WEBVTT - Noa Tishby 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:17.439 My guest today is actor, producer, activists Noah Tishbi, author 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.480 of the book Israel, A Simple Guide to the Most 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:24.800 Misunderstood Country on Earth. What's the number one thing people 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.960 misunderstand about Israel? Oh? God, how long do we have? 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.000 A lot? A lot? I think one of the things 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:36.840 that I found so disturbing, and one of the reasons 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:38.519 that I wanted to write this book and do the 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:42.319 work that I do, is because people have started to 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:44.800 paint Israel as the big bad wolf of the entire universe, 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.159 and I, as a liberal, as somebody that's been an 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.040 entainment industry of my mentire life is somebody that's been involved, 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.000 my family has been involved in the establishment of the 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.480 country for many generations that was highly bothered by that. 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:00.360 So I don't know if there's one thing, but I'll 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:07.200 give you, you know, ethnic cleansing, genocide, country, apartheid state, 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:09.399 I'll give you all of those as as one of 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.080 those things that a lot of people perceive as truths, 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.720 which are not at all. Okay, we're jumping, We're literally 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.440 jumping right in. Are we Your audience have no idea 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.679 who I am. But you know, I thought about that, 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:27.520 but this is the way we're doing it, So speak 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:34.520 to genocide, this is okay. The answer to that is 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:36.880 so simple that it's almost comical, because if you say 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.800 that to do ethnic cleansing, to do to create genocide, 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.600 you have to have numbers that actually are reduced, right, 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:44.759 And if you look at the numbers at the establishment 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:46.560 of the state in nineteen forty eight, or about one 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.840 hundred and fifty thousand Arab Israeli Palestinian citizens of the 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:51.920 State of Israel, now there's two point one millions. So 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.040 if you think of it as like a genocide, it's 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:56.000 literally the worst genocide in the history of the world. 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:58.320 That is. That is one of the things that infuriates 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.840 me the most, because there's there's no it's almost it's 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:05.440 almost upsetting to even start with this because of how 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.280 not true this is and how much I've had to 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.040 fight against this. And the thing is that this is more. 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.760 It's more. These things are more than just misunderstanding. There 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:22.239 are actual national security for America's best ally in the region, 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.000 for the single consistent democracy, and the entire at least 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:27.919 for the only country the charis of values the only country. 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:29.640 But it's not a perfect country. There are no such 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:34.320 thing as a perfect country. But what's been happening specifically, 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:39.800 sadly around what I call polite circles, is this demonization 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.560 of one state and that it just happens to be Jewish. 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:49.840 So so my home's homeland. So I took it personally. 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.840 I took it very personally. And you know, look, we're 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:54.920 both both based in La And there's a story that 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.040 I tell in my book that's kind of like the 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.320 funny version of it, right, the funny version of like 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:03.440 Israel's and the cleansing Street. Okay, the fight version is 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.560 I was, it was just when I moved to LA, 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.440 I was in my early twenties. I was, you know, 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.120 roaming around kind of like in Aprove. Okay, this is 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:14.840 going to come up later. I don't want to have 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:16.920 to get your exact age, even though someone could just 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.919 look it up at Wikipedia. But how many years ago 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.160 did you move to the US? Over twenty years ago? 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.520 Over twenty years ago? Started coming back and forth, Okay, 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.160 and I there's this girl that we were hanging out with, 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.680 and she was already famous, she was already very well known. 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:34.880 She turned she ended up being one of the most 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:36.880 famous actresses in the world. Every single one of the 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:38.960 audience knows who she is. If you're read between ages 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:41.320 of twelve and ninety, you know, you know who she is. 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:43.200 She was lovely and she came up to me one 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:45.480 day and she asked me. She's like, oh, so I 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:47.880 heard you from Israel. I said, yeah, I am, and 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.120 she goes, so, how does your family feel about you? 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:54.480 And I was like, what what do you mean? And 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.640 she goes, you know that you're modern and everything, that 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.600 you don't wear all the head gear. And that was 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.880 when asking me about misunderstanding. That was the first time 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.440 that I realized that people have no idea about what 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.160 Israel is because this here was this woman who's young, 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.200 well educated, successful, well meaning, lovely, and she thinks Israel 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:20.719 Afghanistan like legit. So that was probably the first time 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.000 that I encounter that, and from then on it was 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.120 just over and over. Literally every week I would hear 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:29.000 somebody say something that is not true. I would have 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:31.880 to jump in and jump in again, jump in again, 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.239 until here we are it's what I do. Oh okay, 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.600 so you've been here twenty years, so you've seen the 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:44.160 rise of the BDS movement. You've seen this wave certainly 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.919 on the left of support of Palestinians. What do you 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.600 think is going on here? First of all, let me 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.760 just make one thing clear, and Prosraeli and pro Palestinian. 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:58.560 So this trying to create this it's false equivalency or 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.440 trying to create this this it's not they're not it's 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.240 not mutually it's not mutually exclusive, right, So you don't 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.920 have to be either pro Israeli or pro Palestinian. There's 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.080 not a single person that I know in Israel that's 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:13.719 against Palestinians. Okay, there are people on the French right 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.560 that are against Palestinians, but that's the slight that's not 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.120 a majority by any stretch of the imagination. Right, So, 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.599 first of all, it's not either war. The way that 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.920 it's perceived in those polite circles is that you're either 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:31.440 pro Israel or your pro Palestine. That is not true. 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.760 The question is the question what to be done is 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.640 not a question that I can obviously answer in a podcast. 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:43.200 But what's been going on in the past since since 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.159 we've identified this since two thousand and one, So this 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:51.680 kind of originated at the Durban Conference for Against Racism, 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.000 which turned out to be so anti Semitic that the 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:59.320 US and Israel pulled out. That was when the language 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:04.280 of to brand Israel an apartheid state was originated, and 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.520 this is where BDS kind of took their language from. 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.960 So the BDS movement, which is the boycott, divestment and 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:16.560 sanctions movement, is trying to portray Israel as South Africa. 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:22.359 So if you which is it's it's it's offensive to 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:27.200 South African, it's offensive to actual apartheid warriors, anti apartheid warriors. 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:35.280 So BDS movement is trying to create academic, financial, intellectual 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:40.320 boycott on the state of Israel completely. They're trying to 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.039 turn it into pariah state, and they're trying to, at 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.360 the end of the day, destroy Israel. So they're trying 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.880 to dismantle the only democracy in the release. And this 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:50.960 is one of those things that I'm not it's not 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.960 hyperbole and I'm not making this up. This is what 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.000 their leaders are saying. They're not afraid of it and 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:58.919 not ashamed of it. It's all out there. It's on 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.840 videos on the Internet for everyone to see. But what 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.880 they do and what they've done throughout the years. Is 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:10.720 they cloaked it in a very kind of sophisticated language. 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.160 So they'll show up, for example, on college campus. Okay, 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.960 they'll set a table on college campus, and on the 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:23.320 table they'll talk about justice and freedom. Right. They're not 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.840 going to sit at the table and say we are 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.440 here to destroy democracy. Please sign up, all right. So 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:31.960 they're literally trying to hide what it is that they 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.600 are about. But this is what they are about. No, 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:39.360 BDS movement is against peace. Abdias movement was against the 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:43.200 abram Court. How there's no there is no, there's not 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.240 going to be peace lasting piece between the Israelis and 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.760 the Palestinians. If there's going to be less collaboration and cooperation, 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.240 there needs to be more than that. There needs to be. 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.760 BDS was against the abram A Court. Okay, okay, so 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.360 give us give us a little bit of the history 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.920 of BDS. So well, let me let me give you 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.680 first the history of boycotting Jewish goods. Okay, so boycotting jewishness. 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.040 This is why we say BDS is an anti Semitic movement. 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.480 It's not about um, it's not a political movement. It's 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.240 an anti Semitic movement. It's not a progressive movement. It's 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:20.200 a hate group basically. So the origination of boycotting Jewish 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.360 goods started in with the first This was the first 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.760 decision that the Arab League made when they were established, 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.200 before the establishment of the State of Israel, So it 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.600 was either nineteen forty five or nineteen forty six they 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.440 had their first decision was to boycott Jewish goods. Okay, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.440 Now why I say the reason I say so this 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:44.680 is the origination of BDS concept. So there was an 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:46.840 incarnation of this throughout the year. So there was the 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.160 Arab boycott in the seventies that we didn't have Pepsi 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:54.120 in Israel because of the Arab boycott, and now again 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:59.960 BDS trying to boycott, to boycott Israel, to boycott Jewish goods. Now, 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.600 the thing about BDS, the people in the in the 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.400 West and on the left don't understand is that it's 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.040 a movement that hurts Palestinians. So the Palestine, this is 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.160 not it's not a grassroots movement of the in the 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.400 like that's like actually coming from the West Bank. The 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.400 people on the West Bank want more opportunities, they want 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.160 more jobs. They want to be able to eat ice 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:23.200 cream the way that you know, I'm referring to Ben 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.640 and Jerry's boycotting, boycotting Israel. So this is this is 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:32.600 a movement that's actually damaging Palestinians. I wrote in my book, 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:37.360 I quoted this letter of a guy, a Palestine guy 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.280 who's working at the soda stream factory in the West Bank, 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.600 and BDS went after the soda stream factory and the 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:47.240 workers there. There were about fifteen hundred workers there, but 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.160 eight hundred of them were Palestinians, and he wrote this 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.840 letter two arts and he said, don't close the factory. 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:57.000 I'm working here with Israelis and Palestinians and Ethiopians and Russians, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.840 and we're all working together. I get paid three times, 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.640 I get benefits. What are you doing? Stop this? This 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.360 is what's happening. And it's BIDS on campus, and it's 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:11.920 these well intentioned justice warriors that don't understand what it 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.040 is that they're supporting, and they don't understand that it's 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.920 actually damaging the Palestinian people. Okay, you know you mentioned 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.200 Ben and Jerry's and we talk about the woke left 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:26.200 being pro Palestine. I didn't mention that word yet. Okay, 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:30.560 that's my word. What do you think is the generation 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.280 of this? Why is this happening because it didn't happen 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.200 prior to the last twenty or so years. This is 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.719 again my chapter in the book about BDS is the 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.000 chapter that the legal department at Simon and Schuster was 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.040 most concerned about, and they went through every single one 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:52.040 of these words with like, you know, fine, fine, fine fine. 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:56.439 I kind of like went through this very thoroughly because 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.720 I talk about the origin and the funding of BDS 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:04.000 and who's behind it, and I'm quoting two congressional hearings 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.600 that happen on the subject of BDS, and there needs 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.319 to be investigation about the sources of funding and who's 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.960 behind it. Let me just say that it's not happening 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:19.280 by accident, it's by design. There's a nefarious intent to 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.839 destroy the state of Israel. And I believe the FBI 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.760 needs to actually open an investigation against them, and also 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.280 the Department of Education should not allow them on campuses. 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.720 Probably the IRS should look into their funding as well. Okay, 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.360 let me use a specific example. I'm I'm being again 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:40.079 careful just because it's all in my book worded very carefully, 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.040 but it's let me put it, No nobody came after 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.079 me because there was nothing there that was not the truth. Okay, 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.120 let me use a specific example. There is highly reviewed 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:54.560 series on Amazon Pride called Trent's Pairing and it's got 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.320 a Jewish underpinning and a lot of people involved in 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.480 the show are Jewish. And then one of the later 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:05.960 seasons they go to Israel and they make a big 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:10.640 point of going to Palestinian areas and how the Palestinians 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:16.360 were just peaceful people and they were being mistreated by Israel. 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:21.640 What is the genesis of this sentiment by left leaning 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.680 liberal Jews? Why do you think this is suddenly you're happening. 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:32.640 First of all, everybody loves a perceived underdog, right when 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.559 you look through history and I'm coming I'm talking as 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.880 as a liberal Israeli right and a liberal Jew, And 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.400 in my opinions and my kind of like leaning, it's 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:46.959 very confronting to look at the history of the conflict 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:53.400 and to realize black on top of white, how many times, 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.679 like written down right, how many times there were peace 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.200 offerings to the Palestinian leadership, and how many times they 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:05.240 were turned down from literally nineteen twenty two onwards. So 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.360 when you look at that and you think to yourself, 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:12.320 what do they want? It's a very confronting feeling when 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:18.920 you know history well to realize that as a political movement, 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.440 the Palestinian people need to figure out what it is 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:27.240 that they're after, because every single action that they have 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:31.800 taken throughout the years was rejectionism, was a no to 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:40.360 whatever was offered. And when you see people like Beljadid right, 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:45.760 bless her heart, chanting in demonstrations from the river to 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.560 the sea Palestine will be free, that is a call 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.800 for ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people from their ancestral land. 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:57.440 That's what that is. Because there's a country between the river, 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.120 the Jordan River, and the sea, the Sea of the Mediterranean. See. 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.400 So it's a very confronting feeling as someone who's more 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.760 on the liberal side to look at that and go, 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.800 oh my god, what do we have to work with? 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:15.160 What do they want? What do they want? However, the 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:18.960 left eats it up in America when somebody comes over 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:26.560 and use fake intersectionality, perceived Jews as white people and say, 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:30.360 see the poor Palestinians, they're just like the blacks. They're 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.800 just like you know, it's it's white on brown oppression. 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:38.360 It's kind of easy to believe that in America if 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.760 you don't know the facts. And it's a very and 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:45.560 I'm saying this so lightly because even the notion of 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:51.160 intersectionality in Israel is wrong. Can you define intersectionality please, Well, yeah, 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:55.800 the sure so intersectionality in the context of perceiving everything 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:59.680 to the prism through the prism of skin, color, right, 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:05.000 and ethnicity. So there's an attempt to paint Israel as 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:10.040 this white nation that's oppressing brown people. And all you 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:12.000 need to do is go to Israel and see that 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:14.600 that's not the case. Because right now in Israel, only 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.520 thirty one percent of defining themselves of Eastern European descent. 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:22.000 The rest are of the region, So either Jewish of 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.920 you know, Jews of North African descent, or Palestinian, Arab, 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.680 Israeli whatever it is, that's it's not a white country. 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.400 The majority of American Jews are of European descent, but 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:37.280 that's not the case in Israel. So there's no this 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:43.080 is something that's based on that isn't based in reality, 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:44.960 but it because of the world that we live in 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.520 today because of this trying to you know, you said woke. 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.320 I don't want to even use that word that much, 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.440 but because of the people are trying to be holier 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.120 than the pope and they the perceived underdog is not 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.040 the underdog. It's just not the case. And again, I'm 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:01.320 not saying this when people to get upset. I'm not 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.360 saying that Israel is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:06.800 but I'm trying to pull us back from the brink 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.560 of Israel shouldn't exist, because that's the thing. Is this right? 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.080 The people don't understand that Israel is the only country 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:16.800 in the world that her existence is being questioned. It's 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:18.880 the only country. It's the only country in the world 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:22.600 that has its own Wikipedia entry the legitimacy of the 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.560 State of Israel. No other country has that. Okay, let's 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.840 start with that concept. You and me both know that 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.960 the goal of the Palestinians and the other people in 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:37.200 the area is for Israel literally not to exist. Why 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.080 and howard st say that? Yeah, say that again, that's 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.520 the thing, But a lot of people don't actually get that. 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:48.200 Well of a lot of countries in the region, and 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.080 a lot of I'm not saying everybody and not saying 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.640 all the Palestinian people. I'm just saying the goal is 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.720 to throw the Jews into the sea and Israel seased 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.360 to exist. That's what we're dealing with here. Okay, you 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:05.920 and mean, how come that concept gets no traction? It's 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.479 a great question. I wish I had the answer to it, 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.280 the only thing that I can think of, right when again, 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:16.000 I've done a deep dive on this for like decades. Okay, 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.359 we all carry around subconscious biases when it comes to 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:25.440 different ethnicities and different races and different the other. Right, 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:30.440 and people carry around subconscious biases around Jewish people. They 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.159 just do, right. I always joke, I'm like, you know, 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.439 Jews have all them, and the Jews have all them. 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:41.719 You know when I say cabal, you say, people just 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.920 carry around these subconscious biases around the Jewish people, and 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.640 they do necessarily know that they carry them. But when 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.720 they hear something about Israel, it falls smack into that 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:55.680 subconscious bias. And if they don't stop and be like, wait, 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.840 is that true or is that automatic? Then they believe it. 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.760 And a lot of people's opinion about Israel is based 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:08.359 on feelings not in fact, and it's very frustrating. And again, 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:10.000 by the way, just so you know, I was born 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.159 and raised in Israel, so I was not raised with 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:14.960 anti Semitism at all. Like I was raised with zero 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.840 anti Semitism. I didn't even know that that's still a thing, right, 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.600 but I came here and I'm like, whoa, that's very 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:27.200 much a thing. Okay. One thing you do very well 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:29.800 in your book is you talk about the history of 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:35.680 the land. Who was there, who owned the land? Why 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.320 do you give us a short version of that? Well, 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.240 the short version of this And I'm going to say 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.200 something that's again going to be very confronting. When I 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.320 say this to people, you just look at their eyes 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:50.960 and they go there's just like a disconnect. Okay. There 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.080 has never in the history of humanity as we know 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:59.679 it has been a Palestine. There's never been a Palestine. 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.800 I know, I know there's never been a not that 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:06.080 there shouldn't be, but there just never has been. So 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:08.480 I go quickly through the history of the land from 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:11.639 the time we know it right from like to you know, 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:13.639 whatever the biblical time is more or less where we 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:19.080 you know, can have writing, and that piece of land 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.000 went through it was. It was quote unquote owned because 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:24.439 the land can't be owned, but it was. It was 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:28.240 a sovereign Jewish state in the Biblical era and from 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.240 then on two thousand over two thousand years ago, it 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:33.399 just swapped hands from one hand to the next to 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.159 the next, from the mamlukes to the usual rights of 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.879 the disco where the caliphet was there for the Crusaders 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:41.760 came and took it, and then four hundred years of 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.000 the Ottoman Empire and a few years of the British Empire, 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:50.920 so it was never anything other than a Jewish state, okay. 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:55.880 And in seventy four a d after the Great Roman 0:19:55.960 --> 0:20:02.240 Jewish War, the Romans took over and gave the land 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:06.800 the name Palestinia in order to disconnect the Jews from 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:13.800 their homeland from Judaea essentially, and that's where Palestine comes 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.000 from from the Romans. I know, this is something that 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.119 is it's something that is very difficult to talk about 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.360 because a lot of people are get this is upsetting 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.600 and confronting and triggering to them. But this is where 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:30.160 the concept Palestine was in reference of a geographical location, 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:32.720 not a country, not a state, not a nation, not 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.160 a people now it's different, but it never was. So 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.480 they were the Jews of Palestine and the Arabs of 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.320 Palestine and the Christians of Palestine. Right, So it's never 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.919 a peoplehood up until nineteen sixty four, where the PLO 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:47.560 kind of created it to be so and great. Every 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:52.800 people deserve self governance and self determination, but historically that 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:59.640 land was only ever Jewish. And when we hear calls 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:04.359 today in America and around the world for the Jews 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:06.560 to go back to where you came from, and you 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:08.720 ask people where where's that and they go go but 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.400 to Europe, it's very upsetting because we know how that ended. 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:21.360 And the Jewish people are its own ethnic group. It's 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.400 not a religion, it's an ethno religion that is originated 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:28.240 in Judea. So it's a it's an indigenous group of 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:32.920 people that has a religion and traditions that are connected 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.399 to a land. I mean, think about it, every single 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.200 Jewish person that's listening to this right now. Passover is 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:41.120 about moving to a land. Chavot is about the land, 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:45.879 you know, taking the bequelium from the ground, whatever was grown. 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:48.920 Suquot is about going to the land. It's all about 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:54.080 it's indigenous, it's indigenous tradition. And for people to now 0:21:54.200 --> 0:22:02.640 say you're colonialists on your land, it's very confronting because 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:07.800 as a people, every generation we hear something like this. 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:11.320 This is why anti Semitism is such a tricky thing. Right, 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.000 It changes in morphs, it adapts it just like it 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:17.960 sounds differently different in every generation. And now this is 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.480 what it is. So you swamp the word Jew with 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:26.840 the words Zionist, and it's a blood libel. And you 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:28.600 tell me, you look me straight in the eye, and 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:31.440 you tell me that the Israelis, the Zionists are killing 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.359 Palestinian people, posting in children, and I'm like, this is 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.680 the blood liabel from the you know, the Crusaders. It's 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.680 the same. So this is what we're dealing with. And 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:44.679 I'm on the front line of this. This is what 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:50.280 I deal with every single day. It's hard when you're 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:53.600 talking to people when when people don't understand that that 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:57.440 it's this is it's hate. It's just hate speech, that's 0:22:57.440 --> 0:22:59.760 all it is. This is not political, This is not 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.480 it's not about any political personality that you like and 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:06.359 you don't like, Like, this is where you're dealing with. 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:09.719 You dealing with subconscious bias about the Jewish people. That 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:12.840 is then affecting your opinion, and it's very dangerous. It's 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:23.560 very dangerous for the State of Israel. Okay, you go 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:27.399 through what happens in nineteen forty eight where the United 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:31.800 Nations gives the Jews their land Israel. But you will 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.399 also talk about their offer to the Palestinians, which is 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:39.520 never accepted. Yes, So in nineteen forty seven, there was 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:43.800 a UN Resolution one eighty one, which was the resolution 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:46.639 to divide the land between the Jews and the Arabs 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:48.920 they will call the Arabs at the time, because again 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:52.159 there was no Palestine and identity as we know it today. 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:57.399 The Jews said yes, the Arabs said no. And the 0:23:57.480 --> 0:23:59.760 day after the night of the declaration of the State 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:01.520 of is they started a war. And it wasn't a 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:03.560 surprise because they said they're going to start a war, 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:05.720 and they said that they're going to wipe the Jews 0:24:05.760 --> 0:24:09.119 off the map and killed all the Jews. Now remind you, 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:13.000 this was three years after the Holocaust, so the Jewish 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:16.720 people were in no mood to be slaughtered again. So 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:20.920 this was literally either we establish a land or we 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:25.439 all die again. Whatever whoever has left is going to die. 0:24:27.000 --> 0:24:29.560 This was a war in nineteen forty eight that Israel 0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:32.399 did not want. It was a war that Israel did 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:35.440 not start, and it was a war that Israel won. 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:40.360 Yet here we are in twenty twenty three and we're 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:47.520 still litigating that war. So despite the fact that there 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:50.440 were a lot of refugee Palacini refugees, there were between 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:53.000 seven hundred and seven hundred and fifty thousand refugees at 0:24:53.000 --> 0:24:57.640 the time, they were not resettled in other countries. They 0:24:57.680 --> 0:25:02.560 were kept in refugee camps and they were told weight up, 0:25:02.880 --> 0:25:05.840 you can return, You'll be able to return soon. Now 0:25:05.880 --> 0:25:09.480 I talk in my in my book about the house 0:25:09.480 --> 0:25:12.760 that my family had a templets in Jenoslovakia at the time. 0:25:14.160 --> 0:25:18.359 This is it's not just a ridiculous concept because now 0:25:18.359 --> 0:25:21.720 we're three or four generations later. So now there's millions 0:25:21.720 --> 0:25:25.639 of people that are considered Palestinian refugees that are stuck 0:25:25.640 --> 0:25:28.480 in limbo, and this is something that's horrible for the 0:25:28.480 --> 0:25:32.920 Palestinian people. That's something that should not have happened to them, right, 0:25:33.640 --> 0:25:39.000 But nobody, nobody would tell our family that was kicked 0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:41.400 out of here and there and everywhere. Oh wait, you'll 0:25:41.440 --> 0:25:44.400 just be you'll be able to return. But there were 0:25:44.480 --> 0:25:46.959 nations that actually told this to the Palestinian people and 0:25:47.080 --> 0:25:55.000 perpetuated this state of victimhood, which is now a real problem. 0:25:55.600 --> 0:25:59.360 But it's a problem that's laid at the doorstep of Israel. Basically, Okay, 0:25:59.480 --> 0:26:03.560 are of the well respected journalists who had a downfall 0:26:03.600 --> 0:26:08.400 a couple of years ago because of sexual peccadillo. He 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:10.920 wrote a book called My Promised Land, The Triumph and 0:26:11.119 --> 0:26:15.840 Tragedy of Israel. And if you read the book, there 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:20.760 were Palestinians that had land that now no longer have 0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:25.720 that land. What would your response be to that? I 0:26:27.760 --> 0:26:30.720 it's obviously horrible, there's no question. Look at the fog 0:26:30.720 --> 0:26:34.520 of war. Things happen that are terrible. They do. And 0:26:34.560 --> 0:26:37.720 I don't doubt that there were Palestinians that were kicked out, 0:26:37.960 --> 0:26:41.320 and I don't doubt that there were Palestinians that lost property. 0:26:42.200 --> 0:26:44.200 I don't doubt that this happened on the Jewish side 0:26:44.200 --> 0:26:47.879 as well. So around the same time, from every single 0:26:47.920 --> 0:26:53.960 Arab country there was an equivalent nakama right of all 0:26:54.040 --> 0:26:59.080 the neighboring Arab countries kicking out the Jewish residence to 0:26:59.200 --> 0:27:01.800 the tune of eight to eight hundred fifty thousand people, 0:27:02.320 --> 0:27:04.960 and they lost everything that they had. I have friends 0:27:05.240 --> 0:27:07.840 from my friend, my friend zo Are from Fez Morocco, 0:27:08.080 --> 0:27:13.119 kicked out out, left everything there, houses, property, everything, and 0:27:13.280 --> 0:27:18.439 kicked out. I'm not saying there's no excusing any of this, 0:27:19.400 --> 0:27:22.600 but that's what happens. And right now what people are 0:27:22.600 --> 0:27:24.320 doing is we're going to take this against Israel and 0:27:24.359 --> 0:27:27.639 we're going to legitimize its existence. And that is something 0:27:27.640 --> 0:27:36.040 that I'm just not willing to accept. Okay, So you 0:27:36.520 --> 0:27:38.119 go a little bit deeper to the point you just 0:27:38.240 --> 0:27:43.399 made about the Palestinians and the refugee problem, which is 0:27:43.440 --> 0:27:53.360 exploded exponentially over generations. So after the War of Independence, 0:27:53.400 --> 0:27:57.639 after nineteen forty eight, there was an agency established in 0:27:57.640 --> 0:28:02.280 the United Nations called UNRA, which is a agency for 0:28:02.400 --> 0:28:08.960 Palestinian refugees. Okay, until this day, it's the single There's 0:28:09.160 --> 0:28:13.439 there's one agency in the UN for Palestinian refugees, in 0:28:13.520 --> 0:28:16.760 another agency in the UN for every single other refugee 0:28:17.240 --> 0:28:19.840 from every other country in the world. So all the 0:28:19.880 --> 0:28:23.920 other refugees are under one agency, and the Palestinian people 0:28:23.960 --> 0:28:28.439 have their own agency. Throughout the years, they tried to 0:28:28.560 --> 0:28:33.960 dismantle that agency because they found out that it's corrupt. 0:28:34.280 --> 0:28:39.600 It teaches in the schools, in the schools, in school books, 0:28:39.640 --> 0:28:44.560 it teaches about terrorism and about becoming Shahid's and all that. 0:28:45.040 --> 0:28:48.360 They were unable to dismantle that particular agency. I forgot 0:28:48.360 --> 0:28:51.440 the exact number today, but it's over five million people. 0:28:51.520 --> 0:28:55.360 So in UNRA, it's the only agency in which you 0:28:55.480 --> 0:28:59.920 are automatically second generation, third generation, you're registered as a 0:29:00.200 --> 0:29:03.920 as a refugee unless you asked to be removed from 0:29:03.920 --> 0:29:07.920 that agency. Okay, So it's the only agency like that. 0:29:08.280 --> 0:29:11.560 Usually in the other unchar As, the other agency, you 0:29:11.640 --> 0:29:14.360 have to you're being removed, you're not if your second 0:29:14.400 --> 0:29:17.280 generation in another country, you're not considered a refugee anymore. 0:29:17.720 --> 0:29:21.200 Not like that with UNRA. So essentially, from seven hundred 0:29:21.200 --> 0:29:25.160 and fifty let's say thousand refugees Palestinian refugees of nineteen 0:29:25.200 --> 0:29:27.080 forty eight, they're now I think the number is five 0:29:27.120 --> 0:29:30.560 point nine million, but I'm not entirely sure. Five point 0:29:30.600 --> 0:29:35.040 nine let's say million refugees that are quote unquote to 0:29:35.080 --> 0:29:40.480 Palestinian refugee problem. And when you read material by BDS. 0:29:40.560 --> 0:29:43.840 When you read about those organizations, they use that number 0:29:43.840 --> 0:29:47.200 as if that number is the truth. There were five 0:29:47.400 --> 0:29:51.200 point nine million people kicked out of you know, Palestinian 0:29:51.760 --> 0:29:54.200 territories when Israel was established, so they use this number, 0:29:54.240 --> 0:29:57.680 and i'm that number is wrong to begin with, because 0:29:57.880 --> 0:30:00.800 how would you inherit a refugee status? What if you 0:30:00.840 --> 0:30:03.240 are already settled in another country? What if your children 0:30:03.280 --> 0:30:06.200 are already settled in another country. Okay, So it's a 0:30:06.280 --> 0:30:11.440 highly corrupt body. There's been you know, it's a political 0:30:11.480 --> 0:30:15.800 football in America. But I definitely agree that the funding 0:30:15.840 --> 0:30:20.440 for UNRA needs to be booked at very carefully because 0:30:20.480 --> 0:30:22.480 it does some good things, but it does some horrible things. 0:30:22.480 --> 0:30:26.800 And again it's perpetuating this problem that is not helping 0:30:26.880 --> 0:30:32.400 the Palestinian people. So of this approximately five point nine 0:30:32.440 --> 0:30:37.920 million Palestinians, where exactly are they now? It's a good question. 0:30:38.200 --> 0:30:40.880 There a lot of them are. They're either in Jordan, Lebanon, 0:30:41.040 --> 0:30:42.880 some of them are around the world. You know. The 0:30:42.960 --> 0:30:45.240 other problem is, for example, in Lebanon, they're not allowed 0:30:45.240 --> 0:30:49.400 to integrate into society, so they're still in refugee camps. 0:30:49.920 --> 0:30:52.479 So the notion in the UN and the United Nations 0:30:52.520 --> 0:30:54.800 at the time, including this guy Ralph Bunch, who's an 0:30:54.800 --> 0:30:57.760 amazing person who I've kind of went down a rabbit 0:30:57.760 --> 0:31:01.200 hole on him, who was a black diplomat who helped 0:31:01.200 --> 0:31:04.560 the creation of the State of Israel on behalf of 0:31:04.560 --> 0:31:07.400 the UNIT, on behalf of the United States at the time. 0:31:07.880 --> 0:31:10.360 The notion was that they're going to be fine because 0:31:10.360 --> 0:31:12.120 that's the same people, and it's the same culture, and 0:31:12.160 --> 0:31:14.080 they're going to be integrated into the society. And again, 0:31:14.120 --> 0:31:17.680 there was no Palestinian identity as we know it today, right, 0:31:18.360 --> 0:31:20.960 But they were wrong because the Jordanians put them in 0:31:21.320 --> 0:31:23.640 and refugee camps, and the Lebanese put them in refugee camps, 0:31:23.680 --> 0:31:26.760 and they bade them from actually participating in the country 0:31:26.840 --> 0:31:31.120 and integrating into the country. So this is if you're 0:31:31.120 --> 0:31:33.760 a second or third generation in a refugee camp, you 0:31:34.040 --> 0:31:41.120 are pissed, and rightfully so rightfully so, so how come 0:31:41.520 --> 0:31:47.280 the people who were generations removed their lives are not 0:31:47.560 --> 0:31:53.520 being re established in they're living like refugees because those 0:31:53.520 --> 0:31:57.120 countries don't allow it. Those countries don't allow it. And 0:31:57.160 --> 0:31:59.400 here's the other thing again, the question is to why 0:31:59.520 --> 0:32:02.800 is there no Palestinian state should be asked of the 0:32:02.840 --> 0:32:06.000 Palestinians as well, Why is the no Palestinian state? Yet 0:32:06.480 --> 0:32:12.280 it's been offered many times, why is the no Palestine? Okay, 0:32:12.360 --> 0:32:18.840 let's move to a slightly different topic. Please define Zionism. Oh, 0:32:18.880 --> 0:32:23.080 what a great question. So when people hear the word Zionism, 0:32:23.120 --> 0:32:29.040 they often get annoyed because the word Zionism was turned 0:32:29.040 --> 0:32:31.760 into a bit of a curse word. So Zionism, in 0:32:31.800 --> 0:32:34.400 its simplest form, is the Jewish people's right to have 0:32:34.440 --> 0:32:37.600 a state. That's really what it is. So in a 0:32:37.640 --> 0:32:41.120 little bit more of a sophisticated way, it's a Jewish 0:32:41.120 --> 0:32:44.040 people's right for self determination and self governance in some 0:32:44.080 --> 0:32:47.000 parts of their ancestral land in a Jewish not an 0:32:47.000 --> 0:32:52.760 exclusively Jewish state. So Zionism was never about having an 0:32:52.760 --> 0:32:56.760 exclusively Jewish state ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ever. It's 0:32:56.760 --> 0:32:58.440 just about the Jewish people's right to have a state. 0:32:58.880 --> 0:33:02.800 And I I'm a proud Zionist. I think listen, Joe 0:33:02.800 --> 0:33:06.200 Biden is a prize proud Zionist as well. And I 0:33:06.240 --> 0:33:08.200 think that if you are a person who believes in 0:33:08.360 --> 0:33:11.640 human rights, then you shouldn't be a Zionist. And again, 0:33:11.840 --> 0:33:16.160 Zionism is not against Palestinian self determination. Zionism is not 0:33:16.240 --> 0:33:19.680 an exclusivity of Jews in the land. Zionism is about 0:33:19.680 --> 0:33:23.320 the Jews being allowed to own the state. Okay, how 0:33:23.320 --> 0:33:27.520 about people Roger Waters being the prime example who say 0:33:28.720 --> 0:33:33.320 I am not anti Semitic, I'm just against Israel's policy. 0:33:34.800 --> 0:33:37.120 First of all, I kind of don't even want to 0:33:37.120 --> 0:33:39.160 give Roger Water. I know that you're you know, it's 0:33:39.280 --> 0:33:42.240 it's it's the music, the music spot here. But he's 0:33:43.480 --> 0:33:47.160 Germany just canceled his performance because he's so anti Semitic, 0:33:47.280 --> 0:33:50.920 like he's he's his band came out against him because 0:33:50.920 --> 0:33:53.760 he's so anti Semitic. He's also always on the wrong 0:33:53.800 --> 0:33:56.760 side of history, like he's supporting Putin, Like you know, 0:33:56.840 --> 0:33:59.280 he really knows how to pick him. Because it's kind 0:33:59.320 --> 0:34:01.880 of like, if Aga Waters is against something, we should 0:34:01.920 --> 0:34:04.760 all support that because that's the right, the right thing 0:34:04.760 --> 0:34:10.080 to do. Look, anti semitism and anti Zionism are the same, 0:34:10.640 --> 0:34:13.400 and what do I mean by that? You can be 0:34:14.560 --> 0:34:18.960 against the Israeli government's policies, against the Israeli government, against 0:34:19.080 --> 0:34:23.200 Israeli Prime Minister. You can be against Israel's policies in 0:34:23.719 --> 0:34:27.839 the West Bank or in Tel Avion. Right, But if 0:34:27.840 --> 0:34:32.120 you're against Israel's right to exist, that goes into a 0:34:32.120 --> 0:34:37.840 different direction. Because if you are against a lot of 0:34:37.840 --> 0:34:40.040 other countries right to exist, if you don't like borders, 0:34:40.080 --> 0:34:42.320 that's fine, you're not anti Semitic. But if you're against 0:34:42.360 --> 0:34:44.799 one country's right to exist, then that country happens to 0:34:44.840 --> 0:34:49.360 be Jewish. There's a name for that right. So that, 0:34:49.440 --> 0:34:51.319 to me is the difference. The difference is not about 0:34:51.360 --> 0:34:54.160 being upset about Israeli government. God knows, I'm upset about 0:34:54.200 --> 0:34:58.000 Israeli government policies for years, as I am in America. Right, 0:34:58.560 --> 0:35:02.520 I'm nobody. I always give this example. Right, nobody likes 0:35:02.520 --> 0:35:04.640 whether you left, right, as center, whatever. Nobody likes the 0:35:04.640 --> 0:35:09.880 American policy of kids in cages, right, nobody, nobody, nobody. 0:35:09.880 --> 0:35:13.520 But nobody's also talking about dismantling America. And that's where 0:35:13.520 --> 0:35:18.680 the line crosses, in my opinion, between being against Israeli 0:35:18.680 --> 0:35:22.399 policies and being against Israel's right to exist. And that's 0:35:22.400 --> 0:35:25.120 where Roger Waters is. He's against Israel's right to exist, 0:35:25.200 --> 0:35:28.640 he's anti Semitic, he is full of blood. Liabel he's 0:35:28.760 --> 0:35:32.640 full of sh We love to curse on your podcast, 0:35:33.120 --> 0:35:36.200 of course, guys, full of shit. He really is, like 0:35:36.320 --> 0:35:38.600 in a massive kind of way. He's a grumpy old 0:35:38.600 --> 0:35:41.279 man who's on the wrong side of history, and I'm 0:35:41.360 --> 0:35:43.200 glad that a lot of people are not just not 0:35:43.239 --> 0:35:45.560 giving him the time of day anymore. He's just the 0:35:45.640 --> 0:35:50.560 energiz of bunny of anti Semites. Okay, but there's also 0:35:50.640 --> 0:35:54.359 the issue of Roger Waters and people who agree with him, 0:35:54.760 --> 0:36:00.920 who will say people should not play concerts in Israel. Okay, 0:36:01.360 --> 0:36:05.760 we see branded Roger Waters is an internationally famous person. 0:36:06.600 --> 0:36:10.720 But how come we see one side so large and 0:36:10.800 --> 0:36:14.640 we see the other side defending Israel where the right 0:36:14.760 --> 0:36:18.719 Israel's right to exist so small because it's not a 0:36:18.760 --> 0:36:22.840 cool cause anymore. It's not a cool cause. Israel is 0:36:22.880 --> 0:36:26.719 not perceived as the underdog. Israel's a superpower, technological superpower, 0:36:26.800 --> 0:36:29.319 it's a strong military. It's you know, if there's one 0:36:29.840 --> 0:36:32.640 one of the best brands in the world would be Massad. Right, 0:36:32.640 --> 0:36:35.279 you just say Massad to somebody and like, oh my god. Right, 0:36:35.600 --> 0:36:37.680 So Israel is not perceived as the underdog, and people 0:36:37.680 --> 0:36:40.560 forget that it's literally under threat every single day, there 0:36:40.560 --> 0:36:43.120 were fourteen people that were murdered in Israel since the 0:36:43.160 --> 0:36:47.600 beginning of the year. We're three months in, point blank, 0:36:47.760 --> 0:36:51.000 just just murdered. So people in Iran is running to 0:36:51.040 --> 0:36:54.200 create a nuclear bomb in order to dismant destroy Israel. 0:36:54.280 --> 0:36:57.319 So people forget that Israel, as powerful as it is, 0:36:57.480 --> 0:37:00.640 is still constantly under threat and it's just not a 0:37:00.680 --> 0:37:04.799 cool cause. You know, if in working in Hollywood for 0:37:04.880 --> 0:37:06.840 so many years, and every time I would try to 0:37:06.840 --> 0:37:10.600 get some celebrity to speak publicly for the state of Israel, 0:37:10.719 --> 0:37:13.760 I get a no, no, no, Like we love Israel, 0:37:13.800 --> 0:37:15.239 we get it. I'll get phone cause we're like, oh 0:37:15.239 --> 0:37:17.239 my god, we support Israel. Is such a great state. 0:37:17.239 --> 0:37:19.880 I've been there. It's amazing. It's so liberal, it's so great. 0:37:20.440 --> 0:37:24.120 Would you say something publicly? No, So you know this 0:37:24.200 --> 0:37:26.799 is it's just not a popular cause anymore. It used 0:37:26.800 --> 0:37:28.879 to be because people was they were It was after 0:37:28.920 --> 0:37:32.000 the Holocaust and after the Wars and after what it 0:37:32.080 --> 0:37:35.200 was just people try to overtly destroy it. So many 0:37:35.239 --> 0:37:39.399 times there was this like Jewish heroism that came out 0:37:39.440 --> 0:37:44.920 of the destruction of the Holocaust. But it's not the 0:37:44.960 --> 0:37:47.400 case anymore. It's not the case anymore. And I'm just 0:37:47.440 --> 0:37:51.600 concerned because we don't want it to get too far. 0:37:52.040 --> 0:37:54.480 It can be very it can be very dangerous. These 0:37:54.480 --> 0:37:59.880 things are slippery slopes. As a Jewish person, right, we 0:38:00.120 --> 0:38:05.800 get extraordinarily triggered because we carry around an epigenetic fear 0:38:06.360 --> 0:38:08.440 of being rounded up. And I know you know what 0:38:08.480 --> 0:38:12.440 I'm talking about. Yeah, I know you know what I'm 0:38:12.480 --> 0:38:15.160 talking about. And I know every single Jewish person knows 0:38:15.160 --> 0:38:17.319 exactly what I'm talking about. And every person who's not 0:38:17.400 --> 0:38:19.799 Jewish that's listening right now, please consider this to be 0:38:19.880 --> 0:38:23.719 the truth. Everyone of you Jewish friends have an epigenetic 0:38:23.760 --> 0:38:29.440 fear of being slaughtered. So we have general not everybody 0:38:29.560 --> 0:38:32.560 understands that term eigenetic. Let me explain it, Okay, let 0:38:32.560 --> 0:38:37.000 me explain it. So we have people do understand generational trauma. 0:38:37.440 --> 0:38:40.960 So we have generational trauma in our DNA. That's every 0:38:41.000 --> 0:38:43.680 single generation there's been some sort of a disaster that 0:38:43.719 --> 0:38:47.399 has befallen the Jewish people for thousands of years. Right. 0:38:47.800 --> 0:38:51.840 Epigenetics EPI is above genetics is genetics, and epigenetic is 0:38:51.840 --> 0:38:54.640 the memory basically that goes down in our genetic memory 0:38:54.680 --> 0:38:59.080 that is above the like it's memories and generational memories. 0:38:59.080 --> 0:39:00.400 And I'm not going to get into it that much 0:39:00.440 --> 0:39:04.000 because it's go go, go dig about it. It's fascinating. 0:39:04.040 --> 0:39:06.600 But when I when I went down the rabbit hole 0:39:06.640 --> 0:39:10.319 of the epigeneticism, I was floored because nobody talked about 0:39:10.320 --> 0:39:13.800 the Jewish aspect of it, and I was so obvious 0:39:13.800 --> 0:39:17.960 to me that we carry this around there. I'm sitting 0:39:17.960 --> 0:39:22.439 around la with my friends right now that are well 0:39:22.440 --> 0:39:25.600 to do and successful and have families, and we're sitting 0:39:25.600 --> 0:39:28.960 down and having conversations about taking down the mazuzas and 0:39:29.080 --> 0:39:31.719 your doorstep at your door front, like at the front, 0:39:31.920 --> 0:39:33.120 at the front of the house, the side of the 0:39:33.200 --> 0:39:35.799 of your doors, and where are we going to go? 0:39:36.360 --> 0:39:38.440 And I'm stopping them. We're literally sitting at a bar 0:39:38.480 --> 0:39:40.480 on Bohemia and I'm stopping everybody. I'm like, do you 0:39:40.680 --> 0:39:43.080 see what we're doing? And they're like what. I'm like, 0:39:43.280 --> 0:39:46.640 we're talking about escaping again. And this is happening for 0:39:46.719 --> 0:39:51.200 the Jewish people. If there's no we have this thing 0:39:51.200 --> 0:39:53.760 of we have to run, we need to run because 0:39:53.840 --> 0:39:58.320 every few years we get slaughtered. So this is bringing 0:39:58.320 --> 0:40:00.840 it all up right now, What's happening right now between 0:40:00.960 --> 0:40:04.759 Kanye West and Kyrie Irving and the hate that it's 0:40:04.800 --> 0:40:09.120 against Israel. This is bringing up generational stress for all 0:40:09.160 --> 0:40:11.680 of us. And again, because the Jews are not perceived 0:40:11.680 --> 0:40:15.000 as the underdog in the world, because Jews are not underrepresented, 0:40:15.160 --> 0:40:19.919 actually overrepresented in a lot of areas, people don't think 0:40:19.960 --> 0:40:22.439 that the Jewish people are under distress. And they're like, well, 0:40:22.480 --> 0:40:24.600 you're white passing, you should be fine. And I'm like, yeah, 0:40:24.640 --> 0:40:28.359 you're white passing, but I'm walking around with a Star 0:40:28.400 --> 0:40:31.799 of David and that's considered to be risky. So being 0:40:31.880 --> 0:40:34.359 Jewish right now in America, it's kind of like being 0:40:34.400 --> 0:40:38.239 gay in the sixties. It's ask, don't tell. If you 0:40:38.280 --> 0:40:41.279 can pass is not Jewish, then you're fine. But if 0:40:41.320 --> 0:40:44.200 you're visically Jewish in New York City, you get beaten 0:40:44.280 --> 0:40:47.480 up on the streets. That's the world we live in 0:40:47.600 --> 0:40:51.920 right now. So this is this. Yeah, let's go back 0:40:51.920 --> 0:40:54.200 to Israel for a second. So again, if anybody's hearing 0:40:54.239 --> 0:40:55.840 this right now and they're not Jewish, like all the 0:40:55.960 --> 0:40:58.720 non Jewish, trust us right that this is what's happening. 0:40:59.160 --> 0:41:03.520 Kanye Jewish friend, ask them how they're doing let's talk 0:41:03.560 --> 0:41:06.640 about the settlements, because there are a lot of liberal 0:41:06.719 --> 0:41:10.399 Jews Wus support Israel and they feel the settlements are 0:41:10.480 --> 0:41:13.359 just one step too much. They will say, as we're 0:41:13.400 --> 0:41:16.040 speaking right now, there's big issues with the government and 0:41:16.040 --> 0:41:20.239 the settlements. Describe the history and your take on what's 0:41:20.280 --> 0:41:23.560 going on. So my take is pretty clear from my book. Again, 0:41:23.600 --> 0:41:25.359 I don't want to get into two into the weeds 0:41:25.360 --> 0:41:29.480 about this, but the settlements are basically the new kind 0:41:29.480 --> 0:41:31.879 of like settlements. So we're established in the West Bank 0:41:31.920 --> 0:41:35.000 and Gaza when Israel won the War of sixty seven. 0:41:35.040 --> 0:41:37.719 Again the word that she didn't start nor wanted, but one. 0:41:39.520 --> 0:41:41.960 They were created initially in order to create some kind 0:41:41.960 --> 0:41:45.080 of physical buffer zone and protection, and they turned into 0:41:45.160 --> 0:41:48.200 something that's more of a religious kind of fervor because 0:41:48.960 --> 0:41:54.360 they sit on a land that's historically indigenously Jewish. There's Hebron, 0:41:54.440 --> 0:41:57.320 which is the barrier of the fathers and mothers, so's 0:41:57.840 --> 0:42:04.480 it's a land that's indigenously Jewish land. It's pretty clear 0:42:04.640 --> 0:42:07.560 what I think about the settlements from my book. I 0:42:07.560 --> 0:42:13.760 don't think they're helping. But I also want to caution 0:42:13.880 --> 0:42:15.640 people about them as well, because I think that to 0:42:15.680 --> 0:42:20.480 some extent, there are a red herring within the debate 0:42:20.719 --> 0:42:24.799 about the piece let's say, two state solution, right, which 0:42:24.880 --> 0:42:26.960 arguably I'm not even sure if it's viable anymore, but 0:42:27.080 --> 0:42:30.320 that is arguably the best solution that we can imagine 0:42:30.440 --> 0:42:32.520 right now. Hopefully we can imagine something else, but this 0:42:32.600 --> 0:42:35.480 is what we can imagine right now. There's always a 0:42:35.520 --> 0:42:38.839 debate about the settlements, right, So it's like two point 0:42:38.920 --> 0:42:42.120 nine million Palestinians, about four and fifty thousand Jewish people 0:42:42.560 --> 0:42:45.920 in the West Bank. So what I like to propose 0:42:46.120 --> 0:42:48.880 and bring up all the time is why do we 0:42:48.920 --> 0:42:50.680 even talk about the settlements as something that has to 0:42:50.719 --> 0:42:54.440 be dismantled? Right? I mean, there are twenty one percent 0:42:54.480 --> 0:42:58.040 Arab Israeli's in living in Israel having the same rights. 0:42:58.239 --> 0:43:02.480 Why would't they be some Jewish people in a Palestinian state? Right? 0:43:03.480 --> 0:43:06.120 Why do they have to be dismantled? And this is 0:43:06.600 --> 0:43:09.919 obviously a rhetorical question because the answer to anybody who 0:43:09.960 --> 0:43:11.840 lives in the region or been to the region, that 0:43:11.920 --> 0:43:14.160 knows anything about the region, the answer is very clear, 0:43:14.680 --> 0:43:17.200 and the answer is because they'll be slaughtered within two 0:43:17.239 --> 0:43:21.280 and a half seconds. But that is something that I 0:43:21.280 --> 0:43:24.680 I always like to bring up That's why I don't 0:43:25.840 --> 0:43:29.680 support that operation, the Dish vote. I don't think it's helpful. 