Unholy: Two Jews on the News

Yonit and Jonathan look back on a turbulent year - which shook Israel and the Jewish world - catch up on an eventful week, and speak with the woman who has become one of the most prominent faces and voices of the hostage families: Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the US-born mother of 23 year old Hersh, captured by Hamas at the Nova music festival on 7 October and held in Gaza ever since. Jonathan Freedland...

Pressure on the Israeli government is mounting from within and without. As the international community debates exactly what kind of ceasefire it demands of Israel, many of the hostage families urge an immediate pause to bring their loved ones home - a plea that gained new intensity after the mistaken killing by the IDF of three fleeing hostages in Gaza. Yonit and Jonathan discuss all that, togethe...

With American pressure on Israel mounting, Yonit speaks exclusively to US national security adviser Jake Sullivan about just how long Washington will give Israel in its fight against Hamas. Plus: Jonathan and Yonit talk to the leading political scientist Yascha Mounk about the trap of identity politics - and what exactly is going on in America’s universities. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook: U...

Two months on from the 7 October massacre, Yonit and Jonathan assess the state of the nation with one of Israel’s sagest voices: the longtime investigative TV journalist Ilana Dayan. Also: the politics that never stop and the three Ivy League college heads who flunked their big test.  -- Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholypodcast/ and X: https://x.com/2jewsonthenews Join our F...

After a week of intense emotion - a rollercoaster road combining relief, joy, anxiety, and dread for the families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas - Yonit and Jonathan discuss where this leaves a war that threatens to restart at any moment. Plus a conversation with Michael Milshtein, Israel’s foremost expert on Hamas - with a series of shocking insights into Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the 7 Octo...

As the clock ticked down to an expected release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Yonit and Jonathan sat down face to face in Tel Aviv, to discuss the background to the move - and what the consequences might be. Plus, Jonathan describes his week traveling around Israel, from the stricken kibbutzim in the south to the new, temporary homes for displaced residents by the Dead Sea, finding a...

An update on the war from the doyen of Israel’s military correspondents, Amos Harel – and, in the week of perhaps the largest pro-Israel demonstration in US history, Yonit and Jonathan talk to Dan Senor, the former Pentagon official who was the first to describe Israel as the “start-up nation” and whose new book, The Genius of Israel, argues that the country is almost uniquely resilient. -- Follow...

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas enters its fifth week, there’s an increasing focus on a radically new front: the information war fought out on social media. Yonit and Jonathan talk to Kara Swisher, widely regarded as the most influential tech journalist in the world. What role is TikTok playing – and is it the algorithm or the likes of Tehran, Moscow and Beijing that is shaping what hundr...

The war has been a period of grief and anxiety, but also of strain and stress felt around every Jewish table, inside Israel and out. For this special episode, exactly one month after the 7 October attacks, Yonit and Jonathan decided they should talk through some of the tensions that have surfaced in their own conversations, teasing out some of the differences between them and bringing those differ...

The war intensifies with Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza, a Palestinian death toll now estimated to be above 8,000 and still no word on the 240 Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Yonit and Jonathan discuss Benjamin Netanyahu’s tweeted – and then deleted - attempt to divert the blame for Israel’s vulnerability on 7 October to others, the increasing US pressure on Israel over its conduct of the war...

Three weeks into Israel's war against Hamas, Yonit and Jonathan talk to Shimrit Meir, a former adviser to Naftali Bennett, about the next steps in the conflict - and the international players making crucial moves behind the scenes, starting with Hamas's patron, Qatar. They ask her how Benjamin Netanyahu will respond to mounting global pressure to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza - and ris...

Joe Biden becomes the first US president to visit Israel at a time of war, the world’s media blame Israel for a deadly Gaza hospital blast that, most experts now agree, was most likely caused by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket - and Yonit and Jonathan hear the moving, probing comments and questions sent in by you, Unholy’s listeners. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: Unholy podcast   See omn...

After perhaps the hardest week in Israel’s history, Yonit and Jonathan discuss the mood inside the country, in the wider Jewish world and beyond. They talk through the implications of the new unity government and its planned response to last weekend’s Hamas massacres of 1200 Israeli civilians; the shoulder-to-shoulder solidarity of US President Joe Biden; and the first arguments about who is to bl...

This is an emergency episode to cover the event that’s already being described as Israel’s 9/11 - with others drawing comparisons with Pearl Harbor or the surprise attack that led to the Yom Kippur War exactly 50 years ago. Early on Saturday morning, Israel was infiltrated by Hamas forces who entered Israel from Gaza - murdering Israeli civilians and soldiers in their hundreds, wounding thousands...

An incident of ultra Orthodox Jews spitting at Christian worshippers in Jerusalem drew widespread backlash this week, both from Israeli officials and foreign countries. Yonit and Jonathan discuss the event - which is not the first of its kind - and the varying comments that followed, including those who claimed spitting at Christians is a “Jewish tradition”.  And - as the calendar marks 50 years s...

As a new documentary probes the dark side of rock star Roger Waters, Yonit and Jonathan - who, in an Unholy first, are this week both in London - talk to the longtime investigative reporter behind the film: John Ware. Plus: the fallout from the Yom Kippur skirmishes, which saw tension between religious and secular Israelis spill over onto the streets; a jaw-dropping moment in the Canadian parliame...

This week brought the strongest signal yet that a breakthrough in Saudi-Israeli relations is coming - with heavy hints from Benjamin Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman and Joe Biden. Yonit and Jonathan break it all down - and point to the man who’s likely to be the big winner.  Plus: a conversation with American TV royalty, veteran CBS News correspondent, Lesley Stahl on covering Israel, the challenge...

It's the Jewish New Year -- and Yonit and Jonathan are joined by New Yorker editor and longtime friend of the podcast, David Remnick, to reflect on the year just gone and look forward to the year ahead. They discuss the Israeli Supreme Court's marathon session debating the first step in Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul, the looming possibility of a second Donald Trump presidency - and the da...

Yonit and Jonathan are back from the summer break - and there is A LOT to talk about. Word of a possible climbdown by Benjamin Netanyahu on the judicial overhaul, an attempt to force out the head of Israel’s Holocaust museum - and a massive scientific breakthrough from Israel's Weizmann Institute: senior researcher Prof Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna tells us how it happened and what it could mean for the hu...

Only a week until Unholy returns to regular broadcasting - which means one more edition of Conversations We Love, a series in which we return to some of our prized talks. And what better way to end summer vacation than with pioneering radio host Ira Glass, creator of the 800-episode "This American Life". In this special interview, Glass reflects on his career - from a Pulitzer, through being dubbe...

It won't be long until we return to our regular broadcasting, but while we take advantage of the last days of summer break (as we hope you've been able to do, preferably with something refreshing in hand) - we've chosen to air one of our most special interviews to date.  This July, we were lucky enough to sit down with non other than Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren, who visited Israel to promote he...

We're still away on vacation mode, but that doesn't mean we can't serve up our weekly cocktail of Jews and news. That's why we've compiled a list of some of our favorite episodes, to listen to on a long ride up north or through earphones while taking off somewhere.  This week our guest is also one of our hosts, who doubles as a celebrated author! Since this episode was first uploaded, "The Escape...

Whether you choose to survive the heatwave on the beach or in the comfort of the AC, we're here to serve something refreshing! While we're on summer break, we've compiled some of our most prized conversations for those who haven't had a chance to listen to them yet - or want to recall their memory! And what better way to spend a blistering summer Friday by pouring yourself something cold, and list...

A Pittsburgh jury has passed a death sentence on the perpetrator of the most lethal antisemitic attack in US history: the murder of 11 Jews while at prayer at the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018. Yonit and Jonathan asks how that fits with a Jewish tradition that harbours deep ambivalence about the legitimacy of capital punishment.  In Israel, all eyes turn towards a court case that’s just o...

A tempestuous week in Israel, as the fallout from Monday’s first move in what critics call the “judicial coup” continues. What will Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers do, now that the Supreme Court has less power to restrain them? The first signs suggest the prime minister and his coalition allies have big ambitions - and plan to move fast. Yonit and Jonathan dive into it all, joined by Channel...