Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Looking back： A heart-to-heart with Avi Yemini, 2023 Viewer's Choice Award winner

00:00:00.000 Tonight, a heart-to-heart with the winner of the Rebel News Viewer's Choice Awards for our top reporter.

00:00:06.360 You're ready for freedom! 0.97

00:00:09.260 Shame on you, you sensorious bug! 0.85

00:00:20.640 Well, every year we have what we call the Rebbe Awards at Rebel News. 0.57

00:00:24.920 It's sort of an internal prize that we give people a little statuette.

00:00:28.400 Most of the prizes are actually for behind-the-scenes employees who sometimes don't get the credit that our on-screen stars do.

00:00:36.280 It's something we do every year at our Christmas party, and it's a little bit of fun, and there is some anticipation.

00:00:41.460 But by far, the most prestigious Rebbe Award is not chosen by me or other managers, but rather chosen by you at our Viewer's Choice Awards.

00:00:51.300 Thousands of people vote, and I have to tell you, this year it was very close.

00:00:55.480 There were some contenders.

00:00:56.600 We announced the sixth finalist at the Christmas party.

00:00:59.900 Some of the contenders were just about 1% away from each other.

00:01:03.480 But I have to say, this year's winner, the first-place winner, had a significant margin in his lead.

00:01:12.180 Not surprising, in that he has been a multi-Rebbe Award winner.

00:01:17.500 You probably know who I'm talking about, and he's our guest for our feature interview today.

00:01:20.940 I'm talking about Avi Yamini, our chief Australian correspondent, who joins us now from Melbourne.

00:01:25.600 Avi, great to see you again.

00:01:27.720 How are you doing, Ezra?

00:01:28.660 Thanks for having me.

00:01:29.660 Well, it's a pleasure.

00:01:30.520 Now, some of the Canadians say, well, hey, everyone in Australia is voting for Avi.

00:01:34.740 He has a whole country to himself.

00:01:36.400 Whereas the Canadians, there's half a dozen Canadians dividing up the Canadian vote.

00:01:40.860 But I happen to know for a fact that you have fans around the world, not just in Australia, but in the UK, Canada, and America.

00:01:47.700 And even in Israel, for example, you just came back from a couple weeks doing journalism at the border between southern Israel and Gaza.

00:01:56.460 So I think the excuse from Canadians, oh, he has the whole country, Australia, rooting for him.

00:02:02.360 I think that might be a tiny bit of sour grapes, but it's all a good sport.

00:02:05.680 I think everyone here is rooting for you, and you've done some great journalism in 2023.

00:02:11.240 Yeah, I appreciate it.

00:02:12.360 Look, I don't blame him.

00:02:14.060 Maybe it is.

00:02:15.200 Maybe I do have that leg up.

00:02:16.940 No, I'm just joking.

00:02:18.480 I reckon I deserve it because we also, on the flip side of it, we operate the whole Rebel here on a much smaller team.

00:02:27.240 Either way, some of the guys that I was up against that I actually got to meet this year, just weeks before the war broke out in Israel on that amazing tour that we did.

00:02:42.020 These are real contenders, and these are people that I've looked up to even before I worked at Rebel.

00:02:46.260 So I'm humbled by however I want for everybody that voted for me.

00:02:52.080 Thank you.

00:02:52.620 We're just joking around, and we love your work.

00:02:55.000 During the lockdowns, it was a real window on Australia, and that's where I think you really started to build an enormous international following because, of course, Australians wanted to hear what was happening in their own country.

00:03:07.540 And you were really, you and Rakshan Fernando and other citizen journalists, it was basically the two years covering the harshest lockdown in Australia by a politician who was soon nicknamed Dictator Dan.

00:03:19.480 But that story, your reports were viewed around the world because people couldn't believe it was happening in Australia, a country that everyone around the world thought was pretty easygoing and pretty friendly and pretty positive.

00:03:31.720 I want to look back, not since all your work since the pandemic, but I want to just take a minute to talk about 2023 because it was an amazing year starting in January 2023 where you and I and a handful of other journalists actually went to the World Economic Forum together.

00:03:50.500 Now, you had been before, now, you had been before, it was my first trip, it was brutally cold, we were trudging around this ski town in the Swiss Alps called Davos.

00:04:00.640 But it really was exhilarating because it was, you were playing cat and mouse with these VVIPs, not just VIPs, but very, very important people who didn't have entourages.

00:04:14.500 I mean, maybe they had one assistant next to them, didn't have like a swarm of bodyguards. 0.63

00:04:19.800 Tell me a little bit about your experience in Davos because we're headed back there in just a few weeks.

00:04:23.960 Set the scene and then I'll throw to what I think is one of my career highlights of my life is when you and I had a joint scrum, a walking scrum of Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer.

00:04:35.600 But set the table for our viewers, I think most of our viewers have seen it, but I just want to talk a bit about Davos.

00:04:41.160 You've been a couple of times, this will be your third journey.

00:04:44.300 How would you describe going to that World Economic Forum as an outsider, as a citizen journalist on the outside?

00:04:51.200 Yeah, look, firstly, I think that it's just the perfect way to start the year in journalism, you know, especially for rebels, because you get to come face to face with some of the most, you know, agenda setting, powerful people, unelected, often, usually unelected powerful people on the planet.

00:05:14.400 And as you say, they don't have the entourages.

00:05:16.660 It's their safe space.

00:05:17.940 I was a bit surprised last year when we went, Ezra, that we even got anything, because I thought surely after the first time we'd travelled to Davos, that they would change their, you know, their security protocols and that.

00:05:33.240 And the only change that we learned that they implemented was that they'd encouraged guests to, if you remember that, you know, they wear their name tags that are all colour coded because it's kind of a class system to show who's important and who's just staff and who's service.

