Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

Watch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast]   To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/ [https://arkmedia.org/]   Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor [https://x.com/dansenor]   Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor [https://www.instagram.com/dansenor]   As phase 1 of the ceasefire and hostage deal enters its final week, the fate of phase 2 of the deal remains uncertain. While hostages’ families are urging for a continuation of the deal to bring all the remaining hostages home, parts of the Israeli government are pressing for a return to the war.  With Mideast Envoy Steve Witkoff traveling to the region this week to push for an extension of the deal, we turned to a Call Me Back regular and leading Israeli journalist to make sense of the mixed signals we are seeing from every direction.  Amit Segal is a columnist for Yediot Ahronot, and a senior political analyst for Israel’s Channel 12.  CREDITS: ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor MARTIN HUERGO - Additional Editing STAV SLAMA - Director of Operations  GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research  YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

Housekeeping note: Ark Media, the humble home of this podcast, is looking for a purpose-driven Chief Operating Officer, to help facilitate its ambitious plans for the future. If you are interested in applying for the position, please follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/mp5udcxr   Watch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/ Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor   Following a gut-wrenching 48 hours for the Bibas family and for all of us, six living hostages were released from Gaza today, including two who had been held there not for a year, but a decade. Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Tal Shoham were abducted on October 7, 2023. Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian-Israeli, and Hisham al-Sayed, an Israeli Arab, had crossed into Gaza in 2014 and 2015, and were then taken hostage by Hamas. Hamas’s decision to release more living hostages than originally planned today is believed – according to our Israeli sources – to be a response to a sustained American pressure campaign. Part of that pressure includes President Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and relocate its entire population. Two weeks since its unveiling, Trump’s Gaza proposal has continued to drive headlines and debate around the world. Though that proposal is already impacting the policy decisions of various stakeholders in Gaza, it is still largely perceived as a shocking, unprecedented idea. For this episode of Call Me Back, we sat down with a historian who argues that Trump’s plan is in fact aligned with the outcome of many modern wars.   Andrew Roberts is a British historian, member of the House of Lords, and the author of 24 books, including the New York Times bestseller, Churchill: Walking with Destiny. In a recent article for the Washington Free Beacon, Roberts writes, “peoples who unleash unprovoked aggressive wars against their neighbors and are then defeated…lose either their government or their sovereignty, or both.” To read more by Andrew Roberts on this topic, go to the Washington Free Beacon: https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-historical-case-for-trumps-riviera/

This morning in Gaza, in a ceremony that was even more twisted than those that came before it, Hamas paraded four coffins, containing the dead bodies of four hostages who were killed in captivity, before handing them over to the Red Cross. Israel then received the remains of Oded Lifshitz, an 83-year-old peace activist abducted from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz; and the bodies of the iconic young mother Shiri Bibas, and her boys, Kfir and Ariel, who were respectively 9 months old and 4 years old at the time of their abduction, also from Nir Oz, which lost a quarter of its residents on October 7, 2023.  Shiri, Kfir and Ariel came to symbolize Hamas’s brutality and the helplessness of the victims of October 7. Oded was also a symbol of the many men and women who had dedicated their lives to seeking peace with the Palestinians, and whose lives were brutally ended by Palestinians on that darkest of days.  In a year of somber days, today is one of the more difficult ones we have experienced - here at Call Me Back, and as a nation. We are joined today to process this wrenching moment by a Call Me Back favorite: Matti Friedman, to help us understand what this day means for Israel, and how it will change us and the stories we tell ourselves about Israel and our hopes for peace.  Matt Friedman is an award-winning journalist and author of four books. He is based in Jerusalem, and writes a column for The Free Press. Read his latest, “The Family That Never Came Home,” here: https://www.thefp.com/p/matti-friedman-the-bibas-shiri-kfir-ariel-yarden [https://www.thefp.com/p/matti-friedman-the-bibas-shiri-kfir-ariel-yarden] Matti’s books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Matti-Friedman/author/B0073YU31C [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Matti-Friedman/author/B0073YU31C] Link to Seth Mandel’s article in Commentary Magazine, mentioned by Dan in this episode: https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/the-meaning-of-kfir-bibas/ [https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/the-meaning-of-kfir-bibas/] We would like to take this opportunity to thank Rebecca Strom, who has been running Ark Media’s operations almost since the beginning of the war, and is now moving on to the next chapter in her career. Rebecca was our first hire, and in hindsight, having her run our operations allowed Ilan and Dan to develop a larger vision. More on that in the near future. In the meantime, on behalf of the Ark Media team, we want to share our gratitude for all the hard work, long hours, holidays and weekends that Rebecca poured into this venture. Consequently, Ark Media is now looking for a hard working, mission-aligned, highly motivated Chief Operating Officer. If you want to throw your hat into the ring,  please follow this link [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RNas1XjGQ0OjL1oXG5Khp5Gm0eiYIiRMDRnPMzU03NQ/edit]   CREDITS: ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor MARTIN HUERGO - Editor STAV SLAMA - Director of Operations GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research Intern  YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

Watch Call me Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CallMeBackPodcast]   To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/ [https://arkmedia.org/]   Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor [https://x.com/dansenor]   Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor [https://www.instagram.com/dansenor]   As we mark the 500th day of the war in Gaza, and 500 days of captivity for the Israeli hostages who remain there, the future of this fragile ceasefire-hostage deal is looking increasingly less stable. With every day bringing new twists and turns, we turned to a “Call Me Back” regular to help us make sense of where the war stands and where it may be going.     Nadav Eyal of Yediot Ahronot is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news. Link to the Bret Stephens article mentioned in this episode: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/opinion/trump-hamas-gaza-israel.html [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/opinion/trump-hamas-gaza-israel.html] CREDITS: ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor MARTIN HUERGO - Editor REBECCA STROM - Director of Operations STAV SLAMA - Researcher  GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research Intern  YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer

Watch the conversation here: https://youtu.be/aPEPztvsJGQ [https://youtu.be/aPEPztvsJGQ]   To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, visit: https://arkmedia.org/ [https://arkmedia.org/]   Dan on X: https://x.com/dansenor [https://x.com/dansenor]   Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansenor [https://www.instagram.com/dansenor]   In the 16 months since October 7th, the leader who knows more than almost anyone about the inner workings of this war has barely been heard from – until now.    In this episode of ”Call Me Back”, we hear the behind the scenes story of the war with Hamas and Hezbollah from Yoav Gallant, who served as Israel’s Defense Minister for the first 13 months of this 16-month war.    In his first English-language interview since the war began, the former Defense Minister offers an intimate account of the war’s initial hours and days, with an emphasis on one date that could have changed it all: October 11th, 2023.   This episode is the first in a series of interviews we will be posting with General Gallant, chronicling the historic and unprecedented events of the last 16 months.   Yoav Gallant served as Israel’s Defense Minister from 2022 until 2024. He was fired by Benjamin Netanyahu twice in those two years, first in 2023, when massive protests in Israel led Netanyahu to reverse his decision, then again in November of 2024. Gallant is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party. His military career spans five decades, beginning in 1977 as a naval commando in Shayetet 13, and serving as chief of the IDF’s Southern Command during Operation Cast Lead, an early war with Hamas that lasted from late 2008 to early 2009.    CREDITS: ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor MARTIN HUERGO - Editor REBECCA STROM - Director of Operations STAV SLAMA - Researcher  GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research Intern  YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer