Dispelling Lies About Israeli Forces- What is the Truth About Israel? Interview With Amit Deri:  Israeli Special Forces do ideological battle on U.S. college campuses. Today we are interviewing Amit Deri who uncovers the lies and propaganda.  Tune in now to learn more!

Air Date: 11/22/2017

Guests:  Amit Deri, David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast.  However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture, this is WallBuilders Live! Where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture, all of it from a Biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders. Also, Tim Barton, national speaker, pastor, and president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green.  I’m a former Texas state legislator, national speaker, and author.

You can find out more about us and the ministry at WallBuildersLive.com. That’s our radio website.  That’s where you can actually get a list of all our stations and get archives of the program over the last few months. And then also WallBuilders.com is our main website. And there’s a wealth of information there for you as well. Tools that you can use to educate, equip, and inspire yourself and others to be better citizens and to preserve this freedom for future generations.

Amit Deri is going to be our guest a little later in the program.  Incredible group called Reservists On Duty and they’re doing a great job of literally defending Israel by going to college campuses and actually talking about what’s actually happening over there.

Reservists On Duty

So he”€™ll be with us a little later in the program. Right now we’re here with David and Tim Barton and guys.  Of course, we talk about Israel a lot on the program and some people may say, “€œWell, you’re supposed to be defending America.”€ But we believe very strongly that that’s part of our duty as Christians, to defend Israel and actually stand up for Israel.

David:

Well, I tell you, defending Israel is defending America because one of the things the Bible makes clear in Genesis 12:3 is God makes a covenant that if you bless them He’ll bless you if you curse them.  And curse is defined in the scriptures as “€œmake light of”€ or “€œscoff at”€ or “€œdisregard”€ then He’ll do the same to you. So for America to be blessed, and continue to be blessed, if there is a God of the Bible, and if what He says is true, and if He keeps His word, then we better have the right position toward Israel or America is not going to be blessed.

I”€™m doing a book that will come out at the start of the election season next year with Regnery Press and part of it is on 23 nations that have taken positions against Israel and what happened to those 23 nations after that occurred. Now it could be all coincidence.  But then again, it could be that God’s Word is true, that He really meant what He said, that you be careful how you treat Israel. But see, part of this is not just how we treat Israel, part of it is what is going on in college campuses.

College Campuses Anti-Israel Events

We had a program couple of weeks ago we were talking about how that on campuses they have free speech zones that literally we had kids arrested on campus for giving out Constitutions not being in the Free Speech Zone. Well, this is the same kind of stuff that’s going now with campuses where you have.  We had a recent year with 16 hundred anti-Israel events on college campuses. Now that’s no small number.

Rick:

No, and that’s a concentrated effort.

David:

That’s a concentrated effort and it’s done by all sorts of pro-Palestinian groups. And they do not get truth right.

Pro-Palestinian Groups

Tim:

Well, let’s point out too, so not only is it anti-Israel because part of the argument for the Palestinians is kind of the apartheid of Israel is killing.  They”€™re murdering and they have no conscience. And so all these things they say about Israel, about the military, about the way they treat people, when if you look at militaries in the world, and if you were to do a study of who might be the most humane, or the most moral, the most ethical military in the world, Israel is the top of every one of those no matter how you look at it.

They do a phenomenal job.  But that’s not what’s presented on college campuses. And so if you’ve never had a chance to go to Israel if you’ve never spoken with Israeli military or people that have been a part of that, even other nations so many nationalities that live inside of Israel.  If you’ve never had a chance to encounter and engage in conversation somebody that”€™s experienced it firsthand, you have no idea.

ISIS

And so part of the problem is this propaganda about how evil, and awful, and terrible, Israel is not just because they won’t give up land to the Palestinians, but because of how they abuse and mistreat.  Israel basically are the terrorists of the Middle East is the way it’s presented on the college campuses.  Which also seems a little ironic considering ISIS is in the Middle East.  Yet, on some of these campuses, they would protest Israel over ISIS – Israel is even worse.

David:

Absolutely.

Rick:

Yeah.

David:

Absolutely. And it’s an interesting thing what the Palestinians do with this.  But how do you negate that kind of argument? Because when only one side is present, you know, Proverbs 18:17 in the Bible says, “€œOne side sounds good until you hear the other side.”€

So if the Palestinians are getting free shot to give their opinion only.  They’re doing 6300 of these events across the nation on campuses.  You need another side out there and that’s what Reservists On Duty is. These are guys that are in the Israeli military.

Now understand, every young person in Israel serves in the military. If you’re a guy, you serve three years.  If you”€™re a girl, you serve two years.  You live in Israel you serve in the military.

