Israeli-Canadian businessman and philanthropist Sylvan Adams on Thursday addressed the Israel Hayom Forum on US-Israel Relations, held Thursday in Jerusalem. We bring you his full speech.
"Ladies and gentlemen, what a special pleasure and honor it is for me to be sharing the stage with this powerhouse lineup at the inaugural Israel Hayom Forum for US–Israel Relations, celebrating the warm friendship between Israel and our closest ally, the United States of America.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
"Moshe Arens, represented by his daughter Aliza. His accomplishments are too long to mention. But I had the personal privilege a couple of years ago, to hand to Moshe Arens a Bonei Zion Lifetime Achievement Award for meritorious service to the State by an English speaking Oleh. At age 90, he took the stage and delivered a warm and brilliant acceptance speech. Aliza, I was privileged to have known your father, a truly special man.
"Boaz Bismuth, capable editor in chief of the newspaper with the largest circulation in Israel. He is smart, yet warm; hard-working, yet extremely sociable, and also, someone with whom I can converse in French. Merci, Boaz, de m'avoir invité de participer a cette conférence importante.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, you are one of the world's most respected leaders, earning our country new friendships amongst world leaders in Moscow, Beijing, New Delhi, Tokyo, multiple capitals in South America and Africa, and even in certain Arab capitals, a line-up that would have been unthinkable before your tireless outreach to formerly hostile nations. But let's not forget your friendship with the most important national leader, President Donald Trump, with whom, it appears you have a genuine Bro-mance. Well done, Prime Minister, and good luck in the upcoming elections.
"Special advisor to the president Jason Greenblatt. Jason and I just arrived here from the Peace to Prosperity Workshop in Bahrain, where I was honored to be included in the Israeli delegation. We are making new friends in the Sunni Arab world, thanks largely to Jason's, Jared Kushner's, and Ambassador Friedman's persistent efforts. And of course, thanks to you your boss, President Trump for moving the embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and being so engaged in trying to solve this problem using a different approach than the unsuccessful strategies tried in the past.
"The payoff in terms of investment and the peace dividend that will follow should be persuasive, even if the Palestinian leaders don't yet see it that way. I sat together with Palestinian businessmen at the conference, who withstood pressures at home urging them not to attend, because of the substantial opportunities this process offers for their people. For your information, Jason has the political part of the 'deal of the century' in his back pocket, but I couldn't get him to show it to me.
"Ambassador David Friedman, you were forced to skip Manama, as you were working on another key file with John Bolton, the Russians, and us: keeping Iran out of Syria. Many moving parts to all of this, but what can better describe the United States' commitment to Israel's security and prosperity than investing so much effort, by America's best and brightest. Thank you so much for all that you are doing. We will be celebrating America's birthday in a few days in Jerusalem. Happy 243rd, Mr. Ambassador.
"Miriam Adelson. Special thanks to you for hosting this event celebrating the unique relationship between our two countries. But more importantly, thanks to you and your husband Sheldon for your love of Israel and unfailing generosity and philanthropy on behalf of this country and the Jewish People. Co-incidentally, these are precisely the two themes of my own philanthropy: promoting Israel, and strengthening Jewish identity in the diaspora. Miri, I salute you for the outstanding work you are doing, and am proud to call you a friend. And best wishes to you Sheldon, it is great to see you here in good form, after your recent health battle. Welcome back.
"And last, but certainly not least, former Governor, former Ambassador, and dare I say what everyone else here is thinking, future President (after President Trump's 2nd term, of course), Nikki Haley. Ambassador Haley, may I call you Nikki? Thank you for your unfailing efforts to stand up for what is right and following a morally righteous path, speaking truth to power. You were right to point out that UNWRA perpetuates, rather than works to alleviate the Palestinian refugee issue, and by logical extension, to de-fund this organization until necessary reforms are implemented. You were also right to withdraw the United States from the Orwellian UN Human Rights Council, which routinely proclaims harsh criticism of democratic Israel, while giving a virtual free pass to rogue states such as Venezuela, North Korea, Iran, and Syria. Nikki, Israel couldn't have a better friend. Thank you too on behalf of the entire Jewish People. We already miss your brilliance at the UN.
"So, why is a Canadian guy like me invited to present, alongside these most distinguished speakers at a conference celebrating the US-Israeli relationship? Well, when my wife Margaret and I made Aliya, three short years ago, I printed up these business cards, with a title that reads "Self-Appointed Ambassador at large, for the State of Israel". So Nikki, and David, you're not the only "Ambassadors" on this stage tonight. And, as an Israeli who grew up some 50kms from the US border, I know something about the special relationship with the world's foremost economic and moral superpower.
"Having enjoyed a successful business career, I decided to devote the next chapter of my life to promoting my adopted country, the homeland of the Jewish People. Specifically, I want to speak to the large majority of people around the world who neither particularly like us nor do they strenuously dislike us, because, in fact, they really don't know Israel. But if asked, this massive constituency would largely have a negative opinion of our country. This is due to the constant drumbeat of monochromatic, unidimensional news coverage, focussed exclusively on "the conflict". My mission is to reach out to this silent majority and show them the real Israel, that we who live here experience daily: the diverse, tolerant, open, pluralistic, friendly, energetic, fiercely democratic (just ask our PM how democratic we are here), and most importantly, safe Israel that I know and love. I like to call this: "Normal", yet exemplary Israel.
