BENJAMIN ANTHONY: I-24 NEWS INTERVIEW ON ICC ARREST WARRANTS

I was asked to provide comment for i24NEWS on the ICC's issuance of arrest warrants for PM Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

There, as here, I expressed that this ruling reflects an awful truth; that the supposed guardians of civility have become the protectors of barbarism, the apologists for savagery and the advocates of depravity.

That Israel's leaders have been charged with crimes against humanity by the court, is a crime against humanity in and of itself. It reflects the abolishment of all civilized standards.

THE ICC’S COUNTERPRODUCTIVE RULING

By Jeremiah Rozman

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On November 11, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, its former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and the deceased Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif. It failed to issue a warrant for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad who butchered over 300,000 Syrians and used nerve gas against civilians. Or CCP leaders involved in the genocide and forced labor of the Uyghurs. Or the North Korean dictator committing mass starvation, or Iranians who persecute women and execute dissidents and protestors by the thousands, or any number of leaders engaged in real atrocities. The ICC did issue a warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin, but Putin invaded Ukraine, Hamas invaded Israel. The ICC’s decision is baseless and counterproductive. It strengthens Israelis who argue the futility of trying to appease hopelessly biased international bodies. It also strengthens Hamas by handing it a clear, albeit Pyrrhic diplomatic victory against Israel.

The ICC’s obvious bias degrades its credibility. The practical importance of the ruling is limited because the United States, the leader of the free world and Israel’s most important backer, is not party to it. The current US administration might sanction the organization in response and the incoming Trump administration is almost certain to. The ruling’s only material impact is to prohibit Netanyahu and Gallant from traveling to about 120 countries. They can still travel to the US and dozens of friendly countries, but much of Europe is now off the table. If Bibi and Gallant want to be attacked by mobs of angry Islamists, they will have to go to Silwan. Amsterdam is off the table.

ICC warrants do nothing to end the fighting in Gaza or boost Palestinian statehood. Their core impact on Israel is strengthening the arguments of its hawks. According to John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Israel has implemented “more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other military in history.” Numerous Israelis with powerful political representation decry how Israel’s outsized humanitarian efforts are ignored by international bodies and endanger its soldiers and the mission.

Consider this logic; Assad’s war crimes created over six million Syrian refugees. Israel’s most right-wing politicians could imagine solving Israel’s problems with iron-fisted campaigns creating a comparable number of refugees from Gaza and the disputed territories. Assad faced no ICC reprimand for his brutal campaign, while Israel faces arrest warrants in its absence. If you will be charged and convicted without committing a crime, why not commit the crime and solve the problem?

The ICC accused Israel of deliberate starvation and faults Israel for failing "to ensure that the civilian population in Gaza would be adequately supplied." This argument is flawed for the following reasons:

First, international law stipulates that and occupying power must ensure food, medical aid, and other “supplies essential to the survival of the population.” However, Hamas’s ability to hijack and distribute aid (at extortionary prices) demonstrates that Israel is not an occupying power in Gaza.

Israel is the only country in the world that provides power and water to an entity ruled by a self-professed sworn enemy intent on its eradication. Israel has done so since it withdrew and continues to do so after it was invaded on October 7.

Apparently, Israel’s alleged reputation for brutal disregard of international law did not spur Gaza’s leaders to provision their own essentials as they planned to rape, massacre, torture, and kidnap the citizens of the country that sustains them. Hamas understands what the ICC pretends not to; that Israel is so exceedingly humanitarian that Hamas can use billions of dollars of international aid to build a military infrastructure to attack Israel, and Israel will provide for the needs of Gaza’s citizens.

Second, international law stipulates that parties to a conflict provide humanitarian zones and corridors. Israel has done this since the launch of its ground operation. Countries have the right to “geographically restrict the freedom of movement of humanitarian personnel.”

Israel killed and captured thousands of Hamas terrorists in combat zones like Jabalya. It is not required, nor would it make sense, to provide aid to zones actively being evacuated. While Israel risks its soldiers’ lives to defend humanitarian corridors, Hamas fires at fleeing civilians to prevent their evacuation. Hamas does this because it understands that Israel respects international law. Therefore, the presence of civilians provides them with human shields.  

Third, Hamas purposefully creates impediments to Israel’s admission of aid. Ostensibly humanitarian organizations turn a blind eye to egregious violations. Organizations like UNRWA are permeated with terrorists. Their facilities are used for terrorism. Their members have even held Israeli civilians hostage. Aid convoys are used to smuggle arms and other contraband. Furthermore, they are often captured by Hamasand used to sustain its fighters and fuel its war effort through the extortion of its civilians. Gazan civilians have decried this on video. Clearly, the footage has yet to reach the eyes, ears, or hearts of the vaunted ICC.

The ICC arrest warrants, like the January 26, 2024 ICJ rulings against Israel, reveal these bodies to be shamelessly prejudice. In Kafkaesque fashion, Israel was destined to be found guilty regardless of the facts. These institutions continuously fail to prevent actual war crimes. Their preoccupation with Israel enables brutal actors to persecute without consequence. This ruling makes a mockery of international law. The result will be that those who already flaunt these laws will continue to do so, while those who adhere to them, yet are still found guilty in international kangaroo courts, may start to ignore them.

Israel should rebut this liable while continuing to ensure the security of its citizens and the return of its hostages. Israel alone does not have the global power and prestige to turn the tide of insanity back to reason. With determined effort the incoming US administration can lead more countries toward justice. In time, these self-besmirched international bodies might even become instruments of justice as intended.


Jeremiah Rozman currently works as the National Security Analyst at a DC-based think tank. From 2006-2009 he served as an infantryman in the IDF. His regional expertise is in the Middle East and Russia. He designed and taught an undergraduate course on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Photo Credit: Attribution: Avi Ohayon / Government Press Office of Israel

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT IS WRONG ON THE LAW—AND THE FACTS

By Mark Goldfeder

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On Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) took the extraordinary and deeply flawed step of issuing arrest warrants for both the leaders of Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, and the leaders of Israel, a democratic state engaged in self-defense against those very same terrorists. This decision is not just morally indefensible, it was wrong on the merits, wrong on the process, wrong on the facts, and wrong on the law.

The ICC's charges against Israel are based on alleged violations of the Rome Statute, yet they conspicuously omit the full statutory language that would clearly exonerate the accused. For instance, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are accused of engaging in "starvation as a method of warfare." Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute, however, explicitly defines this crime as "intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions."

This is a specific intent crime. It is not enough to demonstrate that civilians suffered based on decisions Israel made while fighting Hamas; the prosecutor must show that Israel acted with the deliberate aim of starving civilians as a method of warfare. This is patently untrue. Israel has made extensive efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, even under the extraordinary challenge of Hamas's systematic theft and weaponization of such supplies. Any accusation that Israel's objective was to starve innocent civilians—rather than to compel the surrender of Hamas combatants—is not merely unfounded but a libelous distortion of the truth.

Moreover, the Geneva Conventions themselves do not require a sieging party to allow in aid when it will be commandeered by the enemy or provide a military advantage, both of which are indisputably the case with Hamas in Gaza. Similar legal and factual deficiencies undercut all the other charges leveled against Israel, which collapse under the weight of even modest scrutiny.

From a process perspective, Israel, like the United States, is not a party to the Rome Statute. The court's claim of jurisdictional authority over disputed areas of the West Bank and Gaza hinges on the presumption that while Palestine admittedly does not constitute a "state" under the general principles of international law including the Montevideo Convention, just for the purposes of the Rome Statute the Court can treat it as a state. The idea that the definition of "state" might somehow be different here than for any other area of international law is entirely unfounded, as is the insidious and inevitable suggestion that, when it comes to prosecuting the Jewish State, as distinct from all other states, international law should be applied differently. Israel is the first and only non-member state to be investigated at the behest of a nonstate member. There is a word for that kind of special treatment, and it isn't pretty.

 

Beyond the legal and procedural flaws, the factual claims underpinning the charges simply do not hold. In June, after the prosecutor had submitted his charges, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Classification System (IPC) released an analysis showing that an earlier projection that famine "may occur" in Gaza by May had not come to pass. At the time, a spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment on whether they would let these facts in any way alter their false claims. To date there is no credible evidence that a single individual has died from starvation as a result of Israeli actions, let alone from a deliberate policy to intentionally starve civilians.

Finally, under the terms of the Rome Statute itself, the ICC is meant to be a court of last resort, intervening only when a nation is "unwilling or unable" to investigate or prosecute alleged crimes. Israel, however, has a robust legal system, staffed with expert legal advisers and an independent judiciary that has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to upholding international humanitarian law. Dozens of active investigations into actions taken since Oct. 7 are currently underway. The ICC, by disregarding the principle of complementarity, has acted in clear violation of the court's own rules.

