Timeless Wisdom: The Moral Case For Israel (Part 1)

People are searching for truth in a culture that feels disconnected from it. That's why platforms like Angel exist, offering a space for uplifting entertainment and documentaries, including Homestead, a story centered on family, faith, and resilience. Solo Mio, a lighthearted romantic comedy. David, an animated musical with sweeping storytelling. And The Death of Recess, a documentary exploring concerns around the modern education system. If you're looking for meaningful values-driven content, Angel provides a range of options. Learn more at angel.com/prager.

Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs. And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com. On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom, I want to say a few words about this subject, the moral case for Israel. And I'll start with a controversial statement, but it's not meant to be controversial. I don't like controversy for its own sake. There is something troubling to me that such a lecture needs to be given at all, and it is doubly troubling that it needs to be given, of all places, at a university. Whatever your position on the Middle East conflict, It is a fact on this left, right, center, pro-Palestinian, pro-Israel, undecided. Anyone can agree there's no place in America where hostility to Israel is as great outside of neo-Nazi foundations as it is at the American University. That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. And it starts right now. I have so much to tell you that, uh, I— and I also want a lot of time for you to express yourself in agreement, disagreement. I welcome all of that. I do it for a living as a talk show host. I'm very used to people disagreeing. Oh, I'm now— like, I'm now on a— on radio for 20 years this August, and if there's anything I learned, it's how to respectfully take people who really disagree with me. So, uh, if you're respectful in your disagreement, I promise to be respectful in my disagreement. If you're disrespectful in your disagreement, I promise to be disrespectful in my disagreement. Uh, actually, I won't be, but I'll be tough. I want to say a few words about this subject, the moral case for Israel, and I'll start with a controversial statement, but it's not meant to be controversial. I don't like controversy for its own sake. There is something troubling to me that such a lecture needs to be given at all, and it is doubly troubling that it needs to be given of all places at a university. Whatever your position on the Middle East conflict, it is a fact on this Left, right, center, pro-Palestinian, pro-Israel, undecided, anyone can agree. There's no place in America where hostility to Israel is as great outside of neo-Nazi foundations as it is at the American university. Now, you may say that it's just a sheer coincidence that Nazis and universities are the biggest hotbeds of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish rhetoric. It may be a coincidence. It may not be, but it is a fact. And it's a fact that needs soul-searching on the part of the university. To me, there are many areas to disagree on. Many. Settlement issues. Was the right leader at the right time doing the right thing? Has Israel always been wise? These are very fair questions that Israelis debate every day, like we Americans debate every day. About our government. But over the large issue, concerning the large overwhelming issue, to have to make a moral case for a tiny democracy in a sea of police states is almost incredible. It is not a commentary on Israel. It is a commentary on the society or the institutions that need such a lecture. And indeed it is needed at the university. Listen, it was a— it's not just about Israel. At Berkeley, your sister college up north, it was impossible for— not only at the college, in the city. After 9/11, the only city in America where fire trucks could not drape themselves with an American flag was Berkeley, because the firemen were afraid that they would be attacked by students and the citizens living in Berkeley. Is it a coincidence that one of the most prestigious universities exists in the city that you can't have an American flag on a fire truck? Maybe it is, but all these coincidences about the university all add up, and you start to ask yourself, why does it have a different moral compass than the rest of society? To which, of course, many will answer, because we're smarter. We at the university are just smarter than the rest of America, and we know a lot better what's right and wrong, which would have to be the answer unless one concluded otherwise. Maybe you're not smarter, or maybe you are smarter in terms of knowledge, but not in terms of moral wisdom. Anyway, that's my— I have two opening comments. One is the sadness of the need to have to give such a talk. Second, I'd like to be personal for a moment. I will say highly critical things of the world in which Israel finds itself, because this is, after all, not a talk about the moral case for Israel on Mars or on Jupiter. It's the moral case for Israel on Earth. When you say that someone, for example, someone is a good person, Obviously, it is goodness in comparison to the rest of humanity. Compared to God, nobody's that good. But compared to other people, somebody may be saintly. So when I make a moral case for Israel, I have to juxtapose it with those who are opposed to it and wish to say that Israel is an immoral society. And that will be the thrust of the talk. But here is the caveat. And it is a very important one, even if it doesn't persuade you. It is just important for me, in answer to