"Exemplary, because our Jewish cultural imperative obligates us to work towards something called Tikkun Olam, literally healing the world. We are using our technological prowess as a force of good around the globe, helping others in a multitude of areas: helping in drought agriculture, solar-powered toilets in Africa, life saving juvenile heart surgery for Palestinians and Africans, disaster recovery wherever needed, artificial limb technology, and many, many more areas, where Israeli technology and know-how are helping the less fortunate. I'm proud to say that I am an important donor to a number of these programs.
"Our Normal Israel is a haven that provided for an in-gathering of Jewish exiles from 6 continents (there are no Jews or anyone else from Antarctica). Nikki, I don't know if you've ever met any Indian Jews, but I have relatives here through marriage, who are of Indian descent, somewhat recently arrived in Israel, and absolutely thriving here. This is a big, successful, tolerant melting pot.
"But we also have a 20% Arab minority, who enjoy democratic and human rights, including freedoms of worship and speech, unknown elsewhere in this region. We have Arab-Israeli policemen, lawyers, and judges, Arab-Israeli doctors and nurses; believe me, when you're sick in the hospital, you're not asking your doctor about his ethnic origins. The reverse is also true, by the way; your doctor doesn't care about whether you celebrate Shabbat, or Ramadan. We have Arab diplomats representing Israel abroad, and of course, Arab-Israeli Members of Knesset. We even have Arab-Israeli soldiers defending their country. And, somehow, in all this diversity, we all seem to get along pretty well...most of the time.
"When lazy, irresponsible journalists ignore this "Normal" Israel, and portray us to an unfamiliar audience as a war zone, well, President Trump coined a phrase for this: Fake News.
"My experience with first-time visitors to Israel is that they are almost universally surprised and impressed, as the Israel they experience is not what the Fake News led them to expect.
"Some of you may know that I brought the Giro d'Italia Big Start to Israel last year, as part of our 70th birthday celebrations. The Giro is the world's fourth most watched event, after the Olympic Games, World Cup of Soccer, and Tour de France. Close to 1 billion people watched the Giro on TV. Compare this to the largest watched event on the American calendar, the Super Bowl, the 2019 edition of which drew a "mere" 98M viewers. And, unlike the Super Bowl which takes place in an indoor stadium, bicycle racing happens outdoors. So 1 billion viewers saw a large part of our beautiful country, through stunning helicopter photography, from Haifa in the north all the way down to Eilat in the south. I like to think of this as bringing 1 billion first time visitors to Israel, via their TV sets. I told Tourism Minister Yariv Levin to expect a BG and AG effect on tourist visits here: Before the Giro and After the Giro. He is justifiably proud that tourism to Israel has increased to over 4.5M annual visitors on his watch; I truly believe we can do better, much better, as we can and should attract 20M tourists a year. Then, the opinions of our country would change. Prime Minister, let's work together on this, we can make this happen. This will pay for itself many times over, both financially, and in goodwill.
"I also know something else about Israelis; we want to be loved. So if we can reach out to the world in a massive way, and present a positive image of our country, this engenders national pride and unifies our citizens.
"My plan is to bring a constant stream of events such as this, in various fields: Sports, Culture, Music, Science, Arts, Business, and others. To accomplish this, I wish to create a permanent endowment of at least $100M, which I think should be funded largely by private donations, but also with some significant Government support. I am ready to lead by example as the lead donor to this fund. Such an endowment would provide a sure source of funding for these sorts of activities in the future, and ensure more events are held in Israel. The Giro was proof of concept in terms of its effectiveness in projecting Normal Israel abroad and also in fostering National pride and unity amongst Israelis. So was Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv, which was seen by over 200M music fans. So was our lunar mission: Bereshit, which demonstrated Israeli ingenuity and technological prowess on a shoestring budget. I was proud to make important contributions to these projects. So did the Adelsons, and the Government of Israel. I think they deserve our applause. Thank you, partners. Sylvan begins the clapping.
"If we can bring major international events to Israel on a regular basis, we can change the image of our country, which sadly today, for the reasons I've described, is not very good. I am calling on philanthropic Israelis and diaspora Jews, as well as the State of Israel to join me in this endeavor. I'll be happy to take pledges at the end of this conference.
"BDS is a small, but very vocal group of haters, astute in the use of modern media techniques. They are inflicting real harm to Israel, by infecting the minds of the silent majority, especially amongst the younger population, including our Jewish Youth, who are sadly ignorant of our history and the reason a Jewish State was re-created in Eretz Israel after a 2000 year absence. By showing our Normal Israel to those people, bypassing the traditional Fake News Media, we are putting a lie to the distortions of BDS, and encouraging the a-political majority to reconsider what they've been sold. This can be done without lecturing, but rather, in this age of short attention spans, with appealing visual and sensory imagery. We have a great product: this special country. We need to sell it better.
"People who know my mission ask me: Sylvan, what are you bringing next? Well, I'm working on several interesting new projects. But don't worry, there will be more, much more, as I'm JUST. GETTING. STARTED.
"God bless the USA. God bless Israel. Thank you."
