Speaker 1: I am pleased is punched to have in the studio
Speaker 1: with me now an interesting fellow. We were just chatting
Speaker 1: during the break. He is originally from the great massive
Speaker 1: country of Australia, and after serving proudly in the Australian military,
Speaker 1: he has now turned his attention to Israel and what's
Speaker 1: happening in Israel. And he spent time in Gaza with
Speaker 1: IDF troops in the last couple of years during the
Speaker 1: actual fighting, and has now been in the United States
Speaker 1: for several months spreading the word and supporting a new
Speaker 1: foundation that he's created. I don't know how new it is.
Speaker 1: We'll find out a second that he's created to fight
Speaker 1: anti Semitism. His name is Colonel Michael Scott and welcome
Speaker 1: to the show, sir.
Speaker 2: Hey Mandy, wonderful to be with you today and your listeners.
Speaker 1: And now I already told him that just because of
Speaker 1: the Australian accent, you guys are going to be like, Wow,
Speaker 1: he's awesome, and he is. So let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about you. First, tell me a little bit about
Speaker 1: your backstory.
Speaker 2: Hi Andy.
Speaker 3: Colonel Michael Scott, thirty one year veteran of the Australian
Speaker 3: Army previous operationals service in East Team or Boganville, Iraq,
Speaker 3: two tours of Afghanistan, the later operations working hand in
Speaker 3: glove with United States Military Force elements. But more recently,
Speaker 3: from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one, I was secondered
Speaker 3: from the Australian Army to the United Nations Truth Supervision
Speaker 3: Organization as a senior unarmed observer operating in Israel, but
Speaker 3: with responsibilities in Israel up in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
Speaker 1: And this was al during most of the hot mess
Speaker 1: in Syria, hot mess in Israel. The hot mess really
Speaker 1: didn't break out fully until after you finished that position.
Speaker 1: Can you tell my audience what the responsibilities how a
Speaker 1: UN observer actually are.
Speaker 3: Certainly the particular mission that I was seconded to has
Speaker 3: been going since nineteen forty eight. Australians have been supporting
Speaker 3: the mission since nineteen fifty six. I was the head
Speaker 3: of the military of one hundred fifty three offices drawn
Speaker 3: from twenty seven different troop contributing countries, including the United States,
Speaker 3: Russian Federation, China and many other nations. And we observed
Speaker 3: and monitored and reported the terms of the various ceasefire agreements,
Speaker 3: so we operated heavily up in the South Latani River
Speaker 3: sector north of Israel. I had team members up in Beirut,
Speaker 3: in Damascus, Syria, either side of the area of separation
Speaker 3: between gol Lan and Kenetra, but also elements in Aman, Jordan,
Speaker 3: and down in Ishmaelia Egypt.
Speaker 1: Now, a lot of people don't understand how small that
Speaker 1: area is that you're talking about, I mean, and this
Speaker 1: is part of the problem I think for some Americans
Speaker 1: in understanding why this conflict remains so hot all the time.
Speaker 1: And it's because we're talking about a very small area
Speaker 1: of land.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: If you go from the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv
Speaker 3: and drive east for one hour, you're at the jordan
Speaker 3: A valley, which is the border between Israel and Jordan.
Speaker 3: It's such a small area, and that's something that most
Speaker 3: Gentiles don't appreciate that when we're talking about Hamas terrorists
Speaker 3: in Gaza, people that are not dissimilar to the violent
Speaker 3: militants in the sixth century AD. It's a forty five
Speaker 3: minute drive south of Tel Aviv.
Speaker 1: It'd be the equivalent of Boulder harboring Hamas. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's really what we're talking about. For Denver rides. It
Speaker 1: would be having people who wanted to murder you in
Speaker 1: Boulder and a whole bunch of them and a whole
Speaker 1: community dedicated to that. That's probably a great way to
Speaker 1: think about that. How did you go into that experience
Speaker 1: as a U observer? What was your mindset? What did
Speaker 1: you think you were going to see versus what actually transpired?
Speaker 1: Were you close?
Speaker 3: So? I think since my early twenties I've had an
Speaker 3: interest in the Israeli Defense Force and also the Levonde.
Speaker 3: So when the application came about twenty eighteen, I was
Speaker 3: very interested to put my name forward. It was a
Speaker 3: fascinating part of the world because the Israeli Defense Forces,
Speaker 3: in my judgment, are the most lawful, ethical, and moral
Speaker 3: military fighting force world history is known not only with
Speaker 3: what's happening in Gaza at the moment, but if we
Speaker 3: look at the modern history from forty eight, nineteen fifty six,
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty seven, seventy three, the inn Fada's Elebanon campaigns,
Speaker 3: the Israeli Defense Forces are really excelled against against an
Speaker 3: intractable flight foe. David has defeated Goliath in many of
Speaker 3: the campaigns in the past.
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about now, because there's you know, I
Speaker 1: yesterday I had read an article that was an a
Speaker 1: Reuter's article, and I could very easily go through and
Speaker 1: show the clear instances of anti Israel bias from not
Speaker 1: mentioning that the local health ministry is her Maasa's health
Speaker 1: ministry that's giving these numbers. When you went to Israel,
Speaker 1: you already had a fascination with the IDF. What did
Speaker 1: you see there that affirmed your belief that they were
Speaker 1: operating as ethically as possible in a war zone? Which
Speaker 1: almost sounds like an oxymoron, You know it doesn't. How
Speaker 1: can you have ethical war because war is so to determine,
Speaker 1: to break things and kill people. It's a purpose of war.
Speaker 1: How do you square that? Give me some examples.
Speaker 3: I think the first thing for the listeners to understand
Speaker 3: is that Israeli defense forces are just that they are
Speaker 3: a defensive mindset. They're not an offensive mindset. So Israel
Speaker 3: as a people are very similar to Western liberal democracies
Speaker 3: around the world. But one of the things that's different
Speaker 3: for Israel is that forty five minutes away from the
Speaker 3: second largest city, barbarians that want to rape and murder
Speaker 3: on film and then break about it. And so Israeli
Speaker 3: defense forces face a number of the checks and balances
Speaker 3: that are very familiar to US military and Australia in
Speaker 3: terms of targeting protocol, look at proportionality, the laws of war.
Speaker 3: There really is no moral comparison between Israeli Defense Force,
Speaker 3: wonderful citizen soldiers and the genocidal maniacs in Hamas.
Speaker 1: How do you explain to someone or respond to someone
Speaker 1: who says, but they're block eating Gaza. But but but
Speaker 1: they're creating starvation. But how do you how do you
Speaker 1: explain that?
Speaker 3: It's One of my observations at the strategic level is
Speaker 3: that we operate in an or Welly in age of
Speaker 3: gas liting and projection. People seem to have very fixed
Speaker 3: opinions on Israel and the IDEF without any first hand interaction.
Speaker 2: It is Allwellian.
Speaker 3: People are forming deep mindsets based on what they're hearing
Speaker 3: from Beljazerra BBC. For those that are reasonable, open minded,
Speaker 3: I'd encourage people to get across to Israel, to actually
Speaker 3: interact with Israelis, because like I saw when I was
Speaker 3: there from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one Israelis and
Speaker 3: Israeli defense for are very similar to our own and indeed,
Speaker 3: for non Jewish people, when I say, when I give
Speaker 3: an example of how they can actually picture the average
Speaker 3: idea if depending on their age, I think I tell
Speaker 3: them to picture their own children or their own grandchildren,
Speaker 3: because that's the closest indication of what n IDF sol
Speaker 3: job is.
Speaker 1: Well, there's a sense of duty in Israel, and everybody
Speaker 1: is in the IDF for at least two years, so
Speaker 1: you know, everybody kind of goes through the process. But
Speaker 1: in my experience, to your point about them being a
Speaker 1: defensive force, no one is ever saber rattling to go
Speaker 1: bust down the neighbor's door. You know. It is all
Speaker 1: about just maintaining peace and making sure that their families
Speaker 1: can grow up and flourish. That's the whole purpose of
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Is there ever going to be a
Speaker 1: situation where IDF movements are not going to be the
Speaker 1: most highly scrutinized movements in the world, Because I've talked
Speaker 1: on this show about the barbarians that work for the
Speaker 1: UN in places like the Congo, who are literally committing
Speaker 1: war crimes against women, every single day, and it's not
Speaker 1: making a blip in our news media at all. Nothing
Speaker 1: is being said.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a good test for anti Semitism is
Speaker 3: the Natan Sharansky's three D definition, demonize, delegitimize, and double standards.
