From Shepherd to IDF Hero: Yoel Zilberman's Unstoppable Journey (Behind the Bima #180)

from Bocarone, Florida. This is Behind the Beimma. On this episode, Rabbi Goldberg is joined by special guest Major Yoel Zilberman, a decorated commander in the IDF and the visionary founder and CEO of Hashamera Kadash, Israel's largest volunteer organization. Major Zilberman shares his extraordinary journey from shephering in the Galilee to serving Israel's elite Navy Seals to building a national movement dedicated to defending Israel's farmers, fortifying the land, and instilling a spirit of leadership and Zionism in the next generation. He reflects on October 7th, his urgent return to reserve duty and what it means to build security, not only through arms, but through community, education, and love of the land. Plus, the battle for Israel's borders, why food independence is critical for national security, and how one man's tent on a hill became a movement of over 300,000 volunteers shaping Israel's future. All this and more behind the Beimma. Good evening to everyone. Thank you so much for coming. Super excited to be together with y'all with all of you. I want to begin by thanking Lee and our partners at JNF always for putting together meaningful and powerful learning opportunities and giving us a chance to make a difference in Israel. Every JNF event we host, I point out what I love about their banners and their maps. You don't see any artificial lines. There's nothing called a West Bank Shamron. All you see is the width and breadth, the full Israel. That's what they're committed to, what we're committed to. And so we're so honored to partner and to have you all with us for this live conversation to be able to be behind the bea but in front of all of you and to learn about your extraordinary life and you're so young. Please God, there's so much of it yet to come and a difference you're going to make and so much to learn from you. So I want to begin really yo by thanking you by thanking you for your leadership. We'll talk about in a moment but you founded and you now run and manage Israel's largest volunteer organization. 300,000 volunteers. We can't get 30 people to volunteer here. You have 300 thou. We have a lot of volunteers. Don't send me emails later. I apologize. You're all amazing. Thank you. But 300,000 for a country that has 10 million prime ministers. To find 300,000 volunteers and to manage them and network them, it's extraordinary. And as we just heard also your role as uh a member of Shayet of the Navy Seals as a commander, your years of service fighting on the front line defending the Jewish people, heroic missions, and maybe never more important than October 7th when you leapt back into action, reserve duty as a major brigade brigade commander, founding and leading the mobile unit of the homeront command. So from the bottom of our hearts, if for nothing else tonight, just to be able to publicly say thank you. Thank you for your service. Yes. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your selflessness. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for all that you do. And thank you for going behind the beam and being with us tonight. So let's begin. Let's begin at the beginning. I'm tempted to begin at the end and where we are now and what's happening and what you think will happen. But let's go back to the beginning. Tell us about your childhood and where you grew up and who were your inspirations and what life was like. Okay. So first I have I must start and say to them to this amazing community and of course to Lee and JF that she's really really sweating and working hard for us and we're partnering together like she's really became a close friend and to say to that and to say to that of course to the cats family and that you're like a family for us here and for many others that really hugged us since we met and I saw hundreds of young volunteers from the community including your parents and because you are rabbi so I I allowed myself to tell you some story that I learned I'm doing d oh second round beautiful wow and my most the one that I love most it's and it's have a beautiful chart that says that don't know if you Remember that that the parents there is no promise that the kids of the parents will have because the parents was right. It's all depend if the kids was kim so the parents have so I think that your parents have they had a very good education they're amazing but they succeeded very much. Thank you. So it's a pleasure for me to be here and I'll say shortly I grew up in Mushafuri. I don't know if you know where is that. It's just between Kyifa to the Kenner. It's a very interesting place because until 15 20 years ago there was very few roads in this area and it's surrounded with seven Arabic Bedwin villages. So we are just in the middle of these villages all around us. So my grandfather sand he and my grandmother Jose was the first couple there was a Holocaust survivor. The first couple that got married in the mush and he actually learned Arabic and in the same time he learned Hebrew. So he had a very very close relationship with the Arabic people in the area and uh it was also something that influenced very much on the way we grew up in the area and we grew up in a ranch and we have cows and sheep. So I grew up as a shepherd when I was young and after school I went to academy for leadership. I know I guess you know the name Mika Goodman. So he was one of my teachers in the academy for leadership and then I joined to the Israel and Navy Seals and I served there for five years in 2006. I guess you remember Hold on. Let me stop you for one second. Talk to us about being a shepherd. I don't get to sit with a lot of people who were shepherds. So and and our greatest leaders, the Tanakh is filled. It's almost as if you weren't allowed to be a Jewish leader unless you first were a shepherd. All of our leaders, the seven holy shepherds we welcomed to the suka, all of them had to be shepherds. So what is it about shephering? being alone, being out in