For Heaven's Sake

What do four political earthquakes in a single week - as the Knesset is on the brink of dissolving -reveal about the election that will define Israel's future?  In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi open Israel's election season by mapping the upheaval: the sudden formation of new parties, Gadi Eisenkot's rise to rival Likud as Naftali Bennett fades, a blitz of contentious legisl...

Is Israel’s social contract breaking under the weight of the ultra-Orthodox draft exemption? In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi dissect the explosive civic and theological crisis surrounding the ultra-Orthodox draft exemption in Israel. They examine the historical roots of Haredi separatism, the post-October 7th need for additional soldiers, and the sense of mutual betrayal gr...

What do American Jews owe Israel when their own political and moral worlds feel under threat?  In this episode, recorded live from our Beit Midrash in Jerusalem as part of Hartman’s Community Leadership Program, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi confront recent flashpoints in the Jewish-American relationship: new data from the Pew Research Center on declining favorability of Israel among Amer...

Hello For Heaven’s Sake listeners. We are adjusting our publishing schedule this week, and you won’t see an episode in your feed today because we will be livestreaming our show from the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Community Leadership Program in Jerusalem on Wednesday, June 24 at 12:00PM ET. You can tune in to watch it here . The audio episode of the livestream will be released this Friday. Please...

Subscribe to Inside Call me Back . ____ Why is Israel’s next election being driven more by fear than hope? Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi join Dan Senor to discuss the emotional forces shaping Israel's coming election. As Israelis prepare to vote, different communities are carrying different traumas, fears, and visions for the country's future, from tensions over Arab and Haredi political...

If Israel has successfully degraded the capabilities of Hamas and Hezbollah, why do so many Israelis feel less safe today than they did a year ago?  In this episode, following a resumption of fire between Israel and Iran, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  explore the deep strategic divide over Israel's military progress. They assess the looming threat of a resurgent, economically rehabilita...

Can American Jews define themselves through love of both Israel and America? In this episode, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  unpack a parade transformed by October 7, Mamdani's boycott, and how a historically innocuous parade has transformed into a profound act of defiance and vulnerability. They explore America as a "nation of nationalities" and its special place in Jewish identity, and...

Can a country recover its sense of agency when every front — external and internal — refuses to stay resolved?  In this episode, recorded just as Prime Minister Netanyahu issued another emergency call-up of exhausted reservists, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  wrestle with the deepening Israeli loss of control. They dissect the gap between the Prime Minister's promise of "absolute victory...

Is it possible to win every battle and still lose where it matters?  In this episode, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  confront what may be the most dangerous front Israel faces today — the narrative. They lay bare the forces converging against Israel’s legitimacy: the collapse of Western institutions and the global spread of antisemitism amplified by social media and a systematic anti-Zio...

What do you say when defending yourself only makes things worse?  In this episode, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  respond in real time to Nicholas Kristof's New York Times column accusing Israel of systemic sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees — an article that dropped on the same day Israel's Civil Commission released its report on Hamas's use of mass rape on October 7. They assess the...

A brief update from For Heaven's Sake on the release schedule for this week's episode. Make sure you are subscribed to or following the show on your preferred podcast app so new episodes download automatically as soon as they are released.

Can an army of the people maintain its ethical compass when a faction of the public it protects and consists of embraces ideological lawlessness?  In this episode, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  dissect the IDF Chief of Staff's urgent warning regarding military discipline, examine the ideological evolution of the Hilltop Youth and the government and public responses to it. Together, they...

In light of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid recently announcing the launch of a unified party for the Knesset elections, we are re-releasing our episode Bennett 2026, recorded on January 6, 2026. Donniel and Yossi will be back with a new episode next week.  Is former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett a right-wing ideologue or Israel's great national healer?   Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  g...

What do you wish for a country you love that is still learning to love itself?  In this episode,  Donniel Hartman  and  Yossi Klein Halevi  mark Israel's 78th Independence Day with a meditation on eulogies, blessings, and the distance between the two. They dissect the growing divide in world Jewry over Israel's future and the stranglehold of an "October 7 consciousness" on Israeli political imagin...

How do we observe national days of mourning when the nightmares of the past feel like the realities of the present?   In this episode, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  dissect Israel’s "10 Days of Awe," the intense period between Holocaust Memorial Day and Israel’s Independence Day, and how this year it demands a spiritual and moral readjustment for Jews everywhere. They consider the impac...

When a word carries history, burden, and identity all at once, can the Jewish people afford to let it go?  In this episode,  Donniel Hartman  and  Yossi Klein Halevi  dissect the internal Jewish debate over the term Zionism, examining its classical promises of empowerment, the push to abandon it in the face of progressive critique, and why the term means something different in Israel and the Diasp...

How do you celebrate the holiday of liberation when the reality of war, grief, and political division feels heavier than ever?  In this episode, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  confront the growing exhaustion in Israel with the conflicts in Iran and Lebanon, the profound grief interrupting daily life, and the internal fractures exposed by new government legislation. As they navigate these...

Is Israel destined to have its wars stopped by its closest ally just before the finish line?  In this episode,  Donniel Hartman  and  Yossi Klein Halevi  examine the rumors of a potential negotiation to end the current conflict with Iran and ask whether this moment reflects a recurring pattern in the U.S.-Israel relationship. They explore America’s role in pressing for de-escalation at pivotal mom...

What is the hidden cost of Israeli resilience?  In this episode, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  move beyond strategic analysis to examine how the war is reshaping daily life in Israel, why the polls haven't budged despite a popular and militarily successful war, and what the Lebanon ground operation reveals about Israel's most stubborn patterns. They also confront the growing divide in A...

Please take 5 minutes to fill out For Heaven's Sake’s LISTENER SURVEY ____ If this war with Iran is self-evident to Israelis, why does it feel so different to North American Jews?  Starting with that blunt question, in this special live episode of For Heaven’s Sake, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  assess endgames, regime change, public legitimacy, and the possibility that military success...

Please take 5 minutes to fill out For Heaven's Sake’s LISTENER SURVEY ____ Why do 93% of Israelis support a war that much of the West condemns as a violation of international law?  In this special episode, Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  dissect the profound disconnect between Israeli moral instincts and Western liberal sensibilities. They analyze the "unconscious pacifism" of the West, t...

Please take 5 minutes to fill out For Heaven's Sake’s LISTENER SURVEY ____ Why does this experience of war with Iran feel entirely new and eerily familiar in the arc of Israeli life? In this emergency episode of For Heaven’s Sake, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi reflect on the strange, exhausting routines of life spent rushing in and out of shelters and the realization that these rituals ha...

Please take 5 minutes to fill out For Heaven's Sake’s LISTENER SURVEY ____ How do you go about daily life — bar mitzvahs, trips, work — when every two hours the news cycle shifts, every Israeli with a cousin in the Air Force has a take, and even seasoned analysts can't say what comes next?  In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi take us inside the strange collective experience of...

Can a country survive when tribal loyalty overwhelms collective responsibility?  This week on For Heaven's Sake, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi examine something unprecedented: while Israel defends its borders from external threats, it's losing the ability to govern within them. From ultra-Orthodox attacks on IDF soldiers to epidemic crime within and against Arab communities to ministers c...

Antisemitism is everywhere in Jewish conversation. But what are we missing?  Donniel Hartman  and Yossi Klein Halevi  zoom out to examine the assault on the Jewish story, the cost-benefit calculus of Jews around their identity, and the abuse of antisemitism discourse within Israel. An exploration of what antisemitism is doing to us—beyond the fear.  02:00 – A New Era of Antisemitism? Old Threat or...