Haaretz Podcast

Epizody

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  'Bibi or a Wannabibi?': Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin on what the elections are all about 15.09.2026 37min

  The intensifying Israeli election campaign encompasses a long list of issues, but at its heart, the results of the vote on October 27 will be “about the transition out of the Netanyahu era,” contended Anshel Pfeffer, Israel correspondent for The Economist, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast.  Pfeffer said that many have done their best “to be the next Netanyahu,” attempting to project his confidence, authority and leadership, while consciously or unconsciously replicating the current prime minister’s style. The front-runner, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, he noted, has a “big advantage is that he’s the first ‘wannabe Bibi’ who is not a ‘wannabe Bibi’” in looks and behavior.  Pfeffer returned to Haaretz for the podcast, where he worked as a correspondent and columnist for over 25 years and continues to contribute, for a reunion with columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, with whom he co-hosted the “Election Overdose” podcast during the run-up to the 2022 elections.  In the first Haaretz Election Podcast since the party lists were finalized on September 8, Scheindlin and Pfeffer assessed the chances of each party and bloc, as well as grappling with the larger issues: most importantly, the legacy of October 7.  Netanyahu’s newest challenge from the far-right former general Ofer Winter “is saying this election is about October 7, and that’s something that Netanyahu really doesn’t want the election to be about. For him, October 7 is kryptonite,” Pfeffer said.  But, Scheindlin said, it is inescapable.  “The sense that there has been no accountability for what happened on October 7 is not a marginal issue,” she emphasized. Israelis whose lives were upended by the events on that day and their aftermath “feel betrayed not only by the government, but by the state itself.”  Read more: Israeli Elections Poll Projects Tie Between Blocs as Eisenkot Bloc Slips Poll: Most Israeli Voters Say October 7 Will Be Main Consideration at Ballot Box Netanyahu's Likud Seeks to Disqualify Arab Party From 2026 Knesset Election Run Analysis | Netanyahu's Terrible Tuesday Left Him Almost Unscathed in Election Polls – for Now Analysis | The Quiet Radicalism of Mansour Abbas and Yoav SegalovitzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  ‘It’s a real struggle against neo-Nazis’: Behind the far-right’s political rise in Germany 10.09.2026 35min

  The stunning triumph of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a German state election represents a true “challenge to democracy” and has shaken the country’s Jewish community, said author and activist Dr. Ofer Waldman, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast “It's the first time that a right‑extremist party has had such a landslide victory in Germany,” said Waldman, who heads the Heinrich Boll Foundation office in Tel Aviv.  Haaretz writer and editor David Issacharoff, who joined Waldman on the podcast for a discussion of the election results, said that state of Saxony-Anhalt, which gave 44 percent of its vote to the controversial AfD party, is populated by voters who “feel abandoned, forgotten, and very isolated,” blaming the state and mainstream parties for their situation and channeling their resentment in an extremist political direction. This is worsened, both Waldman and Issacharoff said, by the fact that East Germany was not part of the post-Holocaust democracy education push in the West. "Keeping Jewish memory there is a real struggle of individuals in that state, and they're up against real forces of neo‑Nazis,” Issacharoff noted,  Both commentators pointed to the contrast between the expressed deep worry and concern of the German Jewish community regarding AfD antisemitism, and the resounding “utter silence” coming from the Israeli government – together with comments from Israel’s ambassador in Berlin during the election campaign that highlighted antisemitism on the left, while downplaying the AfD’s positions.  "When Israel and its representative in Germany focus all the fire towards the left, then they're totally absolving the right from its responsibility for antisemitism. And when the representatives of the Jewish state say that, it matters in Germany," Issacharoff said.  Waldman added the source of the dissonance was “what is perceived as a mutual enemy” by Israel’s far-right government.  “The AfD is perceived as the enemy of the Muslim community in Germany and, as such, a possible ally to the current Israeli administration,” Waldman said. Read more: German Jews 'Appalled' by Historic AfD Win as Israel Avoids Direct Condemnation The AfD's Victory Shatters Germany's Illusions of Immunity to the Far Right Several European States Clarify Settlement Trade Restrictions Depend on EU Action The Far-right German Party AfD Says It Has Nothing Against Jews. This Book Proves Otherwise Inside the German pro-Israel Lobby's Campaign to Defund UNRWA Who Stole All the Holocaust Memorial Stones on Oct. 7, Shaking This Quiet East German Town?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Hasan Piker, Mike Huckabee and a week of Israeli political party-hopping 07.09.2026 33min

  A last-minute scramble before the party lists for Israel’s elections are finalized on September 8 has led to the disappearance of small parties, politicians switching parties and the dismissal of veteran ultra-Orthodox Knesset members by leaders who want to “refresh” their party lists.          On the Haaretz Election Podcast, correspondents Linda Dayan and Etan Nechin reviewed the week’s big changes – along the return of October 7 conspiracy theories and the intermingling of U.S. and Israeli political campaigning with host Allison Kaplan Sommer.  Dayan noted the leap by controversial Likud MK Tally Gotliv to the extremist Otzma Yehudit party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, pointed out that the move “shows how much Likud has absorbed toxic far-right populism.”  The drastic shrinking of Yesh Atid as its leader Yair Lapid has played second fiddle to more popular center-right figures like Benny Gantz, Naftali Bennett and Gadi Eisenkot, Nechin said, “represents the limitations of liberal Jewish Israeli society. ... There’s a segment of Israeli liberal society which deems itself very liberal and very open‑minded, but would rather cede to the right than explore new political possibilities." Nechin also discussed his decision to interview controversial streamer Hasan Piker and why, despite pushback, he felt it was important to be the first in the Israeli media to do so. "His platform, where young people – mostly men – might hear for the first time the term ‘anti‑Zionist’ or ‘settler colonialism’ or learn about Israel… makes him a person that is worth talking to," he said. Read more: A Guide to Israel's Key Election Deadline – and How It Could Decide Netanyahu's Fate Bennett and Lapid Bid to Oust Netanyahu Again as They Unveil Joint Slate As Election Focus Shifts to October 7, Netanyahu Pivots to Conspiracy Theories Hasan Piker Talks Hamas, anti-Zionism and Why Americans Are Fed Up With Israel A Convicted Terror Inciter and a Man Who Killed a Palestinian: Meet Ben-Gvir's Election Team The One Thing Hasan Piker Could Say to Begin Healing Ties With U.S. JewsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Fear of Muslims, socialists and Tucker Carlson: Behind the scenes at the Republican Jewish Coalition confab 03.09.2026 35min

  Vice President JD Vance’s charm offensive failed to completely win over skeptical GOP donors who gathered this week in Las Vegas at the Republican Jewish Coalition National Leadership Summit, Haaretz’s Washington D.C. correspondent Arno Rosenfeld told the Haaretz Podcast.  There were mixed reactions to Vance’s speech to the crowd of 1,000, meant to be off the record, but leaked publicly, in which the vice president attempted to reassure those attending that, despite his isolationist leanings and association with media figures who regularly peddle antisemitic tropes, that he believed in the “mutually beneficial” relationship between the U.S. and Israel, that he was not “abandoning” the Jewish state and appreciated “American Jewish contributions to the United States.”  Vance’s words were a bit more “weird and convoluted” in a strange discussion of “blood guilt” – a term popularized by right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson, as a variation of the term “blood libel” with a slightly different meaning.  “It was quite telling that Vance was using a framework that Carlson has come up with to talk about antisemitism,” Rosenfeld said, at a moment in which even the most conservative Jews have been disturbed by Carlson’s conspiratorial theories.  On the podcast, Rosenfeld, who covered the three-day event, also spoke with host Allison Kaplan Sommer about the “anxiety” among some present over the dramatic drop in support for Israel among young conservatives, but the lack of any genuine strategy to address it, as well as the primary targets of the attack lines of the speeches: Muslims and socialists.   Rosenfeld said he was particularly “struck by the degree of just sort of open animosity toward Muslims and Islam” at the gathering, “because of how much of a focus there was on antisemitism and on extremism and on radicalism and on hate. You would get that in one breath, and then in the next breath, there would be talk about how we need to defeat ‘Islamo-fascism’ and the ‘red-green alliance’ between socialism and Islam.”  Read more: JD Vance Seeks to Assuage Republican Jews Worried About His Views Toward Israel GOP Jews Rail Against Democrats at Vegas Confab, but Worry About Their Own Party's Israel Drift Israel's U.S. Envoy Yechiel Leiter Says Government Is Failing to Stop Jewish Terrorism in West Bank Michigan Jews Help Form 'Democrats for Mike Rogers,' With Little Talk of Israel JD Vance's 'Communion' Gives Readers a Chronicle of Unconvincing ConversionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Do Israelis care about settler violence enough to change their vote? 31.08.2026 37min

  Nothing is helping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current coalition boost its standing in the polls, and it is clear that the premier is “panicking,” said Haaretz columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.  Scheindlin joins Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the entrance of a new right-wing party led by ex-general Ofer Winter into the race, joining the plethora of “pop-up” right-wing parties that are causing Netanyahu’s alarm at the possibility that one or more will fall under the electoral threshold, and the precious votes in his camp will be wasted. "Netanyahu is begging the right wing not to fragment the parties. He's warning the right wing: If you do the wrong thing, the entire world explodes," Scheindlin said, ahead of the September 8 deadline for merging with other parties and submitting final lists. On the podcast, Maltz shares what she’s found as she visits cities and towns around Israel taking the pulse of voters. Kiryat Shmona – Israel’s most targeted city, devastated by three years of war – is still grappling with the 2023 evacuation that is proving to be somewhat permanent, Maltz says. “People are pretty angry and often talk about themselves being abandoned, unseen and forgotten.” Still, like the Likud strongholds along the Gaza border that she has visited, Maltz found many clinging to party loyalties despite their disappointment with Netanyahu and his government. Some favor non-Netanyahu right-wingers, but others remain loyal to the prime minister despite the devastating events that happened on his watch.  "Many of them subscribe to these conspiracy theories about the army in cahoots with Hamas together orchestrating October 7 to make Netanyahu look bad," Maltz explained. Read more: Ex-IDF General and Far-right Hardliner Ofer Winter Reveals New Party Ahead of Israel's Election Analysis by Dahlia Scheindlin | Two Months Out, Netanyahu's Bloc Is Stuck in Polls. But All the Rest Is a Mystery By Smashing a Palestinian Monument, an Israeli Far-right Lawmaker Brought West Bank Reality to Light Reality Check: As the Election Nears, Haaretz Debunks Israeli Politicians' Biggest Lies 'Israel on Steroids': Arad Foreshadows What Another Netanyahu Victory Might Look Like 'People Here Like Ben-Gvir's Tough-guy Approach': Will This Netanyahu Stronghold Near Gaza Go Further Right?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Is Turkey the new Iran? 28.08.2026 33min

