Body and Soul 2023 Israel Advocacy - How to Answer Israel’s Critics- Rabbi Burg

uh this is actually a talk I gave last week my wife uh had approached me and said a lot of people have a lot of questions just in terms of things that uh that are going on um and I always kind of give a caveat uh this is not meant to be U the be all end all you know this is just kind of my view my take on a lot of these things very informational in fact U I'll say a whole bunch of things and then we'll really open up for questions I think that's really what people have and I I think that uh the whole world is scratching its head now certainly the Jewish Community um I just anecdotally I've told a lot of people uh the amount of uptake and traffic that we're seeing at H in terms of social media in terms of h.com all those pieces from from Jews really and liberal Jews Jews that are disconnected uh is really been amazing uh to see we even had an article um recently last week written by a Jew that was uh a self-defined um unaffiliated Jew that really was not really connected to the community uh but writing how thrown they were uh and I think I mentioned uh last week uh last Shabbat lunch we were with someone who's a member of The Screen Actors Guild at the SAG and he was telling me that they had started for like like a dozen kind of from Jewish guys in Hollywood like a WhatsApp group about everything going on he said they're now up to like 600 people and many many of them are liberal Jews who are just totally thrown by what's going on and and I think this is very very different for a lot of reasons and so we'll we'll talk a little bit about that um I'd like to start with dor which of you have heard me say last week or in the past uh but I do think it's important to start just a few words of Torah we'll get into some of the details and then obviously open up for any any questions anyone may have uh and that is that in pares Noah in the Torah portion uh with Noah so at the very end there's a story of migdal B which is the Tower of Babel and you know they get together and they create this Tower to attack God is a very very famous story and right in the beginning when they're talking about that there's a there's a word that that uses uses there called aim right AK right it comes from AK to Unity right this whole Unity shabbaton they were unified and I always point out that you know as growing up in the Jewish Community I was always told that if we could only have Unity then everything will be solved like that's our biggest issue if we come together everything else will uh will work itself out but here they had unity and the whole thing was a disaster right they tried to attack God and God spread them out different languages everything that ensues so um I couple years ago and some of you know this about me I I used to hang out in cam Dina my wife's Camp she was there for for many many years and I would get all these kind of eclectic books to read over the summer because you know she was like working and I was on the weekends I would hang out uh and there was one time I ordered a bunch of books and arier my son you guys know arier U he opens the box from Amazon he's like we're totally on an NSA watch list now right and and the books were first was Art of War that was just one of them right the second two books were were pretty intense uh one was a Communist Manifesto by Carl Marx and the uh the other one was MC by Adolf Hitler mimo right and and the reason I got these books I wanted to read them was so many people quote from them so many people talk about them very few people actually read them um and actually um I had to take the books out of Camina my wife made me then I take it out of the house so I actually have the only copy of M comp in the old city of Jerusalem it's sitting in my office um because that's the only place I was allowed to to have it um and and the two books are very very different from each other you know you read The Communist Manifesto you feel like you're being screamed at the entire book like you know all the problems with with the wealthy and you know we have to kind of create one man one vot come together all those pieces and and then you read uh mom and it it's really it's it's a scary book because it's so seductive you know I wanted to like the Jews I felt bad for the Jews I want to understand the Jews and then slowly you get LED down a pathway to where we're the biggest evil in the world and the reason I wanted to read these two books was these two books were responsible for more deaths in the history of the world than any other two books between communist Russia and Nazi Germany they literally killed millions of people Stalin uh and Hitler and what I came to realize was these two societies also had tremendous Aus they were together Nazi Germany they were in lock step literally you know just following orders we're we're together commas Russia was the same thing thing but I realized that when you have Unity that's based on hate it doesn't last it can't last right and eventually they crumbled they took millions of people you know they killed millions of people along the way but eventually they crumbled Abraham looks at this migdal bavel right this Tower that's built on hate of God right he sees the way the world is going and he decides that he is going to build a religion of love he is going to build a religion that is fol f focused on what I love I love KES I love God I love this I you know want to spread these values all around the world and frankly he's very successful not just with the Jews but in terms of bringing monotheism to the entire world and I think what this conflict is is really showing and bringing out is the various ways you know we're being bombarded by this hate which is really I think what is throwing so many people um I think we all kind of suspected it but now no one's hiding it right and we're seeing it everywhere constantly in the streets um and people are very very very thrown by that but yet in Israel you know the the amount of love that people are having for each other and so many people keep alluding to it the the massive amounts of story and love and coming together and support uh is really unbelievable it's really amazing and I think to to me that's really framed this conflict that's really framed this uh this conflict uh in terms of this you know there one of the things you're hearing a lot of from people is you know the difference between being a pal inian and part of Hamas and what's interesting is when you talk to a lot of the government officials there and stuff they're they don't differentiate in that same way all right many of the Palestinians have are being taught young people are being taught that we are the enemy they're being