I am pleased is punched to have in the studio with me now an interesting fellow. We were just chatting during the break. He is originally from the great massive country of Australia, and after serving proudly in the Australian military, he has now turned his attention to Israel and what's
happening in Israel. And he spent time in Gaza with IDF troops in the last couple of years during the actual fighting, and has now been in the United States for several months spreading the word and supporting a new foundation that he's created. I don't know how new it is. We'll find out a second that he's created to fight anti Semitism. His name is Colonel Michael Scott and welcome to the show, sir.
Hey Mandy, wonderful to be with you today and your listeners.
And now I already told him that just because of the Australian accent, you guys are going to be like, Wow, he's awesome, and he is. So let's talk a little bit about you. First, tell me a little bit about your backstory.
Hi Andy.
Colonel Michael Scott, thirty one year veteran of the Australian Army previous operationals service in East Team or Boganville, Iraq, two tours of Afghanistan, the later operations working hand in
glove with United States Military Force elements. But more recently, from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one, I was secondered from the Australian Army to the United Nations Truth Supervision Organization as a senior unarmed observer operating in Israel, but with responsibilities in Israel up in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
And this was al during most of the hot mess in Syria, hot mess in Israel. The hot mess really didn't break out fully until after you finished that position. Can you tell my audience what the responsibilities how a UN observer actually are.
Certainly the particular mission that I was seconded to has been going since nineteen forty eight. Australians have been supporting the mission since nineteen fifty six. I was the head of the military of one hundred fifty three offices drawn from twenty seven different troop contributing countries, including the United States,
Russian Federation, China and many other nations. And we observed and monitored and reported the terms of the various ceasefire agreements, so we operated heavily up in the South Latani River sector north of Israel. I had team members up in Beirut, in Damascus, Syria, either side of the area of separation between gol Lan and Kenetra, but also elements in Aman, Jordan, and down in Ishmaelia Egypt.
Now, a lot of people don't understand how small that area is that you're talking about, I mean, and this is part of the problem I think for some Americans in understanding why this conflict remains so hot all the time. And it's because we're talking about a very small area of land.
That's right.
If you go from the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv and drive east for one hour, you're at the jordan A valley, which is the border between Israel and Jordan. It's such a small area, and that's something that most Gentiles don't appreciate that when we're talking about Hamas terrorists in Gaza, people that are not dissimilar to the violent militants in the sixth century AD. It's a forty five minute drive south of Tel Aviv.
It'd be the equivalent of Boulder harboring Hamas. I mean, that's really what we're talking about. For Denver rides. It would be having people who wanted to murder you in Boulder and a whole bunch of them and a whole community dedicated to that. That's probably a great way to think about that. How did you go into that experience as a U observer? What was your mindset? What did you think you were going to see versus what actually transpired? Were you close?
So? I think since my early twenties I've had an interest in the Israeli Defense Force and also the Levonde. So when the application came about twenty eighteen, I was
very interested to put my name forward. It was a fascinating part of the world because the Israeli Defense Forces, in my judgment, are the most lawful, ethical, and moral military fighting force world history is known not only with what's happening in Gaza at the moment, but if we look at the modern history from forty eight, nineteen fifty six, nineteen sixty seven, seventy three, the inn Fada's Elebanon campaigns, the Israeli Defense Forces are really excelled against against an
intractable flight foe. David has defeated Goliath in many of the campaigns in the past.
Well, let's talk about now, because there's you know, I yesterday I had read an article that was an a Reuter's article, and I could very easily go through and show the clear instances of anti Israel bias from not mentioning that the local health ministry is her Maasa's health ministry that's giving these numbers. When you went to Israel, you already had a fascination with the IDF. What did you see there that affirmed your belief that they were
operating as ethically as possible in a war zone? Which almost sounds like an oxymoron, You know it doesn't. How can you have ethical war because war is so to determine, to break things and kill people. It's a purpose of war. How do you square that? Give me some examples.
I think the first thing for the listeners to understand is that Israeli defense forces are just that they are a defensive mindset. They're not an offensive mindset. So Israel as a people are very similar to Western liberal democracies around the world. But one of the things that's different for Israel is that forty five minutes away from the second largest city, barbarians that want to rape and murder
on film and then break about it. And so Israeli defense forces face a number of the checks and balances that are very familiar to US military and Australia in terms of targeting protocol, look at proportionality, the laws of war. There really is no moral comparison between Israeli Defense Force, wonderful citizen soldiers and the genocidal maniacs in Hamas.
How do you explain to someone or respond to someone who says, but they're block eating Gaza. But but but they're creating starvation. But how do you how do you explain that?
It's One of my observations at the strategic level is that we operate in an or Welly in age of gas liting and projection. People seem to have very fixed opinions on Israel and the IDEF without any first hand interaction.
It is Allwellian.
People are forming deep mindsets based on what they're hearing
from Beljazerra BBC. For those that are reasonable, open minded, I'd encourage people to get across to Israel, to actually interact with Israelis, because like I saw when I was there from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one Israelis and Israeli defense for are very similar to our own and indeed, for non Jewish people, when I say, when I give an example of how they can actually picture the average idea if depending on their age, I think I tell
them to picture their own children or their own grandchildren, because that's the closest indication of what n IDF sol job is.
Well, there's a sense of duty in Israel, and everybody is in the IDF for at least two years, so you know, everybody kind of goes through the process. But in my experience, to your point about them being a defensive force, no one is ever saber rattling to go bust down the neighbor's door. You know. It is all about just maintaining peace and making sure that their families can grow up and flourish. That's the whole purpose of
the whole thing. Is there ever going to be a situation where IDF movements are not going to be the most highly scrutinized movements in the world, Because I've talked on this show about the barbarians that work for the UN in places like the Congo, who are literally committing war crimes against women, every single day, and it's not making a blip in our news media at all. Nothing is being said.
Yeah, I think a good test for anti Semitism is the Natan Sharansky's three D definition, demonize, delegitimize, and double standards. It's quite shocking when we think of the very imperfect world in which we live, what the Russian troops are doing in Eastern Ukraine, dreadful things that are happening all over the world, but the Israelis are the focus of so much pillary and bile.
It's completely irrational.
And part of the work that I'm involved in in combating any Semitism is connecting with reasonable, open minded people and allowing them to interact with Israel and Israelis and learn and see the truth for themselves, because I think the only way practically that we can overcome or Wellian levels of misinformation is for reasonable people to get across and to live a personal experience.
I'm going to ask you this, and this is just a speculative question. You can answer it or not. It seems to me that Israel has recognized that once again, no matter what they do, they're going to be held to a different standard. So it seems to me from the outside looking in, they are highly committed to completely rooting out Hamas at this juncture, and even possibly going further to completely destabilize Hasbal as we've seen, and now
they're launching missiles at Houthi's as well. Does this feel different? Are we moving towards a final resolution with Iran?
Look, there's a number of significant issues and questions to unpack there. If we look at just the Gaza envelope. Presently, Israeli's three strategic goals are to return the hostages. There's still fifty eight hostages held in Gaza. The second is to dismantle Hamas, and the third is to ensure that the Gaza strip the envelope never again constitutes a threat to the safety and sie security of Israelis Iran is,
of course the head of the snake. Iranian retrick has been very consistent since the late nineteen seventies and the.
Fall of the Shah.
Death not only to the Little Satan, but death to the big Satan the United States, And for me, I take that very personally as as an Australian that's given the whole of my adult life to the profession of arms. And someone that believes in Judeo Christian traditions and the Western civilization that constitutes a threat not only to the safety and security of Israelis Americans, but also to the safety and security of my children and my family and loved ones. And for what it's worth, I see no
non kinetic solution to the Iranian problem. I think that there will need to be a strike to remove once and for all the Iranian nuclear program like we saw in the early nineteen eighties in Iraq.
What you're not Jewish? So what has drawn you into not just being an unabashed supporter of the IDF in Israel, but now you're actively fighting Semitism? What clicked in you that made you say this is going to be my life's mission.
So I think my tipping point was October twenty twenty three.
But to understand that fully, I've got to go back into my early twenties when a mentor of mine, a former commanding officer, said Michael, as part of your professional development, you need to study Israel's wars and so understanding the tactics, the operations, and strategy also exposed me to the history, politics and the peace attempts and so it was only after October twenty twenty three that I have been able to look back that I've been an ardent Zionist since
my twenties because I believe in the political and cultural self determination of the indigenous people in their homeland, deep personal connection with Israelis. People that I know and care for were personally involved on October seven. Indeed, the adopted son of a dear friend of mine is still the hostage in Gaza, one of the fifty eight. And at the time, my eighteen year old daughter was that a music concert four hours away from the family home in Sydney, Australia.
At the same time that kids were being slaughtered and raped in Nova, my daughter was away from home. So to say I can empathize and relate is an understatement.
Let me ask you a question, because you've actually spent time in Gaza, and you've spent time in Gaza during this war. I have got in and on good authority from people who live in Israel, and many of them will say the Palestinian people are as oppressed. Some one said this to me. They are as oppressed by Hamas as North Koreans are oppressed by Kemilun that no dissent is allowed, no protest, no sort of pushback. There are
no elections. So how or do you separate the people, the Palestinian people that initially elected Hamas only to find out what were they go after they elected them? Or do you separate them at all? And if not, why not?
See that's a cracking question. Again.
I'm really smart. I am really smart, Colonel Michael Scott.
