Douglas Murray's Great Example

British journalist and political commentator Douglas Murray received a special award on April 10th from Israeli President Isaac Herzog and ???? ???????-The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli , for his tireless advocacy work on behalf of Israel since the outbreak of the October 7, and for being a friend to the Jewish people and fighting the resurgence of antisemitism.

Dozens of his clips went viral here over the last 6 months, but for some reason his receiving this award by the President was overlooked.

My Commentary

Douglas Murray's speech was literally what I'm talking about - love will conquer all. The best way to win is by adding more love, and teaching our kids to love. It's the most powerful "weapon" in the world.

3 Lessons

So first of all - how wonderful would it be if we had more friends like Douglas Murray who put his whole public image/career on the line to stand with us in our time of need - it's really quite incredible when you think about it. He never hesitated for a second, and sung our praises wherever he could. Imagine how great would it be if we could all speak this way about Israel? One can only admire how he stood up for Israel with such a passion in interview after interview under the most challenging conditions.

And second, let us learn from him how to get a point across without losing our head and getting into a screaming match. Notice how he always kept his cool, never got to a point where he was using any negative language, and simply got his point across in the most articulate way. This is how a dialog should be conducted in a civil manner, setting an atmosphere where we can actually hear and absorb what the other person is saying. This is a skill we'll all need to learn in the new era.

Thirdly, it's a good thing we have special souls like this. But this amazing example provided by a non-Jew must raise many question marks for the rest of us. When you see all the internal clashing going on here - it really hurts to watch it. Just so you understand I have no problem with criticism, it's one of the signs of a society's development. And lack of criticism is a sign of degeneration.

But I'm totally against criticism that is only about stirring the pot of hate. That is not criticism, but something else altogether.

The Bottom Line

For us to have tons more friends like Douglas Murray, not only here and there, but everywhere - we need to shift away from the divisive dialog style we currently have. And that will significantly change how the whole world perceives us.

We are a nation full of opinions. We need to learn how to converse in a way that brings us closer together, rather than creating greater gaps in society.

Why is this relevant here on LinkedIn? Because effective communication is the most important skill we'll need in the future. That's what Scott Galloway just said:

Millionaire Entrepreneur Reveals No 1 Skill For The AI Era. It's Not Coding Scott Galloway, a millionaire, believes effective communication is crucial in a world increasingly reliant on technology NDTV

So with all due respect to Israel's amazing technology, if we don't learn to communicate with one another in a way that will accelerate our healthy development as a society, we're going to keep having problems going forward.