Jonathan Schanzer on Israel's Weekend War against Islamic Jihad

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Earlier this month, Israeli forces captured the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the West Bank city of Jenin after he had been involved in planning a number of terrorist attacks. Infuriated, PIJ threatened to fire anti-tank weapons at Israeli towns from its home base in Gaza. In response, the IDF struck PIJ’s chief of operations in the northern Gaza Strip and killed his counterpart in the south. After that, the Iranian-backed terrorist group began bombarding Israel with rockets and mortars, firing nearly 1,000 rockets, of which nearly 200 fell short and landed in Gaza itself—causing the deaths of several civilians there. An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire took effect after about three days of fighting.

To talk about the weekend war, we've invited analyst Jonathan Schanzer, who pays close attention to Gaza and writes about Middle East politics in Commentary and Mosaic, as well as in several books. (One just last year, Gaza Conflict 2021, carefully analyzed the previous blowup there). Here, Schanzer, in conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, looks at this month's conflict in that political context, explains how it was like and unlike past rounds of conflict, thinks about how its timing relates to the current nuclear negotiations with Iran, and speculates about the future of Hamas in Gaza.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Earlier this month, Israeli forces captured the head of Palestinian Islamic jihad,
0:13.5	referred to in English by its acronym, Pidge, in the West Bank city of Janine, after he'd
0:19.8	been involved in planning a number of terrorist attacks.
0:22.7	Pidge responded by threatening to fire anti-tank weapons at Israeli towns from its home base in Gaza.
0:28.8	And then the IDF launched Operation Breaking Dawn, successfully carrying out the assassination of Pidge's
0:35.0	chief of operations in the northern Gaza's strip, and then the
0:38.5	assassination of his counterpart in the south. In response to that, the Iranian-backed terrorist
0:43.7	group began bombarding Israel with rockets and mortars. Pidge fired nearly 1,000 rockets and mortars
0:50.1	at Tel Aviv and Israel's border communities. Nearly 200 of those fell short and landed in Gaza itself,
0:57.6	causing a number of tragic deaths. And Egyptian brokered ceasefire took effect after about three days of fighting.
1:03.8	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. This week we're joined by the senior
1:08.4	vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies,
1:12.0	Jonathan Shanzer. Jonathan pays as close attention to Gaza as anyone, and he's written about
1:17.5	regional politics and commentary, and mosaic and elsewhere. He's written four books, including one
1:23.2	just last year, that carefully analyzed Israel's previous blow-up there called Gaza Conflict
1:30.1	2021. I invited Jonathan this week to see the August 2022 conflict in that political context,
1:38.2	to explain how this last round was like and, crucially, how it was unlike past rounds. And to think about how the timing of
1:46.7	this conflict relates to nuclear negotiations in Vienna and to speculate about the future of
1:52.5	Hamas in Gaza. If you enjoy this conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on Apple Podcasts,
1:58.4	Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify. I hope you'll leave us a five-star review
2:02.2	to help us grow this community of ideas. I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other
2:06.9	podcast episodes at podcast at tikfafund.org. And of course, if you want to learn more about our
	...

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