¹On 16 June 2025, Freddie Sayers of UnHerd interviewed me about the ongoing war between Iran and Israel. He then interviewed Israeli scholar Yoram Hazony on the same subject.
I argued that it was foolish for Israel to start the war, as they don’t have the capability to permanently eliminate Iran’s nuclear program — its main goal — and that the United States has a deep-seated interest in not getting involved in the fighting.
Of course, Israel and its lobby in the United States are putting enormous pressure on the Trump administration to come to Israel’s rescue and destroy the key Iranian nuclear assets that Israel cannot eliminate. This case is another illustration of how deeply dependent Israel has become on the United States for its security
In this two-part UnHerd TV episode, Editor-in-Chief Freddie Sayers delves into the volatile Iran-Israel crisis, presenting contrasting, thought-provoking analyses from two intellectual heavyweights.
In Part 1, American International Relations realist theorist and renowned political scientist John Mearsheimer dissects Israel’s strategy as a risky and flawed endeavor, arguing it’s unlikely to succeed in curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and warning that U.S. military involvement would be catastrophic, inadvertently strengthening Russia and China’s geopolitical positions.
In Part 2, Israeli-American philosopher and author of The Virtue of Nationalism Yoram Hazony, speaking from Jerusalem, passionately defends Israel’s imperative to decisively block Iran’s nuclear program, asserting it’s both realistic and essential for national survival, while carefully debating the benefits and risks of U.S. support.
