0:07

Good morning. It's Friday, November 8th.

0:09

The multi-front war in the Middle

0:12

East is now 399 days old.

0:14

I'm Jonathan Chanzer, Senior Vice President

0:16

for Research at Foundation for Defense

0:19

of Democracies. Welcome back yet again

0:21

to the FDD morning brief. Some

0:23

scary headlines last night as pogroms

0:26

were staged in Amsterdam against Israeli

0:28

soccer fans in the city. Organized

0:30

violence against Jews in Europe. This

0:32

cannot stand. And the episode is

0:35

still not over as authority searched

0:37

for missing Israelis. Dutch Israeli and

0:39

European officials are still trying to

0:42

get things under control. In Israel,

0:44

the political shakeup continues. Prime Minister

0:46

Netanyahu has just named a new

0:48

ambassador to the United States in

0:50

the wake of the US election.

0:53

Yehiel Lighter, who actually grew up

0:55

in Pennsylvania, will be the new

0:57

envoy to Washington, replacing Mike Herzog.

0:59

Sadly, Lighter lost his son on

1:01

the battlefields of Gaza last year.

1:04

Meanwhile some interesting headlines last night

1:06

here in the United States coming

1:08

from both the outgoing Biden administration

1:10

and the incoming Trump administration. The

1:12

Biden team says that Israel is

1:14

letting enough aid into Gaza to

1:16

ensure that the U.S. doesn't cut

1:18

off the flow of munitions. The

1:20

Trump people are signaling a return

1:22

of maximum pressure on the Iranian

1:24

regime. These are all good signs

1:26

for the trajectory of this war.

1:28

If the regime understands that pressure

1:31

is coming, both short-term and long-term,

1:33

maybe we can... still steer this

1:35

war to a decisive victory against

1:37

Iran and its proxies. That's what

1:39

we all look for here at the

1:41

FDD morning brief. Today's guest is

1:43

Natasha Hausdorff. She's a lawyer.

1:45

Check that. She's a barrister

1:47

in the UK. Once upon

1:49

a time, she clerked for

1:51

the Chief Justice of Israel's

1:53

Supreme Court. Today, she's the

1:55

legal director of UKLLFI, UK

1:57

lawyers for Israel charitable trust.

2:00

her on social media and in the

2:02

mainstream media too doing battle with those

2:04

who are waging warfare against the world's

2:07

only Jewish state. Natasha is still fighting

2:09

the fight 13 months into this war.

2:11

We'll talk to her about what she's

2:13

been up to in just a few

2:15

minutes right here on the FDD morning

2:18

brief. I've received calls in recent

2:20

days from journalists asking whether the

2:22

lame duck Biden White House may

2:24

take punitive parting shots against Israel.

2:27

Here's my short answer. I sure

2:29

hope not. Joe Biden is not Barack

2:31

Obama, who engineered an attack on

2:33

Israel by the anti-Semitic hordes at

2:35

the United Nations in the final

2:37

months of his term. True, Biden

2:39

has buckled under pressure from members

2:42

of his party who have an

2:44

axe to grind with Israel. Without

2:46

getting too political here, I think

2:48

that may have contributed to the

2:50

collapse of the Harris campaign. Americans

2:52

typically dislike those extreme anti-Israel foreign

2:54

policies. You know what? You want

2:56

to know what I think? has

2:58

an opportunity to go down in

3:00

history as a great president. Here's

3:02

how. We all know that Israel

3:04

recently destroyed Iran's air defenses, and

3:06

after Iran began to threaten a

3:09

counter-strike, the US deployed some serious

3:11

assets to the Middle East, B-52's,

3:13

fighter jets, naval assets, and more.

3:15

In short, there is a lot

3:17

of American firepower in the region

3:19

right now, enough to destroy the

3:21

Iranian nuclear program with or without

3:23

Israeli assistance. I'm not saying that

3:25

Biden is preparing to do this.

3:27

saying that he's even considering this,

3:29

but I am saying this is

3:31

an unbelievable opportunity for the United

3:34

States in cooperation with Israel or

3:36

not to destroy the Islamic Republic's

3:38

nuclear program, the ultimate threat to

3:41

regional security once and for all.

3:43

Can you think of a better

3:46

presidential legacy? I know I can't. Now

3:48

for your headlines. Headline 1. International

3:50

Atomic Energy Agency Chief Raphael Grosi

3:52

is slated to visit Iran in

3:55

the coming days. At a press

3:57

conference in Rome, Grosi said he

3:59

plans to visit Iran soon to

4:01

discuss the regime's nuclear program, including

4:03

Iran's track record of barring UN

4:06

inspectors from key sites and other

4:08

outstanding concerns. Grosi also noted that

4:10

he expects to work cooperatively with

4:12

Trump when the president elect returns

4:14

to the White House. The dates

4:16

of Grosi's trip are not confirmed,

4:18

nor has Tehran commented on Grosi's

4:20

proposed visit, but Iranian officials have

4:22

signaled that Grosi is welcome in

4:25

the Islamic Republic and that the

4:27

regime is ready to cooperate with

4:29

the UN nuclear watchdog. Iran cooperating

4:31

with the IAEA, that's about as likely

4:33

as me operating a food truck in

4:36

downtown Tehran that sells babyback ribs. Not

4:38

going to happen. Headline 2, Hezbollah's

4:40

new leader, Naim Kossam, delivered a

4:42

speech on Wednesday. He had two

4:45

main messages. First, Kossam said that

4:47

Hezbollah is in this war for

4:49

the long haul. He boasted of

4:52

Hezbollah's endurance and vowed to defeat

4:54

Israel no matter how long it

4:56

takes. All Israeli territory, Kossam said

4:59

is fair game. As if on

5:01

Q, Hezbollah fired a 110 short-range

5:03

ballistic ballistic. missile of Fataw 110

5:06

into central Israel. Watch for more

5:08

of those. Those are nasty weapons.

5:10

But wait, there was more to

5:12

the speech. Kossum flatly rejected the

5:14

possibility of a diplomatic resolution to

5:16

the fighting in Lebanon. Hezbollah won't

5:19

entertain negotiations unless Israel lays down

5:21

its arms. And that's not likely

5:23

to happen anytime soon, so long

5:25

as Hezbollah continues to shower Israel

5:27

with rockets and drones. It's not

5:29

clear to me how the Biden

5:31

administration will be able to steer

5:33

this thing to a negotiated ceasefire.

5:35

Meanwhile, the Israelis uncovered a major

5:38

his... Hezbollah command post just 200

5:40

meters from a Unifil base. Yet

5:42

another indication that this corrupt UN

5:44

body turned a blind eye to

5:46

Hezbollah activity for years. We've said

5:48

it before on this program and

5:50

I'll say it again, Unifil needs

5:52

to get shut down just like

5:54

UNRWA was in Gaza and a

5:56

major audit is needed across the

5:58

entire UN system. And headline three,

6:01

Israel's Ministry of Defense signed

6:03

an agreement with Boeing to

6:05

purchase 25 next-gen F-15 fighter

6:07

jets. The deal is worth $5.2

6:10

billion. It's part of a

6:12

larger military aid package that

6:14

the Biden administration and Congress

6:16

approved earlier this year, Israel

6:19

reportedly received four to six

6:21

jets annually beginning in 2031.

6:23

These are advanced aircraft equipped with

6:25

cutting-edge weapon systems integrated with

6:27

existing Israeli technology. Israel's Ministry

6:29

of Defense said that the

6:31

next generation F-15s will enhance

6:33

Israel's air power and strategic

6:35

superiority. That's critical for a

6:38

country at the center of

6:40

a battle against Iran and

6:42

its terror proxies. I just

6:44

hope this war is not still

6:46

going in 2021. All right, it's now

6:48

my pleasure to welcome Natasha Hausdorff to

6:50

the show. Natasha is a barrister in

6:53

the UK who does work for a

6:55

terrific organization called UK lawyers for Israel

6:57

Charitable Trust. Natasha is not just sharp

6:59

in the courtroom. She's also quick on

7:02

her feet. Earlier in the war, she

7:04

joined forces with Douglas Murray to take

7:06

on Mehdi Hasan and Gideon Levy in

7:08

a widely publicized debate up in Toronto.

