The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - Israel is a Magical Place (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad

00:00:00.000 all right thank you very much for joining me today i wanted to do a retrospective about my

00:00:06.800 recent trip to israel i was fortunate enough to be able to bring my family my wife and kids

00:00:14.580 it was their first time in israel but it was my fourth time the first time was in 1983 i spent

00:00:22.540 the whole summer there second time was in 1984 i also spent the whole summer there

00:00:28.520 and then i didn't go back for another 15 years i went back in 1999 in the summer i was speaking at a

00:00:37.680 behavioral economics type of conference academic conference in in israel and this was my first

00:00:46.040 time back so my fourth time but my first time back since 1999 i had been invited by the israeli

00:00:53.660 government uh specifically by minister amichai shikli who is the minister of diaspora to a

00:01:01.740 conference on global antisemitism and i was one of the keynote speakers i posted the the my keynote

00:01:13.560 address on x but i haven't yet uploaded it on my youtube channel and on my podcast i'll probably

00:01:20.860 do so tomorrow so please check it out it's uh it was a beautiful venue you know a lot of people

00:01:29.040 attended it was really wonderful got a chance to meet a lot of people that navigate in similar circles

00:01:35.740 but i've never met before so that was really nice but as we got there so we got there uh two sundays

00:01:44.240 uh with the idea of sort of going around israel for the first week and then making our way to

00:01:51.300 jerusalem for the you know for the for the conference and then i was approached once people

00:01:57.240 found out that i was in israel it was really overwhelming i must have received 50 60 invitations

00:02:02.480 to appear on various podcasts and media and television and invitations to speak and to meet

00:02:09.780 i unfortunately wasn't able to oblige all these requests because you know my schedule was pretty

00:02:17.140 full and also i was there with my family but i did accept one impromptu invitation uh to speak at the

00:02:27.420 tel aviv international salon uh and i did speak at that last thursday and then that was followed by a

00:02:35.300 q a period now i'm and it was very very successful it was a wonderful event you can go and watch both

00:02:42.600 my lecture which is about i think maybe an hour and 10 minutes long followed by about a 40 minute

00:02:48.900 q a all of that is available on my youtube channel my podcast on x it's everywhere you can go check it

00:02:56.260 out uh there was a bit of a brouhaha and that the people who organized the tel aviv international

00:03:03.600 salon had asked people to sign up and well over a thousand people signed up and came from

00:03:10.160 apparently all over israel but then they turned many of the hundreds of people at the door because

00:03:17.120 the venue was not big enough and then they also said that it was largely reserved for young people

00:03:24.260 the idea and apparently it was stated in the sign up alert that it'll be largely for young people to

00:03:32.980 them because they want to get young people involved anyways as you might imagine a lot of people were

00:03:37.200 very frustrated that they couldn't make it hopefully the fact that the lecture and the q a period are now

00:03:43.420 posted it'll aswash some of the people's uh anger now of course it was kind of perhaps a bit uh misplaced

00:03:51.720 to send me angry emails about the fact that people weren't allowed to get in because it's not as though

00:03:58.060 i'm the one who's controlling who gets in or or not uh but i understand your your frustration

00:04:03.540 so the jerusalem talk and the conference were amazing many thanks to minister shikli and the

00:04:11.560 tel aviv salon was great i also got a chance to the director general of israel's foreign ministry

00:04:18.140 asked to meet me we we spent about an hour together with his political advisor and chief of staff that was

00:04:24.400 really great i was invited to president isaac herzok's house there was an event that was being held to

00:04:34.100 honor vladimir jabotinsky and at that event uh ambassador mike uh huckabee spoke at and i got a chance to meet

00:04:43.840 him that was really uh nice uh had a chance to meet very briefly uh prime minister netanyahu

00:04:53.780 some folks were trying to organize a longer meeting uh one-on-one meeting which unfortunately wasn't

00:05:01.140 able to happen because of the prime minister's uh you know very busy schedule hopefully it'll happen

00:05:08.360 in some future they got a chance to meet michael rapaport the actor and his lovely wife hung out

00:05:14.720 with them that was great uh but there's a lot more i want to say about this but let me just