Equating Israel's legitimate acts of self-defense with the atrocities of a terrorist organization like Hamas represents a dangerous moral and legal inversion, undermining the principles of international law and emboldening bad actors who exploit these flawed rulings for propaganda purposes. The United States and all of the other countries in the free world must recognize that Israel is merely the first target in what could easily become a broader campaign by the ICC to undermine the sovereignty of democratic nations. The U.S. Senate should pass the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, which has already received bipartisan Congressional support, and which would impose sanctions on ICC officials who overreach their jurisdiction to target the U.S. and its allies. Far from weakening international institutions, standing with Israel against this egregious mockery of the system would be the strongest safeguard for the integrity of international law as applied, and quite possibly the only way to save the court from itself.


Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder, Esq. has served as the founding Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series on Law and Judaism, a Trustee of the Center for Israel Education, and as an adviser to the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations.

PHOTO CREDIT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (3rd R) arrives for a party meeting at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem on May 20. OREN BEN HAKOON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

ICC ISSUES ARREST WARRANTS: A LEGAL SCHOLAR RESPONDS

Recorded on Thursday, November 21, 2024, in the wake of the announcement by the International Criminal Court that arrest warrants have been issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, I sought out the insights and expertise of renowned legal scholar Professor Avi Bell, in order to gain his insights into this dreadful development, and to bring his conclusion to you by way of this conversation.

Professor Avi Bell is a member of the Faculty of Law at Bar Ilan University and the University of San Diego School of Law.

His fields of academic research include property and intellectual property law, international law, the laws of war, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Professor Bell is considered one of the leading researchers in Israel in the field of economic analysis of law, and he is a member of the Israeli Law & Economics Association as well as the American Law & Economics Association.

His papers have been published in leading law journals including Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review and Columbia Law Review.

 Bell received his BA and JD from the University of Chicago and his doctorate from Harvard University.

He was director of the Global Law Forum at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs from 2008-2009.

I hope you get as much out of this conversation as I did and I encourage you to spread this discussion far and wide.

Enjoy and be sure to subscribe to the show!

PHOTO CREDIT: International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2022 architectural firm: Schmidt Hammer Lassen architects. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Choinowski

ARE ELECTIONS IN THE AIR?

In this episode, Yaakov Lappin and I begin by pondering whether or not election season is underway in Israel.

We then turn to Bibi's recent visit to the Gaza Strip, flanked by his new Defense Minister Israel Katz, and reflect on his declarations that Hamas will never again rule the Strip and his offer of $5 million to anyone who returns a hostage to Israel.

We round out the discussion by analyzing the implications of the mooted cease-fire deal that Special Envoy Amos Hochstein has been working to thrash out in Lebanon and seems poised to present to Israel's leadership for their response.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Itzik Edri via the PikiWiki - Israel free image collection project (http://www.pikiwiki.org.il?action=gallery&img_id=7260)

EPISODE 1 PART 2: IDF BATTLES TO SAVE SYRIAN LIVES

Join me on Israel Outside-In for part two of my conversation with the former Surgeon General of the IDF, Brigadier-General (Res.), Professor Tarif Bader, to learn more about the helping hand Israel has extended over the years, and to enjoy a dip into a plate of Hummus from a local eatery as I digest the conversation.

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BENJAMIN ANTHONY FOX NEWS INTERVIEW

Benjamin Anthony joined LiveNOW from FOX to discuss Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and new Defense Minister Israel Katz meeting with troops at an undisclosed location in Gaza on Tuesday, where they announced financial rewards and a way out of the territory for Palestinians who helped to release the remaining hostages.

PREMIERE: HOW THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SAVE LIVES, ISRAEL OUTSIDE-IN!

Join me on Israel Outside-In as I take you on a journey to experience the sites, sounds and tastes of Israel as we meet with leading personalities from the one and only Jewish State.

In this episode of the show, I tour the Druze village of Horfesh in northern Israel, sit down to interview the former Surgeon General Of The IDF, Brigadier-General (Res.), Professor Tarif Bader.

In this fascinating discussion, General Bader tells me about his commanding roles in the aid and rescue missions launched by the IDF to treat victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti (2010) and Nepal (2015), where he oversaw the establishment of an emergency field hospital in both countries.

He also tells me about his treatment of Syrian refugees who fled the Syrian civil war into Israel and how they were treated, repatriated and saved by the IDF medical corps and the Israeli defense establishment.

General Bader also tells me about life as a member of the Druze community in Israel, his principles for good leadership and his commitment to making a positive difference in this world.

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PODCAST: DEFENSE MINISTER GALLANT FIRED: HERE’S ONE OF THE PRIMARY REASONS!

 
 

In this episode, MirYam Institute In-House Analyst, Yaakov Lappin, is joined by Col. (res.) David Hacham, former Arab Affairs Advisor to multiple Israeli Defense Ministers, to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip. 

He asserts that only ongoing Israeli security control coupled with a temporary Israeli military administration can ensure that Hamas is uprooted.

They then explored why this proposal faces such fierce opposition from some voices in Israel, including from recently dismissed Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant.

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EPILOGUE: RISING FROM THE HORROR OF OCTOBER 7

In this episode of the show, I visit Amir Tibon at his temporary home in Kibbutz Mishmar Ha’emek in northern Israel, a community that opened its doors to residents of Nahal Oz post the October 7th massacre. Here he details his arrival there, outlines why he moved to the kibbutz and shares stories of comfort and inspiration as he and his young family work to rebuild their lives one day at a time.

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EPISODE 1 PART 2: AMIR TIBON DESCRIBES HIS FATHER’S HEROIC RESCUE OF HIS FAMILY

EPISODE 1 PART 2: OCTOBER 7TH SURVIVOR AMIR TIBON DESCRIBES HIS FATHER’S HEROIC RESCUE OF HIS FAMILY

In this episode of the show, Amir Tibon describes the heroic battle undertaken by his father, Major General Noam Tibon (IDF Ret.) to rescue Amir, his wife Miri and their two daughters after Hamas terrorists stormed into Amir’s kibbutz and fired automatic gunfire into his home.

With an exceptional level of detail, Amir outlines and describes the sacrifice and courage of the soldiers and civilians who fought to defend Kibbutz Nahal Oz and to rescue him and his family.

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EPISODE 1 PART 1: AMIR TIBON BRINGS US INTO THE FAMILY HOME ATTACKED BY HAMAS

EPISODE 1 PART 1: OCTOBER 7TH SURVIVOR, AMIR TIBON, BRINGS US INTO THE FAMILY HOME ATTACKED BY HAMAS

In this episode of the show, recorded in March, 2024, Amir Tibon, survivor of the Hamas massacre, brings me into his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. 

This bullet-riddled house, recently built by him and his wife Miri, was the place they hoped to raise their two young daughters. 

On October 7th, Hamas terrorists stormed into the kibbutz and fired automatic gunfire into his home, as his entire family hid inside the family safe room.

In this first segment of my conversation with Amir, he tells me how he and Miri made the decision to move from Tel Aviv and to build a life in Nahal Oz.

He outlines what the atmosphere was like before October 7th and how the nightmare of that awful day began to unfold, as he feverishly contacted his colleagues and his father, desperately seeking to be rescued from an impossibly dangerous situation. 

Watch. Listen. Share. Enjoy. Comment. 

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PODCAST: ON STRATEGY: BUILD YOUR HOUSE WITH A STRONG FOUNDATION

Standing in for me this week is The Miryam Institute’s in-house analyst Yaakov Lappin.

Going solo, he responds to various critiques of Israel's war effort, and argues that those who don't prioritize the need to remove terror armies from Israel's borders are advocating for future disaster.

He then explains how non-miliary, strategic benefits only belong to powers that have demonstrated their willingness to defend their core interests first.

Toward the end of the loscast, he discusses why drones remain a persistent threat, the arms race underway to mitigate that.

Finally, Yaakov expressed why building a sukkah this year is an act of Jewish resistance against Hamas's jihad.

Enjoy and be sure to subscribe to the show!

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A Year Since October 7: The Erasure of Zionist Jews in the Public Square

By Micah Q. Jones

The world has become a more dangerous place since October 7.

In July, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in an airstrike in Tehran, shortly after Israel killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a targeted airstrike in Beirut. Right before that, a Hezbollah-fired rocket had murdered 12 Druze children — part of a series of 8,000 rockets that Hezbollah has fired at Israel since October 8, 2023.

In the United States, antisemitic forces have advanced with abandon — from taking over college campuses around the country with little, if any, consequences, to assaulting visibly-religious Jews in broad daylight, as well as vandalizing American war memorials and synagogues. The US political scene has also been turbulent, and American Jews have been the victim of a record-number of antisemitic attacks.

Despite these pressing national and international dangers, one threat stands out the most as Jews around the world continue to grapple with the post-October 7th reality: the erasure of Zionist Jews within the public square, particularly within America and the West.

Zionists believe that the Jewish people have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, Eretz Yisrael.

Around the world, Zionist Jews have been targeted with violence, murder, and exclusion from all public and private spaces.

And unlike the threat from Hamas or Hezbollah, this dangerous reality cannot be countered with a targeted airstrike.

Antisemitism and anti-Zionism have spread throughout every corner of daily and professional life, with little to no consequences. Most of the anti-Israel protestors who took over Columbia University’s Hinds Hall in April and blocked pro-Israel and Jewish students from attending class, had their charges dropped by Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg.

Israeli scientists have been shunned by numerous Western European universities and academics who refuse to engage in collaborative research.

In June, Hamas sympathizers brutally attacked Jews outside the Adas Torah shul in my hometown of Los Angeles. And in July, during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trip to the US to speak before a joint session of Congress and advocate for Israel’s right to defend herself, a rabid, anti-Israel mob burned American and Israeli flags, vandalized war memorials, attacked police, and graffitied “Hamas is coming” on monuments.

Although some charges were brought against the most violent offenders, the vast majority of these terrorist sympathizers who committed criminal acts were let off the hook, free to commit more crimes against likely Jewish and pro-Israel targets.

These public acts of hatred against pro-Israel supporters and Zionist Jews have deeply personal and negative effects.

Visibly-religious Jews must now make a calculation whether they use public transportation in major US and European cities, lest they be accosted for being openly Jewish.

Israeli and Jewish restaurants have to worry about their stores being vandalized simply because of their heritage.

Pro-Israel students may be denied employment or future educational opportunities by having identified support for Israel on their resume, or because teachers graded them poorly based on their views.

Jewish families may think twice about having a mezuzah on their door or a menorah in their window, for fear of their home being attacked. And any Jew who attends Shabbat services at his synagogue now feels the need to look over his shoulder, or check where the exits are, in case of an active-shooter scenario. (And, of course, there are now armed guards at a large number of synagogues).

Zionist Jews — which, to be clear, are the vast majority of Jews the world over — are put in an even more challenging position when the small minority of anti-Zionist Jews attempt to speak for the Jewish people as a whole, and support those who want to eradicate Israel.

These anti-Zionist Jews have bent the knee to forces that chant genocidal phrases like “From the River to the Sea,” and celebrate Hamas — and sometimes join in the chants.

These anti-Zionist Jews, including groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, believe that they will be spared the same fate as their Zionist brothers and sisters if they provide aid and comfort to terrorist sympathizers.

But the history of the Jewish people has demonstrated time and again that such collaborators will not be spared when the perpetrators of the hate they are supporting inevitably turn on them.

Under this new reality, it is of the utmost importance for Zionist Jews and their allies to do everything in their power to remain present and vocal to prevent the erasure of their place in society.

Mezuzahs should remain on doors, and menorahs in windows. Religious Jews should continue to don their kippahs and tzitzit in public. If and when acts of violence and vandalism occur, the incident should be documented — and the press, police, and politicians should be held accountable via constant engagement and encouragement to prosecute the perpetrators.

Zionist Jews in positions of influence should use their resources to provide scholarships and funding to pro-Israel and Zionist students, so that they can begin their careers, donate to pro-Israel and Zionist political candidates, and fund organizations like mine whose sole focus is to advocate for Israel and the Jewish people.

And for those American Zionist Jews who are legally able, they should strive to meet the requirements for their respective state’s concealed carry weapons permits to become law-abiding firearm owners, in order to ensure that they are able to defend themselves, their families, and their congregations if they are ever violently attacked for being Zionist Jews.

The tide can be turned, and the antisemites and terrorist sympathizers can once again be banished from polite society, when Zionist Jews make clear that they will not be erased.


Micah Quinney Jones is a publishing Adjunct at The MirYam Institute, a US Army veteran, and a pro-Israel advocate. He is a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service. Read full bio here.

PODCAST: OCTOBER 7TH: A TRAGIC YEAR HAS PASSED

In this episode, I sit down with Yaakov Lappin to discuss what has been an horrific year for Israel and the Jewish people. We did so from a deeply subdued Israel, a country still grappling with all that has befallen it over the past twelve months and which is still deeply embroiled in its response to the ongoing threats that started on October 7th.

In an effort to provide you with some unique and different perspectives, we assessed the ramifications of the following topics: 

1) The 1200 Israelis murdered on October 7th

2) The ongoing hostage crisis

3) The 300,000 soldiers drafted into service

4) The fissures in Israeli society

5) Israel's place among the nations

If you find this episode interesting, please leave a comment and review wherever you download the podcast from and be sure to subscribe to the show. 

