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The Honest Take · Tuesday · 1 hr 4 min

Why Is the Jew the Enemy? How Arab Antisemitism Is Built — And How It Breaks | With Rawan Osman

She ran out of a Strasbourg grocery store so fast she left her purse in the shopping cart. Rawan Osman was in her mid-twenties, newly arrived from Lebanon, and had just seen four Orthodox Jewish men for the first time in her life. Then she went back down to face the shopkeeper — who smiled, helped her with her bags, and, as she puts it, "converted me from an enemy to an ally." She grew up in Hezbollah country in the Beqaa Valley and never met a Jew; with more than 850,000 Jews uprooted from the Arab world, she argues, there was nobody present to contradict what school, television and Al Jazeera taught her. She joins Ben Chertoff to trace how that machinery works and where it breaks: the Ramadan dramas, her cousins' khaki school uniforms, the seven years of reading it took before she could walk into a synagogue, why she thinks expecting Hamas or Hezbollah to disarm is "laughable" — and why she is nonetheless optimistic. "I cannot bring millions of Arabs. But we can bring Israel to them." Key Takeaways The absence was structural, not incidental. She never met a Jew growing up, and she doesn't treat that as an accident of geography. With the Jewish quarters empty of its Jews, there was nobody in the room to contradict school, television and Al Jazeera. The propaganda worked because it was unopposed. Contact beats argument. Nothing she read broke the worldview. A shopkeeper who helped with her bags did. She frames the whole episode as a single interaction that "converted me from an enemy to an ally." Deprogramming is slow, and takes willingness. It took seven years of study before she could work up the courage to enter a synagogue — and she was willing to do so. That timeline is the basis for her flat rejection of Western assumptions about Hamas and Hezbollah laying down weapons: for men whose profession is fighting, she calls it "laughable." Media is the delivery system, and it's testable. The Ramadan dramas, Al Jazeera's launch, Qana on television. Her proposed test takes ten minutes, and anyone can do it: read the same Al Jazeera story in Arabic and in English. Erbil is the model. She points to Iraqi Kurdistan as the regional model for coexistence: a place that absorbed its minorities rather than erasing them. She is optimistic, and specific about why. The Arab world won't go to Israel, but Israel can be brought to them through social media and automatic translation. In the age of AI, a seventy-year information blockade is collapsing, and she says this plan isn't a far-fetched dream: "We already did it." Notable Quotes "For the first time in my life I was sharing the same space with the Jew, the enemy — and for the first time in my life I asked myself, why is the Jew the enemy?" (0:06, and again at 16:20) "He converted me from an enemy to an ally." (15:54) "We in Hezbollah do not acknowledge political borders." — Nasrallah, in the video she found (17:05) "So it's laughable to listen to Westerners who assert… that Hamas will disarm." (38:47) "Israel is not going anywhere. No matter how much money you invest, no matter how many Al Jazeeras you open, no matter how many lies you tell." (47:49) "Nobody's interested in giving them the mic. The BBC won't talk to them. CNN won't talk to them. Al Jazeera won't talk to them." (56:42) "I have good news for you. We already did it." (58:38) "I cannot bring millions of Arabs… but we can bring Israel to them." (58:45) "The axis of resistance is not invested in the well-being of the Palestinian. If they wanted to liberate Palestinians, they would allow the liberation of their own people." (1:01:54) "Enemy to an ally. That's the whole argument, in a single moment. Contact beats propaganda." — Ben Chertoff, outro (1:03:26) Guest Bio (for the feed) Rawan Osman is a Syrian-born, Lebanon-raised researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. She founded Arabs Ask, an Arabic-language forum where Arabs can ask the questions about Jews and Israel they cannot ask at home, and she is a central voice in the documentary Tragic Awakening. She has addressed the UN Human Rights Council twice, describes herself as an "Arab Zionist" and a recovered antisemite, and is converting to Judaism. Links 🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG 🌐 https://honestreporting.com Guest: • Arabs Ask — Arabic-language forum (Instagram) • Times of Israel blog — https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/rawan-osman/ • Jerusalem Center, "Can Erbil Inspire a New Syria?" — https://jcfa.org/can-erbil-inspire-a-new-syria/ • UN Watch testimony — https://unwatch.org/testimony/speaker/rawan-osman • Tragic Awakening (2024, dir. Rabbi Raphael Shore) If this episode gave you something, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it genuinely helps people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

0:00 · — Cold open: "For the first time in my life I was sharing the same space with the Jew, the enemy — and for the first time in my life I asked myself, why is the Jew the enemy?"-1:04:46
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She ran out of a Strasbourg grocery store so fast she left her purse in the shopping cart. Rawan Osman was in her mid-twenties, newly arrived from Lebanon, and had just seen four Orthodox Jewish men for the first time in her life. Then she went back down to face the shopkeeper — who smiled, helped her with her bags, and, as she puts it, "converted me from an enemy to an ally." She grew up in Hezbollah country in the Beqaa Valley and never met a Jew; with more than 850,000 Jews uprooted from the Arab world, she argues, there was nobody present to contradict what school, television and Al Jazeera taught her. She joins Ben Chertoff to trace how that machinery works and where it breaks: the Ramadan dramas, her cousins' khaki school uniforms, the seven years of reading it took before she could walk into a synagogue, why she thinks expecting Hamas or Hezbollah to disarm is "laughable" — and why she is nonetheless optimistic. "I cannot bring millions of Arabs. But we can bring Israel to them."

Key Takeaways

  • The absence was structural, not incidental. She never met a Jew growing up, and she doesn't treat that as an accident of geography. With the Jewish quarters empty of its Jews, there was nobody in the room to contradict school, television and Al Jazeera. The propaganda worked because it was unopposed.
  • Contact beats argument. Nothing she read broke the worldview. A shopkeeper who helped with her bags did. She frames the whole episode as a single interaction that "converted me from an enemy to an ally."
  • Deprogramming is slow, and takes willingness. It took seven years of study before she could work up the courage to enter a synagogue — and she was willing to do so. That timeline is the basis for her flat rejection of Western assumptions about Hamas and Hezbollah laying down weapons: for men whose profession is fighting, she calls it "laughable."
  • Media is the delivery system, and it's testable. The Ramadan dramas, Al Jazeera's launch, Qana on television. Her proposed test takes ten minutes, and anyone can do it: read the same Al Jazeera story in Arabic and in English.
  • Erbil is the model. She points to Iraqi Kurdistan as the regional model for coexistence: a place that absorbed its minorities rather than erasing them.
  • She is optimistic, and specific about why. The Arab world won't go to Israel, but Israel can be brought to them through social media and automatic translation. In the age of AI, a seventy-year information blockade is collapsing, and she says this plan isn't a far-fetched dream: "We already did it."

Notable Quotes

  • "For the first time in my life I was sharing the same space with the Jew, the enemy — and for the first time in my life I asked myself, why is the Jew the enemy?" (0:06, and again at 16:20)
  • "He converted me from an enemy to an ally." (15:54)
  • "We in Hezbollah do not acknowledge political borders." — Nasrallah, in the video she found (17:05)
  • "So it's laughable to listen to Westerners who assert… that Hamas will disarm." (38:47)
  • "Israel is not going anywhere. No matter how much money you invest, no matter how many Al Jazeeras you open, no matter how many lies you tell." (47:49)
  • "Nobody's interested in giving them the mic. The BBC won't talk to them. CNN won't talk to them. Al Jazeera won't talk to them." (56:42)
  • "I have good news for you. We already did it." (58:38)
  • "I cannot bring millions of Arabs… but we can bring Israel to them." (58:45)
  • "The axis of resistance is not invested in the well-being of the Palestinian. If they wanted to liberate Palestinians, they would allow the liberation of their own people." (1:01:54)
  • "Enemy to an ally. That's the whole argument, in a single moment. Contact beats propaganda." — Ben Chertoff, outro (1:03:26)


Guest Bio (for the feed)

Rawan Osman is a Syrian-born, Lebanon-raised researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. She founded Arabs Ask, an Arabic-language forum where Arabs can ask the questions about Jews and Israel they cannot ask at home, and she is a central voice in the documentary Tragic Awakening. She has addressed the UN Human Rights Council twice, describes herself as an "Arab Zionist" and a recovered antisemite, and is converting to Judaism.


Links

🎧 Listen and subscribe: https://podcast.honestreporting.com

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honest-take/id1896315802

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pCnClcM4jiggKP46YZGjG

🌐 https://honestreporting.com

Guest:

• Arabs Ask — Arabic-language forum (Instagram)

• Times of Israel blog — https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/rawan-osman/

• Jerusalem Center, "Can Erbil Inspire a New Syria?" — https://jcfa.org/can-erbil-inspire-a-new-syria/

• UN Watch testimony — https://unwatch.org/testimony/speaker/rawan-osman

• Tragic Awakening (2024, dir. Rabbi Raphael Shore)

If this episode gave you something, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it genuinely helps people find the show. And follow HonestReporting on YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

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