Speaker 3: It's quite shocking when we think of the very imperfect
Speaker 3: world in which we live, what the Russian troops are
Speaker 3: doing in Eastern Ukraine, dreadful things that are happening all
Speaker 3: over the world, but the Israelis are the focus of
Speaker 3: so much pillary and bile.
Speaker 2: It's completely irrational.
Speaker 3: And part of the work that I'm involved in in
Speaker 3: combating any Semitism is connecting with reasonable, open minded people
Speaker 3: and allowing them to interact with Israel and Israelis and
Speaker 3: learn and see the truth for themselves, because I think
Speaker 3: the only way practically that we can overcome or Wellian
Speaker 3: levels of misinformation is for reasonable people to get across
Speaker 3: and to live a personal experience.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you this, and this is just
Speaker 1: a speculative question. You can answer it or not. It
Speaker 1: seems to me that Israel has recognized that once again,
Speaker 1: no matter what they do, they're going to be held
Speaker 1: to a different standard. So it seems to me from
Speaker 1: the outside looking in, they are highly committed to completely
Speaker 1: rooting out Hamas at this juncture, and even possibly going
Speaker 1: further to completely destabilize Hasbal as we've seen, and now
Speaker 1: they're launching missiles at Houthi's as well. Does this feel different?
Speaker 1: Are we moving towards a final resolution with Iran?
Speaker 3: Look, there's a number of significant issues and questions to
Speaker 3: unpack there. If we look at just the Gaza envelope. Presently,
Speaker 3: Israeli's three strategic goals are to return the hostages. There's
Speaker 3: still fifty eight hostages held in Gaza. The second is
Speaker 3: to dismantle Hamas, and the third is to ensure that
Speaker 3: the Gaza strip the envelope never again constitutes a threat
Speaker 3: to the safety and sie security of Israelis Iran is,
Speaker 3: of course the head of the snake. Iranian retrick has
Speaker 3: been very consistent since the late nineteen seventies and the.
Speaker 2: Fall of the Shah.
Speaker 3: Death not only to the Little Satan, but death to
Speaker 3: the big Satan the United States, And for me, I
Speaker 3: take that very personally as as an Australian that's given
Speaker 3: the whole of my adult life to the profession of arms.
Speaker 3: And someone that believes in Judeo Christian traditions and the
Speaker 3: Western civilization that constitutes a threat not only to the
Speaker 3: safety and security of Israelis Americans, but also to the
Speaker 3: safety and security of my children and my family and
Speaker 3: loved ones. And for what it's worth, I see no
Speaker 3: non kinetic solution to the Iranian problem. I think that
Speaker 3: there will need to be a strike to remove once
Speaker 3: and for all the Iranian nuclear program like we saw
Speaker 3: in the early nineteen eighties in Iraq.
Speaker 1: What you're not Jewish? So what has drawn you into
Speaker 1: not just being an unabashed supporter of the IDF in Israel,
Speaker 1: but now you're actively fighting Semitism? What clicked in you
Speaker 1: that made you say this is going to be my
Speaker 1: life's mission.
Speaker 3: So I think my tipping point was October twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: But to understand that fully, I've got to go back
Speaker 3: into my early twenties when a mentor of mine, a
Speaker 3: former commanding officer, said Michael, as part of your professional development,
Speaker 3: you need to study Israel's wars and so understanding the tactics,
Speaker 3: the operations, and strategy also exposed me to the history,
Speaker 3: politics and the peace attempts and so it was only
Speaker 3: after October twenty twenty three that I have been able
Speaker 3: to look back that I've been an ardent Zionist since
Speaker 3: my twenties because I believe in the political and cultural
Speaker 3: self determination of the indigenous people in their homeland, deep
Speaker 3: personal connection with Israelis. People that I know and care
Speaker 3: for were personally involved on October seven. Indeed, the adopted
Speaker 3: son of a dear friend of mine is still the
Speaker 3: hostage in Gaza, one of the fifty eight. And at
Speaker 3: the time, my eighteen year old daughter was that a
Speaker 3: music concert four hours away from the family home in Sydney, Australia.