May Israel's enemies be vanquished, her leaders imbued with wisdom, her soldiers guarded over, her hostages redeemed.

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PODCAST: ISRAEL MUST RETALIATE AGAINST IRAN

ISRAEL MUST RETALIATE & TARGET IRAN'S NUCLEAR FACILITIES, THE IMPLICATIONS OF NASRALLAH'S ELIMINATION

In this episode, I'm joined by Yaakov Lappin to discuss the implications of the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah and how Israel ought to respond to the second ballistic missile attack from Iran.


We outline why it's time to hit Iran's nuclear program and their economy and explain why Israel's enemies have been allowed to trade on an unfounded schoolyard "rep" for far too long. 
We also close the show by reflecting on our thoughts for the coming year. 


Enjoy and remember to subscribe to the podcast.


Shana Tova To All The House Of Israel!

US strategy on Gaza hostages needs a new approach

By PETER FISHKIND

As we approach the month of October and the passage of a full year since Hamas invaded Israel, killing over 1200 people, including 43 Americans, and kidnapping hundreds of other innocents, American supporters of Israel must ask ourselves what our government is doing to free the hostages being held in Gaza and ensure that such an attack is never allowed to occur again.

This point of reflection takes on particular significance a few weeks after the tragic news of the murders of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino. For millions of Americans, Hersh Goldberg-Polin is a household name. He was a native of Berkeley, California, held both American and Israeli citizenship, and was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 after attending the Nova music festival where he had part of his arm blown off by a Hamas grenade. Following his capture, Hersh’s parents, Jon and Rachel, dedicated their lives to spreading awareness about their son and promoting efforts to bring him back home. Shortly before his murder, Jon and Rachel spoke before the Democratic National Convention and delivered deeply moving remarks about their son that sparked chants amongst the crowd to “bring Hersh home.”

The public-facing American strategy relating to the hostage negotiations appears to hold the primary aim of achieving an agreement between Israel and Hamas. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has taken dozens of visits to the region since October 7 to meet with the Israelis, Qataris, Egyptians, and others, to urge those with influence over the situation to help achieve an agreement. Following the Secretary of State’s most recent visit to Israel and meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Secretary Blinken said on August 19 that Israel had agreed to the withdrawal requirements from Gaza that are part of the most recent “bridging proposal” and that it was “now incumbent on Hamas to do the same,” in terms of meeting their obligations under the proposal to reach an agreement. One can look also at the comments from Vice President Kamala Harris during her August 29 interview with CNN’s Dana Bash to conclude that the American priority is to achieve “a deal.” The Vice President said “we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out” and repeated the phrase “we have to get a deal done” twice after follow up from Ms. Bash. A similar statement was made most recently during the September 10th Presidential Debate where, after being asked about the war between Israel and Hamas, Vice President Harris said that “this war must end … immediately, and the way it will end is we need a cease-fire deal and we need the hostages out.”

While other statements, including the statement issued by the Vice President focusing on Hamas’s murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin have stated that “[t]he threat Hamas poses … must be eliminated and Hamas cannot control Gaza,” this rhetoric has not been the focus of most of the public-facing diplomacy concerning the Israel-Hamas war. Worse yet, the aim to remove Hamas from power in Gaza does not appear achievable if the war was to end “immediately” with a “cease-fire deal” as the Vice President declared her aim to be during the September 10th Presidential Debate.

There are significant limitations in trying to interpret the “motives” of the sociopathic fanatics that are setting strategy for Hamas. However, one must try to understand the way Hamas interprets American declarations and why Hamas would murder these hostages when their lives are the main currency Hamas holds in any negotiations. The most likely rationale for Hamas’s actions is that they believe these murders will increase pressure on the Americans who will further pressure Israelis to cede to Hamas demands in ongoing negotiations. As an American I reject these tactics and urge my government to do the same.

 In short, what we have been doing has not been working. The efforts to prioritize “an agreement” as the central aim of our strategy has only been interpreted by Hamas as a willingness to accept “an agreement” at any cost.

We need to change this calculus before Hamas, as well as Iran and every other malign actor watching the American posture in the Middle East, doubles down further on their strategy of murder and extortion to achieve their aims. For Hamas, their primary aim appears to be to survive and retain control over Gaza. If achieved, Hamas and its allies will declare victory and only place Israel and America in a more dangerous position. Hamas will regroup and launch further attacks in the future, and any other adversary will conclude that Israel and America lack the willingness to destroy their enemies and calculate that they can also launch attacks that will not result in their own demise. Likewise, American and Israeli allies will question the value of our commitments should they be attacked by our joint adversaries.

