AMA – War, Winning and Clear Thinking in Dark Times – The Hammas Terror Attacks in Israel | Elite Performance Podcast #37

00:00:00:13 - 00:00:25:22
Itamar Marani
Today's podcast is going to be different than what we usually do. Following this week's brutal terror attacks from the Hamas organization on a thousand plus civilians in Israel and having over 150 Israelis kidnaped women, children, elderly. Into the Gaza Strip, a lot of people have reached out. They've asked me questions. Anything from why did this happen? How is this escalated?

00:00:25:22 - 00:00:48:01
Itamar Marani
Wars is going next. How are you dealing with it? And so on. So for my audience, I did a name earlier today. I first read a statement explaining my situation, my personal involvement with this. What's going on with me? Then we did a workshop on how to be at your best during these kind of dark hours. Not as relevant for this crisis, but in general, for dark hours when there's chaos, how you can be at your best.

00:00:48:07 - 00:01:12:11
Itamar Marani
And we ended it with an AMA where people asked all the questions they wanted to. Uncomfortable ones. How long will this last? Why is this happening? What's another side? So that will be today's podcast. We're going to share that recording. Also throughout the podcast I mentioned several times there are links if you want to make a donation to help the survivors of these atrocities to help people rebuild from the ashes. Those links you can find in the show notes below. So from that, let's get started.

00:01:12:14 - 00:01:34:08
Itamar Marani
Welcome to the Emotional Fortitude Podcast. How to Build the Emotional Fortitude to Win in Life and in Business. No fluff, just real world results. I'm your host, Itamar Maroni, Israeli Special Forces, former undercover agent, Jitsu, Black Belt and Mindset Expert.

00:01:37:10 - 00:02:04:01
Itamar Marani
Good morning. Good evening and good afternoon. Everyone is joining. So first off, appreciate everyone being here. The way we're going to do this is going to be pretty straightforward. I'm going to read what I wrote the previous week. I think it was Monday. And then on top of that, I'm just going to add some new things that have occurred, how things have transpired.

00:02:05:11 - 00:02:29:01
Itamar Marani
From there, I'm going to go with you guys into the workshop. Also going understand how I'm dealing with it, how people are dealing with what's the best way to deal with these kind of situations in general, not just this specific crisis. And then we'll open it up to General and Amy with Amy, ask as hard of questions as you want, as difficult and uncomfortable questions as you want about whatever side of the conflict that you want.

00:02:29:19 - 00:03:07:04
Itamar Marani
Do it in whichever way you want, as long as it's respectful, like I'm describing zero-tolerance policy, like anyone just trying to start a fight, everyone's just trying to vent their emotions or make statements. This is not the place for that. It's not good. So I'm going to reread a couple updates. So war has entered our home over the past week in Israel, 1200 innocent civilians were butchered in their homes by Hamas terrorists, and over 150 soldiers and innocent women and children and elderly civilians have been abducted by the terrorist group Hamas into Gaza.

00:03:08:01 - 00:03:29:04
Itamar Marani
The first 36 hours were the crucial incident. It is the biggest failure in Israeli intelligence since the Yom Kippur War of 1973. On a personal note, all my immediate family are safe. I also know many of the stories that have popped up since then of people, the murders and of people that have been abducted into Gaza. To put it simply, guys, these are not scenes of war.

00:03:30:04 - 00:03:57:17
Itamar Marani
Yes. And war. Innocent women and children die. It's a horrific side effect of the chaos of war. But innocent women and children are personally targeted, tortured, disfigured, abducted and butchered and filmed the laughing crowd alongside them. That's how a side effect of war babies aren't beheaded and burned. The videos, the videos that circulated went far beyond the horrors of war.

00:03:57:24 - 00:04:18:16
Itamar Marani
They were in line with what you expected to see during the Holocaust. Civilians in the pictures that I personally just thinking about are not just the bodies and the soldiers of innocent women being mutilated but abducted innocent babies. The two and four year old children who are being fucked with kids who I can see have the same kind of innocence in their eyes.

00:04:18:16 - 00:04:43:05
Itamar Marani
My three year old son. But it's a boy. They live with this fear and confusion that the children have. There is nothing more. I would like to go and try to help them bring back by hunting and killing the barbarians responsible for this. And Sunday and Saturday were spent on the phone with my friends, both from our own Special Forces unit and from my time, the agency.

00:04:43:17 - 00:05:01:15
Itamar Marani
And with airlines. The bottom line was I couldn't find a flight back to Israel before basically today, which was also canceled. And the reality situation that I've been told by everyone on the ground is that even if I was there, I won't get priority to get drafted into reserve duty living out of the country. I haven't done reserve duty in a long time.

00:05:01:23 - 00:05:23:21
Itamar Marani
And during the first and second wave of reserve call ups, regardless of my background or willingness or desire to fight others who are slated as both more active or of a higher ranking officers and more recently trained will get priority, which is frustrating but is the right thing. People are trying to volunteer and join the fight all across the country and the military simply can't take everyone in right now.

00:05:23:21 - 00:05:53:18
Itamar Marani
And there's great. I personally feel tremendous guilt and shame about not being there. War and especially unexpected war like this is chaos. It's devastating to me that I both can't get into the country and knowing that even if I was there, I wouldn't be given arms to fight. In this round of the war. I have emotions these days that I struggle not to channel in to controlled violence, and it's difficult and heartbreaking to feel so powerless in this situation.

00:05:54:20 - 00:06:19:23
Itamar Marani
But regardless of all that, I know that the IDF is going to win, that Israel is going to win. This was a Pearl Harbor moment for Israel. And what's going to happen next in Gaza will be of the same proportion later on in this conflict, in this war. People will judge Israel for what it's going to do. All those who haven't felt it will forget about atrocities.

00:06:19:23 - 00:06:44:01
Itamar Marani
They'll forget about the babies being beheaded, and they will judge us for the actions that we deem necessary to ensure that that never happens again. But in the later days of the war, when it's clear that we will have extreme upper hand and we're not taking our foot off the throttle while asking that people remember the massacre, why this whole thing started, and why there's a need for what Israel is doing.

00:06:45:12 - 00:07:11:09
Itamar Marani
The USA in both the EU recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization straight through it has declared over the decades it does not want to talk about peace under any condition whatsoever in its blatant terms, does not want to talk about peace whatsoever and just wants to kill the Jews. That's in their manifesto. Like when the war turned and already has turned, as everyone can see.

00:07:12:06 - 00:07:40:17
Itamar Marani
Remember that we enter this war with a heavy heart and a clear need to make sure this doesn't happen again. We have no desire to have innocent people die in the crossfire. However, we are absolutely not willing to let innocent women, children and our elderly be brutally slaughtered, mutilated in their homes. We are not willing to have our baby spearheaded and burned in war, has entered our home and caught us by surprise.

00:07:41:07 - 00:07:54:09
Itamar Marani
But it will find us, and it has gotten us ready to do whatever it takes. And all I ask in the later days that you remember why this all started and why there's a need to keep this going. This can't happen again.

00:07:56:15 - 00:08:14:22
Itamar Marani
On a personal note, I felt very lost this weekend about not being able to join the fight. It's what I am trying to do. It's what I know how to do. And with all the the fear of going into war and leaving my wife and son behind and not knowing that I would be back or not, it's what I wanted to do.

