EP#378 | GUESTS | UT Think Tank: Gen Z, Gaza, and the Politics of Dialogue - Deep Shallow Dive

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The following podcast is a deep,shallow dive production and
you're going to love it. OK, let's go.
All right, I am definitely the third most intelligent person on

(00:22):
this podcast today for sure, because I've got my guys.
I've got actually you guys, thisis this is great.
So on Instagram, we've got a group chat, the three of us, the
one and only Elijah Kallenberg is back and his partner in
crime, Jad Hashem. Jad, is that how you pronounce
your last name Hashem? Hashem is technically correct

(00:43):
but most people say Hashem causeof the Jewish the Hebrew coming
out there but so I'm not either.Yeah, that was the.
Hebrew coming. That was the Hebrew coming out
and. That's right.
Exactly right. You're biased.
You got to you got. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, but it
means the name Hebrew. So it's the name for God, and so
a lot of people. I love that.
So Jad's Hebrew name technically, because Jad in
Hebrew would be Yad, which wouldbe Hand, and Hashem would be

(01:05):
God, so his name would be Hand of God in Hebrew.
Believe it or not, it's a prettydope name.
That is a very dope name. That is a very doe name.
So the three of us have a group chat on Instagram and I named it
the UT think tank because both of these guys, Elijah just
recently graduated from the University of Texas and then Jad
is finishing up I think your senior year there.

(01:28):
All right, listen, Elijah's beenon before you guys, you know
that Janice really his partner in crime and these guys have
known each other well, I guess maybe for four or five years
from Texas and I'm going to let them explain that a little.
They Co founded an organization called ATIDNA International and
I'm going to have them take us through that.

(01:48):
And then we're going to get intoa really just a great
conversation today about really the generational mindset of Gen.
Z. I've honestly been blown away
by, I've seen from Gen. Z.
We're going to talk about Zoran Mondani in New York, who's
running for the mayor of New York.
We're going to talk about Syria and what's going on in Syria

(02:10):
over there. I haven't talked too much about
that on the podcast, but I do want to touch on that because
it's just becoming another, you know, completely puppet state
and and the people that are suffering are are innocent
civilians this time, a lot of Christians and you know, the
Muslims are going to get blamed and we'll talk all about that.
But really, more importantly, we're just going to let this

(02:32):
conversation kind of go where itgoes with with with two young
guys that I just have so much love and respect for.
And I'm so glad to have the three of us on here.
Jed, why don't you start off since the deep, shallow dive
audience doesn't know you, just give us a quick little
background, a little blurb, whatyou're all about, your religion,

(02:52):
all that stuff. Yeah, well, thank you so much
Ray for for having me on. And it's Elijah, it's been a
while since I've seen you too. So it's kind of a reunion for us
as well, I guess you could say. But yeah, my name is Jad Hashem
and I am a a senior at the University of Texas at Austin,
currently studying government and Middle Eastern studies.
Hopefully going to be going to law school very soon, actually

(03:12):
studying for the LSAT, which I take in just under 2 weeks.
So got that going on. But of course, taking some time
off for this, this podcast that we got, which I'm always loving.
But yeah, and I'm Palestinian American.
I was born in Dallas, TX, and I've lived in the United States
my whole life. And so for me, it's actually
kind of a delicate balance between being very much proudly
Palestinian and being proudly American.

(03:34):
You know, some people kind of, there's almost this idea to
where you can't be both in one just because of how the media
portrays Palestinians or Arabs as a whole.
But no, I'm very proud and blessed to be of Palestinian
heritage, but to be born and raised in the USI am somebody
who I've championed Palestinian human rights for a long time.
My family specifically comes from Nablus in the West Bank,

(03:55):
and I have a very, very large family.
I have aunts and uncles that areeven older than the state of
Israel. They're in their 80s and so
large family there. I have cousins who are mean, are
almost as old as my parents. It's just kind of how it works
in large Palestinian families. But for me, growing up in the
USI always cherished my Palestinian and an identity
because I really felt that it was my culture, it was my

(04:16):
identity that I had that really I couldn't find a lot of people
to relate to. You know, I, I grew up in Dallas
Fort Worth and where I went to school, there were no
Palestinians, almost no Arabs, and not even really many
Muslims. And so it was really hard to
kind of connect with people. In fact, I would argue I
probably went to school with more Jews than any Muslims that
I, that I, and for me growing up, one of the things that I

(04:37):
always valued when it came to Palestine was understanding that
being pro Palestine, it's not anti Jewish and not
anti-Semitic. I grew up around Jewish people.
My parents always emphasized to me that this is not a matter of
religion, it's not a matter of race.
This is a, a political dispute that we have when it comes to
the occupation. And of course, now the genocide
that's been, that's been occurring.

(04:58):
And so for me, I have all the love and respect in the world
for our Jewish brothers and sisters, including Elijah, who I
got to meet a few years ago. We we met at UT actually.
And, and he is obviously as, as Ray, you know, he's a
phenomenal, intelligent man who really I think will be, this is
a guy who will be, I think, the face of young Jewish Americans
for some time. I think you'll see him going a

(05:18):
lot of places. Yeah.
And so I'm just very grateful for that partnership that we
formed a few years ago. And currently I serve as the
Vice President of Atina International, although I'm now
the president of the UT Austin chapter.
I'll be the president for for this year.
And we specialize, of course, indialogue and peace events.
Elijah, I'm sure has touched on this sort of stuff before, but

(05:39):
that's really my brief introduction there.
I'm very grateful to be on. And yeah, lots to talk about in
the world. Absolutely.
So much. Let me ask you this.
So when you were growing up and you were saying that that, you
know, you really grew up around Jewish, Jewish kids your age
more than Palestinian because obviously there were none.
What were those kids like with you?
Like did they did they look at you differently?

(06:01):
And, and I bring that up because, man, I know both of you
have watched the documentary Israelism.
And I am going to put a link in the show notes for that
documentary. That documentary was done by a
Jewish gal, I believe in Los Angeles.
Simone Zimmerman I think is her name and and she's either
founded or Co founded that if not now organization.

(06:25):
Their work is unbelievable. But that documentary, I've
watched it twice now. It is just so good because here
is Ala Jewish girl who grew up with like the absolute almost
like like brainwashing one O 1 of what Zionism is and then goes

(06:49):
over to Israel and it's insane to me how she's like, wait a
minute, this is not jiving. So what were those kids like
that you grew up with? Were they open minded like you
or were they very, I guess drinking the Kool-aid?
There was definitely a lot of skepticism, I would say, about
people like myself. You know, when you're growing

(07:11):
up, whether you're a young kid or you're a teenager, you don't
really want to bring up the conflict, let's say to people.
But what I always felt around what I always felt frankly, is
that it was a lot more acceptable to be openly Jewish
and present as Jewish and celebrate Jewish holidays and
what not. Then for me to tell people that
I was Muslim or to tell people that I was Palestinian.

(07:33):
In fact, like from a young age, I, and I know a lot of
Palestinians can relate to me when I say this.
My father specifically will always tell me growing up to not
say that I was Palestinian, to say that I was Lebanese or
Jordanian or something else, because Palestinian, we live in
the United States, right, in a post 911 world.
And it's just, it's very difficult at times.
And I've, I've faced prejudice at a young age.

