Inside Israel Today: May The Force Be With Israel

you're listening to inside Israel today with Gil Hoffman on the land of Israel Network hello and welcome to inside Israel today here on the land of Israel Network on the land of israel comm where we are celebrating here the seventh day of Hanukkah a holiday in which we mark the successful resistance of the Jewish people who wanted to keep their traditions against not only the Greeks who wanted them to assimilate into Greek culture but also the Jews who wanted to assimilate into Greek culture and one thing that's really beautiful about this holiday is that it's a holiday that everyone can relate to because it's a holiday with very clean lines of what is good and what is bad what is good and what is evil children can get into the holiday and understand it and it can be a holiday with the universalistic message that people can relate to all around the world of light versus darkness when we talk about light versus darkness it reminds me of a movie that I had the honour of seeing this past weekend [Music] that's right ladies and gentlemen Star Wars Star Wars relates very much to fun because Star Wars also had this very universalistic message of light versus darkness of good versus evil that message has been getting across now for the 30 years that that Star Wars has been around and perhaps at the beginning when it started out during the Cold War then it might have been more clear to everybody what is good and what is evil now it's a little bit less clear to people now there's all kinds of moral relativism around the world people are a lot more confused than they ever were before and that's why I think Star Wars is actually needed much more than ever than it when it was first released on May 25th 1977 and of course Empire Strikes Back three years later and the Return of the Jedi three years after that now we really need more than ever a force for good with the Jedi and especially Luke Skywalker being there to teach us a band of Maccabees who inspire us even today they were outnumbered they were out armed and yet they proved that freedom can prevail over Tyrion hope can triumph over despair light can prevail over darkness that sounds like a description of the new Star Wars movie but this one happened a little earlier there is good and evil in the world and that good must be defended and sometimes you have to make sacrifices in order to defend that good and it's so easy to fall into bad and we see the most conflicted character in the movie is the character of Ben solo also known as kylo Ren he is the son of Han Solo together with Princess Leia the sister of Luke Skywalker and you know someone with that kind of illness that we say that that kind of pedigree you think would be very good and the movie tells the story from different perspectives about how someone raised into goodness can fall into the darkside and it's something we could all relate to we all have our own challenges day in and day out on an individual level in being good people in making the right choices in following our conscience or following more negative kind of internal pressures that we have to make the wrong decision and you know we hope that in general we end up making the right decisions and being good and following that light but the truth is anyone can fall into the proverbial darkside and that happens not only on an individual level but it also happens on a national level Israel is in a very challenging situation right now Israel is in a bad neighborhood we wish that we were light years away from some of our enemies in the region but they are right here and they are following our every move and they are constantly trying to provoke war they will look for any excuse to provoke war because they are unquestionably evil those who react to a decision in Washington made by the President of the United States by firing rockets at a kindergarten are evil and those who defend them around the world are promoting that evil and we've been seeing that in recent days we've seen how the United Nations Security Council convened did they convene to condemn the Hamas for firing those rockets at Israel civilians absolutely not they convened in order to try to null and void the presence of the United States Donald Trump's decisions to recognize that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and start the long process of moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel's capital 14 countries in the UN Security Council spoke in favor of knowing and voiding that decision but the way it works in the UN Security Council is that decisions are made by consensus the vote was 14 to 1 and the one one that won was the vote cast by nikki Haley America's very impressive ambassador to the United Nations what we witnessed here today in the Security Council is an insult it won't be forgotten it's one more example of the United Nations doing more harm than good in addressing the israeli-palestinian conflict she stood up to the the different countries there and said absolutely not that they will not tell America what to do the fact that this veto is being done in defense of American sovereignty and in defense of America's role in the Middle East peace process is not a source of embarrassment for us it should be an embarrassment to the remainder of the Security Council Wow that must have been not so easy for nikki Haley to do to stand up to all the other countries there that was a very Luke Skywalker kind of moment there that she had and she did it defending the interests of America in a way that helped Israel tremendously and we in Israel have to be very thankful to her for being good and standing up to evil even when it's not popular and we have to be thankful to the Trump administration for continuing to do that you know regard list of whether you agree with the with Donald Trump and his administration on domestic policies obviously his views on people viewed as anti Summit anti-semitic have to be taken very carefully and all kinds of opinions on that but when it comes to Israel at least lately from the point of view of the overwhelming majority of Israelis he has been doing the right thing and that continued on yesterday in his speech about his new national security strategy and in this speech of course the the headline was that America is in the game and America is going to win and that's nice that he cares about that but very different than during the Obama administration but from Israel's point of view the headline there was he said that Israel is not the cause of Middle East trouble and that is wonderful to hear from our president the United States that he realizes that the problems in the Middle East have to do with all kinds of fights that there are between the Sunnis and the Shiites between recovering from the colonialism that the British and the French did that had nothing to do with Israel strategy document asserts that for generations the conflict between Israel the Palestinians had bit has been understood as the prime irritant preventing peace and prosperity in the region today the threats from radical jihadist terrorist organizations and the threat from Iran are creating the realization that Israel is not the cause of the region's problems states have increasingly found common interest with Israel in confronting common threats and quote and absolutely right there is a new division within the Middle East between good guys and bad guys and thank God Israel is on the good side Israel is together with moderate Arab Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia Jordan sometimes Egypt Egypt of course did propose the resolution the United Nations that was not very nice that was not very friendly for a country that we have I have relations with but you know they made their choice for evil that day they make the choices for good in Egypt some of the time and it's very clear in the region who is the evil and that evil emanates from one country it's not Israel ladies and gentlemen it's Iran and I wish the entire world would see that I mean Iran funds sponsors and organizes the terrorist organizations in the Middle East and throughout the world and so you would think that you that the world would have for many years been united to stop Iran the same way that in the Star Wars movies that the force and the Jedi they unite against that first order they unite against that clear evil against that enemy but there's been some confusion in the world over the last few years and we see that more than ever with the headline that there was in Politico over the last couple days about how the Obama administration awarded a covert operation against the iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah in order to avoid hurting when was then a delicate emerging nuclear agreement with Iran according to the report the White House directly prevented actions by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency to battle his Balazs drug and weapons trafficking operations Hezbollah had a drug trafficking in from South America and the Obama administration decided to do nothing about it the the very own DEA a American operatives tracked his Balazs criminal activity for eight years it witnessed the terrorist group laundering money and smuggling cocaine through regular shipments evidence attested to Hezbollah insiders and the group supporters in Iran doing these criminal actions but the Oval Office during Obama's tenure kept on preventing the DEA from fighting his and they didn't they stopped it from happening why because they didn't want to hurt the Iran deal the deal that Obama was making with evil the deal had said okay stop the nuclear program temporarily and will smile at you you can get money from all around the world all the sanctions that there were from around the world that Israel really encouraged the world to do that'll all be sidelined and ended and Iran can join the nations of the world just because it supposedly theoretically halts its nuclear program which of course won't be checked as much as it was before did the Iran deal say anything about stopping supporting terrorism around the world absolutely not did that Iran deal stop Iran from developing its ballistic missile capability that'll allow Iran to threaten America to threaten the Europe to threaten countries throughout the world absolutely not now those missiles can reach far beyond Israel they already had enough missiles to reach Israel before and this is not about Israel this is about Iran against the world and America during the Obama administration sided with Iran sided with evil against good ladies and gentlemen there's gonna be a legacy decided over time about the Obama administration and I know that American Jews voted for Obama overwhelmingly more than any other group in the United States except for African Americans and Israelis kept on telling American Jews what are you doing you're supporting a man who makes deals with Iran behind the backs of America's allies Israel included that makes the entire Middle East in the entire world more unsafe his Raley's told American Jews look at what he did he overthrew Mubarak a moderate leader in Egypt causing chaos throughout the region Israelis told American Jews look at what he's doing he set a red line in Syria and allowed to be crossed causing thousands of deaths unnecessarily and undermining any American credibility that he had and people in Israel who wanted to see a peace process with the Palestinians for Israel's own good to hold American Jews what are you doing every step this man is taking on the Israeli Palestinian front is making it harder to achieve peace in the future his obsession with settlements with whether a Jew lives on this side of a line around that side of the line prevented there from being a peace process the entire eight years of the Obama administration except for a nine-month period when John Kerry took over a Secretary of State and he like Hillary Clinton his predecessor before said that settlements were not an obstacle to peace and said they should be taken out of the equation in order to facilitate a peace process that's what led there being a peace process for those nine months that then ended when Obama intervened and put settlements back front and center and so Obama made it harder to achieve peace during his administration took so many steps that made Israelis not like him and Israelis aren't gonna take steps in any kind of peace process for a man that they can't trust and who certainly earned the mistrust that he received not only from Israelis but from the entire Middle East and so we see more than ever with these reports about Hezbollah that Obama made choices Obama chose evil over good and as an American citizen we can only look back and be thankful to God that we made it through those years that Netanyahu should opt to him did not give in to someone who did not have the best interest of Israel at heart maybe said he did but you know in Star Wars the the the evil people say things and don't mean them as well and so this good and evil is becoming more and more clear now am i saying that Trump is good no Trump has made a lot of choices in his life between good and evil and chose an evil certainly when it comes to the treatment of women when it comes to statements he's made about anti-semites who support him who identify with him Trump has had chances to stand up for good against evil and Trump has failed morally and yet though we have to be here in Israel looking for the interests of Israel with all due respect when it comes to Israel there Trump has been morally successful in choosing good over evil and we in Israel and supporters of Israel around the world whether they voted for Trump or whether they didn't vote for Trump really have to appreciate that I can't take that for granted in Star Wars we see that everyone has these constant choices to be making even Rey the new protagonist in the movie who is apparently the next Jedi then the movie is called the last Jedi so I guess that's her but Luke Skywalker said during the movie that that there will be more she was going through her own difficulties finding someone to show me my place kylo Ren who has this deep connection with her tried to get her to move to the dark side just like she was trying to get him to move to the good side and so this happens on an individual level with all of us it happens on a national level and so I hope for our listeners who are here with us today that you go to the good you go to the light and you choose good over evil you go with your conscience on an individual level and you support Israel on a national level and the president United States when he supports Israel and it's not easy but Chanukah teaches us that it can be done Chanukah teaches us just like Star Wars that good can emerge victorius that even if the bad side has the overwhelming majority numbers ones that the few can defeat the many that's what's happening in the Star Wars movies though they still have apparently a challenge ahead in the next movie to go and that's what happened in the Hanukkah story and we have to hope and pray that that is what will happen for Israel in the future with the help of God we'll take a break thank you very much when God kept the oil in the eternal flame burning for eight days he gave us the miracle of Hanukkah a holiday of Hope rededication for every Jewish family no people have fought longer struggle harder were sacrificed more to survive to grow and to live in freedom than the people of Israel but our prayers to God this holiday be for peace in the land of Israel for the tranquility of its people to abide and hopeful future for all the children of the Middle East children that are very much like you the story of Hanukkah the miraculous victory of a small band of patriots against tyranny through centuries of Exile and persecution Jews have lit the menorah each year they behold its glow with faith in the power of God and love for his greatest gift freedom a band of Maccabees who inspire us even today they were outnumbered they were armed and yet they proved that freedom can prevail over tyranny hope can triumph over despair light can prevail over darkness the miracle of Hanukkah is the miracle of Israel the descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob have endured unthinkable persecution and oppression but no Force has ever crushed your spirit and no evil has ever extinguished your faith and that is why the Jewish people shine as a light to all nations [Music] and we're back here and inside until today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm ladies and gentlemen I had a scoop earlier in the week about how the absorption ministry told the Knesset Research Centre Anglo immigrants aren't special I encourage you to find this story online on the Jerusalem Post website it ran in the print edition of the paper on Monday just ahead of a meeting of that absorption committee of the Knesset the Knesset checked with various ministries to hear what they were doing special to assist the integration of immigrants to Israel from english-speaking countries around the world and we're basically told that the answer is nothing there are wonderful organizations that are doing so much to help immigrants move here and be absorbed here nefesh beneficent for most and we have to be thankful to nefesh beneficia that as well as other organizations that focus more in absorption over here and I was proud to participate last night in the panoply of nefesh benefice which is a annual trivia contest that has about 12 teams of 8 to 10 people and last year at the privilege of winning this year not so much but it's greater than ever that benefit does such activities but obviously we need more than social and cultural events over here a lot of American Jews move here and need help they have specific needs when it relates to adapting to Israel language and culture and doing business over here and living in an environment where the that's not always hospitable to the success of Allah it would be wonderful if the schools did more to help children who make oh yeah adapt it would be wonderful if the absorption ministry made sure to have English speakers in cities around the country assisting new immigrants and now in Jerusalem I I know they have two project managers who I met and are doing wonderful work but there are problems all over the country and it really seemed that the absorption ministry could not care less did not seem to think that the English speakers need any specific help at all when the Knesset asked the Ministry of what they were doing special to help immigrants from english-speaking countries the ministry responded there is no special criteria for immigrants from english-speaking countries even though the ministry thinks all populations of immigrants have unique characteristics connected to language and culture and every population must be addressed in an evaluated manner at the actual session of the absorption committee they said well the people who work for us have to speak English because they have degrees and you can't get a degree without speaking English and they said well just because someone speaks Russian does not mean they don't speak English as well and I didn't know whether laugh or cry there needs to be a lot more done to help English speakers in this country adapt and there has to be more effort made to persuade people to come here people aren't going to come here and give up easy lives in the United States England Canada Australia New Zealand South Africa wellmaybe South Africa in order to come here if more is not done by Israel in order to facilitate their transition and so my message to our listeners here who are American Jews in those countries come anyway it I am embarrassed sometimes that my government doesn't do more to help you but there are wonderful organizations out there who are helping day in and day out the integration of people of all ages into this country you know that's the beauty of the English speakers who've moved to this country and they saw that there's a need they formed their own organizations organizations like Haviland or that helps young people here in Jerusalem tel-aviv internationals that helps singles mostly people in their 20s and 30s who decided that the business climate of Tel Aviv is just as good as anywhere in America and socially it's much better for Jews to come and be a part of something special there's an organization called keepo lehman israel that i heard about doing that Knesset session and it sounds like they're doing very important work and so come here the government might not help you as much as they should but your fellow immigrants from english-speaking countries around the world will be here assisting you the association of Americans and Canadians in Israel helps a lot of people tell fed all kinds of organizations and we can be very proud of the work that you do so this is where it's at ladies and gentlemen come to Israel where you can have a wonderful life I love it and you will love it too it's been a pleasure being with you here inside Israel today Happy Hanukkah from here in Jerusalem bye-bye during the darkest time of the year we light the Chanukah candles to remember that the truth and values we brought to the world of Mount Sinai will endure forever and that every person who loves Israel and stands with Israel is a modern-day Mack and just as God performed magnificent miracles before the eyes of the world through the Maccabees than those days God is performing even greater miracles through the Maccabees at this time because here in the land of Israel we never forget that just one candle can illuminate the entire world happy Chanukah from the land of Israel network at the Land of Israel dock