Amidst the recent heartbreaking attacks on Israel, we found ourselves in a personal turmoil. With a Jewish family and close ties to Israel, we're no strangers to the constant menace of hate, both offline and in the digital world. This episode is our humble attempt to shed light on this complex issue, offering an empathetic viewpoint on the terror Israel faces from Hamas.
This conflict isn't just about a distant land; it has seeped into our personal lives. Struggling between our thirst for peace and the pressing need for self-protection, we explore this paradox that Israel faces every day. We expose the cultural ignorance surrounding this issue, contrast the Middle East's misunderstood reputation with Israel's progressive reality, and unmask the oppressive values Hamas champions.
In these troubling times, it's crucial to keep the torch of awareness ablaze. We dedicate the last part of our conversation to help you get a clearer picture of the ongoing conflict. We share resources and platforms that present the real scenario without distortion. We also understand how emotionally taxing this time can be, so we've included tips on maintaining mental health and resilience. Stay tuned as we promise to keep you updated on the situation, and hopefully, return to our regular schedule next week.
Instagram Resources:
@mosheh
@yoshephhaddad
@noatishby
@henmazzig
@rudy_israel
@hnaftali
Your hosts: @lynnhazan_ and @tonydoesknow
follow us on social @ltkpod!
Amidst the recent heartbreaking attacks on Israel, we found ourselves in a personal turmoil. With a Jewish family and close ties to Israel, we're no strangers to the constant menace of hate, both offline and in the digital world. This episode is our humble attempt to shed light on this complex issue, offering an empathetic viewpoint on the terror Israel faces from Hamas.
This conflict isn't just about a distant land; it has seeped into our personal lives. Struggling between our thirst for peace and the pressing need for self-protection, we explore this paradox that Israel faces every day. We expose the cultural ignorance surrounding this issue, contrast the Middle East's misunderstood reputation with Israel's progressive reality, and unmask the oppressive values Hamas champions.
In these troubling times, it's crucial to keep the torch of awareness ablaze. We dedicate the last part of our conversation to help you get a clearer picture of the ongoing conflict. We share resources and platforms that present the real scenario without distortion. We also understand how emotionally taxing this time can be, so we've included tips on maintaining mental health and resilience. Stay tuned as we promise to keep you updated on the situation, and hopefully, return to our regular schedule next week.
Instagram Resources:
@mosheh
@yoshephhaddad
@noatishby
@henmazzig
@rudy_israel
@hnaftali
Your hosts: @lynnhazan_ and @tonydoesknow
follow us on social @ltkpod!
Welcome to a different type of episode of Len Tony. Now we are three days into the aftermath of a brutal, horrific attack on the nation of Israel carried out by the terrorist group Hamas, and this affects us directly. Len's family lives there. Len is from there. Our kids are Jewish, len is Jewish. Extended family is Jewish. This has been a very, very difficult couple of days for us, and I can only begin to imagine what it's like for people that are there and still dealing with this, for who knows how long, how long this will take. This is the single most destructive day in the country's history since the Holocaust, and the best way to put it for people that don't quite understand the scope of what's taking place. It is the most comparable to 9-11 from an American perspective. That's what Israel is dealing with right now, only this is more graphic, it's more shared, it's more widely seen. It's barbaric. It's barbaric.
Speaker 2:Now this show. We don't talk about politics and news. That's not really our platform. That's not really what we do. We err on the side of health and wellness and relationship and parenting and our lives. But what happened over the weekend directly impacts us. It wouldn't feel good to me and good to us to just carry on.
Speaker 2:It's been very hard for me. The past couple of days I've been just glued to the internet and making sense of what's going on and trying to share everything that I know with my followers, because I think it's really important to stand up. And I think, as a Jewish person in New Jersey, in the New York area, in previous years, when things would happen anti-Semitism and just a lot, I think was a couple of years ago celebrities were posting some propaganda and it escalated things and it escalated the online hate and I was afraid. I was afraid to speak up, I was afraid to lend my voice because I was afraid of getting bullied, because anytime that I would say anything I would get bullied and harassed online. And I've gotten threats and you name it. And over the years it's just kind of silenced me in a way and I was like I'm not going to say anything. And this time I'm like no, I can't be silent, I can't sit here and not say anything and pretend nothing is happening. And I've just been blocking people left and right and people who have been saying anything of the sorts of just coming at me for just being just existing and it just like blocks and I'm okay with that and we're not going to talk about the complexities here of the conflict. Even myself, who's Israeli? Who studied this? I studied this in Canada in a Middle East the history of Middle East class from a very unbiased professor, and it is so complex and there's so many nuances to it. But this is not about taking sides.
