Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Alex Traiman | CEO of Jewish News Syndicate Commemorates Three Years Since October 7th Attacks on Israel
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: 200 times since October 9th, 2023, two days after that
- 0:06Speaker 1: horrible day, Alex Trayman, the CEO of JNS.org, has joined
- 0:11Speaker 1: me on this program. And now I go there every year.
- 0:13Speaker 1: I've been to his house. So nice. Shabbat. And I
- 0:18Speaker 1: speak at his big international policy summit now for two
- 0:21Speaker 1: straight years. Remarkable guy and a dear friend, Alex Trayman. Alex,
- 0:26Speaker 1: good morning, pal. How are you?
- 0:28Speaker 2: Good morning, Sid. Doing well.
- 0:29Speaker 1: You're in Israel. I mean, you're in Jerusalem this morning.
- 0:31Speaker 1: Is that right?
- 0:33Speaker 2: Correct.
- 0:34Speaker 1: So are you guys working today?
- 0:35Speaker 2: Today is a work day. You know, Israelis are really
- 0:39Speaker 2: good at picking up the pieces immediately after a terrorist
- 0:43Speaker 2: attack or whatever it is and making it look like
- 0:45Speaker 2: it didn't happen and just getting back to it. And
- 0:47Speaker 2: today's October 7th, and it's no different.
- 0:50Speaker 1: I spoke to Michael Rappaport earlier. He has spent today
- 0:53Speaker 1: between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. And he said, look, you
- 0:57Speaker 1: can definitely sense... a morose, solemn attitude there today. But
- 1:03Speaker 1: he said, you know, as well, he's our Sid. I've
- 1:04Speaker 1: been there a bunch of times. They're joyous and they're
- 1:07Speaker 1: resilient and courageous and they go through life. But he
- 1:10Speaker 1: did say that you can kind of sense that it's
- 1:14Speaker 1: a somber day. Are you experiencing the same thing?
- 1:18Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of ceremonies around the country today
- 1:21Speaker 2: in different places. But I think for me, at least,
- 1:25Speaker 2: I try to look at how Israel responded to October
- 1:29Speaker 2: 7th and what we've accomplished since then and the demonstration
- 1:32Speaker 2: of their resilience, the military victories on all fronts, the
- 1:36Speaker 2: fact that our economy is stronger, that the people are
- 1:39Speaker 2: stronger and more united. And even though it was one
- 1:42Speaker 2: of the most horrific days, I'm very, very proud of
- 1:45Speaker 2: the way that Israel responded, which is very different than
- 1:48Speaker 2: what I think a lot of the world thinks about Israel.
- 1:50Speaker 2: But if people were here, they would know that this
- 1:52Speaker 2: place has really done something incredible since October 7th, and
- 1:56Speaker 2: it's only stronger because of it.
- 1:58Speaker 1: I always say they should go there first before they
- 2:00Speaker 1: start talking. They sound so uneducated and stupid. I've been
- 2:03Speaker 1: there five times. I can talk about it. You're right.
- 2:06Speaker 1: It's an amazing country, great people, starting with Bibi. But
- 2:09Speaker 1: the truth is the truth, and the world has gone
- 2:12Speaker 1: very stupid here, very stupid. Genocide, war criminals, you know,
- 2:16Speaker 1: campuses all over the country have gone berserk. Even today
- 2:20Speaker 1: in New York City, Alex Trayman, you're from here. You
- 2:22Speaker 1: love New York. You're a Knick fan, okay? Even today,
- 2:25Speaker 1: you would think, okay, October 7th, the mayor, the police commissioner,
- 2:30Speaker 1: everybody would make sure that on this solemn day, there's
- 2:34Speaker 1: no nonsense. Not going to happen. There is a huge
- 2:38Speaker 1: pro-Hamas rally going set for today. They're going to do it.
- 2:42Speaker 1: They're going to walk the streets. They're literally going to
- 2:45Speaker 1: celebrate October the 7th in New York City. Is that
- 2:50Speaker 1: not incredibly disappointing and sad? Because a lot of Israelis
- 2:54Speaker 1: that I've met there, there, in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv,
- 2:58Speaker 1: in Judea and Samaria, are from here, New York.