the field, tending to the animals. We don't get to read a meet a real life shepherd. Tell us about what it's like to be a shepherd. So, actually to be a shepherd have a very deep connection to the sentence of October because shepherd is someone that knows that you have very limit control on what is going on outside. So when you know that you have a very limited control because things change all the time every morning and every hour when you go outside something is different. You see stone move from one side to another you know that it means something. You see, you know, some garbage, you see some, you know, co of a car. You saw that a car crossed, you know, that something happened. In Israel, it means that, you know, they stole, they stole your ship or something like that. But it's always means something and it demand you first of all to see signs and I think that the deepest part about being shepherd is to see signs. It's very close to the idea of being to have prophets. To have profit is to see signs long term like to see it's like fleshes. So shepherd need to see signs all the time because it will kind of give him giving him some kind of indicates to what can happen or what already happened that can change the whole I will say the whole dynamic in in his fields and you always need to be there mostly in Israel you know the sentence that God told to Joshua want you to do. I hope I say it right. So if you're not going every day with your sheep or cows in your fields, somebody else will come and take it. It's very simple rule in Israel. And actually it's also a room rule also here. You see here cows in very weird places here. Look, open your eyes and you will see that because people own land and without having some you know animal on their property. So after three four years somebody else can take the property. So when you are a shepherd you always need to be awake and you cannot miss one day in your job because then you will miss your land. It's very simple and why it's connected to the sevens of October is because in the beginning of establishment of Israel all the villages their let's say their perception was that they need to like to hold very strong the open spaces. So when they established kibbuts kariladi manara in the golden heights in the Jordan valley in the border with Egypt was you know in the Gaza envelope it was clear to everyone that they need to hold the open spaces but what happened during the years we became very strong Jabotinski we took the wall of steel to the different like to the wrong direction and the kibutin the mushim instead of being outside like shepherds they started to build fences and then you have some mentality thought that the fence can keep you alive and somebody that somebody is the farmer or somebody is the army will take care to your field and it's just not working. So it's really really connected to the beginning of my my father's story. So you go to the leadership academy. Why? A lot of young men your age would want to go somewhere else and party and relax and not be a leader. Who inspired you? What inspired you to want to train already at that young age to be a leader? So I grew up secular in a school that called Nalalal Nalal. It's like the of the mushim and the kibbuti. It's like the first village that established in 1922. It was inspired by Awan David Vid Gono that this is my most important teacher until right now that wrote the book Dalvata men in nature and he was the only other philosopher except to Rabbi Cook. But the tragedy is that Rav Cook he had a son. This is not a tragedy but he had a son that made bet midash and Gordon never had bet midash in Ghana but he had this like this philosophy that madeal but when I grew up in Alalal in this school it was an amazing period time in my life but still when I asked the teacher question in in like in the lesson of Tanakh yeah when we learned the Bible so she came and she said that it's not going to be asked in the last exam you know So we don't have time to speak about that and I felt that I'm I'm missing something. So instead of just going to here a friend told me listen if you want to dipping in Judaism actually also in Middle East and philosophy etc you should come to the academy for leadership. So I came for one year and then I stayed for another second year. M and the role models who inspired you. You mentioned your grandfather, your parents, you saw leadership in them. That was something you wanted to follow. So of course my grandparents was people that there was literally sevenish not many words. We also translate in Hebrew nishma to no just listen we understand. So through their actions let's say this is what grew up this is what but except that I will say that I always always had teachers mentors doing the way it's very interesting because when I was in the some of them was extremely lefty and from the right side we had all kinds so it was very very special and uh it's really you know like creating peace by getting all of these different ideologies on the same role. It was very powerful. It's important. And Shayeta, you joined the Navy Seals. Again, you didn't take the easy way out anywhere in your life. Leadership Academy, Navy Seals. You didn't mail it in in anything. What's it like to be a Navy Seal? I know in America, the Navy Seals, you know, the legendary training and what they have to overcome and uh not only the physical, grueling physical tests, but the the courage and the conviction and the emotional. What was it like uh being drafted into the Navy Seals, the training and what was your service like? So sometimes you know we imagine when you speak about the army and it's not just the Navy Seals I think in the Navy Seal it's very very deep first is the only place that the needs to deal with water like it was cold for us to the team for two years in the course you always feel that it's cold even though in the summer because you like most of the time in the course you're in the water so it's uh it's demand you to go through very hard let's say work that you need to do with