#FearFactor

If you listened to our podcast from Saturday, and you really should have, your ears would have been witness to what one could call “a lively discussion” in polite society. But who are we kidding? Israelisms podcast isn’t about polite society!

Charley maintained that our domestic policy, in particular with regards to the religious parties such as Shas are a danger to our existence as a nation. In his eyes it is more so than the ever present threat from our neighbors. I think that both these threats are real but they fall under the comparison of apples and oranges. The only thing that joins them is that obviously they are threats against Israel as we know it and we don’t want either of them to come to fruition.

Charley could not understand how the average Israeli, aka Yosef the plumber, doesn’t demand action on this threat posed by the ultra orthodox, who don’t fully participate in Israeli society but take from it in ever bigger bites until there will be nothing left. In addition the ultra orthodox do not see democracy as necessary in a Jewish state. Without democracy, individual freedoms are not protected. From both an economical and a social perspective we will be in trouble.

I don’t disagree with Charley that the threat is real. I do however understand the psyche of the Israeli citizen. It’s actually the reaction that any people anywhere in the world would have. What do you worry about more? The missile that is already aimed at your home or the coming economic crunch that will come but isn’t here now? Look at America post 9/11. What scared them more, Al Qaeda or a looming economic crisis? You guessed it and so the “war on terror” was born.

Israeli’s have been dealing with a threat to their lives for more than the 62 years that the State of Israel exists. The threat will not even end when and if there is a formation of a Palestinian state. The extremists of Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran and Syria will see to it. So don’t blame the public if they worry more about their very ability to stay alive.

Blame the leadership instead. Charley said the politicians use the threat against Israel for their own good, they inflate it so they don’t have to do anything about our internal problems. While I agree that PM Netanyahu is only interested in staying in power I think it trivializes the very real threat posed by our neighbors to claim it is inflated. I think our leaders can and should be dealing with both the external and internal issues. It can be done. United States President Lincoln comes to mind as an example of a leader who dealt with war and issues affecting the every day lives of the citizens. Sadly this is not the case with the present government. We need better leaders and we should demand it. However Joe Public will still fear more the clear and present danger over a threat that is down the line where hopefully there will be time left to fix it. It is what it is. That’s why leadership is so important.

#Talkback

Remember when you were a kid and your parents told you not to talk back? Now as adults it’s encouraged, at least it is on the internet in forums, blogs and all other types of social media. People who put out content love the feedback. So what’s happening with mine?

In the beginning, Israelisms would get most of it’s comments on the website and in emails. Over time a sort of community evolved between our listeners. At the end of every show I would read the names of those that commented. I felt that if someone was going to take the time to do so they should get a little recognition. That’s how it went for a really long time. Comments were plentiful. During the Second Lebanon War we reached 100 comments for just one show! That was to be expected. Heated topics bring out the inner political pundit in all of us.

Slowly there was a change. We started getting comments on Facebook and on twitter in addition to the already well established venues. This change split up that old gang of mine. Without interacting amongst themselves it became less fun. Moving along with the times our show is live streamed on video. This lets people chat with us in real time when it works. Fun for us but less comments to read later. Then came spam. Not the one or two that managed to get through but hundreds. Combining that with a crazy schedule, I stopped reading the names of those who commented. Silence is not golden in the podcasting world.

Our listenership is in a steady upward swing. So it’s not because we lost listeners. I think they just got complacent. It’s so much easier just to listen and talk back to your iPod in real time. I mean, what’s in it for them? I’m going to give it the old college try. Until the spam mess is cleared up by our provider we’ll be taking email comments. If possible we’ll discuss the comments on the show. Hopefully we can go back to the website soon. It’s kind of ironic how the advent of social media was actually anti social for our podcast community. Now we need to rebuild it. We want you back, so talk to us!

#300

Like every show before it I ask Charley “What number is this?” while he’s setting up the computers. It’s my job to do the intro and boy was I surprised when he told me it’s number 300. Three hundred shows about Israel, the good, the bad and the just plain ugly! It was a big one and that’s exactly how I introduced the show. Not a lot of fanfare but then again it’s hard to organize hoopla 10 seconds before the show starts.

Three hundred shows, one a week and it never gets old. This week, at least at the start, I was sure we were going to be talking about Wiki Leaks. That’s the thing about podcasting from Israel. The unexpected always happens. Wait, wouldn’t that make it expected? Well, while you ponder that I’ll just say that we started the week eagerly awaiting the leaks. What had my countrymen been up to? Of course anyone who has listened to our show has learned a few things. One of them is that Israeli politicians don’t know when to shut up. So the bottom line for Israel was that there was nothing leaked that wasn’t already leaked! Actually it was our neighbors that suddenly started stuttering almost in unison. Then they came to their senses and blamed the Mossad!

Sadly the podcasting gods had a different story in mind for podcast number 300. The kind that a devastating wildfire can bring. It had been extremely dry with no sign of winter in sight so all it took was a stupid kid and a lit coal to change the lives of 42 families forever. Hopefully it will also change how our government works in the future. I can only hope. This tragedy did show that despite what haters like to portray, the people of Israel have friends.

I’m looking forward to another 300 episodes. When you enjoy what you do there is no need for fanfare. I only hope you enjoy what we do as much as we enjoy doing it!

#AllTheNews?

It’s the end of the week which can mean only one thing. It’s time to do the show notes. What will we talk about in the roughly forty minutes we have your attention? This job usually falls to me unless I have a “Fine! You pick the topics!” moment. Those don’t happen too often.

Remembering what was newsworthy on Monday when it’s already Friday is hard and not just because my memory is starting to suck. Sometimes the news cycle here changes so fast it’s hard to keep up. So I developed a really easy method for our podcast mayhem. My twitter stream. My tweets pretty much are divided between fun silly stuff and politics. I’ve used twitter as a political tool for a long time. When something happens in this tiny corner of the world I tweet about it with a link to the news article. Voila! Instant show notes!

We aren’t THE NEWS and we don’t claim to be. I rarely write detailed show notes because I don’t want to be reading to the listeners. They do that just fine on their own. I want to discuss the news and give our take on it. I think if you are looking for straight up news there are as many news outlets on line as there are opinions in Israel and in case you don’t know, that means a lot! What we offer is a look at how we see the news regarding Israel. After all, we have a front row seat.

Sometimes there is contention on topics that I pick. Charley is a strict “What does it have to do with Israel” kind of a guy. I see the necessity at times to talk about events in neighboring countries because they will have a direct effect on Israel down the road. One such recent case was Hezbollah’s threat of a coup in the face of the UN inquiry on the Hariri murder. Charley felt that Israel should be acting as if that already has occurred because they have enormous power as it is, so what’s there to talk about. I on the other hand felt that people should be aware of just what is possible if they go through with their threat. We will have Iran on our doorstep and no longer in disguise. So we wrestled the issue to a pulp and moved on!

We both like talking about domestic issues. It shows both how crazy and how normal we are as a nation. Some of the problems we face are uniquely ours. It’s a look at things you won’t get from CNN or FoxNews or anything in between. All they are interested in is what is happening the Israeli Palestinian arena. Bombs make good headlines. Israel recruiting Autistic volunteers to the IDF…not so much.

I think we do a good job of keeping people interested. It’s always hard to predict how the show will go. Sometimes on a slow news week, and yes they do happen, we end up with a great show because people like to hear about the mundane things about life in Israel. Go figure! Still we would like to take this opportunity to thank Bibi, Leiberman, Ovadia Yosef, Hamas, Hezbollah, Ahmadinejad and Abbas to name a few, for all the material they have provided over the years. Somedays I wish there was a lot less of it!

#Israelisms

The Israelisms podcast had humble beginnings. Five years ago my husband discovered this thing called a podcast. For the uninitiated a podcast can be best described as something akin to a radio show that you can download from the internet using an rss feed. It’s not internet radio. That’s a beast of a different color. The beauty of podcasts is that anyone can do it and the listeners can download it and listen to it whenever they wanted on what else but their iPods! Okay well technically on any MP3 or MP4 or computer for that matter!

The first thing my husband, who will from now on be called Charley, did was let me listen to a podcast called Dawn and Drew. They are one of the pioneers of podcasting. Their show was basically the two of them talking with no holds barred. Nothing was taboo. I listened for a few minutes as this couple talked and then I looked at Charley unimpressed and said “I can do better than that.” Not in the not ready for prime time category, but in general I thought I could make witty conversation without resorting to the lowest common denominator. It should be duly noted that Dawn and Drew was a top show for years and might still be one if I bothered to check. People loved them. We even briefly met them and not surprisingly they are nice people.

The next thing Charley did was hand me an inexpensive headset with a mic attached that was plugged into his laptop and he said “Talk to me.” Simple as that. Welcome to Israelisms podcast #1! We talked about Israel of course. To me, who hated public speaking, it was just Charley and I talking in his office. I never actually imagined anyone was listening. I was wrong! People listened and they liked us! So there you have it. The birth of a podcast.

We now have better mics and a sound board. You can even catch us live on ustream and chat with us while we do the show. The technology is changing but the main ingredient remains the same. Charley and I talking about life and politics in this amazing place we live in.

#WTF

What just happened here? A tzunami just washed away seven months of posts and I am the weatherman who put in my password and let it happen. There’s a new hashtag in town! The mixing of metaphors is the only thing left standing.

Welcome to Hashtag Israel, the blog that gives you a behind the scenes look at what it’s like podcasting about Israel. So fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride and Israeli’s drive like mad men! Safety first!

#OpeningStatement

Ladies and gentleman of the jury I stand before you today because I have become a true Israeli and like that rare breed I must be heard. For there is not an Israeli in all the land that doesn’t have an opinion that he feels should be kept to himself. Sometimes the noise level is deafening!

Welcome to my little spot on the map. Israel has been written about and is at this very moment being written about somewhere in the world. Sometimes I wonder if the reason we are so hard to define is because we have no borders to define us. At least not internationally recognized ones.

So, without further ado I call to the stand one brave soul (that would be me) who will in these blog posts,testify to what life and podcasting is like in the Jewish State.