Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

The best podcast on Israel and Israeli issues. Helps make sense of the news and is incredibly well done. Thank you very much for this, Dan Senor.

My primary source and litmus test

This is an absolutely indispensable podcast, post-October 7. However it is also deeply flawed. There are not many more important English-language podcasts for staying in tune with the events in Israel since October 7 than this one. But I will get right to the flaw, and that is the fact that Senor, someone who purports to be on the right when it comes to Israel, does not have any courage in his own supposed convictions. Senor in fact is afflicted with the same unfortunate malady that plagues President Trump, in that he wants to be liked by the elites. (Who are inevitably on the left.) So while we get treated with an endless supply of the Nadav Eyals and Haviv Retig Gurs and Micah Goodmans of the world (the first two of which I tend to get something out of at least), Senor wouldn't be caught dead having on someone like Ruthie Blum or Caroline Glick. WHY NOT DAN? One especially repulsive figure that we get repeatedly treated to is Yossi Klein Halevi, whose Bibi Derangement Syndrome colors every sentence he will ever utter. Yet he is platformed with the assumption of legitimacy ahead of someone like Glick, who we could be actually learning from. On January 1st Dan had on a particularly oily character named Ronen Bergman, who writes for the New York Times and Yedioth Ahronoth. Bergman had been used (probably happily) by the anti-Bibi forces in the leadup to the remarkable pager attacks in Lebanon, and he dutifully published information about an impending attack, causing Israel to quickly step up the operation, let it be wasted. This is borderline treason, yet Dan asks Bergman nothing about it. As he asks nothing about the claims by Bergman that in the leadup to October 7, Netanyahu was given important intel about the Gazan terrorists' switching out their sim cards. This claim is vigorously denied by Netanyahu. Again, it is the anti-Bibi mindset of so many of these journalists that Dan has on, and they always tend to get a free pass. What good is being on a side (in this case the right) if you are always afraid to stake your claim? By all means, listen to this pod and absorb the info. But know what you are getting. And if your Israel current events time is limited, I would highly recommend going with Caroline Glick instead.

Outstanding and extremely helpful in understanding the complexity. Balanced and nuanced. So lucky to have these informed podcast episodes. Col HaCavod ve-Toda Raba