yourself. I think that the most powerful thing about the the Navy is I will say that there was two main things. One is to every day you're breaking your limits. Every day you're breaking your limits and you thinking that you ended some training and on the same day you're doing another one that is harder and you couldn't believe that just before you started the the second one it was almost dying you know in the end of their training and then you're going to do another one that was harder. So every day you're breaking another glass of what you thought it but it's hard and you understand that it's not like that you always and and I I telling myself always that my dream are always too limited. I can do always more and we're all thinking that we're doing a lot but I know that we can do more and this is part of the education. And in the second part, I think it's the team that uh the team it's people that if I was spending my time in school, probably many of them wasn't my best friends, but something that happened to you in the course and after that in missions is that it's cosmic. It's a connection between people that became in you know to say that they are your brothers. It's to take it to a low you know kind of description. It's something that it's hard to explain. It's some it's people that you know that they doesn't matter where they're around the world. You know that you will be living everything that you're doing and you was running to save there. It doesn't matter where even though you could could be and you could live in a very different life. there's some kind of a brit that it's hard to explain but this is what's happening in let's go back to what you say about breaking your limits and I think that's what they try to do in the training right they try to break you to show you that that you should stay your courage and your conviction and your and to be tenacious to be strong and to keep going so first of all did you ever consider quitting were there other people on the team who didn't make it so grueling to be able to get to the end to graduate to be a Navy Seal actually no not surpris about quitting. I had you know I had uh again this is part of the there is a very powerful sentence that they tell in the beginning of the course. Someone who came to survive here is in the wrong place. So it's kind of a switch that you're doing in your head. And um I can tell that also in the most dark moments, okay, when they trained us in as we was kidnapped people, okay, when they trained us, I can tell that it was the most inspiring moment that I had with myself. It was like a meditation. It's hard to explain that. And of course, I'm not going to put myself in any way from the place of the kidnapped people, okay? In any way. And uh we wish all of them will come back soon. But I will say that everything that take you to the limits you can find some place inside the you know like you understand that it's all here inside here and here. It's a combination. Yeah. The reason I focus on that is because in some ways it's really a metaphor of the whole Jewish people and the Jewish experience is that throughout our history we've been pushed to the limit and each time when many others would have given up we just break through and we aim higher and we keep on going. So just talk to us for one minute because there are people here in person there are people watching or listening who think they've reached their limit. They're undergoing treatment. They're facing illness and recovery. They they they've run out of money. They're worried how they're going to pay their bills. They're afraid for their lives. our friends in Israel, reservists who are called up now again the fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time, it's enough. They have no energy. They can't do it anymore. So, give us some of the strategy. What's the methodology? How can somebody who feels I have nothing left? I've been pushed to my limit. I'm done. How can they dig deep to still find there is more? They can keep pushing and going higher and higher. Perfect. So, I'll start with a very short story. 10 years ago, something like that. I was asked to help to establish a leadership program in Ukraine with non-Jews. You know, we have the academy for leadership, the MKO in Israel. So, they asked me to help them to establish organizations. So, they will have their own academy for leadership. And I will never forget that I was sitting together with the HR of the organization. It was an organization that was sponsored in with millions of no limits of money. And I remember that I tried to understand her story. I asked her where you came from. What is your family story? And she said, "Listen, my family came from different place in Europe." And after five minutes, she said, "Listen, I don't really have story that I can tell you where my grandparents came from." And I was shocked. And I told myself it's almost not fair. We have such a strong story. We have such a smart books that we follow that we have all the answers. Okay. Know the to-do and not to-do list. Okay. All the mistakes. We see how much things are repeating. Right? We know what happened in Spain since 1392 to 1492 and what happened after that. We went through the Holocaust. So I think we have so much knowledge that there is no any other nation in the world that have that. And then I think that I have two main advices also for us here of course is that one is I think that we are a nation that not allowed even though we going through terrible times. We are not allowed to think just one day forward or on this moment only. We always must ask ourel when we doing or not doing something how it's going to be influential at least 100 years forward because your grandkids or kids are going to live for sure as hashem into the 22nd century. So it's very powerful and clear that what we are going to do or what we are going to miss this is what we are going to leave for them or for the generation after when you read the history. So we see how much influence and you know it was influential