The Israel Connexion

Butcher's Stain, Royal Commission, Jewish-Arab Party

I spoke with Meyer Levinson-Blount, who directed the film Butcher's Stain, which won a Silver Medal in the Narrative category at the 2025 Student Academy Awards. Additionally, the short film earned a nomination for Best Live Action Short at the 2026 Academy Awards [https://zpdryj.clicks.mlsend.com/tb/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjc4NDY5OSxcImxcIjoxOTE3NDYxMTQ1MjE2NjMyMDksXCJyXCI6MTkxNzQ2MTI2NDc3NTI2ODU5fSIsInMiOiI5NTNjM2Y3MzM2Y2EzODc1In0]. The 26-minute film was created by Levinson-Blount while at Tel Aviv University's Steve Tish School of Film and Television. The story follows Samir, an Arab Israeli butcher working at a Tel Aviv supermarket, who must fight to prove his innocence after being wrongfully accused of tearing down hostage posters in the break room at his workplace. (0:38-14:54) ---------------------------------------- Ben Adler, director of SHIR [https://zpdryj.clicks.mlsend.com/tb/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjc4NDY5OSxcImxcIjoxOTE3NDYxMTQ1NDE1ODYxNTgsXCJyXCI6MTkxNzQ2MTI2NDc3NTI2ODU5fSIsInMiOiIyMDQzZWRhN2JjZmVhZjVmIn0] has testified at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion and this is his submission [https://www.shir.com.au/rc].. SHIR is Australia’s only national Jewish performing arts organisation and CHUTNEY [https://zpdryj.clicks.mlsend.com/tb/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjc4NDY5OSxcImxcIjoxOTE3NDYxMTQ1NTEwMjMzNDMsXCJyXCI6MTkxNzQ2MTI2NDc3NTI2ODU5fSIsInMiOiI0OTc5MDNmY2ZkM2QyNzQ2In0], his music band, is one of Australia’s most established Jewish ensembles. Taking both of these projects ‘outside of the shtetl’ has consistently brought him against the very coalface of antizionism and antisemitism in Australia - especially since October 7. (15:00-30:46) ---------------------------------------- A new Jewish-Arab political party has been established in Israel ahead of the upcoming Knesset elections later this year. 'A Place For Us All' (in Hebrew מקום לכולנו) was launched  by its new co-leaders, Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green. The party will be made up of activists from the Standing Together [https://zpdryj.clicks.mlsend.com/tb/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjc4NDY5OSxcImxcIjoxOTE3NDYxMTQ1NzA5NDYyOTEsXCJyXCI6MTkxNzQ2MTI2NDc3NTI2ODU5fSIsInMiOiI4MTYxMjg2YjJlZmIyMDQ2In0] movement, a grassroots group established in 2015, which aims to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives and harmony between Arab and Jewish Israelis. I will be speaking about this new party with former Israeli ambassador to South Africa Alon Liel and Jonathan Zeigin (the son of late Vivian Silver from Kibbutz Be'eri), who is number 6 on the new party's list (30:52-56:52) Support the show: https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/ [https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Israeli Real Estate Information Event

Gidon Katz, an expert in marketing Israeli real estate to the global Jewish community for close to three decades, and I met up with him at an informational event that took place at Caulfield Shule in Melbourne earlier this year. Support the show: https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/ [https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

ABC and SBS under the spotlight

I spoke with Kate Mannix and Julie Szego  about how our public broadcasters have caused much angst for our Jewish community and discussed how the ABC and SBS must bear some responsibility for fuelling antisemitism in Australia by their slanted coverage from Israel-Palestine in particular. Kate Mannix is a former senior researcher for ABC Television, including on the Compass program. She has made a submission to the Royal Commission on antisemitism and social cohesion with details of how “the ABC’s consistently biased reporting of the Israel-Hamas War has caused antisemitism in Australia to grow”. She talks about the special role of the ABC and its audience’s trust being let down by entrenched bias.  Julie Szego, a Melbourne-based writer, wrote an article for The Australian titled 'Blaming and vilifying Jews – it’s as easy as ABC [https://zpdryj.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjc4NDY5OSxcImxcIjoxOTExMTI3NTM0OTUxNDc5ODEsXCJyXCI6MTkxMTEyNzY1MDY4MjgxMDcwfSIsInMiOiI3YmQyZjVmNmMyNWVmZjU0In0]', where she refers to a very strange cultural moment featuring Penny Wong, Mehreen Faruqi, Grace Tame, Charlie Pickering, Avi Yemini and a vast supporting cast in what is about racism and hypocrisy, rape and lies, truth and propaganda. [Full interview] Support the show: https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/ [https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Biased Public Broadcasting, Israeli Real Estate

I spoke with Kate Mannix and Julie Szego  about how our public broadcasters have caused much angst for our Jewish community and discussed how the ABC and SBS must bear some responsibility for fuelling antisemitism in Australia by their slanted coverage from Israel-Palestine in particular. Kate Mannix is a former senior researcher for ABC Television, including on the Compass program. She has made a submission to the Royal Commission on antisemitism and social cohesion with details of how “the ABC’s consistently biased reporting of the Israel-Hamas War has caused antisemitism in Australia to grow”. She talks about the special role of the ABC and its audience’s trust being let down by entrenched bias.  Julie Szego, a Melbourne-based writer, wrote an article for The Australian titled 'Blaming and vilifying Jews – it’s as easy as ABC [https://zpdryj.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjc4NDY5OSxcImxcIjoxOTExMTI3NTM0OTUxNDc5ODEsXCJyXCI6MTkxMTEyNzY1MDY4MjgxMDcwfSIsInMiOiI3YmQyZjVmNmMyNWVmZjU0In0]', where she refers to a very strange cultural moment featuring Penny Wong, Mehreen Faruqi, Grace Tame, Charlie Pickering, Avi Yemini and a vast supporting cast in what is about racism and hypocrisy, rape and lies, truth and propaganda. (0:31-38:06) ********************************************************************************* Jettisoned by the attempted excoriation of Gwyneth Paltrow for promoting Israeli real estate by the rabid left [https://zpdryj.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjc4NDY5OSxcImxcIjoxOTExMTI3NTM1MDU2MzM3NDQsXCJyXCI6MTkxMTEyNzY1MDY4MjgxMDcwfSIsInMiOiI5YTA4N2YyOWNhYzllNTA5In0], I explore some facets of the Israeli real estate market. This will be my introduction to my next guest, Israeli property lawyer Yaacov Epstein, who has vast experience in advising clients in all areas of real estate including purchase, sales and leasing transactions, contracts and labor law. (38:06-57:48) Support the show: https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/ [https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

The Genocide Libel

Jeff Sparrow is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne. He has written an article titled 'How to Sell a Genocide exposes the double standards of reporting on Gaza [https://zpdryj.clicks.mlsend.com/tb/c/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjc4NDY5OSxcImxcIjoxOTA0NzgwNzE2MjY3Mjg3NDMsXCJyXCI6MTkwNDc4MDgyNTY4NjE5ODIzfSIsInMiOiIyMWVmZDE1OGJjYWRmMDlmIn0]' and to discuss it I have invited Professor Timothy Lynch, professor of American politics and co-chair of the political science discipline in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne and Pnina Levine from the faculty of Business and Law at Curtin University, who researches in the area of higher education law, focusing on the protection of academic freedom and freedom of speech. [Full interview] Support the show: https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/ [https://www.j-air.com.au/get-involved/membership/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.