Good evening the kulam. Wonderful to see all of you here with us this evening. I'm Steve Zipperstein, faculty director of the Ununis and Saran Nazerian Center for Israel Studies here at UCLA, where our mission is teaching, research, and scholarship regarding modern Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in all of its nuance and complexity. This evening we are so proud to present the annual Ununice Nazarian Memorial Lecture featuring our distinguished guest Dr. Fry Snay who traveled here from Israel just a few hours ago a couple days ago. I'll introduce Dr. Snay in a few minutes but first the university has asked me to read to you a reminder of UCLA's rules for events such as this. So please bear with me everyone while I read this to you. Freedom of speech, which allows for the open exchange of ideas, is a core value at UCLA. As a learning environment, we never shy away from disagreement. Each member of the UCLA community has the right to present speakers and programs as well as the right to protest speech. The university understands that the talk we're going to hear tonight may prompt some disagreement and we recognize and value the rights of individuals to express their views. However, this university will not permit a response or a protest that is so disruptive as to effectively silence the invited speaker and prevent communication with you, our willing audience. Campus officials are present in the room and prepared to approach anyone who creates a disruption. They'll be warned and if the disruption continues, they will be required to leave and are subject to arrest by the university police department. Those individuals could be held accountable under university policy as well as any applicable criminal laws. Our goal tonight is to have a peaceful and respectful event. Please be mindful of other audience members and thank you for your attention. And that concludes the announcement from the university. Now back to me. I want to thank the UCLA Police Department, the UCLA Community Safety Team, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Safety, the wonderful Steve Lur for their partnership with us to keep this event safe for everyone. I also want to express my really tremendous appreciation to the incredible staff of the Nazarian Center. One of our staff left for the private sector. We're down to two staff. The two of them, Mora Resnik and Jane Matusvkaya did everything to put this together. Thank you. I'm also really pleased to announce that after a period after October 7th where our center was pretty much alone at this university, this event tonight is sponsored uh by the UCLA Center for Middle East Development, the UCLA Department of Public Policy, and I'm really proud to say my old department is a student, the Department of Political Science, the largest major for undergrads, they're co-sponsoring our event tonight. Really grateful to them.

Just a bit for a bit more from me if you'll bear with me kindly. Uh I have something really important to say. Before we proceed any further, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Nazarian Family Foundation for everything they have done for UCLA. Not just for the Nazarian Center, but for the entire campus here at UCLA. You please

Ununice Nazerian of blessed memory in whose honor we're here this evening together with his wife Sariah Nazerian had the vision and the generosity 16 years ago to endow and create an academic center at UCLA dedicated to teaching research and scholarship about modern Israel. And since then, the Nazarian Center, thanks to all my predecessors, I've only been here for a year. Thanks to all my predecessors, the Nazarian Center has grown to become one of the most widely respected academic centers in the world, dedicated to the study of modern Israel. In a minute, I'm going to ask Dr. Sharon Nazarian to come up and speak more about her father's legacy. But before doing so, may I please ask all of us to show our sincere appreciation to Sir Ryan Aerian who is here with us this evening.

And now it's my pleasure to invite Dr. Sharon Nazerian to say a few words. Sharon is the president of an Azerian family foundation and a world-renowned leader in the fight against anti-semitism. Sharon, I said I've only been here a year. Sharon has been a great mentor to me as I've taken the helm at the Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. I have been so honored to work with her. Sharon, please come up and say a few words while I put this picture up. Thank you.

Thank you, Steve, so much. Good afternoon. And it's indeed an honor to gather for the Unisonian Memorial Lecture and to pay tribute to our father. um someone who we believe was an extraordinary man whose life journey embodied resilience, vision, generosity and an unwavering belief in the power of education. Our father Ununice Nazarian was not only a remarkable entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was a builder in the deepest sense of the word. A builder of institutions, of opportunity, of community, and of enduring bridges between people, ideas, and nations. Born in Tehran in 1931, our father came of age in conditions of hardship and intolerance facing the Jewish community in the ghettos of Tehran. Losing his father at a young age and being raised by his mother in immodest circumstances, those early experiences shaped a character defined by grit, ambition, and deep empathy. As a teenager inspired by the founding of the Jewish and democratic state of Israel, he spent his formative years there, an experience that left a lifelong imprint on his identity and values. He later returned to Iran where he and his brother built a successful business in construction, manufacturing, and the import and export of heavy equipment. Following the upheaval of the 1979 Iranian revolution, our father moved our family first to Israel and then to the United States, where he once again rebuilt from the ground up in America. His entrepreneurial insight led him to into aerospace manufacturing and major investments in te in technology, including early involvement with Qualcomm. While his business leadership grew through Nazarian enterprises across many different industries, yet for all his successes in business, our father understood that the truest measure of achievement lies in what what makes possible for others and the act of giving back. Together with our mother SA, he devoted himself to philanthropy rooted in education, culture, and community responsibility. Their support helped establish major institutions in the United States and in Israel, including our very own UCLA's Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Through his vision, he helped ensure that generations of students would encounter Israel not through slogans or simplifications, but through serious scholarship, through the study of history, politics, society, art, and culture in all their richness and complexity. That is why this memorial lecture is so fitting. It honors not only the memory of a distinguished benefactor, but the values by which he lived. Courage in the face of upheaval, faith in renewal, devotion to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel. And in the confidence that learning can broaden minds and strengthen societies. This evening, as we reflect on his legacy, we also reaffirm the importance of the Israel studies itself as a field that invites nuance, rigor, and thoughtful engagement with a country and a region that remains central to so many of the defining questions of our time. May tonight's lecture be one worthy of our of his legacy. And I know that with Dr. Snch achieve that. and I hope that his memory will continue to inspire all of us. I want to personally thank Dr. Sniff for flying all the way from Israel at not an easy time given the turbulence um facing Israel even today. So thank you personally from my mom, from myself, from the whole Nesarian family and thank you to um Professor Steven Zipperstein who in a very short amount of time has energized our center has responded to the challenges facing our world um and what Israel has been experiencing in a very difficult year and more since October 7. So my personal thanks to Professor Zerstein and the staff of the Nazarian Center. Thank you very much.

Okay, it's now my privilege to introduce our distinguished speaker this evening, Dr. Fry Snay. Um, and you see the title of his talk behind me, but we met earlier. Um, and you're going to hear his personal story of the rescue of the Israeli hijacking hostages at Intebi, Uganda. July 4th, next month, is the 50y year anniversary. Dr. Snay was the chief medical officer on the commando team that rescued those hostages. You're going to hear his story. You're going to hear things that you probably have never heard before about that amazing um event in Israel's history. Um, since then, since Antbi, he has served his country in a myriad of ways. An elected member of the Knesset, Deputy Minister of Defense, Minister of Health, Minister of Transportation, um, and in more recent years, dedicating himself to um, achieving the two-state solution to better align Israel with its neighbors in the region. We're going to pass around index cards. Please uh write questions on the cards. We'll collect them. They'll be passed up to me. I will sift through the questions and ask as many as I can of Dr. Snay after he finishes uh his talk. Um and focus those questions on the title behind me. Uh let's uh that will be our opportunity to ask him about uh Hamas and Gaza, the uh uh Iran uh Israel US war, etc., etc. Uh, so please think about your questions. Write them down. Keep them brief because I want to answer. I want to p put as many of them as I can to Dr. Snay. If you're a student, please put an S in the corner of the card because I always like to give priority to our students. Um, no faking. Um, and no AI. Um, all right. I want to just before I call up Dr. Stay, uh, you can see him. Uh he's a bit older than he was 50 years ago at Intebi. After October 7, 2023, Dr. Snay volunteered to serve as a reserve officer in the Northern Command Lebanese border. He has served 400 days of reserve duty since October the 7th. Doc,

please welcome Dr. Dr. Fry Snay to deliver the 2026 Ununice Nazarian Memorial Lecture. Dr. Snake, please come up.

Family, Professor, dear guest, good evening.

I was asked uh to speak about what I remember from the raid the rescue mission to Antebe. It's quite a challenge to my progressive demensia, but uh I try to do my best and to take you back 50 years ago. And I will start with Sunday, June 27, 1976. Sunday in Israel, the weekly meeting of the cabinet and almost at the end of the of the of the meeting to remind you the prime minister was itin the defense minister was Shimon Perez. The chief of staff of the IDF was Mo. Uh at the end of the meeting, somebody puts a note to the prime minister. Air France flight 139 from Tel Aviv to Paris was kidnapped, hijacked after a stock over in Athens, Greece. How is all story began? Um, you have to know that in in I see here enough people who are not much younger than me that remember that in the early 70s mainly was characterized this period by a surge of terror attacks. Many of them operations of hijacking, taking hostages, not only to annoy Israel, but to try through this hijacking to get out of the jail the terrorists that we succeeded to put in jail.

So this information was on the table and this is the place to to say that is Rabin as a prime minister had a very strict policy about hostages and hijacked Israelis. As long as there is a feasibility of military operation to rescue them, we do not negotiate with the terrorists. Only if there is no military option to bring them home, then we are negotiating with them. This was his policy. So what happened in later in this day that a small team of very professional, very experienced officers started to plan how we bring the hostages back from Antab. They were taken through they stopped over I think in Algeria and then were taken to Uganda. Why Uganda? The ruler of Uganda was a dictator by the name of Idi Amin and he was very sympathetic to the Palestinian terrorist organization and they agreed with him that they will conclude their operation on his territory and will bring the hostages to Antbe to the airport of of Antebe. Another point which is important and you will see immediately why Israel had very good relations with with Uganda as in with many other African countries and in the 60s and the early 70s our teams of our air force of and of the IDF trained the Ugandan soldiers and pilots in Uganda and had wonderful relations with those uh local local officers.

Soon I will explain how it a little bit helped us. So the team of the officers the planning team started to to gather information intelligence which till that time we were not active in in Uganda for for intelligence. They succeeded to gather those Israelis who trained Ugandadian in Antb airport that they will tell them about the airport, the facilities and they started to plan operation very secretly.

It's even not under the radar. is deep in the earth that they were sitting in the in the operation post, commanding post of IDF, maybe three, four floors under the ground in in Tel Aviv. And they started the planning.

There was no sign outside this bunker that Israel is preparing to a rescue operation. The atmosphere in the Israeli street was that actually we will have to negotiate with the terrorists and there was no any awareness of an imminent operation.

That's why the the hijacking happened on Sunday. I was I was even not surprised that I received a call on on Thursday evening to come to a certain military office in Amazon. I didn't imagine that it is may be connected to a rescue operation in Uganda. In that time I was a major. I was the the chief medical officer of the par troopers and infantry uh corp of the IDF and I was in charge of planning the medical treatment and the medical evacuation in all the spatial operations that IDF planned or carried out. Besides my training as a in the internal medicine department of Shiba Medical Center, it was my additional job to be in charge of the of these operations. So Thursday evening they asked me 10 10 p.m. they're advising me to come.

only after 10 minutes of driving the car to Amadan I say wow if they call me now this is it can be only for one table I had no hint that this is the the reason but it took another 10 minutes I met the operation officer of our of our corp and he told me there is a governmental decision, prime minister decision to try and bring our hostages back home. In that time the number was 117. Gradually they released some non of course non-Israel but non-Jewish passengers and this and the number was 105. So the decision was taken to bring to try and bring them home by a special commando operation. Um and he told me briefly what is the plan to to land in uh secretly without any announcement or lights in a tab air boat four airplanes cargo planes if you know the type of C130 this is the American name of this type of aircraft C130 and they will be divided as followed. The first in the first one will be a team of the famous elite unit. Those who read about it about IDF know the name. How they will arrive the old terminal of airport where the hostages were were kept. black Mercedes like the Mercedes of the Ugandan president Idiamin and after him two jeeps with soldiers and the same way that he used to visit various places in Uganda black Mercedes with idiiamin to escort on jeeps and we use exactly the type of jeep that that his guard used to used to use it was those who know Land Rover a British Land Rover. So two Land Rovers and after the black Mercedes this will be the first aeroplane. The second one will take two light armored car

armed with grenade launchers. It's It's like a machine gun, but instead of bullets, it it's shoots 40 mm grenades. Very effective. Not pleasant to be on on the wrong side of of this machine. And they had a very special purpose to destroy about 20 MIG jet fighters that were that were at at the airport. And what we were afraid of that even if everything will succeed and we are flying with the hostage flying back home, then they will scramble this uh group of jet fighters and they will shoot us down above the above the Indian oceans on the way or this the Red Sea on our way home. And it was very easy target. four large cargo planes like between dozen to 20 MIG jet fighters, we had no chance. So the mission of this two light armored car was to eliminate the the mid jet fighters. In the third airplane will be parat troopers from the paratrooper brigade. Their mission is to capture the old air terminal of airport. Why? Because the control tower was in the new terminal. So to see the the new air terminal of Enbe was a very important mission and the about 50 paratroopers were were sent to this mission on the third airplane. On the fourth, there were Golani fighters, the famous infantry brigade fighters that will support Syad Mascal in their mission in the old terminal in fighting and in whatever necessary. And we had on this airplane two two pickups. one for for for me and for other Golani commanders and another one with a pump in a case that we will have to refuel the airplanes from the from the fuel in the airport because we didn't we were not sure how we fly back how we get how we can refuel four four large airplanes So in a very Israeli way of thinking, we took pump, two pumps of our own, put them on the pour pickup and they were uh their mission was to be ready to pump the the airplanes in and the airport. So this was the the the the idea of the of the of the operation. The the plan was to bring all the h the the rescued uh hostages to the aeroplane num number four.

Okay. So about 10:30, 11 11 p.m. I had the plan of the operation and now I have to plan my part. How we take care of the wounded and how we bring them home alive. What were my main consideration and my main concerns? one. It's a huge It's a huge distance from home. 3,800 kilometers. You will translate it to miles, but it's a long distance, several hours of flight. So the problem is not the flight to endeavor but the long time which it will take to return and to maintain the wounded alive and to give them life supporting treatment during the a long flight were on board of a C130 cargo plane. Second consideration, we have to expect many casualties. Why? Because you know we Israelis are living up to our traumas of the past. And two years earlier, a group of terrorists came from Lebanon succeeded to capture a a large group of high school students in the town of Malot in the in the Galilee.

and to take them hostages and to demand to to that Israel will release terrorists

in in return. And when Sat Mal started to raid on the building where the terrorists held the high school students, they just open automatic fire and 17 boys and girls, high school students were killed. So this was in our memory when we start to planning another operation of releasing hostages. We thought here the terrorists can do the same. Let alone our fighters that will be there but they will they will shoot at the at the hostages that were concentrated on the floor sitting on the floor in in one hole. The third option of which was my my concern that may be that for a long time we will be stuck in in a without ability to fly back home. It means it may prolong the time that we will have to give emergency medical treatment to to wounded people. So these were the main consideration for me when I started to plan the our part in the in the operation.

I calculated how many doctors I need for all the for the forces of of Sarah Mascar of parat troopers of Golani and I came to the conclusion that in order to maintain the life supporting treatment I need on board of the force C130 aircraft to have a flying surgical team with ability to operate to make even emergency operations and life support activities in the badly wounded soldiers and hostages and maybe will be many of them. And we need for this special equipment of course to enable us to operate during the flight and to have fresh blood to to give them to to to their veins as an infusion. So I I planned a team of 12, six do actually seven doctors, five paramedics. One is the commander and I I appointed as the commander of this team a very famous paratroopers doctor by the name of Iran Dolv. He was older than me though. We grew up in the same street in Tel Aviv, but he was born in 39. He was older than me. He was a very senior officer in the the medical core and in the parers. So he will be the commander and few surgeons, paramedics to help them and another officer that his weapon was a megaphone loudspeaker. Why? If needed to tranquilize the hostages on their way home, they will be excited. that they will be afraid to to be their their nani during the flight.

This was the idea and the the time is very late night of Thursday at 6 a.m. in the morning. I knocked at the door of the department of general professor Danny Mkelli. He was the surgeon general of the IDF. And uh it was a a nice wake up procedure. Uh of course he opened the door and I sat with him in the living room and I explain know in the kitchen and I explained him how we are going to bring home the hostages from Antebe and what I need from him to provide me. So I gave him the list of doctors and paramedics and the list of medical equipment that that I need. It was Friday morning for the next day for Sabbath for Saturday. Hey, this is my wish list please. And he of course said you will have it. You will have it.

This this was as I say Friday 6 a.m. Um I didn't have much much time for further preparations because at 10 we had briefing for the participating officers in a military camp besides Tel Aviv. Silkin camp to those of you who know it. And there happened one not a personal but important change that Audak in that time he was lieutenant colonel was supposed to command the operation in an in the airport in inbe. He was replaced by Yonyi Netanyahu. Yon Netanyao was in western Sinai in in those days preparing another operation not connected to this and he was brought from Sinai to to Israel back in because Audak was assigned to be our liaison officer in Nairobi Kenya. Yeah,

in the planning we came to the conclusion that we must have a a forward base in Kenya again far from Israel very far from Israel like from few hundred kilometers but it will enable us to to do several things that otherwise we couldn't and we had to send some someone very experienced and with high rank talk to the authorities in Kenya. So this was the mission of Aud. He was able was by the way later prime minister you know it was sent to to Nairobi and Yonyi Netanyahu replaced him and from during the briefing he became the commander of the operation

in in during those hours in Friday we have many more detailed planning in many deliberations, many uh discussions how to solve possible developments during the operation. And one big question was and which was uh related to my job was can we send badly wounded soldiers and hostages to to Nairobi? Who will treat them? How will in how will they be treated? How can we engage them and not exposing too early the idea of of the of the operation? And then we took a decision to send to Nairobi airport a field flying field hospital on board of a Boeing 707. This was the largest aircraft that we that we had in that time. That on the board of this Boeing 707 will be a a field hospital that will be deployed in Nairobi airport during during the the raid. And the planning was that this Boeing will land at Nairobi at the same moment that the forces will land in Antebe. So we shall not expose our intention be before the the the right time. So we

we we built this uh this uh hotel and we decided to put him on the Boeing and that the Boeing will land for the coordination of all this forced cooperation with the with the Kenyatis. Barak went to to Nairobi.

I say that we we had few hours for preparations and for unexpected problems. Uh I will tell you one of them was and I speak about Friday evening. Friday evening while we are doing several rehearsals we received an information from ENTB that there is a a I can't say epidemic but outburst of anthritis of diarrheas among the the hostages

and let's let you imagine you should not be doctors what What are you doing with 100 [ __ ] people on on board of one of one airplane? Quite a challenge

and but we have to find a solution. Uh so what we did

our logistic officer was very had his ingenuity. He went to one of the mushim near Silkin. You know what's mushim? And went to the farmer who had many cows and he took from him those jars of aluminum that that big. Took two of them. He didn't tell to the farmer why he needs it, but he so f Friday after midnight, a lieutenant coroner come to his come to his farm in a bush and say I that's what I need. So he was obedient Israeli citizens. He gave him two jars of aluminum and we put it on the on board of the fourth C130 and this was supposed to be the flying toilet of the operation. I will tell you now that nobody used it. The the whole the whole story about the diarrhea about the massive diarrhea was either fake or fantasy but it was not true. But it does give you idea about what kind of problems you have to to tackle without any previous preparation when you are in the preparations for such a complicated uh mission. Okay. Saturday morning, last last briefing in place that some of you know, Benuan airport in the military side of Benguran airport

last briefing and we we have a permit to lie, but only to Shameh. Shame Mash is a resort in South Sinai on the on the beach of the Red Sea. I'm sure part of you know with Shah Mash and we have to stop over for a while mainly to receive the last okay from Rabin to go to the desert.

I didn't tell you this, but in in all those days, Rabin demanded one thing from the air force commander and from Moore, the chief of staff. Convince me, and Rabin knew a thing or two about military issues. convince me that you can fly, land, and take off safely back to Israel with the with the with the hostages. That there is a technical feibility to this long range operation. It's not something easy. It's not something simple to send four large cargo C130 aircrafts almost 4 4,000 kilometers to land in a totally blackened airport and to come back in the in the same night of between Friday and Saturday. the the pilots did rehearsals that convinced Robin it's possible and he expected for more and more for more information. So we landed in Sham. What I did is I I give to to each to each soldier a pill of I don't know how you call it in say traine. It's anti it's for against air sickness against vomiting so at least that in the in the hours that we are flying to antbe they will not vomit and so that's what I gave them in shame we waited 4:30 we received the green light from Jerusalem to take to take off and then we started the long flight to

one word about the atmosph sphere in the in inside the airplane in the during the flight.

Maybe there was tension but there was no anxiety and I have to tell you my my feeling was that there is no shred of doubt that we should succeed in the mission and we'll return home. Ask me why. It's not just no

braua or arrogance or boasting. No, there was a reason for for my feeling. I knew personally all the commanders on board in my in my aircraft and in the other fleet and I knew them not from the Gulf Club but I knew them from wars from operations and I knew this is invincible time the best of the best in the world in a professional fighting.

