“Come stay with me,” Zvi Yehezkeli tells me. “I’m ten minutes from Beit Shemesh.” He picks me up from the train station in a massive black jeep, hat and long shirt, even though it’s the hottest day of the year. “I’m always a long people. The less you see.”
The “ten minutes” become half an hour, the urban roads become mountains, and the jeep – descends into the terrain. While I was troubled by the lack of absorption and the steep descents, Ezekiel was thrilled by the olive trees and vegetation, as if he had met them for the first time. “Who else in the entertainment world would bring you to an interview in a place like this?” He asks with pleasure, then points to the right: “Here is my mikveh. And if there are people here, like now, I go to another one.”
More than a decade has passed since Ezekiel repented, and the gap has not yet been grasped. The man who was one of Tel Aviv’s most wanted singles lives today in a secluded area in Gush Etzion with his wife and seven children. In the background are the sounds of the family’s goats and chickens, and only the jeep, and the heavy motorcycle standing outside, remind us that we are in 2021. A few meters above the house is the private B&B that he built himself and serves him for work. His day opens and closes in solitude in the woods near the house, and in the middle he sets “times for the Torah,” dips in the mikveh and travels to work.
Do you not miss the days when you starred in Israel’s hottest men lists and were a sex symbol?
“I do not know what that means. I prefer to be a symbol with a dome over any other symbol. I am sure not a sex symbol.”
Is there a sanctification of the name also in your appearance on the screen?
“Certainly. It’s important. Once a mother came to me and said, ‘You must talk to my son who came back from India in an unstable situation. You are such a good boy, maybe you can talk to him.’ That is, they see me as a moral and good person, and if I can help On the way, why not. For me, the beautiful Israeli is me. I was at all the stations – in the army, in the GSS, at the university, and then I went on a journey in search of myself. That’s where I am today. “
Will we all repent?
“I do not want to interfere with anyone, that everyone will make their choices. I can tell you that I am a person who has observed and found.”
Yehezkeli, the leading Arab commentator on screen, will soon return in a new series that will be discussed.
“After ‘Under a False Identity’ and the Undercover Series, it was hard to come back with a new series, but we came across materials that belong to drama series from the movies,” he reveals. “In a few months, a series will air that I am not at the center of, but a Swedish woman who came to Israel to study, was recruited for a espionage mission, and she brings a lot of material regarding BDS and Hamas. That’s what I can say at the moment.
In the past year, News 13 went through another crisis – cuts, layoffs of dozens of employees, and recently also a farewell to CEO Israel Toyota and the appointment of a new CEO, Aviram Elad.
“I started working at News 10 in 2001, and after three years we were already on a moratorium on proceedings,” he says. “Over the years there have been a lot of upheavals, but we always got to 20:00 with an edition. In all times of crisis the press we do has not been harmed. We are still good, and no less than the competitors.”
Is there sometimes a fear that the channel will be closed?
“I stood in the demonstrations so that they would not close. And they did not close. The channel will continue, and I must continue to give work.”
News 12 achieves double numbers of your own every night.
“True, there is the curse of the ratings. But I do not work for the ratings.”
In the interview, he talks about life away from the brass, the strengthening and the sense of mission of the screen, and also provides a comprehensive analysis of the entire Middle East and Hamas.