Haaretz Podcast

Host Simon Spungin is joined by Haaretz’s Anshel Pfeffer and political scientist and public opinion expert Dahlia Scheindlin to discuss the latest on Israel’s delta wave of the coronavirus. We ask: Should Israelis be getting a third shot of the vaccine? What role is former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu playing in the dangerous anti-vaxx movement? And how will his successor, Naftali Bennett, handle the growing number of infections?

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Haaretz’s West Bank correspondent Hagar Shezaf to discuss the ongoing killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces in the West Bank – including 11 children in the first seven months of 2021 – and the relationship between the IDF and the settlers. We ask: Is the IDF’s finger getting lighter on the trigger when it comes to policing Palestinian demonstrations?

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Haaretz’s environment correspondent, Zafrir Rinat, and by science and archaeology editor Ruth Schuster to discuss the intense heatwave that has been cooking Israel, the new Israeli government’s ‘green’ legislation and why mitigation and adaptation are the best way for countries to deal with the climate emergency.

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Noa Landau and Anshel Pfeffer to discuss Artem Dolgopyat’s historic Olympic gold medal in gymnastics – his country’s second ever and its first in one of the core Olympic disciplines. Will Dolgopyat, who is not halakhically Jewish and cannot marry in the country, lead to a national rethink on the relationship between religion and state? PLUS: What’s behind the government’s rush to give citizens a third COVID vaccine shot?

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Judy Maltz and Samuel Sokol to discuss the government’s far-reaching plans for reform the system by which food is certified as kosher in Israel. What’s wrong with the old system? Who stands to benefit from the reform? PLUS: Why is Ben & Jerry’s ice cream no longer kosher in some places? And why women running their own synagogues can’t call themselves rabbis.

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by senior intelligence analyst Yossi Melman, opinions editor Esther Solomon, and tech and cyber editor Omer Benjakob. We discuss the fallout from the Pegasus Project and ask: What limitations does and should Israel place on the export of these technologies? Did Benjamin Netanyahu act as a travelling salesman for the NSO Group? And will international pressure lead to a change in Israeli policy?

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Haaretz’s chief sports writer Uzi Dann and Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the record-breaking Israeli delegation to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. How many medals will the 90 athletes bag for Israel? Why is the Israeli baseball team predominantly made up of American Jews? And why are there no Arabs representing Israel – yet again?

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by senior Haaretz writers Alon Pinkas and Bradley Burston, to discuss a poll which found that one in four American Jews sees Israel as an apartheid state. We ask: Is it an accurate description of Israel in 2021? If Israel gets rids of the occupied Palestinian territories, will allegations of ‘apartheid’ end immediately? What role did former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the moribund peace process play in mainstreaming the term? And in what other manifestations of ‘apartheid’ have become evident in Israeli society?

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Haaretz’s senior editor for archaeology and science, Ruth Schuster, and archaeology correspondent Ariel David. The panel discusses the discovery of piglet skeleton in a First Temple-period home in Jerusalem. We ask: Does this mean that the Israelites ignored the prohibition against eating pork and what does it tell us about when Judaism as we know it was born? PLUS: A new type of human found in Nesher Ramla, Israel's unnoticed killer heat and dog poop DNA in Tel Aviv.

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Noa Landau and Michael Hauser-Tov to discuss a stormy few days in the Knesset – and landmark rulings from the High Court: the justices’ decision that the Nation-State Law does not violate Israel’s unwritten constitution; the embarrassing scenes in the Knesset, where ideology was trumped by spite over the Citizenship Law; the court’s ruling that surrogacy should be offered to all; and the departure of Benjamin Netanyahu from the prime minister’s residence on Balfour Street.

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