the promised podcast – full show

The “Turpitude Now, Turpitude Tomorrow, Turpitude Forever” Edition

We discuss: 1) The Amnesty International report everyone’s talking about 2) A proposed law that would ban people convicted of “moral turpitude” crimes from holding high public office 3) Whether our collective memories should be fashioned through political collective bargaining

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The “Ghosts” Edition

We discuss: 1) What to make of several men admitting, in a new docu, that when they were soldiers in the 1948 war they saw, or took part in, war crimes 2) A new TV docudrama revisiting a controversy that roiled the country eight years ago

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The “Can’t Spell ‘Plea Bargain’ Without ‘Rage’ and ‘Pain’” Edition

We discuss: 1) The outrage over a plea deal for former PM Netanyahu 2) What’s behind the government’s new pandemic policy 3) A report that Israeli politicians may be dragging their feet negotiating blanket Visa exemptions for Israelis in the US

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The “Pure of Heart” Edition

We discuss: 1) The new, 1B shekel program to double the population of the Golan Heights in 3 short years 2) The remarkable decade in politics of Yair Lapid and his “Yesh Atid” party, the longest any centrist party has ever survived in Israeli political history

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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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