00:08:16:07 - 00:08:40:05
Itamar Marani
And sitting on the sidelines knowing that I can't help is very difficult. With that said, this is going to be a long war. It's already impacted countless families who will need support. They will need help to rebuild themselves. So with a lot of frustration that you're asking to hear my voice and a lot of hardship and a lot of fear, exhausted, like some shame, guilt, I'm forcing myself to keep a very pragmatic approach about this.

00:08:41:02 - 00:09:00:07
Itamar Marani
I don't need more money. In the past 48 hours, in the past week than I have in my entire life. And I'm not going to give myself permission to think that fighting, even though it's the thing that comes to me the most easily, naturally these days, is my only way to contribute. On a personal level, I was planning a lot of big things for Q4 in the business.

00:09:01:11 - 00:09:32:23
Itamar Marani
And regardless of whatever feelings I have right now in frustration, I'm going to keep pushing on with them. There's a time for emotions and for digesting what happened. But that time is not now. People are in need and I'm going to do as best I can to focus, to compartmentalize and whatever and do whatever is required of what I can do with this new skill of mine that I have in business to financially help those who need help, those who have suffered to rise from the ashes as it feels embarrassing and shameful.

00:09:32:23 - 00:09:51:19
Itamar Marani
And I'm full of guilt for not actually being there in the field. And they've been relegated to this financial support role from abroad. But I'm not going to let those feelings distract me or being abused like on the business level. We're going to do bigger and better things this quarter because there's a bigger reason why people need help.

00:09:52:15 - 00:10:17:13
Itamar Marani
And what is not going to help is me feeling frustrated or putting my head down or feeling guilty. But what might is perhaps the financial contribution of them, the we're not going to sit with our hands, with our faces in our hands. We're going to do what we can do and however we can and we want. And we're not going to win this this war against Hamas.

00:10:17:13 - 00:10:42:07
Itamar Marani
But this bigger fight of helping all of the people that have been affected and the country rise from the atrocities to help them rise from the ashes. And that's my situation. I have seen a lot of my friends friends die. Everybody at least their second connection level, so to speak, knowing someone who affected by this. Israel is a small country.

00:10:43:23 - 00:11:16:06
Itamar Marani
Some of my teammates are inside reserve duty. I don't know what's going on with them and that's basically my personal update. So with that, before I actually start the official kind of workshop part, I want to ask if anybody has any questions around what I just said before, the general questions about this whole situation. All right. So, see, there's nothing in the chat, so I'm going to go ahead and start share my screen.

00:11:18:00 - 00:11:44:01
Itamar Marani
This is the workshop I created for a lot of the people in around the world that are try to contribute and help during this time and how to deal with it. And it's basically beyond just the situation. It's how to have a winning mindset during times of extreme crisis. And my hope of this is that because this is such an emotional time and also I'm sure that you guys can all hear that I'm having an emotional, challenging time.

00:11:44:16 - 00:11:49:21
Itamar Marani
This will get serious and this could help you guys perhaps in years and decades to come.

00:11:51:21 - 00:12:11:24
Itamar Marani
So what's going on? Like kind of what I read from the letter. But Israel got caught wildly off guard. It was a complete a show, which I'm happy to explain why it happened, but I think it happened. There's been a terrorist attack on both women and children early on, first saying it's not a war, it's not a soldier rest shoulder.

00:12:12:10 - 00:12:46:02
Itamar Marani
This is different. This is needs to be updated. As of thousand 200 murdered, some have been mutilated. There are videos that are being shared. There's over 150 people kidnaped in Gaza by our country. I think there's 11 Americans. There's Germans. There's Australians. I believe there's Thai nationals. There's all nationalities there. So the first thing I want to talk about doing this in a very practical way is that there's a difference between how you act during wartime and how you act during peacetime.

00:12:46:18 - 00:13:08:10
Itamar Marani
Those are two different things. And what I mean by that is that there are periods of chronic stress and acute stress. There are peaks where there's going to be very, very chilling situations that happen at a certain peak. And then there's Tiger. Is the constant feeling like you having general anxiety because work is challenging, work is stressful. That's chronic stress.

00:13:08:22 - 00:13:31:16
Itamar Marani
Having an extreme event, for example, the first couple of weeks of COVID that's acute and wartime is Duffy in acute time and during periods of stress, you act differently than you would in chronic levels of stress. It's a different methodology here. It's during acute periods of stress is actually not the time to process emotions. It is not a time to mourn.

00:13:32:09 - 00:13:50:01
Itamar Marani
And I mean that also with COVID, how some people are so frustrated and grieving over their business. It is not a time to do that. It is a time to compartmentalize and shove everything away and make yourself useful. That's the biggest part in all this understanding. This is not the time to be with you. It's the time to do the useful.

00:13:51:15 - 00:14:15:19
Itamar Marani
So although you ask, How do I make myself useful? For me, the biggest thing is to find yourself a mission. And if you feel lost, find something to focus on. Maybe the old thing that you had isn't there anymore. Okay. Find the next thing. Move. Find something to have a mission on. That purpose will give you a sense of direction.

00:14:17:01 - 00:14:39:00
Itamar Marani
And also, if it's not your crisis, but somebody else's crisis, you feeling someone else's pain doesn't actually help them in this time. This is not a time again for communal mourning during these acute periods is not a time for communal mourning. For me, like I said, I felt lost the first couple of days when I didn't have the ability to join the fight.

00:14:40:24 - 00:15:02:04
Itamar Marani
So for me, what I'm doing right now, my mission is to fundraise to educating the public like what we're doing here and to focus on the business actually growing so we can make more and more donations. So with that, the common response I get from people is again, but I just feel so horrible to Yes, that's what it is.

00:15:03:02 - 00:15:22:08
Itamar Marani
It's hard times. You will feel certain ways. You've got to remember that even if you feel a certain way, that's what it is, does mean you can't do anything. It's like you feeling bad on top of it. This you recognize it doesn't help anyone. And this is the hard thing. We think we share in people's pain, but it doesn't actually help them on a practical level.

00:15:23:07 - 00:15:53:13
Itamar Marani
Survivor's guilt doesn't help others in need. Think it's just part of the situation that you feel about. You've got to accept it and decide to compartmentalize. Again, it is not a time for emotions or fragility during acute periods. And this is where it sounds harsh, but it's the truth. If you want to be useful in the darkest hour, you will need to be in your best for everybody, for yourself, and for others.

00:15:53:13 - 00:16:15:18
Itamar Marani
You have to be. You have to strive to be at your best in your darkest hours. You have to take responsibility over yourself to be at your best. And you can't pity yourself. You decide to not allow yourself to slip into a rut. This is a big thing. You have a decision always. It's a harder one to make during these times, but you still have that power and that decision to make.

00:16:17:11 - 00:16:31:23
Itamar Marani
On a personal level, this is how I'm taking responsibility over myself and maintaining my daily workouts. I'm still working out. I'm still doing the regular things I would do, but something that I can always do. I don't have to rely on somebody else. I can work out.

00:16:34:07 - 00:17:08:07
Itamar Marani
I'm still eating on a schedule. I have no appetite these days, which it's not something I ever remember and I'm just eating on a schedule. I have a clock. I know when I eat and that's what I do. I'm keeping in daily contact with my loved ones, trying to support anything. Touch also with my other friends that are my best friend from childhood is also from Delta Force and like our version of Delta Force and he's in New York and just keeping contact with him because they're both feeling this challenge.

