Moshav Netaim in the Gan Raveh Regional Council, south of Rishon Lezion, close to Kibbutz Palmachim.
Here, within the pastoral, was born the veteran radio man Dr. Yitzhak Noy, who for decades became synonymous with presenting expansive broadcasters on every subject in the world. Here he was born and here he lives today, just before they reached the age of heroism.
Noy is one of the great icons of Kol Yisrael and the Israel Broadcasting Authority, and today, despite his age, he continues to broadcast in full force in the corporation here.
The radio buildings were erected and demolished and rebuilt, and Noy continues to broadcast and kick.
He travels in his car every Saturday at 05:10 in the morning to the studio in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem, to present his popular two-hour program "World Saturday," which has been celebrating 20 years.
There, in the serenity of a Sabbath day, he makes a weekly radio tour of the globe, plus chatter of taste and education, all in his quiet, confident voice that has long since become, for his loyal listeners, a real irreplaceable Shabbat pleasure.
The studio is in a neighborhood that has become completely overcrowded over the years.
For those who also lived in the Jewish Quarter in the Old City for a few years in the past, Noy looks at how the character of the city - where he also knew his wife Nurit - changes over the years, and does not like its new shape so much.
"It's an unpleasant city today. Its density is appalling, and as one that travels all over the country, even in Tel Aviv and Haifa, there are no traffic jams like in Jerusalem. ".
When the program ends, after 10:00, ultra-Orthodox pedestrians fill the road, and so the secular ornament finds itself tucked away in his car, driving extremely slowly between them and the police iron fences that are supposed to block the road.
"According to their looks, this is a very uncomfortable situation. Unpleasant and uncomfortable, but it is a short drive, maybe 500 meters, and then I turn right, and hop I am on the road to Tel Aviv."
• • •
As you can see, Noy is not looking for an easy life and is not recording the show one day a week, so that it will be broadcast on Saturday morning, while he can snooze comfortably in his bed.
no no.
He goes to bed on Friday around 2am, because the latest, most up-to-date sections from the world's newspaper headlines need to be taken out.
Two-day newspapers are already cold noodles, and Noy is not one to dig in: "I make a great effort to bring new things, new headlines or articles that neither the news system nor our diaries bring."
for example?
"I was working on an article from Newsweek, which I believe no one has reached, about pro-Nazi elements in the Ukrainian army that NATO is trying to hide or downplay.
There is a story unfolding about what is called the 'black sun', a symbol used by Heinrich Himmler in his fortress.
It is the symbol of all the nationalists around the world, who have made it a sign of extremism.
Ukraine has been banned from using Nazi and communist symbols since 2014, since the Russian invasion of the Crimea, but there is one brigade called the 'lavender' that uses it.
"By the way, the Crimean peninsula was rightly taken by the Russians from Ukraine eight years ago."
Explain.
"Crimea was transferred to Ukraine in 1954 as an administrative act by USSR President Nikita Khrushchev, who himself was Ukrainian.
The whole story of the war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine is very difficult.
Thirty years ago, in 1991, Henry Kissinger, who was Secretary of State at the time, was already retired, and he wrote an article in Foreign Affairs magazine, which burns in my head to this day.
Kissinger said ‘Do not provoke the Russians, do not insult and judge them.
Russia may have disbanded, but they are in the interim.
If we marry them, they will not forget it, and it will be bad.
Roosevelt also understood this in the Yalta Agreement of 1945.
But America, like America, is trying to educate everyone with all the typical behavior and all these bluffs of the West.
"Catherine the Great took Crimea from the Ottoman Turks."
Wait, so you're on Vladimir Putin's side?
"Absolutely not. Putin is no different from Stalin. He may be more accessible and more understanding of the world than Stalin, nor is he a murderer like him, but he is a respectable killer for the current era. Dead in Ukraine.He brought in 150,000 soldiers, and at least 10 percent of them were wounded.
"Putin did not understand where he was going. It is reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln in 1861, who told the 13 states that they could not leave the US alliance unless they received war from it.
Putin the same.
The difference between him and Mikhail Gorbachev at the time was that Gorbachev was not willing to shed blood.
"Margaret Thatcher was the first to realize that a deal could be made with him."
If Putin did not understand where he was going, how do you, as a historian, see the end of this story?
"It turns out that it is impossible to make such wars anymore. Putin will not be able to return home empty-handed, so the situation is very difficult. This is a huge question. I am not convinced that Putin will stay on his feet. There is a situation where one of his generals, .
"I think one of the two, Putin or Vladimir Zalansky, will pay for it with their lives. There is no retreat here. The only one who can get into this story and influence the Russians is the president of China. In eastern Ukraine there is support for Russia, and in western Ukraine they want the West, but I recognize the war "The Ukrainians on both fronts, and also in the East, are demanding that Russia leave."
Putin is talking about the "de-Nazification of Ukraine," a country whose president is Jewish.
"So this talk is illogical and inconceivable. Zalansky came up in a political coup for everything, because the government in Ukraine before him was very corrupt. They were in such despair, that they preferred Clown as prime minister. He himself would have laughed on TV about this corruption. You remember there was a blonde woman there With braids she was prime minister for a very short time? She was arch-corrupt, accountant at the SA200 missile factory and stole a lot of money there.
"Zelsky may be a clown, but it turns out he is also a brave tiger. I think he will pay with his life. In any case, he will be a problem, because if he gives Putin parts of the country he will be blamed, and if he does not give up, they will look for him."
How do you analyze President Biden and the West's behavior toward Putin?
"I hear Donald Trump say that if he were president, Putin would not be an intruder. No one knows if that's true, but Biden's conduct so far is correct. He's trying to stop the madness in a logical way. It's easy to sit in a studio as a journalist and recommend, without being You will not be responsible. He will not send soldiers to a country that is not a member of NATO, when the result is unknown and they do not know where it will go.
"America will eventually understand that liberal democracy is not for everyone. The Ukrainians want it, but except for five months of democracy in 1917, between the fall of the Tsar and the rise of Lenin, Russia has been under dictatorship all its life, and the Russian people, who know nothing else, want power. Of Putin. "
How does Biden relate to Israel compared to Trump?
"Biden does not hate us. He did not move the American embassy from Jerusalem. He is completely by our side but he has problems with his party, with all kinds of hooligans coming in and confusing the mind. Trump is an enigma who did things that were not done, acted irresponsibly, and mostly disrespected Biden. He did not believe he would lose, which is why it was so difficult for him to come to terms with the defeat. "
Can anti-war demonstrations in Russia bring down Putin?
"They are insignificant. In a country of 140 million people there are several thousand dissidents. In today's Russia there are no concentration camps for dissidents. If the Ukrainians continue to oppose, he will flatten them like Grozny in Chechnya, but Putin has put himself in big trouble. He made the mistake of his life. "
There is a debate about Israel's role in this great conflict. They say we can not sit idly by, having to stand on the "right side of history."
"Empty nonsense, who knows what the right side is. Overall Israel is doing the right thing. On the one hand, Israel is the only home we have, and it makes sense that we should take care of the Jews of Ukraine and Russia. We can not provoke Russia either, Our existential danger. "
And yet, our ally is the United States, which requires us to stand on the side of the West.
"The Americans are our allies, but Barack Obama, for example, had a silly speech in Cairo at the beginning of his tenure that did great damage, but he did not harm Israel's strategic interests, and he allowed the Germans to sell us submarines."
In the studio.
"Precisely after I retired, 14 years ago, I won my days of rejuvenation. I am today the oldest man on the radio,"
• • •
We sit on an enclosed porch that overlooks the magnificent garden, which surrounds three acres of courtyard with 24 types of fruit trees.
This is a house of yesteryear with a lot of atmosphere, personality and books, as befits homeowners.
Despite the pastoralism around us, Noy, who places himself politically on the "sane right", sharpens my understanding that his house is planted in a geographical area that is a kind of Israeli Bermuda Triangle - Palmachim Air Force Base, Ness Ziona Biological Institute and Nahal Sorek Nuclear Research Campus.
"The threats against Israel are completely real. All my life I have been a Mapai man, but at some point I went through a process of recognizing that the Arabs were not interested in coming to terms with us, even though some did.
It is true that around us most countries are dismantled, but everything is on condition.
Iran remains, which I do not see in the foreseeable future how the regime there falls.
I promise you that Putin will fall before the ayatollahs. "
So you'm worried?
"Absolutely not. Israel's geopolitical situation is good. The Turkish Erdogan understands that too. I think the government of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid is doing well and doing the job. It is very good that we got rid of Benjamin Netanyahu's office. His rule was already impossible. He did great things. "But then everything started to stink."
Noy, who will celebrate 80 at the end of the month, is considered a huge radio success.
He estimates that in his live broadcast on Saturday, and on all the digital platforms here and there, he has hundreds of thousands of listeners in Israel and abroad. He probably does not exaggerate. , When he was 70, was about to retire involuntarily, due to the disintegration of the Broadcasting Authority, but listener pressure and thousands of letters of protest brought him back to the studio.
Today, he says, he receives a salary of NIS 400 per broadcast, but what is much more important to him is his listeners: "The corporation has a huge advantage over Kol Yisrael. I am no longer harassed and allowed to do what I understand."
He devotes the first hour of "World Sabbath" to historical topics, during which he broadcasts, at the same time, three experts to expand on the topic at hand.
"Expanding on an issue on the radio for an hour - it has no equal in electronic communication," he misleads.
He really likes to bring up, for example, the Syrian army expert, Pesach Malubani, a former member of Unit 8200, who said that the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, realized on the second day of the Yom Kippur War, 1973, that he was about to lose the war. , But unfortunately, the Egyptian forces were more successful than expected on the southern front, so for him it was impossible to stop.
Noy: "Anwar Sadat, the president of Egypt during the war, had his urine on his head. He was given confidence and instructed to go far beyond his missile defense range. What happened was that he was slaughtered by our air force, and the war turned on its head."
• • •
Noy was born, as mentioned, in the house where we sit for an interview.
His father, Avraham Neustadt, was a man of the Second Aliyah, who came from the city of Breslau in Poland and gave birth to Isaac when he was 53. "He was a very strange man, who worked hard and married a woman who was at least 20 years younger than him."
He remembers a wonderful childhood life, and walking barefoot to school.
Despite the period and deprivation of his family, on the verge of poverty, he always felt "happy and rich".
Hunger never knew, for in the yard was a chicken coop with eggs, and also fruit-laden trees of avocado and citrus.
Noy worked on the farm, "but I was not a big farmer," and in the army he served as a combat medic in the 890th Paratroopers Regiment.
When he was released, he completed his matriculation studies and in 1965 was hired by the Voice of Israel, which was then subordinate to the Prime Minister's Office.
His instructors in the announcers' course were Yitzhak Shimoni and Rauma Eldar, the famous announcer from "The Speaking Clock" on the dial phones of yesteryear.
Initially, he was a news announcer and conceived an animal, with a hammer, as was customary at the time, and met his colleagues and instructors Leah Porat, Yaron London, Moshe Hovav and Miriam Herman. Young radio Motti Barkan, David Grossman (later the writer) and Aryeh Eldad (later the Knesset member), the boys from Jerusalem who read suspense plays to teenagers.
Noy remembers a meeting with Aryeh Eldad, then a divisional medical officer, in the Zahalta area, in the midst of the 1982 Lebanon war: "I was a battalion medic in reserve, and the hustle and bustle was celebrated. One in the battalion did not know from his right and left, and suddenly Colonel Arieh Eldad arrives for a surprise check, raging at the company commander, boiling and screaming.
"I, who was a bit of a clown, earlier opened a set of sterile triangles, designed to support crushed limbs, made a kind of pirate hat out of it and put it on my head. Then I went in like that, with all this fuss on my head, and Eldad saw everything. It was clear. "He recognizes me. It could have turned into an explosion, but he turned around without saying a word, got in his car and got out. Everyone looked at me, and to this day no one understands how I got out of this thing unharmed."
The radio days in Jerusalem in the mid-1960s were a big party for all the beautiful and right people in the pre-television young media industry, which is coming soon.
Nurit was a social work student, specializing in the rehabilitation of the blind, and one day she heard Yitzhak from a radio announcer, and asked her friend who worked on the radio who it was.
The company responded with a cancellation motion: "Just some moshavnik."
A week later, on the birthday of one of Nurit's friends, Noy entered the room, and the friend said to Nurit: "This is the man with the voice from the radio."
After three months we got married.
Nurit recalls: "I did not want a ceremony at all, but my father was a well-known industrialist and it is impossible without anything, so they held a wedding for 300 people in Gan Oranim in Tel Aviv."
Transmitting in his youth.
"I would occasionally get reprimands, but not beyond that,"
Noy earned a master's degree in history from the Hebrew University, and when their son Roi, 49, who is currently involved in robotics development, was 4, they traveled to Brandeis University, near Boston, to complete Noy's doctorate on power struggles in the Jewish community in the United States.
"My bottom line from my doctorate was that American Jews did nothing for their Jewish brethren in the Holocaust. They could have exerted political pressure on President Roosevelt, but blindly adored this great liar."
During their seven years in America, Noy used to send articles to the radio show of Yitzhak Roa, who died in 2017, and used the services of his cousin, who was a broadcaster on CBS and provided a studio where he recorded stories about America for free - for children's programs in Israel.
Later, his stories were compiled into a children's book in which the narrative: I am a Jew, and every Jew should strive to live in Israel.
• • •
Despite its advanced age, slowness and fatigue, the adrenaline is still flowing in Noy's arteries, and when the broadcast begins it becomes sharp and focused.
He is still considered a highly sought after lecturer on all popular stages and chairs.
Before the outbreak of the corona plague he had eight to nine lectures a month.
He also goes to lectures in his car at 05:00, so as not to get entangled in traffic jams, and if he arrives three hours early - he stays to nap in the car or finds a cafe, where he goes over the material again.
What was the biggest personal achievement you had in your career?
"I do not know to tell you what the achievement is, but let me tell you about the nonsense: in 1969 the eagle landed - I hear in English the first landing broadcast on the moon. I could have been the first to break into the country and announce to the people of Israel About that in the news.
"I'm kind of heartbroken about it to this day, but on second thought - if I had done it, it's clear to me they would have thrown me off the radio.
"Indeed, I recently had a very exciting, perhaps unprecedented, live broadcast: I interviewed Dan Tolkowski and Danny Shapira, two celebrated Air Force pilots, on Saturday. One is 103, and the other is 97. It's unbelievable how great and sharp they were. "Think, hold two of these for an hour live. Do not believe."
What do you think is the big difference between the broadcasts then, in the beginning, and today's radio broadcasts?
"When I started, the radio was subordinate to the Prime Minister's Office, even before the Broadcasting Authority was established, and that's how it looked. There were officials who listened to the recording of programs, and would say something like 'We listened, but not sure we'll approve it for broadcast. . 'I was terribly nervous about them, because who are they at all to determine.
"Nakdimon Rogel, who was a great editor, once prepared a special broadcast under the direction of Haim Yavin, which dealt with the case of the death of Yosef Lishansky. It was a very sensitive issue then because it was related to the Nili underground and the Turks, Zvi, who was an amazing woman but also very difficult, vetoed and there was no broadcast.
That's how it worked then. "
Who do you enjoy hearing today?
"Today I rarely hear, not because I underestimate the presenters, but because I mostly listen to music - but I really like Aryeh Golan. He is excellent. Once upon a time, the editors and presenters of the news diaries had a sense of superiority over the broadcasters themselves. Yoram Arbel, who I thought was the great broadcaster, I never understood that, but there were great broadcasts.
"For example, Moshe Hovav and his sister Rauma Eldar, who was in charge of the newsroom. I as a young man did a lot of nonsense, but they never hurt me. I would get reprimands, but not beyond that. Only when Moshe Hovav died did I learn that he fought horrific battles in the area Notre Dame and the Mandelbaum Gate in Jerusalem, and he managed to survive. "
• • •
He has lived with Nurit for 37 years in their home in Netaim.
Their land is rich and varied in five or six types of citrus, along with avocado, pecan, pomegranate, guava, macadamia and carob trees.
There is even a jujube tree that was planted when the house was built, ages ago, is all rotten and dead - and only one branch remains alive and still bears lots of great fruit.
Nurit harvests and strengthens the plot of olive trees, and during the harvest season the crop is moved to the oil mill in the nearby Moshav Beit Hanan.
In a good season, an ornamental farm produces about 1,000 liters of olive oil, and half of that in less good seasons.
In one corner of the yard stands the dog kennel of the dog, so named, and of Pizza, who died two months ago at the age of 12. Since her death a dog is no longer willing to sleep alone, even though there is heating and a radio receiver open on here Network B.
Around them are also three Siamese cats.
At its peak there were nine cats here, and in one difficult summer, not long ago, five of them were bitten to death by vipers.
Noy's study is a place to be envied: hundreds, maybe thousands of books, and CDs of classical music and the atmosphere of a heavyweight radio warrior.
During the Corona period, Noy wrote his 18th book, The Husky, on Ice Prairie Dogs.
Prominent among the children's books he has written over the years is "Black Iris Hill," which was published in 1984 and tells of the relationship that develops between youth from the old settlement and the children of the transit camp, which was built and over the years became the boys' neighborhood.
"My sister was one of the first in the community to marry a Jerusalemite guy of Iraqi descent. They had four children and then grandchildren, and they lived great and never divorced, until his death. The issue of ethnicity is good material for politicians, but it is being erased. "In the transit camp next to us, the Jews immigrated from Morocco, and today we are already a long evening. Most of the marriages are already involved."
In your programs you often deal with science and technology, birth and population density. Israel is the most densely populated country in the West. What are you watching us for?
"In 25 years, 15 million people will live here. Today we are close to 10 million, more than Austria and Sweden. This is a dizzying rate of population growth, and it may be that Israel's only way to function would be to become a city-state like Singapore. It will force us to immigrate. We are sitting in our nice ground house, but how long can it last? Maybe for the rest of my life. But it will not help anything: Tel Aviv will develop and grow greatly. There will no longer be this luxury of single-family homes. Urbanity on the floors, and agriculture itself will have to change and be completely technological and scientific. "
With the globe, in his study.
"I'm happy about being left on the radio, but even if they decide to end up with me, they will also be right," Photo: Eric Sultan
How do you see Israel in its 100th year?
"It's hard to know. I hope the hatred will fade. It will be a Jewish state in the meantime, because even today there are no big differences in birth rates between Jews and non-Jews, so the Jewish advantage will be preserved. The settlement will be mostly urban. It will not be Israel of my childhood."
You obviously say that with regret.
"I say this with sorrow and acceptance. There is nothing to do, and it would not be so nice to live like this, and it really is an end to the spaces and open spaces of my childhood."
You were born six years before the establishment of the state and you have seen all the prime ministers here. Who do you think is the greatest of them all?
"I read a lot about everyone, and I'm convinced that the first of them, David Ben-Gurion, was the greatest of them all. He fought with terrible forces and maneuvered with genius. The pajama test, the same conduct of a leader even in his moments of slackness. Ben-Gurion stood by it with great respect.
"I do not think I should talk about myself in terms of my great achievements. I am not a prime minister or a politician, but the most surprising thing for me is that in my professional life I managed at 80 to enter the hearts of so many people, my generation, who want to hear what I say. to them.
"It's a very big satisfaction for me, which compensates for less good things. I submitted a lot of children's programs, whose success was limited overall, but precisely after I retired, 14 years ago, at age 66, I won my days of rejuvenation. Today I am the oldest man on the radio, In my opinion, Maria Golan is two years older. "
And how much more would you like to continue?
"Oh, this is a question I do not know how to answer. My contract expires this June. I am happy about the fact that they are leaving me, but even if they decide to end with me, they will also be right. Young people should be given a place. Old people should go home."
And health?
"Like an 80-year-old. Knee pain and things like that, but I still drive. After all, I will no longer be flying to the upcoming Olympics to compete."
aviad65@gmail.com
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us
