The Yishai Fleisher Show is Israel’s only English-language FM talk show and it is brought to you in partnership with JewishPress.com
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Israel is often negatively portrayed in international media as being a war-like and hateful country and this week’s show kicks off with Yishai and Malkah talking about a recently released movie that is dedicated to showing that the opposite is true. The film, titled “Israel Inside”, shows how Israel is leading the way in not only technology but also social innovation and creating a new atmosphere in the Middle East. Yishai was recently able to interview the film’s writer Rebecca Shore along with Tal Ben Shahar, a former Harvard professor who also hosts the film, during breakfast at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Topics for discussion include how family, chutzpah, education, taking action, and responsibility for the world, are important traits of both Israel as a nation and Israelis as people that have been blended together to create a culture rich with amazing innovations in a vast array of fields. Israel being destroyed in the media because of the lack of a positive image to counter constant negatives and how new media is allowing this image to be changed is highlighted. The segment wraps up with Yishai and Ben Shahar talking about how the perception of Israel in the international community needs to be expanded to ‘beyond the conflict’.
Segment 2: Should it Stay or Should it Go?
For the second segment of this week’s program, Yishai is joined by Knesset expert Jeremy Man Sultan to discuss the situation that is currently being played out in the Knesset, Civil Courts, and Israeli Supreme Court regarding the village of Migron in the Benyamin Region of Samaria. The Israeli courts have ruled that the village must be ‘evacuated’ by the Israeli government because it is in violation of land deals and the fate of the community has become a hot button issue across all aspects of Israeli life. Potential outcomes and solutions are discussed during this segment including a solution that would have the government moving citizens to other parts of Israel and the dismantling of the community.
Segment 3: The Will to Move Ahead
Rabbi David Bar-Chaim, the head of the Shiloh Institute in Jerusalem is interview by Yishai in the third segment regarding the current status of the Religious Zionist movement in Israel. Interview topics include a definition of ‘Orthodox’ Judaism and how the term is recent, the difference between galut mode Judaism and redemption mode Judaism and how Religious Zionism combines the two ideas, and Yishai talks about how for him, events such as the Passover Seder should become events that are felt deep down rather than just acted out. Rabbi Bar-Chaim and Yishai end their interview by talking about how that by moving to Israel, a Jew is able to take a ‘step-up’ in an observant sense and live a more pure Torah life.
Segment 4: Instead of ‘Quiet with Quiet’
The last segment of this week’s show has Yishai being joined by his friend, former co-host, and director of the film “Iranium” Alex Traiman. Together, they discuss how following the tragic and brutal massacre of Jews in Toulouse, France, there is a realization that a lot of the hostility that is felt towards the Jewish People is coming from within Israel itself. Yishai talks about how Molotov cocktails were recently thrown at his housing complex and how Israeli soldiers need to be portrayed as un-merciful towards those that wish to hurt Israelis rather than as beat-boxing humanitarians. They also talk about how regimes such as those in Iran are like a ticking time bomb and a certain amount of pressure should be applied by Israel to ensure that they indeed fall and how these regimes often place blame and focus on Israel in order to shift the problems away from those at home. The segment and show wraps up with Yishai reading the statement that was made to the Jewish People by Chava (Eva) Sandler, the widow of the family murdered in Toulouse, France.