Lazar Focus

Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

This Friday, we present a third installment of our August mini-series centering on the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, following a zoom-out conversation with public intellectual Dr. Micah Goodman and a personal account of life in Gush Katif by former Nezer Hazani resident Anita Tucker.

This week, we hear from Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who shares the perspective of Palestinians within the Gaza Strip and the ripple effect felt there after the Disengagement.

Alkhatib, who left the Strip for the United States as a high school pupil in 2005, leads Realign For Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse.

He is an outspoken critic of Hamas, who writes and speaks about Gaza’s political and humanitarian affairs at a variety of international media outlets.

We hear about Alkhatib's childhood in Gaza City and the few experiences he had with the Jewish Gush Katif residents. We learn about how, at age 17, Alkhatib became one of the first Palestinians to receive asylum in the US following the rise of Hamas in the Strip.

Alkhatib describes the seeds of Hamas and how it became emboldened through the tacit encouragement of Israel. Today, he says, the terror group is so entangled with the civilian population that uprooting it is virtually impossible without any other alternative on the horizon.

He looks back at the wasted opportunity of the Disengagement. "This is a thread that we had and could have grabbed onto and done something with," he tells The Times of Israel.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Palestinian police set up Palestinian and Fatah flags on top of a synagogue in the former Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in the southern Gaza Strip, September 12, 2005. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

This week, as Israel marks the beginning of the Disengagement from Gaza 20 years ago, we speak with former Brooklynite Anita Tucker, 79, who helped settle Nezer Hazani in 1977 and was forcibly removed from her home in 2005 alongside her husband, children and grandchildren.

Affectionately called "the celery lady" due to her flourishing Gush Katif farm, Tucker describes how her young children were the deciding factor for staking their tent pegs in the barren land of Nezer Hazani after she viewed them "sledding" down the dunes on garbage bags.

This same inert sand allowed the residents to grow their trademark, bug-free Gush Katif vegetables with the newest agricultural technology -- drip irrigation.

She talks about warm relationships with her Arab neighbors -- until talk of "peace" came and the empowerment of PLO leader Yasser Arafat. She describes how once Arafat established a foothold in Gaza, he hanged the leadership of Deir al-Balah, who were Tucker’s close personal friends.

She speaks about the terror attacks the community absorbed, but the ideological faith that their community was protecting the rest of the Land of Israel.

Former prime minister Ariel Sharon's announcement of a unilateral pullout from Gaza came as a betrayal and we hear how the youth protested against this move until the very end.

But after the pullout, the former Gush Katif residents experienced a second betrayal in that they had to fight to get compensation and rebuild their lives. Tucker and much of the original settlement refounded Nezer Hazani seven years later inside the State of Israel, but, as she says, these are their "houses," they are not their "homes."

Tucker speaks to the community's yearning to resettle the Gaza Strip and how concrete plans have been presented to the Israeli government during what the potential resettlers view as a window of opportunity.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Israeli Jewish settlers celebrate the Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat, marking the new year for trees in the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in the Gush Katif block of settlements in the Gaza Strip, January 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

This week, as Israel stands poised to re-occupy the entire Gaza Strip, public intellectual and author Dr. Micah Goodman takes us through the Disengagement from Gaza 20 years ago.

Goodman, the author of influential works such as “Catch-67,” returns to the origins of the settlement movement and dissects the motivations driving Israelis from the right and left.

We learn how the First and Second Intifadas shifted stalwart settler leaders such as prime minister Ariel Sharon and set the table for the idea of unilateral disengagement from Gaza.

Goodman proposes that the trauma from the Disengagement has shaped the face of the Israeli right, with extremist party heads, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir openly supporting the resettlement of Gaza from the halls of the Knesset -- or the Temple Mount.

And finally, we turn to the Israeli cabinet's Thursday night decision to push for a reoccupation of Gaza and what this may do to the country.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

Young settlers cry and pray on the roof during the Disengagement in Neve Dekalim on August 17, 2005. (Nati Shohat/ Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman and host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

The vast majority of the Zionists in the world are Christian. Israel’s closest allies are majority-Christian or officially Christian countries, and the world’s largest Christian denominations have many of their holiest sites in Israel.

At the same time, there’s no adviser for Christian Affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office, no minister tasked with outreach.

On today's Friday Focus, we discuss three recent difficult incidents with the Christian world, which official Israel was diplomatically unprepared for.

Berman discusses the need for a point person, an office or even a ministry in the Prime Minister's Office who will be tasked with liaising with the Christian world -- just like what is found in the governments of our Muslim neighbors. 

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

For more on this topic:

Causing strategic, moral harm, Netanyahu lets others dictate Israel’s ties with Christians

Friday Focus with Lazar Berman: Attacks on Christians in Israel are national stain

IMAGE: Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, censes during Sunday morning mass at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City on July 20, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman and host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

This week, as violence between Syria's Druze and Bedouin communities reached a boiling point in the southern city of Sweida, hundreds of Druze rushed across the border from Israel, vowing to protect their community in Syria. 

Israel joined in as the protector of the Syrian Druze and the IDF said it struck over 160 targets in Syria, mostly in the area of Sweida, including government tanks and machine guns headed there. The military also said it was bolstering forces in the Golan Heights, on the Syrian border, in preparation for days of potential conflict.

Likewise, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber issued an open call to Israel and the world to help the Druze in Syria, citing the biblical commandment “not to stand by the blood of your neighbor.”

We delve into the origins of the mysterious religion and Israeli ties to the ancient people which came to settle in what is today three nations: Lebanon, Syria and Israel. 