taught and and so when you have a kid that's being brought up in that atmosphere where in class he being told that we're the enemy and we have to be a martyr and then you have I don't know if any of you know uh he actually lives near by here sander Gerber right sander Gerber is a good friend great great friend of age really amazing person so pushed the Taylor force act right if people here heard the Taylor force act Taylor force act is I think one of one of the greatest pieces of legislation out there right and and what he did was he decided that he found out the Palestinians are paying right and this is the PA this is not Hamas right the PA is paying families whose uh you know dependent their relatives go out and blow themselves up or kill people or killed as Martyrs they were paying them money he's like this is ridiculous so he goes out and he wants to stop it so the first thing he has to do he has to resign from some very official Boards of pro-israel organizations that were not comfortable with where he was going right which shows you he was probably onto something and uh so he goes out and he says this is crazy and then Taylor force was not Jewish uh was in Tel Aviv he had been a veteran of the the US uh uh military and he was killed in a terrorist attack and he goes to the family and says I'd like to pass this legislation to stop this insanity and they they get on board they they're amazing people and he passes legislation that America will hold back money right whatever money the P has given these Terror PTY we're not going to give it to you and that's such it was such an important legislation he did the same thing in Israel it's a whole another thing in terms of that another conversation but it's so important to understand that as we're phrasing this Hamas and people are trying to be PC quote unquote right that you know this is Hamas versus Palestinian people it's much much larger than Hamas much larger than Hamas and I think people need to know that you know one of the things that I said on air different interviews over the years especially with Gaza is we pulled out of Gaza people don't even realize that we pulled out of Gaza you know so then you know they use the language of you've probably heard this open air prison right that's what G an open air prison you know well it's yeah but there's another border that they have with Egypt right but General CeCe is no way and I I don't if you're you're watching Egypt everyone's starting to pressure Egypt to taking refugees and Egypt is saying absolutely not right now they're saying because it's not right is their right but really he doesn't want them right he understands the the what they bring uh to that table and all those different pieces and and a lot of these Jordan is the same way so you know it's very interesting I I went to Egypt a couple months ago I went on a trip uh Shalom who is here and I are members of something called YPO YPO is a network for CEOs uh and it's an international Network and within the network right there's something a group they create called Mosaic right they're basically seos are pro Israel it's like 300 of us my wife's on the WhatsApp group right she loves it they're like amazing people um doing so we went to Egypt together and when you're in Egypt it it it is really amazing how what they tell you has no relationship to the truth right it just hearing it firsthand we went to the local synagogue there right now just to give you statistics on Egypt Egypt had over 100,000 Jews in 1948 right now it could have been 125 whatever but over 100,000 Jews in 1948 today they have somewhere between 30 and 40 Jews that's 30 to 40 Jews not 30 40 that's 30 to 40 Jews left we met we happened to meet the the head of Jewish Community a very nice woman there a whole another story I could tell you another time but she had not heard Chau for in a long time I wanted theong show forer it was very moving moment but if you start to look into it it you know it B what happened in the 1950s Egypt took all the Jewish males threw them in prison and said we're happy to let you out but you got to get out of the country right right so overnight the population dropped down and then you know you hear you know president CeCe say like we're not sure the Jews had a great here we're not sure why where they all went right it's such a disconnect right and you have to understand that that is the way the Middle East plays out it's very hard for us in the west to understand that I always give the example uh we have you know Arabs that work at asan I have nice relation with some of them and one of the guys once in my office I'll never forget this and he's explaining to me he's like you know look I need time off my daughter she needs eye surgery she has to go here you know he's give me a whole you know I get to I'm like you don't have a daughter they go you know and then we you know it it's and it's it's just very different than the way we do things there just it's a certain way like it's all it's a bizarre like in terms of like the shook like everything is you know and the way they deal with things the way they say things uh things are are very very off right and that's why you know with the hospital bombing that we got blamed for right everyone was it was just you know running around the world what did Mark Twain say right he said that the uh right a li is around the world by the time the the truth has time to put on its pants or something something like that uh but that's really um I think a lot of these things and I think also you know what's different now for sure is the battle online you know a lot of people have come up to me even over this weekend talk about the rallies and going to the rallies Etc so much of the battle right now is online and and it's a very difficult battle I was um I was very friendly with the the gillad erdon at the UN we're very blessed three or four times a year uh gillad brings he's a un and Dan J know before him they bring ambassadors to Israel they bring a lot of from Africa from other smaller countries and at as we always host them for dinner or lunch cocktails on the roof we're very very close to them and um so we're at a meeting with Y Aron and this of course goes back to Durban there was a Durban conference right where BDS really took hold that's really where the first inkling of BDS one of the things that you have to know just in general right this talk is about Israel not anti-Semitism but it's very important to understand with anti-Semitism it's very hard to just say I hate Jews right that's that's you're out in the open you're just saying it right so basically many times anti-semites hide behind social causes right so for example the example I always give is in Germany when they try