Shocking Israeli Embassy Attack - Where do we go from here?

I brought here Rabbi Simmon Jacobson to discuss what happened uh in Washington recently with the two people that worked in the embassy who were killed by a pro Palestinian terrorist. And uh to be honest with you, Rabbi, I'm absolutely shaken from the whole thing. And I know that there's probably a lot of Jewish people and non-Jewish people for that matter around the world that are also shaken. And uh I was hoping that you could help us make sense of this whole thing and it can't all be dark. There has to be some light. So, I wanted to hear from your perspective. Well, I'm also shaken just for the record. We How could you not be I was just reading how they were about to get engaged and be married whole future ahead of them. You know, we all know what it feels like and then suddenly ripped away from us only for one reason because they're Jewish. Um, so to make sense, I'm glad you have a I'm flattered by the confidence you have in me. But I have to tell you, this is when the verse in the Bible becomes so so uh so resonant that when Aaron's sons were killed, uh what had happened Aaron, it says Aaron was silent. So sometimes words are not enough simply because they're inadequate to express the pain even though it didn't happen to me or my immediate family but I see them as brothers and sisters which I'm sure you feel the same. It could have been any one of us and uh it just conjures up all those blood boiling feelings when we hear about what happened October 7th. all these senseless deaths, especially when you're a Jew. And uh so I just want to acknowledge that before getting into like making sense or trying to find strength and finding hope, which we definitely have to talk about. One of the great Rebs once said, he said, "It's hard to speak, but it's more hard it's more it's difficult to speak, but it's more difficult to remain silent." So but I really believe that silence is sometimes the only response because what do you say going to start explaining it you know their people's lives have been shattered their families are shattered it changes uh it changes the trajectory of of so many people so I just want to begin with that that's the Jewish way we do cry we do grieve we do mourn however we don't stop there we don't stop there we turn all tears into some form of uh purpose, some form of growth. Not to justify it, not to minimize it, not to deny it or escape, but to me it always comes down to that unbelievable approach where you dig deeper. And our ultimate act of defiance is that not only we will survive, we will thrive, we will grow. And our ultimate revenge is not blood for blood but bringing life into this world. Bringing more of what Judaism is so beautiful about the virtues, the light. So for every act of darkness and every act of death, we will bring more life and more light. That's the hands down our approach. But I think we have to acknowledge that it's painful to see especially literally the their their bodies are still warm unfortunately. So I'll tell you what the other side is saying, okay? Because unfortunately I'm very steeped in the social media world. Please. What the other side is saying is more or less boohoo. Two two, you know, people were killed. Two Jews were killed. But why don't you care about the 40,000 people that are killed in Gaza? That's what the other side is saying. Well, you know, the equivalent to me, and I uh I'd like to be open-minded, is like someone saying six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, but you know what? 100 million people were killed in World War II. Why are we not talking about that? What about the millions of Germans who they claim were innocent were killed? You have to let's stop this rhetoric and this media um type of uh cliches. Yes, every death is terrible, but you have to remember Kamas and all its supporters in Gaza went ahead in the most coldblooded fashion that even people who were not necessarily um so supportive of Israel when they saw what kind of um I don't even want to use I don't even know the words for it. the deumanization, the burning of live children in front of their parents, the rapes and so on. Once you see that, there's a declaration of war against Israel coming from a small strip called the Gaza Strip. And that's how wars are fought. Wars are bloody. So, we don't like any death, but for anyone to make that equivalence to me is just a major distortion. I don't even want to give them the respect of a discussion like that. would be like saying the Nazis. Many Nazis were killed. Why are you just talking about six million Jews? But you have to remember who provoked it, who started it, and there are responses and that's how it works. And you know, let me go a step further about those people crying for the 40,000 Gazins. Are they crying for the millions of Congo or people in uh different African countries as we speak are being slaughtered? How come you don't even hear about that? So to me it's just a PR. It's it's it's aligned. It's it's it's complete uh a complete fabrication essentially. So it feels lately like there's been a a shift in the tide. I know that for years I felt as a Jew, let's call it safer on the right, on the right side of politics versus the left. And you know, it seems like lately what's going on with all of these big podcasters, I mean, one after the next, I mean, the biggest names in the conservative podcast world, whether it's Tucker Carlson, whether it's Candace Owens, whether it's Theo Vaughn, whether it's, you know, whoever, whoever other big influencer or podcaster, or even really Joe Rogan or any of these guys. Now the mainstream conservative podcasters and that movement has completely shifted and has turned on Israel and turned on the Jewish people. It's they bounced from one conspiracy to the next, from one liable to the next. And so we're not welcome on the left, we're not welcome on the right. And it seems like we're really just not welcome anywhere right now. Well, we're here for almost 4,000 years. So, if you're a betting man, I would bet on the Jews, not against them. Um, yes, but but it hurts. No, I understand very well. But let's be honest, Barl, if you're putting your bets on these right-wing commentators, um it's a mistake. I'm very glad when they support us, but let's not overdo it because um the since I'm talking about Germany, when they started turning on the Jews, suddenly decent, normal people that we thought were decent turned on them as well. I will say this. I believe that the majority of the American people are pro-Israel and pro-Jewish. Um, turned to the Christian right. They've not turned on the Jews. Now, this doesn't mean we should be dependent on them. You I I mean, I follow the Pope on Twitter and uh he's pretty anti-Israel right now. Yeah, but the Pope is a Catholic. Yeah, but what about guys like John Hegy? or for that matter, um, Mike Huckabe. Now, I'd rather I think I'd rather have the Pope than Huckabe. Okay. Look, look, look, I don't think we should be now trying to uh necessarily uh pander to these individuals. It's their loss if they can't see clearly. I'm not saying it's great, but we are not dependent on them. The question is what we should do about it. What we should do about it. By the way, I don't really even blame them for not being able to see clearly. You know, if you're sitting on TikTok on a random Tuesday afternoon, Tik Tok is feeding you the craziest images coming from Gaza, men holding their babies crying and screaming Allahu Akbar. And I in a certain sense I don't even blame the world for their brainwashing because they're just getting these little tiny clips with no context whatsoever. So in many cases I feel like they're not even necessarily evil. They're just so misinformed. So maybe you should maybe lower the consumption that you're having of all this social media. Yeah, maybe you're right. That's one. Number two, the problem is the problem is is it's I'm not the one that I'm worried about. It's the rest of the world that I'm worried about. I I I'm able to discern, but the rest of the world is not able to to discern. Well, I'm I I'm I've been trained to think of solutions. So, let's talk about solutions. Okay, you've identified the problem. Not going to deny that there isn't a problem, a PR issue. Um, remember millions, if not billions of dollars have been spent by those forces that are anti-Jews and anti-Israel to uh sway the media, to sway the campuses, the universities, and to sway Hollywood. Um, so we know that the question is what is the solution? As you probably know, the biggest billionaires in this world have been trying to put their head together, heads together since October 7th. you know, Robert Craft, he crafted, no pun intended, the Super Pole ads. You know, he was frustrated. That's what he's doing. He's got the money. I have not seen a concerted effort, a PR effort, or an educational effort. Um, at least not in a public way. Uh the good news is as late as United States of America goes, the fundamental principles of this country are definitely conducive to pro-Jewish, prominority, pro- religion and so on. But there's a major PR war at work. It's a media war. It's an information war which may be even bigger than the war in Gaza because it's about the minds of our young men and women. When you see Jews chaining themselves to the Colombia chain, Colombia gates pro Palestinian, it makes your heart break. Like what's what's wrong with them? It's one thing people who who are not Jewish who've been dissuaded. What about them? So I see this as a tremendous wakeup call that we need to create a real revolution in our the way we disseminate information, the way we influence, the way we communicate. I haven't seen it. I mean, I commend you because you immediately get on here on the airwaves and I'm here with you and we're going to talk about it. But more the marrier. I have recently, for example, launched uh what we call a 70 languages in Hebrew lash taking videos that I'm messages specifically catered to the Arab world and they're through AI translated and lip-synced my voice in Arabic. Interesting. And it's getting from unbelievable responses. I'm not naive to think. One of your biggest videos on YouTube was message to Muslims. Right. Exactly. So, and I'm just speaking small baby steps that I'm capable of doing. But anyone listening to this has to ask the question, okay, we know the problem. Uh awareness of the problem is have the solution. But what is the solution? The first thing that comes to mind is we must use technology to keep broadcasting clarity and messages. You remember the thing called radio free Europe? I don't know if you ever maybe you're too young to remember um in the days of the former Soviet Union where no media and no free information from the west was allowed into the Soviet Union. There was a thing called radio free Europe. That's all there was radio. They broadcast radio and many say that ultimately it created change because people listened and they suddenly heard another narrative. It took time. It wasn't overnight and they tried everything possible to shut it out. So I believe that ignorance is a breeding ground for this type of darkness. Knowledge and information is not. You get you keep pushing it out there. Now there are haters. Let's not be naive. Really there are haters. No matter what you say, you're not getting through to them. It makes no difference. But there are a lot of people who are just simply by default ignorant. So, I would do whatever possible to talk about this directly. Address the real questions. Okay, 40,000 Gazins. Let's talk about that. We don't even know if those numbers are right. When you start telling people, who gave us those numbers? Kamas, they call it in all the media they call the health Gazin health authorities. It sounds so neutral and so beautiful as if they're like objective authorities. They're purely the kamas. The same people who raped and pillaged and defaced and burned live children are the ones that are giving those those numbers. I'm not saying there isn't destruction there. You know, I've heard from people who are not necessarily Jewish who said, "What we would have done, look what happened in Hiroshima, Nagasaki. You just flattened the whole Gaza and it wouldn't have been 40,000. It would have been 2 million." some people who are who you know I'm not saying I would advocate that because I still believe as a Jew we do everything possible to protect lives even lives of enemies or even lives of people who are who are um who are who are essentially empowering the enemies through their silence because remember uh um in this type of situation were 100 million Germans all guilty yes they were guilty by association they were guilty by being silent silence is complicity that's a fact. But nevertheless, as Jews, we always look to save life. But so, so I I think we have to stop being apologetic. And those that want to hate, let them hate. They have their narratives. We have to push a narrative out there that's true, that's decent, that's civil. The Jewish people after the Holocaust didn't look for revenge to kill anyone. We built families and we'll continue to do so. I really think that's the ultimate response. We stand with God. God stands with us. You know the expression, the Jewish people are like one sheep are surrounded by 70 wolves. Sometimes those wolves are quiet and sometimes they make noise and now they have in Washington and other places and but we know we're not alone and we will uh prevail. What is you know everything that goes on down here is a result of what goes on in heaven. So, I don't expect you to have an inside track to what's going on up there, but you know what what is going on up there? It seems like the world is closing in on us. And maybe you're, you know, a little bit more gray than I am. So, you've seen, you know, and and heard firsthand account stories of Russia and and and Germany, my generation, that this is all new to us. We've never lived We've never lived through this type level of height height of anti-semitism before. So what's going on? Okay. I think it's important for me to mention my parents were both born in the former Soviet Union. Um um and uh so they didn't experience the Holocaust per se, but they experienced the Soviet Holocaust under Stalin. So I didn't grow up in some type of like you know utopian uh fantasy world. Uh I did I did I was born in the United States. But the second thing I want to mention is I am a student as you know um of the Reb rabbi for many years. I worked for him. I wrote the talks. I memorized his his teachings. I wrote books about it and I continue to do so. So I'm very much influenced by his attitude which frankly was the attitude of his teachers and his predecessors generation after generation. And despite the darkness that he and all these people witnessed, whether it was in the previous generation or now, there was always an attitude. There was never that paranoia or fear. As much as they were realistic, there was always the attitude that we are stronger and we are not going to allow ourselves to succumb to paranoia and fear. The question was always, what are we going to do about it? And that empowered me frankly maybe that's where I'm coming from. So I know many people are afraid. They saw what Germany happened in Germany, what happened in golden age of of the Jewish world in Spain. Everything was so great and then the world turned on us. So I understand where it's coming from, but I have to just state for the record. I don't come from