 American strategy must move forward with a new resolve to pressure Hamas, both directly and indirectly with every means at our disposal to surrender and release the hostages. This includes a significant change in public rhetoric from American officials that prioritizes the dismantling of Hamas as key to any future for Gaza. It also includes a renewed pressure campaign on the Qataris and Turks, who host much of the Hamas leadership, and Egypt, who allowed untold numbers of munitions to flow to Hamas through the Egyptian-Gaza border. These efforts must include a determination to bring Hamas’s leadership and their enablers to justice, whether that be the political, financial, or military patrons of Hamas that are responsible for the situation we find ourselves in today. And, I would also suggest that it includes a vision towards a future for a region that has no place for those who believe American blood can be spilled without severe retribution. Anything short of this risks inviting further weakness and future depravity by Hamas and others seeking to harm Israelis, Americans, and any others in the Middle East or beyond who yearn for a better future built on coexistence rather than violence and destruction.


Peter Fishkind Esq. is a publishing contributor at The MirYam Institute and pro-Israel activist in New York. Read full bio here.

PODCAST: NO TO CEASEFIRE WITH HEZBOLLAH & BIBI AT THE UN

In this latest episode of The Benjamin Anthony Show, Yaakov Lappin joins me to discuss why a ceasefire between the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah at this time would be catastrophic to Israel’s near and long term security and would leave far too many Israelis well within range for ongoing rocket and missile attacks from Iran’s terror proxy.

We also discuss Prime Minister Netahyahu’s upcoming speech at the UNGA and the vital importance of Israel’s PM having the use of ‘Zion’s Wing,’ Israel’s equivalent of Air Force One - a rather overdue and inexplicably controversial development for Israeli leaders.

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Click on the link below to listen to the podcast.

POLICY MEMO: ISRAEL MUST DITCH THE POLICY OF DETERRENCE

The need for a fundamental shift in Israeli national security strategy has become increasingly clear following the devastating mass murder attack launched by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7.

The traditional reliance on deterrence, a cornerstone of Israel’s security doctrine, has proven to be an entirely irrelevant concept against the unique threats posed by jihadist organizations.

While defense officials habitually would describe Israeli deterrence in the eyes of its adversaries as a ‘slippery’ and unstable ‘thing’ to measure, a closer examination reveals that it did not exist in the first place vis-à-vis Hamas, or Hezbollah. While these terror armies are certainly capable of calculating their interests and choosing timings that suit their ideological objectives, at no point did they exhibit actual deterrence – a wish to avoid conflict with Israel based on the conclusion that this is not in their interest.

This necessitates a strategic pivot towards a relentless focus on degrading enemy capabilities, and preventing the formation of jihadist armies on Israel’s borders, rather than engaging in fruitless and often unfounded efforts to get into the minds of adversaries whose cultural, religious, and military mindsets and actions are entirely alien to Western decision-making.

As such, one of the key policy lessons going forward needs to be the shift away from the doomed attempt to decipher the intentions of Middle Eastern terror armies, and towards placing the focus on continually degrading their capabilities, to the point where they are no longer organized hierarchical armies in control of their own territory and able to build up force with impunity.

The concept of deterrence, deeply ingrained in Israel’s defense strategy, is predicated on the belief that potential adversaries can be dissuaded from attacking by the threat of overwhelming retaliation, in a manner that would make the cost far outweigh the benefit. However, since jihadist armies will invariably unleash their capabilities at a time that is opportunistically convenient for advancing their totalitarian goals, the concept of deterrence should be discredited in dealing with these actors.

Traditionally, Israel’s classic ‘security triad’ concept, better known as the Ben Gurion doctrine, formulated in the 1950s, was based on the three pillars of deterrence; two of which were early intelligence warning of enemy intentions to attack, and decisive victory when wars broke out. The concept was based on Israel’s lack of strategic depth and relatively small standing army, as well as its rapid ability to call up reserves and take the fight into enemy territory.  Since lengthy conflicts drained Israel’s limited resources, the thinking went, deterrence was a valuable tool to build periods of calm in between rounds of warfare.

In fact, the concept proved relatively successful throughout the decades in which Israel faced state enemies with classical military threats, and Israel did indeed experience significant periods of relative calm and development between wars. But even in the 20th century, deterrence was far from a scientific concept. For example, soon after Israel’s most successful war, the 1967 Six Day War, Egypt, Jordan, and the PLO began a three-year bloody war of attrition against Israel.

