Unholy: Two Jews on the News

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As Israel marks one week out of 40 days of missiles from Iran, Yonit and Jonathan take apart the week's impossible contradictions: Netanyahu delivering a triumphalist Yom HaShoah speech while 400 kilograms of enriched uranium remain intact in Iran; a fragile Lebanon ceasefire that almost no one trusts; 40 Democratic senators voting against arms transfers; and Italy's far-right prime minister — until now Israel's last ally in Europe — quietly moving toward the exit.

They also clock a historic election in Hungary, what Orban's fall means for the Israeli opposition, and whether Gadi Eisenkot is the figure who finally changes the picture.

 

CHAPTERS: [00:00] Intro

 [02:30] Two kinds of sirens — explaining Yom HaShoah to kids during active war 

[05:00] Yom HaShoah: the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and why Israel chose this date 

[06:00] The war breakfast menu — 40 days and no off switch 

[08:44] Iran ceasefire: fragile, murky, and far from over 

[14:42] Netanyahu's Holocaust Day speech — and what it got wrong 

[20:47] Israeli elections: Eisenkot, Bennett, and the Orban lesson from Hungary

 [27:00] Democrats break with Israel: Slotkin, 40 Senate votes, and who lost America 

[33:45] Italy's Meloni shifts — even the far-right is moving 

[40:41] Chutzpah Award: JD Vance tells the Pope to be careful about theology 

[43:30] Mensch Award: Parents Circle joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremony

 

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Day 40 of the US-Israel war on Iran — and it's ceasefire. But the relief is complicated: Israeli bombardment of Hezbollah in Lebanon has already shifted the world's anger from Washington back to Jerusalem.

Bret Stephens, opinion columnist at the New York Times and one of the conflict's most prominent intellectual defenders, joins Yonit and Jonathan to take stock — was it worth it, what was actually achieved, and what does an inconclusive ending mean for Israel's standing with a younger American generation that's turning away.

Then: the death penalty bill that slipped through the Knesset on Erev Pesach. Dr. Amir Fuchs of the Israeli Democracy Institute was inside those committee rooms. He explains what passed and who it targets.

⏱ CHAPTERS: 

[00:00] Ceasefire — Yonit wakes up after 40 nights of sirens in Tel Aviv 

[02:10] Kids, lunchboxes, and parenting during wartime 

[05:45] Why Israel is now the global target instead of Trump

[19:24] Bret Stephens: Was the Iran war worth it? 

[23:11] Senior Israeli official admits objectives weren't achieved 

[26:23] Iran's nuclear program — degraded, not destroyed 

[29:52] The Strait of Hormuz: Iran's trump card 

[34:08] Israel's American support — how worried should we be? 

[37:07] Israel's intelligence credibility post-October 7th 

[40:33] Young Americans and the erosion of support for Israel 

[54:28] Dr. Amir Fuchs — inside the Knesset committee rooms What the death penalty bill actually says 

[1:02:30] Will the Supreme Court strike it down? 

[1:06:42] Ben-Gvir's trap — win-win by design 

[1:10:36] Yonit: Judaism doesn't celebrate death 

[1:11:53] Jonathan: the synagogue sermon about spilling wine on Passover 

[1:14:38] Hungary elections — Orban vs. Magyar 

[1:16:52] Chutzpah Award: Kanye West banned from Britain 

[1:21:25] Mensch: Colette Avital, 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, still protesting 

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Day 39 of the war. Pesach. Instead of news, we brought you books — two of them, both essential.

Jonathan speaks with Daniel Taub, former Israeli ambassador to the UK and author of Beyond Dispute: Rediscovering the Jewish Art of Constructive Disagreement — about why Jewish argument culture might be the most relevant thing in the world right now, and how families torn apart over Gaza might actually talk to each other.

Yonit speaks with Yardena Schwartz, award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer, author of Ghosts of a Holy War — about the 1929 Hebron massacre, and why this nearly-forgotten event explains almost everything about the conflict today.

Two books. Two conversations. One mid-week treat while we wait for whatever comes next.

 

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In this special Pesach episode, Yonit and Jonathan discuss seder traditions and those who had to change due to the war. They are joined by Tom Holland — historian and co-host of The Rest Is History and author of landmark books on Rome, Persia, and the roots of Western civilization — to explain why the Romans were wrong about the Jews, why the West fundamentally misunderstands Iran, and why secularism is itself a religious inheritance. From Cyrus the Great to the Iranian Revolution to Donald Trump, this is the episode that puts the present moment in full historical context.

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The fourth week of the war with Iran finds both sides insisting—loudly and contradictorily—that peace talks are either underway or nowhere in sight. In the meantime, Iranian missiles continue to hit civilian neighbourhoods across Israel, while rolling news blurs day into night, tracking both the war itself and the political manoeuvres that show little sign of slowing down. And in London, another antisemitic attack raises uncomfortable questions about double standards when it comes to hatred directed at Israel.

This week, Yonit and Jonathan sit down with Jake Sullivan, who puts it bluntly: this war should not have started. Sullivan lays out three reasons why the decision was flawed, argues that Donald Trump’s “appetite grew with the eating” from the 12-day war to the current escalation, and offers an alternative path—a renewed nuclear deal backed by long-term deterrence. He also raises a troubling possibility: could this conflict increase the likelihood of Chinese action against Taiwan?

 

Plus: a rare look behind the scenes of Israel’s most-watched news broadcast, as Yonit reflects on what it means to sit in the anchor’s chair for hours on end—and the personal toll it takes.

 

00:00 Day 27 — Cluster bomb near Yonit's house

 03:00 Life under sirens: sheltering in Tel Aviv 

19:48 The Rubio remark: did Israel drag America into war?

23:28 Yonit on anchoring Israel's news during a war she's living

31:23 Jonathan: global antisemitic attacks since the war began 

42:06 Jake Sullivan: deal or escalation?

1:15:16 Chutzpah & Mensch Awards

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