0:43:30.160 --> 0:43:32.120 But I also think that to some extent sometimes it's 0:43:32.120 --> 0:43:35.480 a red herring. If there was willingness to create a 0:43:35.480 --> 0:43:39.920 Palestinian state on behalf of the Palestinian leadership, the settlements 0:43:39.960 --> 0:43:49.280 would have been, they would have figured out what to do. Okay, 0:43:49.360 --> 0:43:53.000 let's talk about you specifically. So you have a long 0:43:53.120 --> 0:43:56.480 history as an actress and as a producer. So what 0:43:56.640 --> 0:44:00.320 we're talking about is a singer as well as an artist. Okay. 0:44:00.400 --> 0:44:01.840 I was like, a we going to talk about that? 0:44:01.920 --> 0:44:05.160 Because yes we are, but we're going. I got it, 0:44:05.239 --> 0:44:07.279 I got it in my mind. Don't worry about it, right, 0:44:07.440 --> 0:44:11.000 We're getting there. So how much of your time is 0:44:11.160 --> 0:44:14.920 spent on activism at this point in time, whether it 0:44:15.000 --> 0:44:20.560 be speaking, writing, posting on social media? Give me an 0:44:20.680 --> 0:44:25.120 understanding of that, all of it, all of it. Well, 0:44:25.160 --> 0:44:28.320 that was the question of how do you have time 0:44:28.360 --> 0:44:31.359 to be an actress, a singer of producers. I don't 0:44:31.400 --> 0:44:33.399 know all of it is on all of it, That's 0:44:33.480 --> 0:44:38.040 that's the thing. I So I started acting when I 0:44:38.080 --> 0:44:41.400 was around eight years old. UM got my first scholarship 0:44:41.400 --> 0:44:44.000 when I was fourteen years old and been I had 0:44:44.080 --> 0:44:46.080 I remember the first moment that I was on stage 0:44:46.080 --> 0:44:48.080 that I'm like, I had this magic of you know, 0:44:48.120 --> 0:44:50.360 the zone that they talk about and everything goes quiet, 0:44:50.440 --> 0:44:54.359 and I just knew that it's my spot right um. 0:44:56.200 --> 0:44:58.600 And I've been extraordinarily passionate about this and I did 0:44:58.760 --> 0:45:02.719 well in some areas and great in other areas, specifically producing, 0:45:02.719 --> 0:45:07.920 which which worked out really well. But I've always wanted 0:45:08.040 --> 0:45:11.879 to communicate. That was my biggest thing. I just needed 0:45:11.920 --> 0:45:14.680 to communicate in various ways, and it just kept changing 0:45:14.719 --> 0:45:18.799 throughout my life. And when I sat down to read 0:45:18.880 --> 0:45:24.080 to write my book in twenty nineteen, it became very 0:45:24.080 --> 0:45:25.440 clear to me that this is what I'm going to 0:45:25.480 --> 0:45:27.279 be doing from now own. And not just that, it 0:45:27.320 --> 0:45:29.279 became very clear that this was I was just like 0:45:29.320 --> 0:45:31.320 I said down I started writing, I'm like, oh my god, 0:45:32.520 --> 0:45:35.279 that's why I went through everything, Like everything that I 0:45:35.280 --> 0:45:38.319 went through had led me to this, like this is 0:45:38.360 --> 0:45:44.040 not you know, And it was incredible how everything everything 0:45:44.120 --> 0:45:48.160 changed for me from that minute onwards. And I I 0:45:48.239 --> 0:45:50.320 have I signed with a new agency last year and 0:45:50.360 --> 0:45:52.680 I told them very specifically that I'm not interested in 0:45:52.719 --> 0:45:54.799 going to auditions and I'm not. I don't. I don't 0:45:54.800 --> 0:45:57.840 want to do anything that doesn't have meaning anymore. So 0:45:59.239 --> 0:46:02.160 I feel I I feel like everything that I did 0:46:02.280 --> 0:46:04.040 led me to led me to this, led me to 0:46:04.080 --> 0:46:07.520 be able to be a spokesperson on behalf of you know, 0:46:07.640 --> 0:46:09.480 making the world a better place in my own kind 0:46:09.520 --> 0:46:11.520 of in my own kind of way. And I just 0:46:11.719 --> 0:46:15.200 am so disinterested in acting. I'm never saying never, right, 0:46:15.280 --> 0:46:17.800 but it's just not something that I'm interested in. I 0:46:18.040 --> 0:46:23.760 advocacy and diplomacy and writing us so much more interesting 0:46:23.800 --> 0:46:27.040 to me. It just okay, But we we all need 0:46:27.040 --> 0:46:29.879 money to live. So how are you supporting yourself now? 0:46:30.560 --> 0:46:34.120 I do speaking engagements, I do. I'm I'm I'm good. 0:46:34.160 --> 0:46:38.839 I'm able to support myself through this work. And it's extraordinary. 0:46:38.880 --> 0:46:42.120 The book is doing great. I mean, the who knew 0:46:42.120 --> 0:46:44.279 a book about Israel would do, would do so well 0:46:44.320 --> 0:46:47.480 and get such great reviews from such amazing people, and 0:46:48.320 --> 0:46:52.120 it's still people are still responding to it. I knew 0:46:52.120 --> 0:46:54.399 that there's a constituency out there. I knew that there 0:46:54.440 --> 0:46:56.239 isn't a book about Israel that tells that story in 0:46:56.239 --> 0:46:59.279 a way that's fun, funny, easy to understand, relatable. I 0:46:59.320 --> 0:47:01.279 just knew that it exist. Also, it's the first book 0:47:01.280 --> 0:47:04.839 about Israel written by a woman, by the way, Okay, 0:47:04.920 --> 0:47:07.280 let's go back to the beginning. You were born in Israel, 0:47:07.360 --> 0:47:11.319 growing up in Israel. One very interesting thing is you 0:47:11.440 --> 0:47:16.080 talk about your service being in the army and that 0:47:17.000 --> 0:47:20.440 you did that service by being a performer. Can you 0:47:20.520 --> 0:47:25.279 tell us more about the obligation to serve in what 0:47:25.400 --> 0:47:29.640 varying people do. Yeah, So, first of all, it's so 0:47:29.680 --> 0:47:32.520 it's mandatory to serve in the military in Israel. Obviously, 0:47:32.560 --> 0:47:34.600 if you really don't want to serve, they have a 0:47:34.640 --> 0:47:36.319 lot of people that you can get out of it 0:47:36.360 --> 0:47:38.279 if you really really don't want to serve. But it's 0:47:38.320 --> 0:47:40.399 mandatory to serve. I actually think it's a great thing 0:47:40.440 --> 0:47:44.000 for a person to do at the age of eighteen, 0:47:44.080 --> 0:47:46.160 because you're in a system that's bigger than you and 0:47:46.239 --> 0:47:48.319 you've got to do things that you don't necessarily like. 0:47:48.480 --> 0:47:52.440 And I don't think when I moved to America and 0:47:52.480 --> 0:47:54.480 I realize that people go to college and just get drunk, 0:47:54.560 --> 0:47:57.600 I'm like, oh, yeah, that the difference between like an 0:47:57.640 --> 0:47:59.800 Israeli nineteen year old and American nineteen year old is 0:47:59.840 --> 0:48:06.360 quite striking. So I wanted to sing in the military, 0:48:06.520 --> 0:48:09.720 sing and act. There is something in Israel called La Katswit, 0:48:09.800 --> 0:48:12.120 which is a military performing troops, which is essentially a 0:48:12.239 --> 0:48:15.319 USO tour, that's what it is. And you have to 0:48:15.400 --> 0:48:19.840 audition to get in, and it's like months of auditions basically, 0:48:20.560 --> 0:48:23.520 and you audition would like been sketch comedy and acting 0:48:23.520 --> 0:48:27.440 and singing and whatever all of it. And I got in. 0:48:27.560 --> 0:48:29.839 I was very excited. It was my dream for years 0:48:29.880 --> 0:48:31.920 and years and years to do and I did that 0:48:31.960 --> 0:48:33.799 for two and a half years. So it's basically you 0:48:33.840 --> 0:48:36.120 do a USO tour, meaning you're on a bus, you 0:48:36.280 --> 0:48:38.879 come to base every morning, you get a note of 0:48:38.920 --> 0:48:41.680 where you're going that day. Remember Israel's size country the 0:48:41.680 --> 0:48:45.080 size of New Jersey, so it's a very tiny, tiny country, 0:48:45.080 --> 0:48:47.480 so you can travel throughout the country basically one day. 0:48:48.480 --> 0:48:51.600 And I got a chance to perform for soldiers every 0:48:51.600 --> 0:48:55.759 single day. And it's a very it's a It gave 0:48:55.800 --> 0:48:58.480 me a couple of things. First of all, it gives 0:48:58.520 --> 0:49:00.640 me great experience in terms of standing in front of 0:49:00.640 --> 0:49:03.799 an audience because it's like the toughest situations that you 0:49:03.840 --> 0:49:06.719 can imagine. So one day you're performing in front of 0:49:06.719 --> 0:49:09.520 like the Prime Minister and it's like a puge of 0:49:09.600 --> 0:49:11.840 thousands of people in a stadium or whatever. And the 0:49:11.880 --> 0:49:16.279 next day you're literally in a military kitchen in Hebron 0:49:16.960 --> 0:49:19.040 on a box of tomatoes and you get three soldiers 0:49:19.040 --> 0:49:20.600 in front of you and you have to entertain them. 0:49:20.640 --> 0:49:23.560 You're like, hey, okay, let's do this right, so you 0:49:23.640 --> 0:49:27.560 get as a performer, it's one of the best training 0:49:27.560 --> 0:49:30.359 grounds that you can imagine. So once you get out 0:49:30.360 --> 0:49:32.040 of that, and I've done this between and a half years, 0:49:32.080 --> 0:49:34.560 I'm like, I can stand on any stage. You don't 0:49:34.560 --> 0:49:38.120 scare me. Like nothing is worse than seeing, like, you know, 0:49:38.239 --> 0:49:41.160 being a girl showing up in a guy's base that 0:49:41.239 --> 0:49:43.200 I haven't seen a girl in like three weeks, and 0:49:43.280 --> 0:49:45.040 they can get rowdy and you need to calm them 0:49:45.080 --> 0:49:48.239 down and in all of that. So that's the first 0:49:48.239 --> 0:49:53.560 thing you gave me. The second thing is I was 0:49:53.280 --> 0:49:56.960 I saw the country and I saw the military first firsthand. 0:49:57.400 --> 0:50:00.680 So I saw every single military base that you can imagine, 0:50:01.760 --> 0:50:04.759 and I saw how soldiers live, and I saw the commitment, 0:50:04.920 --> 0:50:07.359 and I saw the difference between like Air Force and 0:50:07.440 --> 0:50:13.000 like you know, yoking like the Greenforces, and it was. 0:50:14.280 --> 0:50:18.360 It was extraordinary. It's obviously gotten old. So I was 0:50:18.440 --> 0:50:19.759 very excited to do it. I thought it's going to 0:50:19.800 --> 0:50:22.719 be very glamorous and fun, and instead you realize that, oh, 0:50:22.800 --> 0:50:24.680 I'm on the bus where five of us and you're 0:50:24.719 --> 0:50:27.320 also the performer and the roadie, like I know, to 0:50:27.440 --> 0:50:30.120 build a stage and like you know, like with the 0:50:30.239 --> 0:50:31.880 might of the things, set up this down system and 0:50:31.880 --> 0:50:36.600 everything and carrying everything ourselves and all of that. Um. 0:50:37.080 --> 0:50:39.400 So it gets old. It's not it's not as fun 0:50:39.719 --> 0:50:41.919 at the beginning. Beginning gets fun, but afterwards it gets 0:50:41.920 --> 0:50:44.080 it gets a little. But it was an amazing, amazing 0:50:44.080 --> 0:50:46.440 experience and it taught me a lot. The other thing 0:50:46.560 --> 0:50:49.200 it was that coming to America, people here that I 0:50:49.239 --> 0:50:51.200 was in Israeli military and they think I was so 0:50:51.280 --> 0:50:53.480 cool and I was. I was a massad agent, and 0:50:53.680 --> 0:50:55.880 it's quite disappointing for them when they were realized I 0:50:55.920 --> 0:50:57.759 was just a singer. My son even laughs at me 0:50:57.800 --> 0:50:59.239 as he was like, but you are, but you are 0:50:59.239 --> 0:51:02.600 a singer and militarium shut up, Okay, you were a 0:51:02.640 --> 0:51:05.640 singer in the military. Was there anything in the back 0:51:05.680 --> 0:51:08.439 of your mind saying I want to go down this 0:51:08.560 --> 0:51:11.240 path of the in my year of quote to USO 0:51:11.440 --> 0:51:14.160 although this is audio, because I don't want to be 0:51:14.160 --> 0:51:17.520 in combat and I don't want to die. Oh not 0:51:17.560 --> 0:51:19.840 even a little bit. I was like, I want to 0:51:19.920 --> 0:51:21.400 do this because this is what I want to do 0:51:21.480 --> 0:51:24.719 for a living. It wasn't for a second I don't 0:51:24.719 --> 0:51:26.920 want to be in combat. I didn't even think about that. 0:51:27.000 --> 0:51:31.200 It was very much. There is a movie in Israel 0:51:31.280 --> 0:51:33.759 called The Lack the Troop, right, It's a movie from 0:51:33.760 --> 0:51:37.040 the seventies, and it follows one of these troops, right 0:51:37.160 --> 0:51:40.279 the USO tour, and we were all it's like black 0:51:40.320 --> 0:51:42.680 and white, it's super old, but we all grew up 0:51:42.680 --> 0:51:45.120 on it. It's super famous, and I grew up on it, 0:51:45.200 --> 0:51:47.080 and I'm like, oh my god, that would be so cool, 0:51:47.080 --> 0:51:48.719 Like that's what I want to do. So it was 0:51:48.800 --> 0:51:52.560 never because I wanted to avoid dying. It was just 0:51:52.600 --> 0:51:55.240 because that's what I wanted to do. Okay, But speaking 0:51:55.239 --> 0:51:59.040 of dying, you talk about your mother's first husband. Now, 0:51:59.080 --> 0:52:02.439 I want to Columbia. This one's almost ten years ago, 0:52:02.480 --> 0:52:06.800 and literally everybody interacted with had had a family member assassinated. 0:52:07.440 --> 0:52:10.920 So to what degree do you feel that, do you 0:52:10.960 --> 0:52:14.080 feel the military presence, do you feel the have an 0:52:14.160 --> 0:52:16.719 essence of life or is it like living in New 0:52:16.800 --> 0:52:21.319 Jersey in America. Absolutely not, not even a little bit, 0:52:21.960 --> 0:52:27.960 not even close you. There isn't there's there's not a 0:52:28.000 --> 0:52:33.080 single family in Israel that hasn't suffered a loss, a death, 0:52:33.880 --> 0:52:38.120 a wounded, an attack. There's not a single family. So 0:52:38.840 --> 0:52:41.760 one of the biggest differences that I saw that shocked 0:52:41.800 --> 0:52:44.320 me when I moved to the States was a Memorial 0:52:44.400 --> 0:52:48.040 Day because in Israel, and I talk about that in 0:52:48.080 --> 0:52:52.919 the book as well, Memorial Day is a devastating day. 0:52:53.040 --> 0:52:55.080 It's twenty four hours. It starts in the morning and 0:52:55.080 --> 0:52:58.359 it ends in the ends in the next day. It 0:52:58.360 --> 0:53:00.680 starts in the evening and it ends the next evening basically, 0:53:00.680 --> 0:53:03.160 and then we moved straight to Independence Day and it's 0:53:03.160 --> 0:53:08.160 a day of mourning the people who fell, the soldiers 0:53:08.160 --> 0:53:13.840 who fell, and the terrorists victims who died. And I 0:53:13.920 --> 0:53:17.080 can't describe the feeling because it's it's the entire country 0:53:17.120 --> 0:53:19.520 is in mourning. There's there's sad music on the radio, 0:53:19.680 --> 0:53:26.040 and TV only plays documentaries about the fallen, and every 0:53:26.120 --> 0:53:28.279 single person mourns in their own way, and you go 0:53:28.320 --> 0:53:31.799 to ceremonies and it's just you cannot escape it. You 0:53:31.840 --> 0:53:36.680 cannot escape it because because everybody serves in the military, 0:53:36.800 --> 0:53:38.759 and everybody has a friend or a family member of this, 0:53:39.120 --> 0:53:42.400 like everybody knows somebody. So this is something that really 0:53:42.640 --> 0:53:47.359 unites the country for a day and then it goes 0:53:47.400 --> 0:53:50.320 straight into Independence Day to remind us that there was 0:53:50.360 --> 0:53:54.439 a reason for all of that. And when I moved 0:53:54.440 --> 0:53:56.840 to the States and the first Memorial Day came, I 0:53:56.920 --> 0:53:59.560 asked my friends, like, what are we doing? And they're 0:53:59.560 --> 0:54:00.759 like what, I mean, what are we doing. I'm like, 0:54:00.760 --> 0:54:02.440 what are we doing? They're like, We're doing a barbecue. 0:54:03.200 --> 0:54:06.000 And I was blown away. I was blown away, and 0:54:06.040 --> 0:54:10.280 I I'm I have maybe two friends who are veterans, 0:54:10.280 --> 0:54:11.839 and I'm the only one. You know, I'm the only one. 0:54:11.880 --> 0:54:14.360 I'm a veteran, and I don't have a lot of 0:54:14.360 --> 0:54:17.640 friends who are veterans. And it's it's unfortunate. There's a 0:54:17.719 --> 0:54:20.480 there's a little bit of a disconnect, I think within 0:54:20.640 --> 0:54:22.920 the American people in the military because it's a because 0:54:22.920 --> 0:54:27.319 it's a it's a paid military. It's not I wish 0:54:27.320 --> 0:54:29.600 we had more of an ownership around it and more 0:54:29.680 --> 0:54:31.799 kind of like pride. And I actually say thank you 0:54:31.800 --> 0:54:35.319 for service when I see military service, and I, you know, 0:54:36.280 --> 0:54:39.839 I find I find it adorable because I know it's 0:54:39.880 --> 0:54:43.839 necessary sadly. So what kind of kid were you growing up? 0:54:44.000 --> 0:54:52.200 And what was your growing up experience? I um, I was. 0:54:53.440 --> 0:54:57.680 I was very determined. I was extraordinarily determined. I was 0:54:57.920 --> 0:55:02.880 very driven and very determined and wait, wait, wait, determined 0:55:02.920 --> 0:55:08.000 to do what as soon as I got the stage bug, 0:55:08.680 --> 0:55:11.200 that was all I wanted to do. That was all 0:55:11.239 --> 0:55:13.560 I wanted to do. So I was. I was a 0:55:13.560 --> 0:55:15.879 good kid. I was like, I was the youngest from 0:55:15.920 --> 0:55:17.800 my mom I had. My parents got divorced when I 0:55:17.880 --> 0:55:20.200 was about eight years old. I had three older sisters 0:55:20.840 --> 0:55:26.080 that were kind of more rebels than me. They grew 0:55:26.120 --> 0:55:28.480 up in like the eight seventies eighties, and they were 0:55:30.000 --> 0:55:34.120 smoky pot and hitchhiking to sign I and causing a 0:55:34.120 --> 0:55:36.960 little bit more trouble. So when I came around, I 0:55:37.000 --> 0:55:38.000 was like, I'm just gonna be a good girl. I 0:55:38.000 --> 0:55:39.520 don't want to rebel. I don't need to rebel. I 0:55:39.560 --> 0:55:41.840 was going to do my thing. So I was very 0:55:41.920 --> 0:55:44.560 I was good like that. But I always ended up 0:55:44.600 --> 0:55:47.920 doing what I wanted to do very quietly. So as 0:55:47.920 --> 0:55:50.560 soon as I as soon as I went on stage 0:55:50.600 --> 0:55:52.080 for the first time, which was when I was around 0:55:52.160 --> 0:55:55.600 fourteen years old and drama school, I'm like, oh my god, 0:55:55.840 --> 0:55:57.600 this is all I want to do. And I became 0:55:57.719 --> 0:56:00.680 so focused, like so and being a mom today my 0:56:00.719 --> 0:56:02.719 son is seven years old, I'm seeing I'm kind of going. 0:56:02.760 --> 0:56:05.600 This was actually quite extraordinary because I knew what I 0:56:05.600 --> 0:56:08.640 wanted to do. I would go to sleep early, I 0:56:08.680 --> 0:56:11.479 would go to rehearsals. I didn't smoke, I didn't drink. 0:56:11.520 --> 0:56:16.719 I didn't I was very very focused on being successful 0:56:16.719 --> 0:56:18.759 and being good at what I do. I worked on 0:56:18.800 --> 0:56:20.840 my singing, I worked on my dancing. I worked on 0:56:21.000 --> 0:56:23.279 you know, I took acting classes. I got my first 0:56:23.320 --> 0:56:26.359 scholarship at with a Television Museum of Arts. And I 0:56:26.440 --> 0:56:30.120 was very very focused and very determined. And it's you know, 0:56:30.160 --> 0:56:32.759 I created my first format, television format when I was 0:56:32.800 --> 0:56:35.880 twenty years old. So I was that was that was 0:56:35.960 --> 0:56:37.480 kind of the kid that I was. I was a 0:56:37.480 --> 0:56:42.000 good girl that ended up doing what you wanted to do. Okay, 0:56:42.320 --> 0:56:47.759 So when you were growing up in today, what is 0:56:47.880 --> 0:56:53.080 everyday life in Israel, like compared to everyday life in 0:56:53.120 --> 0:56:59.360 the US. It's a great question. Um. So on the surface, 0:56:59.480 --> 0:57:02.239 it's the same, right, it's the same. It's the same 0:57:02.280 --> 0:57:04.439 TV show, it's the same music, it's the same food, 0:57:04.680 --> 0:57:08.160 better food in Israel. Actually, by the way, I always 0:57:08.160 --> 0:57:10.520 say to people that go to Israel, I challenge you 0:57:10.560 --> 0:57:13.160 to find a bad meal, because the food is so 0:57:13.239 --> 0:57:15.960 good over there. So on the surface it's the same. 0:57:16.320 --> 0:57:18.360 It's it's like, it's exactly the same. You think of 0:57:18.360 --> 0:57:22.240 yourself as like a citizen the world, exactly the same 0:57:22.280 --> 0:57:24.640 as the US, kind of like a little sister of 0:57:24.680 --> 0:57:29.080 the US. But it isn't. Because every house has a 0:57:29.080 --> 0:57:35.520 bomb shelter, Like every apartment building has shelters, and every floor, 0:57:36.200 --> 0:57:38.400 every office building has to have a shelter. When you 0:57:38.440 --> 0:57:41.200 walk around in a neighborhood, you see shelters, shelter shelters 0:57:41.200 --> 0:57:46.320 every few blocks. You see a bomb shelter every couple 0:57:46.320 --> 0:57:48.880 of years. You sit around at a restaurant somewhere and 0:57:48.920 --> 0:57:51.560 suddenly the sirens go off because Hamas decided to throw 0:57:51.600 --> 0:57:53.720 a couple of rockets because they're not happy about something. 0:57:54.440 --> 0:57:59.080 So this is something that's ongoing in the Israeli experience 0:57:59.560 --> 0:58:03.080 that I don't think anybody understands this. So when people 0:58:03.120 --> 0:58:09.440 complain about Israeli actions, the Israeli attitude can and should 0:58:09.440 --> 0:58:13.320 be to some extent. You go live thirty miles from 0:58:13.320 --> 0:58:17.800 Hamas and then we'll talk, right. So there's an undercurrent 0:58:17.920 --> 0:58:22.360 as an Israeli of danger, of danger. So I remember 0:58:22.400 --> 0:58:24.360 this as a child. There was a terrorist attack one 0:58:24.360 --> 0:58:26.360 time and they were very close to my house and 0:58:26.440 --> 0:58:28.160 Tel Aviv, and we all had to go into the 0:58:28.200 --> 0:58:32.200 houses and close the doors. They got on a bus 0:58:32.760 --> 0:58:36.840 on a road near the beach and they were roaming 0:58:36.920 --> 0:58:40.560 Tel Aviv. Basically nobody could find them. I remember as 0:58:40.640 --> 0:58:43.320 a as a in high school when or as a team, 0:58:43.440 --> 0:58:45.720 like an element of whatever. It's like a I can't 0:58:45.720 --> 0:58:49.120 remember the age, but I was maybe middle school. The 0:58:49.200 --> 0:58:53.480 golf war happened and suddenly were their sirens and like 0:58:53.680 --> 0:58:56.000 Saddam says, throwing rockets on us, and we have to 0:58:56.040 --> 0:58:59.200 go to school with gas masks. So I'm walking around 0:58:59.280 --> 0:59:02.240 with a gas mask and I had to box. It's 0:59:02.280 --> 0:59:04.920 kind of like a cardboard box that had a strap 0:59:04.960 --> 0:59:08.200 on it. And I was very creative child, and I 0:59:08.280 --> 0:59:12.120 basically decorated it with like lace and red and like 0:59:12.360 --> 0:59:15.000 glitter and whatever, and it's a it's a gas mask 0:59:15.240 --> 0:59:17.920 that I'm I'm a thirteen year old taking to school. 0:59:18.400 --> 0:59:24.200 That's not right. So but underneath and above all of that, 0:59:24.320 --> 0:59:28.040 there's a very strong like knageoideviv In Israel, people are 0:59:30.440 --> 0:59:34.040 people have a very strong not just will to live obviously, 0:59:34.080 --> 0:59:37.280 but also just like will to enjoy life. To you 0:59:37.320 --> 0:59:40.200 know that people go out and they celebrate, and they 0:59:40.240 --> 0:59:43.200 take their babies to restaurants, and you know, it's it's 0:59:43.240 --> 0:59:48.640 a very lively society because there's a constant threat. So 0:59:48.680 --> 0:59:52.040 when you live with this, this concept of tomorrow might 0:59:52.120 --> 0:59:55.000 nut come. Do you want to enjoy life? You really 0:59:55.000 --> 0:59:59.240 do and appreciate your life? Okay, So would you ever 0:59:59.680 --> 1:00:02.320 as a an individual, someone say well let's go to 1:00:02.360 --> 1:00:04.880 this area and you say, well, that's sort of a 1:00:05.000 --> 1:00:08.320 dangerous area or something happened there. Would you ever check 1:00:08.360 --> 1:00:10.680 yourself or would you say, I'm alive. I'm just gonna 1:00:10.720 --> 1:00:13.360 live my life to the fullest. The risk is inherent 1:00:13.400 --> 1:00:16.360 and I don't care. We're going to live our life 1:00:16.400 --> 1:00:19.120 to the fullest. So what you do, basically, we're so 1:00:19.240 --> 1:00:23.480 used to it, so something happens. There's again Hamas throwing 1:00:23.480 --> 1:00:28.160 a rocket into television. Right. So you hear the siren, 1:00:28.280 --> 1:00:31.560 you're like, oh, snap, okay, you go into the safe 1:00:31.600 --> 1:00:33.240 room or the shelter or whatever it is that you 1:00:33.280 --> 1:00:35.160 have in your house. You wait for it to pass. 1:00:35.600 --> 1:00:38.600 You hear the bombs, you hear it falling around, you 1:00:38.720 --> 1:00:42.000 listen to the news. They say it's okay. Military goes 1:00:42.040 --> 1:00:44.840 in taking care of the launchers, and you're like, all right, great, 1:00:44.920 --> 1:00:47.200 let's go back to coffee. That's just the way you do. 1:00:47.320 --> 1:00:50.720 People just go immediately snap back to yeah, all right, 1:00:50.760 --> 1:00:53.120 we have to keep on living by the way. That's 1:00:53.120 --> 1:00:56.040 true for a lot of places in the country, not 1:00:56.200 --> 1:00:58.360 so much to the region in the south, because the 1:00:58.400 --> 1:01:03.240 southern towns of Israel and the children are traumatized because 1:01:03.280 --> 1:01:07.800 they are constantly under attack. So it reaches Tel Aviv 1:01:07.880 --> 1:01:09.640 and like the rest of the country every now and then. 1:01:09.760 --> 1:01:13.480 But in the south, in like Otefaza, the circular kind 1:01:13.480 --> 1:01:17.960 of like cities and towns around Gaza, this happens so 1:01:18.040 --> 1:01:21.200 often that they have children there that can't sleep, you know, 1:01:21.520 --> 1:01:26.960 that are legitimately traumatized. And then standard of living, living 1:01:27.000 --> 1:01:31.040 in a homogeneous society we have great income inequality in America. 