"Because It's Just & Right" - The Untold Back Story of the Move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem

good evening ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for joining us for this much awaited and unfortunately several times postponed and yet the turnout tonight is a reflection of how excited people are to hear this conversation and to welcome this really wonderful book this wonderful work written by not only two amazing component audite authors but dear friends members of our Community people we know love and cherish and so it's really a celebration to write a book to publish a book is it's a Monumental feet it's the birth of a child it's a big MLB it's a s so we begin by wishing you a mab this major contribution now everyone here knows but Farley Weiss and Lenny grinstein Leonard according to the cover of the book best dressed lawyer in Boone by far and this work is really important it's really critical because it's just and right the untold backstory of the US recognition of Jerusalem and the capital of Israel and moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem you you see through the the thickness of this volume how serious it is how scholarly it is how compelling how persuasive the scholarship it's all footnoted I understand there's no plagiarism at all in it no we have a lot of quotes but we have attribution as well and 980 foots 980 foots so you're not qualified to be the president of Harvard officially officially out of the running but um it is it is a serious topic it's a serious evening and there are a lot of serious things to talk about not only the background of what brought the two of you together and felt compelled to to write this book and to share this story and Farley and I had the the privilege to be together to celebrate really was the culmination of of what the story is let you deserve to be there I'm not sure why you were but please God we'll be together in y sometime very soon but the embassy opening um Farley and I travel together when I say together I was somewhere in the back of the plane he was stretching out comfortable in the front but when we arrived at the embassy opening everything was corrected because I had VIP seating in the front and Farley was somewhere in the back but not only were we at this really major Monumental Milestone and because it's just and it's right Justice righteousness were serve the the moving of the embassy to we at the embassy opening the first the first Min the first public religious experience and and that solidified there's nothing that makes something more meaningful so we celebrated it but there's a long backstory and a big history to it and that's what this book tells the story of and it's important not to those in this room and not to those who will watch later online I don't know that anyone here doubts are right to je undivided capital of the Jewish people for eternity I don't think anyone here needs to know the history the backstory or have moral Clarity we do but the there's so many in the world who don't and maybe let's begin with that why write this book it's an important story but is it not told by others what does this book contribute that without which parts of the story would be missing I think that when you were with me at the embassy opening you saw the emotional reaction of not just the Jewish people who were at the embassy opening but the Christians who were there how important it was to them they it was like a religious experience uh almost for everybody there that it was like this you got the Monumental time in history when we got the first minion together I person said I want to have a Min minion but no one wants to leave their seat and it was like an hour and a half before the event and I told him I used to be a sh president how to get people to a minion and uh we helped organize the first minion and and people were very uh they didn't want to leave their seats they didn't want to move from this uh location for this historical thing of the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital and I think that the title of the book we should just explain it because I think it's important for people to know Senator John Kyle is the author of the Jerusalem Embassy act in 1995 and people would come up to him and ask him why are you doing this you're not Jewish why are you pushing for this issue of the of the US recognition Jerusalem as Israel capital and the moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem and his response was because it's just and right and that's how we came up with the title of the book was was not just saying oh we have a right claim but that that's what he said and the fact of the matter is is that the other side tries to say that their side is just and right when in fact it's our side and we have to reclaim that terminology and uh what I what hash brought brought us lent to being inoka and being near us and we got to meet each other and he would send me his art show me his articles with the extraord ordinary uh the language how he writes they researched everything and I said I would love to write this story because we saw what in uh just how the reaction of people when we were there and Len said I'll do it and uh it was unbelievable the job that he put together help putting this whole thing together amazing and then that expression we come to you one second that expression is Justin right when you first wrote and published the book was obviously before October 7th and and that expression remains true today too supporting Israel and being behind Israel and recognizing Israel's right to defend herself and do whatever is necessary because it's just and it's right and therefore the the scholarship and the book are are critically important after that tape um Len was was all the scholarship and the information that you poured into this which really is extraordinary did you start from scratch when when Farley approached you about writing the book or has this been bubbling up inside you have been collecting it have you been a student of it were you just looking for the opportunity to put it down on paper and get it out well interestingly I also met Farley first at a minion and at that minion after the minion we started to talk and prob brought by a pile of papers that he collected over the years specifically uh with Senator Kyle and his relationship with Senator Kyle and also governor santis who also played a role and uh then as I was reading through it a theme developed which you just mentioned that Senator Kyle was asked during his first year in the Senate where he set out as his priority passing a law that the undivided je should be the capital of Israel and the US should move the embassy there as Farley mentioned he was asked uh you're not Jewish why is this important to you in fact John Kyle's Presbyterian which doesn't have such a good record in terms of recognizing Jewish rights as Israel and he has no real Jewish constituency I mean