  Israel's controversial strike on an airbase in northern Syria close to Turkey was "first and foremost a message to the United States" that Turkish military penetration deeper into Syrian territory "can be turned into a real and total war," and any U.S. policy that tolerates it is "not sustainable," according to Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. The attack has been criticized as an election ploy by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While Yanarocak said such considerations may have played a role in its timing, he stressed that Turkey's ambitions in post-Assad Syria are a legitimate source of deep concern for Israel. Israel's military establishment sees them as a substantial threat and pushed for the attack after Turkey ignored warnings. The past three years of war have shifted the balance of power in Turkey's favor with the weakening of both Iran and the Gulf states, he explained in a conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer. He discussed the bold ambitions of the country led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the key role Syria plays in them. "The public discourse in Turkey is neo-Ottomanism," Yanarocak said. "Putting it more familiar to the American ears: 'Make Turkey Great Again' … Turkey is thinking very big." Read more: From Iran to Turkey, Netanyahu Is on the Hunt for New Fronts to Ignite Netanyahu Warns Turkey's Erdogan Against Military Expansion in Syria, but Hopes a Warning Is Enough Attacking Erdogan or Clinging to the Status Quo? Israel's Turkey ParadoxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  A desperate Netanyahu is firing at all fronts to win the election. Even Trump has had enough 24.08.2026 37min

  The glut of new small parties throwing their hats in the ring is increasing the chances that after the voters have their say, there will not be a decisive win either for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition parties determined to topple him.  "All of these new little parties are headed by individuals who are placing their ego above the political outcome. They can't possibly join an existing party – they have to try to start their own," said Haaretz columnist Dahlia Scheindlin on the Haaretz Election Podcast.   As a result, the voters may not end up determining who will be prime minister, and instead a “little gang” of “six, seven or eight male party leaders” will meet and decide the make-up of the coalition, Scheindlin said.  Scheindlin joined fellow columnist Esther Solomon and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the results of the Likud primaries, opposition frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot’s declaration that there will be no Palestinian state on his watch, what appears to be a politicized decision by Israel’s internal security service not to officially protect Eisenkot, and how Netanyahu, stuck in the polls, appears to be dangerously “firing in all directions” in order to find a way to victory.  "He has the capacity to aggravate, or provoke, or exploit any number of crises that are happening in this region,” Solomon said. Little, however, Scheindlin pointed out, appears to be moving the needle for the prime minister. He has shown that "you can attack Iran and attack Iran again. You can bomb Lebanon. You can kill Hassan Nasrallah, and nothing has changed the polls." Read more: The U.S. Peace Plan Is Grave for Gaza and Great for Netanyahu Netanyahu Rival Eisenkot Vows No Palestinian State: 'Not Now, Not in Next Government' Reality Check: As the Election Nears, Haaretz Debunks Israeli Politicians' Biggest Lies The Petty Politics Destroying Israel's Opposition Likud's Casualty List: The Netanyahu Loyalists Headed Home After a Brutal PrimarySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  The New Yorker's David Remnick on Netanyahu, Mamdani, and Israel's 'failure to face' Gaza 21.08.2026 53min

  Longtime editor-in-chief of The New Yorker David Remnick joins the Haaretz podcast and guest host Joshua Leifer for a wide-ranging conversation about his more than three decades of reporting on Israel and Palestine, the role of the journalist in a populist age, and the future of U.S.-Israel relations. "The only way to tell this story is to try to tell it truthfully and to know that you will fail," Remnick wrote in his report on the aftermath of October 7, 2023, published just two weeks after the attacks. In this episode, Remnick recalls what it was like to walk through the ruins of Kibbutz Be'eri and what was then the great trepidation of the nature of Israel's impending response. Remnick returned to report on Israel and Palestine four more times over the last three years, and in July, The New Yorker published Remnick's profile of Gadi Eisenkot, currently the frontrunner among the candidates challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Remnick and Leifer discuss whether Eisenkot has what it takes, and what an Eisenkot-led government might do differently. Can the damage wrought by the current government be undone? After Israel's destruction of Gaza, and amid spiraling settler violence in the West Bank, what remains of the prospects for a just resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians? Read more:  Netanyahu's Biggest Challenger: Who Is Gadi Eisenkot and What Does He Stand For? Inside Likud Territory, Eisenkot Is Quietly Gaining Ground. Will It Be Enough to Defeat Netanyahu? The American Jewish Establishment Is Defending an Israel That No Longer Exists Bibi Cried Wolf? Americans' Trust in Israeli Intelligence Is Stooping to Irreparable LowsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Israeli election update: Netanyahu's iron grip on the Likud primary 17.08.2026 37min

  The battle over the Likud Party primaries this week was a clear example of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserting his dominance over his political kingdom, Haaretz senior analyst Esther Solomon told the Haaretz Election Podcast.  Netanyahu had unsuccessfully tried to cancel the always robust Likud primaries altogether – ultimately compromising by pushing through a measure where he chose the candidates for nine key spots on the top of the list. He included a spot for Oren Dobronsky, an Israeli high-tech entrepreneur and hummus chain owner in Silicon Valley who has not lived in Israel for years, has no political experience and made headlines recently for calling U.S. President Donald Trump a “morally corrupt piece of shit” in the recent past.  The prime minister’s message was clear, Solomon said: "This is no longer about the Likud party. This is about me." Solomon joined Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the top stories from the last week week, which included controversy over efforts by expat Israelis to travel en masse to vote to replace the current government, and a proposal by opposition frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot to form a minority government even if he doesn’t have a decisive election victory.  Also on the podcast, Maltz described her encounters as she travels across Israeli cities to take their pulse ahead of the election, including Kfar Chabad, where, she quipped “only the Messiah is more popular” than far-right extremist Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Arab city of Umm-al-Fahm, where she said it was “very sad” that many young well-educated Palestinian citizens of Israel said they were so alienated that they were not planning to vote. Read more: Netanyahu's New Election Ploy Smells of Desperation and Elon Musk In Monday's Likud Party Primary, Netanyahu Hopes to Get Rid of Lawmakers Whom He Had Nurtured in the Past Netanyahu Changes Likud Rules to Let Far-right Politician Run in Primary 'People Here Like Ben-Gvir's Tough-guy Approach': Will This Netanyahu Stronghold Near Gaza Go Further Right? 'We Need to Finish the Job': The Israeli Town Where Itamar Ben-Gvir Ranks Second Only to the MessiahSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  What the hell is going on in the West Bank? 14.08.2026 37min

  Nearly three years since Israel’s war in Gaza began, and despite a lengthy case brought before the High Court of Israel, journalists remain unable to enter the Strip to report independently on the widespread destruction, the ongoing humanitarian crisis and the IDF’s occupation of more than half of the Strip.  Histadrut national union official Peter Lerner, who served as the IDF’s Spokesperson to International Media until 2024, says the IDF’s reluctance to allow journalists in is a symptom of the war being drawn out and Israel’s increasing isolation from the global community.  “The time passed two years ago,” to let journalists enter Gaza, Lerner said. “I recommended it to my superiors, that holding out this long is not beneficial to Israel; it just superimposes the fact that people will say that you're hiding something. …The fact is that there will be negative stories about the negative consequences of war.”  Lerner and host Amir Tibon also discussed the reasons why Israeli soldiers passively watch – or even partake – in settler-led attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, and the ways in which the government fuels the total lack of accountability. “When I watch the attacks of these families in their homes, and they’re so helpless – as someone who experienced October 7 very, very close, it’s traumatic to watch," shared Tibon, a longtime resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz. State-backed settler violence has also accelerated against journalists in the West Bank, where Haaretz correspondent Matan Golan and photographer Itai Ron were attacked this week by settlers that have besieged homes in Qusra, near Nablus, as IDF soldiers looked on.  Abby Seitz, a features editor at Haaretz, joins the podcast to recount the threats, illegal orders from soldiers and right-out lies that she and reporter Nagham Zbeedat encountered in a single day in the southern West Bank last month. Zbeedat and Seitz reported from Umm al-Khair as the community marked one year since Awdah Hathaleen recorded his own death at the hands of internationally sanctioned settler leader Yinon Levi. When asked for comment on why Border Police, with the army, dispersed the village’s memorial ceremony, a police spokesperson told Haaretz that it was an “unlawful gathering, which was intended to serve as a demonstration of support for a terrorist who was neutralized” – a statement that contradicts the state’s own stance, as prosecutors filed reckless manslaughter charges against Levi last week.  “This is not uncommon, and it’s increasingly happening against international and Israeli journalists, but it's also been happening against Palestinian journalists for a long time. There are Palestinian journalists right now in administrative detention, held for months and months and months without charges, simply for filming what's been going on” in the West Bank, Seitz said.  Read more:  Taghreed El-Khodary: International Media Is Failing Palestinian Journalists in Gaza West Bank correspondent Matan Golan: I Was Attacked by Settlers as a Journalist. What the IDF Lets Them Do Will Get Palestinians Killed IDF Removes Palestinian Families in Qusra as Israeli Settlers Resist Army Operation to End Siege 'Lords of the Land': Israeli Soldiers Describe How Settlers Manage Military Reality in the West Bank One Year Later: Israel Issues Rare Indictment Against Settler Who Killed Palestinian Activist A Year After a Settler Shot Awdah Hathaleen, His Village Still Can't Mourn in PeaceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  'Right-wing but not Netanyahu': Will Israel's new mini-parties save Bibi or bury him? 10.08.2026 31min

