Videos > Israel Matters #10: The Explosion in Beirut & Who is Hizbollah? Israel Matters #10: The Explosion in Beirut & Who is Hizbollah? Pesach Wolicki 205 views • 4 likes 5 years ago • 36:03 min
Transcript [00:01] hello everyone welcome back [00:03] to israel matters as always in this part [00:06] of the world it's been a busy week and [00:08] we'll get to that very soon [00:10] just before we do once again i am rabbi [00:13] pesoph wilicki and with me [00:14] is security and strategy and history and [00:17] land of israel and many other things and [00:19] coffee expert elliot jodoff how you [00:22] doing elliott hi [00:23] good how are you pessa doing very very [00:25] well i remember when i [00:26] when i came up to your home and visited [00:28] you a number of months ago and i had [00:29] some of the best coffee i'd had in a [00:30] long time [00:32] thank you mentioning that uh just before [00:35] we get to the [00:37] the stuff about about israel's neighbors [00:40] and what happened this week and [00:41] and uh go a little deeper into israel's [00:44] enemies as we've been doing [00:46] just like to share it something that i [00:48] stumbled across you know [00:49] elliot every now and then you're reading [00:51] a verse that you've read [00:52] a thousand times and [00:55] for some reason you see something you've [00:57] never seen before yes amazing isn't it [01:00] incredible so listen to this okay this [01:03] is a verse that [01:04] everyone watching this video knows it's [01:06] a very popular verse among christian [01:08] zionists and among jews of course [01:10] this is from genesis 12 when god first [01:12] speaks to abraham [01:13] and after he tells him to leave his his [01:16] uh [01:17] his his land and his birthplace and his [01:19] parents and his parents home to go to [01:21] the land [01:22] god says to him i will make you a great [01:25] nation [01:26] and i will bless you and i will make [01:28] your name [01:29] great and you will be a blessing [01:34] for you shall be a blessing it's it's [01:37] translated a few different ways [01:39] so he says four things in the verse make [01:41] you a great nation we understand what [01:42] that means you'll be a great nation [01:44] i'll bless you which blessing in the [01:46] bible means abundance [01:47] and i'll make your name great so [01:49] everyone's gonna know about you but that [01:51] fourth clause is what i noticed [01:53] you will be a blessing in the hebrew [01:57] the word those two words you will be [02:00] a blessing are the barakah [02:05] and what struck me is that the word vege [02:08] which here [02:09] translates as you will be or you shall [02:12] be [02:12] is not the normal word that would be [02:14] used here that's right [02:16] the normal word would be [02:19] and in fact later on only about five [02:22] chapters later when god is speaking to [02:23] abraham again [02:24] at the covenant of circumcision he says [02:27] something similar to him [02:29] god says to him as for me my covenant is [02:32] hereby [02:33] established with you and you will be the [02:36] father of a multitude of nations so that [02:38] you will be is the hayita and i'm not [02:41] going to go into all the [02:42] cases we'll do this very very quickly [02:46] the word for you will be is the standard [02:49] word it appears over 30 times in in the [02:51] bible [02:52] the word vege which also was translated [02:55] as [02:55] you will be or you shall be only appears [02:59] six times in the bible [03:02] and every single time except for this [03:04] one [03:05] every single time it is very clearly a [03:08] command [03:09] and an instruction so when god is saying [03:12] something about someone's future [03:15] or bestowing a blessing like what he [03:18] says to abraham you will become the [03:19] father of a multitude of nations he says [03:23] but is when god is telling someone [03:28] something to do [03:29] so for example when god says to abraham [03:32] that he must live a blameless life [03:36] he's telling him to be to be pure [03:39] when god says to moses come up to the [03:42] mountain and [03:43] be there with me [03:46] it's a commandment the hey is always a [03:49] commandment [03:50] which means that in our verse in genesis [03:53] 12 when god [03:54] says to abraham at the end of the verse [03:56] you will be a blessing [03:58] it's not you will be a blessing he's [04:01] telling him that he has a job to do [04:04] so the verse actually reads like this [04:06] i'm going to make you a great nation [04:08] i'm going to bless you you're going to [04:09] have all the tools that you need [04:11] i'm going to make your name great [04:13] everyone's going to know about you [04:14] and your job with all that i've done [04:18] is to now take that and become a [04:21] blessing he's actually [04:22] giving him an instruction or a [04:24] commandment [04:25] not just bestowing a blessing on him [04:27] that's what i wanted to share [04:29] because and that's and that's [04:30] undetectable in the english [04:32] but the hebrew vege which is a command [04:36] form is is uh it's unequivocal that's [04:40] what it means [04:40] what do you think i like it i thought [04:42] you were going to go somewhere else with [04:44] it so i'm going to give you something to [04:45] to look up for a future discussion [04:48] go ahead the hey is [04:51] an anagram of god's name that's true [04:56] that's true it is and if you at least [04:59] in the verses that you quoted if you [05:03] read it god is you also get [05:07] a good answer for it well that's very [05:08] interesting that's very interesting [05:10] although there's a couple of the gayes [05:11] that are not gods [05:13] they're just someone commanding someone [05:14] okay so maybe but again [05:16] it is interesting that grammatically [05:17] these are two different in hebrew [05:20] right a grammatical structure the [05:23] grammatical [05:24] structure of you shall be [05:28] vege and you shall be the hayita [05:31] are are have a different connotation [05:33] right so vegata is like i say [05:35] you know wow like when your wife was [05:38] pregnant we said wow you're going to be [05:39] a father again like you know that would [05:40] be [05:41] haiti correct but if i say you know [05:44] elliott i need you to be a guard over [05:46] there you will be the guard [05:49] go do it that's right [05:52] right actually in this verse in genesis [05:54] 12 and and we don't usually read it that [05:56] way [05:57] god is commanding abraham to be a [06:00] blessing [06:01] which right go do go do be a blessing [06:03] because if there's somebody a blessing [06:05] exactly so that's our command [06:07] those of us right that's of abraham we [06:09] have to be a blessing okay [06:10] i like it enough on the bible now what's [06:13] on everyone's mind [06:15] and as soon as it happened i was like oh [06:17] boy i can't wait to talk to elliot is [06:18] what on earth happened in lebanon [06:24] um beirut blow up [06:27] next subject uh a huge tragedy obviously [06:31] i mean [06:33] the those those who know me know that [06:35] that i [06:36] i joke without humor about many things [06:40] uh simply because in this business if [06:42] you don't make some jokes [06:43] completely lose your mind [06:47] um [06:51] massive explosion in bay report and uh [06:54] i've been reading [06:55] all the nonsense speculation conspiracy [06:58] theories [06:59] out there uh since so maybe maybe we can [07:03] sort of drill down to what it looks like [07:05] and i say what it looks like because [07:09] i don't know if we'll ever know for sure [07:11] but there's a very [07:12] simple reasonable explanation an occam's [07:15] razor says go with the simple reasonable [07:18] okay uh it was not a nuclear explosion [07:22] had there been a nuclear explosion there [07:24] would have been [07:25] an emp frying of electronics all around [07:28] the city that didn't happen [07:31] there's no evidence of nuclear uh [07:36] you know all probability what [07:39] is being reported as a factor was 2700 [07:44] tons long tons that's about 3 000 [07:47] american tons [07:48] english tons of ammonium nitrate [07:52] which is typically used for fertilizer [07:55] but [07:56] let's not forget that timothy mcveigh [07:58] used ammonium nitrate to blow up the [08:00] oklahoma city [08:02] federal bill um [08:05] the chemical composition of ammonium [08:08] nitrate [08:10] is a good part of the building blocks of [08:13] tnt [08:16] in other words and and it's used as a [08:20] matter of fact [08:21] we don't permit the importation of [08:24] ammonium nitrate into gaza because it is [08:26] so easily converted into explosive [08:29] okay so the the material itself which is [08:31] used fertilizer [08:33] is a very effective fertilizer it's a [08:34] very good source of nitrogen [08:36] uh is very very easily converted into [08:38] explosives now [08:40] when it's normally transported used [08:44] under controlled conditions it's also [08:46] perfectly safe in other words the [08:48] ammonium nitrate itself [08:50] comes in pellets and it's not flammable [08:54] it doesn't do anything weird however [08:58] if it's contaminated if it degrades [09:02] um and here let's let's keep in mind [09:04] this has been sitting in a warehouse [09:06] in beirut for six years [09:10] and you know how hot your house gets if [09:14] they if you don't turn on the air [09:15] conditioner [09:16] you can just imagine uh [09:19] there were reports a year ago of strange [09:22] smells coming out of [09:23] the building there were cracks in the [09:25] walls [09:28] ammonia breakdown who knows what kind of [09:30] gaseous [09:31] composition was going on inside [09:36] that after you and by the way it was [09:37] taken off a [09:39] moldovan ship that was [09:43] uh not permitted to leave beirut because [09:46] when it when it went in i'm talking [09:48] about six years ago because of [09:50] boston they weren't willing to pay fees [09:52] in other words there was a whole [09:53] background story to this [09:55] that is so improbable that it makes [09:57] sense [09:59] the the ship was impounded uh but it's [10:03] all you know it's all on record [10:05] the the crew was was kept on the ship [10:07] for 11 months and not not permitted to [10:09] leave [10:09] because they didn't have visas to enter [10:10] lebanon this is all [10:12] all background anyway so they unloaded [10:14] all this ammonium nitrate [10:16] into an area that's under hezbollah [10:17] control and i imagine this is pure [10:19] speculation but educated guesswork [10:21] hezbollah said well 2700 2700 tons of [10:24] ammonium nitrate [10:25] we can certainly find something [10:26] interesting to do with it [10:30] in the meantime over the past years [10:32] they've gotten massive [10:34] they've been getting they've gotten even [10:35] more massive infusions of arms from [10:38] iran and they don't need to cook up [10:42] bathtub explosives they're getting the [10:44] stuff you know from the factory [10:46] so it sits there and then last week [10:49] some guy was welding something near they [10:52] say fireworks was it fireworks was it [10:55] munitions that i had stored in the port [10:58] that i'm not to go to it could be either [11:01] and [11:02] or they went up [11:05] sympathetic detonation and boom this [11:08] warehouse blows [11:10] for those who find all of this [11:12] improbable i suggest you look up the [11:13] 1947 texas [11:15] ammonium nitrate explosion in a report [11:19] in which over 500 people were killed um [11:23] and that had nothing to do with [11:24] terrorism or hezbollah [11:26] it was a crewman on a ship throwing a [11:30] cigarette butt into the hole of a ship [11:32] filled with ammonium nitrate [11:34] now in the news since this explosion [11:36] there's been [11:37] this uptick in civil unrest in lebanon [11:41] right what's the deal there like don't [11:43] people just understand it's an accident [11:45] like why [11:46] why okay it was an accident and it was [11:48] an accident [11:49] as a result of pure negligence [11:53] i mean that should that stuff should not [11:55] have been sitting in that area [11:58] for more than a month and [12:01] you know what if it would take a month [12:02] or two or three or whatever to to ship [12:04] it out [12:05] to other places not six years [12:09] not six years in uh in prime [12:14] port area if you saw the aerial [12:15] photographs the warehouse right on the [12:17] dock [12:18] um not meant for long-term storage [12:20] anybody knows anything about ports [12:22] nothing is stored that close to the dock [12:24] for long term [12:26] it was probably some internal politics [12:30] a whole lot of negligence uh port [12:33] inspectors who reported on it [12:36] one two three years ago and were [12:38] basically ignored [12:40] uh so people are furious because the the [12:43] explosion was enormous [12:45] it caused massive damage and of course [12:47] loss of life [12:49] and an injury and there was no reason [12:52] for it you know what [12:53] the one that happened in texas was [12:55] nobody's fault on the grand scale it [12:57] happened [12:58] on a ship the ship was docked at the [13:01] port [13:01] and it blew uh obviously there was [13:04] negligence but it was it was micro [13:06] negligence in the sense of [13:08] it was the crew men and whoever was [13:10] responsible there and that sort of thing [13:12] here you're talking about stuff that's [13:15] that [13:15] volatile and that explosive sitting [13:19] in the middle of an urban area or right [13:21] next to an urban area [13:22] for years so this was an accident [13:25] waiting to happen [13:28] so when they're okay so let's let's move [13:29] this into who's in charge because [13:31] anything that happens in lebanon [13:33] especially when it causes civil unrest [13:35] or it causes [13:36] or it deepens the economic woes and [13:39] apparently there's there's big issues [13:40] there with [13:41] with basic supplies and a lot of food [13:43] the grain silo [13:45] the grain silo that is still standing [13:47] but was right next to it [13:48] was storing an enormous amount of grain [13:51] for lebanon's markets [13:55] their first bakeries and it was blown i [13:57] mean the building is still standing but [13:58] the grain was all blown apart [14:00] so uh grain storage is [14:03] very difficult now to to brings to bring [14:05] grain in because the port is destroyed [14:08] and inoperable and apparently there's [14:11] there's there's there's terrible [14:14] economic [14:16] deprivation going on in lebanon right [14:18] now well they [14:19] they were in a mess to begin with here [14:20] paradoxically [14:22] um they might actually get more money [14:26] from this than they would have otherwise [14:28] because of international [14:30] from aid yeah international aid now i'm [14:32] i'm not going to go so far as to say [14:34] that this was calculated in order to do [14:35] that that [14:36] that would be a stretch but it it does [14:39] provide an interesting [14:41] um method that is used by terrorist [14:44] organizations hamas did it in gaza [14:46] and that is to destroy your own economy [14:48] because you can get more from [14:49] international aid than you can [14:50] from whatever you're producing locally [14:54] yeah and and international aid money you [14:56] get to the people in power get to [14:58] control it more easily [15:00] than money that's circulating in a [15:02] healthy in [15:03] you know in economic growth sure it's [15:05] top-down money as opposed to bottom-up [15:07] money [15:08] right okay so where does fizbolla fit in [15:11] with all this now let's move into the [15:12] bigger picture here right so [15:14] hezbollah is you know let me let me [15:19] answer it by taking one step back [15:22] um if you read studies books on [15:26] hezbollah and [15:27] i've got a ton of them if you want to [15:29] ever want to be really depressed come up [15:30] to my library i'll give you a bunch of [15:32] them [15:33] uh but now some of them are internal and [15:36] they're interesting in their own rights [15:37] a lot of them are external academics [15:39] politicians writing from [15:40] all around the world articles and and [15:43] books [15:44] one of the interesting um i would say [15:47] characteristics of the literature [15:51] and this includes the popular as well as [15:53] the academic [15:54] is that the descriptions of hezbollah in [15:56] the different works [15:58] resemble the age east the eastern [16:02] um parable [16:05] of the blind men describing the elephant [16:09] okay for those who are not familiar a [16:12] number of blind men and [16:13] don't have to go into a detail or [16:14] brought to an elephant and they're asked [16:16] to describe him by touch so the one [16:19] who's touching his legs says the [16:20] elephant is like a tree [16:22] and the one who's touching his trunk [16:24] says an elephant is like a snake [16:26] and the one is trusting touching his [16:28] tusk because the elephant is whatever [16:30] some sort of a [16:31] sharp curved object touching his belly [16:33] touching his ear [16:34] each part of the elephant gives a [16:36] completely different picture and they [16:37] describe [16:38] everything but an elephant [16:41] so you'll see hezbollah described as [16:45] a terrorist organization as a [16:46] humanitarian organization [16:48] as a religious organization lebanese [16:51] nationalist shiite a political party [16:55] political party whatever okay [16:58] and the literature debates which one is [17:01] it [17:02] and the answer is all of the above [17:05] when hezbollah came into existence it [17:07] set a number of objectives for itself [17:10] and like most organizations [17:13] it follows or attempts to achieve them [17:17] simultaneously sometimes pushing more [17:19] this way sometimes pushing more that way [17:21] for all sorts of different reasons so [17:24] the reason i say all that is part of the [17:26] lebanese government [17:27] it's part of the lebanese political [17:29] system it's part of the [17:31] shiite humane social opposition [17:34] it's a terrorist army it's an iranian [17:38] agent it's an international jihadi [17:42] organization [17:45] all at once and [17:51] there are those the europeans in [17:53] particular germany just recently [17:55] having found a warehouse of ammonium [17:57] nitrate that hezbollah had left in [17:59] germany [18:02] certainly not for the benefit of german [18:04] agriculture [18:06] hezbollah in most countries in europe [18:10] is bifurcated [18:13] its military arm is under sanction [18:17] its political arm is legitimized [18:21] now to say that hezbollah has a military [18:24] arm [18:24] is kind of like saying the mafia has a [18:27] criminal arm [18:34] it doesn't you don't you don't separate [18:36] will you say well you know there's the [18:37] family part of the mafia and there's the [18:39] criminal part of the mafia no it's it [18:41] it's all intertwined [18:43] as most organizations are almost all [18:45] organizations [18:48] the two aspects that [18:51] are primary in its overarching [18:55] objectives [18:57] are to turn lebanon into an islamic [18:59] state [19:01] model iran and [19:05] to destroy israel [19:09] beyond that to spread global jihad [19:12] that's part and parcel of any good [19:14] jihadi organization [19:16] as a means and method to provide [19:20] services because that's what a good [19:22] religious organization does provide [19:24] social services religious services [19:26] educate educational services to its [19:28] populace [19:30] and this idea that it pushes [19:34] either lebanese politics or israel [19:37] destruction [19:38] as an as a an either or it does one [19:41] rather than the other [19:42] is a total misreading of the [19:44] organization [19:46] so it's getting hit with today [19:50] in lebanon is the aspect of it being [19:53] part of [19:55] the lebanese government and trying to [19:58] control lebanon that way they came to a [20:00] conclusion years ago [20:02] in the 1990s that they could not take [20:05] over lebanon by force [20:07] and they shifted to the more political [20:10] arena and with that they've taken on all [20:14] sorts of interesting tactics [20:16] and the social services they provide for [20:18] their people sort of set up a kind of [20:20] protectionism [20:22] mafia type of arrangement where people [20:24] who are part of the system [20:26] and part of their community are taken [20:27] care of and that encourages [20:29] more participation exactly exactly [20:32] including alliances that would not have [20:34] happened [20:36] under other circumstances for example [20:39] uh certain christian groups in lebanon [20:40] are aligned with hezbollah [20:42] in a marriage of convenience [20:45] and smart enough to know [20:49] that you don't start a takeover by [20:51] killing lots of people [20:53] you do that after the takeover [20:59] catchy for the [21:03] but i think it's important to understand [21:05] that [21:07] their origins which go back to the early [21:10] 1980s [21:13] are built on the iranian revolution as a [21:16] matter of fact [21:17] it's kind of a strange organization [21:19] because it was [21:22] founded by decree almost [21:26] from iran [21:31] when khomeini came to power and here we [21:33] have to sort of go back to our [21:35] iranian element for a moment when [21:37] khomeini came to power [21:39] one of his [21:48] one of his um objectives [21:52] was an iranian a persian imperial one [21:55] and we talked about this [21:56] a bit to push into the middle east [21:59] and he had a problem and the iranians [22:03] still have this problem [22:04] and that is that they're not arabs [22:07] so if he couldn't clear persians [22:11] if you can't play an arab identity card [22:15] in the middle east [22:16] you have to play a different card and [22:17] for for khomeini [22:19] shiaism was the card to play [22:22] and specifically homeanius shiism which [22:25] is his own brand [22:26] that came out of israel right 1960s and [22:30] 70s [22:31] and he had his his followers um [22:35] not exclusively but he had his followers [22:38] and [22:39] lebanon by that point we're talking [22:41] about 1981 [22:43] 82 had already fallen apart in a civil [22:46] war that started in the mid-1970s [22:48] in other words there was no strong [22:51] lebanese central government [22:53] as there was for example in iraq under [22:55] saddam hussein [22:57] so the the iranian [23:00] incursion if you will and i'm talking [23:02] about socio-political not not military [23:05] that was attempted into iraq failed [23:07] miserably because [23:09] saddam just didn't permit it there was [23:11] nobody to prevent it in lebanon [23:13] in addition to that lebanon has a very [23:15] strong [23:16] historical shiite area [23:20] as a matter of fact lebanon was was a [23:22] center of shiism [23:23] up until the late 19th and early early [23:26] 20th century when [23:27] it was shut down primarily by the [23:29] ottomans by the turks [23:32] and they connected to it and i i'm i'm [23:34] not doing the history here justice [23:36] because the long and involved story [23:38] it also had to do with the shiites being [23:40] somewhat disenfranchised [23:42] when lebanon was founded because the [23:45] sectarian system of lebanon basically [23:47] divided between [23:48] christians muslims and jerusalem [23:52] the muslims didn't were primarily [23:55] primarily sunni they didn't recognize [23:57] the shiites as part of that [23:59] so the shiites were somewhat [24:01] disenfranchised [24:02] they came to see themselves as the [24:04] oppressed [24:06] and here was an opportunity suddenly to [24:07] connect with the winner [24:09] romani and [24:16] ryden [24:26] the israeli invasion of lebanon in 1982 [24:29] in the summer of 82 [24:30] gave them the opportunity to [24:34] coalesce and the iranian revolutionary [24:37] guards set themselves up [24:38] in the baka valley in eastern lebanon [24:41] and began organizing and training [24:43] right i was just thinking that that [24:44] besides all the other [24:46] advantages to making a political [24:48] incursion into lebanese power [24:50] because of the shiite pocket because of [24:54] the lack of strong leadership [24:56] it also gives them a direct front with [24:58] israel which is part of their [24:59] ideological [25:01] uh is part of their ideology is that is [25:04] that the jews are the enemy [25:05] right exactly exactly and [25:09] already by the mid-80s [25:12] gets itself onto the map very quickly uh [25:16] first of all by introducing [25:19] suicide terrorism okay a lot of people [25:23] think [25:23] al-qaeda no al-qaeda copycats and and [25:26] late in the game [25:28] the tamil tigers in sri lanka actually [25:30] copied [25:31] much much quicker copied the idea of [25:34] suicide terrorism [25:35] but hezbollah introduced it uh [25:38] interestingly enough [25:39] against american as well as israeli [25:42] targets as a matter of fact the big [25:44] targets were american the the marine [25:46] barracks [25:47] sure those families okay the embassy the [25:50] american embassy in beirut uh the [25:53] israeli headquarters entire [25:56] there were a number of others but the [25:58] truth is and and this is also indicative [26:00] of hezbollah [26:02] they understood very quickly that [26:04] suicide terrorism was not a very [26:06] effective [26:07] means to do what they wanted and they [26:09] got out of the business [26:12] others picked it up and hamas and and [26:15] fatah [26:15] and those guys use suicide terrorism you [26:18] know well into [26:19] into the 21st century as a matter of [26:21] fact today we're in the [26:22] the anniversary of this borough bombing [26:25] in jerusalem [26:29] um [26:36] that was the first thing suicide attacks [26:39] and they were they were effective on the [26:41] level of getting getting the word out [26:43] there hezbollah can [26:44] you know can can really suck the enemy [26:48] but also in the 80s and into the early [26:50] 90s [26:51] they began pretty much regular attacks [26:54] against [26:55] israeli forces in south lebanon now [26:59] it was an interesting kind of phenomenon [27:01] because israel went in 1982 to get rid [27:03] of [27:03] arafat and fatah and friends [27:06] without a real intention of staying [27:10] there was a christian government that [27:12] got knocked out [27:14] by those who remember [27:17] bashir jamal was killed by syrian [27:20] military intelligence it led to the [27:23] sabran chatila [27:25] massacres by christian phalanges this is [27:27] all 1982. [27:29] but the plan was to get out and by 1985 [27:32] israel had mostly withdrawn from lebanon [27:35] i say mostly because it was still [27:37] they're still operating in the south and [27:38] in in villages and that sort of thing [27:40] but most of the israeli military was out [27:42] of lebanon [27:43] when hezbollah began its attacks israel [27:46] the israeli army went [27:48] back in and in 1988 or so [27:53] established what came to be known as the [27:56] security zone in south lebanon [27:58] or what i always call the insecurity [27:59] zone the buffer zone right [28:02] the buffer right the idea was to push [28:03] hezbollah [28:05] 6 7 8 9 10 11 kilometers from the border [28:09] and in that way to protect northern [28:12] israel from hezbollah attacks [28:14] because hezbollah made very clear from [28:15] day one as they do [28:17] right up until today [28:19] [Music] [28:24] that's what they want and by the way not [28:27] only israel they want to wipe out the [28:28] jews [28:29] nasrallah a number of years ago [28:30] nasrallah's the um [28:32] the chairman of hezbollah [28:36] made a statement a number of years ago [28:37] he said he he's very happy [28:39] with the jews with jews moving on mass [28:42] to israel [28:43] because it'll make it easier to kill [28:44] them all they we won't have to search [28:47] them out throughout the world [28:50] so if this sounds vaguely nazi to you [28:53] it's because it is okay [28:59] but they're they were too clever for [29:00] that to to to use that [29:02] as a public statement to the world and [29:05] they understood very well by the 1980s [29:07] how well the word occupation and and [29:09] resistance to occupation works [29:12] so they referred to the israeli [29:14] occupation in lebanon as their objective [29:18] and through the 90s [29:21] they are they attack primarily israeli [29:23] military forces [29:24] in lebanon and i say primarily because [29:26] there were there were exceptions to that [29:28] but primarily and also during the 90s [29:33] with iranian support training [29:36] organization they begin to shift [29:41] from ineffective [29:44] extremely costly attacks sort of just [29:48] mass rushing at israeli positions [29:52] into much better organized [29:56] tactical assaults on israeli [29:59] outposts it almost sounds like they went [30:01] from being [30:02] a terrorist militia to being an actual [30:04] army correct that's exactly what [30:06] happened [30:07] right okay there there's a sort of an [30:10] intermediate phase of [30:11] what's called hybrid warfare where [30:13] they're where they were both [30:15] and they shifted today i don't refer to [30:17] them as a terrorist organization [30:19] i use terrorists because it's it's an [30:22] instructive label but not a very useful [30:23] one [30:24] they're an army they're an army of [30:27] annihilation [30:28] meant to destroy israel [30:32] and they become more and more effective [30:33] through the 90s [30:40] during that period israeli military [30:43] losses [30:46] are high enough [30:51] to have an impact on israeli public [30:52] opinion and i say that advisably because [30:54] one is too many [30:56] but in military terms the numbers were [30:59] not that great [31:03] to a month something like that but it [31:06] had a huge impact for [31:08] a number of reasons uh first of all [31:10] because this country is extremely [31:12] sensitive to casualties [31:14] and every time a soldier gets killed as [31:16] you know [31:18] the new national morning yeah national [31:20] morning photograph [31:25] the other reason was that the regular [31:27] and reserve armies were being used in [31:29] lebanon [31:31] you generally knew at least six to nine [31:34] months in advance [31:35] when you were going to spend your two [31:38] three [31:39] weeks if you were a reservist maybe a [31:41] month [31:42] or your three months if you were a [31:43] regular [31:45] soldier in lebanon and the impact that [31:49] that had on the population was enormous [31:51] because it meant that [31:52] a reservist let's say beginning of the [31:55] year knew that in june he was going to [31:56] spend three weeks [31:58] this