And 15 percent of Israeli citizens are not Jewish.  They are Christians.  They are Muslims, they are Palestinians, they’re Arabs, they”€™re Bedouins, they’re Druze.  There’s all sort, 15 percent.  Every citizen in Israel whether they’re Jews or not, all have the same equal rights.  

Which is why, right now in the Israeli Knesset, you have Arabs serving there. You have Arabs serving in all sorts of all the Supreme Court, whatever.  They can serve in all these offices. So what happens is Reservists On Duty bring four, five, six, of these young people to these campuses and they stand up and it’s really cool.

Tim:

And by young people, you mean Israeli soliders.

IDF Soldiers – Israeli Defense Force

David:

IDF soldiers – Israeli Defense Force soldiers and they’re are all 17, 18, 19, 20, age range as soldiers and as a reservist, they’re out. And so once you’re out of the military, you go out.  I think when you’re 18 or 17 you’re in two years or three years, so 20-21 you’re out.  These are the ones going to campuses.  For example, you have a Muslim girl standing up and saying, “€œYou know, in Israel I have all of these rights and I can be a woman.  And I don’t have to dress this way, and do all this stuff.”€

Tim:

And I wouldn’t have those rights if I was in one of these Muslim nations.

David:

That”€™s right.

Muslim Girls Defending Israel

Rick:

Wait, this a Muslim girl defending Israel.

David:

Defending Israel.

Tim:

Because she lives in Israel and enjoys the benefits of living in Israel.

David:

And then you have a Palestinian get up and say, “€œHey, I’m an Israeli citizen.”€ And by the way, this is really interesting.  The Palestinians have kind of what they call the West Bank and what they call Gaza.  That’s two areas in Israel. But the Palestinians have said, “€œWe want those areas.”€ And when you ask the Palestinians, “€œWould you rather be governed by Palestinians or Israelis?”€ Overwhelmingly, the Palestinians say, “€œWe prefer to be governed by Israelis, not Palestinians.”€

Rick:

Wow.

David:

And so you have these Palestinians who are Israeli citizens standing up at these campuses to say, “€œI am a Palestinian and I will tell you, equal rights is there.  I have every right that every Jew has.”€ And then you get a Christian standing up and saying that.  Then you get a Druze, and then a Bedouin.

And of course, the Palestinians have been talking about how it”€™s all apartheid.  How that Israel gives no rights to minorities, how that they trample the mind.

And so kids on the campuses are seeing all this diversity and all these groups standing up and they’re going, “€œUm, I don’t think the Palestinians are right.”€ And so they’re really changing these.  It’s so cool because again, one side sounds good till you hear the other.  But Reservists On Duty, and Tim and I got to be with them recently and what they had was just powerful stuff and we wanted it out there because we have opportunities to invite these.

Every one of us can find a campus somewhere – a campus Republican club, or a campus Christian club, or a campus ** on campus, Christians United for Israel club on campus.  There”€™s a 100 of those.  Sororities can invite these guys in and have an event on campus.  

So changes the narrative of what goes on.  We thought this would be a really good group to share with the country. And I mean what these guys are doing is phenomenal.

Rick:

Amit Deri is our special guest. Stay with us.  You”€™re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Moment From American History

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment in American history. America is a special and unique nation. The average length for a constitution in other countries is only 17 years. But we’ve had ours for over two centuries. Our 4 percent of the world’s population produces 24 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and every year we produce more inventions and technology than the other 96 percent of the world combined.

In 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville of France came to America, traveled the country, and in his famous book, “€œDemocracy in America”€ reported,  “€œThe position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional. It may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.”€

This is the origin of the phrase “€œAmerican exceptionalism”€ and affirms that America is unique because of the distinctive ideas on which we’ve been based. Including in inalienable rights, individuals, and limited government, and the importance of religion, and morality. For more information about American exceptionalism go to WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Thanks for staying with us here at WallBuilders Live.  Our guest today is Amit Deri. His organization is called Reservists On Duty. Thanks for joining us today.

Amit Deri:

Thank you for having me.

Rick:

Hey, David and Tim were telling me about what you guys are doing and just really cool. You’re on campuses across the country.  I saw a video actually of the event in New York City where you guys were totally disrupted by some Palestinian activists.  But tell us first what is Reservists On Duty, what is your goal?

Reservists On Duty Goals

Amit Deri:

Alright. So Reservists On Duty is actually a group of Israeli soldiers.  By the way, from all backgrounds.  Most of them are Jewish, but you can find also Christians, Druze, Muslims, Bedouins, who are part of the group. And our mission is actually to counter back all those anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and by the way, anti-American, anti-freedom speech. You know, today of freedom of speech in America is under attack.

