before anyone and our rights and the city of david, the city of jerusalem. and let me assure you as the one who heard it -- my great grandfather. anyone who's been to jerusalem, raise your hand, please. oh, god bless you. when you come out from the gate and you remember, you turn right, you come to zion circle, remember? you remember the right? my great grandfather in 1968 was the first one with seven settlers to build the first house outside of the old city and those same seven people went ten years later in 1878 and established the mother of sentiments, the city and four years later saw the development, came and established the two

cities of the wine and visual seal and the year before that in 1881, there was a jew in paris, a student who realized jews would come from all over the world to establish the jewish state and there's something that must unify them. .

their intention. they said they wanted to send a message to jews by targeting the house in a mumbai back street. with this special preoccupation

came special cruelty. and in other words, the terrorist ordered a desirable optional extra. the really serious business was killing jews in the city where one has to look to find any. now this is a pakistani group. territory that was once ruled by muslims today ruled by infidel hindus. what were the words of mohammed sahid who inspired the mumbai murders. he said, at this time our focus is cashmere. our struggle with the jews is always there. my question is why. this -- for him, why are the

struggles always there? let alone for all time. it seems clear to me that we are dealing with a different sort of hatred. we need to understand it. we will not treat it as simply another hatred, another prejudice, another common bigotry. it has something in its tradition. the bloodline. as we knows jews have been accused of murdering gentile children in order to change their blood. we know ss absurd. and we know whole societies can ends up believing this. egyptians broadcast a dram tiization of zion. the egyptian government

receives $27.1 billion a year what happened last year when another one appeared? this time in the swedish tabloid where it was falsely claimed where jews were murdering people. the swedish government refused. instead the swedish prime minister said freedom has to be protected and at elect times he has to edit all strange contribution to debate. in order the principle freedom of speech inhis that demonizing

jews. it's a strange contribution to a be date. and in this he was inadvertantly right. it is indeed part of a debate. there is a debate as to whether or not jews are monster who stand apart from the massive human kind. and such a discussion has always by the way been the operative procedure of anti-semitic campaign. in order to treat jews as monsters to be eliminated, one must first persuade other people that they're monsters. let me tell you about the strange contributions in this debate. last year a dutch journalist insisted in the largest daily newspaper in holland that the global swine flu is part of a international conspiracy of satan-worshiping jews intent on

reducing the population. last year mahmoud ahmadinejad told a u.n. conference on racism that israel invented the holocaust for the malign purpose of extracting simply with a view to its own establishment. last year, a canadian leader, someone who you'd think would be involved with the issues facing his constituency was accused of promoting racial hatred when they said the jews are a disease that are going to take over. and a few years earlier, former tushish prime minister said that the jews decided to change the christian religion and found the protestantism. they control them too. these jews started 19 crusades.

the 19th was world war i. and if you've noticed this is not a language of viciousness. it moves on an entirety different thing. it is defamation of mythic proportions. in short, it demonizes them. now other hatreds are also cruel. however, only anti-semitism could lead a prime minister to fix sate on malign jewish forces and why? because anti-semitism is not simply another variety of racism or big tri. it's the strategy of the sort of a judeo christian legacy, it's adopted by those who are seeking to supplant it. and such of the sort requires the demonization requires the

jews. unlike every other group hatred, you don't need ethnic conflict. you don't need energy envy. you don't need competition for territory or resources that is why anti-semitism appears in countries without jews like japan. that's why the tribute t supernatural powers in stupendous crimes. that's why real grievances unconnected to jews. now we need to understand that what israel does or doesn't do does not drive those who would destroy it. we also need to understand this phenomenon for which we speak very little. arab sprem schism. muslim sprem schism. i'm -- they share their goal of

a return of muslim predominance. they want to replace israel. they would never admit to quality. this is the point nor do the palestinians including all of their leaders and i'm not speaking here only of hamas which pulled article 11 of their charter for an openly murder of the jews. in january 1996 in the oslo process speaking to stockholm. he said, we intend to eliminate the state of israel and have a purely palestinian state. i have no use for jews. we need all the help we can get for united palestine under total arab, muslim domination. and his fata co-founder the

credentialed denier of the holocaust mahmoud ahmadinejad said, in english too, repeatedly, i do not accept the jewish state. call it what you will. he has by the way increased it to the point of having it funded to $1.3 billion. no wonder that the palestinian authority inculcates jew hatred through its scrools and media. earlier this year, the p.a. television broadcast a sermon from the mosque until which the cleric declares the jews are the enemies of allah and his messenger the profit said you should fight the jews.

another palestinian authority salaried cleric who said in his sermon the a os can mosque is threatened by the jews. a salaries cleric said, stated that the jews are a virus resembling aids. and yet, the palestinian authority goes further than demonizing jews. it honors those who kill jews and name schools and streets after them. the obama ministration -- administration denounced the jews for wanting to build.

the leader of the terrorist in 1978 who perpetrated the massacre with 37 israelis including 12 children were slaughtered. and secretary clinton many days later provided the administrations first criticism of it, it was only to whitewash and protect them by stating it was a hamas-controlled municipality. and adding insult to injury she actually praised them for their strengthening of law and order. they have had to with stand inhuman frenzy. this is the society where they are described of being desen dents of monkeys and pigs.

it turns out they congratulate the families of the murders who committed the deeds. they heard the two israeli reservists had been taken into custody. they held their corpses where they were mutilated and their body parts handed around while the murder held his blood-stained hands. now we all look with apprehension on the revival of anti-semitism around the world. we should. all statistical records point to the rise of p anti-semitism. it's a measure of the weekness one in which moral relativism has affected people's ability

to think. i challenge fighting an enni in a world beholden to moral relativism and offering political correctness. these things moral relativism, they have created a society and a media today ne which many can not see the difference of a seat that build bunkers from missiles and a society that uses its civilians to shield its missiles. with an israeli humanitarian hospital part that gave her a life-saving skin craft. they allow the safe relief and iran refused the request. in a society that cheers gleefully when 40 israeli prison guards are incinerated in the fire still raging in the

slopes of mt. carmle. by the way, you see many syrian relief there? i didn't. in a society that has israeli people work in a restaurant to poison diners. between a society in which the parliament part of the unanimous condemnation of a jewish terrorist and a jewish parliament called them out. of course, you are unlikely to find such things in your daily newspaper. but you will read of false allegation about israel using phosphorus bomb on gaza. a statement that it will be remembered after he leaves office.

a good many people have heard that the lion is going to back vegetarian. but that is the west. think of the neighbors going to lengths of knowing the truth about israel. last week they incinerated 40 israeli prison guards who had gone to save prisoners, arab and jewish. the p.l.o. put out a statement saying that of course, they move slowly because all the prisoners were only arabs. what if they were allowed to send the relief teams six years ago to iran? they would have seen disproof the monstrous lies fed to them about israelis. the vice president was forced

to reseen by saying that iranians are friends of people all over the world including israel. these thing happen all the time. he permitted the entrance of jews who in different circumstances they could be living on good terms. a small inference that humanize the human people, that was a dangerous setback by this regime which is marching towards a bomb. of all the arguments we need to make surely this has got be easiest we make before the american government and public. an armed iran is a great thing to israel. but what is not frequently mention sd that it's an enormous danger to the united states. whatever political danger they need, if diplomacy fails, it will be of nothing against the shadow of nuclear blackmail under which america will be

obliged to live if iran gets such weapons. who really believes iran won't give such weapons to terrorist? japan was opposed to surrendering. do people really believe that americans are going to fight harder than the japanese did then? what if they have a third bomb. even if iran never fires at the u.s., who really believes iran won't give such weapons to terrorists? and if given such wents, terrorists won't use them in the u.s.? what unendsing series of concessions and retreats will america have to undertake to make sure that continues. once iran gets the bomb our freedom and security here in this country will be compromised beyond anything we imagine. israel faces an unappeaseable enemy. how suckessfully we bring that

message across to the america government and in the west has a big part of answering a seldom asked question if and when we have victory over our enemies and it will certainly is a role to play how quickly if at all americas clamor to action to deal with iran before mr. ahmadinejad has his finger on the nuclear trigger. thank you. [applause] >> we are pleased to introduce helen friedman the national executive director of americas for a safe israel. helen will discuss the arab efforts to rewrite jewish history in the middle east.

[applause] >> thank you. it's such a pleasure to be here. i want to thank joe kausman to participate in this very important conference. i want to say of all the speakers who have been so impressive so far, the one i guess i shouldn't say this -- that i like the most was him because he said israel is strong, israel is powerful, israel will live. it gives us courage and hope. unfortunately, when we listen to the talks about the hatred, the anti-semitism, the anti-zionism and all the rest of it and all of it is true and the threats and the horrors that we're facing are all true, still, it's wonderful to have that positive attitude of strength and growth.

and israel is the miracle country. it is and by the way, i happen to know one of those 55,000 family members, a friend of mine, yes. anyway, here we are at the pro israel conference and the name "pro-israel" is well chosen because we're all supporting israel. but people have different definitions of these words. i'm a member of americas for a safe israel. and for us when we talk about pro israel, we talk about supporting a whole israel. a whole israel, the biblical promise. of course the biblical promise is a little difficult because it didn't include jordan today and parts of syria and other parts. but still we're talking about the whole israel that was left after -- after 78% of the

promised land, the mandated area was cut off and given to jordan. but not everybody defines everything the same way. so i am thinking about what does it mean when we talk about accepting the ladge which -- with which the arab world has indoctrinated the left-wing media. we hear about the settlements. the settlements are such a problem. we hear about the occupation, israel the occupyier. the green line. the west bank, the palestinians, the very name "palestinians requests. this is a fabrication. you even hear the israelis using that language. and of course the two state solution. so the united nations, of course, doesn't help the situation. they came out with the

declaration that zionism is racism. and then of course is anti-semitism any different from anti-zionism? people tend to try to separate those two. we've already heard one of the speakers talk about anti-semitism but there's a brilliant harvard academic ruth reese who has recently written in commentary magazine about zionism as a movement of self-determination, national self-determination and the belief was that the reason people hated the jews was because there were always strangers in somebody elses land. they were never the owners. so israel had its own country, its own land, people would stop hating it. well, that wasn't the case. not at all.

what happened -- what happened was that -- that the -- the hatred became even stronger. and on top of that, we had the jews who began to suffer the psyche of the abused. you know, if you've all, of course, heard psychologist speak about abused children, abused adults who are so attacked and so -- and so wounded by their abuses that they start to believe the lies that they've heard. they start to believe that they're responsible for this hatred, that they're responsible of the things they're accused of even though it's not true. so he blames himself.

instead the jews should say, there's nothing that we can do to end anti-semitism. it's the job of the haters. the hate others are the one who is have to change. israel concessions, construction freezes, giving up of holy places, the give away of jew diaw and samaria, tolerating, judea and samaria tolerating that and the more it gives and the more it tries to be conciliatory and negotiative and be understanding and all the rest, the more it's considers a weakling and therefore should be abused. there's been a hugely successful con job on the

liberal western world. liberals are defined by their generous view of human nature. and they insist on attributing kindness, hope, optimism, rationality to all people. however, refusing to accept that there's evil in the world perpetrated by evil people leads to an incorrect diagnose. the -- diagnosis. the disease has to be diagnosed properly. carolyn glick, most of you have read her sterile, you know she's created this website, latma. it's a weekly program of sator cal comedy to help people say the absurdity of the arab claims against israel and i'm sure everybody has seen this brilliant video. the lyrics to one -- i wish i could sing it to you but i

can't. i'd scare everybody away. we con the world. we con ed the people. we'll make the world abandon reason. for facts there's no demand. we'll gain the upper hand. the truth will never find ilts way -- its way to your tv. and when you see this -- this video played on your youtube, whatever you can -- you can pick it up on your computer at any time, all the singers are dressed with arab kassiums and so on. we know the "new york times", a

reporter is somebody who i met in jerusalem. he actually sponsors trips to israel twice a year. he actually joined us on one of our trips for the afternoon. and he went to one of the posts in samaria that we were visiting. and i was giving him my spiel and he was listening and all the rest of it. he came back. he did -- he did a huge -- a huge report on israel. he used a picture of our group that was at the head of the page, a gigantic picture of us, but he never spoke about the things that we had seen, the things that we were learning. he used it simply to talk about the fact that it could be illegal for americans to make contributions to communities over the green line in judea and samaria, none of which is

true, of course. you also have something like "time" magazine. some of you recently may have seen the front page cover story by carl vick with a big jewish star on the cover. and inside the jewish star it says, why israel doesn't care about peace. well, lots of people never get past the headlines, the cover of a magazine. why phrase it that way? unless you want to demonize and delegitimize israel? why not ask -- why do arabs reject peace? isn't the arab who are always walking away? isn't it they who are making unreasonable demands and storming off and it's always the israelis who are ready to compromise? well, it's time to just look back a little bit at israel's

history. and our biblical road map. we talk about the road map. and the road map to peace and all this nonsense. but we have a biblical road map. and those of you who go to synagogues, you know that these last few weeks, we've been reading the whole history of abraham and isaac and jacob and joseph and how we've gone -- how they traveled from one place to another. and god's promise over and over and over and over again to abraham and isaac and jacob that this is your land and your seed will inherit this land. and we have to believe in this biblical promise. we have to believe that this is what makes us unique. it's interesting. we're very, very good partners with evangelical christians who support us.

and they are always quoting the bible and always giving us these bits of information from the bible. but jews don't do it. jews are embarrassed. it's a little embarrassing that we claim that we have a biblical right, that we are the special people, that we're chosen. sounds so arrogant. sounds so pompous. we don't want to be like that. but we're chosen to carry the torah to the world. it's a huge burden. you see whea a burden its been. look what's happened to us through the centuries, persecution and execution and suffering, untold suffering. and here we are in israel today in this magnificent country, this miraculous country. i hope all of you goat go that do go, that you see it. we go as we said, twice a year.

we go to judea, to samaria, to the golan, we spend lots of time before that community. 21 flourishing communities were destroyed up until the last minute, i couldn't believe it has happened. how could israel do such a thing to its own people? to its own communities? to its own life blood? these are the best people, the best kids, the best everything. but it did happen. it did happen. and in any case, and this is our problem. but if we read the bibe, it tells us going hebron, badel, shillo, the author of the tabernacle rested to shillo before being take on the

jerusalem. king david had his kingdom in hebron. go see the rooms that were incovered of king david's kingdom. it's life. it's truth. these are the facts. this is the -- this is why the arabs are so interested in destroying all our archaeological findings. this is why they're on the temple mount digging out another -- another mosque underground. and when they were digging out that mosque under ground, i have no idea why the israeli government allowed that to happen. but they did. and they threw out all the artifacts that were found there that prove israel's presence there. and today when you go up to the temple mount and i hope when you go to jerusalem that you do go and if you need help in knowing who to contact how to go so you don't violate any of

the religious preseptembers, i'll be very happy to give you that information. with every group that i bring, i make it a point to go to the testimony pull mount and the jews are humiliated there. -- temple mount, and the jews are humiliated there. the jews have to stand there to the side with our pass ports. we have to submit our passports. not the crowds of christians and others who go streaming through. but we, we have to get our passports aprufered. and a -- approved. >> and when woe do get followed we are followed by an arab representative to make sure we don't move our lips so that we're not praying. jews are not allowed to pray. and we also have an israeli

policeman who also watches to make sure that this arab vule enforced. these are things that defy understanding in a sovereign jewish state. why such a situation exists but it exists. and these are some of the things that have to be remedied. so in any case we have -- we have the grave of rachel. tavaroco. she is the only one that's not buried in hebron. she died in bethlehem giving birth to benjamin. have you seen this grave that used to be like a little mound on the side of the road? it's a fortress. it's a fortress today in bethlehem because you cannot go into bethlehem anymore. arabs are in bethlehem. they've thrown out the christian arabs. there are only muslim arab

there is and it's a very unsafe environment for jews. so in any case, this is -- and all these holy places, the temple mount, all these places are being claimed by arab that this is their -- these are their holy sights and the evil has compounded by the fact that unesko, the united nations economic, social, cultural organization supports these claims. o i don't have to tell you about the united nations. ok. so it takes a house of representatives solution number 1734 where over 30 co-sponsors to attempt to stop the revision of history by opposing unilateral declaration by a p.a. state.

the arabs are saying, we don't recognize you. we're not going to declare a state. so we'll do it unilaterally. and brazil, arch tina and your gay have already declared recognition. 1917, the bellcore declaration establishing palestine as a natural home for jewish people. 1920, the british mandate over palestine. 78% of palestine gets chopped off and israel is left with 22%. 1929, and if you want to see what the effect of those begrons were, go to the museum. see the pictures there. see the history. 1936 to 1938, more than 500 jews murdered.

47 the u.s. partition plan which cut off that 22% into 10%. and still, still israel accepted it because israel is so grateful to have anything. but the arabs went to war. the arabs went to war and when they went to war before they went to war, they told their people run away. there were probably 700,000 arabs in israel at the time. they were told run away while we resolve this war. and then you'll come back as soon as we get rid of this muttly army of holocaust survivor jews that are left here. and so they did run away. at the same time that that number left, one million jews from arab countries were forced to leave their homes, their

possessions, their wealth behind, and they became refugees. well, you know the story of the arab refugees today, they are still -- now they're not just 500,000. now the claim is that there are 5 million onrefugees. 5 million who have to come back to israel. thank you. and -- and what happened to the jewish refugees? are they in camps? is there a u.n. organization taking care of them? providing for them? up until the up teent generation? no, i'm runningout of time and i see that cornl west has arrived -- colonel west as arrived. i just want to finish a statement that was made by rav

meyakahanah. he was killed in 1990. this was 1988 or 1989 that he sade this. he says -- he asked the question are we normal? is it normal to attack one's own citizens? is it normal to subject jews to laws, demands, restrictions and prohibitions that are totally disregarded by the arabs? is it normal to sew fear, arab riots and world condemnation that we tighten a noose around our own jewish people struggling to hold on to the land of israel while we ignore the provocation of the arabs? the bottom line faith in the god of israel and a powerful jewish army are the only

guarantors of jewish survival. let us not fear the world, far better a jewish state that survives and is hated by the world than an auschwitz that brings us love and sympathy. thank you. [applause] >> our last speaker but certainly not least, this is personal congressman curnl west, is joe kauffman, the chairman of americas against hate and the founder of young zionist. he's a lecturer and a journalist for "front page" magazine. he will speak on fata and other terrorist organizations. [applause]

>> i first want to thrank all of you for attending our florida pro-israel conference 2010. i hope for you it has been an enjoyable and educational experience. i applaud our panel of speakers. and i want to thank c-span for bringing this event to the national public making what we say up here all the more important. [applause] >> our message to the nation needs not only to be heard but to be acted upon. words have little meaning where there are no actions attached to them. and without actions, there can be no results. last april, my wife, family and i took a month-long tour of israel. we went from one side of streel the other.

and within that oh so short distance we saw everything in between and much of what we saw was awe-inspiring. we saw magnificent water falls in angetti. we stood inside the fortresses in at masadah. we went on camel back by day and by jeep during the night. we walked amongst the mystical stones of spat. we gazed across what seemed to be the never ending knesset. i looked up at the sky as i touched and kissed the wailing wall in jerusalem, israel is truly a beautiful country. and it's easy to get caught up in that beauty. that is until you are brought back down to the reality of the threat the tiny nation faces. most everywhere you go, there are teenagers, young jewish boys and girls dressed in combat fatigues, many with

rifles in hands with their fingertips on the trigger. at checkpoints leading towards nations that israel supposedly had peaceful relations with, you receive warnings that if you pass, you go at your own risk. israel is surrounded by enemies and some of them are only separated from israel by a fence or a wall. most palestinians are controlled by one of two organizations. in gaza, it is hamas. the muslim brotherhood created group which sprang from the violence of the first intifada of 1987. and in the west bank were more properly judea and samaria, it is fata al watani the main branch of the palestine organization. or p.l.o.

few in the west will dispute that hamas is a terrorist organization. the group has been involved in countless terrorist attacks including a number of suicide bombings, at least one of which on benyahudah street almost took the life of my wife. hamas has a charter within which the group no uncertain terms calls if for destruction of israel. hamas clearly is a terrorist organization and no one except the most blind of the blind expects the group be a peace maker. but while hamas is being portrayed and rightly so as the antithesis to peace, they are hailed as moderate and peaceful. i am here to say that fata is none of the above. as we speak, and i checked this -- checked on this this morning to be sure, fata has on its

official website in arabic, it's official charter and like hamas, fata's charter call first the destruction of vale. it states, this is right off their sight. article 19 of the fata, rules and procedure. quote, the fight will not stop until the elimination of the zionist entity and the liberation of palestine, end quote. i'm holding a screen shot they just obtained this morning with article 19 from the actual web page. independent only takes two clicks to get to it from the fata home page. you may ask me, joe, isn't this the same fata who the white house is courting to make peace with israel? who's lead ter ahmadinejad has been seen shaking hands with the prime minister of israel?

yes. that's the same fata that i speak of. unfortunately, both the leadership of the united states and the leadership of israel ignore directives that their own respective governments have put out regarding fatah. the israel ministry of foreign afars outright called fatah a terrorist organization. they said, fatah is a terrorist organization as defined in the presention of terrorist ordinance end quote. just so you know the ordinance provides the israeli government specific measures when dealing with terrorists and when protecting the security of its citizens and has been in place for the past six decades. with regards to the united states, one has to do some research to find the terrorist designation of fatah. first and foremost, in december

1987, then president ronald reagan signed into law the anti-terrorism act of 1987. it states quote, the congress determines that the p.l.o. and its affiliates are a terrorist organization and a threat to the interest of the united states its allies and to international law and should not benefit from operating in the united states, ends quote. it further states that the p.l.o. has been implicated in the murder of americans overseas. when the acted says the p.l.o. and its affiliates, you must understand that fatah is the main affiliate of the p.l.o. indeed, the president of fatah, ahmadinejad is also the president of the p.l.o. the 1987 anti-terrorism act is still law today. let me repeat that because it

is of the utmost in importance. the 1987 terrorism act calling the p.l.o. and its affiliates a terrorist organization is still law today. you ask joe, if that's so, if the u.s. government recognizes the p.l.o. and fatah as terrorist organizations and the anti-terrorism act is still the law today, then how is mahmoud abbas able to come to the white house? and how is the p.l.o. able to have an office only less than two miles from the white house? simple because president barack obama and president george w. bush before him and president bill clinton before him signed presidential waivers every six months to circumvent the law. so this past october when secretary of state hillary clinton is the keynote speaker at the annual conference for

the american task force on paless stein -- paless stein an event which featured main araquad she has not quams about doing it. indeed she had a huge smile as she took the podium with the president of the task force beside her. here's secretary clinton and her smile. and here's salae looking on. shame on you, hillary. shame on you. [applause] >> the task force itself is connected to the p.l.o. the founding president is none other than the former p.l.o. spokesman rasheed kalidi.

you may have heard of him. his name came up a lot during barack obama's campaign for president. their website even has a photo of ahmadinejad along with a wink to the website contains the p.l.o. logo atop it. the american force on palestine appears to be little more than a front for the p.l.o. another example of the united states define fatah as a terrorist group is found in the u.s. list of foreign terrorist organizations or f.t.o.'s. on the list is shown the main power military group of fatah, the al oxar mortar list. there are those inside the government and outside who wish

to draw distinction between fatah and a.m.d. they like to use the term loose connection to describe the two groups' relationship. the reality is that fatah and a.m.b. today are one and the same. in the past a.m.b. had its own official website. in fact, it had two sites. today those sites are gone. now a.m.b. only uses the fatah official website as its official site. a.m.b. using the fatah site to post its terrorism communiques and all of them are signed by a.m.b. the quote military wing of fatah. the big question we must ask ourselves is why. why would our government attempt to hide law to help a terrorist organization? and really hide is the correct

term as the last sixth month waiver was not released to the public. that is not until i got ahold of it through someone in the state department. now it's up in our america's against hate website. and here's a copy of it. [applause] >> what's interesting about the waiver is that it was not signed by the u.s. president as all since bill clinton have been. the latest one was signed by hillary clinton's secretary, james b. steinberg. it was signed less than two weeks prior to hillary's appearance. conspiracy theories aside, the state department should at least answer tooze why it did not release the document publicly and why it did not bear president obama's signature.

but getting back to our question, why would our government want to sur couple vent the law when it knows fatah is a terrorist organization? do we really believe that osama is not going to target us if we force this upon israel? do we think that the palestinians will all of a sunday lay down their arms when their next generation has been ruined by its community's violent nay -- hatred against the jews? i guess the answer is in the question itself, this obsession like so many others is irrashenal. it -- irrational. it defies common sense. if you want peace, you have to do it with someone who wants peace, not with someone who wishes to destroy you. [applause]

>> that should be obvious. you will never have peace with someone who wants to destroy you, period. now if i may, i'd like a moment to speak to those in power. after all, it's not every day that i get this national forum to say what's on my mind. again, thank you, c-span. for those of you who view israel as merely a pawn, no more than a 51st state, let me tell you, you are making a terrible mistake. israel is an ally and a friend of america and should be treated as such. [applause] >> when you sit down to dialogue and have tea with israel's enemies, you've placed israel in danger. and when you place israel in

danger, you place our own nation, your own nation in danger because israel's enemies are our enemies. [applause] >> let me repeat that -- israel's enemies are our enemies. and as so many understand, as goes understand, so goes america. and like the good book says quote those who bless israel shall be blessed, and those who curse israel shall be cursed. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much for attending this conference. i think it is time now to honor

a war hero. [applause] >> congressman alan west -- >> he left. >> congressmen and elect allen west is one of the most amazing individuals i have ever had the pleasure of meeting. he is intelligent, articulate, and has all the qualities to make a real leader. when you stand next to him, you know you were standing next to greatness. in march 2008, i was honored to have then lieutenant-colonel allen west to speak at our americans against hate demonstration, against care, and hamas related group that was holding its annual banquet at the broward county convention

center. as colonel west spoke, some of the care operatives gathered to greet him with jeers, attempting to shuout him down. colonel west cannot be stopped, which should come to be expected from a war hero on the battlefield who saved countless troops' lives. [applause] congressman west, you honored our group then, and today it is our turn to honor you. congressman west, i would like to now present you with our americans against hate and young zionist protector of zion award. [applause]

>> well, thank you so much for that introduction, joe. it is hard to believe you talking about a simple person like myself. the battalion that i command it, we had a great model. it said, duty, not reward. i want people to understand, never thanked me for doing that which is right and that which will make sure that we protect our country and we protect our best and most favored ally in the middle east, which of course it is israel. [applause] but as i stand here today, i have to tell you, the rev. o'neal just came man and i just

finished speaking at his church is 25th anniversary. that is a great man, too. [applause] but i must tell you, as i get ready to prepare to go up to washington, d.c., and i will be moving up there on december 25 -- and i am not sleeping in my office, folks, no way. i have had enough of that hard living. but we are at a such a critical and decisive point, for the future and legacy of not just the united states and israel, but for what happens with western civilization. what happens to that bright and shining light that talks about the individual, the bright and shining light that talks about the freedom of conscience, what happens to the bright and shining light that talks about the rule of law all across our great world. if we lose that aspect of what separates us from the autocrats,

the dictators, the despots, and the theocrats on the opposite side, we go into a new dark ages. we have to ask ourselves, what are we leaving to our children and grandchildren? we think about the great sacrifices of men such as my father in world war ii and korea, vietnam, the sacrifices right now, to be out there on freedoms ramparts so that we can sit here in liberty ensure these ideas and talk freely about the future and legacy of israel and america and the world. there is a fantastic quote that gail shares with other people, and this comes home when we talk about this issue. there is no need to take all of the academic and historical perspectives. i want to talk from the heart. when tolerance becomes a one-way street, it leads to cultural suicide. that is where we are. if we are not willing to stand out and call a certain wrong

wrong, if we're not willing to stand up and identify who the enemy is, when we have a national security strategy that talks more about global warming and islamic extremism, muslim terrorism, islamic terrorism, when we're talking about overseas contingency operations and man-made disasters, something is wrong. we are upside-down. when we don't want to say there is a group of individuals out there who are the antithesis of that we are and what we stand for and what we believe then, but yet we want to continue to make our way of life self- serving, we have the recalcitrants, we have a fear, we have something that is keeping us, holding us back from saying that there is nothing wrong with standing upon a judeo-christian fate care takes it in the united states, israel, all of western civilization. i[applause]

i think first and foremost what we must do is move forward. you can definitely count on me to be this voice. [applause] thank you. we have got to recognize who the enemy is. my fear is that right now we are standing in it and 1930's moment, where we believe we can compromise and negotiate and appease people who mean to kill you can harm you. when i sit back and i hear so often everybody talked about, well, it is just the taliban, just al qaeda, it is such a narrow focus, that would be just the same as if the united states of america went to war and said we're only going to go fight the second platoon of charlie company of the enemy. nations have to understand and recognize what is that is fuelling the enemy that we are finding ourselves against.

what are their goals and objectives? before al qaeda came along, the no. 1 terrorist groups that had killed most americans was hezbollah. we cannot stop recognizing them. it would not recognize the fact we are sending money into the gaza strip and it is controlled by a known terrorist organization which is hamas. we made a terrible mistake, the shop of iran may not have been the most perfect gentleman, but when we did not support him and we allow the ayatollah khamenei to take over power, we created the problems we see now. we created the resurgence of an islamic totalitarianism which is in that nature. we have to understand that, true enough, we don't need to say it is every muslim. but there is a core group of individuals that if we're not careful, they could easily destroy this country. i had an interview last week

with a reporter who said, don't you think you are giving them too much credit? giving them too much props or something like that? a said simply, amid talk to you about numbers. 19 people killed 3000 people on 9/11. one person killed 13 american soldiers and wounded another 30. one person, if he had not been caught, could have killed countless individuals in portland, ore., at a christmas celebration. those are the odds. i will not discount the one sees it or to seize, because those are the numbers that can affect things. he looked at what happened in iraq but the car bombing. we don't need to talk about what happened overseas, we don't need to talk about what happens in other areas. if i did not pronounced that right, remember i am from georgia. but when i go there and i see the young children who are

shellshocked, when i see the playgrounds that have bomb shelters next to them, why? why is that happening? and that story is not getting out? after you recognize an enemy, the other thing we have to do is we have to win this information operations war. because when that whole gaza flotilla tape came out, i was sitting with my wife and i said, angela, those guys have paid all guns on their backs, but nobody understood that. they had to use their personal side arms to defend themselves. we are giving the enemy every opportunity that we can, just the same as in iraq and afghanistan with our soldiers. the rules of engagement gives the enemy the initiative of your soldiers. -- over our soldiers. we have to once again put our message out that says, we stand for freedom. but our message out that says it is not us who are killing just

as many moslems as are the terrorists. it is not us going into schools headmaster's.ating it is not us out throwing acid on young girls or gunning them down. it is not us who are shooting rockets and missiles from land that we continue to see over and the hopes of peace. iladies and gentlemen, the time is coming where we must all stand upon a conviction. it as my mom said, a man must stand for something or else he will fall for anything, and right now we are falling. we are falling to the point where what happens when that whole thing about mutually assured destruction theory goes out the window? that is what we operate with with the soviet union, but that is not a viable solution if iran gets a nuclear device. when mahmoud ahmadinejad goes into levitan, he faces towards

israel and says we stand for the destruction of the zionist state. what more do you need? what more evidence do you need? there comes a time when it's somebody continues to put me in the chest, you must understand that you have to take that seriously. it reminds me of when theo van gogh, it was a filmmaker, was heard saying as he was stabbed repeatedly to death to his assailant, can't we just talked about this? i don't know about you, but when somebody is driving a knife into my chest, i think the whole course of action of let's have intellectual discourse is over. but yet on a grander scale, that is what we are allowing. you look all across europe, the anti-semitism, he but what is going on in london, there is a youtube video where we see writing islamists chasing with a british police.

in sweden, what was once a thriving jewish community has dwindled down to about 500. people are free to walk around with their yarmulkes us. people are afraid to profess their jewish faith in europe. this is where we are in our country. if you go back and study history, for the jewish people, you were driven out of your homeland. you were driven off the arabian peninsula. you were driven because of the horrors of the acquisition out of spain. you were driven out of eastern europe. you withstood the holocaust. we finally said that we would return the jewish people back to their homeland, and immediately, after may of 1948, you were attacked. when does the time come when we say, enough is enough? [applause]

it is very simple, where he go after israel? the u come to the united states of america? because the clock is ticking here as well. that is the challenge that we have. we can sit around and talk about all of the things with our economic situation, and we can fix our economic situation. we can get americans back to work. that is not an issue. but even once we recreate economic prosperity in this country, all of the great technological advancements, all of the biotech advancements, all the beauty in israel, if you cannot have safety, if you cannot identify your enemy, if he cannot stand up to that threat, then it is all for naught. if you are held hostage within your own boundaries, it is all for naught.

in accepting this award, i tell you one simple thing -- it is my duty to stand up to defend israel. [applause] thank you. it is my duty to do that. because when you are a young man growing up in the inner city of atlanta, ga., on sunday mornings going up to the methodist church for sunday school and you read all of the great stories from the old testament, you become one with that land. when finally in december of last year this exact same time frame, i had my first trip to the holy land and i saw the history and i stood there upon the ground.

and i realized as i have told so many of you, what was said there was, give me liberty or give me death, which is the exact same thing that patrick henry said here in the net states of america. in defending israel, i am a staunch defender of my and your united states of america, from heads and forevermore. god bless you all. thank you for this great award and thank you all. [applause]

>> don't leave, we're going to have the r q& ata. -- don't leave, we're going to have our questions and answers. >> any questions for any of the panel members? >> colonel, my name is dave mcchrystal, congratulations. >> happy hanukkah. >> one thing that was not

mentioned which is startling to me is the recent threat emanating from venezuela, under the auspices of hugo job as. -- under the auspices of hugo chavez. what is your perspective approach once you are in washington, d.c., to handle that threat? >> we will find out by committee assignments within the next week or so. my number one choice is armed services committee. my second choice was armed services committee. your right, one of the things we found out not too long ago was the direct frights -- the direct flights, there are no passengers on those flights. there is a new 21 -- 21st century access forming. when you understand what is happening and venezuela and the terrorist training camps in

south america, the fact the ortega brothers are back in charge in central america, which is a pipeline. i was doing reading on the web where we have al qaeda and has blood in cahoots with the mexican drug lords, funneling individuals across our southern border. i think it was about four months ago, there was one of these little transition camps along our southern border where they were finding their career rugs and dictionaries that translate arabic to spanish to english. we already know we are losing track of individuals coming here. there is a category called other that mexicans. these are people of middle eastern descent coming into our country. there is a huge threat. i think what we need to be able to do is something we did not do it after the collapse of the soviet union. after the collapse, we said, we don't need this big standing

military. nobody sat around and thought what is the world going to look like now that this board polar structure -- this bible the structure is gone. in cutting the military, now we have a military that is stretched thin, soldiers on their fifth pores overseas, and the contingency operations against various different threats increasing. north korea, iran, afghanistan, iraq, yemen, somalia, the horn of africa, all the way down to south america. we have to go back into a threat based analysis and have to get away from this occupation and nation building style of warfare. the number-one thing we have to do with his enemy is deny him a century. we have to win the information war, cut off his flow of men, material, and financing support, and then we have to court and him off to keep them from being

able to infiltrate -- we have to cordon him off. if you study the 21st century history of the u.s., since the korean war, we always win at the tactical level, would lose at the strategic level. i think that as the problem we're having. >> anyone, before we take this next question, please have your parking validated before you leave. >> joe, this coming week, there is a fund-raiser. we talk about that? >> there is an individual named george galloway, an english individual. he has recently raised money for the terrorist organization hamas.

he has openly admitted to this. he has given over this money to hamas and the videotaped it. he is coming to pop the no beach, the islamic center in south florida, -- pomp and no beach, the islamic center, in south florida, which has terrorist ties, including the fact be imam has called america the enemy. anyway, did i answer that question? if you want to be involved, please see me about protesting. question. a joining for 30 years, jonathan pollard has languished in american jail. he is america's strongest allies, and he gave israel information that israel should

have been given by the government itself. thank you. >> it is funny, i have studied that. we had a little maxim we operated on it on the inner city streets, no blood, no foul. i am trying to understand if somebody is doing something for an ally of ours, and i think he is definitely served plenty of time to be released. let me tell you, the lockerbie bomber -- if we can release the lockerbie bombing, what is up with jonathan pollard? this is a bigger issue, if i can. yes, i support looking at this issue with jonathan pollard. we are treating terrorists like americans and treating terrorists like americans. it -- we are treating americans

like terrorists and treating terrorists like americans. when we have 10 soldiers sitting in for leavenworth accusing them of premeditated murder on the battlefield, the military tribunal worked ok for them. why can't the military tribunal work ok for these non state, nonbelligerent, nine u.s. citizens that enacted terrorism against our country -- non-u.s. citizens that enacted terrorism against our country? >> i think this is the first thing on the list of the israeli government, to release jonathan pollard. it with every human person in this world to release jonathan pollard after 25 years. i beg your pardon? three years ago, during the

military operation, there was the thought of releasing shareef, but then they heard there might be a bombing around him. i think it is the obligation as well, and our duty, to make sure that he will be back as soon as possible. [applause] >> first of all, thank you. you say things like nobody else can. it is incredible. and you don't need a teleprompter. [applause]

i am surprised you were not already in congress, because you could have given him a run for his money and you would have won. about three years ago i brought up the issue of venezuela. i was there, i knew about those flights. now have another one. probably the first time anybody will hear about this. we have the infiltration of has blood and mexico. we have problems at our southern borders. on all of our college campuses, we have an organization. the mexicans do not accept the treaty of guadalupe hidalgo, and whatever precedent was set for israel will be repeated by the world community that will insist that we surrender the southwestern united states to

those who claim it. i would like to know what we're going to do to prevent that. arnold weinstein wrote an article in 2003, published in israel, about palestine. >> you kind of catch me unawares, but we will not surrender new mexico, arizona, anything like that. but i will tell you this, they're making a lot of it to nation's about doing such things -- they're making a lot of intimations about doing such things, especially with the dream act. there is an effort out to undermine this country. once again, republicans about the rule of law. if you go to the constitution, there are three different places where the constitution talks

about the responsibilities of the federal government and the responsibilities of the state to protect itself in cases of eminent danger without the lead. article one, section 8 talks about the responsibility being to repel invasion. when somebody is coming across your border, they're not invited, they are not a citizen, that is an invasion. it talks about the responsibilities of the state in the event the federal government does not own up to their responsibilities. article 4, section 4, talks about the federal government's responsibilities to protect the state in case of danger. let me tell you something, if you start to read and look at what is happening south of the border, is starting to look like iraq or afghanistan. you have roadside bombs, the headings, mass graves, those guys are not learning those tactics by looking at the simpson's on fox every sunday night. ithere is something that has

infiltrated new mexico. be very careful, if these tactics come across our border. because remember, we have law enforcement officers who have bounties on their heads and some of the southwestern states. -- in some of the southwestern states. >> i just want to say this has been an incredible panel, all six if you. [applause] i think everybody here shares that. my question is a tough one. >> give me an easy one. [laughter] >> why? the challenge. a month ago, my wife and i were at the chamber of congress and we heard mr. baker, the representative of mr.

netanyahu, the press secretary, and i ask him these questions. i see the look on your face. you are already worried. [laughter] basically, i want to know why do we have to keep giving back the land? [applause] made it fromt more the israeli side of the horrible way that mr. netanyahu was treated in the white house back in march of this year? [applause] >> first of all, i am very proud of the israeli democracy. of government, you have to fulfill when you agree to something. it is always in democracy a continuation that you can maneuver. that is how i come to the

podium. israel 50 years ago was the world champions in, unfortunately, car accidents. you remember that? until somebody came up with a smart slocan that said, don't be right, be smart. you come to the intersection and you know you are right, you have the right to cross. look to your left and right, but they should not imagine the stupid drivers. so take the easy, be smart. we have to speak about advisers. i want to show you the meaning of the smartest, and then we will understand why sometimes people look on the other side even though they are allies. make it clear, israel is an ally of the that the states, and the united states is an ally

of israel, and we shall survive. 10 months ago, believe me, i belong from center to the right, not from center to the wrong -- i mean to the left. but thank god i am in the middle. let's take for example 10 months ago, a vice-president comes to jerusalem. it -- by president joe biden comes to israel. the you or i or any shoe have to make an announcement to israel? when you want to build, build in jerusalem, but did not make announcements. it be smart, don't be right. this is the message. in policy, you have to be smart enough not to come to obstacles

like the white house, because we did not invade to assault people. we did that in the past and people doing to us. we have to know how to rid maneuver in the right way. it -- we have to know how to maneuver in the right way. i think three portions, civilize the entire portion of the jewish people. first of all, god is the owner of the world and we make the choice -- he made the choice of where the jews will be. second is go from your land in your father's home to the point where i show you. that was it is real. the third was very smart. what does it say?

we have to learn from that. he saw him from the window and a very friendly and happy way. she did not like it. she called him and and said, get rid of your mistress and your son. since then, what god told him, i adopted. what did he say? whatever your wife tells you, obey. i don't have any problems with that. what did he see with his answer to our future? she realizes that we cannot have the two nations together. she realized the good thing was

it was only two people. now we are dealing with 3 million people, and therefore we have to be smart. we should never forget our bible, the good advice, and we should think about how to solve the future of our children and grandchildren. thank you. [applause] >> i just want to said, in my speech, i mentioned this terrorism prevention. this ordinance was created 60 years ago. it was the latest version in 1993, but it is still a law. according to the israel ministry of foreign affairs, a state on their website that fatah is a terrorist organization through this ordinance. unfortunately, the israeli government, i am sorry, but they

ignored this ordinance, the same way that the united states government ignores the other act i mentioned to you, the anti- terrorism act of 1987 which called the plo a terrorist organization. if all they have to do is say, hey, the terrorist coronets that is protecting our israeli citizens, through that fatah is a terrorist organization, why should we give any land to a terrorist organization? why should we create a terrorist state at all? i think if israel just stood their ground and listen to their own rules, just like we should stand our ground and listen to our own rules, we would be a much better place to live. [applause] >> i promised i would not ask another question, but today, this group and the speakers have

said great things. not me tell you why i think it is all very blessed. but in new york, crown heights, darrius 770 eastern parkway -- there is 770 eastern parkway, of which we are members. today, according to the website that we all follow, many of us, it is exactly 770 days before the end of the obama administration. [applause] >> colonel was, first, congratulations, and also, thank you for the hope and inspiration -- colonel west. years ago, when things seemed dire, it told us about the water dropping on the rock. it does not media, get on to your television set. with this mainstream media, it is very difficult. my question is, it is my belief

the only way to expose to the american citizens real danger of jihad in america and the infiltration they have made all across america, the only way to expose it and leapfrog the mainstream media would be with a full blown public congressional hearing. they had it for roger clemens and steroids. can we not have a full-blown congressional hearing on jihad and the extent to which it has infiltrated the united states of america? >> one of the things we will return in the 112th congress is the art of inquiry, and we will have those oversight hearings. we have to start asking the tough questions about what is going on in the united states. your right about that. no more stephen colbert, no more roger clemens. we have to get back to what we should be doing in our

committees with those hearings. >> i am jeremy, from jerusalem. joe, you have put on a spectacular conference. god bless you for your great work. [applause] in israel, i have a television show and i am bringing it to fort lauderdale. january 18. i just came from reserve duty, and my tour of duty was on the gaza, egypt, israeli border. every time we went on patrol, we had a medical staff and helicopter on patrol. as we would find people trying to come into israel, many of them would be dehydrated and with bullet wounds because the egyptian port of call is if you see them try to -- egyptian protocol is if you see them try to cross the border, they should be immediately shot.

there have been almost 30 condemnations against israel. not one against hamas. israel called its helicopters to bring them to our hospital, but the world does not know about that. isn't that fantastic? the world does not hear that we are the light of human rights in the middle east. question for you, congressman west, what can the american leadership do to bring the truth about israel to america? >> you must recognize that information but it is part of your national power. there are four elements. how many people here have a cell phone? how many people here have a blackberry? how many people here have a computer? everybody here is a media source.

everybody here to help get a message out. what you just talked about, if you put it out to an email list, it just goes a fire road. i am telling you also, we have to do this type of things in congress to bring the truth out to the american people. let me tell you, we cannot sit back and wait for a certain media to take this as their mantel. we have to do it ourselves. that is the great thing about the 21st century, the information and technology out there. we have to get the story out and get promulgated all across not just israel and the u.s. but across the world. i know everyone says, congressman elect west, what are you going to do, but help me out by getting the message out as well. [applause] >> congressman? >> should i just stay? [laughter] >> this deals with israel and

the united states. >> would we not make a good wwe tag team? >> congressmen, as our constitution states, why do we care what mexico thinks about the guadalupe hidalgo treaty? we won the war and we should on the territory down to mexico city, if they want to play the game of attrition. we have to start following our own rules, following our constitution, and not caring what the rest of the world does or says about what we do within the united states. and for israel, what is the problem with you building settlements in your territory? it is like everybody is allowing to dictate to israel what they should do, and the united states what we should do, and i want to know what you plan to do in your

bodies of congress, in your nations, to tell the rest of the world what they could do with their opinion and get back to the business of the united states. because that is what i want to have when i join you. >> first of all, let me help the ambassador bridge and >> no, no, no. >> it is not about building cells, it is about building homes. we should not dictate to any sovereign state where they build homes. in the u.s., we have forgotten we are exceptional nation, exceptional people, and we have this apologist atmosphere coming out of washington, d.c., right now. look across any country, there are blips on the radar of what they have done, but one thing that a simple and clear, people are still coming to the united states of america because of freedom and liberty and that is what we need to be talking about. we also need to tell the other countries there is no other

nation that is greater than the united states of america on the face of the earth right now. we're that shining city that's it's upon the hill. mexico needs to take care of a lot of their issues. if they keep running their mouth too much, maybe we ought to look at all the foreign aid that we're sending to mexico that is falling in the hands of the wrong people. [applause] >> if you remember what a said before, don't be right, not be smart sometimes. -- if you remember what i said before, don't be right, be smart sometimes. let me be clear, 10 months ago, the prime minister of israel agreed to free the settlement. that is not a question that he had to debate that time. the point is that once the israeli government agrees to do something, they have to

implement that. we're talking about media, we're talking about how we transfer things. it is not sexy to show things. the point is that the government made that decision 10 months ago. now, but as we say, the media, they don't care about 10 days ago. only the last 48 hours. why can't you know? if you remember, the big picture with the young boy with his father and a big is really tanked -- eight israeli tank.

that is sexy, you can sell that. first of all, it was proven that the soldier could not have shot this bullet. the palestinian sacrifice this boy to make headlines with the media, but they succeeded. they succeeded, and the point is how to lead in a way that we should succeed. in the headlines, the last three months, the headline of everyone was will they freeze the settlement or not? the question was for two months. historically, we do not agree for 24 hours, but politically, be smart, don't be right. >> good evening.

i am the co-founder of a foundation, after my late son was killed in a suicide bombing in tel aviv. first of all, you all look alike, and you are right, one of your cousins was my teacher. i am seventh generation from israel, from jerusalem. [applause] one of your cousins was my teacher. >> who wish your teacher? >> i don't remember his first time, but his last name was the same. very good. >> he was 95 years old. >> the younger cousin. [laughter]

in any case, my question is for congressmen to be alan west, which i am so happy -- [applause] turkey. they are part of nato. they kind of have control over the missile defense system in that area, to the other side. israel, which is really the true ally of the united states, is not part of nato, and there are voices in the administration to cut joint training with the military. what would you think about getting turkey out of there? >> the most important thing with

turkey, when they created the modern secular state of turkey, it depended upon the military to be the guardian of that state of turkey. now when you look at their leadership, you start to see turkey slip towards their radical islam, and that is something of great seconcern to me. i have had many dealings with nato and the army. we need to start looking at how we expand. there is collective security. how do we expand nato and bring in some other countries? because the threats we're talking about our global threats. a new zealand, australia, you name it, it is not your typical nato, and we need to start looking at how we bring israel in their. let me tell you the danger. the danger is being used the nato charter.

turkey claims agreed status, some type of action taken against them. then they say you support us as a member of nato. i would be fearful that something like that happened, and i thought we were on the cusp of something like that happening during the gaza flotilla episode. we must continue to have those joint military operations with israel because it sends a message to the enemies to the north, with hezbollah. it sends a message to the enemies to the south, hamas, it sends a message to mahmoud ahmadinejad, and don't forget syria and the support they're providing also. we need to look and see how we can continue to expand those using our marine expeditionary units, things of that nature, and joint military operations, the air force, and are navies. my commitment on getting on the

armed services committee would be to continue to have joint exercises with israel because of the message it sends to our adversaries. [applause] >> the speeches you have been making have been wonderful, but one subject was not brought up, and that is not and israel, europe, africa, or mexico, it is in this country. we have a time of outrage. the united states government is not permitting a legitimate organizations that are in favor of israel to get 501.3c permission. they are forgetting their applications to a special branch of the irs to check into the organization's. this is going on right now.

the united states government and the irs are being sued for an infraction of the constitution because of this, and this is a time for outraged by american jews. please remark on that. >> i will tell you that is something that is new to me, but we will make sure that we look into it and see what we can do. after january 5, we take the oath of office, 1708 longworth building. please come by. >> this has been absolutely amazing, frankie. but i am sorry, this is a question not only for the panel but everybody in the audience. today.nnotend end the jewish people, you stay home, play cards, played golf, tennis, bridge, we do not come together to support israel or

america it in their time of need. i am glad that you were all here from all over the area, because i feel we need to come together locally. when there is a march in washington or new york, why don't we gather in florida? not such a strange thought. you have federations, synagogues, you have jcrc. come together. what have the photo the, what they want to do? go to the local federation building and stand up in the evening, nice and quiet with a candle, showing silent support. the question to all of you is, can you help that? will you support and will you come? and bring people with you. [applause]

>> that was not directed to me, but i will answer that partially. americans for save israel have chapters throughout the country, throughout the world. we have a chapter in miami, and my chair woman is right there. when issues such as what you just described, the flotilla issue, etcetera, i rise, we localize people and we try to get out on the streets, have our protests, and make the news and let people know that these actions are not acceptable, that we will protest. so i offer to you the opportunity to reach carroll, and of course anyone who would want to beat a chair person -- who would want to be a share person, just see me.

we'd love to have your help. [applause] >> that was not directed to me, but let me answer that in a roundabout way. somebody eluded that i am paying a very bleak picture. it happens to be true. we need to face reality that we could do something about it. to put it in a humorous way, you probably heard the joke about the elderly jew reading and anti-semitic newspaper. at one of his friend says, what on earth is going on? why are you not reading a jewish newspaper? he said if i read the jewish state pepper, we're being persecuted, thrown out, destitute. the anti-semitic paper, the jews rule the world, patrol the banks and the government. everything is much better. to raise consciousness, i think

the task we tried to set for ourselves tonight, there are organizations committed with chapters in several parts of the states in the country very active. i see people motivated. we make the point that it's very often missed, and that is the fact we're dealing with the case of fatah not just with some representative non-islamic organization. it calls for the elimination of israel, and terrorism as an indispensable strategy to bring about that old. it involved with whichever organization and follow the issues were people like taking this to the government and media and start the ball rolling. thank you. [applause]

>> one thing that was not mentioned, and now that we have the national media here, is she street. it -- in j street. ael organization. they have the goal of bringing more jews to the democratic party. while our organization is non- partisan, that is their main objective. whether they destroy israel in the process or not. indeed, the group practices this moral equivalent, where the hamas suicide government -- a hamas suicide bomber is no different, according to them, then the israelis to protect their citizens security. it must be noted, and dennis

brown and i, we spoke outside their first event in south florida. they open up a chapter in south florida, and afterwards we found out that this leader of a group that actually got shut down for being involved with a terrorist organization, hamas. he heads an organization in north miami beach. they actually gave this guy around of applause at the meeting, which tells you what type of organization that is. so be aware, and we are here as well. [applause] >> first of all, joe, thank you for the event and think before providing a greatsegue -- a

greatsegue. in 2006, after the disengagement from gaza, hamas took over gaza by force, they took over the government. there was a petition sent around by a group which was signed by 387 rabbis, urging president bush not to discontinue foreign aid funding to a hamas government. i was talking to a man before -- i was a member of a temple at that time, two signatories to that petition were members of the temple i was part of. he sent an e-mail to his rabbi, and the rabbi told him he was completely in favor of building a mosque at ground zero. you mentioned in your comments

that is so important for all jews to stand together in america and israel and together. how is it possible for all jews to stand together when there is a very numerous faction of jews who are supporting and empowering our enemies? [applause] >> i will tell you a joke, and this will be my answer. at once, the president of israel came to the president of the united states and said, mr. president, you are a lucky man, you where the president of 300 million people. the president of the united states said your president, too. the president of israel said, yes, i am the president of 7 million presidents. it did to get my answer? when? two jews, -- when you taketwo

jews, you get three opinions. did you get my answer? >> my name is beverly kravitz. i want to thank all of you people individually, because you're talks were wonderful. danielle, i have been a member of the zionist organization, a proud and longtime member of the organization, for at least 25, 30 years. -- i go onon theuses the buses to washington to lobby. there are some things i would like to touch on, first about the mosque. it then i will say this quickly. i overheard a piece on fox television that the minister had

