What Was Accomplished by the War with Iran Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is an edited version version of a transcript created using AI technology and may not reflect 100% accuracy.

The video can be found here.

Sarah: Okay. Good afternoon on the East Coast, and good evening in Jerusalem and Israel. We’re living in the midst of really historic times. Over the 12 days of the war with the Islamic Republic of Iran, there’s been a seismic shift in the Middle East, thanks in great part to the success of the IDF and the Israeli Air Force and the help of the United States in terms of its massive ordinance penetrators.

The Prime Minister is now here in Washington, after his third meeting with President Trump since he assumed office six months ago. No other foreign leader has ever met with the president so many times. Riding on the hills of the brilliant success of the Iranian operation, both President Trump and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu have been on nothing less of a victory tour. Nothing seems to succeed like success. This is a high-stakes diplomacy that we’re involved in now. Has Israel become perhaps the strongest power broker in the Middle East? There’s an opportunity now for Israel to potentially influence regional dynamics and perhaps possibly reach a period of peace, or at least a temporary hudna with some of its neighbors.

Here to discuss this is our brilliant friend, Brigadier General Amir Avivi. Amir Avivi is no stranger to us here at EMET. He’s the founder and chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, or Habithonistim. During his service, Amir held a series of very senior roles for the IDF, including Deputy Controller of the Security Forces, director of the offices of the Chief of Staff, Deputy Commander of the Gaza Division, Commander of the Sagi Division, Commander of Battalion 605, and Commander of the School of Combat Engineering. All extremely, extremely important.

First of all, Amir, please let us know what you think of the cost-benefit analysis of Israeli Operation Rising Lion and the American Operation Midnight Hammer on the Islamic Republic of Iran. What can be done to ensure that the Islamic Republic does not return to making nuclear weapons once again, or ballistic missiles, or rebuilding its terror proxy network?

Brigadier General Amir Avivi: Hi, Sarah, it’s a pleasure once again being in a webinar of EMET. You are doing a very important work. It’s a pleasure. I must say that I participated in a meeting with the Deputy Chief of Staff of the IDF and some of the leading commanders of the Army, discussing really the success of the attack in Iran. There is a lot of discussions about Fordow or Natanz, or specific sites. But what the Army is saying, they’re saying that when you sum all the different kinds of attacks that the IDF carried out with the US, which include, among other things, the complete destruction of the archive of the Iranians. All the knowledge was in one place, and it was destroyed. The fact that at the beginning, all the leading scientists that were working on weaponizing the nuclear warheads, trying to develop their war itself, all these scientists were killed in the first attack, and one or two also afterwards.

There are multiple industries that were supporting this effort to create a nuclear Iran, and these industries were destroyed. Then you have this decisive attack on the main sites on Iraq, on Natanz, on Fordow, first by the IDF, and later on by the B2s and the big attack that the US conducted. Iran has been set back many, many years. But I think that the big issue is not just technically how many years they were set back. It’s about the fact that Iran really, really deterred the Western world. There was a feeling that this is a very strong country, regional power that is a threat and needs to be taken very seriously, and countries were deterred. Even the US was, to some extent, deterred from Iran.

This deterrence is gone, and now everybody feels emboldened. Now, the West, when you talk to Western countries in Europe, suddenly they feel strong enough to be tough and say, “Yes, we’ll impose sanctions.” Some of them even talked about joining the attack and so on. This is the big change, the big change that today the West is much, much less deterred from Iran and much more willing to deal seriously with creating the reality that will never let Iran become nuclear. So, this is a very, very big change.

I think that in the discussion that we’re having now between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump, the discussions are really about building the strategy that will ensure that Iran will never be nuclear again. This strategy is built on three main pillars. One, harsh sanctions, telling the Iranians crystal clear, “If you try to move again towards the production of nuclear weapons or produce ballistic missiles or equip militias, we’ll impose harsh sanctions on you.” And this is very important. I think that the chances that these sanctions will be ongoing, and even not only in this administration, but also future ones, knowing that Iran is weak and we can deal with it, the chances have grown.

