Haaretz Podcast

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Haaretz Podcast Podcast

From Haaretz – Israel's oldest daily newspaper – a weekly podcast in English on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World, hosted by Allison Kaplan Sommer.

  1. 'Nasrallah knows a massive strike on Tel Aviv would mean an all out war'

    2 DAYS AGO

    'Nasrallah knows a massive strike on Tel Aviv would mean an all out war'

    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 organization, and assault on its missile infrastructure triggering a fast-moving escalation of hostilities, including daily rocket attacks on large parts of Israel. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 min
  2. How to talk to your mother-in-law about Harris-Trump and other tricky questions from Haaretz subscribers

    17 SEPT

    How to talk to your mother-in-law about Harris-Trump and other tricky questions from Haaretz subscribers

    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 significant donations to campaigns on both sides, but also because they can tip the balance in key states. In the third installment of this series, in which Haaretz journalists address the issues on the minds of their readers, Samuels said that "In swing states, Jewish voters really turn out in a way that isn't necessarily consistent with the size of the population, So you've seen both Jewish political organizations on both sides of the aisle and the Harris and Trump campaigns really try to focus on the Jewish vote as the election comes closer." What happens in the war between now and November 5th could be a game-changer "if it has an effect on the U.S. economy, or if U.S. troops get embroiled in the fighting," he said. While the polls so far have demonstrated that Jewish voters are consistently committed to voting Democrat in their traditional overwhelming majority, Jewish Republican leaders reject these findings and are promoting a different narrative. "They're saying that Jewish Americans have really been alienated and disillusioned by the Democratic Party, both in terms of the White House's approach to the aftermath of October 7, the failure to combat rising antisemitism and supposed enablement of antisemitic protests on college campuses," said Samuels. "Jewish Republicans are really trying to set the tone" and prepare the ground for an unprecedented shift away from Democrats. But despite this wishful thinking, Samuels said, it remains true that more than 70 percent of Jewish Americans "not only do not like Donald Trump, but" also find that "everything he says traffics in dual loyalty tropes and either flirts with antisemitism or is allegedly openly antisemitic." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    35 min
  3. 'A lot can happen in Gaza between the first and second polio vaccine dose'

    10 SEPT

    'A lot can happen in Gaza between the first and second polio vaccine dose'

    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 polio vaccines that is currently underway – can be dangerous. Zbeedat closely follows and reports on developments in Gaza, including a video casting doubt on the World Health Organization's vaccination effort posted by Gazan social media activist Bisan Owda. In it, Owda questions whether Gazans should allow their children to be injected with material permitted by Israeli authorities and questions the motive behind Israel's seemingly humanitarian gesture. "Palestinians in Gaza actually asked her to remove the video, to delete it, and even to publicly apologize for it," Zbeedat said, while outside Gaza Owda "was being praised, supported and even more [speculation and] theories were introduced in the comment section" under her video. In view of this phenomenon, Zbeedat believes that her own reporting on all aspects of life inside Gaza – from creative cooking using ingredients found in aid packages to water storage to the struggle of Gazan women to obtain menstrual products – emphasizes that "these people had normal lives and should have a normal life, but they are not given that opportunity." Zbeedat also discussed life in Israel at the moment for Israeli Palestinians, from being "hunted" by Israeli authorities when their social media posts are too explicitly supportive of their Gazan friends and relatives, to discomfort around allying with Jewish Israelis. "Just yesterday, I saw a post about an image from one of the demonstrations: "Bring them back and then return," referring to bringing back the Israeli hostages and then re-settling Gaza. "How can we expect Palestinians in Israel to join people who are asking for the hostages back, but also for the destruction of Gaza?" See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    25 min
  4. Hostage's father: 'It's a living nightmare. And if Netanyahu doesn't get this done, there will be more bodies'

    1 SEPT

    Hostage's father: 'It's a living nightmare. And if Netanyahu doesn't get this done, there will be more bodies'

    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 government's "abominable handling" of the hostage crisis, he continued, "has taken Israeli society to a place that it's never been, and the only hope for recovery is if the prime minister is able to grow a moral backbone strong enough to bear the weight of his own coalition partners." The fact that U.S. President Joe Biden offered his condolences to the families before Netanyahu "should demonstrate not just to all Israelis, but sadly to Jews in the diaspora as well, that our government and our prime minister are in a state of utter moral corruption." Also on the podcast, Haaretz senior defense analyst Amos Harel discussed how the killings of the hostages has made it clear to the Israeli public that Netanyahu's "cliche about military pressure being the only way to move and to allow hostages to be freed is wrong. It may have been the case in the beginning that there was some leeway that we could push through military pressure. But now Hamas knows exactly what's happening, and has decided to kill hostages rather than to allow them to be freed by Israeli soldiers. "The outcome is clear to everybody: If in these operations, especially tunnels, we lose the element of surprise, there's a good chance more hostages will die under similar circumstances." Netanyahu's response to the massive public outcry Sunday has brought Harel to the conclusion that the leader, who usually appears to feel in control, is now in a "tight spot." While Harel remains pessimistic that Netanyahu has been shaken enough to change his policies, "I think that for the first time in months, he's really fearing the outcome of the public outcry." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    27 min

