Kind: Listens

*** Share episode on X: https://x.com/dansenor/status/1820473875215630615 *** Is the region ready for an Israel-Iran war? Is the U.S. ready? What is the state of readiness of the IDF for such a war? Is Israeli society ready for such a war? Could such a war be avoided? What would de-escalation look like? Most Israelis we have spoken to over the past few days have struck a balance between (tensely) trying to anticipate Iran’s next move and expressing confidence in Israel’s capacity for this new phase. One of those Israelis joins us for this episode. Haviv Rettig Gur of the the Times of Israel returns to the podcast.

Pesach and Doug catch up on a busy news cycle as Pesach takes in the Republican Convention in Milwaukee. They begin with a discussion of the terrible assassination attempt on President Trump in Pennsylvania, and then offer their hot takes on Trump’s…

Unfortunately, each of us is currently watching a very old story play out again in 2024: the worldwide rise in antisemitic propaganda, antisemitic beliefs, and antisemitic actions. Pesach and Doug sit down with Izabella Tabarovsky to discuss how the…

Republican men used to be stoic and quiet technocrats, but now they’re screechy and freaky.

Today we dive into Israel’s same-day operations to take out Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. What will Kamala Harris say about the killing of two terrorists enemies of Israel and the U.S.? Oh, and there’s the Trump campaign’s operation that killed Project 2025! Give a listen.

Five minutes after Joe Biden finished speaking we began speaking together about his speech and how…not really good it was and why it wasn’t. And then…how good Bibi Netanyahu’s speech was and why it was. Donald Trump today said he was going to stop being nice. We’re not nice on this podcast, I have to say. Give a listen.

In her first major statement as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris announced she would not “be silent” about supposed Israeli depredations in Gaza. Didn’t take long! Also didn’t take the media long to begin creating a castle in the air for their new queen to live in, and to dig a grave for the Republican vice presidential nominee. Give a listen.

Dan Senor joins the podcast to reckon with the horrible attack on the Druze town in the Golan Heights and what it means for Israel and the region—and, more specifically, what Kamala Harris’s silence on the matter in the first 36 hours after it happened portends for her campaign. Give a listen.

This past weekend we saw a major and brazen escalation against Israel by Hezbollah. This war front is not new, but it will now come into much sharper focus. And with the slaughter of Druze children, we have received a number of questions about Israel’s Druze community in Israel’s North, as well as questions about the options for Israeli decision-makers now. To help us unpack all of this, we are joined by Matti Friedman, who is one of the most thoughtful writers when it comes to all matters related to Israel, the broader Middle East, and also trends in the world of journalism. He is a columnist for The Free Press: https://www.thefp.com/ Matti’s most recent book is called “Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai.” Before that he published “Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel,” and before that “Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War.” Matti’s army service included tours in Lebanon. His work as a reporter has taken him from Israel to Lebanon, and other hotspots across the…

Doug and Pesach sit down with Markus McFolling to hear his Israel journey. Markus speaks to hundreds of thousands of Gen Z’ers every year as he crisscrosses the nation from high schools to camps to conferences. Israel was never a part of his theology…