is almost now in [32:02] stress waiting for that [32:06] time to pass wow okay [32:09] a psychological impact [32:14] this led to a movement by the mid [32:17] late 90s for israel to pull out of [32:19] lebanon [32:21] it was led by a group called the four [32:22] mothers um but it very quickly gained [32:28] great deal of support it was built [32:31] on um a principle of [32:35] we've talked about elliot's iron laws [32:36] another one of elliot's iron laws [32:40] which is that by the way this applies to [32:43] every [32:44] level of social organization from the [32:47] family to the international [32:50] a preventive policy that succeeds will [32:52] always be condemned [32:56] that's a very good point okay [32:59] in other words if you do something to [33:01] prevent something from happening [33:03] and you succeed you will be condemned [33:06] for what you did because nothing [33:07] happened [33:09] right and by the way it sounds like a [33:12] paradox it's not it's actually [33:14] logically provable yeah because [33:17] you can never move at something you [33:20] can't prove the negative [33:23] any resources you expended were expended [33:26] that's real okay [33:30] and in this case and it turned out that [33:33] there was no attack [33:35] because you prevented it right exactly [33:37] okay [33:39] so you're going to be condemned for what [33:41] you you what you wasted because look [33:43] nothing happened [33:45] and it's impos impossible or virtually [33:48] impossible [33:49] to prove a causal [33:53] connection between what you did and what [33:55] didn't happen [33:58] yeah i guess the example in israel's [34:00] history is is the [34:01] iraqi nuclear reactor way way back 40 [34:04] years ago [34:05] you know and israel was and israel was [34:07] uh was roundly [34:08] criticized for that that's right that's [34:11] right [34:12] yeah well ellie we're gonna have to wrap [34:13] up for today and we're gonna continue [34:15] this story next time [34:17] all right so uh let me let me just [34:19] conclude with the sentence what happened [34:21] the expression of that was that people [34:24] said [34:25] our troops are dying in lebanon and the [34:28] galilee is perfectly quiet [34:30] so if we pull them out of lebanon [34:32] everything will be good [34:38] but the preventative nature of it is [34:40] what was keeping the games being quiet [34:41] exactly [34:43] so to be continued um yeah and [34:46] and in the end of the day we're gonna as [34:48] as we hear more of this story we want to [34:50] get to an [34:51] understanding of where hezbollah [34:54] eventually what is position [34:57] currently is because it's not it's not a [35:01] uh [35:02] people should never think you know [35:03] stability is the greatest illusion [35:05] there's no such thing [35:06] correct this thing's remaining the same [35:08] correct and uh [35:09] and that's where even something like an [35:11] accidental explosion in a port [35:13] has has uh has political and security [35:16] implications [35:18] okay so we're going to continue this [35:19] next week we're going to pick up where [35:20] we left off i guess unless [35:22] something everything else happens [35:25] and uh and thank you very much thank you [35:27] for the comments a number of people sent [35:28] in comments and uh [35:30] while we're not responding to them [35:31] immediately we will respond to them in [35:33] due time a few people did mention to me [35:35] that they'd like these to be a little [35:36] bit longer [35:37] um i don't know if everyone does and [35:38] that's why we went a little longer today [35:40] but we don't want these to be you know [35:42] multi-hour lectures so [35:45] we're gonna cut it off here and everyone [35:46] keep praying for israel [35:48] and uh and we're gonna keep praying for [35:50] america there's a lot going on there too [35:52] so god bless everyone thank you for for [35:54] tuning in to israel matters and share [35:56] the share the word spread the word god [36:01] bless
In this episode, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki shares a fascinating insight from Genesis 12 that is lost in translation. Then, security, defense, and history expert Elliot Chodoff discusses the bizarre explosion in Beirut of a few days ago and takes us on a historical journey into the background and identity of Hezbollah.
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