my own conscience, that I say this to you. I have a particularly good record vis-à-vis Muslims on the radio. It's provable. I opened— I am on 20 years, as I told you. My first radio show was on ABC Radio. For 10 years. It was an extremely popular show called Religion on the Line. There's a good chance that if you— your parents are from Los Angeles, they listened to this show, or at least heard about this show. It had extremely high ratings. It was very highly regarded, and I was the moderator for 10 years. I moderated each Sunday night, and my guests were always a priest, a Roman Catholic a Protestant minister, and a rabbi, or to be redundant, a Jewish rabbi. And I decided around the 4-year mark, "Wait a minute, why should I only have Catholics, Protestants, and Jews? Let me open this up to every religion." And I began to regularly, every month, have a Muslim. Before it was at all politically correct to do so, before it was popular to do so, And I did so, and they were grateful, so grateful. I was the first Jew to lecture, and do so repeatedly, at the Southern California Islamic Center. So I want you to understand that none of what I am about to say comes from ill will, certainly not toward Muslims individually. I, I pray, literally pray, that everything I say changes and that a moral renaissance takes place in the Islamic and Arab worlds. I pray for that. But I will be lying about the reality of life to deny what I am about to tell you, of the moral contrast of Israel and its neighbors. That's the sad reality. To have said that Nazism was evil was not to say Germans are evil. Everybody understood that in World War II because we didn't have political correctness then. You could actually say then that certain societies were creating better values than others because that's self-evident truism. It's not a truism that is acceptable, however, since multiculturalism. Was created, the concept that all cultures are morally equivalent. This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

People are searching for truth in a culture that feels disconnected from it. That's why platforms like Angel exist, offering a space for uplifting entertainment and documentaries, including Homestead, a story centered on family, faith, and resilience; Solo Mio, a lighthearted romantic comedy; David, an animated musical with sweeping storytelling; and The Death of Recess, a documentary exploring concerns around the modern education system. If you're looking for meaningful, values-driven content, Angel provides a range of options. Learn more at angel.com/prager.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. I debated on my show a professor from Rice University who had written a piece, or was quoted actually, in USA Today. A professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Rice University who said that the Middle Eastern culture has the same values as American culture and Western culture. And I said, "How could that be?" I mean, and I gave him example after example. He either denied the example or said, "Excuse me, sir, all cultures have the same fundamental values." This is a professor? My 9-year-old, if I can translate the words into simple English, would know that that's not true. If all cultures have the same values, then what's the value of any given culture? I mean, the idea is absurd. Is democracy the same value as totalitarianism? Is racism the same value as pluralism? I mean, what are we talking about? So yes, unfortunately, there is a part of the world that suffers morally at this time, that is in a dark age. And it is unfortunately where a Jewish state smaller than New Hampshire finds itself located. When Israel is attacked morally or attacked verbally, the argument is given, and let me go through some of them very quickly. For example, its birth is illegitimate because it displaced indigenous Palestinians. Without getting into vast demographic data, let's just say something that happens to be true. There is no country in the world that was founded without a displacement of some of the peoples in the area. Therefore, to single out Israel for illegitimacy is anti-Semitic. There is no other possible explanation. To say that all states in the world are legitimate no matter how violent their birth, except for the Jewish state, is an anti-Jewish statement. Let me make something clear about myself. I have argued on my radio show for years and years, and many Jews get angry at me about this, about how little antisemitism there is, for example, in the United States. And I have said that over and over, and Jews will call me up and say I'm naive and I don't realize what non-Jews are saying behind my back and so on. And I've gotten a lot of flak, so I am not one who quickly says so-and-so is an anti-Semite. In fact, the second Jesse Jackson many years ago apologized for calling New York "Hymietown," and I don't like Jesse Jackson. But I said, on the radio and in print, "This man must be forgiven." He apologized, end of issue. I think he's wrong on almost everything. If he told me the time of day, I would check my watch. I will not say the man is an anti-Semite because of Hymietown. I wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal defending Hillary Clinton against charges of anti-Semitism for comments that she had made, which I believed she had made about Jews. If everybody who ever made a comment about any ethnic group were considered a bigot, no one except the mute would actually be capable of You know what I say when drivers drive slowly in the left lane? If I were recorded, I would be arrested. It would be called a hate crime. I want everyone who goes slowly in the left lane to be executed. I just— that's my belief. And if they're part of any distinguished— any distinct group, I curse the group. It doesn't matter if it's a Jew with a yarmulke. I curse out yarmulke-wearing Jews. It doesn't matter to me. So what people make comments here and there, I am very loath to charge antisemitism. But when you single out of all the states in the world, somehow or other Pakistan's birth is legit with all the Hindus who were slaughtered, India's birth is legit with all the Muslims slaughtered, but Israel's birth is illegit, America's birth is legit. Mexico, with all its displacement of Indians, that's all legit, everything's legit, except one state? Then you have to answer why you single that one out. I don't have to answer why it is legitimate, you have to answer why you singled it out for delegitimization. So forget the demographic data. Which go in all directions. When you single out one state on Earth for illegitimacy, you have to answer for your immorality. And in this case, for your singling out the one tiny, infinitesimally small Jewish state. You can jog across Israel and you don't run a marathon. That is how narrow it is in parts of it. You can drive from the very top to the very bottom and start breakfast in one and have dinner in the other, driving leisurely. It's not an Autobahn that's in Israel. That's the whole state. I remember the story of an Australian, rich Australian, who visited the West Bank. He was taken on a tour of the West Bank, and he said, "This is it? My ranch is bigger." He couldn't believe what was talking about, what the world was talking about, because you see maps, they're of course blown up disproportionately. We're talking about such a small area of the world. You know, I've never seen a map of the world so big that the letters I-S-R-A-E-L could actually fit in the state of Israel. That's not a big name, Israel. You know, we're not talking Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which by the way did fit That's how big the place was. Israel doesn't even fit on any world map, and this is what the Jews have, a little part of the earth, a tiny part of the earth to call their own, and for some reason that's the one illegitimate part of the earth. The North Korean regime is legitimate, but Israel is not, and I'm supposed to come to university to defend the existence of Israel. Think about it for a minute, put it in perspective. By the way, if I may, I did put it in perspective, and it has reinforced my theology. I'm a religious Jew, though not Orthodox, and I believe deeply in the fact that there is a divine contract with the Jews. I believe in it. I also believe there is with the United States. I believe that— I believe not a contract of guaranteed goodwill or anything like that. Jews get have suffered too much. By the way, Jewish chosenness, which I think is at the heart of the hatred of Jews, and I wrote a book about this called "Why the Jews," I am convinced, and so are antisemites, whenever I read the comments of Muslim antisemites, as with German antisemites in the '30s, that the Jews believe they're chosen, and most Jews don't, most Jews run away from the idea, But that Jews have believed this, and some do. Mostly Christians believe it today. When I say this in front of Christian audiences, I just hear hallelujah and amen. When I say it in front of Jews, you could hear a pin drop. The tension is so thick. Don't talk about chosenness. It's a very— we don't want anybody to hear. The only people who talk about chosenness are Christians Jews and anti-Semites. It's really ironic, Jews never talk about it. This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

People are searching for truth in a culture that feels disconnected from it. That's why platforms like Angel exist, offering a space for uplifting entertainment and documentaries, including Homestead, a story centered on family, faith, and resilience. Solomeo, a lighthearted romantic comedy. David, an animated musical with sweeping storytelling. And The Death of Recess, a documentary exploring concerns around the modern education system. If you're looking for meaningful values-driven content, Angel provides a range of options. Learn more at angel.com/prager.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. But that is what is involved. How do you explain that the United Nations may move to Saudi Arabia? May the United Nations has spent more time on Israel than any other issue in the history of the United Nations. It makes no sense. If a Martian visited Earth, he would, or she would, undoubtedly conclude that most humans were Jews. There would be no other rational explanation for the preoccupation of the world with the Jews and the Jewish state. There is none. By the way, try this on a non-Jewish friend, even a university-educated friend. Say as follows: you know, there are 6 billion people in the world. I was just wondering, how many Jews do you think there are? I have never had an answer of under 50 million, and most of the time it's 100 or 200 million, the answer that is given. And I remember when I first asked this, I was on my away to lecture in Louisville, Kentucky. And the lovely woman sitting next to me and I were speaking, and she asked me, "Why are you going to Louisville?" I said, "I'm going to give a lecture to the Jewish community." She was a non-Jew, lives in Louisville. "Oh," we got, "Oh, Jews, very fascinated." We got into a discussion. So I asked her, because it was clear from the way she was talking she thought there were a lot of Jews. So I said, "I'm just curious, how many Jews do you think there are?" There are, uh, There are 6 billion in the world, and then she gave me some astronomical figure. Then I said, "How about the United States?" There are 250 million Americans, at least there were then. "How many Jews do you think there are?" I think she said, "Oh, about 50 million." I said, "Well, you know, in fact there are under 6 million." And she looked at me and she said, "They must all live in my state." which, as we all know, is undoubtedly Kentucky Jewry. It's one of the dominant subjects in Jewish life. The preoccupation with the Jews has to have transcendent sources. I am absolutely convinced of it. There is no rational reason. It transcends the rational. So that's with the origins. Then of course the issue was raised, well, if only Israel didn't occupy the West Bank, then by golly there would be mezuzahs on Mr. Arafat's doorposts. Mezuzahs, for those of you who don't know, are those little— how do you explain a mezuzah? On the doorposts of homes there is a little shell, inside is a parchment of part of the Torah scroll. And Jews have traditionally had this on their doorposts. Anyway, the occupation issue can be resolved as follows. And I, by the way, again, maybe personal, I was thoroughly pro-Oslo. I was wrong, but I was pro-Oslo. I was. I wrote about it. I lectured about it. I was pro-Oslo. I was naive. I cried. I literally cried when I watched Mr. Rabin and Mr. Arafat shake hands at the White House. I was so thrilled that peace might come to the Middle East. I was fooled. Mr. Rabin was fooled. And because our ache for peace was greater than our grasp of reality, that the Palestinians want Israel dead, not peace with Israel. This should have been learned at the time, and in retrospect it's easy to learn. All you have to do is monitor Palestinian television and monitor Israeli television, and basically nothing else needs to be done. I will come back to the TV comparison in a moment. The occupation. First of all, for the last 9 years or so, most of the West Bank has not been occupied. It is owned, it is governed, it is whatever you wish to call it. In the final analysis, it is not an autonomous place. Neither is Puerto Rico. I would say that the status of the West Bank has been closer to that of Puerto Rico Puerto Rico than it has been to that of an occupied territory, where it does not have autonomy, it cannot shape its foreign relations, it does not have its own army. But in terms of autonomy over itself, it was allowed. Did it have full autonomy? Of course not. But to speak of this in occupation terms, like it was the Nazis occupying Poland, is to engage in, in an offense to the Poles for what they suffered in World War II under the Nazis. If the issue were occupation and a Palestinian state, there is a very large question I never heard answered, and I've debated this with spokesmen for the other side very often. Why was there never a mention or a movement toward a Palestinian state in all the years that the West Bank was owned by Jordan? None. No movement, no clamoring, nothing. If the PLO is all about occupation by Israel, how come it was founded before 1967? I mean, these questions are legion and they're not answered, at least to my satisfaction. Okay, I'd like to make a moral comparison of Israel and its enemies to have you understand why the very notion of such a talk should be rendered unnecessary. And yet it is necessary, so sad to say. In no order of importance, number 1, I would like— I'm going to give you a list of comparisons that I would like you to make, whatever side you're on. I'd like you to compare to the best of your ability what the average Muslim leader in a mosque on Friday in the Muslim world of the Middle East, or specifically in among the Palestinians, and a typical rabbi in a synagogue on Saturday will say at the synagogue. From what we have, from what we know, the invoking of hatred against Jews, and the word Jews is used far more than just Zionists, which used to be a euphemism, but now it is straight out Jews, "Oh Allah, curse the Jews, damn them, annihilate them." These are said by major imams in Saudi Arabia, major Muslim officials, leaders, clerics— they don't have a clerical class as such, I'm using a Western term— in the Palestinian territories, and so on. I could tell you one example from my synagogue. My synagogue in Los Angeles, every Saturday, when we would do the grace after meals, You could even find it. It's published in one of the major grace-after-meals little books. There was— there's a series of, "May the merciful one do a lot of things." "May the merciful one make a good Shabbat, a Sabbath, for us." "May the merciful one give us an honorable livelihood." A whole series of things. Well, added in many thousands of synagogues was, "May the merciful one bring peace and love between the children of Isaac and the children of Yishmael. And I added in our synagogue the following words. I said, this blessing is pointless unless we add the following words and have them say the same blessing. If only one side asks God for peace, it's pretty pointless. You need two sides. Do you think there was a mosque— there are a billion Muslims, so this is a large question— was there a mosque on Earth that prayed to Allah for peace between the children of Isaac and the children of Ishmael? If there was one, I would be the happiest man to report it. I would in fact mention its name on the radio. I would want it credit. I would hope they wouldn't be killed. As the handful of Muslims who have called for peace have so often been killed. Not just peace between Israel and Palestinians, peace in Algeria. I'll never forget the 2-paragraph piece in the New York Times many years ago of a Muslim leader who was killed because he condemned Islamic terror in Algeria. Had nothing to do with Islamic terror in the Middle East. Anyway, That's my first comparison. What is said by Jews in their synagogues, what is said by Muslims in America, the West, not necessarily Indonesia and Asia and India, but in the West, which is far more radical than Islam in India, for example. It was the British Muslims who forced Khomeini to issue the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. The order that he be killed by any Muslim in the world because his novel was considered blasphemous. This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

