IDF Military Strategist Reports A Major Response By Israel Is Coming Before November 5th Election

Hi, I’m Scott Walter, president of Capital Research Center and author of the new book, Arabella. I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to GrassRoots TruthCast wherever you get your podcasts. I know you’ll find a lot of valuable material and learn exciting things.

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With breaking news and political commentary from a public servant, serial entrepreneur, community leader, philanthropist, and American patriot, and a darn nice guy, it’s time for the GrassRoots TruthCast, and your host, Gene Valentino.

Gene Valentino: Hi friends, welcome to another episode of Gene Valentino’s GrassRoots TruthCast. We’ve had many different guests from walks of life, locally, social, political. This is international. This is my dear friend, Elliot [00:02:00] Chadoff. Elliot is a reserve major. political, military, and strategic analyst. We are recording live from Israel somewhere in the northern, uh, region near, uh, in the Galilee region of northern Israel.

Elliot, thank you for joining us here today for our fourth episode.

Elliot Chodoff: It was a pleasure, Gene. Good to see you.

Gene Valentino: Good to see you too, sir. You know, for the folks who haven’t joined us a prior episode, number one was right here in Pensacola, Florida, uh, August 1st, 2023, when Elliott was visiting the panhandle of Florida.

He was here to, um, uh, share, uh, Israeli, um, history and, uh, and, and strategy and the cultural relationship of Israel with the United States. Elliott is a. Uh, is a dual as a dual citizen, [00:03:00] uh, uh, with the United States. So has been educated in the States as well, but his homeland is Israel. And he is back there at this time during this recording, uh, to share with us some of the ongoing issues.

Uh, he, uh, Elliot has a podcast of his own right now, www. conflictuncovered. com. Check it out. Conflict Uncovered dot com, where you’ll get a deeper dive. Uh, he comments on the ongoing events in Israel at the military regional levels and some of it more globally as well. Uh, uh, he, uh, uh, also has a deeper dive.

He does on what I would call theoretical, strategic and tactical, uh, thinking behind what Israel’s plans have been, what they are now and what they might be going forward. [00:04:00] Elliot, you know, in the three episodes we did, that was August 1st. We first had a chance to meet here in the airplane hangar and my place.

And then the second episode was on October 9th, 2023. This was just two or three days after Hamas had attacked Israel. primarily in the Gaza and, uh, 1300 lives lost over 134 hostages taken. Uh, some of them Americans and most of them Israelis. And then in, uh, we had a very, uh, heartfelt, emotional, uh, interview at that time.

Folks, it’s on Gene Valentino’s GrassRoots TruthCast. Please look it up as well. That’s where these episodes are libraried. Uh, and then on March 26, 2024, We had Elliot back and we discussed a lot of the back, the battleground facts and possible future [00:05:00] outcomes. Some did occur and some morphed into a different strategy.

Elliot, let me start off the conversation by saying it’s my opinion that Israel had the wherewithal to incinerate Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and all of Iran if it chose. in the flick of a switch, but you chose not to. You used a measured approach in how you were going to go after and seek retribution for the 1, 300 lives lost.

in Israel on October 7th. And, uh, one part of me commends you for showing such merit and some balance for being able to do it. The other part of me says, why the hell didn’t you finish the job? I’m teeing you up. Get ready to answer that in a minute. And then the other question is, I’m going to come back [00:06:00] to later, the Biden Harris administration and what the hell they’ve done to impact maybe Netanyahu’s strategy, which admittedly was interfered with.

And I’d like to hear from you. You said to me back on October 9th, if America just steps out of the way and gives me, gives Israel the freedom. To manage its own affairs, but support us certainly to the, certainly in a way better than we’ve supported Iran. If you, if we were to have supported you to that level, not to mention Ukraine, that this war would’ve been over with, yes or no.

Elliot Chodoff: I don’t know if it would’ve been over with, but it would be looking very, very different from the way it looks now and. Let me, let me start by saying, um, much of what is going on [00:07:00] today is not how I necessarily would have run it. But I’m a commentator, not the prime minister, and I’m not the chief of staff, and not the commanding generals of the North or the South, uh, and they have other considerations, and, and, and here I’ll, I’ll give them the credit that’s due them.

Strategic decision making is extremely complex. It takes many paradoxical factors into account, and As a result, you can always criticize it because you can always say you should have chosen B over A or C over D, and you chose this and not that. And here, of course, America does have a part in that consideration.

I’ll come back to that in some depth. But certainly, American support, or lack thereof, European support, or lack thereof, [00:08:00] threats by the United States, we will support you in this case, we won’t support you in that case, all have to be taken into account by the decision makers along the way. So that’s one element of it.

Another element is, uh, going into, let’s start with Gaza, the, uh, the operation in Gaza, which started about a month after the, the massacres of October 7th, had to take into account also the fact that there were hundreds of hostages. In other words, Israel couldn’t simply go in and do whatever it wanted. It had to do it with something of an element of care on that level.

Second, we, unlike our neighbors around us, are extremely casualty conscious and going in full blast into an urban environment in which your enemy has [00:09:00] dug in for decades can potentially above and below ground. Uh, let’s not forget the, the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles of tunnel network that we’re still uncovering and destroying, uh, can be an extremely costly operation by doing it carefully and slowly.

And here, here, I give the army full credit on this. Uh, we’ve taken. Relatively few casualties in here. Just anybody who’s got any, any sense of, of military balance. Every, every casualty is a tragedy. We’ve lost about 400 troops in this urban conflict. Killed we’ve killed about 20, 000 terrorists in the process now 20,

Gene Valentino: 000 terrorists and to your 400.

I make I don’t make light of 400 Israeli lives, but wow, that’s pretty significant that that tells me you must have been [00:10:00] With a precision instrument of some sort getting in there strategically to excise the wrong And you were criticized so often about, um, uh, killing innocent, uh, babies under hospitals and all the tunnel disasters.

