Episode 351: Fighting Misinformation: The President of Israel Shares Insights on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins.

You're listening to Habits and Hustle, Gresham.

Are you getting the full story on Israel?

Have you ever wondered about the complexities and misconceptions surrounding Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

In today's media, it can be super challenging to separate fact from fiction and gain a comprehensive understanding of the situation on the ground.

In my latest podcast episode, I had the privilege of sitting down with the President of Israel for a candid conversation.

The president shared valuable insights on the resilience and diversity of the Israeli people, the ongoing efforts to recover hostages, and the importance of fighting misinformation and anti-Semitism worldwide.

To grasp the full depth and nuance of the president's perspective, I highly encourage you to listen to the complete podcast episode.

Whether you have a long-standing interest in Israel or are just beginning to explore this topic, this conversation offers a rare glimpse into the hopes, challenges, and complexities that shape their region and, quite frankly, the entire Western world.

President Isaac Herzog is a public official who has been working in the service of the state of Israel and its society for over 20 years.

He was born in 1960 to Ora and Chaim Herzog, later Israel's sixth president.

For three years, Herzog served as the chairman of the the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

And in July 2021, he was elected president by an unprecedented majority in the Knesset.

And he entered office as the 11th president of Israel.

Please listen to this podcast and give me your thoughts and/or comments after you do.

Enjoy.

We're very honored that you're here.

You have a big impact.

Well, thank you.

I'm very honored to be here with you, and I really appreciate the fact you took the time.

And it's your first time in the last six months.

Oh, yeah.

It's wonderful that you came.

So, how many days have you been here already?

I've been here for three.

Three or three days already.

It's very fun in the country.

I love it.

And I love the food.

I can't fit into my pants, but that's a whole other story I can tell you about if you're interested.

It's a different session.

It's a whole different thing altogether.

The food here is amazing.

The spirit of the people, the resilience.

I'm just very impressed with just the entire energy of it's exactly, it's actually very different than what I thought it was going to be.

It is, but there is a lot of sadness, you should know that.

Absolutely.

And a lot of agony.

And it's

this feeling that people don't understand.

And they don't understand that, you know, it always starts with the Jews, always starts with the Israelis, but will never end there.

There's a wave of hate that's flooding the world and has to be dealt with forcefully.

Absolutely.

When you see those encampments, you see there was yesterday, a terrible demonstration in London, terrible, calling for violence, for genocide of Jews.

That's all there is to it.

And this empire of evil from Tehran spreading hate, money, armaments, ammunition, all the cost of living of every American and Canadian is impacted by the Houthis.

which are controlled and operated by the Iranians because they're closing the high seas.

Isn't that that's it's a big it's a big issue.

It's a worldwide issue.

Absolutely.

That's basically why I came here, right?

I wanted to kind of show, I wanted to bring awareness to the West because I think there's so many misconceptions and misinformation out there.

And like I'm trying to really use my platform with people who just for your information.

You see a lot of hate on that?

A lot of, oh my gosh, totally afraid.

Some of it is also pre-organized, pre-arranged.

but that other come from the outside.

I want you to be, I actually want you to talk about that that because I think this is, it's really a war of, it's basically a war of misinformation right now as well.

And people don't know what they don't know.

And they're getting their information from TikTok and their little bit, short sound bites that are actually not even accurate.

TikTok, we are talking to many people at TikTok because there is a misuse of the whole idea of TikTok.

And with a lot of efforts to distort from the algorithm all the way to what people are allowed to put on TikTok.

And don't forget, as we can speak and laugh at the end, right now, 128 hostages are down there in the tunnels in Gaza, abducted, raped, some dead.

And we fear for the lives of each and every one of them.

Well, I think that's, let's we talk about that for a moment.

Sure.

The hostages, because I think that's obviously on everybody's mind.

You know, yesterday I went to the rally here to bring them home and a lot of the parents spoke.

What are you, I know you guys are in negotiations and all this, but where are you right now with trying to recover the hostages?

We have to understand a hostage deal can definitely bring hope.

Right.

And on the merits, it's the most important thing of all is to bring them back home.

But we are faced with

a warmonger and a monster.

who leads that war, who initiated that war.

His name is Icha Sinwar.

He is the head of Hamas.

He is in the bankers in gaza he doesn't want any deal he simply doesn't want any deal he keeps on rejecting every offer five times israel has you know compromised america as as as as confirmed president biden has confirmed and also all the mediators that hamas had the best offer possible in front of them and he rejected it and keeps on lying all the time.

And the worst thing is that there is a great, grave human tragedy We just retrieved in a heroic

operation four bodies.

Beautiful people and all their families.

They all went to celebrate in the Nova Festival and the Song Festival and the party, young people.

And then you hear all these marches and all these curses and people just don't understand that it will affect their lives.

their lives if they if the world doesn't stand up to this uh horror and terrible that's the that's the we are fighting for many values of the free world, by the way.

Oh, absolutely.

And they keep on lying that we want genocide, absolutely wrong.

My heart is aching with pain, also about the Palestinians, also about their plight.

They are controlled by Hamas, and they should speak out loudly and say we are against it.

And they should understand that the only hope is a different regime in Gaza, and we must bring a different regime in Gaza.

That's what we have to do.

We have the right to defend ourselves.

We keep on getting missiles every day on Israel.

Why don't people realize that?

Why are the other side winning the war on the propaganda?

Because I think they came very well prepared.

I think they had it all ready and

dormant around the world.

I think it fell on a hotbed, which includes a lot.

We are pre-prepared with a lot of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel,

misuse of the DEI and woke cultures on campuses.

The whole cocktail is used against Israel.

I mean, the Jewish people who suffered the worst atrocity of humankind, of course, are to blame again, okay, for the fact that they're trying to defend themselves.

We didn't want that war.

They burned, raped, chopped, abducted, and killed.

people who are the biggest peace lovers and supporters of peace in the nation here.

Okay?

They, in these Kibutin, they had special plans and they all allotted from their own income money to the people of Gaza.

They had funds, but they didn't give a damn.

They came in and wiped and burned.

And you have

one of these terrorists calling his mom and dad, hey, mom and dad, I killed 10 Jews.

That's the story here.

And I always say it starts with the Jews.

It won't end with the Jews.

We are here defending the

entire free world.

And they know it.

And there are evil empires out there who are playing on the psyche of many Americans.

People right back home are even yelling, chanting death to America, death to America.

I know.

And supporting North Korea.

And

yeah, I mean, you know, they just don't understand that they are living in one of the greatest nations and eras in the world, in the world's history, and being an American citizen.

Absolutely.

You say Thanksgiving for the fact that you're an American.

But there's still a disconnect, even when they hear that chant.

Most of these people, I'm sure you're aware, when they say from the river to the sea, there's been people in poles and other things going around asking, do you, you know, questions

what the river is and what the sea is.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nor do they know anything about the fact that we, our nation,

has grown and built and was formed on this land.

We are deeply connected right outside this door here.

I can show you a beautiful thousands and thousands years old menorah okay the candelabra just like here in the back which is our national emblem and

that's you know that's what you see from ancient times we the jews started here in this land we were uprooted and we went back and came back to our land The problem is a lot of people are fearful and scared of speaking up on the Jewish side even, right?

So you have the other side who are very loud and vocal.

And people are afraid because

they will be harassed on the digital, the bots will take off

all those followers,

they are harassed on campus.

This is tell against thought.

You believe in America, which believes in free speech and the land of the free, right?

The national anthem, the land of the free.

You can't express your opinion.

You're going to be banned and hate on you.

And who are these people who are sending all these age messages?

messages they should all be arrested and sued they should be also sent outside the country they should they should be leaving they should deport them but the other thing is i'm not sure you know i'm sure you've probably seen the freer hostages sweatshirts that everybody i wear and a lot of people wear it thank you of course a lot of people will not wear them jewish people will not wear them because they're

afraid afraid those are things like that people are

people are afraid they were going to like basketball games things like that and they were asked to leave the stadiums because they were wearing it.

And to me, the fact that that's even a political statement.

Well, you can't have it on TikTok.

No, you cannot have it on TikTok.

Don't you, like, how do we, like, what do we do as a nation?

What can you tell me?

Protest the fact that you're on this

example and many others too.

How do we get more people?

We have to awaken them.

to the fact that if it's this fire is burning their own life, their own stability.

You see the violence, raging violence, raging violence of people who have no clue.

And you saw the encampments.

Now I'm happy that some law enforcement agencies went in.

And there has to be a combination of education, dialogue, law enforcement, civic advocacy, and also standing up with protests.

Yeah, and I feel like we have to maybe even fight fire with fire in a way, right?

Because they're very...

There's a visceral angst in what they're doing.

And we seem to always take the high road a lot of the time.

Because we are.

We have like a higher moral ground and we try and we accommodate other views.

But the frightening thing is

that people are kind of tending immediately to blame Israel for what?

I don't know.

We have tried peace and we got terror.

We pulled back from Gaza, we got terror.

We uprooted settlements in Gaza, we got terror.

That's the story.

And we should pursue peace once we get rid of this terror machine that was built underneath billions of dollars that should have gone to feed and educate and change life in gaza it's a total failure of the system and the international community must recognize it absolutely now you're also you're not just the president but you're also a parent of someone a child who's fighting in gaza he yeah he got out thank god

can you just can you talk about that a little bit well we don't talk much about it because naturally we don't speak about our kids in general.

But

we, you know, he was there.

They have a, the group is very united, very nice people.

The story of Israel, his commander, his family came from Ethiopia, from the heart of Africa, which is the great story.

So the son of the president, his commander, is an Ethiopian born.

Israeli.

Okay.

And I think that shows the beauty and the quality of Israel.

And most importantly, what I'm I'm really honored is how much they care for the citizens in Gaza, how much they take

necessary steps not to hurt uninvolved citizens of Gaza

and just to make sure that they move out of the site.

Basically, 2 million Gazans were hijacked by Hamas for their own use.

all

instructed by Tehran, all in Iran.

And it's clear to me that if we weren't here, Europe is next and the United States is next.

People just have to understand that this is a major clash of civilizational values.

So

what are the goals of the

Operation Rafa at this point?

Well, I don't want to go into the operational side, but at the end, you have to make sure that their infrastructure of Tehran has to be uprooted.

They have their four battalions, which

from there they launch missiles on our people.

And they destabilize the whole notion of a better future for Gaza.

Now,

what you say, if you can just, what is the number one misconception you would think that Americans have on what's actually happening?

Well,

it was proven already by the United Nations itself that the data on casualties

is lower by 50%.

And some of these casualties were created by Hamas itself.

their missiles which fell on their own people.

Naturally, there are tragedies, although we are trying to prevent it.

The number one misconception is that Israel is not operating according to the rules.

We are operating absolutely according to the rules.

We are sending millions of text messages.

We call million phone calls, millions.

We send leaflets by the millions to tell people to get out from this area for a while until we finish, and then you'll be able to go in in some of these areas.

That's the way you operate according to international law.

We are defending ourselves.

We have the right to defend ourselves.

If any one of your viewers would have missed sense on his head, he'd go bananas.

Absolutely.

Let me just turn it to this, to your vision for one moment, because I know it's very timely.

It just happened.

And

I heard that you were very instrumental in having

Golan perform.

Can you talk about why was that important?

I found it really important because I believe that we have a great story to tell.

We are a great nation.

We do good around the world in so many things, from water to solar, to medicine, to technology, to agriculture, to what's not, really.

We are an amazing nation and we care for others and we see a sense of purpose.

And our voice must be heard in any forum.

And the Eurovision is an important forum.

It's in the city where there is most anti-Semitism in Europe.

In Malmo, we have to be there.

And that's why I fought all around

all of my contacts to make sure that we are there.

And we had a very dignified show.

Clearly, it's admitted.

The masses voted Eden Golan.

She should have won.

The judges, for their own reasons, put her at number five.

Fine, okay.

We respect that.

We understand that there's a lot of politics going around, but we are very proud of Eden and her bold appearance.

And she was beautiful.

Amazing.

She was amazing.

And I agree, she should have won.

But the fact that you saw that as a real opportunity.

Absolutely.

I insist that we should appear anywhere.

And that's my motto.

What else are you trying to do to do that?

Look, I'm meeting a lot of delegations that come from U.S.

campuses.

Many faculty members who come here harassed.

And I don't believe it.

I grew up in America.

I went to three different academic institutions in America.

I know what freedom of spirit, what academic life can offer you in America.

And all of a sudden they come here, they sweat, sweat, they are harassed.

It takes them time to melt down and start talking.

And then they say terrible things.

This can't go on.

What is this?

This is the land of the free.

Absolutely.

Were you shocked at how quickly it turned so anti-Semitic, so quickly after October 7th?

I mean, even though it was

shocked, we knew about it.

Okay, we knew.

We know that there is lurking hate and constant, constant anti-Semitic and also Palestinian rhetoric, which did not, of course, mention at all the suicide bombing.

That under any terror, any effort for peace, we got terror instead.

They missiles.

10,000 missiles on my home.

10,000.

10,000 missiles on my home because we pulled out of Gaza.

Okay?

We pulled out to the last Ioti.

We gave it to the Palestinians.

They turned it into a terror base.

And yet, and yet people don't understand that, or they don't see that as many as they.

They don't want to.

They don't want to.

They don't want to.

And they have to start reading and understanding.

I don't shy away from any criticism that could be on Israel.

That's legitimate.

We're a democracy.

The criticism that's mentioned here against the country or the government is much stronger.

And that's the way democracies operate.

We are a vibrant democracy.

People don't get it.

We are fighting a terror organization which has no values of any kind.

They hijacked their own people and they brought havoc and plague on their own houses.

Yeah, I know, I agree.

And that's why I want to be sitting down talking to you because I want people to really understand and hear those messages.

And we are allies of the United States of America, and we together should fight evil.

We should definitely fight evil.

Would you mind if I go back to one other question just to kind of, and if you don't want, you can answer it

however you like, because we talked a little bit about the hostage recovery, but I know that's one thing that people are really, really curious and interested in.

You said that they keep on rejecting your offer.

Can you talk about what those offers are?

A lot of it was mentioned.

We laid down that it's a whole debate now on the stages and how many in each stage,

etc., etc., and

the length of the ceasefire.

I don't want to go into it because I'm not in charge of it.

You're not in charge of it.

The president here is not an executive head of state, it's a figurative head of state, like in the in Europe.

Like so, it's parallel to you know the structure in England.

So, there you have the prime minister, then you have the government, which is sworn in by the Knesset, and they run the country.

Right.

I'm so I don't want to go into the details, even though I'm supporting any deal, and I say openly that we should try as much as we can.

But I'm honestly saying it starts with Hamas and ends with Hamas.

They decided to tilt the world stage, okay, to derail the whole idea of the inclusion of Israel in our region, in a region where Jew and Arab should dwell together, Muslims and Jews.

And what I also noticed when I first got here, how much assimilation there is here.

There's so, like, that's another thing that people don't understand.

It's a big mistake.

People don't understand.

People don't understand.

We have Jews of color, and we have Muslims, and we have Christians, and we have Druze, and we have no immigrants from all over the world.

And we are a beautiful mixture of anything possible in our country.

It really is.

It's a beautiful country.

And you've got, and just let's just finish with

the people of Israel, the resilience, the strength, and how, even, like I said, when we first started, the spirit that was very surprising, even when I got here, even in a wartime, the

spirit and strength of what I've seen on the outside.

There's an immense light in our nation.

There's optimism.

Optimism.

Zest for life.

A zest for life.

And belief in themselves.

It's very impressive to see.

It's absolutely.

How did you feel in the square yesterday?

In House of Square.

I felt like I was home.

I felt like it was very, it felt very warm, inclusive, and like I was home.

It was a beautiful feeling.

And listening to all the parents speaking about their children and the entire performance,

I'm so happy that I did the trek here.

I came here.

And I'm so happy that I was able to sit down with you.

It's also different from what you see outside.

Please.

Tell all of our friends, come to visit Israel and see for yourself.

Great, beautiful country.

I think that's a really good point.

If I can just even like just expand on that, people, I think, are fearful because they think of they have this misconception of what is there's war here, but you feel safe, more safe here in Israel than you do in America.

You really do.

Like, I was actually very, I was apprehensive, like, oh my God, what's it going to be like?

And when I got here, it was so calming.

And you don't feel it.

You don't feel that negative fear, fear, fearful feeling that you expect to feel.

You actually feel the opposite.

That's what I've noticed.

And I think everybody that I've showed in the promenade on Tel Aviv Beach.

By the way, that's the first thing I showed them.

That's the first thing.

And I worked out on the beach and the muscle area.

It was beautiful.

I loved it.

So, everyone, come to Israel.

Yeah.

Thanks.

Thank you very much.

It was a pleasure talking to you.

Thank you so much for your time.