Summary The Left's Long War on Israel (Youtube) youtu.be
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Nikos Sotirakopoulos It was once said that communism has no history. Communism has a criminal record. And you have heard about many of the crimes of communism. You have heard about the gu in Soviet Union. You have heard about the horror and the famine.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos In Mouse China. You have heard about the misery, wherever these ideas have been tried But there is 1 element of communism evil that many of you might have not heard of. I didn't know about it, although in some way, I participated in that evil in my youth. I'm talking about the war waged by communist countries by the communist movement and biological leftist is in general against israel. I'm talking about the material and moral support that Communist countries and radical leftist east, have been given to all sorts of enemies of Israel, From arab dictatorship, to Palestinian ky to anti Israeli Western Europe terrorists.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos The left long go on Israel is a fascinating, but mostly unknown story a story of hate and a story of destruction. But it is also a very story, and it's a story which is d, not only for the student of history and not only for someone who's interested in Middle East affairs, Actually, it's not even a story only about the past. It's a story that can also teach teaches us things about the present. Because it can teach us what the left is really about? It can teach us what is the character?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos What is the identity? What is the Dna of the left? So before we embark, into this journey of blood and this journey of horror, I want to give you a 2 minutes, maybe 3 crash course on the history of Israel. So that those of you who are not familiar with the historical context, you will still be able to follow the lecture. We could start from before forecast, but we will start from 90 47 We are after the second world war where after the holocaust cost.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So it becomes finally understood that they jews need their own country. The problem is that there is 1 piece of land claimed by both the Arabs and the jews. So the United Nations in 19 47 comes up with a partition plan. It says, the juice will take. This area here on the beats and this area here, which is mostly desert.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And the rest will go to the arabs. Notice now that the arabs have already got jordan, and there are some like 20 arab states in the area. So Israel, the jews are given less than they were promised, but they
n/a say, we will take the deal. How do the
Nikos Sotirakopoulos arabs react? The day in 19 48 that Israel? Declares its independence, 5 Arab Armies attack Israel with 1 goal to obliterate it. The goal is not not to give any land to the Palestinians. The goal is to throw the juice to the sea.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos This is why whatever the arab countries can grasp. As for example, oops. As for example, here, the West Bank or the Gaza, they keep it for themselves. In this war, Israel hasn't even got a proper army as we know it today. It hasn't even got an air force.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos But it manages to survive. It manages to win. But with heavy losses, 1 percent of the population of Israel, dies in the world of independence in 19 48. This includes people who had escaped, the concentration comes. People who still had the number tattooed in their hand.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos They escaped 1 more enemy to find another 1. But these are managers to prevail. And actually is slightly bigger than the partition plans said, In the 19 fifties, the big story is that the Arabs organize themselves under a big idea. The idea of pan Arab business To put it simply, this means that all arabs unite in 1 nation and this nation has 1 goal to throw the juice to the sea. Why saw that there is geographical continuity among all the arab states?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos The ideology of our nationalism is means something between socialism, fa a nationalism. And its most prominent representative is Nas, the president of Egypt, and Nasa finds a pattern. This pattern is Soviet Union. This pattern is the new leader of Soviet Union, Make nikita K. So Nas gets too self confident into cocky and actually 90 56.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos National the Suez Canal, which to put it simply, he's an act of war against Israel. Israel’s immediately punishes him, mil military by conquering Suez, but the west is too afraid to peace of the arabs, is too afraid also to peace of Soviet Union. So they tell to Israel go back. And nas promises, I promise I'll never do something again and Sin I will be demi. Of course, he was lying.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So 10 years passed, now the arabs are more confident because of the Soviet health and they go for around 2. Egypt, Syria, Jordan and coming from the back, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, plead that it's time again to throw the juice to the sea. But Israel with a preemptive strike in what today is known as the 6 day war, manages to defeat them. Not only manage they defeat them, Israel is tripling its eyes. And Israel gets a nice buffer zone.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Here on the south, the desert. And it gets a nice buffer zone also here with the West Bank. And they also get the Go heights to put it simply not to bore you with technical details. After 90 67, the Rally looks down to its enemies. Israel has the high ground, not only the moral high ground, literally the high ground.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So the Arabs starts realizing, we're never we're are not going to throw the juice to the sea. However, flooded with soviet help They try once more. They try once more in 90 73 in the Y war. Again they fail. So what is the situation today?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos What has been the situation since then. So 1 big development is that Israel has than peace with egypt. So vas is given back to Egypt. And the other big development is that Israel is not facing so much the military aggression from the outside, but from the inside, from Arabs that had to live in 19 48, and from Arabs living in the West Bank and in Gaza. As we know them today from the Palestinians.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So today, Israel has returned Gaza, which is a hundred percent into Palestinian control. Today controlled by the Islamic of Hamas. And here in the West Bank, there is Israeli military present but administrative control by the P o. So this is the very, very, very, very, very short story. Something important to consider, throughout all these existential threats.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Israel has managed to maintain its identity as a country that respects basic individual rights. Israel is basically a free country, a country with rule law. With weaknesses The military draft is 1 example, but it's a country that is mostly free country. We cannot say the same about the rms. The arab keep falling from 1 type of authoritarianism to the other.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Monarchy Arab nationalism, Marxist lenin, ji, Islamist. So we have the background. So let's get back to our story. What has been the role of the left into this titanic struggle? We'll will start from 90 67.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Now 90 67 is a defeat for the arabs that is very difficult to swallow. Remember, they were preparing to throw the juice to the sea. And instead, Israel trip is its size, but this is not only a defeat for the arabs. This is a huge defeat for the prestige of Soviet Union. Imagine you have some a pattern state and this pattern state humiliate itself.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So immediately after this end of the 6 day war, Soviet union says, never again. Our clients will never going to be again. So they double down their support to the Arabs. They send some of their best personnel. They send decorated Martial, their best military experts.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And they sent 75000 tons of military support. It's difficult to imagine what is 75000 tons. So imagine 3 cargo ships, the ones that are the resides of a neighborhood with guns, thousand with rockets, with supersonic jets and with tanks. The goal, all of these should be aimed against
n/a Israel. The arabs make use of this help very quickly. So from 90 69 to 90 70, we have the so called war
Nikos Sotirakopoulos of At. Which is low level battles between the arabs and the israelis, mostly because the Arabs want to get familiar with the soviet technology to prepare the next round. During that time, 20000 at least 20000, soviet personnel serves in Egypt. Soldiers, experts, special forces, and pilots. Actually, 90 70 soviet pilots, getting direct confrontation in dog fight with Israeli pilots.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Today, if you visit outside Moscow, the Air force Ross Museum, you will find an Israeli helmet. This is the helmet of the pilot in the first phantom, the American airplane that the israelis were using, the first phantom that the Russians that the Soviets took down. So being confident again from this soviet help in 19 73, the devil stated 6 years ago, it's Egyptian and Sierra Army. Now is confident again to attack Israel. Israel manages to survive, but with very, very heavy losses.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So the takeaway of this period is, In its battles for survival, Israel did not only face the arab. Israel also faced the Soviet Union, Israel also faced, Left's allies alive. Now 1 could pause me here and say, okay, Nigga goes with who cares. So we already know soviet union is bad. We already know this was the cold war period, then weird are things were happening in cold war.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And also, the Soviet Union is not the same as the left, Not every Left's is agreed sanctioned Soviet Union. Therefore, there's nothing to see here. I would say not so fast. There is something to see here. First of all, the support of the Soviets to the Arab regimes, so as they completely disdain that the Soviets had for any...
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Form of morality. Not only at this day of morality, for their enemies, but also for their supporters, Because while the soviets were supporting Nasa and Syria and Iraq. The communists within Egypt, Syria and and Iraq were perish in total chambers. Imagine that, you're a communist, you have your life taken away from you, 1 torture session at the time, and you know that the people who support your thought is the country that you look up to. The other interesting thing, though is that it was only it was not only a cold war kind of balance, let's support the Arabs, there are many of them.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos The reason why the left supported the Arabs. Because it was not only Soviet union, Other communist countries that were anti to soviet union's called war aims also supported the Arabs. Mao China which at that time was almost in war relations with Soviet Union supported the Arabs. Tito Yugoslavia, supposedly an independent kind of state also supported the arabs. And here's the most shocking thing.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Even the new left in the west. The new left that supposedly rose as a reaction, to the morality of Soviet Union. As a reaction to the s of Soviet Union, even the Western new left supported the arabs. And when did this happen after 90 67. After 90 67 is the time when more and more leftist is in the west, just interested about the Middle East conflict.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And since the western public opinion, since the western idealistic youth becomes an interested party in this conflict. The character of this conflict changes completely. Because the Arabs changed the narrative. The narrative is not anymore. The arab states trying to throw the juice to the sieve.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos The narrative now is that you have mighty Israel or pressing a persecuted minority, a group of people who have lost their homes who have lost their land and are trying to seek justice. This group of people is the Palestinians. The way the Palestinians are presented is they are the small villagers with a rifle, fighting a mighty opponent. We're in the 90 sixties. Does this remind you any other story?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Vietnam. Remember, this was the time that the public opinion in the west is cup sure dis fascinated by the image of the Heroic Vie congress with rifle fighting an empire. So the left sees the Palestinians exactly like this. We don't have any more a sea of far state fighting a small Israel. What we now have is the might Israel, the Goliath, fighting the David, the Palestinians.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos This David, his weapon of choice was not the s, and the rock. The weapon of choice of the Palestinians was unorthodox warfare.
n/a Their method of war was terrorism. Today,
Nikos Sotirakopoulos most of us think that terrorism is the legacy of islamic of Islamic movements. We think that the hijacking, the blowing up of, taking hostages and shooting them, We think this is the legacy of radical islam. And yet this is not the case. This is the legacy. Of Marxist lenin within the Palestinian movement and of Marxist lenin, in Europe supporting the Palestinian movement.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Actually, a Kgb general, a guy called Alexander Sa, boasts that he was the first 1 who came up with the idea of hijacking airplanes, and he passed the know how to his Arab friends, the leader of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine, the most active and the most the most Dangerous, Left's is Palestinian organization, 1 said to k j, away from bottle has more effect than killing a hundred juice in bottle. Do you get it to kill 1 away from battle, which means to kill civilians has more effect than killing juice in battle. So we cannot throw the juice to the sea, so the new tactic is we're going to break their morale. 1 terrorist attack by 1 terrorist is attack. So in its dead or war against Israel, The terrorist attack were, organized, per and sanctioned and white, by the international Left's.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos I could give a hundred examples. I will just give 3 that are particularly horrific and particularly memorable. In 19 74, We have the Mall Massacre. Mall is a town in the north of Israel, 3 Palestinian Terrorists, oc occupy a school, and machine gun 22 children at Point Blank, 22 children and to be sure that the work is done, they also throw a grenade to them. Who were these 3 palestinians.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos They were members of the democratic front for Palestine, a leftist group, with very strong ties in communist countries. And even after the mass occurred, this group was treated in the communist countries like celebrities. In 19 72, we have the mass Israel in tel aviv airport. 1 of the worst terrorists attack in the history of Israel. Organized by the by a faction of the popular front and per by 3 Japanese terrorists, Japanese terrorists, what would the Japanese do the middle East?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Well, these Japanese were members of a group called Japanese Red Army. They were Japanese Communists. If you were a leftist, if you were a communist, no matter whether you are in Latin America, in Japan, in Africa, in Europe. The war against Israel is your world. 90 76, we have a hijacking of an airplane leaving tel aviv, organized again by a fraction of the popular front, and part of the hijacking where some West German radical leftist, the revolution of the cells.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Notice the symbolism. First time after the second World War, you have germans pointing their guns to jews. Merely for being jews, but this time, they're not just stop officers. This time, they're not Ss. This time their German leftist.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos The question that arises here is how can people who seen gang children at point Blank and who blow up airplanes and hides like airplanes. How can these people be presented as the good guys? How can this be how can it be that these people have their of the freedom fighter? Where if you're are a popular front and you have the whole propaganda mechanism of the international left by your side, you can literally get away with murder. Since 90 67, Israel has experienced the equivalent of 3 09:11.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos This would never have happened without the support, moral and material support of the left. So the big question here is, why? Why does the left have such a hate for Israel. And why does the left? Have such a support for the arabs.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Because if you think about it, the leftist siding with the arabs should raise your eyebrows have Because what are the profess values of the
n/a left, democracy, secularism, workers rights, and with
Nikos Sotirakopoulos a new left, women's rights and diversity. Where are you more probable to find these things? In Israel, in in Israel of the K, the communal proper. In Israel that had a quasi socialist economy for big parts of its existence, proper In Israel where the trade union is 1 of the strongest institutional places players in the country. In Israel that has the only and obviously biggest gay pride in Middle East.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos In Israel that had the first female prime minister in the Western world. Or in the Arab regimes of the torture chambers of the ships where minority rights and women rides are a joke and where workers mobilization are met with tanks and real bullets, So the left support for the Arabs cannot be because of political alliance. Could it be that it's because the left is antisemitic? This is a very popular explanation. I think no.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And here's a very simple thought experiment. If Israel was not the Jewish state. If Israel was a Christian state, Do you think the left would have any different approach to the Arab Israeli conflict? I think not. So if we want to understand the left loading of Israel.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And if we want to understand the left support for the Arabs, we need to move beyond politics. And we need to find ourselves at the field of morality? Because remember, when do most of the left turn their back to Israel. In 90 67. When Israel’s triple its size, and when Israel becomes stronger.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos This gives us a prison to understand what is happening. And what is happening has been explained by my colleague Land J, who talked about the underdog principle, the underdog principle. What does the underdog principle means? It means that In a conflict, we always support the weakest, needy, most suffering side. No further question asked.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos When Israel was weak, Israel was tolerated. Now that Israel is strong, and definitely stronger than the Palestinians, Israel is load. And actually, if you think about what is today's most dominant morality you can understand a lot about the conflict in the Middle East and how not only the left, but Western public opinion approaches. Israel is the startup nation. Israel’s israeli culture is about creating about business and the entrepreneurship.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Their sop centers, They're nightclubs clubs, are these moral endeavors, At best there can be tolerated, but definitely they're not virtue. But what about the Palestinian? The Palestinian is weak. And the Palestinian is willing to die for something bigger than himself. Now, this something bigger than himself, could be an authority authoritarian regime or could be a theo.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos But who cares. He's weak, he's willing to die for something bigger than himself, we support him no more questions asked. This undertook principle then can partly explain, the left support for Israel, but not fully. Because remember, many leftist, and many communists were supporting Israel even before 90 67, There were no occupied territories then, there was no wall, there was no quota apartheid.
n/a There was nothing. So here's my hypothesis. Could it be that many on the left support the arabs against Israel. Out of envy for Israel. What is Envy?
n/a Envy would mean my concern is not
Nikos Sotirakopoulos for the Palestinians to do better. My concern is not for the Palestinians to be more well off. My concern is for Israel to be worse off for its own sake. Now, that's a very heavy accusation. How can I say something like that?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Well, I can say something like that because I observe. I observe what type of people in the Middle East are the left is supporting? Dictators, theo, And then I ask myself, could someone who really care about
n/a the Palestinians, support, Nas.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Can you really care about the Palestinians and want them to be ruled by the t of Hamas? So let's hear from 1 very prominent leftist. 1 of the most prominent left is that we have these days. Jeremy Corbyn. This guy almost became prime minister of the Uk.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos This guy aroused and enthusiasm has been the left that was unprecedented for decades. And this is a statement for... 14 years ago, not from the sixties. So let's hear what Jeremy Corbyn has to say. Tomorrow evening, he's speaking about an event he's organized.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Tomorrow evening, it will be my pleasure and my honor to host an event in parliament, where our friends from Hezbollah, our friends from Hezbollah. Will be speaking. I've also invited friends from Hamas friends from Hamas to come and speak as well, an organization that is dedicated towards the good of the Palestinian people and bringing about long term peace and social justice and political justice in the whole region. For me statement is very revealing. Corbyn someone who knows the Middle east very well.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos He's been there many times. He's been the guest of Hamas and Hezbollah. He knows what Hamas and Hezbollah are about. Hamas and Hezbollah are groups that look up to Iran's as their mother society. I mean, literally, in their rooms, they have the supreme leader of Iran, they recognize him as their leader.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos How can you really care about the Palestinians and support these people? You cannot care for the Palestinians and love hamas at the same time. You cannot care about the well being of the Palestinians, and call Hezbollah of your friends. She knows what Hamas and Hezbollah are good at. They're good at distraction, they're good at misery, and they're good at bringing education.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And he doesn't care. So no, I don't think such people are motivated by solidarity for the palestinians. I care for the unjust suffering palestinians. I don't think they do. I think they're motivated by envy.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos I want to finish with A thought about Israel. What would it take for Israel to appease the left? What would it take for Israel to persuade the left? Look, we're not as bad as you think. Please tolerate us?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Please let us be. For the left, to tolerate Israel, 1 thing should happen. Israel’s to become more equal with the Palestinians, More equal with the Arabs. There are 2 ways. To make Israel more equal with the arabs.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos 1 way is for the arabs to become more well off. 1 way for arabs to get on board the ideas of freedom the ideas of of capital. The ideas that make that made these rather stronger part. Of course, the left would never accept that. But also there's another way Israel could become more equal with the Arabs.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And that would be Israel amp amputated itself. So here's an example of what the left would consider a fair solution to the conflict. Let's see the first and balance and compromise solution. So we've heard it many times, the left thing the Israel’s should stop the blockade of Gaza. Again, Gaza is this piece of land.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And because it's controlled by Hamas, it's under block. So let's leave Gaza have free trade. Obviously, the only party with which their interested in having free trade would be run. Let's also leave the militias in Gaza be able to roam around Israel. After all, the blockade of Gaza is in human.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos What about here the Go heights, right? The Go heights are occupied by Israelis, and I told you there are very import... Huge importance because It's the higher ground and now that Israel it, Syria cannot easily attack. Let's also return the go heights to Syria. Because that would be fair.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Right? So this would mean that here in the Go heights, you have tanks by acid you could have Russian army, maybe some wagner mercenaries, because I know that these are the people who play ball in Syria. And what about the West Bank? Isn't it unfair to have an Israeli occupation there. So let's return the West Bank to the Palestinians?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And let's also have free elections in the West Bank? Who would win this election? Hamas? So here you would have a hamas state with full sovereignty, which means it could invite revolutionary regards to do their practice shooting. Some miles away from Tel aviv.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos It could also invite Russian artillery. I mean, it's a free. It would be a free country, whatever. They can't do whatever they want. This is what the left would consider a fair compromise.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos This is what the left is asking Israel to do. In other words, the only way for Israel to appease the left would be for Israel to commit suicide. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 Thank you. I came late, but I listened to you on my earphone in my room.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos That is very sweet. Thank you. Someone told me he's listening to me the jim.
Speaker 3 So Yeah.
Speaker 2 Yeah. Related to your topic, I wanted to recommend a book by Leon Ur. It's called the H. The h, h, it will give first the fascinating book to read. It will give a history, it's completely not politically correct.
Speaker 2 Probably will not allow 9 days, and it were show more than what you just described, about the background and just highly commented related to this topic.
n/a Thank you very
Nikos Sotirakopoulos By the way, this is a topic that once you get to it, it's rapid it's a rabbit hole. It's very, very fascinating. And also since the soviet archives have opened and since there... Is German archives opened, we've learned way more stuff.
Speaker 4 Niko, thank you very much for that presentation. Very impressive. Thank you very much. My question has to do with something I've heard other objectives talk about that the Left's, will always eat its own. Mh.
Speaker 4 And it always seems like the people who are slightly left are gonna get eaten by the people who are further locked who are gonna get eaten by, you know, and so on and so forth. Can you speak to that? Because I'm not sure I'm not married to the idea, but I can see how that is a possibility.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Yeah. This can explain also why... The Palestinian Movement has turned more towards Islam is lately. Because the left proved inefficient. You know, they they were willing to suit children at point blank.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos They were not willing to blow up themselves. So you are right, every time, every time in this conflict, we see that someone even darker and even even more how to put it. Even more committed to distraction, takes take charge. So this is Hamas is actually appealed. That in a way their pure the popular front where secular.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos They cared about cars, women, the good life in when they would go to his germany. And have like their villas, how much is pure. It's literally really a des. It's about destruction. That's it.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos I don't get if I die I want to take as many juice with me as possible. So, yeah, what you're saying definitely makes sense. Thank you.
Speaker 5 Thank you.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Thank you.
Speaker 5 I'm a fairly recent college graduate. That's Loose, it was 20 15. But I remember at the time it was very much prop palestinian and arguments or Facts presented otherwise, work depicted is coming from conservative boo for lack of a better term and dismissed off offhand, it would be very difficult to change that perception. I remember when Class actually who is American Jewish just talking about how terrifying Israel’s is with this military for So my question is how to go about challenging that narrative in a way that's acceptable enough not to just get... Missed as a conservative bogey men.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos That's a very good question. I mentioned at some point that there were 20000 Soviet. Officers and soldiers in Egypt. I believe that 20 intellectual have done more damage to Israel than the 20000 soviet officers, in Egypt. Because they created exactly what you described an atmosphere where if you dare to question that Israel is the bad guy.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos You are in in academia, you are you are a Para. So what is the best way to fight this? The best way is facts. The best way... Okay.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Tell me what happened in 19 48? By the way, you'd be surprised how many people. Like, I grew up as the left is wearing the Palestinian scarf. If you told me, point to me israel the map, I couldn't. If you tell me what happened in 90 67, I'd say, I don't know.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So you start with a fact? And then you go to the second question which is how do we choose ties? How do we choose sides here? Because I don't support Israel because I think the jews say, no, they should return to the promised land or whatever? The only reason I support it is because I compare.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Here you have a country with a basic support, for individual rights. Here you have a country with rule of law. In israel, I if you hear and knock on the door at night, it's probably your drunk neighbor In Arab countries, you hear a knock of the night, you ended up in the torch chamber. So this is my standard. This is how I decide with who I am.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So on the 1 hand, what is the actual history? What did happen? What are the facts? And also how do we evaluate it? What is the standard through which we decide in which side we are on.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos It's a very difficult battle? It's an uphill battle, particularly in na academia. Thank you very much.
Speaker 6 We have a question from The.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Yes.
Speaker 6 Shouldn't people who have the right to defend the rights of palestinians. Regardless of whether they are right or wrong.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Can you repeat that? Should people?
Speaker 6 Shouldn't, people have the right to defend the rights of palestinians regardless of whether they are right or wrong.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Well, you have the right to do whatever you want. We have free speeds, but you'd be wrong... And that's the problem by the way, then no matter what. Remember what we said about the underdog principle. The door principle says, you are weaker, I support you.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And this is a crazy principle by the way. Bok Is weak. Compared to... I don't know, the Nigerian army. A algeria was weak.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Compared to the collective army of the world. The bolsheviks were very weak. If you remember from my talk last year. What does it mean? We should support them because they're the underdog?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos No.
Speaker 3 To the end of figuring out what the facts are? Do you have a recommended reading list to understand this better? 15 or fewer books.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Okay. Let me say this. I will give you 1 book because it's the most balanced book I found on the topic. Now balance doesn't mean no, both sides have a balances here are the fact and here how they should be evaluated. It's a lunch juno book are colleague, what justice demands.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And the reason I recommend it is because it's 1 by 1 it points out what are also the legitimate, claims of the Palestinians. There were palestinians who lost their land in 19 48 without mistake of their own. There have been palestinians in Western Bank who leave under a regime of military occupation, which is a life which is not pleasant at all. So there are legitimate claims of san and Palestinians. The question is who is to blame for this misery?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos The question is what is to blame for this misery? So here's what They I would suggest. Start with that. Start what justice this demand. And if you want something more exciting in terms of following the historical half act, The most fascinating book I've read is by Stephen Pla, the guy who wrote the War of Art and 10 pro.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos You wrote the book about the 6 day war called the Lion Gate if I can translate it right in my mind. And it's the most fascinating historical It's somewhere between history and historical fiction, but it's the most fascinating history related book I've ever my life, So. Stephen Pre, the lion gate. It's about the 6 day war. You feel like you're in the war.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Like, first night, I was kind of jumping in my sleep, thinking like the Arabs are attacking. Left's it's it's it's brilliant. Thank you.
n/a You. Hi Good morning. Good morning.
Speaker 7 The key phrase I keep hearing in these days and the president is apartheid state.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Apartment.
Speaker 7 Apartheid state. And we have an evil American congresswoman named Rash Tal, who keeps promoting this stuff. And all that. But the things sometimes I keep hearing about is really what we call settlers liz.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Mh.
Speaker 7 Going into Palestinian lands or neighborhoods and taking the their that land, the house is throwing the throwing out the peep and then taking the stuff and that the Israeli government would back them up the settlers. But I don't know what's the truth or or what. I and Rash regina To leave is always gonna tell you to support the Bts and all it.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Yeah. This is a Boycott dis investment sanction. Okay. So when they talk about a apartheid height state, notice how they mix different things. Some people use it to describe the whole of Israel.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Now to describe Israel as apartheid has state is a joke and it's hub breeze to the actual apartheid height. Israel’s is a country where Arabs actually serve in all positions of power, some they can even serve if the in the army if they want. And its country where again, if you are an Arab in the middle east, like you know well how they work telling us the story where we come towards by a bird day when we are bored. If you're in that bird, you should cross fingers. If you're an arab saying, please let me land in Israel.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Arabs are better off in Israel than in any other Arab country. Now, they also use the term apart state. For the here, the so called the occupied territories. Now what happened here? Again, in 90 48, Jordan, occupied this territory, expelled every juice from it, burns all the synagogue, and used it, used it as an attack front against Israel.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So after 90 67 israel occupied it. And it still occupied it. And I explain to you why it's still oc occupied it. Because if this were a sovereign state, This would be the destruction of Israel. So the West Bank is under military, occupation, indeed.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And arabs there, although many of them live under Palestinian authority, They don't live a life, which is the life that I would want to live. But again, ask yourself, why is that? Why is it that so many times that have never been an agreement between? Who is the 1 who doesn't want a peaceful West Bank? Which ones are the groups who say from the river to the sea, which again, basically means throw the juice
n/a to the seed. So no, I completely reject the idea
Nikos Sotirakopoulos of an apartheid state, if it is used for Israel, it's a joke, if it's used. For the West Bank, it's using a term that knows that will allow strong feelings on a context which is completely different. So I consider it an Legitimate terrible.
Speaker 8 Thank you, Nicolas for a fabulous stock. Thank you. 2 things I think it's important to mention. First, the terrorist attacks were a think long before and is a really Israeli nationalist movement. We can mention the rights of 19 29.
Speaker 8 Of course. Ours just murdered and expel the whole jewish population of He, And another thing, who was the Palestinians or Era best friend before the Soviet union? Ado fit. And who was the Left's of Honor in Berlin who spend the whole war there and spoke with the radio and recruited volunteers to the Ss from Bosnia, the Move of Jerusalem, they moved.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Yeah. And actually, here's another. Story. I mentioned to you the hijacking 19 56, which ended up in operation Ed where the Heroic Y Netanyahu who the brother of First the current prime minister died. Do you know why the radical leftist who did the hijacking chose Uganda, Uganda had the leader, Ed amin, who was an open admire of Hitler.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Like, I'm not talking about Yeah. Maybe the guy was not by. He was a guy who openly declared that Hitler was great and the only problem is he didn't kill all the Jews. And imagine the the darkness and the hate in the mind of these people, the Left's is. They hijacked the, and they say, from all over the world, this is our guide.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So it's in another interesting story. Have you heard of Carlos the Ja. He's 1 of the most famous terrorist in history. He was a I he's still a alive in Prison. He's a Venezuelan and Marxist.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Later in his life, his number 1 pattern. Was a friend super rich guy who was also an open hitler right on this semi might. So their hatred for Israel was so big, that they didn't have any problem to be bad fellows, this supposed radical leftist bad fellows with open card card nazis.
