Speaker 1: Good morning, Peeves, and welcome to woke f Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl, Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker, Folks.
Speaker 1: For the last couple of days, there has been a
Speaker 1: pause in the murder bombing of the people of Gaza,
Speaker 1: and I know that for all of you listening, for
Speaker 1: many of you listening who stay tapped completely into the news,
Speaker 1: this has been heartbreaking. It has been traumatizing, and I
Speaker 1: don't use that word lightly. I posted a video this
Speaker 1: week talking about the trauma scrolling that is happening on
Speaker 1: social media, where you cannot avoid the pictures, the videos,
Speaker 1: the death, the destruction that weapons of war do to
Speaker 1: human bodies, that they do to communities, that they do
Speaker 1: to buildings. And this administration wants to receive credit for
Speaker 1: ushering in a pause while at the same time, at
Speaker 1: the same time standing unequivocally with Israel and not holding
Speaker 1: the State of Israel accountable to the same international laws
Speaker 1: that other nation states that are recognized by the UN
Speaker 1: and other bodies abide by. They continue to use our
Speaker 1: tax dollars, billions of dollars to fund the trauma that
Speaker 1: we are scrolling through. I have read articles over the
Speaker 1: last couple of days talking about the fact that if
Speaker 1: you care about the Palestinian people, then you won't want
Speaker 1: to cease fire because all of the ceasefire does is
Speaker 1: allow Hamas to build strength and radicalize more people. And
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, what do you think contributes to
Speaker 1: the radicalization of people? Honestly, right, let's just take out
Speaker 1: this current situation. What the fuck do you think helps
Speaker 1: people become radicalized when there is nothing left to fucking lose,
Speaker 1: when everything they know right has been destroyed, has been
Speaker 1: taken from them, their children, their home, their livelihood, their hopefulness,
Speaker 1: and they see no path forward. Now, this is very
Speaker 1: different than the radicalization that we see in this country
Speaker 1: by white supremacists and white domestic terrorists that continue to
Speaker 1: grow in this country. That radicalization is different than what
Speaker 1: I am talking about because their radicalization comes from this
Speaker 1: idea that something is being taken from them, and in
Speaker 1: order for things not to be taken, then they need
Speaker 1: to destroy the very communities that they feel are taking
Speaker 1: from them. But we cannot believe that the continuation of
Speaker 1: more than fourteen thousand people being murdered, bombed, crushed to
Speaker 1: death is going to be a way to peace. And
Speaker 1: there are reports that continue to float around about this
Speaker 1: what they are referring to as a East Europe economic
Speaker 1: Middle India Middle East Europe economic corridor that links railways
Speaker 1: and ports and all of these things. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, is once again about who controls
Speaker 1: the dwindling resource of oil. And there's been reports about
Speaker 1: oil reserves that may in fact be in Gaza. So
Speaker 1: once again we start to think about is this war
Speaker 1: about liberation extermination? Is it about once again the one percent?
Speaker 1: Is it about greedy nations and their ability to extract
Speaker 1: from vulnerable poor places and nations? These are real questions
Speaker 1: that people are asking. These are real concerns that continue
Speaker 1: to grow, and this administration isn't answering those questions, the concerns,
Speaker 1: the fear, the anxiety that people have, and that is
Speaker 1: why eleven and a half months out from the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four election, I am hearing people say that they
Speaker 1: are are not going to vote for Biden. Why do
Speaker 1: I continue to bring that up? Because it is fucking concerning,
Speaker 1: and I don't want us to wait until August or
Speaker 1: September or October of twenty twenty four and go, oh shit,
Speaker 1: when there is absolutely no time for a course correction.
Speaker 1: I posted this on social media and I had a
Speaker 1: bunch of people say, this administration doesn't need a course correction.
Speaker 1: Inflation is coming down, job numbers are good, blah blah.
Speaker 1: Are people actually feeling those things or is it media manipulation?
Speaker 1: And just because things look good on paper, does it
Speaker 1: actually feel good in real life? Because to ignore the
Speaker 1: issues and the emotions that people are having, we do
Speaker 1: so to the peril of our democracy and global stability.
Speaker 1: We saw what happened during the first Trump administration when
Speaker 1: he realigned with our enemies and backed out of deals
Speaker 1: and agreements that we were at the forefront of creating,
Speaker 1: and vacuum was left. And I would argue that a
Speaker 1: lot of the instability that we are seeing now is
Speaker 1: because of that. So what do you think happens if
Speaker 1: a Donald Trump and the Republicans take control again, Because
Speaker 1: they are never going to give it back up. It
Speaker 1: isn't just about what happens in this country. It will
Speaker 1: be about what happens globally. You think that we're close
Speaker 1: to World War three, now just wait because that time
Speaker 1: around will be on the wrong side. So I think
Speaker 1: that it is incredibly important for us to continue to
Speaker 1: get a fuller picture of what is happening, which is
Speaker 1: why I'm very happy to welcome back my friend, independent journalist,
Speaker 1: former Today Show journalist Danielle Campemore back onto the show,
Speaker 1: who in this episode will share what she observed, what
Speaker 1: she has learned when she was on the ground in Israel,
Speaker 1: just hundreds of feet away from Gaza, to get the
Speaker 1: stories that we need to hear and see. And so
Speaker 1: coming up next is that the very important conversation with
Speaker 1: Danielle Kampomore as we continue to try and make sense
Speaker 1: of what just seems absolutely insane, folks. I am always
Speaker 1: so grateful when I have the opportunity to bring my
Speaker 1: friend freelance journalists and report our former reporter for The
Speaker 1: Today Show dot Com, Danielle Kampomore, onto WOKF Daily, and
Speaker 1: most recently, Danielle was on the ground in Israel and
Speaker 1: palestein reporting on the conditions there, speaking with women, speaking
Speaker 1: with people on the ground about what was happening, how
Speaker 1: they were feeling. Your recent piece Danielle is now up
Speaker 1: at Time Magazine and it's entitled their Kibbutz was attacked
Speaker 1: on October seventh. They're determined to rebuild. Danielle, talk to
Speaker 1: us just first. I really want to know what compelled you,
Speaker 1: right as we saw war begin, as we saw the
Speaker 1: attacks happen on October seventh, and now we have witnessed
Speaker 1: the devastation thereafter, what compelled you to leave the safety
Speaker 1: of your home to go and report on the ground.
Speaker 2: Right. That's a really great question, and I think it
Speaker 2: really boils down to the stories that I knew were
Speaker 2: present on the ground and that needed to be told.
Speaker 2: You know, when the war broke out in Ukraine after
Speaker 2: Russia invaded, and I covered that international crisis, it was
Speaker 2: the stories that were really, to me the most compelling
Speaker 2: about survival, about hardship, about endurance, about vulnerability. And it
Speaker 2: just goes to show that politics as personal and vice versa,
Speaker 2: and there are the real life stories that are happening
Speaker 2: as a result of people's governments, the results of other
Speaker 2: people's governments, of our government governments and other countries. And
Speaker 2: we can get really bogged down with the geopolitical discussions
Speaker 2: and what this means both internationally and domestically, and overlook
Speaker 2: the stories of real humans who just like us, are
Speaker 2: just trying to put food on the table, take their
Speaker 2: kids to school, enjoy life, you know, be in love,
Speaker 2: and be in community with friends and neighbors. And so
Speaker 2: that was really what compelled me to go, is those stories.
Speaker 2: It's so easy, especially leading up to an election, to
Speaker 2: get bogged down by the politics and ignore the fact
Speaker 2: that that this is, this is affecting every aspect of
Speaker 2: these people's lives. Who are who are there to pick
Speaker 2: up the pieces and try to move forward.
Speaker 1: So tell us, you know, to take us on your journey.
Speaker 1: You know, you're you're leaving your own family, your husband,
Speaker 1: your two kids behind, and you get on a plane
Speaker 1: and you're heading to essentially the other side of the
Speaker 1: world to report talk to us about getting onto the
Speaker 1: ground and you know, and where you were headed.
Speaker 2: Right, So it was pretty overwhelming. The process of just
Speaker 2: even boarding the plane, given security measures, you know, it
Speaker 2: was pretty difficult in terms of, you know, why are
Speaker 2: you going to Israel, what are you going to do there,
Speaker 2: et cetera. So even just the security process, I perhaps
Speaker 2: I naively had assumed that the flight would be empty.
Speaker 2: It was not. It was filled with people going back home,
Speaker 2: which I thought, really from even the beginning, before I
Speaker 2: even gotten Israel was really incredible. And then similar to honestly,
Speaker 2: when I was preparing to go to Ukraine overseas and
Speaker 2: then rob Elementary happened, and instead I was told, you're
Speaker 2: not going to go to Ukraine, You're going to go
Speaker 2: to rob. On the flight, the shooting in Maine happened,
Speaker 2: and I found myself once again as a member of
Speaker 2: the press in the United States, covering a war overseas
Speaker 2: and simultaneously writing about weapons of war and the devastation
Speaker 2: that they cause here at home. So even that was
Speaker 2: just getting off the plane and having that shooting happening
Speaker 2: at home and then preparing to go into a war zone.
Speaker 2: I stayed in Tel Aviv, got to also visit the
Speaker 2: Kaboots Kafarazah, which is less than two miles away from Gaza.
Speaker 2: That's the closest that I was allowed to get without
Speaker 2: an IDF escort. And in order for journalists to be
Speaker 2: escorted into Gaza with IDF you have to turn over
Speaker 2: your footage, which was not something that I was willing
Speaker 2: to do as an independent journalist. So that's the closest
Speaker 2: that I could get to Gaza was a little less
Speaker 2: than too miles away. And then just spoke to family
Speaker 2: members of those who were kidnapped, those who were killed,
Speaker 2: those who were managed to survive either a Kibbutz raid
Speaker 2: or the raid at the rave at the concert, and
Speaker 2: simultaneously seeing how strange it is for people to continue
Speaker 2: living at a time of war. Sirens would go off
Speaker 2: three times every single day, and every single day everyone
Speaker 2: would stop what they're doing, run to the nearest shelter,
Speaker 2: wait for it to be over, and then continue on
Speaker 2: with their life. And that was a real big culture
Speaker 2: shock for me, of just it was really part of
Speaker 2: everyday life at that point of sirens and bombings going off. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was there for a week.
Speaker 1: You know, Danielle. I said this the other day to
Speaker 1: another friend of mine, where I said, you know, it
Speaker 1: never occurred to me when I was learning about the
Speaker 1: Black Plague that people were still going to work, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it never occurred like as you're you know, you're in
Speaker 1: school and you're learning about these points in history, and
Speaker 1: you never really think about, well, what is actually happening
Speaker 1: with the people. You have this idea of war, you
Speaker 1: have this idea of pandemic of plague, and so when
Speaker 1: you just explain the fact that these sirens are going
Speaker 1: off three times a day. How are people, the people
Speaker 1: that you're talking to, how are they even maintaining any
Speaker 1: semblance of normalcy? Like the sirens go off and then
Speaker 1: it's all clear and they can go about their day,
Speaker 1: Like what does it even mean to go about your
Speaker 1: day in a time of war?
Speaker 2: Right? I think that is one of the things that's
Speaker 2: most fascinating, And it's very difficult to quantify for those
Speaker 2: who've never been in that kind of situation or in
Speaker 2: that kind of environment, but you really see that people
Speaker 2: aren't a monolith, and the varying ways in which people
Speaker 2: can respond to traumatic events and continued dramatic events. So,
Speaker 2: for example, the survivors of Kafaraza are temporarily relocated and
Speaker 2: they're staying at a hotel. Daily life does look different
Speaker 2: for them, and then at the same time it doesn't.