00:17:08:07 - 00:17:29:21
Itamar Marani
And the big thing is there's no scrolling to feel outrage. So I know the severity of what's going on in Israel right now. There's no practical need to collect more information emotionally. Of course, I'm drawn to see what's going on. Of course, I'm drawn to like be outraged, to see the videos, to see these atrocities, to see the photos.

00:17:30:14 - 00:17:47:21
Itamar Marani
But as far as actually being useful, there's a point in it's called decision making theory where you collect information, you have enough information, it's time to act. And a lot of people in these crises are the guys outside and covered that. People just were on their phones all the time looking at data instead of actually focusing on, okay, I know what's going on.

00:17:48:05 - 00:18:06:06
Itamar Marani
I know what I can do now, let me do something about it. And that's a big part of it. As additional information after a certain point, it doesn't help you. It actually hinders you from actually being able to be of use. And with that, I want to get into this part about just difference being tangible impact and feeling impactful.

00:18:07:00 - 00:18:26:08
Itamar Marani
Those are two different things, and it's important to be very aware of that. Most people are not doing things because they're not wanting to help just because they're not aware of what's going on. So in this example, this is how you make an actual impact. It's like writing to a senator in the States is much bigger than just posting on Facebook that I'm outraged.

00:18:28:01 - 00:18:53:15
Itamar Marani
That's going to make a tangible impact with support to Israel, with funds and so on and so on. Rallying donations for the aftermath makes a bigger impact than arguing with idiots online or arguing amongst ourselves. You're like, Oh, well, this person said this. This person said that myself, because I'm trying to make an actual impact. I'm doing workshops like this, help empower others to make more impact.

00:18:55:07 - 00:19:24:24
Itamar Marani
Do the emails in the email you guys have. So I'm trying to galvanize other entrepreneur communities that I'm a part of, like I'm part of yo, I'm part of other ones as well. And we're doing that as well. I'm personally I'm doing more money than ever before. And the one that feels the most awkward, I would say, but I still know is the right thing to do, is that we're setting very aggressive business goals so that we can make a six figure donation possible through for the.

00:19:25:14 - 00:19:48:23
Itamar Marani
Me being outraged and shutting down the business doesn't help. It feels awkward, but it's still the right thing to do to actually make a difference. And I think an important thing to remember next is what I've had to tell myself is that even if you can't be part of the fight, you can help rebuild. And this goes for every situation of chaos that can be covered.

00:19:49:13 - 00:20:12:13
Itamar Marani
A lot of us, there was nothing we could do about the government regulations, about shutting down businesses. There's no way to fight that. However, you can prepare yourself to rebuild and went from there. So it's a kind of a safe to how to send messages of support to people in difficult times. And this is a big thing that a lot of people messaged me just like the past day that I came in.

00:20:12:13 - 00:20:31:23
Itamar Marani
We just didn't know what to say. So here's how you do this. Very simply, this first personal things you do not do. Do not put your emotional needs, sadness, or need for clarity on others who have it much harder than you people who are in the thick of it. You have emotional needs. They have it harder than you.

00:20:32:15 - 00:20:55:18
Itamar Marani
Accept that. Do not do that. A lot of people are like, Oh, I'm just so worried for you. Do not do that to the lift them up. Do not individually take anything away from them, only empower and strengthen them and also use a simple template how you can send people messages of support. Hey, whatever your name is, just wanted to send a message of support.

00:20:55:18 - 00:21:12:05
Itamar Marani
We are all with you. If there's anything you need from tactical things of someone to talk to, I'm here. Absolutely no need to reply. I know you're busy with more important things, sending you strength. Notice how we here? There's no open loop. I'm not asking them a question. I'm not asking for them to keep me on their in their head.

00:21:12:21 - 00:21:35:01
Itamar Marani
They can focus on whatever they need to focus on just like this. You know, I'm just strengthening your don't need anything. Don't even need a reply. Don't you acknowledgment. Just do you and go do you. Now on top of that you need to expect that during these times you will go through emotional waves, ups and downs. Emotional waves are expected.

00:21:35:19 - 00:21:53:17
Itamar Marani
But this is where I'll say this very truthfully. There's not a valid reason to stop. Just because you have a feeling doesn't mean you can stop being of use when you are in need. So it is not that time now. There will be a time to process and mourn. And I think it's a point of time so that there will be a time for that.

00:21:53:17 - 00:22:15:21
Itamar Marani
But that time is not now. Now is the time for doing it. I think in order to do that, it's a combination of both having the emotional discipline to not let yourself spiral and give yourself permission to spiral while also building a support structure as a kind of scaffolding to hold you up when you feel like falling in times.

00:22:15:21 - 00:22:40:24
Itamar Marani
That scaffolding like I talked about for me is daily workouts. That's a pillar for me. It's also happiness. My wife's good, an amazing support system for me. Having some friends, but that's a scaffolding thing. It first comes from you deciding that is the time I'm going to be emotionally disciplined. I'm going to be the best version of myself that I can, and I'm going to have some support.

00:22:40:24 - 00:23:03:16
Itamar Marani
So this is the stuff that you got to hold off until peace time. Sometimes all that processing, it's like I do think it's very helpful during these times to know that there will be a time for everything else to process, to mourn, to come back together. But that time is it. Now there's a story also like that. Sorry.

00:23:04:15 - 00:23:31:08
Itamar Marani
So when I did this yesterday for another group, somebody asked me, how do I know that time when it's going to be? And the reality is that you don't you have to accept that the story about Stockdale Stockdale was the highest ranking naval officer, the US naval officer that was captured the P.O.W. in Vietnam. And he said that in the P.O.W. camps, the people that died were the optimists.

00:23:32:16 - 00:23:50:01
Itamar Marani
These were the people who are saying, Oh, when someone comes around, we're going to get released. And someone came around, they didn't get released. They said, Oh, well, Thanksgiving comes around, we're going to get released. And they didn't get released. They're all about when Christmas comes around. We're going to get released. And they didn't get released and their spirit crumbled.

00:23:50:13 - 00:24:13:07
Itamar Marani
And in his words, they ended up dying of a broken heart. That this is not the time to say, I'm just going to hope I'm going to get there and then get crushed when it doesn't happen. It's like I've said this in various manners in this place. It rings more true than anything, but you have to choose resilience over positive thinking during hard times.

00:24:13:07 - 00:24:39:07
Itamar Marani
It's time to be resilient, resilient not to say I'm just going to be positive and hope because your hopes can get crushed by the world. But your resilience is something that you can control. So to kind of recap, don't give yourself permission to get stuck in a rut. That's the truth of it. Create a support structure for yourself with probably as many things as you can control as possible.

00:24:39:20 - 00:25:03:05
Itamar Marani
So what I mean by that you're doing a work out by yourself is bigger than saying, I'm going to I'm going to lean on this person. The more things you can be self-sufficient in, the better. Find a mission, focus on what's effective instead of what gives your emotions space. If you want to be of use, if you actually want to help, that's why you got to focus on what's actually effective.

00:25:04:15 - 00:25:27:02
Itamar Marani
Only send messages to strengthen. So I saw a video by a soldier in the reserve duty that he just posted and he was busy talking about the situation and he basically said, like for all those in the war in the front four, always in the back, it's not that we're protecting you and stay strong. And for all my brothers in arms, stay strong.

