The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

ToI founding editor David Horovitz and military correspondent Mannie Fabian join host Jessica Steinberg for today's podcast.

Fabian gives updates on the Thursday night terror attack that killed three in the central city of Elad, including the culmination of the 60-hour manhunt to find the two terrorists, found hiding in a nearby forest.

He speaks about the three victims, and the porousness of the security fence that has made it easier for terrorists to enter Israel and carry out attacks in recent weeks.

Horovitz looks at the relationship of the recent terrorists to Hamas and how the recent spate of attacks differs from the intifadas in Israel's past.

He also talks about Victory Day, marked in Russia on May 9 to commemorate World War II and efforts made by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to move the Israeli version for immigrants from the former Soviet Union, to May 8.

Discussed articles include:

Palestinian terrorists arrested for deadly Elad axe attack

Israel extends closure on West Bank, Gaza as hunt for Elad terrorists continues

Family of Elad victim decries online hate after he unwittingly drove terrorists

Hamas vows suicide bombings, ‘unprecedented response’ if Israel targets its leaders

Bennett said to refuse Ukraine request to cancel ‘Victory Day’ ceremonies in Israel

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IMAGE: Police commissioner Kobi Shabtai speaks to officers near the central city of Elad on May 8, 2022, shortly after two Palestinian terror suspects were arrested. (Israel Police)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

On this Independence Day episode, we're doing something a little different. Senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan and we’re going to drill down into the roots of Israeli society.

As we know, Israel was officially founded on May 5, 1948. What was it like to be a European Jew the day before May 5, 1948, and what it was like the day after?

Then we talk about the next wave of immigration, the Arab Jews, and their less than warm reception.

And finally, Rettig Gur speaks briefly about Israeli society of 2022.

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IMAGE: An official shows the signed document which proclaims the establishment of the new Jewish state of Israel declared by prime minister David Ben-Gurion, left, in Tel Aviv at midnight on May 14, 1948. (AP Photo)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman and Tech Israel editor Ricky Ben David join host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

Today is Israel’s Remembrance Day, Yom Hazikaron, in which we remember the fallen military and civilians who were killed by terror. Borschel-Dan speaks briefly about two former classmates, Ben Blutstein and Marla Bennett, who were murdered in the July 31, 2002, Hebrew University terror bombing.

Israel is somewhat unique in including victims of terror in its official remembrance day. Berman discusses the ongoing debate.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov ignited a firestorm Sunday when he told an Italian interviewer that “Hitler also had Jewish blood” and that “some of the worst antisemites are Jews.” Other than repeating antisemitic tropes to potentially new audiences, what has been the ripple effect?

Ben David discusses what it means for former Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi to step onto high-tech court as VC investor.

We end with a ray of light, we hear about Ness Ziona-based SolCold, which has developed a nanotech-based surface material to cool structures such as buildings, cars, containers, airplanes in hot climates.

Discussed articles include:

Divided Israel set to honor nation’s fallen as leaders look to heal wounds

Top Zelensky aide: Lavrov shows Russia a threat to Jews, Israel can’t stay on fence

Former Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi steps onto high-tech court as VC investor

Israeli startup harnessing sun’s rays for cooling tech touts new Volkswagen deal

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ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: Israeli soldiers put flowers and candles on graves of fallen soldiers in Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, on May 3, 2022, ahead of Israeli Memorial Day, May 4, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Political correspondent Tal Schneider and health and science writer Nathan Jeffay join host Jessica Steinberg for today's podcast.

Schneider discusses the highlights of the in-depth interview she and ToI founding editor David Horovitz conducted with President Isaac Herzog ahead of Israel Independence Day, and the "soft power, soft diplomacy" that Herzog brings to his job.

Jeffay looks at his analysis of the recent salmonella outbreak from the Strauss food group, which necessitated the removal of certain Strauss and Elite products from supermarket shelves, and the temporary closure of an Elite factory.

He also offers an update on Israel's new blood bank, underground and rocket proof, a strategic asset in case of war, terrorism and attacks.

Finally, Steinberg tells listeners about the latest Netflix purchase from Yes Studios, historical drama "Beauty Queen of Jerusalem," set in the holy city during the Ottoman Empire and British Mandate periods.

Discussed articles include:

Herzog champions dialogue as key path to warm ties, slams ‘fake news’ stirring hate

A 5-month salmonella crisis in ’94 shows just how far Israel has come on food safety

Israel opens world’s most protected blood bank, rocket-proof and underground

Netflix picks up Ottoman-era Israeli drama ‘Beauty Queen of Jerusalem’

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: President Isaac Herzog at Beit Hanassi, the President's residence in Jerusalem, April 2022 (Ariel Jerozolimski for The Times of Israel)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Political reporter Carrie Keller-Lynn and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman join host Jessica Steinberg for today's podcast.

Keller-Lynn speaks about Monday's special Knesset session run by the opposition Likud party as they prepare to battle the coalition ahead of the May 8th return to the Knesset, following its Passover break.

Berman discusses a recently unveiled issue regarding members of the US armed forces who are restricted from traveling on leave to countries in the United States Central Command Area of Responsibility (AOR), which now includes Israel.

Keller-Lynn talks about her upcoming feature regarding Arabic language education in Israeli schools and why Israeli Jews who learn Arabic can't actually speak the language.

Berman unpacks his profile about Trump friend and Christian Zionist leader Mike Evans who has traveled to Ukraine four times in the last few months to support Ukrainian Jews.

Discussed articles include:

Ahead of early budget fight, Shaked plans to streamline small business regulations

New US Armed Forces rules forbid soldiers from non-official travel to Israel, region

In Jerusalem, a Christian Zionist leader makes it his mission to save Ukraine’s Jews

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 IMAGE: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, at the Knesset on February 7, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/ Flash 90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Editor David Horovitz and military correspondent Emanuel Fabian join host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

Unfortunately this weekend was again marked by tragedy with a shooting in Ariel which claimed the life of 23-year-old Vyacheslav Golev, who shielded his finance Victoria Fligelman. Fabian updates us on what we know so far.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s family has been threatened twice in the past week. Security officials increasingly believe two different people sent threatening letters, each containing a bullet. What else are we allowed to report?

Also in the realm of threats, in a speech Saturday night, Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar said the terror group “will not hesitate to take any steps” if Israel “violates” the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Sinwar also praised the recent terror wave that has left 16 dead.

Simwar has denigrated Ra’am head Mansour Abbas, saying, “For an Arab to say that this is a Jewish state is the height of degeneracy,” calling him a traitor. Ra’am head Mansour Abbas responded, saying, “We don’t owe anything to Yahya Sinwar or anyone else. We are what is good for the Arab community and Palestinian nation.” Does remaining in the coalition meet that statement?

Israel marked Yom Hashoah last week. Horovitz tells us about an oped he wrote, titled, “Never again? World response to Putin shows tragic failure to act on lessons of WWII”

The tables turn and Horovitz asks Borschel-Dan about an article she wrote about Crusader-era hand grenades, and their tie to Monty Python.

Discussed articles include:

Suspects in Ariel shooting scoped out attack site, saw it as a weak point – report

Officials believe 2 different people sent bullets, threats to Bennett’s family

Hamas’s Sinwar threatens a ‘regional, religious war’ if Al-Aqsa is again ‘violated’

Ra’am leader Abbas brushes aside Sinwar’s treachery claims: I don’t owe you anything

Lapid and Mansour Abbas agree Ra’am will end boycott, return to battered coalition

Never again? World response to Putin shows tragic failure to act on lessons of WWII

Was Monty Python’s ‘Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch’ fact? Crusader-era explosive found

Image: 

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Editor David Horovitz and military correspondent Emanuel Fabian join host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

Unfortunately this weekend was again marked by tragedy with a shooting in Ariel which claimed the life of 23-year-old Vyacheslav Golev, who shielded his finance Victoria Fligelman. Fabian updates us on what we know so far.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s family has been threatened twice in the past week. Security officials increasingly believe two different people sent threatening letters, each containing a bullet. What else are we allowed to report?

Also in the realm of threats, in a speech Saturday night, Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar said the terror group “will not hesitate to take any steps” if Israel “violates” the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Sinwar also praised the recent terror wave that has left 16 dead.

Simwar has denigrated Ra’am head Mansour Abbas, saying, “For an Arab to say that this is a Jewish state is the height of degeneracy,” calling him a traitor. Ra’am head Mansour Abbas responded, saying, “We don’t owe anything to Yahya Sinwar or anyone else. We are what is good for the Arab community and Palestinian nation.” Does remaining in the coalition meet that statement?

Israel marked Yom Hashoah last week. Horovitz tells us about an oped he wrote, titled, “Never again? World response to Putin shows tragic failure to act on lessons of WWII”

The tables turn and Horovitz asks Borschel-Dan about an article she wrote about Crusader-era hand grenades, and their tie to Monty Python.

Discussed articles include:

Suspects in Ariel shooting scoped out attack site, saw it as a weak point – report

Officials believe 2 different people sent bullets, threats to Bennett’s family

Hamas’s Sinwar threatens a ‘regional, religious war’ if Al-Aqsa is again ‘violated’

Ra’am leader Abbas brushes aside Sinwar’s treachery claims: I don’t owe you anything

Lapid and Mansour Abbas agree Ra’am will end boycott, return to battered coalition

Never again? World response to Putin shows tragic failure to act on lessons of WWII

Was Monty Python’s ‘Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch’ fact? Crusader-era explosive found

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: Security guards guard at the entrance to Ariel, where on April 29, 2022, Palestinian assailants shot and killed a security guard. (Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Holocaust correspondent Matt Lebovic and deputy Jewish World editor Yaakov Schwartz join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on this special Yom Hashoah episode.

