Podcasts about Haaretz

Dr. Keith Kahn-Harris is a London-based sociologist, writer, and lecturer at Leo Baeck College, where he explores what it means to live as Jews in a world that often resists the very idea of chosen-ness. A senior research fellow at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, he's authored eight books that range from the UK Jewish experience to the global metal music scene—always probing the boundaries of identity and belonging. His writing appears in The Guardian, Haaretz, Prospect, and beyond. In this conversation, Keith helps us confront an uncomfortable question: why do so many Jews shy away from living up to the role our own story asks of us?W: kahn-harris.orgX: @KeithKahnHarris"Everyday Jews" on Amazon: https://a.co/d/glMPQCDWHAT IS THEJEWFUNCTION - A 10min EXPLANATIONhttps://youtu.be/5TlUt5FqVgQLISTEN TO THE MYSTERY BOOK PODCAST SERIES:https://tinyurl.com/y7tmfpesSETH'S BOOK:https://www.antidotetoantisemitism.com/FREE AUDIOBOOK (With Audible trial) OF THE JEWISH CHOICE - UNITY OR ANTISEMITISM:https://amzn.to/3u40evCLIKE/SHARE/SUBSCRIBEFollow us on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram @thejewfunctionSUPPORT US ON PATREONpatreon.com/thejewfunction

The Israeli parliament votes to annex the occupied West Bank - a move unlikely to become law but described as an 'insult' by the U.S. vice president. Donald Trump insists annexation won't happen, but settler violence is escalating. Are US-Israeli relations in upheaval? In this episode: Alon Pinkas - Former Israeli ambassador and Consul General in New York. Mark Pfeifle - Republican strategist and President of Off the Record Strategies. Gideon Levy - Columnist at Haaretz newspaper and author of 'The Punishment of Gaza'. Host: Adrian Finighan Connect with us:@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

« Les sanctions de Trump contre le secteur pétrolier russe intensifient la guerre économique », titre le New York Times, selon lequel Donald « Trump va frapper la Russie là où ça fait mal ». Un vrai revirement de la part du président américain. Selon le quotidien américain, cette décision marque « un changement de stratégie important, de la part du président américain, qui jusqu'à présent s'était abstenu de punir la Russie… » « Pourquoi Trump a atteint un point de non-retour avec [Vladimir] Poutine ?, interroge de son côté le Wall Street Journal. Pendant des mois, Trump a menacé de prendre ce style de mesures, avant d'y renoncer, car il continuait de croire qu'il pouvait négocier avec Poutine sur la guerre en Ukraine, posture qui a longtemps frustré les dirigeants politiques, aux États-Unis et en Europe. » « Mais la patience du président a fini par s'émousser », selon des responsables américains. En Espagne, El Païs estime que « le coup porté par Trump aux compagnies pétrolières russes, va perturber les calculs de Poutine visant à prolonger la guerre en Ukraine ». La presse russe, et notamment le Moskovski Komsomolets, fait sa Une sur la réponse de Vladimir Poutine, qui a qualifié ces sanctions « d'acte inamical ». Le président russe a notamment affirmé que « si la part de la Russie sur le marché mondial diminue en raison des sanctions imposées à la Russie, cela aura des conséquences néfastes, y compris pour les États-Unis. » Un vote qui fait polémique À la Une également, les réactions après le vote au Parlement israélien, la Knesset, sur la Cisjordanie du vote d'un projet de loi préliminaire visant à établir une « souveraineté israélienne » sur le territoire. Où l'on reparle de Donald Trump qui, nous dit le Times of Israel, affirme que l'État hébreu « ne fera rien avec la Cisjordanie ». « Ne vous inquiétez pas pour la Cisjordanie », a encore déclaré le président américain. Cela alors que l'administration américaine s'indigne, estimant ainsi « les Israéliens ne peuvent pas nous traiter comme si nous étions Joe Biden ». Un autre responsable américain résume ainsi la situation : « Netanyahu est sur un fil avec Donald Trump. S'il persiste, il va faire capoter l'accord sur Gaza. Et s'il le fait capoter, Donald Trump le fera capoter. ». De son côté, le journal d'opposition Haaretz juge que « le contrôle israélien de la Cisjordanie serait le pire fléau pour le pays ». Évoquant le vote de la Knesset, Haaretz estime « qu'agir ainsi, lors de la visite du vice-président JD Vance (...) revient à cracher au visage de l'administration de droite la plus pro-israélienne de tous les temps ». Conclusion d'Haaretz : « Les illusions annexionnistes doivent être stoppées dès maintenant, et l'administration Trump ne peut s'en charger seule. Israël doit y renoncer s'il souhaite ouvrir la voie à un futur accord avec les Palestiniens. » Expérimentation originale en Inde C'est Libération qui nous en parle aujourd'hui : « L'Inde expérimente pour la première fois l'ensemencement de nuages à New Delhi, pour lutter contre la pollution ». Plus précisément, « l'Inde a provoqué [jeudi]une pluie artificielle au-dessus de la capitale indienne en pulvérisant d'un avion un produit chimique, dont la nature n'a pas été précisée. Si l'essai s'avère concluant, l'opération en elle-même commencera le 29 octobre. » L'ensemencement des nuages vise « à dissiper le brouillard de pollution toxique qui enveloppe la capitale depuis plusieurs jours », précise encore le quotidien français. Toutefois, la substance chimique utilisée pour cette opération pose question. Ce peut être par exemple de « l'iodure d'argent ». De plus, précise encore Libération, « des recherches ont montré que les opérations d'ensemencement ne produisent pas toujours les résultats escomptés. »

Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist and columnist with Haaretz, discusses the reaction to the International Court of Justice's finding that Israel must allow more aid into Gaza.

Israël empêche toujours les journalistes étrangers d'entrer à Gaza. L'Association de la presse étrangère à Jérusalem (FPA) a exprimé ce jeudi 23 octobre sa déception après que la Cour suprême israélienne a reporté sa décision d'un mois supplémentaire, assurant que la situation sur place a changé. Depuis deux ans, les journalistes n'ont pu y entrer que sous escorte et donc sous contrôle de l'armée israélienne. La guerre a causé la mort de plus de 210 journalistes palestiniens dans le territoire dévasté. Entretien avec la journaliste à Orient XXI, Sylvain Cypel, ancien directeur de la rédaction de Courrier international et rédacteur en chef au Monde. Auteur de « L'État d'Israël contre les Juifs », La Découverte. C'est toujours non. Les journalistes étrangers ne peuvent pas entrer à Gaza, ne peuvent pas aller voir ce qui se passe et ne peuvent pas raconter au reste du monde. Ça fait plus de deux ans que ça dure, et Israël continuera de bloquer l'accès au territoire palestinien au moins pour un mois. La Cour suprême a reporté sa décision et nous en parlons avec Sylvain Cypel journaliste à Orient XXI, ancien directeur de la rédaction de Courrier international, ancien rédacteur en chef au Monde. Vous avez aussi écrit le livre l'État d'Israël contre les Juifs, publié aux éditions La Découverte. Rfi :  Bonjour Sylvain Cypel. La Cour suprême a reconnu tout à l'heure en Israël que la situation avait changé. Est-ce que ça laisse entrevoir une ouverture selon vous ou pas du tout ? Sylvain Cypel : Comment dire, un tout petit peut-être ? Voilà, un tout petit peut-être… C'est-à -dire qu'il faut voir, il faut voir le background. Il faut voir dans quelles conditions ça se passe. Ça veut dire que ça fait deux ans que ça dure. Ce n'est pas la première fois qu'il y a un dépôt de plainte devant la Cour suprême. Il y en a eu sept. Il y a eu sept reports. À chaque fois, la Cour suprême s'est délestée de son devoir et, à chaque fois, l'État a expliqué des conditions de guerre, la sécurité... qu'il est impossible de laisser les journalistes entrer. Par ailleurs, il faut savoir qu'il y a des journalistes qui rentrent très peu. Ils sont quasi systématiquement Israéliens. Ils sont choisis par l'armée. Donc, la presse, les médias deviennent un instrument d'une propagande. Si vous voulez un instrument d'un récit où on ne voit rien, on ne vous dit pas, on voit juste ce qu'on autorise de voir. Et quelques personnes qui se disent journalistes et qui sont des affidés, sont prêts à répercuter ce que l'armée leur demande de faire. Vous nous disiez qu'à plusieurs reprises la justice s'était soustraite en quelque sorte à son rôle. Est-ce qu'elle pourrait contraindre le gouvernement israélien à autoriser l'accès des journalistes étrangers à Gaza ? Oui. Mais bien entendu, si elle donne raison à l'Association de la presse étrangère, qui est représentée par un avocat israélien qui est très connu, qui s'appelle Gilad Shaer qui a été en son temps un conseiller d'un Premier ministre qui s'appelait Barak. Et donc il suffit que la Cour suprême décrète, la requête est validée. Et là, en l'occurrence, ce qu'elle a dit, c'était qu'elle accordait un mois supplémentaire aux autorités israéliennes pour qu'elles préparent un plan d'accès à Gaza. Vous nous l'avez dit, elle l'a déjà fait à plusieurs reprises. Vous y croyez, là, pour cette fois-ci, dans le contexte un peu différent auquel on assiste avec le cessez-le-feu ? Alors, je vous dis, il y a un contexte un peu différent, vous avez raison. C'est-à-dire que ce n'est pas la paix, mais il y a une forme... On ne peut même pas dire que c'est un cessez-le-feu, parce qu'en réalité, tous les jours, il y a des Palestiniens qui sont assassinés. Donc, ce n'est pas vraiment une paix, mais ça n'est plus ce que c'était avant l'accord qui a été signé entre le Hamas et le gouvernement israélien. Et malgré ça, il n'y a toujours pas de journalistes étrangers qui rentrent. On entend assez peu de réactions internationales pourtant. Pourquoi, selon vous ? Pourquoi est-ce qu'on n'en parle pas sur le plan international ? Oui. D'abord, on en parle un peu. Il y a eu des papiers dans la presse américaine, il y a eu des papiers dans la presse française. Il y a eu des papiers, mais je veux dire des réactions de dirigeants, par exemple. Mais parce qu'il n'y a pas non plus de réactions de dirigeants sur la réalité de ce qui s'est passé à Gaza. C'est ça qu'il faut dire. Si vous voulez, il y a des gens qui ont commencé à bouger…. Les Européens ont commencé gentiment à dire que ça ne va pas, qu'on menace peut-être. Enfin,à ce jour, il y a 150 000 blessés, bientôt 70 000 morts et tous ceux qu'on découvrira le jour où on pourra les découvrir, si on les découvre sous les décombres. L'armée israélienne a tué à ce jour, les chiffres officiels, c'est 200 tués, dont 75% de Gazaouis et 25% de non-Gazaouis [parmi les journalistes, NDLR]. En général, ce sont des gens d'Al Jazeera, parce qu'ils étaient les seuls à être restés. Oui, c'est ça. Les derniers chiffres de Reporters sans frontières disent même plus de 210 journalistes tués. Les médias internationaux : 220. Même les médias internationaux ont beaucoup travaillé là depuis deux ans, avec des journalistes qui se trouvaient à Gaza. Mais donc beaucoup ont été tués, beaucoup sont partis. Comment est-ce qu'aujourd'hui, on peut encore couvrir ce conflit ? Ben, on ne le peut pas. On le peut en ayant des correspondants. Moi, je suis à Orient XXI. Il y a quelqu'un qui, toutes les semaines, nous fait un papier que nous publions sur ce qui se passe à Gaza. C'est extrêmement intéressant. Rami Abou Jamous, je cite son nom parce qu'on l'a entendu à plusieurs reprises sur cette antenne et il faut le lire, en effet. Mais bien entendu. Et donc je vous dis, il a commencé chez nous et aujourd'hui c'est devenu, je dirais, entre guillemets, «une petite vedette». Et donc, si on dispose de gens à l'intérieur, on peut obtenir des choses. Les journalistes israéliens de Haaretz qui travaillent sur ce qui se passe... moi, je connais très bien, par exemple, Amira Hass, qui est une journaliste de Haaretz. Elle a un carnet d'adresses très important à Gaza et donc elle peut faire. Mais elle fait de l'information sur Gaza uniquement par téléphone. Elle ne peut pas y aller, c'est impossible. Or, ça, c'est tout à fait différent de faire un papier lorsqu'on vous parle d'un endroit et lorsque vous êtes sur le terrain, mais tous les journalistes connaissent ça par cœur. Et donc, évidemment, ça nuit considérablement. À la qualité de l'information et à la véracité de l'information. À lire aussiIsraël: la Cour suprême reporte l'examen d'un recours de la presse étrangère pour un accès à Gaza À lire aussiIsraël: le Parlement ouvre la voie à une annexion de la Cisjordanie

“La fine di Israele” di Ilan Pappé è uno dei migliori saggi di sempre sulla Palestina ed il primo a mostrarne il futuroIscriviti qui alla nuova newsletter, ogni 7 del mese un nuovo appuntamentoRispondi a questo sondaggio di 7 domande per migliorare i contenuti ed i progetti futuri di Medio Oriente e Dintorni Qui trovate tutti i link di Medio Oriente e Dintorni: Linktree, ma, andando un po' nel dettaglio: -Tutti gli aggiornamenti sulla pagina instagram @medioorienteedintorni -Per articoli visitate il sito https://mediorientedintorni.com/ trovate anche la "versione articolo" di questo podcast. - Qui il link al canale Youtube- Podcast su tutte le principali piattaforme in Italia e del mondo-Vuoi tutte le uscite in tempo reale? Iscriviti al gruppo Telegram: https://t.me/mediorientedintorniOgni like, condivisione o supporto è ben accetto e mi aiuta a dedicarmi sempre di più alla mia passione: raccontare il Medio Oriente ed il "mondo islamico"

