welcome back to worlds apart and about dontcha lawman an israeli air force veteran and columnist for the jerusalem post colonel let's talk about israel's own actions namely beast massive air raid on the t. four air base near holmes is this is not the first time that israel hit targets in syria and until recently russia's reaction to dive has essentially been to look the other way do you think moscow will continue to tolerate what it clearly sees as a pretty dangerous behavior on the part of israel interesting question because after the last attack we heard rhetoric from syrian leadership from from sorry for russian leadership criticizing israel for the attack my guess is that it also had to do with the early warning and coordination about the specific attack because in general i think russia respects the fact that we are carrying out pinpoint attacks that have to do with vital interests of israel mainly preventing strategic weapons coming online that would that would hurt israel because if you notice i mean what

are we doing inside of syria again we have no claims from syria we have no disputes with syria the only reason to enter syrian air space would be to take out specific targets that are threatening us so that's why i think when you say turning the blind eye maybe it's a bit more than that it's an appreciation that israel must look out for our income while i agree with you that up until recently russia and israel have been able to keep it civil and even friendly but when israel launches a massive attack on the day when russia believes its main priority is to avert world war three from breaking out i can just tell you that this is not very good for fostering. you know goodwill even if you believe that israel has to do it didn't have to do it on dot particular day they're going to remember talking with someone with a lot of operational experience i can tell you that many times the timing of operations were such that many aspects of mainly the intelligence and the. timing

of an operation is very interesting sometimes you wait for many months and even years and then when the time is right you carry out the operation and many times in the past it happened that it's coincided with another event and then the entire world is speculating about the timing when really the timing had nothing to do with the other events in this case my guess and it's only my guess and my assessment that this attack into four was an issue of timing it was for two things i would imagine one could be unmanned systems by iran that are threatening israel second or maybe both are strategic capabilities to be transferred to his but i remember also when we talk about syria we're talking about many many years of airplanes coming into damascus airport offloading equipment and two to four going to trucks and then these convoys going in and arming to the teeth preparing for the next round of violence to attack our villages our civilians so this is why this is a vital interest for israel to neutralize these capabilities i would even guess

that we would want to do it our interest would be to never intervene never do anything that is perceived as interfering intervening in this war in syria but i think we have no choice with such a target now they have a claim to the israeli leadership is making is that under no circumstances can israel allow iran to establish its military infrastructure in syria but i think that that kind of argument doesn't sit very well neither with syria nor i think to some extent france russia and in response to. you know previous attacks on the syrian the military facilities one of your jabs has already been downed i'm talking about af sixteen's it was their first military job loss to adam a fire in many decades do you have any fears that it may not be the last because syria it seems is taking a much more bullish view on what it has to do to protect its own sovereignty in you know in the form of pile. maybe you think that i would be all worked up because of

one downed f. sixteen absolutely not war is complicated during war you lose soldiers you lose tanks and occasionally use a plane it's just equipment no big deal especially in this case where the pilots bailed out safely in israeli territory remember also that our ammunition most of that is minute factored in israel is such that we don't need even need to fly into syria we just take off fly over israeli territory launch the missile that flies one hundred kilometers hits its target and no plainest across the border so i think this issue of downing israeli jets has absolutely no reflection to the situation the situation is the strategic issue in the sensitivity of our cooperation or coordination or delicate ordination with russia which is now assisting the assad regime and when we hit a target that's very important for us in iranian or syrian targets shortly it's complicated if in the same base we have russian forces in the last thing in the world we would want to do is term even one russian soldier now colonel i heard you

say that israel scurry and security post is meant to protect your resolve not to allow the breach of israeli sovereignty and you use that more its sovereignty quite a lot and you're writing you also sadat it means that we can do you whatever we want to deal take out any component we want wherever we want and i honestly cannot understand how you can put the respect for sovereignty and the entitlement to do whatever you want to do wherever you want to do it in one face what makes you believe that any country with respect to yourself and your security interests without getting dissaving respect from you excellent point i got to tell you when i write that i think about that myself and also i think israelis sometimes may be over react in the shoes who have sovereignty. but it's important to understand that when we violate someone's sovereignty for instance we fly in lebanon a lot you may you may ask how can we fly over another sovereign nation isn't that disrespect to our neighbors so first i would tell you that we respect our lebanese

neighbors a lot and wish them all the best of a lot of stability and peace because when you look into the entire region that our interests our interests are peace and stability when you look at iran the iran just flew a drone into israel we shut it down a few months ago why is he running penetrating israel for what they say very clearly to what end to destroy us why do we penetrate and go and attack a target before is it to go and kill kill. civilians is it go to carpet bomb someplace is it to violate someone's sovereignty just to show that we can know is to take out a specific target and it's true that in israel's history we did this many times and we still do again as a pilot i'll just tell you i flew all over the middle east we fly wherever we need to fly and we do whatever we need to do but i also can tell you that when we do it it's pinpoint to achieve our military our strategic goals making sure that what we're doing is necessary if it's taking out the iraqi nuclear power plant in one

