the promised podcast – full show

The “Two Years & Twenty Points” Edition

We discuss: 1) US President Trump’s “Twenty Point Plan” to bring home the hostages and end the war 2) On the second Yahrzeit of Oct. 7, how we have changed, personally, and as a society.

Read More

The “Reckoning with Reckoning” Edition

We discuss: 1) The very viral essay by Yossi Klein Halevi, pressing Israelis to engage in the moral conversation that we have, until now, avoided 2) The new 5785 Jewish People Policy Institute’s Annual Assessment of the Jewish People, and why our grades are so lousy, and what we ought to do about it

Read More

The “Spartan and Smartin’” Edition

We discuss: 1) Israel’s newest invasion of Gaza City, and PM Netanyahu’s chillingly Strangelovian gird-your-loins speech ahead of the invasion 2) The 5th year anniversary of the Abraham Accords, and what they have meant in the past and may mean in the future

Read More

The “Reckoning and Wreckoning” Edition

We discuss: 1) Israel’s bombing of Qatar, in failed hope of killing the leaders of Hamas, with the possible result of killing the negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza 2) The controversial movie that aired on Israeli TV this week, after an 865 day delay, about the 1948 war

Read More

The “Sixteenth Sheep” Edition

Noah wonders why the show people here in Israel most want to see—more than at any time in the country’s history, and maybe in all of Jewish history—is a performance of children’s songs from a 47-year-old book of kids’ poems

Read More

The “Elul, Baby!” Edition

We discuss: 1) Benny Gantz’s proposal to form a “Government of Hostage Redemption” and why everyone hated it 2) The surprising return of an army unit devoted to building and rebuilding Kibbutzim and Moshavim

Read More

The “The Big Questions” Edition

We discuss: 1) when is it genocide, and does it matter if people use that word or not 2) Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s claim that this week he (and Israel) just put the kibash, once and for all, on the two-state solution

Read More

The “More War, More Bloodshed” Edition

We discuss: 1) the thinking behind Netanyahu’s decision to extend and intensify the war in Gaza 2) the thinking behind the “national strike” called by some hostage families, intended to bring the country to a halt next Sunday

Read More

The “Gaza: Yesterday & Tomorrow” Edition

We discuss: 1) the 20th anniversary of the “disengagement plan” and the evacuation of 21 Jewish towns in Gaza 2) the plan cooked up in the UN for setting up the State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel

Read More