News Club Interview - The experience of being in Israel

The year since 7 October…

In April, I interviewed Adam about the war between Israel and Hamas. He gave an incredible insight into how reporters work in a war zone, how they get stories and - having been in Israel in the months after the 7 October attacks - gave some context into what it was like on the ground. That episode can be found here. 

Adam went back to Israel just recently to report from the Be’eri kibbutz - one of many that was targeted during those attacks. His report is here. Naturally, the interview is heavily focused on this aspect of the situation. But there’s more. I ask what has changed since he was in Israel last year and the mood of the nation both towards the government of Israel and towards the Western world.

Also, given Adam was the Middle East correspondent for ABC based in Beirut between 2008-11, I spoke with him about how he views the escalating war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. 

We know and are very conscious of the many and varied perspectives on this war. I am grateful to Adam for bringing his. As a journalist in search of truth and interested in understanding the human experience of this conflict, I find him to be incredibly knowledgeable. He’s certainly helped me understand some of the complexities. 

Listen to the full episode here, watch it on YouTube, and scroll down for 3 highlights from our chat.

Highlight #1: Those inside the Be'eri kibbutz "feel absolutely let down by the Israeli military"

Adam Harvey: The people who live in those kibbutzim and border communities are desperate to tell their stories about what happened to them. They feel like their stories have been forgotten as the war in Gaza and now the war in the north has continued. So when I was there, we went to Be'eri every day to talk to survivors and hear what happened to them.

One-hundred-and-one people were killed in Be'eri that day, 30 people were kidnapped, and about 35 soldiers were killed in the community trying to kick out Hamas. They feel absolutely let down by the Israeli military because the troops were there. The first attackers came into the kibbutz at 6:30am, and the military didn't come in until about 12 hours later. That is astonishing in a nation where the Israeli military was always seen as a powerful, reliable force that would protect people, and they just didn't that day.

Highlight #2: Why many Israelis see the global protests as "monumentally unfair"

Adam Smith: A lot of people feel that the world doesn't understand the position that Israel is in, the fact that it's surrounded by countries that are determined to destroy it. And the notion of some sort of Palestinian state means the end of Israel and the eviction of Israelis. They see that as monumentally unfair. But it's also worth pointing out that the kind of coverage we see in Australia, which is really Gaza-focused or has been for the last 12 months - the terrible civilian toll of the war in Gaza, the refugee crisis, the shifting of civilians from place to place to place - that's not the coverage you see in Israel. They're watching war coverage. Over there, Israeli journalists go on embeds inside Gaza, speaking to the Israeli commanders. The focus is on the death toll amongst Israeli troops.

Highlight #3:  "There's a reason why Western nations are allied with Israel and not Hezbollah"

Adam Harvey: Lebanon, as an effective state and government, doesn't really exist—the real power there is Hezbollah. Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed, Iranian-funded political and military organisation. It runs hospitals and schools. Nothing happens in those places without Hezbollah's approval.

You only have to look at what they've done over the last year, which is firing unguided rockets into civilian communities. You can make arguments about whatever it is that Israel's doing and the labels you want to give it. But Hezbollah is certainly a terrorist organisation. They've been responsible for bombings, including the Marine barracks bombing in Israel in 1983. It was also responsible for the survival of Assad in Syria, who is one of the world's most atrocious dictators. During the Syrian civil war, it was Hezbollah that saved Assad and effectively ended the Arab Spring in Syria.

Groups like Hezbollah and Hamas want to wipe out Israel, and they don't really care what happens to the Israelis; they just don't want them there. Israel is a functioning democracy. It has functioned better at some times than others. There's a reason why Western nations are allied with Israel and not Hezbollah and Hamas.

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