JINSA in the Media

JINSA Director of Counter Terrorism Programs Steve Pomerantz appears on Hagee Hotline on “Terrorism in America – What is the Threat Level in U.S. Today?”

Despite the recent US abstention from a vote on an anti-settlement UN Security Council resolution, and outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry’s subsequent speech in which he assailed settlement construction, there are many areas — particularly the defense field — in which US-Israel ties are “flourishing,” Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror said in a Jewish Institute for National Security of America conference call.

The fight against the Islamic State terror group is heading underground. As Iraqi forces, with U.S. support, close in on Mosul, the toughest fighting likely will not be in the streets or door-to-door, but in sophisticated miles-long tunnel networks ISIL has constructed under the city. Fighting in this subterranean domain presents unique tactical, operational, technological and even legal challenges, for which the U.S. military must be better prepared. This is far from the first time tunnels have been used by asymmetric and conventional adversaries, and it is unlikely to be the last.

Just as the Barbary pirates of yore impeded safe passage, U.S. vessels today are challenged by new aggressors, Iran foremost. Iranian forces or their proxies have forcibly tried to prevent the U.S. Navy from sailing freely in international waters in the Persian Gulf and, more recently, in the Red Sea.