(07:54):
And some of that comes just withpeople being young and being
stupid and there's ignorance, but some of it also comes from
the parents and the parents don't change much and, and some
of the kids kind of follow that trajectory.
But you know, the Jewish kids that I that I knew definitely
were in the more staunch Zionistcamp.
They, at least to me, were fairly friendly and and at least

(08:16):
cordial, but definitely it was not a comfortable position to be
in when talking about Israel, Palestine.
I felt that really there was a challenge there.
And as much as I had no issue with Jewish people whatsoever,
it definitely felt like a lot ofthem had issues with me or my
sort of people, unfortunately. Yeah.
But I think Ray, as you mentioned, like Israelism is, is
kind of a a good example of how people can grow out of that and

(08:38):
how people can actually transform.
And so there's there's actually so many good groups now that
have even formed in just the last few years, groups like you
said, like if not now that are, that are Jewish based groups
that do tremendous work promoting this discourse and
promoting a pro Palestine agenda.
But it used to not really be that way in my eyes.
And so it's nice to see this sort of change.

(08:59):
And now more than ever, I still,you know, most Jewish people I
speak to frankly are fairly closed minded.
But there's a growing sense, I would say, at least in America,
to where the dynamic is startingto shift, Although I know Elijah
can definitely speak on that more than I can.
Yeah, and definitely your generation.
All right, Elijah, what do you think?
I mean, Chad's completely right on the subject of Israelism.

(09:19):
The, the story is very accurate for the vast majority of Jewish
Americans. I mean, growing up going to
Hebrew school, we were we were fed the propaganda from a very
early age. I remember, I think I was 12
years old. So this would be 2014, which was
Operation Cast lead in Israel. So another one of the quote UN
quote, mowing the lawn bombing campaigns of Gaza.
And I remember one of my teachers coming in so angry at

(09:43):
that moment, right? He was so angry at Palestinians.
He, he didn't call them Palestinians.
He only called them Arabs with the intent to erase their
identity. And he said that they're
inherently terroristic, they're barbaric, they're anti-Semitic.
And I was, I was enraged by that, right?
I went home to my mom, told her about this and she she calmed me
down and said, rather than listening to someone who has a
vested interest in maligning thePalestinian people, how about

(10:06):
you actually go speak to a Palestinian for yourself and
learn about their identity, their history and their culture
from their own mouths. And that's what I did.
The way I broke the propaganda was simply talking with
Palestinians. And by understanding that by by
having the conversation, we learn we're human.
We're we're not all that different.
In fact, we're brothers, We're not others, we're not enemies.
We're one family. My first conversation with a

(10:27):
Palestinian was a guy named Ahmed who was in high school.
And he wore this beautiful kafia, a black and white kafia.
And I remember the first thing Isaid to him was, wow, that
reminds me as a Jewish individual of our talit of our
prayer shawl. And he never had heard of a Ali
before. So I showed him some pictures
and he's like, wow, that really is similar.
And so that that Josh sparked a two hours long conversation

(10:48):
between me and him about our twopeoples.
And we said, Oh my gosh, we are so similar.
Everything about our two cultures is more alike than
different. And that's how we humanize each
other. That's how we breakthrough the
propaganda by understanding the story of the other and by
understanding that that other ismore similar to us than to
anyone else. So I mean, Israelism showcases
that, my story showcases that. And that's how you really break

(11:09):
down this intense campaign we'vebeen fed for years to show
Palestinians as less than human.And it's not true.
They're more similar to us than to anyone else.
And they're not only humans, they're our brothers.
Yeah, absolutely. This was when you were in high
school. You had that experience.
Yeah. Yeah, freshman, freshman year of
high school, the way. Kudos to your parents, man.
They really how was it that yourparents were so progressed with

(11:30):
this or so different thinking? What what what helped them maybe
break out of the mold, Do you know?
Partly background. So my mother's side is Sephardic
Jewish and for Sephardic Jews, it's a very, very different
atmosphere in Israel, Palestine,especially in the early years of
the state in in 1948, from around 1960, there was a lot of
oppression towards Sephardic andMizrahi Jews and, and that

(11:53):
happened to my family and so and.
By the way, what does Sephardic even mean?
I don't really even know what that means.
That's a great question. A lot of people talk about
Israel, Palestine, but they don't really have the the
terminology, historical basis. So I, I need to catch myself
sometimes and explain these terms.
Sephard in Hebrew means Spain, Sepharad means Spain.
And so the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492,

(12:13):
they went to the Ottoman Empire,they went to North Africa, they
are Sephardic Jews. Mizrahi means Eastern in Hebrew,
right? And so they're the Jews that,
that weren't in Spain, but they've always been in the
Middle East, right, in Iraq and these other places.
And so Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews are not Ashkenazi Jews.
Ashkenazi Jews are those who arein Central and Eastern Europe.
OK. They're, they're the browner

(12:33):
Jews, the, the ones with a little more melanin, but that's
my mother's side. And they had a very tough time
in the early years of Israel. There was a lot of Orientalist
hatred by the Ashkenazi establishment, government and
leadership. And it got so bad, many of them
left. A lot of them grew up in shanty
towns. They, they worked the poorest
jobs that if Palestinians weren't working those jobs, that

(12:53):
it was typically Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews.
And so Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews are very interesting
politically. Some of them are the most
extreme Zionists you will meet, right?
Ben Gavir, he's an Iraqi Jew, right?
And he is as far right as they come.
And the reason for that it's they have a lot of animosity
towards Arabs and Palestinians. They, they, they believe that
Arabs expelled them from rock and all these Arab countries and

(13:14):
they want to take out their anger on Arabs.
And they do that through Palestinians.
And to add insult to injury, because they were excluded by
the quote UN quote leftist Ashkenazi political movements in
the early state of Israel. I think David Ben Gurion, he was
a socialist, right? That was primarily Ashkenazi
Jews leading that they gravitated towards the more
right way, right movements in Israel, right, Those of Menachem
Begin, right, those of the Lecheleaders, right?

(13:37):
Those were the political movements they more gravitated
towards. And so they, they from the
beginning were very right wing. And because of that, they had a
lot of animosity towards Palestinians, but at the same
time, that animosity towards theAshkenazi leftist establishment.
And so Mizrahi Jews, they can goin either direction.
They can either be really far right or they can be really far
left. There was a movement in the
early years of Israel called thethe Mizrahi Black Panther

(14:00):
campaign basically based on the American right.
And they, they, they really tookinspiration from them and
brought that to Israel, Palestine to seek their own
liberation. So very cool, diverse history
there. But that's, that's the full
where my mother is coming from. Definitely that man of history.
Got it, got it. OK, OK, all right, let's talk
about like campus life and and really what your generation is

(14:20):
feeling right now. Because you know, it's
interesting that obviously when I went to college, I mean,
politics were just nowhere on noone's radar.
And I know right now politics are probably not on some
people's radar that are attending college.
You know, like the frat life people and things like that
probably don't care. But I will say there's a lot of

(14:42):
people that really do care and like, obviously all the protests
that took place last summer and all that, I know you guys were a
part of that Is politics really,and I guess I should say world
affairs and what's going on, particularly obviously genocide
in Gaza, maybe Russia, Ukraine, like is this stuff that's really

(15:03):
prevalent on campus right now? I'll take this one, I suppose,
cuz I'm the one on campus, right?
Yeah, well, definitely these issues are very relevant on
college campuses. And I've always said that I
think that campuses should be the bastions of free speech,
right? And that's what we partly do at
it's not having these conversations, I would say right

(15:24):
now, at least in this moment. Of course, this differs by the
state, let's say. So at UT in the state of Texas,
one of the biggest issues right now is with the redistricting
that's happening that just just passed and then in some of the
Texas Legislature. So that's been sort of, I think
the more dominant trend for right now.
However, if there's any issue over the last two years that has
struck the most people, it's definitely Israel, Palestine,

(15:47):
and specifically the genocide inGaza, even Russia, Ukraine for
that matter. Yes, people of course about it,
they care about it, but this is an issue to where the United
States is not actively funding agenocide, for example.
Got it. So people can have their views
on Russia, Ukraine and NATO expansion and all this stuff.
And I'm here to have that dialogue anytime.
But the fact of the matter is that Gaza right now, it's just

(16:07):
so apparent because it's impossible to avoid.
And, you know, frankly, I, I think that people, when they're
on social media, I think that people should see what's
happening. I think that as uncomfortable as
it is to, to see children who are or bloodied and limbs blown
off, this is the reality of what's happened.
And this is American tax dollars, right?
I mean, and this is what we've seen.
I think now it's a growing trendacross both, really both aisles,

(16:30):
I'm sorry, both sides of the aisle here in terms of where we
see the American Israeli relationship taking place.
But the left has always sort of been more in the pro Palestine
camp. And now it's I think accelerated
even more, including a lot of progressive Jewish voices who I
think may have previously been still more kind of on the
Zionist side of things. To the point now where even on
the right, of course, we've talked many times about the sort

(16:53):
of isolationist approach, this Tucker Carlson, even Marjorie
Taylor Green approach of saying,hey, I know I don't want America
funding the deaths of 10s of thousands of children in Gaza.
Some Thomas Massie, who I I think has been a superstar
really. And, and honestly, I would not
be surprised if they really try to oust him as hard as possible,
which I think they're really going to do.
They're going to push him out asfast as they can.

(17:15):
I think so too. I think so too.
You know what's interesting about the, the, the right and
the left, right now, you know Marjorie Taylor Green?
Yeah. I I give her a lot of credit.
She's making a lot of noise now.She, well, she is.
She's making a lot of noise. I give her credit.
But then it's funny, it's like, where are the Democrats now?
They're not making noise. You know what I mean?
You've got Marjorie Taylor Greenbeing the loudest voice of what

(17:40):
are we doing in Israel? Why do we keep giving them
money? Why do we keep doing this?
And then I look at the entire Democratic Party and I'm like,
hey, where are you guys? Let alone where's Barack Obama,
Where's Joe Biden? Where's Kamala Harris?
Where's Nancy Pelosi? Where's Chuck Schumer Hawking
Jeffries? Forget it.

(18:00):
That dude is just like, he's so on the payroll.
Him and Cory Booker. Those guys are so on the
payroll. It's insane.
But you know, it's like I was having this discussion.
Can't even get Bernie Sanders tosay the word.
I mean, let alone that risk. We can't even get Bernie to say
the G word man it's. Terrible.
Know what? That's that's another great
point. I mean, Bernie will, Bernie will

(18:23):
curse out Netanyahu all day long, but that's kind of where
it ends. And you know, it's funny, I even
found myself over the progression of this for for many
months, I was always like blaming Netanyahu.
I was like Netanyahu, Netanyahu,Netanyahu.
But honestly, if you, if you really want to call a spade a
spade and if you want to have real talk, you got to scope it

(18:45):
above him. It's not just him.
Yes, he is the centerpiece and he's the spokesperson and really
he's the central figure that's catching all the heat and all of
that's by design. But it's more than that.
It's absolutely more than that. You got to go to the root cause.
You got to go to the. Root cause?

(19:06):
Yeah, the root cause. Exactly the root root cause.
And and let me ask you this and Elijah, you answer first.
I mean, do you think at the end of the day, is it just the land?
Do they just want to expel, whether that's through
genociding or relocation or whatever?
Do they just want all Palestinians out of, I mean, the

(19:29):
West Bank's the crown jewel, youand I have talked about this
before, but out of the West Bank, out of Gaza?
And do they want that to be justa pure Jewish state for the sake
of having one? What?
What do you think the root causeis?
Yeah, I mean the Zionist movement early on.
Understood. The primary struggle in this
land is over demographics, right?

(19:50):
If you're going to have a piece of territory and call it a
Jewish state, you need a solid demographic, Jewish majority.
And as soon as you annex Gaza and the West Bank, that's an
additional 5 million Palestinians on top of the 2
million Palestinian Arabs who have citizenship in Israel
alongside 7 million Jews in the land.
It'll be a seven to seven figure, right?
So if you want to more territoryand call this a Jewish state,

(20:12):
you have to expel. You have to expel.
It's the only way to get this done.
And so day one, what did? Did the defense minister of
Israel say it was going to happen in Gaza?
No food, no water, no electricity.
The the intent was starvation off the bat, right?
That was the goal. What's the purpose of
starvation, right? To get people to leave, to
either mass kill them or to get them to leave, right?
Typically both. So in my eyes, the only goal of

(20:36):
the government at this point is to expel Palestinians.
It's to annex and expel and to get as few Palestinians in the
land as possible in order to have that solid demographic
majority. And in the West Bank, it's even
harder, right? It's much harder to get these
Palestinians to leave. And we're seeing a slower
approach, a slower burn approach.
So for example, there's what just happened in Taipei, right?
The persecution of many Palestinian Christians in this

(20:58):
little village that is the biblical town of Afrin, and to
settler violence there. The reason for that settler
violence is to scare Palestinians, to get them to
immigrate, right? Because that's the only way
they'll beef. It's much harder for the IDF to
come in and just mass expel because the world would would
get very angry, right? So these little episodes of
settler violence with the intentfor immigration is what they're
going for and it's what they have done over the past 50 years

(21:20):
in the West Bank. So the struggle over
demographics has main has been the central focus of Zionism
since its inception. Theodore Herzl, David Ben
Gurion, they understood that we need a Jewish demographic
majority. So in 1948, what did that mean?
That meant the expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians from Israel
proper, right? The first knock, but right.
But that's continued ever since right after the annexation of

(21:41):
the West Bank, there has been a complete impetus to try and get
Palestinians to move. And after October 7th, they had
the best green light in the world, right to spell 2 million
Palestinians from Gaza. And so off the bat, nation was
their weapon. Physical genocide was also
another weapon, right? Every two at their disposal to
decrease the Palestinian population in order to ensure a
solid Jewish demographic majority and domination of the

(22:04):
land from the river to the sea. That is their goal.
Yeah, Yeah. OK.
OK. All right, Jen, let me ask you
this question. I've asked Elijah and I've
talked about this before. I don't think, I don't think
I've ever convinced him, but I'mcurious to get your thoughts on
this. I swear, I think Hamas is fake.
I think they and if not fake, I think they are a, a creation of

(22:28):
of Netanyahu and Likud party in the United States and everybody
to have a boogeyman, to have an enemy have somebody that they
can blame for everything. Like I got a flat tire the other
day. I can blame Hamas for that.
You know, it's like somebody to blame for everything in order to

(22:49):
do it. A couple things.
One is that keeps the United States spigot of money, $3.8
billion a year, able to be sent because, hey, we've got to help
them defend against Hamas. Secondly, can't.
You can't just kill innocent civilians if there's not a
underlying thing to be going after.

