Nas Daily: The Identity Crisis October 7 Forced Me to Face

Unpacking Israeli History - Unpacked

Nas Daily shares his complex identity as an Arab-Israeli, reflecting on how the October 7 attacks reshaped his sense of self and prompted a deeper exploration of belonging, morality, and the power of narrative in shaping

Key takeaways

• Identity is fluid and shaped by experience, not fixed by labels.

Transcript preview

Hey friends I want to ask you for a quick favor. We are always looking to understand our audience who listen to unpacked even better, who watch it, who engage with us even more. So to do that we want to hear from you directly what you're loving, what you're curious about, what you want to see more of, what you'd want to see covered, whatever it is. It's a super short survey, just two minutes, but your answers help us shape where this show goes next. So really appreciate, really appreciate it. So, really appreciate it. The link is in the link is in the show notes, or you can go to slash pod survey. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Thanks for being part of this community. Now go fill out that survey please. Pretty please. Hey I'm Norm Weissman and this is unpacking Israeli history the podcast that takes a deep dive into some of the most intense historically fascinating and often misunderstood events and stories linked to Israeli history. This episode of unpacking Israeli history is generously sponsored by the Lindenbound family by Amiel, by Felice, by Jean, thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, yala, let's do this. picked up a camera and committed to making one one minute video every day for a thousand days. What started as a personal challenge became something much bigger. Today, Nas Daily has 68 million followers, billions of views, that's with a B, and a media company that reaches 300 million people every single month. But here's what makes Nusire really spec. And why I wanted him on this show. He is proud of his Palestinian and Israeli identities, both of them. He holds both of those words at the same time and he refuses to let go of either one. In a world that is constantly demanding that people like him choose, he leans into the complication. And that has cost him followers, friendships, deals. He has been celebrated by people who see him as a bridge builder. by people on both sides who think that kind of bridge building is itself a betrayal. So naive even. After the 7th of October he wrote something that stopped a lot of people in their tracks. He said that for the longest time he had identified as Palestinian first Israeli second and then after the attack he flipped it Israeli first Palestinian second. Not because he stopped loving Palestine. But because as he put it, sometimes it takes a shock like this to see clearly. That is the conversation I wanted to have. Not about politics, not about ceasefires or negotiations, but about identity. About what it means to hold two things that the world tells you cannot coexist. way. It's hard to make. I love your content. Thank you. It's excellent and it's the type of thing that my children and I could watch together. And you know I make a lot less of it these days. Okay, why? Yeah, I have other priorities. I have other priorities. Okay, so I don't want to go into your other priorities. Yeah, I want to talk about you as a person, you as a content creator. I do want to hear about your priorities and things that you've ever released. But I think. I think it's It was part of Nas talks. Nas talks. Yeah. An experiment during COVID. Yes, okay. And then I just continued the podcast. Why did you do that? Bread versus depth. I was in my breadth era. Okay. Well, one of the things that you spoke about was the authenticity of the podcast experience. Yeah. But you, I loved listening to how you think about content creation. I loved listening to the process. I loved everything about that. But you, one of the things that you did. across the world. So I had this like basic question for you. It's a philosophical question. Let's go. And to the viewer we're gonna disagree in this conversation so please be. We'll see we can't predict disagreement. We have to disagree. We have to okay to sharpen each other's thoughts. Exactly. Okay. Neusire. Are people inherently good or bad? Oh that's a I feel like that's a very easy question. You think that's a hard question? I think that's a is inherently bad. I think it is the most cocky thing to believe that somebody is inherently bad. Why? In my mind I translate that to you know you are born out of the womb of your mother as a bad person. You really think that's a possibility? Well the great philosophers would say either you know people are born with original sin right that's one way to view life. And I assume the philosophers were not part of those people, right? And then there's another group of people who would say, no, there's inherently good. And then there are other people who say, no, the world is neutral, and the world is neutral, and whatever you choose to do that, you choose to do with it. But you've met so many different people. Yeah. So, are you, when you look at people, how do you look at them at first glance? When you first meet first meet people from all different communities? But the reason I'm asking is asking is the concept is the concept of the concept of universal morality. Guinea. Yeah, yeah. Love up on New Guinea. What do you say? You love it. Yeah. You mentioned it on the first podcast. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I don't know and in Ukraine and in China and in North Korea you did not have a good experience and that was one of your first that was one of the most popular YouTube videos that you've done. That's correct. You did not have a great experience there. But the people, are good, bad, how do you think about it? So I think you kind of alluded to this. My general view in life that people are a lot more malleable than we think they are. They're almost as malleable as like rubber band. You know, you can really shape, shift humans and it all boils down to how you grew up. So I think everybody comes out of their mother's womb, probably like neutral, just a bunch of cells put together. And I think your experiences shape you to become a selfish person or into a generous person. your insecurities shape you to be a successful person or a non-successful person. But I think everybody inherently either good or neutral, but no such thing as born bad. And I think that that belief almost leads you towards another holocaust, you know, almost leads you towards another holocaust, you know, almost leads you towards another dehumanization of humans. Yeah, because you could easily extend that to Somalians, you know. Somalians are born inherently bad and it's like inherently not, you know, as successful as us Westerners and you see that in the news lately. I just think that's just a dangerous way to think and I think you have to put effort not to think that's because the, you know, how like a, um, uh, we all regressed at the mean. We all like, like you have to like really, like, really, like the default. of the brain is not to think and the default state of the body is not to move. So you end up getting fat and dumber as you get older. So you really got a fight against the default state and the default state of the brain is to be lazy and therefore think I'm good they're all bad and evil. So I think you got to work out your brain. It's really wild. I was reading about the Rwandan genocide. People don't talk about that genocide. general person if you were to ask them the Hutus versus the Tutsis, why? Why do you? There is no clear difference between them. There's no difference. No, I made like 10 naus daily videos about them. There's no clear difference. There's no difference, right? No. The one is... You should go to the museum of reconciliation or something in Rwanda, or the museum of genocide or something. And it tells you the story of how men killed their wife. You killed wife. Because she was a Tutsi. And I forgot. And I forgot who killed. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it. And it Yeah, the two cities were killed, yeah, primary power. Yeah, and it's like the radio and the media affected that over one night. You know, you hear the radio saying, all right, just kill your neighbor, kill your wife, kill your colleague, and they just did it. Right, and that gets to the original question of our people inherently good or bad. And if you start seeing people around you, your wife, your spouse, you could start dehuman. Yes. And that's why people are malleable. If there wasn't that wasn't that radio show in that show in Rwanda show in Rwanda, and in Rwanda that propaganda machine from the government, you wouldn't have shape shifted humans. Wow. And they wouldn't kill each other. That's the power. The power of media, the power of propaganda is huge. The power you do. So let's talk about how you were shaped. Damn, my brain is thinking now. Okay, let's talk about how you were shaped. Let's go. New Sire. I want to know who you were before Nas Daily. I want to know a little bit about your identity, how you got to where you got to. So, made your parents very proud, I presume. A little bit, yeah. And then you started making content, but I want to understand, and well you got a job, you did some, you did the standard post-harmed things. I want to understand your upbringing. I want to understand, one of the things that you said is that when you were 13 years old, you went to Abbarmizwa, and you didn't understand anything about Jews, right? And you couldn't communicate with them. You couldn't communicate with them. Why. You couldn't communicate with them. You couldn't communicate with them. You couldn't communicate with them. I only learned Hebrew, I never spoke it. And so where are you from? Let's go there. Where are you from? So I'm from northern Israel in a small town called Harrabi. When I grew up there was a village, not a town. It's next to Sahinin, it's next to Nazareth. Nazareth is next to Haifa and Haifa is next to Tel Aviv. So I'm from nearby Tel Aviv. You know. For the average listener, I'm from next to Tel Aviv. How would you say it? I can't pronounce it but okay so I could I can't pronounce it but okay so you grew up in near Tel Aviv not really but and you met Jewish kids when you were 13 or you knew Jewish kids but you went to a bar mitzel you don't know much about Judaism or nothing even though you grew up in the Jewish state yeah absolutely zero I knew the language I understood the language I watched the news every day I said a big deal that you knew the language well we learned it is school but a lot but a lot of Israel, Israeli, Israeli's, etc. etc. etc. What the hell you call. Right, whatever you want to. Don't, I mean, oh no, they do speak, how would you actually answer this? They actually understand Hebrew perfectly. They understand perfectly. They understand perfectly. The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza though don't. Not so much, not so much. But it's just, we don't practice it enough. A lot of our parents speak it super fluently and same as my extended family like the older people because they work in that environment, right. So my dad. I just you need the younger generation that doesn't really work in a Hebrew environment I either as me I just you when you don't practice something but I'm sorry I'm so excited to tell you by the end of the year I made a personal commitment to become super fluent in Hebrew the end of what year this year I understand everything he but did you give me a sentence can I mean I'm not even if you give me a sentence can I mean I've read Yeah, you know, that you cannot. What can I do about that? Yeah. Sorry. But I really believe in learning the language. Okay. Okay, so we're getting into your story. We're getting into, we're getting into Nas Daly. You were someone that grew up with a specific identity of what? Palestinian, Israeli, what are you? You know, my girlfriend tries to define me and she has a, and she has a... a really good explanation for I am. She said, you're nothing. You are an orb. I'm an orb. That primarily what I am is I