What Matters Now

The Times of Israel•www.timesofisrael.com

News

A weekly exploration of one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World right now.

Last refreshed: January 24th, 2026 at 6:44 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Is it wise for US to blacklist IDF unit?

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. This week, we speak with The Times of Israel's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur about the controversial Netzah Yehudah battalion that is on the docket for blacklisting by the United States under the 1997 Leahy Law. In August 2022, Israeli troops from the religious Netzah Yehuda battalion were filmed beating two Palestinian detainees in t...

Apr 25, 2024•38 min

What Matters Now to Mideast analyst Avi Issacharoff: Iran can have nukes in 6 months

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. In a post-October 7 Israeli reality, is any new security threat outside the realm of imagination? This week, when over 300 projectiles were sent from Iran to Israel, we pose this question to journalist and hit Israeli drama "Fauda" co-creator Avi Issacharoff. Legions of fans around the world know of Issacharoff’s fiction writing from th...

Apr 18, 2024•34 min

What Matters Now to David Horovitz: The conflicts of war coverage

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. Speaking in our Jerusalem office, The Times of Israel editor David Horovitz offers a rare in-depth look at the professional challenges and personal conflicts he’s faced in covering the war against Hamas for the past half year. Horovitz gives a candid survey at what it is to run a site that, following the surprise October 7 Hamas infiltr...

Apr 11, 2024•45 min

What Matters Now to Micah Goodman: This is a war of independence for Israelis and Gazans

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. In six months of war, Israel has systematically broken down Hamas’s battalions in the Gaza Strip. But in achieving terrible success in its aim to defang the terrorist army, the Jewish state is no longer seen on the world stage as the attacked underdog David, but increasingly reviled as a cruel Goliath. According to many in the West, it ...

Apr 04, 2024•45 min

What Matters Now to mourning mother Hannah Wacholder Katsman: Personal & national grief

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration of one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. Days after his 32nd birthday, on Saturday, October 7, Hayim Katsman was killed by terrorists from Gaza in his neighbor’s home in Kibbutz Holit while shielding her with his body. His body was identified and the family was notified the next day. He was buried on Thursday of that week. Born to American immigrant parents and one of six children, Hayim was a scholar of philosoph...

Mar 28, 2024•36 min

What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Is Netanyahu an obstacle to victory?

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration of one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. In his US Senate floor speech last week, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer called for new Israeli elections as the war winds down and branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as one of four obstacles to peace along with Hamas, the Israeli far-right and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Throughout the past week, Times of Israel podcast listeners have...

Mar 21, 2024•32 min

What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Hamas starves Gazans as a war tactic

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration of one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. On Tuesday, aid for 25,000 people reached Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip for the first time in weeks, according to the UN World Food Program. “With people in northern Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day and we need entry points directly into the north,” tweeted the UN agency after the aid's successful entry. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Act...

Mar 14, 2024•29 min

What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Campus antisemitism makes new Zionists

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur recently gave a series of lectures at North American college campuses. At some, including Harvard, his lecture was met with a performative walk-out from a contingent of pro-Palestinian protesters. Since Hamas's October 7 murderous onslaught, accounts of campus antisemitism have filled the pages of newspapers, from The Times of Israel ...

Mar 07, 2024•36 min

What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Haredim have to defend Israel, too

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. This year, in what is reportedly a record-high number, some 66,000 young men from the ultra-Orthodox community received a deferral from military service. Of those tens of thousands of military-age men, following Hamas's murderous October 7 onslaught on Israel and the war it launched, 540 men voluntarily signed up for military service. On Monday, the High Court of Justice ...

Feb 29, 2024•32 min

What Matters Now to Ksenia Svetlova: Russia's new position on the global 'Risk' board

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now. Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the conflict is giving all appearances of turning into a "forever war." But in other parts of the world, Russia's influence has arguably grown. This week on What Matters Now, former MK Ksenia Svetlova, an expert in the Middle East and Russia, speaks about how Russia's forces remain throughout the Middle East and how its reach has de...

Feb 22, 2024•31 min

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