Rejuvenation: Thank you, Druze Vets

[Music] hi everybody here just me to eat herro on rejuvenation for the Land of Israel network back in Israel had a very quick trip to the States in the end the women so fun dinner was postponed until April 26 so you guys still get a chance to see me in New York and I'll give you more details as that goes and we've got a pack coming up and then still planning an event for Saturday night of AIPAC so there's a lot of things happening but it's always great to be back in the land and especially for to be shot which we just had a few days ago the birthday of the trees so it's raining and the trees are just cooking up all their great stuff inside it looks like everything is so dead but the potential is so there but I'm sitting now today is February 12th 2020 the 17th day of shot 5780 pre-taping this sitting with an old friend Mike Cohen who is the strategic adviser to the Druze Veterans Association and this is a week that is being devoted to the Jews we're going to talk about who they are and why specifically this week well everything is connected to the Torah in the end in this week's parsha which you will have already read when you hear this show is the parsha the weekly portion of Utah of Jethro and that is connected to the Jerusalem Oh Mike thank you so much for joining me here today on rejuvenation my pleasure but I'm not that old in any event so so tell us I mean who are the Druze people here about the Jews we talk about them you go up north in Israel and you see their their their villages you see them in the army you see them in a lot of the in the security services here in Israel but who exactly are the Druze the Jews are a very very small minority in Israel only about 1.6 percent of the entire population and they consider themselves the descendants v some consider themselves physical other consider consider themselves spiritual descendants a vetro of Jethro who was Moses his father-in-law and in this week's parish ah we just read that each row Moshe la sits with machete for they received the Ten Commandments and says listen you can't be a dictator you can't be a tyrant you have to be a leader and a leader can't do everything by himself and the the basics of democracy creating levels of security levels of police forces levels of judge judges levels of communal leaders tens hundreds thousands comes from you draws advice to Moshe and it's the first time that we have a document that explains how democracy should work and delegating you know that somebody can't feel that they are smarter than everyone else this is oh this always so relates to modern-day politics you have to trust the people around you you have to be able to delegate to the people around you you can't do it all Moses's by completely overworked there's a line out of his tent you know from morning till night people looking for advice and what's so great about this is this is a beautiful father-in-law son-in-law relationship where they don't become the other I mean Moshe obviously does not become a Midianite Jethro as far as we know and that's an interesting question does not become an Israelite is he a monotheistic Zac because we have to be so careful he didn't convert to Judaism though or that not in the way that we would think of today and well there's a place called nebbish web which is in the north on Mount Arbel which is apparently traditionally Jethro's burial place and that is one place I know that the Druze do make that they go to once a year and and you know they think that's where they make a pilgrimage to and one more thing because there's so much to talk about with the Midianites the midnights are a nation that are sometimes friends with ours of ours and sometimes enemies which is exactly where the Jews fell into also the Jews in Israel are more than just friends they are really brothers in arms but then we've got Drew's in other countries who will fight us to the death so it's a lot of interesting parallels here yeah there's nothing new in history there's nothing new Under the Sun a smart King once said that the the reason the Druze in Israel and if you go back in history by the way you read books of people who traveled here and the 50 160-170 hundreds they alright there's this small group called the Druze who live in the area who are very friendly with the Jews I'm attending dependents sometimes yes and sometimes no and it's interesting that the ones that are in the area that became the State of Israel for the most part were friendly the ones in the areas that did not part become part of the State of Israel were for the most part not friendly which makes total sense because we're so when we talk about the airier time at the north of Israel and that would include then of course the Golan Heights Syria and Lebanon and so when this artifice of the nation-state to smack down on here after world war one so then some of them are in and some of them are out the ones on the Golan Heights have not accepted Israeli citizenship because they don't know if we're ever going to be stupid enough to give the Golan Heights to Syria then they don't want to show up with an Israeli identity card and be Syrian so they're kind of straddling the fence but the ones in the galley the ones in Haifa have really become become Israelis but who are they they are not Muslims if you want college as a Muslim they will get very upset right so they source that of Egypt's about a millennia ago mmm not only they're not Muslims but their actual they call the Druze is a name given to them by the West just like many things I mean Taylor yeah but their word for themselves what they call themselves as the Mujahideen which means from the word Yahud together they're together with nature they're together with themselves and they're together with the Creator and they do consider themselves monotheists and when the first when the issue began back in the nineteen in in the 1910s 1920s it was very easy that's the Jews really gathering again to form a community which there were always Jews in the Land of Israel but really like you know getting stronger it was it was quite easy for the relationship to develop because the Druze have no political aspirations they were persecuted and prosecuted and chased by the by Islam all over the Middle East and they live on hilltops far away from each other they spread out the people just like Jacob did when he went to meet a sub he spread his family out he split it up they do the same thing so they live on hilltops in order to be able to see what's coming and that's why they became fierce warriors in there their religion is very very close to Judaism when it comes to ethics when it comes to what you're allowed to do and not allowed to do they're not allowed to have more than one wife they have family comes first they have to protect their family they're not allowed to eat pork they're not allowed to lie they keep the Ten Commandments as as as gospel so to speak and it's very interesting to sit with their elders and compare notes on what they do and what we do they asked the sovereign for three things they asked the sovereign to respect their religion give them freedom of religion respect their land let them keep their land and farm their land the way they want to and respect their women which is very interesting because in the Middle East that was a very difficult thing and when they met with the first Jews who were trying to settle resettle the land it was a very easy thing for the Jew say of course so they joined hands strategically and militarily just like Jews not a lot of kill but if somebody comes at you you have to be better than them things you know led to murder but you have to defend yourself they come out of Egypt about a thousand years ago of very secretive religion they've got the okall in the Juke all the people who know the religion a lot of them are women and the people who don't and when they begin in Egypt and then have to flee there of course because of persecutions they also closed the religion down so they believe in the souls you know resurrection of the souls but there's a certain number of Druze souls and that's it and you can't convert to become a jersey and you can't really technically convert out of being a drusy there but they're not nationalistic they've never really wanted their own countries you said they just will be very very loyal to whoever a sovereign to them it's interesting to see what's happening now in the Middle East like in Syria they may end up with their own little autonomous region if Syria ever stops everybody killing themselves there but in general yeah they will be fiercely loyal to whoever protects them and then you have to wonder like when they jump ship than something they have I think very well honed antenna for who will and protect them and who won't and when they jump ship like his habit in Lebanon for example where they backed certain leaders and have it back certain leaders that's a very good clue as to what's going to come in in Lebanon if you call yourself somebody calls you a Druze you're dead because of the Islam Muslims will come right at you they call themselves in Lebanon Mohideen because these Muslims don't necessarily notice it's it's Hardeen is okay but standard the radar right right so what's the veterans association because that of course means that if they're veterans that means that they served in the forces correct about ten years ago a group of guys who got out of the Army veterans together with a great hero of Israel from the Jewish community Moshe Arens got together and said we have to start doing some modernization within our community we have to get our kids to go into modern businesses modern technology modern education and they they put together a plan to create a technological center right now it's being called the D Tech the it's going to be the first Druze high tech empowerment center for both men and women including a husband tor a place where we're going to be able to teach how to represent Israel when you're out there in the world and in order to make it even a premium on education like the Jews do they put a great premium and education but it's a different kind of education family comes first and therefore you have to have a paycheck they get married very young and you have to have a paycheck at home and that pushes them into the security services because then they're guaranteed that there's a salary every single month in order for them to be comfortable moving into high tech it has to be brought into the community as opposed to having them go out of the community so you say I mean they're in the security services obviously we're talking about that but was that a given for example you know what a lot of people say is everyone in Israel serves in the army which isn't true okay right now we're only approaching about 50% of people who are eligible to serve in the army who actually do because a lot of the ultra-orthodox don't and Israeli Muslims don't but here you have a group of citizens who are not Jewish yet who do serve in the Armed Forces so is that because they want to is that because they're conscripted is there an issue here of loyalty I mean as we said a few minutes ago the Midianites if you will or the Druze I mean if you look in the history and just a few hundred years ago especially in the north the Druze slaughtered a lot of Jews like in fact I mean there were periods especially under the Ottomans the Muslims where the jurors were not so friendly to the Jews quite the opposite so was there a question here over whether the Jews would be loyal citizens enough to be protecting the people of Israel the sovereign was the Turks so you have to be loyal to the Turks the sovereign then became the British but that was questionable because that was only a mandate so then they had a decision to make some of them decided as you said that they have to still fight and the majority decided no fight the Jews and some of it because the Jews wanted to settle the Galilee and that was a danger to their land they didn't get to know the Jews once they start to get to know the Jews the leadership decided that this was the right thing to do the Jews were good to win the Jews were gonna be the sovereign and therefore we should put our lot in with the Jews just so people understand in the last few years just the last few years how central the Druze are within our security systems they're only a hundred twenty thousand of them in the country it's a tiny tiny minor minority but they're everywhere the tooth police officers that were murdered on the Temple Mount in 2005 Muslim terrorists by Israeli Arabs from Omo fashion by Israeli Arabs Israeli Muslims from home oh him they were going to kill some tourists and these two police officers jumped in front of the bullets both of them killed both of them Druze a year later a terrorist walks into a synagogue in her nofe and starts shooting people at prayer wearing their phylacteries wearing that's Faline people who didn't serve in the army people have no way to defend themselves and an off-duty traffic officer who happened to be Drew's was the one who ran into the building and stopped the massacre the Israeli IDF Surgeon General is today a Druze the prayer the president's liaison to the IDF to the military is a Druze the the general who's in charge of all the civil services in Judea Samaria and Gaza is a Druze they have risen we have a Supreme Court justice we have a member yes ambassadors we have representatives they have risen to the highest levels of Israeli society as equals because they made a strategic choice they want to be a part of the majority even though there are a minority and I think this is an important point also about Israel that it's not just Jews who rise here in Israel okay if we've got a population that's loyal we don't really care what religion they are they're loyal to Israel they want to be a part of Israel they also are a tremendous asset because they usually speak fluent Arabic so putting them let's say around the old city around the Temple Mount in some very hot spots where they can communicate with a lot of the people up there is also incredibly important they are tough and they also to a great degree understand the middle-east reality and mentality because they've been here for a long time and that is incredibly important as well and that's exactly why we're here we decided that it came time that the world Jewish community and of course our friends who are not Jewish all over the world understand who these people are and there is a very important Jewish ideal very crucial Hakata Tov it's a very difficult concept to explain because it's giving thanks recognizing good gratitude Thanksgiving all of these different words put in together into one concept hakarat hatov to recognize good and the decision was made by their friends friends of the Jerusalem at it's high time that we do something so we took the week of each row the week that we're going to be reading about you Troy in the Torah and we decided to dedicate that week as a with global week of hakarat hatov to the Druze defenders of Israel the reason we say defenders are not veterans is because they're police and they're firefighters and their leaders in other Israeli security services that are not talked about so much and it's been extremely successful 50 different countries on Sunday this week 50 different countries had churches praying and saying prayers of thanks to God further the Druze and thanking the Druze for their activities on Monday we went up to Jerusalem and the Druze watch The Jerusalem to the Western Wall met with the leadership in Jerusalem political religious economic leadership and everywhere we went the thanks was profuse and the thanks was was tremendous and Tuesday we dealt with media throughout the world and today we're on Wednesday and I'm starting out with your show and then we're going to be going up to nebbish web which is eat rose tomb and we're gonna be having leaders there from all over the world meeting us and and discussing the Druze centrality within our community even though they're tiny tiny tiny minority and that's what this week is all about and I'm hoping that even though your listeners are hearing this the week following and weeks following because it's on the internet and you could hear it forever wherever you are wherever you have a moment stand for a second and think for a second about the important partnerships you as friends of Israel whether you're Jewish or not Jewish are standing for Israel and praying for Israel every day have these guys in mind have these real friends of Israel in mind who put their lives on the line 500 or 5 members of the Jewish community have already been killed defending Israel over 1,500 have been injured and and they're a wonderful small story within the great return of the Jewish people to the land I think what's important is that they had choices also I mean as I said not all of them have joined with Israel and they're not doing so well the ones who haven't which is unfortunate and I think you know and they had choices and they decided to join with the Jewish people and to grow with Israel and to become educated and to enter the modern world but do they get pushback from Jews I mean there let's say Druze in Lebanon who are technically enemies of Israel today do they get pushback do they get yelled at so they could called traitors well one of the great things that happened this week as far as they're concerned is that this campaign which is actually it's called hashtag shukran Druze 2020 shukran is thank you in Arabic so hashtag shukran Druze 2020 became so successful all of a sudden that Lebanese newspapers have been attacking the leaders of the organization Coughlin hollaby who created the organization by name has been attacked in several Lebanese publication as a traitor as somebody who's trying to divide the Druze from the Palestinian Muslims attacking Islam which is they're all very happy that that's what they're what what is being said