Ofira Assig/Walla system!
If you happened upon Levinson alive this weekend walking around with his chest puffed out with pride, don't be too quick to judge: Levinson starred almost simultaneously on the cover of the Haaretz supplement, with what at least appeared to be the biggest journalistic investigation of the year, and at the same time got "almost prime time" instead The most popular, the one at the other end of the media spectrum: the chair next to Ofira Assig in the program called "Ofira and Barko" until last summer.
Between these two poles, he also maintains an attractive profile on Twitter, and in general it seems that the last time is only doing him good.
On the face of it, his connection to Ofira Esseig is obvious: they both have "on wheels" here, both came from districts far from the media mainstream: she from the position of a cable broadcaster in Wesermil (the old Hapoel Be'er Sheva stadium), to a senior position in the world of sports media - and from there on to the position extraordinary effect.
He - from the world of yeshiva to the center of Tel Aviv and from a Torah tent to social networks.
Just like his familiar partner for the TV show, it doesn't come easily to him either.
Like a soccer coach who worked his way up from coaching a youth team to the Israeli national team, he didn't start by being a panelist on the morning shows - TV's Devil's Island, only to upgrade himself to the afternoon current affairs programs, and under the auspices of the never-ending broadcast hours of those in the era of the war in Gaza, to Light -Night, from there he jumped to the next station, a program that touches prime time, just before the people of Israel sit down to their Shabbat table.
Ofira and Levinson.
Although this is his year, Haim Levinson is unable to fill the seat next to Essig/screenshot, Keshet 12
finger in the eye
Despite the difference between Essig's and Levinson's personal paths, it seems that something unites them: an "underdog" spark that is evident in almost every sentence of theirs.
She shows a desire to make up for every time some white, privileged man tried to silence her - because she is a woman, because she is Eastern, because she came from football.
Almost every sentence of hers ends with the desire to shut someone else up.
Even those whose style of Ofira Essig is not their cup of tea cannot deny her unapologetic ardor, nouveau riche - not only of money but also of status, which is self-aware and sees no one behind.
She does not have a low volume: her clothes always include a prominent logo of a luxury brand, her private life is conducted online: from a fight with her partner to a hug for a girl.
She Opira Essig and you don't - and if you have a problem with that, go look for your friends in the IDF.
With Levinson, this need is more repressed, so that it only erupts when he presents a contrary position towards the camp that is supposedly "his", as compensation for his desire to sit with the accepted children of the class in the back seat of the bus, on the way to the annual trip. Most of the time he controls this impulse, but sometimes it erupts, as for example in a particularly venomous criticism column (over the pages of his newspaper) towards the retired secretary general of the kibbutz movement, a representative of the previous generation of "The beauty of the crystal and the title".
A bit like he hates himself, Netanyahu, too, has a love-hate relationship with the elite: he wants to be a part of it and at the same time to destroy it to the core.
On paper, a televised partnership with Ofira Essig suits him very well as a man of contrasts even in his outward appearance: not only the yeshiva boy who became a football fan (Hapoel Jerusalem), Levinson even manages to maintain a somewhat round figure, which is full of affection for restaurants and good food, at the same time as the ability to run marathons - like Those greedy CEOs who are disgusted by gluten and only eat organic vegetables.
An offer not to be missed
Advance to the next generation of Tami4 water bars: smaller, smarter
To the full article
The mythical ex.
I will never forgive Chaim Levinson for making me miss Eyal Berkovich/screenshot, Keshet 12
The mythical ex
All this long introduction is not here, but only to explain why I sat down for almost two whole hours (and not just two hours, but the most precious hours in my weekly schedule, the ones in which I transfer the contents of the kitchen, through the oven and stove to the dining table, in preparation for the family meal) in front of The screen.
But wait, you can't mention the current partner without talking about the ex in the room, that is Eyal Berkovic.
If with Essig everything is extroverted and pretentious, every cheerfulness turns into "I'm dying" and every little exaggeration into "the peak of the highs", then with the partner Her previous one, known as "Barko", it seems that no filters were applied at all: everything that is on his heart goes directly to his mouth, without involving his head in the matter.
This caused quite a few scandals, but at least in my opinion created a character that, despite being flat, was also interesting: he was One can call the senior Likud officials a "crime family", but while Levinson's readers, RLABMs to the core, stand and applaud him, define the Arab Knesset members as "supporters of terror".
It may be unbearable in life, but on television it was "Ace" who provided "Ophira and Barco" with some of its most memorable moments.
One of them is even related to the main interviewee in the premiere broadcast of "Ofira and Levinson".
Ronen Tzur
The most interesting interview in the program, but not thanks to the two interviewers/Reuven Castro
The fire that didn't start
Levinson started off weak - not stammering but not decisive either.
Maybe it's because it's hard to stand out next to Ophira and maybe it's because he still needs to get used to the format.
"We both love fires," he announced at the start of the broadcast, but throughout the interview with Eyal Waldman he was unable to get his interviewee to deliver the goods - leaving the viewers with the surprising and stately line Waldman chose to take.
His attempt to drag Tahunya Rubel into a conversation about "the end of the modeling era" also collapsed live: Habibi, even though the partnership with Ofira would have given you the title of "low and good" in the popular section of your newspaper, the "Medrog Committee" - here it does not collapse on the subject. From model to influencer, the representation of the female body in the age of social networks".
Here we are looking for a punch that can be echoed later on Instagram.
You didn't bring one?
Go home.
Or as Ofira would have said: "Next".
Even the interview with Ronen Tzur (interesting in itself) was almost free of interference by the two: the polished Tzur was able to silence Ofira with flattery, but Levinson actually listened to him - a wonderful quality between two people, but only on the condition that neither of them is interviewed on television and moreover in a program whose role is to provoke provocation .
For a moment, he disguises himself as a journalist, interrogating Tzur about the statement attributed to Sarah Netanyahu that the freed hostages should have been grateful.
It's just that Tzur does not provide conclusive proof that the words were indeed said by the prime minister's wife - and Levinson faded away for the rest of the interview, emerging from the grayness only for a brief moment when he explained why Ofira would not go into politics: "There is no money there: what a member of the Knesset earns in a month, she makes in a day." , perhaps the most "Winsony" sentence (and unfortunately also the only one) in all those two tedious hours.
Miri Regev presents: "Transportation Justice".
Is there a connection between the cancer that is broadcast on Besket and the flattering interview?
Levinson the journalist might have thought it was a subject for investigation/the Ministry of Transport
Regev after Regev
Except that all of this would have been forgiven him but the two of them had delivered the goods in front of the main interviewee of the evening: Miri Regev - or as she was presented at length and with great respect (I swear to you that I'm not exaggerating, that's how it was):
a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, the minister of transportation and a member of the political cabinet security
.
I have no problem with respecting the interviewee, nor with this list of titles (they are all correct), but on days when the most broadcast commercial on the host channel is actually a primetime broadcast for the Minister of Transportation ("Miri is always right", sorry: "Neely is always right", but the reference is clear for every viewer), it is hard not to connect the two.
Maybe it's just my criminal mind, but Levinson, the journalist from "Haaretz" and not Ofira's partner, would surely have asked the same question.
I would also forgive Levinson and Assig for that, the problem is that the interview was from heaven.
Regev agreed that all issues of responsibility for the events of October 7, including at the political level (without naming the specific names of course) should be investigated, Levinson for his part agreed with her that her job, among other things, was to ask difficult questions of the Chief of Staff - and everyone was ready to retire to the Shabbat table, After praising Regev's travels around the world and her price reform in public transportation.
But then the mythical ex appeared. Not on the screen but in my imagination, who didn't need an archive to recall from memory the last time Regev was a guest in this studio, just before October 7. Barko turned her on So much so, that on a live broadcast he swore to him that after saying that the leaders of the Likud are like a crime family, he "will not coach the Israel national team as long as the Likud is in power.
" We will do nothing to you, they all want to talk to you." You will say that it is also possible otherwise, surely during the grace hour of Shabbat evening, which is supposed to be the calmest of the week? Certainly, but these street fights are the only reason for the existence of such a program, otherwise - how is it different from the rest of the Barbara programs -Current affairs that flood the screen on any given day from the morning hours until the night transmitter?
Paraphrasing the sentence attributed to Churchill about Clement Attlee, the Prime Minister of Great Britain: the program is over, the spotlights are off - and from the empty chair next to Ofira Essig, Haim Levinson got up and removed the microphone from the flap The hollow jacket.
More on the same topic:
Ofira Assig
Haim Levinson
Eyal Berkovich
Miri Regev