(23:10):
And that's what Hamas is. And the and the third thing, the
reason I think that is like, it's like, where are they?
Like nobody even knows who's leading Hamas.
Their entire leadership now has been wiped out three times.
Like honestly, I bet you if I went on Tucker Carlson, Candace
Owens, Megyn Kelly, any talk show, Fox, anything, and I said,

(23:32):
name the leader of Hamas, nobodyknows.
Nobody even knows who's running anything.
They don't have a spokesperson. It's not like like I love the
hoots when they blow something up.
They have that one Yemenis dude who comes out and he's like, and
it's like, it's hilarious, but dude's the spokesperson.

(23:54):
It's somebody that I can see who's a hootie.
I don't know, man. I just, and when I say fake, I'm
saying I think Netanyahu's cut adeal with a certain group of
people and then they're the onesthat are the quote UN quote
Hamas. But I don't know.
What do you think? Well, it wouldn't be shocking.
I mean, listen, what we know fora fact, of course, is that

(24:15):
Netanyahu did prop up Hamas. We know this is as as true as
anything else. This is the same Netanyahu who
took money himself from from Qatar.
And so it obviously adds up thathe is somebody who needs Hamas
for his own political viability.We have Hamas in Gaza.
That way we can do this. Number one, we can split up the
West Bank from Gaza politically,but then #2 we can always use

(24:36):
that as an excuse that we have. We don't have a viable partner
for peace in Gaza, right? It's the same reason why of
course they understand that thatHamas is, is, you know, it's
something that grew as a resistance movement, but now
it's been kept, I think by Netanyahu is really an Israeli
asset to say that, hey, we're going to use these guys as our
excuse to bulldoze and bulldoze and ethnically cleanse.

(24:56):
Because you're right. All the main leaders who we've
talked about, Yahya Sinwar, his brother Mohammed Sinwar,
Muhammad Dev Aruri, all of theseguys who have been, who have
been killed, who we know are dead, Ismail Haniya, all of
these guys are dead. But the problem is, and I said
this before, I think when Yahya Sinwar was killed, it was a big
blunder by Israel because they knew at that point when they
killed him that a lot of their excuses to kill even more had

(25:20):
now been erased. You got to keep him alive so you
can keep propping up some reasons to attack.
When they I, I, I would not be surprised if some people at the
top of the chain were saying, what are you guys doing?
Why, why taking this guy out? We need this guy for assets.
You know, this is not even much of A conspiracy at this point.
And what I will say, I'll actually go back to one thing
really quick. You know, we're talking kind of
about what Israel wants, what Israelis want.

(25:43):
The fact of the matter is that Netanyahu and his government,
they can use fear, of course. And, you know, there's polling
that's been released. I, I just posted about this on
my Instagram today. And this was polling that came
out about two weeks ago, and he was asking Jewish Israelis what
they thought about the starvation in Gaza.
And there were four options. You know, it asked, you know,
how concerned are you? How concerned are you?
Are you very concerned, somewhatconcerned, not very concerned or

(26:05):
not concerned at all? 56% of Israelis said they were
not at all concerned. And then an additional nearly
30% said they said not very concerned.
Only to 20% said they were either very concerned or
somewhat concerned. This is not just a Netanyahu
thing. Yeah, there's a reason these
guys get elected, right? I mean, it's, they're not just

(26:26):
being nominated out of thin air here.
And so there's a bigger issue going on.
But Hamas, it's just, I think you're definitely on to
something there because it absolutely has posed fear into
Israeli society. And the more fearful Israeli
society, the better it is for Israel's interest.
They have more excuses that way.Yeah, you always have to have
fear. You know, maybe you nailed it.
Maybe they started off as a trueresistance organization in 1987

(26:50):
when they when they were formed and all, all that.
And then maybe over the years, Netanyahu, who's God, that dude
has been in the game forever. I mean, I've said this before,
I'm going to say it again. I think the guy's one of the one
of, if not the most disgusting human being on the planet, but
he is, he's a generational talent politician.

(27:13):
He just on unfortunately is. And, you know, maybe maybe he
went to them years ago and cut adeal and said, OK, hey, we're
going to let you guys keep going.
We're going to let the Qatar money flow.
You'll be fine. You'll be taken care of and you
can do whatever you want. But here's the game.

(27:33):
Oh, man, I don't know. All right, let's let's shift a
little to New York politics. And Elijah, why don't you give
us your thoughts like Zoran Mondani.
I mean, you know, this guy's obviously everywhere.
I think he really put himself onthe map in that debate, the the

(27:53):
Democratic candidate debate, where they basically went and
asked, and I might even insert it into the podcast here, but
they asked all the candidates, you know, as New York's New York
City mayor, what would be your, your, your first place to visit
or your first something in office.
And everyone was like Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel.

(28:15):
And then he's like, I'm not going anywhere.
I'm staying in New York and I want to handle the New York
thing anyway. I thought that was amazing.
But honestly, that's all I really know about him.
So Elijah, give us, give us kindof, I know you even worked on
his campaign, but I mean, just give us a crash course in him.
What's he all about? What do you think that and give
me the good and the bad if thereis any bad.

(28:37):
Yeah, and since I worked on his campaign, I might get in trouble
for sharing anything bad. But I will say you hit it spot
on the head. There were two main issues that
I think were on the ballot in this election.
The first was Israel, right? The first was Israel Palestine.
And we saw a resounding pushbackagainst AIPAC, against the pro
Israel political establishment through the election of Zoran

(28:58):
more than anything else. That's what Zoran indicates.
The second issue was affordability, right?
New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Basic things like food, busing, all these basic concepts are
unaffordable for everyday Americans in New York.
And so more than anything, he simply hammered home that
message that I'm going to do my most as a politician to make
your everyday life easier. Free busing, right?
City run grocery stores to make your, your, your, your fruits,

(29:21):
your vegetables, your, your chickens, everything cheaper for
you, right? Whatever I can do in my power as
mayor, I will do to make your life easier and more affordable.
In terms of the Israel issue, I think that especially amongst
our generation, amongst people below the age of 40, that was
why they were so energize at Zoron.
Finally someone came out and pushed back against the
establishment and finally said, I'm not taking a PAC money.

(29:44):
Not only am I not taking a PAC money, I am going to stand up
and say I want to put the citizens that I'm representing
before a foreign interest. We love that, right?
Finally, someone's actually looking out for us, right?
Which the boomers apparently can't comprehend or, or grasp.
And when I was working for Zoron, it's actually a very
interesting story. iPhone bank for him.
So I was calling New Yorkers to advocate for Zoron and a lot in

(30:06):
New York's a very Jewish city. It's the most Jewish city in the
world. And most of the people I was
calling were Jewish. And a lot of the pushback I got
against Zoran was from older Jewish individuals.
Younger Jewish individuals actually were loving him.
They're like, yeah, I'm going togo out and vote for him.
But it was the older Jewish demographic, I would say above
60 years old that really gave methe most pushback.
And one woman, I think she was in probably an 80 plus year old

(30:26):
Jewish woman. She she she told me this was a
verbatim quote, that I'm quote no better than a Palestinian by
working for him. She knew I was Jewish.
And the first thing I set back for was, well, to me, that's a
compliment, right? The Palestinian people are the
bravest people on the planet. So I, I, I really love the fact
that you're comparing me to suchan admirable people.
So thank you for that. And then I hung up the phone
because I'm like this, this woman is is beyond the.

(30:47):
Man, she must have gone crazy. So when you phone bank, I mean,
what is literally you're callingpeople and and, and talk us
through that like is pretend pretend you just called me.
What? What does that go like?
Yeah. And so if you're a New Yorker, I
would typically ask you what areyour primary concerns before I
even touch on Zoran, right. And I'm saying in a political

(31:09):
candidate, what would you like to see?
What is your go to issue? Right.
And so if you mentioned Israel, I would craft a speech for that
to say like, look, this is what Zoran's approaches to Israel.
And most of the time it's it's it's not a positive view of
Israel. Most candidates have if it's oh,
I can't afford XY. And ZI would give the step by
step playbook of how Zoran is addressing that issue.
If your issue is housing, I'm, I'm going to tell you his plan

(31:29):
for housing, how to make housingmore affordable if it's, if it's
bussing, right? You, you, you can't afford
bussing in the city, right? I'm telling you his plan for
bussing if it's basic stuff likehalal food, right?
He has a plan to decrease halal food by $2.00 by simply giving
ownership of the actual carts tohalal shop owners right now
would actually decrease the average dish at a halal

(31:49):
restaurant in New York by $2.00,right?
Everything that you think is important, I'm trying to spill
out to you that Zoran is representing in his campaign.
So no matter what your issue is,Ray, I know you're you're big on
Israel side to give you statements by Zoran about how
he's very critical of Israel, how he's trying to put New York
first. That's the message I would craft
to you and. So these people, you know, it's
so funny. It's like my concept of New

(32:11):
Yorkers. I can't even believe they take
the calls. Yeah, like, I would think they'd
be like, shut, why the fuck are you calling me and just hang up
immediately. That's hilarious.
But from what I've seen, there'sa huge base of Jewish New
Yorkers that supports Zolon. I mean, you don't, you don't
see, you don't see those numbers.

(32:33):
I mean, you definitely don't seethem on Fox News or Newsmax or
the New York Post or any of the right wings.
They're not going to push that. But even even the CNNS and all
those guys, I don't see them really pushing it that much.
But I think it's true, right? Yes, it is.
Almost 50% of Jewish New Yorkerswere voting for Zoron,

(32:53):
specifically younger demographics that below 40
demographic love Zoron. And there there's a variety of
political reasons for that, right?
This generation is more, we can say more, more disconnected from
Israel, right? They're growing up alongside
other Gen. Z ers who are also very critical
of Israel. They're engaging in those
conversations and I think they simply feel safe with Zoron,
right under people like Andrew, through Cuomo, under Eric Adams,

(33:17):
right, by elevating Jews to thispedestal to say, oh, we've got
to protect Jewish Americans above every other people, right?
In response to what happened after October 7th, Jews have
become a target because of political actions, right?
That right, right makes this very visible to say, oh, I'm,
I'm going out of my way to allocate resources towards
Jewish protection, towards making sure Jews specifically
stay safe. And someone like Quran saying, I

(33:38):
want everyone in my city, no matter after Jewish, Muslim,
Christian, no matter what ethnicity, I want everyone to be
equal. I think a lot of Jews say, yes,
this is how we can be safe, right?
That political message making usno different than anyone else in
the city is something we really vibe with, and it's something
that we can feel safe with. And so I think Zoran has really
crafted a perfect message for Jewish Americans to feel
comfortable and safe under his leadership.

(33:59):
And that's especially why I lovehim.
I think that's a great message going forward.
OK. OK.
So at this point, it's going to be him versus Eric Adams.
Is that the race? Is there a Republican candidate?
There is, it's like this Italianguy who wears like a, like some
weird, yeah, he's weird, but he's he's got no shot.
In fact, they pulled Republicansin New York behind that
candidate. Zoran is pulling second amongst

(34:21):
Republicans in New York, right ahead of Eric Adams and Andrew
Cuomo, right. So this really shows that a
populist affordability centered message can capture a wide
coalition of voters, right? Even if they're not just
Democrats or leftist, right, even into the public.
And I've always said this, right, when Bernie was going
against Joe Biden in that primary, you saw a lot of Trump

(34:43):
people coming out to support Bernie.
Why was that right? Because he centered populist
economics at the heart of his message.
Affordability, Medicare for all,these these basic issues where
your bank account is benefiting.Republicans that that are
typically on the poor side. Love that, right?
They'll gravitate that. And we're seeing that play out
with Zero one 100%. OK, OK.
The other thing about Zoran and Jed and I were talking about

(35:05):
this before we jumped on, I mean, it's like, how is the
Democratic Party not supporting him?
You know, this is like, this is like one of your guys.
And that's where someone like especially Hakeem Jeffries, that
guy is such a clown to me. Like it's so obvious that your,

(35:26):
your APEC money that you're receiving, which I think is
close to $2,000,000. You know, that's why you're not
supporting this guy. That's the only reason.
Jad, what are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, I mean, it's just it's ridiculous.
Obviously the Democrats. I mean, first of all, it's it's
amazing to me how the the American people are not stupid

(35:47):
when it comes to this, because what you see, it's so
interesting. Typically what you'll see is as
as as a president gets less and less popular, the the opposing
party will get more popular. Yet somehow even with Trump
being getting more unpopular, the Democrats are just, I mean
they're at rock bottom. I think their approval is close
to 20%. I mean it's it's just the
American people are not buying. Great point.

(36:09):
That's a great point. Like like Trump is going down,
the MAGA parties getting split in half and it's like among the
Democrats, the only the only person making noise is Gavin
Newsom. Gavin Newsom is making some
noise and his social media team,honestly, they're pretty
hilarious. They're they're clowning the
head. But you're absolutely right.

(36:31):
You don't see the Democratic Party.
You actually don't see him goingfor the jugular and going for
the kill. So you have to step back and
say, well, why is that? Well, it's because Trump's
getting killed on the Israel topic and they're not going to
go for the jugular because theirbread is buttered by the same
matzo ball. Yeah, that's true.

(36:53):
No, it's, it's, it's true, right.
And, and I think I, I'm not sureif you guys watch, but the, the
Breaking Points interview with US Senator Elissa Slotkin from
Michigan. Yeah, Yeah.
I mean, she probably, God bless the staff member that put her on
that call because they're definitely out of a chop.
Now, yeah, that that staff member got fired because she
just. But it isn't that just show you
how you know the Democrats, theyknow now they can't just go on

(37:16):
a, you know, for a friendly interview anymore.
They know, you know, Hey, why are you supporting?
I mean, Alyssa Slotkin couldn't even answer.
I mean, first of all, she deniedthat there was a genocide.
And then when asked about sending weapons to Israel, she
couldn't even say, no, we're notgoing to send more weapons to
Israel. She's actually taking a a more
hawkish stance than even someonelike Chuck Schumer, honestly.
I mean, it's wild. And so, you know, and she tries

(37:39):
to pose, she goes, well, you know, I wasn't backed by AIPAC,
OK. You know, like, you know, as if
she hadn't received any AIPAC money prior.
Also, she she actually had. Yeah.
Wasn't even being completely be honest there.
It just goes to show you that Democratic voters.
Now, there's a reason why Democrats, I mean, I know in the
in the state of Texas, we have Beto O'Rourke, who's been a
prominent Democratic name here, who ran for governor in 22.

(38:01):
And he did a speech in Fort Worth recently and he mentioned
Gaza and he was talking about recognizing A Palestinian state.
And it got the biggest applause out of any moment during during
the dialogue in Fort Worth, TX, which is typically a more
conservative city. Yeah, Yeah.
That's what people look at. I mean, Gaza is becoming the
litmus test. Look at Pete Buttigieg, who was
interviewed about a week ago by guys on Pod Save America.

(38:24):
Couldn't give at all an answer on Palestine said.
Well, you know, we got to think about it, you know?
He was such an embarrassment, hewas such.
An embarrassment. He got thrilled and the comments
are just, Yep, this is not my candidate for 2028.
And that's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful thing.
And he released the statement and kind of like he almost a
little bit walked it back but was still so wishy washy like he

(38:45):
did not help his cause. No, I didn't even know that he.
Did it actually, you know, it's funny.
You know what it reminded me of?It reminded me of that CEO who
got caught at the Coldplay concert having an affair.
And then and then the dude releases a statement the next
day and says, I apologize, but then in the next paragraph.
But, you know, I feel like my privacy was really, you know,

(39:07):
stolen from me and I should not have to worry about being caught
with my side chick at a Coldplayconference.
It's like, dude, read the room. Nobody gives a shit that your
privacy was compromised. You shouldn't be having an
affair. It's just, it's wild though,
when you think about this, how Democrats now, it seems like
such a layup at this point. I mean, the the Israelis

(39:30):
themselves, more and more the Israeli human rights groups are
willing to say it's a genocide. Barely.
I mean, by the way, Catherine Clark, who is the #2 ranking
Democrat in the house right behind Hakeem Jeffries, called
it a genocide in the town hall and then got so much Flack she
walked it back in a later statement about a few days
later. I mean, wow, it's.
Yeah. Catherine, you can look this up.
Catherine Clark walked back her statement.

(39:51):
Flack from donors, right? From her donor class, not from
her actual constituents, right? And that's what.
Yeah, or constituents, I think liked it.
Yeah, but the donors didn't. OK, that's.
That you know what that's on brand.
That makes total sense. All right, let let's talk a
little bit about a Teedna because I do want, I do want you
guys to talk about that because I think I don't know if that's

(40:12):
how you guys met, but you know, I want you guys to tell us about
the organization and we'll startwith Elijah and then go to Jad.
And then I also want to talk about like Turning Point USA and
what your thoughts are on that organization.
And then also that that organization that is at every
school, I forget the name of it,but it's it's the Jewish
powerhouse young organization. What is that thing?

(40:35):
Called. There's a lot of them.
Supporting Israel, Michelanu, there's a lot of these.
Yeah. Texas.
What is it called? Bilal or something?
Hello. Hello.
OK, OK, Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want you to tell us about
that. But let's start with the Teedna
and then Elijah, I know you've got a couple things you want to
plug and go ahead and plug those.
Sure, before we get into it, I can do the plugging.
So a Teedna is currently hostinga few fundraisers. 1 is for

(40:58):
funding A Teedna's operations and peace building and dialogue.
Half the money we raised in thatfundraiser will actually be
going to the Gaza Soup kitchen. It's an organization that feeds
hungry children in Gaza. It's a fantastic group.
If you have spare change, if youdon't want to donate to a Tina,
you can donate to them to directly.
They're they're doing fantastic work.
We're also doing another fundraiser for a Palestinian
Christian family in the West Bank who had their multiple cars

(41:20):
and, and and their equipment torched by Israeli settlers and
now they've been left basically without a means for a stable
income. And so a Tina has taken the
initiative to raise money for this family in the West Bank.
I recently held an interview with the father of the family
who basically had his property destroyed by settlers.
And they're amazing human beings.
And so if you want to give moneyto them, we're we're, we're
accumulating it and going to give it to them.
But in terms of, you know, and what we do.

(41:43):
I'll get all of those links, I'll put them in, and then I'll
make posts on the deep, shallow dive Instagram.
Dude, those, those settlers are menaces, man.
They are menaces to society. They're insane man, and they've
only gotten more in Bolden afterOctober 7th.
It really is a combination of insane propaganda.
It's settlers have the most warped minds and they truly
believe it. If you ever seen videos by like

(42:03):
Daniella Weiss, she says you have to brainwash.
You have to have to. Brainwash, right?
Yeah, she does. Insane.
And it's a combination of that alongside fear.
They truly believe that by simply living with non Jews, not
even just Palestinians, non Jewsin general, they'll be at the
mercy of them. They'll be killed, right?
So it's a kill or be killed situation.
So that's why they're so violent.
It's this insane mindset. And they truly are

(42:26):
propagandized. It's it's it's insane.
But regarding a Tina Tina, we I've spoken about it many times
on deep child died podcast, but we're a group that's based on
college campuses dedicated to bring together Jews and Arabs,
Israelis and Palestinians have adialogue about anything and
everything pertaining to Israel and Palestine.
At our core, we are a free speech group.
We believe in talking with the quote UN quote other because

(42:47):
it's my belief that by having that conversation, we learn
we're not all that different. We learn that what's dividing us
is really many times artificial,right?
Our commonalities are what come through in the conversation.
That's humanizing. It's so much harder to hate
someone that you see as part of your family rather than someone
you see as your other or as an enemy.
And that that's the power of dialogue.
And, and it's our generation that really needs to pick up the

(43:09):
slack where previous generationsfailed and have these
conversations to finally solve these issues that have been
permeating for over 7 generationor sorry, first over 7 decades.
And, and that's, that's in my eyes, the beauty of a Tina.
We've been going strong for over3 1/2 years now.
We're at 13 college campuses up until this past year, the a Tina
chapter at UT Austin, our first chapter was led by me and Jack

(43:30):
AD And a secondary aspect of ourwork alongside the dialogue is
peace building. We bring together both people to
solidify that we're one family and not inherent enemies.
And we've done a variety of peace events.
We've done joint memorials to honor all innocents that have
been killed. We've done events where we bring
peace activists from the Holy Land, both Jewish and
Palestinian, to talk about the work they're doing.
And we've also done some crazierevents like we've we've hosted a

(43:53):
tent between an Israeli and Palestinian protests against
each other, bringing together both sides with a sign that says
and the and Jad LED us event. We had a sign that said one Jew,
one Palestinian, two brothers asked us anything inviting both
sides to come in, just sit down,have a conversation with a Jew
and a Palestinian in a civil andequitable environment.

(44:13):
That's amazing. So, So what happened?
Did people come and ask you guysquestions?
Was there? Yeah, I'll let Jad take that one
because we had some interesting interactions.
Well, we had people, all right, that's for sure.
And, and mostly civil, I will say, you know, listen, Elijah
and I, we're, we are always trying to be as authentic as
possible. We, we, we pretty much called a

(44:33):
spade a spade. And, and that's what we believe.
And I'll give you one example ofwhere sometimes things don't
always go as planned. And that was with one young lady
who walked up to us and an Israeli lady who was our age, I,
I believe. And, you know, she immediately
was fairly emotional with us andsort of frustrated, I would say,

(44:54):
immediately kind of starts attacking us and saying, you
know, you guys are platforming terrorism.
You guys are apologizing for Hamas.
You guys are doing all this stuff.
And I mean, she wouldn't even look me in the eye at first
because I'm Palestinian and I was wearing kafiya.
And so most of the anger actually was really directed at
Elijah more so than me. And she was really frustrated
with him. And Elijah kind of goes into

(45:15):
detail about his own experience growing up Jewish, kind of
having sort of a change in his his, his perception of the
conflict. And also Elijah has lived in the
West Bank for a few months at a time.
I guess Elijah now has left for just a little bit,
unfortunately. Hit him back.
On Yeah, he'll. Come, Yeah, keep going.
But yeah, so Elijah, like tells his story both from a personal
perspective as a as a Jew, but also, you know, sort of a lived

(45:36):
experience and also just understanding different things.
And as we continues to speak to this girl, a kind of a crowd
begins to form around us. I would say maybe 30 to 40
Israelis slash pro Israel peoplewearing, you know, Israel flags,
capes, you know, all this sort of stuff.
They were not exactly thrilled with us.
And Elijah and I I mean, and this is all on tape, actually

(45:57):
funny enough. So we can even like pull up the
YouTube video sometime and, you know, I can show you some of the
time, right? Because this went on for about
30 minutes total. This group just begins berating
us, I mean, going after us and it's just the typical slanter
that you hear. We're anti Semites, we're Hamas
terrorists. Elijah, it is a capo really a
sell out Jew. Basically.

