Anthony Bourdain, Bob Simon — Israel and The ‘Suicides’ Of Those Who Speak Out Against Their Actions
April 25, 2024 in Columnists, News by RBN Staff
Source: Information compiled and with commentary by Leila in Canada
Bob Simon was murdered by Israel for reporting Christians leaving the Holy Land
This is the same way Diana was killed in Paris – back seat, they claimed he failed to use his seat belt so it was his fault.
If you watch for the Israeli Ambassador of the time, Michael Oren, who tried to prevent this from even going to air, and Simon had the balls to interview him and use it on air – you may (as I believe) see Michael Oren glare menacingly at Simon as if to say “WE WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS”
I also believe Anthony Bourdain was suicided by Israel because he went to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and concluded the show with the statement Jews were abusing Palestinians. You could see he felt stupid – he said as much – when they wrapped him arms with the black tape and put the black box on his head like their Jewish rituals – and Bourdain just said he felt silly…
Then Bourdain went to the West Bank and Gaza where you could see he enjoyed himself and was at ease and did not feel awkward. For his statment about Israel abusing Palestinians, he got an award from a US Muslim association. Coincidence – a little later he hanged himself.
Bourdain’s brave declaration of Israeli abuse of Palestinians – this is the video I’d like to find…
In the US you may have better luck. Canada is very restrictive where zios have long had near total control on public info. All I can get is the text and “video unavailable”.
- Leila
We’re talking about “what is easily the most contentious piece of real estate in the world. And there’s no hope, none, of ever talking about it without pissing somebody, if not everybody, off.”
Those aren’t my words or Stewart’s, by the way. Anthony Bourdain opened the 2013 second season premiere of his CNN show “Parts Unknown” with those statements.
via: Salon.com
More from related article mentioning Bourdain with other information and context:
In 2023, nobody knows how to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2013, Anthony Bourdain did
Instead of screaming past each other, try revisiting the 2013 “Parts Unknown” episode exploring “Jerusalem”
https://www.salon.com/2023/10/22/israel-palestine-anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/
(HOSTED ON RBN SERVER, for those who can’t see it on YouTube)
article excerpt:
That this clip’s topical humor remains relevant nearly a decade later is almost entirely by design. Primary and secondary educational curricula in the United States barely discuss Middle Eastern geography let alone the region’s history and many cultures. What we learn about Israel comes to us through media coverage that is slight and slanted at best, mainly broadcasting government officials’ fiery declarations as a backdrop to scenes of rock-throwing protesters and explosions.
Of Palestinian day-to-day life we’re shown next to nothing, save for seconds-long clips of angry demonstrators, fighters wrapped in keffiyeh scarves or wailing victims of military strikes.
With this being the dominant lens, it’s no wonder that the Western audience conflates everyday Gazans and West Bank residents with Hamas militants terrorizing both their own civilians and Israelis.
There’s no better way to comprehend the humanity behind any longstanding conflict than to sit at a table with the people involved during peacetime, or whatever relative form of it one can witness.
We’re talking about “what is easily the most contentious piece of real estate in the world. And there’s no hope, none, of ever talking about it without pissing somebody, if not everybody, off.”
Those aren’t my words or Stewart’s, by the way. Anthony Bourdain opened the 2013 second season premiere of his CNN show “Parts Unknown” with those statements.
He was referring to Jerusalem, whose streets he walked in 2012 with fellow chef Yotam Ottolenghi, the Jerusalem-born British restaurateur who wrote the cookbooks “Plenty,” “Simple” and “Jerusalem.” Ottolenghi would later take Bourdain to visit Majda, a restaurant nestled in the serene village of Ein Rafa just outside of the city, where they would meet and eat with co-owners Michal Baranes, who is Jewish, and her Muslim husband Yaakov Barhum.
Had this been an ordinary gustatory-focused travel series its host would have played it safe – which is to say, Bourdain could have easily remained within Jerusalem and surrounding areas patrolled by Israeli military conscripts while he and Ottolenghi dive into controversial debates over, for instance, which culture gave us falafel. (Which they do, but briefly.)
Instead, Bourdain and his team escort his viewers into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to dine with a Gazan woman in a Bethlehem refugee camp; and spend time with Laila El-Haddad, author of “The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey,” who scores him invites to eat with a local family and a group Bedouin men who prepare a regional specialty starring fire-roasted unripe watermelon. He also breaks bread with a Jewish settler whose home sits in Palestinian territory, “in contravention of international law,” as he subtly puts it.
Recommending a culinary travel show episode as an entry point to understanding this conflict may seem trite. There is rarely a demand for context when obscene atrocities are playing out in real time in front of an international audience, especially when people around the world are still reeling in the aftermath of Hamas’ coordinated attack on Israeli civilians that left more than 1,400 people dead and many more injured, with scores of people taken hostage.