The other thing is that as the chief of staff of Israel said, we finished a very meaningful chapter, very successful chapter, but it’s a chapter in an ongoing campaign. Israel is already preparing for the next war with Iran, for the next attack. Underground operations, Mossad, all of this continues all the time, cyber Mossad, all the different ways that we dealt with Iran for years. But there is an understanding, I think, between the US and Israel, that if they will try to rebuild these capabilities, they will be met with an attack, whether it’s American, Israeli, or combined. Today that we dominate the skies and we know that they were capable of doing it, definitely there is a lot of resolution to make sure that if it’s needed to be done, we’ll do it.

Sarah: So, how do you think this has affected places like North Korea, China, and Russia in terms of not only Israel’s standing in the region, but America’s standing in the world?

General Amir: So, I said it before the attack, before the American attack, that it’s crucial that America also participates in attacks. It’s not because of Israel, and it’s not because of Iran. It’s about global deterrence. It’s about global leadership. It’s about sending a message that the US is not afraid of using power, and it also stands with its allies. These are very important messages that will resonate talking about China or Russia, and might deter the Chinese from invading Taiwan or the Russians from further aggression in Europe. Because when the US was saying, “If we’re not attacked, we won’t be involved,” as we saw with the Houthis, for example. Well, if I’m Chinese and this is the message, I’ll say, “You know what? No problem, we won’t attack the US. We’ll just invade Taiwan. What’s the problem? So, don’t intervene. We’re just attacking Taiwan. We’re not attacking Americans.” This is not a good message if you want to stabilize the globe and prevent big wars.

I think that this decision was crucial, not just to destroy Iranian capabilities, because Israel could have dealt also with Fordow, and we could have done the job. Maybe would’ve been taking us more time, maybe it would’ve been a bit more complicated. But Israel had the plans to deal with everything that Iran has. We could have managed by ourselves. It wasn’t about that. It was really about American leadership and sending a message globally, and that America is strong and stands with its allies and is willing to use power.

Sarah: So, how do you feel if there’s a change of hands as there so often is in administrations and a change of policy? Do you think the results of this war will linger and America prestige will linger? Or do you think they might go back to appeasement as Obama and Biden did with Iran?

General Amir: I think now the reality is completely different. It’s not similar to what it was before. Again, it’s not just about building the right policy on how to enforce this reality that was created. Now, it’s also moving to the next step. This is building, say, Western-Israeli-moderate-Sunni alliance coalition that will stand strong against Iran and also against this Chinese, Russian, Iranian, France that has emerged in the last few years. So, I think that the motivation of Saudi Arabia and other countries to join the strongest part, to join this force, the American-Israeli moderate-Sunni force, and building alliance, there is a much bigger motivation now to do that. I think that the president is trying to really break this front that has emerged with the Chinese, Russian, Iranian front. But the Iranians have been weakened dramatically. The US is trying to push Russia towards the West. It’s not going easily, but we’re still trying. And doing this normalization and building a coalition, it’s very, very important in order to stabilize the Middle East and also deter Iran from further aggression and building all these capabilities.

Sarah: So, President Trump on meeting with the Prime Minister at the White House, said that there’s “good cooperation from Israel’s neighbors to take in the Palestinians from Gaza”. Are you aware of anything about this? Are there countries that will be willing to accept the Gazans?

General Amir: So, first, I must say that once we finish this 12-day war with Iran, the whole center of gravity of Israel moved to Gaza. The goals of four are crystal clear. They haven’t changed from the 7th of October, to eradicate Hamas as a governmental and military entity, to bring back all our hostages, and to create a reality that never again, there will be a terror army in the Gaza Strip. Now, there have been, in the last week or two, a lot of disinformation, especially in Israeli media, portraying a reality as if, “Okay, we want to finish the war. Let’s end the war. Let’s stop.” Really, disregarding the fact that Israel cannot live with the reality that Hamas stays in Gaza and rebuild itself.

