The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI editor David Horovitz.

How do you cover a war when no objective, proven journalists are allowed to report independently in the war zone?

And when one side of the conflict -- a terrorist regime -- floods international media with its narrative while the other side -- an attacked sovereign nation -- provides no narrative, guess which side's story makes front pages?

This week on What Matters Now, Horovitz lays out the challenges of penetrating the fog of this war within the constraints of an Israeli information vacuum.

"The hardest challenge for journalists, and it's certainly never been harder for us in the last 19-20 months, is to get the facts first... Getting to the facts has never been harder," said Horovitz. 

And so this week, we ask ToI editor David Horovitz, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. 

IMAGE: Palestinians run following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, June 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman and host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

Just back from reserve duty, Berman has written an in-depth look at the war in Gaza and the questions it raises in Israeli society.

For today's episode, we take a look at Berman's op-ed, "For now, victory is still within reach: 10 truths about the Gaza war, 20 months in," and discuss each point one by one.

In a free-flowing conversation, we hear Berman assess the war's successes and failures and learn about the burning existential issues that Israelis have yet to address.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and the video was edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: IDF troops of the Nahal Brigade operate in the Gaza Strip, in images released on June 5, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

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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 bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation banning travel from certain countries, citing national security concerns — and pointedly, the DIY flamethrower attack on Sunday in Boulder, Colorado. Magid explains which nations are -- and are not -- affected, and discusses the new ban on foreign students at Harvard University.

For the first time since Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council discussed and voted on a substantive resolution related to the war in Gaza. The resolution, which was vetoed by the United states, called for a ceasefire, release of the hostages and surge of humanitarian aid into the Strip. Magid weighs in on the significance of the vote.

Mediators are reportedly optimistic that Hamas will soon submit an updated hostage deal proposal that will be closer to what US special envoy Steve Witkoff presented last week, three sources familiar with the matter told Magid. But does this optimism have any grounds? What's changed?

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced that its aid distribution sites would again not open on Thursday morning to give time for the US- and Israeli-backed organization to carry out logistical work needed to accommodate larger crowds. We discuss this aid effort in the context of other, now suspended attempts, such as air drops from Jordan.

Israel decided to block a Saudi-led delegation from visiting the West Bank earlier this week. It would have been the first visit by a Saudi foreign minister since Israel took over the West Bank in 1967, and had been intended to boost the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority as a viable candidate to replace Hamas as the governing body of Gaza after the war. Magid adds nuance and context to this decision and its repercussions.

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

For further reading:

Trump bans travel from 12 countries, ties it to attack on Colorado Jewish rally
 
Trump moves to bar US entry to foreign students planning to study at Harvard

US vetoes UN Security Council resolution calling for Gaza ceasefire

Mediators optimistic Hamas will soon submit softened hostage deal proposal — sources

GHF says Gaza aid sites won’t reopen Thursday morning as planned, after one-day shutdown

Saudi official says Israel harmed normalization by blocking West Bank visit – report

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: US Ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Shea (C) speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting to vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, at UN headquarters in New York City on June 4, 2025. (Leonardo Munoz / AFP)

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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.

Diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman and reporter Ariela Karmel join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

As hostage family members met with members of the Trump administration in the White House on Tuesday, Berman discusses the latest developments in the hostage negotiations, as Hamas continues to leverage the remaining living hostages for political gain while negotiators say Hamas must accept US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff's latest proposal.

He also looks at Iran's rejection of the nuclear deal proposal, after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the US proposal for a nuclear agreement went against the country’s national interest of continuing to enrich uranium. Berman notes that Iran wants a deal of some kind, particularly one that will protect them against future Israeli attacks, and is continuing to negotiate, with another round slated for this weekend.

Berman describes one of the aid sites in Gaza that was created by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and the complications of funneling Gazans into the space to receive their aid packages. He notes that the aid centers are closed today to fine-tune the process and prepare safe access routes after the IDF opened fire toward Palestinians who had approached troops after straying off a pre-approved path for reaching a Rafah distribution site.

Berman also looks at Spain and its decision to cancel another arms deal with Israel, spiking a $325 million system that would have been developed in Spain by Pap Tecnos, a subsidiary of Israel’s Rafael Advance Defense Systems. Berman discusses that Spain is a long-time critic of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and that it may be following other European countries with this step.

Karmel speaks about ongoing government settlement policies that incentivize Israelis to move to the West Bank due to rising housing costs inside Israel, and how that situation has been concretized by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government.

She also relates the launch of a book by released hostage Eli Sharabi, the first book by a former hostage, and his determination to keep living despite the personal tragedies he has experienced.

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

For further reading:

Senior Israeli official: Hamas ‘must understand it has to accept the Witkoff outline’

Key US consulting firm withdraws from American- and Israeli-backed Gaza aid agency

Israel punches back at UN chief for demanding probe into Gaza aid site shooting

Trump insists no enrichment in Iran deal after US said to offer limited nuke activity

Spain reneges on $325m purchase of anti-tank missiles from Israel’s Rafael

Is the government using the housing crisis to drive the settlement movement?

A book to wake up the world: Ex-hostage Eli Sharabi launches memoir of captivity and survival

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: The Al-Ansar Mosque in Gaza's Deir al-Balah after Israeli airstrikes, June 3, 2025. (Photo by Ali Hassan/Flash90)

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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.

New York reporter Luke Tress joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

Twelve people were wounded Sunday in Boulder, Colorado — including at least one person in critical condition — when activists rallying for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza were attacked by a man shouting “end Zionists,” who fired a makeshift flamethrower and threw firebombs at them. Tress updates us with what we know so far about the suspect, Mohammed Soliman, and his motives.

Tress compares Sunday's Boulder attack to the fatal shooting of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, less than two weeks ago. He reminds listeners of Jewish community leaders' warnings of potential copycat attacks on the horizon.

To close, we learn about a new facility from the Community Security Service, a nonprofit that trains volunteer synagogue guards throughout the US, the first in the US dedicated to training synagogue guards as American Jews build out an array of connected security measures amid a global surge in antisemitism.

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

For further reading:

Three IDF soldiers killed by roadside bomb in north Gaza’s Jabalia

With attacks in Washington and Colorado, the global intifada lands in America

Colorado suspect planned attack for a year, wanted to ‘kill all Zionist people’ — FBI

Trump pins Boulder attack on Biden border policy after suspect named as illegal alien

After deadly shooting, US Jewish security leaders urge vigilance amid threat of copycats

In first, US Jewish security outfit opens boot camp for volunteer synagogue guards

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: Law enforcement officials investigate after an attack on the Pearl Street Mall Sunday, June 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colorado. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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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.

Religions reporter Rossella Tercatin joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

Nearly two years after the ancient, nearly complete Codex Sassoon bible was first introduced at the Anu Museum, days before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, the book of Torah is inaugurated at the museum, in the presence of released hostage Agam Berger, in a moving, bittersweet ceremony, tells Tercatin. Another ancient bible, the Shem Tov bible, this one only 700 years old, was also inaugurated permanently at the National Library of Israel, both in time for the Shavuot holiday.

Tercatin also looks at the ongoing issues of conversion in Israel, following a meeting last week of the Knesset Aliyah Committee devoted to the topic of conversions on Tuesday, ahead of the Shavuot festival. Only about half of those who start the process to convert manage to complete the journey, and the Conversion Authority is currently formally without a director, leaving nobody can sign the official conversion certificates, complex matters that Tercatin discusses.

Steinberg talks about an art exhibit currently at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, marking the 80th anniversary of the kibbutz's Shavuot ceremony, created by two pioneering kibbutz members in the 1940s to mark the agricultural and harvest aspects of the festival.

Finally, Tercatin discusses the Messianic community in Israel, and its connection to Yaron Lischinsky, the Israel Embassy staffer who was killed alongside his soon-to-be-fiance, Sarah Milgrim, on May 21 in an antisemitic attack at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC.

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

For further reading:

Codex Sassoon, oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible, displayed in Israel after Oct. 7 delay

Ahead of Shavuot, thousands of converts remain unrecognized by state, stuck in limbo

Kibbutz marks 80 years of Shavuot song and dance with pioneering artworks

For Messianic Jews in Jerusalem, Yaron Lischinsky’s murder was a personal loss 

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: The 'Codex Sassoon' bible is displayed at Sotheby's in New York on February 15, 2023. (Ed Jones/AFP)

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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.

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

The IDF confirmed last night that an Israeli airstrike earlier this month killed top Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar while he was in a tunnel underneath a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. What information is the IDF basing the confirmation on?

The IDF claims that Hamas’s hold is slipping, along with its stronghold on food supplies. However, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation effort is being accused of wounding and even killing Gazans who are attempting to secure aid. Fabian weighs in on this increasingly murky endeavor.

A 19-year-old Defense Ministry civilian contractor, David Libi, was killed by an explosive device Thursday during Israel Defense Forces operations in the northern Gaza Strip. We learn why the IDF is employing Israeli civilians in the Strip.

The IDF carried out airstrikes on Friday near the coastal Syrian city of Latakia, saying its fighter jets targeted weapon depots used to store anti-ship missiles. It was Israel’s first reported strikes in Syria in nearly a month, but the IDF is not being forthcoming as to which terror group -- or state -- was the owner of the missiles.