Uh, how does, how does that rhetoric compare to what really happened?

Elliot Chodoff: Okay, so first of all, if Hamas claims that they, that 40, 000 people in Gaza have been killed, and I don’t believe their numbers, but let’s say we take their number at face value. That means that the ratio of noncombatants to combatants is one to one.

The United Nations typically states that the noncombatants to combatants ratio of deaths, of casualties in 21st century warfare is 10 to 1. In other words, 10 non combatants for every [00:11:00] combatant killed. Now, you don’t need to be an advanced statistics professor to understand that 1 to 1 is significantly different from 10 to 1.

Now, if you add to that, that Hamas is embedded in the population. They hide behind the population. They’re very often, it’s very often said that they use the population as human shields. I’m going to add they use them as human sacrifices. In other words, they want them to be killed because it only plays into their hands.

And of course, the media, the world media, That buys all of their lies, hook, line, and sinker. And we had an example of that this morning, um, in an attack on Hamas leaders in the so called humanitarian zone.

When Israel went to Gaza about a month after the, the massacre of October 7th, when, when the, what the maneuver when the round began, it was done, uh, with as much care as possible. And, and, [00:12:00] and for a number of reasons, uh, obviously.

First and foremost, going into an urban environment with, uh, a terrorist enemy that has something on the order of 30, 000 trained troops dug in into tunnels, fortified zones and the like, uh, Israel is, is Correctly and properly, very casualty conscious. And I think that here now, 10 months later, the numbers speak for themselves.

We’ve lost something on the order of 400 troops in the fight and every one of them is a tragedy. And here I can add a neighbor of mine is one of them who was killed in the fighting. Uh, on the other hand, we’ve killed about 20, 000 terrorists. Now you don’t have to be a. A brilliant military strategist to understand that a ratio of 20, 000 to 400 means, first of all, that we’re completely outclassing them on the battlefield, but it also means that we’ve been [00:13:00] operating with a great deal of care, step by step, methodically going after them.

And at the same time, if you believe the Hamas, uh, health ministry, which will lie through their teeth, but let’s, let’s take their numbers at face value. They claim that 40, 000 Gazans have been killed. Now, if that number is correct, and I believe it’s, it’s inflated, but As I said, let’s take it at face value.

That means 20, 000 terrorists and 20, 000 non combatants. That’s a one to one ratio. The UN typically states that in 21st century warfare, the non combatant to combatant ratio of deaths in battle is about 10 to 1. In other words, 10 non combatants for every combatant who’s killed. You don’t need to be a professor of statistics to know that one to one is significantly different from 10 to 1.

And that’s a [00:14:00] credit to the care that Israel is taking in this operation in a densely populated urban area, including evacuating the civilians into other places where all the heavy fighting is going on. If you add to that that Hamas intentionally embeds itself within the population and uses them not only as human shields, but also as human sacrifices.

In other words, they intentionally want them to get killed, partly. To make Israel look bad. And they say it outright. This is, there’s no secret about this. Uh, the care that we’re taking is, is obvious in the numbers. And that’s beyond going into the stories of people like myself who’ve been there and others, and the care that we take before we open fire.

Uh, certainly with, with air and artillery and heavy weapons.

Gene Valentino: Folks, we’re talking with Elliot Chadoff. He’s a reserve major political and military and strategic analyst [00:15:00] in Israel. He’s recording with us live from Israel, and he is somewhere in the Galilee region of Israel. He, um, you just heard him talk about it up close and personal.

So this has affected you personally. You’ve had friends pass on you, um, recently, I take it.

Elliot Chodoff: Yes. Yes. And this

Gene Valentino: is, uh, this is a new development since our last interview. And yes, one of the things that concerns me more than anything else is, um, let’s, let’s come back to the strategy of going forward in a minute when I circle back with Netanyahu, uh, prime minister Netanyahu, but let’s just, we have a situation here in the United States.

That is unprecedented, where we have not supported the allies, uh, in the way we have in the past. It is my understanding, putting aside the bundles [00:16:00] of dollars we’ve given to, uh, Ukraine, uh, under the Obama administration to Iran originally, we realize that there is a, a movement to try to buy off or ameliorate these adversaries that become allies, and I’m not sure it’s working.

In fact, I feel very taken advantage of right now. If the truth be known as an American, I don’t see us as being, uh, aligned with anybody. And I’m surprised at this point is that how Israel could hang in so long, so hard and be so steadfast in its support with America. I was listening to Reza. Pahlavi, um, uh, uh, uh, believes that Iran is ripe for revolution.

The eldest son of the last Shah of Iran, 63 year old crown prince, this, uh, Reza [00:17:00] Pahlavi, uh, is on a mission to drive the radical men, uh, who overthrew his father 45 years ago. Out of power and replace them with a secular democracy chosen by and for the Iranian people. Now these is what you would argue are the good people of Iran that even Israel might find reason to be an ally with someday in the future.

Elliot Chodoff: For sure.

Gene Valentino: Okay, and I know that’s true because you were nine tenths of the way through that process with Saudi Arabia, not too long before the October 7th, the strike against you, uh, in 2023. So using that analogy, I commend you for your deliberance and your patience as a nation. in surgically trying to respond and can I have no other way of saying it x excise your pound of [00:18:00] flesh for what has been a terrible a terrible atrocity against israel notwithstanding the fact that it’s an atrocity that against america as well that that should not go unnoticed to my point What the hell’s wrong with Kamala Harris and Biden, uh, not getting behind you?

What’s wrong with them walking out on deli on, uh, Congress, uh, hearings when Netanyahu came in to speak before Congress? It used to be five or six crazies in the Democratic Party. Okay, fine. Now a hundred and something Democrats leave the chamber floors in the United States Congress when Netanyahu showed up?

