One of the last and most well attended panels at the just-ended Jerusalem Conference was entitled, "War in the 21st Century: Counter-Terrorism versus Counter Insurgency," and featured members of the militaries of both Israel and the United States.
The panel dealt with how a future war might look in the light of lessons learned in Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield of 2002, U.S. and Israeli experiences in two of the prevalent types of war today, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, and more.
One of the speakers was Rear Admiral (ret.) John F. Sigler of the United States Navy. Sigler served as Plans and Policy Officer for the U.S. Central Command, and is now the Deputy Director of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies in the U.S. Department of Defense. His admiration and support for Israel are clear in the video of his talk below.
In a light moment at the beginning, he referred to the connection between the two other U.S. Armed Forces representatives on the panel, Grange and Shachnow. The chairman of the session had noted that "Jewish Geography" (a term used when connections between Jews who have just met are found) was showing its face. She said that US Major General Grange's father was Commanding Officer of Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Sidney Shachnow and that Maj.Gen. (ret.)Shachnow was in turn the commanding officer of Maj.-Gen. (ret.) David L.Grange who was now on the panel with him.