Recorded in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, February 21, I try to capture the mood that’s settled over the city—an anxious, pervasive uncertainty as Israelis brace for the possibility of another confrontation with Iran. A month after President Trump publicly encouraged Iranians to take to the streets, Tel Aviv feels tense in a way that’s different even from the Gaza war: people remember last June’s 12-day exchange, the shelters, the missiles that slipped through, and the sense that the next round could again put the center of the country in the crosshairs. You can see it in the streets, in the early-closing cafés, and in the questions everyone is asking—about flights, business, travel, and whether daily life can suddenly freeze for days at a time.

I also look at Israel’s pre-emptive actions in Lebanon, including reported strikes in the Bekaa Valley targeting Hezbollah’s long-range missile infrastructure, amid concerns Hezbollah could join any escalation with Iran. From there I revisit the Trump “Council of Peace,” the unresolved endgame in Gaza, and the way Israeli politics is sliding into an election campaign where “left” has become a catch-all accusation—despite the fact that much of the opposition is led by figures with deep security credentials and broadly similar positions on the long-term need for a two-state outcome, just “not now.”

Finally, I pivot to Washington: the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Trump’s tariff powers, the president’s escalating announcements anyway, and what that kind of whiplash does to business planning and global trade. I close with a personal reflection on AI—how tools like Claude Code are reshaping what a single developer can do in hours instead of months, and why I think Wall Street may be misreading what that means for big SaaS platforms. As always, thanks for listening—please subscribe, and if you can, consider becoming a paid subscriber to support Tel Aviv Diary.

In this episode of Tel Aviv Diary, I’m joined by Marina Rosenberg, Senior Vice President for International Affairs at the ADL (Anti-Defamation League)—a former Israeli diplomat whose life and career bridge continents and identities. Born in Buenos Aires and raised on Kibbutz Yechiam in the Galilee, Rosenberg spent more than 16 years in Israel’s Foreign Ministry, serving in multiple postings and ultimately becoming Israel’s ambassador to Chile. She describes what it was like to serve as the first female Israeli ambassador to Chile, and how being a young woman in diplomacy—whether in Latin America or in early, behind-the-scenes engagement with Gulf states years before the Abraham Accords—often proved less of a barrier than outsiders assumed.

We then turn to the ADL’s mission and the moment we are living through. Rosenberg explains how the ADL—founded in 1913—works not only in the United States, where it operates through a network of 25 offices, but also internationally across Israel, Europe, and Latin America. She details the organization’s three-pronged approach: security and monitoring, policy advocacy, and education—including programs aimed at empowering Jewish students on campuses and new curricula designed for non-Jewish schools, adapted to local cultures and languages. She also describes the ADL’s emphasis on measurable evidence: data collection, global surveys, and comparative tracking across major Jewish communities through initiatives like the J7 task force.

A central theme of our conversation is the transformation of modern antisemitism—especially in the post–October 7 environment—and how online platforms have accelerated radicalization across borders and languages. Rosenberg discusses ADL research on hate online, the limits of regulation, and the alarming vulnerabilities emerging in large language models and other AI tools—alongside the ADL’s work pushing for accountability from tech platforms and for stronger public policy outside the constraints of America’s First Amendment framework. We also explore her argument that the international picture is uneven: while the United States has seen dramatic growth in incidents over the past decade, other countries experienced different trajectories, with sharp escalations in some places only after October 7.

The discussion widens to state-linked propaganda and geopolitics. Rosenberg lays out ADL’s view of Iran as a leading exporter not only of terrorism but also antisemitism, including the spread of Spanish-language messaging targeting audiences in Latin America and beyond. She reflects personally on the long shadow of the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing in Buenos Aires and the 1994 AMIA attack, and the continuing demand for accountability decades later. We close on a hard-won note of realism—and hope: the necessity of building coalitions beyond the Jewish community, insisting on moral clarity from political leaders, and asking allies to speak up rather than waiting in silence.

In this week’s Tel Aviv Diary podcast, I’m speaking from Tel Aviv at a moment when the most important details for our immediate future are also the most elusive. Prime Minister Netanyahu is back from a fast, unusually secretive meeting with President Trump — no press conference, no statement, and almost no leaks — leaving Israelis to fill the vacuum with guesses, fears, and competing theories about where the Iran crisis is headed. Under the surface of daily life, the tension is unmistakable: sudden GPS disruptions hint at jamming, suppliers don’t know what to order, and the psychological strain of “waiting for something to happen” is becoming its own kind of trauma.

I break down why the nuclear issue remains, in my view, the central existential danger, and why the missile debate often obscures the real strategic question: can there be a deal that truly ends Iran’s path to a bomb — and if so, what price would the region pay for it? From there, I turn to Gaza and the sobering reality of outcomes that are likely to be less than anyone hoped for, alongside the long-term costs Israelis are only beginning to confront, including widespread PTSD after a prolonged war. I also address the political battle over memory itself — including the attempt to soften or rewrite the language around October 7 — and what it says about the country as we edge toward elections. Finally, I take a detour into the accelerating world of AI and what the recent leap forward means for work, productivity, and the future — before closing with a look ahead to next week’s guest from the ADL.

In this episode of Tel Aviv Diary, I’m joined by Noa Asher, newly elected chair of the Israel–Japan Chamber of Commerce and a veteran of Israel’s economic-diplomacy world. Noa takes us through her personal and professional journey—from Jerusalem to Harvard’s Kennedy School, from startup-era law to an 18-year career in Israel’s Foreign Trade Administration—before landing in two posts that shaped her view of global business: commercial work in Chicago across the U.S. Midwest, and then six pivotal years in Tokyo (2014–2020).

Noa argues that 2014 marked a turning point in Israel–Japan economic relations, describing how Japanese companies began to view Israel not as a political risk, but as an innovation engine—spurred by events like the Keidanren delegation, Rakuten’s acquisition of Viber, and the wave of new bilateral frameworks in R&D, cyber, health, and investment promotion. She also explains what changed after the war, why Japan’s risk-averse business culture matters, and why Israel’s brand in Japan may have slid back toward the familiar headlines of conflict.

We also dive into her current work at NTT Innovation Laboratories Israel, where she describes the machinery of cross-border dealmaking: identifying real corporate needs, finding Israeli solutions, and navigating the cultural gap between startups and Japanese conglomerates. From cybersecurity and digital health to AI and the promise of zero-latency networks, Noa makes the case that Israeli tech can still deliver—even under pressure—and lays out what it will take to bring Japanese momentum back.

This week’s Tel Aviv Diary opens with the uncertain aftermath of the Friday negotiations in Oman—talks that produced not a breakthrough, but what sounds like a framework for more talks. Iran, as Marc argues, has mastered the art of stretching diplomacy into an endless process, and the early signs suggest exactly that: no agreement to halt enrichment, remove stockpiles, or tackle missiles and other demands. Marc examines why President Trump, despite his pre-meeting rhetoric, appears reluctant to send bombers—especially under pressure from Gulf allies wary of regional disruption, market instability, and the unpredictable consequences of war. For Israelis, it remains a strange moment: the temptation to “solve” Iran versus the exhaustion of a country still trying to recover, with air defenses improving but the unknowns still looming.

Then the political drama shifts to Washington. As Marc was preparing to upload the episode, news broke that Prime Minister Netanyahu is making an emergency visit to the U.S. this Wednesday to meet President Trump—officially to discuss Iran, but in reality, Marc suggests, also to prevent an American deal that focuses only on the nuclear file while leaving missiles and regional behavior aside. Marc weighs the political logic of an in-person meeting with Trump, the optics surrounding Netanyahu’s schedule, and what the sudden urgency may reveal about Jerusalem’s fears of a narrower American agreement.

From there, the diary becomes literal. Marc takes listeners on a Friday trip to Israel’s far north—Metula, the Dado lookout, the view of Lebanon close on three sides, and Mount Hermon capped with snow. There are on-the-ground impressions: how quickly the highways now shrink the country, the quiet that feels peaceful and deceptive, the partial return of residents, and Kiryat Shmona’s stubborn stillness—beautiful, struggling, and in many ways unchanged since the 1970s. The episode closes with two wider lenses: American politics (ICE, immigration, and the unsettling breadth of the Epstein revelations) and the accelerating AI revolution—from multi-agent experiments that feel like science fiction to tools like Claude that can compress hours of work into minutes, raising both productivity and dread about what comes next.

In this episode of Tel Aviv Diary, Marc Schulman welcomes Swiss Ambassador Simon Geissbühler for a conversation that moves from personal history to the mechanics of diplomacy in a region at war. Geisbühler begins with his own unlikely route into foreign service: raised outside Bern, trained in history and political science at the University of Bern, and drawn to the United States in 1994 for a year at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock as a competitive diver—a “Deep South” education, he argues, that later helped him better understand America beyond Washington and the coasts. From there he traces a career built more on curiosity than ambition: completing doctoral research rooted in large opinion-poll data, then taking Switzerland’s highly competitive diplomatic exams and entering service in 2000.

