Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Iah, Hello, Hello, letme I where's a mirror? I am
here, have a seat right there, and you guys, since it right
over there, I completely didn't lookbehind me and left them sitting in the
lobby. If that's okay, haven'tbecause we're already back on the air.
I just kind of gave your backgrounda little bit a mirror. And how
you got involved with IDF. Youserved, You've been friends of a boss,
(00:22):
You've done all these things. Sowhen did you come to the United
States and get right on that microphone? Nineteen ninety three, nineteen ninety three,
and what do you do here?Well, I'm an Israeli American and
what I do now is I'm thedirector of friends of these really defense forses
in clot States, which is Coloradoand Nevada. So obviously since October seventh,
I've been a very aware of youguys have been very busy, very
(00:44):
busy. What are some of thethings that you have done since the War
with a Moss started? So whatwe do is we support the well being
and education of our active duty soldiers, reservists and their family members. Okay,
So there's obviously been a lot,a lot of need because everything has
been so disrupted. I have anephew who lives in Tel Aviv, and
(01:07):
he we finally heard from him.He was in the idea for eighteen years,
had just retired last year, soit's back in now is a little
bit at one foot in, onefoot out, I guess for the foreseeable
future. But he said, it'svery strange because some days it feels very
normal, and other days it feelsnot normal at all. You're absolutely right.
I would say normal is where youwake up in the morning and you
(01:30):
just go, you know, withthe regular duties of your day with your
children, your family members, yourfriends and worked, and then not normally
when their rockets. Not normally iswhen you wake up and there are soldiers
who were killed. You know,we're they're like nineteen years old and older,
of course female and male, andmany many were injured. So obviously
affects your day. I live herein the United States. I actually live
(01:53):
in Las Vegas, and it's hardfor me, you know, being away
and it's hard for me to gothrough take go through and obviously my family
members. Sorry in Israel, howcan you kind of give people how do
you explain to people who have neverbeen to Israel, and I've had the
opportunity to go, and I've beenfrom border to border in a couple of
hours. I mean, it's sosmall. How do you explain to people
(02:15):
to give them a sense of thatscale, because I don't think people realize
what a tiny part of the worldwe're talking about here. Good question.
So I had the genre of leadingtwenty two delegations to Israel and when they
arrive, they're shocked by the sizeof the country. And you're absolutely right,
you know, living in the Statesand family members here like born and
(02:36):
raising the States, and I don'tsee them a lot because they're far away
from me. So I can takejust just to come here, right,
you have to fly, So youfly within the States like five hours,
you're still here in Israel about fortyminutes. You're done, Like you're out
of the country when you fly.Right, So it is small, and
you know, to just to giveour audience, our listeners a little bit
(02:58):
of perspective, so you can takethe entire states of Israel and put it
in I guess Michigan Lake. Ohwow, yeah, Okay, that's a
good way to do it. No, that's a really good way to do
it being here and trying to findout what's going on back there. How
much And I don't know how muchyou want to talk about the politics of
the situation right this moment. Idon't want to put you in an uncomfortable
(03:19):
position, but there's so much goingon right now between the White House and
Israel that is purely political and shouldhave should not be going on. In
my opinion, I think that weshould not be using this as a political
football. That being said, doesIsrael really care how much what the White
House says? I mean, Imean, and I mean that not in
an insubordinate sort of way, butthey're fully capable of going their own way.
(03:44):
They would just prefer not to right. So obviously I'm not a political
figure and we're a non political organization. But as a person, I can
tell you that all my life Iwas between the States and Israel. And
my grandma, my uncle, andmy cousins are Americans. So it's one
big family. And I will saythat the big family is not only my
family, but it's really America's andIsraelitis. So we we are we have
(04:08):
such a strong bond because we havethe settle values. You know, we're
in the Middle East. You know, you're here, we are here now,
right, But we share so muchin common, so much in common.
And there's a lot of friends ofmine who are professors and a lecture
and many of them have when theydescribe Israel, they say, a villa
in the jungle. Wow, that'sactually a really good way to put it,
(04:30):
because you're You're the only democracy inthe Middle East. You are you
The Arabs who live in Israel havemore liberties than Arabs who live under any
other Middle Eastern rule, correct,I mean, that's this is the kind
of stuff that I get super frustratedabout because that doesn't ever get out right.
I agree, And and there's it'salmost like there's a pr problem,
you know. So what is itthat you and your organization would like people
(04:54):
to know or do? If peoplesay, what can I do to help?
How can I help? You know? What can I do? What
do you say? I would say, the first thing that comes to mine
is visit like visit what visit Israel? So when you hear about Israel,
you know from like firsthand and fromyou know, personal experience, who we
are and not what you hear thereor you read there. You know or
(05:15):
TikTok here and TikTok there. Youreally, I'll give you a personal experience.
Like as I said, I leda lot of delegations, and that's
not with ideas yet. I meanI did with previous roles of mine as
a Jewish educated too. And Ibrought a class, a senior senior class
from Vegas and mixed Christians and Jews, and the teens came to Israel and
and one came to me he wasa Palestinian. That's how he uh defined
(05:40):
himself. He was originally from Paris. And as we are walking in Israel,
he looks around and he comes tome and says, mister Eden,
so at these Arab and he pointsat them, you know from faraway.
I said yes, I said,but they're walking freely And I said yes,
Like I didn't know what he's talkingabout. It he goes like,
where are the cages? Like Igot taught them big pages. Wow.
So really visiting in Israel, visitingin Israel and understanding, you know,
(06:01):
because when I brought the high schoolkids, we went to hotel. So
who served you know who served usthere? Jews, Christiansslans. You know.
I had a child who was injuredand I took him to the hospital
and doctors, nurses, Jews,Christians, Muslims. You know, Israel
is Israel. So if you wereborn in Israel and you're in an Arab
(06:23):
and you want to go and youwant to be a jud joe, you
want to be a police officer,anything you want to do, you can
do. Yeah. So when youhave the opportunity to take people back there.
For me, we went for mynephew's wedding and then we spent a
day in Old Jerusalem. And whenyou have the you can understand immediately why
they're fighting over that patch of landbecause it's so meaningful to so many different
(06:47):
religions. It almost feels like youare at the center of the world,
correct, and the start of theworld. Yes, And I think just
having that experience for me has helpedme feel very strongly that we have to
protect Israel. And if I'm gonnalook at it dispassionately, I would say,
who's going to protect my right asa Christian to continue going there Israel
(07:08):
as they have always done. Who'sgoing to protect the rights of Muslims to
continue going to the Alaxa Mosque Israel? Right? Let me let me share
this. You know that first ofall, I was born in Bersheva,
and Bysheva is the capital of theNegive in the south. And Brsheva is
mentioned thirty seven times in the Bible. And Abraham, the first Jew,
uh you know, lived there anduh and he got as a gift seven
(07:31):
wells like you know, wells youcan draw water from. And and that
was a big gift, you know, in the desert, right it's life.
And then one out of the seven, after four thousand years, is
still there. So when I wokeup in the morning every morning, I
could go and see and touch thewill that Abraham and his family Sarah,
they drank from. So and Iyou know, I took it as granted,
(07:55):
like honestly, to be honest,I took it granted. Yeahsheva thirty
seven times in it. By whenI lived, I realized, yeah,
right. And then and then talkingabout what you said, sixty seven,
that's the day, I mean theyear that I was born in nineteen sixty
seven. Now you know how olddame, and we didn't have the Western
Wall, which we go you knowbefore that we couldn't like since nineteen forty
(08:16):
eight, the year of our independence. Until nineteen sixty seven, until June
right, Jews could not go.They were not permitted. It was under
Georginian control. And now when wehave Jerusalem and we have the Temple Mount,
and we have the mask which isobviously over our first temple in our
second temperate right, and it's veryhard for me, as someone who loves
(08:37):
history to hear someone saying that theywere first. No, they were not.
And then you can look at youreyes and see where we were and
where we are now. But theycan go and pray. They can go
and pray, and this is ourresponsibility to make sure they can. Amir,
I appreciate you coming in. Whatcan people do to help? First,
I would love ifyone to go toFIDF dot org, just if idea
(09:01):
dot org and learn and see whatis that we do. Then find your
passion, see, you know,because we do so many things. One
of the things that I'm proud ofhis education or veterans want to go to
college in Israel and they don't havethe means. We step up and we
bring supporters from the United States tomake sure they can go to college.
So someone really loves education, that'sthe passion someone loves dogs. I know.
(09:22):
I've been here in Denver and wehave many many dog lovers. So
we have dogs in Israel and wehave in the K nine unit, and
we need help there too. Sothere are different passions, different programs that
you know. We empower women whenthey want to go to the best units,
even if they're in high school.We support private education or private tutors
(09:43):
to work with them so they cando the best they can do in the
army if they want to. Sowe really have and this warked over seven.
Unfortunately, we have so many orphans. We have children, not only
we not they don't have one parent, they don't have both parents. So
those children, you know, hundredsof them. They need to be taken
care of and that's something we're proudto do. So again, just go
(10:07):
if idea dot org. My personalinformation is just a mere dot Eden at
if idea of dot org. That'swhy evil address anyone who has a question,
anyone who wants to support, anyonewho wants to meet me for coffee.
I would love to Okay, thatsounds good, Amir. I appreciate
you coming in today. That's amere Eden. I just added the link
to the website, on my blogtoday at mandy dot com. Thank you
(10:31):
for all you're doing and I appreciateyour time today. Thank you. All
right, we'll be right back
Iah, Hello, Hello, letme I where's a mirror? I am
here, have a seat right there, and you guys, since it right
over there, I completely didn't lookbehind me and left them sitting in the
lobby. If that's okay, haven'tbecause we're already back on the air.
I just kind of gave your backgrounda little bit a mirror. And how
you got involved with IDF. Youserved, You've been friends of a boss,
(00:22):
You've done all these things. Sowhen did you come to the United
States and get right on that microphone? Nineteen ninety three, nineteen ninety three,
and what do you do here?Well, I'm an Israeli American and
what I do now is I'm thedirector of friends of these really defense forses
in clot States, which is Coloradoand Nevada. So obviously since October seventh,
I've been a very aware of youguys have been very busy, very
(00:44):
busy. What are some of thethings that you have done since the War
with a Moss started? So whatwe do is we support the well being
and education of our active duty soldiers, reservists and their family members. Okay,
So there's obviously been a lot,a lot of need because everything has
been so disrupted. I have anephew who lives in Tel Aviv, and
(01:07):
he we finally heard from him.He was in the idea for eighteen years,
had just retired last year, soit's back in now is a little
bit at one foot in, onefoot out, I guess for the foreseeable
future. But he said, it'svery strange because some days it feels very
normal, and other days it feelsnot normal at all. You're absolutely right.
I would say normal is where youwake up in the morning and you
(01:30):
just go, you know, withthe regular duties of your day with your
children, your family members, yourfriends and worked, and then not normally
when their rockets. Not normally iswhen you wake up and there are soldiers
who were killed. You know,we're they're like nineteen years old and older,
of course female and male, andmany many were injured. So obviously
affects your day. I live herein the United States. I actually live
(01:53):
in Las Vegas, and it's hardfor me, you know, being away
and it's hard for me to gothrough take go through and obviously my family
members. Sorry in Israel, howcan you kind of give people how do
you explain to people who have neverbeen to Israel, and I've had the
opportunity to go, and I've beenfrom border to border in a couple of
hours. I mean, it's sosmall. How do you explain to people
(02:15):
to give them a sense of thatscale, because I don't think people realize
what a tiny part of the worldwe're talking about here. Good question.
So I had the genre of leadingtwenty two delegations to Israel and when they
arrive, they're shocked by the sizeof the country. And you're absolutely right,
you know, living in the Statesand family members here like born and
(02:36):
raising the States, and I don'tsee them a lot because they're far away
from me. So I can takejust just to come here, right,
you have to fly, So youfly within the States like five hours,
you're still here in Israel about fortyminutes. You're done, Like you're out
of the country when you fly.Right, So it is small, and
you know, to just to giveour audience, our listeners a little bit
(02:58):
of perspective, so you can takethe entire states of Israel and put it
in I guess Michigan Lake. Ohwow, yeah, Okay, that's a
good way to do it. No, that's a really good way to do
it being here and trying to findout what's going on back there. How
much And I don't know how muchyou want to talk about the politics of
the situation right this moment. Idon't want to put you in an uncomfortable
(03:19):
position, but there's so much goingon right now between the White House and
Israel that is purely political and shouldhave should not be going on. In
my opinion, I think that weshould not be using this as a political
football. That being said, doesIsrael really care how much what the White
House says? I mean, Imean, and I mean that not in
an insubordinate sort of way, butthey're fully capable of going their own way.
(03:44):
They would just prefer not to right. So obviously I'm not a political
figure and we're a non political organization. But as a person, I can
tell you that all my life Iwas between the States and Israel. And
my grandma, my uncle, andmy cousins are Americans. So it's one
big family. And I will saythat the big family is not only my
family, but it's really America's andIsraelitis. So we we are we have
(04:08):
such a strong bond because we havethe settle values. You know, we're
in the Middle East. You know, you're here, we are here now,
right, But we share so muchin common, so much in common.
And there's a lot of friends ofmine who are professors and a lecture
and many of them have when theydescribe Israel, they say, a villa
in the jungle. Wow, that'sactually a really good way to put it,
(04:30):
because you're You're the only democracy inthe Middle East. You are you
The Arabs who live in Israel havemore liberties than Arabs who live under any
other Middle Eastern rule, correct,I mean, that's this is the kind
of stuff that I get super frustratedabout because that doesn't ever get out right.
I agree, And and there's it'salmost like there's a pr problem,
you know. So what is itthat you and your organization would like people
(04:54):
to know or do? If peoplesay, what can I do to help?
How can I help? You know? What can I do? What
do you say? I would say, the first thing that comes to mine
is visit like visit what visit Israel? So when you hear about Israel,
you know from like firsthand and fromyou know, personal experience, who we
are and not what you hear thereor you read there. You know or
(05:15):
TikTok here and TikTok there. Youreally, I'll give you a personal experience.
Like as I said, I leda lot of delegations, and that's
not with ideas yet. I meanI did with previous roles of mine as
a Jewish educated too. And Ibrought a class, a senior senior class
from Vegas and mixed Christians and Jews, and the teens came to Israel and
and one came to me he wasa Palestinian. That's how he uh defined
(05:40):
himself. He was originally from Paris. And as we are walking in Israel,
he looks around and he comes tome and says, mister Eden,
so at these Arab and he pointsat them, you know from faraway.
I said yes, I said,but they're walking freely And I said yes,
Like I didn't know what he's talkingabout. It he goes like,
where are the cages? Like Igot taught them big pages. Wow.
So really visiting in Israel, visitingin Israel and understanding, you know,
(06:01):
because when I brought the high schoolkids, we went to hotel. So
who served you know who served usthere? Jews, Christiansslans. You know.
I had a child who was injuredand I took him to the hospital
and doctors, nurses, Jews,Christians, Muslims. You know, Israel
is Israel. So if you wereborn in Israel and you're in an Arab
(06:23):
and you want to go and youwant to be a jud joe, you
want to be a police officer,anything you want to do, you can
do. Yeah. So when youhave the opportunity to take people back there.
For me, we went for mynephew's wedding and then we spent a
day in Old Jerusalem. And whenyou have the you can understand immediately why
they're fighting over that patch of landbecause it's so meaningful to so many different
(06:47):
religions. It almost feels like youare at the center of the world,
correct, and the start of theworld. Yes, And I think just
having that experience for me has helpedme feel very strongly that we have to
protect Israel. And if I'm gonnalook at it dispassionately, I would say,
who's going to protect my right asa Christian to continue going there Israel
(07:08):
as they have always done. Who'sgoing to protect the rights of Muslims to
continue going to the Alaxa Mosque Israel? Right? Let me let me share
this. You know that first ofall, I was born in Bersheva,
and Bysheva is the capital of theNegive in the south. And Brsheva is
mentioned thirty seven times in the Bible. And Abraham, the first Jew,
uh you know, lived there anduh and he got as a gift seven
(07:31):
wells like you know, wells youcan draw water from. And and that
was a big gift, you know, in the desert, right it's life.
And then one out of the seven, after four thousand years, is
still there. So when I wokeup in the morning every morning, I
could go and see and touch thewill that Abraham and his family Sarah,
they drank from. So and Iyou know, I took it as granted,
(07:55):
like honestly, to be honest,I took it granted. Yeahsheva thirty
seven times in it. By whenI lived, I realized, yeah,
right. And then and then talkingabout what you said, sixty seven,
that's the day, I mean theyear that I was born in nineteen sixty
seven. Now you know how olddame, and we didn't have the Western
Wall, which we go you knowbefore that we couldn't like since nineteen forty
(08:16):
eight, the year of our independence. Until nineteen sixty seven, until June
right, Jews could not go.They were not permitted. It was under
Georginian control. And now when wehave Jerusalem and we have the Temple Mount,
and we have the mask which isobviously over our first temple in our
second temperate right, and it's veryhard for me, as someone who loves
(08:37):
history to hear someone saying that theywere first. No, they were not.
And then you can look at youreyes and see where we were and
where we are now. But theycan go and pray. They can go
and pray, and this is ourresponsibility to make sure they can. Amir,
I appreciate you coming in. Whatcan people do to help? First,
I would love ifyone to go toFIDF dot org, just if idea
(09:01):
dot org and learn and see whatis that we do. Then find your
passion, see, you know,because we do so many things. One
of the things that I'm proud ofhis education or veterans want to go to
college in Israel and they don't havethe means. We step up and we
bring supporters from the United States tomake sure they can go to college.
So someone really loves education, that'sthe passion someone loves dogs. I know.
(09:22):
I've been here in Denver and wehave many many dog lovers. So
we have dogs in Israel and wehave in the K nine unit, and
we need help there too. Sothere are different passions, different programs that
you know. We empower women whenthey want to go to the best units,
even if they're in high school.We support private education or private tutors
(09:43):
to work with them so they cando the best they can do in the
army if they want to. Sowe really have and this warked over seven.
Unfortunately, we have so many orphans. We have children, not only
we not they don't have one parent, they don't have both parents. So
those children, you know, hundredsof them. They need to be taken
care of and that's something we're proudto do. So again, just go
(10:07):
if idea dot org. My personalinformation is just a mere dot Eden at
if idea of dot org. That'swhy evil address anyone who has a question,
anyone who wants to support, anyonewho wants to meet me for coffee.
I would love to Okay, thatsounds good, Amir. I appreciate
you coming in today. That's amere Eden. I just added the link
to the website, on my blogtoday at mandy dot com. Thank you
(10:31):
for all you're doing and I appreciateyour time today. Thank you. All
right, we'll be right back
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