Soccer Dad

7th anniversay celebration of Shalom USA

Jay Bernstein and Larry Cohen

Last night Shalom USA the Baltimore area Jewish oriented radio program hosted by Jay Bernstein and Larry Cohen celebrated its 7th anniversary on the air. The dinner was held at the Royal Resteraunt in Baltimore.

After introductions, ackonwledgements for their supporters and words of Torah by Rabbi Chaim Landau of the Ner Tamid Congregation, the assembled guests heard from two generals.

The first was retired General Yehiel Gozal who spoke about the support his organization, Friends of the IDF, provides to Israeli soldiers and their families.

The second general to speak was the headliner, former Head of Military Intelligence and Chief of Staff, Moshe Yaalon.

Gen. Moshe Yaalon

Gen. Yaalon's remarks were less about Israel's military operations than his view of military doctrine. He was less concerned with the specifics of how Israel and the West will win the war but what they must believe in order to win.

He said that Israel needs clarity to understand what it is fighting and what it is fighting for. Though he judged today's soldiers to be superior to those in the days when he was a soldier he described how one soldier didn't know that Israel was founded in 1948 after five Arab attacked.

For Gen. Yaalon the history is too real. His mother came to Israel in 1946. Her family had been murdered in the Holocaust. His father's family came to Israel in the 1920's after one of their sons had been killed and another arrested.

But he doesn't just view Israel as a refuge, it is the historical homeland of the Jews. His wife's family had lived in Tzfat since the 1500's.

Israelis must know their history if they are to fight their enemies successfully.

On the other side education is important too. Gen. Yaalon said that in August 1995, when he was head of military intelligence, he met with Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin a"h and told him that there was no reconcilliation on the part of the Palestinians. He said his knowledge of this didn't come from any of his fancy sources but from what he saw when he went to the UNRWA schools. He saw the pictures of martyrs that were platered on the wall. That told him that the Palestinians were not teaching reconcilliation.

And history too. Gen. Yaalon recounts the reasons that Hezbollah and its masters in Tehran thought they could get away with attacking Israel. Since 1983 the way they see it, Hezbollah chased America out of Lebanon, Islamic fighters chased the Soviets from Afghanistan, Hezbollah chased Israel from Lebanon, Islamic terrorists chased Spain from Iraq and Hamas, last year, chased Israel from Gaza.

With these perceived successes to inspire them, Iran started a war against the West starting with Israel. What's needed in Israel is a national resolve.

The West must also understand that this is a war against them and wake up.

(The above represents many of the points that Gen. Yaalon made. My notes are not all that legible. Also I changed the order a bit.)

The speech was well received. If you read any of Gen Yaalon's writings or interviews many of the ideas he mentioned at the dinner were not new. However he clearly adapted them to the current situation. The big revelation was his belief that Iran was behind the war and that it was the first skirmish in a larger war against the West.

Although there are those who want him to go into politics - including one of the questioners, I don't see it. He seems more interested in ideas than in policies.

It was a credit to Jay and Larry that they were able to get such a high profile speaker. It's a sign that over the years of doing their show and interviewing hundreds of people that they've built up plenty of contacts and credibility.

So if you live in the Baltimore/Washington area and you're free on Sundays listen to them on 1370 AM from 9 - 11.

Technorati tags: Shalom USA, Moshe Yaalon.