Jonny Gould's Jewish State

Our guest today says the unedifying term “civil war” bandied describing judicial reform in Israel is a useful device to maintain pressure on both sides to find a solution.Let me be clear: I spent much of July and August 2023 in Israel and the country is not “entering a state of civil war” as former Prime Minister and convicted criminal, Ehud Olmert claimed. There’s no curfews, no rubber bullets and no army in place of cops on the streets.But that’s not to say this isn’t a serious situation. As positions entrench further, is hope for a solution ebbing away? Time for some realpolitik. While in Tel Aviv, I met historian and commentator, Dr. Edy Cohen, PhD. This is the third time Edy’s joined me on Jonny Gould’s Jewish State - but the first time face to face.Beirut-born Edy has his finger on the pulse of the Arab world. He is a world authority on Muslim holocaust denial, Islamist terrorism and the history of Jewish communities in Arab lands.There’s no one with a more amplified voice across the whole of the Middle East than Edy. He tweets almost exclusively in Arabic to over 570,000 followers. In 1991, the Lebanon he was raised in became too hostile, so he and his family fled for their lives and he’s lived in Israel ever since.As a native Arabic speaker, Edy tweets through divides, talking directly to Arab audiences on Israel, the Jewish people and the religion which they never get at home. Edy’s a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from Bar-Ilan University and his 2017 book, “The Holocaust in the Eyes of Mahmoud Abbas” exposes a vicious holocaust denial at the top of the Palestinian Authority. And in “The Mufti and the Jews: his connections to the Nazis”, Edy reveals new evidence of a 1943 plan the Arab leader hatched with the Nazis to exterminate the Jews in mandate Palestine - if World War II had been lost.But the allies won the Battle of El Alamein and so the Holocaust didn’t spread in any meaningful sense into the Middle East and Maghreb, where a million more Jews would surely have suffered the same fate as their brothers and sisters in Europe. So let’s talk about the collision of events which might lead to the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the burning of holy books in Sweden and what Israel has to do with Morocco’s territorial ambitions in the Western Sahara! And what precisely is the Saudi/US/Israel offer? “It’s bigger than Camp David”, says Professor Chuck Freilich, Israel’s former Deputy National Security Adviser, who also appears in this episode to outline the proposition.A Senior Analyst at the Israel Ministry of Defense, policy adviser to a cabinet minister and delegate at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations. Chuck lays out the win-win-win for the US, Saudi and Israel - but as with all peace deals, it’s no free lunch.Infact, what’s on the table is costly for Israel. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State heads for the Knesset in Jerusalem and a couple of nights out in Tel Aviv, fresh from an eye opening visit to the Israel-Gaza border (scroll back one episode for that atmospheric discussion beneath an Iron Dome rocket launcher). I was part of an Elnet UK delegation, an organisation sharing democratic values and strategic interests between the Jewish State and the UK and Europe. Now let’s talk to politicians and an Iranian expert for a snapshot on regional and domestic issues. The white heat of judicial reform has seemingly pushed the general public’s concerns about the Palestinians into the shadows. I met Hanoch Milwidski MK on trying to bring Israelis back together although as a Likud member, he's highly critical of the protestors. Then it’s off to Tel Aviv to meet Iranian expert, Dr. Meir Javedanfar, who supports the JCPOA. What many in Israel and around the world regard as appeasing the Iranian regime, allowing them space and time to create a nuclear weapon! Why does he support it? And he took part in the Iranian Revolution, yes really! But first let’s hear the story of Ruth Wasserman Lande, a former Knesset MK, itching to get back and with seemingly endless ambition. Ruth served as advisor to Shimon Peres, as Deputy Ambassador at the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Her parents arrived from Soviet Lithuania with nothing. Raised in a Russian speaking home, the Soviets even took her mum’s wedding ring off her. Real stories from real people. Lived-in and brought your ears. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is appreciative of the visit to Israel provided by Elnet UK and is supported by Dangoor Education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s take you to a top secret location in the south of Israel to observe at firsthand an Iron Dome battery, followed by a trip to Kerem Shalom, the border frontier exchanging goods and workers between Gaza and Israel.We were told by the IDF the night before not to come because there’d been incoming rocket fire which they’d defended against from that very location.But in the end, the invite and clearance was reinstated. When I arrived there, I was surprised by the personnel in charge of the two bulky anti-missile launchers. The IDF soldiers responsible for defending Israel with the system were three 18 year old girls. I interview two members of the IDF, who reveal what it takes to be a soldier with split-second responsibility, to make crucial decisions - and at such a young age. The Jenin operation, dubbed “House and Garden”, (yes, really) was also in full action and yet another car ramming and stabbing greeted our arrival into Tel Aviv.I was part of an Elnet UK delegation, an organisation sharing democratic values and strategic interests between the Jewish State and the UK and Europe.Come with me as I cross both sides of the buffer zone on the main border between Israel and Gaza. Never forgotten. Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a story of moderation, to use our history of oppression to resist fascism, anti-Jewish hate and uphold the rule of law and maintain hard-fought for liberties. Russia led by Stalin and Germany by Hitler were gruesome, murderous, evil regimes.Yet Soviet Russia’s crimes aren’t acknowledged in the same way as those perpetrated by the Germans and their accomplices across Europe. But they certainly are in this engaging chronicle of Lord Daniel Finkelstein’s own family history, “Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival”.Danny’s parents, like my own grandparents and great uncles and aunts resisted victimhood to rebuild their family lives here in England.I’m getting a taste for handing over the interview microphone because a previous interviewee now becomes the interviewer.In episode 113, Dr. Bea Lewkowicz was interviewed by Jonathan Freedland as she knew both young men who escaped Auschwitz and warned the world of the horrors going on within. These are new details so rich in our podcast that Jonathan updated his bestseller, The Escape Artist.Here Bea interviews Lord Danny Finkelstein about his book with a series of searching questions. Bea also knew both Danny’s parents and interviewed them for her AJR Refugee Voices Archive, where she’s director. Danny says his parents held Bea in high regard and like him, she is also the child of two Holocaust survivors.That lived-in knowledge, that shared experience makes Danny delve into his own family story deeper than anything you might’ve seen or heard about his book so far.Tell your friends and share my podcast with them. It’s in the Top 5% Most Shared Podcasts in the world, and for that I thank you so much. This is Bea Lewkowicz, director of AJR refugee voices, in conversation with Lord Daniel Finkelstein, author of Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival.Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State focuses on the United Arab Emirates.The UAE is asserting itself diplomatically on the regional and world stage. Should Israel be worried about the swirling winds of interests in the region? The Emiratis have followed Saudi Arabia in re-establishing diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran - and Syria has been welcomed back into the Arab League fold, despite Bashar al Assad’s brutal and bloody decade-long civil war. Furthermore, Assad has been invited by the hosts to the forthcoming COP28 conference in Dubai, posing a diplomatic problem for Western leaders to avoid being in the same room as him. After the euphoria of normalization in September 2020, Jonny takes the temperature of the Abraham Accords and wonders where the UAE's stunning rapprochements with former foes in the Middle East leaves Israel?In preparation for this episode, Jonny went to the Israeli Embassy in London, and spoke exclusively to the Ambassador, Tzipi Hotovely and deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. Also in this episode, we hear a stunning rebuttal to European criticism of the UAE hosting COP28 from Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum, the Middle East's oldest privately held oil and gas company. As the world works towards the energy transition, should one of the world’s leading oil and gas providers be hosting it at all? You’ll get your answer here. And what if Labour get elected in the UK in 2024? We hear their policy about future oil exploration in the North Sea. This really is a time of change. Let’s try to get some answers in this episode. Help support Jonny's coverage of Israel and the Jewish diaspora by making a donation here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State circles back to a previous episode, uncovering startling new revelations. New details so rich, a bestseller has been updated to include them.In episode 88, I sat down with my old friend, Jonathan Freedland to discuss The Escape Artist, the story of two young Jewish men who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world of the horrors within. Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler’s 32-page report reached the desks of Roosevelt, Churchill and the Pope and they warned Hungary’s Admiral Horthy to stop the deportation of his country’s Jews to Auschwitz - or they’d make him a war criminal.On receiving this, Horthy panicked and stopped turning a blind eye to the death trains leaving from across Hungary. 200,000 Jewish lives were spared because of Vrba and Wetzler’s actions.Dr. Bea Lewkowicz is a fellow member of my synagogue and one Shabbat morning, she told me that rather uniquely, she knew both Rudi and Alfred, who was her own Uncle Freddo.But the contrasting post war fortunes of the two men was stark. Rudi lived a metropolitan academic’s life in Vancouver, but Fred was trapped behind the iron curtain in Czechoslovakia, constrained and ostracised by the repressive communist regime.Bea is director of the AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive of the Association of Jewish Refugees, where she creates and archives holocaust testimonies. She’s also a director of Sephardi Voices UK. So for the first time in the series, I’m more than delighted to hand over the interview microphone to Jonathan, in conversation with Bea.If you’ve read The Escape Artist and invested in their remarkable story, you’ll love this. If you haven’t, this is a great place to start.Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.If you'd also like to support Jonny's work, you can donate here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Follow Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast here.“Since World War II, Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world.” is a brutal sentence from the start of “Rise and Kill First”.Our guest is Ronen Bergman, author of the New York Times bestseller, which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It’s the product of a thousand interviewees, some of whom Ronen quizzed multiple times, along with millions of words of research.The detail also comes from a wealth of unclassified documents, some long forgotten in the private possession of veterans who gave them to him.There were many suggestions for the book’s title but “Rise and Kill First” from the Babylonian Talmud kept on coming up in the many conversations he had with his interviewees.It’s a phrase which has become a mission statement, seemingly inscribed in the mindset - even hearts - of many of Israel’s defensive operators and underpinned by generational Jewish persecution.But for all the sudden, brutal decision-making and actions, this remains a humane account and the hope which emerges from it for a more progressive society.None of the contents of the book are endorsed or verified by the Israeli defense establishment - which makes the reading still more fascinating. Listen to this fascinating interview with Ronen Bergman.Recorded in May 2023.Follow Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is my second sit-down interview with Trevor Horn and you’ll hear why it’s nothing like the first time. The previous one (episode 43) made an impression with Wikipedia’s editors, who included Trevor’s “I believe in Judaism, more than I believe in anything else” as a reference.On leaving last time, Trevor told me at the door, "no one ever asked me about that before". In this in-depth conversation about his life and career, Trevor talks about growing up as a post-war baby boomer in Hetton-le-Hole and how the family left the Durham village to secure their future in the more prosperous midlands (as my own family had done a generation before).We discuss Paul McCartney’s constant reinvention as the key to longevity and his own determination to keep working.Then there’s Rod and the magnificent orchestral album, his most recent production. Trevor also pays a touching tribute to his late wife, Jill Sinclair, “the first person who told me I was good".There’s also a couple of Jewish jokes she used to tell him too.And we expand on his religious beliefs, how Shabbat is a “great idea” and reading the Torah illuminating. Trevor’s been touring the US as Seal’s musical director with support band, The Buggles, reuniting with his old friend, Geoff Downes. It was their number one hit, “Video Killed The Radio Star” which propelled him to fame before he became a producer on Jill’s recommendation.There’s a stem-by-stem analysis of the brilliant “whiz bang” noises of Owner of a Lonely Heart, The Art of Noise, ABC’s band manifesto, the Belfast Child of The Simple Minds and why Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood sounds like the Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem! I had another hour of questions for Trevor, but I hope this gives you a snapshot of what a talented and modest man he is, and why I’ve been a fan since my teenage years.Dear Listener, this is Trevor Horn II. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education.You can support Jonny's podcast work by looking at the all the episodes and buying him a coffee here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Sarah Idan’s story, Sarai more informally and publicly. She used to enter beauty pageants “to help bring people together”.But as Iraq’s winning Miss Universe in 2017, she got much more than she bargained for. Sarai’s new life as a renowned Human Rights campaigner started there and then, when she took a selfie with Adar Gandelsman, participating alongside her as Miss Israel.All hell let loose back home as the Iraqi tourism ministry ordered her to take the selfie down, “because it was harming the Palestinian cause“. “I said, what?”, Sarai replied and in that moment knew her feeling as an outsider even at home, was being realised.The flurry of events which followed saw her family flee Baghdad and join her in a new life in California. Her Iraqi citizenship has been revoked, and she knows full well if she ever returned there, “I’d be killed in the airport”. Sarai now uses her fame and notoriety to push against despotism and terror.She’s represented Hillel Neuer’s UN Watch in Geneva and as you’ll hear in this characteristically fearless discussion, she’s a champion of combating racism, prejudice and anti-Zionism among her own people, Arabs and Muslims.She describes herself as a Zionist despite growing up around the incessant antisemitic echo chambers of Baghdad. Sarai is a lover of music and chose the theme tune for this episode, a stirring and emotional opus by Rachmaninov, “Symphony No. 2 Opus 27 III. Adagio” by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.The contrast between the music and her early life is rather striking. She is the CEO of an NGO called Humanity4Ward.Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is always thankful for the support of Dangoor Education.You can help Jonny's work too by donating here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

These are the sage words of President Isaac Herzog as Israel's Head of State tries to bridge the gap between his people, the biggest schism in the young country’s history.Jonny poses the questions and well-positioned experts and well-positioned protestors present opposing arguments.PLUS we have an exclusive interview with Professor Avi Bell from the Kohelet Policy Forum, the very think tank who designed the proposals which threaten to tear Israel apart, conducted by Professor Chuck Freilich and Ambassador Danny Ayalon.Help support Jonny's coverage of Israel and the Jewish diaspora by making a donation here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices