כיצד להתמודד עם פוליטיקאים אנטישמים

00:00 Speaker 1 This is Igris. Uh, I am told that Senator Schuck-- Chuck Schumer was booed at the Israeli Day Parade on Sunday. That-that's how I'm opening. That's my, that's my decided opener. At, at risk of turning what is clearly a timeless series on the Rebbe's letters into a shir on current events, chas v'shalom several times over, I wanted to look into the Rebbe's position on protesting world leaders who don't do what we want, and the Rebbe's approach, uh, not to combating antisemitism from countries or from individuals so much, but rather from world leaders. What do we do when there is a-- insert your least favorite politician at the moment. What do we do with that person? Uh, what is the Jewish approach? What is the Rebbe's approach? Uh, especially when it comes to world leaders i-in the US or elsewhere who have acted against the Jewish people, against the State of Israel, either through, uh, blocking, uh, funding that we need or maybe saying anti-Jewish things. Is the Rebbe in favor of protesting politicians ever? Does the Rebbe ever blacklist certain politicians and say that this person, because of what they've done in the past or said in the past, doesn't have a place at Jewish events? Is there, uh, is there such an idea? What-- How, how do we handle these people? Uh, so today, in honor of that, we're looking at only one letter and one sicha, but both are quite long and quite, uh, they, they, they pack a punch. And in both cases,

01:06 Speaker 1 the Rebbe is very clear that he's talking about a general shita. The Rebbe is not talking about one case and one person. He brings in that-- in this letter and in the sicha that we're gonna see several examples proving his point that he has really one shita when it comes to dealing with difficult politicians, and it's, uh, spoiler, it's not booing them. That's not the Rebbe's approach, it turns out. We'll see what his approach is. Uh, this first letter-- Both letters have really interest-- Both-- The letter and the sicha both have a really interesting story behind them. The, uh, the first letter, the one-- the letter we're gonna look at, which is on your screen already, it's in English. I'm giving it to you in English because it was written in English. So why, why look at a Hebrew translation of something written in English, right? So this letter's in English. It was written to Alan Dershowitz. You guys know Alan Dershowitz. He explains the background in a My Encounter video that I watched, so you don't have to. And, uh, he says there, there was a Senator Jesse Helms, uh, who was a Republican from North Carolina. He was a major opponent of Israel, uh, from-- He had two Senate terms in the '70s, uh, in the early '80s, 1972 through 1984, my notes say. And during those first two terms, excuse me, he was against Israel at just about every turn. In 1973, he proposed a resolution demanding that Israel return the West

02:08 Speaker 1 Bank to Jordan, which was just, you know, not good. And then in 1982, when we were in war in Leb-- uh, at war in Lebanon, he demanded that the United States completely sever all diplomatic relations with Israel. So he called on the end of relations between America and Israel. He called on the defunding of Israel. He called on us to give away pieces of Eretz Yisrael. Um, all the things-- I mean, I, I don't have to-- I don't want to, and I don't have to list the names, but if you've been following the news at all over the past couple weeks and months or any time since October 7th, you have now a long list of people who have done what Jesse Helms did. So if you can't immediately think of them, I'm sure you will, uh, I'm sure you'll be able to come up with a few that fit the mold. In any event, in 1983, the same, the same Senator Helms took part in a Friends of Lubavitch event in Washington, DC because it was Education Day USA. It was the Rebbe's birthday or something like it. It was an event near the Rebbe's birthday. And he, like a lot of politicians at the time, wanted to capitalize on this bipartisan piece of legislation. Both Republicans and Democrats at the time agreed on something. We haven't seen the ph-phenomenon since, but they agreed on something. They both wanted, uh, education to be a priority. So everybody wanted a piece of this, and so

03:07 Speaker 1 he showed up, even though he really wasn't into the Jews and the Jewish lobby. He was into education, and, uh, he wanted to, he wanted to be there at the event. So he's there at the event, and he's up on stage waving and smiling, and the Jews are furious that he's at a Chabad event. So Dershowitz writes to the Rebbe, and I'll tell you, I, I wrote down some quotes from his My Encounter video where he says, uh, Dershowitz says, "When I was involved in politics and civil rights and human rights, the enemy of civil rights and civil liberties was Jesse Helms, the United States senator from North Carolina. He stood against everything that I stood for and many of my friends and colleagues stood for. And so I was a little surprised and disappointed when Jesse Helms was honored by the Rebbe and Chabad. So I wrote a very polite letter to the Rebbe, who I had previously met a number of times, respectfully wondering why they chose to honor a man who was against integration, against gay rights, against women rights, and, uh, against equality for all." This was what concerned Alan Dershowitz. In any event, the Rebbe writes back, and from the tone, I'm not sure I agree with Alan Dershowitz that his letter was polite because the Rebbe opens his letter by saying, "I don't know why, I don't know why you're so impolite when you write to me." So let's, let's read the Rebbe's answer, and, uh, the Rebbe writes

04:05 Speaker 1 to Professor Blank, who I'm here to tell you was Dershowitz. This is in, uh, this is in Mem Dalet. This is 1984. And the Rebbe writes, "I received your letter. Frankly," we're reading in English 'cause it's in English, "I was somewhat disappointed not to find in it an answer to my simple and straightforward question as to the unusual, to say the least, procedure of sending copies of your previous letter to me without waiting for my reply." Apparently, if you didn't respond to Dershowitz, he would just keep on sending you the same letter over and over again till you wrote back, and the Rebbe wrote to him saying, "Why do you keep doing this?" And, and he didn't write an answer to the Rebbe. So that's what I mean by I'm not sure how polite this really was. Clearly, it was a little pushy. The Rebbe comments on the fact that he was a little pushy at the top of the letter. In any event, however, for understandable reasons, I will not press the point. And since the Rebbe doesn't wanna press the point, I'm also not gonna press the point. We're all gonna give Dershowitz a pass. "To turn to the subject matter of your letter, I assume you're aware," and, and the blank there is, is, is certainly the, the politician we're talking about. The blank there is Jesse Helms. So, "To turn to the subject of your letter," which is Senator Helms, "I assume you're aware of the background of the reception in

05:02 Speaker 1 Washington, but I will briefly recount the circumstances in order to put it in proper context." The Rebbe says you need to know the context of what he was doing up on the stage. "The person whose participation in the reception you found so objectionable," that would be Senator Helms, "was not an honoree." He was not honored by Chabad. "He came to salute and pay tribute to the-- to, to a Jew and to a Jewish movement," the Jew being the Rebbe here, and to a Jewish movement being Chabad. "The occasion was not just a birthday party but an important event in behalf of an important cause of both public national interest as well as of Jewish interest." So we're seeing an important chiluk here. The Rebbe is not saying he would have honored this individual or made him a, uh, made him an honoree at the event, and he's almost implying, although not saying directly, that doing so would have been inappropriate. What we're saying here is not inappropriate is having him at the event. He came to the event because he wanted to salute the Jewish people, and the Rebbe is not opposed to this. For a number of years now, the Lubavitch has been concerned about the state of education. I'm gonna skip this paragraph with a sort of promise that one day-- eh, it's not even a sort of promise, b'li neder, one day we're gonna do a whole thing on Education Day USA. But, uh, this middle paragraph is just the Rebbe talking

05:57 Speaker 1 about how much he cares about the project of making sure that, uh, public schools improve so that young people don't grow up to be murderers, which is something that people should be aware of, that this is one of the Rebbe's major shitas, is the improvement of the public school system so that young non-Jews will become ethical people. In any event, continuing down a little bit further in the letter. Through consistent efforts, mostly through personal contacts, we have, with God's help, succeeded in reaching an important milestone, namely in both-- that both Houses of Congress have in recent years passed a joint resolution calling upon the President of the United States to designate an Education Day USA with an appropriate poc- proclamation calling upon the American people to become more closely aware of the importance of education and its role in the national interest. The Rebbe says, "I worked on this for a while, and we were finally able to get both Houses of Congress to pass a bill for education. In recognition of the Lubavitch Movement's contributions to this cause, the annual Education Day has been proclaimed in conduction with the birthday of the head of the movement," which is the Rebbe. That's him, that's him talking about himself. The most recent such resolution and proclamation evince such strong interest among the members of both houses that each and all of them signed a special scroll bearing the text of the resolution. And then the Rebbe says, "I wonder how many other resolutions of the US

07:00 Speaker 1 Congress had received such enthusiastic, unanimous personal support of each and all senators and representatives." Not many, right? How often do you get com-- not just bipartisan, but everybody? Everybody was into this. I don't think that there was anybody who wasn't into Education Day USA. As was to be succ- expected, some senators and representatives signed the scroll in their respective offices. Many others gathered for the ceremony at a special reception in the Capitol. And I'm reading between the lines here, but even if the Rebbe is not saying this, I'm saying this. I think we know why some people come in person, because they're trying to win elections, right? They wanna show that they have an association with this bill. So the Rebbe says here, "Some indeed wish to associate themselves more articulately through paying a personal tribute to the cause and its initiators. Among the latter was the senator whose participation you found objectionable." So why did he show up? Because he wanted to be part of Education Day. More has to be said on the subject matter, but not to detour from the immediate issue. I will say it in part in a PS, and then the Rebbe concludes with a Shavuot message 'cause this was right bor-before Shavuot, and we're also right before Shavuot. "I extend to you and yours the traditional Chabad blessing on this occasion to receive the Torah with joy and inwardness," and we have with blessing the Rebbe's signature. Now, you know by now that all of the fun always

07:59 Speaker 1 happens in the PS. So that's the top of the letter. The fun is about to begin. PS, here we go. "I wish to refer your characterization of this person as described in your letter." And the way that, uh, the way that, uh, Dershowitz had described this person was as an antisemite who's against Jewish values and against liberal values in general. He's against goodness and kindness. The Rebbe says, "I trust you will agree that in regard to persons of influence, whether in Washington or elsewhere, the first objective should be to persuade and encourage such a person to use his influence in a positive way in behalf of any and all good causes which are important to us." What is our job when it comes to politicians? It's not to punish them or to reward them. It's to influence them to act good. That's me talking. Now back to the Rebbe. "We should welcome every public appearance which lends public support to the cause, especially when there's a likelihood that it may be the forerunner of similar pronouncements in the future." That's the Rebbe saying that-- I, I have to keep on saying when I'm paraphrasing 'cause we're both speaking English. But paraphrasing the Rebbe here, he's saying that whenever a politician does something in public that supports our cause, we should be, uh, we should be supportive of it. "A case in point is the public stance of the very person who's the subject of your letter on the matter which is su-surely close to your

08:58 Speaker 1 heart." I don't know what he's talking about here. He had taken some position that seemed to be in our favor. It's in a JTA bulletin. Not a clue. "My experience with such people," the Rebbe says, "though I have never personally met the said person," senator, uh, the senator from North Carolina, "has convinced me that politicians are generally motivated more by expediency than by conviction." The Rebbe here says that politicians, they care about what's easy to get done. They don't really care, but they don't really believe in much. The Rebbe's saying this here. Politicians usually are not people who have strong principles about anything. Usually, they have strong principles about expediency, about getting things done in a way that is easy and that makes the most sense for them and their elec- and the electorate. In other words, I'm saying the Rebbe's words now. In the other words-- In other words, their public pronouncements on various issues do not stem from categorical principles or religious imperatives. The Rebbe's saying most politicians don't really have straight religious imperatives or straight morals when it comes to issues. Hence, most of them, if not all, are subject to a change in their positions depending on time, place, and other factors. What I really want you to take away from this paragraph is the Rebbe's telling us that even though politicians pretend to be principled people, they usually aren't, and that's not a good or a bad thing. It's just something to know about the way they function. That you

