In retrospect, Israel should not have endured a year of Hezbollah missile attacks that decimated its northern region before fighting back, Orna Mizrahi , a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies said on the Haaretz Podcast, but waiting appeared to be the best strategy following the Hamas attacks of October 7. After that trauma, "the decision of the Israeli cabinet was to focus on the war against Hamas in Gaza . And I thought that this was the right decision, because we ...
Oct 14, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 348
The U.S. has strongly cautioned Israel against targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities and oil fields in a possible retaliatory strike for the 181 ballistic missiles Tehran launched last week. On the Haaretz Podcast, strategic and intelligence expert and Haaretz columnist Yossi Melman argues that such targets should be “off limits and out of bounds,” and not only because of the American objections. Israel should limit its response to military installations such as the “depots of long range missiles ...
Oct 09, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 347
Hannah Wacholder Katsman knew that facing the anniversary of her son's death on October 7 would be difficult, but grieving in wartime Israel has been a challenge over the whole year, ever since her son was killed by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Holit, she said on the Haaretz Podcast. Hayim Katsman, an American-Israeli who would have turned 33 on October 3, was a political scientist specializing in right-wing religious Zionism and a devoted peace activist, with eclectic interests and hobbies which...
Oct 06, 2024•23 min•Season 1Ep. 346
Amir Tibon will never forget what it felt like to be hunkered down in his safe room with his wife and two young daughters for hours on end, listening to the sound of Hamas terrorists on a murderous rampage in his neighborhood, Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the Gaza border, on October 7. "You're on automatic pilot. You're hearing gunfire inside your house," he recalled. "You're locked inside with two very young girls, and you're just operating in the situation, trying to keep the girls calm and quiet and r...
Oct 03, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 345
If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoys a popularity comeback as a result of Israel's military operation against Hezbollah and the assassination of the group's chief Hassan Nasrallah, he is likely to be tempted to call early elections, Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn said on the Haaretz Podcast. "It's a tried and true Netanyahu trick when he sees that his adversaries are weak," Benn noted, pointing to the reasons why doing so may be in the Israeli leader's interest, including "getting rid ...
Sep 29, 2024•27 min•Season 1Ep. 344
Despite the recent dramatic escalation in its conflict with Israel, Hezbollah appears to be - for now - refraining from launching a large-scale missile attack into the Tel Aviv area, says Amos Harel, Haaretz senior military and defense analyst on the Haaretz Podcast. Harel outlined the dramatic week-long chain of events that began with the stunning detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members, followed by a targeted attack in Beirut Friday killing top commanders in the ...
Sep 25, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 343
The presidential campaigns of both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are focusing substantial energy on Jewish voters who are closely watching Israel and Gaza, as well as rising antisemitism in the United States. Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels joined Haaretz Podcast for a special episode devoted to answering questions from Haaretz subscribers. Samuels describes how campaigns have been targeting the American Jewish community – both because they reflect an outsized proportion of signifi...
Sep 17, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 342
In the relentless swirl of war and politics over the past year, the inhabitants of Gaza have often been treated more as pawns than as human beings by political and military leaders, activists, media and even those who claim to be their advocates and allies. "People outside of Gaza sometimes forget that their lives are actual lives," Haaretz correspondent Nagham Zbeedat said on the Haaretz Podcast. The result – as with the circulation of conspiracy theories regarding the campaign to administer po...
Sep 10, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 341
If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "ever had a moral compass, he lost it long ago," said Jonathan Dekel-Chen , father of Israeli hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen on the Haaretz Podcast. The six hostages brutally murdered by Hamas after surviving eleven months of captivity "should not have been allowed to die" by their country's leadership, he added. "My heart breaks for their families," said Dekel-Chen, describing the news as "part of the living nightmare we've been in since October 7." The go...
Sep 01, 2024•27 min•Season 1Ep. 340
Democrats or Republicans who believe that a Kamala Harris presidency will shift her party's Israel policy to a place favorable to its pro-Palestinian progressive wing found little evidence to back their theory at last week's Democratic National Convention, Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels told the Haaretz Podcast this week. From the warm reception given to the parents of an Israeli hostage who were featured speakers to the sympathetic but firm negotiations with the demands of members...
Aug 25, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 339
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been enjoying a "dramatic but quite consistent recovery" in the polls in past months, after the failures of October 7 sent his popularity plummeting to unprecedented lows, according to public opinion expert and Haaretz columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin . On this week's Haaretz Podcast, Scheindlin analyzes what may be Netanyahu's slow but steady political comeback despite the fact that the war has continued while a deal to return the country's remaining hostage...
Aug 20, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 338
Renewed US efforts to reach a hostage deal represent "a last ditch attempt" by the Biden White House for a diplomatic win that could stave off a major Middle East conflagration ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Amos Harel , Haaretz senior military and security analyst said on the Haaretz Podcast, ahead of American-led negotiations set to take place at a summit in Doha, Qatar. The efforts are taking place as Israel faces a "dangerous" and "desperate" situation as it remains ...
Aug 13, 2024•36 min•Season 1Ep. 337
Over the course of two days last week, two major assassinations shook the Middle East. The first was of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, for which the Israeli military took credit, in Beirut. The second was a much more daring operation – the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, right under the nose of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran and other sources have blamed Israel for the strike, and are vowing retaliation – and Israel is gearing up for an attack. For the Haaretz P...
Aug 05, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 336
It was a scene of "complete chaos" in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights following the devastating Hezbollah strike that killed 12 Druze children playing soccer on Saturday, Haaretz correspondent Sheren Falah Saab , who was at the scene just an hour after the attack, recounted emotionally on Haaretz Podcast. "There were ambulances everywhere and hundreds of people surrounding the wounded children and the bodies of the children," said Falah Saab, who is a member of the Druze community ...
Jul 30, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 335
It's a time of goodbyes: As Joe Biden says goodbye to the U.S. presidency, Netanyahu said goodbye to Israel while the Gaza war is raging, while hostages are both suffering and dying , so that he could speak to the U.S. Congress and hold a few high-level meetings. It may not have been ideal timing, but Netanyahu got what he wanted: too many standing ovations to count. Did Israelis get anything out of the speech? Did Netanyahu lay out a vision for the future or a path to get there? One (or two) mi...
Jul 25, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 334
President Joe Biden's stunning decision to step aside and forgo a second term, throwing his support behind the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris is unlikely to dramatically change U.S. policy towards Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza, according to former diplomat and senior Haaretz columnist Alon Pinkas , who reacted to the bombshell news from Washington on the Haaretz Podcast this week. Biden is planning to remain president until his successor takes office in January 2025, so presuma...
Jul 21, 2024•30 min•Season 1Ep. 333
If indeed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was killed when IDF forces targeted him on Saturday, "it would be a very important achievement for Israel but it's not the end of the world for Hamas or the end of the war" according to Haaretz senior security analyst Amos Harel , speaking to host Allison Kaplan Sommer on this week's Haaretz Podcast about the events that rocked the past weekend - the targeting of Deif and the attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump. Although many Israeli ...
Jul 14, 2024•30 min•Season 1Ep. 332
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledges to keep up the fighting in Gaza, thousands of Israelis joined together at a conference on Monday to deliver a message to his government and the world: It's time to reach a deal, to stop the war, to make peace. One of the many groups behind the peace conference was Women Wage Peace, whose co-founder Yael Admi told Haaretz reporter and special host of Haaretz Podcast Linda Dayan that within the peace camp, "We have to unite our voices, and th...
Jul 03, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 331
The key to avoiding full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah is ending the conflict in southern Israel with Hamas, asserts Yoram Schweitzer , an expert on the Palestinian and Lebanese terror groups, on the Haaretz Podcast. Schweitzer tells host Allison Kaplan Sommer that it is in Israel's power to "extricate itself" from what is already an ongoing two-front war. He blames the "illusion of a total victory" promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza for dragging on the war for months...
Jun 24, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 330
Israelis should expect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "poison machine" to be working overtime with the coalition government attacking its own military leaders on a daily basis, says Haaretz senior defense analyst Amos Harel on the Haaretz Podcast. After a brief "honeymoon" period last week, following the IDF's daring rescue of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza, he said, "The hunt is on again. We'll see Netanyahu attacking them almost on a daily basis on the one hand, and also, what we call...
