Jonny Gould’s Jewish State

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Amid the IDF's push into Lebanon to eliminate Hezbollah, the thwarting of terror attacks on Israel’s streets and the hail of rockets fired into them, we must always, always keep in our minds the plight of our hostages incarcerated by the savages of Hamas and their accomplices in Gaza. 

For it was on that fateful Shabbat and Simchat Torah morning of October 7th 2023, that the lives of Israeli and Jewish people around the world changed forever. 

Free the hostages. Bring them home now.

Let’s go back to where it all started. 

As chaos broke out all around her, our guest today relives the moments of sheer terror that morning, but her words are laced with a message of future hope and delivered with tremendous dignity.

This is Irit Lahav, survivor of the Kibbutz Nir Oz disaster as she revealed how she survived, while her dearest friends were murdered or taken hostage around her. Also, when and why she wants to go home and why it’s so important for the country as a whole that she does.

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Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education and UK Toremet, promoting philanthropy.

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Here’s a voice from the American right, steeped in generations of support for Israel and so recognisable through the decades.

But times, they are a changing, even for this staunch supporter of the Jewish State. 

Joe Walsh remains so, amid the swirling winds of university protests for Hamas and rallies in major cities right across America. 

But even as a former Congressman, a lifelong Republican, he strenuously opposes Donald Trump so much, he’d prefer Kamala Harris to win the White House - whatever their differences, and take it from there. 

Elected as part of the Tea Party wave in 2010, Joe freely admits he was a "divisive political asshole from the right!", Joe served Illinois's 8th district, for two years until 2013. 

His rhetoric and demeanour has cooled since those days.

Now he says he’s politically homeless and says America is ready for more than a two party system. 

Joe ran for the presidency in 2020 challenging President Trump for the Republican nomination, positioning himself as a critic of Trump’s leadership, focusing on what he saw as his undermining of American democracy.

In a two party system, Joe knew he was a long-shot, his aim was more to critique Trump than to win the nomination.

Listen to how Trump’s MAGA message differs so fundamentally from the Tea Party movement he was part of and what he’d do in the Oval Office if he was in charge of dealing with Israel.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education and UK Toremet, promoting philanthropy.

If you like Jonny's podcasts, support by buying him a drink or make a monthly donation with Gift Aid.

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Even as aerial assaults continued over Lebanon’s capital city Beirut, rumoured to be targeting Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an impassioned speech to the UN General Assembly in New York.

Here’s the full speech on this bonus episode.

In his address to the 79th session of the General Assembly, Prime Minister Netanyahu emphasized several critical issues:

Iran and Regional Security: Netanyahu positioned Israel's actions within a broader context of combating what he described as Iran's "axis of evil," highlighting ongoing conflicts and the threat this poses to Israel and regional stability.

Gaza Conflict: With the Gaza situation nearing its one-year mark, Netanyahu likely addressed the military operations, defending Israel's actions while possibly facing international scrutiny over civilian casualties and humanitarian concerns.

Lebanon and Hezbollah: Amidst concerns of escalating conflict, Netanyahu's comments on returning northern residents home suggest a focus on ensuring security while potentially signaling intentions for de-escalation or at least a strategic pause in hostilities.

Global Perspective: His speech might have touched on the broader implications of AI and technological advancements, reflecting on both opportunities and perils, though this would be more speculative based on past themes rather than confirmed content.

International Relations: Given the backdrop of his controversial visit to the US earlier in the year and international reactions, Netanyahu might have defended Israel's policies, while also navigating the complex web of international diplomacy amidst calls for peace and criticism over his handling of conflicts.

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How should Israel tackle Hezbollah and its estimated 150,000 rockets all pointed at them? 

Is pushing the Lebanon’s terror insurgency back behind the Litani River enough? 

In this era of long range technology, isn’t a river just an arbitrary line? The terrorists can still reach Israel from there. 

Hezbollah is a battalion of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Wouldn’t it be best if they were removed completely? 

Let’s talk about the sheer audaciousness of the pager and walkie talkie attack against them, the psychological effect of it and the downgrade in their military capabilities.

Then there’s Yemen, is America doing enough to quell their threat? 

And boots on the ground in Syria: Israel is showing it can defend itself - even thousands of miles into enemy territory.

And is Iran, the country hiding behind its deathly proxies only a "paper tiger" after all?

Benjamin Anthony served in the Israel Defense Forces in the second Lebanon War during the summer of 2006, 

Like now it was a war started by Hezbollah's attack on Israeli forces: they captured two soldiers and killed eight others. israel declared war.

Benjamin’s experiences and insights from then have influenced his later life.

He’s also a veteran of Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 and Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

He’s now the CEO and cofounder with Rozita Pnini of the Miryam Institute, debating Israel’s future, engaging with international policy-makers. 

He also hosts a weekly podcast, the Benjamin Anthony Show, where alongside Miryam Institute’s in-house analyst Yaakov Lappin they consider in detail the very latest military and diplomatic issues facing Israel. It’s available on this very platform where you're listening to my show now.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education and UK Toremet, promoting philanthropy.

Follow Benjamin on X at http://x.com/benanthony1948

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I’ve known Israel’s Trade and Innovation Special Envoy, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum for so long. which is why it was a pleasure that she had time to stop by and join me for a chat and a phone-in on my early breakfast show on Talk. 

Having moved on from being Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur now beats the drum for Israel’s famed enterprise as the Startup Nation, but how has the economy adjusted to wartime? Can growth and inward investment be restored?

And as Israel faces new military challenges, necessity is proved again to be the mother of invention. There are always secondary uses for technology in civilian life. Are new patents and processes in the offing? 

We discuss UK Labour's Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his restoration of funding for UNRWA - then following it up with an arms embargo. My viewers didn’t like it.

Also: the threat from the north: Hezbollah - and Israel's displaced population and when they can go home.

The war is far from over. 

And the hostages: Bring them home now!

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They told Tuvia Tenenbom, don’t go to Mea Shearim, Jerusalem’s ultra orthodox enclave, it’ll be dangerous, they’ll throw stones at you. 

But after living among Israel’s Charedi communities in Jerusalem and Beer Sheva, Tuvia found the community to be quite the contrary. 

And, he believes they’re more liberal and progressive than the world beyond. 

This is the story behind Careful, Beauties Ahead! Tuvia’s follow up book to the Taming of the Jew, eyeopening revelations on antisemitism is in Great Britain.

Now Tuvia, son and grandson of ultraorthdox rabbis returns to the communities of his upbringing and childhood in Israel. Have attitudes and practices changed in the years since he left? 

We talk about new pressures on the ultrareligious to join the IDF for the first time - and we unpack what Zionism means to them. 

And did the disaster of October 7th prove a truly unifying experience? Was it the realisation that finally, finally we are all the same? 

Using his fluent Yiddish, Tuvia gained trust to produce this one-off guide to a world he calls “of wisdom, humour and contradictions”. 

So poised with a packet of slims, Tuvia lights up ready for our interview. Enjoy this unique selection of stories from Israel.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education and UK Toremet, promoting philanthropy.

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Jonny needs your help to battle the wave of anti-Israel media coverage. Do you want to help his podcast counter this? Donate here or buy him a coffee here

Find all of Jonny's previous episodes here.

Who was Ismail Haniyeh, Leader of Hamas? 

He was assassinated in Tehran on the last day of July 2024 and buried in Doha two days later. 

He's been branded a "moderate”, but was in charge of Hamas’ so-called political wing, who’s murderers, rapists and kidnappers pillaged - and filmed - their way through southern Israel on the Shabbat morning of Simchat Torah on October 7th.

It was the biggest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. 

Slain on Iranian soil in their capital city, Haniyeh’s financiers were deservedly humiliated.

A resident of billionaire's playground Doha, the capital of terror-supporting state Qatar - he was in Tehran for the inauguration of their new president. 

The last one, of course, was killed in a helicopter crash.

Haniyeh met the Ayatollah, they tweeted a resistance photo, he then went back to his guest house and was taken out in his bedroom with his security guard. 

So what was Ismail Haniyeh like? 

Well, he loved sport for kickoff, fitting that he should be eliminated before end of the Paris Olympics. 

Here’s someone who knew him. I’m delighted our latest guest joins a list of distinguished guests to have graced Jonny Gould’s Jewish State.

Paul Martin is an exceptional international journalist and correspondent, making it his business to report from the most hostile territories - in the name of journalistic freedom.

He spent 26 days in Hamas jail in Gaza and Haniyeh knew he was there. Did it help Paul that he knew he was in his prison? Who helped him get released? Even arch anti-Zionist Archbiship Desmond Tutu called for his release! 

Paul was subjected to mental torture and tried the “Hamas diet”, where he lost two stone in weight during his incarceration.

Yet he also experienced exceptional levels of human kindness from a fellow inmate. 

You'll hear how he thought quickly on his feet to avoid deathly danger. 

And even when the British consulate promised freedom, he wasn’t sure whether it was a Hamas trap leading to his execution. 

I interviewed Paul on the day Evan Gershkovich was freed in a Russian prisoner swap. Listen out for his statement to the waiting media as he walked to freedom into Israel.

But would he ever return? Would his wife let him? 

This is Paul Martin's 26-day story as a Hamas prisoner in Gaza

Intrepid doesn’t cover it!

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

Jonny needs your help to battle the wave of anti-Israel media coverage. Do you want to help his podcast counter this? Donate here or buy him a coffee here

Statement from the interviewee:

Paul Martin is an independent and unbiased international journalist. He has no connections whatever with the people who interview him or with the platforms on which those interviews are transmitted. He stresses that on Mideast affairs he talks to and presents reportage to outlets of a very wide variety and by speaking he is not endorsing any of the views or biases of any of these platforms.

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The October 7th War in Gaza is the longest war in Israel’s history.

• But how to grasp the nettle that is Hezbollah? 
• What will “the day after” really look like in Gaza?: are the oil rich gulf states the answer to a more moderate Palestinian state? 
• How soft have the West been on Iran? Is dethroning the theocracy in Tehran the key to an Islamic reformation? 
• Is Britain’s foreign policy reset really pondering between Qatar and Saudi? And is it a Hobsons choice anyway? 
• And as President Trump dodges an assassin's bullet, we roll-call the achievements of his first administration, from the Abraham Accords to the Jerusalem embassy and ask what else can be achieved in a second term? 

Retired Major Andrew Fox is a Research Fellow at The Henry Jackson Society. He served in the Army for sixteen years, with three tours to Afghanistan, one of them with US Army Special Forces. 

He was in the Parachute Regiment and the Special Forces Support Group. 

There were also tours in Bosnia, the Middle East, and Northern Ireland. He retired in 2021.

Andrew then leveraged his huge experience into academia, as a senior lecturer in the War Studies and Behavioural Science at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

He holds degrees in Law & Politics, Modern War Studies, and Psychology. 

Let’s have a word on David Lammy, British Foreign Secretary who once dubbed President Trump, "a neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath, a profound threat to the international order that’s been the foundation of Western progress for so long!”.

He marched with Sadiq Khan in protest at his UK visit.

Is that the same President Trump who dodged death by millimetres, where aggressive opposition rhetoric is seen as the trigger to political violence? 

Is it the same President Trump, who produced the biggest diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East? 

Striking a decisive blow IN FAVOUR of western progress in a troubled region? 

This is Major (Ret.) Andrew Fox.

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This is Ivor Perl, survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau.

Born Yitzchak Perlmutter, in a family of 11 in Mako, Hungary in 1932, Ivor’s youth and education was stolen from him in 1944. 

His orthodox Jewish childhood was stable enough, but there were always antisemites who slapped and pushed him about on the way to school - but it got far worse during World War II, because the Nazis began targeting Jews in Hungary. In 1944, when he was just 12, Ivor, along with his whole family, were abducted and put on a train to Auschwitz. 

Out of his family, only he and his brother Alec survived the mass murder, a fact that Ivor attributes to his brother's quick thinking and the binary luck of being placed in a line that spared him from immediate death.

After surviving Auschwitz, Ivor and his brother were taken to Dachau, where they were liberated by American soldiers in 1945. Ivor, who turned 13 during his time at Dachau, recalls marking his bar mitzvah day all alone behind barbed wire, a poignant moment in his life because as you’ll hear a religious child would have prepared what he would say on his barmitzvah day for years.

But he never got the chance.

He came to England at 13 in 1945, lucky to be alive - but as an orphan, alongside his brother Alec.

He lives in North London, but with a visceral mourning for the parents, sisters and brothers that never made it here with him.

Ivor spent many years quietly building a life for himself and his family, working in the textile industry. He didn't openly share his experiences of the Holocaust for nearly 50 years, only beginning to speak about it to help others understand the horrors of the past.

Even his transfer to England was cloak and dagger after the Nazis had been vanquished, as you’ll hear how the early Zionist pioneers wanted to take him and other children to Mandate Palestine instead. 

Forgive me if some of my questions are a little direct about his most haunted and delicate of memories - but this like other Holocaust interviews on Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is a testimony for the ages. 

It’s a privilege to have known people like Ivor, even in my own family. 

To meet and speak one-to-one with Ivor Perl has been humbling to say the least. 

Chicken Soup Under The Tree, his life memoir is available via the Lemon Soul website

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Our guest today is France’s former prime minister, Manuel Valls. 

We met at the European Jewish Association delegation to Auschwitz.

France has the biggest Jewish community in Europe and it's the only country outside the Middle East where Sephardim outnumber Ashkenazim. Undoubtedly, this is a legacy of the Holocaust and the subsequent migration of French-speaking Jews from North Africa after World War II.

Notre invité aujourd’hui est l’ancien Premier ministre Français, Manuel Valls, rencontré à la « European Jewish Association delegation to Auschwitz ». 

Manuel Valls est un fervent défenseur de la communauté juive de France et décrit les problèmes de la société française dans cet entretien informel, enregistré lors d’une pause-café entre les séances où il intervenait.

M. Valls a souhaité mener l'entretien en français afin de respecter la nature précise de ses convictions. 

J’ai bien entendu accepté, conscient de l’auditoire nombreux francophone ici à Londres, en Europe et au Canada.

Nous avons parlé du Premier ministre français, Gabriel Attal, évoqué par certains comme l'héritier d'Emmanuel Macron - ce qui a fait sourire Manuel Valls puisqu’il a lui même été considéré comme tel par le passé !

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Back by popular demand, Imshin returns to Jonny Gould’s Jewish State 

Scroll back and listen to our first episode, an introduction to Imshin, real name, Jacqui Peleg.

Imshin’s feed on X with the famous hashtag, #TheGazaYouDontSee is a phenomenon of the social media era.

And what Jacqui achieves couldn’t have existed before Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.

Because such a specific subject via these video news sources, couldn’t have been so constantly delivered in real time. It’s now so readily available via the socials.

So Jacqui lifts the lid on the real lives of Gazans, through their own eyes, via thousands of videos shot by Gazans themselves. 

And as a news source, it’s impeccable, complete transparency of source.  

Jacqui lives in Tel Aviv, and grew up in Liverpool before making Aliyah with her family as a child. 

But now there’s the threat of a second front opening. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Israelis from the north and the south are living in hotels in the middle of the country. 

As the threat of an escalation in the north hangs over the rest of Israel, we talk more about how the wars affect Israelis at home and preparation for a wider conflict.

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This is the latest on Iran’s War on Israel, produced and presented by Jonny Gould.

All of the soundbites you’ll hear in this bulletin are compiled from interviews in episodes of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast. 

Subscribe and follow now and scroll down for previous episodes - wherever you get your podcasts. 

The headlines:

Israel faces full military confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon because of a significant escalation of tensions.

The IDF’s Chief of Staff meets with Arab counterparts in Abraham accords ally, Bahrain, while operations against Hamas continue in Rafah, 2 of the 4 remaining battalions are eliminated.

And Yemen’s Houthis increase their aggression against merchant shipping in and around the Dead Sea while announcing further joint strikes on Haifa and Ashkelon with Iranian-linked Iraqi Shia militias.

You’ll hear from Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus on how close Iran is to completing their long term ambition of making a nuclear bomb. 

Ayelet Razin Bet Or, a criminal lawyer at the State Attorney's Office on the gender-based violence committed by Hamas on October 7th.

And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accuses the US of withholding weapons, but the US reply, “we don’t know what he’s talking about".

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Our two guests today are professional sportsmen from two different continents, cultures and sports, united in countering antisemitism in the sports industry.

They’re part of Project Max, who’s MD Eric Rubin was with me in Amsterdam at the European Jewish Association conference, where he moderated a session on fighting antisemitism, racism and intolerance alongside Dean Furman, who played internationally with South Africa and Michael Sweetney, NBA Star for the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls. 

Dean was one of only four professional Jewish players plying their trades in the English game during his career.

At one point three of them were teammates together at Oldham! You’ll hear about that. 

And Dean had a great career, starting off as a youngster at Chelsea, joining Rangers in Scotland with spells at Oldham, Doncaster and in South Africa with SuperSport United.

Dean was born in Cape Town and left for Edgware as a child with his family, went to JFS. 

He made his Bafana Bafana debut - against Brazil - in São Paulo! Opposite Hulk, Neymar, David Luiz Oscar and Marcelo.

Also with us in Amsterdam was ex-NBA star, Michael Sweetney, who cuts a striking 6 ft 8 inches tall and 348 lbs.

Mike's now assistant coach of the Yeshiva University Macabees Men's basketball team and head coach of the girls varsity team at New York's Ramaz School.

This is a mensch in full flight. Listen closely to his humility and in particular to the education he got at home from his own father.

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Jonny is back with the latest on Iran's war on Israel including the moment the IDF came to rescue the "diamonds", the code word for the hostages incarcerated in Gazan hell since October 7th.

All of the soundbites you’ll hear in this bulletin are compiled from interviews right here - in episodes Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast. 

The IDF continue its operations against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah launches drone attacks against Hurfeish and Nazareth in northern Israel and four soldiers from the elite Givati brigade are killed in a booby trapped building in Rafah. 

Stay tuned for comment on the plight of the remaining hostages and what the Arab world should do about Hamas - from former Entebbe hostage, Benny Davidson plus Emily Schrader on why the Iranian public love Israel.

We also hear from Izhar Lifshitz, the son of two of the oldest hostages Yocheved who’s 85, released on October 23rd and Oded, 83 who's still in Gazan captivity.

And the emotional rollercoaster experienced by Orit Meir, mother of Almog Meir Jan during the agonising months not knowing whether he was dead or alive.

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“All eyes on Rafah”: The AI generated graphic shared by 50m people on Instagram, spread by slebs like Dua Lipa, Lewis Hamilton and Gigi and Bella Hadid.

How has the world been reduced to this?”

It’s a near total disconnect with the reality of the Gaza War.

The Ayatollah is prolifically tweeting including antisemitic tropes about Jews running the media. But does Iran have Israel where it wants them, in a cycle of “forever war”?

How must Israel change to get out of a perpetual state of war? Does it start with pushing Hezbollah back north of the Litani river?

Iran has enough material for 13 nuclear bombs. They haven’t got the bomb yet. But if not now when? 

And as Norway, Spain and Ireland declare for Palestine, is this down the weakness in support for Israel by the Biden administration? 

These are questions for Jonathan Conricus, now retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the IDF, nowadays with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, he focuses on the Middle East.

Jonathan enjoyed a distinguished career serving as a combat commander in Lebanon and Gaza, a military diplomat, a foreign relations expert, and an international spokesperson for the IDF. 

Born in Jerusalem in 1979, Jonathan spent his early years in Malmo before his family moved back to Israel when he was 13. He joined the IDF at 18 and served for 24 years, retiring in 2021.

This episode is presented with the cooperation and support of ELNET UK, a bipartisan, cross-party international organisation working to advance UK-Israel relations based on shared democratic values and strategic interests.

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Iran's war against Israel emerges from behind its terror proxies across the Middle East.

Since Iran's unprecedented direct attack on Israel, Jonny compiles and hosts a regular news bulletin rounding up major stories as the Middle East conflict is being realised as the Iran-Israel War.

These regular bulletins expose the Iran Octopus as the prime mover in the Middle East conflict.

The top stories in this bulletin.

We hear from Yoseph Haddad with an unequivocal rebuttal of the accusations pointed at the IDF for the civilian deaths in Rafah. 

Norway, Spain and Ireland join the European chorus in proposing to recognise a Palestinian statehood, which Israel calls a reward for the brutal terrorism of October 7th.

As Hamas takes its last stand in Rafah, Tel Aviv and the surrounding areas take a fresh barrage of rocket fire from the south of Gaza.

The IDF complete a 40-hour counter terror strike on Jenin and Iraq continues to emerge as a drone and missile threat to Israel's east.

We hear from Jason Greenblatt, Emily Schrader and Imshin AKA Jacqui Peleg.

All of the soundbites from world-class experts are compiled from interview episodes of Jonny Gould's Jewish State podcast. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

To support Jonny's coverage of October 7th from Israel's perspective, make a donation or buy him a coffee here or here - Thank you.

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You’ll know Alex Deane if you’re a regular news channel viewer.

A regular commentator and reviewer on Sky News, BBC’s dateline London and GB News, he says couldn’t stand idly by in an era where the conviction politician might stand an electoral chance to buck the trend.

And Alex is standing in Finchley and Golders Green, Margaret Thatcher’s seat made vacant by Mike Freer, hounded out of public life when his constituency office was burned down. He was also the original target of assassin Ali Harbi Ali, who murdered fellow Tory MP for Southend West, Sir David Amess.

Alex was called to the bar at Middle Temple in 2005 and served as Chief of Staff to David Cameron when he was Shadow Secretary of State for Education.

He’s also an historian and author of "Lessons From History" uncovering great heroes who history have forgotten but who helped shape the world we live in now.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared just hours before - with the poll set for July 4th. 

Finchley is a big constituency stretching from Cricklewood Broadway, lapping at the shores of Whetstone, so if you’re an N or an NW, listen up, this is Alex Deane.

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Iran's war against Israel comes fully out of the shadows.

Since Iran's unprecedented direct attack on Israel, Jonny compiles and hosts a regular news bulletin rounding up major stories as the Middle East conflict is being realised as the Iran-Israel War.

These regular bulletins expose the Iran Octopus as the prime mover in the Middle East conflict.

The top stories in this bulletin:

The Butcher of Tehran Raisi is killed in a helicopter crash, the IDF continues its operations in Rafah as the ICJ issue war crimes arrest threats against Hamas AND Israel's leaders and the execution of a Jewish Iranian man is put on hold in Tehran.

We hear from Benjamin Netanyahu, Imshin AKA Jacqui Peleg, Meir Javedanfar and Ruth Wasserman Lande.

All of the soundbites from world-class experts are compiled from interview episodes of Jonny Gould's Jewish State podcast. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

To support Jonny's coverage of October 7th from Israel's perspective, make a donation or buy him a coffee here or here - Thank you.

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The mainstream news channels are stuck in a tiresome stream of programmes which you know misrepresent Gaza and Israel. 

That ignore key facts and amplify voices from just one side (with honourable exceptions, of course).

The world’s media would have you believe Gazans are helpless, living in an overcrowded prison camp, unable to escape their predicament, sitting ducks to Israeli aggression. 

It couldn't be further from the truth.

Hamas leadership need the bleeding hearts of Europe aided by mass media to continue underwriting UNRWA and other NGOs which only extend the war another day, year or even longer.

But when you strip away the Hamas videos, ordinary Gazans don’t view themselves as victims at all. 

They’re resilient, creative, great cooks, they eat good quality meat, fruits and vegetables. Wouldn’t you if you lived off the Mediterranean coast? 

How do we know? They upload hundreds of videos about themselves, their lifestyles and their views, freely available for all to see. 

And here’s Imshin who chronicles it all, a voice you certainly won’t hear on mainstream news. She doesn’t suit the story. It’s a great shame because her sources are impeccable and transparent. 

Our guest today describes herself as an amateur Gaza watcher, her highly valuable resource is documented on Twitter or X under the handle, Imshin. 

Imshin, real name Jacqui Peleg paints a vivid picture of Gazan society through the eyes of the people themselves. 

There’s revelatory detail in every answer from Jacqui, including the accidental superstar Mr Fafo who went from little known YouTuber to worldwide attention. 

You’ll hear how Joe Biden’s lack of support over Israel’s Rafah mission only helps to bolster Hamas inside Gaza. 

This is a gripping interview from start to finish, full of insightful observations and detailed revelations.

This is “The Gaza You Don’t See”. This is Imshin, Jacqui Peleg.

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What’s it really like in Iran - for its citizens and the Jews who still live there? 

Iran’s major cities, Tehran and Isfahan still have functioning synagogues, but the communities have declined sharply since the Islamist revolution which shapes the world today. 

Let’s discuss today's Iran with someone who really knows it.

This is an interview conducted in Israel just a matter of weeks before October 7th. 

During the heady late summer days of weekly judicial reform rallies, this is Dr Meir Javedanfar.

He was born in Tehran to a family from the city of Isfahan.

Meir Javedanfar is an Iranian-Israeli lecturer, author, and commentator. He's taught Iranian politics at Reichman University in Israel since 2012. 

He is the coauthor of Ahmadinejad’s biography, “The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran".

He has published many articles on Iran and Iran-related matters for Foreign Affairs, Al-Monitor, The Diplomat, The Guardian and others.

He's guest lectured at more than 20 universities and his Ph.D dealt with Mohammad Reza Shah’s security decision-making in relation to threats posed by Iraq and the Soviet Union.

Eight months after his bar mitzvah in 1987, Meir and his family moved to the U.K as Jewish refugees from Iran. 

He remains a committed Anglophile, he never quite left the English sense of humour behind, so listen out for a Basil Fawlty joke!

Whatever the status of the JCPOA in the wake of Iran’s first ever direct assault on Israel, he told me he supported it - and said Israeli military experts in the know did too… Why? 

And he took part in the Iranian Revolution in 1979 - yes really! - but seven Jews were killed and the Persian Jewish population collapsed from 100,000 under the Shah to where it is today: a paltry and declining 7,000.

So why was there a revolution in 1979 in the first place? 

The mullahs are wary of their own people, scared of American soft power, led by the threat of feminism. 

This really is a fascinating interview which deserves the light of day, its own episode.

This is Dr Meir Javedanfar Ph.D.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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Iran's war against Israel comes fully out of the shadows.

Since Iran's unprecedented direct attack on Israel, Jonny compiles and hosts the first of a regular news bulletin rounding up major stories as the Middle East conflict is being realised as the Iran-Israel War.

These regular bulletins expose the Iran Octopus as the prime mover in the Middle East conflict.

All of the soundbites from world-class experts are compiled from interview episodes of Jonny Gould's Jewish State podcast. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

To support Jonny's coverage of October 7th from Israel's perspective, make a donation or buy him a coffee here or here - Thank you.

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See Jonny's broad range of interviews and support him with a coffee right here or by making a donation here.

You’ve been on protests and rallies countering the never ending anti-Israel hate marches in London. 

You look on wondering why Saturdays in central London are allowed to become the domineering space for terror supporting hordes and their throngs of useful idiots, as they snake past the splendid museums, jaunty theatres, flagship stores and centuries old architecture which talk of deep British traditions. 

Tolerance of protests is an expression of our freedom and values.

But our free country and its values must be allowed to survive. 

President Macron outlawed them in France immediately after October 7th. He looks wise in retrospect.  

And then across the road amid the Palestinian flags and disgusting antisemitic placards, you see men you recognise with long coats, big hats, payot, beards and white socks. 

The inexplicable Neturei Karta, the ultra orthodox anti Zionists, who literally side with the deathly enemy. 

It’s one thing to be a religious Jew and believe Israel can only exist from the messianic age onwards.

It’s quite another to flirt, to consort with those who chirp for Israel’s destruction. 

To support Iran and its proxies. 

And as you’ll hear they actually believe they’re safe standing with these terrorist supporters - and believe antisemitism started with the Zionist movement and the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. 

These are the most, extreme and unpleasant views ever expressed in Jonny Gould’s Jewish state but I believe we have broad enough shoulders to take this dissent from an extreme minority - and put it in its place. 

And that place is in the dustbin of the wrong side of history. 

So I walked through the police cordon and stood with the repugnant Islamist agitators and hatemongers with their Palestinian flags and covered faces and confronted the frummers. 

I must confess I left them, with a feeling of despair because of the sheer treachery and lack of faith in what was said to me. 

I ran a poll of regular listeners to see whether I should even run this as an episode. The result was 2/3 to 1/3 in favour of running it. 

So here it is. You’ll hear two members of the sect. 

Jacob Miller and Alte Hochhauser.

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Iran's war against Israel comes fully out of the shadows.

Since Iran's unprecedented direct attack on Israel, Jonny compiles and hosts the first of a regular news bulletin rounding up major stories as the Middle East conflict is being realised as the Iran-Israel War.

These regular bulletins expose the Iran Octopus as the prime mover in the Middle East conflict.

All of the soundbites from world-class experts are compiled from interview episodes of Jonny Gould's Jewish State podcast. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

To support Jonny's coverage of October 7th from Israel's perspective, make a donation or buy him a coffee here or here - Thank you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a rather special episode featuring a competition winner from North West London Jewish Day School who won the chance to make an episode of Jonny Gould's Jewish State. 

Awareness of news and current affairs is certainly heightened by the pressure of social media - so imagine a young person growing up in this day and age.

I ran a competition for the pupils of Year 6 and I said to the class, “get me an interesting interviewee and write down the questions you’d like to ask them”.

I was delighted that 11-year-old Maya Amit stepped up to the plate and secured time with the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who invited us to his home. 

This episode is presented with Lemon Soul in loving memory of the late Jonny Zucker, a born educator, children’s author and primary school teacher, who also trained as a radio journalist. His mission was encouraging children to read, he visited school after school, library after library.

With thanks to the Chief Rabbi for giving us his valuable time at home, to competition winner Maya Amit and mum Raquel.

To Miss Caplan and Mr. Radomsky at North West London Jewish Day School and to Nigel Canin and all at Lemon Soul, a publishing house from EdTech company, 2Simple, in loving memory of the late, great Jonny Zucker.

Jonny, I hope you’d be proud of this initiative x

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Iran's war against Israel comes fully out of the shadows.

Since Iran's unprecedented direct attack on Israel, Jonny compiles and hosts the first of a regular news bulletin rounding up major stories as the Middle East conflict is being realised as the Iran-Israel War.

These regular bulletins expose the Iran Octopus as the prime mover in the Middle East conflict.

All of the soundbites from world-class experts are compiled from interview episodes of Jonny Gould's Jewish State podcast. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

To support Jonny's coverage of October 7th from Israel's perspective, make a donation or buy him a coffee here or here - and thank you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you'd like to support Jonny's work, you can buy him a coffee here.

The Islamic Republic of Iran emerges from behind the regional proxies it's used as pawns until now to take direct action against Israel.

Over 300 suicide drones, ballistic and cruise missiles targeted Israel from multiple fronts from Iran, as well as Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

99% were intercepted, mostly outside of Israel's airspace by Israeli, British, American, French, Saudi and Jordanian forces. 

So what tactical change by Iran does this signify? Have they ramped up a level towards their endgame, the step-by-step systematic, premeditated domination of firstly the Middle East - and then the world. 

Ruth Wasserman Lande is former MK for the Blue and White Party, she served as advisor to Shimon Peres and as Deputy Ambassador at the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

Her parents arrived from Soviet Lithuania. They lived in Ashdod before moving to South Africa.

Then she decided to make Aliyah and return to Israel. 

Since October 7th, she’s addressed groups of parliamentarians from across Europe and hasn't held back telling them in graphic form about the extreme violence, burning, shooting, raping and murdering of civilians on that terrible morning.

I caught up with Ruth in London as the European Jewish Association organised a tour of Jewish community leaders in London, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. 

Hear why she says the IDF should go into Rafah and finish off Hamas once and for all as well as what Israel should do with Iran.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education

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This is Israel’s minister of the diaspora Amichai Chikli, with me in Krakow, just a short distance from Auschwitz, where we’d journeyed together with other international leaders as part of a European Jewish Association delegation.

We were all there for a symposium on antisemitism in Europe called, "Never Again: Lip Service or Deep Commitment?"

Also among the notables, former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who pushed back in our interview on Polish Holocaust denial on Polish soil - and Elon Musk, in conversation with Ben Shapiro - and coming soon on Jonny Gould's Jewish state, former French prime minister Manuel Valls, who conducted our interview in French.

Amichai tells us that October 7th is a reset for the House of Israel to achieve a new unity and awareness and pride in Jewish identity. 

He pays tribute to individuals within American Jewish leadership, who recognise the dangers of the university campus, where words lead to violence. 

And we talk of prospects for peace: where it’ll come from and through the worst days of Israeli-American diplomacy, how Israel must prevail over Hamas.

So that “Never Again is Now” doesn’t lead to a Never Again tomorrow.

This is Amichai Chikli, Israel's minister of the diaspora.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education:

Jonny also produces and presents 🍎 number one hit podcast, 🎙️Jonny Gould’s Jewish State. Follow now at this link:

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Emily Schrader returned to London for a whistlestop tour of speaking engagements and appearances and attend street protests in solidarity with Britain's Jewish community, embattled by the unrelenting pro-Palestinian hate marches which never seem to end.

Listen to how she deals with the antisemites on the streets of London and how she views the over tolerance of Islamofascism spreading fast across the West.

Emily appeared on my Talk TV early breakfast show alongside news commentator and foreign policy expert, Benedict Spence as we discussed fears of escalating tensions caused by Hezbollah from Lebanon, why they haven't started a full-scale war yet and why "happy days" could be ahead of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

But can he survive until November to get there?

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education.

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The war started by the October 7th massacres is the longest in Israel's history.

But with rockets still being fired from Gaza into Israel’s southernmost city of Sderot and a first Houthi rocket landing further south, what next steps are open to Israel - and what of the deteriorating relationship with the United States?

Our esteemed guest today is Col. Richard Kemp, commander of British Forces in Afghanistan and Chair of the COBRA Intelligence Group, coordinating MI5 and MI6 during the London bombings of 2005 and the Bali and Madrid terror attacks.

Richard joined the Army the day after he left school and spent thirty distinguished years in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Bosnia, as well as Afghanistan. 

He always delivers new insight into war commentary and this discussion is no different.

Col. Kemp hails the success of the Shifa Hospital campaign in northern Gaza as “the single largest and most successful operations in the war so far".

The IDF killed around 140 terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as arresting around 650 additional terrorists.

He describes the evacuation of a million or more civilians sheltering in Rafah as possible - and explains how instead of moving Gazans north into cities like Khan Yunis, why Egypt could so easily solve the refugee issue - but won’t.

Not forgetting our hostages? Where are they? How can they be rescued? Israel has never been more on its own. 

Richard says Hamas has only been emboldened by the UN Security Council resolution, which called for a ceasefire and for the freeing of hostages, but to Israel’s fury did not hinge the ceasefire demand on freeing them. 

But there is a military alternative to going into Rafah. With world opinion led by the UN and the Biden Administration squarely against Israel finishing off Hamas on their terms, Richard explains the options open to Israel which you're not hearing about in the media. You’ll hear it here.

Plus the unreported cooperation between Israel and Egypt, who also share a border with Gaza beyond Rafah. 

This episode is presented with the cooperation and support of ELNET UK, a bipartisan, cross-party international organisation working to advance UK-Israel relations based on shared democratic values and strategic interests.

Our discussion is led by ELNET UK's CEO, the Rt. Hon. Joan Ryan.

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For 20 years, Avi Issacharoff has been an accomplished Israeli author and journalist and now he's emerged as the internationally renowned television drama producer, the co-creator of hit TV series of Fauda.

How has October 7th changed Israel? Every family has been affected and Israel has become one big family. Avi’s Fauda family too. 

Do we have the stomach for another series, isn’t it just too close to home? 

And while the world from the White House down to the United Nations and the depths of the BBC is seemingly waged against the Hamas endgame, Avi restates Israel’s position: the war could be over now. 

Fauda’s cut through about Israel’s plight to a watching world more strongly than any factual news report seems to.

What does Avi put that success down to? 

And who is Fauda’s best actor? Find out right here!

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It’s always a pleasure to see Einat Wilf, here again on a whistlestop tour of London, she met with politicians of all parties at the Houses of Parliament, plus journalists and Jewish leaders and their communities. 

And it’s her clarity which is arresting. She elevates Zionism above politics, creating unity for Jews of every stripe to coalesce around. 

Not to mention the millions of non-Jews who  believe in the Jewish people’s right to self determination too. 

And she’s been on a metaphoric journey too.

Originally from the peace camp, she believed like so many right across the political spectrum in surrendering land for peace - but today - we all face the chilling reality of October 7 to show what Palestinianism is really about. 

They keep telling us, she says. Let’s believe them. 

Einat, who co-authored The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace, with Adi Schwartz, believes Israel needs to negotiate with pre conditions

Listen up to hear what they are and if there really are Palestinian partners in peace.

With thanks to the Anglo Israel Association.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education

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Loay Alshareef came on my TalkTV show to talk about the peace which remains between Arabs and Jews despite the October 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists in Israel. 

And it’s good news. 

The Abraham Accords which bound the UAE, together with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan with Israel in September 2020, remains steadfast and though the pogrom exacted on Israel is a “setback”, the opportunities for peace are still there. 

Loay has become a good friend since he invited me to Abu Dhabi in 2022 and it’s always a privilege to spend quality time with him discussing pragmatic ideas for peace in a world consumed by hostilities.

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Loay Alshareef has been on quite a journey. Growing up in Saudi Arabia and brought up a religious Moslem, he was exposed to antisemitic schooling about Israel and the Jews.

“Jews are the fierce enemies of the Arabs and you shouldn’t have them as friends. Christians too. But first, Jews.” 

Loay was part of a generation of young Saudis who stood no chance. Isolated from the world, taught to hate. It still goes on - although less so. 

But the poisoning of his young mind was challenged when he visited France with the Accord school, a homestay program in Paris so he could learn French.

He was housed with a Jewish family. 

Initially he refused, preferring to be with a Tunisian Arab family. But in the end, he stayed with the Jewish family. 

His host Rachelle of Yemeni tradition said, “stay with us a couple more days”, and so began a journey to conciliation. But it started with confusion. 

These people are nothing like what he’d been told. Rachelle was a good person, so were the Koranic texts about Jews wrong? 

Loay was introduced to “The Protocols of the elders of Zion” at 15 and was told it was a book brought in from Egypt as a text “the Jews don’t want you to read”. 

Two weeks and two Shabbats later, Rachelle took him Kosher shopping.

He was included in Pesach and Chanukah celebrations, a first hand education in Judaism. 

He went home, told his mum. Mum said” I’ll give you two months, you’ll come to your senses!”. 14 years on, it was the catalyst to a new world and mum supports his stance on social media.

Loay travels the world as an ambassador for his country of residence, the UAE and for Muslims. 

He tweets in Ivrit as a fluent speaker, quotes the Torah and Tanach and wants to pursue a PHD in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

It’s a pleasure to have spent hours and hours in Loay’s company. We talk candidly with the tape on and off.

I try to get my head round the tribal differences between the Arabs, it gives me a headache, especially when he says even the Qataris want Israel to win the War in Gaza and I ask him about the UAE’s support for the South African case against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

It’s a frank and fascinating discussion with one of the Gulf’s most important voices.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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If I'd been asked which journalist might one day confront Gary Lineker face-to-face about his views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, I might well have said, "it's going to be Nicole Lampert!", such is her journalistic courage.

And so it was, as Nicole and a small handful of other journalists were invited to a Broadcasting Press Guild Lunch to hear from Lineker about his burgeoning podcast business.

The Press all introduced themselves and Lineker admitted to feeling scared. He was right!

He'd retweeted a BDS demand to ban Israel from international football. He took it down later amid a brou-ha-ha.

Nicole asked him why he'd broken the BBC's social media rules. The usually polite and deferential event suddenly took a turn. There was clapping at the end of Gary's presentation, but Nicole didn't join in the applause, so Gary went to look for her.

We take up the story in this fascinating episode.

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Itamar Marcus is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, started in 1996 to monitor the consensus of the Palestinian world.

They started reading the papers for the views of their leaders and found school books and television programmes indoctrinating children in Jew hate.

But with 75% of Palestinians supporting Hamas’ October 7 massacres with 60% “extremely supportive” and 98% “feeling a sense of pride as a Palestinian”, what future peace for Israel?

This episode discusses the damage UNRWA has done to peace in the Middle East and also includes Hillel Neuer’s stunning testimony to the US Congress about the UN agency’s complicity in Hamas terror.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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In this exclusive interview, Reuven Rivlin, the tenth president of Israel pushes back on Polish law on remembering the Holocaust in Krakow. President Rivlin was among world leaders in politics and industry at the European Jewish Association’s delegation to Auschwitz-Birkenau and taking part in a symposium on the growing threat of antisemitism in Europe, entitled NEVER AGAIN: Lip Service or Deep Commitment?

Also with us, former French prime minister Manuel Valls, a strong voice against antisemitism and Israel’s minister of the diaspora, Amichai Chikli. In 2018, Poland amended their domestic laws on National Remembrance to penalise speech in public laying responsibility for the Holocaust to Poland or the Polish nation.

There was international outcry, relations between Israel and Poland were frozen. Israeli school trips to Poland’s death camps were suspended. The tours are back now - although the law still applies. Poland was the first country invaded and occupied by Adolf Hitler. Members of Poland’s resistance and government-in-exile did try to warn the world of the mass killing of Jews, thousands of Poles risked their lives to do so.

However, Holocaust researchers have collected overwhelming evidence of Poles who murdered Jews fleeing the Nazis, or Polish blackmailers who preyed on helpless Jews for financial gain. Nearly all of Poland’s roughly 3 million Jews, were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators, and the major Nazi death camps were in Poland. And in telling the truth with me in Krakow, the president challenges Polish law directly. President Rivlin’s a Jerusalemite and says it gives him a unique skill in dealing with allcomers in Israeli society, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Armenians, Druse, you name them.

As a new Polish government contemplates overturning the laws of a previous administration, Reuven Rivlin tells it like it is. Enjoy this conversation with Israel’s tenth president.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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Elon Musk returns fresh from visiting Auschwitz and here are his initial reflections.

He’s interviewed by Ben Shapiro. I’m with him and other delegates in Krakow at the European Jewish Association symposium.

The episode starts with a stirring Holocaust Kadesh, recited by EJA Founder and Chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin.

It was called "NEVER AGAIN: Lip Service or Deep Commitment?" Among the world leaders I managed to speak to are former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who pushes back on Polish Holocaust denial, former French prime minister Manuel Valls, who conducts our discussion on in French, and Israel’s minister of the diaspora, Amichai Chikli.

This is my recording of Elon Musk’s interview from inside the conference.

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How has the October 7th massacre challenged Israeli public opinion on the conflict with the Palestinians? What about 'day after' planning? Has it seriously begun? And does peace lie with the Gulf states? Just how much do the Saudis and the UAE want Israel to win? Who in Palestinian society is there to deal peace with? Is there anyone? Has the Israeli left anywhere left to go? Is war from Lebanon inevitable? While the Houthis, another Iranian proxy, bomb western ships in the Suez Canal, how many fronts could this war open? Is the escalation so inevitable that Iran joins the fray directly? Russia in Syria, Iran’s land bridge there. Let’s update that too. Why is it imperative that Israelis from both the north and south return to their towns and kibbutzim?

Two of Israel’s leading journalists and analysts join me here in London thanks to Elnet UK, a bipartisan, cross-party international organisation, who stand above politics, working to advance UK-Israel relations.

We go deeper into the conflict, wading through the hardship, to try to find a route to a better day. Haviv Rettig Gur is a senior analyst for The Times of Israel. He’s covered the politics, foreign policy, education and relationship Israel has with the Jewish diaspora for 20 years, he served as Director of Communications for the Jewish Agency and taught at the best pre-military academies in Israel. He was a correspondent at the Jerusalem Post.

Jonathan Spyer is Director of Research at the Middle East Forum and edits the Forum’s journal, the Middle East Quarterly. He has reported from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Ukraine and back home including in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.

LISTEN NOW for a in-depth analysis of today’s Middle East and hopes for a better tomorrow.

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Our guest today is Nicholas Martin, movie producer and writer of the biographical drama, “Golda”.

Golda was seven years in the making, and as you’ll hear, Nicholas has delved so deeply into her story - and by extension Israel’s story from independence to the 1970s - which makes this such a captivating interview. He’s also made deep friendships with Golda’s family and throughout Israel.

A highly experienced and talented filmmaker who’s become a world authority on the period, but didn’t know a great deal about Israeli history before he started. Nicholas’ previous film was the hilarious, Florence Foster-Jenkins.

Golda also stars Liev Schreiber as Henry Kissinger and Camille Cottin as Lou Kadar, Golda's assistant. Our episode music has just been composed in support of Israel by my friend Bryan Edery with concert violinist Miriam Kramer. He’s called it “Israel in my Heart, ner Tamid”. Thank you for allowing it to be our beautiful episode theme tune.

I’d been talking to Nicholas about an interview for two years, before we eventually sat down in his London home for this considered and emotional discussion. I want to thank Nicholas for being such an open interviewee. This is one of the best.

You can buy "Golda" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Sky Store, Microsoft Store, Rakuten TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube as download or rent it on Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Rakuten TV, Apple TV, Sky Store, Curzon Home Cinema online.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education and UK Toremet.

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This is “Another How to Make Peace in the Middle East", building on the success of the first Talk TV Special, with more highly informed guests from the worlds of politics, the military, frontline medicine, journalism, diplomacy and think tanks.

In this episode, British-born Israeli hand and trauma surgeon, Dr Elliot Sorene explains how he's operated on Hamas fighters, who after successful surgery have "promised to see him on the battlefield". He also tells us how his son survived the Nova Festival massacre and saved other’s lives too.

Hen Mazzig is a former IDF humanitarian soldier, who insists his experiences in Judea and Samaria give him belief in a path to peace from the younger generation of Palestinians.

Jonathan Sacerdoti reveals yet more evidence of human shields and Gazan tunnels. Barak Seener has troubling statistics on just how radicalised the Palestinian population is and the extent to which hearts and minds must be changed after the war with Hamas is won.

And Benjamin Anthony believes the war against Hamas is long overdue and needs to be prosecuted to the very end, but with the equal commitment of rescuing the Israeli hostages who remain incarcerated in Gazan hell. The response to the first show was instant thanks to social media and included an incredible response on YouTube, where my interview with

Dr Einat Wilf has attracted approaching 400,000 views. This is ANOTHER How to Make Peace in the Middle East. With thanks to everyone at TalkTV, who give me this vital and valuable platform to discuss hopes for a better day.

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Dov Forman, 20, co-author of New York Times bestseller, Lily's Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live, was invited to Israel by ELNET UK on a solidarity mission to see for himself the trail of death and devastation left by Hamas through Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7th. Scenes and smells he says have changed him forever.

ELNET’s been running constant missions ever since for European influencers and Parliamentarians. Almost 100 MPs from eight European countries have been to Israel to bear witness.

And amid new denials from enemies of Israel and the Jewish people, Dov tells us how important it is to tell the truth about the depravity and murder which took place and why talk of a ceasefire will only make the possibility of this horror happening again.

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"Israel's a self-starting civil society, which takes so much on itself", so says Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, who talks about her city's response to the 250,000 displaced Israelis who've left their homes in the south.

But there is a determination across the whole nation for them to return home and rebuild their lives and communities after the terrible pogrom of October 7th.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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On my TalkTV show, I spoke with Orit Meir, mother of Almog, 21, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7th, then seen in a Hamas propaganda video shortly after.

Nothing has been heard or seen of him since. Orit says he MUST remain front of mind amid the release of other Hamas hostages.

I can’t remember conducting a more emotional interview in all my years in broadcast journalism. This is a vital message to transmit through a mother’s agony and anxiety as you’ll hear.

Bring Them All Home Now.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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Aside from producing 🎙️Jonny Gould’s Jewish State, I also host live shows at Talk TV and was delighted to be asked to produce and present a Special, “How to Make Peace in the Middle East”.

This was the opportunity to bring guests from the podcast over the years to a mass English speaking audience around the world.

Joining me for this three-hour show were guests of the highest calibre: Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Dr Einat Wilf, leading Zionist thinker, writer and former member of the Knesset, Ruth Wasserman Lande, advisor to the late President Shimon Peres, Loay Al Shareef, prominent voice from the UAE, Egyptian journalist, dissident and Hebrew speaker, Moataz Khalil, Dr. Youssef Choueiri, a pro-Palestinian anti-Zionist and Jonathan Paris, who’s consulted for the White House as an expert on Iran and the Arab world.

I’ll never forget the goodwill from our viewers and listeners, so much of it instantly via social media - and for the expertise of peace and understanding from these outstanding world class guests. I thank them all for joining me on the show and to TalkTV, who couldn’t have been more supportive in efforts to make this 🙏

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Our guest is Chaim Oren, an expert on resilience, wellbeing and high performance, who advises professional sportspeople and leading CEOs on fulfilling their human potential.

When it comes to strengthening personal resilience, Chaim quotes Victor E. Frankl, Auschwitz survivor and author of Man’s Search for Meaning: “If you have the why you can endure any how”.

Frankl, who conceptualised “logotherapy” a therapeutic approach to find personal meaning in life, believed anyone, anywhere could “rise up to any challenge”. “If you develop a life meaning you can overcome any difficulties, dangers and hardships".

Chaim is the son of two Holocaust survivors who arrived in British mandate Palestine on the Exodus ship in 1947. His late uncle Dov Shilansky, the 12th speaker of the Knesset, was a close confidant of Menachem Begin. He’s famous for saying, "we don't have another choice, we must fight for our life. I won't put up my head in the handing rope again."

We develop our conversation into how Israel comes together in times of existential crisis and how the intense unity has followed on from intense political divisions, created by the upheaval to reform the judiciary. Stories of great personal courage have emerged amid Hamas’ savagery and brutality on October 7th.

Listen now for a story of incredible heroism from an everyday Israeli, Rachel Edri, who kept Hamas fighters at bay for hours and hours and saved her own and her father’s lives. Chaim has a wealth of anecdotes and quotes in a rich conversation.

I hope you enjoy Chaim Oren’s company as much as I did.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education.

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In these times of danger in the Middle East, even on one’s own doorstep, it was both heartening and morale boosting for everyone who attended a Parliamentary reception at the Palace of Westminster.

Led by Elnet UK with United Hatzalah of Israel and World Jewish Relief, we learned of support on the ground for victims in the Ukraine and Israel. Meant to mark the 600th day since the war started in Ukraine, the Hamas terror attacks meant the focus shifted - though we were urged not to forget the war in Europe.

In both conflicts, we were reminded of the “sickening suffering” inflicted on innocent civilians. And not just of concern to Israel, but wars for the future of good overcoming evil. Shocking testimonies don’t seem to get easier to hear. We heard Noam Sagi’s heartfelt story of his mother’s kidnap from her kibbutz Nir Oz home.

He gave a news conference to London-based media. It’s coming up. I hosted the panel discussion with Assaf Admoni of United Hatzalah, Marta Kubica, chief executive of Elnet (Central and Eastern Europe), and Beth Saffer, head of older peoples’ programmes at World Jewish Relief. We’ll also heard from Minister for Immigration, Robert Jenrick MP, Wayne David MP, Shadow with responsibility for the Middle East and North Africa and Lord Stuart Polack.

But first to introduce the whole evening, Joan Ryan, CEO of Elnet UK. This episode is brought to you with Elnet UK, dedicated to strengthening relations between the UK, Europe and Israel based on shared democratic values and strategic interests.

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Words are important. In times of war, their importance is magnified. Never has my mission for Jonny Gould’s Jewish State seemed more urgent: to combat the slurs, the lies and the distortions of history which threaten Israel and Jewish people.

The media has a responsibility - at the very least - not to fan conjecture and untruths, because it comes with a by product: incitement.

And the media column seems found to be woefully short of moral purpose. Hundreds of thousands Britons felt emboldened to head for Central London in support of Hamas, which prompted a disagreement between the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman and the chief of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley about the small amount of arrests.

We hear from Sir Mark outside the Home Office as he left the meeting. As the weeks went by the protests, which became weekly got bigger, swelling from 100,000 to over 350,000 by week 4. Ms. Braverman eventually lost her job, describing the anti-Israel rallies as “hate marches” in a Times newspaper article.

We hear from UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak confirming the media’s scandalous rush to parrot Hamas’ claim that Israel bombed a Gazan hospital as a lie.

Mr Sunak visited Jerusalem to show moral support for Israel to meet his opposite number, Benjamin Netanyahu. We hear from both at a news conference.

And when the world’s lead international politician finds a way to blame Israel for the massacres perpetrated against them, you might wonder whether the world is ranged against Israel, holding the Jewish state to a different standard. UN secretary general Antonio Gutteres said Hamas’ butchery didn’t come “in a vacuum”.

The butchery, rape, kidnapping is given reason by the UN. The resolve to destroy Hamas amid calls for “proportionality” and a ceasefire have caused outrage in Israel. You’ll also hear from Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen.

If you enjoy my podcast and you’d rather it existed than not and that I kept doing it - you can buy me a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/jonnygould because it really helps! Tell your friends, subscribe now if you haven’t already and scroll back through the 120 previous episodes!

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Israel’s collective spirit is rekindled.

After eight months of street protests, of political turmoil and the societal divisions it scored arising from judicial reform proposals, the nation has responded in unity to the terror committed by brutal Hamas murderers, rapists and kidnappers on October 7th.

The people have risen “ground up, not bottom down” in the best ideals of Israeli and Jewish society. The IDF, the collective “us” has brought Israelis together once more.

And it’s a phenomenon our guest today says will change both the Middle East and Israel for good. Benny Davidson is an Entebbe hostage survivor.

Now aged 60, Benny was just 13 when he and his family were among those rescued in the legendary Israeli raid in July 1976. He gives talks across the world on hostage trauma and says he’d go anywhere to do so.

This episode is his insight into what the hostages are going through and what can and should be done to get over 200 babies, the elderly and whole family groups out of hell. He calls for more support for hostage families, which he and his brother Ron have already started to do.

His parents are still with us, in their late 80s - and he pays them a stirring tribute in love and respect. It was their quick thinking under pressure at Entebbe, which he says helped to form him. Benny also pays a deeply emotional eulogy to Yoni Netanyahu, brother of the Prime Minister, Benjamin, who commanded the elite Sayeret Matkal unit at Entebbe.

He gave his life that day.

🎙️LISTEN to the stirring words of Benny Davidson.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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Israel is heartbroken, the house of Israel is heartbroken. Israel is at war again fighting genocide.

It’s resilient people are traumatised by shock, horror and grief.

A quiet Shabbat morning, also the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah where Jews celebrate finishing reading the Torah and then start to read it again, “In the Beginning”, was shattered by a mass invasion of Hamas terrorists, smashing through the concrete border wall, paragliding into Israel, before rampaging through a music festival killing 364, machine gunning people at the bus stop and in their own homes in Sderot and on kibbutzim.

Gruesome videos and pictures swiftly circulated on X, horror one can never unsee.

The elderly and babies slaughtered, women raped, bodies taken in to Gaza paraded and desecrated, mothers with children in their arms abducted are all now hostages in Gaza’s terror tunnels and tower blocks.

Depravity and barbarism reminiscent of the European Holocaust and Russian pogroms. How did Israel’s famed security services miss this evil plan fermenting?

Can Israel contain this war to just one front? Or when Benjamin Netanyahu says retaliation will change the Middle East does that mean going to the source of this terror, Tehran?

Is the long anticipated attack from Hezbollah about to happen? And what catastrophe would this wrought on Israel’s towns and cities?

Hundreds of Israeli hostages were taken on October 7th.

Is a ground invasion the answer? How will Israel prevail?

These are questions for Israel’s former deputy national security adviser, Chuck Freilich, author of "Israeli National Security: A New Strategy for an Era of Change" and his latest, "Israel and the Cyber Threat: How the Startup Nation Became a Global Cyber Power." This episode also includes moving testimony from Michal Maayan, speaking in New York as Israel's permanent deputy representative. Let’s take a step back here, with someone I’ve come to know over the last couple of years, Chuck Freilich.

Support Jonny's ongoing coverage of October 7th from Israel's perspectives by donating here.

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This is a special episode featuring a competition winner from North West London Jewish Day School, who won the chance to make an episode of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State with me.

I ran it for Year 6 pupils and was delighted when 11-year-old Bella Bolot stepped up to the plate and secured us an interview with Bill Browder.

Bill is a London-based American-born financier, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, once the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia.

On discovering that taxes he was paying to the Russian exchequer were being stolen by middlemen officials, he started to expose large scale systemic corruption in the country. With his Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, he took on large companies like Gazprom and Sidanco. But as they confronted faceless power, the consequences were fatal.

In retaliation, in November 2005, Bill was refused entry to Russia, deported to the UK, and declared a threat to Russian national security.

But Sergei was tortured and murdered in prison for testifying on Bill’s behalf. He takes responsibility for this terrible crime and it totally changed the trajectory of his life, both private and commercial. Bill now heads the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign.

He gives us a snapshot of what Russia’s become under Vladimir Putin and how life isn’t just made up of comfortable decisions. Sometimes we have to take a stand. My thanks to Miss Caplan and Mr Radomsky at North West London Jewish Day School.

Listen here to Bella’s interview with Bill Browder.

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Our two guests today make their first appearances on the “podcast of record”, and you might say after 120 plus episodes of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State, they’ve been a rather glaring omission.

They are two of British politics' biggest supporters of Israel and opponents of antisemitism.

The Right Honourable, Lord Eric Pickles and the Right Honourable, Joan Ryan are in conversation.

We focus on the future of Holocaust remembrance, including a serious attempt to get to the bottom of what actually went on in the only concentration camp built on British soil by Hitler, at Alderney in the Channel Islands.

We also discuss the UK government bill to quell the racist endeavours of BDS.

The Anglo-Jewish community owes a debt to those in our political class who stood up to the growing scourge of antisemitism which followed Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party.

And typically, proof that the “oldest hatred” stands above party politics is the cooperation, even camaraderie, which exists right across party lines. Joan’s Labour, Eric’s Tory.

Once again, I handover the interview microphone for a deeper conversation between these two comrades.

The Rt Hon. Joan Ryan in conversation with Lord Eric Pickles is brought to you with Elnet UK, dedicated to strengthening relations between the UK, Europe and Israel based on shared democratic values and strategic interests.

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Help support Jonny's coverage of Israel and the Jewish diaspora by making a donation here or buying him a coffee here.

Let’s confront the latest expression of antisemitism: that which hates Jewish people for the State of Israel. I’m delighted that Jake Wallis Simons has given his first interview about his new book to Jonny Gould’s Jewish State, “Israelophobia: The Newest Version of the Oldest Hatred and What To Do About It”.

We can’t really have a conversation about Jew-hate in the 21st century without confronting those who try to separate anti-Zionism from antisemitism.

Because 9/10 Jews say Israel is key to their Jewish identity and it never takes long for antisemitism to spring from slurs which start with Israel. Enter Jake, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, who also writes for the Spectator, the Telegraph and you’ve seen him on Sky News reviewing the papers. He also spent time overseas as a foreign correspondent.

The time is ripe to discuss Israelophobia, the newest mutation of the oldest hatred. Jake’s book is out on 7th September and you can preorder it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Israelophobia-Newest-Version-Oldest-Hatred/dp/1408719274?nodl=1&dplnkId=67bc639c-0008-4097-a727-7d2f69c64ad5

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proud to be supported by Dangoor Education.

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Our guest today says the unedifying term “civil war” bandied describing judicial reform in Israel is a useful device to maintain pressure on both sides to find a solution.

Let me be clear: I spent much of July and August 2023 in Israel and the country is not “entering a state of civil war” as former Prime Minister and convicted criminal, Ehud Olmert claimed. There’s no curfews, no rubber bullets and no army in place of cops on the streets.

But that’s not to say this isn’t a serious situation. As positions entrench further, is hope for a solution ebbing away? Time for some realpolitik. While in Tel Aviv, I met historian and commentator, Dr. Edy Cohen, PhD. This is the third time Edy’s joined me on Jonny Gould’s Jewish State - but the first time face to face.

Beirut-born Edy has his finger on the pulse of the Arab world. He is a world authority on Muslim holocaust denial, Islamist terrorism and the history of Jewish communities in Arab lands.

There’s no one with a more amplified voice across the whole of the Middle East than Edy. He tweets almost exclusively in Arabic to over 570,000 followers. In 1991, the Lebanon he was raised in became too hostile, so he and his family fled for their lives and he’s lived in Israel ever since.

As a native Arabic speaker, Edy tweets through divides, talking directly to Arab audiences on Israel, the Jewish people and the religion which they never get at home. Edy’s a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from Bar-Ilan University and his 2017 book, “The Holocaust in the Eyes of Mahmoud Abbas” exposes a vicious holocaust denial at the top of the Palestinian Authority. And in “The Mufti and the Jews: his connections to the Nazis”, Edy reveals new evidence of a 1943 plan the Arab leader hatched with the Nazis to exterminate the Jews in mandate Palestine - if World War II had been lost.

But the allies won the Battle of El Alamein and so the Holocaust didn’t spread in any meaningful sense into the Middle East and Maghreb, where a million more Jews would surely have suffered the same fate as their brothers and sisters in Europe. So let’s talk about the collision of events which might lead to the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the burning of holy books in Sweden and what Israel has to do with Morocco’s territorial ambitions in the Western Sahara! And what precisely is the Saudi/US/Israel offer? “It’s bigger than Camp David”, says Professor Chuck Freilich, Israel’s former Deputy National Security Adviser, who also appears in this episode to outline the proposition.

A Senior Analyst at the Israel Ministry of Defense, policy adviser to a cabinet minister and delegate at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations. Chuck lays out the win-win-win for the US, Saudi and Israel - but as with all peace deals, it’s no free lunch.

Infact, what’s on the table is costly for Israel.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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Jonny Gould’s Jewish State heads for the Knesset in Jerusalem and a couple of nights out in Tel Aviv, fresh from an eye opening visit to the Israel-Gaza border (scroll back one episode for that atmospheric discussion beneath an Iron Dome rocket launcher).

I was part of an Elnet UK delegation, an organisation sharing democratic values and strategic interests between the Jewish State and the UK and Europe. Now let’s talk to politicians and an Iranian expert for a snapshot on regional and domestic issues.

The white heat of judicial reform has seemingly pushed the general public’s concerns about the Palestinians into the shadows.

I met Hanoch Milwidski MK on trying to bring Israelis back together although as a Likud member, he's highly critical of the protestors.

Then it’s off to Tel Aviv to meet Iranian expert, Dr. Meir Javedanfar, who supports the JCPOA. What many in Israel and around the world regard as appeasing the Iranian regime, allowing them space and time to create a nuclear weapon! Why does he support it? And he took part in the Iranian Revolution, yes really!

But first let’s hear the story of Ruth Wasserman Lande, a former Knesset MK, itching to get back and with seemingly endless ambition. Ruth served as advisor to Shimon Peres, as Deputy Ambassador at the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

Her parents arrived from Soviet Lithuania with nothing. Raised in a Russian speaking home, the Soviets even took her mum’s wedding ring off her. Real stories from real people. Lived-in and brought your ears.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is appreciative of the visit to Israel provided by Elnet UK and is supported by Dangoor Education.

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Let’s take you to a top secret location in the south of Israel to observe at firsthand an Iron Dome battery, followed by a trip to Kerem Shalom, the border frontier exchanging goods and workers between Gaza and Israel.

We were told by the IDF the night before not to come because there’d been incoming rocket fire which they’d defended against from that very location.

But in the end, the invite and clearance was reinstated. When I arrived there, I was surprised by the personnel in charge of the two bulky anti-missile launchers. The IDF soldiers responsible for defending Israel with the system were three 18 year old girls. I interview two members of the IDF, who reveal what it takes to be a soldier with split-second responsibility, to make crucial decisions - and at such a young age. The Jenin operation, dubbed “House and Garden”, (yes, really) was also in full action and yet another car ramming and stabbing greeted our arrival into Tel Aviv.

I was part of an Elnet UK delegation, an organisation sharing democratic values and strategic interests between the Jewish State and the UK and Europe.

Come with me as I cross both sides of the buffer zone on the main border between Israel and Gaza. Never forgotten. Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet.

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This is a story of moderation, to use our history of oppression to resist fascism, anti-Jewish hate and uphold the rule of law and maintain hard-fought for liberties. Russia led by Stalin and Germany by Hitler were gruesome, murderous, evil regimes.

Yet Soviet Russia’s crimes aren’t acknowledged in the same way as those perpetrated by the Germans and their accomplices across Europe. But they certainly are in this engaging chronicle of Lord Daniel Finkelstein’s own family history, “Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival”.

Danny’s parents, like my own grandparents and great uncles and aunts resisted victimhood to rebuild their family lives here in England.

I’m getting a taste for handing over the interview microphone because a previous interviewee now becomes the interviewer.

In episode 113, Dr. Bea Lewkowicz was interviewed by Jonathan Freedland as she knew both young men who escaped Auschwitz and warned the world of the horrors going on within. These are new details so rich in our podcast that Jonathan updated his bestseller, The Escape Artist.

Here Bea interviews Lord Danny Finkelstein about his book with a series of searching questions. Bea also knew both Danny’s parents and interviewed them for her AJR Refugee Voices Archive, where she’s director. Danny says his parents held Bea in high regard and like him, she is also the child of two Holocaust survivors.

That lived-in knowledge, that shared experience makes Danny delve into his own family story deeper than anything you might’ve seen or heard about his book so far.

Tell your friends and share my podcast with them. It’s in the Top 5% Most Shared Podcasts in the world, and for that I thank you so much. This is Bea Lewkowicz, director of AJR refugee voices, in conversation with Lord Daniel Finkelstein, author of Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education.

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This episode of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State focuses on the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE is asserting itself diplomatically on the regional and world stage. Should Israel be worried about the swirling winds of interests in the region?

The Emiratis have followed Saudi Arabia in re-establishing diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran - and Syria has been welcomed back into the Arab League fold, despite Bashar al Assad’s brutal and bloody decade-long civil war.

Furthermore, Assad has been invited by the hosts to the forthcoming COP28 conference in Dubai, posing a diplomatic problem for Western leaders to avoid being in the same room as him. After the euphoria of normalization in September 2020, Jonny takes the temperature of the Abraham Accords and wonders where the UAE's stunning rapprochements with former foes in the Middle East leaves Israel?

In preparation for this episode, Jonny went to the Israeli Embassy in London, and spoke exclusively to the Ambassador, Tzipi Hotovely and deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. Also in this episode, we hear a stunning rebuttal to European criticism of the UAE hosting COP28 from Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum, the Middle East's oldest privately held oil and gas company. As the world works towards the energy transition, should one of the world’s leading oil and gas providers be hosting it at all? You’ll get your answer here. And what if Labour get elected in the UK in 2024? We hear their policy about future oil exploration in the North Sea.

This really is a time of change. Let’s try to get some answers in this episode.

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Jonny Gould’s Jewish State circles back to a previous episode, uncovering startling new revelations. New details so rich, a bestseller has been updated to include them.

In episode 88, I sat down with my old friend, Jonathan Freedland to discuss The Escape Artist, the story of two young Jewish men who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world of the horrors within. Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler’s 32-page report reached the desks of Roosevelt, Churchill and the Pope and they warned Hungary’s Admiral Horthy to stop the deportation of his country’s Jews to Auschwitz - or they’d make him a war criminal.

On receiving this, Horthy panicked and stopped turning a blind eye to the death trains leaving from across Hungary. 200,000 Jewish lives were spared because of Vrba and Wetzler’s actions.

Dr. Bea Lewkowicz is a fellow member of my synagogue and one Shabbat morning, she told me that rather uniquely, she knew both Rudi and Alfred, who was her own Uncle Freddo.

But the contrasting post war fortunes of the two men was stark. Rudi lived a metropolitan academic’s life in Vancouver, but Fred was trapped behind the iron curtain in Czechoslovakia, constrained and ostracised by the repressive communist regime.

Bea is director of the AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive of the Association of Jewish Refugees, where she creates and archives holocaust testimonies. She’s also a director of Sephardi Voices UK. So for the first time in the series, I’m more than delighted to hand over the interview microphone to Jonathan, in conversation with Bea.

If you’ve read The Escape Artist and invested in their remarkable story, you’ll love this. If you haven’t, this is a great place to start.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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Follow Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast here.

“Since World War II, Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world.” is a brutal sentence from the start of “Rise and Kill First”.

Our guest is Ronen Bergman, author of the New York Times bestseller, which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It’s the product of a thousand interviewees, some of whom Ronen quizzed multiple times, along with millions of words of research.

The detail also comes from a wealth of unclassified documents, some long forgotten in the private possession of veterans who gave them to him.