« On craint le retour de la guerre » : les mots de Mahmoud, jeune Gazaoui de 29 ans, s'affichent à la Une de Libération à Paris. « Le calme, le soulagement, la joie, l'espoir auront duré au moins quelques jours au Proche-Orient, soupire le journal. Ce qui est déjà énorme après deux ans de guerre acharnée. À Gaza, les armes se sont tues une partie de la semaine jusqu'à ce que le Hamas profite du cessez-le-feu pour se livrer à de violents règlements de compte contre des clans rivaux ou des Palestiniens accusés d'être des “collabos“. Et hier dimanche, pointe Libération, c'est l'armée israélienne qui a mené des frappes sur le centre et le sud de l'enclave, accusant le Hamas d'avoir tiré en premier et tuant une trentaine de personnes. Bref, le cessez-le-feu ne tient plus à grand-chose, si ce n'est à la pression absolue des pays de la région, conscients qu'un retour de la guerre ne ferait pas leurs affaires. » Les prochaines étapes s'annoncent délicates… « La première étape du plan de paix se déroule dans un climat très tendu, renchérit Le Monde. Les Israéliens mettent en doute la bonne volonté du Hamas à propos des corps des 28 otages (…). D'un côté, le Hamas affirme avoir fait le maximum pour rendre les dépouilles en sa possession et pour retrouver les autres. De l'autre, l'armée et le gouvernement estiment que le Hamas a choisi de ne pas rendre tous les corps disponibles, violant ainsi la première étape du plan de paix de Donald Trump. » Alors désormais, poursuit Le Monde, « les prochaines étapes du plan en 20 points entré en vigueur le 10 octobre sous la pression du président américain apparaissent particulièrement délicates. Les belligérants et les médiateurs doivent notamment s'entendre sur la future gouvernance temporaire de Gaza et sur la démilitarisation du Hamas, censé abandonner son contrôle de l'enclave. Les envoyés spéciaux de Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff et Jared Kushner, rencontrent Benyamin Nétanyahou ce lundi. » À qui la faute ? Si le cessez-le-feu à Gaza est train de se fissurer, « la faute en revient au Hamas », estime pour sa part le Washington Post. « Avant même que l'encre du dernier accord de cessez-le-feu ne sèche, les hommes du Hamas sont sortis de leurs repaires souterrains, le visage frais, bien nourris et vêtus d'uniformes impeccables. » Et ils se sont livrés, donc, à de violents règlements de comptes. Qui plus est, poursuit le Post, « selon le Département d'État, le Hamas préparerait d'autres attaques contre des civils palestiniens. (…) Le groupe djihadiste attise (donc) les flammes d'une guerre civile palestinienne. » « Les interrogations sur l'avenir immédiat de Gaza s'accumulent », constate pour sa part Haaretz à Tel Aviv. Haaretz qui pointe du doigt, lui, le Premier ministre israélien. « Si Netanyahou veut réellement accélérer la localisation des otages, il doit laisser entrer les équipes de recherches turques prêtes à intervenir, actuellement bloquées au point de passage de Rafah. » À lire aussiAprès de nouveaux bombardements israéliens à Gaza, le fragile cessez-le-feu reprend Le « casse du siècle » au Louvre À la Une également, le vol spectaculaire d'hier matin au musée du Louvre à Paris. Tous les journaux publient les photos des bijoux dérobés et soulignent leur valeur inestimable… C'est le « casse du siècle » pour Le Soir à Bruxelles. « Les clés du braquage du Louvre : sept minutes, quatre assaillants et une échelle pour accéder aux joyaux de la Couronne », constate El Pais à Madrid. « La chasse aux voleurs est ouverte », s'exclame le Guardian à Londres. Le Louvre « trop vulnérable », pointe La Repubblica à Rome. En effet, « le Louvre a-t-il sous-estimé les alertes sur ses failles de sécurité ? », s'interroge Le Figaro à Paris. Oui, répond le journal, qui révèle qu'un récent « rapport de la Cour des comptes alertait sur le retard pris par le Louvre dans la mise en conformité des équipements de sûreté du musée. » Le journal qui cite aussi une gardienne du musée selon laquelle « 190 postes de surveillance ont été supprimés en dix ans, soit 15% des effectifs ». « Le problème n'est pas nouveau, souligne Le Figaro. En 1939 déjà, au moment du vol de L'Indifférent de Watteau au Louvre, la question de la sécurité avait fait couler beaucoup d'encre. L'un des plus grands quotidiens français d'avant-guerre, Le Journal, déplorait déjà “l'inefficacité des mesures de surveillance dans nos musées nationaux. Par raison d'économies, poursuivait-il, le personnel des gardiens a dû être réduit récemment dans des proportions relativement considérables“. L'histoire se répète. » À lire aussiCambriolage au Louvre: la revente en l'état des joyaux volés est impossible, selon les experts

Von Michael Nikbakhsh. Im Zentrum der 249. Ausgabe steht eine Überwachungsaffäre. Über eine Software der indonesischen Technoloigiefirma First Wap, gegründet vom verstorbenen Tiroler Josef Fuchs, wurden jahrelang tausende Mobiltelefone weltweit getrackt und damit die Standorte von teils sehr prominenten Leuten aus Politik, Wirtschaft, Journalismus, Zivilgesellschaft und Kultur - auch in Österreich wurde zahlreiche Nummern immer wieder lokalisiert - von wem, ist unklar. Aufgedeckt wurde das im Zuge einer internationalen Recherchekooperation von 30 Journalistinnen und Journalisten beziehungsweise 14 Medienhäusern. Initiiert wurde die Recherche von der Investigativ-Plattform Lighthouse Reports, die von den Niederlanden aus arbeitet, Ligthouse hat dann die deutsche Investigativ-Plattform paper trail media beigezogen und daraus entstand dann ein größerer Verbund, so unter anderem auch Le Monde aus Frankreich, Tamedia aus der Schweiz, Investigace aus Tschechien, Haaretz aus Israel, ZDF und Spiegel aus Deutschland und aus Österreich der Standard, den die Dunkelkammer bei dem Projekt mit ein Recherchen unterstützt hat. Was das mit dieser Überwachungstechnologie gemacht wurde, wie es zu der Recherche kam, warum ein Vertreter von First Wap sich vor verstecker Kamera in eine ziemlich üble Lage gebracht hat und was das alles mit Wolfgang Ambros zu tun hat - das bespreche ich in dieser Ausgabe mit Maria Retter und Bastian Obermayer von paper trail media in München. // Die Dunkelkammer ist ein Stück Pressefreiheit.  Unabhängigen Journalismus kannst Du mit einer Mitgliedschaft via Steady unterstützen https://steady.page/de/die-dunkelkammer/about Vielen Dank! Michael Nikbakhsh im Namen des Dunkelkammer-Teams 

The miraculous release of Israel’s remaining 20 living hostages in Gaza may have been “the best news we’ve had for the last two years,” Haaretz senior security analyst Amos Harel said on the Haaretz Podcast. Yet a great deal remains to be resolved before anything resembling security is in place for Palestinians in Gaza or for Israelis. Inside Gaza, Harel noted, “Hamas is already making its intentions clear – to remain by any means necessary. They're not going anywhere. They do not intend to dismantle their weapons.” He points to their recent violent execution of suspected Israeli collaborators and aggressive attacks on clans and factions who challenge their authority. With host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Harel breaks down the various complications regarding a postwar Gaza: Hamas’ failure to return a significant number of the bodies of the deceased hostages, the possible involvement of international forces to reign in Hamas after the IDF withdraws, the flow of humanitarian aid and how the Strip will be governed He also reflected on Donald Trump’s boldly frank speech in the Knesset in which the U.S. leader openly called on Israel’s president to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his corruption trial. “Netanyahu’s crowd has been complaining and whining for the last two days that he's not getting enough respect and not enough ‘thank you’s’ for bringing the hostages back,” Harel said. “Well, there's a simple reason for that. ...It was not thanks to Netanyahu. It was because Trump finally pulled weight and forced Netanyahu’s hand. This is what happened.” Read more: Analysis by Amos Harel | End of Gaza War Could Open Door to Major Diplomatic Shifts in the Middle East Trump: I Spoke to Hamas; They Said They Will Disarm. If They Don't, We Will, 'Perhaps Violently' This Isn't Over': Families of Deceased Israeli Hostages Warn of Government Neglect, Public Fatigue Trump Urges Pardon for Netanyahu in Knesset Address: 'Give Him a Pardon, Come On' 'The Color Is Returning to His Face': Parents of Freed Hostages Share Details From Gaza CaptivitySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Bible's most revolutionary concept wasn't monotheism - it was something far more profound. What if the most revolutionary idea in human history wasn't freedom, democracy, or even monotheism — but a single verse from Genesis? This week on Madlik Disruptive Torah, Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz are joined by Dr. Tomer Persico, author of In God's Image: How Western Civilization Was Shaped by a Revolutionary Idea. Together, they explore how the Torah's concept of tzelem Elohim — the image of God — was originally understood not as a metaphor, but as something startlingly literal: humanity as the actual analog of the divine. The conversation also traces how Christianity, more than Judaism, adopted and amplified this idea — translating it into the language of conscience, equality, and individual dignity. Does that history diminish the Jewish claim to tzelem Elohim or, paradoxically, confirm its enduring power? Finally, the discussion turns inward: once God's mind becomes internalized within the human mind, religion itself becomes a human sense — like music or beauty — embedded in the architecture of our consciousness. Studying religion, then, is not just the study of the divine, but the study of what makes us most profoundly human. Dr Tomers Biography Dr. Tomer Persico is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Chief Editor of the 'Challenges of Democracy' book series for the Rubinstein Center at Reichman University, and a Senior Research Scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Persico was the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor at the UC Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies for three years and has taught for eight years in Tel Aviv University. His fields of expertise include cultural history, the liberal order, Jewish modern identity, Contemporary Spirituality and Jewish fundamentalism. His books include The Jewish Meditative Tradition (Hebrew, Tel Aviv University Press, 2016), Liberalism: its Roots, Values and Crises (Hebrew, Dvir, 2024 and German, NZZ Libro, 2025) and In God's Image: How Western Civilization Was Shaped by a Revolutionary Idea (Hebrew, Yedioth,2021, English, NYU Press,2025). Persico is an activist for freedom of religion in Israel, is frequently interviewed by local and international media and has written hundreds of articles for the legacy media, including Haaretz and the Washington Post. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Yael and two sons, Ivri and Shilo. Key Takeaways The concept of humans being created in God's image was revolutionary because it applied to everyone, not just rulers or heroes. Taking the idea of God's image literally led to profound implications for human rights and dignity. The "image of God" concept evolved through Christianity and ultimately influenced secularization and the emancipation of the Jews Timestamps [00:00:27] — Opening narration begins: “What if one of the most radical ideas in human intellectual history…” [00:01:42] — Host commentary: Jeffrey connects the “image of God” to the modern idea of dignity and introduces the hope for the hostages. [00:02:34] — Guest introduction: Dr. Tomer Persico is welcomed; he explains his research journey and the origins of his book. [00:05:19] — Defining the radical idea: Persico explains how “in God's image” reframed power, privilege, and ethics in Western culture. [00:07:45] — Literal God debate: Discussion turns to the ancient Israelite belief that God had a visible, bodily form. [00:10:12] — Reframing idolatry: Persico redefines idolatry as failing to see the divine in people, not in statues. [00:14:18] — Birth of human rights: Conversation about Genesis 9:6 and how individuality replaced collective punishment. [00:18:47] — The Christian turn: How Christianity internalized the “image of God” into conscience and reason—laying foundations for science. [00:25:26] — Secular autonomy and modernity: How reverence for human autonomy led to the rise of secularism and liberal rights. [00:31:38] — Closing reflection: The innate “hunch” or instinct toward the sacred—“we do God” naturally—and the episode's farewell prayer for hostages. Links & Learnings Sign up for free and get more from our weekly newsletter https://madlik.com/ Sefaria Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/681682 Transcript here: https://madlik.substack.com/ Dr Tomer's book - https://a.co/d/biMkA6b

In this week's Media Confidential, Alan has returned from a trip to Israel that coincided with a ceasefire brokered in Gaza. The hosts discuss his visit to the West Bank with Gideon Levy of Haaretz and how Israeli news outlets have covered the war.Alan and Lionel also talk about the Pope being an unexpected voice against clickbait and review “The Nerve”, a new publication launched by ex-Observer journalists.Plus, in a conversation about the rise of Substack, the hosts take an expensive bet on whether Lionel's new follower is who he seems. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Allison Kaplan Sommer, journalist at Haaretz, and host of the Haaretz podcast, discusses the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, and the what the future holds for the region.

durée : 00:38:27 - L'Invité(e) des Matins - par : Guillaume Erner, Yoann Duval - Cinq jours après l'entrée en vigueur du cessez-le-feu entre Israël et le Hamas, l'Égypte accueille une vingtaine de dirigeants internationaux, pour un sommet co-présidé par Donald Trump. Cette rencontre à Charm el-Cheikh parviendra-t-elle à sceller définitivement la paix à Gaza ? - réalisation : Félicie Faugère - invités : Alain Dieckhoff Sociologue français; Rami Abou Jamous Journaliste palestinien; Gideon Lévy Éditorialiste et membre du directoire du quotidien Haaretz.

« La fin d'un cauchemar, pas le début de la paix » : en une seule phrase, Le Soir à Bruxelles résume un sentiment largement partagé par les journaux mardi matin. « Lundi fut un jour historique au Moyen-Orient, s'exclame le Washington Post : le Hamas a libéré ses 20 otages israéliens vivants, quelques jours seulement après l'arrêt de l'offensive israélienne dans la bande de Gaza. En négociant cet accord, Donald Trump a mérité l'accueil enthousiaste qu'il a reçu au Parlement israélien. (…) « Mais, s'interroge le quotidien américain, s'agit-il vraiment de "l'aube historique d'un nouveau Moyen-Orient", comme l'a déclaré Trump à la Knesset, avec “une Terre sainte enfin en paix“ ? Ou bien s'agit-il simplement d'un nouveau cessez-le-feu dans le conflit judéo-arabe qui dure depuis plus de 100 ans ? Malheureusement, soupire le Post, tout porte à croire que cette paix n'a rien de définitif. Transformer ce cessez-le-feu en une paix durable nécessitera des sacrifices auxquels ni le Premier ministre israélien Benyamin Netanyahu ni le chef du Hamas Khalil Al-Hayya ne semblent vouloir consentir. » « Incertitude, pressions, calculs politiques et jeux de pouvoir » « Le soulagement est réel, renchérit le Guardian à Londres, mais la promesse de Trump d'un “âge d'or“ sonne creux. La libération des otages et des prisonniers réjouit les familles. Mais rien ne garantit que le cessez-le-feu mettra fin aux souffrances des Palestiniens. » En effet, précise El Pais, « sur le terrain, les prochaines étapes sont incertaines. Il n'existe aucune condition concrète pour le désarmement du Hamas, ni pour le retrait de l'armée israélienne. Aucune directive n'est fixée pour le prétendu gouvernement technocratique. Derrière le slogan “paix au Moyen-Orient“, une période d'incertitude, de pressions, de calculs politiques et de jeux de pouvoir s'ouvre en réalité, rendant toute prédiction très risquée, si ce n'est l'espoir que les armes ne seront plus jamais utilisées. » Netanyahu sur la sellette « La deuxième phase du cessez-le-feu à Gaza reste incertaine », reconnait le Jerusalem Post. (…) Les progrès ne seront pas faciles. » Car « le problème fondamental, c'est Netanyahu, affirme le quotidien israélien, pourtant proche du pouvoir. Netanyahu, même après l'accord, est toujours perçu dans une grande partie du monde arabe comme le destructeur de Gaza. » Le Haaretz à Tel Aviv appelle au départ du Premier ministre : « les otages sont rentrés à la maison malgré Netanyahu, et non grâce à lui. Netanyahu qui a tout fait pour torpiller l'accord. (…) L'écho des huées des familles d'otages devrait le hanter la nuit et le tenir éveillé jusqu'à ce qu'il se retire de la vue du public et permette à la société israélienne de se rétablir. Et tandis que nous célébrons le retour des otages, tout ce qui reste à faire, tonne encore Haaretz, c'est de dire explicitement au Premier ministre : “vous êtes venu, vous avez détruit, maintenant partez“. » Dans une interview au quotidien italien La Repubblica, la chanteuse israélienne Noa enfonce le clou : « le traumatisme demeure et la guérison prendra du temps. Ensuite, nous changerons de direction. La coexistence est notre seule option, affirme-t-elle. Nous devons l'accepter. Pour moi, le Premier ministre Netanyahu reste un criminel. L'idée que les gens puissent lui pardonner me terrifie. » France : journée décisive pour Lecornu À la Une également la situation politique en France, avec une « journée à haut risque pour Sébastien Lecornu », pointe Le Figaro. « Ce mardi, Sébastien Lecornu entre dans le dur. À peine reconduit à Matignon, le Premier ministre doit prouver qu'il peut gouverner sans majorité, défendre un budget contraint et désamorcer les premières offensives parlementaires. » Tout va se jouer cet après-midi à l'Assemblée, après son discours de politique générale, précise Le Figaro : « si la moitié des députés socialistes se joignent aux motions de censure déposées lundi par le Rassemblement national et La France insoumise, alors le gouvernement Lecornu sera renversé, arithmétiquement. » Et la question des retraites sera centrale… En effet, relève Libération, « pour ne pas le censurer, les socialistes attendent qu'il annonce la “suspension intégrale“ de la réforme Borne. (…) Voilà Lecornu prévenu, constate encore le journal. Et si le PS ne le censure pas d'entrée, un chemin de croix, amendement par amendement, l'attend lors de ses longues soirées d'automne à l'Assemblée. »

The Gaza war may be finally coming to an end, but it has made a long-term impact on Israel and the way the world views the Jewish state – including Diaspora Jews – especially those who spent the war on turbulent university campuses. Judy Maltz, Haaretz's Jewish World Editor, surveyed the effect of the two-year conflict on a group of young Jews from around the world, seeking to understand how their evolving views on Israel, antisemitism and Jewish identity changed since October 7. She found that a “vast majority of them” were “very, very troubled and distressed” after the October 7 attacks and were initially fully supportive of the Israeli incursion into Gaza. But two years into the war, “I did not find even one who could say wholeheartedly that they supported its continuation.” For some of the students, their changing sentiments propelled them into activism supporting protests to end the war. Others were motivated to step up their involvement in fighting campus antisemitism, which many experienced for the first time in their lives. Sometimes, students in the same country had completely contradictory experiences, Maltz reported. In Australia, she found one student who said they had encountered no hostility whatsoever, even as she was out demonstrating for the hostages with an Israeli flag. Yet another “had such a horrific experience that he's moving to Israel at the end of the year. He says Australia is no longer his home.” Read more: 'I Was Defending Something I No Longer Believed In': How Two Years of the Gaza War Changed Jewish Students Around the WorldSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

« Le jour longtemps imaginé, mais rarement cru possible, est enfin arrivé », souffle le Jerusalem Post. Mais « il a fallu, regrette le journal, tant de temps, tant de vies perdues ». Après plus de deux ans de guerre entre le Hamas et Israël, la libération des otages toujours détenus dans la bande de Gaza a été suivie en direct, par de nombreux médias, sur les continents américain et européen, jusqu'en Australie. Et, bien évidemment, du côté des médias locaux, qui témoignent de l'état d'esprit des Israéliens. « Il y a de la joie, résume un billet publié par The Times of Israel. La vie retrouvée, les familles réunies, un souffle collectif que nous avons trop longtemps retenu. Et il y a des larmes : pour les longs mois de peur, pour ceux qui ne sont pas rentrés chez eux, pour les cicatrices que chacun porte en lui ». The Times of Israel qui partage les « préparatifs de dernière minute » de Roni et Alma, deux petites filles aux cheveux tressés qui viennent de boucler leur valise, prêtes à retrouver leur père, capturé par le Hamas, le 7 octobre 2023. D'autres, en revanche, attendent le rapatriement des dépouilles, comme Udi Goren qui espère retrouver le corps de son cousin. « Depuis deux ans, on nous annonce sa mort, précise-t-il auprès du quotidien britannique The Times. Mais nous n'avons aucune preuve. Beaucoup de familles d'otages assassinées ressentent une lueur d'espoir. Des familles ont vu des vidéos du meurtre de leur proche. Et elles n'y croient toujours pas. Il y a un besoin, un besoin humain, de certitude, de savoir que ça y est, maintenant il faut l'accepter ». « Pourquoi maintenant ? » Dans les colonnes du New York Times, l'ancienne administration américaine sous Joe Biden défend ses efforts, et assure que « beaucoup de choses » ont changé depuis la nouvelle mandature : la mort de Yahya Sinwar « a plongé le Hamas dans une crise de leadership » ; « la pression militaire israélienne s'est intensifiée à mesure que les réserves de munitions du Hamas s'épuisaient ». Et puis « la tentative israélienne, rappelle le New York Times, d'assassiner les négociateurs du Hamas au Qatar, a à la fois irrité Donald Trump et l'a réveillé ». « Il a compris ce que Netanyahu ignorait : la guerre infligeait d'immenses dommages diplomatiques et une "victoire totale" à Gaza était impossible sans tuer les otages, sacrifier des soldats et blesser les civils derrière lesquels se cache le Hamas. Il a bien mieux compris, poursuit le journal new-yorkais, l'opinion publique israélienne que le gouvernement : 80% des Israéliens étaient favorables au rapatriement des otages, même au prix de la fin de la guerre ». C'est la raison pour laquelle « les Israéliens célèbrent Trump comme une superstar », titre le Süddeutsche Zeitung en Allemagne. Le correspondant du journal à Tel-Aviv raconte comment l'équipe du président américain – son émissaire Steve Witkoff et son gendre Jared Kushner – a été acclamée samedi soir, sur la place des Otages, par un demi-million d'Israéliens. « Leur héros n'est pas Netanyahu, mais Trump, le négociateur, le pacificateur », présent en Israël ce lundi 13 octobre, avant de coprésider, en Egypte, un sommet pour la paix à Gaza. Une conférence de Charm el-Cheikh qui « ne devrait pas régler les questions politiques de fond autour de l'avenir de Gaza », selon L'Orient-Le Jour, mais qui « servira de test crucial pour mesurer la solidité du cessez-le-feu, et la viabilité du pari diplomatique de Donald Trump ». Il faut désormais se tourner vers la suite « Tout cela n'est qu'un show, les gens veulent être optimistes. En réalité, ils sont terrifiés », s'inquiète un Israélien cité par Le Figaro. « La libération des otages n'est que la première phase du plan Trump, rappelle le journal français. La seconde phase de l'accord s'annonce plus complexe à mettre en œuvre ». En attendant, « la bataille de Netanyahu autour du récit commence », grince Haaretz. Alors que s'ouvre une année électorale, le quotidien israélien, critique vis-à-vis du gouvernement, estime que le Premier ministre laissera entendre, ce lundi matin devant le parlement israélien, qu'il a « résisté héroïquement aux pressions intérieures et extérieures ». « Mais la pression américaine, souligne Haaretz, ne lui a laissé d'autre choix que de céder ».

The lesson of U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest diplomatic gambit is that in Middle East deal-making, “the devil is in the details, but the most important thing is political willpower,” said Anshel Pfeffer, The Economist’s Israel correspondent and former Haaretz columnist, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. Trump, he noted, “has supplied that political willpower in bucket loads.” Hours after Israel and Hamas agreed on a deal to end the war in Gaza and release the hostages, Pfeffer spoke with host Allison Kaplan Sommer about the long road to the deal, the obstacles that lie ahead and the joyful yet nervous mood among Israelis as they anticipate the long-awaited return of all the hostages. Pfeffer, a biographer of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also discussed how he expects Israel’s leader to shape the narrative of the cease-fire to serve his political goals ahead of next year’s general election. “We know how hard Donald Trump had to press him to accept this plan, but he is a very pragmatic person," Pfeffer said. "The moment something is forced upon him, he immediately makes it look as if it was his idea all along.” Read more: Analysis by Anshel Pfeffer | Netanyahu's Last Stand: How Rewriting the Gaza War Will Decide the Israeli Leader's Political Destiny Israel, Hamas Reach Gaza Cease-fire Deal; Trump: Hostages Will Be Released Monday 'A Day of Joy': Hundreds of Israelis Stream to Hostage Square to Celebrate Israel-Hamas Deal With Families 'We'll Go Back Home, Rebuild Our Lives': Gaza's Palestinians Celebrate Deal to End Israel-Hamas War Turkey, Egypt and Qatar Will Help Israel and U.S. Recover Bodies of Hostages From GazaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two years on from October 7th, and for so many in Israel, the wounds are still as fresh as ever. This morning people gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to mark this grim anniversary, and to continue the push for their loved ones to finally be freed. Negotiators are in Egypt, attempting to make President Trump's ceasefire proposal a reality, even as bombs continue to fall on Gaza. Jeremy Diamond joins from Hostages Square with the latest.  Also on today's show: Haaretz journalist Amir Tibon, a survivor of the Hamas attack on October 7th, 2023; Gaza-based UNICEF spokesperson James Elder; Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah; author Taylor Harris ("This Boy We Made")  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Les journaux, en France et au-delà, sont partagés entre stupeur et consternation après la folle journée d'hier qui a vu la démission du Premier ministre Sébastien Lecornu, juste après avoir formé son gouvernement. « Les incapables », s'exclame Libération en première page. « La France dans le grand n'importe quoi : le départ éclair de l'éphémère Premier ministre illustre un désordre politique français qui inquiète, à l'étranger comme chez les citoyens, et rappelle que seule la capacité au compromis peut éviter l'aggravation de la crise. » « De l'attitude des partis à la démission de l'éphémère Premier ministre, la séquence politique et institutionnelle de ces derniers jours aura été consternante, renchérit La Croix. Il faut désormais se ressaisir de toute urgence pour éviter le chaos. » Le retour aux urnes ? Oui, mais quelle solution ? Pour Le Figaro, il n'y en a qu'une seule : « ce grand désordre, cette pénible confusion, nous ramène à celui qui, par la grâce de la Ve République, possède autant de pouvoir que de devoirs : le chef de l'État. Lui seul a la clef : le retour aux urnes. En démocratie, c'est la plus mauvaise solution, à l'exception de toutes les autres. » Un retour aux urnes avec comme perspective une percée de l'extrême-droite… C'est ce que craint Le Soir à Bruxelles : « le chaos français, autoroute pour l'extrême droite et péril pour l'Europe », titre le quotidien belge. « La France gouvernée par l'extrême droite, des leaders populistes et nationalistes, après la Hongrie, la Tchéquie, la Slovaquie, et peut-être demain la Pologne, voire l'Allemagne ? On n'ose imaginer, soupire Le Soir, ce que la concrétisation de cette menace existentielle pour le projet européen, pourrait imprimer à nos destins. » Macron sous pression Désormais, « Emmanuel Macron est au pied du mur », constate le New York Times. « Impopulaire après plus de huit ans au pouvoir, alors qu'il lui reste environ 18 mois de mandat, Emmanuel Macron est sous la pression constante de l'extrême gauche pour démissionner et de l'extrême droite pour convoquer des élections législatives. » Ultime espoir de compromis, pointe Le Temps à Genève : « Emmanuel Macron a joué les prolongations en demandant à Sébastien Lecornu de convaincre les uns et les autres de revenir à la table des négociations. Mais le mal est fait, estime le quotidien suisse, son camp semble avoir définitivement perdu toute crédibilité. » À la Une également, le 7-Octobre, deux après… Pour le Jerusalem Post, proche du pouvoir, « la société israélienne ne doit pas se permettre d'oublier. (…) Alors que des négociations sont en cours au Caire pour un accord qui pourrait mettre fin à la guerre, la tentation sera grande de croire que, si les otages reviennent, si les réservistes retrouvent leurs familles et leurs emplois, si les roquettes houthies cessent, alors une vie normale pourra reprendre. » Non, s'exclame le Jerusalem Post : « céder à cette complaisance ouvrirait la voie à une prochaine catastrophe. (…) Nos ennemis sont implacables, notre sécurité dépend de notre préparation et la véritable dissuasion ne repose que sur une force incontestable et la volonté de l'utiliser. » Netanyahou sur la sellette Haaretz, quotidien israélien de gauche, note, lui, que « deux ans après la pire catastrophe sécuritaire de l'histoire d'Israël, les responsables sont toujours au pouvoir. (…) Ce sont les terroristes du Hamas qui ont perpétré le massacre brutal du 7 octobre 2023, mais, affirme le journal, cet échec s'est produit sous la direction du Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahou, et il demeure le seul haut responsable à ne pas encore avoir assumé ses responsabilités. » Résultat, pointe Haaretz, « la guerre se poursuit sans but depuis deux ans. Les otages ont été abandonnés. Israël s'est enfoncé dans un isolement diplomatique, économique et moral. Et les mains du gouvernement sont souillées du sang de dizaines de milliers de Gazaouis. » « Deux ans de barbarie », dénonce également El Pais à Madrid. Reste que « le plan Trump est un espoir à conforter », affirme Le Monde à Paris. « Même si de nombreux points restent à préciser et que certains objectifs permettant d'aboutir à une solution à deux Etats restent aujourd'hui hors de portée, la fin de la guerre, estime le quotidien français, apparaît enfin possible. »

Ce ne sera pas un face-à-face direct entre représentants israéliens et représentants du Hamas, mais un échange orchestré par les médiateurs qataris ou égyptiens qui vont faire la navette entre les deux camps. Malgré tout, pointe Libération à Paris, « les négociations qui démarrent ce lundi en Égypte doivent initialement se focaliser sur un seul objectif : la libération de tous les otages israéliens, vivants ou morts, en échange de la libération de prisonniers palestiniens. De la réussite de cette première phase dépend sans doute la poursuite des négociations sur le reste du plan Trump, qui compte 20 points, rappelle le journal, notamment la création d'un gouvernement provisoire de technocrates palestiniens supervisés par des personnalités internationales, une force de maintien de la sécurité constituée par des pays étrangers ainsi que le désarmement complet du Hamas, sans oublier un retrait de l'armée israélienne. Mais ces discussions viendront (donc) après. » Sortir d'un engrenage mortifère… Finalement, relève Le Figaro, « peu importe qui crie victoire, pourvu que cette première phase du plan aboutisse – et même si cela prend un peu plus de temps que les 72 heures prévues. Tous les obstacles ne seront pas levés pour la suite, en particulier le désarmement du Hamas, qui n'est pas acquis. Le Premier ministre israélien a promis de l'obtenir, via le plan de Trump ou par la force. Mais du moins cette première étape permettrait de sortir d'un engrenage mortifère, après 730 jours d'une guerre terrible qui a tué plus de 65.000 Palestiniens. » En effet, renchérit Le Soir à Bruxelles, « pour les Gazaouis, pour les otages israéliens, l'abomination doit cesser immédiatement. » Le Temps à Genève est sur la même ligne : « tout le monde, ou presque, souhaite la libération des otages et des prisonniers ainsi que la fin des souffrances des Gazaouis. Mais, pratiquement deux ans après le 7-Octobre, il sera difficile, pour les uns et pour les autres, de se contenter de jouer à un jeu dont les règles n'ont pas été fondamentalement revues. » Divergences… Et d'ores et déjà, il y a des « points de friction », affirme Haaretz à Tel Aviv. Concernant la libération des prisonniers palestiniens, « le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahou a déjà clairement indiqué qu'Israël ne libérerait pas les terroristes de la force d'élite Nukhba du Hamas ayant participé aux attaques contre Israël du 7 octobre 2023, malgré les exigences du Hamas. » Quant au mouvement islamiste, poursuit Haaretz, « il aurait des objections à propos des lignes de retrait des Forces de défense israéliennes. Un retrait qui doit lui permettre une relative liberté de mouvement à Gaza pour localiser et regrouper les otages vivants et les corps à restituer à Israël. » Nombreux points en suspens… Et le plus dur reste encore à venir… Derrière ce premier round de négociations se cachent « des enjeux très politiques », constate Le Monde. En effet, précise le journal, « les discussions pourraient s'étendre au calendrier du retrait israélien et à l'administration de l'enclave. » Et dès demain mardi, on devrait entrer dans le vif du sujet, relève le quotidien du soir, avec « l'arrivée en Égypte, du gendre du président américain, Jared Kushner. Ce dernier, homme d'affaires très investi dans le Golfe, travaille depuis l'été à un plan de paix à long terme au Proche-Orient. Le secrétaire d'État américain, Marco Rubio, lui, a déjà indiqué que des négociations sur une structure de gouvernement à Gaza pourraient avoir lieu dès les premières étapes du cessez-le-feu. » Quant au Hamas, « il devrait renouveler sa demande d'un engagement clair sur les plans d'aide humanitaire et de reconstruction de l'enclave. » Bref, ce processus de paix pourrait prendre des jours, des semaines, des mois… Personne n'est en mesure de faire le moindre pronostic…

Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy and physiotherapist Rachel Moses OBE discuss two years of conflict in Gaza. Children's Commissioner Rocio Cifuentes is asking all the parties to commit to five priorities to improve children's lives in Wales, Darren Millar MS is in Manchester for the Conservatives' UK Conference. Former head of the First Minister's office explains how important EU funding was to Wales and Professor Laura McAllister tells us why there's been such a rise in the number of podcasts on Welsh politics.Colegau Cymru's Rachel Cable and the Vale of Glamorgan's Council Leader Lis Burnett review the papers.

The two years that have passed since October 7, 2023 have transformed Israel and its people, its leaders, its status on the world stage and its relationship with Diaspora Jewry. On the Haaretz Podcast, Joshua Leifer, the newest Haaretz columnist, spoke with host Allison Kaplan Sommer the many dimensions of change the war has wrought - including the changes in his own life and thinking. In their conversation, Leifer noted that while Israelis on the far right can indulge in "a perverse and spectacular kind of denial" regarding the death and suffering in Gaza every day, the situation is more complex and contradictory for the Israeli mainstream and people on the left. "We know that what Israel is doing in Gaza is terrible," Leifer said. And yet, even at times when the war is visibly and audibly present, "we go to the beach, we go to family, we carry on. I think we're only at the beginning of being able to understand what that does to ‌a society, and what that does to people over time, as they acclimate to a reality that should be unbearable but isn't." Regarding his decision to move to Israel at a time when he opposed so much of what its government is doing, Leifer said: "If you want to change a place, I think you have to be there... I didn't want to just be stuck in the meta discourse over Zionism and progressivism. I wanted to try to intervene - if possible - in the reality."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special Haaretz Podcast episode, Haaretz columnist Amir Tibon offers his analysis of the comprehensive 20-point peace plan unveiled by U.S. President Donald Trump in a White House press conference on Monday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood beside him. “What we saw was a plan with big headlines, but a lack of details,” Tibon said in his conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer. “We don't know yet if there is actually the political will to carry it forward.” While Netanyahu has officially endorsed and even praised the plan, Tibon added, it will be difficult for the Israeli leader to convince the hard-right wing of his coalition to accept many of the terms – particularly a full withdrawal from the Strip by the IDF. A political crisis over the deal could lead to the collapse of the government and force a new general election. Hamas has yet to fully weigh in on the plan that requires the massive concession of disarming and ceding power in Gaza to “Palestinians technocrats.” After two years of the war in Gaza, Tibon said, Trump clearly “hopes he can get a Nobel Peace Prize for ending the war and opening an opportunity for wider peace in the Middle East.” But the U.S. president “still doesn't understand that actually ending the war will require more pressure. The idea that he will simply impose all of these terms on Hamas, I think, is unrealistic. I would love to be wrong on this, but I don't see it happening so quickly.” Read more: Trump's 'New Gaza' Plan Revealed: Hostage Deal, Hamas Disarmament and 'Gaza Deradicalized' Far-right Minister Smotrich Slams Netanyahu's Assent to Trump's Plan: 'Missed Chance to Break Free From Shackles of Oslo' Hamas to Review Trump's 'New Gaza' Cease-fire Plan 'In Good Faith,' Foreign Diplomat Tells Haaretz Amir Tibon: The 'Magic Number' That Could Convince Hamas to Accept the Trump PlanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a special guest episode of the Haaretz Podcast, German ambassador Steffen Seibert sits down with Guy Rolnik and Anat Georgy, co-hosts of “The Markers” – the Hebrew-language podcast of Haaretz’s sister publication, The Marker. In the interview, Seibert addressed the increasingly complicated relationship between the two countries since the Gaza war and said he was “not optimistic” about Israel’s future if its government continues in its current direction. “My country is very clearly against the extension and escalation of the war," Seibert said. At the same time, he expressed both affection and sympathy for the “exhausted” citizens of the Jewish state and concerns about growing antisemitism across Europe. “It's a difficult time to be an Israeli. The idea that when you go abroad as a tourist, you have to worry about your personal safety, and you have to worry if it's okay to speak Hebrew in the street – this is horrible, and it is a challenge to all of us Europeans to make sure that that doesn't become the new reality forever.” Rolnik and Georgy also engaged in an in-depth exchange with Seibert on the nature of German democracy and what Israel might learn from it as it wrestles with the judicial reform crisis and when free speech crosses the line and becomes incitement. Ultimately, he said, despite Germany’s “serious disagreements” regarding both Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank, “the fact remains that we consider ourselves forever friends of Israel and supporters of the right of Israel to be here, to be safe and to have this Jewish and democratic state. This is not a fashion in German politics. This is one of the pillars of our political identity.” Read more: EU Proposes Sanctions on Israel: Suspending Trade Benefits, Targeting Far-right Ministers Germany Will Not Join Western Allies in Recognizing Palestine, Chancellor Merz Says 'Some Artists Blur Their Identity,' as the World Turns a Deaf Ear to Israeli MusiciansSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Host Piya Chattopadhyay speaks with Queen's University energy policy expert Warren Mabee and CBC News journalist Jason Markusoff about the potential and politics of Prime Minister Mark Carney's "nation-building" energy project priorities, Canadian curling legend Jennifer Jones looks back on her journey both on and off the ice, Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn describes the challenges of covering the war in Gaza, and Julia Pagel explores how people living in Canada's North are thinking about renewed interest in Arctic security.Discover more at https://www.cbc.ca/sunday.

WILL ISRAEL'S STRIKE ON HAMAS IN DOHA AFFECT THE ABRAHAM PEACE ACCORDS?HEADLINE 1: The Pentagon approved a new security assistance package for Lebanon.HEADLINE 2: Speaking of Hezbollah, guess who busted a Hezbollah cell? The Syrian army.HEADLINE 3: The Treasury Department rolled out fresh sanctions targeting Houthi financial networks.--FDD Senior Research Analyst Natalie Ecanow, filling in for Jonathan Schanzer, provides timely situational updates and analysis, followed by a conversation with Hussain Abdul-Hussain, an FDD research fellow who specializes in the Gulf region and Yemen. Learn more at: https://fdd.org/fddmorningbrief--Featured FDD Articles:"Turkey Could Be Next in Israel's Cross-hairs After Qatar. The Consequences? Catastrophic" - Sinan Ciddi, Haaretz"Baghdad Has an Opportunity To Counter Illicit Iranian Activity in Iraq. Will the Government Take It?" - Bridget Toomey, FDD Policy Brief"From Playground to Classroom: The Spread of Antisemitism in K-12 Schools" - Brandy Shufutinsky, Congressional Testimony

The Israeli decision to bomb Doha, targeting Hamas leadership as they met to consider a cease-fire proposal, made little sense if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is truly concerned with the fate of Israel’s hostages, said Haaretz senior security analyst Amos Harel, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. While it may “work against our basic instincts of assuming that the government is looking out for our collective good,” Harel concluded with an air of regret: “That's not the situation we're in. My sense is that Netanyahu gave up on them long ago, and what he's doing right now is about his political survival, nothing else.” While U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed his “unhappiness” with the bold Israeli move to attack the country housing the largest American military base in the region, he has yet to chastise Netanyahu publicly the way he has chastised other foreign leaders, Harel said in his conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer. “Unlike his relationships with every other world leader except [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, we haven't seen Trump ever confronting Netanyahu directly, demanding answers or changes in positions,” Harel said. “It is early to tell, but this may be a watershed moment. Trump is losing patience, and he may be close to the edge.” Harel warned that “if indeed we did kill somebody important in Doha, there could be retaliation. I hope it doesn't get to anybody torturing or killing hostages. In the end, live hostages are an asset to Hamas, but there's a danger there. We're playing with fire.” Read more: IDF Strikes Hamas Leaders in Doha; White House: Strike Won't Advance Israeli Goals Analysis from Amos Harel | Netanyahu Is Taking Ever-greater Risks to Keep the Gaza War Going Analysis from Amos Harel | With Doha Strike, Israel Signals a Strategic Shift and an Indifference to Consequences Who Died? Did Trump Know? What About the Hostages? Five Key Questions on Israel's Strike in DohaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR LEBANON?HEADLINE 1: Qatar isn't the only target for the Israel in the last 48 hours — Syria was hit, too. HEADLINE 2: Israel ordered the full evacuation of Gaza City.HEADLINE 3: Tensions are soaring between Israel and Spain.--FDD Executive Director Jon Schanzer provides timely situational updates and analysis, followed by a conversation with Ambassador Edward Gabriel, president and CEO of the American Task Force on Lebanon.Learn more at: https://www.fdd.org/fddmorningbrief--Featured FDD Articles:"Building the Future U.S. Cyber Force" - RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery and Dr. Erica Lonergan, FDD Monograph"China's money launderers are bankrolling America's fentanyl epidemic" - Max Meizlish and Elaine Dezenski, The Hill"Why Israel Shouldn't Celebrate Lebanon's Promise to Disarm Hezbollah Just Yet" - David Daoud, Haaretz"Hamas' Chief Negotiator Is a Terrorist, Not a Peacemaker" - Jonathan Schanzer and Ahmad Sharawi, The Dispatch

Yonit and Jonathan are joined by Haaretz military affairs analyst Amos Harel as they discuss Israel's unprecedented bombing of the Hamas negotiating team in Doha. Meet us at Unholy Live NYC - October 29th, 2025 - https://streicker.nyc/events/unholy-liveFollow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/unholypodJoin our Patreon community to get access to bonus episodes, discounts on merch and more: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon 

While the world has been focused on the devastation in Gaza, "the annexation of the West Bank has become reality," Hagar Shezaf, Haaretz's West Bank correspondent, said on the Haaretz Podcast. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Shezaf explained, has created a system "that is accelerating" the process of integrating the West Bank into state institutions "while keeping the empty shell of the Civil Administration that represents military rule." Shezaf is stepping down from her beat for a year of studies after six years of covering what she describes as a "deteriorating" situation in the territories, that is generally neglected by the Israeli media. Despite settlement expansion continuing apace, violent extremist settlers becoming increasingly bold, and the direct and indirect displacement of Palestinian civilians from their homes by the Israeli military, "the West Bank is totally uncovered by Israeli news journalists," Shezaf said. Most recently, her reporting called attention to the uprooting of 3,100 trees by the IDF alongside a village after an attempted terror attack by one of its residents. Shezaf described it as an "outrageous" act, and the army's attempts to justify it, she said, "cannot convince me that this is not collective punishment."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly challenged the assertion that starvation is rampant in Gaza, most recently when he slammed a UN report on famine as “blood libel.” On the Haaretz Podcast, Yarden Michaeli takes listeners behind the scenes of his in-depth reporting with Nir Hasson on the scale of severe acute malnutrition in Gaza. As Israel continues to bar journalists from entering the Strip, Michaeli and Hasson virtually “toured” clinics and hospitals in Gaza – including the pediatric ward of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Israel struck the hospital on Monday, killing multiple healthcare and media workers, including Moaz Abu Taha, the photographer who guided the Haaretz reporters through Nasser. As Michaeli “toured” the wards of Nasser, he saw children who were “very thin, with weak, glazed eyes, clearly severely malnourished with markers of starvation, like changes to their hair color, missing spots of hair on their head, missing teeth and rashes on their skin.” The condition of children, he was told by experts, are the earliest signs of large-scale famine in a population. “The fact that the marks of starvation are already visible on adults in Gaza shows that this whole situation is in an advanced stage,” said Michaeli. “We're not at the beginning. We're far and deep into the process.” Read more: 'Starvation Is Everywhere': Virtual Tours of Gaza Clinics Expose the Scale of the Horror UN Says Over Half a Million Palestinians in Gaza Suffering From Famine; Netanyahu: 'Outright Lie' Alex de Waal: 'Pasta Won't Help. Gaza Is on the Brink of an Exponential Surge in Starvation Deaths'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Yes, we will update you on Gaza, but we too are getting tired of it. So we turn our attention to the distorted mirror that passes for news-media in Israel and outside it. Haaretz, the NYT, mainstream anti-Israeli propaganda, etc. Also: who gets Pulitzers and for what?   Link to the Haaretz podcast with Gen. Yaakov Amidror (interview begins 33:20):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6vBwE61dYQ&t=2012s https://youtu.be/GqV9Xamrisc

