What does an Israeli journalist in the United States, who’s responsible for covering the White House, actually do? Cover the White House and beyond, obviously, and share with Israeli audiences, in this case Channel 13, what is transpiring at the center of American power.
But as we hear to from Neria Kraus, the role is actually much more complex and nuanced than that. Israeli journalists, we learn from her in today’s conversation, were a central part of the effort to keep the hostage issue in the center of Presidents Biden and Trump’s attention. Why? Because, as we’ll hear, the Israeli government did not want a hostage deal that would bring an end to the war and was thus trying to shift Washington’s focus elsewhere.
It was up to Israeli journalists to keep White House official focused on saving the hostages.
It thus turns out that journalists do much more than report the news—sometimes, they shape it, too.
And Israeli journalists can also be the wakeup calls that Israelis need on a whole array of issues. For example, throughout the entire war, the State of Israel did not have a single official English-language spokesperson. Such a person might not have been able to prevent Israel’s becoming a pariah state, but we didn’t even try. Israelis learn that through correspondents.
And as for Netanyahu’s continuing claim that that he knows America better than anyone, and that he’s best suited to speak to the Americans because he has his finger on the American pulse? There, too, reality is a bit more complicated, and is changing rapidly.
We’re experimenting with a new format that we hope may be simpler for many of our listeners, sending the same post to paid and non-paid subscribers alike. Nothing about content or access has changed; what is different is simply the format of the posts.
An excerpt of our conversation with Neria Kraus:
Neria Kraus is an Israeli journalist who serves as the United States correspondent for Channel 13 News since 2023. That same year, she was selected by Forbes Israel as one of the 30 most promising young Israelis. She completed her military service at Galei Tzahal (Israel’s Army Radio). After her discharge, she joined the news desk of Yedioth Ahronoth as a reporters’ coordinator. In 2017, she joined Channel 10 as a reporter for the television program “Hakol Kalul” (”All Inclusive”), and from 2019 to 2023, she served as the culture editor for Channel 13 News.
The full conversation with Neria Kraus
along with a transcript for those who prefer to read is available, as always, to paid subscribers below.
Our complete conversation with Neria Kraus:
The link above will take you to the full recording of our conversation; below you will find a transcript for those who prefer to read, prepared for our paid subscribers.
If you watch Israeli TV, and especially if you watch channel 13, then the face of our guest today is very, very well known to you. Neria Kraus is the White House correspondent for channel 13 Israel News. She is very well-regarded in Israel. She’s all over the place. She also has a podcast called The Kraus Report, which you can find after you hear her today on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. She covers US-Israel relations, the American Jewish Community, Israel and Gaza, and just a terrific journalist, hugely thoughtful and incredibly articulate. I’m actually very grateful to Neria for actually having me over to their home in New York. I happened to be in New York for a family matter, and I’ve been watching her forever, but we’ve been exchanging emails, and finally, I’m in your neighborhood, so can we do this? Neria, thank you very much for having me in your home.
First of all, thank you so much for this introduction. We can stop here. Okay, that’s quite good.
It was great to have you.
We can have a cake from the Hungarian pastry shop if you’d like.
All good. In any event, tell us, before we get to the issue which we want to talk about today, you’ve been in America as an official journalist and correspondent for channel 13 since the beginning of 2023, which means that you were here for the judicial reform or judicial overhaul, depending on who you ask and what their political view is. And then, of course, you’ve been here ever since October seventh, and so for the two plus years since the war. And what we’re going to talk about today is your experience as an Israeli journalist, how being an obviously, obviously Israeli journalist, and your microphone in the room has a big channel 13 on it and all that. How has it changed being an Israeli journalist in the United States since the beginning of 2023? But before we get to that, some of our listeners or a lot of our listeners who don’t listen Israeli TV might not know a lot about your background. So let’s just start with you, where you grew up, how you got into this whole line of work and all of that.
So my name is Neria Kraus. I grew up in Israel. I was born in Tel Aviv, and we moved around the country. Mainly lived in Tel Aviv most of my life. I went to the army. I served in Galey Tzahal, which is the radio station, which is now about to maybe...
Maybe get shut down.
