Haaretz Podcast

Rep. Andy Levin, a progressive Democrat from Michigan, is facing a tough primary race against fellow lawmaker Haley Stevens, as the two politicians battle in a newly redrawn Congressional district in the Detroit area. Their election has become the latest front in the political war between AIPAC, which is supporting Stevens, and J Street, which has endorsed Levin.

Joining host Allison Kaplan Sommer on this episode, Levin responds to what he calls “sad and pathetic” personal attacks from a former AIPAC president who called him “arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

He explains his views on the subject by stating: “I love Israel. I'm a supporter of Israel and always have been, I voted for all our aid to Israel. I'm against the BDS movement. I voted to replenish Iron Dome. To use the kind of language that they're using against me, just because I won't tow AIPAC’s exact line is wrong, and it's not going to work.”

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U.S. President Joe Biden visited Asia this week, where he made headlines by promising to defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese attack on the island. At home, his administration has been struggling with rising inflation ahead of this year's midterm elections. So why, in the face of multiple internal and international crises, is the president soon planning a visit to Israel and potentially also Saudi Arabia?

On this week's episode, we asked leading U.S. foreign policy expert Aaron David Miller what Biden will try to achieve during the trip – from a diplomatic breakthrough between Israel and Saudi Arabia, to improved ties with the region's major oil producers. Miller also told host Amir Tibon why America's greatest global challenge today is actually coming from within. 

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Ending a decades-long policy of neutrality, Sweden and Finland have decided to join NATO in response to Vladimir Putin's botched invasion of Ukraine. On this episode of Haaretz Weekend, our correspondent in Stockholm, David Stavrou, explains why this decision is an earthquake for the two Scandinavian countries, and veteran national security analyst Amir Oren discusses the global implications it will have, ranging from Washington and Moscow to Israel and the Middle East. They also tell host Amir Tibon how Putin could punish the two countries in the interim period until they are accepted to NATO, and what it would take to remove Turkish President Erdogan's opposition to their application. 

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“If I thought that I was going to win the Pulitzer for a book called ‘The Netanyahus’ I would have to be crazy to want to be in Israel when that happened,” novelist Joshua Cohen tells host Allison Kaplan Sommer on Haaretz Weekly, shortly after arriving in Israel for the Jerusalem International Book Forum and Writers Festival. 

In the interview, recorded in Tel Aviv days after he got the news, Cohen says he is still in shock that he had won the biggest literary prize in the United States for a novel “that has characters in it that most Americans can't pronounce their names.”

Cohen’s part-historical, part-fictional satire is subtitled “An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family.” Its main character is the brilliant but embittered Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, best-known today as the father of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. 

As he was writing, Cohen says, he “kept on thinking of the line in ‘The Big Lebowski’ where the Dude says to Walter: ‘You’re not wrong, you’re just an asshole.’ And that was Benzion Netanyahu."

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As the Israeli Knesset begins its summer session, political expert and Haaretz columnist Dahlia Scheindlin joins host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s chances of survival, and why United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas pulled his party back from the brink after threatening to leave the coalition. 

Abbas is taking “a huge risk," she notes, amidst growing criticism from within the Arab camp “attacking him every day for being some kind of collaborator in this government. But his strategy is that he will achieve long-term goals and ultimately be rewarded.”

Also on the show, Acre hotel owner Evan Fallenberg reflects on the events of May 2021, when his business was decimated during the riots in mixed Jewish-Arab cities, and why he still believes coexistence is possible. 

“It’s easy for people to point fingers, blame the other side and not feel that they’re responsible. But I think it’s the only way we’re going to find a way out of this situation. We’re all responsible in some way.” 

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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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