09:59 Speaker 1 usually, with most people, you have to change their mind about something. With politicians, you usually don't have to change their mind about something, the Rebbe's saying. You just have to change the outside factors that are making it inconvenient for them to agree with you because they don't really have their minds made up on things. They really just do what's expedient. So the Rebbe says, "I haven't met this person, but he's a politician, and most politicians, the trick isn't changing their minds. The trick is changing the circumstances. I believe, therefore, that the proper approach to such persons by Jewish leaders should not be rigid." The Rebbe says, "Don't have strict rules when it comes to dealing with these people, especially when you're a Jewish leader. As a rule, it does no good to engage in a cold war which may often turn into a hot war, nor does it serve any useful purpose to brand one as an enemy or an antisemite, however tempting it is to do so, even if that person vehemently denies it. It can only be counterproductive. On the contrary, ways and means should be found to persuade such a person to take a favorable stance, at least publicly. We haven't too many friends, and attaching labels, et cetera, will not gain us any." The Rebbe does not want us labeling politicians an-- as antisemi- as antisemites even when they are. Uh, even when they are, maybe especially when they are. The Rebbe says, "We don't have enough friends to, uh-- We

11:00 Speaker 1 don't, uh, uh, have enough friends to be adding enemies." The Rebbe continues, "Instances abound where the approach advocated above produced good results." The Rebbe says this works. "To cite one well-known case, the leader of the moral majority has at times made highly unfavorable pronouncements, especially the one about missionary activities." I don't know what he's talking about here. "Yet the government in Eretz Yisrael made special efforts to gain his support," et cetera, et cetera. I don't know what he means there, but I do know what he means in the next paragraph. "There's surely no need to point out to you that responsible Jewish leaders consistently cultivated good public relations, indeed even cordial relations, with President Carter and his predecessors going back to FDR, regardless of their sometimes openly negative feelings toward Jews and Jewish causes." The Rebbe says, "President Carter, going all the way back to FDR, we had a lot of antisemites in office, and a lot of them really pushed back and did not like the Jewish people and did not like Jewish causes. And smart Jews always knew to keep close with them anyway because our job here isn't to point fingers and label the people who hate us, it's to quietly influence them to start liking us." "The wisdom of the said approach is also borne out by experience in regard to helping Jews behind the Iron Curtain." If you know anything about the Rebbe's shitah on Russia, you know this was a repeated call. "That there are some who claim that

11:57 Speaker 1 anti-Soviet demonstrators and similar actions will induce the Kremlin to change its policy. Others, myself included, are convinced that quiet diplomacy has been effective and certainly not counterproductive. I urged and pleaded behind the scenes, of course, for such an approach by Jewish leaders." This is the Rebbe saying something that he says often, which is the people who are demonstrating that Jews should be allowed out of Russia and that Russia should ease its restrictions on Jewish life were harming the cause, and that the helpful thing to do would be to, instead of screaming that Russian leaders are antisemites, very quietly engaging in diplomacy to change the status quo. "Unfortunately," says the Rebbe, "my pleadings were unheeded." And if I had to give a title to our entire now two hundred-long series of Igris, this is what I would call it. I would call it "Unfortunately, My Pleadings Were Unheeded" because this is like the story of every letter we've learned together. The Rebbe has a really good idea, and of course, nobody's listening. So the Rebbe says, "This is one of the reasons why I write in response to your correspondence this PS, which has nothing to do with the person about whom you wrote, and hope that you may use your influence with your friends who are active in Jewish concerns in the direction indicated above." So the Rebbe says, "That's why I'm writing this to you. I'm hoping that you and your friends who are involved sort of as askanim in some capacity will be

12:56 Speaker 1 involved in, uh, in pushing things in a more positive direction and not, uh, not pointing fingers and screaming at the people you hate, but trying to get a more positive outcome out of them." So I went through this letter. I summarized a couple key points I wrote down in my notes. I wanted us to make sure we didn't miss any of the big things. Here's the key points I'm taking from this letter. Um, number one, the point Rebbe says, "We didn't honor him at our, at our dinner. We didn't honor him at a big celebration." Uh, the Rebbe's not-- This letter is not licensed for us to take people who hate the Jewish people in Israel and honor them at the, uh-- honor them at your dinner. That's not what it's saying here. We didn't honor him. He attended, and we're very happy to have him attend because we're happy to have even our enemies come salute and pay tribute to a Jewish interest movement person. So if they wanna come and pay tribute, absolutely. Uh, the second big point, our job is not to take retribution on politicians who act against us, it's to convince them to act otherwise. Our job is to be influencing them, not to be angry at them or to be happy with them, to be influencing them. Uh, three, politicians choose expediency over conviction. This is a big point in the Rebbe's letter. So changing their minds is not very difficult. Normal people, it's hard to get them to

13:52 Speaker 1 change what they really believe, but most politicians don't deeply believe things. So really all you have to do is change the way that they're seeing the situation, not so much change their deep-seated beliefs. Obviously, there are exceptions. The Rebbe says, "I don't know this individual. Maybe he does have deep-seated beliefs, but on the whole, politicians don't operate that way." Next, branding a politician an antisemite or calling him someone who hates us, a Jew-hater, can only harm and cannot help. So it can only do damage. Can't do-- It can't have any positive outcome from this. Uh, we don't have any friends, and we're not going to gain any by labeling our enemies as our enemies. And finally, quiet diplomacy is most effective, not loud protests. Now, uh, is this a shitah? Uh, I'm willing to say yeah, probably. I know we-we never do this with just one letter, but yeah, probably. The Rebbe writes-- I mean, I read this to you. The Rebbe, the Rebbe writes in such general terms saying that this is how he sees our relationships with former presidents from Carter all the way back to FDR, current politicians across the board. I think it's very hard to read this letter as a one-off about one senator. But just in case, just in case it is, let me show you a sifha that corroborates what the Rebbe is saying in this letter about a completely different politician and not even a US politician. It's a really fun sifha-

14:51 Speaker 2 If, if, if, if I could just jump in for a second.

14:53 Speaker 1 Sure.

14:53 Speaker 2 Where it said the let-- where the letter wrote about the leader of the moral majority-

14:57 Speaker 1 Yes

14:58 Speaker 2 ...I believe at that time it was a guy called, uh, Jerry Falwell, who was a Christian minister, and he had a very big, uh, following in the United States and was trying to set up, uh, uh, relationships with Israel.

15:10 Speaker 1 Oh, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Excellent. So, uh, I have a sifha on the screen here which sort of corroborates everything we're talking about. Here is the sifha, and this also needs a bit of an introduction. And, uh, because of this, I got to do a deep dive into Israeli military history, and I found such cool things. I was, uh, I was g-- I was, uh, I was, uh, nerding out about this with, uh, with Mendy Friedman earlier before you guys got on the screen. Just all the things I learned today about Israeli military history. I'm gonna have to share some of it with you because in the sifha, the Rebbe keeps on referencing it and saying, like, "Like that story you all know about," which I guess at the time Jews were thinking about. But this is, uh, this sifha is from, uh, is from the, uh, this is from the Lameds. This is from the sev-- 1971, so it's just not in the news anymore. Anyway, here's the story. In, uh, 1967, after the Six-Day War, Charles de Gaulle, who was the president of France, he put out an embargo on arms to any country involved in the conflict of the Six-Day War. That was, uh, not exactly what happened, but that's what Wikipedia would tell you happened. What really happened is that prior to the Six-Day War, our closest ally was France, not necessarily even America. Israel's main ally was France. They were the main ones supplying a lot

16:08 Speaker 1 of their arms, and Charles de Gaulle hated the Jews. I mean, uh, he hated the Jews so badly that a lot of other leaders, uh, censured him for the things he said about the Jewish people. He blamed the Jews for causing every major conflict in the world throughout, throughout world history. So he really didn't like us very much, and when he put out an embargo on arms to any country involved in the conflict, uh, he only hurt us because everybody else was being supplied by Russia also and didn't really need France, and we were the only ones who really needed France. So what he effectively did was he strangled Israel from, uh, from getting the arms that it needed in a very serious way. Uh, he put this embargo in place, and in 1970, his successor, whose name, I don't know how to say French names, Pompidou, I believe. Pompidou, perhaps? Why not? Pompidou got around it-- uh, got, got, got around this embargo by announcing that he'd be selling a ton of aircraft to Libya. Now, why would he sell aircraft to Libya? They had no particular relationship there that was necessary. The answer was that the aircraft from Libya could then be sold to Egypt and Syria. So now, now France is directly supplying the enemies of, of Israel and not supplying Israel. So this, uh, this looks really dangerous for us. And, uh, when he came to visit the United States, Jews were furious. They said, "Not only have you maintained the

17:10 Speaker 1 embargo of your predecessor and aren't selling things to Eretz Israel, you're now selling to Libya, which is gonna sell to Egypt and to Syria. Uh, you're, you're, you're attacking the Jewish people with your money," and there were protests everywhere he went. And they were hoping to intimidate him to undo the embargo and at least start selling weapons to us, maybe stop selling weapons to our enemies. In any event, the, uh, Rebbe is gonna say in the sicha exactly how this protest went. So the Rebbe sicha here is from nineteen seventy-one, and the Rebbe says, "Vinyan ze lerak biyachas l'Russia liyesh od dugmas lakach." Everything the Rebbe says about Russia, where we need to be careful not to be, uh, agitating them and instead engage in quiet diplomacy happens in other examples. Let me give you another example. "Hayah sipur." There was a story, the Rebbe says, "im Pompidou" with this president who might be-- whose name might be pronounced Pompidou. I don't know. That's what it looks like in Hebrew to me. "Shebez kan archen egdavka." Now, when he came here, the Jews organized protests against him. "Kim shechachu tzarfasi siyam yozair." They were hoping that France would be intimidated by this, seeing American Jews. You know what? You, you, you've, you've read these flyers. They come out now too. If the American Jews all show up and make them very nervous, they'll realize what American Jews think, and they'll push back. So, uh, they made protests against this guy, hoping that it was going

18:11 Speaker 1 to scare the French government. The Rebbe says, "Ma kar ba'pail?" What happened practically? "Temura ze sheb'tchila hiskim lemkar kli neshek le'Yisrael al eis ha'embargo." And then there's a long bracket that we'll get to in a second. "Ki niv'laa afones negdei le'haish lemkar yesh." I'm gonna skip the bracket for now and just finish the sentence. The sentence is that he had initially agreed to sell arms to Eretz Yisrael, but because of the protests, he stopped selling them. Now, the Rebbe's gonna say in this-- in the, in the bracket several things. Among them, it's this. What we didn't know at the time was that, uh, was that Pompidou had been-- had agreed to sell small arms. The Rebbe's gonna say this in the bracket. Had agreed to sell small arms to, uh, to Eretz Yisrael and was going-- to Medina of Yisrael and was going to continue, uh, funding us quietly and basically by making these big protests, we upset him, and he decided to cut off the secret funding that he was going to be doing. Um, but let's go directly into the bracket and see. The point though that the Rebbe's making is that this protest derailed what would-- derailed quiet diplomacy. There was actually something going on behind the scenes. We didn't realize that Pompidou was kind of backing us up, and we upset him enough that he stopped backing us up. So let's read the, the bracket. We're gonna go a little late today, but the bracket is, uh, too much fun to

