The Honest Take

HonestReporting
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The Honest Take is HonestReporting's long-form interview series bringing together leading experts, journalists, and researchers to examine how Israel and the Middle East are covered — and what goes into creating and feeding the narratives that target Israel. Each episode features leading experts, analysts, researchers, and journalists who work on media bias, terrorism, NGO accountability, foreign influence, antisemitism, and international institutions. These are professionals directly involved in investigating how narratives are shaped, amplified, and protected across global newsrooms. The conversations go beyond breaking news to unpack: • Media bias and misinformation about Israel • How terrorist organizations exploit humanitarian and civil society frameworks • The role of NGOs and international bodies in shaping public perception • Foreign state influence on Western media and education • Why context disappears in reporting on Israel and the Palestinians This playlist is designed for viewers seeking in-depth analysis, evidence-based discussion, and accountability in journalism on Israel and the Middle East.

Episodes

  1. 3D AGO

    THE HONEST TAKE LIVE: Kristof's Unbelievable Tale *Live broadcast, May 12, 2026*

    On May 11, Nicholas Kristof published a column in the New York Times titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians" - a 1,500-word piece alleging systematic sexual violence by Israeli security forces, grounded in anonymous testimonies and sources with documented histories of fabrication. Ben went live the next evening with HonestReporting's Rachel O'Donoghue, who had spent 48 hours pulling the piece apart from the ground up. In this episode: • The dog rape claim: where it originated (Euromed Human Rights Monitor, Geneva), why it's scientifically impossible, and why it passed through a Times editor anyway • Euromed Monitor's track record: organ harvesting libel, denial of Hamas infrastructure at Al-Shifa, a single-witness foundation for its most grotesque claims • Sami Al-Sai - Kristof's primary named source: arrested by Israel for incitement (celebrating Oct 7, coordination with terrorist groups), with a documented history of claims made, recanted, and then re-recanted • Issa Amro - second named source: "threatened with rape" in his Washington Post account; "raped" in Kristof's account. A significant discrepancy Kristof did not address • Kristof's defense on Twitter: cited medical journals to prove dogs can rape humans - journals that were actually about bestiality in the other direction. As Rachel put it: "He read it backwards." • The Israeli Civil Commission report, released the same day: two years in the making, 300+ pages, 10,000+ photographs, 1,800 hours of visual material, 430 testimonies across 52 nationalities - documenting systematic sexual violence by Hamas on October 7th. The Times reportedly declined to publish it in advance. • What the NYT's muted headline for the Civil Commission report (*"Israeli report examines sexual violence during and after Hamas-led attack"*) says about editorial priorities • The pattern: when the Times gets Israel wrong, it always cuts the same way Links: • Rachel's full rebuttal in the Wall Street Journal: "Kristof's Unbelievable Tale" • HonestReporting's original X thread debunking the piece: honestreporting.com / @Honest.Rachel • Israeli Civil Commission report on Oct 7 sexual violence: civilc.org Guest: Rachel O'Donoghue, senior writer and researcher at HonestReporting. Follow her at @Honest.Rachel on Instagram.

    34 min

  2. 5D AGO

    THE OTHER SIDE OF THE NAKBA: The Forgotten History of 1948 — with Yossi Klein Halevi

    Yossi Klein Halevi grew up the son of Holocaust survivors in Brooklyn. As a teenager, he joined Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League. Then he moved to Israel, broke with extremism, and wrote a book called Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor - released free in Arabic - asking Palestinians to see Jews as an indigenous people returning home, not colonizers. Today, on college campuses across America, the answer is: you're colonizers. The Nakba proves it. With Nakba Day approaching, Ben sits down with Halevi for an honest, unflinching conversation about what actually happened in 1948 - the partition vote, the Arab invasion, Deir Yassin, the Hadassah convoy massacre, the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries that nobody talks about. And then: how a legitimate historical grievance became a weapon of delegitimization. Halevi is not a denialist. He openly names the Nakba as a real catastrophe. He has criticized Israeli education for refusing to teach it. But he also argues that collapsing 1948 into a "narrative of total innocence" - and using it to erase Jewish indigeneity - is something categorically different from honest historical reckoning. This is the conversation about 1948 that most people never get to have. In this episode: 00:00 — Cold Open (Deir Yassin / Hadassah convoy quote) 00:22 — Intro: Ben introduces Yossi Klein Halevi and the episode 00:53 — The Real Story of 1948 — episode framing 02:43 — Growing up in Brooklyn, joining the JDL 04:12 — Breaking with Kahana and moving to Israel 05:25 — Living with the partition wall in Jerusalem 07:42 — Two overlapping geographies: Land of Israel vs. Land of Palestine 08:02 — The UN Partition vote (1947) — Arab rejection and the pattern of refusals 12:07 — The Palestinian maximalist frame vs. the Israeli counter-narrative 14:08 — When does land become about existence? 14:55 — The Israeli center: head vs. heart on two states 16:33 — Why two states feel impossible after October 7th 16:54 — The six months between partition and war (Nov '47–May '48) 18:50 — Ethnic cleansing on both sides — flight vs. expulsion 20:58 — The 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries 25:20 — Why Arab countries kept Palestinians as permanent refugees 27:34 — Inversion: Nazi collaboration accusations flipped 30:35 — Plan Dalet: ethnic cleansing blueprint or defensive plan? 34:04 — Deir Yassin vs. the Hadassah convoy massacre 36:06 — Acknowledgment vs. apology — teaching the Palestinian Nakba 41:13 — Settler colonialism goes mainstream: Al Jazeera, Jacobin, the Oscars 47:01 — Why 'indigenous' and 'no metropole' arguments aren't landing 48:13 — The language war: genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism as weapons 49:03 — Myths & Facts doesn't work anymore — it's about narrative now 53:00 — Has dialog survived October 7th? 58:02 — Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor — the German edition and new intro 01:00:59 — Outro About the guest: Yossi Klein Halevi is a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is the author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor (Harper Collins, 2018), a New York Times bestseller released free in Arabic at letterstomyneighbor.com. His previous books include Like Dreamers (National Jewish Book Award winner) and Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist. Follow him on X: @YKleinHalevi Hosted by Ben Chertoff @ben.chertoff The Honest Take is produced by HonestReporting - rebuilding trust in media.

