Haaretz Podcast

Gadi Eisenkot's bid to form an "emergency" minority government and swiftly oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be a "daring move if it succeeds," according to veteran journalist and author Anshel Pfeffer. Pfeffer, Israel correspondent for The Economist and a contributing columnist for Haaretz, said Eisenkot, who was tasked on Sunday with forming a government, appears to be breaking with t...

Just as money from conservative American organizations promoted the ideas that led to Israel’s judicial overhaul, some of the same billionaire-backed funds are now being used to cultivate a "new elite" of right-wing ideologues within Israel's security establishment, promoting a vision of West Bank annexation and mass Palestinian emigration.  Haaretz correspondents Yarden Michaeli and Ne...

The 2026 midterm elections mark “a fork in the road in terms of how Americans view the U.S.-Israel relationship, and that fork in the road is going to be reflected accordingly in the next Congress,” according to Haaretz U.S. bureau chief Ben Samuels .  Focusing on the explosive race for the Senate in Michigan - where Democrat Haley Stevens just threw her support behind a Republica...

The main lesson of Israel’s election on Tuesday was that “the October 7 war did not change Israeli society,” said Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn, speaking on a special post-election edition of the Haaretz Podcast. Despite the turbulence of the past four years, he said, “at the moment of truth, people clung to the tribal loyalties, to the feeling of identity, of belonging...

As the hours count down before Israelis head to the polls, and Israeli high-ranking officers warn that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may want to strike Iran before Tuesday's election - the stakes are clearly high. But they are perceived as being even higher for one political camp, according to Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin , speaking on the final Haaretz Election Podcast ahead of Tuesday’s elect...

In this episode of the Haaretz podcast, Rahm Emanuel – former White House chief-of-staff, veteran Democratic party insider, and potential presidential hopeful – speaks with guest host Joshua Leifer about the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship, the potential consequences of the upcoming elections in Israel, and the politics of Jewish identity in the current moment. In July, Emanuel...

U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, in a move that was both unprecedented and unexpected at this point in the campaign. With only a week left before the Israeli election, Haaretz English editor Yishai Halper said on the Haaretz Podcast that he doesn’t believe Trump's "October surprise" is enough for people on the right or the left "to make a sign...

The Iran war, like so many that came before it, centers on energy’s crucial role in geopolitics, according to Hebrew University historian Dr. Guy Laron , though international leaders often downplay or ignore it. “Time and again, leaders speak in the language of values, security, justice, freedom, while chasing oil behind the scenes,” Laron said, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast in...

Leaders of far-right parties running in the Israeli elections are openly campaigning on platforms that advocate expelling Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank. On the Haaretz Podcast, senior analyst Esther Solomon and correspondent Linda Dayan discussed the platforms of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and ex-general Ofer Winter, both of whom are wooing voters by attacking Prime Mini...

The decision by Israel’s top generals and intelligence chiefs not to put the IDF on high alert in the hours before October 7 was “the worst gamble in Israeli military history,” according to senior defense analyst Amos Harel , speaking on the Haaretz Podcast on the third anniversary of the attack by Hamas on southern Israel.  “They terribly, tragically underestimated bo...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handling of the crisis after the Flydubai attack demonstrated his “facility at dominating the news cycle and setting the agenda of the debate” in the crucial weeks ahead of the October 27 Israeli election, said Haaretz columnist Joshua Leifer , speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.  Netanyahu skillfully and quickly took the spotlight, basking...

The most recent attempt at a show of unity by the Jewish Zionist parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was only partially successful. With the election less than a month away, their leaders may have agreed not to campaign against each other and save their fire for Netanyahu – but they failed to explicitly commit to backing whichever party leader garners the most votes to head...

On the eve of the New York premiere of their film, "NAZA," co-directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor sat with Haaretz U.S. senior writer Etan Nechin to talk about the journalistic investigations behind the film, the unprecedented criticism of them in Israel – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat to strip them of their citizenship – and why it’s important to...

After rapper Macklemore cried "Free Palestine!" as he took the stage as the opening act for music superstar Ed Sheeran, opened a Pandora's box of controversy over free speech and the place of politics at a music concert "that is not dying down any time soon," said Philissa Cramer on the Haaretz Podcast. Cramer, recently appointed senior Jewish Life correspondent for Haaretz, recounted on the podca...

The violence of extremist settlers on the West Bank as they systematically terrorize, attack and even displace Palestinian communities is a “perversion of Judaism” and a desecration of God’s name,” said Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman , speaking on the Haaretz Podcast in the week between the Jewish New Year and its Day of Atonement.  Joining Weiman-Kelman on the podcast is Lo...

The intensifying Israeli election campaign encompasses a long list of issues, but at its heart, the results of the vote on October 27 will be “about the transition out of the Netanyahu era,” contended Anshel Pfeffer , Israel correspondent for The Economist, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast.  Pfeffer said that many have done their best “to be the next Netanyahu,” attempt...

The stunning triumph of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a German state election represents a true “challenge to democracy” and has shaken the country’s Jewish community, said author and activist Dr. Ofer Waldman , speaking on the Haaretz Podcast “It's the first time that a right‑extremist party has had such a landslide victory in Germany,” said Wa...

A last-minute scramble before the party lists for Israel’s elections are finalized on September 8 has led to the disappearance of small parties, politicians switching parties and the dismissal of veteran ultra-Orthodox Knesset members by leaders who want to “refresh” their party lists.          On the Haaretz Election Podcast, correspondents Linda Dayan a...

Vice President JD Vance’s charm offensive failed to completely win over skeptical GOP donors who gathered this week in Las Vegas at the Republican Jewish Coalition National Leadership Summit, Haaretz’s Washington D.C. correspondent Arno Rosenfeld told the Haaretz Podcast.  There were mixed reactions to Vance’s speech to the crowd of 1,000, meant to be off the record, but lea...

Nothing is helping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current coalition boost its standing in the polls, and it is clear that the premier is “panicking,” said Haaretz columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin , speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.  Scheindlin joins Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the entrance of a new right-wing party l...

Israel's controversial strike on an airbase in northern Syria close to Turkey was "first and foremost a message to the United States" that Turkish military penetration deeper into Syrian territory "can be turned into a real and total war," and any U.S. policy that tolerates it is "not sustainable," according to Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak , speaking on the Haaretz Podcast. The attack has been cr...

The glut of new small parties throwing their hats in the ring is increasing the chances that after the voters have their say, there will not be a decisive win either for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition parties determined to topple him.  "All of these new little parties are headed by individuals who are placing their ego above the political outcome. They...

Longtime editor-in-chief of The New Yorker David Remnick joins the Haaretz podcast and guest host Joshua Leifer for a wide-ranging conversation about his more than three decades of reporting on Israel and Palestine, the role of the journalist in a populist age, and the future of U.S.-Israel relations. "The only way to tell this story is to try to tell it truthfully and to know that you will fail,"...

The battle over the Likud Party primaries this week was a clear example of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserting his dominance over his political kingdom, Haaretz senior analyst Esther Solomon told the Haaretz Election Podcast.  Netanyahu had unsuccessfully tried to cancel the always robust Likud primaries altogether – ultimately compromising by pushing through a measure where he...

Nearly three years since Israel’s war in Gaza began, and despite a lengthy case brought before the High Court of Israel, journalists remain unable to enter the Strip to report independently on the widespread destruction, the ongoing humanitarian crisis and the IDF’s occupation of more than half of the Strip.  Histadrut national union official Peter Lerner , who served as the IDF&r...