00:05:50.100 So they were telling people to, on the official invitations or when you got your passes, to just cover them up when you leave the closed area and come out to, you know, where the rest of us peasants are on the main strip, on the street, where they want to hang out.

00:06:06.940 But that was the only change they made.

00:06:10.300 The thing that they obviously didn't, you know, keep in mind, think about when they made, when they asked people to do that, is that these people are so superficial and everybody that is, you know, anyone important, they want people to know who they are.

00:06:25.400 They want to know, they want people to know how important they are.

00:06:27.900 So nobody abided by that.

00:06:29.480 And I personally saw the instruction that they were giving the guests to do.

00:06:36.320 So I'm excited to go back again.

00:06:39.520 I don't know what to expect this time.

00:06:41.400 And obviously the news cycle is different and some of the old issues are still there, but we've got new issues this year.

00:06:47.960 So I question whether there's going to be a Ukraine, a Ukraine tent or pop-up there this time, the last two times there were, and they were kind of the centerpieces of these, of the WEF.

00:07:02.880 But it seems like the world is starting to forget Ukraine.

00:07:07.560 So I don't know.

00:07:09.820 I'm looking forward, though, to kicking off 2024 in what I believe is going to become our rebel tradition.

00:07:16.420 Well, it certainly seems to have started.

00:07:19.560 Yeah.

00:07:19.900 Well, you know, there was a few key moments for me.

00:07:22.360 Again, it was my first time last year.

00:07:25.040 And I remember when the police pulled us over, and I'm used to the police giving us a bit of a hassle.

00:07:30.340 And I know you are, too.

00:07:31.500 You've actually been arrested several times.

00:07:33.440 We had to sue the police to get them to back off you.

00:07:36.160 So you and I, I mean, you more than me, are used to police being a little bit rough with the civil liberties.

00:07:40.580 But it's my observation, based on two interactions I had there, that Swiss police are actually very gentle, have a very light touch.

00:07:50.060 You and I, I mean, the way we scrummed Albert Bourla, if we were scrumming Dictator Dan in Melbourne or scrumming Justin Trudeau like that in Canada, the bodyguards would be there smashing us.

00:08:00.640 The Swiss police did not get involved.

00:08:02.340 But as long as we didn't touch the guy or threaten the guy, they absolutely had no interest in getting involved in our journalism.

00:08:09.480 And when they pulled us over in our car once, I remember saying to the cop, freedom of the press.

00:08:13.740 And they said, you're right.

00:08:14.960 Keep on moving.

00:08:15.700 I actually had a deeper respect for Switzerland and their commitment to civil liberties.

00:08:22.320 I have to say, Avi, I found it superior than either Australia or Canada.

00:08:26.160 And that sort of makes me sad as a Canadian.

00:08:27.840 Yeah, it was interesting because at first when even the Swiss police, when they, you know, walk up to you or stop you in the car and tell you you can't film, as soon as you push back, what I've been used to in Australia or in other parts of the world when I've generally gone to report is as soon as you question their authority, they kind of, they step up even if they're wrong.

00:08:54.380 And they often are, but, you know, they'll come up and they kind of go on this power trip, whereas the Swiss police were the exact opposite.

00:09:02.900 As soon as you question the legality around them telling you to turn off the cameras or filming or whatever, they went more to an emotional position.

00:09:12.040 They go, yeah, it's your right.

00:09:13.140 But, you know, we don't really want to be on camera.

00:09:16.340 Which makes me think, all right, well, if you're not telling me, if you're not unlawfully telling me I have to stop, I will, as a human, be more compliant if there is no real journalistic reason for my cameras to be rolling.

00:09:30.900 Often we roll our cameras through these, you know, checkpoints or any interaction with police just in case they cross a line.

00:09:38.620 And I did grow to respect the Swiss police just like you.

00:09:43.240 And I saw, I witnessed your interactions with them this time.

00:09:47.940 And we were prepared, if you remember, as we do often, you know, we had a lawyer ready to go to help us out if something happened, if they did cross those lines.

00:09:57.440 But they absolutely didn't.

00:09:58.900 Yeah.

00:09:59.180 Well, here, let's roll the whole interaction of you and me and two of our cameramen.

00:10:05.200 Like, the timing was perfect.

00:10:06.240 We went there, I think, I'm trying to remember how many folks we had.

00:10:09.120 But you and I were there with our microphones.

00:10:11.620 We had two cameramen.

00:10:13.560 And we had, it was just, you know, it was like we were waiting.

00:10:17.400 We didn't know who we were waiting for.

00:10:19.000 But when he showed up, let's roll the walking scrum that you and I had with Albert Bourla.

00:10:26.320 You know, people still stop me on the street when they don't stop me on the street.

00:10:29.340 When I'm talking to them and say, hey, you're the Bourla guy.

00:10:31.820 I'm not sure if you get that, too.

00:10:33.400 Here, let's take a look at that video.

00:10:34.500 Mr. Bourla, can I ask you, when did you know that the vaccines didn't stop transmission?

00:10:40.500 How long did you know that without saying it publicly?

00:10:43.420 Thank you very much.

00:10:44.400 I'm sorry.

00:10:45.040 Answer that question.

00:10:46.260 I mean, we now know that the vaccines didn't stop transmission.

00:10:50.380 But why did you keep it secret?

00:10:52.020 You said it was 100% effective, then 90%, then 80%, then 70%.

00:10:59.340 But we now know that the vaccines do not stop transmission.

00:11:03.020 Why did you keep that secret?

00:11:05.000 Have a nice day.

00:11:06.200 I won't have a nice day until I know the answer.

00:11:09.260 Why did you keep it a secret that your vaccine did not stop transmission?

00:11:14.120 Is it time to apologise to the world, sir?

00:11:18.620 To give refunds back to the countries that poured all their money into your vaccine that

00:11:23.320 doesn't work, your ineffective vaccine?

00:11:25.400 Yeah, you have a little bit of a rag.

00:11:26.740 Are you not ashamed of what you've done in the last couple of years?

00:11:29.880 Do you have any apologies to the public, sir?

00:11:32.120 That's it.

00:11:33.520 Are you proud of it?

00:11:36.560 You've made millions on the backs of people's entire livelihoods.

00:11:40.940 How does that feel to walk the streets as a millionaire on the backs of the regular person

00:11:45.780 at home in Australia, in England, in Canada?

00:11:48.920 What do you think about on your yacht, sir?

00:11:51.180 What do you think about on your private jet?

00:11:53.720 Are you worried about product liability?

00:11:56.140 Are you worried about myocarditis?

00:11:58.920 What about the sudden deaths?

00:12:00.500 What do you have to say about young men dropping dead of heart attacks every day?

00:12:09.860 Why won't you answer these basic questions?

00:12:15.680 No apologies, sir.

00:12:17.200 Do you think you should be charged criminally for some of the criminal behaviour you've obviously

00:12:24.540 been a part of?

00:12:26.380 How much money have you personally made off the vaccine?

00:12:30.500 How many boosters do you think it'll take for you to be happy enough with your earnings?

00:12:39.140 Nothing?

00:12:40.740 Who did you meet with here in secret?

00:12:43.600 Will you disclose who you met with?

00:12:47.740 Who did you pay commissions to?

00:12:50.160 In the past, Pfizer has paid $2.3 billion in fines for deceptive marketing.

00:12:56.140 Have you engaged in that same conduct again?

00:13:02.860 Are you under investigation like you were before for your deceptive marketing, sir?

00:13:08.440 If any other product in the world doesn't work, as promised, you get a refund.

00:13:15.600 Should you not refund to countries that laid out billions for your ineffective vaccine?

00:13:23.720 Are you used to only sympathetic media so you don't know how to answer any questions?

00:13:28.320 Is that it?

00:13:33.780 Shame on you, sir.

00:13:35.200 Shame on you.

00:13:36.920 You know, the thing is, Avi, and I've said this, I've thought about this a hundred times

00:13:40.100 since that video, which, by the way, on Twitter alone, I think has 40 million views, if my

00:13:45.320 math is right.

00:13:45.960 None of the questions you and I posed to him were novel.

00:13:51.200 Like, those questions have been asked by other people, bigger people than us.

00:13:55.420 Surely he's heard of them.

00:13:57.180 Surely he's asked about, well, when did you know that it didn't stop infection?

00:14:02.940 When did you know its efficacy?

00:14:05.160 Like, our questions were not, we were not the first people in the world.

00:14:09.720 He had answers for sure.

00:14:11.400 However, he might have even had good answers, but his disdain and disrespect for journalists

00:14:18.560 who weren't official journalists, who were skeptical journalists, was so great that he

00:14:24.800 simply refused to talk to us.

00:14:27.580 He could have done fine.

00:14:29.120 He could have just blah, blah, blah, duck-speaked his way through it.

00:14:32.920 Why do you think he refused?

00:14:35.160 Do you think that was his media training?

00:14:37.080 Do you think he just had disrespect for citizen journalists?

00:14:39.440 Why didn't he answer?

00:14:40.880 I think his silence looked awful.

00:14:43.640 He could have answered us.

00:14:46.220 I don't know if he had good answers, to be fair.

00:14:49.060 I don't know if he was prepared.

00:14:50.820 I don't even know if he's even heard those questions before because they do live in a

00:14:54.580 bubble.

00:14:54.940 Like many of those people that go to attend the WEF, they're protected, like you say, by

00:15:00.320 the fact that, you know, the official journalists, which are part of the World Economic Forum,

00:15:05.680 which go there to give talks and be, and take part in whatever it is, to be a part of that

00:15:12.680 club.

00:15:13.560 So I don't know if he's ever gone outside his bubble.

00:15:18.140 He seemed genuinely shocked to me that he was being, you know, a question like that in a place

00:15:27.360 that he would have considered as a safe space, as a place that he never imagined.

00:15:31.240 He would be confronted by tough questions.

00:15:35.420 Like you said, they're not like, it's hard to call them tough questions because it's what

00:15:38.060 the average person, you know, around the globe that was essentially forced to take his drug.

00:15:46.740 Um, um, it's what most people were asking in that period of time or, or, or in the lead

00:15:51.780 up to that.

00:15:52.920 Uh, but I don't know, I don't know if he had an answer.

00:15:55.680 I don't know if I, or he just didn't think it's important to answer us because, um, he

00:16:00.640 didn't imagine at the time how far and wide that would go, because I think that was still

00:16:06.340 early in, in, in, uh, Elon Musk days on Twitter.

00:16:11.680 So I think he thought that they still had control over the narrative in the fact that we couldn't

00:16:16.380 run it on mainstream platforms like YouTube and Facebook.

00:16:20.000 And we didn't, we relied on Rumble and Twitter and it's still, um, reached everywhere.

00:16:26.740 And I do get stopped by people, you know, at different events going, oh, wow, you were

00:16:30.600 that, you were that guy that, that, that, uh, confronted Bula, the CEO of Pfizer and good

00:16:36.800 on you for asking the questions that we had.

00:16:39.080 And, you know, even me, I know, cause even I was surprised how much time we got with him

00:16:46.120 in that, in, in that interaction.

00:16:48.200 I don't know if you remember Ezra, how he, you know, he, at one point he was working

00:16:53.260 so hard to run away from us that he ended up trapping himself in the corner of a fence.

00:16:57.980 I remember.

00:16:58.640 And it was just all so wild and bizarre that he just was so unprepared because let's, let's

00:17:03.640 say he didn't want to answer and he, he was prepared not to answer.

00:17:07.260 I don't think he would have trapped himself.

00:17:08.940 I think he would have just walked back into the, behind the, the, the, that police line

00:17:14.580 where we couldn't have access to, but he didn't do that.

00:17:18.440 Um, and I'm, I'm interested to see what this year brings and if people like him are going

00:17:24.440 to, you know, how they're going to manage it.

00:17:27.140 I, I dare say that they're so arrogant and they, they, they still live inside that bubble

00:17:33.000 whilst we've had an impact there and we've had an impact on the, on the, you know, on the

00:17:38.240 conversation, on the discussions around it.

00:17:40.120 But I don't know if we've broken their bubble in which they think, uh, they're above having

00:17:47.540 to answer the rest of the world.

00:17:50.720 Yeah.

00:17:50.940 You know, you said two things that I never thought of, but I agree with you on both.

00:17:54.380 He said he was probably surprised that we were there in his safe space.

00:17:58.480 I mean, we were surprised to see him.

00:18:00.940 Why wouldn't he be surprised to encounter us?

00:18:03.940 And, and second of all, I think you're exactly right.

00:18:05.960 Um, we look at that as a, uh, as a exciting moment in part because it had 40 million views

00:18:12.640 and we certainly didn't know that.

00:18:14.720 And he obviously didn't know that that was a bit of, sometimes half of journalism is just

00:18:19.520 being there, being at the right place at the right time.

00:18:21.860 And I remember you and I were waiting a great length for some of these folks.

00:18:25.520 Well, Davos was a huge success for us and you had some other great journalistic moments

00:18:30.640 there.

00:18:30.900 I won't show them all now, but, uh, we did set up a special website for our trip.

00:18:35.700 W E F reports.com.

00:18:37.840 We're going to use that same website for our next trip.

00:18:40.060 So I encourage folks, I mean, you had some great sort of hidden microphone, hidden camera

00:18:44.900 moments.

00:18:45.280 And I had a walking scrum with Greta Thunberg, which was very, uh, fruitless, but, um, you

00:18:52.100 can find all those at WF reports.com.

00:18:53.800 But I want to talk about a couple of other exciting moments you had.

00:18:57.200 Now you cover Australia very well, but I, I want to talk about two other adventures you

00:19:02.680 went on.

00:19:03.980 The first one was to New Zealand.

00:19:06.400 And as a North American, I think, well, Australia and New Zealand, they're right next to each

00:19:10.420 other.

00:19:10.600 No way.

00:19:11.300 That is hours and hours of flying.

00:19:13.340 It just looks like they're close because they're the, they're the only things in the,

00:19:17.060 I mean, there's teeny little Pacific islands, but, um, with your autobiography, Rebel from

00:19:23.780 the start, we went to New Zealand for the book tour because New Zealand had under Jacinda

00:19:31.460 Ardern tried to block you from entering the country and they succeeded at first.

00:19:37.920 Why don't you give our viewers a bit of a backstory?

00:19:39.940 We'll remind people and we'll throw to a clip.

00:19:42.240 You can, I'll let you do that.

00:19:44.220 New Zealand tried to block you, but we got the last laugh.

00:19:46.800 Go ahead.

00:19:47.080 Tell the story.

00:19:47.600 Yes, it was back in, uh, what are we now?

00:19:51.940 I think it was, uh, end of 2022, if I'm not mistaken, where there was one of the final,

00:20:00.320 you know, big anti-lockdown protests that were happening, freedom protests.

00:20:05.020 And I was going there with Rukshan to actually cover this event.

00:20:10.700 And the funny thing is it ended up being a very non, you know, it was a bit of a fizzle.

00:20:16.960 It was people had already started to lose interest in the cause because they were getting back

00:20:21.860 their freedoms or whatever it was.

00:20:24.080 But as I arrived at the airport, um, the Qantas staff were a bit puzzled because they received

00:20:31.940 a notification that they'd never received before from someone with an Australian passport is

00:20:35.940 that my passport was flagged and I need to speak to, um, the New Zealand customs, immigration,

00:20:42.420 um, immigration comes on the phone and basically tells me that you're being banned because of,

00:20:49.220 uh, uh, I can't remember the, they were saying that I had a under the character assessment

00:20:55.380 that they're doing over the phone and which it all stemmed from the days before somebody

00:21:01.180 had, uh, Chantel Baker, which, which was one of the people we were going to go interview, 0.61

00:21:05.280 had announced on her telegram that we were coming, which set off, um, the mainstream media

00:21:11.520 machine in running hit pieces and within the hit pieces, asking the government as to why

00:21:18.420 they are not banning us, banning me on character grounds.

00:21:22.360 Um, and you know, I, I could tell straight away what had happened, but we didn't have the

00:21:28.400 proof yet.

00:21:29.140 And over the next few months, as we'd gone, as we, you know, as we do every time, as soon

00:21:35.460 as somebody, uh, oversteps the line, our supporters are, you know, the viewers watching this now

00:21:41.100 who are grateful every time because they're always there to back us in these moments, but

00:21:46.240 they, they came on board and we, you know, we hired the lawyer, we hired immigration, uh,

00:21:51.640 agents.

00:21:52.080 In fact, we hired them as soon as those hit pieces came out and we started the process

00:21:56.640 in applying for the, the actual visa and, and, and getting this decision overturned.

00:22:03.080 Now at the time I had no idea what the book was, we didn't even know when the book was,

00:22:08.120 I was working on the book, but it wasn't no idea as to when, when I was going to be granted

00:22:12.020 and when the book would be finished.

00:22:13.420 In the meantime, we managed to, um, to, to receive all their internal communications

00:22:19.840 firstly between, um, uh, what do they call the international police, Interpol, um, plus

00:22:27.260 the internal communications just between immigration there, plus the, the communications between the

00:22:32.220 ministry and, and, and.

00:22:34.100 And that was leaked to you.

