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 legal expert on genocide Menachem Rosensaft.

Rosensaft is an adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School and lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School, where he teaches the law of genocide -- since 2008 at Cornell and since 2011 at Columbia. A dedicated pro-Israel US Jewish leader, Rosensaft is the general counsel emeritus of the World Jewish Congress and has been part of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, most notably sitting with PLO leader Yasser Arafat alongside four other American Jewish leaders in 1988, after which Arafat said he recognized the State of Israel's right to exist.

Rosensaft discusses the important legal and rhetorical distinction between genocide and crimes against humanity or war crimes, feeling that the definition's precision is being diluted in popular use. We learn about the history and evolution of Raphael Lemkin's definition of genocide and the ripple effect it has caused.

He emphasizes that Israel cannot be held out as the sole villain in the ongoing war, and explains how Hamas exhibits genocidal intent and ideology. However, the statements from a handful of far-right Israeli politicians is making South Africa's December 2023 legal case accusing the Jewish state of genocide much harder to win.

Finally, he rails against the Israeli government's weaponization of the word "antisemitism" for all dissent against the Jewish state, but doubles down on the need for an ongoing peace process leading to a Palestinian state.

And so this week, we ask genocide legal expert Menachem Rosensaft, 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: Menachem Rosensaft (courtesy) / Palestinians stand on the edge of a crater after Israeli military strikes in a tent camp for displaced people near Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, August 21, 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 deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with former US negotiator, adviser and ambassador Dennis Ross.

Today, Ross, an author and the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, also teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization.

But for over a decade, he was the US point man on the arduous Israeli-Palestinian peace processes in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. We close the program by hearing thoughts on the current talks to end the Gaza War from a negotiator who was in the room "when it happened" -- or didn't.

However, we begin the episode by asking Ross, who has decades of experience in Soviet and Middle East policy, for his analysis of this week's Alaska summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and the subsequent meet-up between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders.

We then spin the globe and focus on Israel and the region -- present and past, including the two milestones of the 2005 Disengagement and the 2000 Camp David Summit.

And so this week, we ask Ambassador Dennis Ross, 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: Dennis Ross (Courtesy)/ Demonstrators march during a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and calling for the Israeli government to reverse its decision to take over Gaza City and other areas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, August 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

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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 Prof. Dan Turner, the head of a pediatric gastroenterology unit at one of Israel’s most respected hospitals located in Jerusalem and Deputy Dean of the School of Medicine at the Hebrew University.

Turner, alongside his work as a physician, educator and researcher, is also an ardent activist in a variety of fields concerning human rights and dignity, inside and outside of medicine.

Our podcast conversation was spurred by his response to images of Muhammad al-Mutawaq, a severely emaciated 18-month-old living in Gaza, which were published on the front pages of newspapers around the world, prompting a global outcry about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Following an independent journalist's investigation, it was revealed that al-Mutawaq suffered from severe illnesses, including neurological and muscle disorders.

For Turner, al-Mutawaq's underlying medical conditions don't excuse his appearance -- quite the contrary. The malnourished child is emblematic of Israel's inhumane treatment of all Palestinians, from security prisoners handcuffed in hospital beds to babies who require special medical care in Gazan tent cities, he says.

In a wide-ranging interview, Turner explains how he was "awoken" to his duty to advocate for Palestinians' basic medical care and treatment with dignity.

He shares the blowback he has received -- and why he now sparks conversations about the ongoing war in Gaza by "looking like a caveman."

And so this week, we ask Prof. Dan Turner, 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: The transfer of Palestinian men arrested during a military raid on Jenin, January 22, 2025. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / 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 ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

During the Tisha B'Av fast on Sunday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir again made headlines for going up to the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. There were two big differences this time: One, he led a prayer service out loud, and two, he called for the Jewish resettlement of the Gaza Strip.

Both aspects of Ben Gvir's trip were highly documented, including his statement on the ongoing war in Gaza.

Ben Gvir said, “I am saying, davka [intentionally] from here, from the Temple Mount — the place from which it was proven that it is possible to have sovereign rule —  davka from here, we are relaying a message that from today on, we are conquering the entire Gaza Strip, announcing our sovereignty on the entire Gaza Strip, and taking down every Hamas member and encouraging voluntary emigration. Only in this way will we return the hostages and win the war.”

Ben Gvir's semi-messianic vision may come partially true as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to announce an IDF operation aimed at conquering the entire Gaza Strip. 

Resettlement of the Palestinian enclave, says Rettig Gur, is a completely different matter.

We hear how this latest publicity stunt is a disservice to the Temple Mount movement, which stresses that Jews may have freedom of worship at Judaism's most holy site.

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: Haviv Rettig Gur (courtesy) / Illustrative: Jews visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, on Jerusalem Day, May 26, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/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 Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with author Daniel Taub.

Taub is an Israeli diplomat, international lawyer and author born in Britain in 1962. He moved to Israel in 1989, later serving in the IDF as a combat medic and as a reserve officer in the international law division. He started his path in diplomacy in the Israeli Foreign Ministry in 1991 where he held many legal and diplomatic posts, including as  Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2015.

In his new book, "Beyond Dispute: Rediscovering the Jewish Art of Constructive Disagreement," Taub synthesizes his years spent at negotiating tables as a diplomat with his lifelong learning of Talmud. 

Drawing on techniques from both spheres, Taub argues that disagreement can be even more constructive than easy consensus -- and is necessary for treaties to last.

We begin the program speaking about the Tisha B'Av holiday marked this weekend and how Israeli society today -- specifically, the painful ongoing debate over universal draft -- is coming close to the senseless hatred that tradition ascribes as a reason for the fall of the Temples. 