Speaker 2: They made a makeshift kindergarten, The kids are going to
Speaker 2: school and playing. Elderly folks are coming together going back
Speaker 2: to rebuild the kaboots. A lot of people are volunteering,
Speaker 2: and so there's still joy. You see people still playing
Speaker 2: with their children, holding their newborns, talking with friends. They're
Speaker 2: on social media there's joy and then a siren goes off.
Speaker 2: And it was very interesting to be in a safe
Speaker 2: room with a group of survivors and then see some
Speaker 2: people looked really angry, some people looked extremely scared, some
Speaker 2: people looked completely unfazed, some people were able to joke,
Speaker 2: some people look completely disassociated. So I saw this group
Speaker 2: of people who'd gone through a very similar experience, but
Speaker 2: the varying ways in which it's impacting them and how
Speaker 2: they're trying to manage, and so it really is this
Speaker 2: kind of weird suspension of time where you can see
Speaker 2: some people are still incredibly scared, some people the fear
Speaker 2: has been overtaken by anger and they're really really, really angry.
Speaker 2: Some people are just completely trying to disassociate and put
Speaker 2: one foot in front of the other. And so it
Speaker 2: depends on really who you're talking to. But one thing
Speaker 2: is for sure is that everyone that I spoke to,
Speaker 2: even if they have a different opinion of what should
Speaker 2: come next, agree that something must come next. There is
Speaker 2: no waiting, there's no pausing. It's one foot in front
Speaker 2: of the other. We have to keep moving forward. And
Speaker 2: you see that every day. And like I said, friends
Speaker 2: will be sitting at a cafe, they hear a siren,
Speaker 2: run into the nearest restaurant to go into their safe room,
Speaker 2: come back out, finish their coffees, and they're laughing two
Speaker 2: minutes later. I mean, it's truly unbelievable, the resiliency of humanity,
Speaker 2: and it's unfortunate that we only really see that or
Speaker 2: acknowledge that resilience in moments like this.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to speak to you too about
Speaker 1: being two miles away from Gaza. Since you have returned
Speaker 1: and since the beginning of the bombings, over ten thousand
Speaker 1: people have been killed, more than half of them being
Speaker 1: children in Gaza, and I want to get your thoughts
Speaker 1: or from what you heard from people in and around
Speaker 1: that area about their feelings about Netanyahu and their government's
Speaker 1: response to the trauma and the tragedy that occurred on
Speaker 1: October seventh.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, that's a great question. Every single person that
Speaker 2: I spoke to was very quick to want to talk politics,
Speaker 2: which I also thought was very interesting. Think again, there
Speaker 2: in Israel, people are very very acutely aware, especially after
Speaker 2: October seventh, how much their politics and government failed them
Speaker 2: and how that has impacted their lives. Now, no one
Speaker 2: that I spoke to, like snet Yahoo, They all blame him.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of discussion about him perhaps prolonging
Speaker 2: the war in order to maintain power, because he continues
Speaker 2: to say, we'll look at you know, how this happened,
Speaker 2: We'll have investigations, but when the war is over, which
Speaker 2: really kind of gave people a sense of perhaps that
Speaker 2: doesn't give him a whole lot of incentive to end
Speaker 2: the war sooner. Everyone was very, very very upset, worried
Speaker 2: and concerned about those that were kidnapped and how little
Speaker 2: was being done to get them back. You know, one
Speaker 2: mom in particular, she survived the attack with her three
Speaker 2: children and her husband. Her best friend's husband died protecting
Speaker 2: their home. You know. She said, look, we've lived to Gaza.
Speaker 2: We want our Palestinian neighbors to be happy, to have
Speaker 2: joyful lives. It wasn't uncommon for Palestinians to come from
Speaker 2: Gaza into the Kiboots to work and then go back
Speaker 2: because they would get paid more in a day than
Speaker 2: they would in a week in Gaza, So it was
Speaker 2: not uncommon, you know. So she was very forthread about
Speaker 2: how we just want to live in peace. We want
Speaker 2: peace for everybody you know, calls for a ceasefire and
Speaker 2: specifically to get the kidnapped out, And so really there's
Speaker 2: a lot of distrust with the government. They don't think
Speaker 2: that the government is able to keep them safe, and
Speaker 2: a lot of anger at nan Yahoo for not taking
Speaker 2: responsibility for at least not seeing that this attack was
Speaker 2: going to happen.
