The Promised Podcast

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Don Futterman 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 segment. The War that Wasn't We almost stumbled into war with Gaza last week, just ahead of crucial elections. Why didn't we? Election Reflection After three intensive months of campaign, we look b...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Don Futterman 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? Heights and Rights U.S. President Donald Trump declares that the Golan belongs to Israel, after three decades of Israel trying to negotiate it back into Syrian hands. Will history rememb...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Wunderkind Haaretz book reviewer (and so much more) Ohad Zeltzer-Zubida discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Leftier than Thou Instead of attacking Netanyahu, the Labor Party decides to attack his centrist opponent, Benny Gantz, as knock-off Netanyahu and right-wing s...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Times of Israel Ops & Blogs Editor Miriam Herschlag 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? Banned on the Run Should parties that spew rage and hate be banned from running in democratic elections? Here in Israel, the question ain't academic...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. The Bombshell was a Dud A week after the Attorney General announced he'd be indicted for bribery and breach of trust, PM Netanyahu is more popular than before. Why? أعتقد أن الأطفال هم مستقبلنا (I Believe Our Children...

Noah Efron, Don Futterman, and Time of Israel Ops & Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. The Coalition Prohibition Supposition No Palestinian-Israeli party has ever joined the country's ruling coalition. Has the time come to break that taboo? Judaeo-Scriptio Continua Israel's...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. They'd Like to Teach the World to Sing Can a single political party long endure with some members who are Two-State Solution types and others who are Never-Palestinian-State sorts, and some members who see the ultra-...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and writer, TV host, and 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. Primary Dolours According to polls, fifteen political parties have a decent shot of being elected to the Knesset. Only three of those – Meretz, Labor, and Likud – hold open primari...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Times of Israel Ops & Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag 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? Likud Renewed, Dude! The Likud primaries are here! We wonder what composite portrait they paint of the heart, soul and physiognomy of the party. Be...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Become a patron and gain access to our weekly extra special, special extra segments. Bullshit Solutions to Bullshit Problems? Is the election campaign about anything that matters (or anything at all)? The Change We S...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. No 'Israeli-Palestinian Conflict'? Journalist and best-selling author Matti Friedman argues in the New York Times that if you think of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians "as a problem that can be solved b...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Never Netanyahu? Labor Party head dares and double-dares the heads of other parties in the center and on the left to swear on a million bibles that they'll never join a Netanyahu government. Good politics or just mor...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Terrorists, Murderers or Just Kids? Five fifteen years-olds suspected of killing a Palestinian mother of nine by pelting her car with rocks are interrogated by the Shin Bet without being allowed to consult a lawyer t...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Right (Or, Naftali & Ayelet's Excellent Adventure) Numbers one and two of the modern-Orthodox Jewish Home party, leave to start "The New Right." It's sad when kids run away from (The Jewish) Home. Center (Or, Plenty...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Elections! Netanyahu calls new elections, spurring the talking heads to talk, the pundits to pund, the experts to expectorate, and all the rest of us to grasp our heads in our hands and rock back and forth while mutt...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. The Vested Quest of the Oppressed Some Israelis watch yellow-vested Parisian protestors burn cars and break windows and thing, "We'd like in on that action." But will Israel's yellow-vest demonstrations produce any p...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Unsettling A Tel Aviv leftist sets out to meet settlers in Tekoa, and makes a remarkable documentary about the discussions she has. The settlers come off as decent, human and humane. Is that a problem? Dissed Why do...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. In Which Memory of George Herbert Walker Bush? George H.W. Bush remade the Middle East and changed US-Israel relations forever. Was this a good thing? What?!? Some Europeans Don't Like Jews?!? A CNN-sponsored poll fi...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. AirBDS? Airbnb kicked Jewish settlers off their site: A courageous political stand or a craven and hypocritical singling out of Israel for censure? Solidarity on the Scaffolds More and more Palestinians from the West...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Sometimes They'll Give a War and Nobody Will Come Haaretz praises PM Netanyahu for single-handedly preventing war in Gaza. Are we in bizzaro-world, or were we just wrong about Netanyahu? Slights, Plights, Fights and...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Mourning in America Is it true that American Jews may never forgive Israel for its reaction to the Pittsburgh massacre? Should it be true? Our Rabin, Not Yours! Leftists use whistles, stadium horns and vuvuzelas to d...

Crashing the First International Conference on Innovations in Conflict Resolution and Mediation, Don and Noah discuss seeking peace amidst violence and distrust, the secular and profane, ancient enmities and fragile hopes, with Northern Irish leaders who helped to end centuries-old conflict between Protestants and Catholics, Unionists and Republicans. What, if anything, do we have to learn from th...

In this very special, environmentally-sound, recycled edition of the Promised Podcast, we rebroadcast discussions about: Whether the fact that the rabbis did not protest the passage of a very liberal abortion law means that we are mistaken about rabbinic reach and overreach Whether we need more professorial types in politics, or whether the eggheads shouldn't stay in their seminar rooms where they...

Allison, Don and Noah gather agog among the movers and the shakers at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America to discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. It's Not Over 'til the Yellow Bird Sings The "Canary Mission" is a website clearinghouse of information about American students, pro...

Subscribe to our WhyWhyWhy! True Stories from Israel podcast Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Stitcher Spotify   Allison Kaplan Sommer, Noah Efron, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. What's Good for the Goose Polls show that former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz may soon be one of Israel...