Unholy: Two Jews on the News

A nuclear deal between Washington and Riyadh breaks overnight — and Israel learns the terms from the same press release as everyone else. This week, Yonit and Jonathan dig into what the US–Saudi agreement does and doesn't include, why the normalization clause that was supposed to be attached appeared to be missing - before it was hastily added by Donald Trump, after the event - and what a nuclear-armed Saudi Arabia might mean a generation from now. Iran tensions rise again over Natanz, and Israel's election pregame produces a poll number that should worry Benjamin Netanyahu more than it seems to. Plus: a Likud campaign ad triggers exactly the backlash its makers intended, while this week's Mensch award category hails both a Hungarian chess master and a legendary Israeli anchor.

Help shape the future of Unholy:

Visit our new website: www.unholy-podcast.com

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week, Yonit and Jonathan sit down with three first-time voters — Aviv, Yael and Dror — to talk about the topics that will shape these election - the judicial overhaul, whether Arab parties belong in a coalition, and the draft bill.

October 7th moved each of them, but not the same way — one drifted toward the center, another sharply to the right. What they do agree on might be the most interesting part.

Plus: what happens to a generation that has only ever known one prime minister.

CHAPTERS:

[00:00] Intro

[00:21] Meet Aviv, Yael and Dror

[03:29] Why Aviv says she might not stay

[08:09] Yael on voting for the North

[12:12] Dror's family, yeshiva, and the draft

[17:05] How October 7th moved them in opposite directions

[25:24] The fight over Arab parties in a coalition

[30:41] The only prime minister they've ever known

[34:57] Is there a generational vote?

[37:35] Would they stay if they lose?

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The US-Iran war is back on. The ceasefire has collapsed, the naval blockade is reimposed, and Israel is asking if a moment is coming when the missiles turn its way. With Yonit away, Jonathan is joined by New Yorker writer Ruth Margalit to make sense of a dizzying week: a jaw-dropping report that the Mossad cultivated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — yes, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — as an asset in a failed plot to topple the Iranian regime, and an election campaign in which Gadi Eisenkot is opening up a real lead over Benjamin Netanyahu. Can Mr. Security survive a race where even Likud voters might be drifting away? Plus: a World Cup dilemma for Jewish football fans, a Chutzpah award for a literary institution that forgot its own motto, and a Mensch that takes us to a Jerusalem cafe that refuses to close on Shabbat.

⏱ CHAPTERS:

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As football fans across the globe gear up for the World Cup final on Sunday, Jonathan talks to the author of a new book that uncovers a hidden story: the Jewish players who were once football’s biggest stars. David Bolchover reveals how it was Jewish footballers that dominated some of Europe’s best teams, reinventing much of the way the game is played - until they were brutally murdered in the Holocaust. Their phenomenal achievement has been all but forgotten, to the extent that many imagine “Jewish footballer” to be an oxymoron if not the punchline to a joke. Instead, it sheds light on an era of forgotten Jewish sporting glory - and the world that was extinguished in the Shoah

00:00 Introduction to Jewish Football History

03:08 The Role of Jews in Football Before the Holocaust

05:39 Zygmunt Sztoyanman: A Football Legend's Story

08:15 Josef Braun: The Hebrew Ronaldo

11:07 Political Affiliations of Jewish Football Clubs

13:57 The Evolution of Football Tactics and Jewish Influence

18:05 The Impact of the Holocaust on Jewish Footballers

19:11 Erasure of Jewish Football History

21:07 Legacy of Jewish Football in Modern Israel

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Donald Trump declares the Iran ceasefire dead, while a new poll has alarming news for Benjamin Netanyahu: New York's trenchantly anti-Israel mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is more popular with American Jews than he is.

This week, Yonit and Jonathan break down the collapse of the fragile Iran deal and why "amateur hour" US negotiators may have doomed it from the start. They unpack the Knesset's last-minute push to exempt the ultra-Orthodox from military service — as soldiers testify in tears about the price of a three-year war — as well as the less noisy bills eroding Israel’s judicial independence. Plus: Rahm Emanuel's blunt warning about Israel's "content problem," and the wedding of two returned hostages that gave the week its one unambiguously happy ending.

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A new report accuses the world's most trusted human rights organizations of a problem that goes far beyond anti-Israel bias: antisemitism, and a culture that pushes out Jewish staff for naming it. This week, Yonit and Jonathan talk to Danielle Haas, a former senior editor at Human Rights Watch who spent 14 years inside the organization before co-founding EiGHT, a watchdog created to scrutinize the watchdogs. Drawing on interviews with over 70 staffers across nine major NGOs, the report documents internal messages calling for "liberating the world from Zionism," leadership reposting inflammatory rhetoric, and a pattern of employees being sidelined the moment they raised concerns.

00:00 Introduction to the Conversation

01:30 Danielle Haas's Background and Experience

03:43 Insights from the New Report on NGOs

07:58 Striking Findings and Internal Messaging

11:31 Challenges Faced by Jewish Employees

17:19 Lack of Accountability in Human Rights Organizations

21:08 Cultural Shifts and Generational Changes

24:46 Association with Militant Organizations

27:20 The Future of Human Rights Organizations

33:00 Reflections on Personal Experience and Change

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A thousand days after October 7th — and Benjamin Netanyahu wants to talk about unity. This week, as Israel edges closer toward elections, Yonit and Jonathan discuss a prime minister campaigning on togetherness after- say his critics- a long career spent dividing Israelis against each other, and trace the strange alliance between Israel's nationalist right and the ultra-Orthodox parties who for the most part reject Zionism on principle.

Zohran Mamdani keeps doubling down on Israel and AIPAC, six months into his mayoralty — and sees no reason to slow down. And as America turns 250, Jonathan asks an uncomfortable question about what happens to a constitution when the people meant to enforce it simply don't.

Plus: our Chutzpah award goes to a finance minister taking credit for something he objected to while our Mensch of the week pulls off an unexpected feat of German diplomacy - and language.

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A wave of antisemitic terror swept across Western Europe this spring — and one man appears to have been behind it all. This week, Yonit and Jonathan hear the full, remarkable story as they sit down with Jason Burke, The Guardian's international security correspondent and terrorism expert. He describes how a single Iraqi-Iranian dual national is accused of leveraging both social media and teenage criminals to orchestrate what looked like a series of scattered attacks but was, in fact, a coordinated proxy campaign. And they discuss the broader questions: has the long arm of Iranian terror been constrained at all by US-Israeli military action? Did October 7th represent a strategic break from Iran's usual playbook — or was it a tactical aberration? And as the 50th anniversary of the raid on Entebbe approaches, was that operation a turning point in the long history of global terrorism - and what can be done now to beat back the menace of terror?

00:00 Introduction to Jason Burke and His Work

02:23 Profile of Mohammed Bakr Saad, Al-Sadi

05:13 Al-Sadi's Operations and Recruitment Methods

07:50 The Arrest of Al-Sadi and His Plans in the US

12:42 Impact of Al-Sadi's Arrest on Terror Operations

15:26 October 7th: An Evolution or Aberration in Terrorism?

19:06 The Role of Qatar in Terror Financing

22:55 Countering Terrorism: Challenges and Strategies

26:05 The Significance of the Entebbe Raid

30:03 Convergence of Leftist and Islamist Terrorism

33:01 The Evolution of Terrorism and Its Future

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The new reality of Washington’s relationship with Israel is slowly sinking in — and it’s not pretty. As JD Vance grows visibly chummier with Qatar and Pakistan than with Israeli officials, Yonit and Jonathan discuss the likely impact of the shift and whether Israel’s old assumption — that an American president will always have its back — has to be discarded for good. Then: as the Mamdani effect ripples through New York’s primaries, sweeping in a slate of politicians sharply critical of Israel, the two debate who’s really to blame.

Plus: Keir Starmer’s resignation and likely successor, two former Israeli PMs along with a veritable platoon of former and current IDF commanders denounce settler violence in the West Bank - and a Jewish American comic genius reaches a milestone.

00:00 The World Cup and Jewish Connections

04:25 Israel's Changing Geopolitical Landscape

16:02 Shifts in American Politics and Israel's Position

24:04 The Nuances of Anti-Semitism and Political Shifts

29:13 Israeli Politics: Elections and Controversies

35:47 The Resignation of Keir Starmer and Its Implications

43:23 Celebrating Mel Brooks: A Comedy Legend

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Israel just learned that the US and Iran have agreed to a deconfliction cell with Lebanon — and Israel wasn't in the room. As the dust settles on a war whose outcome is, at best, ambiguous, Yonit and Jonathan sit down with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who wants his old job back.

Bennett doesn't hold back: on why he believes this government dragged out a war Israel was never built to fight, on the "infinite power of propaganda" keeping Netanyahu afloat three years after October 7th, and on whether he can trust Trump — or JD Vance — to look out for Israel's interests when Israel isn't at the table. He also lays out, in detail, what he'd do differently on the Haredi draft, the judiciary, the Palestinians, and Ben Gvir and Smotrich — and admits the polls aren't moving the way he hoped.

00:00 Introduction: Naftali Bennett joins Unholy

🌐 Our website: https://unholy-podcast.com

💛 Become a friend of the pod:

Patreon: https://bit.ly/UnholyPatreon

📺 FOLLOW UNHOLY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlvtS7As7WHh7YtmU5SMUQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/

X: https://x.com/unholypod

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/unholypod.bsky.social

🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2m2UnLfiAyOehtF1bsv98W

🎙️ THE HOSTS

Yonit Levi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yonitleviofficial/

X: https://x.com/LeviYonit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonit-levi/

Jonathan Freedland

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanfreedland/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanfreedland.bsky.social

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/unholypod

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.