thousand nine hundred one or the syrian one just a decade ago it's because we believe what the leaders what the leadership says if a leader says i'm going to kill you and i'm also building building a nuclear facility i must believe them and attack them i think you're also slightly mr presenting these are the iranian position but to some extent what you're advocating is that is a miniature copy of don't know tromp or you know somebody who is fear it's precisely because of he's supposedly rationality but he's a real has a very different geography and frankly a very different set of challenges from that of the united states wouldn't it be much better for israel from a strategic point of view to rely on its act him and to rely on its diplomacy rather than these big. floors because i appreciate your kind she a lot but. even for the russians as you know as a card as we try to maintain good relations with israel it is not very sympathetic position that you advocate and i must tell you that i understand it's not easy

sometimes it's not easy to understand israel from within so from outside of israel and getting mostly narratives it's extremely difficult you mentioned israel in the united states together i would mention israel the united states again as far as very aligned strategic interests very close collaboration but certainly we are nothing like the united states and i wouldn't compare israel to the united states not in size not in scope not in responsibility well i was more and more hinting at the demeanor at the poster that you take it is very arrogant it is very dismissive of other countries any of this very similar to some extent to the american position interesting interesting point and don't forget in israel's a vibrant democracy so i will speak to you here and according to my political views i may support or object to israeli government's policies specifically i support this discovery policy when it comes to attacking t four and iranian assets because

i think there's no choice maybe other things i criticize the government as far as maybe acting a bit aggressive on the diplomatic front it could be it could be by the way that we live now in an era where donald trump is proving to the world that this works i personally object to this kind of way i believe a lot in diplomacy even though i wore military uniform for most of my life i believe we all in this also israelis must appreciate much more the importance of diplomacy but also you know we just we just had the holocaust memorial day yesterday here in israel next week we have our independence day there are lessons in our soul and one of these lessons is you know that with all due respect at the end of the day sometimes we have to go and need and do what needs to be done because the if there's an imminent threat and so. one may be using that fact to annihilate us and they're even looking at the camera and saying we will wipe israel off the face of the earth i think maybe at that time we need to act and diplomacy has to be put aside at that moment while colonel if this is not their facial

position off iran i just have to mention it here but hey you mentioned donald trump and i mentioned him before and the current israeli leadership has done has gone to great lengths to in grass shape itself with the trump administration they use flattery they use enticement what have you and donald trump for it to some extent reciprocated he sassed things that israeli political elite wants to hear but he does not always follow up on them do you see any potential danger in israel associating itself with the tromp administration to such an extent i think many israelis make a an interesting mistake and that is every time a new u.s. administration comes along we relate to it is that that is the united states of america forever and ever and then every word the president says every letter he writes we take a stream of the seriously and i think this is a mistake the u.s. administration comes to us and instruction goes bottom line israel american

relations have been extremely well from the declaration of independence of israel especially in the last thirty years we have wonderful strategic collaboration whatever administration if it's obama or trump believe it or not always the collaboration becomes better and better. now there on the table like moving the embassy to jerusalem issues like that where it's again it depends on your personal opinion half of the israelis will tell you it's smart half of the israelis will tell you it's a big mistake it depends on your personal view again we're a vibrant democracy we can't agree are they on everything i think it's a mistake in taking every issue like that now and think yes the americans are with us because donald trump tweeted it be very careful and also be very careful in predicting what america will do according to a specific tweet i think we have to wait we have to see. the we have to be very calculated and strategic well my my my last question to you would be exactly about what the american may or may not do it's been reported in haaretz the other day that in the in the days leading up to the chemical attack suppose that chemical

attack in duma prime minister netanyahu spent a lot of time on the phone that donald trump trying to dissuade him from withdrawing the american troops from syria and reportedly to no avail do you think trump is going to go at had with troll plans now simple answer no and again donald trump tweet something and then we think ok now is probably going to carry out this well thought out strategy i don't think that's the case i think he said something he tweeted and then his advisors were surprised confronted him with their own opinion but i think now there's a debate within the us administration personally i believe that the united states of america has global responsibility has regional responsibility and they must they must not for israel certainly not for israel i don't think this discussion between the time you know and trump is only about israeli interest i think they have regional interests. dismantling this evil entity which is isis is an extremely important mission and i hope the united states doesn't just unilaterally now pull

out of this effort and leave the playground for the other actors because the united states has important responsibilities well colonel let's leave it there i really appreciate you appearing on our show thank you very much for that i also encourage our viewers to keep the conversation going on our social media pages as i mean i'll see you again same place same time here on worlds apart. for a world cup twenty eight team coverage we've signed one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time but there was one more question and by the way he's going to be our

coach. guys i know you are nervous he's a huge star among us and the huge amount of pressure you have to go i mean eight percent of the beach we're told we're with you and we will solo the great game the grid if you are the rock at the back nobody gets past you we need you to get the ball going let's go. alone. and i'm really happy to join for the two thousand and three and world cup in russia meet this special one come on girl to reassure me to just say the review theology team's latest edition may go up as we go. to jersey look. for men are sitting in a car when the fifth gets shot in the hand. all four different versions of what happened one of them is on the death row

there's no way you could have done it there's no possible way because the owners did not shoot around a corner. american the u.k. and france known china so long syria in response to an alleged chemical attack in eastern kuta the strikes were carried out without un approval and just hours before international investigators that arrive to the sea. russia's foreign minister says the kind of poison sergei script and his daughter were exposed to in the u.k. may have been misidentified as off the new.