Jonny Gould's Jewish State

The unedifying scurry by BBC management to get Gary Lineker back on air after suspending him diffuses both a row with its staff and kicks the can of impartiality into the long grass.A couple of tweets by the BBC’s lead football presenter brought down the entire coverage of the Corporation’s TV and radio sport for a weekend.Lineker compared the government’s language on immigration as "not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s”. He was suspended by the BBC’s Director General, Tim Davie on the grounds of breaking their social media guidelines.In this special episode, we mop up the layers of unresolved issues that have fallen by the wayside in the rush to appease Gary and chums to get BBC Sport back onair.Listen now for exclusive quotes from Panorama documentary maker John Ware, Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff, Nick Timothy, prominent journalists Nicole Lampert and Jonathan Sacerdoti, author of The Greatest Comeback, David Bolchover, Alex Hearn, Director of Labour Against Antisemitism and CEO of UK Lawyers of Israel, Jonathan Turner.Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education.You can support Jonny's work too by donating here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A shining light in the shimmering city. “If you build it, they will come”, said Kevin Costner in the baseball movie, Field of Dreams – and there’s a similar vision for BNJC, Brighton & Hove’s new Jewish community synagogue and residential property development. There are around 4,000 to 5,000 Jewish people in the East Sussex city and this audacious project is an attempt to revitalise Brighton & Hove’s Jewish community. The foundations were laid in 2015 and now it’s open. BNJC has a beautiful modern synagogue with a tranquil feel, surrounded by 45 flats and houses built in a tower and around a mews courtyard, There are 55 underground parking spaces. The bar/cafe and restaurant with a kosher kitchen has the capacity to cater for your simcha of upto 220 people. There’ll be a nursery onsite from the get-go as the aim is to encourage young families to live down on the Sussex coast. Let’s hear more from CEO Marc Sugarman in this episode. Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet, promoting philanthropy.If you'd like to help Jonny make these podcasts with a positive view of the Jewish community, you can donate here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big things are happening in the United Arab Emirates, really big things.As the nation which reached out to Israel in the most expansive expression of peace yet with an Arab partner, it’s time Jewish people understood more about this nation.Abu Dhabi is the stage for a new era of religious pluralism. The Emirati capital has opened the Abrahamic Family House, a beacon of mutual understanding, coexistence and religious peace.It consists of a mosque, church, synagogue and educational center. In this episode, we hear from the Chief Rabbi of the UK and the Commonwealth, Sir Ephraim Mirvis at the opening of the first purpose-built synagogue in the Arab world for a century - and a few words from Pope Francis, who conducted mass in front of 130,000 Catholic faithful in Abu Dhabi.2023 is also the year of COP28 in the capital and we hear from the president-designate, His Excellency Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who spoke about the future transition of the United Arab Emirates’ energy industry. Mr Al Jaber serves as the UAE's special envoy for climate change and the Emirates' state oil producer — the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.In this episode, His Excellency explains the need to balance the realities of providing the world with oil and gas today while creating a new future of clean energy tomorrow.You don’t have to be Jewish to engage with Jonny Gould’s Jewish State. It’s a venture out for those who want to know more about the world which affects them and for non-Jews, who interact with Israel and Jewish people in the most positive and progressive way.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

Israel's judicial reform row is proving an awful spectacle for the watching world.I wanted to find voices of moderation and considered opinion - and in particular, within the ruling Likud Party: is there anyone willing to stand up to Benjamin Netanyahu over the division this is causing?As a diaspora Jew, I look on in dismay at the threat to unity of the Jewish people.Just as bad has been some Jews in the diaspora publicly dissociating themselves with the Jewish State. Never. Not in this podcast.I’m not saying for a moment the judiciary doesn't need reform.It's just the way this is unfolding which is causing such upset. Benjamin Netanyahu's government are trying to force legislation "down the throat of half of the population", according to Israel's former ambassador to the US, Danny Ayalon.And my guest today calls the Netanyahu government’s attempt at change a “sledge hammer” in what he calls an “I’ll show you” kind of political culture.It’s the new CEO of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Dan Diker. Alongside, Dan, Ambassador Ayalon also appears in this episode, a Likud grandee confronting this issue.There's also comment from Jerusalem's deputy mayor, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.We also talk about the long-awaited arrival of Sudan to the Abraham Accords table and the sudden opportunities for defence and security from Africa plus the "untenable" violence from the Palestinians against everyday Israelis.Then there's a definition of Jeremy Corbyn's version of political antisemitism and in the shifting sands of Middle Eastern diplomacy, what on earth has happened to Oman, who seem to have fallen under the spell of Iran's mullahs.LISTEN to this fascinating, passionate, eyewitness conversation with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs' new president, Dan Diker.Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet, promoting philanthrophy.Help support Jonny too. You can donate to his work here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Schrader was back in London with Yoseph Haddad on a whistlestop UK speaking tour, which included a nasty confrontation with pro-intifada students on campuses in London and Nottingham.Scroll back an episode for one of his energetic and hopeful speeches from the tour. Emily is an American-Israeli journalist and opinion former, a regular on the Jerusalem Post and the co-host of TV show, Headlines with the Haddads, an explainer on the Middle East to American audiences and tackling biogotry misinformation. In planning our conversation, we decided this time to take a snapshot of where the Middle East is on Iran.Emily is in touch with normal Iranian people everyday, thanks to the marvels of social media. We also unpack what a two state solution can look like in the era of the Abraham Accords – and wave a magic wand over the constitutional crisis drummed up by the Netanyahu government who want to take advantage of Israel’s unwritten constitution and plan to make the Knesset superior over the judiciary.A move to greater democracy or an illiberal elite, who won’t look after Israel’s minorities? LISTEN to this captivating and informed conversation.Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education.You can help support Jonny's podcast work too by donating to it here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yoseph Haddad is an Arab Israeli who believes with body, mind and soul in his country. And by his country, I mean the State of Israel,Yoseph joined up with StandWithUs UK at one of London’s oldest continuous communities, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in west London.Being counterintuitive, Yoseph is the target of constant protest, even death threats – some substantial - as he advocates for both a Jewish and democratic state.A smallish opposition greeted his arrival at University College London. Campuses are at the epicentre of anti Zionism and Palestinianism.Yoseph was born in Nazareth and raised in Haifa, he served in the IDF’s elite Golani battalion and served in the 2006 Lebanon War. He was badly injured and lost friends and comrades beside him in battle. He was a commander, which means an Arab commanding among others, Jews.Because as he says, it’s the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, not the JDF, it’s not exclusively Jewish. He runs Together Vouch for Each Other, an organisation building bridges between Arab and Jewish Israelis and to aid Arab mobility in Israeli society.Yoseph is a captivating speaker, and I recorded his speech for this latest episode.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 a truly heroic story which starts in Holocaust disaster and heads to the glory of winning Europe’s greatest football prize. David Bolchover is the author of a biography on Bela Guttmann, “The Greatest Comeback, From Genocide to Football Glory”.David recounts the story of Bela, the ultimate Jewish footballing hero, who survived to become a twice-winner of the European Cup with Benfica and the inspiration for one Portugal’s greatest stars, Eusebio.Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with the support of Dangoor Education.Help support Jonny's work and see the rest of his podcasts too. You can buy him a coffee here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uri Geller went around the world, found and fame and fortune and has now returned home to Israel. Before Gal Gadot and Lior Raz, who was Israel’s biggest celebrity?Uri magnetised the world - literally - with his amazing feats of showmanship. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State wouldn’t be complete without a record of the life of Uri Geller!So what’s he doing now? Where is he? How did he attain such huge fame and notoriety and I ask him if Israel is the only place he could’ve possibly come from?He’s also furious with Harry Kane for missing THAT World Cup penalty against France.Find out how and why in this thrilling episode! Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet.You can support Jonny's work too by donating here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Ware is the BBC Panorama documentary maker who took on the Corbynites - and won.His 2019 documentary “Is Labour Antisemitic?”, which was aired on BBC1, launched three long years of bitter legal struggle.It’s unusual for a journalist to sue for defamation - but everything was at stake for John - from his own reputation to the basic principles of journalistic process.So John sued the Labour Party, Jewish Voice for Labour and a fellow journalist, Paddy French - and with great fortitude and resilience won through.It’s not entirely over. John needs to collect the damages awarded from those who defamed him and now Al Jazeera have produced what he calls “agenda journalism” in a 17 minute segment of a documentary, which vilifies a young man by the name of Luke Stranger.We highlight that in this episode too. John’s not earned a penny for twelve months: defamation is a harrowing weight on one’s mind.Not to mention the headspace one also needs to keep up with the news as a working journalist. But he’s back on the saddle and preparing to make another Panorama documentary on - Brexit! Find out how much the legal process cost those who defamed him, who they were in this gripping insider’s view.You can support Jonny's work too by donating here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Being a Zionist is the path to peace”.There is hope in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Dr. Einat Wilf is a deep thinker on Israel’s ever-present challenge: the pursuit of existence in peace and security.It was an honour to host the Q and A session for StandWithUs UK as Einat addressed London's South Hampstead Synagogue.She was born in Jerusalem, raised in a Labour Zionist family and completed her Israeli military service as an Intelligence Officer with the rank of Lieutenant. Einat then went to Harvard University, got a BA in government and fine arts before earning an MBA from INSEAD in France and a PhD in political science at Wolfson College, Cambridge.Einat describes herself as a Zionist, a feminist and an atheist. She says the Abraham Accords has created a competing narrative in the Arab world. We’re hearing it in the Gulf from a new generation of Arabs who recognise the path to growth is both economic and spiritual. I expressly heard it myself on my first ever trip to the UAE in November 2022.Listen to this clearsighted analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the path which she believes will eventually lead to regional peace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices