Israel defeats every external enemy, while Palestinian hostility fails as internal fractures risk national collapse.
Major General (res.) Yom Tov Samia has delivered a stark warning after seven years of research culminating in his book Unity or Die: Israel’s survival is not threatened by Arabs, Iran, or terror groups—but by internal division and political paralysis.
Speaking on the podcast Roni Sofer Oseh Sechel, Samia categorically rejected the idea of any external existential danger to Israel. He stated that neither Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah, the Palestinian Authority, the Houthis, nor surrounding Arab and Muslim states pose a genuine threat to Israel’s existence.
“There is no external existential threat to the State of Israel,” Samia declared. “We have faced everything imaginable—and won.”
Citing historical evidence, Samia noted that Israel has survived coordinated invasions by multiple Arab armies, the Yom Kippur War, the October 7 massacre, and massive Iranian drone and missile barrages. “Like a lion, Israel stood firm,” he said. “We are still here. No one has succeeded in destroying us.”
According to Samia, repeated Palestinian violence and regional hostility have consistently failed because Israel’s military, technological, and strategic superiority remains overwhelming. The true danger, he warned, lies inside Israel itself—deep social rifts, political tribalism, and a leadership culture trapped in short-term thinking.
He blamed successive governments over the past three decades—from the Oslo era onward—for lacking the courage to make decisive long-term strategic choices. Samia argued that Israel’s leaders have repeatedly failed to convert battlefield victories into lasting political outcomes.
The last time Israel demonstrated such resolve, he said, was during the 1949 War of Independence, when hard decisions were made to secure the Jewish state’s survival. “Today,” Samia concluded, “Israel’s enemies cannot defeat it—but Israelis divided against themselves just might.”