to ban bris Milas I happened to I spent a lot of time in Germany when I worked for an I was there working with their youth groups and uh I'm in Germany and we were going to have a aik they were ordaining rabbis in Germany you can that's a it's a fairly emotional thing to to to see that there you know rabbis back there and Torah being taught and right before we came to Cologne for the ceremony they had announced one of the judges there announced that they were Banning circumcision because of the the pain to the baby you know and it was this whole big uproar and you know we wound up speaking about but I was sitting at a dinner there was a dinner given by Ronald louder the night before we was sitting at dinner I was with a guy named Stefan Kramer right Stefan Kramer was the Jewish head of the um of the Jewish Community right meaning there's no separ of church and state so a lot of places in Europe there's an official governmental kind of head of your community right so I was sitting with Stephan Kramer I had known him for many many trips and I said to them I just asked the obvious question you know is this thing with circumcision is this anti-Semitism or is this like really they you know they feel really bad about the baby or or you know what have you and he said to me he said Steve he goes look when you have a guy with a shaved head and a swas stick a tattoo talking about the pain to the baby it's it's very hard that takes like that's anti-Semitism and and find that you find it by shita many place in Europe they hide behind something and BDS has become the largest thing to hide behind right I don't have a problem with Jews I love J but it's Israel right Israel attack Israel Etc so we were having a meeting at the UN with gillad with a bunch of Jewish leaders in the room and we were talking about the it was the anniversary I think 20th anniversary whatever it was of the German conference how are we going to you know kind of push back Etc so there had just been another conflict in Gaza at that time right before then so I was like the firstand up when when we were going around and I said I said look honestly we got totally beat on social media on this last conflict and that is where the entire world is on social media and and we got beat by by the other side it's a it's a huge problem so you know I said my piece about social media and that was when H was starting to really really pick up in in social media and uh the next guy to go was Rick Jacobs right Rick Jacobs is the head of the reform movement right so Rick Jacobs raising he says he starts out by saying I want to disagree with Rabbi Berg from a right I'm like okay you know he's like R Berg said that we lost he said we didn't lose we didn't show up the play and he starts making my point so much stronger than I ever could the fact that we have absolutely failed online and and it's it's very very serious because look we're of a certain age I'll be the first to admit I don't I'm not like I don't have Tik Tok and you know those things on my phone right but the average person is getting their news from Tik Tok they're getting from Instagram they're searching for information there all the news comes from there and the algorithms just basically keep giving giving you the stuff that they think you want to see cuz they want to keep you on they are not interested in giving you any other Viewpoint because if you hear something that you don't like you you will go someplace else so there's this Echo chamber right and and for the Palestinians and the other cause they have really mastered it and that's that's a huge issue for us so we talk about like going to the rallies you know Etc you know there's this massive cyber rally that we're we're not really um on to as much uh as we uh as we should be I think this was all also very different for us you know because of you know first of all the failure of the IDF you can put that aside and and the truth is everyone in Israel has put that aside you know the the head of military intelligence has said we blew it the head of the military said we blew it the uh you know the the head of shinette right uh BB maybe at some point might say that but that's not happening in the near future right um but the bottom line is everyone said that there was a failure here but we can't deal with it now we have to deal with it later and and it's a very fair point and everyone is is is on that point but what was different here was but this breach was the the brutal killing right the rapes and the killing of babies and children all these things which is something that should have shaken the core of the entire world right and what we saw coming out of it we were All Shook Up I literally I do not know a Jew that wasn't Shook Up by what happened you we were in Israel at the time we were there on on shabus at a we started hearing all things happening it happen to one of my nephews walks in is this Jerusalem from ches he had he come to join his unit to go up there you know so he stopped by to see us on on the way um and we were sh shaken by our core and then we realized that the world just had a Playbook ready to go right and they didn't even pause to think of whether this was different they just had a Playbook and they rolled it out and so we we were so thrown and thankfully a lot of other non-jews were thrown they were really thrown by seeing what was going on anyone that had had any intelligence whatsoever and was watching people come out on the campuses you know and again I want to thank the magans for their their their Brave stance I think uh in terms of the campuses you know we've been watching this intersectionality for a long time I heard that word for the first time many years ago and what it really means is and and a lot of us have been thrown in the past intersectionality is really when you have all the liberal causes come to hey I'm going to support you you're going to support me we're going to we're we're together against the big man right and so so many Jews were thrown when years ago you go to a black m matter life matters rally and you see palestin you know free Palestine everyone's like what do one thing have to do with the other right intersectionality they they have been coming together on campus for a long time and so on campus right where where you should have people that are intelligent the way they came out so forcefully with zero facts zero caring right and the fact that uh I even you know I was telling someone haritz right haritz is is a fairly liberal um newspaper but they had an opet about people ripping down you know these signs of hostages these are hostages they're like being being held children everything you know and and people are ripping down all over like even hard is like it's