Speaker 2:What happened over this weekend is Plain Barbaric. Hamas is a terrorist organization that wants to wipe out Jews. They don't want peace, they don't want a two-state solution. They don't want any of that. They just want to annihilate Jews.
Speaker 2:And as a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, sometimes it's growing up and I was always thinking to myself how did that happen? How did the Holocaust happen? How did all these people bystanders just let thousands of people walk to gas chambers and be shipped away and be ripped apart from their families? How did that happen? And now I understand how that happened, because the amount of people that are silent through this, or the amount of people that are defending what is happening and celebrating, celebrating little babies being ripped apart from their families, their parents murdered in front of them this is a horror movie I can't even wrap my head. It's barbaric Women raped and paraded in Gaza and everyone's cheering and elderly, kidnapped without their med, with dementia. This is not an even play. This is the rules of war. Those are not the rules of war. You don't hurt the people who cannot fight back, and right now there's over 150 plus people. That's all I think about right now. It's all I can think about is the people who have been kidnapped and who are sitting in fear, who don't know their fate, like kids withoutthere's a video of a little boy.
Speaker 2:A little boy without his parents. How are you defending these people? That is what blows my mind is that people in America and the United States sitting in the cozy homes, going on Twitter or going on Instagram defending this and I see people in my own community defending this, or people in my own community just glossing completely over it, and it's just like you know. I can't wrap my head around it, I just can't.
Speaker 1:What would you want people to know if you were to? Is there a lot of people that don't understand what's going on between Palestine and Israel? Like just it's so far away, it's so far removed, like almost in a lot of Americans' heads. Like the Middle East is like a separate container for things that we don't understand and compartmentalize. So if you were to want people that really didn't get it really weren't aware, what would you want?
Speaker 2:to bring to light. I mean, it's like you know, we live in the United States, right? We don't necessarily agree with our government.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:We don't necessarily agree with everything our government does. So if something like this would God forbid to happen in the United States, is it like, oh, they deserve it, because we deserve it, because we don't agree with our government. You know what I mean, Right, Like I feel like we see things in a certain lens. That doesn't, it doesn't make sense. You know, like today is Columbus Day, the. You know like they talk about Israel being colonizers, Like the United States is a colonizer, Britain is a colonizer.
Speaker 2:And again, I'm not going to go into the history because a lot of people might not agree with my views and that's okay. I see things a little bit differently because I am biased. I am the grandchild of Holocaust survivors and Israel was the only country that would take my family. Where else were they supposed to go when the whole world didn't accept them? You know my grandparents and these are both sides of my grandparents, who survived the Holocaust from Eastern Europe and also my grandparents from Morocco. This is two completely separate regions who both had nowhere to go but Israel. You know, my father immigrated when he was eight years old and his family immigrated to Israel because they were the only Jews in Morocco. They had to escape. It was a dangerous place for them and, of course you know, my mom immigrated to Israel with her parents. Same reason Israel is. Thank God we have Israel.
Speaker 2:Jewish people are not safe. We haven't been safe in decades and even in America we're not safe so many. In the past couple of years alone, the amount of anti-Semitic attacks on Jews have increased by like 75 percent something crazy. It's like one of the most massive amounts of people like the synagogues being shot Like well, not, you go to a temple and there's security guards, but it's not cool to support Jews for some reason. Like it's just a hard thing, because if it was any other group of people, like everybody would come and defend them, but when it comes to Jews for some reason I mean I know the reason- why do you think that is?
Speaker 2:Oh, can you want to get into? I mean, this is decades of hate. How can you explain that? I don't know. I don't know. I've dealt with anti-Semitism my whole life and so I think people don't even know why they hate Jews.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you've heard me talk about this. I grew up in town with a very little Jewish population. I knew two Jewish families growing up the Krinix and the Apple Bombs. And those were the two families that I knew and that was it. Like I knew they were Jewish, just like I knew my friend Chris was Catholic, and I knew that I went to a Methodist church. Like it didn't mean anything to me, different than you know, they don't have Christmas and that's about it. Like I didn't grow up with any sort of preconceived notions about what it meant, so I don't necessarily understand it either, but there does seem to be a lack of rallying when there needs to be rallying.
Speaker 2:I obviously have my points of view when it comes to this, but you, as kind of an outsider now insider do you agree that there is a lack of rallying?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's very.
Speaker 2:Or coming to the defense of Jewish people.
Speaker 1:There is certainly a noticeable disparity in the support system when it comes to the state of Israel and Jewish people in general. There is I mean it comes from probably a lot of stereotypes about the power, the perceived power, that Jewish people have in the media and entertainment and other banking systems, whatever it is, and that why do they need our help? Right Like there are not some misbegotten group of people that can't figure it out or need help. I don't know if there's something to that, but that would be on paper. What it looks like to me is that it's easier to justify not helping than it would be other communities Like you hear them in the United States and probably around the world, but I've seen communities rally for other communities before not too far in the past, and it doesn't feel the same in this case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you know, I grew up in Israel, like I lived in Israel for six years of my life and when I was 12, 13, in the 90s, there was a wave of terrorism, hamas, the same people that did what they did. Like this is not new, what's happening, this has been going. Hamas has never wanted peace. They would strap bombs on themselves and blow up buses filled with civilians who's going to school, going to work in my community and I grew up very quick, like when I moved to Israel I was 11, 12 years old, me as age. I grew up real quick and before that, you know, living in Canada, I was like in Canada, like all hunky dory and you know it's going right there hunky dory right.
Speaker 2:And then going right to Israel and feeling firsthand, you know, terrorism and feeling fear, feeling fear of unknown and not understanding why, like, why do they hate us? And I remember asking my parents, why do they hate us so much? And you know as a kid, you don't. It's hard to understand, it's hard to understand. And here, like I heard a bomb go this is not far Like I lived in Central Tel Aviv and there was a bus that I would take regularly that blew up. And it's so close to home and you hear, and Israel is such a small country, like you know the, you know the cousin, the brother, the friend it's like it's really small and everybody knows each other, and these are things that happened when I was growing up as a kid.
Speaker 2:Like this is inherent trauma that I that I'm reliving right now and back then. And this, what happened this weekend, is not even as bad as it was happening over and over again all over the country. And Israelis they don't, they don't want they. What's happening with the Palestinian? Nobody wants it. Nobody wants to live like this. Nobody wants it.
Speaker 1:You know Israelis don't necessarily agree with everything the government does, you know it's I mean, we were there over the summer, right, we saw hundreds of thousands of people filling the streets rebelling against the government. Right.
Speaker 2:Essentially, essentially well, he was. I mean, our Bibi Netanyahu was like the equivalent of Donald Trump and he's he's horrible. And because of all the political bullshit that was going on, we lost sight of what really matters is our security. And I'm not gonna again, I don't wanna go into politics and I don't wanna go into that, but I'll tell you that the Israeli, the people of Israel, the citizens, don't want this. They don't want, they don't want the Palestinians and oppressed, they don't want, like we all want. They all want peace. It's just nobody can agree. Nobody can agree.
Speaker 2:And the thing is Israel, israel has a right to defend itself Like it's. You know. Again, if there's people you know Hamas come threatening and throwing bombs at you, like what are you gonna do? It's like, imagine your home. You have a house, you have your house and that house was given to you by your great grandparents. This is your home and you have a guest that comes every once in a while and starts breaking shit. You're not gonna keep inviting that guest into your house. You know what I mean? Right, but you keep trying to give the guest chances because you really want it to work out and you really wanna be friends with this guest. But this guest is like no, this is my house.
Speaker 1:Right, and I was gonna say that's the problem. This is my house, the guest thinks that the house is theirs also. Right, but it keeps breaking shit, and if you can't enjoy it, nobody's going to agree Exactly.
Speaker 2:And I'm gonna burn your house down, yeah, so what's the solution there?
Speaker 1:I don't know the solution exactly. You build another house. I don't know, I don't know, I don't even want to, I Don't even want to riff on it and make make light of it, because I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't think there are a lot of people that do know what the solution is, but I mean, having been to Israel, it like completely reframed what I Thought, or I don't even know what I thought. It's the Middle East and, and as a kid growing up in West Virginia without much exposure to culture outside of West Virginia, the Middle East was the Middle East. It's like what I watched in the 90s when we were in the Iraq War, like that's all the Middle East, right, it's all sand and deserts and and that By-and-large old towns, whatever. And then you go to Israel and you're like this is like Miami. New York had a baby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's beautiful, the weather is better, yeah, and it's like this is not some like Third-world, like ancient civilization. There is part of that in there, like there is a broad, broad spectrum of Culture and towns and cities that all span from thousands of years ago all the way to the modern Tel Aviv landscape, but like it's just Like Tel Aviv and Israel unto itself is a very harmonious, accepting, loving place. It feels like any city that could exist in in the United States.
Speaker 2:But that is part of the problem is that Israel is a democracy. It's the only democracy in the Middle East right and we have with ties with the United States, with ties with the United Kingdom, with ties with all, all over the world, with, with the best technology coming out of this tiny little speck on on the map.
