138 days in, The Promised Podcast looks back

We discuss: 1) A new expensive advertising campaign calling for new elections sooner-than-later 2) Whether now is the moment to extend the draft to the ultra-Orthodox

We discuss: 1) What to make of Hamas’s reply to the Israeli-American-Qatari-Egyptian hostage release deal 2) How Itamar Ben-Gvir became the “It-Boy” of Israel’s terrible political moment

We discuss: 1) The fact that 12 UNRWA workers killed, raped and kidnapped on Oct. 7, and that 1 in 4 Gazan men working for UNRWA have ties to Hamas 2) Whether the mutual care and respect that developed among reservists serving in Gaza is a model for a “new ideal Israeli society”

We discuss: 1) A remarkable interview with a former IDF Chief of Staff about how the government isn’t being honest about the war 2) Why the Holocaust is invoked more now than it has been invoked at any time since the Nazis were defeated

We discuss: 1) The reasons for the IDF’s terrible and tragic failures before, on and after Oct. 7th 2) Why the IDF is as popular today as ever, despite its failures

We discuss: 1) the start of “Phase III” of the war, and the two phases that came before 2) the trial at the International Court of Justice, in which Israel stands accused of genocide

We discuss: 1) the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a Knesset amendment to a “Basic Law,” for the first time ever 2) whether we are Groundhog’s-Dayishly reliving over and over the massacres of October 6 and, if we are, what impact this is having on our psyches and politics

We discuss: 1) the rekindling of the Anti-Netanyahu demonstrations, and whether now’s the time to oust him 2) whether, after the collapse of Labor, there will be any Left left

We ponder perplexing public-opinion polls of: 1) American young people 2) Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and 3) Israelis