Haaretz Podcast

Leaders of far-right parties running in the Israeli elections are openly campaigning on platforms that advocate expelling Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.

On the Haaretz Podcast, senior analyst Esther Solomon and correspondent Linda Dayan discussed the platforms of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and ex-general Ofer Winter, both of whom are wooing voters by attacking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government from the right. 

Ben-Gvir in particular is proudly “promoting a platform for ‘voluntarily‘ expelling Palestinians from every single part from Gaza and the West Bank,” Solomon said. 

Winter included his longtime support for “voluntary emigration” from Gaza in the platform of his new Amcha Israel party, in an effort Solomon described as being designed to appeal to far-right voters dissatisfied with Netanyahu, but “who are a little bit disgusted by some of the crude ways that Ben-Gvir operates. They like their candidates to look a bit nicer.” 

Dayan, who recently attended a Winter campaign event aimed at English-speaking voters, said that Winter’s party’s positions articulated by the candidates on his list and their supporters are “a profoundly bizarre rejection of reality.” 

Together with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Solomon and Dayan assessed the state of the race, which is increasingly shaping up into a likely deadlock, with neither the pro-Netanyahu nor the (Jewish, Zionist) anti-Netanyahu bloc coming close to achieving a 61-seat majority, according to the polls. 

Read more: 

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Countdown to Election Day: A Road Trip Through a Country Deciding Its Future

America's Right Is Tired of Israel and Jews. NatCon Jerusalem Confirms It

This Leader of a Small, Far-Right Party Wants Netanyahu Fans to Take a Chance on Him

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The decision by Israel’s top generals and intelligence chiefs not to put the IDF on high alert in the hours before October 7 was “the worst gamble in Israeli military history,” according to senior defense analyst Amos Harel, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast on the third anniversary of the attack by Hamas on southern Israel. 

“They terribly, tragically underestimated both Hamas’ capabilities and its actual intentions that night,” Harel said. 

Harel is the author of “6:29: Anatomy of a Failure,” the first and most complete account of the chain of mistakes by the country’s top military and political echelons leading up to the devastating events of that day.

On the podcast, Harel recounts the military and political mistakes that were made, pinning them on “arrogance” and a “condescending” misreading of Hamas’ capabilities and determination – and how their failures have shaken Israeli citizen’s belief that they are “in safe hands.” 

“We have the best air force in the region, one of the best in the world. We have the technology. We have the operational understanding, and so on, and yet we were taken by complete surprise,” he noted. 

Harel also discusses the legacy of October 7, including how it is shaping Israel’s upcoming election, and the narrative crafted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has allowed him to maintain political viability as he runs a campaign that exploits fears of a repeat of the disaster, all while  blocking the formation of an October 7 commission of inquiry or any other comprehensive investigation, and fanning the flames of conspiracy theories.

Netanyahu, he said, is “fighting for his life by any means necessary. Everything is worth it in order to maintain power and stay out of jail.”

Read more:

Analysis by Amos Harel | Three Years After Hamas Attacked on October 7, Israel Has Yet to Start Reckoning With Its Failures

October 7: How Hamas Attacked Israel, Minute by Minute

Protests Across Israel Mark Third Anniversary of October 7

Israel's October 7 Leaders Mourned the Dead – and Celebrated Their Own Survival

Op-ed | My Mother Was a Peace Activist Killed on October 7. Don't Use Her Name to Justify Mass Killing

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handling of the crisis after the Flydubai attack demonstrated his “facility at dominating the news cycle and setting the agenda of the debate” in the crucial weeks ahead of the October 27 Israeli election, said Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer, speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast. 

Netanyahu skillfully and quickly took the spotlight, basking in the reflected glory of the heroic pilot and passengers who saved the plane, while evading responsibility for the security failures as he did post-October 7. By doing so, he put his election rivals in a lose-lose position, Leifer noted. 

If his rivals for power publicly acknowledged that “we're living in a dangerous neighborhood and we have to step things up, then you know they end up backing him,” Leifer said. “But if the opposition comes out and starts blaming Netanyahu” for the oversights and negligence that led to the near-disaster, “they come out looking like they’re spoiling the party and they’re not loyal.”

Leifer’s fellow Election Podcast panelist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin agreed and said given the situation, it is “smarter” for the opposition to “sit back and let the facts come out” in the media rather than go on the offensive. 

On the podcast, Leifer and Scheindlin joined host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss flydubai, along with the impact of the commemoration of three years since October 7 on the campaign, dueling interpretations of the current polls, and the Netanyahu opposition’s “horrifically mismanaged” campaign.

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The most recent attempt at a show of unity by the Jewish Zionist parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was only partially successful.

With the election less than a month away, their leaders may have agreed not to campaign against each other and save their fire for Netanyahu – but they failed to explicitly commit to backing whichever party leader garners the most votes to head the bloc, said Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz, speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.

"For most of the people who support the parties in the opposition bloc, it was a big disappointment that they couldn't say what seems so obvious to most people," Maltz said of the meeting between the four major parties opposed to Netanyahu.

"There was a lot of hope that they would emerge ... and say, 'We have a leader. It will be Eisenkot against Netanyahu,' but they could not reach an agreement on that."

Maltz was joined on the podcast by fellow Haaretz journalist Linda Dayan and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the fallout of the Central Elections Committee's decision to disqualify Arab parties along with individual members of the party, and the controversial decision by left-wing Democrats leader Yair Golan to support barring Balad party head Sami Abu Shehadah, who made comments following October 7 that were interpreted as supporting the Hamas attack.

"What he wrote is disgusting," Dayan said. "The question is whether it's actually illegal, and there are a lot of figures saying that it isn't," and noted that such votes to disqualify candidates is an "Israeli election tradition."

Maltz, who has been traveling across the country over the past months, reporting on the mood of Israeli voters, spoke on the podcast about her visit to Kibbutz Be'eri, where 132 people were massacred and 35 taken hostage on October 7, to find out how that trauma has affected their politics.

"Overall, most of them have moved to the right. But they will not vote for any parties in the current coalition, because much as they hate Hamas, they hate the current Israeli government even more, and blame them for October 7."

Read more: 

Opposition Leaders Agree to Decide Who Will Lead Next Government Only After Elections

Banned Arab Party Leader to Challenge Knesset Disqualification in Court Despite Internal Opposition

Israel's AG Urges Court to Disqualify Arab Party Leader Over Post-Oct. 7 Remarks

Eisenkot Says No Arab Party Meets Demands to Join Government Led by Him

'Not Once Did You Use the Word Peace': In English, Yair Golan Strikes a Centrist Tone

Did Kibbutz Be'eri Lose Faith in the Left?

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On the eve of the New York premiere of their film, "NAZA," co-directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor sat with Haaretz U.S. senior writer Etan Nechin to talk about the journalistic investigations behind the film, the unprecedented criticism of them in Israel – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat to strip them of their citizenship – and why it’s important to them to come back home and engage with Israelis.

In this episode of the Haaretz podcast, you can listen to Abraham discuss what he thought of Netanyahu likening the documentary to “dozens of missiles” being fired at Israel; the Trump administration's material support of the Gaza war and U.S. debate about arms sales to Israel; the film’s title and thematic association with Nazi Germany; why so many specific details were taken out of the film; and his plan to return to Israel and continue his work.

“I don't want to be an exile,” he said, declaring that “there are no grounds” to revoke his or Szor’s citizenship. 

“We're journalists. We're filmmakers. … The storm will pass, and we will come back and move on to the next thing.”

The full interview with Abraham and Szor will be available on haaretz.com on Sunday. 

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After rapper Macklemore cried "Free Palestine!" as he took the stage as the opening act for music superstar Ed Sheeran, opened a Pandora's box of controversy over free speech and the place of politics at a music concert "that is not dying down any time soon," said Philissa Cramer on the Haaretz Podcast.

Cramer, recently appointed senior Jewish Life correspondent for Haaretz, recounted on the podcast how, when Gillette Stadium and New England Patriots billionaire owner Robert Kraft refused to have Macklemore at his venue later in the Sheeran tour, and the rapper was removed as an opening act for Sheeran, the incident "turned from a story about was Macklemore doing something that his audience found objectionable - to a story about cancel culture."

In addition to telling the story of the war of words and promises of donations, Cramer discussed with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer whether the episode carried lessons for the embattled organized U.S. Jewish community as the list of prominent celebrities speaking out publicly Palestinian rights continues to grow.

