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*** Share on X: https://tinyurl.com/5dw43272 *** \n\nWho is Mohammed Deif?\n\nWhy does he matter (or why did he matter?)\n\nIs he dead?\n\n\nWe have often said on this podcast that Hamas long ago transformed from a ragtag militia to the equivalent of a light infantry army of a sovereign state. The architect of that transformation was Mohammed Deif. If Hamas was a terror army, its commanding general or army chief of staff was Mohammed Deif. The second intifada? Deif was central to its planning and execution. Its tunnel system and rocket arsenal? All that, too, was Deif. And October 7th? Mohammed Deif. \n\n\n\nIsrael had been on the hunt for Deif long before October 7th. In fact, he had escaped at least seven assasination attempts going back to 2001.\n\nToday he is most likely dead, based on an extraordinary intelligence and military operation that took place on Saturday morning.\n\nTo help us understand what Hamas is, today, without Mohammed Deif, and what it means for Israel\u2019s war against Hamas \u2013 and for the hostage and ceasefire negotiations \u2013 we are joined by Ronen Bergman, who is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and Senior Correspondent for Military and Intelligence Affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli daily. Ronen recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on this war and the pre-war intelligence failures. \n\n\n\nHe has published numerous books \u2014including \u201cRise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel\u2019s Targeted Assassinations,\u201d and also \u201cThe Secret War with Iran."\n\n\n\nRonen is also a member of the Israeli bar (he clerked in the Attorney General\u2019s Office), and has a master\u2019s degree in international relations and a Ph.D. in history from Cambridge University.