So, yes, we are in a tension all the time between the need to bring back all the hostages, and on the other hand, the need to destroy Hamas and create a different reality. We’re trying to balance all the time between these two goals. But it’s crystal clear for the government and the army, we need to achieve all goals of four. I think that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu are very, very serious about pushing a relocation of Gazans and working hard to find countries that will be willing to receive them. It’s taken very, very seriously. The cabinet passed a decision to move all the Gazans to Rafah. It might happen probably after a ceasefire, if there will be a ceasefire. If not, maybe before. But the idea is to completely detach the Gazans from Hamas, move them to Rafah, to an area controlled by the IDF, and there build humanitarian bubbles or islands in a way that Hamas will be completely detached from the Gazan society.

It’s not that the Gazans don’t have the same ideology, but I’m talking about militants. I’m talking about separating people who are fighting with weapons and terrorists that are fighting, to those who say, “Okay, we just want to be in a tent and get the humanitarian aid.” And then in all other areas in Gaza, to put a siege on these areas and really destroy Hamas’ capability to fight, and of course, also maneuver and destroy their forces. Once everybody’s in Rafah, really, really focused on relocation, on relocating people who want to be relocated, and many of them want to be relocated. So the people who look at this issue cynically, “Ah it’s not serious,” but that is serious, and I think there is a really serious intent to try and make it happen.

Sarah: So, President Trump said he thought a ceasefire deal with Hamas could get done this week, yet it looks like the talks between Israel and Hamas have once again fallen apart over the issue of food distribution. Do you think is it an obvious fact that he controls the food, controls the destiny, controls the population? Is this the major sticking point, or does Hamas just want to maintain control of Gaza?

General Amir: No. The only reason why Hamas is still functioning is the fact that they were getting the food all the time and then selling it to their own people, making a lot of money, controlling the population through the food. I mean, Hamas have no economy. They have nothing. They’re just relying on the humanitarian aid in order to make money and to control the people. So, of course, we need to separate them from the humanitarian aid. There is no way to do it really efficiently without separating the Gazans from Hamas. This is why it’s so important to mobilize them to an area controlled by the IDF. The IDF is almost controlling 75% of Gaza.

Now, it seems to me like people don’t understand what it means that the IDF is controlling 75% of Gaza. When I want to try and explain to people what it means, say to them, imagine that 75% of Israel would’ve been conquered, okay? Unimaginable, right? Devastating. That’s the situation in Gaza. Almost 75% is conquered by the IDF, and the IDF is systematically destroying all the tunnels and the booby traps in the houses and all the infrastructure. So, there is huge devastation, which is all Hamas’s fault. I mean, they booby trapped the houses, they built all these tunnels. They’re putting all these IEDs.

The IDF obviously has no choice but to really destroy completely all this infrastructure. But of course, this creates an area that is completely leveled down, and nobody will be able to live there. So, as the IDF proceeds more and more into the heart of what’s left of Gaza, this brings us closer towards a decisive win. Hamas is still operating, still fighting, but if we do the right thing with the humanitarian aid and really move the Gazans to Rafah, this will be a game changer.

Sarah: Okay. So, Haaretz came out with a really biased piece on June 27th, entitled “It’s a Killing Field”, accusing Israel of deliberately firing upon Gazans as they were lining up for food at the humanitarian foundation food distribution sites. And it’s gotten very widespread international attention, and might well be the subject of a UN investigation. Can you comment on this and how the army is looking into this, and whether or not there’s any accuracy?

General Amir: Both the Army and the government said crystal clear, this is completely false. It’s a lie. It’s a terrible thing to say. These distribution areas that we created with American companies, this is an intermediate solution, which is built on the notion that Gazans will move from the humanitarian zone that, by the way, is controlled by Hamas, to areas controlled by Israel. They’ll get food and go back. Now, when they go to get the food, because Hamas knows they cannot seize the food, they shoot them. They shoot them. So, this is the reality. There were occasions where people try to run towards a position of Israeli soldiers, and they shot in the air. Or if somebody really endangered them, so they shot, pinpointed shooting in somebody who endangers them. But this is very rare occasion. This is not what’s going on. What’s going on is that Hamas is shooting the people to try to prevent them from going and getting the aid in this way because they want to seize the aid for themselves.

Sarah: So, we’ve been hearing a lot of rumors that a lot of other nations or parties, including the UAE, the Saudis, Egypt, even the Palestinian Authority, can take control of the Gaza Strip. What are your thoughts about this?

