The Promised Podcast

Journalist and soon-to-be features editor for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Naomi Zeveloff, wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --Does Size Matter?-- Would a small, "symbolic" annexation of lands in the West Bank sidestep the worst consequences...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --You're Gay, You Wanna Revolution?-- A new documentary aims to explain the surprising success of the LGBTQA community in Israel. Why are so many LGBTQA folks hating on it? --You Stay to Start...

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. --"The Revolt of Diaspora Jews"?-- Are we seeing a "revolt" of Jews in England, America and elsewhere in the diaspora against Netanyahu's planned annexation of territory in the West Bank? --Rest in Peace?-- It's like...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --Unsettled!-- Settler leaders oppose Israel's annexation of any towns in the West Bank? Is this bizarro world? Are dogs cats? Is up down? --Through American Eyes-- Why was Bernie Sanders the m...

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. --God & Country-- Are the ultra-Orthodox the big winners in Israel's new government? Does that make the rest of us losers? --18 Years of Death, Misery and Despair: There's an App for that Now!-- A new app/site lets Is...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.   --J'Accuse?, Non, J'Accuse!-- As his corruption trial begin, PM Netanyahu's supporters take to the streets to say their leader is a latter day Dreyfus, persecuted by a cabal of leftist judges...

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.   --The Vision of No Vision-- Prime Minister Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Gantz set out their visions for the future in the first meeting of Israel's new government, which are narrow and dryly technocratic....

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.   --Big Government-- Israel's new government is the largest in history, with 36 ministers. But can we expect big things from it?   --Court TV?-- When Supreme Court hearings are broadcast on TV,...

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.   Non-Judgmental The Supreme Court rules that Benjamin Netanyahu is allowed to form the next government, and serve at its head, even though he goes to trial in two weeks for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Why? W...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.   --Gradually, and then Suddenly
-- Who killed Israel's Labor Party?   --Art or Death
-- Should the government support the arts like it supports the hospitals and the army, because art is an ex...

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. --The Coalition Proposition: A Road to Perdition?-- Is the coalition agreement that PM Netanyahu and Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz just signed the end of democracy as we know it, the salvation of Israel, or maybe, ju...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --No Go Tiations-- Why, O Why, can't Israel form a friggin' government? --Six Physicists, Two Computer Scientists, an Engineer, an Economist and a Psychologist-- Coronavirus doesn't distinguish...

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. --Not With a Bang, but With a Tweet-- Labor head Amir Peretz tweets that he's merging his party into Blue & White, killing off once and for all the party of David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin. Should we mo...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --What Gantz Wants, or Is Gantz a Shvantz?-- Benny Gantz promised one thing -- ONE THING! -- in the last election campaign: that he would never, ever join a government under Prime Minister Netany...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --Chair Today, Gone Tomorrow-- While we were washing our hands and not touching our face, did Israeli democracy just almost shatter into pieces? --Too Loyal Opposition?-- Most politicians, journa...

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 this week's extra segment --An Astonishing Thing Happened This Week (When We Were Mostly Paying Attention to Other Things)-- Blue-&-White leader Benny Gantz is given the "mandate" to form Israel's government...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --My Corona!-- Nowhere in the world responded quicker and more forcefully to the coronavirus than Israel. What's that tell us about Israel's political culture? --Minority is the New Majority?-- I...

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. --What the Hell Just Happened?-- What, if anything, can we learn from this week's elections about the hearts and minds, hopes and dreams, of Israeli voters? --What the Hell Happens Next?-- Has the time come for Israel's...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and award-winning roving freelance journalist Naomi Zeveloff discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --Crickets-- Just days before we vote, the last thing most Israelis want to hear about are the elections? Why? --Tibi in TLV-- Tens of thousands of Jewish Israelis tell polls...

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. --Gantze Mensch?-- Is Benny Gantz's message to Israeli voters basically what Julia Roberts said to Hugh Grant in Notting Hill: "I'm just a brigadier-general, standing in front of an electorate, asking them to love him...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --Self-Determination Abnegation?-- PM Netanyahu tells US President Trump of his "Deal of the Century" that, "It's a great plan for Israel. It's a great plan for peace. You have been the greates...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --Godlessness: The Theory-- The doyen of Israeli sociology and a major public intellectual J'Accuses the left of swapping out good, Enlightenment values for mamby-pamby postmodern relativism, t...

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. Check out this week's extra segment! --A Pax on Both Your Houses-- We've read US President Trump's Deal-of-the-Century peace plan, and our considered reaction is, "WTF?!?" --Not Immune-- Prime Minister Netanyahu withd...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind critic Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Want to hear the extra segment? --Lax Americana?-- A former US Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, argues it's time for America to throw in the towel on peace to the Mid-East. As the towel-thro...

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. --United and It Feels So Good-- 47 years ago, the founders of Meretz split from the Labor Party because that party was too soft on the Rabbis, too shaky on settlements, and too feeble on human rights. Labor said good...