Is Ideology Blinding Iran to Reality?

“They didn’t understand the essence of Israel, and they are now dead.” Are Iran and regional terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah considering the reality of Israel’s military posture and motivations? Iran may have underestimated Israel’s willingness to launch a surprise attack like the one that started the 12-day war, but with a fragile ceasefire in place, it is unclear whether Tehran’s military calculus has changed. Ambassador Dennis Ross, counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and best known for serving in five U.S. presidential administrations, joins the podcast to discuss whether the war represents a turning point in Israel-Iran relations, if Israel exceeded its traditional defense posture, and how Iran should consider the state of play going forward.

You can listen to Is Ideology Blinding Iran to Reality? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Is Ideology Blinding Iran to Reality? is an episode from The Truth of the Matter by CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies.

This episode is 28:50 long.

This episode was published on Jun 26, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Truth of the Matter when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.