Podcasts

One year ago on October 7th at 6:29 am, the Hamas terror organization initiated a surprising, brutal, and murderous attack on Israel, committing unimaginable war crimes against innocent civilian, firing thousands of rockets indiscriminately at major towns and cities, and abducting 251 people to the Gaza Strip. On that day alone, 1,200 Israelis were murdered. To this date, the war has claimed the lives of more than 1,700 Israelis. As Israel regrouped in the aftermath of the attack, the military launched a large-scale ground maneuver in Gaza with two primary objectives: dismantling Hamas’s military and governing structures, and securing the release of the hostages.  One year and one week after the October 7th massacre, Israel eliminated the mastermind behind the heinous attack, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. This critical point in history provides a turning point for not only the war in Gaza, but the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon as well. On this week’s episode of the National Security Podcast, Senior Researcher and Director of the Israel National Security Policy research program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and former member of the Israeli Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Ofer Shelah, discusses how Israel should use these military successes to its strategic advantage.

After seven days of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the return of 114 hostages to Israeli territory, most of them Israeli women and children, Hamas violated the agreement and renewed the fire and launch of rockets toward Israel. Israel is now continuing in the next phase of its war against Hamas, attacking not only the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but also cities and neighborhoods in southern areas. In this podcast INSS researcher Adi Kantor sits down with Ofer Shelah, senior researcher at INSS and former member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Together they discuss the current situation in Gaza and consider: Where is Israel headed vis-à-vis its goals concerning the war? What are the scenarios and parameters for the “day after”? What are the US conditions for continuing the fighting, and do they suit the Israeli objectives? And what is known at this point regarding Israel’s biggest failure in its 75 years of independence in protecting its own citizens against the October 7 massacre?

INSS Executive Director Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg and Col. (res.) Adv. Pnina Sharvit Baruch deliberate the implications of the revocation of the reasonableness standard in judicial decisions. What is the significance of yesterday’s Knesset legislation? Is this indeed “the end of democracy”? And what does the near future look like – in the security, economic, political, social and judicial realms? What are the main challenges facing Israel? And are they joined by emerging opportunities?

INSS researcher Adi Kantor sits down with former MK and journalist Ofer Shelah, who served as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid from 2013 until 2020 and today is a senior researcher at INSS, and with INSS researcher Noa Shusterman, coordinator of the INSS Israel-Palestinian Research Program. Together they analyze the latest events in Israel in light of the judicial overhaul crisis, focusing on the main threats presented in the INSS Strategic Alert. They try to assess where Israel is headed now, in view of Netanyahu’s suspension of the proposed overhaul; what are the implications of the crisis on the security level; how it affects the IDF; how it is seen from Palestinian eyes? and how will the special relations between Israel and the US be affected by the current events. 2023, the year in which Israel marks its 75th year of independence, will also be remembered as the year in which the country’s democratic and liberal DNA was severely threatened as never before