I’m embarrassed as an American, uh, that is no way, uh, representative of the, uh, commitment or the feeling most Americans have toward, uh, toward Israel. Your comment on that point first.

Elliot Chodoff: [00:19:00] First of all, um, let me start with, I agree with you a hundred percent, walking out or, or not showing up as, as Kamala Harris, Harris did with, with her excuse of a.

Uh, scheduling conflict, uh, is reprehensible. The, the prime minister of an ally was invited by bipartisan support with White House blessing. In other words, this is very different structurally, and I’m not condoning he either comparing to the previous invitation where Netanyahu spoke to Congress invited by.

One party, not with the blessing of the White House. I understand the American internal politics. Again, I don’t have to condone the behavior, but I can, I can understand that conflict here. It was a bipartisan invitation with White House blessing and still people either walked out, didn’t [00:20:00] show up or protested.

Part of it is. An American tendency to over personalize issues. In other words, the problem is an individual. The problem was Saddam Hussein. The problem was Osama bin Laden. Their problem is with Bibi Netanyahu. Everything they don’t like, they can focus on him. Part of it, frankly, is a deep problem that the current administration has.

Going into an election, and here you can’t separate domestic politics from international politics. They are playing to a base, you know, there’s all this talk about the peace process and the two state solution. Here we say that the administration’s two state solution is Michigan and Minnesota. Uh, because that, that’s really what, what they’re focused on.

And the last thing they need or want right now is either an [00:21:00] expansion of the war, which is coming by the way, Or to be not to be able to at least somehow.

Gene Valentino: An expansion of the war between Israel and Hamas, Iran, and the rest of the regime. No,

Elliot Chodoff: Hezbollah, Iran, I saw a report today, I haven’t seen the verification, but I saw a report that Houthis from Yemen have already appeared in Syria in preparation to fight Israel.

Not firing missiles from Yemen, but actually Quilty fighters are in Syria, uh, to join the war against Israel on the ground. The, for a whole bunch of reasons. What about

Gene Valentino: the influences from, uh, Turkey?

Elliot Chodoff: Turkey as well. Turkey is a particular problem as a member of NATO. And, uh, and let’s, let’s be clear.

America has a double problem with Turkey as [00:22:00] a member of NATO. There are American nuclear weapons in Turkey that are semi under siege by the Turkish military. America can’t just walk away from Turkey because it can’t get its nuclear weapons out. In other words, There are also the side issues here that come into play as well.

Gene Valentino: Well, my concern is how does Bibi Netanyahu withstand the crossfire? Some of the things that you mentioned earlier regarding some of the surveys being done and the other interviews you’ve had seem to indicate that the Israelis now Uh, to the tune of something in excess of 62% of the nation of Israel, uh, is behind Netanyahu’s strategy to hold the line.

Who are the objectors that are causing you to second guess or cause you to stray? Unlike America where the objectors seem to get everybody. Off on a [00:23:00] spin in 20 tangents 20 directions. You’ve seen Netanyahu and his inner core seems to have held the line on the actions against the adversaries.

Elliot Chodoff: Okay. So first of all, uh, I, I believe that all polls are suspect having said that, um, overall, I would say that there’s Considerable support.

I don’t want to go into numbers because I don’t believe any numbers, uh, but considerable support for the strategy that is continuing, which is to destroy Hamas. And depending on how the question was asked, and frankly, to the poll itself, and I saw the results, but I haven’t seen the questions. And, and, you know, the wording of questions make a big difference, uh, in terms of what the results are.

There is very, very strong support in Israel To continue this war to a strategic conclusion. There is [00:24:00] opposition to that

Gene Valentino: over what timeframe would you say that is? So

Elliot Chodoff: the timeframe is another difficult one because it may take us a long time to actually eliminate Hamas. Grinding Hamas into the ground, uh, especially since as it’s now moving into a more low intensity conflict.

In other words, we’ve smashed most of their regular military organization. They’ve now broken up into a guerrilla force, uh, taking out three guys here, five guys there in the tunnels back and forth. Could take a while. I would say that we’ve reduced their overall fighting capability. By 80 or so percent, maybe more, uh, but they’re still dangerous.

And let’s remember, we’re talking about a terrorist organization, not a regular army, and that makes all the difference in the world. It made a difference on [00:25:00] October 7th and it makes a difference today. If, if they started with 30, 000, even if we reduce them to 3, 000, 3, 000 terrorists on your border, there’s a lot of terrorists.

Uh, you know, it’s not, it’s not like you had an army of a certain size and you’ve, you’ve taken out 90 percent of it. It’s now an impotent army. Terrorists are a whole different story. We, we stopped the terrorist attack yesterday out of, out of Judea and Samaria near Tel Aviv, 13 terrorists in a van with weapons, with AK 47s, with M 16s, with bombs, 10 minutes from Tel Aviv.

You know what, tomorrow is, is the anniversary of 9 11. Look what 19 terrorists said to America. Now, if you, right? Yeah, if you speak,

Gene Valentino: yeah, the whole, the whole issue is, um, when you start comparing and analyzing the numbers, you really [00:26:00] find reason to respect very much how Israel’s managed the affairs of its, um, of its counter attack on that point, uh, former ambassador from the United States to Israel, David Friedman reported dozens of visitors.

from Hamas, the, and, and Hoodies and other Iranian regimes that were in and out of the White House in the last 12 months, uh, even prior to October 7th of 2023, uh, uh, uh, doing what in your opinion?

Elliot Chodoff: There was a school of thought, um, and here, here, I’m going to Shift shift gears among other things. I’ve taught international relations for many, many years. There, there are two grand schools in international relations, international strategy. One is called the realist school. And frankly, it’s where I come from.

