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The conversations that matter, unfiltered. In a world where headlines tell only half the story, "JPost sits down with..." brings you face-to-face with the voices shaping our reality. From Israeli leaders navigating existential challenges to global figures wrestling with the Middle East's complexities, we go beyond the soundbites to explore the stories behind the headlines. Each episode features candid, no-holds-barred conversations with politicians, thought leaders, activists, and newsmakers who are driving change—or standing in its way.  If you're seeking to understand the nuances of one of the world's most scrutinized regions, these intimate discussions reveal the motivations, struggles, and hopes of those at the center of it all. This isn't about easy answers or comfortable narratives. It's about real talk with real people making real decisions that affect millions. Join us as we sit down with the figures who matter most, when their stories matter most. New episodes drop when news breaks and voices need to be heard. Get more from The Jerusalem Post at JPost.com

  1. 4h ago

    Dan Illouz: Likud no longer represents its own values

    Former Likud MK Dan Illouz once defended Netanyahu's record. Now running with Yisrael Beytenu, he says Netanyahu cannot lead Israel after October 7. In this Jerusalem Post interview, the Montreal-born former lawmaker explains why he left the party he joined before he even signed a lease in Israel. He points to three reasons: the haredi draft exemption bill, Netanyahu's refusal to establish a state commission of inquiry, and the gap between Likud's stated values and its actions. "If there isn't a political price to being prime minister when such disaster happens, then this is something which is dangerous for us as a country," he says. He also explains why he still credits the IDF's achievements in Lebanon and Iran but argues Israel never reached the "total victory" Likud promised, since Hamas still remains in Gaza. Illouz describes himself as "very, very right wing" and religious, yet he supports allowing municipalities to run public transportation on Shabbat. "As a religious Jew, I think it only hurts religion," he says of religious coercion. He sets out his coalition red lines on Netanyahu and on Arab parties, and defends Avigdor Liberman's proposal on Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. He also lays out a sanctions-based plan to enforce haredi enlistment. With elections approaching, the interview offers a rare inside view of the right-wing case against Netanyahu from someone who sat in his faction.

  2. 1d ago

    Smotrich's No. 2 Moshe Feiglin: 'I want to see Gaza empty'

    Moshe Feiglin, No. 2 on Smotrich's joint slate, will back Netanyahu, whom he had previously said should have quit on October 8. Ahead of Israel's October 27 election, and seeking the role of Defense Minister, the Zehut leader lays out a platform built on two ideas: a war against what he calls the "Oslo concept," and libertarian individual freedom. Asked about past remarks on Gaza, Feiglin says: "I don't want to see dead babies in Gaza. I want to see Gaza empty." He argues Israel should have annexed the Strip after October 7, rebuilt Gush Katif and opened the borders for Gazans to leave. He also says both left and right share the blame for October 7: "Both sides share the responsibility over here." He explains why he will still recommend Netanyahu, and why he considers Gadi Eisenkot a continuation of the Rabin-Peres era. Feiglin's alliance with Smotrich is a technical bloc, and his platform often breaks from his partner's. He backs cannabis legalization for adults over 21, privatized public transport, and a government of no more than 11 ministers. He tells the story of a self-described leftist voter who supports him because Zehut "has room" for her. The interview also covers his vision for rebuilding the IDF and his response to rising settler violence.

  3. 1d ago

    Flydubai hijack attempt: How Israeli passengers fought back

    An Israeli passenger seated by the cockpit of flydubai flight FZ1073 recounts the hijack attempt and how passengers took charge. Tal, who asked that only his first name be used, lives abroad and was flying from Dubai to Israel to help care for his mother when the aircraft suddenly lurched on Wednesday, September 30. Within moments, passengers in the front of the cabin were subduing one of the pilots while others worked to keep the wounded Indian pilot alive. Tal recognized that two off-duty pilots were sitting beside him and urged them into the empty cockpit. They flew the plane to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Once he had a signal, he texted his wife: "There is a terror attack. We're going through a kidnap attempt. Please report it." Tal texted with The Jerusalem Post from the morning of the incident until he landed in Israel that evening, and his frustration with the early coverage is a thread throughout this interview. He says much of the international media first reported a dispute between two pilots, and he disputes Israeli reports that the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar." He argues that first headlines stick, and that the coverage reflects a double standard when Israelis and Jews are the targets. He also describes the children on board, whom he calls "the true heroes of this flight," and how he helped calm frightened passengers in Saudi Arabia before the replacement flight home.