1:01:31.160 --> 1:01:34.560 What's it like in Israel? And to what degree? What 1:01:34.840 --> 1:01:37.160 is the standard of living? So it's not homogeneous, Like 1:01:37.160 --> 1:01:39.160 it's not Israel is not a monolith, right, There's like 1:01:39.440 --> 1:01:42.560 the Jews of every descent. There's like Christians and Arabs 1:01:42.560 --> 1:01:47.200 and Drews, and there's it's a very very very eclectic country, 1:01:47.520 --> 1:01:49.880 like super eclectic. And you see this on the street 1:01:49.920 --> 1:01:51.200 when you walk around and you see there with the 1:01:51.240 --> 1:01:52.760 food and you hear it with the music. It's like 1:01:52.760 --> 1:01:55.320 it's a very very eclectic. M It's a good question. 1:01:55.360 --> 1:01:57.200 I wish I had like a GDP kind of numbers 1:01:57.200 --> 1:02:03.200 for you on this, but I don't expense and inflation 1:02:03.440 --> 1:02:09.400 and rise of living expensive living is a problem in 1:02:10.040 --> 1:02:12.800 a lot of countries. So there's a lot of money 1:02:12.800 --> 1:02:15.520 in Israel and the tech companies and the tech industry 1:02:15.560 --> 1:02:19.640 and other industries, but there's also there's also income inequality 1:02:19.640 --> 1:02:24.640 that needs to be addressed. Not dissimilar to what's happening here. Okay, 1:02:24.680 --> 1:02:27.640 you came here because someone said if you want to 1:02:27.680 --> 1:02:30.880 be in the A level actress world, you have to 1:02:30.880 --> 1:02:33.840 go to Hollywood. But there are a lot of emigras 1:02:34.000 --> 1:02:39.400 from Israel. Why would people leave Israel? I mean, why 1:02:39.440 --> 1:02:42.400 would people come here from any other country? This is America. 1:02:43.680 --> 1:02:47.200 I'm a big fan of America. I don't think particularly 1:02:47.400 --> 1:02:49.960 there are more Israelis here than there are like French 1:02:50.040 --> 1:02:53.240 people here or Swedish people here. I don't think so. 1:02:53.400 --> 1:02:56.520 I think that. I just think that lack America is 1:02:56.960 --> 1:02:58.760 the shiny house on the hill and doesn't matter how 1:02:58.800 --> 1:03:03.360 screwed up our ticks are, it still is. So people 1:03:03.400 --> 1:03:05.120 want to come here. I don't think it's I don't 1:03:05.120 --> 1:03:10.640 think it's necessarily just specifically because Israeli's leave more. I don't. Well, 1:03:10.640 --> 1:03:14.840 I wasn't if that was implied, that was not my belief. 1:03:15.280 --> 1:03:18.920 But okay, with all the craziness. The other thing, by 1:03:18.920 --> 1:03:21.240 the way, the thing is this, right, it's a very 1:03:21.280 --> 1:03:25.480 small country over there. So the reason you you you 1:03:25.520 --> 1:03:28.080 don't you might not even know how many Israelis and 1:03:28.160 --> 1:03:30.600 like how many Israelis you work with or you meet, 1:03:30.720 --> 1:03:34.280 or you know or you use their products or you know. 1:03:34.320 --> 1:03:37.640 There're Israeli professors in a ton of universities and their authors, 1:03:37.680 --> 1:03:41.000 and there's their chefs. There's like Israeli cuisine in America 1:03:41.080 --> 1:03:44.479 that's exploding right now. All over the country. There there's 1:03:44.480 --> 1:03:47.960 a lot of the Israeli. Israeli designers are dominating in 1:03:48.040 --> 1:03:51.960 like the bridal dress, like bridal dresses right now. Well, 1:03:51.960 --> 1:03:55.160 the biggest designers are Israeli designers. So it's a very 1:03:55.160 --> 1:03:56.680 small country. So I have a feeling that a lot 1:03:56.680 --> 1:03:58.200 of people feel like they need to branch out of 1:03:58.200 --> 1:04:00.680 the country in order to expand their business, but they 1:04:00.680 --> 1:04:05.040 don't necessarily leave. They sometimes will expand their business internationally. 1:04:05.120 --> 1:04:07.480 It's a very small country, obviously. That's what happened with 1:04:07.480 --> 1:04:17.280 the entertainment industry. That's what happened with like the format. Okay, 1:04:17.400 --> 1:04:20.960 so tell us about you're moving from Israel to Los Angeles. 1:04:23.880 --> 1:04:29.880 I I always wanted to live in America. I'm not 1:04:30.000 --> 1:04:33.480 entirely sure why I have. I described that in the 1:04:33.520 --> 1:04:36.720 book as well, in this. In this, I had a 1:04:36.800 --> 1:04:38.960 dream to move here. I had I wanted to live 1:04:38.960 --> 1:04:40.920 in America. I wanted to live in America when I 1:04:40.960 --> 1:04:43.960 was in high school, Like I had this. I saw 1:04:44.000 --> 1:04:47.040 myself as a high school kid with like a ponytail 1:04:47.080 --> 1:04:49.280 and speaking in English and all that. I'm not entirely 1:04:49.320 --> 1:04:52.960 sure why, but it was always appealing to me and 1:04:53.040 --> 1:04:56.280 I had no reason to do it. None of my 1:04:56.320 --> 1:05:00.240 family was ever born and raised or lived in America. 1:05:00.720 --> 1:05:04.480 My entire family uses really my mom grew up in Africa. 1:05:04.640 --> 1:05:08.320 And but but I just had this I just had 1:05:08.360 --> 1:05:11.080 this drive. So when that producer told me that line, 1:05:11.120 --> 1:05:14.080 just basically, if you he said, if you make watches, 1:05:14.120 --> 1:05:16.160 you need to live in Switzerland, if you make wine, 1:05:16.200 --> 1:05:17.400 you need to live in France, and if you're in 1:05:17.400 --> 1:05:19.280 the aintainment industry, you need to live in Los Angeles, 1:05:19.280 --> 1:05:21.840 I just went, Okay, great, and I just moved just 1:05:22.040 --> 1:05:25.360 like that with two suitcases and didn't know anybody. I 1:05:25.400 --> 1:05:28.960 knew one person. So I'm not entirely sure why I 1:05:29.000 --> 1:05:31.800 had that drivers. Obviously, I came for the entertainment industry. 1:05:31.800 --> 1:05:34.600 I came to further my career, but it shaped up 1:05:34.640 --> 1:05:38.600 to be so much more important and so very different 1:05:38.640 --> 1:05:43.200 to what I thought. It's yeah, I don't know. It's 1:05:43.280 --> 1:05:45.680 kind of like there's a there's a concept called the 1:05:45.760 --> 1:05:48.080 share it. Do you know the concept which is a 1:05:48.160 --> 1:05:50.440 Yiddish You know, it's a Yidish. It's it's usually referred 1:05:50.480 --> 1:05:54.480 to a romantic love, like you're meant to be. But 1:05:54.520 --> 1:05:56.120 it's kind of like the concept of meant to be. 1:05:56.720 --> 1:05:59.760 And when I see what I do now and how 1:05:59.760 --> 1:06:02.120 am I my life turned out, I know that I'm 1:06:02.160 --> 1:06:07.960 so much more valuable to the world from here that 1:06:08.120 --> 1:06:10.520 I really was meant to be, even though it didn't 1:06:10.520 --> 1:06:11.880 it did not work out the way I thought it 1:06:11.920 --> 1:06:14.160 was going to work out. Okay, at a record deal, 1:06:14.200 --> 1:06:16.280 I thought I'm going to be Britney Spears, but that 1:06:16.320 --> 1:06:19.800 didn't work out. But other things worked out in much 1:06:19.880 --> 1:06:24.440 better ways and much more exciting and important, most of all, 1:06:25.240 --> 1:06:28.040 being able to talk about being able to talk about 1:06:28.080 --> 1:06:30.240 anti Semitism all day long and talk about the state 1:06:30.280 --> 1:06:33.200 of Israel and make people see things differently and see 1:06:34.120 --> 1:06:36.040 where it is that they have blind spots and what 1:06:36.080 --> 1:06:38.040 it is that we can make to create unity in 1:06:38.080 --> 1:06:41.240 the world. This is extraordinary. I'm very likely to be 1:06:41.240 --> 1:06:42.560 able to do that. So how'd you get rid of 1:06:42.560 --> 1:06:51.480 your accent? I never had it. That's again for a second, 1:06:51.880 --> 1:06:53.960 I've never had it. I never had it. And that's 1:06:54.000 --> 1:06:56.480 the crazy thing, because if you ever met an Israelie, 1:06:57.120 --> 1:06:58.760 this is you know, you can be outside of the 1:06:58.760 --> 1:07:02.720 wisland for it is and you still talk him, you know, Okay, 1:07:02.760 --> 1:07:05.160 as well, just what my father took like all I 1:07:05.160 --> 1:07:08.360 need to do is a lot of a right And 1:07:08.400 --> 1:07:10.000 there was a lot of hand talking to to the 1:07:10.000 --> 1:07:14.160 people who are listening. Um, I don't know. It's a 1:07:14.160 --> 1:07:16.000 part of it's a part of that mystery that had 1:07:16.040 --> 1:07:19.280 me want to be here that I was in elementary 1:07:19.280 --> 1:07:22.800 school and we started started learning English and I kind 1:07:22.800 --> 1:07:25.360 of started speaking English with an American accident and not, 1:07:25.720 --> 1:07:27.680 and my kids in class were like laughing at me. 1:07:27.720 --> 1:07:29.920 I'd stand up in class and answer, give an answer, 1:07:29.960 --> 1:07:32.400 and they'd be like rah rah rah, like why do 1:07:32.480 --> 1:07:35.600 you have an accident? Like why don't you So it's 1:07:35.600 --> 1:07:38.280 also it's a it's a part of it's a part 1:07:38.320 --> 1:07:41.040 of this weird thing that I had, I guess pat 1:07:41.120 --> 1:07:43.920 to be here. But also because I'm a singer, I 1:07:43.920 --> 1:07:48.440 can pretty much imitate every accent as well. So wherever 1:07:48.480 --> 1:07:53.840 I'm at whatever however somebody's speaking to me, I imitated accidentally. 1:07:53.840 --> 1:07:56.080 So when I'm in London or in Australia or England 1:07:56.160 --> 1:07:58.400 or Australia, have to be very careful because I turned 1:07:58.400 --> 1:08:02.880 into very douche con person because I start imitating the 1:08:02.920 --> 1:08:07.160 accent that I hear. So you there were no special classes, 1:08:07.200 --> 1:08:11.400 no courses you didn't have to. I have never taken 1:08:11.440 --> 1:08:16.400 a single class like dialect class. Not a single one. 1:08:16.760 --> 1:08:20.360 Not a single one. Okay, So you you come to 1:08:20.439 --> 1:08:25.120 America to act. Your book says you had a certain 1:08:25.240 --> 1:08:29.000 level of success, but not at the level of your dream. 1:08:29.040 --> 1:08:31.760 Can you tell us about that. Well, I came to 1:08:31.800 --> 1:08:37.439 America already very successful. So I started acting at a 1:08:37.520 --> 1:08:40.120 very young age, and I got I became successful around 1:08:40.160 --> 1:08:46.839 sixteen or seventeen, and super successful around the age of nineteen. 1:08:46.880 --> 1:08:50.799 And the television show that I did that became basically 1:08:50.840 --> 1:08:53.840 a national hit within one episode, to a point where 1:08:53.880 --> 1:08:56.560 we couldn't walk down the street. It was the equivalent 1:08:56.560 --> 1:08:59.599 of like a melrose Place. It was like a nighttime 1:08:59.680 --> 1:09:03.439 so opera, ridiculous but so fun. And it was the 1:09:03.479 --> 1:09:09.720 first soap opera in Israel. And we all became overnight sensations. 1:09:10.240 --> 1:09:13.080 So I by the age of twenty one, I was 1:09:13.120 --> 1:09:15.479 offered like the equivalent of the Tonight Show, like a 1:09:15.600 --> 1:09:20.960 nightly evening show. I was very, very successful. I say 1:09:21.000 --> 1:09:23.400 this like that because I've noticed that a lot of girls, 1:09:23.479 --> 1:09:25.240 especially young girls. I do a lot of college and 1:09:25.280 --> 1:09:28.519 high school talks. They try to they talk themselves down. 1:09:28.600 --> 1:09:30.640 They don't own their success. So I always say that 1:09:30.680 --> 1:09:33.519 a girl's like, own your success. You did amazing, So 1:09:33.560 --> 1:09:35.880 I try to do that myself. So I came here. 1:09:36.080 --> 1:09:41.280 I came here already famous, and I was certain that 1:09:41.320 --> 1:09:43.439 it's going to be the same. I'm gonna be like, oh, 1:09:43.520 --> 1:09:45.240 you just are going to realize that I'm a very 1:09:45.280 --> 1:09:47.800 famous person from Israel and you're going to just hand 1:09:47.840 --> 1:09:50.639 me everything. And I'm like, oh, here's the most famous 1:09:50.680 --> 1:09:54.280 person from France, here's the most famous person from Holland. 1:09:55.520 --> 1:09:57.599 So I was a rude awakening and in that sense, 1:09:57.640 --> 1:09:59.360 I'm like, oh my god, I have to audition my 1:09:59.479 --> 1:10:03.000 living crap out of everything. I had a record deal 1:10:03.040 --> 1:10:06.559 as soon as I moved here with MCAM. I was 1:10:06.600 --> 1:10:08.920 traveling all over the world, recording with the best people, 1:10:09.000 --> 1:10:13.679 the best musician, best songwriters, like I went to Stockholm, 1:10:13.720 --> 1:10:16.160 I've worked with share on people, I work like everything. 1:10:16.240 --> 1:10:20.760 And then the label folded, basically disappeared where you know 1:10:20.760 --> 1:10:24.719 when it merged into Universal, and I was left with nothing. 1:10:24.840 --> 1:10:29.040 So it was a very challenging few years of getting 1:10:29.200 --> 1:10:31.519 very close to something but not getting it, and the 1:10:31.680 --> 1:10:35.160 label do like I'm getting this huge record deal that 1:10:35.360 --> 1:10:39.080 is a huge, huge thing, and then the label fold. 1:10:39.200 --> 1:10:46.360 So I had a few years of humbling that I 1:10:46.479 --> 1:10:49.040 appreciate now, I really do. I don't think I would 1:10:49.040 --> 1:10:52.639 have been able to handle everything that I'm handling now 1:10:52.880 --> 1:10:56.639 if I was successful at that level at that age. 1:10:56.760 --> 1:10:58.479 I was too young for it. That's one thing to 1:10:58.479 --> 1:11:02.080 be successful in Israel, but it's a whole story in America. 1:11:02.360 --> 1:11:05.040 But you do have acting credits, and you do have 1:11:05.080 --> 1:11:08.120 an acting career. I do, I do, and I did, 1:11:08.160 --> 1:11:10.200 and you know, all the trucks in the house say yay, 1:11:11.400 --> 1:11:13.639 said star trek. I didn't even realize it's a big deal. 1:11:13.640 --> 1:11:16.720 And I did it. Yes, I did. I did. I 1:11:16.800 --> 1:11:21.479 was working. I was a working actress. A lot of 1:11:21.520 --> 1:11:24.080 fans in the industry. The industry was lovely to me. 1:11:24.160 --> 1:11:27.280 It was never the breakthrough that I wanted. The biggest 1:11:27.280 --> 1:11:31.200 breakthrough actually came with producing. When I a part of 1:11:31.240 --> 1:11:32.880 you were asking what kind of a child I was, 1:11:32.960 --> 1:11:34.360 or what kind of a kid I was, and the 1:11:34.600 --> 1:11:37.080 driven and committed and all of that. That didn't stop 1:11:37.080 --> 1:11:41.360 when I moved to America. So I had ants in 1:11:41.439 --> 1:11:46.760 my pants even here. As a young adult. I was 1:11:47.520 --> 1:11:51.200 auditioning and getting roles and whatever. But I kept looking 1:11:51.240 --> 1:11:53.600 for projects to produce because I was like, I'm not 1:11:53.640 --> 1:11:55.519 going to just sit down and be quiet a bored. 1:11:56.080 --> 1:11:59.320 I'm annoyed, I'm not ful failed. I need to do more. 1:12:00.040 --> 1:12:03.000 So I was looking for projects to produce. I was 1:12:04.120 --> 1:12:07.320 working on a documentary format. I was creating a bunch 1:12:07.320 --> 1:12:10.960 of formats. And then I heard about an Israeli show 1:12:11.640 --> 1:12:16.000 that's called Mittipura, which was basically two people sitting around 1:12:16.000 --> 1:12:19.040 and having a conversation. So I was a therapist sitting 1:12:19.040 --> 1:12:22.519 with a patient in a room talking and I heard 1:12:22.560 --> 1:12:25.719 that concept and I'm like, oh my god, this is brilliant, right, 1:12:26.600 --> 1:12:29.280 And I, at the time was on a show called Coupling, 1:12:29.360 --> 1:12:35.200 which was a British format that NBC adopted. So I'm 1:12:35.240 --> 1:12:37.519 kind of going. I went to Israel for two days 1:12:37.600 --> 1:12:39.639 or a couple of days for my nieces. But Mitzvo 1:12:40.200 --> 1:12:43.040 and everybody, we're talking about that show and how brilliant 1:12:43.080 --> 1:12:44.960 it is. You have to watch it. You have to 1:12:44.960 --> 1:12:46.360 watch it. If you watch it. And I'm sitting in 1:12:46.400 --> 1:12:49.720 a car driving with my manager and she turns to 1:12:49.760 --> 1:12:51.720 me and she goes, oh my god, have you seen Battipoolia. 1:12:51.840 --> 1:12:54.200 You have to watch this show, and I had one 1:12:54.240 --> 1:12:58.200 of these aha moments again. I had like till like 1:12:58.280 --> 1:13:01.080 a light bulb went above my head. And I turned 1:13:01.080 --> 1:13:02.360 to her and I'm kind of going, oh my god, 1:13:02.400 --> 1:13:05.080 this is it's a format. It has to be a format. 1:13:05.080 --> 1:13:07.920 And I turned to her and I said, do you 1:13:07.960 --> 1:13:10.000 know the creator? And she said yes, and I'm like, 1:13:10.000 --> 1:13:12.320 do you have his number? She said yes, so call him, 1:13:12.600 --> 1:13:15.479 call him right now. And mind you haven't watched the 1:13:15.560 --> 1:13:19.400 frame of the show, right So she calls him up 1:13:19.400 --> 1:13:20.639 and I pick up the phone and I go, Hi, 1:13:20.800 --> 1:13:24.320 this is no tice me. I'm leaving town tomorrow to 1:13:24.360 --> 1:13:25.960 go back to LA. We need to meet tomorrow morning. 1:13:25.960 --> 1:13:28.320 And it's not about what you think it is, because 1:13:28.320 --> 1:13:29.760 I didn't want him to think that I want like 1:13:29.800 --> 1:13:33.240 a roll and a show right right. So then I 1:13:33.320 --> 1:13:34.880 hang up the phone. I turned to her and I'm like, 1:13:34.920 --> 1:13:36.559 cand you get me a DVDs of the show because 1:13:36.560 --> 1:13:38.559 I haven't watched it. But it was so clear to 1:13:38.600 --> 1:13:42.880 me that this was my format, because the idea was 1:13:43.000 --> 1:13:46.960 so simple and so brilliant, and the execution was clearly 1:13:46.960 --> 1:13:49.680 brilliant because everybody was talking about it. So she, of 1:13:49.680 --> 1:13:51.840 course I get the DVD that afternoon, I watched it. 1:13:51.880 --> 1:13:54.400 I'm floored. I'm like, this is this is it, this 1:13:54.439 --> 1:13:56.519 is what I'm gonna do. I'm going to bring the 1:13:56.560 --> 1:14:01.400 first Israeli television show from Israel to America and I'm 1:14:01.400 --> 1:14:04.600 going to sell it as a show. So I go 1:14:04.640 --> 1:14:07.240 and meet the guy and I said, what's going on 1:14:07.280 --> 1:14:08.639 with the show And he's like, oh, I started working 1:14:08.640 --> 1:14:10.080 on second season. I'm like, I stopped it. I go, 1:14:10.160 --> 1:14:13.040 I'm going to sell your show to HBO and he 1:14:13.080 --> 1:14:16.479 looks at me as if I'm insane because at the time, 1:14:17.240 --> 1:14:20.439 this never happened before, obviously, and it's so never happened 1:14:20.439 --> 1:14:25.160 before that there wasn't even a remake claw in the 1:14:25.240 --> 1:14:29.040 contract of the creators and the network. That wasn't even 1:14:29.040 --> 1:14:32.240 addressed like a remake or international format right sale. It 1:14:32.360 --> 1:14:35.080 just was not. It didn't exist at all in the 1:14:35.120 --> 1:14:39.360 reality of anybody. So he's like okay, and he I'm like, 1:14:39.360 --> 1:14:41.080 do you have a translated copy. It's like yes, I 1:14:41.080 --> 1:14:43.439 actually do, because I'm sending it to some Jewish festival 1:14:43.479 --> 1:14:45.120 somewhere and I'm like, great, can I get it. He's 1:14:45.120 --> 1:14:47.240 like sure, So he gives me a translated copy of 1:14:47.240 --> 1:14:50.280 the first five episodes, and again I'm a plane back 1:14:50.320 --> 1:14:53.880 to LA and I'm thinking, how the fuck do I 1:14:53.920 --> 1:14:56.720 sell a show to HBO? I don't know how to 1:14:56.760 --> 1:14:59.320 do no idea how to do that. I literally had 1:14:59.360 --> 1:15:01.200 no idea how to that. I knew that I have 1:15:01.479 --> 1:15:05.840 a brilliant concept, a brilliant show that needs to be 1:15:05.880 --> 1:15:09.240 an American show. So I come back to LA and 1:15:09.320 --> 1:15:11.559 I start making calls. My first calls to my lawyer 1:15:12.840 --> 1:15:15.720 and I'm like, I have a show from Israel, and 1:15:15.800 --> 1:15:20.200 he goes, good for you. I'm like, no, it's a format. 1:15:20.320 --> 1:15:21.880 It's like, what do you mean? And I'm like, the 1:15:21.960 --> 1:15:24.880 same way that we adopt shows from the UK, We're 1:15:24.880 --> 1:15:26.719 going to adopt this from Israel. Like it's a brilliant 1:15:26.720 --> 1:15:30.920 show we should do. Like I'm pitching people on adopting 1:15:30.920 --> 1:15:35.479 a show from Israel. Long story short, I brought the 1:15:35.520 --> 1:15:38.240 show to Stephen Levinson at leverage in Mark Wahlberg, and 1:15:38.280 --> 1:15:41.080 we sold at HBO and it did four seasons and 1:15:41.160 --> 1:15:43.559 over one hundred and forty episodes, fourteen Emmas, and Golden 1:15:43.560 --> 1:15:47.120 Globe domination, a Peabody Award, Like it did so well, 1:15:47.880 --> 1:15:51.320 And what happened as a result of that show was 1:15:51.360 --> 1:15:54.439 that it created a market where market didn't exist before. 1:15:54.960 --> 1:15:57.320 And that market is an Israeli television show in the 1:15:57.400 --> 1:16:02.200 US and television format sales in the US, and so 1:16:02.280 --> 1:16:04.360 many people don't A lot of people know like Fauda 1:16:04.560 --> 1:16:07.720 and shows like that, which are brilliant, but a lot 1:16:07.720 --> 1:16:09.400 of people don't know. So many of the shows that 1:16:09.439 --> 1:16:11.519 we love are actually based on Israeli format. It's like 1:16:11.560 --> 1:16:18.000 Euphoria is an Israeli show. So I have a tendency 1:16:18.080 --> 1:16:21.920 to do things first when you kind of look back 1:16:21.960 --> 1:16:25.080 in my history, and this was one of those things 1:16:25.120 --> 1:16:28.280 that I'm the most proud of because it just it 1:16:28.560 --> 1:16:33.559 changed the Israeli market forever, changed a lot in the 1:16:33.600 --> 1:16:38.160 American market, and it's it changed the perception of Israel 1:16:38.240 --> 1:16:43.840 within within Hollywood. It really changed that. And of course 1:16:43.880 --> 1:16:48.080 the show on HBO was called in treatment Um. One 1:16:48.120 --> 1:16:50.760 other element in your book, you talk about the Israeli 1:16:50.840 --> 1:16:55.479 personality that a woman wouldn't expect a man to open 1:16:55.520 --> 1:17:00.639 the card door restaurant and told offended. I was offended. 1:17:01.280 --> 1:17:05.960 I was offended. That's a true story. I the Israeli 1:17:06.000 --> 1:17:08.720 personality is it's what's called a saber, right. So a 1:17:08.760 --> 1:17:10.080 lot of people are like, oh, you're a sober if 1:17:10.120 --> 1:17:11.519 you were born at Israel. But the reason it's a 1:17:11.560 --> 1:17:14.040 sober is because it's spikey from the inside and sweet 1:17:14.120 --> 1:17:17.040 from the spikey from the outside and sweet from the inside. Right, 1:17:17.680 --> 1:17:22.920 there is an urgency to being in Israeli that can 1:17:22.960 --> 1:17:27.400 be translated into rudeness very easily. So if you met 1:17:27.400 --> 1:17:29.439 in Israeli in your life, you know that there's kind 1:17:29.439 --> 1:17:31.840 of like an abruptness and kind of like an aggressiveness 1:17:31.880 --> 1:17:35.160 and kind of and this comes from the pressure cooker 1:17:35.240 --> 1:17:39.040 that we live under. So there's no time for pleasant 1:17:39.040 --> 1:17:42.479 reason and politeness. The downside of it is that there's 1:17:42.520 --> 1:17:44.360 no time for pleasant reas and politeness, so it's a 1:17:44.360 --> 1:17:47.040 look rude. The good side about it is that you 1:17:47.120 --> 1:17:49.680 always know where you stand. You always know where you 1:17:49.680 --> 1:17:51.880 stand with in Israeliti. And it is something that, as 1:17:51.880 --> 1:17:54.759 in Israeli, was very difficult for me to decipher because 1:17:54.800 --> 1:17:57.120 I didn't understand when people were saying great, but they 1:17:57.120 --> 1:18:00.760 didn't mean great, they meant no thank you. Right, So 1:18:00.920 --> 1:18:02.559 I am the kind of friend and the kind of 1:18:02.560 --> 1:18:05.360 person that I'm straight up, I just find it to 1:18:05.479 --> 1:18:08.240 be easier. I had to tone myself down in a 1:18:08.920 --> 1:18:11.000 in a lot of ways and also allow men to 1:18:11.040 --> 1:18:12.960 open the door for me. I'm a big fan of 1:18:13.000 --> 1:18:16.479 that now. But the story that you're referring to is 1:18:16.520 --> 1:18:21.000 my first boyfriend in la who is an Australian actor, 1:18:21.720 --> 1:18:25.160 and he is very kind of like gentleman in a 1:18:25.280 --> 1:18:26.960 in an old school way, and he came to pick 1:18:27.000 --> 1:18:29.080 me up and when we walked to his car, he 1:18:29.160 --> 1:18:31.519 opened the door and I looked at him and I'm like, 1:18:31.520 --> 1:18:33.679 what are you doing. He's like, I'm opening the door 1:18:33.680 --> 1:18:35.519 for you. I'm like, why, I can get the door. 1:18:35.520 --> 1:18:38.800 It's fine. I was offended. I was annoyed. It annoyed me. 1:18:39.360 --> 1:18:42.880 So I'm not like that anymore. Very much want people 1:18:42.880 --> 1:18:44.720 to open the door for me. I'm okay with that. 1:18:44.800 --> 1:18:47.640 Doesn't take away from my strength or right or my 1:18:47.920 --> 1:18:51.800 or anything else. But but yeah, this is the Israeli way. 1:18:51.920 --> 1:18:54.800 Is a lot more. It's a lot more in your face, 1:18:55.240 --> 1:19:00.280 but it's real. It's real. It's real. You'll know and 1:19:00.320 --> 1:19:02.720 if somebody is if somebody doesn't like you, you'll know it. 1:19:03.280 --> 1:19:05.240 But if somebody is your friend, you can count on 1:19:05.280 --> 1:19:09.240 that forever. Okay. You have a long history of knowing 1:19:09.320 --> 1:19:13.600 what you want seeing it and getting it being very agile, 1:19:14.600 --> 1:19:17.880 sometimes not getting it, by the way. But that's let 1:19:17.920 --> 1:19:20.960 me continue here. How does that affect your love life 1:19:20.960 --> 1:19:25.639 and your interaction with women someone who's so strong and successful. Okay, 1:19:25.680 --> 1:19:29.479 these are such great questions, but they're two very separate questions. 1:19:31.560 --> 1:19:36.080 I'm all about women. My girlfriends are the most important 1:19:36.080 --> 1:19:37.680 thing for me up and then my son. Obviously, I 1:19:37.680 --> 1:19:42.280 have four sisters, so I am a huge My interaction 1:19:42.320 --> 1:19:45.840 with women is amazing, and women actually they sense that. 1:19:46.360 --> 1:19:49.840 So the majority of my followers are women. I get 1:19:50.160 --> 1:19:52.400 I meet like kids when I speak in colleges and 1:19:52.400 --> 1:19:53.760 I can't in high schools, and I can't tell you 1:19:53.800 --> 1:19:54.960 how many times they come to me and like, oh 1:19:54.960 --> 1:19:58.400 my god, my mom loves you. Like women get me 1:20:00.000 --> 1:20:04.559 down level. They know that I'm a girl's girl, through 1:20:04.600 --> 1:20:06.800 and through. There's no question about that. Every girl right 1:20:06.840 --> 1:20:08.680 now is listening to it if she don't know me, 1:20:08.720 --> 1:20:11.479 and she looks through my stuff, and I'm a girls girl. 1:20:11.880 --> 1:20:14.760 I have four sisters. Women camaraderie is one of the 1:20:14.760 --> 1:20:16.599 most important things in the world. When I had, like 1:20:16.600 --> 1:20:18.519 when I have meldowns in my life, I got like 1:20:18.560 --> 1:20:21.240 my girlfriend's showing up in my LA kitchen, sitting around 1:20:21.320 --> 1:20:26.960 and I mean, it's so important to me. It's I 1:20:26.960 --> 1:20:28.880 think it's one of the most important things in human 1:20:28.920 --> 1:20:31.519 interaction is the relationship between women. I think that if 1:20:31.520 --> 1:20:34.200 a woman does not have that, it's such a loss, 1:20:34.320 --> 1:20:38.000 and I feel for her. I think she should every 1:20:38.000 --> 1:20:39.880 woman that doesn't have that need to go out and 1:20:40.000 --> 1:20:45.320 seek it. I have extraordinary group of girls around me 1:20:46.479 --> 1:20:49.879 in La, in Tel Aviv, in New York, in Sydney, 1:20:49.960 --> 1:20:53.040 and I have my girls crew everywhere. And I also, 1:20:53.160 --> 1:20:54.960 I mean, I have a WhatsApp group with my two 1:20:55.200 --> 1:20:59.360 best girlfriends from elementary school, from fourth grade, but we 1:20:59.439 --> 1:21:03.920 still have what's up group like a carrying relationships for decades. 1:21:05.600 --> 1:21:09.080 And my girls are my tribe, like my tribe um. 1:21:11.880 --> 1:21:16.120 In terms of relationships, I I'm looking forward to my 1:21:16.160 --> 1:21:22.240 third relationship. I am. I was married, so I had 1:21:22.600 --> 1:21:24.840 I had two long term relationships and two you know, 1:21:24.920 --> 1:21:28.760 seven and a half eight year relationship. They were great relationships, 1:21:28.760 --> 1:21:34.320 but they didn't end up continuing. Well. Just to be clear, 1:21:34.479 --> 1:21:37.280 Just to be clear here for a second, people say 1:21:37.520 --> 1:21:41.680 that they broke up it's mutual. It's never mutual. I 1:21:41.760 --> 1:21:45.519 would think knowing you your personality that in both of 1:21:45.520 --> 1:21:50.759 these cases you were the one who blew the whistle, Bob, 1:21:50.800 --> 1:21:53.800 you would be so surprised. And right now, if my 1:21:53.840 --> 1:21:56.760 girls are listening all the way through, they're laughing their 1:21:56.760 --> 1:22:01.479 asses off right now, they really are. Look, I have 1:22:01.560 --> 1:22:07.680 a son, so I won't publicly talk about specifically, not 1:22:07.720 --> 1:22:10.519 the relationship with his dad where great co parents were 1:22:10.560 --> 1:22:19.320 working on raising raising our son together. And I'm just 1:22:20.160 --> 1:22:22.599 I think that I don't know, It's it's an interesting question. 1:22:22.640 --> 1:22:24.800 I didn't realize we're going to go there. Right. I'm 1:22:24.800 --> 1:22:27.160 a very couply person, so it's very bizarre that I 1:22:27.200 --> 1:22:30.840 didn't that they both didn't last. You know, I'm a 1:22:30.960 --> 1:22:34.639 very couply person, so it'll be interesting. They say third 1:22:34.680 --> 1:22:37.960 times a charm, right, Well, well, why why did the 1:22:38.240 --> 1:22:42.479 why did the two relationships not work out? What are 1:22:42.520 --> 1:22:48.080 we having this? What kind of a conversation is that? Um? Well, 1:22:48.080 --> 1:22:49.800 I can talk about the first one because he went 1:22:49.840 --> 1:22:51.880 public with it. So the first one did not work 1:22:51.920 --> 1:22:57.280 out because he's a lovely guy. He was an addict, 1:22:58.680 --> 1:23:01.639 um And I didn't know he was an addict when 1:23:01.680 --> 1:23:06.439 we got together and we got married, and we we 1:23:06.600 --> 1:23:08.439 stuck through it as much as we could, but it 1:23:09.000 --> 1:23:15.320 destroyed the relationship. And again, the only reason I'm talking 1:23:15.320 --> 1:23:17.880 about is because he he's a he's a He wrote 1:23:17.880 --> 1:23:20.559 a book about it, and he went public. He went 1:23:20.600 --> 1:23:25.040 public with it, So I didn't. I didn't know to 1:23:25.080 --> 1:23:28.479 recognize the signs. I mean, in retrospect now I should 1:23:28.520 --> 1:23:30.599 have known, but I could I couldn't have known, right, 1:23:31.080 --> 1:23:38.920 But that's why that didn't work out. And the second one, 1:23:38.960 --> 1:23:41.479 I can't. I can't discuss this. I have a son. 1:23:41.520 --> 1:23:47.320 I can't. It was it was challenging, but it's not 1:23:47.360 --> 1:23:51.080 what you are alluding to her thinking. I will tell 1:23:51.120 --> 1:23:55.400 you once the mica is off. How about that, Okay, Okay, 1:23:55.400 --> 1:23:57.760 I don't need to press you. Okay, So I will 1:23:57.960 --> 1:24:00.040 just like I have a son. It's I have to 1:24:00.120 --> 1:24:02.080 be careful and everything that's out there for him to 1:24:02.120 --> 1:24:06.360 be Like what, Okay, So you're talking about this hypothetical 1:24:06.479 --> 1:24:12.400 third relationship. Yes, are you actively seeking it? I think 1:24:12.400 --> 1:24:15.880 that so. I we broke up about two and a 1:24:15.920 --> 1:24:18.000 half years ago, almost two and a half years ago, 1:24:18.040 --> 1:24:20.599 and I think I'm only I was not interested in 1:24:20.680 --> 1:24:24.439 one up until now. I needed to sort things out first. 1:24:24.720 --> 1:24:26.200 I was a bit dramatic and there are a lot 1:24:26.200 --> 1:24:28.439 of things that were happening. So I was not open 1:24:28.479 --> 1:24:33.519 to it. I think I am. I am open to 1:24:33.520 --> 1:24:36.599 it now, so yeah, well let's see what happens. Well, 1:24:36.640 --> 1:24:39.400 I mean, are you know, would you be set up 1:24:39.400 --> 1:24:41.599 with friends, or you meet people through life, or would 1:24:41.600 --> 1:24:43.400 you go on a dating site or any of that. 1:24:44.240 --> 1:24:46.040 I don't go on dating sites. I've never been on 1:24:46.120 --> 1:24:47.720 a dating site. I'd like to keep it that way. 1:24:48.520 --> 1:24:51.240 I get introduced to people, people are interested in setting 1:24:51.240 --> 1:24:55.439 me up. I'm not. I'm in a great place in 1:24:55.479 --> 1:24:59.120 life for a woman, not for a woman, just generally 1:24:59.160 --> 1:25:00.680 for a human being. I think that we need to 1:25:00.720 --> 1:25:02.519 be in a place in which we're happy with ourselves 1:25:02.560 --> 1:25:04.200 and happy like I have a great son, I have 1:25:04.240 --> 1:25:08.439 a great life of incredible friends. I'm a very couply person, 1:25:08.479 --> 1:25:11.479 and I want somebody that would compliment me and I 1:25:11.479 --> 1:25:14.880 would compliment him, like I want to be able to 1:25:14.920 --> 1:25:18.519 find my share it, to find my lobster, my ride 1:25:18.560 --> 1:25:20.800 or die the friend. The person's going to enjoy all 1:25:20.840 --> 1:25:22.920 of it with me, you know, and we'll see if 1:25:22.960 --> 1:25:26.000 they're out there. It's so bizarre. I have never Bob, 1:25:26.040 --> 1:25:28.800 can I tell you something? It's only in Israel that 1:25:28.880 --> 1:25:31.200 I get asked these questions. In America, I never get 1:25:31.240 --> 1:25:33.400 asked these questions. And Israel they know me for so 1:25:33.439 --> 1:25:35.439 many years and they've been through like the media has 1:25:35.479 --> 1:25:38.479 been with me since I was a teen, so they 1:25:38.520 --> 1:25:41.000 always ask these questions and they're like about children in 1:25:41.080 --> 1:25:42.880 marriage and divorce and all that. This is the first 1:25:42.880 --> 1:25:45.960 time I'm ever talking about this in America. I'm so confronted, 1:25:46.560 --> 1:25:49.160 Like well, as I say, I'm already asking as a person, 1:25:49.240 --> 1:25:51.559 this has got more to do with my identity asking 1:25:51.600 --> 1:25:54.800 these questions than your fame. But just I love talking 1:25:54.800 --> 1:25:57.919 about It's not about fame, It's just about I'm in America. 1:25:58.000 --> 1:26:02.559 My work is so overshadowing my personality and my personal life. 1:26:02.760 --> 1:26:06.040 I didn't even talk about I only recorded like a 1:26:06.160 --> 1:26:08.559 video that talks about me being a single mom or recently, 1:26:08.600 --> 1:26:10.599 and I haven't posted it yet, so I don't even 1:26:10.640 --> 1:26:14.120 talk about it publicly. It's pretty clear from my social 1:26:14.160 --> 1:26:16.839 media that I there's a son, but there's no husband. 1:26:17.400 --> 1:26:21.519 So but it's yeah, it's interesting. I think people think 1:26:21.560 --> 1:26:23.160 that I'm like a lot more of a ballbuster. I 1:26:23.200 --> 1:26:25.160 always say about myself that I'm a Labrador and a 1:26:25.240 --> 1:26:28.240 leopard skin. That's the truth. Wait to say that one 1:26:28.280 --> 1:26:32.560 more time. I'm a labrador in a leopard skin. I 1:26:32.680 --> 1:26:35.040 look like I'm this ball but whatever, But I'm just 1:26:35.200 --> 1:26:38.920 I'm not so you know, somebody can see through that. Then, 1:26:39.479 --> 1:26:43.680 going back to the initial question, are men intimidated by 1:26:43.720 --> 1:26:51.599 your success? Personality, beauty, etc. Um. I'd like to say no, 1:26:52.160 --> 1:26:54.360 but it's I don't know. Are you intimidated by it? 1:26:54.479 --> 1:26:56.960 Do you think it would be intimidating for a guy? Well, 1:26:57.000 --> 1:26:59.720 I mean, I'm dead straight. I mean this is not 1:26:59.760 --> 1:27:03.400 only you specifically. You know, this isn't all the immediate 1:27:03.400 --> 1:27:06.479 at this point that you have these successful women and 1:27:06.520 --> 1:27:09.800 there's a limited pool of successful men and should they 1:27:09.920 --> 1:27:12.599 date down? And then you have all these successful men 1:27:12.960 --> 1:27:17.439 who want to date down and you're successful in a 1:27:17.520 --> 1:27:21.559 way beyond just career, And I was wondering how that 1:27:21.600 --> 1:27:24.880 would affect dating prospects with a certain people would say, hey, 1:27:24.960 --> 1:27:27.640 I want to date someone that successful, or would you 1:27:27.880 --> 1:27:31.280 comminently say I don't want to date someone that unsuccessful. 1:27:33.080 --> 1:27:36.559 I don't say anything to me. It's about the people 1:27:36.640 --> 1:27:39.400 I've never dated in my life. I've never I've never 1:27:39.880 --> 1:27:46.040 I've had opportunity to date very big people, famous and 1:27:46.080 --> 1:27:49.080 successful and rich and whatever. I never cared about that. 1:27:49.160 --> 1:27:52.439 The joke among my friends that I didn't and they're like, 1:27:52.640 --> 1:27:54.800 you know, they're like, just could you date a billionaire now? 1:27:54.800 --> 1:27:57.160 And I'm like no, because it's never been a parameter, 1:27:57.600 --> 1:28:01.720 so it's not going to be now. I don't know 1:28:01.720 --> 1:28:03.680 what to tell you in terms of if men are 1:28:03.680 --> 1:28:07.639 intimidated or not. Maybe maybe not. I'm not entirely sure. 1:28:07.680 --> 1:28:11.360 I don't see myself like that, but that's why I 1:28:11.400 --> 1:28:13.720 asked you, would you be intimidate? Are you into is 1:28:13.720 --> 1:28:18.479 it intimidating? I'm not the regular guy, you know, the 1:28:18.560 --> 1:28:21.479 regular guy who has big on image and has his 1:28:21.640 --> 1:28:27.960 check book whatever, and that's you know, I would think 1:28:28.200 --> 1:28:32.439 generally speaking, men would be. Then there's an elite level 1:28:32.600 --> 1:28:35.719 of people who are billionaires and very successful like that, 1:28:36.000 --> 1:28:39.639 and that's they have different criteria. But the average person 1:28:40.000 --> 1:28:43.080 is earning a living and doing well, driving a German 1:28:43.120 --> 1:28:46.680 car or a tesla. I think that they might be intimidated. 1:28:46.680 --> 1:28:50.760 But moving on from this, the conventional wisdom is that 1:28:50.800 --> 1:28:55.640 the Israelis and the Danes make the best television forgetting 1:28:55.680 --> 1:29:00.360 the Danes. Why is this? Rayleigh television so good. It's 1:29:00.400 --> 1:29:05.320 such a great question invention, like necessity is the mother 1:29:05.360 --> 1:29:09.919 of all invention. That's legitimately why the reason Israeli television 1:29:10.080 --> 1:29:13.120 is so good, and it really is so good, is 1:29:13.200 --> 1:29:16.960 because number one, there's no money. There's no money in 1:29:16.960 --> 1:29:20.200 the industry. There's only nine million people to sell the 1:29:20.280 --> 1:29:23.760 product too, so to begin with, there's no budget, right, 1:29:24.880 --> 1:29:29.120 and those people are extraordinarily sophisticated. So it's a sophisticated 1:29:29.160 --> 1:29:32.920 audience that doesn't take bullshit and would not stick around 1:29:32.920 --> 1:29:35.639 if the show is not good. And when you create 1:29:35.640 --> 1:29:42.240 a show, you cannot rely on explosions, helicopters, special effects, monsters. 1:29:42.280 --> 1:29:44.000 You can't. You have to make sure that the show 1:29:44.120 --> 1:29:46.679 is great. It's written really well, like a song that's 1:29:46.680 --> 1:29:49.080 written on a guitar and you can play it and 1:29:49.120 --> 1:29:51.960 it's brilliant without all the productions in the rigor moole. 1:29:52.400 --> 1:29:55.160 That's what Israeli television is. That's why in treatment is 1:29:55.200 --> 1:29:57.839 so great. That's why Homeland with such a huge success, 1:29:58.000 --> 1:30:00.880 That's why You four is so great, because it's characters 1:30:00.920 --> 1:30:04.719 and its stories and its people, and that's what Israeli 1:30:04.760 --> 1:30:08.280 people like. And because Israelitis, there's so much like Americans culturally, 1:30:08.840 --> 1:30:12.960 whatever works there can work here. So it's it's just 1:30:13.880 --> 1:30:15.760 there's no it's almost like there's no miracle to it. 1:30:15.800 --> 1:30:17.799 When you know the Israeli culture and you know American culture, 1:30:17.840 --> 1:30:21.200 you know why the television there, why it works. Okay, 1:30:21.560 --> 1:30:25.799 other than in treatment, name your three favorite Israeli television shows, 1:30:26.760 --> 1:30:29.600 Oh my god, Okay, Well, honestly, it's a show that 1:30:29.600 --> 1:30:32.720 you're never going to hear about because it's called is 1:30:32.760 --> 1:30:35.240 a sketch comedy show that's never going to be able 1:30:35.240 --> 1:30:39.680 to be adapted because it's so specific. But it's absolutely brilliant. 1:30:40.400 --> 1:30:46.479 It's the most biting political commentary that you have ever seen, 1:30:47.280 --> 1:30:50.160 way harsher than America. So what they'll do there, Like 1:30:50.200 --> 1:30:53.080 you think SNL is biting, it's nothing compared to what 1:30:53.120 --> 1:30:57.000 they do there. They turn politics into a circus in 1:30:57.040 --> 1:30:59.400 the cleverest of way. So I would say this is 1:30:59.400 --> 1:31:02.559 probably my most favorite show. It's been going on for 1:31:02.600 --> 1:31:07.160 twenty years or something. It's it's absolutely brilliant. That's number one. 1:31:07.240 --> 1:31:10.080 Number two. I think the show is now. This show 1:31:10.120 --> 1:31:11.960 is now in Hulu, but I'm not one hundred percent sure. 1:31:12.439 --> 1:31:14.960 It's called Rehearsals. And it was a show that was 1:31:15.000 --> 1:31:21.439 created by the public broadcaster con eleven. And it's again 1:31:22.000 --> 1:31:25.840 very small show about a couple that used to be 1:31:25.880 --> 1:31:28.400 a couple and they wrote a play about themselves and 1:31:28.439 --> 1:31:32.519 then the play becomes they buy the theater, buys a play, 1:31:32.560 --> 1:31:36.679 but their relationship breaks apart. So very small, relationship driven, 1:31:37.160 --> 1:31:40.000 brilliant show. It's called rehearsals. Look it up. It's amazing. 1:31:41.160 --> 1:31:46.599 That's two. That's two a third do we need a third? 1:31:48.840 --> 1:31:50.559 Can I get back to you on them? I'm sure 1:31:50.600 --> 1:31:53.920 they're amazing ones. Don't let me think I mean, i'd 1:31:53.920 --> 1:31:56.000 say foud up. Let's say found up because it's amazing. 1:31:56.280 --> 1:31:58.760 Everybody can watch Fouder on Netflix. It's brilliant. If you 1:31:58.760 --> 1:32:01.479 haven't gotten addicted yet for it, I would go with 1:32:01.600 --> 1:32:08.280 Prisoners of War and True Gear. Oh my god, stop, sorry, sorry, 1:32:09.600 --> 1:32:11.880 I'm changing my mind, and I'm putting Prisoners of War 1:32:11.920 --> 1:32:15.240 there number one. First of all because it's the best 1:32:15.920 --> 1:32:18.200 Israeli television show of all time, and second because the 1:32:18.200 --> 1:32:19.960 creator is my best friend and he's going to kill 1:32:19.960 --> 1:32:22.880 me rightfully, so I can't believe it didn't think Prisoners 1:32:22.920 --> 1:32:30.040 of War. I'm so sorry. Prisoners of war number one. Okay, 1:32:30.080 --> 1:32:32.200 so all these people I've I've seen a lot of 1:32:32.200 --> 1:32:35.720 Israeli television and you tend to see the same actors 1:32:35.760 --> 1:32:40.280 and actresses. You know, So what kind of economic life 1:32:40.320 --> 1:32:45.400 would those people have? Not easy? It's not. A television 1:32:45.400 --> 1:32:50.280 show in Israel does not. If you're an actor, you 1:32:50.320 --> 1:32:52.920 need to do everything. So in Israel, you if you're 1:32:52.920 --> 1:32:56.080 an actor only doing a TV show. I'm like in America, 1:32:56.120 --> 1:32:58.320 if you do one TV show here that's successful, you're 1:32:58.400 --> 1:33:01.280 set over there. You need to do TV. You need 1:33:01.320 --> 1:33:04.160 to do theater. You need to do voiceovers and campaigns 1:33:04.439 --> 1:33:08.400 and live shows and stand ups and commercials and a 1:33:08.439 --> 1:33:11.200 lot of different things. So it's again there's no budget, 1:33:11.280 --> 1:33:14.360 So it's a it's a tough life in that sense. 1:33:14.560 --> 1:33:15.800 You have to do a lot of things in order 1:33:15.840 --> 1:33:25.240 to actually make a living as an actor in Israel. Okay, 1:33:25.320 --> 1:33:28.160 let's go back to you. So what does an average 1:33:28.200 --> 1:33:32.200 week or an average month look like? Now? They vary. So, 1:33:32.680 --> 1:33:35.439 first of all, I travel all the time, So there's 1:33:35.560 --> 1:33:38.120 I do. I started a college campus tour now, so 1:33:38.160 --> 1:33:40.640 I travel, I go to speak on college as I 1:33:40.680 --> 1:33:45.360 started with Berkeley, or as we wait a little bit, 1:33:45.400 --> 1:33:48.400 a little bit slower. How did this get set up? 1:33:48.439 --> 1:33:52.160 And do you get compensated? I do get compensated. I 1:33:52.160 --> 1:33:55.240 mean there's a there's a it's a discounter price for colleges. 1:33:55.280 --> 1:33:56.960 So I and I do a lot of high schools 1:33:57.000 --> 1:34:01.160 as well for you know, nothing basically, but but it's UM, 1:34:02.160 --> 1:34:06.320 I travel a lot. I travel a lot. How do 1:34:06.360 --> 1:34:09.640 you get those gigs? I have a speaking agent and 1:34:09.720 --> 1:34:12.680 they contact him and he reaches out and now they 1:34:12.720 --> 1:34:14.439 know to talk to him if they if they want 1:34:14.439 --> 1:34:16.160 to book me to go and to go and speak. 1:34:16.200 --> 1:34:18.040 But the college campus store for me is one of 1:34:18.040 --> 1:34:22.320 the most exciting ones because because of what's happening with 1:34:22.360 --> 1:34:25.879 BDS on college campuses, because anti Zionism and anti Semitism 1:34:25.960 --> 1:34:31.400 on campuses is so extreme. I love going to college campuses. 1:34:31.400 --> 1:34:35.720 I started with Berkeley or as let's let's slow down there. 1:34:36.240 --> 1:34:41.320 Berkeley is uh is a hotbed of political activity. He 1:34:41.840 --> 1:34:45.559 who hosted your speech? In two? How many people came? 1:34:46.560 --> 1:34:48.799 Great question? So, first of all, I wasn't actually a speech. 1:34:49.920 --> 1:34:53.559 So I went to Berkeley because, um, there was an 1:34:53.600 --> 1:34:56.000 article that came out a few a couple of months 1:34:56.000 --> 1:35:00.800 ago about the fact that at Berkeley Law School, some 1:35:00.920 --> 1:35:05.600 student groups have outlawed in their by laws, basically in 1:35:05.640 --> 1:35:09.360 their constitution. They outlawed any speaker to come and speak 1:35:09.400 --> 1:35:13.360 to them if they support Israel or Zionism, effectively creating 1:35:13.439 --> 1:35:15.519 a what the article was referring to as a Jewish 1:35:15.520 --> 1:35:21.000 free zone. So the campus university try to say it's 1:35:21.000 --> 1:35:24.120 only nine groups in the campus, but the problem is 1:35:24.160 --> 1:35:28.400 that these groups were the women's groups, the LGBTQ group, 1:35:28.560 --> 1:35:34.160 the Asian Pacific us of big, big groups called student groups. 1:35:35.080 --> 1:35:43.160 So the kids on Berkeley have been feeling alienated, discriminated against, 1:35:43.880 --> 1:35:46.599 marginalized for a very long time. And this was kind 1:35:46.600 --> 1:35:50.160 of like the straw. The broke their backs and they 1:35:50.200 --> 1:35:53.320 reach out to me and they asked They asked me 1:35:53.400 --> 1:35:55.680 basically if I want to go, and I said absolutely, 1:35:55.880 --> 1:35:58.240 I'll go. And I just asked them, what do they need? 1:35:58.280 --> 1:36:00.800 What do they want me to do? So they asked me, 1:36:00.920 --> 1:36:04.120 that's the Jewish groups, the Jewish groups on Berkeley, jew 1:36:04.240 --> 1:36:07.040 students groups on Berkeley. They said they wanted me to 1:36:07.160 --> 1:36:08.479 first of all, come and hang out with them and 1:36:08.479 --> 1:36:10.599 have dinner. So I came over and I hung out 1:36:10.640 --> 1:36:12.960 at the hilll and sat with the students and chatted 1:36:13.000 --> 1:36:15.880 to them and to see how they're doing. They're not 1:36:15.960 --> 1:36:20.920 doing well. They're very concerned and feel alienated. And I 1:36:21.040 --> 1:36:24.200 heard some horrific stories about that. And then the next 1:36:24.280 --> 1:36:26.599 day they wanted me to do what's called the tabling event. 1:36:27.360 --> 1:36:29.080 So and that's what they wanted me to do. So 1:36:29.160 --> 1:36:30.640 they didn't want me to come and speak at the 1:36:30.720 --> 1:36:32.760 hill El. They want me to be out there on 1:36:32.840 --> 1:36:36.200 the main plaza and put a table and have conversations 1:36:36.200 --> 1:36:40.120 with people. And I said, okay, great, I'll do that. 1:36:40.200 --> 1:36:41.920 And they said, you put it basically, put a sign 1:36:41.960 --> 1:36:44.240 above the table and you just kind of reach out 1:36:44.240 --> 1:36:47.080 to students and have conversations. So I said, sure, I'll 1:36:47.120 --> 1:36:49.559 do that. And I said, I'm going to have the table. 1:36:50.640 --> 1:36:54.840 Sign above the table say anti Zionism is anti Semitism. 1:36:55.040 --> 1:36:58.280 Let's have a chat. And I did that and it 1:36:58.360 --> 1:37:02.080 was horrible. It was absent, horrible. I was there for 1:37:02.120 --> 1:37:05.240 four hours. The video is on my Instagram and or 1:37:05.320 --> 1:37:07.960 my social media and on YouTube. Is well, I think, 1:37:08.040 --> 1:37:12.760 but it's I was attacked. I was yelled at, I 1:37:12.840 --> 1:37:16.240 was harassed, I was ignored, I was ganged up on. 1:37:17.240 --> 1:37:20.599 I didn't want to bring security because I don't want 1:37:20.600 --> 1:37:22.960 to change my life because of the work that I do. 1:37:23.680 --> 1:37:26.200 But the people that I was going with basically ruled 1:37:26.240 --> 1:37:27.760 out and said at some point, like a day before 1:37:27.800 --> 1:37:29.479 that I can know overay, just gonna have security there 1:37:29.520 --> 1:37:34.559 for you. So there was playing clothes carrying security guy, 1:37:35.520 --> 1:37:37.439 and I was very happy that he was there because 1:37:37.439 --> 1:37:40.760 I was scared, like legitimately scared. I was. I was 1:37:40.800 --> 1:37:45.519 attacked so badly. Well a little bit more, a little 1:37:45.520 --> 1:37:49.280 bit more specifically, what happened enough with the yelling, the 1:37:49.400 --> 1:37:52.360 blood on your hands and you're enough with the killing, 1:37:52.439 --> 1:37:54.800 and you know, I had people ganging up on me 1:37:54.920 --> 1:37:57.960 and I'm trying to have conversations and they don't want 1:37:57.960 --> 1:38:00.880 to have conversation. There was demonstrations, there was yelling those 1:38:01.280 --> 1:38:03.840 you know you should just you can check out the video. 1:38:04.680 --> 1:38:07.320 It's it's extreme. It's extreme. And I walked out of 1:38:07.360 --> 1:38:09.120 there after four hours, and I'm thinking, oh my god, 1:38:09.160 --> 1:38:11.680 I'm exhausted. This is terrible. And this's just me for 1:38:11.680 --> 1:38:14.360 four hours. What are the Jewish kids on campus are 1:38:14.400 --> 1:38:16.840 going through? How did they feel? And the answer is 1:38:16.840 --> 1:38:20.160 they feel terrible. College campuses right now, in terms of 1:38:20.200 --> 1:38:24.799 anti Semitism and anti Israel sentiment is a hotbed. It's horrible. 1:38:25.040 --> 1:38:29.439 We hear reports that student Jewish students on campus only 1:38:29.479 --> 1:38:32.920 feel safe in Jewish spaces. It's to what to the 1:38:32.920 --> 1:38:34.759 point that I was saying before, it's like, you're Jewish, 1:38:34.800 --> 1:38:37.639 don't ask, don't tell. As long as you're not telling anybody, 1:38:37.640 --> 1:38:40.800 as long as you're not out there visibly Jewish, proud Jewish, 1:38:40.920 --> 1:38:45.880 then you're fine. It's horrible on college campuses. So I 1:38:45.960 --> 1:38:47.760 do a lot of that. It was a Duke class week, 1:38:47.880 --> 1:38:50.000 which was incredible. I went to the University of Miami. 1:38:50.080 --> 1:38:53.439 I've got I'm doing UCL. Okay, you have those bad, 1:38:54.200 --> 1:38:56.360 bad experience at Berkeley, So what happened like a Duke 1:38:56.439 --> 1:39:00.439 in the University of Miami. Duke was university I was great. 1:39:00.479 --> 1:39:04.240 It was Florida Atlantic University actually, and the University of 1:39:04.280 --> 1:39:07.800 Miama did both of them. Those two experiences were great, 1:39:07.960 --> 1:39:12.040 and Duke was also great. Duke was intense because there's 1:39:12.080 --> 1:39:15.000 a lot of anti Semitism and antisignism the Duke and 1:39:15.720 --> 1:39:20.040 they had a huge turnout in terms of the students 1:39:20.080 --> 1:39:25.280 and local people from the community, apparently the biggest that 1:39:25.320 --> 1:39:27.240 they had for a very long time. Because a lot 1:39:27.280 --> 1:39:29.479 of students at Duke d students at Duke are very 1:39:29.520 --> 1:39:32.280 concerned about what's happening. And it was interesting because the 1:39:32.320 --> 1:39:36.040 professor that was interviewing me was not it was throwing curveballs, like. 1:39:36.080 --> 1:39:41.760 He was asking me very harsh questions that I disagreed 1:39:41.800 --> 1:39:47.600 with and I had to set my foot down. And 1:39:47.680 --> 1:39:49.640 basically he was you know, nobody puts baby in the 1:39:49.640 --> 1:39:51.800 corner rights And he was saying all these things or 1:39:51.840 --> 1:39:54.679 like the cleansing and the genocide, and I'm like, I disagree. 1:39:54.920 --> 1:39:57.400 Let me tell you why. And what I heard from 1:39:57.400 --> 1:39:59.680 the students afterwards, which is totally legitimate, by the way, 1:39:59.680 --> 1:40:01.400 we can definitely have a conversation about that. I got 1:40:01.479 --> 1:40:04.280 nothing against that, But what I was able to show 1:40:04.320 --> 1:40:06.559 the students is also how do you stand in front 1:40:06.960 --> 1:40:11.040 and stand in the face of these uncomfortable conversations, because 1:40:11.040 --> 1:40:12.760 a lot of people just recoil. They just kind of like, 1:40:12.800 --> 1:40:14.560 I don't want to talk about it. It's too complicated. 1:40:14.600 --> 1:40:17.720 And I'm trying to show people that it's okay to 1:40:17.800 --> 1:40:20.840 have these uncomfortable conversations. We have to have these uncomfortable 1:40:20.840 --> 1:40:24.640 conversations because otherwise what are we doing. So it was 1:40:24.680 --> 1:40:26.320 that's what I heard from the kids there that they 1:40:26.320 --> 1:40:28.360 it was very helpful for them to see me kind 1:40:28.360 --> 1:40:30.200 of like butt heads with a professor a little bit, 1:40:30.600 --> 1:40:34.280 because it showed them how to handle it when it comes. 1:40:34.360 --> 1:40:36.040 Because it comes, it comes a lot. It comes up 1:40:36.040 --> 1:40:38.800 a lot. So I do a lot of that. I 1:40:38.880 --> 1:40:42.559 travel to various places around again, around the country and 1:40:42.600 --> 1:40:44.760 around the world. And when I'm in La it's a 1:40:44.760 --> 1:40:47.479 lot of like reading, writing, working in the next book, 1:40:48.040 --> 1:40:51.920 posting on social media, doing videos, taking readings. It's very 1:40:53.960 --> 1:40:58.280 it's a busy time to be fighting anti semitism. Sadly okay, 1:40:58.800 --> 1:41:02.599 by times. Well, let's let's go back. When you do 1:41:02.640 --> 1:41:07.479 these speaking engagements, generally speaking, are you preaching to the 1:41:07.520 --> 1:41:10.720 converted or do the people who disagree with you show up? 1:41:11.840 --> 1:41:15.960 I wow? Okay, Oddly enough, other than Berkeley, I did 1:41:16.000 --> 1:41:19.519 not have people show up to protest, which is kind 1:41:19.520 --> 1:41:22.160 of surprising, honestly, because I don't we don't hide that 1:41:22.200 --> 1:41:26.000 I'm going to speak, So we're wondering why they didn't 1:41:26.040 --> 1:41:30.719 show up. I'm all about I've you know, I've been 1:41:30.720 --> 1:41:34.480 through these conversations many times. I can handle it. I'm 1:41:34.600 --> 1:41:37.680 please accost me, I'll be fine. Hackle the shit out 1:41:37.680 --> 1:41:40.439 of me. It's okay, you're allowed, but it hasn't happened yet. 1:41:40.640 --> 1:41:42.760 I'm not only preaching to the choir. I'm obviously talking 1:41:42.800 --> 1:41:45.920 to a lot of people in the Jewish community, but 1:41:45.960 --> 1:41:47.400 I have a lot of people that invite me to 1:41:47.439 --> 1:41:51.000 speak to their non Jewish friends in their workspaces. This 1:41:51.040 --> 1:41:53.200 is something that I really want to do more of. 1:41:53.240 --> 1:41:55.920 Like I think Google should invite me to speak about 1:41:55.920 --> 1:41:59.080 anti Semitism, and Apple and Coca Cola, and like these 1:41:59.080 --> 1:42:02.080 companies need Oh okay, but let's let's go back to 1:42:02.120 --> 1:42:07.920 the basic question, not just me just generally speaking out. 1:42:08.080 --> 1:42:11.840 Operations need to deal with anti semitism head on, right, 1:42:12.479 --> 1:42:16.599 But do the people who need their beliefs challenged? Did 1:42:16.640 --> 1:42:21.280 they show up? Yes? Yes, so one of the people 1:42:21.360 --> 1:42:24.600 that I like. So, for example, at Duke, I know 1:42:24.680 --> 1:42:27.160 of a few kids that were there that were brought 1:42:27.200 --> 1:42:31.759 in by their Jewish friends because they had an issue 1:42:31.800 --> 1:42:34.479 with Israel and an issue with anti Semitism. I know 1:42:34.560 --> 1:42:37.000 that people use these talks in order to bring out 1:42:37.040 --> 1:42:39.240 their community and bring out their friends when they need 1:42:39.280 --> 1:42:42.200 to be challenge or addressed. I also know that people 1:42:42.280 --> 1:42:44.960 use my videos for that, So they save my videos 1:42:44.960 --> 1:42:47.520 online and then they send them to people when something arises. 1:42:48.080 --> 1:42:51.280 So yes, definitely, definitely. And do I want to be 1:42:51.320 --> 1:42:55.439 more in more spaces where I'm not more spaces that 1:42:55.479 --> 1:42:57.759 are less preaching to the choir, of course, but again 1:42:57.920 --> 1:43:02.679 it's not easy because it's Hewish advocacy and it's people 1:43:02.840 --> 1:43:06.200 don't it's not as comfortable as other advocacies for people 1:43:06.240 --> 1:43:09.320 to kind of wrap their heads around. Is this a 1:43:09.479 --> 1:43:14.120 Sisaphian endeavor or do you think you're making a difference both? 1:43:15.360 --> 1:43:18.519 So I don't. We didn't touch upon that. But I'm 1:43:18.560 --> 1:43:22.799 also sometimes Israel's first special Envoy for combating anti Semitism 1:43:22.960 --> 1:43:26.040 and delegitimizations. I was appointed by then Foreign Ministry and 1:43:26.160 --> 1:43:32.320 a Pede to represent Israel when I'm asked on international 1:43:32.360 --> 1:43:38.280 stage as the anti Semitism envoy, And when we had 1:43:38.320 --> 1:43:41.519 this conversation, he offered me the position. He said, you 1:43:41.520 --> 1:43:44.240 know how the United States has a special envoy for 1:43:44.280 --> 1:43:46.320 anti Semitism in Canada and EU and a lot of 1:43:46.320 --> 1:43:48.479 other countries in the world, and Israel doesn't have one. 1:43:49.080 --> 1:43:51.200 I said, right, I didn't think about that, And he's like, 1:43:51.240 --> 1:43:52.960 would you like to be that person? And I said 1:43:53.120 --> 1:43:57.160 absolutely yes, And then I started laughing and he asked me, 1:43:57.200 --> 1:43:59.439 why why are you laughing? And I said, because you're 1:43:59.439 --> 1:44:02.400 setting me up to fail, like I'm literally never going 1:44:02.439 --> 1:44:04.720 to be successful in this. And he started laughing and 1:44:04.800 --> 1:44:06.400 he said, you know, he said, I expect you to 1:44:06.640 --> 1:44:09.280 end anti Semitism and then three months give me a report. Please. 1:44:11.400 --> 1:44:14.760 Anti Semitism is the oldest form of hate and discrimination 1:44:14.800 --> 1:44:17.840 that's still being practiced today. There's no reason for me 1:44:17.880 --> 1:44:19.800 to think that I'm going to be able to end it. 1:44:19.800 --> 1:44:24.360 It's crazy. It's never going to end fully. Am I 1:44:24.439 --> 1:44:27.320 making a difference? Yes, I know that for a fact. 1:44:27.560 --> 1:44:30.920 Okay that I'm making a difference. Sor right? Are there 1:44:30.960 --> 1:44:33.439 any other noah tissues out there? But we just don't 1:44:33.439 --> 1:44:37.519 know who they are. There are other advocates out there, Yeah, 1:44:37.520 --> 1:44:39.559 there are other people that are doing this. It's it's 1:44:39.840 --> 1:44:42.280 I mean, everybody, everybody is different. But I can definitely 1:44:42.320 --> 1:44:46.800 recommend people to follow an account named a white of 1:44:46.880 --> 1:44:51.479 Frame and a guy named Blake Flayton and Eve Barlow 1:44:51.560 --> 1:44:54.519 and Lizzie Savitsky is like a great advocate. There are 1:44:54.600 --> 1:44:58.200 people out there, but you know, the Jewish people are 1:44:58.600 --> 1:45:01.840 zero point zero two percent the world population or zero 1:45:01.840 --> 1:45:03.960 point two percent of the American population, we're less than 1:45:04.000 --> 1:45:06.599 fifteen million people. Around the world, it's a very small 1:45:06.680 --> 1:45:09.599 number of people. So when it comes to online, when 1:45:09.640 --> 1:45:12.800 it comes to we're kind of drowning. You know, our 1:45:12.880 --> 1:45:16.880 voices are drowned a little bit. What is your personal 1:45:16.920 --> 1:45:22.520 belief of the cause of the great resurgence? Anti Semitism 1:45:22.560 --> 1:45:26.840 never went away, but even statistically it's burgeoned in the 1:45:26.920 --> 1:45:30.519 last seven years or so. Why do you think that is. 1:45:31.600 --> 1:45:37.920 You know, here's the thing. Throughout history, every time a 1:45:38.080 --> 1:45:42.960 society was having challenges, the Jews were to blame. So 1:45:43.000 --> 1:45:45.200 when we look at in perspective of history, this is 1:45:45.200 --> 1:45:48.280 not surprising at all. When we look at what's happening 1:45:48.320 --> 1:45:51.479 now with like the modernization of anti Semitism again, whether 1:45:51.479 --> 1:45:55.200 it's Kinye West or anti Zionism, you kind of look around, 1:45:55.240 --> 1:45:57.680 you go, okay, we've been through a pandemic. So then 1:45:57.720 --> 1:45:59.439 of course they're going to be voices that say that 1:45:59.479 --> 1:46:01.840 the Jews created the pandemic, and we're sitting looking at 1:46:01.880 --> 1:46:06.839 it going really cute. So every time there's like economic challenges, 1:46:07.000 --> 1:46:10.040 they'll find the Jews. There's a plague, they'll the Jews fault. 1:46:10.120 --> 1:46:12.720 This has happened throughout history, and this is something that 1:46:12.880 --> 1:46:16.639 to some extent the Jews are to be blamed because 1:46:16.680 --> 1:46:20.439 anti Semitism is not simple racism, right, it's a it's 1:46:20.439 --> 1:46:23.240 a conspiracy theory. So it says that the Jewish people 1:46:23.240 --> 1:46:29.200 are they're also like they're they're like the Nazis would say, right, 1:46:29.240 --> 1:46:32.040 the vermins of the earth, and they're lower race and 1:46:32.160 --> 1:46:34.519 they're like the scum of the earth. Right, But they're 1:46:34.560 --> 1:46:37.320 also controlling everything, and they control the banks, and they 1:46:37.320 --> 1:46:39.640 control Hollywood, and they control this and they control them. 1:46:39.800 --> 1:46:42.479 So there's this like duality of anti Semitism that isn't 1:46:42.520 --> 1:46:46.520 simple racism. That's why it's harder to decipher. And every 1:46:46.560 --> 1:46:51.439 time throughout history it just repops. So it's repopping. Society 1:46:51.439 --> 1:46:52.920 has been through a lot of stress in the past 1:46:52.960 --> 1:46:57.519 few years. And sure, lo and behold, blame the Jews. Yes, 1:46:57.760 --> 1:47:03.120 but everything you're saying is certainly true. But observers would say, 1:47:03.400 --> 1:47:06.080 there you can say things and there will be no 1:47:06.200 --> 1:47:11.400 repercussions in a way that never happened, certainly in my lifetime. 1:47:11.960 --> 1:47:16.519 You know, it's been legitimized, and and why do you 1:47:16.560 --> 1:47:21.400 think it's been legitimized Jews don't count. There's this book 1:47:21.439 --> 1:47:24.400 it's it's actually David Baddell wrote a book called Jews 1:47:24.400 --> 1:47:27.519 Don't Count and showing throughout like recent history how in 1:47:27.600 --> 1:47:31.840 every Jews don't count in like d im offices, Jews 1:47:31.880 --> 1:47:34.200 don't count as a minority. Literally, people don't look at 1:47:34.200 --> 1:47:37.400 the Jewish people and think of minority. Right, So there's 1:47:37.400 --> 1:47:39.120 this kind of like double standard when it comes about 1:47:39.120 --> 1:47:41.920 the Jewish people again, because the Jewish people are not considered, 1:47:41.920 --> 1:47:44.920 they're not underrepresented. The Jewish people have used the American 1:47:44.960 --> 1:47:47.680 system in a way like this is a blessing. Right, 1:47:47.720 --> 1:47:50.240 We're like, oh my god, we can actually achieve things great, 1:47:50.720 --> 1:47:54.639 and now it's held against us. Right, So it's it's 1:47:54.680 --> 1:47:56.920 a very it's they don't want to cry wolf, and 1:47:56.960 --> 1:48:00.320 I don't want to be like competing in the oppressed Olympic. Right, 1:48:00.640 --> 1:48:04.519 you can be both an oppressed minority and also do well. 1:48:04.880 --> 1:48:06.720 It's just that people need to notice that there are 1:48:06.720 --> 1:48:11.679 subconscious biases towards the Jewish people are affecting them, whether 1:48:11.680 --> 1:48:14.120 they know it or not, whether they acknowledge it or not. 1:48:15.320 --> 1:48:18.600 What would you tell you know, you speak at college campuses, 1:48:18.640 --> 1:48:22.040 those are developing people let's just talk adults. What would 1:48:22.080 --> 1:48:25.240 you tell adults to do in the face of this 1:48:25.400 --> 1:48:29.240 anti semitism. First of all, say something when you see something. 1:48:29.400 --> 1:48:31.760 In second, reach out to your Jewish community. This is 1:48:31.840 --> 1:48:35.680 something that's not a joke. If you see if you 1:48:35.800 --> 1:48:40.120 see like a rise in anti semitism online in your neighborhood, 1:48:40.360 --> 1:48:42.840 reach out to your Jewish friends, reach out to your synagogue, 1:48:42.880 --> 1:48:46.679 the neighborhood synagogue, see if they need help. Actually reach out, 1:48:47.160 --> 1:48:50.479 Actually reach out again. This is something we are walking 1:48:50.520 --> 1:48:54.800 around feeling like we're I'm creating a lot of ally ship, 1:48:55.080 --> 1:48:58.160 like reaching outside of our community and finding more allies 1:48:58.200 --> 1:49:03.160 because the Jewish community does have allyship in the way 1:49:03.200 --> 1:49:05.960 that we would like to have. So that's something that 1:49:06.000 --> 1:49:08.040 I would say to again to people who are who 1:49:08.040 --> 1:49:10.040 are not Jewish, who are listening to this reach out 1:49:10.400 --> 1:49:12.800 or reach out. We're under stressed right now. Every Jewish 1:49:12.840 --> 1:49:15.360 person that you know is like breaking out a little bit, 1:49:16.240 --> 1:49:19.160 pulling the lens back a little bit. What do you 1:49:19.240 --> 1:49:23.800 think about intermarriage, because certainly in the United States, there 1:49:23.920 --> 1:49:28.640 is a rising number, rising percentage of people who are 1:49:28.680 --> 1:49:31.760 marrying people outside the faith, and there's a limited number 1:49:31.800 --> 1:49:35.040 of Jews to begin with, do you have an opinion 1:49:35.040 --> 1:49:37.320 on that? I mean, the father of my child is 1:49:37.320 --> 1:49:41.200 not Jewish, so and my child has raised Jewish and 1:49:41.280 --> 1:49:43.799 his identity is very strong, and he is first language 1:49:43.880 --> 1:49:47.280 is Hebrew, but it didn't it's important to me to 1:49:47.360 --> 1:49:50.919 raise my child Jewish. But I wasn't that particular about 1:49:51.520 --> 1:49:55.040 the father in terms of religion or tradition. Also knowing 1:49:55.080 --> 1:49:57.160 that I'm the woman, so it goes by the mother. 1:49:57.600 --> 1:50:01.160 I look, I technically, I just I think we need 1:50:01.200 --> 1:50:06.240 more Jews, so I would loosen the acceptance bar. But 1:50:06.360 --> 1:50:09.680 that's just me. But the good thing to remember is 1:50:09.720 --> 1:50:13.040 that everybody is welcome to be Jewish, Like everybody is welcome. 1:50:13.840 --> 1:50:16.680 It's going to take some work, but everybody's welcome. So 1:50:16.800 --> 1:50:19.720 I would love to see as many more Jews as possible. 1:50:20.200 --> 1:50:26.360 I also think that with Jewish culture and Jewish people, 1:50:27.000 --> 1:50:30.120 the proof is in the pudding. So there's something about 1:50:30.200 --> 1:50:33.240 Jewish way of life the works, right, And as Jews, 1:50:33.280 --> 1:50:35.920 we instead of celebrating that, we sometimes kind of try 1:50:35.920 --> 1:50:40.519 to hide it. So we try to hide the bizarre fact, 1:50:41.160 --> 1:50:43.960 right that the Jewish people are zero point zero two 1:50:44.000 --> 1:50:46.719 percent of the world population, but we're twenty two percent 1:50:46.760 --> 1:50:50.719 of Nobel Prize winners twenty nine and like economics twice 1:50:50.760 --> 1:50:53.240 that can't remember the exact breakdown, but like twenty two, 1:50:54.439 --> 1:50:57.320 that's a crazy number. And that's not because of some 1:50:57.439 --> 1:51:02.080 cabal or some genetic like it's not right. There's something 1:51:02.080 --> 1:51:05.640 about the Jewish way of life that's really good that 1:51:05.720 --> 1:51:08.680 everybody should adopt as well. And that's something that I'm 1:51:08.800 --> 1:51:12.120 very as a secular Jew, I celebrate because I think 1:51:12.160 --> 1:51:15.160 culturally we get so much to contribute. Because just think 1:51:15.200 --> 1:51:16.680 of how great, how where would it be if the 1:51:16.760 --> 1:51:19.559 entire world would celebrate a bat on a Friday, just 1:51:19.600 --> 1:51:22.080 get together with friends and family and like stop everything 1:51:22.120 --> 1:51:24.360 and just relaxed and not talk about mundane stuff and 1:51:24.400 --> 1:51:27.759 focus about you know, focus on like what's what matters. 1:51:27.760 --> 1:51:29.400 Like there's a lot there are a lot of things 1:51:29.439 --> 1:51:32.680 about the Jewish tradition that are magic that needs to 1:51:32.680 --> 1:51:35.880 be adopted by the entire world. How great would that be? 1:51:36.280 --> 1:51:38.559 So that's my attitude. My attitude is that we need 1:51:38.640 --> 1:51:42.920 to be more open in terms of acceptance and spread 1:51:42.920 --> 1:51:45.760 out that kind of like way of life more. That's 1:51:45.760 --> 1:51:47.000 not a bit of a secret, by the way, It's 1:51:47.000 --> 1:51:51.320 all out there. Just we can all live like that. Okay, 1:51:51.320 --> 1:51:55.080 although some of this stuff actually engenders anti Semitism. But 1:51:55.200 --> 1:51:58.759 moving the focus once again, what do you mean, Okay, 1:51:58.800 --> 1:52:00.960 this is the same thing. I don't want to get 1:52:00.960 --> 1:52:03.400 deep into a discussion is because there's a lot of nuance, 1:52:04.600 --> 1:52:09.240 But this is the same thing Asians are combating at 1:52:09.240 --> 1:52:13.280 this particular point in time. There's a very people would say, 1:52:13.479 --> 1:52:15.360 I don't want to start getting em get in trouble, 1:52:15.680 --> 1:52:21.400 but there's a very strong family importance placed on education. 