    1h 2m

  3. TRAILER

    The Honest Take: TRAILER

    Welcome to The Honest Take, the new long-form interview podcast from HonestReporting. For 25 years, HonestReporting has been the global watchdog on media bias against Israel — monitoring newsrooms, calling out distortion, and forcing corrections from some of the world's most powerful outlets. The Honest Take is where we go beyond the rapid response and sit down with the people who understand what's really happening: journalists, scholars, lawyers, diplomats, and activists. Hosted by Ben Chertoff, every episode is a sustained conversation about the stories the mainstream keeps getting wrong — antisemitism, the war in Gaza, the UN, campus politics, the future of Jewish life, and the fight for truth in an information war. Subscribe now. New episodes weekly. Featuring voices including Hillel Neuer (UN Watch), Shai Davidai, Yardena Schwartz, Yossi Klein Halevi, and many, many more.

    1 min

  4. MAY 5

    Elite, Educated, Antisemitic: How Academia Fosters Jew Hate with Shai Davidai

    What happened on American campuses after October 7 did not come out of nowhere. In this episode of The Honest Take, Shai Davidai joins HonestReporting to trace the intellectual roots of the antisemitism now shaping elite universities. From Edward Said’s Orientalism and the rise of the activist professor, to moral relativism, postcolonial theory, and the normalization of anti-Zionism as virtue, Davidai explains how decades of academic ideas helped create a culture where Jew hatred is repackaged as justice. The conversation also explores Columbia’s long history with antisemitism, the role of groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, and why so many students and faculty cannot even recognize their own bigotry. Davidai argues that this is not just campus radicalism. It is a broader moral and intellectual failure with real consequences for Jews, for higher education, and for American society. Shai Davidai is a social psychologist, former Columbia Business School professor, and host of Here I Am with Shai Davidai. His forthcoming book, American Intellectual Antisemitism, is scheduled for release on October 6, 2026.

    46 min

  5. MAY 5

    The Lie That Lit the Match: Hebron, Nazis, and the West's Vanishing Memory, with Yardena Schwartz

    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often thought of as a protracted political dispute based on two peoples fighting over one land. Often, they place the start date at 1948. Sometimes 1967. But for a real understanding, it is necessary to reach back to the pre-State era, and realize the religious nature of the conflict, and one man who played a pivotal role in shaping it: The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. We speak to Yardena Schwartz, author of "Ghosts of a Holy War," about Hajj Amin al Husseini, his surprisingly close relationship with Adolf Hitler, the 1929 Hebron massacre, and how reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed over the course of the century that followed.

    48 min

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About

The Honest Take is HonestReporting's long-form interview series bringing together leading experts, journalists, and researchers to examine how Israel and the Middle East are covered — and what goes into creating and feeding the narratives that target Israel. Each episode features leading experts, analysts, researchers, and journalists who work on media bias, terrorism, NGO accountability, foreign influence, antisemitism, and international institutions. These are professionals directly involved in investigating how narratives are shaped, amplified, and protected across global newsrooms. The conversations go beyond breaking news to unpack: • Media bias and misinformation about Israel • How terrorist organizations exploit humanitarian and civil society frameworks • The role of NGOs and international bodies in shaping public perception • Foreign state influence on Western media and education • Why context disappears in reporting on Israel and the Palestinians This playlist is designed for viewers seeking in-depth analysis, evidence-based discussion, and accountability in journalism on Israel and the Middle East.

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  • Creator
    HonestReporting
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 HonestReporting

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