Speaker 1:Right we are.
Speaker 2:we accept the every type of people, lgbtq, there's all races, you know it is the most it is the most Democratic, it's a very and Tel Aviv, especially, is the most liberal country and that liberal city I mean yeah, that's what I'm at, so I Like that's everything that Hamas is against. They're there for the oppression of women, they're. They are against, you know, like if you're gay and you're in fucking Gaza you will be stoned.
Speaker 1:So this is really interesting, this queers for you know Palestine Like it's very interesting because if you were queer in Palestine, you'd be stoned right just I Don't know if you know this yeah, you Know what I'm saying like it's just a lot of things that people don't really understand and again, it's complex right, like you can support the fact that there are women and children in Palestine that are used as human shields every time something like this happens, and you can feel for that, and you Can absolutely pray and hope for the peace for all the families that are affected by this. That has it has nothing to do with Palestine.
Speaker 2:Do not want this either. I don't want to see there right again, the enemy is Hamas.
Speaker 1:Yes, and Iran and Iran right. Yeah, free Palestine from Hamas and Iran, and now you can get on board. But like this, you know, this is not freedom, like this is not fighting for freedom, this is terrorism, I mean they.
Speaker 2:They just set themselves back. They're not gonna get any aids anymore, like Financial aid is Israel's not gonna let them. That you know about. Like I think like 30,000 to 50,000 people from Gaza were coming in every single day to Israel to work, to make money, yeah, and? And those people will no longer be able to get work visas into the country, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's not. It's not a regime that's looking out for the best interests of their people. I mean.
Speaker 2:And again what happened, and I want to like just reiterate this that you can be completely against Israel, got the Israeli government and not agree with anything that they do, but also no not condemn what. What happened?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it is barbaric and it's not like you're threading a needle either, that's a very easy position to take but it blows my mind how people are like, oh, but, you know, like I, what I see on the internet is like oh, you know, it's horrible what happened in Israel, but Like, no, there's no buts, there's no buts, there's no buts. You know what I'm saying? Like it's, it's, that's what just upset. Upsetting to me right.
Speaker 2:Anyway, um, you know, it's really hard, like, if you're listening to this, if you're Jewish or Israeli and you're living here in the United States, like, if you need somebody to talk to, like feel free to message me. I think what's been helping me, um, a lot, is Just talking to a lot of people in my community and, and you know, I want to say that the amount of outpouring of love that I've received in the last couple of days from strangers, from non-Jews, has been incredible and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:You can just say me what.
Speaker 2:No, a lot of people like reached out. I do like. Of course, you know, I am complaining about the people who have, who haven't done anything, who haven't voiced. We have stayed silent, of course, because the silence is very you know, loud. It's deafening, but at the same time I think a lot of people did reach out to, to, to me, to us and not just people who are Jewish people, like people you know from All over all all periods of my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah like high school, mine too and just, you know, random followers and appreciating that I'm, you know, posting about it where they can learn more, and I appreciate it when people are like, hey, I don't know much about this conflict and I am don't know what to say, and I'm like that is enough in itself. You know, like just reach out to somebody in your life that you know is affected by this and just say, hey, are you okay? Like do you need anything? Like what can I do? Like that's all we need because, like in previous times, it we would have to just like deal with it on our own. You know, like I think, like I'm hoping that people are encouraged to reach out to, to people going through this and just showing support fair to say that, while there is vast amounts of Ignorance around this topic, would this also be the most support?
Speaker 1:you think you?
Speaker 2:yes, absolutely, I think a hundred percent, but I've also been more vocal about it.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:I've been more well and also people know that I have Friends and family in Israel and this directly affects me. This directly impacts me, and you know I've always, I've shared, always, like, my love for Israel and I are my trips and, and how much you know this country means to me, like and and how much I've been through there. You know and, yeah, a lot of it is sad shit like my time in Israel wasn't necessarily an easy one, like it wasn't. I grew up really fast. I saw things that I didn't want to see at such a young age and but it also shaped me into the person that, the empathetic person that I am, and and I have a special place for it and I'm heartbroken. I'm I'm heartbroken.
Speaker 2:But you know, there's one thing I know we Jewish people are so strong and resilient and we survived so much. I live it. Literally. Every holiday is. Every single Jewish holiday is centered around we serve. They tried to kill us. We survived. Less fucking party like every Jewish holiday. And as hard as things are now and as tragic as things are right now, and it's like you like, where do I see hope? You know, I want to see hope at the something we will overcome. We will rise up. I know we will, and that's what I'm kind of holding on to right now.