Read more:

Pro-Israel Group Petitions Ed Sheeran to Drop Macklemore for Saying 'Free Palestine'

Ed Sheeran Apologizes for Macklemore Controversy, Says Gaza Devastation Is 'Unjustifiable'

Robert Kraft vs. Macklemore Reveals New Reality in 'Free Palestine' Debate

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The violence of extremist settlers on the West Bank as they systematically terrorize, attack and even displace Palestinian communities is a “perversion of Judaism” and a desecration of God’s name,” said Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast in the week between the Jewish New Year and its Day of Atonement. 

Joining Weiman-Kelman on the podcast is Loui Ridi, a Palestinian American who flew from Ohio back to his home in the West Bank village of Qusra, after settlers laid siege to his neighborhood and the IDF declared a closed military zone. Ridi has been unable to leave his house for a month due to the order, and says the closure has been selectively enforced against Palestinians, while the army refuses to remove the settlers.  

Ridi is flying the American flag on his house, he said, “as a message to the U.S. government, to the U.S. officials, that I need protection and I need help.”

Weiman-Kelman, a former president of Rabbis for Human Rights and retired spiritual leader of Kol HaNeshama, a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem, reflected on the situation in the West Bank and the overall state of the country following Rosh Hashanah and ahead of Yom Kippur – a day on which, he said, “I want to atone for still feeling the effects of October 7, for the nationalist part of me overcoming the universal vision that is also part of me.” 

Israel today is not only threatened by external enemies, but “threatened from within by the moral center of this country beginning to shatter and disintegrate before our eyes,” he said. 

“We live in a country where people feel encouraged and empowered to express their darkest sides through acts of physical violence,” he said, including repeated vandalism to the Reform synagogue in Jerusalem he founded in 1985.

Read more:

One Month and One IDF 'Outpost Evacuation' Later, Qusra Remains Besieged by Settlers

Palestinian-American Returns to West Bank Home Besieged by Israeli Settlers

B'Tselem Says Israel Is Implementing a 'Project of Elimination' Against Palestinians in the West Bank

IDF Dismisses Commander Over Praying With Settlers at West Bank Outpost

American Rabbis Confront a Fraught Question This High Holy Day Season: How to Talk About Israel

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The intensifying Israeli election campaign encompasses a long list of issues, but at its heart, the results of the vote on October 27 will be “about the transition out of the Netanyahu era,” contended Anshel Pfeffer, Israel correspondent for The Economist, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. 

Pfeffer said that many have done their best “to be the next Netanyahu,” attempting to project his confidence, authority and leadership, while consciously or unconsciously replicating the current prime minister’s style. The front-runner, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, he noted, has a “big advantage is that he’s the first ‘wannabe Bibi’ who is not a ‘wannabe Bibi’” in looks and behavior. 

Pfeffer returned to Haaretz for the podcast, where he worked as a correspondent and columnist for over 25 years and continues to contribute, for a reunion with columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, with whom he co-hosted the “Election Overdose” podcast during the run-up to the 2022 elections. 

In the first Haaretz Election Podcast since the party lists were finalized on September 8, Scheindlin and Pfeffer assessed the chances of each party and bloc, as well as grappling with the larger issues: most importantly, the legacy of October 7. 

Netanyahu’s newest challenge from the far-right former general Ofer Winter “is saying this election is about October 7, and that’s something that Netanyahu really doesn’t want the election to be about. For him, October 7 is kryptonite,” Pfeffer said. 

But, Scheindlin said, it is inescapable. 

“The sense that there has been no accountability for what happened on October 7 is not a marginal issue,” she emphasized. Israelis whose lives were upended by the events on that day and their aftermath “feel betrayed not only by the government, but by the state itself.” 

Read more:

Israeli Elections Poll Projects Tie Between Blocs as Eisenkot Bloc Slips

Poll: Most Israeli Voters Say October 7 Will Be Main Consideration at Ballot Box

Netanyahu's Likud Seeks to Disqualify Arab Party From 2026 Knesset Election Run

Analysis | Netanyahu's Terrible Tuesday Left Him Almost Unscathed in Election Polls – for Now

Analysis | The Quiet Radicalism of Mansour Abbas and Yoav Segalovitz

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The stunning triumph of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a German state election represents a true “challenge to democracy” and has shaken the country’s Jewish community, said author and activist Dr. Ofer Waldman, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast

“It's the first time that a right‑extremist party has had such a landslide victory in Germany,” said Waldman, who heads the Heinrich Boll Foundation office in Tel Aviv. 

