Ten years Since Israel’s Campaign Between the Wars – Jerusalem Studio 758
It was either January or March of 2013 - depending on whose position - when Israel’s Air Force struck a target deep inside Syria, with no response from Damascus.
This turned out to be the quiet start of what Israel called “the Campaign Between the Wars” (with the Hebrew acronym MABAM).
Hundreds of strikes later against Iranian, Tehran’s proxies and Daesh (Islamic State) targets, it is time to take stock and ask whether MABAM was a ‘success story’ and whether Israel is better off for it and about to outlive its usefulness.
Panel:
- Jonathan Hessen, Host.
- Amir Oren, Editor at Large, Host of Watchmen Talk and Powers in Play.
- Maj. Gen. (Res.) Gershon Ha-Cohen, IDF Army Corps Commander.
- Col. (Res.) Reuven Ben-Shalom, Co-Panelist of TV7 Powers-in-Play, Cross-Cultural Strategist and Associate at the ICT, Reichman University.
The program offers the viewer deeper understanding about current events in Israel. The topics vary from domestic and foreign policy to social changes, archaelogy and religion.
The program is hosted by TV7 Israel News anchor Jonathan Hessen.
Geo-Strategic Implications amid Israel’s War with Hamas : Israel at War – Jerusalem Studio 818
Two months into the Gaza War, launched by the savage Hamas attack on thousands of Israeli civilians, the Middle East is still absorbing all of the related geo-strategic implications, both those shaped by the war and those impacting on it. The very definition of the region’s boundaries and focal points requires an update. As per…
The Middle East in an Age of Strategic Competition: Israel at War – Jerusalem Studio 817
After the surprise October 7 attack on Israel, world powers were forced to make adjustments to the new reality. The US was quickest off the mark, with President Biden using his podium, power and plane in an attempt to contain the crisis, support Israel and prevent her enemies ganging up on her. Russia and China…
Iran's Regional Proxy Wars : Threats of Wider Escalation : Israel at War – Jerusalem Studio 816
It appears that Iran wants to have the best of both worlds : seeking to engage its arch-enemies, Israel and the US, through various forms of warfare, while not directly paying the price for doing so. The challenge for Tehran of course is finding proxies who are willing to put their people’s lives on the…
Iran’s Proxy War vs Israel - the Threat of Piracy to Maritime Shipping, Jerusalem Studio 815
Two of the world’s maritime choke points are the Suez Canal and the Straits of Hormuz. Most shipping between the North and the South, the West and the East, utilizes this thoroughfare and therefore can be interfered with. Between them there is the Red Sea, with the Bab el Mandeb gate whose potential closure threatens…
Iran’s Nuclear Program, a Rising Threat to Global Security : Israel at War – Jerusalem Studio 814
The massacre perpetrated by the Iran-backed Hamas murderers on October 7 and the war that ensued has effectively eclipsed what, up to several weeks ago, seemed to be the issue of most concern regarding the Islamic Republic’s behaviour … its climb, slowly but surely, towards a nuclear arsenal. The world appears resigned to the inevitability…
Israel and the Arab World, a Geo-Strategic Conundrum, Israel at War - Jerusalem Studio 813
Only a few days before Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel, the Jewish State and the leading Muslim nation of Saudi Arabia seemed on the verge of normalizing their relations. This would have been the culmination of a process which saw, three years ago, Gulf and North African governments unveiling the official secrecy of…
Unveiling Iran’s nuclear file, amid regional escalation - Israel At War, Jerusalem Studio 812
One of the casualties of the Israel-Hamas Gaza war has been the effort to block Iran’s path towards Nuclear weapons. Whether through sanctions, threats or diplomacy, the danger of Iran breaking out and within weeks or even days converting its highly enriched Uranium into Nuclear warheads was relegated to the sidelines, with all eyes on…
Israel At War, Geo-Strategic Assessment - Facing the Iranian Threat - Jerusalem Studio 811
While Iran is not participating directly in Israel’s war against Hamas, Tehran does not try to hide its role as the mastermind and treasurer behind the Islamist terror organisations in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. It is clearly satisfied with the havoc unleashed by the October 7 massacre, but is now…
Israel at War, Recounting the October 7th Massacre - Jerusalem Studio 810
As the war between Israel and Hamas sees its first month in the rearview mirror, and the missile defense strategy by the Israeli Air Force manages to effectively minimize civilian casualties within Israel’s borders, the world’s attention seems disproportionately focused on the plight of the Palestinians caught in the crossfire in Gaza. It is convenient…
Jerusalem Studio 809 - Israel at War - Geo-strategic overview - A Mideast composition
You are welcome to join our audience and watch all of our programs - free of charge! TV7 Israel News: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/563/ Jerusalem Studio: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/18738/ TV7 Israel News Editor’s Note: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/76269/ TV7 Europa Stands: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/82926/ TV7 Powers in Play: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/84954/ TV7 Israel: Watchmen Talk: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/76256/ TV7’s Middle East Review: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/997755/ My Brother’s Keeper: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/53719/ This week…
Jerusalem Studio 808 - Israel at War - Prospects of a Multi-Sector war - What does it look like?
