‘We’re the ones calling the shots here’: Vance, Kushner and Witkoff rattle Israel’s leadership
The flow of high-level Trump administration officials to Israel in the wake of the Gaza cease-fire agreement has sent a clear signal to Israel’s prime minister and his government, columnist Joshua Leifer said on the Haaretz Podcast. In a single week, envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived for an extended stay, followed by the first state visit of Vice President JD Vance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio followed on Thursday evening. For Leifer, “the bottom-line message to the world that the Trump administration is sending with these visits is ‘We don't trust Netanyahu to follow through on what he's agreed to,’ and they have a good reason to think that. At every opportunity, Netanyahu has made it clear that he is unhappy with the Gaza deal.” Trump’s close supervision of Israel during the war – and afterwards, Leifer added, has been so unrelenting and it feels as if “in some sense, Israel has been put under a U.S. mandate.” In his conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Leifer also discussed the way in which Trump “has completely scrambled American Jewish politics.” On one hand, he said, “American Jewish liberals loathe him and experience him and his followers as racist, sexist, homophobic and antisemitic” while “on the other hand, it's true that he managed to do what Joe Biden couldn’t: end the war and bring the hostages home.” Read more: Hamas Disarmament and Turkey's Role: Vance's Israel Visit Aims to Address Key Postwar Gaza Questions Vance Spotlights Hamas Violence on Israel Visit, but Netanyahu Is on a Short Leash From Bear-hug to Bibi-sitting: Marco Rubio Flies Into a Tense Moment in U.S.-Israel Relations Analysis | With One Eye on Reconstruction, U.S. Won't Let Fragile Gaza Cease-fire Go Up in SmokeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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‘We’re going to fight’: Can Israel’s film industry survive boycotts and the Netanyahu government?
From the international success of “Fauda” to Academy Award nominations and prestigious festival awards, the Israeli film and television industry was at a high point before the October 7 attacks. Throughout the two-year Gaza war, the industry has struggled as international funding and festival invitations dried up, and Hollywood A-listers circulated petitions to boycott any association with the Israeli industry. Domestically, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been hostile, especially when infuriated by films they view as too sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Assaf Amir, chairman of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, joins host Allison Kaplan Sommer to talk about the threat by Culture Minister Miki Zohar’s extreme reaction to the fact that the film winning this year’s Academy for Israel’s Best Picture was “The Sea” – about a Palestinian boy’s journey from the West Bank to Tel Aviv – which is now poised for submission in the Best Foreign Language film category at the Oscars. As a result, Zohar said he will defund the Academy prize and set up an alternative government award ceremony to choose a different Best Picture. Amir said on the podcast that he was unimpressed by the threat. “We'll see who submits their films to his prize and who he chooses to decide which of the films should win,” Amir said. As for the Hollywood boycotts, Amir said he would point to Israel’s Best Picture this year and ask the professionals signing the petitions where they stand on it. “Will they watch this Arabic-language film that was made by an Israeli and a Palestinian about a Palestinian boy from the West Bank trying to go to Tel Aviv – or would they boycott it? I think that's the question they should ask themselves, and I'm wondering what the answer is – because I would definitely urge them to watch this film.” Read more: Israel's Best Film Award Goes to 'The Sea,' Chosen to Represent Country at the Oscars Government Says It Will Cut Israel Film Academy Funding After Film 'Depicting Israel Negatively' Wins 'If We Stop Deteriorating': Head of Israel's Film Academy Still Sees a Bright Future, Despite Political Pressures 1,300 International Actors and Filmmakers Pledge to Avoid Israeli Film Institutions 'Implicated in Gaza Genocide' Debra Messing, Liev Schreiber Among 1,200 Hollywood Figures Opposing Israeli Film Boycott Opinion | As an Israeli Filmmaker, Thank You to Everyone Who Is Boycotting My WorksSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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'Hamas isn’t going anywhere': Amos Harel on the hard realities facing Trump and Netanyahu in postwar Gaza
The miraculous release of Israel’s remaining 20 living hostages in Gaza may have been “the best news we’ve had for the last two years,” Haaretz senior security analyst Amos Harel said on the Haaretz Podcast. Yet a great deal remains to be resolved before anything resembling security is in place for Palestinians in Gaza or for Israelis. Inside Gaza, Harel noted, “Hamas is already making its intentions clear – to remain by any means necessary. They're not going anywhere. They do not intend to dismantle their weapons.” He points to their recent violent execution of suspected Israeli collaborators and aggressive attacks on clans and factions who challenge their authority. With host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Harel breaks down the various complications regarding a postwar Gaza: Hamas’ failure to return a significant number of the bodies of the deceased hostages, the possible involvement of international forces to reign in Hamas after the IDF withdraws, the flow of humanitarian aid and how the Strip will be governed. He also reflected on Donald Trump’s boldly frank speech in the Knesset in which the U.S. leader openly called on Israel’s president to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his corruption trial. “Netanyahu’s crowd has been complaining and whining for the last two days that he's not getting enough respect and not enough ‘thank you’s’ for bringing the hostages back,” Harel said. “Well, there's a simple reason for that. ...It was not thanks to Netanyahu. It was because Trump finally pulled weight and forced Netanyahu’s hand. This is what happened.” Read more: Analysis by Amos Harel | End of Gaza War Could Open Door to Major Diplomatic Shifts in the Middle East Trump: I Spoke to Hamas; They Said They Will Disarm. If They Don't, We Will, 'Perhaps Violently' This Isn't Over': Families of Deceased Israeli Hostages Warn of Government Neglect, Public Fatigue Trump Urges Pardon for Netanyahu in Knesset Address: 'Give Him a Pardon, Come On' 'The Color Is Returning to His Face': Parents of Freed Hostages Share Details From Gaza CaptivitySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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How the Gaza war changed a generation of young Jews around the world, in their own words
The Gaza war may be finally coming to an end, but it has made a long-term impact on Israel and the way the world views the Jewish state – including Diaspora Jews – especially those who spent the war on turbulent university campuses. Judy Maltz, Haaretz's Jewish World Editor, surveyed the effect of the two-year conflict on a group of young Jews from around the world, seeking to understand how their evolving views on Israel, antisemitism and Jewish identity changed since October 7. She found that a “vast majority of them” were “very, very troubled and distressed” after the October 7 attacks and were initially fully supportive of the Israeli incursion into Gaza. But two years into the war, “I did not find even one who could say wholeheartedly that they supported its continuation.” For some of the students, their changing sentiments propelled them into activism supporting protests to end the war. Others were motivated to step up their involvement in fighting campus antisemitism, which many experienced for the first time in their lives. Sometimes, students in the same country had completely contradictory experiences, Maltz reported. In Australia, she found one student who said they had encountered no hostility whatsoever, even as she was out demonstrating for the hostages with an Israeli flag. Yet another “had such a horrific experience that he's moving to Israel at the end of the year. He says Australia is no longer his home.” Read more: 'I Was Defending Something I No Longer Believed In': How Two Years of the Gaza War Changed Jewish Students Around the WorldSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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How Trump forced the Gaza deal through: Behind the scenes with Anshel Pfeffer
The lesson of U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest diplomatic gambit is that in Middle East deal-making, “the devil is in the details, but the most important thing is political willpower,” said Anshel Pfeffer, The Economist’s Israel correspondent and former Haaretz columnist, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. Trump, he noted, “has supplied that political willpower in bucket loads.” Hours after Israel and Hamas agreed on a deal to end the war in Gaza and release the hostages, Pfeffer spoke with host Allison Kaplan Sommer about the long road to the deal, the obstacles that lie ahead and the joyful yet nervous mood among Israelis as they anticipate the long-awaited return of all the hostages. Pfeffer, a biographer of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also discussed how he expects Israel’s leader to shape the narrative of the cease-fire to serve his political goals ahead of next year’s general election. “We know how hard Donald Trump had to press him to accept this plan, but he is a very pragmatic person," Pfeffer said. "The moment something is forced upon him, he immediately makes it look as if it was his idea all along.” Read more: Analysis by Anshel Pfeffer | Netanyahu's Last Stand: How Rewriting the Gaza War Will Decide the Israeli Leader's Political Destiny Israel, Hamas Reach Gaza Cease-fire Deal; Trump: Hostages Will Be Released Monday 'A Day of Joy': Hundreds of Israelis Stream to Hostage Square to Celebrate Israel-Hamas Deal With Families 'We'll Go Back Home, Rebuild Our Lives': Gaza's Palestinians Celebrate Deal to End Israel-Hamas War Turkey, Egypt and Qatar Will Help Israel and U.S. Recover Bodies of Hostages From GazaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
From Haaretz – Israel's oldest daily newspaper – a weekly podcast in English on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World, hosted by Allison Kaplan Sommer.
Australia