate Israel globally, and permanently derail Arab-Israeli normalization efforts (such as the Abraham Accords). 

Expanding on themes from his book Red Line, Warrick tracks how the instability along Israel’s northern borders—historically exacerbated by the Syrian civil war—has fundamentally altered Israel’s security calculus, introducing an unpredictable mix of Iranian proxies, Russian hardware, and non-state actors right to its doorstep. Warrick observes that regional powers like Saudi Arabia and the UAE occupy a fragile middle ground. While Gulf states initially signaled a desire for Israel to decisively “finish the job” against Iranian-backed proxies, the enduring economic ties and proximity to Iran force these nations to take a highly pragmatic, defensive diplomatic posture to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. 

https://youtu.be/OCNkGL-4ZQI

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Joby Warrick Returns, “The Jackal”
10:37 – Iran’s Leadership Is MORE Hardline Now
21:45 – Sanctions EMPOWER the IRGC
31:25 – China’s Opening & Kushner’s Conflicts of Interest
43:22 – Is Israel an Ally or a Burden?
54:44 – The Boy in Gaza Who Lost His Limbs
1:07:54 – The King of Jordan on Greater Israel
1:13:39 – A Terrorist Visiting the WHITE HOUSE
1:23:56 – Assad Falls, Captagon Fills the Gap
1:29:24 – Who Was Carlos the Jackal?
1:40:16 – Getting Carlos to Say YES
1:51:02 – Ninety Minutes With the Man Himself
2:00:28 – The Vienna Attack & His Wild Entrance
2:08:56 – Joby’s Writing Regiment and the Physical Timer
2:21:32 – Openings, Cutting Chapters & the But/Therefore Rule
2:38:39 – Telling Vienna TWICE, and Joby’s “Curse”
2:48:38 – The Criminal Narcissist Mind at Ease
2:59:55 – His Father Was PROUD, and the Swiss Benefactor
3:09:36 – Kicked Out, Then Terrorism for Hire
3:20:16 – 83 Deaths and ZERO Remorse
3:24:17 – Joby’s Work