  5. 25 AUG

    'Netanyahu is using the U.S. elections to feed chaos and manipulate the Israeli public'

    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 of the party's progressive wing who unsuccessfully pushed for a Palestinian-American pro-Palestinian speaker at the DNC, there was no daylight between her stance and Biden's backing of Israel.  While Harris was basking in the spotlight of the convention, Samuels noted, Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken was busy in the Middle East working intensely towards a Gaza cease-fire deal that would return Israeli hostages and contain the hostilities between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran. He succeeded in the latter and not in the former – much to the disappointment of the American-Israeli hostage families who were present at the DNC. "They are pissed. I just cannot overstate enough just how angry and disappointed they are in the reaction that has been coming from the Israeli government and right-wing cabinet ministers who don't prioritize the release of their loved ones," added Samuels. After attending both party conventions, Samuels believes that, short of triggering a large-scale regional war that would involve the United States, "it's very unlikely that Israel will move the needle in terms of who will be the next president." That doesn't mean Netanyahu won't use elections season to his advantage. "The presidential election creates just one other sort of channel where he can feed his chaos through," Samuels concludes, "where he can play the candidates off each other, and use this to manipulate the Israeli public into fearing what stands on the other side of his Premiership." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    26 min
  6. 'The gov't is hoping Israelis are too worried about their safety to think about democracy'

    20 AUG

    'The gov't is hoping Israelis are too worried about their safety to think about democracy'

    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 hostages still has not actualized. She says recent escalations with Iran, particularly the daring assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which Israel has not claimed responsibility for, have restored some of the public's faith in his leadership. Also on the podcast, Haaretz cyber and disinformation reporter Omer Benjakob reviews the "dangerous" breaches of cybersecurity within the Israeli military and how the same Iranian military units devoted to hacking in order to harm Israel are now setting their sights on the U.S. presidential elections. With an "endless stream" of Iranian hacks of sensitive information from its top-secret bases and tracking of soldiers through their smartwatches, the country's most dangerous enemy is collecting and publishing dossiers he describes as a "very dangerous cyber nightmare" that should be feared and fought against as vigorously as missiles, rockets and drones. It is already clear that during the U.S. election campaign, Benjakob says, Iran is doing its best to "foment tensions" around what has already proved to be a dividing issue and the Israel-Hamas conflict "is being amplified at a level that is unprecedented." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    44 min
  7. 'Amazing mental preparation': How Israeli athletes made history at the Paris Olympics

    13 AUG

    'Amazing mental preparation': How Israeli athletes made history at the Paris Olympics

    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 prepared for a serious attack, Harel assessed and "the efforts made by the Americans right now show us how seriously they've been taking this threat of regional escalation." Speaking to Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Harel pointed to mixed signals from the Israeli side as to whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is, on any level, interested in making a deal that would return the remaining living hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. Also on the podcast, Haaretz sportswriter Ido Rakovsky discusses the more heartening and cheerful development of the past weeks - the unprecedented successes of Israel's Olympic athletes in the Paris summer games and the "roller coaster of emotions" as they competed in wartime under tight security. "It's a historic moment," declared Rakovsky, noting that Israel has only won 13 Olympic medals in the first 78 years of its existence "and suddenly, in Paris, we finish with seven medals," after even optimistic assessments predicted winning four or five. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    36 min
  8. What is really going on in Iran while Israel braces for retaliation?

    5 AUG

    What is really going on in Iran while Israel braces for retaliation?

    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 Podcast, correspondent Linda Dayan spoke to Dr. Raz Zimmt, a senior researcher and expert on Iran from the Institute of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University about this threat. After April's Iranian attack on Israel, Zimmt explained, "Iran has come up with this so-called 'new equation,' according to which every Israeli attack on Iranian interests – personalities or facilities, either inside Iran or outside Iran – would be considered a major blow, which deserves a direct attack by Iran." Compared to previous incidents, "Iran and Hezbollah are more willing today to take the risk of escalation," Zimmt said, "even if it means dragging themselves into a full-scale confrontation." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min
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About

From Haaretz – Israel's oldest daily newspaper – a weekly podcast in English on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World, hosted by Allison Kaplan Sommer.

Information

  • Channel
    Haaretz.com
  • Creator
    Haaretz
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2024
  • Episodes
    101
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Haaretz
  • Show Website
    Haaretz Podcast

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