Farley helped as the president of the Young Israel there but Arizona at the time didn't have that many Jews and his answer was very forthright because it's just all right and I thought to myself if he can say it we're going to show why and so we went through the entire history and I got to tell you that even though I thought I knew a lot as I researched it I learned a lot and I think there's a lot to learn about our history that's not often taught and it's often in books that are no longer read so can you give us an example first of all Farley I don't remember you turning the pages at that M just occurred to me how did people know what page M was on I don't I don't think you took care of it but lny tell us something in the history of the Jewish people's right to Yim the undivided Capital that we don't know this is a pretty well- read learned educated room both from Torah sources and modern Israel history and like you said you learned a lot I'm sure we can and will learn a lot any examples that strike you about you know from history or international law or something that is not spoken about but is a piece of the evidence and the argument of why y belongs to us well let's all too often people think about Israel as being a creation of the UN in 1948 and it's just not so uh it began uh after World War I when the winning parties met with the losing parties and people who lived in their former Empires and the goal based on what President Wilson at the time announced as his program was to recognize the rights of people to have their own countries and so a good chunk of what we know today is Europe was created it was carved out of a lot of Empires the German Empire the austrial Hungarian Empire and so the country of Hungary was created the country of Poland was recreated Czechoslovakia was created now it's two countries Czech and Slovakia but be that as it may uh they met in Paris in 1919 uh and then they continued to meet in Sano in 1920 where they carved up the Ottoman Empire and they met just like a court they had a panel and the only way to know the details is to actually go through the minutes which are not so readily available but if you dig long enough you can get to the minutes and it's interesting because we think of uh a statement uh by the UK as being the source of Israel but that's also a very nice statement it's not so uh at Sano they have presentations uh by the sheriff Hussein of Saudi Arabia who we know about because of the correspondence he exchanged with judge frankfur and others uh but there was also a Syrian delegation and they had a very cogent argument they said look there was no Palestine there was no Israel there were no countries it was all under the administrative authority of Syria and so we as Arabs from Syria claim all of Israel and then there were presentations by Jewish groups and they talked about the fact that they were really the IND people of Israel and their title goes back and they made a presentation and it's fascinating the language that was used in the resolution that ultimately awarded title to the Jewish people they talked about reconstituting they talked about a country uh so it wasn't just a Homeland in fact our president referred to it as a commonwealth and so it was clear that the political and the was going to be controlled by the Jews of course we had to respect the civil and religious rights of everyone who lived there which we would have done anyway that's our nature uh but the political entity was supposed to be a Jewish State and that was the resolution that was made in 1920 and then the League of Nations met in 1922 and unanimously affirmed that resol resolution so that became international law now America as you remember elected not to join the League of Nations and so both Britain and America wanted the US involved and so they entered into the anglo-american treaty uh of 1924 it was approved by the Senate and so under us law that is the law of the United States because a treaty once approved and recognized and signed uh by the executive is the law of the country now that treaty embodied all of the provisions of the League of Nations resolution affirming s Remo and so very important principles of international law were adopted one that's very interesting for us today and often ignored is the fact that Jews from anywhere in the world were recognized if they moved to Israel they would have nationality in the country that was to be created recreated of Israel uh and it was anywhere it was defined geographically from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and so when people talk about the right to live in Judean Samaria it actually is a matter of US law well before the Jerusalem at it's fascinating that in 1939 when the British adopted the white white paper that limited immigration to Israel by Jews the Foreign Affairs committee majority 15 out of 25 wrote a letter saying how dare you that violates our treaty Jews are supposed to be able to come to Israel and their nationality is legally supposed to be recognized so how dare you stop Jews from immigrating to Israel um Rosevelt didn't talk about until 1944 unfortunately uh but in already 39 they were saying how dare you and so our right to live anywhere within the borders of Israel is recognized as a matter of international War it's fascinating there's so much more obviously that we can't uh share tonight and here the history of our people is that even when something is just and is right even when it is right because our toorah kadosha is biblically proven to be right morally right legally right international law the media and the court of public opinion seems to determine often what happens and what's right and we're seeing that living with that right now as so many protesters are are trying to sway public opinion on on this war in Israel where it's just and right for Israel to do what it needs to do so Farley your your work in Arizona and with the senator was to make sure that what was law and what's just and right is actually what happens how did you get involved in that here you are with a budding tennis career up and coming on the circuit professional tennis player and you put that on hold to focus on being able to give Jewish people the right to this United unified Capital what how did they get on your radar what was your connection to the senator and and what inspired him to take up this course sure what happened was I when I was in from I think wall school started going to the APAC conference and then it was like 2,000 people and you go and you meet with congressmen and from Arizona it was like four people in the meeting so you actually got to speak with them a fair amount and got to start to develop relationships with members of Congress and then what happened was I at age 30 I end up becoming the president of the Young Israel Phoenix and it was very small struggling sh like 40 members and it was about a month before the election for the US Senate in Arizona between a Jewish Democrat Sam coers Smith and a who was already was also congressman and Senator then congressman John Kyle and I know from my meetings that I met with him that Senator that Congressman Kyle had already become a leader on the pro-israel issues there was a thing called eyeglass it was a satellite the United States government was going to sell to Saudi Arabia and Senator and Congressman Kyle by himself the only member of Congress made efforts and prevented the satellite from being able to take pictures of Israel to make sure that Israel would be secure from from the satellit and so I because I was President I kind of used My Prerogative and pushed through to have then Congressman Kyle speak at the Young Israel Phoenix about a month before the election when like 80% of the Jewish Community was supporting Sam coppersmith and some of the members grumbled with me a little bit but I said you know we would like to hear what he has to say and like 50 people showed up I thought it wasn't a great term but they said no it's actually very good turnout and he brought with him at the meeting Glenn Hammer who was a Jewish uh person helping him in his campaign and that's the first time I met Glenn hammer and Glenn decided after Senator Kyle won by 15% of the votes and won easily and he decided in his first year in office even though he didn't need the Jewish votes that he was going to push for moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem and Glenn called me up said I'm going to work with Senator KY on the Judiciary Committee and he's going to let me be involved with this issue of the moving of the US Embassy to jus Jerusalem and we needed someone in the Jewish Community to be a Lon and help us through the process and talk with us about the Jewish community and support for it and so we'd like you to be that person it was a dream come true phone call and it was before emails so was a lot of faxes back and forth and I kept all the faxes and uh and the head of the uh Senator Kyle's foreign policy division was a woman named Janina speron and if you can see the person she's not Jewish the type of person she is a couple weeks after October 7th she said sent me an email can you give me a cause to send to to support Israel at this critical time and so I told the galish is helping Israel fund to do that and how much she cares about the issue every saw we get an email about something that's concerning Israel and so he had extraordinary staff and her and Glenn hammer and so Glenn kept me in touch of everything going on through the whole year process and then when I saw the embassy thing was going to pass I ended up in um in in uh uh December in mon time it passed in October to have a dinner with a 43 member sh at I got apack to co-sponsor the first time I ever got involved with the religious synagogue and now they're much more doing it and uh we had 150 people at our dinner with Senator Kyle to thank him for the Jus M legislation the first place to do that and then I got a letter from the mayor of Jerusalem thanking him and it was such a beautiful letter and I thought boy be great maybe he can come in person and the next year we had a second dinner and with the mayor Jerusalem came from to Phoenix we had it we're up to 60 members then and we had uh the senator Kyle and two congressmen and 250 people at the dinner and that was without even a pack co-sponsoring that's tremendous what year was that 1995 and 1996 so 1995 1996 this legislation passes and it says that the US recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and yet from 1995 96 until it actually happened was a very long time there were presidents who were signing waivers who just K kept k King the can down the road and even presidents and we of course changing administrations but ones that we were hopeful for Who Loved Israel who certainly were going to do what was just and what was right and yet they didn't what took so long from when it passed overwhelmingly to it actually happening what got in the way why were they so hesitant and why were even people who had a track record as being incredibly pro-israel and the pro Israel Community were confident we're going to be the ones who would finally do it mentioning any names you can if you think it's relevant that they it took so long and they didn't what happened between all those years it's fascinating in fact it's eily uncanny how the events of recognizing Israel and eventually recognizing Jerusalem are so similar uh we had a chance to look through the Declassified State Department files and they are an eyeopener many things that we thought were true except is true were totally false the duplicity is off the charts it's hard to imagine sometimes when you read it and by the way not well indexed you have to go through it Page by Page to find what's relevant year by year but much like the description of Clark Clifford of the meeting in President Truman's office when the decision was made to recognize it Israel and General Marshall was then the Secretary of State and his Aid uh came to the meeting and wanted to kill the entire idea now whether it was anti-Semitism a foolish view of the world there are all kinds of reasons and certainly anti-Semitism is one of them because they didn't want the Jews to have a independent state there also their understanding of the Arab mentality the oil interest as it turns out factually and historically they were wrong and they continue to be wrong as we know from the Abraham Accords uh but they didn't think they were wrong and they really had almost no regard for the president and what the president wanted to do they thought they knew better they thought they were the professionals uh and yet they were wrong and they continued to be wrong uh similar things occurred over the years um in fact uh Ross finally admitted what he encounted when he was in the state department was awful because Jews not withstanding that they had jobs in the state department were often not allowed to talk about Israel and were excluded from the discussions because they refuted to have a bodies uh be that is aaz they all thought they were right in in the first place combating the existence of Israel from the very Inception and then later uh combating designating rim and they had all sorts of reasons I got to tell you when I was a young student in college in political science I had a professor uh who was a state department hand and he took a liking to me and he tried to help me do whatever would be required in order to get a job in the state department including his big assignment he gave me was to do a position paper and the position paper on the time was on the reopening of the Suz Canal uh I had a math background and so he wanted to use that to good effect by analyzing it from a business point of view as to whether it was in the United States interest to open reopen the SE Canal well I did all the analysis and all the tolls and who paid them and learned that the US really didn't directly have an interest because we by then had super super tankers that were going all over the world in fact at that time they couldn't even fit through the sus Canal uh but Europe our Ally had a vested interest in reopening the canal because it would shorten the distance from the Middle East to Europe uh and so I presented my findings and conclusions and he said boy I love your analysis I love the math I love everything but I don't know that I agree with the conclusion I said why not and he turns to me and I don't believe he was an anti-semite but he certain had ingested the cooling he said wouldn't it be better if Israel didn't exist and that was the and and unfortunately continues to be the perspective among many people in the state development and unfortunately notwithstanding presidents who are determined to do the right thing uh they find ways not to and this is an example over 22 years how the so-called professionals frustrated uh the results that presidents did want to achieve and it took a president Trump in the end to say I'm going to do it and he did with the aid very interestingly of some really good people like Ambassador Freedman uh Jared Kushner dop greenw uh and a character that we would of theum had a role but he did Governor D santz who also made it a priority and interestingly in November a few weeks before the Jerusalem was actually recognized he held a very important Hearing in which he brought together all of the players and the central question of the hearing he shared was why haven't we done it and it it I think helped and the state ofama the argument was you're going to light the Middle East on fire it's going to be in flames it's going to start World War II you can't do it and obviously they convinced or manipulated the presidents uh before President Trump and president Trump either wasn't concerned about that or um didn't think that that would actually happen and was convinced to do it the funniest the funniest thing that happened at that meeting was the Secretary of State opens up a briefing book and he starts talking about that Jerusalem is supposed to be an international City an idea that been abandoned even in the early 50s and uh it was very similar the give and take to what happened with Clark Clifford who was playing the role of David fredman in the original Truman meeting and um David freeming turns to the Secretary of State and he says to him I think you have the wrong date because he had the wrong date and he got so upset he slapped the briefing book he goes well don't you want to say anything more does I I think I've said my pce uh but what it didn't get to is how silly the idea of the international City actually was and how everybody was against it but nevertheless here it is so many years later it's still brought up as if it's a fresh point and president Trump gets credit deserves credit for being the one to finally make the move Ambassador Freedman also deserves enormous credit once you're done reading this wonderful work if you haven't read ambassador freance books SL chamber to understand how he came in with a lot of intent and strategically led President Trump to that conclusion and to have that courage Farley do you think Senator Kyle gets the recognition he deserves because had he not passed that legislation to begin with I don't know that we'd even be at this day yeah no he that's part of the book you know SLE did a Ford for the book and got a blur from Ambassador David Freeman you also very kind to do a beautiful blur for us and one of the things was is that actually on the day of the Embassy uh the the ceremony I was in email contact with Senator Kyle and he said he had never hadn't been invited because they actually didn't invite anybody to the any senators or congressmen or former Senators uh to the Embassy opening everybody who went kind of went of their own valtion and so I uh saw later on Ambassador Ron durma at a couple months later on in watching DC and I said that Senator Kyle did this uh move of the M the the legislation which really set off everything the whole reason when Senate when President Trump announced the recognition of Jerusalem was tied to the Jerusalem Embassy act there was a waer provision that could be invoked every six months and so was December was that time to whether he was going to invoke it or not and and president Trump had promised the Evangelical Community he was going to move the embassy and didn't want to invoke the waiver and so that was when he decided to um to recognize it and I at the time was the national president of Young Israel and I thought that un likee most people who said they thought Trump would never do it I thought that he was the one person who would have the guts to recognize Jerusalem and so we organized they called to the White House and we're the only Jewish organization the only organization uh that didn't I figur no one's calling against because no one even knows this is on the agenda toh tell president Trump to go and recognize Jerusalem and move the embassy and whether it helped or not I know it didn't hurt and and so he ended up uh overriding all the objections and one of the things happened was when President Trump got elected uh he said they said he might do it on the first day in office and King Abdullah of Jordan flew to the United States and lobbied his different piics for SEC cabinets against it and and got scared president Trump off from doing it and I think the kings of Jordan and other people the foreign leaders not just the state department scared a lot of presidents from doing it and even president Trump when he says he did he goes I understand why the people were afraid to do it because of all the threats and one of the things that also that Len mentioned that I think is very interesting is oh by the way say so I come back but so Ambassador Derman came to Phoenix to have an event where Senator Kyle bought his mother who was over 100 at the time to the event with his family to thank him in person his his wife was Ill so he doesn't travel much to thank him for the Jerusalem Embassy and and took a personal letter from prime minister Netanyahu to thank Senator Kyle for what an extraordinary friend he's been through the years and I should mention the also during the legislation process on the way to the big meeting that was going to finalize the legislation Senator Kyle ciz uh said inway of Hawaii in the subway Senate Subway on the way to the big meeting at Senator Do's office and asked Senator nuway if he could come to the meeting and make a support him to get this legislation through and Senator inway came to the meeting and uh gave an impassion plea for the legislation and it was prus that he saw him and this meeting when BN Hammer told me afterwards it's like I remember the meeting better than the senator does it was such an ingrained what a important meeting how he said this one Senator who's who's a presbyterian is pushing for the strongest legislation and with Senator liberman supporting him and then Senator Feinstein and Senator lenberg and and Dennis Ross uh opposing it and trying to weaken it and it was all these Jews and it was really quite an extraordinary thing but I think what I want to get back to a little bit was Clark Clifford said to President Truman at the meeting he said he said it's in the United States interest to have a democracy in the Middle East so that's going to that's good for the United States to have such a country and and Freedman again said this is a good message to support Israel they're an ally it's a great to recognize their Capital it's the only country who don't have a capital recognized and all they made were were arguments of what's in the best interest of the United States and what you saw with President Trump and why he did it and no one else did it before him was he actually hired religious Orthodox Jews who care about Israel and they were his main s of his main advisers on the Middle East and with the other people they may have had Jews but they were not Jews that were the same attached to Israel actually if even if they were more religious some of them were religious they were just propagating the same state department views well let me ask you this Farley I think it's an important question there are um there are people who are cynical about President Trump in general who really tried to diminish the meaning of this and said yeah it's nice it's cute move the embassy you don't have to schut to Tel Aviv or go to elsewhere to a consulate in order to get your passport renewed in Israel but did it really change anything did it really make a difference is it really consequential you know Jews know and and those in the know know Jerusalem is our capital and did it really change any facts on the ground so what would you say to that what would you say to somebody who says you know this is essentially um ceremonial or superficial or it's a photo op or it was a political move a political Victory but it doesn't really change any facts in the ground why was it important for the embassy to move why was it important to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel what did that change on the ground that maybe were reaping the benefits of now as Israel's so much in the center of the news well I remember being at harom when it was just an empty mountain and there was a a demonstration to try to push for for the US for the Israel to build there and before President Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital every Administration beforehand criticized Jewish building in Jerusalem Israel's building in Jerusalem that ended under President Trump and it has not renewed really at all under President Biden so Jews are now able to build all over Jerusalem really without criticism even though they tried to president bid a little bit to try to include Jerusalem they really aren't including it and Israel's now be able to build in Jerusalem and that's an extraordinarily important thing to protect the unity of Jerusalem strengthening Israel's rights and the Jewish right to Jerusalem and that's all happened because of that decision in that sense now that it is recognized by the executive it is the law of the land and it can't readily be undone uh some of the people in the Biden Administration might have thought about moving it back but legally they can't so it is now officially the law of land that Jerusalem is undivided and recognized as the capit of Israel and the US Embassy is there and so building in Jerusalem all of those things are now no longer legal issues from the US point of view the other thing that's very important is as we know in life uh tangible things matter talk is cute when you do something tangible that stands out and the US recognized and moves the embassy it was done in two steps remember to avoid some of these issues but now that the world saw that the relationship is that strong and there are no two SIDS there's no moral equivalency it's amazing some of the Expressions that are used to today that have never been used before uh the world takes notice and so the Abram Accords were direct result of that we had a chance to meet with David Friedman and he said something very inspirational which we recorded in the book he talked about how peace comes through Jerusalem it's not the opposite and so by the US recognizing as the capital the Abram Accord were enabl to occur and the stronger the relationship I believe the more the world recognizes it and because Israel is truly on the front lines of the battle that's being waged not just against Jews but against Christians against Western culture uh in their own words they talk about it and in their deeds they talk about it even as we experienced the awful atrocities of October 7 they are being repeated in other places around the world and the world is saying very little the stronger the relationship with Israel that the US has the more there's a deterrence to these kind of awful atrocities yeah that's very powerful so much more than a symbolic gesture it has real meaning and it has meaning in the message that it sends even if it doesn't change facts on the ground per se although although it did in a meaningful way um but but symbolic and by extension let let's fast forward from from 1995 and even from when we had the privilege to be there that that day which what felt like a religious experience um that day in fact and maybe actually Farley take a moment to describe what it was like that day um the meaning for me you parked Elsewhere for security reasons they put you on buses and took you to the actual Embassy for the opening and they gave out some memorabilia I know I in my office I'm sure you kept also the hat and The Wristband and the coin they made for that day and the the invitation and and pictures I put it in a little glass box as a momento because it was really extraordinary I was on the bus to the Embassy with Michelle Bachman and some others and and they they were the Jews were kind of giddy with excitement they were reading prophets and biblical passages and singing Hebrew songs and and and really describing it as a religious experience it was a religious experience to feel after 2,000 years and and to Millennia of challenges to to Jewish rights to our capital and we know how far back we go the whole mus is the eye of the universe the entire world began from that from that foundation stone on and from and yov resting his head for that dream and and all of our history passes through that place and that day for us certainly was much much more than symbolic so for me I know it felt like a a religious experience I had the opportunity I had I had two tickets and I didn't come with me I used the other one my sister came with me and while my brother and his family live in Israel she was the first from our immediate family who took that leap and moved and moved to Israel and made Aliah and for me also to be able to to take her and to bring her as we sat in the VIP did I mention um and it was it was a religious experience it was really really amazingly amazingly special so maybe take a moment to share what it was for me that was just as a spectator to all you were at the center of of that day and waited so long making it even more special what was it like well was quick St I think I should go back a couple days for the uh I get to the airport with you a Saturday Night Flight it was fairly close after Shabbat and Rabbi goldber is a little ahead of me on line and he ask is there any any Row in coach of three seats together and they said yes and they gave him a thing I said Bo that's idea any that are empty be able to lie down play down should come so I I I asked the same thing and they said no that was the last group of three seats so they said you have was a seat with one with an empty seat next to you so I said well I guess that's the best I can do so I grabbed that and I saw robab go sitting there looking very uh Happy of the decision that I came up with the idea that he had until Al said you know we have to move some people around and move two people next to I was comfortably in my seat all geared up and excited to spread out lie down sleep for the hall flight and suddenly I think it was a pregnant woman carrying like three babies and her husband I said what are you doing I said oh they moved us so we could be together we'll be sitting right here next to you and I saw Farley I think I heard Farley laughing he didn't even have a full seat at that but I also we actually put in the book Rabbi Goldberg told me before the flight he said this is when you need to get up and stop in shock we to like 3 hours into the flight and he said you'll see people who will dove in shock me like an hour before landing when it's really like 3 in the afternoon and he was right about it and we went to doin Shak we were the only two doing shakit on that flight at the same time like three hours into the flight and we saw people doing Shak putting on to villain like an hour or two before landing it was really quite extraordinary as we put in so people would even if they read that one thing in the book they would catch on flights to know about the time to going and then when we got there we get to the uh to the passport area and RAB over he's ahead of me on the line for the passport area and then he tells me this what I meant about sharing about the experience and the deeper meaning the fact that I'm terrible at choosing lines so he tells me he's bad at choosing lines and I see the person the passport area leaves and so I switch to another line he goes why' you switch lines said well you're bad on line why should I stay in the same line with you and then my line went much faster and uh so I did well there but then you know took me weeks of emails and emails asking for the tickets to the Embassy opening you just got like one email and the ticket came two tickets came I found one in the like the back area but what I did at the embassy opening was I went to every reporter I could find and asked to be interviewed about what I thought about the embassy openings I got interviewed in mishak magazine I got interviewed on AR Chev you could actually go on YouTube and see my interview with a rud cheva at the opening itself and uh and what I had to say and he actually asked much tougher questions than I expected he would ask but uh it was uh so I got a few interviews in and then after the embassy opening I couldn't get a ticket to the uh reception that had after the embassy opening and so I ended up going to the tomb of King David which I thought was a very important thing to do because he had established the first Jewish capital in Jerusalem and prayed there and then went to the cotel and afterwards and so that's what I did after the the event but it was a very moving to to be there to see kind of you know many times in life you know it says in per AOS that you may not succeed and finish what you're doing but you have H you have to still try and make whatever efforts you can do in your time to actually spend over 20 years on something and then see the fruition of it and then see the success of it was really extraordinary that hasem gave me such an opportunity the fact that you used the time to do the interviews you know people should know about about farle I've learned so much from you in terms of your advocacy and how you utilize the opportunity there are so many people you know today it's not in Vogue it's elected officials come to you you run the other way but when I first started in the rabet and even when you moved here and I first knew you it was exciting you met a congressman a senator a member of the administration you were invited to a White House kica Party you wanted pictures you wanted the photo op you wanted to be able to show everybody who you met and finally taught me like who cares about any of that you weren't invited and you're not there so you can get a picture you're there because you have a moment to speak truth to power you could influence policy you could take advantage and While others were running to get a picture you know you always were taking advantage of that opportunity to Lobby to communicate to Advocate whether it was on your trips with the conference of presidents and as the as the president of National Council um whether it's other events that we've been at and it was true for that for that too um Lenny talk to us about you you spoke about how in your research you discovered that so much of what happened with moving the embassy was similar and paralleled what happened with the founding of the state itself we'll fast forward now to now and we're seeing this proliferation of anti-Semitism and how scary it is we're seeing obviously Israel and and such so much of the hatred am made towards it as it's just fighting for what it deserves to do are there lessons you gleaned from your research and from the book that we can learn from and how to approach the world today to be able to confront these issues I think first of all in our new experience words don't seem to matter but words do me and so knowing the meaning of words knowing our history is so much more important because then we walk around with confidence knowing that we are right uh our it begins with our Torah our Torah is the most ancient record of title bar by the way the closest is 13th century Scotland if you can believe it so there is no older record of title by a country mod and it's amazing as a real estate lawyer and real estate Finance lawyer when I look at the language it speaks to me because it's so much like on Modern practice it has a servy description abam walked the survey there are markers it's has a legal description it also talks about who doesn't have ownership of Israel so it begins with God's promise to ABR but it starts earlier because no divided up the world and he gave to Shem who we know is Mal shal the king of Jerusalem ER is it's interesting that it talks about the can also but the can are given other property they're given the approaches to sidon the approaches to Solomon gamarra and the approaches to Gaza it's right there in the toah so they don't have a right to Israel in fact there's an interesting P that says the and everyone asks why then weren't they there before don't we call it ER Canan and the answer is no they were trying to occupy it and steal it even then and so it's clear it belongs to us it's very interesting that the Torah talks about in terms of inheritance it's it's a and when you look at the genealogy it's there for a reason it's to show that it came to us as an inheritance byov it even talks about him using a a is a measuring Ro think about a surveyor surveying your property and actually measuring it and so all of these things now it's fascinating Steve openen Heimer actually ke me into this Source um when the planes were hijacked to Jordan R hoodner was on the plane and one of the royal family of Jordan came to visit with them and he acted so nice to Rabbi wner that he thought oh this guy's a gentleman until he saw him go up front with the terrorist and he was laughing like he fooled them because he was in with the terrorists and Rabbi hoodner thought long and hard why is it that isma has this hatred well if we remember Abram didn't rely on a will Abram didn't rely on an executive or a trustee Abram took care of business all by himself during his lifetime and so he gave everything he had to Y and he said sent away the children of curo with gifts so unlike ASA who got her which is also recorded in the Torah so that's another matter of title record yal didn't get any land and so he posited that you know what there's a jealousy there because unlike ASA who got land and the Jews who got her never had any real estate and so they were really jealous and hungry for that piece of real estate uh an interesting analysis but factually correct and when you look at the history of Muhammad it was a history of Conquest as opposed to having a native land and this is our native land and we are the indigenous people of Israel without question and that's a message we got to get out we're not occupiers or Colonials we not the indigenous there are all kinds of poops historically archaeologically there is tan there's the meses field that talks about Mel David uh there when you read the book you'll see there are so many pieces of documentary evidence archaeological evidence but when we sent around for peer review it was fascinating some of The Comebacks and finally one uh professorial type said to me you know what give me your best argument so I said okay how about when people live they die right and when they die they're buried okay we've got one of the oldest cemeteries in existence on the planet right more than 3,000 years old in ER in yusem on the Mount of Olives are there any other cemeteries I mean if the Arabs or the cananim or the were the indigenous people where are all the cemeteries they're none the oldest cemetery for Arabs is 11 Century which makes sense because Omar first according to their own documents by the way this is a funny one in 1925 the W of the Temple Mount published a guide to the Temple Mount and in it now that this has already been censored thrown away but you can find it online it's even available at Amazon and uh I think eBay you can buy some copies too so in this gun in English it says in no uncertain terms it is undeniable that the Temple Mount is where our bet mik stood and it goes on to say and this is a cute one Omar occupied Israel in 637 so even their own documents and their historians before you get to political theology if you go through their histor historians it's undeniable that Israel's ARs and so the Quran recognizes it as ours now political the theology is is a is a a misuse of the term it's politics not theology the theology is in scripture and in the Scripture it is undeniable in our Torah the New Testament the Old Testament the Quran they all say the same thing Israel belongs to the Jewish people far have you sent a copy of your book to the former president of pen you're you're graduate of University of Pennsylvania or you know two down one to go maybe send it to the president of the MIT maybe they'll learn a little bit of something but but all kidding aside you're Graduate University of Pennsylvania I'm sure you were troubled to see their the compromised position they took on defending Jews defending Israel during this time your lifelong dedication to advocacy what do you think we need to be doing right now when it comes to anti-Semitism when it comes to Israel yeah I actually I did email the president of pen twice she responded once to it email I think she probably sent to a lot of other people but I think that the the question that at least Stefan who we got to visit boa afterwards we got to me briefly she has a copy of the book by the way she has a copy of the book yeah and so she asked was isn't calling for the genocide of Jews a violation of your school's code of conduct and she told us here she expected they would say yes and then you would say what are you but what are you doing to punish people for doing that and that was going to be her follow-up question but she never got to the followup question but they didn't say yes to the question which was which caught her off guard but I think that the the problem is that schools have codes of conduct that they're not invoke that a following when it relates to the Jewish people you know you could pass laws and have very good laws but if they're not complied with and there's no ramifications that's where the problem is there are over 200 Jews in Brooklyn that were physically attacked and they said only two people who did the attacking went to jail and pretty much for almost nothing related to that and and that's where the problem is that people aren't getting punished at schools universities when I went to Penn there was a person actually a Jewish guy who blew a whistle to try to interrupt an anti-israel speaker and he was told that he's on probation and any more conduct he'll be kicked out of the school and so he didn't do anything like that afterwards and so they they they have codes of conduct they're being violated but they're not being enforced and so I heard a person I think at pen who said that they were making they' be demonstrating loud nois and interrupting classes and nothing's happening to the people doing it the person at MIT I saw a person in the class middle of a math class getting up there and shouting uh saying stuff against uh uh against Israel and I'm not sure anything even happened to the person they have to and follow the rules and follow the code of conduct and somehow there has been an exception when it comes to being people who are anti-semitic and uh and and doing these types of actions and we have to push to make sure that that that changes and that's the critical issue why does it matter you know um