General Amir: Well, I think that, first, if you are talking about relocation, why would you need somebody else to take control? But I think that the overriding security responsibility will always be Israeli. This is something the government has been saying all the time. If you want to reach the goal that says, “Never again, there will be a terror army in Gaza,” Israel must have full freedom of operation. It must control Rafah-Philadelphi to prevent smuggling and build up of capabilities.

I mean, civically, if you want to help countries to, I don’t know, to deal with the humanitarian issues after the war with Gazans, that will stay in Gaza, that’s reasonable. But looking at the security side, I think that Israel will be responsible. I don’t see any country willing to take any responsibility for dealing with terrorists or doing arrest or preventing people from creating mortars or whatever.

Sarah: So, what’s your feeling about Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani? Right now, there’s a lot of talk of peace negotiations with Syria. I’ve been reading that he wants about a third of the Golan Heights. Is that a non-starter?

General Amir: I’m not saying it’s a non-starter, but I think I’ve said it long ago, that when we start talking about building this alliance, this Western Israeli-Sunni alliance, this will magnetize other countries. I mean, we have to understand what’s going on. The Shia axis is falling. It’s falling. It fell in Syria. We see the Lebanese talking seriously about dismantling Hezbollah and taking their weapons. We see their militias in Iraq that are much weaker. Hamas is on the verge of destruction. So, there is a big change. Countries like Lebanon, like Syria, possibly Iraq, they need to consider their alliances. When you see an alliance that is strong, and also with huge economical capabilities and the ability to relieve sanctions and all of that, their interests, if Syria wants to rebuild itself, they need to join some kind of alliance.

This might motivate this Syrian regime to cooperate. Not because they like Israel, not because they changed their ideology, because they need money, they need to stabilize things, because Syria is not stabilized. And Julani is not really controlling all parts of Syria. You have areas controlled by the Alawis, and you have areas controlled by the Druze and the Kurds, and so on. He might find himself in a civil war again. The situation there is very bad. So, I think they’re taking all of this in consideration.

Israel must make sure that any agreement ensures the security of Israel. We cannot rely on anybody but ourselves, and we need to hold the position that defends Israel. We need to make sure that from Damascus all the way to the Israeli border, there is no militia and all forces that can enforce this, just as we are enforcing the ceasefire in Lebanon. On a daily basis, we are attacking every day in Lebanon. Every day, we are killing terrorists and destroying capabilities. And Hezbollah is paralyzed. They don’t do anything. They’re afraid that if they do something, we’ll attack them fiercely and kill all the leadership again.

So I think that we have to look carefully at what’s going on in Syria. And I think that one of the important things that Netanyahu did when he was now in the US is really going to details, because this is about details. We have to be very coordinated with the US when it comes to these issues, whether it’s Gaza, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and so on.

Sarah: Great. So within Iran, can all of this strategic deterrence lead to de-radicalization without real regime change?

General Amir: Well, it’s obvious that Iran needs a regime change. But I think in the war itself, in this 12-day war, Israel set two main goals, to destroy their nuclear capabilities and their ballistic missile production capability. We didn’t put a goal that says bring down the regime, because bringing down the regime is something the Iranians themselves need to do. You need to have somebody or groups that step forward and do something about it.

Israel weakened the regime and exposed them for being weak. But it’s up to the Iranian people to really do something about it. We cannot replace them. And by the way, even the opposition in Iran, they really don’t like outside forces to intervene. Part of their patriotism is, “Don’t intervene in our affairs. It’s our business.” So Israel cannot really intervene. But the Iranian regime needs to know that if they go back and try again to weaponize militias and build their ballistic capabilities and so on, Israel will attack and their regime will be endangered.

Sarah: The regime has been arresting people and claiming that they’re members of the Mossad, going into secular communities, and they’ve been hanging people lately. It’s really a brutal, disgusting regime. What’s the possibility of China or North Korea, or even Russia, although I doubt that because they’re a little preoccupied, supplying top range air defense equipment to Iran, or even the Pakistanis and having them repelled?

General Amir: It’s something that needs to be seen, talking about how the US will intervene, and try to pressure countries not to sell them capabilities. But we’re taking in account that the Iranians will try to rebuild their capabilities. And Israel will follow it closely to make sure that it doesn’t endanger our freedom of operation in Iran. This is followed very closely by Israel, any attempt to rebuild their capabilities.

By the way, long before the war, at the time we attacked Iran and destroyed some of their air defense, really strategic air defense capabilities, they moved all their air defense west of Tehran and in Tehran. They changed completely the deployment of their air defense, which made it a huge challenge for the IDF. The IDF did a huge effort to really map all this air defense. And not long before the attack, they really managed to map everything. And then launched the attack with huge danger.

People look at it now and say, “Ah, they were so weak.” No, it wasn’t so easy as it seemed. It was a very, very, very dangerous attack. We might have seen airplanes falling. Our pilots went and they were not sure they’ll come back. But it turned out to be very, very successful. And in two days, the IDF destroyed 84 air defense batteries out of 110 that they had overall. And then the Iranian industries, which are very serious industries, as the war went on, they produced 30 batteries more. From these 30 batteries, the IDF destroyed 29.

So we really dominated completely Iranian skies, opened the corridor to Tehran. And this was really a huge success and created an element of awe and shock, especially in the first attack that all the leadership of the Iranian army and air force and so on were taken out, and generals and brigadier generals and the scientists and so on. And this really disrupted their capability to react.

Iran planned to shoot 1500 missiles in the first day. In the whole 12 days, they shot 500 missiles, 270 completely missed. We didn’t even shoot back at them. And we dealt with 230, 240 missiles. Out of these missiles, 30 hit. And these hits also were not very accurate. Some of them were devastating and 28 people died. But they sent a thousand drones. From a thousand drones, two drones managed to hit with no casualties. Out of a thousand. And at the same time, Israel attacked accurately thousands of attacks, which were devastating for them. And so this is why it was so decisive and successful.

Sarah: An absolutely brilliant, decisive success. Amazing. In 12 days. Can you address the… I read the article by Elliot Kaufman in the Wall Street Journal about the Hebron sheikh that would like to be part of the Abraham Accords and the people in Judea and Samaria that might be a part of the Abraham Accords.

General Amir: Yes. So, when Rabin was elected and they started the process of trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the discussions that were held in the US, the formal discussions were done with the clans, with the local leadership of the Arabs who live in Judea and Samaria and Gaza. And as these formal discussions were going on, Peres, with a team, started to do a side discussion in Oslo with the PLO, with Arafat.

Now, Arafat, at the time, was completely outlawed by the US and Israel. He was very, very weak because he supported Iraq against the American-Arab coalition, so everybody disregarded him. And he thought that he can really manage to become relevant again if he fools the Israelis and says he’s going to do a peace agreement. And for some reason, this back door of Oslo suddenly became the leading solution instead of the local clans.

It was a terrible decision to make. We brought a Trojan horse that came to destroy us and since then, our reality deteriorated in ways that are unimaginable, really terrible. Everything that’s happening to us is due to Oslo. And as devastating as things are for us, these last 30 years were pretty devastating also for the Arabs. I mean, look at Gaza, look at what’s going on there, look at the reality in Judea and Samaria. And so many, many Arabs are fed up with the Palestinian Authority. They are corrupt. They pay terrorists, they incite. They offer no future. They just sustain the fight.

Today, the Palestinians are really fed up with the Palestinian Authority. So you hear more and more voices of local leaders, local clans that say, “That’s it, we’re fed up. We want a different solution. We want economy. We want jobs.” And now much more because in this war, we stopped completely the ability of Palestinians to work in Israel. They are not coming to work, so now they really, really don’t have jobs. They were very reliant on Israeli economy. And they understand that this is going nowhere.

So there are clans today, especially in Hebron area, who want to detach from the Palestinian Authority. They want a solution. And we in IDSF have been accompanying this process for the last four years. And I can say that at the beginning, it was one clan, maybe 40,000 people. And in the last eight months, it became almost 10 clans, 400,000 people, who gave the Prime Minister of Israel a formal letter saying, “We want to be an emirate. We want to join the Abraham Accords. We want to detach.”