There were many suggestions for the book’s title but “Rise and Kill First” from the Babylonian Talmud kept on coming up in the many conversations he had with his interviewees.

It’s a phrase which has become a mission statement, seemingly inscribed in the mindset - even hearts - of many of Israel’s defensive operators and underpinned by generational Jewish persecution.

But for all the sudden, brutal decision-making and actions, this remains a humane account and the hope which emerges from it for a more progressive society.

None of the contents of the book are endorsed or verified by the Israeli defense establishment - which makes the reading still more fascinating. Listen to this fascinating interview with Ronen Bergman.

Recorded in May 2023.

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This is my second sit-down interview with Trevor Horn and you’ll hear why it’s nothing like the first time. The previous one (episode 43) made an impression with Wikipedia’s editors, who included Trevor’s “I believe in Judaism, more than I believe in anything else” as a reference.

On leaving last time, Trevor told me at the door, "no one ever asked me about that before". In this in-depth conversation about his life and career, Trevor talks about growing up as a post-war baby boomer in Hetton-le-Hole and how the family left the Durham village to secure their future in the more prosperous midlands (as my own family had done a generation before).

We discuss Paul McCartney’s constant reinvention as the key to longevity and his own determination to keep working.

Then there’s Rod and the magnificent orchestral album, his most recent production. Trevor also pays a touching tribute to his late wife, Jill Sinclair, “the first person who told me I was good".

There’s also a couple of Jewish jokes she used to tell him too.

And we expand on his religious beliefs, how Shabbat is a “great idea” and reading the Torah illuminating. Trevor’s been touring the US as Seal’s musical director with support band, The Buggles, reuniting with his old friend, Geoff Downes. It was their number one hit, “Video Killed The Radio Star” which propelled him to fame before he became a producer on Jill’s recommendation.

There’s a stem-by-stem analysis of the brilliant “whiz bang” noises of Owner of a Lonely Heart, The Art of Noise, ABC’s band manifesto, the Belfast Child of The Simple Minds and why Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood sounds like the Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem! I had another hour of questions for Trevor, but I hope this gives you a snapshot of what a talented and modest man he is, and why I’ve been a fan since my teenage years.

Dear Listener, this is Trevor Horn II. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education.

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This is Sarah Idan’s story, Sarai more informally and publicly. She used to enter beauty pageants “to help bring people together”.

But as Iraq’s winning Miss Universe in 2017, she got much more than she bargained for. Sarai’s new life as a renowned Human Rights campaigner started there and then, when she took a selfie with Adar Gandelsman, participating alongside her as Miss Israel.

All hell let loose back home as the Iraqi tourism ministry ordered her to take the selfie down, “because it was harming the Palestinian cause“. “I said, what?”, Sarai replied and in that moment knew her feeling as an outsider even at home, was being realised.

The flurry of events which followed saw her family flee Baghdad and join her in a new life in California. Her Iraqi citizenship has been revoked, and she knows full well if she ever returned there, “I’d be killed in the airport”. Sarai now uses her fame and notoriety to push against despotism and terror.

She’s represented Hillel Neuer’s UN Watch in Geneva and as you’ll hear in this characteristically fearless discussion, she’s a champion of combating racism, prejudice and anti-Zionism among her own people, Arabs and Muslims.

She describes herself as a Zionist despite growing up around the incessant antisemitic echo chambers of Baghdad. Sarai is a lover of music and chose the theme tune for this episode, a stirring and emotional opus by Rachmaninov, “Symphony No. 2 Opus 27 III. Adagio” by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

The contrast between the music and her early life is rather striking. She is the CEO of an NGO called Humanity4Ward.

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These are the sage words of President Isaac Herzog as Israel's Head of State tries to bridge the gap between his people, the biggest schism in the young country’s history.

Jonny poses the questions and well-positioned experts and well-positioned protestors present opposing arguments.

PLUS we have an exclusive interview with Professor Avi Bell from the Kohelet Policy Forum, the very think tank who designed the proposals which threaten to tear Israel apart, conducted by Professor Chuck Freilich and Ambassador Danny Ayalon.

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The unedifying scurry by BBC management to get Gary Lineker back on air after suspending him diffuses both a row with its staff and kicks the can of impartiality into the long grass.

A couple of tweets by the BBC’s lead football presenter brought down the entire coverage of the Corporation’s TV and radio sport for a weekend.

Lineker compared the government’s language on immigration as "not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s”. He was suspended by the BBC’s Director General, Tim Davie on the grounds of breaking their social media guidelines.

In this special episode, we mop up the layers of unresolved issues that have fallen by the wayside in the rush to appease Gary and chums to get BBC Sport back onair.

Listen now for exclusive quotes from Panorama documentary maker John Ware, Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff, Nick Timothy, prominent journalists Nicole Lampert and Jonathan Sacerdoti, author of The Greatest Comeback, David Bolchover, Alex Hearn, Director of Labour Against Antisemitism and CEO of UK Lawyers of Israel, Jonathan Turner.

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A shining light in the shimmering city. “If you build it, they will come”, said Kevin Costner in the baseball movie, Field of Dreams – and there’s a similar vision for BNJC, Brighton & Hove’s new Jewish community synagogue and residential property development.

There are around 4,000 to 5,000 Jewish people in the East Sussex city and this audacious project is an attempt to revitalise Brighton & Hove’s Jewish community. The foundations were laid in 2015 and now it’s open.

BNJC has a beautiful modern synagogue with a tranquil feel, surrounded by 45 flats and houses built in a tower and around a mews courtyard, There are 55 underground parking spaces. The bar/cafe and restaurant with a kosher kitchen has the capacity to cater for your simcha of upto 220 people.

There’ll be a nursery onsite from the get-go as the aim is to encourage young families to live down on the Sussex coast.

Let’s hear more from CEO Marc Sugarman in this episode. Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet, promoting philanthropy.

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Big things are happening in the United Arab Emirates, really big things.

As the nation which reached out to Israel in the most expansive expression of peace yet with an Arab partner, it’s time Jewish people understood more about this nation.

Abu Dhabi is the stage for a new era of religious pluralism. The Emirati capital has opened the Abrahamic Family House, a beacon of mutual understanding, coexistence and religious peace.

It consists of a mosque, church, synagogue and educational center. In this episode, we hear from the Chief Rabbi of the UK and the Commonwealth, Sir Ephraim Mirvis at the opening of the first purpose-built synagogue in the Arab world for a century - and a few words from Pope Francis, who conducted mass in front of 130,000 Catholic faithful in Abu Dhabi.

2023 is also the year of COP28 in the capital and we hear from the president-designate, His Excellency Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who spoke about the future transition of the United Arab Emirates’ energy industry. Mr Al Jaber serves as the UAE's special envoy for climate change and the Emirates' state oil producer — the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

In this episode, His Excellency explains the need to balance the realities of providing the world with oil and gas today while creating a new future of clean energy tomorrow.

You don’t have to be Jewish to engage with Jonny Gould’s Jewish State. It’s a venture out for those who want to know more about the world which affects them and for non-Jews, who interact with Israel and Jewish people in the most positive and progressive way.

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Israel's judicial reform row is proving an awful spectacle for the watching world.

I wanted to find voices of moderation and considered opinion - and in particular, within the ruling Likud Party: is there anyone willing to stand up to Benjamin Netanyahu over the division this is causing?

As a diaspora Jew, I look on in dismay at the threat to unity of the Jewish people.

Just as bad has been some Jews in the diaspora publicly dissociating themselves with the Jewish State. Never. Not in this podcast.

I’m not saying for a moment the judiciary doesn't need reform.

It's just the way this is unfolding which is causing such upset. Benjamin Netanyahu's government are trying to force legislation "down the throat of half of the population", according to Israel's former ambassador to the US, Danny Ayalon.

And my guest today calls the Netanyahu government’s attempt at change a “sledge hammer” in what he calls an “I’ll show you” kind of political culture.

It’s the new CEO of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Dan Diker. Alongside, Dan, Ambassador Ayalon also appears in this episode, a Likud grandee confronting this issue.

There's also comment from Jerusalem's deputy mayor, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.

We also talk about the long-awaited arrival of Sudan to the Abraham Accords table and the sudden opportunities for defence and security from Africa plus the "untenable" violence from the Palestinians against everyday Israelis.

Then there's a definition of Jeremy Corbyn's version of political antisemitism and in the shifting sands of Middle Eastern diplomacy, what on earth has happened to Oman, who seem to have fallen under the spell of Iran's mullahs.

LISTEN to this fascinating, passionate, eyewitness conversation with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs' new president, Dan Diker.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet, promoting philanthrophy.

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Emily Schrader was back in London with Yoseph Haddad on a whistlestop UK speaking tour, which included a nasty confrontation with pro-intifada students on campuses in London and Nottingham.

Scroll back an episode for one of his energetic and hopeful speeches from the tour. Emily is an American-Israeli journalist and opinion former, a regular on the Jerusalem Post and the co-host of TV show, Headlines with the Haddads, an explainer on the Middle East to American audiences and tackling biogotry misinformation. In planning our conversation, we decided this time to take a snapshot of where the Middle East is on Iran.

Emily is in touch with normal Iranian people everyday, thanks to the marvels of social media. We also unpack what a two state solution can look like in the era of the Abraham Accords – and wave a magic wand over the constitutional crisis drummed up by the Netanyahu government who want to take advantage of Israel’s unwritten constitution and plan to make the Knesset superior over the judiciary.

A move to greater democracy or an illiberal elite, who won’t look after Israel’s minorities? LISTEN to this captivating and informed conversation.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education.

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Yoseph Haddad is an Arab Israeli who believes with body, mind and soul in his country. And by his country, I mean the State of Israel,

Yoseph joined up with StandWithUs UK at one of London’s oldest continuous communities, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in west London.

Being counterintuitive, Yoseph is the target of constant protest, even death threats – some substantial - as he advocates for both a Jewish and democratic state.

A smallish opposition greeted his arrival at University College London. Campuses are at the epicentre of anti Zionism and Palestinianism.

Yoseph was born in Nazareth and raised in Haifa, he served in the IDF’s elite Golani battalion and served in the 2006 Lebanon War. He was badly injured and lost friends and comrades beside him in battle. He was a commander, which means an Arab commanding among others, Jews.

Because as he says, it’s the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, not the JDF, it’s not exclusively Jewish. He runs Together Vouch for Each Other, an organisation building bridges between Arab and Jewish Israelis and to aid Arab mobility in Israeli society.

Yoseph is a captivating speaker, and I recorded his speech for this latest episode.

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This is a truly heroic story which starts in Holocaust disaster and heads to the glory of winning Europe’s greatest football prize. David Bolchover is the author of a biography on Bela Guttmann, “The Greatest Comeback, From Genocide to Football Glory”.

David recounts the story of Bela, the ultimate Jewish footballing hero, who survived to become a twice-winner of the European Cup with Benfica and the inspiration for one Portugal’s greatest stars, Eusebio.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with the support of Dangoor Education.

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Uri Geller went around the world, found and fame and fortune and has now returned home to Israel. Before Gal Gadot and Lior Raz, who was Israel’s biggest celebrity?

Uri magnetised the world - literally - with his amazing feats of showmanship. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State wouldn’t be complete without a record of the life of Uri Geller!

So what’s he doing now? Where is he? How did he attain such huge fame and notoriety and I ask him if Israel is the only place he could’ve possibly come from?

He’s also furious with Harry Kane for missing THAT World Cup penalty against France.

Find out how and why in this thrilling episode! Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet.

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John Ware is the BBC Panorama documentary maker who took on the Corbynites - and won.

His 2019 documentary “Is Labour Antisemitic?”, which was aired on BBC1, launched three long years of bitter legal struggle.

It’s unusual for a journalist to sue for defamation - but everything was at stake for John - from his own reputation to the basic principles of journalistic process.

So John sued the Labour Party, Jewish Voice for Labour and a fellow journalist, Paddy French - and with great fortitude and resilience won through.

It’s not entirely over. John needs to collect the damages awarded from those who defamed him and now Al Jazeera have produced what he calls “agenda journalism” in a 17 minute segment of a documentary, which vilifies a young man by the name of Luke Stranger.

We highlight that in this episode too. John’s not earned a penny for twelve months: defamation is a harrowing weight on one’s mind.

Not to mention the headspace one also needs to keep up with the news as a working journalist. But he’s back on the saddle and preparing to make another Panorama documentary on - Brexit! Find out how much the legal process cost those who defamed him, who they were in this gripping insider’s view.

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“Being a Zionist is the path to peace”.

There is hope in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Dr. Einat Wilf is a deep thinker on Israel’s ever-present challenge: the pursuit of existence in peace and security.

It was an honour to host the Q and A session for StandWithUs UK as Einat addressed London's South Hampstead Synagogue.

She was born in Jerusalem, raised in a Labour Zionist family and completed her Israeli military service as an Intelligence Officer with the rank of Lieutenant. Einat then went to Harvard University, got a BA in government and fine arts before earning an MBA from INSEAD in France and a PhD in political science at Wolfson College, Cambridge.

Einat describes herself as a Zionist, a feminist and an atheist. She says the Abraham Accords has created a competing narrative in the Arab world. We’re hearing it in the Gulf from a new generation of Arabs who recognise the path to growth is both economic and spiritual. I expressly heard it myself on my first ever trip to the UAE in November 2022.

Listen to this clearsighted analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the path which she believes will eventually lead to regional peace.

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Mumford and Sons were huge.

Over 14 glorious years, Winston Marshall and his friends rocked stadia in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring fans and headlined Glastonbury!

If you remember all the bearded hipsters and the tweed the kids were rocking, it’s likely they were listening to the Mumfords on their AirPods.

But Winston left the band in 2021 after tweeting about Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, a book written by American journalist Andy Ngo.

At first, Winston apologised for praising the book and decided he’d take a break from the band "to examine his blindspots". But a few months on, he then defended his support for Andy Ngo, and wrote about the reaction to his apology for the tweet.

He then announced he was leaving Mumford & Sons permanently to exercise free speech without involving his former bandmates. It was a moment of sadness as he expected he’d be playing with the guys he grew up with until retirement age.

So now he’s cast as a culture warrior, a description he’s in direct conflict with, as he likes to create culture - not go to war on it! Winston now produces an excellent podcast and he’s a magnet for guests including Douglas Murray, Jordan Peterson, David Baddiel, Graham Linehan and Candace Owens, who came out in defence of “Death Con 3” chump, Kanye West. Winston has a busy solo career - both in the studio and as a live performer around the world and our frank discussion is punctuated by his broad, infectious laugh. Given my delightful first couple of hours with him, he might just be better without them.

Listen and enjoy Winston Marshall! This is episode of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by both Dangoor Education and UK Toremet, promoting philanthropy.

You can support Jonny's podcast work by looking at the all the episodes and buying him a coffee here.

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This is the second podcast of discussions from a first ever trip to the United Arab Emirates.

I attended the Global Media Congress in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, an impressive showcase of regional media with a clear message: “The UAE is reaching out to the world in peace and cooperation”. Amjad Taha is a well-known influencer in the Gulf Cooperation Council with a significant following on social media.

The author of The Deception of the Arab Spring, an adviser to key institutions in the Arab world, Amjad was part of the first Bahrain UAE youth delegation to visit Israel as the ink was drying on the historic Abraham Accords.

So what drives the UAE and how is this impacting its foreign policy?

Also, in this episode, James Cleverly, Britain’s Foreign Secretary on his trip to Abu Dhabi, with a very personal experience of why the UAE and the partners of the Abraham Accords are such key allies.

This episode of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education.

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What do you know about the United Arab Emirates? Want to know more of Israel’s newest and perhaps most important partner in peace?

I’ve just returned from my first ever trip to an Arab nation. I went to the capital, Abu Dhabi, to the Global Media Congress, a highly impressive showcase of regional media - with exhibitors from further afield including the Philippines, Russia, Azerbaijan - and Israel.

It’s a place where East meets West.

My guest today is typical of the spirit of big heartedness.

His name is Loay Alshareef and he gave me a very personal guided tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, in which we talked about the differences between Islam, Judaism and Christianity - but more importantly their parallels, what binds us as people of faith - in a world where secular society’s norms can often compromise the beliefs of more conservative minded people.

The majesty and craftsmanship of this 21st-century wonder is breathtaking. The extravagant chandeliers in each room, the beautifully etched windows including the 99 Koranic words for G-d.

The UAE is a nation state insistent on pursuing peace in the world - even with partners who they may still have fundamental, outstanding differences with. It has a defined national story, a founder and a magnificent foundation stone in the form of the Grand Mosque.

It’s all very contemporary. Very 21st century and UAE nationhood is wrapped up in Islam, an Islam of tolerance and engagement and peace. Why? Because they’re a nation in a hurry to build and create, to diversify from 20th century oil and gas to new digital and climate economies.

They need the best talent from around the world to help them do it - now! So Just 12% of the country is Emirati. The remaining 88% is made up of foreigners.

Like London, 200 languages are spoken among its people. Loay is outward looking and educated internationally - he is a student of languages, an alumnus of Penn State University, he’s a computer engineer by qualification, loves nothing more than assembling them!

LISTEN to a fascinating trip around the Global Media Congress in conversation with Loay Alshareef.

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Fleur Hassan-Nahoum is Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem with an ambitious eye on the future. Her flying visit to the UK gave us a chance to chat on Jonny Gould’s Jewish State for the second time.

Another year to go in office in Jerusalem, but will she stand for another term? There’s a Likud government to be a part of - and given her unique background, what about becoming an ambassador? She has strong diplomatic skills with her experience In Jerusalem in dealing with diverse communities. And Fleur comes from Gibraltar with English and Spanish as mother tongues (she’s the daughter of Gib’s first ever Chief Minister).

Fleur also co-founded the UAE-Israel Business Council and we discuss the “baby steps” towards societal change in the conservative Arabian Gulf.

Let’s also have a sober talk about Smotrich and Ben Gvir, the extreme end of Netanyahu’s comeback government. What are they really about? Is Bibi actually the root to a more stable Israel? Why has the deal with Hezbollah and Lebanon’s government over the Karish Gas Field got so many positives?

And what about Qatar, the World Cup, slavery and deaths - and the outside possibility that one day, they may be peace partners? It’s all here. Listen to another energetic episode with Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with UK Toremet.

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You’ve never heard a story like this!

Catherine Perez-Shakdam lives in the UK. She was born and raised in France and also lived in Yemen and Iran.

While living in Tehran and married with kids, she mixed in the regime classes, socialising, even going on pilgrimages to Iraq. Nothing unusual about that, you say.

But Catherine is Jewish, of French Sephardi background. As an outsider in plain sight, Catherine never revealed her Jewishness - obviously - so got up close to the leadership. She says it’s a deeply political and ideological regime, not religious.

Even Nihilistic. In Yemen, Catherine started writing articles critical of the Saudis which came to the attention of Iran. And while living there, she travelled with President Raisi on his private plane during election campaigning - and asked for and got a private audience with the Ayatollah Khamanei.

This is Catherine’s highly revealing and detailed story of what drives Iran’s ruling class. It’s a forensic eyewitness of a regime, which she says infiltrates the West - with murder on their minds.

And that’s not all about Catherine. She’s descended from Sephardim who stayed in Spain for centuries after the 1492 expulsion. The 1930s, in fact, when her family ran from Franco’s fascists aiming for Palestine - with tragic consequences.

So this is also a story of Jewish resilience. How trauma can travel through generations yet Jews emerge triumphant in a culture which strives for a better life for its children even at cost to oneself. Catherine is now a research fellow for the Henry Jackson Society.

This is the extraordinary life of Catherine Perez-Shakdam. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet. Help support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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The decades old Israel-Lebanon maritime border dispute is making headlines again with the planned Israeli start-up for drilling for offshore gas in Karish in the Mediterranean.

But escalating rhetoric from Iranian-sponsored Shiite terror group Hezbollah threatens war. Their leader Hassan Nasrallah claims some of Karish sits north of Lebanon’s border line.

Western Europe needs Mediterranean gas since Russia invaded Ukraine. Germany and their like need to extricate themselves from Putin’s weaponisation of energy.

Can Israel avoid war to become a regional energy power?

And what about the Iranian protests at the same time as America attempts to renegotiate the JCPOA deal in Vienna?

Edy Cohen’s a native Arab speaker, born and raised in Beirut, now living in Israel.

He has over half a million followers across the Arab world.

He tweets Israeli and Jewish perspectives to the Muslim neighbourhood, delving deeper than almost anyone.

Edy deals in absolutes, in realpolitik and it’s the second time he’s appeared on Jonny Gould’s Jewish State.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry establishment doesn’t like him because his outreach is both powerful - and unrestrained by the filter of diplomatic niceties.

That’s why I like him, that’s why you reacted so positively to him – and that’s why he’s back.

Welcome Edy Cohen back to our podcast!

Help support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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Jason Greenblatt joins us for a second time as he looks on at how the Abraham Accords has matured since those historic signings in 2020. In our last instalment, Jason had just left Washington DC after co-writing President Trump’s "Peace to Prosperity Plan for Palestinians and Israelis" with Jared Kushner and US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.

It was a breakthrough document which helped seal the first four Abraham Accords agreements. Now he’s here to discuss his book, “In the Path of Abraham: How Donald Trump Made Peace in the Middle East - and How to Stop Joe Biden from Unmaking It”.

Throughout our two interviews, Jason’s instinct for families and the worlds that revolve around them - on both sides - has always been at the fore: that each person he’s negotiated with is also a family man with roots, dreams and a future.

I’d like to think this interview has a texture of two people who’ve come to know each other a bit better. I’ve come to respect Jason’s work in the pursuit of peace - always based on the realities. Will President Joe Biden pursue the amazing breakthrough of the Abraham Accords or will he and his administration continue to bolster Iran’s nuclear ambitions?

And would he return to Washington if Donald Trump became President again? This is Jason Greenblatt. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet. Help support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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The Elizabethan Age draws to a close. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest serving monarch passed away peacefully at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire on Thursday 8th September 2022 after 70 years on the throne.

Her loss is indescribable and her passing has sparked the most extraordinary outpouring of grief from across the world.

But what did she mean to her Jewish subjects? Will the nation’s temperature change? Is the end of the Elizabethan age a symbol of the end of the post World War II settlement? Will King Charles live upto his role? And where does Israel fit into it?

As the nation comes to terms with the loss of the Queen, Jonny Gould covers the whirlwind of constitutional events and political change. The episode also includes audio tributes from the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, Lord Stuart Polak, Lord David Wolfson, the Right Hon. Grant Shapps and international royal correspondent, Jonathan Sacerdoti.

I also have a lovely anecdote from Israeli President, Isaac Herzog.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you in association with Dangoor Education.

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Hillel Neuer is so often the lone voice talking truth to power at a United Nations seemingly on interminable mission creep.

Western countries are loosening their resolve in countering dictatorships. And worse still, power groups inside the UN Human Rights Council are trying to silence him.

Hillel is Executive Director of UN Watch, the human rights NGO based at the UN in Geneva. Since 2009, he’s headed the annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, a renowned international gathering which provides a platform to courageous pro-democracy dissidents who put their lives on the line to demand fundamental freedoms in oppressive regimes.

I was invited to host and interview Farida Khalaf, the Yazidi girl who escaped Isis. As America's vaccum is filled by China at the UN, Hillel says the repurposing of the United States' goals must start back home. What hindrance is the UN to Israel, which so often gets a rum deal in Geneva? And what future does the free world have? Is Hillel optimistic or pessimistic from his Geneva vantage point? And who’s his favourite pop star? Have a listen to appreciate the indefatigable Hillel Neuer!

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet. Help support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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She’s one of Britain’s most successful and irreverent writers. I met Julie Burchill at one of her favourite places on the Sussex coast - in Hove, actually, her home town for the last 27 years.

Julie started her glittering career at the NME in 1976, aged 17 and left when after just two years as she thought that people in their twenties who still wrote about music were ‘sad old men'.

Since then she’s had number one best-selling novels, won an Emmy and been condemned in the House of Commons.

Now, in her sixties, she proclaims she’s in glorious decline - but still a cracking little scribbler. And there’s another consistent dimension to her writings.

She’s always loved Jews and Israel. For a while she learned modern Hebrew at night class and even joined a synagogue.

We got together to promote her brand-new substack articles, www.julieburchill.substack.com and in particular her new novella, the Judgement of Solomons, the story of an unlikely Aliyah between an Israeli and his second wife, a non-Jewish woman with the son from his first marriage hanging around.

But the story has an extraordinary raison d’être, stay tuned to find what that is. Then our conversation moved onto the themes of her brilliant book, Unchosen, an autobiography through the prism of her long held philosemitic views. There’s also the why and when she quit cocaine, we lift the lid on what motivates her prolific writing career and why Israelis are turned on by the raw sex appeal of the Birmingham accent!

Though this is the first time I'd met Julie, it's not the first time she came up in conversation in Jonny Gould's Jewish State and I include a tribute to her from fellow writer and commentator, Brendan O'Neill.

Stay tuned for a lovely conversation practicing her three favourite hobbies. luncheon, Modern Hebrew and spite. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet. Help support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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Only four Jewish prisoners ever escaped the vicious SS guards, their ferocious dogs, rows of tall electrified fences and men on watchtowers wielding automatic weapons of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

But Walter Rosenberg, just 19-years-old used knowledge, cunning and patience to do what no Jew had done before.

He and Alfred Wetzler, in his early twenties, escaped from Auschwitz. But Walter, later to become Rudolf Vrba, hasn't been legendized like others who emerged from what became known as the Holocaust.

Until now. Because his audacious breakout with Fred saved the lives of 200,000 Jews, mostly from Budapest. They revealed Europe’s depraved undertaking to destroy its Jews - and warn those yet to be uprooted - Hungary’s Jews - of their inevitable destruction - if they got on trains bound for “new lives in the east” as they were told.

Even if those in power had known about the mass extermination of the Jews for sometime, their vivid Auschwitz attracted mass media and exerted political pressure. And Rudi had something else which marked him out, being young and fit was one thing, but he also had an extraordinary capacity for memory: counting and record keeping in his head.

It enabled him to write a comprehensive 32 page report with Fred to reveal the precise hell they’d come from. The media was alerted and it ended up in the hands of Churchill, Roosevelt and the Pope. This is the life story of Rudolf Vrba, The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland.

This is a special interview as I've been friends with Jonny for 40 years and we talk about a few other parts of our friendship too. Jonny Gould's Jewish State podcast is supported by Dangoor Education.

You can buy The Escape Artist right here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Escape-Artist-Broke-Auschwitz-World/dp/1529369045 Help support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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Our guest today is a Rabbi raised in Kharkiv, Ukraine from the age of 6 months, it’s pretty much all he’s known. Rabbi Mendel Moskovitz moved there as a baby with his parents, Moishe and Miriam as his family served as Chabad emissaries to rebuild Jewish life in Kharkiv, following the fall of Communism. Graduating as a rabbi in Sydney, Australia,

Rabbi Moskovitz returned home with his wife, Chani. There he raised three children, and served as a Rabbi to Ukrainian youth for 7 years, until war changed everything.  Now he is ambassador to The Jewish Relief Network Ukraine.

I’m making this appeal on behalf of the vital work of this charity completely voluntarily, without fee or personal gain.

He highlights acute Jewish suffering to the world and raising funds for the incredible work being done by Chabad to provide vital humanitarian relief. JRNU is the umbrella organization for operations in Ukraine, providing food, medicine and medical care, housing and even security. Donate now at www.JRNU.org Through 48 regional coordinators and staff on the ground in 35 cities, JRNU is serving people too frail to flee, those who are otherwise unable to flee, and those who refuse to leave behind a husband, child, father or other loved one.

Without a working economy, unemployment is at an astronomical rate and tens of thousands of people rely on JRNU each week for basic necessities. By donating at jrnu.org or by following the link in the podcast description, you can send desperately needed money to support ongoing work in Ukraine. If you run a community, please think about magnifying JRNU’s voice in the to reach more caring and concerned individuals who may support the work of Rabbi Moskovitz and the Chabad efforts in Ukraine, who could even come and talk in your community.

Donate now www.JRNU.org Help support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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Our guest today is Douglas Murray, best-selling author of The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity and Islam and The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity - and now The War On The West, how to prevail in the age of unreason.

All the narratives and assumptions which underpin our understanding of the western societies we grew up in are under attack - from within.

Much of it is being fought through the prism of race. Douglas examines how Western civilisation and its achievements in culture, science medicine and free thought, not to mention how these were so hard fought for and won, are being challenged by universities, corporations, broadcasters and the church, in what looks like a wilful self-immolation.

And these anti-Western attacks also go after Jews and Israel. But what’s the purpose of it? When will this debt be paid off by Western nations and their majority populations?

What’s the end game - and what are the consequences? Is this how civilisations come to an end? And if some of these progressive arguments prevail, can we all continue to live together in tolerance? What do we do?

Before you pack your bags, let Douglas present his arguments! Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with UK Toremet, Promoting Philanthropy.

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Ambassador Ron Dermer and Ed Husain addressed a live audience for StandWithUs UK, which I hosted in Central London.

These two friends were instrumental in creating the pathway which led eventually to the Abraham Accords.

This was no ordinary occasion and I won’t forget posing the questions, just as those in attendance will remember being there.

We talk about Israel’s relationships with Russia, the Jews in Ukraine even Russian coordination in Syria over Israel’s security issues.

Then there’s Iran and the JCPOA nuclear treaty, BDS and diaspora Jewry, Jeremy Corbyn and a growing theme of Jonny Gould‘s Jewish State: the relationship between Islam and Judaism and how it can bind people in a region where religion is so important.

Sit back and enjoy a gripping conversation with two of the world’s most well-informed people on the biggest diplomatic breakthrough of our age.

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Len Khodorkovsky is an American story.

The same one repeated throughout generations of Jewish history.

And his comes from today’s Ukraine where in 1981, young Len and his refusenik parents and grandparents fled the Soviet Union for the USA. Because by 2017, Len took an oath of office in the US State Department.

“That’s quite a trajectory”, he says with considerable understatement.

The poignancy is there’s bound to be another Len, barely a teenager trying to escape Ukraine (and even Russia) as we listen - destination unknown - just heading west. Len served at the US State Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Global Public Affairs.

He was also a Senior Advisor to the US Special Representative for Iran and the Chief Marketing Officer of America’s economic diplomacy.

It was his two decades as an advertising executive which led to this extraordinary period. And it’s this creative approach which he says gave the Trump administration a greater dynamic to problem-solve than the more conservative, risk averse diplomatic column.

Len holds up the Abraham Accords as a prime example of that dynamism.

Our conversation is rich in life experience, anecdotes and takeaways.

LISTEN to how he’s returning to media to produce a lasting legacy for the Accords with a new TV channel called Yalla.

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The National Jewish Assembly's held its inaugural reception for brand new members and interested parties at London's Jewish Museum in Camden Town.

CEO James Marlow and Chairman and founder Gary Mond were joined by members of the new advisory board to outline their plans and directions.

So why has this all come about?

What’s wrong with Anglo-Jewish leadership which they think needs to be addressed? Is it just a column of disaffected right wingers as certain media have insinuated?

I caught up with both James and Gary, who set the record straight, outline their hopes and ambitions for the group and explain the three foundational pillars on which it's based.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet. Jonny produces these podcasts for free. You can help support the show with Gift Aid at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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Our guest today is Israel Bonds executive director of sales and operations in Europe and Latin America, Arnon Perlman.

It’s never been easier or more accessible to invest in the State of Israel. This episode explains how (and you can follow the link to do so). www.online.israelbondsintl.com

Arnon’s led a life of public service in Israel. Before joining Israel Bonds, he served as prime minister Ariel Sharon’s head of communications for four years, on duty and on call at every waking (and sleeping hour) and he pays a touching tribute of deep respect and love for his former boss. Arnon gives us his personal recollections of one of Israel’s most important figures in history.

He was also consul general of Israel’s Consulate in Shanghai, China. Stay tuned for his experiences and takeaways from living in China, their place in the world and how they view themselves.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with Israel Bonds, Invest in Israel, Invest in Israel Bonds. Invest now: 💵 Buy online at www.online.israelbondsintl.com

Terms and conditions apply. See the Israel Bonds website for details. Your capital is at risk. Development Company for Israel International Limited is Authorised and regulated by the financial conduct authority.

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Malcolm Green, filmmaker, innovator and storyteller who targets new audiences with new medium. “Finding Abraham” is his movie on how the most important diplomatic breakthrough of our age is filtering down to ground level across the Middle East.

It follows a trip through Israel with the “Leaders of Tomorrow, a group from Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt and Morocco recording their reaction to what they see - and to each other.

Our conversation is twice as long as the movie because we delve deeper into its themes, discussing the characters, the region, Malcolm’s own background and how his views have changed while making his many films across the world. “Finding Abraham” has won a multitude of film awards across the world and is available to watch now on YouTube and Vimeo.

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

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"If you erase the Jewish connection with the Holy Land, where does it leave us? Islam just floats in the air". Our guest today has an unequivocal message of peace between Muslims and Jews and his solution comes from faith and identity - from religion, not secularity.

His name is Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, also known as the Imam of Peace. He has an extraordinary outreach in the world, with over 900,000 Twitter followers plugged into his worldview. In the secular west and its historical colonies with national borders, is it possible to unite them through faith? The Abraham Accords suggest this is a key to a lasting peace. But what about the Palestinians? Where do they fit in? Is it true the gulf Arabs don’t even regard them as Arabs, let alone a Muslim cause?

And is antisemitism behind the world’s support for them? Get your head around this fascinating theological conversation with Imam Mohammad Tawhidi.

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When it comes to Israel, there’s no more powerful a journalistic voice across the Arab world than Edy Cohen.

This is his one-man story.

You likely won’t have heard of Edy, but note the name, because he tweets mostly in Arabic. Edy has half a million X followers, almost exclusively in the Middle East and North Africa.

Educating, informing, entertaining, even mocking Arabs in the colloquial language of the street - his mother tongue.

He was born in Beirut in Lebanon, as were his parents and grandparents. fluent in Arabic, French and fine in English as you’ll hear, his engaging style gets him loads of airtime across MENA.

The Israeli Ministry of Exterior find his outreach powers annoying and exclude him from their work. Perhaps his less than diplomatic approach to reportage is the key reason. But the truth is he exists in this social media era and he cuts through into Arab eyes and ears.

Listen now to this serious BUT unofficial Hasbara giant. Help support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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This unique Jewish and Israeli podcast goes from strength-to-strength, attracting a worldwide audience in all four corners.

Jonny's upped the pace of episode releases since the turn of the year. Have you listened recently? Time for a catchup!

Subscribe and listen at http://www.linktr.ee/Gould

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When Tuvia Tenenbom’s in London, it’s always a pleasure to catch up with him.

The Taming of the Jew, Tuvia’s book on British antisemitism and Anglo Jewry’s approach to it was showcased at London’s Jewish Book Week.

And while his dim view of British Jewish leadership is pretty much the same as when he was finalising his findings back in 2019, the world has moved on and he has plenty of new observations to make. His view of progressives and woke culture, the standard of journalism across the western world and the sudden outbreak of war in the Ukraine are all covered in another gripping and vital conversation.

Listen here to the one and only, Tuvia Tenenbom. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with UK Toremet.

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What an excitement to have a very sudden opportunity to talk to Professor Dershowitz. My friend Lawrence Ryz dropped him an email on my behalf, he said “yes”, I sent him a Zoom and off we went. And the conversation was as vibrant as it was rich in anecdotes.

Just need to talk to him again after this. Among the Jeffrey Epstein/Prince Andrew trial, we discuss how free speech is being imperilled on university campus and he accuses BBC News of “advocacy not journalism”.

He also tells a great golf joke about the Lubavitcher rebbe! All human life is here, listen now to Professor Alan Dershowitz.

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Yosef Haddad and Emily Schrader educate the world and rebut the lies told about the State of Israel. They’re an Israeli couple who are engaged to be married, but that doesn't mean they're a Jewish couple.

Yoseph is an Arab Israeli from Nazareth while Emily, who’s Jewish is originally from Seattle, Washington in the US. They are both implacably committed to the Jewish and democratic State of Israel.

Yoseph volunteered three years of his life to serve in the IDF (in the elite Golani battalion) and Emily made Aliyah when she was 23.

They are highly regarded throughout the world for confronting the misinformation that libels the Jewish state in media, parliaments and educational elites every day. They came to London, where they met the Israeli ambassador, Tzipi Hotovely and headed to London’s Speaker’s Corner to take on antizionists and terrorist supporters.

They then flew to Ireland and Yoseph spoke in the Irish parliament.

This is an in-depth conversation in which we talk movingly about Yoseph’s army service and how the 2 million Arabs in Israel are not all Palestinians, as the media constantly simplifies.

Far from it. Emily slams the Amnesty International report which dubs Israel an “apartheid state” and how their relationship represents a part of what Israel is about, Jewish and democratic. This episode also includes audio comment from Jason Greenblatt, Colonel Richard Kemp, Dr Nachman Shai and Professor Gerald Steinberg, all of whom have spoken exclusively to me in previous episodes. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet.

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“I’m a proud Babylonian Jew”. Carol Isaacs is an author, cartoonist, accordionist and keyboard player. This is a wonderful creation matched by a wonderful conversation with Carol.

And she’s poured every part of her extraordinary musical and graphic gifts into recounting her family‘s history in Babylon across 2,600 years.

“The Wolf of Baghdad” is a vivid, vital recollection of Jewish life and culture stretching back generation after generation in what is now modern day Iraq. Jews lived there long before Christianity and Islam spread among its people.

Our episode includes the stirring music, created and performed by Carol in a conversation detailing her inspirations and the drive behind creating it. Both the Wolf of Baghdad and Jonny Gould’s Jewish State are proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

All the music in today’s episode is performed and composed by Carol Isaacs. Buy the 📀 here: https://www.thesurrealmccoy.com/product/the-wolf-of-baghdad-dvd-rom/

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As Israel's skies reopened to the world, it was time to reacaquaint ourselves with Israel's national airline, El Al.

This is the story of two torrid years for the airline industry, just as things were getting really good for air travel in early 2020.

So how did El Al deal with the darkest days of Covid lockdown, what lessons did they learn from this unprecedented business crisis - and what's in store for passengers now we're all invited back on board?

Meet El Al Israel Airline's Oranit Bethalachmi, regional manager for Western Europe and Africa as Israel's skies reopen. Book your flight now at elal.co.uk

And help suppport Jonny's podcasts by buying him a coffee!

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While the Prime Minister fended off opposition derision and revolt from a few of his own backbenchers with his statement on Sue Gray’s pandemic partying, I was upstairs awaiting our guest who was in the chamber listening to Boris’ party piece.

But it was peace of quite another kind I’d come to Parliament to talk about - with The Right Honorable Dr Liam Fox MP, chair of the UK Abraham Accords Group. The Abraham Accords is a pact which normalises relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

We discuss the rapid pace of change it’s bringing to the Middle East, how Dr. Fox explains Britain’s role "on the front foot" and speaking as a former Trade and Industry Secretary in charge of negotiating new trade arrangements, how strategic it is to Britain in the post-Brexit era.

Jonny produces these podcasts for free. You can help support the show with Gift Aid at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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Did Saul Singer and Dan Senor imagine their best-selling book, Start-up Nation, would reframe Israel’s brand - even its perception - right across the world?

The book describes our guest today as “one of Israel’s legendary business ambassadors… whose taken on a role that anywhere else, would typically belong to the Chamber of Commerce, Minister of Trade, or Foreign Secretary.”

But what is it that drives Israel’s extraordinary economic miracle and investability? And what extra dividends will peace and normalisation with the Arab world bring to the Middle East?

Welcome to Jonny Gould’s Jewish State, Jon Medved, CEO of Our Crowd.

This episode is not sponsored by Our Crowd, but you can support Jonny here if you like his insights and interviews about Israel.

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Are you a member of a mainstream Orthodox Jewish community? Do you regard yourself as a “liberal” whether your political views are left or right? How should we include Jewish LGBTQ+ people in our communities?

At the moment, they live on the fringes of the mainstream, neither included or excluded. Is that fair? Would it be so difficult to accommodate or recognise a union of two Jewish people of the same sex? Or would it bring the whole tent of Jewish values down with it?

Is it the job of Judaism to resist secular trends - or is acceptance of same sex unions permanent societal progress? I’m putting this out there because the life choices presented to people in society clash with traditional, mainstream Jewish organisations, if not the values of the Jewish people who make up their membership.

Ben M Freeman is a thoughtful, respectful, proud Jew and Zionist, who’s adding a key voice and ideas to the community. This is also about every Jew expressing pride in themselves and to resist non-Jewish perceptions of who we are.

Have a listen and tell me what you think. Leave a rating or review at Apple Podcasts and a reply to @jonnygouldpod on X

Buy Ben’s book here ▶️ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jewish-Pride-Rebuilding-Ben-Freeman/dp/1913532135

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What has happened to American foreign policy since Joe Biden took the presidency from Donald Trump? Is every despot in the world emboldened by the shocking withdrawal from Afghanistan?

And what does this mean to Israel as it faces the existential threat of Iran edging closer to nuclear capability?

As the latest round of JCPOA talks between Iran and the US continue in Vienna, Israel correspondent James Marlow brings his latest “Israel Briefing 4” to Jonny Gould’s Jewish State.

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He’s been the youngest ever chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee with a military career served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tom Tugendhat MBE MP is an Arabic speaker and a fervent supporter of Israel who names of one the Jewish state’s Prime Ministers as a political hero(ine), Golda Meir.

He takes this opportunity to pay tribute to the small band of Jewish soldiers serving in the British military.

This episode remembers Lieutenant Paul Mervis from the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, who was killed near Sangin in northern Helmand, Afghanistan in June 2009.

He’s campaigning for the Law of Treason to apply to terrorist atrocities committed at home by British citizens after the unspeakable murders of fellow MPs Sir David Amess and Jo Cox and according to our mutual friend, Nick Timothy, former chief of staff at number 10, he’d make a great Foreign Secretary.

I met Tom for the first time a few months before this interview as he helped launch EMAN, the Extremist Monitoring Analysis Network which aims to "combat hate speech and extremist ideologies by profiling radical individuals and organisations of all faiths".

This is Tom Tugendhat MBE MP.

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A crowd of around 250 gathered to hear Gideon Falter of the Campaign Against Antisemitism demand of the BBC, “Where is the proof? Tell the truth”.

This is about a bus load of Jewish people heading down London’s Oxford Street in high spirits, dancing and singing celebrating Chanukah - only to be attacked by an aggressive group of men shouting anti-Zionist jibes, banging their shoes against the bus windows and panels, performing Nazi sieg heil salutes and then chasing the bus down the road.

But the BBC covered the incident claiming they’d heard conclusive proof of an anti-Muslim slur which had come from inside the bus.

All this from a video recorded by someone in the vehicle. BBC London TV went further and broadcast speculation that the slur might’ve even triggered the group of men into attacking the bus in the first place.

Joining Gideon on the stage was Fiyaz Mughal OBE of Muslims Against Antisemitism who reminded the crowd that bias against minorities also extends to stereotypes about Muslims too.

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Beatie Deutsch, elite marathon runner, Israel’s three-time national champion, Olympic and World Championships hopeful, face of the Adidas “Impossible is Nothing” campaign - and Orthodox Charedi mother of FIVE.

She won the Tiberias Marathon, which she called “a useful practice run”. Her running style and extraordinary pace isn’t the first thing one notices.

She wears modest clothing and covers her hair while she runs. Her values attracted Adidas to seek her out, joining Lionel Messi, David Beckham and Beyoncé on the roster. For a multinational corporate that usually shies away from G-d and spirituality, this is quite the departure. In this extraordinary episode,

Beatie also discusses manifestation as part of spiritual and psychological race preparation. 🎙Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education.

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President of Israel Isaac Herzog’s visit to Great Britain in November 2021 set a new high mark in the nation-to-nation relationship.

His Excellency met the Prince and Princess of Wales, who themselves just returned from a Royal tour of the Middle East in Jordan and Egypt and an exhibition at Chelsea FC, honouring elite Jewish athletes murdered in the Holocaust, President Herzog departs the chair of the Jewish Agency to become Israel’s head of state, pledging to strengthen diaspora ties to his nation.

As you’ll hear his family spent over a century in the UK before moving to Israel and says his British-Jewish heritage shapes his identity and his mission as President.

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Today’s guest is the UK Ambassador to Israel, His Excellency Neil Wigan.

Britain and Israel have never been closer. Values are converging in the post-Brexit and the Abraham Accords eras: two nation states with common values, industries and defence challenges.

And Ambassador Wigan is the embodiment of that; he’s married to an Israeli, Yael and they have two children.

There’s some straight talk coming up in this episode, like when is the British embassy joining the US in Jerusalem? But he’s under no illusion of the existential threat posed by Hamas and others in the south and Hezbollah in the north.

🎙Listen to the UK Ambassador to Israel, His Excellency Neil Wigan.

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Ambassador Dr. Michael Oren: solider, diplomat, ambassador, politician, author, journalist, opinion leader.

Dr. Oren was Israel’s ambassador to the US for four years until 2013, during fraught years where allies felt a personal enmity to one other, President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Born into small town upstate New York in 1955, young Michael swapped the wealth and confidence of post-war America for a front seat in what he calls the nation of miracles.

His childhood was influenced by his father and uncle’s US Army service in World War II and the terrible discovery of what the Nazi enemy had done to the Jews of Europe.

But young Michael set about mapping out his life ambition to be Israel’s ambassador to the States, making Aliyah at 24.

And for all the challenges Israel faces, Michael’s arch-optimism is based on lessons from Jewish history.

🎧LISTEN to Ambassador Dr. Michael Oren. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education.

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In this special Israel Briefing number 3, Jonny Gould’s Jewish State Israel Correspondent, James Marlow joins us to talk about the race to become the next Jewish Agency chair. The Jewish Agency is the bridge between the diaspora and Israel and prospective candidates are keener than ever to build and sustain relationships between Jews at home and abroad.