Get shut down by the government, we’ll see. But this is a very important radio station in Israel, one of the two biggest, most important broadcasting radio stations in Israel. I was there in the army. After that, I went to the Hebrew University for a short while, and then I moved to Tel Aviv University to a great program called the Lautman program. It’s an excellency program there where you can go basically to any course you’d like in Tel Aviv University. I did that while I was already on Israeli TV, we used to call it channel 10. Now it’s called channel 13. It’s one of the two biggest and most important channels in Israel. I moved to the US about three years ago, as you said. I remember before I moved to the US, I remember Yariv Levin, the Minister of Justice, doing that press conference where he announced the judicial overhaul.
It was like January third or fourth or something like that.
Yeah. It was a few days before I took my flight and came with many suitcases to New York. And that was an insane day because I think people realized that something huge is about to happen in Israel. I just moved to the US. And I remember when I started talking to the White House about that, it was interesting. It was nothing, they didn’t know of this thing that is called an Israeli Journalist that is based in the US, who’s trying to talk to them because It wasn’t really a thing back then when I just moved in here.
Well, I just want to ask you, the channels didn’t have somebody in the White House press corps? They didn’t have people like you stationed in New York doing the work that you’re doing?
Not for a while. And I think the work that I’m doing, which is having sources from within the White House and State Department and White House officials. And today, from time to time, I also speak to President Trump directly. They didn’t have that thing.
Why?
It was just a thing of Israeli TV that you have to have maybe people in New York covering more restaurants and fun stuff. When I moved here, I told my editor, I want to be in charge of US-Israel relations. I want to be in charge of talking about anti-Semitism. I think this is the subjects that Israelis don’t really hear about in a good way in in-depth conversations, in-depth reports. I think this is what they need to hear about. It was way before October 7th. Today, I think it goes without saying that this is what the Israeli audience needs to hear about more and more, because if they’re not aware of US-Israel relations, of the White House, of the anti-Semitism in the US, they can’t really predict what’s going to happen with Israel, with the war in Gaza. People were really surprised in Israel to hear about the backlash, the global backlash around the world regarding October 7th and the war in Gaza.
So I think this is very important, and I believe people learn to understand that. And so it’s been incredible. And when I first got here, they were pretty surprised that Israeli journalists is trying to understand what they’re saying about the judicial offer. They did want to talk, so they started understanding that it’s good to be in touch with Israeli journalists. And of course, once this administration, Biden’s administration, left office and Trump’s administration started, everything changed again. They are even more, I think, communicative with Israeli journalists today.
So you got here in January 2023. The judicial reform, judicial overhaul is just taking off. October 7th is many months away. What’s it like to be an Israeli? And just give us, if you can take us through the process of what was it like then? When did you first begin to feel that being an Israeli somehow was more complicated than it had been when you’ve gotten it? Maybe you can give some examples of how complicated it’s gotten. I think our listeners would be really interested to know. I mean, they all understand what’s going on with Israel in the world and so forth. A friend of mine just said that a friend of mine who’s actually worked in the Bush Whitehouse. I was talking to him today about something, and he’s not in politics at all anymore. But he said he actually thinks that the day is going to come, that Israel’s closest friends are going to be the countries immediately surrounding it, and the countries in Europe that used to be Israel’s friends are going to be the ones that we have more, it’s going to get completely flipped. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t.
But it’s changed a lot for you. I think our listeners would just be fascinated to hear, what was it like when you first got here? When did you begin to sense that it was changing? And what’s it like now?
When I first got here, I was proud, and I’m still very proud to say that I’m an Israeli. I have no problem in saying that. I know some people, some Israelis, when they go abroad, as tourists, they’ll hide their Hebrew name on Uber apps or stuff like that. I’m not doing that. I’m an Israeli. I’m out there as an Israeli. I’m walking around. Even when I go to cover pro-Palestinian products, I go with my Hebrew microphone. It says Hadashot Shlosh Esre, News 13 in Hebrew. It’s clear that I’m an Israeli. I’m not hiding this. But I think a lot has changed in the way people react to that. Because when I got here, when I said that I was an Israeli, it was for people who are not from the Jewish community, who they’re not a part of everything that the Jewish community knows and feels. It was exotic for them, I think. It was cool. It was something different. They wanted to hear more about it. They wanted to know more about it. Today, when I say that I’m an Israeli, you know what? Let’s go to October 7th. Immediately after October 7th, when I said that I was Israeli
You were here in America when it happened?
Yeah, it was a Friday Eve here, 11:30, 11:29. I saw the push notifications. I was on a website in Israel called Walla. Walla always had notifications popping on your screen in red alert when there’s a red alert in Israel, when the alarms are going off, so it started and I was like, What’s going on? And I immediately told Ido, It seems like a war is going on in Israel. And I immediately called my news desk. It’s Shabbat morning in Israel, Saturday in the morning. I woke people up. They immediately went live. And I stayed up the entire night because I got so many videos that I saw that the news desks in Europe, in the US, they don’t understand what’s going on. They’re saying it’s another skirmish. Israel is attacked. They didn’t understand what was going on. So it was so important for me to try to do some sort of, It’s not Hasbara, but to put the facts out there that Israel is under attack and this is a war and there’s a massacre going on. And it’s insane. I was awake for a few days. I was not sleeping at all. I went live on radio stations in different radio stations and TV stations here in the US, in Europe, trying to explain what was going on, trying to say that this is a huge attack on Israel.
And while I was doing that, of course, I have friends in the battlefield. I have my family in Israel. We lost a good friend of ours, my boyfriend’s Ido, best friend, who was during that morning, he was in Hertzelia at his home, and he heard the news, so he immediately told himself, I need to go help out. He sort of made himself a reserve for that day and started fighting in Kibbutz Beeri, and he saved a lot of families. Eventually, unfortunately, he fell during that fight on Kibbutz Beeri. And so we, it was unbelievable what happened on October 7th. But then on October 8th, we live pretty close to Columbia University, I had protests under my home saying, resistance is justified while terrorists are still in the Kibbutzim.
It’s important to say that Israel has done nothing at that point.
Nothing.
Israel hasn’t started the ground invasion. It hasn’t even started bombing Gaza yet. And already you’re hearing protests under your window.
I saw that with my own eyes because I went downstairs. I wanted to see what was going on. I mean, I was sure this is some protest that is trying to support us. It was pro-Palestinians walking around with signs, print and signs, saying, resistance is justified. Back on that very day, we didn’t know yet that Ido’s friend, that our friend, Sagi Golan, was murdered because we were trying to find information, but no one knew because we still had terrorists in the Kibbutzim. Israel didn’t do anything. Israel was not functioning on October 8th as well.
People may not remember because it’s been two years, but I think the last live, quote unquote, terrorists were found and killed three days in, if I’m not mistaken.
And on the 8th, I had people protesting under my home saying, resistance is justified, saying that everything that Israel should fall. And I was shocked. And this is not what I knew three days before that. And this is not America that I knew. This is not New York that I knew. This is not Columbia University that I knew. And on that very day, I realized something very wrong is happening. But I also thought it might be just some reaction of a few students.
You tried to talk to them or you just stayed away?
On that day, I didn’t have time to talk to anyone. I had a lot of work, and I think it was pretty important to tweet and write about what was going on in Israel. But a few weeks after that, yeah, I tried to talk to some students or not students that were protesting. For example, I walked down the street and I saw someone holding a sign with a huge picture of Zakaria Zubeidi. We should tell your listeners, Zakaria Zubeidi is a terrorist that was held in Israeli jail for creating or master planning terrorist attacks. We have a lot of facts on what he did. He’s very known. He’s well known. Also in the West Bank. I saw someone walking with a huge sign, in a Palestinian protest, with a huge sign of Zakaria Zubeidi with the wrong name. She didn’t write his right name, his correct name. It was not him. They wrote a name of someone else. I mean, this is a picture that every Israeli would recognize. Every Israeli would recognize Zakaria Zubeidi.
As an arch-terrorist.
She’s just walking proudly. And she’s an American native, born and raised. I spoke. I tried to talk to her.
She’s not a Palestinian?
No. I asked her, Who is that? She looked up to the sign and read what he’d said. I said, No, that’s not the right guy. I actually have that on video because it was so upsetting to see that. Everything has changed on that day, and everything has changed when it comes to being an Israeli in general, as you know, but an Israeli in the US as well. I tried to talk to some protesters. I got some calls. People called me Chazir, which is a pig, but not even in the right way of saying Chazira because I’m a woman. They learned the way to say Chazir, and then they shouted me Chazir! Chazir! By the way, I didn’t have my Hebrew mic on that specific night because I didn’t know that I was going to walk through a protest. And I should mention that as an Israeli journalist here, I have no cameraman or a producer or a soundman with me. So I’m always alone. So I have to be careful. But on the other hand, I feel like Israelis really need to know what’s going on here, they need to know what what’s going on on the streets of New York, of Manhattan, that they know so well. I feel like the Israeli government, they need to know what’s going on.