too much now I was in the room with my wife my wife been showed me this video you got to love Jews right because there's a video of how to put these signs up but put baby oil and Vaseline on them you know just you know it's just such a yish a cup you know like you know okay right and uh but it's crazy it's really insane like nothing else in the world you know and um I have to say just to get into kind of the global view and this I'll just say and feel free in the question answer you may agree or disagree um I I think that President Biden has stepped up in a meaningful way in a meaningful way and I think we have to be careful because we're I went to an APAC um APAC has shifted a lot of what they do you know some people are pro against whatever it is but they shifted to to starting to pour money into campaigns and a guy got up and he said you know 96% of the campaigns that uh that we put money into we won he goes but this is a Jewish room and I know you're all thinking who are the 4% right and I'm like yeah who you know right cuz we're Jews so so even though we're like very much you know all inclusive I think with Biden to me a very meaningful moment was when he was coming to Israel and uh right then they had that whole farce with the hospital right Israel blew up a hospital right turned turned out had nothing to do with us it was a failed rocket all those things and Jordan our our peace buddies right uh had basically were supposed to host for this meeting which I think is Happ now lincol with Arab countries they canceled it right it would have been very easy for him just to say okay let me wait to come you know and he came to Israel and then he went right back home and I think that that was very strong in terms of what they've done with the ships uh you know sending over the fleet they've taken a lot of moves constant resupport speak military they're very very thankful of of the moves America has made um and I think it's important to to and I say that like some of you know I'm on Newsmax right Newsmax is kind of to the right of I don't know Fox and anything anything else right and it always kind of I said look in this case you have to really kind of recognize that you know on the other hand we have a Congress that we've never had Congress people that were outright anti-semitic you know we have people that are literally and it's like unprecedented you literally have Congress people we live in a Time who have no problem saying things way way way extreme and we're we're we're battling that it's it's not easy we have to we have to hold on to to our friends the other thing just to mention just in terms of what's going on there in the Middle East I mean it it it to say it's complicated would be understatement of the century you know on the one hand you have Syria right and and thankfully Israel has generally had a very good relationship with Russia over the years because it's very complicated with Syria with all the things going on there Etc Ukraine has has stressed that relationship and now you know you're watching Russia and China kind of take that other position so you know everyone's around there everyone has has people down there they're floating around you have Iran lobbing things also one of the things that that changed from the last week when when you when you heard this speech was Nala spoke yesterday I don't know if anyone picked up on his speech um you know obviously it's hard to to fully say but it was very very fascinating to to hear his his pitch which was basically we had no idea that this was happening it was it was purely Hamas Palestinian Iran had no idea right that this was happening but we support it right it's very interesting now you can you can read into that that they they're not necessarily looking to broaden the conflict but it might broaden we just don't know you know I think that I I respect right and I'm not saying this based on conversation I've had but this is not definitive obviously is that when they attack from the south there was an expectation that Israel would just immediately throw everything down south and go in and then when everything was down south they would start attacking from the north Israel did not do that for for for many many reasons but I can tell you and I think many many people do know this Israel has very significant forces in the north right they did not throw everything down south at all right and I say this you know from having a conversation of people and also I mention always mention my two nephews you know one of them is South one of is in the north and both of them are where they need to be to make sure that these things don't happen uh you know so when people try to say well how long is this going to take when's this you know going to be over Etc it's hard to say if it's just Gaza now they've encircled it they have to do what they have to do they have to get these hostages back they're pushing hard you know right now I mean every time you you turn on your phone they're push every one's pushing for a ceasefire you know which will give Hamas time to regroup and take the hostages God knows where that be a disaster for Israel uh and I did not fully read the article I was like kind of flipping through as I was coming here um it did seem that that at least what the news reports were uh that secretary of state blinkin was at odds with the Arab leaders basically telling them that no we don't think that's a good idea which I'm thankful for just to at least read that that headline um but you know it's hard to say if it stays in Gaza and I think that they have to is and and off the Record I've spoken to to Israeli ministers who basically said that part of it is they are flattening Gaza and they are very hopeful that the Goin will go elsewhere because it's not healthy to keep them there and and and this conflict and that's something they they would uh would not be upset if if that was a result of all of this uh but you just don't know you know what's Happ nor irans in the background who are just evil horrible Wicked terrible people I mean I I I we have an Asian buies I've been to buies many times in my life and i' I've gone to the Amia building which is one of the buildings that was bombed by the Iranians in the 90s let's going back to the 90s Iranian bombed uh you know multiple sites in Buenos areas you know and you go there and you see the faces and you see what happen Iran's been playing this game for a long time and uh and that's you know what makes the whole thing even more tragic is you're listening to college kids you know who are like you know in Iran a woman doesn't You Know cover a face and she gets beaten to death right but Israel is the aggressor and you know it just it just you feel like you're living in a crazy world there's a gamarra and I'll close with this and I'll take questions uh from anyone if anyone has um but there's a question that says that a guy goes up to Sham to heaven and he comes back down and they ask him like you know what was what was the difference between down here and upstairs he says he said what we think down here right is really big upstairs is nothing and what we think is nothing is really big and so we're living in this Allison Wonderland world where we're looking to the world going you kidding me like you know someone just wrote recently that there about the proportional response so we should go rape their women and and kill their baby like what like what's proportional when you have Mad Men coming in uh to this extent and um you know and even I I mentioned this last week we were talking you know they the the homas guys were drugged up it's not so simple to just just wreak havoc the way they did it they literally took drugs to get them to a place to just do that it was just about going in and killing Jews so the good news is I'll finish on a good note right after all that those pieces is that if you speak to the folks in the Army the Israeli Army there the moral is so high that you know you know armies are complicated places you do this you do that you're always you know I always joke with the Army it's always hurry up and wait and all these different pieces to it they they know exactly why they're doing what they're doing and that is so important for our our our boys and they're boys you're talking 19 2021 it's so important for them and um so they know what they have to do the will thank God I think there's tremendous Unity you're hearing all these beautiful stories more and more beautiful stories are happening and and I I have seen this even the country even in spite of we've gone through the last year which was horrific in terms of the fighting in Israel there are they are heading I believe in the direction and and I think part of our job is going to be to try to sustain that is really not to go back to to the infighting to really understand that we're blessed to have Israel we're blessed to have Israel and and I I I mention this all the time to uh we're very involved in a with the government in Israel and the different people there and I always tell them that like you know you want to push Israel but you can't push Israel without tow right we have to know where we come from in order to appreciate the land we're in Danny Denon I mentioned was the uh the previous un Ambassador so Danny came one time and I said to him Dan I couldn't believe he had gotten up in the UN with a Tanakh with the Bible right and he said you know he like as a Danny you had like you brought tanak into the UN you know he he told me that all his friends in Israel start calling him Rabbi Danny that's like his new nickname you know but he sent me he goes this whole thing doesn't work without the without the Bible like this is our our right here and I'll say the opposite right when if I sit in a room of of religious Jews which is is you know you have to have a place to practice the Torah and that's Israel and it's very clear um from from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob on down to all the the connections there Israel is our home we have to defend it then it's it's where we are and I tell people you know when people are very nervous what's happened to Israel I said in my my mind you know the fact that we wandered the Earth for 2,000 years and we came back to God did not bring us back to Israel to wipe us out that's not why we're back there we're back there to rebuild we're back there to be strong we're back there I mean that's our place and so we here in the diaspora and all around the world have to defend ourselves um and and I think I think the title of this was like kind of like what do you answer I'm not sure there are answers that even work anymore I think in the old days you know you read a book of facts and you come in with facts no one cares right if it's not 15 seconds on Tik Tok no one's there anymore you know so we have to we have to really kind of look at things differently than we have before we have to be steadfast in our belief that we're right you know and and and and we just need to to move forward and support each other and the Jewish uh people so take questions yeah David I want to bring two pieces of information which I think are really important for everyone here first is social media Israel is losing the social media War beyond what you know because Tik Tok is lying about the sophistic it's 97% Pro Palestinian on Tik Tok they claim it's 50/50 cuz they're ignoring the hashtags that matter um if you like exclude free B sign yeah yes everything's equal but you know 95% of the support of Palestine is coming from free Palestine attacking so all the attacks against Tik Tok they're answering them and they're hiding the fact that they're supporting uh Palestinians with with their a and the other platforms also it's a lot more valuable for them to to support to to to shift their algorithms to be anti-israel that that gets them more money um the other thing is in terms of the campus situations which really go to the anti-Semitism there's a report coming out this week that um 10 to 15 billion of undocumented money has gone into uh universities from uh foreign governments uh the vast majority is coming from Middle Eastern sources well it's coming Kar it's coming from from from uh UK which is a redirection of of midd e money it's coming from Canada which is also his direction of your money it's coming from from the Emirates it's coming from a lot of places but basically they're buying influence quietly and the the issue to me is not I mean of course they're trying to buy inflence the scary thing is the universities are accepting it and that shows the mission of these schools is to promote effectively anti-Semitism the kinds of things that they're B that they're getting money to do to skew their their departments to skew their faculty to skew the campus conversation that they're they're suppressing rightwing conversation and they're promoting left it's statistically evident this reports on the show and that the the campuses that receive Middle Eastern money have three and a half times as many anti-semitic acts on campus and the effect goes to the communities around universities so the communities around them also have an increase in FBI reported anti-Semitism so this is something that it's not just you know pen or you know some kind of like localized saying this has been going on for 15 years and it takes a long time to transform a faculty and it's the mission of these schools that we have to understand that there's this hate that is being uh developed among our among our young our youth know students are going to school and learning very deeply how how to hate Jews how to hate Israel and I think we just need to like like just realize that we can't solve it with a with a you know a task force or a commission at the University that it's an invented problem totally totally you're you're you're a th% correct on both those points and you know the the one of the things uh when I I work for this time we in the center and we would we would talk about lone wolves that's like a big thing a guy someone goes out and does something a lone no thing there's no such thing as a lone wolf that hasn't spent enormous amounts of Times online and been encouraged by things that so many people have said and and uh I was just my wife sent me something right before I came here it was it was a one another report like about money and I think Cornell was one of the largest ones which we just had answered so you're you're hearing this stuff on campus and then someone decides to go out and make some threats that's not coming from nowhere the other thing I want to say is you're absolutely right about Tik Tok you know it happens to be H we and again thank you for Jamie Geller once again right but uh we we have spent the last three years really really plugging away at because we I'll just say from our point of view every single Jew in the world is on social media so for us to contact and reach out to unaffiliated Jews to get them to connect Jewish wisdom that's our space but we've become very sophisticated in fact more sophisticated than I think almost anyone else out there and we've been talking to the government about that because Israelis are absolutely horrible explaining their case they're just not built for it what everyone doesn't know we're right no no we're not we don't you know like everyone's had that conversation and I have that conversation with different ministers and stuff and and we've told them like we just met with the ministry of um diaspora Affairs I just met with some of my people we said we're going to help you like we're going to help you we give us information we can we can help get it out there and I think we all have to do that because um yeah we're getting beat bad Tik Tok is is horrendous absolutely horrendous yeah so there's a lot of organizations that are not Jewish in the state that are very very prois Pro so is is there any efforts that we are making or could make to really get more allies uh on our side because this this battle with with Israel and Hamas is not a local one this is an attack from the Islam fascist leftist BLM antifa left on on on the Western World so it's I think there's a bigger picture also that we can't kind of forget about yeah is a massive picture the fact that lookas people have Bank the point it's Isis you know you're not talking difference you know just different names of these things these different food groups there are other groups that realize this a lot of times uh it's some of the more right-wing groups um and unfortunately some of the liberal groups because of the kind of their bent they're not and we we I'd love to try and do that a little better the Christians have been uh pretty good matter of fact literally walking over here I got um involved with some of the friendly with some of the Christian groups in Israel they're doing full page ads about praying for Israel and stuff and you know they're having like you know a whole group of rabbis pastors and full page ads and stuff so the Christians are very interesting the statistically though if you look at the evangelicals the the Next Generation the younger Evangelical Christians number one is they're not as religious as their parents and they're not necessarily as focused on Israel as their parents Pastor haggy is is is getting older you know and and I know his daughter met her before and you know you're not necessarily going to have that same leadership so it's very worri that that was kind of a group now I'm not going to get into why they support there is a whole you know theological conversation to be had but we have few friends so it's not you know uh we have to but but yeah there's no doubt we have to do that there are a lot of people trying to to make that case uh but it's hard because America is so polarizing to right and left it's very hard to to get that messaging out but there are definitely people you know calling it for what it is yeah I'm just wondering um who who's winning stand up project who's who's winning the war that's a that's an excellent question everyone hear that the question is who who is winning the war so uh we hope that we are right and that's the way certainly certainly it seems um I think Hamas badly judged um our reaction uh I also don't think they necessarily thought they were going to be as successful as they were and to have 230 240 hostages uh what Israel has done now basically told gazin you know to go to stay out of the conf go to a certain place and they've split Gaza in two and now they're going to kind of converge and it's very difficult because um there's this massive tunnel Network you know when I say tunnel I'm not talking about like when you go out in the snow and you build a little snow tunnel you know these are these tunnels are unbelievably equipped there's a massive amount of medicine food gas there's a lot of stories which are very true about you know they're crying for gas in these hospitals meanwhile while Hamas has a ton of this gas put away so it's very complicated uh one of the other complicated pieces of what's Happening Here is that the hostages are being held by multiple groups and we think of Hamas as like okay everyone's Hamas you're card carrying me they're not as organized as a real army and you know one of the questions came up I don't know if you saw there was a a young uh a woman soldier that was freed right and the question was how did that happen right so when you dig down you have some conversations you find out that there were a lot of like people ran over the border and and someone grabbed and put it in their house it wasn't even the official kind of kidnapping Hamas Network and they got intelligent they were able to to free her so um we we believe that we're being very successful in doing what we need to do but at the end of the day it's so unprecedented to have this many hostages and and and obviously they want to get them out alive and and safe um and on the other hand you know you you have the safety of your soldiers you know the safety of your soldiers so it's it's we we think we're winning but you know if you win in the end and you lose some of the hostages and you lose some of your soldiers it's it's you know it's hard to say that and then the question is what happens after this is all over you know you have so many people okay now President Obama Obama spoke I think at his foundation today that now is a time for the you know two State solution you know and there's going to be all kinds of pressure one of the things I say about Biden right is I do believe absolutely that that he has taken a lot of the right steps but there may be a pound of Flesh to pay later for that right which is Israel being pushed into the areas that don't really work so like let's say you do create a two-state solution right so what happens when that other state now starts lobbing everything over and they they you know it's not so tenable people just it's like it's like a PR thing two state two State no one really even knows what that means so so the question is you have to Define winning right first and foremost to try and get them out alive and safe and then to figure out how not to have to do this every couple years I mean I'll say I'll say one more well stand up and loud you can't seven or eight military seven or eight military in the world best oh yeah yeah yes um I've spent you have one piece of social media or antisocial media sometimes called is Reddit I spent a lot of time on r/ Israel Palestine in fact I was I hate to be that guy who's like I was there before it was cool but I started learning about this and obsessing over it years before and I was there when this whole thing went down and uh r/ Israel Palestine is actually an oasis on on Reddit of pro-israel sentiment people always complain there that like this this place skews heavily Israel pro-israel usually the pro Palestine people will come this is a whole this is a bunch of hbar bull and they this is an echo chamber and they'll get out of there really quick I've learned a lot about this conflict from there and there are people from the Arab world who come on there and try to argue one thing I found is that they're not really after truth they're after their in group and defending their everything is friendly until you don't agree with them right and then it's just subtle insults it's Digs at your character it's using any little weakness you admitted against you um and finally they they get nasty they get frustrated see linked in um yeah it's uh and the one thing I've um I've found i' I've learned an awful lot about Arab culture and Arab values and one thing is that blame must always be directed outward it's this tight Habibi culture where every the peace must be kept at home no matter what everybody is so close and tight-knit with each other but to keep that Harmony and peace anything that goes wrong must be blamed on an outside Source it's a part of the culture yeah for sure it's a part of culture you have to realize that every single Arab country um the whoever rules that country is terrified of the street they're terrified of the street and and so so much of what goes on is they just have to figure out how to stay in power Jordan it's a miracle that Jordan is still you know standing you know to a certain extent and so for a lot of them it's all you know they just they just you know I'd love to to to take a stance or whatever it is they may say behind closed doors but it's irrelevant they've got to play a certain role and um it's it's it's really hard and I think also the Palestinians in general there really isn't leadership on the other side and that you know that's that's being the you know you have the the president of the PA who wrote his thesis on Holocaust denial who is I think it's 14 years of a four-year term you know and and so I'm sorry yeah 14 years 14 years right so you you don't you don't really have you don't really have people that that care about their people and that's really and tremendous corruption and and that's the issue who do you even talk to who do you like there's you know but here's the thing but in the face of Outsiders they will stand his perfect solidarity it's it's two brothers against the cousin two cousins against the stranger so they need disagree and want to kill each other amongst themselves but to an ajab to a foreigner no we're all in lock step MH yeah that's the Pres of United FR no you cannot get through it arguing for sure uh I want to just push back on something you said earlier about um the image the losing the the social media battle the fact that uh fighting antism I think this more is a demonstration that that is never going to be a winning strategy that we are you know deide from the fact that the platforms themselves are against us the numbers are also against us and there's no amount of I think it's important it's about ax yeah that the axom is that Israel is evil yeah and so when you have axioms you can't fight them with fact you can't fight them with truth so I don't I I think that Israel's position has to be to just forge ahead to do everything it needs to do and like the same thing with the embassy in Jerusalem same thing with the Goon and frankly if we you know Annex you know officially Annex judan Samaria I think the same true there's a human CME than nothing they no one cares about Palestinians they just want to use it as in on Israel Israel needs to ignore public opinion because will defend Israel if it's valuable for regardless of what Israel do it's wor a lot of countries that do things to their people doesn't correct but we do something if if Israel is valuable to America America will still support when it's not yeah good luck to good luck to Israel right yeah I I I actually agree with that and I think I think for the first time you're really seeing Israel be like we don't really care etc for me I I my look my perspective is and as the head of asor I'll tell you this what hurts me more than anything in the world is to see Jewish kids taking the other side uh if any of you go on if not now or you look at any of this stuff it breaks your heart and and I beat myself up over it that we have haven't gotten to these kids we haven't made our case you know so for me a lot of this Social Media stuff is how do we how do we talk to the Jews you know the rest of the world you know I'm no offense they can go to heck you know but like get them off social media every time you use social media you invalidate it and you bring more and more people you make it more valuable by being there I think the only way we're going to get us we're going to start winning the internet war is to get ourselves off of social media and create something else that we control that we can get people to go to yeah yeah uh one and then two first of all the scariest thing I don't think anyone's really talking about even in this room is that when you read from the hostages that they released and you read that the Hamas has been preparing for