You're Wrong About

I’ve been enjoying this podcast for a few years now and finally decided to write a review. First I looked through some recent ones. It’s very disappointing to see some reviewers perpetuate the idea that criticism of the Israeli government, the IDF and zionism is antisemitic. It’s not. Criticizing a government, their military and the often violent ideology they believe isn’t antisemitism. We’re not required to believe zionism in order to be jewish and many of us don’t. I could never believe an ideology that uses a religion (half of my family’s religion) to justify the subjugation and mass killing of an entire group of people it’s been targeting for several decades. There is absolutely nothing that can justify such actions. Idk about anyone else, but I was raised to believe that “never again” means never again for anyone. People sticking up for a far right, often violent, theocratic government and their military targeting a group of people is a slap in the face to that important phrase. Anywho, I’ve loved this podcast for a few years now. The topics are always interesting and the discussions with the guests are always engaging. I love tuning in and learning something new.

I am disgusted that in the first few minutes of the Paul Reuben episode your cohost points out the so called shame of Paul Reuben’s father participating in the Israeli air force, implying that Zionism is to be universally and inherently eschewed. This lacks nuance, consideration of history, and is all together besides the point of your episode. You have just taken time to highlight your antisemitic stance, and the shame is on you, for that.

The podcast is generally interesting and informative. I was put off by the comment about Pee Wee's father...that fighting for Israeli independence is about the worst thing one could do? There is definitely room for disagreement about Israel and the Israeli government but I would expect that a well-informed reporter would have treated the subject with more nuance and differentiated between the founding of Israel and the current situation in Gaza. This was not the subject of the podcast but provided a major distraction.

I have been a lover of YWA for years and am always touched by the way they tackle learning/relearning topics through the nuanced and empathetic lens. It’s wild how much comfort I find in listening to even the darkest episodes. I hope more people find it… def the sort of pod that you may stumble upon one episode that’s topic speaks to you and will need to hear more. *Also in contrast to other recent reviews, I believe the systematic murd3r of children is wrong and it shouldn’t be controversial to say.