Speaker 1: I think about this a lot, and I think about
Speaker 1: the way in which corporate media, mainstream media has given
Speaker 1: Americans in particular, an incredibly sanitized, in one side view
Speaker 1: of conflict in general, but particularly as it pertains to
Speaker 1: Israel and Palestine, where billions of our tax dollars go
Speaker 1: every single year since the creation of Israel. And I wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, just as if we all in the United
Speaker 1: States are not maga right, are not in support of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. I think that what has been shown about
Speaker 1: Israel is as if everyone is in support of net
Speaker 1: Yahoo and is in support of these raids. And so
Speaker 1: Danielle being now, you know, a freelance journalist, what do
Speaker 1: you think about one the amount of journalists that have
Speaker 1: been killed right in their coverage, whose homes have been bombed,
Speaker 1: whose families have been killed. There have been I think
Speaker 1: over fifty at this point, you know, or more, what
Speaker 1: do you think about the portrayal of people inside of
Speaker 1: Israelis and our understanding of the depth and dimension of
Speaker 1: political thought, frustration, anger, and grief that we don't see.
Speaker 2: Right, I mean, you nailed it on the head, as
Speaker 2: there's a depth there, and there's so much substance that
Speaker 2: I think mainstream media is just quite frankly afraid of.
Speaker 2: And that's something that you know, you asked at the
Speaker 2: beginning what compelled me to go, and it's the stories,
Speaker 2: and it's also you know, part of that, this kind
Speaker 2: of fear I think that I saw play out in
Speaker 2: real time while I was still you know, formally employed,
Speaker 2: of just this is a complicated issue, and that complicated
Speaker 2: issue deters editors from assigning certain things or for quite frankly,
Speaker 2: us doing our job. If an issue is complicated, that
Speaker 2: means that we then have the obligation to inform the
Speaker 2: public of this complicated, nuanced thing, war certainly being one
Speaker 2: of them, and in this situation, that fear is very palpable,
Speaker 2: I think in newsrooms across the country, in particularly mainstream ones,
Speaker 2: of just not wanting to step into this complicated thing
Speaker 2: and being called out or being labeled biased, as if
Speaker 2: that's not going to happen in this political climate anyways.
Speaker 2: And so no, I think that there is this very
Speaker 2: singular viewpoint. And that's why again I think it's so
Speaker 2: important to really get on the ground and actually speak
Speaker 2: to people, because then you will learn that this is
Speaker 2: not everyone. I mean, Israel is certainly united as a
Speaker 2: group of people after the October seventh attack, but that
Speaker 2: certainly doesn't mean that they were united behind their government.
Speaker 2: And I think that that is a very big difference,
Speaker 2: and and that's at least what I heard on the
Speaker 2: ground is that they are very skeptical, skeptical of their
Speaker 2: government and of what has transpired since October seventh. And
Speaker 2: so again, if we got past our fear here of
Speaker 2: of appearing biased, of appearing like we have an ulterior
Speaker 2: motive as journalists, and instead just reporting on complicated situations
Speaker 2: and nuanced ways, with nuanced and perhaps a more realistic
Speaker 2: group of voices, then I think our public would be
Speaker 2: better for it. And we've seen how polarizing it can
Speaker 2: be when when we fail to do our jobs and
Speaker 2: provide that context.
Speaker 1: You know, coming back now after having been there, for
Speaker 1: a week. What was the adjustment like in in coming
Speaker 1: back for you, and and how how does and on
Speaker 1: the ground journalists take care of your own mental health
Speaker 1: after you've seen and heard and reported on something so devastating.