The concept of deterrence was also predicated on the assumption that due to its size and resource limitations, Israel was in no position to permanently dismantle the military capabilities of its enemies, but rather, to use wars to land very painful blows, which would ‘top up’ deterrence until the next war.

However,  while the concept had mixed results in the 20th century, in the 21st century, the application of this thinking to jihadist enemy forces has proven disastrous. It allowed Hamas to build up a full-blown Iranian-backed army, whose October 7 mass murder attack will leave a multi-generational trauma on the Israeli national psyche, a setback to the Zionist ethos that Israel can never again afford to absorb.  

When dealing with religious jihadist adversaries, who are impervious to Western cost-benefit calculations, only persistent, sustained degradation of capabilities will lead to results. This approach involves continuous and proactive measures to weaken the operational and logistical capabilities of entities like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the puppet string holder that activates these proxies, the Iranian IRGC.

While non-state terror armies were never subject to deterrence, the question of whether the Islamic Republic of Iran can be deterred is more complex, and deserving of a separate analysis. Essentially, the Iranian regime and its main power brokers, the ayatollahs and the IRGC elite military officers, share the same fanatical jihadist ideology as their proxies, but are interested in handing off as much of the military conflict missions to proxies as they can at this time, until Iran goes nuclear. 

Closer to home, when seen through the lens of capability degradation rather than deterrence, it becomes clear that Israel’s war of self-defense against Hamas must end with the destruction of its status as a terrorist-army – a goal that Israel is past 70% of the way to reaching. This would be the first time in Israel’s military history that it would commit itself to permanently dismantling enemy capabilities, although smaller-scale precedents for this already exist, such as Israel’s dismantling of the PLO in Lebanon, and its five-year counter-terror offensive in the West Bank, which began in 2002.

This definition of victory does not rely on topping up deterrence, since the concept is irrelevant for Islamist decision-makers whose value systems and worldview stray far beyond what Western logic is capable of perceiving.

Israel’s focus must shift towards continuous military pressure and the strategic control of key areas to prevent enemy reorganization and resupply. This means Israel cannot, in the foreseeable future, give up control of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt – a major tunnel network smuggling zone. Israeli control over the Netzarim Corridor separating northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip is also critical to preventing a resurgence of enemy capabilities that would threaten the western Negev and beyond.

Furthermore, the civilian aspect of terror armies like Hamas cannot be ignored. The civilian social dimension of Hamas and Hezbollah act as supporting elements for the formation of terror armies, and in Gaza’s case, Israel must quickly define civilian alternatives to Hamas’s regime as a result.

Ultimately, only a relentless focus on degrading enemy capabilities, coupled with strategic military freedom of maneuver in areas bordering Israel, based on precise intelligence, and a commitment to developing civilian alternatives to replace Islamist social-political frameworks that sprout terror armies, will be essential to Israel’s continuity in the Middle East.

To address the regional challenges of the 21st century, we must replace the discredited concept of deterrence with a proactive, capabilities-focused strategy.

Yaakov Lappin is an Israel-based military affairs correspondent and analyst. He provides insight and analysis for a number of media outlets, including Jane's Defense Weekly, a leading global military affairs magazine, and JNS.org, a news agency with wide distribution among Jewish communities in the U.S. Read full bio here.

PODCAST: U.S. Military Cadets Tour Nazi Death Camps In Poland

PODCAST: U.S. Military Cadets Tour Nazi Death Camps In Poland

Every year, The MirYam Institute brings delegations of current and future military officers to Poland and then directly on to Israel for a 12 day tour of the country through the I-SAP tour initiative (Israel Strategy & Policy).

This summer, The MirYam Institute created a delegation for future officers of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air-Force and Marine Corps to Poland, to visit the Nazi death camps, as well as the damage and destruction carried out against the Jews of Europe. 

This year, due to Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, the I-SAP tour could not travel to Israel from Poland, so we brought the delegation for an extended tour of Poland and brought several Israeli speakers to the delegation, including the son of a hostage being held by Hamas and a civilian whose rapid response unit fought off an attack by eighty Hamas terrorists on October 7th.

Here, Colonel Dave (Ret.), explains why the I-SAP tour is of such value to the education and understanding of the delegates, as they prepare to become leaders and officers within the U.S. Armed Forces. 

To learn more about I-SAP visit the link below. 

Enjoy!