The Promised Podcast

The “Put a Sock in It!” Edition

The crew discuss: 1) The compromise that led to the peaceable evacuation of Eviatar 2) What to make of the tenure of President Rivlin 3) A shocking and controversial about Hebrew grammar

Read More

The “Misguided Grandpas, Wayward Cousins & Uncle Sam: What Family Doesn’t Have Its Ups and Downs” Edition

The crew discuss: Israel’s new efforts to “reset” relations with the U.S.; A grandson’s efforts to understand the Zionism of his late Grandfather; A new Israeli docu-series about American Jews

Read More

The “Dilemmas of Power” Edition

Is a new-ish law that lets Ministers resign their Knesset seats and be replaced by new MKs wasteful and corrupt? How should leftist members of the gov’t vote on a law they hate? Should there be brooks, streams, rivers and lakes reserved, for a few hours every so often, just for women or just for men?

Read More

The “Naked Truths” Edition

What do the coalition agreements tell us about Israel’s new gov’t? What legacy is left by Benjamin Netanyahu after 12 years as PM? Why are most Israelis squeamish about nudity?

Read More

The “Hey, What’s Up With the New Guy?” Edition

Is Naftali Bennett the right-wing ideologue most people take him to be? Should the first family be forced to live in the official PM’s residence in Jerusalem when they don’t want to? What explains Israel’s canine-mania?

Read More

The “I Have Been Able to Form a Government” Edition

What does the new governing coalition mean and what does it augur? What does the election of Yitzhak Herzog to be Israel’s next president say about the country in this unsettled time? Why are so many young Jewish-American progressives saying they’re done suffering for the sins of a Jewish state?

Read More

The “Still Crazy After All These Tears” Edition

What, if anything, changed with the clashes of the past weeks? So maybe 5th elections are a good idea? Did the Supreme Court just save Israeli democracy (or destroy it)?

Read More

The “Fair Thoughts & Unhappy Hours” Edition

What to make of the suggestion that the war with Hamas is not a “fair fight”? Does the collapse of the negotiated “National Unity Government” prove that an Arab-Jewish political alliance cannot survive an Arab-Jewish war? Was the IDF Spokesman justified in lying to the press when it helped the IDF to do so?

Read More

The “F*cked Up Chickens, Coming Home to Roost” Edition

Rockets and missiles from the south and mob violence most everywhere else: Why did Israel just dissolve into bloodshed? How do you celebrate the “reunification” of Jerusalem (and how don’t you)?

Read More

“The Fault Is Not in Our Stars” Edition

Who or what is to blame for the deaths at Mount Meron? Is “family-uber-alles” the only value shared by all Israelis? What does it mean when Palestinian citizens of Israel use the term “ethnic cleansing” to describe parts of their experience?

Read More