Speaker 2: Coming back was really difficult. I didn't want to get
Speaker 2: on the plane, you know, when I went. One of
Speaker 2: the things that I had a personal security that had
Speaker 2: to go with me, and one of the things that
Speaker 2: I had to download was in Israel, they have a
Speaker 2: warning system on your phone for when the Iron Dome
Speaker 2: is initiated, basically just shows you where the sirens are
Speaker 2: before they show up. It's like a couple of seconds
Speaker 2: before I can't bring myself to take it off, so
Speaker 2: I'm still getting notifications of when they're being hit in
Speaker 2: Tel Aviv or in parts of Israel. It was really
Speaker 2: challenging to dive back into the discourse here when, like
Speaker 2: you said, that nuance and that depth, people just aren't
Speaker 2: getting it. It's been really challenging to hear certain opinions
Speaker 2: that I think are not born out of fact or
Speaker 2: an actual knowledge of the region or the people, and
Speaker 2: that's been really challenging. It's been challenging to continue to
Speaker 2: check in on the people that I spoke to. You know,
Speaker 2: I want to go back. So that's been hard. In
Speaker 2: terms of mental health, I think so much of it
Speaker 2: is this talking about it. I think what would do
Speaker 2: my mental health the worst is feeling like I didn't
Speaker 2: do my job, I didn't tell those stories that if
Speaker 2: I was if I took the time to be there,
Speaker 2: came home and didn't do what I promised I would do,
Speaker 2: then that would be devastating. So talking about it, writing
Speaker 2: about it, but then also spending time with my kids,
Speaker 2: turning off the news at least at night, and you know,
Speaker 2: trying to remember those moments of joy that we talked about.
Speaker 2: And I know that those moments of joy are happening
Speaker 2: in Gaza as well, And I'm hoping to be able
Speaker 2: to go back and actually go into Gaza again under
Speaker 2: those what conditions, I don't know, And I know for
Speaker 2: a fact that there's so many stories in Gaza that
Speaker 2: aren't being told, not just ones of deep sorrow and
Speaker 2: loss and trauma, but of joy. And I think, you know,
Speaker 2: both Israelis and Polsinians deserve to see their people in
Speaker 2: the media also being joyful and celebrating their lives, not
Speaker 2: just in the wreckage of war. So I think about
Speaker 2: a lot about that, about seeing, you know, a toddler
Speaker 2: who had survived a horrific attack playing with his dad
Speaker 2: and mom, friends hugging each other and just supporting each other.
Speaker 2: You know, I think about that and that that helps.
Speaker 1: Too, you know, Danielle, I am always in awe of
Speaker 1: the work that you do and the writing that you
Speaker 1: do and the coverage, and you know, I thought like
Speaker 1: it sent you a quick note when I saw that
Speaker 1: you were leaving, and you know, said like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'll pray for you and you know, and send
Speaker 1: positive energy because I was really you know, as I'm
Speaker 1: certain so many people who follow you were. But I
Speaker 1: recognize in your reporting and your coverage always that you
Speaker 1: bring us to stories that we need, and you do
Speaker 1: it at you know, it is it is a public
Speaker 1: service that that you are doing. And I just want
Speaker 1: to appreciate you and and you know, and uplift you
Speaker 1: for that and tell folks you know. Danielle's story is
Speaker 1: up now at time dot com. Their kibbutz was attacked
Speaker 1: on October seventh, their I'm in too rebuild. I encourage
Speaker 1: everyone to read it, to share it to post it.
Speaker 1: It's this kind of reporting and work that we need
Speaker 1: to really uplift, and so thank you. Thank you for
Speaker 1: you know, for saying I'm back and I can come
Speaker 1: on this show, and I'm so glad that we were
Speaker 1: able to make it happen. I genuinely appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2: No, of course, thank you as always and for always
Speaker 2: uplifting these stories. The world needs clearly more Danielle's in it.
Speaker 1: So I yes appreciate you. That is it for me today,
Speaker 1: Dear friends on Woke a f as always, Power to
Speaker 1: the people and to all the people. Power, get woke
Speaker 1: and stay woke as fuck.