(46:18):
It just got really bad to the point where I actually had to go
into the Israeli tent and grab the rabbi and tell him like,
hey, can you come get your crowdbasically because they are not
leaving us alone. And one of the guys literally
was was about to get into a physical altercation with
Elijah. And so it, it really got kind of
it, it just escalated far more than we would have expected.

(46:39):
And eventually it calms down after about 30 minutes or so.
And you know, thankfully that was really the only kind of
skirmish that we had, but it gotreally intense.
And that kind of goes to show you that certainly not everybody
is receptive and. When was this?
When was this? This was April of last year, so
yeah. OK.
OK. So about a year after or yeah,

(47:00):
maybe 7-8 months after October 7th.
OK, correct. Correct.
You know, it's interesting to think like, you know, these kids
that feel so passionately the opposite of the way you 2 feel.
It's like the question is, I guess they just were brought up
like that. Like, like do they not have, and

(47:23):
I don't know this, but do they not have the, I guess the
wherewithal to kind of think forthemselves?
Is that brainwashing so deep that you can't even do you can't
even think for yourself? Like you can't even see like a

(47:43):
like that video a couple weeks ago of that child in I think in
Gaza where his arm was blown offand he was on the street.
I'm like, how does anyone look at this and not be just
horrified? Like the kids arm is blown off,

(48:05):
there's no anesthetics, you're on a dirty St.
Like it's just insane. And it's it, it just makes me
wonder whether it's those kids or quite frankly, whether it's
somebody my age, some of my friends when I sent them that.
I'm like, how does this not shake you to your core?
Like like imagine your child, imagine this being your child.

(48:28):
I don't know, man. It's it's pretty crazy.
It's pretty crazy. Yeah, there's a lack of humanity
there. Take someone like Barry Weiss,
she has a publication called theFree Press and they published an
article, I believe it was eitherone few days ago, basically
trying to attribute the starvation in Gaza not to
famine. But they're giving examples to
sow seeds of doubt of how there's all these comorbidities

(48:52):
or these pre-existing conditionscausing the the causing in
children to starve, which is just, it's heinous, it's
starvation. Barry Weiss is such a shill.
She's such a paid shill. And for them to try to spin the
narrative that the situation with the kids in Gaza right now
are are pre preconditions that they had previous.

(49:13):
Actually somebody came out and they said, yeah, you know what,
you're right. The condition for this one child
was a pre-existing condition, but it was because the child was
shot in the head by a sniper bullet.
So that's the pre-existing condition they had.
Shrapnel from like missing but. I.
Yeah, yeah, shrapnel. Yeah, shrapnel from missing.

(49:35):
Shrapnel from missiles. Exactly.
I will say this, their propaganda is good.
Like they're good. They are good at spinning and
their spin mastering is really good and and they have an answer
for everything. OK, let me go back to something
Jad and I don't know if you knowthis, but this redistricting in
Texas, I really haven't followedthis that close.

(49:58):
Like do you have a, a handle on this that you could kind of give
us the, the, the the deep shallow dive one O 1 on this
redistricting in Texas? Yeah, I can kind of give just
some brief thoughts on that. So, so you're right.
Right now in the state of Texas,we have 38 seats really in our
in our in the US Congress and 24of them are Republican.

(50:19):
I believe 13 of them maybe they may be 1 vacant seat as of now.
So I guess it's 24 to 13 to 1 vacant seat typically.
As we know, states are typicallysupposed to be drawn the borders
drawn every 10 years or so basedoff of the census.
And so the the the borders that we have now in our state are
based off the 2020 census. Governor Abbott, however, in

(50:40):
this state really at the requestof President Trump, actually, he
is trying to see if he can actually create five more
Republican seats in this state. And just to give you some
background, in 2024, 56% of the vote went for Republicans in
Texas, yet Republicans have roughly 63% of the seats.

(51:00):
And I will actually say that there are states on both, you
know, both sides that do this. Illinois is actually a really
bad state that does this as well.
I think about 52% of the vote was for Democrats and yet over
80% of the seats are for Democrat.
It's, you know, it's, it's something that both sides have
done. But sort of the reason why
people I believe are more outraged is because of the fact
that they're doing this in, in 2025 when we haven't had a

(51:22):
census basically. And as far as I'm aware, there
is it, it is legal, it, it is something that can be done.
But it is seen really as, as a cheap way of doing this,
especially because it really comes from President Trump
himself saying, I want five moreRepublican seats.
And so now the borders have beendrawn in a way to where really 5
Democratic seats are going to bepretty much drawn out to be now

(51:45):
Republican seats, although some of them may may be more
competitive than others. The Democrats in Texas, as many
people know, fled the state for a while to, to prevent there
being a quorum on voting for this.
However, they've now returned towhere there is a quorum and it's
been approved. And it's, it's really sort of
it's tough because ultimately both parties have been doing
this for some time. But the real issue, I think for

(52:06):
most people is that it's happening at such a, a strange
time in the middle, you know, in2025.
And the frustration, of course, also comes at a time when
Trump's approval rating is getting worse and worse.
And, you know, now it's sort of it's sparked its own battle in
California now where there's a proposal to add five more
Democratic seats to California. And you have other Democratic
governors who are talking about trying to drop their lines.

(52:28):
And this really could be sort ofa nationwide battle here.
The unfortunate reality is that gerrymandering is just, it's
something that is so common now and it's very difficult to stop
just because the legal procedures to stop it are not
exactly that clear. Really, as long as you're not
racially gerrymandering, for themost part, political
gerrymandering is fine, even though it screws over a lot of

(52:50):
people. So it's just been a complete
showdown here at the Capitol, basically.
I've been able to watch some of it unfold.
It's something that I think we're going to see in a lot of
states coming up, especially California, as I mentioned,
maybe work, we'll have to see. So it's just been, it's been
kind of a world. It's just another part of the
shit show that is the United States right now.
It really is. By the way, gerrymandering.

(53:10):
Do you have a dumbed down definition of that?
What exactly is that? Well, gerrymandering
essentially, well, I can tell you what the, the word
gerrymander, if I'm getting thiscorrect, it came at a time when
there was a district that was being drawn in one of the
states. It may have been in the
Northeast where the district itself looked like a salamander
basically. And I think the man who drew it

(53:31):
up, maybe his last name was Jerry.
And so they nicknamed it Gerrymander basically.
And the name just stuck essentially gerrymandering.
It's, you know, it's drawing up a line that really essentially
what it's doing is instead of ofthe, the voters choosing their
representatives, the representative gets to really
choose who votes for them doing so.
I mean, I, I can tell you this in North Texas, where I live in
the Dallas area in 2020, the race that was in my

(53:53):
congressional seat 24 was decided by 1%.
The Republican candidate won by 1%.
They then redrew the line to be a Republican plus 19 district.
And so now it's just a complete safe district.
And they do that essentially by drawing out the line to include
some of the areas that are wealthier, more so white
majority. And they do it in a way to where
they can afford to get some morevotes in that seat.

