I had the occassion to drive northward along the coast of the Dead Sea last night, after spending the day hiking in the area (great and challenging hike called Nahal Mishmar, for those interested).

Scanning the radio stations led me to discover that Israel, or at least that region of Israel, has been conquered by the Jordanians.

Until we hit the northern tip of the Dead Sea, we could not find a single radio station in Hebrew. They were mostly Arabic and one in English. We did hear the Jordanian news broadcast in English - they even mentioned the Palestinian youth killed by Israelis after allegedly stabbing two settlers in the Occupied West Bank.

I think Israel has to take back the airwaves down there. Put up some broadcast towers in the area and make sure Israelis down there can here some Hebrew broadcasts.

He who controls the airwaves controls the ___________  (fill in the blank)

Amir Chetzroni will be co-hosting a talk show on the radio with Itamar Ben Gvir. Their show will be on Radio Kol BeRama, a Haredi radio station, because Galei Tzahal turned Chetzroni down and would not even meet with him to discuss it.
The show will be on tomorrow morning, Thursday, at 11am.
source: NRG

This was a funny announcement. I imagine they said yes to Chetzroni because they assume it will bring in good ratings. Chetzroni is sensationalist, and either people will boycott him because of the mean and racist things he says or they will come in droves to hear his latest idiocy.

The weird thing is that I thought Chetzroni recently moved to Germany. Did he move back to Israel so quickly? Did they kick him out of Germany? I do not know what happened, but this is a surprise to me.

I would guess Kol Berama agreed to d this in order to try to boost their sinking ratings. It seems they are continuously losing listeners to Radio Kol Hai, especially since Kol Hai opened a similar morning show to talk politics, in the same slot as Kol BeRama's show. I think in the end they will most likely get hurt by this. In the short term they might boost some ratings, but after he upsets a few more people, Kol Berama will suffer for hosting him.

Disclaimer: My post below is about the Haredi radio stations, not against Bet Shemesh or Mayor Moshe Abutbol.

If you have not seen the video yet, last week one day a regular protest by the construction site of Goloventzitz turned into an anti-soldier protest. A Haredi soldier walked by and the protesters turned their attention to him, verbally abusing him (and some reports say there was some physical violence as well).


This has happened so many times already that as detestable as it is, I do not want to write about it every time it happens. It becomes pointless. This alone would not have warranted a post right now. Maybe at a different time my feeling would be different, my mood would be different, my form and level of revulsion would be different, but right now I did not feel like writing about it again.

What changed?

This morning I heard an interview about the incident on Radio Kol Hai.

I will preface it by saying I really enjoy some of the programs on both Radio Kol Hai and Radio Kol BeRama - especially the morning programs. They have interesting interviews with politicians and community leaders, you can sometimes hear a politician say something really crazy, and they generally tackle the current topics of interest.

My complaint with them is that whenever they interview a Haredi politician or askan, they serve him softballs - they give him easy questions letting him make his point and they don't really attack or get to the heart of any issue. They never really put haredi politicians on the spot like they do with the non-haredi politicians.

Regarding the incident described and depicted above, they intervewed the mayor of Bet Shemesh, Moshe Abutbol. They asked him questions about how he lets it happen, why Bet Shemesh while in other places they don't have these problems, about how it can be resolved, about how in Jerusalem they were pressured to leave by effecting communal pressure on the kannoim by using a form of collective punishment, and the like.

The questions were mostly good, but they never took it to the next step after Abutbol answered.

Moshe Abutbol kept repeating that they are a minority and that 95% of the Haredi community is mad eup of wonderful people. He said he did not bring them to Bet Shemesh, but he cannot do anything that will be collective punishment (such as withhold city services in the areas these goons live - such as garbage collection, etc), because they live amongst other people, other communities, and why should they all suffer because of these few people. Abutbol said the way it will be resolved or minimized is only if their rabbonim put out a letter saying to stop this behavior. He also repeatedly pointed out that punishing them is not up to him but the police,

They never asked him the follow-up questions - questions like so as mayor managing this complicated city, what solutions do you have? Are you approaching the relevant rabbonim to get them to put a stop to it? Who says that will work - when Rav Shternbuch and other Eida rabbonim came out with statements telling them to stop or not to protest the graves at this specific site, they attacked the rabbonim - so maybe that is not the solution. As great as the other 95% (Abutbol's number, not mine) of the Haredi community is, why are these 5% given the power to disrupt an entire city and blacken the name of the other 95% Haredim in the city and throughout the country? As mayor, even though he did not bring them, what is he doing to stop them?

Some of their talk show programs are great, but listening to interviews with Haredi politicians can sometimes be very frustrating.

This is interesting.. a couple years ago radio station Kol BeRama got in trouble for having in effect a ban on women from being on the radio - not as presenters nor as guests or call-ins. Gender discrimination is against their operating license, and they were required to allow women on-air.

The broadcasting committee has now authorized the broadcast schedule for Kol BeRama for the 2014 year, and it has approved Kol Berama to broadcast one hour per day, and only one hour, with no women on-air. This is approved alongside the conclusion of the regulatory process by which Kol Berama is committed to no longer having any restrictions on women.

Somehow it seems contradictory - no restrictions at all, but one hour a day is ok. I am fine with have a mens-only hour, but the two statements together just seem to be contradictory.

Kol Berama requested the one hour a day for the benefit of their more hard-core listeners, and it will be in effect for a show called "Sermons and Conversations, Listeners with Rabbonim"  (דרשות ושיחות מאזינים עם רבנים)  . Besides for that show, the station is committed to work to encourage having more women on-air during broadcasts.
(source: Kikar)

I was driving home from the airport last night and was listening to a radio program on Radio Kol Chai. The program was a call-in show with some rav. After a few calls discussing various topics ranging from how bad the internet is to the Russian goyim who were brought to live in Israel, a woman called in and said something that floored the host of the show.

After introducing herself, the host Rav Turetsky (I think) aasked what she wants to talk about. She started off complimenting the radio station for the daf yomi shiur in the morning. She said she listens to the daf yomi shiur  every day on the radio while she does some chessed program. He was floored. He was shocked and kept repeating, "you listen to the daf yomi every day?"

It was an interesting conversation to hear...

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Kol Yisrael Radio Pre - 6 AM Moshe Chovav Reciting Shema Yisrael

For many years I would listen to this in the morning in the car to work.. it was definitely an endearing part of the day...

Radio Kol B'Ramah is one of the haredi pirate radio stations broadcasting, what they call, al taharas hakodesh - only holiness. Kol B'Ramah's fealty is to Shas and Rav Ovadiah.

They have come under criticism for not allowing women to talk on air. That means they don't allow women to be broadcasters, but also if a woman calls in to a show they will not allow her to speak on air. Until now they have claimed that they are under instruction from Rav Ovadiah in this regard and that in the effort of broadcasting al tahar hakodesh, women, under the rule of kol kvoda bas melech pnima -  a woman's honor is private and internal, should not be heard on air.

According to Shasnik, the website of Shas Youth, because of the recent criticism directed at Kol B'Ramah, they sent a delegation to ask Rav Ovadiah for further guidance on the matter.

Rav Ovadiah's psak, as is being reported, is that they should broadcast women on air. "what's the problem?", Rav Ovadiah said...

The "peace camp" is now requesting a radio station, from the Bolshevik government that has to control the airwaves, and wants similar conditions to the recently approved "settler radio station" that is regional to the residents of Judea and Samaria.

Two points to ponder..

1. I wonder how quickly their request will be approved, relative the many years it took for the government to approve and allow a right wing radio station to run.
2. The left-wing peace camp already has every radio station on the band, and every newspaper (except for one) in the newsstands. It is disingenuous that they feel maligned and need to ask for another as if they don't have an opportunity to have their voices heard. Every station on the radio is left wing and supportive of the left-wing peace camp.
   

How about this for an "Only in Israel" situation -

During the "Nine Days", Channel 2 of Israel Radio, along with the religious stations of Kol B'Rama and Radio Kol Hai, will be broadcasting 28 siyumim. This is in coordination with Rabbi Brod of Chabad. It seems the late Lubavitcher Rebbe encouraged public siyumim for the 9 Days.
(source: Haredim)

It raises an interesting question - whether l'chatchila a person can consider that being part of a siyum so he can eat fleishigs during the 9 Days. I guess Chabad might hold yes. But even for Chabad it might not be l'chatchila and might just be for those who are eating meat anyway, this makes it b'dieved ok.

The amazing part of this is that the siyumim are on the radio, and not just on the religious stations but the general radio station is going to be broadcasting them! All this so that people eating meat will have heard a siyum rendering it permissible, without the slightest of effort.

This cannot be right.

The program is heard by only 36 people, and it took a lawsuit about anti-semitism to shut them down?
Even my blog gets more of an audience than that station!

(Hattip: RW)

To hear the audio clip of the original interview with Amnon Levi I wrote about in the previous post, see the following Youtube clip (it is only audio)

This morning at 6:23 am on my way to shul, I had the radio on to Kol Israel - the state run radio station. They were just concluding one of the morning news programs.

As they finish the discussion about if Shimon Peres would win the presidency who would replace him in the government, they were about to break for commercials. The host of the program then announced a request. This is one I do not remember hearing on the radio ever before.

The host of the program announced, "We ask everyone to daven for the child Bilhaa bat Rivka to be healed from her illness." (they did not say what was wrong with her).

I do not know who this girl is. Maybe she is the daughter of the station master. Maybe she is the daughter of a supporter of the station. Maybe she is just a random child who is very sick and her parents sent a letter to the station asking them to make such an announcement. I do not know.

But it shows me how Jewish of a country Israel is, even with all the politics and fighting and religion wars and whatnot. When it comes down to it, Israel is a Jewish state. The state-run radio station asks people to daven for a sick child.