7:11

We'll talk to her about that and

7:13

a number of other topics right now,

7:15

live. on the FDD morning brief. Welcome

7:18

to the FDD morning brief, Natasha

7:20

Halsdorf. Thank you, John. It's great

7:22

to be with you. Great to have you.

7:24

All right. So let's start with that

7:26

debate briefly. Back in June up in

7:29

Toronto, what was it like teeming up

7:31

with Douglas Murray? What was it like

7:33

locking horns with Methi Hasan? What did

7:35

you debate? And how did it all

7:38

shake out? Well, it was the second

7:40

time that I teamed up with Douglas for

7:42

a debate, but there were some 15 years

7:44

in between the first and second, but I'm

7:47

glad to say I don't think, you know,

7:49

we missed a beat in terms of being

7:51

on the same page entirely on the subject

7:53

of that debate, which was that anti-Zionism was

7:56

anti-Semitism. And what can I say? I'm glad

7:58

that the truth won the day. Me

8:01

too. All right, I want to

8:03

get into some of this lawfare

8:05

that you're fighting. And I know

8:08

you're fighting against lawfare, against Israel,

8:10

on multiple fronts. So let's talk

8:12

about that. Let's start with the

8:14

case against Israel that's been lodged

8:16

by the South African government at

8:19

the ICJ, the International Court of

8:21

Justice. What's the status of that

8:23

case? Well the latest development was

8:25

that South Africa filed a

8:27

very lengthy memorial with the

8:29

court which supposedly details its

8:31

evidence to substantiate this ridiculous

8:33

allegation of genocide against Israel.

8:36

It's an interesting development because

8:38

South Africa was seeking an

8:40

extension of time in order

8:42

to file this memorial. That's

8:44

a rather unusual state of

8:46

affairs where Israel was... plainly

8:48

seeking to have this case

8:50

dealt with as quickly as

8:52

possible and South Africa was by

8:54

all accounts dragging its feet. But

8:56

the motivation for South Africa bringing

8:59

this case has been subject to

9:01

a great deal of scrutiny. The

9:03

way that it has played out

9:05

in the international arena rather suggests

9:07

that this is all about the

9:09

public relations, the desire. to create

9:11

a space where we can talk

9:14

about Israel and genocide in the

9:16

same sentence to shift the Overton

9:18

window. It's incredibly important to recognise

9:20

that this is a plain attempt

9:22

to weaponise the international court of

9:24

justice, to abuse international law

9:27

through this phenomenon of lawfare

9:29

that you've described. And it

9:31

is being facilitated in particular

9:33

by the current president of

9:35

the court. He himself, Judge

9:37

Salem, has a vicious track

9:39

record of anti-Israel. sentiment and

9:41

in any other credible international

9:43

legal institution I'm sure he

9:45

would have been expected to recuse

9:48

himself. Yeah and obviously we're watching

9:50

South Africa very closely right now

9:52

this is a government that has

9:54

been supporting Hamas. They're at the

9:56

epicenter of what we call the

9:58

BDS movement which is really trying

10:00

to turn Israel into apartheid South

10:03

Africa from the early 1990s, trying

10:05

to bring down a government through

10:07

activism worldwide. I think we're going

10:09

to learn more about what South

10:12

Africa is up to in the

10:14

coming months or perhaps years, but

10:16

they played a very dangerous role,

10:18

I think, in normalizing this idea

10:21

of genocide, which of course is

10:23

preposterous. I do want to ask

10:25

you also about the cases lodged

10:28

against Israeli officials at the International

10:30

Criminal Court, the ICC. What is the

10:32

status there? Well, so far we

10:34

know about arrest warrant applications that

10:36

have been made against three Hamas

10:38

leaders who are no longer with

10:41

us. And of course, Prime Minister

10:43

Benjamin Netanyahu and Joav Gallant, but

10:45

something I think important to note

10:47

is that it's quite rare that

10:49

arrest warrant applications are in fact

10:51

in the public arena. Most of

10:53

them are made in secret so

10:56

that the subjects do not know

10:58

that they are liable to arrest

11:00

when they travel internationally. Not so

11:02

here... Of course, Karine Khan, who

11:04

is the prosecutor of the

11:06

International Criminal Court, made a

11:08

very public exhibition of these

11:10

arrest warrant applications, he gave

11:12

an interview on Christian Amempor,

11:14

a press conference, and issued

11:16

a public summary of his

11:18

rationale, his reasoning, and supposedly

11:21

the evidence that he put

11:23

forward to the pre-child chamber

11:25

that is still making a

11:27

decision on whether to issue

11:29

these warrants. My organisation, UK

11:31

Lawyers for Israel and the

11:33

affiliated charitable trust, went through with

11:35

a fine tooth comb the detail

11:37

of that and has made a

11:40

number of submissions now indicating chapter

11:42

and verse at every phrase of

11:45

every sentence in that public summary

11:47

of what went to the pre-child

11:49

chamber was false. We have made

11:52

subsequent applications requiring the prosecutor to

11:54

amend the material before the court

11:56

to provide updates, especially when subsequent

11:59

UN report. courts have shown, have

12:01

revealed that what was put towards

12:03

the court in the context of

12:05

this obscene allegation of starvation has also

12:07

been utterly debunked. And the prosecutors

12:09

refuse to do so. In fact,

12:12

he's doubled down and he's asked

12:14

the courts to speed up their

12:16

consideration of these arrest warrants. That's

12:18

pretty indicative, I'm afraid, of, I

12:20

think, the motivation behind this application,

12:22

which I also put at political.

12:25

This is the victimization of the

12:27

state of Israel in circumstances where

12:29

this is a court that has

12:31

no jurisdiction over the Israelis that

12:33

it is seeking to investigate

12:35

and apply for arrest warrants against.

12:37

And that's unprecedented in the

12:39

history of international law. Yeah,

12:41

and as I understand it,

12:43

ICC shouldn't have jurisdiction in a

12:46

country where you have a

12:48

functioning judiciary, a respectable judiciary. So

12:50

this whole thing seems a

12:52

bit like a kangaroo court. But

12:54

is there is there any

12:56

precedent here for other democratic leaders

12:58

of democratic countries, democratically elected

13:00

leaders being beheld before the court

13:02

in this way? Well,

13:05

what's unprecedented is the court acting

13:07

without jurisdiction because Israel is

13:09

not a signatory to the Rome

13:11

statute that founded the court.

13:13

Neither is Palestine a state and

13:15

able to give the court

13:18

jurisdiction, not least because the very

13:20

founding of the Palestinian authority

13:22

through the Oslo Accords made it

13:24

perfectly plain that there was

13:26

no question of the Palestinian Authority

13:29

having criminal jurisdiction over Israelis.

13:31

So the real unprecedented aspects of

13:33

this are the legal acrobatics and

13:35

the invention of a basis

13:37

for the court to have jurisdiction

13:39

in the first place. But

13:41

you're absolutely right that a core

13:44

principle of how the court

13:46

operates is what's called complementarity, which

13:48

means that it respects the

13:50

jurisdiction of each individual state to

13:52

investigate in the first instance.

13:54

And that opportunity has simply not

13:56

been provided to Israel. It is

13:58

still in the middle of

14:00

wall and by all accounts the

14:03

prosecutor decided to issue these

14:05

arrest warrants on the very day

14:07

that he was scheduled to

14:09

meet with Israeli officials perhaps we're

14:11

understanding to discuss exactly that

14:13

you know what Israel is doing

14:15

to investigate any allegations where

14:17

it is credibly able and willing

14:20

to do so. Yeah

14:22

it just really does look like a

14:24

total miscarriage justice. I want to

14:26

pivot to some other work that you've

14:28

done on specifically the UN Relief

14:30

and Works Agency. I mean I think

14:32

it was a good move for

14:34

Israel to remove UNRWA from Gaza. Can

14:36

you talk about the legalities of

14:38

this decision and will there be blowback?

14:40

So they've not been removed just

14:43

yet but what we had in

14:45

September was the passage at the

14:47

very end of the month the

14:49

passage of two bills in the

14:51

Israeli Knesset that provided that in

14:53

90 days time UNRWA would no

14:55

longer be able to operate within

14:57

Israeli territory and would not have

15:00

the permission it essentially revoked the

15:02

permission that had previously been provided

15:04

in 1967 through an exchange of

15:06

letters to UNRWA to operate in

15:08

territories that Israel administered. Now

15:11

the reason for that 90 day

15:13

period is as I understand

15:15

it to provide the opportunity the

15:17

window to ensure that alternatives

15:19

are in place. There were reports

15:22

that currently UNRWA only actually

15:24

facilitates the provision of about 13

15:26

% of aid in the Gaza

15:28

Strip. So these protestations that

15:30

we've been hearing from around the

15:33

world are entirely misplaced when

15:35

they suggest that you know without

15:37

UNRWA all of the humanitarian

15:39

aid initiative in Gaza would ground

15:41

to a halt but it's

15:44

imperative that other organizations that are

15:46

on the ground, the World

15:48

Food Programme, UNICEF, Save the Children

15:50

included take it upon themselves

15:52

to ensure that they are picking

15:55

up any slack and in

15:57

fact doing the job that UNRWA

15:59

should have been doing from

16:01

the outset which is looking at

16:03

after Palestinian civilians. It's important

16:06

that we recall the reason that

16:08

Israel has been forced to

16:10

take this measure, not before time.

16:12

And that is UNRWA's complicity

16:14

with Hamas. It's involvement not only

16:17

in the 7th of October

16:19

attacks, but subsequently in providing Hamas

16:21

command and control centers with

16:23

electricity in covering up the use

16:25

of UNRWA facilities as terror

16:28

bases and rocket launch sites. The

16:30

fact that UNRWA employees have

16:32

been accused of holding hostages and

16:34

committing atrocities themselves. None of

16:36

this has been taken seriously by

16:39

the UN authorities, by the

16:41

UN Secretary General, or Philippe Lazzarini,

16:43

the head of UNRWA, and

16:45

enough is enough. It

16:47

is indeed enough. And of

16:49

course we've been watching this

16:51

trend for something like 20

16:53

years since Hamas took over

16:55

the Gaza Strip by force

16:57

in 2007. UNRWA has effectively

16:59

been the government while Hamas

17:02

has been building military infrastructure.

17:04

So I'm pleased to see

17:06

hopefully the end of this

17:08

dynamic. I just add very briefly

17:10

that it's even worse than

17:12

that because since its founding in

17:14

the late 40s, UNRWA has

17:16

been at the very core of

17:18

the perpetuation of the conflict

17:20

through its indoctrination programs. UNRWA run

17:22

schools educated three quarters of

17:24

the terrorists that crossed the border

17:26

on the 7th of October.

17:28

And generation after generation of Palestinian

17:30

has been indoctrinated in the

17:32

context of this Palestinian authority -approved

17:34

curriculum to embrace terrorism and believe

17:36

that killing as many Jews

17:38

as possible is the highest calling

17:41

in life. UNRWA is perhaps the

17:43

biggest obstacle to any progress

17:45

towards peace. Oh, agreed. And

17:47

of course, let's not forget the

17:49

way that UNRWA counts refugees.

17:51

Somehow this population is among the

17:53

only in the world that

17:55

has increased that refugee population even

17:57

as the original refugees from

17:59

1940. 48 have passed on. They've

18:01

been counting the children, grandchildren, great

18:03

-grandchildren of refugees. So the proliferation

18:05

of the problem, that also lies

18:08

at the feet of UNRWA. And

18:10

that needs to change as well.

18:12

I do want to ask you

18:14

just, you know, you're based in

18:16

the U .K., and we've seen some

18:18

really troubling things from out of

18:21

your home country. The Starmer government

18:23

is actually engaged in a military

18:25

boycott of Israel. Is there a

18:27

way to fight this? What can

18:29

be done? Well, the

18:31

boycott, the arms embargo

18:33

came quick on the heels

18:35

of two other extremely

18:37

concerning initiatives. The first was

18:40

to U -turn on a

18:42

proposed submission to the

18:44

International Criminal Court to raise

18:46

concerns about the court

18:48

employing these tactics and going

18:50

outside of its plain

18:52

jurisdiction. That was in the

18:54

U .K. national interest as

18:56

well as, of course,

18:58

as a byproduct potentially benefiting

19:00

Israel's statement of its case.

