A Hero Speaks: Natan Sharansky on the US and Israel At This Hour

Uncommon Knowledge

Hoover Institution

Politics, History, News:politics, Science, News

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

Natan Sharansky is a renowned human rights activist, former Soviet dissident, Israeli politician, and author. In 1977, Sharansky was sentenced to 13 years of hard labor in a Soviet prison for the crime of advocating for human rights and the right for Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. After nine years of imprisonment, under harsh conditions and including long periods of solitary confinement, Sharankly was released in 1986 as part of a political prisoner exchange between the Soviet Union and western nations. Upon his release, he emigrated to Israel, where he became a prominent figure in Israeli politics and global Jewish advocacy. In this wide-ranging interview, Sharansky discusses pressing geopolitical issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the nature of anti-Semitism on university campuses, and the role of the United States in supporting Israel and the broader free world. He also reflects on the 1977 Oslo Accords, the resilience of Israeli society amid ongoing threats, and the enduring significance of freedom and identity in Sharansky’s life and worldview. Sharansky also examines America’s responsibility as a leader in the free world, the challenges posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and the deeper cultural and spiritual threads that unite the Jewish people. Recorded on November 18, 2024.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wisdom, moral authority, a life of genuine sacrifice.
0:05.0	Natan Sharansky, Uncommon Knowledge Now.
0:08.0	Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge.
0:18.0	Born in the Soviet Union in 1948,
0:21.6	Anatoly Sharansky earned a degree in mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology,
0:27.6	then began work in a state research lab. In 1973, he applied for an exit visa to Israel,
0:33.6	was denied on security grounds, and then became a dissident. Arrested in 1977, he spent nine years in Soviet prisons.
0:42.3	On his release in 1986, he emigrated to Israel, where he took the name Netan.
0:47.3	Netan Sharansky served from 1996 to 2005 as a minister in four successive Israeli governments.
0:55.0	From 2009 to 2018, he served as chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, working with the
1:00.3	Jewish diaspora around the world.
1:03.0	Nathan Choransky has published a number of books, including his 1988 memoir, Fear
1:07.8	No Evil, his 2004 volume, The Case for Democracy, and his 2020 book, Never Alone.
1:14.8	Mr. Scheransky and I are speaking in New York, where last night he was honored by Commentary Magazine.
1:20.7	Nathan Sharanski, welcome to New York.
1:22.6	Thank you for inviting me.
1:24.6	Questions about what we got wrong.
1:26.2	U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on September 29, 2023, quote,
1:31.3	The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.
1:36.3	Eight days later, the attack by Hamas, how could we have been so wrong?
1:40.3	Well, look, in this case, not only America was wrong.
1:47.0	Israeli military was wrong.
	...

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