Good morning, Peeves, and welcome to woke f Daily with me your girl, Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker, Folks. For the last couple of days, there has been a pause in the murder bombing of the people of Gaza, and I know that for all of you listening, for many of you listening who stay tapped completely into the news, this has been heartbreaking. It has been traumatizing, and I
don't use that word lightly. I posted a video this week talking about the trauma scrolling that is happening on social media, where you cannot avoid the pictures, the videos, the death, the destruction that weapons of war do to human bodies, that they do to communities, that they do
to buildings. And this administration wants to receive credit for ushering in a pause while at the same time, at the same time standing unequivocally with Israel and not holding the State of Israel accountable to the same international laws that other nation states that are recognized by the UN and other bodies abide by. They continue to use our tax dollars, billions of dollars to fund the trauma that
we are scrolling through. I have read articles over the last couple of days talking about the fact that if you care about the Palestinian people, then you won't want to cease fire because all of the ceasefire does is allow Hamas to build strength and radicalize more people. And I'm thinking to myself, what do you think contributes to the radicalization of people? Honestly, right, let's just take out
this current situation. What the fuck do you think helps people become radicalized when there is nothing left to fucking lose, when everything they know right has been destroyed, has been taken from them, their children, their home, their livelihood, their hopefulness, and they see no path forward. Now, this is very different than the radicalization that we see in this country by white supremacists and white domestic terrorists that continue to
grow in this country. That radicalization is different than what I am talking about because their radicalization comes from this idea that something is being taken from them, and in order for things not to be taken, then they need to destroy the very communities that they feel are taking from them. But we cannot believe that the continuation of more than fourteen thousand people being murdered, bombed, crushed to
death is going to be a way to peace. And there are reports that continue to float around about this what they are referring to as a East Europe economic Middle India Middle East Europe economic corridor that links railways and ports and all of these things. But at the end of the day, is once again about who controls the dwindling resource of oil. And there's been reports about oil reserves that may in fact be in Gaza. So once again we start to think about is this war
about liberation extermination? Is it about once again the one percent? Is it about greedy nations and their ability to extract from vulnerable poor places and nations? These are real questions that people are asking. These are real concerns that continue to grow, and this administration isn't answering those questions, the concerns, the fear, the anxiety that people have, and that is why eleven and a half months out from the twenty twenty four election, I am hearing people say that they
are are not going to vote for Biden. Why do I continue to bring that up? Because it is fucking concerning, and I don't want us to wait until August or September or October of twenty twenty four and go, oh shit, when there is absolutely no time for a course correction. I posted this on social media and I had a bunch of people say, this administration doesn't need a course correction. Inflation is coming down, job numbers are good, blah blah.
Are people actually feeling those things or is it media manipulation? And just because things look good on paper, does it actually feel good in real life? Because to ignore the issues and the emotions that people are having, we do so to the peril of our democracy and global stability. We saw what happened during the first Trump administration when he realigned with our enemies and backed out of deals and agreements that we were at the forefront of creating,
and vacuum was left. And I would argue that a lot of the instability that we are seeing now is because of that. So what do you think happens if a Donald Trump and the Republicans take control again, Because they are never going to give it back up. It isn't just about what happens in this country. It will be about what happens globally. You think that we're close to World War three, now just wait because that time
around will be on the wrong side. So I think that it is incredibly important for us to continue to get a fuller picture of what is happening, which is why I'm very happy to welcome back my friend, independent journalist, former Today Show journalist Danielle Campemore back onto the show, who in this episode will share what she observed, what she has learned when she was on the ground in Israel, just hundreds of feet away from Gaza, to get the
stories that we need to hear and see. And so coming up next is that the very important conversation with Danielle Kampomore as we continue to try and make sense
of what just seems absolutely insane, folks. I am always so grateful when I have the opportunity to bring my friend freelance journalists and report our former reporter for The Today Show dot Com, Danielle Kampomore, onto WOKF Daily, and most recently, Danielle was on the ground in Israel and palestein reporting on the conditions there, speaking with women, speaking with people on the ground about what was happening, how
they were feeling. Your recent piece Danielle is now up at Time Magazine and it's entitled their Kibbutz was attacked on October seventh. They're determined to rebuild. Danielle, talk to us just first. I really want to know what compelled you, right as we saw war begin, as we saw the attacks happen on October seventh, and now we have witnessed the devastation thereafter, what compelled you to leave the safety of your home to go and report on the ground.
Right. That's a really great question, and I think it really boils down to the stories that I knew were present on the ground and that needed to be told. You know, when the war broke out in Ukraine after Russia invaded, and I covered that international crisis, it was the stories that were really, to me the most compelling
about survival, about hardship, about endurance, about vulnerability. And it just goes to show that politics as personal and vice versa, and there are the real life stories that are happening as a result of people's governments, the results of other
people's governments, of our government governments and other countries. And we can get really bogged down with the geopolitical discussions and what this means both internationally and domestically, and overlook the stories of real humans who just like us, are just trying to put food on the table, take their kids to school, enjoy life, you know, be in love, and be in community with friends and neighbors. And so that was really what compelled me to go, is those stories.
It's so easy, especially leading up to an election, to get bogged down by the politics and ignore the fact that that this is, this is affecting every aspect of these people's lives. Who are who are there to pick up the pieces and try to move forward.
So tell us, you know, to take us on your journey. You know, you're you're leaving your own family, your husband, your two kids behind, and you get on a plane and you're heading to essentially the other side of the world to report talk to us about getting onto the ground and you know, and where you were headed.
Right, So it was pretty overwhelming. The process of just even boarding the plane, given security measures, you know, it was pretty difficult in terms of, you know, why are you going to Israel, what are you going to do there, et cetera. So even just the security process, I perhaps I naively had assumed that the flight would be empty. It was not. It was filled with people going back home, which I thought, really from even the beginning, before I
even gotten Israel was really incredible. And then similar to honestly, when I was preparing to go to Ukraine overseas and then rob Elementary happened, and instead I was told, you're not going to go to Ukraine, You're going to go to rob. On the flight, the shooting in Maine happened, and I found myself once again as a member of the press in the United States, covering a war overseas and simultaneously writing about weapons of war and the devastation
that they cause here at home. So even that was just getting off the plane and having that shooting happening at home and then preparing to go into a war zone. I stayed in Tel Aviv, got to also visit the Kaboots Kafarazah, which is less than two miles away from Gaza. That's the closest that I was allowed to get without an IDF escort. And in order for journalists to be escorted into Gaza with IDF you have to turn over your footage, which was not something that I was willing
to do as an independent journalist. So that's the closest that I could get to Gaza was a little less than too miles away. And then just spoke to family members of those who were kidnapped, those who were killed, those who were managed to survive either a Kibbutz raid or the raid at the rave at the concert, and simultaneously seeing how strange it is for people to continue
living at a time of war. Sirens would go off three times every single day, and every single day everyone would stop what they're doing, run to the nearest shelter, wait for it to be over, and then continue on with their life. And that was a real big culture shock for me, of just it was really part of everyday life at that point of sirens and bombings going off. Yeah, it was there for a week.
You know, Danielle. I said this the other day to another friend of mine, where I said, you know, it never occurred to me when I was learning about the Black Plague that people were still going to work, right, Like, it never occurred like as you're you know, you're in school and you're learning about these points in history, and you never really think about, well, what is actually happening
with the people. You have this idea of war, you have this idea of pandemic of plague, and so when you just explain the fact that these sirens are going off three times a day. How are people, the people that you're talking to, how are they even maintaining any semblance of normalcy? Like the sirens go off and then it's all clear and they can go about their day, Like what does it even mean to go about your day in a time of war?
Right? I think that is one of the things that's most fascinating, And it's very difficult to quantify for those who've never been in that kind of situation or in that kind of environment, but you really see that people aren't a monolith, and the varying ways in which people can respond to traumatic events and continued dramatic events. So, for example, the survivors of Kafaraza are temporarily relocated and
they're staying at a hotel. Daily life does look different for them, and then at the same time it doesn't. They made a makeshift kindergarten, The kids are going to school and playing. Elderly folks are coming together going back to rebuild the kaboots. A lot of people are volunteering, and so there's still joy. You see people still playing with their children, holding their newborns, talking with friends. They're on social media there's joy and then a siren goes off.
And it was very interesting to be in a safe room with a group of survivors and then see some people looked really angry, some people looked extremely scared, some people looked completely unfazed, some people were able to joke,
some people look completely disassociated. So I saw this group of people who'd gone through a very similar experience, but the varying ways in which it's impacting them and how they're trying to manage, and so it really is this kind of weird suspension of time where you can see some people are still incredibly scared, some people the fear has been overtaken by anger and they're really really, really angry. Some people are just completely trying to disassociate and put
one foot in front of the other. And so it depends on really who you're talking to. But one thing is for sure is that everyone that I spoke to, even if they have a different opinion of what should come next, agree that something must come next. There is no waiting, there's no pausing. It's one foot in front of the other. We have to keep moving forward. And
you see that every day. And like I said, friends will be sitting at a cafe, they hear a siren, run into the nearest restaurant to go into their safe room, come back out, finish their coffees, and they're laughing two minutes later. I mean, it's truly unbelievable, the resiliency of humanity, and it's unfortunate that we only really see that or acknowledge that resilience in moments like this.
You know, I want to speak to you too about being two miles away from Gaza. Since you have returned and since the beginning of the bombings, over ten thousand people have been killed, more than half of them being children in Gaza, and I want to get your thoughts or from what you heard from people in and around that area about their feelings about Netanyahu and their government's response to the trauma and the tragedy that occurred on October seventh.
Yes, absolutely, that's a great question. Every single person that I spoke to was very quick to want to talk politics, which I also thought was very interesting. Think again, there in Israel, people are very very acutely aware, especially after October seventh, how much their politics and government failed them and how that has impacted their lives. Now, no one that I spoke to, like snet Yahoo, They all blame him.
There was a lot of discussion about him perhaps prolonging the war in order to maintain power, because he continues to say, we'll look at you know, how this happened, We'll have investigations, but when the war is over, which really kind of gave people a sense of perhaps that doesn't give him a whole lot of incentive to end the war sooner. Everyone was very, very very upset, worried and concerned about those that were kidnapped and how little
was being done to get them back. You know, one mom in particular, she survived the attack with her three children and her husband. Her best friend's husband died protecting their home. You know. She said, look, we've lived to Gaza. We want our Palestinian neighbors to be happy, to have joyful lives. It wasn't uncommon for Palestinians to come from Gaza into the Kiboots to work and then go back because they would get paid more in a day than they would in a week in Gaza, So it was
not uncommon, you know. So she was very forthread about how we just want to live in peace. We want peace for everybody you know, calls for a ceasefire and specifically to get the kidnapped out, And so really there's a lot of distrust with the government. They don't think that the government is able to keep them safe, and a lot of anger at nan Yahoo for not taking responsibility for at least not seeing that this attack was going to happen.
I think about this a lot, and I think about the way in which corporate media, mainstream media has given Americans in particular, an incredibly sanitized, in one side view of conflict in general, but particularly as it pertains to Israel and Palestine, where billions of our tax dollars go every single year since the creation of Israel. And I wonder, you know, just as if we all in the United States are not maga right, are not in support of
Donald Trump. I think that what has been shown about Israel is as if everyone is in support of net Yahoo and is in support of these raids. And so Danielle being now, you know, a freelance journalist, what do you think about one the amount of journalists that have been killed right in their coverage, whose homes have been bombed,
whose families have been killed. There have been I think over fifty at this point, you know, or more, what do you think about the portrayal of people inside of Israelis and our understanding of the depth and dimension of political thought, frustration, anger, and grief that we don't see.
Right, I mean, you nailed it on the head, as there's a depth there, and there's so much substance that I think mainstream media is just quite frankly afraid of.
And that's something that you know, you asked at the beginning what compelled me to go, and it's the stories, and it's also you know, part of that, this kind of fear I think that I saw play out in real time while I was still you know, formally employed, of just this is a complicated issue, and that complicated issue deters editors from assigning certain things or for quite frankly,
us doing our job. If an issue is complicated, that means that we then have the obligation to inform the public of this complicated, nuanced thing, war certainly being one of them, and in this situation, that fear is very palpable, I think in newsrooms across the country, in particularly mainstream ones, of just not wanting to step into this complicated thing and being called out or being labeled biased, as if that's not going to happen in this political climate anyways.
And so no, I think that there is this very singular viewpoint. And that's why again I think it's so important to really get on the ground and actually speak to people, because then you will learn that this is not everyone. I mean, Israel is certainly united as a group of people after the October seventh attack, but that certainly doesn't mean that they were united behind their government.
And I think that that is a very big difference, and and that's at least what I heard on the ground is that they are very skeptical, skeptical of their
government and of what has transpired since October seventh. And so again, if we got past our fear here of of appearing biased, of appearing like we have an ulterior motive as journalists, and instead just reporting on complicated situations and nuanced ways, with nuanced and perhaps a more realistic group of voices, then I think our public would be better for it. And we've seen how polarizing it can be when when we fail to do our jobs and provide that context.
You know, coming back now after having been there, for a week. What was the adjustment like in in coming back for you, and and how how does and on the ground journalists take care of your own mental health after you've seen and heard and reported on something so devastating.
Coming back was really difficult. I didn't want to get on the plane, you know, when I went. One of the things that I had a personal security that had to go with me, and one of the things that I had to download was in Israel, they have a warning system on your phone for when the Iron Dome is initiated, basically just shows you where the sirens are
before they show up. It's like a couple of seconds before I can't bring myself to take it off, so I'm still getting notifications of when they're being hit in Tel Aviv or in parts of Israel. It was really challenging to dive back into the discourse here when, like you said, that nuance and that depth, people just aren't getting it. It's been really challenging to hear certain opinions that I think are not born out of fact or an actual knowledge of the region or the people, and
that's been really challenging. It's been challenging to continue to check in on the people that I spoke to. You know, I want to go back. So that's been hard. In terms of mental health, I think so much of it is this talking about it. I think what would do my mental health the worst is feeling like I didn't do my job, I didn't tell those stories that if I was if I took the time to be there, came home and didn't do what I promised I would do,
then that would be devastating. So talking about it, writing about it, but then also spending time with my kids, turning off the news at least at night, and you know, trying to remember those moments of joy that we talked about.
And I know that those moments of joy are happening in Gaza as well, And I'm hoping to be able to go back and actually go into Gaza again under those what conditions, I don't know, And I know for a fact that there's so many stories in Gaza that aren't being told, not just ones of deep sorrow and loss and trauma, but of joy. And I think, you know, both Israelis and Polsinians deserve to see their people in the media also being joyful and celebrating their lives, not
just in the wreckage of war. So I think about a lot about that, about seeing, you know, a toddler who had survived a horrific attack playing with his dad and mom, friends hugging each other and just supporting each other. You know, I think about that and that that helps.
Too, you know, Danielle, I am always in awe of the work that you do and the writing that you do and the coverage, and you know, I thought like it sent you a quick note when I saw that you were leaving, and you know, said like, you know, I'm I'll pray for you and you know, and send positive energy because I was really you know, as I'm
certain so many people who follow you were. But I recognize in your reporting and your coverage always that you bring us to stories that we need, and you do it at you know, it is it is a public service that that you are doing. And I just want to appreciate you and and you know, and uplift you for that and tell folks you know. Danielle's story is up now at time dot com. Their kibbutz was attacked
on October seventh, their I'm in too rebuild. I encourage everyone to read it, to share it to post it. It's this kind of reporting and work that we need to really uplift, and so thank you. Thank you for you know, for saying I'm back and I can come on this show, and I'm so glad that we were able to make it happen. I genuinely appreciate you so much.
No, of course, thank you as always and for always uplifting these stories. The world needs clearly more Danielle's in it.
So I yes appreciate you. That is it for me today, Dear friends on Woke a f as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.