The “The Decade Surveyed” Edition

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --(Jewish) Might Makes Right?-- A once-mild religious Zionist party joins forces with a far-far-right religious party. What’s this say about the soul and politics of religious Zionism today? --The Reparation, Palliation and Adjuration Rumination-- For decades, once hapless immigrants to Israel from Yemen, Iraq and other Mid-eastern countries have said that, 70 years ago, their babies were taken and never returned. Some say that, until there is hard-and-fast evidence, these claims must be treated with suspicion. But shouldn’t we switch the default to trusting the victims? --The Decade Surveyed-- What were the most important people, events and trends of Israel’s momentous, trying, eventful past decade? --“They’re Not After Me, They’re After You!”-- For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra segment, we discuss a meme pressed into service recently by PM Netanyahu, before that by US President Donald Trump and before that Indian PM Narendra Modi, saying, in each case, “They’re not after me, they’re after you! I’m just standing in the way.” What makes this sad bit of populism so easily transferable between three such different societies, in this sad epoch of populism? All this and the music of Noa Shapira! --Music-- Noa Shapira Seratim (סרטים), featuring Almot ha-Hen ‘Im (אם) Oy, He Yafah (אוי היא יפה) Ke-she-At Holekhet (כשאת הולכת)