Haaretz Podcast

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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. Trump made a deal with Iran. What will Netanyahu do?

    2d ago

    Trump made a deal with Iran. What will Netanyahu do?

    Israel is in a strategically weakened position – and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take a hard political hit if reports on the details of U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding are accurate, Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer said on the Haaretz Podcast.  Netanyahu had been “riding high,” planning to face Israel’s upcoming elections in the fall having compensated for his failures that led to October 7 by boldly “reconfiguring the map of the Middle East, and disassembling Iran's proxy network of Hezbollah and Hamas, and taking on the Iranian regime itself,” Leifer said.  The Israeli leader thought “his legacy [would] be rehabilitated by those wars. Fast forward to where we are now, and that's not the case, and he’s having to confront that,” Leifer added. “Strategically, Israel's in a terrible place, where the Iranian regime is stronger than it was, and it is now able to enforce a new kind of equation where Israeli freedom of movement is limited by the potential threat of ballistic missiles from Iran – which wasn't the case prior to October 7.” Netanyahu, Leifer said, has been “backed into a corner” on all of Israel’s fronts – Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and now Iran. He must follow Trump’s dictates and has turned Israel into “a total vassal state of the U.S.” and “Trump’s lapdog.” If he were to defy Trump, he runs the risk of losing American support, which could endanger the country even more. Read more:  What You Need to Know About the U.S.-Iran Deal – and What It Means for Israel Report: Billions in Frozen Iranian Assets May Be Released Under U.S.–Iran Deal Israeli Withdrawal From Lebanon Not Part of U.S.-Iran Deal, White House Official Says 'Don't B******t Us, Trump': Netanyahu Loyalists Rage at 'Treacherous' United States Over Iran Deal Netanyahu Says Israel to Remain in Security Buffer Zones in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria After U.S.-Iran Deal Signed Amos Harel: The Iran Fiasco Is Netanyahu's Biggest Failure Since October 7 Read more analysis from Haaretz's Joshua Leifer See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    20 min
  2. In Mamdani's NY, Israel's far right used Israel parade to flex their muscles

    Jun 11

    In Mamdani's NY, Israel's far right used Israel parade to flex their muscles

    When Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to march in New York City’s Israel Day parade - the first mayor of the city to do so in over 60 years – “did not surprise” Rabbi Josh Weinberg, who participated in the parade. But the liberal Zionist Reform rabbi was surprised to discover that he was marching alongside far-right ministers like Bezalel Smotrich and members of the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party.   Had he known, said Weinberg, Vice President of the URJ for Israel and Reform Zionism, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast, he would’ve held a sign making it clear that “Smotrich’s Zionism does not reflect our ideology at all, and is in fact antithetical to who we are as Jews and Zionists, and even as Americans. His brand of racism, discrimination, xenophobia – everything that he stands for – we want to totally reject while still maintaining our love and support for Israel."  Weinberg added that a statement by Smotrich that the New York event resembled the Jerusalem Day flag march – an event regularly marked by harassment and violence towards Palestinians in the city – made him “want to throw up.”  Also speaking on the podcast, Haaretz's New York correspondent Etan Nechin said that the Israeli ministers in the parade presented their presence as an “act of defiance by the Israeli Knesset and by the Israeli government” to “show” Mamdani. Assessing the mayor’s relationship with the Jewish community over the first six months of his term, Weinberg praised Mamdani’s initiative to increase spending to secure Jewish institutions with the rise of antisemitism, but regretted his boycott of the parade and his high-profile commemoration of Nakba Day online. Nechin countered with his belief that Mamdani had taken advantage of harnessing his popularity to take advantage of “this sudden historic opportunity to platform and champion Palestinian voices.” Mamdani, he said, “is a symptom of American public opinion – especially young Americans who are having conversations about Israel and Palestine, but not on Israeli or Jewish terms. It’s something that the Jewish community and Israelis will need to contend with.” Read more: Majority of Americans Hold Unfavorable Opinion of Israel as Confidence in Netanyahu Plummets, Pew Survey Finds 'We're Done Apologizing': Inside the Israeli Far Right's Big Weekend Out in New York Mamdani 'Offended' by Participation of Far-right Israeli MKs in Israel Day Parade Nearly Half of Young U.S. Jews Want to Replace Israel With Binational State, Poll Finds How Trump's Second Term Marks the Ascendance of The New Jewish Orthodox Right See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    28 min
  3. Iran and Israel exchange fire, and 'Trump is fed up': A war update from Amos Harel and Sima Shine

    Jun 8

    Iran and Israel exchange fire, and 'Trump is fed up': A war update from Amos Harel and Sima Shine

    U.S. President Donald Trump has tired of the Israel-Iran conflict, but a solution remains elusive as missile fire renewed Sunday following an Israeli attack on Beirut that provoked the Iranian regime. “I think he's had enough of us,” said Haaretz senior defense analyst Amos Harel, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. “He's fed up with this region. This is taking a lot longer than he thought, and it was less successful than he assumed. He’s paying a huge price at home domestically because of the economic effects, and he doesn't seem that tough anymore.” Joining Harel on the podcast is former Mossad official Sima Shine, an Iran expert at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies, who said that Iran clearly has the advantage in negotiations with the United States towards a long-term cease-fire.  While she said she doesn’t believe that Tehran wants to prolong the war, she said, they will only end the fighting “on their terms.”  “They are much more determined, they are willing to pay the price and therefore, they have the upper hand in negotiations” on the key issues – their nuclear capabilities and access to the Strait of Hormuz, despite the fact that their economic situation is “very bad.” As a result, she said, she believes that ultimately “Iran will dictate the terms” of any agreement. Read more: Israel Strikes Multiple Targets Across Iran, Including Petrochemical Plant 'I Call the Shots': Trump Urges Netanyahu Not to Retaliate After Iranian Missile Attack UN Nuclear Watchdog Says It's Been Unable to Inspect Iranian Facilities Report: Pentagon Officials Suspect Israel Tried to Spy on U.S. Officials Involved in Iran Talks Analysis by Amos Harel | As Israel Tips Back to War With Iran, Netanyahu Gets His Wish Israel's New 'Iran Spies': Young, Broke and Mostly Clueless See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    36 min
  4. 'Nations committing genocide don’t recognize it in real time': Yuli Novak on Israel’s moral crisis

    Jun 5

    'Nations committing genocide don’t recognize it in real time': Yuli Novak on Israel’s moral crisis

    For B'Tselem executive director Yuli Novak, the firestorm around the New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof decrying sexual violence by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israeli prisons has had the wrong focus.  Speaking on the Haaretz Podcast, Novak said the Israeli government’s "propaganda machine" and other critics focused on challenging the facts regarding the abuse described in the piece, which she says are backed up by "dozens of testimonies" collected by her organization.  "I would say it's much less a question whether these things [sexual abuse of Palestinians] are happening or not happening, and much more about what it means for all of us, and first and foremost for the victims." In its report on prisons, based on testimonies from Palestinians detained and then released from 16 detention facilities after October 7, B’Tselem documented "ongoing torture, physical and mental" abuse and the use of starvation and denial of medical treatment "as a policy."  B’Tselem’s conclusion: that these facilities represented "a network of torture camps," which Novak admitted "was hard to grasp as an Israeli. For me – torture camps have been something that happens somewhere else."  October 7 had been an opportunity and a “catalyst” for right-wing extremists in the government to influence policies in the direction of “their nationalist, racist, and in the case of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the prison system – I would even say their sadistic agenda,” Novak said. “We can keep telling ourselves that we're a democracy, but if Israel, holding almost half of its population under its control without the right to go and vote for the system that governs them, it's not a democracy.” Read more:  B'Tselem Report: Testimonies Describe 'Pattern of Sexual Violence' Against Palestinian Prisoners UN Secretary-General Report Accuses Israeli Forces of Rape, Sexual Abuse of Palestinian Detainees Ben-Gvir Is Not Alone: These Are His Collaborators in the Illegal Treatment of Palestinian Prisoners Op-ed by Yuli Novak: Even if You Call Israel a Democracy, It Is Still Apartheid Israel Must Let Red Cross Visit Palestinian Security Prisoners, High Court Rules Read B'Tselem's full report on Israeli prisons as a network of torture camps See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    41 min
  5. ‘There’s a lot of anger at Israel in the Gulf’: Gregg Carlstrom on Lebanon, Gaza and the cease-fire with Iran that feels like war

    Jun 2

    ‘There’s a lot of anger at Israel in the Gulf’: Gregg Carlstrom on Lebanon, Gaza and the cease-fire with Iran that feels like war

    The Gulf countries are spending “enormous amounts of money to try to mask the economic consequences of the Iran war from their population,” Gregg Carlstrom, The Economist’s Middle East correspondent, said on the Haaretz Podcast. Carlstrom, speaking from Dubai, explained that with the Strait of Hormuz blocked by Iran, Gulf states are flying in consumer goods, food and medicine normally imported by ship “at a huge expense” so their citizens don’t experience shortages or empty shelves in stores.  However, he warned, by the end of the summer, if the security situation remains precarious and the Strait remains blocked – and especially if active warfare with Iran is renewed – the economic toll will be impossible to avoid, and these countries will worry about their many expat residents packing up and leaving.  In a conversation with Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Carlstrom described a “roller coaster” of changing attitudes in the Gulf States regarding the ongoing U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict.  Initially, in March, he said, when the fighting was at its peak, leaders of most of the Gulf countries were “quietly urging the Trump administration to keep fighting until the Iranian regime was overthrown or severely weakened.” By now, he said, the U.S. president “really has lost the support he had in the Gulf,” as leaders unanimously tell Trump that “this needs to end.”   The same leaders, he said, are harboring “anger at Israel” for what they see as its “major role in pushing America into this war.” As a result, he said, he is skeptical of an expansion of the Abraham Accords, as promised by Trump, in the near future.  On the podcast, Carlstrom also discusses the expanding confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the failed negotiations to end it due to what he sees as the “poor job” Lebanon is doing managing its relationship with the United States. Read more: Israeli Plans for Beirut Strike Place Strain on U.S.-Iran Diplomacy How Israel's Adventures in Lebanon Are Giving Iran a Second Chance Report: Satellite Images Show Iran Clearing Entrances to Missile Facilities Buried in Strikes A 'Stupid, Futile Waste of Lives': The Empty Triumph of Israel's Latest Conquest in Lebanon Report: UAE Carried Out Dozens of Strikes on Iran in Coordination With Israel and U.S. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    27 min
  6. How the Iran war destroyed Israel's deterrence

    May 28

    How the Iran war destroyed Israel's deterrence

    Both of Israel’s wars in Iran have been “strategic failures” and critically damaged the country’s deterrence, Danny Citrinowicz, a former top Iran expert in Israeli military intelligence, told the Haaretz Podcast.  He cited a long list of missteps and misguided assumptions that led to the failure of the solo military operation in 2025 and the joint U.S. attack in February. “We overestimated air power and underestimated Iranian resilience,” Citrinowicz said, resulting in the “worst possible strategic reality, with a more extreme, decentralized regime in Tehran,” and heightened tensions with the U.S. – all while highlighting Israel’s dependence on the U.S. as a weakness. While Iran once feared an attack by Israel, he noted, its leaders have now learned that they can be attacked by the two strongest air forces in the world and emerge with its regime intact, as well as “the capacity to launch missiles and drones, and theoretically has the potential to move to a nuclear bomb.” Moreover, in a boomerang effect, he noted, wars launched to deter Iran’s nuclear program have likely intensified Tehran’s motivation to acquire nuclear capacity in order to prevent future attacks.  In his conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Citrinowicz – a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies – also discussed the intensifying conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s continued belief that Saudi Arabia will soon join the Abraham Accords, which he called a hope “detached from reality.”  Read more:  Iran and U.S. Trade Air Strikes After Trump Dismisses Report of Hormuz Deal Trump's Iran Deal: Netanyahu's 2018 Dream Is The World's 2026 Nightmare Analysis | Israel Demands to Disarm Its Regional Enemies, but Refuses to Pay the Price Trump: Not Sure Iran Deal Possible Unless Saudis, Qatar Join Abraham Accords U.S. May Need Years to Rebuild Weapons Stockpiles Depleted in Iran War, Report Says See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min
  7. How AIPAC and pro-Israel megadonors turned a midterm race into the most expensive primary in U.S. history

    May 26

    How AIPAC and pro-Israel megadonors turned a midterm race into the most expensive primary in U.S. history

    The first major primary battle in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections resulted in a significant victory for AIPAC and other pro-Israel megadonors, but Haaretz's Washington correspondent Ben Samuels warned that their celebrations could be premature. The defeat of Representative Thomas Massie – a rare Republican antagonist of U.S. President Donald Trump and harsh critic of Israel whom AIPAC "has wanted to take down for years" – happened after more than $30 million was spent to defeat him in what was the most expensive Congressional primary in American history. Massie was targeted by Trump and his supporters for his disloyalty to the U.S. leader. "They may have won the battle with Thomas Massie, but it's very clear that the ideology and the agenda and the vision that Thomas Massie embodies is not going anywhere – especially with younger voters and also with voters on the progressive left flank that found themselves to be weird ideological allies with this guy," Samuels told the Haaretz Podcast. Samuels also discussed the role that Israel and Iran are playing on the campaign trail, and the contradictory messages from the Trump White House on the drawn-out negotiations toward a potential agreement with Iran. "So little was actually accomplished from the kinetic military campaign that the United States and Israel launched, that any sort of negotiation that Trump is trying to eventually spin as a win wouldn't actually be that much of a win," Samuels said. It would just be moving the goalposts back." Samuels was skeptical regarding reports that Trump is blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for dragging him into the Iran war – and that the U.S. is subsequently not keeping Israel in the loop regarding negotiations – as well as theories that the U.S. leader has soured on Netanyahu after singing his praises early in the war. "If anything, Trump defies the odds and brings himself closer to Bibi. That being said, there is no doubt that Israel is effectively being sidelined in these current negotiations." Read more: GOP Rebel Thomas Massie Loses Kentucky Primary After Record-high Spending From pro-Israel Foes Vocal Israel Critic Chris Rabb Wins Pennsylvania Primary, a Victory for Progressive Democrats Analysis by Ben Samuels | Record Pro-Israel Lobby Spending May Have Achieved Its Goal in Kentucky. But at What Cost? Texas Candidate's Antisemitic Conspiracies Trigger a National Democratic Backlash In Unlikely Team-up, Hunter Biden and Candace Owens Trade Conspiracies on Israel and the 'Epstein Class' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    31 min

  8. May 21

    'Sounding the alarm': Inside a deepening crisis as American Jewish support for Israel erodes on left and right

    As Israel is fighting enemies on multiple fronts, it can't afford to lose any of its vital strategic assets. And according to Dr. Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis, a researcher at Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies, it is in danger of losing one of those assets: the support of American Jews. "The loss of the special relationship between Israel and the US will force Israel to reconsider its security priorities and matter greatly to the security and foreign policy of the State of Israel," Sasson-Gordis told the Haaretz Podcast. "Within that, the Jewish community over the decades has been a major pillar of that support." A new report co-authored by Sasson-Gordis details the data behind the deterioration of support and explains the reasons for the dramatic drop – even as the Trump White House is offering "unprecedented levels of support" for Israel. The report is intended as a wake-up call for Israeli leaders and offers a list of policy recommendations designed to stave off the deterioration. Polls show that among the U.S. public at large, "Israel is in the red in terms of net public support in every audience except older Republicans – even traditional groups that the current government and previous Israeli governments have seen as stalwart supporters of Israel." The Jewish community faces a "generational cliff," he said, as American Jews, particularly young Jews, are deeply influenced by the multi-front wars waged by Israel. "If you're today a young American Jew who is not very strongly affiliated with Israel to begin with, then the experiences that you've had – either on campus or where you work or on social media – cause you to wonder whether supporting Israel is worth it for you socially and morally." But even older members of the U.S. Jewish establishment, including institutional leaders, he said, "feel like Israel is not listening to them and is not interested in their opinions, even as they are increasingly affected by Israeli actions on the ground." Read more: Most U.S. Jews Do Not Identify as 'Zionists,' Even When They Support Israel, JFNA Survey Finds Netanyahu Minister to Reform Rabbi MK Kariv: 'You're Marrying Dogs in Your Delusional Synagogues' Analysis by Joshua Leifer: J Street Isn't Out of Touch With American Jews, but Israel's Settler Right Is 'A Critical Mass of U.S. Jews Is Now Disgusted With Israel' Analysis by David Rosenberg: The Future of American Jewry Looks Bleak Read the full INSS report See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    32 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.

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  • Channel
    Haaretz.com
  • Creator
    Haaretz
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    101
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Haaretz
  • Show Website
    Haaretz Podcast

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