Now, this connects also to Gaza because when the war started, Israel said crystal clear, the day after Hamas, there will be no Hamas, no Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and also not the Palestinian Authority. So it’s the first time Israel formally says Palestinian Authority are not an option at all. Now, if you are not willing to have them in Gaza because they are corrupt, they’re incite, they pay terrorists, they’re terrible, the next question would be, okay, but if this is the reality in Gaza, why would you be willing to have them in Judea and Samaria? It doesn’t make sense. It’s either they’re terrible, they’re good, and if they’re terrible, they’re terrible. And they are terrible.

So looking at Gaza, it’s obvious that a part of relocation, the only solution in Gaza is local clans. It’s cantonizing Gaza and creating some kind of self-governance based on clans. This is exactly what’s happening in Rafah. We have a clan managing Rafah. This is what’s happening now in Shuja’iyya. We have a clan that manages parts of that Shuja’iyya. So this is happening as we speak. Obviously if this is happening in Gaza, this is also empowering the clans in other cities in Judea and Samaria who understand that this is where it’s going.

Now, I think that because the government knows that the Palestinian Authority are terrible, they are against two-state solution the way it’s perceived for many years. When they come to the administration and say, “We need sovereignty, we need to apply sovereignty in area C and so on,” obviously the administration will say, “Okay, but what’s the vision? Where is this going? What’s the solution?” Now Israel, and especially the right in Israel, excel at saying what not to do, not two-state solution. “Okay, so what do you want to do? What’s the solution?”

And I think that cantonizing both Gaza and the cities in Judea and Samaria, creating some kind of city-states, local management of clans, this is a very good solution, which will bring security, which will bring sovereignty. It doesn’t go against applying sovereignty in area C and it does keep the idea of self-governance just as Prime Minister Netanyahu mentioned in the last two days in Washington.

And I think that the big news is that for the first time, Israel has a clear sense, what’s the solution? What do they want? And this is very, very important. Long before it’s implemented and we can start going to details, are the clans ready or not and so on, it really doesn’t matter at this stage. What matters is we have a vision, we know what’s the solution, we know where we want to be. And we know that this doesn’t go against our ability to apply sovereignty especially in area C.

Sarah: So there are powers of control, pockets of control right now within Gaza of Hamas and of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. How do you envision this happening? Will there be an insurrection of the clans[?]? Are people disgusted enough to try to revolt against these powers?

General Amir: Look, people now in Gaza are dealing mostly with everyday survival. They want to eat, they want to drink. So I think that’s really creating this humanitarian zone in Rafah and detaching them from all this governance of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This is the first step in really destroying Hamas as a governmental entity and then as a terror organization. And these pockets, they still control. We have to go in and destroy them. It’s physics. We have to conquer the area and destroy them.

Sarah: Okay. We have a lot of members of Congress that still believe in the two-state solution. I’m sure that President Trump does not. I’m sure, I have never heard him mention a Palestinian state. However, what do you feel is the most convincing argument to let them understand how this would impose a danger and a threat not only to Israel but to the national security interests of the United States?

General Amir: I think that there’s a difference between talking about the two-state solution and talking about self-governance. It’s two different things. Israel is not against the Palestinians having some kind of self-governance, but we’re not willing to have an end[?]. First of all, we are not willing to withdraw. If Israel withdraws from the Jordan Valley and the mountains of Judea and Samaria, this is basically saying to Israel, “Die.” Israel cannot exist on a shore, a nine miles shore beneath the Judea and Samaria. We cannot exist. It’s like saying let’s put the Jews in a ghetto and get rid of them.

So if we understand that Israel cannot exist without the Jordan Valley, without massive presence of Jews on the mountains of Judea and Samaria, and we need this to exist for our existence, to be viable as a state, then according to these parameters, we can discuss what might work, what kind of self-governance might work. The Prime Minister addressed this in this meeting talking about the overriding security over all the land of Israel, being responsible of the borders, being responsible of the air space and magnetic spectrum, and so on.

