The Honest Take Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-honest-take The Honest Take is HonestReporting's long-form interview series bringing together leading voices to examine how Israel and the Middle East are covered — and what goes into creating and feeding the narratives that target Israel. Each episode features leading experts, analysts, researchers, and journalists who work on media bias, terrorism, NGO accountability, foreign influence, antisemitism, and international institutions. These are professionals directly involved in investigating how narratives are shaped, amplified, and protected across global newsrooms. The conversations go beyond breaking news to unpack: • Media bias and misinformation about Israel • How terrorist organizations exploit humanitarian and civil society frameworks • The role of NGOs and international bodies in shaping public perception • Foreign state influence on Western media and education • Why context disappears in reporting on Israel and the Palestinians This series is for listeners seeking in-depth analysis, evidence-based discussion, and accountability in journalism on Israel and the Middle East. 2026 HonestReporting 61c313ee-4118-5a07-9112-51c4b2fa8123 yes Ben Chertoff The Honest Take: TRAILER en Thu, 17 Sep 2026 06:30:12 -0400 Thu, 17 Sep 2026 06:31:21 -0400 http://www.honestreporting.com https://img.transistorcdn.com/45bd0awei98qQzyHiaV-em8XTAcKkecV-pvQA3edDis/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS81Nzg1/NjYxZjIyMzBiODU5/OTczZmQzNjUzMmZi/YWIwNC5qcGVn.jpg The Honest Take http://www.honestreporting.com episodic HonestReporting The Honest Take is HonestReporting's long-form interview series bringing together leading voices to examine how Israel and the Middle East are covered — and what goes into creating and feeding the narratives that target Israel. Each episode features leading experts, analysts, researchers, and journalists who work on media bias, terrorism, NGO accountability, foreign influence, antisemitism, and international institutions. These are professionals directly involved in investigating how narratives are shaped, amplified, and protected across global newsrooms. The conversations go beyond breaking news to unpack: • Media bias and misinformation about Israel • How terrorist organizations exploit humanitarian and civil society frameworks • The role of NGOs and international bodies in shaping public perception • Foreign state influence on Western media and education • Why context disappears in reporting on Israel and the Palestinians This series is for listeners seeking in-depth analysis, evidence-based discussion, and accountability in journalism on Israel and the Middle East. The Honest Take is HonestReporting's long-form interview series bringing together leading voices to examine how Israel and the Middle East are covered — and what goes into creating and feeding the narratives that target Israel. HonestReporting No No Who Are We, and What Do We Owe? A Chagim Special on Jewish Pride and Memory | With Ben M. Freeman, Yossi Klein Halevi & More 25 25 Who Are We, and What Do We Owe? A Chagim Special on Jewish Pride and Memory | With Ben M. Freeman, Yossi Klein Halevi & More full 8172e007-5c9a-4a9b-a5af-105d263abb5d https://share.transistor.fm/s/70846eb4 "The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is not Israel. The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is the Jewish people."

That's Ben M. Freeman, and that's where this episode starts.

Most weeks on The Honest Take, we spend an hour with one guest. This week is different. We're in the Ten Days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the stretch when you're supposed to sit down and take an honest accounting of yourself. So we went back through the conversations on this show and pulled the moments that had nothing to do with the news cycle.

Nobody in this episode is going to tell you what's being done to us. You already know that. Instead, nine people take on a harder question: Who are we? What do we actually know about ourselves? And what do we owe the people who handed this to us?

Ben M. Freeman, founder of the Jewish Pride movement, explains why Jews are a people, a nation and a civilization, not only a religion, and why "religions don't have homelands."

Rawan Osman grew up in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and spent seven years reading her way out of what she was taught about Jews. She describes what she found when she finally walked into a synagogue, and tells young Jews that being born a Jew "is like winning the lottery."

Yossi Klein Halevi of the Shalom Hartman Institute names the failure: "We have the most compelling national story out there… And we're not telling it."

Dr. Henry Green, founder of Sephardi Voices, turns the same charge inward. Nearly every Jewish community marks Yom HaShoah, and almost none mark Yom HaPlitim, the day that honors the Jews who left the Arab world.

Author Meg Keene says the community is going to have to build its own institutions, and pay for them.

Brigadier General Amir Avivi argues that security starts with spirit and purpose, and that a nation that has been around for thousands of years should be able to think a thousand years ahead.

Alana Newhouse, founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet, says Zionism is "not something that we picked up at Walmart 20 years ago," and lays out four survival tests that, she argues, only Israel in the West currently passes.

Shai Davidai, who was teaching at Columbia Business School on October 7, explains what he decided to do after getting punched in the face.

And Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malki was murdered in the 2001 Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem, answers the question of what still gives him hope: "I'm a Jew. I'm a proud Jew."

From all of us at HonestReporting, g'mar chatima tova.

If this episode was worth your time, send it to someone who needs it, and leave a rating and a review. It genuinely helps other people find the show.


Full conversations

Every guest in this episode sat down with Ben for a full-length episode of The Honest Take.

More from The Honest Take


]]> "The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is not Israel. The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is the Jewish people."

That's Ben M. Freeman, and that's where this episode starts.

Most weeks on The Honest Take, we spend an hour with one guest. This week is different. We're in the Ten Days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the stretch when you're supposed to sit down and take an honest accounting of yourself. So we went back through the conversations on this show and pulled the moments that had nothing to do with the news cycle.

Nobody in this episode is going to tell you what's being done to us. You already know that. Instead, nine people take on a harder question: Who are we? What do we actually know about ourselves? And what do we owe the people who handed this to us?

Ben M. Freeman, founder of the Jewish Pride movement, explains why Jews are a people, a nation and a civilization, not only a religion, and why "religions don't have homelands."

Rawan Osman grew up in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and spent seven years reading her way out of what she was taught about Jews. She describes what she found when she finally walked into a synagogue, and tells young Jews that being born a Jew "is like winning the lottery."

Yossi Klein Halevi of the Shalom Hartman Institute names the failure: "We have the most compelling national story out there… And we're not telling it."

Dr. Henry Green, founder of Sephardi Voices, turns the same charge inward. Nearly every Jewish community marks Yom HaShoah, and almost none mark Yom HaPlitim, the day that honors the Jews who left the Arab world.

Author Meg Keene says the community is going to have to build its own institutions, and pay for them.

Brigadier General Amir Avivi argues that security starts with spirit and purpose, and that a nation that has been around for thousands of years should be able to think a thousand years ahead.

Alana Newhouse, founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet, says Zionism is "not something that we picked up at Walmart 20 years ago," and lays out four survival tests that, she argues, only Israel in the West currently passes.

Shai Davidai, who was teaching at Columbia Business School on October 7, explains what he decided to do after getting punched in the face.

And Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malki was murdered in the 2001 Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem, answers the question of what still gives him hope: "I'm a Jew. I'm a proud Jew."

From all of us at HonestReporting, g'mar chatima tova.

If this episode was worth your time, send it to someone who needs it, and leave a rating and a review. It genuinely helps other people find the show.


Full conversations

Every guest in this episode sat down with Ben for a full-length episode of The Honest Take.

More from The Honest Take


]]> Thu, 17 Sep 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 2085 "The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is not Israel. The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is the Jewish people."

That's Ben M. Freeman, and that's where this episode starts.

Most weeks on The Honest Take, we spend an hour with one guest. This week is different. We're in the Ten Days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the stretch when you're supposed to sit down and take an honest accounting of yourself. So we went back through the conversations on this show and pulled the moments that had nothing to do with the news cycle.

Nobody in this episode is going to tell you what's being done to us. You already know that. Instead, nine people take on a harder question: Who are we? What do we actually know about ourselves? And what do we owe the people who handed this to us?

Ben M. Freeman, founder of the Jewish Pride movement, explains why Jews are a people, a nation and a civilization, not only a religion, and why "religions don't have homelands."

Rawan Osman grew up in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and spent seven years reading her way out of what she was taught about Jews. She describes what she found when she finally walked into a synagogue, and tells young Jews that being born a Jew "is like winning the lottery."

Yossi Klein Halevi of the Shalom Hartman Institute names the failure: "We have the most compelling national story out there… And we're not telling it."

Dr. Henry Green, founder of Sephardi Voices, turns the same charge inward. Nearly every Jewish community marks Yom HaShoah, and almost none mark Yom HaPlitim, the day that honors the Jews who left the Arab world.

Author Meg Keene says the community is going to have to build its own institutions, and pay for them.

Brigadier General Amir Avivi argues that security starts with spirit and purpose, and that a nation that has been around for thousands of years should be able to think a thousand years ahead.

Alana Newhouse, founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet, says Zionism is "not something that we picked up at Walmart 20 years ago," and lays out four survival tests that, she argues, only Israel in the West currently passes.

Shai Davidai, who was teaching at Columbia Business School on October 7, explains what he decided to do after getting punched in the face.

And Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malki was murdered in the 2001 Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem, answers the question of what still gives him hope: "I'm a Jew. I'm a proud Jew."

From all of us at HonestReporting, g'mar chatima tova.

If this episode was worth your time, send it to someone who needs it, and leave a rating and a review. It genuinely helps other people find the show.


Full conversations

Every guest in this episode sat down with Ben for a full-length episode of The Honest Take.

More from The Honest Take


]]> Chagim, High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Ten Days of Repentance, Aseret Yemei Teshuva, Days of Awe, cheshbon hanefesh, Jewish pride, Jewish identity, Jewish peoplehood, Jewish continuity, Jewish history, Jewish indigeneity, Jewish civilization, Zionism, Israel, antisemitism, Ben M. Freeman, Jewish Pride movement, Rawan Osman, Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah, Yossi Klein Halevi, Shalom Hartman Institute, Henry Green, Sephardi Voices, Mizrahi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Jews from Arab lands, Babylonian Jews, Yom HaPlitim, Yom HaShoah, Meg Keene, Jewish literature, Jewish institutions, Amir Avivi, Israel Defense and Security Forum, national security, Alana Newhouse, Tablet Magazine, survival tests, Shai Davidai, Columbia University, October 7, Arnold Roth, Malki Roth, Sbarro bombing, Holocaust survivors, Melbourne, hope, g'mar chatima tova, compilation episode, HonestReporting, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff No Ben Chertoff A Verdict Waiting for a Trial: Where 'Israel Is Committing Genocide' Came From, Decades Before Gaza | With Hillel Neuer 24 24 A Verdict Waiting for a Trial: Where 'Israel Is Committing Genocide' Came From, Decades Before Gaza | With Hillel Neuer full 30bc96f6-204f-47e3-bbb2-ebc07f1956a2 https://share.transistor.fm/s/f15504f1 "Israel is committing genocide." It's a sentence heard every day since October 7, and it is far older than the war. Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch in Geneva, returns to The Honest Take to trace where the charge came from, and how it was in circulation decades before the war it is now used to describe.

Neuer traces the vocabulary back to Soviet propaganda that he says probably began in the 1950s, and to the UN's 1975 "Zionism is racism" resolution, which was repealed in 1991. A decade later it was revived at the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which the United States and Israel walked out of 25 years ago this month. As Neuer puts it, "a conference that was supposed to be against racism became a conference that promoted racism." Marchers equated Zionism with Nazism. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were handed out as literature. A parallel NGO Forum adopted a declaration accusing Israel of "acts of genocide," "Israel's brand of apartheid" and "racist crimes against humanity." At the time, Human Rights Watch's Reed Brody, while accusing Israel of "serious crimes against Palestinian people," told CNN that "it is simply not accurate to use the word genocide." Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, called the conference "the most sickening and unabashed display of hate for Jews I had seen since the Nazi period."

Neuer argues that the charge never went away. The same accusation now comes from UN mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council's commission of inquiry and Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

The UN is still marking the anniversary. On Monday, September 28, the General Assembly holds a high-level meeting to commemorate 25 years since the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The resolution setting it up passed in July, 142 to 3 with 13 abstentions; Argentina, Israel and the United States voted no. Ten countries pulled out of the 2009 Durban Review Conference in Geneva, and 38 boycotted the General Assembly's 20th-anniversary meeting in 2021. UN Watch is asking democracies to stay away again.

Also in this episode: Secretary-General António Guterres telling the Financial Times that many UN special rapporteurs are "totally out of control, from the point of view of the Secretariat," and his spokesman's clarification days later; Deborah Lipstadt's account that Guterres privately called Albanese "a horrible person"; and Neuer's answer to Albanese's defamation charge: "Please go ahead and sue me. Make my day."

SIGN THE PETITION UN Watch — Durban 25 petition: https://unwatch.org/petition-pull-out-of-uns-antisemitic-durban-25-meeting/ UN Watch — Durban 25 campaign and boycott history: https://unwatch.org/durban-25/

HILLEL NEUER AND UN WATCH UN Watch: https://unwatch.org Hillel Neuer on X: https://x.com/HillelNeuer UN Watch on X: https://x.com/UNWatch

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE UN High-Level Week 2026 (the September 28 Durban meeting): https://www.un.org/en/high-level-week-2026 UN press release GA/12774 — the July 28, 2026 vote, 142–3–13: https://press.un.org/en/2026/ga12774.doc.htm Resolution text, A/80/L.93: https://docs.un.org/A/80/L.93 US Mission to the UN — explanation of vote: https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-vote-for-unga-resolution-scope-modalities-format-and-organization-of-the-high-level-meeting-of-the-general-assembly/ Durban 2001 NGO Forum Declaration (full text): https://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/eng/intladvocacy/ngoforumdecl.htm CNN, Sept. 2, 2001 — the NGO Forum declaration, and Human Rights Watch on the genocide charge: https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/09/02/durban.racism/index.html CNN, Sept. 3, 2001 — the US and Israel walk out: https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/09/03/racism.reaction/index.html UN Watch — Tom Lantos and other voices on the 2001 NGO Forum: https://unwatch.org/leading-international-voices-on-the-2001-durban-ngo-forum/ UN Watch — 25 Years After Durban (Feb. 2026): https://unwatch.org/25-years-after-durban-antisemitism-repackaged-as-human-rights/ James Loeffler, Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century (Yale): https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300217247/rooted-cosmopolitans/ NGO Monitor: https://ngo-monitor.org Guterres: Hamas attacks "did not happen in a vacuum" (Fortune, Oct. 2023): https://fortune.com/2023/10/25/un-secretary-general-says-hamas-attack-did-not-happen-in-vacuum-guterres-israel/ UN Watch — Guterres on rapporteurs "totally out of control," and Lipstadt's account: https://unwatch.org/un-chief-guterres-admits-special-rapporteurs-are-totally-out-of-control-after-privately-calling-francesca-albanese-a-horrible-person/ Jerusalem Post — the UN spokesman's clarification: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-906973 UN Watch — Albanese tells Middle East Eye the Secretary-General never spoke to her: https://unwatch.org/francesca-albanese-says-un-chief-never-spoke-to-her-and-expects-he-never-will/

Hillel Neuer's first Honest Take episode (March 24, 2026): https://honestreporting.com/the-un-is-broken-how-hillel-neuer-is-fighting-the-uns-anti-israel-machine-from-the-inside/

THE HONEST TAKE Podcast: https://podcast.honestreporting.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5 HonestReporting: https://honestreporting.com HonestReporting on X: https://x.com/HonestReporting

If this episode changed what you hear when someone says "apartheid" or "genocide," please leave The Honest Take a rating and review o...

]]> "Israel is committing genocide." It's a sentence heard every day since October 7, and it is far older than the war. Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch in Geneva, returns to The Honest Take to trace where the charge came from, and how it was in circulation decades before the war it is now used to describe.

Neuer traces the vocabulary back to Soviet propaganda that he says probably began in the 1950s, and to the UN's 1975 "Zionism is racism" resolution, which was repealed in 1991. A decade later it was revived at the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which the United States and Israel walked out of 25 years ago this month. As Neuer puts it, "a conference that was supposed to be against racism became a conference that promoted racism." Marchers equated Zionism with Nazism. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were handed out as literature. A parallel NGO Forum adopted a declaration accusing Israel of "acts of genocide," "Israel's brand of apartheid" and "racist crimes against humanity." At the time, Human Rights Watch's Reed Brody, while accusing Israel of "serious crimes against Palestinian people," told CNN that "it is simply not accurate to use the word genocide." Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, called the conference "the most sickening and unabashed display of hate for Jews I had seen since the Nazi period."

Neuer argues that the charge never went away. The same accusation now comes from UN mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council's commission of inquiry and Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

The UN is still marking the anniversary. On Monday, September 28, the General Assembly holds a high-level meeting to commemorate 25 years since the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The resolution setting it up passed in July, 142 to 3 with 13 abstentions; Argentina, Israel and the United States voted no. Ten countries pulled out of the 2009 Durban Review Conference in Geneva, and 38 boycotted the General Assembly's 20th-anniversary meeting in 2021. UN Watch is asking democracies to stay away again.

Also in this episode: Secretary-General António Guterres telling the Financial Times that many UN special rapporteurs are "totally out of control, from the point of view of the Secretariat," and his spokesman's clarification days later; Deborah Lipstadt's account that Guterres privately called Albanese "a horrible person"; and Neuer's answer to Albanese's defamation charge: "Please go ahead and sue me. Make my day."

SIGN THE PETITION UN Watch — Durban 25 petition: https://unwatch.org/petition-pull-out-of-uns-antisemitic-durban-25-meeting/ UN Watch — Durban 25 campaign and boycott history: https://unwatch.org/durban-25/

HILLEL NEUER AND UN WATCH UN Watch: https://unwatch.org Hillel Neuer on X: https://x.com/HillelNeuer UN Watch on X: https://x.com/UNWatch

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE UN High-Level Week 2026 (the September 28 Durban meeting): https://www.un.org/en/high-level-week-2026 UN press release GA/12774 — the July 28, 2026 vote, 142–3–13: https://press.un.org/en/2026/ga12774.doc.htm Resolution text, A/80/L.93: https://docs.un.org/A/80/L.93 US Mission to the UN — explanation of vote: https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-vote-for-unga-resolution-scope-modalities-format-and-organization-of-the-high-level-meeting-of-the-general-assembly/ Durban 2001 NGO Forum Declaration (full text): https://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/eng/intladvocacy/ngoforumdecl.htm CNN, Sept. 2, 2001 — the NGO Forum declaration, and Human Rights Watch on the genocide charge: https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/09/02/durban.racism/index.html CNN, Sept. 3, 2001 — the US and Israel walk out: https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/09/03/racism.reaction/index.html UN Watch — Tom Lantos and other voices on the 2001 NGO Forum: https://unwatch.org/leading-international-voices-on-the-2001-durban-ngo-forum/ UN Watch — 25 Years After Durban (Feb. 2026): https://unwatch.org/25-years-after-durban-antisemitism-repackaged-as-human-rights/ James Loeffler, Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century (Yale): https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300217247/rooted-cosmopolitans/ NGO Monitor: https://ngo-monitor.org Guterres: Hamas attacks "did not happen in a vacuum" (Fortune, Oct. 2023): https://fortune.com/2023/10/25/un-secretary-general-says-hamas-attack-did-not-happen-in-vacuum-guterres-israel/ UN Watch — Guterres on rapporteurs "totally out of control," and Lipstadt's account: https://unwatch.org/un-chief-guterres-admits-special-rapporteurs-are-totally-out-of-control-after-privately-calling-francesca-albanese-a-horrible-person/ Jerusalem Post — the UN spokesman's clarification: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-906973 UN Watch — Albanese tells Middle East Eye the Secretary-General never spoke to her: https://unwatch.org/francesca-albanese-says-un-chief-never-spoke-to-her-and-expects-he-never-will/

Hillel Neuer's first Honest Take episode (March 24, 2026): https://honestreporting.com/the-un-is-broken-how-hillel-neuer-is-fighting-the-uns-anti-israel-machine-from-the-inside/

THE HONEST TAKE Podcast: https://podcast.honestreporting.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5 HonestReporting: https://honestreporting.com HonestReporting on X: https://x.com/HonestReporting

If this episode changed what you hear when someone says "apartheid" or "genocide," please leave The Honest Take a rating and review o...

]]> Tue, 15 Sep 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 2389 "Israel is committing genocide." It's a sentence heard every day since October 7, and it is far older than the war. Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch in Geneva, returns to The Honest Take to trace where the charge came from, and how it was in circulation decades before the war it is now used to describe.

Neuer traces the vocabulary back to Soviet propaganda that he says probably began in the 1950s, and to the UN's 1975 "Zionism is racism" resolution, which was repealed in 1991. A decade later it was revived at the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which the United States and Israel walked out of 25 years ago this month. As Neuer puts it, "a conference that was supposed to be against racism became a conference that promoted racism." Marchers equated Zionism with Nazism. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were handed out as literature. A parallel NGO Forum adopted a declaration accusing Israel of "acts of genocide," "Israel's brand of apartheid" and "racist crimes against humanity." At the time, Human Rights Watch's Reed Brody, while accusing Israel of "serious crimes against Palestinian people," told CNN that "it is simply not accurate to use the word genocide." Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, called the conference "the most sickening and unabashed display of hate for Jews I had seen since the Nazi period."

Neuer argues that the charge never went away. The same accusation now comes from UN mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council's commission of inquiry and Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

The UN is still marking the anniversary. On Monday, September 28, the General Assembly holds a high-level meeting to commemorate 25 years since the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The resolution setting it up passed in July, 142 to 3 with 13 abstentions; Argentina, Israel and the United States voted no. Ten countries pulled out of the 2009 Durban Review Conference in Geneva, and 38 boycotted the General Assembly's 20th-anniversary meeting in 2021. UN Watch is asking democracies to stay away again.

Also in this episode: Secretary-General António Guterres telling the Financial Times that many UN special rapporteurs are "totally out of control, from the point of view of the Secretariat," and his spokesman's clarification days later; Deborah Lipstadt's account that Guterres privately called Albanese "a horrible person"; and Neuer's answer to Albanese's defamation charge: "Please go ahead and sue me. Make my day."

SIGN THE PETITION UN Watch — Durban 25 petition: https://unwatch.org/petition-pull-out-of-uns-antisemitic-durban-25-meeting/ UN Watch — Durban 25 campaign and boycott history: https://unwatch.org/durban-25/

HILLEL NEUER AND UN WATCH UN Watch: https://unwatch.org Hillel Neuer on X: https://x.com/HillelNeuer UN Watch on X: https://x.com/UNWatch

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE UN High-Level Week 2026 (the September 28 Durban meeting): https://www.un.org/en/high-level-week-2026 UN press release GA/12774 — the July 28, 2026 vote, 142–3–13: https://press.un.org/en/2026/ga12774.doc.htm Resolution text, A/80/L.93: https://docs.un.org/A/80/L.93 US Mission to the UN — explanation of vote: https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-vote-for-unga-resolution-scope-modalities-format-and-organization-of-the-high-level-meeting-of-the-general-assembly/ Durban 2001 NGO Forum Declaration (full text): https://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/eng/intladvocacy/ngoforumdecl.htm CNN, Sept. 2, 2001 — the NGO Forum declaration, and Human Rights Watch on the genocide charge: https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/09/02/durban.racism/index.html CNN, Sept. 3, 2001 — the US and Israel walk out: https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/09/03/racism.reaction/index.html UN Watch — Tom Lantos and other voices on the 2001 NGO Forum: https://unwatch.org/leading-international-voices-on-the-2001-durban-ngo-forum/ UN Watch — 25 Years After Durban (Feb. 2026): https://unwatch.org/25-years-after-durban-antisemitism-repackaged-as-human-rights/ James Loeffler, Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century (Yale): https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300217247/rooted-cosmopolitans/ NGO Monitor: https://ngo-monitor.org Guterres: Hamas attacks "did not happen in a vacuum" (Fortune, Oct. 2023): https://fortune.com/2023/10/25/un-secretary-general-says-hamas-attack-did-not-happen-in-vacuum-guterres-israel/ UN Watch — Guterres on rapporteurs "totally out of control," and Lipstadt's account: https://unwatch.org/un-chief-guterres-admits-special-rapporteurs-are-totally-out-of-control-after-privately-calling-francesca-albanese-a-horrible-person/ Jerusalem Post — the UN spokesman's clarification: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-906973 UN Watch — Albanese tells Middle East Eye the Secretary-General never spoke to her: https://unwatch.org/francesca-albanese-says-un-chief-never-spoke-to-her-and-expects-he-never-will/

Hillel Neuer's first Honest Take episode (March 24, 2026): https://honestreporting.com/the-un-is-broken-how-hillel-neuer-is-fighting-the-uns-anti-israel-machine-from-the-inside/

THE HONEST TAKE Podcast: https://podcast.honestreporting.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5 HonestReporting: https://honestreporting.com HonestReporting on X: https://x.com/HonestReporting

If this episode changed what you hear when someone says "apartheid" or "genocide," please leave The Honest Take a rating and review o...

]]> Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, genocide accusation, Israel genocide claim, Durban 25, Durban Conference, World Conference Against Racism, Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, UN General Assembly, NGO Forum, antisemitism, Israel, United Nations, Zionism is racism, Resolution 3379, Tom Lantos, Mary Robinson, Francesca Albanese, Antonio Guterres, special rapporteurs, UN Human Rights Council, commission of inquiry, apartheid libel, Durban Review Conference, Durban boycott, Colin Powell, Irwin Cotler, NGO Monitor, Gerald Steinberg, Ford Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Soviet propaganda, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Morris Abram, James Loeffler, Rooted Cosmopolitans, Deborah Lipstadt, Richard Falk, Ban Ki-moon, Navi Pillay, October 7, human rights, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff, HonestReporting No Ben Chertoff "Israel Probably Did 9/11": How a Settled Conspiracy Came Back | With James B. Meigs & Michael Shermer 23 23 "Israel Probably Did 9/11": How a Settled Conspiracy Came Back | With James B. Meigs & Michael Shermer full 66aee1aa-7507-416c-876b-bcc923513b1b https://share.transistor.fm/s/e3103059 "'Yeah, Israel probably did 9/11. I wouldn't put it past them.' That is one more thing people can put in their knapsack of arguments for why Israel is a uniquely evil country. And I'm just not sure how we're going to argue these people out of it."

That's James B. Meigs, and he has been arguing with these people for twenty years.

In 2005, Popular Mechanics did what almost no newsroom was willing to do: it took the 9/11 truther claims seriously enough to test them one at a time, and it published what it found. Meigs was the editor-in-chief. He spent the next two decades being told he was part of the cover-up.

Twenty-five years after the attacks, the same claims are circulating again — with one substitution. "The government did it" has become "Israel did it." Same anomalies. Same absence of evidence. New target.

Ben Chertoff, who managed the reporters on that Popular Mechanics investigation and ran its fact-checking, is joined by Meigs and by Michael Shermer — founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, a Scientific American columnist for eighteen years, and the author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, Denying History, and Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, Why It Matters.

They take the machinery apart. Proportionality bias — the intuition that an enormous event must have an enormous cause, and that nineteen men with box cutters cannot be the whole story. Anomaly hunting, and why a handful of loose threads feels more persuasive than a mountain of settled evidence. The Gish Gallop, and why a claim you can make in one sentence takes three thousand words to refute.

And the part that should trouble everyone: how material that originated with Holocaust deniers and professional antisemites — a full-page New York Times ad in 2004, a seismic-spike claim traced to the American Free Press — ended up circulating among people who considered themselves liberal, progressive and open-minded, because they liked where it pointed.

Also in this episode: what happened to Tucker Carlson between 2012 and 2025. Why thermite and Building 7 refuse to die. How the goalposts moved from "made it happen on purpose" to "let it happen on purpose." Why every new story now routes through the Mossad. What it would actually cost to pay off everyone who would have to stay quiet. And what you say to a family member who believes this, without sounding condescending.

Guests: James B. Meigs, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, columnist for the Wall Street Journal's "Free Expression" newsletter, and former editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics, where he ran the 2005 "Debunking 9/11 Myths" investigation. He also writes for City Journal and Commentary. Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational.

If this episode was useful, a rating and a review genuinely helps other people find it.


Sources referenced

]]> "'Yeah, Israel probably did 9/11. I wouldn't put it past them.' That is one more thing people can put in their knapsack of arguments for why Israel is a uniquely evil country. And I'm just not sure how we're going to argue these people out of it."

That's James B. Meigs, and he has been arguing with these people for twenty years.

In 2005, Popular Mechanics did what almost no newsroom was willing to do: it took the 9/11 truther claims seriously enough to test them one at a time, and it published what it found. Meigs was the editor-in-chief. He spent the next two decades being told he was part of the cover-up.

Twenty-five years after the attacks, the same claims are circulating again — with one substitution. "The government did it" has become "Israel did it." Same anomalies. Same absence of evidence. New target.

Ben Chertoff, who managed the reporters on that Popular Mechanics investigation and ran its fact-checking, is joined by Meigs and by Michael Shermer — founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, a Scientific American columnist for eighteen years, and the author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, Denying History, and Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, Why It Matters.

They take the machinery apart. Proportionality bias — the intuition that an enormous event must have an enormous cause, and that nineteen men with box cutters cannot be the whole story. Anomaly hunting, and why a handful of loose threads feels more persuasive than a mountain of settled evidence. The Gish Gallop, and why a claim you can make in one sentence takes three thousand words to refute.

And the part that should trouble everyone: how material that originated with Holocaust deniers and professional antisemites — a full-page New York Times ad in 2004, a seismic-spike claim traced to the American Free Press — ended up circulating among people who considered themselves liberal, progressive and open-minded, because they liked where it pointed.

Also in this episode: what happened to Tucker Carlson between 2012 and 2025. Why thermite and Building 7 refuse to die. How the goalposts moved from "made it happen on purpose" to "let it happen on purpose." Why every new story now routes through the Mossad. What it would actually cost to pay off everyone who would have to stay quiet. And what you say to a family member who believes this, without sounding condescending.

Guests: James B. Meigs, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, columnist for the Wall Street Journal's "Free Expression" newsletter, and former editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics, where he ran the 2005 "Debunking 9/11 Myths" investigation. He also writes for City Journal and Commentary. Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational.

If this episode was useful, a rating and a review genuinely helps other people find it.


Sources referenced

]]> Tue, 08 Sep 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 5465 "'Yeah, Israel probably did 9/11. I wouldn't put it past them.' That is one more thing people can put in their knapsack of arguments for why Israel is a uniquely evil country. And I'm just not sure how we're going to argue these people out of it."

That's James B. Meigs, and he has been arguing with these people for twenty years.

In 2005, Popular Mechanics did what almost no newsroom was willing to do: it took the 9/11 truther claims seriously enough to test them one at a time, and it published what it found. Meigs was the editor-in-chief. He spent the next two decades being told he was part of the cover-up.

Twenty-five years after the attacks, the same claims are circulating again — with one substitution. "The government did it" has become "Israel did it." Same anomalies. Same absence of evidence. New target.

Ben Chertoff, who managed the reporters on that Popular Mechanics investigation and ran its fact-checking, is joined by Meigs and by Michael Shermer — founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, a Scientific American columnist for eighteen years, and the author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, Denying History, and Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, Why It Matters.

They take the machinery apart. Proportionality bias — the intuition that an enormous event must have an enormous cause, and that nineteen men with box cutters cannot be the whole story. Anomaly hunting, and why a handful of loose threads feels more persuasive than a mountain of settled evidence. The Gish Gallop, and why a claim you can make in one sentence takes three thousand words to refute.

And the part that should trouble everyone: how material that originated with Holocaust deniers and professional antisemites — a full-page New York Times ad in 2004, a seismic-spike claim traced to the American Free Press — ended up circulating among people who considered themselves liberal, progressive and open-minded, because they liked where it pointed.

Also in this episode: what happened to Tucker Carlson between 2012 and 2025. Why thermite and Building 7 refuse to die. How the goalposts moved from "made it happen on purpose" to "let it happen on purpose." Why every new story now routes through the Mossad. What it would actually cost to pay off everyone who would have to stay quiet. And what you say to a family member who believes this, without sounding condescending.

Guests: James B. Meigs, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, columnist for the Wall Street Journal's "Free Expression" newsletter, and former editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics, where he ran the 2005 "Debunking 9/11 Myths" investigation. He also writes for City Journal and Commentary. Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational.

If this episode was useful, a rating and a review genuinely helps other people find it.


Sources referenced

]]> 9/11, September 11, 9/11 conspiracy theories, 9/11 truthers, truther movement, Israel did 9/11, Mossad, World Trade Center, World Trade Center 7, Building 7, thermite, controlled demolition, Popular Mechanics, Debunking 9/11 Myths, James B. Meigs, Michael Shermer, Ben Chertoff, Skeptic magazine, Skeptic Society, Conspiracy Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, Denying History, conspiracy theories, anomaly hunting, proportionality bias, Gish Gallop, MIHOP, LIHOP, Loose Change, Tucker Carlson, City Journal, Christopher Bollyn, American Free Press, Willis Carto, Eric Hufschmid, Holocaust denial, antisemitism, anti-Israel conspiracy theories, horseshoe theory, Hasan Piker, Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, Jeffrey Epstein, Carl Sagan, David Hume, extraordinary claims, Richard Hofstadter, paranoid style, JFK assassination, Warren Commission, Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, media literacy, misinformation, fact-checking, skepticism, HonestReporting, The Honest Take No Ben Chertoff BONUS: They Counted Terrorists as Journalists — Then Quietly Removed Them | Erin Molan, Salo Aizenberg, Leslie Kajomovitz, Gabriel Epstein 22 22 BONUS: They Counted Terrorists as Journalists — Then Quietly Removed Them | Erin Molan, Salo Aizenberg, Leslie Kajomovitz, Gabriel Epstein bonus cd8b326d-1391-47df-a9e1-95504c643b7e https://share.transistor.fm/s/2e5066af "CPJ has dozens of names where they claim the journalist died on a dangerous assignment, while the description says they died in their home. So use a little bit of logic and tell me — how can a journalist be on a dangerous assignment while they're in their own home?"

That is Leslie Kajomovitz, near the end of this panel.

On June 25, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced it was reviewing its own database of journalists killed since October 7. The reason was not an outside investigation. It was that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had begun publishing obituaries for their own fighters — and some of those fighters were already on CPJ's list.

CPJ has since removed eight people for taking part in hostilities, and another seven for not meeting its own definition of a journalist. The review cost the organization a board member: Nika Soon-Shiong, publisher of Drop Site News, was ousted as the audit went forward. The International Federation of Journalists quietly dropped eight terrorism-linked names from its own list and has still offered no explanation for why.

HonestReporting's research puts it further than CPJ has been willing to go: over half of the people on CPJ's October 7 War database are operatives or carry a documented affiliation with a terrorist organization.

And the number that gets least attention is CPJ's own. In its 2025 annual report, CPJ counted 52 journalist deaths in Gaza — and determined that only 18 of them were targeted by Israel. The other 34, by CPJ's own finding, were killed in the course of the conflict and not specifically targeted. Of the 86 deaths CPJ attributed to Israel worldwide that year, 31 worked for the Houthi public relations department's newspapers in Yemen.

Erin Molan puts it to the panel: why did so many organizations reach for the "Israel is hunting journalists" narrative, how did so many combatants get counted as press, what does it cost real journalists when the label is handed out this cheaply — and why has almost no newsroom that ran the original story gone back to correct it.

Panel: Salo Aizenberg, author and researcher and a HonestReporting board member; Leslie Kajomovitz, twenty-plus years in international news; and Gabriel Epstein, Senior Policy Associate at the Israel Policy Forum. Moderated by journalist and broadcaster Erin Molan.

Recorded live on August 5, 2026, as part of HonestReporting's Let's Get Honest series.


Sources referenced

]]> "CPJ has dozens of names where they claim the journalist died on a dangerous assignment, while the description says they died in their home. So use a little bit of logic and tell me — how can a journalist be on a dangerous assignment while they're in their own home?"

That is Leslie Kajomovitz, near the end of this panel.

On June 25, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced it was reviewing its own database of journalists killed since October 7. The reason was not an outside investigation. It was that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had begun publishing obituaries for their own fighters — and some of those fighters were already on CPJ's list.

CPJ has since removed eight people for taking part in hostilities, and another seven for not meeting its own definition of a journalist. The review cost the organization a board member: Nika Soon-Shiong, publisher of Drop Site News, was ousted as the audit went forward. The International Federation of Journalists quietly dropped eight terrorism-linked names from its own list and has still offered no explanation for why.

HonestReporting's research puts it further than CPJ has been willing to go: over half of the people on CPJ's October 7 War database are operatives or carry a documented affiliation with a terrorist organization.

And the number that gets least attention is CPJ's own. In its 2025 annual report, CPJ counted 52 journalist deaths in Gaza — and determined that only 18 of them were targeted by Israel. The other 34, by CPJ's own finding, were killed in the course of the conflict and not specifically targeted. Of the 86 deaths CPJ attributed to Israel worldwide that year, 31 worked for the Houthi public relations department's newspapers in Yemen.

Erin Molan puts it to the panel: why did so many organizations reach for the "Israel is hunting journalists" narrative, how did so many combatants get counted as press, what does it cost real journalists when the label is handed out this cheaply — and why has almost no newsroom that ran the original story gone back to correct it.

Panel: Salo Aizenberg, author and researcher and a HonestReporting board member; Leslie Kajomovitz, twenty-plus years in international news; and Gabriel Epstein, Senior Policy Associate at the Israel Policy Forum. Moderated by journalist and broadcaster Erin Molan.

Recorded live on August 5, 2026, as part of HonestReporting's Let's Get Honest series.


Sources referenced

]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2026 09:47:36 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 2792 "CPJ has dozens of names where they claim the journalist died on a dangerous assignment, while the description says they died in their home. So use a little bit of logic and tell me — how can a journalist be on a dangerous assignment while they're in their own home?"

That is Leslie Kajomovitz, near the end of this panel.

On June 25, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced it was reviewing its own database of journalists killed since October 7. The reason was not an outside investigation. It was that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had begun publishing obituaries for their own fighters — and some of those fighters were already on CPJ's list.

CPJ has since removed eight people for taking part in hostilities, and another seven for not meeting its own definition of a journalist. The review cost the organization a board member: Nika Soon-Shiong, publisher of Drop Site News, was ousted as the audit went forward. The International Federation of Journalists quietly dropped eight terrorism-linked names from its own list and has still offered no explanation for why.

HonestReporting's research puts it further than CPJ has been willing to go: over half of the people on CPJ's October 7 War database are operatives or carry a documented affiliation with a terrorist organization.

And the number that gets least attention is CPJ's own. In its 2025 annual report, CPJ counted 52 journalist deaths in Gaza — and determined that only 18 of them were targeted by Israel. The other 34, by CPJ's own finding, were killed in the course of the conflict and not specifically targeted. Of the 86 deaths CPJ attributed to Israel worldwide that year, 31 worked for the Houthi public relations department's newspapers in Yemen.

Erin Molan puts it to the panel: why did so many organizations reach for the "Israel is hunting journalists" narrative, how did so many combatants get counted as press, what does it cost real journalists when the label is handed out this cheaply — and why has almost no newsroom that ran the original story gone back to correct it.

Panel: Salo Aizenberg, author and researcher and a HonestReporting board member; Leslie Kajomovitz, twenty-plus years in international news; and Gabriel Epstein, Senior Policy Associate at the Israel Policy Forum. Moderated by journalist and broadcaster Erin Molan.

Recorded live on August 5, 2026, as part of HonestReporting's Let's Get Honest series.


Sources referenced

]]> Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, CPJ database, press freedom, journalists killed in Gaza, Gaza journalists, terrorists posing as journalists, Erin Molan, Salo Aizenberg, Leslie Kajomovitz, Gabriel Epstein, Israel Policy Forum, Nika Soon-Shiong, Drop Site News, International Federation of Journalists, IFJ, Reporters Without Borders, RSF, UNESCO, Press Emblem Campaign, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al-Qassam Brigades, martyr notices, Anas al-Sharif, Hossam Shabat, Ahmad Washah, Ahmed Abu Mutair, Al Jazeera, Houthi, 26 September newspaper, IRIB, Iran, Yemen, October 7, October 7 War, media bias, press vests, journalist casualty figures, database methodology, corrections, media accountability, newsroom corrections, information war, Gaza war coverage, HonestReporting, Let's Get Honest, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff No Ben Chertoff Someone Should Give Soros a Shower: How Antisemitism Learned to Hide From the Keyword Filters | With Dr. Matthias Becker 21 21 Someone Should Give Soros a Shower: How Antisemitism Learned to Hide From the Keyword Filters | With Dr. Matthias Becker full d5aeb732-9c9f-49e2-8161-9f2c8d844984 https://share.transistor.fm/s/25495379 When most of us picture antisemitism online, we picture a swastika, a slur, a guy in a dark room. Matthias Becker will tell you that's the part that barely matters.

He's not a political scientist. He's a linguist. For more than a decade he has been reading the comments — not on fringe platforms, but under the BBC, The Guardian, Le Monde. His project, Decoding Antisemitism, has now been through 300,000-plus comments across Britain, France and Germany, and what it found is that roughly 80% of the antisemitism in those mainstream spaces never uses a slur at all.

It hides in a joke. In a rhetorical question. In a name dropped like a password. Below an article about George Soros, someone writes: someone should give George Soros a shower. No slur, no threat, nothing a keyword filter will ever catch — and everyone who needs to understand it, does.

Which means, as Becker puts it, that nearly every statistic you have read about online hate is built on sand.

This conversation covers what actually changed on October 7 — the shift from demonizing Israel to openly celebrating the murder of Israelis, and the overlap with misogyny he had never seen before. It covers his event studies of Charlie Kirk, the Capital Jewish Museum, the White House Correspondents' Dinner attack, and Dan Bilzerian's congressional run — where the single video that pushed back on him drew the most antisemitism of any in the set, over 50%. It covers why he thinks surveys can't measure this and comment sections can. And it covers what he now tells the AI companies, whose guardrails he is trying to help build.

He is, after ten years in the worst of it, not a cynic. His argument is that the same technology that lets one person manufacture a wave of propaganda is the first tool we've had that is powerful enough to read the flood back.

Related episode: Ashley Rindsberg, "Garbage In, Gospel Out: Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle Over Truth" — Becker names Wikipedia and Reddit on tape as the stumbling block feeding these models. Rindsberg's episode is how that pipeline got poisoned; Becker's is what it costs downstream — https://share.transistor.fm/s/cdb2fdb2

The guest

The lexicon Ben names in the outro — this is the free, open-access one

  • Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online — eds. Becker, Troschke, Bolton, Chapelan (Palgrave Macmillan / Springer Nature, 2024, Open Access CC BY 4.0). 46 antisemitic categories, each with historical background and explicit/implicit examples — read or download free

His work referenced in the episode

  • "Decoding antisemitism online: linguistic and multimodal challenges in the age of AI" — Frontiers in Communication, Jan 23 2026 — read it
  • "Antisemitism Exploding on the Far-Right: The Conspiracy Theory Doesn't Need an Event Anymore" — The Algemeiner, May 7 2026. This is the Bilzerian study: ~3,000 YouTube comments across six appearances, 41% antisemitic on average, 23.6%–52% range, with the pushback video topping the set — read it
  • "The Conspiracy Architecture Doesn't Need Jews: It Just Prefers Them" — The Algemeiner, Apr 28 2026. The White House Correspondents' Dinner study: conspiracy framing 6% → 25%, conventional blame 30% → 5% — read it
  • "Celebrating Terror" — the case study his team published two weeks after October 7, on the online reactions to the attack. Available through the project's publications page

The new work

  • AddressHate — the New York think tank he describes at 59:01, connecting discourse research, malicious-actor research and algorithmic-amplification research — addresshate.org
  • Decoding Hate — the NYU successor project, expanding from antisemitism to anti-Asian and anti-Black racism and misogyny. Site was "about two months" from launch as of taping; not yet live at publication.

Related Honest Take episodes

  • Ashley Rindsberg, "Garbage In, Gospel Out: Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle Over Truth" (Jun 30 2026, 43:04) — listen · watch. The direct on-tape connection: at 57:30 Ben raises Wikipedia and Reddit as the stumbling block, because they are what feed the models. Rindsberg's episode is how that corpus got captured; Becker's is the cost downstream, in the guardrails.
  • Izabella Tabarovsky, "The Soviet Factory That Built Modern Anti-Zionism" (Aug 25 2026, 97:16) — listen · watch. Complementary: she traces where the vocabulary was manufactured; he measures what people do with it now, sentence by sentence.

The show

]]> When most of us picture antisemitism online, we picture a swastika, a slur, a guy in a dark room. Matthias Becker will tell you that's the part that barely matters.

He's not a political scientist. He's a linguist. For more than a decade he has been reading the comments — not on fringe platforms, but under the BBC, The Guardian, Le Monde. His project, Decoding Antisemitism, has now been through 300,000-plus comments across Britain, France and Germany, and what it found is that roughly 80% of the antisemitism in those mainstream spaces never uses a slur at all.

It hides in a joke. In a rhetorical question. In a name dropped like a password. Below an article about George Soros, someone writes: someone should give George Soros a shower. No slur, no threat, nothing a keyword filter will ever catch — and everyone who needs to understand it, does.

Which means, as Becker puts it, that nearly every statistic you have read about online hate is built on sand.

This conversation covers what actually changed on October 7 — the shift from demonizing Israel to openly celebrating the murder of Israelis, and the overlap with misogyny he had never seen before. It covers his event studies of Charlie Kirk, the Capital Jewish Museum, the White House Correspondents' Dinner attack, and Dan Bilzerian's congressional run — where the single video that pushed back on him drew the most antisemitism of any in the set, over 50%. It covers why he thinks surveys can't measure this and comment sections can. And it covers what he now tells the AI companies, whose guardrails he is trying to help build.

He is, after ten years in the worst of it, not a cynic. His argument is that the same technology that lets one person manufacture a wave of propaganda is the first tool we've had that is powerful enough to read the flood back.

Related episode: Ashley Rindsberg, "Garbage In, Gospel Out: Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle Over Truth" — Becker names Wikipedia and Reddit on tape as the stumbling block feeding these models. Rindsberg's episode is how that pipeline got poisoned; Becker's is what it costs downstream — https://share.transistor.fm/s/cdb2fdb2

The guest

The lexicon Ben names in the outro — this is the free, open-access one

  • Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online — eds. Becker, Troschke, Bolton, Chapelan (Palgrave Macmillan / Springer Nature, 2024, Open Access CC BY 4.0). 46 antisemitic categories, each with historical background and explicit/implicit examples — read or download free

His work referenced in the episode

  • "Decoding antisemitism online: linguistic and multimodal challenges in the age of AI" — Frontiers in Communication, Jan 23 2026 — read it
  • "Antisemitism Exploding on the Far-Right: The Conspiracy Theory Doesn't Need an Event Anymore" — The Algemeiner, May 7 2026. This is the Bilzerian study: ~3,000 YouTube comments across six appearances, 41% antisemitic on average, 23.6%–52% range, with the pushback video topping the set — read it
  • "The Conspiracy Architecture Doesn't Need Jews: It Just Prefers Them" — The Algemeiner, Apr 28 2026. The White House Correspondents' Dinner study: conspiracy framing 6% → 25%, conventional blame 30% → 5% — read it
  • "Celebrating Terror" — the case study his team published two weeks after October 7, on the online reactions to the attack. Available through the project's publications page

The new work

  • AddressHate — the New York think tank he describes at 59:01, connecting discourse research, malicious-actor research and algorithmic-amplification research — addresshate.org
  • Decoding Hate — the NYU successor project, expanding from antisemitism to anti-Asian and anti-Black racism and misogyny. Site was "about two months" from launch as of taping; not yet live at publication.

Related Honest Take episodes

  • Ashley Rindsberg, "Garbage In, Gospel Out: Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle Over Truth" (Jun 30 2026, 43:04) — listen · watch. The direct on-tape connection: at 57:30 Ben raises Wikipedia and Reddit as the stumbling block, because they are what feed the models. Rindsberg's episode is how that corpus got captured; Becker's is the cost downstream, in the guardrails.
  • Izabella Tabarovsky, "The Soviet Factory That Built Modern Anti-Zionism" (Aug 25 2026, 97:16) — listen · watch. Complementary: she traces where the vocabulary was manufactured; he measures what people do with it now, sentence by sentence.

The show

]]> Tue, 01 Sep 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 4545 When most of us picture antisemitism online, we picture a swastika, a slur, a guy in a dark room. Matthias Becker will tell you that's the part that barely matters.

He's not a political scientist. He's a linguist. For more than a decade he has been reading the comments — not on fringe platforms, but under the BBC, The Guardian, Le Monde. His project, Decoding Antisemitism, has now been through 300,000-plus comments across Britain, France and Germany, and what it found is that roughly 80% of the antisemitism in those mainstream spaces never uses a slur at all.

It hides in a joke. In a rhetorical question. In a name dropped like a password. Below an article about George Soros, someone writes: someone should give George Soros a shower. No slur, no threat, nothing a keyword filter will ever catch — and everyone who needs to understand it, does.

Which means, as Becker puts it, that nearly every statistic you have read about online hate is built on sand.

This conversation covers what actually changed on October 7 — the shift from demonizing Israel to openly celebrating the murder of Israelis, and the overlap with misogyny he had never seen before. It covers his event studies of Charlie Kirk, the Capital Jewish Museum, the White House Correspondents' Dinner attack, and Dan Bilzerian's congressional run — where the single video that pushed back on him drew the most antisemitism of any in the set, over 50%. It covers why he thinks surveys can't measure this and comment sections can. And it covers what he now tells the AI companies, whose guardrails he is trying to help build.

He is, after ten years in the worst of it, not a cynic. His argument is that the same technology that lets one person manufacture a wave of propaganda is the first tool we've had that is powerful enough to read the flood back.

Related episode: Ashley Rindsberg, "Garbage In, Gospel Out: Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle Over Truth" — Becker names Wikipedia and Reddit on tape as the stumbling block feeding these models. Rindsberg's episode is how that pipeline got poisoned; Becker's is what it costs downstream — https://share.transistor.fm/s/cdb2fdb2

The guest

The lexicon Ben names in the outro — this is the free, open-access one

  • Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online — eds. Becker, Troschke, Bolton, Chapelan (Palgrave Macmillan / Springer Nature, 2024, Open Access CC BY 4.0). 46 antisemitic categories, each with historical background and explicit/implicit examples — read or download free

His work referenced in the episode

  • "Decoding antisemitism online: linguistic and multimodal challenges in the age of AI" — Frontiers in Communication, Jan 23 2026 — read it
  • "Antisemitism Exploding on the Far-Right: The Conspiracy Theory Doesn't Need an Event Anymore" — The Algemeiner, May 7 2026. This is the Bilzerian study: ~3,000 YouTube comments across six appearances, 41% antisemitic on average, 23.6%–52% range, with the pushback video topping the set — read it
  • "The Conspiracy Architecture Doesn't Need Jews: It Just Prefers Them" — The Algemeiner, Apr 28 2026. The White House Correspondents' Dinner study: conspiracy framing 6% → 25%, conventional blame 30% → 5% — read it
  • "Celebrating Terror" — the case study his team published two weeks after October 7, on the online reactions to the attack. Available through the project's publications page

The new work

  • AddressHate — the New York think tank he describes at 59:01, connecting discourse research, malicious-actor research and algorithmic-amplification research — addresshate.org
  • Decoding Hate — the NYU successor project, expanding from antisemitism to anti-Asian and anti-Black racism and misogyny. Site was "about two months" from launch as of taping; not yet live at publication.

Related Honest Take episodes

  • Ashley Rindsberg, "Garbage In, Gospel Out: Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle Over Truth" (Jun 30 2026, 43:04) — listen · watch. The direct on-tape connection: at 57:30 Ben raises Wikipedia and Reddit as the stumbling block, because they are what feed the models. Rindsberg's episode is how that corpus got captured; Becker's is the cost downstream, in the guardrails.
  • Izabella Tabarovsky, "The Soviet Factory That Built Modern Anti-Zionism" (Aug 25 2026, 97:16) — listen · watch. Complementary: she traces where the vocabulary was manufactured; he measures what people do with it now, sentence by sentence.

The show

]]> Matthias Becker, Decoding Antisemitism, coded antisemitism, online antisemitism, implicit antisemitism, dog whistles, detour communication, digital hate, hate speech, content moderation, AI content moderation, large language models, AI guardrails, discourse analysis, linguistics, comment sections, George Soros, Jewish power trope, Holocaust distortion, Israel-related antisemitism, October 7, Celebrating Terror, glorification of violence, misogyny, manosphere, Dan Bilzerian, Randy Fine, George Galloway, Candace Owens, Lex Fridman, Sam Harris, Kanye West, Alex Jones, Charlie Kirk, Capital Jewish Museum, White House Correspondents Dinner, Bondi Beach, Pittsburgh, Halle, Christchurch, great replacement theory, conspiracy theories, self-victimization, radicalization, lone wolf, deepfakes, AI propaganda, Grok, Community Notes, trusted flaggers, platform accountability, NYU Center for the Study of Antisemitism, AddressHate, Decoding Hate, BBC, The Guardian, Le Monde, antisemitism, HonestReporting, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff No Ben Chertoff The Soviet Factory That Built Modern Anti-Zionism | With Izabella Tabarovsky 20 20 The Soviet Factory That Built Modern Anti-Zionism | With Izabella Tabarovsky full 93c7674a-93e4-4e66-931c-e65c1b5dde85 https://share.transistor.fm/s/01427a38 In 2018, Izabella Tabarovsky walked past a protest on an American campus and recognized the signs. Not the sentiment — the sentences. She called her father in Russian and read them out. His answer: we've heard all of this before.

She grew up in Soviet Siberia, in a Jewish city with no synagogues, where the word "Jew" was a line on an internal passport and Jewish applicants to math departments were handed problems known as "coffin problems," because they would bury you. So she went looking for the paper trail — and found one. The Soviet Union didn't merely dislike Israel. It assigned the problem to research institutes and told them to build a scientific-sounding case against Zionism. The volumes they produced look like scholarship. They have footnotes, endnotes, citations to Hannah Arendt and to Herzl.

Tabarovsky sat in the National Library of Israel and checked those citations one at a time. They're fake. Real quotes turned to mean the opposite of what they meant.

From there the trail runs out of Moscow and into a UN resolution, into Mahmoud Abbas's Soviet dissertation, and into an American Communist Party book that a successor organization quietly serialized "for our young readers" one month after October 7th.

A conversation about where the vocabulary came from, why it outlived the state that built it, and what a nineteen-year-old is supposed to do about it now.

Her book is Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student's Survival Guide, with a foreword by Natan Sharansky.

Related episode: Shai Davidai, "Elite, Educated, Antisemitic: How Academia Fosters Jew Hate." Tabarovsky traces where this vocabulary was manufactured; Davidai traces how the American university taught a generation to hear it as justice.

The guest

Her essays referenced in the episode

  • "Zombie Anti-Zionism" — Tablet, Jul 31 2024 — read it
  • "Mahmoud Abbas' Dissertation" — Tablet, Jan 18 2023 — read it
  • "The Cult of 'Antizionism'" — Tablet (on the ICSZ) — read it
  • "The New Refuseniks" — Tablet, Jun 21 2021 — read it

People and things discussed

The show

]]> In 2018, Izabella Tabarovsky walked past a protest on an American campus and recognized the signs. Not the sentiment — the sentences. She called her father in Russian and read them out. His answer: we've heard all of this before.

She grew up in Soviet Siberia, in a Jewish city with no synagogues, where the word "Jew" was a line on an internal passport and Jewish applicants to math departments were handed problems known as "coffin problems," because they would bury you. So she went looking for the paper trail — and found one. The Soviet Union didn't merely dislike Israel. It assigned the problem to research institutes and told them to build a scientific-sounding case against Zionism. The volumes they produced look like scholarship. They have footnotes, endnotes, citations to Hannah Arendt and to Herzl.

Tabarovsky sat in the National Library of Israel and checked those citations one at a time. They're fake. Real quotes turned to mean the opposite of what they meant.

From there the trail runs out of Moscow and into a UN resolution, into Mahmoud Abbas's Soviet dissertation, and into an American Communist Party book that a successor organization quietly serialized "for our young readers" one month after October 7th.

A conversation about where the vocabulary came from, why it outlived the state that built it, and what a nineteen-year-old is supposed to do about it now.

Her book is Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student's Survival Guide, with a foreword by Natan Sharansky.

Related episode: Shai Davidai, "Elite, Educated, Antisemitic: How Academia Fosters Jew Hate." Tabarovsky traces where this vocabulary was manufactured; Davidai traces how the American university taught a generation to hear it as justice.

The guest

Her essays referenced in the episode

  • "Zombie Anti-Zionism" — Tablet, Jul 31 2024 — read it
  • "Mahmoud Abbas' Dissertation" — Tablet, Jan 18 2023 — read it
  • "The Cult of 'Antizionism'" — Tablet (on the ICSZ) — read it
  • "The New Refuseniks" — Tablet, Jun 21 2021 — read it

People and things discussed

The show

]]> Tue, 25 Aug 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 5836 In 2018, Izabella Tabarovsky walked past a protest on an American campus and recognized the signs. Not the sentiment — the sentences. She called her father in Russian and read them out. His answer: we've heard all of this before.

She grew up in Soviet Siberia, in a Jewish city with no synagogues, where the word "Jew" was a line on an internal passport and Jewish applicants to math departments were handed problems known as "coffin problems," because they would bury you. So she went looking for the paper trail — and found one. The Soviet Union didn't merely dislike Israel. It assigned the problem to research institutes and told them to build a scientific-sounding case against Zionism. The volumes they produced look like scholarship. They have footnotes, endnotes, citations to Hannah Arendt and to Herzl.

Tabarovsky sat in the National Library of Israel and checked those citations one at a time. They're fake. Real quotes turned to mean the opposite of what they meant.

From there the trail runs out of Moscow and into a UN resolution, into Mahmoud Abbas's Soviet dissertation, and into an American Communist Party book that a successor organization quietly serialized "for our young readers" one month after October 7th.

A conversation about where the vocabulary came from, why it outlived the state that built it, and what a nineteen-year-old is supposed to do about it now.

Her book is Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student's Survival Guide, with a foreword by Natan Sharansky.

Related episode: Shai Davidai, "Elite, Educated, Antisemitic: How Academia Fosters Jew Hate." Tabarovsky traces where this vocabulary was manufactured; Davidai traces how the American university taught a generation to hear it as justice.

The guest

Her essays referenced in the episode

  • "Zombie Anti-Zionism" — Tablet, Jul 31 2024 — read it
  • "Mahmoud Abbas' Dissertation" — Tablet, Jan 18 2023 — read it
  • "The Cult of 'Antizionism'" — Tablet (on the ICSZ) — read it
  • "The New Refuseniks" — Tablet, Jun 21 2021 — read it

People and things discussed

The show

]]> Izabella Tabarovsky, Soviet anti-Zionism, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, Be a Refusenik, Zionology, Soviet propaganda, refuseniks, Natan Sharansky, Mahmoud Abbas dissertation, left antisemitism, campus antisemitism, DSA, Zoran Mamdani, Hasan Piker, Judith Butler, Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, Marxism, Marxist-Leninist, communism, Soviet Union, KGB, Yuri Andropov, Six-Day War, 1967, UN Resolution 3379, Zionism is racism, Communist Party USA, Hyman Lumer, Angela Davis, Jeremy Corbyn, David Duke, Ilhan Omar, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Judeo-Bolshevism, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Deborah Lipstadt, Ruth Wisse, Frantz Fanon, postcolonial theory, Soviet Jewry, Novosibirsk, Israel, Zionism, Jewish identity, Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, Shabbos Kestenbaum, prebunking, disinformation, propaganda, HonestReporting, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff No Ben Chertoff BONUS: ⁠The Storming of Al-Aqsa: The 1928 Lie, the Hebron Massacre, and When the Reporting Got It Right | With Yardena Schwartz BONUS: ⁠The Storming of Al-Aqsa: The 1928 Lie, the Hebron Massacre, and When the Reporting Got It Right | With Yardena Schwartz bonus 20de3450-5f80-40db-be7b-c3e10427f620 https://share.transistor.fm/s/1f15e9e0 In 1928, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was a man in trouble — dogged by accusations of corruption and nepotism. So he told a story: the Jews praying at the Western Wall were coming for Al-Aqsa. It worked. The criticism dissolved, and a year later 67 Jews were murdered in Hebron, ending a Jewish presence there that had lasted millennia.

Journalist Yardena Schwartz spent years tracing that lie — from a box of letters in a Memphis attic, to the Mufti's wartime estate in Berlin, to October 7th, when Hamas named its attack the Al-Aqsa Flood. Her book is Ghosts of a Holy War.

This week marks 97 years since the Hebron massacre. In 1929, The New York Times reported it plainly as a massacre of unarmed Jews, and New Yorkers marched in protest. Those articles are still sitting in the paper's archive. Almost nobody has gone back to read them.

A re-release of the conversation that opened this show.

The guest

Her reporting referenced in the episode

  • "How the first Palestinian leader became a Nazi war criminal" — The Spectator, Dec 28 2025 — read it
  • Review of Ghosts of a Holy War — The Jerusalem Post — read it

Books and films discussed

  • Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict — publisher
  • Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate — publisher
  • Palestine 36 (dir. Annemarie Jacir, 2025) — Palestine's Oscar entry, US run via Watermelon Pictures — Variety review · Screen Daily

Background on what's discussed

The show

]]> In 1928, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was a man in trouble — dogged by accusations of corruption and nepotism. So he told a story: the Jews praying at the Western Wall were coming for Al-Aqsa. It worked. The criticism dissolved, and a year later 67 Jews were murdered in Hebron, ending a Jewish presence there that had lasted millennia.

Journalist Yardena Schwartz spent years tracing that lie — from a box of letters in a Memphis attic, to the Mufti's wartime estate in Berlin, to October 7th, when Hamas named its attack the Al-Aqsa Flood. Her book is Ghosts of a Holy War.

This week marks 97 years since the Hebron massacre. In 1929, The New York Times reported it plainly as a massacre of unarmed Jews, and New Yorkers marched in protest. Those articles are still sitting in the paper's archive. Almost nobody has gone back to read them.

A re-release of the conversation that opened this show.

The guest

Her reporting referenced in the episode

  • "How the first Palestinian leader became a Nazi war criminal" — The Spectator, Dec 28 2025 — read it
  • Review of Ghosts of a Holy War — The Jerusalem Post — read it

Books and films discussed

  • Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict — publisher
  • Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate — publisher
  • Palestine 36 (dir. Annemarie Jacir, 2025) — Palestine's Oscar entry, US run via Watermelon Pictures — Variety review · Screen Daily

Background on what's discussed

The show

]]> Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 2943 In 1928, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was a man in trouble — dogged by accusations of corruption and nepotism. So he told a story: the Jews praying at the Western Wall were coming for Al-Aqsa. It worked. The criticism dissolved, and a year later 67 Jews were murdered in Hebron, ending a Jewish presence there that had lasted millennia.

Journalist Yardena Schwartz spent years tracing that lie — from a box of letters in a Memphis attic, to the Mufti's wartime estate in Berlin, to October 7th, when Hamas named its attack the Al-Aqsa Flood. Her book is Ghosts of a Holy War.

This week marks 97 years since the Hebron massacre. In 1929, The New York Times reported it plainly as a massacre of unarmed Jews, and New Yorkers marched in protest. Those articles are still sitting in the paper's archive. Almost nobody has gone back to read them.

A re-release of the conversation that opened this show.

The guest

Her reporting referenced in the episode

  • "How the first Palestinian leader became a Nazi war criminal" — The Spectator, Dec 28 2025 — read it
  • Review of Ghosts of a Holy War — The Jerusalem Post — read it

Books and films discussed

  • Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict — publisher
  • Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate — publisher
  • Palestine 36 (dir. Annemarie Jacir, 2025) — Palestine's Oscar entry, US run via Watermelon Pictures — Variety review · Screen Daily

Background on what's discussed

The show

]]> Hebron massacre, 1929 Hebron massacre, Yardena Schwartz, Ghosts of a Holy War, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, Al-Aqsa, Al-Aqsa Flood, Yasser Arafat, Arab-Israeli conflict, October 7, Hamas, Israel, Middle East history, Palestine 1929, Hebron Yeshiva, David Shainberg, 1929 Palestine riots, Tomb of the Patriarchs, Ibrahimi Mosque, British Mandate Palestine, Zionism, antisemitism, Nazi collaboration, Waffen-SS, Joseph Goebbels, Operation Atlas, Muslim Brotherhood, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Mein Kampf, Baruch Goldstein, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestine 36, Oren Kessler, Tom Segev, media bias, journalism ethics, New York Times archive, historical revisionism, disinformation, Holocaust in the Arab world, HonestReporting, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff No Ben Chertoff A Failure of Imagination: Why the West Keeps Betting its Enemies will Come Around| With Cliff May 19 19 A Failure of Imagination: Why the West Keeps Betting its Enemies will Come Around| With Cliff May full 0251e7fd-44e2-4fa1-a9b5-a5092b73e34b https://share.transistor.fm/s/b7812586 A sixth-grade teacher in an American public school gets flown to Doha. First class, five-star hotel. Nobody asks her for anything — they just send her home with some curriculum, some textbooks and a few maps.

Cliff May founded the Foundation for Defense of Democracies one week before 9/11. He'd spent a decade at the New York Times before that, so he knows how a story gets built. In this conversation he traces one lie from Soviet disinformation desks to "Israel pushed us into Iraq" to "Israel is dragging us into Iran" to whatever version is in your feed tonight — and argues it isn't a rumor problem, it's a purchase. An influence operation doesn't need you to say nice things about Qatar. It only needs you talking about somebody else.

A week before the towers came down, two people walked into Cliff May's office to tell him the country was asleep.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan's ambassador to the UN, and Jack Kemp, the former congressman and Housing and Urban Development secretary, had a thesis and nobody to test it. America, they said, was taking a holiday from history — the Wall was down, the Soviet Union was gone, and the country had decided it no longer had enemies. Then they read him a list: Beirut in 1983. New York in 1993. Saudi Arabia in 1996. Two embassies in Africa in 1998. The USS Cole in 2000.

"Is anybody looking at these and trying to connect the dots?"

He took the assignment. Nine days later he had an answer he hadn't gone looking for, and the rest of his career — he quit the New York Times and built the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

This conversation is about what he's watched since. Not only the conspiracy theories that trail every American war — the Jews were warned about 9/11, Israel pushed America into Iraq, Israel is dragging America toward Iran — but the habit underneath them: a West that keeps betting its adversaries will eventually come around. Iran in 1979 and China after the WTO already ran that experiment and already returned the result.

And then the part that costs money. May's argument is that the deflection is bought, not merely believed — and that an influence operation doesn't have to purchase silence about itself, only a different subject. He describes the offer made to junior people around Washington, the reach of that money into American K-12 classrooms, and why "don't talk about us, talk about the Jews" is the cheapest line item on the menu.

In this episode:

• Kirkpatrick, Kemp, and the memo that became FDD — written the week before 9/11 • Why he says the 1979 revolution in Iran was Islamic, not Iranian, and how al-Qaeda grew out of it • Misinformation versus disinformation, and why a platform now does for free what the KGB needed a service to do • Mearsheimer and Walt went looking for foreign influence over US policy — and walked past the largest source of it • What hundreds of billions of dollars actually buys in Washington • The sixth-grade teacher who flew first class to Doha, and the curriculum she brought home • Carlos the Jackal's prison book, and the coalition it argued for • 1979: the Iranian communists who joined the revolution and were jailed and executed by the state they helped build • Twelver Shiism, the Mahdi, and what "reconcile competing interests" means when the interest is death to America • Why letting China into the WTO was, in his words, a noble experiment that already returned its result • The cognitive war Israel is winning on the ground and losing on the screen • Yahya Sinwar: "I don't want a villa. I don't want a Mercedes." • Why he thinks the K-12 finding is more disturbing than the campus one

Guest: Clifford D. May is the founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the host of the Foreign Podicy podcast. He spent a decade at the New York Times as a city reporter, a foreign correspondent in Africa, a Washington correspondent and an editor of the Sunday magazine. His essay "Know Thine Enemy" was published in April 2026. More at https://www.fdd.org

Mentioned in this episode: • Martin Kramer, Ivory Towers on Sand — https://iupress.org/9780253045041/israel-denial/ (note: link is a placeholder — see production notes) • John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, "The Israel Lobby" • Matt Pottinger, chair of FDD's China Program • FDD, Mapping Qatar's Footprint in the United States — https://www.fdd.org/qatarmoneyusa

The Honest Take is HonestReporting's interview show — going past the headlines to find out what's actually true about Israel and about the people covering it. Hosted by Ben Chertoff.

🎧 All episodes: https://podcast.honestreporting.com 🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802 🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG ▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5

If this gave you something to think about, do us a favor — leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the single biggest thing that helps other people find the show.

Follow HonestReporting on Instagram, X, TikTok and Facebook.

]]> A sixth-grade teacher in an American public school gets flown to Doha. First class, five-star hotel. Nobody asks her for anything — they just send her home with some curriculum, some textbooks and a few maps.

Cliff May founded the Foundation for Defense of Democracies one week before 9/11. He'd spent a decade at the New York Times before that, so he knows how a story gets built. In this conversation he traces one lie from Soviet disinformation desks to "Israel pushed us into Iraq" to "Israel is dragging us into Iran" to whatever version is in your feed tonight — and argues it isn't a rumor problem, it's a purchase. An influence operation doesn't need you to say nice things about Qatar. It only needs you talking about somebody else.

A week before the towers came down, two people walked into Cliff May's office to tell him the country was asleep.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan's ambassador to the UN, and Jack Kemp, the former congressman and Housing and Urban Development secretary, had a thesis and nobody to test it. America, they said, was taking a holiday from history — the Wall was down, the Soviet Union was gone, and the country had decided it no longer had enemies. Then they read him a list: Beirut in 1983. New York in 1993. Saudi Arabia in 1996. Two embassies in Africa in 1998. The USS Cole in 2000.

"Is anybody looking at these and trying to connect the dots?"

He took the assignment. Nine days later he had an answer he hadn't gone looking for, and the rest of his career — he quit the New York Times and built the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

This conversation is about what he's watched since. Not only the conspiracy theories that trail every American war — the Jews were warned about 9/11, Israel pushed America into Iraq, Israel is dragging America toward Iran — but the habit underneath them: a West that keeps betting its adversaries will eventually come around. Iran in 1979 and China after the WTO already ran that experiment and already returned the result.

And then the part that costs money. May's argument is that the deflection is bought, not merely believed — and that an influence operation doesn't have to purchase silence about itself, only a different subject. He describes the offer made to junior people around Washington, the reach of that money into American K-12 classrooms, and why "don't talk about us, talk about the Jews" is the cheapest line item on the menu.

In this episode:

• Kirkpatrick, Kemp, and the memo that became FDD — written the week before 9/11 • Why he says the 1979 revolution in Iran was Islamic, not Iranian, and how al-Qaeda grew out of it • Misinformation versus disinformation, and why a platform now does for free what the KGB needed a service to do • Mearsheimer and Walt went looking for foreign influence over US policy — and walked past the largest source of it • What hundreds of billions of dollars actually buys in Washington • The sixth-grade teacher who flew first class to Doha, and the curriculum she brought home • Carlos the Jackal's prison book, and the coalition it argued for • 1979: the Iranian communists who joined the revolution and were jailed and executed by the state they helped build • Twelver Shiism, the Mahdi, and what "reconcile competing interests" means when the interest is death to America • Why letting China into the WTO was, in his words, a noble experiment that already returned its result • The cognitive war Israel is winning on the ground and losing on the screen • Yahya Sinwar: "I don't want a villa. I don't want a Mercedes." • Why he thinks the K-12 finding is more disturbing than the campus one

Guest: Clifford D. May is the founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the host of the Foreign Podicy podcast. He spent a decade at the New York Times as a city reporter, a foreign correspondent in Africa, a Washington correspondent and an editor of the Sunday magazine. His essay "Know Thine Enemy" was published in April 2026. More at https://www.fdd.org

Mentioned in this episode: • Martin Kramer, Ivory Towers on Sand — https://iupress.org/9780253045041/israel-denial/ (note: link is a placeholder — see production notes) • John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, "The Israel Lobby" • Matt Pottinger, chair of FDD's China Program • FDD, Mapping Qatar's Footprint in the United States — https://www.fdd.org/qatarmoneyusa

The Honest Take is HonestReporting's interview show — going past the headlines to find out what's actually true about Israel and about the people covering it. Hosted by Ben Chertoff.

🎧 All episodes: https://podcast.honestreporting.com 🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802 🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG ▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5

If this gave you something to think about, do us a favor — leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the single biggest thing that helps other people find the show.

Follow HonestReporting on Instagram, X, TikTok and Facebook.

]]> Tue, 18 Aug 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3885 A sixth-grade teacher in an American public school gets flown to Doha. First class, five-star hotel. Nobody asks her for anything — they just send her home with some curriculum, some textbooks and a few maps.

Cliff May founded the Foundation for Defense of Democracies one week before 9/11. He'd spent a decade at the New York Times before that, so he knows how a story gets built. In this conversation he traces one lie from Soviet disinformation desks to "Israel pushed us into Iraq" to "Israel is dragging us into Iran" to whatever version is in your feed tonight — and argues it isn't a rumor problem, it's a purchase. An influence operation doesn't need you to say nice things about Qatar. It only needs you talking about somebody else.

A week before the towers came down, two people walked into Cliff May's office to tell him the country was asleep.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan's ambassador to the UN, and Jack Kemp, the former congressman and Housing and Urban Development secretary, had a thesis and nobody to test it. America, they said, was taking a holiday from history — the Wall was down, the Soviet Union was gone, and the country had decided it no longer had enemies. Then they read him a list: Beirut in 1983. New York in 1993. Saudi Arabia in 1996. Two embassies in Africa in 1998. The USS Cole in 2000.

"Is anybody looking at these and trying to connect the dots?"

He took the assignment. Nine days later he had an answer he hadn't gone looking for, and the rest of his career — he quit the New York Times and built the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

This conversation is about what he's watched since. Not only the conspiracy theories that trail every American war — the Jews were warned about 9/11, Israel pushed America into Iraq, Israel is dragging America toward Iran — but the habit underneath them: a West that keeps betting its adversaries will eventually come around. Iran in 1979 and China after the WTO already ran that experiment and already returned the result.

And then the part that costs money. May's argument is that the deflection is bought, not merely believed — and that an influence operation doesn't have to purchase silence about itself, only a different subject. He describes the offer made to junior people around Washington, the reach of that money into American K-12 classrooms, and why "don't talk about us, talk about the Jews" is the cheapest line item on the menu.

In this episode:

• Kirkpatrick, Kemp, and the memo that became FDD — written the week before 9/11 • Why he says the 1979 revolution in Iran was Islamic, not Iranian, and how al-Qaeda grew out of it • Misinformation versus disinformation, and why a platform now does for free what the KGB needed a service to do • Mearsheimer and Walt went looking for foreign influence over US policy — and walked past the largest source of it • What hundreds of billions of dollars actually buys in Washington • The sixth-grade teacher who flew first class to Doha, and the curriculum she brought home • Carlos the Jackal's prison book, and the coalition it argued for • 1979: the Iranian communists who joined the revolution and were jailed and executed by the state they helped build • Twelver Shiism, the Mahdi, and what "reconcile competing interests" means when the interest is death to America • Why letting China into the WTO was, in his words, a noble experiment that already returned its result • The cognitive war Israel is winning on the ground and losing on the screen • Yahya Sinwar: "I don't want a villa. I don't want a Mercedes." • Why he thinks the K-12 finding is more disturbing than the campus one

Guest: Clifford D. May is the founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the host of the Foreign Podicy podcast. He spent a decade at the New York Times as a city reporter, a foreign correspondent in Africa, a Washington correspondent and an editor of the Sunday magazine. His essay "Know Thine Enemy" was published in April 2026. More at https://www.fdd.org

Mentioned in this episode: • Martin Kramer, Ivory Towers on Sand — https://iupress.org/9780253045041/israel-denial/ (note: link is a placeholder — see production notes) • John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, "The Israel Lobby" • Matt Pottinger, chair of FDD's China Program • FDD, Mapping Qatar's Footprint in the United States — https://www.fdd.org/qatarmoneyusa

The Honest Take is HonestReporting's interview show — going past the headlines to find out what's actually true about Israel and about the people covering it. Hosted by Ben Chertoff.

🎧 All episodes: https://podcast.honestreporting.com 🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802 🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG ▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5

If this gave you something to think about, do us a favor — leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the single biggest thing that helps other people find the show.

Follow HonestReporting on Instagram, X, TikTok and Facebook.

]]> Cliff May, Clifford D. May, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, FDD, Foreign Podicy, Qatar, Qatari influence operations, Education City Doha, Al Jazeera, Muslim Brotherhood, K-12 curriculum, foreign funding of universities, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, conspiracy theories, 9/11, Iraq war, Iran, IRGC, JCPOA, Khomeini, Tudeh, red-green alliance, horseshoe theory, Carlos the Jackal, China, World Trade Organization, Xi Jinping, Matt Pottinger, disinformation, Soviet disinformation, KGB, media bias, New York Times, Mearsheimer, Israel lobby, AIPAC, cognitive war, Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, Gaza, HonestReporting, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff No Ben Chertoff The Jews Are Not the Target. The West Is. Can Zionism Save It? | With Alana Newhouse 18 18 The Jews Are Not the Target. The West Is. Can Zionism Save It? | With Alana Newhouse full d6ddb2aa-0eea-4c87-80b0-058831197839 https://share.transistor.fm/s/139e1a85 Alana Newhouse founded Tablet Magazine in 2009 and has spent the years since arguing that the things holding modern life together have quietly come apart. Her 2021 essay "Everything Is Broken" gave that condition a name — flatness — and her March 2026 essay "Zionism for Everyone" turned the diagnosis outward: Zionism, she argues, is not a slogan or a grievance but a technology for national renewal, and the reason it enrages people has less to do with Jews than with what its success implies about everybody else.

Ben Chertoff sits down with her for a conversation that runs from why Gen Z readers demanded a print edition, to the line about envy that lit up Jewish Twitter, to whether the word "Zionism" should be retired, to what she'd tell a 25-year-old journalist trying to build something real in a collapsing media landscape.

Her answer to the last one is the same as her answer to the first: figure out what is distinct about you, build a vision around it, and jam on it every single day.

Alana Newhouse is the founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine, which she launched in 2009 and which relaunched in print in 2025 on the strength of demand from its youngest readers. She grew up in Lawrence, New York, and was educated at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, Barnard College, and the Columbia Journalism School. Before Tablet she covered religion and then edited the culture section at The Forward, and edited Nextbook. Her 2021 essay "Everything Is Broken" introduced the idea of flatness and gave rise to what's since been called brokenism; her March 2026 essay "Zionism for Everyone" argues that Zionism is a technology of national renewal available to any people willing to use it.

  1. Zionism is a technology, not a slogan. Newhouse's argument is functional, not sentimental: national renewal requires distinctiveness, a vision of the future, and ruthless pragmatism about getting there. Israel has all three, which is why it works — and why watching it work is unbearable for societies that have discarded all three.

  2. Antisemitism is a symptom of a sick society, not a freestanding disease.When you ask what someone is actually feeling when they say Jews kill babies, she argues, what you find underneath is envy — and envy points at a lack in the person feeling it.

  3. The fight is not really about the Jews. "The target here is the West. We are just in the way." The Jewish state is the first line of defense in an argument about whether any people is entitled to be particular.

  4. Retiring the word "Zionism" would be a mistake. Against the argument that the term is a liability, she holds that it is not a marketing choice picked up recently and discardable now — it names something real and old.

  5. Flatness is the underlying condition. The 2021 essay's diagnosis — systems optimized until all friction and texture are gone — is the same diagnosis she applies to nations that have sanded off their own distinctiveness. October 7, in her reading, was the shock that broke a lot of people out of it.

  6. Diasporism is a costume. The revival of Bundist doikayt on the Jewish left is not, in her view, a Jewish argument at all — it's a Jewish door into an ideology the arguer already wanted.

  7. The media collapse is an opening, not an ending. Legacy institutions are losing their monopoly, independents are inheriting the audience, and the two sets of norms are merging. She builds tools for the people who will do the work — "I make pens for creative people."

  8. The method scales down to one person. Everything she says about nations she means about individuals: know what is distinct about you, build a vision around it, and show up to it daily.

Links

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

Guest:

• Tablet Magazine — https://www.tabletmag.com

• "Zionism for Everyone," Alana Newhouse, Tablet, March 2026 — https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/zionism-for-everyone

• "Everything Is Broken," Alana Newhouse, Tablet, January 14, 2021 — https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/everything-is-broken

• Alana Newhouse on 18Forty — https://18forty.org/podcast/alana-newhouse/

• Alana Newhouse on The Unspeakable with Meghan Daum — https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/p/alana-newhouse-flatness-broken-systems-tablet-magazine

Referenced in this episode:

• Daniel Gordis's response to "Zionism for Everyone" — https://danielgordis.substack.com/p/i-think-israelis-would-have-a-hard

• Irwin Kula's response, via Shaul Magid — https://shaulmagid.substack.com/p/irwin-kulas-response-to-alana-newhouse

• "Is jealousy the root of anti-Zionism?", Jerusalem Post — https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-893186

• Gil Troy on the argument for retiring "Zionism," Jerusalem Post, June 18, 2026 — https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-899675

• Columbia Journalism Review on the American Jewish press after October 7, January 2025 — https://www.cjr.org/world/front-row-seat-polarization-american-jewish-press-october-7-hamas-israel-zionist-coverage.php


]]> Alana Newhouse founded Tablet Magazine in 2009 and has spent the years since arguing that the things holding modern life together have quietly come apart. Her 2021 essay "Everything Is Broken" gave that condition a name — flatness — and her March 2026 essay "Zionism for Everyone" turned the diagnosis outward: Zionism, she argues, is not a slogan or a grievance but a technology for national renewal, and the reason it enrages people has less to do with Jews than with what its success implies about everybody else.

Ben Chertoff sits down with her for a conversation that runs from why Gen Z readers demanded a print edition, to the line about envy that lit up Jewish Twitter, to whether the word "Zionism" should be retired, to what she'd tell a 25-year-old journalist trying to build something real in a collapsing media landscape.

Her answer to the last one is the same as her answer to the first: figure out what is distinct about you, build a vision around it, and jam on it every single day.

Alana Newhouse is the founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine, which she launched in 2009 and which relaunched in print in 2025 on the strength of demand from its youngest readers. She grew up in Lawrence, New York, and was educated at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, Barnard College, and the Columbia Journalism School. Before Tablet she covered religion and then edited the culture section at The Forward, and edited Nextbook. Her 2021 essay "Everything Is Broken" introduced the idea of flatness and gave rise to what's since been called brokenism; her March 2026 essay "Zionism for Everyone" argues that Zionism is a technology of national renewal available to any people willing to use it.

  1. Zionism is a technology, not a slogan. Newhouse's argument is functional, not sentimental: national renewal requires distinctiveness, a vision of the future, and ruthless pragmatism about getting there. Israel has all three, which is why it works — and why watching it work is unbearable for societies that have discarded all three.

