Robi Damelin’s life was transformed in 2002 when she received the bitter news that her beloved son David was gunned down by a Palestinian while serving as a reserve soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. 

In an emotional interview, she tells host Allison Kaplan Sommer about the personal journey that led her to peace activism and leadership in the Parents Circle-Families Forum – a co-sponsor of the annual Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Day Ceremony. 

“I remember sitting around the table and looking into the eyes of the Palestinian mothers for the first time, and realizing that we shared the same pain and that our tears were the same color,” Damelin says. “If we can stand on the stage and talk in the same voice, for reconciliation and nonviolence, surely that can be an example for the whole world.” 

Later in the podcast, Haaretz’s Washington correspondent, Ben Samuels, checks in to discuss the political earthquake sparked by the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade; the “evolving battle” between AIPAC and J Street ahead of the 2022 midterms; the Anti-Defamation League’s new campaign equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism; and the revelations in a new book by an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders. 

This episode of Haaretz Weekend was released early in light of Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day. 

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Dr. Raz Zimmt, a leading Israeli expert on Iran, joins the podcast to talk about the ambitions, fears and concerns of Iran's current leadership. We ask him: Does Tehran really want to go back to a nuclear agreement with the United States and other world powers, or is it just buying time? Is the aging supreme religious leader Ali Khamenei still the top decision-maker in the country? And what have Israeli governments gotten wrong about Iran in recent decades? Zimmt, who recently published the book "Iran From Within: State and Society in the Islamic Republic," discusses these questions and more with host Amir Tibon. Listen to their full conversation.

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Zehava Galon, former head of the left-wing Meretz Party, who served in the Knesset for 16 years, is also the child of Holocaust survivors. For this reason, she finds it personally painful to see Israel’s government refusing to explicitly condemn Vladimir Putin and refraining from sending arms to Ukraine. 

“We have to protect the rights of people around the world – people who need our help,” says Galon, who now heads the human rights organization Zulat, on the latest episode of Haaretz Weeekend. In an interview with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Galon also discusses the state of Naftali Bennett’s “coalition of change” and how many bitter pills she believes the left should be willing to swallow in order to keep it intact. 

Later on the podcast, Haaretz technology editor Omer Benjakob explains the latest revelations regarding NSO Group and its Pegasus spyware. While most of the headlines in recent years have focused on how authoritarian governments are using the Israeli spyware, new reporting shows that even democratic countries are not immune to the dangers of the surveillance age.

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It was supposed to be a week of celebrations as Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Holy Land all marked their holidays at the same time. But in Jerusalem, and particularly on the sensitive Temple Mount / Al-Aqsa compound, the biggest story in recent days has been the outbreak of violent clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli police. 

Nir Hasson, Haaretz's Jerusalem correspondent, and our senior analyst Anshel Pfeffer, join the podcast to explain what's behind this wave of violence and why, despite the fears that it will deteriorate into an all-out war, both Hamas and Israel will likely try to avoid that scenario. Nir also describes what most Jerusalemites really think about the headlines, while Anshel discusses the political effect of these events, and the likelihood of this crisis bringing down Naftali Bennett's government.

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Ahead of the second round of the French presidential election, our in-house experts on French politics join the podcast to explain what's behind the "great anger" expressed by voters in the first round, and how President Emmanuel Macron can become the first in two decades to secure a second term in office. 

Emmanuelle Elbaz-Phelps, host of Haaretz's Hebrew-language podcast on the French election, and Haaretz editor and writer Eléonore Weil, share their conversations with family and friends in France, analyze how the upcoming Macron-Le Pen debate could be a game-changer, and predict what a victory by either candidate would mean for French-Israeli relations. They also discuss Le Pen's ties to Russia and the antisemitic legacy of her party and family. 

Later on the show, we discuss how a disagreement over the right to eat bread in Israeli hospitals during Passover could end up bringing down Israel's anti-Netanyahu "government of change." Uri Keidar, executive director of Israel Hofsheet, an organization promoting liberal policies on religion and state in Israel, joins the podcast to explain the origins of this crisis. Listen to his conversation with host Amir Tibon, starting at time code 33:45.

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Susan Glasser has been one of the most prominent journalists covering Washington's political dramas in the Obama, Trump and Biden years. But earlier in her career, as an American reporter stationed in Moscow, she witnessed the rise of a man who has had just as much influence on world affairs over the years: Vladimir Putin.

