Jewish Book Month Speaker: Author Ilan Evyatar on "Israel at War: Fighting the Iranian Axis" Sunday, November 5, 2023
Matt Liebman, Adult Education Chairperson
On Sunday morning November 5, the Adult Education committee was thrilled to host Ilan Evyatar, co-author, with Yonah Jeremy Bob, of the recently published book titled: Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination and Secret Diplomacy to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East. It is a history of Israel's attempts to thwart Iran's nuclear weapons program, and how it leveraged mutual fear of Iran to forge alliances with Gulf Arab states. If you haven’t had a chance to read this book – it just got published in September -- you can order it from Silver Unicorn in Acton, or at other booksellers.
Over thirty people went on Zoom to listen to llan Evyatar, who was calling in from Jerusalem. He is the former editor-in-chief of the award-winning magazine The Jerusalem Report, and a former News Director, columnist, and senior contributor at The Jerusalem Post. He has edited and translated several books and has worked as a speechwriter and ghostwriter. Born in Israel and raised in London, England, he has interviewed a wide variety of top intelligence officials, as well as leading political, business, and cultural personalities. Ilan’s presentation was titled: Israel at War: Fighting the Iranian Axis.
Ilan spoke for about 40 minutes, and then there was ample time for questions and discussion. You can watch a video of the session below. Here are a few highlights from his presentation.
First, he reviewed what happened on October 7. There were about 3,000 terrorists who invaded sovereign Israeli territory around the Gaza Border. Everyone in Israel knows or is connected to someone who was killed, or taken hostage, or impacted by the massacre.
Israel is being attacked by seven entities and countries, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Houthis in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. What they have in common is they are trained financed and armed by Iran and they call themselves the “Axis of Resistance”.
As viewed by Ilan, Iran has a long view; Iran’s goals are measured in decades and centuries. They want Israeli society to implode. There has already been an
evacuation of 120,000 people from the Gaza and Lebanese border. In that sense, Iran is winning.
Why was Iran involved in the October 7 attacks and why was that date chosen? Ilan believes that two major factors are they are against the Saudi-Israel deal, and they perceived that Israel was weak due to engagement of the Netanyahu government in pursuing Judicial Reform, which resulted in months of protests against the government.
Iran has a history of a visceral hatred of Israel and Western society. Its covert operations continue to push for unrest. Now Iran has stepped up its nuclear enrichment program, and they may be 6 months to 1 year away from weaponizing nuclear weapons.
Would Iran enter the war directly? Ilan feels that it doesn’t make sense for Iran to enter. If Hezbollah joins the war, however, it is a different ballgame. But Israel has over 500,000 soldiers waiting and ready.
There was a discussion about the moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel. Israel tries to minimize civilian casualties while Hamas intentionally targets civilians. Although brutal and distressing, and causing a humanitarian crisis, Ilan believes that the bombing of cities in Gaza is not unlike other bombing, e.g. US in Afghanistan.
The mood in Israel is one of mourning and sadness. But, Israelis are angry at the government. They are angry that the IDF didn’t protect them, and there was clearly a major failure of intelligence. Over 70 percent of the population does not approve of Netanyahu. Still, there is tremendous cohesion, and an attitude of do what it takes to get the hostages back. That seems to be the priority of the general population. Is he hopeful? Yes.