said and made a statement that he wants to build mosques all over the net estates. he is in the process. . he hasn't even gotten apursuant to the rule for this one, we've been out of it because we've been in florida, but that's his goal. as far as terrorism is concerned, yesterday, my husband and i went to a conference on islam and i agree with this gentleman on jihad watch to have an international or a congressional investigation. we went to hear -- i'm getting -- steve emerson speak at s.a.u. about terrorism. local-grown terrorism cells, international terrorism cells,

and what's happening here in the united states this morning, we have more problems than ever every time i turn on the television, i hear that a terrorism attack has been prevented and the names are muslim names that are involved. i know the percentages go back and forth. this morning, i was watching television and fareed section ryea, on his program -- zachariah, on his program on cnn minimized the facts of the terrorism problem here in the united states by muslim individuals. the media is feeding us garbage, people watch cnn, they believe what they see and top people in

the media are feeding us pablum and people are believing it. i thank you. oh, and forgive me, i was supposed to make another statement, with reference to the 501 c 3 issue -- the 501c3 issue , jay street, as we all know, has been funded by george soros, funded, supported and ideologically supported by george sombings ros, who was an anti-zion, anti-israel person. there is a laurie lowenthal marcus who is a past president of d.o.a., has a piece of litigation, she's a harvard graduate, she has a piece of litigation now in washington against the federal government because they applied for 501c3

approval for people who contributed to their organization. it's called z-street, it's against j street and they have been denied, their application has been sent for special inspection by the federal government with several other jewish organizations. i think that this is nazi-like. thank you. >> speaking of 501c3's, we veff one, donate. >> do we have time for one more question? >> first, you made me a happy man today, not only with your joke bus now that you tell me you're center right, i'm happy because i remember in 1993, you were pro oslo accords, now

you're making me a happy man. to congressman alan west, for the last time ever, i'm going to call you alan, if i may. the oklahoma vote on sharia law is there anything that congress can do to support the oklahomans who voted against sharia law? >> i think the number one thing is we should be able to invoke the 10th amendment which says that the rights not precybered to the federal government go to the state of individual. the 10th amendment should allow them to stand. if the people of the state of oklahoma by referendum voted for this, shah should be the end of it. if we get away from that happen, we get to activist judge the panel of the black robes who can start to overrule the referendum of the people, we will no longer be a republic, we will no longer have the rule of law. i think the most important thing we have to realize is there is

an infiltration that is happening in the united states of america into our political systems, educational, cultural systems, financial systems, and we've got to start, as i said, the number one thing, we've got to recognize this enemy and understand his strategic goals and objectives and then we have to take the right and proper actions which starts at the congress of the united states of america, which, we're the ones supposed to be watching over the american people. >> i want to thank everyone for coming, we're kilogoing to close this out with a closing prayer. >> nobody can accuse us of being sexist or chauvinistic. i may not be a rabbi, but i'm a history major, i teach jewish history in high schools and i

learned so much from all the lecturers who are brilliant and eloquent and full of hard core facts in support of israel and against terrorism, it's interesting that as jews, we represent .2% of the world's population yet have a disproportional impact on the universe. with more than 20% of all individual nobel prizes being awarded to juice, technological advances, and although israel is a very tiny state, we've occupied so much of the media coverage, not necessarily in a good way, over 400 u.n. resolutions since the institution of the united nations has been surrounded the state of israel, i believe, correct me if i'm wrong, more than any other issue. of course, as jews and non-jews alike, israel has a colossal magnetism as was said perhaps

most profoundly by the spanish poet and scholar, my heart is in the east, should i not say that? my heart is in the east, though i am in the west. we know that god says in the torah -- [speaking hebrew] god's eyes are focused on the land of israel from the onset of the year until the end of the year. [applause] and so, perhaps the obsession, negative and positive, over the land of israel is a calling a calling to jewish people to stand up, it doesn't allow us to assimilate entirely and to forget our identity but it always reminds us that we are a people that are unique and we

have a homeland and this calling is two-fold. on one hand, the torah tells us, you must obliterate the evil from amidst your environment, and all of what we've been discussing is about exposing evil, terrorism and lies that fester like mold in the darkness and grow and many times when they're exposed to light and when people see what it's really about and the hidden agendas, they kind of melt away because they love the dishonesty, the blackness, the lack of exposure that lies behind terrorist motivations. so obliterate, stand up when you see something unjust, when you see something immoral, take it to task, speak about it, post it on your facebook page. we are the media. talk about it, don't just let it

go and on the other hand we know it tells us, a little bit of light a little candle, could light up a very big darkroom that little bit of light starts in our very own little lives, our small lives, that each one of us has the opportunity to add a little bit of light into our lives and this could be through lighting up somebody else's life by bag positive influence on another person, a hero in our own homes, by standing up for our jewish heritage, our right to the state of israel stems from the words in the torah and the torah tells us, you are god's people and god has a mission, global mission for us, we don't need to be afraid of it. any little thing we do adds light into our lives and into the entire environment, lighting candles, keeping the holiday of hanukkah purim, all these things

help collectively to add light to the universe and help protect israel from a spiritual vantage point. sometimes it seem there is is no good solution to peace in the middle east and he had a vision that there would be a fulfillment of the age-old prophecy that there would be an era of peace for all mankind, an era of redemption when we would be able to live freely as juice and morality would reign supreme. he said that everyone has the ability to instigate this global revolution through small acts of goodness and kindness. so let us all increase in exposing the evil and immorality and justice of terrorism and adding little candles in our lives and together we will see

the true peace in israel and in the entire world. [applause] >> i just want to thank everyone, my wife, emily, worked very hard on this. she's been amazing. i love you. our daughter up there, jeff rubinov, lisa macy, joe citizen, ines chapman, dennis brown, lacy rivelin, helen friedman, congressman-elect alan west, pastor o'neill, my friend dick duran, greg, our audio expert.

we need money, please donate, we're a 501c3. da nita and jack and anyone else that i didn't mention, thank you so much for coming to our event. be well, everybody. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> coming up next, reporters discuss investigative journalism. on "q&a" we talk to dan reed about his film "terror in mumbai" and later, newly elected congressman alan west speaks at the annual pro-israel conference. tomorrow, on "washington journal," author and talk show host william bennett on the future of the republican party. bob deans discusses the gulf oil spill in his book "in deep water" and a look at the marketing of organic food with

christine bushway of the organic trade association. "washington journal" begins live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. now, a panel of reporters discuss investigative journalism, harvard's kennedy school of government hosted this discussion in memory of pulitzer prize winning reporter david halberstam, who died in 2007. this is an hour and a half. >> david halberstam was a graduate of harvard, but he was also a significant figure in american journalism in a different sense, he was the beginning of a new kind of american journalism. highly educated, idealistic, committed in a kind of social

way to being a journalist in order to use journalism to tell truths that would have the effect of making this a better place. it's not that journalists in the past, before david halberstam's time were not in many cases rooted in idealism. it was that he was someone who really looked at journalism as a profession for -- that was suitable to a guy who went to harvard. that was very unusual in its time. david halberstam graduated in 1955 and went to the smallest daily newspaper in noips begin his journalism career, covering civil rights, then went to the "national tennessean" and then to "the new york times." in 1962. i want to tell you a story about that because i think it really gets at something that is very much the point of the spirit of

david halberstam and also what journalism, i believe, is really all about. let me take you back. david halberstam went to mississippi to cover civil rights. what he found was a situation that was morally repugnant, but what was really also important was that he found that the enemy was in this particular case often the government. that was a big change. the government, the generations before journalism in the united states, especially during world war ii, had looked at themselves as allies, as partners of journalists. journalists wore uniforms in world war ii. david halberstam and his contemporaries cut their teeth in a world in which they were actively answering back to government power and often criticizing it.

he went to vietnam in 1962 and was in saigon, one of the very few newspaper -- american newspaper or journalist of any kind, full-time in saigon and began sending back reports about what he really saw and what he could learn. this was something that was very, very unhappy to the j.f. kennedy administration, to jack kennedy who was president at that time. while this was happening, at "the new york times" a man named punch salsburger had become publisher in the spring of 1963. he was not supposed to become publisher. he was considered to be much too inexperienced, much to sort of unpolished, he was not a man who was thought to be ready. but nevertheless, his brother-in-law died and he became publisher and he was now in 1963 trying to figure out how

to be publisher and what the pubbish ler of "the new york times," an ex-marine a very patriotic man, but a man who barely got through college, what was he going to do as publisher. he got an invitation in october of 1963 to come to the white house. he knew the and the ledge dare "new york times" bureau chief for washington were invited to come to lunch at the white house. punch was awed and proud. they walk in, there's jack kennedy, using all his power of the white house and everything else to sort of overwhelm this young publisher and he begins immediately to tell punch that he's got to get rid of david halberstam. david halberstam is too close to the story, you've got to replace him, got to withdraw him, got to

get him out of there. it was apparently one of these kinds of lectures. and punch kind of got, you know, a full snoot full of this and basically said, and i'm using the vernacular here, but in effect, he said, mr. president you can go piss up a rope, and he marched out and called david halberstam and canceled his vacation that had been planned because he was afraid it would be interpreted as weekesting to the presidency. scottie reston was so proud of him, he felt this was the moment when punch salsburger came of age. flash forward 30 years. this is important. the fact that the "new york times" backed david effectively made it possible for the a.p. and other news organizations to do the same. they set the tone. the tone was, tell it like it

is. 30 years later, the new yorker magazine is sort of celebrating the pulitzer prize winning vietnam journalists and five of these, peter arnett, david, there were five people who had won pulitzer prizes for their vietnam coverage, went at the end of this day to a restaurant on the upper east side in new york which is kind of a media hangout. to tell war stories and tri-and congratulate each other for living 30 years after vietnam and how great they were, i'm sure there was some of that. and they look and there in the restaurant was punch with a group of people. and david told me this story himself he said i looked over and we talked about it and we realized that what we did could not have been done without punch. and so we wanted to tell him that we appreciated it.

and so the group of them, five pulitzer prize winning vietnam war correspondents sent punch and his table a bottle of dom perignon champagne. my point is this. this is a time of david halbersta mambings, and a time of "the new york times." we are here tonight to talk about journalism as he experienced it, journalism as this group and i, i'm also a journalist, as far as i'm concerned, as we know it and also journalism for a new generation. a generation that is now coming along and facing a different world, a world of its own with its own challenges and difficulties but with the issue of journalism and the pleasures and joys of it very much still the same. i'm going to introduce our distinguished panelist and before i do, i want you to look at a brief clip of david

halberstam talking about journalists. >> it wasn't about being popular. i didn't care whether washington liked me or my editors sometimes who were made nervous. what was important was that my readers, if the v.c. walked into saigon one day, not be surprised. that was my mission. just to let my readers know. and that i was -- and i understood something else, which was that i was intuitively, i was only 28 years old when i went there, i understood that i was heir to a great tradition, that by chance history had catapulted me to a moment where journalism mattered. that there are moments, you know, a lot of stories, terrific story, you have a great time. civil rights movement, journal inch mattered in the civil rights movement because this was a country trying to define

itself for a modern era and coming out of a feudal past. in vietnam it mattered as well because the government was lying. when the government doesn't tell the truth, then the power of journalism goes up. >> we have a dwibbed panel. i want to introduce them and then we're going to have a conversation, first with ourselves and then later we hope with many of you. without further ado, let me introduce our distinguished panel. to your right, far right, is charlie center, editor of globalpost.com, which is a new, and i mean very new, new online international news site that is devoted to international news alone.