19:02

The next thing it did

19:05

was refund UNRWA despite all

19:07

of the problems that we've

19:09

just discussed. So the U .K.

19:11

is again taxpayer money is

19:13

going to support this terror

19:15

-linked organization. And then absolutely

19:18

this bizarre announcement. I say

19:20

bizarre because the timing of

19:22

it was indicative that this

19:24

was a political decision, something

19:26

that had in fact been

19:29

instituted as the Daily Mail

19:31

and the Jewish Chronicle here in

19:33

the U .K. reported. It

19:35

had been instituted before a

19:37

full legal assessment had been

19:39

carried out. Licenses were suspended

19:41

weeks before David Lambie, the

19:43

foreign secretary here, announced that

19:45

he had commissioned a comprehensive

19:47

review and determined that he

19:49

would be suspending 30 arms

19:51

licenses on that basis. Now,

19:53

the major legal problem with

19:55

what the government decided to

19:57

do is that it took

19:59

alleged that it had over aid

20:01

distribution and over detention of

20:03

the Nuhbar terrorists in Israeli detention

20:05

centers. And it extrapolated from

20:07

that a broader concern it said

20:09

about Israel's commitment to complying

20:11

with international humanitarian law in the

20:13

context of weapons use, which

20:15

is to do with proportionality and

20:17

targeting. Now proportionality and targeting

20:19

the government in the UK has

20:21

been consistently clear. It is

20:23

satisfied that Israel is complying with

20:25

international humanitarian law on. The

20:27

same indication has been given by

20:29

the United States government. So

20:31

we have here an unprecedented measure

20:33

which is not just problematic

20:35

for Israel but as all of

20:37

these lawfare initiatives will inevitably

20:39

have problematic consequences for other states

20:41

where the entire arms licensing

20:43

regime has been turned on its

20:45

head. And because of these

20:48

issues that have been raised which

20:50

are themselves, I would suggest

20:52

entirely misplaced. They're not based on

20:54

a proper reading of the

20:56

Kogat information on the aid being

20:58

supplied or indeed on the

21:00

proper application of international humanitarian law,

21:02

which makes it clear that

21:04

the Red Cross, for instance, has

21:06

no legal basis to demand

21:08

access to see non -prisoners of

21:10

war, these individual terrorists who do

21:12

not qualify for that privileged

21:14

status. But in any event, even

21:16

if we ignore all of

21:18

those problems the legal reasoning the

21:20

government has deployed is entirely

21:22

flawed and deeply problematic, of course

21:24

for the message that it

21:26

sends to other states that actually

21:28

supply arms to Israel which

21:30

matter in the grand scheme of

21:32

things that the provision that

21:34

the UK makes is negligible to

21:36

be frank. Unbelievable, truly unbelievable.

21:38

And you think about the traditional

21:40

positions that the UK government

21:42

has taken on Israel and what's

21:44

happened. Before I let you

21:46

go, just a few thoughts if

21:48

you would on the future

21:50

of lawfare, right? We're still in

21:52

the middle of this war.

21:54

I can imagine that there'll be

21:56

some. other measures taken by

21:58

Israel's enemies, I think it's safe

22:00

to say that this is

22:02

going to continue well after this

22:04

war ends. So what are

22:06

the sorts of basic trend lines

22:08

that you think we should

22:10

be watching for? Well,

22:12

it's entirely possible that we'll see

22:14

other states joining South Africa

22:17

in pursuing essentially blood libel against

22:19

Israel at the International Court

22:21

of Justice. I think as far

22:23

as the ICC is concerned,

22:25

you know, if we're being frank

22:27

and fair about this, Joav

22:30

Galant and Benjamin Netanyahu can probably

22:32

look after themselves, but the

22:34

moment the court might be considering

22:36

arrest warrants against individual Israeli

22:38

soldiers, the situation becomes even more

22:40

untenable. Not only that, I'm

22:43

certainly aware from the United Kingdom

22:45

that there are groups of lawyers

22:47

compiling lists of dual nationals with

22:49

every intention of applying ultimately for

22:51

arrest warrants against them. Now the

22:53

saving grace here in the UK

22:55

has been that one requires the

22:58

permission of the Attorney General to

23:00

be able to apply for an

23:02

arrest warrant against an individual in

23:04

those sorts of circumstances for war

23:06

crimes, for example. But of course,

23:08

what we've just said about the

23:10

trajectory of the current government doesn't exactly

23:13

provide a great deal of

23:15

comfort on that front. Richard

23:17

Hermer, the current Attorney General,

23:19

has a track record of

23:21

advocating anti -Israel positions in

23:23

particular against the boycott divestment

23:25

and sanctions bill, the anti -BDS

23:27

bill, I should say, that

23:30

would have limited the ability

23:32

of local authorities to engage

23:34

in boycotts against Israel. And

23:36

where we note, I'm afraid

23:38

the trajectory of this government,

23:40

it is undoubtedly informed by

23:42

the trends that we saw in

23:44

the last election, where a

23:47

number of independents were able to

23:49

successfully stand for election to

23:51

parliament on a single issue, that

23:53

of Gaza, and essentially promoting

23:55

anti -Zionist sentiments and hatred in

23:57

the State of Israel. Tough

24:00

stuff. We'll keep up the fight. Thank

24:02

you for joining us today on the

24:04

FTD morning brief. Natasha Hausdorff. Thanks so

24:06

much. It's great to be with you.

24:11

All right, here's what FTD has

24:13

on tap for you today. My

24:15

colleague Mark Montgomery joined forces with

24:17

Colin Ehren and Erika Lonergan for

24:19

a cyber scoop piece on recent

24:22

efforts by the Pentagon to derail

24:24

bipartisan efforts to assess the readiness

24:26

of America's cyber forces. Monty and

24:28

his co -authors urge Congress to resist

24:30

this pressure and mandate a transparent

24:32

independent assessment of the nation's ability

24:34

to defend against the growing threats

24:36

presented by adversaries in cyberspace. Makes

24:38

sense to me. In the Washington

24:41

Times, FTD's founder and president Cliff

24:43

May challenges the prevailing western notion

24:45

that appeasement can effectively resolve the

24:47

numerous threats posed by our adversaries.

24:49

He reminds us of a simple

24:51

but important fact. Khamenei Putin, Xi

24:53

Jinping, do not share our values.

24:55

He argues we need to speak

24:57

to them in a language they

24:59

understand, namely through the defeat of

25:02

our enemies. Finally, my colleague Seth

25:04

Fransman has a new article exploring

25:06

the implications of a second Trump

25:08

term for Israel and Iran. He

25:10

notes that a Trump -vance administration

25:12

will not resort to restraining Israel

25:14

the way the Biden -Harris administration has.

25:16

But a crucial question remains. Will

25:18

the regime in Iran try to

25:21

take advantage of the lame duck

25:23

period to escalate its terrorist or

25:25

nuclear activities? Or will we see

25:27

a de -escalation? Nobody knows, of

25:29

course, but there's one thing we

25:31

can say for certain. We're in

25:33

for an interesting couple of months.

25:35

And that's it for today. Read

25:37

our expert analysis on our website

25:39

fdd .org. Read our quick takes on

25:42

x at fdd. Check out our

25:44

instagram and youtube channels and support

25:46

our work with the tax -deductible

25:48

donation at fdd .org slash invest. We're

25:50

off on monday no shell on

25:52

monday for veterans day here in

25:54

the united states when the federal

25:56

government takes a day off We

25:58

try to as well. I want

26:01

to give our crew a rest,

26:03

but we hope you'll join us

26:05

for another episode of the FDD morning brief on Wednesday. We'll have

26:07

Ari Sacher on the show out of Israel. Ari is a keen

26:09

observer of the Middle East and an expert on Israeli missile defense.

26:11

Should be a good one. Thanks

26:14

again for joining. I'm Jonathan Chanzer

26:16

signing off for FDD.