October 7 and the Cost of Defending Israel
Interview with Aaron MacLean | School of War · October 6, 2026
Executive Summary
On the eve of the third anniversary of October 7, Michael Oren joined host Aaron MacLean on The Free Press podcast School of War to discuss Israel’s deepening domestic divide and why no Israeli government is likely to bring its troops home. The 45-minute conversation ranges from high strategy to personal history.
- Three Years On: The episode opens with what has changed in Israel since October 7, 2023, and what has stayed the same.
- Troops Stay Put: Oren argues that whoever leads next is unlikely to “remove a single soldier from Lebanon, from Gaza, from Syria.”
- The Isolation Dilemma: MacLean frames the core question: troops in Gaza and Lebanon bring local security but at a steep cost in international isolation, a trade-off less debated inside Israel than outsiders assume.
- A Soldier’s History: The conversation covers Oren’s service as a paratrooper in the 1982 Lebanon War and how his father’s World War II service in the U.S. Army shaped his decision to serve in the IDF.
Program: School of War, The Free Press.
Host: Aaron MacLean.
Official source: The Free Press. The full episode and transcript are available to Free Press subscribers.
Host: Aaron MacLean.
Official source: The Free Press. The full episode and transcript are available to Free Press subscribers.
Source: The Free Press Listen on The Free Press →
