Since its inception in 1990, the broadcasting industry trade magazine Talkers has participated in varied projects bringing a diverse array of leading radio talk show hosts to political, military and social hot spots around the world to familiarize the medium’s practitioners with first-hand details about complex topics often overlooked or simply glossed over by the mainstream media.

According to Talkers magazine publisher Michael Harrison, “These trips enhance talk radio’s depth and ability to bring meaningful information and fact-based opinions to its millions of listeners around the nation.”

Among the places visited include Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Katrina-ravaged areas in Mississippi, Dubai, India and Israel. Trips are currently in the planning stages to visit Antarctica, Cuba and China among other key locales.

Talkers publisher Michael Harrison standing in front of an Ashkelon house
hit the day before by a Hamas Qassam rocket.
The Way of War movies

During the recent outbreak of violence (December 2008 to January 2009) in which Israel finally retaliated against Hamas in the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip to bring an end to the terrorist group’s eight year campaign of launching deadly rockets from that area into its southern border city of Sderot, Michael Harrison of Talkers and talk show host Michael “Lionel” Lebron of Air America visited the region to get a close up look at what was going on. The trip was sponsored by America’s Voices in Israel, an organization in which Michael Harrison sits as an advisory board member.

Michael Harrison, in the parking lot behind the police station, holding
a Hamas Qassam rocket that landed in Sderot, Israel.

The purpose was to see first-hand what was happening and witness how accurately the news coverage of the war corresponded to the reality of the situation.

They visited the besieged cities of Sderot and Ashkelon and met with the mayors, military leaders and citizens of these stricken regions. They witnessed the bombs exploding in Gaza and were caught in a rocket air raid in Ashkelon in which they had to run for their lives with civilians and military personnel alike for cover in a bomb shelter. They observed operations in the central municipal government underground bunker in Ashkelon. They visited the Barzilai Medical Center hospital where both the Israeli and Palestinian wounded are treated side by side. They toured Nitzan, a Karavilla resettlement site, the new temporary home for the Israeli settlers who were evacuated from their Gaza Strip homes as part of the disengagement process in 2005 and now live in threat of the rockets launched from their “previous” home.

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Michael Harrison with the mayors of Sderot and Ashkelon

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Michael Harrison standing on the hillside overlooking the Gaza Strip where
most of the world media observed the military operations taking place
just a few kilometers below. One Point O trailer

Michael Harrison standing in the blown out living room of an elderly woman’s house hit by a Hamas Qassam rocket in the south Israel city of Sderot.

They also traveled to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and were briefed by a wide variety of experts and insiders including renowned Islam scholar, Martin Kramer; former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Dore Gold; IDF Brigadier General, Ruth Yaron; Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Touameh; Ministry of Foreign Affairs policy expert, Dani Gilerman… and many more.

Michael Harrison standing next to a sewer pipe bomb shelter in Nitzan, a temporary mobile home resettlement of the Israelis who were forced to
leave Gaza during the disengagement of 2005. Now they face rockets
launched from their former home neighborhoods.

Michael Harrison with Mayor David Bouskila of Sderot at IDF Headquarters
in the heavily targeted city.

IDF reserve officer Irit Atsmon; Talkers publisher Michael Harrison;
America’s Voices in Israel director Fern Oppenheim;
Air America talk show host Lionel;
and IDF reserve officer (and well known American playwrite/screenwriter/author) Dan Gordon
at the IDF Media Center in Sderot.

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Michael Harrison with Israeli Defense Forces Communication Officer Dan Gordon

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Talkers publisher Michael Harrison; Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vankin;
Air America talk show host Lionel; and America’s Voices in Israel director
Fern Oppenheim at the Ashkelon Municipality Underground Headquarters
in Ashkelon.

Podjockey is proud to present some of the material gathered by Michael Harrison on this mission to Israel including a video of his visit to the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip and audio interviews with key figures on the scene.

Talkers publisher Michael Harrison standing in front of an Ashkelon house
hit the day before by a Hamas Qassam rocket.

Michael Harrison, in the parking lot behind the police station, holding a
Hamas Qassam rocket that landed in Sderot, Israel.

Michael Harrison standing on the hillside overlooking the Gaza Strip where
most of the world media observed the military operations taking place
just a few kilometers below.

Michael Harrison standing in the blown out living room of an elderly woman’s
house hit by a Hamas Qassam rocket in the south Israel city of Sderot.

Michael Harrison standing next to a sewer pipe bomb shelter in Nitzan, a temporary mobile home resettlement of the Israelis who were forced to
leave Gaza during the disengagement of 2005. Now they face rockets
launched from their former home neighborhoods.

Michael Harrison with Mayor David Bouskila of Sderot at IDF Headquarters
in the heavily targeted city.

IDF reserve officer, Irit Atsmon; Talkers publisher, Michael Harrison;
America’s Voices in Israel director, Fern Oppenheim;
Air America talk show host, Lionel;
and IDF reserve officer (and well known American playwrite/screenwriter/author), Dan Gordon
at the IDF Media Center in Sderot.

Talkers publisher Michael Harrison; Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vankin;
Air America talk show host Lionel; and America’s Voices in Israel director
Fern Oppenheim at the Ashkelon Municipality Underground Headquarters
in Ashkelon.