  While the polls in Israel have been relatively stagnant, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal standing has faltered. “The minute that Netanyahu's stock seems weak, people will start selling it, and that has begun to happen,” said Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. Joining Leifer on the podcast, Haaretz correspondent Linda Dayan observed that in her conversations with mainstream Israelis who “don’t identify as leftists,” they see a real alternative leader in challenger Gadi Eisenkot.  “People have said of Netanyahu in the past that there's no one who can replace him, who has the experience and the gravitas that we need. Now, for the first time in a very long time, people are saying it looks like there's someone who can actually do it.” The two panelists joined host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the debut of new right-wing parties who eschew Netanyahu and their “machinations” attempting to engineer a government coalition that would include the anti-Netanyahu center-right – while excluding Yair Golan’s Democrats Party, and, of course the Arab parties.  "There is maybe a hope or a fantasy of finding some way of creating a government that excludes Yair Golan and the Democrats, and that closes the door definitively on having a potential Arab party in the coalition,” said Leifer, referring to the right’s growing fear of the prospect of an Eisenkot-led government that includes Mansour Abbas’ United Arab List. Read more:  How to Actually Read the Israeli Election Polls Israel's Opposition Parties Are Courting New Immigrants With a New Set of Priorities In Haifa, the 'Putin Aliyah' and Despairing Arab Citizens Warn of A Dire Future Analysis by Joshua Leifer | Eisenkot Keeps Running Away From What Everyone Knows He Believes Most Israelis Fear Upcoming Election Could Be Compromised, New Poll FindsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  'Trump started a war with no plan. Now he doesn't know how to end it' 07.08.2026 23min

  Haaretz senior defense columnist Amos Harel joins the Haaretz Podcast to discuss Trump's latest U-turn on Iran, from threatening to bomb the country's infrastructure to once again negotiating with the Islamic Republic over reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Does the president have a plan, or is he just responding to pressure from different directions? How likely is a resumption of full-scale war between Tehran and Jerusalem? And is there truly a lack of interceptors protecting Israel from Iranian missiles? Amos answers all these questions, as we await the president's next step. Meanwhile in Gaza, a new agreement has been announced by the Board of Peace, the international body overseeing the coastal enclave's painfully slow recovery. On paper, it looks great: Hamas will voluntarily disarm, Israel will then withdraw from the areas it occupied after October 7, and reconstruction will move ahead at a faster pace. There's just one problem: No one believes the deal will actually be implemented, and the two sides are already disagreeing over its content and interpretation. Harel and guest host Amir Tibon will discuss the chances for success there, and also the growing danger of escalation in the West Bank after another wave of violent attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinian villages. At what point will the Palestinian population, and perhaps some of the Palestinian Authority's security forces, respond in kind to those attacks and throw the whole region into another round of fighting? And is such a scenario a foregone conclusion, or can it still be avoided? Read more on Haaretz.com The Art of the Deal – or the Art of Bullshit? Trump's Wariness of Another Iran War Hormuz Deal Would Hand Iran an Unprecedented Geopolitical Victory How Much Longer Can Lebanon Withstand Israeli and Hezbollah Obstruction? How Netanyahu Convinced Trump's Board of Peace to Rewrite Its Gaza Deal With HamasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Could a Jewish politician joining an Islamist party shake up Israel's elections? 02.08.2026 37min

  Gadi Eisenkot "hasn't finished his rise" in the polls after his party, Yashar, has overtaken Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party for several weeks in a row, while the potential coalition of opposition parties is soaring past that of the current government, said Haaretz columnist Dahlia Scheindlin, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. Scheindlin, a veteran political strategist and analyst, noted that even the right-wing pollsters, who are heavily biased in favor of Netanyahu's coalition, are showing numbers that point to "a decline ever since the ceasefire and the war with Iran," reflecting perceptions among supporters who once "saw him as a great global statesperson." The podcast panel, including Haaretz correspondent Nagham Zbeedat and host Allison Kaplan Sommer, reviewed the noteworthy political events of the past week, most prominently the intriguing news that could shake up the coalition mathematics: the Arab Islamist Ra'am Party's plans to invite a former senior police officer and centrist Jewish politician to claim the number two position on its list. "Having a Jewish Israeli politician join an Arab party, especially an Islamist political party," would represent a "significant milestone," Zbeedat said, predicting that the move would boost support for Ra'am and increase the chances that an anti-Netanyahu coalition would invite the party into a coalition, which could well be its key to winning power. Zbeedat herself, however, is not lending her vote to Ra'am or any other political party. She explained on the podcast why, like many other Palestinian citizens of Israel, she chooses not to participate in elections. She does not believe, she said, in taking part in a "performance" of democracy and granting "legitimacy" to a government that "enables the daily occupation struggles" and "doesn't accept my existence." Read more:  Game Changer? What if This Jewish Lawmaker Joins an Israeli Arab Party Why I, a Palestinian Citizen, Don't Vote in Israeli Elections Arab Parties Are Talking Unity. Their Voters Have Much Bigger Issues With Confidence, Conviction and Even Talking Occupation: The Democrats Are a New Sight in Israeli Politics How Arab Party Leader Mansour Abbas Changed Israel's Political GameSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  This Israeli ultra-Orthodox feminist activist has a warning for U.S. Jews 29.07.2026 36min

  On this week’s Haaretz Podcast, guest host Joshua Leifer talks to Pnina Pfeuffer, a liberal, feminist ultra-Orthodox social activist. The Jerusalem-based Pfeuffer, CEO of the New Haredim, recently petitioned against a Knesset bill that would permit gender-segregated study tracks for master's and doctoral degrees in Israeli academic institutions. Pfeuffer represents a growing minority inside the Israeli ultra-Orthodox public that is interested in “full citizenship, with full obligations and rights” in the Jewish State. This is a public that wants the Israeli government to enforce the military draft on Haredim and teach math and English in Haredi schools, instead of continuing the de facto Haredi autonomy in which many Israeli rules and norms are absent.   According to Pfeuffer, the Haredi community reflects Israel as a whole, and younger Haredim - like their secular and religious Zionist counterparts - are radicalizing, and are more right wing than their parents. Some, as Leifer notes, are part of a “far-right Haredi street movement that is in the Ben-Gvir camp or even more right wing.” Addressing the American Jewish community, Pfeuffer asks that those giving money to Israeli causes “educate themselves” about who they are supporting, “because a lot of liberal funding and good intentions” end up promoting gender segregation and far-right politics.  Read more: Can Israel's New One-line Law Shield Haredim From IDF Service? Israel Advances Bill Legalizing Gender Segregation in Universities Gender Segregation in Academia Is the Government's Divide and Conquer Strategy The Israeli Town Where Itamar Ben-Gvir Ranks Second Only to the MessiahSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Three months to Israel's election: Why is Netanyahu really going to Washington? 27.07.2026 34min

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on traveling to the White House three months before the Israeli election signals his desperation to boost his sinking fortunes at the polls, Haaretz senior columnist Esther Solomon told the Haaretz Election Podcast.  Despite his unpopularity with major portions of both American political parties and his turbulent relationship with President Donald Trump regarding the ongoing conflict with Iran, the Israeli leader “does still think that a photo op with Trump is going to play well for him, even though it's not entirely clear if Trump is going to provide exactly the kind of celebratory hugs” he wishes for, Solomon said.  But in his current political situation, the Israeli leader “has to pull out every single stop, and he is doing that across the board. Whether it's in terms of military operations, every kind of political manipulation or strategy that he has, in order to pull every last possible vote for the bloc of parties that would support him to be prime minister.” Fellow Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer added that over the past year, “when Netanyahu flies to the United States, it has been to convince President Trump to jump back into the war, and I think that that's probably what he wants to do under the pretense of going to mourn the late Senator Lindsey Graham."  On the podcast, Solomon and Leifer joined host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the rising fortunes of Netanyahu’s opposition and the growing signs of concern in the ruling coalition camp, illustrated by an AI-generated video of rival Gadi Eisenkot featuring an image of his slain son, that was widely condemned as offensive.  The panelists also discussed how escalating settler violence in the West Bank is making the months until the election more volatile and dangerous. Leifer said that Israelis must “take seriously” statements by Netanyahu’s extremist right-wing partners that “this is the last chance that the settler right is going to have for a long time to stake its claim in the ground and end the possibility of a two-state solution. We should not be naïve about the lengths to which they are willing to go to prevent that possibility from happening." Read more: In D.C., Netanyahu Will Bid Farewell Both to Lindsey Graham and Unconditional U.S. Support Analysis by Joshua Leifer | Will Israel's Opposition Be Able to Undo Netanyahu's Damage? 'People Here Like Ben-Gvir's Tough-guy Approach': Will This Netanyahu Stronghold Near Gaza Go Further Right? 'Not a One-man Party': Likud Blocks Netanyahu Bid to Scrap Primaries 'The Israeli Government Has an Interest in Disrupting the Elections, Giving Free Rein to Thugs'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  'An extreme right-wing Israel can't just pour billions into PR and expect its U.S. image to improve' 23.07.2026 33min

  Both Israeli leaders and the Israeli public – lulled by both President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden’s backing of Israel – are utterly unprepared for the generational tsunami taking place when it comes to American support for the Jewish state, Haaretz’s opinions editor Amir Tibon told the Haaretz Podcast "Approximately 60 percent of Americans have a negative view of Israel, and the younger you go, the worse it gets – we're close to 80 percent," said Tibon, who previously served as Haaretz’s Washington and diplomatic correspondent. "Israelis are looking at the top line, which is what does Trump have to say about us? And they're ignoring the iceberg, which is hidden underneath the daily Trump noise, of negative views of the country."  "We’re going to have a lot of problems once this older generation leaves the American political scene, and most Israelis don't understand it yet," he said.  In his conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Tibon also addressed the topic engaging most Israelis: whether or not Israel will be pulled into the continuing military confrontation between Iran and the United States, either at the request of the U.S. president or in response to a potential strike by the Iranians.  He also addressed Gaza, both as a journalist and as a Gaza border resident. If Trump’s plan for rebuilding Gaza remains stagnant, he said, the situation is a “ticking-time bomb” with the “continuation of war” being inevitable. Tibon, who survived the October 7 attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, as detailed in his book, said that the ghosts of that day are ever present in daily life. "The memory is still there, and the fear is still there, and the trauma. And I think what is most lacking is a sense of optimism that we will have a better reality a year from today."  Read more: Americans Souring on Israel – but Not Warming to Palestinians, Pew Poll Finds Haaretz Found Israel's U.S. Influence-op Accounts. No One Actually Follows Them Half of Jewish Americans Don't Think Protesting Israel Is Antisemitic, Poll Finds 103 House Democrats Vote to Cut U.S. Aid to Israel in Landmark Symbolic Vote The Constant Campaigner: Netanyahu Has Been Running for Reelection Since October 7See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  ‘What if there aren't free and fair elections in Israel in October? What are we going to do?’ 20.07.2026 40min

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be even more unpopular than the current polling demonstrates, Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer said on this week’s edition of the Haaretz Election Podcast. “I have begun to think the polling is not telling the whole story,” he said, in a discussion on how voters who believe Netanyahu is causing irreversible damage to Israeli democracy and want him removed are currently ping-ponging between “optimism and apocalyptic thinking.” The “apocalyptic thinking,” Leifer said, involves speculation as to whether Netanyahu, anticipating defeat, somehow uses the precarious security situation to prevent free and fair elections on the scheduled date.  "After everything we've experienced over the last four years, can we rule out that apocalyptic scenario? We can't rule it out, sadly," he said. Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz, who joined Leifer and host Allison Kaplan Sommer on the weekly podcast panel, said she observed much of this disquiet with the country’s leader as she travels the country to speak with voters ahead of the October 27 election, from Arab cities to upscale suburbs to West Bank settlements where the most extreme elements of the government draw their support.  In the settlement of Alon Shvut, she met people “conflicted” over whether to support Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.   “On the one hand, they're very angry at Bezalel Smotrich and his party for supporting [Netanyahu’s] draft exemption bill for the ultra-Orthodox,” she said. “It really, really bothers them and angers them that the party that is supposed to represent this community voted in favor of this bill.”  At the same time, “they tell you there has been nobody in history who has done more for us in preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state than Smotrich. He’s given them more than any other minister. So they don't know whether they should or shouldn’t vote for him.” Read more: Haaretz's 2026 Election Poll Tracker: The Latest Projections Analysis by Joshua Leifer: If Netanyahu Loses the Election, Will He Go Full Trump? Who Is Gadi Eisenkot, and What Does He Stand For? Read Judy Maltz's election dispatches from across Israel and the West Bank: 'The Jews Turned Against Us, Even the Leftists': The Bedouin City Poised to Play Kingmaker in Israel's Election In Haifa, the 'Putin Aliyah' and Despairing Arab Citizens Warn of A Dire Future Many of the Voters Who Could Swing Israel's Next Election Are Naftali Bennett's Neighbors 'My Party Has Been Stolen': The West Bank Settlers Drifting Away From Israel's Far Right Why Umm al-Fahm Is Drawing Attention From Both Ends of Israel's Political SpectrumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Rep. Ro Khanna to Haaretz: ‘I’m more disturbed by Israel’s lies’ than being detained in West Bank 15.07.2026 29min

  In his first interview with an Israeli media outlet since his confrontation with armed settlers and Israeli soldiers in the southern West Bank last week, Representative Ro Khanna spoke with Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer in a wide-ranging conversation about the now-famous incident, the “cruelty” he witnessed in his visit to the West Bank, and how Israel’s “disproportionate and inhumane” behavior in the Gaza war has changed his policy positions and the way that both he – and Americans at large – view the Jewish state.    "Israel has lost Americans under 50 – not just Democrats but Republicans," he said. “It is one of the most foolish strategies to have antagonized an entire American generation, and that's what Bibi Netanyahu has accomplished." In the interview, Khanna recounted how Israeli settlers mocked and antagonized his delegation, and parked their vehicle in front of his to block the road to Khirbet Zanuta, a Bedouin village in the South Hebron Hills that has been forcibly displaced by settler violence twice since 2023, despite a High Court ruling that requires Israeli authorities to safeguard the Palestinians’ return.  "We were quickly told to get into our van, and they blocked our van from exiting,” he said, saying that the settlers and the IDF forces who “took their side” should be investigated and prosecuted. “You can't do that. I've called it detainment. You could call it false imprisonment."  In reaction to subsequent statements on the incident issued by the Israeli military and top officials, he said that he was “more disturbed” by their “lies” than by “the incident itself.”  Khanna, a California Democrat who has made it clear that he is interested in a presidential run in 2028 and that he plans to make Palestinian rights a central issue on his platform, added, “the next American president will demand the arrest of violent settlers.” Reiterating his belief that “Gaza was a genocide,” Khanna also said that anyone who “wants to see the cruelty of humanity” should “spend a day in the occupied West Bank." He said he had visited Israel three times in the past – including trips with Jewish groups – and today, he is “saddened” and “pained” that Israel’s “contribution to human civilization is being corrupted because of an ugly occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, because of extreme elements that want to see the aspirations for a greater Israel, and because of an unwillingness to recognize the humanity and dignity of the Palestinian people.” Read more:  Op-ed by Breaking the Silence's Nadav Weiman: I Joined Rep. Ro Khanna on His West Bank Visit. Here's What I Saw Israel's Response to Settlers Detaining Ro Khanna? Call J Street's Judaism Into Question West Bank Palestinians Flee Homes in Zanuta Amid Settler Violence, Failed IDF Protection Erased: Israeli Settlers' Brutal War on Palestinian Communities in the West Bank Israel to Fund Settler Group Sanctioned by U.K., France and Canada, Claiming Grant Will 'Reduce Youth Violence' Israel Pushes Regulations to Legalize West Bank Farm Outposts An Israeli Shooter Goes Free – and Returns to Terrorize a Grieving Palestinian VillageSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  A digital 'forever war' on democracy: Iran and Netanyahu both sow chaos online ahead of Israeli elections 13.07.2026 36min

