Middle East Shitshow - MESS

Daniella Alpher
  • 5.0 (6)
  • News Commentary
  • Updated Bimonthly

Yossi Alpher is a former Mossad operative and analyst, now in his eighties. His daughter Daniella is a Tel Aviv tech executive. In their bi-monthly podcast, Daniella interviews Yossi on Middle East issues of the day, with emphasis on the strategic dimension and the occasional anecdote from Yossi's Mossad days.

  1. Aug 28

    Not My Zionism

    A listener in New York asked how Yossi became a Zionist, and what he makes of the word now. The answer starts in Washington D.C. in the mid-1950s, with a Jewish education in which the Holocaust took up two sentences and Israel meant nothing at all. It was the Eichmann trial in 1961 that changed everything. Daniella and Yossi Alpher trace one man's Zionism from a kibbutz to the Mossad, and ask what is left of it after 1967, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and October 7.

    Not My Zionism

  2. Aug 16

    Sixteen Tons of Concrete: What a Quiet August Actually Means

    August is quiet, and Yossi doesn't trust it. He and Daniella map the fronts: Syria's new president signaling accommodation over the Golan Heights, settler violence turning the West Bank into the region's real flashpoint, encouraged by a government that needs those votes before elections, and why Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis each have reason to break the calm while Trump keeps Netanyahu on a leash until the American midterms. Underneath it all, the strange history binding Israel to the Houthis' ancestors, and a new shelter in the garden that Yossi expects will not stay a white elephant.

    Sixteen Tons of Concrete: What a Quiet August Actually Means

  3. Aug 3

    Every Front Is Quiet but One

    Gaza is quiet. Lebanon is quiet. Even Iran, from Israel's standpoint, is quiet. So why does the West Bank look like it's being set alight on purpose? Daniella and Yossi examine the fear that Netanyahu wants conflict brewing before the end-of-October elections, violent enough to feed messianic-nationalist fervor, quiet enough to stay off international screens. Plus, the framework agreement with Lebanon and Iran's long arm over it, the funeral that got Bibi into the White House by a side entrance, the technocrat plan for Gaza, and why, since the assassination of Khamenei, nobody has a picture of who runs Iran.

    Every Front Is Quiet but One

  4. Jul 19

    The Iran Regime Change Fantasy

    Reports that the Mossad explored working with former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as part of an effort to change Iran’s leadership sound almost too extraordinary to be true. Daniella and Yossi examine the reported plan and ask whether Israel confused its ability to penetrate Iran with an ability to understand and reshape it. Yossi also recalls being asked in 1979 whether the Mossad should kill Ayatollah Khomeini before his return to Tehran.

    The Iran Regime Change Fantasy

  5. Jun 20

    Hezbollah, Trump, and the Deal Israel Didn’t Get

    From Switzerland to southern Lebanon, this episode follows the chain linking the Iran deal, Hezbollah, Trump, Netanyahu, and Israel’s strategic isolation. Daniella and Yossi revisit the history of US-Israel ties, debate whether Iran’s nuclear ambitions remain the central threat, and consider how Israel should think about survival in a less predictable Middle East.

    Hezbollah, Trump, and the Deal Israel Didn’t Get

  6. Jun 6

    Who Gets Left Out of the Conversation?

    What happens when everyone talks about a conflict, but not with the people at the center of it? Daniella and Yossi Alpher discuss Israel’s exclusion from negotiations over a war it fought, think tanks that debate Israel without Israelis, and an Israeli political system that keeps avoiding both Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel. The conversation ends with a more practical question: when Netanyahu and Trump lie on TV, do you mute them, or keep listening because they still matter?

    Who Gets Left Out of the Conversation?

  7. May 23

    The Gofman Case: What Makes a Head of Mossad

    What does it take to lead the Mossad? In this episode, Daniella and Yossi Alpher trace the history of Israel’s intelligence leadership through stories of controversial appointments, unexpected successes, operational failures, and political entanglements. Along the way, they discuss Meir Dagan’s impact on the Mossad, Tzvi Zamir’s role before the 1973 war, the limits of Israeli involvement in Lebanon, and why the head of an intelligence service must know when to stay out of politics.

    The Gofman Case: What Makes a Head of Mossad

  8. May 9

    Israel-Abu Dhabi: Iron Dome, lasers and IDF boots on the ground

    This week, Yossi and Daniella assess the real state of Iran's military capabilities after recent strikes, and what Israel's overblown assessments reveal about its chronic inability to define achievable war aims. They also explore the historic depth of Israel-UAE security cooperation, including cutting-edge missile interception technology and boots on the ground in Abu Dhabi, the UAE's departure from OPEC, and the ethical gray zones of Israeli arms exports from Iron Dome to the spyware used to track Jamal Khashoggi. The episode closes on the psychological toll of living under a sub-50% probability of Iranian attack.

    Israel-Abu Dhabi: Iron Dome, lasers and IDF boots on the ground
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Ratings & Reviews

5
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About

Yossi Alpher is a former Mossad operative and analyst, now in his eighties. His daughter Daniella is a Tel Aviv tech executive. In their bi-monthly podcast, Daniella interviews Yossi on Middle East issues of the day, with emphasis on the strategic dimension and the occasional anecdote from Yossi's Mossad days.

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