Colonel Richard Kemp and the Morality of the War
Date: June 11, 2025
Time: 12 noon, Eastern Daylight Time, 5 p.m. London Time, 7 p.m. Jerusalem Time
Ever since October 7th, Colonel Richard Kemp has been on the ground in Israel, in Gaza, and in the terror tunnels throughout Lebanon. He, undoubtedly, has been one of Israel’s strongest advocates within the international community. How do the actions of Israel during this long war stack up against those of other nations who have been attacked and are forced to fight within an urban combat setting?
How is Israel able to achieve its war goals, with members of the international community parroting Hamas’ numbers and their exaggerated humanitarian claims? After 20 months, will the Israeli people still have the will to continue to fight its war on seven fronts? Can we defeat a radical terrorist ideology? How important is the success of this war to the defeat of antisemitism?
And finally: How would he advise the government of Israel while facing down the existential threat of an Iranan nuclear bomb?
About Colonel Richard Kemp
Colonel Richard Kemp has spent most his life fighting terrorism and insurgency, commanding British troops on the front line of some of the world’s toughest hotspots, including Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. He is now a writer, a prolific journalist, media commentator and motivational speaker. He provides strategic consultancy services on leadership, security, intelligence, counter-terrorism and defense.
Richard was sent to Kabul, Afghanistan in 2003 to take command of British Forces in Afghanistan. Realizing that there was an increasing terrorist threat, but no resources or plans in place to deal with it, he immediately put together an unconventional force of British troops and US Marines. They begged, borrowed and stole equipment to gain intelligence and launch covert surveillance. Writing about Richard, the Canadian general commanding international forces at the time said: “His efforts led directly to the most successful offensive counter-terrorist operations in Kabul, with several key terrorist leaders now under arrest, significantly setting back the enemy campaign.” Along the way, Richard helped to disarm local warlords, trained the fledgling Afghan army and police and even played a part in preventing a coup d’état against President Hamid Karzai.
Richard joined the British Army the day after he left school, and spent the next 30 years in some of the world’s most notorious trouble spots. In 1993 he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen for intelligence work in Northern Ireland. Most of the last five years of Richard’s military career were spent in Downing Street as head of the international terrorism team at the Joint Intelligence Committee, where he was responsible for producing assessments on the growing global terrorist problem for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.
Colonel Kemp is a frequent contributor to television and print media, and is the author of Attack State Red, with Chris Hughes, and account of the Afghanistan campaign undertaken by the Royal Anglican Regiment. Colonel Kemp is Chairman of the UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers (UK-AWIS), the UK branch of AWIS, an Israeli organization managed by the Israel Defense Forces and headed by General Yoram Yair. Colonel Richard Kemp was a 2017 recipient of EMET’s coveted “Speaker of the Truth Award.”
