The Promised Podcast

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week.   Tax and shend We discuss the decision of the Israeli government to withhold half a billion shekels of Palestinian tax money. Is this just one of a bunch of clever strategies Israel can employ at will, or does it show that in international...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week.   Israel's 'crucial, last-chance, decisive watershed' We discuss the weird notion, asserted by politicians, pundits, and intellectuals, that these elections are “the most important” in Israel’s history and will determine our fate forever. C...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Give peace a deadline The recent Palestinian proposal to the UN Security Council mandates peace negotiations that must, within a year, produce an agreement ending the occupation and establishing a state in Palestine. A deadline on peace? Wh...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week.   #Israelex: Picking teams We discuss the the Labor Party’s efforts to bring all the center-left parties, save one, under its wing. Can the Livni-Herzog rotation really work? How long can the center-left stay on the good side of the ultra-O...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week.   Woman of valor, who will elect? We discuss the  campaign  to get ultra-Orthodox women on the ballot for the upcoming elections, which encourages people not to vote for religious parties that don’t allow women to run. Does it reflect tecto...

The pall of the poll Israel’s last elections were in January 2013, and now, it seems, the smoke-filled rooms have spoken: We’ll be heading to the polls again very soon. Why do we need elections? Won’t they be all about style over substance? Think about the 2 billion shekel price tag! Equality enshrined? This week, Secretary General of the Labor Party Hilik Bar submitted a bill that would enshrine...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Much a-Jew about nothing Although apparently about nothing, the 'Jewish State' bill could still become a tsunami that, if nothing else, wrecks the coalition. Could the law help reaffirm the principle of national self-determination, or could...

In the shadow of the horrifying murders in a Jerusalem synagogue, Allison, Noah, and Times of Israel Ops & Blogs Editor Miriam Herschlag discuss: Squirmin’ on the Mount The question of whether Jews should be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount has reentered public discourse since the shooting of Rabbi Yehuda Glick. With this and other tragic recent events, we ask whether we're heading for a full-b...

Are we terrorized yet? News analysts and professors are holding forth about whether or not the third intifada has started, and the question of whether or not the killing we’re seeing now will pass soon. So the question remains, how do the recent stabbings and rammings impact folks like us? Can the Bible reduce poverty? MK Ruth Calderon is working to implement the biblical injunction to forgive deb...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Is Bibi rooting (too openly) for his American home team? Prime Minister Netanyahu’s unmasked hope that Republicans capture the US Senate, and whether we won’t pay a price for his partisan enthusiasm. How many generals does it take to reinit...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Whither Jerusalem? Recent acts of terrible violence in Jerusalem have had pundits debating whether the Third Intifada has begun. We discuss political analyst Gershom Gorenberg’s suggestion that a divided city can be turned into a bridge bet...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Palestinian statehood and the tale of two lefties With the dust settling on the British Parliament's Palestinian vote, we consider the two leftist models for dealing with the growing international embrace of Palestinian Statehood - one for...

llison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. The United States of Israel? Could 'Cantonization' save Israel? We discuss a proposal to slice and dice Israel into small ethnically and ideologically defined localities that would each have laws that better fit their populations. Would such...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. A spoonful of politics helps the medicine go down? Lancet editor Richard Horton visited Israel this week to apologize for his publication's controversial 'An Open Letter for the People of Gaza.' As authoritative social figures, should docto...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. A tale of two speeches: Fear and loathing at the UN In the last few days, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu have given speeches to the United Nations General Assembly. Which speech was more depressing, and should...

Who really killed the Israeli Left? Where exactly is the Israeli Left failing? And if it is, indeed, dead, was it killed by an ill-advised infatuation with 'abroad,' which distracted it from winning hearts and minds at home? Can the army smash class barriers in Israel? Is the Israeli Army a great equalizer and civilian high-tech incubator? Or are today’s soldiers, who will be tomorrow’s entreprene...

Allison, Don and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Were the Unit 8200 'refuseniks' right to break ranks? Unit 8200's 'refusenik' letter exposed some Israeli intelligence practices some are finding very hard to swallow. Were the soldiers right to publicly expose these practices? Why are impor...

Host Noah Efron conducts a very special interview with a conscientious objector, and we pull together our favorite 'Vatacountry' segments. Acts of conscience: Summer in the slammer Noah interviews IDF reservist Gilad Halpern, who spent the summer in a military jail for conscientiously objecting to his call-up during Operation Protective Edge. How does conscientious objection in Israel map onto the...

Allison, Don and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. 988 acres of land Israel has announced the takeover of 988 acres of land belonging to five Palestinian villages in the Etzion settlement bloc, clearing the way for a new settlement named Gvaot. Why did the cabinet decide to appropriate these...

Allison, Don and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Now the ceasefire’s signed, what the hell just happened? What should we make of the ceasefire agreement? What can and should be done to take advantage of the opportunities created by this war (notwithstanding its many miseries and tragedies)...

Allison, Don and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Time to lose those 'war-goggles' As we try to figure out what happened over the summer, is it useful to ask whether the war in Gaza addled our perceptions? Are we hardwired to become more hawkish in times of war? Preaching to the converted W...

Allison, Don and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote each about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Is Bibi too strong to make peace? Would a weaker Netanyahu would be more willing “to make some very difficult compromises, including taking on the settler movement,” as President Obama claimed in an interview last week? When war and peace ar...

Summary: Ilene, Don and Noah discuss: 'What's the blockade about?' What is Israel's embattled blockade on Gaza supposed to do, and what does it do in reality? Has Israel lost Europe, now and forever? What to make of Europe's increasingly muscular anti-Zionist population Has Amos Oz found a new tune for the Israeli left? How to understand Amos Oz' remarkable interview on German radio, in which he c...

The way the war ends How can and should this war be brought to a close? Might Israeli demands for 'demilitarization' as a condition for ending the operation become an excuse for prolonging it? Can there be too much solidarity? Does the moving solidarity we've seen among Israeli Jews since the war began harden our hearts even as it softens them? Does it further exclude and alienate Palestinian Isra...

Ilene, Noah and Elion discuss: Is asymmetry the new black? Israel is fighting the mother of all asymmetrical wars. Is Israel’s military superiority also its greatest weakness? Is Hamas’ weakness also its greatest strength? Empathy for the 'devil' Showing empathy for the suffering of the other side in these times of war should not be equated to Hamas-sympathizing. Second thoughts on uprooting the f...