5min chapter

Unholy: Two Jews on the News cover image

March To Nowhere - with David Baddiel

Unholy: Two Jews on the News

CHAPTER

Introduction

This chapter delves into the potential derailment of a hostage deal in Gaza and the Biden administration's impatience. It also explores personal experiences of being Jewish in the UK amidst news on Israel and anti-Semitism, sharing the constant sense of scrutiny felt.

00:00
Speaker 3
Five months in there had been talk about a hostage deal possible but an incident in Gaza shooting incident at a Food distribution point might derail that also the Biden administration losing patience and the heat is on Inside and yow's coalition. We will also be talking to author comedian and cultural icon David Baddiel It's unholy. I'm unit levy of channel 12 in television and I'm Jonathan Friedland of the Guardian in London It's
Speaker 2
Unholy to choose on the news and so often this happens where you know We think we're gonna take a step back and get the big picture and instead news Breaks at this stage. It's obviously the details are pretty sketchy of what exactly Has happened in Gaza as you and I talk on Thursday, but yeah as you said They're throwing into doubt that the hopes the talk they had been of some kind of breakthrough Joe Biden has said it would come by Monday We'll get into all of that. We had also just wanted to take stock in a way of what these last Five months have felt like where you are and and where I am
Speaker 3
I do feel like over these five Months, can you believe next week it will have been five months? Where did all this time go right? I mean, what did we do besides trying to remember how to breathe and not be sad and anxious all the time and hide horrible truths From our children and maybe from ourselves But I feel like I've been talking a lot about what has felt like to be in Israeli during this period And I am really interested in what it feels like to be you I mean to be Jewish in the UK over these past five months Well, it's
Speaker 2
funny because you did ask me that you know in one of our sort of WhatsApp exchanges earlier This week and as it happens and he's really fun friend was visiting and we were sitting in my you know At my kitchen table and I said, you know what it's like It's like when you can just put the news on at any moment and the way things are at the moment It's all about you meaning it's about Israel or it's about Jews that is what is it's like at the moment And it was one of those funny things where I looked at my watch and it was about two minutes to six in the evening I said, you know what? I'm gonna do this now I'm gonna put the BBC radio six o'clock news on and I'm gonna show you what I mean And I had no idea because I hadn't been following the news that that afternoon and sure enough I put the radio on and the first five stories were either anti-Semitism or Responses to Islamophobia that were related to Gaza or Gaza or Jews somehow And then the first story that wasn't I think was about the cricket and England and India the test match And I then sort of clipped it and sent it to you sent it to you as a message because you know My visiting Israeli friend was like Well, that is unbelievable actually that you know I knew it was bad I hadn't realized it was that bad and I say bad because it's a it's a very Intrusive feeling To feel that all the time you're part of this small community 270,000 here in Britain but other diaspora communities Where somehow there's just this people sort of prodding and poking and discussing you I don't mean just about the Israel Garza what I mean also about you know, there's been a string of stories We might get into some of them about specifically anti-Semitism. What is it? What isn't it? What counts? And there's items about you know what anti-Zionism is you're just feeling like you're being talked about you're under the microscope all the time that feels You know violating is too strong, but it feels intrusive and then there's the other dread Which is which you and I've talked a lot which is what new terrible things are going to come out on the on the news about? The war in Gaza because there's this nagging sense And we're going to talk about this a bit with our guest David Baddiel but this nagging sense that rightly or wrongly and it's almost always wrongly Jews will be blamed for what's going on Jews in Britain will be blamed for something going on Thousands of miles away so your heart sinks your heart sinks in two ways first at the horrible thing itself And then the second thing is that you know that somehow You know, there will be graffiti sprayed on a Jewish school. There'll be red paint thrown out thrown at a synagogue There will be kids on their way to Classes who will be harassed or abused? You know, I saw a friend visiting this week. He was visiting from Boston He's you know daughters at college there. He just pulls up on his phone shows me a picture It's a sort of one of those stencil spray painted things It looks like an Israeli flag until you look closer the style of David's replaced by a blue and white swastika This is that's in the United States. So this is just what it is like all the time.

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