Rejuvenation: Ken Spiro: No Time like the Present

[Music] hi everybody Eve Harrow Rejuvenation on the land of Israel network if you're hearing this for the first time it is July 2nd 20 and 17 and I had a really interesting week last week I was guiding for the Jewish women's Renaissance project again which is always um a really terrific experience the senior guide for the project is uh my friend Ken SPO and he agreed to talk to me about some of the other things that he does when he's not uh running 200 women around Israel in 45 degre Centigrade weather like it was at the Dead Sea on Thursday anyhow Ken thanks so much for joining me on the land of Israel Network thanks so much for having me Eve so first of all what about this week what do you think is it ever the same the the groups that come you've done you probably lost count how many groups you've done right in the last few years tell us a little bit about for those who didn't hear my show when I uh I interviewed laori pachnik who came up with this whole idea but maybe fill my listeners in exactly on what this is sure actually know Lori from before she was patnik and she herself came back to her Jewish roots probably about 30 years ago but um I've been working on the program since it started which is probably about seven years I long since lost track of how many jwrp women's groups I was on the first trip of like a couple of buses once a year to now they have I think six back-to-back trips meaning there's 200 women there's 200 women there's also men's trips now and uh the the program's gone through a lot of permutations a lot of changes the biggest change is that the Israeli government jumped on board a couple years ago they were so impressed with the program people ask what's jwrp a lot of people describe it as Birthright for mothers which is uh not exactly accurate but this the closest program I could think of they basically take Jewish women who are married between the ages of I don't know something like 30 and 55 who still have children at home who are not religiously observant and they bring him on an 8-day trip of Israel which is pretty much except for the airfare subsidized completely and it's just an amazing experience of seeing the land of Israel learning about Israel and Zionism and Judaism and spirituality and and growth and relationships this fantastic program of all the programs I'm involved and I do a lot of speaking and Outreach work uh I think this is probably the most impactful it's it's a great experience so by being impactful what are you saying that a lot of these women go home and they're get more involved in their Jewish life than they were before you have numbers you have any kind of feedback it's been a few years already you might see where this has gone yeah well first of all the way it works it's not just random women cities have to organizations in cities whether they're Outreach organizations or federations or a synagogue or they have to basically recruit partially pay for bring the women and most importantly follow up on them so the experience you know Israel the rabbi said the very Arab the land of Israel makes you wiser so just taking women getting them out of their homes no kids no husband just letting them have really a a spiritual growth vacation for 8 days in the land of Israel where the energy just such an intense learning experience so uh I don't have statistics I'm sure if you contact the jwrp office you'd get them but I do know that cities like Detroit Cleveland where they brought hundreds of women it's transformed the city because when you change women you know they always say you change a guy you don't change anything you change the woman you change a home you change enough homes you change a community you change enough communities you change the world so uh I definitely see cuz I also go and speaking tours that there are cities where there literally hundreds of women who've gone on it and not that they've all become observant but they've definitely moved forward in their Judaism you know many of them put their kids in Jewish schools a lot of them actually start going to the Miko once a month there all kinds of in they they make Hala whatever it is whatever you're doing moving forward it's it's very transformative and for probably a lot of these women it's the first really positive Jewish experience they've had where they've been able to understand not just Israel but understand that Judaism is something that's meaningful and relev mhm yeah for a lot of these women it's your first time in Israel at all which I found uh really surprising they didn't come on like a Birthright trip when they were younger so a lot of them are coming to shalam seeing the Cil for the first time just feeling just listening to a lot of people speak Hebrew around them ordering pizza in Hebrew and just seeing a Jewish country and uh I see them change from day to day it's really interesting for the guides it's also challenging cuz we are bouncing around on the buses so we don't really get to know everybody but we get to know everybody a little bit so uh I find that that's a that's a really interesting facet of the week so there's just this report that came out a couple of weeks ago about Judaism in mainly in North America and how it's not so much intermarriage that is the problem as Jews are not getting married and having or having children which it seems to be happening all around the world um and uh and that's why the Jewish numbers in the states are dropping so like what do you think you go around and you speak on a lot of different topics you're a historian and uh and you do you're involved with a lot of different things what's your sense when you go to the States you live here full-time youve it's your family here but you go to the states a lot so you really see both sides how are you seeing this and how is it affecting how what you can give to the jwrp because you know what they're going back to where they're coming from and what they're going back to you're not just seeing them for the eight days here in Israel well I mean intermarriage is a huge issue in America uh the intermarriage rate is over 60% and if you take Orthodox Jews out it's over 70% according to Pew research so combined with as you said the the Western world is suffering from extremely low birth rates it's one of the sort of I don't know if I use the word narcissistic but people just don't like to you know dealing with kids is an expensive process and you see it's it's not a new thing by the way the Roman Empire 2000 Augustus Caesar had to try and pass laws forcing men to marry and have children so it's it's a it's a it's a byproduct of of affluent Progressive Society at all periods of time in history and the Western world is plagued with low birth rates below replacement rate in the Western World you have to have 2.1 kids per family to just maintain your population in the Jewish world I believe uh Jewish women have the lowest or one of the lowest birth rates in America of any ethnic group so if you combine the low birth rates with the intermarriage rate we call I call it demographic suicide but there's another bigger problem is is is the apathy and the lack of connection to Judaism in the land of Israel I grew up in a generation where you know I grew up post Holocaust but the generation my parents lived with the Holocaust and there was Universal across the board support for Israel and a very deep appreciation of you know the need to perpetuate the Jewish people and rebuild the Jewish people and also we didn't have all politically correct stuff in there so I see the big changes I travel is that University campuses are I would say borderline insane when it comes to certain topics and ethnicity while being cool and acceptable is cool and acceptable for everyone but Jews it's quite fascinating that Jews who are who are one of the smallest minorities in the United States 1.7% of the population are never looked at as a minority because they're white generally not all Jews are white my I have a son-in-law's Ethiopian not Ethiopian excuse me who's a who's um yemenite who's darker than most African-Americans I know but most Jews in America are ashkanazi Jews from Eastern Europe and because Jews tend to be affluent and because they look like the dominant and educated they don't have minority status so while it's cool to be and there's an obsession with certain ethnic groups in America especially with blacks you know but it Jews seem to feel almost guilty about their identity and combine that with what's going on with the you know the Israel bashing on University campuses and you have a massive disassociation of young Jews with a Jewish identity and add onto that the open attacks against those Jews who actually are somewhat connected what what started out is this ridiculous BDS movement has morphed into open anti-Semitism so not like these kids are walking around campus with a we love Israel shirt and one an Israeli flag tied around their neck you walk around with a mug and do you're a member of a non-religious Jewish fraternity like AI you're going to get abused for being Jewish and we're just seeing anti-Semitism hiding behind M of an Israel bashing or whatever other things that hides behind in today's politically correct world coming out with vengeance a and University students who tend to be sort of leftwing it's sort of Durer to be on the left when you're that age uh it's it's sort of part of the the official platform of the left to be anti-israel to be into BDS so yeah it's it's very very scary so you take Jews with little or no Jewish identity who don't know about Israel um who who don't have really appreciation of their ethnicity the the what the richness of their culture and you put them on a campus where everyone's telling them that their their essential Identity or the country that is made up of their People Israel is like this evil apartheid state and it's it's just doing horrible things to Jews on campus it's well then you had this crazy story last week in Chicago where there's a pride parade and the the the only the Jews are asked to leave the people were with the rainbow flag but it are asked to leave in a bunch a flurry of Articles like what's that what's that all about and you know so even the Jews aren't accepted anywhere we're not accepted because we're Jews we're not accepted because we're white can we not do anything right uh well unfortunately there's sort of a coalition of ideologies that make up the left in America and they all seem to adopt certain uni certain like sort of universally held platforms that Israel is an evil aparte state is is a package deal that comes along with this this identity politics of of the West today and you just can't be you know I I talk about my the extreme example I love talking about is Israel happens to be one of the most gay friendly countries on the planet Earth it always appears like the top of the list there Pride parades in every city in Israel yet there's an organization called queers for Palestine that accuses Israel of hiding behind its tolerance of gays to mask its genocidal policies against the Palestinians which is of course crazy there's no genocidal policy against the Palestinians and the pride parade is never going to be held in any Arab State they would hang in in in in Iran they hang these people on on cranes in public so it shows you the the it's it's the lack of real thought or in-depth thinking on the issues and how dangerous it is but it's just a it's a given it's a given as part of this you know know the Pol the political situation on a campus that you can't be pro-israel it's just unacceptable because Israel is just the root of all evil in many ways in people's minds and it's I've noticed that over the years when I was in university you know many many years ago you had a number of causes that you could be involved in to feel good about your it's I noticed also that a lot of people who who are in the extreme left rather than actually doing something but let to go and protest because it's sort of I feel good without actually changing the world so when I was in college you had a you had South Africa and apartheid and that sort of trumped everything else and now that that's gone the only issue when I say issue because I've also noticed this is that one of the I should really do a book on the rules of being on the extreme left because it's really a faith-based religious system not in the traditional sense but in the IDE there's certain articles of faith that you believe and regardless of any amount of evidence it's almost the Messianic movement it's unbelievable but there's articles there's things you have to believe in regardless of any amount of evidence or truth you're not going to sway these people and one of the things I've noticed is that that the extreme left only gets excited or involved or angry when white people are involved meaning you have if you look at a list of the greatest hits of horrendous humanitarian tragedies in the world if it's like Arabs killing Arabs Africans killing Africans okay people but when it comes to white people involved or even better yet Jews and Israelis obviously are all white people even though again they're really not so that you get involved in because it's transference of your own like sort of guilt onto someone who sort of looks like you and it's kind of in my in my opinion it's even a racist ideology because you really don't care about the people you just care about who you think is perpetrating the violence if because you really cared about the people you would put your effort into those people who are suffering the most you wouldn't be bashing Israel you'd be going you'd be screaming about Syria where more people are killed in a week in Syria that are killed in a year in Israel in counterterrorism activities but that's just not part of the way they think MH and and in this environment you're throwing Jewish college students with minimum identity both in terms of Israel and religion and it's just toxic for their Jewish identity for their support of Israel and the scary part is what's going to be in 15 20 years when these University students are the leaders of the Jewish community in North America so a lot of my listeners are Christian and uh I know I guide a lot of Christians that come here to Israel I know that you do also I know that when you go to the States you also speak to them so obviously you're talk that you're having with them is not Jewish continuity because that's not their narrative so how do you talk to them about Israel and about their role here in what's going on because I know from some of the Christians that I'm in touch with and very friendly with that they're seeing the same thing with their kids a lot of them are homeschooling forget you forget University level even in the grade school level the homeschooling because they find God has been completely taken out of any kind of curriculum and what is happening in America is absolutely appalling um so I think they're even more ahead head of the curve here and what's happening in the United States on a large level than the Jews are so how how do your conversations go when you go to the Christian communities well first of all it's very true and I have to say that when I speak to Christian audiences well they definitely have a different worldview and I think they sort of think look think and look about the world in a different way their worldview is very much more similar on so many issues I have to say I often have much more in common with them with some a lot of my very liberal Jewish friends because we're coming from although you know we have different ideas about God and Messiah Etc we're coming from a certain worldview about a deterministic worldview in history a God and absolute morality and these are paradigms which are not shared by uh very liberal Jews or the left and you're 100% correct I know a lot of my Christian friends are homeschooling their kids uh they realize that universities are toxic for a lot of different reasons the the faith-based system of the left is antithetical to their worldview I know I think it's I saw a statistic in the east coast of the United States liberal professors outnumber conservative 28 to1 wow so to send your kid to an environment like that is is and spend $50,000 a year for the pleasure I went to vaser it's now $64,000 a year tuition board to learn nothing applicable and probably have your brain more trashed than it was before you came in but uh the other thing that I say about one my Christian audiences is um you know I get a lot of this I'm one of the few rabbis who speaks to Christians a lot of rabbis don't want to be associated with them Orthodox rabbis I'm talking about especially although I don't think it's very different with reform either um although they're scared of Christians for a different reason they're scared of all they tend to be often very afraid of religious very religious people whether it's Orthodox Jews or Christians in general but um when um when I'm when I'm talking to these people I notice a certain there's when I say these people I'm talking to Jews who are very paranoid about Christians there's big misconceptions about Christian support for Israel and the Jewish people the most common point they always say is they just want all Jews to come back to Israel so the Messiah will come and they'll be Jesus and I always give the same answer I said first of all a as far as I've seen it's not true and B even if it were 100% true what would you rather have these guys who like Jews and support Israel are willing to vote according to AR you know and defend us and support Israel financially even or you want the guys with the white hoods or the Spanish Inquisition you know it's funny when I teach when I teach Christian groups I always end with line I say you know guys we got to agree to disagree on certain theological points but the reality is we have a tremendous amount in common we both have deterministic worldviews we believe there's a God who who acts in history there's an absolute standard of right and wrong there's a huge struggle going on here not between Jews and Christians but between those people who believe in that God and that immorality and those who don't this is almost like a war between or division between people who believe in God and people who don't and the religious affiliation is a little bit irrelevant it's that it's God versus not God exactly so say we got to we got to we got to we got to put our differences on hold and focus on we have in common because we're really fighting a common enemy here and I always tell something know you work on the Christian Community I'll work in the Jewish Community we'll both do our jobs we'll bring the Messiah and if he's Jesus I promise you guys can baptize me which I is I think it's a nice way but they all laugh but it but it's