00:25:28:01 - 00:25:57:21
Itamar Marani
That's what it is. Expect emotional waves, but decide not to let them bring you down. It's a decision. It's a hard decision. It's more challenging to make that decision. But it's your decision, especially during these times hold strong until peace time and again. Then of the day. Be effective, be useful, and decide to be at your best during the darkest hours.

00:25:57:21 - 00:26:21:20
Itamar Marani
This goes for what's happening right now in Israel. It want the same thing for COVID and for all the crises we're going to face in the future. Personal business, everything. And if you're in doubt ever about what to do, simply ask yourself, am acting in a way that I'll be proud of in hindsight. That's the simple question. When you're in a mode of crisis, you don't know what to do.

00:26:22:11 - 00:26:44:08
Itamar Marani
You're not sure what to do A or B, Simply ask yourself that I am acting in a way that I'll be proud of in hindsight and that's kind of wanted to talk about. But also, I do want to add one thing, especially on this call, because I know a lot of you guys are entrepreneurs. Identity's a powerful thing.

00:26:44:08 - 00:27:09:18
Itamar Marani
If you see yourself as a weak individual who's an emotional individual, you'll gravitate towards that. You'll be a weak and emotional individual. However, like everyone here, I'll be you're an entrepreneur. You're able of having limited emotional responses. They call it car rental housing. You can deal with chaos and mayhem. You're cunning, you're a doer, you're strategic and you're a fighter.

00:27:09:18 - 00:27:29:13
Itamar Marani
And in the hard times, you've got to remind yourself of that shit, that this is who you are and this is what you're capable of. To remind yourself this is who you are, and this is the part of you that you're going to lean into for now. And the other parts are going to be government allies aside, there will be a time for those other sides.

00:27:29:19 - 00:27:54:09
Itamar Marani
That time is not now. So that is a presentation I wanted to prepare for you guys. That's one thing. So first off, I want to ask if anybody has any questions about the presentation. Please write them in the chat. And I kind of like bring you up also just into the zoom and then we're up in general questions.

00:27:54:22 - 00:28:25:13
Itamar Marani
But before that, I want to say just one more thing to all the all the parents out there. So Hamas is releasing some pretty, pretty horrible footage of what they're doing to the captives, what they've done to the captives. And if you have children that are on Tik Tok, an Instagram or whatever it may be, like, just don't give them their phones for the next couple of days.

00:28:26:02 - 00:28:54:03
Itamar Marani
The Tik Tok, from what I understand, it's already infiltrated. I mean, if you have no interest in this kind of stuff, it's already infiltrated their their home, the people's algorithms or whatever it is. It's something to be very, very cautious of. These are things that will scar grown adults and can do even more to children. So that is something that, as a note to all the parents With that said, guys, I'll open it up to any Q&A.

00:28:54:03 - 00:29:16:23
Itamar Marani
There's people here that want to ask something live. I'll answer that first. We've also got a couple of questions about emails, but again, like I'll ask any uncomfortable questions that you want, but why they started, how this started, whatever side of the conflict, the war, whatever you want to do it. As long as you do it respectfully, I'll do my best to answer it.

00:29:16:23 - 00:29:38:09
Itamar Marani
Who has the first question? I okay, so Scott, I found myself feeling like scrolling social media is obviously harmful and I feel powerless to stop it. Should I just block everything? Yes. Just don't be on your social. I think it's a big part of it to recognize like you will get drawn to this kind of stuff. It's more powerful than ever.

00:29:38:10 - 00:30:02:21
Itamar Marani
It's like, this is where you got to decide, like in a blog. Also talking of social media news, I haven't been able to disconnect as an Israeli. The urgent curiosity is massive. I know it's in my control, but I wonder if you have more advice. So the way I look at it, this is like a in the frame.

00:30:02:21 - 00:30:24:09
Itamar Marani
I choose to look at it this way. You have an ability to do something like almost everybody here to contribute in some way to take actions that will contribute to people that had their homes burned, that have their lives basically burn down. Every moment that you decide to scroll the news. Instead of doing that, you're playing into Hamas's hand.

00:30:26:03 - 00:30:48:12
Itamar Marani
You're just not doing anything in actually just wasting your time and your energy. It's like you only have a certain finite amount of energy and time and you choosing to do that. And that is an actual decision that you're not aware of that you're making to not do actually something productive. And as I say, find a mission if you don't have anything to catch on to and you just have all this free time in the world, you will get drawn on to that.

00:30:49:02 - 00:31:18:03
Itamar Marani
It's similar to entrepreneurs that have no clue about what they want to do. So everything that's a shiny object, it's the same thing here to find yourself a mission, a target, and then focus your energy towards that goal mode. Let me say this in the chat that it's clear that helps. Ernest wrote What does a win over Hamas look like?

00:31:18:03 - 00:31:47:21
Itamar Marani
So I can give just my my assumptions. I'm not a stage person. I'm not a spokesman. I don't really know this things. But from what I'm reading, a win over Hamas looks like a return to pre Hamas done Gaza let's call it. So I don't remember exact dates here and everything so apologies for that. But basically around the mid 2000s Israel committed a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.

00:31:48:23 - 00:32:09:00
Itamar Marani
They said, you know what, we're going to give this a shot for peace and we're just going to unilaterally withdraw our troops from there. Up until then, Gaza was a place that had Israeli patrol, Israeli military there, and that's why terrorists weren't able to run the whole place and turn into their own kind of country. And in an effort for peace, they withdrew.

00:32:09:18 - 00:32:32:04
Itamar Marani
And the hope was that when that happens, people believe that Israel is giving a clear branch olive branch here and will follow suit. And that obviously didn't happen. And it could very well be that a win over Hamas looks like be taking over Gaza and eradicating them from being able to control the populace there after being able to control the whole situation there.

00:32:32:04 - 00:32:54:15
Itamar Marani
That could be one possibility. And from what I'm hearing, from what I saw from the minister of defense with the former general himself, he said we're going to change what Gaza is. And that's what I'm assuming that is from there probably be a retaking over of Gaza to liberate not just the Israeli people from Hamas's fear, but also the Palestinian people as well.

00:32:55:09 - 00:33:20:08
Itamar Marani
Like Hamas was elected into power in the mid 2000 as well. From what I remember, basically in Gaza, there were two big factions. There was the Fatah and Hamas. And the Fatah was the more, let's call it tame, the more conservative party. And it was back. It was kind of supported by the states and Israel as a person.

00:33:20:09 - 00:33:42:03
Itamar Marani
The people we would like to have there to negotiate a peace with. And the US wanted to make sure that everybody saw their legitimacy. So and a legitimate election was organized. And basically, I remember it like seeing on the news that at 6 p.m. the pre-election polls came in and the Fatah had all of a sudden they had like an overwhelming victory and they were celebrating on the streets.

00:33:43:09 - 00:34:07:22
Itamar Marani
And then when the actual results came in, Hamas had won by a landslide. I think the people in Gaza back then were very frustrated about their situation and they thought someone new and different was going to be the person that helped them. But since then, it's like a put it very simply, Hamas has not done good by any of the people there.

00:34:09:16 - 00:34:39:15
Itamar Marani
They put their military facilities inside hospitals instead of taking concrete and other materials to rebuild the tunnels. And I think that's going to be a big part of a win over Hamas is eradicating Hamas. And that's what it looks like. Take that whole take for talk. You do this. We do that notion of before these atrocities I think is out the door and it's not going to be like how Netanyahu, our prime minister, said this is not an escalation.

00:34:40:00 - 00:35:10:11
Itamar Marani
This is not another incident. This is war. And that's what I think how we win over Hamas will end up looking like. And honestly, what I personally hope, despite the losses that will occur. Sam wrote, you mentioned having some thoughts on what you think will happen next in the conflict. Can you share some context? So that was basically what I just said right now I think there's the old status quo is broken, let's put it that way.

00:35:10:11 - 00:35:40:16
Itamar Marani
Very simple that they do a terrorist attack. We retaliate like this. It seems like all the old rules have been taken out and we're saying we're not playing by these rules anymore. Like once you behead babies, that goes out the door. And that's what I think is going to change everything. James out. Israeli intelligence is the best in the world.

00:35:40:16 - 00:36:05:02
Itamar Marani
How could this have gone unnoticed? It's a great question that I don't know. I can give my my perspective what possibly could have happened. So Israel has been in a state of political volatility for the past six months. There have been mass protests of like 100,000 people in the streets. Every weekend. There is a big internal conflict between the what was the current government and the opposition.

00:36:05:02 - 00:36:27:12
Itamar Marani
So basically Benjamin Netanyahu was found for was put on trial for certain areas of fraud and a way that he was able to basically save himself from going on trial was to basically form a coalition government because the Israel is not a bipartisan like the U.S. You have to actually form a coalition in the parliament and get the majority of seats.

00:36:28:11 - 00:36:56:07
Itamar Marani
And he was able to form a coalition with some of the of the lowest of the lows, called that people have never served in the military, people who are just ignorant in so many ways. And they tried to basically appeal parts of the Constitution and basically they were threatening to start a slippery slope from turning Israel from a democracy into a possible dictatorship by saying they can overrule the Supreme Court.

00:36:56:07 - 00:37:15:14
Itamar Marani
In some ways that's one thing. So a lot of the people that are in the opposition camp that are in these protests, they're the spear through tip of the spear of the Israeli military. They're the Air Force pilots and the special forces units. They're the they're the people that are at the top of this stuff. That's one area of distraction.

00:37:15:14 - 00:37:44:10
Itamar Marani
Another area of distraction is that some of those people that are in the government with Benjamin Netanyahu, they have never served in their life. They have never actually contributed in their life, but they're religious fanatics. So they decided that for them, the biggest, most important thing is to show presence inside the West Bank and basically cause a lot of been to spark a lot of things there.

00:37:45:05 - 00:38:08:24
Itamar Marani
And because they're constantly causing issues there, the military has to be there in the West Bank in order to basically certain things or just keep a watch. So it's attention was also on the West Bank on top of that to in my whole lifetime, I've never heard such a disjointed rhetoric in the nation and of so many people.

00:38:08:24 - 00:38:30:10
Itamar Marani
Again, the tip of the spear of the military just saying we're not going to do reserve during the war if this government keeps going. And I think Israel was in a very fragile place because the intelligence community was probably in a fragile place because of the leadership or the lack thereof of the country. And I think that's a very big contributing factor.

00:38:31:18 - 00:39:00:04
Itamar Marani
And beyond that, though, that's all I can surmise. I don't know, actually behind the scenes with intelligence like James Hope that answers your question. Kenny wrote Know. Thanks for sharing your intimate experiences and time back in a personal and business perspective. The entrepreneur identity savings were powerful for me. How did your time with Israeli forces prepare you psychologically for dealing with a situation like this where you can't be directly involved?

00:39:00:15 - 00:39:26:02
Itamar Marani
Your emotions are reading. Your writing showed the frustrations visibly resilience and endurance. That's really the way I would say. I think the biggest skill that I think I learned through all my training, through everything, is the skills to endure that. Like this is going to be a long thing. This is going to be a tough thing. I'm not trying to keep a positive mindset about it.

00:39:26:07 - 00:39:44:20
Itamar Marani
I'm just not willing to get broken by it. And I think that's different then That's the mindset that I got from that. Like I'm having a hard time as you guys can all probably hear and see. It's like I'm not just trying to cheer myself up or make myself happy. I'm saying, you know, this is going to be a hard time.

00:39:44:20 - 00:40:06:00
Itamar Marani
So I spoke to my father the other day and I'm like, How are you doing that? And he's like, It is what it is. It's going to be hard times for a while. It's exactly what it is. And I think that's the biggest thing, like in entrepreneurship and business of like in this situation that I think the special Forces prepared me for that I don't feel like I have to be positive in order to keep going.

00:40:07:06 - 00:40:42:19
Itamar Marani
I don't have to be in a good mood to keep going. And that's the biggest thing that I think is helping me right now. Even when I feel like shit, I'm going to be of use, I'm going to do whatever I can. That's just what it is. Hope that helps of anyone else. Have any questions? It's so hard when Mark wrote, What kind of conversations have you had with your son?

00:40:43:05 - 00:41:28:10
Itamar Marani
So my son is three. He's not three yet, so I haven't had any conversations with him. I've been actually trying to to compartmentalize. And when I'm around him, not let him understand that I'm in a certain mood or that things are going on. I think there's no value in that. But like every time I see him and I pick him up, it's just wild to me to imagine that he could have been in Gaza and they could have been I could have been helpless like some other families, to see the videos of terrorists toying with their kids like that was the hardest part for me.

00:41:28:11 - 00:41:49:18
Itamar Marani
Just seeing there was one video of a girl. She looks like she's maybe a year and a half or two and she's just confused and terrorists are just playing with her. And that's been like, for me, the hardest part when when I pick them up or when I play with him and realize that that's a reality for some people.

00:41:51:09 - 00:42:14:16
Itamar Marani
So I've not had a conversation with them. I'm trying to shield them from this. It's something that will have at a later stage when you can understand. So yeah, Mike is right. It's so hard to believe that the best intelligence agencies in the world could not see what was happening. I can't shake off the feeling that some kind of coop but didn't want to go into conspiracy theories.

00:42:14:16 - 00:42:49:07
Itamar Marani
So honestly, I don't think it's a conspiracy. There's no what I honestly think also happened here is that Hamas didn't actually expect this to go that well. I think this went beyond their wildest dreams of what a successful operation like this would look like for them. And in a weird way, they bit off more than they wanted to to the the last time they did this, I think they kidnaped two soldiers and that was a big bonanza for them that they felt could tilt things in their favor in a lot of ways.

00:42:50:13 - 00:43:12:21
Itamar Marani
And if you guys, anyone saw the videos, it's it looks like a lot of people from Gaza just came in and kind of ransacked. It was 1500 bodies of terrorists already found in Israel. This was not a small group of like the tip, only the tip of the spear of the Hamas commando. As soon as the fence broke, a lot of people came through and they ransacked and they murdered and they brutalized.

00:43:13:23 - 00:43:42:21
Itamar Marani
And I think Hamas also in some ways did not understand what they were getting themselves into. And Sam wrote, you describe the situation as a failure of Israeli military intelligence, as have many others. Is it naive to think that occasionally things like this happen and it's not possibly to completely, probabilistically speaking, prevent every organized attack is the too fast, too quick to assign blame?

00:43:42:21 - 00:44:19:01
Itamar Marani
It's a hard question. I think you can't prevent all the attacks. However, you do need to construct circles of defense in regards to the level, the risk. And I think there was a big failure here to understand the risk that was coming from there. And the resources, like I said, were not in the right place because I think all the attention on the West Bank and there's finite resources.

00:44:19:22 - 00:44:51:20
Itamar Marani
So I think regardless if you can't foresee any extreme threat or like extreme situation like this, there just wasn't there just wasn't like a bigger of control, like a moat, if you will, to basically nullify or at least block some of that danger. And that's the big issue that I think it was a big failure. Even if forget about the intelligence failure, about not being able to foresee this, but there's not having something in place to block this kind of potential attack.

00:44:52:18 - 00:45:20:01
Itamar Marani
That's what I think is a big, big failure. And that's why there's a lot of frustration over the bullshit politicians that we're doing all that nonsense in the West Bank because all that attention and all those forces that were there are usually in the south. So I hope that answers that was the next question, guys. So before I answer the next one, I want to pop something into the shot here.

00:45:21:10 - 00:45:46:10
Itamar Marani
So there's two these are two links. If anybody wants to make a donation, these are groups that are primarily giving to the restoration, the aftermath for the families, for the poor, the orphans, everything from helping them is really getting a lot of them got out of their homes with bullets in them. They don't have any clothes, they don't have any food.

00:45:47:02 - 00:46:18:07
Itamar Marani
They're going to have to rebuild and so many ways, anything from helping them with psychological support for the next years to just food right now, to clothes to helping them rehabilitate themselves. So those links are on the chart right now. If you want to give whatever you want to give, as small as it is, it's because as a matter that's in the chart, Max asked, Will real peace ever be possible?

00:46:19:14 - 00:46:49:02
Itamar Marani
I don't know. There's a lot and it's a shitty situation. It's a shitty situation for everyone. It's like it's a very complex situation as well. A question like I've gotten a couple of times is why did Israel take Gaza away from the Palestinians? The very few people know that Egypt controlled Gaza from 1948 until 1967 and Jordan controlled the majority of the West Bank and half of Jerusalem until 67 as well.

00:46:50:03 - 00:47:27:06
Itamar Marani
Like it's a very complicated situation that no one's been able to figure out yet. But as a friend of mine joked, one sec, they're handing Nobel Prizes to whoever can try to figure it out. It's a very serious situation. There's a lot of those are like snowballs where there's more and more hate on each side. Now, with that said, like, what I do think is objectively true is that Israel has tried to make peace, whether it was with the example of the unilateral withdrawal or with looking at its history of making peace and making concessions in order to have peace with Egypt or with Jordan.

00:47:28:14 - 00:47:47:08
Itamar Marani
And I'm not talking about the Palestinian people. I'm talking about the leadership of Hamas right now. They unequivocally have it in their charter that they do not want to talk about peace under any conditions whatsoever. They are not willing to say like even if we get 99% of Israel, we're okay with that. They say we want 200%. We want to wipe all the Jews off the earth.

00:47:48:22 - 00:48:17:04
Itamar Marani
So as long as that regime is in power, I don't think peace is possible now. So, again, like the links there, I just want also to make a point of this. A lot of people have an emotional need to feel like they're doing something they want to contribute. And again, as far as being effective, there's things that are more effective to help in the long strategic vision of this rehabilitation.

00:48:17:11 - 00:48:37:20
Itamar Marani
And there's things that are less like also be careful about what links or where you choose to donate, because there's also a lot of scams going on, I think both from the Hamas side and from the general horrible people that are opportunists. These are links that are going to help people in the long run. They're not just going to be wasted on nonsense.

00:48:37:20 - 00:49:11:19
Itamar Marani
Money is because people want to do this or whatever it may be for the soldiers to make them feel better. But this is the stuff that's actually going to make a lasting impact for those that have been affected the most. Again, those links are in the chat. Anybody else have a question, guys? Mother Marianne wrote, What can a civilian without military training doing such a catastrophe situation to save his family?

00:49:11:19 - 00:49:39:17
Itamar Marani
The tough one. It's like, honestly, you can't do much if you're being if your home is being ransacked by dozens of terrorists with heavy, heavy artillery, there's not much you can do. And that's the sad part. Those people in the in the kibbutzim and the villages near the south of Israel, there are some tough individuals. A lot of them are ex-military.

00:49:39:17 - 00:50:03:22
Itamar Marani
A lot of them have training. And those who aren't the people that the kind of people that choose to live in those areas, they're built from a certain cloth and they are tough individuals, they're hardened individuals. And even with that, there's not much you can do. It's like if that's the job of the military to protect the soldiers, to take the civilian.

00:50:03:22 - 00:50:37:23
Itamar Marani
Sorry, that's my honest, heartbreaking opinion on this. Anybody have any other question, guys? And this is something that somebody asked yesterday, so I'll bring it up. Somebody asked me, how do I feel about the innocent people in Gaza that are getting hurt it sucks. War is shitty, war is chaotic. There's innocent people that get hurt in war. It's what it is.

00:50:38:19 - 00:51:14:06
Itamar Marani
Always been like that in war. Now, with that said, it's like there's a difference between innocent people getting killed, as in as an undesirable byproduct. It's kind of like a necessary evil of war, so to speak. And then being targeted, put in a room and butcher down and shot from point blank and butchered and mutilated. Like my stance is kind of what I said in that email and what I heard at the start of this call.

00:51:14:06 - 00:51:51:14
Itamar Marani
I think war is hell, but I we're not willing to let our innocent people be purposefully butchered. And that's a byproduct. That's a byproduct, an unfortunate one, but it is what it is. So anybody have any other questions? It's going to be not just about this situation, but also just how to deal with these kind of challenging times in general.

00:51:51:14 - 00:52:17:24
Itamar Marani
What kind of mindset will it take almost for Israelis in the world to deal with hostages being executed? So it's a hard question. It's it's an understanding that like I think we live I think there's going to be certain bubbles for people like you think we live in this ultra sheltered, ultra nice part of the world these days.

00:52:17:24 - 00:52:49:01
Itamar Marani
It's like the world is harsh. There's some atrocities going on from Ukraine, things in Africa that are happening, things in Myanmar that are and it's like life can be very hard sometimes, can be very dark. And I think it's just accepting that like it is what it is. In some ways that might happen. But again, it's one about resilience and endurance.

00:52:49:13 - 00:53:02:13
Itamar Marani
Like if Israel was formed off the back of the Holocaust and if we survived the various wars and Yom Kippur, Israel will survive this.

00:53:07:16 - 00:53:28:05
Itamar Marani
Anybody have any other questions, guys? Alex wrote, Thank you for creating this space closure. Alex. Sam wrote, Hey can be a really powerful motivator. As you said, it passes back and forth in situations. This if you feel hate, do you aim to eventually get through the hate you may feel or Hamas and find some sort of peace or forgiveness another side of it?

00:53:29:03 - 00:54:01:12
Itamar Marani
So it's a great question. It's it's an interesting philosophical one. I'll answer with a pragmatic approach to it. I don't think there's value in maintaining hate, but I also think there's no value in foolishly hoping that certain parties will relinquish it. It's like, Sam, you're a very evolved individual. You recognize that not everyone is like that. And I think there's a certain reality where we can be naive about this.

00:54:02:08 - 00:54:30:20
Itamar Marani
And I think that's what we tried to do in a lot of ways, like the unilateral withdrawal, all these kind of things to kind of de-escalate the hate, so to speak. However, when you're dealing with an organ and again, I'm differentiating all the Palestinian people and Hamas as two different things. When you're dealing with an organization like Hamas who says unequivocally, we do not want peace under any conditions, we're not willing to talk about peace under any conditions whatsoever.

00:54:31:05 - 00:54:52:14
Itamar Marani
We just want to kill the Jews. That's the people where you can't hope for this to dissipate. It's not going to happen. And I think the only path possibly to find some sort of peace is going to have to be with the change of leadership. It's like in World War two, there was no way of saying, okay, let's de-escalate things with Hitler and the Japanese.

00:54:52:24 - 00:55:27:17
Itamar Marani
The Axis, and just hope that kind of peace without this is kind of a similar situation to the level of evil that was displayed on Saturday morning in the south of Israel is not something that I have seen in my lifetime, and I think that needs to be clearly understood. Like those are not people that are wanting to de-escalate and just find a peaceful solution and are frustrated and that's why they're going to war.

00:55:28:19 - 00:55:48:17
Itamar Marani
Their desire was not to take over some territory. Their desire was to butcher people. And that I think in a very like philosophical level that would be amazing. That was the case. But on a pragmatic level, look what history has taught us, what other wars like World War Two have taught us. It's like sometimes peace has to come to war.

00:55:50:02 - 00:56:16:15
Itamar Marani
I have a lot of friends in Germany these days. I have a lot of great people that I know in Germany these days, but I still have to happen in 45. Marianna Marianne ask, Do you think that is possible to be such massacres in Europe where a lot of Muslim communities? I think it's a lot more challenging. It's always a possibility.

00:56:16:15 - 00:56:49:02
Itamar Marani
There's also this was important to understand there's a difference between a random terrorist attacker and organized terror cell, a terrorist organization and a terrorist country like Qatar, like like Iran. It is always possible that, especially in these days, somebody who's anti-Semitic, who is extremist, whatever, and B, they see this on TV, they get excited and they say, pick up a knife, take a gun and go shoot up a synagogue or go shoot up a church or just shoot up a bunch of people.

00:56:49:14 - 00:57:21:07
Itamar Marani
That's always a possibility. What happened here was basically one tier down from an organized country attacking another country. So it's not like Iran that attacked Israel, but Iran trained these people to attack Israel and have them coordinate the whole attack. That's going to be harder to pull off in Europe. And it was easier to pull off in Hamas in Gaza because Hamas has complete control over that and it can build its its infrastructure there to train people, to coordinate things and so on and so on.

00:57:21:07 - 00:57:41:14
Itamar Marani
And I think that's a part of why I was saying I think the solution is going to be that they're going to try to eradicate Hamas out of Gaza because that just gives more and more room for this stuff to happen. So I hope this answers that question. Neera, without being insensitive, in your opinion, how is this going to impact business and commerce in Israel in the world?

00:57:42:09 - 00:58:15:05
Itamar Marani
The world? I don't know. I'm not sure Israel is big enough to make an impact on the world. Truthfully, in commerce, as far as Israel, it's it's hurt. It hurts. It's like businesses. It's a COVID, but worse, like businesses have been shut down for a while. The shekel the Israeli coin has has taken a big hit, which always hurts the economy is going to have to be a lot more money put into both the war effort right now and the rehabilitation of everything.

00:58:15:05 - 00:58:38:19
Itamar Marani
And you got to remember the fact that Israel is a tiny country. I think the whole population is around 10 million right now. And like imagine just like there's 10 million people and all those areas in the south got completely destroyed. Just like that GDP, it's I know some of my friends who are entrepreneurs in Israel, like some of them, their businesses have already been like, we were not going to make it.

00:58:38:22 - 00:58:59:22
Itamar Marani
There's no way we're going to make it. We just don't have that kind of runway for a restaurant or for a bar or whatever it may be. And it's a very, very tough situation. And I think people are going to hurt. And this is also why why I'm trying to raise a lot of funds and keep whatever I can going to Israel.

00:58:59:22 - 00:59:19:17
Itamar Marani
Again, I want to make this clear. Like those attacks that have been south of Gaza, it's like those are two and a half hours from my house. You can drive from where that was in the south of Israel to the north of Israel in about 6 hours to Israel is a tiny place. So this kind of thing, it's not that it's a giant country like the United States.

00:59:19:17 - 00:59:39:16
Itamar Marani
And it was just a little pocket. A little pocket would be like as if it was the whole state of Texas in the states. Just to get perspective. So that answers that. Ernest wrote, Should IDF maintain discipline to abide by rules of engagement? If you have a baby, Cohen recites. Or does one do what troops did during war two when they crossed SS troops?

00:59:40:11 - 01:00:01:14
Itamar Marani
My anger wants all of them extinguished. So the IDF is already changing some of the policies. So people, I think, are not aware that people are saying Israel's laying a siege to Gaza and that order. Like Israel used to support all the electricity and water to Gaza. They used to actually provide all that to Gaza and we've just shut it off.

01:00:02:16 - 01:00:28:11
Itamar Marani
There's also like being an Israeli soldier in the when I was in active duty, it was the second Lebanon War. And in my unit, a lot of people died. It was we went into Lebanon, Lebanon had a very thick, a very thick kind of bush, and a lot of people died there. And there was all this frustration of like, why are they sending people into the Bush instead of his name bombing this whole fucking place?

01:00:30:00 - 01:00:52:16
Itamar Marani
And a big reason that we were spending the purity of arms. So you don't want to kill innocent people even in these kind of situations. And it was a very frustrating thing to hear as a soldier at times. And in Gaza, it's also there were certain policies that were very frustrating as a fighter. There was a policy called Knock on the roof.

01:00:53:07 - 01:01:24:01
Itamar Marani
So knock on the roof was that you like Hamas as a strategy puts itself inside civilian people. And so it's like civilian buildings, hospitals, whatever, schools, children, schools. And Israeli intelligence would know there's a big Hamas thing there, whatever it may be, stockpiles people headquartered in. So it would before was actually going to bomb the building. It would do what's called a knock on the roof where either it drops the smaller like like basically like I don't explains, but a capella it on the roof to make a big noise.

01:01:24:01 - 01:01:42:09
Itamar Marani
Everybody knows into evacuate or actually call people because they can figure out their numbers are going to call them say here, we're going to bomb this place. We need you to know this. We need you to evacuate. Have 3 minutes to evacuate in to not harm civilians, and I'll have them get in the way. And obviously that also give a lot of space for the terrorist, actually evacuate and take whatever they need to.

01:01:43:00 - 01:02:11:17
Itamar Marani
And it was extremely frustrating. And that's one of the policies that I've heard one of the senior Air Force officials say, like we're not going to knock on the roof. This is wartime. And so things are changing. Yeah, you know, the things are changing. Almog as sorry to harp on a really difficult point of mine, feel free to skip this.

01:02:11:17 - 01:02:31:07
Itamar Marani
But as Israel is trying to balance two sacred values to us and you talk about values and are training security for its things and bringing back civilians alive, How Public support Israel deal with terrorists rent to execute mothers and children, and then doing it. If attacks aren't stopped, it would be a political nightmare to try to convince Israelis that this is an acceptable sacrifice.

