34 minute read
Malcolm Nance
FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICER
Malcolm Nance explains how conspiracy theories, racism and increasing hostility toward democracy have all contributed to the rise of what he calls a “Trump Insurgency in the U.S.” From the July 19, 2022, program “Malcolm Nance: Behind the Ideology of the Trump Insurgency.” MALCOLM NANCE, Retired Intelligence Officer; Author, They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency In Conversation with PAT THURSTON, Host, “The Pat Thurston Show,” KGO-AM
MALCOLM NANCE
INSURGENT IDEOLOGY
PAT THURSTON: Malcolm Nance is a former senior chief petty officer specializing in naval cryptology. Most recently, he spent the last four months fighting in Ukraine as part of the International Legion. Malcolm, welcome back to The Commonwealth Club. MALCOLM NANCE: Thank you very much. THURSTON: Ukraine is something every one of us really cares about. You’ve been there. You’ve been on the ground. You’ve been helping them in all manner of things in Ukraine for the months that you spent there. You were there on the front lines.
A couple of questions. One is, at the beginning, when the Russians were amassing all this stuff and our intelligence services were telling us they’re preparing for an invasion—we knew what they were doing. We knew whether Ukrainians knew that they were planning an invasion. It always seemed as if the United States wanted to stop the invasion from happening, to truly help the Ukrainians, that would have been the place to do it. Could we have done that? NANCE: Well, that depends on what you view the word stop as. I mean, could we have gone and carried out airstrikes or could we have done something diplomatically or politically? Let me tell you something. In fact, I’ve been in Ukraine since the last week of January. So actually I’ve spent almost seven months in Ukraine. I came home for 10 days to get all my combat equipment at the end
PHOTO BY SARAH GONZALEZ/PEOPLETOGRAPHY
Malcolm Nance, seen here in his 2019 appearance at The Commonwealth Club.
of February, when the invasion started. But I spent that month doing an analysis of the order of battle, where all the Russian forces were, how they were going to move. We went down all the major highways in Ukraine to see how would they actually invade, what would it look like when they flowed into the country, what villages, what cross roads—most important, which gas stations had liquor in them, right? Which turns out to be true [laughter], because the SOCAR gas stations are Azerbaijani-run and they have a wall of liquor that they sell, including 12-year-old Azeri cognac, and displays of Jack Daniels and six packs of Coke. So we knew the Russians would take a long time at those. Whereas the WOG or the OKO gas stations didn’t have as much alcohol.
So that literally was part of our factoring. We have video of the Russians looting a SOCAR, stealing the money, pulling down all of the alcohol off the wall, hundreds of bottles of alcohol. So all of these things go into the kind of intelligence analysis that I was doing. I was reporting this on MSNBC at the time, even though I was not part of MSNBC’s team on the ground in Ukraine. I was there as an independent national security analyst. But one of the things that I learned very quickly was it was becoming very apparent by the beginning of February that the United States had a copy of the battle plan.
I was seeing things occur and things that the White House were saying that was very clear to me—[and to] anyone in the intelligence community—that we knew what they were doing, and this wasn’t like we just intercepted that communication that day, or just, you know, some spy came in that morning. This was something we knew, and the White House was selectively releasing. “We know you’re going to do this. We know you have these troops here. We know you’re going to come across this axis,” and then we start seeing the Ukrainians do defensive activity in the precise lines of attack that we expected, like up near Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is a radioactive wasteland. But the Ukrainians and the Americans knew they would come through it. Their vehicles could endure going through that radioactive area. And as we later found out, they didn’t quite know what radiation was. [Laughter.] I’m not joking. They had hundreds of people sickened by being in the hottest nuclear zone on the planet. So as we watched all of this unfolding, it became pretty clear to me that the White House had a copy of the plan and that, according to The New York Times reporting in February, they had had a copy of the plan since early October. THURSTON: Where did they get it? NANCE: Well, this is how intelligence works. Every once in a very great while—I mean, I did 20 years active duty, literally in some of the greatest secrets the United States has—and very rarely do you see what we call crown jewels intelligence. Just as soon as you look at it, you go, “Who did you buy?” I remember one activity that I saw, it just was very clear to me [that] someone took a forklift of gold bars and brought it into the room and went over to the back of their Mercedes and goes, “I’m going to put this palette of gold bars in your trunk and you’re going to hand that envelope over to me,” because that’s legit, right?
Whatever the White House had here, it was clear this was crown jewels intelligence from the United States. THURSTON: It came from Russian intelligence? NANCE: Somebody had brought an entire copy of the plan to us, or so it appeared. And the White House would later sort of confirm that they were dropping the intelligence that they knew. They went to the Chinese with a copy of the plan. They went to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr ] Zelenskyy. We also had Russian politicians that knew. [Vladimir] Zhirinovsky, this loudmouth pro-Putin autocrat there who died [earlier] this year, he said in mid-December that they would invade the last week of February, somewhere around the 24th, and that was after all the delays were factored in, because it appeared that us releasing intelligence delayed the Russians. The Russians wanted some measure of surprise. They weren’t going to get it. But the way that the White House handled this was brilliant.
To those of us in the community, it was clear maybe two forklifts of gold bars were there [laughter], and we bought a tractor trailer for them to take it home with and gave them one of the forklifts. I mean, this was pure—it was just too good for them to have an outline. I had in the pre-war [time] gone to Donetsk and Luhansk with
the commander of the Ukrainian Joint Task Force, General [Oleksandr] Syrskyi, who was commanding right at the battle front that they’ve held since 2014. We were 70 meters—that’s 210 feet—away from the Russians. But the media was coming to them and asking crazy questions like, “Well, I know the Russians are right over there, but what if they attack from the south?” And this guy’s like, “I’ve been fighting these guys for three years. I’ll fight them when they come from the South.” “But what if they attack from the north?” “I’ll fight them if they come from the north.” And I’m like, wait, people do not understand what they’re doing here.
They’re watching a general’s response. I’m watching the general. I said this on MSNBC; I said these guys are going to fight. I can tell by the look in this man’s eyes he is ready to kick Russian ass and enjoy it. He’s a very short guy, a thick guy. And the other commander, the commander of land warfare was . . . about five foot five inches of I cannot be defeated. No, really. And as I looked at them, I was like, “Whoa, I think
there’s something happening here in media that is not being factored.”
I said this on one of the MSNBC shows about three or four days before the invasion, and they were like, “You know, the invasion will be quick.” Analysts were coming on [and saying] “The invasion will be quick, rather fast.”
And I said, “Let me tell you something . . .” THURSTON: They were talking about the Ukrainians losing. They said he [Putin] would be in there within two weeks. It would all be over. NANCE: Kyiv would be taken in 72 hours.
I kept thinking this is why intelligence field collectors are the smart ones to listen to. We’re on the ground. And I’d been in the city of [Kyiv]; it’s the size of Chicago. It has a bigger population; it’s 5 million people. [There are] these 20-story Soviet apartment blocks that are 20 buildings deep. I’m like, no one’s ever taking this city. There’s little old ladies right now who are woefully heartbroken that they didn’t get to throw their Molotov cocktails out their 18th-story windows on top of Russian tanks. If you go to the checkpoints in Kyiv right now, there are thousands upon thousands of Molotov cocktails and crates waiting for the reservists, because they expected to be fighting hand-and-fist with the Russians. The Russians never got anywhere near taking Kyiv, except one ambush that the Ukrainians let them into the city and slaughtered them wholesale.
I said the same thing, in the pre-war; I [said] they’re going to lose this war. They don’t have enough men to win this war. THURSTON: The Russians. NANCE: Yes. THURSTON: And you still believe that— that the Ukrainians are going to win. NANCE: Sure. And I got to tell you, Russia definitively, without any question, is going to lose this war. [Applause.] The only question is what day are we going to have the Victory Over Russia parade? Are we going to have to get in clean uniforms?
I’m a member of the international legion. I am with the forces that are fighting the Russians on the front line on the eastern front. And I can tell you right now, whatever combat power [the Russians] have left, it’s spent. They do not want to be carrying out any more operations. THURSTON: You know, the big threat that [Putin] is always putting out there is that he’s going to launch a nuke. So it’s supposed to make everybody back off. How can Ukraine defeat Mother Russia without Putin, his ego—would it be able to handle it without him launching a nuke? NANCE: That’s like saying you have fire insurance on your home, and you’re constantly worried about an arsonist coming to your house. I mean, that could happen. THURSTON: Putin’s threatening it. NANCE: Yeah, but I used to say this when I did counter terrorism, is “Is ISIS going to be my travel agent? Am I going to allow them to determine whether I fly to Milan or not?” THURSTON: Exactly NANCE: The same thing with Vladimir Putin. I worked in a national nuclear command post for a short period of time. I have watched the machination of how nuclear weapons are authorized and released, and watched how Russia does it.
We’re going to have a big, long chain of intelligence indicators right down to a guy who’s sleeping in, you know, Vladivostok, where they think they’re going to secret out one nuke? [As if] the United States isn’t watching; and there’s going to be a phone call at NSA. And that guy [in Russia] goes like, [sounding sleep] “What?”
He’s going to [be told], “You’re going to open up special locker number 7–3–5.” And he’s going to go, “What?!” And they’re going to go, “Yeah, you’re going to open up.” And then vehicles are going to move and our satellites are going to see it.
Before they ever open that locker, there’s going to be a critical report going to the commander in chief; we’re going to wake Joe Biden up at three in the morning and we’re going to say “Vladivostok nuclear weapons storage handling facility is taking out a 5-kiloton nuclear weapon and there is a special train which appears to be routed to the eastern part of the country.” And they’re got to say, what does that mean? It means they are taking out a 5-kiloton nuke to carry out a tactical nuclear strike. [Russia] won’t even have that thing loaded before the United States is on the phone calling Vladimir Putin going, “Don’t do it. We will be forced to destroy your air force. We will be forced to intervene militarily with NATO. We will be forced to invade Belarus. We will be forced to change the entire balance of Eastern Europe. Don’t think about it.”
When you intervene like that, that’s where you’re going to get your factor of, Are we dealing with a madman or not?
Vladimir Putin may be thinking, “If I
nuke Kyiv, it will have all the fallout in the fallout pattern of Chernobyl. It’ll go through Belarus, it’ll go up through Kaliningrad and parts of Poland and then into Sweden. And that’s not my problem.” But the level of madness that would require, even though they’re talking about it on Russian state television, and when you talk about it, then you’re viewing it as a viable way. THURSTON: But, Malcolm, my understanding is that as many safeguards as we have here in the United States, Russia has safeguards, too.
So Putin’s a mad man. But could Putin independently launch? Wouldn’t he be stopped by his own security forces who are not all that loyal to him? NANCE:Well, you would hope. I mean, our system in the United States is not designed to stop. I have some news for you. The president of the United States is a nuclear monarch. If he chooses a viable— THURSTON: Oh, don’t tell me that in the shadow of Donald Trump. [Laughter.] Oh, my God. Does he know? NANCE: I was in an op ed by [Washington Post columnist] Jonathan Capehart two months before Trump took power, about the nuclear monarchy of Donald Trump and why it was so dangerous to allow him to have the keys to Pandora’s box. Fortunately, we’ve dodged that bullet—for now.
But I’m just saying that, if the president of the United States says “Vladivostok nuclear weapons storage facility 325 is taking out a nuclear weapon, is intending to carry out a viable nuclear strike, the United States will execute a 30-minute response,” which is, somebody will spool up a Minuteman III missile in Kansas, and in 32 minutes after getting launch authorization, it will vaporize that spot.
Now we are in a different world. Let’s just not even talk about this. The Russians, on the other hand, if they lose their army, let’s say the Ukrainians carry out a massive counteroffensive this fall, which is quite possible, using U.S. missiles and rockets and all the artillery, and they break the back of the Russian army, which is what I think is going to happen. And the Russian army collapses, and it’s a rout and they lose Kherson province, Luhansk province, Donetsk province—everything except Crimea. They blow the Crimea bridge. Then you need to start thinking about what Vladimir Putin is going to do, because that’s a level of humiliation that I’m not sure he can live with. But if he goes and reaches for the phone to call that nuclear weapons storage facility and goes to his command post out near eastern Russia and he decides he’s going to launch something, a lot of chains have to go.
And you’ve got to think: Who is going to relieve Vladimir Putin of his command? Because that’s all you can do. Otherwise, they’ll go through with it. THURSTON: It’s scary. But I’ve got to tell you, you have a new book that’s scary, too. It’s called They Want to Kill Americans, and it really does sound an alarm to the entire country. Not only about what Donald Trump almost did, but about what is going on. We’re talking about Russia and Ukraine—tell us about how dire the situation is in the United States of America right now. NANCE: Over the last few months—I consider fighting in Ukraine as helping maintain the bulwark of democracy on the eastern front. Because if Ukraine collapses—Ukraine’s a democratic nation. They’ve had nine presidents. They’ve had elected presidents who were pro-Moscow, but there were elections. This has nothing to do with them wanting to join NATO. It had to do with them wanting to be part of the European Union. [Russia’s leaders] hated the idea of them losing the breadbasket of Europe, a country that held 25 percent of the world’s wheat. It’s just a resource they could not afford. And then becoming part of the West, further isolating Vladimir Putin in his expansionist neo-Soviet dreams.
I went to Vladimir Putin’s office . . . in Germany when he was in Dresden, when he was a KGB agent there. This is back when he was a baby spy. But even back then, he had these shark eyes, and his other KGB officers wanted to sit around and drink beer there in Germany. This guy liked flipping people. He liked being a human intelligence officer. He liked turning Westerners into traitors.
I met the woman who had renovated the office. She goes “Every door frame, every window frame in this building had hidden microphones in it,” and they actually had to pry them open and pull all the microphones up. Putin was one of those guys who liked that game. And he liked even more the East German Stasi model of an authoritarian, Nazi-style state with communist trappings.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, he didn’t fill his [car] up with luxury Western goods. He went to the Stasi headquarters and took out the book of spies, all the people that they had flipped, and he would use that in the future to manipulate people.
So why am I telling you that story? This is a man that loves his game. . . .
He created an autocratic state which is controlled by him, which is controlled by the money that he allows people to have who are oligarchs. Otherwise he seizes it or he makes you take a long walk out of a short window. THURSTON: Or poisons you. NANCE: So he helped create Donald Trump. There’s no doubt about that. Donald Trump was under Russian surveillance [for years]. . . . . Every phone call he made when he was married to Ivana Trump was recorded by Czech intelligence. This was the Soviet era. Donald Trump, and then when the kids were going over there, they were going into a Soviet world and thinking they could manipulate and be around people that were run by the KGB.
So when Vladimir Putin heard Donald Trump wanted to become president, I know what he did. First thing he said was, “Hey, go to the archives, pull everything about Donald Trump.” And what he would probably be surprised about was that they brought in a wheelbarrow full of surveillance collection and all of these things and analysis about him.
Donald Trump is merely an avatar for the hatred that all of his followers have for diversity and equality and human rights and having to tolerate LGBT people and
women with their uteruses.
Donald Trump as an avatar also understood that you have to motivate them. You have to keep them happy. And then from time to time, you have to unleash them, just as the Russians unleashed him by giving him assistance to take down Hillary Clinton. From that point on, it was autonomous, the Russians had nothing to do with it; it was all Americans who love the nasty, mean, hateful, spiteful things he had to say about other Americans. But the
way he would say it was as if he was America and they [his followers] were Americans, and the other 65 percent of the country had nothing to do with their world. This is how they’ve created a false reality.
They’re very much like ISIS in this respect. The Islamic State. ISIS created a false narrative that they were the only legitimate Muslims in the world. And the other 1.6 billion Muslims could be executed at will. That will be with Donald Trump, that his followers were the only true Americans. This is what they say. They say it: “We are the patriots,” right? THURSTON: And that’s why they hate us? They hate us just because we exist and that we’re not supporters of Donald Trump because we’re not one of them. So they hate us? They’re willing to kill us. NANCE: Well, some of them are willing. Many of them are waiting for the opportunity when they get—this is where we talk about Qanon ideology, that crazy group that believes all liberals are evil, that Hillary Clinton and all the liberal leadership are kidnapping children and drinking their blood in order to get a chemical called adrenochrome, which
is only secreted when a child is terrified before death—which, by the way, is the actual theme of the movie Monsters Inc. Right? The monster scared a child, a child gets scared and then it powers the monster universe. Some moron worked all of this into this crazy ideology, but made Donald Trump the hero, where he’s saving all of the kidnapped children around the world from pedophiles that are liberals.
There are as many as 20 million Americans that believe this ideology. Many of them are armed. Many of them thought January 6 was “the day of the storm,” which was Qanon belief that they were going to mass murder all liberals in America. Now, to us, it sounds ludicrous. There was a Qanon murder where a father went to Baja, California and murdered his two children. There was another one where a woman murdered her child. I remember in the run-up to the election, there was a woman who was interviewed, I think it was with Time magazine, and she said “The way that liberals are today, I would rather kill my children than allow them to live in a liberal America.”
This is a deranged pathology. This is a corruption of the mind where common decency, what they call political correctness, being kind to people, being sympathetic to people, showing empathy, being diverse, being equal is now a hated symbol to them. THURSTON: But Malcolm, you talk about 20 million Americans— NANCE: That’s just Qanon. Don’t forget, 71 million Americans voted for Donald Trump. THURSTON: But there are Republicans who don’t necessarily believe that all non-Trumpists are evil. They’re just Republicans, and so they feel like they have to pull the lever for the Republicans. They’re not dangerous, right? And why are they cooperating? Why are they empowering these people? Why aren’t they standing up and saying, “What the hell is going on around here? You’re killing my party.” NANCE: I think the mistake that you’re making here is that you are attributing good intentions to these politicians. [Laughter.]
How about this? I’m going to give you an alternate analysis. THURSTON: Okay. All right. NANCE: How about: They’ve always believed those things, but common decency and civil discourse and comity did not allow them to say these things out loud. But now their base allows them to say these things. THURSTON: But when people get out of the party, when they know that they’re being primaried, when they know this is happening, they do start speaking out against it. So isn’t it just for political expediency that they’re— NANCE: Wait, wait, wait. Who are those people speaking against it? Because I don’t
Pat Thurston interviews Malcolm Nance on The Commonwealth Club stage.
hear them very much. THURSTON: Adam Kinzinger. NANCE: Okay. He’s not a Republican. [Laughter.] He’s a good person. He is a Democrat—he is Republican-in-name-only. THURSTON: He’s a RINO? NANCE: I used to be that kind of Republican, Colin Powell-type, national security strong, socially liberal. THURSTON: Supporter of Ronald Reagan. NANCE: Sure. But that’s not where we are. If we had that X-Y axis, Colin Powell would have been just up into the right upper quadrant, just over the X and Y cross. Now he’s, God bless him in his last days, he’s way down in the lower left corner. Hard core liberal, communist. THURSTON: So is Richard Nixon. I mean, it’s just gone so crazy. NANCE: And Ronald Reagan. The party has transformed itself into the party of Trumpism. Trumpism is about unabashed, unapologetic indecency, it’s about getting in people’s face. It’s about telling people that “I hate you, because my version of America is the true one and yours is communist.” Which I find fascinating from people [who support Trump], who loved an ex-KGB officer who was a lifelong communist, and who loves a North Korean dictator who is communist.
These people live in a state of perpetual victimhood. So when they hear their tribal leader—which is what Donald Trump is; he is not the leader of a political party, he’s the leader of a tribe, the white tribe that believes only they deserve America, only they should get the benefits of America and that everyone else is a moocher, a liar, a cheat, a dirty immigrant, a Black person who’s lazy, a Hispanic person who’s come across the border illegally— THURSTON: A person with a uterus. NANCE: Oh, well, a person with a uterus. Right. You’re walking crime right there, contemplating crimes every time you have sex. [Laughter.]
So don’t laugh. Did everyone hear about North Carolina’s proposed bill [filed by Republican state Rep. Larry Pittman]? In which a person who was planning to have an abortion [and] the doctor can be murdered to prevent the abortion? [Audience gasps.] I’m not joking. There’s another bill that’s proposed in Ohio today—no exceptions. Rape, incest, you must carry the baby to term. So all you female criminals out there, we know what you’re thinking; you’re thinking, “Wow, I didn’t think The Handmaid’s Tale was a documentary.”
