Jeremy Weisz 5:55
What do you do to launch Gmail? On the continent? And by the way, there was a video out there from like, eight years ago or more of your first office? I don’t know if you know, it’s out on the internet. Have a tour of your first office? When you first I think maybe when you first started, Nat, I don’t know. But what do you do to launch Gmail on a continent? What was?
Eitan Chitayat 6:20
Well, you know, of course, we’ve had to learn from Google what what was needed and and who the audience was. And the funny thing about Africa, of course, is, it’s, it’s not a funny thing. They’re a completely different culture. But also within Africa, you have different countries, and each of those countries have different cultures and different things that you kind of needed to get a very, very good brief, which they gave us. And down to the type of colors that we were able to use, the symbols that we were able to use, and to learn. I mean, a lot of it was learning about Africa, and the mindset over there, which is the most important part of branding, you know, the most important part of branding is to actually learn and listen. And then once we’d gotten all the information that we’d needed and gotten several, you know, after several conversations, we started working hand in hand with the team, and we ended up delivering a lot of language, and, of course, all the visual assets. And it was just amazing. It was an amazing experience, because it’s like every day you get to first of all work with the African continent. Secondly, it was amazing, because it was something big. Thirdly, it was something that was meaningful. You know, like, I know that we take email for granted, but you actually, you know, I know about you, but I’ve been using Gmail for like, 20 years or since the day Gmail was launched. I’ve been a user. And I think it’s a fantastic product. Invited to it. Yeah, yeah, I actually I was I was I, I got my, I got my whole family invites, because I was one of the first on the list. But anyway, it’s it’s just, it was a fantastic campaign. And also, the added bonus was, wow, you know, we really got to do this, you know, like, you’d sometimes have very big agencies that are doing that. And, and, luckily, and it really was luck. Google believed in me enough, and then put me on. So it was quite the story. And then we went on to work with Google on other things. We worked with YouTube, and we worked with them. With says, we’ve worked with Google, we’ve worked with Gmail, we’ve worked with YouTube. So a lot of opportunities and great stuff.
Jeremy Weisz 8:37
I want to hear your thought process for branding, maybe under a specific example, that maybe let’s just take alert for a second, right? And someone comes to you, what’s your process for thinking through? Because it’s like, there’s so many different directions, there’s so many places you can take something? What’s your process
Eitan Chitayat 8:58
look like? Well, look, I have to tell you a little bit about nadie. Before I tell you about the process, because when you have a small agency, and it’s a successful agency, which you know, knock on wood, ours is you have a choice, you can grow it or you can keep it small, and I made a decision. very conscious decision to keep it small. The two reasons One is when my when my son was born, I decided I wanted to be a very present dad, and that was 10 years ago. And I didn’t want to miss a minute and so far, I’ve been staying true to that. The second thing is I like the work I mean, I know what happens when you go accompany you get further removed from the, from the work, and we had a lot of successes, where I felt that I wasn’t able to bring it. You know what I mean? Like I wasn’t able to bring what I know how to do my craft because I had to manage too many people. And so, changes in your response abilities and day to day changes. Yeah, of course, you know, you’re managing your teams, you’re scaling and what I love about branding, and I’ll get back to your question. Of course, what I love about branding is the craft. I love the craft of branding. I’m a purist. I don’t believe in bells and whistles. I don’t think that branding is creative. I think it’s it’s part creative, of course. But my process is to listen, it’s to understand when you’re working with a company, we say no, I don’t want to say we say no, a lot. But we say it enough times. Because sometimes a we don’t believe in the product. So that’s part part of the process. Maybe I don’t jive with the person, you know, I don’t feel I wouldn’t say integrity, but you know, but it’s, you’ve got to feel the person as well, at least I need to. And those are the first two steps of my process. And then, and then why and selection is the first first step. Yeah, yeah, it is. It’s what are these guys doing? What are they, which is a
Jeremy Weisz 11:02
great thing for any company for any agency to think about, regardless if they want to grow or scale? Yeah,
Eitan Chitayat 11:09
but the great thing is, when you’re small, you know that there’s pros and cons, the Pro is, I don’t want to work with you, and I don’t have to feed no 50 people, you know, I don’t have to pay 50 salaries. So I work with a very, very small team, of people who are all very senior, and we all need to love what we do. And that’s the, that’s the upside, and that really affects the process. So my process is to go deep, very, very deep. And it’s the work is never pawned off to other people, you know, I’m always there. In the process, the first step is just listening and understanding, understanding this may be this industry that we don’t know, as well as the client does, of course, we don’t know the audience, we have to learn the audience, if it’s a technology, whether it’s med tech, or agriculture, or what have you, if it’s a, you know, you know, consumer brand, we need to learn about the product, it’s a lot of learning, it’s a lot of listening. And, and oftentimes, I find that when you do, listen, and you’re listening to the senior team, to the CEO, to the founders, it’s typically inspiring. And, and you get that before you start working with the potential client, you know, if you’re inspired by them. And the wonderful thing about living in Israel, even though we’re going through some difficult times, as everyone knows, is the ideas that come out of this country, and the people that just make these incredible things happen are just so inspiring. But the process is really to learn, I think that’s the first step. And once you’ve learned and listened, then you go to work. And even then it’s not creative yet, then it’s, it’s strategic. And then once you’ve got the strategy down of what the brand should be, and you guys are all on the same page, then the next process is the next part of the process is creativity, which is coming up with, you know, moving from the what of the company, and what they are and what you need to say to how you say it, how you show it. And that’s the process, learn and listen, apply strategic thinking, and then go to town with creative based on everything that you found and everything that you need to say and who you need to say to.