  2. Antisemitism is a symptom of a sick society, not a freestanding disease.When you ask what someone is actually feeling when they say Jews kill babies, she argues, what you find underneath is envy — and envy points at a lack in the person feeling it.

  3. The fight is not really about the Jews. "The target here is the West. We are just in the way." The Jewish state is the first line of defense in an argument about whether any people is entitled to be particular.

  4. Retiring the word "Zionism" would be a mistake. Against the argument that the term is a liability, she holds that it is not a marketing choice picked up recently and discardable now — it names something real and old.

  5. Flatness is the underlying condition. The 2021 essay's diagnosis — systems optimized until all friction and texture are gone — is the same diagnosis she applies to nations that have sanded off their own distinctiveness. October 7, in her reading, was the shock that broke a lot of people out of it.

  6. Diasporism is a costume. The revival of Bundist doikayt on the Jewish left is not, in her view, a Jewish argument at all — it's a Jewish door into an ideology the arguer already wanted.

  7. The media collapse is an opening, not an ending. Legacy institutions are losing their monopoly, independents are inheriting the audience, and the two sets of norms are merging. She builds tools for the people who will do the work — "I make pens for creative people."

  8. The method scales down to one person. Everything she says about nations she means about individuals: know what is distinct about you, build a vision around it, and show up to it daily.

Links

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

Guest:

• Tablet Magazine — https://www.tabletmag.com

• "Zionism for Everyone," Alana Newhouse, Tablet, March 2026 — https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/zionism-for-everyone

• "Everything Is Broken," Alana Newhouse, Tablet, January 14, 2021 — https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/everything-is-broken

• Alana Newhouse on 18Forty — https://18forty.org/podcast/alana-newhouse/

• Alana Newhouse on The Unspeakable with Meghan Daum — https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/p/alana-newhouse-flatness-broken-systems-tablet-magazine

Referenced in this episode:

• Daniel Gordis's response to "Zionism for Everyone" — https://danielgordis.substack.com/p/i-think-israelis-would-have-a-hard

• Irwin Kula's response, via Shaul Magid — https://shaulmagid.substack.com/p/irwin-kulas-response-to-alana-newhouse

• "Is jealousy the root of anti-Zionism?", Jerusalem Post — https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-893186

• Gil Troy on the argument for retiring "Zionism," Jerusalem Post, June 18, 2026 — https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-899675

• Columbia Journalism Review on the American Jewish press after October 7, January 2025 — https://www.cjr.org/world/front-row-seat-polarization-american-jewish-press-october-7-hamas-israel-zionist-coverage.php


]]> Tue, 11 Aug 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3518 Alana Newhouse founded Tablet Magazine in 2009 and has spent the years since arguing that the things holding modern life together have quietly come apart. Her 2021 essay "Everything Is Broken" gave that condition a name — flatness — and her March 2026 essay "Zionism for Everyone" turned the diagnosis outward: Zionism, she argues, is not a slogan or a grievance but a technology for national renewal, and the reason it enrages people has less to do with Jews than with what its success implies about everybody else.

Ben Chertoff sits down with her for a conversation that runs from why Gen Z readers demanded a print edition, to the line about envy that lit up Jewish Twitter, to whether the word "Zionism" should be retired, to what she'd tell a 25-year-old journalist trying to build something real in a collapsing media landscape.

Her answer to the last one is the same as her answer to the first: figure out what is distinct about you, build a vision around it, and jam on it every single day.

Alana Newhouse is the founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine, which she launched in 2009 and which relaunched in print in 2025 on the strength of demand from its youngest readers. She grew up in Lawrence, New York, and was educated at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, Barnard College, and the Columbia Journalism School. Before Tablet she covered religion and then edited the culture section at The Forward, and edited Nextbook. Her 2021 essay "Everything Is Broken" introduced the idea of flatness and gave rise to what's since been called brokenism; her March 2026 essay "Zionism for Everyone" argues that Zionism is a technology of national renewal available to any people willing to use it.

  1. Zionism is a technology, not a slogan. Newhouse's argument is functional, not sentimental: national renewal requires distinctiveness, a vision of the future, and ruthless pragmatism about getting there. Israel has all three, which is why it works — and why watching it work is unbearable for societies that have discarded all three.

  2. Antisemitism is a symptom of a sick society, not a freestanding disease.When you ask what someone is actually feeling when they say Jews kill babies, she argues, what you find underneath is envy — and envy points at a lack in the person feeling it.

  3. The fight is not really about the Jews. "The target here is the West. We are just in the way." The Jewish state is the first line of defense in an argument about whether any people is entitled to be particular.

  4. Retiring the word "Zionism" would be a mistake. Against the argument that the term is a liability, she holds that it is not a marketing choice picked up recently and discardable now — it names something real and old.

  5. Flatness is the underlying condition. The 2021 essay's diagnosis — systems optimized until all friction and texture are gone — is the same diagnosis she applies to nations that have sanded off their own distinctiveness. October 7, in her reading, was the shock that broke a lot of people out of it.

  6. Diasporism is a costume. The revival of Bundist doikayt on the Jewish left is not, in her view, a Jewish argument at all — it's a Jewish door into an ideology the arguer already wanted.

  7. The media collapse is an opening, not an ending. Legacy institutions are losing their monopoly, independents are inheriting the audience, and the two sets of norms are merging. She builds tools for the people who will do the work — "I make pens for creative people."

  8. The method scales down to one person. Everything she says about nations she means about individuals: know what is distinct about you, build a vision around it, and show up to it daily.

Links

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

Guest:

• Tablet Magazine — https://www.tabletmag.com

• "Zionism for Everyone," Alana Newhouse, Tablet, March 2026 — https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/zionism-for-everyone

• "Everything Is Broken," Alana Newhouse, Tablet, January 14, 2021 — https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/everything-is-broken

• Alana Newhouse on 18Forty — https://18forty.org/podcast/alana-newhouse/

• Alana Newhouse on The Unspeakable with Meghan Daum — https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/p/alana-newhouse-flatness-broken-systems-tablet-magazine

Referenced in this episode:

• Daniel Gordis's response to "Zionism for Everyone" — https://danielgordis.substack.com/p/i-think-israelis-would-have-a-hard

• Irwin Kula's response, via Shaul Magid — https://shaulmagid.substack.com/p/irwin-kulas-response-to-alana-newhouse

• "Is jealousy the root of anti-Zionism?", Jerusalem Post — https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-893186

• Gil Troy on the argument for retiring "Zionism," Jerusalem Post, June 18, 2026 — https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-899675

• Columbia Journalism Review on the American Jewish press after October 7, January 2025 — https://www.cjr.org/world/front-row-seat-polarization-american-jewish-press-october-7-hamas-israel-zionist-coverage.php


]]> alana newhouse, tablet magazine, zionism for everyone, everything is broken, flatness, brokenism, zionism, antisemitism, anti-zionism, jewish identity, october 7, israel, jewish media, media criticism, legacy media, independent media, diasporism, neo-bundism, doikayt, jewish left, sam harris, daniel gordis, columbia journalism school, gen z, jewish future, national identity, the honest take, honestreporting, ben chertoff, jewish podcast, israel podcast, media podcast No Ben Chertoff What "Globalize the Intifada" Actually Means, From Someone Who Lived It | With Arnold Roth 17 17 What "Globalize the Intifada" Actually Means, From Someone Who Lived It | With Arnold Roth bonus 61be1043-df17-4187-8c6b-0f968755b508 https://share.transistor.fm/s/174ae4ca Twenty-five years ago, sixteen people were murdered at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. One was Arnold Roth's fifteen-year-old daughter, Malki. The woman who planned it is free in Jordan, wanted by the FBI with a $5 million reward on her head — and has never once said she's sorry. Arnold Roth on what the intifada actually was, why "suicide bomber" is the wrong phrase, and the thing he built in his daughter's name that is still doing good every single day.

On August 9, 2001, a young man walked into a pizzeria in the center of Jerusalem carrying a guitar case. It was a school holiday. The restaurant was full. A few minutes before two o'clock he pressed a button on his chest, and sixteen people were murdered — one of them Malki Roth, fifteen years old, a flautist who spent her holidays volunteering with severely disabled children because her own little sister was one.

Her father Arnold spent the next twelve hours not knowing where she was. He has spent the twenty-five years since trying to bring the woman who planned the attack to justice, and he is still trying.

Ahlam Tamimi was twenty-one. She was Jordanian, from a comfortable family, and she chose the target. She was sentenced to sixteen life terms, released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit exchange, and returned to Jordan to a hero's welcome — where she has lived openly ever since. She is on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list. The United States has a five-million-dollar reward out for her. She has never expressed regret; she has said publicly that her only disappointment is that she didn't kill more.

In this conversation, Ben asks Arnold to do something he says he doesn't get asked to do often: not to make the legal case — he's made that a thousand times, and he makes it here too — but to describe what the Second Intifada actually was, for the benefit of people who chant its name and could not tell you a single thing that happened during it. More than a thousand Israelis were killed between 2000 and 2005 in a country of six million.

Also in this episode: the phone call from the BBC on the Sunday after the funeral, offering to pair him with the bomber's father for "contrasting views"; the four and a half years Tamimi spent hosting a weekly television program on Jordanian soil while already under US indictment; the AP crew that interviewed her in her own home; and why Arnold says he would simply walk away from the student at Columbia in a keffiyeh — not because he's given up, but because he thinks the entire problem has been misdiagnosed and the real fix is generational, unglamorous, and hasn't been invented yet.

And then the part he saves for the end. Asked what has kept him going, he doesn't talk about extradition. He talks about the seven days of mourning, sitting in his own house with his children, deciding to build something. What they built helps families keep severely disabled children at home instead of surrendering them to an institution. It is now in its twenty-fifth year. It is named after her.

Arnold Roth is an Australian-born lawyer in Jerusalem and co-founder of the Malki Foundation, which helps families keep severely disabled children at home rather than in institutions — the work Malki herself was doing the week she was killed. He has spent a quarter of a century campaigning to extradite Ahlam al-Tamimi, who is under US indictment, sits on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list with a $5 million reward attached, and was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit exchange alongside Yahya Sinwar.

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

From this episode:

• The Malki Foundation (Keren Malki) — https://kerenmalki.org

• "A Beautiful Life" — the family's own account of who Malki was — https://kerenmalki.org/a-beautiful-life/

• FBI Most Wanted Terrorists: Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi — https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/ahlam-ahmad-al-tamimi

• Rewards for Justice: up to $5 million — https://rewardsforjustice.net/rewards/ahlam-ahmad-al-tamimi/

• Times of Israel, June 2025 — the Roths deliver a 30,000-signature petition to the US Embassy in Jerusalem — https://www.timesofisrael.com/parents-of-sbarro-bombing-victim-urge-us-to-demand-hamas-terrorists-extradition/

• Times of Israel, June 2023 — the sixteenth victim, Chana Nachenberg, dies after 22 years — https://www.timesofisrael.com/woman-critically-injured-in-palestinian-terror-attack-22-years-ago-dies-of-wounds/

If this episode gave you something, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it genuinely decides who else finds the show. And follow HonestReporting on YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

]]> Twenty-five years ago, sixteen people were murdered at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. One was Arnold Roth's fifteen-year-old daughter, Malki. The woman who planned it is free in Jordan, wanted by the FBI with a $5 million reward on her head — and has never once said she's sorry. Arnold Roth on what the intifada actually was, why "suicide bomber" is the wrong phrase, and the thing he built in his daughter's name that is still doing good every single day.

On August 9, 2001, a young man walked into a pizzeria in the center of Jerusalem carrying a guitar case. It was a school holiday. The restaurant was full. A few minutes before two o'clock he pressed a button on his chest, and sixteen people were murdered — one of them Malki Roth, fifteen years old, a flautist who spent her holidays volunteering with severely disabled children because her own little sister was one.

Her father Arnold spent the next twelve hours not knowing where she was. He has spent the twenty-five years since trying to bring the woman who planned the attack to justice, and he is still trying.

Ahlam Tamimi was twenty-one. She was Jordanian, from a comfortable family, and she chose the target. She was sentenced to sixteen life terms, released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit exchange, and returned to Jordan to a hero's welcome — where she has lived openly ever since. She is on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list. The United States has a five-million-dollar reward out for her. She has never expressed regret; she has said publicly that her only disappointment is that she didn't kill more.

In this conversation, Ben asks Arnold to do something he says he doesn't get asked to do often: not to make the legal case — he's made that a thousand times, and he makes it here too — but to describe what the Second Intifada actually was, for the benefit of people who chant its name and could not tell you a single thing that happened during it. More than a thousand Israelis were killed between 2000 and 2005 in a country of six million.

Also in this episode: the phone call from the BBC on the Sunday after the funeral, offering to pair him with the bomber's father for "contrasting views"; the four and a half years Tamimi spent hosting a weekly television program on Jordanian soil while already under US indictment; the AP crew that interviewed her in her own home; and why Arnold says he would simply walk away from the student at Columbia in a keffiyeh — not because he's given up, but because he thinks the entire problem has been misdiagnosed and the real fix is generational, unglamorous, and hasn't been invented yet.

And then the part he saves for the end. Asked what has kept him going, he doesn't talk about extradition. He talks about the seven days of mourning, sitting in his own house with his children, deciding to build something. What they built helps families keep severely disabled children at home instead of surrendering them to an institution. It is now in its twenty-fifth year. It is named after her.

Arnold Roth is an Australian-born lawyer in Jerusalem and co-founder of the Malki Foundation, which helps families keep severely disabled children at home rather than in institutions — the work Malki herself was doing the week she was killed. He has spent a quarter of a century campaigning to extradite Ahlam al-Tamimi, who is under US indictment, sits on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list with a $5 million reward attached, and was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit exchange alongside Yahya Sinwar.

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

From this episode:

• The Malki Foundation (Keren Malki) — https://kerenmalki.org

• "A Beautiful Life" — the family's own account of who Malki was — https://kerenmalki.org/a-beautiful-life/

• FBI Most Wanted Terrorists: Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi — https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/ahlam-ahmad-al-tamimi

• Rewards for Justice: up to $5 million — https://rewardsforjustice.net/rewards/ahlam-ahmad-al-tamimi/

• Times of Israel, June 2025 — the Roths deliver a 30,000-signature petition to the US Embassy in Jerusalem — https://www.timesofisrael.com/parents-of-sbarro-bombing-victim-urge-us-to-demand-hamas-terrorists-extradition/

• Times of Israel, June 2023 — the sixteenth victim, Chana Nachenberg, dies after 22 years — https://www.timesofisrael.com/woman-critically-injured-in-palestinian-terror-attack-22-years-ago-dies-of-wounds/

If this episode gave you something, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it genuinely decides who else finds the show. And follow HonestReporting on YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

]]> Sun, 09 Aug 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3850 Twenty-five years ago, sixteen people were murdered at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. One was Arnold Roth's fifteen-year-old daughter, Malki. The woman who planned it is free in Jordan, wanted by the FBI with a $5 million reward on her head — and has never once said she's sorry. Arnold Roth on what the intifada actually was, why "suicide bomber" is the wrong phrase, and the thing he built in his daughter's name that is still doing good every single day.

On August 9, 2001, a young man walked into a pizzeria in the center of Jerusalem carrying a guitar case. It was a school holiday. The restaurant was full. A few minutes before two o'clock he pressed a button on his chest, and sixteen people were murdered — one of them Malki Roth, fifteen years old, a flautist who spent her holidays volunteering with severely disabled children because her own little sister was one.

Her father Arnold spent the next twelve hours not knowing where she was. He has spent the twenty-five years since trying to bring the woman who planned the attack to justice, and he is still trying.

Ahlam Tamimi was twenty-one. She was Jordanian, from a comfortable family, and she chose the target. She was sentenced to sixteen life terms, released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit exchange, and returned to Jordan to a hero's welcome — where she has lived openly ever since. She is on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list. The United States has a five-million-dollar reward out for her. She has never expressed regret; she has said publicly that her only disappointment is that she didn't kill more.

In this conversation, Ben asks Arnold to do something he says he doesn't get asked to do often: not to make the legal case — he's made that a thousand times, and he makes it here too — but to describe what the Second Intifada actually was, for the benefit of people who chant its name and could not tell you a single thing that happened during it. More than a thousand Israelis were killed between 2000 and 2005 in a country of six million.

Also in this episode: the phone call from the BBC on the Sunday after the funeral, offering to pair him with the bomber's father for "contrasting views"; the four and a half years Tamimi spent hosting a weekly television program on Jordanian soil while already under US indictment; the AP crew that interviewed her in her own home; and why Arnold says he would simply walk away from the student at Columbia in a keffiyeh — not because he's given up, but because he thinks the entire problem has been misdiagnosed and the real fix is generational, unglamorous, and hasn't been invented yet.

And then the part he saves for the end. Asked what has kept him going, he doesn't talk about extradition. He talks about the seven days of mourning, sitting in his own house with his children, deciding to build something. What they built helps families keep severely disabled children at home instead of surrendering them to an institution. It is now in its twenty-fifth year. It is named after her.

Arnold Roth is an Australian-born lawyer in Jerusalem and co-founder of the Malki Foundation, which helps families keep severely disabled children at home rather than in institutions — the work Malki herself was doing the week she was killed. He has spent a quarter of a century campaigning to extradite Ahlam al-Tamimi, who is under US indictment, sits on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list with a $5 million reward attached, and was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit exchange alongside Yahya Sinwar.

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

From this episode:

• The Malki Foundation (Keren Malki) — https://kerenmalki.org

• "A Beautiful Life" — the family's own account of who Malki was — https://kerenmalki.org/a-beautiful-life/

• FBI Most Wanted Terrorists: Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi — https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/ahlam-ahmad-al-tamimi

• Rewards for Justice: up to $5 million — https://rewardsforjustice.net/rewards/ahlam-ahmad-al-tamimi/

• Times of Israel, June 2025 — the Roths deliver a 30,000-signature petition to the US Embassy in Jerusalem — https://www.timesofisrael.com/parents-of-sbarro-bombing-victim-urge-us-to-demand-hamas-terrorists-extradition/

• Times of Israel, June 2023 — the sixteenth victim, Chana Nachenberg, dies after 22 years — https://www.timesofisrael.com/woman-critically-injured-in-palestinian-terror-attack-22-years-ago-dies-of-wounds/

If this episode gave you something, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it genuinely decides who else finds the show. And follow HonestReporting on YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

]]> Arnold Roth, Malki Roth, Sbarro bombing, Sbarro pizzeria, Jerusalem, August 9 2001, Ahlam Tamimi, Ahlam al-Tamimi, Hamas, second intifada, Second Intifada 2000-2005, globalize the intifada, terrorism, extradition, Jordan, Royal Hashemite Court, King Abdullah II, FBI Most Wanted, Rewards for Justice, $5 million reward, 1995 extradition treaty, Gilad Shalit deal, 2011 prisoner exchange, prisoner releases, Yahya Sinwar, October 7, antisemitism, campus antisemitism, Columbia University, keffiyeh, BBC bias, ABC Australia, Associated Press, AP, media bias, moral equivalence, press freedom, Al-Quds TV, Malki Foundation, Keren Malki, disabled children, Israel, Melbourne, Holocaust survivors, terror victims, justice not revenge, HonestReporting, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff No Ben Chertoff Why Is the Jew the Enemy? How Arab Antisemitism Is Built — And How It Breaks | With Rawan Osman 16 16 Why Is the Jew the Enemy? How Arab Antisemitism Is Built — And How It Breaks | With Rawan Osman full 4a50a63e-6583-47ac-b33b-fd8a936e8ea1 https://share.transistor.fm/s/599e9d6a She ran out of a Strasbourg grocery store so fast she left her purse in the shopping cart. Rawan Osman was in her mid-twenties, newly arrived from Lebanon, and had just seen four Orthodox Jewish men for the first time in her life. Then she went back down to face the shopkeeper — who smiled, helped her with her bags, and, as she puts it, "converted me from an enemy to an ally." She grew up in Hezbollah country in the Beqaa Valley and never met a Jew; with more than 850,000 Jews uprooted from the Arab world, she argues, there was nobody present to contradict what school, television and Al Jazeera taught her. She joins Ben Chertoff to trace how that machinery works and where it breaks: the Ramadan dramas, her cousins' khaki school uniforms, the seven years of reading it took before she could walk into a synagogue, why she thinks expecting Hamas or Hezbollah to disarm is "laughable" — and why she is nonetheless optimistic. "I cannot bring millions of Arabs. But we can bring Israel to them."

Key Takeaways

  • The absence was structural, not incidental. She never met a Jew growing up, and she doesn't treat that as an accident of geography. With the Jewish quarters empty of its Jews, there was nobody in the room to contradict school, television and Al Jazeera. The propaganda worked because it was unopposed.
  • Contact beats argument. Nothing she read broke the worldview. A shopkeeper who helped with her bags did. She frames the whole episode as a single interaction that "converted me from an enemy to an ally."
  • Deprogramming is slow, and takes willingness. It took seven years of study before she could work up the courage to enter a synagogue — and she was willing to do so. That timeline is the basis for her flat rejection of Western assumptions about Hamas and Hezbollah laying down weapons: for men whose profession is fighting, she calls it "laughable."
  • Media is the delivery system, and it's testable. The Ramadan dramas, Al Jazeera's launch, Qana on television. Her proposed test takes ten minutes, and anyone can do it: read the same Al Jazeera story in Arabic and in English.
  • Erbil is the model. She points to Iraqi Kurdistan as the regional model for coexistence: a place that absorbed its minorities rather than erasing them.
  • She is optimistic, and specific about why. The Arab world won't go to Israel, but Israel can be brought to them through social media and automatic translation. In the age of AI, a seventy-year information blockade is collapsing, and she says this plan isn't a far-fetched dream: "We already did it."

Notable Quotes

  • "For the first time in my life I was sharing the same space with the Jew, the enemy — and for the first time in my life I asked myself, why is the Jew the enemy?" (0:06, and again at 16:20)
  • "He converted me from an enemy to an ally." (15:54)
  • "We in Hezbollah do not acknowledge political borders." — Nasrallah, in the video she found (17:05)
  • "So it's laughable to listen to Westerners who assert… that Hamas will disarm." (38:47)
  • "Israel is not going anywhere. No matter how much money you invest, no matter how many Al Jazeeras you open, no matter how many lies you tell." (47:49)
  • "Nobody's interested in giving them the mic. The BBC won't talk to them. CNN won't talk to them. Al Jazeera won't talk to them." (56:42)
  • "I have good news for you. We already did it." (58:38)
  • "I cannot bring millions of Arabs… but we can bring Israel to them." (58:45)
  • "The axis of resistance is not invested in the well-being of the Palestinian. If they wanted to liberate Palestinians, they would allow the liberation of their own people." (1:01:54)
  • "Enemy to an ally. That's the whole argument, in a single moment. Contact beats propaganda." — Ben Chertoff, outro (1:03:26)


Guest Bio (for the feed)

Rawan Osman is a Syrian-born, Lebanon-raised researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. She founded Arabs Ask, an Arabic-language forum where Arabs can ask the questions about Jews and Israel they cannot ask at home, and she is a central voice in the documentary Tragic Awakening. She has addressed the UN Human Rights Council twice, describes herself as an "Arab Zionist" and a recovered antisemite, and is converting to Judaism.


Links

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

Guest:

• Arabs Ask — Arabic-language forum (Instagram)

• Times of Israel blog — https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/rawan-osman/

• Jerusalem Center, "Can Erbil Inspire a New Syria?" — https://jcfa.org/can-erbil-inspire-a-new-syria/

• UN Watch testimony — https://unwatch.org/testimony/speaker/rawan-osman

• Tragic Awakening (2024, dir. Rabbi Raphael Shore)

If this episode gave you something, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it genuinely helps people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

]]> She ran out of a Strasbourg grocery store so fast she left her purse in the shopping cart. Rawan Osman was in her mid-twenties, newly arrived from Lebanon, and had just seen four Orthodox Jewish men for the first time in her life. Then she went back down to face the shopkeeper — who smiled, helped her with her bags, and, as she puts it, "converted me from an enemy to an ally." She grew up in Hezbollah country in the Beqaa Valley and never met a Jew; with more than 850,000 Jews uprooted from the Arab world, she argues, there was nobody present to contradict what school, television and Al Jazeera taught her. She joins Ben Chertoff to trace how that machinery works and where it breaks: the Ramadan dramas, her cousins' khaki school uniforms, the seven years of reading it took before she could walk into a synagogue, why she thinks expecting Hamas or Hezbollah to disarm is "laughable" — and why she is nonetheless optimistic. "I cannot bring millions of Arabs. But we can bring Israel to them."

Key Takeaways

  • The absence was structural, not incidental. She never met a Jew growing up, and she doesn't treat that as an accident of geography. With the Jewish quarters empty of its Jews, there was nobody in the room to contradict school, television and Al Jazeera. The propaganda worked because it was unopposed.
  • Contact beats argument. Nothing she read broke the worldview. A shopkeeper who helped with her bags did. She frames the whole episode as a single interaction that "converted me from an enemy to an ally."
  • Deprogramming is slow, and takes willingness. It took seven years of study before she could work up the courage to enter a synagogue — and she was willing to do so. That timeline is the basis for her flat rejection of Western assumptions about Hamas and Hezbollah laying down weapons: for men whose profession is fighting, she calls it "laughable."
  • Media is the delivery system, and it's testable. The Ramadan dramas, Al Jazeera's launch, Qana on television. Her proposed test takes ten minutes, and anyone can do it: read the same Al Jazeera story in Arabic and in English.
  • Erbil is the model. She points to Iraqi Kurdistan as the regional model for coexistence: a place that absorbed its minorities rather than erasing them.
  • She is optimistic, and specific about why. The Arab world won't go to Israel, but Israel can be brought to them through social media and automatic translation. In the age of AI, a seventy-year information blockade is collapsing, and she says this plan isn't a far-fetched dream: "We already did it."

Notable Quotes

  • "For the first time in my life I was sharing the same space with the Jew, the enemy — and for the first time in my life I asked myself, why is the Jew the enemy?" (0:06, and again at 16:20)
  • "He converted me from an enemy to an ally." (15:54)
  • "We in Hezbollah do not acknowledge political borders." — Nasrallah, in the video she found (17:05)
  • "So it's laughable to listen to Westerners who assert… that Hamas will disarm." (38:47)
  • "Israel is not going anywhere. No matter how much money you invest, no matter how many Al Jazeeras you open, no matter how many lies you tell." (47:49)
  • "Nobody's interested in giving them the mic. The BBC won't talk to them. CNN won't talk to them. Al Jazeera won't talk to them." (56:42)
  • "I have good news for you. We already did it." (58:38)
  • "I cannot bring millions of Arabs… but we can bring Israel to them." (58:45)
  • "The axis of resistance is not invested in the well-being of the Palestinian. If they wanted to liberate Palestinians, they would allow the liberation of their own people." (1:01:54)
  • "Enemy to an ally. That's the whole argument, in a single moment. Contact beats propaganda." — Ben Chertoff, outro (1:03:26)


Guest Bio (for the feed)

Rawan Osman is a Syrian-born, Lebanon-raised researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. She founded Arabs Ask, an Arabic-language forum where Arabs can ask the questions about Jews and Israel they cannot ask at home, and she is a central voice in the documentary Tragic Awakening. She has addressed the UN Human Rights Council twice, describes herself as an "Arab Zionist" and a recovered antisemite, and is converting to Judaism.


Links

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

Guest:

• Arabs Ask — Arabic-language forum (Instagram)

• Times of Israel blog — https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/rawan-osman/

• Jerusalem Center, "Can Erbil Inspire a New Syria?" — https://jcfa.org/can-erbil-inspire-a-new-syria/

• UN Watch testimony — https://unwatch.org/testimony/speaker/rawan-osman

• Tragic Awakening (2024, dir. Rabbi Raphael Shore)

If this episode gave you something, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it genuinely helps people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

]]> Tue, 04 Aug 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3886 She ran out of a Strasbourg grocery store so fast she left her purse in the shopping cart. Rawan Osman was in her mid-twenties, newly arrived from Lebanon, and had just seen four Orthodox Jewish men for the first time in her life. Then she went back down to face the shopkeeper — who smiled, helped her with her bags, and, as she puts it, "converted me from an enemy to an ally." She grew up in Hezbollah country in the Beqaa Valley and never met a Jew; with more than 850,000 Jews uprooted from the Arab world, she argues, there was nobody present to contradict what school, television and Al Jazeera taught her. She joins Ben Chertoff to trace how that machinery works and where it breaks: the Ramadan dramas, her cousins' khaki school uniforms, the seven years of reading it took before she could walk into a synagogue, why she thinks expecting Hamas or Hezbollah to disarm is "laughable" — and why she is nonetheless optimistic. "I cannot bring millions of Arabs. But we can bring Israel to them."

Key Takeaways

  • The absence was structural, not incidental. She never met a Jew growing up, and she doesn't treat that as an accident of geography. With the Jewish quarters empty of its Jews, there was nobody in the room to contradict school, television and Al Jazeera. The propaganda worked because it was unopposed.
  • Contact beats argument. Nothing she read broke the worldview. A shopkeeper who helped with her bags did. She frames the whole episode as a single interaction that "converted me from an enemy to an ally."
  • Deprogramming is slow, and takes willingness. It took seven years of study before she could work up the courage to enter a synagogue — and she was willing to do so. That timeline is the basis for her flat rejection of Western assumptions about Hamas and Hezbollah laying down weapons: for men whose profession is fighting, she calls it "laughable."
  • Media is the delivery system, and it's testable. The Ramadan dramas, Al Jazeera's launch, Qana on television. Her proposed test takes ten minutes, and anyone can do it: read the same Al Jazeera story in Arabic and in English.
  • Erbil is the model. She points to Iraqi Kurdistan as the regional model for coexistence: a place that absorbed its minorities rather than erasing them.
  • She is optimistic, and specific about why. The Arab world won't go to Israel, but Israel can be brought to them through social media and automatic translation. In the age of AI, a seventy-year information blockade is collapsing, and she says this plan isn't a far-fetched dream: "We already did it."

Notable Quotes

  • "For the first time in my life I was sharing the same space with the Jew, the enemy — and for the first time in my life I asked myself, why is the Jew the enemy?" (0:06, and again at 16:20)
  • "He converted me from an enemy to an ally." (15:54)
  • "We in Hezbollah do not acknowledge political borders." — Nasrallah, in the video she found (17:05)
  • "So it's laughable to listen to Westerners who assert… that Hamas will disarm." (38:47)
  • "Israel is not going anywhere. No matter how much money you invest, no matter how many Al Jazeeras you open, no matter how many lies you tell." (47:49)
  • "Nobody's interested in giving them the mic. The BBC won't talk to them. CNN won't talk to them. Al Jazeera won't talk to them." (56:42)
  • "I have good news for you. We already did it." (58:38)
  • "I cannot bring millions of Arabs… but we can bring Israel to them." (58:45)
  • "The axis of resistance is not invested in the well-being of the Palestinian. If they wanted to liberate Palestinians, they would allow the liberation of their own people." (1:01:54)
  • "Enemy to an ally. That's the whole argument, in a single moment. Contact beats propaganda." — Ben Chertoff, outro (1:03:26)


Guest Bio (for the feed)

Rawan Osman is a Syrian-born, Lebanon-raised researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. She founded Arabs Ask, an Arabic-language forum where Arabs can ask the questions about Jews and Israel they cannot ask at home, and she is a central voice in the documentary Tragic Awakening. She has addressed the UN Human Rights Council twice, describes herself as an "Arab Zionist" and a recovered antisemite, and is converting to Judaism.


Links

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

Guest:

• Arabs Ask — Arabic-language forum (Instagram)

• Times of Israel blog — https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/rawan-osman/

• Jerusalem Center, "Can Erbil Inspire a New Syria?" — https://jcfa.org/can-erbil-inspire-a-new-syria/

• UN Watch testimony — https://unwatch.org/testimony/speaker/rawan-osman

• Tragic Awakening (2024, dir. Rabbi Raphael Shore)

If this episode gave you something, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it genuinely helps people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

]]> Rawan Osman, Arab antisemitism, antisemitism, Arab Zionist, recovered antisemite, Lebanon, Beqaa Valley, Hezbollah, Syria, Damascus, Strasbourg, converting to Judaism, Arabs Ask, Tragic Awakening, Jerusalem Center, JCFA, Israel, Zionism, Jewish refugees from Arab countries, 850000 Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Al Jazeera, media bias, Arabic media, MEMRI, indoctrination, deradicalization, Hamas, Hezbollah disarmament, October 7, Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil, Kurds, post-Assad Syria, Abraham Accords, Middle East, HonestReporting, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff No Ben Chertoff The Familiar Villain: Gaza, Activist Journalism, and the Unspoken Rules of Reporting on Israel | With Matti Friedman 15 15 The Familiar Villain: Gaza, Activist Journalism, and the Unspoken Rules of Reporting on Israel | With Matti Friedman full d15e65df-c1a7-4203-b606-b94a47264043 https://share.transistor.fm/s/5f71c087 Matti Friedman spent five years inside the AP's Jerusalem bureau. He explains the staffing anomaly, the peace offer that was ordered killed, and the Hamas censorship AP readers were never told about.

We throw around the phrase "media bias" as though it means a bad headline here, an unfair paragraph there. Matti Friedman is describing something much larger — and he's describing it from the inside.

From 2006 to 2011, Friedman was a reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press: the biggest international bureau of the world's biggest news organization, feeding copy, photos, and footage to roughly 10,000 outlets worldwide. He came in from the left of the Israeli political spectrum with no particular critique of the press. It took him about two years to conclude that what the bureau produced wasn't really coverage.

The first thing that struck him wasn't ideology. It was arithmetic. The AP had around 40 full-time staffers covering a country that is one one-hundredth of one percent of the world's surface — more reporters than it had in China, and more than it had in all of sub-Saharan Africa.

In this conversation with Ben Chertoff, Friedman walks through what that machine actually did:

  • The peace offer that never ran. In 2008, two AP reporters had Ehud Olmert's far-reaching two-state offer to Mahmoud Abbas — one of them had seen the map. They were ordered to drop it, because the story would have subverted the narrative the bureau was already committed to. Reporter Mark Lavie later called it the worst journalistic scandal of his fifty years in the business.
  • The editor's note that never was. During Operation Cast Lead, the AP's correspondent in Gaza reported that Hamas fighters were dressing as civilians and being counted in the civilian death toll. Friedman put it in the story. Then came the phone call, and the detail came out. When Friedman proposed that AP disclose it was conforming to Hamas censorship — exactly as it discloses Israeli military censorship — he was overruled. Readers were never told.
  • Why every outlet lands on the same story by the end of the day, without anyone coordinating anything.
  • Why "the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" is the wrong name for the thing, and how the reframing away from "the Arab-Israeli conflict" quietly flipped who looks outnumbered.
  • The Gaza bookshelf — the new literary genre in which Gaza becomes the lens for feminism, the climate, and everything else, and what it means that a very old idea is finding a very new audience.

Friedman's diagnosis isn't a conspiracy. It's a bubble, an incentive structure, and a professional identity that changed: reporters who, in his words, "didn't want to cover the circus — they wanted to be dancing bears in the circus."

Guest: Matti Friedman is a Canadian-born Israeli journalist and author. He wrote the widely discussed 2014 Tablet essay "An Insider's Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth," and he is the author of five books — The Aleppo Codex, Pumpkinflowers, Spies of No Country, Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, and, new this year, Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe, the story of the Jewish parachutists — Hannah Senesh among them — who escaped Nazi Europe for British Mandate Palestine and then volunteered to go back in. He writes from Jerusalem for The Free Press.


Mentioned in this episode


Links

🎧 The Honest Take: https://podcast.honestreporting.com 📺 Full episode playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5

If this conversation gave you something to think about, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it's the single biggest thing you can do to help more people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook.

]]> Matti Friedman spent five years inside the AP's Jerusalem bureau. He explains the staffing anomaly, the peace offer that was ordered killed, and the Hamas censorship AP readers were never told about.

We throw around the phrase "media bias" as though it means a bad headline here, an unfair paragraph there. Matti Friedman is describing something much larger — and he's describing it from the inside.

From 2006 to 2011, Friedman was a reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press: the biggest international bureau of the world's biggest news organization, feeding copy, photos, and footage to roughly 10,000 outlets worldwide. He came in from the left of the Israeli political spectrum with no particular critique of the press. It took him about two years to conclude that what the bureau produced wasn't really coverage.

The first thing that struck him wasn't ideology. It was arithmetic. The AP had around 40 full-time staffers covering a country that is one one-hundredth of one percent of the world's surface — more reporters than it had in China, and more than it had in all of sub-Saharan Africa.

In this conversation with Ben Chertoff, Friedman walks through what that machine actually did:

  • The peace offer that never ran. In 2008, two AP reporters had Ehud Olmert's far-reaching two-state offer to Mahmoud Abbas — one of them had seen the map. They were ordered to drop it, because the story would have subverted the narrative the bureau was already committed to. Reporter Mark Lavie later called it the worst journalistic scandal of his fifty years in the business.
  • The editor's note that never was. During Operation Cast Lead, the AP's correspondent in Gaza reported that Hamas fighters were dressing as civilians and being counted in the civilian death toll. Friedman put it in the story. Then came the phone call, and the detail came out. When Friedman proposed that AP disclose it was conforming to Hamas censorship — exactly as it discloses Israeli military censorship — he was overruled. Readers were never told.
  • Why every outlet lands on the same story by the end of the day, without anyone coordinating anything.
  • Why "the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" is the wrong name for the thing, and how the reframing away from "the Arab-Israeli conflict" quietly flipped who looks outnumbered.
  • The Gaza bookshelf — the new literary genre in which Gaza becomes the lens for feminism, the climate, and everything else, and what it means that a very old idea is finding a very new audience.

Friedman's diagnosis isn't a conspiracy. It's a bubble, an incentive structure, and a professional identity that changed: reporters who, in his words, "didn't want to cover the circus — they wanted to be dancing bears in the circus."

Guest: Matti Friedman is a Canadian-born Israeli journalist and author. He wrote the widely discussed 2014 Tablet essay "An Insider's Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth," and he is the author of five books — The Aleppo Codex, Pumpkinflowers, Spies of No Country, Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, and, new this year, Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe, the story of the Jewish parachutists — Hannah Senesh among them — who escaped Nazi Europe for British Mandate Palestine and then volunteered to go back in. He writes from Jerusalem for The Free Press.


Mentioned in this episode


Links

🎧 The Honest Take: https://podcast.honestreporting.com 📺 Full episode playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5

If this conversation gave you something to think about, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it's the single biggest thing you can do to help more people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook.

]]> Tue, 28 Jul 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 4115 Matti Friedman spent five years inside the AP's Jerusalem bureau. He explains the staffing anomaly, the peace offer that was ordered killed, and the Hamas censorship AP readers were never told about.

We throw around the phrase "media bias" as though it means a bad headline here, an unfair paragraph there. Matti Friedman is describing something much larger — and he's describing it from the inside.

From 2006 to 2011, Friedman was a reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press: the biggest international bureau of the world's biggest news organization, feeding copy, photos, and footage to roughly 10,000 outlets worldwide. He came in from the left of the Israeli political spectrum with no particular critique of the press. It took him about two years to conclude that what the bureau produced wasn't really coverage.

The first thing that struck him wasn't ideology. It was arithmetic. The AP had around 40 full-time staffers covering a country that is one one-hundredth of one percent of the world's surface — more reporters than it had in China, and more than it had in all of sub-Saharan Africa.

In this conversation with Ben Chertoff, Friedman walks through what that machine actually did:

  • The peace offer that never ran. In 2008, two AP reporters had Ehud Olmert's far-reaching two-state offer to Mahmoud Abbas — one of them had seen the map. They were ordered to drop it, because the story would have subverted the narrative the bureau was already committed to. Reporter Mark Lavie later called it the worst journalistic scandal of his fifty years in the business.
  • The editor's note that never was. During Operation Cast Lead, the AP's correspondent in Gaza reported that Hamas fighters were dressing as civilians and being counted in the civilian death toll. Friedman put it in the story. Then came the phone call, and the detail came out. When Friedman proposed that AP disclose it was conforming to Hamas censorship — exactly as it discloses Israeli military censorship — he was overruled. Readers were never told.
  • Why every outlet lands on the same story by the end of the day, without anyone coordinating anything.
  • Why "the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" is the wrong name for the thing, and how the reframing away from "the Arab-Israeli conflict" quietly flipped who looks outnumbered.
  • The Gaza bookshelf — the new literary genre in which Gaza becomes the lens for feminism, the climate, and everything else, and what it means that a very old idea is finding a very new audience.

Friedman's diagnosis isn't a conspiracy. It's a bubble, an incentive structure, and a professional identity that changed: reporters who, in his words, "didn't want to cover the circus — they wanted to be dancing bears in the circus."

Guest: Matti Friedman is a Canadian-born Israeli journalist and author. He wrote the widely discussed 2014 Tablet essay "An Insider's Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth," and he is the author of five books — The Aleppo Codex, Pumpkinflowers, Spies of No Country, Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, and, new this year, Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe, the story of the Jewish parachutists — Hannah Senesh among them — who escaped Nazi Europe for British Mandate Palestine and then volunteered to go back in. He writes from Jerusalem for The Free Press.


Mentioned in this episode


Links

🎧 The Honest Take: https://podcast.honestreporting.com 📺 Full episode playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5

If this conversation gave you something to think about, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it's the single biggest thing you can do to help more people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook.

]]> Matti Friedman, Ben Chertoff, The Honest Take, HonestReporting, media bias, media criticism, Associated Press, AP Jerusalem bureau, Israel, Gaza, Israel media coverage, activist journalism, press criticism, journalism ethics, legacy media, New York Times, Reuters, Hamas censorship, Gaza Ministry of Health, Operation Cast Lead, Ehud Olmert, Mahmoud Abbas, Mark Lavie, Nicholas Kristof, NGOs, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, foreign correspondents, war reporting, press freedom, antisemitism, anti-Judaism, David Nirenberg, The Free Press, Out of the Sky, Hannah Senesh, Middle East, media literacy No Ben Chertoff No One Wants a Jewish Protagonist: Inside Publishing's New Blacklist | With Meg Keene 14 14 No One Wants a Jewish Protagonist: Inside Publishing's New Blacklist | With Meg Keene full 044e2b9e-2819-4697-8b4a-8bac081ace93 https://share.transistor.fm/s/b4f97676 PEN America — the country's oldest and most prestigious free-expression organization — put out a report documenting how Jewish and Israeli writers are being frozen out of publishing. Within 24 hours, its own president had resigned over it. Not because the report went too far, but because it suggested, gently and with footnotes, that boycotting Jews might be a form of discrimination.

Author Meg Keene wrote the Wall Street Journal piece that took the whole thing apart — and she's the most-quoted voice in the report itself. For fifteen years she wasn't a political writer at all: she built one of the most-read wedding blogs in the country, A Practical Wedding, with two books that sold well over 150,000 copies passed hand-to-hand between brides who'd never met. She was, in her own words, "the dream author."

Then Charlottesville happened. Then Tree of Life. And after October 7, she sat down and wrote an achingly Jewish novel in seven days. The Big Five wouldn't touch it. One agent said the problem was a single word — Zionist. Another said the book could survive if she renamed a character from Yael to Sue. So Meg made a choice: if they weren't going to publish her anyway, she'd tell the truth out loud, and light her own fiction career on fire to do it.

In this conversation: the free-speech paradox at the heart of the PEN resignation; how the industry's blacklist works without anyone ever having to write it down; the St. Martin's Press boycott and the rise of influencer-driven publishing; and the moment Meg went hunting for a 2024 blacklist in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency archive — and pulled up three articles she couldn't tell apart from the present, all dated 1939, all about the blacklisting of Jewish authors in Germany.

Her argument isn't to shrink. It's to write more, document more, and build our own institutions the way we always have — because, as she puts it, "we are not a people for whom culture is the icing on the cake. It's the cake."

Meg Keene

Referenced in the episode

]]> PEN America — the country's oldest and most prestigious free-expression organization — put out a report documenting how Jewish and Israeli writers are being frozen out of publishing. Within 24 hours, its own president had resigned over it. Not because the report went too far, but because it suggested, gently and with footnotes, that boycotting Jews might be a form of discrimination.

Author Meg Keene wrote the Wall Street Journal piece that took the whole thing apart — and she's the most-quoted voice in the report itself. For fifteen years she wasn't a political writer at all: she built one of the most-read wedding blogs in the country, A Practical Wedding, with two books that sold well over 150,000 copies passed hand-to-hand between brides who'd never met. She was, in her own words, "the dream author."

Then Charlottesville happened. Then Tree of Life. And after October 7, she sat down and wrote an achingly Jewish novel in seven days. The Big Five wouldn't touch it. One agent said the problem was a single word — Zionist. Another said the book could survive if she renamed a character from Yael to Sue. So Meg made a choice: if they weren't going to publish her anyway, she'd tell the truth out loud, and light her own fiction career on fire to do it.

In this conversation: the free-speech paradox at the heart of the PEN resignation; how the industry's blacklist works without anyone ever having to write it down; the St. Martin's Press boycott and the rise of influencer-driven publishing; and the moment Meg went hunting for a 2024 blacklist in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency archive — and pulled up three articles she couldn't tell apart from the present, all dated 1939, all about the blacklisting of Jewish authors in Germany.

Her argument isn't to shrink. It's to write more, document more, and build our own institutions the way we always have — because, as she puts it, "we are not a people for whom culture is the icing on the cake. It's the cake."

Meg Keene

Referenced in the episode

]]> Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3932 PEN America — the country's oldest and most prestigious free-expression organization — put out a report documenting how Jewish and Israeli writers are being frozen out of publishing. Within 24 hours, its own president had resigned over it. Not because the report went too far, but because it suggested, gently and with footnotes, that boycotting Jews might be a form of discrimination.

Author Meg Keene wrote the Wall Street Journal piece that took the whole thing apart — and she's the most-quoted voice in the report itself. For fifteen years she wasn't a political writer at all: she built one of the most-read wedding blogs in the country, A Practical Wedding, with two books that sold well over 150,000 copies passed hand-to-hand between brides who'd never met. She was, in her own words, "the dream author."

Then Charlottesville happened. Then Tree of Life. And after October 7, she sat down and wrote an achingly Jewish novel in seven days. The Big Five wouldn't touch it. One agent said the problem was a single word — Zionist. Another said the book could survive if she renamed a character from Yael to Sue. So Meg made a choice: if they weren't going to publish her anyway, she'd tell the truth out loud, and light her own fiction career on fire to do it.

In this conversation: the free-speech paradox at the heart of the PEN resignation; how the industry's blacklist works without anyone ever having to write it down; the St. Martin's Press boycott and the rise of influencer-driven publishing; and the moment Meg went hunting for a 2024 blacklist in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency archive — and pulled up three articles she couldn't tell apart from the present, all dated 1939, all about the blacklisting of Jewish authors in Germany.

Her argument isn't to shrink. It's to write more, document more, and build our own institutions the way we always have — because, as she puts it, "we are not a people for whom culture is the icing on the cake. It's the cake."

Meg Keene

Referenced in the episode

]]> Meg Keene, A Practical Wedding, Field Notes for the Brave, PEN America, A Silent Moratorium, Dinaw Mengestu, Suzanne Nossel, cultural boycott, BDS, Jewish authors, Jewish writers, blacklist, publishing antisemitism, Big Five publishing, St. Martin's Press boycott, Zionist author spreadsheet, Is Your Favorite Author a Zionist, Sarah J. Maas, manuscript wish list, Booktok, Writers Against the War on Gaza, WAWOG, Matti Friedman, Michael Chabon, Kavalier and Clay, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, JTA archive, 1939, Tree of Life, Charlottesville, Jewish fiction, cancel culture publishing, free expression, October 7, Honest Take, Ben Chertoff, HonestReporting No Ben Chertoff There Is Nowhere Else: Israeli Security, Zionist Pride, and the Doctrine That Broke on October 7 | With Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi 13 13 There Is Nowhere Else: Israeli Security, Zionist Pride, and the Doctrine That Broke on October 7 | With Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi full 5c988741-900f-4f06-9019-4702154ed3bd https://podcast.honestreporting.com/episodes/the-solution-is-israel Every American of a certain age remembers exactly where they were on September 11th. For Israelis, that morning was October 7th. Brigadier General Amir Avivi — a thirty-year IDF veteran, former deputy commander of the Gaza Division, and founder of Israel's largest movement of security professionals — saw it coming. Two years before the war, his organization wrote a national-security assessment describing the attack that was coming; six months before it, he published a book about it. Nobody in power acted on it.

Ben Chertoff sits down with Avivi to understand how that happened, and what it means going forward. They get into the Cold War doctrine Israel quietly adopted and why it failed; what it's actually like to defend a country forty-five miles wide, where you can see your enemies from the airport; the real history of the Gaza withdrawal and why Avivi says Israel can never repeat it in the West Bank; and his blunt, uncomfortable answer to the question of rising global antisemitism — that the only long-term future for the Jewish people is in Israel. Some of it is hard to hear. That's the point.


ABOUT THE GUEST

Brigadier General (res.) Amir Avivi is a thirty-year veteran of the Israel Defense Forces. He served as deputy commander of the Gaza Division and as aide-de-camp to the Chief of the General Staff, among other senior commands. In 2020 he founded the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF / Hebrew: "Habithonistim"), a security-establishment movement that has grown to roughly 55,000 members, including dozens of reserve generals and senior defense officials. He handed the chairmanship to Brig. Gen. (res.) Erez Wiener on June 1, 2026. He is the author of No Retreat: How to Secure Israel for Generations to Come, whose Hebrew edition appeared about six months before October 7th and which he frames as having foreseen the war and its aftermath.


LINKS & RESOURCES

  • Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF / Habithonistim):https://idsf.org.il/en/
  • Book — No Retreat: How to Secure Israel for Generations to Come
  • Guest on X: @AmirAvivi1


THE HONEST TAKE — SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW

If this episode gave you something to chew on, subscribe wherever you're listening, and leave a rating and a review on Apple or Spotify — it genuinely helps new people find the show.

]]> Every American of a certain age remembers exactly where they were on September 11th. For Israelis, that morning was October 7th. Brigadier General Amir Avivi — a thirty-year IDF veteran, former deputy commander of the Gaza Division, and founder of Israel's largest movement of security professionals — saw it coming. Two years before the war, his organization wrote a national-security assessment describing the attack that was coming; six months before it, he published a book about it. Nobody in power acted on it.

Ben Chertoff sits down with Avivi to understand how that happened, and what it means going forward. They get into the Cold War doctrine Israel quietly adopted and why it failed; what it's actually like to defend a country forty-five miles wide, where you can see your enemies from the airport; the real history of the Gaza withdrawal and why Avivi says Israel can never repeat it in the West Bank; and his blunt, uncomfortable answer to the question of rising global antisemitism — that the only long-term future for the Jewish people is in Israel. Some of it is hard to hear. That's the point.


ABOUT THE GUEST

Brigadier General (res.) Amir Avivi is a thirty-year veteran of the Israel Defense Forces. He served as deputy commander of the Gaza Division and as aide-de-camp to the Chief of the General Staff, among other senior commands. In 2020 he founded the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF / Hebrew: "Habithonistim"), a security-establishment movement that has grown to roughly 55,000 members, including dozens of reserve generals and senior defense officials. He handed the chairmanship to Brig. Gen. (res.) Erez Wiener on June 1, 2026. He is the author of No Retreat: How to Secure Israel for Generations to Come, whose Hebrew edition appeared about six months before October 7th and which he frames as having foreseen the war and its aftermath.


LINKS & RESOURCES

  • Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF / Habithonistim):https://idsf.org.il/en/
  • Book — No Retreat: How to Secure Israel for Generations to Come
  • Guest on X: @AmirAvivi1


THE HONEST TAKE — SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW

If this episode gave you something to chew on, subscribe wherever you're listening, and leave a rating and a review on Apple or Spotify — it genuinely helps new people find the show.

]]> Tue, 14 Jul 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3707 Every American of a certain age remembers exactly where they were on September 11th. For Israelis, that morning was October 7th. Brigadier General Amir Avivi — a thirty-year IDF veteran, former deputy commander of the Gaza Division, and founder of Israel's largest movement of security professionals — saw it coming. Two years before the war, his organization wrote a national-security assessment describing the attack that was coming; six months before it, he published a book about it. Nobody in power acted on it.

Ben Chertoff sits down with Avivi to understand how that happened, and what it means going forward. They get into the Cold War doctrine Israel quietly adopted and why it failed; what it's actually like to defend a country forty-five miles wide, where you can see your enemies from the airport; the real history of the Gaza withdrawal and why Avivi says Israel can never repeat it in the West Bank; and his blunt, uncomfortable answer to the question of rising global antisemitism — that the only long-term future for the Jewish people is in Israel. Some of it is hard to hear. That's the point.


ABOUT THE GUEST

Brigadier General (res.) Amir Avivi is a thirty-year veteran of the Israel Defense Forces. He served as deputy commander of the Gaza Division and as aide-de-camp to the Chief of the General Staff, among other senior commands. In 2020 he founded the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF / Hebrew: "Habithonistim"), a security-establishment movement that has grown to roughly 55,000 members, including dozens of reserve generals and senior defense officials. He handed the chairmanship to Brig. Gen. (res.) Erez Wiener on June 1, 2026. He is the author of No Retreat: How to Secure Israel for Generations to Come, whose Hebrew edition appeared about six months before October 7th and which he frames as having foreseen the war and its aftermath.


LINKS & RESOURCES

  • Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF / Habithonistim):https://idsf.org.il/en/
  • Book — No Retreat: How to Secure Israel for Generations to Come
  • Guest on X: @AmirAvivi1


THE HONEST TAKE — SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW

If this episode gave you something to chew on, subscribe wherever you're listening, and leave a rating and a review on Apple or Spotify — it genuinely helps new people find the show.

]]> Amir Avivi, Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, Ben Chertoff, The Honest Take, HonestReporting, IDSF, Israel Defense and Security Forum, Habithonistim, No Retreat, October 7, Hamas, Gaza, Gaza Division, IDF, Israeli military, Israel security, national security doctrine, containment doctrine, West Bank, Judea and Samaria, Palestinian Authority, Oslo Accords, Yitzhak Rabin, Gaza disengagement, Gush Katif, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Arab Spring, Yom Kippur War, Shin Bet, Mossad, Ben Gurion, antisemitism, Aliyah, Jewish diaspora, Zionism, Israeli politics, Middle East No Ben Chertoff Broken Mirror: Internalized Antisemitism, the Non-Jewish Gaze, and Why Jewish Pride is the Answer to Jew Hate | With Ben M. Freeman 12 12 Broken Mirror: Internalized Antisemitism, the Non-Jewish Gaze, and Why Jewish Pride is the Answer to Jew Hate | With Ben M. Freeman full b88de513-0913-462b-867f-0d3dcdd6dea4 https://share.transistor.fm/s/0fc01df6 The founder of the Jewish Pride movement says Jews have spent so long fighting for the right to exist that they've forgotten how to be proud that they do. Ben M. Freeman — a gay Jewish kid from Glasgow who had to come out twice, first as gay and then as an unapologetic Zionist — joins Ben Chertoff to make the affirmative case: that Jews are not a religion but a people, an ancient civilization indigenous to the Land of Israel, and that pride, not defense, is the real answer to Jew-hatred. Along the way: internalized antisemitism and his "three D's," the "non-Jewish gaze," why he reframes "Eastern European Jews" as "Jews who lived in Eastern Europe," the UN's own criteria for indigeneity, and why he says anti-Zionism is antisemitism — no asterisk.


Key Takeaways

  • Pride, not defense, is the point. Freeman's whole project is affirmative: "Jewish pride is the root to fighting Jew-hatred." You can't fight antisemitism, he argues, unless you're first proud to be a Jew.
  • Jews are a people, not a religion. His "hill to die on": Judaism is equivalent to Jewishness — an Am, a civilization with a religion — and defining Jews only as a faith is a Christian import that creates endless contradictions.
  • Internalized antisemitism has three forms. Diminishment (making yourself smaller — "I'm Jewish, but…"), denial (disowning your Jewishness), and deployment (weaponizing it, as anti-Zionist Jews do). Diminishment is the most common.
  • Only Jews define Jewish identity — the "non-Jewish gaze." Because the non-Jewish world both isn't Jewish and has been structured against Jews, its definitions of "palatable" Jewishness are illegitimate; allies should amplify Jewish perspectives, not speak over them.
  • The indigeneity case. Applying the UN's criteria (he discards the "non-dominant group" one as post-colonial nonsense), he argues Jews meet them — continuous connection to the land, a land-rooted calendar and festivals, Hebrew beneath every diaspora language, Jews buried with soil from Jerusalem. Reframes "Eastern European Jews" as "Jews who lived in Eastern Europe."
  • He won't litigate Palestinian indigeneity. "I'm a Jew telling a Jewish story." He notes questions about when a collective Palestinian national identity emerged, but says it ultimately doesn't change the reality: "they are still here and we need to deal with that."
  • Anti-Zionism is antisemitism — no asterisk. Criticism of Israeli policy is legitimate; the line, per Sharansky's 3D test, is delegitimization, demonization, and double standards. "Israel purposely kills Palestinian children" or "harvests organs" isn't policy critique — it's blood libel.
  • Head, Hands, Heart. A proudly Jewish next generation needs knowledge (head), practice (hands), and — the hardest — cultivated pride (heart), taught from kindergarten on.


Notable Quotes

  • "The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is not Israel. The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is the Jewish people, and Israel is a major manifestation of that."
  • "I was failed in an essay because I would not say that Israel was the worst country in the world — and that was direct feedback given to me by a professor."
  • "Jews are not a religion. We're a people with a religion. The idea that we're a religion comes from Christianity."
  • "We're in an abusive relationship with the non-Jewish world… you try, you try, you try — and then the goalposts move."
  • "You've given me such space to define my own identity — but with my Jewishness, you feel comfortable telling me what I am. That's the progressive world right there."
  • "Grow up. Stop being so entitled. You as an individual do not get to change a 3,000-year-old civilization."

📚 Ben M. Freeman — the Jewish Pride trilogy: • Jewish Pride: Rebuilding a People(2021) — https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Pride-Rebuilding-Ben-Freeman/dp/1913532135 • Reclaiming Our Story: The Pursuit of Jewish Pride (2022) — https://www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Our-Story-Pursuit-Jewish/dp/1915036321 • The Jews: An Indigenous People (2025) — https://www.amazon.com/Jews-Indigenous-Ben-M-Freeman/dp/1916797474 ✍️ His Substack, The Jewish Pride Press — https://ben126.substack.com/

]]> The founder of the Jewish Pride movement says Jews have spent so long fighting for the right to exist that they've forgotten how to be proud that they do. Ben M. Freeman — a gay Jewish kid from Glasgow who had to come out twice, first as gay and then as an unapologetic Zionist — joins Ben Chertoff to make the affirmative case: that Jews are not a religion but a people, an ancient civilization indigenous to the Land of Israel, and that pride, not defense, is the real answer to Jew-hatred. Along the way: internalized antisemitism and his "three D's," the "non-Jewish gaze," why he reframes "Eastern European Jews" as "Jews who lived in Eastern Europe," the UN's own criteria for indigeneity, and why he says anti-Zionism is antisemitism — no asterisk.


Key Takeaways

  • Pride, not defense, is the point. Freeman's whole project is affirmative: "Jewish pride is the root to fighting Jew-hatred." You can't fight antisemitism, he argues, unless you're first proud to be a Jew.
  • Jews are a people, not a religion. His "hill to die on": Judaism is equivalent to Jewishness — an Am, a civilization with a religion — and defining Jews only as a faith is a Christian import that creates endless contradictions.
  • Internalized antisemitism has three forms. Diminishment (making yourself smaller — "I'm Jewish, but…"), denial (disowning your Jewishness), and deployment (weaponizing it, as anti-Zionist Jews do). Diminishment is the most common.
  • Only Jews define Jewish identity — the "non-Jewish gaze." Because the non-Jewish world both isn't Jewish and has been structured against Jews, its definitions of "palatable" Jewishness are illegitimate; allies should amplify Jewish perspectives, not speak over them.
  • The indigeneity case. Applying the UN's criteria (he discards the "non-dominant group" one as post-colonial nonsense), he argues Jews meet them — continuous connection to the land, a land-rooted calendar and festivals, Hebrew beneath every diaspora language, Jews buried with soil from Jerusalem. Reframes "Eastern European Jews" as "Jews who lived in Eastern Europe."
  • He won't litigate Palestinian indigeneity. "I'm a Jew telling a Jewish story." He notes questions about when a collective Palestinian national identity emerged, but says it ultimately doesn't change the reality: "they are still here and we need to deal with that."
  • Anti-Zionism is antisemitism — no asterisk. Criticism of Israeli policy is legitimate; the line, per Sharansky's 3D test, is delegitimization, demonization, and double standards. "Israel purposely kills Palestinian children" or "harvests organs" isn't policy critique — it's blood libel.
  • Head, Hands, Heart. A proudly Jewish next generation needs knowledge (head), practice (hands), and — the hardest — cultivated pride (heart), taught from kindergarten on.


Notable Quotes

  • "The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is not Israel. The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is the Jewish people, and Israel is a major manifestation of that."
  • "I was failed in an essay because I would not say that Israel was the worst country in the world — and that was direct feedback given to me by a professor."
  • "Jews are not a religion. We're a people with a religion. The idea that we're a religion comes from Christianity."
  • "We're in an abusive relationship with the non-Jewish world… you try, you try, you try — and then the goalposts move."
  • "You've given me such space to define my own identity — but with my Jewishness, you feel comfortable telling me what I am. That's the progressive world right there."
  • "Grow up. Stop being so entitled. You as an individual do not get to change a 3,000-year-old civilization."

📚 Ben M. Freeman — the Jewish Pride trilogy: • Jewish Pride: Rebuilding a People(2021) — https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Pride-Rebuilding-Ben-Freeman/dp/1913532135 • Reclaiming Our Story: The Pursuit of Jewish Pride (2022) — https://www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Our-Story-Pursuit-Jewish/dp/1915036321 • The Jews: An Indigenous People (2025) — https://www.amazon.com/Jews-Indigenous-Ben-M-Freeman/dp/1916797474 ✍️ His Substack, The Jewish Pride Press — https://ben126.substack.com/

]]> Tue, 07 Jul 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 4498 The founder of the Jewish Pride movement says Jews have spent so long fighting for the right to exist that they've forgotten how to be proud that they do. Ben M. Freeman — a gay Jewish kid from Glasgow who had to come out twice, first as gay and then as an unapologetic Zionist — joins Ben Chertoff to make the affirmative case: that Jews are not a religion but a people, an ancient civilization indigenous to the Land of Israel, and that pride, not defense, is the real answer to Jew-hatred. Along the way: internalized antisemitism and his "three D's," the "non-Jewish gaze," why he reframes "Eastern European Jews" as "Jews who lived in Eastern Europe," the UN's own criteria for indigeneity, and why he says anti-Zionism is antisemitism — no asterisk.


Key Takeaways

  • Pride, not defense, is the point. Freeman's whole project is affirmative: "Jewish pride is the root to fighting Jew-hatred." You can't fight antisemitism, he argues, unless you're first proud to be a Jew.
  • Jews are a people, not a religion. His "hill to die on": Judaism is equivalent to Jewishness — an Am, a civilization with a religion — and defining Jews only as a faith is a Christian import that creates endless contradictions.
  • Internalized antisemitism has three forms. Diminishment (making yourself smaller — "I'm Jewish, but…"), denial (disowning your Jewishness), and deployment (weaponizing it, as anti-Zionist Jews do). Diminishment is the most common.
  • Only Jews define Jewish identity — the "non-Jewish gaze." Because the non-Jewish world both isn't Jewish and has been structured against Jews, its definitions of "palatable" Jewishness are illegitimate; allies should amplify Jewish perspectives, not speak over them.
  • The indigeneity case. Applying the UN's criteria (he discards the "non-dominant group" one as post-colonial nonsense), he argues Jews meet them — continuous connection to the land, a land-rooted calendar and festivals, Hebrew beneath every diaspora language, Jews buried with soil from Jerusalem. Reframes "Eastern European Jews" as "Jews who lived in Eastern Europe."
  • He won't litigate Palestinian indigeneity. "I'm a Jew telling a Jewish story." He notes questions about when a collective Palestinian national identity emerged, but says it ultimately doesn't change the reality: "they are still here and we need to deal with that."
  • Anti-Zionism is antisemitism — no asterisk. Criticism of Israeli policy is legitimate; the line, per Sharansky's 3D test, is delegitimization, demonization, and double standards. "Israel purposely kills Palestinian children" or "harvests organs" isn't policy critique — it's blood libel.
  • Head, Hands, Heart. A proudly Jewish next generation needs knowledge (head), practice (hands), and — the hardest — cultivated pride (heart), taught from kindergarten on.


Notable Quotes

  • "The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is not Israel. The greatest achievement of the Jewish people is the Jewish people, and Israel is a major manifestation of that."
  • "I was failed in an essay because I would not say that Israel was the worst country in the world — and that was direct feedback given to me by a professor."
  • "Jews are not a religion. We're a people with a religion. The idea that we're a religion comes from Christianity."
  • "We're in an abusive relationship with the non-Jewish world… you try, you try, you try — and then the goalposts move."
  • "You've given me such space to define my own identity — but with my Jewishness, you feel comfortable telling me what I am. That's the progressive world right there."
  • "Grow up. Stop being so entitled. You as an individual do not get to change a 3,000-year-old civilization."

📚 Ben M. Freeman — the Jewish Pride trilogy: • Jewish Pride: Rebuilding a People(2021) — https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Pride-Rebuilding-Ben-Freeman/dp/1913532135 • Reclaiming Our Story: The Pursuit of Jewish Pride (2022) — https://www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Our-Story-Pursuit-Jewish/dp/1915036321 • The Jews: An Indigenous People (2025) — https://www.amazon.com/Jews-Indigenous-Ben-M-Freeman/dp/1916797474 ✍️ His Substack, The Jewish Pride Press — https://ben126.substack.com/

]]> Ben M. Freeman, Jewish Pride, The Jews: An Indigenous People, Jewish indigeneity, internalized antisemitism, the non-Jewish gaze, anti-Zionism is antisemitism, Zionism, Jewish identity, Jewish peoplehood, antisemitism, Natan Sharansky 3D test, Peter Beinart, Hannah Einbinder, aliyah, Glasgow, diaspora Judaism, Eretz Israel, Jewish continuity, Sander Gilman The Jew's Body, Dara Horn, assimilation, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff, HonestReporting No Ben Chertoff Garbage In, Gospel Out: Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle Over Truth | With Ashley Rindsberg 11 11 Garbage In, Gospel Out: Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle Over Truth | With Ashley Rindsberg full cc131d11-40a9-4938-b146-52eda752dcc4 https://share.transistor.fm/s/cdb2fdb2 Episode Description

When you ask ChatGPT, Google, or Gemini a question, where does the answer come from? Increasingly, it traces back to Wikipedia — and Wikipedia, investigative journalist Ashley Rindsberg argues, has been captured.

In this episode, Rindsberg walks through how a small, coordinated network of editors — a "gang of 40" — has reshaped the way Wikipedia presents Israel, Zionism, and the war in Gaza, and how those edits flow downstream into the AI systems the world now treats as neutral arbiters of fact. He breaks down the tactics: swarming, the 500-edit barrier, severing Jewish historical ties to the land, weaponizing arbitration, and laundering terror-linked content through Reddit and into the models.

It's a tour of the machinery behind the "narrative engines" — Wikipedia, Reddit, Google, and AI — and a sober look at what media literacy actually requires when the encyclopedia itself has a point of view.

The Honest Take

HonestReporting

]]> Episode Description

When you ask ChatGPT, Google, or Gemini a question, where does the answer come from? Increasingly, it traces back to Wikipedia — and Wikipedia, investigative journalist Ashley Rindsberg argues, has been captured.

In this episode, Rindsberg walks through how a small, coordinated network of editors — a "gang of 40" — has reshaped the way Wikipedia presents Israel, Zionism, and the war in Gaza, and how those edits flow downstream into the AI systems the world now treats as neutral arbiters of fact. He breaks down the tactics: swarming, the 500-edit barrier, severing Jewish historical ties to the land, weaponizing arbitration, and laundering terror-linked content through Reddit and into the models.

It's a tour of the machinery behind the "narrative engines" — Wikipedia, Reddit, Google, and AI — and a sober look at what media literacy actually requires when the encyclopedia itself has a point of view.

The Honest Take

HonestReporting

]]> Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 2584 Episode Description

When you ask ChatGPT, Google, or Gemini a question, where does the answer come from? Increasingly, it traces back to Wikipedia — and Wikipedia, investigative journalist Ashley Rindsberg argues, has been captured.

In this episode, Rindsberg walks through how a small, coordinated network of editors — a "gang of 40" — has reshaped the way Wikipedia presents Israel, Zionism, and the war in Gaza, and how those edits flow downstream into the AI systems the world now treats as neutral arbiters of fact. He breaks down the tactics: swarming, the 500-edit barrier, severing Jewish historical ties to the land, weaponizing arbitration, and laundering terror-linked content through Reddit and into the models.

It's a tour of the machinery behind the "narrative engines" — Wikipedia, Reddit, Google, and AI — and a sober look at what media literacy actually requires when the encyclopedia itself has a point of view.

The Honest Take

HonestReporting

]]> Wikipedia bias, information warfare, Ashley Rindsberg, NeutralPOV, NPOV, AI bias, ChatGPT sources, Google knowledge panel, Reddit manipulation, r/Palestine, Palestine-Israel Articles, PIA, Zionism Wikipedia, Gaza genocide article, wiki voice, NPOV policy, Larry Sanger, Jimmy Wales, Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Commons, editor swarming, 500-edit barrier, arbitration committee, David Rozado, Pirate Wires, The Gray Lady Winked, Iranian regime propaganda, Khamenei, MEK, Tech for Palestine, Russia Today, media literacy, narrative engines, disinformation, HonestReporting, The Honest Take No Ben Chertoff The Most Hated Man at the UN: How the United Nations Turned Against Israel | With Hillel Neuer 10 10 The Most Hated Man at the UN: How the United Nations Turned Against Israel | With Hillel Neuer full 7760b2da-2c76-4c60-9721-6cac039a3d2f https://share.transistor.fm/s/621a9dab What does it feel like to walk into a room run by dictators and state sponsors of terror — and tell them the truth to their faces?

Hillel Neuer has done it for twenty years. As executive director of UN Watch in Geneva, he's become, by his own account and several media outlets', "the most hated man at the UN." In this conversation with Benjamin Chertoff, he explains the machinery behind the headlines: who actually writes the resolutions, how the "automatic majority" of 56 Muslim-majority states plus the dictatorships works, why Western democracies go along to get along, and how the Human Rights Council went from its founding chair Eleanor Roosevelt to a representative of Gaddafi's Libya.

They get into the Iran moment — the UN's near-silence on the massacre of Iranian protesters, followed by its sudden fury once the US and Israel struck the regime — and the case of Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur condemned by France, Germany, Canada, the US and others for "Holocaust inversion" and antisemitism, who remains effectively unaccountable. Neuer breaks down the disinformation feedback loop (NGO → UN statement → "the UN says" → global press), the meaning of the Council's Israel-only "Agenda Item 7," and whether the institution can ever be fixed.

Guest: Hillel Neuer — Executive Director, UN Watch. Host: Benjamin Chertoff. From HonestReporting.

]]> What does it feel like to walk into a room run by dictators and state sponsors of terror — and tell them the truth to their faces?

Hillel Neuer has done it for twenty years. As executive director of UN Watch in Geneva, he's become, by his own account and several media outlets', "the most hated man at the UN." In this conversation with Benjamin Chertoff, he explains the machinery behind the headlines: who actually writes the resolutions, how the "automatic majority" of 56 Muslim-majority states plus the dictatorships works, why Western democracies go along to get along, and how the Human Rights Council went from its founding chair Eleanor Roosevelt to a representative of Gaddafi's Libya.

They get into the Iran moment — the UN's near-silence on the massacre of Iranian protesters, followed by its sudden fury once the US and Israel struck the regime — and the case of Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur condemned by France, Germany, Canada, the US and others for "Holocaust inversion" and antisemitism, who remains effectively unaccountable. Neuer breaks down the disinformation feedback loop (NGO → UN statement → "the UN says" → global press), the meaning of the Council's Israel-only "Agenda Item 7," and whether the institution can ever be fixed.

Guest: Hillel Neuer — Executive Director, UN Watch. Host: Benjamin Chertoff. From HonestReporting.

]]> Tue, 23 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 2304 What does it feel like to walk into a room run by dictators and state sponsors of terror — and tell them the truth to their faces?

Hillel Neuer has done it for twenty years. As executive director of UN Watch in Geneva, he's become, by his own account and several media outlets', "the most hated man at the UN." In this conversation with Benjamin Chertoff, he explains the machinery behind the headlines: who actually writes the resolutions, how the "automatic majority" of 56 Muslim-majority states plus the dictatorships works, why Western democracies go along to get along, and how the Human Rights Council went from its founding chair Eleanor Roosevelt to a representative of Gaddafi's Libya.

They get into the Iran moment — the UN's near-silence on the massacre of Iranian protesters, followed by its sudden fury once the US and Israel struck the regime — and the case of Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur condemned by France, Germany, Canada, the US and others for "Holocaust inversion" and antisemitism, who remains effectively unaccountable. Neuer breaks down the disinformation feedback loop (NGO → UN statement → "the UN says" → global press), the meaning of the Council's Israel-only "Agenda Item 7," and whether the institution can ever be fixed.

Guest: Hillel Neuer — Executive Director, UN Watch. Host: Benjamin Chertoff. From HonestReporting.

]]> Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, United Nations, UN bias against Israel, UN Human Rights Council, UN Human Rights Commission, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, Agenda Item 7, UN resolutions against Israel, 173 resolutions, Israel UN, anti-Israel bias, antisemitism, institutional antisemitism, Zionism is racism, 1975 resolution, Eleanor Roosevelt, Muammar Gaddafi, Kofi Annan, Antonio Guterres, Ban Ki-moon, Geneva, automatic majority, OIC, Arab bloc, Muslim states UN, NGO disinformation, halo effect, megaphone for the mullahs, Iran protests, Iran regime, Israel Iran war, October 7, Hamas, Hezbollah, anti-Zionism, delegitimization of Israel, lawfare, ICJ, ICC, genocide accusation, blood libel, colonialism, settler colonialism, Edward Said, Orientalism, Benjamin Chertoff, The Honest Take, HonestReporting, Jewish refugees, where are your Jews, human rights, double standard, the most hated man at the UN No Ben Chertoff The Second Exodus: How 850,000 Jews Were Erased From the Arab World | With Dr. Henry Green 9 9 The Second Exodus: How 850,000 Jews Were Erased From the Arab World | With Dr. Henry Green full 5909b2b0-b7b9-48ae-ad0f-f4ee9bca0467 https://share.transistor.fm/s/fdf07b2d In 1948 there were 38,000 Jews in Libya. Today there are none. Across the Arab world, some 850,000 Jews — communities that predated Islam by a thousand years — were driven out, dispossessed, and denationalized in barely three decades. Most of the world has never heard the story.

Dr. Henry Green, founder of Sephardi Voices and emeritus professor at the University of Miami, has spent more than fifteen years recording the testimonies of those who lived it. In this conversation with Ben Chertoff, he traces how the Jews of Baghdad, Benghazi, Cairo, Casablanca, Aleppo and beyond went from flourishing — at one point Jews were 35–40% of Baghdad — to gone: the Farhud, the rise of the Mufti, Nazi propaganda in Arabic, the great rescue operations, the ma'abarot transit camps, and the long erasure of an entire refugee history.

Henry explains why this exodus was left out of the textbooks, what justice might look like, and why his new work puts a forensic dollar figure on what was taken — work he carried to the UN in Geneva in September 2025. And he closes with the story of a young Hillel president who found her own grandparents in the Sephardi Voices archive and wept.

Guest: Dr. Henry Green — founder, Sephardi Voices; emeritus professor of Religious & Judaic Studies, University of Miami. Co-author of Sephardi Voices: The Untold Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Lands (2021, with Richard Stern­berg) and author of new work, The Forgotten Exodus of Arab Jews, presenting a forensic valuation of seized Jewish assets.

  • The scale of the exodus: From 150,000 to 3 Jews in Iraq, 38,000 to 0 Jews in Libya
  • Indigeneity and antiquity — the Talmud written in Babylon; "I'm a Babylonian Jew"
  • Life as dhimmi under Islam vs. persecution in Christian Europe
  • The Farhud (1941 Baghdad pogrom) and Nazi reach into the Arab world
  • Baghdad's golden age — Jews 35–40% of the city; the Zilkha banking family
  • The rescue operations: Magic Carpet (Yemen) and Ezra and Nehemiah (Iraq)
  • The ma'avarot transit camps and the dominant Ashkenazi diaspora narrative
  • Antisemitism vs. anti-Israel
  • The Abraham Accords and Morocco's reckoning
  • Recognition, justice, and reparations; the case taken to the UN in Geneva, September 2025


Notable quotes

  • "Libya in 1948 had 38,000 Jews. Today there are zero."
  • "I'm a Babylonian Jew." / "How can I deny that I'm Iraqi? I've been there for 3,000 years."
  • "I have no Jews. I only have Moroccans." — the King of Morocco
  • "Why would a million people leave in 30 years? That is ethnic cleansing."
  • "You can't talk about one refugee story without the other."
]]> In 1948 there were 38,000 Jews in Libya. Today there are none. Across the Arab world, some 850,000 Jews — communities that predated Islam by a thousand years — were driven out, dispossessed, and denationalized in barely three decades. Most of the world has never heard the story.

Dr. Henry Green, founder of Sephardi Voices and emeritus professor at the University of Miami, has spent more than fifteen years recording the testimonies of those who lived it. In this conversation with Ben Chertoff, he traces how the Jews of Baghdad, Benghazi, Cairo, Casablanca, Aleppo and beyond went from flourishing — at one point Jews were 35–40% of Baghdad — to gone: the Farhud, the rise of the Mufti, Nazi propaganda in Arabic, the great rescue operations, the ma'abarot transit camps, and the long erasure of an entire refugee history.

Henry explains why this exodus was left out of the textbooks, what justice might look like, and why his new work puts a forensic dollar figure on what was taken — work he carried to the UN in Geneva in September 2025. And he closes with the story of a young Hillel president who found her own grandparents in the Sephardi Voices archive and wept.

Guest: Dr. Henry Green — founder, Sephardi Voices; emeritus professor of Religious & Judaic Studies, University of Miami. Co-author of Sephardi Voices: The Untold Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Lands (2021, with Richard Stern­berg) and author of new work, The Forgotten Exodus of Arab Jews, presenting a forensic valuation of seized Jewish assets.

  • The scale of the exodus: From 150,000 to 3 Jews in Iraq, 38,000 to 0 Jews in Libya
  • Indigeneity and antiquity — the Talmud written in Babylon; "I'm a Babylonian Jew"
  • Life as dhimmi under Islam vs. persecution in Christian Europe
  • The Farhud (1941 Baghdad pogrom) and Nazi reach into the Arab world
  • Baghdad's golden age — Jews 35–40% of the city; the Zilkha banking family
  • The rescue operations: Magic Carpet (Yemen) and Ezra and Nehemiah (Iraq)
  • The ma'avarot transit camps and the dominant Ashkenazi diaspora narrative
  • Antisemitism vs. anti-Israel
  • The Abraham Accords and Morocco's reckoning
  • Recognition, justice, and reparations; the case taken to the UN in Geneva, September 2025


Notable quotes

  • "Libya in 1948 had 38,000 Jews. Today there are zero."
  • "I'm a Babylonian Jew." / "How can I deny that I'm Iraqi? I've been there for 3,000 years."
  • "I have no Jews. I only have Moroccans." — the King of Morocco
  • "Why would a million people leave in 30 years? That is ethnic cleansing."
  • "You can't talk about one refugee story without the other."
]]> Tue, 16 Jun 2026 06:27:47 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 4416 In 1948 there were 38,000 Jews in Libya. Today there are none. Across the Arab world, some 850,000 Jews — communities that predated Islam by a thousand years — were driven out, dispossessed, and denationalized in barely three decades. Most of the world has never heard the story.

Dr. Henry Green, founder of Sephardi Voices and emeritus professor at the University of Miami, has spent more than fifteen years recording the testimonies of those who lived it. In this conversation with Ben Chertoff, he traces how the Jews of Baghdad, Benghazi, Cairo, Casablanca, Aleppo and beyond went from flourishing — at one point Jews were 35–40% of Baghdad — to gone: the Farhud, the rise of the Mufti, Nazi propaganda in Arabic, the great rescue operations, the ma'abarot transit camps, and the long erasure of an entire refugee history.

Henry explains why this exodus was left out of the textbooks, what justice might look like, and why his new work puts a forensic dollar figure on what was taken — work he carried to the UN in Geneva in September 2025. And he closes with the story of a young Hillel president who found her own grandparents in the Sephardi Voices archive and wept.

Guest: Dr. Henry Green — founder, Sephardi Voices; emeritus professor of Religious & Judaic Studies, University of Miami. Co-author of Sephardi Voices: The Untold Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Lands (2021, with Richard Stern­berg) and author of new work, The Forgotten Exodus of Arab Jews, presenting a forensic valuation of seized Jewish assets.

  • The scale of the exodus: From 150,000 to 3 Jews in Iraq, 38,000 to 0 Jews in Libya
  • Indigeneity and antiquity — the Talmud written in Babylon; "I'm a Babylonian Jew"
  • Life as dhimmi under Islam vs. persecution in Christian Europe
  • The Farhud (1941 Baghdad pogrom) and Nazi reach into the Arab world
  • Baghdad's golden age — Jews 35–40% of the city; the Zilkha banking family
  • The rescue operations: Magic Carpet (Yemen) and Ezra and Nehemiah (Iraq)
  • The ma'avarot transit camps and the dominant Ashkenazi diaspora narrative
  • Antisemitism vs. anti-Israel
  • The Abraham Accords and Morocco's reckoning
  • Recognition, justice, and reparations; the case taken to the UN in Geneva, September 2025


Notable quotes

  • "Libya in 1948 had 38,000 Jews. Today there are zero."
  • "I'm a Babylonian Jew." / "How can I deny that I'm Iraqi? I've been there for 3,000 years."
  • "I have no Jews. I only have Moroccans." — the King of Morocco
  • "Why would a million people leave in 30 years? That is ethnic cleansing."
  • "You can't talk about one refugee story without the other."
]]> Jews from Arab lands, Mizrahi Jews, Sephardi Jews, forgotten exodus, 850,000 Jewish refugees, Jewish refugees from Arab countries, expulsion of Jews, ethnic cleansing of Jews, Farhud, Baghdad Jews, Iraqi Jews, Libyan Jews, Yemenite Jews, Operation Magic Carpet, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, ma'abarot, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, Balfour, Sykes-Picot, dhimmi, Abraham Accords, Morocco Jews, antisemitism vs anti-Israel, Jewish indigeneity, Middle East Jewish history, National Library of Israel archive, Yom HaPlitim, reparations, Irwin Cotler, JJAC, Henry Green, Sephardi Voices, The Honest Take, HonestReporting, Ben Chertoff No Ben Chertoff Pride and Prejudice: How Antisemitism Captured LGBTQ+ Spaces | With Eve Barlow 8 8 Pride and Prejudice: How Antisemitism Captured LGBTQ+ Spaces | With Eve Barlow full 9398b828-3904-4fb5-87aa-afb40fa9a043 https://share.transistor.fm/s/c83b7660 It's Pride Month, and at a queer women's sauna night in Barcelona, two married Jewish women — wearing Stars of David — were surrounded, interrogated, and thrown out to chants of "Free Palestine." Not in Tehran. Not in Gaza. In a room built on the promise that no one gets turned away for who they are.

Journalist Eve Barlow knows these spaces from the inside. She was deputy editor of NME — the biggest weekly music magazine in the world — broke bands, wrote the cover stories, and built LGBTQ+ coverage from scratch at GQ. She was at the beating heart of progressive culture. Then, around 2019, she said one thing out loud: that the anti-Zionism rising around her was antisemitism wearing a new coat. The world that let her in turned on her. She named her newsletter after what they did to her — Blacklisted.

In this conversation, Eve and host Ben Chertoff go past the headlines on:

  • The Barcelona sauna incident — and why the perpetrators were elites (a university sociologist, a lawyer, a teacher), not the ignorant
  • Where "Queers for Palestine" actually comes from — the queer-theory and post-colonial lineage that turned a civil-rights movement into an oppressor/oppressed morality play
  • Why marginalization became a political identity the movement can't put down — and the eerie parallel to how Jews went from "oppressed" to "oppressor"
  • The "as-a-Jew" anti-Zionists — Matt Bernstein, Zach Polanski — and the market that rewards them
  • The pinkwashing smear, flipped on its head: Israel's real LGBTQ+ record vs. the rest of the region
  • Released hostage Emily Damari, and the particular vulnerability of being openly gay in captivity
  • And a closing message to the queer Jewish kid who's been told to choose between their people and their pride

Eve's argument: Pride began as a celebration of how far people had come in a single generation. Somewhere along the way it inverted — from celebrating victory into a contest over who is most oppressed. The moment a people succeeds, it gets recast as the oppressor. Her answer isn't to shrink. It's to refuse the trade.

Eve Barlow's links

Chapters

  • (00:00) Cold open
  • (00:18) Welcome — who is Eve Barlow
  • (02:08) The Barcelona sauna incident
  • (06:52) An outlier, or an epidemic?
  • (11:34) From NME and GQ to fighting Jew-hatred
  • (20:35) The writing on the wall: BDS, London, and leaving the UK
  • (28:09) Where "Queers for Palestine" comes from: queer theory & post-colonialism
  • (35:36) Marginalization as political pathology
  • (42:26) Moral superiority and the activist "cult"
  • (48:22) Building a new closet: "take off your Magen David"
  • (52:42) The "as-a-Jew" anti-Zionists: Matt Bernstein & Zach Polanski
  • (57:19) Pinkwashing — and Israel's real LGBTQ+ record
  • (1:02:17) Most rights in the region — and still room to grow
  • (1:04:13) "Queers for Zion" and Emily Damari in captivity
  • (1:08:52) To the queer Jewish kid told to choose
  • (1:12:04) Where to find Eve's work
  • (1:12:41) Ben's final reflection

The Honest Take goes past the headlines to find out what's actually true about Israel and the people covering it. Hosted by Ben Chertoff for HonestReporting.

▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5 🎧 Listen everywhere: https://thehonesttake.transistor.fm

If this conversation made you think, do us one favor: leave a rating and a reviewwherever you're listening — it's the single biggest thing that helps new people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook.

]]> It's Pride Month, and at a queer women's sauna night in Barcelona, two married Jewish women — wearing Stars of David — were surrounded, interrogated, and thrown out to chants of "Free Palestine." Not in Tehran. Not in Gaza. In a room built on the promise that no one gets turned away for who they are.

Journalist Eve Barlow knows these spaces from the inside. She was deputy editor of NME — the biggest weekly music magazine in the world — broke bands, wrote the cover stories, and built LGBTQ+ coverage from scratch at GQ. She was at the beating heart of progressive culture. Then, around 2019, she said one thing out loud: that the anti-Zionism rising around her was antisemitism wearing a new coat. The world that let her in turned on her. She named her newsletter after what they did to her — Blacklisted.

In this conversation, Eve and host Ben Chertoff go past the headlines on:

  • The Barcelona sauna incident — and why the perpetrators were elites (a university sociologist, a lawyer, a teacher), not the ignorant
  • Where "Queers for Palestine" actually comes from — the queer-theory and post-colonial lineage that turned a civil-rights movement into an oppressor/oppressed morality play
  • Why marginalization became a political identity the movement can't put down — and the eerie parallel to how Jews went from "oppressed" to "oppressor"
  • The "as-a-Jew" anti-Zionists — Matt Bernstein, Zach Polanski — and the market that rewards them
  • The pinkwashing smear, flipped on its head: Israel's real LGBTQ+ record vs. the rest of the region
  • Released hostage Emily Damari, and the particular vulnerability of being openly gay in captivity
  • And a closing message to the queer Jewish kid who's been told to choose between their people and their pride

Eve's argument: Pride began as a celebration of how far people had come in a single generation. Somewhere along the way it inverted — from celebrating victory into a contest over who is most oppressed. The moment a people succeeds, it gets recast as the oppressor. Her answer isn't to shrink. It's to refuse the trade.

Eve Barlow's links

Chapters

  • (00:00) Cold open
  • (00:18) Welcome — who is Eve Barlow
  • (02:08) The Barcelona sauna incident
  • (06:52) An outlier, or an epidemic?
  • (11:34) From NME and GQ to fighting Jew-hatred
  • (20:35) The writing on the wall: BDS, London, and leaving the UK
  • (28:09) Where "Queers for Palestine" comes from: queer theory & post-colonialism
  • (35:36) Marginalization as political pathology
  • (42:26) Moral superiority and the activist "cult"
  • (48:22) Building a new closet: "take off your Magen David"
  • (52:42) The "as-a-Jew" anti-Zionists: Matt Bernstein & Zach Polanski
  • (57:19) Pinkwashing — and Israel's real LGBTQ+ record
  • (1:02:17) Most rights in the region — and still room to grow
  • (1:04:13) "Queers for Zion" and Emily Damari in captivity
  • (1:08:52) To the queer Jewish kid told to choose
  • (1:12:04) Where to find Eve's work
  • (1:12:41) Ben's final reflection

The Honest Take goes past the headlines to find out what's actually true about Israel and the people covering it. Hosted by Ben Chertoff for HonestReporting.

▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5 🎧 Listen everywhere: https://thehonesttake.transistor.fm

If this conversation made you think, do us one favor: leave a rating and a reviewwherever you're listening — it's the single biggest thing that helps new people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook.

]]> Tue, 09 Jun 2026 06:30:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 4437 It's Pride Month, and at a queer women's sauna night in Barcelona, two married Jewish women — wearing Stars of David — were surrounded, interrogated, and thrown out to chants of "Free Palestine." Not in Tehran. Not in Gaza. In a room built on the promise that no one gets turned away for who they are.

Journalist Eve Barlow knows these spaces from the inside. She was deputy editor of NME — the biggest weekly music magazine in the world — broke bands, wrote the cover stories, and built LGBTQ+ coverage from scratch at GQ. She was at the beating heart of progressive culture. Then, around 2019, she said one thing out loud: that the anti-Zionism rising around her was antisemitism wearing a new coat. The world that let her in turned on her. She named her newsletter after what they did to her — Blacklisted.

In this conversation, Eve and host Ben Chertoff go past the headlines on:

  • The Barcelona sauna incident — and why the perpetrators were elites (a university sociologist, a lawyer, a teacher), not the ignorant
  • Where "Queers for Palestine" actually comes from — the queer-theory and post-colonial lineage that turned a civil-rights movement into an oppressor/oppressed morality play
  • Why marginalization became a political identity the movement can't put down — and the eerie parallel to how Jews went from "oppressed" to "oppressor"
  • The "as-a-Jew" anti-Zionists — Matt Bernstein, Zach Polanski — and the market that rewards them
  • The pinkwashing smear, flipped on its head: Israel's real LGBTQ+ record vs. the rest of the region
  • Released hostage Emily Damari, and the particular vulnerability of being openly gay in captivity
  • And a closing message to the queer Jewish kid who's been told to choose between their people and their pride

Eve's argument: Pride began as a celebration of how far people had come in a single generation. Somewhere along the way it inverted — from celebrating victory into a contest over who is most oppressed. The moment a people succeeds, it gets recast as the oppressor. Her answer isn't to shrink. It's to refuse the trade.

Eve Barlow's links

Chapters

  • (00:00) Cold open
  • (00:18) Welcome — who is Eve Barlow
  • (02:08) The Barcelona sauna incident
  • (06:52) An outlier, or an epidemic?
  • (11:34) From NME and GQ to fighting Jew-hatred
  • (20:35) The writing on the wall: BDS, London, and leaving the UK
  • (28:09) Where "Queers for Palestine" comes from: queer theory & post-colonialism
  • (35:36) Marginalization as political pathology
  • (42:26) Moral superiority and the activist "cult"
  • (48:22) Building a new closet: "take off your Magen David"
  • (52:42) The "as-a-Jew" anti-Zionists: Matt Bernstein & Zach Polanski
  • (57:19) Pinkwashing — and Israel's real LGBTQ+ record
  • (1:02:17) Most rights in the region — and still room to grow
  • (1:04:13) "Queers for Zion" and Emily Damari in captivity
  • (1:08:52) To the queer Jewish kid told to choose
  • (1:12:04) Where to find Eve's work
  • (1:12:41) Ben's final reflection

The Honest Take goes past the headlines to find out what's actually true about Israel and the people covering it. Hosted by Ben Chertoff for HonestReporting.

▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLuF-lEHTGTw_RrfN9EP6pdWhgjMX7Fg5 🎧 Listen everywhere: https://thehonesttake.transistor.fm

If this conversation made you think, do us one favor: leave a rating and a reviewwherever you're listening — it's the single biggest thing that helps new people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook.

]]> Eve Barlow, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, Pride, LGBTQ, Queers for Zion, queer theory, Zionism, Israel, Jewish, BDS, Matt Bernstein, pinkwashing, Emily Damari, HonestReporting, The Honest Take, Ben Chertoff, SAPIR, Blacklisted, Barcelona No Ben Chertoff Follow the Money: How the Muslim Brotherhood Bought a Seat in America's Schools | With Dr. Charles Asher Small 7 7 Follow the Money: How the Muslim Brotherhood Bought a Seat in America's Schools | With Dr. Charles Asher Small full 6166193c-0931-4829-b55e-417e554d9490 https://share.transistor.fm/s/a2cab599 In 2012, Dr. Charles Asher Small pulled an all-nighter at Stanford, started googling a Yale administrator, and stumbled onto a money trail that became one of the most consequential antisemitism research projects in the West. The founder of ISGAP — which he launched in 2003 alongside Elie Wiesel — joins Ben Chertoff to lay out what he found: an estimated $100 billion in undisclosed Qatari money flowing into American universities, $10 billion to Cornell, $1.3 billion to Texas A&M, a K-12 curriculum in 8,000 American classrooms that erased Israel from the map, and a campus-to-City-Hall pipeline that runs all the way to the mayor of New York. We also press him on the hardest question: where the documented paper trail ends and connect-the-dots begins.

  • ISGAP: https://isgap.org — publications free to the public.
  • "Follow the Money" project — Qatar / Muslim Brotherhood university funding research.
  • DETERRENT Act — federal bill (passed the House, before the Senate) lowering the foreign-gift disclosure threshold from $250K to $50K.
  • New (May 2026) ISGAP report — "Institutional Capture: Qatar Foundation International": https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/QFI-US-Report.pdf — published the day after this taping; documents $65.3M across 220 K-12/education programs (2009–2025).

  • (00:00) - — Cold open:** "$10 billion to Cornell" — the white-sheets vs. keffiyehs analogy.
  • (00:47) - — Who is Charles Small & what is ISGAP:** 23 years tracing Qatar's money into American universities.
  • (01:16) - — The 2012 discovery:** A Yale administrator, a Stanford all-nighter, and the thread that became "Follow the Money."
  • (03:26) - — 2003 & Elie Wiesel:** Co-founding ISGAP at the UN — "a time of a great emergency."
  • (05:14) - — Mamdani, SJP & what the Muslim Brotherhood actually is:** From a Bowdoin chapter to City Hall; the Protocols at the core of the ideology.
  • (08:25) - — Why the West keeps missing it:** The "failure of imagination" and the 50-year strategic goal.
  • (11:17) - — Inside "Follow the Money":** $3 billion → $18 billion → $100 billion; the Qatar–Muslim Brotherhood oath.
  • (16:59) - — How the research works:** Texas A&M's $1.3B contract, Georgetown, and $10B to Cornell — all open-source.
  • (19:29) - — Columbia reported $0:** The disclosure laws on the books since WWII that no one enforces.
  • (22:26) - — The 300% statistic:** Soft power, correlation vs. causation, and a university's "sacred responsibility."
  • (26:23) - — The DETERRENT Act:** Where the federal investigations stand now.
  • (28:15) - — K-12 capture:** Brown's "Choices" curriculum in 8,000+ American classrooms.
  • (31:19) - — How campus ideas filter into society:** Edward Said, and the chilling parallel to the 19th-century academy.
  • (33:59) - — The Columbia teach-in, 10 days after October 7:** When gender-studies professors called the massacre "justified."
  • (38:18) - — The Red-Green coalition & Judith Butler:** Why the radical left and Islamists converge.
  • (43:35) - — Soft power, silence & the Iran test:** The pogrom that the campus left wouldn't condemn.
  • (47:41) - — Where else the money lands:** Al Jazeera, the Qatar–CNN deal, Northwestern, social media.
  • (49:13) - — JVP, SJP & Neville Singham's network:** Following the money behind "Jewish Voice for Peace."
  • (51:41) - — Mamdani:** "Of course he knows what he's doing."
  • (55:40) - — Allies in the Arab world & the three centers of the Brotherhood:** Qatar (money), Turkey (command), London (laundering).
  • (57:13) - — How do you fight an idea?:** Lessons from defeating communism and fascism.
  • (01:00:43) - — What's next for ISGAP:** New reports on Canada, the UK, South Africa — and the Muslim Brotherhood terror designation.
  • (01:03:37) - — Where to find ISGAP's work.**
  • (01:04:10) - — Ben's close:** "The emergency didn't arrive by accident."
Click here to view the episode transcript.
]]> In 2012, Dr. Charles Asher Small pulled an all-nighter at Stanford, started googling a Yale administrator, and stumbled onto a money trail that became one of the most consequential antisemitism research projects in the West. The founder of ISGAP — which he launched in 2003 alongside Elie Wiesel — joins Ben Chertoff to lay out what he found: an estimated $100 billion in undisclosed Qatari money flowing into American universities, $10 billion to Cornell, $1.3 billion to Texas A&M, a K-12 curriculum in 8,000 American classrooms that erased Israel from the map, and a campus-to-City-Hall pipeline that runs all the way to the mayor of New York. We also press him on the hardest question: where the documented paper trail ends and connect-the-dots begins.

  • ISGAP: https://isgap.org — publications free to the public.
  • "Follow the Money" project — Qatar / Muslim Brotherhood university funding research.
  • DETERRENT Act — federal bill (passed the House, before the Senate) lowering the foreign-gift disclosure threshold from $250K to $50K.
  • New (May 2026) ISGAP report — "Institutional Capture: Qatar Foundation International": https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/QFI-US-Report.pdf — published the day after this taping; documents $65.3M across 220 K-12/education programs (2009–2025).

  • (00:00) - — Cold open:** "$10 billion to Cornell" — the white-sheets vs. keffiyehs analogy.
  • (00:47) - — Who is Charles Small & what is ISGAP:** 23 years tracing Qatar's money into American universities.
  • (01:16) - — The 2012 discovery:** A Yale administrator, a Stanford all-nighter, and the thread that became "Follow the Money."
  • (03:26) - — 2003 & Elie Wiesel:** Co-founding ISGAP at the UN — "a time of a great emergency."
  • (05:14) - — Mamdani, SJP & what the Muslim Brotherhood actually is:** From a Bowdoin chapter to City Hall; the Protocols at the core of the ideology.
  • (08:25) - — Why the West keeps missing it:** The "failure of imagination" and the 50-year strategic goal.
  • (11:17) - — Inside "Follow the Money":** $3 billion → $18 billion → $100 billion; the Qatar–Muslim Brotherhood oath.
  • (16:59) - — How the research works:** Texas A&M's $1.3B contract, Georgetown, and $10B to Cornell — all open-source.
  • (19:29) - — Columbia reported $0:** The disclosure laws on the books since WWII that no one enforces.
  • (22:26) - — The 300% statistic:** Soft power, correlation vs. causation, and a university's "sacred responsibility."
  • (26:23) - — The DETERRENT Act:** Where the federal investigations stand now.
  • (28:15) - — K-12 capture:** Brown's "Choices" curriculum in 8,000+ American classrooms.
  • (31:19) - — How campus ideas filter into society:** Edward Said, and the chilling parallel to the 19th-century academy.
  • (33:59) - — The Columbia teach-in, 10 days after October 7:** When gender-studies professors called the massacre "justified."
  • (38:18) - — The Red-Green coalition & Judith Butler:** Why the radical left and Islamists converge.
  • (43:35) - — Soft power, silence & the Iran test:** The pogrom that the campus left wouldn't condemn.
  • (47:41) - — Where else the money lands:** Al Jazeera, the Qatar–CNN deal, Northwestern, social media.
  • (49:13) - — JVP, SJP & Neville Singham's network:** Following the money behind "Jewish Voice for Peace."
  • (51:41) - — Mamdani:** "Of course he knows what he's doing."
  • (55:40) - — Allies in the Arab world & the three centers of the Brotherhood:** Qatar (money), Turkey (command), London (laundering).
  • (57:13) - — How do you fight an idea?:** Lessons from defeating communism and fascism.
  • (01:00:43) - — What's next for ISGAP:** New reports on Canada, the UK, South Africa — and the Muslim Brotherhood terror designation.
  • (01:03:37) - — Where to find ISGAP's work.**
  • (01:04:10) - — Ben's close:** "The emergency didn't arrive by accident."
Click here to view the episode transcript.
]]> Tue, 02 Jun 2026 03:00:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3958 In 2012, Dr. Charles Asher Small pulled an all-nighter at Stanford, started googling a Yale administrator, and stumbled onto a money trail that became one of the most consequential antisemitism research projects in the West. The founder of ISGAP — which he launched in 2003 alongside Elie Wiesel — joins Ben Chertoff to lay out what he found: an estimated $100 billion in undisclosed Qatari money flowing into American universities, $10 billion to Cornell, $1.3 billion to Texas A&M, a K-12 curriculum in 8,000 American classrooms that erased Israel from the map, and a campus-to-City-Hall pipeline that runs all the way to the mayor of New York. We also press him on the hardest question: where the documented paper trail ends and connect-the-dots begins.

  • ISGAP: https://isgap.org — publications free to the public.
  • "Follow the Money" project — Qatar / Muslim Brotherhood university funding research.
  • DETERRENT Act — federal bill (passed the House, before the Senate) lowering the foreign-gift disclosure threshold from $250K to $50K.
  • New (May 2026) ISGAP report — "Institutional Capture: Qatar Foundation International": https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/QFI-US-Report.pdf — published the day after this taping; documents $65.3M across 220 K-12/education programs (2009–2025).

  • (00:00) - — Cold open:** "$10 billion to Cornell" — the white-sheets vs. keffiyehs analogy.
  • (00:47) - — Who is Charles Small & what is ISGAP:** 23 years tracing Qatar's money into American universities.
  • (01:16) - — The 2012 discovery:** A Yale administrator, a Stanford all-nighter, and the thread that became "Follow the Money."
  • (03:26) - — 2003 & Elie Wiesel:** Co-founding ISGAP at the UN — "a time of a great emergency."
  • (05:14) - — Mamdani, SJP & what the Muslim Brotherhood actually is:** From a Bowdoin chapter to City Hall; the Protocols at the core of the ideology.
  • (08:25) - — Why the West keeps missing it:** The "failure of imagination" and the 50-year strategic goal.
  • (11:17) - — Inside "Follow the Money":** $3 billion → $18 billion → $100 billion; the Qatar–Muslim Brotherhood oath.
  • (16:59) - — How the research works:** Texas A&M's $1.3B contract, Georgetown, and $10B to Cornell — all open-source.
  • (19:29) - — Columbia reported $0:** The disclosure laws on the books since WWII that no one enforces.
  • (22:26) - — The 300% statistic:** Soft power, correlation vs. causation, and a university's "sacred responsibility."
  • (26:23) - — The DETERRENT Act:** Where the federal investigations stand now.
  • (28:15) - — K-12 capture:** Brown's "Choices" curriculum in 8,000+ American classrooms.
  • (31:19) - — How campus ideas filter into society:** Edward Said, and the chilling parallel to the 19th-century academy.
  • (33:59) - — The Columbia teach-in, 10 days after October 7:** When gender-studies professors called the massacre "justified."
  • (38:18) - — The Red-Green coalition & Judith Butler:** Why the radical left and Islamists converge.
  • (43:35) - — Soft power, silence & the Iran test:** The pogrom that the campus left wouldn't condemn.
  • (47:41) - — Where else the money lands:** Al Jazeera, the Qatar–CNN deal, Northwestern, social media.
  • (49:13) - — JVP, SJP & Neville Singham's network:** Following the money behind "Jewish Voice for Peace."
  • (51:41) - — Mamdani:** "Of course he knows what he's doing."
  • (55:40) - — Allies in the Arab world & the three centers of the Brotherhood:** Qatar (money), Turkey (command), London (laundering).
  • (57:13) - — How do you fight an idea?:** Lessons from defeating communism and fascism.
  • (01:00:43) - — What's next for ISGAP:** New reports on Canada, the UK, South Africa — and the Muslim Brotherhood terror designation.
  • (01:03:37) - — Where to find ISGAP's work.**
  • (01:04:10) - — Ben's close:** "The emergency didn't arrive by accident."
Click here to view the episode transcript.
]]> isgap muslim brotherhood israel antisemitism islamist higher education qatar No Ben Chertoff Weaponizing Identity Politics to Demonize Israel and Jews | With David Christopher Kaufman 3 3 Weaponizing Identity Politics to Demonize Israel and Jews | With David Christopher Kaufman full d00baf1e-d07e-4d7f-a158-874179f4986a https://share.transistor.fm/s/dd2e5064 What happens when the very system built to protect minorities leaves Jews out entirely - and then gets turned against them?

David Christopher Kaufman is a journalist, a Black man, and a Jew. That combination gives him a lens on American identity politics that almost no one else has. In this conversation, he argues that October 7th didn't just expose antisemitism - it exposed the structural failure of the DEI framework to account for Jews at all. The result: Jews now have the highest hate crime rate of any group in America, and yet they're the only minority expected to argue for their own victimhood before anyone will believe them.

We talk about Zohran Mamdani's rise and what it tells us about where the DSA and the progressive left are actually headed. We talk about the word "Zio" - which Kaufman says hit him the same way the N-word does. And we talk about why he believes Jewish safety is the defining civil rights issue of this moment - and why American Jewish leadership is failing to say so out loud.

David Christopher Kaufman is opinion editor at the Daily Mail, former editor at the New York Post, and author of the Substack Counterintuitive.

Follow David: davidkaufman.substack.com

---

HonestReporting is a media watchdog holding the press accountable on Israel coverage.

Website: honestreporting.com

YouTube: youtube.com/@honestreportingvideo

]]> What happens when the very system built to protect minorities leaves Jews out entirely - and then gets turned against them?

David Christopher Kaufman is a journalist, a Black man, and a Jew. That combination gives him a lens on American identity politics that almost no one else has. In this conversation, he argues that October 7th didn't just expose antisemitism - it exposed the structural failure of the DEI framework to account for Jews at all. The result: Jews now have the highest hate crime rate of any group in America, and yet they're the only minority expected to argue for their own victimhood before anyone will believe them.

We talk about Zohran Mamdani's rise and what it tells us about where the DSA and the progressive left are actually headed. We talk about the word "Zio" - which Kaufman says hit him the same way the N-word does. And we talk about why he believes Jewish safety is the defining civil rights issue of this moment - and why American Jewish leadership is failing to say so out loud.

David Christopher Kaufman is opinion editor at the Daily Mail, former editor at the New York Post, and author of the Substack Counterintuitive.

Follow David: davidkaufman.substack.com

---

HonestReporting is a media watchdog holding the press accountable on Israel coverage.

Website: honestreporting.com

YouTube: youtube.com/@honestreportingvideo

]]> Tue, 26 May 2026 07:00:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3854 What happens when the very system built to protect minorities leaves Jews out entirely - and then gets turned against them? David Christopher Kaufman is a journalist, a Black man, and a Jew. That combination gives him a lens on American identity politics that almost no one else has. In this conversation, he argues that October 7th didn't just expose antisemitism - it exposed the structural failure of the DEI framework to account for Jews at all. The result: Jews now have the highest hate crime rate of any group in America, and yet they're the only minority expected to argue for their own victimhood before anyone will believe them. We talk about Zohran Mamdani's rise and what it tells us about where the DSA and the progressive left are actually headed. We talk about the word "Zio" - which Kaufman says hit him the same way the N-word does. And we talk about why he believes Jewish safety is the defining civil rights issue of this moment - and why American Jewish leadership is failing to say so out loud. David Christopher Kaufman is opinion editor at the Daily Mail, former editor at the New York Post, and author of the Substack Counterintuitive. Follow David: davidkaufman.substack.com --- HonestReporting is a media watchdog holding the press accountable on Israel coverage. Website: honestreporting.com YouTube: youtube.com/@honestreportingvideo What happens when the very system built to protect minorities leaves Jews out entirely - and then gets turned against them? David Christopher Kaufman is a journalist, a Black man, and a Jew. That combination gives him a lens on American identity politics No Ben Chertoff The Lawfare War Against Israel: Why the West Is Next | With Natasha Hausdorff 6 6 The Lawfare War Against Israel: Why the West Is Next | With Natasha Hausdorff full de3c32e1-ae9d-4b40-8155-cfe7af5dad66 https://share.transistor.fm/s/95f8de56 British-Israeli barrister Natasha Hausdorff has spent years inside the world's most powerful international courtrooms — the ICJ, ICC, and UN — watching the legal case against Israel get built in real time. She joins Ben Chertoff to take the genocide accusation apart, piece by piece.

The ICJ never said Israel committed genocide — so why does every headline say it did? The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on a legal standard that inverted the burden of proof. And right now, three countries are quietly trying to rewrite the Genocide Convention itself — to eliminate the intent requirement that separates genocide from ordinary warfare. If they succeed, no Western democracy will ever again be able to fight a non-state actor without facing genocide charges.

Israel is the test case. Hausdorff explains who's running the play — and what comes next.

Natasha Hausdorff is a British-Israeli barrister and Pro Bono Legal Director of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). She holds a BA/MA from Oxford and an LL.M. from Tel Aviv University in international law and the law of armed conflict. She was a Fellow at Columbia Law School's National Security Law Programme and clerked for Chief Justice Miriam Naor, President of the Israeli Supreme Court. Her family has lived in Israel for eight consecutive generations since 1847.

Hausdorff is the founding director of the Centre for International Rule of Law and appears regularly on BBC, Sky News, Fox News, CNN, and Times Radio. She has briefed parliaments across Europe and addressed the UN Security Council.

]]> British-Israeli barrister Natasha Hausdorff has spent years inside the world's most powerful international courtrooms — the ICJ, ICC, and UN — watching the legal case against Israel get built in real time. She joins Ben Chertoff to take the genocide accusation apart, piece by piece.

