Jonny Gould's Jewish State

Support Jonny here.Loay Alshareef has been on quite a journey. Growing up in Saudi Arabia and brought up a religious Moslem, he was exposed to antisemitic schooling about Israel and the Jews.“Jews are the fierce enemies of the Arabs and you shouldn’t have them as friends. Christians too. But first, Jews.” Loay was part of a generation of young Saudis who stood no chance. Isolated from the world, taught to hate. It still goes on - although less so. But the poisoning of his young mind was challenged when he visited France with the Accord school, a homestay program in Paris so he could learn French.He was housed with a Jewish family. Initially he refused, preferring to be with a Tunisian Arab family. But in the end, he stayed with the Jewish family. His host Rachelle of Yemeni tradition said, “stay with us a couple more days”, and so began a journey to conciliation. But it started with confusion. These people are nothing like what he’d been told. Rachelle was a good person, so were the Koranic texts about Jews wrong? Loay was introduced to “The Protocols of the elders of Zion” at 15 and was told it was a book brought in from Egypt as a text “the Jews don’t want you to read”. Two weeks and two Shabbats later, Rachelle took him Kosher shopping.He was included in Pesach and Chanukah celebrations, a first hand education in Judaism. He went home, told his mum. Mum said” I’ll give you two months, you’ll come to your senses!”. 14 years on, it was the catalyst to a new world and mum supports his stance on social media.Loay travels the world as an ambassador for his country of residence, the UAE and for Muslims. He tweets in Ivrit as a fluent speaker, quotes the Torah and Tanach and wants to pursue a PHD in the Dead Sea Scrolls.It’s a pleasure to have spent hours and hours in Loay’s company. We talk candidly with the tape on and off.I try to get my head round the tribal differences between the Arabs, it gives me a headache, especially when he says even the Qataris want Israel to win the War in Gaza and I ask him about the UAE’s support for the South African case against Israel in the International Court of Justice.It’s a frank and fascinating discussion with one of the Gulf’s most important voices.Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.Support Jonny here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If I'd been asked which journalist might one day confront Gary Lineker face-to-face about his views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, I might well have said, "it's going to be Nicole Lampert!", such is her journalistic courage.And so it was, as Nicole and a small handful of other journalists were invited to a Broadcasting Press Guild Lunch to hear from Lineker about his burgeoning podcast business.The Press all introduced themselves and Lineker admitted to feeling scared. He was right!He'd retweeted a BDS demand to ban Israel from international football. He took it down later amid a brou-ha-ha.Nicole asked him why he'd broken the BBC's social media rules. The usually polite and deferential event suddenly took a turn. There was clapping at the end of Gary's presentation, but Nicole didn't join in the applause, so Gary went to look for her.We take up the story in this fascinating episode.If you like these podcasts, you can support Jonny here with a coffee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support Jonny here.Itamar Marcus is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, started in 1996 to monitor the consensus of the Palestinian world.They started reading the papers for the views of their leaders and found school books and television programmes indoctrinating children in Jew hate.But with 75% of Palestinians supporting Hamas’ October 7 massacres with 60% “extremely supportive” and 98% “feeling a sense of pride as a Palestinian”, what future peace for Israel?This episode discusses the damage UNRWA has done to peace in the Middle East and also includes Hillel Neuer’s stunning testimony to the US Congress about the UN agency’s complicity in Hamas terror.Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support Jonny here.In this exclusive interview, Reuven Rivlin, the tenth president of Israel pushes back on Polish law on remembering the Holocaust in Krakow. President Rivlin was among world leaders in politics and industry at the European Jewish Association’s delegation to Auschwitz-Birkenau and taking part in a symposium on the growing threat of antisemitism in Europe, entitled NEVER AGAIN: Lip Service or Deep Commitment?Also with us, former French prime minister Manuel Valls, a strong voice against antisemitism and Israel’s minister of the diaspora, Amichai Chikli. In 2018, Poland amended their domestic laws on National Remembrance to penalise speech in public laying responsibility for the Holocaust to Poland or the Polish nation.There was international outcry, relations between Israel and Poland were frozen. Israeli school trips to Poland’s death camps were suspended. The tours are back now - although the law still applies. Poland was the first country invaded and occupied by Adolf Hitler. Members of Poland’s resistance and government-in-exile did try to warn the world of the mass killing of Jews, thousands of Poles risked their lives to do so.However, Holocaust researchers have collected overwhelming evidence of Poles who murdered Jews fleeing the Nazis, or Polish blackmailers who preyed on helpless Jews for financial gain. Nearly all of Poland’s roughly 3 million Jews, were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators, and the major Nazi death camps were in Poland. And in telling the truth with me in Krakow, the president challenges Polish law directly. President Rivlin’s a Jerusalemite and says it gives him a unique skill in dealing with allcomers in Israeli society, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Armenians, Druse, you name them.As a new Polish government contemplates overturning the laws of a previous administration, Reuven Rivlin tells it like it is. Enjoy this conversation with Israel’s tenth president.Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support Jonny here.Elon Musk returns fresh from visiting Auschwitz and here are his initial reflections.He’s interviewed by Ben Shapiro. I’m with him and other delegates in Krakow at the European Jewish Association symposium.The episode starts with a stirring Holocaust Kadesh, recited by EJA Founder and Chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin.It was called "NEVER AGAIN: Lip Service or Deep Commitment?" Among the world leaders I managed to speak to are former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who pushes back on Polish Holocaust denial, former French prime minister Manuel Valls, who conducts our discussion on in French, and Israel’s minister of the diaspora, Amichai Chikli.This is my recording of Elon Musk’s interview from inside the conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support Jonny making his podcasts by buying him a coffee.How has the October 7th massacre challenged Israeli public opinion on the conflict with the Palestinians? What about 'day after' planning? Has it seriously begun? And does peace lie with the Gulf states? Just how much do the Saudis and the UAE want Israel to win? Who in Palestinian society is there to deal peace with? Is there anyone? Has the Israeli left anywhere left to go? Is war from Lebanon inevitable? While the Houthis, another Iranian proxy, bomb western ships in the Suez Canal, how many fronts could this war open? Is the escalation so inevitable that Iran joins the fray directly? Russia in Syria, Iran’s land bridge there. Let’s update that too. Why is it imperative that Israelis from both the north and south return to their towns and kibbutzim?Two of Israel’s leading journalists and analysts join me here in London thanks to Elnet UK, a bipartisan, cross-party international organisation, who stand above politics, working to advance UK-Israel relations.We go deeper into the conflict, wading through the hardship, to try to find a route to a better day. Haviv Rettig Gur is a senior analyst for The Times of Israel. He’s covered the politics, foreign policy, education and relationship Israel has with the Jewish diaspora for 20 years, he served as Director of Communications for the Jewish Agency and taught at the best pre-military academies in Israel. He was a correspondent at the Jerusalem Post.Jonathan Spyer is Director of Research at the Middle East Forum and edits the Forum’s journal, the Middle East Quarterly. He has reported from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Ukraine and back home including in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.LISTEN NOW for a in-depth analysis of today’s Middle East and hopes for a better tomorrow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help support Jonny's coverage of Israel and the Jewish diaspora by making a donation here or you can buy him a coffee here.Our guest today is Nicholas Martin, movie producer and writer of the biographical drama, “Golda”.Golda was seven years in the making, and as you’ll hear, Nicholas has delved so deeply into her story - and by extension Israel’s story from independence to the 1970s - which makes this such a captivating interview. He’s also made deep friendships with Golda’s family and throughout Israel.A highly experienced and talented filmmaker who’s become a world authority on the period, but didn’t know a great deal about Israeli history before he started. Nicholas’ previous film was the hilarious, Florence Foster-Jenkins.Golda also stars Liev Schreiber as Henry Kissinger and Camille Cottin as Lou Kadar, Golda's assistant. Our episode music has just been composed in support of Israel by my friend Bryan Edery with concert violinist Miriam Kramer. He’s called it “Israel in my Heart, ner Tamid”. Thank you for allowing it to be our beautiful episode theme tune.I’d been talking to Nicholas about an interview for two years, before we eventually sat down in his London home for this considered and emotional discussion. I want to thank Nicholas for being such an open interviewee. This is one of the best.You can buy "Golda" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Sky Store, Microsoft Store, Rakuten TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube as download or rent it on Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Rakuten TV, Apple TV, Sky Store, Curzon Home Cinema online.Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education and UK Toremet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is “Another How to Make Peace in the Middle East", building on the success of the first Talk TV Special, with more highly informed guests from the worlds of politics, the military, frontline medicine, journalism, diplomacy and think tanks.In this episode, British-born Israeli hand and trauma surgeon, Dr Elliot Sorene explains how he's operated on Hamas fighters, who after successful surgery have "promised to see him on the battlefield". He also tells us how his son survived the Nova Festival massacre and saved other’s lives too.Hen Mazzig is a former IDF humanitarian soldier, who insists his experiences in Judea and Samaria give him belief in a path to peace from the younger generation of Palestinians.Jonathan Sacerdoti reveals yet more evidence of human shields and Gazan tunnels. Barak Seener has troubling statistics on just how radicalised the Palestinian population is and the extent to which hearts and minds must be changed after the war with Hamas is won.And Benjamin Anthony believes the war against Hamas is long overdue and needs to be prosecuted to the very end, but with the equal commitment of rescuing the Israeli hostages who remain incarcerated in Gazan hell. The response to the first show was instant thanks to social media and included an incredible response on YouTube, where my interview withDr Einat Wilf has attracted approaching 400,000 views. This is ANOTHER How to Make Peace in the Middle East. With thanks to everyone at TalkTV, who give me this vital and valuable platform to discuss hopes for a better day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dov Forman, 20, co-author of New York Times bestseller, Lily's Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live, was invited to Israel by ELNET UK on a solidarity mission to see for himself the trail of death and devastation left by Hamas through Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7th. Scenes and smells he says have changed him forever.ELNET’s been running constant missions ever since for European influencers and Parliamentarians. Almost 100 MPs from eight European countries have been to Israel to bear witness.And amid new denials from enemies of Israel and the Jewish people, Dov tells us how important it is to tell the truth about the depravity and murder which took place and why talk of a ceasefire will only make the possibility of this horror happening again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Israel's a self-starting civil society, which takes so much on itself", so says Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, who talks about her city's response to the 250,000 displaced Israelis who've left their homes in the south.But there is a determination across the whole nation for them to return home and rebuild their lives and communities after the terrible pogrom of October 7th.Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices