Of Good Courage

An urgent inter-generational conversation between Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter—a seasoned diplomat, historian, and grieving father whose son fell in Gaza leading soldiers into battle—and Sabrina Soffer, a recent university graduate who passed through the gauntlet of antisemitism on her campus and refused to back down. 

With a foreword by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, the dialogue between Leiter and Soffer bridges generations as well as faiths. They make the case that Jews and Christians must unite to restore moral clarity by reviving the pillars of Western civilization, grounded in one of the most maligned, but most direly needed, ideas of our time: Zionism.

The barbarism of October 7th exposed the stark divide between those who cherish life and those who glorify death. Just as shocking was a significant response in the West: Elite universities and city streets teemed with celebrations of Hamas’s barbarism. Professors and students twisted terrorism into legitimate “resistance” and recast murder as liberation.

In turn, defenders of truth and morality who condemned Hamas and committed to defeating the terrorist organization—America, Israel, and their allies—were perversely painted as villains. How did calling for the elimination of Israel, “from the river to the sea,” become mainstream? How could evil be considered good, and good evil? How could truth be taken for lies and lies for truth? What are the ideas behind this inversion? How can people of conscience fight back?

In answering these questions, the narrative alternates between the voices of Leiter and Soffer, framing their reflections around Ambassador Leiter’s son, Moshe, while revealing their evolving friendship in counterpoint. Each chapter interweaves historical and philosophical nodes, lessons in leadership, study, and travel. The battle against Hamas, Iran and its proxies, comes to be understood as a microcosm of the larger battle for the future of the West.