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 Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, the head of Realign For Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse.

This summer, Alkhatib flew over Gaza as part of the last days of the United Arab Emirates's aid drop missions. It was the first time since he had seen his former home since leaving the enclave in 2005 for what was meant to have been a high school year abroad. To begin the program, Alkhatib relates how he felt viewing the swaths of destruction two years of war had left in its wake.

An outspoken anti-Hamas voice, Alkhatib promotes what he calls “radical pragmatism” through his work with the Atlantic Council and his speaking engagements around the world. No short on considered criticism for Israel's prosecution of the war sparked by Hamas's murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, we learn of concrete steps that could be taken to drive out the terrorist organization.

We hear how Hamas is re-rooting itself into all aspects of the Strip's governance. Now that the terror regime has been reestablished, so has law and order, says Alkhatib, leaving Gazans stuck in a "safe-ish," but abusive relationship.

And so this week, we ask Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, 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.

IMAGE: A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stand amid the destruction left by Israeli strikes north of Gaza City, November 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

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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 the past president of The Hebrew University, Prof. Asher Cohen.

During the eight years Cohen served as university president, Israel encountered numerous challenges, including the coronavirus epidemic from February 2020, the uproar over the Judicial overhaul and, most seriously, of course, the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Israel that left 1,200 murdered and 250 taken hostage to the Gaza Strip. It also meant a major call-up of reserves, which greatly impacted the pool of students over the past two years.

Even more threatening to Israel's future, argues Cohen, is that following the beginning of the war, Israeli academics began facing boycotts and funding drops. Without collaborations with institutions abroad, the Ivory Tower will quickly crumble, we hear.

But we’re also going to look to the future, because Cohen is spearheading a national AI infrastructure initiative which the government has approved, to the tune of $500 million.

And so this week, we ask Prof. Asher Cohen, 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.

IMAGE: Prof. Asher Cohen (Igor Farberov)/ The Albert Einstein privet library, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, March 19, 2012. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)

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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 The Times of Israel's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

BBC director-general Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, stepped down this week after being in the firing line for months over allegations of bias — including the national broadcaster’s coverage of antisemitism, the war in Gaza, and Israel more generally. Rettig Gur is just back from London and we hear his disheartening impressions of how that corner of the Jewish Diaspora is faring. 

US President Donald Trump sent a letter to President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday formally asking Israel’s head of state to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption. Herzog's office issued a statement that a pardon request must go through the proper channels.

We first ask whether a pardon is even possible, if, as Opposition Leader Yair Lapid stated Wednesday, it would require the premier to admit he broke the law.

Regardless of admissions of guilt, Rettig Gur explains why he has some hopes that Netanyahu will be pardoned. Spoiler: It's not because Rettig Gur is especially a fan of Israel's leader.

And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, 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.

IMAGE: President Donald Trump talks with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, October 13, 2025, in Jerusalem. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP)

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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 ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman.

The duo beta-tests their soon-to-be-launched podcast series — so new it does not yet have a name — in which they will deliver entertainment news from a Jewish angle (aka Jangle) and review one new or noteworthy film.

This week, in episode zero, the pair first discusses the growing boycott of Israeli filmmakers at international festivals. Hoffman weighs in on how this is misfiring when it comes to some of the more prominent -- and very left-wing -- Israeli artists.

Next, we hear about "Nuremberg," the Hollywood treatment of the Nuremberg Trials, which began in November 1945, launching the field of international law.

In the film, psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) is ordered to evaluate whether Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) is fit to stand trial. As the highest-ranking surviving Nazi military commander, to the Allied lawyers, Göring is the "big fish" that must be landed.

Borschel-Dan and Hoffman give their differing opinions of the movie and agree to disagree.

And so this week, we ask Jordan Hoffman, 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.

IMAGE: Jordan Hoffman (courtesy) / Rami Malek and Russell Crowe attend the 'Nuremberg' AFI Fest red carpet premiere screening at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 24, 2025, in Hollywood, California. (Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Sony Pictures Classics/AFP)

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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with former hostage Eli Sharabi.

Sharabi, whose bestselling book, "Hostage," was recently translated into English, spoke to What Matters Now a few days before burying his brother, Yossi Sharabi, whose body was recently released home to Israel after he was taken hostage on October 7 from Kibbutz Bee'eri, the community where both brothers lived with their families.

Sharabi speaks about reuniting with recently released hostage Alon Ohel, his fellow captive from months in a Gaza tunnel, and the joy of realizing that reunion.

He talks about how work, the book, and public speaking have been therapeutic acts for him, after his wife and daughters were killed on October 7.

Sharabi speaks about Kibbutz Be’eri, where he lived for 35 years, his chosen community that can no longer be a home for him, but that he hopes will be rehabilitated and rebuilt.

And so this week, we ask Eli Sharabi, 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.

IMAGE: At the October 27, 2025 Kibbutz Be'eri burial for Yossi Sharabi, whose body was brought back from Gaza captivity, with his brother, former hostage Eli Sharabi, center, eulogizing him (Paulina Patimer/Hostages Forum)

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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with Orna and Ronen Neutra, parents of Omer Neutra, a tank platoon commander who was killed on October 7, 2023, his body taken hostage by Hamas terrorists.

The Neutras, Israeli-born Americans who have been living in the US for the last 20 years, talk about the last days since the start of the ceasefire, the joyous return home of 20 living hostages, as the bodies of 13 hostages are still held in Gaza.

Orna Neutra discusses how they knew they would never hug their son again, but how difficult it is to reconcile his death until they can bury his body.

Ronen Neutra offers more details about October 7, 2023, his son's heroic final moments as a commander on the so-called White House IDF post near the Gaza border.

The Neutras discuss their alliance with both the Biden and Trump administrations over the last two years, their more than 40 visits to Washington, DC, and how each US administration embraced the hostage families.

Yet, says Orna Neutra, there is still the challenge of explaining that a deceased hostage is still a hostage, and can't remain in Gaza.

Ronen Neutra talks about the gray zones of the ceasefire agreement concerning the deceased hostages, and how this war is not over until the last hostage is back.

And so this week, we ask Orna and Ronen Neutra, 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.

IMAGE: Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of Omer Neutra, killed on October 7, 2023, his body still held in Gaza, at the October 18, 2025 rally at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square (Tzachi Dovrat/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

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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 author and public intellectual Micah Goodman.

Looking to the French for historical framing, Goodman proposes that Israel is on the brink of a new epoch -- the third Israeli republic.

The author of influential works such as “Catch-67” hypothesizes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's signing on to US President Donald Trump's 20-point plan signals a tectonic shift in political alignment -- away from extremism. 

Today, says Goodman, as most Israelis turn their eyes to a horizon of normalization with Arab and Muslim countries, the fundamental division in Israeli politics is not between the left and the right, but rather the right and the far-right, he says.

As the war winds down and grassroots activists prepare for the October 2026 elections, Goodman proposes that most Israelis are not far apart in their key values, and unity can prevail to bring to fruition a new political era.

And so this week, we ask Micah Goodman, 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.

IMAGE: Micah Goodman (courtesy) / Israeli excavators work in the Gaza Strip as the sun sets, seen from southern Israel, October 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

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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 The Times of Israel's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur, marking two years since the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Israel.

To gain a sense of the Israeli public sentiment after two years of war, Rettig Gur analyzes a new survey conducted by Agam Labs and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, led by Nimrod Nir and Dr. Gayil Talshir.

The researchers found, in surveying  2,170 Jewish Israelis and 459 Arab Israelis, that there is a drastic shift in Israelis' perceptions of their society and politicians. 

In one of the more dramatic findings, the report states that the initial unity found in the early months of the war has flipped to a division: from 77% in 2023 saying the war “united society” to 66% in 2025 saying it made society more divided.

Pointing to Israel's strengths and human capital, Rettig Gur leaves us with an optimistic framing of the internal work that needs to be done, even as Israel has largely defeated its greatest enemies.

And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, 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.

IMAGE: On October 7, 2025, thousands assemble in Hostages Square, Tel Aviv, to watch the broadcast of the Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony marking two years since the October 7, 2023, massacre. (Paulina Patimer)

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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

Goldberg-Polin, who has become a well-known voice in the Jewish and Israeli world since October 7, 2023, when Hersh was taken captive by Hamas terrorists, speaks about the challenge of being active, present, and even thankful in the aftermath of Hersh's death.

She speaks about the public nature of the family's mourning, as she and her husband, Jon Polin, remain active advocates for the remaining hostages, but grapple with their deep mourning in the public eye.

Goldberg-Polin shares anecdotes about her life, including her extended Jerusalem community during the high holiday period, and her desperate hope to grow from the challenges she's faced during the last two years.

She speaks about the need to help repair herself and the world around her and the need for some relief from the pain and suffering of this time period.

And so this week, we ask Rachel Goldberg-Polin, 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.

IMAGE: People walk next to a mural of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in central Jerusalem, August 18, 2025. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

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

This week, we speak with Hartman Institute senior fellow, author and thinker Yossi Klein Halevi from his Jerusalem home overlooking the back of the Mount Herzl National Military Cemetery. 

With that backdrop, we delve into a recently published Klein Halevi essay, "Our season of reckoning: Israel’s moral crossroads in Gaza," which he said was the hardest piece he's ever written -- and the one that has received the most response.

We learn why Klein Halevi felt it important to chart this moment of ethical dimension, as it is unlike any other the IDF and the nation has faced. 

 While Klein Halevi may not have the answers to the multitude of questions facing the world's most moral army, he believes the struggle and questioning are imperative for both Israelis and Diaspora Jews.

And so this week, we ask Yossi Klein Halevi, 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.

IMAGE: Yossi Klein Halevi (courtesy) / People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas and calling for the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem, September 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

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