The Times of Israel Daily Briefing The Times of Israel

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Editor David Horovitz joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan in the Jerusalem offices for today's episode.

Facing a growing number of high-profile spats involving members of his coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Wednesday for his political partners to “get a grip” and abandon “petty politics.” Horovitz unwinds the insults and accusations that were thrown about yesterday and assesses the stability of the coalition even as some members of Likud are showing signs of discontent.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told Channel 13 last night, “This business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear — it’s simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public.” Horovitz discusses how Israel's internal political strife may be affecting its prosecution of the war.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that US officials estimate that of the 116 hostages believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza, just 50 are still alive. The assessment is based on a combination of Israeli and US intelligence and puts the number of deceased hostages at 66, a far higher number than Israel has publicly confirmed. As hostage negotiation talks seem to be at a stalemate, Horovitz speaks to the international pressure being placed on Hamas and why it's likely not enough.

Last night the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group Hasan Nasrallah commented on the escalating conflict with the Jewish state, and said the Shiite terror group does not want “total war,” is only acting in support of Hamas, but in the case of full-blown war, “The enemy knows well that we have prepared ourselves for the worst… and that no place… will be spared from our rockets.” Why this announcement right now?

For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

As war winds down, diplomacy is paramount, but Netanyahu has other priorities

Amid multiplying spats, Netanyahu urges coalition partners to ‘get a grip’

IDF spokesman says Hamas can’t be destroyed, drawing retort from PM: ‘That’s war’s goal’

Nasrallah says ‘no place’ in Israel would be safe in war, threatens to target Cyprus

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel

THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 

IMAGE: Economy Minister Nir Barkat attends a plenum session at the assembly hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem on May 29, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Military reporter Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

Fabian is just back from the Yabna neighborhood of Rafah in the Gaza Strip where he was embedded with troops from the Givati Infantry Brigade. We hear what he saw and then dive into the current status of fighting in the Strip.

Just after Hezbollah brazenly published aerial drone footage of Israel yesterday, top IDF generals approved plans for war in Lebanon. What do we know about the plans and what is happening along the border now?

Annual Israeli arms sales reached a new record in 2023, for the third consecutive year, amounting to nearly double the value of exports compared to five years ago, according to Defense Ministry figures released Monday. How can war-time Israel be exporting so many arms?For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

In Rafah, IDF focuses on tunnels, with aim of destroying Hamas brigade within a month

IDF says half of Hamas’s forces in Rafah dismantled, at least 550 gunmen killed

Top Israeli generals approve Lebanon offensive battle plans, army says

In open threat, Hezbollah publishes drone footage of sites in northern Israel

IDF kills Hezbollah rocket specialist amid rare 3-day lull in terror group’s fire

Israeli arms sales break record for 3rd year in row, reaching $13 billion in 2023

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel

THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 

IMAGE: Troops of the IDF's Givati Brigade operate in the Yabna camp of southern Gaza's Rafah, June 18, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

After last week’s escalation along the northern border, US special envoy Amos Hochstein is in the country to try to head off a war with Hezbollah and advance efforts to rein in hostilities along the “Blue Line” between Israel and Lebanon. What are his chances?

An unnamed senior Israeli negotiator told AFP yesterday that dozens of hostages are still alive and that the Israeli negotiating team had green-lit the Biden plan and is waiting for Hamas's answer. Berman brings up an idea that is slowly gaining support, that Israel must change the paradigm of the war in Gaza and consider it as just a first step in taking on all the Iranian proxies that make up the hydra-like monster that is Iran.  

A document by the IDF’s Gaza Division warning of a potential attack by Hamas and en masse hostage-taking that was internally circulated on September 19 and reportedly brought to the attention of at least some senior intelligence officials, was ignored. Berman explores the report and discusses some reasons why -- tragically -- this intel wasn't acted upon.

For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Top Biden aide in Israel to try to head off war with Hezbollah

Gantz tells visiting US envoy ‘time is running out’ for deal to calm northern border

Dozens of hostages are alive ‘with certainty’ — top Israeli negotiator

Netanyahu officially disbands war cabinet after Gantz’s departure from government

3 weeks before Oct. 7, IDF Gaza Division warned of Hamas plan to attack, take 250 hostages

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel

THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ben Wallick. 

IMAGE: Relatives and supporters of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, take part in a demonstration calling for their release in Tel Aviv on June 15, 2024. (Jack Guez / AFP)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Political correspondent Sam Sokol and environmental reporter Sue Surkes join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

Sokol speaks about the Knesset voting on a bill to extend reservists' service, in order to keep reservists keep serving because of exigencies of the war, and an ongoing manpower shortage.

Sokol discusses how this bill feeds into the ongoing ultra-Orthodox draft issue, generating a backlash of anger as it backs into what is sometimes called an evasion law for the ultra-Orthodox draft, allowing exemptions for young yeshiva students while the burden falls on other parts of Israeli society.

He also looks at another bill that would allow the government to appoint hundreds of new state-funded rabbinical posts in towns and local councils, creating a kind of jobs program for members of the coalition's religious parties. The bill was stalled during the earlier months of the war, is now being pushed by the coalition partners and Sokol said that a major political scrap could emerge from these two controversial issues on the docket.

Surkes talks about a pilot program for the children of migrants and refugees that integrates them into mixed classes in other neighborhoods, offering more hope for the future but not solving the many issues facing  this beleaguered population.

She also describes the rescue of a Nubian ibex that fell into a deep sinkhole near Kibbutz Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea.

For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Far-right ministers blast ‘delusional’ daily pauses in fighting to secure Gaza aid

Knesset revives bill expanding Chief Rabbinate’s influence over local authorities

Government backs new extension to IDF reservists’ service despite backlash

Nubian ibex rescued from 10-meter-deep sinkhole

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel

THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 

 IMAGE: Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest against the drafting of Haredim to the IDF, June 2, 2024 (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Military reporter Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

The deaths of 11 soldiers were announced over the past day. We begin with the group of 8 who were killed in Rafah in the IDF’s deadliest incident in the past six months. Two reservists were killed when their tank came under attack in northern Gaza over the weekend, the military also announced Sunday. And finally, Fabian describes the incident involving a further soldier, Sgt. Yair Roitman, 19, of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, from Karnei Shomron, who succumbed to his wounds from Monday over the weekend.

The IDF announced this morning a new daily 11-hour tactical pause of military activity along a key road in the southern Gaza Strip. What is the purpose of this?

At the same time, the United States military is preparing to temporarily remove its humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza because of anticipated sea conditions, a US official said on Friday.

And finally, footage circulating on social media on Thursday showed Israeli soldiers using a kind of a catapult to launch incendiaries at Lebanon, to spark fires on the other side of the border. What was the official IDF response to this?

For more updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Eight troops killed in Rafah explosion, in deadliest incident for IDF in 6 months

Two reservists killed in north Gaza, as soldiers slain in Rafah blast named

IDF announces daily pause in fighting along key south Gaza road to increase aid flow

US to temporarily remove aid pier from Gaza coast again due to bad weather

Troops use trebuchet to launch incendiaries at Lebanon

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel

THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 

IMAGE: Troops of the Commando Brigade operate in southern Gaza's Rafah, in a handout photo published June 15, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

It is day 251 of the war with Hamas. ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's special episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World.

This week, host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

On Tuesday, the United Nations published an annual report on children in armed conflict, which for the first time added the Israeli military, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to its list of worst offenders. The decision to add the IDF to what has become known as “the list of shame” was due to what the report said was its killing and maiming of children and attacking schools and hospitals. Israel asserts that it operates according to international law, taking steps to avoid civilian casualties.

And on Wednesday, a UN inquiry alleged both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, saying Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses, and that they included acts of “extermination.”

This week, we discuss the use of international bodies to delegitimize Israel and how international law -- developed in part by Jews -- no longer protects the little guys.

Discussed articles include:

UN reports accuse Israel of ‘extermination,’ crimes against humanity; Hamas of war crimes

UN publishes report with IDF, Hamas, PIJ added to ‘list of shame’ for first time

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel

THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 

IMAGE: Israel's legal team waits to hear the arguments of South Africa's legal team as part of South Africa case against Israel over Rafah offensive at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, on May 16, 2024. (Nick Gammon/AFP)
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