Haaretz Podcast

• 'Playing with fire': How Israel’s attack on Hamas in Qatar has likely exploded hopes of ending the Gaza war

  The Israeli decision to bomb Doha, targeting Hamas leadership as they met to consider a cease-fire proposal, made little sense if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is truly concerned with the fate of Israel’s hostages, said Haaretz senior security analyst Amos Harel, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. While it may “work against our basic instincts of assuming that the government is looking out for our collective good,” Harel concluded with an air of regret: “That's not the situation we're in. My sense is that Netanyahu gave up on them long ago, and what he's doing right now is about his political survival, nothing else.” While U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed his “unhappiness” with the bold Israeli move to attack the country housing the largest American military base in the region, he has yet to chastise Netanyahu publicly the way he has chastised other foreign leaders, Harel said in his conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer. “Unlike his relationships with every other world leader except [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, we haven't seen Trump ever confronting Netanyahu directly, demanding answers or changes in positions,” Harel said. “It is early to tell, but this may be a watershed moment. Trump is losing patience, and he may be close to the edge.” Harel warned that “if indeed we did kill somebody important in Doha, there could be retaliation. I hope it doesn't get to anybody torturing or killing hostages. In the end, live hostages are an asset to Hamas, but there's a danger there. We're playing with fire.” Read more: IDF Strikes Hamas Leaders in Doha; White House: Strike Won't Advance Israeli Goals Analysis from Amos Harel | Netanyahu Is Taking Ever-greater Risks to Keep the Gaza War Going Analysis from Amos Harel | With Doha Strike, Israel Signals a Strategic Shift and an Indifference to Consequences Who Died? Did Trump Know? What About the Hostages? Five Key Questions on Israel's Strike in DohaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  --------  

  22:37

  --------

  22:37
• ‘The Trump White House has outsourced all policy on Gaza to Israel’

  As Israel’s Gaza City offensive intensifies, the lack of a “fully articulated policy” on the part of Donald Trump’s White House means that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can move ahead with a “blank check” from the U.S., said Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. The message from Trump officials to Israel is “do what you need to do, just get it over with fast,” while in public statements, they have shifted to align with Israel’s “all-or-nothing” approach to a hostage deal. “Trump is not giving Israel a red light,” Samuels said. “To Israel, that means a green light.” On the podcast, Samuels analyzed the dramatic shifts in both the Republican and Democratic parties regarding Israel ahead of the 2026 midterms, predicting that the upcoming election will “be the one where Israel becomes a top-tier front-of-mind issue that could really divide voters and could really sway races one way or another” in both of the parties. With the GOP in particular, he noted, “a growing number of mainstream Republicans, along with the isolationist MAGA wing are openly asking, ‘Why are our dollars going to funding a foreign war rather than making the lives better for Americans at home?’” Democrats, he added, “are just not going to take what Israel's saying at face value anymore.” All of this contributes, he said, to the “inflection point” at which American Jews find themselves nearly two years into the Gaza war. “I think we are going to look at this as a foundational shift in how this generation and the next views the U.S.-Israel relationship, as well as the relationship of American Jews to Israel.” Read more: 'They Tend to Die': Trump Says Israel, Hamas May Sign Gaza Cease-fire Deal 'Very Soon,' and Repeated That Some of the Living Hostages May Have Died Trump Says Israel Has Lost Its 'Total Control' of Congress, Is Losing PR War Over Gaza The Dam Has Broken. For Mainstream Democrats, Israel Is Now a Pariah The Next Generation of Republicans Is Turning Away From IsraelSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  --------  

  28:36

  --------

  28:36
• 'Gaza started as a legitimate war of self-defense. It became merciless, cruel vengeance': This Israeli ex-foreign minister speaks his mind

  Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami invested substantial time and effort into shaping a two-state solution during his political career – and ultimately came to the conclusion that it was not viable. On the Haaretz Podcast, Ben-Ami cast a critical eye on the current push by French President Emmanuel Macron and a long list of countries including the U.K., Australia and Canada to recognize a Palestinian state at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly. He sees the move more as "a sign of despair" over the leaders' powerlessness to end the Gaza war rather than "a practical solution" that lacks a roadmap for turning the concept into reality. Calling the two-state formula on the table "utterly irrelevant," Ben-Ami expressed "surprise that statesmen such as Macron and the others were pulling it out of the attic of lost causes." In his conversation with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Ben-Ami spoke on the podcast of the deterioration of the Gaza conflict from a "legitimate war of self-defense" one of "merciless, cruel vengeance." He also explained why "total victory" over Hamas remains impossible. Whatever the outcome in Gaza, he noted, the war will be framed as a success and "will remain in the collective memory of the Palestinian nation that they forced Israel into a war that lasted more than two years, that Hamas pulled the two-state solution out of oblivion, emptied Israeli prisons of Palestinian prisoners, blocked the Israel-Saudi normalization and Israel's dream of regional peace." Read more: Shlomo Ben Ami: A Total Victory in Gaza Is a Dangerous Delusion. Just Ask Kissinger Israel Facing Mounting International Pressure as Belgium Says Will Recognize Palestine at UN Trump's Ban on Mahmoud Abbas Is Bad News for Palestine. But It's Dangerous for the UNSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  --------  

  24:58

  --------

  24:58
• 'Astonishing backlash': Hear the Orthodox rabbi who spoke out against Gaza's famine and settler violence

  Rabbi Yosef Blau has been the focus of both fury and admiration over the past week, called both a hero and a traitor, and garnered attention at a level that has astonished him, he said on the Haaretz Podcast. The pushback comes after Blau spearheaded an open letter signed by 80 Orthodox rabbis that called the humanitarian crisis in Gaza “one of the most severe in recent history” and called on Israel to assume “its share of the responsibility” for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The letter also condemned settler violence in the West Bank. As a pillar of the mainstream modern Orthodox world, Blau is an unlikely political maverick. The 86-year-old was a leader at Yeshiva University for 48 years and led the Religious Zionists of America for more than a decade. On the podcast, Blau – who moved from New York to Israel five months ago – describes a "shift in the world of religious Zionism” – a change he describes as transforming from “the most moderate force in the Israeli government that reflected a large variety of views on pretty much every issue outside of religion, to become more and more associated with the extreme right.” Addressing critics who say the letter he wrote could fuel antisemitism outside Israel, Blau says such thinking is “a mistake in judgment,” adding “I think not taking a stand increases antisemitism.” Read more: Over 80 Orthodox Rabbis Urge Israel to Address Gaza Humanitarian Situation, Condemn Settler Violence Leftist? This U.S. Orthodox Rabbi Speaking Against the Israeli Government Prefers 'Realist' Explore Haaretz's coverage of the humanitarian crisis in GazaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  --------  

  34:27

  --------

  34:27
• Western leaders may be pushing for a Palestinian state, but in the West Bank, 'annexation is the reality'

  While the world has been focused on the devastation in Gaza, "the annexation of the West Bank has become reality," Hagar Shezaf, Haaretz's West Bank correspondent, said on the Haaretz Podcast. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Shezaf explained, has created a system "that is accelerating" the process of integrating the West Bank into state institutions "while keeping the empty shell of the Civil Administration that represents military rule." Shezaf is stepping down from her beat for a year of studies after six years of covering what she describes as a "deteriorating" situation in the territories, that is generally neglected by the Israeli media. Despite settlement expansion continuing apace, violent extremist settlers becoming increasingly bold, and the direct and indirect displacement of Palestinian civilians from their homes by the Israeli military, "the West Bank is totally uncovered by Israeli news journalists," Shezaf said. Most recently, her reporting called attention to the uprooting of 3,100 trees by the IDF alongside a village after an attempted terror attack by one of its residents. Shezaf described it as an "outrageous" act, and the army's attempts to justify it, she said, "cannot convince me that this is not collective punishment."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  --------  

  28:44

  --------

  28:44

More News podcasts

Trending News podcasts

About Haaretz Podcast

Haaretz Podcast: Podcasts in Family