Can you think of moments when you said to yourself, Wow, this is a different world? My work in 2023 until October, I mean, something that happened either in the White House press corps or in interview with somebody that was very different than how it would have been before. Something about now, and then I’d love to hear also about, as a journalist, your take on what’s happening on the right in the United States. I mean, for a long time, we’ve been talking about the left, but recently it’s been the Heritage Foundation and Kevin Richards, and Tucker Carlson, and all of that. And then the media is very connected in all of that. So just to hear the development as an Israeli of how things changed And then what your take is on the right, right now.
So first of all, I’ll tell you a short story about a few days after October 7th, there’s Biden. Biden gives this really big speech. He says, Don’t throw Iran to Hezbollah. And then I come to the White House and I have an interview with a White House official, a top White House official. And I enter a room and I just got the news. We spoke about October 7th and October 8th. I just got the news that our friend was murdered. And I entered the White House and you know there’s a protocol. You don’t really get to be good friends of a White House official that you cover, and you have to be very, everything is strict, mainly when it comes to Biden’s White House. Today, it’s a bit different. I enter the room for the interview, and John Kirby walks in, and he gives me a hug, and he tells me, I heard about your good friend. I’m so sorry.
How did he hear?
I have no idea. I just found out 15 minutes before I walked into the White House.
That’s crazy.
That’s crazy. That was so beautiful. That was a beautiful moment because he wanted to come in and to give me a hug and to tell me that he cares. That was a beautiful moment because I realized that people do care. After watching those protesters under my home, I saw that White House officials really do care. And that was a beautiful moment. But of course, from then until today, a lot has changed as well. And I think that there’s something about Trump’s administration that was so important to really present to Israelis what was going on here, but also tell the White House what was really going on. Because immediately after the elections, after Trump was elected, I went to Mar-a-Lago and I met him. And I heard from some very senior people there, some of the conversations were background conversations, but I heard stuff that I got a confirmation to say that, that they were told by Israeli top officials that most of the hostages were dead. Basically, they were trying to tell Trump, You can’t get a win here. You’re not going to win a trophy if you’ll try to release the hostages. Most Most of them are dead.
This is a message that Israel wanted to give to Trump?
Yeah, before the inauguration.
Because why?
Because Israel didn’t want to have pressure by President Trump to do a hostage deal.
So basically, Israel didn’t want exactly what happened.
Exactly.
Okay. It happened a long time later, but it did happen.
I was shocked. And immediately, I’m an Israeli journalist in the room. But I also know for sure from my security sources in Israel that there are 30 to 50 hostages that are still alive. And we know that for sure. I don’t have the exact number. So immediately, I change. I’m the lady who asked questions, I’m like, Whoa, hold it. We do know that there are 30 to 50 hostages that are still alive. You must know that because these are people that became the most important people in the administration. I also met President Trump there. And I said, You must know the facts. So they were like, Are you sure? How do you know that? Who did you hear that from? And I can reveal sources, but I’m like, these are the facts. A day after that, I published that on the main news show. And of course, the families of the hostages are, they’re shocked. They’re calling me, How can we go to Mar-a-Lago? We want to tell him that our son is alive. And immediately after that, Miriam Edelson becomes a huge part of that in telling the truth about how many hostages are alive and that President Trump can gain huge grade of a win here. And then you saw on the day of the inauguration, President Trump made sure that Steve Whitkoff will get a deal done by then. And that was the first Trump’s deal that he did it with Biden. And since then, I can tell you that he really cared about that issue. Once he saw that this is a thing that he should take care of and there are people to save, he started to really care about that.
He cared about it on a human level, you’re saying?
Also on a human level, yeah.
Not just a political chess game.