And the other is called [00:27:00] the liberal school. And here, I don’t want to, I, I, the reason I give you the background is because when I say the word liberal here, it doesn’t mean the same thing as, as it means in terms of political liberal, although there’s a lot of overlap and commonality. The liberal school of And in international relations.

Which clearly the administration has bought into, and here I’m talking about the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and others, is that conflict, war, is mostly the consequence of misunderstanding.

Gene Valentino: It’s not about good guys and bad guys. But did that misunderstanding begin in Obama and, uh, uh, that regime, or did it happen in Biden and Harris?

Thank you

Elliot Chodoff: It goes back to World War I. So while we profess to be your That

Gene Valentino: line of thought That line of thought, while we profess to be your adverse, uh, your ally since [00:28:00] World War I, you’re saying that Israel’s had to scratch their head looking at our dance?

Elliot Chodoff: What I’m saying, what I’m saying is this school of thought, this is the school of thought that Neville Chamberlain came from, that all you need to do is sit down with Hitler, Have a cup of coffee with him and we can work it all out because it’s really just a misunderstanding and once we understand each other, we can really get along.

It was the thinking of Jimmy Carter with Khomeini in 1979 because Khomeini wasn’t a bad guy, he was just this religious leader with a beard and a turban. And if you If you gave him his, the proper respect, everything was going to be okay. Uh, and, and so on. I could give you endless examples, but I think that you understand what I’m saying, the, the reverse of that, where people like myself, and I know, uh, people like yourself come from, is it make it very simple.

There are good guys and bad guys out there. [00:29:00] And the bad guys are not misunderstood. They’re bad guys and they need to be stopped. They need to be fought because if you don’t, they’re going to put the gates.

Gene Valentino: Yeah. But did you know that, uh, let’s just focus on the Obama administration for a moment. Did you know that the Obama administration had jihadists and people like this in positions of power in the American government that Obama placed in there?

Elliot Chodoff: Yes, but

Gene Valentino: You, I mean, Israel wasn’t putting communists in to go, uh, uh, with, with cross purposes. No, because we don’t against americat.

Elliot Chodoff: Because we don’t, because we don’t think that way. But you know what, here again, tomorrow’s the anniversary of September 11th.

Gene Valentino: Yeah, I

Elliot Chodoff: remember it. I was, I was in Israel when it happened.

Uh, I spent the sleepless night. I was, we, we were on the verge of being called up. Remember that, that first 24 hours after the, the planes hit, nobody had any idea of how the world, what, what was going on in the world. [00:30:00] And then things kind of settled down. But I remember distinctly from that period, Americans saying, Whoa, we must have done some terrible things to these people to make them do that to us.

Remember that?

Gene Valentino: Yeah.

Elliot Chodoff: Okay.

Gene Valentino: There was this attitude.

Elliot Chodoff: Go ahead. No, that, that’s, that’s. A method of thinking, it’s the, the, it’s a method of thinking that says, yes, Hamas, you know, what they did was a terrible thing, but if we just sit down with them and, and, and let them air their differences and their, and their, and their complaints, we can come to terms with them.

So they fire a few rockets. They fired almost 10, 000 rockets at us over, over the past year. They’ve destroyed villages in northern Israel. This is a

Gene Valentino: statement of fact, over 10, 000 rockets in I said close

Elliot Chodoff: to, close to.

Gene Valentino: Uh, in, in the last If we include anti tank

Elliot Chodoff: missiles, we’re in the 10, 000 range. They’ve [00:31:00] destroyed villages, there are nearly 100, 000 Israelis displaced from their homes to this day since October because they can’t go back.

They’re under, their villages are under constant fire day by day. And America says, you know, we can work out a deal with these guys because Nobody really wants one, but here I have to tell you one of the great Misunderstanding statements of the past month, Secretary of State Blinken saying escalation does nobody any good.

This is simply false. Hamas wants escalation, Iran wants escalation, Hezbollah wants escalation. They want it on their terms. But this idea, nobody really wants war. That’s just nonsense. They’re all people who really want war. They just want it on their terms. Hamas wants the Israeli offensive to end, but it doesn’t want the war to end.

And that’s a fundamental misunderstanding of a [00:32:00] school of thought. Again, the liberal school of international relations, but which is brought into by typically this administration, the Obama administration. I can go back Carter, uh, Clinton a little bit less. So, but that was quirky, but going all the way back to Woodrow Wilson.

Gene Valentino: I, I find that, uh, the attempt to study the root causes of an issue, uh, if you do study the root causes of an issue, you, you, a leopard doesn’t change its spots. No, and if you go with that metaphor, it means today that whether we have them sitting next to us in government, in our government or your government, we’re not curing the problem.

To me, the problem has to be excised with, uh, with, um, decisive action. Uh, that’s, uh, look at, I’m not a, I’m not a [00:33:00] warmonger. I’m not looking for war, but I am looking, but if you have a culture, if you want to study root causes and you study the Muslim faith prescribes your death. If you’re going to go into, uh, cultures, into our, uh, governance, bring them into our governance.

that are contrary to everything that the constitution believes in, which in the case of America is a Christian basis, uh, that was the root of our forefathers and the belief in God, uh, and some level of Christianity at the time. It certainly wasn’t Muslim. It certainly wasn’t anti Jew and Christian. And so with that thinking in mind, If I’m going to study the root cause, I’m going to do it to figure out how to unroot you.

It’s, it’s, it’s not [00:34:00] to make you part of my family. It’s to make you, because you have been, you have admitted yourself, you’re the enemy and you have, um, you have, uh, openly committed. your life and your lifestyle, the annihilation of your own people as shields to take down others. You, you don’t get a pass and say, uh, we need to have, um, a more deliberate and caring and responsive.

I think we’ve done that for a few centuries now. Of course, we could go back to the fall of the Roman Empire and see what their problem was. But, but, but the, the bottom line was the bottom line is here. How much of this have you studied? Are you waiting for Donald Trump to get reelected to make sure your ally is in place?

