Mr. World: Oren Nahari, the Only Interviewer I Feared
Oren Nahari bids farewell to listeners of his program "Shabbat with Oren Nahari" on Kan Reshet Bet due to the progression of ALS. The author, a professor of international relations, describes Nahari as "Mr. World" and a "walking globe" who added depth to discourse, admitting he feared him more than any other interviewer. He recalls their first interview 24 years ago and praises Nahari for taking the Israeli public out of its intellectual comfort zone.
Oren Nahari, a veteran radio and television interviewer, bid farewell last Saturday (August 8, 2026) to listeners of his program "Shabbat with Oren Nahari" on Kan Reshet Bet, due to the progression of ALS, which has caused his voice to fade. In the farewell, noted as difficult to listen to, Nahari said he always tried to respect his audience as one "worthy of depth, not just headlines." The author, a professor of international relations at Ben-Gurion University and a senior research fellow at the JPPI Institute, describes Nahari as "Mr. World" and a "walking globe" who understood how the world connects, and whose interviews were a "parallelogram of minds" that forced thinking. He recalls his first interview 24 years ago on the program "Ro'im Olam" with David Witzthum and Prof. Shlomo Avineri, and admits he feared only Nahari, not others. The author praises Nahari for taking the Israeli public out of its intellectual "comfort zone" and reminding that there is a big world out there. He notes that Nahari asked his listeners to continue looking, listening, and asking questions, and writes that he never stopped being afraid to be interviewed by him, which is the greatest compliment.