For Heaven's Sake

As pressure mounts to move forward with further ceasefire negotiations, Israel finds itself beset with national scandals and crises, including a new Haredi draft exemption bill, threats to fire the Attorney General and Shin Bet Chief, and allegations that Netanyahu’s office took money from Qatar, while a looming budget deadline threatens to topple the government.

In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi unpack the growing set of threats on Israel’s domestic front and ask how Israelis can heal their divisions under a government that thrives off schism.

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Over the past year, Israel has shared a certain kinship with Ukraine; both countries are locked in existential wars started by their neighbors and backed by the U.S. administration. But in a shocking foreign policy turnaround, the Trump administration is stonewalling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanding mineral wealth from his country in exchange for further military support. In a world where Trump wields the weight of American power as he sees fit, what does this mean for Israel, a nation even more dependent on the support and protection of the United States?

In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi ask what sort of relationship their country is prepared to have with the U.S. to ensure its own survival.

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Hamas has released each round of hostages amid increasingly cruel and theatrical public displays, going as far as returning a stranger’s body in place of Shiri Bibas, who was abducted with her two young children and killed in captivity. With stage two of ceasefire negotiations due to begin, Netanyahu, and many Israelis, are instead gearing up for a return to war. Is this the response Hamas is aiming to provoke?

In this episode of For Heaven’s Sake, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi discuss Israel’s power to deter Hamas, the “cultural threat” that is radicalizing Gazans, and what kind of war Israelis are ready to wage next in Gaza.

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Today, Thursday, February 20, Hamas is returning to Israel the bodies of Oded Lifshitz, Shiri Bibas, and her young children Kfir and Ariel, all slain in captivity. A fresh outcry of rage is expected from the Israeli public, not just over Hamas’s brutality, but against the government’s failure to gain release of these and other hostages sooner.

In a conversation recorded yesterday, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi express their nation’s deep anguish, and ask what a second stage of the ceasefire deal might look like when Netanyahu’s two stated goals—full hostage return and removal of Hamas—stand directly at odds.

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It seems that every country around the world has condemned Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza, and understandably so. The permanent relocation of Gazans would amount to an act of ethnic cleansing. Why, then, is Israel the only nation other than the U.S. to take Trump’s morally questionable proposal seriously?

In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi consider the fact that eight in ten Israelis are polling in favor of the Trump plan and how the Holocaust, the promise of Zionism, and the images of the three recently released hostages, have shaped current Israeli public opinion.

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Voters were aghast, world leaders were outraged, and Netanyahu seemed jubilant, when President Trump recently doubled down on a plan that seems totally detached from reality:

a U.S. take-over, clean-out, and transformation of Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Though the White House has since clarified that Palestinian relocation would only be temporary, the shockwaves it caused in the region, and the reaction of the Israeli public, are telling.

In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi talk messianism, morality, and this

strange new chapter of U.S. relations, as they assess Israeli attitudes towards the proposal and the precarious fate of the hostage deal.

This episode is sponsored by Nancy Cahners.

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Many Israelis are grateful to the Trump administration for pushing forward the hostage deal, but an unsettling reality seems to be taking hold. Has Netanyahu become subservient to the returning US President, even at the expense of his own coalition? As newspapers across Israel are abuzz with the “Trump Plan” for Palestinians in Gaza, some question whether Israel has relinquished its sovereignty and moral fortitude to the whims of America’s new leader.

In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi react to the President Trump’s call

to purportedly “empty out Gaza” and discuss the moral and political discourse in Israel—or lack thereof—that has allowed him to call the shots.

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Three hostages have been safely returned to Israel, with more to be returned each week. But while Israelis share the relief of this long-awaited moment, Hamas is emerging from the shadows with victory cheers and a deep ambivalence over the ceasefire deal is brewing in Israel. Who has won this war, and can Israelis come to terms with the price they must pay to bring all the hostages home?

In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi discuss the divide in Israeli opinion,

the country’s unmet military goals, and whether a return to war could be on the horizon.

This episode is sponsored by Nancy Cahners.

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A ceasefire deal has just been reached.

In the past, Israelis have been united in elation and relief about the return of hostages, even at a high cost to national security. But not this time. Far-right MKs and ultranationalists had vigorously decried the deal, protesting any concession that would allow Hamas to hold on to power, no matter how small. What is behind their bitter dissent, and will this deepen rifts in Israeli society?

In this episode, recorded as the deal was still being finalized, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi consider closure, family loyalty, and the basic value of derech eretz (common decency) in negotiating the return of the hostages, and why the lens for ultranationalists in Israel is so starkly different.

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