charlie comes from a background as a globetrotting correspondent for the "boston globe." he probably would still be there if the "globe" hadn't effectively abolished all its international reporting, which is one of the problems we had today. charlie had the idea that there was interest out there in international stories and he and his partner founded global post and put it together. it's been a for-profit venture, this is something that's been under way for less than two years, it's already won incredible recognition and awards. next to him is martha radak. i think your title is senior foreign correspondent of abc news. she's been a distinguished journalist for many years and spent a lot of that time going to places like iraq and afghanistan and doing the kind

of journalism and reporting that david halberstam represented and loved. she has won awards, one of the ones she won that i suspect means a lot to her is one in the name of daniel pearl. she was "the wall street journal" reporter who was kidnapped by militants and then executed -- assassinated, murdered. he represented the danger and the complexity of the world that journalists who are in these dangerous places face and martha has been nottle on the white house correspondent and senior foreign affairs correspondent for abc, as i say, but she has been all over the world and done the shoe leather kind of reporting that is at the heart of the spirit of david halberstam, i would say. next to me, i know him from my time at "the new york times" and his time as "the new york times," he's an investigative

reporter's investigative reporter he spent his career as an investigative reporter at the "times," at the "argonian" in portland and now he's managing editor of republika, the most watched and admired and worried about nonprofit for investigative journalists. it again is a different model from the other two, it's focused on investigative reporting. he's also won many awards, this is a very distinguished group. i told him before the program began when we were back in the green room, i wanted them to talk briefly before we get into the investigative reporting aspects of this i wanted to do something that journalists don't often do. i wanted them to talk about what it felt like, these are people like david, who have given their entire careers to journalism. david was killed in an automobile accident on his way

to interview someone. that was his life and that was his life right up until the very end of his life. all of these folks have done the same with the time they have had. they have made their careers journalism. i wanted them to talk about very quickly why they became a journalist but more importantly what from their experience, at its best, journalism feels like. what it feels like. charlie? >> there are a couple of different key experiences you have, one is when you know you have that piece of evidence to break open the story. and the other is being in the right place at the right time. you often have to work hard to be in the right place at the right time. the reason i came into journalism, my family had a house painting business and my

older brother has a job at night as a photographer for the "boston herald" a" and i would run his film for him, i wouldn't get very long for this, but for a few minutes, i could neil courtside and watch the celtics. i thought, i always want to be courtside, i want to be a journalist. i think the experience of having done this for the paper i grew up reading, question boston globe" which i love to this day and i always wanted to work there, was to see these great journalists that tradition that david talks about in the clip of feeling heir to something, feeling heir to a really proud legacy of the guys who fought hard to be there and for me, that was really a career of trying to break stories and be there at the right place at the right time, being in afghanistan in 2001, being in iraq in 2003. covering those stories really captured that -- you can't call

it a joy, but i think that david sums it up perfectly when he said it's that moment when history catapults you into a place where journalist mat -- journalism matters. >> do talk about that moment you're describing, when you're doing an interview and someone says something and you know, you know you got them. you know you have the story. >> i worked with ben bradlee at the "boston globe" who was a truly fantastic editor. i remember the glee with which i could call him up -- ben bradlee jr., i could call him up and tell him what i got, covering the big dig, i began going out drinking with a lot of engineers and there was this thing called the 9-a contract that i kept hearing about, i just remember this moment of being with a whole bunch of engineers who were chathing about this thing called the 9-a contract and knowing this is where the story

is because one of them had let slip that there was no way it was going to work, it was going to cost at least $500 million and a screwup. i got the place where i need to go to to find that contract to look at beck tell and the design -- at bechtel and the design specs, and i think that got it is one feeling. i think another one that's equally powerful is the sense that you are in the moment, you're on a story, you've worked hard to get there, and i had that feeling very intensely in afghanistan in 2001, that i had covered what was in al qaeda for eight years from the first world trade center bombing in 1993 when i was a street reporter for "the new york daily news," i was covering it like a cop story, we had a great editor who sent me

to egypt and pakistan and the west bank to follow the suspects. cop reporting. and then you fast forward to that moment of september 11 where you've covered that for eight years as a cop reporter and now you're going to afghanistan to cover what will be the world of change and an ex-troidnary moment for our country and a war -- extraordinary moment for our country and a war that will last a long time. that was that moment for me of history bringing you to a place where journalism matters. >> martha? >> why i got into journalism, this is always embarrassing for me, i wasn't like you, i wasn't looking at people thinking, i want to do that. i really was kind of a loser and i was drinking too much beered on playing too much pool in college and i kind of fell into it. when i fell into it and when i started working at the lowest possible level at a television station, i instantly loved it. and i -- we were talking a

little bit before we came out here, my now 29-year-old daughter worked for a short time after college at a -- at news channel 8 here and she would call and say, you know mom, i don't love -- >> that's a local television. >> it's a local. she wasn't on air, she was writing and she said, the story today was so boring and i thought, you're not cut out for it. i didn't say that, but i said, you know what, i loved every story i covered. and i really did. i think it's this disciplined curiosity that you're telling stories and to me that's the important part of my job. it's what i always say to journalism students. you know what, you can't go on the news and say, this happened, this happened, this happened, you have to tell people why it mattered and be excited about it yourself. a couple of moments for me that were exciting and they're all very different and you talk

about the interview where you say, ok, that's going to make news, i covered -- i traveled with vice president cheney a few years ago, several years ago, and it was a nothing trip, i got thrown in on this trip, i hadn't traveled with the vice president, i don't think the vice president loved having press along anyway, he literally never said hello to us and i can't tell you how tense the interviews are with public figure, whether it's the president, vpt, but you have 20 minutes and they are giving you flash cards. you want to drill down into some subject but if you know you stay on that, and they'd love you to to chew up the time, you won't get what you want to talk to. vice president cheney is sitting there, he's quite the presence, he's looking at me and i said, vice president cheney, 2/3's of americans say the war wasn't

worth fighting. and he looked up at me and said, so? can >> that's a good moment. >> i was honestly just stunned. i know i'm on camera, i know i have to react, and i think i just said, so, does it matter? and that moment became quite the news story for quite a while. those interviews during the time i covered the white house, they were -- the interviews were to me, i guess what i'm proudest of over the years, i've covered the wars, both of them, since they began, sometimes from the pentagon a lot of times overseas, is that during the period when iraq was truly in danger and that the national intelligence estimate said they

were in the midst of a civil war, and the administration was saying, everything is fine. it's going to be a success. everything is going well. now, i know since the surge it's been going better but at this time it was not going well at all. i was traveling there a lot, it was great because i was a white house correspondent but still able to go overseas and then come back and chase the president and remember asking him once if he thought it was a civil war, if he agreed with this national intelligence estimate and he, no kidding, looked at me, he said, it's hard for me to say, living here in this big, beautiful white house, you've been there, i haven't been. that was another time i was stunned. but during that period, day after day, with the administration saying, it's going just fine, but every night the american public being exposed to what was actually happening, i think the american public figured it out.

it didn't mean we went on the air and said, everything is terrible, they're liars, we went on the air every night and said, i'm here and i just got mortared and i just got rocketed and that may be soda straw to you but i talked to a lot of people and here is what they are saying. to me, day after day after day of doing that, and having the american public figure that out and president bush understanding that they needed to change strategy, they needed to do something different, and frankly, that was a pretty courageous move to say, i know everybody is saying get out of there, but i'm going to go and i'm going to double down on this one and send in more troops and certainly the security situation improved dramatically. one tiny little final one, reporters never really get calls in the middle of the night. you know, it's the old fashioned, yeah, sure, you're on the phone all day and they'll

call you when something big happens, no one really ever calls you when something big happens, but when zarqawi was captured in iraq and he was the head of al qaeda in iraq, i got the great phone call at 2:00 in the morning and how that felt for me was, oh, my gosh, not tonight, i'm too tired because i had literally, i was writing a book at the time, i'd worked all day covering the white house, i went home, my head had just hit the pillow at 2:00 a.m., i got a call and the caller said, they got him. and i said, what? they got who? who? calls in the middle of the night are never good, orr they're calling you to do "good morning america" which means you have to get up in two hours, but that was one of those moments that was, i can't believe i got this good story, it was great, the "new york times" wrote about it that we'd got then scoop. it feels good but what feels greatest is telling a story. i love it when people say, hey,

i saw you on tv but they say, i remember that story you did in iraq or that story in afghanistan to me, that's the wonderful, meaningful thing about my job. >> steve? >> i stumbled into this job as well. i showed up at college as a freshman and i knew whats of going to do, tv not journalism, it was -- i was going to be a historian. that's what i was going to do. along the way, i got sidetracked and really sort of totally fell in love with journalism and decided given a choice between writing a kind of very rough history and writing a history where you could ask follow-up questions, i'd rather interview the people i was writing about. but i think it was a deeper thing than that. a little bit of personal background, i'm a first

generation american, my father was a jewish refugee from germany and i think as i've thought about it over the year, the choice of career wasn't so coincidental. i think in my heart, i've always believed that if people only knew the truth, if people had put in their hands the actual facts, the important facts, the things that were being hidden, there would be a different outcome. people talk about the bias in journalist, for my money, most journalists are reformers. they believe the public really will, democracy will make a good decision if only they know, so our job is to communicate that. the story, i can give two very quick examples, i was working at the "new york times" washington bureau in the late 1980's and there was a lot of sort of general speeches saying that the rugs were -- that they were

building chemical weapons and getting support from europe and everybody went, oh well, qaddafi shouldn't have chemical weapons. i asked everybody in washington, i talked to one guy who i knew knew it. i said, give me the name. i said what letter does it start with. i was like, cut the alphabet in half, bun through 13, 14 through 26, where does he sit. i began going everywhere i could, everybody threw me out of their offices. i walked into the office of a guy in the state department who wasn't working on this anymore, but had been working on it, i said, it would be enormously important if people knew this. i said, do you remember the name? he said, it's been a year, i just really can't. let me just think for a minute. there was silence.

i could feel my heart beating. come on, come on. and he said, ok, look, it's a german company and it's something like einhausen. i said, how do you spell that? he guessed, he said, i don't know. i called the "new york times" bureau in berlin, it was christmastime, there was a german kid, good english speaker tom, i said, we're looking for a company that makes pesticides, because that's where the chemical weapons, you make pesticides or chemical weapons. i said they're german. they probably came across hard times financially about five years ago but they're looking pretty good right now and they must have a contract somewhere. about three hours later he called me at home and he said, i think i have something. i said, yeah? what's the name. he said -- i said is it einhausen. he said no, but it's nuhausen.

they have this contract. five years ago they were almost bankrupt, now they're very flush. i said, i think we should call this man who is imhausen. i said you should call him and let's ask him about this. he turned out to be the guy. and his denials were really quite amazing. he even said that he had jewish family and that's why he would never do this to their own people but in fact he had done this. myself and michael gordon broke this story and bill safire wrote a column, the headline sent the german into orbit and created an international sensation, it was all ultimately all true. the headline was auschwitz in the sand. >> how did it feel when you got that word? einhausen.