Speaker 6 We have another question from Natalia. Could you comment on the Welfare declaration issued by the British government in 19 17 that may Jewish people move to Palestine despite the this disagreement of the Arab people
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Okay. This would require another hour. To put it very, very, very simple. I told you when we talked about the partition plan of 90. For the 08:40 the 7, I told you that with this plan, the juice, were taking way less than what it was promised to them.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos The Ba declaration which, by the way, if it had went through, maybe, maybe we could have many people who died in the holocaust could have would not have died, would actually say that the jews would get almost the whole of this area. So this was the first attempt to establish a jewish state after World war 1. But the important information to maintain here is that it didn't happen And this is why so many jews were fleeing Europe didn't have anywhere to go. I mean, there tragic stories of boats that reach. Towards the middle East and then they have to make a u turn and return to Europe.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos In terms of who was there in the land that's a lecture of its own. A large Journal gave such a lecture in the Knock kong some years ago. Elon has given 2 talks Israel. 1 of the 2, talks a lot about that period, so I would recommend to our friend to take it out. Thank you.
Speaker 9 I often hear people say that the Palestinian people don't want this. They just won't peace that it's all Hamas and Israel. However, when the twin towers fell or when Israel’s civilians are killed in a terrorist attack, you can find videos of them dancing in the street handing out food and cheering. Should we make efforts to push back against this notion of a largely, peaceful Palestinian populace or should we tolerate it while focusing our efforts on den H hamas and other regimes that are more directly responsible for this conflict? This is so difficult to answer because
Nikos Sotirakopoulos my heart goes to the palestinians who actually 1 piece. And their biggest enemy is in the West Bank, the P o and in Gaza Hamas, because they don't accept any any dissent. And actually, if they believe that you're even seem sympathetic to israel, horrible things are going to happen to you. So the quick answer is we don't we cannot know how many palestinians are really yearning for peace. What we do know though is that in the 1 time in Gaza that there were elections hamas 1.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And experts in the area, believe that if there were free elections in West Bank, ham hamas would also win in West. Now we don't know because we haven't seen this. So it's very, very difficult. Can you put a label in a whole population for it's very difficult to do so? But the is reason to believe that many of these people are in accordance with the ideas of Hamas.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos And again, the ideas of Hamas is not peace, the ideas of Hamas is distraction. And then after distraction, even worse stuff is on board for the locals. Because what comes then on board is something like the regime that you iran has. Thank you.
Speaker 10 Thank you. Excellent talk. What confuses me is why so many Americans Jews support and vote for the left. Can you
Nikos Sotirakopoulos yes or any explanation? Because as we said, This morality that tells you that the suffering deserves your support is not unique to the left. Actually, this morality doesn't even come from the left. And this morality is so embedded in our Psyche in our society Psyche, that these people... I don't know.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos I cannot not psychologist, but I guess, they're saying, if I want to be a good person, I have to support the weak side there. And here's an extra bonus. I will support the weak side against quote my people. So self sacrifice in steroids. So I'm supporting the week, oh, and this week are my end So now I'm double.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos All nor a so to speak. Again, this is high call. But I cannot find any other explanation. Like, I will I honestly ask this question. How can you be?
Nikos Sotirakopoulos How can you care about palestinians and support are a fat? Hamas, Hezbollah and the 50 different popular and democratic fronts. I cannot find any other explanation. Thank you.
Speaker 3 Hello Great talk.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos Thank you.
Speaker 3 I wanted to clarify something. You've said the motive was envy. Right? Now Envy for most people you think of, oh, they wish they had the restaurants, the the buildings, the the startups. But but that's not quite what you have in mind.
Speaker 3 I I assume you yes. I Iran's conception of Envy mb.
Speaker 2 You're afraid right. Isn't right. As as hatred
Speaker 3 of the good for being the good. They don't want the prospect parody of Israel. They want israel to die, and that's just to clarify.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos That's very important. The way and thank you for bringing this up. The way I run, parody means envy is not what we said they arab stepping up. Is not the Arabs also having the industry, then the entrepreneurial drive the startups, it's not the others having them, but Israel not having it anymore. I will leave you with 1 line from a very, very good Tv series on the topic.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos The Tv series is fa. There is 1 Palestinian operative, he's fat. So relatively these days, relatively more moderate, who has kind of has a change of heart and what has actually happened there. And he takes his young idealistic, idealistic mean fan son, somewhere close to the beater of Israel, and he shows him the skyscrapers, and he shows him the big kind of achievement of Israel. And he tells him, Here's the reason why I will never be able to defeat them because they want to leave.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos So envy is not... We also want to leave. And these I recognize these people want to leave, and I don't want them to leave. Thank you.