The Promised Podcast

The “In Flames” Edition

We discuss: 1) the rampage on Huwara that many here are calling a pogrom 2) the weirdly prominent place of flags in the protests against the judicial reform, and what it means

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The “Uncivil Disobedience?” Edition

We discuss: 1) The new, questionable tactics of the demonstrations against judicial reforms 2) A long and self-exposing interview with former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, the most revered and reviled man in Israel

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The “Presidential Importunity” Edition

We discuss: 1) President Herzog’s worried speech to the nation, calling on politicians “to extinguish the explosive fire of division, before it destroys us” 2) Why we don’t hear much of the voices of Palestinian citizens of Israel at the big demonstrations

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The “Reform School” Edition

We discuss: 1) A proposed reform that would give school principals the power to fire bad teachers and give extra pay to the good ones, bringing free-market principles to grade-school principals 2) Why Nazis are so much on the minds of so many who are fighting Netanyahu’s judicial reforms

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The “Demonstrating Faith” Edition

We discuss: 1) The nearly daily, sometimes deadly Palestinian attacks on Jews, and their impact on the protests against Netanyahu’s reforms 2) The sudden rise of a (very small) religious left, and what it says about today and means for tomorrow

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The “All You Protest Kids” Edition

We discuss: 1) Whether the very different natures of the protests in Jerusalem, Haifa and Beer Sheva offer a corrective to the much bigger demonstrations in Tel Aviv 2) Whether it’s right for ostensibly apolitical universities, professors and students to protest the government on campus

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The “When Life Gives You Demons…” Edition

We discuss: 1) The Supreme Court ruling that Aryeh Deri cannot be a minister and the constitutional crisis that may follow 2) The essay by Yossi Klein Halevi arguing that we’re riven between those who long for a “State of Judaism”, and those who long for a “State of Jews.” We are joined for this discussion by the author himself!

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The “What Is Up? What Is Down?” Edition

We discuss: 1) The “Judicial Reform” that has so many people so worried 2) Who Israel’s “National Poet,” Hayim Nahman Bialik is to us, on the 150th anniversary of his birth

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The “The Falcon & the Falconer” Edition

We discuss: 1) Whether something “fundamental” just changed with the recent elections 2) Whether the jurisdiction of Rabbinical courts ought to be expanded to include civil disputes

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The “Getting the Book of Books on the Books” Edition

We discuss: 1) The new “coalition agreements” signed, some of which Netanyahu already said he ain’t gonna honor 2) The new proposed Basic Law that gives learning Talmud in a Yeshiva the same weight and status as commanding a tank in the IDF

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