what the parents or the kids did for generations and the second thing I will say is that it's tell me who your friends and I tell you who you are. I think that the most important part for me is to surround us, surround ourselves with the right people that they are happy, their believers and uh to grow the circle more and more with this kind of people. So we won't be able to to to fall down. And it's also our neighbors. And I think it's like this community here as example is a very good one. That's like it's like a small village people like sharing here you know not just living but also ideology know said the I think that we we are now exactly in this you know in this moment of in history I'll tell you another small story someone told me that I'm all the time spoke about I spoke all the time about the people from the second aliyah the people that was fighting in the independence war and then they said listen you don't need to dream about how special it was in their time because you live in not less dramatic time in our time and you don't need to need to be yeah to miss this kind of times because you live on the same times right now so how we do that you creating some big vision but again this is Joseph yourself he had this ability it's our ability to create this vision to power and after that to build like kind of a construction or how it could look like and after that to do execution and I think this is the three parts that we need to connect vision after that like architects to say what is the plan 3 years 10 years from now you will see it and after that the big test it's the execution to walk the talk. So I think it's in our hands. Ramash, when you were training to be a Navy Seal, did it teach you the fearlessness that you then brought to guard your father's field and to build this whole network who are facing an enemy? Was that part of what instilled within you a sense of fearlessness that we have to stand our ground and be strong and we can't afford to be afraid? We can't afford to cower or go backwards. So I tell you something that was very weird. The story is that I I grew up in the Galilee. I told you and Kamula, tribe of Bedon, tried to take over my father fields. They had more than 1,000 sheep, cows, and goats that was stealing my father food, the animals food every day. And my brother, he was in another unit that's called 669. I don't know if you know the name. It's like a rescue. So both of us was in the army. And my father, it was like two hours a day was a farmer. And every day he was just struggling to try to take them out. And like Dan said, he came to the to the family Friday evening after he was meeting with the police officer of the region. Told my father, give them 5,000 shekel a month, so they will leave you alone. And uh I just told my father over my dead body and I told him, "No way that I'm doing missions so far away from Israel and here under my nose. you cannot be safe. So it was very simple for me. So the week after I just brought I got a fled from my officer in the army in the Navy Seal and I came back home and we choose some like one of the hills that controlling the whole area and I built a small tent with a stick with a flag and I thought that I'm going to be there for two weeks and I lived there for two and a half years and well and you moved there for the two weeks to do what? So a better came to try to steal to tell them that guys the it's the end game it's ended but I didn't understood that in their mind my father was already broking up so it took me let's say two and a half years to make them understand that they are going to disappear. What were you prepared for when you put that tent on on that hill? Were you prepared for a physical altercation confrontation? Did you think that they'd come steal the sheep? You'd say back up. This is not yours. Get lost. Were you prepared or worried that it could get violent? So I had in my mind that we are going to have a very strong police or modern police that are going to come and take care of it. Unfortunately they tried to arrest me a few times. Unfortunately some of the policemans was their cousins and I was feeling embarrassing like I said that I'm an officer in the Navy Seals and here okay I I cannot be safe in my home. So I I must say that I didn't felt afraid at all. It felt to me like it's it's almost like something that you cannot get in your mind together within like you taking care to your parents. I was completely this way knowing that they are going to disappear. I didn't understood that it's not just my parents. This is was the big issue. after four months I got a call and they told me listen you know it's not just your father so I thought that there going to be like 10 farmers that going to meet me Friday for Shabbat and then more than 100 came together with the legendary warrior and they told me listen we already abandoned thousands of acres we are all alone all over the state of Israel in the negv in the golden heights in the Galile all over the state you must help us. Also, why wasn't it a priority of the state, of the country? Why wasn't the government putting the resources through the police and the IDF to protect their own people and their own land? So, look on the 7th of October. Okay. I think the the most tragedy tragedy big tragedy of Israel for years. I remind you we had the you remember what happened in May 2021 that we have this inif inside Israel. So in January 2021, four months before we came, my partner and I on Riffman, we came to the minister of the police. We told them listen we have intelligence about hundreds of accidents farmers that are all alone people bed in the negative driving with clutchnikov nobody's speaking with them they growing grass and opio in army basis lands 4,000 green houses of grass right now 5 billion shekel market that's you know putting drugs to all over Tel Aviv killing Israel and we are not confronting any situation and we told them listen you need to establish right now what we called the the national guard we brought a plan in January 2021 you can see I can send you the plan we told him it's just going to be explosion the explosion is right now it's going to happen so he told us listen help me to build more awareness so we did a big conference on the 15th of March one week before the election But two weeks, two months after that it's all was exploded and this is when we saw Ben replacing if you remember it was and then they fell down and then Ben got to the position and unfortunately still now we are not confronting our biggest problems in Israel. There is 400,000 illegal guns in the Arabic society right now. Israelis right now and we're still sleeping. So what I'm saying is that we understood that we need to first of all before you know you know when you want to start to fix something you need to be to build a baseline but we saw that there is no like you know even though I'm helping to a farmer okay so if his kids will not continue so the surgery will succeed but the patient will die you don't have a second generation and we know that he will sell the business to someone that we don't want him to be there okay to this criminal that tried to take over. We saw that in many many places. So we understood that it's not just about protecting the farmer. Now we have to create the next generation. And after that we saw that in the Israeli educational system kids going to the toadmada but they're not touching the land. So we understood that since the kibbutin was collapsing in in the 80s there is no any systematic connection to the land of Israel to the law of the land. So if there is no young generation, there is no ITC. If there there is no young generation, there is no engineers and there is no agriculture and then there is no national security. Because in the United States, farmers in the Midwest, in the middle of the country in Israel, the borders and the farmers are one. People not safe in Modí, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Rishion if there is no farmers because they are the borders. So like I said in the Navy Seals it cannot be something that we are surviving in the it need to be a cultivate agriculture that changing the Middle East and this is part of the plan. So help me understand it's not about Ben and I don't want to be critical about about Israel or its government. What are they afraid of? Why not put the money the resources in the people? Beng's whole thing is strength and the police force and arming civilians and so why wouldn't they want to eliminate the drugs? Why wouldn't they want to protect the farmer? Why wouldn't they want to stop the crime? Why why is it fall on deaf ears? Why have you struggled all these years to find the partner? So, is it politics? Is it international pressure? Is it uh looking discriminatory? Is it money? Is it what what's the core? First of all, it's culture. It's culture. Who said the culture of politics in Israel? It's first we'll do PR and media and after that maybe we'll do something. This is the problem with culture in Israel. And it's not about one person. This is the culture. First you get in the news. This is what they did. Okay. After that maybe you'll do it. This is the culture. And unfortunately, okay, we understood that it's not just one or two people in politics. We understood that there is a principle. Politicians not creators of ideology, they are users of ideology. So now you need to grow the perceptions back again and the theology and gives them the spirit and they need to see you know we established the first new village in Israel after 13 years just now in the negative it's called on the name of the jonathan that he gave us a letter on the 7th of September asking for help to protect the area of bak by and he fell down on the seventh months after and we did the president came with 10 ministers they said now we need to double that 150 times so it's like imagine you know when you want to bring to the port a big ship what do you need pilot right so I think that our job is to be the pilot the small engine that bringing the ship to the board and it's not about replacing the government. The government need to do that in 10,000 more scale. But I think that we kind of need to open the way, open our way because things are so simple, right? Why a farmer cannot be safe? But still you see that they're not safe. So when you are bringing 300,000 volunteers, you start to change people mentality. They start to understand the needs that Israel won't be you know you know right now depend 80% of our food coming from Turkey Jordan and Ukraine how much stupid we can be and mostly we are stupid because we don't understand how much it's you know it's dangerous for us we just don't understand the situation so you want to expose people but you want to expose them through real actions. Take us back again to your you're putting up the tent on the hill just for your father. You have a meeting and a hundred farmers show up and they say we need your help too. So how do you go from the trajectory of your life coming out of Navy Seals putting up a tent protecting your father's farm and how do you begin this new movement and organization? How do you start putting tents up elsewhere? How do you go from one person to 300,000? So I think this is very important you know in in the conversation about the future of Israel in many many ways because when you speak about politics in Israel so if you will go and you will visit most of the government you know the ministry ministries in Israel and you ask them please can you show me the strategy of this ministry I'm promising you 99% of them don't have strategy not three years forward and not six years forward and almost not a year forward and I think that our very big luck was that when we just started on and I I left the army in the beginning of 2010 so I start started fulltime together with my part on on from the negative from kibbut vin he was in mkal six years he he saw how we losing the negative and he supported the farmer very famous one that his name is shi if you remember that shooted Bedw and they tried to put him on jail and