We discuss what could be Israel's motivations in taking on the mantle of protector of the persecuted minority -- and international backlash to it.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: A woman carries a Druze and an Israeli flag near the US Embassy in Jerusalem on July 16, 2025. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus.

This Friday, join former hostage Keith Siegel and host Jessica Steinberg for a deep dive into what life is like for Siegel, five months after his release home from captivity in Gaza.

Siegel discusses his need to do everything he can for the remaining hostages, including those with whom he was held hostage during periods of his 484 days of captivity, and who are still held captive.

He speaks about the depraved terror he experienced and witnessed in captivity, the moments of grace, and his hope and optimism that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House will possibly bring the war to an end.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Aviva and Keith Siegel, after Keith's release home from Hamas captivity on February 1, 2025 (Courtesy)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman and host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

This week, we're joined by John Spencer, the chief of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, a research center dedicated to the study of war and warfare. Spencer is a retired Major in the US Army and is a leading expert in military operations in dense and subterranean urban areas.

Spencer reached out to us after we released a Friday Focus podcast, "10 truths about the Gaza war, 20 months in," based on Berman's in-depth analysis, "For now, victory is still within reach: 10 truths about the Gaza war, 20 months in."

Today's conversation is a meeting of the minds in which Berman and Spencer delve into the nuts and bolts of the war in Gaza so far.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and the video was edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: IDF forces operate in the Gaza Strip in this July 3, 2025, handout photo. (IDF)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman and host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

We're still sifting through the facts and figuring out the results of the 12-day Israel-Iran war. But after every earthquake, there are aftershocks. Today, we’ll look at how this war has far-reaching effects on countries such as Russia, China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

We begin the program by looking at China, which is hosting a gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a China- and Russia-led regional security grouping. In attendance is Iran’s defense minister, Aziz Nasirzadeh. The conference is an attempt to build alternative international blocs to those backed by the United States, according to reporting on CNN. So, how does China fit in with the 12-day war?

Our next stop is Russia. The world learned again that Russian military tech is no match for a first-class air force like the IDF after it failed to repel the Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. Berman weighs in on Russia's nuanced approach to the Israel-Iran war and its cautious moves to not upset the Trump administration.

Reports of Iranians fleeing to bordering Turkey during the conflict were unsurprising, said Berman, since the NATO nation is a gateway to Europe. We hear how Turkey responded to the war.

Looking towards Saudi Arabia, US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff reiterated Wednesday his belief that additional countries will join the Abraham Accords, which normalized ties between Israel and several Muslim nations. We learn what would have to happen for this to occur and how there may be a softening on Israel's part following the recent conflict with Iran.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and the video was edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: (L-R) India's Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Iran's Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Kazakhstan's Defense Minister Dauren Kossanov, China's Defense Minister Dong Jun, Kyrgyzstan's Defense Minister Ruslan Mukambetov, Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, and Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov gather for a group photo during the Defense Ministers' Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Qingdao, in eastern China's Shandong province on June 26, 2025. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP) 

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman and host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

Israel has experience in attempting to stop a nuclear weapons program. Twice before striking Iran on June 13, 2025, Israel attempted to thwart two neighboring nations' nascent nuclear programs.

This week on the Friday Focus, we’re talking about the covert surprise 1981 Operation Opera in Iraq and the 2007 Israeli airstrike on Syria, called Operation Outside the Box or Operation Orchard.

Berman fills us in on the back story of both, and weighs in on how successful they were — of course, with an eye to the current Israel-Iran war and Israel’s goal to stop Iran from reaching a nuclear bomb.

We learn how Operation Opera, also known as Operation Babylon, took place under prime minister Menachem Begin on June 7, 1981, at 16:00 when 14 fighter jets departed from Etzion (Efrat) Airport in Israel. At approximately 17:30, they struck and destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, and within about 90 seconds of bombing, they successfully completed their mission.

Berman speaks about the resultant "Begin Doctrine," which, since 1981, guides Israel in how it reacts to imminent threats of weapons of mass destruction.

We then turn to the second preemptive strike that Israel carried out to stop the bomb in 2007, under prime minister Ehud Olmert. Ten Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-15 fighter jets, along with F-16 fighters and electronic-warfare aircraft, bombed a Syrian radar site and took over Syrian air defenses, feeding them a false picture of empty skies.

We discuss the overriding themes of both operations and compare them with what is currently happening in the Israel-Iran war.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and the video was edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: The IDF pilots who participated in the Operation Opera bombing of Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981. (Israel Defense Force archive)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman and host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

It came out late last week that Israel has been arming a criminal gang in the Gaza Strip as part of an effort to strengthen opposition to Hamas in the enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the use of such forces spares IDF soldiers' lives. Defense sources have confirmed that Israel has been arming the gang with Kalashnikov rifles, including some that were seized from Hamas during the ongoing war.

In this week's Friday Focus discussion, Berman delves into the man heading this Gaza mafia, Yasser Abu Shabab, a former drug smuggler turned humanitarian aid looter during the war. In footage published online by Abu Shabab, members of the group can be seen wearing military-style uniforms with the Palestinian flag and the words “Counter-Terrorism Mechanism” emblazoned on them.

Berman discusses the military concepts of insurgency and counter-insurgency and refers to Israel's history in employing them in Lebanon. We hear the lessons learned by the United States in its Iraq war and how Israel could expand upon its support for local Gazan forces to fill the vacuum left by Hamas.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and the video was edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: Members of the Abu Shabab gang in Gaza, seen in a recent video posted by the group. (screen capture: Facebook)

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