19:09 Speaker 1 miss. "Ach shav, pa'al shelo sapar," the Rebbe says, "I already can tell you now. It's, it's been enough time that I can tell you the secret." "Shelam m'sa embargo" that despite the fact that there was an embargo at the time that prevented France from having anything to do with Israel, "hiskim nasi tzarfas lemkar le'Eretz Yisrael kli neshek k'tanam shef sh'machan le'pirsum." He was sneaking small weapons to us and selling us small weapons that he could sell to us without anybody noticing. So Pompidou was kind of on our side. He was sneaking weapons to us. "Bezeis, lamash le'fiza hayim erev shel geneivas chamish sfinos." Although there had been the, the, uh, situation of the theft of five boats, and this sent me down a fun rabbit hole. Do-- Surly, do you offhand know what this is about? I had to do some research. This is great. This is a story of ethical piracy in the seventies. I mean, this is one of the best stories I've ever read. The Israeli Navy-- Very briefly, the Israel- the Israeli Navy had, uh, had made a deal before the embargo that France was gonna build some boats for them, ships, I suppose, navy ships for them. And they needed new navy ships 'cause they'd lost a big one in the Six-Day War. They needed these ships. And, uh, Israel paid for it completely and also sent Israeli crews over there to take care of the construction, but they didn't have the facilities to do it, so the facilities were

20:09 Speaker 1 in France. Once they announced the embargo, France said, "You can't take the ships." But they were our ships, and our crews were there. So we-- There's this whole elaborate mission. It's a giant Wikipedia page. Whole elaborate mission where we basically sailed these ships through the Atlantic to-- Sailed them all-- Snuck them out of France and sailed them, like acr-- uh, like above Africa and snuck them into Eretz Yisrael, uh, putting them, uh, putting them through waters that they were never meant to go through. They thought the ships were gonna sink 'cause these ships were made for, like, Mediterranean combat. They were, like, in the open Atlantic. It's a wild story. Anyway, we stole five boats from them. And so the Rebbe says, "Despite the fact that, like recently, you stole five ships from their harbor," "ratzu lashalos es atzmam shirimi es Pompidou." When that happened, they wanted to say that they tricked Pompidou. They go, "Oh, look, the president Pompidou, who's trying to con-- make an embargo on us, we snuck ships out from under him." But the truth was, "ba ba shash izel sheker," that wasn't true either. "Rumas af ha'kedimah k'tanam." They fooled the lower-level governors of "kedimah g'vai b'tzarfas yadam izeh." Israel kind of put on a show. The truth is that they'd already back-channeled this, and the main leaders in France had been aware of this and ch- and chose to turn a blind eye. So everybody is meanwhile cheering, "Oh, Pompidou's such a moron. We fooled him. We stole his

21:09 Speaker 1 boats." You didn't steal his boats. You stole the boats from the low-level ministers. He agreed to look the other way. He'd have noticed. "Af kedimah g'vai b'tzarfas yadam izeh." They knew about this. "Sich mo sam m'reish shiatz meheim." They agreed and-- they agreed in advance with-- through a back channel with Israel that they were gonna look the other way. "Vach neis shechafish sfinas ya'avru b'shalom" and after, uh, "chamish sfinas chaf b'shalom," after these five ships had passed into Eretz Yisrael in peace, "aze yanikul hem ligneiv od devarim," uh, they then figured that they, they-- that Pompidou said, "You can-- You know, once these five boats get out, we'll let you steal more things. You can get more weapons from us secretly as long as the public doesn't know." "Ach kasuv rash" and then everybody made a big noise, "shrimas kolam shichlan ois" and that they fooled him. They were gonna fool him again. So basically, this poor guy, Pompidou, he see-- he has all these back channels with us. He's sneaking us ships, sneaking us weapons, and meanwhile, the American Jews are screaming, "Oh, what a rotten guy." And because of that, "hinivi glal af gonus negdei." This guy, he's-- "You're gonna protest me? Fine." "Lehaish lemkar li yesh." He says, "Fine, I'm not giving you anything else." So then he became our real enemy. So this is a guy that we didn't realize was our friend or something like our friend. Uh, he looked like an enemy. We treated him like an enemy. He