We then hear how one must pick a ripe time for negotiations, and how Taub's experiences on negotiation teams with Palestinians and Syrians make him think that Israelis, at the very least, are not ready to discuss a practical peace -- yet.

And so this week, we ask Daniel Taub, 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: Author Daniel Taub (courtesy) / Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man pray as they gather for the mourning ritual of Tisha B'Av, in the Old City of Jerusalem, August 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

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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 leading economist Prof. Dan Ben-David.

Ben-David heads the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research and is a senior faculty member in the Department of Public Policy at Tel-Aviv University.

Earlier this month, he wrote an op-ed in The Times of Israel with the provocative headline, "‘Just not Bibi’ is not an action plan for a national pivot." In it, he lays out the need for a complete overhaul of swaths of Israeli society and institution -- and insists that this is the pivotal moment that it must be done.

“The demographic-democratic window of opportunity is closing at an exponential pace. This is the time for leaders who demonstrate that they grasp the gravity of this moment and what is required of them at the crossroads that we’ve now reached,” he wrote.

We drill down into Ben-David's vision for Israel 2.0 and its four cornerstones — educational overhaul, budgetary overhaul, a change in our system of government, and a constitution.

We also dive into the role that the ultra-Orthodox or Haredi community plays in implementing — or torpedoing — his vision.

And so this week, we ask Dan Ben-David, 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: Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai at Mount Meron during the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer, which marks the anniversary of the death of the Talmudic sage in Meron, northern Israel, on May 15, 2025. (Jalaa MAREY / 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 Guri Alfi, comic, actor and producer of "The New Jew."

Recorded before the conflict with Iran, Alfi speaks about his experiences filming the second season of "The New Jew," a series he first created with public broadcaster Kan 11 in 2021 that had him looking at the Jewish community in the United States.

For these latest episodes, Alfi traveled to the US to speak to Jews in the wake of October 7 and the intense antisemitism and anti-Zionism that exploded across college campuses and American cities.

Guri discusses his conversations with a range of Jewish leaders, including Reform Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl, student leaders from Columbia and Harvard universities, and bereaved parents whose dual-citizen children became Israeli lone soldiers and were killed in the line of duty on October 7 and during the ongoing war.

Guri says he wanted to show the bonds between the Israeli and American Jewish communities, and to show the hope and future that still exist despite the terrible events and trauma of the last 21 months.

He also talks about one of his latest projects, “Speeches Against Despair” during the upcoming Israel Festival, in which he, along with actress Noa Koler, musician Noga Erez, actor Norman Issa, actress Maya Landsmann, screenwriter Galit Hoogi and others offer new interpretations to historical speeches.

And so this week, we ask Guri Alfi 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.

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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.

Just ahead of this week's What Matters Now recording, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump sat in the White House for a celebratory meal.

The table was set for a grand announcement -- a sealed hostage release-ceasefire deal -- but the guest of honor and his terrorist counterparts have yet to come to terms.

Goodman looks back at the two huge "double gambles" made during these 21 months of war. The first was by former Hamas leader Yahye Sinwar, who launched the invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, after viewing the intense divisiveness in Israeli society. His double-or-nothing bet was that Iran and its proxies would immediately join in the onslaught -- they didn't.

Goodman compares Sinwar's double gamble to that of Netanyahu, who launched a surprise preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear program on June 13 and wagered that the United States would join.

Now that Netanyahu's bet has paid off, Goodman describes how the region is ripe for a realignment -- if tough compromises can be made to end the Gaza war.

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 and video edited by Thomas Girsch. 

IMAGE: Shiite Muslim mourners hold portraits of Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a religious procession held to mark Ashura, on the 10th day of the Islamic holy month of Muharram in Karachi on July 6, 2025. (Asif HASSAN / 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 senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

Dozens of Jewish extremists set fire to a security installation and rioted outside a West Bank base overnight Sunday-Monday, days after an officer in the Israel Defense Forces was assaulted by settlers, who threw rocks and attempted to harm other IDF soldiers.

If there’s one institution that a majority of Israelis still get behind, it’s the IDF. So this attack, to many, was a wake-up call to the bubbling issue of settler extremists.

In this week's What Matters Now, Rettig Gur describes the origins of the settler movement and how there were several visions that at times competed with each other -- and overlapped.

He explains how the extremists who are repeatedly attacking neighboring Palestinian villages -- and now IDF soldiers -- are disenfranchised and largely shunned by the diverse settler communities.

And we learn how politicians, some of whom serve as role models for these "hilltop youth" -- are finally also waking up to the problem. But while the leaders are changing their tunes, the youth are no longer listening.

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 and video edited by Thomas Girsch. 

IMAGE: Illustrative: Young Jewish protesters throw rocks as Israeli police forces arrive at the illegal outpost of Amona, on February 1, 2017, on the morning of the settlement's evacuation. (Hadas Parush/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 Jessica Steinberg speaking with Daniel Syrkin, director of the acclaimed TV series "Tehran."

Recorded on Monday amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, Syrkin discusses the impact of the current geopolitical events on the storytelling of "Tehran" and the challenges of producing a series that reflects the most recent realities of life in Iran.

The "Tehran" director shares insights from his background in military intelligence and how it shaped his understanding of the Iranian regime and the making of the series, created with Israel's Kan 11 and Apple TV.

He also discusses the cultural authenticity of the series, the emotional responses from Iranian actors to their Israeli costars and crew, even during the last 10 days of the conflict.

Syrkin notes that sometimes the only way for him to cope as an Israeli is by working on the show, and notes that whatever happens next, it will be reflected in the next season, Season 4.

And so this week, we ask Daniel Syrkin, 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: 'Tehran' director Daniel Syrkin with actor Niv Sultan from 'Tehran' (Credit: Tully Chen)

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