What do we need to know about the just signed coalition agreement? Do Israelis have less of a stomach for COVID-19 deaths than people in other countries? On this independence day we ask, what is Israeli?

Are negotiation of an “emergency government” failing? Will Israel’s “Exit Strategy” committee miss important things because it lacks diversity? Does Israel’s militarist, masculinist, xenophobizing reaction to coronavirus in need of a good “queering”?

We discuss: 1) Labor’s plan to merge into Blue & White 2) why most COVID-19 victims are Ultra-Orthodox 3) whether the song Dayenu says something profound about Israeli politics

We discuss: 1) what the hell is behind Gantz’s decision to abandon his allies in the center and join Bibi as his deputy 2) whether the Coronavirus is going to kill off Reagan-Thatcherite neoliberal economics, drawing us back to being a social democracy

We discuss: 1) the near-miss constitutional crisis we survived this week, as the Chairperson of the Knesset pondered ignoring a ruling of the Supreme Court 2) whether or not we all ought to withhold criticism and rally behind the PM and support his efforts to fight the virus

We discuss: 1) the deputization of Blue & White’s Benny Gantz to form a new coalition government 2) the decision to deputize the Shin Bet to track COVID-19 sufferers and, along the way, the rest of us, too 3) the decision of a revered rabbi to keep ultra-Orthodox schools open, in defiance of the Prime Minister and Health Minister

We discuss: 1) What Israel’s hyper-vigilant, forceful response to the spread of the coronavirus and COVID-19 tells us about our political culture 2) Blue & White’s apparently ill-fated plan to form a minority government

We discuss: 1) What, if anything, this week’s elections say about the hearts and minds, hopes and dreams, of Israeli voters, and 2) What ought to happen now, after our about-to-go-on-trial-for-corruption PM almost, but not quite, won a public mandate to continue in office

We discuss: 1) the strange, unnerving quietude enveloping next week’s elections 2) the surge in support among Jews of the mostly Arab-Israeli Joint List, and 3) the surge in support among modern-orthodox and secular Jews of the ultra-Orthodox parties

Is Gantz’s strategy for winning voters, “I’m a Mensch, that other guy ain’t, so vote for me”? What’s behind Bibi’s surprisingly positive message to the voters, about how we’re prosperous and things are only getting better? Should the government pay cities to build ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods?