From the international success of “Fauda” to Academy Award nominations and prestigious festival awards, the Israeli film and television industry was at a high point before the October 7 attacks.

Throughout the two-year Gaza war, the industry has struggled as international funding and festival invitations dried up, and Hollywood A-listers circulated petitions to boycott any association with the Israeli industry. Domestically, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been hostile, especially when infuriated by films they view as too sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

Assaf Amir, chairman of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, joins host Allison Kaplan Sommer to talk about the threat by Culture Minister Miki Zohar’s extreme reaction to the fact that the film winning this year’s Academy for Israel’s Best Picture was “The Sea” – about a Palestinian boy’s journey from the West Bank to Tel Aviv – which is now poised for submission in the Best Foreign Language film category at the Oscars. 

As a result, Zohar said he will defund the Academy prize and set up an alternative government award ceremony to choose a different Best Picture. Amir said on the podcast that he was unimpressed by the threat. 

“We'll see who submits their films to his prize and who he chooses to decide which of the films should win,” Amir said. 

As for the Hollywood boycotts, Amir said he would point to Israel’s Best Picture this year and ask the professionals signing the petitions where they stand on it. 

“Will they watch this Arabic-language film that was made by an Israeli and a Palestinian about a Palestinian boy from the West Bank trying to go to Tel Aviv – or would they boycott it? I think that's the question they should ask themselves, and I'm wondering what the answer is – because I would definitely urge them to watch this film.”

Read more:

Israel's Best Film Award Goes to 'The Sea,' Chosen to Represent Country at the Oscars

Government Says It Will Cut Israel Film Academy Funding After Film 'Depicting Israel Negatively' Wins

'If We Stop Deteriorating': Head of Israel's Film Academy Still Sees a Bright Future, Despite Political Pressures

1,300 International Actors and Filmmakers Pledge to Avoid Israeli Film Institutions 'Implicated in Gaza Genocide'

Debra Messing, Liev Schreiber Among 1,200 Hollywood Figures Opposing Israeli Film Boycott

Opinion | As an Israeli Filmmaker, Thank You to Everyone Who Is Boycotting My Works

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Captivity

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 World

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Gaza

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"It is hard to overstate the almost tribal, pathological inability of folks who are pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli to acknowledge the humanity of the other," said filmmaker and Palestinian American activist Mo Husseini on the Haaretz Podcast.

"People are operating on the assumption that everyone on the other side is an inhumane, hateful asshole who wants to kill all of us."

Husseini said that's the reason he chose to join Jewish American award-winning documentary filmmaker Julie Cohen to create "The Path Forward," which spotlights pairs of Israeli and Palestinian activists who joined forces after October 7. 

Cohen, also speaking on the podcast, said she conceived the film as offering an alternative to what she saw as the sole emphasis on violence and hostility when it came to interactions between Israelis and Palestinians.

Whenever there is coverage of dialogue, she said, it is framed as "Oh my God, there's an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian, and they're talking to each other. This is nuts, this is insane, this is the craziest thing we've ever seen!" But actually, says Cohen, "it's happening all the time. You're just not seeing it."

The film was made in the first year of the war. As the second anniversary of October 7 approaches, Cohen admits that when she re-watches it now, the activists' hope can be "painful to watch in the context of … what is now a genocide in Gaza."

Still, Cohen and Husseini said if they had to make a film today, they would strike the same hopeful chord.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Plan

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On a special edition of the Haaretz Podcast – as Israel faces the Jewish High Holidays mired in war and political division, host Allison Kaplan Sommer speaks to Prof. Adam Ferziger about soul-searching and atonement with a focus on the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel and the Diaspora.

Ferziger, who is also an ordained rabbi, believes the process of observing Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur “is all about humility.”

“Rosh Hashanah comes before Yom Kippur, because in order to be able to go before God and do some sort of atonement, I have to first acknowledge my place in the world,” he said. Following October 7 and over the past two years of war, “so many of the players involved, unfortunately, feel that they know all the right answers, and there is a real lack of humility on many sides.” 

Faith and belief in God, he said, should not “be a cause for saying ‘I am more powerful and better, and I know the truth more than you do.’”

In his new book, "Agents of Change: American Jews and the Transformation of Israeli Judaism," the Bar-Ilan University professor chronicles the rise of what he calls “moderate Orthodox Judaism” in Israel, the pioneering immigrant Diaspora Jews behind a more liberal and tolerant religious outlook – even as, politically, their presence in Israel strengthened the right and the settler movement. 

“Many are right-wing by most standards when it comes to politics, but that does not necessarily go along with their attitude towards Jews who differ from them, or on sexual identity, or the role of women in leadership – and many other subjects.”

While it can be “very hard to pull those things apart,” Ferziger sees this dichotomy as an opportunity for “conversation between people in Israel who are moderate in a lot of areas and the broader community in America,” even when there are deep political disagreements.  

Read more:

Israel's Religious Left Finds New Purpose Amid Gaza War

What Future Is There for a Young, Leftist, Secular Family in the Israel of 2026?

Opinion | What I Wish Rabbis Would Say About Israel, Gaza and the Palestinians in Their High Holy Day Sermons

See 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 Musicians

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New York University professor Lila Corwin Berman has a warning for her colleagues. Corwin Berman, along with two fellow academics, recently penned a provocative piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education headlined "Jewish Studies Scholars, Beware: Trump's Deal Will Corrupt You."

On the Haaretz Podcast, Corwin Berman explains how, in her view, the agreements that the Trump White House has hammered out with Ivy League universities, making their federal grant money dependent on investing in Judaic Studies and developing cooperation with Israeli universities, will result in turning them into "court Jews."

What the White House is doing, she said "is not about free academic scholarship or inquiry, but is really about serving a particular kind of master. And I think that that is deeply, deeply dangerous for universities for Jewish Studies and for American Jews."

Corwin Berman and host Allison Kaplan Sommer also discussed the atmosphere on campuses under the shadow of the Gaza War, and what Hannah Einbinder's remarks at the Emmy Awards says about the young generation of American Jews.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.