that point of perspective. So my perspective is this. There are challenges. There is dark there are dark there's darkness. But we have recourse and perhaps more than our parents and grandparents did. The fact that we have Israel, we have an army. We have plenty of strengths and there are many Jews in positions both financially and other ways of leadership. So I frankly am not I sleep peacefully. I am extremely disturbed when you hear about a couple like in Washington who were killed and of course by all these other events. But I sleep peacefully. I'm not paranoid and fearful at all. How would I convey that to people who are? I would simply I guess I guess I am by the way. I'm one of those people. So make me feel better, Rabbi, please. Because yeah, I am paranoid. So if so, so we're we're virtual right now. If we were sitting right near each other, the first thing I would do is I'd hug you and give you a big hug and tell you, "Listen, my brother, my brother, um 33 3,37 years ago, um we were in a 210 year exile of genocide and bondage and horrible mistreatment and oppression. And we became a great nation. And here we are thousands of years later. So it's exactly what I would say to my son and my daughter and I say to you as a brother. I say to my brothers and sisters, we are invincible. We're indestructible. You must know that both individually you have a soul that is divine. That divine soul no one can ever take from you. And you can't allow yourself to um to resign or in any way to retreat. And I say it like think of a commander-in-chief. You're in a battle and uh and you and you lose a battle. You can't suddenly say, "Okay, we're going to surrender. We lost the battle. Fine. We're going to figure out how to win the next one." And I see that as the approach that the best defense is offense. Obviously, anything you could do directly with any of our enemies or uh we have powerful army. Look what how how proud everybody was when Israel vanquished Hezbollah and now Syria has fallen almost bloodlessly. Gaza seems to be some type of pain which I can't figure out exactly just seems historically a place that's just a quagmire or a a quicksand but we will prevail and we will have friends that will join us. I absolutely believe that and uh I would just keep on infusing you, infusing myself, infusing everyone around us with that confidence. We must forge ahead because the other option think of the other option you know I I have studied many people who have suffered greatly in their lives. I have not thank God. So I just have to acknowledge that. But I look what gave them strength. people who've lost children, people who've lost spouses, suffering cancer and terrible tragedies at young age. There's always one one consistent thing for those that have the resilience. They dig deeper and they will not give up. They will dig deeper and deeper and they will say to you, I have two options. I either sink or I swim. And you need to be with swimmers. You can't be around people who feel like losers and so on and so forth. So, I would tell you hang around people who are optimistic like myself. I'm not trying to toot my horn and and and learn from them and learn from them. And I am not saying it's it's a tremendous test. You know, imagine this, God forbid, happened closer home to someone you you and I know. I mean, these are people we don't know personally, but we still feel for them. It's it's a tremendous test. But the fact is um this is when we dig deeper and we find greater strengths. I have seen people have suffered greatly and I can tell you I've seen the most greatest nobility refinement and I'll talk psychologically you know the same issue goes on personally people who've gone through terrible abuse in their childhood and I'm talking about serious abuse traumas rape you know I don't want to become graphic but I just want to drive the point home. So on a personal level, the same thing. Why shouldn't they give up damaged goods, you know, too late for me, it's just not an option. It's just simply not an option. And the only place we turn to is we have a soul, a divine soul that gives us strength. We have friends that hopefully can also help encourage us. And most importantly, we need a game plan. Action game plan. You know what my reaction when I hear what happened in Washington? I saw it this morning or was it last night? I don't remember. when the the event happened last night, I think, right? The murder. Yeah. Um, but I remember when I saw it, the first reaction I had, knee-jerk, I have to do a video immediately. Not because I'm a video guy, not because I like video, because I feel always I remember October 7. We all know where we were that morning, right? It was morning, Shabbat morning, n 2023, October 7th. I was in California by my daughter. I wake up, go to Schul, go into synagogue. It's 9:00 a.m. California time. The news started trickling in. And we know it got worse from bad to worse. You know, some attack 100 people, 200 people, 400 people, 500. I was sitting there, someone in who had his children in Israel. So, he actually contacted them because everybody was terrified. What happened? And maybe it's a full invasion of Israel. You know, we