(54:15):
And so it's a very, I mean, it's, it's you almost have to,
it's almost a precise sort of activity.
But now with AI, I mean, it's, it's probably super easy, right?
You could just kind of. They.
Know they know who's voting where and so they basically just
carve up the pie to their advantage.
OK, dude, amazing. All right, listen guys, we are
coming up on one hour, so I wanted to kind of keep this at

(54:38):
that. All right, I'm going to give you
both the last word. Anything you want to share?
Why don't we start with Elijah? Give us give us any any final
thoughts? I know we didn't really get into
the Syria thing, but maybe we'lldo that another episode I.
Can make. I can make that a brief last
word. I can give you my.
OK, go for it. So yeah, I'll just a quick

(55:00):
recap. What's been going on in Syria.
There's a town called Sweda. It's a primarily Druze town.
Druze are an ethno religious minority.
They have their own faith. It's an offshoot of Shia Islam,
but it's over 1000 years old andthey have their own faith.
And there was some tick for tackkidnappings with a group of Arab
Bedouin tribes close to the city.
And so they're on the road and like an Arab Edwin would come in
and kidnap A Druze and then a Druze would kidnap an Arab

(55:22):
Bedouin. And then that escalated, right?
And then there was all out violence between the two
communities. Then the leader of Syria, the
new leader, Ahmed and Al Sharah came in basically sending
military forces. And the problem with the
military forces is that it's, it's this hodgepodge
amalgamation of basically all these foreign fighters, domestic
fighters and, and you can't really account for all of them,
right? So some of them are ex ISIS

(55:43):
fighters, right? And and like these ex ISIS
fighters, they just want to killDruze right there.
There's the massacre, right? I'm someone who was pretty, I
would say cautiously optimistic early on about Ahmed Al Sharah.
Assad was a devil, genocided over 500,000 Syrians and so I
was very happy to see him go. But of course he has a
background that is Islamist extremist, right, Al Qaeda,

(56:04):
ISIS, right, very, very, very far Islamic groups that are not
good, very bad. And he's really shown
fecklessness at this situation. Israel came in and decided to
start bombing his forces as theywere being sent in to Sweda.
Israel wanted to claim that they're the protector of the
Druze. So they, they were Israel's real
intent was to annex territory, right, to get the Druze to
foment a revolt, the side with Israel and then Israel could

(56:26):
claim, oh, we have to come in, set up basically a all and
annexes territory or create a Druze state, right?
Something that's a buffer with the Islamist Syria.
And it's been a shit show. There's been massacres of Druze
that were horrific. I I interviewed A Druze
journalist who basically detailed his word was a
genocide. What's going on in Sweda?
I was, I was emotional during the whole thing.

(56:46):
I was just, I was, I felt so depleted.
And sadly, the leader of Syria, I truly believe that he's really
just becoming at this point, a feckless leader in Syria, but
also someone who's beholden to foreign interests, most notably
Saudi Arabia and the United States.
And so I'm I'm someone who's becoming more illusion with him
as time goes on. And he really needs to either
put his money where his mouth isand protect all the citizens of

(57:08):
Syria, or he needs to have a democratic Syria and step down.
And so it's it's, it's a brutal situation, man.
But that's a quick took overview.
Happy to get more in detail on my thoughts, but I'll leave it
at that. All right, all right, fair
enough. And my only addition to that is
I look at that Al Sharia guy. I actually called that from the
beginning to pat myself on the back a little bit.
There you go. I look at that guy as just

(57:29):
another, you know, puppet that got put in.
He's buddies with Trump. He went from being on the, you
know, top five terror list to wearing Tom Ford suits and
having meetings with Trump. And he was put in and said, OK,
you do do this, you do this, youdo this, start killing these
Drews. And to me, Netanyahu could be

(57:50):
quarterbacking all of that the same way I said he's
quarterbacking the stuff with Hamas.
But OK, Elijah, that was a greatrecap.
All right, Jad floor is yours. Any closing remarks?
Listen, all I'm going to say is that I think it's important now
more than ever for the American people to really understand
where their news is coming from.I mean, please, you know, let's,

(58:11):
let's, we're in the era now where the mainstream media is
dead and it sort of deserves that.
It's, you know, the, the CN NS, the MSDN, CS, the Faux News,
It's all, it's all shown itself to be really just corporate
media that is, that is able to control narrative, independent
media, people who are actual journalists who are digging up
the details, deep shallow dive, for example, doing the great

(58:32):
work because of the people that,for example, are able to be
brought on to to a show like this, that you have people who
are actual veterans or are doctors, people who are on the
grounds talking about what they see.
This is the journalism that's going to matter.
And I highly encourage people who are who are listening to
this to really try to expand your news to the point where

(58:53):
you're getting people. I mean, even someone like, hey,
Candace Owens, you don't got to love Candace Owens.
But she really, hey, she believes what she says and she
gets a lot of things right. I mean, you know, especially on
Israel, Palestine. And so that's somebody, for
example, just because you see them getting slandered, that
doesn't mean you turn away. In fact, there's probably a
reason why they're getting slandered as much as they are.

(59:13):
Tucker Carlson, the same thing. Leading Fox News was the best
decision for him to make. He's now probably the most
famous journalist in the United States.
This is what matters, right? And so I encourage people to
reach out from two different networks and to, to it's really
different media outlets and try to get the full picture as much
as possible while ditching, you know, ditching the cable TV for

(59:33):
this sort of thing. It's just it's driving us to be
to not get the full truth. And that's we should be all, at
the end of the day, striving forwhat is true in this world, in
this chaotic world we live in. Absolutely, absolutely.
Well, listen, I've told you guysthis off the record.
I'm going to say it on the record.
I think the world of the two of you, you both are just so
intelligent and so articulate and so well versed and so

(59:55):
nuanced that maybe what we can do is, you know, I know you're
both busy with your things, but heck, maybe.
Once a month have you guys come on whether we do it collectively
or individually. Also, I'd like to really start
getting some more clips of the two of you to get on social
media. You both deserve a much bigger

(01:00:15):
following than you have. I know you're both growing your
followings and I know that's noteven important to you, but I
really, I think you both need tobe heard more and I think you
both bring such a unique perspective to this collectively
as well as individually. But anyway, man, I love the two
of you. I do, I genuinely do, and I love

(01:00:36):
talking to you and I've learned so much from the both of you.
Obviously, I've learned a lot from Elijah.
Our relationships gone a little further, but Jad, I've really
enjoyed our interactions you andI'll do a separate episode, just
the two of us really digging into the Palestine stuff.
But anyway, all right, guys, Allright everybody, hope you guys
enjoyed it. You 2 stay on the line a second.

(01:00:58):
All right, everybody, call a spade a spade, call your
parents. By the way, that's my new
additional tagline to just call a spade a spade and call your
parents. You 2 do the same.
Hang on and we'll talk to you guys soon.
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EP#378 | GUESTS | UT Think Tank: Gen Z, Gaza, and the Politics of Dialogue

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}EP#378 | GUESTS | UT Think Tank: Gen Z, Gaza, and the Politics of Dialogue