There is no chance that this team will fail. Why? Only because I knew personally the persons

me not at least several of them became later on after their military service very famous members of the Israeli cabinet. One of one of them the one who was with me in the same aircraft was Gabi Ashkenazi later on chief of staff foreign minister of Israel in the in the airplane number three was Matan Vi again later on he was minister he was deputy chief of staff donor mo the head of the Jewish agency today was in the third airplane. Shaul Mufas Shaul Mufas was later chief of staff and minister of defense. He commanded the light armored cars to destroy the the mix. Omar Balev, the son of Minister Balev, command later commander of Mat later he was before Ben, he was the minister of national security. So those those were the people there to give you an idea why I was so I was so quiet that we should win. So we landed after several hours. Well, it's darkness. Of course, the airport is dark. No lights, no no warm reception, but no reception at all.

We landed silently and the first thing that I see through the window is the French aircraft of France. standing there. I tell them, I said to myself, at least we're in the right place.

And immediately after that, the the first vehicle start to disembark. the the team of Yonyi Netanyahu get clo closer to the terminal and from the control tower Ugan soldiers start shooting in them and I see the the the

the bullets from control tower to the area where the Syad Mascal soldiers were. But they made their way very quickly and started immediately to take over. In 40 seconds, all the all the five terrorists inside the building were dead. There were five terrorists, two three Palestinians and three Germans. No, two two Germans, three Palestinians. After 40 minutes, it was done. They were all dead.

And but there was sighting in other places in one in the there was we had one terrible casualty in the new terminal. One of the paratroopers a Ugandan police officer shoot him with his handgun here and he is still alive until today 50 years but totally paralyzed till today. He the one who paid a high price all those years. He survived but he was terribly terribly sick.

I I reached the I reached the old ter the old terminal where were the hostages where it was the the central goal of the operation. I see on the wall a colleague of mine his name is David Kasin. I was he was the one that I choose to participate. He was from in in that time he was himself from Matkar and he he treated Yonyi. Yonyi was pale white as as a as a wall. Why? Because later on we we understood why because the the the bullet of the Ugan soldier entered here and and went his left his body here. So it's he it lacerated all his big vessels in the chest. So he lost almost all his blood inside. That's why he was he was so pale. We we we did what is supposed to be done in this condition of what we call in medicine hypoalmic shock. mainly my co my colleague David Kasim and I and we decided to evacuated him immediately to the to the C1 surgery number number four where we where the flying surgical team remained on board

When we are treating Yonyi, I I hear voice of footsteps of people going. I I turn my head and I see all all the hundred hijacked passengers are rushed by the the the soldiers of S Mazcar to to the to the to the airplane. At first it gave me the assurance that the mission is achieved. They are on the way to freedom. They are on on their way to the to the airplane that will take them to Israel where where there is a good team that will take care of them. But I must tell you the association that I had in this very moment. Maybe many of of you know the picture of the Jews going outside from Warso ghetto with their hands up and encircled by German soldiers. It reminded me the same picture in the same moment. I'm wise to tell you this now in UCLA after 50 years. In that moment the the association that it gave of the ofund 100 civilians, old people, children rushed in a in a march to the to the airplane. That's what they had in mind. That's what they had in mind. But now I can they went on their way to a Israeli aircraft surrounded not by German soldier but by seal soldiers. This is the difference. Um later on a little bit later after we we finished and we were sure that all the wounded are treated we had not Yonyi was the the most severely wounded person but there were few other two hostages were already dead

and Jeanjacuni they were killed in in the during the process of the fighting with with the with the terrorists. One of them by mistake because he stood up instead of lying down and another Israeli citizens that was bad badly wounded. All of them after we stabilized the condition were sent to to the to the force aircraft and then I I joined I after I saw that the wounded in the old terminal I went to the airplane myself. the the French captain of the of the airones aircraft was sitting near the door in the doorstep of the C130. He identified the time an officer one of the commanders he stood up saluted to me and said merc in Frenchu which means thank you. I I want to mention this captain because he could go to France. The the terrorist allow him and his team to go back to France and not to remain with the hostages in ant. But he refused and he said I will stay with my passengers wherever they are. Whatever will happen to them will happen to me. This is a very noble behavior. So it was so important for me now to accept his salute and his it was very meaningful because he was a noble man.

Okay. If you have stayed the court I will I will say two I can't say even lessons but um

call it a do if you like one thing no there are three one more minute I didn't say it but Israel in in 76 was still overwhelmed by the trauma of Yumipo war today we all speak about October 7th but yum kipu war was a strategic defeat in two fronts until we recovered and hit back and won the war. The number of casualties was also four digits. 2600 Israelis were killed in the war and most of all the humiliation that the Arabs s took us by surprise and succeeded in the first phase. So this was the atmosphere the the success inbe gave us back our pride. It was important. Second thing it was a demonstration of Jewish solidarity. The state of Israel, the Jewish state will do everything possible to take care of its citizens and Jews who are not Israelis.

This was an answer without any doubt. And here I will tell you about the the third thing Rabin as prime minister gave to his the director general of his ministry Amos Iran. Some of you may know him. He gave him a letter of resignation and he said if will be more than 25 fatal casualties you give this letter to the president. I will resign because I consider more than 25 casualties. It's a failure and I have to resign as prime minister because I have the responsibility. This was a lesson to to many others what the responsibility of prime minister means. This was very important and I had I I'm loyal soldier of Steve Zipperstein. So I'll stop here but I have another example of how took responsibility to failures and didn't delegate it to other under him. Okay, Steve.

Okay. Um, I know this was a little bit different from what uh you might have thought you were coming to hear, but we're going to pivot to that now and talk about the current situation uh in the region. But I thought it was important, quite frankly, as a professor here at UCLA to take advantage of Dr. 's presence here for you to hear his firsthand testimony of what happened on that faithful mission 50 years ago. Dr. Snay, you mentioned leadership. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. You mentioned leadership and you gave the example of Prime Minister Abin not blaming others, taking responsibility. Uh that may be a veiled reference to somebody else in the modern day world. I'm not going to make any political statements. Uh but I do want to ask you, we've got a war going on with Iran. Off again, on again. We have a war going on with Lebanon. Off again, on again. We had the war with Hamas in Gaza from October 7, 2023. Ceasefire took effect October 9, 2025. We have a 20point Trump plan. We have UN Security Council Resolution 2803 which embodies the 20point plan. So far, Hamas has not disarmed. Kazbala has not stopped firing in Israel even though there are negotiations brokered by the US between Israel and Lebanon. Iran yesterday fired missiles again at Israel and apparently Trump cajol Netanyahu into not responding more severely than Netanyahu did. What is going on in the region? How are we going to achieve the path to peace? Please give us your perspective on that. And audience, I haven't seen any cards yet, but I would love to ask your questions as well about what is going on today. Dr. Sting, what you described is the reason why in Israel we are so concerned and gloomy. We are three years in war. War in Poland. And what are what are the outcome in Gaza? Hamas that with high cost of hundreds of soldiers which succeeded to defeat is now on its back again controlling half of the territory but almost all the the population in Gaza. They control Gaza. Period. It's not a victory.

The regime in Thran remain and they are more the they are more aggressive. They are aggressive. They self-confident. They are not any more moderate. Though we succeeded to inflict on them substantial damages, we destroyed part part of their nuclear facilities, part of their ballistic missile production, industrial infrastructure. They capsitated the leadership ve very very substantial and and severe blows and they are on their feet and this is a strategic longterm dangerous

hoodies remind us that they still exist and

was established in Lebanon and I vividly remember it because I was the commander of South Lebanon exactly when they started and I identified what they are starting to do and I warned the the government they established in Lebanon as a deterrence against Israel. Today the citizens of northern Israel of the Galilee they are at their mercy bad very bad. So uh this is the a very sad balance of a war where we manifested military ingenuity, superb intelligence capacities,

professionalism, everything good that you can say on military and and on intelligence we manifested in this war. But the final the strategic result is not the same. Well, now you're asking very practical question not theoretical not academic. No, we are in the best academic institution. What should we do? I I think that the by the way I will return in practice the other axis of evil in the Middle East the Turkish Qatari axis is not defeated but it's stronger somehow with support of your administration if I may say so I go back the the Iranian regime is the number one danger to Israel and we have to start now to prepare how we change it not how we topple the regime. It's not practical to topple the regime to replace it with a reasonable democratic regime. It it should not be done now in the amateurish way. It was done before the war. It's a very thorough work. It should be very carefully and smartly prepared. It's not for all right. It's possible. It's doable. Why it's doable? It's doable because the people hate the regime. So, Israel have a partner. Israel had a partner, the Iranian people. But how to to recruit them, how to operate them, it needs

I don't say brain because we have brain but it should it should be well prepared patiently prepared and we have no other choice. There is no compromise with this at least as far as we are concerned. Somebody else may have with them all kind of deals. Excellent. We can't have any deal with this regime because this regime, we have to know it, they are loyal to the longterm strategic goals. They don't lose their line of sight to their strategic long-term ambitions first, second. And in the world that they are pursuing there is no place for a Jew state. We have to understand it. No compromise, no deal this regime must go. And this is our number one strategic goal. Okay. Um I thank you for the questions audience. I'm going to combine a few of them uh into two questions for you focusing a little bit closer to home. Uh Dr. Arian in her remarks mentioned uh Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Um even before October 7th, the current government embarked on a program that they called judicial reform, quote unquote um which prompted mass protests uh every Saturday night in Tel Aviv. people who are opposed to the government government's plan to uh change the way Supreme Court justices are selected to make it harder for the Supreme Court to overturn acts of the uh of the Knesset etc. Um and that uh uh judicial reform controversy many people say caused Israel to take its eye off the ball with respect to Kamas's plans to attack on October the 7th. So, we have an election coming up in Israel in October. Uh, the country is polarized. The country is divided. I tell people here, if you think that we're polarized in the US, take a plane to Tel Aviv and you'll see what polarization really is. We have an election coming up. Judicial reform is still on the table. Lots and lots of concern among academics in Israel about the future of democracy in the country. That's number one. If you could comment on that. Number two, the West Bank. You tell everything. They have nothing to add. Okay. Number I'll I'll make it shorter this time. I'm asking the questions from the audience. Number two, the West Bank. Settler violence. Uh terrible phenomenon. On the other hand, the Palestinian Authority has not had an election in a very long an election. President Abbas is in year 22 of his four-year term. Is there a partner on the Palestinian side for peace? You have spent decades working with the Palestinians. I know that you are personally dedicated to achieving the two-state solution to reconciliation. How can that possibly come about now with the settler violence, with threats of annexation, with the judicial reform controversy, with the with the polarization in the country? How do we move forward? Again, I'm pointing to the screen behind me to peace with the Palestinians.

has been in the Palestinian issue. This is the most I would say acute problem. Now what I'm very much concerned is that Iran will try to turn the West Bank to another proxy. Why? And here is our fault. We we the government succeeded to crash economically the PA. The result is that people there are terribly poor and poor people are easy clients for terrorist organizations. If you take a boy in a refugee camp in the West Bank and give him 200 seconds, he will do everything. And this is the danger. There are many of them and they are very close to our towns and villages now. So if there is a flare up of violence in the West Bank is a huge huge and dangerous security challenge to Israel. Now the the for the Iranians it's relatively easy job. just to funnel the money and to find those who are ready to take to take action.

All the measures that are taken to destroy the PA, Palestinian Authority, helping Hamas, helping Iran because there is a B internal belt there. When the government of of Abbas is weaker, Hamas and Jihad are stronger. And the basic mistake before October 7th was to make Hamas stronger and to make Abas weaker. It should not be repeated. It should be reversed.

Israel can stand against the challenges that are still there by building a regional coalition of all those who oppose Islamism, who oppose jihad, who oppose the Muslim, the brotherhood. We can we have potential partners like UEI, like Bah Jordan and Egypt who do have signed peace with Israel. But this coalition must be built and it it can build only with a very very smart and creative policy. We have a huge threat if that I said two axis. It's not only the Iranians. Qatar, the richest country in the world, investing billions and billions

in incitements in in fostering anti-Israel and anti-Jewish theories.

maybe even uh in this country as well. Okay, I advise you to to search. Yeah. So the situation is is complicated. But if Israel does the right things, we we can forto those dangers. And the about the Palestinian authority of course they have a lot of fruit to to improve themselves but when those about reforms reforms I know all the other countries in the region they are not the world even when it come to incompet in competency incompetence excuse me and and and corruption they are not the world. So just to preach them reform reform at first start to crush them let them alone allow them to stand on their own feet and let try to lectures. Are you prepared to tell us? But thank you again these are great questions. Who would you favor for the next prime minister of Israel and the next president of the PA if you're willing to tell us in public? Number one. Number two, uh can you comment on the Karedi draft issue which is very divisive now. Number three, as I mentioned, elections coming up. Is it possible that the Arab parties who may win as many as 14 or 15 seats by some estimates, could they actually become the deciding factor in forming a coalition, which would be incredibly ironic given that it used to be the National Religious Party that played that role? Uh and then I have more questions for you after that. I if you offer to answer these questions, I think you have to give instruction to your excellent team to prepare the breakfast. Okay, you guys ready to stay all night?

I will try to do it briefly, but as I talk about my dementia, remind me what was your first question? I I don't remember the first question. Um, who would be your favorites to be prime minister? And this is the easiest, this is the easiest question because when I'm a guest of UCLA, I will not speak here about the party politics. It will be totally appropriate. I I really I I very grateful for this invitation. I think I can speak about this question. I I told you my account of inbe the Israeli people will decide in October will be but you had another question about Palestinian leadership no doubt that they have to reorganize themselves from my talks with Palestinians it's still doable that all those who want to be the successors of almad will close theel in one room and will decide that they work working as an emergency collective leadership. It will change the entire situation because like that it can slide to civil war. Why? Every one of them have guys with classical. When the guys with the classical will start shooting on each other, it will not be ended well. It will be actually be triumph for the for for Hamas and J. But all of them and as you I I I know what they're thinking about. What is what is their way of thinking? They want to replace Abu Maz but they share his his I would say school of thought that the way for Palestine is not through fighting with Israel but through agreement with Israel. This is our

if they adopt this policy there there can be a very good result if they sit together now they told me yes we are ready but you know let's let's test it okay and the karedi draft and then the Arab um power in forming the next coalition about look allow that the prime minister wants to submit to the president and there is one line which I think is terrible. It's not a condition the the the money for this and the and this is not what annoys me but the law says that the role the national role of those who are the are equal to the fighters of IDS. I cannot accept it. If there is such a law, it means that Israel is theocracy. We we educate, we teach our children to be fighters. Not all of us, but most of the Israelis.

We encourage them to be fighters. Why? To defend the Jewish state. To tell them that they are equal, those who are going to fight. And now especially now when they the their businesses are are are collapsing and the families are in terrible crisis because there is no father at home to tell them you are equal to those who at our expense sitting in the and and studying Torah is a it's a moral decay.

We have the very basic the very basic of the Jewish state. We glorify there are some people we all know they say that it's a a bad culture but we glorify the fighting. We glorify the fighters because they sacrifice to put them

to to compare them and to make them equal to those that with all due respect sitting in the Shiv. It means that you accept the most theocratic way of thinking and impose it through law on the on the state of Israel. It's It is shameful in a way that I can't imagine. Okay, we have about 10 now. Now, now about I do have more questions for you. So, more I have more questions. So, I I said that I'm ready to stay here until until all the rest. Okay, look, we have a we have to understand the Arabs, the Israeli Arabs, they are 21% of the Israeli population. If somebody likes it or not, they are integral part of the Israeli society. Not every not all the not all the pilots in are yes but I think 90% of the chemistry the Israeli pharmacist are Palestinian

the medical medical team when I go to for examination the lady with the with the scar be before she she stab stab me with the with the siren say