Yeah. A lot of people say Trump only wants the headlines. I’m sure he deserves the headlines that are saying he saved so many hostages. But more than that, he really cared. When he heard Eli Sharabi, the released hostage. When Eli Sharabi told him something like, there was not even one kind person in Gaza, a Hamas person, no one was nice to me. He kept on talking about it. He really cared about that. It made him furious and also disappointed by the way they treated them, and he wanted them out. Of course, the Israeli government, as Trump understood, They had their own interests of prolonging the war. Of course, there were political interests, but also they thought that Hamas was not eliminated yet. So they had a few thoughts about that. But there was something about it because you asked me about how it was like to be an Israeli journalist here. There was something about those very critical moments in time of Trump is about to be inaugurated, Biden is finishing his term. First of all, to say what’s true. And second of to be there and ask the questions. Because if you ask questions about hostages, then the senior officials understand that this is something that they should have answers for.
So in fact, your question is just as important as the answer that you get.
I think it is. I think it is. I think that when President Trump is sitting at the oval office and he gets a lot of questions about the hostages, then he understands that he needs to take care of that. More than that, I asked him on the very first oval office meeting that he had with Prime Minister Netanyahu, was a short while after it was inaugurated, I asked him, many people say that the men who can release so many hostages deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. Will we see another deal? Will Netanyahu allow you to do another deal? So I feel like there’s something about asking the question that is very important. And on the Israeli reality, we needed that. We needed to ask those questions. We needed someone who would care at the White House because as you know, and I’m sure your listeners know, the fact that all the hostages were released were because President Trump decided that this is what he wants.
A hundred percent. I mean, one can love him or not love him. That doesn’t make any sense at the moment. They are out because of him. There’s no question about that. I don’t know anybody in the world that doesn’t think that. How about your relationships with other journalists over the course of the last almost three years? Cnn, Fox, ABC, MBC, CBS, MSNBC. Have you sensed that walking around with a microphone that says, Khadashot 13, in Hebrew, News 13, Has the reaction to you changed since the war and since Israel’s become vilified?
It’s so interesting that you ask. I think it has changed. I think from time to time, they need my help. When the Iranians attacked the Israeli army base, Air Force base called Nevatim, I grew up in Nevatim for a while because my mom was in the IDF for many, many years. I grew up in this Air Force base for a while. So one of the people, one of the journalists that actually was broadcasting on that very day, started asking me, Do you know anything about that army base? We have no idea where it is, if it means anything. If it’s an important one, I was like, Oh, my God, I know everything you need to know. I was broadcasting right here from my studio to Israeli TV. But while I was doing that, I was also texting other American journalists to make sure they understand what it means.
Nevatim it’s a big deal.
It is a huge deal. I think it’s one of the most important Air Force in Israel
It turns out that it was actually probably more damaged than Israel wanted to let on, I think that’s the impression.
But also on the day that Iran attacked Israel after Israel attacked their nuclear facilities. I mean, the last war in June, on that day, it was also important to emphasize to American senior officials what was going in Israel, how much the Iranians hit hard. It was very important to make sure they understand that because those were very important days when they needed to make a decision whether Trump should go in or not. And he made that decision eventually. But some of the images were not shown on American TV.
A lot of them weren’t shown on Israeli TV either because Israel didn’t want the Iranians to know where they had hit, where they hadn’t hit.
It’s true. It’s true. But eventually, I’m in the US, did what it had to do, and it was a courageous move, I think, as well. And we spoke before about, you asked me about those far-right media personalities who are taking over Twitter and social media platforms. I feel like there’s something going on in the past few weeks, even month, but mainly in the past few weeks, that some sort of anti-Semitism was unleashed. It’s unfiltered.
Some of it goes back to the whole Fuentes, Tucker Carlson thing.
Yeah, of course.
But what do you think it is? I mean, you’re an Israeli, but you’re completely at home in America. You have your finger very much on the pulse. Everybody’s been talking about the anti-Semitism of the left for a very long time. There was a sense that, wow, we have an administration. We say in Israel, Yamin Al-Maleh. We had a full, the pedal to the bottom with a right-wing government People in Israel thought, Well, we have a right wing Christian government, Al-Maleh, here in America, and that’s good for the Jews. All of a sudden it turns out that neither the right wing nor the Christian part is as good for the Jews as many people thought it would be. So it was a person who’s very at home here, but you’re outsider enough to be an observer, what do you make of it? Where do you think it’s coming from? When you get in bed at night and think about your day, what do you think you’re seeing here in New York?
Of course, first of all, you see Mamdani as a far left new leader that from what I hear, I don’t know how you see it, but I hear what he said, like the boot of the NYPD on your neck was laced by the idea of this is completely anti-Semitic.
It’s the classic anti-Semitic trope. No matter what bad thing happens to you here, somewhere a Jew was behind it.
Exactly. Jews control the world. So we have Mamdani on the one hand, and on the other hand, you have Candice Owens, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, And this is a phenomena that I think might be able to change the way the administration behaves with Israel. And this is why it’s so important to talk about it and to know who are the important character is there and to try to understand what Israeli is not playing on that field. I think it’s important to say that.
Maybe Israel is not addressing it enough.
Yeah. Prime Minister Netanyahu, by the way, it’s mainly after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was a voice that actually protected Israel in a way. There’s some, I would say, an extreme spread of anti-Semitism after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Some have blamed Israel for it, which is-
Well, Charlie Kirk was a a very big defender of Israel in a lot of ways.
Yeah. He also tried to defend Israel in private conversations with his media personality friends from his agenda, but he wanted to say that it’s important to protect Israel. Some have actually blamed Israel for the murder of Charlie Kirk, which is insane.
But what would be the logic of that?
No logic.
There’s a conspiracy there.
If you want to talk about Jews doing something, you can just say a Jew did that. And that would be, that would make sense to some people, I guess, which is crazy. And so you see this type of spread of anti-Semitism on social media that is using very old anti-Semitism, like hundreds of years ago, maybe more than that, with new technology. And that’s why it’s so scary and so, it’s It’s a big threat for the Jewish community here, for Israel. And they’re using old anti-Semitism in high volumes. And that’s when you hear that, and when you hear Nick Fuentes getting such an important stage as Tucker Carlson’s podcast. And when you hear Tucker Carlson every day or once in a while, when you can hear him, or when you hear Candice Owens, you see that the Jewish thing, the Israeli thing, is everywhere filled with anti-Semitism, and they talk about it nonstop. They talk about it nonstop. And one of the things that they’re trying to do, some of them, is to affect the entire Make America Great Again movement and tell them, If we’re talking about America first, we need to talk about not helping Israel because we’re funding Israel with arms, and we’re helping Israel out. And you see that vial anti-Semitism spread in order to try to make the administration change the way they help Israel. And I feel like we’re very lucky to have people like Steve Whitkoff in the administration and Jared Kushner in the administration. They made that deal happen. They really care about Israel. They care about a successful democracy in Israel, and they cared about ending the war, and they care about a future and a thriving Israel, and this is what they’re trying implement. And when you see all the people, a lot of other people in the MAGA movement, you understand that there is a big deal here, and something might happen, and it won’t be good for Israel. And I think that Prime Minister Netanyahu always says, and this is how he presents himself in Israel, right? Mr. America, Mar America. I know America so well. I know to talk to the Americans. I know how to talk to their leaders. I know how to talk to the American people, I know the US better than anyone else in Israel. That was true a few years ago. It’s not true today. He doesn’t know what type of content this generation gets on social media all the time. He doesn’t know how to talk to these people. I don’t blame him. It’s brand new. But we need to be in a situation where the Israeli government understands what’s going on here in the US. Because young people here suffer from anti-Semitism much more. And we see that since October 7th, we see that in real numbers, and adults are suffering from anti-Semitism. And in the past few weeks, what we see on social media is just insane. It’s insanity. And I feel like Israel is not on that field at all. I mean, when Prime Minister Netanyahu went to give an interview to a podcast, he didn’t realize he was going to a platform that was pretty bad for him a few days after someone said that he was like Hitler or something like that from that podcast. So you realize that he doesn’t understand, and his people, they don’t understand that those new platforms and how to deal with them. But he must understand that. And the Israeli government must understand that because the people that are going to suffer as the Jewish people here and the Israelis, it’s going to be very bad for Israel.
I think it’s important to say this is not a criticism only against Prime Minister Netanyahu, and it’s not personal. I mean, any other Prime Minister that would be in charge today, I believe, would not be able to notice what was going on in the US. They have a lot, of course, on their plate. I feel like I would criticize any other Prime Minister who wouldn’t engage as much in Hasbara here, or you know not only Hasbara, just understanding what was going on here on social media and different platforms. And I think that Israel-US relations, this is a strategic important, one of the most important things for Israel to keep on living and to have a great future. And this is the only Jewish state in the world. So we have to be very careful on the way we act or what we decide not to be involved in, to be engaged in. And this is why I think the government, and it doesn’t matter if it’s right or left, the government needs to be engaged in what’s going on here on social media, social platforms, understand what’s going on, research that, and address that. It doesn’t matter if it’s right or left. It’s just being straight and just taking care of the future of the Jewish state that we truly care about.
So one of the things that I thought was, you said a lot of fascinating things, but one of the things that really made a big click for me was that your role as a journalist here, as an Israeli journalist in the United States, is not only to ask questions and get answers and give the answers, whatever, but your questions help shape the narrative. In other words, when you ask the President about hostages or you ask about hostages in the White House press room, it’s your way of reminding all sorts of people there’s a lot of live hostages, we got to get them out. So you’re actually affecting policy in that regard. And then you’re talking about people on the right, whether it’s Candice Owens or whether it’s Nick Fuentes, whoever, also trying to affect the narrative of the MAGA movement, which would then on the other side, try to affect policy. And you’re saying now that the Netanyahu administration, again, not anybody’s fault.
I would just say that I published the scoop after October 7th, that Prime Minister Netanyahu did not even appoint any English speaker spokesperson to the Israeli government after October seventh. It’s a shame that we didn’t have one before, but the The fact that the Israeli government did not have any English spokesperson.
To tell it’s story.
Yeah. I mean, American journalists in Israel texted me, Do you know that we’re getting messages in Hebrew and we need to put it in Google Translate in order to report to the people in the US? I’m talking about the biggest outlets in the US. We need to report after we put it in Google Translate because the Israelis don’t have an English spokesperson. When we want to ask for a comment, people answer the phone. They speak English as well.
So this is my question. Do you have a sense that the Israeli government is beginning to become aware of the fact that it doesn’t understand the new America? Or are you as an Israeli who’s obviously in touch with political military diplomatic people all over do you have a sense that you believe that they’re not in touch and that they’re like, as we say, they’re fine with it. Do you sense an urgency on the part of Israeli leaders? Like, well, we don’t really get the new America, we got to learn about it. Or do you sense that there’s not that sense of urgency?
I I don’t think they understand how much it’s needed. Also, when you think of Prime Minister Netanyahu, he didn’t give a lot of interviews in the US since the seventh. So even that effort was not really made. When you talk about the big outlets, Fox News in the CBS news. I mean, he gave some, but not a lot. And of course, it was not enough. And I don’t think they understand it. I don’t think they’re trying to understand it. And I think that what they really think is something like, and I heard that from an Israeli official not a long while ago, something like, You know what? There’s always been anti-Semitism. They hate us because we’re Jews, so we shouldn’t do anything about it. And I told him, That’s not true. People need to know the fact. You have to address it. If you won’t address it, it’s going to get worse and worse. You have to be on that field. You have to act. You have to play on that field. Otherwise, we’ll all be screwed. I mean, for real. That’s a big issue. I want to tell you, when you talk about questions that are being asked, I think that one of the things that mainly affected President Trump was the fact that he really cares about how he’s being perceived in Israel. He really cares about being popular in Israel. He cares about being more popular than Prime Minister Netanyahu. This is something that Trump really wants to know. And when he saw the protests in Israel, having signs, President Trump, Save us, save the hostages. He was very excited about that. He posted about that, but he also wanted to be a part of, he wanted to show that movement of so many Israelis I mean, more than half of the Israelis wanted the deal. He wanted to show them that he helped them. So that was very important for Trump. So when we talk about what makes him do stuff, so of course, hearing about the hostages messages while if it’s hearing questions or watching reports on American TV, but also watching the Israelis out there calling President Trump, Help us. That’s very important. And that night at the Hostage Square, when Israelis cheered, when they heard President Trump’s name and didn’t like it, when they booed when they heard Prime Minister Netanyahu’s name, President Trump, I don’t think he won’t admit it publicly, but he liked it.
I was going to use a stronger word than like.
No, say it.
He loved it.
Yeah, he loved it. Yeah, clearly.
I want to ask you one last question, not really so much about your being an Israeli journalist, but your being an Israeli. Obviously, you mentioned Ido, your partner, a couple of times. I’ll just tell our listeners that Ido is Ido Geffen, the award-winning novelist who we actually had on the podcast a couple of months ago for his really fabulous book, Mrs. Lilenblum’s Cloud Factory, which I spoke about then. I won’t speak about it now. It’s a terrific, terrific book.