To begin the program, Lebovic discusses the theme for this year's Yom Hashoah, "Transports to Extinction: The Deportation of the Jews during the Holocaust." What can we learn from mining the minute information that made of the web of transport towards the death camps?

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and the following reported atrocities, there have been increasing comparisons with the Holocaust. Is this a fair and "helpful" comparison?

What will Holocaust memory and education look like in 10 years? Lebovic talks about a new project in which 3-Gs -- grandchildren of survivors -- take up the responsibility of bearing witness.

Schwartz reports in from Auschwitz, where he is participating in March of the Living. What is unique about this year's march?

Schwartz is embedded with a unique delegation of Muslims from throughout the Middle East. Who are they?

Discussed articles include:

Israel comes to a standstill as it commemorates Holocaust victims

‘The new Auschwitz’: Russians accused of burning bodies to hide Mariupol atrocities

‘3Gs,’ grandkids of Holocaust survivors, retell grandparents’ stories as own legacy

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Image: In this illustrative image, a little boy puts his hand on his grandfather's prisoner number tattooed on his arm in Jerusalem on May 24, 2013. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Health and science writer Nathan Jeffay and environmental reporter Sue Surkes join host Jessica Steinberg for today's podcast.

Jeffay looks at lifting of indoor mask mandate in Israel and what that means for Israelis in all walks of life and locations.

He also updates us on the current salmonella contamination scare with  numerous Strauss and Elite brand chocolate bars and ice cream products removed from shelves.

Surkes discusses the case of Jewish American lawyer Steven Donziger who was freed Monday after 993 days of detention, including 45 days in prison, for his fight against the oil giant Chevron over a massive oil spill in the Ecuadorian rainforest.

She also delves into an upcoming carbon credits story regarding a collaboration between the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel and a company of sustainability entrepreneurs, who want to ensure habitats for waterfowl and other aquatic creatures.

Discussed articles include:

Israel’s indoor mask mandate ends after two years

Strauss confirms salmonella traces found in foods as products pulled off shelves

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: Israelis, some wearing protective face masks and some not, as Israel lifts the restrictions on wearing a mask outdoors, April 21, 2021. (Miriam Alster/FLASH 90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Religions and Diaspora Affairs correspondent Judah Ari Gross and Deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan join host Jessica Steinberg for today's podcast.

Gross discusses how Knesset Whip Idit Silman quit Prime Minister Bennett's Yamina party over the issue of leavened goods in public spaces during Passover, looking back at other historical cases of religion and state in Israeli politics.

He also explains the archaic, Jewish law issue of the status of illegitimate children the efforts being made to amend it.

Borschel-Dan examines the unveiling of what is claimed to be the earliest proto-alphabetic Hebrew text ever discovered in ancient Israel and why it isn't being lauded just yet.

Discussed articles include:

Once it was F-15s on Shabbat; now, hametz: The religious issues that end governments

‘Father unknown’: A dread biblical status leads to modern problems

Archaeologist claims to find oldest Hebrew text in Israel, including the name of God

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 IMAGE; A poster showing Yamina MK Idit Silman at a right-wing rally in Jerusalem on April 6, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/FLASH90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

US correspondent Jacob Magid and military correspondent Emanuel Fabian join host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

The IDF said early Monday that its forces attacked targets in Lebanon after a rocket was fired into Israel earlier in the night. Fabian fills us in.

Earlier on Sunday evening, US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke on the phone. Magid shares with us the known -- and previously unknown -- content of the phone call yesterday.

Israel's southern border has seen its share of action this past week. Fabian explains what economic sanctions are being taken there.

Magid brings us a very important different angle on the Temple Mount flareups today — how it affects Israel’s relationship with Jordan and how the US tried to prevent more flareups.

And finally, ahead of Yom Hashoah, Fabian visited a new Yad Vashem branch in the Negev that is initially specifically for IDF soldiers.

Discussed articles include:

IDF fires dozens of shells at targets in Lebanon after rocket attack on Israel

Biden to visit Israel in the next few months, says White House

Gantz indicates Hamas may face harsher Israeli action in response to rockets

Israel shutters Gaza pedestrian crossing after three more rockets fired at south

‘Non-Muslims only visit’: Lapid insists Israel committed to Temple Mount status quo

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: IDF artillery fires shells at targets in Lebanon on April 25, 2022 after a rocket was fired into Israel (IDF Spokesperson)

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