Edward Topol | A sealed letter to an American Israeli

Опубликовано: 3.05.2021

Dear friend,

Even though I am not calling you out, you know that I am addressing you specifically – you who, just like myself, has two passports: one – American, the other – Israeli. According to cautious estimates from different sources, about 300-500 thousand people holding an Israeli passport reside in the US today. Of course, not all of them have remained earnest Israeli citizens, but I think it’s not the quantity of the readers that matter but the amount of interest in this topic that is making me write this letter.

But first I must congratulate all American Israelis on your American achievements. Coming from my own experience as well as that of other immigrants of my wave, I know how much energy, will and creative effort it takes to break through to success in America. You – the most talented, the most educated, the most disobedient Israelis – you did it! Mazel Tov!

But you see, America hasn’t been sitting idly either. As you rushed to conquer your America some 15-20 years ago, its enemies have prepared its ruin. And now, literally in front of your eyes, this is happening: first with the Asian guile of the first Muslim president of the United States, and then with his team that has returned to the White House to finish the victorious dismantle of our great superpower. Thanks to their efforts and to the Harris-Biden tandem, mine and your beloved America is already split into two: in a political-geographic sense (the democratic states of West and East against the Central republican ones) and also in a moral sense (blacks against whites). How much time is left until bloodshed and civil war? You know as well as I do that positive changes – economic growth, social transformation, strengthening of political influence – happen slowly and take years to accumulate. While the collapses – the Black Tuesdays, defaults, stock crashes, financial meltdowns, bankruptcies and catastrophes of whole countries and even empires – happen in a matter of days and they roll in like avalanches. As one smart Jew wrote in his blog recently, the American population holds 300 million units of firearms, and it only takes a spark and a rebellion leader for the spark to turn into a blaze.

I think that many of you (if not all) are already waking up in the middle of the night with the thought: is it time to pack the suitcases? Is it possible to leave one’s children and grandchildren to face the already inevitable dilemma: to shoot a black thug or to kiss his boots? Even if you live in elite neighborhoods with your own police and security, how far from you is the tsunami of BLM and Antifa? History points out that the survivors of natural disasters and revolutions are those who hear the soil wobble before everyone else does and who prepare life-saving appliances for a rainy day. As of January 6th of this year the American “rainy day” has begun.

But no, I am not going to scare you and disseminate panic. It’s the American Jews who will be torturing themselves with having to choose where to escape – to Australia or New Zealand. But you have your own Country in reserve, and you – I hope – will have the time to hop onto the plane.

Although, what will Israel be like on the day of your arrival?

When we, worn out by the Israeli democracy, finally sort out the reshuffling game of our elections, what will we see? I am not a politician, so don’t expect an authoritative analysis; I only write about what I see with the eye of a common man.

I figure that the American economic growth that was started by Trump will allow the White House to keep the silent and armed majority from uprising and to keep generously fertilizing the armed and thunderous minority for quite some time, using this time to accomplish what Barack Obama had quietly worked on during his term – strangling Israel. Even if we, with God’s help, get at last a competent, experienced and strong leader, what will he – half-strangled by the Harris-Biden political noose, hobbled by the internal opposition, and swaddled with debt to his own teammates – what will he be able to do? The most he can do is to keep Israel afloat under the political shrapnel coming for the UN in New York with the moral justice of Hague, the nuclear blackmail from Teheran, Europe’s antisemitic provocations and the rockets from Gaza. And I am not even talking about Israel’s economy which you know better than I do – record-breaking taxes, mighty corruption, iron-clad bureaucracy and external economic debts resulting from the pandemic and the lockdown.

And now for the main question: what can 350,000 successful, energetic, educated and wealthy American Jews do to make sure their landing in Israel tomorrow or the day after tomorrow isn’t as hard as Elon Musk’s Starship’s landing in Texas was? What can you do today from there, from America for the Country you’ll have to return to sooner or later?

Alone you’ll be able to do nothing.

But if you unite, if you create an American Israeli association, a society or a Committee called Israeli’s Lives Matter (or, in order to avoid poking the bear, WeCareIsrael) then, combining your contributions, knowledge and skills, you’ll become a powerful economic and political force of influence on Israel’s destiny.

How?

Really, I shouldn’t be the one to coach you regarding how much effect this organization’s lobbying pressure will have on the White House and what leverage of economic influence will emerge for you in Israel. Although, if you do ask for my prompt, I consider it my top priority to stand up to the universal flow of the anti-Israel slander and propaganda which are being poured onto us, day and night, both openly and in disguise, by almost all mass media.

Honestly speaking (but also in strict confidentiality), we’ve been losing to the Arabs in the propaganda war for a while. They inject billions of dollars into CNN, Al Jazeera and other means of mass media and, through them, they force onto the world a negative attitude towards Israel. The open hatred of Israel by the Muslim Ex-Ex-President of the USA raises and legaizes the intensity of anti-Zionism in the world mass media, and we don’t have either the means or the technical abilities to play against them in this field. As a result, there are multiple trade embargos on our goods, economic and political blocades, veto and other spokes in the wheel. Even the countries that need a partnership with Israel (say Indonesia and Mauritania) are compelled to abstain from it. And not just Indonesia! Just look at how American Jewry itself views Israel as a result of anti-semite mass media’s manipulation!

But, praise be to the Creator, in the 21st century the standard television and radio are a thing of the past, the new generation doesn’t watch TV and doesn’t read newspapers. Today, educated and even less-educated people of the world use the Internet and get all their information online.

In March 2018, a Commission of our Ministry of Education and Relations with Diasporas reported that there are 60 million people in the world with a connection to Judaism or to Israel and with a potential of repatriation. Even if this number is overestimated, there is no doubt that millions of people in the whole world want to know the truth about our country. And since almost all of these millions are educated people who have Internet and who basically live on the Internet we need to create for them the Internet television channel Israel Today.

Rego! One moment! This isn’t a philanthropic project. When in June of 2011 Glenn Beck was fired from Fox News for the unmasking of Obama’s clandestine dealings, and he opened his own for-profit Internet TV in Texas ($5.00 per month) he had only a few thousand subscribers. But already a year later, the number of subscriptions exceeded 300,000 and The Wall Street Journal reported that Beck had earned $40 million! And in September of 2019 Glenn Beck’s online The Blaze TV was visited, according to Comscore, by 5,9 million of viewers!

I don’t want to count the money in Beck’s pocket and I’m not saying that our Internet TV-channel Israel Today should be fee-based from day one. On the contrary, I would prefer to make it free for the first six months, and only then to establish a baseline-pay subscription for regular users. But these are the details subject to discussion.

Most importantly: the phenomenal success of the Internet TV in the 21st century shows that our nongovernmental TV-channel Israel Today targeting young audiences and produced in several languages – English, Hebrew, French, Arabic, Russian, etc., will help millions of people in getting truthful information about our country, and at the same time, not only will it be self-financing but it will actually bring profit. And, as an added bonus, it’ll become a spiritual center for all Jews in the world.

Yes, today the very concept of “Israel” is a brand that can and should be sold even more profitably than Lexus or Ferrari. Just like back in the day all the Jews of the USSR listened to The Voice of America, Freedom and The Voice of Israel even through all the jamming, in the same way today all the remaining Jews in the Galut countries (and even hundreds of thousands of anti-semites) will be watching on the Internet our Israel Today. Because these will be – in the modern short clip format – informational programs for educated people and professional youth.

Our programs will neutralize the anti-Israel propaganda, they will turn the world’s attention to face Israel, they will make this attention benevolent, and thus they will help attract investments into Israel which will raise our country onto a new level of technical progress and they will create jobs for you, American Israeli, that will match your level of professionalism.

And now, let’s come down from the heights of ideology to the economically sinful earth. Obviously, this project in its development stage will require serious investments. Especially, if the indisputable goal from the very beginning is set as producing only high-quality visually meaningful creative programs. That is, to line up and form a team of young talented journalists, translators, operators and technicians, to fit them with the best equipment, to work out a broadcasting net, to stock up on serious content and to solve a whole list of other organizational tasks.

If, back in 2007, an American billionaire Sheldon Adelson (God rest his soul) was generous enough to publish a free daily newspaper Israel Hayom which, as you know comes out to this day at 250,000-350,000 print copies, then what if you, my friend, or your committee WeCareIsrael, found about a dozen millionaires who would all chip in to lift this project off the ground? I am sure that the creators of the Internet TV Israel Today could call Glenn Beck who is known for his pro-Israel views, and discuss with him the technical, creative and economic perspectives of this undertaking and the specific steps towards its productive realization (perhaps even with Beck’s participation).

And the second prompt deals with research and study development of A.I. in Israel. It’s not my business to tell you, high tech specialists, about the importance and the role of hundreds of thousandsin the near future. But I can say this: although in the field of financial investments Israel lags behind the US, China and the European Union, but with your return to the Country and the inevitable arrival here of your highly educated children and grandchildren, the weight of Israel’s intellectual investment in this field will also increase – provided that already today, from America you begin laying a financial and technical foundation for it.

As M.S.Gorbachev used to say, “the main thing is to begin!” Start thinking over my suggestions, חבר! After all, you don’t take part in either our Parliament Elections or political infighting, so at least help your Country from the outside! And do it for yourself.

Translated by Vlada Ivanova

Edward Topol is a world known author of international best- and goodsellers Red Square, Red Snow, Submarine U-137, Deadly Games, Russian Seven, etc. Now living in Israel.