This broadcast of the Moriah & Berko talk show on Channel 13, from July 27, is a perfect example of the grotesque, genocidal gaslighting circus that is the Israeli media today. I broke it down for you.
In the video, you can find some of the most outrageous sound bites, but I've decided to write a summary of absurdities from the entire first hour of the show, which dealt with issues concerning Gaza.
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Moriah "no uninvolved" Asraf leads a discussion about the "fake starvation campaign", as the panel calls it, which has become a major "Hasbara problem".
The panel's general consensus is that there is no famine in Gaza - but if there is, it's Hamas's fault. While denying that Israel is engaged in intentional starvation, the panelists appear to agree that the genocidal practice poses no ethical problem, only a public relations one. The one voice that hesitantly raises the issue of morality is being repeatedly shut down by the others.
Co-host Eyal Berkovic, who has repeatedly said that Gaza should be wiped out, responds by saying that if it was up to him, he wouldn't let a drop of water into Gaza, and when Asraf says that "none of us likes to see starving children", Berkovic starts telling her repeatedly that he feels nothing towards the children in Gaza.
Israeli-French journalist Emmanuelle Elbaz-Phelps is supposed to be the "leftist" of the panel, and was brought to the show to counter Berkovic. She's the only one on the panel who thinks that there's a moral problem with what Israel is doing in Gaza, and not just a "Hasbara problem".
She tries to respond to Berkovic by saying that for the sake of "our children" Israel needs to prevent hunger in Gaza. Berkovic, talking to her in a blatantly disrespectful and dismissive manner, tells her that if she has mercy for the children in Gaza, she "already forgot October 7".
Shay Golden, who earlier in the genocide made numerous deranged monologues ("We are coming to annihilate you") and even specified once that "we are ready to go into international isolation", now sings a different tune.
He talks about how Israel's current situation on the international stage is an "existential threat", and complains that Israel is being unfairly shunned, framed for a famine it has nothing to do with. On the contrary, Golden claims, the amount of aid supplied to Gaza is "unprecedented in the entire history of human wars".
Golden says that there's no question that "Israel is not starving Gazans intentionally", and that "only an idiot" would consider such a possibility.
When Elbaz-Phelps tries to tell him that Berkovic literally just now said he wants to do just that, Golden hushes her.
Interrupting Golden, Berkovic himself says he disagrees with him, and asks him whether he would support a hypothetical decision by Netanyahu, to prevent life essentials from entering the Strip, "until my hostages are returned".
Elbaz-Phelps later tries to reflect to Berkovic the full meaning of his genocidal words, and asks him if he wouldn't react in case he was shown some foreign TV show with someone stating that "all Jews should be killed".
In response, Berkovic suddenly plays dumb, asking, "Did I say something like this? I want the war to end."
Asaf Cohen, a former deputy commander of Unit 8200, attempts to explain Israel's "Hasbara problem" and in the process says that "there's no starvation campaign in Gaza".
Nevo Cohen, another panelist, is a former advisor to Itamar Ben Gvir and Naftali Bennett, who thinks Israel's been too soft on Gaza, and views the Strip as WWII Japan & Germany. Cohen cuts the other Cohen by loudly protesting - "What? What? What do you mean there's no starvation campaign in Gaza?"
But all is well in the end - the two Cohens realize it was all a misunderstanding: Asaf Cohen was trying to say that there's no Israeli policy to starve Gaza, while Nevo Cohen thought he's denying a media campaign of staged starvation by Hamas. They both agree that, as the former Cohen puts it: "There is a marketing and publicity campaign claiming that we are starving Gaza."
Asraf concludes that if Israel had decided on a policy of starvation, it would've been OK to deal with international pressure, and that the "biggest tragedy" is that Israel is being blamed for causing starvation despite putting, supposedly, large efforts in preventing a humanitarian disaster.
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At a certain point, a clip is played, featuring a genocidal statement by Minister Amichay Eliyahu, said on the radio a few days earlier - "All of Gaza will be Jewish, it won't be fenced-up settlement... The government is racing to erase Gaza. Thank god, we're erasing this evil, and erasing the population that was raised on Mein Kampf".
Similar genocidal statements had been made by members of the same panel - including during this very broadcast. Yet the caption on the screen reads "Amichay Eliyahu's horrible statement".
Berkovic ridicules Minister Eliyahu's words, calling the minister "a joke" and saying that his plan to settle Gaza is unrealistic - it would be too expensive.
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Avida Bachar then joins the panel. Bachar is a resident of the Gaza Envelope who was injured on October 7 and lost his wife and son.
Since then he's often been invited to be interviewed by Israeli media, where he repeatedly spreads his insane genocidal fantasies, about Gaza (and the West Bank) being completely wiped out.
So once again Bachar starts ranting, saying Israel needs to exterminate "every last one of them".
When Asraf asks him: "Who do you want to exterminate?" he immediately responds "The Palestinians, all of them", but then stops and says "Wait... Hamas."
This momentary realization doesn't prevent him from later saying that the "enemy" needs to "disappear" and that everyone in Gaza, including a baby born today ("In Rafah" - I guess he doesn't know Rafah has been completely erased) is an enemy.
With complete lack of self-awareness, Asraf complains about the language Bachar uses - she says that words like "annihilation" and "erasure" are terms the enemy uses, and "we're not them".
When Bachar is asked about the option of settlement in the Gaza Strip, he first raises opposition, and says that, "Daniella Weiss is not good.", but later it turns out that he's totally cool with settling the Gaza Strip, but only after every single Palestinian there has been expelled or murdered.
No one in the panel speaks up against Bachar's murderous ravings, but Elbaz-Phelps comes closest - she can be heard gasping while Bachar describes how he proposes to "push" Gazans into Egypt, by bringing up his memories from the kibbutz cattle farm, where he used to poke the cows with an electric cable to make them move.
Panelist Ilan Lotan, ex-Shin Bet, responds to that by saying "I know the Egyptians, it's not going to happen". As if the problem with this unhinged sadism is merely a practical one.