Speaker 1:Oh, Well, at first and foremost, hope that they get the people back. I hope this ends quicker than I think it's going to, but most of all, I hope you never stop talking about it.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to stop.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, it's kind of like I broke the seal in a way and I'm just like you know, I'm just blocking people and just tuning out the negative, because I know that I have a platform and if I could reach one person to understand this, then I've done my job. You know, my family is there. My parents are there, my sister and my nieces and nephews are there and my whole family is there. Basically my whole family is there and they don't want to leave. I told them like why don't you just come here or come to? You know, my parents have a place in Miami, just go back to Miami. And that's like no, we're not leaving, we're stubborn as fuck.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're not fucking leaving. We're fighting this. We're doing what. We're going to be here and we're going to, you know, be there for each other. And that's hard for me not being there. It's hard for me not, and thank God they are safe and thank God they're okay and they have everything that they need and you know like, but it's devastating, it's devastating. It's devastating Like the rave. You know like there was a rave in the desert. You know, with young 20, you know young 20 year olds going. We've all been to like little. You know, maybe we all had our like party in the desert moment. You know you've been to like Coachella or you know, burning man.
Speaker 2:I went to like I went to like raves in my Canada which were like in the forest, but in the videos and yeah it's, it's horrible and there's no justifying it. Now I want to give some tips on taking care of your mental health during this time, because if you're listening to this, if you're going through what I'm going through, a few things that have helped me during this time is going outside, like as hard as it is, and you just want to do them scroll all day. Go outside, get some sunlight, go for a walk. Now, that's number one is just go outside Any type of movement, like just basic, don't need you, don't need to like go crazy, just go for a walk, take the dog If you have a dog, take the dog out Like just go outside.
Speaker 2:Number two taking breaks off social media. I know that's really hard, like it's been really hard for me, because I want to know what's going on and, in a way, I think part of the doom scrolling is you want to find comfort. You want to find like good news, like nuggets of comfort, in a way. Like I feel like that's what I'm always searching for. Is you know, did they rescue somebody? Like just something, give me something, and occasionally I find that nugget of hope, you know, like seeing the volunteers like get you know, mobilizing and getting things ready to donate, and that's been helping sometimes. But taking breaks from social media, if you can like, the thing is, the part with me is that I want to obviously share information that I know because I feel like people are looking to me for that. So but if I didn't have to do it, I would probably like take the full day off or take a couple of hours, like if I didn't feel like I had that kind of responsibility. So that's number two. Number three reaching out to people your friends, your family. I've been talking to random people on the phone, you know random, like business owners that I like, I know that I'm sort of acquainted and just talking to people and that's been really helpful, feeling like not alone, like feeling like supported and also reaching out to people that I know are struggling to and seeing if they're okay. So that's number three is communities reaching out to the community. Going to the visual today at City Hall, that felt good being around other people who are going through the same thing as me.
Speaker 2:Number four just lowering expectations of yourself. I had a whole plan of things. Shit I want to get done, go, go, go podcast content and I'm just kind of letting go of that. I need to just do the best that I can and focus on what I can focus on and just being grateful that my family is safe, like that's all I can really think about. And if you have trouble sleeping, definitely get some of these gummies, because that helps Knock yourself out. The sleeping is tough because that's when you're alone with your thoughts, and so do whatever you can to get some sleep. Yeah, there's no effect. Yeah, there's nothing else Cold plunging, I think you could call it plunging.
Speaker 1:Had to drop that in there. Yeah, still doing that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Anything else in my life. I think that's it Call a friend.
Speaker 1:Call a friend.
Speaker 2:Tell them you love them, support them. Yeah, thanks for your. Hopefully the next episode will be so somber.
Speaker 1:It's important.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because we'll review skew health and wellness on the podcast. We also do talk about what's going on and keeping it real in that way, and this is what's going on for us right now and it's front and center, and at some point it won't necessarily be front and center for us, but it will be for a lot of people still that are still over there. They're still fighting. So it's important to have a moment to bring awareness to what's taking place and I really appreciate you doing that.
Speaker 2:And I would really like for us to add in the comments that other people, that people can follow like news and updates and stuff.
Speaker 2:I just think it's important to continue talking about this and raising awareness and maybe we can share some books or resources where people can learn more if you really want to dive into the conflict. There's tons of people who have written about it and we really love Moshe on Instagram. He is a news, he posts about news and it's very well done, right, he's great and he lays it on very, you know, honest. So definitely follow him and we'll share some other people that we like.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll be back next week with our regular schedule, and thank you for listening to this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Love you guys.