It is. And you’re now living in a country where those people feel empowered to make that movie documentary because [of what] Donald Trump has unleashed. Abraham Lincoln said that we have to look for our better angels. This man, it’s almost like he cut a deal with Satan to look for our worst demons. Remember when he’d say, “Knock him out. Back in the old days, we would beat him. Policemen, give him an extra hit when you put him in the car.”
This is the worst anybody in this country has done outside of putting on a white robe and setting fire to a cross. Right now they all have AR15s and they feel empowered to march and threaten you implicitly with their Second Amendment rights, which, by the way, their weapons have more rights than women. So you need to think about this in the context of them as a power organization that is seeking to dominate the other 65 percent of America.
Now you’re going, “Malcolm, this is crazy and outlandish. Why would you say all this?” Imagine I am an MI6 intelligence officer in England and I have to write up the Jerry Springer-like world that’s going on on the other side of the Atlantic for the queen. It would come out exactly like I just said it. And they would have all the examples that I just gave you there. And they would say, “Yeah, we have troubles in England. But we do not have as many as 70 million armed Americans, 20 million who are espousing that all liberals should be mass murdered in this country. We just want a decent cup of tea.” And trust me, that is the highest priority in England. [Laughter.]
So if that analysis is being done in London, it’s being done in Paris, it’s being done in Europe. And they look at what is happening to the United States, all these mass shootings [by] these young white men. Those are templates. Those all have the same characteristics of the anti-immigrant mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik in Norway, when he killed 68 people, as many as 60 children under the age of 16. When he said in his trial, why did you do it? He said, “They’ve corrupted us with immigrants here. They’ve spoiled the white purity. I wanted to eliminate the next generation of liberal children.” Next, the Christchurch shooter copies his manifesto, live streams his mass murders of Muslims. The shooter in Quebec, and the shooter in Uvalde. The shooter in El Paso. The shooter in Pittsburgh. They all copy Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto. It’s not because they like Anders Behring Breivik.
What you’re looking at is part of the insurgency I predicted on November 6. They are individual little points of crazy. They are an ideology coming up and manifesting itself through mass murder. Now, what happens when a governor or a state has an election and they’ve just decided progressives or Democrats will not take power and they occupy the statehouse? And instead of calling out the National Guard, the governor sides with them?
U.S. / Tel Aviv, Israel Depart on flights to Israel.
Tuesday, February 21
Tel Aviv / Jerusalem Upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, transfer to Jerusalem and check into our centrally located hotel. As most flights arrive in the evening, there are no group activities this day. Herbert Samuel Jerusalem
Wednesday, February 22
Jerusalem After a tour orientation, explore the Old City of Jerusalem and sites important to the three major monotheistic religions. Visit the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, one of the most important sites to Muslims. Walk portions of the Via Dolorosa and enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, said to be the site where Christ was crucified and buried. Following lunch visit the Western Wall. Then enjoy free time to browse the alleys and shops. Tonight gather for a welcome dinner. Herbert Samuel Jerusalem (B,L,D)
Thursday, February 23
Ramallah / Jerusalem We continue to Ramallah, provisional capital of the Palestinian Authority, where we hear from Palestinians about the issues they face and their hopes for a settlement in this long, unresolved issue. Return to Jerusalem in the late afternoon. After a pre-dinner discussion, explore Mahane Yehuda, once a popular fruit and produce market, it’s now a hub of gourmet food stalls, restaurants and cafes. Herbert Samuel Jerusalem (B,L)
Jerusalem / Bethlehem Experience Yad Vashem, a powerful living memorial dedicated to the Holocaust. Visit the West Bank with our Palestinian guide, starting with Bethlehem to see the Christian holy sites, including the Church of the Nativity, said to mark the place of Jesus’ birth. Herbert Samuel Jerusalem (B,L,D)
Saturday, February 25
Masada / Dead Sea We drive to Masada, the location of the mountaintop fortress where Jews sacrificed their lives rather than succumb to the Romans. The importance of Masada remains in the psychological and political mindset of many Israelis. Continue to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the earth. Swim or float in the relaxing salt waters and experience the health benefits of its natural minerals. Return to Jerusalem in the early evening. Herbert Samuel Jerusalem (B,L)
Sunday, February 26
Safed / Galilee Travel north stopping in Safed, a charming city known for being a center of art and religious mysticism. Continue to the more rural area of Upper Galilee. Learn about the important role of kibbutzim in the development of Israel in the 20th century. Merom Golan (B,L,D)
Monday, February 27
Galilee / Golan Heights Meet with an officer from the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). Then hear from people in a Druze town in the Golan Heights area. Druze are an Arabic-speaking sect found primarily in the mountainous areas of northern Israel, Syria and Lebanon. Later visit a winery and learn about Israel’s growing wine industry. Merom Golan (B,L,D)
Nazareth / Caesarea / Tel Aviv Journey to Nazareth, the largest Arab town within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. See the Church of the Annunciation, believed to be where archangel Gabriel visited Mary. We also visit an Arab tech firm. Continue to the coast and explore the archaeological site and Roman city of Caesarea. Arrive in Tel Aviv in the early evening for dinner on your own. The Hotel Carlton (B,L)
Wednesday, March 1
Tel Aviv / Jaffa Visit Jaffa, also known as Yafo in Hebrew, a mixed Jewish-Arab town, just south of Tel Aviv. Enjoy lunch on your own and time in the flea market with its wonderful mix art and antiques. Then continue to the Rabin Center, named after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Enjoy dinner at one of Tel Aviv’s seaside restaurants. The Hotel Carlton (B,D)
Thursday, March 2
Tel Aviv Learn about Tel Aviv’s various neighborhoods and architectural styles. See Bauhaus architecture, Dizengoff Street, Neve Tzedek, and the Florentine district. Enjoy a free afternoon to visit galleries, the beach, or rent bikes to travel the coastal path around Tel Aviv. Gather tonight for a special farewell dinner. The Hotel Carlton (B,L,D)
Friday, March 3
Tel Aviv / U.S. After breakfast at the hotel, transfer to the airport for flights home. (B) GROUP SIZE: Min 10, Max 24
COST: $7,995 per person, double occupancy $1,725 single room occupancy supplement
INCLUDED: All activities as specified; group airport transfers on designated dates & times; transportation throughout; accommodations as specified (or similar); meals (B=breakfast, L=lunch, D=dinner) per itinerary; bottled water on buses; special guest speakers; local guide; gratuities to local guide, driver, and for included group activities; predeparture materials; Commonwealth Club representative with 15 travelers.
NOT INCLUDED: International air; meals not specified as included; optional outings and gratuities for those outings; alcoholic beverages beyond wine and beer at the welcome and farewell dinners; travel insurance (recommended, information will be sent upon registration); COVID-related expenses (vaccinations, testing); items of a purely personal nature.
WHAT TO EXPECT
To enjoy this program, travelers must be in overall good health and able to walk 1–2 miles a day (on average) and be able to stand for several hours during touring. Participants should be comfortable walking on uneven surfaces such as dirt paths and cobblestone streets, and getting on and off tour buses without assistance.
TOUR LEADER
JERRY SORKIN has been involved with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for more than three decades, having quietly brought together people from both sides of the issue. Conversant in both Arabic and Hebrew, Jerry has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and North Africa, returning to the U.S. in 2016, after being based more than six years in Tunisia. He has organized and led many trips to Israel, all using his unique contacts to provide an exclusive and enlightening educational experience.
“Extremely well planned and thought out. I particularly enjoyed the speakers, guides and meetings with the various groups and organizations offering varied perspectives.”
- J. Harrison, 2018
“This was one of the best trips we’ve ever taken, in or out of the Commonwealth Club. It embodied the values of nonpartisan civil discussion and debate. The quality of the guides, both Israeli and Palestinian, was excellent. The depth and breadth of the presenters was formidable.”
- R. Weiss, 2020
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RESERVATION FORM FEBRUARY 20–MARCH 3, 2023
Name 1 Name 2
Address
Home Phone City / State / Zip
Cell Phone
E-mail Address
SINGLE TRAVELERS ONLY: If this is a reservation for one person, please indicate: ___ I plan to share accommodations with _____________________________ OR ___ I wish to have single accommodations. OR ___ I’d like to know about possible roommates. I am a ___ smoker ___ nonsmoker. We require membership in the Commonwealth Club to travel with us. Please check one of the following options: ___ I am a current member of the Commonwealth Club. ___ Please use the credit card information below to sign me up or renew my membership. ___ I will visit commonwealthclub.org/membership to sign up for a membership.
PAYMENT: Here is my deposit of $__________ ($1,000 per person) for ____ place(s). ____ Enclosed is my check (make payable to Commonwealth Club). OR ____ Charge my deposit to my ____ Visa ____ MasterCard ____ American Express
Card Number Expires
Authorized Cardholder Signature
Mail completed form to: Commonwealth Club Travel, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105. For questions or to reserve by phone call (415) 597-6720 or email travel@commonwealthclub.org.
___ I / We have read the Terms and Conditions for this program and agree to them. Security Code
Date
Signature
TERMS & CONDITIONS
The Commonwealth Club (CWC) has contracted with Iconic Journeys Worldwide (IJW) to organize this tour.
Reservations: A $1,000 per person deposit, along with a completed and signed Reservation Form, will reserve a place for participants on this program. The balance of the trip is due 90 days prior to departure and must be paid by check.
Cancellation and Refund Policy: Notification of cancellation must be received in writing. At the time we receive your written cancellation, the following penalties will apply:
• 120 days or more prior to departure: $250 • 90-119 days prior to departure: $500 • 89-60 days to departure: 50% fare • 59-1 days prior to departure: 100% fare; no refund
Tour can also be cancelled due to low enrollment or due to travel advisories and regulations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Neither CWC nor IJW accepts liability for cancellation penalties related to domestic or international airline tickets purchased in conjunction with the tour.
THE COMMONWEALTH | August/September 202222 Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance: We strongly advise that all travelers purchase trip cancellation and interruption insurance as coverage against a covered unforeseen emergency that may force you to cancel or leave the trip while it is in progress. A brochure describing coverage will be sent to you upon receipt of your reservation. Medical Information: Participation in this program requires that you be in good health. It is essential that persons with any medical problems and related dietary restrictions make them known to us well before departure. COVID-19 vaccination is required. Itinerary Changes & Trip Delay: Itinerary is based on information available at the time of printing and is subject to change. We reserve the right to change a program’s dates, staff, itineraries, or accommodations as conditions warrant. If a trip must be delayed, or the itinerary changed, due to bad weather, road conditions, transportation delays, airline schedules, government intervention, sickness or other contingency for which CWC or IJW or its agents cannot make provision, the cost of delays or changes is not included. Limitations of Liability: CWC and IJW its Owners, Agents, and Employees act only as the agent for any transportation carrier, hotel, ground operator, or other suppliers of services connected with this program (“other providers”), and the other providers are solely responsible and liable for providing their respective services. CWC and IJW shall not be held liable for (A) any damage to, or loss of, property or injury to, or death of, persons occasioned directly or indirectly by an act or omission of any other provider, including but not limited to any defect in any aircraft, or vehicle operated or provided by such other provider, and (B) any loss or damage due to delay, cancellation, or disruption in any manner caused by the laws, regulations, acts or failures to act, demands, orders, or interpositions of any government or any subdivision or agent thereof, or by acts of God, strikes, fire, flood, war, rebellion, terrorism, insurrection, sickness, quarantine, epidemics, pandemics, theft, or any other cause(s) beyond their control. The participant waives any claim against CWC/IJW for any such loss, damage, injury, or death. By registering for the trip, the participant certifies that he/she does not have any mental, physical, or other condition or disability that would create a hazard for him/herself or other participants. CWC/IJW shall not be liable for any air carrier’s cancellation penalty incurred by the purchase of a nonrefundable ticket to or from the departure city. Baggage and personal effects are at all times the sole responsibility of the traveler. Reasonable changes in the itinerary may be made where deemed advisable for the comfort and well-being of the passengers. CST# 2096889-40
