Public Lecture: The Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency in the Middle East

Date of event: 21.1. 2016

The lecture was opened by Tomáš Pojar, the Vice President for International Relations of the CEVRO Institute and former Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Israel. The first speaker was Maj. Gen. Israel Ziv, the Gaza Division Commander who led the fight against terrorism in the “Ebb and Flow” campaign and the current president of Israeli-based security consultancy group, Global CST Ltd. His lecture was followed by Col. Karel Řehka, the Director of Special Forces of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic and the former commander of the 601st Special Forces Group.

In the beginning, Maj. Gen. Israel Ziv described the development of Islamic terrorism from the 1960s and identified the key aspects of the current phenomenon of the Islamic State (ISIS). According to Maj. Gen. Ziv, ISIS is not something entirely new, however, the global strategy of war against terrorism should be revisited because without strong leadership and comprehensive coordinated global campaign, nothing will be achieved. More attention should also be paid to targeting the flow of money and resources used by the terrorists. Col. Karel Řehka agreed with Maj. Gen. Ziv and shared his practical experience with counterinsurgency. According to him, ISIS is not only an organization but also a tempting idea. The issues of specific tactics in the fight against terrorism as well as the difference between ISIS and Hamas were covered during the discussion with the audience that followed after the lecture.

The lecture was organized with the kind support of our partners: Česká zbrojovka, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at IDC Herzliya University, and Mr. Petr Mothejl. We would also like to thank our media partners: CEVRO, Czech-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, and Eretz.cz.