00:05:21.560 mention that i've been very fortunate to you know 99.9 of the people that have ever come up to me

00:05:28.940 anywhere have been very loving very supportive fans and so on but israel took it to a completely new

00:05:36.920 level the the kind of love and affection that i felt was really really touching i mean anywhere

00:05:45.420 everywhere everywhere on the streets in cafes in restaurants at the events i even was uh taken to a

00:05:54.940 uh bookstore in jerusalem and the owner of the bookstore you know turns out to be a huge fan

00:06:02.460 so all of this was absolutely unbelievable uh definitely looking forward to going back

00:06:09.440 i went to my cousin's house my uh paternal cousin uh turns out that he's done very well for himself

00:06:19.240 the last time that i had seen him was in 1999 when i last visited israel but we had spent our summers

00:06:24.840 together in 83 and 84 he's done very well for himself he lives in one of the most upscale areas

00:06:31.200 of israel he invited us for shabbat his whole family was there his kids it's very very touching to

00:06:37.820 to be there and see them uh what else have i got for you so we as i said the first week uh we were

00:06:47.960 hosted by some people they don't wish to uh have their names known or who they represent and so on but

00:06:54.420 it's a it's an organization that invites you know public figures to experience the magic of israel which

00:07:02.800 i mean for me it's not difficult to be sold on the the truly unique character of israel but i i need to

00:07:10.520 say this and i hope that the people in question are listening here uh the the people who hosted us

00:07:17.780 in jerusalem but then also came with us uh i mean they hosted us in tel aviv but then also

00:07:24.820 came to came with us uh to jerusalem are some of the most saintly kind godly people

00:07:32.540 i mean if you don't believe in god and you meet these people you suddenly become a believer

00:07:38.220 because they exuded out of every single pore every single cell of their bodies they exuded

00:07:45.540 goodness and kindness so to those people you know who you are uh my family is still reeling

00:07:54.960 at the fact that we're no longer there with you we we miss you immensely we ended up visiting

00:08:02.260 uh cesarea beautiful area all the tour guides by the way we got you know you know private drivers

00:08:10.640 and tour guides and so on that was gorgeous we went to tzvat which is a city that i've never been to

00:08:17.500 before it's uh a city very much steeped in a mixture of uh kabbalistic you know ethos and some ultra

00:08:28.380 religious folks some kind of hippie types it was very very nice to see but i would have been much

00:08:34.680 happier if we could have reduced the links to kabbalah uh for every single thing that was mentioned

00:08:41.600 on that visit uh even my injured knee for those of you who saw uh i i had to walk around on crutches

00:08:49.260 had to go to the hospital uh because of some problems i was having with my knee somehow our tour guide

00:08:56.180 managed to offer a kabbalah interpretation of my knee injury uh we went and did some glass blowing

00:09:05.940 also linked to kabbalah i mean okay it's enough kabbalah but anyways it's all good uh let's keep

00:09:14.580 going oh so listen to this so our one of our tour guides uh finds out that i'm a big soccer fan

00:09:22.280 tells me hey there's an amazing match between uh maccabi uh natanya and maccabi haifa this is the

00:09:31.440 premier league in israel and let's see if we can get you tickets for you and your family and so i asked

00:09:39.060 them uh could you tell me who the uh the owner of maccabi natanya is and he gave me the name the name i don't

00:09:48.700 think he he'll mind that i say it it's public uh information the gentleman's name is ross keston

00:09:54.540 and so i didn't know ross i've never spoken to him i find him on x where we're we're being driven back

00:10:01.840 i write to him and i simply say i mean not even a salutation uh

00:10:07.380 i need four tickets for the upcoming game can you make it happen within a few minutes that four

00:10:19.780 tickets are there so ross thank you so much we've since communicated hopefully we get a chance to hang

00:10:24.920 out in miami and then when we went to the game his nephew comes up to us approaches me it's very very

00:10:33.060 sweet lovely young man and then he actually gives my son a shirt number 10 shirt of the team uh with

00:10:44.020 the family's name written in the back so this is the kind of hospitality that we faced everywhere we went

00:10:52.820 we also went to haifa and had some uh amazing french fries and shawarma now here's the incredible thing