Haaretz writer and editor David Issacharoff, who joined Waldman on the podcast for a discussion of the election results, said that state of Saxony-Anhalt, which gave 44 percent of its vote to the controversial AfD party, is populated by voters who “feel abandoned, forgotten, and very isolated,” blaming the state and mainstream parties for their situation and channeling their resentment in an extremist political direction.

This is worsened, both Waldman and Issacharoff said, by the fact that East Germany was not part of the post-Holocaust democracy education push in the West. "Keeping Jewish memory there is a real struggle of individuals in that state, and they're up against real forces of neo‑Nazis,” Issacharoff noted, 

Both commentators pointed to the contrast between the expressed deep worry and concern of the German Jewish community regarding AfD antisemitism, and the resounding “utter silence” coming from the Israeli government – together with comments from Israel’s ambassador in Berlin during the election campaign that highlighted antisemitism on the left, while downplaying the AfD’s positions. 

"When Israel and its representative in Germany focus all the fire towards the left, then they're totally absolving the right from its responsibility for antisemitism. And when the representatives of the Jewish state say that, it matters in Germany," Issacharoff said. 

Waldman added the source of the dissonance was “what is perceived as a mutual enemy” by Israel’s far-right government. 

“The AfD is perceived as the enemy of the Muslim community in Germany and, as such, a possible ally to the current Israeli administration,” Waldman said.

Read more:

German Jews 'Appalled' by Historic AfD Win as Israel Avoids Direct Condemnation

The AfD's Victory Shatters Germany's Illusions of Immunity to the Far Right

Several European States Clarify Settlement Trade Restrictions Depend on EU Action

The Far-right German Party AfD Says It Has Nothing Against Jews. This Book Proves Otherwise

Inside the German pro-Israel Lobby's Campaign to Defund UNRWA

Who Stole All the Holocaust Memorial Stones on Oct. 7, Shaking This Quiet East German Town?

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A last-minute scramble before the party lists for Israel’s elections are finalized on September 8 has led to the disappearance of small parties, politicians switching parties and the dismissal of veteran ultra-Orthodox Knesset members by leaders who want to “refresh” their party lists.         

On the Haaretz Election Podcast, correspondents Linda Dayan and Etan Nechin reviewed the week’s big changes – along the return of October 7 conspiracy theories and the intermingling of U.S. and Israeli political campaigning with host Allison Kaplan Sommer. 

Dayan noted the leap by controversial Likud MK Tally Gotliv to the extremist Otzma Yehudit party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, pointed out that the move “shows how much Likud has absorbed toxic far-right populism.” 

The drastic shrinking of Yesh Atid as its leader Yair Lapid has played second fiddle to more popular center-right figures like Benny Gantz, Naftali Bennett and Gadi Eisenkot, Nechin said, “represents the limitations of liberal Jewish Israeli society. ... There’s a segment of Israeli liberal society which deems itself very liberal and very open‑minded, but would rather cede to the right than explore new political possibilities."

Nechin also discussed his decision to interview controversial streamer Hasan Piker and why, despite pushback, he felt it was important to be the first in the Israeli media to do so.

"His platform, where young people – mostly men – might hear for the first time the term ‘anti‑Zionist’ or ‘settler colonialism’ or learn about Israel… makes him a person that is worth talking to," he said.

Read more:

A Guide to Israel's Key Election Deadline – and How It Could Decide Netanyahu's Fate

Bennett and Lapid Bid to Oust Netanyahu Again as They Unveil Joint Slate

As Election Focus Shifts to October 7, Netanyahu Pivots to Conspiracy Theories

Hasan Piker Talks Hamas, anti-Zionism and Why Americans Are Fed Up With Israel

A Convicted Terror Inciter and a Man Who Killed a Palestinian: Meet Ben-Gvir's Election Team

The One Thing Hasan Piker Could Say to Begin Healing Ties With U.S. Jews

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