Finally, we learned recently that the Israeli Air Force intercepted 35 drones launched by the Hezbollah terror group using a new laser interception system. The new system used during the fighting is a lower-powered version of the Iron Beam laser interceptor, which is set to be delivered to the Israel Defense Forces later this year. We hear about the IDF's beta-testing of the new system.

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

For further reading:

Following Netanyahu, IDF confirms Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar killed in May 13 strike

Israel claims Hamas losing control over Gaza civilians as GHF ramps up aid operations

IDF chief said to tell communities near Gaza he will ‘not let war drag on indefinitely’

Defense Ministry civilian contractor killed during IDF operations in northern Gaza

IDF says it targeted anti-ship missile depots near Syria’s Latakia; one said killed

IDF reveals it used laser system to intercept dozens of Hezbollah drones last year

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: A laser interception system deployed to northern Israel, in an undated photo published by the Defense Ministry on May 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Hebrew University Prof. Elie Podeh.

Podeh, the Bamberger and Fuld professor in the History of the Muslim Peoples, recently published a research article, "Israel’s 2005 Disengagement from Gaza: A Multilateral Move Under Unilateral Façade."

In the article, we learn that while the Gaza Disengagement was a unilateral decision, it was carried out in partnership with the United States, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Among other revelations in the paper, we hear about the committees formed among the partners and their work on arrangements for border control, economic transition, and security cooperation. All elements were negotiated behind the scenes, especially under the guidance of American envoys and Egyptian mediators.

Podeh weighs in on prime minister Ariel Sharon's decision not to allow the PA to take credit for any part of the diplomatic cooperation and the question of whether delegitimizing the PA's authority in Gaza may have contributed to the Hamas takeover in 2007.

We speak about -- today, as the IDF is poised to retake the Gaza Strip, what the reasons were for the Disengagement 20 years ago -- and, in Podeh's opinion, why the Strip shouldn't be resettled by Israel.

And so this week, we ask Prof. Elie Podeh, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. 

IMAGE: Young settler prays during the disengagement in Neve Dekalim on August 18, 2005. (Nati Shohat/ Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman and host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. In this episode, American Jewish Committee head Ted Deutch fills in for Berman, who is on reserve duty.

On May 21, Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were shot to death outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, where the victims had just attended an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee that focused in part on humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Both Milgrim and Lischinsky were employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington. Their alleged killer — a far-left activist from Chicago — shouted “Free Palestine” as he was arrested.

This week, the head of the AJC talks more about what type of coexistence event was held prior to the murders.

We discuss the rise in antisemitic violence across the Diaspora and what, in Deutsch’s opinion, can be done to counter it.

The former Florida congressman emphasizes the need for leaders around the world to condemn the surge in antisemitism and use nuanced language when speaking about the war in Gaza.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and the video was edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: A mourner lights a candle during a vigil for the victims of the Capital Jewish Museum shooting outside of the White House on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Two Israeli Embassy staff members, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were gunned down after an event at the museum by a man shouting slogans in support for Palestine. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP)

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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 military reporter Jacob Magid joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff says he has “some very good feelings” about the chances for reaching a temporary ceasefire that leads to a long-term resolution to the conflict in Gaza. Magid explains what could be on the table and why Witkoff is expressing optimism despite long-time Israeli and Hamas intransigence.

The Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said Wednesday it had successfully opened its second aid distribution center in southern Gaza, after the launch of its first site a day earlier descended into chaos when crowds stormed the facility. International media is reporting shootings and deaths at the first aid center this week. Magid attempts to make order of the chaos.

The United Arab Emirates rebuked Israel over this week’s Jerusalem Flag March, characterizing it as an “annual spectacle of unchecked violence and extremist provocation” and issuing a rare warning against Israel if Jerusalem doesn’t take “decisive steps” against the phenomenon. Magid explains why summoning of Israel's envoy -- only the second time the UAE has taken this measure -- is so significant even as several of Israel's allies are openly condemning the Jewish state.

US President Donald Trump confirms that he asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a call last week not to take military action against Iran that could disrupt Washington’s ongoing nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic. Magid describes the differing accounts of the phone call.

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

For further reading:

Witkoff says US to issue new Gaza terms, has ‘very good feelings’ on reaching hostage deal

Gaza aid group opens 2nd distribution center, day after first site swarmed by crowds

UAE issues rare warning to Israel after summoning envoy over Jerusalem Flag March

Trump: I told Netanyahu striking Iran would be ‘very inappropriate,’ as deal is close

Report: Netanyahu-Trump phone call on Iran was marked by heated disagreements

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: US President Donald Trump invites US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff to respond to a question in the Oval Office of the White House on May 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP)

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