On this episode of Haaretz Weekend, Glasser joins hosts Allison Kaplan Sommer and Amir Tibon to discuss Putin's evolution from "an obscure KGB officer" to a murderous autocrat who is challenging the entire world order. Sharing an incredible story from her first ever meeting with Putin, she explains why many in the West misread him for a reformer before realizing who they were truly dealing with. 

She also comments on Biden's response to the war, Trump's embrace of Russian talking points, and the anger in Washington over Israel's hesitant approach since the start of the fighting.

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More than a month into the Ukraine war, is it too soon to call the Russian invasion a failure? What impact will it have on America's international standing, and why has it increased Iran's motivation to acquire nuclear weapons? Retired Israeli general Amos Yadlin, former head of Israel's military intelligence, joins the podcast to discuss these questions amid reports of Russian war crimes on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Yadlin tells host Amir Tibon that Putin's "barbaric" war is a reflection of Russia's failure to "march into Kyiv and be greeted as liberators." Putin, in his view, "lost the war he planned," but can still win another, more brutal one. Listen to the full conversation, which also touches on Israel's ties with China, and the Biden administration's approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Read more of our Ukraine coverage:

* Russian War Crimes in Ukraine Are Exposed. Will That Change Anything?  

* Why Jewish Refugees From Ukraine Are Choosing Germany Over Israel 

* How D.C. Emboldened Putin, According to Key Trump Impeachment Witness 

* Opinion: Why Most Israelis Blame Putin, but Most Palestinians Don't 

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Former U.S. National Security Adviser, retired General H.R. McMaster, joins Haaretz Weekend for a frank conversation about Ukraine, Iran and the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship. 

McMaster told host Allison Kaplan Sommer that Israel “ought to be embarrassed” for failing to “fully support” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his fight against the Russian invasion. 

The Ukrainian situation “is at least a little bit analogous to the situation of Israel” having been “attacked without provocation from a more powerful neighbor,” McMaster said. “This idea that you hedge [your bets] with Vladimir Putin to compensate for concerns that the American administration might attenuate or lessen support for Israel – that’s part of a long pattern and it’s always been wrong.” 

A longtime harsh critic of the Biden White House’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan last summer, McMaster is certain that “you can draw a direct line from the humiliating surrender to a terrorist organization and withdrawal from Afghanistan to Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine.”

McMaster also explains why he thinks the chances that Biden’s Iran negotiators will ever be able to improve the terms of the nuclear deal are “zero,” and that Iran will never give up its fight to “place a proxy army on the border of Israel and to threaten Israel with destruction.” 

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The images from the north-central city of Hadera on Sunday sent many Israelis back in time to the dark days of the second intifada: two terrorists, armed with multiple weapons, standing in the middle of a busy street and opening fire.

The fact that the perpetrators turned out to be Arab citizens of Israel who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, and that an attack by another Arab-Israeli ISIS supporter took place just days earlier in the south of the country, made the situation even more shocking. Haaretz's senior defense analyst Amos Harel joins the podcast to explain the background to these attacks, and why they are so concerning in the eyes of Israel's security services.

Later on this episode, Israeli foreign policy expert Ksenia Svetlova, a former member of the Knesset, talks with host Amir Tibon about the war in Ukraine, a month after Putin's tanks first invaded the country. What has caused the Russians to get stuck in the mud, how is Putin trying to suffocate the Ukrainian economy, and what should Israel do differently in its response to the refugee crisis? Listen to the full conversation, starting at time code 12:40. 

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Tom Dine, executive director of AIPAC from 1980-1993, is extremely worried that the organization’s controversial decision to endorse and fund congressional candidates who refused to certify the 2020 election will prove to be an “existential mistake.” 

The pro-Israel lobby has “walked into a trap they set themselves” and are now being seen as supporting “antidemocratic” forces, he tells host Allison Kaplan Sommer on Haaretz Weekend. The current AIPAC leadership's efforts to defend their choice with “no apologies” is “bullshit,” he says bluntly.

“There is no compromise when it comes to democracy,” Dine says. “If you get too many people saying AIPAC ought to go out of business, it's no longer relevant – then you don't have the grassroots support that I think is essential.”

Also on the show, Haaretz reporter Judy Maltz explains why it seems that just as many – or more – Ukrainian Jews fleeing the war in their homeland are heading to Berlin instead of immigrating to Israel. With Germany offering them free housing, and a community of former Soviet Jews already settled there to welcome them, “for many of them it makes more sense to go to Germany.”

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