I loved it. I loved the book.
Yeah, well, you’re biased. But in any event. You and Ido are part of, I mean, he’s a scientist at Columbia University and a novelist. You’re an Israeli journalist, but you’re also obviously part of a huge Israeli circle here in New York, when there’s thousands and thousands and thousands of Israelis here. I’m just curious how some Israelis are planning to come and stay. Some Israelis are planning on coming and definitely going back. Some Israelis are here and they’re checking it out and they’re going to see how things play out. Given everything that’s going on in America, from the right and from the left, the New York elections and everything else that’s happened, do you sense a change in the feeling of Israelis in New York about how much they fit in here or might fit in here?
I think that the recent elections in New York City, Mamdani’s win, showed some Israelis here that they may need to fight for Israel’s future. But even if they’re here, it’s not like the future is so clear and welcoming. I think that this has changed changed some of the thoughts that Israelis had about New York City, particularly. But it shows a lot about the US in general. A lot of Israelis, I think the third option that you said, a lot of Israelis that are here are thinking about how it’s going to play out. Let’s see how it plays out, and then we’ll decide when we go back to Israel, if we go back to Israel. The recent rise of anti-Semitism, I think, makes them think about it more oftenly, about when they’ll go back to Israel. But a lot of Israelis here arrived after the seventh. A lot of Israelis came after the seventh. So it means after they knew about the judicial overhaul that was about to take place after they saw what was going on in Israel. So for them, they came after I heard those chants under my home on October 8th.
So they knew what was going on here and they decided to come. There’s a beautiful Jewish and Israeli community here, of course. By the way, I think that Israelis don’t know enough about the Jewish community. They don’t know how much the Jewish people here care about Israel. Some of them care deeply in a way that they want to help. Some of them are trying to disconnect themselves from Israel in order to restructure their Jewish identity and try to be a proud Jew that is against Israel. But the Jewish community here cares deeply about Israel. It doesn’t matter who you ask. And I feel like Israelis don’t know enough about that, and I need to do something about it on our main news show. But Israelis here, there’s a A beautiful Israeli community here. They tried, by the way, to make people go out and vote against Mamdani. It wasn’t, of course, enough. But something about Mamdani makes people here, Israelis here, think again. I went to his victory party in Brooklyn. It took place in Brooklyn when they announced that he won. He came and he gave a speech, and I met a lot of people there. I didn’t come with my equipment, so they didn’t see that I was from Israeli news. I just spoke with them. I asked one or two questions, and immediately people talk about Israel and Gaza. Immediately people talk about if Mamdani is pro-Israel, against Israel, is he an anti-Semite? Is he not? It was a huge part of this election. It doesn’t matter that Mamdani says, Oh, I don’t care about foreign policy. I care about New York City. I care about New Yorkers and busses. This is not what people there talk to me about, and they didn’t know, most of them, they didn’t ask me. So they didn’t know who I or if I was an Israeli, there are a lot of people walking around filming stories for Instagram and stuff for Twitter. So I just spoke to people. And immediately, every other person spoke about anti-Semitism, about Israel, about how they need to stop giving tax deductions if you contribute to an Israeli cause and stuff like that. So it was a huge issue for those voters for those activists that worked for Mamdani. And this is something that we need to take into consideration when we think about the future of the Israelis here in the city.
Neria Kraus, this is actually fascinating. And people who’ve listened to you and who want to follow up, I’ll just remind everybody that you have this podcast called The Kraus Report. It’s on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube, US-Israel relations, American-Jewish Community, Israel and Gaza, all the stuff you’ve talked about here today, but we didn’t have enough time to go to in great depth. People can listen to you on an ongoing basis. Thank you so much for taking time to share with our listeners something about what it’s like to be an Israeli journalist in the United States at a time like this. It’s actually fascinating. I learned a ton. I’m really very grateful and look forward to seeing you on the other side of the ocean also.
Thank you so much. Now you have time for a cake that we just bought in the Hungarian pastry shop here in New York because it has some memories.
Yeah, Columbia memories. Thank you so very much. I really appreciate it. It’s great to talk to you.
Thank you so much.