I can only give my judgment and looking at the Palestinian people, so not only in Gaza envelope, but Juda and Samaria. I must admit that since the Bibas murders back in February, I've had a lot of difficulty referring to Juda and Samaria as the West Bank. So I remember the celebration and the joy of those people at the spectacle of Shari Kafir and Ariel's body coming back home to Israel.
I think one of the.
Things we've seen at the moment is a level of radicalization that is without precedent and human history. If we look it back at the Mongols, the Vandals, the Tatars, I don't think they I think they pale in comparison. When we talk about the radicalization of the Palestinians, and something that I'm deeply angry about is that it's your taxpayers money and mine that's funded that level of radicalization.
In my judgment, there will certainly be gardens that have got no interest in supporting Hamas, but Hamas rules with
an iron fist. My concern is that Hamas have been operating with the acquisition the acquiescence, but perhaps the majority of gardens, and so even after we look at the operations beyond the kinetic activities in the envelope, there's going to be a sustained period of de radicalization where people of goodwill get into the schools, get into the offices, deradicalize a population, and indeed, for those listeners that are interested, I think that the United Arab Emirates and some of
the work there in terms of firstly outlawing was them brotherhood in the United Arab Emirates, but more particularly establishing a ministry of tolerance, I think that that points to some of the solutions that we might look at seeing in Gaza and the West Bank.
I agree wholeheartedly. When I was probably twenty years old and I'm fifty five now, I saw a documentary called the women of Hesbla, and I didn't know anything about the region at all, but that documentary genuinely horrified me. Because children from the time they were very very little, when they were falling behind their parents in the market or something, they turn around and say, hurry up, or
the Jews are going to get you. And they tell their children if they got out of line, the Jews were going to come take them and kill them and eat them. Now, this is what parents were telling little children. Those little children have no chance, you know, in terms of what they believe and how they're steeped in. And I'm with you, I think it's it's like a two generation process to undo all of that. That is to me going to be the hardest part of peace.
And I think objectively, what are the steps that we can take going forward. I'm a big fan, as a simple soldier of kiss, keep it simple, stupid, and I think the first precondition is to stop rewarding bad behavior. So throwing good money after bad into organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency absolutely a non startup that needs to stop. And unfortunately, like we've seen in the United Nations where in my judgment, the institutions remain relevant.
It's not an institutional problem, it's a people problem. Activists have taken over and infected not only the UN, but agencies that were formally credible like Amnesty International, like the International Rights like UN High Commission Humans. It's outrageous and I think that the simple policy positions there is to stop funding bad behavior.
Israel is a.
Wonderful tolerant organization for those listeners that are interested in understanding a little bit more about what the Israeli government does to provide support for the Palestinians and the territories.
I'd recommend people look at CogAT Coordination of government aid in the territories, and that's got a source of truth to how much water, how much electricity, how much food goes in and it straightaway empowers and enables people like you and me to push back on the hard left Cellos and the social Marxists that are trying to gas light and project their nonsense onto us and shape not only anti Israeli sentiment but anti Semitic center.
Right.
We're almost out of time, and I want to make sure we get to the foundation. The foundation that Michael Scott has founded is the twenty twenty three Foundation. It's an Australian nonprofit organization dedicated to combating anti Semitism. Tell me a little bit about what.
You guys do, absolutely that theseiest way to explain it is that we're very similar to the Fulbright Scholarship, which was established in the United States at the end of the Second World War, not only brings people into US institutions to educate them, but builds cross cultural linkages through
soft power. And so the basis of the twenty twenty three Foundation is to connect with reasonable, open minded non Jews with little or no first ten experience with Israel and incentivize them across to Israel so they can interact with the.
Environment and overcome go to Israel.
In my judgment, there's no practical way to anti Semitism without people going across and seeing the facts on the ground and all of Israel's perfect imperfections. They have to get across there to see the truth and how israelis not just Jewish people.
The Drews, Christian Arabs.
Muslim Arabs interact to be able to push back on some of the gas lighting from some of our failed legacy media institutions and those dim wets we're seeing on campus in Colombia and other over League institutions.
Colonel Michael Scott, I still you have got links to everything. I've got a link to his website. I've got a link to a phenomenal column that he just wrote, an opinion piece that I highly recommend, and now link to the twenty twenty three Foundation. If you would like to support this. I agree because I will tell you my trip to Israel went for my nephew's wedding, which already is a wonderful occasion, but walking through Old Jerusalem is
such a It's just an incredible and powerful thing. I would love for everyone to have that opportunity to walk in the same steps if you're a Christian that Jesus walked in, and if you're Jewish, you go to the wall and you see the foundations of the Temple. It's just the cradle of humanity is in Jerusalem. I mean, there's no other way to say it. So I so appreciate what you're doing and making time for us today and coming with your beautiful Australian accent to talk to my radio listeners.
You very sweet many you wanted to be a guest on your show Schebechlom, everyone,