then there was a very big ceremonies to take him out demonstrations and and he took out and he was released. So he was running that and a big luck was that it was demand from the first beginning not just to look over books and ideology but also to build the the shame of the organization from the inside like a business and from the outside we can be bedim you know or Indians but but inside it will be like a business thanks to smart people like Jeff Jeffrey Shartz from Boston and Josie Akiman from Isra Jeff was the CEO and and the owner of Timberland that sold the company and Josiah was the president and CEO of Elbit for many years for 17 years and they literally teached us how to build a strategy since the beginning. This was our big luck. So what we understood is and it's very hard as you we all feel many times is that we need to say not just what we are going to do but also what we are not going to do. Mhm. So we took a decision and maybe we can show it here. We took a decision that we are going to be focused on four main pillars. I will say one can you where? It's here. Is this it? This one. Let's try this. Okay. So this is the four main pillars and you can see one we understood okay again we understood that from the land the nation will rise okay this is our perception that this is something that you know when you bringing the am of Torah learning etc. So now in the days that we have the land of Israel we must get back to the land of Israel as you saw in the movie before. So we understood first okay in the day of the war it's became a lot more clear that Israel must be you know we need to be with weapons independence as much as possible and we are depend on the United States right now this is like a 300 or 100 billion dollar you know project it's a big one we need to be energy independent and I think that we are doing quite a good job in Israel about that and we need to be food independent because this is so basic right now. Okay, we like I said, we getting our food from countries that not really want us to be exist and beside that I will say that it's ridiculous because we have the best brains in Israel and the countries around us are starving. You know, Egypt don't have what to eat and they don't have water. 40% less water in the Nile. I've been in Syria many, many times in the last eight months. I almost couldn't believe I have a vineyard right on the border with Syria. I live in the the Golden Heights and I couldn't believe that I'm just crossing, you know, a mile inside Syria and it will be such a desert. There is nothing, nothing. The roads are broken, nothing. So Israel should be getting out from a situation that we are depend to a situation that we are becoming the Joseph of the Middle East. We call it the Joseph Accords. This is the strategy that one day Israel will have trains that will feed the Middle East to send train to Egypt, to Lebanon, to Syria. So they will be depend on Israel. It's it's very realistic. We just need to be fast and sharp and like people bringing investments to cyber or AI. We should increase investments in agriculture in Israel and architect. The second point was it was you know was signing the Mishna right so the the person that was signing the Zionist I was saying philosophy his name is Galon I don't know if you know his name he was very famous because he was the most important officer in the independence war and he have a book that called the wall of sand sand like the sand wave in the sea and he explains One of his most important sentences is that the army will never come. We must have very strong communities on the borders. They must support each other like parties and brigades and divisions. After that, after 3 hours, 6 hours, the army will come. Like we saw, it's not going to be changed. The the army right now have few cars that running on the border with Jordan, Jordan can fall down in three days, not 10 days. Okay? If Iran just will decide that this is what they want. So we have a plan that's called the Israeli envelope. You will see it. This is the way it looks like. Okay? So you can see here this is will be in three years. This is will be in 10 years. like methodically it means to have schools, student villages to have units if you know it's called to have educational centers we call it the Orthodox and the idea is that one day we will have four cities two here on the border with Egypt and two on the border with Jordan, one here in the one nearby Jericho. I'm always telling people that when I got first time I was in a training with the American Navy Seals. So I landed in Las Vegas. It was in Nevada and I'm always saying that when I land in Nevada or sorry when I land in Nevada in Las Vegas, I looked for the river and then to the lake and then I looked for to see some sea around the Vegas and I saw nothing. I said I told myself, how come that we are the Jews in Israel never built Las Vegas on the border? It's unacceptable. So I think that we can make it happen and after that we don't know how we go back here. Let's try. When you say we, let me just interrupt you to ask. We is Hashim Khadesh. You're not a political party. You're not a member of Knesset. Are you running for office? Who's who's the we? Who has to buy in and believe in order to make this map a reality? Who's the Wii? So, so we it's the we always saying so we have in this plan and we're working very close with every government every government including this one the one before and the one before that always and the idea is to encourage them that if we are building the first we did for example we established the first new village in the eastern negative okay or we having a educational center right on the border with Jordan okay so now we're working with the mayor of the Goran Heights. We're going to meet him next week here. We're working on building three new villages on the border. But if there will be another organization that will do more, we'll be thankful because I think that the the plan is to encourage more and more organizations or bodies to do that. But