The Promised Podcast

The “Dunno Much About Art” Edition

We discuss: 1) The surprise summit between Mahmoud Abbas and Benny Gantz 2) Rabbi Chaim Walder’s suicide after it comes out that he sexually abused dozens of women and girls 3) A fracas over a picture in a museum in Ramat Gan

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The “This is Reality!” Edition

We discuss: 1) Mansour Abbas’s statement that Israel was, is, and will be a Jewish State 2) Have we been wrong all along about Sara Netanyahu? 3) What the recent glut of politicians, professors and journalists on reality TV say about politics, celebrity and gravitas in Israel

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The “Autarky Malarkey!” Edition

We discuss: 1) Maybe it’s time to consider a “vaccine mandate” 2) The rashomon after an Israeli Minister talking to an American Under-Secretary about “Settler Violence” 3) Whether we’d all be better off if more of us were off the grid

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The “F*ck’m!” Edition

We discuss: 1) The socko revelations by Donald Trump about his ambivalence about Netanyahu 2) The army’s plan to move its intelligence units to Beer Sheva 3) Our nominees to light the 12 torches in the next Independence Day celebration

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The “This is Not Wonderland” Edition

We discuss: 1) The intimidation investigators used on Netanyahu’s one-time chief spokesman 2) Whether the IDF should lead Israel’s response to climate change 3) A change in gov’t policy that makes it harder for ultra-Orthodox leaders to make sure their followers use only “kosher phones”

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The “Candles with Zealots, Oh My!” Edition

We discuss: 1) The President’s controversial decision to celebrate Hanukkah in Hebron 2) Whether, by closing its borders to non-citizens, Israel is making diaspora Jews into 2nd class Jews 3) A poll finding that most Israelis favor turning the IDF into a “professional army”

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The “Model Citizens” Edition

We discuss: 1) The decision not to give computer theorist Oded Goldreich the Israel Prize 2) Whether all gov’t offices should be moved to Jerusalem 3) Whether the models used to forecast Israel’s demography in 2050 produce self-fulfilling prophecies

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The “Getting Rid and Holding On” Edition

We discuss: 1) The new term-limit law, and what it accomplishes 2) The establishment of a new “traditionalism (mesoratiut) lobby” in the Knesset

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The “What Now?” Edition

We discuss: 1) What’s next now that the budget is passed 2) The discovery that an online food shopping site for the Ultra-Orthodox is a lot cheaper than a site for the rest of us 3) Who and what killed the Israeli left

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The “Earmarks & Skidmarks” Edition

We discuss: 1) Whether the cash that coalition MKs get to give to their favorite causes are a necessary good or an unnecessary evil 2) The new “pigovian” congestion tax that will make drivers pay handsomely every time they drive into Tel Aviv

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