we're publishing L behind the be we interviewed R pichowski who used to be here he's an educator in Israel he's recently come out with a new book called Zionism today and um I don't remember if M asked him are our children college campus is educated enough and and positioned well enough that if a professor gets up and says something not true about Israel that they can respond ph's answer was why would we expect them to respond why would we want them to respond they're a 20-year-old kid this is a 10 year Professor AR scholar trained owns the classroom has the power and this child shouldn't risk at all to get up and correct them and his position was and who cares if he gets it wrong Israel is strong we're stronger than we've ever been United Nations and no one else can take away the state it now that we have it we should continue doing what we do and Advance technologically and medically and and with power and someone in beut having C with their friends could be one second and gone the next and those who understand and get it will get it those who don't we don't need to try to correct them it's their problem we should influence of course people in positions of power and policy but professors who get it will want to leave it alone do you agree with that you disagree with that think it's important to correct the record well it's not always easy to correct the professor I still remember my days at pen where pror said something and I went to correct him and four of the students ripped into what I had to say it was a pretty intimidating thing and I said to myself I got to know the issues much better in the future so that doesn't happen and if it does happen I can respond and know how to respond to it and I think that it's very it's a very important thing for people to know the issues because part of it also is a sense of that that they understand that Judaism is right and that the and that the the Israel is right you know one of the things that Len discovered and in his research is that five US presidents in the 1920s came out for Jewish States woodo Wilson Warren Harding Teddy Roosevelt Calvin kulage and Herbert Hoover and that's and and so this idea that somehow Israel came about because of the Holocaust and sympathy the Holocaust happened two and a half years after the Holocaust happened the state of Israel came into being from the war of independence started and there was not one Ally the Israel had no one felt guilty over 6 million to say we're going to support Military Support of Jewish state in 1967 Michael Lain wrote a book he said how many allies did Israel have in 1967 1967 war zero allies we have to know the issues and know that we're right and uh and there's no one who has a better claim to any land of the world for any people than the Jewish people have to Israel and there's no land that's more disputed than the Jewish people's claim to Israel it's an absurd Paradox and that we have to get the message out to people and unfortunately the students don't know and even people advising the students don't even know so well I think we we have to know uh I tell students when they ask me what should they do in class I say be silent because it's an unwinable fight uh but on the other hand if they don't know then they're susceptible to be influenced so we we are not doing a good job of educating our kids I look at the Holocaust uh programs in the high school they're deficient uh they're not even taught by people who have real knowledge and as that generation passes away it's harder and harder to make a convincing and a facts-based presentation but it's very important that they have a personal St Skype that's based on their knowledge uh and there's nothing wrong with feeling that you know more than the professor because that's often the case about many subjects uh but it doesn't mean you necessarily have to speak out there are times to speak out uh but in the classroom it's often not the case uh but that can leave you unless you have that sty with a feeling of inadequacy and we have to fight that feeling of inadequacy and we have knowledge on our side I mean just take some of the words that have been thrown around aparti genocide side I challenge most college students to explain it it's it's almost juvenile some of the they don't know which river and which sea they're chanting from The River To The Sea and if you stop them and some of these videos that come out someone stops and says which river which sea doesn't have a clue where it is what river what sea what land what history can't even translate the word genocide right so I'd like our kids to have a knowing smile and a personal confidence and when the time comes they'll be able to speak out with real knowledge and with real Authority but it's not necessarily in that kind of a hostile frankly poisonous environment I would just add that you know if someone was to say would you hire a professor to teach that the that the Revolutionary War didn't happen and you were teaching American history you'd say that's an absurdity so how are they hiring professors that don't teach the Jewish right to Israel that King David existed that Jewish people lived in the land all this time they it's it's outrageous the fact of the matter is a lot of these professors it's not disagree Professor the pressor shouldn't be a professor and we have to make it clear that just like you can't teach an American history denying the American Revolution you can't be teaching Jewish history or history of the Middle East without uh being accurate about the Jewish rights to Israel no question it's an excellent point if you look at you could be the president of the most prestigious IA League College in the world and guilty of 50 60 cases of plagiarism truth is no longer an admired or or or critical quality even for a person who supposedly is the head of an academic institution but that's why you know your book is so important because your book really represents a textbook it's a textbook for any student who wants the truth it's a textbook for anybody who wants to be informed to know the truth represent the truth fight for the truth and therefore it's a really important contribution that you've made and we're grateful for it and thank you for tonight and Sh a little bit behind it I encourage people take advantage of the opportunity the book is available outside and the authors have agreed to personally sign copies of it want recognize r r who was on that plane with her foot by the way when it was hijacked I don't know if you can tell us whether that story really happened or not if he heard the the conversation but he was on the plane that evening thank you all for coming together next MO shambas speaking of Israel and its right we are hosting president rivlin it's a tremendous honor over 500 people have already reserved if you have not yet you might want to and uh we continue with our incredible program here at B synagogue thank you for joining us tonight and may we here the SOS