Ashamed to Admit
Are you ashamed to admit you're not across the big issues and events affecting Jews in Australia, Israel and around the Jewish world?
In this new podcast from online publication The Jewish Independent, Your Third Cousin Tami Sussman and TJI's Dashiel Lawrence tackle the week's 'Chewiest and Jewiest' topics.
Ashamed to Admit
Episode #3 Dror Doron on Iran, offensive odours & a musical teaser
With tensions increasing between Israel, Iran and Lebanon, in this week's episode of ATA, Dash and Tami interview Dror Doron. Dror is a senior advisor at the United Against Nuclear Iran organization, he previously served for 17 years in Israel's government where he regularly briefed senior decision-makers on developments in the Middle East, particularly on Hezbollah. They also reveal some incriminating information about Tami’s ancestral pickle empire and share some admissions made by (anonymous) members of the community who confused their podcast for a ‘juicy confessions’ series.
TJI articles discussed in this episode:
https://thejewishindependent.com.au/israel-faces-a-hard-choice-about-the-border-with-lebanon
https://thejewishindependent.com.au/us-calls-for-unilateral-ceasefire
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Hello everyone. Tammy here again, just popping in to let everyone know that today's episode was recorded last Thursday, the 11th of April, before the unsettling events of the weekend that just passed. Of course I'm talking about the shocking rampage at Westfield, bondi Junction, where many community members and listeners of this podcast frequent. We are sending extra strength and prayers to the people who were there and those who were injured, those who were grieving, and also to the young Jewish man who was falsely identified as the perpetrator by Channel 7. If you are struggling at the moment, just remember that you can call Lifeline on 131 114, or you can contact the Jewish House Crisis Line. It's available 24-7, and that's 1300 544 357.
Speaker 1:Over the weekend we also received news that Iran had begun launching hundreds of aerial drones and missiles at Israel. So last Thursday, dash and I actually interviewed someone who's an expert in this space. He's a senior advisor at the United Against Nuclear Iran organization. So you'll notice that some of our questions are no longer hypothetical as they were a few days ago, but the majority of the content is still relevant, particularly for people like me who are ashamed to admit that they don't know a whole lot about Iran and how it functions politically and militarily, how it's funding Hamas and Hezbollah, et cetera. So we've also kept the lighter bits that were recorded last week too, because for many of us a bit of escapism and humour is a really helpful coping mechanism, and we've heard from lots of family members and friends in Israel who are prepping to spend quite a bit of time in their shelters and safe rooms, who wouldn't mind a bit of a funny distraction too.
Speaker 1:So with that, here's episode three. Are you ashamed to admit that you're not across all of the issues affecting Jews in Australia, the Middle East and the world at large? Because you know life is hectic and the news is depressing and sometimes you have to put your political head in the sand just to get through the day. But you know that's such a privileged position to take and you feel guilty about that. But you don't have time to read all the things that your cousin sends you and some of the content is so dense and it just makes you feel like a schmuck. I'm Tammy Sussman and in this podcast series I ask the Jewish Independence Executive Director, dr Dashiell Lawrence, all the ignorant questions that I and maybe you probably you are too embarrassed to ask.
Speaker 2:I'm Dash Lawrence and I'm going to attempt to answer most of Tammy's questions in the time that perhaps it takes you to tidy up the house at the end of the day, or drive to work and back you to tidy up the house at the end of the day, or drive to work and back, sometimes I might have to bring in an expert and sometimes I might have a few questions of my own. But together, tammy and I are going to try and cut through the week's chewiest and jewiest topics.
Speaker 1:Ready.
Speaker 2:Three, two, one.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Jewish Independent Podcast a shame to admit.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I can't believe we just did that.
Speaker 1:Well, we're in the same room today, so I thought we'll just make the most of it. Welcome to Sydney.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It's beautiful today. Is that what I'm supposed to say, coming from Melbourne? Yeah, you are I like all I've seen has been Sydney Airport and this Glebe office.
Speaker 1:On that note, I'm so sorry that I offered to pick you up from the airport and then, less than 10 seconds later, wrote no sorry, I'm not going to pick you up from the airport, because I remembered that I'm not good with tunnels and ramps, and-.
Speaker 2:That's okay, tammy. We both knew that it was for the best if I got an Uber or a taxi, which I did because I didn't want to end up in the North Shore or out in the Western suburbs. I wanted to go to Glebe. Well, thanks for joining us. Episode three, season one, of A Shame to Admit. I'm Dash Lawrence from the Jewish Independent.
Speaker 1:And I'm your old English tutor, Tammy Sussman.
Speaker 2:Firstly, thank you to everyone who's taken the time to reach out. Since we released episode two, I can see there are some more five-star reviews, particularly in Apple. Thank you, more of those very helpful Love your posts in your Facebook groups, in your WhatsApp groups, reposts on Instagram stories. Also love to see them as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, more on those Facebook groups, because never underestimate the power of a Facebook group. My mum was concerned that her post in the Sydney Jewish Mums group didn't get a lot of traction and she had a really great hook. She said, dash, you're obviously not in this group. And she had a really great hook. She said, dash, you're obviously not in this group, so you don't know. She wrote why kvetch, when you can kvel With a link to the show and no one liked it? So if you're in that group, please just like it. So it gets to the top.
Speaker 2:Give Mrs Sussman some love.
Speaker 1:She wouldn't like being called Mrs Sussman.
Speaker 2:Sorry, Tammy's mum.
Speaker 1:Give the show some love. On the topic of mum promoters my friend's mum, who loves a bit of a sesh she loves a bit of a yenta sesh she complained that the name of the show was a little bit deceptive. She thought that because it's called a shame to admit that, the content would be juicier. So she thought that we're going to read out confessions from the Jewish community, Like I think about Alex Rivchen, while I'm making love to my wife. None of that. Someone told me that they voted for the Greens despite warnings from family members that the Greens were racist against Jews. Someone else just texted me telling me that they have a family member who's a closet Trump supporter. Someone else was like I'm ashamed to admit that I drink the pickle brine from the can after I've put the pickles into a jar. Dash is laughing. By the way, you can't hear it, but we're in the same room and he's laughing at me. For people who were a bit concerned that they could hear my laugh more than his throughout, he does find me funny.
Speaker 2:Anyway, on the topic, I'm wondering if the pickle Brian is a someone out there or, in actual fact, it's you.
Speaker 1:It's not me. My dad used to do it growing up. He won't mind me sharing that he would beg to differ. So on the topic of pickles, I'm ashamed to admit that I found some incriminating information about the pickle empire.
Speaker 2:The plot thickens.
Speaker 1:I'm a direct descendant and I use the term empire loosely because my granny recently, like a few days ago, told me that the factory was out the back of her grandmother's home in Marrickville. So Dash, I'm going to send you a picture, I'm going to pass you an image and could you please read what I've circled.
Speaker 2:So the headline Tammy reads Please read what I've circled. So the headline Tammy reads Decaying onions brought five pounds.
Speaker 1:fine, yeah so this is a snippet from the Daily Mirror on Wednesday, the 29th of November 1944. Continue.
Speaker 2:Pleading guilty to a charge of not keeping their premises clean, l Lake and Sons, 463 Illawarra Road, marrickville, were fined £5 by Mr Hawkins SM at Newtown Court today. Mr James Forgy, health Inspector of Marrickville Council, said he visited the premises on November the 13th and found decaying onions in the pickling room. The unused brine was giving off an offensive odour and in the backyard were cases of decomposing onions. Mr Forgy said oh my Tammy Sussman.
Speaker 1:I know what you're thinking, I know.
Speaker 2:Is this what happened to the pickle empire? No, brought down by-.
Speaker 1:They were not brought down by the fine okay.
Speaker 2:Well, not the fine, but the multiple cases of food poisoning and-.
Speaker 1:No one said anything about food poisoning. They just had some decaying onions in their backyard. And you know what? Who doesn't have barrels of decaying onions in their backyard? And you know what? Who doesn't have barrels of decaying onions in their backyard, I think-.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you're in the business of brining things, you'd kind of know when something's decaying and worth getting rid of versus something that's just, you know, getting ready to go onto the shelves.
Speaker 1:The rest of the article said that Mr Abigail for Lake and Son said they'd been in business for 16 years, they had no previous trouble and the firm carried a large stock of onions which sweated during the wet winter, causing some to give off an odour. Okay, and I think that accusations of an offensive odour is just a classic case of Australian xenophobia.
Speaker 2:So Just a smidgen of antisemitism, perhaps.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. I'm. You know what? I've completely done a 180, and now I'm no longer ashamed to admit that I am proud of my great-great-grandfather. Can we just move on now?
Speaker 2:Just quickly, who is Elle Lake?
