Unholy: Two Jews on the News

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  Polls, Naza, Macklemore 17.09.2026 37мин

  With Yonit feeling a little under the weather, Jonathan is joined by friend of the podcast, Haaretz military affairs analyst Amos Harel. They discuss a new poll showing Benjamin Netanyahu gaining ground in his contest against former general Gady Eisenkot - with nearly six weeks to go till Israelis vote, is this a blip or did Eisenkot peak too early? Plus: the Israeli right declares war on a film almost no one has seen, what exactly is happening on the ground in the West Bank - and rapper Macklemore wins a chutzpah award for a past episode many seem all too keen to forget.
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  Ilana Dayan on Israel's Most Crucial Choice 15.09.2026 1ч 4мин

  As Israel heads into what may be the most consequential election of its history, the country is still arguing less about where it's going than about how it got here. This week, Yonit and Jonathan sit down with a titan of Israeli broadcasting — Ilana Dayan, anchor of the investigative program Uvda for three decades — who returns to Unholy to make sense of it all. She traces how Netnayahu survived a moment that should have ended his political career, makes the case for what actually sets challenger Gadi Eisenkot apart, and confronts head-on whether Israelis see the last three years as a win or a wound still open. Plus: her read on the West Bank sanctions rattling even Netanyahu's own coalition — and why, despite everything, she still finds a reason for optimism.
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  The Lists, the Sanctions, and six weeks to go 10.09.2026 28мин

  September 8th was the deadline for Israeli parties to file their lists — and Netanyahu reached it less organised than he'd have liked, with a rival on the right running alone, a reserved slot for his own Channel 14 broadcaster, and barely a handful of women anywhere near the top. Then Britain, joined by France, Canada and nine others, sanctioned settlement goods, called the occupation itself unlawful, and used the words "ethnic cleansing" about settler violence in the West Bank. The UK's chief rabbi called it a dark day for British Jews. Other rabbis disagreed, loudly. Yonit and Jonathan work through what sanctions actually hit when the target is a bank that gave someone a mortgage — and whether, six weeks before an election, this lands as pressure or as a gift.
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  Rabbi Angela Buchdahl on forgiveness, Zionism and Mamdani 08.09.2026 46мин

  The Jewish new year arrives with the word ‘Zionist’ deemed an insult and a technology that never forgets anything that anyone has ever said or done. Following Unholy tradition, Yonit and Jonathan usher in the season of awe and the High Holydays with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, who leads New York’s Central Synagogue and whose congregation was rushed by an intruder during a packed Friday night service weeks before this conversation. She walks through what repentance actually demands — a real apology, a change of action as well as heart, and three attempts — and why she thinks Abraham, the first Jew, failed the test we remember on Rosh Hashanah. Plus: the sermon she is dreading, why she calls the coming Israeli election existential for Jews everywhere, and, as ever, the music.
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  Rock Bottom Politics and the Art of the If-Pology 03.09.2026 43мин

  Seven weeks out from an election that in many ways is a referendum on culpability for October 7th, Benjamin Netanyahu tells Channel 14 that if only they had woken him earlier that fateful day, everything would have been different — and his wife goes considerably further about Yair Golan, a man who drove towards the gunfire that morning and saved lives. Yonit and Jonathan take Mrs Netanyahu’s accusation apart, then turn to the week's most improbable story: Yoav Segalovich, a Jewish former police commander, joining Mansour Abbas's Islamist party - because the crime wave destroying Israel’s Arab communities needs someone with a proven ability to fix it. Plus a Channel 13 poll that should worry the anti-Netanyahu bloc; Britain's expected ban on trade in goods linked to the West Bank - and why Greece and Finland moved in the other direction. Our Chutzpah award goes to a perennial winner with a new map, and the Mensch of the Week award is split three ways between brothers.
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  Gordon Brown on Nationalist Populism, Israel and Hope 01.09.2026 36мин

  The former UK Prime Minister and Chancellor joins Yonit and Jonathan for the latest of our Unholy Conversations — on the void populist nationalists have moved into, on the difference between hope and optimism, on the father whose projector slides taught him the kings of Israel before the kings of England, and on the Middle East peace deal he watched come apart in 2009. The former Prime Minister and Chancellor joins Yonit and Jonathan for the latest of our Unholy Conversations — on the void populist nationalists have moved into, on the difference between hope and optimism, on the father whose projector slides taught him the kings of Israel before the kings of England, and on the peace deal he watched come apart in 2009.
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  The 60-Day Countdown, Sledgehammer Politics -- and Dolly Parton 27.08.2026 43мин

