Is former US Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, right that America needs to wean itself off the dream of bringing peace to the Middle East? Do Israelis really vote by straight class-interests, proving identity politics less powerful than we think? Is it finally time to get religion out of politics?

Do the recently united Meretz and Labor-Gesher parties actually agree about anything? What do we make of the unity agreement between 3 of the 4 right-wing parties that leaves the far-right, neo-Kahanists to run on their own? Are reality shows political activism by other means?

What’s all the fracas over an interview with a sociologists who says Israeli “liberals” are the least tolerant folks? Is “activist journalism” what we need in an age of “fake news”? Should HMOs be providing free tests of “ritual purity” to religious women who want it?

Should the Left unite before the upcoming elections? What are we to make of Palestinian President Abbas’s odd & moving decision to republish a memoir by an Iraqi-Israeli author? And an activist campaign against the new natural gas pipeline calling everyone liars?

We discuss 1) the decision by the Religious Bayit ha-Yehudi party to run in these elections with the far-right Jewish Might party 2) a TV expose debunking claims that kids were kidnapped from immigrant parents in the ’50s 3) the most important people, events and trends of the past decade

We discuss 1) the Likud primaries which Bibi will almost certainly win 2) why young Israelis did so poorly on int’l standardized tests and what it says about our future 3) the decision by a Tel Aviv high school to have boys sit with boys and girls sit with girls during a meeting with visiting religious kids

We discuss 1) our third elections, what they’re about and whether we learned anything from our first two 2) whether the love/hate relationship with the PM is really a struggle between “First Israel” and “Second Israel” 3) whether or not native-born Israelis “get” the fear of anti-semitism that so many Jews around the world feel

We discuss 1) the idea of having a winner-take-all run-off between Netanyahu & Gantz 2) whether and how educators ought to address the sad spectacle of a PM under multiple indictments 3) who should decide the names of the stops on Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s new light rail system

We discuss 1) whether loyalty remains a virtue when applied to an indicted politician like PM Netanyahu 2) the claim of some scholars that the courts are wrong to criminalize the complicated you-wash-my-hands-I’ll-wash-yours relationships between politicians and journalists, of the sort at the basis of 2 of the 3 indictments of the PM

We discuss 1) the failed coalition-forming strategy of Benny Gantz 2) the fear that maybe the recent skirmish with the rocket-firing Islamic Jihad in Gaza was timed for political purposes 3) a brouhaha over an ultra-Orthodox-run NGO that helps people navigate Israel’s health care system