Haaretz Podcast

Host Simon Spungin and Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz discuss the storm surrounding God TV, a global evangelical network that recently started airing overtly proselytizing content in Hebrew to an Israeli audience. How did the channel, which makes no secret of its goal to “to take the gospel of Jesus into the homes and lives and hearts of the Jewish people,” get a license to broadcast in Israel – and how does this tie in to evangelical support of the Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank?

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Award-winning Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy tells host Simon Spungin that Israel’s planned annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank will not change the facts of the occupation – and finds a glimmer of hope emerging from the coronavirus pandemic. In Part 2, Anshel Pfeffer discusses the Supreme Court petitions seeking to bar Benjamin Netanyahu from forming the next government because of his upcoming criminal trial.

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn to discuss on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government, prime minister-in-waiting Benny Gantz’s great betrayal and how their coalition could annex parts of the West Bank to help U.S. President Donald Trump get reelected. In Part II, Haaretz’s senior editor for science and archaeology, Ruth Schuster, discusses the coronavirus crisis, its impact on the environment and whether Israel is rushing to ease the lockdown.

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In a week which saw Israel finally end a 16-month wait for a new government, host Simon Spungin is joined for Part 1 by Anshel Pfeffer to discuss the deal between Benjamin Netanyahu and Kahol Lavan leader Benny Gantz, which will see each of them serving as prime minister for 18 months. And in Part 2, Yossi Melman explains how Israel’s vaunted spy agency, the Mossad, went from covert ops to COVID ops.

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Netanyahu may talk about an exit strategy to ease Israel out of the virus lock down, but he's set his sights, as ever, on remaining in power and out of jail. Haaretz's diplomatic correspondent, Noa Landau, joins host Simon Spungin to discuss Israel's latest relaxation of the Coronavirus restrictions, the secretive role of the Shin Bet and the not-so-secretive role of Netanayahu's obedient government.

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Amos Harel and Anshel Pfeffer for a pre-Pesach podcast dominated by the coronavirus pandemic: How has Israel fared on a national level? Have the measures enacted thus far successfully flattened the curve? Why are the country's ultra-Orthodox enclaves proving so hard to protect from the virus? Will the deployment of IDF troops in a civilian role there help? And will Haredi life in Israel and elsewhere be irreversibly altered by the crisis?

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Noa Landau to discuss Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last-gasp victory, secured when chief rival Benny Gantz accepted an offer to join a Likud-led rotation government, which will see him take over as prime minister in December 2021. We also discuss the marginalized minorities that the Israeli government has neglected and ignored over the years, and which are now paying the price as the coronavirus spreads.

 

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Host Simon Spungin is joined by senior Haaretz correspondents Chemi Shalev and Anshel Pfeffer for a phone-in discussion on the two great crises facing Israel: the global coronavirus pandemic and the constitutional crisis. We ask: Has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the COVID-19 crisis been influenced by his political and legal woes and can still emerge as a national hero?

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As Israel suffers its first coronavirus fatality and the number of people infected closes in on 1,000, host Simon Spungin is joined by Amos Harel and Noa Landau to discuss Israel’s medical, logistical and legal response to the global health crisis. We also discuss the possible outbreak of the virus in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s anti-democratic measures in an already illiberal democracy, and the ongoing political impasse, which three elections have failed to resolve. PLUS: We talk to Allison Kaplan Sommer and her son Eitan Sommer, who was one of the hundreds of Israeli backpackers airlifted home from Peru.

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Host Simon Spungin is practicing responsible social distancing again, but is joined by telephone by Yossi Melman, Anshel Pfeffer and Judy Maltz. On the agenda today: Israel’s arguably Orwellian response to the coronavirus crisis – granting the Shin Bet access to the cellphones of citizens believed to have contracted the virus – and the Gordian knot of post-election coalition building, made even more complicated by the global health panic.

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