The Promised Podcast

Miriam Herschlag, Don Futterman and Noah Efron talk about (1) Israel's return to active fighting in Gaza, and what it may mean for the hostages, for Gazans and for the rest of us here and (2) Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to sack Ronen Bar, the head of the General Security Services, the Shabak, and what it says about the state of Israel's government and the state of Israeli democracy. All th...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Horror Vacui— There's an odd mélange of diplomatic proposals for what-comes-next-in-Gaza, from an Egyptian and Arab League plan to various American plans, including one hatch...

Sara Hirschhorn, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. —Out of Phase— With the stalled ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas giving way to the emergence of the mysterious "Witkoff Plan," what might (and should) happen next? —Commission Perdition— What should we make of...

Linda Gradstein, Gilad Halpern and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Findings— The IDF shares its investigation of itself and what it did and did not do on October 7 with the victims of the attack on a community-by-community basis. Is...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Why Does a Knitted Kippah Mean Keep-on Fighting?— Religious-Zionists oppose the hostage and prisoner release and ceasefire agreement more than any other sec...

Sara Yael Hirschhorn, Gilad Halpern and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Rite of Return— How and why did the images of the gaunt, shrunken, clearly-tortured hostages change something and cast into doubt the future of the present ceas...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Nobody Expects the Pax Trumpiana!— What's behind US President Donald Trump's plan to move Gazans to Jordan and Egypt and turn Gaza into a place where maybe they'll film the n...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —A New Crisis, and this Time, It's Constitutional— What does it augur when the Justice Minister refuses to "recognize" the newly selected chief justice of the Supreme Court? —...

Miriam Herschlag, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —You Be the Judge— Is the new "compromise" proposal for judicial reform any good, and is now the time to debates such matters? —Word— How have the hostages become...

Miriam Herschlag, Sara Hirshhorn and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Ending this F*#!ing War— What should we make of the hostage release and "permanent cessation of hostilities" agreement with Hamas, and why is the agreement only si...

Linda Gradstein, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Thinkin' Blinken— What are we to make of Antony Blinken's interview with the times, in which he said it was Hamas, not Prime Minister Netanyahu, who have scuttled th...

Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Standard Deviation— An expose in the New York Times shows that on October 7th the IDF took an extraordinary decision to double the number of civilians whose lives it was willing to...

Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron are live from the astonishing, brilliant, taste-of-the-world-to-come Limmud Festival in Birmingham, England. —What's Changed, Here?— How we in Israel, and the lives we lead, have changed since, and because of, October 7th. —What's Changed, Everywhere Else?— How Jews around the world, and the lives they lead, have changed since, and because of, October 7th. Plus, how...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and scholar-extraordinaire Sara Hirschhorn discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment   —(Un)settling— Why do Israeli Jews who think it might be a good idea to set up Jewish towns in Gaza, think what they think? —Hostage (Dis)agreemen...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Gradually, then Suddenly, then OMG— The shocking, sudden fall of strong-man ophthalmologist Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria left Jihadist Islamists poise...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Boogie Unbound— Former IDF Chief of Staff and former Defense Minister Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon's flatly asserts that Prime Minister Netanyahu's Gaza policy amoun...

Linda Gradstein, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. —For the Time Being, Anyway— The cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah: It ain't victory and it sure ain't peace. —ICC You— Why does the world court want to put our prime minister in the slammer? Plus, An Ethiopia...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Tova Cohen discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —"Hope Is Patience With the Lamp Lit" (With Apologies to Tertullian)— A voice in the wilderness. Should we listen? —"Cabinet of Wonders"— Is Donald Trump's new cab...

Miriam Herschlag, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Jabalia, Again— Israel conquers northern Gaza for a third deadly time. —The "J" is Silent— Is Amsterdam a harbinger? —Limping Towards the Light— For our most unreas...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Gallantry— Is it o.k. to sack the guy in charge of your army, while generals in Iran are planning to attack? —Trumpery— Prime Minister Netayahu tweets to once-...

Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Days of Repentance, This Time With Bombs— What are we to make of Israel's weekend attack on Iran? —All We Know— What Wikipedia has to say about Israel and Zionism is changing befo...

Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss one topic of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   Making Sense of Sinwar, asking four questions: Now that Yahya Sinwar is dead, should Israel take the win or fight on? In light of the fact that Yahya Sinwar was killed in Rafiah, can...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Tova Cohen discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Best Laid Schemes (Lea'e Us Nought but Grief An' Pain), With Apologies to Robert Burns (And to Mice)— Bringing down the Azrieli Towers? Conquering Israel top-to-b...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Regional Inferno?— Israel's war with Gaza may soon become an all-out regional war. How do you say "Yikes!" in Farsi? —Accounting of the Soul— What should we ha...

A New Year and a year since. What are we remembering when we remember October 7?