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Power of Suggestion
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
November 12, 2025, Israel
An American classic, The Honeymooners staring, Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney, Joyce Randolph
As a child in the USA I enjoyed watching The Honeymooners, a classic American comedy. Filmed in the mid 1950's, in black and white, it tells the story of a hard working low income American family, facing the struggles and challenges of daily life. The show is set in Brooklyn, New York, a place dear to my heart as my wonderful father grew up there, and I too spent several years living there, in a sense reliving part of my father's life.
The show is a comedy, but looking back it is also a documentary, it is very real. Brooklyn, hard times, Ralph, our star, works as a bus driver, he cannot seem to get ahead and the only place where he can really be a boss is in his own home, but even here he faces challenges as his dear devoted wife can only put up with so much. We see pain, we see love, we see frustration, we see life itself.
I believe there is a little bit of Ralph in all of us. We want more out of life, we want to be more, but life is not easy and often we are limited by our circumstances. Ralph is very creative and keeps thinking of ideas to get ahead, but alas they all fail and we are back at our apartment in Brooklyn, and life is poetic.
Perhaps the show also hints at the Delusions of Power and Importance as compared to the humble actual position we hold in life. Recently one particular scene popped into my mind, though it has been decades since I last saw this. It involved the power of Suggestion.
But first, a detour. In Israel, some traitors faked a video allegedly showing Israeli soldiers abusing a terrorist in prison. Around the world this became headlines - Israeli soldiers rape and abuse Palestinian detainees. First, these were not multiple people, but one single individual. Next, there are no such things as so called Palestinians, this is a propaganda term, next, these are not detainees, but convicted terrorists of the elite Nachba units, those who bravely invaded Israeli communities on October 7, raped, pillaged, murdered and mutilated men, women, children and the elderly and filmed it all on their own body-cams. So let us not call them "detainees". And finally, forensic experts have proven and documented that videos were spliced together, edited and doctored to make it look like more than it was. But here is my point. I have seen the video, again and again, and ...you ca n't see anything!!!
If you were watching this video randomly, without any preconceived idea of what it contained, you would be bored, drop it, and skipped to something more interesting. And yet over 100 million people worldwide watched it and formed or reenforced anti-Israel opinions. How did this happen? The Honeymooners will answer that question.
It is the power of suggestion.
Back to the Honeymooners, back to Brooklyn. I do not remember the exact circumstances but Ralph and his body Ed plan to do some "drinking". They got a bottle of wine and "men are going to drink!".
Well, Alice, the faithful wise wife, knows that this is a bad idea, as most of Ralphs ideas are ill-concieved. She empties the bottle of wine and fills it with grapejuice. It looks the same. The bottle is the same. The wives, Alice and Trixie, come home to find their husbands passed out, and an empty bottle of wine on the table. But alas, it was only grape juice. The women look and make some comment like, "Men!". and the scene comes to an end.
That trickled into my mind and fermented over many years. The Power of Suggestion. Let us emphasize the word, Power! Yes, there is a great deal of power in the suggested words or image, we are easily manipulated and easily led. Of course we deny this. In the faked video of the IDF soldiers that was deliberately leaked by Left wing treacherous elements in Israel to the world, you cannot actually see anything, but the captions, the print, "translated" into English, tell you what is happening, and you believe this more than your own freaking' eyes!! Over 100 million viewers all over the world accepted the written words as truth despite not seeing anything convincing with their own eyes. The POWER of Suggestion!!
We believe what we are expected to believe. We are told there is a black dot in sky, and even if we cannot see it, we say, "Oh yes, I can see it, sure". We dont' want to be different. This is the Truth of mankind, study history, see what people believe and draw your OWN conclusions. For centuries Europeans "Knew" that Jews were the cause of all evil. They "knew" that the Jews caused the plagues (not bacteria or whatever), But when the Jews were kicked out, the economy collapsed, and so they were quietly induced to return, until the government needed another scapegoat to clear it of its own failures. And people believed. They were all True Believers. The Power of Suggestion and the Weakness of mankind's ability to think for himself.
and now we shall extend this to Krav Maga.
I see videos, as an instructor and practitioner of many decades with experience in many styles having trained with many of the great legends of martials, I know to distinguish between Flash and Trash. And yet, the people believe. I see videos with techniques that defy any logic, that are clearly choreographed and ineffective. Let us break them down to two major categories, I will call them the Bad Ass and the Fancy Foolery.
The Bad Ass videos show a very muscular man, young and extremely fit. He talks trash as if using foul language is Essential for being a good martial artist, as if being rude, crude and socially unacceptable is a criterion for manhood. In these videos all problems, knife, gun, stick, hand to hand, terrorist, what-have-you, can all be resolved by simply being Tough and punching your way out of it. All other styles are dismissed as "girly" and pure Fantasy. And they actually believe this. It is like the old Samurai saying that when a mosquito is on your testicles you finally discover that pure violence is not always the best solution.
The Fancy Foolery videos are the opposite. They act as if the opponent is part of a choreographed dance, what follows is a series of acrobatic gymnastics that brings to mind the song Everybody was Kung Fu fighting.
Everybody was Kung Fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact, it was a little bit frightening
But they fought with expert timing
But in life we don't have expert timing, and we are not as fast as lighting. So, keep it for the movies.
I watch these videos, both categories, and it makes my limited hair fall out and turn grey. And yet, the people believe, Why?
The answer is the Power of Suggestion. Marketing.
These videos are presented with such Confidence, that you are automatically led to believe that they are true. This is a well-known marketing trick, and yet, I have that experience as well. I have a degree in the subject from the Bernard Baruch School of Business in New York. Graduated with honors. Say it with confidence, have a visual image, and people will buy it.
I recall one of our first classes, back on 23rd street. We were presented with an advertisement of a beautiful woman in a "nice dress" holding a glass of champagne, and leaning on a car. I asked the professor what was for sale? The woman? The drink or the car? I did not fit the target audience as I always dared to think for myself. I don't care about creating false images or false gods. Shatter them all! but these advertisements work, because the image they plan inside your brain is that success is measured by having the beautiful woman, drink etc, and the measure of success is owning such a luxury car, so you had better get the money together so you can have the image of success. That is why so many Americans are in debt! Me, if I can't afford it, I don't buy it and I could not gave a rats' ass what you think of me. The fanciest car I have ever owned is a Ford and that does not affect my status as a human being or as a Krav Maga instructor with over one thousand international seminars.
Marketing, of political lies, of antisemitic racist lies, of ineffective defense systems, all SELL, "What a Fool Believes".
I pity the fool!!
Get Real.
Training with world Thai Boxing champion Phil Nurse, a true fighter and a humble man, great role model.
Moshe Katz, 7th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt hall of fame, USA and Europe.
Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz
What is the cultural background of Krav Maga? What makes it unique? What makes the Israeli military so effective? Why are Israeli security systems used all over the world?
What are the Biblical origins of Krav Maga and who was the first Krav Maga instructor?
What weapons and military strategies did our Biblical ancestors use?
How has Krav Maga developed in Israel and what are its goals?
All that and more in this unique book.
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