The Honest Report

On September 30, 2000, Muhammad al Dura, a young Palestinian boy, was caught on film dying in the crossfire between Israeli troops and Palestinian terrorists, in the Gaza Strip.

Even before the spread of social media networks like Facebook, Tiktok or Twitter, the video of his death went viral. Almost instantly, Israel was accused of intentionally murdering the boy, though no such evidence exists.

Despite this absence of evidence, the footage became an enduring symbol of the nascent Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising. But there is little doubt that the death - widely reported by the news media - played a major role.

To help us understand this context, and how the incident's reporting was only a symptom of a larger problem in the news media, we are joined in this week's podcast by Professor Richard Landes. Professor Landes, formerly a lecturer at Boston University, is currently an Israel-based researcher and scholar, who is widely credited with coining the term "Pallywood," referring to staged Palestinian incidents aiming to promote anti-Israel propaganda.

Landes' recent book, Can “The Whole World” Be Wrong? Lethal Journalism, Antisemitism, and Global Jihad, discusses this incident at length.

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Throughout North America, and indeed much of the Western world, college and university campuses are a fulcrum of anti-Israel activism and campaigning. These efforts can manifest through BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) referendums, anti-Israel disinformation being spread in the classroom or by the student government, and also through campus media outlets.

Claire Frankel knows this all too well.

Claire is a Jewish student at McGill University in Montreal, and a Campus Media Fellow with HonestReporting Canada, and in March, she attempted to submit an opinion column, which discussed her views on a student club's attitudes towards Jews. But when she tried to submit the column to The McGill Tribune, it was rejected by the newspapers editors, who cited their opposition to Zionism, characterizing it as “a settler-colonial ideology that has perpetuated the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.” The Tribune further claimed that “Your article doesn’t align with our values as a paper. We’re not going to be able to publish it.”

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Claire to discuss her experience and the lessons it teaches Jewish students about how to advocate for themselves on campus.

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In early April, only days before the onset of the Passover and Easter holidays, Palestinian rioting broke out in and around the Al Aqsa Mosque, on Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

The riots also coincided with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when the holy city can become a tense flashpoint and sometimes even erupt in open rioting.

And while news outlets across Canada and the world covered the violence, they often missed the back story of Palestinian incitement and the role that Palestinian religious leaders have played, as well as the history of the Temple Mount itself.

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Dr. Reuven Berko, Co-Founder & CEO of the Berko Group, a Tel Aviv-based security consultancy.  Dr Berko served for 10 years as an Advisor on Arab Affairs to the Chief of Jerusalem Police, and today is a commentator in Israeli media, largely in Arabic.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.

In an increasingly interconnected world, no country is an island. Today, that is arguably no truer in the Middle East than anywhere else on the planet.

As the war between Russia and Ukraine rages, a number of countries, including the European Union (EU) have pledged to decrease their consumption of Russian oil and gas, and now Israel may be able to play a central role in helping to supply these much needed resources to citizens across Europe.

In this week’s episode, we sit down with Asher Fredman. Asher is Director for Israel at the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, as well as the Chief Executive Officer of Future Middle East, and a number of other roles. He is a widely recognized expert in energy policy, and he shares his vision for a future where Israel plays a critical role in supplying energy to Europe and beyond.

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It's not unusual to read headlines that say "Israeli soldier shoots Palestinian," but provides no context about what was actually taking place. Frequently, news media reports omit key details about dead or injured Palestinians, suggesting that they were civilians, when they may have been active combatants.

In short: Israeli soldiers are used to getting an unfair and inaccurate story told about them, but a group of Israeli reservists is working to change that.

Reservists on Duty is an organization of reservists in the Israeli armed forces who travel the world, showing the true face of Israel in the face of often hostile disinformation.

In this week's episode of The Honest Report, we sit down with three members of a Reservists on Duty delegation who recently conducted a three-city tour in Canada, speaking to students and community members about the difference between how Israeli soldiers are portrayed, and the reality on the ground.

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On February 6, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey, near the Syrian border. Almost 60,000 people eventually died, and nearly 130,000 were injured.

In the immediate aftermath, international aid and relief efforts flooded Turkey, providing much-needed medical aid and rescue. One of the largest delegations in the world came from Israel. Rescue personnel from Israel weren't just from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but from United Hatzalah, an Israel-based rescue group that has become famous for being among the first on the ground after a disaster.

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Eli Beer, the founder of United Hatzalah. Eli shares with us the backstory of how his team was able to get to Turkey so quickly, the incredible efforts behind the scenes, and the details of a security threat that forced them to return earlier than planned.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.

In January 2019,  during a town hall-style meeting in St. Catharines, Ontario, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blasted the BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) movement as antisemitic, and said it ran contrary to "Canadian values."

While Canada has been a vocal opponent of antisemitism in general and movements like BDS in particular, having been one of the first countries to adopt the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) working definition of antisemitism, can more be done?

To help stop the scourge of Jew-hatred, what other efforts and methods can be used in this fight to protect and advocate for Canada's Jewish population?

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather, who represents the Montreal riding of Mount Royal, one of the country's most heavily Jewish constituencies.

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In recent years, Israel has celebrated a number of high-profile peace agreements with Arab and Islamic countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Morocco, Sudan, and others.

And while these normalization agreements have been widely celebrated in Israel, they don't provide a complete picture of what's happening beneath the surface regarding relations between the Jewish State and countries in the Middle East and beyond.

What kind of relations does Israel enjoy with other Islamic countries, and why are some of them holding back from expanding or otherwise formalizing ties?

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Joshua Krasna. Joshua is an Israel-based researcher, commentator, and teacher specializing in strategic studies, intelligence studies, and international politics of the Middle East, the Arab World, and Israel. He serves as the Director, of the Center for Emerging Energy Politics in the Middle East; a political and strategic analyst at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.

Antisemitism has been called the world's oldest hatred. But that doesn't mean there aren't modern tools available for combatting it. In Canada, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism has been accepted by the federal government, as well as a number of provinces and municipalities as well.

But is simply adopting the definition sufficient for combatting antisemitism, or can more be done?

In this week's episode, we sit down with Melissa Lantsman. Melissa is the federal Member of Parliament for the riding of Thornhill and the Deputy Leader of The Conservative Party of Canada, and she joins us to discuss the role that elected officials can play in helping to utilize IHRA and other tools in the fight against antisemitism.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.

The nefarious activities of Iran's theocratic leadership are well known, from funding Islamist terrorist activity in the Middle East and beyond to brutally suppressing dissent within its own borders. But lesser-known is the details of the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions.

While global negotiations over Iran's nuclear program are frequently in the news, the details are often less clear, including how much progress Tehran is making, how experts know it is developing weapons, rather than nuclear power, and how long will it take Iran on its current course to develop weapons potentially?

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Tzvi Kahn, Research Fellow, and Senior Editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to help simplify some of the often complex answers around these questions.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.