1:52:22.160 --> 1:52:25.439 So therefore there are people feel that the Asians are 1:52:25.479 --> 1:52:29.840 taking their spots in education, and conversely, their Asians believe 1:52:29.880 --> 1:52:35.599 they're being discriminated against. So there's a long history with 1:52:35.800 --> 1:52:42.439 Jews that people feel, well, you took my spot, you know, 1:52:42.880 --> 1:52:45.360 and you know this is all a thing together you 1:52:45.400 --> 1:52:50.160 speak a little Yiddish whatever, and I'm not including Okay, 1:52:50.200 --> 1:52:52.200 that wasn't at all what I was saying. And as 1:52:52.240 --> 1:52:54.240 long as America as a meritocracy, and that's great, we 1:52:54.360 --> 1:52:57.880 can this is all about achievements. I hear what you're saying. 1:52:57.920 --> 1:53:00.280 I don't think this was not what I was you know, well, well, 1:53:00.360 --> 1:53:02.439 let me let me let me change a little bit. 1:53:03.400 --> 1:53:08.520 The world is not about facts. The world is about perception. Sure, Okay, 1:53:08.880 --> 1:53:11.879 and then you say, you know, as you said earlier, 1:53:12.360 --> 1:53:15.879 when times are tough, people are looking for a scapegoat. Yeah, 1:53:15.920 --> 1:53:20.360 and you and both you and me both know how 1:53:20.400 --> 1:53:23.040 hard it is to make it in Hollywood. People have 1:53:23.240 --> 1:53:28.160 no idea. You have to sacrifice everything and you still 1:53:28.200 --> 1:53:30.519 may not make it. But there are a lot of 1:53:30.560 --> 1:53:33.800 people who don't make it or don't even try, who 1:53:33.880 --> 1:53:38.880 blame the Jews. Okay, So there are these examples and 1:53:38.920 --> 1:53:41.760 they cause the anti Semitism. But I want to move 1:53:41.800 --> 1:53:46.080 to a different topic. Let's talk about let me just second, 1:53:46.360 --> 1:53:49.880 Just at that point, i refuse to recoil to that, 1:53:50.320 --> 1:53:53.479 and I'm going to stay proud, loud, and proud you 1:53:54.160 --> 1:53:57.719 And because I know that historically if I go quiet, 1:53:57.880 --> 1:54:00.439 it's not going to stop anti Semitism, So I'm actually 1:54:00.479 --> 1:54:02.720 flipping it on its head. I'm going to be as 1:54:02.800 --> 1:54:04.840 loud and as proud and as open. I'm going to 1:54:04.920 --> 1:54:07.040 invite people for Shabbat. I'm going to be as open 1:54:07.040 --> 1:54:10.519 as I possibly can because either way, antisemitism is not 1:54:10.520 --> 1:54:15.000 going to go away. Does that make sense, absolutely, very 1:54:15.120 --> 1:54:19.160 very clearly delineated. But let's go to Israel today. You 1:54:19.280 --> 1:54:23.640 had a video you posted about, well, Israel's a democracy, 1:54:23.920 --> 1:54:27.559 and just like in the US, there are people, you 1:54:27.600 --> 1:54:30.920 know who have different opinions. There's protests in that shows 1:54:30.960 --> 1:54:35.720 a healthy democracy. Today, which is March first, Thomas Friedman 1:54:35.800 --> 1:54:38.919 has an opinion piece in the New York Times talking 1:54:38.960 --> 1:54:42.720 about Israel being on the precipice. This is one person's opinion. 1:54:43.040 --> 1:54:46.000 I don't want to say that. I'm going to Thomas 1:54:46.000 --> 1:54:49.600 Friedman himself gets a lot of blowback, but talking about 1:54:49.800 --> 1:54:55.400 net Yahoo, talking about the Supreme Court situation, talking about 1:54:55.440 --> 1:54:59.720 the settlements, what is your take on what's going on 1:54:59.800 --> 1:55:04.880 in is Real today? My take on it is that 1:55:05.000 --> 1:55:10.440 Israel is such a flourishing democracy. It's virtually almost ungovernable. 1:55:11.560 --> 1:55:13.600 That's one of the things that people need to understand. 1:55:14.280 --> 1:55:18.440 What's happening right now is very delicate because I mean, again, 1:55:18.480 --> 1:55:20.280 I don't want to this is inside baseball, So maybe 1:55:20.280 --> 1:55:22.320 people have no idea what we're talking about. But basically, 1:55:22.320 --> 1:55:24.760 the new government is it's the most right wing government 1:55:24.760 --> 1:55:26.920 that Israel has ever had, and they're trying to create 1:55:26.960 --> 1:55:29.840 these judicial reform very quickly, and the majority of the 1:55:29.840 --> 1:55:32.600 country is resisting them. And there are a lot of demonstration, 1:55:32.720 --> 1:55:35.800 like huge percentage of the population are out in the 1:55:35.840 --> 1:55:39.000 street demonstrating. So, first of all, that's beautiful, that's democracy. 1:55:39.200 --> 1:55:43.680 That's number one. My opinion about what's happening is that 1:55:43.880 --> 1:55:46.800 they need to slow down. That's my opinion. They have 1:55:46.840 --> 1:55:49.600 to slow down. But these reforms need to be taken 1:55:49.680 --> 1:55:53.320 very seriously and need to come to a wide agreement. 1:55:53.840 --> 1:55:56.839 They must know now that there is no wide agreement. 1:55:56.880 --> 1:56:00.280 The percentage large percentage of we could voters want to 1:56:00.280 --> 1:56:02.040 slow it down. Don't think that it's the most important 1:56:02.040 --> 1:56:06.680 thing right now to do. But again, it's a it's 1:56:06.680 --> 1:56:09.800 a flourishing democracy. Let's see, let's see what happens. Look, 1:56:09.840 --> 1:56:12.240 if every single one of these laws pass, and then 1:56:12.280 --> 1:56:16.360 they pass like that, every country can unplode. Right, and 1:56:17.400 --> 1:56:20.720 they took Row away from us. It's this is terrible, 1:56:20.720 --> 1:56:23.040 but it's not the end of the American democracy. So 1:56:23.080 --> 1:56:26.680 this is a part of the process. We're all concerned 1:56:26.960 --> 1:56:30.960 and we're all watching it carefully, but it's a part 1:56:31.000 --> 1:56:33.840 of the democratic process. What's happening there right now? Oh, 1:56:33.960 --> 1:56:36.080 let's talk to me in three months. Maybe my opinion 1:56:36.080 --> 1:56:37.560 would be different, But right now I'm kind of like, 1:56:37.640 --> 1:56:40.920 all right, this is it's happening, and it's it's the process. 1:56:40.960 --> 1:56:42.800 It's a moving it's a moving and every day there's 1:56:42.840 --> 1:56:46.960 something else that's exactly it's a moving picture. But also 1:56:47.120 --> 1:56:49.400 when you referenced this in the beginning, but let's look 1:56:49.440 --> 1:56:52.600 at it enough from the outside, but the inside. To 1:56:52.800 --> 1:56:59.840 what degree do the Orthodocs affect the perception of Jews 1:57:00.040 --> 1:57:03.280 in general? It's like we were talking about inner marriage, etc. 1:57:03.520 --> 1:57:05.480 One of the big stories in America now, and I 1:57:05.520 --> 1:57:11.240 know some people who are involved in a very religious 1:57:11.280 --> 1:57:15.320 traditional groups where they're having a lot of kids because 1:57:15.360 --> 1:57:18.040 they say, we have to repopulate the Jews. New York 1:57:18.080 --> 1:57:23.240 Times has done all these series about these communities are 1:57:23.280 --> 1:57:27.840 taking money and not really educating their kids. In Israel, 1:57:28.480 --> 1:57:32.680 you have the Orthodox, the ultra Orthodox, they don't have 1:57:32.720 --> 1:57:36.680 to go into the army, etc. So speak to this please. 1:57:40.280 --> 1:57:44.480 I always say about my book that left, right and center, 1:57:45.200 --> 1:57:47.680 you can pretty much tell where I stand, but I 1:57:47.680 --> 1:57:50.320 can explain everybody's perception, and I'm not going to be 1:57:50.400 --> 1:57:53.280 I was. The book was endorsed by the left and 1:57:53.360 --> 1:57:57.080 the right, both in Israel and in America. Right, but 1:57:57.160 --> 1:57:58.800 who is not going to be happy about that? Are 1:57:58.840 --> 1:58:01.360 the ultra Orthodox? Those are the only community that I 1:58:01.440 --> 1:58:05.440 was like, you, guys, I can't defend that, so, honest 1:58:05.480 --> 1:58:07.680 to God, and again, this is inside, this is full 1:58:07.760 --> 1:58:11.840 on inside baseball, right. I cannot defend not teaching core 1:58:11.920 --> 1:58:16.280 curriculum to generations of people within Israel or with our 1:58:16.320 --> 1:58:18.280 outside of Israel. I just can't defend that. I think 1:58:18.320 --> 1:58:23.200 that is abhorrent and it's disgraceful and it's terrible. It's 1:58:23.600 --> 1:58:26.080 it's abusive for the children, there's no question about that. 1:58:26.440 --> 1:58:30.840 And it's not sustainable. So the Orthodox population in israels 1:58:30.840 --> 1:58:33.640 about fourteen percent. They're growing, a lot of people are 1:58:33.720 --> 1:58:35.760 leaving the Orthodoxy, so it's kind of like balance it out. 1:58:35.800 --> 1:58:38.000 It's not going to take over like everybody, but it's 1:58:38.040 --> 1:58:41.680 like the entire country. But there's no world in which 1:58:41.680 --> 1:58:43.440 you don't need to teach corpora with Lim and that 1:58:43.520 --> 1:58:48.880 needs to change immediately. That's my opinion. What about Sorry, 1:58:49.120 --> 1:58:55.400 aren't the ultra Orthodox also behind the settlements? Not entirely 1:58:55.440 --> 1:59:00.960 the ultra It's not entirely the ultra Orthodox are A 1:59:01.000 --> 1:59:03.480 lot of the ultra Orthodox are actually not don't even 1:59:03.560 --> 1:59:06.000 believe in the existence of the State of Israel. So 1:59:06.040 --> 1:59:08.880 they believe that it's an abomination because there hasn't been 1:59:08.920 --> 1:59:12.400 the Third Temple yet, So it's not The settlers are 1:59:12.440 --> 1:59:14.800 more kind of There are a lot of Americans in 1:59:14.840 --> 1:59:18.000 the settlements actually, and it's more it's kind of like 1:59:18.000 --> 1:59:22.400 the more muscletem traditional muscle team munim, you know, more 1:59:22.440 --> 1:59:24.680 than that. It's less the ultra ulter Orthodox, the ones 1:59:24.680 --> 1:59:27.080 with the black hats and the and all of them. 1:59:27.280 --> 1:59:29.720 But I'm against not studying core curriculum. There's no nothing 1:59:29.720 --> 1:59:35.240 controversial about that. Okay. So the average American we're talking 1:59:35.280 --> 1:59:39.400 about the government and the settlements, etc. They're not thinking 1:59:39.440 --> 1:59:43.240 about that. But on a regular basis in the news 1:59:43.880 --> 1:59:49.600 there are actions and retaliations, and the Jews, the Israelis 1:59:49.640 --> 1:59:52.840 in this case, which you're both, are constantly criticized in 1:59:52.880 --> 1:59:56.400 these circumstances. Tell us what you think is really going 1:59:56.440 --> 2:00:07.160 on here. I'll tell you a story. A few years ago, 2:00:07.320 --> 2:00:10.160 I was in Israel with the father of my child, 2:00:10.160 --> 2:00:13.200 my ex was. We were there together at the same time, obviously, 2:00:13.240 --> 2:00:18.040 and we were sitting and having dinner in Hurzeleia on 2:00:18.080 --> 2:00:21.640 the beach, and there was tension. So before sometimes before 2:00:21.720 --> 2:00:25.280 these attacks. You kind of get intelligence and they somehow 2:00:25.400 --> 2:00:27.880 kind of They're like, all right, it's tense, mus might 2:00:27.920 --> 2:00:30.760 try something, so be on alert. And we're sitting and 2:00:30.840 --> 2:00:34.360 having dinner and all of a sudden, sirens go off. 2:00:34.760 --> 2:00:38.120 And I'm sitting with my I'm sitting south facing south. 2:00:38.320 --> 2:00:40.600 The Mediterranean Sea is to my right, and I'm looking 2:00:40.600 --> 2:00:43.400 at him facing south and we're on the beach outside 2:00:43.640 --> 2:00:46.080 and the sirens starts going off and I start seeing 2:00:46.200 --> 2:00:49.480 missiles coming from the south, and the south of Hurtzelea 2:00:49.520 --> 2:00:51.920 and Tel Aviv is the Gaza Strip and we're like, 2:00:51.920 --> 2:00:54.240 oh shit, we're just looking at it. And I'm like, look, 2:00:54.320 --> 2:00:56.280 look behind you, here they are. Here are the missiles. 2:00:56.320 --> 2:00:58.600 And we get off and we go to the shelter 2:00:58.720 --> 2:01:01.440 and we wait for it to pass. An hour later, 2:01:01.480 --> 2:01:03.280 we are in the hotel room and heard Celia and 2:01:03.320 --> 2:01:09.280 we're watching CNN and the headline is Israel attacks in Gaza. 2:01:09.360 --> 2:01:13.080 And my ex, who is an American Southern Baptist from Tallahassee, 2:01:13.720 --> 2:01:15.600 looks at it and he goes, that's not what happened. 2:01:16.120 --> 2:01:19.520 They just threw missiles at me. Well, that's not what happened. 2:01:20.440 --> 2:01:22.040 And I'm sitting and I'm looking at him and I'm 2:01:22.120 --> 2:01:25.640 rolling my eyes and I'm like, yep, welcome to Azrael. 2:01:26.600 --> 2:01:32.200 This happens all the time. There's a terrorist attack, they 2:01:32.240 --> 2:01:36.600 call it israelis were you know, people were murdered. They 2:01:36.600 --> 2:01:40.640 don't call it a terrorist attack. Israel retaliates, they call 2:01:40.680 --> 2:01:43.760 it an attack, and they don't say what preceded the retaliation. 2:01:44.240 --> 2:01:47.360 This is the bias in the media is so extreme 2:01:48.080 --> 2:01:51.480 that once you've seen it for the first time, you 2:01:51.520 --> 2:01:53.840 can't unsee it. And we do this all the time, 2:01:53.880 --> 2:01:56.520 and it comes up every time this happens. There's this 2:01:56.560 --> 2:01:59.440 whole thing with the activists. They're like, no, New York Times, no, 2:01:59.640 --> 2:02:01.760 the Guard and let me correct that, and we kind 2:02:01.760 --> 2:02:04.560 of x whatever they say and we say what actually happened. 2:02:05.320 --> 2:02:08.720 But this is what happens all the time. The bottom 2:02:08.720 --> 2:02:12.720 line is Hamas for that matter, is a terrorist organization 2:02:12.800 --> 2:02:16.520 that took over Gaza by force. Again, Israel does not 2:02:16.560 --> 2:02:20.360 control Gaza. Israel unilaterally retreated out of Gaza and handed 2:02:20.360 --> 2:02:23.080 it to the Palestinians, and then Hamas took over. So 2:02:23.160 --> 2:02:25.320 Hamasa is the one who's controlling Gaza. It's a terrorist 2:02:25.360 --> 2:02:29.440 organization that wants to enact shariel law, which is the 2:02:29.440 --> 2:02:33.840 embodiment of rape culture. Right, Sharia law, not Arab culture, 2:02:33.960 --> 2:02:38.720 not Muslims and not you know, this particular iteration and 2:02:38.840 --> 2:02:41.840 wants to wipe Israel off the map. And that's what 2:02:41.920 --> 2:02:45.360 we're dealing with here. And we're dealing with people that 2:02:47.400 --> 2:02:52.240 celebrate death. We're dealing with people that again I'm prefacing, 2:02:52.240 --> 2:02:54.440 it's the extremists of them, right, that are dragging the 2:02:54.560 --> 2:02:59.840 entire region into hell. We're dealing with people that the 2:03:00.080 --> 2:03:05.520 more casualties there are, the better it looks. And it's 2:03:05.840 --> 2:03:08.760 just it's horrible, and it's horrible for the Palestinian people. Look, 2:03:08.760 --> 2:03:13.120 I've been to demonstrations and I carried signs saying free 2:03:13.160 --> 2:03:18.040 Gaza from Hamas, Free Palestine from Hamas, not from Israel. 2:03:19.000 --> 2:03:23.240 If these extreme groups would have put down their weapons 2:03:23.240 --> 2:03:26.040 and would have agreed to accept the existence of a 2:03:26.080 --> 2:03:29.400 Jewish state, they would have been a Palestine and there 2:03:29.400 --> 2:03:33.040 would have been prosperity and collaboration and communication, just like 2:03:33.040 --> 2:03:35.720 look at what's happening with the Abraham Court, with the UAE, 2:03:35.800 --> 2:03:40.840 with Israel. Suddenly it's it's suddenly the region is acknowledging 2:03:40.840 --> 2:03:45.400 what everybody publicly basically what everybody knew privately, and that 2:03:45.480 --> 2:03:47.520 is Israel's not a big bed wolf of the Middle East. 2:03:47.680 --> 2:03:52.480 Iran is And if you want more tech and more 2:03:52.560 --> 2:03:57.120 advancement and more freedom and more democracy, Israel's your partner. 2:03:58.600 --> 2:04:02.240 So Drew, if you get out your crystal ball, what 2:04:02.320 --> 2:04:06.040 do you foresee as the future of Israel and the 2:04:06.040 --> 2:04:09.600 future of anti Semitism in America? Those are two different questions, 2:04:09.640 --> 2:04:19.560 but both the future look Israel is strong and Israeli 2:04:19.640 --> 2:04:26.560 people are resilient, smart and stubborn. So Israel is going 2:04:26.600 --> 2:04:28.400 to be fine. It's it's not going to be pretty, 2:04:28.560 --> 2:04:32.040 and it's not it's challenging right now, but Israel is 2:04:32.040 --> 2:04:35.400 going to be fine. There's also such extraordinary people there, 2:04:35.400 --> 2:04:37.520 with so much brain and so much innovation. And if 2:04:37.520 --> 2:04:38.920 it's the country, if the country is not going to 2:04:39.000 --> 2:04:42.720 be changed, laws are not going to be changed to 2:04:42.760 --> 2:04:45.000 a point that it changes it such a we can't 2:04:45.040 --> 2:04:49.320 recognize it anymore, Israel is going to be fine. Anti 2:04:49.320 --> 2:04:53.480 Semitism is not going anywhere, actually, So it's kind of 2:04:53.480 --> 2:04:55.920 like a Jewish mandate to make the world a better place. 2:04:55.960 --> 2:04:59.840 And it's our job to continue warning the world when 2:04:59.840 --> 2:05:03.040 the comes up. There was an article years ago by 2:05:03.200 --> 2:05:04.920 Jonathan I've got his last name, Oh my god, it's 2:05:04.920 --> 2:05:07.360 in my book. It's called basically he's the one who 2:05:07.440 --> 2:05:09.280 kind of coined the Jews of the Canary in the 2:05:09.320 --> 2:05:15.280 coal mine. The Jewish people. When society turned on its Jews, 2:05:15.920 --> 2:05:19.040 it's a sign that society is in trouble. So every 2:05:19.040 --> 2:05:22.440 country in the world that turned on the Jews, that 2:05:22.560 --> 2:05:26.520 was foreshadowing for something bad that was going to happen 2:05:26.520 --> 2:05:30.760 in society. So it's kind of like it's almost our 2:05:30.960 --> 2:05:33.120 role to stand there and be like, no, we're not 2:05:33.120 --> 2:05:34.920 gonna let you do this, because we don't want America 2:05:34.920 --> 2:05:36.840 in the world to implode and just notice that you're 2:05:36.880 --> 2:05:40.000 being anti Semitic. Let's just stop that. It's not going anywhere. 2:05:40.000 --> 2:05:41.640 But I hope that in my lifetime at least it's 2:05:41.640 --> 2:05:45.000 going to go back and become unfashionable again, because that's 2:05:45.040 --> 2:05:48.360 the thing that we're frustrated a bad not that it 2:05:48.400 --> 2:05:51.800 came back, because again it's it never went away, but 2:05:51.920 --> 2:05:54.880 it became acceptable. That is a shocking proposition for all 2:05:54.920 --> 2:05:57.960 of us. Well, it would be hard not to look 2:05:57.960 --> 2:06:03.800 at the United States and not say the visibility of 2:06:03.920 --> 2:06:09.000 anti Semitism and the ability to verbalize it came in 2:06:09.600 --> 2:06:14.080 with the Trump administration, and you have a unique situation 2:06:14.280 --> 2:06:19.200 where the right wing always pledges fealty to Israel, support 2:06:19.240 --> 2:06:22.520 for Israel. There's issues as to whether that's because they 2:06:22.560 --> 2:06:27.200 see it as the Christian homeland or defensive whatever, But 2:06:27.920 --> 2:06:34.520 our country at large irrelevant of anti semitism. Most people 2:06:34.520 --> 2:06:37.000 on both sides of the FEDS don't think it's going 2:06:37.280 --> 2:06:42.320 in the right direction. Now, wouldn't that portend even more 2:06:42.440 --> 2:06:46.600 anti semitism. Yes, it does. That's why it's going up 2:06:46.640 --> 2:06:49.680 so much. And look, the thing to acknowledge is that 2:06:49.840 --> 2:06:52.120 right now we're dealing with anti semitism on the right 2:06:52.760 --> 2:06:55.840 and anti semitism on the left. This is one of 2:06:55.840 --> 2:06:58.080 those things that are hard for people to acknowledge. It's 2:06:58.080 --> 2:07:00.800 almost like it's easier to see the Jews will not 2:07:00.840 --> 2:07:03.360 replace us and the Marjorie Taylor Green Green of the 2:07:03.520 --> 2:07:07.640 you know Lewis Jewish space laser right, that's very easy 2:07:07.680 --> 2:07:10.040 to call out. But what about on the extreme left 2:07:10.040 --> 2:07:12.320 when they equate Israel to Commas? What about them the 2:07:12.480 --> 2:07:14.600 extreme left when they call when they call Israel a 2:07:14.640 --> 2:07:19.680 bloodthirsty country. This happens on both sides, and oddly enough, 2:07:19.720 --> 2:07:21.920 on the fridge light fringe right, on the fringe left, 2:07:22.080 --> 2:07:25.920 the one thing that they have in common is anti Semitism. 2:07:25.960 --> 2:07:27.920 So this is definitely something that I think we should 2:07:27.960 --> 2:07:31.400 look at as a society and be worried about. Um. 2:07:32.280 --> 2:07:35.879 There's no doubt the Trump allowed anti Semitism in America 2:07:36.040 --> 2:07:37.960 to raise its head on the right in a way 2:07:38.000 --> 2:07:42.160 that we never saw before. Um, which was shocking for 2:07:42.200 --> 2:07:45.160 all of us. But again, it's coming from both sides. 2:07:45.320 --> 2:07:48.600 It's radical left, radical right, and radical Islam is where 2:07:48.640 --> 2:07:53.320 anti semitism is coming from the most. And that's that's 2:07:53.320 --> 2:07:57.120 that's what unites them. But but I will never just 2:07:57.240 --> 2:07:59.280 call the right. I'm going to call the left because 2:07:59.320 --> 2:08:01.200 I'm obliver world that lives in Hollywood, you know what 2:08:01.240 --> 2:08:03.200 I mean. I'm going to call out the left and say, no, 2:08:03.240 --> 2:08:05.360 we need to look at ourselves as well, not just 2:08:05.400 --> 2:08:07.120 on the right where it's convenient, but also on the 2:08:07.200 --> 2:08:09.480 left where it might not be might not be that 2:08:09.520 --> 2:08:13.040 easy to look at. We still have to because anti 2:08:13.040 --> 2:08:15.200 semitism on the right, by the way, anti semitism on 2:08:15.240 --> 2:08:17.560 the on the left right now, the majority of it 2:08:17.640 --> 2:08:21.520 is anti Israel. Rhetoric anti Semitism online. Sixty nine to 2:08:21.960 --> 2:08:25.040 eighty four percent of online anti semitism is anti Israel rhetoric. 2:08:25.080 --> 2:08:28.920 It's the demonization of Israel. It's the double standard, it's 2:08:28.960 --> 2:08:32.280 the delegitimization of Israel. It's all these when you when 2:08:32.320 --> 2:08:34.800 you switch, when you switch the world due to the world, 2:08:34.960 --> 2:08:39.000 the word Zionist, it's anti Semitism. It's just it's just 2:08:39.120 --> 2:08:43.760 kind of cloaked and masked. Definitely. Okay. In conclusion, I 2:08:43.800 --> 2:08:48.640 think everyone on both sides of all these issues should 2:08:48.680 --> 2:08:51.200 read your book. So why don't you sell your book 2:08:51.200 --> 2:08:53.920 to my audience a little bit? Tell them, tell what 2:08:53.920 --> 2:09:01.600 they're what they're eating for if they read it. Wow, um, 2:09:02.840 --> 2:09:05.280 such a great pret question. So yeah, it's a It's 2:09:05.280 --> 2:09:07.160 a book that tells the story of Israel and the 2:09:07.200 --> 2:09:09.800 Middle East in a way that's that's easy and fun 2:09:09.840 --> 2:09:12.800 and funny. It goes in depth, but not too deep. 2:09:12.960 --> 2:09:15.440 It tells the story of my family that was establishing, 2:09:16.520 --> 2:09:18.680 very involved in the establishment of the state of Israel. 2:09:18.760 --> 2:09:21.640 And it was endorsed by both Bill Maher if you're 2:09:21.720 --> 2:09:24.040 on the left, then Ben Shapiro if you're on the right, 2:09:24.520 --> 2:09:28.600 and Aaron Sorkin and Eric Weinstein and raycourts While and 2:09:28.640 --> 2:09:30.440 a lot of people that are thought leaders that I 2:09:30.520 --> 2:09:33.760 admire that we're very gracious in reading the book and saying, yeah, 2:09:33.800 --> 2:09:36.160 we like it. It's good. So maybe your audience would 2:09:36.200 --> 2:09:39.800 like it too well. I think everyone should. Wed You're right, 2:09:39.880 --> 2:09:41.720 it is lighted. As I tell people, it's not a 2:09:41.800 --> 2:09:44.600 hard weed in any event. No, I think we've come 2:09:44.640 --> 2:09:47.280 to the end of the feeling we've known. I want 2:09:47.280 --> 2:09:49.879 to thank you so much for speaking with my audience. 2:09:50.240 --> 2:09:52.040 Thank you so much for having us. It's a pleasure. 2:09:53.000 --> 2:09:55.280 Till next time. This is Bob left Sex