  With sixty days to go until the Israeli elections, the political jockeying enters into overdrive. Yonit and Jonathan break down the high-stakes coalition arithmetic facing both Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot, from the crowded field of small right-wing parties—including the entrance of retired general Ofer Winter—to the battle on the center ground. Meanwhile, alarming footage of settler violence in the West Bank and provocative stunts by far-right lawmakers raise hard questions and trigger fierce international blowback from London to Washington. Plus: an election ad pulled on grounds of chutzpah so extreme, even its own party couldn't defend it, and a Mensch of the Week whose Jewish connection nobody saw coming.
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  Andy Nyman on saying "F-You" to Hitler on stage 25.08.2026 44мин

  It's the end of summer, and Yonit and Jonathan are taking a break from the news with a nugget of pure Jewish joy. Andy Nyman — the West End actor, writer, director and magician currently starring as Max Bialystock in The Producers, and previously as an acclaimed Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof — joins the show for an Unholy Conversation. Why does Mel Brooks' nearly-60-year-old joke about Hitler still land? What makes Max Bialystock - who could have been Tevye’s grandson - so beloved, even in his desperation? And is the Broadway musical, as a form, secretly a Jewish one? Andy answers the question by giving a rare performance of a musical classic — rendered in Yiddish. You won’t want to miss it.
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  Bibi's Primary Battles, Gaza Deadlines, and the Plus-sign "Plot" 20.08.2026 44мин

  Sixty-eight days from the election, the hardest problems on Benjamin Netanyahu's desk are arriving from Washington. Jared Kushner is meeting Hamas directly, and the Gaza withdrawal deadlines he is carrying — thirty, sixty and ninety days — all land inside the Israeli campaign. Yonit and Jonathan read the timing as an unfriendly act rather than an accident, and ask what Donald Trump wants in return for the endorsement he keeps withholding. Also this week: the anti-Netanyahu bloc still cannot say who leads it, the IDF publishes its decisions in five Gaza cases, and the prime minister calls Britain an Islamic Republic on a podcast. Plus a Chutzpah award for an American broadcaster who has found proof of Israeli hostility to Christians in a mathematical symbol, and a Mensch of the Week that took more than 500 days to arrive.
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  The Middle East Cauldron - with Simon Sebag Montefiore 18.08.2026 36мин

  Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore returns to Unholy to discuss his sweeping new book, The Cauldron: A History of the Middle East between 1900 and 2026. He tells Yonit and Jonathan that understanding the region today requires starting at the dawn of the 20th century — thanks to the long shadow still cast by the Ottoman Empire and its collapse. They talk of the often underestimated significance of Saudi Arabia, the convulsions that followed the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the extent to which Israel is - unexpectedly - a Middle Eastern state like any other.
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  Clash with the White House, clash on the West Bank 13.08.2026 52мин

  Benjamin Netanyahu has said no to Donald Trump's 15-point Gaza plan, and the refusal is flat rather than fudged. In the West Bank, extremist settlers have besieged two Palestinian families in the village of Qusra, apparently hoping to take their homes. The IDF went in but came away with mission very much unaccomplished. With Yonit away, Jonathan is joined by Hadley Freeman, columnist for London’s Sunday Times and author of the acclaimed memoir, House of Glass, for what is an Unholy first: two voices from the Jewish diaspora and no Israeli in the room. They talk through the week's news and reflect on what three years since October 7 has done to Jewish life outside Israel, why Israel-Palestine has become the litmus test of the American left and whether anybody speaks for the diaspora. Plus: a Chutzpah nominee that reached a Belfast stage via Sweden, and a Mensch that arrives from Australia by way of Yiddish.
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  The mediaeval image of the Jew - and why it’s lasted. With Miri Rubin 11.08.2026 36мин

  Three of the oldest myths about Jews — relating to money, blood and the way they look — were forged in medieval Christian Europe, mostly in places where there were almost no Jews to observe. Miri Rubin, professor of medieval and early modern history at Queen Mary University of London, tells Jonathan how each one of those myths was built — and explains how that medieval way of seeing Jews often remains the lens through which Israel, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, is seen. They also discuss the reckoning with Christendom’s past that followed the Holocaust - and how it has seemingly come to a halt in our own time.
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  Trump moves on Gaza, Netanyahu moves on his opponents 06.08.2026 51мин

  With Yonit away, Jonathan is joined by Anshel Pfeffer, Israel correspondent of the Economist, as they discuss the muted reaction to the announcement made by Donald Trump of what he hoped would be hailed as a breakthrough in Gaza. It turns out that most people in the region are waiting to see if Washington’s hopes turn into anything more concrete. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu is setting about ensuring his political opponents are deemed too toxic to serve as partners in any coalition that would hope to replace him following the elections on October 27. Plus: a new wine from very old grapes and an Irish plane that may have trouble in stormy weather.
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  Heather Reisman on How Canada's Jews Became a Target 04.08.2026 40мин
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  Likud against the world, Democrats against each other 30.07.2026 42мин

  Ninety days before Israel votes, the campaign is revealing much about both the candidates and the country. The defense minister boasts about applying different detention rules to Jewish and Arab citizens — at a primary event, into a microphone. Two sets of pollsters are predicting completely opposite outcomes, and someone smashed Channel 12's doors and left death threats for the second time in a month. Yonit and Jonathan take stock at the three-month mark — what the divergent polling could be setting up, what three and a half years of judicial overhaul attempts actually achieved, why Bennett and Lapid might not survive to election day as a unit, and what the oddly quiet Netanyahu-Trump summit tells us about the Iran impasse. Plus: a Chutzpah award for a New York mayor with a peculiar blind spot, and a Mensch moment involving Israel's Chief Justice and an unexpected nod to Hollywood.
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  Rahm Emanuel 28.07.2026 45мин

  Fresh off his tour of Israel and Europe, this week on Unholy Conversations, Yonit and Jonathan speak to Rahm Emanuel—former Chief of Staff, Congressman, Chicago Mayor, Ambassador to Japan and perhaps future presidential nominee. They dive into his recent charged conversation with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, his take on Israel’s current choices, whether he considers himself a Zionist, and if he’s any closer to making a decision on a presidential run.
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  Trump’s Saudi nuclear deal, Israeli elections get real 23.07.2026 40мин

  A nuclear deal between Washington and Riyadh breaks overnight — and Israel learns the terms from the same press release as everyone else. This week, Yonit and Jonathan dig into what the US–Saudi agreement does and doesn't include, why the normalization clause that was supposed to be attached appeared to be missing - before it was hastily added by Donald Trump, after the event - and what a nuclear-armed Saudi Arabia might mean a generation from now. Iran tensions rise again over Natanz, and Israel's election pregame produces a poll number that should worry Benjamin Netanyahu more than it seems to. Plus: a Likud campaign ad triggers exactly the backlash its makers intended, while this week's Mensch award category hails both a Hungarian chess master and a legendary Israeli anchor.
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  First Time Voters in Israel 21.07.2026 43мин

  This week, Yonit and Jonathan sit down with three first-time voters — Aviv, Yael and Dror — to talk about the topics that will shape these election - the judicial overhaul, whether Arab parties belong in a coalition, and the draft bill. October 7th moved each of them, but not the same way — one drifted toward the center, another sharply to the right. What they do agree on might be the most interesting part. Plus: what happens to a generation that has only ever known one prime minister. CHAPTERS: [00:00] Intro [00:21] Meet Aviv, Yael and Dror [03:29] Why Aviv says she might not stay [08:09] Yael on voting for the North [12:12] Dror's family, yeshiva, and the draft [17:05] How October 7th moved them in opposite directions [25:24] The fight over Arab parties in a coalition [30:41] The only prime minister they've ever known [34:57] Is there a generational vote? [37:35] Would they stay if they lose?
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  Espionage in Iran, election manoeuvres in Israel - and unlikely football glory 16.07.2026 48мин

  The US-Iran war is back on. The ceasefire has collapsed, the naval blockade is reimposed, and Israel is asking if a moment is coming when the missiles turn its way. With Yonit away, Jonathan is joined by New Yorker writer Ruth Margalit to make sense of a dizzying week: a jaw-dropping report that the Mossad cultivated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — yes, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — as an asset in a failed plot to topple the Iranian regime, and an election campaign in which Gadi Eisenkot is opening up a real lead over Benjamin Netanyahu. Can Mr. Security survive a race where even Likud voters might be drifting away? Plus: a World Cup dilemma for Jewish football fans, a Chutzpah award for a literary institution that forgot its own motto, and a Mensch that takes us to a Jerusalem cafe that refuses to close on Shabbat.
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  Jews and Football: a forgotten story - with David Bolchover 14.07.2026 35мин

  As football fans across the globe gear up for the World Cup final on Sunday, Jonathan talks to the author of a new book that uncovers a hidden story: the Jewish players who were once football’s biggest stars. David Bolchover reveals how it was Jewish footballers that dominated some of Europe’s best teams, reinventing much of the way the game is played - until they were brutally murdered in the Holocaust. Their phenomenal achievement has been all but forgotten, to the extent that many imagine “Jewish footballer” to be an oxymoron if not the punchline to a joke. Instead, it sheds light on an era of forgotten Jewish sporting glory - and the world that was extinguished in the Shoah