Jun 17, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 329
If they ever imagined that they were dwelling in an ivory tower, the fierce and sometimes violent confrontations on their campuses have knocked academics who teach about Israel and the Middle East into a harsh new reality, Professor Dov Waxman , director of UCLA's Nazarian Center for Israel Studies told the Haaretz Podcast on the eve of a charged graduation week for his campus. Waxman described the clash last month between pro-Palestinian protestors and Israel advocacy groups who came to confron...
Jun 13, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 328
There is "an abyss" between how the U.S. and Israeli governments treat the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, says Prof. Jonathan Dekel-Chen , whose son Sagui, 35, was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 while trying to protect his family and other residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz . Sagui Dekel-Chen's wife, Avital, gave birth to the couple's third daughter in January. Speaking with Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, the dual Israeli-U.S. citizen – who hasn't received new information abou...
Jun 02, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 327
Rabbi Delphine Horveilleur, considered one of the most powerful and prominent voices of French Jewry , spoke with Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer during her first visit to Israel since the October 7 attacks and the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza, and discussed the way in which for Diaspora Jews, the attacks meant "that our refuge isn't safe anymore." Horveilleur describes 'a feeling of vulnerability and exile that came back to us. And even in Israel, there's a feeling that we're al...
May 28, 2024•42 min•Season 1Ep. 326
Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn understands the incredulity abroad regarding the political survival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his grip on power despite the failures of October 7, terrible poll numbers, thousands of Israelis in the streets protesting weekly and his policies creating unprecedented tensions with the United States. In the second in a series of special podcast episodes in which subscribers from around the world were given the opportunity to ask questions, Benn emphas...
May 20, 2024•43 min•Season 1Ep. 326
As Israel prepares to celebrate Memorial Day, or Yom Hazikaron, on Monday and Independence Day, or Yom Haatzmaut, the following day, the abrupt transition from commemoration to celebration will look different in the shadow of October 7 and the war in Gaza. Abbey Onn lost two members of her family in Hamas' murderous attack, while three were taken hostage (two of them, 12-year-old Erez and 16-year-old Sahar, were released in November). She tells Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer that she...
May 12, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 325
Journalist and public intellectual Masha Gessen is dismayed that the Biden White House has been condemning, not supporting, the numerous tent protests against Israel's war in Gaza on American campuses and worried that this decision will hand the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump. Speaking with host Allison Kaplan Sommer on the Haaretz Podcast, Gessen said that the fact that " Biden and his administration are willing to sacrifice the election, effectively, to its ongoing engagement with ...
May 08, 2024•43 min•Season 1Ep. 324
In her first visit to Israel since October 7, Berkeley-based author and screenwriter Ayelet Waldman made the news carrying a sack of rice on her shoulder, she was arrested with a group of rabbis participating in a symbolic march to the Gaza border to deliver humanitarian aid. Neither she nor members of the group, Waldman tells Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, were under the illusion that they would actually get through the Erez checkpoint to feed Palestinians - but she felt it was imp...
May 01, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 323
If support for Israel becomes a truly partisan issue and political football in the United States, it will be "a disaster" that the people and the leaders of the Jewish state don't fully comprehend, says Professor Noah Feldman in a conversation with host of the Haaretz Podcast Allison Kaplan Sommer. Feldman is a Harvard Law School professor and public intellectual who has written ten books on law, politics, religion and Middle East geopolitics. In his new book, "To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to ...
Apr 17, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 322
Iran's firing of hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night marked a new escalation in a simmering war usually fought by proxies miles from Tehran. Iran's strike, which was largely intercepted by Israel and its allies, leaves lingering questions of global significance. On a special edition of the podcast, Haaretz reporter Linda Dayan speaks to Haaretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn , who explains how this unprecedented attack came to be – and what might follow. Although this particul...
Apr 16, 2024•29 min•Season 1Ep. 321
Six months into Israel's conflict with Hamas, the solid support U.S. President Joe Biden's White House gave to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has taken a serious hit. Following the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers , a clash over a possible military operation in Rafah, and Israel's failure to provide a vision for the "day after" the war in Gaza, there has been a "precipitous drop" in the standing of the Israeli prime minister both in the White House a...
Apr 09, 2024•41 min•Season 1Ep. 320
