We discuss 1) the failed coalition-forming strategy of Benny Gantz 2) the fear that maybe the recent skirmish with the rocket-firing Islamic Jihad in Gaza was timed for political purposes 3) a brouhaha over an ultra-Orthodox-run NGO that helps people navigate Israel’s health care system

We discuss 1) a newly proposed constitution of the Jewish People, by the Jewish People, and for the Jewish People 2) whether and how American Jews have left an imprint on Israel, and Israeli Jews have left an imprint on America 3) the debate among leftist Jews over Zionism, that pits Jewish Zionists against Jewish Anti-Zionists

We discuss 1) Gantz’s efforts to channel the spirit of Yitzhak Rabin 2) a demand by the head of the union of IAI workers that the company be privatized 3) the bruhaha over the sale-at-auction of a 1937 letter written by an 11 year old who was later murdered in Auschwitz

We discuss 1) whether this period without a new gov’ is actually a good thing 2) the claim that no one in Israel’s history has done as much as Netanyahu to improve the practical circumstances of Palestinian Israelis 3) whether Tel Aviv sucks the oxygen away from other cities that could be great

We discuss 1) whether Gantz should renege on his promise not to serve with Netanyahu, if indicted 2) what humanities in a Jewish state ought to be 3) the growing trend among rabbis to send folks whose Judaism is “questionable” to do DNA tests

We discuss 1) a call for Israelis to avoid visiting streams, forests and archeological sites in the West Bank 2) an ambitious and controversial Jordanian-Palestinian-Israeli plan to build networks of desalination plants and solar arrays 3) who we’d invite into our Sukkah if we had world enough and time

We discuss 1) whether a 3rd elections round would really be as bad as everyone says 2) whether the Hebrew language, that once unified Jews around the world, hasn’t lately begun to do exactly the opposite 3) the finale of the TV series Transparent, and what it says about how we ought (and ought not) practice Judaism in the 21st Century

We discuss 1) Rivlin’s decision to anoint Netanyahu with the right-and-responsibility to form a government 2) Netanyahu’s efforts to form a government 3) Gantz’s insistence that he wants nothing more than a national unity government

Wracked with anxiety & anticipation about what new gov will take shape, Noah seeks solace with the boys of Liquid Plumr, the youthful garage band that was his transition from youth to an adult life in Israel. The boys discuss Zionism, Israel in the 80s, relations between Israeli & American Jews, and how the lives of their youngsters on both sides of the ocean differ from their own.

We discuss 1) the odd, inconclusive results of the elections that maybe changed everything, maybe changed nothing at all 2) what’s next for Israeli politics 3) what we’ll tell our future grandchildren, thirty years from now, when they ask about these elections