So we’re not against self-governance, but there cannot be a state with the ability to weaponize. We saw that in Gaza and how it worked. And this Gaza is nothing. It’s a shallow place, very small, near the sea. This is not the mountains of Judea and Samaria. And see how complicated it is, the reality in Gaza. So imagine what they could have built on the mountains of Judea and Samaria. Even 20 IDF wouldn’t have been able to deal with this.

Sarah: So in general, how do you think Israel is being perceived in the Muslim and Arab world today, and how has that changed since October 7th?

General Amir: I think that we have moved from a reality that Arab countries and even around the world, they thought that Israel might be destroyed. And I think that the burst of anti-Semitism and riots we saw immediately after the 7th of October and long before Israel really attacked in Gaza. It’s not because Israel was attacking. No, it’s because they felt the Jews are done, and now they can attack. It wasn’t about the fighting in Gaza. It was about the weakness of Israel. And Israel is emerging from this war, not as a regional power, as a global power.

And look, the ability of Israel, and this is something I’m telling you as a general, it amazed me to operate more than a thousand miles from Israel in a way that is no different from how we operate in Gaza or in South Lebanon. Dominating the Iranian skies, use drones that are flying and attacking cars and ballistic missiles, as if we are operating in Lebanon or Syria or Gaza. And this is more than a thousand miles.

Look, Russia is 100 kilometers from Kyiv, from Ukraine, and three and a half years, they haven’t managed to dominate the skies of Ukraine. And we attack a country the size of Iran, a very sophisticated country, very serious. A lot of our defense and all their defense is Russian, by the way. And in two days, we completely dominate. We can do whatever we want, where we want, when we want, and more than a thousand miles from Israel.

This is in the level of global powers, not the regional powers. And I think that every single country on the globe understands that. And I can tell you that in the last year, especially in the last eight months, talking about technologies and preparations, because we have been preparing for this moment for a long time, Israel developed capabilities and technologies that are beyond imagination. They bend the laws of physics and chemistry. They give Israel an edge 50 years ahead over any country in the world. The creativity and audacity of the Israeli people, and their industries and technology is unbelievable. And I think that any country that wants to be relevant in this globe needs a very close relationship with Israel.

I think that the lesson to Europe, and this is a very important lesson, you want the US to side with you and assist you, you need to show that you’re able to defend yourself by yourself. And Europe cannot defend itself today. And if they want to be able to defend themselves, they will have to build their armies and there have to be change. And for doing these changes, they need Israel.

So I think that our international relations will deepen a lot. We’ll see it first by normalizing relations with the countries around us. I’m really hoping that we’ll also close the deal talking about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but one that secures Israel, that includes sovereignty and so on, and a reasonable solution, not one that endangers Israel. And this would be a key, this processes in this region, to really build a very strong relationship with Israel with many countries. And remember that this normalization we’re talking about will also create roots of trade and a corridor of energy, global corridor of energy that will go through Israel, from Saudi Arabia.

So there are really, really big issues that we’re going to see in the coming year. And as we are dealing with all of this in the middle of the war, before we have this prosperity and economic boom that will follow this war, already now, the Israeli currency is the strongest in the world. The economy is blooming. Our stock market is the best in the world. The best results in the world. Anybody who invested in the Israeli stocks did very well this year, more than any other stock market. Our foreign currency, the amount of foreign currency that Israel has is almost as big as the US.

Sarah: And it’s through military might, through military strength, we are going to get, I hope, a peace that will endure for generations to come. Let’s hope it’s a real [crosstalk] lasting and meaningful peace.

General Amir: Hopefully.

Sarah: Thank you so much, Brigadier General Amir Avivi. I would like to ask everybody who’s listening today to please support IDSF. It is a wonderful, wonderful organization. They’re doing amazing work, and the brilliance of these generals and other members of the military is making an impact in Israel’s policy making and decision making. It’s really wonderful. So it’s idsf.org. Please support them.

General Amir: [inaudible] Yeah. Thank you.

Sarah: All right. Thank you. And please also remember to support emetonline.org. Every single day, we’ve been on Capitol Hill, meeting with members of Congress, trying to tell the truth via EMET about Israel, and it’s an incredibly vital role in the global affairs. Thank you so much. Bye-bye now.

General Amir: Thank you very much. Bye.

Sarah: Thank you so much.

[END]