The Honest Report

In Israel's Negev Desert, which spans most of the country's land mass but home to only 8% of its people, sits Dimona, a town built from scratch to house new immigrants from across the Middle East and beyond, and it is where some of the biggest growth is happening.In this episode, HRC Assistant Director Robert Walker sits down with Itai Tick, who is a reservist in the Israeli military and the Director of Mifalot Dimona, which works with underprivileged youth in Dimona.We speak to him about the city's rapid growth, life in the desert, and about some remarkable events during the recent war with Iran.

When it comes to combating anti-Jewish hate, it is important to look to leaders for inspiration and education, no matter where they are.And in the fight against anti-Jewish hate, one of the loudest voices has been Cora Neumann, a Democratic Montana state senator, a state with a Jewish population of only about one-tenth of one percent.Nevertheless, Neumann has been a vocal opponent of antisemitism, and has used her position to help educate other elected officials and the public at large. In this episode of The Honest Report podcast, Neumann speaks with Robert Walker, HonestReporting Canada assistant director, offering her insight and experience in fighting history's oldest hatred.

The Carney government has faced unprecedented criticism, domestically and internationally, for what critics call a failure to address Islamic terrorism and anti-Jewish hate inside Canada.What more needs to be done to meaningfully address the scourge of Islamic terrorism, and, in a directly related effort, the related upsurge in anti-Jewish hate?In this episode of The Honest Report, HonestReporting Canada assistant director Robert Walker sits down with Sharren Haskel, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, for her assessment of the war against the Iranian regime, and a candid assessment of Ottawa's fight against extremism.

Since the U.S. and Israeli strikes on the Iranian regime began on February 28, the message from Ottawa has been mixed. First, Prime Minister Mark Carney supported them, then appeared to walk that back, with little clarity since.As the war progresses, footage continues to show Iranians cheering strikes on regime targets, and in Canada, mass gatherings of Iranians praise the effort, calling it not a war, but a rescue operation.To help us learn more about what Iranian-Canadians want from the federal government, we are joined by Ardeshir Zarezadeh, a Toronto lawyer and activist, who was previously a political prisoner in Iran. He sits down with Robert Walker, HonestReporting Canada's assistant director.

The Middle East is such a busy place that the region's most populous country, Egypt, is often forgotten. Home to some 110 million people, Egypt fought four wars with Israel, but in 1979, the two signed a peace agreement.However, the story didn't end there. The aggressive language and even actions from Cairo have intensified in recent years, and in this episode of The Honest Report, we are joined by Khaled Hassan, an Egyptian-born, UK-based geopolitical and national security researcher and commentator.

From almost the moment that thousands of Palestinian terrorists streamed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, conspiracy theorists began re-writing history in real time, accusing Israel of killing its own people and spreading vicious lies aimed at whitewashing Palestinian terrorism.As history has shown countless times before, lies that start on the fringes can often become mainstream, and Israeli author Alon Penzel refuses to accept that lying down. He authored a book, Testimonies Without Boundaries, Israel: October 7th 2023, recounts in chilling details the savagery of that day.He joins Robert Walker, HonestReporting Canada assistant director, for a thoughtful conversation.

HR Canada Charitable has published a 100-page report, backed by the same team that released the Asserson Report on the BBC, to examine CBC News' coverage of the Hamas-Israel war over a 20-month period.The results are damning as they showcase an overwhelming narrative imbalance of the Hamas-Israel war, which minimizes and abstracts Israeli and Jewish experiences while privileging Palestinian perspectives and views.To help shed light on the details of the report, we are joined by HR Canada Charitable Organization's Director of Education, Amanda Eskenasi.

Despite the barrage of pro-Palestinian propaganda being presented on social media - and in the traditional news media as well - there has never been a substitute for the unvarnished truth, and that means seeing the reality first-hand.Cory Morgan recently had a chance to do exactly that. The journalist and columnist for The Western Standard recently visited Israel with the Exigent Foundation, where he was able to get a picture that Canadians rarely see, read or hear from their news media.Cory joined us as a guest this week to discuss what he saw, the impact it had on him, and why so many news outlets fail - or refuse - to provide that same picture to Canadians.

When a Toronto bookstore owned by Jewish philanthropist Heather Reisman was vandalized by anti-Israel extremists in late 2023, one of the perpetrators, a licensed immigration consultant named Mac Scott, received only a warning from his professional regulator, even after an admission of guilt. Lawyer and advocate Bryant Greenbaum says that’s not good enough. In this episode of The Honest Report, he explains why he’s taking the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants to federal court, arguing they ignored the harm done to the Jewish community. Greenbaum discusses the broader implications for professional accountability and antisemitism in Canada’s legal world, and how he's taking action.

After two years of extremist anti-Israel demonstrations, often found in downtown cores, many pro-Israel events have come to avoid those areas altogether, effectively ceding them.Avi Attali was not prepared to make that happen. The Toronto resident, along with a group of volunteers, has planned and executed a number of rallies for Israel and to raise awareness for the hostages, primarily based in downtown Toronto, with some of these events attracting thousands of attendees.Avi joins us this week to tell us why he thinks such events are so critical, what motivates him to put them together, and what the lesson is for all supporters of Israel.

Tiferet Lapidot, a 23 year-old Canadian-Israeli, was known for her kindness and sensitivity, growing up in northern Israel.On October 7, 2023, she was at the Nova festival in southern Israel, where she was murdered by Hamas terrorists. But even on that day, she put her life on the line to help others and protect them.In this special podcast, we are joined by Tiferet's father Ohad, who tells us the story, both of who his daughter was, as well as what happened on that terrible day two years ago, but also the unexpected kindnesses that he experienced afterwards.Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.

News media outlets regularly claim that there is a famine or starvation in Gaza, and that Israel is refusing to allow food into the territory. But the actual evidence tells a very different story.In recent weeks, Eitan Fischberger, an Israel-based open-source intelligence investigator, visited Gaza, where he saw first-hand the incredible amount of aid that Israel had permitted into Gaza, but was not being delivered by supposedly humanitarian organizations.Eitan joins us this week to discuss what he saw, and what it says about the state of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Most news media outlets have long given up on pretending to explain the truth of the Hamas-Israel war, and instead are doing little more than regurgitating Hamas claims of "genocide" without even a second thought.But the truth is far different than sound bites.In this podcast, we sit down with Dr Brian Cox for an in-depth discussion of how international law debunks "genocide" claims and shows the legality of Israel's counter-terrorism operations against Hamas in Gaza.Dr. Cox is an adjunct professor of Law at Cornell University, where his expertise is international criminal law, the law involving armed conflict, comparative military justice and national security law. He spent 22 years as a military lawyer for the U.S. Army, and is currently enrolled as a graduate student at Carleton University's journalism school in Ottawa.