Unholy: Two Jews on the News

With Israel deep in an election campaign and the country still grappling with the strains of a multi-front war, the fiercely contested exemption of ultra-Orthodox men from the IDF draft remains the issue threatening to tear Israeli society apart.
In this week's candid, combative, and illuminating conversation, Yonit and Jonathan sit down with MK Yitzhak Pindrus of the United Torah Judaism party to interrogate the theological, cultural, and political worldview driving the Haredi establishment.
Pindrus doesn't mince words. He denounces extremist anti-draft banners comparing the IDF to Nazi camps as "disgusting," explicitly labels violent settler attacks on Palestinians as a Chillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name), and dismisses economic projections about Haredi dependency as “lies." But on the core question facing Israel, his stance is uncompromising: as far as the community is concerned, their model has worked—and they have no intention of breaking it.


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With Yonit feeling a little under the weather, Jonathan is joined by friend of the podcast, Haaretz military affairs analyst Amos Harel (also, author of 6:29). They discuss a new poll showing Benjamin Netanyahu gaining ground in his contest against former general Gady Eisenkot - with nearly six weeks to go till Israelis vote, is this a blip or did Eisenkot peak too early? Plus: the Israeli right declares war on a film almost no one has seen, what exactly is happening on the ground in the West Bank - and rapper Macklemore wins a chutzpah award for a past episode many seem all too keen to forget.

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As Israel heads into what may be the most consequential election of its history, the country is still arguing less about where it's going than about how it got here. This week, Yonit and Jonathan sit down with a titan of Israeli broadcasting — Ilana Dayan, anchor of the investigative program Uvda for three decades — who returns to Unholy to make sense of it all. She traces how Netnayahu survived a moment that should have ended his political career, makes the case for what actually sets challenger Gadi Eisenkot apart, and confronts head-on whether Israelis see the last three years as a win or a wound still open. Plus: her read on the West Bank sanctions rattling even Netanyahu's own coalition — and why, despite everything, she still finds a reason for optimism.

Chapters:
0:00 – Ilana Dan returns to Unholy
0:27 – Is this really Israel's most crucial election ever?
4:33 – How did Netanyahu survive October 7th?
9:33 – Why do Israelis still buy his message?
14:51 – Enter the challenger: who is Gadi Eisenkot?
18:01 – The interview that revealed Eisenkot's character
22:25 – Can a candidate who pauses beat Netanyahu's charisma?
27:41 – Israel's deepest rift — and how it got here
32:22 – The "wins" since October 7th, and the West Bank sanctions
39:13 – Was Israel's war in Gaza fought right?
52:47 – Her hopes going into the new year

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Yonit Levi
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September 8th was the deadline for Israeli parties to file their lists — and Netanyahu reached it less organised than he'd have liked, with a rival on the right running alone, a reserved slot for his own Channel 14 broadcaster, and barely a handful of women anywhere near the top.
Then Britain, joined by France, Canada and nine others, sanctioned settlement goods, and used the words "ethnic cleansing" about settler violence in the West Bank. The UK's chief rabbi called it a dark day for British Jews.
Yonit and Jonathan work through what sanctions actually hit when the target is a bank that gave someone a mortgage — and whether, six weeks before an election, this lands as pressure or as a gift.

Recorded in field conditions, from a Tel Aviv living room and a Washington hotel — so no Mensch and Chutzpah this week. Back next week.
Shana Tova!

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Yonit Levi
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The Jewish new year arrives with the word ‘Zionist’ deemed an insult and a technology that never forgets anything that anyone has ever said or done. Following Unholy tradition, Yonit and Jonathan usher in the season of awe and the High Holydays with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, who leads New York’s Central Synagogue and whose congregation was rushed by an intruder during a packed Friday night service weeks before this conversation. She walks through what repentance actually demands — a real apology, a change of action as well as heart, and three attempts — and why she thinks Abraham, the first Jew, failed the test we remember on Rosh Hashanah. Plus: the sermon she is dreading, why she calls the coming Israeli election existential for Jews everywhere, and, as ever, the music.

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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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