but the real reason my experience with working with Christians in general is that this is the first group of Christians in history who actually takes the Bible seriously much more so than most Jews they read in the Bible in the Book of Genesis chapter 22 in as we say the beginning of Jewish history with Abraham where God says I'll bless those who bless you and I'll curse those who curse you and they really believe it and I've heard pastors saying this not to me people send me recordings of them speaking to their Mega congregations in like Denver two and a half thousand people and they're saying you know this is God is testing the nations of the world to see whose side they're on and we choose to be on the side of Israel those are God's people so we've talked for a few minutes and we haven't mentioned Muslims and Islam at all how are you finding Americans when it comes to that are you are you thinking that the war the jihadist war because here in Israel it's not just religious issues that we have we have existential issues with our neighbors who want to eradicate us completely but it's it's happening in Europe it's happening to some degree in America as well not necessarily the religious element but I don't know how do you see it when you do you go do you ever meet in do you ever go into mosques are you ever invited by Muslim congregations there are moderate Muslims we know this there are Muslims in the west who are appalled at what has been done in the name of Allah is there any kind of that or it's really just Christian a Christian and Jewish audiences that you work with I have Muslims in audiences that I'm speaking I have been invited to countries like Indonesia to speak that I've declined because I'm just a little too paranoid to do that I've gone to Istanbul to speak I've done radio shows with Turkish actually TV show a very interesting Turkish uh sort of Imam who's very into Universal acceptance very moderate musl Islamic worldview so there are definitely Muslims who are like that I always say you know there's definitely moderate Muslims the problem is there's not really moderate Islam and especially the people who are speaking so to speak for Islam Today tend to be extremists and the moderates are too scar to open their mouths I would say the majority of Muslims are not violent Jihadi people but they're not the ones who are out in the street you know giving another face to Islam the problem in the west is is that uh I always say thousand years ago which is not a great time for Jews and not a great time in the world during the mid Middle Ages you had a fanatic Muslims Screaming allahar God is great and Christian Crusaders Screaming disol God God wills it and fighting each other over the dominance of wi monotheistic Faith fast forward a thousand years later and by the way the wests clearly won having gone out of its fanatic close-minded medieval mindset to a Renaissance and Enlightenment to but they went too far like they overshot the Finish Line the Islam Islamic world is in the words of David Price Jones who's an arabist he said stuck in a closed Circle I would say as a historian the Islamic world was more Progressive and open 1300 years ago than it is today um and certainly those speaking for Islam were the most extremist backward people so you have a problem on both sides you have an Islamic World which is dominated by the most extreme factions who I think are probably twisting uh Islamic law to the most extreme forms because even Islamic law Demi Jews and Muslims while they're second class citizens are not supposed to be slaughtered it's supposed to be tolerated okay and uh but then you have in in in the in the post-christian Europe World which is not America by the way it's it's the east coast and the west coast and and the broadcast networks and University campuses but not the United States which is the most religious country in the western world where at least In God We Trust is on the money 85% of the people believe in God that's why Trump won by the way that in total discussed with the political with the the party hacks of both parties whatever that's a whole separate topic but the the West especially Europe has overshot the mark and left its Christian Roots too far behind and now is the whole West is consumed by I would say uh this idea of universalism that we all have to I do a whole interesting talk on this particularism verus universalism what's correct or not and uh the reality is is Arab world is incredibly particularistic and Europe is totally universalistic and it's the ultimate meaning the Arab world believes very much in the rightness of their worldview that's a particularism that we who we are is is the best and right way and that's the only truth yeah that's the only truth universalism is like why can't we all just put our differences aside go listen to John Lennon's imagine that's the song I always say it's the best worst song ever written I love the music but the words are antithetical to everything in Judaism you know Jews by the way but that's what Europe is Europe is you know it's amazing is a terrorist attack in Germany and Angela Merkel apologizes if we were only nicer if we were only less German more and it first of all it's insulting to Muslims it's like saying that if we would just stop being more who we were you would stop being more who you are which is insane it's not the way they there's nothing wrong with being particularistic provided you're not aggressive about it but at least in medieval Europe there was a balance of particularism with Christians believing that their worldview is destined to you know and the Muslims believing their worldview is destined to by the way we Jews are F fascinating like everything about Judaism is complicated we're History's Greatest Universal particularists yes we're supposed to be the Mad a nation of priests and a holy people we are supposed to preserve our own identity yet Jews are the ultimate nation that has always pushed a universalistic worldview go read the book of Isaiah it is the most universalistic book ever written about you know Nations shall off the sword against Nation neither should they make war anymore but it's universalism based on a particularism and that God loves everybody and you don't need to have to believe in Judaism in order to have God love you go to heaven or whatever it is right but but there there's certain basic tenants Allah the seven laws that God gave to Noah that if the whole world would follow those there's plenty of room for diverse expression within that culturally but if the world would just follow that particularistic worldview then there could be universalistic World United around that worldview but because the Jewish people haven't been doing it and making a proper role model because we've been completely on a defensive for centuries the world lacks the ability to be able to do that so you have two extremes you have the Muslim world going one way way to particular in the Christian World being post-christian and being universalistic to the point of committing suicide is what you're seeing Europe is doing today well I see Judaism is ultimately being the the balance between Justice and mercy and Islam both the two daughter religions of Judaism Islam taking that Justice way to an extreme and as you said Christianity taking the mercy part to turn the other cheek way to the extreme because not noticing or not understanding who's coming after them as you just said that Merkel did which is really humiliating to the Arabs but uh to Islam but uh just to hark back to something you said before I was just reading that there are quite a few leaders in Europe right now who do not have children themselves Merkle and just many of them may and I wonder if that also affects their feeling a lot of what we do in our lives is about our children and about the world that we want to leave for our children and when you have macron also I believe when you have so many leaders in Europe now who themselves they're deciding on a future that they have no stake in so you have to you think it makes a difference to how they're seeing things also so they're going to let all these Muslim refugees in so Europe eventually maybe the Muslim Christian War it'll be reawakened it's this time the Muslims will win because the Christians aren't noticing how dangerous it is what they were fighting for for so many years they've now let in the front door so how do you see that in terms of Europe because I'm not sure that I I think my audience is mainly a North American audience and I'm not sure that North Americans realize how different Europe is from the United States but that could be the way the United States goes if it's not careful absolutely um Americans don't get it by the way because again America despite the Hollywood and and the extreme left in the media is not that way actually America is one of the only Western countries has a positive growth rate in its country largely due to immigration and the birth rate of the minorities in America like Latinos uh America suffers from the same problem in the upper class middle upper class Americans especially like the white you know the waspy even and the Jewish population of course uh but Europe is the extreme people don't realize that England is the most religious country in Europe % of Brits believe say they believe in God which is pathetic but yet more Muslims but by the way Muslims are not 10% of the British population yet more Muslims go to MOS on Friday then anglicans go to church on Sunday so it's one thing to say you believe in God but whether you take god seriously or not is a is a separate topic Europe does not take god seriously and the birth rate is the bigger issue first of all it's a sign of tremendous narcissism and decadence to not want to have kids I mean kids aren't convenient it's much better life if you don't have to spend it on your children's education and everything else you have to do but if the Muslims are really smart and Mark Stein wrote a great book called America alone and he and and he talks about how within 50 years there's going to be no one in Europe who has an uncle aunt brother sister niece or nephew everyone's going to be an only child of an only child of an only child um if the Muslims were smart and patient I would say thank God they're not they would just pay their taxes fake being you know good European universalists and and and keep their birth Rats Up and with and within within 25 to 30 years they would be either the largest minority group in every country or an actual majority because when you're having four kids per family and your European neighbors having less than two every Muslim women is worth three to four European women and do the math I'm not I'm not an accountant or you know one has being counter guyses but it only takes a couple generations to do that they could literally win a demographic Jihad by the way I don't know if people know but the the fastest declining birth rate in the world is Muslim women but even though it's gone from like 8 to four it's still four times greater than Europe because because why Muslim women in Europe the only way to get people to lower their birth right is to raise their standard of living that's the best way to get people so when Muslims leave the Middle East and go to Europe where their standard of living goes through the roof especially in Sweden where everything's paid for so okay they only have four kids you know instead of the eight they would have if they were living in you know Sudan or something like that but you're right it actually you're witnessing the and you're witnessing the the death of of Europe and of Christian Europe and the scary part is you're witnessing the if you look at the the elections in Europe you're witnessing Miss ing the rise of the right because the extreme right whether it's Leen or G veres in Holland or all these people the extreme right is only a reaction to what's happening on the extreme left you have those Europeans who are particularistic who want to preserve the European identity are going to migrate to the political parties that are most extreme and that and they are and they're the byproduct who's responsible for those the European left is responsible for the creation of the European right because most people are politically moderate only when they get desperate they go to extremes if you go to Eastern Europe which by the way is unbelievably racist place the Eastern Europeans have these are postcommunist they don't buy any of the the nonsense they don't they any of the fluffy liberal you know they want they want the they want the prosperity and the economy but they they trust me I spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe first of all they're incredibly racist it's it's scary but they have no problem preserving their ethnicity and putting extreme building fences putting extreme limits on immigration into their countries they want they want to make mainin their identity and I'm not saying it's ideal or not but if Europe were a little more moderate in its dropping of its obsessive universalism you'd probably have a lot to say for Europe and a future for Europe that's not there at the moment well brexit might be a key that even some other people are getting fit up not just the Eastern Europeans what do you think well brexit is you know the whole Europe the European Union thing is all this is the ultimate expression of universalism and we see that first of all economically it didn't work you know because economy you know if I was Germany I don't know why I want to be linked to the economy of Greece or Spain or Portugal um it's crazy but then again it gives you massive power because you're the one functioning economy there and you really can call the shots in Europe in a way that's almost imperialistic but um but it is it's it's it's a tremendous attempt to try and minimize the difference between people and people don't want their differences minimized people like to be I know and zagan book John lenon and the Jews he has a great line he says no woman wants to be told by her husband that she's loved like he loves Every Other Woman people want to feel people people want to feel special and being special doesn't mean you have to be a racist as a matter of fact the more you play up in a gentle way your differences the less you get extremism the more you go either way the more you push people to the extremes is what exactly what you're seeing in Europe so now so now let's jump to the States because are you seeing that in America are you seeing this last year and you came back and you said to me they're they're they're having a nervous breakdown in America and you know they have not recovered from the last election so are saying that same thing that the overwhelming push of the left and their values in the media and the universities is what led us to the administration that we have today in Washington I mean the Trump phenomenon is unbelievable when they write a book on 20th century politics or the last couple hundred years this is going to go down as one of the most fascinating because Trump is more much more in my opinion a byproduct of what's going on in the American mind then of who he is personally um I just spent a couple weeks in America on a speaking tour it's unbelievable the left has I literally lost it in America they can't get over that they lost they keep stirring fake news and these Russian inter it's all there's nothing there anyone who's the slightest bit objective it's it's and by the way the incitement coming is that the fact that they go into a baseball field and start shooting trust me if if I said this that I was in America when it happened if a right-wing NRA chap party guy had done that oh my God this would be in the news for two months after the every story we got to shut down talk radio we got to shut down rush limbo we got to shut down all these guys we got to get rid of the but it's crazy the real incitement I see it's scary it's I've never seen a country so divided um I think a lot of it happened during Obama's presidency the first black president caused more racial tension in America since then I was a little kid in the 60s it's unbelievable with the black lives matter thing as to America is in turmoil now but I think the Trump phenomenon is a byproduct of despite you know and anyone who listens to Trump he like the guy is like the things he said like he tweets like he did yesterday I couldn't believe the things he tweets but the reality is is Trump is more of I think he's more of a manifestation of how Fed Up Americans are with the political machine in general it's not the Democrat they're fed with the left they're fed up with the the Republicans also they're fed up with people who are professional politicians who are just basically interested in their own needs and they want something different and Trump is as different as you can get I mean you can't get more he is the first guy elect who doesn't know anyone in any favors he says exact exactly what he thinks he's the bigger the most The Biggest Loser in my opinion the last election was not the Democrats who were Trashed by the way um but the the media the mainstream media which is overwhelmingly lopsided towards the left in America he won the election on Twitter it's an unbelievable thing someone's wrote a book on that and the people say you got to stop tweeting I mean if I was Trump I would never stop I might tone down my tweets but I would never stop tweeting he can do an end run around the media which was always acting as a filter so it's such an interesting phenomena right in the middle of it now but it again it's I think it's really a reaction just like you see in Europe he's not Trump is not an extreme it's funny Trump is not an extreme rightwing guy he's actually pretty liberal he's not tea party guys don't like him because his moral stance is is very much to the left of theirs so it has much more to do with people getting desperate and depressed about where America was going and wanting something totally different outside the box and it has to do with I think Donald Trump's personal uh moral agenda or vision of America but what you do see that Trump ran on was make America great and I remember I think it was uh Mark Simone or Sean Hannity I heard on the radio he did this Montage collection of speeches of Obama and speeches of trump and it was scary and you hear it all together it's speech after speech of Obama apologizing for the United States going back to what I said about the white guilt you know like we're guilty speech after speech after speech after speech about how bad America is America is not a bad country America is the most benign superpower in human history I'm sorry it's not a perfect country but boy have a lot of the British compared to the US they did with their empire the French the Spanish the come on give me a break the Russians yeah and then you have and you listen to Trump all about particularism you know make America Great America first it's funny because he's turned out to be much more proactive in the world than people thought he would be people thought he's going to be a big isolationist he hasn't turned out to be that way so far but that also says that there's a huge chunk of America that is a fed up with the political establishment and B believes that America is a great country and wants and doesn't feel guilty about America and wants uh to preserve that unique American identity whatever that is that's the particularism surfacing again so it's all part of a populist kind of thing you see going on in the world that both in Europe in the United States even with Putin he's a popularist I mean he's he's restoring Russian Pride after what happened after the collapse of the Soviet Union so this is the mood and what does it tell us it tells us something about human nature it tells us that people like their differences and want to preserve them and also tells us if you don't do it in a moderate way you get in an extreme way right and that the whole world would do much better to be more cist and not so extreme in either direction but I mean we see that here in Israel and also talking about Jewish identity you know we're sitting here saying Jewish State Jewish State going against the world I think that's probably why Europe isn't happy with us because they're trying to blur the lines and we're saying no we have some particular identity and I do feel that Israel can be an example to the world of how you can balance that particularism and that universality as in addition to being a society that's very much based on faith and family and again I'm I'm not saying religion I'm saying in particular Faith because a lot of Israelis would not say that they were religious but I think most Israelis do believe in God and there's there's a distinction there so as oppos this is what I'm I'm feeling and that's why I want so badly for people to understand Israel and its proper context and come and visit if they can because we talk about being the light into the Nations and for a long time we talked about it in terms of the moral values and the Torah Etc but I think that we came home now because there's a political reason for us to be here as well to show that you can have a nation that does have that balance that does have the values that is open to the world while still maintaining something of what makes us unique and not be embarrassed about it and what's interesting is American Jews are embarrassed about Israel and I've heard more the the very very very leftist American Jews have said to me Israel and I've talked about on my show anybody listening here knows what I'm talking about know how much it bothers me because I've mentioned it more than once Israel makes me embarrassed the things Israel does makes me ashamed to be Jewish you know so it's like they're they're nutty but has this kind of thing ever happened in history before you know I look at the how the Roman Empire fell apart and they had what was called right ponir cast like very cheap food and water and entertainment and I go to the west and you see everybody's into their rock games their sports games and all the entertainment everyone's walking around with white strings coming out of their ears right because nobody's paying attention to anything that's happening and that's the entertainment and McDonald's five bucks and you got your 2,000 calories for the day so and then we know what happen happened to the Roman Empire are you as a historian as somebody who really has understand how we got to this place today if you could fast forward 10 or 20 years and look back at now are you seeing signs that are worrisome Beyond Trump is out of control in his Twitter account and this is happening with the Europeans are you saying that there's a possibility for a really devastating kind of situation here that we're primed for in the in the west today 2017 yeah well they say you know the more things change the more they say the same and you don't learn from the past you're going to P that's George santiana Line so there's no question that that all great civilizations in human history go through similarities in what happens periods of great productivity and expansion and then you basically to a point of too much comfort and stagnation and decadence Rome had it for sure it's not just Rome every Empire has it is is is the West going through it absolutely is America going through it yes but somewhat less because there's still a certain spirit in America that is not so decadent but there certainly it's certainly a huge problem are we at some kind of a Tipping Point I don't know we're at a Tipping Point you know this the interesting the big change is technology the ability to share information I mean the world has moved to a place where you can let everyone in the world know something instantaneously so I don't it's it's one of the things when you're in the middle of it you can't really know what's H how it's going to happen when they write the book on this period of time of how people's brains have been affected by the fact they have smartphones and tablets and computers and you don't have to know anything anymore or how the ability to that everyone there's no filters anymore everyone can blog and write you can go however you want for news and there's no it's a completely unrestrained access to information for better and for worth so I I'm a little hesitant to make predictions about what's going to be but given that human nature is always human nature and people tend to do the same stupid things over again there's certain patterns that are definitely repeating themselves now and I think the world is at a very critical point um whether it's going to be that radical Islam is going to prove to be a huge threat to the world I don't believe that's the issue I believe radical Islam is a by product of a sickness in the western world there's no it's not a it's not a struggle between two superpowers if the West decided to wanted to end Islam the West could end the Muslim World in 24 hours if it wanted to there'd be nothing I'm not saying they should of course but literally in 24 hours there'd be nothing left to the Muslim world so it's not a it's not a struggle between two superpowers it's what it is it's the the the biggest problem with the West is the West not the east or not the Middle East it's it's exactly and that's where the Jews in my opinion fit in the job of the Jewish people has never been to conquer or colonize or convert the world it's always been to show the world how you're supposed to think and live and act and the world needs values now more than anything else the world is like it's like a rudderless ship what's going on in much of the world or at least the part of the world that gets to talk and speak and influence University campuses the media the tension is being caused by the Grassroots people who are still thinking and have a value system resenting how the they're being told top down how they should think and how they should they don't believe that way but the reality is it's the world's in a in a dangerous place what's going to happen I don't know I don't know that we tend to see in history that civilizations tend to vacillate from one extreme to the other you know the left is in then the right is and people get sick of that and they move to that what we need is the middle and the Jewish people are supposed to supply the middle we're supposed to give the world the balance but what would you like to see happen What like to see first of all I don't believe as a as a historian and also as a believing Jew who believes in the unique mission of the Jewish people I don't personally believe the world is going to be able to find that balance until the Jewish people until we get our act together as a people stop apologizing for everything start being Jews for Judaism first because we got Jews for every other ISM but Judaism and again I always say Jews for Judaism is not because you want to preserve the tribe and not give Hitler a postum his victory but because we're the god Squad the Jewish people changed the world we gave the world the idea of one God for teeny tiny people we have influenced the world as John Adams says more and more happily than any other Nation ancient or modern you know um in uh what's his name wrote the book uh the gift of the Jews totally spacing his name I know yeah but I'm I'll remember in a second but you he says he says that this the basic software that westerners processed the world with is Jewish software and the problem is we're not giving the world upgrades because we Jews have been in such a reactive mode for so long that the that we've forgotten that the purpose of being Jewish even religious Jews think the purpose of being Jewish is to perpetuate the Jewish people learn Torah and do do the Mitzvah do the Commandments the reality the purpose of the Jewish people is to do KES hasem which is to sanctify God's name which means to act in a way that people look at you and say wow look at how this person lives look at his family look at his relationship with his wife look at his children look at his community look at the values these people have like we want to be like them and and again because we're the Universalist particularists we're the only people I believe who are able to give the world that Vision they need so they're not vacillating from one extreme to the other like you see the world today so the reality is if you put that all together that the onus of everything going wrong in the world is ultimately responsibility of the Jewish people that's a fundamental belief in Judaism that that Abraham chose for himself a unique responsibility and that the Jewish people you're born into that responsibility you can individually run away you can intermar you can but collectively we can't disappear because if we don't if we don't rise to that occasion rise to that responsibility you know the world's in big trouble and when they get in big trouble they're going to come after us first right so right so the non-js are going to look at us because we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing in order so that they can be living the lives that they're really supposed to be living we got a lot on our shoulders which is by also why it's a crazy double standard in the world why Israel 26 UN condemnations in 2016 20 against Israel and six against every other humanitarian tragedy in the world as unfair as it is it's God's way of telling the Jewish people you know like Hebrew National Commercial you have we have to answer to a higher authority I always say being Jewish might not be comfortable but it's always meaningful the world's always going to remind us that you Jews and you Jewish State Israel even though you've created an incredibly you know you talked about Dynamic a society that is a Jewish state yet is a de democracy which seems to be impossible yet Israel in many ways balances that better than almost any country in the world given that it is so specifically a Jewish state but we're supposed to be taking it up to the next Notch and and really creating a Jewish State that's not like every other Nation but that's a light to Nations and I always say we're only going to get peace for the for the Jewish people in the world in Israel when we have Jews for Judaism and and we're proactive and we're really the light to Nations that we're supposed to be okay all right kpo thank you so much I could talk to you for hours and probably will but not on the mic all right everybody I hope you enjoyed if they want to get in touch with you how can they do so oh so I have a very good website it's got a lot of good content on it it's Kenpo K NSP o.com tons of free content you can listen read and watch for free and you can also contact me through there okay you heard that all right everybody have a wonderful week I know that I fully intend to Eve hero Rejuvenation on the land of isra Israel Network take care everybody goodbye for [Music] now who are we as a people who are we as a nation what does it mean to be a Jew in the land of Israel as a Jew in Judea what is our message to the world we're finally back in our land and we get to ask these questions is ratem we're going to make Judea and Samaria an issue for the entire world to know that the Jews have a place in the world Israel inspired with Arya bramwood and Jeremy gimpel on the landof Israel Network at the landof israel.com