LIers at gala for FIDF hear a warning on Syria

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The head of IDF Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Hertzi Halevi, told the national gala of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces that Israel must be “prepared” on its northern border with Syria.

“Syria has long ceased to be the state we all knew four years ago,” Halevi told 1,200 attendees — including a delegation from FIDF Long Island Region — in Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria. “We call it ‘50 Shades of Black,’ though I must admit I haven’t read the ‘grey’ version. One needs to take only a glimpse at their inner executions to understand why we must be prepared in the northern border.”

The head of IDF intelligence also said that the so-called Arab Spring has turned into a wider religious war redrawing the Middle East.

“The maps of our area have been changing in front of our eyes. Borders drawn more than a century ago are being recklessly erased. The upheaval in the Middle East has turned into a religious struggle among armed factions,” said Halevi in the gala’s keynote address. 

Among the delegation members were FIDF Long Island Director Liron Kreitman; FIDF National Board Member and FIDF Long Island Chairman Ronny Ben Josef; FIDF National Board Member Shahram Yagoubzadeh and his wife, Yvette; and FIDF supporters David and Roya Emrani, Leonard and Susan Feinstein, Lee and Fariba Harounian, and Elias and Lila Kalimian.

FIDF National Board Member Rabbi Peter Weintraub, who served as dinner chairman, said that “over the dozen years that I’ve been involved in FIDF, I’ve been privileged to see how this organization makes a powerful difference in the lives of the brave men and women who defend and protect Israel — and the Jewish people. This Gala provided a wonderful, stirring opportunity for us to say thanks, and to stand proudly with them.”

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