Speaker 3: At the same time that kids were being slaughtered and
Speaker 3: raped in Nova, my daughter was away from home. So
Speaker 3: to say I can empathize and relate is an understatement.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question, because you've actually spent
Speaker 1: time in Gaza, and you've spent time in Gaza during
Speaker 1: this war. I have got in and on good authority
Speaker 1: from people who live in Israel, and many of them
Speaker 1: will say the Palestinian people are as oppressed. Some one
Speaker 1: said this to me. They are as oppressed by Hamas
Speaker 1: as North Koreans are oppressed by Kemilun that no dissent
Speaker 1: is allowed, no protest, no sort of pushback. There are
Speaker 1: no elections. So how or do you separate the people,
Speaker 1: the Palestinian people that initially elected Hamas only to find
Speaker 1: out what were they go after they elected them? Or
Speaker 1: do you separate them at all? And if not, why not?
Speaker 2: See that's a cracking question. Again.
Speaker 1: I'm really smart. I am really smart, Colonel Michael Scott.
Speaker 3: I can only give my judgment and looking at the
Speaker 3: Palestinian people, so not only in Gaza envelope, but Juda
Speaker 3: and Samaria. I must admit that since the Bibas murders
Speaker 3: back in February, I've had a lot of difficulty referring
Speaker 3: to Juda and Samaria as the West Bank. So I
Speaker 3: remember the celebration and the joy of those people at
Speaker 3: the spectacle of Shari Kafir and Ariel's body coming back
Speaker 3: home to Israel.
Speaker 2: I think one of the.
Speaker 3: Things we've seen at the moment is a level of
Speaker 3: radicalization that is without precedent and human history. If we
Speaker 3: look it back at the Mongols, the Vandals, the Tatars,
Speaker 3: I don't think they I think they pale in comparison.
Speaker 3: When we talk about the radicalization of the Palestinians, and
Speaker 3: something that I'm deeply angry about is that it's your
Speaker 3: taxpayers money and mine that's funded that level of radicalization.
Speaker 3: In my judgment, there will certainly be gardens that have
Speaker 3: got no interest in supporting Hamas, but Hamas rules with
Speaker 3: an iron fist. My concern is that Hamas have been
Speaker 3: operating with the acquisition the acquiescence, but perhaps the majority
Speaker 3: of gardens, and so even after we look at the
Speaker 3: operations beyond the kinetic activities in the envelope, there's going
Speaker 3: to be a sustained period of de radicalization where people
Speaker 3: of goodwill get into the schools, get into the offices,
Speaker 3: deradicalize a population, and indeed, for those listeners that are interested,
Speaker 3: I think that the United Arab Emirates and some of
Speaker 3: the work there in terms of firstly outlawing was them
Speaker 3: brotherhood in the United Arab Emirates, but more particularly establishing
Speaker 3: a ministry of tolerance, I think that that points to
Speaker 3: some of the solutions that we might look at seeing
Speaker 3: in Gaza and the West Bank.
Speaker 1: I agree wholeheartedly. When I was probably twenty years old
Speaker 1: and I'm fifty five now, I saw a documentary called
Speaker 1: the women of Hesbla, and I didn't know anything about
Speaker 1: the region at all, but that documentary genuinely horrified me.
Speaker 1: Because children from the time they were very very little,
Speaker 1: when they were falling behind their parents in the market
Speaker 1: or something, they turn around and say, hurry up, or
Speaker 1: the Jews are going to get you. And they tell
Speaker 1: their children if they got out of line, the Jews
Speaker 1: were going to come take them and kill them and
Speaker 1: eat them. Now, this is what parents were telling little children.
Speaker 1: Those little children have no chance, you know, in terms
Speaker 1: of what they believe and how they're steeped in. And
Speaker 1: I'm with you, I think it's it's like a two
Speaker 1: generation process to undo all of that. That is to
Speaker 1: me going to be the hardest part of peace.
Speaker 3: And I think objectively, what are the steps that we
Speaker 3: can take going forward. I'm a big fan, as a
Speaker 3: simple soldier of kiss, keep it simple, stupid, and I
Speaker 3: think the first precondition is to stop rewarding bad behavior.
Speaker 3: So throwing good money after bad into organizations like the
Speaker 3: United Nations Relief and Works Agency absolutely a non startup
Speaker 3: that needs to stop. And unfortunately, like we've seen in
Speaker 3: the United Nations where in my judgment, the institutions remain relevant.
Speaker 3: It's not an institutional problem, it's a people problem. Activists
Speaker 3: have taken over and infected not only the UN, but
Speaker 3: agencies that were formally credible like Amnesty International, like the
Speaker 3: International Rights like UN High Commission Humans. It's outrageous and
Speaker 3: I think that the simple policy positions there is to
Speaker 3: stop funding bad behavior.
Speaker 2: Israel is a.
Speaker 3: Wonderful tolerant organization for those listeners that are interested in
Speaker 3: understanding a little bit more about what the Israeli government
Speaker 3: does to provide support for the Palestinians and the territories.
Speaker 3: I'd recommend people look at CogAT Coordination of government aid
Speaker 3: in the territories, and that's got a source of truth
Speaker 3: to how much water, how much electricity, how much food
Speaker 3: goes in and it straightaway empowers and enables people like
Speaker 3: you and me to push back on the hard left
Speaker 3: Cellos and the social Marxists that are trying to gas
Speaker 3: light and project their nonsense onto us and shape not
Speaker 3: only anti Israeli sentiment but anti Semitic center.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: We're almost out of time, and I want to make
Speaker 1: sure we get to the foundation. The foundation that Michael
Speaker 1: Scott has founded is the twenty twenty three Foundation. It's
Speaker 1: an Australian nonprofit organization dedicated to combating anti Semitism. Tell
Speaker 1: me a little bit about what.
Speaker 3: You guys do, absolutely that theseiest way to explain it
Speaker 3: is that we're very similar to the Fulbright Scholarship, which
Speaker 3: was established in the United States at the end of
Speaker 3: the Second World War, not only brings people into US
Speaker 3: institutions to educate them, but builds cross cultural linkages through
Speaker 3: soft power. And so the basis of the twenty twenty
Speaker 3: three Foundation is to connect with reasonable, open minded non
Speaker 3: Jews with little or no first ten experience with Israel
Speaker 3: and incentivize them across to Israel so they can interact
Speaker 3: with the.
Speaker 2: Environment and overcome go to Israel.
Speaker 3: In my judgment, there's no practical way to anti Semitism
Speaker 3: without people going across and seeing the facts on the
Speaker 3: ground and all of Israel's perfect imperfections. They have to
Speaker 3: get across there to see the truth and how israelis
Speaker 3: not just Jewish people.
Speaker 2: The Drews, Christian Arabs.
Speaker 3: Muslim Arabs interact to be able to push back on
Speaker 3: some of the gas lighting from some of our failed
Speaker 3: legacy media institutions and those dim wets we're seeing on
Speaker 3: campus in Colombia and other over League institutions.
Speaker 1: Colonel Michael Scott, I still you have got links to everything.
Speaker 1: I've got a link to his website. I've got a
Speaker 1: link to a phenomenal column that he just wrote, an
Speaker 1: opinion piece that I highly recommend, and now link to
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty three Foundation. If you would like to
Speaker 1: support this. I agree because I will tell you my
Speaker 1: trip to Israel went for my nephew's wedding, which already
Speaker 1: is a wonderful occasion, but walking through Old Jerusalem is
Speaker 1: such a It's just an incredible and powerful thing. I
Speaker 1: would love for everyone to have that opportunity to walk
Speaker 1: in the same steps if you're a Christian that Jesus
Speaker 1: walked in, and if you're Jewish, you go to the
Speaker 1: wall and you see the foundations of the Temple. It's
Speaker 1: just the cradle of humanity is in Jerusalem. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's no other way to say it. So I so
Speaker 1: appreciate what you're doing and making time for us today
Speaker 1: and coming with your beautiful Australian accent to talk to
Speaker 1: my radio listeners.
Speaker 3: You very sweet many you wanted to be a guest
Speaker 3: on your show Schebechlom, everyone,