The 27th anniversary of the creation of the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri) for years Memri has been a unique tool in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism. We talked to Yigal Carmon, president and founder of Memri and former councilor for the anti -terrorism of two first Israeli ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.
How did you think of creating a platform of this type and how has your work changed?
“When I finished my decades of service of Israeli military intelligence, I realized that people did not know what was happening in the world. The reason was not linked to the fact that they had no access to secret material, but that they did not know what was already available in the material Open Source (i.e. mass media, social media, etc.). One of the greatest obstacles was that this material was available in languages not spoke in the West. I therefore thought that to give access to people in the West to the materials Open Source It was important to start translating the mass media of the Arab and Muslim world into languages to speak in the West. Our slogan is in fact “Bridge the Language Gap“(Fill the linguistic gap, creating a bridge). Over the years, our “mission“It has not changed in its essence, but has expanded. In fact, we also added translations from Russian and Chinese, to have a complete view of what happens internationally. To date, Memri translates from the following languages: Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Pashto, Dari, Kurdish, Russian and Chinese ».
On August 31, 2023 she published an article entitled “Signs of possible war in the period September-October” in which she described in detail what happened then on October 7, 2023. While knowing that this question was asked of the tens of times the I ask: What did he think that morning, why was there on October 7th and how to explain the inefficiency of the Israeli security apparatus?
“From a purely professional point of view, my belief has strengthened that the open source material offers greater and profound understanding of the incredible technological progress of Israeli intelligence. We had all the information, but the Israeli officers did not believe in their own intelligence. The Israeli intelligence had in fact a preconception: he thought that Hamas had been discouraged by attacking, after the clashes of recent years, and that all the military preparations of the terrorist movement were only one show. In addition, Israeli intelligence was convinced that Hamas was interested in the development of Gaza and governing it and not starting another war with Israel. For these reasons, all the indications provided had been defined as “not valid”. If the officers had given the necessary importance to the material Open Source (Interviews with Hamas leaders, videos of instigation to war, video of military exercises, and jihad education in the school system, etc.) would have understood that the plans and intentions to attack Israel were real ».
Can Hamas be totally destroyed? I ask him after seeing the frightening propaganda images of the Palestinian jihadists during the liberation of the hostages. How can this war end and who will command Gaza tomorrow?
“Extreme and violent ideologies may not be completely destroyed, but they can be weakened to the marrow (this has already happened with fascism and Nazism). Unfortunately, in Gaza, Israel has been forced to be defeated and it is for this reason that we see these images of exultation and victory by Hamas. Israel had to accept Hamas’ conditions because, on the one hand, it was the only way to save the hostages left in Gaza, who include women and children, and, on the other hand, he was under strong pressure of the American administration, which He wants to see the end of the war. For these reasons, Hamas continues to control Gaza, with the sponsorship of Qatar, who looks like a mediator, while in reality it is the incendiary that pretends to be the firefighter ».
The Qatar Arma and finances terrorist groups such as Hamas, HTS and the Taliban, then one morning changes the dress and becomes a mediator. Didn’t the time come to radically change approach with them?
«For over a decade, I say that the approach to Qatar must change. In June 2017, President Donald Trump said that Qatar was “historically a terrorist lender”. The Qatar did not stop, on the contrary, it has doubled its policy of sponsoring Islamist movements. Qatar Prime Minister, Sheikh Muhammed bin Abdulrahman at Thani, He often repeated that the United States were asking Qatar to keep his communication lines open with terrorist organizations. What Qatar did, however, was not “to keep lines of communication”, but to make its capital Doha, Hamas and other terrorist organizations available to establish their headquarters, supporting them widely both politically and financially “to establish it”
The Ayatollah regime that exports terrorism all over the world is in great difficulty. Can it collapse?
“It is worth noting that the Iranian population is estimated at around 89,000,000 people, about half of whom are of Persian ethnicity that live mainly in the central Iran, while the rest is composed of Kurds, balconies, azeri, Arabs Ahwazi , Turkmeni, Lur, Gilakis, Mazandarani, etc. Therefore, non -person ethnic minorities include 40 to 50 percent of the Iranian population. Over the years, several American administrations have decided that the strategy to be followed against the Ayatollah regime was to support only the Persian population, keeping non -Persian ethnic groups outside US policy “.
What can the United States do?
“The Trump administration should have the courage to change this policy, since supporting only the Persian ethnic group will not lead to the capitulation of the Islamic regime. In the past, the US administrations feared that helping non -Persian groups would lead to the Division of Iran into several Islamic states. However, it will not be so. At this moment, there is a great opportunity, which the West can take. Non -Persian secular groups are ready to join the West and guide the struggle without the United States by sending their troops. The United States worked with the Kurds in Iraq and Syria. It is thanks to the Kurds that the United States managed to defeat ISIS. The Ahwazi, under the guidance of Dr. Aref Kaabi, are secular and would follow the road to the tolerance traced by the United Arab Emirates, which embrace the Abrahamic alliance. The Baloch, under the guidance of the Free Balochistan Movement (FBM), led by Hyrbyair Marri, are a secular nation. Given the importance of the Marri tribe between the Baloch, the leader of the FBM Marri can appease the Islamist feelings of groups such as Jaish al-Adl. The Free Balochistan Movement, which is 40 years old, has also drawn up a card, whose article 4 states: “The national struggle of the baloch is a secular movement. He supports the separation of religion from the state and politics. He supports the power of reason and It is opposed to any religious and ideological dogma “. The movement has also written a” democratic transition plan for Iran “, which was presented to other ethnic groups present in Iran, such as Kurds, Ahwazi and Azeri. At the moment, this is the only plan that finds a broad consensus ».