The ICJ never said Israel committed genocide — so why does every headline say it did? The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on a legal standard that inverted the burden of proof. And right now, three countries are quietly trying to rewrite the Genocide Convention itself — to eliminate the intent requirement that separates genocide from ordinary warfare. If they succeed, no Western democracy will ever again be able to fight a non-state actor without facing genocide charges.

Israel is the test case. Hausdorff explains who's running the play — and what comes next.

Natasha Hausdorff is a British-Israeli barrister and Pro Bono Legal Director of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). She holds a BA/MA from Oxford and an LL.M. from Tel Aviv University in international law and the law of armed conflict. She was a Fellow at Columbia Law School's National Security Law Programme and clerked for Chief Justice Miriam Naor, President of the Israeli Supreme Court. Her family has lived in Israel for eight consecutive generations since 1847.

Hausdorff is the founding director of the Centre for International Rule of Law and appears regularly on BBC, Sky News, Fox News, CNN, and Times Radio. She has briefed parliaments across Europe and addressed the UN Security Council.

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 06:00:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3869 British-Israeli barrister Natasha Hausdorff has spent years inside the world's most powerful international courtrooms — the ICJ, ICC, and UN — watching the legal case against Israel get built in real time. She joins Ben Chertoff to take the genocide accusation apart, piece by piece. The ICJ never said Israel committed genocide — so why does every headline say it did? The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on a legal standard that inverted the burden of proof. And right now, three countries are quietly trying to rewrite the Genocide Convention itself — to eliminate the intent requirement that separates genocide from ordinary warfare. If they succeed, no Western democracy will ever again be able to fight a non-state actor without facing genocide charges. Israel is the test case. Hausdorff explains who's running the play — and what comes next. Natasha Hausdorff is a British-Israeli barrister and Pro Bono Legal Director of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). She holds a BA/MA from Oxford and an LL.M. from Tel Aviv University in international law and the law of armed conflict. She was a Fellow at Columbia Law School's National Security Law Programme and clerked for Chief Justice Miriam Naor, President of the Israeli Supreme Court. Her family has lived in Israel for eight consecutive generations since 1847. Hausdorff is the founding director of the Centre for International Rule of Law and appears regularly on BBC, Sky News, Fox News, CNN, and Times Radio. She has briefed parliaments across Europe and addressed the UN Security Council. UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) Joan Donoghue HARDtalk — ICJ president corrects the record Daniel Bernstein, "When Genocide Loses Its Meaning" — Skeptic, May 2026 Sir John McColl on IDF urban warfare — Forces News John Spencer on urban warfare — johnspenceronline.com Karim Khan interviewed by Mehdi Hasan — Zeteo Piers Morgan Uncensored: Natasha Hausdorff (June 2025) UN Watch testimony — Natasha Hausdorff (Oct 2025) British-Israeli barrister Natasha Hausdorff has spent years inside the world's most powerful international courtrooms — the ICJ, ICC, and UN — watching the legal case against Israel get built in real time. She joins Ben Chertoff to take the genocide accus No Ben Chertoff Kristof's Unbelievable Tale | With Rachel O'Donoghue *Live Broadcast May 12, 2026* 5 5 Kristof's Unbelievable Tale | With Rachel O'Donoghue *Live Broadcast May 12, 2026* bonus 9d9d1531-09cf-4b4b-9e23-b03a0a0ae6b2 https://share.transistor.fm/s/474fd508 On May 11, Nicholas Kristof published a column in the New York Times titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians" - a 1,500-word piece alleging systematic sexual violence by Israeli security forces, grounded in anonymous testimonies and sources with documented histories of fabrication. Ben went live the next evening with HonestReporting's Rachel O'Donoghue, who had spent 48 hours pulling the piece apart from the ground up.

In this episode:

• The dog rape claim: where it originated (Euromed Human Rights Monitor, Geneva), why it's scientifically impossible, and why it passed through a Times editor anyway

• Euromed Monitor's track record: organ harvesting libel, denial of Hamas infrastructure at Al-Shifa, a single-witness foundation for its most grotesque claims

• Sami Al-Sai - Kristof's primary named source: arrested by Israel for incitement (celebrating Oct 7, coordination with terrorist groups), with a documented history of claims made, recanted, and then re-recanted

• Issa Amro - second named source: "threatened with rape" in his Washington Post account; "raped" in Kristof's account. A significant discrepancy Kristof did not address

• Kristof's defense on Twitter: cited medical journals to prove dogs can rape humans - journals that were actually about bestiality in the other direction. As Rachel put it: "He read it backwards."

• The Israeli Civil Commission report, released the same day: two years in the making, 300+ pages, 10,000+ photographs, 1,800 hours of visual material, 430 testimonies across 52 nationalities - documenting systematic sexual violence by Hamas on October 7th. The Times reportedly declined to publish it in advance.

• What the NYT's muted headline for the Civil Commission report (*"Israeli report examines sexual violence during and after Hamas-led attack"*) says about editorial priorities

• The pattern: when the Times gets Israel wrong, it always cuts the same way

Links:

• Rachel's full rebuttal in the Wall Street Journal: "Kristof's Unbelievable Tale"

• HonestReporting's original X thread debunking the piece: honestreporting.com / @Honest.Rachel

• Israeli Civil Commission report on Oct 7 sexual violence: civilc.org

Guest: Rachel O'Donoghue, senior writer and researcher at HonestReporting. Follow her at @Honest.Rachel on Instagram.

]]> On May 11, Nicholas Kristof published a column in the New York Times titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians" - a 1,500-word piece alleging systematic sexual violence by Israeli security forces, grounded in anonymous testimonies and sources with documented histories of fabrication. Ben went live the next evening with HonestReporting's Rachel O'Donoghue, who had spent 48 hours pulling the piece apart from the ground up.

In this episode:

• The dog rape claim: where it originated (Euromed Human Rights Monitor, Geneva), why it's scientifically impossible, and why it passed through a Times editor anyway

• Euromed Monitor's track record: organ harvesting libel, denial of Hamas infrastructure at Al-Shifa, a single-witness foundation for its most grotesque claims

• Sami Al-Sai - Kristof's primary named source: arrested by Israel for incitement (celebrating Oct 7, coordination with terrorist groups), with a documented history of claims made, recanted, and then re-recanted

• Issa Amro - second named source: "threatened with rape" in his Washington Post account; "raped" in Kristof's account. A significant discrepancy Kristof did not address

• Kristof's defense on Twitter: cited medical journals to prove dogs can rape humans - journals that were actually about bestiality in the other direction. As Rachel put it: "He read it backwards."

• The Israeli Civil Commission report, released the same day: two years in the making, 300+ pages, 10,000+ photographs, 1,800 hours of visual material, 430 testimonies across 52 nationalities - documenting systematic sexual violence by Hamas on October 7th. The Times reportedly declined to publish it in advance.

• What the NYT's muted headline for the Civil Commission report (*"Israeli report examines sexual violence during and after Hamas-led attack"*) says about editorial priorities

• The pattern: when the Times gets Israel wrong, it always cuts the same way

Links:

• Rachel's full rebuttal in the Wall Street Journal: "Kristof's Unbelievable Tale"

• HonestReporting's original X thread debunking the piece: honestreporting.com / @Honest.Rachel

• Israeli Civil Commission report on Oct 7 sexual violence: civilc.org

Guest: Rachel O'Donoghue, senior writer and researcher at HonestReporting. Follow her at @Honest.Rachel on Instagram.

]]> Wed, 13 May 2026 10:22:51 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 2026 On May 11, Nicholas Kristof published a column in the New York Times titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians" - a 1,500-word piece alleging systematic sexual violence by Israeli security forces, grounded in anonymous testimonies and sources with documented histories of fabrication. Ben went live the next evening with HonestReporting's Rachel O'Donoghue, who had spent 48 hours pulling the piece apart from the ground up. In this episode: • The dog rape claim: where it originated (Euromed Human Rights Monitor, Geneva), why it's scientifically impossible, and why it passed through a Times editor anyway • Euromed Monitor's track record: organ harvesting libel, denial of Hamas infrastructure at Al-Shifa, a single-witness foundation for its most grotesque claims • Sami Al-Sai - Kristof's primary named source: arrested by Israel for incitement (celebrating Oct 7, coordination with terrorist groups), with a documented history of claims made, recanted, and then re-recanted • Issa Amro - second named source: "threatened with rape" in his Washington Post account; "raped" in Kristof's account. A significant discrepancy Kristof did not address • Kristof's defense on Twitter: cited medical journals to prove dogs can rape humans - journals that were actually about bestiality in the other direction. As Rachel put it: "He read it backwards." • The Israeli Civil Commission report, released the same day: two years in the making, 300+ pages, 10,000+ photographs, 1,800 hours of visual material, 430 testimonies across 52 nationalities - documenting systematic sexual violence by Hamas on October 7th. The Times reportedly declined to publish it in advance. • What the NYT's muted headline for the Civil Commission report (*"Israeli report examines sexual violence during and after Hamas-led attack"*) says about editorial priorities • The pattern: when the Times gets Israel wrong, it always cuts the same way Links: • Rachel's full rebuttal in the Wall Street Journal: "Kristof's Unbelievable Tale" • HonestReporting's original X thread debunking the piece: honestreporting.com / @Honest.Rachel • Israeli Civil Commission report on Oct 7 sexual violence: civilc.org Guest: Rachel O'Donoghue, senior writer and researcher at HonestReporting. Follow her at @Honest.Rachel on Instagram. On May 11, Nicholas Kristof published a column in the New York Times titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians" - a 1,500-word piece alleging systematic sexual violence by Israeli security forces, grounded in anonymous testimonies and source No Ben Chertoff The Other Side of the Nakba: The Forgotten History of 1948 | With Yossi Klein Halevi 4 4 The Other Side of the Nakba: The Forgotten History of 1948 | With Yossi Klein Halevi full d23d201f-0423-4634-b46b-7e3d85fe1996 https://share.transistor.fm/s/eb14b7ec Yossi Klein Halevi grew up the son of Holocaust survivors in Brooklyn. As a teenager, he joined Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League. Then he moved to Israel, broke with extremism, and wrote a book called Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor - released free in Arabic - asking Palestinians to see Jews as an indigenous people returning home, not colonizers.

Today, on college campuses across America, the answer is: you're colonizers. The Nakba proves it.

With Nakba Day approaching, Ben sits down with Halevi for an honest, unflinching conversation about what actually happened in 1948 - the partition vote, the Arab invasion, Deir Yassin, the Hadassah convoy massacre, the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries that nobody talks about. And then: how a legitimate historical grievance became a weapon of delegitimization.

Halevi is not a denialist. He openly names the Nakba as a real catastrophe. He has criticized Israeli education for refusing to teach it. But he also argues that collapsing 1948 into a "narrative of total innocence" - and using it to erase Jewish indigeneity - is something categorically different from honest historical reckoning.

This is the conversation about 1948 that most people never get to have.

In this episode:

00:00 — Cold Open (Deir Yassin / Hadassah convoy quote)

00:22 — Intro: Ben introduces Yossi Klein Halevi and the episode

00:53 — The Real Story of 1948 — episode framing

02:43 — Growing up in Brooklyn, joining the JDL

04:12 — Breaking with Kahana and moving to Israel

05:25 — Living with the partition wall in Jerusalem

07:42 — Two overlapping geographies: Land of Israel vs. Land of Palestine

08:02 — The UN Partition vote (1947) — Arab rejection and the pattern of refusals

12:07 — The Palestinian maximalist frame vs. the Israeli counter-narrative

14:08 — When does land become about existence?

14:55 — The Israeli center: head vs. heart on two states

16:33 — Why two states feel impossible after October 7th

16:54 — The six months between partition and war (Nov '47–May '48)

18:50 — Ethnic cleansing on both sides — flight vs. expulsion

20:58 — The 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries

25:20 — Why Arab countries kept Palestinians as permanent refugees

27:34 — Inversion: Nazi collaboration accusations flipped

30:35 — Plan Dalet: ethnic cleansing blueprint or defensive plan?

34:04 — Deir Yassin vs. the Hadassah convoy massacre

36:06 — Acknowledgment vs. apology — teaching the Palestinian Nakba

41:13 — Settler colonialism goes mainstream: Al Jazeera, Jacobin, the Oscars

47:01 — Why 'indigenous' and 'no metropole' arguments aren't landing

48:13 — The language war: genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism as weapons

49:03 — Myths & Facts doesn't work anymore — it's about narrative now

53:00 — Has dialogue survived October 7th?

58:02 — Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor — the German edition and new intro

01:00:59 — Outro

About the guest:

Yossi Klein Halevi is a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is the author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor (Harper Collins, 2018), a New York Times bestseller released free in Arabic at letterstomyneighbor.com. His previous books include Like Dreamers (National Jewish Book Award winner) and Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist.

Follow him on X: @YKleinHalevi

Hosted by Ben Chertoff @ben.chertoff

The Honest Take is produced by HonestReporting - rebuilding trust in media.

]]> Yossi Klein Halevi grew up the son of Holocaust survivors in Brooklyn. As a teenager, he joined Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League. Then he moved to Israel, broke with extremism, and wrote a book called Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor - released free in Arabic - asking Palestinians to see Jews as an indigenous people returning home, not colonizers.

Today, on college campuses across America, the answer is: you're colonizers. The Nakba proves it.

With Nakba Day approaching, Ben sits down with Halevi for an honest, unflinching conversation about what actually happened in 1948 - the partition vote, the Arab invasion, Deir Yassin, the Hadassah convoy massacre, the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries that nobody talks about. And then: how a legitimate historical grievance became a weapon of delegitimization.

Halevi is not a denialist. He openly names the Nakba as a real catastrophe. He has criticized Israeli education for refusing to teach it. But he also argues that collapsing 1948 into a "narrative of total innocence" - and using it to erase Jewish indigeneity - is something categorically different from honest historical reckoning.

This is the conversation about 1948 that most people never get to have.

In this episode:

00:00 — Cold Open (Deir Yassin / Hadassah convoy quote)

00:22 — Intro: Ben introduces Yossi Klein Halevi and the episode

00:53 — The Real Story of 1948 — episode framing

02:43 — Growing up in Brooklyn, joining the JDL

04:12 — Breaking with Kahana and moving to Israel

05:25 — Living with the partition wall in Jerusalem

07:42 — Two overlapping geographies: Land of Israel vs. Land of Palestine

08:02 — The UN Partition vote (1947) — Arab rejection and the pattern of refusals

12:07 — The Palestinian maximalist frame vs. the Israeli counter-narrative

14:08 — When does land become about existence?

14:55 — The Israeli center: head vs. heart on two states

16:33 — Why two states feel impossible after October 7th

16:54 — The six months between partition and war (Nov '47–May '48)

18:50 — Ethnic cleansing on both sides — flight vs. expulsion

20:58 — The 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries

25:20 — Why Arab countries kept Palestinians as permanent refugees

27:34 — Inversion: Nazi collaboration accusations flipped

30:35 — Plan Dalet: ethnic cleansing blueprint or defensive plan?

34:04 — Deir Yassin vs. the Hadassah convoy massacre

36:06 — Acknowledgment vs. apology — teaching the Palestinian Nakba

41:13 — Settler colonialism goes mainstream: Al Jazeera, Jacobin, the Oscars

47:01 — Why 'indigenous' and 'no metropole' arguments aren't landing

48:13 — The language war: genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism as weapons

49:03 — Myths & Facts doesn't work anymore — it's about narrative now

53:00 — Has dialogue survived October 7th?

58:02 — Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor — the German edition and new intro

01:00:59 — Outro

About the guest:

Yossi Klein Halevi is a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is the author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor (Harper Collins, 2018), a New York Times bestseller released free in Arabic at letterstomyneighbor.com. His previous books include Like Dreamers (National Jewish Book Award winner) and Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist.

Follow him on X: @YKleinHalevi

Hosted by Ben Chertoff @ben.chertoff

The Honest Take is produced by HonestReporting - rebuilding trust in media.

]]> Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 3704 Yossi Klein Halevi grew up the son of Holocaust survivors in Brooklyn. As a teenager, he joined Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League. Then he moved to Israel, broke with extremism, and wrote a book called Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor - released free in Arabic - asking Palestinians to see Jews as an indigenous people returning home, not colonizers. Today, on college campuses across America, the answer is: you're colonizers. The Nakba proves it. With Nakba Day approaching, Ben sits down with Halevi for an honest, unflinching conversation about what actually happened in 1948 - the partition vote, the Arab invasion, Deir Yassin, the Hadassah convoy massacre, the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries that nobody talks about. And then: how a legitimate historical grievance became a weapon of delegitimization. Halevi is not a denialist. He openly names the Nakba as a real catastrophe. He has criticized Israeli education for refusing to teach it. But he also argues that collapsing 1948 into a "narrative of total innocence" - and using it to erase Jewish indigeneity - is something categorically different from honest historical reckoning. This is the conversation about 1948 that most people never get to have. In this episode: 00:00 — Cold Open (Deir Yassin / Hadassah convoy quote) 00:22 — Intro: Ben introduces Yossi Klein Halevi and the episode 00:53 — The Real Story of 1948 — episode framing 02:43 — Growing up in Brooklyn, joining the JDL 04:12 — Breaking with Kahana and moving to Israel 05:25 — Living with the partition wall in Jerusalem 07:42 — Two overlapping geographies: Land of Israel vs. Land of Palestine 08:02 — The UN Partition vote (1947) — Arab rejection and the pattern of refusals 12:07 — The Palestinian maximalist frame vs. the Israeli counter-narrative 14:08 — When does land become about existence? 14:55 — The Israeli center: head vs. heart on two states 16:33 — Why two states feel impossible after October 7th 16:54 — The six months between partition and war (Nov '47–May '48) 18:50 — Ethnic cleansing on both sides — flight vs. expulsion 20:58 — The 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries 25:20 — Why Arab countries kept Palestinians as permanent refugees 27:34 — Inversion: Nazi collaboration accusations flipped 30:35 — Plan Dalet: ethnic cleansing blueprint or defensive plan? 34:04 — Deir Yassin vs. the Hadassah convoy massacre 36:06 — Acknowledgment vs. apology — teaching the Palestinian Nakba 41:13 — Settler colonialism goes mainstream: Al Jazeera, Jacobin, the Oscars 47:01 — Why 'indigenous' and 'no metropole' arguments aren't landing 48:13 — The language war: genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism as weapons 49:03 — Myths & Facts doesn't work anymore — it's about narrative now 53:00 — Has dialog survived October 7th? 58:02 — Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor — the German edition and new intro 01:00:59 — Outro About the guest: Yossi Klein Halevi is a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is the author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor (Harper Collins, 2018), a New York Times bestseller released free in Arabic at letterstomyneighbor.com. His previous books include Like Dreamers (National Jewish Book Award winner) and Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist. Follow him on X: @YKleinHalevi Hosted by Ben Chertoff @ben.chertoff The Honest Take is produced by HonestReporting - rebuilding trust in media. Yossi Klein Halevi grew up the son of Holocaust survivors in Brooklyn. As a teenager, he joined Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League. Then he moved to Israel, broke with extremism, and wrote a book called Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor - released free No Ben Chertoff The Honest Take: TRAILER The Honest Take: TRAILER trailer 8ee151f1-1484-4880-b2a4-b5bc53e7bd86 https://share.transistor.fm/s/8184859e Welcome to The Honest Take, the new long-form interview podcast from HonestReporting.

For 25 years, HonestReporting has been the global watchdog on media bias against Israel — monitoring newsrooms, calling out distortion, and forcing corrections from some of the world's most powerful outlets. The Honest Take is where we go beyond the rapid response and sit down with the people who understand what's really happening: journalists, scholars, lawyers, diplomats, and activists.

Hosted by Ben Chertoff, every episode is a sustained conversation about the stories the mainstream keeps getting wrong — antisemitism, the war in Gaza, the UN, campus politics, the future of Jewish life, and the fight for truth in an information war.

Subscribe now. New episodes weekly.

Featuring voices including Hillel Neuer (UN Watch), Shai Davidai, Yardena Schwartz, Yossi Klein Halevi, and many, many more.

]]> Welcome to The Honest Take, the new long-form interview podcast from HonestReporting.

For 25 years, HonestReporting has been the global watchdog on media bias against Israel — monitoring newsrooms, calling out distortion, and forcing corrections from some of the world's most powerful outlets. The Honest Take is where we go beyond the rapid response and sit down with the people who understand what's really happening: journalists, scholars, lawyers, diplomats, and activists.

Hosted by Ben Chertoff, every episode is a sustained conversation about the stories the mainstream keeps getting wrong — antisemitism, the war in Gaza, the UN, campus politics, the future of Jewish life, and the fight for truth in an information war.

Subscribe now. New episodes weekly.

Featuring voices including Hillel Neuer (UN Watch), Shai Davidai, Yardena Schwartz, Yossi Klein Halevi, and many, many more.

]]> Sun, 10 May 2026 21:53:18 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 90 Welcome to The Honest Take, the new long-form interview podcast from HonestReporting. For 25 years, HonestReporting has been the global watchdog on media bias against Israel — monitoring newsrooms, calling out distortion, and forcing corrections from some of the world's most powerful outlets. The Honest Take is where we go beyond the rapid response and sit down with the people who understand what's really happening: journalists, scholars, lawyers, diplomats, and activists. Hosted by Ben Chertoff, every episode is a sustained conversation about the stories the mainstream keeps getting wrong — antisemitism, the war in Gaza, the UN, campus politics, the future of Jewish life, and the fight for truth in an information war. Subscribe now. New episodes weekly. Featuring voices including Hillel Neuer (UN Watch), Shai Davidai, Yardena Schwartz, Yossi Klein Halevi, and many, many more. Welcome to The Honest Take, the new long-form interview podcast from HonestReporting. For 25 years, HonestReporting has been the global watchdog on media bias against Israel — monitoring newsrooms, calling out distortion, and forcing corrections from som No Ben Chertoff Elite, Educated, Antisemitic: How Academia Fosters Jew Hate | With Shai Davidai 2 2 Elite, Educated, Antisemitic: How Academia Fosters Jew Hate | With Shai Davidai full 52c4f132-f847-40ab-b9b7-ab13de95b04c https://share.transistor.fm/s/9f0fc450 What happened on American campuses after October 7 did not come out of nowhere.

In this episode of The Honest Take, Shai Davidai joins HonestReporting to trace the intellectual roots of the antisemitism now shaping elite universities. From Edward Said’s Orientalism and the rise of the activist professor, to moral relativism, postcolonial theory, and the normalization of anti-Zionism as virtue, Davidai explains how decades of academic ideas helped create a culture where Jew hatred is repackaged as justice.

The conversation also explores Columbia’s long history with antisemitism, the role of groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, and why so many students and faculty cannot even recognize their own bigotry. Davidai argues that this is not just campus radicalism. It is a broader moral and intellectual failure with real consequences for Jews, for higher education, and for American society.

Shai Davidai is a social psychologist, former Columbia Business School professor, and host of Here I Am with Shai Davidai. His forthcoming book, American Intellectual Antisemitism, is scheduled for release on October 6, 2026.

]]> What happened on American campuses after October 7 did not come out of nowhere.

In this episode of The Honest Take, Shai Davidai joins HonestReporting to trace the intellectual roots of the antisemitism now shaping elite universities. From Edward Said’s Orientalism and the rise of the activist professor, to moral relativism, postcolonial theory, and the normalization of anti-Zionism as virtue, Davidai explains how decades of academic ideas helped create a culture where Jew hatred is repackaged as justice.

The conversation also explores Columbia’s long history with antisemitism, the role of groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, and why so many students and faculty cannot even recognize their own bigotry. Davidai argues that this is not just campus radicalism. It is a broader moral and intellectual failure with real consequences for Jews, for higher education, and for American society.

Shai Davidai is a social psychologist, former Columbia Business School professor, and host of Here I Am with Shai Davidai. His forthcoming book, American Intellectual Antisemitism, is scheduled for release on October 6, 2026.

]]> Tue, 05 May 2026 18:46:56 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 2757 What happened on American campuses after October 7 did not come out of nowhere. In this episode of The Honest Take, Shai Davidai joins HonestReporting to trace the intellectual roots of the antisemitism now shaping elite universities. From Edward Said’s Orientalism and the rise of the activist professor, to moral relativism, postcolonial theory, and the normalization of anti-Zionism as virtue, Davidai explains how decades of academic ideas helped create a culture where Jew hatred is repackaged as justice. The conversation also explores Columbia’s long history with antisemitism, the role of groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, and why so many students and faculty cannot even recognize their own bigotry. Davidai argues that this is not just campus radicalism. It is a broader moral and intellectual failure with real consequences for Jews, for higher education, and for American society. Shai Davidai is a social psychologist, former Columbia Business School professor, and host of Here I Am with Shai Davidai. His forthcoming book, American Intellectual Antisemitism, is scheduled for release on October 6, 2026. What happened on American campuses after October 7 did not come out of nowhere. In this episode of The Honest Take, Shai Davidai joins HonestReporting to trace the intellectual roots of the antisemitism now shaping elite universities. From Edward Said’s O No Ben Chertoff The Lie That Lit the Match: Hebron, Nazis, and the West's Vanishing Memory | With Yardena Schwartz 1 1 The Lie That Lit the Match: Hebron, Nazis, and the West's Vanishing Memory | With Yardena Schwartz full 64618ecd-6f26-4ccd-a0df-a62cb9d7ff95 https://share.transistor.fm/s/32b0d79e The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often thought of as a protracted political dispute based on two peoples fighting over one land. Often, they place the start date at 1948. Sometimes 1967. 

But for a real understanding, it is necessary to reach back to the pre-State era, and realize the religious nature of the conflict, and one man who played a pivotal role in shaping it: The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

We speak to Yardena Schwartz, author of "Ghosts of a Holy War," about Hajj Amin al Husseini, his surprisingly close relationship with Adolf Hitler, the 1929 Hebron massacre, and how reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed over the course of the century that followed.

]]> The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often thought of as a protracted political dispute based on two peoples fighting over one land. Often, they place the start date at 1948. Sometimes 1967. 

But for a real understanding, it is necessary to reach back to the pre-State era, and realize the religious nature of the conflict, and one man who played a pivotal role in shaping it: The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

We speak to Yardena Schwartz, author of "Ghosts of a Holy War," about Hajj Amin al Husseini, his surprisingly close relationship with Adolf Hitler, the 1929 Hebron massacre, and how reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed over the course of the century that followed.

]]> Tue, 05 May 2026 18:32:25 -0400 HonestReporting HonestReporting 2857 The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often thought of as a protracted political dispute based on two peoples fighting over one land. Often, they place the start date at 1948. Sometimes 1967. But for a real understanding, it is necessary to reach back to the pre-State era, and realize the religious nature of the conflict, and one man who played a pivotal role in shaping it: The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. We speak to Yardena Schwartz, author of "Ghosts of a Holy War," about Hajj Amin al Husseini, his surprisingly close relationship with Adolf Hitler, the 1929 Hebron massacre, and how reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed over the course of the century that followed. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often thought of as a protracted political dispute based on two peoples fighting over one land. Often, they place the start date at 1948. Sometimes 1967. But for a real understanding, it is necessary to reach back to th Yardena Schwartz, Ghosts of a Holy War, Ben Chertoff, The Honest Take, HonestReporting, Hebron, 1929 Hebron massacre, Hebron massacre, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, Amin al-Husseini, Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany, Nazism, Holocaust, British Mandate, Mandatory Palestine, pre-state Israel, Palestine 1929, 1948, 1967, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel Palestine, religious conflict, Jewish history, Zionism, Palestinian nationalism, Jerusalem, Judaism, Islamism, antisemitism, historical memory, media bias, journalism, foreign correspondents, media coverage of Israel, Israel, Middle East, Middle East history No Ben Chertoff