Ralph welcomes Ben Cohen (anti-war activist and ice cream entrepreneur) to discuss his new campaign, "Up in Arms," which advocates for a common-sense Pentagon budget. Then, Ralph speaks to Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi about her recent piece: "When will we finally admit: the Gaza death toll is higher than we've been told."Ben Cohen is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and longtime anti-war activist. He is a co-founder of the ice cream company Ben & Jerry's and a prominent supporter of progressive causes. He is co-founder of Up In Arms, a public education and advocacy campaign pushing for a common-sense approach to military budgeting. In May of this year, Ben was arrested by Capitol Police after he interrupted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s testimony by screaming,”Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid.”We're up in arms because the government has taken the kindness, the heart, the soul of the American people and essentially replaced it with so many bombs that there's no rational use for them. They've turned us all into mass murderers.Ben CohenYou know, politicians starting from Reagan are fond of saying “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” And then they turn around and spend $100 billion a year on a nuclear arsenal that's capable of blowing up the entire world several times over. So they say one thing and they do another. I mean, a nuclear arsenal capable of blowing up the entire world several times over? That's not deterrence. That's delusion.Ben CohenI just go back to the moral issue of our time, which is Gaza—two-thirds of the American people don't support continuing to arm Israel. And we need to make our politicians pay the price for continuing to arm Israel… We have a midterm election coming up. If your guy voted to continue to essentially facilitate the genocide, vote them out.Ben CohenWhen you have more money than is needed, you tend to invite corruption, cost overruns, machinery that doesn't work, and I would advise that you look into why the GAO and the Pentagon auditors are being asked to do fewer audits of the military budget. Because there's almost a direct correlation between throwing money at a government program (especially at that scale) and corruption. And corruption is understandable to everybody. It's the number one political issue all over the world, when the pollsters poll.Ralph NaderArwa Mahdawi is a columnist for the Guardian and author of Strong Female Lead: Lessons from Women in Power. Here is her recent piece on the genocide in Gaza: “When will we finally admit: the Gaza death toll is higher than we've been told” (The Guardian, August 8, 2025)To be fair, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal have published some pretty devastating reports from their reporters in that area. They've put out some devastating features on what's going on [in Gaza], but it doesn't translate into editorial denunciation by these papers. And it doesn't translate into taking the next step and doing what they would do in other conflicts around the world where there isn't so much prejudice and domestic pressureRalph NaderI'm an opinion writer, but as journalists, you're always supposed to report facts. And the fact is: we have absolutely no idea how many people are dead in the Gaza Strip. But there are plenty of studies (which I reference in the article—one Lancet peer-reviewed study, one letter to the Lancet by a highly-respected scientist, one empirical study by Michael Spagat) which show that the death count is a lot higher. So I truly believe that unless you're saying “the official figure from the Ministry of Health is around 60,000 but studies show it is probably much higher,” then that's just journalistic malpractice.Arwa MahdawiI think there's just this instinct to believe that Palestinians are lying and Israelis are telling the truth. And it also goes back to…this isn't just Israel's war, this is America's war as well. And this desire to see America as the good guys—we're the good guys, the Palestinians are the bad guys. And to have this black-and-white narrative where, obviously, we're the good guys, you know, and so if the Palestinian narrative casts doubt on that, then it must be wrong.Arwa MahdawiI always suggest that people write to the media outlets and say that they want to see more Palestinian narratives, they want the media outlets to voice their concern that foreign reporters are not being let in, that more aid workers are not being let in, that pictures are not coming out.Arwa MahdawiThere are very few pictures coming out of the scale of this destruction in Gaza, but when you see the ones that do come out, it is very, very obvious that there are more than 60,000 people dead.But there seems to be this lack of curiosity with some of my peers. Why aren't they asking, “Why aren't we seeing more pictures?” There should be nonstop outrage that their press freedom is being stifled like this and so many Palestinian journalists are being slaughtered.Arwa MahdawiNews 8/22/25* Last Thursday, during an event in her Masscusetts congressional district, Congresswoman Katherine Clark – who holds the position of House Minority Whip, making her the number two Democrat in the House – called Israel's campaign in Gaza a “genocide,” per Axios. According to Zeteo, this makes Clark the 14th member of Congress to use the “g word.” Lest she be accused of bravery however, Clark quickly walked back her comments. In a statement to the Jewish News Syndicate, Clark said “last week, while attending an event in my district, I repeated the word ‘genocide' in response to a question…I want to be clear that I am not accusing Israel of genocide.” This incident illustrates the cross-cutting pressures facing Democratic Party leaders. This divide will be on the agenda again at the DNC meeting on August 26th, where among other issues, party leaders will vote on competing resolutions to lay out the Democrats' position on Gaza. Allison Minnerly, the progressive DNC delegate sponsoring the resolution to end arms shipments to Israel, is quoted saying “Our voters…are saying that they do not want U.S. dollars to enable further death and starvation anywhere across the world, particularly in Gaza…I don't think it should be a hard decision for us to say that clearly,” per the Intercept.* Even as Democrats wrestle with their position on Gaza, the politics are clearly shifting. The Reject AIPAC coalition has released a new statement saying that among Democrats, AIPAC is now a “toxic pariah.” As evidence of this, Reject AIPAC cites the fact that only 14 House Democrats attended the AIPAC-sponsored Israel trip this year. According to Mondoweiss, “In 2023, the lobbying group brought 24 House Dems to Israel over recess. In 2019, over 40 attended.” Reject AIPAC also cites the fact that Reps. Valerie Foushee and Maxine Dexter, both recipients of millions of AIPAC dollars, voted to block arms to Israel and Foushee is even now rejecting AIPAC money. As these small victories mount, the horizon of possibility for movement within the party grows ever wider.* Last week, Tom Artiom Alexandrovich – a senior department head in Israel's National Cyber Directorate – was arrested in a “multi-agency operation targeting child sex predators,” in Clark County, Nevada according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. According to Reuters, “Alexandrovich faces a felony charge of luring or attempting to lure a child or mentally ill person to commit a sex act ‘with use of computer technology.'” Yet, inexplicably, Alexandrovich was released by U.S. authorities and is back in Israel. This set off a firestorm in the U.S., with many accusing the Trump administration of facilitating Alexandrovich's release. The State Department was forced to issue a statement denying these claims, stating that Alexandrovich "did not claim diplomatic immunity and was released by a state judge…Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false." The AP adds that the “Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Israeli Prime Minister's Office did not immediately return messages.” Disturbingly, the mainstream media seems to be purposely ignoring this case. While it has been covered by the Guardian, the Times of Israel, and Haaretz, there has been zero coverage in the New York Times or Washington Post, or ABC, NBC, or CBS. This media blackout adds fuel to the speculation that this case is being tamped down by the administration for political reasons.* Another troubling story regarding minors on the internet comes to us from Mark Zuckerberg's Meta AI. According to Reuters, internal documents from Meta Platforms detail “policies on chatbot behavior…[permitting] the company's artificial intelligence creations to ‘engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,' generate false medical information and help users argue that Black people are ‘dumber than white people.'” Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan called these reports “disturbing” and cited a legal complaint filed by the FTC to the Justice Department against Snap in January, under her leadership, “charging that [Snap's] AI chatbot was creating risks and harms for young users.” Khan noted that the “DOJ hasn't filed the case or taken any steps to protect these kids,” and demanded that “Any lawmaker concerned about big tech's abuse of kids should ask what is going on.” The administration's lack of action on these issues indicates that despite their rhetorical inveighing against the tech industry, they are treating SIlicon Valley with the same kid gloves they use for the rest of corporate America, even when it affects minors.* In more positive news from abroad, the Washington Post reports that between 2022 and 2024, Mexico lifted a stunning 8.3 million residents out of poverty. This 18% drop in poverty includes a 23% decrease in extreme poverty and a 16% drop in moderate poverty. According to experts, this remarkable achievement is the result of the policies of former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, and his successor Claudia Sheinbaum, such as tripling the minimum wage and instituting a raft of social programs to aid “senior citizens, unemployed youth, students, farmers and people with disabilities.” President Sheinbaum is now plowing ahead with a new project – producing a “small, 100% electric, accessible [EV],” called the “Olinia,” to be fully manufactured and assembled in Mexico, per Mexico News Daily.* Turning to domestic politics, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik finally showed up in her district on Monday after an extended period of avoiding public appearances. At a ceremony honoring a late Clinton County clerk in Plattsburgh, Stefanik was drowned out by cries of “‘You sold us out!', ‘Shame!', and ‘Unseal the Epstein files!', along with a “steady stream of boos,” according to the Daily Beast. Stefanik “left the podium after speaking for less than a minute,” and when she returned, she was booed again. Stefanik's chronic absence and chilly reception is a bad sign for her gubernatorial aspirations. In the months since she has held a town hall, her constituents held a mock town hall where they addressed an empty chair, per WRGB, and New York Democrats AOC and Paul Tonko held town halls in her district, per the Albany Times-Union.* In more political news from New York, disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo is explicitly seeking to woo New York Republicans in his independent bid for Mayor of New York City. POLITICO reports that at a fundraiser at media mogul Jimmy Finkelstein's Southampton estate, Cuomo told the crowd that he agrees with President Trump that the “goal is to stop Mamdani.” To this end, he is trying to convince Republicans that they would be “wasting [their] vote on [Curtis] Sliwa,” the Republican nominee for Mayor, “because he'll never be a serious candidate.” Cuomo also implied that he is open to an alliance with Trump, telling the crowd “Let's put it this way: I knew the president very well.” Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for the Zohran campaign, is quoted saying “Since he's too afraid to say it to New Yorkers' faces, we'll make it clear: Andrew Cuomo IS Donald Trump's choice for mayor.”* In Texas, state Democrats have returned to the state, ending their attempt to defeat Governor Abbott's mid-decade redistricting scheme by denying the legislature a quorum. In a statement Gene Wu, chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said "We killed the corrupt special session, withstood unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation — reshaping the entire 2026 landscape," per the BBC. The legislature is now expected to approve the redrawn congressional maps; the state Democrats plan to continue fighting them in the courts. California has vowed to redraw their own maps to compensate for the expected loss of five Democrat-held seats in Texas. New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maryland are also considering their own redistricting plans. Vice President JD Vance was deployed to Indiana to pressure Republicans in that state to redraw their maps to favor Republicans as well, per the IndyStar. It is a sad state of affairs that American politics has been reduced to such naked power grabbing plots, but here we are.* In local news, the federal occupation of Washington, D.C. continues to deepen. CBS reports the governors of at least six Republican-led states are sending contingents from their National Guards to the capital. These include Mississippi and Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. Just what these troops will do in Washington remains unclear. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who is sending 160 troops, cited “monument security” and “traffic control” among their official responsibilities. The federal agents on the ground, with little to do – the DOJ itself reports as violent crime is at a 30-year low in the District – seem to be mostly just harassing residents. The Daily Beast reports ICE tore down a banner and replaced it with a dildo. A local, Amanda Moore, posted a photo of 15 federal agents calling an ambulance for a drunk girl in Dupont Circle. And, while the Lever reports D.C. corporate lobbyists pushed for the occupation, it is wreaking havoc on local businesses; Rolling Stone reports reservations at D.C. restaurants are down between 25 and 31%, to take just one example. We can only hope that this pointless, destructive farce of quasi-fascistic political theater ends sooner rather than later.* Finally, investigative reporter and Iraq war veteran Seth Harp is out with a new book – The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces – which details the double murder of Master Sergeant Billy Lavigne and Chief Warrant Officer Timothy Dumas, along with the “many more unexplained deaths…other murders connected to drug trafficking in elite units, and dozens of fatal overdoses,” at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Among other remarkable discoveries, Harp “describes a U.S. special forces k9 [unit] that was given titanium dentures and encouraged to feast on human brains in the field,” in the words of publisher and producer Chris Wade. Remember these titanium dentures whenever you hear that there is no money to pay for critical social programs. The money is there. The political will is not.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Israel is approaching the “horrifying” position of becoming a pariah state due to the Gaza war, former MK and Middle East expert Ksenia Svetlova said on the Haaretz Podcast, expressing deep worry that it was dangerously close to following in the footsteps of her native Russia. Western nations' refusal to cooperate with Russia due to its aggression in Ukraine, she noted, means Moscow is now lagging behind in the fields of technology, science and beyond “by decades” – and Israel could easily share that status soon. “A crackdown on civil society in a way that it happened in Russia will indeed deem Israel to the same level, and will impose on it the very unwanted and frankly horrifying status of a pariah," she said. Svetlova believes that without any “real pressure” from U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House, she is doubtful Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will reject any agreement that would end the conflict and halt the current Gaza City offensive. Ongoing war, she noted, “is in the classic authoritarian playbook.” Before that conversation, Haaretz’s Linda Dayan reports on last Sunday’s massive anti-war strike and demonstrations in support of a hostage deal/cease-fire. Although the protest had no apparent effect on the Netanyahu government’s policies, she said, organizers “felt it was successful in that it showed that no matter what the country’s leadership says, the people are behind them, the people are united in what they want. To see a literal big percentage of the national population come out to make sure that people here and abroad know that this is what they believe – that really bolstered people.” Read more: Analysis by Ksenia Svetlova | Beyond Trump-Putin Optics, Zelenskyy Finds Ukraine's Opportunity in What Went Awry in Alaska Hundreds of Thousands of Israelis Flood Tel Aviv Demanding a Hostage Deal to End Gaza War Marching on the Gaza Border, Hostage Families Say: Gaza Takeover Plan Is a Death SentenceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Israeli musicians are learning the hard way that speaking out against the war in Gaza comes at a price, Haaretz culture reporter Shay Ringel explained on the Haaretz Podcast. The letter, signed by 1,200 members of the cultural and artistic community, was unusually outspoken regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling on Israeli soldiers to disobey "unlawful orders" and to refrain from "committing war crimes." "Talking about the horrific things that are happening in Gaza – the killing of children, the expulsion of population – this is something new," Ringel explains. Ringel recounted how at least one artist had a concert cancelled as a result of signing the letter. He retracted his signature, and his concert was restored "all within the course of two hours." Other artists took their name off the petition due to pressure by right-wing activists. In his conversation with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Ringel noted that most of the signatories are older and more established musicians, while younger artists are "completely absent" from the petition. Read more: Israeli Mayors Ban Artists Who Signed 'Criminal' anti-Gaza War Petition as Some Retract Signatures 'Fake News': Israeli Singer and 'Fauda' Star Idan Amedi Slams Artists Petitioning Against Gaza War Unthinkable Today – but in 1988, Israel's Biggest Singers United Against the OccupationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Israeli public is “exhausted” by the nearly two-year conflict in Gaza, and the vast majority of IDF military leaders believe it should end. Yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is forging ahead with his plan to invade Gaza City and expand the war because “he will do whatever he can to stay in power,” said Haaretz senior security analyst Amos Harel, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. IDF brass, led by chief of staff Eyal Zamir, is attempting to convince Netanyahu for a more limited siege on Gaza City. Still, the message from Netanyahu has been that “he is calling the shots, and the army’s job is to follow orders and prepare to invade Gaza City,” despite the danger that would pose to Israeli hostages being held in the area. Whether or not a full-on operation will eventually happen primarily depends on U.S. President Donald Trump, who, Harel says, is the only one who could push Netanyahu off course, but does not appear to be doing so – for now. “At one point or another, I think the president will be fed up, because there's no victory in sight in Gaza. The suffering continues, and he keeps facing questions from within, including from Republicans, regarding where this is going and why Americans are contributing to this suffering. I don't think that Netanyahu has all the time in the world.” Regarding the hostages, Harel confessed that he struggles to believe that “an Israeli prime minister would just desert them to their death and leave them to die in the tunnels. And yet the signs are there.” Read more from Amos Harel: First Eyal Zamir, Then Gaza City: Defense Minister Katz Targets IDF Chief of Staff Amid Unpopular Offensive Netanyahu Struggles to Sell His Plan to Conquer Gaza as Allies Openly Call for Sacrificing Hostages Despite What Netanyahu Wants You to Think, an Israeli Conquest of Gaza Remains Far OffSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist and columnist with Haaretz, analyses the latest developments in the war in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doubling down on his threat to capture Gaza City, despite a growing chorus of condemnation. This comes as Gaza faces heavy bombardment, with targeted Israeli strikes on Sunday killing several journalists, including one of Al Jazeera's most prominent correspondents, Anas Al-Sharif. The IDF claims he ran a Hamas terrorist cell, an allegation Al-Sharif previously denied. Amos Harel is a military correspondent and defense analyst for Haaretz and he joins the show from Israel.  Also on today's show: Ivo Daalder, Former Ambassador to NATO/ CEO, Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Dmitry Valuev, Russian pro-democracy and anti-war activist; Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum & photojournalist Lynsey Addario  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ralph welcomes labor organizer Chris Townsend to discuss the current state of the labor movement under the second Trump administration. Then, Ralph talks to journalist Mariah Blake about PFAS and her new book “They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals.”Chris Townsend has been a union member and leader for more than 45 years. He was most recently the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International Union Organizing Director. Previously he was an International Representative and Political Action Director for the United Electrical Workers Union (UE), and he has held local positions in both the SEIU and UFCW.We've moved up an administrative layer of labor leaders, time markers, folks who see their role as at best guiding the sinking ship, managing the decline, taking best care as they can think of the members as their lives are destroyed, as the employers move to liquidate us.Chris TownsendIn many ways, exceeding the gravity of the political action crisis (our subordination to the Democratic Party, our membership estrangement from the political process, the lack of any significant trade union education of the rank and file other than a few cheap slogans)…is that the crisis that we face is the crisis of our very existence.Chris TownsendIt's far easier to shrink the labor movement than it is to build it and grow it. And that's our job. No other force in the country is going to do the work of adding the many millions of unorganized toilers—I use the word “toilers” very carefully…Toil is really what we've been reduced to, and increasingly so. So there's absolutely, I would indict the labor movement loudly, daily, that there is as yet no understanding that unless we go back out to the unorganized and take the spirit of trade unionism—unity, one for all, take on the employer, organize, defend each other, move forward, recapture some of this gargantuan wealth that we create each day on the job—unless that spirit is returned into an organizing wave or at least an attempt to do this, our fate has been sealed.Chris TownsendMariah Blake is an investigative journalist whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Mother Jones, the New Republic, and other publications. She was a Murrey Marder Nieman Fellow in Watchdog Journalism at Harvard University. And she is the author of They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals.PFAS are a large family of chemicals with some pretty amazing properties—they're extremely resistant to heat, stains, water, grease, electrical currents. They stand up to corrosive chemicals that burn through virtually every other material (including, in some cases, steel). And this makes them extremely useful. And as a result, they found their way into thousands of everyday products. On the other hand, they are probably the most insidious pollutants in all of human history. So they stay in the environment for hundreds or even thousands of years. Those that have been studied are highly toxic, even in the most minuscule of doses. And they are literally polluting the entire planet.Mariah BlakeThe way we regulate chemicals in this country at the moment makes zero sense. You do see changes happening in response to the unique threat posed by these chemicals on a state level. And this is really in response to citizen activism. So a number of states are passing laws that have banned the entire class of chemicals. That is not how we regulate chemicals in this country normally. We normally regulate them one by one, but at this moment 30 US states have passed at least 170 laws restricting PFAS, including 16 full or partial bans on the entire class of chemicals in consumer goods.Mariah BlakeThe amazing thing is the families of all these lobbyists have got these chemicals in their own bodies, their own kids, their own infants. I mean, don't they crank that into their daily mission as to how they're going to confront efforts by citizens around the country to ban and regulate these chemicals? How oblivious can you be? These oil and gas executives and lobbyists in Washington, their own families are being contaminated.Ralph NaderThese were people very much like Michael, people who had never taken much of an interest in politics, who'd spent their lives trusting that there were systems in place to protect them. And now that trust had been shattered. But rather than becoming cynical or resigned, they fought like hell to protect their families. And along the way, they discovered these hidden strengths that turned them into really remarkable advocates.Mariah BlakeNews 8/8/25* In Gaza, even the Israeli media is starting to acknowledge the scale of the starvation crisis. The New Yorker reporters, “Channel 12 [Israel's most-watched mainstream news broadcast], aired a series of startling…photographs of emaciated babies, and of children being trampled as they stood in food lines, holding out empty pots…[as well as] pictures of mothers weeping because they had no way to feed their families…Ohad Hemo, the network's correspondent for Palestinian affairs, concluded, ‘There is hunger in Gaza, and we have to say it loud and clear…The responsibility lies not only with Hamas but also with Israel.'” According to the U.N.'s World Food Programme, more than one in three people are not eating for days in a row. Yet, polls show that a “vast majority of Israeli Jews – 79 percent – say they are ‘not so troubled' or ‘not troubled at all' by the reports of famine and suffering among the Palestinian population in Gaza,” according Haaretz. This callous disregard for the lives of Palestinians among Israel's majority population ensures that this humanitarian crisis will worsen even more unless the government faces real external pressure to end the devastation and provide humanitarian aid.* Meanwhile, Axios reports the government of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu “unanimously voted Monday to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who is currently prosecuting [Netanyahu] for corruption.” As this piece explains, “This is the first time an Israeli government has ever voted to fire an attorney general,” sparking “immediate accusations Netanyahu was seeking to protect himself and his aides.” The Israeli Supreme Court issued an injunction blocking the move. However, this act, and the ensuing backlash, all but guarantees the bombardment of Gaza will continue as Netanyahu uses the campaign as a political liferaft.* Speaking of political crises, a major one is unfolding here at home. In Texas, the Republican-dominated state legislature is seeking to redraw the state's congressional maps to give Republicans five additional seats, which President Trump claims they are “entitled” to, per ABC. This naked power grab has set off a firestorm, with Democratic-controlled states like California and New York vowing to retaliate by redrawing their own maps to maximize their party's advantage. Texas state Democratic legislators, in an attempt to deny Republicans the quorum they need to enact the new maps, have fled to Illinois. Attorney General Ken Paxton has ordered their arrest, but they are seeking safe harbor in Illinois. Gerrymandering has plagued the American body politic since the foundation of the republic; perhaps this new crisis will force a resolution to the issue at the federal level. Then again, probably not.* In more positive legal news, former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan reports that in an “Important win…A court rejected Google's effort to overturn a unanimous jury verdict finding that Google illegally monopolized key markets.” Crucially, the court also found that “digital monopolies can enjoy the fruits of their illegal conduct even after it stops.” In practice, this ruling means a remedy “may need to go beyond just stopping the illegal behavior so that the market can truly be opened up to competition.” However, Google is still appealing the ruling to the corporate-friendly Supreme Court, so the ultimate fate of this decision remains in the balance.* On Tuesday, the New York Times published an article giving an inside look at financier and pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's “Manhattan Lair.” Among other notable features of the seven-story townhouse: a surveillance camera inside Epstein's bedroom. One can only imagine the images it captured. Another notable feature: the preponderance of photographs of powerful and influential figures with Epstein, including Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Epstein's Saudi connections, including a passport with a fake name and an address in Saudi Arabia which he used to enter several countries, including the Kingdom in the 1980s, have not been deeply probed.* Our remaining stories for this week all revolve around the Trump administration. First, after complaining that the Bureau of Labor Statistics “rigged” economic data to make his administration and Republicans look bad, Trump has fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. As POLITICO notes, budget constraints and workforce cuts have already enfeebled BLS, and the bureau's attempts to insulate itself from political pressure will now be strained to the limit as whomever Trump does install will – implicitly or explicitly – understand that their fate will be tied to reporting out positive economic data. In the long run, this blow against accuracy in official economic reporting could do immense damage to the confidence of those considering investing in the United States.* Another Trump power grab is aimed at the District of Columbia. At 3 a.m. on Sunday, an altercation occurred between two fifteen-year-olds and Edward Coristine, the infamous DOGE staffer nicknamed “Big Balls,” in Washington's Logan Circle neighborhood. According to AP, “the group approached…[Coristine's] car and made a comment about taking it…[he then]...turned to confront the group…the teens then attacked him…officers patrolling nearby intervened…[and] the teens fled on foot.” This objectively strange, though ultimately mundane, attempted carjacking by teenagers has spurred the president to threaten a federal takeover of D.C., even as “violent crime overall is down more than 25% from the same period last year.” This is not the first time Republicans have threatened a federal takeover of the District, and in recent years there have been increasing tensions between the local and federal government – but D.C. is largely powerless to resist as it lacks the constitutional protections of statehood.* The Trump administration is also taking actions that will endanger the health and safety of all Americans. NBC reports Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is terminating 22 contracts, amounting to around $500 million, for research and development of mRNA vaccines. These contracts were awarded through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA. One of these contracts was intended to help develop an mRNA-based vaccine for H5N1, the strain of bird flu that has infected dozens of people in the United States, according to this report. Rick Bright, who directed BARDA through the first Trump administration is quoted saying, “This isn't just about vaccines…It's about whether we'll be ready when the next crisis hits. Cutting mRNA development now puts every American at greater risk.”* Over at the Environmental Protection Agency, the picture is far more muddled. The Washington Post reports that the EPA held a tense meeting this week on its plan to rescind the agency's drinking water standard with regard to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS. In this meeting, state officials complained that mixed messages from federal regulators were frustrating their efforts. According to the Post “Despite the lack of clarity on what the EPA will do with the standard, states are still on the hook for implementing it.” Steven Elmore, chair of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, is quoted saying “Certain states have state laws that say their drinking water standard can't be more stringent than the federal law.” At the same time, 250 bills have been introduced in 36 states this year to address PFAS by “banning the chemicals in products, setting maximum levels in drinking water and allocating funding to clean up contamination,” and “Dozens of states have passed regulatory standards for at least one forever chemical in drinking water.” Put simply, chaos and confusion reign, and the American people will pay the price as toxic forever chemicals continue to pollute our drinking water.* Finally, the BBC reports Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has announced plans for the United States to put a nuclear reactor on the moon. According to this piece, this initiative – part of “US ambitions to build a permanent base for humans to live on the lunar surface” – will be fast-tracked through NASA with a goal of being completed by 2030. The BBC astutely observes “questions remain about how realistic the goal and timeframe are, given recent and steep [NASA] budget cuts.” The announcement of this literally outlandish potential boondoggle is driven by an announcement in May by Russia and China that they plan to build an automated nuclear power station on the Moon by 2035. That's right, a second space race is underway, and to paraphrase the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, the second time is always a farce.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is often portrayed as a political improviser who seizes opportunities and dodges land mines as they occur to preserve his hold on power, he is in fact guided by a clear and consistent mission, Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn tells the Haaretz Podcast. “Netanyahu’s strategy, since the inception of his career, and even before he became a professional politician, has been to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and diminish the Palestinian national movement,” said Benn. As the war has worn on and with Netanyahu’s latest decision to escalate the conflict in Gaza instead of working to end it, Benn says the contention that the argument that Netanyahu does not really share the ideology of his farthest-right coalition partners – National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – does not hold up. “I've yet to see one area of disagreement between Netanyahu and Smotrich and Ben-Gvir,” Benn said. While the premier may “hide behind” excuses of being pushed and pulled by outside forces, Benn believes he has a firm grip on power and knows exactly what he is doing. In his wide-ranging conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Benn also discusses the 20th anniversary of the Gaza disengagement – which Israel’s right blames for the events of October 7, his brewing confrontation with the IDF Chief of Staff over Gaza, and whether Netanyahu can face the voters after essentially abandoning the remaining Gaza hostages. Read more from Aluf Benn: Opinion | Why Did the Self-righteous Opponents of Israel's Gaza Disengagement Ignore Security Warnings Before October 7? Opinion | Don't Give Netanyahu a Free Pass. He Knows Exactly What He Is Doing in Gaza Opinion | Can You Fight for Israel's Democracy but Collaborate With Its Persecution of Palestinians?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VCcIpEYOqr4Join our Patreon community to get access to bonus episodes, discounts on merch and more: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon Don't forget to follow/subscribe to your favourite podcasting platform! As the war in Gaza grinds on, a rift appears between two familiar allies: Donald Trump breaks ranks with Benjamin Netanyahu, acknowledging the scale of hunger in Gaza. Meanwhile, the UK moves to formally recognise a Palestinian state, prompting a diplomatic storm.This week, Yonit and Jonathan are joined by Haaretz's senior military analyst Amos Harel to assess the state of negotiations, the burden borne by Israeli reservists, and the stark realities on the ground for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.Plus: a crowded field for this week's Chutzpah and Mensch awards — and a nod to our listeners who treat Unholy as an English-language workout.

Watch Call me Back on YouTube: youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcastCheck out Ark Media's other podcasts: For Heaven's Sake: lnk.to/rfGlrA‘What's Your Number?': lnk.to/rbGlvMFor sponsorship inquiries, please contact: callmeback@arkmedia.orgTo contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: arkmedia.org/Ark Media on Instagram: instagram.com/arkmediaorgDan on X: x.com/dansenorDan on Instagram: instagram.com/dansenorTo order Dan Senor & Saul Singer's book, The Genius of Israel: tinyurl.com/bdeyjsdnToday's Episode: On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the Canadian government will recognize a Palestinian State at the United Nations meeting set for September. On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared that the UK will do the same – that is, unless Israel (and only Israel) meets a set of conditions. Canada and France followed the lead of French President Emanuel Macron, who announced a few days ago that France will recognize a Palestinian State at the September UN meeting. These developments come as Israel's global image plummets, according to a recent Gallup survey. To discuss how we got to this point – where Israel's response to Hamas' October 7th attack is prompting European countries to recognize a Palestinian State – we are joined by Ari Shavit, former correspondent at Haaretz and author of the award winning book My Promised Land.Before the interview, we take a moment to remember Wesley LePatner. Item discussed in this episode: “In Memory of Wesley LePatner, a cherished friend.” By Caroline Tell. Please click here to read. CREDITS:ILAN BENATAR - Producer & EditorMARTIN HUERGO - Sound EditorMARIANGELES BURGOS - Additional EditingMAYA RACKOFF - Operations DirectorGABE SILVERSTEIN - ResearchYUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

The latest crisis of mass starvation and death in Gaza seems to have finally cut through the layers of denial and media self-censorship in Israel – and in both Arab and mixed cities, demonstrations against the horrifying humanitarian situation are drawing tens of thousands of protesters. This week, the Haaretz Podcast includes two firsthand accounts of survival from Gaza: 32-year-old Hana and 24-year-old Abdel Halim. Speaking on the podcast, Haaretz journalist Nagham Zbeedat told host Allison Kaplan Sommer that the situation in Gaza has “gone from bad to unbearable” and it has become “fight to simply remain a human being in Gaza, through all of the starvation, bombing and endless loss.” She also reports on the new wave of protests led by Palestinian citizens of Israel, who have overcome fear of government retribution and taken to the streets en masse to protest the war and government policies that have led to the current dire situation. “I dare say it's the first time in history that we witness a livestreamed starvation war committed against unarmed people,” said Zbeedat. Also on the podcast: Linda Dayan, a reporter who covers the anti-war protest movement for Haaretz, discusses how demonstrations against the humanitarian disaster in Gaza are becoming more mainstream. After nearly two years of focusing sharply on the hostages and calling for a cease-fire deal, Dayan said, Jewish Israelis are “putting themselves on the line and countering what was kind of a very well accepted talking point until fairly recently: that the Gazans aren't starving, that there's a lot of aid, and Hamas is just stealing it.” From what she’s seen and heard, Dayan expects the protests focused on hunger and death in Gaza to grow. “I have a feeling there's going to be more and more of these until something changes,” she said, adding that she believes that the Netanyahu government’s decision to allow “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting “is partially because some people are listening to the street.” Subscribe to Haaretz.com for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel and the Middle East in English. Read more: 'We and Our People in Gaza Are One': Over 10,000 Protest Gaza War and Hunger Crisis in Major Arab Israeli City 'We're Feeling Their Pain': Arab Israeli Leaders Declare Three-day Hunger Strike Over Gaza Starvation Experts Warn: Gaza Children Facing Acute Malnutrition, Long-term Medical Support NeededSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decisively lost his Knesset majority following the exit of the two major ultra-Orthodox parties that were pillars of his coalition, which now holds only 49 seats in the 120-member parliament. But celebration is premature for those hoping for swift elections that could lead to the end of his rule, warns Haaretz columnist and political strategist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin on the Haaretz Podcast. The ultra-Orthodox may have left the government in a “very demonstrative way, but if they don't actually join a vote that would bring down the government and launch early elections, it doesn't really matter,” Scheindlin said. As the Knesset enters its summer recess with a minority in power, only reconvening in October, “their exit from the coalition is essentially a matter of holding a political sword over the head of Netanyahu, over the government's head, saying ‘we are poised to bring down this government now and launch early elections’“ – but elections are far from a certainty. What is becoming increasingly certain for most Israelis, Scheindlin told podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, is the fact that the government has “made it extremely clear that its political interests override the good of the state” by doing everything in its power to advance the law the ultra-Orthodox are pressuring them to pass, exempting Haredi men from military service at a time when the country needs manpower more desperately than ever. Subscribe to Haaretz.com for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel and the Middle East in English. Read more from Dahlia Schiendlin in Haaretz: Bolting Parties, Baffling Polls: Are Elections in Israel Imminent? What Are Netanyahu's Chances of Winning? Netanyahu's Trial Is a Seductive Spectacle. But Dead Gazan Children Matter Far More Netanyahu Should End the Gaza War Now – for His Own Sake, if Not for Israel'sSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If it weren’t for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial and the multiple investigations into payments made by Qatar to his closest aides, the Gaza war could have been over, Bar Peleg, who has been covering Netanyahu’s legal woes, said on the Haaretz Podcast. In his conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Peleg laid out the details of the multiple investigations, including BibiLeaks and Qatargate, against the Israeli premier in light of the calls by President Donald Trump that his trial be “cancelled.” Trump has also suggested that Netanyahu should be given a pardon, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee’s appearance at his trial in a show of support. A recent exposé by Peleg and Gidi Weitz revealed that the Trump administration is actively intervening in the Qatargate investigation by preventing a key U.S. witness, Qatar lobbyist Jay Footlik, from being questioned by Israel Police. Without Footlik’s testimony, which has now been postponed three times, “the case may well be stuck.” The active crusade by the Trump administration to “save Bibi Netanyahu,” as the president put it on social media, “is the most interference that we have seen from the United States in Israel in internal matters.” Peleg said that all evidence points to the fact that Netanyahu’s legal woes have impacted his policy decisions over the past five years, with particularly fateful consequences over the course of the Gaza war. Israelis “need to know that what their prime minister is doing is what is important for the state – and when we see how Netanyahu is acting regarding the war, we don’t believe fully that he is doing what is good for Israel,” Peleg said. If Netanyahu was not on trial and facing other potential criminal charges, Peleg said, “maybe this war would have ended.” Subscribe to Haaretz.com for up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Israel and the Middle East in English. Read more: Haaretz Exposé | U.S. Officials: Order to Prevent Israeli Investigation of Key Qatargate Figure Jay Footlik 'Came From Above' How Jay Footlik Went From Democratic Insider to Player in Netanyahu's Dirty Wartime Scandal Following the Money: Where Does Qatargate Scandal Involving Netanyahu's Closest Aides and Gulf State Stand?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our resident constitutional expert Bruce Fein joins to make the case for impeaching the Supreme Court AND the President, and what we—as citizens—can do to make it happen. Then we welcome Lori Wallach of Rethink Trade to evaluate Trump's tariff policy. Are these trade deals bringing manufacturing back to the US? Or is Trump just using tariffs as a cudgel to punish countries that annoy him?Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.This has real consequences for you people all over the country because one of their shadow docket decisions (without explanation or hearing) briefs just very recently said that Trump can fire all these people in the IRS or the Education Department or EPA and get away with it. And, in fact, paralyze the workings of his (statutorily-established-by-Congress) Cabinet Secretary and Department…So this is devastating to your health, economic safety, environment, workplace safety, education, all kinds of things that are being ridden into the ground.Ralph NaderIn my judgment, the court has basically abandoned its role as a check on executive power…It's actually become an appendage of the executive branch. Nothing placing any kind of serious or material handcuff on what the President can do on his own. And the President is taking full advantage of that.Bruce FeinLori Wallach is a 30-year veteran of international and U.S. congressional trade battles— starting with the 1990s fights over NAFTA and WTO when she founded the “Global Trade Watch” group at Public Citizen. She is now the director of the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project, and a Senior Advisor to the Citizens Trade Campaign.What these guys are doing [with Trump's tariff policy] it's basically trying to build a house with just a hammer—we are against saws; we are against screwdrivers; we do not actually believe in nails, no other tools; we will just hammer a bunch of wood. And as a result, we're going to make some noise and we're definitely going to break some things, but we're not actually building a new redistributed trade system—which we could.Lori WallachBest that we can tell, the dynamic is something like: Trump is so engaged in the fun and chaos—fun (from his perspective) and chaos of throwing tariff news around like a lightning bolt that he really is not taking advice about it from people who know how you could use tariffs to try and ostensibly achieve the things he promised. He's just enjoying throwing around tariffs.Lori WallachNews 7/18/25* Last week, Elon Musk's pet AI program – Grok – began identifying itself as “MechaHitler,” and spitting out intricate rape threats and sexual fantasies directed at individuals like liberal pundit Will Stancil and now-ex X CEO Linda Yaccarino. This week, Musk rolled out Grok's new “sexy mode” which includes a visual avatar feature depicting the artificial entity as a quasi-pornographic anime-esque character who can flirt with users, per the Standard. So, naturally, the Trump Defense Department awarded xAI, the parent company behind Grok, a $200 million contract. According to CNN, “The contracts will enable the DoD to develop agentic AI workflows and use them to address critical national security challenges.” It is unclear how exactly the entity calling itself MechaHitler will accomplish that.* In local news, a special election was held in Washington DC's Ward 8 this week, seeking to replace corrupt councilmember Trayon White. White was implicated in an FBI bribery investigation and was expelled from the council in February. Yet, because of the splintered opposition, White pulled out a narrow victory on Wednesday, winning with 29.7% of the vote compared to his opponents' 24.3%, 23.7% and 22.3% respectively, per WTOP. In 2024, DC Voters approved a ballot measure to implement ranked-choice voting, which could have helped prevent this outcome, but it has yet to take effect. The DC Council could vote to expel White again more or less immediately; if not, they would likely wait for his trial to commence in January 2026.* Turning to foreign affairs, Israel has bombed the Syrian capital of Damascus, killing three and wounding 34, in strikes primarily targeting the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters, per NPR. Israel's attack comes amid tensions between the new, post-Assad Syrian government and the Druze minority in the Southern Syrian city of Sweida. The government claims the Druze violated a ceasefire reached earlier in the week and Syrian troops responded; a new ceasefire deal has been reached and the office of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a statement reading, the “rights [of the citizens of Sweida] will always be protected and…we will not allow any party to tamper with their security or stability.” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, said in a statement that the U.N. chief “condemns Israel's escalatory airstrikes,” as well as reports of the Israeli military's redeployment of forces in the Golan Heights. As journalist Séamus Malekafzali notes, “Damascus is now the 4th Middle Eastern capital to be bombed by Israel in the past 6 weeks, alongside Tehran, Beirut, and Sana'a.”* In more news from Israel, the Knesset this week sought to expel Palestinian lawmaker Ayman Odeh, leader of the Hadash-Ta'al party. According to Haaretz, “The vote was triggered by a Likud lawmaker after Odeh published a social media post in January, saying that he ‘rejoices' over the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.” However, the motion failed to reach the 90-vote threshold, meaning Odeh will remain in the legislature. Six members of Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party voted for the motion, but not Lapid himself. The United Torah Judaism party did not back the motion. Haaretz quotes Hassan Jabareen, an attorney, director of the Adalah Legal Center and legal counsel for Odeh, who said, “The overwhelming support for this initiative – from both the coalition and the opposition – reveals the state's intent to crush Palestinian political representation...This was not a legitimate legal process, but rather a racist, fascist incitement campaign aimed at punishing Odeh for his principled stance against occupation, oppression and Israeli violence.” Senator Bernie Sanders celebrated the failure of the motion, writing “Israel's far right tried to expel Ayman Odeh, an Arab Israeli opposition leader, from the Knesset because of his opposition to Netanyahu's war. Today, they failed. If Israel is going to be considered a democracy, it cannot expel members of parliament for their political views.” This from the Middle East Eye.* Sanders also made news this week by declaring that “Given the illegal and immoral war being waged against the Palestinian people by Netanyahu, NO Democrat should accept money from AIPAC – an organization that also helped deliver the presidency to Donald Trump,” per the Jerusalem Post. Sanders posted this statement in response to a video by Obama foreign policy advisor Ben Rhodes, who said “AIPAC is part of the constellation of forces that have delivered this country into the hands of Donald Trump…These are the wrong people to have under your tent...The kind of people that they are supporting, Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump, I don't want my leaders and my political party cozying up to these people.” Bernie's statement is perhaps the strongest stand taken by any American politician against AIPAC, Israel's front group in American politics and one of the biggest special interest groups in the country. AIPAC throws around eye-popping sums of money to members of both parties; to name just one example, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has accepted over $1.6 million from the group, according to Track AIPAC's Hall of Shame.* In a similar vein, last week we discussed the National Education Association's vote to suspend its ties with the Anti-Defamation League due to the ADL's shift in focus from Jewish civil rights to laundering the reputation of Israel. Since then, the ADL has sought to mobilize their allies to demand the NEA reject the vote. To this end, the ADL has sought the support of J Street, a liberal Jewish group critical of Israel, per the Forward. J Street however has rebuffed the ADL, refusing to sign the group's letter. Though they oppose the NEA resolution, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami issued a statement reading in part, “charges of antisemitism must not be wielded to quash legitimate criticism of Israeli policy...the NEA vote can[not] be dismissed as being driven by fringe ‘pro-Hamas' antisemitic activists.” Hopefully, more Jewish groups will follow the example of J Street and break with the Zionist orthodoxy of the ADL.* In other foreign policy news, the Guardian reports French President Macron has reached a deal with the leadership of the French “overseas territory” New Caledonia to grant the island statehood and more autonomy within the French legal system. New Caledonia is one of several UN-designated ‘non-self-governing territories.' France has exerted rule over the Pacific Island – over 10,000 miles from Paris – and its nearly 300,000 inhabitants since the 19th century. Last May, riots broke out over France's decision to grant voting rights to thousands of non-indigenous residents. This violence “claimed the lives of 14 people, [and] is estimated to have cost the territory…$2.3 bn... shaving 10% off its gross domestic product.” However, the Times reports indigenous Kanak independence activists reject the deal outright. Brenda Wanabo-Ipeze, a leader of the Co-ordination Cell for Actions on the Ground, who is currently detained in France, said, “This text was signed without us. It does not bind us.” The Times adds that, “The conservative and hard-right French opposition accused Macron of failing to ensure security in the territory. The left accused the president of imposing colonial tactics on a people who should be allowed self-determination.” It remains to be seen whether this deal will prove durable enough to weather criticism from so many angles.* Much has been made of Attorney General Pam Bondi's decision last week to not release any more information related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. A Department of Justice memo reads, “it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” This has created a firestorm in the MAGA world, with many Trump supporters feeling betrayed as the president implied he would declassify these files if reelected. Now, Congressmen Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna have introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act which would “force the House of Representatives to vote on the complete release of the government's files related to Jeffrey Epstein,” according to a press release from Massie's office. This resolution specifically states the files cannot “be withheld, delayed, or redacted” should they cause “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.” The resolution is attracting support from some Republicans, but it is unclear how far this will go under Speaker Johnson, who maintains there is “no daylight between his position and that of Trump,” per the Hill. The position of congressional Republicans has been further complicated by a bombshell report in the Wall Street Journal documenting previously unknown details of the intimate relationship between the late pedophile financier and the president.* Meanwhile, the Trump administration is once again torching America's reputation abroad – this time literally. The Atlantic reports “Five months into its unprecedented dismantling of foreign-aid programs, the Trump administration has given the order to incinerate food instead of sending it to people abroad who need it. Nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food—enough to feed about 1.5 million children for a week—are set to expire tomorrow, according to current and former government employees with direct knowledge of the rations. Within weeks…the food, meant for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be ash.” This cartoonishly evil decision paired with the “Big Beautiful Bill”'s provisions cutting food assistance for children in poverty, point to one inescapable conclusion: the Trump administration wants children to starve.* Finally, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Mexico News Daily reports the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum is debuting a healthy, domestically produced and affordable staple for Mexican consumers – chocolate bars. “This ‘Chocolate de Bienestar' is part of the government's ‘Food for Well-Being' strategy, which aims to bring nutritious and affordable food options to consumers while supporting national producers, particularly those in the southern states of Tabasco and Chiapas — a region that has historically lagged behind other regions in several social and economic indicators.” The Sheinbaum administration is stressing the health benefits of chocolate, noting that, “Studies have shown that chocolate improves cardiovascular health via its antioxidants, provides energy, helps control blood pressure, improves cognitive capacity, satisfies hunger and lifts mood.” At the same time, the administration is seeking to minimize the sugar content “striking a supposedly healthier balance between natural cane sugar and the cacao itself.” This chocolate will be available in three forms:“Chocolate bar containing 50% cacao, and priced at…less than $1.Powdered chocolate with 30% cocoa, priced...$2Chocolate de mesa or tablet chocolate, with 35% cacao, priced at …$5”This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. 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President Trump claimed that Gaza ceasefire talks are "going well" as he met with Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington, who was also optimistic after the meeting, even saying that peace between Israel and the entire Middle East was possible under Trump's leadership. While the world waits for an agreement, the people of Gaza continue to be bombed, with over 60 people reported killed there today. Noa Landau is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which has done extensive investigative reporting on this war, and she joins the program from Tel Aviv.   Also on today's show: economist Ernie Tedeschi; NYT reporter Caroline Kitchener; award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ("Purpose")  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watch Call me Back on YouTube: youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcastCheck out Ark Media's other podcasts: For Heaven's Sake: lnk.to/rfGlrA‘What's Your Number?': lnk.to/rbGlvMFor sponsorship inquiries, please contact: callmeback@arkmedia.orgTo contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: arkmedia.org/Ark Media on Instagram: instagram.com/arkmediaorgDan on X: x.com/dansenorDan on Instagram: instagram.com/dansenorTo order Dan Senor & Saul Singer's book, The Genius of Israel: tinyurl.com/bdeyjsdnToday's Episode:Over the past few days, we've observed strong signs that Israeli leaders are moving to bring the Gaza war to a close, though it remains unclear how exactly this would take shape.On Tuesday, Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermermet with senior Trump administration officials in Washington, DC. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit the White House on Monday, July 7. This comes just over a week after Israel's 12-day war against the Iranian regime. The war also included, of course, a round of American strikes on Iran's three key nuclear facilities. Prime Minister Netanyahu spent his entire political career warning of the existential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program, and he is now largely being credited — even by domestic critics — with its destruction. As the post-Iran War geopolitical map is being drawn, we wonder, what could be Netanyahu's next moves in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria. Saudi Arabia, and domestically, in Israel?To discuss this we are joined by Israeli author and journalist Ari Shavit. Ari is the author of the award-winning book My Promised Land and was a senior correspondent at Haaretz for many years.To order Ari's book, My Promised Land: https://tinyurl.com/45jbnhbzCREDITS:ILAN BENATAR - Producer & EditorMARTIN HUERGO - Sound EditorMARIANGELES BURGOS - Additional EditingMAYA RACKOFF - Operations DirectorGABE SILVERSTEIN - ResearchYUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

Arash Azizi is a writer and historian. He is an incoming Postdoctoral Associate and lecturer at Yale University and a contributing writer at the Atlantic. His writings have appeared in numerous other outlets including New York Times, New York Review of Books, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Liberties, Newsweek, New Lines, Haaretz, Daily Beast, Jacobin, Foreign Policy and the Toronto Star. He is the author of “The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US and Iran's Global Ambitions” (Oneworld, 2020) and “What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom” (Oneworld, 2024.) He is writing a book on Iran and Israel to be published by Public Affairs (a division of Basic Books.)https://x.com/arash_tehran-------------------------To learn more about psychedelic therapy go to my brother Mehran's page at: https://www.mindbodyintegration.ca/ or to https://www.somaretreats.org for his next retreat.***Masty o Rasty is not responsible for, or condone, the views and opinions expressed by our guests ******مستی و راستی هیچگونه مسولیتی در برابر نظرها و عقاید مهمان‌های برنامه ندارد.***--------Support the showhttps://paypal.me/raamemamiVenmo + Revolut: @KingRaam Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is impossible to overstate how hellish life in Gaza has been for the past 20 months.The death count is above 50,000 people — more than 15,000 of whom are children — and at least 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.1 million people have been displaced over and over again. Starvation is rampant. Hospitals are either damaged or closed; there are only 2,000 remaining hospital beds.Nearly two years after the atrocities of Oct. 7, Israel still has no plan for the day after the conflict ends. Instead, it is escalating its assault on what remains of Hamas and seizing territory to expand its security buffer zone. There are reports that the government is considering a plan that would herd the Gaza Strip's Palestinians into just a small fraction of the territory. In the West Bank, meanwhile, settler violence has increased sharply, and new settlements are moving forward at a record pace.Ehud Olmert, the prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, recently published a searing opinion essay in Haaretz, one of Israel's most influential newspapers: “Enough Is Enough. Israel Is Committing War Crimes.” He joins me to discuss why he believes Israel's war in Gaza can no longer be justified, what he finds missing in Israel's current political leadership and why he has not yet given up hope for a two-state solution.Book Recommendations:The Gates of Gaza by Amir TibonThomas Jefferson by Jon MeachamAll or Nothing by Michael WolffWait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns GoodwinThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.htmlThis episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick and Elias Isquith. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Isaac Jones and Aman Sahota. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Marina King, Jan Kobal and Kristin Lin. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Frankie Martin of the Wilson Center and to Orca Studios. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.