00:22:35.280 I mean, I think we'd also did an access request, but some bureaucrats on the other side 0.98

00:22:39.860 actually leaked it to you, right?

00:22:41.400 Um, yeah, first it was a, a police, uh, from the, from, from Interpol, a police officer

00:22:48.380 had leaked, um, those first communications, which gave us kind of the, the footing onto

00:22:53.700 what to do for freedom of information, because sometimes it's going to be quite specific to

00:22:57.260 know what you're looking for.

00:22:58.180 So they can't hide.

00:22:59.700 And, um, yeah, but it was somebody going, this is complete nonsense.

00:23:03.760 Somebody in law enforcement saying they're banning you.

00:23:06.320 It was all politically motivated and it was proven.

00:23:08.940 It was politically motivated by the internal communications, which at that point, it became

00:23:14.000 quite clear that they were never going to go to court because you've got to remember

00:23:17.560 Jacinda Ardern herself lied at a press conference saying that she had nothing to do with it and

00:23:23.020 she only ever heard about it, uh, from the, uh, from the media, which from the internal

00:23:29.800 communication became quite clear that her office was very much involved and it was the ministers

00:23:33.860 that were pushing it long story short.

00:23:37.480 It was, I guess, divine providence that as I'd finished the book, my visa had come through

00:23:46.800 because we knew they were not going to actually go into court.

00:23:49.300 They were, they were, they were, they were going to make us jump through every single

00:23:52.540 hoop and drag it out as far as they could.

00:23:54.300 And they did, they made me, you know, to the end run a, uh, a police, uh, uh, a federal

00:24:00.420 police check in Australia, which they already had directly from the police because we had

00:24:04.280 in the communications, but it was their legal right to ask it.

00:24:07.160 And it took about three months just to get that, to get an appointment and get all that

00:24:10.440 done.

00:24:11.460 It came out just as my book had come and I thought, I, you know, Ezra, I grew up ultra

00:24:17.680 orthodox.

00:24:18.340 I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a big man of faith.

00:24:20.380 I'm, I love my heritage and my culture and my, you know, I'm proud about where I came

00:24:24.780 from, but I thought, my goodness, right.

00:24:28.160 As I finished the book, my, my visa is granted.

00:24:32.320 It's like, somebody is telling me upstairs that the only place that you need to launch

00:24:37.300 this book to get, to kick it off has to be the censorship capital, you know, of at least

00:24:43.220 the Western world where they literally banned a journalist they didn't like for political

00:24:49.880 reasons.

00:24:51.260 And so we did, we, we launched the book in, in, in New Zealand.

00:24:56.680 And of course, Antifa tried to shut us down, but from, you know, one of the things that

00:25:02.660 we do really well, I think at Rebel News is we take negatives and we turn it into a positive.

00:25:08.760 We turn it into a campaign and then we turn it into a win whilst it looks like we're down

00:25:13.000 at first, you know, like the ban, but we overturned it.

00:25:16.120 We showed them for what they were and then on top of it, when we organised the, the, the

00:25:22.520 events in New Zealand, we, well, firstly, we did the, the, the first one in Auckland at

00:25:27.480 the church, at, at Destiny's Church, where we, I didn't know much about these guys except

00:25:32.160 for I seen their names pop up during the anti-lockdown protests.

00:25:36.660 They were, you know, they were there at the front, you know, the mainstream media hated

00:25:41.500 them and I just knew that there was no way they were going to, they were going to pull

00:25:46.300 their, their venue and we were right.

00:25:50.020 They were, they were, they were fantastic and they, you know, the first night was amazing.

00:25:55.160 You were there, Ezra.

00:25:57.620 And then, of course, the second location, I didn't realise that they had locations all

00:26:03.140 around the country.

00:26:04.900 In fact, I didn't know much about them.

00:26:06.100 I just knew it was safe in Auckland and as you saw, remember, in the middle of the night,

00:26:10.840 right as we were supposed to, we were supposed to have the, the next event in, where was it,

00:26:19.400 Ezra?

00:26:19.960 Was it Christchurch?

00:26:20.820 It was in Christchurch.

00:26:21.800 No, Wellington in, in, in the capital, sorry.

00:26:24.720 And, and we did it specifically there because that's, you know, that was the, that was where

00:26:29.420 the protest was that I was supposed to cover.

00:26:31.300 And the Anglican church pulled out on us on that day early, you know, early, early in

00:26:36.900 the morning.

00:26:37.820 And we, we called Brian Tamaki, who'd, we'd formed a relationship from realising what

00:26:44.960 it was he had and realising that this guy has been demonised for years and he's an

00:26:50.380 evangelical Christian.

00:26:52.260 And I, I actually love his style.

00:26:54.120 I don't, you don't necessarily have to believe, I'm not a man of particular faith.

00:26:58.300 I just respect everybody's right to believe in what they, what they wish as long as

00:27:03.740 they're not imposing it on me.

00:27:05.120 And I think he does an amazing job and he does so much good work that, you know, we

00:27:08.700 called him straight away and without even thinking, he said, don't worry, we've got

00:27:13.840 a church there and, and, and opened his doors there in Wellington as well, which was an

00:27:21.220 absolute success.

00:27:22.560 And I don't think I could have planned it better.

00:27:24.840 It was incredible.

00:27:25.460 I really got to know a little bit about the Maori people.

00:27:28.300 Brian Tamaki is a leader of the Maori and in so many ways, he's a religious leader.

00:27:33.540 I think he's a cultural leader.

00:27:35.140 He's a youth leader.

00:27:36.240 He's a political leader.

00:27:37.400 I want to show just some clips of this because it wasn't just the obvious book launch.

00:27:43.580 It was how the Maori protected us from Antifa, including really very exciting, doing what's 1.00

00:27:51.720 called a haka, that's sort of the war dance, like that, that dramatic dance with Avi.

00:27:58.560 Let me show you some clips of that trip because it was, I don't know, it was a defeat for

00:28:04.760 cancel culture.

00:28:05.820 It was a success for freedom of speech.

00:28:08.000 And both Jacinda Ardern and her national censorship and Antifa and their attempts to cancel the

00:28:13.960 events both failed.

00:28:15.720 And that's a really big win here.

00:28:17.360 Let me just show you some of that amazing and momentous time in New Zealand.

00:28:21.800 North Korea, I am finally here in Auckland, even though the Communist Party tried their

00:28:36.320 very best to stop me with the cover of their state board and paid for mainstream media.

00:28:43.400 Thank you to the New Zealand Herald for promoting my book.

00:28:45.560 Big news, guys, that we need you to share everywhere.

00:28:48.380 Overnight, in the middle of the night, we received an email that the venue in Wellington

00:28:52.540 has pulled our event due to sustained threats of violence against.

00:28:59.200 It's the same New Zealand Herald that keeps telling us Chantel is not a reliable source.

00:29:05.500 Suddenly, she was so reliable that her rumor was enough to run a hit piece on me.

00:29:16.480 Demanding the government ban it.

00:29:30.860 Alright, so we talked about the World Economic Forum, and I can't believe we're going to be

00:29:34.740 back there in less than a month.

00:29:36.660 Talked about your book tour, including meeting the Maori of New Zealand and becoming friends

00:29:41.800 with them.

00:29:42.160 I was so surprised by the things I learned.

00:29:45.600 And you ended the year strong by doing something that was actually dangerous.

00:29:50.560 We have never sent anyone to a war zone before.

00:29:53.200 And the reason for that is, well, I mean, certainly no one else in the company other than you has

00:29:58.260 served in the military.

00:29:59.340 We're not ready for it.

00:30:00.840 It's a dangerous thing.

00:30:01.960 I mean, we like taking political risks, but we've just never been in a position to send...

00:30:06.020 For example, we contemplated sending someone to Ukraine, but we quickly realized that we

00:30:10.180 were not equipped for that, and it was too dangerous, and we didn't want our people hurt.

00:30:13.880 But you went to Israel and literally stood at the border between southern Israel and Gaza,

00:30:20.460 and you managed to secure a bulletproof vest and helmet for you and your cameraman, videographer

00:30:28.920 Benji Chung.

00:30:29.820 Give us a minute on that, and then I want to show a couple of clips.

00:30:33.980 The moment you arrive, an attack drone overhead, and then rockets coming in.

00:30:39.940 But first, set the story up a bit.

00:30:41.820 I mean, you had just gotten home from your book tour, and you're just catching up with

00:30:47.540 the family after being on the road for a while.

00:30:50.160 And then the most atrocious anti-Semitic pogrom since the Holocaust happens, and war is about

00:30:55.560 to start, and you knew you had to go.

00:30:58.340 Tell us about that.

00:31:00.480 Yeah, that's right, Ezra.

00:31:01.720 So we had been traveling on our...

00:31:03.460 Yeah, I think that was right after we came back from New Zealand, and before that, or after

00:31:07.580 that, there was the Israel tour that we did.

00:31:11.040 So there'd been a fair bit of traveling, and we're just starting to settle back in, and

00:31:14.980 we were actually packing a house, starting to prepare for an upcoming move.

00:31:18.920 And yeah, it was Sunday morning.

00:31:22.740 We, like most of the world, we witnessed an absolute horror.

00:31:26.500 In fact, it was on X, where you started seeing the videos coming out of Israel, and I was calling

00:31:33.700 my siblings there, who had no idea, because it was a weekend there.

00:31:36.880 It was Simchat Torah. 0.68

00:31:37.980 It was a Jewish holiday.

00:31:40.560 So people were waking up, and we knew here before, because it was about 6.30, 6.45 a.m.

00:31:46.660 And people hadn't really got their head around what was unfolding there.

00:31:52.280 And in fact, when I was there, I was talking to my brother-in-law, who was saying they were

00:31:55.300 in synagogue at midday, and they still didn't know that war had essentially been declared

00:32:03.000 on Israel, and specifically civilians of Israel.

00:32:05.800 But what I knew just watching it unfold, and we were talking early on, you and I, Ezra, because

00:32:14.760 on a personal level, I really didn't want to go.

00:32:18.160 I just got back home, and we had a plan of the next two months.

00:32:23.340 But I realized really early on, in the first day or so, that whilst the world was being

00:32:32.760 sympathetic, because there was no way you could look at Hamas's GoPro footage, or the

00:32:38.540 videos, or videos from victims that were being filmed and quickly uploaded, there was no way

00:32:46.380 that there was no way to twist it at that time.

00:32:50.280 So everybody was being sympathetic.

00:32:52.280 And it did make my skin crawl at points where they were, you know, flying, you know, lighting

00:32:59.020 up buildings with Israeli flags, not because I thought it's a nice gesture, but I knew that 0.97

00:33:04.720 it was going to be used by detractors of Israel and anti-Semites and Jew haters from all sides,

00:33:11.760 as we've seen, to say, oh, you see, people are sympathetic, over-sympathetic to the Jews.

00:33:17.080 And I knew that the narrative within a few days, you know, I actually thought a couple

00:33:22.140 of weeks, but a few days would change, and Israel would soon be demonized for fighting

00:33:29.140 back, because everybody, you know, feels bad for the Jews after the attacks, after the

00:33:34.740 Holocaust, after, you know, that atrocious attack, that massacre on October 7th. 0.74

00:33:40.460 So I knew the narrative was going to change, and I, as much as I personally didn't want

00:33:44.740 to, I knew I had to, I had to go there.

00:33:47.820 And we chatted about it, and got permission from my brave wife, and Benji was, if you're

00:33:56.400 going, I'm going.

00:33:57.740 And we went there, and, you know, I landed in Israel.

00:34:00.740 It was the, I'm really happy I did, because I think that, and that's what I said to myself,

00:34:05.540 and I think I may have said to you on the phone, is this is one of the most historic

00:34:10.160 moments, you know, for, this is history happening in front of us in a moment that will be the

00:34:17.960 September 11th of Israel, and also so many knock-on effects of what this means for the

00:34:26.380 world, you know, the Middle East, but probably broader than that.

00:34:29.600 And, you know, we landed in Israel, and I couldn't believe it.

00:34:34.560 It was Israel that I didn't recognize.

00:34:37.280 There was nobody outside.

00:34:38.680 Everybody was locked in the homes.

00:34:40.240 The only people outside were military personnel, volunteers, and us.

00:34:44.900 And we were kind of driving these roads and heading to as close as we can.

00:34:51.260 I'll tell you something that happened that never even made the cut, because I think we

00:34:57.500 had a 360 running at the time.

00:34:59.800 But we were trying to see how close to Gaza we could actually get, you know, safely, as

00:35:05.540 close as we could get, so we could see what was kind of unfolding.

00:35:08.640 This was like the first night, Ezra.

00:35:10.020 And we're driving down this one road that leads to Gaza, and it was pitch black.

00:35:17.420 And we're driving in the Tesla, because at the time, Elon Musk had announced free charging

00:35:24.020 for Israel.

00:35:26.840 So we thought, you know, yeah, for Teslas.

00:35:30.860 So I thought that's an amazing thing, you know, also support the idea of people that are

00:35:35.920 willing to help and everything that Elon Musk has done.

00:35:38.460 So we took this Tesla, but I didn't really know 100% how to operate this Tesla.

00:35:43.320 I don't know if I've told you this story, Ezra.

00:35:45.340 We're driving down this pitch black road, and we're starting to think we're getting a bit

00:35:52.140 closer than I think, you know, we're already hundreds of meters from Gaza.

00:35:57.760 And I'm thinking, surely we can't just drive into Gaza. 0.77

00:36:00.800 Like, this is a bit ridiculous.

00:36:02.520 And then out of the darkness, there's the floodlights on us, like blinding, screaming, 0.59

00:36:12.260 guns drawn at us.

00:36:13.800 And they're telling us to turn off the headlights.

00:36:18.160 And I didn't know how to turn off the headlights, Ezra, because it's a Tesla.

00:36:22.620 And I'm telling the soldiers, it's a bloody Tesla.

00:36:26.860 I don't know how to do it.

00:36:28.760 We're friendly.

00:36:29.760 It's okay, we're journalists.

00:36:31.900 And they came to the window.

00:36:33.120 But they were laughing about it now.

00:36:35.120 I've got to say that my heart was pumping at the time.

00:36:38.200 But it was a kind of pressure.

00:36:42.320 And it was so chaotic at the time.

00:36:46.220 Everybody was nervous, including every soldier.

00:36:49.360 Because only where that actually happened, you know, within probably 100 meters of that,

00:36:56.780 24 hours later, they actually found terrorists hiding from the October 7 attack.

00:37:02.720 So this is within that week.

00:37:04.640 So, you know, I understood why they were on edge.

00:37:07.360 And we had a good chat after.

00:37:08.600 And they had a bit of a laugh at me, you know, when we talked about my military service.

00:37:13.380 And, you know, that was something that actually got me a little bit of access just because they had, you know, the guys there had the respect for where I served.

00:37:22.940 I'd actually served in Kfaraza, which was destroyed, one of the Kibbutzim, where they massacred all the soldiers.

00:37:31.280 That was actually my base during my active service.

00:37:34.580 And that was where I was deployed for most of my service.

00:37:36.280 So I knew it quite well.

00:37:39.360 And, you know, they turned us around and told us, don't do that again.

00:37:42.560 You're going to get yourself.

00:37:43.880 And we learned.

00:37:44.740 We learned quite quickly.

00:37:45.620 And we navigated around what was happening on the ground.

00:37:48.040 Like I said, in the beginning, it was really chaotic.

00:37:49.740 The fact that we were able to get so close, even on the day, the first day on the ground where a drone was dropping munitions close to us and then chasing us was incredible.

00:38:05.500 Because, you know, a few days later, no journalists were able to get that close because it was an active war zone.

00:38:12.980 It was just that was where the fighting was happening.

00:38:15.040 And I think it was just so important to capture as the world as as the world's media was help helping shift the narrative to demonize Israel.

00:38:27.480 I think it was just so important for us to be on the ground there to actually capture what was happening in real time while while not forgetting the reason why Israel had to go in and also talking to everyday Israelis.

00:38:38.360 Because something that we saw over the last few years in Israel was this divide, this division in Israel, this political division that we'd never seen, mass protest.

00:38:49.040 And, you know, even within my own family, my mother was going to to protest on one side and my brother was going to protest, counter protest on the other side.

00:39:00.540 That's how divided Israel actually was.

00:39:02.540 And what I noticed in Israel is how people, this was a wake up call.

00:39:08.280 They realized they got, you know, they they got a bit complacent and comfortable in the strength of the army.

00:39:16.480 And they realized that that complacency flipped overnight.

00:39:20.540 The reality changed and people did not know that this massive plan and all those questions, there's still many questions that have to be answered.

00:39:26.880 But people realized that we actually need to come back together as Israelis, no matter what we think about the government, because it's OK to hate your government, but to actually stand and fight for, you know, the existence of the country.

00:39:40.360 So everybody across the board, almost every single person we spoke to was like, the army has to go in.

00:39:48.380 We have to get rid of Hamas. 0.98

00:39:49.480 We have to ensure this never happens.

00:39:50.960 And then we can hold those responsible in whichever way accountable, whether it comes to the prime minister or the head of the army, whatever it is.

00:39:59.600 They all need to be held accountable.

00:40:01.160 We need to get to the bottom of how this happened.

00:40:03.220 And it was just an eye opening trip that I wish I didn't have to do, but I'm glad I did.

00:40:09.680 Yeah.

00:40:10.360 Well, we're glad you did also.

00:40:11.940 And we're glad you and Benji came back safe and sound.

00:40:14.900 I want to show three clips.

00:40:16.020 First of when you arrived, I think it was in steroids.

00:40:18.080 Second, when you had to rush into a bomb shelter during the day.

00:40:22.260 And the third is when you and I were talking live and missiles, rockets started to be launched.

00:40:27.380 I want to show those clips back to back.

00:40:29.340 It was very exciting and a little bit dangerous, too.

00:40:32.460 Take a look.

00:40:33.920 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:40:35.900 I'll talk missiles, missiles, missiles, missiles, missiles, smoke.

00:40:38.920 Okay, what is that?

00:40:40.420 That looks like something that just got hit.

00:40:48.600 We are the ones that are...

00:40:50.920 There's a drone.

00:40:54.580 There's a drone.

00:40:55.460 There's a drone.

00:40:58.820 I see there's rockets flying behind him.

00:41:04.760 Go ahead.

00:41:07.020 Switch over to Avi immediately.

00:41:09.280 I just saw him on the other screen.

00:41:11.960 Rockets fly by.

00:41:12.920 Avi, can you hear me?

00:41:13.800 Yes, I can hear you.

00:41:16.600 And I'm not sure if you guys caught that on the viewers, but we are right here.

00:41:22.400 And it is definitely picking up.

00:41:24.360 Moments ago, we actually had to run for shelter because there's drones, Hamas drones that came here.

00:41:30.660 And as we've experienced, they're actually carrying munitions, which they dropped right next to us at one of the checkpoints in the early days of this conflict.

00:41:39.120 So things are certainly heating up on this border, Ezra.

00:41:43.960 With the expected incursion into Gaza in just a matter of hours, all our sources are telling us that it is happening today.

00:41:52.320 And in fact, Hamas just moments ago released two American hostages, which most people believe here.

00:41:58.580 That is, it's a stalling tactic, hoping the IDF doesn't actually go in tonight.

00:42:04.420 All of them believe that that's not going to work, Ezra.

00:42:08.540 Well, Avi, it's been an amazing year.

00:42:10.240 You started in Davos.

00:42:11.940 You traveled around Australia.

00:42:14.040 We went to New Zealand.

00:42:15.180 You went to London for your book launch as well.

00:42:17.580 And, of course, at the Gaza War with Israel.

00:42:22.460 Thank you for a great year of journalism.

00:42:24.640 Well-deserved Viewer's Choice Award 2024 looking like a busy year also.

00:42:29.360 We're going to start with a bang in Davos.

00:42:30.900 If you had to make one prediction for 2024, what do you think is going to be something?

00:42:37.280 I mean, the world is mad.

00:42:38.700 There's chaos everywhere.

00:42:39.880 I mean, even as we speak, the Houthis in Yemen are, you know, there's a terrorist uprising, a violent uprising everywhere.

00:42:50.860 And I think under Joe Biden, the world is a more dangerous place.

00:42:54.560 What are your predictions for the world?

00:42:55.540 Just give me one prediction for news and maybe journalism that you're going to be following.

00:42:59.940 What are you going to be looking for in 2024?

00:43:03.100 Well, I'm hoping that something counters the craziness that's happened.

00:43:06.940 So I'm hoping for a good outcome in the U.S. elections because that seems to be able to set things back on track.

00:43:15.220 But I'm wiser than to predict, Ezra.

00:43:17.800 I have no idea.

00:43:19.040 I couldn't have predicted this year.

00:43:20.360 So I'm not going to make that mistake for next year.

00:43:22.320 But what I can promise is that whilst our viewers continue to support us, and I'm so grateful that they have, you know, since I joined in September 3rd of 2020, they've never let us down.

00:43:34.340 Even when sometimes I felt like, oh, I don't know if they're going to 100% support the journalism I'm doing here.

00:43:38.960 But absolutely every time they've had our backs, all I can predict is they'll have our backs in ensuring that we're there at the front of the story, covering it, telling our other side of the story that the mainstream media may not or usually refuse to show.

00:43:56.300 Well, that's a really nice way to end.

00:43:58.220 I think you're right.

00:43:58.860 The U.S. election is probably the single most important event in 2024.

00:44:02.920 So much turns on it, not just for America, but for every country in the world, including Canada and Australia.

00:44:07.820 And you're very wise to end with a thank you to our viewers.

00:44:11.280 We are supported by our viewers only.

00:44:14.840 We have been demonetized by YouTube.

00:44:17.040 We take no government funds.

00:44:18.820 So really, it's only through the grace of our donors that we exist.

00:44:22.060 Avi, keep up the great work.

00:44:23.100 I hope they really understand it.

00:44:25.080 I hope they understand it because, you know, I feel like I don't get to say thank you enough to them, especially when, you know, sometimes it can be exciting.

00:44:35.620 You want to get behind a thing, but, you know, often it's, you know, it's at these times you learn who your real supporters and who you can rely on in hard times, in easy times, in good times.

00:44:47.160 It's easy to get behind the most popular dude in the room, but it's during hard times that you get to see how special your supporters are.

00:44:55.660 And I feel so humbled and grateful for each and every one of them.

00:44:59.580 Right on.

00:45:00.060 Well, ditto to that.

00:45:01.100 And thank you to our viewers in Australia and around the world.

00:45:04.600 Well, that's our show for today.

00:45:06.040 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, and around the world, to you at home, good night.

00:45:12.880 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:45:14.720 Thank you.

Rebel News Podcast - January 03, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Looking back： A heart-to-heart with Avi Yemini, 2023 Viewer's Choice Award winner

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