The Promised Podcast

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. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Damn that Winged Horse!— Reports that the police used Pegasus to spy on journalists, politicians, bureaucrats, and protestors sent us through all of Ku...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three 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   —That Word Again!— Amnesty International accuses us of being murderous racists committing crimes against humanity but, then, what's a little constructive crit...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and returning prodigal son, Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss  three  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   —Tantura— "I was a murderer. I did not take prisoners," says a man who, in 1948, was a soldier for Israel in Tantura. —Les...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and returning prodigal son, Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three 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   —Can't Spell 'Plea Bargain' Without 'Rage' and 'Pain'— Why are so many people so mad about a possible plea bargain that would ke...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. —Memorial Matters— There never was, and will never be, anyone like Yoram Taharlev, May his Memory Be for a Blessing. —In the Heights— Prime Minister Naftali Bennett exults that "This is the moment of the Golan Heights...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —From Ramallah to Rosh Ha-'Ayin— Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz meet in Gantz's living room. Cause for hope...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Sally Abed discuss three 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 Link to Give to Standing Together   —This Would Not Have Happened a Year Ago— United Arab List head, Dr. Mansour Abbas, says that Israel always has been, and alway...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and and returning prodigal son, Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —"A Mandate" Anagrams to "A Tad Mean"— Israel's Corona Czar says the time has come to consider a "vaccine mandate." Is...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —F*ck'm!— Former US President Donald Trump says that former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never wanted to make peace, and doesn't know the me...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Leading the Witness— Police investigators strong-arm Benjamin Netanyahu's one-time spokesman and media consultant to testify against his former boss, sa...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and journalist-extraordinaire Dina Kraft discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Hanukkah with Zealots, Oh My!— President Yitzhak Herzog lights candles with settlers in Hebron, causing protestors on the left to...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. —No Prize— Israel's Education Minister decides not to give the country's biggest prize to a genius computer theorist because he petitioned the EU to boycott an Israeli university in the territories. —If I Forget Th...

Sally Abed and Noah Efron discuss  three  two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Limited— Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel's new proposed term-limit law is the sort of law you'd see in Iran, Syria and North Korea. Does he have a point? —Tradition, Traditi...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three 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   —What Now?— Now that Israel has a budget (after several years of not having a budget), is it smooth sailing from now on? —Some of the Best Standards are Doubl...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss  three  two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —You Say "Corruption" Like It Was a Bad Thing!— Should coalition members get to earmark millions for their favorite causes? —Death, Taxes & Traffic— The Knesset's...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Burdens of Proof— Defense Minister Benny Gantz says we can trust him that he wouldn't outlaw Palestinian human rights organizations without a really goo...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Nullifying Netanyahu?— Former Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein challenges Benjamin Netanyahu for leadership of the Likud. Are Netanyahu's days n...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Vax & Figures— What's the link between who Israelis vote for and whether, when, and how we get vaxxed and boostered? —The Cost of Freedom— Gilad Shal...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Coffee or Conflict: How Do Israelis Start Our Days?— Was PM Bennett right when he said at the UN that "Israelis don't wake up in the morning thinking ab...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Sally Abed and Noah Efron discuss  three  two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. —Iran, One Month from the Bomb— Experts say Iran can have an atomic bomb by Hanukkah. What, if anything, can Israel do about it? —Who is Sex For?— Is it unseemly for 60 year olds to let the rest of us know they sti...

There is an ancient tradition on Sukkot, which is to say now, called Ushpizin, an aramaic word that means "Guests", and at its simplest, it means that one invites guests of all sorts, including anyone around who needs a meal, to eat with you in your Sukkah. But already in the 16th century, and maybe long before that, Kabbalists and mystics had symbolicized the thing, saying that when you sit in yo...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Sally Abed and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —A Year of Abraham Accords— A year ago this week, ambassadors from the UAE and Bahrain celebrated with then-President Donald Trump and then-Prime Minister B...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Body Politics— A 21-year-old sergeant in the Border Police dies after being shot in the head through a hole in the wall that separates Israel from Gaza,...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —The Year That Was— The Talmud says that on Rosh Hashanah God judges the deeds of all creatures over the prior year. We figured, we'd get a jump on the j...

Sally Abed, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Listen to the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —What We Learned While Skipping School— Kids are finally returning to desks-and-whiteboards after missing almost all of last year. What did we learn from the pandem...