Rick:

Yes.

Freedom of Speech in America is Under Attack

Amit Deri:

Every conservative figure who wants to show up in college campuses it’s become a big thing. Just to speak, just to give your opinion about this country, about what’s happening here. So our mission is to counter back those forces, mainly college campuses, but not only.

We do this by bringing in Israeli soldiers, a lot of them American who lives in Israel today, and been to the IDF, and seen in their own eyes the reality, the challenges of the state of Israel, the challenges of the Western world today.  We’re sending them in a big delegation here to the States to speak on college campuses, to bring the truth, to refute the lies.  

To counter back George Soros money that is all over the place funding anti- Israel and anti-American groups that are very, very, effective.  Unfortunately, are very active in college campuses today.

Rick:

This is a brilliant idea because too often, these students on campus are indoctrinated with left-wing philosophy and professors that have not been, in any way, boots on the ground and they’re just spouting the left notions. And so for you to actually bring men and women in that have actually been on the ground, and been in this fight, and defending liberty in the Middle East, to these campuses to give firsthand accounts. I mean, that, I would think, that is extremely effective.

Amit Deri:

Yeah, correct, correct.  That’s how we work.   I think to bring people who have really been to Israel, who really saw those challenges, who faced with terror, and faced with, with actually what America is to today, it’s the best way to give the students from first-hand experience with our guys. So yeah, that’s what we do.

Contact Onduty.org.il

Rick:

It’s the website, by the way, for our listeners – onduty.org.il.  So, onduty.org.il.  You can get on the e-mail list there.  You can help these guys.

I assume I’m at their — you know, if we have listeners right now that lead college organizations, or even some of the professors and college leaders that are listening, and they’d like to have you guys in.  Can they contact you through the website?

Amit Deri:

Correct.

Rick:

To get your program.

Amit Deri:

Correct. By the way, you just said our main challenge, we don’t want to just show up on college campuses.  We need, we desperately need, people, groups on campus – Jewish groups, Christian groups, conservative groups, people who want to hear the truth, and bring that to go to college campuses.

We need you guys to invite them. All our guys will come, with all our knowledge, with all of our enthusiastic and motivation, and bring the best people to speak – we just need the invitation from groups on campus.  That”€™s actually our main challenge.  We need you guys to help us and bring us on college campuses and that”€™s always.

Invite Reservists On Duty To Your Campus

You know we’ve just been to, a couple of months ago, to Christian groups in Texas, Christians groups that invite us to churches in New York and around that invite us to speak. So feel free.  I”€™m talking to your listeners.  Feel free to personally invite us to any place in this country. It’s so important for us to show up and bring the story of Israel.

Rick:

Excellent. Now you said something at the beginning that I think many of our listeners will be surprised by.  You said this is actually, this is a mix.  I mean, you have Muslims and others that are also part of your group that have been over there fighting and defending Israel that helped to explain why Israel is actually defending liberty and freedom for all people.

Amit Deri:

Correct.  And I think that”€™s what drives those guys, the bad guys here drives them crazy to see non-Jews.  I mean, Muslims, Druze, Bedouins, and Christians from Israel are up who speak in favor of Islam, who speak in favor of freedom, who speak against those forces that operate on U.S. college campuses.  It drives them crazy.  That’s why they are trying all the time to shut us down.

We just finished a fabulous delegation of — by the way, in the Palestinian.  We just finished up a delegation of one Druze, one Palestinian guy, one Bedouin, one Christian, and one Muslim girl. We’ve been to almost 20 college campuses during the last two weeks.  You can see that in every college campus that we brought those guys, you know, are a Palestinian from the groups of students for justice in Palestine and George Soros groups actually tried to shut us down.

We experienced, I think, the climax of this thing with the experience in New York * nights ago when we spoke in a synagogue.  We didn’t go to their arena, to their place, to the college campus.  It was a synagogue.

And in the middle of the event, 10 Palestinians Arabs and a couple of other Americans sneak into the synagogue and started to shout, and yell, and scream, and curse us, in every possible language – Hebrew, English, Arabic.  In front of the holy place so it”€™s probably the safest place for Jewish people all over the world.

You know, it’s the synagogue.  It”€™s the place that you can say your opinion without fearing that someone would shut you down.  They were so violent that 30 policemen from the counterterrorism unit here in New York were needed to evacuate those guys from the synagogue.  They even tried to attack one of — with, you know, we pushed and pushed them back. There were a lot of people from our group.  But they tried to attack, physically attack, the Palestinian speaker, but some he * was working with us.