unfortunately, like when H and I started, we looked back, there was no so many that not just speaking highly, but doing execution. So let's say that we see ourel you know like I said we're moving that forward and I hope that not far away from now when we will start the government will bring if we are raising millions of you know dollars I hope that the government will will invest billions of dollar so this is this is the the process that we are working on. You're not waiting for the government if you get started and they see a success hopefully they'll come on board and work together. What are the 300,000 volunteers doing? So when I when you saw the idea of food independence, so first we understood that we need to create the magenda vidad the atala for the farmers because the situation right now is that in 2000 we had 20,000 farmers in Israel. Today we have 7,000 and we understood that more and more abandon their lands. So what we did is to create a situation that every farmer that raising his hand after a few hours who are volunteering that come and support him if it's night patrols or if it's coming and helping him to pick up his fruits and vegetables to make sure that no one of them will be alone and they will know that there will always be young generation that will come and support them. What takes more now? Have the bedawins got the message back off, stay away, you know, don't mess with the Jews, with the Jewish farmers in Israel. Is it more now helping them grow the food of the farm or is the protection still necessary? So I think that in many many areas we saw that there was a unbelievable amount of farmer that abandoned lands. So that not just stopped but we see how we get into more and more new lands. It's something that didn't happen before four years. Okay, we abandoned more than 250,000 dunuts like five times the size of Tel Aviv. This is not exist anymore. On the other side, I will say that I think that we also need to see how we are bringing and building the trust, the connection in between the Israeli society. So, we have in our youth movement, we didn't spoke about education, but in our youth movement, we have 21,000 kids and six bedroom villages. But they said you have strong identity. We want to be together with you and we want to bring our young generation to the army because we understand that this is the best for our communities to be connected to Israel. Next week I'm going to be in Majal Shams Majal Shams. It's a Drew village that since 1967 there wasn't part of Israel society. They didn't had ideas. Three weeks ago we met I don't know if you know that 10 of their kids got murdered by so we met with the families and the mayor told us help us to bring the young generation to the army service and national service. So next week we are going to have program to connect them to Islam. So I think that it's also like I said before the the land can be the place that connect us together. What to be a volunteer you have to know how to shoot a gun. To be a volunteer, you have to know you have to know how to sleep in a tent. Most of the people, do you have glamping? Most of the people not coming from Florida. They're not shooting guns. They come, you know, in New York and Los Angeles. For them, it's a So, what does it mean to So, what does it mean to be a volunteer? To be a volunteer, willing to sleep in a tent. What What are you doing? So, first we had together with JNF US 5,000 volunteers that came from abroad from the States to volunteer with us. So for example, we took her to their bedrooms in Nitsana nearby the border with Egypt and every morning they went to support the farmers just for for like it's a small example. Beside that we have six boarding schools that called Adam and in every school every year we have groups that come in for one week two weeks and for these groups to volunteer and wake up with the kids in the street. It's a boarding school that they wake up 5:00 in the morning. They walk until 11:30 and then they have studies from 1:00 to 5 5 p.m. And to see the volunteers that come and join this kid school, they couldn't believe these kids look like Macabas. It's super super inspiring to be together with them. So there's different ways how to volunteer. You can come for one day, three months for a gap year. You can come with a group. You can come. They came all the family together. We we volunteered in if you remember in the vineyard in for one day and then we went to to drink wine because it was again the there was the mas goddess hood to do that. And so I think there is really different ways to how to to volunteer. And listen, I think that more than that, I think that like I said, the strategy is to make sure that we have strong farmers on the borders, to have communities on the borders, to make them be safe. And the educational part, it's really to create the people that will take these challenges for the future. You know that people spoke very badly about the young generation in Israel, but they only care about themselves. They're only in the screams, you know, they're smoking drugs and you know only bad awards. Yeah, I saw so many researches about it and then we saw young generation that is not less hero than the generation that we had in 1948. But now right now we need to be worry on the day after the war where they can have this kind of deep meaning that they can change the world. It's it need to be something that worrying you. You told me a beautiful thing. You told me when when we called back again to the reserve. So, you got called back again to the reserve also. It's a beautiful thing. You know, it's it's not leaving my head. And um I think that you need to to think on the same way about the young generation here. What is the mission that you tell them guys this is the next mission for the world? And and I think that's very simple that today it's our national security for 100 years forward. So he galon he came and said we must create what he called the Israeli envelope to create a very very strong borders with young communities successful