Speaker 1:Leon Lake. My great-great-grandfather, who owned Pallada Pickles, should have opened with that.
Speaker 2:Let's move along, okay. So, tammy, we're going to do something a little different today. We actually managed to bring in an expert who knows what they're talking about, someone who can answer your question with much more authority than I can, and it's a good thing, because I also had many of my own questions. For those who've been keeping an eye on this part of the regional conflict that's happening, it does appear as if Israel could be engaging in a much more serious conflict with Hezbollah. Things have been hotting up in recent weeks, so who better to bring in for this conversation than Dror Duran?
Speaker 2:Dror is a senior advisor at the United Against Nuclear Iran organization. He served for 17 years in Israel's government. He was a senior analyst in the office of the Prime Minister of Israel, where he regularly briefed senior decision makers on developments in the Middle East, particularly on Hezbollah. These days, though, he lives in Sydney, but he still brings a really keen interest and eye on developments. As you'll soon hear, there'll be many people who will have been watching events in Gaza very closely over the course of the last six months. They might now be wondering if a new front is about to open up in Lebanon or perhaps elsewhere, perhaps in Israel's south as well, but you actually contend that that front or those fronts have already been open for the past six months. So for those who aren't across what has been happening with Israel's neighbours over the course of the last six months, tell us what actually has been happening elsewhere outside of Gaza.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you mentioned Lebanon, and I think that's the most obvious arena. Hezbollah, which is the Iranian proxy dominating Lebanon, has opened a low-intensity war with Israel. On October 8th, 24 hours after the Hamas brutal attack in southern Israel, hezbollah joined the fighting and since then there has been ongoing clashes between Hezbollah forces and the IDF along the Israeli northern border. Those clashes caused the evacuation of some 60,000 to 80,000 Israelis from the border. They're actually displaced people inside Israel. All of the population of the northern settlements and villages are displaced. For six months by now, those fighting have been ongoing.
Speaker 3:Israel is trying to deter Hezbollah and to stop him from its attacks, but it doesn't seem to be working and they're actually kind of a spiral of escalation, slowly escalating, getting to the point that Israel right now is in a position that it needs to bring back its population back to the villages, back to the cities of the north. It cannot do that while Hezbollah is so close to the border, still firing inside Israel, and there is a dilemma. What you're going to do with that? Is Israel going to take a more aggressive step in order to push Hezbollah further away from the border, in order to prevent him from firing into Israel? That's a decision needed to be taken in Jerusalem in the upcoming days and it still hasn't been taken.
Speaker 3:And we've seen those demands coming from the populations. The cities, the towns in the northern areas are demanding we want to go back to our houses, do something as a sovereign state. It's a total, unacceptable reality when you've been unprovokedly attacked by a foreign entity, hezbollah, and your population has been evacuated for six months, half a year. Any government must do something about it and the dilemma is now in the hands of the decision makers in Israel. Are they going to open a full-scale front with Hezbollah? Know those daily clashes, a full-scale war with Hezbollah in order to push it away from the border? Time will tell.
Speaker 1:Can I just jump in there, because I know that there are probably some people who didn't actually realize that 24 hours after the events of October 7th, hezbollah did start to attack the north of Israel. What were they doing? They were firing rockets, is that?
Speaker 3:It started with a rocket firing, with a direct firing of anti-tank missiles toward military bases and civilian infrastructures. The greatest fear was that Hezbollah will carry out the same attack, like Hamas did in the south. Actually, we should note that Hamas took the plans of Hezbollah, because Hezbollah is known to have this conquering the Galilee plan of storming into Israel and this is a well-known plan by Hezbollah. It showed it from time to time and drills and so on, and this is what Hamas implemented in the south.
Speaker 3:Now, the greatest fear at the first hour was that Hamas did it first and Hezbollah fighters, terrorists, are going to jump over the fences and join the fight and conquer Israel's north, and that was the great fear at the beginning of the fighting. This is why most of the settlements and the villages were evacuated swiftly in the first days of the fighting and since then there is an exchange of fire over the border, missiles, uavs, drones daily going from Lebanon to military and civilian targets in the northern part of Israel. Hezbollah is very cautious not to fight a fight it cannot win, because it knows Israel is much stronger. So what it's doing is fighting limited warfare, firing those munitions into a range of 10 kilometers, into the depths of Israel, creating kind of an empty belt of soil, of territory inside Israel which is vacant for any civilian population. And this is how we have been going for the last six months.
Speaker 2:We're going to come to Iran in a moment, but I just want to get a bit of a sense from you. To what extent has Hezbollah, historically and given this current conflict, been acting in being directed by Tehran and acting in close alignment with Hamas, or to what extent is Hezbollah acting alone and in response to what else is happening to the South?
Speaker 3:Okay. So that's a great question. It's a bit advanced because the nature of Hezbollah is a bit complex. It's a two-headed creature. On one aspect it's a 100% Iranian proxy. Again, it was created by Iran. It is funded, trained, equipped. It's all Iranian.
Speaker 2:And so can you just briefly, just to pause you there, for those people who have never heard the word proxy or don't understand what it means. What do you mean when you say proxy?
Speaker 3:A proxy is an entity that a country, a state creates in order to use it in a way that will minimize the implication on itself, in a way of just indirect fighting, that are not committed by my own military force. And in that aspect, hezbollah is an excellent proxy, again being trained and sponsored for the last 40 years by Iran, deeply committed to the supreme leader of Iran, khamenei again religiously, it's a religious organization and they consider Khamenei, again religiously, it's a religious organization and they consider Khamenei as the supreme leader, as their marjaat akhled in Arabic and Shiite notion. He's the highest decision maker in the group. So that's the level of commitment. When it comes to the tactical activities, Iran allows Hezbollah quite a large space to maneuver, especially inside the Lebanese political arena. Hezbollah is also a political party in Lebanon. It participates in the elections, it is part of the Lebanese government, it has ministers in the government. All that is a 100% Hezbollah native operation, local operation inside Lebanon.
Speaker 3:Hassan Nasrallah, the general secretary of Hezbollah, is an excellent politician. When it comes to military force, military buildup, military operations, there is where we see much more Iranian involvement because, by the end of the day, they are the ones supplying all of the armament to Hezbollah. Just for example, 10 days ago, israel, according to foreign sources, assassinated one of Iranian top military officials in Syria, which was responsible for this process of arming and supplying Hezbollah with goods. He was the linking body between Iran and Hezbollah, showing you how close those two entities are, and Hezbollah showing you how close those two entities are.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you mentioned a bombing in Iran's consulate in the Syrian capital. So I'm ashamed to admit that until prepping for this interview, I didn't know that that had happened and I didn't know that Israel had been accused of doing so. Has it been proved that they were responsible?
Speaker 3:There is no formal claim of responsibility, even though American informal sources pointed at Israel as the sole responsible for the attack in order to distance Washington from the incident.
Speaker 1:But it's largely attributed to Israel, even though Israel never admitted most of its covert operations. So if Israel had been responsible for the bombing, why do you think they would have done that?
Speaker 3:Again. As I've said earlier, hamas started a regional war On October 7th. Hamas operated alone, but since then we've seen Hezbollah joining in. We've seen the Houthis in Yemen joining in. We see Iraqi militias and Syrian militias joining in. These are all proxies of Iran that were actually in the midst of a regional low intensity war. On the one side, we have Israel fighting directly and we have Iran coordinating a list of proxies, again from Lebanon, syria, iraq, yemen and Gaza against Israel. It is a well-known fact to all intelligence organizations and all government that Iran is deeply involved. Just take for a notion the fact that after Iran attacked American bases in Syria and the American retaliated bombing some sites of Iranian proxy militias in Syria and Iraq, the Iranian IRGC officials went to Iraq and stopped those attacks. So they have this level of control when they want to. And Israel was trying to send Iran a message stop the attack, otherwise we'll go after your men, not after the proxy, not after Hamas or Hezbollah, or Iraqis or Yemenis will go directly after Iranian IRGC personnel in the region.
Speaker 1:So it was more of a statement, even though to some people it might seem like it would have escalated things further.
Speaker 3:First, there is no doubt it's going to escalate the things further. It was a message meant to deter, but in international affairs, when you're trying to deter, you're playing a game of chicken, a brink-and-shoot policy. You're trying to push the other side to do something it doesn't want to do. You send messages in different ways. Some of the ways are military actions, and the message of assassinating a top IRGC person in Syria was meant to tell Iran watch out, we are serious, we'll come after you.