>> it was an indescribable moment. and the second indescribable moment was when we sat down with the state department with hardly anything and bluffed them into this. i went to this meet my friend michael gordon covered arms control, he said two of the guys i know covered this. we salt down, he said, this is my friend, stephen engelberg, he covers c.i.a. i said, we have the story, it's imhausen, he's the spider in the web, we're trying to fill out what the web. is the guys looked at me and said, did you get a briefing from the c.i.a. about this? i said, i don't discuss my sources. i wouldn't talk about our conversation. at that point -- they said, did you tell me about the state department role. he said -- i said nobody said anything about diplomacy. and they began to lay out

enormous details we knew nothing about, all of which turned out to be true. that was the moment when i thought, oh, my, this is really something. >> it can also be terrifying. i think you guys would agree with that. that moment right before it goes to print or right after you've been on the air and you're like -- i hope this is -- even if you have the most golden of sources, there is a moment when it's absolutely terrifying. >> on that story that moment came because you know, people visualize washington as a place where leaks are handed to you. so finally we get the story nailed down, i have the story sitting in a printout, i went to see a senior advisor in the state department, i said, we have the story. is there anything you'd like to add. he said, no we're taking a hands-off on this thing. the story broke and the germans started off denying it. the state department wouldn't say anything. we went to the state department spokesman and said, you know this is true. he said, you made this mess, you can get out of it.

i thought to myself at this moment, are we sure? is it right? >> the title of this conversation tonight is, in the spirit of david halberstam. i'd like you to talk, steve, why don't you start us. you are managing editor of an or anythingization that was created because a couple in california were willing to endow for at least three years, now more, i think, investigative reporting because the perception was that it was skwlen unionly in jeopardy. when the existence of this was announced, and call went out for people who might be interested, paul stiger, the top editor, former editor of "the wall street journal," said, i remember, i was talking to him

about it here one night, he said, you know, it's very discouraging because we're getting overwhelmed with applications. from very, very good journalists at places like the "los angeles times" and you know -- it was dispiritting because they were prepared to leave jobs like those at the "los angeles times" to come to what is still something that may or may not survive for very long, we just don't know, but was certainly not the platform that "the los angeles tames" at least had been. my question to you is, you are probably the top model of nonprofit journalism right now. what do you see in terms of the likelihood of the survivability of this kind of reporting that you've done, you've spent your life at, that david halberstam embodied? >> first of all, investigative reporters are optimists. you have to believe that if you

keep banging at this locked box it will actually contain something. i'm an optimist. i think in the long, long run, investigative reporting will flourish because i think ultimately what we're seeing in this revolution in the newspaper is that original, unique content is what people want. i think there ultimately will be a commercial argument for finding things out that nobody knows. i certainly hope that's the case. i think you can make a real commercial argument for it. i think in the long run, when we get through this quite ugly transition, there's great hope. the transitional period we're in right now is a very ugly one. >> is your prospect and sort of choice of who you have the ability to hire if you had the money to hire still as overwhelming as it was when propublica was announced? >> it's a little bit less than

it was, and it's interesting. we had 1,300 resumes for 18 jobs. >> the thing about this that mattered, these were jobs paying a living wage that were going to create a newsroom and was going to be in new york and it was going to be something that was genuinely for real. it was not a, you know, a hopeful start yusm it was something that was really going to be well-funded, at least as long as the funded didn't get mad. >> so far, so good. i will say the one arena where it changed a little bit, it is interesting, it does reflect a business model issue, in the world of financial journalists right now, when we're competing with reuters and "wall street journal" and bloomberg, all of which in different ways are very, very well funded, we're always below offer. by a mile. and we've still managed to get

some people in the financial world. but i would say financial journalism is probably a little bit healthier, but that's because bloomberg and reuters are charging companies for information as well as producing journalism. >> martha, you're from the world of traditional media. commercial media, for-profit media, media that is, you know, in many ways in danger, abc as a network may not be abc news, who knows. i don't know. i'm asking you. when you were talking -- did david halberstam represented the beginning of a generational change. he talked about the great tradition that he was sort of part of. but i would say that he and his generation established a tradition, one that was willing to take on government in a way that had not been generally true of the commercial mainstream media in the past. we're members of that succeeding

generation and the folks from the crimson and other students here a tonight are people who represent yet another generation. what do you think abc news has to say to a generation that's coming on, if they're interested in careers in investigative reporting, for instance? >> for instance, abc news has an investigative unit which is great. and really all the networks do at this point. i think one of the things the networks realize is if you don't have an investigative unit, you're really not a real news organization. that really defines you, it helps define news organization, that they'll put that kind of money into investigative units. one of the things about, owe all know well about investigative reporting, sometimes it doesn't pan out. you may have just invested a whole lot of money and time into something that didn't happen that you didn't find out what you thought you might find out. there was no villain, there was

no one doing anything wrong or at least that's what you found out. i think everybody in journalism today is worried because we're in this incredible transition. as far as the -- and i can't tell you how many younger people come all to me and say, i want to a foreign correspondent just like you. >> have them call global post. >> i will, i will. i love that the pee apeel is still there. i love that someone can look at what i do or what charlie does and say, and all his junge, fabulous staff who i've run into overseas all the time and they always ask the best question, they really do, because they live there, so they really know what to ask. but i think to me, the networks offer, in all the white noise and in all the journalism that's out there, i think it's more

difficult for people to figure out where to turn. maybe it's my yen ration, but i think it's difficult to figure out what's important. even if you go to "the new york times" on the internet, we, if we have the paper in front of us, and i'm doing that less and less, quite frankly and reading it more and more on the internet, but in the old days, that story on the right is the most important story you should read. when i told my children growing up that they -- all they had to do was read the first paragraph of every story except one on the front page and they had to read the whole thing, it didn't work out well but i tried, but that story on the right was the story that was the most important. i look at the internet at night, one hour it's this, the next hour it's that, the next hour it's that. i worry about that for a generation that doesn't quite know what's important, doesn't quite know what the vegetables are and that there's so many

choices. trust me, i go on our website, i'm reading about lindsay lohan, too. and i don't want to say that people don't. there's so many stories to tell and some of them are entertainment stories, some of them are foreign policy stories, some of them are political story, you need a little bit of all of them. we have eight million viewers every night and that's a pretty astonishing number still. that may decrease -- decrease dramatically as other media increases, but the net rorks -- networks are one of the last bastions where what everyone says about main street media, i think it's the most objective news you can get on television, you can tune in, watch world news or brian williams' show and you get 22 minutes of the day's news. there are very few places you can go in that economy of time to get the day's news. and that's what i hope to stay

with. i know sometimes the networks think, we have to do a different model, we're losing viewers, but i think to me, the most attractive thing about what we do is that we present what happened on a daily basis on those programs. we, you know, we're scoring all kinds of, we have this cool ipad globe you can spin and find stories and you can find ar dived stories and all that, i do that all the time too and look at that, but boy if i miss the evening news i look at all of them when i get home, just spinning through, i think you're missing out on being a citizen. you're really not informing yourself. and i really worry about that. i worry about that there's a generation that doesn't know what the important stuff is. and that you're losing a professional class that has invested their lives in figuring out what the important stuff is. that's not meant to sound arrogant, that, oh, i know this is what you should read, but we do this for a living and we try

to interest people and -- in what is important. >> you represent another model still a startup model, but it is a for-profit startup model an it's focused on news. there are a lot of web startups but very few that are as ambitious or sort of serious-minded as global post. talk about what the conviction and the optimism was that inspired global post and what it is now. >> global post starts as a split screen here in boston. i have been working at the "boston globe," i've had a scholarship, i've come off 10 years as a forbe correspondent, i feel like i've reach that

moment where this work really matters. it's that moment at which the "boston globe" pulls the plug on its foreign operation and decides they're no longer going to have any international news. i'm feeling very sad about this great institution that i love, i know the people who had to make the decisions are sad too but something is going to have to be born out of this. so i think -- i going do what age lot of journalists would do, to think about starting a not-for-profit. because those of us, i think i have a real entrepreneurial streak but i don't have that business skill. i'm thinking, i would love to get $30 million, i would love to get a huge grant, i know i could pull the team together, where can i get the money? i started with a not-for-profit model. i am doing this while my four sons are pounding above me on me floor boards in my basement office, i'm thinking, i can't leave the "boston globe" unless

i have funding, and i learned it's hard to build a not-for-profit, very difficult. at just about the moment i'm approaching despair, i come see you and others, i was putting together a -- an advisory board and several you you mentioned i might want to talk to someone else in town here, who has another model, a for-profit model, phil balboni, founder of new england cable news. martha's old boss. really had a business plan of how he felt he could do this. and it made a lot of sense to me. he shared it with me. i think he saw in me someone who had the contacts and network to build that team. we shared and editorial vision of what we wanted it to be. we were right in sync. and he invited me to come in with him as a co-founder. he had lined up a lot of investment and we were table go forward and do this startup

system of that was 2008, i left the "boston globe" on st. patrick's day in 2008, we launched global post in january of twine. we launched with zero traffic. we're now getting past a big milestone of a million uniques per month, which is how you do the metric on the web. so that's a million people who every month come to our site. and there's a great, engaged audience there. we have now about 65 correspondents on contract in about 50 countries. we have about 100 correspondents in total who are writing for us all the time. they are all over the world, they are a mix of really young people getting their first shot at being a foreign correspondent, they are mid career veterans who find themselves crash thoined rocks of the crash of establishment journalism, and they are also

wonderful veterans who have been around a long time like david greenway who writes a column for us. david goes from -- goes to fallujah and he's going to afghanistan next month. we have some people with 20 years of experience, some with two years. we have this team, it's a little bit like herding cats, they're all over the place. i think what binds them together is a sense of that tradition that david halberstam talked about. halberstam was part of something that i don't think -- i'm sad to say no longer exists. the idea that you can start at a small paper in the deep south covering an important story on a local level and then you get to "the tennessean" and then you get your big shot at the big city paper. that's what i did. i covered hudson county, jersey city, i looked a