  4. Sep 28

    Yoram Hazony: '80% of young Republican men back Tucker Carlson'

    Yoram Hazony, founder of National Conservatism and a key intellectual influence on JD Vance, explains why he says Tucker Carlson has become the right's biggest antisemitism problem. In this wide-ranging Jerusalem Post interview, the philosopher and Edmund Burke Foundation chairman maps the three warring camps inside today's Republican Party: the nationalist mainstream he says Trump built, the shrinking "liberal wing" of figures like Nikki Haley and Ted Cruz, and a small but agenda-setting "alt right" he argues turned from fringe to force when Tucker Carlson left Fox in 2023. Hazony doesn't soften his language: he calls Carlson's show a platform pushing the idea of Jews as "a demonic force in history," and reveals that Carlson personally asked to speak at NatCon in Jerusalem, a request Hazony refused. He also offers a counterintuitive defense of JD Vance. When Vance calls Israel "one of our top allies, like Britain and France," Hazony argues, Jews should embrace it rather than mourn the loss of the old "love-bombing" style of Bush, Clinton and Biden. It's a generational shift, he says, and a warning about what happens if Jewish outreach to the new right never gets done.

  5. Sep 27

    Why the Jewish diaspora is Israel's most important front | Einat Wilf

    In the second part of her interview with The Jerusalem Post, Former Knesset member and Oz Party founder Einat Wilf makes a startling claim: Israel's most important front isn't Gaza or Iran, it's the world's Jews. Speaking with The Jerusalem Post weeks before Israel's October 27 election, Wilf describes a "rising global psychosis" that casts the Jew as "the obstacle to a better world," and argues that October 7 opened a worldwide assault on Jewish life. She rejects the old answer of "just make aliyah," insisting the state has abandoned a responsibility it can no longer ignore: "This is a time to take care of our own." Pressed on whether the diaspora can stay a priority amid Gaza, Iran and a looming commission of inquiry, she is blunt: "Governments never get to sequence things the way they want." One of the Jewish world's most prominent voices on Zionism, Wilf has spent 25 years studying the ideology of Israel's enemies, and she frames the bond between Israel and world Jewry not as a sentimental afterthought but as a strategic front in a global war of words. It's a perspective that will resonate with olim and diaspora Jews who feel unrepresented, and challenge Israelis who, in her words, still live inside a "bubble." For anyone trying to understand how October 7 reshaped Jewish identity worldwide, this is a rare, unvarnished map.

  6. Sep 24

    'There's no from the river to the sea. There is no return' | Einat Wilf

    Former MK Einat Wilf, now third on the Reservists–New Economic Party list, argues Gaza shouldn't be rebuilt until its people choose to end the war. Ahead of Israel's October 2026 election, Wilf lays out a plan she says no other party will touch: divide Gaza into three. A small area adjacent to Israel as a permanent price for October 7; a Hamas-run "Gaza of war," reconnected to Egypt and cut off from Israeli supply; and an IDF-secured "Gaza of peace," open to any Gazan willing to renounce UNRWA refugee status and the claim of return. "It sounds small, but it's not," she says. "This is how you begin to create a new consciousness." On the Board of Peace's reconstruction program, she is blunt: "Give them the respect of choice, and if they choose war, don't throw $2.5 billion at them." Wilf also explains why she joined Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha outside the traditional blocs, what a "broad Zionist government" should mean for Haredi and Arab parties, and why she calls the Western refusal to take Palestinians at their word "the bigotry of low expectations."  Drawing on her Oxford Union debate, she describes how anti-Zionist messaging works and why "when your enemy gets lazy, there's always an opportunity in that." Whether you share her conclusions or challenge them, this is one of the most detailed day-after proposals put forward by any candidate this campaign. This is part one of The Jerusalem Post's interview with Wilf. Stay tuned for part two.

  7. Sep 23

    Proud Arab, proud Israeli: Yoseph Haddad runs for the Knesset

    Yoseph Haddad, a Christian Arab Israeli and Golani veteran, is No. 2 on Ofer Winter's right-wing slate. He explains why and what he wants to change. Haddad spent a decade advocating for Israel abroad before October 7 made him a household name. Ahead of the October 27 election, he is running for the Knesset with Amcha Yisrael (People of Israel) party. He says he wants to become Israel's next public diplomacy (hasbara) minister. He rejects the word "coexistence" in favor of partnership: "Coexistence is like this. You're not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere… Let's live in coexistence." He argues that relations between Jewish and Arab citizens should go further, pointing to the Arab Muslim bus driver who rescued Jewish partygoers at the Nova festival. He also predicts his party will be "the surprise of this election." The interview covers his experience of racism from both Jewish and Muslim extremists. It also covers his plan to hold weekly press conferences in Hebrew, Arabic, and English as minister, and his party's model for an October 7 commission of inquiry, with judges nominated through Knesset signatures. He sharply criticizes the Joint List and Ra'am's decision to place Jewish former MK Yoav Segalovich at No. 2. He also explains where he agrees and disagrees with Itamar Ben-Gvir. He was pressed on how a party promising only new faces can back Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister, and his answer is part of the interview.

  8. Sep 17

    Trump's Lebanon envoy: 'The only one coming to save you is Israel'

    Former US deputy presidential envoy to the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, reveals how she quietly pushed Israel and Lebanon toward direct talks, and why she says Hezbollah cannot survive without Iran. Ortagus, who oversaw the Lebanon file as Deputy US Special Envoy for the Middle East under Steve Witkoff, sits down with The Jerusalem Post's diplomatic reporter, Amichai Stain, to trace the behind-the-scenes effort to bring two neighbors who hadn't negotiated directly since the 1980s into the same small room. She describes reviving the military "mechanism," bringing US Marines back to Beirut, and building trust one biweekly meeting at a time, while arguing the window opened by Nasrallah's killing must not be squandered. "Hezbollah essentially can't really exist without the Islamic Republic," Ortagus says, calling Iran the "thousand-pound elephant" behind every Lebanese calculation. She insists there is "no way to have internal security and stability with an armed Hezbollah," and makes a blunt case to Lebanon's communities that Israel is the one neighbor willing to fight for them against Tehran. With negotiations now led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Michel Issa, her account explains what's already been set in motion, and what still stands in the way. The conversation also turns personal: why Ortagus wears a Star of David everywhere she negotiates, her reflections on her late friend Senator Lindsey Graham and their final conversation, and why she believes sanctions alone are "a tactic, not a strategy" against Iran. It's a candid, on-the-record look at the diplomacy shaping Israel's northern border from one of the people who helped build it.

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About

The conversations that matter, unfiltered. In a world where headlines tell only half the story, "JPost sits down with..." brings you face-to-face with the voices shaping our reality. From Israeli leaders navigating existential challenges to global figures wrestling with the Middle East's complexities, we go beyond the soundbites to explore the stories behind the headlines. Each episode features candid, no-holds-barred conversations with politicians, thought leaders, activists, and newsmakers who are driving change—or standing in its way.  If you're seeking to understand the nuances of one of the world's most scrutinized regions, these intimate discussions reveal the motivations, struggles, and hopes of those at the center of it all. This isn't about easy answers or comfortable narratives. It's about real talk with real people making real decisions that affect millions. Join us as we sit down with the figures who matter most, when their stories matter most. New episodes drop when news breaks and voices need to be heard. Get more from The Jerusalem Post at JPost.com

Information

  • Creator
    Jerusalem Post Podcasts
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    88
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Jerusalem Post Podcasts
  • Show Website
    JPost sits down with...

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