The Times of Israel Daily Briefing The Times of Israel

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Legal correspondent Jeremy Sharon and environmental reporter Sue Surkes join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
Sharon discusses the landmark decision by the High Court Tuesday determining that ultra-Orthodox men are obligated to perform military service, and the immediate draft of 3,000 yeshiva students starting July 1, as he looks at the legal issues that led to the decision.
He also talks about the new report by the United Nations-linked Integrated Food Security Phase Classification organization, showing that there is no famine in Gaza, despite previous predictions to the contrary.
Surkes explains the latest concerns about Israel’s power grid and its susceptibility to a possible attack by Hezbollah, with Israel's electricity companies taking a more urgent look at what can be done to offset an all-out blackout in case of war.
She also mentions a high-tech, AI-powered 'weed wacker,' designed to bypass pricey human labor for crops and agricultural fields.
For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.
Discussed articles include:
After court ruling, AG tells IDF to immediately start drafting 3,000 Haredi students
In historic ruling, High Court says government must draft Haredi men into IDF
Key food security org finds no famine in Gaza, says previous assumptions wrong
As war with Hezbollah looms, concerns over vulnerability of power grid generate unease
Confab shows off startups, from AI-driven weeders and tree tubes to alternative fats
THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel
THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. 
IMAGE: An Israeli soldier and ultra-Orthodox Jews at the Western Wall on June 25, 2024. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Political correspondent Sam Sokol and Arab affairs reporter Gianluca Pacchiani join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
Sokol discusses what led to the fierce debate in the Knesset Monday, after a commission that was looking into earlier defense purchases, sent letters of inquiry to several officials, including Prime MInister Benjamin Netanyahu. Opposition leader Yair Lapid used the opportunity to attack the prime minister in his faction's weekly meeting, joined by New Hope party leader Gideon Sa'ar as the prime minister defended his actions.
Sokol notes that the debate concluded with a first vote on legislation regarding extending reservists' age while legislation is still pending regarding lowering the ages of exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
Pacchiani talks about an interview with Palestinian laborers who have been mostly out of work for the last eight months, part of the work force of some 200,000 people who work mostly in construction and agriculture. He says it appears to be more of a political decision to push the Palestinian Authority toward bankruptcy, along with higher unemployment.
He also mentions press reports about a "fishy" organized foreign press tour of the Beirut airport, as the Lebanese government attempted to prove they're not hiding weapons imported from Iran.
For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.
Discussed articles include:
‘Submarine affair’ inquiry finds Netanyahu’s decisions compromised national security
Knesset to vote this week on bill extending retirement age for IDF reservists
West Bank Palestinian laborers in despair after eight months without jobs in Israel
Reporters denied access to Beirut airport area where weapons suspected to be stored
THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel
THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. 
IMAGE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a debate in the Knesset on June 24, 2024 (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
Berman discusses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first Hebrew-language media interview since October 7 on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 network, in which the prime minister spoke about the end of intense fighting in Gaza, his willingness to agree to a partial hostage deal, while insisting that battles would continue.
He also speaks about Netanyahu's comments regarding the north and the prime minister's hopes for a diplomatic solution, as well as how the prime minister deftly pointed fingers at his opponents in the government in order to firmly position himself as the country's ultimate leader.
Berman turns to the Biden administration and its ongoing spat with Netanyahu over what the prime minister's claims regarding a slowdown in shipments of US arms. Berman suggests the low-level disagreement may all be about politics as the prime minister does not want Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, currently visiting in DC, to lay claim on any diplomatic successes during his visit.
Berman concludes with a look at the terror attack in two communities in Russia's Dagestan, bordering Azerbaijan, a mostly Moslem region that has experienced Moslem Jihadist terrorism in the past and was the focal point of a near-pogrom after October 7, when locals attempted to target Israeli passengers on a flight.
For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.
Discussed articles include:
PM says open to partial pause and hostage deal but war won’t end until Hamas destroyed
EU’s Borrell warns war in Middle East on the brink of expanding
Netanyahu says US arms supplies fell away 4 months ago; he went public as last resort
US hasn’t withheld weapons for Israel, but it’s done fast-tracking them — official
Over 15 Russian cops, civilians killed in attacks on synagogues, churches in Dagestan
THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel
THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. 
IMAGE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Channel 14 in the first interview he's given to an Israeli news outlet since October 7, on June 23, 2024. (Screenshot, Channel 14, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Military reporter Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant headed to Washington this morning for a meeting that he calls “critical for the future of the war.” What are the main goals?