Speaker 3:So far it doesn't seem to stop the Iranian intervention in the region. They're still very active through their proxies in Yemen, in Iraq, in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip. And not only that, like you've mentioned, it's going to escalate even. Furthermore, because Iran said look, you hit our consulate in Damascus, you hit a top official of the Iranian regime, we are going to hit you back. And right now I think Israel is in a very tense position waiting for the Iranian response. And this is kind of a tit-for-tat that can go for quite a while and has the very dangerous potential of escalating into a full regional war, not a low-intensity war, not a tit-for-tat kind of tactical blows, but a real all-out war, which is something neither Israel, iran, hezbollah or the United States want, but since the exchange of blows doesn't seem to get either side to do what you want, this is the escalation spiral that is actually happening in the region.
Speaker 1:One quick, ignorant question. You're using an acronym IR, something.
Speaker 3:IRGC. What's that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Speaker 1:Thank you, sorry if that question offended your intelligence.
Speaker 3:Not at all. Again, it's kind of a weird creature in Iran itself, because Iran is a sovereign state. There is a government, there is a military in Iran and there is another entity which is called the RGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is not part of the government. It's loyal directly to the leader. It's not elected. They have their own air force, the RGC air force. They have their own military, rgc Navy, rgc ground forces. They have their own terror branch, which is the Quds Force, which is responsible for supporting, training, exporting the revolution outside of Iran. The Quds Force operations are basically terror operations. This is why Iran is considered to be the number one terror sponsoring state in the world.
Speaker 2:So when we're talking, dior, about the threat that Iran poses to Israel and the role it's playing through its proxies in the region, are we talking about Iran, its leadership and its military, or the IRGC?
Speaker 3:Iran doesn't want a war with Israel. Iran's main interest is the stability of the regime. Like any other autocratic regime, what's important for the regime is the stability of the regime. So a war with Israel can really destabilize Iran from within, and that's something completely unwanted. This is why Iran has turned into the way of the proxy war, employing, building, supplying all these proxies fighting for Iranian interest, without the immediate response coming back to Iran Again. The factor of the deniability is critical in that aspect, because when a Houthi UAV or cruise missile is being fired on an American ship, these are the Houthis. The fact that the ammunition was produced in Iran, delivered from Iran to the Houthis by Iranian IRGC forces the Houthis were trained by IRGC officers and there were probably an IRGC officer on the site when they launched it. It doesn't really matter, because they can always say no, it was the Houthis, it wasn't us.
Speaker 3:And the Houthis are in Yemen and the Houthis are in Yemen, a separate terror group. They do have their own interests which are not completely aligned with the Iranian, but there is one very important interest, has a very strong common factor between the two, and that's the hate to the United States, the hate to Israel, and on that ground they cooperate vastly, as we see for the past few months.
Speaker 1:Do you think that Iran is a threat to Australia as well?
Speaker 3:Iran is a rival of Australia. I don't think it's an enemy of Australia. Iran is the enemy of Israel. I think Iran is the only country in the United Nations that actually calls for the destruction of another state which is a member of the United Nations. That's an enemy. They want to destroy Israel. That's their vision and put that aside. When it comes to Australia, that's not the case. I think Australia is not an enemy of Iran, not in the way the United States is, for example. It's a rival and, of course, australia is a Western country which doesn't really align with the Iranian vision of how the world should be.
Speaker 3:The Iranians they are radical Islamists, but they are very pragmatic when it comes to politics and international affairs. Look, for example, their very close relation with the Russians. Russians Putin regime is hardly an Islamic observant regime. Nevertheless, they do cooperate together based on the notion that both Iran and Russia are fierce enemies of the United States. You imply the phrase the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So there you go. You have very good cooperation between Russia and Iran, between Iran and China, again based on the same notion. So the Iranians are a very complicated political creature when it comes to the international arena.
Speaker 2:But if that scenario happened that you mentioned before, where all of a sudden those proxies were drawn into some larger regional conflict and then the United States was drawn into that conflict and then Australia, by virtue of its alliance with the United States, was drawn into that conflict, then Australia would find itself, by virtue of its alliance with the United States, being either at war with Iran or involved at some level in a military engagement.
Speaker 3:There is the risk of that. I think the current Australian government is very cautious not to be dragged into that. Take, for example, the very symbolic contribution to the American-led maritime force which is fighting, actually trying to protect freedom of navigation in the Red Sea which is threatened by the Houthis. Australia was called in to join this American it's not an international force, it's an American-led force and Australia responded in a very minimalistic way. It sent a few Navy officers to the war room which is stationed in Bahrain I think, but it didn't send any Navy forces, it didn't send any ships to the region to actually stand in front of the Houthis and protect commerce shipping in the Straits. So he chose kind of a middle way which drew a lot of criticism, as you can imagine, in the United States, which expected Australia to join him.
Speaker 2:If an attack was to come from Iran, what do you think it would look like?
Speaker 3:from Iran. What do you think it would look like? The Iranian main capability maybe the only capability to hit Israel from Iran is by ballistic missiles, uavs or cruise missiles.
Speaker 2:What does that mean?
Speaker 3:Do you remember the American hitting Saddam Hussein in 2003, when they took down Saddam Hussein and they used these Tomahawk missiles, fired from a boat actually, and some Marines? Those are missiles that fly very low. They're practically like a drone, but much faster. So these are the capabilities Iran has today. They can cause harm Again. They cannot collapse. Israel Israel has its own defense systems the Iron Dome, the Khed, the Arrow missile and so on. It's going to be an interesting military event.
Speaker 2:But it would be as much about symbolism as it would be about threatening Israel. It would be about sending a message to Israel.
Speaker 3:If I need to bet, it will be something symbolic, let alone unique. Never happened before. That will send a message from Iran to Israel don't mess with us.
Speaker 2:Well, one question I do have is about if there was a ceasefire that occurred, and I'm not sure that we're about to see one. If there was a ceasefire that was reached between Hamas and Israel, what would be the possible implication for Israel's current or any potential conflict with Hezbollah and indeed with any other proxies?
Speaker 3:Okay. So I think most of the proxies has already declared that if there would be a ceasefire in Gaza Strip, they will stop fighting. I think the Houthis declared that and Hezbollah, for sure, declared that. The problem is that that's not enough for Israel. Israel will not accept the status quo ante that was existing along the northern border when thousands of Hezbollah fighters were on the border, ready to storm inside Israel's soil. That's an unacceptable reality from an Israeli point of view. It's also in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Speaker 3:By the end of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which was the last war those two sides fought, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1701, declaring that Hezbollah or Lebanon, the state of Lebanon, must make sure that no other fighting force is present along the Israeli border aside the Lebanese formal military. That was a very good decision. From the Israeli point of view, it means Hezbollah being pushed away from its border for like 20 kilometers, but it was never implemented. Over the years, hezbollah returned back into southern Lebanon, reestablished its position along the Israeli border. Everybody knew about it. But should we start a fight because of a military base, and so on, and it was a very low-paced erosion of the 1701 decision until it reached the position that Hezbollah is fully stationed after 18 years fully stationed along the Israeli border, and that's unacceptable from the Israeli point of view.
Speaker 3:Israel demands the reimplementation of 1701 and the regional decision. Hezbollah refuses that and that's a story. So CISFAR is not enough. The full implementation of 1701, that's the Israeli demand. It's backed by international community. Hezbollah refused to do that and somebody needs to force him to accept it. Most probably that somebody will be Israel.
Speaker 1:Dror, I'm aware that you have extensive knowledge about the ins and outs of Lebanese politics, so it would be journalistically irresponsible of me not to ask what's your favourite Shakira song.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:You get asked that all the time, don't you?
Speaker 3:Not all the time. Really, I think they're all songs from the 90s and the beginning of 2000. Are you a fan? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you were a senior analyst in the office of the Prime Minister of Israel. Did you ever have to apply your training in musical cryptography? To brief the office, on the hidden codes and messages in Shakira's song Hips, don't Lie.
Speaker 3:Not yet, but I'm looking forward for the opportunity to do so.
Speaker 1:And finally, can you settle the debate Is Shakira racist against Jews?
Speaker 3:I must say I try not to follow Shakira's political views.
Speaker 1:Interesting because I did some research. She was once wrongly accused in an internet rumor of saying she would rather have pigs listen to her music than Israelis. There was a rumor.
Speaker 3:No, I didn't know about it.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, there you go. You've learned something. I'm so glad that I could enlighten you as much as you've educated me today. I think it was an equal exchange today. Whenever, whenever we're meant to be together, it's basically, it's a song about a beshirt really what's a beshirt?
Speaker 1:You know, like your soulmate, the person that you're meant to be with. I think there's a concept in Judaism it could be Kabbalah, or it could just be wider that you know you've got some soulmates there might be 10, and maybe you'll be lucky enough to find one and that person is your bishirt, and so wherever, whenever we're meant to be together, I'll be there and you'll be there, and that's the deal, my dear, so sorry for that.