Israel’s intelligence community failed to focus on the intentions and preparations by the Islamist Hamas to launch the October 7th onslaught, which brought about the massacre of 1,400 mostly civilians. Nevertheless, it righty assessed that when any front in Israel’s half-dozen-or-so flares up, it will not stay isolated for long. Indeed, the Lebanese border almost…
Jerusalem Studio 807 - Israel At War - Geo-Strategic Assessment - October 25th
All Israeli leaders, military and civilian, acknowledge that the operational and tactical considerations and constraints governing the Gaza war are subordinate to the strategic ones, having to do with global powers and regional interests. What are these strategic factors and are they enhancing Israel’s ability to employ force or inhibiting it? With us to elaborate…
Jerusalem Studio 806 - Israel At War - Geo-Strategic Assessment - October 24th
When the guns start roaring, diplomats usually go silent. The very fact of a violent clash means that more peaceful measures failed. But this time, as soon as Hamas attacked Israel, two and a half weeks ago, diplomatic efforts picked up steam, with heads of state and government, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and special emissaries…
Jerusalem Studio 805 - Israel At War - Geo-Strategic Assessment
The war between Hamas and Israel is not confined to these two parties. It has regional implications for Lebanon and Syria, Egypt and Jordan, and the repercussions do not stop there, with Great Power competition reflected in American military and diplomatic moves and in Russian and Chinese counter-moves. What is the geo-strategic dimension of the…
Jerusalem Studio 804 - Israel At War - Geo-Strategic Assessment
The war between Hamas and Israel is not confined to these two parties. It has regional implications for Lebanon and Syria, Egypt and Jordan, and the repercussions do not stop there, with Great Power competition reflected in American military and diplomatic moves and in Russian and Chinese counter-moves. What is the geo-strategic dimension of the…
Jerusalem Studio - Israel at war: Strategic overview
Panel: - Host : Amir Oren - Col. (Ret) Joel Rayburn, Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary & Special Envoy for Syria - Prof. Uri Rosenthal : former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands in Chief of the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune You are welcome to join our audience and watch all of our programs -…
Israel at War: Strategic Overview - International Support for Israel - Jerusalem Studio
As soon as the horrific nature and unbearable magnitude of the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians were grasped by governments and people around the world, the shock and empathy were translated into political and military backing by the United States and by expressions of support by several Western countries. But how solid is…
Israel at War: Prospects of a Multi-Sector Conflagration - Strategic Assessment-Jerusalem Studio 802
Four days into the war Hamas launched against Israel, the basic premise underlying the deliberations at the IDF Tel Aviv underground Command Post often hosting Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, is that more fronts will follow. The prime candidate is of course Hezbollah in Lebanon, but it could also envelop Syria, the West…
Prospects of Israel-Saudi normalization as part of a US-Saudi Agreement - Jerusalem Studio 800
With every passing week, the prospects of Israel-Saudi normalization appear to be improving. Jedda and Jerusalem, Riyadh and Tel Aviv are currently engaged though not yet married, as terms have yet to be finalized. The three baskets are well known: - Palestinian peace progress, - an American defense umbrella and - nuclear infrastructure potentially leading…
Gaza escalation: What does Hamas want? - Jerusalem Studio 799
Over the 16-year period since the militant Islamic organization Hamas evicted the Palestinian Authority from the Gaza Strip - bringing about a series of clashes with the Israel Defense Forces - very little happened between these two adversaries without Hamas actually causing it. On the very rare occasions where Hamas was not involved, they decided…
Israel-European relations amid global shifts - Jerusalem Studio 798
After its greatest ally - the United States - Israel has traditionally sought to have a healthy relationship with Europe, or at least its Western and Central parts, and the overarching idea of the European Union. Over the past few decades, the Embassy to the EU Headquarters In Brussels has been considered one of the…
Iran’s ballistic missile proliferation amid expiring UN restrictions - Jerusalem Studio 797
When the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) was established in the late 1980’s, it was intended as a self-restraining political mechanism agreed to by Western states in order to avoid any competition in the sale of strategic systems to the Iran’s and Iraq’s of this world. Russia also joined MTCR at a later stage, but…
Prospects of Israel-Saudi normalization - Jerusalem Studio 796
On the most basic level, the much talked-about normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel is already here. It is being considered publicly as a natural extension of Middle East realities. Rather than generating a violent Muslim, Arab or Palestinian reaction against Riyadh – as would have been feared several years ago – it is now…
The Abraham Accords: Three Years Anniversary - Jerusalem Studio 795
Three years have passed since the signing of the American-brokered agreements between Israel and several Gulf and North African governments. The invocation of the name of that ancient and original Patriarch, Abraham, could have in fact been applied to all of the earlier Arab-Israeli accords, and here this title was an effective example of copywriting.…
Iran’s nuclear progress; Saudi Aspirations for a Nuclear Program - Jerusalem Studio 794
Under the Shah Reza Pahlavi, Iran was the first Persian - or Arabian - Gulf nation to aspire towards nuclear weapons. Whether wanted for power or prestige, Iranian ambition launched a race which was joined by Iraq under Saddam Hussein. However, Iraq dropped out of the race 20 years ago, but the Islamic Republic has…
Hezbollah-Hamas-PIJ preparing for a multi-sector war vs Israel - Jerusalem Studio 793
As early as 1964, the Arab enemies of Israel started banding together in order to gang up on the Jewish State. While each nation had their own interest and design, they nevertheless vowed to unite against a common target. Now, some six decades later, this united anti-Israel front has transformed into an Iranian-directed axis. In…
Israel-Gaza Tensions on the Rise; Prospects of Escalation - Jerusalem Studio 792
There was a time when Israel had four so-called “confrontation states” with whom it had intermittent clashes, from firefights to battles to full-scale wars. Now that Egypt and Jordan are at relative peace, this leaves only Syria and Lebanon out of the original quartet. However, a fifth, or currently third, has emerged: namely Gaza. Under…
US Bolsters Military Mideast Deployment amid Rising Tensions - Jerusalem Studio 791
Last month the navy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard conducted a military exercise around the coastline of Abu Musa, one of three disputed islands strategically situated in the Straits of Hormuz. Iran unilaterally took possession of these islands some fifty years ago, however, the United Arab Emirates has made the same claim. In order to reassure…
What Lies Ahead For Saudi Arabia? - Jerusalem Studio 790
Ever since the reign of the first king of Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud has been led by cautious, conservative and quite elderly Monarchs. They knew that their kingdom was weak and prone to attacks by powerful, oil-thirsty neighbors, and so walked a fine line when it came to domestic policy, taking into account…
Military deployments in Syria; Assessing the battlefield - Jerusalem Studio 789
Syria was once a proud sovereign country, hostile to the designs of stronger Arab nations such as Iraq and Egypt to gain control over it by inserting their military into its territory as part of alliances. But faced with a fight for survival, Bashar Assad invited Iranian troops, Hezbollah and other proxies and eventually the…
Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles; OPCW voices deep concerns - Jerusalem Studio 788
For the last 10 years Syria has been a Member-State of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and has undertaken obligations to get rid of all facilities and stockpiles of these horrendous means of destruction. The OPCW has a cumbersome mechanism of inquiries, fact-finding, investigations and reports. So while it was obvious to…
Rising U.S.-Russia Tensions in Syria; Regional Implications - Jerusalem Studio 787
Tensions are seemingly on the increase between Russia and the US, with repeated incidents raising the prospects of miscalculation which could escalate tensions even further. Tensions such as those related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as recent provocative actions over the Black Sea, form the backdrop of our discussion focusing on whether Moscow…
Is a Nuclear Armed Iran Inevitable? August ‘23 Status Report - Jerusalem Studio 786
The Non-Proliferation Treaty, signed in 1970, is reviewed every five years. There are talks ahead of this scheduled event called PrepCom (short for preparatory committee) in which the member states of this club take part. In this month’s Prepcom, the United States highlighted their concerns regarding Russia, China and North Korea. Regarding Tehran, it made…
U.S.-Iran tensions: prospects of escalation - Jerusalem Studio 785
American policy in the Arabian Gulf is seemingly being conducted on two separate levels. Militarily, U.S. Air, Naval and Marine assets have deployed to the region with great fanfare, to defend shipping harassed by Iran and deter further aggression. Politically, there are persistent reports of a deal being negotiated between Washington and Tehran to contain…
Israel-Lebanon: security situation assessment - Jerusalem Studio 784
Lebanon has everything nature has bestowed on it - mountains, snow tops, forests, beaches - and almost nothing designed by humans. No functioning government, no healthy economy, no cohesive society. Regrettably, it does have something to show for its troubles: Hezbollah, which lately has once again been provoking Israel, threatening renewed escalation, with whoever is…
Russia-U.S. tensions in the Medeast theater; threat of escalation - Jerusalem Studio
With the U.S. reducing its military presence in the Levant to a fraction compared to the massive footprint it had in the region during the campaigns in Iraq and against Daesh, and with Russia preoccupied with its failed war in Ukraine, it would seem unlikely that tensions between the two powers would rise here, away…
Israel’s state of strategic security affairs - Jerusalem Studio
When Israelis ponder their security challenges, they are usually torn between the frequent phenomena of terror attacks by Palestinian perpetrators and the longer-range threats from Iran and its local proxies in Lebanon and Gaza. It is also obvious that these separate challenges can converge once a minor incident escalates into a major campaign on several…
Russia's Internal Strife; Implications for the Mideast – Jerusalem Studio
When Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner militia crossed its “Rubicon” the Rostov-on-Don, all decision-makers and strategic planners in the Middle East braced for a face-off between the mercenaries’ employer and Russian President Vladimir Putin. While the crisis abated as quickly as it began, the root causes remain - as are lessons begging to be learned by Israel…
Israel's Contribution to Europe's Security – Jerusalem Studio 783
Until Russia invaded Ukraine 16 months ago, Europe was quite complacent regarding military threats to its nations, with particular focus on terror in its various manifestations at home and abroad. Sudden tank battles, air strikes and waging of fierce missiles and infantry fights in urban centers and rural terrain have now given rise to the…
Viability of US-Iran “Understandings” to avert Nuclear Breakout - Jerusalem Studio 782
Eight years after six world powers struck the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to temporarily block Iran’s nuclear program in return for the removal of heavy economic sanctions, the United States and the Islamic Republic appear to be on the verge of adopting yet another arrangement aimed at resolving the same dispute. Neither time…
Israel’s preparedness for a Multi-Sector War – Jerusalem Studio 781
The State of Israel was almost extinguished at birth when invaded by all neighboring Arab countries, with only its Western boundary of the Mediterranean Sea free from threat. Even though it was soon established as a strong local power, Israel still feared division of precious assets by battle on several fronts – a dangerous and…
Infrastructure Sabotage - Could The Mideast Copy Europe? Jerusalem Studio 780
Earlier this month, a huge dam on the Dnipro River, in the Kherson region occupied by Russian forces in South-Eastern Ukraine, was blown up, flooding vast areas. Each side in the war predictably blamed the other, but the weight of motive and opportunity pointed to Russia, as it was in the process of hampering the…
US-Saudi relations amid China’s growing Mideast influence– Jerusalem Studio 779
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Saudi Arabia last week for three declared reasons: to make sure the anti-Islamic State coalition maintains its important function, confer with the Gulf Cooperation Council and to improve bilateral ties between Washington and Riyadh. Immediately prior to the summit, the top White House diplomat delivered an address to…
Iran’s nuclear progress, do political considerations threaten IAEA scrutiny? Jerusalem Studio 778
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) leaders, if not necessarily its member states, have in recent weeks adopted a conciliatory tone in public approach toward Iran. IAEA Director General Dr. Rafael Grossi has been going out of his way to accept Iran’s explanations of suspicious military nuclear activities as “plausible.” There is a questionable gap between…
Erdogan Re-elected: Domestic and Foreign implications For Turkey - Jerusalem Studio 777
Recep Tayyep Erdogan’s second round presidential election victory was neither a surprise nor a landslide. He was widely expected to win, yet almost half of the Turkish electorate showed its displeasure by voting for the opposition. Erdogan now has a renewed popular mandate, but he must navigate carefully the stormy seas of inflation and international…
Syria Back in The Arab Fold - Jerusalem Studio 776
In the Middle East, as presumably almost anywhere else, nothing succeeds like success. Also, values have a very limited value. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad managed to survive very difficult years of civil war, in which he practically converted a lot of his nominal sovereignty to a free hand for his sponsors from Russia, Iran and…
Israel’s Aerial Superiority - Jerusalem Studio 775
When combatants either cannot or would not use their ground maneuver forces in a military campaign - and artillery is forbidden if the mission against enemy targets isn’t possible if not pinpointed and the risk of collateral damage is too high - there is only one option for use by IDF General Staff, the Israeli…