You’ll hear the latest from James as the race hots up and from two frontrunners for Israel’s most important job behind that of the country’s President and Prime Minister. Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan Nahoum and His Excellency Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013.

Isaac Herzog stepped down as chairman in July 2021 to be sworn in as the 11th president of the State of Israel.

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This is Jonny Gould’s Jewish State live on stage at JW3.

Had it not been for the pesky pandemic, live shows would’ve been a far more frequent occurrence for yours truly. So it’s with great pleasure that we present this show in aid of Jewish Blind and Disabled with Robert Rinder LIVE in the main theatre at JW3.

In this frank and funny conversation, Rob reveals how his hit daytime show, Judge Rinder was originally pitched as a remake of 70s courtroom drama, Crown Court.

He also discusses his lifechanging attitudes from his deeply moving episode of “Who Do You Think You Are”, which told the story of his grandfather’s miraculous escape from a Nazi death camp. And there's more than a smattering of Yiddish in our exchanges - and the customary debate over their precise meanings!

It’s not too late to make a donation to Jewish Blind & Disabled. On the night we raised a phenomenal £95,000 in the room. Donate now at https://www.jbd.org/donate And you can support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State too (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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Ambassador Dr. Dore Gold has spent his professional life as a diplomat and trusted senior prime ministerial advisor pursuing peace and security for Israel with willing Arab partners.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and family. Dore Gold was Israel’s ambassador’s to the UN in the late 90s.

He advised on the Madrid peace conference in 1991 before leading Likud’s dialogue with the Hashemite kingdom in Jordan which led to peace in 1994.

This was a direct response to the ruling Labour Party’s dialogue with the PLO. Ambassador Gold was also a key figure in the closure of the PLO’s office in East Jerusalem, a concession insisted upon as Israel opened talks with Yasser Arafat as part of the Oslo Accords.

Since the turn of the millennium, he’s been president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs with his deep experience of US–Israel policy.

A supporter of the Abraham Accords, he doesn’t believe the change of administration in Washington will undermine the extraordinary achievements of President Donald Trump‘s diplomats across the region - even if the foreign policy priorities of the Biden administration have veered away from the Middle East.

His articles and books cover a wide variety of Israeli diplomacy on Jerusalem and he’s dedicated to the Golden City replacing Tel Aviv as the ultimate diplomatic hub. He’s also concerned with the UN and its implications for Israel, nuclear Iran, the United States' relationship with Israel and the possibility that Saudi will complete its extraordinary change from sworn enemy to partner in normalization.

This is Ambassador Dr. Dore Gold.

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Our guest is journalist, author and social commentator, Melanie Phillips.

She was once a committed diaspora Jew, pledged to contribute to life and society in her native UK. Moving to Israel was not on the radar; why would it be when she lived in the “goldener mediener”, a “golden country” in Yiddish, where Jews could live and prosper?

Today she’s an arch-Zionist, living mostly in Jerusalem with her husband, the BBC’s former legal affairs correspondent Joshua Rozenberg.

This episode chronicles Melanie’s change of mindset, using her story to illustrate what’s been happening to Anglo Jewry since the end of World War II. We also ponder the modern Conservative Party, why she thinks the BBC see her as the “acceptable face and voice of lunacy” and whether zealotry can ever be a positive influence. Jonny produces these podcasts for free.

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Our guest today is former TV and radio foreign correspondent, now acclaimed best-selling author on geopolitics, Tim Marshall.

His book, The Power of Geography, Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World discusses the many changes in a globalised and multipolar world.

I’ve known Tim for over thirty years. Our paths have crossed radio and TV newsrooms at Independent Radio News, LBC and Sky News in London and we stayed in touch as he became a bestselling author on geopolitics.

He’s one of the media’s good guys, staying clear of political commentary, instead seeing the world from the viewpoint of the people and places he observes. That makes for the integrity of his commentaries and analysis.

Understanding people from their perspectives is in such a short supply in today’s social media rage! We can learn a lot from Tim’s generosity of spirit.

Enjoy this episode with Tim Marshall and support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State: Paypal

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Our guest today is Her Excellency, Tzipi Hotevely, Israel’s first female ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Her Excellency’s honeymoon as Israel’s new ambassador to the UK didn’t last long. Israel’s world leading vaccine rollout (Episode 52) dominated headlines as Ambassador Hotovely took the reigns in London from Mark Regev in August 2020.

Then the fourth Gaza War ignited wicked antisemitism on our streets. I ask what Israel’s mission can do to help Britain’s diaspora. She was born in Rehovot in 1978, the daughter of ardent Zionist immigrants from Soviet Georgia. As with Ambassador Regev (Episode 31), we talk about social mobility in Israel, the dynamism of the economy.

Tragically, anti-Zionism exists among young Jewish people across the West, in the US. And here too. Heads are being turned by media and peer pressure. But while 75% of American Jews support Israel as a Jewish state, 85% say it’s “important or very important” to stand up for the “oppressed or marginalised”.

Overbearing anti-Israel narrative makes bias out of balance. Palestinianism is cheered on by halfwit football wokery and TV celebrities. Her Excellency has a message for those in the diaspora less than supportive of the Jewish state. Britain took time to decide to join Australia, Canada and the USA in not sending a representative to Durban IV, a twentieth anniversary commemoration of the first Durban conference against racism which descended into hatred, antisemitism and the birthplace of the modern language of delegitimisation of Israel.

Listen up for her thoughts on that, the Abraham Accords and the chances of peace with Joe Biden in the White House. This is Israel’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Tzipi Hotovely.

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In these troubled times, are we looking back with increased respect to Menachem Begin’s leadership? Is history being kind to one of Israel’s great prime ministers?

Our guest today is Jonathan Gruber, film director of “Upheaval, The Journey of Menachem Begin”. Menachem Begin helped build then mould today’s State of Israel, a tireless fighter for all Jewish people.

They say his life, both pragmatic and miraculous made him a man of contradictions and nuances. But wasn’t that just because he was charged with such grand responsibility on so many levels? Some events went spectacularly right, some tragically wrong.

But throughout, his courage of conviction and unwavering values shone through. I’m joined by the movie’s director, Jonathan Gruber to discuss his film of one of Israel and the Jewish people‘s most important figures of the 20th century.

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Israel’s Gaza conflict in the spring of 2021 lasted eleven brutal days but tragically, there’s no sign it’ll be the last.

Israel’s citizens endured a pace and ferocity of Hamas rockets unprecedented in the four conflicts dating back to 2008.

Yet over 90% of the 4,200 murderous missiles were shot out of the sky by the Iron Dome radar defence system.

This episode is a detailed media briefing by both the IDF and Israeli police BEFORE the assembled journalists distilled what was said to the public.

According to the IDF, 680 of the rockets fired from Gaza actually landed inside the strip, an astonishing 16%, putting their own citizens at the same risk as Israel’s.

It’s also been horrifying for the Jewish diaspora, facing hordes of thugs loudhailing murderous intimidation at Jewish people from their cars in London and fighting on the streets of Europe and North America.

And for the first time, Israel’s war was fought on both sides of its Gaza border as Israeli Arabs rioted in major cities. Israel’s disengagement and withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 was a unilateral dismantling of 21 towns with complete evacuation of Israeli citizens and the IDF. But this latest round of the conflict had quite a different feel.

A more urgent one felt worldwide.

Snarling antisemitism was ramped up and agitated by convoys of cars draped with Palestinian flags driving, hooting and loudhailing calls for murder and rape of children through Jewish areas of London. A Met police officer was caught siding with protestors even as they were confronted and attacked by those also making up the same protest.

Palestinianism was cheered on by halfwit football wokery and TV celebrities. Blue tick influencers cheer-led the terror giving it a sheen of legitimacy and respectability.

And football’s authorities looked on as Wembley’s prestigious FA Cup Final witnessed players showing off a Palestinian flag at the same time as the Met contained violence in the West End.

And because that wasn’t called out, the same happened at Manchester United as a small post-pandemic crowd handed World Cup winner Paul Pogba the same flag to show the Premier League’s worldwide viewers the state of English football.

An identifiable Aston Villa steward was seen posing with Anwar El Ghazi inside Villa Park after the last game of the season against Chelsea.

Clashes happened inside Israeli cities between Jews and Arabs. Disturbances and demonstrations with the added shock of a synagogue burned down by rioters in Lod - not Łódź.

This was a whole new challenge to the IDF, Shabak (or Shin Bet homeland security) and of course, the Israel Police. Gaza’s indiscriminate rockets, designed to destroy Israel’s Jews also actually killed Muslim Arabs, a Hindu carer for the elderly and rural agricultural workers from Thailand.

Israel braces itself post-ceasefire for the stash of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’ unspent rockets and mortars. There are many, many thousands left. IDF intelligence reckoned about 8,700 remained after the end of hostilities. This is a Ministry of Foreign Affairs' news conference featuring IDF Spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus and Police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld with assembled media representing UK and US media - including Jonny Gould’s Jewish State.

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Jewish communities and friends right across the world came together in solidarity with French Jews in sorrow and outrage at the murder of Dr. Sarah Halimi. Episode Lineup: (02:01) Muslims Against Antisemitism’s Liz Arif-Fear (02:25) Karine Gould (07:10) Maureen Lipman (11:43) Sophie Wiesenfeld (13:22) Hen Mazzig (16:44) Raphael Landau (19:35) Gideon Falter.

The 65-year-old retired medic and teacher fell victim to a heinous and brutal attack before being thrown to her death over the balcony of her Paris apartment. The Court of Cassation, the highest in the French Republic, ruled Kobili Traore couldn’t face trial as he was high on marijuana while committing the most gruesome and sustained attack on his neighbour.

All this despite being a violent drug dealer and known antisemite. He’d verbally abused Sarah and her daughter in the lead up to the murderous crime. Jonny Gould and his wife, Karine went to the rally organised in the UK by the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Despite Covid restricting numbers, the event was well-supported. Support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/JonathanLGould

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Our guest today is the Conservative Party candidate for London mayor, Shaun Bailey.

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I spent more time in a modest queue of journalists observing Shaun Bailey than I did actually talking to him directly.

But it was just as instructive.

As a Tory, Shaun is the best-placed candidate to beat Sadiq Khan in London’s mayoral election on May 6th 2021. But what chance does he have?

He’s not particularly well-resourced by his party which means it’s more down to him to drive his own campaign.

But as you’ll hear, he counts himself as a characteristic London “hustler”, insisting his town is not necessarily a Labour city.

He makes an impression with his honesty, but is he too unguarded to be a unifying London politician?

With many thanks to Hendon Ward councillor Nizza Fluss, who organized his appearance with representatives of Shomrim and Hatzola at Hendon and Golders Green, Shaun answered my questions with clarity and brevity.

We talk about his vision of “inclusion”, which he insists must include Jewish people, his policies on ULEZ charging, policing and stations. Then we discuss “disgusting” Israeli Apartheid Week, his positive action after taking part in the “March of the Living” and why a trade mission to Israel is key to restoring the fortunes of London’s post-pandemic economy.

And he says Sadiq Khan’s Labour have some way to go before Jewish voters should feel comfortable again voting for them.

PICTURE: Avi Yodaiken.

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Our guest today is renowned author, playwright and journalist, Tuvia Tenenbom.

Tuvia tells unvarnished, uncomfortable truths. He challenges what you actually believe to be true, confronts what you think you believe in.

Some Jewish people are scared by him. Some rant back and threaten him as a form of denial. Leadership runs from him.

The Taming of the Jew are a collection of his observations on the outward antisemitism he encountered while travelling the British Isles.

Utterly unrepentant, listen to Tuvia’s view of British Jewry. Hear which Lord threatened to sue Tuvia if he published what he told him in their interview and the shock at how some Jews are actually colluding with their accusers.

You can buy The Taming Of The Jew by Tuvia Tenenbom here: https://amzn.to/3rATAcc

Support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/JonathanLGould Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jonnygould?fan_landing=true Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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Our guests today are Member of Knesset, Professor Nachman Shai PhD and former Israel Ambassador to the USA, Danny Ayalon.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s built his coalitions on the ultra-religious - but Covid disrupted their society.

Some are moving into secular academia and productive jobs, while Arab Israelis, 20% of the population are reaching the higher echelons of Israeli society for the first time, thanks to Bibi the pragmatist.

Israel’s longest serving prime minister changes course without causing the upheaval that comes with it.

🎧LISTEN to our prestigious guests for some stunning predictions on the “tragedy of Netanyahu” and the emancipation of Israeli Arabs brought about by the Abraham Accords and Bibi’s investment in society.

Let me inform, educate and entertain you! I’d appreciate your help. If you’ve listened to a few episodes and eagerly anticipate the next one, follow this link to donate. Buy me as little as a cup of coffee at https://ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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Bristol University's reputation is being tarnished by their inaction over a conspiracy theorist professor who calls for an end to Zionism in lectures.

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Professor David Miller's called for "an end to Zionism in the world", a dogwhistle which has attracted support from Chris Williamson and Asa Winstanley, whose supporters have trolled Sabrina Miller and other Jewish students incessantly on social media.

I've handed the mike to Sabrina to tell the story of their struggle and included clips from the #HateOffCampus rally they organised by government advisor on antisemitism, Lord John Mann, Countdown superstar and antisemitism campaigner,

Rachel Riley and JSoc President Edward Isaacs. I’ve also included interviews I've personally collected along the way from US Special Envoy Elan Carr and Baroness Ruth Deech.

The fight against David Miller shouldn't just be left to a small group of Bristol's highly-motivated, inspiring Jewish students. This is for everyone who believes in combating hate wherever it manifests itself.

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This is the extended interview with Col. Richard Kemp, of which excerpts appeared alongside other world-class experts in the previous episode 52 on Israel's world leading vaccine rollout.

I’ve produced this full version of the interview with Richard because we discussed wider global issues beyond just Israel’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

We go on to the continuing threat of Iran’s nuclear aspirations and if the Islamic theocracy will only be emboldened by the new Biden Administration.

Richard also pays tribute to the outgoing Trump Administration - in particular Jared Kushner, Ambassador David Friedman and Jason Greenblatt, recalling as eyewitness how Israeli PM Netanyahu’s 2015 address to the US Congress proved the kernel which grew into the Abraham Accords. There’s also the growing threat of China, which he says “affects the whole world”.

LISTEN TO COL. RICHARD KEMP 🎧

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How has Israel built a world-leading reputation in combatting the Coronavirus threat?

Why do foreign governments look to Israel for their lead? It all started with the incredible vaccine rollout in the summer of 2020.

A deep faith in science and healthtech, a militarised efficiency, a high price on the value of life and a commitment to innovation and a unifying national cause.

I’ve spoken to leading figures from the worlds of medical research and innovation, national security, diplomacy, politics and journalism.

We hear from Israel’s chief researcher in its largest healthcare organisation, Clalit’s Ran Balicer, Colonel Richard Kemp, the UK’s former national security chief who chaired Cobra, responsible for coordinating national intelligence including MI5 and MI6.

His Excellency Mansoor Abulhoul, the UAE’s ambassador to the UK, who declares the vaccine rollout as the early dividend of the Abraham Accords. And journalist, writer, author and hawklike watcher of the Middle East, Jake Wallis Simons, who writes for the Spectator and is deputy editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle,

We also hear from David Jones MP, on the executive committee of the council for Arab British understanding and vice chair of the All-party parliamentary group on Jordan.

And how despite the headlines, how Israel distributed some vaccines to the Palestinians but why the PA wanted to keep that quiet.

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Our guest today is Spiked Online's chief political writer, Brendan O’Neill.

Brendan is one of the English-speaking world’s foremost political commentators. He came to fore as the excruciating drama of Britain’s departure from the European Union edged on (and on).

I first spoke to Brendan leading up to the 2016 referendum when I was talkRADIO’s evening show host. I’ve watched him ever since, battling away for the 17.4m who voted Leave.

In this Jewish and Israel podcast, I frame our discussion around the hard-left and its changing attitude to national self-determination, Israel and the anti-Zionist antisemitism which has followed.

We also draw the obvious parallels between Brexit and Israel the nation state and discuss the woke left’s cancellation of Julie Burchill, also an outspoken supporter of Israel and the Jewish people. There’s football’s “taking the knee”, being Irish in the UK. buying your council house and civil liberties in the era of Covid. “I didn’t desert the left, the left deserted me!”, explains Spiked’s former editor, now concentrating his efforts on a prolific body of writing.

Our democracies are the stronger for it too. I can’t thank Brendan enough for this captivating and hugely popular episode.

🎧LISTEN NOW to Brendan O’Neill.

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Today’s guest is Paul Harris, editor, proprietor and chief executive of the Jewish Telegraph newspaper.

The Jewish Telegraph, the north of England (and Scotland’s) foremost community newspaper is 70.

Paul Harris is the editor, proprietor and chief executive.

Every week - and for the last seventy years, he and his mother and father before him have published the newspaper.

Started in Manchester on their dining room table with a borrowed typewriter and £50 capital, it’s grown into a newsroom and advertising platform with 4 regional offices in Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool.

He regales us with some great stories over the years involving Yasser Arafat, Michael Jackson and Sharon Osbourne, although they weren’t all in the same room together!

If I told you the one about Paul interviewing the PLO leader inside his Tunis compound while on a family holiday and who he took into the terrorist leader’s cage with him, you'd never believe me. Paul will have to tell you. “Hold my beer, hold the front page!” 😆

Listen to the life, career and newspaper of Paul Harris! Support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jonnygould Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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Today’s guests are Euan Philipps and Emma Picken of Labour Against Antisemitism.

Support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State: https://ko-fi.com/jonnygould

Jeremy Corbyn spent just nineteen days suspended from the Labour Party after the Equality and Human Rights Commission's report delivered a damning verdict into the party's victimization of its Jewish members.

But as Corbyn was restored to the membership, new leader Sir Keir Starmer refused to return the parliamentary whip to his former boss. But even that is open to review.

The factional war between Labour’s hard-left and moderates is now in full flow, but what will the outcome be - and can Labour ever be voted into power while this remains unresolved?

Euan Philipps and Emma Picken of Labour Against Antisemitism submitted 15,000 pages of evidence to the EHRC. In this episode, they explain their motivations, their hopes and predict what’ll happen now.

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Arnold Roth, father of teenager Malki, who was murdered in a Jerusalem suicide bombing, is calling for the extradition from Jordan of the attack’s planner.

He’s also calling for the BBC to apologise to its Arabic audience for “toxic distortions” of the murderer’s characterisation. Malki Roth, just 15-years old, was one of 15 victims of a suicide bomber at the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem, orchestrated by Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, who drove the bomber to the site.

Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life terms by Israel for her role in the attack, but was one of the prisoners freed in exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit in 2011.

She lives freely in Jordan and openly boasts about how she orchestrated the suicide mission, while at the same time presenting herself as a victim.

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Today’s guest is His Excellency, Mansoor Abulhoul, UAE ambassador to the UK.

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“Normalization" is possibly the most understated word to describe the seismic changes triggered by the Abraham Accords of September 2020.

Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain entered a new era of peace and understanding, brokered by President Donald Trump's US Administration and signed at the White House.

The speed by which the peoples of Israel and the UAE are realising the opportunities made possible by diplomacy is quite breathtaking.

Expressions of religious similarity and mutual understanding, physical and economic links and recognition of multiple opportunities deliver hourly headlines across the world. Including this interview, recorded just as the Israeli Knesset ratified the treaties.

And so it is to this prestigious episode which wouldn't have been possible even a month ago.

But what of the Palestinians? What difference to their future can normalization provide? Can this peace create positive leverage in the face of Palestinian rejectionism?

LISTEN TO HIS EXCELLENCY, MANSOOR ABULHOUL, THE UAE AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED KINGDOM.

Let me inform, educate and entertain you! I’d appreciate your help. If you’ve listened to a few episodes and eagerly anticipate the next one, follow this link to donate.

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If you’ve listened and enjoyed a few episodes, help me by following this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/jonnygould.

Today’s guest is Anne Frank’s stepsister, Holocaust survivor and world renowned speaker, Eva Schloss. Eva Schloss, step-sister of Anne Frank, forgives the Nazis.

Aged just 11, her happy family life in Vienna was cancelled as the Germans annexed Austria, turning the populous against the Jews in an instant.

She describes this national mood change as “unbelievable”. Non-Jewish friends suddenly shunned her and her older brother was severely beaten by classmates.

With her family, she fled for her life through Belgium and Holland, as the Nazis mercilessly hunted Europe’s Jews. Young Eva had to adapt to new schools, languages and countries and was bullied by fellow children and even teachers.

Eventually, betrayed by a Dutch underground agent, she was captured and sent to Auschwitz. In 1945, barely alive, she was rescued with her mother by Soviet troops.

Her father and brother were killed. But the 91-year-old survivor says, “Forgiving is most difficult because the human consciousness has a hard time living in the present”.

She’s on a mission to talk for her family and the millions of others, senselessly slaughtered by the Nazis and their European accomplices during World War II.

Eva is now a prolific speaker around the world on the horrors of the Holocaust and knows what true forgiveness means.

Could you forgive like she has?

With sincere thanks to my good friend Rabbi Yosef Vogel and his Centre for Jewish Life for this incredible interview opportunity and you’ll hear Yosef towards the end of the interview with his rabbinic insights.

This is Eva Schloss🎧

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Today’s guest is His Excellency, Ferenc Kumin, Hungarian ambassador to the UK.

“We (Hungary) feel a moral drive to strengthen our ties to Israel and the Jewish community. And when you have that moral drive, it makes it easier, you don’t hesitate”.

The words of the new Hungarian ambassador to the UK, Ferenc Kumin.

It's been quite a summer covering Israel and it started for me with this remarkable interview with His Excellency, Ambassador Ferenc Kumin at the Hungarian Embassy in London.

With Israel, Bahrain and the UAE agreeing to normalization, Muslim-majority Kosovo also establishing diplomatic ties and with Serbia pondering moving their mission to Jerusalem, a reset of positions, some deeply entrenched is now due from nations across the world.

There are still present day problems of antisemitism in Hungary, but there is both an awareness and willingness to confront it.

I was touched by Ambassador Kumin's sincerity and knowledge of Hungarian Jewish history as we discussed their extremely difficult history of the twentieth century.

LISTEN to this powerful and sometimes emotional interview. I’d appreciate your help to keep this voluntary service going, so if you’ve listened to a few episodes and eagerly anticipate the next one, buy me a coffee here! Thanks!

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From Middle East peace to standup, from Lord Balfour to Israeli HealthTech, from Labour antisemitism to pop music and from smoked salmon to football, Jonny produces regular free podcasts. Want to help Jonny’s efforts? You can make a monthly donation of £3 and support his efforts at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=BW4GZLQCCL29Y&item_name=Podcast+production+&currency_code=GBP&source=url

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A university lecturer at Southampton Solent was sacked for telling his course leader, “I believe that Jewish people are among the cleverest in the world.

They are much maligned because of it.” Stephen Lamonby remarked to Dr. Janet Bonar that people from different countries had become good at certain things owing to “high exposure”.

He said that Germans are good at engineering because they are “exposed to a high level of industry from an early stage in their lives”.

When Dr. Bonar, an engineering lecturer, mentioned her degree in physics, Mr Lamonby said that Jewish people had “a particular gift” for the subject. He used Albert Einstein as an example and asked Dr Bonar if she was Jewish. She took offence and called Mr. Lamonby a racist.

Mr. Lamonby was sacked by the University and an employment tribunal dismissed his claim. Judge Colm H. O’Rourke said: “A Jew told they are good at physics — because they are a Jew — may well consider that as demeaning their personal intellectual ability/hard work.” Mr. Lamonby says, “at university, you can only think things, you can’t say them!”

Is this verdict a complete miscarriage of justice? Is it even offensive to Jews to say they have a talent for physics? Although Jews account for less than 0.2% of the world’s population, at least 20% of all Nobel Prizes have been won by Jews, including 56 winners of the Physics Prize – nearly half of the total! When does philosemitism become antisemitism?

And what’s happening to free thinking in our British universities?

If you enjoy Jonny's podcast shows, you can help support him at http://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast or you can buy him a coffee and see all his podcasts here

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This a rework of the Trevor Horn episode from 2019. As lockdown looms large over 2020, this is a tribute to his creative vibrancy throughout the previous year: the worldwide concerts and ambitious records.

And it’s updated to include the orchestral album with Rod Stewart and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which followed “Reimagining the 80s”, a 65-piece rework of the best songs by stars from the decade.

I was lucky enough to see Trevor in concert during this prolific period of creativity at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

But I’ll always remember this very personal discussion because of how we discussed his deep connection to both Judaism and the synagogue community of South Hampstead in London.

We also talk about his own background growing up in County Durham. His father came from a family of teachers, his mother from mineworkers and the class snobbery which emerged from that seems a world away from his life now. I’m always proud when an interviewee tells me at the end that he or she’s never been asked a question about an aspect of their life before.

Jewish religious spirituality and community is a big part of Trevor’s life. “I believe in Judaism more than I believe in anything else”.

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This is the second episode of a two-part series on the future of Britishness, patriotism and the nation state. In Part 1, Trevor Phillips talked of “mission creep” in diversity and Karen Harradine distinguished between power and influence, arguing that though Trump and Johnson were in power on both sides of the Atlantic, many of our institutions were influencing against them.

Today, "Britain's strictest headmistress" Katharine Birbalsingh discusses the unifying call of Britishness for those of us lucky to live here.

And writer and campaigner Inaya Folarin Iman says identity politics discounts humanity and its sheer potential and possibilities.

Katharine came to prominence a decade ago at the Conservative Party conference, when she spoke in support of the party's education policies.

She slated a "culture of excuses, of low standards ... a sea of bureaucracy ... [and] the chaos of our classrooms", “because it keeps poor children poor."

Katharine confronted the prevailing culture in education to setup the Michaela secondary school in Wembley.

Inaya Folarin Iman is a writer, commentator, campaigner and director of the Free Speech Union, campaigning for freedom of speech and expression, democracy, liberty and human potential.

I need your help to keep this podcast going, so if you’ve listened to a few episodes and eagerly anticipate the next one, buy me a coffee here! Thanks! ⤵️ https://ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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Cancel culture, editorial purges and your sporting heroes kneeling before kickoff.

Why should sport be a promotional platform to institutionalize potentially divisive ideas? Unlike other countries,

English football's popularity was built on its competitive integrity and little else. I just want to watch Aston Villa lose in peace in an ideologically free zone and wonder to why the jobs market might be engineering opportunites for some and not others.

What is antiracism and is it the same as being against racism? - and if not, what exists between those definitions? Is antisemitism the elephant in the vaccuum?

If we all agree racism is a problem is change even possible when the establishment of public sector, charities, even sports governing bodies are rushing to be associated with an organisation which also wants to defund the police and crush capitalism.

Not to mention their plan for Israel.

And is the silent majority of Britain made up of factory workers, lollipop ladies and warehouse operatives miffed to be told they’re guilty of white privilege?

Over the next two episodes, I talk to some of the leading critics of these sudden events to define this newly-charged identity politics which it has triggered.

Trevor Phillips has been there done that, a doyenne of arts, equality and data analytics, he’s also among many other roles, the former chief of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, who have completed their report into Labour antisemitism which dogged Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and threatens Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.

Writer and campaigner and Conservative Woman, Karen Harradine believes that while Trump and the Tories are in power, it’s an unelected illiberal left which dominates cultural and civic institutions.

And coming up in the next episode: Educationalist and headmistress, Katharine Birbalsingh, who is proud to be British and wishes people would stop telling her black and Asian pupils that somehow their identity lies elsewhere even if they and their parents were born here.

And director of the Free Speech Union, Inaya Folarin Iman, who says we’re navel-gazing in the narrow world of identity politics when the human condition of achievement and fulfilment is so much greater.

I'd love your help to keep this podcast going, so if you’ve listened to a few episodes and eagerly anticipate the next one, buy me a coffee here and scroll through all the other episodes too. Thanks! ⤵️ https://ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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Today’s guest is Theresa May's former joint chief of staff, Nick Timothy.

Many will recall a bushy beard during his time running Mrs. May’s administration; a style of grooming by which the tabloids dubbed him, “Brummie Rasputin” but they’ll have to find a new nickname for him now!

Nick formulated and wrote policy in the Home Office before ascending to the corridors of Number Ten where he wrote Mrs. May’s 2017 General Election manifesto.

But he didn't see out her premiership, taking the hit with Fiona Hill for her disastrous 2017 election campaign, an experience he calls "both brutal and chastening".

His career continues as both a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and author of "Remaking One Nation: The Future of Conservatism", in which he outlines a restoration of civic capitalism as the way to bring a bruised and divided country together.

We also discuss the problems of globalisation, the West’s future relations with China which he's long warned about, lessons learned for both major parties from the 2019 General Election and he hits back at an allegation of antisemitism from the left-wing magazine, The New Statesman.

A Brummie like me, Nick cites another son of Birmingham, the 19th Century’s Joseph Chamberlain as his political hero.

LISTEN to Nick Timothy. Have you listened to a few of Jonny’s podcasts? If you enjoy his shows, you can help support him at http://donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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Jason Greenblatt is the co-architect of the peace plan which changed the course of the Middle East during 2020.

In January 2017, he was appointed Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations.

With presidential advisor and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner and US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, they drafted “Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People”.

Officially he’s left his role as one of President Trump’s chief Middle East peacemakers. But in practice, it’s quite another matter.

“It's like that line from the Eagles' song, 'you can checkout anytime you like, but you can never leave'", says today’s prestigious guest of “Hotel California”.

He admits to still being involved despite leaving the White House in September 2019. The following February, Jason joined the board of Our Crowd, a crowdfunding investment platform aimed at projects in the Middle East, but says he's in regular contact with diplomats, politicians and contacts built up during his years in Washington.

It's a wonderful interview in which we define the hopes and challenges of making an elusive peace to Israel and the Palestinians and he doesn't shy away from the difficult obstacles. He's realistic in his outlook.

Jason is a first-generation American. His parents only arrived in the US in 1941 and 1956 as penniless Jewish immigrants of both Nazism and Communism and he marvels at the opportunities his country has given him.

LISTEN to Jason Greenblatt.

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Jonny's podcast is helped along by your generous support. Buy me a coffee here.

How many acts of heroism never come to public attention because of the modesty of the heroes themselves?

This is a first-ever audio interview in English with one such man.

His name is "Dani', the Mossad commander in charge of “Operation Brothers” for five drama-filled years from 1978.

Without doubt, this is one of Israel's finest hours; a Mossad mission to emancipate thousands of Ethiopian Jews from the dangers of revolution and persecution. But this is also about partnership and brotherhood.

Mossad would never have achieved this lethally dangerous, giant humanitarian mission without the equal determination of the Ethiopian Jews themselves, to realise a generational longing to return to Israel, the land of their forefathers.

"Dani" only agreed to this interview on condition that his full identity wouldn't be revealed. And while he's partially emerged out of the shadows, I'm told many of his Mossad colleagues remain completely anonymous. “Operation Brothers” was a mission to spirit thousands of Ethiopian Jews out of their remote highland villages to walk hundreds of miles to the hell of a Sudanese refugee camp, whereupon they would begin a perilous exodus to Israel.

Some Jews were given passports and papers and flown out of Khartoum Airport, a difficult and dangerous process in itself. But thousands of others were transported hundreds more miles to the Sudanese coast under cover of a plain-sight Red Sea diving resort which Dani and his Mossad agents ran as a fully functioning hotel while conducting their covert operations each night.

10% of the Jews didn’t make it, dying on the exhausting journey. Mossad is famous for spying missions and counterespionage - but this was nothing to do with that. This was a world first for such an organisation: purely humanitarian, 700 kilometres behind enemy lines in Sudan, which was extremely hostile to Israel back then.

Dani's Mossad command of this covert mission is faithfully chronicled in Raffi Berg’s brilliant book, "Red Sea Spies". I am so grateful to Raffi for organising the interview and truly honoured to talk to Dani.

This episode is dedicated to Kasei and Kidan Cohen.

Let me inform, educate and entertain you! I’d appreciate your help. If you’ve listened to a few episodes and eagerly anticipate the next one, follow this link to donate. Buy me as little as a cup of coffee at https://ko-fi.com/jonnygould

Recorded in May 2020.

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As Jonny Gould’s Jewish State grows, so does the challenge to deliver relevant content to a bigger audience. I have now expanded into news coverage as Israel gets a first government in 18 months after three exhausting elections.

This is “Israel Briefing”, the first in a new series on Jonny Gould’s Jewish State, as James Marlow becomes our Israel correspondent.

On Israel's 72nd anniversary, Binyamin Netanyahu leads yet another government as PM, the Trump Administration urges him to scale down business with China, while reports of Iran’s withdrawal from Syria appear to have been somewhat overstated.

James also reveals the brinkmanship behind forming the next government, an enlarged 36 ministries as splintering parties seek cabinet responsibility but the merger of the UN and US Ambassador roles. If you like what you hear today, please share generously on Facebook, Twitter and email.

Jonny makes these podcasts for free and if you enjoy his shows, you can help support him here.

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Israel is fast emerging as a hub for international TV drama.

Netflix is syndicating a host of Israeli hit shows across 192 countries. It was unthinkable even five years ago that the Startup Nation would add cultural ‘soft power’ to its already established high-tech rollcall of global successes. Fauda was thought just to be of interest to an Israeli audience.

Originally only in Hebrew and Arabic, it's the story of the IDF's special units who go deep behind enemy lines to combat terror and rescue hostages.

Among the mainstays of all three series is co-creator and lead, Lior Raz who plays Doron Kabbilio (and other undercover aliases) and his Shin Bet commander, Itzik Cohen, the long suffering Captain Gabi Ayub.

I caught up with Itzik, locked down in Tel Aviv, who explained with great passion the role of the actor in such a realistic show. Lior Raz comes courtesy of Roger Bennett of Men In Blazers. Thanks and Courage, Roger.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education.

You can support his work too right here.

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Today’s guest is author and the creative power behind the Netflix smash hit Unorthodox, Deborah Feldman. This has become the runaway most-listened to episode of Jonny Gould's Jewish State so far.

Unorthodox on Netflix has become the must-watch drama everyone seems to relate to. It’s a highly moving portrayal in English, German - and Yiddish.

It’s about a pregnant teenager fleeing her ultra-orthodox Jewish community in New York for a new and uncharted life in Berlin. The series heroine, Esty Shapiro, played by Shira Haas is fictitious - but the story mostly isn't. It's a version of the life of Deborah Feldman, who now lives in the German capital having grown up in Brooklyn in a Satmar community.

Deborah's book chronicles her own exodus from Williamsburg and I tracked her down to her Berlin home, which was easier than normal during lockdown! It's an intense interview covering many topics, including the role of women in orthodox communities, how the current Jewish generation deal with the trauma of the Holocaust, the future of Zionism and just how many Chasidim(religious Jews) have taken Esty and Deborah's route out. It’s “thousands and now it’s become a movement”, says Deborah.

LISTEN to this powerful, thought-provoking interview with the real Esty Shapiro, Deborah Feldman. Let me inform, educate and entertain you! I’d appreciate your help.

If you’ve listened to a few episodes and eagerly anticipate the next one, follow this link to donate. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education.

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Our guest today is Professor Gerald Steinberg, founder and CEO of NGO Monitor.

The values of Human Rights are part of modern-day international conflict. Modern warfare is also fought through social media, the United Nations and via NGOs or non-governmental organizations.

"Soft power can be very deadly, I've seen it with my own eyes", says today's guest Professor Gerald Steinberg, founder of NGO Monitor.

And so often, the central battlefield of NGOs is between Israel and the Palestinians. Gerald set up NGO Monitor in 2001 because he saw the need to "vigorously challenge" and end the promotion of "politically and ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas by NGOs”.

In this fascinating episode, we discuss in detail the change in how Human Rights is conducted and where organizations such as BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) started.

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Our guest today is Joseph Cohen, creator of the Israel Advocacy Movement and it's extraordinarily powerful viral videos.

Joseph Cohen’s helping to change perceptions of Israel and Judaism. Amid rising antisemitism and antizionism, Joseph hopes his work will inspire others to follow his lead.

His YouTube and Facebook videos have been viewed millions of times and been retweeted by President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Joseph's unusual background gives him a deep understanding of working class England and his study of the similarities between Islam and Judaism provides his outreach work with additional authenticity. I’m calling Joseph “Zionism’s Angel of the North”, a tribute to his background as the child of a hippy commune in a Durham pit village.

The town in which he grew up was part of the “red wall”, which overwhelmingly voted Conservative at the 2019 General Election, as Boris Johnson inflicted the worst electoral defeat on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour since 1935. And Joseph says the north has “zero appetite” to switch back to Labour “anytime soon”, because Labour seem concerned with issues like climate change which don’t resonate in a constituency where there’s mass unemployment, shops are closing and people need a car to get to work. Listen to this extraordinary episode with Joseph Cohen!

Thank you for your continued support of my work. You can help me by giving at http://donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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"I can go freely to the Western Wall or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, why can't our Jewish and other friends go to the Temple Mount?"

Ed Husain is a vital voice from the British Muslim community with his many speeches and articles on tolerance and pluralism.

He was a teenage Islamist who embraced Muslim nationalism but started life in his father's more peaceful, religious mosque. Now he’s a steadfast opponent of the creed of the extremist. He's the author of The Islamist, an account of his five years as an activist here in the UK - and The House of Islam: A Global History, which discusses the classical tenets of Islam and the ways in which they're being distorted by political Islam.

Ed explains how the West's thirty million Muslims must acquaint themselves with life in a secular state where they're no longer the dominant population or conqueror. I released this podcast on Purim, which Ed mentions.

It’s his wish that modern-day Persia, now Iran, should return to the days of Mordechai, who as Prime Minister heralded a period of growth and civilization in Shushan after the threat of mass-extermination by Haman.

The story of the Megillah Esther is read day and night on Purim. If you’ve enjoyed Jonny’s episodes, help his work to continue at http://donorbox.org/jgpodcast or http://buymeacoffee.com/jonnygould

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This episode opens with a stark warning to Europe’s leaders: a second refugee influx looks increasingly likely.

Yaakov Lappin is a military analyst and researcher whose book, “The Virtual Caliphate” predicted the emergence of ISIS as they then swept through Iraq and Syria.

He was alarmed at how easily accessible IS was online and how it led readily to the radicalization of so many young western Muslims.

And he says though ISIS have been defeated militarily, the threat of both extreme Sunni and Shia terrorism must be countered or Europe could face another mass influx of refugees. In this wideranging discussion, Yaakov also unpacks the opportunities which Donald Trump's Deal Of The Century offers plus a new IDF leadership system he's helping to develop.

Jonny produces these podcasts for free. To make a donation to his efforts, buy him a coffee here.

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Ambassador Mark Regev embodies the modern Israeli story. Leaving his native Australia at 22 without family or contacts waiting for him, he praises Israeli mobility which aided his rise to the top of diplomacy.

Armed with mother-tongue English, his ability to communicate Israel to billions of people is both of great advantage personally and nationally.

He pays tribute to the pioneer generation of Israeli orators, led by South African-born Abba Eban and his stirring command of language.

Ambassador Regev hopes the Palestinians reject ‘rejectionism’ and recognise the opportunities provided by Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century”. Three Arab governments were present in the White House as it was unveiled.

He asks why the Palestinians aren’t also celebrating decades and decades of independence as the UN partition laid it out.

We also discuss the Palestinian issue as a vehicle for antisemitism, statistically and substantively - and the roots of leftist Jew-hate in Voltaire, Dostoyevsky and Jewish-born Karl Marx.

Ambassador Regev confirms that Israel is Brexit-ready for trade with the UK post-transition. Britain is Israel’s largest European trading partner. But this is just part of a burgeoning relationship as “robust” security collaboration “makes people safer in both democracies, as the bottom line”.

Islamic terror, he insists, is a common enemy to Britain and Israel. He also talks excitedly about the new prosperity Israelis are enjoying as the “Startup Nation”. GDP per Capita is now on par with the UK.

Ambassador Regev is leaving London after five years as the nation’s leading diplomat here, so I ask what’s next for him?

With many thanks to Ambassador Regev for his generous time and reflections and to Israeli embassy spokesman, Ohad Zemet, who facilitated and arranged the interview.

Pictures by Inc. Monocle, thank you very much, Stuart. Brilliant work.

Jonny makes these podcasts for free. If you’ve listened to a couple or more of the series, you can support him at http://www.paypal.me/jonathanlgould

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This is an excerpt from Ep 31, the full interview with Israel's Ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev. In this ‘preview clip’ Ambassador Regev tells Jonny Gould that growing trade is but part of a burgeoning relationship between Israel and the UK, which can only grow post-Brexit. Bilateral trade stands at $18bn both ways so Israel was quick off the mark to complete a deal to continue trade seamlessly after the 2020 transition. Security co-operation and collaboration between the two independent nations makes the citizens of both safer according to Ambassador Regev. IDF pilots and the RAF have been training together because Britain values Israel’s aircraft combat experience. Look out for the FULL interview, Episode 30, with Ambassador Mark Regev on Jonny Gould's Jewish State. Jonny makes these podcasts for free. If you’ve listened to a couple or more of the series, you can support him at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=BW4GZLQCCL29Y&item_name=Podcast+production+&currency_code=GBP&source=url

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You can support Jonny in making these podcasts right here.

The former White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci is a political celebrity.

He’s making a career out of his ten days in the Trump Administration.

The Mooch was heading to Pennsylvania to campaign for Mike Bloomberg’s short-lived Democratic Party bid for the Presidency.

And in advance of that, he was in London addressing an intimate invitation-only crowd at the Four Seasons, Ten Trinity Square Hotel.

After a wide-ranging discussion about why he turned against Trump (he spoke out against the President's rebuke to "the squad", the four Democratic congresswomen who he said should "go back and help fix the totally broken crime-infested places they came from"), I caught up with him for a one-to-one chat about the Deal Of The Century, President Trump’s plan for a new settlement in the Middle East.

You can help Jonny make these podcasts right here.

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This is my second meeting with Richard and delighted to tell you it took place in Tel Aviv.

He's a regular visitor to Israel and gives generously of his time to so many people and institutions helping to make the country stronger.

Our trips to Israel coincided and he graciously made time to sit down with me amid his many engagements.

There have been two significant, perhaps gamechanging events since we first met in September 2019; Donald Trump's much anticipated Deal Of The Century was launched and the US assassinated Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani.

Can the Palestinians be persuaded to stop saying “a thousand times, no?”

Could Iran’s proxies continue their retaliation against America and its allies - including Israel? We hear Richard’s take on both.

Plus listen for his extraordinary meeting with two IDF soldiers, both Muslim Arabs.

He unpacks the huge personal sacrifices they've made, why they enlisted in the first place and the impact it’s had on their lives in East Jerusalem.

LISTEN HERE to the estimable Col. Richard Kemp.

Jonny makes these podcasts to support Israel and the Jewish diaspora. You can support him by buying him a coffee here.

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“Jerusalem is the laboratory for the regional solution”.

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum has been Jerusalem's Deputy Mayor since November 2018.

I met her in London as she prepared to join a cross-party delegation in the House of Lords urging Britain to cease funding UNRWA to which they’ve just pledged a further £65.5 million.

It’s supposed to aid Palestinian refugees yet funds the “glorifying of martyrdom” to Palestinian schoolchildren.

With age-old communities in Israel’s capital living side-by-side, Fleur wants to close the gap between equal opportunities and equal rights, particularly in East Jerusalem.

Born and bred in Gibraltar, Fleur says it’s her “oracle” for harmony and believes her Anglo-Spanish Jewish background helps her fulfill her job.

She's not been without controversy, lending Katie Hopkins a helping hand to promote her movie, “Homelands” and attending a far-left Emek Shaveh event but she can't stand political correctness and is happy to argue her point.

So much so, she’s too tired to argue with her hubby when she gets home!

It's a good chinwag with Fleur. We’ve known each other for 20 years and it was great to catch up.

I produce these podcasts for free. You can help support the show at www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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Baroness Ruth Deech gave me more than I bargained for in this wide-ranging interview.

I asked a question, she replied with 120% of an answer.

Ruth discusses the rise of British antisemitism, the post-Holocaust record of Poland, campaigning to ease tough abortion laws, restoring university maintenance grants to aid social mobility and the role of the BBC.

Baroness Deech tells me:

• about her lack of surprise at Sir Richard Evans’ decision to vote for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour before claiming to change his mind after an open letter in the New Statesman by Anthony Julius. Sir Richard, a world authority on the rise of Nazism, was an expert defence witness of Deborah Lipstadt when holocaust denier David Irving sued her and her publisher for libel.

• she believes EU Council President Donald Tusk should “sort his own country out first before interfering in ours”.

• leaving Europe will be “absolutely excellent because we will not be sucked into anti-Jewish sentiment sweeping Europe. Our democracy and tolerance of minorities will be refreshed and revived”.

• she’s in favour of generous abortion laws and assisted suicide at the end of life for people in great distress.

• Jewish students must choose their universities carefully as many make for hostile antisemitic environments.

• she reencountered old antisemitic tropes only when she entered the House of Lords.

LISTEN to the remarkable career and challenging views of Baroness Ruth Deech.

And you can help support Jonny in the making of these podcasts and see the rest of the series here.

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Together Against Antisemitism, a rally outside Parliament just days before the infamous 2019 General Election featuring Jeremy Corbyn.

To say this gathering at Parliament Square organised by Campaign Against Antisemitism attracted a cross-section of society is an understatement.

All the present to show their support for the Jewish community.

The anxiety ahead of the poll was palpable in the crowd.

This episode includes excerpts from rousing speeches made by TV Judge Robert Rinder and actor and writer Tracy-Ann Oberman.

It seems the Jewish community has many friends. Listen to Pakistan’s Christian community in support of Israel, comedian Al Murray who has a personal history of opposing antisemitism, Jewish and Zionist activist Damon Lenszner and Jewish communist, Jonathan Silberman who stood in the 2019 General Election against David Lammy in Tottenham. Jonathan might be workers first but he also fights antisemitism on the left and supports Israel’s right to exist.

Communism isn’t for most - but give him a listen. In calling himself a communist, he might just be more intellectually honest about himself - where other politicians aren’t.

I make these podcasts voluntarily. If you enjoy them, please consider helping me at http://buymeacoffee.com/jonnygould

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If only I could go back in a time machine and interview Mrs. Thatcher. This is the next best thing!

As an extra to the Zoom Rockman interview, I was delighted to bump into Steve Nallon, the unforgettable Spitting Image voice of Mrs. Thatcher during her years as Prime Minister.

Steve was there to add his support to Zoom's Portraits of Churchill launch at the Hyatt Regency Churchill Hotel in London.

Relive his great impression from back in the day with updated political gags - and very funny Ann Widdecombe and Homer Simpson impressions too.

Jonny produces these podcasts as a vountary effort. You can help support him and find the rest of his episodes at http://www.ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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I'm giving this episode over to two brilliant 19-year-olds who energize the worlds around them.

Zoom Rockman’s a magazine & newspaper satirist, a cartoonist and commissioned artist who at such a tender age has already left the Beano for Private Eye and from the Savoy to the Churchill hotels, where his distinctive sketches of Sir Winston Churchill now grace the walls.

Harry Markham’s a self-declared "unapologetic” Zionist, who confronts Jew-hate on university campuses. While that role is important to him, he stresses an even greater emphasis in wanting to shake both Jews and Israelis into a greater appreciation of Zionism.

I repeat, they’re both just 19.

LISTEN to this episode to hear how this time and place is producing such inspiring young Anglo-Jews.

I make these podcasts voluntarily. If you enjoy them, please consider helping me right here.

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David Collier is an extraordinary researcher and his facts and figures on Labour antisemitism and the deligitimization of Israel have at times, dominated the news agenda.

In this interview profiling his work and background, we get behind the computer screen to reveal more about the man and his mission.

He says his undercover work online has revealed extraordinary levels of Jew hate within the highest corridors of British politics. He explains antizionism as nothing more than antisemitism. David’s most recent projects include lodging a complaint against the publisher, Pearson over an anti-Israel textbook about the Middle East, which he says has been lifted in large part from Wikipedia - and a report into Amnesty, which he says obsesses about Israel.

While they overspend time and resources on the conflict in Gaza, David says they’re missing out on enormous disasters elsewhere. He doesn’t mince his words over the EHRC investigation into the Labour Party either, which he worries will not tell it like it is: that there is a growing alliance between the hard-left and Islamists.

Jonny produces these podcasts for free. You can help support him here.

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US Special Envoy Elan Carr spoke to Parliament in his role as the United States' leading diplomat in the fight against antisemitism.

The address was hosted by Henley MP John Howell and I was given the honour of presenting Elan on behalf of Our Soldiers Speak and quite a platform to explain what the organization is about. In this tough yet uplifting speech, Elan clearly defines the three disparate sources of antisemitism, describing its 21st Century manifestation and how if not confronted, tyranny follows for everyone, not just Jews.

Jonny produces these podcasts to support Israel and the Jewish diaspora. You can help support him here at http://www.buymeacoffee.com/jonnygould

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Col. Richard Kemp has "seen evil at first-hand" and says fighting it "becomes personal".

In this wide-ranging interview, Richard discusses his military career over three decades, starting in Northern Ireland, culminating in Whitehall as a senior government advisor and as commander of British Forces in Afghanistan.

This episode opens with Jeremy Corbyn claiming we in the West don’t understand Iran’s “inclusivity, tolerance and acceptance of other faiths, traditions and ethnic groupings”.

But Richard’s response is withering. He says Iran is the world’s greatest threat and predicts growing menace from Russia, China and ongoing Sunni extremism.

He explains his unwavering respect for and friendship with Israel and warned of "hundreds of years" of damage that Britain could have self-inflicted had Jeremy Corbyn become Prime Minister.

Col. Richard Kemp speaks in measure with the immense experience of a senior soldier and the gravitas of a world authority.

It made for a fascinating interview and memorable meeting.

Do you enjoy this series? Jonny produces these podcasts for Israel and the Jewish people and you can help support him here.

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Palestinian Mudar Zahran is Jordan's self-styled opposition leader but lives in exile in the UK after denouncing his country as an apartheid state. In his absence, he was found guilty by a Jordanian military court of inciting hatred against the Hashemite kingdom, which handed down a sentence of imprisonment and hard labour. But he continues to speak out against the 82-strong royal family who rule over the majority Palestinian populous and believes one day, he’ll return to Jordan as president in a bloodless coup, which will herald new peace and cooperation with Israel. His view of Palestinian identity makes mockery of Jeremy Corbyn's so-called support for his people. He even accuses the British Labour leader of “hating Jews more than any love for the Palestinians”. Mudar also predicts President Trump’s plans for Iran as the theocratic terror state sponsors rebellion and destabilization across the Middle East. Jonny produces these podcasts for free. You can help support him at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=BW4GZLQCCL29Y&item_name=Podcast+production+&currency_code=GBP&source=url

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Ashley Blaker and Bennett Arron are the two most prolific Jewish standup comedians in the UK. Their journeys are different but their comic routines are both rich in life experience and observation. As Ashley says, ”Jews are funny people”. Bennett grew up in Port Talbot in the town’s last Jewish family. His father ran a glazing business staying there long after the rest of the community had moved on to Swansea, Cardiff and Manchester. He says his dad remembers a time when he couldn’t get a seat in the synagogue. Ashley is a ba'al teshuva; highly observant but not born religious. He was a BBC comedy producer directing among other shows, Little Britain, but changed direction in 2015 becoming a standup the day before his 40th birthday. They both say comedy has changed rapidly even in the last decade, so how do they find laughter among new and diverse audiences? LISTEN as I go behind the punchlines with these two thoughtful and talented funnymen. Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education

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My guest today is legendary BBC Panorama documentary maker, John Ware. John has yet more revelations and assesses his view of Jeremy Corbyn since his Panorama programme, "Is Labour Antisemitic?" was aired on primetime BBC1. “What we transmitted is not everything we have. There’s a sizeable iceberg beneath the surface”. I like and respect John because as a libel barrister once told him, ”report the facts, don’t rant!”. And it’s his evidence-based journalism that make his documentaries so robust. In this candid interview recorded in the days after the show was shown, John revealed how "livid" he was at Labour's allegations that he was “motivated to mislead”, predicted how it panned out and delivered his own verdict on whether the Labour leader is antisemitic. (Cover picture by Inc. Monocle) I make these podcasts voluntarily. If you enjoy them, please consider helping me at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=BW4GZLQCCL29Y&item_name=Podcast+production+&currency_code=GBP&source=url

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US Special Envoy Elan Carr’s White House role is to monitor and combat global antisemitism.

But the tragedies of the Pittsburgh and Poway synagogue attacks have ensured his focus has become more domestic.

He was appointed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February 2019.

Mr Carr's message is like Jonny Gould's Jewish State's: unity; for the Jewish community to stand together to fight anti-Jewish hatred - and to bridge the gap in an increasingly polarized America to work on bi-partisan solutions.

He is an Iraq war veteran, a former deputy US attorney in LA and a Republican in an historically Democratic district of the House of Representatives.

Elan is of Iraqi Jewish heritage and served the US military in Baghdad, lighting Chanukah candles and leading Shabbat services in the palace of deposed President Saddam Hussein.

We discuss issues of free speech, protected and unprotected speech plus where he sees the role of the IHRA definition of antisemitism in the future protections of Jewish people, and by extension safeguards to western society itself.

Jonny produces these podcasts in support of Israel and the Jewish diaspora. You can help support the show and see the rest of the podcast series at http://www.ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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Hen Mazzig is truly a modern Israeli. A social media manager for major corporations and a writer and campaigner.

Born in Israel in 1989 to a Mizrahi family originally from Iraq and Tunisia, Hen campaigns for the advancement of Israeli Jews from the east and LGBTQ rights as an openly gay man.

He actually came out in the IDF serving in Ramallah and Jerusalem in a humanitarian role.

His life experience includes being blown out of an ice-cream shop by a suicide bomber when he was 12. It was an attack which killed a grandma and her granddaughter.

Identity is a huge part of modern day political discourse, where it seems being a Jewish progressive puts you at odds with non-Jewish ones.

In doing so, I encounter the word, “pinkwashing” for the first time. We unpack some complicated concepts because I think it's important we all understand where both Israel and antisemitism is going in the 21st Century.

Hen's very engaging and I learned a lot about parallel histories and Jewish lives to my own.

Jonny produces these podcasts to support Israel and the Jewish diaspora. You can help support the show at http://www.buymeacoffee.com/jonnygould

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This episode is dedicated to the 60,000 British Jews who fought for their country during 1939 to 1945.

One of them, Stanley Fisher (100-years-old in August 2024), is my first cousin Samuel Posaner's great-grandfather - and we met by chance at Samuel’s Bar Mitzvah in Birmingham in the very 75th anniversary week he landed on Normandy’s beaches in 1944.

Stanley is living history.

Not only a teenage soldier arriving in Arromanches in the week of D-Day, he also fought at Arnhem, a terrible and bloody defeat for the allies - and then witnessed the shocking aftermath of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

He says it gave him nightmares, silencing him from telling his wartime story for decades.

Eventually though, a desire to recount his experiences prompted him to speak up - for the benefit of the next generation.

It's a profound privilege to bring his story to a wider audience.

With thanks to Ben and Rachel Posaner, Esmond Rosen and of course, Stanley who came to the Bar Mitzvah with his wife Evelyn, whom he married in the summer of 1946. That's 73 years! (Update: Sadly Evelyn died a few months later).

By the way, Bar Mitzvah boy Samuel's great grandmother, Olga Posaner's own Holocaust testimony is available here (she was my grandma). It's "from Vienna's tyranny to Birmingham's freedom".

Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is brought to you with Dangoor Education.

And you can help me too by making a small donation the size of a cup of coffee at http://www.ko-fi.com

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Author, historian and campaigner Lyn Julius promotes the culture, history and lives of Mizrahim, the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa.

Mizrahi is the Hebrew word for Easterners - and their exodus from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Morocco, Lebanon, Iran and Algeria has perhaps been overlooked in the last century.

After 3,000 years of vibrant Jewish life, interspersed with persecution and exile, the Mizrahim are all but erased from those countries. Most live in Israel now - but there's also a diaspora in the UK, France, Canada and the USA.

So what can and should we learn from the sudden flight from their generational homes? Lyn's book "Uprooted: How 3,000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight" is the culmination of a decade of research. It's a story we mustn't ignore.

This podcast also contains Hillel Neuer's famous "Where are your Jews?" audio by his kind personal permission.

Jonny produces these podcasts in support of Israel and the Jewish diaspora. Would you like to support his show? Do it right here and see the rest of the series of podcasts with great guests and conversations.

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Jonny produces these podcasts in support of the Jewish diaspora and Israel. You can help support the show here.

My guest is a fourth generation smoked salmon purveyor and a former EU politician (if not a European Union supporter).

Lance Forman was elected as a Brexit Party MEP in the 2019 European election, which he says shouldn't have happened in the first place.

He accuses the political class of being fast and loose with extremist rhetoric, while being cowardly in making the big decisions lest they lose votes.

He plots a 115-year history of the family business, H Forman & Son and describes the challenges of succession, planning and adapting to modern times. He harks for a return to the days of Margaret Thatcher, says Nigel Farage is "Maggie in men's clothing" and "antisemite" Jeremy Corbyn and allies' vision of "Britain as Venezuela" needs preventing.

He's proud to be a Jewish member of the party, shrugging off the unpleasant daubing of a swastika on his factory shutter by what he describes as an “extinction rebellion” supporter.

Jonny produces these podcasts in support of the Jewish diaspora and Israel. You can help support the show here.

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You can help support the show at http://www.ko-fi.com/jonnygould

Today's guest is distinguished academic, medic, historian and legislator, Lord Leslie Turnberg.

Born in Salford in 1934 to Polish and Romanian immigrant parents, Leslie grew up to enjoy a successful career in medicine including presidency of the Royal College of Physicians.

He took his place in the House of Lords when Tony Blair was prime minister and now speaks with authority in the upper chamber on medicine, the NHS and Israel.

Agile of mind with a lifetime of experience and achievement, Leslie has applied his considerable intellect to becoming a historian.

To mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, he wrote a book on its place in today's Middle East.

In an extensive conversation, we discuss the history of Israel's formation, the key Zionist characters, those who helped them, today's Palestinians - and as a Labour peer, what he thinks of the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Jonny produces these podcasts for free. You can help support the show at http://www.ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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Tuvia Tenenbom, theatre director, playwright, author, academic and unapologetic, uncompromising Jew. For six months in 2019, he travelled the length and breadth of Britain, uncovering “a deep psychological Jew hate”.

He warns the Anglo-Jewish community’s in denial - just as they are in Poland, where he also gives examples. His UK experiences make up the fifth book in a series, The Taming of the Jew, which was released towards the end of 2019.

He spoke to many voices in British Jewry and found a refusal to admit to the extent of antisemitism. He says, "I feel like a plumber, clearing out the sewage. I don't want to do antisemitism - but I have to."

Tuvia says that if Jews hide their identity, they face extinction.

He says Israel needs to be cherished, it's the future but losing it would spell the end of Jewish life in the world - but for a few isolated Chasidim.

I met him in the week he visited a pub in Derry, Northern Ireland, creating world headlines as the regulars openly told him, “Hitler hadn’t finished the job”. His frankness is as hilarious as it is disturbing.

Jonny produces these podcasts to support and defend the Jewish diaspora and Israel. You can help support the show and see the rest of the series via the link.

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Today we focus on champions for our people in law and football.

We talk to CEO of UK Lawyers for Israel, barrister Jonathan Turner and David Bolchover, author of a biography on Bela Guttmann, “The Greatest Comeback”.

Jonathan describes the remarkable successes of his organisation despite limited manpower and resources and David recounts the ultimate Jewish football hero, Bela Guttmann, who survived the Holocaust to become a twice-winner of the European Cup with Benfica.

Jonny produces these podcasts for free. You can help support the show by buying him a coffee and looking back at every episode he's made so far at http://www/ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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Yaakov Peri has dedicated his life to public service. As director of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security, he was answerable only to the Prime Minister and oversaw the agency for nearly seven years. He was also in the opposition Yesh Atid party from 2013 including a spell as Minister for Science, Technology and Space. Yaakov tells me his hopes for peace with Palestine, the deeply problematic situation with Hamas in Gaza, how the flurry of Israeli elections will shape the future and changes to the Basic Law, which concern his instincts for equality. Jonny produces these podcasts for free. You can help support the show at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=BW4GZLQCCL29Y&item_name=Podcast+production+&currency_code=GBP&source=url

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My two guests are MPs taking the fight to Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism. While Ian Austin became the ninth MP to leave Labour since Corbyn became leader, John Mann MP says he'll "have to be thrown out". But both are united in their fight against his leadership. I share with Ian a deep respect and affection for the Black Country, where he's MP for Dudley North, and we discuss our shared heritage of family who sought refuge from the Holocaust in the industrial Midlands. Jonny produces these podcasts for free. You can help support the show at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=BW4GZLQCCL29Y&item_name=Podcast+production+&currency_code=GBP&source=url

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In this episode, I focus on an industry at which Israel leads the world, HealthTech.

In a matter of years, Israel's digital health industry has evolved from a small group of innovative start-ups to a rich eco-system around Tel Aviv. In a partnership of private and public sector investment, Israel's HealthTech industry is training AI algorithms, using massive data based on twenty years of medical records from half of Israel's population.

This was presented at the third UK Israel Business HealthTech Forum at which I spoke to UKIB's Hugo Bieber, Clalit's Professor Ran Balicer and Eyal Gura of Zebra Medical Vision.

Israel has the equivalent of four NHS’s serving its population with a top-up private sector with additional benefits.

So what can Israel teach the UK about public healthcare provision?

This is a good news story from the start-up nation!

Jonny makes these podcasts in support of Israel and the Jewish diaspora and you can help support him at http://www.ko-fi.com/jonnygould

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"Seek the peace and prosperity of the city of your exile, pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper", Jeremiah 29:7, recited to me by the remarkable Trevor Horn.

The Grammy, Brit and Ivor Novello Award winning record producer, coined "the man who invented the 80s", gives me a very personal interview about his current projects, (touring and a new album) plus a rundown of his musical career and influences.

He also discusses his journey into Judaism; something he says he "believes in more than anything else".

It turns out Frankie goes to Synagogue! Jonny produces these podcasts for free. You can help support the show with Gift Aid at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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This episode goes some way to explaining the Jewish relationship with football, both today and in the twentieth century.

My guests today are Ivor Baddiel, the comedy writer and biographer David Bolchover, who wrote "The Greatest Comeback", the amazing story of football's greatest Jewish hero, Bela Guttmann.

If you've been to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, you'll almost certainly have heard the word, "Yid" chanted in support of Spurs - or worse, AGAINST them by opposition fans. You may have even chanted it yourself.

But what does it mean exactly? Do you think it still has a place on football's terraces?

Campaigner Ivor Baddiel and his brother David began a campaign eight years ago with a short film, "The Y Word" which explained that it's a derogatory term for Jewish people - like the P or N Word.

The podcast includes an excerpt from Ivor and David’s short film, The Y Word starring Gary Lineker and Frank Lampard.

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My two guests today are from very different parts of British society - but united in opposing Jeremy Corbyn and the scandal of antisemitism sweeping Labour.

Jassem Tamim (pictured hugging our own James Marlow at the 2021 Israel Solidarity Rally in Kensington, London) is a Sunni Muslim originally from Morocco, who considers his opposition to antisemitism as payback to Britain for the tolerance and acceptance he's found since moving here.

He also believes it's his Islamic duty to defend Israel and Jews.

And Richard Millett is the longtime activist who the Labour leader famously called “lacking English irony”. I ask both of them what the hard-left takeover of Labour has done to Britain?

LISTEN to their insightful answers and fascinating stories here.

Jonny produces these podcasts to support Israel and the Jewish diaspora. Want to help him? Buy him a coffee here.

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Dov Forman and her great-grandmother Lily Ebert have co-written a book, “Lily’s Promise” about her Holocaust story. But 35 years before, I recorded the same idea with my own grandma.

Grandma Olga’s recorded voice and when and where we recounted her life story will always be my most treasured episode.

This is her eyewitness testimony of leaving Nazi-occupied Vienna for a new and as yet, uncharted home in the UK.

She rebuilt her life in Birmingham where I grew up and where back in 1984, we recorded a chat on cassette in her front room.

At the time, she was 77 and I was just 17.

The motivation to record this way back then was to explain, to my as yet unborn children, who we are and how we got here.

Grandma began life in England as a 32-year-old housemaid in a faraway London suburb before meeting my fellow refugee grandpa at a friendship club in Birmingham.

They got married and lodged in an upstairs room next to Sutton Town's football ground. Eventually, they managed to buy their own home and set up a typewriter repair shop down the road.

I’m so proud of my grandma and grandpa, at how quickly they got themselves together in Birmingham after the disasters which befell their Viennese lives.

Their story is a constant motivation for me. The family history handed down to me was largely happy in outcome, except for the murderous loss of my great grandparents in a Polish death camp. 

Yet every single one of my grandparent’s brothers and sisters survived, fanned around the world to rebuild lives thousands of miles apart - but still close together in contact and spirit.

From Shanghai to Palestine, Nottingham to Vancouver, Chicago to Glasgow, Vienna to Toronto. And of course, Birmingham, where my grandma and grandpa arrived in September 1938 and April 1939 respectively. 

The story of Bela Guttmann, clubmate of my grandfather and great uncle in the legendary Hakoah Vienna FC who hid in a loft in Hungary to survive the war, made me realise that the comparative safety of my own family’s story was at odds with so many others.

As the Churchill movie, which dramatised the imminent invasion of Britain in 1940, my grandparent’s arrival in the UK wasn’t even the end of their escape from tyranny.

Listening to my dear grandma, who told me she ran her own exotic pet shop in Vienna in well to do 1920s society, only to become a penniless chambermaid in Northwood in the 1940s, inspires me to dig deep and accept whatever problems are thrown at me - and to climb back.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is supported by Dangoor Education. (Picture: Grandma Olga Posaner and my mum, Yvonne Gould, taken in the back garden of their home in Birmingham Road, Sutton Coldfield in 1948)

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This is a very special episode for me. I rediscovered an old cassette I’d recorded of an interview with my late Grandma in 1984, when she was 77 - and I was 17.

Thursday afternoons were always lunch at Grandma and I’d always wanted to record her voice for future Gould/Posaner generations.

She narrates her own escape from Hitler's Vienna in 1938 and arrival in Birmingham.

It’s her story of rebuilding family life destroyed by tyranny, the upheaval of leaving a place that made her - mixed with the heartache of saying goodbye to her parents, who she would never see again.

She learned years later, they were murdered in a Polish death camps.

There's also an extensive interview with Euan Philipps, spokesperson for Labour Against Antisemitism on his tireless campaign against the worst excesses of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour and what he hopes will happen.

Jonny produces these podcasts. You can help support the show and see all of his latest episodes here.

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Mark joins me to discuss moving to Israel with his fiancée, Mandy Blumenthal, what prompted their decision to leave the UK and the Israeli health system which promises him the world’s best treatment for Multiple Sclerosis, a condition he’s had since his twenties.

He’s had a remarkable legal career, the highlight was when he represented more than 120 victims of phone-hacking and exposed the News of the World’s role in the scandal. When specialist hacker, Glenn Mulcaire and royal reporter, Clive Goodman, were both charged in 2006, Mark noticed what others had missed. Although the charges related were mostly to youngsters of the Royal Family, Mark was concerned that Mulcaire’s wider targets included five others, among them the chairman of the professional footballers Association, Gordon Taylor. “I saw the news and thought ‘They hacked Gordon to get that story’.” He calls it his “light-bulb moment”.

Mark exposed the full scale of criminality inside Murdoch’s paper and then later inside Mirror Group Newspapers. 

LISTEN to the remarkable Mark Lewis on the next chapter of his remarkable life. Jonny produces these podcasts for free.

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“We ought not deal in the soft bigotry of low expectations of the Palestinians” – Benjamin Anthony, CEO, MirYam Institute.

This is the first podcast in a series on Jewish and Israeli issues - so let's start with the biggest of them all: peace with the Palestinians.

Brigadier General Amir Avivi (ret.) and Sgt. Benjamin Anthony of The New State Solution were in London to meet Egyptian officials to discuss their plan to create a Palestinian state from Gaza to North Sinai. Egypt is key to realising their vision as they would have to cede land for the New State.

But then so is the agreement of the Arabs of the West Bank and the Gazans too. Can they do it? Is there a window of opportunity opening with the thawing of relations with Saudi and Oman?

Listen to the opportunities they believe are available. Jonny asks for your support to help him make these podcasts. You can help support the show right here.

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