Episode 98: What Israel’s founding fathers knew about terrorism, with Dr. Bruce Hoffman

13 snips

Mar 15, 2026

Dr. Bruce Hoffman, an Oxford-trained scholar of terrorism and counterterrorism, guides a tour through Mandate-era violence and strategy. The conversation covers the Irgun and Lehi campaigns, the King David Hotel bombing, and the moral puzzles of insurgency versus terrorism. It also draws sharp parallels to modern information warfare, Menachem Begin’s narrative tactics, and Israel’s recent failures in the information battle.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

How British Entry Sparked Early Violence

British rule of Palestine began optimistically after Allenby's 1917 conquest and the Balfour Declaration.
Early Jewish immigration and Arab fears triggered riots in 1920 and 1921 that convinced Zionists of the need for organized self-defense like the Haganah.

INSIGHT

The 1936 Rebellion Changed Britain’s Priorities

The 1936 Arab Rebellion transformed local violence into a major anti-British revolt that threatened imperial security.
Britain suppressed it militarily then issued the 1939 White Paper restricting Jewish immigration at the worst possible moment for European Jews.

ANECDOTE

Begin Entered As A Propagandist Corporal

Menachem Begin arrived in late 1943 as an inexperienced corporal but skilled in propaganda and information operations.
Begin took Irgun leadership in 1944 and chose symbolic attacks on immigration and land registries to force open Palestine.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Terrorism scholar Dr. Bruce Hoffman joins the podcast to guide us through one of the most morally explosive chapters in Zionist and Israeli history: the Irgun, Lehi, the British Mandate, and the violent campaign that helped force Britain out of Palestine. Moving from Allenby’s conquest of Jerusalem to the King David Hotel bombing, the Lord Moyne assassination, the hanging of the British sergeants, and the bitter intra-Jewish “Saison,” the conversation refuses easy answers and asks the hardest questions head-on: When is political violence terrorism, when is it insurgency, and why does terrorism so often work? The conversation is surprisingly urgent and immediate, as we connect Menachem Begin’s mastery of narrative and information warfare to Hamas, October 7, and Israel’s catastrophic failures in the information war. The parallels and lessons are haunting. Join us for this journey into history, ethics, propaganda, the necessity of statehood, and the frightening power of violence to change the course of history.

This episode is sponsored by Carmela and Uzi Levin of San Francisco who asked to dedicate it to the memory of Niv Raviv and Nirel Zini, a young couple who were brutally murdered by Hamas near their home in Kfar Aza on October 7 2023. Sadly, the Levins never met Niv or Nirel. They heard of their tragic story from Tami Raviv, Niv’s mom.

Niv and Nirel met during their army service and moved to Kfar Aza in early 2023. On October 10, 2015, while serving in the IDF, Nirel was severely wounded during an operation. From then on, every 10th of October became a special day of celebration marking Nirel’s survival and rehabilitation. On October 10th, 2023, Nirel was planning to celebrate by proposing to Niv. But he never got the chance.

Niv was pursuing a master’s degree in psychology and hoped to become a therapist.

In their memory, Niv’s mother Tami founded the Niv Nirel Center in Beit Yannai, in collaboration with Dr. Kfir Feffer. The center is a tranquil sanctuary, overlooking the Mediterranean sea north of the city of Netanya. It offers world-class post-trauma treatment to combatants and survivors who so desperately need it. The Niv Nirel Center is the only place in Israel that operates an intensive day-care program, as well as a research unit that hopes to create a protocol that will allow the center’s successes in post-trauma rehabilitation to be replicated.

It is truly moving and inspiring to see how Tami has been able to channel this bottomless sadness into a project of care, hope and love. A ray of light for a nation in search of healing.

If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything. There you can ask the questions that guide the topics we cover on the podcast, join our great discussions where listeners share news and valuable resources, and take part in our monthly livestreams where Haviv answers your questions live.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at haviv@askhavivanything.com⁠.

Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.