Speaker 2:I like the idea of a bishirt.
Speaker 1:Or 10. Just some backup soulmates.
Speaker 2:That's a lot. Yeah, I think just one would be fine for one lifetime.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, we did want to have a kvetch of the week segment this week, but we've run out of time.
Speaker 2:We have.
Speaker 1:So we'll keep it for next week.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's nearly time to wrap up the show with some Jewish content recommendations, but before we do that, we've had some great suggestions for future episodes. People writing into ashamed at the jewishindependentcomau. Another friend who isn't Jewish wants to know if our community has a Jewish equivalent of Mia Khalifa. Do you know who Mia Khalifa is? You don't have to answer that I didn't know who Mia Khalifa was until he asked me. Mia Khalifa is a Lebanese porn star who's now not allowed to re-enter Lebanon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're going to search that one, just make sure the kids aren't around, or you've got safe search on.
Speaker 1:That friend who's not Jewish. He really wants us to do an episode about Australian Jews in porn. Now that I'm saying that out loud, I realise it might be some weird fetish on his part, so I don't know. We'll put that one in the freezer and maybe we'll defrost it at some point. Okay, just give me your recommendation.
Speaker 2:All right. So I'm continuing to drag my heels when it comes to content recommendations because, as you know, Tammy, I am very time poor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're a big dog here at the Jewish Independent.
Speaker 2:And I certainly don't have a lot of time up my sleeve to be dallying in television shows, movies, books, etc. But I hope that that time will come in the future shows, movies, books, et cetera. But I hope that that time will come in the future. And this week I was absolutely bowled over to learn that arguably and perhaps this is a conversation for next week or in weeks to come arguably the greatest Jewish television series of all time has come to the end of its road.
Speaker 1:You're talking about curb your enthusiasm. Of course you said that like someone who is not really much of a fan. I am a fan. I watched the first few seasons and then it was making me feel so anxious, like I felt a little bit too seen.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's very awkward. It's very uncomfortable viewing. People will relate. Series final has just dropped this week.
Speaker 1:My recommendation this week is a person Just. I'm recommending Donny Jenks. Donovan Jenks, who is a composer. He does a lot of things. He's also like the backbone, or one of the backbones, of Ayelet Hashahar. Have you heard of them?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I've been to a service there. It was Rosh Hashanah and I hadn't been to shul in years and my sister said come along. And you know, in Rosh Hashanah you're meant to wear white and the only white thing that I had was a T-shirt with Grandma Yeda on the front and I wore like comfy white, tracky, tight pants and I went in no unbuttoned eyelids, so it's like you can just be completely yourself. It was beautiful. Anyway, we gave Donny a brief to get our theme music and to spice it up a little bit, to add some Middle Eastern flair, to add a bit of like klezmer juices, but without making it too klezmer, because we didn't want it to get, you know, lead head into the kitsch territory. And he took our brief and he nailed it. We're going to give you a little bit of a teaser, as we say our outros today.
Speaker 2:Well, that's it, tammy, for another week of A Shame to Admit, with Tammy Sussman and me, dash Lawrence. This is a TJI podcast. Today's episode was mixed and edited by Nick King.
Speaker 1:With music by Donny Jenks. Special thanks to God for curing Miriam of her leprosy after seven days, even though God was the one who gave her leprosy, because she called out Moses for his bad behaviour.
Speaker 2:Anyway, you can find links to articles that were relevant to today's conversation with Draw in the show notes and, if you like the podcast, please do leave us a five-star review so that other listeners can find out all about Ashamed to Admit.
Speaker 1:To leave a comment. You can contact us at ashamed at the jewishindependentcomau, or use the contact form on the Jewish Independent website.
Speaker 2:And while you're on the website, why not subscribe to the Jewish Independence bi-weekly publication? It's free and it lands in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.
Speaker 1:As always, thank you for your support and see you next week. You're going to wax some hair on my chin.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:So first you rub that together.
Speaker 2:Give you a little waxed. Oh yeah, Do it all the time Someone's face before.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I need to make sure that the microphone gets it. Okay, now open it up.
Speaker 2:Like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whatever, Now rub it.
Speaker 2:All right, Rip it off. You ready Tammy.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh see. So Nair Facial Wax Strips could be a really great sponsor of this podcast and I think I've really pushed the friendship slash working relationship. Hopefully see you next week if I haven't been fired.
Speaker 2:You haven't been fired.