we all thought the worst. Who knows? And it was in the morning when you're supposed to be dancing and celebrating. And suddenly this and I remember the rabbi asked me to say a few words. So I got up and I said, you know, today is the day of the indestructibility of the Jewish people. I know there's terrible things happening right now in Israel, but we know one thing. We will not succumb. We will not surrender to horror. What we do with horror is we cry. We empathize but we build greater strength and we danced and danced with tears and we didn't even know how bad it was as we know the next night Sunday night the holiday ends you know what I did personally and I really am not speaking about myself I just want to tell you my I sat down in the suka because the suka was still up in my daughter's house on Graham Avenue in Roondo Beach California I took my phone literally my phone I sat I recorded 27 2-minute videos of everything that came to my mind, the the pain, the horror, how we should react, completely spontaneous. But the reproach has to be, and this is what I learned from the Reb when the Yam Kipper war broke out before that, the six- day war. I remember the tragedy malot. I think we're now honoring what is it uh 50 50 years from then. 1974 it was when the children were killed in northern Israel. In each particular case we cried the Reb launched a new campaign campaign of muza campaign of fillain campaign of this mitzvah that mitzvah. Well always every painful experience has to be countered with something even stronger with more light. This doesn't take away the tragedy. This is not ignoring the tragedy. It's translating it. It's harnessing it because remember pain is very powerful but you have to harness that energy. Now I know the cynic or the skeptical say what do you think you're going to do another mitzvah and it's going to make a difference but that's the way of the Jew. That's what we did. And when you feel you're at least responding that way it's like just like mobilizing yourself and you're going to join the IDF. IDF consists of the military side but there's also the spiritual war. So I see myself right now at war. I have to use my skills, my platforms, whatever I can do to reach out and sometimes you reach on on high levels. You know, I'm good friends with President Malay. I talk about this with him a lot in Argentina, but I also have an audience that may not be so influential, but you do what you got to do. If we can if we can turn all this into such a positive thrust, you barrel in your world, I and mine, and we can inspire others. To me, that is a response. Is it the solution, a perfect solution? Absolutely not. But I'd like someone to give me a better one. So, I hear what you're saying. Transform it because and that's the way of the Jew. What about if we could just spend the last couple minutes here just on the hurt? You know, it's hurtful to know, maybe I'm just insecure person, but it's hurtful to know that so many people hate your guts. If you ask me if I hate Muslims, I don't hate Muslims. You ask me if I hate Palestinians, I don't hate Palestinians. If you ask me, I don't I don't hate anybody. There's so much hate projected at us and it it's hurtful. So, what do you do with that? How do you how do you channel how do you how do you channel that? I'll answer on the record and off the record. Even though this is all on the record, but I'll answer both ways. So, let's call it on the record. Off the record, okay? Um, off the record. Let me start with off the record. When I see somebody hates me and I don't feel a reciprocal hate, it's their problem, not mine. They probably hate themselves. They probably hate certain things. You have to remember the Jewish people are a lightning rod. We've always been one because we always stood for something. If you're mediocre, you don't stand for anything. No one's going to hate you. They're not going to love you either. Abraham 4,000 almost 4,000 years ago gets up in a big world, a pagan world that's worshiping power, control, money, ego, and he says, "No, I only worship a higher authority." You think, you know how he was hated for that? He was hated by the authorities. All non-conformists and pioneers are going to be hated precisely because they're so great. So I actually to me I don't want to call it a compliment is because they hate something that stands for something. Hmon hated the fact that Morai would not bow down to him. Everyone bowed to him. Everyone will bow to money. What do you think money people will do if someone doesn't bow to them to their power? They'll start not liking you and they'll start hating you. So, I see hatred as a commentary on the hater, not on the hadaitee, if you can put it that way. That's number one. I I don't know if that's on the record, off the record. But on but on the record, I would add the following. I would add the following. Wherever there's love, there's going to be some form of hate. I mentioned the lightning rod. Sometimes Jews are compared to the minor's canary. You know what that is, right? The canary that is always the first one to be sacrificed. The Jews have always been the first one. As soon as you're attacking the Jews, rest assured they'll soon attack others. We represent, I would like to say, we represent a certain level of virtue that has walked marched through history and that is a enemy of everyone who wants to worship themselves and their own power. And there's an expression, you kill the witness. You know, you don't deal with the problem. You kill the witness. We're witnesses. We're witnesses to the crimes of humanity, crimes against humanity, the crimes against us, the crimes against all innocent people. And I think the criminals don't like that. So that's all part of my way of looking at it. Um I understand clearly where you're coming from where you speak about it really feels bad to be hated. Um but maybe this can reframe the way to look at it. It did actually. You know, we learned last week in Peravot that how do you know if Hashem is happy with you? If other people are happy with you and by the measuring stick of the world right now, the world is not happy with the Jewish people. So, how do you how do you just how do you explain that? Can you rephrase that? I'm sorry. We learned this week, last week on Shabbat that or two weeks ago rather, it says in ethics of our fathers, how do you know if God is happy with you if other people are happy with you? And right now we see that the world is not happy with us. So according to that, it would seem that God is not happy with us. Okay. Well, firstly, who's speaking in the name of the world? The fact that the loudest voices are haters does not necessarily mean they represent the world. That's number one. Number two, I think that statement is talking about healthy people. If if a raving lunatic lunatic is running around and saying, "I'm not happy with you." I don't think that God necessarily goes along with that. What the what the Mishna is saying, the perkyavo, the ethics of the fathers is saying is that when you're behaving in an atrocious way and people find you disgusting or obnoxious, then it's a reflection like it's a the opposite of sanctifying God's name. You're desecrating God's name. So God is also upset. But it's talking about normal people. Yes. When I see a Jew or for that matter any person behave in a way that's that is uh that is really really disturbing of course and people dislike it that can often be a reflection that reflects in the way God looks at us. But the hate that you're describing to me you know were the were the Germans happy with the Jews in in Germany? No they weren't. So what does that mean that God wasn't happy with the Jews? You have to look sometimes square in the eye at the individual and say, "Wait a second, they're not a measure of what's successful. These are criminals. These are animals." No, was kamas happy with Jews in October 7th. So that's my two responses. First of all, who's representing the world? And secondly, not everybody who's unhappy we have to dance around or or feels feel uh we need to answer to them. Okay, Barl, let me just say this. I want to say on a personal note, and I want everyone to hear this. I hear where you're coming from. I would love to talk to you more about this because I think there's a there's a critical key piece here. We need to develop a whole new approach of how to look at these things. We can't be defined by those that hate us. We can't be defined by the world that you're describing is turning. I really believe no one's turning against us. There are many people that are, but it's not as bad as it looks. I think what we have to do is rise to the occasion and we will be respected and loved. But for those that feel embattled or feel defensive, I think we need to reframe the whole picture and really build build that confidence. And uh based on what you're saying, and I and I'm glad you're saying it because I'm sure there are others that feel the way you do, we need to address it. And I'm happy to address as much as we can about this topic. So again, give it to me on one foot. How should we how should the average Jewish person who scrolls through their social media and sees the level of hate and is a affected and hurt by that? How should they what filter should they look at that with? Never allow others to define you. You know, we've suffered, we've been hated, we've been attacked, but we cannot be defined by those that attack us. Your identity is intact because you are a child of God's. So, I would tell a person who's feeling that way, open up a prayer book, open up a spiritual book, connect to your soul, connect to the divine connection. Why does God want you in this world? Are you living up to your calling and your mission? That should be the most the most important thing for you. what others call you, what others refer to you, you know, has nothing to do with who you are. And if maybe you should lower your exposure to that because of course, if you're going to hear people yelling at you all day, it's inevitable. It's going to demoralize you and you have to uh that's why we have an oasis. It's called studying Torah, prayer, doing good deeds that protects us. It immunizes us from the haters in the world around us. Rabbi, thank you for your time. This was delightful. As always, we should only speak about great things and we will prevail.