- Hello, we're here today with Daniel Aschheim.

He's Deputy Consul General at the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest based out of Chicago.

Dr. Aschheim, welcome to Peoria.

We're glad to have you here.

- Thank you very much.

Glad to be here.

Second time in a few months.

Feels like home.

- Oh good.

We'll come back again.

So don't be a stranger.

We'd like to begin here on something of a parochial note, which is that Peoria and Israel have had a long-standing relationship really going back to the very beginning of the Jewish state and continuing to the president through the Jewish Federation of Peoria.

But I was hoping you could tell us a little bit about the person primarily responsible for that, which is Peorian Sam Rothberg and what he did in Israel, what he did for Israel, and what he's meant and continues to mean to the nation today.

- You know, it's actually a very interesting story.

When I visited last time, a few months ago in March, I was here in Peoria, and they told me, "You know, Sam Rothberg, he's from Peoria."

I said, what do you mean he's from Peoria?

He's a well-known person and I never heard the connection to Illinois.

I'm here for two years.

I have to investigate this connection.

And when I came back to Reed, I saw Sam Rothberg.

I studied in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

My wife studied at the Rothberg School of International Studies in Jerusalem.

And Sam Rothberg, who was actually born in Ukraine, but in a very young age, came to the US and moved with his career to Peoria.

He had a very interesting relationship actually to Israel that started in his visit in 1947 to Europe.

He came back to Europe to see the concentration camps, to see the death camps that the people that were thrown out of their homes, these place camps in Europe and he was completely shocked.

And this by the way, is the year my mother was born in one of these camps in Germany in the displaced camps.

And she at the age of two, she came to Israel.

But this is the time that he had this revolution revelation that he said, "Israel is one of the most important goals in this world."

So Israel was established 1948 and he was one of the co-founders of Israel Bonds in 1951.

- Correct, yeah.

Which raised billions.

- Billions of dollars until today.

This is one of the most important foundation of the Jewish state that was founded after the Holocaust.

And he tied his life between Peoria and Israel, between supporting Zionism, supporting American Israel relationship, but building the new state of Israel, whether it's connected to higher education.

Eventually, he was the head of the board, international board of the Hebrew University.

He supported culture.

He supported economic trade between the country.

He supported the deep foundation that connect us.

And knowing that he's from here from Central Illinois, from Peoria, bringing these connections together, I think is a wonderful thing and being here today to commemorate him is very, very important and hopefully, more people also here will know how important this person was and still is for Israel.

So one of the things you'll learn here is that Peoria is the hub of the universe.

And so it's true when Mr. Rothberg, excuse me, when Sam died in 2007, I was with the local newspaper and I wrote a story about him and he was not anonymous here, he was very involved in civic activities, but he was front page news in Israel, right?

And so anyway, it's just really a fascinating story and Mr. Rothberg was quite the person.

I had one of your predecessors at the consulate once told me that the view of the Middle East looks very different from the banks of the Jordan than it does from the banks of the Illinois River.

And so I was curious if you could update us on how that picture looks today, how things are going, how you would characterize the state of relations with Israel's neighbors at the moment and go right ahead.

- I think it's great timing because this week, we commemorate two years for the historical Abraham Accords that the United States pushed for, they sponsored.

These are historic peace agreements between Israel, the UAE, Dubai, Bahrain, Morocco.

This is a game changer.

So we are celebrating peace.

I just wanna give you an example what it means.

2017, I went with my wife Elisa on a honeymoon, and we decided to go to a place which is exotic and interesting.

The problem was that it was not allowed for Israeli citizens to go there.

We wanted to go to Abu Dhabi in Dubai.

- [Mike] Okay.

- And it says Israelis are not allowed.

We found, we came with the European passports, we visited, but it was not a great feeling to come to the airport and it says Israelis are not allowed to enter.

I'm fast-forwarding to 2021-2022, we have daily direct flights from Israel to all of these capitals.

We have ministers coming from Israel to these places and ministers coming to Israel, signing security agreements, economic agreements, cultural agreements, higher education agreements, environmental agreements, agricultural agreements.

This is a game changer.

We have hotels with Israelis singers coming to Kosher hotels in Dubai.

- Yeah.

- It's the game changer and the world is experiencing today.

We are celebrating tomorrow, commemorating two years to this.

And we are seeing more and more countries join the circle of peace.

And we hope and we pray that more and more will come and join this peace effort.

- So you think there's a historic shift that more nations that wants to not but are now recognizing Israel's right to exist.

- Not only recognizing the rights to exist, but we are talking about deep, warm friendship and peace.

- [Mike] Okay.

- We are talking about economic and culture and people to people, not only leadership to leadership and this is really historical change.

- Yeah.

- These were countries that never spoke to Israel.

It was a taboo to have relationship and suddenly the borders are open, direct flights, deepest levels of coordination.

And this is really a change.

- Wow, that's walk of news.

Good news.

- On the other hand though, this is great news.

- Yeah.

- On the other hand, we see the less good news coming from Iran that are operating their proxies and are continuing to develop nuclear weapons.

And we need to be, we as the western world, United States, Europe, Israel need to be very firm not to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and to stop their nation terrorism around the world.

- Well, I wanna get into that, but I also wanted to ask you sort of conversely, you know, ask you what's the view, how are things going?

How are things looking in Israel?

But conversely, what's the view of the United States from Israel 6,000 miles away and how are we perceived these days?

- America is the best friend Israel has, it will remain the best friend, and this relationship that every Israeli knows when you are born, whether it's culturally, whether it's politically, whether it's fundamentally, everyone knows that America and Israel are the closest allies in the world and this is based on share interests, share values, but also really the relationship the people have with each other.

Israelis visit the United States, its number one destination, even though it's far away from Israel.

- Sure.

- It's 12-hour flight, 10-hour flight, number one destination.

We have Americans visiting Jewish and non-Jewish every year.

And the relationship are growing, whether building more and more partnerships, whether clean energy or security or culture.

These relationship are getting stronger and Israelis see it and acknowledge and regardless with which administration, whether it's Republican or Democrat, liberal or progressive or conservative, we and America will continue to be best friends and I think everyone knows it in Israel.

- Yeah, how big is the American Jewish population?

Do you know?

- The American, we're talking about five, five and a half million people.

- Okay, okay.

I was gonna ask you, so what issues here are of most interest to the Israeli people?

And obviously we've got an upcoming election as do you but you brought up that resuscitated nuclear deal with Iran.

Obviously, there are even differences of opinion on that issue here in the United States.

What's the most important thing that needs to come out of that agreement as far as Israel is concerned?

- Look, it's a very good question.

And the answer to this is pretty simple even though it's not a simple topic.

It's a very complex and deep topic but the answer is we need to make sure, we the western world to guarantee that Iran will never ever acquire nuclear weapons.

President Biden acknowledged that.

He said it to Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Israel.

"We'll do everything possible.

We guarantee that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons."

And this is the end goal.

And in order to do so, if an agreement is signed, it has to be a much stronger and much longer agreement than the previous one, which was not a good deal.

And we saw that Iran is continuing to go towards acquiring nuclear weapons but not only that.

They're equipping and they're sending proxies, terrorists all around the world to kill civilians, to harm states, and to destabilize the Middle East and the world.

And we have to guarantee that there is a credible military threats on Iran in order for them to come back to the negotiation table but being genuine about it.

- Right.

- And not tricking the world in order to gain time and while we sit and negotiate, they're continuing with the bomb.

- Sure, okay.

So what can Americans expect from your new prime minister, Yair Lapid?

- Prime Minister Yair Lapid who is actually coming to the United States very soon for the United Nations Convention, he is very firm about what we've mentioned before about Iran.

He's a leader of the Yesh Atid Party who's also running now, so we have another election.

So we'll see if he stays longer or if there's a replacement.

We are going on to vote once again this November.

- Yeah.

- And he has support for his talks publicly about the need to find a solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- The need to stop Iran from its terrorists activities and acquire nuclear weapons.