about them on the other hand we have had people from Syrian Druze and Lebanese Druze who are in freedom today in Western countries celebrating and saying thank you for doing this because it's nice that we get some recognition our website right now it is about ten o'clock in the morning in Israel Israel Jerusalem standard time for the last day 23 hours now our website has been attacked non-stop every minute I am getting as we sit here we're hearing beeps from my phone every minute I'm getting alerts that attacks are taking place on our website I've got an entire team in South America and in North America sitting there protecting the site we went down yesterday for a couple hours once or twice but they are trying very hard this has upset a lot of people because it's very very public the community the Druze community in Israel is looking at this with pride and they're saying we're standing up this is who we are this is perisheth itro the world should know how loyal we are to the Torah to the God of Israel to the Land of Israel to the P of Israel and if they want to attack us for us we'll wear that as a badge of pride wow that's that's again pretty gutsy and I mean we'll see what happens you know the Golan Heights is an interesting place because on the one hand it as I said there they're wary about taking Israeli citizenship the more and more we move away from the stupid idea anyhow that the Golan is ever going to revert to Syrian control it's been under Israeli control for way longer than Syrian control and everybody there is doing much better we see what's going on in Syria it's insane as opposed to what's going on in Israel do you think there's a chance and Israel did not force the goal on Druze to take Israeli citizenship left them in actually not such a bad situation I mean they were educated you know they got education under Israel they got health care under Israel they didn't they got the rights without the responsibilities of being Israelis and when times were quieter in Syria they also went to university in Syria I mean they were allowed to cross the border they were allowed to marry their Syrian cousins etc etc but as the years go on and as we see that Syria is probably dead in in the sense of the country that we once knew and God knows what's going to be there is there more of a move from your understanding for the for the Druze living on the Golan Heights to finally say listen you know we want to be Israelis or it's so good for them now that they can just reap the benefits of being Israelis without having the responsibilities and they'd rather keep it that way well this is all our fault not theirs 100% our fault if you speak when you interview one of the members of the Druze community which also you'll do soon they will give you a different answer because they have to be much more careful the same reason that they keep their religion very secret and they don't know they don't let out a lot about the religion because they have to protect themselves from Islam they'll answer this question a little bit differently me being a Jew in an Israeli and because it's only you and me sitting here talking and nobody else is listening to us and because we live in a free society and out of fear society so we can say what we want to say oh no because this is this is a little dangerous for them and and I'll answer it clearly it's our fault that they can't be full citizens they would like nothing better just like the show maroney by the way just like the Samaritans they would like nothing more than to be Israeli full Israeli citizens completely if we tell them at any point we give them a document that says you are staying in Israel period never going to Syria to Lebanon or to any other Islamic leadership they would immediately take on all the responsibilities now I'll tell you quietly many of them do serve in the military and many some do serve they change their address to one of the Galilean Druze they all have the same names so it's very easy for them to take on a cousin's name and go and serve if you go to their villages in the Golan they're beautifully structured and clean you're never going to find a community cleaner that takes more pride in their little alleys than in the Jewish community I wish some of the Jewish communities would keep their alleys that clean they're proud people and they have to be careful because for a thousand years they've been chased all over the place so they have to be very very careful about the steps that they take publicly all right but if we were to say well if the hospital really law in the Golan Heights and even the United States recognize that so I mean they should feel to some degree there's no guarantee well you know what according to some people who we won't mention their names even that the Arabs in the Triangle and the Galilee have no guarantee because people keep you know fluttering around with all the different ceasefire lines and armistice lines and borders and until we finally get up and say this is it this is Israel and we're putting you know lawyer then not just the Druze but also certain Arabs and certain shoes like myself who technically right now don't live in a country I live under military occupation in Judea of a Druze the military commander of Judea and Samaria and Gaza is a Druze so that's interesting so I'm occupied being my military commander is udders oh you can't make this stuff up okay so what else is planned for this week but first before I tell you what's playing for the week I love that that would that word flubbing around I think we should talk I thought I just made that up I think we should talk to David Freeman he should become a diplomatic term for what is happening in this region the family shows so I can't really use the words that I'd like to use so the rest what's planned for this week is today Wednesday is going to be a very special day in schools throughout the world Jewish schools non Jewish schools they're gonna raise flags they're going to have assemblies they're going to talk about it in class in Israel as well in Israel less because the focus this week of this year look we did this without spending a penny we did this completely without spending one penny so therefore we have we were very limited in what we could just had people volunteering to do this yes we just we just spread it out we just did it with what we could using social media using and what I want to reveal my name but many decades of relationships and a lot of phone calls a lot of meetings a lot of organizations that with the assistance of many organizations the conference of president's new CEO William dareth was a good friend launched it from Jerusalem you can go to the website Druze vets dr u ze v ets org and see it you can go on twitter you can go on facebook it's all there all you have to do is put in Druze vets or Druze Israel and it'll pop up everywhere on the internet and as people as far as Japan and China and a Korea all the South all the South American countries most of Europe all bound together and they all said yes they of course this is great this is a good idea the foreign ministry has been very helpful every one of their consulates and embassies around the world has sent out a message to the people in the country and has galvanized people in the country Israelis feel very strong strong it's it's a visceral and it's to use old Jewish word Parv it's not something that is on the right or on the left it's not political all Israelis feel the same way about their Druze in arms and and in life and then Friday is the pinnacle Friday is the preparation and Saturday every rabbi in the world is going to be talking about utero there is no rabbi that's not going to be talking about utero during his or heard Russia or homily whatever you want to call it many of our friends who also non-jewish friends will also have their services on Saturday will also be mentioning each row because that's the topic of the week and all we've asked is that they take 10 seconds 15 seconds out of their 10 minute 15 minute 30 minutes depending what denomination you are us talk about the parasha and mention the fact that they had that the ctrio relationship with masha continues to this day with practically no differences practically no changes their advisers they're helpful they're their partners and one day you should sit on one of these shows before you troll and actually get into his personality the Israeli Jews I've learned over the last month while I've been researching this and getting ready for this tremendous things about this man the things that the Jewish sources including the Tsar which I'm not a big fan of but even the secret quiet back room discussions have tracts attracted tracks on this man who Rashi one of the great probably the greatest commentator on on the on Jewish sources on the both the Torah and naveen and the Talmud said had seven names and each one of those names is a very interesting connection to God to the Jewish people into the Land of Israel and the Druze are connected with us now and hopefully we're going from strength to strength and they are going to be our partners and it just shows that if anybody is loyal to Israel they can rise to any kind of position that they want irrespective of their religion is even though Israel as a Jewish country we have brothers and and that's so hugely important so again go to hashtag shukran Druze 2020 you could find it on Druze vets org the instructions are right there how to participate it doesn't cost any money there's no solicitation it is 100% a movement of the heart where Jews and non-jews whether you want to do it through prayer or simple thanks which is also a form of Prayer hashtag shukran Drew's 2020 and Drew's vets org and we should all be as lucky as as many of us are here in the country here in the land to continue this relationship to continue our building here in the land to continue the growth of the love and the connection between the non-jewish community in the world and the Jewish community in the world all from a positive perspective and from a a good place in our heart for mutual respect you don't have to become the other you can still stay who you are and how you believe and still respect and love your brothers and I think that that's an incredibly important message for today and the next time you come to Israel cuz everybody listening knows that you have to be planning your trip is you know get up to the north and there's a lot of Druze villages up there there are even situations where you can they order a kosher Druze meal if you want there are people who are catering to those who keep kosher and and they've got some awesome food and you can do that and to really get to know and sit with somebody over a meal especially and really understand where they're coming from and appreciate the fact that they are in here with Israel and if you contact the Druze Veterans Association Druze vets org the organization is more than happy to set up the the trip up north to the to the Druze communities there is some fascinating Zionist history within the communities including the place where Hatikvah the Israeli national anthem was written is within one of the jurors villages died at the Carmel as we've said there's now kosher meals there's a kosher restaurant and the Veterans Association would love to have you visit hopefully you'll come you'll take advantage of it and you'll learn a little bit about the other within the other okay everybody so Mike Owen thanks so much for joining me today and enlightening us about the jurors one of the more interesting minorities here in Israel Eve Harrow rejuvenation on the Land of Israel Network thanks to Tabitha and to been and take care of you Betty more to come next week when I can think a little bit clearer I'll fill you in on a whole bunch of other things that are happening in the meantime take care of you Betty - bye for now [Music] you're listening to the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel comm broadcasting the truth imbue