  With Israeli elections set for October 27, Iran is increasingly pairing its military actions with aggressive online campaigns designed to sow chaos and conflict – alongside ongoing efforts to recruit Israelis as spies, Haaretz cyber and disinformation correspondent Omer Benjakob warned on the Haaretz Election Podcast, in a roundtable with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer and correspondent Linda Dayan.  “We’ve let the digital arena fester,” Benjakob said, in a stinging critique of the way in which Israel’s vaunted security services have dropped the ball in online foreign influence that has now been “supercharged” by AI. One of the reasons the phenomenon has been difficult to combat is because “nine times out of 10, you can’t differentiate between a pro‑Iranian campaign and a pro‑Netanyahu campaign,” he added, noting that Israel’s prime minister and his far-right ruling coalition and the country’s enemies, he noted, have a stake in maximizing extremism and division in the months leading up to Election Day.  In their review of the week’s political headlines, the Election Podcast panel also discussed U.S. Democratic presidential hopefuls Rahm Emanuel, who addressed Israelis in Tel Aviv last week, and Ro Khanna, who was detained by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the southern West Bank – and the rise of former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot in the polls and the nature of the threat he poses to Netanyahu.  Eisenkot appeals to voters who identify as right-wing and voted Likud in the past, but are seeking a “sane right” this time around, Dayan observed. “He offers a security‑heavy, ‘big Z’ Zionist party” that, unlike Likud, “isn’t embarrassing itself by unleashing very loud but not very content‑rich people onto the public.” Read more: Iran's Other Weapon: How Israel Woke Up Late to the Threat of Election Interference Gadi Eisenkot Is Quietly Gaining Ground Inside Likud Territory. Will It Be Enough to Defeat Netanyahu? Latest Poll Shows ex-IDF Chief Eisenkot's Party Maintaining Lead Over Netanyahu's Likud 'The IDF Is Lying': Rep. Ro Khanna Calls for Arrest of IDF Soldiers He Says Were Involved in His West Bank Detention Op-ed by Nadav Weiman: I Joined Rep. Ro Khanna on His West Bank Visit. Here's What I Saw Rahm Emanuel's Tough Love Wins Warm Welcome in Tel AvivSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  'We need allies, not just more security cameras': Reform movement head Rick Jacobs on the growing ‘isolation’ of U.S. Jews 07.07.2026 39min

  The far-right religious Netanyahu government is doing its best to “push away” liberal non-Orthodox American Jews from Israel, said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, leader of the U.S. Reform movement, on the Haaretz Podcast. “We’re not going away. We’re actually leaning in,” he said. “You can’t trade in non‑Orthodox Jews for evangelical Christians. We’re stuck, you’re stuck with us, we’re stuck with you – we’re the Jewish people.”  During the era of negotiations over the 2016 historic compromise between non-Orthodox movements and the Israeli government over an egalitarian plaza at the Western Wall for mixed-gender prayer, Jacobs said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and the premier’s close advisers – were in regular contact. Today, he said, “it has been years” since there has been a phone call – let alone a meeting – between the leader of the largest American Jewish membership organization and the Israeli leader – and, nearly a decade after the collapse of the compromise effort, the government is moving legislation through the Knesset that would not only forbid but criminalize egalitarian prayer, as well as women reading Torah and wearing traditionally masculine ritual garments, at the Western Wall.  “It’s not just that you’re going to get hassled: You could literally spend seven years in jail,” said Jacobs, noting that additional proposed laws regarding the Law of Return and conversion, together with the Western Wall bill, “reflects a demonization – not just a difference, but a demonization – of non-Orthodox Jewry.” On the podcast, Jacobs confronted the deep political challenges facing liberal and progressive American Jews regarding the “shockwaves” in the U.S.-Israel relationship, the spike in antisemitism since October 7 and Israel’s reaction to it. “There's this notion I hear it all the time, particularly from officials of the Israeli government, which is: ‘They all hate us … Everybody hates Israel. Everybody hates the Jews. So it doesn't matter what we do here, [with] settler violence in the West Bank – if we eradicate that, they'd still hate us. And issues around pluralism and democracy don’t matter, because they'll always hate us.’  “I just would like to bring the view that says actually, it does matter.” Read more: Bill Banning Egalitarian Prayer at Western Wall Bound to Face Serious Legal Challenges, Warns Gov't Lawyer Op-ed by Women of the Wall's Anat Hoffman: Israeli MKs Mull an Evil and Absurd Bill That Promises More Jail Time for Worshippers Than Rapists Rahm Emanuel's Tough Love Wins Warm Welcome in Tel Aviv 30 Percent of Jewish American Adults Say Israel Committed Genocide in Gaza Israel's U.S. Envoy Says Minister's Verbal Attack on Reform MK in Knesset Was 'Disgusting' The Raucous and Roundabout History of Reform JudaismSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.