The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Military correspondent Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

Israel announced the arrest of 10 suspected settler extremists on Monday morning, after days of international pressure to take action following weekend attacks on Palestinians, foreign diplomats and Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine in the West Bank. Fabian explains what is the responsibility of the police versus the IDF and Shin Bet is in preventing these attacks.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Wednesday warned of a possible security escalation “across all fronts” ahead of the October 27 elections, saying, "The IDF is at a high level of readiness to launch extensive offensive operations against anyone who attempts to harm Israeli civilians.” What does this heightened alert mean in practice?

Israel’s military is set to begin early voting for soldiers, with at least 850 polling stations set to be deployed next week at military bases and outposts across the country and beyond Israel’s borders. Soldiers will begin voting early Tuesday evening, due to “operational considerations.” Fabian unveils this very complicated process.

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Police say 10 suspects arrested for West Bank settler attacks on journalist, EU diplomats

Settlers beat Palestinians, US journalist in West Bank attacks: ‘They kept kicking me and kicking me’

European diplomats attacked amid settler raids on West Bank olive harvest

IDF chief warns of ‘potential for escalation’ across all fronts, decries settler violence

First Knesset election ballots cast as voting opens at Israel’s missions abroad

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

News editor Ben Sales joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

With the final barrage of election polls before the October 27 election, Sales notes that the canvassing can't accurately predict who will win, and explains why, including the issue of the smaller parties on both sides of the political spectrum that are hovering around the 3.25% electoral threshold.

Sales also discusses rising tensions among members of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's political base and New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, as they call for her to be fired after police officers clashed with protesters following the shooting of a man in the Bronx by ICE agents. 

The shooting, and the NYPD’s response to it, had no direct connection to Israel or antisemitism in the city. But the protest against pro-Israel Tisch relates to her role as a pro-Israel presence in City Hall and the implications if she were no longer in that job.

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

3 experts on how you’re reading election polls wrong — and why they can’t predict the result

Threats to NYPD’s pro-Israel commissioner are an inflection point for New York Jews

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.

IMAGE: News editor Ben Sales appears on the Daily Briefing with host Jessica Steinberg (Flash 90)

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Welcome to "A Mandatory Listen," a new weekly podcast in which The Times of Israel deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan asks the big questions facing Israel and the Jewish people.

For this fourth episode in the new series, we speak with Prof. Nechumi Yaffe, an ultra-Orthodox woman running for Knesset for the Charedi Public Party (HaTzibur HaCharedi).

A faculty member at Tel Aviv University since 2019, Yaffe is currently a tenured senior lecturer at the School of Public Policy and co-director of the Haredi Research Group at UCLA.

Among other fields of interest, Yaffe delves into the issues of poverty and identity in Haredi society.

We hear how the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Israel made Yaffe rethink the ideas of civil obligations and rights. While she believes that youths who are not fit for yeshiva can -- and should -- be conscripted into the IDF, she is deeply concerned with allowing the ultra-Orthodox community to remain strictly observant.

How can a delicate balance between religious observance and national burden be forged? Only through education, says Yaffe.

Over time, she relates, her friends and neighbors in the ultra-Orthodox world stopped accusing her of airing their dirty laundry in the secular public and began understanding the dire situation their community is in.

But will this increased awareness lead to a gain in the polls? Perhaps through the Haredi world's overlooked weapon -- women.

A Mandatory Listen podcast episodes are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Yitzchak Ledee.

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Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

This week's featured Schmooze film is "The Apartment," a 1960 iconic work of dark comedy by famed filmmaker Billy Wilder.

Starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray, the film takes us to the massive offices of an insurance conglomerate where Lemmon is attempting to climb the corporate ladder. A bit of a "shnook," he finds himself lending out his Upper West Side apartment to a group of four adulterous bosses for their flings.

At the same time, a quiet, amiable connection is made between Lemmon and MacLaine, an elevator girl, who, it turns out, is also one of the bosses' girls.

The movie was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won five Oscars. Its resonance lingers and comedian Chris Rock recently gave it a nod in a lengthy The New York Times interview.

Let’s hear who gave this film an “oy,” “meh” or the prized “not bad” this week on The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

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We recorded a live Daily Briefing podcast in Jerusalem on Wednesday, October 14, joined by an exclusive ToI Community audience.

Deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan hosted military correspondent Emanuel Fabian, diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman, and political correspondent Ariela Karmel for a night of interactive polls and audience questions, followed by light refreshments.

This event was exclusively for members of The Times of Israel Community, our reader support group.

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

Israel is doing well on the battlefield since October 7, but has lost significant ground in the information war.

Much of that discourse is rooted in legal language -- war crimes, arrest warrants, illegal settlements, charges of genocide.

International law and the conversation around international law is a central battlefield for Israel.

Natasha Hausdorff is one of Israel's most prominent advocates, especially around questions of international law.

Hausdorff is a barrister in London with law degrees from Oxford and Tel Aviv University. She is the legal director of UK Lawyers for Israel Charitable Trust, and is the founder of the Center for International Rule of Law.

She argues that there is an ecosystem of international organizations, NGOs, and foreign governments "promoting a particular agenda against Western civilization" and using the phraseology of international law to vilify Israel.

Hausdorff says Israel takes measures to protect civilians that go beyond those of any other army in the world. That includes the delivery of leaflets, phone calls to individual householders, evacuation corridors to humanitarian zones, and yes, estimates of collateral damage before strikes.

She also argues that the International Committee of the Red Cross does not have a clear mandate to access terrorist combatants in Israeli prisons.

Turning to the genocide question, she says the UN Commission of Inquiry that ruled Israel was committing genocide in Gaza was "essentially a copy and paste" of the Amnesty International report, which relied on a Human Rights Watch report.

Hausdorff calls it "a cycle of disinformation laundering... Hamas propaganda getting that stamp of UN authority."

She also laments Navi Pillay's Nobel Peace Prize, saying she is part of the effort to lower the threshold for genocide in order to find Israel guilty.

Lazar Focus is available on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and video edited by Yitzchak Ledee.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

Amidst rising inflammatory rhetoric from the United States and Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated Wednesday that he is against a US or Israeli attack on Iran in the coming days, ahead of the Israeli election on October 27. We hear what is being said on all sides and why, yet again, actions speak louder than words.

Turning to the apparent war between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, Berman discusses how technology does not a warrior make. He delves into the Saudi military and how it is attempting to fight its battle through Yemeni proxies.

We turn to the increasing number of allegations against Netanyahu, regarding what he did and did not know leading up to the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught. In an explosive television interview last week, former military secretary Avi Gil charged that the prime minister passed up clear-cut opportunities to bring more hostages home from Gaza alive because doing so would have risked his political career.

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

PM: Attack on Iran ‘not convenient’ now, but signs show Israel’s enemies preparing assault

Reports of unheeded Oct. 7 warnings may be tenuous, but still are dangerous for Netanyahu

Contradicting PM and reports, Egypt’s spy chief said not to have been in Israel days before Oct. 7

Ex-Shin Bet chief files defamation suit against Netanyahu, details warnings months before Oct. 7

PM’s ex-military secretary: Netanyahu prioritized political survival when he could have saved hostages’ lives

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Yitzhak Ledee filmed and edited this episode.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Military correspondent Emanuel Fabian joins host Jessica Steinberg for today’s episode.

As the government approves an "urgent" NIS 1 billion shekel deal to purchase 12 Apache helicopters, Fabian discusses the need for a larger fleet to defend Israel’s borders.

With the ongoing investigation by the IDF, police and the Education Ministry about who is responsible for allowing a school trip near the Lebanese border in which a 14-year-old high school student was killed by a Hezbollah ordnance, Fabian notes that there could be hundreds more of them around the country following three years of war, and discusses whose job it is to clear unexploded munitions to prevent future tragedies.

After an unidentified flying object set off aerial intrusion warnings in a northern Arab village, Fabian reports that the incident is still being investigated by the Israeli Air Force.

Check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Government approves NIS 1 billion toward ‘urgent’ purchase of 12 Apache helicopters

Deadly blast on school trip exposes lurking explosive threat after years of war

Teen killed, 24 injured by Hezbollah munition found on hike near Lebanon border

IDF: Unidentified object that triggered sirens in north was likely a balloon

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.

IMAGE: Military correspondent Emanuel Fabian appears on the Daily Briefing podcast with host Jessica Steinberg (Courtesy)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

US reporter Luke Tress joins host Gabriella Jacobs for today's episode. Last Wednesday at an Israeli-led coexistence event commemorating the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, anti-Zionist protesters railed at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, calling him a "traitor." Meanwhile, Jewish leaders broadly condemned a statement the mayor made earlier in the day accusing Israel of genocide.

Tress explains how the backlash from both the far left and from the Jewish community to Mamdani's actions on the anniversary is emblematic of his broader predicament: He is caught between the demands of his far-left constituency, while also seeking to placate some of his more moderate voters.

Fast forward to Friday, when the New York City branch of the Democratic Socialists of America took aim at NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a Jewish moderate, placing heavy pressure upon Mamdani to fire her. Tress analyzes how this rift may play out in the coming months.

We close the episode by discussing a "surge" in US Jewish communal engagement that appears to have endured during the three years since October 7, according to survey by the Jewish Federations of North America.

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Mideast expert Ksenia Svetlova joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

Yemen’s Houthis attacked Riyadh’s international airport with a missile on Saturday, in an attack that Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said killed at least 12 people and injured over 300, with some in critical condition.

Saturday’s attack, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, was a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Riyadh backs the internationally recognized government against the Iran-backed Houthis, who captured swaths of Red Sea coastline in a lightning offensive last month.

Svetlova delves into the Houthis' multi-pronged strategy and how Saudi Arabia is forced to go it alone as its friends and allies appear hesitant to join the fight.

This week marks a year to the ceasefire in Gaza. Svetlova assesses Hamas's continued hold on the Strip, even as the Palestinian technocratic government is waiting in the wings to replace the increasingly entrenched terror group. How could things proceed from here?

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Netanyahu condemns ‘horrific’ attack on Riyadh airport that killed 12, injured hundreds

At least 12 killed, more than 300 hurt in Houthi attack on Riyadh airport

Yemeni forces said advancing near Bab el-Mandeb Strait; 63 said killed in Houthi clashes

Abbas postpones Palestinian elections, sets presidential poll for September 2027

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ari Schlacht edited this episode.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.