22:05 Speaker 1 became an enemy. "Ki shero," now let's continue reading the Rebbe. "Ki shero shuv sikas nuchris kli neshek." When they saw that, uh, he was stopping to-- that, that he was not gonna sell these weapons anymore, "hivsiku lav gen negdei," they stopped protesting him. "Vachu shavar mes, meshach zman." Then after time passed without any protests, "hivsiku livnos o" and they stopped making fun of him, "his kil ushuv li sasagis bebachashai." He went back to working with us quietly again. "Az chazam lemkar kli neshek k'tanam" and he went back to selling us small weapons. "Vechein po lo hetsi shalosh meih shel Yehudim Eretz im tzrayim lehav gonus le'pirsum." And then quietly, he was able to get three hundred Jews who had been in detention in Egypt. He was able to help them escape and get to Eretz Yisrael. "Ve'are li yatam sh'lo lichtav al zeh." And they were instructed not to write about it in the newspapers. Basically, quiet diplomacy started working again, and things started happening again. So what's the Rebbe showing here? He's saying, "Every time you people get in the street and scream boo at a politician, you break the quiet diplomacy we're doing behind the scenes. And every time you guys quiet down for two minutes and stop calling everybody an antisemite and let us do our work behind the scenes, we get things done." "Ma ha'sibel kak?" I want you to focus on this paragraph more than anything else 'cause this is the shita. "Ma ha'sibel kak?" What's the reason for all

23:04 Speaker 1 of this? "Uvechain, ze ha'chacha." This is the proof. "Shehaderech yechidit lefel ha'senei Yisraeli." What is the only way to deal with antisemites? Look at how they're-- The Rebbe's not saying that these are our secret friends or that Pompidou was secretly a Jew lover, uh, or that, or that all these people who we're, uh, we're upset with secretly love the Jews. How do you deal with an enemy, a real enemy of the Jewish people? How do you deal with them? "Lehadei ze sheba'yim kol yom ve'tze'akim at ha'senei Yisrael at hagazlan ve'hetze'ach." Not by coming to him every day and screaming, "You hate the Jews. You're a thief. You're a murderer." That's not how we deal with our enemies. "Ela midavar mitam bederech diplomati." What do we do? We take these people who hate the Jewish people, who are indeed haters of the Jewish people, who are indeed the- thieves, and who are indeed murderers, and what do we say to them? "Let's talk diplomacy. Let's talk diplomatically." "Hu yadam nam ma cheshbon la'laf." They know what we think about them. You don't have to scream it, says the Rebbe. They know that you think they hate the Jews. "Aval hu bachol zeh ben adam. Yisnach kemeh ben adam." He's a person, though. He's gonna act like a person. He knows you hate him, but if you have a diplomatic solution, he's probably going to take it. This is a strong shita from the Rebbe that we see all over the place regarding Russia. We see it

24:04 Speaker 1 regarding French diplomats. We see it regarding an American diplomat in the letter back there. Uh, what can I tell you? Insert the name of your favorite anti-Israel, anti-Semitic politician and apply the Rebbe's shita. I think you'll find that the approach of most politically involved Jews, and even most Chassidim, unfortunately, does not yet conform to that of our Rebbe. And as ever, it's a really good time to perhaps realign our own shitas with the very clear shita of our Rebbe. But I have nothing else to add on this particular subject. So with that, thank you all very much.