”We are dealing with terrorists that believe that Jews do not have a right to exist in this land that we call Israel.”
By David Rullo | Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle | September 16, 2024
Jonathan Conricus addresses the more than 300 people at StandWithUs’ inaugural Pittsburgh Community Reception. (Photo by VanDyke Photography)
Jonathan Conricus is the senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the former international spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces. He has served as a military diplomat, spokesperson and United Nations liaison.
Conricus was in Pittsburgh to deliver the keynote address at StandWithUs’ inaugural community reception on Sept. 12. He sat down with the Chronicle to discuss Israel’s war with Hamas, the hostages and protests around the country.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why did StandWithUs ask you to deliver the keynote address at its reception?
Since the war, they’ve been doing weekly briefings on YouTube and their social media platforms, and I’ve been part of their weekly briefings. They usually invite interesting guests from various walks of life. I do the military part.
Yesterday, Hamas announced it was ready to accept a cease-fire without new conditions. Do you believe them?
No. I don’t think that Hamas is motivated to return our hostages. I think that they’re holding on to the hostages as their life insurance policy. That’s what I’ve been saying since January, and I wish to be wrong about it. I’m pessimistic about the chances of getting the hostages back, not because of the actions of the Israeli government. The issue here is that Hamas took them to negotiate for political gain. They are cruel, inhumane, and they will hold on to them until they think that they can’t get a better deal.
There is tension about whether the mission should be to eliminate Hamas or negotiate a return of the hostages. Are they separate, and on what do you think the Israeli government should be concentrating?
On the one hand, they’re separate. On the other hand, they are part of the same challenge. And on the third hand there is a tension between the immediate achievement of both. I say this with utmost compassion towards the families with whom I share their suffering. From a strategic national perspective, what Israel needs to do is defeat Hamas, to make it clear to any terrorist organization that will ever think of attacking Israel again what the consequences are for doing the atrocities of Oct. 7, for murdering and raping and burning and torturing and all of the things that they did. Having said that, the ultimate priority is to defeat Hamas, unequivocally, but a top priority should be to get the hostages back.
How does Israel keep its focus on the growing threat of Iran while fighting these proxy wars with Hamas and Hezbollah and Houthis?
You do it by totally changing your national strategy and acknowledging that Iran has formulated a very effective strategy. They have implemented it with a lot of discipline and long-term patience. They’ve built proxy organizations around Israel and encircle us in a ring of fire. Their aim is to fight the war of attrition against us, to get us weak enough and exposed enough for a military defeat. According to what the Iranians say — according to their documents, statements by their leaders, the people who govern, the Supreme Leader himself and others — their aim is to try to destroy Israel. We should listen and we should take active countermeasures to make that exercise something that is not worth it for the Islamic Republic of Iran. We should have a strategy that is comprised of economic, information, diplomatic and military components. The strategy should be to undermine the stability of the Iranian regime. To force it to play defense, to undermine its ability to create revenue and to force upon them a dilemma where they spend their hard-earned dollars to continue to provide to terrorist organizations or to safeguard their own regime. Israel needs to get support from the U.S. and other countries. It should state very clearly to Iran and its proxies that the next time that one Iranian proxy fires a weapon that came from Iran, Israel will see that as a direct attack by Iran on Israel and will retaliate accordingly.
Have you been surprised by the protests you’ve seen in America, like the one scheduled to take place at your talk? No, it doesn’t surprise me. It sorrows me to see Jewish brothers and sisters doing it, playing into the hands of the enemy, being useful idiots for Iranian and Hamas propaganda. They are on the wrong side of history and are aiding and abetting the enemy. They are providing legitimacy to terror organizations who would butcher them. Jewish Voice for Peace and all the other clowns around would be butchered just the same way as the beautiful, gentle souls in Israel on Oct. 7. Peace activists and people who spent most of their adult life advocating on behalf of Palestinians were butchered with the same brutality as other Israelis. And some of them are still kept hostage even though they have credentials as peace activists and people who have been doing the Palestinian work for years. I think this is the most important perspective for Jews in America to understand — yes, these are terms that they’re dirty, they’re coarse, they’re inconvenient for a sophisticated and cultured Jew in America to say and think, but we are dealing with monsters. We are dealing with terrorists that believe that Jews do not have a right to exist in this land that we call Israel, and that the only way to deal with us is to kill us or force us to convert and subjugate us to their rule. Those are the options from Hamas’ perspective, and it is saddening that there are so many Jews who don’t understand this, who refuse to acknowledge reality and who do the enemy’s work.
How much do the protests by groups like Jewish Voice for Peace matter in Israel? Public discourse is important in the West. The most important country in the world for Israel is the U.S. Supporting Israel in media, politics, on campuses is very important. There are many positive examples of communities that are organized, focused and understand that they need to fight, they need to push back, they need to be out on the streets and not relinquish the public space to the other side: Hamas supporters, Iran supporters and useful idiots. Sadly, I know of other communities that don’t get it. They’re afraid. They fear taking a moral stand. They fear standing with Israel. They think wrongly that if they’ll just be quiet and not show their Jewishness and not show love or support for Israel, things will go away and be okay. That is wrong. The opposing forces in the U.S. show very clearly that this is about attacking Jews. We see it on campuses. We see it in the rhetoric. It’s not about Netanyahu or Israeli operations in Gaza. Those are pretexts. It’s about undermining the rights, the freedom and dignity of Jews in America.
There are many good examples of brave, smart, connected, resourceful and influential Jews who are doing tremendous things. I think we’re seeing a pushback now in universities by organizations like StandWithUs that are making a difference with lawsuits, with informing Jewish students about their rights, giving them access to information, explaining complex issues that they maybe haven’t encountered before. They give them access to clear, verified and trustworthy information.
Read the full article here.
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