The IDF confirmed that it shot down an apparent Hezbollah drone over the Lower Galilee. It was shot down by air defenses in an area that houses a major factory belonging to the Rafael defense contractor. Also overnight, Israeli fighter jets shot down a drone heading toward Israel from the eastern direction. The announcement comes after the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed to have launched a drone at Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat early this morning.
On Saturday, the IDF struck several targets, including a Hamas military site in Gaza City’s Shati neighborhood. Reports in Hebrew and Arabic media said the Shati attack targeted senior Hamas commander Raad Saad, head of Hamas operations. We hear who he is and the status of the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Also on Saturday, Israel said it had killed a top Hamas operative in Lebanon, Ayman Ghatma, who was responsible for supplying weapons to Hamas in Lebanon as well as to the al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya terror group. We hear about the tangled Lebanon-based overlap between Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
An Israeli civilian Amnon Muchtar, 67, of Petah Tikva was shot in his vehicle by unknown gunmen in the West Bank city of Qalqilya on Saturday and later died of his wounds. Fabian describes the incident, which is being labeled as a terror attack, and puts it into context with other recent conflicts in the area.
For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.
Discussed articles include:
Heading to US, Gallant says meetings ‘critical for the future of the war’
Israeli strike said to target Hamas operations chief Raad Saad in Gaza; unclear if he died
IDF kills top Hamas man in Lebanon; US said to promise Israel full support if war erupts
Israeli man shot and killed in his car in West Bank’s Qalqilya in apparent terror
IDF says it is investigating soldiers who tied Palestinian detainee to hood of car
THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel
THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 
IMAGE: Israel Defense Forces operating in Gaza, June 22, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
In this special episode, host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with news editor Amy Spiro, who heads up our Those We Have Lost project.
Since a few days after the October 7 murderous Hamas onslaught on southern Israel that massacred some 1,200 people -- mostly civilians -- and saw 251 hostages taken to Gaza, Spiro has worked to memorialize the slain individuals by bringing their stories to the English-speaking world.
Spiro imbues each post with the individual's character and life from publically available information, including funeral eulogies, social media posts, and memorial websites.
In this episode, Spiro and Borschel-Dan share the stories of eight of the fallen, including lone soldiers, a newly pregnant couple, a beloved grandmother and a Thai worker who never got to meet his child.
For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.
Discussed articles include:
Staff Sgt. Shlomo Reshetnikov, 20: Lone soldier from Russia
Raz Mizrahi, 21: Wounded in 2021 attack, recovered and slain at party
Keshet Casarotti-Kalfa, 21: Pirate-loving partygoer ‘a ball of light’
Sgt. David Mittelman, 20: Ex-Haredi who hovered between worlds
Yehudit Itzchaki, 76: Doting grandma, child of Holocaust survivors
Lidor Levi and Nitzan Rahoum, 28: Slain couple were expecting first baby
Nitikorn Sae Wang, 26: Thai worker who never got to meet his son
Staff Sgt. Yonatan Chaim, 25: Lone soldier who converted, made aliyah
THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel
THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 
ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: Family and friends of Israeli soldier Sergeant Almog Shalom attend his funeral at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on June 11, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
US  bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
Magid discusses the latest visit to the US by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, amid the current kerfuffle between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US administration.
Dermer and Hanegbi were meeting with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken , and "received an earful" from US officials regarding the video that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made earlier in the week with accusations about the delay of US arms shipments to Israel.
Magid discusses whether Netanyahu is making comments now because Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is going to DC next week and perhaps doesn't want him receiving the credit for solving any issues regarding arms during his trip.
Magid also talks about the ongoing US consideration to set sanctions against Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, given his longtime efforst to withhold funds from the Palestinian Authority, thereby destabilizing the Palestinian government.
Magid also looks at the possibility of US sanctions against the far-right Tzav 9 group, which has organized efforts to halt and wreak havoc with US aid convoys making their way into Gaza.
For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.
Discussed articles include:
US hosts PM’s aides amid concern full-on war with Hezbollah would overwhelm Iron Dome
US vexed, disappointed by Netanyahu claim of arms holdup: ‘No one has done more for him’
US sanctions far-right Israeli group behind attacks on aid convoys bound for Gaza
Is the US poised to sanction an Israeli minister for the first time?
THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel
THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 
IMAGE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video message issued June 19, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.