Yishai Fleisher is best known as Israeli National News (INN) radio show host and a Zionist Activist who engages many in his frequest speaking tours in the US. Yishai is also the founder of KUMAH – an activism site which he himself describes as “production house” for new ideas with regard to elevating Jewish pride and Aliyah causes in Israel and all around the world. Middle East Magazine had the distinct pleasure to interview him recently and we hope you find this piece as informative and inspiring, as we did.
It’s great to have you here Yishai. Tell me something, you talk a lot about being of Russian descent, studying in America, and living in Judea Shomron, what exactly does that make you?
I’m Israeli, the proudest identity. An Israeli is a Jew living in the Land of Israel.
As a Jewish resident of “East” Jerusalem, would you consider yourself a champion of the right wing in Israel? What is your position on how best to achieve peace?
I am not right wing. In the Middle East you need to speak with clarity and assert our rights. We need to wake up and understand we are not westerners – we are Middle Easterners. We do belong here. This is not a “right wing” argument. It explains how we exist here. “Right Wing” is itself a European term. We should get away from using these concepts. You can’t give up your land – nobody respects that. Land for peace is like, “here is my wife, take her.” In a land where respect and honor are EVERYTHING, how could we possibly enter into any dialogue based on this?
What do you think about the response to the Fogel family murders?
It’s a tragedy. My heart goes out for the family. What bothers me is the response. In only building after this mass murder, we are sending the signal that we will only build if someone, G-d forbid, gets hurt, or even worse. Israel is either our land or it’s not.
What is the best time to build?
When are we going to build for the simple reason that we belong here? We need to fall in love with ourselves again. We need to recognize that our home is the Middle East and that we are a Middle Eastern country. There were many positive things we learned in our 2,000 sojourn in the West, but we are home now – we need to get comfortable and realize that we are not going anywhere.
Here is an example: The Rambam, Rabbi Maimonides of the 11th century asks the question, Can you pop a zit on Shabbos? The argument against doing this is that you cannot take the bad from the good on this Holy day, so it is forbidden. However, the Ramabam says that is permissible to do so. Why? Because a zit is “outside the body” and it can be removed.
As long as we see ourselves as “western” and not a “Middle Eastern” nation, we are like a zit that can be removed. We need more Middle Eastern clothing, more Mid-East culture, the prayers, the music; we need to look and feel like we are home.
We need more emphasis on the Tanach, the Book of the Prophets, and the Books of the Kings. We need to focus on hikes throughout the land of Israel and to recognize the events that took place in this land over the last 3,300 years.
Tell us about where you live.
Baruch Hashem, I live on the Mount of Olives. I am a fifteen minute walk from the Kotel. The Old City of Jerusalem is my backyard. It was a series of miracles from Hashem that I found my new home.
Is it dangerous?
No. We are safe.
What is Kumah?
Our goal is to encourage Aliyah. Now it is helping Israel become the country it is supposed to be. Kumah has evolved into a factory for ideas – an activist think tank. A production house of thinking. We try to advocate for Israel in the media, in movies, speaking tours, advocacy – even in the Knesset.
The atmosphere in college campuses has taken a harsh turn. How do you get through to students?
With a shaky economy, kids are uncertain about their future. Jewish kids are looking for a Jewish future. With youth – don’t hit the sensitivity points – they are looking for it. If you can help them get past the “big button” issues, the issues that offend them the most – they are very open. I remind them that Israel is the great champion of all the most hallowed liberal values in the Middle-East.
What do you think of the job Binyamin Netanyahu is doing as Prime Minister?
I respect him in that he is a man of his time. It’s very important to respect your leaders. The problem is that the Palestinian argument has gotten a tremendous boost under his term. He was the first leader to admit to a Palestinian state (in his Bar Ilan speech). Only after he first openly considered the possibility did South American and European nations began recognizing a Palestinian state and “up” their diplomatic status.
How do you explain to an Ashkenazi led nation-state that we are less than 100 miles away from Saudi Arabia?
Perfect example! Saudi Arabia is where the Muslims make a Hajj to Mecca. We are commanded to do likewise three times a year. In Islam, the Hajj is a holiday and a journey all rolled up into one. It comes from Judaism. It comes directly from the Torah. In the Arabian Peninsula, the Jews there pronounced their j and their g interchangeably. If you interchange the j in Hajj to g, you get the original meaning of the term – Chag, which is Hebrew for holiday. The Muslim Hajj comes from the Jewish Chag! It’s true. Three times a year we are commanded to celebrate a holiday by making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Hebrew and Arabic are sister languages. We Jews are more indigenous to this area than we like to admit.
Once we admit to ourselves that we are Mid-Easterners, then what?
We need to take what’s ours. When you move into your own home, you clear out the old stuff of the previous owners.
You mean throw out all the Arabs?
There can be peace between us and Arabs. We just need to negotiate from the conviction that they are the ones who are guests in our home.
What are your feelings about the wave of revolutions going on in the Arab world right now?
I think that Israel should be using these revolts to our advantage. We need to say these problems are NOT US! Another tyrannical Arab state in the world is not what the world needs. There are hundreds of millions of Arabs protesting in the street which proves my point. Just like the average Arab wants out under the thumb of dictatorship, so do we. Like you, we want to be accepted for who we are. An indigenous tribe living on our ancient homeland.
Do you think this will put Israel in a perilous position?
Who says the Arab revolutions are bad for us? The Arabs are falling apart.
Is there a chance that a wave of new governments will decide to alter their stance on Israel and strike a peace deal?
There will be peace with Israel when we have zero tolerance for harming our people. Whenever the Arabs attack, we will have to hit them and hit them hard. It will have to come to a point where they are petrified to touch us.
Even then, they feel that their own Palestinian brethren have been oppressed by us for over 40 years?
The Arabs are not illiterate. They have been brainwashed. They are smart, they have just been educated with lies. They love history – they just have been taught a false version of it. If you tell them the true history – they will listen.
Will the Arabs eventually transition into a western style democracy?
Arabs don’t mind being ruled – they just want what’s fair – “give me my chance to live” there will be Islamic elements there. Israel should be encouraging the dissident movement.
Why give up the Golan? Syrian people will not care if they have the Golan or not? They want to live. We who came here from the USSR understand the Arabs are living under horrible oppression. The governments hit the people very hard to suppress them, but the people have had enough and will rise again until things change.
Where can we improve as a nation?
There is not enough classiness here – not enough personal honor. Even the Arabs are losing on this one. They used to have honor, they used to show hospitality. Today you enter Arab town and get ambushed. It was different before radicalism. There was a code to their behavior that has fallen by the wayside. We are going through dishonorable times, a period of universally lower standards.
We need special, emotional moments again. We shouldn’t wait until there is adversity in the world for that to happen. Adversity is tiresome, we can love joy. Why wait for a crisis to celebrate a proud moment? Let’s get back to the three pilgrimage festivals – the Jewish Hajj so to speak. Why not lower prices for plane tickets and hotel rooms during the three festivals and the government will give incentives for the tourist industry to do so? We can even make a pathway to citizenship for those Jews in America who are considering aliyah. If they come these three times a year, you can vote in our elections, you are in the game. We are in a transition moment. This country has moved a lot. We are ready to take the next step. We are living in extremely exciting times which are dressed in extremely cynical times. Tzionizm Lo Sinism! -“Zionism, not cynicism!”
Yishai, you are an observant man. Why not just accept that this world is Hashem’s, and that He will fix it when the time is ripe?
Hashem wants us to be engaged in this physical world. That’s what Eretz Yisrael is all about. The government is a machine and Hashem wants us to make it run well. We have to engage the world. It’s like being a parent. Hashem wants us to be engaged. Engaged in the process of creating a Jewish state. Waiting for Moshiach is an anti-Jewish approach.After all Hashem has done for us – now you want Him to also finish the job? You also want Him to place the cherry on top?
You just completed a successful position at Israel National Radio, and are the co-head of an activist organization. What’s next?
My dream is to become a member of the Knesset.
Which party would you run under?
If I ran for Knesset, I would run under Likud or Israel Beiteinu. Or I would create my own political party. I would join with people from other points on the political spectrum on those issues we agree on – like Aliyah and other universal benefits.
If you were to be elected to the Knesset, what would be your favorite issue?
Promoting Aliyah. I already have several ideas. One is Aliyah Day. Let’s make a rally, fill Teddy stadium (Teddy Kolleck Soccer Stadium in Jerusalem) with 20 thousand and protest for our brothers and sisters to come home. Aliyah is a great issue. With all the disagreement among party and ideological lines, this is something everyone flatly agrees on. We can even export this holiday to the Jewish community in North America.
I would also like to make an aliyah boat. A cruise liner that meets the olim in New York. We take on 2,000 new Israelis and in a scene reminiscing their ancestors who arrived via these waters, we all wave good-bye to the statue of liberty. For two weeks, the new citizens spend time learning Hebrew, meeting their new neighbors and making contacts, filling out their paperwork slowly and gradually without hassle, and have an all-around fun time getting excited about their new home. When we reach the port in Haifa or Yaffa, there will be 10,000 Israelis waiting there to greet them as they disembark towards their new life.
How do we get American Jewry to wake up from the American dream and start thinking about living in Israel?
American Jewry is the next big thing in Aliyah. Baruch Hashem, the marriage between the amenities of American life and the Jewish People there is getting a bit rocky.
We need to turn on the youth to the sexiness of living in the Land of Israel.
Is the situation hopeless for Jews in the U.S.?
Not at all. In total, there will be six major contributions the American Jewish community will have made for the Jewish People. One, they saved 1 million Russian Jews from the Soviet Union and helped them get out. Two, Yeshiva University. Three, Chabad. Four, Artscroll. Five, Birthright Israel. Finally, the best thing they will do that will eclipse all of this: A MASS ALIYAH TO ISRAEL.
Any last words?
Nobility stands its ground. We need to fall in love with ours. Let me tell you a story about one of the first times I celebrated the Shabbos:
Before I made teshuvah I used to go with my friends to the beaches in Sinai. At the time I had long hair and let’s just say I completely blended in with the people partying over there. But I began to take on the Shabbos a little. One Friday at sunset, I was offered a cigarette. I declined because it was Shabbos. That’s when the barrage came in. one friend said, “But you aren’t religious.” “Another said “hey, aren’t you going out with us tonight Rabbi?” etc. Instead of just going with the flow and dropping it, I stood my ground. My friends continued to resist for a little while and then someone chimed in, “you know my grandfather used to recite kiddish every Shabbos night, I miss that.” Another talked about the weekly Shabbos meal with his family. After a few minutes, all the dominoes started to fall and we were talking about Shabbos in the middle of the Sinai Dessert.
It all began with a healthy measure of confidence in ourselves.
Thank you Yishai.
A pleasure
