LEXINGTON, Va. Feb. 24, 2025 — Benjamin Anthony, co-founder and chief executive officer of the MirYam Institute, a U.S. based, 501(c)(3), nonprofit established as a forum for leading Israeli experts of diverse and varied perspectives, spoke at Virginia Military Institute Feb. 17 as part of the Center for Leadership and Ethic’s (CLE) Courageous Leadership speaker series. According to Col. David Gray, executive director of the CLE, this year’s leadership theme is “Paradigm Shifts.” During Anthony’s presentation, he revealed many paradigm shifts throughout his life.

Each year, VMI participates in MirYam’s I-SAP (Israel Strategy & Policy) tour, designed for U.S. military cadets to travel throughout Israel to learn about the country, its place among the nations, and its relationship with the United States. Last year, because of the Israel-Hamas war, traveling to Israel was prohibitive. Instead, a trip to Poland was arranged for cadets to learn about the Nazi Final Solution and its malevolent execution during the Holocaust. It was during these annual trips, that VMI forged a friendship with Anthony.

His eloquent talk in Gillis Theater was the first in the speaker series and in the form of a moderated interview conducted by Gray. Anthony began by describing himself as a retired sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who came out of retirement in order to participate in the Israel-Hamas war, and recently concluded his service inside the Gaza Strip. Through the work of the MirYam Institute, he has briefed members of the U.S. Congress and presidential administrations. To the cadets he said, “I make mention of those engagements because I want you to know that the greatest honor is having the occasion to address myself to you.”

He thanked the cadets for the military service they will undertake after graduation, and encouraged them to cling and cleave toward something of substance when faced with life challenges. For Anthony, that something of substance is “the good book.”

“There is a phrase in Judaism that comes from the teachings of sages of our forefathers, ‘In a place where there is no humanity, strive to be human.’ You, in the course of your service, may find yourselves facing dilemmas. Always be accountable to yourselves first and foremost, and if deployed to a place where you struggle to find humanity, strive always to be human.” 

Anthony shared that he was born and raised as an Orthodox Jew in Leeds, a city in England. He and three of his siblings commuted 2 ½ hours each way to the nearest Jewish High School located in Manchester. It was on one particular morning in 1994 that Anthony realized his first paradigm shift. He and his three brothers had stepped off the train to make their way to the school gates, when they saw seven men following them. The men began flinging rocks and taunting them for being Jewish. The boys immediately took up a defensive formation, with the oldest brother, Jonathan in front.

“We quickened our pace to try and place a gap between our pursuers when suddenly the leader of this gang launched an attack on Jonathan. It was absolutely brutal. He headbutted Jonathan, who was immediately rendered unconscious. Another gang member held Jonathan up, while others took turns beating him. My other brothers sought help in the neighborhood, but none was forthcoming. The gang released Jonathan and proceeded to drop bricks, rocks, and bottles down on his head and abdomen. They stomped and kicked him. They got down on their knees and repeatedly pounded his head into the sidewalk.

“For far too long I stood by and did nothing, not because I was frozen by fear, but because I was suffering from two baseless presumptions: That these thugs would come to an understanding that enough was enough and nothing further could be justified; and that my brother was going to get up and turn this around. Neither one happened.

“It was only when I heard these thugs ordering one another not to stop until Jonathan was dead, that I threw myself over him.  I was badly beaten as well, but didn’t lose consciousness. At the end of the attack, I stood up, lifted my older brother up in my arms, carried him to the school gates, and I watched as an ambulance whisked him away to the nearest hospital. As a consequence of that attack, Jonathan had to undergo three liver transplants within one week, and a fourth in 2020. He married and became the father of two children, but has never known a day of good health since that attack. And that for me was the paradigm shift. My siblings and myself immediately ceased to know what it was to be a child. I also learned a lesson—which stayed with me during my military service and in all my life decisions—not to be the 14-year-old version of myself who waited to act. Be quick to assess and quick to act in a very decisive manner.”

Anthony wanted to move to Israel and serve in the IDF when he turned 18, but delayed the move since his brother was desperately unwell and he didn’t want to cause his mother any additional worry. Instead, he attended the University of Manchester where he became a student campaigner for Israel. He moved to Israel and joined the IDF after completing his education.

Anthony explained that in Israel, national service is mandated. Most men are drafted into the military for a period of three years, and women for two. A few serve the country in alternative ways.

“Wherever one serves, they end up leaving with their connections, and with their service well known. The first thing people are asked when they apply for a job is, ‘Where did you serve?’ Israelis grow up hearing their fathers and their mothers talking about the wars in which they fought and where they served. It’s really a passage from childhood to adulthood, another paradigm shift.”

The speaker shared his views on the Israel-Hamas war.

“I am completely comfortable with the level of destruction in the Gaza Strip. It is justified and required because everything Israel destroyed, served as an apparatus and support for terrorist activities. Gaza has more than 400 miles of tunnels deliberately designed to launch terror against the State of Israel. The tunnels have their egress points in people’s homes, in children’s bedrooms. All of this was known, and Hamas cannot be allowed to constitute a threat to the states of Israel. In order to do that, it needs to be robbed of its infrastructure. You have to pick a side, and it may not surprise you, I’m on team Israel.”

Anthony reported that Israel forewarned Gazan civilians multiple times and in various ways to evacuate the area before they began military action. “Cell phones were called and texted by the IDF to provide instruction. Hamas prevented the Gazans from moving into the humanitarian zones, because Hamas views the killing of its civilians as one of its war aims. We know that because every single one of the civilians of the Gaza Strip could have found shelter inside the 400 miles of tunnels that Hamas built, but none of them were permitted to do so.”

He went on to explain an additional warning technique Israel uses called, “knock on roof.” “It’s where a very light munition is deployed from an aircraft to knock the top of multi-story buildings in order to provide a very clear warning to the Gazans that we really are about to enter that area, and this would be the moment for them to leave. I don’t know of any other military that does anything like that. In addition, we then send in ground forces who provide a similar level of opportunity for the Gazans to leave.”

After answering questions from cadets, Anthony concluded by addressing the many failed attempts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinian people in Gaza, and showed a brief film produced in 2016, based on a paradigm shift of ideas. “Instead of a two-state solution, the new paradigm proposes a new state solution. By merging the Gaza strip with a repurposed portion of the Sinai Peninsula, a new independent state can be created for all Palestinians. Egypt and Israel would guarantee defense of the borders of the new state. Israel, willing Arab nations, and the international community could invest in the development of the new Palestinian state and Egypt as the donor state.” Anthony believes the plan is viable, bold, and the moment is right.  

The next Courageous Leadership speaker is Steve Cannon, West Point alumnus and retired vice chairman of AMB Sports and Entertainment, owner of the Atlanta Falcons, the Atlanta United FC soccer club, the PGA TOUR Superstore, and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. His talk is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1 at 7:45 p.m. in Gillis Theater in Marshall Hall. The event is free and open to the public. For more information visit the CLE’s website.

Marianne Hause
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE