Interview with IDF Reservist, Commander, Israel Advocate and Lawyer Stav Cohen

I first met Stav this past  Friday at Congregation Ohab Zedek, a historic landmark synagogue on the upper west side of Manhattan that has been around for over 150 years and which is under the leadership of Rabbi Allen Schwartz since 1987. The Synagogue graciously hosted a Friday night Shabbat meal this past weekend, in which Stav came with a group and delegation from frontline advocates that included Captains, Medics, IDF veterans and a Nova Music Festival survivor. Each member of the Group that was visiting the States on a speaking and Israel advocacy tour spoke beautifully from the heart as they related their emotional stories of both survival and sacrifice for the Nation of Israel.

I asked Stav what the main intent was for this meaningful and compact 12 day trip and the itinerary that he set up for his Group? He conveyed that, “my main goal is to fight antisemitism and (if needed) to build bridges as well. ” Stav continued by stating that “we can find strength through resilience and we find that our main audience that we are targeting is on US campuses where the next Congressional American leaders are sitting. The journey of this past trip started in Washington DC and brought us to New York, in which the last leg of the journey will be in Boston.” 

    I asked Stav what the biggest insight and takeaway is that he has gained from this trip so far? Stav replied ” It’s not necessarily a positive one. We met with members of Congress as we started our journey and spoke with one of them who sat on the board of the Senior Security Council. We spoke with him and (as a Jew) he told us, “listen, I have here in my office people from Gaza and I’m from Israel, and we are comprised as a group of Palestinians, Israelis and Jews. You name it, we have people from all walks of life and (he went on to say) that the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis are one of the same.” I immediately and justifiably countered his claim (I will not mention his name) and told him, “that’s  very interesting Sir but I personally never heard of a Palestinian who was afraid that a Jew would yell “Baruch Hashem” and explode himself in a mosque, you will never hear anything like that. So, for me, the double standard of the American Jews is what really hurts me the most.”

I went on to ask Stav about some of the insights that he has gained from going undercover as a palestinian and hamas supporter and wearing a Keffiyeh on US college campuses? Stav mentioned that he has “gone undercover at Institutions such as Washington Square Park at NYU and the main gate of Columbia University. The experience was eye-opening and it was amazing to see what we discovered. This was not my first rodeo (I had gone undercover in the past) and  I’m constantly going back and forth from the battlefield of reserve duty in Israel to the battlefield here in the States on College Campuses. What I noticed is that whenever I come with an Israeli flag or show my identity, they’re not willing to engage and they’re being trained not to, actually, just like Rabbi Schwartz eloquently stated at the Friday night Shabbat Meal.”

“So I put on my Keffiyeh and spoke Arabic fluently and brought another speaker of mine that  has the look and resemblance of an Arab person and we went to the pro Palestinians’ students. We spoke to them in Arabic, yelled some slogans for “Palestine” and (before you know it)  we were in with them and considered their hero. We ended up showing them October 7th footage that “we were proud to have supposedly committed”, and saw that they were in shock. Their main reaction was that they were either in shock or they burst into tears and  ran away. That was the first time that most of them ever watched the October 7th videos.”

“There were also some reactions that were on the opposite side of the spectrum, in which one of the “protesters” actually almost punched me outside of CUNY Law.  He was a young lawyer or a soon-to-be lawyer and said that he was on the flotilla with Greta Thunberg.  He was very fascinated and happy to see all the footage of the dead bodies from October 7th up until we got to a moment that he saw the picture of the women that were raped, and he was like, ‘what do you mean that women were raped?’ That’s when he got aggressive, lost it and almost punched me in the face.  He did not comprehend the October 7th that included, raping, beheading, and the burning of babies and yet he claims he is fighting the good fight? That is the essence of a hypocrite.”

The last thing I asked Stav as he told me about his incredible journey of advocacy thus far was what his hope is for the future for American Jewry? His answer was that “American Jews need to wake up and they are very comfy here in their lane whether it’s in cities like San Francisco and all across America. But they’re relying on their eyes, what they are seeing now is only in the present and it’s far from what the  future includes (including a silent jihad), where we are seeing radicals and Muslims who are taking their positions and bringing them in to contemporary politics and changing the face of the U.S. My biggest concern is regarding the next American Congress and who the future leaders will be.” As I finished my conversation with Stav Cohen, I thanked him for his steadfast vision and advocacy as he fights the battle both on the physical battlefield and the battlefield of public opinion as we valiantly fight the good fight on a daily basis.