Yaakov Lappin is a military and strategic affairs analyst, specialising in Israel’s defense establishment, and the country’s strategic environment. He is an Associate Researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, and the Israel correspondent for Jane’s Defense Weekly and the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS.org). Lappin is a guest commentator on international TV and radio outlets, including Sky News, BBC World Service, and I24.
Our Voice of the Fortnight is from the Times of Israel's 'Wartime Diaries' podcast. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Shai Davidai – an Assistant Professor at Columbia University – became an unlikely public defender of Israel. And truthfully, even he was surprised by this turn of events: As a committed left-wing Israeli, he had spent years criticizing the government, and often took to the streets to demonstrate against its policies. But the atmosphere he witnessed on college campuses (and specifically on his own campus at Columbia), compelled him to speak up and speak out.