a long time that each group of five passages they have a paramedic they have a doctor they have the hygiene they have everything and if you think about the fact that they have the 200 hostages they have all this planned evil take people for observing a closure whatever food they get they get the cheese the bread and the scariest thing is is that theyve outsmarted us they've outsmarted Israel I don't you know with this baby thing and blame it doesn't matter about the blame anymore why because it's happened number two where are we no matter what your church background is where are we going to be in like 5 or 10 years you have when you look at these Pro Palestinians now first of all I agree whether you like it or not the good Palestinians and the good Arabs that are at peace with the Jews I mean you do read how there's people making their the restaurants culture to help the soldiers so there are some good maybe not every okay but good ARS but what I'm trying to state is that since they've been planed this for years and when you go to the the New York City and you see these Caucasian women my age 20s 30s and and they far the people who've killed like in 5 or 10 years where are we going to be Isel in Israel but since Hamas has been smart enough to get done what I'm saying is I'm scared for everybody because since they that smarted us they prepared for this a long time I'm scared whether you or I'm scared for everybody why because since they got it done where we can be in 5 or 10 years that's the scary part hey look yeah there's no doubt that that that you know we have to figure out exactly where we're going look I I many people have said this to me many people and this is a very common conversation amongst Jews everywhere which is people feel the future of Israel and maybe it's time to start thinking more strongly about that I have a someone I'm very close to from the Syrian community in the middle of building a very uh big house in deal you know and we're very close and he said to me and he actually had bought two homes in in Israel you know and he told me he said that uh he goes you know for the first time I'm rethinking I'm building this big house here he goes all my Syrian friends now are like oh you bought an Israel what's like and and and I mean the Syrian committee I wasn't expecting that from you know from him and that conversation and that's a conversation we're having like I I I very openly tell my kids I don't know how long of a future we're going to have here it's not that there aren't people in America that don't don't care about us but the overall um it's it's a story we've seen many many many times and for a Jew it's always about you know when is is too late going to happen I I I tell a story I was in the Vatican we went to meet Pope Francis a bunch of years ago and the night before we went there we were having having dinner with a there was a cardinal there who had served in America and um he was telling us he got to speak and usually the Catholics are very prepared they have like written speeches and stuff they're very careful about that and you know you'll be drinking wine this this later he got up to speak kind of off the cuff and the Cardinal said he was he retired now he was in Rome and he said that um he didn't understand the Jews till there was some kind of interfaith Gathering and he was paired off with like a rabbi in one of these conversations and the rabbi said a young RAB Rabbi said to them he goes I'll be honest with you he says when I see you do you know what I think of I think of will will you be there for me and and the car says what are you talking about of course they'll be there for you and he goes no I really will you be there for me he goes he goes no when they come to get me will you be there for me and that's what the rabbi said to him and this Cardinal said it it you know then he finally got the way a Jew thinks right and it's 2,000 years of of everywhere I I recently was speaking to someone from Spain you know the guy is a government official and he told me as far as he's concerned that you know the Golden Age of Spain ended when they threw the Jews out you know they just shot themselves in the foot but we see from history that they don't mind shooting themselves in the foot and and so that's a real question the real question our future and and I have to tell you when you walk the streets of Israel and and you see these these young men like I said I tell this to everyone you know to me I'm I'm a mosha boy right and I always quote uh they when they were singing the M tah there right it was uh it was from raidon and TBI right so mosa we watch raon TBI 50 times a summer right and there there's there's one right yeah Y and there a there's a whole there's a one point there you know where yon Netanyahu was the only Soldier killed BB's brother they're about to get on the plane and of course the plane was hijacked in Uganda it was an Air France plane right and he's like you're probably wondering why we're going halfway around the world it's not an L plane it's an Air France you know and he says because Jews always save Jews that's what we do and the fact that you've got a 1920 21-year-old in Israel that if you have a problem will get on a plane and show up and save you no one else in the world has that literally no one else has that you know and I I'll finish on this note right because we have to we have to wrap up for the main session but um uh I I'll finish up on this one note some of you may know this story some of you may know the story but when we bombed the Iraqi nuclear power plant 1981 and everyone can does for like taking on to Saddam Hussein you know I we talk about crazy world right we made were the reason there were no nukes in the Gulf War and so they bomb it and then makum Bean right who is just an amazing hero of the Jewish people he's got to make an announcement and tell everyone what he did right so in 1981 there was a reunion of Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem people that did not know that they survived the they came together they were getting older they came together and they're sitting there at the cotel and mon Bean gets up and tells them that they sent eight planes the young the last plane by the way was Elon rone he was the youngest pilot on that mission right he came out last he did he was the most dangerous cuz he was last at number eight family one to leave so uh he basically says it like you know in the end of you know if someone says they're going to they're going to attack or destroy the Jewish people we're going to take them seriously from here on in you know and I think that's the bottom line that's why we have to support Israel we have to think about our future in Israel thank you