NIF Australia Podcast

In this timely episode of the NIF Australia podcast we're sharing a conversation with Carmi Gillon, former head of Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet.

You may remember Carmi for his appearance, with five other former heads of the Shin Bet, in the 2012 Oscar-nominated film, The Gatekeepers.

We recorded this just a couple of days after Israel's military carried out a targeted assassination against Abu al-Ata, a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza. After that, hundreds of rockets rained down on Israel, closing schools and sending residents into bomb shelters. Israel further retaliated and a number of Gazans, including combatants and a number of civilians, were killed.

In this episode you'll hear Gillon touch on a number of subjects, including his history in the Shin Bet, his years working with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, the corrosive impact the occupation is having on Israeli society and the dangerous rise of Jewish terror in Israel.

He even speaks about why he credits Benjamin Netanyahu with getting him involved with the New Israel Fund!

For this episode we're bringing you the recording of a small event we held in Sydney last week with Israeli journalist Elhanan Miller.

Elhanan started his talk with a summary of the election results before pivoting to a wider analysis about Israeli political leadership and whether the conflict with the Palestinians will feature in Israel's political landscape in years to come.

Elhanan is a rabbi and commentator. He was formerly the Arab affairs correspondent for the Times of Israel and is fluent in English, Hebrew, Arabic and French. He's a regular contributor to both Tablet Magazine and Plus61J, and is a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking, a think tank which receives funding from the New Israel Fund.

After Israel's second election in just a few months we're joined by former president of the New Israel Fund and former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Naomi Chazan to process and analyse all the election results.

Will Benjamin Netanyahu stay on as prime minister? Does Benny Gantz have a path to the coalition of 61 seats he needs to take the top job? The Joint Arab List will be the third largest party, so if Likud and Blue + White go into a 'unity' government together, will the Joint List's leader, Ayman Odeh, be the country's first Arab opposition leader?

So many questions and we do our best to answer as many of them as possible.

This was recorded live as part of a livestreamed Q&A with Naomi Chazan on Thursday 19 September. You can watch the video back on YouTube.

Only 44 days to go until Israelis go to the polls for the second time in just a few months. Here are all the details on who's in the box seat to form government after the 17 September election, including an update on party mergers and results from the latest opinion polls.

Want to see the cool graphs that go with this episode? Watch the episode as a video on Facebook or YouTube.

Remember to stay tuned to our website for more election updates.

Former deputy speaker of the Knesset Naomi Chazan joined us live just 12 hours after polls closed for a review of the 2019 Israeli election and helped us look forward and understand the impact on Israeli society.

This is a recording of our event with executive director Liam Getreu hosting the event in Sydney and Naomi Chazan joining live from NIF's offices in Jerusalem.

Our latest podcast episode is a recording of our Tribute to Amos Oz event, recorded on 10 March 2019 at Bondi Pavilion.

Michaela Kalowski hosted an evening combining powerful video footage, readings and tributes to explore both the literary and political legacy of Israel's beloved and eloquent writer.

You can watch this event in full on YouTube.

The event featured messages from his daughter Fania Oz-Salzberger, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen and acclaimed musician Achinoam Nini (NOA), as well as Australian writers, authors and activists.

The evening was an opportunity to reflect on Oz's enormous contributions to the literary world as well as look more closely at his vision for a just future for Israelis and Palestinians.

The 79 year old was internationally recognised for his dozens of novels, essays and prose about life in Israel. His work was translated into 45 languages. His memoir, "A Tale of Love and Darkness", was turned into a movie by Natalie Portman. He died from cancer in late December.

Read more at www.nif.org.au/amosoz

What are the biggest issues this Israeli election? Bibi, corruption, housing and poverty, and security.

Learn more in the fifth episode of our Israeli election preview with Michal Sella from Shatil's Center for Policy Change.

(This is a podcast version of the video we published on YouTube, which includes charts of the polls and some other great footage.)

Note: this episode was first released on video before the announcement of a pending indictment charge of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

This episode looks at some of the developments in Israel over the last week and also shines a spotlight on representation of women in the Knesset.

In the next few days parties have to submit their candidate lists, which means we'll finally get to see which parties will merge and who'll be serving in the next parliament – so stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages to keep up to date.

(This is a podcast version of the video we published on YouTube, which includes charts of the polls and some other great footage.)

More links, commentary and analysis available on our website.

With less than two months until Israel's elections we bring you another update. In this edition we cover the release of Benjamin Netanyahu's ads featuring President Donald Trump, as well as Benny Gantz's campaign launch speech and ad. We also share an update on the polls (spoiler: Benny Gantz rises, Labor falls, Likud stays the same).

(This is a podcast version of the video we published on YouTube, which includes charts of the polls and some other great footage.)

You can also read background to all these issues by following the links on our blog.

In the second episode of our Israeli election preview, we have an update on some of the discussions happening between party leaders, as well as polling on who Israelis prefer as their prime minister. We also give a quick overview of Israel's electoral system and the parties representing Israel's 20% Palestinian minority.

(This is a podcast version of the video we published on YouTube, which includes charts of the polls and some other great footage.)

You can also read background to all these issues by following the links on our blog.