We discuss: 1) Israel’s return to active fighting in Gaza, and what it may mean for the hostages, for Gazans and for the rest of us 2) PM Netanyahu’s decision to sack Ronen Bar, the head of the General Security Services, and what it says about the state of Israel’s government and the state of Israeli democracy

We discuss: 1) the many diplomatic proposals for what-comes-next-in-Gaza, including one hatched in direct negotiations with Hamas 2) the fact that we are living in a moment of “peak-Amalek,” especially as we celebrate Purim

We discuss: 1) The stalled ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas and the emergence of the mysterious “Witkoff Plan” 2) The controversy surrounding Netanyahu’s proposed “Egalitarian State Commission of Inquiry” into the October 7 attack

We discuss: 1) The results of the long IDF investigation of itself and what it did and did not do on Oct. 7 2) What to make of the Palestinian-Israeli movie “No Other Land” up for an Oscar next week for best documentary feature

We discuss: 1) Why religious-Zionists opposed the hostage and prisoner release and ceasefire agreement more than any other sector of society 2) The simpatico between sports clubs, athletes and fans, on the one hand, and the hostages and their families on the other

We discuss: 1) How the images of the gaunt, shrunken, clearly-tortured hostages cast into doubt the future of the present ceasefire 2) Historian Benny Morris’s dire warning that, unless something changes between Palestinians and Israelis, a genocide is inevitable

We discuss: 1) Trump’s plan to move Gazans to Jordan and Egypt and turn Gaza into a riviera, and (2) Why Hamas men in black balaclavas and semi-automatic rifles give gift bags and souvenir swag to hostages they let go

We discuss: 1) The Justice Minister’s refusal to “recognize” the newly selected chief justice of the Supreme Court, and 2) How this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day became a referendum on Oct. 7th

We discuss: 1) The new “compromise” proposal for judicial reform, and 2) How the hostages became the aperture through which we understand most everything that has happened here since October 7

We discuss: 1) The hostage release and “permanent cessation of hostilities” agreement with Hamas 2) How the agreement came to be signed now (and not eight months ago or eight months from now)