01:02:31:07 - 01:02:52:06
Itamar Marani
Catch 22 to the Extreme. How does a leader make such decisions benefit of the greater good? Again, feel free to give this. You don't have all the answers. I'm just wondering your thoughts on this as a mindset coach, where there are literally no good options. I think again, this is just my opinion and it doesn't mean that it doesn't mean anything beyond my opinion.

01:02:53:04 - 01:03:16:05
Itamar Marani
I think a part of I'll put it this way, there was a theory that they had, and I think it was Harvard University that came up with it originally. They said, you know, in order to help the president of the U.S., for example, make sure that he understands the consequences of what he does whenever he wants to fire nuclear missiles.

01:03:16:24 - 01:03:38:17
Itamar Marani
What we're going to do is we're going to implant the the nuclear launcher inside the chest of a human being. And that human being is always going to be around the president holding carrying a big knife. So if the president ever wants to nuke someone, he has to first take the knife, cut the person's chest open, and actually take the key from it so he can feel what it's like to take a knife.

01:03:38:19 - 01:04:07:02
Itamar Marani
So he's not he's not emotionally distant from what he's doing. And what a lot of generals said in response to that. That is absolutely the worst idea possible. You have to be emotionally detached in order to actually make decisions. And I think that's the hardest part about leadership. It's like if anyone here saw the film Oppenheimer recently, like they were talking about it, I think it was Truman who dropped the bomb.

01:04:08:03 - 01:04:26:16
Itamar Marani
It's like it's fucking horrible thing to have to live with. But I think leadership is hard. And I think also the Israeli people, aside from those families and those affected by it, I think they also feel like we can't keep going on with this kind of you take a hostage, you want to go shoot back. I think something has to completely change.

01:04:27:12 - 01:04:37:22
Itamar Marani
I think this a before and after moment for Israel. And I think the leadership understands that. And from what I've seen from their actions so far, it seems like that is the case.

01:04:41:00 - 01:05:10:17
Itamar Marani
So I hope that answers your question. I'm going to keep answering a couple more here. In the meantime, as a cure, the links, again, if you want to make any donations to help those two relief, Nicole wrote, If Hamas is eradicated, is there another terrorist organization primed to step in to take its place? So there is. There's the Islamic Jihad.

01:05:10:17 - 01:05:27:18
Itamar Marani
There are others. But it doesn't mean that if Hamas is eradicated, they won't be eradicated as well. What happens in the void of Hamas in Gaza is a very interesting question that I don't know how to exactly explain.

01:05:31:02 - 01:05:56:11
Itamar Marani
Yeah, and I'll go back to analogous question. So the way I would answer this, like in business of like how do you make a decision when there are no good ones and they're very emotionally charged? You ask yourself, like, what would I recommend somebody else to do who doesn't have to feel the pain and the frustration or whatever it may be?

01:05:56:21 - 01:06:22:23
Itamar Marani
And I think, again, like a lot of Israelis understand that this can't be the case, that the greater good is what needs to happen now, because there's been such a crossing of everything or fucking line. So, yeah, then the other question guys like thank you guys for getting out, both direct messages and the emails and all that. I would say like first off, like I see all the email.

01:06:23:10 - 01:06:53:13
Itamar Marani
Somebody else may respond to them. Like, I appreciate everyone reaching out. I appreciate the support. These are challenging times. Like we're going to when I get to the other side, we already are starting to get the other side and we're going to win this thing. And Chip wrote Thank you. And that Ariel Sharon gave Gaza back in 2005, hoping for peace for land and realizing there was no way to manage it.

01:06:54:08 - 01:07:23:01
Itamar Marani
That's what it is. Ari wrote, Thank you for holding space and sharing with us. Maybe I could do it. Same from EARNEST. Thank you. Anyone? Is there any last question? I'm going to take one more before we kind of wrap this up. So I'll say this again, guys. Like what I hope for all of you guys, some guys that have no connection whatsoever to Israel think maybe this could be a learning lesson for life.

01:07:23:20 - 01:07:40:06
Itamar Marani
Like when you're in a crisis, is there things you can do about it? You don't have to be a victim to the crisis. Even if you feel powerless. You can find a mission. You can choose to be at your best. You can make the effort to put yourself in a position to be at your best. And you can lean on your resilience.

01:07:40:11 - 01:08:04:08
Itamar Marani
You don't have to hope for things to get better. You can accept the fact that you can move, that you can do it, you can contribute somehow. There's always something that you can control. And this always there's something that you can latch onto and control and contribute. And I hope this has been helpful, both in regards to the in Israel and also for a personal lesson for yourselves.

01:08:04:08 - 01:08:28:18
Itamar Marani
Guys. Aside from that, if there's no other questions like I'm going to share the the links again in an email to everybody who's been on the call, the recording. If you guys have any questions of that, please let me know so from that like appreciate your family's the every time I see my son I appreciate it so much.

01:08:29:22 - 01:08:51:10
Itamar Marani
This has been a very harsh reminder to to appreciate what we have. So from that, I'm going to log off and I will say this. If there's any other people that you want to share these links with or any communities that you know want to contribute to the cause or help the cause, that I can somehow support them by doing things like this.

01:08:52:00 - 01:09:17:03
Itamar Marani
Please feel more than free to get in touch and we'll take it from there. So from that, I'm going to wrap up everyone. Have a good day. That call that you just listened to was one of the more challenging calls I've ever had to do since I've started this business. Now, since Call, people have asked a couple questions, and I want to answer actually two questions that I thought were important to double down on and explain.

01:09:17:18 - 01:09:41:02
Itamar Marani
So somebody asked, what happens if Hamas is removed one somebody else just as evil or even more evil come up instead of them. And the experience that I would share about this is that in 2017, I spent around four months in the north of Germany and Bremen, and I was there for work and I met some phenomenal human beings there, some extraordinary individuals that were kind.

01:09:41:02 - 01:10:00:05
Itamar Marani
There were good humans, There are awesome people. That is with regards to the fact that in 1945, Nazi Germany still had to be eradicated or for that to happen. So there is hope. That was an evil that had to be removed from the world and that phenomenal people came afterwards. So it doesn't always have to be just evil, will replace evil.

01:10:00:05 - 01:10:36:24
Itamar Marani
Replace evil. That's not necessarily a fact. That's number one. Number two is, again, people are asking, aren't innocent people getting killed on both sides? I'm going to say this very bluntly. War is horrible. It is chaotic. Innocent people die as a byproduct of people trying to advance their positions. A difference between that happening as a byproduct. It's unintentional and people mercilessly slaughtering people from point blank, targeting purposely civilians, babies, burning babies alive, raping a mutilating women and children.

01:10:37:17 - 01:11:02:09
Itamar Marani
That's a very different thing than just a consequence of war, which is innocent people die. Those are two things that I want to make a point of. Now, again, people will need to rebuild themselves. Families. Communities will need to rebuild themselves from the ashes after this. And there are the links in the show notes below. If this is something you want to contribute to, if it's $5, if it's dollars, if it's $50 or whatever it may be, you've had some people donate 2000.

01:11:02:09 - 01:11:08:14
Itamar Marani
$5,000 is amazing. But whatever you can give, I'm sure the people greatly appreciate it. Stay safe.