Video Is Online

Rick:

And this was all captured on video.  You can actually see the video online right now.  We’ll have a link today where you can see where this took place just a few days ago. How about on the on the college campuses.  How are you being received? What are the students?  What’s their reaction when you guys do your presentation?

Amit Deri:

I”€™ll tell you what, I do it roughly.  You can, on college campuses today there is 10 percent of we call it the bad guys.  People from groups, anti-Israel, anti-America, anti-freedom groups.  The danger in freedom of speech you name it.   Students for justice in Palestine are the main one.  But you can find more groups trying to shut us down. We are not going to that 10 percent.  We cannot, you know, change their mind.

They are filled with hatred to us. And then 10 percent of the people are pro-Israel activists, you know, like us.  Let’s call them the good guys. But there is 80 percent of the people, you know, the average American students, who know nothing about what’s going on in Israel.

Rick:

Yeah.

Amit Deri:

The lack of knowledge, the ignorance, you name it.

Rick:

Yeah.

Israeli Apartheid Week

Amit Deri:

They don’t know, so whatever you tell him, he will get. So if you have today, and that’s the reality, a week that”€™s called Israeli Apartheid Week when in every college campus in America by the way, that those guys, you know, building that week.  They build the apartheid wall in the middle of the country and from the old week they just * and lying about what’s happening in Israel. And that”€™s what those 80 percent are hearing during that week.  Nobody counters back.  Nobody is there to refute.

Rick:

That’s right.

Amit Deri:

*So that’s what we do and when we are sending out people to those weeks on college campuses.  We can see, to your question, how we find it when we are there. You can see that a lot of students for the first time when we are there and when confronting and embarrassing those guys in front of the students who are, you know, the average American student who just want to listen.  We see it very effective. And then we’ve got a lot of very good response from students that say, “€œWow, you know, I never heard about it.”€

Rick:

Yeah.

Amit Deri:

I never knew that the Palestinians are using children as human shields. We never knew that the Palestinians are using * in buildings to shoot rockets, launch rockets on Israel. We”€™ve never seen that. And we have proven with hard material, with videos, with our knowledge, what”€™s actually happening today in Israel and in the Middle East.

Rick:

And what you guys have actually, you”€™ve actually lived it. I mean, you’re watching it happen. And, you know, not only that week do they get that disinformation campaign from the left.  They get it all year long in their classrooms on college campuses across the country. So what you all are doing is so important.

And folks at home that are listening, they want to be part of defending Israel and helping to get this truth out.  The website is onduty.org.il.  You can actually go there.  You can contribute to help get these guys all over the country and on campuses across the country.

And there are many of you listeners right now that do run student organizations, or churches, or different groups, that could bring these guys in. So go to that website and check out how to contact them.  It’s real easy.  You can just click on events and then contact and let them know where you’d like to bring them into. It’s onduty.org.il.

Amit, bless you guys, keep up the great work. We’re so excited about what you’re doing and want to spread the word.

Amit Deri:

Thank you. Thank you very much for having us.

Rick:

That’s Amit Deri. Stay with us folks.  We”€™ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Constitution Alive

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the United States Constitution but just felt like, man, the classes are boring or it’s just that old language from 200 years ago or I don’t know where to start? People want to know. But it gets frustrating because you don’t know where to look for truth about the Constitution either.

Well, we’ve got a special program for you available now called Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. It’s actually a teaching done on the Constitution at Independence Hall in the very room where the Constitution was framed. We take you both to Philadelphia, the Cradle of Liberty and Independence Hall and to the WallBuilders”€™ library where David Barton brings the history to life to teach the original intent of our Founding Fathers.

We call it the QuickStart guide to the Constitution because in just a few hours through these videos you will learn the Citizen’s Guide to America’s Constitution.  You’ll learn what you need to do to help save our Constitutional Republic. It’s fun! It’s entertaining! And it’s going to inspire you to do your part to preserve freedom for future generations. It’s called Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. You can find out more information on our website now at WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back.  Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Very special thanks to Amit Deri for joining us today. He was actually headed back he told me on the break.  We”€™re back with David and Tim, by the way — headed back to Israel today.  

So we barely caught him before he was headed back.  Just what a cool, cool idea. I can imagine, David, you said it at the beginning of the program.  It really changes the conversation on campus because for the students they haven’t heard from people who were actually on the ground they just listen to these professors.

David:

Yeah.

Rick:

And now all of the sudden here’s a young, someone their age saying, “€œLook, I’m over there fighting this fight. I’m telling you here’s how it really is.”€

David:

Well, when we talked with him — Tim and I talked with him just a couple of days ago.  They had just finished doing as he said.  What they did two dozen campuses in the last three weeks or something whatever it was. And they had just done all this California campuses.