00:11:02.740 everywhere that i went whether it be in haifa or or in jerusalem less so in tel aviv i spoke to

00:11:09.620 everyone in arabic right so for example the the physician who took care of me uh was an arab we

00:11:17.460 spoke in arabic the all of many of the drivers were arabic i became good friends with one of our drivers in

00:11:25.220 jerusalem and so everybody was kind of joking that it you know there was more arabic spoken than hebrew

00:11:31.700 uh certainly in several cities so i felt really back at home in the middle east which brings me to

00:11:39.140 sort of the general in arabic you say like the the atmosphere you didn't see any uh

00:11:47.700 you know uh animus between the arabs and the the jews uh i even spoke to many of them in arabic and

00:11:56.660 they were like ah everybody gets along here everybody's happy they were all super you know

00:12:03.940 proud uh to be israelis uh even though of course there were muslim tons of women who were wearing

00:12:11.780 islamic veils nobody was bothering them and so all that you hear about israel is so ridiculously far

00:12:20.900 uh from the reality so on that front it was absolutely unbelievable there was i guess one

00:12:28.500 incident that i just posted about a few minutes ago that is now received a lot of attention several

00:12:34.740 media outlets reached out to me to talk more about it even i had an approach from a ministry in israel

00:12:42.660 that wanted to talk more about it uh i i knew two professors at hebrew university who were very keen on me

00:12:50.340 speaking at hebrew you and we were trying to set up hebrew you by the way is in jerusalem uh and when

00:12:57.620 we were trying to set up that i speak at the university uh i was told well you know if you

00:13:03.460 restrict your uh lecture to you know more technical stuff for example evolutionary psychology or consumer

00:13:11.300 psychology or psychology of decision making something technical about your scientific research is great but if

00:13:16.100 you are going to talk about some of the i'm assuming the stuff you know in the parasitic mind or

00:13:21.540 suicidal empathy and my political positions and so on uh then the the the senior administrators are likely

00:13:29.540 to to not invite you and so imagine that someone like me who is you know steadfastly defending of course

00:13:41.220 western values of course israel uh is is not invited to speak at hebrew you you know because i'm too

00:13:49.300 controversial now i understand some of the dynamics there i think 30 percent of uh the students at hebrew you

00:13:56.900 are arabs by the way look at that 30 percent of the students at the most prestigious university in

00:14:04.180 israel are arabs that doesn't seem like much of a genocide uh so maybe the senior administrators

00:14:11.940 all senior administrators are castrated invertebrates they have no spine they have no testicles so in

00:14:18.260 this case i thought it was really quite telling that even in israel someone who like me who is coming

00:14:25.300 to of course fully support israel is told but you know sorry we can't we can't have you speaking

00:14:32.340 these truths so not good uh on our way back uh to the airport our driver uh had you know was 45 minutes

00:14:44.340 late and uh luckily minister shickley was kind of pulling pulling into the hotel when i told him that

00:14:51.220 we were late he gave us one of his drivers and then we just whizzed with sirens you know blasting

00:15:00.900 uh straight to the airport given the special treatment to make sure that we would make it

00:15:08.660 back on our flight so bottom line you know i've spent much of my career always fighting against

00:15:17.380 the current right so when i began my research in evolutionary psychology people said well what are

00:15:22.500 you doing with this research in in a business school this is it's not going to help your career i said

00:15:28.180 i don't care i'm going to do what i think is interesting and the right thing to do and so i

00:15:34.660 darwinized consumer behavior and psychology decision making and so on uh and of course it was very very

00:15:43.700 difficult at times to get my papers published in top journals because they would get desk rejected because

00:15:49.780 most social scientists are certainly quite hostile to biological based reasoning when it comes to

00:15:56.740 understanding human behavior so it started off with that and then of course later in my career when i

00:16:01.140 became a lot more vocal about the rot in academia i was always swimming alone against the current and so

00:16:08.500 to be in a place where just everybody was supportive everybody was giving you love everybody was inviting

00:16:17.220 you everywhere taking care of you protecting you uh you know gushing over you was very very special and i could

00:16:24.500 tell you that uh you know it really does get into your blood in terms of the this the special unique

00:16:32.500 character of israel part of it is in arabic the term is fawda fawda means you know it's chaotic there's

00:16:39.220 definitely some chaos there's you know israelis can be quite uniquely brash and aggressive there's a bit of that

00:16:48.980 a lot to get used to but in terms of when you peel the onions the the kind of intense love and passion

00:16:58.100 that they that the israelis have is is extraordinary uh not once that i speak including to members of my

00:17:04.980 family or to other people not once that i hear a single israeli say anything even privately that was

00:17:11.940 negative you know about arabs or muslims and so on uh they truly want to have this small piece of land

00:17:22.100 the size of new jersey to be able to maximally flourish and in an ideal world all of their neighbors

00:17:29.860 would accept the fact that they're there and then you can really truly unleash the unique

00:17:36.340 richness of middle eastern culture and i and i here i'm i'm talking specifically about arabic culture

00:17:46.420 uh one of our drivers as i said who with whom i became very close friends at one point uh in several

00:17:54.980 places i had to have a an armed you know person with me in case something would happen whatever and

00:18:01.220 at one point he turns to me and says well why did you why do you have this bodyguard i'm your bodyguard

00:18:07.220 nobody's going to touch you if i'm the guy who's driving you around that's the kind of uh

00:18:14.580 you know ethos of hospitality and honor that you have in the middle east and what poisons this is the

00:18:21.460 religious tribalism if we can sort of move past that and and really allow the human capital to be

00:18:30.180 unleashed my goodness what a magical place and so overall unbelievable trip so thankful that i went

00:18:38.980 i was very very worried before i left just because i'm i'm not a good traveler in the sense that

00:18:45.220 i always you know i don't like to go to hotel even though we were you know we were placed in really

00:18:52.260 truly top hotels i don't like to touch the hotel sheets i don't like to touch you i'm very germaphobe

00:18:58.420 i don't i don't like to be on a plane for 12 13 14 hours and so i was very very concerned about the

00:19:04.740 long journey but having now come back boy i long to to return and already there there's been a few

00:19:12.500 prospective invitations that are coming so inshallah as we say uh the future looks bright

00:19:19.700 hopefully this these abraham accords are going to unleash a new era in the middle east where you know

00:19:26.580 people can live in peace respecting each other and hopefully uh building a a beautiful coexistence

00:19:37.540 so let's let's pray for that so that that's what i wanted to talk to you about just to kind of give

00:19:41.620 you a sense of the the real magic of this place absolutely by the way the food oh my goodness as you

00:19:49.700 know as many of you know prior to when covet started i you know i was much heavier and then i lost all my

00:19:56.660 weight boy it wasn't easy to stay svelte in israel because i was getting pumped with food every place

00:20:05.540 that i turned but it was really good so that's it i just want to give you a bit of a feeling of uh

00:20:11.460 israel if you haven't been put it on your bucket list you really should go i mean the the old quarters

00:20:19.860 the armenian quarters the the muslim quarter the jewish quarter in the old city of jerusalem i mean

00:20:26.100 it's it's obviously it's a world heritage site it's not to be missed i'll just mention one more thing

00:20:32.660 i've never seen as many people jogging like maniacs as i did on the beaches of tel aviv i mean

00:20:40.900 imagine being placed on the 405 highway in southern california which is like a six lane highway in

00:20:48.420 either directions where cars are whizzing by that's how i felt when my wife and i would wake up every

00:20:53.940 morning and go for our morning walks before i had my knee issues i mean every single person in tel aviv

00:21:01.460 was running at 100 miles an hour i don't think i've ever seen people that were quite as fit as the

00:21:07.540 people from tel aviv so there you have it folks thank you so much have a great afternoon make sure

00:21:12.660 to go visit israel no there isn't a genocide going on no there isn't an apartheid going on

00:21:18.980 i saw jews and moslems and some christians for example the armenian quarters living

00:21:24.500 completely peacefully with each other with little to no animus all right folks i'll talk to you soon

00:21:30.260 thank you for joining me have a great sunday cheers

00:21:42.260 you

The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - February 01, 2026

Israel is a Magical Place (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_961)

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