46 episodes
Decision Points David Makovsky
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- History
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5.0 • 76 Ratings
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Decision Points is a Washington Institute podcast on key moments in Israel's history and present. The first season focused on the history of U.S. Israel relations, the second season examined key Israeli and Arab leaders, and the third season shifted the focus to Israel's toughest contemporary policy dilemmas.
Season 4 of the podcast highlights a set of books which are essential to understanding the U.S.-Israel relationship and the history of Zionism and Israel. In each episode, authors will unpack their books and engage in striking and insightful conversations.
The host, David Makovsky, is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow in The Washington Institute's Irwin Levy Family Program on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Relationship and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations. He is a former senior advisor to the U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, as well as a sought-after expert in U.S.-Israel diplomatic relations and territorial solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Guests include Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S.; Natan Sharansky, a human rights activist and former Israeli government minister; David Petraeus, former CIA Director; and Tzipi Livni, former Israeli Foreign Minister.
The podcast is both a history lesson and an exploration of contemporary policy decisions impacting Israel, the United States, and the Middle East at large.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Judiciary Debate and the Future of Israeli Democracy
Host David Makovsky is joined by Prof. Yedidia Stern, president of the Jewish People Policy Institute and former dean of the law faculty at Bar-Ilan University, and Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, Israel’s former attorney-general and the recently retired deputy president of its Supreme Court. After breaking down the history and structure of Israel’s judiciary, they discuss the serious implications that Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s radical reform package could have for the future of Israeli democracy.
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Grappling with the Direction of the New Netanyahu Government
In the season finale, David is joined by Ben Caspit, columnist and author of The Netanyahu Years, and David Horovitz, the founding editor of The Times of Israel, to discuss Israel's returning prime minister and his controversial right-wing government. David and the guests break down the keys to Binyamin Netanyahu's long-lasting political career, the evolution of his public persona, and try to understand the trajectory of the new government.
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Combating Anti-Semitism in the Middle East and Beyond
David is joined by acclaimed historian Deborah Lipstadt, appointed by President Biden as the State Department's Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism. The two discuss the state of contemporary anti-Semitism, reflect upon the role of the Holocaust in Israel, and draw takeaways from Lipstadt's travels to the Gulf and Morocco.
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Rabbi Kook: Founding Religious Zionism and Those Who Seek to Subvert His Legacy Today
In this episode, host David Makovsky welcomes Yehudah Mirsky, professor of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University, faculty member of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and author of Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution. The two discuss the ideology of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, founder of Religious Zionism, and how his teachings are being subverted by certain members of the modern movement.
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Too Much History and Too Little Geography: A Conversation Across the Israeli-Palestinian Societal Divide
Yossi Klein Halevi, Shalom Hartman Institute fellow and author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, joins the podcast to discuss Israeli-Palestinian coexistence with Yousef Bashir, Director of Research & Operations for the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace and author of The Words of My Father. Halevi and Bashir share personal experiences, common public perceptions among Israelis and Palestinians, and potential steps to narrow the societal divide amid difficult times.
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An Insider's View of the Carter White House: Negotiations with Sadat, Begin, and Assad
David Makovsky hosts veteran diplomat Stuart Eizenstat, who served as Jimmy Carter’s chief domestic policy advisor and whose book President Carter: The White House Years provides an unparalleled view of the administration’s Middle East decisionmaking. In this episode, David and Stuart discuss the Camp David Accords, U.S.-led negotiations with Syria’s Hafiz al-Assad, an Egyptian-Israeli field trip to Gettysburg, and more.
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Customer Reviews
Most informative and interesting podcast about Israel and the Middle East
David Makovsky hosts this podcast where he asks probing questions of his guests. Each episode is a deep dive onto a thorny and complicated issue. The guests are researchers, authors, journalists who have a thoughtful viewpoint on the topic, which Makovsky draws and explores with his questions. At the end of each podcast he doesn’t leave the listener with a just a ‘thank you for listening’ but provides a synthesis and summary of some of the key points he and his guests have raised. Fantastic
Super informative
I have learned so much from this podcast!
Expert insight
I am really looking forward to another season of this podcast.