Jeremy Weisz 13:20
Yeah, I find it you know, really instructive on how you think about this for for any company can think about this for themselves. But when they’re thinking of their message and their brand, talk about a lot and I found this company really inspiring so I could see why you why you worked with them and you chose to work with them. Talk about what you did with alert here.
Eitan Chitayat 13:43
It’s a alert. Baylor’s AI a alert. I had met Joe, back in the day and and then he started working on on on this company on this new company. And I mean, who’s not going to be inspired by what they’re doing a weapons detections, technology that can save the lives of people. And it was very moving. And when he first told me about it, I told him when you want to do your branding, then let’s talk and he did and he made it happen. And it was challenging because it’s a technology project, but at the same time, it’s it’s saving human lives. So how do you find the right balance between that you can tug it that hearts and you can tug at heartstrings, but then you lose the technology, you can be a super technology focused company, but then you lose the whole angle of saving lives. So you had to you had to find that balance of truth. And, and it’s actually the story One of the stories that I’m most proud of because the way that they positioned themselves at the beginning and since our branding, they have evolved in this film evolving at the beginning it was we’re going to save children at schools. Now there We’re expanding into other areas, you know, like, into retail as well. But the story that we delivered was all about, you know, you know, a school deserves to be a school, a school shouldn’t be a prison. And what their technology allows you to do is it allows you to detect very, very quickly if there’s a threat. And when you can detect that threat, then the schools can be locked down immediately, security can come in very quickly, and also, police forces and security forces from outside can get in because everything’s on camera with with a alert. So they know, you know, one of the reasons that sometimes you have these big massacres is because even though the police are there, they can’t go in because they don’t know what these guys have got. So, um, so that whole story provides a lot of hope. And the hope that that that your kids can be safer? And who are you speaking to? You know, are you speaking to kids and parents now? Are you speaking to the school system, and at this age of speaking to, to companies, so we had to find the language also, which is based on their truth. And when we met with the team, I mean, these guys are, you know, so many of them are parents, you know, this, it’s very personal. And as a dad, and as a father of two, a lot of that heart and soul goes into the story. And, and I never actually got to deliver their visual identity. We, we did the brand strategy and the story and the naming, but I’m still in touch with Joe, and we help out here and there. It’s an amazing company, I think he’s doing wonderful things are very, very important things, unfortunately. So.
Jeremy Weisz 16:39
Yeah, exactly. Um, you know, what’s interesting when I look through these, and we’re gonna talk about a few others and how you think about branding. And what you did with the companies is, um, you know, we have, you know, Israel aid we have, you know, a lot of really interesting companies. But like, I don’t know why the sweet victory one sticks out to me. Oh, it’s one of my favorite, though, seems like out of the norm when I see your work to tell me about sweet victory. The
Eitan Chitayat 17:13
sweet victory was one of my favorite product projects in the last five years. And I’ll tell you why. Two women approached me I’ve told this story before, but for your viewers, two women approached me, entrepreneurs, wonderful women, and they got to me through someone else, and they had a product. And it was, it’s a chewing gum, it’s a very simple chewing gum. And the idea is that you chew this gum, well put it this way, if you’re watching your weight, or if you’re trying to cut down on sugar, it’s very difficult to put down that, that dessert, you know, not to pick up that dessert at the end of the meal. So what you do is with that product is you take this little gum at the end of your meal and you chew it, you chew it for around two minutes, and it tastes like mint gum tastes great. And then you put it out. And then if you take a bite of that chocolate cake with that tiramisu, or that vanilla ice cream, it tastes like shit. Really, I mean, it tastes changes the taste, it tastes like sand. It tastes awful. And because what it does is it basically neutralizes the sugar receptors on your tongue for a couple of hours. And it’s a genius product. So what did they call it? They called it Genie. Except they’re Israeli. And bless them. It was spelled gy and I, which an English or an American person would say Johnny, and Johnny sounds like vagina. And when they came to me, they said, we’ve heard you great, and we need visual identity. And the visual identity that they had was, as they you know, it just wasn’t right. It was very, um, it was almost, it was white in green and Minty, and it looked like something that you would buy at a health store. And I told them, I’m sorry, but you can’t call it shiny. You know, even though you’re trying to say it’s magical, good thing. He says, All right. Well, yeah, but but but they, they didn’t really want to change it. And I said, I can’t do it, unless you change it. And, and to their credit, and this is why I liked them so much. Because it takes it takes courage. They said, you know, eventually, they just turned around, they said, You know what we’re gonna we’re gonna go with what you’re saying. And then when we started the product at the project, the brand strategy, in short was, you know, where we netted out was that sugar is the enemy. You know, we all love sugar, but we all know that sugar is bad for you. And when you’re trying to defeat an enemy, you need an ally, and you need to be victorious. And that was the story, you know. And out of that came the name which was sweet victory. And out of that came the logo which at the time it they’ve evolved because this was quite a few years ago and they’ve evolved the brand, but at the time, instead of anemic and pastel Lee white and green. It was very bold. Very fun. And if anyone goes to nike.com, and looks at the sweet victory, the branding that we did,
Jeremy Weisz 20:07
yeah, and by the way, I just want to point out real quick, a ton of people are listening, there is a video version of this. And we are actually looking at the Natie website, and you can see some of the work that they’re doing. But yeah, keep going. Yeah. So I
Eitan Chitayat 20:21
mean, like, it was, you know, sugar cravings come. And if you want to defeat them, it’s really hard to do it on your own, and you need an ally, you need someone that will help you win. And, and so what’s interesting about that project is it worked the way it should. You had people that started that were believers, that that they realized, to their own credit that they didn’t have, what they needed. And it started with thinking. And I work with a guy Dan, who’s amazing strategists, I’ve worked with him for 15 years amongst amongst one or two other strategists that I work with. And together, we cracked this strategy. And then out of that came the name. And then out of that came the story. And then out of that came the logo. And it’s when you’re building a brand, the visual identity should answer the logo, the logo should answer the name, the name should answer the story, the story should answer the strategy. And the strategy should answer exactly what that product does. And what people who don’t understand. When it comes to branding, a lot of people don’t understand is that that’s the way it should be. And you don’t want to take shortcuts, you don’t want bells and whistles for the sake of bells and whistles. You don’t want somebody to look or sound sexy, if there’s, there’s not an inherent truth to it. So that’s what I really loved about that project. And what I love even more is that these two women are just just so great. I mean, they’re just so hungry, and so driven, and I’m so proud of them. And they’re going on and they’re and they’re successful, and they’re they’re expanding their business, and I’m I’m just really proud of them, you know, as people.
Jeremy Weisz 22:00
So I buy How do you buy it? Where do you get it?
Eitan Chitayat 22:03
Where can you get this at this stage? I don’t know. But I can find out. And I’ll let you know. You know, I’m looking
Jeremy Weisz 22:09
on here. We should. I mean, I don’t know if you’ve heard of the I’m sure you have people were talking about the something they buy to eat. And then then they eat a lemon and it tastes it’s like almost the opposite. Right? It’s like altered your sour receptors, whatever to make it taste really sweet. This is like the exact opposite of that, in a sense. But yeah, this is really cool. I’ve never heard of this before.
Eitan Chitayat 22:34
Yeah, and it’s actually it’s it’s a herb, you know, it’s a it’s a, I think it’s humana. You know, it that’s like an earthy, natural, it’s a natural ingredient. Yeah. Um, but I know that they sell it in Israel, and they sell it under a different name, because what we did was for the international brand Delcom, but I know that it’s in Asia, I’m thinking that you can get it in the states already, but I’ll find out and I’ll let you know. Yeah, off the Amazon. lately. No one’s been no one’s really been talking about stuff like that here late. Yeah, I’m gonna get back to you. Exactly.
Jeremy Weisz 23:04
You know, there’s bigger fish to fry than dessert. But like, Listen, this is really interesting. And we’ll have to also look on Amazon to see if people can get it. Because I mean, this is a great solution for I mean, I had this with my one of my children last night, like, I want dessert. Well, we’re not having dessert. You get it? You know, this thing about dessert kids every night. Yeah, kids love it. No, the
Eitan Chitayat 23:28
kids love it. And I had I had it and when the kids would come over and they were their friends it was like it was like a game can we try the sweet victory and just to see what things tastes like? And I think it is for for kids as well. That’s hard to say. But in America, you know, with obesity and kids just eating lots of crap and junk I think much more than other places over there. It’s good. And it’s it’s not harmful. It’s got no kind of like bad ingredients in it. Great products. Not
Jeremy Weisz 23:56
on Amazon yet. I’ve had a bunch of Amazon experts are enough to get this.
Eitan Chitayat 24:00
Get I will hope or I will hook I will hook you up if you don’t do awesome. I love it. You know back to you’re kind of
Jeremy Weisz 24:09
in the same vein as you not being able to sleep for the past 30 days and just running like a wild man. We’ll get to that. But the Jewish Agency for Israel. Hmm. Wonderful. Talk about what you did there and a little bit for people that don’t know the organization.
Eitan Chitayat 24:29
Sure. Did you Jewish Agency for Israel has been around for for seven years. And they are all over the world and they help Jewish communities with all sorts of things. And when you looked around five years ago at their story, they didn’t really have one. And you looked at their brand and it looks kind of stuck in the 80s and they He needed help. They needed to be relevant again, I think, not that they weren’t relevant, but they’re sometimes in Ireland for this is this is on camera, right? Yep. Okay, so So here’s the brand, the way the actual the way that it looks, but here’s what the company is doing. And so what you need to do is you need to do that. Right. And so it’s an incredible organization. And they weren’t. They didn’t look like it. You know, and when you when you spoke to them about, you know, when you speak to people about the agency does, you know, people were saying things that they were known for 30 years ago. So we went through a very, very, like the Jewish Agency, like, for example, sweet victory. It’s like when we had the strategic process, we spoke to a few people. It’s a small company. But when we worked with the Jewish Agency for Israel, I think that we spoke to Around 5050 people. There were three strategists on board. And, you know, we spoke to a lot of people, we worked very closely with the senior team, I worked directly with the tan Sharansky, who’s a hero of mine, and just forever an honor. And, and Laura Ashcroft, who was the the Chief Marketing Officer at the time, and we had to really understand everything it is that they do. And one of the most interesting things I think about that process was when we would try and distill what it is that they actually do, it was very difficult for them to say, and I remember for me, one of the one of the highlights, was working with Nutan Sharansky and sitting in his office with everybody. And when I, when I asked him, What is it that you do, he kept saying things that were true, but felt like I don’t know, like, not canned responses, but just not like, almost like corporate responses to me in the room. And so I pressed him and he started getting frustrated with me. Now, it’s not easy to to challenge someone like Nutan Sharansky, who by the way came to my school in JFS, when I was a 15 year old in London, and spoke at my school, as you know, the hero of the Jewish people that escaped, that escaped, you know, Russia. And here I was challenging him. And at some stage, he said, In frustration, in his in his wonderful accent, he said something to the extent of look, you know, there are Jews everywhere, and we, we hold everyone together, we bring them together. And, and that became the tagline every one of us together, you know, and that’s something that of course, I wasn’t the only one to, you know, we worked with Laura and with with Dan and with McFarlane, myself, and there’s another Mikhail that worked on it as well. But once we had that, we then were able to kind of wrap this beautiful story in a manifesto, which we which we wrote. And then we worked on the on the visual identity and the visual identity. As you can see, because you’re as you’re scrolling right now, it’s if you see the original work, there’s a tapestry as a tapestry, and a graphic tapestry like that. And when you look at it, it’s because each each part of the tapestry isn’t is an individual, but it’s a woven tapestry at the fabric of the of the Jewish people woven together, and it’s held together. So again, the Jewish Agency for Israel was, was an evolution of a brand that the logo existed. I mean, we made tiny adjustments to it. But it was really about the strategy, and what is it that we need to say to the world about who we are. And then it was the delivery of the story that had to pack all of the history and all of the programs and everything that they are all about into that story? And then to deliver a graphic language that could hold it all together? And then to deliver multiple? You know, we did we did conference materials, we did, you know, their annual report, we did all of their program materials. And we’ve worked with him for around two years. And what I’m especially proud of, is that because you’re looking at the site right now, if you look at the work that we did five years ago, this organization has done a remarkable job of staying. Absolutely. On brand. And by the way, you’re on the site. Now, this is the first time I’ve seen the site. And I don’t know if this is the homepage is that the homepage This is the homepage is right here. Right. So up until the war, it says Now Israel is at war and we need your immediate support. Up until there it was every one of us together. And I’m glad that they’ve changed it to Israel is is at war right now. But for five years, that was the headline. And that is the story. So, um, that that took the brand strategy story process took around six months, because you had to talk to so many people in so many different countries on the ground. And the senior leadership. There was a phenomenal project. I mean, it, it was exhausting and difficult, because there’s also a desire to do exceptional work always but like, especially with them, because they’re the Jewish Agency for Israel, they represent the Jewish people around the world. And, and to me, as a Jewish as a proud Jew, and as a proud Israeli. It was an honor. You know, I’m very proud of them also, for like maintaining the work that we did, you know, because sometimes fines just fuck it up, you know, you finish the band, and and two months later, you look at their work. I’m like, What the fuck are you guys doing? And you know, but they didn’t. They’re, they’re great, doing good work.
Jeremy Weisz 30:59
I want to talk about I’m that jus for a second. But I also want to share a time people want to follow a ton. And you could first of all, check out their work@natie.com you can see here on the page, but also check out what he’s doing on LinkedIn, as well. Here’s his, his handle here. You can see it. And we’ll put it in the in the notes as well. But you can see here and there’s a lot of thought that went into this piece, which is your header of your LinkedIn, I heard behind the scenes, actually, some of the way you thought through this header. And if you want to just talk about that for a second. And
Eitan Chitayat 31:46
sure, well, I changed my banner when the war started. And, you know, it was, it was a Lego banner before before and it was a natty banner, which we designed with some Lego, which is kind of fun. But I’m seeing what’s unfolding, in in with Israel right now is beyond Israel. And I think it’s very easy to critique Israel, and a lot of people do and, and rightly so like any other country. But there’s a bit of a double standard that goes on when critiquing as well, because you know, there are Jewish people being attacked all around the world because of what Israel is doing. So why why do you attack? A Jewish couple coming out of a movie theater? If there’s a war in Israel, the Jewish it doesn’t have anything to do with Israel. So I know that if you are going to advocate right now for something, sure, I believe that you should advocate for Israel, because I believe in, in our fight against Islamic Jihad. But a lot of people are misinformed. And there’s a lot of propaganda out there. And as soon as you say the word Israel, it’s it’s a cherished word. Yeah, it’s a problem. And it’s not just Israel. It’s it’s, you know, Israel is the Jewish nation. And, and, and I think that when you see global anti semitism, and you see Jews being attacked all around the world, both with inflammatory and violent rhetoric and also physical violence, then is that acceptable? Would you stand with the Jewish people? And I think it’s a truth. I don’t think it’s a gimmick. I do think that we have, you know, 2 million Arabs in our wonderful country with with fully equal rights, there is no genocide, there is no apartheid. And also, I believe that, you know, you have you have other religions living here as well, but it is the Jewish country, it is the one Jewish state in the world. So when you stand with the Jewish people, you should stand with Israel as well. And it doesn’t mean that you can’t criticize Israel, you can, but this is about anti semitism. And so because that’s what Hamas is, they’re anti semitic, they want to kill not only every Israeli, they want to kill every Jew in the world. And after that, believe me, every Westerner that doesn’t convert to their radical fanaticism, you know, so I signed with the Jewish people, is I think about as bullet proof, a message that you could put out right now, because nothing’s bullet proof, you know, we’re always going to be faulted with something as Jewish people. But um, but you stand with us in, in, in our fight for humanity, despite the awful things that we’re all seeing with children being killed and bombings. You can still stand with the Jewish people. And that’s why I put that there and that was adopted, as you know, by by Entrepreneurs Organization, not the organization itself, but like a team of people within that, that believe that too. And other groups as well have started to adopt it, which is fine by me. Like, please use it.
Jeremy Weisz 35:02
You are you said, you know, there’s a lot of misinformation what what in misinformation Have you seen out there? And because you obviously live in Israel, right,
Eitan Chitayat 35:13
and there’s misinformation all over the world. So talk a little a little about some of the misinformation you’ve seen? Well, we can start with the big three. One is as genocide. Okay, I mean, just just just today on LinkedIn, in response to a film that I released called star one. Someone wrote how can you how can you speak for the Jewish people, you have an evil government, and you’re creating a genocide? And, and and you really have to understand what genocide is, I think, to be able to use it. But that’s one of the myths genocide, genocide means that you’re actively killing off a population. You’re, and we’re not doing that, you know, if you look at where Israel was in around 1948, there were around 150,000 Arabs that lived on the land after the War of Independence, you know, which is a whole conversation. But that’s how many were, were living in Israel proper. And today, there are over 2 million. That’s not a genocide, you know, and, and no one is packing people off into trucks. And, and, and and shooting them in the back of the head and putting them in ditches. No one is no one is doing that. That doesn’t exist. Sure. There have been incidents, you know, and literally incidence of awful heinous acts by, you know, if we think about the Hulk Goldstein, who went into a mosque around 20 years ago, and shot up the mosque and killed 26 people. That happened, and that is atrocious. And that, to me is an act of genocide. But I can count on on on on one hand, things like that, that have happened. But if you look at Palestinian terror, not Palestinians with Palestinian terror, um, I don’t believe that that’s the case at all. So I don’t think that there’s a genocide here, there isn’t a genocide here, just people are an educated. The other thing is apartheid. You know, I can tell you that today. I walked out of my home, and I walked past my house. And there’s a big building an eight storey building that has been built, and there’s around 30, Arabs working there. And then I went to the bus. And I got in the bus and it was an hour bus driver. And then later, I went to the eye doctor, and the pharmacist was an Arab. And when I was in hospital around three years ago, and I had seven doctors in hospitalized for 10 days because of something with my eyes. I had seven doctors, and four of my doctors were Arab Israelis. We had a government, before then attending our government up to a year ago that was headed by Naftali Bennett, as you remember, where we had an hour party as a part of the government. That’s not apartheid. You know, there is a definite, there’s a challenge that we have with the land that needs to be solved. And there is definitely a kind of a segregation. But context is important. And when you say there’s an apartheid and you’re ruling over people, I don’t think anyone here really wants to rule over people. Why? Because our soldiers are going to fight and are in putting in harm’s way. And it hurts our economy. And honestly, it’s a pain in the ass. The reason why there’s a wall separating in many areas, the West Bank, and Israel is because of suicide bombers around 20 years ago, when I was living here that when people were mean I walk by at least once or twice a week Dizengoff center in Tel Aviv, where a guy in polling, blew himself up and took and took around 15 People with him with his head lying on the ATM machine after he blew up. I mean, people were doing this for a number of years. And eventually the Israeli government said enough, we’re going to build a wall and keep these people out. Not the Palestinians, but the terrorists. But we’re blamed for it. And I’m not saying we’re blameless in the you know, in the in the overarching conflict I think that we have a lot to answer for, but ultimately, people don’t know those things. People don’t know why there’s a separation but if you come to Israel proper, you know, we you know, we are we live with with Arabs here, just like, you know, any other country have multicam blots of different cultures. But if you go into the West spank, and the country that we would have wanted to have been established there a long time ago alongside us, not instead of us as a lot of a lot of Palestinians want. And that’s, that’s a conversation but alongside us, then the country that they’re going for, would mandate that no Jews are allowed to live there when you have Arabs living here, so I think that I think that people are lazy. And I think that people have always been most people have always been lazy, but in this day and age with Tic Toc, and little tweets, you know, when I wanted to learn about the Second World War, I didn’t, I didn’t go to a Wikipedia page, I read a fucking book called The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shire, which is around 1000 Plus pages. And, and I think that you know, we’ve gotten lazy and um, you know, on my LinkedIn going back to the story, he just threw out shit that he heard genocide, apartheid, you know, buzzwords. And, um, and I think that our, our enemies, meaning Hamas and BDS, you know, Boycott Divestment Sanction, have done a phenomenal job in their propaganda. And they’ve taken, you know, the pages from Google’s handbook, you know, in Nazi Germany. And I think that the truth will win in the end. So it is how many people are going to die before that happens, and how many people around the world are going to understand who’s in the right here and who’s in the wrong, it doesn’t mean that those who are in the right are perfect. I’m the first one to say that we’re not. But that’s kind of that’s kind of my overarching thoughts on
Jeremy Weisz 41:53
You said the big three genocide, apartheid, what’s the what was the third one?
Eitan Chitayat 41:57
Or I think, um, I think, I think, generational hatred. I think that the Palestinians I think for the Palestinians, the nationhood of the Palestinians is a very big issue, because there’s it’s either next to us, side by side with us in peace, or instead of us. And I think that the Palestinian people are fueled by hatred, by their leaders, and by the leaders of the world. I think the world has done a piss poor job of just collectively including the UN have have actually. Well, how do I say this? It’s it because it’s politically charged. And I don’t want to get too political. But I think that when you let hatred, just live and continue, then you’re not doing anyone any favors. And the worst people, the worst people, the people who are suffering the most are those who are being taught that hatred. And I think that the third thing is the generational hatred, that for over 75 years, the Palestinians have been saying that their land was stolen. And it’s not a popular thing to say, if you’re not, you know, an Israel supporter. But if you really look at the facts, and if you really do your research, there has never been a land that was called Palestine. For the Palestinians it was in Palestine came as a punishment by the Greeks. I believe the Greeks or the Romans are hundreds and hundreds of years ago to punish the Jews for their revolution. They revolt against them. And so they named the land Palestine why? Because Palestine represented Philistine. And the Philistines were as you remember, David and Goliath. Um, David slew Goliath, and Goliath was a Philistine. So the Arabs that continued living there, and there were hours on the land, absolutely. Their land was in stolen, it was not anyone’s land. It was the British Mandate. And then the UN determined that they were going to split the land between the Arabs on that land and the Jews on that land. And the Jews accepted the split. And the Arabs did not. And then the very next day, as you know, there was a war where all of these countries around us tiny little Israel, six armies, or was it seven, came to war against Israel, and a lot of those Arabs on those lands were, and this is disputable, either fled or were forced out. The Palestinians today say that they were forced out. The Israelis say that they fled. But honestly, the fact is that a lot of those Arabs left During the war, and no one expected Israel to win, and we won, and then we increased our territory. And the Palestinians became refugees. And they’ve been suffering ever since. Now, if I was a Palestinian, and by the way, the whole Palestinian thing came about with Yasser Arafat because he kind of invented not, he didn’t invent Arabs living on the land, Arabs absolutely lived on the land. But this notion of Palestine was a PR stunt. Because there has never been a state called Palestine. There’s never been a prime minister. There’s never been a president, they’ve never been borders, our borders, it was never ever. And that’s a lie. That’s deception. But getting back to the hate thing, when you teach that lie, to a two year old, and a three year old, or in the West Bank, in Gaza, when you open school books and textbooks, and the textbook has a map, and in the map, you don’t see Israel, you see the state of Israel, but the word Palestine, then that’s lying, but that’s creating hatred. And who let the hatred continue. The our countries did, the UN did, the Palestinian leadership did, and the world did. And that everything that I’m saying doesn’t mean that I don’t want there to be a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace with us, I do. But I want people to understand the facts. And to understand that you can invest all of your time and energy in hatred, and negativity, and, and talking or, and victim victimizing. Or you can do what the Jewish people did, coming out of something, which I believe was infinitely worse, which is build and create and thrive. And stop saying that you can’t, when you can, and you could have many times. And that’s again, not to say that I don’t sympathize with the Palestinian plight I do. But Israel is not going away, Israel is not going to disappear. And Israel will not accept anything other than a Jewish state living here it will like we will not be replaced, because what that actually means from the river to the sea, as you know, and maybe your your listeners don’t, but Israel is around in an hour, from east to west, that’s the border. And from north to south, maybe around eight hours drive. The river on the east side, on the Jordan side. It’s a river, the Jordan river that’s from the river and to the sea is the Mediterranean Sea. So from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free, free of what? Three of who? Three of me, three of my family. That’s hatred. You know, when you ask a Palestinian, what do you actually want? And if you stay with the conversation long enough, they’ll say Israel. So unless that changes, and I’m not saying every Palestinian feels that way, you know, unless that changes, that hatred, that narrative of hatred continues. So it’s, that’s the hatred, which is passed on from generation to generation until a leader who is able to stand up and say, No, we have to start with something we have to start building, we have to teach, and give our people hope, and, and, and produce and create, and not what commerce produces and creates. And that’s happening more in the West Bank, the West Bank of Jordan, or Judea, and Samaria, or whatever you want to call it. But, um, it’s very difficult to see the world not understanding that the world is so ignorant, and buying into easy lies and sound bites. But like I said, you know, a good brand, which is built on a foundation of truth will win in the end. And I think our truth has been around for what, almost 6000 years, you know, the Christian world reads about it in their Bible, and the Muslim world, or, you know, the descendants of it. So I’m saying that the truth is not the truth of the last 75 years. The truth is the truth of the last 6000 years, and I’m hoping that that wins. So that we can live in peace side by side. And I’ll shut up now. No, I’m
Jeremy Weisz 49:22
pulling up, you know, the the ultimate definitive resource, right, which is walmart.com. No. You get by, you know, here’s the map. And so you’re saying when that red.on The river to the sea, you’re right here yet. I’m right there, from the river, from the river to the sea.
Eitan Chitayat 49:47
You’ll see that yeah, that that red.is The sea and just right of the West Bank is the Jordan River. And so when they say from the river to the sea will be free. You know if that isn’t a call to genocide after October 7, and you saw what happened then? I don’t know what is. And I don’t think that all of these people chanting in the streets want a genocide. I just don’t think they the most of them really know what the fuck they’re talking about. Yeah. heavy shit, man. Yeah, it’s
Jeremy Weisz 50:27
it’s crazy times and I wanted to talk about this for a second. I’m that Jew I am that gmail.com. And, and one part about this is you know you you talk about all this stuff openly but before you put this out you weren’t sure you want to put it out? You talk to your family about maybe not putting it out talk. I mean, talk about the decision to even put this out there
Eitan Chitayat 50:55
sure. Was all it’s it’s I’m that you not I am that you died on but I’m
Jeremy Weisz 51:00
saying that’s the domain name. Yeah, yeah. Um,
Eitan Chitayat 51:04
a friend of mine was living in was living in France. And at the time of the Charlie Hebdo massacres. And if you remember the Charlie Hebdo massacre, there’s also a kosher supermarket that was targeted and for Jewish people were killed just for being Jewish. And I spoke to a friend of mine who was living in France who had lived in Israel before she’s Jewish. And I was like, Well, how how’s it going? Because it was, people remember, it was, it was just horrific. What was going on over there? And she said, Look, I don’t tell anyone I’m Jewish. When I meet people, I’m too scared. I don’t tell them that I’ve ever been to Israel. And I said to myself, I said to myself, how can how can it be after speaking with her? How can it be that in, in in at the time 2015 or 2014? whenever it was, how can someone feel that way? And so I sat down, and I wrote, I met you. And it was, it was a blog post, and it kind of went viral. It got like, some traction. And then it’s kind of a poem. And I thought, Well, I think I would like to turn it into a piece. And then I turned it into a piece, and the piece was ready. And, um, and then I sat on it for a while, didn’t really sit. And then there was some awful in 2015, some awful knife attacks, where terrorists coming out of the West Bank and Gaza, were just coming up to Israeli movie goers or supermarket shoppers, people walking in the park and running up to them and stabbing them in the back. Like it was an epidemic that lasted for around a month. And when that started happening, I realized, um, you know, that being attacked, because the Jewish and I want to put this out there. The question was how? And that was your question. I had it because it really is a how I could put it out anonymously, I could put it out on YouTube, I could put it out as some type of something on a messaging platform, and it could spread. But what I really wanted to do was I wanted to I wanted to stand up and show the world that I’m not afraid. And so I did it on Facebook, because on Facebook, of course, it goes with your name. And I think more important than the film itself. For me, it was me saying my name is a Tantra diet. And I’m that to that statement. And it was a family decision, I sat down with my wife and I said, Hey, you know if I do, because at the time, no one was doing this, it was very difficult to you know, in, in social media world of around 10 years ago, Jewish people were more kind of like, I’m not going to go there. I don’t want that type of heat. And, and I wanted to speak for them. And I wanted to speak from my friend in France. And I just thought, you know, if, if I do this, maybe other people will do this. And so, but I also knew that it would come with death threats and hate mail and all of that stuff. But I’m true to my nature. I said, Fuck it, my wife said, go for it. And I did it. And it just just took off. It just it just blew up. And it’s been seen on different platforms around 15 million 15 million times now. And it’s still circulating because I think I think what it is is and what’s annoying about anti semitism and being Jewish is that this subject is always it’s always there. You know? I think people like to put people in boxes. Yeah, they like to put black people in boxes, Asian people in boxes, and they’d like to put Jewish people in boxes. And this statement was really like, you can’t fucking put me in a box. Because I’m so many things. And, and that’s kind of what I said, you know? That’s what I said, when I posted it. We are so diverse. We are white, and we are black. And we are brown. And we speak billions of languages. And we’ve been influential in science and in art and in technology and in medicine and in the humanities. And we have been around for such a long time, and we’ve gone through disasters and catastrophes and Holocaust, and we are still standing. And fuck you, if you think that you can define me, I define me, I tell you who I am. This is my statement, I met you. And I think that that resonated with a lot of people. And that’s why and that’s why it’s spread. And that’s why I think it’s still spreading. But it was, it felt good. It felt good to put it out there. It felt I think it feels good for people when they see it, you know, as well, I still get a lot of love for that. And I’m just, I’m so proud to have, um, and fortunate I feel to have contributed something to help people understand us a little bit more and to give Jewish people strength when they need it. And I think that that’s when, when they watch this, to remember who you are, and to not be scared to say it loud and proud. warts and all, because we’re not perfect. And said something I say in the piece, too. We’re not perfect. But I think we’re I think we’re okay. I think we’re more than okay, for the most part. Data.
Jeremy Weisz 56:30
Thank you for sharing that last question is just a few resources that you can share that you people you follow that you love, and you want to share. And one person we are talking about before we hit record Hillel fold him and maybe other people that that you follow and encourage people to check out. Sure,
Eitan Chitayat 56:51
yeah, we were talking about Hillary because he just showed my film. I mean, I know he loves. And he’s a tech guy. I think he’s built an incredible brand. I mean, when it comes to our narratives that different, but I respect the work that he’s doing in his Israel advocacy in his own way. I don’t agree with all of it. But um, but I think that he’s doing a really good job. And he’s done some some terrific work lately in advocating for the Israeli people and the Jewish people. Like I said, I don’t agree with everything that he says. But I’m in the situation that we’re in right now. I think all of us are putting our our small differences aside. And we’re on the same page about a lot of things. So he’s someone that I am, that I would suggest that people follow to get. I wouldn’t say that he’s objective. But he’s smart. And he’s right many times. So I would suggest that people follow him. I really like I really like Emily Schrader, Emily Schrader is doing phenomenal work in bringing the facts to the world. There’s another guy, and I hope I don’t get his name wrong. Yossef had dad. And he is, can we just check that make sure I didn’t get it wrong. Yeah. I follow him all the time. He’s an Israeli Arab. He served in the armed forces, and he’s Arab. And he is standing up for Israel standing up for the values of the Jewish nation. And he’s very, very, very objective here yourself. My dad. Absolutely. Another person that I really love is Eve Barlow. Deep Barlow has a substack. You can follow her on Twitter. She is she’s not a friend, but she’s a mate. I’ve interviewed her on my podcast, which you can direct people to maybe later. And she got a lot of heat a few years ago. She’s blunt. She’s an incredible writer, and she is a force of nature. Not to be I think, is a lioness. And I think she’s doing phenomenal work. And also, there’s someone else that I like, and her name is Shana. And I’m gonna just make sure that I don’t get her name wrong. Her full name, because she’s a maid as well. And her name is Shoshana Gaskell kids, Jessica, and I love her as well. And Lea Kern, by the way, Lee Kern is this English dude who’s funny as shit. And he’s fighting the good fight from England. These are all how they spike. Lee L. E. Kern, Kear en. And there are all sorts of other people. I mean, there are there are some wonderful people doing phenomenal work. And I think that it’s these people that you know, we put ourselves in the line of fire. Yes, that’s okay. You can find him on Instagram. He’s, he’s, he’s great. But I think these people you know, what we’re trying to do is we’re we’re really putting ourselves on the front line. As as people with our careers with our reputations, we’re not we’re not organizations. And I think we’re proud to do it just like you’ve seen the Israeli people and the Jewish people galvanize and become one I think that a lot of these quote unquote influencers I don’t like the word and I’m an accidental influencer I don’t think I’m an influencer really, I think these people are, but I’m it’s so important right now to speak up, not just Jewish people, it’s so important that that, that people around the world stand up, because there is a right here and there is a wrong, I mean, I do believe that all the people that I just mentioned, are good people with their hearts in the right place. And they they like me accept criticism of the State of Israel and can accept a lot of things that need to be done on our side to make things better, but we’re fighting lies and we’re fighting a war of propaganda which is what Nazi Germany’s did in Germany but this is on a global scale. And I highly recommend that you follow these people these good people, the soldiers and um and, and many more like them, and give them your strength, give them your support, listen to them do and I would suggest anyone who who is a little ambivalent you know, we’re sitting on the fences don’t make a choice. Find out what Hamas is all about. And what they’re preaching not what the mobs are saying Free Free Palestine that’s a great slogan but but do some digging and then find out what these people are saying find out what the Israeli government the Unified is ready to go not Netanyahu. I’m not in Netanyahu. And I’ve never voted for him in my life. But the coalition government, what the state of Israel is all about everything that I told you about no apartheid, and there’s no genocide and none of that shit. I would advise that people do the work and, and, and follow these people as well.
Jeremy Weisz 1:02:08
A ton. I mean, the first one, the Thank you. Thanks for sharing your journey. Your story. Everyone check a ton out on LinkedIn. You could check them out@natie.com You could check them out on I am that jus.com and many more and a Eitan, thank you so much.
Eitan Chitayat 1:02:28
Thank you, sir. Appreciate it and stay safe out there.
Outro 1:02:30
Thanks for listening to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast. This episode is powered by Rise25 Please subscribe and check out future episodes.