It’s not often that Mehdi begins an interview saying, “I am ashamed to say, as someone who’s followed the Israel-Palestine issue for many decades, I didn’t know anything about [the ‘Oasis of Peace’].”
In the new episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, Mehdi is joined by Jewish-Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi, who grew up in the small Israeli village nicknamed ‘The Oasis of Peace’. It’s the only place in Israel where Jews and Palestinians live together voluntarily. Noam is the subject of the new documentary ‘Coexistence, My Ass!’ (which was just shortlisted for the Academy Awards!) that tells the story of her political evolution from growing up as the poster-child of the “coexistence movement” to becoming a standup comedian determined to dismantle apartheid within Israel.
“Let’s face it, the ‘peace community’ or the ‘coexistence community’ in Israel has failed miserably,” Noam says. “It can’t just be a romantic closeness. It has to be with a lot of political action.”
Mehdi and Noam also get into:
Noam’s “woke leftist parents” and her radical childhood.
How she went from working at the United Nations to becoming a comedian.
The political satire that got her on Israeli television.
The effects of Oct. 7 on the Israeli comedy scene and the wave of anti-Palestinian extremism.
Israeli hasbara and the power of its propaganda machine.
And more…
Free subscribers get a 5-minute preview of the video above while Zeteo’s paid subscribers can watch it in full. As always, you can also listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Don’t miss our LIVE in-person event in DC: Join Mehdi, Swin, Joy Reid, Jim Acosta, Sarah Matthews, Miles Taylor, and another special guest for a powerful evening at the Howard Theatre in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Jan 20, 2026!
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