Haaretz Podcast

Can Israel conduct a military strike to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program? What will it take for the country’s leadership to reach such a decision? And what are the chances that the ensuing conflict with Tehran will include the United States? Former Israeli deputy national security adviser, Chuck Freilich, joins the podcast to discuss his recent article on the subject, and explains why a military strike is doable but should remain Israel’s absolute last resort...

In Israeli history, 2021 will be remembered as the end of an era. After 12 years, Benjamin Netanyahu lost power – something many Israelis found unimaginable. But this big development was only one event in a tempestuous year. There were multiple waves of COVID-19 , a vaccine campaign and a world-leading push for a booster shot. U.S. President Joe Biden entered the White House with a very different attitude toward Iran than his predecessor...

William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Organizations, joins the podcast to talk about what it means for Diaspora Jews to be barred from Israel for nearly two years. He sits down with host Allison Kaplan Sommer on the day Israel officially declared the United States a “red” country in its ongoing battle against COVID and the omicron variant, barring travel between the two countries...

Journalist, activist, poet and Haaretz’s new Europe correspondent, Rajaa Natour, tells host Simon Spungin why Netflix’s collection of “Palestinian Stories” is not a watershed moment for Palestinian cinema or the Palestinian struggle, but a cowardly attempt to cash in on the never-ending narrative of victimhood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Israeli historian Adam Raz joins the podcast to discuss his explosive report on declassified documents from 1948, showing how Israel's early leadership grappled with the moral and political questions arising from a series of massacres against Palestinians. What did the government know in real time, how were the soldiers responsible treated, and why did David Ben-Gurion try to bury the subject? The conversation starts at time code 17:45. Earlier on this episode, we hear from Prof...

Host Simon Spungin is joined by Judy Maltz and Adrian Hennigan to discuss: Immigration in the shadow of the Coronavirus pandemic; the never-ending race to become head of the Jewish Agency; and why an Israeli video-on-demand service has just added Sally Rooney’s hit TV show ‘Normal People’ to its catalog – despite calls to boycott the BDS-supporting author. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All across the Middle East, Christian communities are in decline. In Gaza, once an early Christian city, there are only 800 Christians left. In Iraq, Christians whose lands were taken over by the Islamic State were forced to convert – or die. Author Janine di Giovanni joins Haaretz Weekly to discuss her book “The Vanishing: Faith, Loss, and the Twilight of Christianity in the Land of the Prophets," which documents this process...

In this week's episode, we hear from two of Israel's top COVID experts about vaccines, the new omicron variant and medications against the virus. Our guest in the studio, Dr. Oren Kobiler of Tel Aviv University, explains how the new variant arrived, and says that while we should take it seriously,  there is "no need to panic." We ask him if vaccines will hold the line against this mutation, and seek his views on shutting Israel's border to tourists...

Host Simon Spungin is joined by Alan Leveritt, the publisher and owner of the Arkansas Times, who finds himself inadvertently on the frontlines of the battle against Israeli-sponsored legislation against the BDS movement. PLUS: Gideon Levy on his dinner with Benjamin Netanyahu and the furious responses it provoked among the Israeli left. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A famous ultra-Orthodox author of children's books, Chaim Walder, was accused by multiple women of sexual abuse.  Their disturbing accounts, first reported in Haaretz, are creating shock waves in Haredi communities, from Jerusalem to Brooklyn. Senior analyst Anshel Pfeffer joins the podcast to discuss the story, starting at time code 11:00...