communities. So when a couple thinking about making alyah from boka you should tell them listen there is great communities in in Tel Aviv and Min Jerusalem but I can tell you that it would be more important if you you live in the mountain today and they will find also a job I don't know nobody in the Kana heights that don't have a job and they having the the best life so I think that this is the way we should speak with the young generation to inspire them with big missions that will be game changer for our future. When you I don't want to get us in trouble here, but when you think about the borders of Israel that we want to secure, where is the western border? Is it alongside Gaza or is it the sea? What should happen in Gaza? We had Jewish farms there. They were thriving. We had a beautiful coast. And now with the war, is your opinion that we should take back Jewish? Should we build Bocaraton synagogue on the ocean on the on the coast BRS East? We'll build a beautiful satellite, move our community there. What should happen in Gaza? Obviously, we we pray from the bottom of our hearts to bring the hostages home and we want the soldiers to all be safe. But you've been there. You talked about the amount of times you've been in Syria. What's the future? How does this war end? And are people are they tired? Are they fatigued? How many times can reserveists keep going back? Are you hearing from the army that people are running out of energy? Right. So, first I think that we need to be modest with this question because it's really hard right now. And then my unit I established a division unit with 1,000 jeeps to mobilize more than 20,000 warriors during the war. And uh you seen that like you said, people are tired in many many ways. And uh we need to understand what is our limits. So I think that before everything we should end we should end what is called kamas and bring the hostages and then I think that we should understand what is going to be the strategy of keeping our borders because the Gaza will be the easy story. The big story is going to be Egypt. Nobody speaks about Egypt, but Egypt. The second big story is going to be Jordan. Jordan can become Iranian state in three days. It's very weak state. And of course after that the story will be what we called Syria or ISIS. It can be the same. I think it's also something that we need to understand how we are going to deal with that. So if we will use the opportunity of this this generation, it will be like I said before to change the map of of Israel. And after you will have this envelope around Israel, you can speak about how you can get deeply to some other places to have this kind of polarization. Okay. But now I think that we need to get back to the ground and understand that right now my family that live in the Golden Heights, okay, is not safe because there will not be enough army in the Golden Heights. But it seem to be a city in the Golden Heights with 250,000 Jews and this is tragedy. There is only 20,000 20,000 Jews like this neighborhood in all of the Golden Heights. So let's take over the places that supposed to be strong in our hands. The negative. We lo the negative. They know that there is the most growing population in the world. It's in the negative. It's the bed. They have three four wives, one Israeli, three Palestinians. So we grew up between Bereva, Deon, and Arad. The population grow for 150,000 people in 10 years. they became 300,000 in 10 years. So where is the people that's going to get there in between them? We bought a farm, the only Jewish farm between Arat to Beva. Okay, we are back to back with a bed, you know, settlements, hundreds of them. We are the only one. There is nobody there. So I'm just saying let's see how we are taking, you know, people to this, let's say, in ventures of building this new communities that will change the face of Israel. I think it's dramatically important right now and the Gaza it's interesting what will happen here with between us and Trump I think nobody knows where it's going to so it's keep their most important principle that the most important partner for Israel it's not the United States not England not France it will have always been the war jury and I think that we also need to invest a lot of time right now to get closer between Jews in form United States to Israel. I think it's exactly the time to do that. You all, we're confident with your leadership and your hard work that we're not just going to survive, but we're going to thrive, that we can break through all of our limits, and that we'll bring a brighter tomorrow with secure and safe borders and safe and thriving farms and food independence and all this vision, which is extraordinary. one young person over a relatively short amount of time can build an organization that has such big dreams and accomplishments. It's enormous credit to you. Grateful to Jana for their hard work and people should get involved and and learn more. It's many years ago I think already that we on a mission sat with you on a farm and 10 years ago. Yeah. And you made some coffee and talked to us about the T. Yeah. And I was also once upon a time and uh and so volunteer go there's nothing can give you a deeper connection to the land than protecting it, working it, feeling it, sleeping on it, learning about it, learning Torah while while sleeping and while sitting on it. So take advantage and and experience it for yourself. How can people get involved? So look, I'll give you a small example. During the last year, we have a lack of manpower. The man power that came to us was Palestinians. So with donations, we bought for example a machine that replaced 500 employees to keep olives. And we understand that it's our time to really build infrastructure that teams will go and support farmers and bring villages back to their homes. So of course we will be more than happy to any support and donation together with GFUs that we are partner with. And of course the most important resource it's people that will come and be part for the long term. Amazing.