{"id":8605,"date":"2013-08-08T20:56:28","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T02:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=8605"},"modified":"2013-08-08T20:56:28","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T02:56:28","slug":"the-wonderful-visit-of-oz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/the-wonderful-visit-of-oz\/","title":{"rendered":"The wonderful visit of Oz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By BEN SALES<\/p>\n<p>TEL AVIV (JTA) &#8212; Dr. Mehmet Oz sat down to talk with JTA on the Tel Aviv coast last week, but what he really wanted to do was go to the beach.<\/p>\n<p>Oz, the surgeon and well-known TV personality, was in Israel for the first time and had a packed itinerary. He traversed the country from the Red Sea to the Golan, lectured Israeli physicians in a northern Israeli hospital and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n<p>His host on this whirlwind tour was Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the author and sexpert who lives in New Jersey. The two met when they were both on an Oprah Winfrey radio program. Boteach recently gave Oz an award for being a &#8220;champion of Jewish values,&#8221; and the trip was paid for by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, another recipient of the award.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8615\" style=\"width: 234px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Boteach-and-Oz.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8615\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8615 lazyload\" title=\"Boteach and Oz\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Boteach-and-Oz-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Boteach-and-Oz-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Boteach-and-Oz-764x1024.jpg 764w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Boteach-and-Oz.jpg 1936w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 224px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 224\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8615\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8615 \" title=\"Boteach and Oz\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Boteach-and-Oz-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Boteach-and-Oz-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Boteach-and-Oz-764x1024.jpg 764w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Boteach-and-Oz.jpg 1936w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-8615\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Mehmet Oz, right, and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem, August 2, 2013. (The Jewish Values Network)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A Muslim of Turkish descent, Oz delivered a relatively conservative line on Israel in an interview, even casting doubt on the viability of the two-state solution. He also explained why he went to Hebron and Psagot, two controversial Israeli settlements deep in the West Bank.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JTA:<\/strong> <em>What drove you to come to Israel and what has surprised you most about the country?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Oz:<\/strong> I come every summer to Istanbul and keep meeting Israeli tourists. What was most surprising was that I knew about the historical sites, I traveled the whole country, and I know now that that\u2019s the tip of the iceberg. What\u2019s special is the energy of this nation, which was able to build a thriving modern society out of the desert.<\/p>\n<p><em>Israeli-Palestinian negotiations restarted recently and it\u2019s assumed that any final deal would involve the dismantling of Israeli West Bank settlements. Why did you decide to visit Hebron? Was it problematic for you as a Muslim?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I went there especially because I was a Muslim, to the burial place of the patriarch of my religion. Hebron meant connecting to a place that represents that connection, and to be able to see Islamic writing, Jewish writing, Christian writing and all three [religions] worshiping at the same tomb.<\/p>\n<p>I went out of curiosity to see a place that is sacred to me. There will be political discussions forever, and we should follow an inner instinct. I went with love in my heart.<\/p>\n<p><em>In addition to practicing Western medicine, you\u2019re a big believer in non-Western cures and you preach the importance of patients having a positive mindset. In that regard, what\u2019s your takeaway from Israeli culture and Jewish values?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s difficult to understand the world if you don\u2019t understand Israel. There\u2019s a clear intersection of Jewish values, modern society and coping with the modern world. In a society like Israel, where there\u2019s tremendous stress, it is important to remember those deep values. If you don\u2019t love yourself you can\u2019t love your neighbor.<\/p>\n<p>The most important thing in life is to have purpose. If you give your heart a reason to keep beating, it will always keep beating. Because of their will to take on the physical forces of the desert and their neighbors, [Israelis] have a clear purpose to change the world.<\/p>\n<p><em>What has been the most challenging part of the trip?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We were driving and I saw workers from South Asia, and I wondered, \u201cWhy are South Asians working in these fields when there are workers who live in the West Bank?\u201d We must find a way for people to work together peacefully.<\/p>\n<p>There are such wonderful opportunities to work together. We should build a bigger pie. Israel is a microcosm for so many problems you have around the world. It\u2019s the gold standard of conflict. If we could solve this, it\u2019s a toolkit for solving other problems.<\/p>\n<p><em>How has visiting Israel and the West Bank changed your perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You learn about the fictions you create around solutions. It would be very difficult to pass laws that intersect between people living next door to each other. It\u2019s not as easy as being for or against it. You realize it\u2019s much more difficult. It\u2019s much grayer. It\u2019s not black and white.<\/p>\n<p>The ultimate solution will be driven by financial means. Peace is an imperative for that. When people love their children so much, they\u2019ll do whatever it takes to make their future brighter.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"The%20wonderful%20visit%20of%20Oz\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3411,8781,8790,8795,8788,1138,412],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8616,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605\/revisions\/8616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}