- 3:03Speaker 2: Yeah, I think in some ways it's not surprising, and
- 3:06Speaker 2: that's the part that's the most sad. I've been getting
- 3:09Speaker 2: messages from People around the world, including members of governments
- 3:14Speaker 2: across Eastern Europe, saying that they are lighting up their
- 3:17Speaker 2: national monuments in blue and white in solidarity with Israel.
- 3:23Speaker 2: And to see New York, the city with the most
- 3:25Speaker 2: Jews outside of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, having a pro-Hamas
- 3:30Speaker 2: rally on that day. Yeah, it's a little bit disappointing,
- 3:34Speaker 2: and it's really up to the New Yorkers. to turn
- 3:36Speaker 2: around and say that it's not acceptable. It doesn't really
- 3:39Speaker 2: matter what Israelis think about it. New Yorkers should be
- 3:41Speaker 2: The ones who are very upset about it.
- 3:43Speaker 1: I am, but there's only so much I can do.
- 3:45Speaker 1: I'm outnumbered here. You understand that, Alex, right? I'm out
- 3:47Speaker 1: there every day fighting like an animal, okay?
- 3:50Speaker 2: Nobody has the microphone that you have in New York City.
- 3:53Speaker 1: I know the influencers on the Instagram folks are nice kids,
- 3:56Speaker 1: a lot of them, but they have no real... They
- 3:57Speaker 1: don't do anything. I'm out here every day. I'm talking
- 4:00Speaker 1: to world leaders. I'm talking to people like you. I'm
- 4:02Speaker 1: fighting in the streets. I bought a guy nearly on
- 4:05Speaker 1: a subway. I'll fight somebody today, but there's only so
- 4:07Speaker 1: much I can do.
- 4:09Speaker 2: And, Sid, you're one of the great victories of October
- 4:12Speaker 2: 7th because we've seen people come out of the woodwork.
- 4:15Speaker 2: So many people that, yes, they supported Israel, they liked
- 4:18Speaker 2: the Jewish people, but on October 8th, the day after
- 4:22Speaker 2: October 7th or October 9th, when you went back on
- 4:24Speaker 2: the air, you realized what you needed to do, how
- 4:27Speaker 2: to use your platform, how to leverage your platform in
- 4:29Speaker 2: support of Israel and the Jewish people, and you've done
- 4:31Speaker 2: it nonstop, and you've fought like a lion. And that
- 4:33Speaker 2: is really what October 7th has produced. a whole generation
- 4:37Speaker 2: of lions. It has separated those that are with Israel
- 4:40Speaker 2: and those that are against Israel. And what I would
- 4:43Speaker 2: say is that the industry of us, people like you
- 4:45Speaker 2: and me, that have done everything that we can since
- 4:48Speaker 2: October 7th, we're just absolutely remarkable people. And we're a
- 4:53Speaker 2: great team. And I think we're going to be able
- 4:56Speaker 2: to accomplish a lot in the coming years ahead.
- 5:00Speaker 1: I think you're right. I want to do that with you, Alex,
- 5:02Speaker 1: especially you, because I think the world of you, you're
- 5:05Speaker 1: my number one guy in Israel. But I want to
- 5:07Speaker 1: do it with you and Bibi. And the elections are
- 5:10Speaker 1: three weeks from yesterday. I had the president Herzog on yesterday.
- 5:13Speaker 1: He's no fan of Bibi. You know that. But he
- 5:15Speaker 1: doesn't really endorse anybody anyway. He's not supposed to. So
- 5:18Speaker 1: he will wait till after the election is over and
- 5:20Speaker 1: I guess he'll help create a government. But how does
- 5:22Speaker 1: it look right now for Bibi? A lot of folks
- 5:24Speaker 1: like you think, you know what, he may not win,
- 5:27Speaker 1: but there may not be enough votes to actually replace
- 5:30Speaker 1: his government. How does it look? It's coming up now
- 5:32Speaker 1: in less than three weeks.
- 5:34Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. I mean, it's a very complicated situation.
- 5:38Speaker 2: The political system here is... fairly unstable system as compared
- 5:42Speaker 2: to the United States. And we're not a two-party system here.
- 5:45Speaker 2: You don't have a direct election for the prime minister.
- 5:48Speaker 2: People go and they have to select from about 30
- 5:51Speaker 2: different parties that are all trying to get into the parliament,
- 5:54Speaker 2: into the Knesset, and they pick one party. And on
- 5:57Speaker 2: the basis of the tally of those counts, you find
- 6:00Speaker 2: out how many seats each party will get in the Knesset.
- 6:04Speaker 2: There's 120 seats. Netanyahu, if he does really well in
- 6:07Speaker 2: the election, might get 30 of the 120 seats. That's
- 6:11Speaker 2: only a quarter of the available seats. And then the president, Herzog,
- 6:15Speaker 2: will turn to whoever he thinks has the best shot
- 6:18Speaker 2: of putting together a coalition government of multiple parties. You
- 6:22Speaker 2: have to have a coalition of more than half of
- 6:24Speaker 2: the members of parliament, that's 61 members. So there's a
- 6:28Speaker 2: lot of horse trading to figure out what coalitions could
- 6:30Speaker 2: look like. And you're right. Right now, the polls show,
- 6:34Speaker 2: depending on where you're looking, very different very different potential results.
- 6:40Speaker 2: The news agencies that want Netanyahu to win are showing
- 6:43Speaker 2: him winning. The news agencies that want him to lose
- 6:45Speaker 2: are showing him losing. It's hard to know exactly what
- 6:48Speaker 2: it's going to be. And, you know, Once the counting
- 6:53Speaker 2: is done, that's when the hard work goes of trying
- 6:56Speaker 2: to figure out who might be willing to sit with
- 6:58Speaker 2: who or who won't be willing to sit with who.
- 7:00Speaker 2: And you might not even know if you're going to
- 7:02Speaker 2: have a government for a month or two months after
- 7:05Speaker 2: the election. And we've seen it here in the past
- 7:08Speaker 2: where you didn't get any government. You actually go back
- 7:10Speaker 2: to another election. So that's a possibility as well. Wow.
- 7:14Speaker 1: So on the way out, Alex, again, you're a New
- 7:15Speaker 1: York guy, and I know you're sick to your stomach
- 7:17Speaker 1: about this disgusting mayor. He just tweeted a whole thing
- 7:20Speaker 1: about how today's a solemn day and the horrific events
- 7:24Speaker 1: of October the 7th. When he does stuff like that,
- 7:27Speaker 1: I don't feel any better about him. I get angrier.
- 7:30Speaker 1: Like I really want to punch the mayor across the face.
- 7:34Speaker 1: I could probably get fired for that. I don't know.
- 7:35Speaker 1: Maybe even arrested. I don't know. I don't care. But
- 7:38Speaker 1: that's how I feel. When he does stuff like that,
- 7:40Speaker 1: I want to punch him across the face. I want
- 7:42Speaker 1: him to just shut up. We know he's not sincere.
- 7:45Speaker 1: We know he doesn't mean it. And his wife, that
- 7:48Speaker 1: disgusting creature, she liked all the images on and around
- 7:52Speaker 1: October the 7th. Do you, when you see stuff like that,
- 7:56Speaker 1: hear stuff like that in Israel, do you start to
- 7:58Speaker 1: warm up to the guy? Or are you like me?
- 8:02Speaker 2: I don't think anybody here in Israel is warming up
- 8:04Speaker 2: to Meher Mamdani. That's for sure not. I think we
- 8:08Speaker 2: have a good sense of who our friends are and
- 8:10Speaker 2: who our friends are not. You know, this is a
- 8:13Speaker 2: person that said that he would, if it was up
- 8:16Speaker 2: to him, that he would arrest our prime minister when
- 8:19Speaker 2: he landed in New York City and then told New
- 8:23Speaker 2: Yorkers that they were should feel very safe to go
- 8:26Speaker 2: out and protest our prime minister. So, you know, that's
- 8:29Speaker 2: that's what we know about Dhania. You know, it's he's
- 8:33Speaker 2: just playing politics. That's for sure. You know, and it's
- 8:37Speaker 2: just hard to hard to imagine that New York got
- 8:40Speaker 2: to a place where they have a mayor that you know,
- 8:43Speaker 2: outright anti-Israel. I mean, do you think that if there
- 8:45Speaker 2: would be one mayor in the world that would be
- 8:47Speaker 2: the most pro-Israel, it would be in New York City? Unfortunately,
- 8:51Speaker 2: that's not the case. But the big question is whether
- 8:54Speaker 2: Jews will remain safe living in New York City. And
- 8:57Speaker 2: I know many that feel like the situation is much
- 9:00Speaker 2: more precarious, even about the security within their own synagogues
- 9:04Speaker 2: and kids' schools. And on the streets, I mean, that's
- 9:07Speaker 2: the thing that people should be most concerned about.
- 9:10Speaker 3: 100%.
- 9:10Speaker 1: So the final 30 seconds, Alex, for the Jews living
- 9:13Speaker 1: in New York to listen to this show every second,
- 9:15Speaker 1: every day. I'd love to hear from you in Israel.
- 9:18Speaker 1: What is your message from Israel to the Jews? Jewish
- 9:22Speaker 1: people and Christians who have become our best friends, right?
- 9:25Speaker 1: We can't win this without the help of our Christian friends.
- 9:29Speaker 1: We live in a Judeo-Christian nation. That's why I have
- 9:34Speaker 1: really no patience for anybody who claims they're Christian, they
- 9:37Speaker 1: love Jesus Christ, and they crap on the Jews. I've
- 9:40Speaker 1: got no patience for that. The truth is, there is
- 9:43Speaker 1: no Christianity without the Jews. Jesus Christ was Jewish, and
- 9:48Speaker 1: Christianity mirrors the Old Testament. So what is this nonsense
- 9:53Speaker 1: with Christians who love Jesus crapping on Jews? It's nonsense.
- 9:58Speaker 1: What is your message? to the people in New York today?
- 10:02Speaker 2: Well, you know, most of the people that I talk to,
- 10:04Speaker 2: Jewish and Christian, real people, support the state of Israel
- 10:07Speaker 2: because they can easily understand that Israel and the United
- 10:10Speaker 2: States are on the side of good, while Hamas, Hezbollah,
- 10:13Speaker 2: and Iran are on the side of evil. And there
- 10:17Speaker 2: is a major international influence campaign from China, Qatar, Iran,
- 10:21Speaker 2: Russia to make it appear that America is becoming an
- 10:25Speaker 2: anti-Semitic and an anti-Israel country. This is a foreign influence campaign,
- 10:30Speaker 2: and people inside New York, Jews and Christians, they have
- 10:33Speaker 2: to realize that. They have to realize that normal people
- 10:36Speaker 2: stand with Israel. It's very obvious to want to stand
- 10:39Speaker 2: with Israel because of the shared Judeo-Christian values, the shared morals.
- 10:43Speaker 2: and the shared goals and the technology and the intelligence
- 10:46Speaker 2: sharing and all the other great reasons. So don't fall
- 10:50Speaker 2: for the lies. Don't fall for the bots. Stand with Israel.
- 10:53Speaker 2: Israel is the only country that has such high favorability
- 10:56Speaker 2: for ratings for the united states there's no people that
- 11:00Speaker 2: love the united states more than the people of israel
- 11:03Speaker 2: and it should be exactly the other way around that
- 11:05Speaker 2: there should be no country that loves the state of
- 11:07Speaker 2: israel more than the united states of america let me.
- 11:09Speaker 1: Go back to what you said earlier in this conversation
- 11:12Speaker 1: out of the darkness and horror horror that was october
- 11:16Speaker 1: the 7th there were some good things and this relationship
- 11:20Speaker 1: mine with you is one of the things i cherish
- 11:23Speaker 1: in my life today you know i mean that sincerely
- 11:25Speaker 1: i love you i love zippy i love your whole
- 11:27Speaker 1: family I love what you've done for me professionally and personally,
- 11:31Speaker 1: and I can't say enough nice things about you. You're
- 11:32Speaker 1: a hero. You really are.
- 11:34Speaker 2: The love is totally mutual, Sid. We've done great things together.
- 11:38Speaker 2: I'm really proud of you and look forward to seeing
- 11:40Speaker 2: you in New York and again here back in Jerusalem.
- 11:43Speaker 1: Can't wait. I'll be there in May for your big summit.
- 11:45Speaker 1: Have a good day. I know it's tough, but you're
- 11:48Speaker 1: the best. Thank you, Alex.
- 11:50Speaker 2: Thanks, Sid.
- 11:50Speaker 1: God bless. Alex Trainman right there, the CEO of JNS.org,
- 11:54Speaker 1: truly one of the best people God ever created.
- 11:57Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
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- 12:21Speaker 3: and X. See you next time for.
- 12:23Speaker 1: A new episode so you never have to wonder. What
- 12:26Speaker 1: the heck is going on here?