People are searching for truth in a culture that feels disconnected from it. That's why platforms like Angel exist, offering a space for uplifting entertainment and documentaries, including Homestead, a story centered on family, faith, and resilience. Solo Mio, a lighthearted romantic comedy. David, an animated musical with sweeping storytelling. And The Death of Recess, a documentary exploring concerns around the modern education system. If you're looking for meaningful, values-driven content, Angel provides a range of options. Learn more at angel.com/prager.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. Number 2. Compare Israeli television and Palestinian television for any 12 hours you wish to choose. You pick the 12 hours, you record it, you have utterly nonpolitical people translate what went on, and you tell me which side wants peace and which side wants death. Okay? What goes on on Palestinian television is so frightening frightening, so morally frightening, the celebration of children who kill themselves and others with them. We have them, and we have the tapes. It's not hard to get Palestinian TV. Just record it. I was at a place that showed me these tapes. They showed me a program given by a Gaza psychologist, a child psychologist, who answered questions from Palestinians calling in. One woman called in and said, "My son wants to be a shaheed." In other words, my teenage boy wants to blow himself up along with Jews. And what do you say? And the child psychologist didn't say discourage him. In fact, they broke away for a speech by Arafat lauding shahida, shahida, just screaming the word martyrs, martyrs. So here you have a child psychologist show extolling the virtues of children blowing themselves up. There was a picture from Germany at an anti-Israel demonstration of a Muslim man in Germany with his daughter, who was about 5. The picture's on the internet. And she had strapped around her model bombs. To raise your child to kill herself is— I'll use a word Jews will be familiar with— nachas. This is joy from children. To know that mine will blow himself or herself up and take as many people as possible, as many innocents as possible. The latest one was, of course, a grandmother, an 18-month-old. And this is considered brigades. I love that they call themselves brigades when they target grandmothers. It's an insult to the term brigade, I'd have to say. Number 3, compare Israeli democracy and the police states around it. I am— I marvel at this notion that somehow there's a moral equivalence between Israel and those who wish to destroy it, or those who make war on it. Where else do we in the world make a moral equivalence between free countries and non-free countries? Only with Israel. Only. Every other place we say, hey, wait a minute, this place has freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, but this This is denied. I was on Hannity and Colmes, the Fox television show, 2 weeks ago, and the other guest was the head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, the largest spokesman for American Muslims, and a very radical group indeed, sad to say. And he said on the show, "Israeli Arabs have no right to vote." He just point-blank said that on national television. And I said, "He's lying. This is not an exaggeration. This is not a white lie. This is an out, an outlie. There is no truth to that claim." There are 10 Arab members of the Israeli parliament who basically support the suicide terror against Israel and still have diplomatic immunity in that own place. I don't know if there's a parallel to that in the history of democracy that members of one's own parliament call for support for those who wish to destroy that democracy. That is how free, politically, an Arab is. Is it great to be an Arab in Israel? It's better to be a Jew in Israel. But it's better to be an Arab in Israel than an Arab in an Arab country. That's the truth, because you have more rights. That's why they don't move. So they hate the place that they never want to leave. Somewhat like some professors in America. Tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Does anybody know what Hamas is fighting for? You just have to read their own literature. They're fighting for a Taliban-type state. They want to impose the Sharia on everybody, including, of course, fellow Muslims first and foremost. Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.

People are searching for truth in a culture that feels disconnected from it. That's why platforms like Angel exist, offering a space for uplifting entertainment and documentaries, including Homestead, a story centered on family, faith, and resilience; Solo Mio, a lighthearted romantic comedy; David, an animated musical with sweeping storytelling; and The Death of Recess, a documentary exploring concerns around the modern education system. If you're looking for meaningful, values-driven content, Angel provides a range of options. Learn more at angel.com/prager.