Rabbi Shmuley Boteach spoke to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News during the Israeli-American Council (IAC) Summit which was held in Washington, Dc.
“Let me be clear: For thousands of years, we Jews have developed an insidious mental construct that we need to be loved, we need everyone to like us,” he began. “Now that would be nice. Machiavelli said 500 years ago in Florence that you should want to be loved and feared, but if you have to choose, and October 7th has forced us to choose, then you need to choose being feared over being loved.”
“The Jewish people have to be feared. Hamas has to fear the IDF, Hezbollah and disgusting, poisonous reptilian Iran has to fear the Mossad. Just think about this for a moment: When Israel goes in the heart of Tehran and kills Ismail Haniyeh, what do you think Khamenei himself is thinking? He's thinking: ‘Uh-oh, I'm next. These Jews actually fight back.’”
“The same thing is true in media. Why aren't we going after the Candace Owens of the world? Why aren't we going after Roger Waters? Why aren't we going after Tucker Carlson? President Trump, who spoke here at the IAC the other day, is the most pro-Israel President in American history. What the heck is he doing with Tucker Carlson in his ear?” wondered Rabbi Boteach, adding, “Tucker Carlson's a holocaust denier. Tucker Carlson just had a historian on, 42 million people watched it, who admits the six million Jews died but [claims] it wasn't a program of genocide, they were like prisoners of war, they died of disease…stop desecrating the memory of our six million, and no American President, whether it's Biden or George Bush or the greatest President for Israel, Trump, should be having people like that and we have to go after the Tucker Carlsons of this world.”
“I am tired of being a scared Jew. I am tired of quaking and shivering and trembling before our enemies. We are going to bring the fight to our enemies. I have two sons in the IDF. People say to me all the time: ‘Oh Shmuley, you fight these antisemites. You're a hero.’ I'm a hero sitting behind some stupid iPhone screen? I'm a hero? My sons are heroes. The soldiers fighting Hezbollah are heroes. They are truly brave and we have to be behind the IDF 1,000%,” stated Rabbi Boteach.
“We are alive today because of two words, each of which is comprised of three letters: G-O-D and I-D-F,” he stressed.
Asked whether he thinks the Jewish people are still afraid or whether they have made a change after October 7, Rabbi Boteach replied, “Israelis are amazing. They're fighters. I think we American Jews are cowardly and weak. How are we allowing campuses that have 6,000 Jewish students on it like NYU to be taken over by 100 thugs? I mean if that isn’t cowardice, then what is?”
“My own movement, Chabad: Why don't they have Israeli flags out at every single Chabad House on 300 campuses around the United States? It's not enough to just, you know, give matzah balls on Shabbat, which I'm not denigrating, it's very important, Shabbat is a cornerstone of Judaism. Are you telling me that Israel is not a cornerstone of Judaism? We're putting on tefillin with men, which is a beautiful thing we're, getting women to illuminate the Earth through Shabbat candles, why don't we have Israeli flags?” he added.
“I am amazed at how many American Jews are beginning to divorce Israel from being a cornerstone of Judaism. There is no Judaism without Israel. Judaism without Israel is like Yiddishkeit without a yarmulke, or without tzitzit, or without kosher food. Without Israel there is no Judaism.”
He urged American Jews: “Become fighters again! The other day, a woman walked over to me and she said, ‘Rabbi Shmuley’, she didn't look Jewish, whatever that means, and said ‘thank you so much for your debate against Candace Owens.’ I said: ‘Oh really, you saw me debate her?’ Then she takes a Magen David from the back of her neck, I kid you not, and she moves it around to the front. She said: ‘I'm Jewish’. I said ‘okay, but why are you wearing it here?’ She said: ‘I'm scared.’ This was in the heart of Jew York City. There's two million Jews in New York and she's afraid to wear a Magen David! I'm not faulting her, that's the mentality, but it can't continue.”