Unholy: Two Jews on the News

Donald Trump declares the Iran ceasefire dead, while a new poll has alarming news for Benjamin Netanyahu: New York's trenchantly anti-Israel mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is more popular with American Jews than he is.

 

This week, Yonit and Jonathan break down the collapse of the fragile Iran deal and why "amateur hour" US negotiators may have doomed it from the start. They unpack the Knesset's last-minute push to exempt the ultra-Orthodox from military service — as soldiers testify in tears about the price of a three-year war — as well as the less noisy bills eroding Israel’s judicial independence. Plus: Rahm Emanuel's blunt warning about Israel's "content problem," and the wedding of two returned hostages that gave the week its one unambiguously happy ending.

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Yonit Levi
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A new report accuses the world's most trusted human rights organizations of a problem that goes far beyond anti-Israel bias: antisemitism, and a culture that pushes out Jewish staff for naming it. This week, Yonit and Jonathan talk to Danielle Haas, a former senior editor at Human Rights Watch who spent 14 years inside the organization before co-founding EiGHT, a watchdog created to scrutinize the watchdogs. Drawing on interviews with over 70 staffers across nine major NGOs, the report documents internal messages calling for "liberating the world from Zionism," leadership reposting inflammatory rhetoric, and a pattern of employees being sidelined the moment they raised concerns.

 

00:00 Introduction to the Conversation

01:30 Danielle Haas's Background and Experience

03:43 Insights from the New Report on NGOs

07:58 Striking Findings and Internal Messaging

11:31 Challenges Faced by Jewish Employees

17:19 Lack of Accountability in Human Rights Organizations

21:08 Cultural Shifts and Generational Changes

24:46 Association with Militant Organizations

27:20 The Future of Human Rights Organizations

33:00 Reflections on Personal Experience and Change

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Yonit Levi
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A thousand days after October 7th — and Benjamin Netanyahu wants to talk about unity. This week, as Israel edges closer toward elections, Yonit and Jonathan discuss a prime minister campaigning on togetherness after- say his critics- a long career spent dividing Israelis against each other, and trace the strange alliance between Israel's nationalist right and the ultra-Orthodox parties who for the most part reject Zionism on principle.

 

Zohran Mamdani keeps doubling down on Israel and AIPAC, six months into his mayoralty — and sees no reason to slow down. And as America turns 250, Jonathan asks an uncomfortable question about what happens to a constitution when the people meant to enforce it simply don't.

 

Plus: our Chutzpah award goes to a finance minister taking credit for something he objected to while our Mensch of the week pulls off an unexpected feat of German diplomacy - and language.

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Yonit Levi
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Jonathan Freedland
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A wave of antisemitic terror swept across Western Europe this spring — and one man appears to have been behind it all. This week, Yonit and Jonathan hear the full, remarkable story as they sit down with Jason Burke, The Guardian's international security correspondent and terrorism expert. He describes how a single Iraqi-Iranian dual national is accused of leveraging both social media and teenage criminals to orchestrate what looked like a series of scattered attacks but was, in fact, a coordinated proxy campaign. And they discuss the broader questions: has the long arm of Iranian terror been constrained at all by US-Israeli military action? Did October 7th represent a strategic break from Iran's usual playbook — or was it a tactical aberration? And as the 50th anniversary of the raid on Entebbe approaches, was that operation a turning point in the long history of global terrorism - and what can be done now to beat back the menace of terror?

 

00:00 Introduction to Jason Burke and His Work

02:23 Profile of Mohammed Bakr Saad, Al-Sadi

05:13 Al-Sadi's Operations and Recruitment Methods

07:50 The Arrest of Al-Sadi and His Plans in the US

12:42 Impact of Al-Sadi's Arrest on Terror Operations

15:26 October 7th: An Evolution or Aberration in Terrorism?

19:06 The Role of Qatar in Terror Financing

22:55 Countering Terrorism: Challenges and Strategies

26:05 The Significance of the Entebbe Raid

30:03 Convergence of Leftist and Islamist Terrorism

33:01 The Evolution of Terrorism and Its Future

 

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🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
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Jonathan Freedland
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📩 Contact: unholy@unholy-media.com
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The new reality of Washington’s relationship with Israel is slowly sinking in — and it’s not pretty. As JD Vance grows visibly chummier with Qatar and Pakistan than with Israeli officials, Yonit and Jonathan discuss the likely impact of the shift and whether Israel’s old assumption — that an American president will always have its back — has to be discarded for good. Then: as the Mamdani effect ripples through New York’s primaries, sweeping in a slate of politicians sharply critical of Israel, the two debate who’s really to blame.

 

Plus: Keir Starmer’s resignation and likely successor, two former Israeli PMs along with a veritable platoon of former and current IDF commanders denounce settler violence in the West Bank - and a Jewish American comic genius reaches a milestone.

 

00:00 The World Cup and Jewish Connections

04:25 Israel's Changing Geopolitical Landscape

16:02 Shifts in American Politics and Israel's Position

24:04 The Nuances of Anti-Semitism and Political Shifts

29:13 Israeli Politics: Elections and Controversies

35:47 The Resignation of Keir Starmer and Its Implications

43:23 Celebrating Mel Brooks: A Comedy Legend

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🎧 LISTEN TO UNHOLY
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108
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🎙️ THE HOSTS
Yonit Levi
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X: https://x.com/LeviYonit
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Jonathan Freedland
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📩 Contact: unholy@unholy-media.com
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