want to fly above religion. I want to fly above organized religion. I want to fly above political labels, country labels. I want you to be as no sire, my name, right? That's my primary interest. Now, if you ask me, what am I in the context of this podcast? I'm an Israeli citizen. I'm a person who was born and raised in Israel and who no matter how much Israel didn't love him back he loves the idea of Israel and he wants to build on that idea with fellow Israelis the idea of innovation of democracy, of freedom of speech, of of of surviving under pressure. I love these ideas. And that is actually what an Arab Israeli is. It's surviving under pressure, you know, trying, I mean I don't think we have as much innovation as the Jewish Israelis, but we should. So that's who I am. I'm Israeli first, but I'm also Arab. I don't share the same Jewish experiences of a Shabbat, although I'd like to. You gotta come to me for Shabbat. Thank you. I will. I'm serious. I mean me I'm a girlfriend we host about all the time you know shabazz yeah we host a special thing is a special thing it's a beautiful thing I love it I think you should take that and commercialize it and commercialize it. I think a lot of people are doing the digital detox thing the 25 hour digital detox it somebody should be like maybe we work or we flow by Adam and well he lives right near you yeah he maybe he's commercializing yeah okay but you said a lot okay but you said but you said a lot is that is that Israel didn't love you back? Absolutely not. What does that mean? And what is it in the broader context of someone who teaches Israeli history I want to really understand what that means for someone who is and you didn't describe yourself by the way as Palestinian either you said Arab you have been saying Arab and I just want to give statistics for you that I have that my producer gave me the Mosha-ayan Center survey of Arab citizens of Israel asked what is the most important component of your personal identity? 33 percent said 28% said Israeli citizenship, 24% said religious identity, and 13% said Palestinian identity. What would, you didn't say Palestinian there, so I had two questions within the out. One is why did you not say Palestinian? Yeah. And number two is, what do you mean Israel didn't love you back? So let me answer the first question first. Palestinian and Israeli are the two most newsmaking headlines, topics in the world, right? So there is this insane global pressure. every Palestinian to remain Palestinian and to feel Palestinian until the end of days. You, your kids, your grand kids, your grand-grand-grand-grand kids, must feel Palestinian. And there's this pressure is immense, especially immense if you're a public figure. Immense, D. J. College. Right. Nast daily. You know, whoever has a 10% Palestinian route, you must continue the struggle. And I think after October 7th, I really had a self-interspection and I said to myself, does not represent me. I have nothing in common with a person from Gaza. I have nothing in common with the person from West Bank, no matter how much I love them, I want to support them, but I have nothing in common with them. You know, 77 years or whatever it is, living under a democracy in Israel with a powerful passport, traveling the world, exposed to Hebrew media, shapes you into a different human. Culturally, I became different from a West Bank Palestinian and a refugee in Lebanon and a refugee and a refugee in America. And so I just ask myself, do I embrace this Palestinian identity because I want it or is it forced on me by the world? These are really important questions every Arab Israeli should first. And I know for a Jewish Israeli, nothing pleases them more than somebody asking themselves as questions because you should enforce Israeli identity on all your citizens. That's the only way to build a country. You should enforce it on the Orthodox shoes. You should enforce. You should enforce it on the Orthodox shoes. You should enforce. of the Arab Israelis. We should all go serve in the military or do some in. Arabs should be serving military military or community service. You absolutely must forcefully integrate your citizens into one country because Israel is allows too much freedom in a way. Hard to believe. What I'm saying is crazy. You know if you want to be an Orthodox Jew and just study for the rest of your life. When you say Orthodox you mean the ultra Orthodox. They called Khare-diem. Yeah the Kharedom. Okay. If you want to be an ultra-a. If you want to be an ultra-Oradim, you want to be an ultra-Oradim, you want to be an ultra-a. and study for the rest of your life as a form of fighting for the state of Israel and not even go to the army and just like literally live in a yeshiva you can. If you want to be an Arab Israeli Palestinian citizen and advocate for Palestine from your basement inside Israel and travel the world with your Israeli passport and say I am Palestinian and I support Palestine, you can. And if you want to be a gay person in Tel Aviv and march on the pride and have... zero respect for religion, you can. It's amazing, isn't it? It is amazing. Right, it's beautiful. So that's why I say it on the extreme of freedom, but you don't get one Israel, you get five Israelis. And then here's what happens as a result of all this, then the shapers, the tastemakers of Israeli society becomes a very small percentage of the country itself. The tastemaker as in the people who ultimately shape the culture, meaning if the. I'm not part of the Israeli army and the Arab citizens are not part of Israel either. No but what do you mean they go to their they participate they participate they participate seriously in the Israeli army is they it how truthful should we be in this podcast whatever you need whatever I need yeah let's keep the people listening if you're gonna say there's discrimination of course there's discrimination I just say they're not as integral part of the country as they can be and should be because we are okay with them doing the menial labor work we are okay with them doing the frontline with them the not