Tim:

Yeah, the West Coast.

David:

They did Berkeley, UCLA, UCAL, USC – I mean, the California tour. And as he pointed out, they’re changing kids all over. And you know one of the things I thought was interesting was when he pointed out you have this Palestinian IDF guy who’s talking about how good Israel is and the Palestinian students on campus attacked the other Palestinian because he wasn’t carrying their message.

Tim:

Well, and it was also great too.  So part of the video it showed and so the Palestinians on campus were chastising him for not being Palestinian enough.  And he turned it around on them and said, “€œOh, really, so who’s a Palestinian leader? When were they elected? How long have they been there?”€ And he starts asking them questions about Palestine and none of the students knew, who were defending Palestine.

David:

That”€™s right.

Tim:

And he said, “€œSee you don’t know what you’re talking about.”€ But, I mean, it really was, it was great to watch this video.  It was someone who, for at least in the mind of these college kids, is qualified to speak to this issue.  Because if you have a Palestinian who is from Israel, well, certainly they know more perhaps.

And so it really is incredible what their strategy with this is it really does give them a lot of credibility, that validity on campus.  That this isn’t just some thought that somebody came up with.  No, we are living there  We’ve experienced this.  And this is what we know firsthand.

Rick:

This is the difference between an armchair quarterback. You’re sitting around with your brother in law telling you how the game should have been played and all of a sudden, Aaron Rodgers or some other professional quarterback walks in and says, “€œOkay, let me tell you how a game is really played.”€ I mean that’s literally what’s happening here.

Tim:

And now you’re talking about not just one.  You’re talking a group. So you had Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning, and Aaron Rodgers.

Rick:

Right, right.  There’s a bunch of * coming in.

Tim:

–**, Tony Romo — they’ve all showed up.  And they’re all different you know. And so it really is a game changer in that sense.   They are met with a lot of hostility on a lot of campuses.

David:

Oh, but they are qualified. I mean, Amit is Special Forces Major.  I got to point out that the Israeli military is not like the American military. You go to school.  You come out graduating as Lieutenant as an officer.

In Israel, after you do your three years, you do not get to re-enlist.  You’re out – unless they look at you and say, “€œYou’ve got a lot of potential.  Would you stay over? We’ll move you to Corporal.”€ Put another two years in, “€œHey, we’ll move you up the sergeant.”€

You have to work your way.

Tim:

Only if you keep getting invited.

David:

Right, only.  And they have to invite you back every time.

Tim:

So when you’re saying you have to work your way up.  You can’t choose to work your way up.

David:

That”€™s right.

Tim:

You only get to work your way up if you”€™re invited. So as I mentioned, they have a lot of times when there’s some very strong opposition to them. But even some of the videos it’s hilarious because they”€™ll have kids get up in their face.  For us, we’re watching this thinking these kids have no idea.  Right?

David:

Yeah.

Tim:

These are trained killers. And you know this silly college kid who thinks they’re tough.  Okay, but because of it, these IDF guys, they just kind of stand there and look and they, and you can tell–

David:

And kind of laugh at them.

Tim:

And you can tell they don’t really feel threatened. Now, obviously very self-controlled.  They never do anything.  They try to engage only in conversation.  When it gets ridiculous sometimes, they leave.  And at times they have to even have police help escort them out.

David:

Yeah.

Intolerance of the “€œTolerant Left”€

Tim:

Just to overcome the intolerance of the “€œtolerant left”€ in this Palestinian debate. But really remarkable video.

David:

This is the thing where that this can help reverse the indoctrination that goes on at campuses. So if you got any kind of access to any kind of group on college anywhere at all, get ahold of these guys.   If you’ve got a Republican club, or a Conservative Club, or anything at all, get ahold of this guy, ask him to come.

Tim:

And don’t think that it needs to be a campus where there’s a lot of controversies.

David:

That’s right.

Tim:

Because this can really –

David:

It can be a church.

Get The Truth Out About Israeli Forces

Tim:

That’s right. Well, you know, if it’s a Christian university or whatever it is, this can help encourage kids at all levels.  So whether they’re having to overcome this direct confrontation or just really helping courage and see firsthand the truth. In reality, any kind of university, any kind of college campus you can get him into.  We need our young people knowing this.

Rick:

We’re going to have links at our website WallBuildersLive.com today so you can get on there.  It’s very easy.  Their website”€™s fantastic.  Plus, you can see some of the stories and watch some of the videos. So get on there and then find out how you can get them to your particular campus or your church.  So that you can help spread that word as well.

Thanks for listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.