Elliot Chodoff: I would certainly hope that if Donald Trump is reelected, or is [00:35:00] elected now, elected for the second time, that he would understand the world this way. Um, I certainly believe that he sees the world in, in clearer terms than the current administration does. And I have to say that some of what I hear from him, Uh, for example, saying, you know, if I were president, October 7th, wouldn’t have happened, I’m sorry, I don’t accept that.

Um, they don’t take America into account, no matter who the president is. Whether they’re right or wrong in not taking America into account is a different question.

Gene Valentino: Well, you might have an argument with that issue, uh, Elliot, as it pertains to Ukraine. Um, as it pertains to No, Ukraine is a

Elliot Chodoff: different case.

Gene Valentino: Yeah, as it pertains to Ukraine, I think you have, uh, [00:36:00] we have, we have something to debate there as it pertains to Israel. I’m a little, um, I’m, I’m, I’m, I yield to your better insight because there is a deeper and more compelling thing. Animosity that’s historic, that’s religious based that goes back centuries that I think, um, that, that, that might, um, make Donald Trump’s complaint comment more simplistic, but if you ask me which one, but, but which one do you want at your side?

Elliot Chodoff: Okay. I, so here, here, I, as I said, I, I think his understanding of world overall is closer to the reality that we face. And I say closer and here, I don’t, I don’t want to denigrate, uh, American thinking, most Americans don’t understand the Middle East. And I’m talking about Americans who are involved, who are knowledgeable, they don’t [00:37:00] understand the Middle East.

Um, it’s a different mindset, it’s a different value system, and it’s few and far between those who can actually sit down and say, I, I get how these people think. Having said that, some are closer than others, and I, and I, I really do believe that Donald Trump is closer. I think that, uh, the current administration is, is living in, you know, I, I, I, I, I You mentioned my podcast earlier.

I, I, I gave, I gave one about a month ago about the, the hostage negotiations and I likened the American approach to the naive American tourist walking into the Middle Eastern bazaar and having absolutely no idea. I don’t, I don’t know if you, if you’ve ever been to. Um, the Middle Eastern shook market, but it’s not like going shopping in Brooks Brothers.

It’s a whole different [00:38:00] way, a whole different approach. And you can’t shop there as if you’re in Brooks Brothers.

Gene Valentino: I know what you’re talking about, but share with the audience what that distinction is. That’s pretty good.

Elliot Chodoff: Okay. There are no prices. Um, it’s all, there’s posturing, it’s everything is negotiated.

Negotiated, okay,

Gene Valentino: flares of indignation and no my word, exactly,

Elliot Chodoff: and screaming and, right. And basically what you do, and for anybody who is ever going to come here and visit and go to the Arab market here, here’s the tip, you walk into the shop, the first thing you tell the shopkeeper is I’m not buying anything.

You look around, you say, all your stuff is junk.

Gene Valentino: That experience is what I want to know.

Elliot Chodoff: Well, you do, but this is how it’s done. And you say, you know what? Your stuff is such junk. You should pay me to take it. And you walk out. And he says, wait a minute, that [00:39:00] is

Gene Valentino: so foreign to some of the retails, retail, uh, merchandising here in this.

Elliot Chodoff: That’s my point, but it’s, it’s not about writing wrong.

It’s about culture. If you don’t do that, he’ll be insulted. He’ll be insulted. He calls you back. He orders coffee. You sit down, you negotiate, you walk out again. You say, you know what? This is all very interesting, but I’m going to go to the guy across, across the alley, his stuff looks better. And he says, no, come back.

Gene Valentino: That’s what happened to me and my wife when we were in Istanbul, I walked out of there twice. They ran out in the street and brought me coffee and escorted me back in by the darn rugs.

Elliot Chodoff: And that’s, that’s the script. Okay. And the United States comes in and says, we need a deal. We need one right now.

There’s no alternative. If we don’t get a deal tomorrow, the whole world is going to explode. And these guys are sitting and said, wow, we’ve got these guys. Okay. [00:40:00] And that’s when the shopkeeper says, nothing’s for sale.

Gene Valentino: You guys, we’re talking with Elliot Chadov, an Israeli strategist, tactical military analyst that has made his way up the ranks in Israel’s, um, military.

defense forces. He is very much a leading edge, uh, communicator to the world on behalf of Israel or conveying Israel’s, um, defense strategy and position. To the extent to which he can. And I’m honored to have Elliot with us, uh, here today, Elliot. I’m so glad we broke off onto a lighter note because there’s so much to be, there’s my relationship that we have, um, Jewish relatives in our family as well.

So I’ve had the privilege of being up close and personal with many, um, Jews that, um, have shared their is Israeli culture. And, um, uh, [00:41:00] it’s really quite fascinating and, uh, and, um, and I won’t call it entertaining. It’s more educating than it is. It’s entertaining too, I should say that. But Elliot, in the next 20 minutes or so, Where has Israel gone?

Where is it now? And if you could write the script, what’s the perfect solution for Israel, uh, pending an election in the United States in 54 days, pending a crazy debate tonight on national TV between Trump and Harris. What’s, what’s Israel’s strategy right now? You sitting back and waiting and just being strategic in your tactical approach to taking out more bad, bad actors like Hamas?

What, who, when are we getting into Tehran and wiping out some of the bad guys? There are only 25 to 30 percent of the population agrees with this militaristic, um, um, [00:42:00] criminal leadership that’s in control of the country right now. When do we return the son of the original Shah back to Iran and get you on friendly terms with your neighbor?

Elliot Chodoff: First of all, I would be careful with the numbers of support, um, with, with all due respect to the, the Crown Prince, the son of the Shah, Pahlavi, um, I, I have a, a, a firm contention that a regime doesn’t last for a long time. Without at least the tacit support of the majority of its population and other words in the case.

Maybe I

Gene Valentino: may interrupt it Tacit supports a relative term. Is it not? I mean it could be also referred to as fear I mean a fear to respond for the saving of their lives because of the oppressiveness

Elliot Chodoff: I agree with you, but I, I would still leave that as an unknown. Obviously, support, [00:43:00] lack of support, uh, is a variable.

And we saw it, we saw it with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the, and the, the, the crash of the, the communist states of Eastern Europe. One day they were there, the next day they were gone. But as long as they were there, it meant that the population tacitly supported them. Here, here again, I, I would, I would be a little bit cautious, uh, Although I do believe that a significant portion of the Iranian population is not happy with the regime.

Once again, be careful also in the distinction between the individual leadership and the regime as a regime. Okay, and here, without in any way drawing a parallel, I’m just using it as an example. Uh, typically over the past couple of decades, Half of Americans have supported one party and its candidate.

Half of Americans have supported another party in this candidate. In other words, it’s always been close to 50 [00:44:00] 50, about half of America doesn’t support. The person in the White House, but that close to 100 percent support the regime as a regime.

Gene Valentino: What do you base that on? Uh, I, America is just as guilty of that as well, and I’m bothered by it.

You’ve got polls coming out that, uh, in the case of Biden, And, uh, and now Harris versus Trump, uh, 47,

Elliot Chodoff: 48,

Gene Valentino: 47, 48, plus or minus two percentage points. Yes. When you talk in terms of the electoral college, you’re talking a significant majority in favor of Trump in this case. What would you say? I’m talking about the

Elliot Chodoff: population.

Gene Valentino: I don’t trust the polls either. Uh, I’m told by certain people in my news broadcast network that the polling information that you are watching and reading and listening to [00:45:00] has been, uh, the census is coming for those polled is predetermined as one side or the other in the first place. So you’re getting a propensity, hypothetically, of Democrats being polled, and yet the polls still come up near 50 50.

Tells me

Elliot Chodoff: My only, my only point, you know, let me, let me, let me take us back to another place at another time, okay? During The Vietnam era, the end of the Vietnam era. I remember it. I imagine you do as well.

Gene Valentino: I do.

Elliot Chodoff: Okay. Horrendous riots, demonstrations, campuses burning, students shot. Looking at it, it was, it could have looked like a revolution, but it wasn’t.

It wasn’t anywhere close. In other words, the regime itself, the administration was threatened. I’m talking about the Nixon administration. By that point, [00:46:00] a drove Johnson from office. The Nixon administration was under threat, and I don’t want to, you know, go into all the details of that history, but my point here is the United States government as a regime was not threatened in the least by any of that, and I, I think we need to be careful in over all of that.

Powering or overestimating the power of demonstrations in a country, especially a foreign country that we don’t have a really good inside view of. It may be, I’m not, I’m not ruling it out entirely. I’m saying let’s be cautious. There may be a lot stronger Iranian patriotic fervor for the country. And Not willing to overthrow the regime and weaken the country in the process.

It’s an I don’t know Again, I I think that’s something [00:47:00] we have to be very careful about

Gene Valentino: Well, I would like to just jump in right there and say that isn’t that a consequence? of leadership there’s the leadership you’re referring to during the nixon administration and johnson administration that led us for example into vietnam, um Is, is, is a different kind of administration from Biden and Harris.

Uh, and remember it was only three and a half, four years ago under a Trump administration, no matter what you think of the guy, there were no wars. There were no break, uh, uh, outbreaks of anything adversarial. He scared the tar out of most of them to keep them in their place. And if the truth be known, he knocked off a few key, um, uh, terrorist leaders to put the fear of God into the rest of them.

That’s not happening today [00:48:00] under this leadership.

Elliot Chodoff: We absolutely agree.

Gene Valentino: That’s, we absolutely

Elliot Chodoff: agree.

Gene Valentino: And so my first point to you before though, was are, is not Netanyahu now not waiting for such bold leadership to return to know that his footing is in place to wrap up what he must do to protect Israel.

Elliot Chodoff: I imagine that he’s hoping, I don’t think he’s waiting, and I’ll tell you what.

First of all, from where we’re sitting now, there’s no guarantee. I mean, he can, he can hope all he wants, but the outcome is, We’re going to see in November, and let’s not forget, no matter what the outcome, it’s not going to be expressed until the end of January. That’s a long time from now, okay? From an American domestic electoral phase, November is the key date.

From an external perspective, we’re looking at January 20th. Inauguration day,

Gene Valentino: you know, [00:49:00] well, that’s, that’s true. That’s true. However, um, however, that’s a long

Elliot Chodoff: time.

Gene Valentino: Yeah, it’s a, it’s a lifetime away. Yeah.

Elliot Chodoff: Okay. Okay. So, so that’s one, one aspect. Second, you have to survive the short term in order to get to the long term.

The artillery shells we’re firing today. We did not have in our 7th. This is all American resupply. Okay. And here, let’s be very clear, America, Israel’s need for America in real time and emergency is not about weapons. It’s about munitions. Okay. We don’t, we don’t need more planes at the moment. We don’t, we make our own tank.

We don’t need our, we, we need tank shells. We need artillery shells. We need aerial bombs. We need guided missiles that are fired from, you know, shot from, from helicopters. So the answer is yes. And here’s the paradox. Here’s the [00:50:00] paradox, and it’s a dangerous paradox. With the exception of one very, uh, publicized shipment of Mark 84 bombs, 2, 000 pound bombs for, for aircraft, Israel have gotten virtually everything it has asked for from the United States.

I say virtually, there are a few, a few things, particularly Apache helicopters, which we need desperately and America has refused, uh, but for the most part, Israel has gotten what it needed. It has always been under threat not to get it. In other words, it’s a nerve wracking existence of if you don’t do what we tell you, we will not send it.

And I don’t say it in exactly those words, but that’s the message. And that makes decision making that much more complicated. And At the same time, and even more dangerous, is [00:51:00] the American, this, this administration’s repeated tendency to send a message we do not want to hear. unequivocally support Israel, and our enemies jump in on that and say, ah, the Americans are backing down.

Now is when we can step in. This is one of the reasons Sinua is not making a deal on the hostages. Not the only reason by any means. It’s one of the reasons that the Iranians launched that massive strike in April. It’s one of the reasons that Hezbollah was planning on a massive strike a couple of weeks ago that we preempted Sunday morning.

And I got, I have to tell you, I heard that artillery fire from my house. At 4 o’clock in the morning,

Gene Valentino: and I know it outgoes Wait, say that again. Say that again.

Elliot Chodoff: A few weeks ago, Sunday morning, at 5 o’clock, Itzbollah was planning on launching thousands of rockets and missiles into Israel. At 4 o’clock, a little after 4 o’clock that morning, we launched a massive preemptive air and artillery strike.

and [00:52:00] destroyed 6, 000 Hezbollah rockets and launchers in about a one and a half hour period. I, at about 10 after four in the morning, I heard the artillery going off. I live in the north. I know what outgoing 155 artillery sounds like. Bindel done that for many, many years, but this was not an occasional shot.

This was batteries and battalions firing. I went out onto, I have a high porch, and I was able to see the flashes on the horizon of the gunfire. Uh, and then my sources started reporting it’s R outgoing because, and it’s only R outgoing. I heard the planes going overhead, a hundred aircraft were over Lebanon simultaneously before 5 o’clock in the morning.

They fired nearly 300 rockets into Israel that morning. I watched the interceptions from my house. I watched the I could see they put on a great show, but, uh, but this is [00:53:00] up close and personal, but the reason Hezbollah was planning to do it in the first place is because they believed that America would not support Israel.

And in fact, America told Israel, We will support you insofar as you take out what they’re going to hit you with, but not one step further.

Gene Valentino: This is what drives me crazy because now I’m concerned that we, uh, you’re grateful we have munitions, munitions flowing your way. And you said originally when we first met that don’t worry, we’ll handle our own fight.

If you give us what we need. Which again is policy and a leadership issue has to do with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken conveying mixed messages, not only to Israel, but to the Iranian folks and the, um, uh, the, the Iranian agents around him, them, uh, that have been [00:54:00] attacking you. Uh, this to me is a sign of serious mismanagement and poor leadership.

I totally agree. I submit that it’s part of the problem. Uh, Elliot, what, what happens at this point? Do you see any specific change amongst, I noticed that it’s not about the tunnels and, and, and down in Gaza anymore and the miles of tunnels. If you haven’t eradicated them, where did those hostages go by the way?

Elliot Chodoff: Okay. So the tunnels, Sinrar, his brother, Uh, some of the other leaders are in the tunnels. They’re surrounded by hostages. Uh, there are not many hostages still alive. Uh, the official number American

Gene Valentino: or Israeli,

Elliot Chodoff: well, the Americans are dual citizens. They’re Israelis and Americans. Um, but the official number [00:55:00] is that there are 65 alive.

I think that is optimistic. I also believe that there are, there’s a number. And I can’t tell you what that number is, that will never be released because Sinwar is holding them as an insurance policy, not for exchange of anything. Uh, here, to, to, to remind the listeners, not, not all hostages in history have been taken for exchange.

That, that’s criminal thinking. In other words, we, you kidnap somebody in order to trade them for, for money or something like that. Uh, the Nazis, fascist regimes, took hostages. As insurance, they would go into an area, take hostages, and tell the resistance, for every act of resistance, we’re going to take out 100 hostages and shoot them.

They’re not open for exchange. We are holding them pure as an insurance. And how long they live He’s the only thing we’re negotiating. [00:56:00]

Gene Valentino: Back to Sunwar, I don’t think, um, I don’t think there’d be that kind of, uh, they can hold out whatever they want, but if Donald Trump showed them a picture of their house and their children and family walking around in the yard, uh, They don’t

Elliot Chodoff: care.

They don’t care. Jane, you’re, you’re, they don’t care. Well,

Gene Valentino: well, let me say it differently. That approach worked well before.

Elliot Chodoff: It worked well with others. Um, They just don’t care. These are people who are not interested in their families. They’re not interested in their children. This is a, this is a culture in which mothers sit with their sons the night before they’re going to commit suicide in suicide attacks.

And they They do videos with their son saying, I celebrate his death tomorrow as if it were his wedding day.

Gene Valentino: Oh, my words. Oh, my [00:57:00] words. Well, folks, this is a different culture, a different, uh, ideology, uh, a different behavior. That has affected the survival of mankind. You’ve got a Soros and Bill Gates thinking about depopulation of this nation of the world on a different level.

And here we are doing it automatically with an ideology that truly is, um, what’s the word it’s demonic. It’s, uh, it’s, it’s unnatural that.

Elliot Chodoff: When they say we love death more than you love life, they mean it.

Gene Valentino: Ladies and gentlemen, we’re talking with Elliot Chadov, a, uh, defense strategist with the Israeli Defense Forces.

He’s also a, um, uh, one of the leading, uh, elements in the organization of the Israeli government, I may add, that’s been [00:58:00] collaborating with the media. And has his own podcast. Now, give us your website address, Elliot.

Elliot Chodoff: It’s called Conflict Uncovered and you can find it any place that you normally would see a podcast.

Gene Valentino: And let’s subscribe or get on.

Elliot Chodoff: Uncovered.

Gene Valentino: Again.

Elliot Chodoff: Conflict Uncovered.

Gene Valentino: Conflict Uncovered. And if you can subscribe there as well, make sure you’re on his list and pick up some insights of what’s going on inside the Israeli line. I think we’ve Covered so much in this last hour, Elliot. Are there any closing thoughts you’d like to add on, on anything in particular?

Elliot Chodoff: Only that it’s, it’s not over. Um, I, I’m a great follower of Yogi Berra. It’s, it ain’t over till it’s over. Um, I just, as, as we’re sitting in here and talking, I’m getting flashes from my sources where there are major strikes that we’re launching now into South Lebanon. [00:59:00] I think that we’re going to be seeing an eruption with Hezbollah.

Sometime in the, in the not too distant future, uh, where it’s building up to that. Um, so Do you anticipate a major

Gene Valentino: attack by Israel against forces, um, before, uh, the November 5th, November 5th election, uh, or, uh, which kind of goes against what we were talking about earlier about maybe lying low until after the election.

Elliot Chodoff: Right. But I, I think it’s coming to a hedge, um, with the advent of the Jewish holidays in three weeks. I’ve just, just as October 7th happened on the last day of the Jewish holiday season. Uh, of 2023. I think that they are gearing up for another round for the Jewish holiday season of 2024. And this time we’re not going to be caught by surprise.

Gene Valentino: I’m prepared to take you on your word and I think that you [01:00:00] were tempered when we first brought up the issues of how you were to respond after October 7th. I think you had a good basis for tempering that response. I think the, uh, Hezbollah Hamas folks are running out of options, and it’s such a shame that they’re willing to put their own lives and the lives of their family on the front line.

Yes. And, um, that’s unlike the, the, the moral humane, uh, approach that Israel takes in fighting this war, uh, and the tempering, um, and, and the management of your, of your emotions during this very difficult time. I commend you for that, Mr. Elliott Chadoff. Our friendship has grown since early 2023, and I look forward to having you on more of our shows.

Parting thoughts, So I think I got a headline there. You see a major response from Israel before the election. [01:01:00]

Elliot Chodoff: I believe so. Yes. Keep keeping in mind that also as a predictions of this type are

Gene Valentino: problematic,

Elliot Chodoff: but yes, I, I, I think we’ll move on. That’s

Gene Valentino: right. And we didn’t talk about it, but what about the Philadelphia corridor down on Egypt near Rafa?

Elliot Chodoff: It’s. It’s part of the critical element. There are actually three aspects to it, and Netanyahu focused on one of them. The Philadelphia Corridor, which is the road that runs along the border between Gaza and Egypt. The Rafik Crossing, which crosses the corridor between Gaza and Egypt. And what we call the Nitzan corridor, which separates southern Gaza from northern Gaza.

In other words, where terrorists are still operating in large numbers and Gaza City and its environments environments where, um, many, much of the population was evacuated by us. When we went in the first place, those are [01:02:00] what Hamas wants is free and uncontrolled access to all of those so that it can bring more ammunition, more, more weapons in and move its forces back into Gaza and reestablish Gaza City and reestablish itself on the Strip.

Does not want an end to this. He wants to win and he wants to be back in the seat in the driver’s seat so he can do this all over again next year, the year after, the year after that. And we know that because he has said so

Gene Valentino: well, he said so. And he has proven, and like many of these regimes have proven, uh, to regrettably, to live up to their word.

The question is, will history repeat? Will history repeat itself or will we learn? from these experiences. Uh, the existing administration has demoralized education in the United States and has basically numbed our [01:03:00] children, Gen Y and Gen Z folks in particular, from any insight on the Israeli history, uh, going back to the early days of Palestine.

And, um, uh, I fear I fear that, um, that could have been a big problem, but I, um, I take solace in the, in the thought that, uh, we’re going to have a new administration coming in, in a few weeks. Yes, you’ll have to wait till inauguration in January, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start certain balls rolling before then.

Uh, any final thoughts in our last 60 seconds, Elliot?

Elliot Chodoff: I will say again what I told you the first time when we met, what, what Israel needs and wants for its friends. Is support us, give us the wherewithal, the weapons, the diplomatic support, and then when we need to do what we need to do with all due respect.

Get out of our way and let us do it. [01:04:00]

Gene Valentino: I want to thank you for joining us here today, Elliot. You’ve, um, given us some great insight. My, um, hoping if people want to reach you through me, I guess folks can just simply contact Gene Valentino at Gene Valentino’s GrassRoots TruthCast. I hope you subscribe any comments, uh, about this, uh, episode, or if you’d like to make contact with Elliot, uh, in this case, I prefer you run it through me and I’ll make sure he gets it.

Uh, if it pertains to the well being of Israel, uh, and anything you can offer, uh, on any level of, uh, donation or contribution, either in money or materials, uh, let me know and I’ll make sure that Elliot is aware of it and he can direct, direct it accordingly to ensure that those American dollars get to the right people, the right places in the right situations.

Is that a fair enough with you, Elliot?

Elliot Chodoff: Absolutely. Thank you. [01:05:00]

Gene Valentino: Thank you for joining us here today, Elliot. Elliot Chadov, Israeli defense and military strategist, um, for Israel. Very, very interesting, uh, relationship developed between Elliot and I a year ago, and it’s grown into a friendship, and I really commend him and what he’s doing to protect, uh, Israel.

Uh, which in turn protects America, uh, and, uh, failure to defend the rights of other people folks may someday result in your rights or my rights not being defended. Thank you for joining us on another episode of Gene Valentino’s GrassRoots TruthCast. Subscribe if you would. Uh, we’d love to have you on our list.

We send out these episodes every week and um, we’d like your input. It means a lot to us. Thank you for joining us on GrassRoots TruthCast.

Thanks for joining us for [01:06:00] Gene Valentino’s GrassRoots TruthCast. Be sure to like and subscribe and God bless America.

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