He works very hard on building more and more relationship to make them even stronger.

- Yeah.

- The American Israel bond and relationship and also with other Arab countries.

- [Mike] Right.

- To expand the peace circle, not only with the Palestinians but with also other countries and make sure that everyone in the world understand that Israel is a lighthouse of morality and a powerhouse also in terms of economy.

- [Mike] Right, and he's a centrist, correct, as I understand.

- He's a centrist, centrist yes.

- Yeah, yeah.

So as I mentioned, you have an election of your own coming up and I see Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party are back in the picture.

So what are the big policy issues that are being debated in Israel right now and the differences between the candidates?

And obviously we've gotten to know Mr. Netanyahu pretty well over the last few decades.

- Right.

- And he's not a shy guy.

- Shy guy, he ain't, no.

(Mike laughing) - [Mike] So what are the difference between them?

What are the big issues in this election?

- So I think what we're seeing in Israeli politics today, similar to certain things, the certain trends we see in other countries, so it's becoming less of ideological gaps, but more personality.

So who do you wanna see as prime minister?

What values, yes, but who is the person you want to see?

So there are really camps in Israel, those who want to see Prime Minister Netanyahu return and those who do not wanna see - Sure.

- Prime Minister Netanyahu return and the polls show it's very hard to determine which camp is larger.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- And in terms of policy, yes, there are differences in policies vis-a-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which solution should be the best one for to handle, whether it's the two-state solution, whether it's a one state, whether it's annexation.

So everyone has a different perspective regarding that.

We have economic differences but they are not critical in the elections.

Even though economy is in the center of these elections, the cost of living, we're also seeing what should be the solution to the issues between the secular, ultra-Orthodox, and religious in Israel, education system reforms and more.

So I think these are the main topics and also security, law and order, what's considered here also in Israel in certain places.

- Interesting, yeah.

Well, you brought up the economy and so I have to ask you about that because that's on everyone's mind here as well.

So you're a high-tech powerhouse on Parva Silicon Valley, second largest number of startup companies in the world, I understand, just behind the United States, third largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

Inflation is up in Israel but not like it is here.

So I guess my question would be, how's it going from your perspective?

Any concerns moving forward?

Any opportunities for economic collaborations in Peoria?

- Thank you for asking.

(Mike laughing) - [Mike] We can always use.

- You can continue.

- We can use investment and jobs, always use that.

- I'll actually start with the last part of your question - Yeah.

- because being here in Central Illinois shows the importance of this relationship.

What you have here, the Ag lab, we see innovation coming from Peoria, innovation coming from Bloomington-Normal.

We see things coming from Morton.

All this area here, a lot of agricultural technologies.

We see opportunities here for Israeli companies that are working on AgTech, food tech, food security.

And a lot of these fields that we have the added value of Central Illinois, whether it's the cornfields or it's connected to the technology people here are the assets.

- Right.

- People in Israel are the assets.

So it's not natural resources, it's the human resource.

- Yeah.

- And I think the combination between the human resource we see in Peoria and in Central Illinois and the human resource we see coming with so much entrepreneurship, so much innovation, this is the key.

The spirit is the key to success.

- [Mike] Sure.

- And this is how I predict and we predict that there's a lot of place for opportunity.

That's why last time I visited, I met the economic council of Peoria to discuss it.

I saw the beautiful museum, Waterfront Museum.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- I visited other places here to see, met the World Council of Peoria to discuss how we can advance these corporations.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- And hopefully we'll see more.

- Yeah, we need a hook up Hebrew University and Bradley University.

- Definitely, higher education for sure, there's nothing better than that.

He was a supporter we had.

- That's right.

He was on the board of both.

- Rothberg in the board of both.

So it's just a natural connection.

- [Mike] That's right.

So I didn't mean to interrupt.

Go right ahead.

- No, not at all.

- Yeah.

- So when we're talking about economy, economy, as you mentioned before, Israel is a huge success story in terms of being such a small country, we have altogether 9 million people.

Israel is the size of New Jersey, tiny country, and yet it became a powerhouse, a startup nation of the world.

Not only the startup but it's also the social impact nation of the world.

So a lot of the technologies go for physical things but a lot of them are changing the world, are fighting hunger in the world, help accessibility rights in the world, help people who are blind see again through pills.

- Sure.

- We have a lot of different things that are coming from Israel and we like to share that knowledge with the world.

And we are seeing a lot of growth.

So while the pandemic came, Israel was the country from the western world with the highest levels of growth, economic growth, despite the pandemic.

And we see that's one of the reasons why the inflations rates are going higher but lower than the Western world.

- Right.

- Nevertheless, you asked about challenges.

There is a challenge and the biggest challenge is the cost of living and the wages.

So how do we make sure that the younger generation, my generation, has the capacity, ability to buy houses, - Sure.

- and build their life in Israel by earning in the right way?

So these are the discussions, how to open the market more, lower the prices.

These are the biggest challenges we need to face.

- Wow.

- Not terribly different here.

(Mike laughing) - [Daniel] Not terribly different.

- So what brings you here today is that we're having a panel discussion later on.

You'll be participating in that about the Holocaust and the new documentary from Ken Burns.

And never forget has been the mantra and rightly so with regard to the Holocaust.

But we're now 80 years and a few generations removed from the Holocaust.

And so I guess my question is, how is that era, which of course is defining in Israel?

How is it viewed by the youth of your nation today?

How are you keeping these memories alive 'cause there's always a danger that you're removed from it and you forget and those who forget history are condemned to relive it, right?

- Definitely, your point is very valid not only for Israeli youth but I think for the world's youth, whether American, European, Australian, or African youth.

The lesson of the Holocaust, the particular and universal message, A, the particular message for the Jewish people will never let anyone else do that again not to us and not to anyone else.

Therefore, Jewish strong, independent state is vital state of Israel.

And the universal message, make sure no atrocities such as the holocausts will ever happen to anyone in the world.

- Right.

- These two messages need to come together.

And it's our responsibility to ensure that the younger generations care about it and understand you don't meet anymore.

It's much harder to meet first degree Holocaust survivors - Sure.

- who will share their story.

I still had that chance and had that opportunity, but unfortunately the age makes it more challenging and we see less and less.

And therefore, it's our responsibility to make sure that these younger generations don't see it again as one item in the history book.

- [Mike] Sure.

- Like we see many other historical events.

For us, we read about World War I.

We hear tens of millions of casualties and you read it and you just pass to the next historical moment.

- Yeah.

- And that's also not fair.

- Yeah.

- And we have to make sure that the Holocaust remains something that is relevant for everyone and the message and lessons are relevant today.

We need to talk about it, we need to learn about it, we need to learn from it.

We need to see what we can do for the sake of humanity to make our world a better place to remember, never forget, and be active to make sure that everyone understands what racism, what anti-Semitism, what bigotry does, and what are the harms and we see today the rising levels of anti-Semitism here in the Midwest.

Here in the United States, we have to be clear about it.

Racism, anti-Semitism come together.

They hate crimes.

They need to be not only condemned but condemned in the most deepest way possible.

Education level, policing level, and political level.

- To what do you attribute the rise in anti-Semitism?

I mean, what's behind all this?

And I guess what's the best way to counteract it?

- Yeah, good questions.

Again, these are points that we are discussing with our friends here with our supporters.

We see there are three kinds of anti-Semitism that we see.

The ones that come from the right, which are coming from White supremacists, that's the more old-fashioned, I would say, anti-Semitism we see coming from the left that are often connecting Israel hatreds saying that we are not against Jews but we are against Israel but by that being anti-Semite.

When you're against the state fundamental legitimacy of the only Jewish state, you are also crossing the thin line between legitimate criticism and anti-Semitism.

- Right.

- And we also see the Islamophobic, the Islam, sorry, the anti-Semitism coming from the Muslim community, - Sure.

- certain wings of it.

- Sure.

- And these three are both dangerous, all of them are dangerous, and we have to fight them in different methods.

So by giving legitimization for one kind, we are making this problem a bigger one.

And this problem is not a Jewish community problem.

- Right.

- It's a United States problem and it's all of our people, the viewers, the listeners, you, me, it's our responsibility to fight it again through education, through policing from bottom up and top down.

- An old editor once told me and was really wise advice and I took it and it's been born out, which is never predict the future.

But at the risk of that, I wanted to ask you, do you think another Holocaust, a Holocaust of that scale can happen again?

- So I will use what you said before.

- Yeah.

- I never predict the future.

What I know is it's our responsibility not to allow it to happen again.

So we need to make sure, again, the Jewish state needs to be the strong, independent Jewish state to protect Jews all over the world and be for the sake of the world, for the sake of humanity, we need to protect it morally and make sure we know that it's my responsibility, my neighbor's responsibility, my friends, my children, my community to make sure it'll never, ever happen again.

- Sure.

- Not to the Jews and not to anyone else.

- Yeah, I wanna return to where we started a little bit and how do you think Sam Rothberg would view or how do you hope he would view the state of Israel's relationship today with the world, with America, with Peoria?

- I think you'd be very proud.

- Yeah.

- I think you'd be very proud of what he achieved.

What he achieved in the field of higher education, what he built in the Hebrew University.

We have thousands of students coming from all around the world, 130 countries coming to study in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, the school named on his name.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- And I think the connections that he built, the strong state of Israel that he helped form directly is thriving today.

We talked about the economy but it's not only the economy, it's also a lighthouse of morality, of social impact, what we mentioned before.

And I think he would be very proud of that.

He would be very proud of the relationship that was formed between Israel and America, the relationship between Israel and the other states around the world, and I think I'll just share with you.

So before coming here, I served two years in West Africa.

- Yeah.

- I was deputy ambassador in Senegal, Muslim country.

And what Israel does there with 130 countries around the world working on international development, sharing the Israeli know-how to help the world.

This was formed in Israel in 1951, the year that Rothberg founded the bonds.

- Yeah.

- That was the year Israel started its international development agency when Israel itself was a developing country.

It's the only example in the world of a developing country open and helping wing for other countries around the world.

- Sure.

- So I think he would be very proud of that and he would be also proud that we are here today speaking about him in Peoria which Israeli represented.

- Yeah, yeah, that's great.

I do wanna revisit something you just brought up, and you draw a distinction between anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and legitimate Christianism of Israel.

What are those distinctions in your view?

How are they different?

- Thank you for asking because often we see people not exactly knowing when are they crossing the line or when do their friends cross or when some of they here.

I'll try and simplify and not simple issue.

- [Mike] Yeah, yeah.

- Having criticism on a certain policy of an Israeli government, whether relating to minorities, relating to borders is legitimate.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- It's not legitimate undermining the existence of the state of Israel.

No other country in the world needs to face panels in distinguished by distinguished scholars in high level education facilities whether the state should exist or not.

There are no panel discussions on whether North Korea should exist or not, and good, there is criticism on certain policies, but the fundamental question, should Israel exist or not, is already crossing this border.

And this border when you undermine the legitimacy is also undermining the legitimacy of the Jewish people for their statehood and then that becomes anti-Semitism.

And it's often crossed and people say, some of my best friends are Jews, but I'm not against the Jews, I'm against Israel.

- Right.

- I'm against Zionism.

- Right.

- But that is being against the Jews.

- I just wanna thank you for doing this.

This has been really great fun for us here in Peoria.

And I see always a lot of news going back and forth.

I see this week the United States returned a silver shekel coin, right, a quarter.

It's 2,000 years old.

It goes back to David and Goliath, right?

- Yeah, I'll take it, maybe a house with it.

(Mike laughing) - So anyway, so we're returning that quarter and like I said, we invite you back to collaborate with us economically.

We could use all of that.

And so again, I thank you Dr. Aschheim.

It's great to have you in Peoria and we'll continue this discussion later.

Thank you.

- Thank you very much for having me.

Thank you.