From the early biography the discussion opens into a broader portrait of Israel as seen by a new ambassador who arrived on August 7, 2024, ten months after October 7. Geisbühler describes three first impressions: the intensity of Israel’s internal tensions and social cleavages, the country’s relentless pace—where “signals” are hard to separate from “noise”—and the diversity of landscapes, communities, and political outlooks that is often missed abroad. He also speaks candidly about his prior connection to Israel through Holocaust scholarship and research work at Yad Vashem, and about why he believes Israel’s diversity can be a form of soft power rather than merely a source of friction.

A major portion of the episode serves as a clear, practical primer on Switzerland’s political system: a federal structure modeled in part on the U.S. bicameral legislature, a deliberately weak executive with a rotating presidency, and—above all—direct democracy through frequent referenda and popular initiatives. Geissbühler explains how the system shapes public engagement, the media ecosystem, and the incentives citizens have to stay informed—while also acknowledging modern vulnerabilities to disinformation. The conversation then turns to Swiss–Israeli relations, emphasizing the large Swiss community in Israel, the embassy’s focus on science, culture, and especially innovation links between two countries that are both highly inventive but in different ways.

The final third moves into diplomacy in the shadow of the Gaza war: the strain on bilateral relations, Switzerland’s effort to “consolidate” ties amid backlash, and a detailed look at Swiss participation in the CMCC in Kiryat Gat, where Switzerland sent experts including on humanitarian aid and international humanitarian law—after endorsing a Gaza-related plan. Geissbühler also unpacks what “neutrality” means in law versus policy, why Switzerland debates its boundaries, and how global geopolitical shifts are pushing neutrality back into Switzerland’s domestic politics. The episode closes with Switzerland’s quiet roles in mediation and back-channel communication most notably as the protecting power for U.S. interests in Iran since 1980 and Geissbühler’s argument for humility: in an overcrowded diplomatic arena, Switzerland can matter most when it finds the niche where it can do what larger powers cannot.

In this episode of Tel Aviv Diary, Marc Schulman is joined by Miriam Herschlag, the Opinion and Blogs Editor at The Times of Israel, for a wide-ranging conversation that moves from the deeply personal to the sharply contemporary. Marc and Miriam go back decades — to Jerusalem in the early years of their lives here, and even earlier through Young Judea ties that connect Miriam with Marc’s wife, Amy. The tone is warm and wry, but the moment is heavy: the conversation opens on the day Israel learned that the remains of Ran Gvili, the last hostage still held in Gaza, had been recovered and returned for burial — a development that closes a 14-year chapter in which Israelis, living or dead, were held in Gaza. The episode captures the bittersweet relief of “bringing everyone home,” while grappling with what that closure does — and does not — resolve.

Miriam then traces her own journey: from New York to Young Judea leadership, to early experiences in Israel including Yerucham, and ultimately to aliyah in an era when — as she tells it — the Interior Ministry could turn someone Israeli in days, not years. She recounts the formative years in Israeli broadcast journalism, including the early English news broadcasts at the IBA and the surreal acceleration of Israel’s media environment during the Gulf War — when technology, unions, and emergency collided to move the news operation from film into video and a 24-hour footing. Along the way, Miriam reflects on the unromantic mechanics of reporting tragedy, the psychological distance newswork creates, and the moments when that distance collapses. It’s an intimate look at how a journalist becomes Israeli — not as an idea, but as an immersion.

From there, the discussion turns outward: what Miriam has learned after more than a decade shaping one of the most influential platforms in Jewish public life. She offers a candid view of the Jewish diaspora after October 7 — from the rise of what she calls “October 8 Judaism,” to political homelessness, fear, and the struggle to rebuild community. She also explains what it means to curate a high-volume opinion and blogs ecosystem — tens of thousands of posts per year — while trying to balance community with diversity of views, and where editorial lines are drawn when rhetoric turns toxic. The episode then confronts the looming challenge of our time: AI, misinformation, and the erosion of trust. Miriam describes AI as “fire” — a force that can both destroy and illuminate — and shares how it is already reshaping writing, editing, elections, and the basic question of what “human” content even means. It’s a conversation about Israel, journalism, and Jewish life — and about the uneasy future arriving faster than anyone feels ready for.

This week on Tel Aviv Diary, Marc Schulman surveys a familiar Israeli paradox: a country living at the edge of war while trying to pretend—at least some days—that normal life is still possible. Up north, Israel continues striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and along the Lebanese–Syrian border, even as talk resurfaces about pressure on Beirut to explore formal peace negotiations. Marc traces the long arc—from childhood hopes on the border in the 1960s to today’s reality of Hezbollah’s entrenchment—and explains why what many Lebanese may want and what the state can actually deliver remain painfully far apart.

The focus then shifts to Iran: the regime’s intensifying crackdown, the persistent rumors of imminent U.S. action, and the strategic question Israel cannot escape—if Washington strikes, does Tehran automatically retaliate against Israel, or does deterrence cut the other way? Marc also looks outward, at the striking imbalance in global attention: the comparative silence surrounding Iranian repression, the media choices that elevate some suffering over others, and the lone high-profile voice at Davos said to have raised the issue publicly—President Zelenskyy.

Back in Israel, Marc digs into two domestic stories: a proposed 1.5% tax on “unused” private land that he argues would disproportionately hit Arab towns where planning approvals have long been withheld, and the Supreme Court’s decision that revealed the identity—and mental condition—of a man who infiltrated sensitive wartime meetings, puncturing the political narrative of “treason” pushed by Netanyahu’s allies. He closes with a rapid tour of other pressures shaping the week: calls to quit the WHO, talk of leaving the Paris climate accords, Gaza’s murky short-term path, the tragedy of two infants in an illegal daycare, and the broader question of governance, enforcement, and responsibility in ultra-Orthodox society—before ending, as always, with a quick readout on the accelerating AI race and what it’s doing to daily life.

In this wide-ranging and unsparing conversation, Marc Schulman is joined once again by veteran Washington correspondent Laura Rozen, whose reporting on U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East spans two decades. What begins as a discussion about Trump’s latest diplomatic theatrics quickly becomes a deeper examination of how global decision-making now works—or no longer works—when power is concentrated in the hands of a few leaders and stripped of institutional process.

Rozen and Schulman dissect the emerging “Gaza Board of Peace,” the strange language surrounding it, and what it reveals about Donald Trump’s worldview: diplomacy as spectacle, permanence, and personal control rather than policy. They explore why Israel benefits from Trump’s leverage—particularly in securing a hostage deal—while being unnerved by his unpredictability and transactional diplomacy. Netanyahu’s position, weakened domestically yet dependent on Trump, runs as a constant undercurrent throughout the discussion.

The conversation then widens to Iran, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Europe, probing the absence of coherent U.S. national-security decision-making, the hollowing out of expertise, and the replacement of structured policy with social-media pronouncements. Rozen offers rare insight into how decisions on Iran are being made, who is actually in the room, and why even major military or diplomatic moves appear to lack a “day after” plan.

At the same time, the episode does not shy away from Israel’s own crisis of governance: the erosion of foreign-policy institutions, the paralysis of Netanyahu’s government, the slow grind of the judicial process, and the broader sense that both Israel and the United States are being led by aging, embattled leaders governing through grievance rather than strategy.

The episode closes on a more reflective note—touching on Israeli television, the role of fiction in making sense of chaos, and the personal toll of covering a world in constant crisis—before Schulman encourages listeners to follow Rozen’s Substack, Diplomatic, for her ongoing reporting.

This is an essential episode for listeners trying to understand not just today’s headlines, but the deeper structural breakdown shaping global politics right now.

On a cool, unusually relaxed Friday morning in Tel Aviv, the city feels like it has exhaled. After two tense days of rumors, alerts, and the sense that a U.S. strike on Iran might be imminent, the immediate danger appears—at least for now—to have receded. But that calm comes with a bitter underside: Iranian demonstrators who were encouraged to take enormous risks are now facing a regime that still kills, while Washington appears to be stepping away. I look at the possible reasons behind Trump’s reversal—logistics, Gulf pressure, internal U.S. politics, and the hard reality of what it would take to sustain a campaign—and what that means for Israel’s missile-defense readiness after last year’s confrontations with Iran.

Then we shift back to Israel’s own unresolved fronts: the Trump administration’s announcement that “stage two” of the Gaza plan has begun, the stalled reality of reconstruction and disarmament, and the lingering failure to return the last hostage’s body. Domestically, the countdown to elections tightens as the budget deadline approaches and Netanyahu fights to pass a draft-exemption law for the ultra-Orthodox—using political deals that many Israelis see as corrosive to the state. Finally, I take a tour through the week in AI: Google’s Gemini integrating with everyday services, Apple’s reported pivot, Anthropic’s Claude as a genuine working partner, and OpenAI’s move into medical records—along with a warning about where all of this leads if AI ever gets a body. Shabbat Shalom from Tel Aviv.