fortunately fortunately it works I I'm not I'm not I don't believe in Allah but but she said

it worked now I can't tell her look you are good enough to to suck my blood in the lab of course and to say yes but you you are not you are not eligible to participate in the government. God forbid if somebody here in California said I I am not accepting Jewish government. Why should we say that? As long as they abiding by the law, they're not. They're not terrorists, but they abiding by the law. And the political leader represent a party of five, five, maybe more since the president says publicly this is a Jewish state and I take care for the interest of my constituency. What do you want from him? He he he is not representative of the country. He representative of Arabs and and his his voters are fully citizens of of of Israel. So this is this is the answer you they cannot be excluded. If they will be excluded, it will cause to Israel a huge damage because this is all the time we we we protest against this stupid title state but they can turn into a partic state. This is a disaster. Yeah, absolutely. Um, the most asked question from the audience is about Gaza. And I'm going to kind of take that question and combine it with another one. After the trauma ask about Gaza. After the trauma, you want to fast after the trauma of October the 7th that Israel sustained on October the 7th and the trauma that then people in Gaza sustained when Israel responded and there was an enormous amount of destruction and human suffering in Gaza which no one is a fact. How are the two sides? How how are the two sides? The Israeli people polls now show there's not much support for the two-state solution. The Palestinians who are living on top of rubble in Gaza, the West Bank or the settler violence. How can we achieve reconciliation, doctor? How can we achieve reconciliation between the two sides?

For me, the cruelty of Hamas was not a surprise cuz I saw them how they took over in 2007 in Gaza. Horrible things. Horrible thing they did to their brothers, not to us, to their brothers. So I was not surprised, you know. I say I became sober after. If you were if you were sober what was what we you were before that there's no romantics here the film I'll tell the the the plain fact

between between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean there are 15 million people five million half of them half of them are Jewish all The rest are armed. This is one fact that we have to understand. The second one on 20% on 20% of the territory 5.5 Palestinians are living. 5.5 Palestinians living on six. Now, if you decide to control forever on the foreseeable future, this 20% and the 5.5 Palestinians that are living there is a prescription for eternal war.

No security, no peace. It means unended war. There are people who want it and I say that if they put their their school of thought to the to the decision of the Israeli people, let them try. But tell the tell the truth. Tell the truth that because of theological reasons you want

eternal war. If you don't want internal war and you want to prevent it, you have no other choice but to get rid of the control of this 20% of the land because those 20% of the land comes with 5.5 Palestinians, not Arab Palestinian. This is about two sex is not a dream of of twoers. No, some naive peacemongers. No, this is the only way to preserve the Jewish state as a Jewish state. When you have 50% non-Jewish are your citizens, it means that you are not Jewish state.

That's that's the way I I I I see it. There is no other way. and not the problem not enough not enough so-called leaders say the truth to the people what they want to do with them. So here here now Gaza we have to know because Gaza there are 2.3 million Palestinian Gaz living now in horrible horrible conditions. You should not love them in order to admit that these are horrible conditions. You see the mud in the winter, the scorching heat in in the summer, the the mud in the winter and they are living there in the tents. It's it's very this is a time bomb and I don't want that this time bomb will explode in our face and it will the the notion the philosophy or the ideology which which say that these are not human beings will not work in a day of in a in a real day of decisions. So we now we can what is the wisdom of the of the Trump plan to turn the construction of Gaza to a leverage to a political solution. That makes sense. Okay. Um on that note and we have just a minute left. You mentioned gloom, the gloomy mood in the country. Is there anything that you can tell us as we leave this room this evening? And again, I want to thank the audience for bearing with us. I thought the antebi discussion was a good setup for our discussion about the current situation. Give us some give us a note of hope as we leave the room.

Why I'm optimistic. I have five reason six reasons. They all the names of my grandchildren. I don't have the privilege to be pessimistic because I have to to provide their future. But this and their

I do believe that good Israel will prevail. I don't believe in false I don't believe in false unity which is not based on common denominator a certain common denominator and I read two examples one from who was who besides me on the pickup in what's his name itam he's also a swam he became the leader of the religious Zionism of the Mazda and we even serve together in the cabinet of our throne and with all that we are not enemies.

I again personal experience in in the 400 days of Milim which I did I was with another 12 12 Israelis exactly partition of the population and we work together very nice what I think that what we can overcome the hat we can overcome the hatred not the differences but the fact is that we succeed to to live together and to act together. That's not important. Now,

the majority of the Israelis are pro-democracy.

They are liberal in the sense that they are against destruction of the democracy and the judicial institutions. And I believe that this majority will win in this way or another. This you spoke about the demonstrations. I I went to I went to the demonstration just in psychotherapy against the blue. Why? Because whom I saw in the demonstration whenever I went right the people that I met in the operations in the wars that I met in the high tech community the the bright young brains that make Israel what it is a startup nation. I met him there and I believe that good Israel will win. That's what I believe. We have high quality of people. I said in another opportunity about the joint war with United States and I made it very very clear our achievement in the war and we had wonderful achievements with all what happened after we bought this gun. This is the result of the not only of the braven but of this bright brains of our daughters and sons. No one did us any favor. It should be very very clearly understood. No one is doing us a favor. what we achieved is through brilliant young Israelis and these Israelis will prevail. Okay, I think that's a very good note to end. Thank you, Dr. Sn.

Thank you so much.