The Promised Podcast

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...

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. Listen to this week's extra segment --What's the Matter with Kiryat Malachi?-- A sociologist says Israeli "liberals" are the least tolerant group in the country, and folks call for his head on...

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. --Hang Together or Hang Separately?-- Must all the parties on Israel's left merge before the next election? --A Different Solidarity-- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's decides to republish...

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. --(Jewish) Might Makes Right?-- A once-mild religious Zionist party joins forces with a far-far-right religious party. What's this say about the soul and politics of religious Zionism today? --The Reparation, Palliati...

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. --Primary Importance?-- Netanyahu is almost sure to win next week's Likud leadership primary, and yet it still feels like maybe end of one era and the beginning of another. What's happening in the Likud? --Dour of Pis...

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. Looking to support the podcast and hear the extra segment? --Déjà Vu All Over Again?-- What are Israel's third-time-this-year Knesset elections about, anyway? Did we learn anything from our fai...

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. --Mano a Mano?-- Is the solution to Israel's electoral crisis, a winner-take-all, Mano-a-Mano personal run-off between PM Netanyahu and Lt. General Gantz? --Teacher, Is the Prime Minister a Crook?-- A kindergarten tea...

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. --Et Tu, Gideon?-- "The Likud is a family, and you do not betray your family." So tweets the party spokesperson to a member who dared to say that Prime Minister Netanyahu should resign. Loyalty is a personal virtue; bu...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind writer, critic & activist Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. --Going, Going, Gantz!-- Blue-and-White head Benny Gantz failed to form the "secular, Liberal, national-unity government" he sought. Did we dodge a bullet? --Politics by Othe...

Recording live at the spectacular Z3 Conference in Palo Alto (home of Theranos Technologies), Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron explore the theme of the conference, One People, Two Centers, Three Opinions . --One People?-- Some of our smartest cogitators – Rabbis, scholars, writers, organizers and activists – draft a "Declaration of Our Common Destiny": a sort of constitution of...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind writer, critic & activist Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Z3 Conference Tickets to Live TPP Show (use promo code TLV1xZ3) --Gantz is the New Rabin?-- Is Benny Gantz the new Yitzhak Rabin? --Workers of the World, Privatize!-- A union...

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. Z3 Conference Tickets to Live TPP Show (use promo code TLV1xZ3) --There's No Government Like No Government-- In Israel, could it be that not having a government is better than having one? --The Opposite of What We Thi...

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. Z3 Conference Tickets to Live TPP Show (use promo code TLV1xZ3) --All About the Benjamins-- Benny Gantz promised voters he'd never serve with Benjamin Netanyahu, if the Prime Minister is indicted. To keep from having...

Writer and activist Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida, roving journalist Naomi Zeveloff and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Z3 Conference Tickets to Live TPP Show (use promo code TLV1xZ3) --Earth-- Haaretz calls on Israelis to boycott streams, forests, and ancient ruins on the West Bank. But should plac...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and activist, intellectual and educator Jeremy Benstein, author of the new book, Hebrew Roots, Jewish Routes: A Tribal Language in a Global World , discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Looking for the extra segment? --Triaphobia-- Will a third Knesset election be the disa...

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 President-- Has Israeli President Reuven Rivlin finally solved the ancient riddle: When is a Prime Minister not a Prime Minister? --The Prime Minister-- Why o' why won't anyone negotiate with poor Prime Minister...

Wracked with anxiety and anticipation about what new government will take shape after the elections, Noah seeks solace with the boys of Liquid Plumr, the youthful Shuafat-refugee-camp garage band that was his transition from youth to an adult life in Israel. The boys discuss Zionism, Israel in the 80s, relations between Israeli and American Jews, and how the lives of their youngsters on both sides...